imprudently conducted; visits may be unadvised or intrusive; conversations unguarded, impertinent, cruel; sermons too declamatory, exciting, passionate; prayers boisterous, irreverent, familiar;-in a word, a scene called a revival, may be very unworthy the name; and the scene even of A REAL REVIVAL may be marred and stained with many very deplorable instances of human frailty and passion."

To revivals, thus defined and distinguished from accompanying abuses, Mr. S. observes that he is aware of but one objection. It has been urged "that God, who abounds in mercy and loving kindness, is most kindly disposed, at all times, and in all places, to bestow his Holy Spirit on those who ask it-that he is no respecter of persons, but vouchsafes his grace to all alike, who need and seek his favor and that his gracious presence fills alike all places, and the hearts of all who humbly wait on him." It is hence inferred, that "his peculiar presence cannot possibly be afforded to particular places or congregations." To this, it is justly replied, in the first place, that if the argument prove anything, it proves vastly too much; and, secondly, that it is refuted by innumerable facts; it being undeniably evident, "from Scripture, from history, and from living testimony, that the impartial grace of God is perfectly consistent with seasons of special religious seriousness, and frequent genuine conversions."

Having thus disposed of the objection, Mr. S. admits, that there may be, and have been, abuses and evils connected with revivals of religion-abuses and evils which he has no wish to conceal, and no disposition to palliate. But he insists, "All the evils of revivals are the faults of man. Their benefits are from God." These benefits he proceeds to enumerate; and, though the extract be somewhat long, our readers shall have his account of them in his own words.

"1. The very excitement attending revivals, serves to awaken attention to the most important, yet still the most forgotten and neglected of all subjects. Often it seems as if nothing else could break the fatal slumber, deeper and more awful than that of the dead, into which a formal, ill instructed, or irreligious community has fallen. By nothing less pungent than the most arousing sermons, prompted and pointed by the zeal of a revival, can stupified and hardened consciences be effectually awakened; and never, under the wisest and most powerful, even of this description of preaching, without the special and more abundant measure of divine grace then vouchsafed in answer to more fervent prayer. A season of revival seems to give a keener edge to the sword of the Spirit,' which is the word of God; so that the more desperately depraved are seldom awakened, except in times of special revivals.

"2. They certainly are instrumental, also, in enkindling the languid zeal of many of the children of God, cooled nearly to extinction by long years of comparative indifference and declension. They arouse them to their dutiesconstrain them to be fervent in prayer-more watchful over their hearts, and more anxious in the use of the appointed means of grace. They define and deepen the line of separation between the votaries of the world and the real children of God; and are often the means of establishing in private Christians for life, a staid and uniform character of exemplary piety. They are equally beneficial to the clergy-serving, in the most vivid manner to impress upon them the momentous nature of their exalted duties-the value and the danger of immortal souls-and the awful responsibility of their office-affording them the very best and most desirable opportunities of enforcing the efficacious doctrines of the cross-of conversing with individual members of their flocks, and pressing home the great duties of religion, and serving to cherish and confirm in them

that more exalted frame and habit of devotion, which is at once the highest ornament and richest reward of their profession.

"3. By the best and fairest rules of forming opinions on such subjects, revivals do most certainly promote the immediate local interests of religion. They certainly do swell, in a very remarkable manner, the items usually returned in reports on the state of the church. They multiply attendants on divine worship-fill the house of God-swell the number of communicants, and increase the pecuniary resources of religious institutions; and are often the means of procuring the permanent settlement of faithful ministers-of the building or enlargement of churches, and of adding to the external prosperity and strength of religious societies.

"Besides these immediate and local benefits of revivals, there are others of a more general, and even more momentous nature, not at all to be estimated by the mere amount of immediate good to the congregation particularly concerned. And, as the world is ransacked, to find out everything which revivals have touched and tainted with the malignant shades of their influence, so it is but fair that the incidental and collateral benefits of revivals should be as fully recounted.

"1. They may justly be regarded as the nurseries of the church, furnishing an extraordinary proportion of ministers to the sanctuary, and maturing them in a remarkable manner for the faithful discharge of their important duties. In these latter days, the preposterous wickedness of training young persons for holy orders, in the same manner they are educated for the learned professions, is suitably abhorred, at least in countries where unendowed churches can present small inducement for the high offence. An infinitely more effectual method has been provided through the guardian care of the Great Head of the church, by arresting the attention of young men, in our colleges and seminaries of learning, or previous to their settling in any of the ordinary pursuits of life; and disposing them to consecrate their earliest and best powers to the sacred work of the ministry-constraining them by the exceeding love of Christ, to labor more abundantly than others, in word and doctrine. Of the beneficiaries of education societies, a surprising portion were early subjects of revivals of religion. And, certainly, many of our most influential and valuable clergymen, and not a few of our noble band of missionaries, have entered on their voluntary career of toil and suffering, under the sustained and glowing ardor of a season of revival. They needed and they received, for the arduous duties they undertook, the more powerful influence of holy zeal which is seldom imparted, except on such favored seasons.

"2. This train of reflection naturally leads on the mind to the undoubted and blessed fact, that, since the more general and extensive revival of pure religion, the spirit of benevolence has been excited, which is carrying into triumphant operation the numerous Christian and charitable institutions which illustrate and exalt the present age. True, by the wise and gracious provision of the Author of all good, these holy institutions are alternately cause and effect. Revivals furnished the zealous agents by whom they were first put into operation; and Sunday Schools, Bible Classes, the distribution of the Holy Scriptures and of religious tracts, together with the labors of Missionariesthe influence of missionary and charitable celebrations, and especially the superior zeal and faithfulness of clergymen blessed with a missionary spirit, have spread very widely abroad those benign and awakening influences, by virtue of which, under the favoring dews of heavenly grace, such blessed multitudes have been added to the number of God's faithful people. These, in their turn, devote their newly inspired energies and zeal to the improvement and growth of the fostering institutions from which they first derived the light of life. Thus that blessed system has been matured and is still sustained, which has already renewed the face of Christendom, and transformed full many a desert into the garden of the Lord. Thus-and thus only can the missionary enterprise and the Bible cause be sustained and carried triumphantly onward, until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.

"3. But the last benefit of revivals which shall be mentioned, far exceeds in weight and prominence, any that have hitherto been enumerated. They prove of the most vital and lasting importance to the church, by bringing forth the real fundamental doctrines of the Gospel in the boldest relief. They furnish a

sort of infallible test of every prevailing style of preaching; and become a practical commentary, known and read of all men, of the utter fallacy and fatuity of any preaching but the preaching of the cross. It needeth not that any man should denounce unfaithful stewards-a pure revival of religion instantly puts a brand upon their foreheads. Universalism, Formalism, Pelagianism, Unitarianism, stand forth, touched by this ithurial spear, in naked contrariety to the word and the Spirit of God. By the common sentiment of all experimental Christians, it is admitted, with a force of conviction utterly irresistible, that controversy, abstruse metaphysical niceties, and cold moral discourses, ought forever to be excluded from Christian pulpits; and Christ and his cross alone, faithfully preached-at once the wisdom and the power of God. This strong, spontaneous sentiment, is well grounded: for the word of God is the appointed instrument in the conversion of sinners. By whatever apparent means the conscience is first touched, still the word of God is the victorious sword of the Spirit. And no other instrument does he ever employ in the conversion of souls. Of course it is the pure word, which is thus honored. Not that word adulterated or perverted by human systems--not that word diluted, misapplied, annulled! But the pure word of God-the simple, genuine Gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Truly converted, experimental clergymen, when their zeal keeps them near a throne of grace, strongly feel this, as a kind of instinct of their new nature. And they preach the doctrines of grace with unction and love, because they are written on their hearts. But were it otherwise, their zeal would lead them to try various methods-all possible methods to touch, convince, and awaken unconverted souls. Thus experience would soon teach them that the doctrines of the Reformation-of man's utterly lost and sinful nature-of the exceeding aggravations of his actual offences-of his need of an entire moral transformation by the Holy Ghost-of the blessed atoning efficacy of the blood of Christ -of salvation by faith alone in the merits of his death, and of new obedience under the influence of faith and love, implanted and kept alive in renewed hearts by the Holy Ghost, are the only life-giving doctrines of the divine word. Without the preaching of these, no single soul of man can ever be awakened from spiritual death, and be made partaker of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

On the subject of means to be employed for promoting a revival of religion, our author has the following excellent observations : "The best means of promoting genuine piety in seasons of the strongest religious excitement, cannot be by devising new and strange methods of deepening human sympathies; but by using the ordinary means of grace with extraordinary diligence and faithfulness. Instead of devising new seasons of uncommon sacredness, the ordinances and sacraments appointed by Christ himself should studiously be exalted as highest in rank, and unrivalled in sanctity and interest instead of striking out strange, preposterous, and extravagant doctrines-doctrines of revivals-of full assurance-of absolute perfection-of the prayer of faith, or whatever else might caricature or subvert the unsophisticated truth of God, the great cardinal doctrines of the Reformation should be preached with peculiar prominence, force, and feeling. Instead of numberless meetings, divided into endless variety of classes, and held at unseasonable hours, let the services of the sanctuary be exalted above all others; and let the necessary prayer meetings of the week be conducted with the same decorum and solemnity as the regular Lord's day exercises. In a word, if by the real and genuine operations of the Holy Ghost, a deeper tide of religious feeling has been set in motion, let it be the aim and effort of God's ministers and people, to turn it into scriptural channels, and wise and salutary directions. Let the serious attention He hath awakened be directed to revealed truth-to revealed duties;-let it be turned to Christ, and the glory of his pure unadulterated Gospel.

"Human fancies and dogmas, at such a season, can make a great noise, and do a vast deal of mischief. The truth of God alone can deepen conviction till it becomes true repentance; can touch the heart till it is formed anew; can exalt Christ till he is loved supremely; can elevate the sacraments till they are received reverently; can enforce the whole of experimental and practical

piety, until the apparent subjects of revivals shall become the followers of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

The duty of Christians in regard to revivals of religion is, in conclusion, thus forcibly urged:

"It is the indispensable duty of the friends and ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ, to summon every energy, and strain every nerve, to promote the spirit, and increase the influence of genuine revivals.-How else can the end of their ministry be answered towards the church of Christ, which is his affianced spouse? How can they rest satisfied, even though the most abundant success in other respects attends their labor, unless all, literally every one of their hearers, are converted to the living God, and saved through Christ forever? Without the more general prevalence of revivals, how is the church in this growing country to be supplied with ministers-our benevolent societies with proper agents our missionary stations with suitable laborers-and the treasury of the Lord, with resources for every good work? As far as the indications of Providence unfold the future purposes of God in connexion with the sure word of prophecy; it would seem that the effectual triumph of real religion in countries called Christian-the subversion of the Roman and Mahomedan powers-the universal dissemination of the word of God-the success of the missionary enterprize, and the consequent conversion of millions of idolaters, can only be be accomplished by that more powerful, more sudden, more simultaneous, more triumphant effect of the word preached in the conversion of vast multitudes in what may truly be called revivals of religion:-whose happy subjects shall be endued with power from on high, to devise, sustain, and carry on the stupendous work of God, in giving to his Son the kingdoms of the earth to be His forever?"

It is believed the extracts here given fully justify the opinion, expressed in our first sentence, relative to the merits of this little work. With some slight improvements in point of style, giving it additional simplicity and directness, we wish it might be printed as a tract, and generally circulated. And we wish-O we do wish, that the spirit it breathes, and the views it inculcates, might pervade that respectable denomination of Christians, of which Mr. Smith is a member and an ornament. Could the whole Episcopal church be visited with a general revival of religion, in the sense here defined, it would confer upon her an unction and a glory, without which the most excellent formularies of faith and worship are little better than a shadow.

2. A Sermon on the Prominent Trait in Teachers of False Religion. By Joseph I Foot, Pastor of the first Church in Brookfield. Brookfield E. & G. Merriam, 1828. pp. 16.

"There seems to be one point," says Mr. Foot, using the language of his text, "in which teachers of false religion are alike. They say unto them that despise the Lord, ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall.come upon you.'-The text, therefore, suggests, that to diminish in sinners the fear of Divine displeasure, and to remove the expectation of future misery, is a prominent trait in the character of teachers of false religion."

This proposition is supported" by considering, first, the influence which the station of religious teachers exerts on their minds;" secondly, "that the Scriptures never blame false teachers for exaggerating the claims of the Divine law, or the consequences of

violating it;" and, thirdly, "the descriptions which Jehovah has given of teachers of false religion." These topics are ingeniously illustrated, and made to bear on the very striking truth which lies at the foundation of the discourse. "the

There can be no doubt that Mr. F. has here hit upon prominent trait in teachers of false religion." They invert the solemn declaration of the Saviour, and virtually say to their deluded hearers, "There is no need of striving, in order to enter heaven's gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth unto life, and many there be which go in thereat. Nor is there the least need of caution, in order to escape the path to hell; because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth down thither, and few (if any) there be that find it." From the earliest times down to the present, false teachers have been engaged in allaying the fears of erring mortals, and quieting their guilty souls. They have been granting" indulgence to the corrupt tendencies of the human heart, and laboring to remove the anticipations of future misery. They have ever said to bold transgressors, 'The Lord hath said, ye shall have peace; and to those who walk after the imagination of their own hearts, No evil shall come upon you.'

We think the subject of this discourse one of great interest; and while we tender to Mr. F. our sincere thanks for the manner in which he has brought it before the public, we must be allowed to say that, in our judgement, it deserves a more extended and elaborate discussion. We hope he, or some one else, may be induced to resume it, and pursue it with so much particularity and point, as to set a mark upon every false teacher throughout the land—that all, whose endeavor it is "diminish in sinners the fear of divine displeasure, and to remove the expectation of future misery," may be known and shunned, as the allies of those in former times who prophesied peace when there was no peace-as the followers of him who declared to our too credulous mother, Thou shalt not surely die.'

3. A Grammar of the Hebrew Language. By Moses Stuart, Associate Professor of Sacred Literature in the Theological Institution at Andover. Third Edition. Codman Press, Andover: Flagg and Gould, 1828. pp. 240.

The

This new edition of Professor Stuart's Grammar " has undergone numerous alterations, both in respect to matter and manner. great features of the work remain substantially the same; but in the arrangement and minute specifications, many variations from the preceding editions may be found. Nearly the whole of it," the author assures us, "has been written entirely over, and some of it three, four, and a small part of it even seven and eight times."—It will be seen, by the number of pages, that the size of it is much diminished. This compression has been effected, in considerable part, by omitting "the Historical Sketch of the Hebrew language, which is prefixed to the former editions, and also the Praxis at the end." These omissions will be acquiesced in, when it is known, that the Hebrew Chrestomathy, now in a course of publication,