powers in the winds, and controlling even the splendour of the stars. Six thousand years have rolled over us since the creation, and what then? Man can boast of vast discoveries in science, of triumphs and victories over inert matter, and of subjecting the most terrific agencies of nature to his will;-fire, the ocean, the winds, and the lightning; yet what gigantic errors still exist, and how startingly and fearfully they at times break forth, even where the pean of science sounds the loudest ! Social evils, with all their train of miseries, mighty shadows, that sweep across our dream of perfection-poverty, disease, and ignorance! Yet, from time to time, thousands have arisen, claiming for a little hour the attention of the world, and declaring that they bear in their hands that lamp of celestial radiance, whose light, when turned upon the soul, would be the panacea of every evil! Poets, philosophers, prophets-what a host of them!-abiding for a time, gathering around them their little knot of disciples, and passing away! Yet, even there, the feeblest of them, leaving some revelations that were pure, and that bore a part in ennobling the character of man. Then built up the poet his theory, teaching with words of music, and lips most eloquent, "that all of intellectual, political, and moral worth, proceeded from the beautiful, the beautiful connected with art," and he invoked history as his witness. He, too, would preach a revelation-divine, yet in contrast to a spiritual one, and fondly deem that in lighting it up with all the beautiful hues of poetry, he could supersede all others; and so he would have done, were not the noblest things the most exalted, the most beautiful of all poetry; indwellers in that home of the passions, the purest and the holiest in which Christianity has her trust. Yet, so taught Schiller, one of the greatest spirits of a fraternity where to be excellent is to be great indeed; one, of whom it was said, "he united the strongest passions with the purest mind," and yet, with all the eloquence of his enthusiastic nature, with all the knowledge of his art, his imagination, and the beauty and music of hist tones, winning even an unwilling audience, and, like an Orpheus, bending inanimate nature to his power; yet, with all this, one of those little ones whom Christ suffered to come near him, might have confuted his philosophy; and the simple record of one acting in the spirit of that command, "forgive those that hate you," revealed to him that there was a deeper beauty, a sublimer poetry, and a purer truth (if the term may be), in the life and acts of one man Christ, than in the most melodious strains of his philosophy. J. B. Banks of the Stour. PENITENCE. "I acknowledge my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Psalms of David. WHEN fears assail ye, and the angry voice G. REVIEW. Endeavours after the Christian Life; a volume of Discourses; by James Martineau. Pp. 347. London, J. Green. To review this volume aright, and appreciate that lofty vein of spiritual thought and feeling by which it is pervaded, would require a mind kindred to that of its excellent author, one that had passed through similar processes and development of conviction, and that, like his, could look with the eye at once of a philosopher and a Christian into the life of things. Nothing common-place can possibly proceed from the mind of Mr Martineau. Indeed, if we might venture to offer a criticism on one who is so far above the ordinary range of sermonizers, it would be to say, that it is perhaps a derogation from his excellence, that nothing satisfies him but that which is elaborate, over refined and sublimated above the reach of common understandings. This appears even in the phraseology in which he conveys his meaning. His diction, like his ideas, is quite out of the common way. Mr Martineau loves inversion and antitheses; language terse and brief, that paints an idea to the eye, and makes it visible, may be found in almost every page; there is the poetical allusion, the bold metaphor, the historical reference, and the turn of thinking that indicates a mind trained to discriminate the nicest shades of thought in the realm of metaphysical analysis. And yet, with all this, we cannot say that we approve this kind of diction in "the composition of a sermon." It is not sufficiently simple for our taste; and we should apprehend it would be found not generally intelligible to the average of Christian congregations. It is far more suitable, as we think, to the prelections of a philosopher from the professor's chair. In fact, while reading Mr Martineau's Discourses, we have often been reminded of "Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind," by Dr Brown of Edinburgh; and we should suppose that these celebrated lectures have had a large share of Mr M.'s admiration, and perhaps have much contributed to mould his style. The volume before us is not reading for the million, but rather materials of thought for preachers. It is an excellent volume for the ministers, but perhaps there are not in the whole island twenty congregations, besides the author's own, that could be edified by it. Mr Martineau, indeed, may be considered as a kind of bishop, giving his charge, speaking to the clergy, teaching those who teach; not that there is in these discourses any thing of assumption, or that savours of the ecclesiastical superior. They are the simple and true utterances of an earnest and beautiful mind. The diction of these sermons, though not perspicuous to the unlearned, is yet quite natural to the author. In him this way of writing is not the result of affectation, and the wish to be singular, though in other men it might be so. In the preface to the volume before us, we learn that this is to be followed by two volumes more; one on "the Divine Ministry of Christ," and another on "the Christianity of Paul." The author has also prepared the materials for a work intended to answer the question, "What is Christianity?" We have no slight anticipations of these promised works from the pen of Mr Martineau, and shall be among the most earnest listeners to what so pure and lofty a mind as his has to communicate on the loftiest themes that can interest the mind of man. It is impossible to give any idea of the spirit and substance of this volume, other than by extracting considerable portions of it. The first sermon is entitled, "The Spirit of Life in Jesus Christ." It begins with declaring, "it is from our own human nature, from its deep experiences, and earnest affections, that we form our conceptions of Deity;"-" the universe of which, each man conceives, exists primarily in his own mind: there dwell the angel he enthrones in the height, and the demon he covers with the deep; and vainly would he talk of shunning hell, who never felt its fires in his bosom, or he converse of heaven, whose soul was never pure and green as Paradise." The object of the discourse is to attempt to trace the mental history of Jesus, and it is touched by the hand of a master. Here is a picture of the way in which we may suppose religion to open upou the infant mind :— "The lessons of devotion are for a long time adopted passively with listening faith, the great ideas dwindling as they fall from the teacher's lips to the dimensions of the infant mind receiving them. When the mother calls her children to her knees to speak to them of God, she is herself the greatest object in their affections. It is by her power over them that God becomes venerable; by the purity of her eye that he becomes holy; by the silence of the hour that he becomes awful; by the tenderness of her tones that he becomes dear. That the parents bend with lowly look and serene result before some invisible presence, is the first and sufficient hint to the heart's latent faith; which therefore blends a while with the domestic sympathies, simply mingling with them an element of mystery, and imparting to them a deeper and less earthly colouring. But the thoughts which constitute religion, are too vast and solemn to remain subordinate. They are germs of a growth, which, with true nurture, must burst into independent life, and overshadow the whole soul. When the mind, beginning to be busy for itself, ponders the ideas of the Infinite and Eternal, it detects, as if by sudden inspiration, the immensity of the relations which it sustains to God and immortality; the old formulas of religious instruction break their husk, and give forth the seeds of wonder and love; every thing that seemed before great and worthy, is dwarfed, and human affinities and duties sink into nothingness, compared with the heavenly world which has been discovered. There is a period when earnest spirits become thus possessed, disposed to contrast the grandeur of their new ideal, with the littleness of all that is actual, and to look with a sublimated feeling, which in harsher natures passes into contempt, on pursuits and relations once sufficient for the heart's reverence.' Pages 5, 7. From this beautiful sermon, passing over many passages which we had wished to extract, we come to the second; its title is somewhat quaint, and repugnant to correct taste," The Besetting God." It thus opens : "Perhaps it is impossible for us to represent God to our minds under any greater physical image than that of his diffused presence through every region of space. Certainly to feel that He lives as the percipient and determining agent throughout the universe, conscious of all things actual |