of the Old Testament; the second, of the New Testament; the third, the books of the Liks, or perfect masters, as the works of Chrysostom, Tethanegest, and, Abooshaker; and fourthly, the books of the monks. But none of their learned men studied all these books, most of them only knowing singing and some parts of the Old and New Testaments. Such books as are considered equal to the Bible (like Sinodis, &c.) are called' Auwaled;' and those which are not, Wootshi,' which means external.

"March 29-In the morning. I read with Debtera Worknech, Matt. xvii, and then in the book Meelad, which I have mentioned before. It is divided into five parts; treating, first, on the Trinity; secondly, the Son; thirdly, the Holy Ghost; fourthly, the order of the Church and the Holy Supper; and, fifthly, about the resurrection."-(p. 230.)

The following incident will illustrate Mr. Krapf's method of introducing divine truth in his intercourse with the people :

:

"I cannot conclude the description of my experiences of this day, without mentioning the truly eminent questions which the wife of our host asked me when our conversation had turned to religious matters. The woman having frequently heard me say that we should live according to the will of God, asked emphatically, What is the will of God?' I answered, 'We should love God with our whole heart, and our fellow-creatures as ourselves.' She then asked; How can we love God?' I replied, 'If we see how much God has loved us before in giving us His Son Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Mediator.' 'Who is Jesus Christ?' she asked; and where is the Word of God?' When I afterwards spoke again of God's love toward us, she said, ‘I have often thought that God does not love us, because we frequently offer beer and bread to St. Michael and St. Abbo; but notwithstanding, they do not prevent our houses from being burnt by our enemies.' I said, 'Just from what you now tell me, you may see God's love toward you by chastising you, in order that you may give up your idolatry of offering bread and beer to St. Michael, and offer your heart to the living God, that he may govern your thoughts, words, and deeds.' I shall never forget the interesting questions which this woman put to me in a manner which is seldom observed in other Abyssinian inquirers. May the word which I spoke to her become a seed in her heart for everlasting life!"—(pp. 448, 449.)

This

It is quite refreshing to witness the Christian simplicity and faithfulness of these Protestant missionaries. The plain and pure doctrines of the Gospel of the grace of God, have been brought before the Abyssinians, and have manifestly made an impression upon them, that we cannot but hope may be attended with lasting good. The seed of divine truth has been sown by faithful men. volume furnishes many gratifying specimens of this important character of their labours. The Scriptures have entered Abyssinia now in the vernacular tongues, and though the Romanists are full of machinations to overthrow our missions, we have good hope that a great and effectual door has been opened for the admission of the pure Gospel of Christ, and, so for bringing many to believe in Him, and rejoice in his salvation.

The volume contains two large maps by Arrowsmith, which show the addition made by the missionaries to our geography of Africa.

THE PROPHECY UPON THE MOUNT, a practical consideration of our Lord's statement respecting the destruction of Jerusalem, his own appearing, and the end of the age. By the Rev. ALEXANDER DALLAS, A. M. London: Nisbet.

MR. DALLAS gives the whole discourse of our Lord from the three Gospels in parallel columns, and then adds his own exposition of the different sections. He acknowledges that part of his exposition is widely at variance from the commonly-received interpretation of the prophecy, and we regret to have to state, that we do not think, where his exposition is peculiar to himself, that it is at all satisfactory or conclusive. It would take up more room than we can spare to develope fully his theory, and give those reasons which show the inconclusiveness of some parts of his reasoning. The most objectionable exposition is that which refers the account of the judgment (Matt. xxv. 31—46.) to a class called the reserved Gentiles, neither Christians nor Jews; and regarding the term rendered "all nations" as simply the Gentiles, in contrast to the Jews.

The reasons he gives for this interpretation are the general use of the word 8 for Gentiles, the unlikelihood of Christians being ignorant of their own works of love, and the supposed application of the term, my brethren, to missionaries, foreigners from other lands, receiving kindness from the heathen, whose hearts, as Mr. Dallas supposes, were softened by an external effect of the Holy Spirit. The difficulties of such an interpretation appear to us wholly insurmountable, and the objections to the ordinary interpretation that the whole passage applies to the last judgment really groundless. As in John v. 28, 29, and many similar passages, the whole series of events in the last judgment, opened out in Rev. xix. and xx., is in Matt. xxv. 1-46 grouped together, for the purpose of more striking moral contrast. The glories of the personal manifestation of the Son of God may well make the righteous forget their own works of love. We regret that any fresh stumbling block should be thrown in the way of those who are adverse to those views of the Second Advent, of which Mr. Dallas has been a faithful advocate.

Though we have felt obliged to object to these parts, this, like all that Mr. Dallas writes, is, as a whole, a practical and awakening work. It is highly gratifying to see the minds of Christians thus earnestly directed to this all-important subject. The more fully it is discussed in a humble and Christian spirit, the more shall we arrive at an assured and solid interpretation, not only of one of the most instructive prophecies of Holy Scripture, but of other prophecies on the same deeply interesting subject.

THE NECESSITY OF REFORMING THE CHURCH, PRESENTED TO THE IMPERIAL DIET OF SPIRES, A.D. 1544, WITH THE POPE'S LETTER TO CHARLES V. AND REMARKS ON IT. BY JOHN CALVIN. TRANSLATED BY H. BEVERIDGE, ESQ. London: Dalton. 1843.

WE have been highly gratified by this seasonable translation and republication of two invaluable little works of Calvin's, which had hitherto been buried in the massy folio volumes of his works. The giants of the Reformation should now come forth anew. They will fully manifest that there is nothing which modern Tractarians have brought forward, which has not been already fully considered and answered by those faithful servants of Christ, whom God then raised up to rescue his Church from the abominations of Popery. We give one extract as a specimen of the way in which the powerful intellect of Calvin deals with such corruptions of Christianity.

"The mockery which worships God with nought but external gestures and absurd human fictions, how could we, without sin, allow to pass unrebuked? We know how much he hates hypocrisy, and yet in that fictitious worship, which was everywhere in use, hypocrisy reigned. We hear how bitter the terms in which the Prophets inveigh against all worship fabricated by human rashness. But a good intention, i. e. an insane licence of daring whatever man pleased, was deemed the perfection of worship. For it is certain that in the whole body of worship which had been established, there was scarcely a single observance which had an authoritative sanction from the word of God. We are not in this matter to stand either by our own or by other men's judgments. We must listen to the voice of God, and hear in what estimation he holds that profanation of worship which is displayed when men, overleaping the boundaries of his word, run riot in their own inventions. The reasons which He assigns for punishing the Israelites with blindness, after they had lost the pious and holy discipline of the Church, are two, viz., the prevalence of hypocrisy and will-worship-meaning thereby a form of worship contrived by man. Forasmuch,' saith he, 'as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men; therefore I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid,' (Isai. xxix. 13, 14.) When God stirred up our reformers, a similar or worse perversity openly domineered throughout the Church. While God, then, was thundering from heaven, were we to sit quiet?

'Perhaps they will consider as a trivial error the custom which prevailed, in defiance of the clear prohibition of God, of repeating the public prayers in an unknown tongue. But since it is manifest that by such procedure God was mocked, they cannot deny that we had too good cause to object to it. Then, what shall I say of the blasphemies which rung in the public hymns, and which no pious man is able to hear without the utmost horror? We all know the epithets which they applied to Mary-styling her the gate of heaven, hope, life, and salvation; and to such a degree of infatuation and

madness had they proceeded, that they even gave her a right to order Christ! For still in many churches is heard the execrable and impious stanza, Ask the Father; command the Son.' In terms in no respect more modest do they celebrate certain of the saints, and these, too, saints of their own mak ing, i. e. individuals whom they, on their own judgment, have admitted into the catalogue of saints. For, among the multitude of praises which they sing to Claud, they call him the light of the blind,'' the life and resurrection of the dead.' The forms of prayer in daily use are stuffed with similar blasphemies. The Lord denounced the severest threatenings against those who, either in oaths or in prayers, confounded his name with Baalim. What vengeance, then, impends over our heads when we not only confound him with saints as minor gods, but with signal insult rob Christ of the proper and peculiar titles with which he is distinguished, in order that we may bestow them on creatures? Were we to be silent here also, and by perfidious silence call down his heavy judgments?

"I say nothing of the fact that no man prayed, and that indeed no man could pray, to God with firm faith, i. e. in good earnest. For Christ being, in a manner, buried, the necessary consequence was, that men were always in doubt whether God had a Father's kindness toward them-whether he was disposed to assist them-and whether he took any interest in their salvation. What! was it an error either trivial or tolerable, when the eternal priesthood of Christ, as if it had been set up to be preyed upon, was bestowed, without distinction, on any individual among the saints? Let us remember that Christ, by his death, purchased for himself the honour of being the eternal advocate and peacemaker to present our prayers and our persons to the Father; to obtain supplies of grace for us, and enable us to hope we shall obtain what we ask. As he alone died for us, and redeemed us by his death, so he admits of no partnership in this honour. Therefore, what fouler blasphemy than that which is ever and anon in the mouths of our opponents, viz., that Christ is indeed the only mediator of redemption, but that all the saints are mediators of intercession? Is not Christ in this way left inglorious? as if, after having once in his death performed the office of priest, he had ever after resigned it to the saints. Are we then to be silent when the peculiar dignity of Christ, the dignity which cost him such a price, is wrested from him with the greatest contumely, and distributed among the saints, as if it were lawful spoil? But it seems that when they speak thus they do not deny that Christ intercedes for us even now; only we must understand that he does it along with the saints, i. e. just as any other one in the catalogue. It must have been a mighty honour which Christ purchased for himself by his blood, if all he obtained was to be the associate of Hugo, Lubin, or some of the merest dregs of saintship which the Roman Pontiff has conferred at discretion. For the question is not, whether these even do pray, (this being a subject of which it is better to have no knowledge, as Scripture does not mention it,) but the question is, whether, after passing by Christ, or treating him with neglect, or positively abandoning him alte gether, we are entitled to look round for the patronage of saints; or, if they will have it in plainer terms, whether Christ is the only priest who opens up an asylum for us in heaven, leads us thither by the hand, and by his inter cession induces the Father to listen to our prayers, so that we ought to cast ourselves entirely on his advocacy, and present our prayers in his name; or whether, on the contrary, he holds this office in common with the saints?

The letter of the Pope, and the remarks of Calvin, are perfect specimens of the art and subtilty and wickedness of the Pope; and of the open, honest boldness of a faithful Christian, bringing into the light of day all that wickedness. We might have wished for more of the meekness and gentleness of Christ, but such

fraudulent wickedness demanded strong and vehement rebuke. The whole volume will amply repay the reader's careful attention. It is full of powerful argument and striking thought.

We have the more pleasure in noticing it, as the writings of Calvin are about to be brought before the Christian Church by the Calvin Translation Society, a new Society formed on the plan of the Parker Society, and which we cordially recommend to the support of all our readers. It is high time that that great and good name, so honoured by all our Reformers and our best Divines, should be rescued from the odium which modern prejudice, working on wide-spread ignorance, had so unjustly cast upon it. Without calling any man master on earth, or justifying all the statements or actions of the venerable and holy Čalvin, we know that his writings abound with instruction peculiarly calculated to meet modern errors, and to enlarge the reader's mind to comprehend more of the fulness of precious truth, as set before us in the word of God.

THE LAST DAYS, THEIR NEAR APPROACH, AND PERILOUS CHARACTER. BY THE AUTHOR OF THE DOWNFALL OF POPERY." 12mo. London: Ward. 1843.

THE revived attention to the subject of prophecy is gratifying. As it regards the Papal antichrist, and the literal restoration of the Jews to their own land, the author generally takes a just view, but many of his assertions are assumptions without proof, and his researches in prophecy do not appear to have been very wide. Several of his views are new without being satisfactory. We must say, that assertions and opinions without order and the requisite proof will do little good. The subject has now arrived at a point in which there must be exact and full evidence, and in which mere assertions will have little weight. This book is not, however, without occasionally useful suggestions, and we trust that the author will pursue his studies in that spirit of prayer which he so justly states is here so specially important, joined to that humility, and deference to others, which brings us under the assurance,with the lowly is wisdom.