peared in print, but is well worthy of being preserved from oblivion; and there can be no impropriety, now that the writer has entered into his rest, in publishing this truly consolatory epistle.

G. F. B. To Mr. H. on the death of Mrs. H.

"

My dear friend,-I cannot express the emotions of soul which I felt on receiving from your valuable son an account of the death of his dear mamma. I often realize in my mind, and think I see you in various postures, and with indications of heartfelt sorrow and pungent perplexity. Oh! the piercing pangs of grief attending such a separation! They cannot be expressed nor pictured, but in idea. I have felt, I daily feel, for you and your dear children. Your and their loss is great indeed. More-But stop, my friend: the sluices of sorrow ought not to be kept open, but the torrent of grief abated, lest it swell beyond the bounds of Christian moderation and overwhelm the soul. How favourable to mourners is the blessed gospel! Gaze not, therefore, on the dark side of the cloud. The black and sable dispensation is tinged with radiant beams of the Sun of Righteousness, which portend a glorious coming day. Could you hear the dear departed spirit, her language would be, Refrain from tears; I am well: weep not for me.'

"Consider, my dear friend: He who gave her, reserved a superior right to her: this she, through grace, sweetly acquiesced in: and though

she gave herself to you, for a time, yea, till time with her should be no more; she gave herself to the Lord in everlasting covenant, never to be forgotten. The Lord, her first, her best husband, was not willing to bear her absence any longer, and therefore sent his chariot to convey her home, saying, 'Arise, my fair one, and come away.'

"My friend, you will likewise

consider, that you and she are not far separated; for although all communication be now broken off, you are yet, and will for ever, continue in the same house, even the house of mercy; that divine, capacious, and beautiful structure which Jefor ever. In that house are many hovah hath said, 'shall be built up mansions. We are in the lower apartments, while she is admitted to the large upper room, where Jesus keeps the feast with his disciples; and by and by I hope the Lord will give us a gracious token, and say, 'Come up hither.'

"You know, sir, it is an evil time; a gloomy prospect attends the land: her righteous soul may in mercy be taken from the evil to come. However, it is in the Lord's hands, who says, Be still, and know that I am God.' Difficulties and increasing cares, it is true, devolve upon you; but know that the Lord is allsufficient. It makes not much, whether burthens be lessened or increased, if strength be but in exact proportion; and He who cannot lie hath said, 'My strength shall be perfected in thy weakness; and, as thy day is so shall thy strength be.' Creatures are like candles: very useful, and always most prized, when the sun is absent; but if he arise, we can do without them. May the Lord arise and shine, and his glory light upon you and yours! As death does not separate from the Lord, neither does it divide the saints from one another. Your spirit and hers daily meet at the same throne; she to praise, and you to pray: therefore, in that sense, though absent in the body, you are present in the spirit; and after a while you will meet in person, to part no more for they that sleep in Jesus will the Lord bring with him.' In the mean time, we are called to walk by faith, and not by sight; and He, in whom we may safely confide, hath declared, All things work together for good.' It was once a reconciling thought to

me in great trouble, that afflictions are compared in Scripture to workmen; all employed, and busy in the Christian's behalf. They work for you: it might have been against you, as is frequently feared. They work together; not separately, but in happy harmony. I then thought, the more the better, if God direct and point out their employment; for the end to be accomplished, is a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.' As persons take pleasure in reviewing the industrious workman, so the Christian, with Paul, may rejoice, not only in the Lord, but in his tribulation also. I take pleasure in afflictions also,' &c. If God send a great affliction (thought I), we may then view it as a fresh workman, engaged in our favour; and not only so, but look upon it as one who, in consequence of singular strength, will dispatch business (though of a heavy nature) at a great pace. Thus those for whom they are employed will grow rich at last. Among others, let pa

tience have her perfect work: she is a pensive, but a precious grace. Have, likewise, labours abundant in the Lord: Desire goes in search after celestial productions; Hope stands on tiptoe to view them; Faith goes to receive them, and brings them home. Thus, the just shall live by his faith; for what Faith brings, Love cordially receives, and Volition bids it welcome. Joy sings, and makes sweet melody; Peace possesseth; Rest receives; and Fear ceaseth to quake, and Jealousy to tremble. How well is it for the soul, when tribulation worketh for her, and when every grace is active in her! Angels encamp about her, and God rejoiceth over her to do her good.-I would not be tedious: excuse my prolixity.

I remain your affectionate and sympathizing friend, and I hope brother in the kingdom and patience of Christ Jesus.

The following Review is taken from the Christian Observer of April last. In that work, some of the severest remarks that it has ever contained, were made on Dr. Thomson, in relation to the Apocryphal controversy in the British and Foreign Bible Society; and we know that in consequence of those remarks, and those of a like character in the Eclectic Review, some have been led to entertain a very unfavourable opinion of the whole character of Dr. Thomson. We think that Dr. T. went to an extreme in that controversy, and the reviewers to quite as great an extreme in their censures. It is pleasant to see the reviewer in the Christian Observer, willing to remove the unfavourable impressions he had made; but our chief design

ROBERT HALL.

in inserting this review in our pages is, to give our readers the extract from the sermon of Dr. Chalmers. We think Dr. C. in drawing the character of his friend, which we believe to be strictly just, has made one of his happiest efforts. The character of Dr. Thomson, taken as a whole, was of the most estimable kind; distinguished alike for fervent piety, and superior talent; and it has found an eulogist worthy of his subject.

A SERMON, preached in St. George's Church, Edinburgh, on Occasion of the Death of the Rev. Dr. Andrew Thomson. By the Rev. T. Chalmers, D. D. Glasgow. 1831.

The name of Dr. Thomson having hitherto appeared in our volumes chiefly in reference to an

unhappy controversy, in which he bore a conspicuous part, it is truly grateful to our feelings-more especially now that he has quitted a world of turmoil and controversy, and entered upon that blessed state where all is peace-to sketch those bright features of his portrait which will abundantly relieve any shades which in some instances hung around it. This pleasing office we are enabled to discharge by means of the funeral discourse now before us, which is one of those striking, splendid, and thrilling compositions, which Dr. Chalmers is able, apparently almost without effort or premeditation, to throw off, for the mingled delight, instruction, and edification of his readers. Our only task shall be transcription, without comment: for thus shall we most gratify our readers: most honour the writer, whose own pages are his best eulogium; and most graphically exhibit that remarkable man, the subject of his narrative, who deserves to be known in the South, as he was in the North, by far other characteristicks than those which are currently associated with his name in the Bible Society controversy. The following are some of the principal passages of Dr. Chalmers's powerful description.

"I need not say, to this assembly of mourners, in what more striking and im pressive form the lesson has been given to us. It is just as if death had wanted to make the highest demonstration of his sovereignty, and for this purpose had se lected as his mark, him who stood the foremost, and the most conspicuous in the view of his countrymen. I speak not at present of any of the relations in which he stood to the living society immediately around him-to the thousands in church whom his well-known voice reached upon the Sabbath-to the tens of thousands in the city, whom through the week, in the varied rounds and meetings of Christian philanthropy, he either guided by his counsel, or stimulated by his eloquence. You know, over and above, how far the wide, and the wakeful, and the untired benevolence of his nature carried him; and that, in the labours, and the locomotions connected with these, he may be

said to have become the personal acquaintance of the people of Scotland. In somuch, that there is not a village in the land, where the tidings of his death have not conveyed the intimation, that a master in Israel has fallen; and I may also add, that such was the charm of his companionship, such the cordiality lighted up by his presence in every household, that, connected with his death, there is, at this moment, an oppressive sadness in the hearts of many thousands, even of our most distant Scottish families. And so, a national lesson has been given forth by this event, even as a national loss has been incurred by it. It is a public death in the view of many spectators. And when one thinks of the vital energy by which every deed and every utterance were pervaded

of that prodigious strength which but gamboled with the difficulties that would have so depressed and overborne other men-of that prowess in conflict, and that promptitude in counsel with his fellows

of that elastic buoyancy which ever rose with the occasion, and bore him onward and upward to the successful termination of his cause-of the weight and multiplicity of his engagement; and yet, as if nothing could overwork that colossal mind, and that robust framework, the all was executed,-when one thinks, in perfect lightness and facility wherewith the midst of these powers and these performances, how intensely he laboured, I had almost said, how intensely he lived, in the midst of us, we cannot but acknowledge, that death, in seizing upon him, hath made full proof of a mastery that sets all the might and all the promise of humanity at defiance.

"But while in no possible way could general society have, through means of but one individual example, been more impressively told of the power of death -to you, in particular, it is a lesson of deepest pathos. The world at large, can form no estimate of the tenderness which belongs to the spiritual relationship, though I trust that on this topick, mysterious to them, yet familiar, I hope and believe to many of you, I now speak to a goodly number who can own him as their spiritual father."-pp. 5-7.

"The lesson is prodigiously enhanced, when we pass from his pulpit to his household ministrations. I perhaps do him wrong, in supposing that any large proportion of his hearers did not know him personally-for such was his matchless superiority to fatigue, such the unconquerable strength and activity of his nature, that he may almost be said to have accomplished a sort of personal ubiquity among his people. But ere you can appreciate the whole effect of this, let me

advert to a principle of very extensive operation in nature. Painters know it well. They are aware, how much it adds to the force and beauty of any represen tation of theirs, when made strikingly and properly to contrast with the back ground on which it is projected. And the same is as true of direct nature, set forth in one of our own immediate scenes, as of reflex nature, set forth by the ima gination and pencil of an artist. This is often exemplified in those Alpine wilds, where beauty may, at times, be seen embosomed in the lap of grandeur, as when, at the base of a lofty precipice, some spot of verdure, or peaceful cottage-home, seems to smile in more intense loveliness, because of the towering strength and magnificence which are behind it. Apply this to character, and think how precisely analogous the effect is-when, from the ground-work of a character that, mainly, in its texture and general aspect, is masculine, there do effloresce the forth-puttings of a softer nature, and those gentler charities of the heart, which come out irradiated in ten fold beauty, when they arise from a substratum of moral strength and grandeur underneath. It is thus, when the man of strength shows himself the man of tenderness; and he who, sturdy and impregnable in every righteous cause, makes his graceful descent to the ordinary companionships of life, is found to mingle, with kindred warmth, in all the cares and the sympathies of his fellow-men. Such, I am sure, is the touching recollection of very many who now hear me, and who can tell, in their own experience, that the vigour of his pulpit, was only equalled by the fidelity and the tenderness of his household ministrations. They understand the whole force and significancy of the contrast I have now been speaking of -when the pastor of the church becomes the pastor of the family; and he who, in the crowded assembly, held imperial sway over every understanding, entered some parent's lowly dwelling, and prayed and wept along with them over their infant's dying bed. It is on occasions like these when the minister carries to its highest pitch the moral ascendency which be. longs to his station. It is this which fur nishes him with a key to every heart, and when the triumphs of charity are su peradded to the triumphs of argument, then it is that he sits enthroned over the affections of a willing people.

"But I dare not venture any further on this track of observation. While yet standing aghast at a death which has come upon us all with the rapidity of a whirlwind, it might be easy, by means of a few touching and graphic recollections, to

VOL. IX.-Ch. Adv.

raise a tempest of emotion in the midst of you. It might be easy to awaken, in vivid delineation to the view of your mind, him who but a few days ago trod upon the streets of our city with the footsteps of firm manhood; and took part, with all his accustomed earnestness and vigour in the busy concerns of living men. We could image forth the intense vitality which beamed in every look, and kept up, to the last moment, the incessant play of a mind, that was the fertile and ever-eddying fountain of just and solid thoughts. We could ask you to think of that master-spirit, with what presiding ef ficacy, yet with what perfect lightness and ease, he moved among his fellow-men; and, whether in the hall of debate, or in the circles of private conviviality, subordinated all to his purposes and views. We could fasten our regards on that dread encounter, when Death met this most powerful and resolute of men upon his way, and, laying instant arrest upon his movements, held him forth, in view of the citizens, as the proudest, while the most appalling of his triumphs. We could bid you weep at the thought of his agonized family-or rather, hurrying away from this big and insupportable distress-we would tell of the public grief and the public consternation,-how the tidings of some great disaster flew from household to household, till, under the feeling of one common and overwhelming bereavement, the whole city became a city of mourners

we could recall to you that day when the earth was committed to the earth from which it came-and the deep seriousness that sat on every countenance bespoke, not the pageantry, but the whole power and reality of wo. We could point to his closing sepulchre, and read to you there the oft-repeated lesson of man's fading and evanescent glories. But we gladly, my brethren, we gladly make our escape from all these images, and these sentiments, of oppressive me. lancholy. We would fain take refuge in other views, and betake ourselves to some other direction."-pp. 9-12.

After these masterly general sketches, Dr. Chalmers proceeds to delineate in detail the character of his lamented friend, as a theologian, and as a man.

The following is his estimate of his theology.

"In briefest possible definition, his was the olden theology of Scotland. A tho roughly devoted son of our church, he was, through life, the firm, the unflinch ing advocate of its articles, and its formu. laries, and its rights, and the whole polity

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of its constitution and discipline. His creed he derived, by inheritance from the fathers of the Scottish Reformation-not, however, as based on human authority, but as based and upholden on the authority of Scripture alone. Its two great articles are-justification, only by the righteousness of Christ-sanctification, only by that Spirit which Christ is commissioned to bestow,-the one derived to the believer by faith-the other derived by faith too, because obtained and realized in the exercise of believing prayer.

This simple and sublime theology, connecting the influences of heaven with the moralities of earth, did the founders of our church incorporate, by their cate. chisms, with the education of the people; and, through the medium of a clergy, who maintained their orthodoxy and their zeal for several generations, was it faithfully and efficiently preached in all the parishes of the land. The whole system originated in deepest piety, and has resulted in the formation of the most moral and intelligent peasantry in Europe. Yet, in spite of this palpable evidence in its favour, it fell into discredit. Along with the ele: gant literature of our sister country, did the meagre Arminianism of her church make invasion among our clergy; and we certainly receded for a time from the good old way of our forefathers. This was the middle age of the Church of Scotland, an age of cold and feeble rationality, when Evangelism was derided as fanatical, and its very phraseology was deemed an ignoble and vulgar thing, in the upper classes of society. A morality without godliness-a certain prettiness of sentiment, served up in tasteful and

well-turned periods of composition-the ethicks of philosophy, or the academick chair, rather than the ethicks of the Gos. pel-the speculations of Natural Theo. logy, and perhaps an ingenious and scho. lar-like exposition of the credentials, rather than a faithful exposition of the contents of the New Testament,-these for a time dispossessed the topicks of other days, and occupied that room in our pulpits, which had formerly been given to the demonstrations of sin, and of the Saviour. You know there has been a reflux. The tide of sentiment has been turned; and there is none who has given it greater momentum, or borne it more triumphantly along, than did the lamented pastor of this congregation. His talents and his advocacy have thrown a lustre around the cause. The prejudices of thousands have given way before the right and the mastery of his resistless demonstrations. The evangelical system has of consequence risen, has risen pro digiously of late years, in the estimation

of general society-connected to a great degree, we doubt not, under the blessing of God, with his powerful appeals to Scripture, and his no less powerful appeals to the consciences of men.”—pp. 13 -15.

In estimating his character as a man, Dr. Chalmers particularly dwells upon that fixed determination of purpose with which, having seized the grand outline of a principle, he followed it up, with a vigour and unity of purpose, which we must continue to think, now that he is dead, as we did when he was living, did not always allow him to take into the account all those modifying circumstances which were necessary to be weighed, both for the purposes of charity and of truth. Of this the Apocry phal controversy furnishes a remarkable instance. His great principle was right: he would not that the word of God and the word of man should be blended; in this he was to be honoured: but he would not have been the less useful in his efforts on this great question, if he had always restrained them within the bounds of truth and charity. But we forbear recurring to these painful recollections; and shall therefore keep to our purpose, of only copying a few paragraphs of one who knew him well, and whose high eulogy is above all suspicion of weakness or partiality.

"No two things can be more dissimilar, than a religion of points, and a religion of principles. No one will suspect his of being a religion of senseless or unmeaning points. Altogether, there was a manhood in his understanding—a strength and a firmness in the whole staple of his mind, as remote as possible from whatever is weakly and superstitiously fanciful. It is therefore, you will find, that whenever he laid the stress of his zeal or energy on a cause--instead of a stress disproportionate to its importance, there was always the weight of some great, some cardinal principle underneath to sustain it. It is thus, that every subject he undertook was throughout charged with sentiment. The whole drift and doings of the man were instinct with it; and that, too, sentiment fresh from the word