The Young Man's Friend and Guide through Life to Immortality. By J. A. JAMES. Hamilton and Adams. THIS is the last, we do not say the best, performance of the Rev. John Angell James; for where all is excellent, it is not easy to decide upon comparative merits. "The Anxious Inquirer," and "The Young Man from Home," are both benefactions to the rising race, the value of which it were difficult adequately to estimate. The present volume has necessarily something in common with those, but the staple of it is wholly different and new.

The preparation for life and entrance upon it-Indecision of religious character Defects of amiability, and Perplexities relative to religious controversy, having been discussed with great point and beauty, and in a manner the most solemn and instructive, we have a piece of advice with which we are exceedingly delighted--that advice is to contemplate the Character of Joseph, and to study the Book of Proverbs. The importance of these counsels is paramount. Time was when the Book of Proverbs was extensively, throughout Scotland, a school-book, and one of the very first put into the hands of even a child; and, how unsuitable soever it may now seem in the eyes of this very wise generation, in all matters appertaining to the culture of the mind, it is matter of history that the Proverb people of the olden time were in no respect inferior, but in a Christian aspect, much superior to the present generation. At this time of day, it may seem-it does seem-somewhat preposterous that Scotland should have commenced the process of its popular education with the Shorter Catechism and the Book of Proverbs. But such was the fact. The Alphabet was actually printed on the first page of the Catechism; and the Alphabet being once thoroughly mastered, the first step was to plunge into the doctrinal depths of the Catechism, with "What is the chief end of man?" and along with the doctrines of the Westminster Assembly, came the flowing tide of the practical wisdom of the philosophic King of Israel. How unlike this-we think, moreover, how greatly improved as compared with this -is the present system of initiation! We would therefore adopt the present, and, at the same time, retain the past. Our complaint is of the superseding the one by the other of the more spiritual by the mere sublunary element. It may be thought early habit has had something

to do with our intense admiration of the Book of Proverbs. Be this as it may, such is the fact; we prize it above rubies, and only regret that it is not the admiration of the world. The time comes when such will be the fact; nothing prevents it now but the pure doctrine it contains of the one living and true God. The enmity which the heart of man bears to him, leads it to turn away from the great Storehouse of Wisdom, which is throughout stamped with his ever-blessed name. We are most glad, then, to find the influential recommendation of Mr. James, so distinctly set forth in these pages. He has, by his discourse on this subject, done a great service to society, for which the wise and the good will cordially thank him. Mr. James analyses the book into its component parts, and shows that there is plan and order, without the appearance of it. In exhibiting the multifarious contents in a variety of lights, he has gemmed his disquisitions by many fine passages, some of them turning on vir tues and on vices. Take for example,

THE DRUNKARD.

I hold up now another portraiture, I mean that of the DRUNKARD. "Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babblings? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou at the wine when it is red, when it giveth its colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not; when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again."-Chap. xxiii. 29-35.

This is perhaps the most graphic and vivid description of inebriety ever yet given to the world. The drawing is perfect, and not less so the colouring. It has been often called, and with great truth and justice, "the drunkard's looking-glass, in which he may see his own face." It is said, that amidst all the splendid furniture and ornaments of our gin palaces, the mirror is not found: the vendors of poison not being very willing that the miserable victims should see their own suicidal act, in gulping down the fatal dram, reflected. In default of a looking-glass, I wish they could be compelled to have this passage painted in large and flaming characters, and hung up in the most conspicuous place of these human slaughter-houses. Observe the description of the drunkard. The quarrelsome temper which liquor produces-the fights in which it involves the man who quaffs it, and the wounds he gets in his affrays-his babbling discourse on subjects which he does not understand, and is then unfitted to discuss, when blasphemy is wit, treason courage, and ribaldry eloquence-his

ness, and reprobate, with stronger language still, a want of principle. There have been men of fine talents, and otherwise excellent character, who have well-nigh ruined themselves by a spirit of mean and starveling economy, which grudged the very means of success. There have been even professing Christians, and some of great benevolence too, who, from education or habit, have been so mean in some of their pecuniary transactions as to throw a dark shade over their character. Economy, when rigid, has not unfrequently degenerated into a sordid avarice. Hence the necessity of your being on your guard against the meanest of all vices, the most despicable of all passions, and the most insatiable of all appetites-an excessive love of money. It is very striking to observe how seemingly opposite dispositions are balanced in the Word of God. How is industry commended and sloth condemned in that precious volume, and yet in that same Book is it said, "Labour not to be rich;" "Labour not for the bread that perisheth;" "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth;""They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction; for the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some have coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." Does not this look like contradiction? If it does, it is not so in reality. These seemingly opposing passages are intended to teach us that we are neither to despise money, nor to be fond of it. Difficult I know it is to define covetousness-to draw the line with precision between idolatry and contempt of wealth; and to state that exact regard to money which industry requires to stimulate and reward its energies, and which both reason and revelation justify. When, however, wealth is considered as the chief end of life, and is exclusively sought, to the entire neglect of religion-when it is pursued at the expense of principle and honourwhen it is the first thing coveted, and the last thing relinquished-when it is loved for its own sake, instead of its uses-when it is hoarded for the sake of mere accumulation, instead of being diffused for God's glory and man's benefit-when it is regarded as the standard of individual importance, both for ourselves and others-it has then become the tyrant of the soul which it has enslaved, it may be, with fetters of silver and gold, but which is not the less a miserable bondslave because of the splendour and value of its manacles.

What says the reader to this? Every man of sense and experience in the ways of the world, will say, it is worth the entire value of the volume a hundredfold! We wish our young tradesmen would learn this by heart, and also carefully scrutinize the subsequent portions of the discourse on perseverance, religion, and other matters.

It

The next discourse is on emigration to a foreign land, and here the Christian minister, citizen, patriot, and philanthropist is remarkably prominent. abounds in wisdom, and we do not know a better thing a good man could do than to place a copy of the volume in the

hands of every friend he may have about to emigrate. While it abounds in wisdom, it is pervaded by a spirit of deep pathos. Would that all emigrants would be and do as they are here enjoined! The subject receives an inimitable spiritual turn at the close. We regret our inability to give an extract. The next Discourse on disappointing or realising the hopes of parents will touch a cord in ten thousand hearts, exciting great variety of emotions. There is a Note here on the son of the late Rev. Andrew Fuller, which stands pre-eminent among the numerous and mournful narratives of the perversity of ministers' sons. know not that we ever read anything to equal it in point of melancholy interest. In penning this discourse, Mr. James has rendered himself the benefactor of mankind to an extent which it were difficult to calculate.

We

But Mr. James amidst all his anxieties to train men for heaven, is all but unrivalled in the success with which he developes Christian citizenship, and the character necessary to its full discharge. "The young man impressed with the importance of the Age in which he lives," is a production of the highest merit, abounding as much in worldly as some of the other discourses do in spiritual wisdom. Mr. James has both his eyes and his ears open, and nothing that is done by the hand of the Highest, or by the hand of man, seems lost upon him. An Inquiry into the characteristics of the age in which we live, is alike profound and just; the character of the men that are wanted for that age, is drawn with the hand of a master, and is such as to leave nothing further to be desired. Oh! for a nation of such men! To form such is the end of our labours both in this and the other publications with which we have to do. We cannot withhold a section on

PUBLIC SPIRIT.

No man can rightly appreciate his age who does not cherish Public Spirit. This, at all times incumbent, is especially so in the present day. By this, I do not mean a noisy, obtrusive, and restless desire to obtain notoriety by a seeming zeal to rectify public evils, and promote the public good-a disposition to meddle with those who are given to change-a would-be reformer of abuses, but a determination, founded upon conscientious conviction, associated with deep humility, and modestly expressed, to do all the good you can, and to leave the world the better for your having lived in it. No man "liveth to himself" is the dictate of reason, as well as the command of revelation. As a member of society, and not like Alexander Selkirk, the solitary in

habitant of a desolate island, each man is a debtor to the community from which he receives benefits, and to which he owes corresponding obligations. Every man can do something to benefit other men; and what he can do he ought to do. If this is his duty at all times, it is especially so in these. Benevolence, as we have already considered, is one of the noblest and most identifying moral features of the age. Never was so much doing for the well-being of mankind. It is a glorious thing, and makes one grateful for the present and hopeful for the future. Men are everywhere stepping out of the circle of selfishness into the broadest circumference of the general good. It is an age of action -of action in the cause of God and human happiness. Public spirit is become with multitudes a principle, and with multitudes more a fashion. Selfishness acquires at such a time peculiar enormity, whether it be the selfishness of avarice, which will give no money for the public good-of indolence, which will give no labour-or of literary or scientific taste, which will give no time. Under the influence of public spirit the world is improving; ignorance, vice, and misery are yielding to its influence; and knowledge, truth, holiness, and happiness are bringing on the millennium. The religious institutions of this age are its own glory, and the hope of every other yet to come. They are preparing the earth for its emancipation from the thraldom and misery under which it has been groaning for nearly six thousand years, and for the glorious liberty of truth, holiness, and happiness. At such a time, will you be torpid at the centre of universal activity? Will you now refuse to sympathise with philanthropists, reformers, and evangelists? Never, no, never, were the youth of any preceding generation called to such a work, so great, so noble, and so benevolent, as is presented to the young men of this generation. Never had our youth such an opportunity of signalising themselves by active benevolence, or disgracing themselves by selfishness and indolence, as those of the present day. Begin early, then, to cherish a public spirit; because, if you do not possess this disposition in the morning of life, you probably never will. This is a virtue that rarely springs up late in life. If it grow and flourish at all, it must be planted in youth, and be nourished by the warm sunshine and rain of the spring season of existence. He who cares only for himself in youth will be a very niggard in manhood, and a wretched miser in old age." ""*

The cautions with which the Lectures abounds are full of importance. The last discourse, entitled "Dying early, or living to review life," forms a suitable close to a volume which will live long, be extensively read, and under the Divine blessing, prove an incalculable service to mankind. By these twelve discourses, Mr. James has done more for his country and his race, than all the Bishops of England, a thousand times multiplied, within the same period.

* Dr. Hawes' "Lectures to Young Men."

On Nervous Affections connected with Dyspepsia. By WILLIAM BAYES, M.D. Gilpin.

THE object of this modest author, is to prepare a volume that he may place in the hands of patients just recovered from disorders which have had their orgin in indigestion, that he might thereby instruct them, for the future, how to avoid the recurrence of their ailments. He considers, that most books upon this subject are either too exclusively professional, or too lengthy for the general reader; and to obviate the case, in both respects, he has betaken himself to his study, and produced the present volume, as a contribution to the Health of the country. Dr. Bayes would seem to have forgotten, or not to have come into contact with the work of Dr. Graham, on Indigestion; a book of remarkable merit, and which, to our knowledge, has been singularly useful. Indeed, some cases of a striking character have come within our own observation. There have also been three or four other publications issued on the subject within the last ten years, all much the same in size, and all marked by popular simplicity. We, nevertheless, welcome Dr. Bayes into the field, since every man has his own circle, and since there is always something gained by adding a good book on a popular question. We like the publication greatly, and are inclined to think it is one of the simplest, the most practical and popular, that has yet appeared. Every person of sense may read it with advantage, and none can read it without deriving substantial benefit in a matter which so eminently concerns all flesh. Many of the cases by which he illustrates his principles, are striking and impressive. The work will further commend itself to people of religious turn, from the fact that Dr. Bayes seems a good and virtuous man. He is not ashamed to walk in the paths of Abercrombie, of Conquest, of Burder, and others. An enemy to enthusiasm and fanaticism, he yet considers that few things will contribute more to the restoration of health, in the case of those who have lost it, than becoming decidedly religious. He holds that, "Its effects upon diseases are very strongly marked; the soothing and quieting power of religion greatly assists the natural tendency to recovery, as well as the action of the remedies employed by the physician. It also, in great measure, prevents those sudden and violent fatal terminations, which are liable to occur in some diseases, where great nervous or vascular excitement exists, and thus furnishes time for the application of means which may avert danger, and even restore the patient to health." We like Dr. Bayes for his honourable testimony. The religious world would supply him with hundreds and thousands of striking illustrations of the truth of this statement.

Man;

his Religion and his World. By R. BONAR. Nisbet & Co.

THIS is one of the most interesting books that has appeared for some time. There is an air of originality about it that lifts it high above common-place Theological productions of a popular character which abound. About one-third part of the volume is devoted to Man's Religion; and there the subject of contrasts and counterfeits is discussed with great ability. The remaining part is devoted to Man's World, and there his thoughts of the present, his theory of

profession, and his hope for the future, are set forth, and the "Divine verdict " closes the whole with deep solemnity. This part of the book would form an excellent tract; the scene, the expostulation, the exhortation, the consequence, the cry, are all full of startling power.

Sin Apprehended, Tried, and Condemned; being a Reprint of a Book, entitled, "The Isle of Man," first published in 1627, by RICHARD BERNARD. Edited by the Rev. J. F. JARMAN. Nisbet & Co.

THE antiquity of this book is the first thing that strikes the reader. It belongs to a good age of English Theology; and few books of the first half of the Seventeenth Century were received with such favour. The sixth edition was called for before the expiration of the year in which it was printed, a fact which speaks well for the taste of the period, and for the ability of the publication. If was, of course, marked and disfigured by the peculiarities of the time, which would very much militate against its success and circulation at present. Mr. Jarman, however, has stepped forward, and, with a skilful hand, removed these objections. Without at all interfering with the integrity of the matter, he has so far modified the costume as to render it wholly unexceptionable. It has been supposed, we presume, with some truth, that Bunyan obtained his first idea of the Pilgrim from this work; just as it is alleged that Milton's genius was set in motion by the Italian performance which came in his way prior to his commencing "Paradise Lost." In thus speaking, it is not meant, in any measure, to derogate from the peerless merit of the Immortal Dreamer, whose genius was equal to have struck out a path for himself, although in this special instance, the primary idea might have been imported into his teeming brain. There is great ingenuity manifested in conducting the dialogue; and the legal forms which are everywhere preserved, are so calculated to present important truths in a new light, that it is probable they may strike the attention of many who would otherwise have been unmoved by them. Ingenious young men, in particular, are likely to be captivated by the style of representation, while it is well adapted to cottage reading, and would furnish an excellent text to a shrewd man of strong natural ability, who might feel disposed to expound it to his rustic auditory.

The Laws of Health, in Relation to Mind and Body; being a Series of Letters from an Old Practitioner to a Patient. By LIONEL JOHN BEAL, M.R.C.S. Churchill.

MR. BEAL, walking in the philanthropic path of Dr. Hodgkins, has betaken himself to the instruction of the people on the study of health. In an intelligent preface, he states the reason which prompted him to this performance, in a manner which must at once commend both it and him to the respect and confidence of the reader. Mr. Beal states, that health is much more in their own hands than they seem willing to believe, as is abundantly exemplified by the fact, that difference of locality determines difference of health. Taking the run of great towns and cities, and comparing them with the country, life, in the latter, is found much more valuable; and even in cities, well-drained localities are found much more healthy than loca

lities where filth and squalor abound, which are the graves of the human species. Mr. Beal well observes, that while the multitude have recourse to the surgeon, or the physician, for the recovery of health, it is strange they never apply with a view to prevention, entirely forgetful of the old woman's proverb, that "Prevention is better than cure." The range of the volume is vast; it abounds with facts also, illustrative of the doctrine laid down, and requires only to get fairly before the public to attain a wide and lasting popularity.

Sunday-school Teaching Practically Considered. By Rev. J. F. SERJEANT. Nisbet and Co. THIS little volume possesses a large amount of merit. Having discussed the subject of Sundayschool Teachers, their Object and Qualifications, Time and Divisions, it proceeds to deal with the teacher somewhat after the manner of the American book, "The Teacher Taught," although in a quite different strain, and without any obvious plagiarism. The Teacher is considered in the Closet, in the Class, in the Cottage, and in the Teachers' Meeting. Then we have some good disquisitions on the Senior Class, Sundayschool Festivals, and Week-day Parochial Schools. The volume is the production of a practical man, who has deserved exceeding well of the numerous and important class for whose benefit he has laboured. The book has our cordial commendation.

The Glorious Gospel, a Free Gospel. By JOHN Cox. Ward and Co.

AN excellent piece of doctrinal and practical divinity, sound and comprehensive in the original outline, and beautifully illustrated, as well as strongly fortified, by citations from our best authors of past and present times.

Peace Papers for the People. By ELIHU BURRITT. Gilpin.

A GLORIOUS shillingsworth, for which thanks are due to Mr. Gilpin; but what shall we say of the gentle, modest, philanthropic, and extraordinary man whose pure mind gave birth to the admirable thoughts which form this book, so intensely imbued with his own benignant spirit? We would rather have been the author of these six-and-thirty Papers than of all the poetry whice has dazzled Europe during the present century. Yes! Although it has pleased British Royalty to confer pensions, to a considerable amount, on these Sons of Song, we would not estimate the entire of their productions as, in point of claim on the friends of mankind, possessing a tithe of the value of these excellent Papers. We desire for them a circulation limited only by the Householders of Great Britain; and it were infinitely to be desired that they might be found in the hands of the countless throng of young men who, as yet, have no houses of their own. They abound in the highest principles, and are fraught with peace on earth and goodwill towards men.

Notes,-Explanatory and Practical, on the New Testament. By ALBERT BARNES. Vol. X. James, Peter, John, and Jude. Blackie and Son.

THE Edition of Barnes by Messrs. Blackie and Son is every way excellent. The paper and the type are of the first quality, and the volume is