"There is one other thought connected with this subject, to which you will pardon me for alluding. You are aware that there is now extensively prevalent among ministers of the gospel a singular paralysis of the vocal organs, which has driven many from their pulpits and their flocks. The disease is one which has eluded the researches of medical science, as it has baffled the reach of medical skill. But among the many theories to account for its origin, I have found none more philosophical or more consonant with my own experience, than that which attributes it to the stupidity and inattention of an audience. It is well known that there is an active sympathy between the mind and the body, and what more natural than that a depressed and embarrassed spirit should derange an organ so delicate and sensitive as the human voice. Those of you who are at all accustomed to public speaking can testify how much the ease of your utterance depends upon the interest of your audience. If you find it hard to make yourself understood, or the force of your argument falls powerless upon stupid hearers, the utterance at once becomes difficult, the mouth is quickly parched and dry, there is a choking sensation about the throat, a thousand impediments seem to check the flow of language, the speaking is all up-hill work, and you sit down with the vocal organs irritated and inflamed, and an exhaustion of your whole system tenfold greater, than if you spoke to an audience so full of sympathy and interest and excitement, that the flow was easy from your heart to theirs. For myself, I confess, so great has sometimes been the physical difficulty with which I have preached to a trifling or listless congregation, that I have been ready to wish that in the pulpit I could be stripped of every sense and every faculty, but that of speech, so that there might not come in through my eyes and my ears and my wounded sensibilities, so many impediments to the easy current of my language.'" pp. 106, 107, 109, 110.

Among the sermons given in the volume before us is a Thanksgiving Discourse on "the Connexion between Christianity and the Social Affections," from which we make the following extracts.

"It is said, that the celebrated Dr. Johnson once read a manuscript copy of the book of Ruth to a fashionable circle in London. The universal exclamation of the company was, 'where did you get that exquisite pastoral,' and the thoughtless were directed to the book, which to them had been associated only with gloom and dulness. It is in truth remarkable, that among a people whose domestic institutions and exclusive

habits seemed so unfavorable to social refinement, the Old Testament history should abound in such delicate narratives of the affections. The ancient classics are notoriously deficient in the sentiments of the fireside, but the more ancient literature of the bible, even in the primitive traditions of patriarchal life, seems to have held the family relation among its choicest subjects. In the whole range of eastern story, I know of nothing more rich than the account of Isaac's courtship. The witching pages of fiction have never yet surpassed the true narrative of Joseph and his brethren. And the sweetest refinement which modern taste has thrown around the grave is unequal to the simple pathos of old Jacob, in his dying request: Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.""

"Go back to the remote ages of antiquity, before the light of our religion had dawned upon the world. Many a bright spot shall you find in the moral waste. Many a city where art has lavished her most gorgeous treasures, and learning has reared her proudest seats. You shall find there the taste of the architect, in marble columns, gracefully carved cornices, and majestic temples that rear themselves towering and queenlike. You shall find there the skill of the sculptor, in the accurately chiseled proportions of that chief earthly beauty, the human form. You shall enter suburban groves, and listen to philosophy in her most inspired lessons, and poetry in her most winning strains. You shall be surrounded by everything outward that speaks of elevation and refinement. But when you penetrate the secrets of domestic life, when you look for the happiness of a pure and holy fireside, the light that is in them has become darkness and how great is that darkness!' You recur to those whited sepulchres, which are beautiful without, but within are full of loathsomeness and corruption. And while you glory in the achievements of human taste and genius, you weep that they can attain so little, when unaided by the gospel of Christ.

"Follow the influence of Christianity during the ages since its origin, and you will find the nature of the case materially changed, yet leading to the same result. Now religion and refinement seem to go hand in hand. All that is splendid in art becomes consecrated to, or is consecrated by the spirit of the gospel. Painting and sculpture expend their choicest workmanship on the subjects of the bible, and the mosaic pavement, and the arched galleries, and the frescoed ceiling become vocal

with the praises of God. And it seems as if the social refinement of Christianity attracted to its own service the genius and taste of man, as eminently harmonious with its spirit. Wherever it pressed its way, though among the hordes of barbarism, it invariably carried with it more or less of the blessings of cultivated life. And wherever tribes and nations, that for a time have lived under its power, were left to relapse into their old heathenism, or gave way to the forced establishment of a hostile faith, it has been generally noticed, that barbarism and social debasement have come in, and stalked over the ruins of Christianity with the breath of a moral pestilence." - pp. 302, 303, 305, 306, 307.

At the age of twenty-four years and less than two months, and after a ministry of but four months, the subject of the memoir before us was called out of the world. But short as his ministry and life were, they were long enough for the exhibition of rare qualities of mind and heart, of which the volume before us is a beautiful and permanent monument.

W. P. L.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

Hints on the Interpretation of Prophecy. By MOSES STUART, Professor in Andover Theological Seminary. Andover, 1842.

We shall begin to like Professor Stuart, if he gives us such volumes as this. We consider it by far the best book he has ever published. We do not mean to assert that his views, particularly those relating to the principles of interpretation, the theory of double senses, and the import of the phrases, "then was it fulfilled," and the like, which occur in the New Testament, contain in them anything new. They are views, which we have all along held, and which are familiar to all well informed theologians of the class of Christians to which we belong; but it is exceedingly gratifying to meet with them, coming from the quarter from which they emanate in the present volume.

The position which the Professor takes, and which he well defines, is, that the Bible is to be interpreted in the same manas any other book. Its poetry "is poetry with all its characteristics; its prose is prose; "its history is history, and VOL. XXXIII. 3D S. VOL. XV. NO. I. 16

ner

"So

nothing more; "the psalms are songs of praise; the proverbs are maxims or apothegms." Its meaning "is simply what the writer had in his own mind and intended to express." far as our circumstances and relations are like those of the persons to whom the Scriptures were originally addressed, so far what was said to them is binding on us; but no further."

The Professor discards double senses altogether. The terms "fulfilment," "fulfilled," &c., used by the Evangelists and Apostles in connexion with certain quotations from the Old Testament, which have given no little trouble to commentators, he considers as implying nothing more, than that the language quoted was in some sort applicable to the Saviour, or that between particular events which took place under the Old and the New Dispensations, there was some resemblance, parallelism, or analogy, so that similar language might be used of both. "Out of Egypt have I called my Son" (Matt. ii. 15) is one of these passages, and he specifies several others familiar to those who have given any attention to the subject.

The Professor strenuously combats the proposition, that "prophecy is unintelligible until it is fulfilled."'

In the latter half of the volume he treats, at considerable length, of the "designations of time" used in the Prophecies, particularly in Daniel and the Revelation. He attempts, and we think with entire success, to show that these " designations of time" are used there as elsewhere, that is, a day means a day, and a year a year, unless the writer expressly tells us that they are used in some unusual, or symbolical sense. This principle cuts deep, and at once annihilates the many fanciful hypotheses, which have been erected on a misinterpretation of the above-mentioned books. In this part of the volume is introduced a good deal of incidental matter, relating to the meaning of parts of the Apocalypse, which will be read with interest by those who have a taste for discussions of this kind. Professor is of opinion that the Book of Revelation, with the exception of the twentieth and twenty-first chapters, has reference to events which took place soon after the time when it was written, and not to a distant future.

The

There are several passages in the book we should be glad to transfer to our pages, did the limits of this notice admit. At the close of the volume, we have some very just and striking observations relating to the various confident predictions uttered, at different times, by the "Romancers in prophecy," on the subject of the supposed approaching end of the world. The following remarks have reference to the character of the period of "the latter day glory" of the church, so often alluded to in Christian writings.

"One thing more I feel constrained to say, before I quit this theme of the latter day glory. Whether we have respect to the Millennium, usually so named, or to a more prosperous period still, near the close of time, the extravagant apprehensions, so often entertained and avowed respecting this season of prosperity, seem quite unworthy of credit. The prophets have indeed employed most glowing language, in describing the future season of prosperity; and all they have said will doubtless prove to be true in the sense which they meant to convey. But let him who interprets these passages remember well that they are poetry, and are replete in an unusual degree with figurative language and poetic imagery. Let him call to mind, moreover, that the language employed in the last twenty-seven chapters of Isaiah, in order to describe the return from the Babylonish captivity, and the prosperity which would ensue, is scarcely, if at all, less glowing than that which has respect to the future prosperity of the Messiah's Kingdom. The visionary schemes, then, which represent the Millennium as the return of the primitive paradisaical state, are not for a moment to be listened to by a sober and discreet man. The state of Adam's race is fixed and certain. A world of sin and suffering is as sure to be their probationary habitation, as that the decree of God will stand.". - pp. 140-143.

From some of the views contained in the volume we dissent. We cannot, however, forbear, in conclusion, expressing our most sincere thanks to the Professor for a publication, the effect of which must be, we think, to correct some of the many crude notions which still prevail in regard to the language of the Bible. Such a publication, coming from such a quarter, cannot fail to do good. We know not how it may be received by the denomination of Christians to which the author belongs, but for ourselves, we most heartily commend it to the attention of the religious public.

A Critical and Historical Interpretation of the Prophecies of Daniel. By NATHANIEL S. FOLSOM. Boston. 1842. 12mo.

THIS is not a book for critics and theologians, and the author does not claim, we believe, to have made any discoveries in the difficult art of interpreting Prophecy. He was induced to undertake the work of exposition, it would seem, in consequence of the new interest awakened on the subject of Scripture prediction, in a portion of the community, by the foolish fancies recently broached, and which, strange to say, find advocates, about the approaching end of the world, and personal advent of Christ, to take place in 1843. The common reader, who sits down to study the Book of Daniel, we think, will find the volume a help, and we commend it especially to the attention of such as allow themselves to be perplexed by those who are