plication of its pathetic touches and deep truths, and very considerable power in the explanation of difficult or somewhat obscure passages. The style is good and scholarlike, the reasoning clear and persuasive, the sentiments thoroughly evangelical, and the whole work pervaded by a gentle and tender tone of sympathy with human griefs and hopes, rendering its arguments very winning, and its encouragements very full of consolation.

The Third Part was to us most attractive, perhaps, because, already believing the doctrine, we felt chief interest in contemplating the influences in the present life which such a doctrine should exercise in the hearts and conduct of those who hold it.

We can most cordially recommend the book, both to those who already believe the doctrine, but may be the better for considering its present uses; and to those who need to be convinced of its truth.

The Vision of Prophecy, and other Poems.
A.M. Edinburgh: Johnstone & Hunter.

By JAMES D. BURNS,
1854.

Ir is far more agreeable to read good poetry than to criticise it-to place one's self in the passive attitude of drinking in the sweet draught with luxurious delight, than to assume the functions of the winetaster, analyse the sources of our gratification, and pronounce a critical judgment on the qualities of the wine. Having for some time past been in the happy position of drinking in the sweet strains of the volume before us, we now feel it a sort of invasion of our tranquil enjoyment to have to assume the functions of the critic, and try to indicate the characteristic features of the poetry of Mr Burns. But though less agreeable to ourselves, our duty may be more advantageous to others; and it will be no small increase to the pleasure which we have already derived from this volume, if we can persuade others to make themselves acquainted with it, and convince them that they will find it a fountain of true poetical sentiment in happy union with deep Christian feeling.

Mr Burns does not hesitate to avow himself an intense admirer and disciple of Wordsworth, as contrasted with poets of more vehement passions and towering flight; while he faithfully indicates the great defect of Wordsworth's poetry,-the absence of that evangelical element which might have refined and elevated it far beyond what it actually became. In an address "To Wordsworth,"-which, by the way, is one of the finest and ablest pieces in the volume,-he says:—

"So thou stoodst forth

The Interpreter of nature to the mind,

To teach us all that lay beneath her sounds
And silences, her changes and repose,
The mystery of her kindredness with man,-
The likeness of a human face beneath

The veil of Isis, answering smiles and tears,-
An aspect shifting to our every mood,-
A beating heart that presses up to ours
In concord; to explain what we had felt

In hours of tranquil thought, but wanted words
To utter, and were glad without the will
To trace the hidden well-spring of our joy."

i

Substantially this is equally true of the poetry of Mr Burns himself. He gives voice and form to many a thought and emotion that floats vaguely and dimly through the contemplative mind, but which can be presented in articulate speech by those only who have that divine faculty of interpreting nature which is one of the sure marks of the true poet. The thoughtful reader meets ever and anon in these pages with some thought or image, with which he seems to be in some degree familiar, but which in the clear form and finished beauty in which it is presented to him, is altogether fresh and new. It is a floating vision, a dim dream of beauty, which has been flitting before his mind afar off, without his being able to get near it, but which the magic wand of the poet has arrested, and spread out, in its full loveliness, before his eyes.

While greatly admiring and extolling Wordsworth for leading back the age to the love and truth of uncorrupted nature, Mr Burns is deeply sensible of the great defect in the spirit of his poetry,-the absence of full recognition of the guilt and fall of man, and his need of an atoning Saviour and a renewing Spirit. We wish our space admitted of our extracting at length the whole of a beautiful passage in which he corrects the defects of Wordsworth, and shows how the recognition of the truths of the gospel would have elevated and enriched his strains. The following is its concluding portion :

"It were well

That some, whose stately creed reserves no place
For evangelic truths, which to the heart

Of the unlettered peasant evidence

Their heavenly power, and build his being up

In silent sanctity,-some who would spurn,

As the weak dream of fancy, his belief

In the Eternal Spirit who transforms

His inward life, should learn that there may be

A mysticism of reason as of faith.

His thoughts may have a loftier range than theirs,
Who speak as if the self-included mind

By force of meditation could extract

All aids to strengthen, guide, and purify,

From Nature,-may, in solitude, become

Passive recipient of the influences

That bless her quiet realms, and be transformed

Into the likeness of the images

Of majesty and beauty they behold.

The thoughtful spirit may be thus upborne

Into some airy region, but can find

No healthful nurture there,-cannot confront

Its immortality, nor look through death

With an upholding hope. The mountain peaks

Of contemplation are the barren haunts

Of everlasting snow, if, to the mind

That dwells on them, the presence of its God

Yield not reflection to all rays of light.

These were thy haunts, O Poet! and, though thou

Didst not leave Him unpraised, a firmer grasp,

A more habitual and presiding sense

Of His pure presence in thy life of thought

And consciousness, had given a warmer glow

Of fervour to thy song. Thou wouldst have felt

The pulses of thy inmost being beat

With quicker rapture, and thy thronging thoughts,
Making sweet music as they came from depths
Within the soul, insphered their passionate force,
Not in an Orphic, but a prophet's hymn

Of surging adoration."

It is one of the great merits of Mr Burns, that he supplies these

defects in his own verses; and, like the pensive bard of Olney, hears amid all the voices of nature only the voice of God. He recovers, as it were, to the kingdom of Christ, the manifold beauties of the material world, and the feelings of joy and delight which they minister; and shows not only that they form a legitimate source of enjoyment to the believer, but that to him nature has a depth of meaning, and brings a fulness of enjoyment unknown to all who are yet unreconciled to nature's God.

The volume consists of a large number of miscellaneous pieces, chiefly short. The "Vision of Prophecy," with which it opens, and which gives its name to the volume, is a brief sketch of the course of prophecy, and of some of its more remarkable fulfilments,-perhaps rather too brief, and hardly rising to the full height of so great a theme. "The Cave of Machpelah,"-"The Burial of Jacob,""Ichabod,"-titles of the three following pieces,-indicate the prevailing tendency of the author to somewhat pensive subjects. His calm and gentle spirit is well adapted to such themes, and they are handled with very great beauty. But while the mournful aspects of life are thus dwelt on, care is ever taken to shed over the gloom, the bright rays of gospel hopes and joys; and while the author writes like one to whom sorrow has been no stranger, he gives ample evidence of having partaken of the living stream that makes glad the city of our God.

These pieces are not characterised by those flashing or brilliant qualities which would be likely to secure for them a universal and immediate run of popularity. Towering flights, or dashing charges, the author does not attempt,-content to move calmly and gracefully in the region of peaceful contemplation. But thoughtful minds, imbued with the spirit of evangelical piety, must find them rich in the elements of pure enjoyment, and bless God for having conferred on his servant so rare and so profitable a gift. And should it please God to preserve his life, and restore his precarious health, they will cherish the hope of further contributions from his pen, that will fulfil the promise of his early effort, and enrich still further the stores of our sacred poetry. In the wish and prayer that it may be so, we need not say that we heartily join.

From the " Hymns and Meditations," that form one portion of the volume, we extract the following beautiful story on

THE DEATH OF AN INFANT.

"I heard the angels singing

As they went up through the sky,
A sweet infant's spirit bringing
To its Father's house on high:
"Happy thou, so soon ascended,

With thy shining raiment on!
Happy thou, whose race is ended
With a crown so quickly won!
"Hushed is now thy lamentation,

And the first words to thee given
Will be words of adoration

In the blessed speech of Heaven;
For the blood thou mightst have slighted
Has now made thee pure within,

And the evil seed is blighted

That had ripened unto sin.

"We will lead thee by a river,
Where the flowers are blooming fair;
We will sing to thee for ever,

For no night will darken there.
Thou shalt walk in robes of glory;
Thou shalt wear a golden crown;
Thou shalt sing Redemption's story,
With the saints around the throne.
"Thou wilt see that better country,
Where a tear-drop never fell,-
Where a foe made never entry,
And a friend ne'er said farewell;
Where, upon the radiant faces
That will shine on thee alway,
Thou wilt never see the traces
Of estrangement or decay.
"Thee we bear, a lily-blossom,
To a sunnier clime above;
There to lay thee in a bosom

Warm with more than mother's love.

Happy thou, so timely gathered

From a region cold and bare,

To bloom on, a flower unwithered,
Through an endless summer there.'

"Through the night that dragged so slowly,
Rachel watched beside a bed;
Weeping wildly, kneeling lowly,
She would not be comforted.

To her lost one she was clinging,
Raining tears upon a shroud;

She could hear no angels singing,

See no brightness through the cloud."

Sermons on the First Epistle of Peter. By H. F. KOHLBRUGGE, D.D. of Elberfeld, Germany. Vol. I., 1853. With Introductory Preface, by Rev. O. WINSLOW, D.D. And Vol. II., 1854.

Partridge & Oakey. Post 8vo. Pp. 160 and 245.

London:

THE author of these volumes belongs, we believe, to the Dutch Reformed Church, at Elberfeld on the Rhine, and has issued, besides them, nearly thirty separate publications, chiefly expository, in German, Dutch, and French. The English language is richer than probably any other on the first Epistle of Peter. Not to speak of Dr John Brown's recent and elaborate exposition, and other older works, no language perhaps can boast of any expository work comparable to Leighton's. Still, this precious epistle admits of ever fresh treatment. The present volumes embrace three chapters of the epistle, the first containing twelve sermons on the first chapter, and the other seven sermons on the second, and three on the third. In point of doctrine, they are thoroughly orthodox, and decidedly Calvinistic; the style is distinguished by great simplicity, and the tone is grave and wholesome. In the doctrinal part of the exposition there is nothing very striking, but the treatment of the practical portion is truly admirable. We have nowhere read any thing more worthy of the attention of Christians than the sermons on the third chapter of the epistle, regarding the duties of husbands and wives. Our readers will thank us for the following

extracts:

"And thus these two, the man and his wife, became by God's own appoint

ment no longer twain, but one flesh; and hence they are, and ought to feel themselves, no longer twain, but one in all things. This unity of opposite individualities; this reciprocity of affection; this union of the strong and weak, in which the whole creation, pure and faultless, lay mirrored at the feet of its lords, and ready to do them homage; this oneness which constituted the paradise of Paradise,-alas! alas! must even its beauteous and fragrant blossom go up as dust,' at the touch of the destroyer? Must the leaves of this fairest of trees in the garden of God be stripped off, withered on the earth, deformed by the stains of hell? Alas! yes! Well did Satan know that this oneness formed the heart and soul, the Gordian knot, the unbreakable cord of human bliss; and poor, wretched, sin-blinded man estimated it not at its true value, and the devil divided what God had appointed to be one."-(Pp. 125, 126.)

"But, alas! for thee, poor believing wife, who art tried and burthened with a blustering, cursing, ever-harassing husband. A second Nabal! A harsh, overbearing, domestic tyrant. How shalt thou demean thyself, when thy husband treats thee as the mere creature of his will, the instrument of his brutal pleasures? How, I ask, shouldst thou demean thyself in order to keep thy soul clear from his blood, when thou art called to stand before the judgment-seat of Christ? Or, still more, how shouldst thou act with a view to rescuing his soul from the ruin to which it is fast hastening? Nothing, let me impress on thee, can be gained in such a case by proving thyself in the right; nothing by setting up thy will in opposition to his; nothing by complaining of him to others; nothing by enthusiastic declamation, or preaching either to or at him. Nothing by angry expostulations and bitter (however just) reproaches; or by moping melancholy and sullen silence in his presence. Least of all by holding aloof from his company, or repelling him from you, when he is in a relenting humour. Sin can never be expelled by sin; Satan casteth not out Satan.' Begin, therefore, with the conquest of thy own headstrong will; subdue thine own spirit; root out thine own besetting sins and prevalent failings (which may, after all, have much to do with increasing, if they do not originate, thy causes of complaint), if thou, unhappy wife, desirest to see things go more smoothly, in thy household."(Pp. 128, 129.)

Any other husband but mine!' may some sighing wife exclaim, it might be possible to submit oneself to! but to him, especially when he is in one of his cross, wayward moods, flesh and blood cannot bear it!' Most true! flesh and blood cannot bear it! No woman, as merely woman, is able to bear willingly the yoke of the Lord's commandment. But God hath means and ways to bring believing women to this attainment! He fills them with love to Christ, and holds up to their view the crown which is to be the reward of their subjection. Christ hath loved-loved those who scourged him, and smote him on the face! He loved those who loaded him with all imaginable opprobrium and injury. Believing women have experienced in their own souls the power of the Saviour's love, and have learned how irresistible is its force! They know that it casts down every opposing barrier, and at length subdues the enmity of the stony human heart. In this love, oh! ye believing wives! lies the source of your power to love, even to death-to be subject, to suffer, and to bear! GOD WILLS IT, and the apostle holds up to your view the graciously appointed recompense. And what is that recompense? It is this, that those who obey not the word, may without the word, be won by the conversation of their wives, when they behold their chaste conversation coupled with fear. . . . . But how is this to be brought about? WITHOUT WORDS! One word begets another; and the human tongue but too readily twists itself into a serpent's tongue. No one casts fire on him he would rescue from the flames. The believing wife, then, will ever keep in mind her own chastisement as a daughter of Eve, and God's consolation in the promised reward; she will keep silence, and wait, and act. . . . . And think you that her soul-labour, her patient endurance, her silent suffering, and meek subjection, mingled with the strivings of prayer, strong crying and tears in secret, whilst before her husband and the world, she anoints her