The whole structure of this sentence, the manner of connecting and grouping the expressions, their opposition heightening each,-reminds us of the splendid writing of Jeremy Taylor, whom Mr. Harness manifestly appears to have frequently proposed to himself as a model, and a better one he could scarcely find. But although we are reminded of that writer, we are so as much by what we miss, as by what resembles him. Mr. H. always writes elegantly and correctly, and sometimes with force; but it appears the effect of diligence and study. There is not the gushing flow of words,—the profuse and varied imagery,-the poetical and tender diction,-which come directly from the heart, and give so peculiar a character of warmth and beauty to the preeminently pious writings of Taylor. We have seen a former publication of Mr. Harness, "The Wrath of Cain," also a Boyle Lecture, the style of which struck us as more flowing; and we are tempted to believe that, as is frequently the case with others, if Mr. Harness wrote with less care, he would produce greater effect. Where he treats of the consolations which Christianity brings to the calamities of life, he is peculiarly successful, and we give the following passage as containing a most just view of the point under discussion, and as a confirmation of the foregoing remarks:

There are others--and of such, perhaps, is the large majority of mankind—whose natural sensibilities are suppressed beneath the weight of various occupations, and are only awakened to a transient consciousness of being, in some moment of violent or extraordinary excitement; and these, to-day, follow weeping behind the corse of the departed, and then look down into the grave, and then dash away the tear, and then every melancholy reflection on their loss is dissipated by the more urgent and immediate interests of the morrow:-and neither do these feel the necessity of any support from the suggestions of religion.—But there is yet another class, whose souls are more exquisitely wrought, and vibrate to the touch of sorrow with a thrill of longer and of deeper feeling. There are real mourners, who cannot thus readily eradicate the trac e

of affection, who cannot erect the monumental marble to spread abroad the memory of virtues which they themselves have committed to oblivion. Vol. ii. p. 170.

Those who have lost an object of beloved affectionwho have seen their friend or their child expire-they can tell the efficacy of Christian consolation. In prosperity, Religion gilds every golden object, throws a perfume on the violet, and adds a charm to existence that does not of itself belong to life. Mr. Harness has collected the feelings and admissions on this subject of the most celebrated infidels of all ages, and strikingly exhibits the burthen which life must prove, uncheered by religious hope. But it is in affliction, in poverty, and depression, that the divine consolation of our faith is most apparent. It elevates the poor and ignorant to a level with the learned and the prosperous-it even exalts above them. Those alone, who have contemplated the deathbed of the lowly, can tell of the dignity which it confers-of the pangs which it assuages-of the joys to which it gives rise.

If Christianity be necessary for the poor, how far more is it so to the rich, who, removed from the obligation to labour, find the restless mind ever craving for something which reason can neither explain or procure. The indulgence of feeling, the pleasures of imagination, the glow of enthusiasm, when devoid of the active principle of faith, all tend to what has been conventionally termed, ennui. This word may be considered of light application, and the feeling it conveys may be treated as a trifling evil, but its withering powers, and the crimes even, to which it will lead as surely as the malignant passions, render it of supreme dread to the reflecting, and the terror of the heedless. But the Christian is freed from all this lassitude of exis

tence, he alone truly lives, he draws the sting both from life and death :

But whether the dissatisfaction that the soul experiences, amid the most affluent accumulation of temporalities, be derived particularly from any one of the causes I have recounted, or from an union of the whole, it is evident that the Christian is exempted from their operation, by the motives of his conduct, the object of his desires, and the aim of his exertions. If others, at the brightest and most luxuriant crisis of their fortunes, lament over the unexpected solicitudes of a state which they had anticipated as the conclusion of their anxiety and their toil, the disciple of the Redeemer has no such miscalculations to detect. All the difficulties of his task are honestly exposed to his inspection. They are connected with his first rude and inexperienced efforts, and they disappear as he gradually acquires the dominion of his passions, and attains the habit and facility of virtue. If others open to themselves a new source of infelicity in the very fruition of their earthly prospects, and, after attaining the accomplishment of their desires, become distressed from vacuity of occupation; the object of the Christian's emulation, alluring from beyond the grave, interests the prospective activity of the mind, by a pursuit as enduring as his existence, and which constantly encourages his perseverance by livelier presentiments of joy. If others are oppressed and agitated by the restless consciousness of faculties inadequately employed, and of energies unworthily consumed, the faithful disciple of Christ is delivered from these occasions of disquietude; for his affections, his hopes, and his exertions, are strenuously directed to the achievement of one end, as infinite as his capacities, as eternal as his nature, as blest as the destiny of angels, and as glorious as the throne of God.

But with these advantages immediately resulting from the nature of his pursuit, and which he possesses as an additional and exclusive interest in his existence, the Christian derives a real increase of happiness from these accessions of temporal prosperity, which to others only communicate a toil of insipid entertainment, and a burthen of unprofitable splendour. Those acquisitions of fame or wealth, of place or honour, which to the children of the world are only golden in expectation, and prove worse than tinsel on possession, to the Christian really do contribute something of substantial gratification and valuable enjoyment.

"All things work together for the good of those *" whose lives are religiously devoted to the service of the Almighty; and, among the innumerable privileges which the Deity has appointed as the indefeasible inheritance of those that love him, he has ordained, that the righteous should achieve by virtue the ends which are ineffectually pursued by vice; that, while they renounce themselves, and only seek to glorify their God, by promoting the benefit of others, they should fall undesignedly

*Romans viii. 25.

upon that happiness which escapes the solicitous exertions of the selfish; that they should exhaust the sweets which are attached to the delights and the glories of the world, and shorten all the dregs and the bitterness of the cup to be drained by the sensualist, the ambitious, and the voluptuary;-whatever is really valuable in the acquisitions of pleasure or of success, may be enumerated among the uncovenanted and supervenient recompenses of that godliness, which, says the Apo the Gentiles, is “profitable unto all things."-1 Tim. iv.'8. Vol .ii.pp. 213-217.

But our limits warn us to conclude. We must briefly pass over the rest of the work. The uncertainty of reason in all that is chiefly essential for man to know is easily demonstrated. Deists reason on lights they have received from the Gospel, yet how miserably inconclusive are their arguments, how vague is all they can say in favour of the existence of God, of the immortality of the soul, of a rule of moral action,-and, for the mass of mankind, how completely inefficient ! Plato acknowledged the necessity of a revelation; Cicero confesses his uncertainty of a future existence, and that it was easier to say that God was not, than that such a being exists. Hume admits that the boundaries of virtue and vice cannot be defined; and the more we examine, the more we perceive that philosophers can give nothing but reasons for the destruction of ethics, and agree only in their opposition to all religion. Those who are not perverted by the deepest pride, or the worst vices, can never entirely throw off the strong impression of the Deity, and cease to acknowledge him in their hearts. Let such pause, and observe that if they reject Christianity, they have no just principle on which they may retain theism, as it is liable to the same difficulties as those on which they found that rejection ;-let them consider whether society can exist without religion— (Infidels have acknowledged that it could not)-let them remember that a religion is offered to them, terrible only to the persevering sinner, or to him who rejects it

from hardened pride;-a religion which adds to the virtuous enjoyments of life, which alone assures happiness beyond its short span let them turn their eyes on their own hearts when we tell them in the words of Baxter, "We mistake men's diseases when we think there needeth nothing to cure their errors, but only to bring them the evidence of the truth: alas! there are many distempers of mind to be removed, before men are apt to receive that evidence."

墨

In conclusion, the author of these volumes is evidently a man of talent, diligence and research,— and we recommend his book to the attention of all who are not well and fully grounded in the principles of their faith, or who are in any degree doubtful concerning them*. A copious review and comparison of the opinions of the most celebrated free-thinkers is ably and with interest presented to the public, and in a manner so popular and elegant, as must beguile the most indifferent to a consideration of the subject. We regard, indeed, this work as a most valuable addition to our religious literature, uniting as it does the general attractiveness of an imaginative and eloquent style, with the learning and argument which have too often been obscured or made repulsive by the dry and pedantic forms into which they have been thrown.

* To such readers we would also take this occasion to recommend the little volume of Dr. Chalmers's Evidences of Christianity, which, for direct proof of fact and inductive reasoning, is the most cogent and brief exposition we have met with.

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

LONDON

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