writers of that day, of Flavel and Charnock, of Howe, and even of the accomplished and elegant Bates. We must except, however, from these the spiritual Leighton, whose 'Meditations' and Sermons no one finds wearisome; and Henry Scougal, the youthful author of 'The Life of God in the Soul of Man,' who died too early to have written much, but has left us enough in that beautiful treatise, to make us wish he had lived to write more.

;

As we

It may be admitted, that the taste of the present day is in the opposite error; that its impatience of length and demand for compression are neither reasonable nor wise; that the best religious books, like the best histories, must go deep into details, which cannot always delight, but are essential to the truth; and that serious readers, who really wish to be instructed or made better, will not refuse to follow their guides through the full length and breadth of their subjects. Be this as it may, the shorter book will, in general, be sure of the preference; and, to come at once to an example altogether to our purpose, the little volume before us, exhibiting plainly and affectionately, with discrimination and feeling, the nature, objects, means, and obligations of religion, will never want a cordial reception. The writer has condensed with great judgment many valuable directions on the most important points, in which the inquiring, particularly the youthful, Christian will find himself interested. learn with pleasure, that the work is already in many hands, we the less regret, that our narrow limits scarcely leave us room for extracts. But he that desires to know the nature of true religion, and what is that greatest good, which, as an accountable and immortal being, he is to pursue; he that, doubting, wishes to be assured of his ability to obtain what he would seek, and to know the state of mind he must cherish, and the means he must use, if he would hope for success, will not want instruction, with these pages before him. He may learn how to make his reading of the Scriptures, his private meditation and prayers, his social worship, and his attendance upon the divine word and ordinances, the instruments of his salvation. He will see, moreover, the indispensable importance of the Religious Discipline of Life' to the maintenance of religion in the soul. We We particularly recommend this last chapter to the reader's attention. Here are suggestions, which will approve themselves to all who have learned to reflect on their personal duties and dan

gers; while they apply with great force to some of the prevalent errors and temptations of Christians at the present day. What serious mistakes have been committed by inexperienced Christians, from want of attending to directions like these;

It is plain that your chief business as well as your great trial, in forming a Christian character, lies in the ordinary tenor of life. The world is the theatre on which you are to prove yourself a Christian. It is in the occurrences of every day, in the relations of every hour, in your affairs, in your family, in your conversation with those around you, in your treatment of them, and your reception of their treatment; it is in these, that you are to cultivate and perfect the character of a child of God, which you are called to form. It is in these, that your passions are exercised, and your government of them proved; in these, that your command over that unruly member, the tongue, is made known; in these, that temptations to wrong doing and evil speaking beset you, and that you are to apply your religious principle in resisting them. In these it is, consequently, that you discover whether your principle is real and genuine, or whether it lies only in feeling and in words. In the quiet of your chamber, in the devout solitude of your closet, when the world is shut out, and your solemnized spirit feels itself alone with God, you may be so exalted by communion with Heaven, and by meditation on heavenly truth, that all things earthly shall seem worthless and paltry, and every desire be set on things above. But alas, in the closet, and in the third heaven of contemplation, we can live but a small portion of the time. We must come down from the mount. We must enter the crowd and distractions of common life. We must engage in common and secular affairs. And there, *** in the midst of these things, dangerous, enticing, seductive, you are to live and walk unchanged, unseduced, undefiled; your heart true to its Master, your spirit firm in its allegiance to God, and your soul as truly devout and umble as when worshipping at the altar.' - pp. 15 1, 152.

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It is one of the most difficult offices of the teacher of religion to make interesting and forcible its simplest and most frequently repeated instructions; or, as an Apostle expresses it, to make manifestation of the truth.' He that does this, is wise to win souls. It is done, we think, with great felicity in this little book; and for the success, with which we hope may be followed, we heartily commend it to the blessing of God, and to the hearts of all for whom it is designed.

it

INDEX.