THE ROYAL GIFT BOOK FOR THE YOUNG. With Steel Engravings of the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and Prince Albert. cl. bds. pp. 284.

Religious Tract Society.

WHETHER this is to be an Annual, or no, we are not informed; but it is not unfit to take its place among those gems, and will be a very pretty ornament to a young person's little library, as well as an interesting and instructive companion for the holidays. It is filled chiefly with narratives, but there are some descriptive pieces, and portions of the best of our modern poesy are also occasionally introduced. Altogether it makes a very neat present at this generous season.

THE MASTER AND MISTRESS; or, Hints to the Heads of Families relative to their Servants. cl. bds. pp. 252.

Religious Tract Society.

THAT Would be a good master or a good mistress, who should carry out in practice the advice here collected; and if we may look nowhere for perfection, we may hope that such a volume will make many begin better to discharge this department of their duty. That there is a duty here, all will admit; yet it is wonderful, how few will take pains to understand it and discharge it. It is one of those obligations, which are mostly pushed aside to wait for that sort of leisure which seldom comes. The writer of this book takes high ground, and presents a mass of hints and suggestions, which if they shame many, may excite not a few to “do justly” in this matter. We cordially recommend the volume.

DAMASCUS: or, Conversion in relation to the grace of God and the agency of man. An Essay, By DAVID EVERARD FORD. cl. bds. pp. 119.

Simpkin & Co., Stationers' Hall Court.

THIS little volume is worthy of the author's repute, high and honourable as is his position in the field of Christian literature. It treats of conversion as a matter of doctrine-conversion as a matter of experience-conversion as a matter of evidence-and conversion as a matter of obligation. It is a book of startling thoughts and earnest appeals; but there is warrant for all its statements. Two brief extracts will serve to show its style and method. The one is from the third Chapter:

"To speculate on the resistlessness of an influence, the benefit of which can only appear in willingness of co-operation, is a foolish and dangerous adventure. In fact it is one of the devices of Satan, that under pretence of giving God the whole glory of salvation, he may place the sinner beyond its reach. Thus multitudes have trifled and multitudes have perished.

"It may be an object of curiosityto ascertain how much prussic acid an animal may swallow without being deprived of life, or how large a portion of the human body may be burnt or scalded without the certainty of death. But look for the man who would consent to have the experiment tried upon himself; and when you have found him' call him a madman for his pains.

"Resist the Holy Ghost! Reader,will you? Nay! Hate your own flesh, kick against the pricks, DO ANYTHING BUT THIS Eph. v. 29; Acts ix. 5; vii. 51."

The other we take from the third chapter:

Equally dangerous is it to rest in the opinion which others may cherish concerning us, The esteem of the excellent of the earth is of all earthly things most precious; but good men are not infallible, and they may bestow their confidence where it is undeserved. Iu attempting, therefore, to prove our discipleship, we should lay but little stress on that circumstance. Moreover, the utmost that our Christian friends can know about us, results from what they discern of our public character; the hidden man of the heart,' is not so easily submitted to human inspection. Facts, at open variance with Christian profession, may at once distinguish, as an irreligious man, the individual who is so unguarded as to suffer them to appear; but while the sins of some ' are open beforehand, going before to judgment, some they follow after,' 1 Tim. v. 24; and provided these condemnatory circumstances are studiously concealed, it may be impossible to detect them. A short time since, a young man who had a confidential post in a large mercantile establishment in London, and who, as a Churchmember and a Sabbath-school teacher, had for years maintained an unsuspected reputation, during an illness which elicited his real character, confessed that his whole

life had been one course of concealed iniquity. The statement was ascertained to be perfectly correct, and he died in the agonies of despair."

This may be truly termed an awakening book; and that it may arouse many a spirit from the mortal lethargy, is at once our desire and our hope,

LESSONS IN READING for Children in Families and Schools. With Questions on the principal subjects. pp. 15.

PLAY HOURS; or, The happy Children. Intended for those under ten years of age. pp. 108.

SHORT TEXTS IN SHORT WORDS, for daily use and learning to read: all the words being of one syllable, or not more than six letters. pp. 32.

Religious Tract Society.

THESE educational books perhaps sufficiently describe themselves in their title pages; but we call attention to them, on the part of those who have the care of children, because they are not only well framed as books of instruction, but carefully prepared with a view to make the best impressions on the heart of a child. And truly, Christian teachers ought not, when the state of our literature no longer makes it needful, to draw their lessons from sources, in regard to which, after they have become familiarised to a child's mind, it is to be warned against too far consulting them, or weeded of the sentimental notions, they have been gradually rooting in it.

THE GRASS. pp. 82.

THE CORAL-MAKER.
pp. 32.
THE LOBSTER. pp. 32.
THE SEA-STAR. pp. 32.

Religious Tract Society.

THE pretty little Serials, of which these are parts, have been occasionally noticed by us. "The Grass" completes the volume on "Plants" this was followed by a volume on "Remarkable insects," and another on "Birds," both of which are finished. We now turn to another class in the wondrous chain of animated 'nature; a fresh leaf is turned for us in this great book. And there is really a store of instruction in these pages; we will subjoin a specimen of their contents; it relates to the hydra, "a minute fresh water animal, common in weedy ponds or slowly running streams :"

"The microscope shows that the hydra has a granular structure-a substance con taining many small grains, and covered by albumen, but neither nervous nor mascular fibres. No vessels of any kind can be discovered; there are no rings as in the worm, nor any organs of sense. It is, in fact, a jelly-like creature, with small grains intermixed. And yet, here is a living being which can change its place, appreciate the presence of light, by which it is sensibly affected, and wage war with others of a higher grade than itself. It is, too, so tenacious of life, that if cut lengthwise, or across, or even into several parts, by means of a pair of fine scissors, each one becomes a perfect animal. If cut transversely in three parts, then in four or five days in summer, and longer in cold weather, the middle piece will produce a head and tail, and the tail a head and body. The head part appears to perfect itself sooner than the rest. So little inconvenience do such operations appear to give, that the head part of a hydra cut in two, has been seen in a few minutes to expand its arms, and catch prey as usual. It is equally, if not more, extraordinary, that when these creatures are thus produced, they grow much larger, and increase much more, than those not multiplied by artificial division. The common reproduction of these animals is plant-like, by gemmules or buds; these sprout indifferently on any part of the animal's body, gradually assume their true form, and become detached and independent."

"It cannot be doubted, that the hydra is to be reckoned among poisonous crearures, being endowed with the power of killing the softer animals on which it preys. Small water-worms, which the hydra is accustomed to attack, are said to be so te nacious of life, that they may be cut in pieces without seeming to suffer much pain or to receive any material injury. But te poison of the bydra at once ends all life and motion; no sooner has its mouth touched this worm than it expires, and yet there is no appearance of a wound on the dead animal. Other circumstances lead to the same conclusion: the best microscopes have shown that the bydra is neither provided with teeth, nor any other means of piercing the skin. It appears that fishes refuse to swallow this creature; the hard shells of some insects, on which it largely preys, seem a defence from the poison of their enemy, and when they escape they swim about unharmed.”

EVANGELICAL REGISTER.

FEBRUARY, 1843.

PEWS IN CHURCHES AND CHAPELS.

IN our number for October, we referred to the origin of pews or enclosed seats, as substitutions for open and moveable benches or forms; which last were themselves innovations on the ancient usage of standing to hear and kneeling to worship, when at Church. Puseyism does not propose to restore this latter custom of antiquity; but in its love of the via media, desires to carry us back to the open bench system, which characterised the "transition state" from the ancient plan to that which now exists. We inserted then a list of twenty-three reasons, which they give in support of their project; and we recur to the subject now, for the purpose of presenting the following judicious observations, which we find in The Record Newpaper :

The opposition of the party to pews is far too indiscriminate and unmeasured, not to lead to the conclusion that they have ulterior objects in view, exclusive of a regard to the comfort of the poor. Is it not notorious, that in a large proportion of the parish Churches in England there is ample accommodation for both poor and rich? and that the subject for lamentation is, not that from the existence of pews there is no accommodation for the poor, but that, formerly from the moral essays of the High Church clergy, which did not interest the poor at all, and now from the heretical teaching, or paltry dissertations on paltry subjects, by the Tractarian clergy, which are as little attractive, the poor will not come to Church to occupy the pews and benches amply prepared for them. This, we say, is the fact, as it respects a large proportion of the parish Churches in England; and accordingly we infer, that were there no ulterior objects in the mind of the sect, this large class of cases would have been excepted from their denunciations.

On the other hand, however, we are quite disposed to admit, that the system of high and square pewing, by which a great deal of room is unnecessarily lost; and equally so, the system of allowing such pews to be locked and remain unoccupied during Divine service, when the proprietors are absent, and there are those in the Church who cannot be otherwise accommodated,-is an abuse which ought to be, and has been in various cases already remedied. The one practice and the other, we have for long been accustomed to hear of, only as an evil requiring eradication. But to say that there shall be from henceforth no pews in our Churches, but only chairs or benches on the floor, after the practice of Papal Rome, more especially in warm climates, is a demand which neither sound sense nor Christian charity would call for. Indeed, in this country, it does not generally exist in the Roman Catholic Chapels.

The object of Protestants in going to the house of God, is not only to join in the worship of God, but likewise to hear the Scriptures explained, and the everlasting Gospel preached. If these services are performed in an appropriate manner, about two hours of a morning, and an hour and a half in the afternoon or evening, will be occupied in the sacred exercises. We are composed of body, as well as spirit, and that the Divine service, in all its parts, may be begun, continued, and ended aright, a moderate degree of comfort ought to be provided for all the worshippers, according to what is considered comfort in the different situations in which they are placed in life. Obviously, the respectable and pious occupier of a cottage has no such idea of comfort and convenience as the man in a higher sphere of life; and what would be a positive and irritating annoyance to the latter, in the ordinary circumstances of life, would not be perceived at all as such by the former. I Church this distinction exists as much as out of Church; and he is neither wise nor sober-minded, who, in the furnishing of our Churches, would overlook it. For ex2 M

VOL XIV.

ample, it is unreasonable to propose to a family in the middling or higher walks of life, that they, including, it may be, young women and children, should be mingled up indiscriminately with all, of every sex and character, who may occasionally or statedly go to Church-mingled up there in a manner in which they are not blended in any other situation in life, and deprived of those comforts which are unknown to their poorer brethren, as never possessed by them, but almost necessary to the others, especially the more delicate, as enjoyed by them in every other situation in life. People, in every rank of life, ought to be placed in the house of God, as much as may be, in situations where they may worship God and hear the Gospel declared without distraction—where they shall not meet with discomforts which, as met with nowhere else, are likely to continue to be felt, and to act prejudicially on the performance of duties which ought to engage their whole attention.

Nor is there any object to be gained, in the way of accommodation, by dispensing with pews, properly constructed, and substituting open benches or chairs. For no room is hereby gained. In a pew-constructed, we repeat, with a just regard to space-a man is somewhat at home with his own family, and without loss of space as it regards the rest of the congregation. He puts it in the order corresponding to his own taste and the circumstances of his family. Others do the same. And those of the congregation who are not in circumstances to do so, ought to be accommodated by the parish, on benches, or otherwise, in a manner which in their eyes, and according to their habits, will be as full of comfort as the pews of the others. Such has hitherto been the opinion of clergy and laity on the subject; and unquestionably it is the correct judgment. The evil has not been in the want of a correct judgment of the case, but in indolently and criminally abstaining, in many cases, from affording the poor proper accommodation, in accordance with that judgment. But any proposal which would have the effect of breaking down and blending together the various orders of society at all hazards, and without regard to consequences, either in the house of God or elsewhere, may assume a very plausible appearance, but it has no foundation in Scripture or in the fitting constitution of human society.

It is curious, however, to observe, while the Puseyites are thus anxious to blend the laity together into one mass, without regard to their feelings or their sense of propriety and the fitness of things, how carefully they provide not only for the comfort but for the exaltation of the priesthood! One part of the Church, and that the most holy in their superstitious minds, and certainly the most exalted, is to be reserved for them alone-on which they may play their antics after the fashion of their brethren of Rome. The whole is in correct keeping.

But we think there is more in the proposal than this. The Puseyites, with their Right Rev. ally of Exeter, have already exhibited their dislike to preaching. The multitude of services in the Church at the beginning of last century, in which the Tractarians boast, left it, by the confession of all, little better than a dead branch. Life was anew communicated to it by "the foolishness of preaching," the same instrument by which the Reformation was chiefly accomplished, and by which the primitive Churches were founded and established. But this is an ordinance of God which the sect do not like; which they find they cannot handle to any good purpose (how can they, when it is not the Gospel which they preach, but another ?), but which they see the men who really understand and preach the Gospel, wield with a mighty effect now, as it was wielded in the other ages of the Church to which we have already referred, and in all ages when faithfully communicated. This object of their dislike, accordingly, they wish, as much as possible, to get rid of. If they can make the Church uncomfortable to the more influential class of the hearers, they are likely to be pretty much disposed to cry out for short sermons, or for no sermons at all. And thus a weapon which the Puseyites only do not quite despise because they somewhat fear, would be likely to become less and less effective, and the people be induced to come to and join in prayers as the way to heaven, with minds ignorant and hearts blinded to Gospel truth, much in the style of their Popish brethren.