Well; should I ne'er thy person see Nor more my Friend embrace, When at a throne of grace; Yes, to this heart thy name shall be And should'st thou chance to know distress Go, then, my Friend, to India go, Nor dread the boisterous sea, And calms it, go with thee And may the Spirit deign to bless The gospel of His grace, Of precious souls, from sin set free, Which shall thy joy and glory be. Farewell, beloved Friend, farewell, Receive my last adieu; May we, while in this world we dwell Still keep our end in view, That when a few more years are flown Our souls may meet around the throne. Snailbeach Mines. P. N. THE RAPIDITY OF LIFE; AND THE UNCERTAINTY OF ITS CLOSE. A hymn occasioned by the sudden removal of an aged Christian. And Isaac said, behold now I am old, and I know not the day of my death."-Gen. xxvii. 2. Our years in quick succession rise, Tho' spar'd to threescore years and ten, 'Tis fix'd: but how-or where-or when, Great God, remains with thee. Life has no lease: Time no delay : On rapid wing,conceal'd from view, Death brings their blest discharge Cuts the fine silver cord in two And sets the mind at large. O what enlargement! Who can tell Th' o'erwhelming glory given, When once the soul has burst its cell And finds itself in heaven! G.T. 554 REVIEW. Memoirs of the Life, Character, and Writ- | mind was vigorous and acute; and when ings of the Rev. Matthew Henry. By he had only attained his third year, be J. B. WILLIAMS, F.S.A. could read the Scriptures with propriety BIOGRAPHY is likely to be very valua- and advantage. From the beginning of ble only when it is confined to those bis studies he surmounted those tempwho have been distinguished for gifts, tations to indolence and frivolity by piety, and usefulness. And if ever such which so many are injured; and his requisites were found in man, they parents had more reason to fear that existed in the subject of the present his health would suffer through too much narrative. Not a long time after the application to mental culture, than his demise of Mr. Henry, his life was writ-improvement in learning be retarded ten by Mr. Tong, and it may have been by unnecessary relaxations. In his supposed that nothing more was required for the preservation of his character, labours, and success, who is now presented again before us. It may not, however, be impossible to prove that it was better to write a new volume than reprint the one that had long ex-appeared to his afflicted parents openisted. Without the slightest apparent wish to undervalue the work of Mr. Tong, the present author assures us that in his volume there are 'many glaring imperfections;" that the arrangement is "awkward and somewhat repulsive;" that it entirely omits "some features of Mr. Henry's character;" and gives but a meagre illustration of others." In this work of Mr. Williams are many additions now first selected from unpub-him. case, the soil was naturally good; it was well cultivated, and under a divine blessing, the produce was valuable and extensive. When Mr. Henry was about ten years of age, he was reduced by a fever to the very gate of death, which ing to receive him; this, together with a sermon he about this time heard from his father, the Rev. Philip Henry, was productive of good to his soul. He was very attentive to the ministry of his pious and wise parent, and was often so much impressed by it, that when the service was euded, he would hasten to his closet to weep and pray. In this the truly wise will habitually resemble lished documents; and the whole per- In the year 1680 he was placed under formance does him much credit. It the tuition of Mr. Thomas Doolittle, a gives us a genuine portrait ; a picture holy and faithful minister of the gospel, of piety in its primitive beauty." Mr. who resided at Islington. Persecution, Henry, as we are here informed, was however, did not long permit this esthe son of eminently pious parents; and tablishment to continue, and Mr. Henry was himself, if we except the inspired returned to Broad Oak, where he apservants of God, as holy and useful a plied with his accustomed diligence to man as ever existed in any age or coun- study. For reasons, which no doubt, try. He " was born, Oct. 18, 1662, at his parent deemed good, he was at the Broad Oak, a farm house situate in the age of twenty-three directed to comtownship of Iscoyd in Flintshire;" the mence the study of the law, which he year in which, by the Act of Uniformity, prosecuted with great energy in Holhis father, and about two thousand born Court, Gray's Inn, London. But other valuable ministers, were separated he never ceased to desire and to prepare from their people, and denied the exer- for "the office of a bishop." In June cise of their ministry. During his in- 1686 he returned to Broad Oak, and fancy the health of Mr. Henry was gave good evidence that his legal purfeeble; but, at a very early period, his suits had in no degree diminished the force of his desire to be a minister of the gospel, or allayed his thirst for Scriptural knowledge. Having been urgently requested, as Mr. Williams informs us, by a congregation at Chester to become their pastor, he consented, and was privately ordained in London, in the year 1687; and he soon entered on his regular, pious, and diligent ministerial labours at Chester. He was, after no long time, most happily married; but his felicity was of short duration, for it appears that during her confinement his pious wife exchanged this world for a better, on which mournful occasion the affectionate husband said, “I know nothing that could support me under such a loss as this, but the good hope that she is gone to heaven, and that, in a little time, I shall follow her thither." For a few years subsequently to this he enjoyed uninterrupted rest, but in June 1696 his father expired. This was a heavy stroke, and his views and emotions under it merit remembrance. "I bless God," says the pious son, "that I ever had such a father; I have reason to be humbled that I have profited no more by my relation to so good a man. Death comes nearer and nearer to me; Lord make me to know mine end. The great respect paid "to my father's memory, and the good name he has left behind him, should encourage me to faithfulness and usefulness. This should bring me nearer to God and make me live more upon him." The general state of his soul, as he travelled on to the world of perfection, is well represented in what he was when he commenced the year 1705, and which the following extract will exhibit : will of God. I know this is the will of God, even my sanctification. Lord grant that this year I may be more holy, and walk more closely than ever in all holy conversation. I earnestly desire to be filled with holy thoughts, to be carried out in holy affections, determined by holy aims and intentions, and governed in all my words and thread of holiness may run through the actions by holy principles. O that a golden whole web of this year. I know it is the will of God that I should be useful, and by his grace I will be so. Lord, thou knowest it is the top of my ambition in this world honour of Christ and the welfare of precious to do good, and to be serviceable to the souls. I would fain do good in the pulpit, and good with my pen; and which I earnestly desire to abound more in, to do good by my common converse. O that the door of my opportunities may be still open, and zeal and activity for God this year; and that my heart may be enlarged with holy that I may be thoroughly furnished with knowledge, wisdom, and grace, for every good word and work. If it be the will of God that this year should be a year of affliction to me, a year of sickness or reproach, or loss; if my family should be visited, if my liberties should be cut short, if public troubles should arise, if any calamity should befal me, which I am least apprehensive of now, I earnestly desire to submit to the divine disposal. Welcome the holy will of God. Let me have God's favour, and the assurances of that, and by his grace nothing. shall come amiss to me. If it be the will of God that I should finish my course this year, let me be found of Christ in peace, and by the grace of God death shall be welcome to me. My wife and children, and relations, my congregation, which is very dear to me, my ministry, myself, and my all, I commit to God, whose I am, and whom I desire to serve. Let me be the Lord's only, wholly, and for ever, amen. The Lord say amen to it." In this memoir, in which many such extracts from Mr. Henry's diary are given, we have the faithful and full re"January 1. Not renouncing but repeat-presentation of a Christian, and a gosing, and ratifying all my former covenants pel minister, who, from his entrance with God, and lamenting that I have not into public life, to the end of his days lived up more closely to them. I do, in the beginning of this new year, solemnly was in temper and deportment all that make a fresh surrender of myself, my whole is here implied. His heart was puriself, body, soul, and spirit, to God the Fa-fied, and diligently using the means ther, Son and Holy Ghost; my Creator, which are provided for perseverance in Redeemer, and Sanctifier; covenanting and holiness, he piously and usefully held on promising not in any strength of my own, for I am very weak, but in the strength of the grace of Jesus Christ, that I will endeaThe volume before us must be useful vour this year to stand complete in all the to all who may peruse it with a desire to his way. tors," the latter would have proved them to be "ministers of Jesus Christ." We admire the manly style of Sheridan and Burke, and still more the gigantic efforts of Fox and Milton, but most highly the evangelical strains of Gabriel and "the multitude of the heavenly host!” Mark the simplicity and perspicuity, obtain good but it is well fitted to benefit the minister of truth. Here he will find a good example of what his deportment should be; he will be guided both as to the matter and the spirit, and the ends of his preaching; he will behold a fine example of neverfailing diligence in duty, and of upright, gentle, and prudent deportment, the pathos and sublimity, of the followas well as entire obedience and submis-ing language :-" Behold, I bring you sion to the will of God. good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will towards men." In July 1711, Mr. Henry accepted an invitation to settle at Hackney in which connexion he continued until his death. "He walked with God, and was not, for God took him." From what we have stated and selected, we trust many will be induced to purchase, and peruse the truly valuable work Mr. Williams has compiled; and we confi-ing and taste; but their appropriate dently anticipate that their piety, comfort and usefulness will be increased. The Amulet; or Christian and Literary The divines, it is true, have written classically and sensibly; they have established their reputation as men of learn character as "good ministers of Jesus Christ," should not have been merged: this should have been most prominent. The most unexceptionable piece in the volume is the story of the "Wandering Minstrels." The verses entitled "An Impromptu on three Schoolfellows who had cut their names, about fifty years before, in the bark of an Oak, a Lime, and an Ash, at Polwhele, near Truro, 1827," contain one of the most ingenious conceptions we have ever seen. We transcribe the lines. "THE AMULET" is intended, doubtless, to remove our maladies and prevent our miseries. It is indeed a charming book in many respects. The contributions of the artist, the poet, and the divine, have all been put into requisition, in order that it may be an "Amulet" Since that delicious prime, conveying remembrances of Christia- When on these trees our names we graved, nity and literature. The artists, whether the painter, engraver, or printer, have herein put forth all their strength, and proved themselves masters of arts. The poets have exemplified the description given of their profession, in an elegant Essay, entitled 66 Poetry and Philosophy." "The end of the poet is to give delight to his reader, which he attempts by addressing his fancy and moving his sensibility." The divines only have failed, for of course they were expected to furnish the articles on Christianity! They have, indeed," spoken with the tongues of men" they ought to have "spoken with the tongues of angels." The former shews them to be "eloquent ora "What suns have shone, what storms have raved, As if to mock at Time! Full oft did Pocock, Painter, Joy, How frolic on his favourite tree Did Pocock, Joy, and Painter, I hail Nick Pocock's gnarled oak, To find his name; but....lo! Poh! Poh! on Time may I retort! And shall I now the lime-tree search For PAINTER all in vain ? "The Walk in the Temple Gardens in the Summer of 1827," has one trifling error: the fair writer says that she saw "the lights on the graceful arch of Waterloo bridge," whereas that bridge is a perfect level, the part where the lights are exhibited forms no segment of a circle. The Lady's discovery of this graceful arch, therefore, seemed to us rather an arch discovery-but it throws no light whatever upon the subject. Her description of the revulsion of feeling, occasioned by mistaking the lighting a segar" for the "lamp of the student," is a more successful fancy piece. The picture is beautifully drawn, and the moral reflections deduced from this illusion are of a pleasing and a pious strain. 66 The stanzas which conclude the volume are very striking: we do not how ever, relish the sentiment in the last verse- "Called a blessing to inherit; Bless, and richer blessings merit!" The term merit, used in connection with spiritual blessings, is so popish, and so opposite to the "glorious Gospel of the blessed God," that we must protest against its use, even though it might be found convenient for the jingling of rhyme. There are many beautiful pieces in the volume. The Editor will excuse us for uttering a wish, that should he live to compile an "Amulet" for 1830, the Christian Remembrancer may be more evangelical: nothing can be truly Christian which is not strongly impregnated with the noble sentiment-"Christ, and Him crucified." Select Sermons and Letters of Dr. Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, and Martyr, 1555; and the Writings of the Rev. John Bradford, Prebendary of St. Paul's, and Martyr, A.D. 1555. Ir is the intention of the Religious Tract Society to publish the British Re * I have found it. formers, from Wickliff to Jewel. Their plan is to give the work in monthly numbers, each containing 120 pages, 12mo. price 18. Well executed portraits of the principal Reformers will also be given there is one fully meriting this character in each of the volumes now before us. The writings of each auther are paged separately, and are sold as a distinct publication; and we are now to give a just account of two of these volumes. The first is the work of Dr. Latimer. It contains a very brief account of his life. We have also a considerable number of his sermons; seven of which are on the Lord's Prayer. Some of his letters are addressed to persons of considerable consequence—one is to no less a personage than king Henry VIII. for the restoring again the free liberty of reading the Holy Scriptures, and it is very faithful. The sermons and letters are of considerable value on many accounts. They are neither erudite, elegant, nor closely arranged; but they are peculiarly faithful, striking, and practical; and present an affecting picture of the times in which the bishop lived. Some expressions will be found scarcely to be tolerated on any plea, and many which the better taste of modern times will disrelish; still, if those who peruse these volumes will account for the blemishes to which we have alluded by a reference to the vicious habits of Latimer's age, and keep in mind the great excellence of the man, and pay just attention to his matter, the faulty expressions which disfigure his pages will not prevent their usefulness. And after all, we would rather have the faults of faithful Latimer, than those which dishonour too many moderns: if he was nearly rude in his pointed public addresses, many in these refined days are almost sinfully polite in their pretty, gliding, gentle, and general harangues. In the work before us are many curious and useful anecdotes, one or two of which we will transcribe. "One New Year's day, when the courtiers were presenting costly articles to the king, according to the custom of those |