in the Scotch Church at Rotterdam, where he exercised his ministry with great prudence and diligence. He was zealous and successful in preaching the gospel, and his labours were attended with happy fruits. He was considered an excellent expositor of the sacred Scriptures, and the conclusion of his discourses was commonly pungent and impressive; for he did not decline giving faithful reasoning to his hearers, keeping back nothing that might be profitable to them. The Rev. Mr. McWard, who was in exile with him, gives the following: "That the whole of his sermons, without the intermixture of any other matter, had a speciality of pure gospel texture, breathing nothing but faith in Christ and communion with Him.' To which it may be added, that from the specimens which remain, they were admirably characterized by a happy mixture of doctrine and practice. He was no dry and merely systematic preacher. "He enters deeply into the discrimination of character and life, and makes all his sermons bear on the interests of vital godliness."

One of his last labours in the pulpit, was at the ordination of the famous Richard Cameron. On this occasion he was assisted by his friend, the Rev. Mr. McWard. His sermon was founded on Jer. ii. 35. "Behold I will plead with thee, because thou sayest I have not sinned." This discourse, which was peculiarly appropriate and solemn, was his dying attestation to the doctrines which he held. He died soon after, about the close of the year 1679, greatly regretted by thousands in Holland, and in his native country.

The character of Brown, by those who knew him best, is very high. Mr. McWard, in a preface to his work on "The Life of Faith," published soon after his death, speaks thus: "If thou be not a stranger in our Israel, whoever thou be; then if either eminency in grace or learning, if vastness and pregnancy of parts, if fervour of zeal according to knowledge, if unwearied diligence in the work of the Lord, if a holy disregard of men and their estimation, with a resolution to approve himself to God by a ready withstanding the corruptions of the time, and opposing all these causes and contrivances, and those unworthy communings, whereby the good cause hath been prejudged, yea, hereby abandoned, and the free course and progress of the gospel obstructed; if single solicitousness and strenuous endeavours to have free ordinances preserved in this generation and propagated to posterity; in a word, if faithfulness as a servant of God, in all his house, even that God who counted him faithful and put him in the ministry, and loyalty to his princely Lord and Master-I say, if there be such a one to whom such a blessed conjunction of rare gifts, with such a plentiful measure of grace, can endear any man, I then nothing doubt, but Mr. Brown, great and gracious Mr. Brown, hath such a place in thy soul, and such a preference to others, as thou wilt judge it superfluous in me to say any thing to commend the truly great Elijah of his time; the man jealous for the Lord God of Hosts above all the. brethren whom he hath left behind him. His memory shall be blessed, and his cognizance in the future generations of the Church, shall be, that the

day when he fell asleep, the Church of Scotland was deprived of the most incomparably, and the most absolutely burning and shining light that belonged to that Church."

Dr. Melchior Leydecker, an orthodox theologian, and learned Professor at Utrecht, gives the following testimony to the character of Mr. Brown, prefixed to one of his works: "Glory be to God in the highest, who hath reserved by his grace many Protestant and and learned divines against all these errors, [referring to the errors of Socinianism and Pelagianism,] and hence we have the learned labours of the worthy J. Burgess, J. Owen, A. Pitcairn, and other eminent divines, worthy to be remembered in all ages. And to these great Doctors, we may very warrantably add Mr. JOHN BROWN, whose praise lives deservedly in the churches, and whose light did, for a considerable time, shine here in our low countries, when through the iniquities of the times, he was, because of his zeal, piety, faithfulness, and good conscience, obliged to leave his native land." A. A.

Stray Arrows. By the Rev. THEO. LEDYARD CUYLER. R. Carter & Brothers, New

York, 1851.

To shoot well is a great thing in Literature. Many writers who have good aims fail in execution; they do not hit the mark. Not so the author of Stray Arrows. He aims at useful popular impression, and sends his arrows into the centre of the target. There are no more promising writers of his class than T. L. C. He understands the masses. His style, polished like the glittering steel, is effective, well wrought, and admirably adapted to carry along his swift and arrowy thoughts. There are occasional redundancies in his ornate Saxon, but something must be yielded to literary peculiarities. Some critics would be severe on this style, when their own improvements would strip it of its power. Mr. Cuyler has a gift at popular writing, which the public will encourage him to cultivate. The archery of the young Cayuga Chief is hard to beat. May his bow abide in strength!

Lays of the Kirk and Covenant. By Mrs. A. STEWART MONTEATH. R. Carter & Brothers, New York, 1851.

A series of poetical sketches of interesting incidents in Scottish Church History. We make far too little of the glorious historical scenes of our Church. The chief value of these Lays is in their subjects of Kirk and Covenant. The book is handsomely embellished. It has been highly praised by the Scotch critics. It contains some gems.

Memoir of the Rev. Henry W. Fox, Missionary in India. R. Carter & Brothers, New York, 1851.

The biography of a missionary is a great evangelical treasure. Mr. Fox was a missionary of the Church of England, and the field of his labours was among the Teloogoos, a people numbering about ten millions, and residing in the southern part of Hindoostan, a little north of Madras. Bishop McIlvaine has written an interesting preface to the work. It seems that at one time, Mr. Fox, whilst a student at Oxford, came near being poisoned by Puseyism, which he calls, in one of his letters, "that godliness-hating system of tractarianism, which cannot abide any thing that is spiritual." Bishop McIlvaine adds: "He hits the point exactly. Just where that system is most pretending, its grand defect appears. It is eminently unspiritual and anti-spiritual, confounding the sentimentalism of symbolic rites, and the morbid imagination that takes pleasure in a dramatic worship and in imposing ceremonials, with the spirituality of mind that lives unto Christ in the humility of a true repentance, in the faith that simply rests in his promises, and the love that delights in his commandBishop McIlvaine has done well in recommending this volume to the American public. It is a plain, unpretending Memoir of a devoted Missionary. Lectures on the Lord's Prayer. By WILLIAM R. WILLIAMS. Gould & Lincoln,. Boston, 1851. Daniels & Smith, Philadelphia..

Mr. Williams is a distinguished Baptist minister in New York, whose preaching is popular with all evangelical denominations. His writings bear the stamp of a vigorous and cultivated mind. His treatise on the Lord's Prayer will do good after the hand that penned it mingles with the We give a random specimen of the book from the chapter on "Give

us this day our daily bread."

"All the petitions which precede, and which compose the earlier half of the Lord's Prayer, respect the end for which man lives;-the glory, dominion, and service of his Creator. The later petitions, of which that before us is the opening one, and together making the latter half of the prayer, have reference to the means by which we live; the body by means of God's supplies of food; the soul by means of the pardon for sin, by the victory over temptation, and by the escape from evil in all its forms and all its degrees, which we implore and which God bestows.

Of the two portions into which the whole prayer thus resolves itself, the first half, beginning with the Father's throne in Heaven, comes down, by the steps of its several petitions, to man, as the servant of his Father on the earth. 'Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven.' The second portion commences with man and his lower and corporeal needs on earth, and climbs upward on its returning way to the skies, through supplications that respect, first, man's bodily, and then his spiritual wants, and implore his deliverance from all present and eternal evil. The Prayer becomes thus like an endless chain in our wells. Beginning in Heaven and reaching Earth, and then returning to Heaven again, it is seen binding together the throne and the footstool-God the sovereign and man the dependant. But, in the well, the reservoir is below. In the government of God the reservoir is above. It is the upper deep of God's mercy and grace in Jesus Christ."

A Sermon on the Death of Mrs. Mary C. Brackett. By the Rev. J. L. KIRKPATRICK, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Gainsville, Ala. St. Louis, 1851.

An affectionate testimony from a pastor to the worth of an eminent and devoted Christian lady. Such sermons are of great value in the Church. They serve to perpetuate precious memories, to illustrate Christian expe

rience, to strengthen the communion of saints, and to exalt Christ as the Redeemer. Our space allows us to copy only what exemplifies one of the Christian graces of this handmaid of the Lord. Mr. Kirkpatrick says: "None who took knowledge of her could doubt that much of the time she passed in retirement was spent in immediate converse with God. It appears that she had adopted it as an invariable rule to recall every night the several persons with whom, during the day, she had had any intercourse, however casual. The following reference to this custom, exhibits her reasons for itreasons which must commend themselves to every Christian heart:

"This habit promotes love-true benevolence toward our fellow-creatures. By praying for obscure persons, or those in whom we have no special interest, who are not allied to us by the ties of kindred or friendship, we greatly increase our love for all as the creatures of God, and as fellow-sufferers in a world of sin. We love them because our Father is also their Father, and our Saviour their Saviour. We desire for them the same hopes that we ourselves enjoy. Thus the habit greatly increases our love for mankind, and aids us in offering the petition that our Lord has commanded, "Thy kingdom come.' By thus remembering those with whom we have had intercourse, our friends and acquaintances, our love for them is much promoted, and the little asperities or animosities banished, and light is thrown upon our own feelings toward others. If there is anything in our bosoms contrary to the spirit of Christian love, this habit will reveal it. We shall know ourselves. By thus praying for even members of our family, all that is wrong, contrary to Christian courtesy, all that has been unprofitable in our intercourse, will be brought before the mind, and we shall become better wives, mothers, sisters, mistresses. This is especially needed in regard to servants."

The Royal Preacher, or Lectures on Ecclesiastes. By JAMES HAMILTON, D. D., F.L.S. R. Carter & Brothers, New York, 1851.

The great mind of Hamilton has produced a fine work in a series of Lectures on Ecclesiastes. His theory of exposition is briefly this: “In other words, you find that it was a long experiment, which the narrator made in search of the Supreme Felicity, and of which Ecclesiastes records the successive stages. But how does it record them? By virtually repeating them. In the exercise of his poetic power the historian conveys himself and his reader back into those days of vanity, and feels anew all that he felt then: so that, in the course of his rapid monologue, he stands before us, by turns the man of science and the man of pleasure, the fatalist, the materialist, the skeptic, the epicurean, and the stoic, with a few earnest and enlightened interludes; till, in the conclusion of the whole matter, he sloughs the last of all these lying vanities,' and emerges to our view, the noblest style of man, the believer and the penitent." The "Royal Gems," on the last three pages of this number of our Magazine, are from this work by Dr. Hamilton.

The Popular Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature, condensed, &c. By JOHN KITTO, D. D. Illustrated by numerous Engravings. Boston, Gould & Lincoln, 1851.

A large, elegant, well-stored volume, being quite a respectable library in itself. It is condensed from Dr. Kitto's original work, which was in two volumes, and is issued through the editorial labours of Dr. James Taylor of Glasgow, a minister of the United Presbyterian Church. Although every article may not be exactly what some would prefer, there is no doubt that the work, taken as a whole, is scholar-like, profound and reliable. It may be obtained in this city at the famous book store of Messrs. Daniels & Smith, No. 36 North Sixth Street.

Che Religious World.

CONGREGATIONALISM IN NEW YORK.-The General Association of New York comprises 11 District Associations, 150 churches, 21,000 members, and 100 ministers. Is it asked why they are not more numerous in so large a State? The answer is fourfold: 1. Emigration is continually draining us. 2. Some Congregational churches are independent, disconnected with any general body. 3. The statistics of some hundred of the Congregational churches are returned to the New School General Assembly. 4. Some hundreds, once Congregational churches, have changed the form of their organization, and become Presbyterian-a consequence of the old "Plan of Union," which has been to Congregationalists a plan of absorption. The past year has been one of revivals; to 113 of their churches 716 have been added. Their net gain has been 360; their contributions $10,000.-New York Tribune.

THE STOCKBRIDGE INDIANS.-The Stockbridge Indians are about purchasing two townships of land in Minnesota, on which to locate. For twenty-five years these Indians have resided at Green Bay. They number about 300, and are the descendants of an ancient tribe of that name, often mentioned in the history of the early settlement of Massachusetts.

QUAKER MISSIONARIES TO AFRICA.-There was, a few days ago, a large assemblage of persons at New Bedford, on the occasion of the departure of Eli and Lybel Jones, Quakers, who were destined to Liberia, where they purpose to spend some time as elders or preachers. They are represented to be the first of their sect in this country who have visited Africa on a similar errand. They are sent out by the Society of "Friends," and bear with them letters of introduction to President Roberts from the Hon. Henry Clay, Bishop Waugh, and a number of other distinguished advocates of the African colonization cause.

DATE OF MISSIONS TO AFRICA.-This year completes a century since the first English missionary was sent to Western Africa. It was Rev. Andrew Thompson, and previous to his going to Cape Coast Castle he had laboured five years for the conversion of the Indians in New Jersey. A native who was sent by him to England for his education was his successor, and maintained a school for the education of his countrymen.

IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.-The General Assembly, which lately met at Belfast, exhibited some of the most tumultuous scenes probably ever witnessed in a religious body. In reading the details of the debates in the Belfast papers, we could not resist the impression that the leading speakers incurred great responsibility for their personalities. The chief subject ot controversy was the Magee College; and we copy the best notice we can find, giving some account of this institution.

THE MAGEE COLLEGE.

When Mrs. Magee bequeathed £20,000 for a Presbyterian College, she appointed Trustees to carry it into effect, under the control and direction of the VOL. I.-No. 9.

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