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Psara and Hydra, that in search of it they ransacked the whole surrounding coast of that sea. With dollars in their hands, every creek was explored; and a few quarters gleaned from each valley soon completed a cargo. The exportation of corn is prohibited throughout the Turkish dominions, under penalty of confiscation and slavery; but this extreme severity only serves to give fresh activity to the traffic: for, the aghas, being exorbitantly paid for their connivance, have a direct interest in promoting it; and no agha in the empire is proof against self-interest. In populous countries, and in poor soils, it may be a slow and difficult process, to push the sudden culture of corn beyond its accustomed limits, or to divert the necessary capital from other pursuits; but in the rich and thinly inhabited valleys of these countries, a single year is sufficient to produce exertions, which the stimulus of a free trade is alone wanting to perpetuate. The great plain of Adalia had begun to feel the effects of this impulse; and even from distant parts of the interior, camels, horses, and asses, were daily bringing in their separate ventures, to load the Greek vessels which lay in the port." (P. 124-126).

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We cannot take our leave of Capt. Beaufort, without again calling the reader's attention to the tone of unpretending good sense which marks every page of his narrative. He is compelled to enter on a variety of subjects wholly foreign to his professional pursuits; but he has managed his discussions with the best possible taste; he is alike free from the pedantic displays of scholarship, and the crudities of wondering ignorance.

ART. IV.-Christian Essays. By the Rev. Samuel Charles Wilks, A. M. of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford. 2 vols. 8vo. 589. Baldwin and Co. London, 1817.

THESE

pp.

HESE Essays are upon the following subjects: Sources of Error in Opinion; Full Assurance of Understanding; Full Assurance of Faith; Full Assurance of Hope; Christian Obedience; The Form and the Power of Religion; True and False Repose in Death; False Modesty in Religion; The Duty of Christian Affection between Ministers and their Flock; Comparative View of Natural and Revealed Religion. They are dedicated to Mrs. Hannah More; and it may be said of them, without saying more than they deserve, that they are a very proper Sequel to the "Practical Piety," and "Christian Morals of that truly Christian lady; and to those who are the possessors and admirers of her delightful Lessons, we can boldly recommend these volumes of Essays.

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Christ has said that "his yoke is easy, and his burthen is light." But this passage of blessed import is only rightly understood, when it is understood to imply that "the yoke" and

"the burthen" are easy and light, not in the first putting on, but in the wearing; for experience and Scripture declare that breaking with the world and renouncing its vanities is a sufficiently hard task, and demands more than unassisted courage can perform, more even than the unprompted will can undertake. Not to lower the, magnitude of this undertaking, but to help to demonstrate the signs of success in it, and more especially to show "how easy" and "how light" the true Christian profession is to those who have been brought within the operative influence of its injunctions and promises, is the object of Mr. Wilks.

That the first studies in Christian knowledge should be attended with difficulty; that the renunciation of wrong habits and false impressions, the submission to a new and countervailing discipline, the substitution of constraining realities in the place of loose imaginations and visionary trusts, should demand sacrifices difficult and austere in the commencement and outset, is quite in analogy with all the rest of that dispensation under which we are placed; and so far are these primary obstacles from being any hardship, or a subject of repining in other studies and attainments, that it is in this "amicable conflict with difficulty," as a great man has expressed it,*. that our strength is effectively called forth, and final success promoted and secured. In the same manner, it is the incipient difficulties of the Christian's career which provokes and invigorates exertion, ennobles the object, and ascertains the reality of the accomplishment. To avoid these difficulties, there is no case in which man resorts to so many evasive shifts and devices. There is no acquirement in which what is spurious is so apt to be received for what is genuine; there is no task or undertaking in which so many "tricking short cuts and little fallacious facilities," to use again the phrase of the same great man, are practised with more certain disappointment and loss.

It is to expose the fallacy of all subterfuges, and the true nature and extent of the surrender which the Gospel requires, as well as its vast overbalancing compensations when once the altitude is gained ;-to show how trying is the storm, and yet how easy and how safe the vessel rides when it has found and entered the proper harbour, and the only stationary anchorage, that Mr. Wilks has given to the public this valuable result of his sound and pious meditations.

The heart of man is so fertile in practices of self-imposition, that he who pursues its windings, and traces its multiplied expedients of error-he who lays open the diversified system of human sophistry by which holiness and worldliness are sought to be re

* Burke's Reflections.

conciled, enters upon a theme which affords exhaustless oppor tunities of novelty, as well in the detection of artifice, as in the specification of danger. The actual condition of society is in perpetual flux, and the tastes and habits of mankind are for ever varying the forms of depravity, and putting the soul into new perils. To pursue these ephemeral and fugitive shapes of practical error, which have all a uniform and constant tendency to disparage the Gospel, by straining it into conformity with human maxims, is a service of never-ceasing exigency. Mr. Wilks has performed this service with great fidelity and power. He well understands his business, and his work has eminently that character of artless vehemence, of energetic simplicity, and natural strength, which mark the procedure of a man conversant with truth, and honest in its defence.

But if this writer has successfully defined the difficulties to be overcome, which arise from errors of education, and the practical mis-understanding of the Gospel, he has in a no less correct manner developed the characteristics of religious improvement, as it proceeds through its several stages of faith, hope, and Christian obedience. Perhaps the best mode of doing justice to the work will be to let it speak for itself. . The view which it takes of the nature and efficacy of faith may be in some measure collected from the following specimen.

"Both Saint Peter and Saint Paul, in speaking of the all-sufficiency of faith, guard their doctrine from abuse by alluding to one or more of its essential properties, in order that their converts might not boast of an inefficient creed, while their hearts and conduct were unrenewed. Faith that purifieth the heart and worketh by love, could not easily be supposed to mean a mere barren assent to the truth of Christianity.

"Among the characteristic properties of faith, there is no one more remarkable than that mentioned by Saint John, and to which allusion has been already made, namely, that it overcometh the world.' It is evident from universal experience, that no other principle can produce this effect. Faith, however, performs it by a mode of operation peculiar to itself; by presenting to the view things that are invisible, and showing their great superiority to the vanities of time and sense. The reason why men prefer this world to that which is to come, is not that their judgment is convinced, but that their passions are allured. Heaven is allowedly the greater object, but it is distant and invisible; whereas the world is ever at hand with its fascinations. It assumes every shape, addresses itself to every passion, obtrudes into every recess. We are never free from its influence. Whatever we see around us is the world, and if we look into our own hearts, the world and worldliness are triumphant there. The voluptuous man worships it in the shape of pleasure; the covetous, of gold; the ambitious, of honour; the retired, of ease, It dwells in cities; but, not confined to these, it seeks the lonely retreat, it enters the temple of the Al,

mighty, it intrudes into the closet of the most heavenly-minded Christian. Persons the most unlike in every other respect are here equally enslaved. The profligate and the moralist, the infidel and the ostentatious devotee, are under its influence. Business and pleasure, pride and pretended humility, sensual and intellectual enjoyments, all partake more or less of the world.

"An object thus prepossessing, and thus obtrusive, must of necessity influence our minds, unless something more important be introduced. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' It brings heaven nigh. It antedates eternity. It prevents the unhallowed intrusion of the world by pre-occupying its place, and presenting to the mind objects infinitely more important, and which are overlooked only because they are remote and spiritual. Upon every earthly scene it inscribes, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity;' while it invests every thing relating to a future world with inconceivable importance. Men in general view heaven as a dream and earth as a reality, and their conduct corresponds to their perceptions; but faith reverses the scene, and thus it overcometh the world.' It presents motives to duty more forcible than the highest temporal considerations, whilst it assures us of that divine encouragement and support which alone can enable us to surmount every impediment. This is a double influence, and is not easily counteracted." (Vol. i. p. 99-101.) The genuine marks of Christian obedience are accurately delineated in the chapter on that subject. The following may serve as a specimen.

"It is to the motive that we must chiefly look for the immense difference between the moralist and the Christian, the Pharisee and the genuine disciple. The good works of the one spring from a principle of gratitude and affection; those of the other from habit, or expediency, or fear, or at best from an arrogant expectation of purchasing Heaven by the performance. The one is an obedient child, the other an unwilling slave.

"If, however, an earthly parent would not be satisfied with an obedience wholly unprompted by affection, why should we offer the same insult to our Father which is in Heaven? No person who loves any object better than his Creator can be said to be truly obedient. God requires our supreme and unrivalled affections; which being once engaged, our conduct will necessarily become holy and acceptable in his eyes.

"To render obedience complete, it must be constant and unremitted. There are no excepted moments in which a rival is allowed. Amidst the fatigues and the anxieties of life, our spirit must be uniformly Christian. Religion, though not always in our thoughts, must be so interwoven with the first springs of action, as to be always conspicuous in our conduct. Surrounded with the worshippers of the world, we must never bow our knee to their enchanting idol. The apostle exhorts us in the very same verse both to be diligent in busi ness, and fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;' so that the importance of our callings in life is by no means an excuse for our neglect of eter

nal concerns. God is far from accepting that aguish piety which works itself up into a warm fit of devotion every seventh day, and then contentedly shivers and freezes the other six. Our devotion should be the regular glow of a soul in spiritual health, and not the alternate frost and fever of mere sentimental Christianity. A few tears shed in passion-week will not evince our love for the Ředeemer, if we are deliberately crucifying him afresh, and putting him to an open shame' during the remainder of the year. Unusually solemn occasions, it is true, call for unusually solemn acts; but the general impression should remain long after the individual act has ceased. The Gospel being intended for all ages, and climates, and conditions in life, was made of such a nature that its energy might be unintermitted in every possible variety of circumstance. Had it simply consisted of a stated routine of ceremonies, its operation must frequently have been suspended, or even rendered wholly impracticable; but what season or circumstance is there which can prevent the obedience of the heart? In business and at leisure, at home and abroad, in prosperity and adversity, in sickness and in health, the habitual desire to obey God will find means to operate in acts appropriate to the occasion. There is no moment in which there is not some temptation to be avoided, none in which there is not some duty to be performed." (Vol. i. p. 169—172.)

In the chapter on the form and the power of religion, among many striking observations, striking by their cogent verity and correctness of delineation rather than by any studied modes of expression, we meet with the following forcible recommendationof the exercise of silent self-scrutiny.

“To the attainment of this end, among many other means, self-examination will be constantly practised; a duty which cannot possibly be omitted where the power of religion really exists. There will be an abiding wish to know our real state and character; we shall not shrink from the light, but, on the contrary, shall dread nothing so much as false security and self-deception. Every wish and feeling of the soul, every word which proceeds from the lip, every actior of the life, will furnish a person thus rightly disposed with abundant matter for self-examination. Even when we are least conscious of it, we shall find, upon reflection, that if our hearts are really in a right state, we habitually and almost insensibly refer our thoughts, and words, and actions, to the standard of truth, and that we learn to view every thing immediately in its connexion with God and with eternity. It is not in our more sober moments only that we shall practise these duties, for we shall acquire a habit of constantly, and as it were naturally, investigating the nature of our conduct, and ascertaining what conclusion it suggests respecting our religious state. When sin presents itself before us we shall feel a struggle to overcome its fascinations, and the heart will be elevated towards the throne of grace for power to effect that holy purpose. The conquest thus divinely bestowed will be followed by a peaceful satisfaction; or, if we fall in the contest, there will ensue a salutary remorse, a godly contrition, very far above the merely natural remonstrances of conscience, teaching us that we have

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