NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Our thanks are due to "W. X. Y." for his communication on the Study of Hebrew, which shall appear at a future opportunity.

We have to acknowledge the receipt of a packet, apparently full of discussion the subject of Bishop Luscombe's Mission; also from St. Andrew's, as well as the Letter, which we have already inserted, p. 166; but it reached us too late to admit of any examination into its contents at present.

"A. M's." notice of the calumnies of the Edinburgh Review, will be inserted in our next Number.

The Article on the Burial of Unbaptized Persons, is reserved for further consideration.

CHRISTIAN

REMEMBRANCER.

APRIL, 1826.

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

I. The Christian Sabbath: or an Inquiry into the religious Obligation of keeping holy one Day in seven. By the Rev. G. HOLDEN, A. M. Rivingtons. 8vo. pp. 515. 1825.

II. Ingenuous Scruples, chiefly relating to the Observance of the Sabbath, &c. By ALICIA CATHERINE MANT. Holloway. 12mo. pp. 158. 1824.

III. Remarks on the different Sentiments relative to the Weekly Sabbath. By ROBERT BURNSIDE, A. M. Seely. 12mo. pp. 354. 1825. WE have of late been so unfortunate as to fall under the censure of some of our correspondents in a more than ordinary degree. We need only refer our readers to one or two passages in our recent numbers; where, to shew our laudable candour and impartiality, we have admitted into our pages sundry reflexions made upon our own articles: and even, in some instances, with due forbearance and humility, have entered upon our vindication. One point on which we have received some suggestions, is that which we touched upon in the course of our review of Mr. Lloyd's book on "Preaching Christ;" (Number for Oct. 1825, Vol. VII. p. 634) viz. the question as to the Divine obligation of the Sabbath. To this subject we probably should not have recurred, but that it has been taken up by the authors of the works just named; and thus, having our attention called to it, we may as well take the opportunity, before entering upon our immediate business, of doing away any misconception which may have arisen respecting our former

remarks.

What was there said was wholly confined to criticising the validity of certain particular arguments urged by Mr. Lloyd, and did not at all concern the practical duty which those arguments were brought to support. We did, in fact, clearly avow our agreement with Mr. L. as to the good practical tendency of his discussion; and on that ground expressed our reluctance to find fault with his mode of reasoning;-nay, the very motive which led to our critique, was our earnest anxiety that so important a point of religion should be firmly supported and defended on a solid basis, without being in any degree made to depend on arguments of a doubtful character.

It is on precisely the same principle that we come to the examination of the works now before us. With respect to the practical tendency of the different views which may be taken of the authority of the Sabbath, we shall say very little ;-it is not with any reference to such considerations that we are about to discuss the question. All those who have written on the subject, whatever ground of argument they have taken, have agreed very nearly in their practical inferences. There is, then, on this part of the subject, no occasion for further discussion. We are content to leave it to the consideration and consciences of our readers, as urged upon them in the simple and unpretending language of Miss Mant, and in the more laboured exhortations of Mr. Holden. Miss Mant's little volume exhibits a series of letters from a father to his daughter, in which a fervent spirit of piety shines not less conspicuously, than a sober and temperate judgment. The young lady is supposed to be on a visit in London, and surrounded with all the incitements to fashionable dissipation and neglect of religious duties: and it is with the object of fortifying his daughter's mind against the influence of evil example, and those trifling excuses which fashion continually suggests for the neglect of religious observances, that the supposed father addresses his admonitions respecting the duties of the Christian Sabbath. Throughout the whole there runs so just a tone of sentiment, so forcible yet simple a style of expression, that, whatever difference of opinion our readers may entertain as to the precise ground on which the obligation to observe the Sabbath is founded, we conceive they can have but one opinion as to the admirable practical tendency of the authoress's devout admonitions and expostulations on the subject. We will present one specimen :

"Among the sources of evil whence has arisen the lamentable yet prevalent relaxation of Sabbatical duties, it would be difficult to rest upon one more steeped in insidious mischief than the contamination of French manners, and familiarity with French habits and customs. While this mania of imitativeness confines itself to taste in dress and fastidiousness in appetite, ridiculous and contemptible as they must appear in the eye of English good sense and honest sentiment, we would nevertheless let them pass as trifles in the scale of moral conduct, and consider them rather, as the capricious weaknesses of folly, than the downward tendencies of corrupt humanity. The case, however, is different when their influence operates in undermining some of our earliest and best attachments; when they are evident in the lightness with which the most serious subjects become gradually to be treated, and when they so far obscure the judgment, as to leave it at the mercy of every new fancy or whimsical inclination which may present themselves in defiance of steady religious principle. I cannot imagine that these effects are to be produced directly or instantaneously; I will not believe that a sense of indifference on the most momentous concerns of our existence can have so far gained its ascen

dancy in the mind, as to prevent the natural disgust which a first introduction to the habits of the Continent must awaken in the breast of an Englishman.-I will not believe but that during the first Sunday spent on the opposite side of the Channel by any man, not entirely vitiated and lost even to the very outward appearances of devotion, an uncomfortable feeling of doubt will arise in his breast as to the appropriation of the Sabbatical rest he there witnesses. He cannot at once forget impressions, to which from his infancy he has been accustomed at home; he must hesitate before he can prevail with himself to fall into the customs before him; and on finally adopting them, some misgivings will still linger in his bosom as to their innocence and propriety." P. 56.

Our present concern, as we before said, is with the theological question,---on what authority is the Sabbath to be observed? This part of the subject is very little alluded to by Miss Mant, such discussion being evidently out of the purpose of her work. She takes for granted the positive obligation, as a branch of our duty towards God, instead of giving any proof of it. Mr. Holden, after an excellent introductory chapter on the practical and political advantages derivable from the observance of the Sabbath (in which we conceive every reader will fully agree with him), enters on a detailed examination of the question, as to the precise authority on which the obligation is built. And it is to a question nearly allied to this that Mr. Burnside has directed his attention. If then we

dismiss, without further remark, the practical part of the works before us, it must not be supposed that, in so doing, we are disposed to undervalue the merits and importance of such exhortations; but merely, that as the other part of the subject is one of considerable extent, we are anxious to devote as much of our paper as possible to the examination of it.

It appears to us, that in this (as in most other subjects of discussion), one most fruitful source of disagreement is the neglect of definition of terms. In order, therefore, to put the matter in as clear a light as possible, we will commence by defining one or two terms which are much employed in all arguments on the subject before us; and by a close attention to which, we conceive, our readers may derive the greatest elucidation of the point in dispute.

1

We use the term "observance of a Sabbath," to signify the entire dedication, or setting apart, of a seventh portion of time, to the undivided purposes of religious service, with the sole exception of works of necessity.

By the term "moral commandments," we mean all such precepts of Scripture as are necessarily implied in, or may be conclusively deduced from, the great commandments, to love God and our neighbour.

By the term "positive Divine institution," we mean a precept