true method of educing and presenting them. Selecting only the Parables of Jesus, Mr. Huntington has endeavored, by means of questions and answers, to unfold and apply the practical doctrines which they illustrate and enforce, so as to bring them home with simplicity and distinctness to the mind and heart of children, and thus to "bring their sacred influence into the familiar sphere where the scholars are daily living, into their homes, their employments and their pleasures." The questions are generally pointed and clear, the answers succinct and forcible. The volume as a whole shows much more thought than any collection of Questions on the Bible with which we are acquainted, and is calculated to excite thought in the minds of those who use it. It does not treat of the "external matters of Geography, History, etc."—which we presume the author does not intend to undervalue, but deals rather with "the great points of spiritual doctrine," which he justly thinks "children are capable of grasping."

Of the plan and merits of Mr. Cartee's work we have already spoken with approbation in noticing the first number. "Number two comprises questions and hints on those parts of Luke and John which were not fully treated in the volume on Matthew, and thus completes the series of questions on the Evangelists.

R.

Memoir of Henry Augustus Ingalls. By Rev. GEORGE W. BURNAP, Pastor of the First Independent Church of Baltimore. With Selections from his Writings. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1846. 12mo. pp. 210.

A LAD, ten years old, leaves his native town on the banks of the Merrimac, and finds a home in the city of New York. After some time spent at school, he becomes a clerk in a dry goods shop, and then in an Insurance Office. While engaged in this vocation, he is arrested by disease; and having in vain sought relief in a Southern climate, he dies before he has reached the age of twenty-one. So much-hardly more of what the world calls incident, marked the passage of Henry Augustus Ingalls from the cradle to the grave. And yet here is a volume, containing "Selections from his Writings," which fill one hundred and thirty-three pages, and a "Memoir" occupying half as many, in which several professional gentlemen of distinction and others testify to the remarkable purity, elevation, and influence of his character. How he so early attained to such intellectual and moral excellence, amidst the pressure of secular business, without either extraordinary natural abilities or adventitious circumstances unusually favorable, and how he so conducted himself as, while living, to win love and confidence

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wherever he was known, and, when dead, not only to be cherished most affectionately and respectfully in the recollections of his equals in age and associates in pursuit, but also to be commemorated in print by such men as Rev. Mr. Clapp of Savannah, Rev. Mr. Burnap of Baltimore, Drs. Dewey and Fitch of New York, our young readers, we hope, will seek an opportunity to learn from the book itself. They cannot fail to find the lessons it teaches, both interesting and useful to them. We particularly advise those to peruse it, who deem maturity of years and propitious events essential to success in the formation of character, or imagine that high attainments of a moral and religious kind in early life and amidst common avocations are sure to pass unhonored, if not unobserved.

B.

Scripture Proofs and Scriptural Illustrations of Unitarianism. By JOHN WILSON. Third Edition, revised and enlarged. London: Chapman, Brothers. 1846. 8vo. pp. 346.

THIS book carries the evidence of much patient industry on the part of the author. Mr. Wilson likewise displays great skill in the arrangement of his materials. In the edition before us he has made a change in the form of the Second Part, which may have been required by the additional matter he wished to introduce, but the method adopted does not seem to us any simpler, or more convenient, than the tabular form used in the previous editions. Indeed we should have preferred the original plan of having the "illustrative texts" set down in a parallel column with the passages they were designed to illustrate.

Every text connected with the Trinitarian controversy, on both sides of the question, is noticed in this volume. The book is divided into two Parts. The first of these contains "the Scripture Evidence for Unitarianism;" the second, "the alleged Scripture Evidence for Trinitarianism." In the First Part, besides quoting the texts as they appear in the authorised version, Mr. Wilson furnishes us, in many cases, with a variety of renderings by scholars of acknowledged eminence; and throughout the whole he presents us with a series of forcible and pertinent remarks of his own. In the Second Part he not only cites the controverted texts in full, but also gives "illustrative texts" to throw light on the meaning of the prominent terms which appear in them. He likewise introduces lengthened quotations from various theological writers, both Trinitarian and Unitarian; the whole accompanied, as in the former Part, with judicious observations from his own pen. At the close of the volume he gives a condensed view of the state of the controversy. He presents us with the "Summary of Evidence for Unitarianism,"

and the "Deficiency of Evidence for Trinitarianism" in parallel columns, with references to the pages of the work itself. This arrangement, with the index of texts given also at the close, enables the reader to reach the precise point he wishes without any trouble. We regard the book as a very valuable one. The present edition contains many useful and important improvements. It is a manual which would be found exceedingly useful by every individual who is desirous to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the Trinitarian controversy. We understand that the work is for sale in Boston.

C.

A Journal of the Life, Gospel Labors, and Christian Experiences of that faithful Minister of Jesus Christ, John Woolman, late of Mount-Holly, in the Province of New Jersey, North America. To which are added his last Epistle, and other Writings. New York. 1845. 12mo. pp. 309.

WE We shall say nothing of the "Christian Experiences" of John Woolman which, with his travels and a general account of his life, are embodied in a "Journal" comprising about half the present volume. He was a minister of the Society of Friends or Quakers. Born in New Jersey in 1720, he died while on a visit to England in 1772. He was a devout and good man; but the feature in his life and character, which possesses special interest at the present day, is the deep concern he manifested for his fellow-beings holden in slavery, and the efforts he made for their release at a period when much less sensibility was felt on the subject than now. These efforts did not consist in loud or fierce denunciation, but in the spirit of Christian love he visited those "who had slaves," calmly talking and reasoning with them, appealing to their consciences and endeavoring to make them feel, that to hold a fellow-being in bondage was unjust and unchristian. These visits commenced as early as about the middle of the last century. Before this time he began to write on the subject, and showed the manuscript to his friends. The second half of the volume contains his writings, among which are "Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes, recommended to the Professors of Christianity of every Denomination," in two parts, the first printed, for the first time, in 1754, the second in 1762, both making about forty pages. They are loosely written, without any pretension to grace or elegance, yet we have never seen any writings on the subject more completely pervaded, we may say saturated, with the Christian spirit-the spirit of gentleness and love. In this respect they are a model which, we wish, was oftener imitated. The present volume appears to have been prepared in England, and is, we suppose a reprint, though it does not profess to be such.

L.

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Forecastle Tom; or the Landsman turned Sailor. By MARY S. B. DANA, Author of "The Northern and Southern Harps," "The Young Sailor," etc., etc. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1846, 12mo. pp. 216.

THOUGH Mrs. Dana has published several works of merit both in poetry and prose, yet most of our readers probably owe their acquaintance with her fine powers as a writer, as well as with her deeply affecting history, to the remarkable book entitled "Letters addressed to Relatives and Friends, chiefly in reply to Arguments in support of the Trinity," which we had the pleasure of noticing last November. The volume now before us, we have been informed, was composed and put into the publishers' hands before the change in the author's views, recorded in the "Letters," had taken place; which will account for the appearance in its pages of some expressions of a theological import, that she would not, with her present more accurate faith, be inclined to use. Excepting what this remark implieswhich after all does not amount to much- we commend this interesting story as one that seems to us exceedingly well suited to benefit a large class of young persons, especially those whose pursuits are chiefly on the ocean. The lessons it inculcates, respecting the evils that arise from disregard of parental discipline, the fearful consequences of strong passions uncontrolled by virtuous principle, the moral dangers to which sailors are exposed both at sea and on land, and the power of the Christian religion when administered in love to reclaim the vicious, are all true and pertinent; and they are often enforced by the most apt and pathetic illustrations. Readers who find it easy to sin, but hard to repent, are particularly referred to the concluding part of the narrative, where the scene is shifted from the depressing consciousness of guilt to the happy feelings of a reformed heart. B.

Thoughts of Blaise Pascal. Translated from the French. Preceded by a Sketch of his Life. Andover: Allen, Morrill & Wardwell. 1846. 12mo. pp. 384.

THIS edition claims to be the only one which contains a translation of the whole of Pascal's published thoughts. It is a work which, notwithstanding its fragmentary character, can never lose its value. Every page bears the marks of the author's very remarkable mind. This volume contains the first rude sketches of a work in defence of the truth of Christianity. There is something sublime in the plan which he seems to have formed. It is no mere dry process of logic, but the argument throughout is alive with feeling. The foundation-stones on

which he builds the fabric, are, the greatness of which man is capable, and the extremity of his actual misery. These facts, which he himself felt so intensely as almost to be brought to the borders of insanity, made, in his view, a religion like Christianity absolutely essential, in order that man might know any peace or hope.

But with all his great powers, the views of Pascal need to be received with many qualifications. He is one of that class of writers, of which St. Augustine is a remarkable example, whose thoughts are suggested by their emotions. They are invaluable in their place most fruitful in profitable suggestions, and most untrustworthy as guides.

P.

The Missionary Enterprise: A Collection of Discourses on Christian Missions, by American Authors. Edited by BARON STOW, Pastor of Baldwin Place Church, Boston. Boston: Gould, Kendall & Lincoln. 1846. 12mo. pp. 308.

Two facts surprise us in reading collections of Missionary Sermons. The first is, the very small amount of information we derive from them as a whole on the subject of the statistics and success of missions, the religious views and character of the people to whom missionaries have been sent, and the changes wrought in their moral and social condition by the introduction of Christianity among them. The other is, the great coolness preserved by the speakers, by many of them at least, while professing to believe that, but for missionary efforts, some hundreds of millions of their fellow beings now in existence, and countless multitudes more who are to follow them, will in a few years go down to endless torment. These characteristics do not mark all missionary sermons, not all those contained in the present volume. They should not mark any. How men can get up at the meetings of these Boards for Foreign Missions, and enter on a dry, scholastic, or metaphysical discussion on the Trinity or some other theological point, and send their hearers away without having received one particle of light on any subject connected with missions and their object, or heard one soul-stirring word, exceeds our power of comprehension. We do not mean to condemn the volume before us. It contains some excellent discourses, some very indifferent ones, and some positively bad; some free from the taint of sectarianism, others not; some rational, others exhibiting specimens of the worst theology of the dark ages. Still the volume will to many, no doubt, prove acceptable as well for its theology as its other characteristics.

L.