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lax charity, or very incautious writing. By these virtuous 'lovers of frivolity,' we can suppose the Author intends persons not grossly immoral; though we think, even in that sense, it is an unadvised association of terms. But we can affix no meaning whatever, compatible with the Author's avowed sentiments, to the insinuation, that there may be, and are, some lovers of frivolity,' who are at the same time Christians, in the Apostolic sense of the word.

In the Essays of the first volume, the Author seems to address himself to the irreligious, labouring to attract their attention towards the great objects of futurity; to meet and remove the difficulties and objections most commonly urged by such persons in excuse for their neglect of religion as a personal concern; to recommend the ways of piety as ways of peace and pleasantness;-in a word, to offer a diffuse apology for personal religion. The Essays of the second volume are adapted to meet the difficulties, and varied feelings and circumstances of those who have actually commenced the Christian course.

We must, with few comments, present some specimens from this latter portion of the work; which perhaps, on account of the subjects of which it treats, may be to the majority of Mr. Burnside's readers, rather the more interesting of the two.

The forty-fourth Essay, on Presumption in Religion,' contains much just thinking and well-pointed animadversion.

There is nothing wonderful in the presumption with which piety is treated by the irreligious. Strangers to its nature, importance, and the difficulties attending it, they presume that it may be attained at any time, or that no great evil will arise, if it be never attained: and those of them who cannot go to the length of deferring it, much less of neglecting it altogether, yet presume that the form is the substance, especially when it is accompanied by a grave exterior: they therefore think that "their hearts are right in the sight of God," when they are all the while " in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity." However dangerous and lamentable these instances of temerity are, they are easily supposable. What appears extraordinary is, that any whose minds seem better informed on this grand, solemn, and difficult subject, should manifest, in its treatment, the most unbecoming inconsideration. They behave in the house of God, if not with rudeness, yet with as little ceremony as if they were in their own houses, at a time when neither the persons present, nor the occasion, required any particular self-recollection. They quote the Scriptures with as much levity, as they would a profane author who had discussed some trivial or ludicrous subject. They entertain no fears respecting the genuineness of their piety; and of course none relative to their "holding fast the beginning of their confidence, and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." The obstacles to be surmounted in the discharge of painful duties, or in rejecting "the pleasures of sin," as also their manifold failures, with the unhappy

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consequences of them, are topics which give them little or no con, cern.' Vol. II. pp. 243, 244.

The most free and endearing relations, therefore, subsisting between God and his worshippers, will not excuse the want of decorum on their part.

They are children, it is true; but they are children who were once rebellious, and who were reconciled to their much injured Father by means which ought to inspire them with the highest reverence for him, and with the deepest sense of their own guilt and unworthiness. The recollection of these facts should make them feel abashed in his presence, amid their most lawful freedoms, and their most rapturous joys. In the midst of that splendid entertainment which the father prepared on the return of the prodigal son, the marks of endeared affection which the latter received, and the ornaments of dress by which he was distinguished, could not make him forget his gross misconduct, or his late mean and wretched condition. The unexpected and overflowing goodness of the parent humbled while it comforted him; and amidst his joy, there were no doubt, at intervals, external manifestations of the shame and sorrow he felt within. No truly penitent believer in Christ can be an utter stranger to sensations of this kind in the worship and service of God, or can fail of testifying them by a suitable behaviour, even when favoured with the most cheering smiles of the divine countenance. Indeed, separate from the reason for humiliation just alluded to, the conduct of no Christian is so correct and becoming, even after reconciliation, as not to warrant selfdiffidence and self-abasement, when his communion with the Deity is the most intimate and delightful.' Vol. II. pp. 245, 246.

We would not lose the opportunity of placing the following remarks in the way of any whom they may concern,

Here it is scarcely possible not to advert to the flippant and ludicrous, if not mean and vulgar, phraseology introduced into discourse and writing, when the things of God are the subject, by some who sustain the religious character. To mention instances would degrade piety, and excite disgust: neither is it necessary, since they are so often the subject of painful reflection to the friends of godliness, as well as of good sense and propriety. The offenders are generally persons of a low turn, and of coarse manners; their natural parts, whatever they may be, have never been refined by education, reading, or conversation with their superiors in station; or if they act in opposition to their own judgment and taste, it is because they despair of recommending themselves to their readers or hearers, without this contemptible and criminal obsequiousness. Neither the worship of God, nor the pulpit itself, is entirely uninfected by this scandalous practice. The excuses alleged for it are that it causes the multitude to come together-that it engages the attention of the thoughtless, the volatile, and those of low degree-and that it is often blessed for the great purposes of conversion and edification. The fact, however, that good is not unfrequently brought out of evil, does not furnish a good reason for committing evil; neither is it certain that

the good produced in the present case, exceeds the evil occasioned through the blame attached to the holy ministry, by thus giving offence. There is nothing ludicrous or disgraceful in the discourses or writings of the inspired authors. This buffoonery in the illustrations and phrases made choice of, as well, perhaps, as in the looks, tone, gesture, and actions of the speaker, is the more lamentable, as the offender is not always tempted to it by the want of talent, and might possibly become as popular and serviceable by its proper use, as by its abuse. Though these strictures seem wholly to relate to ministers of the gospel, they implicate the people likewise; for if the practice complained of were not countenanced by the latter, it would not be continued, or even adopted, by the former.' Vol. II. pp. 247, 248.

We have already remarked in Mr. Burnside's manner some want of decision, explicitness, and courage, in dealing with the indefensible prejudices, inclinations, or practices with which he attempts to contend. But no instance of this kind has appeared to us more strange than that which occurs in the following passage.

I cannot but strongly recommend the study of Christian obligation to all who truly love the Lord Jesus Christ. Neither ministers nor people, perhaps, pay so much attention to this study as they ought to do. The former very properly think, that the first and principal duty of an evangelical minister, is to insist upon the principles of the oracles of Christ; since these are employed by the Holy Spirit as the chief occasions and instruments of sanctification. They are also the subjects which mankind stand in most need of being taught; and without them, duty will want both its proper basis, and its most powerful auxiliary. Some attention, too, ought to be paid to the prejudices of an audience, who generally prefer instruction, comfort, and entertainment, to reproof and admonition. Still I should imagine, that points of duty, irradiated and enlightened by the truths of the gospel, would not only be inoffensive, but acceptable and profitable to the people of God, were they discussed a little more frequently in the pulpit. At least, the practical improvement of doctrinal subjects ought to be less short and vague. But if these alterations in the public addresses of ministers would in some cases be peculiarly inconvenient and hazardous, or prove insufficient for the purpose, (as I suppose, indeed, they would upon trial, in some congregations,) perhaps the same difficulties would not present themselves at visits and in private interviews-especially those that take place for spiritual purposes. Here even the defects of practical preaching itself might possibly be supplied. Here a Christian pastor of adroitness and faithfulness might with good effect observe on passages of Scripture and moral topics that are too remote from the grand object of his function, too minute, too personal in their application, and of too rare occurrence, to be discussed more publicly: he might speak directly and pointedly to the circumstances of the family or of the individual, without the possibility of his meaning being either misunderstood or eluded. Of course he will recollect the importance of a good example to the

large town in the mountains of Liapuria, made a secret expedition by night against Tepeleni, and succeeded in carrying off both the mother and daughter, Ali being accidentally absent. The seizure of their persons could not, however, have been the primary object of the expedition, especially as undertaken by the inhabitants at large of a distant town, unless it was expected that they should obtain a high ransom. The atrocious treatment which these defenceless women are described as having met with at Gardiki, would not in that case have been ventured upon; nor is it credible that the leaders of the expedition, or the chiefs of the place, should have permitted so general a participation of their prize. Conduct such as Mr. Hughes mentions, bas scarcely a parallel in barbarian annals, and must, if it took place, have originated in some powerful motive,-in cool, refined malignity. Unexplained, it carries on the face of it the highest degree of improbability. After they had been detained prisoners more than a month, the indignant Ali, we are told, was just preparing to attempt their liberation, when a bey of Gardiki, at the hazard of his life, conducted their escape to Tepeleni.

This stain upon the honour of Ali's house was considered indelible but by blood. The authority of his mother, and the never-ceasing entreaties of his sister, who inherited all her mother's spirit, (and who, as the old governor of Tepeleni told us, had she been a man, would have fought with Ali inch by inch for his dominions,) were exerted to keep alive within his heart the flame of vengeance. The former on her death-bed conjured her son, never to stop till he had exterminated the guilty race; and the latter, in all her conversations with him, ended every speech by the expression that she never could know peace of mind, or die with satisfaction, till she had stuffed the couches of her apartment with the hair of the Gardikiote women. After a lapse of forty years the vengeance of these furies was executed to the full by Ali's stern decree-the guilty but unfortunate Gardiki is no more, and Shaïnitza's head reclines upon the raven tresses of its daughters.'

Forty years was rather a long term of impunity for this devoted town to enjoy. The authors of the outrage would, in the natural course of events, be all extinct, and the raven tresses of even their daughters have become tolerably grey, be fore Ali fulfilled his mother's dying injunction. There is nothing, however, so patient as revenge. It must have been no ordinary provocation, assuredly, that induced the Vizir, when he had attained the plenitude of his power, to inflict such sig nal vengeance on a town, the population of which was entirely Mahommedan. Ali's own generals discovered are luctance to execute his vindictive intentions, upon which he despatched a confidential officer, at the head of a large body of Greek and Albanian troops, with instructions to act promptly in combination with all the other Greeks in the army. They, he well

opposite direction,-when jolly good cheer, when plumes, gildings, and odours, are so much more in vogue among professors of religion, than leanness, vigils, and horse-hair shirts, a companion Essay on Self-Denial, might with particular propriety have entered into Mr. Burnside's comprehensive plan. We say, considering the actual state of manners, that this very important branch of Christian morality should not have been dismissed in a short and solitary sentence: At the same time, let us take heed that we do not fall into the more dangerous and common ' extreme of laxity in principles and manners.' If laxity in principles and manners be both a more dangerous and a more common extreme than superstitious severity, why is the subject thus slighted?

The last three Essays are judicious and interesting. We must now restrict ourselves to a single concluding quotation, and we are glad to take leave of our Author while he is indulging his happier and more favourite meditations.

Every human being whom the saints on their arrival (in heaven) meet with, besides his present exemption from every little, mean, or criminal passion, will behave himself on the occasion like one who recollects that he was once in the circumstances of the stranger. The pure and noble nature of superior spirits in glory forbids the suspicion of defect in their equity and benevolence toward others on their admission. But what is of infinitely greater consequence, they will not enter into the holy of holies unaccompanied by the true High Priest, who with his own blood sprinkled the mercy-seat, and who comes at death" to take his people to himself:" they are going where proper persons will receive them on their entrance, who now feel pleasure in the prospect of their coming; they will be where preparations have long been made by Christ for their entertainment, where the ruling personages were their friends and patrons in this world, and, in a word, where they are fully "wrought for the selfsame thing." Involved as they are in darkness on this most interesting subject, they are not wholly ignorant: for "whither they go they know, and the way they know." They have long carried on a real and beneficial, though a mysterious, correspondence with the Sovereign of the new world, and with Him to whom "all power is given in heaven and in earth." Unknown as its inhabitants are to them, they themselves are well known not only to the Father and the Son, but to the "ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation;" and though they now "know only in part," yet hereafter "they shall know even as they are known." Their being placed at perfect ease, will be but the work of a moment.' Vol. II. p. 602.

Mr. Burnside's metaphors, though they are generally rather trite, assume, for the most part, an air of originality from the manner in which they are treated. There is, however, a much too frequent recurrence of the same, or of very similar me

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