people have, and such a heavy way of expressing their wrong opinions and sentiments! Nevertheless we wish to be distinctly understood: tastes may differ; and whoever does not find them dull books, will find them very good books. The Christian Intelligencer calls them "one of the loftiest triumphs of an accomplished, lovely female mind;" and declares, "it is impossible to say whether we may admire most her elegance, taste, fashion, [!] or her noble and enlightened Christianity." The Edinburgh Christian Instructor says, too, that he received from the first work "a very favourable impression both of the author's principles and talents," and is therefore "happy to meet her again" in the concluding volume. Thus Doctors differ! Perhaps the Edinburgh Doctors were gently biassed by Miss Sinclair being "the accomplished daughter of that great and good man, and ornament of Scotland, the celebrated Sir John Sinclair," and by the work being "Dedicated by permission to her Royal Highness the Princess Victoria." Of this we shall not presume to judge, but leave our readers to decide for themselves, if they choose to venture upon the volumes. Wishing them better success than crowned our attempt, we conclude by giving them a clue to the design of the work: "to show, in the case of Matilda Howard, the steady, purifying power of religious principle in regulating the whole deportment, and imparting true peace of mind; and, in the case of Eleanor Fitz-Patrick, the caprice, frivolity and disquietude, together with the utter heartlessness, which a mere fashionable worldly education is certain to produce."

11.-The American Almanack, and Repository of Useful Knowledge, for the year 1838. Boston: Charles Bowen. 1.mo. pp. 336.

THIS is the ninth volume of a work which has no superior, of its sort, in this or any other country. It exhibits, as did the former volumes, abundant proof of the accuracy and laborious diligence of its able editor, Mr. J. E. Worcester. The astronomical and mathematical department, as heretofore, has been prepared by Mr. Paine. Besides the usual Calendar, with the astronomical calculations, this volume is rich in statistical information, additional to the vast body of such information brought together in the former numbers.

We notice this work, however, chiefly for the purpose of reite

rating the suggestion made by the editor, that the national government, in taking the next census, should connect with that object the collecting of important statistical information of every sort. We believe, with Mr. Worcester, that the work of collecting the statistics of the whole country can be suitably done only by the government, and that it is an object well deserving the attention of the administration.

12.-History of the Christian Church; from the Ascension of Jesus Christ to the Conversion of Constantine. By THE ŘEV. EDWARD BURTON, D. D., Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford. Published under the Direction of the Committee of General Literature and Education appointed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. London: John W. Parker. 1836. 12mo. pp. 440.

It is no credit to "the trade" of this country, that while, for years past, our press has groaned under the merest trash of transatlantic production, the works of Dr. Burton should be yet inaccessible to American readers, except in their costly English form. Had he written only the Bampton Lectures on the Early Heresies, their immense display of recondite learning, poured forth in no stinted stream, might excuse the bookseller who should fear lest such a work, evidently fitted for "the few," might hang heavy on his hands. But Burton's Testimonies of the Antenicene Fathers to the Divinity of Christ and to the Doctrine of the Trinity, have taken their place as standard works in English theology; and they treat of a subject in which we may reasonably presume every minister of the Gospel throughout our land to feel a deep interest, on grounds and in a mode, in which every minister ought to be well prepared to bear the writer company. His Lectures on the History of the Church in the First Century, and in the Second and Third Centuries, are still better fitted to interest and instruct all classes. No intelligent layman would find in them any thing too professional, too technical, or too erudite. And, last of all, here is a work professedly suited to the wants and capacity of the people, popular in its contents and its style, on a topic in which every Christian surely feels deep interest; and yet we have waited two years for its appearance among us, and in vain. It is not character that is wanting to recommend it. Dr. Burton's reputation is

too well and widely established to need a voucher, or the test of time. Few of his day, in so short a life, (for alas! his days are numbered) have acquired a range of learning so deep and extensive as that which he possessed. Few have contrived to make such learning available in so many and so useful ways. This is done, too, as well in the three last-named works, as in the volume of excellent Sermons which appeared in 1830, with a remarkable absence of display. You have the results of profound research and laborious processes of reasoning or investigation, with almost none of the machinery. You read, in few and simple words, statements which have cost long and multifarious study, and which might have been paraded in an array of learning sufficient to astound the bewildered reader.

Judicious, even-tempered moderation is another remarkable and most desirable characteristic of these writings. Connected with the history of the Church in its first ages, there are topics of controversy in which it is easy for a warm or hasty writer to lose his self-command. The very blunders of his predecessors on matters of such moment, vex him. Their prejudice and determined opposition to his theories, where, in the absence of positive evidence, all are free to guess, excite his indignation; and in his own conceit he does well to be angry, while he is sure to make his reader so, whether he agree or differ. But it is never thus with Dr. Burton; calm, clear, decided, he states with precision all he knows; and adds frankly and fully what he is disposed to infer; but it is seldom that he troubles himself or the reader with attacks on error, and never with any indication of heat or fretfulness. Dispassionate and self-possessed, if he fail to gain assent by argument, he is still secure in your respect and confidence.

The compendious History of the early Church, now published by the London Society for Promoting Christian knowledge, is a posthumous publication, but has had the advantage of finished preparation by the author. It went to press six weeks before his death. He designed it for general use, and has been eminently successful in carrying out his design. We know of no work to be compared with it, as a source of information to the ordinary reader, on the origin, growth, character, hindrance and success of the Church of Christ in its first best days, before it had put on the golden manacles, and drank the intoxicating cup of civil establishment. It is fuller than Mosheim and Milner, and incomparably clearer. In the earlier history (to which a large proportion of the work is devoted) all the facts are given, and much valuable remark by way

of rationale. In the remainder, every thing important to a just estimation of the position of the Church, and its changes, internal and exterior, is afforded; while the puzzling, profitless detail, which occupies so large a space in other histories, is judiciously kept back. The reader feels continually that he is conducted on his journey by a kind, faithful, and wise guide.

13. The Apostolical Commission, the Missionary Charter of the Church. The Sermon at the Ordination of Mr. Joseph Wolff, in _Trinity Church, Newark, September 26, 1837. By the RT. REV. GEORGE WASHINGTON DOANE, D. D., Bishop of the Diocese of New Jersey. Burlington, N. J. Missionary Press. 1837. 8vo. pp. 26.

"IF it be true, that to his APOSTLES, as they were MISSIONARIES, and that they might be MISSIONARIES, in word, not only, but in power, Christ promised his protection and his presence, "alway, even unto the world," it follows clearly, that to be, in deed and in truth, AN APOSTOLICAL, we must also be, to the utmost reach of our capacity, A MISSIONARY CHURCH."

Such, in his own words, is the argument of Bishop Doane in this spirit-stirring sermon. It is sustained with an ability adequate to the importance of the topic and the interest of the occasion, in which it was so appropriately introduced. We fear there is too much reason for the doubt suggested in the exordium of the sermon, whether those who pique themselves on a due sense of the inestimable privileges of "churchmanship" are always equally alive to the corresponding obligations. It is true of all divine blessings, that they are held in trust, and never duly enjoyed except when made fruitful for the good of others; but it is pre-eminently true of those best blessings which are conveyed in the due administration of the word and sacraments of the Gospel. No man can be deemed to have made them his own, till their expansive working is perceivable in his solicitude and his efforts to make them others' also. They are dead when they are not germinant. Solitary salvation is no part of the plan of redeeming mercy, no article of the heavenly code, either of grace or of providence. “When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren," is the divine monition to each and all of those who turn to Jesus that they may find health for their souls.

This is well enough known, but we are too sure that it is not well enough appreciated. Gladly, therefore, do we hear such trumpet-toned notes of warning as this faithful watchman has sounded from his high post in the camp of God. The respectable body of clergy and laity who asked Bishop Doane's Sermon for publication, did good service to the Church, and judged well of her necessities. She needs such admonitions more now than ever. Having solemnly claimed for herself the fit and comely title of "a Missionary Church," there is a double danger-lest, on the one hand, she lay to her soul the flattering unction of having well done, and rest satisfied with the empty name; or, on the other, incur the deep disgrace of looking back after having, in the view of the whole world, put her hand to the plough.

Clearly and forcibly Bishop Doane argues that all in all to the Church is the continued presence of her Divine Head. Without it, the word is powerless, the sacraments inefficacious the ministry a broken tool :

"In vain we prove, by warrant clear and open, and enduring as the stars in heaven, the authority by which we act as ministers of Christ. Nay, vainly were it given to us, as to the men of old, to heal the sick, to raise the dead, to cast out devils, should we hope by act of ours to bring about that greatest wonder of Almighty power, the new creation of the heart. The record still must stand -humbling to us indeed as carnal men, but oh, how full of comfort and of hope to him that has been taught of God!--the record still must stand, which Paul has written for our learning, "who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers, by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?" The conclusion still remains, and while the world stands will remain, that, great and gracious as the commission is which makes of sinful men "ambassadors for Christ," and great as is their danger and their guilt who take in any other than the way of his appointment that sacred and most awful trust-its power and worth consist in that assurance to the first eleven, 'lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world!'"--p. 10, 11.

But the warrant of the ever-during presence of Christ with his Church, is his faithful promise; and that promise is made to the Church in certain circumstances. Are the word, the sacraments, and the ministry which administers them, now exhibited in those circumstances? If not, how can we plead the promise? "Go ye and make disciples of all nations-AND, lo, I am with you :"--The command and the encouragement are inseparable. This is abundantly proved, from the nature of the case, and from the results under the commission, in the