worthy man. On this account, his assistance was often sought, and his judgment deservedly esteemed. He was cool and dispassionate in all debates, and in sentiment and natural temper he was inclined to soft and moderate measures; but where these failed of their desired effect, he gave way to a requisite severity. He was a constant attendant on the judicatories of the Church, and there he was a councillor,-one of a thousand. Be absent who would, he would be present; and it must be something extraordinary indeed that he would admit for an excuse of absence in himself. What a loss does New Castle Presbytery sustain in his removal! With Elisha, we may exclaim, "O our father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!"

He understood the interest of his country well, was a sincere friend to it, and honestly consulted what would make for its peace and prosperity, as far as came within the province assigned him in life. He was a great friend to liberty both sacred and civil, and generously espoused this noble cause on every suitable occasion. He stood very high in the esteem and affection of his brethren; and such as were young in the ministry, or preparing for the sacred work, found in him a real friend and father. Many also found in him a bountiful benefactor. He freely cast his bread upon the waters, refreshed the bowels of the poor, and caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

His acquaintance with mankind,-his easy and polite behaviour,-his affability and condescension,-his modesty and candour,-his engaging method of address, with his sprightly and entertaining conversation (all the genuine fruits of a benevolent heart), rendered him greatly beloved through the large circle of his acquaintance, and as greatly admired even by strangers, whose occasional excursions gave them only the opportunity

of a transient interview.

His natural temper, amiable in itself, and sweetened with all the charms of Divine grace, rendered him peculiarly dear in all the relative characters of social life. To conclude all in a few words, he was an assemblage of those endowments which go to form the divine, the preacher, the tutor, the husband, the father, the master, the friend, the neighbour, and to crown all, the sincere Christian.

Thus he ended his valuable life in your and the Church's service, teaching you the way to glory by doctrine, and leading you by his example. I may appeal to you all, that you have fully known his doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, and afflictions, and his care of the churches. He has been labouring among you with unexampled diligence and unwearied zeal above forty-two years, with increasing honour and success. He was an instrument in the hand of Jehovah of conferring upon some of you the greatest benefit a fallen creature can receive. You will be jewels in the crown of his rejoicing in the day of retribution. He is dismissed from doing you any more service in the Gospel. While you mourn the bereavement, adore the sovereign grace of Jesus for past favours. Be thankful that you enjoyed your minister so long a space: He might have been removed at an early period, and before you were brought to see your perishing need of a Saviour, or he had espoused you as a chaste virgin to Christ. May you learn to improve this last, together with his past labours, and, though dead, hear him speaking to and exhorting you, to be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

But what shall I say to sinners? You have suffered one precious season to run to waste,-you have had the weighty talent of a faithful minister and servant of Christ to improve, but have neglected it, and he is now taken away from you; he will watch over and warn you no more; he will beseech and intreat you no more; he will reprove you no more; you will never hear his voice again; he will never pray nor strive for you any more at the throne of grace. His lips are sealed in silence, and mouth fast shut, and so will remain until the judgment day, when he will be a swift witness against you. And verily you will have no plea or apology to make, or excuse to plead. You cannot pretend that you were ignorant of your Lord's will, because that has been revealed with so much plainness, and zeal, and faithfulness to you; you have had line upon line, and precept upon precept; you have had a living example of piety set before you a long season, and you have been often reproved. If you will go on to harden your necks, you will be destroyed, and that without remedy. Hear your deceased pastor calling to you from his example and the sacred book of God, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, that Christ may give thee life."

This wounding stroke of the hand of God falls heaviest on the bereaved family. Amid crowds of mourners, I see one whose unutterable grief declares her loss to be irreparable. It is the mournful relict of the deceased. She assumes the lamenting strain of Jeremiah, Lam. 1: 16: "For this I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water." As the tender sympathy of pitying friendship is the best balm humanity can administer for every woe, permit me, madam, to join the circle of your friends, and offer a few supporting considerations, which, upon reflection, may somewhat mitigate your grief, and revive your drooping spirits at this baleful catastrophe. Consider, for your support, that there is a great and glorious Comforter ever present with you. You have lost one of the best of earthly husbands; but these very words contain something supporting, for they say he was only an earthly husband whom you lost. Now this loss does not make void the strong consolation of this text, Isa. 54 : 5, "Thy Maker is thy husband." This God, this Saviour, your heavenly Husband ever lives, to whose grace and guardianship you may commit yourself, and your fatherless offspring. You have lost one who was eminently useful and respected, who lived beloved, and died lamented. Well, it is an honour to you, and should be a comfort, that you have been so nearly related to so worthy a person; therefore, in regard to this, be comforted with a view of that distinguishing crown of glory we have abundant reason to conclude he hath gone to receive, as a gracious reward for his having diligently improved the many talents with which his Lord had intrusted him. And may you follow the dear deceased as he followed Christ. May you hear him speaking to you in this bereaving Providence, to wait patiently on the Lord; and then, after a few rounds of yonder sun, you will join him and the General Assembly of the Church of the Firstborn, whose names are written in heaven, never more to suffer a separation.

The praises of this great and good man have been in all our churches, and it is to them an humbling stroke when such a conspicuous luminary is put out. May they hear and fear.

The ministry in general, and of this Presbytery in particular, who had so much opportunity to know his worth and share his usefulness, are

awfully rebuked by this removal. He was indeed our beloved brother in Christ, a faithful minister, and fellow-servant in the Lord, our fellowworker unto the kingdom of God, which hath been a comforter unto us, and an helper of our joy. Col. 4:7, 11. We justly accounted him the beauty of this part of our Israel, our glory and strength, and may now adopt the language of the wailing prophet, Lam. 4:5, 13, 16, 17, and say, "How is our gold become dim? How is the fine gold changed? The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning; the crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us that we have sinned; for this our heart is faint, and our eyes are dim." Activity in the service of his divine Lord, and in the way of doing good in the world, was eminently his character. As he excelled in gifts, and was richly adorned with the graces of Christianity, so he bare much trust to God, and distinguished himself in being profitable to men. His zealous labours have been gray hairs, and his usefulness more than length of days. Wherefore, as a period is now put to his services, and he has sunk beneath the dusky horizon of our dark world, but, we trust, he has arisen in unclouded skies, where he shines with increasing lustre, let us double our diligence in the work of God, following him even as he followed Christ; and while we inhabit this region of darkness, make our light so shine that when we come to make our habitation in the dust, like another Abel and the saints in glory, each of us may speak to a surviving world.

As to you, my brethren and young friends, who were more immediately under his eye and care, God has taken your master from your head. And you will naturally adopt the mournful words of Elisha, when he had lost his tutor Elijah, "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!" He was, indeed, a father to you, and I believe there are few of you who have had the advantage of being his pupils, have found more real affection and tenderness and a warmer concern for your welfare in your natural parents than you have found in him. You remember his quickness of apprehension, and remarkable felicity in the despatch of business, and yet his most exemplary improvement and redemption of time. You know how faithfully he devoted his time and abilities to your service, how freely he communicated to you out of those large stores of knowledge with which God had furnished him,-how fairly and candidly he proposed arguments on every topic, and answered objections. What pains he took to make you eminent Christians, able ministers of the New Testament, and scribes well instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, You will, I am persuaded, join with me in acknowledging (to the praise of God) that your acquaintance with him and relation to him has been your honour and happiness. May you remember his paternal counsels, prayers, and examples, that (through a supply of the Spirit of Jesus) you may be fitted for eminent usefulness in the Church, and may do honour to his memory and instructions.

To conclude, let all present be exhorted to improve this heavy rebuke of divine Providence with the preceding subject, as an incitement to the exercise and practice of truth and patience, and a vigorous application to the concerns of God and religion. Now it is light, and you may work by faith, walk by faith, and in patience possess your souls; soon it will be dark, and you can do neither. Be persuaded, therefore, to hear Peter, Abel, and all the saints in glory, exhorting you to give "all diligence, to add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge,

temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity; for if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 1: 5, 6, 7, 8), who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

Review and
and Criticism.

DEATH-BED TRIUMPHS OF EMINENT CHRISTIANS. Exemplifying the Power of Religion in a Dying Hour. Compiled by the Rev. JABEZ BURNS. Revised by the Editor of the Board. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, No. 265 Chestnut Street.

Works of this kind are very valuable, and adapted to produce the most solemn impressions. Ministers, Sabbath-school teachers, &c., often need such compends for reference. The volume is compiled with skill, but it lacks a table of contents. It is elegantly issued.

POEMS OF THE LATE FRANCIS S. KEY, Esq., Author of "The Star-Spangled Banner." With an Introductory Letter by Chief Justice TANEY. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, No. 530 Broadway. 1857.

This publication owes its origin to the kind feelings of friends; but in our opinion to their mistaken judgment. A wrong has been unconsciously committed against the reputation of the author of the "StarSpangled Banner." Fugitive pieces, which he never intended for publication, have been gathered into a volume, which, as a whole, will not answer public expectation. There are, undoubtedly, some excellent pieces in this collection, for Mr. Key was a man of genius. The following verses will please the reader.

HOME.

O! where can the soul find relief from its foes,
A shelter of safety, a home of repose?

Can earth's brightest summit, or deepest hid vale,
Give a refuge no sorrow nor sin can assail?
No, no, there's no home!

There's no home on earth; the soul has no home.

Shall it leave the low earth, and soar to the sky,
And seek an abode in the mansions on high?
In the bright realms of bliss shall a dwelling be given,
And the soul find a home in the glory of heaven?
Yes, yes, there's a home!

There's a home in high heaven; the soul has a home!

And the loud hallelujahs of angels shall rise
To welcome the soul to its home in the skies.
Home, home, home of the soul!

The bosom of God is the home of the soul.

PETRA; or, The Rock City and its Explorers, with Plan of the City, and Engravings of the Monuments. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, No. 265

Chestnut Street.

This little volume shows how successfully important historical incidents may be unfolded to the intelligence of children. The history of the Rock City of Petra is a standing monument of the truth of Scripture. Firmly impressed upon the youthful mind, its details will be profitably carried forward into other studies, and be a permanent source of interest.

SABBATH-SCHOOL THEOLOGY; or, Conversations with a Class. By JOHN HALL, D.D. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, No. 265 Chestnut Street.

Theology is taught in ten thousands of Sabbath-schools, and every scholar becomes a sort of theologian, of course. Right views of the teachings of Scripture are essential to right conduct. Dr. Hall, who is a straightforward, simple, and impressive expounder of Divine truth, sends forth this help to youthful minds, and will, no doubt, find his labour well repaid.

CALVIN AND HIS ENEMIES: A Memoir of the Life, Character, and Principles of Calvin. By the Rev. THOMAS SMYTH, D.D. New Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 265 Chestnut Street.

Notwithstanding the miserable attempt of Dyer to vilify the character of Calvin, under the pretence of writing his biography, it is certain that the character of the great Reformer is receiving more and more homage from the Church and the world. The republication of his works in a durable form is his best monument. Dr. Smyth has contributed an exceedingly interesting and effective vindication against prejudices and calumny, in the little volume just published by our Board. It is decidedly the best thing of the kind we have seen. A very valuable Appendix adds much information to the general reader.

Miscellaneous Choughts.

A BRIGHT EXAMPLE.

MANY years ago, in an obscure country school in Massachusetts, an humble, conscientious boy was to be seen; and it was evident to all that his mind was beginning to act and thirst for some intellectual good. He was alive to knowledge. Next we see him put forth on foot to settle in a remote town in that State, and pursue his fortunes there as a shoemaker,