The College Church at that place was vacant at that time, and soon after made out a call for him. He at first agreed to stay six months, but afterwards accepted the call, and was installed shortly after the spring meeting of the Presbytery. Here, amidst friends of his youth, and scenes of his early studies, he was destined to perform his last labours, and to end his days. The circumstances which surrounded Dr. Rice during his residence in New York and Princeton, were evidently not congenial to his temperament and habits. But after his return to Virginia, his heart settled itself in the conviction that he was once more at home, and his mind recovered a large measure of the freedom of its early action. In the vicinity of his church he purchased a little farm, and both mind and body were much benefited by a moderate attention to agricultural pursuits. One who occasionally heard him in these last years, testifies that "although the fire of his youthful ardour was gone, yet the warmth of his large, loving heart remained, and at times, his mind raised to its former elevation of tone, his rich, clear, and earnest utterance would delight, and captivate, and startle, as in the days of his unabated vigour. In these days his peculiar glory was in the social meeting, at the communion table, and in personal converse with anxiously inquiring sinners." Indeed, in these last years, Dr. Rice seems to have resumed no small share of the large popularity and influence he enjoyed in Virginia during his labours in Petersburg. attendance at meetings of Presbytery and Synod was greeted with affectionate respect, and although he spoke seldom, he was invariably heard with deference. It was the happiness of him who addresses you, to have a last and most pleasing interview with Dr. Rice during the sessions of the Synod of Virginia, at Lexington, in October last. Never will he forget the hearty grasp of the hand, the kindly tones and cordial smiles with which he was there greeted, by the friend and pastor of his early youth. Dr. Rice's increasingly bowed form, and his general appearance, betokened sadly, that he was travelling down the vale of years. Yet when, on Sabbath afternoon and on a sacramental occasion, he addressed the Synod, there was even more than the fire, and energy, and fluency of twenty years ago. The closing scene of Dr. Rice's life is graphically described in an account penned by the very competent hand of one residing on the spot. I will give you as brief an abstract of it as I can. The state of Dr. Rice's health had given much solicitude to carefully observing friends, for some months before his death. Yet, during the two months preceding the fatal attack, he had regularly occupied his pulpit. On Sabbath, the 17th February last, according to previous notice, a collection was to be taken for Domestic Missions, and Dr. Rice had prepared an appropriate discourse on Exodus 14: 15: "Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward." The day, however, proved to be remarkably inclement, and the collection having been postponed, he proceeded to make another and extemporaneous use of the same text, applying it to Christians. He then turned to the impenitent among his hearers, saying The account referred to was written by the Rev. Benjamin M. Smith, D.D., Professor in Union Theological Seminary, Prince Edwards County, Va., and was pub lished in the Central Presbyterian at Richmond. solemnly, "You are in the way of death, and every step forward brings you nearer to your ruin. To you I dare not say go forward, but retreat, and advance not another step until you have found the right path and entered it." He continued in this strain of clear and animated remark for some time, when his voice became too subdued to be heard over the house, and he seemed rather like one thinking aloud. Pausing, he made a sign for a glass of water, and as he took it, he remarked, that his tongue was becoming paralyzed. The Rev. Lewis W. Green, D.D., and A. A. Rice, M.D. (Dr. Rice's son), immediately went to him. The former gentleman gave out a hymn, but before the singing began, Dr. Rice arose, and evidently feeling that this was his last opportunity, leaned forward on the pulpit and said, "I wish to say a word to my Christian brethren. Are you all going forward in the divine life? Are you growing in grace and in fitness for heaven?" This was uttered with great difficulty, and was scarcely intelligible beyond the immediate vicinity of the pulpit. He was supported back to the seat, and it was found necessary to lift him from the pulpit, whence he was borne out amidst the sighs and tears of his afflicted and bereaved people, never more to return alive. He lived on until the following Sabbath, February 24, 1856, on the morning of which day, very appropriately, he entered into his rest. He never recovered his speech sufficiently to speak with usual distinctness, though enough to be partially understood. His thoughts still dwelt at times on the subject of his projected discourse, and even when his tongue refused fully to perform its office, the words "go forward," and "a wide world," could be distinguished. His faith in an all-sufficient Saviour and his precious promises remained strong and unwavering to the very last. In a conversation with one of his physicians not long before his end, he said that he desired to live only that he might preach the Gospel. on. He died peacefully, in the very work of the ministry, with the harness He has doubtless already rejoined the sainted companions of his earthly pilgrimage, and with Turner, and Hoge, and Lacy, and Lyle, and Baxter, and Miller, and Alexander, and his brother, Dr. John H. Rice, is inhabiting the blessed mansions prepared for them by a Saviour's love. "There the saints of all ages in harmony meet, On Monday morning, February 25th, they laid his mortal remains to rest in the graveyard at Willington, about three miles from the church, and beside the honoured dust of his eminent and sainted brother, who had preceded him to the grave a little over twenty-five years. A large concourse of families of his charge and officers and students of the College and Seminary attended his remains to the grave. Many College students followed the hearse on foot the whole distance. A few brief remarks were made, and a prayer was offered by a Professor of the Seminary,* and the 622d hymn was sung, after which they left his dust to sleep on until the resurrection morn. * Rev. Benjamin M. Smith, D.D. Review and Criticism. THE BIBLE HAND-BOOK: An Introduction to the Study of the Sacred Scripture. By JOSEPH ANGUS, DD, member of the Royal Asiatic Society. Philadelphia, William S. and Alfred Martien. 1856. Dr. Angus possesses eminent abilities. His logical mind has arranged with great skill the various subjects pertaining to this book. We have examined the volume with some care, and give it a decided preference over every other of the same kind. The student as well as the general reader will find the Hand-Book repaying all the attention he may bestow upon it. It is eminently a Family Help in the study of the Scripture, a Sunday-School Reference book, and the.Evangelical Assistant of the private Christian. It comprehends a great variety of topics. The first part discusses the Genuineness and Authenticity of Scripture; Peculiarities of the Bible as a Revelation from God; Rules of Interpretation, with their relation to history, chronology, manners and customs, geography, allegories, types, parables, prophecy; the Systematic Study of the Scriptures, in its doctrines, precepts, promises and examples; Quotations of the New Testament from the Old; Practical reading of the Bible. The second part analyzes every book of the Old and New Testaments, and condenses a great amount of learned and useful investigation. We know of no writer, who has produced a Bible Hand-Book, equal to this one of Dr. Angus. Dr. A. has recently written a valuable and original work, called Christ our Life, and has published Bishop Butler's Analogy, Essays, and Sermons, with an analysis and notes, which will make it the standard edition. Both of these works deserve republication in this country. We quote three pages from the Hand-Book on a point, which our Baptist brethren [in their zeal to get rid of the Abrahamic Covenant?] have made somewhat prominent in the present remarkable age. 2. The Bible is composed of two parts: the Old Testament and the New. The second containing a full revelation of the Divine will, and a plan of salvation addressed to all. The first containing not all probably that God revealed in early times to our race, but as much as he deemed it necessary to preserve. Every part of what is thus revealed being "profitable for instruction, for reproof, for rectification, and for establishment in righteousness.” 3. The use of the first Testament is highly important: and a simple statement of the use will show the connection of the two. 1. Though most of it was addressed to one nation, yet it enjoins much on man as man, and contains principles of morality which are universal and eternal. The precepts which were given to Adam, the decalogue, and the appeals of the whole book illustrate and enforce moral truth. 2. Much of the history of the Old Testament is the history of God's govern ment. In that government he illustrates his own character and ours; and whatever advantage an inspired record of this kind can give, we derive from this part of the sacred volumes. 3. Further, the hopelessness of salvation by law is clearly taught in this earlier dispersation. The patriarchal faith, with its immediate or traditional communiscations, ended in a corruption, which not even the Deluge could check. Solemn 559 legal institutes, with rights and sanctions most instructive and awful, failed to preserve the people from idolatry, though the Great Legislator himself repeatedly interposed; and when, after the captivity, idolatry ceased, formalism and infidelity extended on every side, and at length prevailed (Part ii, Chap. iv). In the meantime, the power of natural religion was tried among the heathen: and the result of the whole, the result of an experiment carried on under every form of govern ment, amidst different degrees of civilization, with traditional knowledge and immediate light, is a demonstration, that in our fallen state, reformation by law is hopeless, and that unless some other plan be introduced, our race must perish. The Old Testament was given, therefore, in part to show us our sins, and to shut us up unto the faith (Gal. 3: 23). 4. To this new faith it is also an introduction, teaching to the spiritual and humble under the first dispensation, more or less of the plan of salvation to be revealed under the second. Hence its types, prophecies, sacrifices; hence assurances of pardon to the penitent, and the revelation of a God ready to forgive, though the procuring cause of pardon, the provision that was to reconcile justice and mercy, is not fully stated, nor was it fully understood till the remedial work of Christ was accomplished. Other purposes also were no doubt answered by this first dispensation. A knowledge of the true God, which might otherwise have died away, was preserved; and the effect of true religion, even in its less perfect forms, was illus. trated; but the foregoing are probably the chief. The relation of the New Testament to these purposes of the Old is plain. The second, or new covenant, is a double completion of the first. As the first was a covenant of types and predictions, the second fulfils it, putting the fact in the place of the prophecy, and in the place of the shadow, the substance. As under the first, moreover, the revelation of God and of duty was imperfect, and holiness was made, or became, ceremonial, national, and contracted, the second filled up the system of truth and of precept which was thus but partially disclosed, developing and explaining it with more of spiritual application, and securing for it in a richer degree the influence of the Spirit. In a double sense, then, the Gospel is the completion (λnpwois) of the law. 4. Regarding the whole Bible in its connections, we are prepared to trace the continual development of Divine truth in its different parts. In the first eleven chapters of GENESIS, and in JOB, we have the outlines of the patriarchal religion; in the later chapters of Genesis, the history of the transition from it, to the temporary and typical dispensation of the law. In the other books of the PENTATEUCH, we have the moral law, illustrative at once of God's character, and of human duty; the ceremonial, with its foreshadowings of the great atonement; and the civil, the means of the preservation of the other two. In the settlement of the Jews under JOSHUA, whether considered in itself, or as an emblem of the future; in the apostasy of the Jews, their punishment and deliverance under the JUDGES; in the establishment of the prophetic and kingly offices of LATER BOOKS, in addition to the priestly; and in the unchanging yet diversified tenor of God's providence to his separated people, we have our knowledge of the Divine character and purpose varied and augmented. In the PSALMS, we have the utterances of devout hearts, and much that is predictive of Him in whom all devout hearts trust. In the WORDS of SOLOMON, we learn both the wisdom and the vanity of the world, and are led forward to that world where there is neither vanity nor vexation, and are at the same time conducted beyond the maxims of worldly prudence, to Him who is the eternal wisdom. In his nuptial SONG, we see God in a new relation to his church, no longer her Lord (Baali), but her husband (Ishi). In ISAIAH, we have Messiah, as prophet, sacrifice, and king, gathering from scenes of the captivity descriptions of a double deliverance. In JEREMIAH, the same scenes are revealed, though dimly, and as in a cloudy and dark day. In EZEKIEL, the shadowy priesthood of the Jews is enlarged into a more glorious and spiritual worship: and in DANIEL we see the termination of all kingly power in the never ending empire of the Messiah. The MINOR prophets present the same views of the Divine government, either in Providence or in grace, and MALACHI closes the old revelation with predictions of the coming appearance of the Sun of righteousness. In the New Testament, MATTHEW, after a silence of the prophetic spirit for 400 years, connects the ancient Scriptures with the more recent, and completes prophecy by pointing out its fulfilment in Christ. LUKE reveals him as a light to lighten the Gentiles; MARK, as the mighty God; JOHN as the everlasting Father, and as the Prince of peace. The ACTS continue the illustration of the fulfilment of ancient predictions, and connect the facts of the Gospel history with the Epistles. Each Epistle, while giving most of the doctrines of the Gospel, embodies distinctly some particular truth. The Epistles to the THESSALONIANS exhibit the self-evidencing powers of the Gospel in the hearts of believers, and set forth the antecedents and result of the second coming. The Epistles to the CORINTHIANS explain Christian unity, and the doctrine of the resurrection. The Epistle to the ROMANS gives to those whom Paul had not then visited a full view of the Gospel, without reference to any previous communication, enlarging most on the great truth of "justification by faith." The simplicity of that faith, and its independence of the law, in opposition to the legality of Judaizing teachers, is maintained in the Epistle to the GALATIANS. The Epistle to the HEBREWS shows the connection between the Christian faith and the law; JAMES and JOHN (1 Ep.), the connection between the Christian faith and practical holiness; while the Epistle to the EPHESIANS shows that language is unequal to express the fulness which is communicated in all abounding grace, from the Head to the body. Other Epistles treat of specific duties or truths, and the system of revelation is completed by the APOCALYPSE, which unites and closes the prophecies that go before, and introduces the Church after all her trials and changes, first into millennial rest on earth, and then into never-ending blessedness in Heaven.* AFRICA'S MOUNTAIN VALLEY: Or, the Church in Regent's Town, West Africa. By the Author of "Ministering Children." New York. Robert Carter and Brothers. 1856. God's ways towards the children of Ethiopia, are wonderful ways. This delightful little volume will stir the depths of every pious heart, and enlarge the sympathies of the Church in behalf of missionary work, and especially of missionary work in Africa. It contains an account of the labours of Augustine Johnson, a German mechanic, who was brought into the Lutheran ministry, and made the instrument of saving many souls among the heathen. The work is written in an animated style, is full of instructive anecdote, and is worthy of a general circulation. It ought to be in every Sabbath-school library, together with "Abbeokuta, or Sunrise in the Tropics." Few men in the United States, we may add, are doing more good than the enterprising Christian firm who issue these publications. Carter's Religious Literature is a powerful element in advancing the Redeemer's kingdom. We add an extract from "Africa's Mountain Valley:" "AUGUSTINE JOHNSON stood not in Africa's Valley as the cedar alone-beautiful in its fadeless but solitary verdure. God had said, 'I will plant in the wilder ness the oil-tree,' and such was he made of God to be to the perishing souls around him; he ministered to them the life-giving words by which their vessels were supplied, and their lamps kindled into a burning and shining light, by which the grave was illumined as the portal of glory, as the chamber prepared for putting off this corruptible' and 'putting on incorruption.' (1 Cor. 15.) The hand of the Lord had done this. Busy in his London toil, the German mechanic thought not of Africa, nor of Africa's Redeemer; but the Lord who said of Saul of Tarsus, 'He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles,' See Douglas on the "Truths of Religion." |