was principally written at inns where he stopped to rest himself on a tour in foreign lands recommended as a means of recovery-a striking example of the habits which we have ascribed to him. The summer which has just passed found him busy in arranging new plans of labor that should take the place of those which he had been compelled to relinquish, and only when the attack from which he never rose laid him upon his dying bed, did he resign all hope of accomplishing something more for the spread of the Gospel and the good of the world. But through the disappointment and weariness of illness, through months of compulsory leisure and growing infirmity, he exhibited the same character as in days of health ;trusted in God, whom he could serve only by patient waiting, cared for man, whom he could aid only by the efficacy of his most instructive example; and clung to Jesus, the Mediator and Saviour whom he had owned as the foundation of his hopes. ness terminated only when the last breath was drawn. Among the last words which I ever heard from his lips was the expression of a belief that he should still be united with us in the services of the same Church, which though divided between heaven and earth is but one, and should resume with new vigor the work which had dropped out of the hands that were too feeble to carry it on. 66 His useful That life so religiously devoted, so wisely spent, so generously sacrificed, has come to its close. No more shall we hear the counsel or encouragement which has often fallen from lips which never spoke but in truth and love. The work in which he labored to the last must be carried forward by other hands and other spirits. He performed his part of that work well. He did "what he could." And now has he gone where they who have been faithful shall receive the reward which God alone can give, and they who have turned many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever." Brother! thou hast left a sweet remembrance and a bright example. In the companionship of earth wast thou ever pleasant, for sincerity was the law of thy speech and love the temper of thy heart. God grant that we may cultivate the virtues and pursue the work which shall prepare us to join that society, whose holy salutations greeted thee at thine entrance to the mansions of which the Divine Saviour and the Infinite Father are the everlasting light! Another is taken from the circle which a little while ago included so many whom we looked upon as leaders of the host that should carry on the warfare with error and sin. They have been removed from their stations, and the service to which they consecrated their full and their waning strength is left for those who in their absence but the more sensibly feel their own weakness. Most noticeable have been the dealings of Providence within the last year. They who were conspicuous, and they who were active, they from whose ripe and rich experience we drew counsel, they who were in the midst of their vigor, and they whose early promise was beginning to yield its fruit of accomplishment, have been takensome after lingering disease, and others after brief illness, and yet others by an almost instantaneous stroke. Seldom has a denomination mourned so rapid an extinction of its brightest lights. Seldom has the Church been bowed down under a heavier sense of bereavement. We have been despoiled of our strength and our joy. But our reliance is upon the Lord, and not upon man. Else might we be heart-broken and in despair. The Lord is our helper-of whom shall we be afraid? Let each of us, imitating the example which we have this morning considered, do what we can, and leave the issue with God. E. S. G. HOPE AND MEMORY. Bright Hope-calm Memory-sisters fair, C. T. B. NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS. A HISTORY of the Corruptions of Christianity. By Joseph Priestley, LL. D. In some parts abridged, with Appendices. By A. A. L. Keene, N. H. J. & J. W. Prentiss. 1838. pp. 312, 12mo. WE have here a revised edition of a book, long out of print, which has done a good work for pure Christianity. For it we have to thank the enterprise of its publisher-a veteran in the Unitarian faith, and the editor whose judicious revision has afforded us a valuable work in a compact and convenient form for general use. Mr. Livermore explains in a neat and appropriate preface, which does justice to the eminent virtues of Dr. Priestley, the motives which have led to the re-publication, and the manner in which it has been conducted; and to the body of the work has added, in an appendix, valuable selections from the writings of distinguished Unitarians. We regret to learn that though published several years since, the book has had but a limited sale. Notwithstanding a severe criticism may find fault with some parts of the original work, and the views of the author are not in all particulars coincident with the opinions generally entertained by Unitarians of the present day, it is yet a valuable repository of important facts, illustrating the history of opinion in the early ages of the Church; nor has it, as yet, been superseded by a better publication of like character. We hope that this book will find a place in our parish Libraries, and that a generous aid will be given to its distribution. LETTERS FROM NEW YORK. By L. Maria Child, Author of the Mother's Book. New York and Boston. 1843. pp. 276, 12mo. HERE is another book of travels-an itinerary made by the writer in afternoon walks, sometimes not extending beyond her own street, never beyond the neighborhood of the great Babylon of the West, in which she resides. Yet this volume displays wider and deeper observation of life, and contains more worth remembering, than nine tenths of the voyages and travels that have been published. The author has shown us that we need not cross oceans and climb mountains in order to see sights and be moved by them; but if we have the discerning eye, even at our door-steps there is a world of mystery and wonder, and in the objects and incidents that pass us every day unheeded are inexhaustible romance and beauty and pathos. Some will pronounce the book mystical. This it professes to be; there are passages wholly unintelligible to the uninitiated. Some will say that the author is one-sided and impracticable in many of her notions. Perhaps she is so; for there are things touched upon that " are not dreamed of in their philosophy." But there is such a genuine spirit breathing through the book, such an intense sympathy with nature, such a Christ-like, pitying tenderness towards the most neglected, such a cheerful trust in the might of gentleness and love, that we are sure it will do good. THE RELATION OF THE POET TO HIS AGE. A Discourse delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard University, on Thursday, August 24, 1843. By George S. Hillard. Second Edition. Boston: Little & Brown. 1843. pp. 53. 8vo. It is seldom that addresses before literary associations, however acceptable they may have been to the audiences collected for their delivery, find readers enough to take a single edition off the printer's hands. It is therefore no slight proof of the favor with which Mr. Hillard's Discourse has been received, that an edition was exhausted in the course of three or four weeks without supplying the demands of eager purchasers. A purely literary production, adapted only to cultivated tastes, and avoiding topics on which the popular mind is agitated, it must have intrinsic excellence to secure this share of attention. Its sparkling beauty of style is doubtless one cause of the pleasure it has afforded. If we were exercising the office of a critic, our only objection would be to an excess of ornament, which, however pure and rich, from its very abundance creates a desire for greater simplicity. Mr. Hillard handles his subject with a strength of thought and a delicacy of touch that are seldom united. The principles which he endeavors to establish proclaim a sound and practical mind, while the illustrations by which they are sustained show a wide acquaintance with the history and forms of literature, and the Discourse throughout breathes the spirit of the highest poetry. Beginning with the earliest age, it traces the relation of the poet to the circumstances by which he is encompassed— the influences of nature, society and condition which inevitably mould the character of his mind and his verse-down to our own times and our own land, which, it is maintained, offer on every side the materials that need only the true poet to convert them into the elements of his divine art. AN ADDRESS, delivered at the Consecration of the New Cemetery in West Cambridge, Mass., June 14th, 1843. By David Damon, late Pastor of the Congregational Society. Somerville, 1843. pp. 12, 12mo. THIS Address derives a mournful interest from the circumstances which soon followed its delivery. "The last production from the pen" of its author, it "was written beforehand, against the day of his burial."" In little more than a week afterwards he was "attacked with apoplexy," while conducting the public services at the funeral of a friend in a town where he had once spoken the words of eternal life to the people, and "was the first to rest in the Cemetery, at the consecration of which he had so recently assisted." The utterance which his heart found on this occasion seems therefore like a voice from the death-bed; and it is full, as such a voice should be, of the tender feeling and the triumphant faith which blend in the Christian's heart. The Address is short. It alludes to the universal and deeply founded sentiment which regards the dead with veneration and affection, and then, by a happy personification, describes the feelings that will be soothed or elevated by communion with "the place of graves," -as filial reverence, grief, fond affection, and Christian faith and hope shal! resort thither and find it "good to be there." |