NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

MEMORIALS of the Rev. Daniel B. Parkhurst, Minister of the First Congregational Society in Deerfield. Comprising a Sketch of his Life and Character, by Samuel Willard; two Sermons selected from his Manuscripts by a Committee appointed by the Parish; and a few paragraphs from other papers. Boston. 1842. pp. 51, 8vo.

By these "Memorials " Dr. Willard has rendered a good service to the friends and acquaintances of Mr. Parkhurst. For the brief, but beautiful "Sketch of his life and character" they must feel under great obligations to him. With great fidelity and simplicity he has exhibited the interesting traits of Mr. Parkhurst's character, a character containing much to be loved, and much which may be studied with advantage by all who would labor successfully in the sacred profession to which he with such commendable zeal devoted his strength and wisdom. Mr. Parkhurst was a man of considerable promise. For the short time he was permitted to labor in the ministry he gave such indications of intellectual, social and moral adaptedness to his chosen and cherished profession, that his friends were justified in great expectations of him. In this delineation of his character and attainments it is possible that Dr. Willard has fallen a little too much into "an excess of encomium." That in his character there were some great excellencies cannot be doubted, but that they surpassed all that is common to persons of his age may perhaps be questioned. At least the specimens of sermons given do not fully justify this eulogy. They present greater indications of haste than of thought or enthusiasm. They however show a warm and earnest heart, a heart moved by love to God and love to man.

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From reading these "Memorials we cannot but feel, that the First Parish in Deerfield have been sorely afflicted in the early death of this truly pious and devoted minister of the Gospel of Christ. Had he lived, there is every reason to believe that he would have proved a faithful and efficient teacher of righteousness.

Being a man of sober thought and of a godly life, he could not have been other than a successful laborer in the vineyard of his Lord and Master. We hope that one of a like spirit will be found to sustain the ministry which he was called so soon to leave.

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT of the Board of Managers of the Prison Discipline Society. Boston. 1842. pp. 110, 8vo.

WE have been, for several years, accustomed to look to these Reports for instructive and interesting statistics in relation to the various objects embraced within the care of this Society. And though these are occasionally presented under a phraseology which neither for its just taste nor theological sentiment we can approve, yet for the important information conveyed, for the fearless exposure of abuses, and the gratifying results exhibited we have felt ourselves, with the whole community, under obligations to its devoted Secretary.

In this Report, under the respective heads of "Diminution of Crime," "Penitentiaries and Prisons," "Pennsylvania system of Prison Discipline," and "Asylums for Lunatics," will be found, as usual, many important facts. Especially under the last-always to us a topic of most commanding interest-we see how much has been already done, and how much remains to be done; how much occasion there is for our satisfaction; and how much too, on the other hand, for our indignation and pity in regard to this unfortunate class of our fellow-creatures. We trust that Mr. Dwight will not intermit for an hour his labors, till the abuses of Lunatic Asylums and cruelties to lunatics in prisons-of which he gives some astounding disclosures-have wholly ceased.

But we cannot speak with equal satisfaction of the manner in which the Secretary has thought fit to present the first topic of this Report. It occupies twenty pages, of which no less than fourteen are filled with a detailed report of conversations held by Mr. Dwight with, as he is here styled, "a Black man, called Jack Hodges;" first in the Auburn Prison, to which on trial for murder he was sentenced for twenty-one years, and afterwards, upon his

pardon and release, at the residence of the lady with whom he lived, at Canandaigua. Now with the history of "Jacob Hodges," in itself, it is impossible for any one of the most ordinary sensibility not to feel the deepest interest; and as with great felicity presented by Rev. Mr. Thompson in his funeral sermon, here given, it may be read with tears of grateful pleasure by Christians of every name. Who with the feelings of a man or of a Christian could fail to rejoice in the example it holds forth-as far as human judgment may venture to pronounce-of a sincere and effectual conversion? But a narrative so touching in itself, if only told with simplicity, is spoiled by the distasteful phraseology which Mr. Dwight has seen fit to print, and by the needless circumstances he has introduced. As a friend to this excellent Society, we are bound to express our decided objection to the admission into its Reports and Documents of "conversations" like these. Our interest in its objects and our joy in the good it has already accomplished make us unfeignedly desirous, that it should have the confidence and co-operation of all classes of our fellow-citizens and fellow-christians. But this may not be, while its Reports, its public meetings, or its measures are marked by a sectarian theology. Nor can it be deemed reasonable, that an institution sustained, as is the Prison Discipline Society, to so large an extent, by the annual and Life subscriptions of one class of Christians, should directly or indirectly be made an instrument of promoting the peculiar views of another class. If such should be the result, it must infallibly lose the confidence and support it has hitherto, in no scanty measure, received from those who, while happy to unite with their brethren of every name in objects of Christian philanthropy, are constrained by their deepest convictions to withhold aid, in any shape, to an exclusive or in their view-unscriptural faith.

TRINITARIANISM EXAMINED AND REJECTed.

By Elder Jabez

Chadwick, A. M. Auburn, N. Y. 1842. pp. 64, 12mo.

THIS pamphlet is entitled to notice by the circumstances of its author and by its own character. Elder Chadwick is one, among

other ministers in the State of New York, who has lately been converted from Trinitarianism to Unitarianism; and is laboring for the truth as he now holds it, by travelling as a missionary, and distributing this tract, showing at length the reasons of his change. It is a lucid and fair statement, containing nothing new for those familiar with the controversy, but going very carefully, often ably and with entire candor, it seems to us, into an examination of every important passage used in support of the Trinity. In conclusion, the writer says, "I was probably as well versed in Trinitarian Theology, as most who embrace it. But I am now soberly convinced, that the evidence on which I then relied did not embrace the genuine sense of the Scriptures; and of course, I frankly own that I have changed my opinion. And I confidently believe that if my former Trinitarian brethren would go thoroughly into this examination, they would find that they have not heretofore been as wise as they may be, and that they also would perceive abundant occasion to relinquish the doctrine which I have opposed."

SPIRITUAL RENEWAL THE GREAT WORK OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH AND MINISTRY. A Sermon preached at the Ordination of Rev. Frederic D. Huntington as Pastor of the South Congregational Church, in Boston, October 19, 1842. By George Putnam, Minister of the First Church in Roxbury. Boston: William Crosby & Co. 1842. [With the Charge, &c.] pp. 40, 8vo.

WE welcome this Discourse to its second edition, as giving evidence, that the sentiments it enforces have found the way which their truth and importance demand. Our Ordination services, in addition to the interest they never fail to excite in those immediately concerned, furnish excellent opportunities for the illustration of doctrines and principles essential to the ministry as well as to the church. And of the many valuable discourses which these occasions have called forth, we can recall few which we regard with more satisfaction than this before us. Both in the topics selected and the whole course of illustration it is admirably adapted to the exigencies of the times.

"Spiritual renewal," or the introduction into the soul of a vital religious faith, of new and vivid conceptions of spiritual realities and moral excellence, awakening new moral forces in man, revealing to him at once his needs, his powers, his duties and his destiny-this is the great work of the Christian minister; this is the end, which it belongs to the Christian church to accomplish; for the best description of which the term renewal is to be preferred to any other. And when this renewal is begun in the individual heart, when the great Christian principle is established first and foremost among the springs of action, then, and not till then, does practical preaching, or the inculcation of Christian morality obtain its proper influence on the hearer. "It is of little or no avail to preach Christian morality to the unchristianized heart. The mind must be predisposed to morality, or else it needs something else than moralizing." This is the leading principle of the Discourse; and in the application made of it, both as pointing to the ministry its duties, and as explaining the causes of the inefficacy of mere moral preaching separate from this principle, we find much worthy of the deep reflection of every conscientious preacher. Whose experience may not have taught him, that the inculcation, even the most earnest and reiterated, of a particular virtue, or denunciations the most alarming of a particular sin, as of intemperance, licentiousness or dishonesty, fail of their power, unless in connexion with the sanctifying influences of the Christian regeneration ?In the remarks of Mr. Putnam on the true theory of the Church, and the consequent duty of its ministers in relation to the various social moral reforms, and organizations for their promotion, signalizing these days, we heartily concur; and if, among other evil tendencies of the times, there be some disposition, as we fear, to depreciate the ministry and "the Church institution" as wanting efficiency for these ends, we wish it may be remembered, that "all the moral life there is in such reforms, has come out of the Christian Church," and that "but for the Church they would never have been dreamed of."

Of the other services of the occasion-the Charge by the venerable father of the Pastor elect, the Right Hand of Fellowship by Rev. J. I. T. Coolidge, and the Address to the Society by Rev. George E. Ellis, we have only space to remark, that they were