his will must therefore be accomplished, and all his rational offspring saved from any future punishment. Now this is not correct reasoning. Your conclusion is not legitimately drawn from your premises. That God is perfectly benevoJent I grant; for he is infinite love. That he wills the salvation or happiness of all his children I also grant; for his perfections do not permit him to will anything but ultimate felicity. That all his offspring are either happy here or will be so at their entrance into eternity I do not grant, and for the following brief reasons. He wills your temporal happiness as much and in the same manner as he wills your future happiness. Yet you are not all happy in this world. There are many whom sin renders miserable. They are not sinful and consequently miserable because God has so willed or so made them, but because they have made themselves so, because they have disobeyed the laws he gave and commanded them to observe on penalty of the experienced punishment, because they have abused their moral freedom, and followed their own perverse wills to the neglect of the divine will.' p. 271.

There is a remarkably plain and unsparing sermon on the 'Guilt of making riches by sinful means 'particularly by the purchase of lottery tickets'-' playing at games of skill and chance'-' defrauding lawful creditors,' &c. Under the last head there are some remarks which the business part of every community might read with profit. We have not room for extracts, but can only give Mr Whitman's opinion of the best mode of treating those merchants who fail to make money' stopping payment that they may silence their creditors by paying so much on the dollar. When justice shall be more perfectly administered, some solitary cells in the state prison will be appropriated to the special use of such unprincipled defrauders.'

6

To those who ask if this volume contains any solemn truths addressed to the conscience and calculated to awaken the thoughtless and the sinner, we offer the conclusion of the sermon on Religion the one thing needful.'

'Yes, my friends, let a man lead a wicked and irreligious life, and when brought upon the bed of death, if reason keeps her seat, and conscience is faithful in her duty, his last hours may well inspire us with dread. He cannot quench the hell burning in his own soul with all the sophistical reasonings of error and infidelity. The consciousness of past wickedness, the torment of present depravity, and the fear of punishment hereafter, will be his bosom companions. And it will not be in the power of any creed either christian or heathen to relieve his mental agony. No. It is religion alone, the recollection of a well spent life, the possession of christian virtues, a well-grounded hope of future felicity, and an unwavering confidence in the infinite Father; it is these and nothing but these that can smooth the pillow of death and destroy its sting. But with these, with the innocence and purity of childhood, with the character of goodness and piety, death is not to be feared. Its bodily pangs, even when most excruciating, can be of but short duration. Its appalling associations can be banished by the force of reason and reflection; its terrors can be dissipated by the cheering light of the gospel, and it becomes the door of admission to regions of glory and eternal blessedness. If then you would have support when called to walk through the dark.valley of the shadow of death, you must prepare for it now. You must make religion your friend. You must live soberly and righteously and godly in the present world. And when your earthly pilgrimage closes, no matter how few or how many seasons have rolled over your heads, you will be enabled to meet the summons of death with a smile. With triumphant hope you will thus exclaim, I have fought a good fight. I have kept the faith. I have finished my course. I am hastening to the bosom of my Father. O grave, where is thy victory! O death, where is thy sting!' p. 140.

There are twenty-two sermons in this volume. They are all short, and all to the purpose. There is nothing irrelevant, no long prefaces, no time wasted in telling you what the text or the subject does not imply. The sermon follows close upon the text. You see the point in the first line. 'One thing is needful.'-'What is this one thing? Religion.'-In this respect some better writers might take a lesson from Mr Whitman. He goes to his work like a true business man, who has

no time to spare and no breath to waste. We cannot say that he always finishes his work before he leaves. it. There are some sublime subjects treated hastily and imperfectly; as the sermon from the words God is love.' Indeed we think that the highest and most spiritual views of our religion are not presented so often here as they should be. But as a whole, we earnestly recommend the book. No one will read it without advantage, unless prevented by prejudice or party.

INFLUENCE OF THE MINISTRY UPON PAUPERISM AND CRIME.

We cannot but observe, in looking back a few years, that a great change has taken place in the manner in which the subject of pauperism and crime is regarded. It was then thought, that poverty and crime must necessarily exist. They were evils necessarily attending the social state. Their causes were thought to be infinite, complicated, obscure; and thus incapable of generalization or removal. Hence they were something that must be submitted to, and it became us to fortify ourselves as well as we could against them. Hence we constructed prisons and jails, and erected alms-houses. But a different opinion is becoming prevalent. By the agency of means which appeared but poorly calculated to effect such a result much has already been done in preventing pauperism and crime;

and the question is asked, and with great boldness, may they not be prevented entirely?-Why should these cleave to the social state? It is not necessary that there should be a bad child in every family, why should there be bad members of the public family? We are beginning to have more definite ideas upon the causes of want and crime. The modern study of statistics has assisted us much here. We have learned that these causes may be distinctly pointed out, and, what is far more important, that they are causes which are fully within our control. This knowledge should give a new direction to our charity. Learned physicians have told us that the public health would be far better promoted by furnishing each village with medicines for gratuitous distribution, than by erecting and liberally endowing hospitals to which all may have gratuitous access. Something like this is true of the moral health of the community. Prevention here, as in every thing else, is better than cure. It is easier and far more effectual to go back and dry up the fountains whence issue these two great evils of the social state, than to attempt, after they have swollen into a mighty stream and spread pestilence and death over the community, to gather up and confine its baneful waters. This work of prevention has been commenced and vigorously prosecuted. How much can the minister effect?

From returns made from four prisons, it appears that out of one thousand and forty-five convicts, four hundred and sixty-nine, i. e. nearly one half of the whole, were unable to read, and from one third to one fourth of those did not know their alphabet. More than three fourths were brought up without any moral and reli

gious instruction, and had lived in utter violation of the sabbath. About one half were brought up without any regular employment. More than one half grew up in disobedience to parental instruction, and three fourths were the victims of intemperance. Here then are unfolded to us the causes of crime. To one or more of these causes is to be referred the guilt of nearly all the convicts of our prisons. The above statement deserves something more than a passing attention. Should we suppose that in this land of schools there were as many in the whole community as one half of the tenants of our prisons who were unable to read? The above facts return a fearful answer to this question; and further teach us, that these are the very individuals who are singled out from the whole mass of society to be the victims of guilt. What connexion does this show between ignorance and crime? Let the same question be asked in relation to the other causes the above facts develope, and what connexion will be proved to exist between a neglect of the sabbath, or want of industrious habits, disobedience to parental instruction, intemperance, and crime? The question then, what can the minister do towards preventing crime? is the same as the question, what can he do in diffusing knowledge, in causing all families within the sphere of his influence to observe the sabbath, to cultivate habits of industry, to enforce parental discipline, and lead lives of sobriety and temperance? To effect these results is the specific business of the ministry. They are to be accomplished chiefly by frequent pastoral visits, by private advice, instruction, exhortation, reproof, and encouragement.