again, after having watched for a little time, alas! that they may become inexcusable, prepare themselves for eternal regrets, and the most terrible condemnation. Oh! how my heart is afflicted in the recollection of these; and how sensibly do I feel the loss of these dear children, for whom my heart hath been long time in travail, and who have not been able to attain to the new birth, who have glittered as flowers, but as barren flowers, and who have yielded no fruit. But what shall I say of those who have brought forth fruit, and who have seen the light of a new life, who have tasted of the heavenly gift, and rendered testimony to the truth, who have even brought many to its light; and who have returned as the sow to her wallowing in the mire, who have forgotten the purification of their past sins, who have quitted the right way as Balaam, and have done despite to the Spirit of grace by whom they had been sanctified? Their number is small without doubt; but, O my God, why shonld there be any? why should the spiritual body thus be mutilated, and wounds so deep and so lamentable be inflicted on thy church, and grieve the heart of all thy children? It must needs be, thou hast told us, Lord, that offences should come, but woe unto them by whom they come! Yes, woe! woe to such! and would to God that they had never been born! But woe to us also, if these terrible examples do not humble us, do not cause us to redouble our watchfulness, do not make us seize with both hands, the hem of the robe of our only protector, while we take refuge in his bosom, as a child who seeing a tiger appear, throws himself into the arms of his father! Ah!" let him that thinketh he

standeth take heed lest he fall." Remember Lot's wife, let us watch and pray; altogether placing an unlimited confidence in Jesus, let us distrust ourselves, and abide close to him: there we shall be in safety; yes, let us live near to him, let us abide in him. Take heed, dear friends, to that expression of the Saviour, "Abide, abide in me as the branch abides in the vine." He not only says as elsewhere, Come to me, but abide in me. And how? As the branch which never quits the vine, out of which it hath no life. Certainly those whose fall afflicts the church, those who crucify afresh the Son of God, were for a long time, more or less separated from him; fruit seldom falls before the season, unless it has been gnawed by some worm on the tree itself; long before it is detached from the branch the leaf of autumn is seared, and ceases to partake of the vivifying sap which makes it grow and bloom in spring. No; it is not given to any creature to be able to say as God" I am that I am,” i. e. to have life in himself, and to possess it apart from its principle, which is God. The Saviour declares the same to us when he says,

Except ye eat of the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.' 99 It is only in proportion as we are nourished by Christ, that he dwells in us, it is only as we have effectively the Son that we have life. As we cannot enjoy the rays of the most brilliant sun, but in so far as we are exposed to them, as we cannot make provision with them for foul weather, or for night, or carry them into a dark place, so it is with regard to the sun of righteousness.

And do we not

feel it? have we not the experience of it every day? What strength, what peace does a simple profes

priate than for such a general Union to attempt to raise a fund for the support of those beloved and venerated men, who have survived their active usefulness, but who, by their patient submission to the will of heaven, silently instruct others in their duty still.

With this view the writer of this article ventures to introduce the following suggestions to his brethren and the denomination of Christians of which he is happy to be called a member. It appears to him that they might be adopted with the least possible inconvenience, and yet might be the means of affording very efficient aid.

The first proposition that he would suggest is, the appropriation to this object of one of the monthly sacramental collections annually-say in the month of June, by every church throughout the Union. The advantage of this would be, that it would not require an additional collection to be introduced; it may be said that such collections are intended for the poor; but are not necessitous, aged, and infirm ministers a most interesting portion of the poor of the flock of Christ? But it may still be said, it is intended for the poor of that church in which the collection is made; though this is, doubtless, desirable as a general principle, yet it does not appear that the scriptures expressly confine it to them; and where is there a church that, out of twelve collections, would not willingly give up one, whereby, at some future day, their own minister might be benefited? But if an insuperable objection, on any occasion, was found to exist, might it not be stated to the members, that all collected on that occasion beyond the usual amount would be given to this object? Would it be too much to expect that if this plan were adopted, the amount

from the whole would average £1. from each of the churches? If so, then, according to the list of Congregational churches, it would produce an annual income of £1500.

The second proposition is, the publication of a hymn-book for the use of our churches, by a committee appointed by the Union for that purpose, the profits of the sale of which should be carried to the same fund. Our Baptist brethren have set us an example in this respect worthy of imitation. Independently of the high and deserved esteem in which Dr. Watts's hymns are held, it is desirable, on many accounts, that they should remain entire; one reason is, that in the absence of creeds or formularies, they are a standing memorial of the orthodox sentiments of the Congregations which use them. But while this is generally admitted, it is also allowed that a collection of hymns, as a supplement to Dr. Watts, is still a desideratum in our churches; this appears, when it is considered in all the collections published, how few hymns there are adapted to the peculiarities of Congregational Dissenters-for instance, hymns suitable for the associations of ministers, or the affliction and death of ministers; hymns to be used at our church meetings, expressing the members' solicitude for the congregation; their desires, when destitute of a pastor; on the admission of members; on the reception of the children of members; on the exclusion of members; for days of special humiliation; and, indeed, on many other occasions that might be named, which are, in a great measure, peculiar to our system, and which often awaken some of the most hallowed feelings in our churches; but at present we are without any devotional poetry to express them before God!

Now might not this object be

A concise View of the Succession of Sacred Literature, in a Chronological Arrange ment of Authors and their Works, from the Invention of Alphabetical Characters to the Year of our Lord, 1300. Vol. II. By J. B. B. Clarke, M.A. of Trinity College Cambridge. London: T. S. Clarke, 45, St. John's Square.

THE Commencement of this interesting and laborious undertaking has been already favourably noticed by us; and it is with pleasure that we find the author's task finished, and the ecclesiastical literature of antiquity brought down in chronological succession to the close of the fourteenth century. The present work contains the names of upwards of twelve hundred writers, a large proportion of whom, as the framers of silly legends, and the credulous narrators of every thing absurd and marvellous in tradition, possess little to recommend them to the attention of the theological student. Indeed we should have liked the book better, had the worthless chroniclers of the middle ages been wholly omitted, or their names merely subjoined in an appendix, and a more detailed account been given of the literary history of the church, and those writers whose productions are intrinsically valuable. There are few, for instance, who would wish to know that Sabas the Monk, wrote the Life and Miracles of St. Joanicius, or that Odo composed an account of the Reliques of St. Maurus, or that a hundred others who might be named, illustrated the honours and explained the

* Congregational Mag. Jan. 1831.

mysterious sanctity of virginitythe sooner such things are forgotten the better. But this difference in our views is but of minor importance, and we place this volume by its predecessor, with many thanks to its author, fully disposed to be guided by the words of the Asiatic, whom he cites, of course conceiving ourselves among the individuals propitiated: My request from the instructed of time and the matured of ages is this every place where a fault or an omission occurs, let the garment of generosity hide, and let the pen of correction pass gently

over it."

The volume before us commences with the close of the fourth century-the time of Augustine, Rufinus, Chrysostom, the haughty Cyril, and Theodoret―and the notices of these writers are more extended than those of their contemporaries and successors. Notwithstanding the unquestioned piety and learning of some of the fathers of this age, it was, in many respects, a disastrous era in the Christian annals. The alliance which had been consummated between the church and the imperial purple had almost destroyed every trace of the meekness and gentleness of Christ; religion had become a matter of courtly intrigue and pompous ceremonial; and owing to the pride and ambition which the atmosphere of the Byzantine palace fostered, the pattoway to the patriarchal chairs was often one of blood and murder. An apostacy from the faith had been mournfully anticipated by the