How often have I read those lines!
Admiring more and more;
And, as my sun so swift declines,
I long to reach that shore,
Where I shall walk with Christ in white,
And never wander from his sight.
O mother! mother, come and pray!
I feel I'm going fast;-
I hope my Saviour's mercy may
Redeem my soul at last.

He will not, cannot, cast away

One lamb within His fold,

One child who makes His love his stay,-
Who prizes more than gold

His merits, and His precious blood,
And says," Behold the way to God!"
O mother! mother, come and talk
Of Christ's rich love to me!
How often in the garden walk,

I've prayed His face to see!
Will you, dear mother, speak of Him,
For He is all to me?

And though I am the child of sin,
With Him my home shall be.
He'll guide me through death's gloomy vale,
I'm sure His promise will not fail.

O mother! mother, now, "good bye!"
We soon shall meet above:

And, when I'm gone, you must not sigh;—
I range in worlds of love.

I'll think of you, my mother dear,
When golden crown I wear,
Then dry up every sorrowing tear,
My bliss you, too, will share,

I found a home in your kind heart;-
In heaven, we shall not, cannot part!
September 1.

T. W.

MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D., LL.D. By his Son-in-law, the Rev. WILLIAM HANNA, LL.D. Vol. iii. 8vo. pp. 552.

Hamilton, Adams, and Co. WE have much satisfaction in introducing to our readers a third volume of the Life of Dr. Chalmers. The respected Biographer, we are happy to find, has recovered from that serious illness by which, for a season, he was arrested in his interesting labours. He had hoped to make the third volume the last; but materials have so accumulated upon him, as he has advanced in his work, that he has been compelled to resolve on a fourth. His original plan was to divide the life of Dr. Chalmers into three periods, and to devote a volume to each,-from his birth, in 1780, to

the close of his ministry at Kilmany, in 1815, -from his removal to Glasgow to the close of his Professorship at St. Andrews, in 1828, -and from his entrance on the Theological chair in Edinburgh till his death, in 1847. Before Dr. Hanna, however, had completed his second volume, he found it impracticable to adhere to his original design, unless he had suppressed a mass of materials which he knew to be interesting to the large circle of Dr. Chalmers' friends and admirers. Contrary to all our ordinary notions of Biography, we are of opinion that Dr. Hanna has exercised a wise discretion, and that there is strength enough in the character of Dr. Chalmers to admit of details which would weaken and destroy an ordinary memoir. As the last volume will trace the efforts of Dr.

Chalmers as the leader of the Free Church | reform, it will, under the wise Editorship of Dr. Hanna, be deeply interesting to a large class of expectant readers, both in and out of the Free Church. But it will require much care, and an abundant supply of that candour for which the Biographer is peculiarly distinguished.

In turning to the volume before us, we cannot but express the high delight we have felt in perusing its contents. If it is not quite so full of incident as the two preceding volumes, it still sustains all our notions of Dr. Chalmers' mental habits, professional ability, and high Christian character. One of the finest chapters in the volume is that which portrays the entrance of Dr. Chalmers on his duties as Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of St. Andrews. The narrative is done to the life; and there is verily a life in the subject of the narrative rarely to be met with. Never, perhaps, did a public lecturer enter upon his career more brilliantly than did Dr. Chalmers. It was a new era in the history of St. Andrews, when our lecturer began his course; and many happy fruits were the result of his instructions, though his labours were restricted to the moral philosophy class. We look upon Dr. Chalmers' residence and labours at St. Andrews as a most prolific section of his public life. He produced an effect upon many minds which continues to tell with power to the present hour.

He had many battles to fight, while occupying this post, and made himself obnoxious to his fellow Professors by certain acts, which reflect the greatest honour upon him now that he is dead. We refer our readers to this part of Dr. Hanna's narrative with full confidence that it will place the character of Dr. Chalmers in the most amiable point of view.

In this volume we follow Dr. Chalmers from St. Andrews to Edinburgh; from the chair of Moral Philosophy to that of Theology; and, at every step of our course, we cannot but mark the movements of a man of God," full of the Holy Ghost and of faith." It is delightful, amidst all the public questions which often and anxiously engaged his thoughts, his pen, and his eloquence, to find him unbending so naturally and so sweetly in all the scenes of domestic and private life. His Journals and his Tours are models of all we could desire in a man intensely devoted to the public service; and his transitions from sprightly repartee and the details of passing events, grave matters too,are often very striking. After giving to Mrs. Chalmers an account of a visit to the country of Burns and of Dr. Thomas Brown, with all the ease and interest peculiar to such a document, he closes in the following remarkable terms, showing how

deeply his spirit was imbued with the spirit of vital godliness.

"And now, my dearest G., let me urge on you the great and only essential topics for the entertainment of immortal creatures. This world, with all these petty and evanescent interests which now so engross and agitate, will soon pass away. And surely there is enough in the greatness and glory, even of our present revelations, to lift us above them. What is all that is near or around us to the worth of those precious interests which attach to immortality? Let us lay hold of eternal life. Let us cast our confidence for life upon the Saviour. Let us enter into this life even now, by entering upon its graces and virtues even now. Let us cultivate a present holiness, not merely as a preparation, but as a foretaste of our future happiness. These children of ours have a vast and momentous interest associated with them. They have imperishable spirits, and they have a right at our hands of having provision made for them. I desire to feel the weight of all this, and to act upon it far more vigorously and faithfully than I have ever yet done."

In this volume we have an opportunity of marking the conduct of Dr. Chalmers in his church extension movement. It must be confessed that he was just as zealous behind the scenes as in his public showings, and that he was constantly doing what was very unwelcome to his voluntary friends; but, making due allowance for human infirmity, and what we hold to be erring notions, there is a manliness about his conduct which can create no festering wound in the heart of an opponent. He lived to see that Statesmen and legal tribunals were not such manageable affairs as he wished to make them; and the disruption itself is a striking proof of the folly of even good men in thinking to commit the interests of religion to the conservation of secular tribunals. Had the result, in reference to the late reforming party in the Church of Scotland, been different from what it was, it would have been no proof to us that the Church and State connexion is anything other than a doubtful and dangerous human expedient, altogether unsanctioned by the doctrines and laws of the New Testament.

The volume will be read by multitudes, with the enthusiasm it deserves. It is, indeed, a most instructive collection of deeply interesting facts, well grouped, and so disposed of as to present an accurate and striking portrait of one who must ever be dear to posterity, and of whom every Scotchman may well be suffered to think with the most profound admiration and love.

THE SECOND REFORMATION; or, Christianity Developed. By A. ALISON, Esq.

London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. WHO, or what A. Alison, Esq. is, we know not, and consequently we can entertain no prejudice either for or against him. Nor, it is probable, should we have noticed his illstarred and mischievous publication, did we not fear that unwary readers might be betrayed into a perusal of its pages by the false and deceptive title which he has adopted. The title, "The Second Reformation; or, Christianity Developed," would lead one to expect, at least, something like an advocacy or enforcement of the great fundamental doctrines for which Luther, Calvin, Melancthon, and Zwinglius contended; and a semblance, if not a strong and healthy manifestation, for the cardinal and distinctive verities of the gospel. But instead of this, the reader will find that a "Second Reformation," in Mr. Alison's estimation, is the utter rejection of all the Divine and precious truths for which martyrs bled and reformers contended; and that "Christianity Developed" is, in his views, the extinction of all evangelical religion, and the universal ascendency of a cold and chilling rationalism. We do not indeed recollect anything, among the locust-like cloud of irreligious publications now issuing from the press, more thoroughly imbued with the spirit and letter of infidelity, than the volume now before us. The title-page is a mask; but beyond that, concealment or deception does not extend. The reader has scarcely passed the preface, and entered on the few first pages of the book, before he finds himself startled by an unblushing avowal of the worst forms of infidelity. And as he advances, he finds every doctrine that distinguished the first Reformation assailed; and every principle of the Christianity which Christ and his apostles taught, trampled under foot, or scattered to the winds.

It is truly marvellous, and can only be explained on the ground of that craftiness which enters so largely into modern infidelity, that such a title as the one borne by this volume, could be prefixed to a publication intended to condemn and repudiate a special providence, miracles, moral evil, original sin, the inspiration of the Scriptures, the atonement, the personality of the Holy Spirit, conversion, justification by faith, and every kindred truth belonging to Christianity. But as Mr. Alison does not wear his mask beyond his title-page, the intelligent reader cannot be deceived, nor can the Christian be seduced into the perusal of such gross and unblushing impiety. It is possible, however, that some may be ensnared, into the purchase of this book, under the impression that it is an honest and earnest enforcement of the "things which are most surely believed among us;" and, therefore, we

deem it our duty, as guardians of the public Christian mind, to warn our readers against it as a direct, malignant, and unmitigated assault on all the doctrines of the gospel. Fortunately, indeed, its power of doing mischief is not equal to its intention. The book is flimsy, shallow, and illogical in the extreme. Assumption is so constantly mistaken for argument, questions at issue are so often begged, and there is so frequently such a jumble of rhapsody, ignorance, and mis-statement, that, as we passed through his pages, we were perpetually haunted with the impression that the writer must be the subject of some bewildering hallucination, or mental obliquity.

We cannot, within our limited space, follow Mr. Alison throughout the loose and flimsy net of error, misconception, and false reasoning he has woven, and therefore must confine ourselves to two or three points, which our readers may take as a sample of the whole. Like all shallow-minded men, having lighted on certain general terms, he allows himself to be drawn into the notion that they solve all difficulties and reveal all mysteries. The terms-nature, experience, truth, will, intellect, instinct, &c., he tosses and tumbles about with the utmost nimbleness and volubility, and appears to cheat himself into the belief that he thus puts orthodox Christianity, with all its essential doctrines and attesting miracles, to flight. Multiplying the echoes of his own sweet voice around him by repeating, in almost every conceivable sense, the terms we have mentioned, he imagines that men cannot but listen to his discourse as the "divinest philosophy." Having sent up a succession of rockets, which fall in ashes about his ears, he conceives that the strongholds of the faith for which martyrs died and reformers struggled, and which he can designate by no gentler or more charitable term than "superstition," have fallen before the resistless fire of his argument. He intimates indeed, in no very equivocal language, that all the Christian philosphers, divines, and reformers of past ages were a set of purblind drivellers, who knew nothing of "nature," and were incapable of distinguishing truth from error. And by implication, he would give us to understand that the greatest of all Teachers was inferior to him in fairly and clearly stating truth. For men resisted Him, although he spake as man never spake, and although grace and truth were poured into his lips; and yet, Mr. Alison, after affirming, "We believe that nature is so constituted that man cannot resist the force of truth when it is fairly and clearly stated," has the presumption to declare, "It is under this impression that we have not thought it useless to discuss the elements of belief." If, then, Mr. Alison makes but a sorry figure as a logician and a philosopher,

it will be seen that his failure can in no way be ascribed to his modesty or diffidence.

But let us see what are his views of providence, miracles, and atonement, which are so essentially connected with the Christianity taught by Christ and his apostles.

His notions of providence are in direct opposition to the whole tenor of Scripture, and are at variance with the soundest lessons of philosophy. He professes to admit the doctrine of a general providence, but regards the idea of a special providence as fraught with incalculable mischief. Now, how any man laying claim to common intelligence, acknowledging the being of a God, can admit a general providence, and deny that which is special or particular, is to us altogether incomprehensible. A moment's dispassionate thought must convince every one that, whatever is general must necessarily comprehend specialities or particulars. Let any man sit down, and calmly and seriously ponder the idea of a general providence, or superintendence by an omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent God, and we feel satisfied that specialities, down to the falling of a sparrow, and the numbering of the hairs of our heads, must force themselves on his convictions. When, indeed, men like Mr. Alison strip the Deity of all personality, and resolve his existence and attributes into what-in the parade of ignorance, or the cant of infidelity,they designate "nature," or "laws," it is easy to see how they may slide into the cold and chilling belief of a general providence, whilst they deny that which is special or particular. A law, or an influence, which is a blind, unconscious thing, may, perhaps, be general, without entering into all that is minute in specialities or particulars; but a living, omniscient Creator, who is at once the Father and Governor of the universe, must, from the necessities of his nature, as well as from the exigencies of his rule, exercise an immediate and personal providence in reference to circumstances, events, and objects, the most minute. Without this, it is obvious that anarchy and chaos would speedily pervade the universe; for what is minute and apparently insignificant is the germ and origin of what is great, and magnificent, and imposing. Besides, if there is no special providence-if Jehovah governs his intelligent offspring by cold and sweeping generalities, which admit of nothing special, what becomes of prayer? | Must it not be pronounced a mockery and a delusion? What does Mr. Alison say to this? Surely it is sufficient to convince him of the unphilosophical and unscriptural nature of his notions of providence, unless he is prepared to embrace the absurdities of Atheism, and abjure every idea of religion.

On the subject of miracles, he holds the old and oft-refuted notions of Hu ne, with

the additional absurdity, that he admits at once the fact and the necessity of their manifestation, whilst he denies their possibility. He regards creation and Christianity as supernatural or miraculous in their origin, and moreover declares, in reference to the latter that "man is not so constituted to receive an extraordinary revelation, which contradicts prior experiences, without supernatural evidence." And yet, as if utterly incapable of perceiving the preposterousness of his position, he contends that all idea of miracles must be relinquished as contrary to fact, and unsupported by evidence. As if he had discovered some unheard-of and conclusive argument against miracles, he dwells, ad nauseam, on experience, forgetting that, unless it extend to all time and space, it can prove nothing. And further, losing all idea of omnipotence in the weakness of man, and, in the spirit of the ancient Stoics, regarding the course of nature as a species of adamantine fate, he seems to look upon the Deity as altogether passive and powerless amid its onward and resistless sweep. Because Mr. Alison has had no experience of an internal or external miracle-as if his experience were that of all ages and all lands-he jumps to the conclusion that miracles are contrary to universal experience; and because Mr. Alison cannot put his hand on the mechanism of the uni verse, and suspend its operations, he forthwith is guilty of the impiety that strips Jehovah of omnipotence, and hedges him round with the weakness of man. Having admitted the miraculous nature of creation, had he allowed the idea of omnipotence to find a distinct lodgment in his mind, he would not, we are inclined to think, have penned the preposterous nonsense to be found in this volume.

that

The doctrine of an atonement for sin Mr. Alison utterly repudiates, pronouncing it "the offspring of the scholastic theology of the dark ages." Here, again, he falls back upon experience that "friend in need” solver of every problem that perplexes him— and affirms, that when this test is applied, the doctrine of the atonement "will be removed." How this test is to be applied, Mr. Alison does not condescend to inform his readers. Perhaps that is one of the refined mysteries of infidelity reserved for the initiated. Further, he gravely tells us, that the notion of an atonement "condemns the wisdom of God;" and, to crown all, he affirms, it can only be a fiction, as "there is nothing to call for an atonement." By what process he arrived at these extraordinary conclusions he does not tell us, deeming it enough, doubtless, that one, with his unlimited experience and infallible knowledge of "nature" and "laws," should speak oracularly or dogmatically. He does, indeed, venture to employ an analogy on the subject, reminding his