tion with a needless but respectable endorsement. We are glad that many buyers of fine books in England will be led, perhaps insensibly, by Dr. Stroud, to learn far more than they would otherwise have known, about the Life of Christ, not only in its outlines but in its details. We rejoice that our Methodist brethren, of whom we are informed, though not by himself, that Mr. Strong is one, have so intelligent and accurate a writer of their own, on this important and delightful part of sacred learning. And lastly, we congratulate ourselves and others, that such principles and sentiments as those of Da Costa-leaving out of view particular exceptions-are in active circulation through so wide a sphere, in Holland, Britain, and America.

To ministers and students of our own Church we recommend as helps in this most interesting study, the Greek text of Robinson and Scott's English version of Da Costa. We have not compared the same parts of the latter work in Dutch and English; but our strong impression is that the translation is a good one, and its beautiful typography is not the least of its attractions. We have only one defect, or rather one excess, to criticize, which might be deemed too small for notice, but for its doing great injustice to the author's judgment and good taste, merely to gratify a freak of his translator. When we first cast our eye upon the English volume, we were struck with the multitude of Saints scattered over the surface. Not knowing this to be a Low Dutch fashion, we regretted that the author, however great a stickler he might be for this saintly etiquette, had not sought or seized a dispensation from the rule, if only to save space and spare the reader's eyes. On coming to a sight of the original, we found, to our surprise and indignation, that this host of saints was introduced by the translator, who might almost seem from this officious act to be a convert from dissent to churchmanship, as scarcely any other would have thought of overloading and defacing such a book, in such a way, lest either. of the four Evangelists should once appear without a handle to his name; although it might be hard to say why such a deprivation would be more unjust to them than to the Saints of the Old Testament, to whom even Puseyites and Papists do not scruple to refer, as plain Noah, Moses, David, and Elijah. Against this absurd exaggeration of a harmless though unmean

ing practice, and especially this vast multiplication of words, without the addition of a single new idea, we appeal not to Scripture or sectarian distinctions, but to taste and common sense. Many a reader, we have no doubt, though accustomed and attached to such formalities in other cases, will consider their use here a work of supererogation, and perhaps be ready to say:

"Is it a custom ?-Ay, marry, is it.

But to my mind, though I am native here

And to the manner born, it is a custom

More honoured in the breach than the observance."

ART. II.-A Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith, by his Daughter, Lady Holland. With a Selection from his Letters. Edited by Mrs. Austin. In two volumes. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1855.

It is not without design that we have delayed to notice this Memoir. Other reviews have considered its subject as a critic, a reformer, a politician, and a wit. We design to consider him as a minister of religion; for in this relation he was truly a remarkable man. In thus viewing him, we shall examine his religious writings, as well as observe him in his biography and letters.

Sydney Smith was born at Woodford, in Essex, 1771; received his early education at Winchester, and then went to New College, Oxford; where nothing special is recorded of him, except that he obtained first a scholarship, and then a professorship yielding about a hundred pounds a year. After this, he deliberately resolved to enter the church. When Dr. Johnson, in his time of need, was offered a good living, if he should enter into orders, he declined it, saying: "I have not the requisites; and I cannot, in my conscience, shear the sheep which I am unable to feed." But Sydney Smith had no difficulty in answering the Bishop, that he was "inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon him this office and ministration, to serve God for the promoting of his glory, and the

edifying of his people;" and to believe, according to the Liturgical service, that it is an office that requires us "never to cease from our labour, care, and diligence, till we have done all that lieth in us, according to our bounden duty, towards all such as are committed to our care, in order to bring them to a ripeness and perfection of stature in Christ Jesus."

His first scene of ministration was the parish of Netherhaven, near Amesbury, a village consisting of a few scattered farms and cottages. It is often no disadvantage for a young clergyman to be called to labour at first in a small and obscure parish, where the mind and heart can be well disciplined. Even if no field of extensive usefulness be at once offered, he can remain quiet, trimming his secret lamp, which may one day shed its light far and wide. Some of the most eminent ministers in the church of God have been thus trained. Bishop Wilson, the excellent and devout Bishop of Sodor and Man, after his ordination, was appointed to a small curacy, where he lived in great retirement; where his annual stipend was but thirty pounds; but where he was eminently fitted for the conspicuous station in the church which he ultimately occupied. It was so with Hooker, who was at first settled in a poor and thinly populated parish, containing less than two hundred inhabitants. And Doddridge used often to remark, how grateful he was that he was thus early called to such a situation, and how it prepared him for extensive usefulness in a higher sphere.

Did Sydney Smith feel and act thus? Did he, according to his ordination vow, regard his office as one of high responsibility? He found his parishioners ignorant, unrefined, and miserable. Did he, feeling the value of their souls, strive to enlighten, and refine, and make them happy? Did he instruct the illiterate, reprove the wicked, exhort the negligent, alarm the presumptuous, strengthen the weak, visit the sick, comfort the afflicted, and reclaim the wandering? If he had acted thus, "the wilderness," in a moral sense, "would have been glad, and the desert would have rejoiced, and blossomed as the rose." But instead of this, he complained of want of society, of books, of food, of everything; and, at the end of two years, resigned his living. After this, he departed with the eldest son of the squire to whom he was tutor, and engaged to go with him to

the University of Weimar, in Saxony; but in consequence of the disturbances in Germany, occasioned by the war, he went to Edinburgh. He arrived at that city in 1797, with his pupil, Beach, and remained there about five or six years; associated with politicians and men of science, attended the medical lectures at the University, and, as a Dissenter, preached occasionally for Bishop Sanford, in the Episcopal chapel. He was not, however, much known as a clergyman, but distinguished as uniting with Jeffrey and others in the establishment of the Edinburgh Review, and appreciated for his talents-especially for his wit and satire.

We are not of those who believe that satire in itself is wrong, or inconsistent with love to God or man. If not wantonly indulged; if restrained within due bounds, it may be not only harmless, but useful. We have in Scripture striking examples of it-in Elijah's address to the prophets of Baal, (1 Kings xviii. 27;) in the exposure of idolatry in Isaiah, (Is. xliv. 9, &c.;) in the irony of Paul to the Corinthians, (1 Cor. iv. 8; 2 Cor. xi. 19.) Its good effects have often been seen. Evils and follies once prevalent have ceased to exist, because they have become so ridiculous as to excite shame. By this means, Cervantes did real service to his country; Erasmus furthered the Reformation; and even the profane Lucian, “though his heart did not mean so," advanced the cause of Christianity by the happy application of his wit to the follies of Paganism.

But against whom and what did Sydney Smith exercise his wit and sarcasm? Evidently, though not professedly, against that religion of which he was the minister, and which, on the day of his ordination, he had vowed to advance; evidently against the true friends and advocates of divine truth.

At this time a change, which had begun, was advancing in the Church of England, in favour of evangelical religion. A life-giving spirit was everywhere springing up. Instead of the secularity which characterized the clergy, and made them satisfied, if they only regularly received their tithes, and a drowsy indifference among the people, if they only were christened, confirmed, and received the sacrament, many of the former were beginning to learn the true nature of the ministerial office, and to feel that its grand design was to save souls; and many

of the latter were enlightened to see that true religion was more than a decent attention to external rites and ceremonies; that it consisted in supremely loving God, delighting in his precepts, living a life of faith upon his Son, giving up all for Christ, labouring after conformity to his image, and striving for the advancement of his cause. Imbibing this spirit, the friends of religion, individually, and by means of concentrated action of various societies and associations, everywhere spread abroad evangelical truth, and endeavoured to give vitality to a dead church, and purity to a corrupt world. Against an ardent and persevering zeal, in propagating such principles, violent opposition was to be expected. Under the banner of this opposition, Sydney Smith ranged himself; and by one peculiarity, not doctrinal discussion, but bitter sarcasm, he stood in the very front rank.

The first production on this subject which he issued, was an article in the Edinburgh Review, on "Methodism;" by which was meant evangelical religion; or, to use his own definition"We use the term to designate the Calvinistic and Arminian Methodists and the evangelical of the Church of Englandthese three classes of fanatics-not troubling ourselves to point out the finer shades and nice discriminations of lunacy, but treating them all as in one general conspiracy against common sense, and rational, orthodox Christianity."

In the discussion of this subject, the author is careful to tell us that he is no infidel: "It has been our good fortune to be acquainted with many truly religious persons, both in the Presbyterian and Episcopalian churches; and from their manly, rational, and serious characters, our conceptions of true practical piety have been formed." The religion which he professes, and of which he is the minister, is Christianity shorn of its beams, and deprived of all those peculiar qualities which the hand of God has stamped upon it; a religion which lets conscience sleep, while the heart is unchanged, and by which a man is lulled into a state of complete self-complacency; a Christianity, if it deserve the name, which has in it nothing worthy of its Author; nothing great or noble, nothing spiritual or holy, nothing raised above the world; nothing, in short, which puts to shame the claims of a Pagan philosophy. Possessing