not suffer him to be negligent in that most important part of religion, the care of his family. Yet after all when, in the time of his affliction, he took a review of his conduct, he probably saw too good reason to find fault with himself for too much lenity in his behaviour to his children, when they deserved severe correction and rebuke. We are told that he had never said to Adonijah, why hast thou done so? It is possible that he had too seldom spoken such words to Amnon in the earlier part of his life. He indeed expressed sore displeasure against Amnon when he forced his sister. He did not give him such a cold reproof as Eli gave to his sons; yet he imitated Eli in one part of his conduct. He did not punish Amnon with due severity, according to his own declared resolution, that he would early destroy all the wicked of the land. The law of God, in the case of incest committed with a sister, was, that the guilty persons should be cut off in the sight of their people. But Amnon's crime was aggravated by circumstances of enormity that cried for vengeance beyond that of ordinary criminals. When David neglected to execute that law against his own son, which he would certainly have executed against an offender of any other family, it was a righteous thing with the sovereign of the world, to whom kings and peasants are equal, to inflict the sentence pronounced by his own word, that all Israel might hear and fear, and do no more wickedly. It is probable, too, that David would reflect with grief upon his behaviour to Absalom, in other instances than the permission given to Amnon to partake of his feast. It is not probable that he would be hardened to such a degree in wickedness as he already was, if his father had, in his earlier days, taken due care to bridle his passions. "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him." Beware, parents, of omitting or doing what you may sorely repent in some future time, of omitting or doing. Defer not these reproofs or corrections which ought to be administered at present, lest you should find too good reasons for severe animadversions, the unhappy consequences of your aversion to the painful duty. II. Let us say something of the constancy of the good man's grief. He mourned for his son, not one day, or two, but very many. He mourned for his son every day, for a long space of time; till, after about two years, we are told, that he was comforted concerning his son Amnon, seeing he was dead. When he lost that child who was the fruit of his unlawful intercourse with Bethsheba, he banished from his heart that sorrow which had taken fast hold of it, on account of the divine displeasure manifested in the sentence of death passed upon it. He assumed an air of cheerfulness. He went to the sanctuary and performed his devotions, and called for bread, and told his servants that there was now no more occasion for such fasting and mourning as they had seen him employed in for seven days past, because the sentence was now executed, and could not be recalled. "I shall go to him, but he shall not return unto me." But now he gave full scope to the bitterness of his soul, although he was sure that no prayers, nor fastings, nor tears, were to recall his son to life. This consideration seemed now to have a contrary effect to what it had in the former case, and probably for a reason that he thought too good. The first of these children was happy in his unchangeable state, and would have thought it an unhappy exchange to be restored to its former life. But unless Amnon had obtained mercy to pardon his great transgressions, nothing could be more distressing to the heart of a father than the thought that he should never return to this world, nor be blessed with any farther opportunities for imploring that grace which he so greatly needed. David was no doubt thankful that the terrible tidings which came to him of the death of all his children turned out to be a mistake. He blessed the Lord that he had many sons yet alive. Yet the cruel fate of the first-born made a deeper impression on him for a long time, than the happiness of having so many spared to him by a kind providence which remembered mercy in the midst of wrath. He was accustomed to take great pleasure in the return of these days in which it was said, Let us go to the house of the Lord. He went to it with the voice of joy and praise, even with the multitude that kept holy days. Still it was his wish to abound in thanksgivings and praises at all times-especially on the days when God called his people to rejoice before him. Yet the thoughts of his unhappy son recurring to his mind damped his joy. He thought of the days that were past, when Amnon had gone with him to the house of the Lord, and mourned that all opportunities of profiting by these means of religious improvement, were for ever at an end. All the days of the afflicted are evil, whilst the man of a cheerful heart hath a continual feast. Both these observations were eminently verified in different parts of David's life. God's mercies to himself and to his house had gladdened many of his days to such a degree that sorrow was turned into joy before him. But now such a gloom overpowered his mind, that even his joys awakened the remembrance of that sorrowful event which had cost him so many tears. But why did God afflict his holy servant with such awful severity, that he passed many of his days in grief, and of his years in mourning? There can be no doubt that God was righteous in all his dealings with this good man. It has already appeared that he deserved chastisement for his excess of gentleness to his sons; and there might be other offences, unknown to us, which might render heavy chastisements necessary for his humiliation. May we not observe that David suffered in this instance the just consequence of his marrying so many wives ? One of them was the daughter of the king of Geshur, who was probably a heathen prince. But although David had not merited chastisement, God might justly afflict him for the trying of his patience. His patience was very wonderful amidst the sufferings of his early life; and now a heavier trial than any of the former was appointed to him, that patience might have its perfect work. If David's strength had been small, he would have fainted in the day of sore adversity. But his strength was great, for he was marvellously helped, and we have little reason to doubt that he composed many pleasant psalms, expressive of his love to God, and gratitude for his mercies, after this mournful period of his life. Improvement 1. Let us learn to mourn after a godly sort, over our friends and members of our families torn from us by death. We do not forbid you to mourn when God bereaves you of the beloved fruit of your bodies. It would be a sin and a shame not to mourn when God chastises you by such bereavements. These men who do not cry when God bends them, are not to be praised but censured. They are not patient sufferers, but walk contrary to God, who visits them by humbling providences. But mourn with moderation, and say not that your calamity is too heavy to be borne. Many have met with heavier calamities. Many men far better than any of us have smarted under sharper rods of correction. Have your children died the common death of men? Be thankful that they have not perished by the hands of violence, or by some unhappy accident. How much less intolerable is your distress than that of this holy prince, who lost one of his sons by the savage revenge of another! Let not your grief make you forgetful of the mercies mingled with your afflictions. Have you not reason to join thanksgiving with your sorrows, if your departed relations have been enabled to behave patiently and meekly under their mortal sickness, and especially if you have good reason to think that they have died in the Lord, and that your eyes will again behold them more lovely and more beautiful than ever? Ought you not to bless God, when one of your beloved children is cut off, that others of them are left alive? God has not tried your patience to such a degree as the patient sufferer who lost at once all his children, after having lost almost his whole property, and yet could say, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord." Beware of mourning more bitterly for God's chastisements, than for the sins which have provoked God to chastise you. Are not the provocations we have given to God, more to be lamented than the evils that God, in his righteous providence, does to us? You have heard of that good saying, That where sin lies heavy, affliction lies light. Consider, when you mourn for your departed children, that God gave his Son to die for you. You would not have parted with your children, if they had not been torn from you by a hand more powerful than your own. But God, in his own free and unconstrained mercy, gave up his Son to death for you, that you might live. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall we not give up our dearest children to him, to be disposed of by him at his pleasure? 2. Beware of preparing new sorrows for yourselves, by the work of your own hands. Make a good use of the chastisements which have been administered to you, lest new chastisements be rendered necessary, if God intends to do you good by his providence. Walk not contrary to him when he has been punishing you, lest he should be provoked to punish you yet seven times more for your iniquities. If you have lost some of your children, remember that your surviving children are not less mortal than those whom you have lost. No art can be found to prevent this calamity. The will of God must be done, and our will must give place to it. Stand ready for the parting stroke, if it should come, that you may not treasure up to yourselves NO. V. VOL. III. E E inconsolable sorrow, by the neglect of duties which, if now left unperformed, must continue unperformed for ever; and which, if left unformed, must render your sorrows unconsolable. Train up your children in the way they should go. If you do not teach them, and command them to walk in the way of the Lord, and if you shall have reason to suspect, when they die, that they are suffering the punishment of sins which you might have prevented, by the discipline appointed by God, how will you be able to pardon yourselves? If you should be so happy as to obtain forgiveness for your own neglect, that forgiveness cannot extend to those who are in the grave, and in the place of torment, whom you took no care to preserve from that place of misery. 3. Let children learn from this awful history, to beware of conduct that may be the cause of bitter mourning to their parents, and of deeper mourning to themselves. Give them no reason to mourn for you while you are alive. Give them no reason to think that you are dead while you live. And give them no reason, if death should tear you from them, to think that you are twice dead. This, I confess, is a consideration that cannot be expected to have much weight with you, if you have no regard to your own welfare. If your parents are godly, you have it in your power to bring down their grey hairs with sorrow to the graves, by living or dying in sin. But their grief will be only for a moment, yours will be eternal. David's happiness is not in the least degree affected, at present, by the unhappy condition of any of his children in another world. But, if any of them are in a place of punishment, the temporary sorrows which they caused him to endure on earth are terribly avenged, and will be avenged upon them through everlasting ages. There must be a separation between you and your parents. If they should die before you, lasting will be your remorse if you make them unhappy in the course of their lives. If you follow the good counsels which they give you, you will have the pleasant prospect of seeing their faces again with joy, in a world where no separations are ever to take place. Lastly, Let us look forward to that world from whence sorrow is for ever excluded. Lay hold of eternal life, whereunto you are called. It is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. He who believeth on him hath life everlasting. He will swallow up death in victory, and wipe away tears from the faces of all his people. NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY; or, Materials for Thought. By the Author of " Sketches and Skeletons of Sermons," &c. 12mo. London: Houlston & Stoneman. 1845. THE writer of this volume, who is already known to the public by other productions, "having a strong attachment to works of a proverbial kind, and thinking that many others might have a similar predilection, concluded that such a book would tend both to interest and instruct a numerous class of readers." He has accordingly brought together, under sepa.. rate heads, a variety of original thoughts on intellectual, moral, and spiritual themes. The enterprise was a fair one, and he has been, on the whole, successful in following out its object. The proverbial form has been sanc tioned by the wise in all ages, and, from | them by the constitution or law of their the force as well as beauty which it fre- country;" " Fourth, That it teaches that quently possesses, it is found to exercise the exercise of authority in religion is a powerful practical influence over mankind. What is more decisive still, the apophthegm has been that which infinite wisdom has repeatedly adopted for the purpose of imparting the instruction which brings with it the promise not only of this life but of that which is to come. We give an example or two from our author, picked almost at random : "Love pure and celestial flows in gushing streams to its own native ocean, but in its course it fills the earthly channels with its waters, and fertilizes all on every side." "Heaven is the realm of love, and this blends all its blest society in bonds of amity divine." "This love once lived on earth, and taught its glorious truths and benign principles to men. And having lived mid miracles of gracious splendour, suspended on the cross, it died to bless and save a guilty world." "His (the Christian's) life is from heaven, and only by dying he reaches it. He lies down with worms, to rank with seraphs; he mingles with dust, to blaze with glory; putrescent in the grave, to be decked with immortal purity." "Mortal, yet indestructible; perishing, yet eternal; dying, yet clad with the garb of immortality." REMARKS on the CONNEXION between Dublin: John Robertson. foreign to the province of the civil government, and is appropriate to God alone;" and "Fifth, That it neither asks nor is warranted to accept aid from civil governments in order to its support and propagation." In treating these several points, he introduces every aspect of the question-as a question of christian law which is important and vital. So complete and conclusive is the argument in all its branches that we would have all confidence in naming Dr Urwick's pamphlet, to every candid student of the question, however strong his prejudices in favour of state churches, as an unexceptionable statement of the views of Dissenters in general, on the subject. The treatise is, in our view, in respect of the temper and tone in which it is written, a specimen of the highest style of religious controversy. There is not a sentence which savours of acrimony of spirit; the truth is spoken, but it is spoken "in love." There are several passages which are especially seasonable and valuable, as containing a clear and complete exposure of misapprehensions which are, even at the present day, prevalent in some quarters respecting the principles of Dissenters. Take the following example, which we should like to place before the eye of every advocate of the Establishment principle, who has been accustomed to charge us with holding that civil magistrates should not be under the influence of the fear of God in discharging their official functions. "Obedience to the gospel is a personal A MASTERLY exposition and defence of and intelligent thing that has to do with the voluntary principle, worthy of the the conscience and the will. It is not a subject and of the man. Having fre- profession which men may make without quently enjoyed no small measure of having answerable principles. It is not gratification in perusing the productions what we can do by proxy, as governof Dr Urwick's able and accomplished ments act for the communities over which pen, we had high expectations of this they preside in transactions with foreign little treatise, and we feel constrained to powers. It has to do with us as indivisay that we have not been disappointed. duals. It lies directly between man and Within the compass of seventy pages it his Maker. It is not an appendage to an presents a compendious but very lumin- office, or part of the theory or frameous illustration of the following proposi- work in the constitution of the body potions:- .66 First, That Christianity de-litic. It is a condition and habit of our mands both of rulers and subjects alike inner being, consisting in faith, hope, and that they should personally become love. The gospel proposes to christianise Christians, and fulfil every christian states, by making the people that comduty;' "Second, That it enjoins all Christians to yield due submission and support to the civil government;" "Third, That it empowers Christians to claim all civil rights and protection, chartered to pose them Christians. Christianity designs to establish itself as a national religion, by making all persons in the nation, whether rulers or ruled, inwardly pious persons. An empire can substan |