of its observance as commemorative of the finished work of the Redeemer there remaineth, therefore, a sabbatism [or Sabbathkeeping] to the people of God; for He that is entered into His rest, [viz. Christ,] He also hath ceased from His own works [of Redemption], as God did from His [of Creation]." We have given the passage paraphrastically, in order concisely to exhibit the result of Dr. Wardlaw's elaborate discussion (in his fourth discourse) on the whole argument of the Apostle in Hebrews iv. 1-11. To many of our readers this version of the passage is, probably, new; and Dr. Wardlaw takes some pains to obviate a prejudice against its ready acceptance, arising from the previous habit of considering "the rest that remaineth for the people of God," as an expressive designation of the place of bliss. It would be impossible, in the short compass of our review, to give a fair account of the arguments by which the translation given above may be confirmed, if not established. It may be sufficient to say, that the author has exhibited those critical powers, in which he so much excels, to great advantage, and that his argument is deserving of serious attention. The learned Dr. Owen took the same view of this very difficult and intricate chapter; and those who wish to enter still more deeply into the matter, ought to consult his commentary, and to study his elaborate Exercitations' on the subject. It is certainly a very remarkable fact that the word rendered ‘rest' by our translators in verse 9, is in the original (ΣaßBaτioμos) Sabbatism,' while the βατισμος) same word as it appears in the English version of the other parts of St. Paul's argument, is in the Greek (Karanavais) repose:' it (Καταπαυσις) does not seem probable that the terms were quite synonymous. While we incline to the view which Dr. Wardlaw takes of the subject,

6

we are not disposed with him to fix upon this passage as an express and positive injunction' for the observance of the Christian Sabbath; it can scarcely be considered in that character, unless the proposed translation be so positively established as to exclude all controversy among candid scholarswhich in our opinion it does not.

The remaining five discourses, constituting the larger part of this volume, (Pp. 138-295) are devoted by the pious author to the more practical department of his subject. He points out the duties included in its due celebrationthe state of heart and mind necessary to the acceptable keeping of it-the modes in which the day may be profaned-some of the benefits resulting from its due observance, and some of the evil effects of its neglect and profanation-and the means to be employed for checking its profanation, and promoting its observance. These topics afford abundant scope for a Christian minister to expand his heart, and to give utterance to his feelings; and we can say, without flattery, that we envy the audience which had the privilege of listening to the pious effusions of its warm-hearted and eloquent pastor; his flock must have been delighted and edified; and though the spirit of such discourses can never be fully conveyed in the printed form, we trust that multitudes beyond the reach of his voice will benefit by his instructions as brought before the Christian public in this little volume. The following passage (and there are many like it) will shew the pious reader what he may expect in the perusal of this valuable treatise.

THE LORD'S-DAY' can be celebrated in the true spirit of it by those only who rightly understand the design of the work which Jesus finished on the cross, and of his resurrection as the evidence of that design having been effected. The mere belief of the facts that Jesus died and rose

again, is not the faith of the Gospel; that faith including also the belief of the true end or purpose of the facts..... Unless we celebrate the Lord's Day as guilty sinners, indebted for their salvation to the finished work of Immanuel, trusting and rejoicing in Him in whom Jehovah is well-pleased; praising the glories of His person, character, and work; presenting our supplications and thanksgivings to God in His name: and, with humble joy, anticipating the everlasting repose of heaven, through Him, who, having finished His work, entered into His rest;-unless we thus observe it, the spirit of the day is gone : all is formal, cold, and dead; or, if there be fire, it is spurious, unhallowed fire, such as has not been kindled from the altar on which "the Lamb of God took away the sins of the world." The weekly return of the day reminds the people of Christ both of the cross and of the Crown. It humbles, and it animates,-humbles, by bringing sin to their remembrance,-animates, by assuring them that it is "sin atoned." It leads them back to the past, and forward to the future,-back to Calvary, and forward to heaven. It points to the open and empty sepulchre, and proclaims-" The Lord is risen indeed.""Come, see the place where they laid Him." And while, with the voice of triumph, they sing

Christ is risen from the dead,
High ascended as our Head,
Enter'd heaven with his blood,
Seated on the throne of God!

they hear in spirit, at the close of their song, the divine monition, " If ye, then, be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God."-Pp. 170, 171.

We will now accompany Dr. Wardlaw from the altar of the sanctuary, to the domestic hearth; and we shall find that he equally well knows how to touch the springs of the affections, whether it be his business to speak to the members of the church in general, or to individuals in the smaller circles of a Christian family. The following beautiful little picture, cannot, we think, be contemplated without the deepest emotion by any one who has ever himself formed a part of those pleasing

domestic scenes' which the author describes as brought before his own mind by the tender recollections of childhood.' Treating on the domestic duties of the Sabbath, he sketches one of those sweet home views which open before us.

When the little group, with father, or mother, or both, assemble round the family fireside; repeat in succession their little tasks of verses, or questions, or psalms and hymns; read from the word of God, and are encouraged to inquire into its meaning for themselves, or stimulated to attention and understanding by queries addressed to them-simpler or more difficult, according to their years and capacities, with the alternate gravity of impressive seriousness, and the kindly smile, and the glistening tear of sweet affection; when they listen with rivetted interest, to the pleasing and instructive tales of Holy Writ; of Adam in Paradise; of the temptation and the fall; of the wickedness of men, and the patience of God; and the awful visitation of his judicial vengeance in the desolating flood; of Noah and the Ark, and the new beginning of the world; of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; of Joseph and his brethren; of Moses in the bullrushes; of Jonah and Ninevah; of Daniel and the three children; and, above all, of the "holy Child Jesus,"-the incidents of his birth, and life, and death; the inimitably simple, and affecting narrative of Bethlehem, and Gethsemane, and Calvary : such domestic scenes are the delight of every pious heart. O let not Christian parents allow them to disappear from the earth!

We

We have not spoken more highly in praise of this excellent little treatise than it deserves. regret, however, to notice a few passages which, we fear, are likely to impede its general acceptability. We allude to those parts of the volume in which the author unnecessarily allows his views, as opposed to all Establishments,_to intrude into his discussions. For instance, he steps aside to an objection which, he thinks, may possibly be brought against a certain line of argument he is pursuing,

that it goes to establish the moral obligation and permanence of tithes;' and adds, that there is quite abundant evidence that the tithing system was peculiarly Jewish.' (p. 81.) We know not the individuals who are so foolish as to ground a claim to tithes upon such a basis; at all events, they could not be worthy of Dr. Wardlaw's notice, though many conscientious persons, from whom he would not wish to withhold the right hand of fellowship, may feel that the remark above quoted might well have been withheld. Again, he shews (we venture to think) too great a sensitiveness on the subject of its being the duty of governments to enact laws for the decent external observance of the Sabbath, lest he should be considered as compromising those principles which lead him to dissent from Establishments; (see pp. 157, 160—162, &c.) and is led to some observations, not required by his general discussion, which may render his volume less acceptable than we could wish it to be to the members of our own or any other establishment. To his own flock, the observations to which we allude may be considered as natural, and quite in place; but, if his work was intended for general circulation, they might have been omitted with advantage. We think, further, that he places the lawfulness of the magistrate's interference, to enforce the outward observance of the Sabbath, on too low a ground, when he states that the Sabbath is connected with secular advantages which the civil ruler is bound to secure to the subject. Surely the spiritual privileges of the Sabbath are as much a right of the subject, in the enjoyment of which he is entitled to protection from his governors. We fully admit indeed, with Dr. Wardlaw, that all attempts to enforce attention to spiritual duties, are as unlawful as they are unwise; but the

rights of private conscience are fully reserved, even though men be restrained by the legislature from acts which disturb others in the enjoyment of those spiritual advantages which the day of rest brings with it; nor can we conceive how the principles of dissent are åt all compromised by the admission of such a power in the state maintained on its highest grounds, the duty of securing to the subject the spiritual, as well as the civil, benefits of the Sabbath. In the following remarks we quite agree with Dr. Wardlaw :

It was a singular anomaly in Christian legislation (so called by a miserable misnomer) when, in the century before last, the celebrated 'BOOK OF SPORTS' was published, under the high sanction of royal and episcopal recommendation and authority, specifying and prescribing the amusements in which the good people of England might lawfully indulge on the Lord's day. The wisdom of the first James suggested the scheme, and the piety of the first Charles had the credit of reviving it. As it was dictated by aversion to puritanism, 'whose uncourtly strictness,' suited not the royal taste, its indulgences were sufficiently liberal, including, by express mention, dancing, archery, leaping, vaulting, May-games, Whitsun-ales, and morris-dances !' The royal mandate was laid upon all ministers, to read this Book of Sports to their congregations, and so to give it their express or tacit sanction; and, if the order was disobeyed, the consequence to the conscientious culprit, was prosecution, suspension, and imprisonment! The pretext for this plenary indulgence to the desecration of the Sabbath, (for, indeed, it was little better) was the prevention of excess-of excess, in the two opposite extremes, of puritanical dulness and unrestricted licentiousness... Had it been meant to devise a method for effectually obliterating all impressions of the sacredness of the day, and for erasing the lessons designed to be communicated by the reading and preaching of the word, one better adapted to the purpose could not well be imagined. You may form some estimate of the effect produced by it, from the following simple but graphic description from the pen of the justly

eminent Richard Baxter :-'I cannot forget,' says he, 'that, in my youth, in those late times, when we lost the labours of some of our godly teachers, for not reading publicly the Book of Sports,' and dancing on the Lord's day, one of my father's own tenants was the town piper, hired by the year, (for many years together,) and the place for the dancing assembly was not a hundred yards from our door. We could not, on the Lord's day, either read a chapter or pray, or sing a psalm, or catechize, or instruct a servant, but with the noise of the pipe and tabor, and the shoutings in the streets, continually in our ears. Even among a tractable people we were the common scorn of all the rabble in the streets, and were called puritans, precisians, and hypocrites, because we rather chose to read the Scriptures, than to do as they did; though there was no savour of nonconformity in our family. And when the people, by the Book, were allowed to play and dance out of the public service time, they could so hardly break off their sports, that many a time the reader was fain to stay till the piper and players would give over. Sometimes the morris-dancers would come into the church in all their linen, and scarfs, and antic dresses, with morris-bells jingling at their legs; and as soon as common prayer was read, did haste out presently to their play again.-Pp. 275-277.

We rejoice to think that, much as the Sabbath is profaned, there is little danger of such scenes being again transacted in England, or of our Legislators making such pernicious enactments with regard to the Sabbath. Indeed, if the existing Parliament do but take up the subject, with the same wisdom and seriousness, with which the Committee appointed by the late House of Commons have collected the evidence, and made their Report, there is every thing to hope from the provisions for the more decent observance of the Lord's day, which we trust, will be speedily framed and pass into law.

We conclude with one more extract from Dr. Wardlaw:

It is a striking thought of the poet, [Graham,] that the man who hath attained his 70th year, has lived ten years of

Sabbaths. Let all my hearers remember, that in every period of life there is the same proportion. Let them seriously ask themselves, how have they been using the sabbatical time with which a long-suffering God has been favouring them; and what account they will be able to give of it to Him, in the day of final account and retribution. If hitherto you have been wasting it, O waste no more of it; not another hour; it is precious. Let this very day be the beginning of a change....And how, do you ask me, is it to be begun ?... You must, with self-renunciation, make HIM the ground of your confidence, who "finished His work, and entered into His rest;" and you must look to the fulness that is in Him, for the spiritual supplies that are needful to 'stablish you and keep you from evil,' and to bring you to His heavenly kingdom. . . . In that 'everlasting kingdom,' the preparatory Sabbaths of earth shall be exchanged for the perfect rest, and purity, and joy, of the eternal Sabbath of heaven. And the greater the difficulties, the severer the trials, the fiercer the conflicts, through which they have passed in this world, the sweeter, from the power of contrast, will be the experience of that endless rest. 'Rest is sweet to the labouring man after the fatigues of a toilsome day :-rest is sweet to soldiers, when peace returns, after the hardships and perils of a long and harassing campaign.' So will the rest of heaven be sweet to the laborious servant and faithful soldier of Jesus Christ, when,

having "fought a good fight, and finished his course, and kept the faith," he "enters into peace." The remembrance of the toils and dangers, the sufferings and sorrows of time, will contribute to give an enhanced zest to the repose of eternity.— Pp. 292-295.

Since the preceding article was written, Lord Brougham is reported to have said that the Lord's day is as well observed now, as at any former period in this country;' an opinion obviously calculated to discourage the hopes of those who are anxiously desirous of obtaining a legislative enactment for the better observance of that holy day. Such discouragements should quicken our prayers, and stimulate our efforts for the attainment of the desired object.

THIS Volume constitutes a suitable and appropriate Appendix to Mr. Grimshawe's life of the late amiable Rector of Turvey: and will, as such, be read with deep interest by those who were honoured with the acquaintance of our valued and venerated friend. It must not however be regarded as a mere Appendix ; since, besides several original letters and other productions of Mr. Richmond, there are many weighty and judicious observations of the anonymous Editor; and above all, an account of the last days and dying hours of Mr. R's second son, WILBERFORCE, from the same admirable pen which so inimitably delineated the closing scene of Mr. Richmond's life, and on which we continually dwell with renewed interest.

Mr. Richmond was a decided advocate for private, domestic, and almost secluded education. His ruling principle was love. Corporal punishment never entered into his system. His object was

to treat his children as friends and companions; to render home delightful, by combining with severer studies the recreations of natural history, philosophy, music, &c. and above all, to maintain continually an atmosphere of holy and devout affections and dispositions. While, however, such was his system, he yielded so far to circumstances, as to place his eldest son, and at least one of his daughters, at school; and though the result, with reference to his son, was very contrary to his expectations, yet the failure arose so obviously from previous habits and associations, as in no way to impeach the propriety of the measure; while the final issue in each of the cases before us, affords the utmost encouragement to pious parents,

to train up their children in the way they should go, with the assurance that when they are old they will not depart from it. Nugent, the eldest son, notwithstanding all his father's care, contracted acquaintance with some evil associates, was reluctantly sent to sea, and died after a few years, with encouraging evidence of true repentance. Wilberforce, the second son, was removed at the early age of nineteen, and has left behind him a most cheering and encouraging testimony. Mrs. Ayre, the third individual noticed in this volume, died about a week after the birth of her second child; and though less is recorded of her than we should have expected, and that little chiefly refers to the period prior to her marriage; yet she left such decided testimonies of her talents and piety, as induced one, no mean judge of human character and Christian attainment, to declare after her decease, I esteemed her, both for sense and piety, the first in her family.'

It would be easy for us to adorn our pages with interesting and instructive extracts from the present volume; but we could only afford a brief, and therefore an unsatisfactory specimen, and wish rather to recommend our readers to peruse the work for themselves. We would especially urge upon them seriously to weigh the judicious remarks which the editor, from time to time, introduces with reference to Mr. R.'s system. The benefits of a religious education are incalculable, and the importance of alluring by love, rather than of coercing by suffering is obvious, wherever such a system can be adopted. We are by no means, however, clear, whether it is generally practicable; and are fully