CHAPTER XXXV.

_Return—Conclusion._

It was four months later than the incidents of my last chapter, when after a tour on the Continent, I found myself safely landed at Dover, in the gray dawn of a winter’s morning. I had left Paris, in all the frightful confusion consequent upon the _coup d’état_ of Louis Napoleon. In touching, once more, the free and happy soil of England, if I could not say—“This is my own, my native land,” I could yet feel that it was the sacred land of my religion, of my parentage, and of my mother tongue. I was, once more, at home, and ceased to feel myself a foreigner, as I had done in France and Italy. How good and honest, sounded again in my ears, the language of Englishmen! As “bearer of despatches” from Paris, to our ambassador at London, I was landed with the advantage of precedence, and very rapidly passed through the custom-house. The state of things in France, and the feverish anxiety, in England, to learn the changes of every hour, invested my trifling diplomatic dignity with a momentary importance, strikingly diverse from its insignificance at other times: and I was amused to see how much curiosity was felt by the officials as to the mighty communications which might be going up to London in my portmanteau. Even an old salt, as I stepped ashore, could not forbear accosting me with—“Any news this morning, yer honour?” ‘Bad news,’ said I, ‘the Frenchmen are going to have a bloody day of it; be thankful you are an Englishman.’ “So I am, your honour,” was his hearty, and most honest reply.

I had been travelling in Southern Europe, where, to borrow a thought of Dr. Arnold’s, no one can be sure that anything is real, which he seems to see: where _Savans_ are not scholars—where captains are not soldiers—nor judges lawyers—where noblemen are not men of honour—where priests are not pure—nor wives and matrons chaste. I was, again, in the land of facts, a land deeply involved, indeed, in the sins and miseries of a fallen world; but still a land, where, for centuries, everything has been steadily advancing towards a high realization of human capabilities, alike in the physical, and mental, and moral of man’s nature. I was once more in a land where it is base to lie; where domestic purity and piety find their noblest illustrations, whether in palaces or cottages; and where not even luxury and pride have been able to vitiate the general conviction of all classes, that righteousness alone exalteth a nation, and that sin is a reproach to any people.

On arriving in London, my very first employment was to visit the tomb of the holy Bishop Andrewes, at St. Mary’s, Southwark. The prelate is represented, at full length, stretched upon his sepulchre, and right dear it was, after long tarrying amid the monuments of popes and cardinals, to behold, once more, that of an honest and true man, and a saint of God, who, in his day and generation, was “a burning and a shining light.” The tomb of the exemplary and amiable poet Gower, is also in this Church, and has often been described.

Attending Evening Service at Westminster Abbey, on the following Sunday, I was so much struck with the effect produced by the light of candles, in the choir, that it seemed to me, I had never before fully felt the wonderful impressiveness of that Church, nor even of the church service. The surpliced singers, ranged in their stalls—the many faces of the worshippers—and the lofty arches of the sombre architecture received a new aspect, from the mingled light and shade, and the tones of worship were imbued, by association, with something strange and solemn. Deep under the vaultings lay the shadows, and here and there shone out a marble figure, or glimmered a clustered column. When the organ sent its tremulous tide far down the nave, it seemed to come back in echoes, like the waves of the sea—the more effective, because of the distance through which it had stretched and rolled the surge of sound; and when the responsive _Amens_ rose, one after the other, from the voices of the singers, plaintively interrupting the petitions, and marking the impressive stillness of the intervals between, which were filled only with the low monotone of prayer, then I felt how amiable are the temples of the Lord of Hosts, and how fair a resemblance of that temple not made with hands, where they rest not, day nor night, from their hymns, and responsive praises. By the sides of the altar fared two immense wax lights, giving a fine effect to the sanctuary. After the Second Lesson, the preacher, Canon C——, ascended the pulpit, in his surplice, and preached the sermon; after which, the Evening Prayer continued, as after a baptism, the choir taking up the _Nunc dimittis_, followed by the creed, the collects, the anthem, and the prayers, while the organ thundered through the lengths and heights of the abbey. I joined the throng which passed down the nave, and looking back again and again, I received such powerful impressions of the sublimity of the place, as had been wholly wanting to the effect by daylight, as experienced on former occasions. One parting look through the western door, through the dimly illuminated perspective, and then I turned slowly and thoughtfully away. On the preceding Sunday, I had left the cathedral service, at Rouen, in circumstances precisely similar, and my mind naturally fell into a comparative train of thought. There was a great similarity in the effects produced on the senses by the two services. A stranger to the Latin and English languages, would have failed to note any marked difference between them. He would have recognized the Catholic unities of the two rites, and would have failed to observe their diversities, papal and reformed. The French sermon had been vastly better than the English one: the former was preached by an orator, the latter by a spiritless and formal favourite of Lord John Russell. Yet, between the two solemnities, in their entire effect, the disparity was greatly in favour of the English service, which was audibly and reverently performed, while the other was mumbled, and not understood by the congregation. I felt that the Church of England was strong, if compared with that of France, in her heritage of Catholic and Apostolic truth, as distinguished from the systematic falsehoods, which have made the religion of the other, a mere fable, in the general estimation of the French people.

At a later hour, the same evening, it was my lot to preach in St. Bartholomew’s, Moor-lane, in the pulpit once filled by the worthy Archbishop Sharpe. The incumbent of this Church had lately discovered at Sion College a collection of papers and books once belonging to the saintly Bishop Wilson; and he placed in my hands, for that evening, the original _Sacra Privata_ of that holy and venerable prelate. I could not but think how much we may owe it to his prayers, that the Church of England is now what she is, as compared with what she was in his day; and, in preaching, I took great delight in paying a parting tribute to that Church, as compared with the churches of the continent.

I am convinced that the debt which England and the world owe to the Anglican Reformers of the sixteenth century, has never been properly appreciated. Like the air which we breathe, but do not perceive, the spirit with which they have invested the religion of England, is that of life and health. They banished nothing but the fogs and noxious exhalations of the middle ages; and, as the result, we find England hale and hearty, and bearing more fruit in her age, while the churches which allowed the Tridentine vapours to become their atmosphere, are perishing in the agues and fevers of a long and ghastly decline. Look at Spain and Italy!

And I cannot forbear, in conclusion, to remark, that when American travellers go to England, and copy the false statistics of some infidel almanac, to justify their railings against the National Church, they are about as wise as John Bull is, when he takes the statistics of our (immigrant) pauperism and crime, as a test of the true state of American society. It is true that there are great abuses connected with the establishment; and it is also true that they are deplored by no class of Englishmen, half so much as they are by the true churchman. If the Church could be left to herself, they would be immediately reformed; but the very creatures who rail at her, because of them, are they who refuse to give her the freedom which she claims, and who do the most to enslave her to the State power. I am no friend to that power in the Church of God; but they who prate against the church, because of her misfortunes, deserve the rebuke of all thinking men, whose knowledge of history, and of the existing state of the world, enables them to compare what has been done for England, by that church, even in her fetters, with what all other religions put together have done for the residue of the world. When we reflect upon the three great achievements of that Church for English liberty—the Reformation, the Restoration of the Constitution and Monarchy, and the repudiation of the Popish Stuarts, we may well afford to laugh at such sneers as a Macaulay endeavours to raise against her, on the ground of blemishes with which his own reckless and treacherous political allies have deformed and afflicted her. And when we attempt to estimate the blessings she has diffused through the whole Anglo-Saxon people, and by them through the world, who can refrain from blessing the dear Church which has placed the English Bible in every cottage, and which, for three centuries, has read the _Ten Commandments_, every Lord’s day, in the ears of millions of the people? It is only when we think of what that Church has done, in spite of the golden chains which fetter her, and in spite of the political miscreants who have always hung like hounds upon her heels and hands, that we can rightly estimate her strong vitality, and her vast beneficence.

And let it be remembered, too, that all that is good among English dissenters, is sucked from the Church, as the parasite derives its nourishment from the oak. The dissenters are mainly the small-tradesmen of England, a people intelligent enough to perceive the faults of their hereditary religion, but not generally enlightened enough to know its value and its services to themselves. They are like the Dutch boors, who thought the sun did no good among the Flemings, because they saw it so seldom, and who concluded that daylight came from the clouds, which were always visible. Whoever will take the pains to contrast the dissenters of England with those of Germany, will learn how much even they derive from the Church, against which they so ignorantly rail.

I desire to speak with great respect of many of the dissenters of England, who, like their estimable Doddridge, are such by the force of circumstances only, while they love and revere the Church of the nation; but I have known even American Presbyterians to experience the greatest revulsion of feeling against the mass of English dissenters, after actual contact with their coarse and semi-political religionism. I was not less surprised than gratified, moreover, to observe very lately, in a widely circulated American newspaper, edited by eminent Presbyterians, a full vindication of the Church of England from the odious and false views current among us in America, with respect to the system of tithes. The writer was himself an English or Irish dissenter, and he frankly asserted the fact, that in paying his tithes, he suffered no wrong, and contributed nothing to the establishment, which did not belong to her. “In short,” said he, “the Church owns one-tenth of my rent, and I am quite as willing to pay it to her, as to pay the nine-tenths to my other landlord.” The nine-tenths might go to a popish priest; but does he who pays it contribute to uphold Popery? No more than one who hires his house of a play-actor, supports the stage.

But although the decline of dissent, in England, is universally admitted, it is generally imagined that Popery is growing. So it is if the immigration from Ireland, of thousands of _navvies_, who have built Romish chapels and convents, out of their earnings on the railways, be the basis of the remark. But nothing was ever more over-rated than the late Apostacy, which is the fruit of a mere personal influence, over a few young men at Oxford, gained by one brilliant sophist, and perniciously directed by him towards ultramontane Romanism. It has spent itself already in a spasmodic revolt against common sense, which is breeding a reaction towards rationalism: but the Church of England is as much in danger from Irvingism as from Newmanism; and Wesleyanism was vastly more energetic against her than either. The chagrin and disappointment of Mr. Newman himself is most apparent. After numbering the “educated men” whom he had involved in his own downfall as _a hundred_, he confesses that their defection from the Church has scarcely been felt by her. “The huge creature from which they went forth,” he says, “showed no consciousness of its loss, but _shook itself, and went about its work as of old time_.” Yes, but with a newer and mightier energy than ever before, and that in both hemispheres. The unhappy man seems to have imagined that by getting into a balloon, he could kick the earth from its orbit: but the planet still revolves around the sun, while he dangles in the air, lost in the brilliant clouds of his own imaginations, and fancying his petty elevation as sublime as her pathway through the skies.

In the same manner, the Dublin reviewers are continually deploring their powerless expenditure of vast resources against the religion of England, which stands in its fortress of Scriptural truth, more impregnable than Gibraltar. Let the reader reflect, for a minute, on the essential characteristic of the Anglican Reformation, as it began under Wycliff, in a _translation of the Scriptures_, and then weigh the importance of the following citation from a Romish periodical.

“Who will not say,” says the _Dublin Review_, “that the uncommon beauty and marvellous English of the Bible is not one of the great strongholds of heresy in this country. It lives on the ear like a music that can never be forgotten, like the sound of the church-bell, _which the convert hardly knows how he can forego_. Its felicities often seem to be almost things rather than mere words. It is part of the national mind, and the anchor of national seriousness. The memory of the dead passes into it. The potent traditions of childhood are stereotyped in its verses. The power of all the gifts and trials of a man is hidden beneath its words. It is the representative of his best moments, and all that there has been about him of soft, and gentle, and pure, and penitent, and good, speaks to him forever out of the English Bible. It is his sacred thing, which doubt has never dimmed, and controversy never soiled. In the length and breadth of the land, there is not a Protestant with one spark of righteousness about him, whose spiritual biography is not in his Saxon Bible.”

Action and reaction are always equal; and it is my own opinion that the hand of God is visible in the permission of the late scandals, and their sequel will demonstrate that He has been infusing into modern Romanism a spirit which will blow it to atoms. Among the beardless boys, who have swelled the numerical strength of the apostacy, there are some prodigals who will yet come to themselves, and remember their father’s house with penitent tears: and as to their leaders, the ex-Jesuit Steinmetz in his narrative of a residence at Stoneyhurst, introduces the following striking view of the case, which sustains my own impressions. “Though the men of Rome,” he says, “exult in this reaction (as they call it) which is making Oscott a _refugium peccatorum_, perhaps from among the very men whose captive chains clank in their triumphal thanksgiving, there will be shot the _lethalis arundo_, the deadly arrow that will pierce and cling to the side of their mother church in the appointed time. It is not children that they are receiving; but full-grown men, accustomed most pertinaciously to think for themselves. They began with being reformers, and it must be confessed with some of the boldness of reformers. Will they be content to change their skins? To become sheep, from having been, as it were, wolves? To smother the cunning and the clever thought, which seems so flattering to one’s own vanity, in the cold, dead ashes of papal infallibility? _We shall see._” This is reasonable, and consoling. We may not live to see it; but a rebellion against Truth must have its rebound, and Church and State will be stronger for such rebellions in the end.

If then, the decline of English arts and arms be near, of which I am by no means as confident as some, it will be a very slow decline, and coincident with a new glory, and a brighter one, than England yet has known. Instead of armies, she is now sending forth soldiers of the Prince of Peace. She has discovered that it is cheaper and wiser to sustain missionaries than bayonets. The era of her greatest work is before her. She is to become the nursing mother of nations, and in her language, the sound of the Gospel is to go forth into all lands, and unto the end of the world. Hers is the deposit of the faith once delivered to the saints. The Roman Churches have divorced themselves from the promises, and in the Catholicity of England chiefly is fulfilled the promise of Christ, to be always with His own Apostolic commission, even to the end of the world. At the same time, there is a moral life in English society, which must long salt the State, and preserve it from decay. I appeal to the common sense of Christian men, and I ask, in what other country under heaven is there such a mass of domestic and social purity? Where else is there so large a benevolence, so masculine a religion, so enlightened a conscience, among any people? England has her shame as well as her glory; she is part and parcel of a sinful world; but her light is not hid under a bushel: and if the hope of the world be not in her candle, I am at a loss to know where to find encouragement as a Christian, that the Gospel is to become universal. I believe, indeed, that my own country is to share, with her, this magnificent career of peaceful conquest. We are bone of her bone, and flesh of her flesh: but I believe, also, that before we can heal the nations, we must first heal ourselves of the wretched religious anarchy which is the bane of our education, our society, and our National character.

After lingering for a few days in the society of my friends, in London and Oxford, I was, once more, for a short time, the guest of the friend to whom this memorial is inscribed, and met at his table, again, the venerable Vicar, who was one of the first to welcome me to England. To part with such friends, and their families, perhaps forever, was only to become aware how deeply I had entwined with theirs, my brotherly feelings and Christian regards. But I had been long enough enjoying myself amid the scenes and friendships which even our holy religion, while it alone can produce them, forbids to our self-indulgence, in a world where every Christian is called to the work of a missionary. Much as I longed to mingle in the delights of an English Christmas, I felt the call of duty, and the blessedness of giving as greater than that of receiving. My own parishioners expected to see me at the altar, on the approaching feast, and my heart warmed towards them, as deserving my best endeavours to gratify their reasonable wishes. Thanks, under God, to the good steamer Baltic, and its skillful commander, I escaped the perils of a wintry sea, and on Christmas-eve, was restored to my flock, and family, in Hartford. On the following day, as I celebrated the Holy Eucharist, I trust it was not without befitting gratitude to God, nor without a new and profound sense of the blessings we owe to him, whose Gospel is the spirit of “peace on earth, and of good-will to men.”

* * * * *

DANA AND COMPANY,

No. 381 BROADWAY, NEW YORK,

(_Sign of the Imperial Folio Bible_),

HAVE FOR SALE—

The Holy Bible, _Oxford University Editions_.

They have just published:—

_Two Superior Editions of_

The Book of Common Prayer,

16mo. and 24mo.

Styles and Prices as follows:—

16mo.

(1) Turkey Morocco, super extra, gilt edges $ 2.50 antique or flexible, (2) The same with clasp 3.00 (3) Turkey Morocco, (Second Style) gilt edges 1.75 (4) The same with clasp 2.25 (5) French Morocco gilt edges 1.25 (6) Roan gilt edges 1.12 (7) Roan red edges 1.00 (8) Roan marble edges 88

24mo.

(1) Turkey Morocco, super extra, gilt edges $ 2.00 antique or flexible, (2) The same with clasp 2.50 (3) Turkey Morocco, (Second Style) gilt edges 1.25 (4) The same with clasp 1.75 (5) French Morocco gilt edges 1.00 (6) Roan gilt edges 80 (7) Roan red edges 75 (8) Roan marble edges 63

These Editions are printed in a superior manner, and excel other editions, of same general style, in the size of type of the Psalms and Hymns.

* * * * *

UNISON OF THE LITURGY. _From Advent to Ash-Wednesday._ By Archer Gifford, A. M. _12mo. 328 pages._

_Price_, $1.00.

It is pleasing to see a mind which has been long given to the duties of a severe profession, turning thus for relief and diversion into the brighter field of theological literature. Mr. Gifford has already gained a distinction in New Jersey by several legal works, which have had the patronage of our Legislature, and now we have another volume from his pen, intended, as it were, for a dutiful offering to his Church.

The design of the work is to unfold and illustrate the more profound and unapparent excellencies of that most elaborate of all productions, the Episcopal Liturgy. Although there may be a difference of opinion as to the utility of this manual of devotional formularies, yet no one can fail to admire it as an æsthetical composition. The manner in which it has been arranged and ordered is most strikingly beautiful. It is a frame filled with moveable pieces. On no two occasions of its use does it appear exactly alike, but constantly assumes new combinations with the progressive sentiment of the ecclesiastical year. These ever changing portions within this unalterable framework are wholly of a Scriptural character. For every Sunday, two chapters are selected from the Old Testament, and two from the New, called the “Lessons;” and two brief passages, chosen for their weighty and emphatic import, called the “Epistle” and the “Gospel,” are appropriately prefixed by a comprehensive and leading prayer, whose substance has been gathered out of them, called the “Collect.” But this is not merely a superficial arrangement: an aim and a principle underlies it all. Every Sunday and Holy-day has an especial subject assigned to it, either doctrinal or preceptive, which runs through and dictates all these variations of the Service. Thus in every week the Scriptures are made, by these manifold citations from them, to cluster around some central thought and flash their light upon it.

It is this which has furnished the design of Mr. Gifford’s book. The Prayer-Book has had many commentators, all of whom have alluded to the nearly-inspired wisdom of those who put it together. The further they penetrate it the more they seem to discover the long-forgotten ideal and matured plan out of which it grew. The remarkable fact of an intentional unison of its apparently diverse parts, has only been partially observed, and it has been left to Mr. Gifford to discover and prove in every case the beautiful appositeness of all to one nucleus idea. This, under the heading of each Sunday, he distinctly sets forth, and then traces its radiations first through the Collect, then through the Epistle, then through the Gospel, then through all the Lessons, to its remoter scintillations in the Catechism and the Articles of Religion.

Such is the fine conception around which the above work has grown. The service of each Sunday is analyzed and outlined—all the information that could be compressed into a small space is given, and a rich variety of association instantly suggested to the devout worshipper. Probably no one could have been found better fitted for such a task than Mr. Gifford, and his cultivated taste and wide range of study have been now so successfully called into requisition that we find here the thoughts and beauties of many different writers blended about his own design in a many-hued mosaic.

It is at once a noble eulogy upon the Liturgy, and a practical standard guide to its use. In this latter, its real purpose, it most admirably succeeds. The moral or spirit of each day being fully set forth, the attention is sustained and devotion quickened by the new colors and the defined interest thus thrown over the Service as it proceeds. A Liturgy is liable to abuse if people may go blindly and desultorily through it, but here the clue of every recurring service is seized and industriously pursued for them. One prominent topic is seen to draw its line of light round all its parts, and bind them together as with a girdle of gold.

We have been glad to devote more than usual space to the notice of this work, because it is the production of one of our townsmen. A few specimen pages appeared about a year ago, which received the approbation of many of the most distinguished men in the Episcopal Church, and the author, thus encouraged, has put forth the present handsome volume, designing to follow it by another, thus completing the circle of the year.

_Newark Daily Advertiser_

The work will do good in two ways: first, by furnishing valuable practical matter for private reading and instruction; and secondly, by dissipating the mist which some writers have conjured up, in their efforts to show that the Prayer Book was a piece of patch-work, with an Arminian or a Popish Liturgy, and Calvinistic Articles; than which, no fancy could be more foolish or futile.

_Calendar_

* * * * *

SERMONS FOR THE TIMES. By the Rev. Charles Kingsley, Author of “_Village Sermons_,” “_Alton Locke_,” _etc._ _12mo., 360 pages._

_Price, 75 cents._

These Sermons are Kingsley all over; deep, daring, dashing penetrating; vigorous. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * It strikes us as being a kind of preaching that we want just now—that it is indeed preaching “for the times;” in character with the times, and, therefore, adapted for the times: yet, not in any spirit of compromise with the world therein, but rather combating the spirit of the world with the Spirit of Christ, in a matter-of-fact way. We think, therefore, that the Clergy may find some useful hints in the pages of this volume, while the Laity may peruse them with practical advantage.

_Churchman._

These are remarkable Sermons, as were those of his former volume. They are models of a plain and direct style; sparkling with forcible allusions and applications. They illustrate the teaching of our Catechism to a considerable extent, and often in the happiest manner, regarding it as a symbol of Catholic truth. They are worth reading for their power and demonstrations of most important doctrines, little heeded in these times, when the Puritan and Sectarian spirit seeks to prevail.

_Banner of the Cross._

This is a reprint of one of the most characteristic, if not one of the most extraordinary volumes of the day, which no one can read without interest, and few without profit. There is something striking, not to say startling, about everything the author says; and yet the language is so simple and appropriate, as to be perfectly intelligible to every one.

_Calendar._

A capital volume it is—his style seems to gain in directness, crispness, vigor, and momentum, as he grows older. It is as clear as English can be made. A healthy common sense rules throughout * * * * * * In our day when muddy heads do so greatly abound, a volume of such sturdy, pungent, powerful and illuminating Saxon, is of the highest worth.

_Church Journal._

They are incomparable Sermons for _Lay_-reading.

* * * * *

SERMONS FOR THE TIMES. By the Rev. Charles Kingsley, _Author of_ “_Village Sermons_,” “_Alton Locke_,” _etc._ _12mo., 360 pages._

_Price, 75 cents._

These sermons abound in striking thoughts, presented with remarkable clearness and simplicity.

_Christian Witness._

* * * * With all the faults of these sermons, we should like to see them in the hands of our evangelical clergy. * * *

_Southern Churchman._

These sermons were written by the same pen that wrote “Alton Locke,” and “Yeast.” It has been said that the author is only a baptised infidel, and that he desecrates his pulpit and his clerical character to the unhallowed purpose of promulgating a skepticism, whose only redeeming feature is that it is ill-concealed. These “Sermons for the Times” make an entirely different impression on us. They seem to us to be the heart utterances of one whose views are on some points, indeed, a little peculiar, but who holds, with a clear intelligence and lively faith, the great truths of the Gospel of Christ. If Infidelity can sincerely preach and practice the doctrines with which this volume is rife, we think it will be doing as much to convert the world to true religion as some religionists we wot of, whose strength is so exhausted in proving other folks heretics, that they have little left to make themselves or the world the servants of God. To such, and to all, we commend the “Sermons for the Times.” They will do all good.

_Ohio Farmer._

This second volume of sermons by Mr. Kingsley contains the earnest words of an English clergyman upon the evils of the times. They are addressed to the hearers of a country parish church, in plain, honest Saxon, enforcing the Church Catechism and rebuking the selfishness, dishonesty, irreverence, profligacy and godlessness of the day. In quaint, straightforward simplicity, they remind us of the services of the good Hugh Latimer, of blessed memory.

_Rome Daily Sentinel._

The discourses are remarkable for their simplicity, yet they evince rare intellectual power, and each page gives evidence of the genius of the author.

_Boston Evening Transcript._

They are so practical and sensible that they will be read with profit and pleasure by all persons who are seekers after truth.

_Boston Daily Advertiser._

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OUR CHURCH MUSIC.—_A Book for Pastors and People._ By Richard Storrs Willis. _12mo., 138 pages._

_Price, 50 cents._

The Church has a good right to look to Mr. Richard S. Willis, as being, perhaps, of all our youthful native musicians, the one of whom she may expect the most true hearted and efficient service. His training, however scientific, has not been that which would qualify him the most readily for usefulness in this field: but there is an earnest devotion of spirit, a reaching forth after the deep and the true, a growing strength and manliness, exercised and made firm by a steady industry, which promise the best results. He has just issued a neat little volume on _Our Church Music, a Book for Pastors and People_, which is the best and most thoughtful practical essay that has for a long time appeared among us.

_Church Journal._

Were it not for the copyright on this admirable book, we should be compelled to transfer large portions of it to our pages. As it is, we hope to give, hereafter, some specimens of it, and in the mean time, cordially recommend it for its interest and the usefulness of its suggestions.

_Episcopal Recorder._

Many of the articles collected in this pleasant and thoughtful volume have been already published in our columns; and we are glad to know that they have attracted that attention among our readers which they deserve. The series is now completed, by the addition of others, not so well adapted to a journal like this, because requiring diagrams, etc., to illustrate them, but harmonious with those in tone and teaching, and equally rich in useful suggestions. Mr. Willis has brought the finest musical cultivation of Europe to assist him in his task, but has never allowed his artistic taste and knowledge to overlay and smother his native good sense, or his instinctive perception of what is demanded in true church music. We have found his writings on this subject instructive and quickening; the more so, perhaps, because our own half-formed thoughts have often been brought back to us by him, more fully and clearly expressed than they had been to ourselves, and clothed with the authority that belongs to one who is so rapidly becoming a recognised Master in his chosen department.

_Independent._

* * * * *

OUR CHURCH MUSIC.—_A Book for Pastors and People._ By Richard Storrs Willis. _12mo., 138 pages._

_Price, 50 cents._

Mr. Willis in this work considers church music mainly as a part of worship, which is its true and original design, and not as a mere entertainment interposed between the graver offices of devotion and instruction. He points out the objections to the common modes of conducting church music, stating them with a good deal of force and vivacity. * * * * Mr. Willis thinks that to make our music what it ought to be, “we need to simplify the congregational style and amplify the choir style.” He gives some practical suggestions, well worthy of consideration, respecting the singing of children in churches, the position of the choir and organ, the importance of clergymen possessing some knowledge of music as an art, and the training of the youth of a congregation in singing. In a second part of his treatise, Mr. Willis considers what subjects are proper for hymns, the adaptation of hymns to music, the treatment of words, the expression given to them in singing, and the introduction of what he calls “secular efforts” in church music. His views on all these subjects bear witness to his fine taste and careful study of the subject. Mr. Willis has given to both the scientific and practical part of music the study of years, and is entitled to speak on the subject with a tone of decision.

_New York Evening Post._

The author is possessed of a profound scientific musical education, perfected in the best schools in Europe. Since his return home he has been engaged in editing the Musical World, a paper which has done more than all other publications together to diffuse and popularize a correct musical taste in this country. His journal is not confined, however, to musical criticism, but comprehends also every other branch of the Fine Arts, and is characterized by candid and intelligent exposition and elegant discussion. Mr. Willis has given much attention to _Church Music_, and the just views so ably and earnestly enforced in the Musical World, are beginning to produce a practical impression that exhibits itself extensively in improvements introduced into that department of public worship. These he has embodied into a volume bearing the title “Our Church Music: a book for Pastors and People.” It is full of interest to the pastor, the choir, and the congregation.

_New York Journal of Commerce._

* * * * *

OUR CHURCH MUSIC.—_A Book for Pastors and People._ By Richard Storrs Willis. _12mo. 138 pages._

_Price, 50 cents._

A little work, designed—as the title page indicates—“for Pastors and People,” and one that may be advantageously studied by both. The author is most favorably known to our lettered and musical community, as editor of that excellent periodical, “_The Musical World_;” but he here takes his stand upon a broader basis. He does not treat of the choral arrangements generally prevalent in the tone or spirit of a Professor. He sinks the Art, of which he is a practised master, under the solemn claims of the dignity and hallowed purposes of Church worship, and plies his arguments for the benefit of congregations alone. He complains—and with reason—that in many of the American churches, the singing and chanting are just as much _performances_, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, as though auditors and singers were in a concert-room; and points out very simply and cogently how this evil has arisen, and how it may be modified, if not removed. Psalmody also comes in for an examination; and we must say we have been greatly struck with the combined boldness, delicacy, and religious sentiment, displayed by Mr. Willis, in handling a somewhat delicate theme—one in which many of the Clergy are averse to having outsiders meddle.—In short, this duodecimo of one hundred and thirty pages is an exceedingly suggestive little work; its common sense and practical view bringing it within the comprehension of non-professional readers. It has greatly interested us. May it be of use.

_Albion._

A book this, full of common sense, and most happily adapted to the state of things in ten thousand places of worship in the United States. As we have turned over its pages we have exclaimed again and again, “How true! How well said! Would that everybody could read it!” The adoption of the suggestions made in this volume would work a speedy revolution in our Church music, transforming it from a mere professional display, into simple and beautiful, because heartfelt, worship. Let it then be widely circulated.

_Ohio Farmer._

A glance over its chapter-headings will reveal to all interested in the subject of the volume, the richness of its themes. The manner of their discussion seems to us judicious and sensible, and almost wholly in the right direction. We do not accord with some of the criticisms of the work, but we certainly believe that its author is in advance of the world in his teachings, and that the study of his treatise must make our church music better.

_Congregationalist._

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HEART AND HOME TRUTHS.—By the Rev. R. Whittingham, Jr. _12mo., 188 pages._

_Price, 75 cents._

_Heart and Home Truths_ is the modest title of a work, in which will be found much more than the average of deep thought, and true tender feeling. From the contemplation of the most familiar features of natural things, the nature of _Truth_ is beautifully illustrated, and the modes by which it is to be attained are shown to be in the closest analogy with the other works of Him, who hath composed in one Spirit, both the Book of Nature and the Book of Revelation. Its doctrinal tone is high and uncompromising, though altogether devoid of harshness; and the drapery of style is as rich with the embroidery of fancy and a glowing imagination, as the glorious face of nature itself can make it. This unpretending work will make a way for the Truth in the minds of many, upon whom a more didactic manner would be thrown away.

_Church Journal._

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THE END OF CONTROVERSY, CONTROVERTED.—By the Rt. Rev. John H. Hopkins, D.D., _Bishop of Vermont_. _In two vols. 12mo., 918 pages._

_Price, $2.00._

The well-known work of the Romish Bishop, Milner, entitled, “_The End of Controversy_,” was recommended some years ago by the Romish Bishop Kenrick, to all our Bishops, as a book, the perusal of which would bring them into the Romish Church; a movement which he exhorted them to take soon, lest their _people_ should all go before them, and leave them alone. That work is still extensively circulated throughout all this country, and many earnest Protestants have long desired a work which might be a popular as well as a conclusive reply. This want is now supplied. Milner is plausible, ingenious, bold, unscrupulous, and withal _readable_. The difficulty has been hitherto, not to answer the book—for that has been done again and again—but to answer it in such a way as would enable them to meet the enemy upon his own ground. The well-known familiarity of the Bishop of Vermont with every phase of the Romish controversy, his thorough learning, clear reasoning, and brilliant and effective style, have all contributed to make this one of the most successful of his contributions to the cause of Truth. And the present position of the controversy with Rome, and the keenness with which public attention is aroused to meet her terrible aggressions, will give occasion for the circulation of works like this, which, without ever compromising or ignoring the truth still remaining in the midst of corruption, yet, throughout, maintains the most vigorous and triumphant opposition to the errors of Rome.

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A PRESBYTERIAN CLERGYMAN LOOKING FOR THE CHURCH.—By the Rev. Flavel S. Mines. _12mo., 600 pages._

_Price, $1.25._

This is now acknowledged to be the leading work in the Controversy between Episcopacy and Presbyterianism. It has already had a more extensive circulation than any other; and from the vigorous style of the author, his glowing and copious rhetoric, the popular ease with which he handles his subject, and the masterly skill with which he arranges his argument, so that the full force of every point shall, as it were, stare the reader in the face, there is small probability that this brilliant and standard work will ever be superseded.

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DICTIONARY OF THE CHURCH.—By the Rev. William Staunton. _12mo., 474 pages._

_Price, $1.00._

This is the original work, which has since been the model of others in England and elsewhere. In clearness of style, and fulness of detail as regards everything peculiar to the Protestant Episcopal Church in this country, it is altogether without a rival. It will aid many a Churchman to render a reason for the System of the Church; and, to those not of her Communion, it will explain fully everything which at first sight may appear to them strange or inappropriate.

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THE PLAIN SONG OF THE CHURCH. _Recently Published. 16mo., 80 pages._

_Price, 38 cents._

For congregational chanting, to be done in _unison_ by all those who can sing, the ancient _plain song_ of the Church is the only music which will ensure success. The real _Gregorians_ have been much talked of on this side of the water; but this is the _first_ and only work in which they have yet _appeared_. All other publications containing them, have so far modified or altered them, as to ruin their true effect. In simplicity and plasticity, in strength and dignity, and manly character, no other chants are to be compared with them. The above work includes all the Canticles of Morning and Evening Prayer, together with the occasional Anthems appointed for Easter Day, Thanksgiving, the Consecration of a Church, and the Institution of a Minister. It gives also the ancient notation for all the parts of the Service which may be performed chorally. The _canto fermo_ is in the ancient character; the accompaniment is in the modern notation.

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MEN AND TIMES OF THE REVOLUTION; or, Memoirs of Elkanah Watson; _Including Journals of Travels in Europe and America, from 1777 to 1842, with his Correspondence with Public Men, and Reminiscences and Incidents of the Revolution. Edited by his son_, Winslow C. Watson. _8vo., 460 pages._

_Price, $1.50._

Mr Watson has contributed an interesting and valuable work to the literature of the Revolution. A worthy descendant of the Pilgrims, he traversed our country several times during the period of the War; and for about five years he travelled in England, France, Holland and Flanders, associating familiarly, at home and abroad, with statesmen, philosophers, and military men, a shrewd observer, diligently recording his observations and reflections.

_Publisher’s Critic._

“The American Merchant,” as we saw him in our boyhood at the Academy from the easel of the great American artist, Copley, the powder fresh on his hair, and the _shimmer_ of the velvet leaving us in doubt whether his coat was the handiwork of the painter or the tailor—the American Merchant, Elkanah Watson, lives still on the canvas of Copley, in colors that time has ripened, and not impaired; but all that is mortal of this man of Revolutionary times, has been gathered to his fathers; and his son, Winslow C. Watson, Esq., here presents us with a volume of reminiscences, whose only fault is its brevity.

_Evening Post._

* * * * These posthumous papers will be universally welcomed by the public. They form an invaluable repository of facts and reflections, which will materially aid the researches of the biographer and the historian. Mr. Watson’s correspondence with public men, his familiar intercourse with the prominent characters of the Revolution, his observations in Europe at a time when the fortunes of America were trembling in the balance, exhibit in a new light the multitude of influences which, in the Old World and in the New, were brought to bear in favor of our independence, and finally led to its acknowledgment, first by France, Holland and Spain, and lastly by the mother country. * * * * * * * * * * * * But here we must leave this fascinating volume, not, however, without urging our readers to seek a further acquaintance with its pages.

_New York Evening Mirror._

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MEN AND TIMES OF THE REVOLUTION; or, Memoirs or Elkanah Watson; _Including Journals of Travels in Europe and America, from 1777 to 1842, with his Correspondence with Public Men, and Reminiscences and Incidents of the Revolution. Edited by his son_, Winslow C. Watson. _8vo., 460 pages._

_Price, $1.50._

The title-page of this volume indicates very justly its real character. The first seventy-five pages of the book are filled with exceedingly interesting reminiscences of Mr. Watson’s early life, including the minute details of his experience and observations in his travels on horseback from Connecticut to South Carolina and back, immediately after the commencement of the Revolutionary War. The following one hundred and sixty pages embrace a record of his experience and observation during a four years’ sojourn and travel in Europe, from 1779 to 1784; and the remaining two hundred and twenty pages are occupied with recollections pertaining to a multitude of places, incidents, and individuals, and with extracts from his correspondence with many persons of distinction in the past generation. The period through which the volume takes the reader, the rare opportunities afforded its author of acquiring a personal knowledge of its political history and the varied phases of its society, his quick and keen observation, and his constant habit of recording what he saw and heard, and his impressions in regard to men and events, render it not only an interesting and instructive volume, but an important acquisition to our sources of national history.

_Protestant Churchman._

This is an entertaining and instructive biography of a gentleman who was a leading American merchant during the Revolution.

_Episcopal Recorder._

* * * Few men had so long and varied an experience. More than half these memoirs is an autobiography; the remainder has been compiled from the manuscripts, correspondence, &c., of the deceased. The whole work is exceedingly entertaining, and will be of service to future historians.

_N. Y. Commercial Advertiser._

His travels, his extensive acquaintance with all sorts of people, extending up from the Revolution until a very recent period, make a volume of much more than ordinary interest.

_New Haven Morning Journal and Courier._

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Transcriber’s note:

Hyphenation and archaic spellings have been retained as in the original.

Punctuation has been corrected without note. Other errors have been corrected as noted below:

page xi, town—Litchfield Cathedral, ==> town—Lichfield Cathedral, page 11, an ancient minister, ==> an ancient minster, page 31, entered by Poet’s corner. ==> entered by Poets’ Corner. page 32, objects in Poet’s Corner, ==> objects in Poets’ Corner, page 33, the Dean’s ultilitarianism ==> the Dean’s utilitarianism page 50, character of it scenery ==> character of its scenery page 70, joys and sorows; ==> joys and sorrows; page 118, busts in Poet’s corner, ==> busts in Poets’ Corner, page 122, familiar to Shakspereans, ==> familiar to Shakspeareans, page 123, visiting Hounsditch and Billingsgate, ==> visiting Houndsditch and Billingsgate, page 140, manuscript of Cœdmon, ==> manuscript of Cædmon, page 165, Mall and St. James’ street ==> Mall and St. James’s-street page 166, down St. James’-street, and ==> down St. James’s-street, and page 166, (as pourtrayed in his ==> (as portrayed in his page 168, by Lord George Lenox ==> by Lord George Lennox page 193, tine artificial cataract ==> fine artificial cataract page 239, most pleasing representive ==> most pleasing representative page 246, Hanoverians, surrending art ==> Hanoverians, surrendering art page 259, towards the Solant ==> towards the Solent page 276, yet, unless _Encœnia_ ==> yet, unless _Encænia_ page 288, St. Wilfrids’ needle ==> St. Wilfrid’s needle page 304, enthusiasm exibits itself ==> enthusiasm exhibits itself