it. Thousands of recent Roman Catholics and Infidels were thirsting for the truth, and earnestly supplicating aid; but she took comparatively little interest in their condition, and afforded them neither sympathy nor help. Their state was never brought before her congregations, and seldom minutely referred to in her Magazine, and hardly ever heard as the subject of her prayers. Such was the church's conduct till the time of the disruption, and such also, to a considerable extent, continue to be the views and feelings of those who have separated from her till the present time. Shall this lamentable state of apathy and indifference to what so deeply concerns the Saviour's cause, still continue? Shall the descendants of the Reformers in this and in other lands, the inheritors of the same principles, who, for centuries, have been estranged from one another, shall they not recal their early history, their common origin, the ties that bind them together, and seek each other out, and feel and act as brethren? How cheering has it been to the fathers and brethren of our Church, amid the reproaches and trials to which they have been exposed, to receive now and then a letter of affectionate sympathy from Christians in some foreign land, and in one or two instances pecuniary aid for the erection of our new edifices. Yet how seldom, in times past, have such letters of Christian affection gone forth from our Assemblies to Churches in France, or Switzerland, or Belgium, or the Waldensian valleys in Germany, and in other parts, who were suffering from persecution, and scorn, and poverty, because of their attachment to our common Lord! And when they have had religious enterprises to carry on in their own country, how seldom have we sent them any pecuniary aid. Often, doubtless, in the time of darkness and distress, have they turned their thoughts to their numerous and more favoured brethren in this country, and wondered at our strange neglect, and inwardly sighed. And the signs of the times indicate that they will soon need our sympathy and our assistance in a manner, and to an extent they have not yet done. Rome is rising on the Continent with new and portentous power, is resuming the weapons which, in the time of her weakness, she allowed to be concealed,-is invoking the aid of the temporal arm to crush the men who will not yield their consciences to her domination. Nor does it become us to slumber, as if our own country were not in danger from her machinations. There is a growing expectation on the Continent, in Belgium, in France and Italy, that Great Britain will ere long bow her neck to that yoke of eternal ignominy and degradation which she spurned from her at the time of the Reformation, and that the empire of Popish darkness shall be renewed, and the fetters of a deep mental slavery be fastened upon her. her. Nor should we be altogether free from apprehension, as if no real danger were near. After considering the VOL. XVI. NO. IV. 2 H movements of Popery, her missionary movements, which are of the most extensive character,-her political movements, which are becoming daily more important, her rapid movement towards the intolerant and persecuting position she occupied when France, and Spain, and Belgium, and the Waldensian valleys, were watered with the most precious blood that Europe could afford,-we yet feel satisfied that nothing is calculated to awaken such expectations of triumph, future, though temporary, before they fall once and for ever, as the rapid rise of her principles in the very bosom of the Episcopal Church, which it has been our lot to witness in our own day. From the young shoot which is just rising above the soil we learn what will be the nature of the future tree, and what kind of fruit it will yield. Popery and Puseyism alike agree in a deadly and implacable enmity against evangelical religion, as totally subversive of their own claims; and as they have had opportunity, both have sought to trample it on the ground. Both would wrest from the laity the precious word of God, to place it solely in the hands of the priests; both would expel the Saviour from his throne in order to place the church in his room; both claim to themselves alone the right of dispensing the blessings of salvation, and leave all who will not submit to the priest and the bishop, or the pope, under the wrath of God. Should Puseyism succeed in spreading through its own society those views of the power of the bishop, which have lately been carried into action by Bishop Skinner of Aberdeen,should they be brought to believe that, by the fiat of the bishop, they can either be added to the mystical body of Christ, and receive the Spirit, or be cut off from that mystical body, and thereby be cut off from all communication with the Saviour, it is evident it will wield a tremendous power; that very power over the mind and conscience by which the popes of former days made kings tremble before them, and deliver up their crowns. Such claims on the part of a bishopmight seem too absurd to awaken any alarm; nor would they have alarmed us, were it not for the extraordinary and unaccountable silence of the whole Scottish Episcopal Church, as if not one, either bishop, or presbyter, or clergyman, saw in the bishop's conduct any thing to condemn. Systems so akin to one another as Popery and Puseyism, seem likely, therefore, ultimately to unite, and that in order to crush their opponents. It is time, then, that evangelical Christians of all denominations should be prepared, when necessary, to meet the common enemies, both in this country, and in the Continent of Europe. But we are trenching upon another part of the subject, which we hope to be able to discuss in our next Number, when we shall seek to exhibit the great motives to Christian union and co-operation, especially as regards Christian churches on the Continent, without reference to the churches in our own country, and to bring forth the grand causes, as well as the indications of the rise of Popery, as regards influence and energy, and afterwards to throw out a few practical suggestions as to the best methods of carrying on communication with Christians on the Continent, and awakening an interest among our countrymen in the Redeemer's cause in that part of the world. ART. HI.-Sacred Lyrics. By RICHARD HUIE, M.D. Edinburgh, 1843. Johnstone. A SERMON which was heard with delectation is often read with disappointment, and familiar letters, into which the whole heart of the writer was poured, and which, in their turn, stirred the whole heart of the receiver, are often read in printed volumes with feeble emotion. It is no disparagement that it should be so. The power of a sermon often lies in what forms the charm of a letter-in its personality—in its embodying feelings and allusions whose still small voice can awaken no echo more distant than that of their own homestead. And when the mutually-recognising faces have disappeared, and the mutually-understanding hearts are cold, the fugacious interest of such productions has irretrievably passed away. The remark, in some measure, applies to the volume before us. It is not more truly a Collection of Sacred Lyrics, than of Fireside Poetry. "Written at various periods, during the limited and uncertain leisure of a toilsome profession, they were usually despatched, as soon as copied, to the friends for whose comfort or edification they were composed; or to one or other of those religious periodicals, which the Author experienced a pleasure in countenancing." And whoever would peruse them so as to get the full impression not only of sacred truth and poetic sentiment, but of heart-deep kindness and emotional tenderness which they contain, should keep this circumstance in view. Our earliest association of them is with the Evangelical Magazine, fresh from town on a winter's evening, when these and kindred contributions to the Poet's Corner, were read to the little circle round the tea-table in the manse parlour, by one whose kind and pensive spirit put all its pathos into the congenial lay; and if this little publication could always find or put its reader in such propitious circumstances as we then were, we should have no doubt of its proving an eminently popular volume. As it is, there is pleasure in the thought that many of these pieces have already answered the end in view. Inserted in the album or on the flyleaf of the Bible, or sent to the house of mourning, they have already spoken to many a heart, and carried a consolation or in struction all the greater, because primarily and peculiarly the reader's. We should, however, convey an unjust impression, if we made our readers imagine that the worth of this volume lies all in accidental associations. It has merits of its own. For one thing, the versification is singularly correct, and pours upon the ear a most grateful current of varying rhyme. The imagery, as we should expect in such a work, is more frequently beautiful than sublime, and everywhere betokens a pure taste and cultivated mind, and an eye that looks with alert affection on the quiet scenes of nature, and with strong sympathy on those more solemn scenes of mortal life, to which no frequency can render callous a heart so constructed. A shade of not unpleasing melancholy, such as saddens some of the sweetest strains of the author's friend Montgomery, tinges many of these Lyrics, but only brings into brighter relief that blessed hope which forms the sunny termination of each vista. And the two features which will find with Christian readers most favour for this work are, its constant recurrence to the Alpha and Omega, and its pervading spirit of philanthropy and tenderness and Christian fellow-feeling. The reviewer of such a work is not expected to enter into an elaborate criticism of each several Lyric. His task will be sufficiently accomplished if, by characteristic specimens, he can convey to the reader some idea of the whole. Passing by the longer compositions at the commencement of the volume, from which some striking passages might be selected, we think the reader will not find the following strain unpleasing. ISRAEL AND THE EGYPTIANS. Aghast the sons of Israel stood, Before them raged the swelling flood, "Yet forward still, by Heaven's command, "That wand he stretched across the tide, "With silent awe the trembling crowd Yet onward moved, while curses loud, "And now, will Pharaoh's vaunting host They will; for they have left the coast, "But hark! what means that sullen roar? "One instant saw their banners gay The next beheld the foaming spray Pp. 42, 43. The cast of the author's mind is contemplative, thoughtful, and moralizing, and is most at home in evening light and 'Il Penseroso' scenes. THE RUIN. "I sat upon a lonely mound, Which erst with gorgeous banners crown'd, And totters to its fall. "The setting sun, with golden ray, Through chink and crevice gleamed; But, while amidst the ruins grey Its mellowed light went on to play, "No sculptured shield, no legend boar, The master's arms or title bore ; Sad, desolate, and waste, remain Those turrets once so gay; A landmark for the peaceful swain, "One question, could those relics speak, If haply, penitent and meek, Their owner did the Saviour seek, "If so, then fair his present lot And now to him it matters not, |