who, as a part of his duty towards GoD and man, is about to make his will, and desires to offer up particular prayers for a sound judgment, &c., in the final disposition of his affairs.

In the third place, there are cases continuative of the Visitation Office, such as, 1st. That for a sick person when there appeareth small hope of recovery. 2ndly. That of one at the point of departure, whose soul needs commending unto GOD. 3rdly. A sick penitent may need a further deepening of his repentance. 4thly. A Service is required to be used periodically with a sick man, or one bed-ridden, to supply him with the spiritual graces and benefits from which in the deprivation of Church ordinances he is excluded. 5thly. The friends of the deceased will need consolation. 6thly. A criminal has been condemned to death, and needs the prayers of the Church before leaving this world.

In the fourth place, there are cases which have no relation to the direct objects of the Visitation Office, such as, 1st. The case of a sick child. 2ndly. Of a person or family suffering under any affliction, as loss of estate, character, position in life, &c. 3rdly. The case of a sick woman in child-bed. 4thly. Of one about to undergo an operation. Now these cases, as they are classed under the last three heads, will be found all of them to be susceptible of treatment in one or other of two ways, either as cases from which God's wrath in affliction for sin is not formally removed, or as cases from which it is. In so far as they belong to the former class, they will best be treated by the Priest's recognition of sin as the cause of sickness and misery, and in the words to this end provided by the Church, "Remember not, LORD," &c., &c., and by his provision of exhortations and prayers suitable to each case, according as he may determine to use intercessory prayer, or to meet a present emergency, or any other necessity which may arise; but in so far as they belong to the latter class, they will need only the provision of special offices for each case. To suit then these varying cases, it is evidently quite open to the Priest, (and in entire consistency with the Church's provisions,) to use prayers or Offices suitable to all these several occasions.

Such is the view we have with deliberation formed of what our Church requires of her Priests in connection with the Visitation Office. The theory, such as it is, which has been here presented to our brethren of the Clergy, does not pretend to make their way so clear from all difficulty in the use of the Visitation Office, as to remove entirely their obligations to accommodate themselves with discretion to the many varied emergencies in which they may easily be placed in their visits to the sick bed. It purposes to give them a theory on which they may conscientiously base their departures from the literal interpretation of the Church's orders concerning it, and may be, on the other hand, restrained from causelessly offending by their departure from the prescript order, against the Church's principles and laws.

We hope that the view here taken, will be found as consistent in practice as we presume it looks on paper. It is a view which the writer of this article has been carrying out for some time past in his ministrations among the sick, with such degrees of fulness as the want of an Office Book suitable to the nature of his theory would admit of. Should his brethren of the Clergy be induced to give their attention to the suggestions here made, and to look round for assistance in carrying out his hints, the hope may be expressed that they will not be long unprovided with a work which will in some degree meet their necessities.

REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

Hints to Young Clergymen on various matters of Form and Duty; to which are prefixed, Hints for a simple Course of Study, preparatory and subsequent to taking Holy Orders, by the Rev. HENRY RIDDELL MOODY, M.A. Fifth Edition, corrected and enlarged. London : Rivingtons. 18mo., pp. 103.

By help of cancels and new editions, Mr. Moody has contrived to correct the chief blunders which were before observable in his work; though a direction is still retained to turn towards the people in " reading" the Nicene Creed! Other mistakes might also without difficulty be pointed out, as the introduction of the Churching of Women before the General Thanksgiving; whereas the rule given in the case of the Special Forms issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury, on the occasion of the birth of a Prince or Princess, clearly shows that the tradition of the English Church is to make the Special Thanksgiving follow the General one. But the truth is, the defect of this little book does not consist so much in positive errors, as in the utter absence of anything like elevation of sentiment throughout. A chilling tone of feeble orthodoxy (so called) pervades every page. The following is an example of our meaning: It is more decorous, unless you are infirm, not to sit down in the pulpit while the congregation are standing up to sing the Psalm." What, one may well ask, must be the state of the Clergy, when a manual of this kind can go through five editions?

The Devout Churchman; or Daily Meditations, &c., by the Rev. A. WATSON, M.A., Curate of S. John's, Cheltenham. Vol. I., 8vo., pp. 430. London: Masters.

THE principle on which this manual has been compiled, is thus stated by Mr. Watson :—

In compiling our Book of Common Prayer, our Reformers proved that they were accurately conversant with the English temperament; and in our own Service-Books, there are but few, if any, of those fervid exclamations which seem to commend themselves to the excitable and susceptible feelings of the more Southern nations. And in putting together the contents of this volume, it has been my studious aim to catch the spirit, as well as follow the order, of our own ritual.

"Much harm, I have reason to believe, has resulted to the keenness

of the moral sense of many among us, by an attempt to work up the feelings on all occasions to those highly wrought expressions which abound in works of devotion in use among our Continental brethren. By this means an unconscious simulation under circumstances where hypocrisy is most of all awful, is fostered, and that most fatal blight, unreality, attaches itself to the life and conversation. On these grounds I have selected rather those passages which speak to the conscience, than those which address themselves to the feelings; and have sought rather to bring home to the understanding maxims and rules of life which would justify feelings glowing with fervour, than primarily to produce those feelings as a means of influencing the conduct. The same remarks apply to the considerations which I have myself appended to the selected passages."

In these remarks, we conceive, there is a considerable amount of truth. Great injury would certainly result from attempting to force the works to which the writer alludes on all classes of persons; and perhaps the good which may be expected from them, after all, will be chiefly of an indirect kind.

Of Mr. Watson's own performance we are disposed to form a high estimate. In its general character it is rather didactic than meditative. Each day has a short essay allotted to it, which is concluded with two or three propositions intended to be the subjects of private reflection. And this method upon the whole we think preferable to that adopted by Dr. Hook. Our people want instruction; and here they have it in a precise, dogmatic way, on all the principal points of faith and practice.

The Stars and the Earth. pp. 48. Bailliere.

AMONG those who prosecute the noble science of Astronomy, some look up to Heaven in pure simple faith, and this upward aspiration is visible in all their ways, thoughts and works. These are ready to exclaim with the poet,

"Ye stars, that are the poetry of Heaven,

If in your bright leaves we would read the fate
Of men and empires,-'tis to be forgiven,
That in our aspirations to be great,

Our destinies o'erleap their mortal state,

And claim a kindred with you; for they are

A beauty and a mystery, and create

In us such love and reverence from afar,

That fortune, fame, power, life, have named themselves a star."

but they go no further, and are contented with this impassioned yet cold declamation.

Others there are who in the chill armour of this world's wisdom, seek to pry into whatever is mysteriously wondrous in nature. Aided by all that art can bring to their assistance, and skilled in whatever knowledge science can bring within their reach, they indeed " rush in where Angels fear to tread," with but little reverence, and less faith; and look upon the mystic page of Heaven as but a sheet of hieroglyphics spread for their especial perusal. And this seems to be the spirit in which the author of "The Stars and the Earth" has written.

He begins his book with the well-known proposition,

"That a luminous body arising at a certain distance from an observer, cannot be perceived in the very same instant of time in which it becomes luminous, but that a period of time, although infinitely short, exists, whilst the

light, our only medium of vision, passes through the space between the object and our eyes." (p. 12.)

The rate at which light travels having been accurately observed, we can assert with truth that, "the moon rises above the horizon a second and a quarter before it becomes visible to us." (p. 13.)

The sun being ninety-five millions of miles distant, four hundred times further than the moon, requires a period four hundred times longer than the moon to send its light to the earth; that is, about eight minutes which must elapse before the light passes into our eyes.

He then proceeds to state the various distances of other planets, and those of the fixed stars, together with the various periods of time required for the transmission of light from them to our earth.

Thus, the planet Jupiter is at such a distance from us, that the light requires fifty-two minutes to penetrate to us.

From Uranus, it requires two hours.

From the nearest fixed star, about three years.

From a star in the constellation of Lyra, twelve years.

A ray of light requires before it reaches the earth, from a star of the First magnitude, three to twelve years;

Second magnitude, twenty years;

and so on to the seventh, which requires one hundred and eighty years ; and to the twelfth, which is only perceptible by means of a very good telescope. A ray of light from this star has, at the time it meets our eyes, already left the star four thousand years. So that, in fact, when looking at the moon, planets, or fixed stars, we do not behold them as they really are, but as they were at some antecedent period; i. e., that exact moment of time at which the ray of light left them, which now passes into our eyes. This may have been, according to the distance, five quarters of a second, as in the case of the moon, or four thousand years, as in the case of the star of the twelfth magnitude; which latter may indeed have ceased shining long, long ago, even while we continue to see its light.

These propositions are well known, and as the author remarks, have already been published in popular works in astronomy.

one.

"But the converse, it seems, is not so generally known," or if known, has not become a subject for idle speculation, until our author made it We see the disc of the moon not in the form in which it now is, but as it was five quarters of a second before the time of observation : hence it follows, that "an imaginary observer (we suppose the man) in the moon, would not see the earth as it was at the moment of observation, but as it was five quarters of a second before." (p 23.) And so on with the various other heavenly bodies, in each of which imaginary men when they looked on the earth would see it, not as it then actually was, but at some period antecedent to the time of observation.

The man in Vega, for instance, would see, if he had good eyes, and a first-rate glass, in gazing at our little earth, what happened with us twelve years ago; "and so on until an inhabitant of a star of the twelfth magnitude, sees it as it was four thousand years ago, when Memphis was founded, and the patriarch Abraham wandered upon its surface." (p. 25.)

And thus in the immeasurable space of ether beyond the fixed stars,

many billions of miles from us, stars may be found from which the past epochs of our earth are seen, as if existing now.

This is doubtless a startling, it may be an original thought, considered simply per se. But the inference immediately drawn from it requires a more than passing notice.

"We have here," proceeds our author, "a perfectly intelligible perception of the idea of the omniscience of GoD with relation to past events.

"If we wish to comprehend how any earthly deed or occurrence is as distinctly and immediately in GoD's Presence, as if it were actually taking place before his eyes, it is sufficient for our purpose to imagine Him present at a certain point, at which the light and reflection of the circumstances is just arriving." (p. 26.)

"We imagine the Deity," to quote once more our author's words, "as a man with human powers, in a far superior degree." (Ibid.)

"Supposing that this result is established; Omniscience, with respect to the past, becomes identical and one and the same thing with actual Omnipresence with regard to space. For if we imagine the eye of GOD present at every point of space, the whole course of the history of the world appears to Him immediately and at once." (p. 27.)

This is at first sight specious enough. But let us examine the mat ter a little more closely, and we shall then find that finite, mortal man, that he may understand the omniscience of an immortal, infinite Creator, must first degrade Him to the level of base earth,-make Him "as a man with human powerɛ, in a far superior degree "; even Him Whom no eye hath seen, or can see, Who dwelleth in light unapproachable: next "it is sufficient to imagine Him present at a certain point, at which the light and reflection of the circumstance is just arriving."

And yet it is written in the Book of Eternal Truth, "With Thee the darkness is no darkness at all, but the night is as clear as the day; the darkness and the light to Thee are both alike." (Ps. cxxxix. 12.)

And must we fetter our idea of the omniscience of GoD with the bare supposition of a Being endued indeed with powers of a superior order, but Whose vision is liable to the same accident of law and chance which controls the feeble ken of mortals?

And must we call such vision omniscience?

Must He Who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; Who ever was and is and is to come, the King eternal, immortal, and invisible,-in His omniscience, and omnipresence, be imagined as at a certain point, at which "the light and reflection of a circumstance is just arriving?

The Christian believes not thus, most assuredly.

For the ways of GoD are not as the ways of man, and He Who searcheth the very thoughts of the heart, and knoweth long before its most hidden imaginings, cannot be likened or compared to aught human. For again it is written, To whom will ye liken Me," saith the LORD, "and to whom shall I be compared ?"

The Christian needs no such analogy or comparison, were it even unforbidden. He is persuaded of, and fully believes in the omniscience and omnipresence of his Maker: it is a thought ever present with him, that of all, even his most secret thoughts, words, and works, not one is unseen by Him in Whose sight a thousand years are as one day. And this one simple Faith is sufficient. He seeks not to understand the