REVIEWS AND CRITICISMS.

The Dayspring, or Diurnal of Youth. A Series of Meditations on Passages of Holy Scripture for every Morning in the Year. By Ministers of various Denominations, edited by the Rev. O. T. DOBBIN, LL.D. Liverpool: Philip and Son. THE Conception which gave rise to this undertaking was a happy one, and, in our critical capacity, we have great pleasure in saying, has been most admirably carried out. The Church owes much to Dr. Dobbin for thus giving to it a manual of devotion, combining great exegetical power and solidity of thought, and which, when viewed merely as a literary production, has high claims to be ranked among the best works which have recently appeared. In proof of this, we have only to mention, that in the list of contributors, may be seen the names of Drs. Alexander, Acworth, A. M. Brown, Campbell, Duff, Harris, Hoppus, King, Stowell, and of the Revds. G. Gilfillan, P. Fairbairn, M.A., &c., &c.

The book commences with five "Introductory Essays," all written by first-rate men. Then follow Devotional Papers upon particular texts, intended for morning readings, for every day in the year. Upon the use of such books the beautiful thought of Prebendary Coney ought ever to be remembered :-" The soul is to be dressed in the closet to make a more beautiful appearance in the temple; and your manuals of piety are to raise the affections at home, and so to inflame the heart with a love of God, and a detestation of sin, that the Christian may be better prepared for a regular attendance on public worship, and a due participation of sacred ordinances." But the thought here so finely applied to preparation for the Lord's day, may be extended to our days of business and toil. Who can over estimate the blessing gained by having the mind pre-occupied with holy thoughts when we enter into the deadening influences of trade, or become the subjects of temptation? The day will be the better spent for the morning hour which we have occupied in prayer and meditation.

We have long thought that a book of this description, suited to the times, in which we live, and (if we may be permitted to say it) to the more common sense views of Biblical interpretation which may now prevail, would prove a blessing to the Church at large. We have no wish to disparage any former productions, written for the purpose of supplying this deficiency, when we assert, that the book before us supplies a place in Christian literature which lay previously unoccupied; and deeply sorry should we be, if we could even conceive it possible, that the work before us could fail to receive that appreciation which it so justly deserves at the hands of the Christian public. We earnestly exhort our readers, and more especially the young and intelligent, to lose no time in enriching their libraries with a copy of this valuable book. We can also speak most highly of the style in which the volume is "got up." Indeed, it is most refreshing, in these day of hideous green covers and barbarious printing, to take up the cheap and elegant "Dayspring."

The Glory and Shame of Britain. London: The Religious Tract Society.

THIS volume gained the first prize of £100, which was offered by the Committee of the Religious Tract Society in the year 1849, for the best Essay "On the Condition and Claims of the Working Classes, together with the Means of securing their Elevation." The author seems to us to have acted most wisely in following the plan which the subject would readily and naturally suggest. He has, therefore, divided his Essay into three chapters.

1. The present condition of the Working Classes.

II. The principles and means which are necessary to secure the elevation of the Working Classes.

III. The claims of the Working Classes, and the benefits, both temporal and religious,

which would spring from their elevation.

From the perusal of this book, as far as the author is concerned, we have risen highly gratified. His style is perspicuous, and his illustrations remarkably well chosen. In

the higher matter of thought, considering the position he occupies, the Essay does him honour. He has evidently had considerable opportunity for observation upon the subject on which he has written, and it is as apparent, that he possesses a heart which has felt, and an understanding which could make good use of the facts which lay before him. Of a class which can lay claim to such a man we cannot despair. No man, however, could read the volume and not feel saddened, though, at the same time, he might be hopeful. How many startling facts are here revealed, facts not made for the occasion or coloured by a vivid fancy, but facts which any dweller in town or country, with the slightest trouble, can verify for himself. While reading the book one is often roused to ask, can such things by any possibility exist in a Christian land? Can the narration be true? Alas! memory puts forth her power and the answer comes in scenes upon which oneself has gazed. Nor is the bright side of the picture kept from our view, for Christianity, the only power which can sweep from the earth the sin and misery which here take up their dwelling-place, is presented honestly and simply. Could our voice be heard through the length and breadth of the land, we would say to all, read this book. Christian reader, in whatever scale of society you may be placed, we advise you to ponder well the contents of this volume, and see if it does not open up to you some new channel for your activity to flow in.

Life of Constantine the Great. By JOSEPH FLETCHER. London: Albert Cockshaw.

This is another of that series of books which is being issued by the promoters of the Anti-State-Church movement, and it is no slight commendation of it to say, that it deserves to rank with its predecessors. Objection has been made to these books on the ground, that being written to enforce upon the public mind the views of a particular party, they are likely to be one-sided and partial, especially where the subjects embraced are Biography and History. The objection has more plausibility than real force. The fact of the matter is, that with regard to history, whether of nations or individuals, there has been such a blinking of the truth respecting the working of State-Churches, by the majority of historians, as even to draw the confession from the more enlightened and liberal of their supporters, that the whole truth has not been told. The object of these books, then, is simply to tell the whole truth. They tell it fearlessly and challenge refutation. There is no disguise of the writers in imitation of the practice so insidiously carried out in some late Puseyite novels. They are openly avowed, and while no one is deceived, all are informed.

The name of Constantine the Great is as familiar to the ear as that of Cæsar, Alexander, or Napoleon, but how little is generally known of him beyond the vague notion of his having done something very glorious for Christianity. To sketch his life and character, the state in which he found the Christian Church, what he did for it, and in what state he left it, was a work which needed doing to enable men to judge whether Christianity was likely to be improved by his patronage or by any State patronage whatever. Such a work as the present we say then, was much wanted, and Mr. Fletcher has ably supplied the want. His purpose will be best understood by giving it in his own language. After speaking of the transition which the Church underwent in the time of Constantine from a condition in which it was despised by society and persecuted by law to a state of honour and worldly prosperity, he proceeds ::-"Whether a transition so remarkable is to be regarded as one of the natural and necessary development—necessary, that is, either then or at some subsequent period; or whether it is to be regarded as the formal commencement of a predicted anti-Christian phase of the Church, depends on other considerations than history furnishes. The present biography, without entering upon the discussion of those considerations, has mainly for its object such a detail of the whole truth in relation to Constantine's dealings with the Church, as will materially aid all candid inquirers in coming to a just conclusion."

We have no space for the extended remark which the subject deserves, but we are not content to leave it without observing, that the fact of the growth to which the Church had attained, in spite of opposing influences, so as from being a despised sect to have become a united and influential body, extending over the great part of the Roman empire, and which it, therefore, became the part of a sagacious politician to unite with the State is no mean proof of the inherent power of Christianity and the sufficiency of the voluntary principle.

The volume is nicely got up and deserves a wide circulation, which is, indeed, the only means of repaying the enterprise of the publishers.

I.

CHRIST'S RELIGION.

"PROVE ALL THINGS; HOLD FAST THAT WHICH IS GOOD." 1 Thess. v. 12.

THE BATTLE OF LIFE, AND HOW TO WIN IT;
OR, THE MORAL OF OUR LORD'S TEMPTATION.

(Continued from page 154.)

СНАРТER

IV. SCENE I I.

THE MACHINERY OF THE SECOND SCENE, MORE FULLY

EXAMINED.

WE have already called the attention of our readers to the leading principles involved in the first scene of our Lord's temptation; and before attempting an explanation of those included in the second scene, we propose to examine more minutely the machinery by which it is conveyed; that we may discover its appropriateness to the circumstances of our Lord, as well as its application to ourselves.

We shall not here recapitulate what has been before advanced on the machinery in general of the several scenes, but confine ourselves to the peculiarity of this second scene. "Then the Devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."-(Matt. vi. 5-7.)

It may naturally be asked, why such a form of temptation should be presented to the Redeemer? And this question we shall endeavour to

answer.

The Son of Man coming in clouds was part of the common notion of the Jews respecting the advent; by which they took Daniel's metaphor in a literal sense;" coming in the clouds of heaven:" hence they expected the Messiah would appear visibly descending from the skies: accordingly, though all miracles-everything Christ did and said, was a sign from heaven in the true and deeper meaning; yet they desired the literal or carnal fulfilment ;-some visible shew in the firmament; "the c 2

VOL. II.

sign of the son of man in heaven." Hence the peculiar fitness of our Lord's rebuke of the almanac prophets and cloud readers, who would read nothing else but clouds, and see no signs but of rain or fair. "The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed."-(Matt. xvi. 1-4.)

The general doctrine of the Jews, looking to the clouds of heaven, was founded on the literal interpretation of Daniel vii. 13, 14. Nor was there any excuse for the Jews in thus mistaking the meaning of prophecy; since they had all along been used to be spoken to by signs, and yet they mistook the sign for the thing signified; the symbol for its meaning: whereas, the figurative meaning had become more natural and usual than the literal to them; from the method in which God had trained them: employing events or actions as words; which words, therefore, they were not to expect, but only the meaning of the words;-what these symbolical events indicated. But in this prophecy of Daniel they expected not the meaning but the words, the clouds and a shew, not a revelation of God from heaven: they looked to the visible heavens, instead of taking them as words or hints and symbols of God's throne of majesty.

It has been observed upon this prophecy of Daniel (Hind's "Progress of Christianity;" note in the introduction, on "The Religion of the Jews:"-" From our Saviour's application of this prophecy it is generally understood to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem. (See Matt. xxiv. 30; Mark xiii. 26; Luke xxi. 27.) It may be doubted, however, whether we are correct in assigning it to that event, so as to make it mean the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven to take vengeance on the unbelieving city. The destruction of Jerusalem was the main sign, that the Son of man's new kingdom was now completely founded, because the existence of the Jewish temple, and the Jewish polity was inconsistent with the event; and it was the establishment of the new theocracy which agreeably to prophetic language respecting a change of government, was expressed by the phrase of the new Lord coming in the clouds of heaven. The abolition of the temple service would have been the appropriate sign of the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, supposing the Jews, instead of rejecting him, had welcomed him; and so not incurred the heavy chastisement which befel them:"-the other sign of his triumph. As coming in clouds denote victory, the establishment of a new authority; so falling from the clouds or from heaven, denotes, in prophetic language, losing empire. "And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.

*

We must not confound the styles suited to different subjects and occasions; so as to suppose, all doctrine, or any history, to be reduced to the prophetic method of interpretation.

And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." (Luke x. 17-20.) Now here the previous ruler, is cast down, the God of this world, Prince of the power of the air; working in the children of disobedience, that Christ's throne may be set up, and he may work in the children of obedience. Some have stumbled at this, as if a fact, "I saw Satan fall," &c., but it is a prophetic vision, as the prophets see, what will be; and it is in prophetic language or style; falling from heaven, i. e., from power; and like lightning, i. e., quick and conspicuous.

This imagery is commented on, and also employed by the Apostle Paul, in reference to Haggai ii. 6-9. "For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts." This shaking of the heavens is to shake down the ruling powers. He had shaken the earth, in bringing Israel back to their own land: political powers were subjugated: but the heavens were yet to be shaken, "spiritual wickedness in high places-principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world."-(Eph. vi. 12.) Notice then, that the heavens are the position of the spiritual rulers; the mental delusions under men and Satan; whilst the earth, is political power;now this was said in Haggai, in reference to the COMING OF THE desire of all nations; that is Christ: so he was to come in two ways, to shake heaven and earth; to modify religion and politics; to be the King and give freedom in both :-having "all power in heaven and on earth;" in religion and politics; in grace and providence; that he might shake both heaven and earth; and settle them on a better and more permanent basis ; as Paul argues on this passage of Haggai; and plainly argues after its real meaning consistent with the style we have noticed. "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused hin that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire."(Heb. xii. 25-29.) He speaks from heaven, i. e., from the highest place of rule; which he holds by right, not by usurpation:-"being seated at the right hand of the majesty on high;" never to be moved thence; but to cast down all else to be his footstool. And we, in this immoveable kingdom, are to hold fast;-knowing that we are secure there, and all else will