Throughout the whole period of Scripture history, this was the prevailing idea of praise: and in perfect accordance with it are the teachings of the Apostle Paul to the primitive churches. But, unhappily, in modern times, the idea has been set aside. Music has at length become a heavenly' art. It attracts toward itself that measure of attention, which in religious worship, is due to better things. Some evidence of this attraction, indeed, occurs as far back as in the time of the ancient fathers. One of the latter-Augustine-complains in his celebrated Confession," that the sweetness of the music, while it wrought powerfully upon his sensibilities, would often give a wrong turn to his meditations. Another, less scrupulous in this respect, and at a later period in ecclesiastical history, compares the music to paintings, of which the sacred words were as pleasant borders. This, in musical practice even now, seems to be the popular idea. The tune and the manner of performing it absorb attention, while the words, full of meaning and spirituality, seem often to be used as a mere excuse for singing. Many go so far as to regard verbal utterance unnecessary. And there are not wanting men in the profession, who consider 'good music,' however obtained, as an efficient instrument of religious edification. Others, however, driven by a natural reaction to the opposite extreme, would be for discarding every harmonic and melodic attraction. Nothing, in their view, but the plainest chants and the simplest chorals can be called ap propriate. Others again, who have given no serious attention to the subject, seem wholly uninterested. Since their own devotions are seldom aided by the music, they are content to leave it in the hands of a committee among the secularities of the congregation. Yet all parties admit that 'MUSIC' must be sus. tained as a necessary part of public WORSHIP;' thus in every practical arrange. ment, making that which ought to be of secondary interest the thing chiefly contemplated. "The prevailing notions of talent, of style, and of personal obligation, are just such as would naturally arise from these conflicting misconceptions of musical efficiency. The possession of talent, for instance, involves obligation. But excellence of skill, in the view of many, is placed so high above their reach as to furnish an available excuse for neglect. Others, regarding choir performances in the light of Sabbath concerts, are found to shrink from such conspicuity. Others again are unwilling to engage in performances which do not form an occasion for amusement or display; while many, despising such pretensions, are found, in the use of privilege, to give most unmusical utterances in the congregation, regardless of the taste or of the comfort of their fellow-worshipers. Members of choirs too, are often in difficulty because their wants are not sufficiently cared for, their talents duly appreciated, or services properly rewarded. And to crown all, the pastor who must act prudently, unacquainted as he prob ably is with music, imagines that he can declare faithfully the whole council of God without dwelling on the duty of praise. He sees the prevailing abuses, and is sometimes deeply grieved. But he is no artist. What has he do with such matters! "These conflicting notions about musical efficiency, however, agree in one thing. They are all at variance with the obvious teaching of the Bible: and since they are so, and are of such long standing, and are connected with tendencies which are so widely disastrous, it is evident that we need look no further for the cause of decline and barrenness in public praise. In our teachings, arrangements, and appliances, we neglect to cultivate the spirit of praise, while we make that which was originally designed as an auxiliary concomitant, almost the sole object of attention and regard. What better results could have been expected from such a fundamental error in practical religion? Any similar mistake, in regard to preaching, exhortation, or prayer, would have proved equally disastrous to the spirituality of those exercises. Let mere elocution, for instance, become here the great object of interest, and we should soon see a lively illustration of the evils which arise from the practical errors we are describing. The Master of Assemblies ever blesses the right observance of His own institutions. But when these are habitually abused and perverted, what wonder is it that the blasting and the mildew are upon us! The wonder is that such a fundamental error has not been visited with still greater evils." This extract (which may be said to contain the gist of the book) does indeed point out a very grave evil. In some churches, especially in those city churches in which the services of a quartet of professional singers are used, it doubtless indicates the chief peril to choir-singing. But it does not suggest any remedy for the want, widely felt and acknowledged, for singing of a different sort, for a different purpose. It does not tend to provide a means of breaking up the dead uniformity and passivity of our Sabbath congregations, an object towards which the churches are now moving with a violence of reaction which threatens to discard all use of singing by a choir for impression on the listener. Christian Theism: The Testimony of Reason and Revelation to the Existence and Character of the Supreme Being. By ROBERT ANDREW THOMPSON, M. A. New York: Harper & Brothers. More than seventy years ago, a Mr. Burnet, of Aberdeen in Scotland, left by his last will, a fund to be employed at the end of each successive period of forty years in premiums for the best treatises on the following thesis: "That there is a Being all-powerful, wise, and good, by whom everything exists; and particularly to obviate difficulties regarding the Wisdom and Goodness of the Deity; and this, in the first place, from considerations independent of written Revelation; and in the second place, from the Revelation of the LORD JESUS; and, from the whole, to point out the inferences most necessary for, and useful to mankind." The first period of forty years expired on the 1st of January, 1814; and in August, 1815, the two prizes provided for were adjudged, the first to a work entitled "An Essay on the Existence of a Supreme Creator," by William Lawrence Brown, D. D., Principal of Marischal College, Aberdeen, and the second to the Rev. John Bird Sumner, now His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury. Several years ago, it was announced by the trustees that the second term would expire January 1, 1854; and that £2400 would be awarded to the successful competitors, three fourths of the whole to the author of the best treatise, and the remaining fourth to the author of the treatise next in merit. The judges appointed in conformity with the will of the founder were Professor Baden Powell of Cambridge, Henry Rogers, author of the Eclipse of Faith, and Isaac Taylor. Two hundred and eight treatises were delivered to the trustees in competition for the prizes. In about a year the judges completed their labors, and the prizes were announced. The first prize was awarded unanimously to the author of the treatise now before us. The second was awarded to the Rev. John Tulloch, a clergyman of the Established Church of Scotland, who has since become Principal of St. Mary's College, Aberdeen. Mr. Tulloch's work, entitled Theism, has also been republished in this country, and is, like Mr. Thompson's, a valuable addition to the theological literature of the English language. One merit of both these books is their adaptedness to meet the existing forms and tendencies of unbelief. The period, which has passed since the first award of the Burnet prizes, has been marked by many changes, and not least by a great change in the habits and modes of speculation among the English speaking nations. A comparison of these works with Paley's Natural Theology, or with Dr. Brown's Prize Treatise, published forty years ago, will help one to conceive how great the change has been. In these days, the argument against the Atheist or the Pantheist, is essentially an argument on the sources and the validity of our knowledge. Accordingly, the first of the four "books" into which Mr. Thompson's work is divided, treats of "the first principles of knowledge, and their misapplication in systems of Atheism and Pantheism." After an introduction, the second chapter in this first book treats "of terms and method," and of modern philosophical systems. The third chapter examines, in two sections, the "elementary principles of knowledge." The fourth chapter treats of "speculative theories of existence," under the two sections of "Idealism" and "Materialism." The fifth chapter gives a description of "Atheism,"-first the "dogmatic or positive," and secondly, the " skeptical or negative." Chapter sixth exhibits the distinction between Atheism and Pantheism, and describes the systems of Pantheism in three sections-1," Physical Pantheism," which includes the development of what is called "modern Spiritualism; 2, " Intellectual Pantheism," or the scheme of Spinoza; and, 3, "Semi-Pantheism,” or that subtile infusion of pantheistic modes of thought which infects so widely the skepticism, the sentimentalism, and sometimes even the theological reasoning of the present age. The second book is on the "Direct Evidences of Natural Theism," and here the character and various sources of the evidence, and the nature and validity of our rationalism on such a subject are more deliberately and exactly considered than in any of the treatises with which our students are familiar. The third book examines "the manifestation of the Divine character in Nature;" and the fourth portrays the "Scriptural revelation of the Divine character," with a special reference to the "objections of modern Deism." This outline of the plan of Mr. Thompson's book will enable our readers to form some estimate of its value as a book for the times, and as a classical work in the science of theology. The Kidnapped and the Ransomed. Being the personal recollections of Peter Still and his wife " Vina," after forty years of slavery. By Mrs. KATE E R. PICKARD. With an Introduction, by Rev. SAMUEL J. MAY, and an Appendix by WILLIAM H. FURNESS, D. D. Syracuse: William T. Hamilton. New York and Auburn: Miller, Orten & Mulligan. The literature of slavery is becoming a very considerable affair. We do not refer particularly to the anti-slavery societies' tracts, and argu mentative volumes, nor to the Southside View and other works of that description. Mrs. Stowe's works, of world-wide fame, are awakening in all quarters a demand for authentic personal narratives of experience in slavery; and the demand is likely to be well supplied. The personal recollections of Peter Still and his wife, are the latest contribution to this most important department of the literature of slavery. The authenticity of the story is beyond the reach of cavil or skepticism. The style is, as it should be, simple and lucid, with no offensive attempt at fine writing. The story itself is full of incident and of character, and the lessons which it gives, need no philosophy to make them passable. Peter Still was born free in the vicinity of Philadelphia. In his early childhood, he and his little brother Levin, were stolen, carried away, and sold for slaves. They remembered the home from which they had been kidnapped; they kept alive between themselves the memory of father and mother, and sisters, and the christian names by which they had known them, but their own family name soon faded from their memory-their only names as slaves were Peter and Levin. They soon learned to breathe only to each other the fact that they were born free. They submitted to their dreadful lot; they were cheerful, obedient, honest; and a superficial observer-base enough to forget that liberty itself is a good and that to be enslaved is to suffer the foulest of all wrongs-might have pronounced them happy. They formed such ties as are possible to slaves; each as he became a man learned to love with the affection of a husband a wife who may be torn from him at an owner's caprice or convenience. Children were born to themchildren that were the property of other men. Levin died in the house of bondage. Peter at last-having passed into the ownership of a humane Jew, who had not the full benefit of that Christianity which we are urgently invited to "aid" at the South-was allowed to purchase his freedom. Returning to Philadelphia, after an absence of forty years, the good providence of God so guided his steps that he found his aged mother and the surviving members of his family. Then begging from door to door, he accumulated slowly the gifts of human sympathy which at last enabled him to buy his wife and children. here in this volume, we have the whole story, with its marvelous and touching details. And INDEX OF VOLUME XIV. ticed, 476. ABBOTT'S NAPOLEON AT ST. HELENA, re- Brief Remarker, by Ezra Sampson, no- Alexander's, Wm. L., Christ and Christ- AMERICAN DEMOCRACY, 52-74. Review to 1850. American Literature, Cyclopædia of, 825. ARGUMENT FROM Nature for IMMORTALI- ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE FOR IMMOR- BACON'S (Rev. L.) PHI BETA KAPPA Bible Dictionary, (Union,) noticed, 316. Bible History of Prayer, noticed, 322. 154. BIOGRAPHY OF PURITAN CLERGY OF NEW ticed, 322. Chapel and Church Architecture, no- CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY, by W. L. CLAY, (HENRY,) LAST SEVEN YEARS OF 541-559. COLLECTION (PLYMOUTH) OF HYMNS AND COLTON'S, (Rev. CALVIN,) LAST YEARS OF Conscience, Analysis of, 243-250. Evert A. Duyckinck and George A. Discourse by Rev. Samuel Merwin, on Dreams and Realities in the Life of a DRED. A TALE OF THE GREAT DISMAL SWAMP, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, DUTTON, (Rev. S. W. S.,) Relation of the Bishop Heber's Life, noticed, 476. 155. Judson,) noticed, 477. Bonaparte at St. Helena, by Abbott, Earnest Plea of Laymen for Union, &c., noticed, 325. Boston's (Thomas) Select Works, no- Ecclesiastes Explained, noticed, 468. |