he was held by them, as well as the fearlessness of his spirit, and the quickness of his repartee:

The Commander-in-Chief of the land forces remarked to him that he had commanded some of his farmers to appear on a certain day (I believe on the Sabbath), with their teams, at Southampton, twelve miles distant. "So I have understood," said the Doctor, "but I have countermanded your orders;" and in consequence of this countermand, the project was relinquished. A young British officer, recently arrived, rode to his door, and said, "I wish to see Mr. Buell." The Doctor soon appeared. "Are you Mr. Buell?" was the question. "My name is Buell, sir." "Then," said the officer, bowing with great respect, "I have seen the god of East Hampton."

On one occasion he was invited by the officers to accompany them on a deer-hunt. The invitation was accepted. But the Doctor, perceiving that one of the company was dissatisfied on account of some delay at the commencement of the excursion, pleasantly asked him, "And what portion of his Majesty's troops, sir, have you the honour to command ?" "A legion of devils direct from hell," was the answer. The Doctor, assuming an attitude of profound respect, replied, "Then I presume, sir, I have the honour of addressing Beelzebub, the prince of the devils." The officer, as if about to revenge what he considered an insult, drew his sword; but at the smile and nod of his superior, he instantly sheathed it again. Before the excursion was ended, however, he became greatly interested in the Doctor, and it was evident that whatever unpleasant impression the occurrence had occasioned was entirely removed.

The Rev. Dr. Power (1772-1830) supplies a striking illustration of the position of the Western preacher in the olden time :

To appreciate the labours and self-denial of Dr. Power, and other clergymen who settled in Western Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary War, it is necessary to keep in view the difficulties and dangers to which, in common with other pioneers, they were exposed. The journey over the mountains -not less than a hundred and twenty miles -was not what it now is. There were no macadamized roads, or canals, or railroads. A horse-path over rocks, and precipices, and marshes, was the only way of access to what was significantly called "the Back Woods." Nor could the direct route through Chambersburg and Bedford be taken with safety. Parties of Indians hovered around, and murdered many families on their way to the West. On that road there are places whose names (such as "the Burned Cabins," "Bloody Run," &c.,) to this day indicate the barbarous acts of that period. To avoid the tomahawk and scalping knife, a southern route through Hagerstown, Hancock and Cumberland, in Maryland, was usually taken, thence following Braddock's road over the mountains. And this road was not suitable

to wheel-carriages. Many, like Father

In

M'Millan,passed through the "Great Valley" to Staunton in Virginia, and thence over the mountains to Tiger's Valley. At present a journey to Missouri or Iowa can be performed in less time, and with less than half the labour and danger necessary at that time to reach "the Back Woods." When the mountains were passed, accommodations, not very attractive, were found. In the whole County of Westmoreland, then covering more than twice the space it now does, there was not, in 1781, a single stone, or brick, or frame house. All the inhabitants lived in log cabins, more or less comfortable, according to the means of the occupants. The difficulty of obtaining articles necessary in carrying on farming operations was very great. Iron, with which that country now abounds, had to be carried on pack horses over the mountains; and salt, which now may be purchased for twenty cents, could not, at that time, be had for less than five dollars per bushel. The want of mills to grind their bread was severely felt. addition to these difficulties, and others which I omit, the inhabitants were not safe from the incursions of the Indians. In 1782, the year after Dr. Power arrived, Hanna's Town, the seat of County justice, twelve miles from Mount Pleasant, was burned, several persons killed, and the daughters of Hanna, the proprietor of the place, were carried off captive by the Indians. Between the years 1780 and 1785, the Indians made several incursions into the Sewickly settlements, murdered families, and retreated over the Alleghany River, before men could be collected to pursue them. The accommodations for public worship were also as rare and unsightly as the private dwellings of the people. They did not wait until they were able to erect a stone or brick building, costing from 2,000 to 10,000 dollars; nor did they send Commissioners to ask aid from their wealthier brethren in the East. They took their axes, cut down trees, and with their own hands erected a log building, to protect them from the snow in winter, and from the rain in Summer. Except in inclement weather, they worshipped in the open air, under the shade of the native forests.

Posterity will find it difficult to conceive of the rudeness of these primitive churches. They were constructed entirely with the axe. No saw, or plane, or even hammer to drive a nail, was used; for neither nails, nor iron in any other shape, were employed. The roof was of clap-boards, kept in their places by logs laid upon them; and the doors were also clap-boards, fastened by wooden pins to cross-bars, projecting sufficiently far at one side to form a part of the hinge. The windows were small openings, cut in two adjacent logs, and were glazed with oil paper or linen. The floors, when any they had, were cleft logs, smoothed by the axe. These churches were of different forms. The most simple and common were square or parallelogramic, having only four sides-a single log extending from corner to corner. But when the congregation was large, and timber of sufficient length could not be had to make a four-sided structure of suitable dimensions, the cruciform was adopted; and there were twelve

sides and twelve corners. In justice to these old-fashioned Presbyterians, it must be understood that the twelve sides and the twelve corners were not intended to represent the twelve Apostles; nor was the cruciform adopted from a religious regard to the rules of ecclesiastical architecture, but to secure strength and convenience. And such buildings were both strong and convenient. The parts mutually supported each other, and one part of the transept was the preacher's stand, and the other part opposite accommodated a portion of the audience.

Dr. David Porter, of Catskill, a worthy of special note, supplies the following traits :

When he walked abroad, his personal appearance must have arrested the eye of every stranger. His head was like Napoleon's; his neck was short; his body large and fleshy; his legs were unusually small, tightly encased in short-cloths, and beneath these in black silk hose. He carried a large cane, and his motions were quick, nervous, and awkward.

When he stood in the pulpit and became interested in his sermon, his short, dense sentences, jerked out with a nod, his strange and violent gestures, and his stamping foot, called a smile upon the faces of all who were not accustomed to them. Even clergymen, sitting with him in the pulpit, were sometimes unable to control their countenances. But he was wholly unconscious of these effects; he was absorbed in his subject, and soon gained entire control of his hearers.

In the lecture-room, his manner was still more remarkable. He frequently spoke with his cane in hand, and brought it down with his emphatic foot, bending his whole body to give force to the gesture. He would walk to and fro, and becoming more excited as he spoke, he would sometimes descend to the floor of the room, step over a bench to arrive at an open space, walk up and down there for awhile, step over another bench opposite to the former, and return to the desk on th farther side; continuing and closing his address without exhibiting the slightest consciousness of what he was doing with his peripatetic body.

When he called upon any one to pray, he would sometimes add, in a tone more of command than request, "Be short!" His own exercises were very brief, but they were very comprehensive and instructive. He wasted no words. His thoughts were new, fresh, and expressed in striking language. When speaking he used periods, if I may speak so, between the clauses of his sentences, or as though he employed hyphens for commas; and thus, though otherwise his utterance was rapid, every word that he delivered told upon the listener.

Notwithstanding his eccentricities, he was regarded with unbounded reverence. No one dictated to him, no one remonstrated with him. He took counsel with himself, and, with some deference to forms, carried through that on which he had determined, without opposition. The children all regarded him as a superior being. One remembers-and tells it with a smile at her former self-how she thought his person and

dress the standard of ministerial appearance, looking with low esteem and some suspicion upon small and thin men who wore loose pantaloons. Another always associated him with the highest mountain in the Catskill range. Another had very confused and interchangeable ideas of Dr. Porter and the Saviour. Another, for a year or two, thought he was God. When he met them and stopped, as was his custom, and took their hands between his thumb and the tips of his fingers, and said in his kind, absent-minded way, "How d'do, child?" it awed them, and was an event to be remembered. This reverence continued as they grew older, and began to understand his sermons, and a good degree of it remained as long as he lived. At one time he catechized the children occasionally on Saturday afternoon. But he never got much beyond the first page, they say; and he had a pleasant habit of answering the questions himself when there was the slightest hesitation, and saying, "Very well, child, very well."

A few anecdotes chosen from the many which are told of him may serve further to illustrate his excentricities.

He never could be induced to converse, or to express an opinion upon any subject when he thought silence the better course. With a dull, uninterested look, he would seem unconscious of the speaker's words, and though his eye rested upon him, almost of his presence. When the questioner ceased, there was a dead pause. "Don't you think so, Doctor?" No answer-no consciousness. Then, waking up suddenly from his apparent abstraction, he would speak of something wholly remote from the subject of the inquiry, or conveying a subtle reproof for meddling with it.

In these times of apparent reverie, he heard and weighed every word that was uttered, and not unfrequently quoted a remark against his baffled questioner, who thought, at the time he uttered it, the Doctor, in his fit of abstraction, had not heard a single word.

In later years he was singularly absentminded. He was accustomed to pray with his eyes wide open. One evening, at a "neighbourhood meeting," his prayer was drawing to a conclusion, when he saw before him a young lady to whom he was greatly attached, and who had returned that day from a long absence. Suddenly, to the astonishment of all present, he crossed the room, and extended his hand, exclaiming with a voice of hearty pleasure, "Oh, how d'do?" He was totally unconscious of the irregularity, and no thought of it subsequently embarrassed him.

On another occasion, somewhat later in life, he was praying in the presence of several clergymen and a large audience at a union prayer-meeting for colleges. Always interested in the religious welfare of students, he had been excited by the statements which had just been made. He was pleading fer vently for the spirit of prayer in our churches, and enforcing his petition with " arguments,' when, suddenly changing from prayer to exhortation, he exclaimed to the standing assembly, bringing down hand and foot to

enforce his words, "Yes, brethren, we must pray more! That's what we want. More prayer! more prayer!" and, after adding a few more sentences, he turned to the clergyman who had been speaking, and said, "Go on, sir; go on!"

To illustrate his "management"-he had much of the harmless wisdom so useful to one who has to deal with men. He never gave a direct reproof, but at times he suggested one that was not easily forgotten. A young man who had recently become a professor of religion, was standing one Sabbath with his companions near the church. The conversation became trifling, and he was laughing heartily at something which had been said, when the Doctor, who stood at a little distance with a clergyman who was to preach for him, called to the young man, and beckoned him to approach. When he came near, he introduced him to the stranger, mentioning his name in full, and saying in a marked and serious manner, "A member of the church, sir; a member of the church!" The youth in later years became an elder, and he told me that the influence of that rebuke had not left him for an hour since it was given.

After resigning the pastorate, he became the agent of several benevolent societies, and collected great sums for them in this village, and in the adjacent country. He approached each man in a different way. He would sometimes name a specific sum; saying, "Mr. X., it is a good cause, sir, a good cause, but you mustn't give too much; ifty dollars is enough, sir." Mr. X. would probably have decided upon ten dollars.

He was told of one man, a wealthy farmer, who had said he was "determined to give him nothing that year any way." Shortly before harvest the Doctor made it convenient to stop at his house. He soon interested him in the operations of the society for which he was then collecting, but nothing was said about a subscription. He remained to dinner. Before the repast was over, the man's mind was filled with the noblest missionary views. To spread the glad tidings of salvation was made to appear the great work and joy of the Christian's life. After dinner they walked

out upon the piazza. "Whose farm is that, Sir?" said the Doctor, extending his band with a wide gesture towards a large tract. crowded with ripening grain. "That is mine." "Yours?-a large farm-beautiful farm!" After a pause, during which the Doctor was looking round in sincere admiration upon the scene of tilth and beauty, he exclaimed, "Whose farm is that, way over by those woods, Sir?" "That is mine, too.' "Fine meadows-very large farm-very valuable farm. Who owns the woods?

They belong to me, Sir." Umph." Changing his position so as to command another view, he said, after a while, "Your neighbour has a heavy crop there; very rich land whose is that, Sir? "Well," the man answered, growing a little restless, "my farm goes about as far as you can see, Doctor -that's all mine." "All yours! "Then turning upon him with a serious, almost reproachful look, he said, "God has done a great deal for you; what are you going to do for Him?" A pause ensued which seemed to repeat the question and demand an answer. I do not know the reply; but as a result of the interview, the Doctor carried away the farmer's subscription for a larger amount than ever. He was irresistible. Those who knew his way, when he began to draw out of them proofs of their prosperity, often cut short his approaches by saying, with a smile of surrender, "How much shall I give, Doctor?"

The following anecdote, which I received from the lips of the person to whom it refers, is very characteristic. He had sold some valuable books to a young clergyman of another denomination in the village. Some months had slipped by, and payment had been delayed. The Doctor was sitting on his "stoop one bright morning, when his debtor passed, politely saluting him. "Young man! " cried the Doctor. He turned and came back to the gate, as the Doctor rose from his chair. "Those books." Then, with a gesture of serious courtesy, he added, "Pay for them when you please, sir; pay for them when you please! And, without waiting for an answer, turned and went into the house. They were paid for the next day.

THE relation in which we stand to this volume forbids the remotest reference

to

any merits it may happen to possess. The conductors of the Press, however, have dealt with it very generously, and the public have fully ratified their judgment, as appears from the following notice of the Publisher :

The very large and increasing demand for this Bible has induced the Publisher again to go to press with a new Edition. This brings the impression up to the gratifying number of 37,000 copies, required within the

short space of three months from the date of its first publication as a complete book,certainly the strongest proof that could be adduced of its being the most valuable Pocket Edition of the Scriptures ever issued from the press with Practical Commentary.

The most satisfactory course we can adopt is simply to set forth the Preface, which in a few words makes known the general character of the publication :—

The EXPOSITORY BIBLE is the result of an endeavour to produce a Popular Commentary

suitable for all classes and denominations of Christians. With this view, while the Notes are thoroughly Evangelical, they are wholly free from the slightest taint of Sectarianism. The great object aimed at throughout has been clearly and fully to develop the elements of the Common Salvation. There is not, it is believed, a sentence or a word in the volume which will supply the smallest clue to the writer's ecclesiastical views or religious associations. In everything, impersonality has been carried to the uttermost; nothing is permitted to appear but the pen. The constant object has been to discover and set forth the mind of the Spirit; and in harmony with that, to exhibit principles, state doctrine, illustrate experience, and delineate character, as if there were neither sect nor party in the world, leaving every reader, on all minor points, to be fully satisfied in his own mind.

With respect to the Commentary, if the object arrived at has in a fair measure been realized, it comprises the essence of Evangelical Exposition as contained in the approved and standard works of the nation, while all matters, critical, doctrinal, experimental, and practical, are discussed in simple and idiomatic language, alike suited to every class and condition of society. All flat and profitless paraphrase of things sufficiently plain-all barren and useless speculation on subjects equally beyond the province of reason and of revelation-all needless and unprofitable controversies on questions which only minister to strife and division-all mere scholastic disquisition, with no direct bearing on the understanding, the heart, and the life, have been excluded. Display of every sort has been studiously avoided, as out of place in such a publication. Results are everywhere set forth, generally without reference to the processes by which they have been reached; but there is no subject, however arduous and formidable, on which an opinion of some sort has not been recorded. Difficulties of all kinds, as they turned up, have been boldly grappled with; the case has been fairly stated, and all the lights at present shining brought to bear upon it. Where absolute certainty has been unattainable, the probabilities have been weighed and stated; and where human wisdom has still been unavailing, confession to that effect has been frankly made. The reader, it is believed, will generally look in vain to the larger Commentaries for the solution of difficulties which are unexplained here. What may be considered the marrow of such works, severed from the multifarious mass of varied matter with which it is mixed up, is confined to a space which may easily be accorded to it even within the limits of this small volume. The greatest truths may be presented in the simplest language, and much matter put into a few words.

The Publisher aspired to the production of

a Bible that should possess claims to the confidence of the Protestant Churches of the realm, and prove serviceable to coming generations. For this purpose, he spared neither pains nor expense to stamp every department of the volume with the impress of excellence. While the typography of the text and notes is the best the age can supply, the References -to which so much importance attaches, as the best and surest instrument of interpretation-have been expressly prepared by a Scottish Clergyman, the Rev. David M'Meikan, who has devoted himself to this laborious task with a care, a wisdom, and a perseverance deserving special acknowledgment. As examination will show, these references are real, not merely apparent; substantial, not merely arbitrary.

While the weightier matters have been thus carefully attended to, the lesser have not been forgotten. The volume is profusely illustrated by maps and plates of the most exquisite character, which greatly exhances both its beauty and its value.

The mechanical part of the matter deserves also to be noticed. Never before was so much letter-press, in the shape of a popular Commentary, brought within so small a compass. Notwithstanding the mass of matter-Text, Notes, References, Introduction, Tables, Maps, and Plates-the volume is quite portable, and convenient for use under all circumstances.

Last, not least, is the unparalleled cheapness of the book. Nothing even approaching to it in this point has ever yet been achieved or attempted. The notes comprise matter enough, in large type, to form three or four respectable octavo volumes; which alone, without the sacred text, published in the ordinary way, would cost several times as much as the "Expository Bible."

It is hoped the Introduction will be generally acceptable to those classes for whom the Commentary is more especially intended, and that the Outline of Doctrine and the Epitome of Evidence there presented will be of great and lasting service; the former by aiding inquiry and promoting settled views, and the latter by fortifying faith and enhancing reverence for the Sacred Volume.

Not Your Own. By the Rev. E. MELLOR, M.A. Snow.

THIS was the Surrey Sermon on behalf of the London Missionary Society, which excited unusual admiration. Having the discourse now before us in cold type, we are able to judge of its merits apart from the blinding influence of extraneous circumstances, and we hesitate not to certify to the soundness of the general judgment. It is stamped throughout by power and beauty,-in all respects a most finished performance. We could, indeed, have liked a little more of the Missionary element in it, but otherwise it is a model of

excellence.