Abraham he felt a peculiar solicitude. This solicitude made him anxious to labour with assiduity, willing to endure privation with cheerfulness, that he might be the instrument of their conversion. With devotedness to the missionary cause, and ardent in seeking its advancement, he seems to have united decision and prudence; so that he guarded against undue timidity on the one hand, and rash precipitancy on the other. "If," says his biographer, "he did not exhibit the power and splendour of pre-eminent talents, and the fascinating refinements of elegant literature, he evinced what is of more importance, the quenchless ardour of Christian zeal, regulated by a sound mind, and a facility for making readily such acquisitions as his work required." If his talents were not dazzling, his habits were certainly persevering and laborious. He possessed a considerable facility in the acquisition of languages, and an ability to learn readily the manners of the people among whom he was called to mingle, and to accommodate himself to their pe.. culiar customs, and particular cir cumstances. Before the close of his short career, he was able to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ in Italian, French, modern Greek, and Arabic! In this fact we see a confirmation of what an eminent missionary once said,Prayer and pains will do anything."

66

Mr. Fisk's memoir is compiled from his journals, letters, and other papers, so that, in a great measure, he is his own biographer. The account of his travels in Egypt, and thence to Palestine, in company with Mr. King, and the celebrated Mr. Wolf; and that of his subsequent journeys in the Holy Land, will be perused with great interest, by all who are anxious for the Redeemer's king

dom. The volume ought to be attentively read by Christians generally, but especially by those, who, in any way, have their attention and their efforts directed toward the conversion of the heathen. Unlike religious novels, it is a book from which much real good may be derived; and while the understanding and the heart are improved by it, the taste will not be vitiated or corrupted. Those who have the opportunity, should put it into the hands of their young friends, particularly, such of them as may have a desire for the missionary work. It ought to form a part of the select library of those, who embark to preach the Gospel in distant lands.

May that spirit, which has been so liberally poured out upon the American churches, raise up, on both sides of the Atlantic, many such missionaries as Fisk was! Then "shall the wilderness and the solitary place be glad for them, and the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose." Then may

the idols of the nations quake for their shrines, and Satan tremble for his kingdom. And then may Zion sing, and the daughter of Jerusalem rejoice.

The Family Monitor, or a Help to Domestic Happiness. By John Angell James. 12mo. Westley and Davis.

THIS is a subject so often and so variously essayed, that the very title of the book may dull the edge of curiosity, and deprive the distinguished name of its author of some portion of that excitement which has uniformly attended it. It is hence expedient to announce, at the outset, that this is one of those productions whose excellence and utility will be found in the inverse ratio to the expectations of fastidious readers. We must, therefore, take upon us at

once to set aside all that sort of reluctance to read the book, which may be awakened by a trite subject, and worn out title. It is well known, that the pen of Mr. James, like his tongue, can produce nothing but what is vigorous and stirring. His mind, if less profound, and his thinking, if less condensed, than that of some other distinguished preachers and writers, is, however, more calculated for impression and usefulness. His publications are all of so unexceptionable a class, and, in general, so well composed, that we could never bring ourselves to point out minor defects, nor to give them a faint recommendation. But we congratulate the author, on the increasing interest and excel lence of his writings. Several of his later productions are marked by a decided improvement, both in the composition and the matte r; and the present volume bespeaks a mind richly imbued with the principle and the spirit of our elder divines. It is impossible to peruse either this volume, or its predecessor on Christian Charity, without perceiving that Mr. James has been a diligent and successful pupil in this school. He has imbibed much of their fervour, and writes with a large portion of that evangelical authority, mingled with persuasive earnestness and suavity, which imparts to the writings of such men as Baxter, a mysterious power over the hearts of men.

His works are not designed for the learned, but are admirably adapted to the common understanding. He deals in no subtleties of thought or criticism, but liberally and impartially dispenses wholesome truth.

There is a happy mixture of doctrinal sentiment, with practical admonition, pervading all his publications. He always writes like a man in earnest, and even his occasional

impetuosity and good-natured frankness, sometimes a little deficient in caution upon nice questions, please us more than the jealous reserve and indecision of other writers. He is eminently a man of decision and promptitude. He has a fixed opinion upon all points of Christian duty and casuistry; and, with a fearlessness and fidelity characteristic of the uncompromising spirit of Christianity, he utters the honest dictates of a warm and sincere heart. We shall not enter into any lengthened description of the contents of this volume. It consists of seven chapters, all illustrative of the duties connected with the domestic constitution. These duties are pointed out with very considerable ability and discrimination. There are many passages, which are pointed, close, and searching in a high degree. Few heads of families can peruse the book, without feeling the pang of conviction, and the blush of shame for important duties glected, or the criminal indulgence of dispositions prejudicial to the happiness, or the best interests of their family connexions. Our readers, however, shall judge for themselves of the general excellence of this publication; and we wish them to be aware, that the extracts we present are not selected as beauties, but as fair specimens of the ordinary manner and matter of the whole volume.

ne

"The domestic constitution is a divine institute. God formed it himself. He taketh the solitary, and setteth him in families; and like all the rest of his works, it is well and wisely done. It is, as a system of government, quite unique ; neither below the heavens, nor above them, is there any thing precisely like it, In some respects it resembles the civil government of a state: in others, the ecclesiastical rule of a church; and it is there that the church and the state may be said to meet. "This meeting, however, is only on a very small scale, and under very peculiar circumstances.'

When directed as it should be, every family has a sacred character, inasmuch as the head of it acts the part of both the prophet and priest of the household, by instructing them in the knowledge, and leading them in the worship of God; while at the same time, he discharges the duties of a king, by supporting a system of order, subordination and discipline. Conformably with its nature, is its design: beyond the benefit of the individuals which compose it, and which is its first and immediate object, it is intended to promote the welfare of the national community to which it belongs, and of which it is a part: hence every nation has stamped a great value on the family compact, and guarded it with the most powerful sanctions. Well instructed, well ordered, and well governed families, are the springs, which, from their retire. ments, send forth the tributary streams that make up by their confluence, the majestic flow of national greatness and prosperity: nor can any state be prosperous, where family order and subordination are generally neglected; nor otherwise than prosperous, whatever be its political form, where these are generally maintained. It is certainly under the wise instruction, and the impartial sceptre of a father, and within the little family circle, that the son becomes a good citizen; it is by the fire side, and upon the family hearth, that loyalty, and patriotism, and every public virtue grows; as it is in disordered families, that factious demagogues, and turbulent rebels, and tyrannical oppressors, are trained up to be their neighbour's torment, or their country's scourge. It is there that the thorn and the briar, to use the elegant simile of the prophet, or the myrtle and the fir tree are reared, which are in future time, to be the ornament and defence, or the deformity and misery of the land.

"But, has the domestic constitution a reference only to the present world and its perishable interests? By no means. All God's arrangements for man, view him, and are chiefly intended for him, in his relation to eternity. The eye of Deity is upon that immortality to which he has destined the human race. Every family, has in fact, a sacred character belonging to it, which may indeed, be forgotten or disdained; but the family is constituted, and ought, therefore, to be conducted with the prospect of the rising generation following that which precedes it, not only to the grave, but to eternity.' Every member of every household is an immortal creature; every

into an eternity of torment or of bliss. Now since all the institutes of God look to another world as their chief and ultimate reference, surely, surely, that institute which is the most powerful of all, in the formation of character, must be considered as set up with a special intention to prepare the subjects of it for glory, honour, immortality, and eternal life."

No one judges aright of this household compact, nor can any be in a capacity rightly to perform its duties, who does not consider this double relation which it bears to the state and to the church, and who does not view it as a preparatory system, for training up the good citizen and the real Christian. And for these objects, how great is the power which it really possesses: how considerable is the mutual influence of husbands and wives, in moulding each others tastes, or modifying each others dispositions; of parents, in forming the character of their children and servants; and of brothers and sisters, in stimulating and guiding each others pursuits. The power of other constitutions is remote, occasional, and feeble; but this is close, constant, and mighty. With other systems, the character is only casually brought into contact; but this always touches us. We live, and move, and have our being, in the very centre of it. So powerful is the influence of this association on its members, that it has preserved them, by the blessing of God, in the possession of piety and morality, in times and places of the greatest corruption of manners. 'On what vantage ground does the conscientious Christian parent here stand! The springs of public and social life may be greatly corrupted; the nation in which he dwells may degenerate into licentiousness, into idolatry, or into the most daring infidelity. Retiring then to this sacred enclosure, he may entrench himself, and there, lifting up a standard for God, either wait the approach of better days, or leave a few behind him, on whom the best blessings of those days, will certainly descend. Though the heavens be shut up and there be no dew, the little enclosure which he cultivates, like the fleece of Gideon, will discover evident marks of the Divine favour. It actually seems as though in the wide scene, where the vices of the age, may, and can reign triumphant, this were some secure and sacred retreat, into which they cannot, dare not enter."pp. 3–6.

Mr. James then describes the mutual and special duties of hus

N. S. No. 55.

3D

"MUTUAL SYMPATHY is required. "Sickness may call for this, and females seem both formed and inclined by nature to yield it.

'O woman! in our hours of ease,
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,
And variable as the shade

By the light quivering aspen made;
When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou !'

66 Unwilling, and indeed, unable to subscribe to the former part of this description, I do most readily assent to the truth of the latter. If we could do without her and be happy in health, what are we in sickness without her presence and her tender offices? Can we smooth, as woman can, the pillow on which the sick man lays his head? No. We cannot administer the medicine or the food as she can. There is a softness in her touch, a lightness in her step, a skill in her arrangements, a sympathy looking down upon us from her beaming eye, which ours wants. Many a female, by her devoted and kind attentions in a season of sickness, has drawn back to herself that cold and alienated heart, which neither her charms could hold, nor her claims recover. I entreat you, therefore, married females, to put forth all your power to soothe and please in the season of your husband's sickness. Let him see you willing to make any sacrifices of pleasure, ease, or sleep, to minister to his comfort. Let there be a tenderness in your manner, a wakeful attention and sympathy in your look, a something that seems to say, your only comfort in his affliction, is to employ yourselves in alleviating it. Hearken with patience and kindness to the tale of his lighter, and even of his imaginary woes. A cold, heartless, awk ward, unsympathising woman, is an exception from the general rule, and there fore, the severer libel upon her sex.

"Nor is this sympathy exclusively the duty of the wife: but belongs equally to the husband. He cannot, it is true, perform the same offices for her, which she can discharge for him: but much he can do, and all he can he should do. Her sicknesses are generally more numerous

and heavy than his; she is likely, therefore, to make more frequent calls upon his tender interest and attention. Many of her ailments are the consequence of becoming his wife: she was, perhaps, in full vigour, till she became a mother, and from that time, never had a moment's perfect ease or strength again. That event which sent into his heart the joys of a parent, dismissed from her frame the comforts of health. And shall he look with discontent, and indifference, and insensibility, upon that delicate flower, which, before he transplanted it to his garden, glowed in beauty and in fragrance, to the admiration of every spectator? Shall he now cease to regard it with any pleasure, or sympathy, and seem as if he wished it gone, to make room for another, forgetting that it was he that sent the worm to the root, and caused its head to droop, and its colours to fade? Husbands, I call upon you for all the skill and tenderness of love, on behalf of your wives, if they are weak and sickly. Watch by their couch, talk with them, pray with them, wake with them. In all their afflictions, be you afflicted. Never listen heedlessly to their complaints; and oh, by all that is sacred in conjugal affection, I implore you never, by your cold neglect, or petulant expressions, or discontented look, to call up in their imaginations, unusually sensitive at such a season, the phantom of a fear, that the disease which has destroyed their health, has done the same for your affection. Oh, spare their bosom the agonizing pangs of supposing, that they are living to be a burden to your disappointed heart. The cruelty of that man wants a name, and I know of none sufficiently emphatic, who denies his sympathy to a suffering woman, whose only sin is a broken constitution, and whose calamity is the result of her marriage. Such a man does the work of a murderer, without his punishment, and in some instances, without his reproach; but not always without his design or his

remorse,

"But sympathy should be exercised by man and wife, not only in reference to their sicknesses, but to all their afflictions, whether personal or relative; all their sorrows should be common like two strings in unison, the chord of grief should never be struck in the heart of one, without causing a corresponding vibration in the heart of the other; or, like the surface of the lake answering to the heaven, it should be impossible for calmness and sunshine to be upon one, while the other is agitated and cloudy: heart should answer to heart, and face to ace."-pp. 34--37.

The following powerful enforce ment of the religious instruction of children is worthy of deep consideration by parents:

6

"Do you regard your own comfort? Do you love yourselves? Are you anxious to avoid painful and incessant solicitude, bitter reflexion, domestic disquietude, dreadful foreboding? Then bring up your children with the most unvarying regard to their religious character. Should God crown your efforts with success, what a harvest of joys will you reap even in this world. When you see your children enter the paths of wisdom, thank God,' you will exclaim, my highest ambition has at length reached its object. My children are decided Christians. I am now no longer distressingly anxious for their future prospects in this life. In one way or other, God will provide for them. And as to eternity they are safe.' Who can describe the pure, elevated felicity with which such parents mark the course of their children, in going from strength to strength in their progress to Zion. What a season of delight is that, when they publicly assume the profession of a Christian, and connect themselves with the church! What joy is felt on beholding them at their side at the table of the Lord, and holding communion with them in the joys of faith and the anticipations of eternity. And what satisfaction is experienced in seeing them unrolling their names as the friends of God and man, and giving their support to those institutions which are formed to promote the highest interests of the human race. As they grow in ex. perience, in usefulness, in respectability, in the church, the parents' joy and gratitude are continually increasing, and they feel the honour of having sent such members into the fellowship of the faithful. Should God in the mysteries of his providence remove them by an early death, you will be cheered amidst the agonies of separation, by their dying consolation; their piety will wipe away your tears, and be a balm to the wounds of your mind; and when they have departed, you will solace yourselves with the heal ing thought, that they are gone to that world of glory in which you will soon be reunited with them. Or should the order of nature be observed, and you precede them to the tomb, will not their presence and attentions in your dying chamber, be more soothing by the consideration, that they are so many saints, as well as children, ministering to your comfort? Will not their piety give a sanctity and a sweetness to all the offices of their affection? I die,' will be your expression,

as like departing Jacob, you address yourselves to them, but God will be with you, and we shall meet again where there

will be no more death.'

"But should you unhappily neglect their religious education, and they, through' your inattention, should grow up without any due sense of the claims of God, is there not a danger of their becoming immoral, as well as irreligious? And how could you bear to witness, or to hear of their profligacy and vice, if at the same time, you were conscions that it was in a measure through your neglect? Perhaps they may be unkind and disobedient to you; for God may justly render that child a scourge to his parent, whose parent did not train him up in the ways of religion. O what scenes of domestic misery, what heart-rending spectacles of confusion and wretchedness, have profligate children occasioned in the families to which they belong! How many have thus had their hearts suddenly broken, or their gray hairs brought down by the slow process of withering sorrow to the grave: and the sting of all this, in some cases, has been the consciousness of parental neglect. No sin more heavily punishes itself, than this, nor mingles for its subject a more bitter cup. But then, the eternal consequences, oh, the eternal consequences of this neglect. See the heart-stricken parent, wringing his hands over the dying youth, who is departing without repentance. No, not a syllable escapes his lips that sounds like penitence: the father weeps, and prays, and entreats, but the son hearkens not, and dies, and makes no sign. Now in what a burst of agony does he give vent to his feelings over the corpse, from which the spirit has departed, but departed not to the mansions of the blest.

"Oh, my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son.'

66

Or, in the event of your own death, what thorns will it plant in your pillow, with what deeper shades will it invest the descent to the dark valley, to reflect that you had forgotten the religious character of your children, and the eternal salvation of their immortal souls. Then, amidst these fearful scenes, to awake to a sense of your duty, when it is too late, except by one parting admonition to perform it. Then to see those around your bed, with whom you had been entrusted, but whom you have neglected.

"But there are other scenes more dreadful still. The faithless parent must meet his ruined children at the day of judgment, before the bar of God Fearful will be the interview; and, to us, now utterly inconceivable. No imagination