wards his creatures are truly beautiful and affecting. The spirit in which the volume is written, let the author's own modest preface declare. "So much of serene and so much of joyful feeling, so much of calm and grateful recollection, so much of present peace and comfort, and so much of holy and transporting hope, are connected with the cultivation of the devotional spirit, that to assist its exercises, to administer to its wants, and to accompany its heavenly aspirations, are objects worthy of the noblest, the best ambition. "In attempting to give some of the ornaments of song to such contemplations, and such expressions as become those who have formed a true estimate of life, and of the ends of living, I trust I have never forgotten that the substance of piety is of higher interest than any of its decorations, that the presence of truth is of more importance than the garment it wears. "I have often witnessed, with complacency and delight, the consoling influence produced by the recollection of some passage of devotional poetry, under circumstances the most disheartening and sufferings the most oppressive. Should any fragment of this little book, remembered and dwelt upon in moments of gloom and anxiety, tend to restore peace, to awaken fortitude, to renew or to create confidence in Heaven, I shall have obtained the boon for which I pray-the end to which I aspire. These hymns were not written in the pursuit of fame or literary triumph. They are full of borrowed images, of thoughts and feeling excited less by my own contemplations than by the writings of others. I have not sought to be original. To be useful, is my first ambition: that obtained, I am indifferent to the rest."Preface. We will not diminish the prepossessions which our readers will, by this time, have felt in favour of the volume, by a mixture of certain painful and deeply-seated regrets, (which we shall feel it our duty, in the course of our remarks, to allude to,) till after we have first given them a specimen or two of the author's execution of the design so unpretendingly expressed in his preface. We quote the first Vesper entire. That glorious heaven, which knows no Where the full tide of being runs, How shall I seek, Thou infinite mind, ་་ Gently the shades of night descend; ་་, And man-a speck of dust-may rise, ! "Even as the seed that autumn's breath On to its destined dwelling bears, Springs from its earthy tomb beneath, And its fair crown of beauty rears: The germ of immortality, And bursts life's cold and fettering chains, " When trembling on the awful bourn Which bounds life's transitory stage, Tranquil my dying thoughts shall turn Back on the well-spent pilgrimage: While visions, robed in glory bright, Beam thro' life's evening-shades serene, From heaven's eternal isles of light! What tho' the waters roll between? The arm that oft hath saved, shall save; Death has no terrors now for meWhere is thy sting, O where, thou grave! O death! where is thy victory? Methinks I see the flow'rets bloom Even now on Eden's vernal shore; Methinks I feel the breezes come To waft th' enfranchised prisoner o'er ; Methinks a light as soft as sweet Smiles on me as the pale moon's ray; Methinks I hear the angels greet, "Dull is the lighting to the meanest beam, Which even from heaven's extremest bound is driven; The sun is darkness, to one ray from Him Who kindled all the fires of earth and heaven. All-kind, all-holy Father! Thou, whose grace Illumined every star that's hung in air; Guardian of nature! Thou, whose glorious face Is shadowed forth in all that's bright or fair. There are ten thousand blessed spirits, that roam O'er this dark world-and voices numberless We hear them, but we know not whence they come : Ten thousand golden harps are strung, and bless With their soft music the delighted earIt is from heaven, and heavenly is its tone 'Holy!' they cry-those choirs of angels hear! "Thrice holy One! they sing, Thrice holy One!'"-pp. 78, 79. To the Matins and Vespers are Come hither, spirit, come!'-they say. appended several other devotional I hasten: as my eye grows dim And darkens on this fading sphere, Wax more and more resplendent there. The following is the conclusion. of another Vesper. "Thou God of life! thou Arbiter of death! Thou wipest the death-sweat from the cold pale brow, Thou listenest to the last departing breath, And linkest our hereafter to our now. And point my hopes, my thoughts, my prayers above: And in the bed of sickness-or the tomb To light my onward pilgrimage on high. pieces. hymn. We can quote only one "O let my trembling soul be still, frown; And, should I faint a moment-then I think of Thee, and smile again. "So, trusting in Thy love, I tread The narrow path of duty on: What tho' some cherish'd joys are fled! What tho' some flattering dreams are gone! Yet purer, brighter joys remain : Why should my spirit, then, complain ?”* · p. 251. With an author who writes thus, most grateful would it be to our feelings to have to express our entire unity of sentiment on the most important subjects which can occupy the reflections of a human being. It is impossible to read Mr. Bowring's writings, without feeling towards him an esteem which does not willingly seek or find points of difference. His zealous, and unostentatious labours for the amelioration of prison discipline, for the repression of the foreign slave-trade, and other humane, undertakings; the public sympathy so powerfully excited towards him by his oppressive and unjust, though, as the law of France stands, not illegal, detention last year in that country, and the British spirit with which he conducted himself on the occasion; as well as his acknowledged poetical talent, exemplified in his Russian translations, disposed us to take up a volume of sacred poems from his pen, not only with candour, but with a strong disposition, if possible, to approve, and certainly with no disposition needlessly to blame. A layman, and a merchant, stealing from care, from sleep, from business, and from ordinary recreations, a short peaceful truce to offer up his matin, and his evening song to the Father of Mercies, is a spectacle well calculated to excite respect and esteem. Yet, with all these favourable prepossessions, and notwithstanding the generally pleasing character of the volume, there is in it, to our minds, a deficiency, a dampness, a chilliness, arising, we grieve to say, from the absence of the brightest of those divine beams which the Sun of Righteousness only can impart. Mr. Bowring's dedication of his volume to his 'Unitarian friend and tutor, Dr. Carpenter, as well as his choice of a pub. lisher for his work, might have led us to presume that the author's theological sentiments were not such as we could congenially participate. These sentiments, we must do him the full justice to state, he has not in the volume before us offensively, or indeed much more than negatively, expressed. There is no sneering at " orthodoxy;" no argument or allusion directly objecting to the Divine character of our infiCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 263. 66 nitely glorious Redeemer or Sanctifier;-in short, no controversy. We, in return, will abstain from mere controversy; but we scruple not most unhesitatingly to assert, that "WITHOUT CONTROVERSY great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." So at least, attested one whom we still venture to esteem an inspired Apostle,notwithstanding the charges urged against him by Dr. Priestley, and repeated so frequently by Mr. Belsham and others, of his being a remarkably "inconclusive reasoner;" and, notwithstanding the still newer light of some modern "Gamaliel," who, it seems, has just discovered that the Apostle, and his Divine Master, preached two directly opposite religions. *See, in addition to Mr. Belsham's other works, his recent" translation and exposition" of St. Paul's Epistles. It is not from any want of interest in the discussions to which we allude, much less from not feeling most deeply convinced of the irrefragable truth of the arguments by which the Divinity of our Lord, and its cognate and accompanying doctrines are established, that we have not of late di lated so much upon the state of the con troversy, as some of our readers might perhaps have wished. The truth is, that we have neither seen nor heard of any new arguments of any weight in favour of the Socinian hypothesis; and the old ones, to our minds, have already been satisfactorily refuted again and again. We regret that we have found it impracticable, withselection, to review the very numerous out a partial and apparently invidious publications which have of late appeared on the question. For general readers, the well-known standard works will amply suffice; those who are particularly versed in the controversy will be anxious to read the chief modern publications for themselves; and neither would gain much by a barren catalogue of a score books, the require almost as many numbers of our respective arguments of which it would work to discuss at length. We do not, however, dismiss the controversy; and we may find, not very distantly, an opportunity of referring to it somewhat at large; 4 Z But though we shall not at present formally controvert the matter with our author, who certainly has opened no direct door for controversy; we grieve to state that there runs throughout his poems an implied negation, which to our minds is not a little comfortless and distressing. We certainly had no right to suppose that a volume of poems dedicated to Dr. Carpenter, would be theologically satisfactory to the members of a widely different school; and we are bound to acknowledge our author's courtesy in not attacking doctrines, which it appears to us too clear he does not admit, and which many writers under his circumstances would have explicitly reprobated. But to a sincere believer in the Godhead of the Divine Saviour, the denial of that fundamental article of Christianity, even by the most tacit implication, is fraught with painful sensations. Two hundred and fiftyfive pages of matins, vespers, hymns, and devotional poems, in which the ever-blessed Founder of our religion is never once the object of adoration; in which his Divinity, his sacred offices, his oblation and satisfaction for sin, are never touched upon or presumed; in which the Holy Spirit also is equally derobed of his divine honours; and in which there is always a total suppression, and sometimes an implied, though not direct, denial of some of the most essential features of our holy faith, are to us, whatever they may be in other respects, a melancholy and painful spectacle. certainly does believe most firmly in a future state, in which rewards shall be allotted to the righteous; and, as far as we can judge from the virtual tenor of his poems, to all men, whether righteous or unrighteous. For example: "Yes! all below and all above, Drink of Thy flowing stream of love; And from its germs at last arise Mr. Bowring will of course reply, that he avows himself to be a Christian, and that he is a Christian both on principle and by affection. He but after the numerous discussions in our work upon the subject, and particularly after devoting to it, in our volume for 1818, the whole of the first papers of each Number during a whole year, we are somewhat afraid of overburdening our readers with the subject; a subject, we must add, yielding to none whatever in interest and importance. Now this doctrine of the resurrection and a future state, Mr. Bowring would probably maintain, is the characteristic tenet of Christianity-its very badge, its summit, and its corner-stone. Most truly it is a doctrine of essential, of fundamental, of infinite moment; most truly "life and immortality were brought to light by the Gospel." Yes, and most feelingly can we enter with Mr. Bowring into the exquisite pathos of some of his remarks upon, and allusions to, this subject;-so much so, that in the very middle of our argument, and of our sentence, we cannot refrain from stepping out of our way to quote a specimen; a specimen which we select the rather on account of the reference made at the commencement of it to Him who "opened the gates of heaven to all believers." SUNDAY EVENING. "Let not your hearts be troubled, but In me as ye confide in God; I go Your seats, and soon will come again, and say, Be welcome :—where your Lord inhabits, there, There should his followers be: ye know the way I am the way, the truth, the life.'-'Twas thus The Saviour spoke and in that blessed road, What flow'rets grow, what sun-beams shine on us, All glowing with the brightness of our God! Heaven seems to open round, the earth is still, As if to sanctify us for the skies; All tending to the realms where blessing lies, And joy and gladness, up the eternal hill. As the heaven-guided prophet, when his eyes Stretch'd wearied o'er the peaceful promised land, Even as he stood on Canaan's shores, we stand. "O night! how beautiful thy golden dress, On which so many stars like gems are strew'd; So mild and modest in thy loveliness, seem; While heaven is substance, and eternity. This is Thy temple, Lord! 'tis worthy Thee, And in it thou hast many a lamp suspended, That dazzles not, but lights resplendently; And there Thy court is-there Thy court, attended By myriad, myriad messengers the song Of countless and melodious harps is heard, Sweeter than rill, or stream, or vernal bird, The dark and melancholy woods among. And golden worlds in that wide temple glow, And roll in brightness, in their orbits vast; And there the future mingles with the past, An unbeginning, an unending now. "Death! they may call thee what they will, but thou Art lovely in my eyes-thy thoughts to me No terror bring; but silence and repose, And pleasing dreams, and soft serenity. Thou wear'st a wreath where many a wild flower blows; And breezes of the south play round thy throne; And thou art visited by the calm bright moon; And the gay spring her emerald mantle throws Over thy bosom; every year renews Thy grassy turf, while man beneath it sleeps ; Evening still bathes it with its gentle dews, Which every morn day's glorious monarch sweeps With his gay smile away :-and so we lie, Gathered in the storehouse of mortality. That storehouse overflows with heavenly seed; And, planted by th' Eternal Husbandman, Watered and watched, it shall hereafter breed A progeny of strength, no numbers can Or reach or reckon. It shall people heaven; Fill up the thrones of angels :-it shall found A kingdom, knowing nor decay nor bound, Built on the base by Gospel promise given." pp. 56-59. The concluding line of this poem, as well as the opening, distinctly builds the doctrine of the resurrection and eternal life in heaven upon the "gospel promise." So far is well; but how vague, how unsatisfactory, this declaration, if unconnected with those essential specifications of Christian doctrine which relate to the pardon and peace of a repentant sinner! On this subject there is an irreconcileable discrepancy between our own views which are the views of almost the all ages and those apparently of whole professed Christian world in our author. Mr. Bowring does not appear to have suffered his intelligent mind fairly and fully to meet the question which he proposes in one of his vespers, the grave be terrible?" "Why should His answer to the question is mere sentiment, mere declamation. Let our readers judge, separating in their minds the charms of the poetry from the poverty of the argument.— |