than some flashy volumes of religious poetry that have been puffed into third and fourth editions. This, in fact, is much fainter praise than is due to such really beautiful writing as the following specimen.

'Incarnate God!

Oh mystery of mysteries! what tongue
Shall tell thy wonders? who can tell th' extent
Of love divine, that brought the Eternal down,
To creature bounds, to bleed and die for man?
Who tell th' extent of love in him whose name
Is Love? Unceasing, everlasting songs
Shall raise their voice mellifluent, and harps,
Immortal harps, shall wake the high response
In vain. The Deity in Christ, and Christ
Barr'd in the dungeon of mortality,
Shall furnish still for song height above height,
Depth beneath depth, expanse beyond expanse.
The setting sun behind Judea's hills

Hid his fair face; and veiled his golden beams
With crimson clouds, as blushing, that a light
Without his aid would soon shine brightly there,
Passing his own rich lustre; and yet seemed
Slowly to move as though he longed to stay,
And view that sight, most marvellous of all
Duration's lengthful records can unfold,
A Deity's nativity; and wept

Electric fluid on the heaving breast

Of Atalantis, as it rose to greet

His near approach, that this their meeting hour
Was come ere young Messiah's birth.

< "Twas night;
Jordan was rolling his black waves along,
And pouring forth a vesper hymn of praise;
And darkness o'er the towers of Bethlehem
Hung like a mossy covering. It was night;
The hopeful shepherds tended in the fields
Their fleecy charge; when sudden o'er the heaven
A blaze of radiance spread; not such a light
As flings itself athwart the northern sky,
When half year winter-night exulting sits.
On his dark throne, and freezes with his frown
The very vitals of the earth and sea;

But such as shone between the cherubim

Ere Salem was forsaken of her God.

They stood affrighted; when before their eyes

The glorious angel of the Lord appeared,

And thus exclaimed, " Fear not, I bring you news
Of lasting joy to all the tribes of earth,

For unto you in David's city now

Is born a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord;

And in a manger wrapt in swaddling clothes,
The young Redeemer rests."
He ceased; and now,
Quick as the marshalling of night's bright host
Succeeds the appearance of the evening star,
A countless multitude of shining ones

Stood round about him; and attuned their harps
To raise an anthem in Jehovah's praise.

"Glory to God" rang through the upper heaven;
Glory to God," the middle skies replied;
"Glory to God," the earth responded loud;
And thunder'd, like an organ's deepest notes,
The swelling bass of the exstatic song,
"Peace and good will towards man.'

The vision past;
To Bethlehem hied the rustic train to greet
The Virgin's Son, where eastern priests appeared
With gifts and homage, (by a meteor led,)
To hail the new-born King. But what a throne,
And what a palace! Wonder, oh my soul,
Now lose thyself in wonder !-Ah! is this
The best reception that a God in flesh
Can find from man he comes to save? Is this
The gorgeous cradle of th' Eternal One,
Before whom angels bow? A manger, where
The oxen feed! Oh love divine! he stoops
To vanquish; 'tis the chariot in which
HE first to battle flies, who on a cross
Shall raise the shout of victory.' pp. 4-6.

The Crucifixion has often been attempted by the artist; but how impossible is it for the pencil to express to the eye of Faith the reality of the scene! The sublimest conception of art is here outdone by the verse of a humble mechanic, who has studied evidently in a higher than Roman school.

See, 'tis he! condemned;

He climbs the rugged brow of Calvary,

With heavy, weary steps; he's stretch'd upon

The cross! Hark! hark! those strokes; they nail him there;
And hangs the Saviour with extended arms-
Emblem of love's right willingness t' receive
With open arms the trembling penitent,
Who feels undone, and flies for refuge there.
Now triumph, hell! unkennel all thy swarm,

King of the deep! to beard the Mighty One,

Thus impotent. The astonish'd heavens grow black;
The sun has, weeping, turned his face away;
Deep horror seizes the angelic hosts;
And e'en the Uncreated Father hides;
Man only is unmoved, or joins the fiends
In mocking his Redeemer and his Lord.

Hark! hark again! what sound is that I hear?
"Tis the pierced Lamb, in agony intense,

While horror of thick darkness makes his soul
A chaos, crying loud, "My God! my God!
Why, why hast thou forsaken me?" "Tis he!
It is Messiah! Patiently he bears

The insults of the railing crowd; pours forth,
While yet 'tis reeking, his atoning blood
Into that dying culprit's broken heart,
Who hangs beside him; and in such a voice
As shakes the adamantine rocks of hell,
Shouting, ""TIS FINISHED," lets his spirit go.
Amazing scene! well might the sun, abash'd,
Veil his bright face in darkness! Well might earth
Shake to her centre ! well the rending rocks
Speak out their wonder! and convulsions tear
The universal frame! oh love divine!

Oh miracle of love! oh love of God!

How vast! how wondrous! passing human thought!
Scoffer, away to Calvary! Sceptic,

Away to Calvary! there behold a sight
Surpassing all beside, t' reveal to man
The Deity's chief attributes; there see
WISDOM unbounded, manifested, fair,
In the redemption of a ruin'd world;
Wisdom that counted up the cost—that sealed
The bill before creation, and now pays

The full price down from the Eternal's veins.
See MERCY, robed in crimson, smiling sweet,
That now heaven's gates are ope'd to her; and she
Can, unobstructed, to the human race,
Descend with welcome messages of peace;
While JUSTICE shines more radiantly than where
Its name is character'd in living flame,
In the dread realms of everlasting woe;
While HONOUR lifts unstained its lofty head;
While PURITY beholds the law fulfill'd

By the fond bridegroom, for the hapless bride;
And TRUTH sees there the dreadful curse endured,
Pronounced in Eden, "Dying, thou shalt die.”
And see immense, immeasurable Love,

The crowning attribute, the link of all,

The cement that has thus united them,

The life-blood of redemption, that flows on Through every vein of all the wondrous scheme, Shine through the death-wounds of Incarnate God. Scoffer, away to Calvary! Sceptic,

Away to Calvary! there, there behold

HOW RIGHTEOUSNESS has kiss'd the lips of
And TRUTH and MERCY have in union met,
Embracing in the Saviour's bleeding heart.

peace;

Marvel!-but marvel not in such degree,
As to conceive the act impossible.
Ponder it, analyze it, weigh it well,
And weigh again, consider all its points,
With all thy skilfulness; what doth it, save
Exalt the moral o'er the physical,

And shew the moral being of a God
Perfection, that, for sin, creation meets
Inevitable death; and to redeem

From that dread curse, the Maker should assume
A mortal form, and taste death's bitterest pangs,
Rather than let one moral attribute

Give way! Oh sin! how dreadful thy effects!

Oh love divine! how wonderful art thou!
Had universal nature backward slunk
Into the barren womb of nothingness;

Had light turned darkness, matter chaos wild,
And order rank confusion, it were nought
To that stupendous scene, where Godhead died
"For man, the creature's sin." Oh love divine!
Unchanging, lasting, EVERlasting love!
Wounded and bleeding-triumphing in blood,
Dying-endowed with stronger life in death,
What shall exhaust thy fulness? Deity
Itself, in person of th' Eternal Son,
Was emptied of all else but thee, that thou
Might'st triumph; but thy fountain still remained,
And still remains, exhaustless. Love divine !
Boundless, immense, immeasurable love!
Duration's ceaseless ages still shall own

Thy heights, thy depths, thy wonders, half untold;
Though all the songs of man, from death redeemed,
And all the symphonies of angels' harps,

Be raised to thy unfailing source and thee.'

pp. 16-19.

If our recommendation has any weight with our readers, they will lose no time in purchasing a copy of these poems. But we cannot refrain from indulging the hope, that our notice may lead to some generous effort to rescue the Author from the cruel necessity of working fourteen hours a day to earn a bare subsistence for his family. That such a man should be found in such a grade of society, we know not whether to rejoice or to deplore. One is tempted to feel proud that England can produce such mechanics; -to blush or grieve for our country, that such should be the hard terms of their condition.

VOL. X.-N.S.

F F

Art. V. 1. Christian Experience; or, a Guide to the Perplexed. By Robert Philip, of Maberley Chapel. Second Edition. 18mo., pp. 206. Price 2s. 6d. London, 1830.

2. Communion with God; or, a Guide to the Devotional. By Robert Philip. Second Edition. Price 2s. 6d. 18mo. London, 1832. Guide to the Thoughtful. By Robert Price 2s. 6d. London, 1832.

3. Eternity Realized; or, a Philip. 18mo., pp. 207.

4. Pleasing God; or, a Guide to the Conscientious. Philip. 18mo. Price 2s. 6d. London, 1832.

By Robert

5. The God of Glory; or, a Guide to the Doubting. By Robert Philip. 18mo., pp. 216. Price 2s. 6d. London, 1833.

WE

E owe perhaps an apology to the Author of these excellent publications for not sooner introducing them to the notice of our readers. Although hitherto silent, we have by no means been inattentive to their successive appearance, nor insensible to their claims on our commendation. It is with great pleasure that we now proceed to the discharge of a duty which will be accompanied with almost unmingled satisfaction.

To come forth in the character of a Guide,--publicly to claim the confidence of mankind,—to profess ability to direct their judgements, and to assist their decisions in relation to subjects on which their everlasting interests depend, may appear, at first sight, to involve something like arrogance or temerity. That man would seem little to be envied, who, by such high pretensions, should place himself in a point of observation so likely to produce extravagant expectations, and so adapted to provoke the severity of criticism. To claim to be a ' Guide' to even one class of persons, is assuming much responsibility; especially if the subjects on which they require assistance, involve many questions of difficult solution; but to profess a readiness to discharge this office at once to The Perplexed,' The Devotional," The "Thoughtful,' The Conscientious,' and 'The Doubting,' might seem to betray either an inadequate idea of the magnitude of the task, and the qualifications it requires, or an excessively high estimate of personal ability.

And yet, every man who sustains the ministerial office, professes to be this all this! Alas! how few are adequately aware of what they covet, and of what they become, when they desire, or enter the sacred profession! And how happy would it be for the church, if all who are officially the guides of others, were as worthy of being heard by those whom they address, as the books before us are of being read by each and all of the classes whose attention they solicit.

With the first and the second of the volumes in the above list, we may suppose many of our readers to be already acquainted, as they