present aspects of Popery-that awfully anti-christian system to which," whether in its vigour and plenitude of power, or in its decline, or in its struggle for revival, the words of the poet may be applied figuratively and literally: 'In sua templa furit, nullâque exire vetante Materia, magnamque cadens magnamque revertens, Verbum sat!-To return therefore to the volume before us. Its object, as stated by the author, is to impress upon his comrades the deep conviction, that in the Christianity of the Bible is contained the Sailor's Hope, for himself and the nation," and to put forward his "Plea for Religion, as contained in Holy Scripture, the only safeguard, he firmly believes (would that all were of the same mind) for ourselves and those that belong to us." The contents are as follows:-1. Preliminary Remarks. 2. Long Preservation of England from Internal War. 3. The Navy, as a Profession of Arms, defended. 4. Leaving Home. 5. Temptations on board. 6. Temptations on shore. 7. The Bible. 8. Afflictions. 9. A Father's Death. 10. Duelling. 11. Shipwreck. 12. Prayer. 13. Sudden Death, and Burial of a Brother Officer. 14. Conversion. 15. Arrival of the Mail. 16. Death. 17. Heaven and Hell. 18. Jesus. 19. New Year. 20. Memento Mori. A brief extract or two will interest our readers, and give them an idea of the work. Lessons like the following are always seasonable, but especially so at present. The first has reference to National Responsibility. After some judicious remarks on the general question, the author thus proceeds: "Oh the danger of growing secure and careless! the cruelty to succeeding generations of presumption on such a momentous subject as this! Let us remember the fate of Nineveh of old-that city great and strong, that was called the rejoicing city.' She said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me'-but she, who was once spared at the preaching of the prophet Jonah, has become a desolation, a place for the beasts of the fields to lie down in. But why speak of this city only, when the same may be said of many others, and in an especial manner of Babylon the Great, whose king said in his foolish pride, 'Is not this Great Babylon?' But Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency,' abundant in treasures, Babylon is fallen: she has become a wilderness-a dry land and a desert-she has become a desolation among the nations,' 'a desola tion without an inhabitant.' Where also are Sodom and Gomorrah? They are gone-they have vanished. Where is Tyre also? She is fallen: and how 1 Pursuits of Literature. hath Samaria become 'an heap of the field!' Ruin came upon all, as the award of their crimes; the armoury of the Lord was opened upon them, because their sin was very grievous, their destruction having been prophetically denounced on this very account long before. "It is as clear therefore as if it were written with a sunbeam in the midst of darkness, that Christianity is the stronghold of a nation, while it always brings in its train true civilization, with all the domestic comfort and happiness attendant on internal prosperity. In further proof of this, we have but to cast our eyes upon the present state, or reflect upon the past history, first of those nations, where the true faith is at least openly professed, and then upon those where Christianity is either professed not at all, or preached only with error and alloy. Look at the present state of England, Wales, or Scotland; how much has their Protestant faith done for them-how much has it done for our colonies-how much may we hope it will still do- what manufactures, what commerce, what enterprise have grown up under its shadow! Compare the state of Great Britain even with that of her sister isle, and why are we more advanced than they are in the civilized arts? May it not be, nay is it not, because we are unbound by the cramping chain of Popery and error? What have Spain and Portugal become, as nations, under its yoke? What Italy itself? They have become the lowest of nations, and their 'blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits' have made them so. It is but lately indeed that the world was called upon to witness the vengeance of the Almighty exemplified in a most tremendous manner, in the case of a neighbouring country. Long overspread with the darkness of gross superstition, followed by the extreme of licentiousness and dissipation, they were abandoned by the divine displeasure to their own imaginations, and suffered to try the experiment of giving a body to the phantom of Equality, and setting up their great goddess Reason to be worshipped. Then was the arm of the son turned against the father, and the father against the son; and such deeds were perpetrated of bloodshed and horror, as even yet make all the ears that hear of them to tingle. That nation, after having suffered all the dreadful miseries arising from rebellion, anarchy, and confusion, sunk at last under the cruel tyranny of an abandoned usurper, whose recklessness of human life filled every town and village in the land with widows and orphans, and desolated every hearth. The conscription exempted none from its rigours. But while we read in this instance of the awful punishment assigned by the just decrees of a never-erring God against an impenitent nation, let us remember that his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still,' to punish those that call evil good, and good evil,-that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.' Against such as do these things, we cannot wonder if the anger of heaven be hereafter provoked :-'Shall I not visit for these things,' saith the Lord, and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?' Depend upon it, however long he may delay it, God will not be mocked; he will at last pour out his indignation upon those who have not known him, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon his name.” -(pp. 8-12.) Our naval friend next reminds us of one of our many national privileges-the long exemption we have enjoyed from internal war. Perhaps we cannot better conclude our notice than with his useful little homily on this subject. It will give continuity to our remarks; and we are glad to adopt these additional observations of the gallant officer as our own. Our recent service of thanksgiving to Him" who has in all ages shown his power and mercy in the miraculous and gracious deliverances of his Church, and in the protection of righteous and religious kings, and states professing his holy and eternal truth, from the wicked conspiracies and malicious practices of all the enemies thereof "-has naturally cast our thoughts into this train; and we think it may be profitable to our readers to be reminded just now of these two important pointsnational responsibility and national privilege. They will rejoice with us that the naval service of our country is receiving such useful lessons on these points from its own officers, and will not fail, we are sure, to estimate an appcal like the following. "The most common observer of human events, reflecting for a moment upon the past history of his country, cannot fail to be struck with the conviction that Heat whose command nations and empires rise and fall, flourish and decay,' has, in the most marked and signal manner, spared and watched over this happy land. Not only has the shield of his protection been extended over her in seasons of peace, but her people have ever been the peculiar objects of his providential care in the very midst of war. Whilst other nations experienced the ravages and desolation of war on their own soil, the people of England beheld the avenging sword of divine indignation only afar off. Whilst the palace, the mansion, and the cottage were alike subjected to the desolating scourge abroad, in our happy homes each individual was permitted, in comparative quietness, to live under his vine, and enjoy the shade of his own fig-tree. With the exception, indeed, of a few incursions of the Scottish monarchs into the northern counties, which were transient in their operations and partial in their effects, England has never been the seat of foreign war since the time of the Conquest; and the southern counties have never seen the fire of an enemy's camp for 800 years! "Not that safety to our homes, and quietness to our domestic hearths, have been the consequence of a long uninterrupted peace. The world has been torn and agitated from one end to the other; the fate of nations in turns trembling in the balance. Broils and animosities have filled the earth: Aha! even the ancient high places are ours in possession!' have been the words of the conqueror; and tears and blood have flowed in profusion over ravaged countries and cities laid in ruins; and in the midst of all these contests and struggles, England has not been without her foes-foes too who desired, and at different times did their utmost, to bring war to our very doors, and, if it were possible, to wring from us our very existence as a nation. But every such effort ended in complete discomfiture, because the Lord was on our right hand, and suffered not our enemies to touch our shores. Above all, the formidable preparations, which the ambition of man has on various occasions made to overwhelm us-the two threatened invasions, rise most prominent, in confirmation of the words of the Psalmist, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.' We surely cannot forget the prodigious armament which Philip, king of Spain, after three years of incessant activity, despatched to the shores of this country, to sweep his enemy from the seas, to reduce Britain to the state of a conquered province, and, after treading under foot our religion and laws, to establish on their ruins the tribunal of the Inquisition, and the iron fate of a despotic government.1 "This obsequious servant of the Papacy concentrated his utmost powers; assembled armies; impressed seamen; put every vessel belonging to himself or his allies into requisition; exhausted his exchequer; drew upon the private fortunes of his nobles; and wearied his wisest counsellers in devising Superstition had sent her sanguinary votaries, with the apparatus of her triumphs. One hundred and eighty monks and jesuits embarked on board the Armada: and chains, wheels, racks, whips, and other instruments of torture, to be employed in the conversion or extirpation of the heretics, formed part of the lading."-Tytler. the best way of attack: but all to no purpose, for the Lord was with us, and if the Lord be with us, who shall be against us? We well know the unexampled fate which befel this mighty and (so-called) invincible armada. By the brave conduct of our fleet, the extraordinary changes of wind during the battle, and the tremendous storms which followed, it was completely discomfitted-little more than a third of the ships returning to Spain; and we are even assured that the impression made by their appearance was deemed as great a calamity as the previous defeat. Nor was Elizabeth unmindful that it was the God of battles who had so signally blessed her arms with victory: a form of prayer and thanksgiving for the occasion was appointed to be read throughout the kingdom, and a medal was struck with the inscription, Afflavit Deus et dissipantur'—' God arose, and his enemies were scattered.' "The other instance is one with which we are even more familiar, for it occurred at the commencement of that long and bloody war which was so lately the scourge of Europe. And never, since the dispersion of the Spanish armada, two hundred years before, did the protection of heaven appear to us in so signal a manner. Few indeed can be ignorant of the immense preparations that were made for a descent upon England by a country which had, but a few years before, discarded every species of devotion, and whose every effort had been directed to the subversion of all civil and religious institutions. Her language towards us in particular, was, 'Come, let us root them out, that they be no more a people, and that their name be no more had in remembrance. Not only did every creek and headland teem with armed men, and every corner of the land ring with the noise of preparation, but the very troops were everywhere assembled on the coasts, under the insulting denomination of the Army of England.' The struggle was for religion and for public liberty, for the independence of our country, and for the maintenance of every ordinance essential to the well-being of man. All the efforts of foes accordingly were of no avail. The expedition to Ireland encountered nothing but disaster from the moment of leaving the harbour: a gale arose, which destroyed, damaged, or totally dispersed the fleet, and the second expedition, though guided by the mightiest genius of the age, was never permitted to leave the shore. Thus again did Providence wave over us a protecting arm; for, as, in the first instance, it was not our own sword, nor our own strength, that gave us the victory, but the Lord our God, who covered our head in the day of battle, so in this case, not our merit, but God's mercy-not our foresight, but his providence, made all opposition fall prostrate before us. "We have been like Noah in the ark, preserved in the midst of contending elements. And though England was subsequently called upon to combat for our existence against the gigantic powers of combined Europe, we still see the empire extending from sea to sea, we still remain free, prosperous, powerful; and we still see the Lord smiling upon us and upon our land. The ark has rested on the earth, the waters have abated, and the dove has returned with the olive-leaf in her mouth. "And after all these deliverances, should we not adore his wisdom and goodness, who is set far above all principality and power, and might and dominion,' and under whose feet all things are placed? Should we not, while we thankfully acknowledge the past, look well to the future, that he, who has been our help in ages gone by, may be our hope for years to come? Let us remember, then, (and is it not a cheering thought?) that the Lord is always with those who truly serve him, whithersoever they go. Reader, it is equally true, that if they forsake him, he will forsake them; and here let us once more refer to the history of the Jewish nation. They remembered not him, who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side, and what was the consequence? They perished quickly from off the good land which he had given them; a most convincing proof, that while those who honour him he will honour, those who despise him shall be lightly esteemed. The same Lord who had led them from Egypt by the cloud and pillar of fire, and fed them forty years on heavenly food--the same Almighty Power who had caused the walls of Jericho to fall down before them at the sound of a trumpet-the same triune Jehovah, who had caused all the promised good things to come unto them, so that not one thing failed-turned upon them in his fury, when they would not hearken to his voice, and wiped Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.”— (pp. 16-23.) This is plain but salutary counsel. We have much in the same strain upon topics of the highest personal interest; and we rejoice that the son of a clergyman,' while he "considers it a privilege to be called to aid in defence of the land that gave him birth, and of the religion and happy constitution which are at once her glory and support," can thus inculcate the lessons he has been taught as a soldier of the cross, and not forget the service which he owes to the King of kings. We conclude with a noble and most true sentiment from his chapter on the Bible. It is as follows: "He will serve his own queen most faithfully, who most faithfully serves his God; and he fights most manfully who puts his confidence in the God of battles. One of our most distinguished admirals has asserted that he always found the best and bravest sailors were those who read and studied the Bible; and that to enter the conflict in an humble dependence on Divine protection, and in a simple and unmixed affiance on the Divine mercy, through the Redeemer, is and always will be the high road to vietory." ་ May the naval service never be wanting in such defenders of their country! 1 See chap. ix. 2 The Right Hon. Lord De Saumarez. |