SHORT NOTICES.

RECOLLECTIONS OF CEYLON, after a residence of nearly thirteen years; with an account of the Church Missionary Society's operations in the island. By the Rev. JAMES SELKIRK. 8vo. London: Hatchard.

1844.

THE most authentic and full accounts of our colonies and of heathen countries have been given to us by Christian missionaries. Mr. Selkirk's volume corresponds to this generally admitted fact. It contains a vast deal of information respecting the geography, the productions, and the inhabitants of the island of Ceylon. Its religions, its priests, its native books, and the missions of the Church Missionary Society, which have now, for twenty-six years been established in different parts of the island, are also largely stated and opened out to the reader. This volume thus contains a valuable record of the commencement and progress of the evangelizing of the island, that must be interesting to all who have at heart the enlargement of the Redeemer's kingdom, and wish to understand the real character of Church missions in this island.

There is a map, and many good engravings illustrating the superstitions of the heathen and giving views of the missionary stations.

We quote one or two extracts from the work. The following is from the account of the Baddagama station.

"The Bishop of Madras speaks of the schools of this station in this way: November 2, 1839. Saturday was a "white day" to me; truly and fully a day of thanksgiving and joy. I have not seen so happy a sight since I came to India. The children having assembled and seated themselves in their places, I gave the candidates for confirmation a close and really difficult examination, and was highly gratified by their knowledge of Christian truth; for it evidently was knowledge, and not a mere thing of rote. As a fair trial of the state of the school, I requested Mr. Powell to question his youngest and least advanced class, and found a proficiency quite equal to that of children of the same age in England.'

"The girls' school at this station was commenced as soon after the establishment of the mission as a suitable place could be erected for their accommodation, and was vigilantly superintended by Mrs. Mayor till her departure from the island in 1828. There were, from the first, great numbers of girls attending it, as the missionaries there had not so much difficulty in prevailing upon the natives to send their daughters to be taught as at other stations. At one time there were more than a hundred names on the list, and there have generally been above seventy; and the benefits, both as regards the temporal comforts of the females of Baddagama and the surrounding villages,

and as regards their intellectual and spiritual improvement, have been many and great. During the nearly twenty years in which this school has been in operation, there are not less than eight or nine hundred girls who have been in it a longer or a shorter period. Many of these are married, and have families, and the contrast between them and the other females is very great, as they far exceed them in propriety of moral conduct and in religious knowledge; and on account of their honesty, diligence, activity, cleanliness, and ability to sew and read, they are much sought after as female servants in English families. One reason why all the good that might have been expected has not been realized, is, that when they have left school they have been given in marriage by their parents to improper persons, either to those who were careless of religion, though nominally Christians, or to heathens; and sometimes they go and live at villages distant from every place of Christian worship, by which means they become indifferent to all religion. There were, at the beginning of 1839, eighty-four girls in this school, and the 'parents are more anxious than ever they were before, that their daughters should be educated.'"-(pp. 253-255.)

The grateful recollection of the missionaries by the natives is thus mentioned :

"March 8, 1837.-After preaching to-day to a small congregation at a house in an adjoining village, an old man came to me and said, These are the very things that Padre Mayor used to preach to us a great number of years ago. Mr. Mayor, though he left Baddagama in 1828, is not yet forgotten by the people of this and all the surrounding villages. Every one here speaks of him, and inquires about him, with the greatest pleasure. One man told me the other day, that if his eyes could see Mr. Mayor again, he would not afterwards desire to see anything else."-(p. 487.)

Such publications cannot fail to increase an intelligent interest in the blessed work of Christian missions.

THE LIFE OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST, from the Latin of St. Bonaventure; newly translated for the use of Members of the Church of England. 12mo. London: Toovey. 1844.

FROM the initials F. O. London, we readily guess the quarter from which this comes. We wonder not that the translator is ashamed to give his name at full length. What need is there to dig out of the darkest ages of popery the superstitious remains of the cardinal who applied the Te Deum and the Psalms to the Virgin Mary, and to trim them up to the modern taste? It appears that the original was wholly too bad to bear the daylight, and much has been struck out that it was supposed would startle, offend, and perplex. Enough, however, has been left to mark continually the slime of the apostacy defiling the pure and holy truths of Řevelation with

all deceivableness of unrighteousness. Let the reader be on his guard against the syren songs of Rome, however much they may borrow from the sacred strains of the inspired volume. There are many pious, devout, and holy thoughts, mingled with superstitious ones, and we may rejoice that there was so much truth brought forth in the midst of the dark ages; but to revive such publications without a far larger expurgation of their errors than we see here, and to prefix an introduction justifying the original, is very inconsistent with the office of a minister of our reformed Church, and very injurious to any members of our Church who may be thus ensnared into an approval of the principles of Rome.

CHRISTIAN FRAGMENTS; or, Remarks on the Nature, Precepts, and Comforts of Religion. By JOHN BURNS, M.D. 12mo. London: Longman. 1844.

THIS is a collection of pious remarks on a variety of Christian subjects, calculated to suggest devout and practical thoughts. They are not so striking for depth of thought as for plain, edifying, and profitable use in daily life. It is a book that may be usefully taken up in leisure moments. There are fifty-six meditations in the volume. We subjoin one of the shorter:

"FRAGMENT XXIX.-BLESS THE LORD.

"Bless the Lord, O my soul.' Can one under pain of body, sickness, poverty, perhaps absolute want, desolate, and deserted, bless the Lord for all his benefits? Yes, if he be a Christian. Many good things he may have received; but, even if from his youth upward he has been a man of privation and distress, he can bless God for the unspeakable comfort of religion, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. He can do more, he can bless God for his very afflictions and sorrows, his wants, his pains, for he knows that any other state could not be good for him. It is the best state, and he is thankful. His desire is to understand and benefit by it. He is taught, meekly, and sincerely, to say, Thy will be done, all things are well ordered for me. The mind rises above the body, and there may be more peace, more tranquillity, more real comfort, in this poor man, than in some around him, who have all the comforts of life, but not the same consolation and hope. But if the poor and afflicted be called on to bless God, surely they, who, to the hope of salvation, have added the comforts of this life, health, friends, and abundance, are inexcusable if they do not offer continually their praise and thanksgiving, and endeavour to honour God in their prosperity, as their poor neighbour does in his adversity. O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Bless the Lord, all places of his dominion.''

Bless the Lord, Bless the Lord, all his works, in

SKETCHES OF IRISH HISTORY, ANTIQUITIES, RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS, AND MANNERS. With an Introductory Preface by CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH. 12mo. London: Groombridge. 1844.

THIS book corresponds to the title. It confines its sketches to the period before Henry the Second; and a second volume is promised, bringing up the history to the present time. The various particulars of that history, gathered together from all quarters, are full of interest, and very little generally known. They are calculated to destroy the arrogant assumptions of popery, by reference to facts that must be interesting to the native Irish. We wish that more attention had been paid to giving references to the original authorities, as well as to modern writers; and to a more orderly arrangement of the materials: but as it is, it will be a very school-book in Ireland. Charlotte Elizabeth's preface, like everything from her pen, is full of hearty love to the best welfare of Ireland, and to the great Protestant truths of the Reformation.

useful

GLORIFICATION. By MOURANT BROCK, Chaplain to the Bath Penitentiary. 12mo. London: Houlston. 1843.

THIS little treatise shows in what glorification consists; the time when; the period of the second advent; its nearness; the first resurrection; the ascent of the saints; and the practical bearings of the subject. It contains a clear statement of the præmillennial advent; and, like Mr. Brock's other works, is evangelical, practical, and full of earnest devotion.

THE THOUGHTFUL YEAR. By the Rev. J. SPENCER KNOX, Vicar-General of Derry. 12mo. Dublin. 1844.

THE Thoughtful Year consists of a longer or shorter reflection, written down by the author on each day of the year. They are from this circumstance unequal, both in length and in the depth of remark; but they are generally holy, spiritual, and evangelical, and will, we trust, be useful.

NEW THEOLOGICAL WORKS.

ROME, as it was under PAGANISM, and as it became under the POPES. 2 vols. 8vo. Maps and Plates. 17. 4s.

CHRIST the ALPHA and OMEGA; or, the Fragments gathered up in several Sermons, by that eminent and faithful Preacher of God's Word, the Rev. W. Watts Wilkinson, A. B., of St. Bartholomew's, by the Bank of England; with a Memoir of the Author. Portrait, 4s. 6d.

PROTESTANT MISSIONS in BENGAL ILLUSTRATED, being the Substance of a Course of Lectures delivered on Indian Missions. By J. J. Weitbrecht, Church Missionary. Second Edition. Cloth, 5s.

EXLEY'S COMMENTARY on the FIRST CHAPTER of GENESIS. To which are added, a short Treatise on Geology, and a short Treatise on the Deluge, showing from Scriptural and Geological Facts the Cause of that Catastrophe. Crown 8vo. Cloth, 4s. 6d.

A NARRATIVE of INIQUITIES and BARBARITIES practised at ROME in the NINETEENTH CENTURY. By Raffaelle Ciocci, formerly a Benedictine and Cistercian Monk, Student and Honorary Librarian of the Papal College of San Bernardo alle terme Diocleziane, in Rome. 12mo. Cloth, 3s.

LIFE of ISAAC MILNER, late Dean of Carlisle. By Mary Milner. Second Edition, abridged. Fcp. 8vo. pp. 456. 6s.

OLD WINDSOR SERMONS. By the Rev. William Gifford Cookesley, M.A. 12mo. pp. 282. Cloth, 5s.

CHURCH PEWS; their Origin and Legal Incidents: with some Observations on the propriety of abolishing them: in Three Chapters. By John Coke Fowler, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. Fcp. pp. 94. Sewed, 2s. 6d.

SHORT SERVICES for FAMILY WORSHIP, arranged chiefly from the Book of Common Prayer. By John Gibson, B.D. 12mo. pp. 114. Cloth, 3s.

LIBRARY of the FATHERS, Vol. XVII. The Epistles of St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage and Martyr, with the Council of Carthage on the Baptism of Heretics: to which are added, the Extant Works of St. Pacian, Bishop of Barcelona: with Notes and Indices. 8vo. (Oxford), pp. 456. Cloth, 12s.

LIVES of the ENGLISH SAINTS, No. V. St. Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester; and St. William, Archbishop of York. Fcp. pp. 122. Sewed, 3s.

The LIFE of the Rev. Mr. HENRY MOORE, the Biographer and Executor of the Rev. John Wesley. By Mrs. Richard Smith. 8vo. pp. 416, portrait. Cloth, 9s.

The MINOR THEOLOGICAL WORKS of JOHN PEARSON, D.D., sometime Bishop of Chester. Now first collected, with a Memoir of the Author, &c. By Edward Churton, M.A., Canon of York, &c. 2 vols. 8vo. (Oxford). Boards, 20s.

ANTICHRIST UNMASKED; or, Popery and Christianity contrasted. By J. G. Pike. 32mo. (Derby) pp. 468. Cloth, 2s.

The TIMES of CLAVERHOUSE; or, Sketches of the Persecution. By the Rev. Robert Simpson, Sanquhar. 18mo. (Edinburgh) pp. 228. Cloth, 2s. 6d.

The DOCTRINE and DUTIES of RELIGION illustrated by appropropriate Anecdotes. By John Whitecross. 18mo. (Edinburgh) pp. 248. Cloth, 2s. 6d.

The PROVIDENCE of GOD DISPLAYED in a Series of interesting Facts from Sacred and Profane History. By the Rev. John Young, M.A. 12mo. Cloth, 5s. 6d. SUNDAY AFTERNOONS at HOME. By the Author of "Christ our Example." Fcp. pp. 350. Cloth, 6s.

CHRISTIAN FAITH and PRACTICE: Parochial Sermons. By the Rev. J. Garbett. Vol. II. 8vo. pp. 470. Cloth, 12s.

The OBJECT, IMPORTANCE, and ANTIQUITY of the RITE of CONSECRATION of CHURCHES, as shown by the Holy Scriptures, the Testimony of the Fathers, the Canons of the Church, Foreign and Domestic, the Decrees of Popes, Legates, &c.; the Practice of the English Reformers, Ritualists, Historians, and other Writers: with Notes, and an Appendix, containing the Consecration Services of Bishop Andrews and Archbishop Laud, and the Forms of Consecration adopted by the Convocations of 1712 and 1715, &c. By E. C. Harrington. 8vo. pp. 222. Cloth, 7s.