view on this point. Although our Saviour Christ taketh not or needeth not any testimony of man, and that which is once confirmed by the certainty of his eternal truth, hath no more need of the confirmation of man's doctrine and writings than the bright sun hath need of a little candle to put away darkness and to increase his light;" yet appeal is made as confirmatory evidence to what was believed and taught by "the old holy fathers and ancient learned doctors."-See Holden on Tradition, p. 175. I am, Sir, yours, A LAY CHURCHMAN. TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHURCHMAN'S MONTHLY REVIEW. SIR,-I am highly gratified by the kind manner in which Mr. Faber makes mention of my name in his communication inserted in your February number; but I must, in justice to myself, state that he has misunderstood my meaning in the letter he refers to, owing doubtless to my not having expressed myself clearly. Now the fact is simply this. In the many defences and explanations published by him from time to time of his theory of appeal to Primitive Antiquity, he appeared to me to make some concessions, which led me to believe that he had at length so modified his principle as to coincide substantially with my own view of the subject. Under this impression, an erroneous one I fear, the letter to which Mr. Faber refers was written; and consequently my expressions, whatever they were, for I do not recollect the exact words, had reference solely to his principle, modified and limited in the way I supposed. Nine years have passed away since the publication of my work on the authority of tradition; but further reflection and inquiry, so far from shaking my confidence in the soundness of the principles advocated in it, has served to strengthen and confirm it by many additional arguments. A matter merely personal to myself is not of sufficient importance to occupy a space in your pages; but I shall feel obliged if you will do me the favour to append in your next number an Editorial Note, stating that you are authorized by me to say that Mr. Faber, for whom as a scholar and divine I entertain the profoundest respect, has misunderstood what I meant in the private letter referred to by him. I am yours respectfully, Mayhull, near Liverpool, GEORGE HOLDEN, P. C., of Mayhull. THE CHURCHMAN'S MONTHLY REVIEW AND CHRONICLE. APRIL, 1847. MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE REV. CHARLES SIMEON, M.A., late Senior Fellow of King's College, and Minister of Trinity Church, Cambridge. With a Selection from his Writings and Correspondence. Edited by the Rev. WILLIAM CARUS, M.A., Fellow and Senior Dean of Trinity College, and Minister of Trinity Church, Cambridge. London: Hatchards. 1847. THE distinguished subject of these Memoirs was, doubtless, in many respects, one of the most remarkable men of his day. As a presbyter of the Church of England, few will deny him the rank of a primus inter pares-while relatively, as regards the Church Catholic, it may be truly said, in the language of his beloved friend the Bishop of Calcutta, that "a more devoted servant of Christ has not often appeared, . nor one whose course of service was more extended in point of time, more important, more consistent, more energetic, more opportune for the circumstances of the Church, and by the Divine blessing more useful." a preacher, he was unquestionably one of the first of his age-as a Divine, one of the most truly scriptural-as a resident in the University, the most useful person beyond all doubt which these latter times have known-as a writer, he began early in life, and accomplished, after forty years' persevering labour, a most extensive and valuable collection of Discourses on every part of Scripture for the guidance of Divinity students-as a churchman, he devoted all his ..." As property to perpetuate, in numerous populous parishes, the selection of devoted and able ministers-as a man and a Christian, he eminently lived to the glory, and died in the peace of Christ his Lord." Such was our beloved and venerated friend, CHARLES SIMEON. To few pastors of Christ's flock has the Apostolic charge (MoveTe Tãy hyovμerwy iμõv, &c., Heb. xiii. 7, 8., so aptly appended to the Memoir,) ever applied with greater force :-nor have proofs been wanting that seldom has the memory of a deceased pastor been cherished with a more affectionate regard or enduring interest. On all hands, for the last ten years, the inquiry has been heard"When will his memoirs appear?" and never, we are persuaded, was a volume of memoirs more welcome than the one will prove which we have now the happiness to introduce to our readers. Why then so unaccountable a delay in its publication? how, under all the circumstances, has Mr. Simeon's respected biographer felt himself justified in withholding it so long, transgressing even the Horatian license, nonumque prematur in annum, and forgetting, apparently, Mr. Simeon's own wish expressed (in his own pithy way) to Mr. Sargent, now fourteen years ago, "to prevent and prevent the attempts of others, who would do harm to religion by their injudicious, though well-meant productions?" Many are the reasons which would seem to us urgently to have demanded an earlier publication; and to most of these both Mr. Simeon and his friends appear to have been fully alive. Hence the interesting autobiography, written by Mr. Simeon so early as 1813, which forms the substratum of the present volume. Hence too the advanced preparation of " a voluminous mass of his papers (with indices and observations)" which Mr. S. was preparing to place in the hands of his "most beloved friend and intended biographer, Mr. Sargent, and had actually engaged to place in his hands the very day of Mr. Sargent's funeral, "furnishing materials for him to work upon, for the first thirty or forty years of his ministrations." And all these materials, it seems, were very soon after committed to Mr. Carus, who had " SO far ventured to commit himself to the work, as to engage to examine the papers and prepare them for publication :" while, on the death of Mr. Simeon (in 1836), "having been solicited to the last to undertake the responsibility of editing them, and the whole of the manuscripts being bequeathed to him for this purpose, he felt himself no longer at liberty to decline a duty thus solemnly imposed." Whence then, we repeat, this unaccountable delay? Mr. C. does not appear to us to have answered the inquiry; and we fear Mr. Simeon's friends and the religious public will still feel that the publication of the Memoirs has been needlessly postponed. But enough on a somewhat unpleasant topic. We have discharged our conscience, and now turn with unmixed pleasure to the Memoirs themselves. They are, as a whole, every thing we could wish, and we owe Mr. Carus our best thanks for this valuable, though late gift to the Church. Restricted as he was by Mr. Simeon's imperative injunctions, "that on no consideration whatever should the Memoir exceed the limits of a single octavo volume,' we do not see how he could have shown greater judgment in the execution of his task, or have provided a volume more likely, with the Divine blessing, to "prove instrumental to the diffusion of that same "6 spirit of love, and of power, and of a sound mind," with which Mr. Simeon was so eminently endued: and thus become the means of advancing those high and holy objects, the promotion of which was the unceasing effort of his long and laborious life." The appearance of the volume at this time, we are willing to persuade ourselves, will prove to have been a special providential arrangement for never could such a Memoir be more seasonable; and we sincerely trust it will speak to many with awakening power as a voice from the dead. Our Fathers are fast disappearing from the stage, and much need there is that a double portion of their spirit should descend upon those who succeed them in their arduous work. It is well to be reminded what manner of men they were; and in now proceeding, from this ample volume, to trace a brief memorial of our beloved and venerated friend Mr. Simeon, we shall render, we trust, an acceptable service to some at least of our readers, and take perhaps the best method of testifying our own love and honour for that excellent man. Following the example of the biographer, we shall abstain as much as may be from remark, and leave what detail we can give to speak for itself. Commencing, then, ab ovo, Mr. Simeon, it seems, was born at Reading, Sept. 24, 1758, and was baptized at the parish church, October 24, following. He was the fourth and youngest son of Richard Simeon, Esq. of that place, by his marriage with Elizabeth Hutton, the descendant of a family remarkable for having numbered amongst its members two archbishops of York. His immediate ancestors, in the two preceding generations, had been the incumbents of the living of Bucklebury in Berkshire: "a circumstance," which his biographer thinks, "may possibly have had some influence in directing his thoughts to that profession, of which he afterwards became so distinguished and influential a member." "The family," (we quote the Memoirs,') trace their descent directly from the ancient house of the Simeons of Pyrton in Oxfordshire, in which county, and that of Stafford, they formerly held very large possessions. Their only male representatives are now to be found in Mr. Simeon's branch of the family: the other branches having terminated in females: one of whom intermarried with the celebrated John Hampden, and others are merged in the families of the Welds of Lulworth Castle, and the Lords Vaux of Harrowden. "The eldest son of Richard Simeon, who was named after his father, died early in life. John, the second son, was bred to the bar: he became Senior Master to the Court of Chancery: and was one of the Commissioners, conjointly with Sir Herbert Taylor and Count Munster, for the management of the private property of George the Third. For many years he represented the borough of Reading in Parliament; and in 1815 was created a baronet: an honour previously held by the family from a period almost coeval with the institution of the order. The third brother, Edward, was an eminent merchant in London; and for many years one of the Directors of the Bank of England. He realized a large fortune, but was cut off in the prime of life by a peculiar and distressing disease; during which he derived the most important benefit from the devoted attention and faithful instruction of his youngest brother." Thus honourable was Mr. Simeon's rank and station in society -one of the many providential distinctions which no doubt proved favourable to his influence and usefulness in after-life. At the same time it must not be forgotten that it had also its disadvantage, and as Mr. Simeon makes no mention of any peculiar religious privileges which he enjoyed in early life in the bosom of his family, or among his youthful connections, (the contrary seems to have been the case,) we see in him the more remarkable monument of sovereign and effectual grace-a circumstance which he ever wished should be carefully noticed, and to which we deem it important thus to call attention at the outset. His whole history shews him to have been a " chosen vessel," illustrating his own strong language: "I myself should no more have loved God, if he had not first loved me, or turned to God if he had not by his free and sovereign grace turned me, than a cannon-ball would of itself return to the orifice from whence it had been shot out." And again, on his deathbed,--" And if we are to bring the matter to a point, it lies in a nut-shell: and it is here-I look, as the chief of sinners, for the mercy of God in Christ Jesus to life eternal; . . . . and I lie adoring the sovereignty of God in choosing such an one-and the mercy of God in pardoning such an one-and the patience of God in bearing with such an one-and the faithfulness of God in perfecting his work and performing all his promises to such an one." Such were Mr. Simeon's views of his own case; and while thus adverting to this point, we will just add one more passage to introduce our biographical sketch, and illustrate the spirit and design with which Mr. Simeon drew up the leading outlines of his own narrative. He says, "I have not written the foregoing memoir as a life of myself; but only as |