study of the passage of scripture which he has selected for his purpose. A clear understanding and correct feeling of its true import are alike essential to his success. He next conceives and determines the plan on which his anthem shall be constructed. Assigning to the several parts of the piece their due proportion, the greatest prominence is of course given to those passages which he designs most deeply to impress on the mind of the hearer. Having sketched the bold outline of his piece, he next considers how it shall be filled up, so as to give the greatest coherence and effect to the whole. Such ornaments as befit the subject are then judiciously added, so as to set off the composition to the greatest possible advantage, and make it in the highest degree subservient to its true design. Such an anthem is an impressive comment on the passage of scripture for which it is written. In its construction the solo, duet, trio, repeat, fugue, change of time, piano and forte passages, &c. &c., may be legitimately employed. These things are not only admissible, but they may be absolutely necessary. Without them it may be impossible to give the best expression to the meaning of the text, and, as we have seen, special adaptation of the music to the words is the essential quality of the anthem. Now if an anthem be specially adapted to express the meaning of a certain text, and to call up in the mind of the hearer such thoughts and feelings as are congruous to the subject, it must be manifest that its music cannot with propriety be sung to another text of different meaning.

The very fact of its special adaptation to the one is a proof of its inadaptation to the other. No one who understood the matter would ever think of singing all the verses of a psalm or chapter to music which had been specially composed for one of them. Any attempt to do so must be as unsuccessful as it would be absurd. Now mark the difference of the psalm tune; so far from being composed expressly for a certain verse, it is intended to be sung to all the verses of a psalm or hymn, and even to several psalms of the same character and metre. The chief excellence of this species of music consists in its general adaptation to all the verses of the psalm. The judicious composer, when about to construct a piece of music of this description, confines not his attention to any particular verse of the psalm for which he writes, but considers the general character and import of the

whole. When these are duly apprehended, he proceeds to prepare the measures of music which the metre of the psalm requires. If, for example, it be a long metre, he has to write four lines of four measures each, and to clothe them with harmonies suited to the subject. If the general subject of the psalm should be sorrow for sin, the music should of course be of a plaintive and penitential cast. If death and judgment are the subjects, a solemn and awful majesty should be stamped upon the tune. Music of a bold character would be suitable for the expression of confidence in God, while a psalm of thanksgiving would require a tune expressive of grateful joy. Thus whatever be the subject of the hymn or psalm, it should be impressed in intelligible characters upon the tune composed for it. This brief notice of the nature and design of these two species of sacred musical composition sufficiently manifests the essential difference between them. The anthem is set to prose: the psalm tune is designed for verse. The essential principle of the anthem is special adaptation to the words of a particular text. That of the psalm tune is general adaptation to the words and subject of a whole hymn or psalm. In the anthem, the solo, duet, trio, repeat, fugue, piano and forte passages, change of time, &c., are not only admissible, but may be absolutely necessary. In the psalm tune they are not only unnecessary, but absolutely inadmissible.

Any attempt to sing the anthem to other words than those to which it was composed, must from the nature of the case be unsuccessful. The psalm tune, on the contrary, can with the utmost propriety be sung to many hymns or psalms of the same metre. An examination of the best models of the psalm tune will confirm the principle we have laid down, that general and not special adaptation is their essential property. Look, for example, at the Old Hundredth, Hanover, St. Ann's, and all our best tunes, and you will find in them no solo, no duet, no trio, no repeat of the words, no fugue, no change of time, no piano and forte passages, no trifling phrase—in a word, nothing that would limit their general adaptation, or render them unbecoming the house or worship of God. The authors of these unexceptionably fine compositions well understood the nature of their task.-Hallelujah, by J. J. Waite.

REVIEWS.

The Divine Warning to the Church at this time, &c.: a Sermon preached before the Protestant Association, by the Rev. Edward Bickersteth, Rector of Watton, Herts. Hatchards: London.

That the present period is the time of the pouring out of the "sixth vial" is not so clear to us as it appears to be to the respected Rector of Watton; nor are we keen enough to discover, with him, "the unclean spirit out of the mouth of the beast,” in the late disturbances in the manufacturing districts, in political unions, in the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people, in chartism, and in the anti-corn-law league. Though our author is a minister of a church, that boasts of its uniformity in matters of faith, we find him combating the views of many of his clerical brethren and even of his diocesan.

We thought ourselves acquainted with all the numerous subterfuges, which the more enlightened among the clergy resort to, for the purpose of quieting their scruples in using certain parts of those services, to which they have declared their "full assent and consent;" but Mr. Bickersteth presents us with a new and very ingenious device, to get rid of the plain and obvious meaning of the term regeneration, and its equivalents, in the offices of the church. According to our author, the term is sometimes to be used and understood in a "higher" and sometimes in a "lower" sense; and thus he writes:

"A regeneration, without repentance and faith, neither of which it is possible for baptized infants, from their tender age, as is plainly stated in our Catechism, to perform, and without faith in parents or sureties, can only, in the plain meaning of the Church formularies, be regeneration in a lower use of the term. We deny not regeneration, in the highest sense, where there is faith in the promises of God. A believing parent may have such an assured hope of the higher blessing given at baptism, in answer to the prayer of faith, a blessing to be unfolded in the future life, and under the diligent use of all means, as already to furnish a sufficient ground for thanksgiving that the infant has been regenerate by the Holy Spirit. We may thus cordially go along with every word of our Articles, our Catechism, our Liturgy, and our Homilies, and, what is infinitely more important, with every word of the inspired Volume."

So that when the priest says: "Seeing now that this child is regenerate and born again;" or when a child repeats the words provided by the church: "In my baptism, wherein I was made a child of God, a member of Christ, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven;" or, "Being by nature born in sin, and the children of wrath, we are herein (in baptism) made the children of grace”—it depends on circumstances, whether the “ higher" or "lower” sense is to be adopted. Surely it would be a mere waste of time to show the fallacy of such reasoning as this.

Upon grounds equally reasonable other expressions in the liturgy may have a “lower” and a “higher” sense. It must be in this way that our pious author satisfies his conscience, when he pronounces one who lived in notorious vice, and died impenitent, to be "committed to the earth, in sure and certain hope of a resurrection to eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord," and when he thanks God, for “taking to himself the soul of the departed." In other offices of the prayer book he must, according to the best of his judgment, decide in which of the two senses he is to use the several phrases.

The word "regeneration,” and its equivalents, is never used in two senses in the scriptures, nor is the language of the common prayer book at all ambiguous. We quite agree with the Bishop of London when he says: “By no stretch of ingenuity, nor latitude of expression, can the opinion which denies baptismal regeneration, be brought to agree with the plain, unqualified language of the offices for baptism and confirmation.

That regeneration does actually take place in baptism, is most undoubtedly the doctrine of the English church." The prelate tells us, he does not discuss the truth of the doctrine; whether it is scriptural or not is not the question in hand, but he declares what the church believes and asserts-that "its authorized formularies set forth, that justification begins in baptism, when the children of wrath are regenerated by water and the Holy Ghost, and are made children of God. Remission of sins is expressly declared to be then given. Grace is also then given."

Now this is candid. Dr. Blomfield is a consistent churchman, and does not flinch in using the language of the church in its "plain grammatical sense.” The Rector of Watton who has been “better taught," cannot so fully adopt the doctrines of the

church, and if he were free to use his own language, would we are sure, never speak of a baptized child as consequently regenerate, in either a "higher" or " lower" sense of that word. It is well that such men as Mr. B. are aroused, and endeavouring to stem the torrent that threatens the destruction of Protestantism in the Establishment; but it were better, if their own hands were clean, with reference to the very evil they oppose. Encumbered as they are, however, and bound down by a "Popish liturgy," and by rubrics which the Puseyites gladly adopt as their sanction and authority, they must be almost powerless in the battle. On the whole, the pamphlet is written in a good spirit, and as every one who knows the author would expect, it contains some wholesome truths adapted to the times in which we live.

Sermons by the late Rev. E. Temple, with a Biographical Memoir by his Wife. John Snow, London.

This good man, "having served his generation according to the will of God, fell asleep" at the comparatively early age of 33. Mr. Temple spent the latter part of his life at Rochford, Essex, but is perhaps better known as pastor of the church at Birdbush in Wiltshire, the scene of his earlier labours; he published several smaller works which have been generally well received. All who were personally acquainted with Mr. Temple will desire to have this book as a memento of its author, while the memoir will be read with general interest.

Six Views of Infidelity. By the Rev. Joseph Fletcher. London: Snow.

Mr. Fletcher has opened a new vein of argument on this subject, and he has worked it well. There is a raciness and vigour in the style, and a grappling power in the train of thought, which commands the attention of the reader, and enchains his interest to the book. The extracts which we have already given will fully justify our praise. We earnestly hope that these lectures will be as useful in their printed form, as we know they were in their delivery.