every body; the former is in few hands. We are, however, gratified to see any production from the pen of this extraordinary man, put into wide circulation. Piety and Orthodoxy as well as ingenuity, characterize all his writings.

NOTE.

We regret to state that the manuscript of a large portion of the Short Notices prepared for this number having been mislaid, we are obliged to neglect, for the present, calling the attention of our readers to various works we designed to notice.

THE

PRINCETON REVIEW. .

OCTOBER, 1847.

No. IV.

ART. I.-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. The American edition edited by the Right Rev. Charles P. McIlvaine, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, for the Diocese of Ohio. New York, Robert Carter, 58 Canal street: Pittsburg, 56 Market street.

THE REV. Charles Simeon was a burning and a shining light in the English church in his day. Although there were among his contemporaries, men of greater genius and greater learning, yet it may reasonably be doubted, whether any individual, during the period of his ministry, left so extensive and so deep an impression on the public mind, as Mr. Simeon. In our opinion, evangelical religion, in the Church of England, owes more to his exertions, under the blessing of God, than to the labours of any one man. The reader, however, will be better able to form a

judgment of this matter, when he has perused the following brief narrative of his life, derived entirely from the extended "memoir" contained in the volume, the title of which is placed at the head of this article.

Mr. Simeon was honourably descended, both by the father's and mother's side, and was born at Reading, September 24, 1758. At an early age, he was sent to the Royal College, at Eton; and after a due course of study, succeeded to a scholarship in King's College, Cambridge. The characteristics of his youth, which were most remarkable were, great sprightliness and vehemence of temper, and a strong propensity to exercises and sports, which required great bodily agility. In his moral conduct, though not free from juvenile faults, he was by no means profligate; notwithstanding the strong expressions of self-condemnation which he made use of, when his eyes were opened to see the malignity of sin.

His religious views and exercises may be best learned from the narrative which he has left of his own experience, written in 1823:

"I begin then with my early life. But what an awful scene does that present to my view! Never have I reviewed it, for thirty-four years past, nor even can I to my dying hour, without the deepest shame and sorrow. My vanity, my folly, my wickedness, God alone knoweth, or can bear to know. To enter into a detail of particulars would answer no good end. If I be found at last a prodigal restored to his father's house, God will in no ordinary measure be glorified in me; the abundance of my sinfulness will display in most affecting colours, the superabundance of his grace.

"On my coming to college, in 1779, it was but the third day after my arrival that I understood, that I should be expected in the space of about three weeks, to attend the Lord's Supper. What! said I, must I attend? On being informed that I must, the thought rushed into my mind, that Satan himself was as fit to attend as I, and that if I must attend, I must prepare for my attendance there. Without a moment's loss of time, I bought the old "Whole Duty of Man," (the only religious book that I had ever heard of) and began to read it with great diligence, at the same time re-calling my ways to remembrance, praying to God for mercy; and so earnest was I in these exercises, that in three

weeks I made myself quite ill, with reading, fasting, and prayer. From that day to this, blessed, forever blessed be my God, I have never ceased to regard the salvation of my soul as the one thing needful. I am far from considering it a good thing that young men in the university should be compelled to go to the table of the Lord; for it has an evident tending to lower in their estimation that sacred ordinance, and to harden them in their iniquities. "I continued with unabated earnestness to search and mourn over the numberless iniquities of my former life; and so greatly was my mind oppressed with the weight of them, that I frequently looked upon the dogs with envy, wishing, if it were possible, that I could be blessed with their mortality, and they be cursed with immortality in my stead. I set myself immediately to undo all my former sins, as far as I could, and did so in some instances which required great self-denial.

"My distress of mind continued for about three months, and well might it have continued for years, for my sins were more in number than the hairs of my head, or than the sands on the sea shore; but God, at last, in infinite condescension, began to smile upon me, and to give me a hope of acceptance with him. The circumstances attendant on this were very peculiar. My efforts to remedy my former misdeeds had been steadily pursued, and in a manner that leaves me no doubt to whose gracious assistance they were owing; and in comparison of approving myself to God in this matter, I made no account of shame or loss, or any thing in the world; and if I could have practised it to a far greater extent, with the ultimate hope of benefit to myself and others, I think I should have done it. In proportion as I proceeded in this work, I felt hope springing up in my mind, but it was an indistinct kind of hope, founded on God's mercy to real penitents. But in Easter week, as I was reading bishop Wilson on the Lord's Supper, I met with an expression to this effect, "That the Jews knew what they did when they transferred their sin to the head of the offering.' The thought rushed into my mind, 'What! may I transfer all my guilt to another? Has God provided an offering for me, that I may lay my sins on his head? then, God willing, I will not bear them on my own soul another moment longer. Accordingly, I sought to lay my sins on the sacred head of Jesus; and on the Wednesday began to have a hope of mercy; on Thursday, that hope increased; on Friday