Magazines for Children. The expectations awakened by the appearance of the first number of the Riverside Magazine have been more than realized. For the beauty of its illustrations it is unsurpassed; and it bears the marks of careful and competent editorship. Our Young Folks also continues to maintain the reputation it has acquired during two years of most gratifying success. 66 "Com Announcements.-The Messrs. Appleton have issued a prospectus of a prehensive Dictionary of the Bible," mainly abridged from Dr. William Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible;" with important additions and improvements, by Rev. Samuel W. Barnum, of New Haven. -Messrs. Ticknor & Fields have commenced publishing what they term a Diamond Edition" of The Complete Works of Charles Dickens, in thirteen vols., which is to be illustrated by original drawings by Eytinge. The Pickwick Papers, Our Mutual Friend, and David Copperfield, have already appeared.-Messrs. Hurd & Houghton are soon to publish the "The History of the Navy During the Rebellion." By Rev. C. B. Boynton, D. D., of Washington City. They are also to publish, at monthly intervals, a Riverside Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens, in twenty-six volumes-crown 8vo. size-which will contain all the English and American illustrations. PRICE OF THE NEW ENGLANDER. The price of subscription for one year is $4. The price of a single Number is $1. All communications of every kind, relating to the New Englander, are to be addressed to WILLIAM L. KINGSLEY, 63 Grove street, New Haven. PRICE OF SETS OF THE NEW ENGLANDER COMPLETE SETS OF THE FIRST TWENTY-FOUR VOLUMES of the NEW ENGLANDer, -from 1843 to 1866,-iucluding a separate INDEX VOLUME, which contains an INDEX of Authors, an INDEX of Topics, an INDEX of Books Noticed and Reviewed, and a List of Engravings, are offered for $50, delivered in New Haven. (If sent out of New Haven, postage or express-charge at the expense of the purchaser.) INCOMPLETE SETS of the NEW ENGLANDER, including the INDEX VOLUME, and all the numbers from 1843 to 1866, with the exception of sixteen numbers, will be sold for $20, delivered in New Haven; i. e. seventy-seven numbers, with the Index Volume, will be sold for $20, delivered in New Haven. If sent out of New Haven, the express charge will be at the expense of the purchaser. These charges, even to the most distant parts of the country, are rarely more than $2. INDEX VOLUME. Price of the INDEX VOLUME, by itself, $1, for which it will be sent postpaid to any address. Address, W. L. KINGSLEY, New Haven, Conn. BRITISH PERIODICALS, The London Quarterly Review (Conservative). The Westminster Review (Radical). The North British Review (Free-Church). AND Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (Tory). These foreign periodicals are regularly republished by us in the same style as heretofore. Those who know them and who have long subscribed to them, need no reminder; those whom the civil war of the last few years has deprived of their once welcome supply of the best periodical literature, will be glad to have them again within their reach; and those who may never yet have met with them, will assuredly be well pleased to receive accredited reports of the progress of Europea 1 science and literature. When sent by mail, the POSTAGE to any part of the United States will be but Twenty-four Cents a year for “ Blackwood," and but Eight Cents a year for each of the Reviews. Subscribers may obtain back numbers at the following reduced rates, viz: The North British from January, 1863, to December, 1866, inclusive; the Edinburgh and the Westminster from April, 1864, to December, 1866, inclusive, and the London Quarterly for the years 1865 and 1866, at the rate of $1.50 a year for each or any Review; also Blackwood for 1866, for $2.50. THE LEONARD SCOTT PUBLISHING COMPANY, No. 38 Walker Street, New York. The L. S. Pub. Co. also publish the FARMER'S GUIDE, By HENRY STEPHENS, of Edinburgh, and the late J. P. NORTON, of Yale College. 2 vols. Royal Octavo, 1600 pages and numerous Engravings. PRICE $7 for the two volumes-by Mail, postpaid, $8. THE NEW ENGLANDER. No. C. JULY, 1867. ARTICLE I-AMUSEMENTS. Religion and Amusement; An Essay delivered at the International Convention of Young Men's Christian Associations, held in Albany, N. Y., June 1st, 1866. By Rev. MARVIN R. VINCENT, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Troy, N. Y. pp. 32. Christian Amusements; A Discourse delivered February 11th, 1866, at the annual meeting of the Young Men's Christian Association of St. Paul. By Rev. EDWIN SIDNEY WILLIAMS, Pastor of the Congregational Church at Northfield, Minn. pp. 31. Amusements; Their Uses and their Abuses; A Sermon preached in the First Congregational Church, North Adams, Mass., Sunday evening, Nov. 26th, 1866. By Rev. WASHINGTON GLADDEN, Acting Pastor. pp. 31. Social Hints for Young Christians, in three Sermons. By HOWARD CROSBY, Pastor of the 4th Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York. [Published by request of the Young People's Christian Association.] 1866. pp. 56. In the World, Not of the World. Thoughts on Christian Casuistry. By WILLIAM ADAMS, D. D., Madison Square Church, New York City. pp. 64. The Atlantic Monthly, August and September, 1866. "The Chimney Corner," VIII., IX. Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, December, 1866. "Our Amusements." A Sermon on Christian Morals in Social Life; Preached in the Stone Church, [Cleveland, O.], March 13th, 1859. By Rev. WILLIAM H. GOODRICH. pp. 22. The Scriptural Principle of Total Abstinence; A Sermon preached in the Central Church, Bangor, on Sunday, August 7th, 1859. By SAMUEL HARRIS. Pp. 12. In the announcement of new plans for the improvement of the New Englander, somewhat more than a year ago, it was stated that "there are grave questions relating to the Christian Life, to the subject of Amusements, for example, and to Worship, which are in danger of receiving less consideration than from their relative importance they deserve." The number and variety of the papers on the subject of Amusements, which have appeared since that sentence was written, indicate that this theme is one which demands a new discussion, if not a change of position. The literature, treating upon this subject from a Christian point of view, has been exceedingly meager and unsatisfactory. The few attempts to approach the subject by religious writers have usually taken the form of special dissuasives from particular classes of amusement as involving the soul in perils. These notes of warning have made little allowance for recreation, and have given such undue prominence to the sober side of life as to prejudice many against religion, as if it required a surrender of all entertainment. The one sidedness with which this subject has been treated is not too strongly described by Mrs. Stowe: "With all the telling of what the young shall not do, there has been very little telling what they shall do. The whole department of amusements-certainly one of the most important in education-has been by the church made a sort of outlaws' ground, to be taken possession of and held by all sorts of spiritual ragamuffing; and then the faults and short comings resulting from this arrangement have been held up and insisted on as reasons why no Christian should ever venture into it."* And Mr. Vincent says: "We have heard more about keeping unspotted from the world, than of going into all the world and preaching the gospel to every creature. More about coming out and being separate, than of knowing the truth which shall make us free. More of separating wheat from tares, than of leavening lumps. The false instinct of self-preservation, which sent the Romanist into cloisters and convents, and tore him from the sweet sanctities of domestic life, has perpetuated itself more than some of us think in Protestant thought and church legislation. And in nothing has this tendency revealed itself more distinctly than in the matter of amusements. For amusement, having the effect to make men feel kindly toward the world, and, more readily than duty, falling in with human inclination, has been regarded as unsafe, and therefore as a thing to be kept at arm's length by the church, and admitted to her folds only under the strictest surveillance, and in gyves and handcuffs."+ The time of reaction seems now to have come; the subject is fairly open for debate, and the disputants are ranging themselves; on one side, those who claim to exercise Christian liberty; and on the other side, those who fear the evil tendencies of pleasure-seeking, in respect both to religious life and mental culture. While all Christians must agree that immoral and sinful pastimes are invariably to be disallowed and condemned, two questions are constantly recurring, which open the way for difference of opinion; first, what things are immoral and forbidden by scripture; and, secondly, whether certain recreations, not positively and forever forbidden, are universally inexpedient. It has been specially characteristic of Puritan, Methodist, and Moravian churches, to discountenance amusements, particularly those amusements which are most universal and captivating; while periods of religious awakening and reform almost invariably give rise to crusades against fashionable entertainments and vain recreation. It must be conceded, however, that in respect to certain amusements, as dancing and games involving chance, there * Atlantic Monthly, p. 339. + Essay, p. 6. |