THE SOLITARY TREE, (AT THE CORNER OF CHEAPSIDE.) FAIR stranger of the woods! this place Alone of all thy lonely race, Beside the crowded street! When falls the cool refreshing shower, No grass beneath, no herb, no flower, When opening to the warmth of spring, No birds amidst thy branches sing, To greet the changing year. Yet heaven's sweet sunshine streams on thee, As gladdening and as bright With soft, unchequer'd light. 'Tis thus, when midst the world, alone Still burns as bright that sacred flame, Still shines upon his heart the same, M. A. S. Barber. Review of Books. BOTH ONE IN CHRIST, or the Middle Wall of Partition taken away. Containing a description of the present state and customs of the Jews, illustrated by a sketch of the life and conversion of the author. Also proving from the oracles of the Old Testament as well as from the ancient Rabbinical writings, the doctrines of the TRINITY IN UNITY, and the incarnation and atonement of our Saviour. To which is annexed an affectionate appeal to the Christian public in behalf of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. By Alfred Moritz Myers, a converted Jew. Seeleys. THIS long title page supplies an outline of the contents of the book, which is altogether one of the most interesting works of its kind. Mr. Myers has judiciously interwoven descriptions of the prevailing customs of his nation, with the detail of his early years, and those extraordinary steps whereby he was led to the knowledge of Christ crucified. Touching simplicity characterizes the memoir, stamping on it the impress of reality; and the information conveyed in these pages will be new to those who have never studied the habits of our elder brethren, the Jews, in this country. In fact, nothing can be more calculated to excite such feelings in a Christian bosom as Paul was oppressed by, than the state of this extraordinary people among us. Mr. Myers, in common with almost all Israelitish foreigners, was amazed and shocked at the contrast. The Jew abroad has a fervent zeal, though, alas! not according to knowledge; here, among the lower orders, we scarcely meet with one who has preserved more than the outermost shell-the roughest and most repulsive too—of visible membership with the literal Israel; while in the higher walks of life scarcely a distinctive mark meets the eye. Their public worship suffers a like deterioration; and we need such chroniclers as the converted Jew now before us, to shew what his nation really is, in our day. No marvel that, where the Jew is so obscure and so indifferent, the Papist so conspicuous and rampant, we should be too much drawn away from contemplating the former to watch the mischievous activity of the latter, and expose his devices. There is, however, a remarkable connection subsisting between the two. The force of contrast is striking: and awfully indeed has Mr. Myers pourtrayed the stumbling-block perpetually cast in the way of God's ancient people by the hateful idolatry of Rome. He, in common with his continental brethren, verily believed that Christianity consisted in doing outward homage to wooden saints, and falling prostrate before a cake of dough— in short, that it was, what popery is, IDOLATRY of the grossest kind. It is well known too, that popery has ever, in her days of power, been the fiercest, most sanguinary persecutor of the Jews, no less than their main occasion of falling, or rather of continuing fallen while every one who reads the record of prophetic truth, must needs know that the full restoration of God's dear Israel-beloved for their fathers' sakes -will synchronize, or nearly so, with the final overthrow of Babylon the great. This we fully believe and expect: we look for a most triumphant return of all the tribes to their God and to their own land and we look for the open destruction, by fire, of the great city, Rome, with all the abominable things appertaining to the man of sin. But far from us be the miserable inference noticed by Mr. Myers, as drawn by some indolent believers from the assuredness of these events in God's own time. To gather in a handful even now-a first-fruits offering, pledge of the coming harvest, when ALL Israel shall be savedis a work to achieve which we would regard, like Jacob, a long period of years as one day, for the love we bear to the object: to tear but one mesh of the net wherein Babylon the Great holds captive the souls of our Gentile brethren, to snatch a brand from the burning which is near at hand, is no less a work to be coveted as among the most glorious of present privileges. It is, in fact, our work. He who labours to call in the tribes of Israel to the fold, and he who contends against the Romish Antichrist, is alike working out the matter of his daily prayer to God, 66 Thy kingdom come." That hour which greets the kingdoms of this world as the kingdom of God and of his Christ, shall see the throne of David exalted upon the crushed and crumbled ruins of the baffled apostacy. Mr. Myers' book is every way deserving of the encouragement, and the serious consideration of Christians. We rose from its perusal with feelings at once humbling and elevating; and with an involuntary prayer that we might be found pressing more anxiously forward' on behalf of our dear Jewish brethren, to claim a portion in the unrevoked and unrevokable word, "Blessed is he that blesseth thee!" LETTERS AND PAPERS of the late Theodosia A. Viscountess Powerscourt. Edited by the Rev. Robert Daly, A.M., Vicar of Powerscourt, in the diocese of Dublin. Second Edition, enlarged. Curry and Co. WITH SO much delicacy has Mr. Daly executed a task sorely trying, we should think, to honourable feelings, that no clue is given in any of these letters which could identify the individuals addressed, or those referred to. The subjects treated of are those alone that concern the reader of the book: and to accomplish this, breaks appear, baffling curiosity as to the parties writing and written to, and confining attention to what is of real moment in spiritual matters. We wish the example may be followed on similar occasions. The tattle usually admitted into such books, the exposure of, or the notoriety given to survivors, some of whom may heartily dislike it, and others be injuriously puffed up by it-all this is a |