Literary Notices.

MEMOIRS OF THE REV. CHARLES SIMEON. EDITED BY THE REV. WILLIAM CARUS. (Hatchard.) Many complaints have been heard at the long delay of this much wished-for volume, but now we have it, it proves to have been well worth the waiting for. It is an exquisite portrait of one in whom opposite graces met in no common degree, from whom we may learn to combine the warmest ardour, the tenderest feeling, the most acute sensibility, with a calm prudence and wisdom, that would have seemed almost incompatible with them. In trifles he was punctilious to such a degree, that he rewarded his accountant with twenty pounds for discovering where the error of a penny lay in his accounts, and yet his schemes of benevolence embraced the distant shores of India, and reached to unborn generations in his native land; to whom, by the livings he purchased, he hoped to secure the blessings of Gospel preaching. The sons of Israel were the objects of his special affection: he made costly sacrifices for them himself, and was ready to plead their cause before kings and princes. We once heard an interesting anecdote respecting this venerable man: He was requested to conduct family prayer in the house of a friend, and instead of giving any exposition, he read to them two of the closing chapters of Isaiah, placing a slight emphasis on the pronouns. Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." This he continued through the chapter, but added no word of

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comment. After the service, one friend turned to another, asking Has not Mr. Simeon of late adopted strange notions with regard to the Jews?' We wish for all our readers that they may adopt equally strange ones, and really venture to believe that the promises made to Israel were intended for her. We cannot touch on all the subjects of interest contained in this volume. Mr. Simeon was so guiding a mind in the Evangelical church, that his Memoir is a document of church history as well as a private biography. We trust few will read it without profit to their own souls, and thus the holy man, whom God has taken to himself, will continue to be " a burning and shining light" even to the church below.

EMILY BATHURST. (Wertheim.) This book is not so much (as the title would have led us to expect) a tale, as a well-abridged history of the deeply interesting New Zealand Mission. Emily Bathurst, leaving the school-room at eighteen, ignorant of all but what she had learned from her books there, is awakened, by hearing of New Zealand, to an interest in the Church Missionary Society. Her first zeal, the neglect of filial duty into which it was in danger of leading her, the objections raised by her friends to the Society, and the answers supplied to these objections, are described in a lively graphic style.

It is not easy to find suitable books for the ‘Village library.' The agricultural poor require the simplest teaching, and can often scarcely follow two links of an argument. As we know that many of our readers are actively employed among this class, we are glad to introduce to them any little books which they may find valuable for circulation.

A WORD TO WIVES AND MOTHERS, and A BOOK FOR YOUNG WOMEN, lately published by Wertheim, are written in a simple, pointed style, and bear directly on the chief temptations of our poor women. They are written by one who had learned to know the poor in their own cottages.

ROUGH RHYMES FOR FARMER'S BOYS, by MISS PARROT, published also by Wertheim, is a capital little book, answering thoroughly to its name. Many a lad's dull face will brighten over it.

LUCY SEYMOUR; or, IT IS MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE. A delightful little tale for children, well calculated to impress upon their minds the difficult lesson, that, after all, happiness is not to be found in thinking first and only of self.

THE YOUNG JEWESS AND HER CHRISTIAN COMPANIONS, (Grant and Griffith,) is another nice tale for children which has been brought before us.

FAMILY PRAYERS FOR A FORTNIGHT. By A CLERGYMAN'S DAUGHTER. (Nisbet.) This book is, we conclude, written by the Authoress of the Female Visitor,' that beautiful series of village sketches which appeared some time ago in our Magazine. It is intended chiefly for the use of the people of her father's late ministry, and contains prayers for a fortnight, occasional prayers, and a selection of texts for each day in the year, entitled the Comparison. We give one specimen of the arrangement, which presents truth most forcibly to the mind.

'Jan 21st. "The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger." Job xvii. 9.'

"The strength of the wicked shall be hunger-bitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side." Job xviii. 12.'

THE PROTESTANT.

LAST month has seen once more the anniversary of most of our Christian Societies, the true glory of our land. There has been much to cheer and animate us in these meetings. The year has been one of unexampled pressure; and yet the Bible Society, the Church and the Wesleyan Missionary Societies, the Pastoral Aid Society, and we believe several others, have had to report an income greater than in any year previous. The tone of the speeches, and the facts detailed in them, were alike gratifying and hopeful. A large blessing has clearly rested on these works of love. A spirit of growing sympathy and union has been manifested in various branches of Christ's visible Church, so that, in the review of the past month, we may well thank God, and take courage.

But, amidst all that is cheering and delightful in these late anniversaries, there is one truth which ought to weigh deeply on every conscience, and to mingle humility and fear with our grateful thanksgivings. God has plainly, even now, a controversy with our land. The famine in Ireland continues, and is now aggravated by fever and pestilence. The scourge, though more gently applied, reaches our own island, in an alarming scarcity of every kind of provisions. The pressure extends to all classes. It is felt, even in the royal palace, and at the tables of the money-changers, as well as in the cottages of the poor labourers, and

the alleys of squalid want in our great cities. The hand of God is undeniably upon us. Our rulers have owned, in part, the reality of the judgment. Multitudes, in the late Fast, confessed their sins, and the sin of the nation, before God; and still the scourge continues to waste, and the heavy burden to weigh upon us, and it is our duty to ask, again and again, wherefore it is that God contendeth with us.

The question is still more urgent, for another reason. We are now on the eve of a general election. The character of the new Parliament will, almost certainly, decide the course of our national policy for years to come. If ungodly members are chosen, that policy will be godless. If lukewarm Protestants, of little or no faith, are elected, the apostasy of Rome will advance with giant strides and increased effrontery. The public testimony to God's truth will be cast aside. Instead of repenting publicly of former acts of sin, in the countenance and support of idolatrous rites, these sins will be redoubled and multiplied. Like Pharaoh, the nation will harden itself more and more in a blind unbelief of God's righteous Providence, and the present famine may, in this case, prove only the beginning of sorrows.

How needful, then, that every Christian elector-yes, and every Christian lady-should see clearly, at this time, the national sins to be confessed; and the nature of that public repentance we must all practise, if the hand of the Lord, in heavy judgment, is to be removed from us.

There is danger here, doubtless, of a partial and onesided view. It is a bad sign, when Christians find the only cause of God's displeasure to be some particular sin, whether private or public, from which they are themselves free. This would not be the wisdom from above, but a form of secret pride, doubly offensive in an