some of them unknown, emended, corrupted and revised, it came at last to supplant the original in the esteem and use of the Church.

EVERY Christian has his Gethsemane, his place for the prayer of agony. And he cannot avoid the times when he must enter it with a soul "exceeding sorrowful." Perhaps the cherished project of years is melting away, and he is coming with inevitable step to stand where Job did when he said: "My purposes are broken off." Or his riches are taking to themselves wings. A blot is maliciously thrown on the fair picture of his life, and he cannot touch it for removal without making it worse. It may be that the premonition is given in language not to be mistaken, that his life is suddenly on its close. Perhaps the companion of youth and of riper years, of all joys and sorrows, is dipping the departing feet at the crossings of Jordan. Perhaps the first-born, in all the blush of her beauty and loveliness, or in all the rich prophecy of his coming usefulness and honor, is beckoned by an unseen hand, and prepares to go. Such are the hours when we foresee our crucifixion.

In such trial and agony, even to the full measure of his sorrow, it was right for the Saviour to pray : "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me." And so, blessed thought! it is right for us so to pray. We may, when "exceeding sorrowful even unto death," go to our Gethsemane. We may weep and groan under the grief, being in an agony. It is not wrong, for the Lord Jesus did so. We may kneel where he did, use his words, and tell all our anguish. Place and privilege sacred to sorrow by his usage! But we may not divide his words. We also must add that hardest word for human lips to articulate

"nevertheless." O what a blank for God to fill out, having our signature in advance. The loved, the known, the hoped for, all cheerfully and sweetly yielded up in that one word, "nevertheless," and the unknown will of God patiently and submissively awaited! And then the angels come ministering, as they did to "the Captain of our salvation," who was made perfect through suffering.

What a place is Gethsemane to learn and own the doctrine of the divine sovereignty! Where in the wide world can one learn to pronounce with so much filial confidence and tenderness and sweet submission, the words, "thy will be done"! He kneels where Jesus knelt. The cup is full to him, as it was to the Master. The waiting angel is there, as of old; the identical one it may be. And after that prayer he can take up the cross. Yes, every Christian has his Gethsemane; and it makes him Christlike to go there.

"For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." - Romans 7: 9.

By the "law," Paul meant the Ten Commandments, which he had, in all likelihood, learned when he was a boy, dwelling with his father and mother at Tarsus, and had had them at his fingers' ends ever since. Yet Paul says he had been "without the law." How was this? Plainly, that he had understood nothing at all of its import; had never seen and felt that it brought him under a hopeless condemnation, as a sinner deserving hell; had never found out, and did not believe, that he was not able to keep all its requirements. Thus he was “alive” in his own estimation, that is to say, in a religious sense, or in relation to God. In the goodness which he possessed already, and his power of adding to it at will, he had, as he believed, a religious character which was, on the whole, sound and healthy, a good and sufficient foundation for his heavenly hope.

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By and by the Spirit of God opened the eyes of his understanding, and showed him what the "law" was; and he saw at once that he had never known anything about it before, had been, to all intents and purposes, "without the law"; and this discovery was as if the " mandment came" to him then for the first time. The effect was, that "sin revived": ali the sinfulness of his life and character, that is, rose up to his astonished view in its fearful proportions, and he saw that he was a dead man, guilty, helpless, condemned, with not one good thing to plead before God in abatement of the sentence of condemnation that had already gone forth. Then Paul embraced Christ by faith, as he never would have done without that "lawwork," and thenceforth he was "alive unto God."

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Blessed is the man, and only he, to whom the commandment thus comes by the power of the Holy Ghost, disposing him joyfully to accept Christ as his righteousness, so that, "now being made free from

sin, and become servant to God," he has his "fruit unto holiness, and

the end everlasting life."

"Lord, how secure my conscience was,

And felt no inward dread!

I was alive without the law,

And thought my sins were dead.

My hopes of heaven were firm and bright;
But since the precept came,
With a convincing power and light,
I find how vile I am.

My God, I cry with every breath
For some kind power to save,
To break the yoke of sin and death,
And thus redeem the slave."

ARTICLE IX.

LITERARY NOTICES.

A Historical Sketch of the Congregational Churches in Massachusetts, from 1620 to 1858. With an Appendix. By JOSEPH S. CLARK, D.D., Secretary of the Congregational Library Association. Boston: Congregational Board of Publication. 1858.

pp. 344.

DR. CLARK has had peculiar advantages for bringing together the materials composing this book; and he has turned these advantages to good account in the production of a Work of standard value. He gives, in a single volume of convenient size, a brief historical sketch of all the Congregational Churches in Massachusetts for a period of 237 years; from the Emigrant Church, which was formed at Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England, in 1602, and which landed in Plymouth in December 1620, to the " Church of the Unity," South Boston, which was organized in November 1857. An Appendix contains historical matters of much interest, and two good indexes complete the volume, which will be found a very valuable book of reference. Such a mass of statistical materials, so well arranged and in so compact a form must have taxed even Dr. Clark's characteristic skill and industry in such matters pretty severely, and he is richly entitled to the thanks of every church whose origin is recorded in his "Sketch."

A Vindication of the Government of New England Churches. And the Churches' Quarrel Espoused; or A Reply to Certain Proposals. By JOHN WISE, A. M., Pastor of a Church in Ipswich. Fourth Edition. Boston: Congregational Board of Publication. 1860. pp. 245.

WE are here presented with two valuable treatises in one handsome volume. Together, they constitute the best exposition and defence of Congregationalism extant. Moreover, they possess a peculiar interest from the circumstance that their origin is traced to an important crisis in the early history of the New England Congregational churches.

The first in order of these two treatises was "The Churches' Quarrel Espoused," the origin of which is thus described in the introductory notice to the volume, by the Rev. Dr. Clark. "At a meeting of the Boston Association of Ministers, held November 5, 1705, sixteen 'Proposals, which had been previously drawn up by a committee appointed for that purpose, were read and assented to,' and were put forth for the consideration and assent of the several associated ministers in the several parts of the country.' These proposals, though couched in plausible terms, and embodying some useful hints, were denounced by Mr. Wise as revolutionary · subversive of the Cambridge Platform, the then recognized 'Constitution' of these churches. His treatment of the aforesaid proposals is in the satirical form of a trial for treason, wherein they were severally found guilty and condemned to death. Never was a verdict more heartily rendered, nor a sentence more promptly executed."

The success of this effort encouraged Mr. Wise to undertake the "Vindication," which was first published some years later. Whoever would understand all the circumstances which have exerted a controlling influence in the Congregationalism of New England, must read this volume. It fully vindicates the author's claim to the eulogy in the closing words of his epitaph in the old burying-ground of Essex, a star of the first magnitude."

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The Historical Evidences of the Truth of the Scripture Records. Stated anew, with special Reference to the Doubts and Discoveries of Modern Times, etc. etc. By GEORGE RAWLINSON, A. M. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 1860. 12mo. pp. 454.

HERE are eight Lectures delivered in the Oxford University Pulpit in 1859, on the Bampton Foundation. They are the testimony of

the Euphrates and of the Nile to the historical accuracy of the Biblical narrative. Auxiliary to two such witnesses, mysteriously summoned to confront infidelity in the court of truth, the Pagan, Jewish, and Christian writers, whose records are scattered through ancient literature, are freely introduced. The effort of Mr. Rawlinson is a masterly one to meet the German neologists and their disciples, prominent · among whom are De Wette, Strauss, and Theodore Parker.

The Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Egyptian records, as more recently brought to light, are set forth with great power, and the agreement between Scripture and profane history conclusively shown. The whole manifestation of the volume is to the sceptics as the coming up from the grave of Samuel to Saul, after he had said, "God is departed from me."

A Dictionary of the English Language. By JOSEPH E. WORCESTER, LL. D. Boston: Swan, Brewer & Tileston. 1860. Quarto. pp. 1854.

We subscribed for the splendid library edition, and have had it on our study-table, a daily aid and comfort, ever since. This well appointed copy of the trade-edition will lie at our editorial elbow, and will be the standard of orthography for the Boston Review.

The Benefits of Christ's Death: or, The Glorious Riches of God's Free Grace, which every true Believer receives by Jesus Christ and him crucified. Originally written in Italian, by AONIO PALEAREO, and now reprinted from an ancient English Translation. With an Introduction by Rev. JOHN AYER, M. A., Minister St. John's Chapel, Hampstead. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 1860. pp. 160. THIS is a remarkable little book, in its history, as well as in the subject of which it treats, and the scriptural and experimental manner in which the subject is treated. It is truly refreshing to be able thus to connect the plain doctrinal and practical piety of the present with the past. No Christian can read it without having his soul refreshed from the Fountain of Life, and the brief introduction will draw out his soul in deep sympathy with the martyred author, who was born about the year 1500.

The six chapters of the work are entitled: I. Original sin, and man's wretchedness. II. How the law was given by God, to the end that we, knowing our sin, and having not any hope of ability to make ourselves righteous by our own works, should have recourse to