rant work in 1802, and spent the first nine years of his ministerial life in Cornwall, where he was respected and useful. He was not a man of very vigorous intellect, nor of extensive acquirements; but he embodied in his sermons a large amount of rich evangelical truth, and was earnest and persuasive in his delivery. He was better suited for a calm than a storm, and has, we have no doubt, entered the region where not a wave of trouble rolls across the peaceful breast. VARIETIES. VERSATILITY OF TALENT.-Salvator was a lutenist and a satirist. Titian was an elegant letter-writer and a perfect gentleman. Leonardo da Vinci was a mathematician, a musician, a poet, and an anatomist, besides being one of the greatest painters of his age. The prince of painters was a courtier, a lover, and fond of dress and company. Michael Angelo was a writer of sonnets and the friend of Dante. Sir Joshua Reynolds' discourses are more polished and classical than many of his pictures. HOW TO GET TO SLEEP.-Persons who are troubled with wakefulness and excitability usually have a strong tendency of blood on the brain, with cold extremities. The pressure of blood on the brain keeps it in a stimulated or wakeful state, and the pulsations in the head are often painful. Persons should rise and chafe the body and extremities with a rough towel, or rub smartly with the hands, to promote circulation, and to withdraw the excessive amount of blood from the brain, and they will fall asleep in a few minutes. A cold bath, or a sponge-bath, and rubbing, or a good run or a rapid walk in the open air, or going up and down stairs for a few times, just before retiring, will aid in equalisation, circulation, and promoting sleep. HOW TO PREPARE RICE.-Not one cook in ten boils it to be fit to be seen and eaten, and not one in twenty can make a good rice-pudding. Now the first can be accomplished by using only so much water as the rice will absorb in boiling, by which each grain will be kept free and separated, and the mass not made into starch or paste, as is generally the case; and the second can be perfected by putting one teacupful of rice to one quart of milk, adding sugar to suit the taste, a small quantity of chopped suet, butter, or dripping, grating a little nutmeg on the top, and baking as usual. This will be found one of the cheapest, lightest, and most delicious puddings that can be eaten, and very superior to rice puddings made with eggs. AN EXCELLENT CHEAP DISH.-Put one pound of rice into five pints of cold water, boil it gently two hours, by which time it will be a thick paste; then add two pints of skim-milk, and two ounces of strong Cheshire cheese, grated fine, a little pepper and salt, and boil the whole very gently for another hour. It will produce nine pounds of maccaroni rice. PRESERVATION OF EGGS.-Put an egg for one minute in water just about to boil; it will not in that time be hard, and it will afterwards keep well for a month. Reviews. The Councils of Rome. By the Rev. Dr. BEAUMONT. THIS lecture was delivered before the members and friends of the Liverpool Sunday-school Institute. We have frequently listened to the Doctor from the pulpit: we are glad of an interview with him through the press. He here traces, with nice discrimination, the occasions of the great councils, the periods at which they were held, and the objects they respectively had in view. It is a lecture for the times. He might have exhibited in darker colours the evils that have resulted from such ecclesiastical assemblies. have only 100m for the following correct, faithful, and seasonable paragraph :-" No assembly, entirely composed of priests, either by law or by opinion, or by closed doors from the control of the laity, can be anything but a tyrannical, obstinate, and We discord-sowing assembly. If united, they will tyrannise over their flocks; if divided, the greater will devour the less; and this arises from a very natural and very simple reason-one which should, a priori, I should think, be almost conclusive to a far-seeing mind; viz., that the clergy are but men, having all the weaknesses, all the foibles, and all the faults of men; at the same time, that, in all ages, as experience shows us, and in many churches, as they openly profess, they claim a something, which, if not inspiration, is akin to it-a kind of Divine right, Divine commission which, whether as a principle they put it into these terms or not, yet, in practice they evince a disposition to believe, emancipates them from those rules of order, of diffidence, of submission, of honest thinking, and cautious acting, which have, in all civilised countries, obtained, to a greater or less extent, the suffrages, and commanded the obedience, of all lay bodies who have no pretensions to anything but logical accuracy, sound judgment, and sincerity. I do not know that any church, except that of Rome, has actually and formally assumed, to its clerical ministers alone (though certainly some have come very nigh, and I should be very sorry to say that there is none which comes nigh at the present day), the right of church government, of excommunication, of legislating, and of managing.” Works of the Rev. Samuel Dunn. We hope the Editor of the "Wesley Banner" will not object to the insertion of the following notice of his works from the pen of one who has read them with attention and profit. Owing to the unrighteous expulsion of Mr. Dunn from the Wesleyan Conference in 1849, and to his incessant labours since, he has had little opportunity of disposing of the copies returned by Mr. Mason, from the Book-room. They are now offered at very reduced prices-(see Advertisement). The friends of the author will have an opportunity of supplying themselves with works which have long been before the public, and have been most favourably received, The "Gospels Harmonised" is a closely printed octavo volume of more than 2,000 notes, selected with great judgment from the best sources, and has a portrait of Dr. Adam Clarke, and a map of Canaan. The "Memoirs of Seventy-five Divines, with Eighty Outlines of Sermons," form a volume of most interesting facts, and to preachers, is one of the most useful works they can possess. We are sure there are thousands in Methodism who will rejoice after they have read the "Memoirs of Mr. Tatham," and of Methodism in Nottingham. There is not a book published which contains so many literary treasures of early Methodism in the same compass. The selection and arrangement of the "Theology of John Howe," and of "John Calvin," is admirable. The essence of the works of both these excellent men is skilfully concentrated in two volumes, now offered for two shillings each. In the "Memoir of Mr. Allen," a Cornish local preacher, biography is united with some very interesting remarks on the progress of Methodism. Another very useful volume is entitled, "Theology for Every Day in the Year," selected from 365 Divines; to any family it is a volume of sterling value. Mrs. Howitt's, the Rev. H. Moore's, and the Rev. R. Treffry's "Funeral Sermons," are on subjects of the highest importance; each contains a memoir. The smaller "Sermons" are admirably suited for circulation by Tract Societies: and the "Lessons on the Gospels," now offered at five shillings per hundred, each containing 1,000 questions, should be extensively introduced into Sunday-schools, where they have already been of great service. Wesley the Worthy and Wesley the Catholic. Ward and Co. THE first of these papers was written by Dr. Dobbin, and published in the "Journal of Sacred Literature." After some fine and graphic sketches of Wesley's distinguished parents, and a reference to his conversion to God, the writer considers the first grand truth thrown up from Wesley's career is the absolute necessity of personal and individual religion; a second truth, the absolute need of spiritual influence to secure the conversion of the soul; a third principle, that the Church of Jesus Christ is a spiritual organisation, consisting of spiritual men associated for spiritual purposes; and that the last principle has relation to the nature and work of the ministry. The distinctive features which he ascribes to Wesley, are "an indomitable firmness and a boundless benevolence." "Wesley the Catholic" is from the pen of the Rev. Charles Adams, of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. He thinks the Catholicism of Wesley is strikingly evident from his personal opinions, the platform of his societies, the general tenor of his writings, and from his actual movements and practice. He then submits several grave inquiries, worthy the attention and prayerful consideration of Wesleyans throughout the world. The Witnesses in Sackcloth: a descriptive Account of the Attack made on the Reformed Churches of France in the Seventeenth Century. By a DESCENDANT OF A REFUGEE. Pp. 304. Ward and Co. THE tale of peril and suffering which followed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, has, perhaps, no parallel in the annals of Christianity. One of the results of that terrible persecution was, that England and Holland received such an influx of righteous men and women as gave the death blow to formalism and Popery then struggling for dominancy in those lands. The writer of this volume inherits piety through a line of ancestry of two centuries, and here recites incidents which will make every reader's heart throb with emotion at the pictures of wrong endured by multitudes for the truth's sake, amongst whom were the author's ancestors. It opens with the details of the attack made by order of Louis XIV. on the Reformed Churches of France; a project of resistance occupies the second chapter, and the third gives the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The greater portion of the volume relates to the condition of the Protestant Christians of France after the repeal of the Edict, and the volume concludes with a very copious bibliographical and literary appendix of the books and documents the author has collected on the subject during the quarter of a century he has been occupied with his delightful task. A work better suited to these times of religious commotion could not have been published, and we hope it will have a large sale. The Orbs of Heaven; or, the Planetary and Stellar Worlds. By O. M. MITCHELL, M.A. Pp. 304. National Illustrated Library. ASTRONOMY made popular has long been a desideratum. The work before us is a step in that direction. The author succeeded in winning the attention of a whole city in America to the establishment of a scheme for promoting the study of astronomy, by the delivery of the lectures of which this volume mainly consists. It is not a treatise on the science, but a popular exposition of the theories of modern astronomy. The many important discoveries made in this science during the past few years have been numerically greater and of equal interest to those of a century previously. "The Orbs of Heaven" is a book for the people, and they have shown their favour towards it by requiring three large editions in a few months. It has been adopted as the text-book of one of the leading scientific institutions in London. Illustrated with fifty engravings, it is altogether one of the most elegant books of the season, and, at the small price of half-a-crown, is likely to become increasingly a favourite. men, and to expose an arch-heresy of the church which tramples upon the whole doctrine of Him in whose name she pretends to universal dominion. Let all Protestants procure and master the volume. Life of Roger Williams. By ROMEO ELTON, D.D. Cockshaw. MR. WILLIAMS was born in Wales, in 1606; studied at Oxford; became a decided Nonconformist; and, in February 5, 1631, safely arrived at Boston, America, as "a young minister, godly and zealous, having precious gifts.' He shortly after removed to Salem. His fearless maintenance of the great principles of civil and religious liberty led to his banishment. He founded the town of Providence, and was elected President of the colony. After labouring indefatigably and successfully for fifty years, he peacefully fell asleep in 1683. Throughout New England his name is a household word, as one of the earliest ad vocates and the first legislator of religious liberty. The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance. Notes and Reflections on the Epistle of the Hebrews. By ARTHUR PRIDHAM. Bath Binns and Goodwin. London: Whittaker and Co. A VALUABLE addition to the many excellent works on one of the most important portions of the Sacred Volume. It is not particularly critical, elaborate, nor eloquent, nor do we agree with the esteemed author on a few points; but there is so much sound theology in the volume, and the spirit in which it is written is so candid and Christian, that no spiritual person can read it without edification. All the Greek and German notes should have been translated. A Help to a Knowledge of the Kingdom of God. By ROBERT DUNCAN. WE regret that talent should be so employed. The writer darkens counsel by words without meaning. We have neither time, nor strength, nor inclination to follow him into his misty regions. Life and Labours of Elizabeth Russell. A USEFUL memoir of a sensible, pious woman, who was born at Ludlow, in Shropshire, in 1805, was converted to God in 1825, and joined the Primitive Methodists. The following year she became a preacher among them, entered on a circuit, and laboured diligently and usefully. In 1833 she was married to Mr. Thomas Russell, one of their travelling preachers, and peacefully terminated her course, Feb. 1, 1836. A Letter to James Heald, Esq., M.P. By REV. T. ROWLAND. SEASONABLE, dispassionate, and searching. FOR AUGUST, 1852. JOURNAL OF MRS. SUSANNA WESLEY. DR. DOBBIN, in an article which he has recently published, entitled, -WESLEY THE WORTHY," has referred to Wesley's distinguished mother in a way that cannot fail to gratify our readers. An atmosphere of soft delight surrounds our mother, and we are safely and purely happy by her side. She is the guardian angel, to whom is committed the care of the young spirit just bestowed on us by Heaven, to habituate it, by her gentle touch and kind words, to a world of thorns, and briars, and tears, which a sterner monitor would repel, or harsher indoctrination crush and destroy. The calyx or the closing petal is not a more fitting home for the dew-drop-the parent nest for the callow bird-or the blue summer's sky for the fleecy cloud-than a mother's tutelage for the early years of her child. Poetry cannot picture her fitness; it is simply true and divine : "The very first Of human life must spring from woman's breast; Your first small words are taught you from her lips; When men have shrunk from the ignoble care Of watching the last hour of him who led them." Never was child more fortunate in a maternal guide than young Wesley, and never could mother claim more exclusively the credit of her son's early training. At eleven years of age he left home for the Charterhouse-school, London; but up to that period he was educated by his mother. Literary composition, correspondence, and parochial and secular duties, fully employed his father; but, amid the domestic cares of fifteen living children, his pious and gifted mother found time to devote six hours daily to the education of her family. We scarcely know where we could light upon a document which can parallel with a letter which she wrote to her son, for its good sense, piety, and sound appreciation of the infant mind. Would there were more such mothers addressing their sons in this strain!—then might we confidently hope for more such sons. What an incomparable mother must he have had !-what a hold must she have established upon his esteem and confidence, to whom this Fellow of a college referred his scruples and difficulties in view of his ordination, and whom his scholarly father bade him consult, when his own studious habits and abundant occupations forbade correspondence with himself! The distinctive features of character we unhesitatingly ascribe to Wesley are an indomitable firmness and a boundless benevolence. Where he thought himself certainly right, nothing on earth could move him. Stigmatize it as we please, there never was a great man without a strong will, and an infusion of self-reliance sufficient to raise him above the dauntings of opposition, and reliance upon props. It is a heritable quality, as transmissible from father to son as the sage or foolish face. Wesley certainly derived it from his parents. The daughter of the eminent Nonconformist rector of Cripplegate, Dr. Annesley-who, at thirteen years of age, had studied the State-Church controversy, and made up her mind, with force of reason too, to contemn her father's decision, and take her place for life on the other side cannot be supposed to have been wanting in firmness; who, further, would never renounce her Jacobite respect for the jus divinum of the Stuart kings-nor say Amen to her husband's prayers for him of the Revolution-nor bow beneath the thousand ills of her married life-and pursued the onward, even, and unwearying tenor of her way, undismayed by censure, uncrushed by poverty and domestic cares, unchanging and unchanged to the last-could not be wanting in it. Of the remarkable circumstance just mentioned the Founder of Methodism gives the following account: "Were I to write my own life, I should begin it before I was born, merely for the purpose of mentioning a disagreement between my father and mother. 'Sukey,' said my father to my mother, one day, after family prayer, why did you not say Amen this morning to the prayer for the king?' Because,' said she, 'I do not believe the Prince of Orange to be king.' If that be the case,' said he, 'you and I must part; for if we have two kings, we must have two beds.' My mother was inflexible. My father went immediately to his study, and, after spending some time with himself, set out for London,-where, being Convocation man for the diocese of Lincoln, he remained, without visiting his own house, for the remainder of the year. On March 8th, in the following year, 1702, King William died; and as both my father and mother were agreed as to the legitimacy of Queen Anne's title, the cause of their misunderstanding ceased. My father returned to Epworth, and conjugal harmony was restored." The following extracts from Mrs. Wesley's Journal, never before published, were written in 1709, shortly before the Duke of Marlborough defeated Marshal Villars, at Malplaquet. They are very characteristic.EDITOR: I think fasting and prayer was never more necessary than now; and we ought, with great humility, to bewail the sins of guilty England, and to cry mightily to God for mercy on this nation, which seems so ripe for vengeance. But still I cannot join with the public assemblies for these reasons. 1. The end for which this fast is assigned. I am not satisfied in the lawfulness of the war on our part, because it is offensive. The common reasons which were given for it do by no means satisfy me-such as the checking the power of France, securing our religion, &c. Though it must be owned that the French king did extend his dominions beyond the just limits, and might be guilty of an exorbitant ambition, yet he did not actually invade us; nor should we, upon a supposition of a probable danger, have made use of indirect means for our preservation, but ought rather to have resigned the care of our safety to that Providence which presides over all the kingdoms of this world, and disposes of them to whom he pleases. As for the security of our religion, I take that to be still a more unjustifiable pretence for war than the other for, notwithstanding some men of a sanguine complexion may persuade themselves, I am of opinion that, as our Saviour's kingdom is not of this world, so it is never lawful to take up arms merely in defence of religion. It is like the presumption of Uzzah, who audaciously stretched out his hand to support the tottering ark, which brings to mind those verses of no ill poet: "In such a cause 'tis fatal to embark, Like the bold Jew, that propp'd the falling ark; With an unlicensed hand he durst approach, And though to save, yet it was death to touch." And truly the success of our arms hitherto has no way justified our attempt; but though God has not much |