sist. Baxter knew nothing of that vice of learning which Bacon so beautifully describes, as consisting "more in hunting after words than matter; more after the choiceness of the phrase, and the round and clean composition of the sentence, and the sweet falling of the clauses, and the varying and illustration with tropes and figures, than after the weight of matter, worth of subject, soundness of argument, life of invention, or depth of judgment." Baxter was superior to all this. Truth in all its majesty and infinite importance alone occupied the throne of his spirit, and dictated the forms in which its voice should be uttered. And when it spoke, it was in language divinely suited to its nature, never distracting by its turgidness, or disgusting by its regularity. He could be awful or gentle, pathetic or pungent, at pleasure; always suiting his words to his thoughts, and dissolving his audience in tenderness, or overwhelming them with terror, as heaven or hell, the mercies of the Lord, or the wrath to come, was the topic of discourse. It may confidently be affirmed, that from no author of the period could a greater selection of beautiful passages of didactic, hortatory, and consolatory writings, be made.

LAST THURSDAY IN FEBRUARY.

With emotions of mingled pleasure, anxiety and hope, we would call the attention of the churches to this, our annual season of devotion. While we would lay a high stress on the importance of the Missionary Concert, the Sabbath school Concert, and the Seaman's Concert, which recur every month, we feel it a duty to press the College Concert, which only returns once a year.

It is unnecessary, in this place, and in this age of prevalent Christianity, to go into a set argument to prove the propriety, or the efficacy of prayer. Every person, who daily visits the hallowed closet of his devotions, and converses with God in his word, knows already the whole train of reasoning, which might be introduced. That there is a throne of grace to which we can approach, that God loves to answer prayer and has promised to do so, and that we are in a state of need-are reasons enough.

On this subject, there are duties belonging both to ministers and private Christians. Ministers must instruct the people in the matters calculated to interest them in this concert. They must let them know the desolations of Zion, the need of an educated ministry, both at home and abroad, and the encouraging fact that the prayers at this concert have, in former years, been answered. It is remarkable, that during the spring of the year 1831, when ten or twelve colleges were blessed with revivals, the work of grace began, very near the annual prayer day for their benefit. That day, in the year designated, had been peculiarly solemn and interesting, in several places. Christians had been truly supplicating God, and wrestling, like Jacob, for the blessing of heaAs their solemnities concluded, they still lingered at the horns of the altar. And, "about the time of the going down of the sun," tidings arrived that in two or more colleges, the Holy Spirit had begun to answer prayer. Oh, what a thrill of holy joy and thanksgiving came through every heart! We felt that it was not a vain thing to serve God.

ven.

There is one duty, which we do not remember to have seen urged. It is this-every Christian ought to feel a peculiar interest for his own College. We never could conceive how a man can go out into the world, and revile and defame the college, at whose breast he was nurtured. There he received the elements of his education, his mind was developed, his talents cultivated, his reason awakened, his treasures of knowledge accumulated. There he enjoyed all the kind attentions, instructions and labors of the officers, formed many delightful acquaintances; and above all, made himself master of that mental furniture, with which he serves the cause of Christ. Be it so, that there are things

there, which he views with regret. Let error be spreading, and the number of pious students small, and the affections of the public alienated-But the college is his parent, and he is bound to do what he can for her spiritual good. It is very singular to us, that such inappropriate means are used for the good of our colleges. If they have perverted funds, they are assailed with so much severity. or misrepresentation, as to produce a reaction. If they have almost no pious students, Christian parents refuse to send their Christian sons. They withhold salt from the fountain, and then complain that the waters are fresh. They draw off every ray of light possible, and then complain that there is darkness. They take care that the froward band shall not have the benefit of the religious conversation or the holy example of Christian students; and then complain that God has deserted the college. But when Christians carry off the light, what folly and wickedness is it for them to complain of the darkness. Let a host of holy men go to those same colleges, and you would soon see that none is beyond the reach of hope.

The reason why some colleges have many revivals of religion and many conversions is, that pious parents send thither their pious sons. The sons, by a holy example, if not by more direct and prominent effort, influence the whole circle where they move. The parents feel too an obligation to pray for the ́ college, where their sons reside. God hears and answers prayer; and thus

trains up multitudes for his service.

No individual can understand the peculiar circumstances and necessities of each university so well as those who have been educated there. No one, then, can so eloquently and forcibly set before a congregation the claims of another college, as of his own. As Baptists, we, of course, shall feel most interested, on the day of our solemnities, in our own institutions. As philanthropists and Christians, however, we ought to pray most fervently for those, which seem most to need our prayers. While we carry all, in our supplications, to God, every minister in our denomination, ought to bring up before his people the peculiar necessities of his own alma mater. Thus will each of the cherished universities of our land come up in remembrance before God. On each, will divine blessings be invoked. To each, we shall give our poor tribute of gratitude for the capacity of usefulness we there acquired in the Christian cause, by imploring the descent of the Holy Spirit.

The duty of special prayer, on the part of private Christians, is, by no means, to be overlooked. Let them understand that the destinies of their beloved country, the support of their free institutions, the ministry of their sanctuary are concerned in their success. Let them be well aware that many hundreds of young men are now pursuing a course of public education, whose hearts are unsanctified; and who, if they so remain, will certainly exert no favorable, they may exert a baneful, influence on the Redeemer's cause. Let them be persuaded that God is sincere that facts every year show him to be sincere-in promising answer to prayer. And let them know that prayer for college-students has uniformly been as efficacious with the hearer of prayer, as for any other individuals. Brethren, let us not fail of our duty to our children, our colleges, our country, to the church of Christ. Let the last Thursday in February be a day of sincere, humble, fervent petition for every college and university in the land. And he who answered Daniel "at the time of the evening oblation," will answer us.

POETRY.

THE EXPOSTULATION.

"Then I said, I will not make mention of him nor speak any more in his name; but his word was in mine heart, as a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay."-JEREMIAH xx. 9.

That He who gave man's breath might know And was the Sinless thus beset
The very depths of human woe.

REVIEW.

MOSHEIM'S INSTITUTES OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY: a new and literal translation, by James Murdock, D. D. Three vols. 8vo. New Haven, 1832. Nothing could be more gratifying to us, as Christian reviewers, than the anticipation that these volumes will be welcomed by the theologians, and the intelligent portion of our Christian community, as their importance and interest deserve. But we fear the time has not yet arrived, when such an anticipation can be reasonably cherished. Almost every other history has been with more avidity pursued, even by Christians, than the record of the church of Christ. One reason, doubtless, has been, the unsatisfactory and even contradictory manner, in which that history has been presented before them. The materials for its composition are scanty; and the prejudice and unwarrantable license of those who have moulded these materials to their purpose, has done much to discredit their labors with the public. Still this subject is too important to be abandoned; and the value of ecclesiastical history must not be estimated by the inadequateness of its past achievements. If new light cannot, to any very great extent, be expected, what we have may be concentrated, rather than refracted; its rays be brought directly and clearly to shine upon us, and not be tortured and perverted through the sinister medium of their communication. It should be very frankly acknowledged, that the first place in theological science does not belong to church history. The Bible-its divine origin, and true interpretation, should always have the pre-eminence. But we can see no reason, when this concession is made, why the next rank should not be claimed for the illustration of the principles and results of Christianity in the lives, the sufferings, and triumphs of those that have embraced it. What we want is not a cumbrous or ingenious system of philosophizing speculations, built on the incident of Christianity; but the facts, as simply and clearly exhibited as authentic materials will allow. He that sets the important facts of the Christian history before us, in lucid and symmetrical order, and leaves us to contemplate, not his ingenuity, but the achievements of the divine and peerless truths, which our religion has spread before mankind, does the cause of religion and of science the most important service. Such is the aim and profession of this work.

The history of Mosheim, in another form, has long been before the public. The former translation, by Maclaine, was an admired book at the period of our earliest recollections:-and yet we are inclined to believe that, owing to the indifference with which this subject has generally been regarded, if the social and parish libraries (and we fear ministers' libraries also) were canvassed throughout the country, more copies of Napoleon's history by the author of Waverly,would be found in them, than of the ecclesiastical history of Mosheim. Shall it be inferred from this that the “man of destiny," as he chose to regard himself—or the man of insatiable ambition and blood-thirstiness, as impartial posterity will regard him, has really more admirers than the Prince of peace? Among the true friends of the latter, this surely cannot be. One reason, as above intimated, why church history has not been hitherto more popular, is the partial and unsatisfactory manner in which it has been presented to the public. These volumes will, in no inconsiderable degree, remove this objection. Some account of their learned author, and of each of the English translations of his history, will probably be acceptable to our readers.

JOHN LAWRENCE VON MOSHEIM, by birth a German nobleman, was educated at the University of Keil, where he was raised to the rank of Professor of philosophy at an early age. But pulpit eloquence, biblical and historical theology, and practical religion, were his favorite pursuits. The Germans admit that he contributed much to the improvement of preaching in their coun

try. He was successively called to a professorship at Copenhagen, to the divinity-chair at Helmstadt-and to the chancellorship and head of the department of theology in the University of Gottingen, in the last of which he remained until his death, at the age of 61, in the year 1755. He published, besides many other works in the various departments of theology, a number on church history, in which he most distinguished himself. He had just completed the revision and enlargement of the work which forms the basis of these volumes, under the title of "Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, ancient and modern,' when he was removed by death. Although more than seventy years have elapsed since this publication, and this field has been cultivated with all that diligence and success, for which in matters of learning, the Germans are so celebrated, still, in the words of the distinguished Schlegel, "in ecclesiastical history, the merits of Mosheim are so decisive and peculiar, that I will not venture to compare him with any of his predecessors or successors in this department of learning. He is our first real historian." The learned Warburton says, "Mosheim's compendium is excellent-the method admirable; in short, the only one, deserving the name of an ecclesiastical history."

Nine years after the publication of the above work in the original Latin, Dr. Maclaine, an assistant minister to an English congregation at the Hague, published an English translation of these institutes. To this translation the mere English reader has been confined, until the present time. The necessity for a new version arises, principally from the unauthorized liberties taken by the former translator. He frankly owns, that he designed to render the work interesting to those superficial readers, who delight in that harmony, which pleases the ear, and in those transitions, which make a narration flow with ease; and that he often added a few sentences of his own, to give more vivacity and point to the sentiments of his author, or more splendor to their dress. He has thus paraphrased, rather than translated, a large part of the work.

The style of Mosheim in the original is compact and forcible. With an apparent consciousness of having much to communicate in a short space, and of the great importance of his subject, he seems to disdain the petty artifices of language. Concise but clear, his style unites, in an uncommon degree, brevity with perspicuity. It must be evident to the slightest consideration, how much such an author would suffer in a translation conducted on the principles of Dr. Maclaine. Such a change for the worse has rarely fallen under our observation. Verboseness, instead of lucid conciseness; an affectation of rhetorical flourish, instead of the sober, guarded, and didactic manner of the original, have not only changed entirely the style, but, to a considerable extent, the meaning of the author. This, in a sober history of most important character, is no venial error. The purpose avowed in these changes is, to make the work more attractive: yet the lover of truth can feel himself but poorly compensated for her absence by meretricious ornaments, however dazzling. The volumes of Muclaine are adapted to be read by the unthinking, who are more gratified by the sonorousness of a period, than by the precision of truth; and they have perhaps attracted more notice to the subject of ecclesiastical history, than would have been secured without them. But the student will ever turn from them to the original with a satisfaction, which fidelity and rigid adherence to authentic testimony can alone inspire.

The necessity for a new translation has long been apparent; and we rejoice that it has been undertaken and accomplished by one so entirely competent to the task. Dr. Murdock, for several years professor of Ecclesiastical history in our oldest Theological Seminary, and who has devoted the vigor of his life, in the most favored circumstances which our country affords, to investigation, connected with this branch of sacred learning, professes to have made an entirely new and literal translation of the whole work. This is his object; and, so far as we have been able to examine, it seems to be fully attained. He is true to the original, in matter and manner. We have more of the spirit and idiom of the lucid Latin of Mosheim, than is often found combined with so pure English. If it does sometimes want smoothness, which is the only fault we have