rtitrarg Notite. NOOKS seat to as !era Notice, wtll be duly' a tt e nd e d to. Those Oro= publishers In Phila. delphia. New !'ovrit, die.. nay be left at oar Philadelphia MC% ST South 10th Iglu below Cheutiaut. in ear* of Joseph K. Wilsons Nolo INTERVIEWS WITH INSPIRED MEN. By Rev. Loyal Young. pp. 90, 24taa: Pittsburgh : John S. Davison. This is an admirable little volume, and we wish tha.t`all our young friends could have a copy. They would be delighted to see how Jesus, and Paul, and Peter, and Solomon, 'and Moses, and thelither sacred writers, can answer the serious inquiries of our Nicodemuses, and the hard (luckier's, and scoffs and• doubts of our Oldies, Demises, and Herberts. The subjects treated of are-Glad ; Pumices ; Creation and Provi denim; Salvation; The Law; Means of Grace; God's Expostulations with various classes; The Anxious Inquirer directed. • The.. answers 'are all in the language of Seriptire, with references. The 'conception of the work is good, and the exe cution excellent.. , ' WET Do :I,tivs , By ii"es. nonage „Smyth, .D.D. pp. 206, 241n0.J American Trace Society. Tlcagßestion proposed is all importset ; 'siad it is iielk 4 eneaered, by one of our. ablest Divinee. Thematic deserves swextendedeiroulation., Itarnesgropts or ,ENGLAND; or. Sketches 'of Eng Rah Scenery and Society. Sy,. A Myeloid Ooze, , of 'Grace Church, Baltimore. 1*f0.,. pp. 821. Third Edition. New - York: Dana i t Oa, .881 Dmitri:limy. 1856. In many Serieqs this is by, far the most de lightful and truthful volume wich has appeared in this country on the subject of English Society, shun, the days of Washington Irving. Many of our •tourists pass through England as rapidly as Railroads can carry them, and they find all bar ren. Others ramble through the leading manu facturing regions, and visit London, without gene rating-into the country, and, above all, without getting into the genial heart of English Society. . Others visit the country without any knowledge of the objects of Interest, which, in an historical, antiquarian, religious, or literary point of view, are worthy of; examination and study, and as might be expected, they pass the most interesting localities- without knowing what pleasures they are hosing ; and if they inflict a book on their countrymen, on their return home, the generalities of, its pages, and the splenetic efforts after criticism, show that their own ignorance was, after all, the main cause of the dieappoint ment which they experienced. No person can travel to any good. purpose , in England; who , is not intimately acquainted with the history of the country ; with the incidents of importance in the lives`of :the great historical and literary person ages who have made the. country celebrated; with, the remarkable events which have taken place in -its Castles, Catindrala, and Baronial Manstons on the' one hand, and its cottages and village homes on the' , other hand, which have been the cradles of many of its most renowned heroes. Still farther, if the traveler froth this country be a gentleman, he can have little diffi culty in finding his way, into genteel society in England, and then all ,that is interesting in the land will be open beforehim.. In all these re spects Mr. Core possessed every qualification. He moved in the highest circles, was at home in the Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, 'fried in the mansions of the country gentry, and became ac quainted with every stratum of- society, from the rank of the peasant upwards. He brought with him to his journey an acquaintance With the minutiae of the general history of the country, and the historical interest of localities, such as is rarely possessed by any one. Ile has an eye for rural beauty, a mind that revels in the glories of the past, and for drinking in all the poetry of the monuments of England's greatness, whether seen in her seats of learning or of piety. Ac cordirigly, his book is as we have said, iecompara 'My the beat and•the most truthful exhibition of the great worth, and the. great moral and social beauty which is visible in English 'homes, that • we• have read for many years. : The book, how ever, has two sides to it Onr readers will cm derstand what we mean when we say that Mr. Core's warmest landations are reserved for the Bishop of Oxford, and the party in the Estab lishment, of which he is the leader. He touches' the abominations at St. Barnabas with great gen tleness ;and an Evangelical in the Church is as great an object of contempt -as a Dissenter oat side: its pale, while Land, Charles L, Strafford, and anchinen, are the objects of his admiration. Thns it is that Mr. Core, and all who think with, him, do not see that it was the evangelical ele ment in the Church of England, which, after the Reformation, invested it, with its early glory; that its beauty and its isefulness alike departed when the influence of Laud and such- men ouc (seeded in nourishing within its pale,,, a High Church 4 Principle which, as surely as it matures in any age and among any of her people, demon strates its essentially Itomish character, and that at present the 'conversions to. Rome which .have taken place amens the followers of the Oxford Traetirians, are. nothing more than an Matra tion of the fact, that when the dead mass of English , High - Churchilm is galvanized into ac tivity, and when the men of that stamp become , alive aid ' earnest in carrying out their principles to a logical and necessary conclusion, they al , mays find their ; muting place .in the Church, of Rome into these sabjeCts, honever, we have no here tieater. pace, , %JIM:MOS ON TON BEITIEIN PINTS. By Henry Beech late 'Professor of English Literature in the - 'University of Pennsylvania. In two vof. • umes, 12m0., Kw 828 and pp. 812. Philadel phia : Parry 4- McMillan. 1857. These are two very delightful volumes ? In mems,respecta they are better adapted- for family reading than either of the former cornea of Pro fessor:leed'S Lecitures, valuable and attractive as they unquestionably are. When the Lectures on Eeglish Literature" appeared, we commended them as displaying a fine,- healthy, and diserlmi ; nating spirit of genuine criticism. Ike second volume on "History altillustrated by iiihakaileare's . ,Play's," exhibited an originality of invention,end - it - closeness •of observation, which contrast most Yol'ablY with the superficial criticism and ex ieinporaneous writing which is so often published and puffed as if it were profoundly philoeophicaL The Sethi now before us was delivered by Pro:. intim Reed in the year 1841, and the Editor has given them to the public 'as they were then .de livered.. We need not occupy our space by any eulogy on the style and mode of thought or keen ness of perception of poetic beauty which char .,aoterized the lamented author. On these points we have alriady given our very decided deliver ..nnce, and. as we have referred to the fact that these volumes are fitted for genearal reading, we shall t condense the Table of Contents, in order that our meaning may be seen. The first volume contains a history of literature;with leferenoes to Spencer and Milton. After a close examina tion of the dawning period of English Mere Ore, Chaucer, 'Spenser, Shakspeare, and Milton, are reviewed. Then come the Minor Poets of . the seventeenth Century; Dryden and the Age of the -Destaration;lPope, and the Age of Queen Anne; while the volume closes with Cowper and the po ets of the later part of the eighteenth cent ury. Tha second vi.dime is occupied with Banks, Scott, Coleridge, Southey, Byron; and Wordsworth, with iheir“contemporaries. When we •addAliat , quo. tations, and that on every page the delightful spirit of the author is conspicuous, we think that our readers will comprehend why we point to this work as altogether fitted - for the family cir cle in the Rioter evening, or for the sea shore, or the forest shade in the approaching season. Ett ler the Presbyterian Banner and Advocate, Bible Narratives.—No. 26. THE OHIIHCH RE-ORGANTZED.---GEN. XVII : 1-27. There are four covenant heads named in the Bible. Adam, "in' whim all die;" Christ, in whom all the members of the in visible Church' "iire made alive; Noah, in whom there is a covenant guarantee of con tinue&probation, whether it terminates in heaven or not; and Abraham, the covenant father of the re-organixed and Visible .Church; or, as Paul expresses it, the father of them that- believe, and the father of cir cumcision even to the uncircumcised. The Church, as we stated in a • previous- Narrative, had an existence in the ante diluvian age. Then it was in ,the The father was .the..;priest of his house. Perhaps, without any distinctive seal,•the entire race of Adam' were considered alike interested iirthe -0 seed," common mother. Thus, the only distinc lion'. between the Gramli and the world': would be seen in individual repudiation of her privileges, as with "the sons of the giapts;" and in special • interpositions of God, as with Cain, and in the deluge. Now and then one would be raised up, as Enoch, and Noah, who, as 'preachers of righteous ness, would for a while unite the godly. But soon they would be scattered, as before, among the masses of the race. Similar things may be noted of the period from the deluge to the vocation of Abraham. In consequence, however, of the fact that the covenant with Noah precluded 'a second general severment - of .the righteous and the wicked by special, Divine judg ments; and also from the fact that the perversity of: man, during ;this latter age, required the intrOduction of providen tial restraints, such as diversity of language, race,, and position in society, it now became manifest that the hiunan 'race, as snob, could no longer . be trusted with the devel opment of Redemption. Therefore, the king dom of God on earth must assume a distinc tive form, as severed from common human ity ; and the sons of Noah must be forbidden any longer, as such, to claim covenant priv ileges through the expectancy of a Messiah. Their relation to Noah may secure natural life and a carnal seed, but their- relation to him, or to a common humanity, in itself gives no'covenant interest in a promised sal vation. There must now be family accept ance, individual faith, and personal submis sion to stipulated terms. Thus the covenant of God with Abraham recorded in the . chapter set at the head of this article, be ecmes exceedingly important and interesting. Without intending a notice of all that is stated and intimated in this wonderful Church, constitution, we shall call attention to the follovring, particulars. First. The intended extent of effect upon, man's interests is worthy of special in quiry. The Jew, during a great part of his history, has manifestly confined it far below the intention of Jehovah. The Apostles of Christ 'with difficulty broke away from their narrow feelings, to lay hold of the broad principles of the covenant itself, and to re joice in the benevolent and far-reaehing de signs of Jehovah toward the whole race of. Adam. Ev,en yet, with the New Testament opened, and held up so as to east its light upon the past, there are those who give God credit for doing what they allege` he neither prom ised nor intended in his covenant with the father of the faithful, and of the visible Church. But we appeal to the covenant transaction itself for the truth, and for re futation of aßerroneous Views. There is as promise to Abraham, that he should be a " father of many nations." This meets, by a different mode of expres sion, the promise before giten, that, in him "all the families of-the:.earth should be blessed." Thus, the. name great end, though, to some extent,' by different ex ternal means, is held up to view, as had been 'held up during the -,past! twenty centuries of the history of: the human race. Mercy will extend her arms as wide as is consistent with God's char :toter and glory. Cenfirmatory of this is, the promise, " 1 will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, `the land ,in which thou art a s stranger, all' the land of Canaan" As inspired commentary is better than any other in giving the sense, we refer to Gal. iii : 16, and find that the seed was,not lit eral descendants, but Christ, i. e., Christ in his representative character. This the his tory of the family of Abraham , confirms. Numerous servants ,and eaptives are admit ted into covenant relation, by submiiing to the appointed seal. Yet, three large branches of the natural seed, viz., the. ,Ishmielitas, the children of liaturah, and the kdornites, ,hy their own act, are exclude 4 and this act, though like many others performed by, man, meets .the purposes of, God, gives lessons of instruction, and yet becomes a just. ground of exclusion. The chief difficulty to a world-wide extent of 'design, is the ,mention of ,Canaan for ':a possession. , This difficulty, :however, is greatly diminished; if we reflect that thoughts of the widest ,import are often in prophecy couched in local and limited terms: Thus, Christ is. David ; or the . Bert of David; and the Church, in her latter day gfory, is Jerusalem and Zion, from' which goes forth " the law and word of Jehovah." So Canaan proper, conquered by Joshua, rind from which the right was given to extermi :nate every native inhabitant, becomes, in David, the land promised from • the Eu phrates to the Nile.. And in Christ, the ,great 'representative , of the promised seed, the " land of sojournings " becOmes the ihole earth, the residence of:the "multi tude of "nations" of which Abraham is father. Thus the ides meets.what Paul de clares (Rom. iv : xiii,) of Abraham, that He was heir of the world." Second/y. The inquiry is scarcely less important as to the period during which it is designed this covenant or Church consti tution shall in in full force. Does it affect us in this age of the world ? 'ln genuity has been taxed to weaken the foice Of "everlasting," as applied to the posses sion promised to, and the covenant made with Abraham, or we believe every reader of the Bible woUld assent to a perpetuity of design. If, however, any doubt rests upon the mind, this maybe'-removed by,the ex plicit language of the New Testament, The seed is undoubtedly Chriat, or the Church for which he stands. The promise to him is that "his kingdom should have no end:" - and his promise to its subjects, is, to - be With them, "even to the end of the , world." .There can be no doubt hit that it is the 'same kingdom, of God, constituted and con tinued, in virtue, of, the covenant with which` was taken ,fibia.the Jew, a n A; kite* , to' n nation bringing forth, the I:MiEMi2 ME TAE PRESBYTERIAN BANNER AND ADVOCATE. fruits' thereof.—Matt. xxi : 43. There can be as little doubt that it is the Church sweeping over more than one dispensation, which is the old olive stock of peace, that still stands to bear the wild Gentile branches, and the Jewish ones for a time broken off and withered.—Rom. xi: 17-21. Thus; whatever change took place when New Testa ] ment times commenced, the Abishamie ec • clesiastical covenant still continued in fUll i form This is affirmed very distinctly by Paul, Rom. iv: 11-13 ; " Abraham re• , calved the sign of circumcision ; the seal of i the righteousness of the faith which he had, : yet being uncircumcised, that he might • be • the father of all.them that , believe, though. I they be not circumcised." Here, doubt i I less, there is an extension of the covenant I to the Gentiles, either with or without some outward align arid seal. But the Apostle adds, " And the father of circumcision to them not only of the circumcision, but also to there walking in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had, being uncircum cised"l Whatever, then, the sign of mem f bership is in the Church, constituted' of un r circumcised persons walking in the steps of Abraham, he is ‘the father of it. The 'sign I was originally applied to Abraham himself, Ito all those who professed his faith, and to theirGentilesdoinfant seed. by faith be- I come children of .Abraham, cMatt. iii : 9 ; `, Gal. iii : 7-9 .;) and it •is their duty to, re ceive; and properly :attend to, the !sign or seal, of , faith,-,which is ,baptism —Col ii : 1 12: 'The conclusion ' cannot, therefore, be i'lataved off, that , baptism, comes in the room of circumcision; and that the, laws Of the e one continue in full force- for the other, - : nn-, less se far - as-there are abrogations made, or changes specified. The distinction of -sex is taken away, (Acts viii: ;'l2',' Gal. 3 : 28,) but of other alterations we have no intima tion. The covenant with. Abraham is thus everlasting; and we of the -presei.t age are subject to the penalty of neglect, or we may profit by the appended blessing. Thirdty. With fully equal profit we think the reader may look at the. terms of , admis sion into the Church of which Abraham is the constituted head. They are distinctly pointed out in the words of the covenant, and in the historical sequel. There must be-a' profession of faith, a- promise. of obe dience to specified ternas, and a submission' to the " token of the covenant.", Extremes seem natural to man's erring judgment, and one extreme usually begets another. Thus, externalism, as of the sacraments as a charm, '.and prayers numbered. with a beaded amulet, seem so abaurd to many that they have gone to the opposite extreme, of ..a spiritualism wholly without outward forms, or with such forms as :they euppose will enable r them to' discern spirits, and to constitute a visible Church of those only who are members of the invisible. The-ene extreme being wrong, will not, however, make the other zight. - Any covenant, though 'God be its author, and a faithful party will fail in many speci fied cases, if erring man is the tithe; party, and is allowed, without specialinterpositions and miraculous guidande, to conduct - his part of the stipulated arrangement. Thus the circumcised man, who lived and died in the family of Abraham, without faith, would not have the righteousness of faith or of God, sealed to him. But he would have the privileges of meMbership in the family sealed to himself and children. Therefore, since God knew the deceitfulness of the human heart, and since he did leave to man, without any promised providential intimations, the ac complishment of his part of the compact, we are safe in concluding, that tied will guard his own honor in an invisible way, as to. thainvisible- Church ; -and ,that,he in tended to leave man to conduct the affairs of his visible kingdom, or Church, on earth, according to tangible, and clearly discerna ble principles. " A profession: of: faith intel ligently made, an apparently sincere promise' of obedience to the stipulations named, and a Manifested willingness of submission to the seal, was all'that need be'appointed of God, as it was all that could'be required, or would' be attended to, by man. - - As if to indicate• that the token of the covenant,' when viewed as a seal of external privileges, is different in sense, than when viewed as a seal `of the' 'righteousness ..of faith, of which God will take care that ifii properly applied,k the seal is given to the man only who is to be taken as head of the woman, asChrist is the head of the-Church. --Eph. v: 23 And though the Beal im plies faith in the adult, (Dent. x : 16;) and though, to be merely of the literal Israel, is clearly not 'to be a' Jew in the full sense, (Rom. ii : 29,) yet, with all this unfaithful ness on the part of individuals, Paul affirms advantage in -being a Jew, and profit in cir cumcision, chiefly becanse:God in this mixed state of the visible Church, according to his original purpose, was fulfilling his promise, in giving his Oracles to the world.—Rom. iii : 2. Strengthening this broader sense of the sign of circumcision, is the command to apply it to the infants of the sealed parent, upon the eighth, day ;. thus, at once making the Church consist of fami lies, and prophet ically intimating the change of sacred time from the seventh to the eighth day,or the first of a new series—the Sabbath of the Churah in her enlargement, with seal, of water upon the forehead, (Rev. vii : 3,) in stead of bloody seal upon the body. Perhaps the, most remarkable feature of the Abrahamic covenant, and that which is richest • in lessens of instruction, is the con ! tinned recognition of the _family..