Yet not the less that blood avails

To cleanse away my sin! And not the less that cross prevails

To give me peace within!

In like manner, Hymn 746 will commend itself, for its touching simplicity, to all who know by experience what it is to lay their 'sins,' 'guilt,' 'wants,' 'griefs,' 'cares,' on Jesus.' One can almost imagine the beloved disciple uttering himself in its last lines:

I long to be like Jesus,

Meek, loving, lowly, mild;
I long to be like Jesus,

The Father's holy child:

I long to be like Jesus

Amid the heavenly throng,
To sing with saints his praises,
To learn the angels' song.

It is one choice excellence of this new Manual of song that it is so rich in this department of hymns pertaining to Christ and the Atonement,- -so full of the Cross, and the love of which it is the affecting symbol.

2. New Versions of Scripture Lyrics. The Editors remark in the introduction, that they "have sought for the choicest metrical versions of passages from the Bible." Although we do not find some of Watts' versions of the Psalms, yet this is, eminently, a Biblical Hymn Book. Its compilers seem to have had constantly in mind the fact that "as we depart from the Biblical standard,. we are in danger of introducing a morbid pietism in the place of a healthful piety." Some of the Hymns are literal versions of passages from the Bible. Hymn 37, "Unto the Lord, unto the Lord," &c., admirably presents the old Hebrew style and spirit of the 96th Psalm, successfully preserving even its repetitions. Hymn 195, beginning:

Up to the hills I lift mine eyes,

There all my hope is laid;

The Lord who built the earth and skies,—
From him will come mine aid.

is almost a literal rendering of the 121st Ps., "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills," &c. Hymn 321 bears almost as exact a relation to some portions of the 53d of Isaiah. So Hymn 868, beginning:

Not to the mount that burned with flame,
To darkness, tempest, and the sound

Of trumpet's tone that, startling came,
Nor voice of words that rent the ground,-

&c., seems to be repeating the sublimities

of the 12th of Hebrews. Hymns 1179, and 1273 are of the same class.

3. New Doctrinal Hymns. This is a very important feature, for much may be done in the songs of the sanctuary to interweave the great doctrines of our faith with

the pleasant associations of the people; and something has sometimes been done in the opposite direction, from the same source. The hymns generally, of this class, in this book, are admirable, and especially those upon the doctrines of Election, and the Perseverance of the Saints. They appeal

to the heart to receive and love the sublime truth which they express. Our Methodist brethren would hardly refuse to sing such a hymn as the 237th, by Dr. Palmer :

Lord, my weak thought in vain would climb
To search the starry vault profound;
In vain would wing her flight sublime,
To find creation's outmost bound.
But weaker yet that thought must prove
To search thy great eternal plan,—
Thy sovereign counsels, born of love
Long ages ere the world began.
When my dim reason would demand
Why that, or this, thou dost ordain,
By some vast deep I seem to stand,

Whose secrets I must ask in vain.
When doubts disturb my troubled breast,
And all is dark as night to me,
Here, as on solid rock, I rest;
That so it seemeth good to thee.
Be this my joy, that evermore
Thou rulest all things at thy will :
Thy sovereign wisdom I adore,

And calmly, sweetly, trust thee still.

Every humble grateful Christian, whatever his creed, will welcome and love to sing, such words as these: (H. 240.)

O gift of gifts! O Grace of faith!
My God, how can it be

That thou, who hast discerning love,
Shouldst give that gift to me!

How many hearts thou might'st have had
More innocent than mine!

How many souls more worthy far

Of that pure touch of thine!
Ah, Grace into unlikeliest hearts
It is thy boast to come;
The glory of thy light to find
In darkest spots a home.
&c., &c.

The same may be said of the Hymn 977, on the Saints' Perseverance."

4. New Hymns of Joy. The Bible represents divine worship as a joyful exercise. We are pleased, therefore, to find in this volume, many hymns of this character;

9. New Hymns on Death and Eternity. What can be finer than this (H. 1169):

One sweetly solemn thought

Comes to me o'er and o'er,
Nearer my parting hour am I
Than e'er I was before.

Nearer my Father's house,

Where many mansions be;

Nearer the throne where Jesus reigns-
Nearer the crystal sea;

Nearer my going home,

Laying my burden down,
Leaving my cross of heavy grief,

Wearing my starry crown;
Nearer that hidden stream,

Winding through shades of night,
Rolling its cold, dark waves between
Me and the world of light.

Jesus! to thee I cling:

Strengthen my arm of faith;

Stay near me while my way-worn feet
Press through the stream of death.

Hymns 1173, and 1174, upon the same theme are excellent. But we like perhaps, even better, this, (H. 1177);

The following (H. 1289,)-upon a very difficult theme for the lyrical poet-is tender and solemn :

Father;-if I may call thee so,

I tremble with my one desire:
Lift up this heavy load of woe,
Nor let me in my sins expire!

I tremble, lest the wrath divine,

Which bruises now my sinful soul,

Should bruise and break this soul of mine,
Long as eternal ages roll.

Thy wrath I fear, thy wrath alone,

This endless exile Lord, from thee!
Oh, save! oh, give me to thy Son,

Who trembled, wept, and bled for me! 10. New Hymns for the Family. A book "for the service of song in the House of the Lord" should yet remember, and provide for the wants of the family. The following version of an old Latin Hymn is beautiful for family use, (H. 46):

O Christ! with each returning morn
Thine image to our heart be borne ;
And may we ever clearly see

Our God and Saviour, Lord, in thee!
&c.

In this class also, belongs Hymn 68:

Sun of my soul! thou Saviour dear,

It is not night if thou be near:
Oh may no earth-born cloud arise

To hide thee from thy servant's eyes!
&c.

So also the following (H. 1087,) is sure to become a favorite in the domestic circle:

Happy the home, when God is there,

And love fills every breast;

Where one their wish, and one their prayer,

And one their heavenly rest.

&c.

This Hymn book will be carried home from the House of God, and will be, in our judgment, a more indispensable companion in the closet than any other within our knowledge is fitted to be.

ume.

11. New Versions of Old Hymns. Many of this class are scattered through the volThe best lyrics of the early Church -sung by thousands of Christians centuries ago, here come forth to inspire and invigorate the Christianity of the present with their lofty strains. Thus, Hymn 96: Thee we adore, eternal Lord!

We praise thy name with one accord;
Thy saints, who here thy goodness see,
Through all the world do worship thee.

&c., is the old Te Deum.
Hymn 263:

All praise to thee, eternal Lord!
Clothed in a garb of flesh and blood;
Choosing a manger for thy throne,

While worlds on worlds are thine alone.

&c., is one of Luther's old Chorals; one by whose help he made Germany a nation of of singers. So Hymn 293:

O sacred Head, now wounded!

With grief and shame weighed down;

O sacred brow, surrounded

With thorns, thine only crown!
Once on a throne of glory,
Adorned with light divine,
Now all despised and gory,

I joy to call thee mine.
&c.

is a free version from one of Gerhard, that will endear itself to all who can enter with personal sympathy into its pathetic significance. Hymns 675, from Gerhard; 685, from Xavier; and 687, from Bernard, are of this class, and a reference to the Index will show that these versions of the ancient hymns of the Church are numerous in the volume.

12. New Hymns expressing love to God and Christ. Not a few of these enrich this work and will commend it to the affections of John-like disciples; though a colder criticism than theirs might sometimes reluct from some of their stanzas. Such is Bonar's (H. 418):

I close my heavy eye,
Saviour, ever near!

I lift my soul on high,

Through the darkness drear:

Be thou my light, I cry,

Saviour, ever dear!

&c. &c.

Hymn 653, "Oh, who is like the Mighty One," &c.; H. 320, "To Calvary, Lord, in spirit, now," &c., and H. 686, "Jesus, thou Joy of loving hearts !" &c., (from Bernard, by Dr. Palmer) are examples of what we mean under this head.

13. New Occasional Hymns. Among these are the Wedding Hymn (H. 1141); that on Summer (H. 1154); that excellent one on Slavery "Lord when thine ancient people cried," &c., (H. 1104); and that on Peace, "Thy footsteps, Lord, with joy we trace," &c., (H. 1110.) The arrangement of the volume is to intersperse all of this description which can be classed under more general heads, among others under those general heads, rather than to include them all under their specific heads. So that a reference to the Index will disclose a much larger number of this description, than a first glance at the volume would suggest.

14. New Hymns of Strength. Some of these hymns, or some expressions in them, may be objected to, but there are themes which cannot be adequately treated in any other than the most nervous phrase. A hymn, for example on "Self-sacrifice" will naturally take on a severe style of diction. Hymn 841, from the German, -now worthy of its theme—would fail, if rendered in feebler speech; though it would be easy to find fault with its 3d stanza:

Take away my erring will;

All my wayward passions kill;
Tear my heart from out my heart,
Though it cost me bitter smart.

Christians often need to sing such stanzas as these; of Hymn 896:

Oft in sorrow, oft in woe,

Onward, Christian, onward go! Fight the fight, maintain the strife, Strengthened with the bread of life.

&c.

and this by Duffield, suggested by the last words of Dudley H. Tyng—(H. 902):

Stand up!-stand up for Jesus!
Ye soldiers of the cross;

Lift high his royal banner,

It must not suffer loss:

Still grander is the following (H. 1038,) by the filius degener of the great polylingual Presbyterian:

Oh, where are kings and empires now
Of old that went and came?
But, Lord, thy church is praying yet,
A thousand years the same.
We mark her goodly battlements,

And her foundations strong;
We hear within the solemn voice

Of her unending song.

For not like kingdoms of the world

Thy holy church, O God!
Though earthquake shocks are threat'ning her,
And tempests are abroad;
Unshaken as eternal hills,
Immovable she stands,

A mountain that shall fill the earth,

A house not made by hands.

We love these new Hymns, and others of which we cannot here make mention. We believe that the Church will love them.

And all our examination persuades us that there is so much of the genuine spirit of the Redeemer in this volume, as to make it welcome to those who love Him, for "the service of Song" in His house-though each cold critic poring over its pages were to cry out; Macula, Eheu, macula!

THE NEW TESTAMENT, translated from the Original Greek, with Chronological arrangement of the Sacred Books, and improved divisions of Chapters and Verses, by Leicester Ambrose Sawyer. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co., 1858. 12mo. pp. 323. Price $1.25.

Few books have been more overpraised, and overcensured than this. To read some notices of it, one would think that it well nigh amounted to a new revelation. To read others, one would almost suppose that it was beneath even the contempt of a

scholar. Neither school of critics is right. The work does not deserve that extravagant eulogy which has been bestowed upon it; nor is it by any means beneath the buying, and the reading, and the study of those who love, and desire to get at the inner most significance of the "lively oracles."

Its author is a Congregational clergyman, of good repute in his profession, and has long been known as a faithful scholar. Some four years ago he published a work on "Organic Christianity," which—in a very thorough and able manner-discussed the "Church of God" as an organic entity, from a historical and critical point of view, arguing strongly, and, as we thought, unanswerably, for that pure democracy which grew up, under Apostolic hands, at Jerusalem, and elsewhere. In some respects Mr. Sawyer has eminent qualifications as a translator of the Word; others we think he lacks. He is inclined to be a little too much of a literalist to suit our taste, and sometimes forgets that the exact English synonyme of the sense which a Greek word had 1800 years ago when it was set apart from a common to a Biblical use is not necessarily now the synonyme of the Evangelical sense of that word. Thus "change your mind" may literally render metanoeo, as it was when Christ laid hold of it as the expressive term for the new birth, but it does not convey to our minds the meaning which Christ then put upon it, so faithfully as our common term "repent.”

Yet while Mr. Sawyer, we think, has erred, in many instances, by this excess of literalness, (as where he gives us "modius" instead of "bushel," &c., &c.) this quality of searching honestly for the exact sense, elsewhere gives great value to his version. So that, on the whole, we think he deserves many thanks for the book, and that it will stimulate Biblicaal investigation, and aid honest students.

THE NEW ENGLAND THEOCRACY. A history of the Congregationalists in New England to the Revivals of 1740, by H. F. Uhden, with a preface by the late Dr. Neander, translated from the Second German Edition, by H. C. Conant, author of "the English Bible" &c., &c. Boston: Gould & Lincoln, 1858, 12mo. pp. 303. Price $1.00.

This monograph was prepared by the au

thor-a favorite pupil of Dr. Neander-at the suggestion of that eminent Church Historian, as an introduction to some estimate of the later religious and ecclesiastical condition of the country. It contains nine chapters. The first, sketches the rise of the Independents in England, and their emigration to Holland. The second, follows them to these shores, and glances at their form of State, and at their earliest educational and missionary efforts here. The third, is devoted to the expulsion of Roger Williams, and the Antinomians. The fourth, describes the excision of the Baptists and Quakers. The fifth, gives account of the suppression of internal opposition to the Theocratic government, and the doings of the Synod of 1648. The sixth, looks at the dissolution of the Theocratic relation, from the Ecclesiastical and Political side. The seventh, discusses certain reactionary influences proceeding from the Theocracy after its abrogation. The eighth, gives account of the subsequent decline of Congregationalism, and the forming of the germs out of which Unitarianism was subsequently developed. The ninth, is devoted to the revivals of 1740.

The work is done in the true German style, and is consequently rather dry. It is not always accurate in the statement of facts, nor apt in its interpretation of principles. Yet it has considerable interest and value, and is especially noteworthy as showing how our home affairs look through a Teutonic medium of thought and expression. If it shall stimulate some well-read American, who is in thorough sympathy with the religious spirit of our Fathers, to undertake the work of unfolding the philosophy of New England History during its first two centuries; it will reach its culminating point of usefulness.

MEMOIR OF REV. DAVID TAPPAN STODDARD, Missionary to the Nestorians, by Rev. Joseph P. Thompson, D.D., Pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle Church, New York. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman & Co., 1858. 12mo. pp. 422, price $1.00.

This is every way one of the richest and most instructive biographies of the year. We had prepared a lengthened notice of it which is crowded out.