for nothing else, I went on with this work, which so lengthened to this which here you see. It is no wonder, therefore, if I be too abrupt in the beginning, seeing I then intended but the length of a sermon or two; much less may you wonder if the whole be very imperfect, seeing it was written, as it were, with one foot in the grave, by a man that was betwixt living and dead, that wanted strength of nature to quicken invention or affection, and had no book but his Bible while the chief part was finished, nor had any mind of human ornaments if he had been furnished. But O how sweet is this providence now to my review, which so happily forced me to that work of meditation which I had formerly found so profitable to my soul, and showed me more mercy in depriving me of other helps than I was aware of, and hath caused my thoughts to feed on this heavenly subject, which hath more benefited me than all the studies of my life!"

The very title of this book awakens in the mind of the Christian the most delightful associations; and every page of it awes him into self-inspection and caution, and places before the eye of faith and hope the glorious rest of the heavenly state "in a light so strong and lively, that all the glittering vanities of this world vanish in their comparison, and a sincere believer will despise them, as one of mature age does the toys and baubles of children." The Saints' Rest was first published in 1650; his "Dying Thoughts" were published upward of thirty years afterward, shortly before his death, "for his own use on the latter times of his corporal pains and weakness, and originally intended to be left to his executors for publication." The following preface, which we publish entire, will tell to the reader's heart, as well as inform his mind of the occasion and circumstances which produced the publication of the "Dying Thoughts:"

"Reader,—I have no other use for a preface to this book, but to give you a true excuse for its publication. I wrote it for myself, unresolved whether any one should see it; but at last inclined to leave that to the will of my executors to publish or suppress it when I am dead, as they saw cause. But my person being seized on, and my library, and all my goods distrained on by constables, and sold, and I constrained to relinquish my house, (for preaching, and being in London,) I knew not what to do with multitudes of manuscripts that had long lain by me, having no house to go to, but a narrow hired lodging with strangers: wherefore I cast away whole volumes, which I could not carry away, both controversies and letters practical, and cases of conscience; but having newly lain divers weeks, night and day, in waking torments, nephritic and colic, after other long pains and languor, I took this book with me in my removal, for my own use in my farther sickness. Three weeks after, falling into another extreme fit, and expecting death, where I had no friend with me to commit my papers to, merely lest it should be lost, I thought best to give it to the printer. I think it is so much of the work of all men's lives to prepare to die with safety and comfort, that the same thoughts may be needful for others that are so for me. If any mislike the title, as if it imported that the author

is dead, let him know that I die daily, and that which quickly will be, almost is. It is suited to my own use. They that it is unsuitable to may pass it by. If those men's lives were spent in serious, preparing thoughts of death, who are now studying to destroy each other, and tear in pieces a distressed land, they would prevent much dolorous repentance. RICHARD BAxter."

The "Reformed Pastor" claims the devout attention of every minister who would, in spirit and life, be thoroughly quickened and furnished unto every good word and work; and the "Now or Never" urges, with the most intense earnestness and affection, matters of infinite moment upon the consideration of every person who is not prepared for death and judgment.

It will scarcely be necessary for us, after what has been stated, to solicit for these books a fresh perusal and a more extensive circulation among all classes of Christians who desire and are praying for the revival and promotion of pure and undefiled religion in the land. We cannot, however, conclude this notice without making one remark. How often are the severest privations and sufferings of individual Christians contributary to their own meetness for heaven and the instruction and salvation of others! Had not Richard Baxter been confined upon a bed of languishing for months, at a distance from home, and secluded from all other intercourse except that which he held with God and heaven, " The Saints' Everlasting Rest" would not have been inherited by the church. Had he not suffered protracted pain, and, like the ancient witnesses for Christ, been persecuted and imprisoned, "being destitute, afflicted, tormented," succeeding generations of the inquiring and wrestling children of God would not have been blessed with his "Dying Thoughts;" which have instrumentally proved "thoughts" of life and immortality to myriads. So the afflictions, persecutions, and sufferings of individual Christians in the present day, may not only result in a large accession of spiritual knowledge and wealth to themselves, but prove the morning splendor of the church's purity, happiness, and glory, in coming generations.

"Ye fearful souls, fresh courage take!

The clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head."

Three of the above-mentioned works, viz., The Reformed Pastor, A Call to the Unconverted, and The Saints' Everlasting Rest, are published and for sale at the Methodist Book-Store, 200 Mulberrystreet, New-York.

From the North American Review:

The Teacher, or Moral Influence employed in the Instruction and Government of the Young. New Stereotype Edition, with an additional chapter on "the First Day in School." By JACOB ABBOTT, late Principal of the Mt. Vernon Female School, Boston, Mass. Boston: Published by Whipple & Damrell, 1839.

AMONG the endless variety of systems and plans for education, it is comfortable to think that bright scholars and excellent men have come out from under the most unpromising regimen, and have VOL. X.-Oct., 1839.

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often formed themselves without any rule or system whatever. This is not saying, however, that all systems are equally good, or that it is matter of no consequence what system is pursued. And, whatever plan is determined on, it ought to propose, as the most important preparatory step, to teach a child the habit of fixing his attention for a certain time upon a certain thing; and this, not because it is particularly pleasant or attractive in itself, though care should be taken that it should not be made unnecessarily otherwise. When a child finds, that, by giving his attention for a very short time to a given subject, either the letters which make a word, or any thing else, he conquers a difficulty, and fixes the word or the number in his mind, he enjoys the pleasure of successful labor, and has learned a lesson he will not forget. He will be willing to make a similar effort the next day; and by patiently going on in this way, a good habit of study will be formed, with very little time spent at each separate trial. This of course can be done best at home, where the hours and moments are under the teacher's control, and where the moment the point is gained the child can be set at entire liberty. It forms a most excellent preparation for school; as the pupil, having learned the art of application, and having been taught in this way to study, will be able to enter with pleasure into the routine of the school, the operations of which, however, should be varied as much as possible, since young children so soon weary of real application.

Even at school, however, something like this sort of training would not be impracticable. If the teacher could devote the time which he spends in hearing a class spell, for instance, to hearing the pupils who compose it, each in succession, spell the words from the book, two or three times-and it would hardly take longer to do this, than to hear the words boggled over and passed down the class, as is often the case-the time would be better spent, and the children would know more about the words than if they had sat in the usual listless way over their books for an hour. After this exercise, the books might be put away, and the attention of the children turned to something else; and they would thus escape the danger of getting listless, idle habits, which are so apt to follow the usual methods of studying in school. They know that they must stay there a certain time, whether they are idle or not, and they know that they must hold the book and try to study till the time comes to recite; and they learn to make the best of the matter, and amuse themselves as well as they can in looking around the school, and taking notice how others are occupied.

When this habit of fixing the attention is formed and forming, a good exercise for it is to strengthen the memory by getting things by heart, as we say. This practice has been abused; and it is not uncommon, at the present time, to hear the attempt to store the memory with words and facts spoken of with disapprobation. But the great facility children have in committing things to memory seems to show that nature has intended some use should be made of this power in early life. There are many things of a mechanical and technical kind which it is very important to have fixed in the mind, which, learned in childhood, are never forgotten, and which are acquired much easier in early childhood than in after life. And

this very acquisition strengthens the memory. A person who expects to have a great treasure poured in upon him is not thought unwise to prepare a commodious receptacle for it, and to strengthen it by every means in his power, that he may be able to receive and retain his treasure as it comes to him; and a well-trained memory, filled in early youth, when acquisitions are easily made, with a valuable store of words and facts, will not be found a bad foundation for almost any superstructure which it may be desirable to raise upon it.

Mr. Abbott's work will be found a very valuable aid in the great work of education. It contains a record of the experience of a careful, conscientious, and highly successful teacher of youth. His views are illustrated by real and imaginary examples, showing the effects of his system. The book contains a description of the method of conducting the Mount Vernon-street school, from which much assistance, and many valuable hints on the subject of education may be drawn. Mr. Abbott says-

"There is, perhaps, no way by which a writer can more effectually explain his views on the subject of education, than by presenting a great variety of actual cases, whether real or imaginary, and describing particularly the treatment he would recommend in each. This method of communicating knowledge is very extensively resorted to in the medical profession, where writers detail particular cases, and report the symptoms and the treatment for each succeeding day, so that the reader may almost fancy himself actually a visiter at the sick bed, and the nature and effects of the various prescriptions become fixed in the mind with almost as much distinctness and permanency as actual experience would give."P. 242.

Mr. Abbott's plan of giving, every hour or half hour, a recess in the school from labor, in which speaking and moving about the room for two or three minutes are permitted, is an arrangement which must prove highly useful both to the teacher and pupils, by sparing the former the annoyance of individual applications, and refreshing the latter by changing the positions of the body and the operations of the mind. He describes at length the operation of this rule, and the apparatus by which it was regulated.

The advice in the following quotation is truly admirable:"Never get out of patience with dullness. Perhaps I ought to say, never get out of patience with any thing. That would perhaps be the wisest rule. But, above all things, remember that dullness and stupidity, and you will certainly find them in every school, are the very last things to get out of patience with. If the Creator has so formed the mind of a boy, that he must go through life slowly and with difficulty, impeded by obstructions which others do not feel, and depressed by discouragements which others never know, his lot is surely hard enough, without having you to add to it the trials and sufferings which sarcasm and reproach from you can heap upon him. Look over your school-room, therefore, and wherever you find one whom you perceive the Creator to have endued with less intellectual power than others, fix your eye upon him with an expression of kindness and sympathy. Such a boy will have suffering enough from the selfish tyranny of his companions he ought

to find in you a protector and friend. One of the greatest pleasures which a teacher's life affords is the interest of seeking out such an one, bowed down with burdens of depression and discouragement, unaccustomed to sympathy and kindness, and expecting nothing for the future but a weary continuation of the cheerless toils which have imbittered the past; and the pleasure of taking off the burden, of surprizing the timid, disheartened sufferer, by kind words and cheering looks, and of seeing in his countenance the expression of ease, and even of happiness, gradually returning."Pp. 98, 99.

The whole tone and spirit of the book is excellent; and it hardly seems possible that any one engaged in the work of education, either publicly or privately, can read it without pleasure and advantage.

Life of Hannah More, with brief Notices of her Works. By Samuel G. Arnold. "THIS is a neat 16mo. volume, just published at the Methodist Book-Room, New-York, for Youth's and Sunday-school libraries. We have perused this little work with peculiar satisfaction, not only because of its emanating from the pen of an esteemed literary friend, but for its intrinsic merits, in presenting, in such a form, all the prominent features in the life and character of one of the most useful women of any age or country. Mr. Arnold deserves the warm thanks of youth, and especially of the young females of our land, in thus putting within their reach a portrait of one of the noblest patterns of female excellence ever given for the benefit of humanity. Every page unfolds new excellences of her character; and although compressed in so small a compass, yet so judiciously is this biography arranged to meet the wants of youth, that we can trace the bright career of the subject of the work in all her various ascents to true greatness with as much perspicuity as in the more ponderous volumes by other authors. It may be read with profit by adults as well as by children."-Poughkeepsie Casket.

Mammon. By Rev. John Harris.

"WE rejoice that our Book Agents have complied with the request of the Georgia Conference by publishing this excellent work; a work fitted to do immense good among Christians of every denomination. We advise those preachers who have a delicacy in regard to preaching against the sin of covetousness, each to purchase a copy or two of this work, and lend it to their people, who will find that they never had such preaching before. We know a member of our church in this city who obtained six or eight copies of the work, for the purpose of giving away and lending. At present they are all out but one."-Zion's Herald.

Life of Rev. Freeborn Garrettson. By Nathan Bangs, D. D.

"THIS is one of our Book-Room publications. It is compiled from the printed and manuscript journals of Garrettson, and from other authentic documents, and is the fourth edition, revised and corrected. We hope our people will make themselves acquainted with this work."-Zion's Herald.