refined all his feelings, and gave them a more holy direction. The same observation is applicable to the manner in which he discharged the offices of friendship and Christian charity. He was, as before remarked, highly disinterested and affectionate. His purse was always ready to promote any charitable object, and his professional talents to administer gratuitous relief to such as needed it. Among his manuscripts have been found some papers entitled "Occasional Thoughts," written generally on texts of Scripture, and discovering great originality of thinking, point in expression, and, above all, fervent piety and devotion of heart. One of them contains the following interesting paper, dated July 27, 1823. These occasional thoughts and the subjoined prayer were unknown even to his family. "Form of Prayer, which I propose to use, among others, every morning, so long as it may please God that I shall continue in the exercise of my profession; and which is here copied out, not so much to assist my own mcmory, as to give a hint to many who may perhaps feel thankful for it, when I am removed to a state where personal vanity can have no access, and the opinion of the world can be no longer of any importance. I should wish it to close the subsequent editions of my 'Study of Medicine.' "O thou great Bestower of health, strength, and comfort! Grant thy blessing upon the professional duties in which I may this day engage. Give me judgment to discern disease, and skill to treat it; and crown with thy favour the means that may be devised for recovery: for with thine assistance the humblest instrument may succeed, as without it the ablest must prove unavailing. Save me from sordid motives, and endue me with a spirit of pity and liberality towards the poor, and of tenderness and sympathy towards all: that I may enter into the various feelings by which they are respectively tried;-may weep with those that weep, and rejoice with those that rejoice. "And sanctify their souls as well as heal their bodies. Let faith and patience and every Christian virtue they are called upon to exercise, have their perfect work: so that in the gracious dealings of thy Spirit and of thy Providence, they may find in the end, whatever that end may be, that it has been good for them that they have been afflicted. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for the love of that adorable Redeemer, who while on earth went about doing good, and now ever liveth to make intercession for us in heaven. Amen!" Still, notwithstanding his many excellencies, Dr. Good deeply lamented that he had not taken a higher standard, and aimed at greater Christian attainments. The truly humble and spiritual frame of his mind in this respect will be best seen in a few brief notices relative to his last days and hours. On the Saturday night, three days before his death, he woke from sleep remarkably composed, and expressed great pleasure on seeing his friend, the minister of the parish where he died, enter the room. Mr. R. said to him, I am come to implore the blessing of the Redeemer upon you. Dr. Good inquired if his family were present; and on being an swered in the affirmative, replied, "I cannot say I feel those triumphs that some Christians have experienced. But I have, I trust, resigned myself to the will of God. I have endeavoured to perform the duties of religion; but I have unhappily done what too many Christians do, I have taken the middle walk of Christianity: I have lived below my privileges. I believe all the articles of the Christian faith as contained in our Church." Some remark being made respecting the righteousness of Christ, he replied, with great energy, "No man on earth can be more convinced than myself of the necessity of Christ's righteousness, and that there is nothing good in ourselves. If I know myself, I neither presume nor despair. There is a certain sense in which St. Paul's expression, chief of sinners, applies to all; but there are some to whom it applies particularly, and I fear it does so to me. I have had large opportunities given me; but I have not improved them as I might have done. I have been led astray by the vanity of human learning, and by the love of human applause." He was agitated and almost overcome by his feelings in saying these words. The grace of the Saviour being again mentioned, he replied, "O do not think that I despair. I trust I neither presume nor despair: but my whole constitution is sanguine: I am sanguine in every thing, and this makes me afraid of myself." Mr. R. read John i. 16, dwelling upon the words "of his FULNESS.' He then asked him if he should pray. Dr. Good again inquired if all his family were present, and said, "I have given you a transcript of my mind, not as a matter of form, but in the sight of God." Mr. R. asked if there were any thing in particular that he would wish him to pray for: "I want," he replied, "to be more humbled under a sense of sin; I want more spirituality, more humility." The family then knelt down, and Dr. Good, greatly fatigued, fell into a sweet sleep. He was not at this time considered in very imminent or immediate danger. Throughout his illness, with the exception of mental wanderings, he evinced an unruffled and truly Christian composure. "No man living," said he the day preceding his death, "can be more sensible than I am that there is nothing in ourselves in which to trust, and of the absolute necessity of relying on the merits of Jesus Christ." All the promises" (he again remarked with great emphasis) "are yea and amen, in Christ Jesus." When one who was holding his cold convulsed hands, said to him, Do you remember your favourite hymn, "There is a fountain filled with blood, &c.?" he repeated the first five verses with quivering lips, and when the exhausted powers of nature seemed scarcely capable of such exertion. The circumstance deserves the rather to be noticed, because it affords satisfactory evidence of his complete renunciation of Socinian principles, and his entire reliance for salvation on the blood and righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. This faith in his Saviour yielded him a well grounded hope of everlasting life. His hope did not indeed rise to that degree of assurance which fills the soul with joy, as well as peace: he observed, "I cannot say that I feel those triumphs which some Christians have experi 116 enced;" and he seemed rather to check than indulge what might lead to them; for, according to his own words, he thought his constitution sanguine, and he was afraid of trusting himself. But he often repeated that text, and dwelt upon it with evident satisfaction; "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever;" and even after the power of distinct articulation was gone, on the very morning of his decease, when a clerical friend said to him, "Behold the Lamb of God," he added, with an effort that surprised those around him, "who taketh away the sin of the world." These were the last words he intelligibly uttered. He soon after fell asleep, and his spirit ascended up to God who gave it, there to join with kindred spirits, in ascribing "unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." tears are the softened showers which cause the seeds of Mid symbols of his ire; In whirlwind, storm and fire; stirr'd With music's magic flow; In life's serene retreat; Where on the still heart sounds have broken And each sweet voice of comfort hush'd To wounded hearts are given, The blessed seeds of Heaven; The lesson, as Mr. Jerram has justly remarked, which this narrative seems peculiarly calculated to teach is the insignificance of the highest intellectual endowments and the most extensive erudition, when compared with Christian character, and an experimental knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The greatest attainment of man is a conformity to the Divine image, and his, highest destiny is to be "partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light." Whoever comes short of this stand-To quicken with their balmy power ard, forfeits his claim to that heavenly inheritance: he is poor in the midst of his mental wealth, and without resource for the day of need. A death-bed will expose both his poverty and wretchedness: and the opening of a world, where nothing can be admitted that does not bear the character of holiness and the stamp of the Divine image, will in a moment disclose the utter worthlessness of all that the world admires and idolizes. The prince and the scholar here stand on the same ground as the humblest peasant. They have precisely the same wants, they need the same supports, and must be cheered with the same promises. They feel alike, and they express themselves alike. They both need forgiveness; and the prayer which befits both alike is, " God be merciful to me a sinner!" They both stand on the verge of the same world, and both must cry, "Save, Lord, or I perish." They both want the same omnipotent support, and both must lay hold of the same "hope set before them in the Gospel." That hope this lamented individual had truly obtained, and is now experiencing its blessedness, in a world where hope is lost in enjoyment, and faith is swallowed up in the unclouded visions of eternal glory. From the Winter's Wreath. "There are those to whom a sense of religion has come in H. R. From the Christian Remembrancer REVIEW OF HEBER'S HYMNS. How fondly do we cling to the slightest memorials of those we have loved and honoured! Our late numbers have been fully occupied with the recollections of Heber,-his amiable virtues, his Christian character, his commanding talents, his untired zeal, his useful life, and his deeply deplored untimely death. Heber! "clarum et venerabile nomen!" we are rejoiced to have again the opportunity of adorning our pages with thy beautiful labours; and if thy "Hymns" be not fitted for the service of the Church,-if they be not on a par with thy Palestine,they are thine, illustrious martyr,-they breathe piety, unaffected beautiful piety,-they are in admirable keeping with the whole tenor of thy valuable life, they are thine, lamented Heber, and we hail then with gratitude and admiration. Did we need additional testimony to the cer tainty of a future state-did we want corroborative evidence that the ways of God are inscrutable and "past finding out,"--that it is not for man to "search out the Almighty to per fection," we have it in those mysterious dealings with the children of men, those afflicting privations with which he has of late bowed down their hearts, in his sudden removal from earth of those whose days were passed in the furtherance of the Gospel-whose best ambition was to sow the seeds of Christianity in soils 1 | bours in the service of Christianity should be lost." They thus acquire a value in the world's estimation, which they might not have enjoyed without it. We, for our parts, are grateful to the Editor, and receive them in the same spirit in which they are published. Melodies than all his other publications, and the public pronounced his opinion good. Sacred composition asks the heart as well as the mind of the Poet: the language of prayer or praise should be energetic, not inflated; and simple without tameness. hitherto unproductive; and in daily "adding to the faith" those that would be saved, preaching Christ crucified in the wilderness and his salvation to "the ends of the world." Could any exercise of duty exempt man from an early grave-we might suppose a life passed in "converting sinners" and "saving souls" would be We will extract the most striking of the permitted to continue-that labours so impor- Hymns, without seeking to discover "spots in tant would be prospered-that the days of such the sun." Many of them are very beautiful, and a Christian would be prolonged for the benefit fully equal to the hymns of Addison, Sir Walter of man, and the glory of his Redeemer. But Scott, Professor Millman, and others, whose no-in the days of early Christianity, worth contributions adorn the volume before us. This was no protection from the grasp of death. In would appear no mean praise; but we are not the very hour when success seemed to promise prepared to assert that the effusions of the living a triumph, and a termination to their toils, the poets, or the selections from those of earlier time, Apostles themselves were cut off; and as in the are very splendid specimens of their talents for times of those proto-martyrs, so in these of devotional verse. Lord Byron, it will be reMiddleton and Heber. Exalted talents,-de-membered, was less satisfied with his Hebrew voted zeal,-unshrinking self-denial, unceasing toil,-anxious and laborious watchfulness, -public preaching and public teaching, and private efforts of persevering research to qualify for apostolic duties, and prayer in the temple and in the closet,-earnest, ardent, heart-sent prayer,-all these have not availed to arrest the fatal stroke. We acknowledge the mysterious work-we see the hand of Omnipotence and awed into adoring silence, we await an explanatory hereafter. We must be forgiven this renewed lamentation over departed worth. A few more years, and under (we had well nigh said) the superhuman efforts of either of these great and good men, India might have become a Christian land. But they are gone! nor can we sufficiently admire the zeal and courage which have animated a third adventurer to undertake this distant crusade; to risk an invidious comparison with his predecessor, if he fail to do as much,-to court a certain death if he succeed. It is a tremendous responsibility, and one which we think ought to have been spared him; but the State in its wisdom has ordained what the Church in its compassion would have remedied. The Hymns, to which we must now bring our attention, were written for and adapted to the Weekly church service of the year. They are published by the widow of the excellent Heber, addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, as the composition and selection (save in three or four instances) of the late bishop of Calcutta. "They were arranged," the Preface tells us, "with a hope that they might be deemed worthy of general adoption into our Churches, and it was his intention to publish them soon after his arrival in India; but the arduous duties of his situation," (this we can readily believe) "left him little time, during the short life there allotted to him, for any employment not immediately connected with his diocese." The author of "Palestine" would not have published the Hymns under review with any hope of adding to his high poetical reputation. Had he lived, they would never have come in this form before the public. Their publication would have been solely to aid his immense undertaking in India, and doubtless would have had the desired effect. They come not, therefore, properly within the province of criticism. "They are given to the world by his widow," "from an anxious desire that none of his la The following are Heber's, and we think very favourable specimens. EPIPHANY.-NO, II. Brightest and best of the sons of the morning! Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid! Maker and Monarch and Saviour of all' Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor. Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid' Arise in thy strength thy redeemed to cherish, In pages 46 and 47, the Hymns are extremely simple and pretty; in the first the metaphor is very pleasingly carried through the verse. We have not space to quote them. The Hymn for the Fourth Sunday in Lent is entitled, from its beautiful simplicity, to a place here. Oh King of earth and air and sea! And Thou hast taught us, Lord! to pray, And oh, when through the wilds we roam, Pp. 55, 56. In the following there is much of the spirit of" Palestine:" it would seem that he was more at his ease in the metre of that celebrated poem, than in any other. We give it at length. GOOD FRIDAY. Oh more than merciful! whose bounty gave Thy guiltless self to glut the greedy grave! Whose heart was rent to pay Thy people's price; The great High-priest at once and sacrifice; Help, Saviour, by Thy cross and crimson stain, Nor let Thy glorious blood be spilt in vain! When sin with flowery garland hides her dart, When tyrant force would daunt the sinking heart, When fleshly lust assails, or worldly care, And, chiefest then, when Nature yields the strife, And mortal darkness wraps the gate of life; When the poor spirit, from the tomb set free, Sinks at Thy feet and lifts its hope to Thee,Help, Saviour, by Thy cross and crimson stain, Nor let Thy glorious blood be spilt in vain! P. 66. That on the "Joy in Heaven," in page 90, has a great deal of force and poetry in it; but we pass it over, for we must insert the follow ing, before a Collection made for the Society Their land from error's chain! The gifts of God are strewn, Bows down to wood and stone! Has learn'd Messiah's name! It spreads from pole to pole; In bliss returns to reign! P. 140. Though we conceive the metre of the fol lowing to be unfavourable to church music, and in other respects perhaps unsuited to the church, we cannot forbear from quoting it: SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. When spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil; When Summer's balmy showers refresh the mower's toil; When Winter binds in frosty chains the fallow and the flood, In God the earth rejoiceth still, and owns his Maker good. The birds that wake the morning, and those that love the shade: The winds that sweep the mountain or lull the drowsy glade; The Sun that from his amber bower rejoiceth on his way, The Moon and Stars, their Master's name in silent pomp display. Shall Man, the lord of nature, expectant of the sky, Shall man, alone unthankful, his little praise deny? No, let the year forsake his course, the seasons cease to be, Thee, Master, must we always love, and Saviour, honour Thee. The flowers of Spring may wither, the hope of Summer fade, The Autumn droop in Winter, the birds forsake the shade; We had almost forgotten the Hymn for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (p. 111) which must be given to our readers. Lo the lilies of the field, How their leaves instruction yield! "Say, with richer crimson glows Mortal, fly from doubt and sorrow! "One there lives whose Guardian eye Pp. 111, 112. In these devotional services, as in the Sermons which we have noticed in a former number, we plainly see a great mind bending to its lighter work,-varying its means of hallowed instruction, that its lessons may be followed with botter success. He labours to be intelligible. It seems to have been the business of his life to concentrate his powers into this one object, to amend and bring to salvation those committed to his trust. In his estimation, talents were valuable only as they tended to promote the good of mankind: and as Religion is inan's greatest good, and Christianity the only perfect religion, so were all his energies directed to the establishment of Christianity in the hearts of others. No one knew its value better than Heber. The fruits of his religion were seen in his well-governed temper, in his placid and ever cheerful deportment, in his patience, his perseverance, in his boundless benevolence, and in those labours of love which finally brought him to his grave. So unassuming were this good man's virtues, that it is a question whether we should ever have heard of them, had he not been called forth from the shade, to shine, and labour, and perish in the sun. His parish was his earthly treasure there was his heart; and in the discharge of his duties upon earth, it was evident he had his eye fixed upon a more enduring treasure in heaven. Yet had he all the requisites to adorn a higher station, as the circumstances of his after life abundantly testify. Alas! it seems but yesterday that he was in the Theatre at Oxford, reciting the best prize poem that was ever delivered there. The "eloquent air breathed, burned" with the name of Heber. We doubt whether any other than a scriptural subject would have so inspired him. Yet from this land of promise, this theatre of his early fame, where he had heard thousands as he spake, Clap the glad hand and lift the exulting voice, (Palestine.) did he withdraw to the care of a country village, happier in the affections of its lowly inhabitants, than in the homage which his superior knowledge would have secured him from an admiring world. Beyond the care of this parish he had not a wish;-this was the boundary of his ambition. Yet he left it, at the imperious call of duty, for other and distant climes, where the service of his Divine Master seemed to demand his presence,-where he fondly hoped The sultry sands would tenfold harvest yield, And a new Eden deck the thorny field. p. 86. He was so great a man, that no one could have been so well qualified for the mission: yet was he so good a man, that more of recollection of his endearing virtues than his mental powers mingles with our affliction for his loss. It has been said by some, that the proudest day of Heber's distinguished life was that on which he delivered his memorable reply to the Farewell Address at the meeting of the Society in Bartlett's Buildings, immediately prior to his leaving his native land, never to visit it again. It was, indeed, a soul-stirring scene. To stand forth on that interesting occasion,—amid the most renowned of our clergy and laity, prelates and statesmen,-men no less distinguished for their commanding talents than their many virtues, whose public reputation was equalled only by their private worth,—amid that brilliant assemblage of the titled and the talented, the great and the good who fill the "high places of our nation,-to stand forth the "observed of all observers," and command by his eloquence the admiration of such hearers, to move even to tears the many who were met to bid their affectionate farewell, and speed with their warmest wishes the devoted Heber; -to leave behind him the impression, that even Middleton's loss was not irreparable,—that a new Elisha had caught the mantle of Elijah,this, we cannot but admit, was a day to be long and well-remembered by the newly-appointed bishop. But to a mind constituted as was that of Heber, his greatest day of triumph was not then. The love of fame was not his ruling passion; "it came uncalled for, if it came at all." His was not the ambition to chain the listening ear by his eloquence, to court the admiration of the world by the display of his superior powers. His was the eloquence of the heart; deeply convinced of the serious and responsible character of his appointment; bearing in his breast a strong and prevailing wish so to acquit himself as to equal the high expectations of his patrons, and justify their choice; above all, determined, at all risks, to "do the work of God." With these convictions at his heart, as he felt, he spake. Gifted as he was, |