the language which embodies her 'breathing' thoughts, they have seldom been surpassed: the subject is music.

'The self-same melody may be repeated a hundred times, and inspire each time a train of thought different from the last. Sometimes it will call forth all the hidden stores of memory; absent friends, voices long silent in the tomb, lovely scenes, pleasant walks, and happy hours, come back to us in all their freshness and reality. Then, the future opens its dreary prospect, gilded by hope, and chastened by a mournful tenderness. The exile is restored in glad anticipation to his country; the prodigal sobs out his penitence on his father's bosom; the child of affliction is safely lodged in that mansion where sorrow and crying are unknown. Sometimes the past is forgotten, the future unheeded, the mind wrapped up in the present consciousness of sublimity or beauty. Forms of delicate loveliness, things such as dreams are made of, float before the mental vision, shaped into something of a waking distinctness. Thoughts too noble to last, high and holy resolves, gushings of tenderness, alternately possess our minds, with emotions all equally different, and equally delightful. The poetical inspiration of Alfieri, seldom came upon him, but when he was under the influence of music. Haydn's symphonies were all composed so as to shadow forth some simple and affecting story, by which the author excited and varied his own feelings, and wrought them up to that pitch of solemn pathos, or animated gaiety, which to this day inspires all who hear his music with corresponding emotions.

The expression of sacred music comprehends every emotion that can agitate the human heart, and must be felt rather than described. The subdued tones of awful adoration; the impassioned fervour of desire; the humility of prayer; the wailing of penitential sorrow; the glad notes of thanksgiving, and the loud chorus of praise; all these have their own peculiar utterances, and must be pervaded by a depth and solemnity which shall distinguish them from the meaner affections of humanity.

'Oh! there is a harmony in nature, inconceivably attuned to one glad purpose ! Every thing in the universe has a voice,

with which it joins in the tribute of thanksgiving. The whispers of the wind playing with the summer foliage, and its fitful moanings through the autumnal branches; the broken murmur of the stream, the louder gushing of the waterfall, and the wild roar of the cataract, all speak the praises of God to our hearts. Who can sit by the sea-side, when every wave lies hushed in adoration, or falls upon the shore in subdued and awful cadence, without drinking in unutterable thoughts of the majesty of God? The loud hosannas of ocean in the storm, and the praises of God on the whirlwind, awaken us to the same lesson; and every peal of the thunder is an hallelujah to the Lord of Hosts. Oh! there is a harmony in nature! The voice of every creature tells us of the goodness of God. It comes to us in the song of the birds; the deep delicious tones in which the wood-dove breathes out its happiness; the gracefully melting descant of the nightingale; the joyous thrilling melody of the lark; the throstle's wild warbling, and the blackbird's tender whistle; the soft piping of the bull finch; the gay carol of the wren; the sprightly call of the gold-finch, and the gentle twittering of the swallow. Even now, when every other bird is silent, little robin is pouring out his sweetest of all sweet notes upon yonder rose-bush; and so distinctly does he thank God, who made the berries to grow for him upon the hawthorn and mountain-ash, and who has put it into the heart of man to love him, and strew crumbs for him when the berries fail, that my soul, too often insensible to its own mercies, is warmed into gratitude for his. The very insect tribe have entered into a covenant, that God shall at no season of the year be without a witness among them to his praise. For when the hum of the bees, and the chirping of the grass-hopper have ceased to enliven us, and the gnat has laid by his horn, then the little cricket wakens into life and song, and gladens our hearth with the same story, till the winter is past. And so all nature praises God, and is never weary. If then you are able to "make melody in your heart to the Lord," let your hand and your voice make melody too; and let the faculty which infinite benevolence has created for your enjoyment, be converted, as all your other faculties should be, into the instrument of praise.'-Pp. 288-292.

1

THIS work has something of an extraordinary character about it. Most productions of a similar kind, aiming to fix prophetic eras to some precise date, and to rest them upon some supposed accordance of circumstances, have been content with a single hypothesis, and have relied upon the apparent probability and consistency of their scheme, as it concerned that one fulfilment. Mr. Holmes, on the other hand, rests his case mainly upon the remarkable coincidence of no less than five prophetic or ecclesiastic periods, all of which he draws to one point, and all of which he makes alike to find their termination in the year A.D. 1835-6.

He endeavours to show that in that year, which is itself a jubilee year, there will come to an end, First, the seven times of Daniel's great tree; Secondly, the 2300 years of the treading underfoot the sanctuary, because of the transgression of desolation; Thirdly, the 1260 years of the reign of the little horn; and Fourthly, the 666 years of the decline of the power of that little horn (for so Mr. H. understands this prediction).

But, in order to be understood, we must state in detail, but as succinctly as may be, the outlines of Mr. Holmes's system, in its four principal branches. We shall add but little by way of criticism, rather leaving our readers to follow out the scheme with their Bibles in their hands, by which method alone can such studies as these be brought to any useful result.

First, then, Mr. Holmes thus interprets the vision of the Great Tree of the fourth of Daniel.

He calculates the union of the Babylonian and Assyrian kingdoms under Esarhaddon, to have taken place about the year B. C.

685. He takes the idol-worship, and the captivity of Manasseh to bear date about the same time. And, adopting Mr. Faber's view of the seven times, or 2520 years, he finds the termination of that period, "the times of the Gentiles," in A. D. 1835. This is his first hypothesis; but its value must obviously depend in a great degree, upon its agreement with the remaining predictions; and especially with the bisecting era which commences the second 1260 years, the reign of the papacy.

But, secondly, before we pass on to the two and forty months, we must stay to glance at our author's view of the 2300 years. "The transgression of desolation," Mr. Holmes considers to mean the profane marriages made by the returned Jews, in the time of Ezra, He fixes the date of these transgressions at 465 B. C. Counting forward, then, from this era, we find the expiration of the 2300 years to fall in A. D. 1835, being the same date already named in the former hypothesis.

Thirdly, however, we must turn to the 1260 years, the three times and a half, the forty and two months of the reign of the little horn. This period Mr. Holmes calculates upon the following data:

The appearance of the Lombard horn, the last of the ten, he rightly judges to be necessary before the Roman beast can be described as seen with his "ten horns. This settlement of the Lombards in Italy he reckons, upon the authority of Helvicus, to have taken place at the inauguration of Cleophis, the first Lombard king in Italy, who assumed the iron crown about A. D. 575.

6

Twelve hundred and sixty years, added to this date, bring us to the

year 1835 as the terminating point of the predicted reign of the tenhorned beast.

In the fourth place, we have to consider the last prophecy of Daniel, in which two periods, of 1290, and 1335 years are given, as eras of events of vast importance. These dates are thus handled by our present author.

Commencing with the taking away of the daily sacrifice, by Antiochus Epiphanes, who erected the statue of Jupiter in the very temple, we start from the date B. C. 166. Reckoning 1290 years from this point, we are brought to A. D. 1124, the period of the highest ascendency and most complete domination of the Romish ecclesiastical tyranny, the period in which her last and crowning enormities were perpetrated.

Then going forward five and forty years, and fixing the 1335th year in A. D. 1169, we find ourselves at the era of the dawning reformation; since it was between the years 1160 and 1170 that the Waldenses and Albigenses separated themselves from Rome, and published their deliberate protest declaring Antichrist to be her

name.

And, fifthly, interpreting the expression" the number of a man," (Rev. xiii. 18.) to bear the meaning the number of decline or mortality, Mr. Holmes considers the period of 666 years to signify

the decay of the Papal power. This period, dated from the above year, A. D. 1169-also brings us, for the fifth time, to the same point, A. D. 1835.

And, lastly, though it has been before alluded to, we must not forget that the year 1836 is with the Jews a jubilee year.

Our readers cannot hesitate to admit that this series of coincidences is remarkable, and worthy of some thought and investigation. In fact, it is here that the strength of Mr. Holmes's theory lays. Either he has not so clearly or so strongly stated some of his points as he might have done, or else they are in themselves obscure and uncertain; for assuredly there is a degree of doubt and dissatisfaction left on the mind, after reading some parts of his work, which materially deducts from the effect of the whole. Were it not for this the weight of the hypothesis would be both unprecedented and overwhelming.

As to its validity and truth, we shall offer no hasty decision. Perhaps if called upon for an immediate verdict, we should shelter ourselves under the phrase often used by juries in the northern parts of this island, and report the case 'not proven.' But our author will not receive full justice at the hands of the Students of prophecy, unless his work be generally read and deliberately discussed among them.

THE prayer of this petition is for a reform of the Established Church on the platform sketched by Mr. Budd in his work on Infant Baptism. He especially recommends an improved state of ministerial and parochial arrangement— the entire abolition of pluralities the better ordering of ecclesiastical patronage a more adequate episcopal superintendance the entire abrogation of translations - the diminution of cathedral clergythe regulation of arch-deacons, rural deans, &c.--the enforcing of residence, catechising, &c. on incumbents-the enlargement of the incomes and regulation of the extent and labours of vicars, curates, &c. the revision of parochial officers, as churchwardens, overseers, sidesmen, &c, the establishing of seminaries for the education of parish clerks, and the instituting of Sunday and Day-schools in each parish to be kept by the clerk the introduction of a more efficient and appropriate mode of education for the ministry into our universities, especially that the fifth Book of Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity be a class-book for the undergraduates, and that in every College divinity lectures be established, of which the familiar exposition of scripture, and extemporaneous readiness of expression, together with the study of Hebrew, should form a necessary part-that the Ember weeks be particularly observed-daily service restored— the Liturgy revised for the purpose, not of concealing either its doctrine or spirit, but of removing the reasonable objections of spiritual conscientious seceders-that a more modern version of metrical psalms be prepared, with a selection of approved hymns that for these purposes a commission of clergymen and laymen be appointed, and that a public day of special fasting and prayer be appointed,

to implore that all things may be so ordered and settled, that religion and piety may be established among us for all generations.

Such is a brief outline of Mr. Budd's petition. But we ask in Mr. B.'s own words,- Will infidels or atheists, liberals or deists reform our church? Will Socinians and Arians reform it?' We ask, what can be expected in the present state and aspect of affairs? Who are the men who would in all human probability be at this moment selected by those in authority to prepare the outline of any projected alterations? Were the desired revision entrusted to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Bishops of London, Lincoln, Chester, Durham, &c. some good might result, but is it not equally probable that in any commission which may at present be issued, the Archbishop of Dublin, the Bishop of Chichester, &c. would be introduced, and what are we then to expect? If our church is to be liberalized to meet the taste of those who question the divine authority of the sabbath, who consider the Bible an unsuitable book for the poor and the young, or who regard the Deity of Christ, or the influence of the Holy Spirit as points of minor importance, our efforts for Reformation will have a fearful issue. We rather say to our brethren, be diligent, be devoted-read, preach, pray, catechize, visit your flocks, advocate bible, school, and missionary societies-be zealous in every good work; but beware how you hastily or unadvisedly countenance those who are given to change. Many of Mr. Budd's suggestions are most valuable-though we disapprove of some, and are friendly rather to attempting the correction of a few generally acknowledged evils, than to any extensive change in our ecclesiastical polity.