and have our being,"-that vivifying element being expressly declared in Scripture to be God. God, then, is Life, and the alone author and cause of life. These are but a few of our author's errors. Many in fact, and more in judgment, will be found in the work under notice, which we might have laid aside without comment, but for the unwarrantable conceit and assumption pervading it. Enquiries and Correspondence. ANSWER TO ENQUIRY. 15.-Marriage with Unbelievers. (p. 476.) DEAR SIR,-Feeling deeply interested in the subject of Joseph's enquiry, in your Magazine for October, I have humbly attempted a few remarks by way of reply, which I hope will meet with your approbation, and, if inserted, be of use to the enquirer. Ought I to marry an unbeliever? is a question which God's word alone should answer to God's children. And it will answer it fully-not so much in plain language as in principle, and in the general tenor of Scripture. I believe the plain, positive, command is given in 2 Corinthians, vi. 14. But let us, with God's help, search for further instruction. Although no mention is made of Abraham's taking a wife, we are fully persuaded that Sarai was one appointed of God. Nor can it be disputed that Isaac and Jacob were evidently under divine guidance in the choice of their partners, whom they were careful to select from their own family, and not from the inhabitants of the land. (Genesis xxiv. 3.) Every Christian man and wife should represent Christ and the church Christ the head, exercising his prerogative of rule, and the Church "bone of his bone,” (Eph. vi. 30,)—in perfect subjection to his will, yet a sharer of his power and glory. (Rev. ii. 26: John xvii. 22.) It appears to be a broad Scripture principle, that the people of God may not intermarry with unbelievers. It was most strongly enforced that the Israelites should not marry idolators. (Exodus xxxiv. 12-16.) And in the twelfth verse, the reason is given. However amiable an unconverted woman may be, she is, spiritually considered, but an idolator; and will, probably, sooner or later entice her partner to "sacrifice to her gods." (Deut. vii. 3-4.) This is surely a principle of the New Testament no less than of the Old. What says Peter to Christians of the present dispensation? (chap. ii. 9.) We see in Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Prophets, that Israel's disobedience to this precept was one great cause of their downfall. From Ezra x. and Nehemiah xiii. we learn the necessity of separation from strange wives, ere God's anger could be turned away. Nehemiah says, “Ì contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, "Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves." Did not Solomon, king of Israel, also sin by these things? If "Joseph" be pledged to the lady in question, his best way will be to wait, even though it be as long as Abraham waited for his son Isaac, until she is manifestly a new creature in Christ Jesus. There is much religious sentiment afloat which easily passes current with careless Christians; let us beware of it, and cultivate with true Christians a fellowship of hearts, in which the response of the Holy Spirit is found: thus shall we be strengthened and held together in the lasting bonds of Christian love. Hoping this may help Joseph out of his perplexity, I remain, A SERVANT TO ALL. OUTWARD AND INWARD LIGHT. THE late Dr. Guyse lost his eye-sight, whilst in prayer before the sermon. He was consequently unable to use any notes in preaching. As he was led out of the Meeting, a good old gentlewoman exclaimed-"God be praised that your sight is gone: you never preached so well before: had you lost it twenty years ago, you would have been twenty times as useful!" POETRY. THE SHEPHERD SMITTEN. [On viewing Berry Head, late the residence of the Rev. H. F. Lyte,* from Beacon Hill, Torquay,-August, 1850.] Why droop'd my heart on yon breezy hill, As I gaz'd o'er its sunlit bay? Blue as the heavens, and brighter still, For the stars there glittering lay. The friend and minister of Christ, to whose early death reference is here made, was long known to the Church, both by his devoted and successful labors in the parish of Lower Brixham, Devon, and by his interesting volume of Religious Poetry, and Metrical Version of the Psalms. The fidelity and self-denial which prompted his adoption of a sphere of labor so uncongenial with his refined and cultivated mind, and which met with its rich reward, has been justly and happily described in the "Prefatory Memoir" recently printed, with a small volume of his "Remains," as follows, "From its original state of a fishing village, Brixham had grown up into a district of some thousands of inhabitants, increased chiefly during the war, when Torbay was the rendezvous of the Channel fleet, and Berry Head a permanent military station. From these sources, as well as from the occupations of a fishing and seafaring life, money had been made by the shrewd and busy but uneducated people, among whom many of the vices consequent upon the presence of a large body of military and naval forces had taken root, and shed an influence most unfavorable to the growth of morality or religion. It was not surprising, that under these circumstances, lawlessness, immorality, and ignorance, prevailed to a fearful extent; and it required unwonted vigor and devotion of heart successfully to grapple with existing evils. In this neglected portion of his Lord's vineyard he lived and labored for a period extending over more than twentyfive years; and though human judgment would have assigned to his talents and inclination a very different sphere, few who beheld the marvellous change wrought by the blessing of God, in a few years, among the sailors and fishermen of Brixham, but would confess that unerring wisdom was especially shewn in placing him as pastor over this rough but warm-hearted people. By the earnest devotion of all his powers, and the Christian charity, which in the fullest acceptation of the term, characterized his ministry, he won the affection, and roused the sympathy of his people, and gained from them support and assistance in carrying out his various plans for their spiritual and temporal welfare. He early set on foot the now usual, but then comparatively uncommon machinery of schools, and district visiting among the poor and sick, and soon numbered in the Sunday schools between 700 and 800 children, and a body of between seventy and eighty voluntary teachers, whom he himself trained and organized, frequently meeting them in a body, and giving them religious instruction with immediate reference to their own teaching. He made especial efforts also to meet the peculiar requirements of the fisher So laugh'd the waters in beams of light; On the pebbly beach: each sound and sight Oh, could I forget that in days gone by In that cliff which stretches its beauteous line I had seen-of peace that pleasantest sign The seabird's rock-built nest men and sailors who formed so large, and to him so interesting, a section of his people. He visited them on board their vessels while in harbour, as well as at their own homes, and supplied every vessel with a copy of the Holy Scriptures. For their use while at sea, he composed a brief Manual of "Devotion," and to assist in giving a purer and healthier tone to their hours of recreation he wrote some naval songs, and adapted them to popular tunes. He established a Sunday school on shore, to which he invited sailors of all ages; and here might be seen together, the old weather-beaten man of war's man, the hardy seaman in the prime of life, and the reckless laughing sailor boy, all subduing for a time their wilder natures, while listening to the stirring exhortations of their minister, or engaged in learning to read the Scriptures for themselves. The pleasing little volume of "Remains," from which these extracts are taken, contains two sermons, one preached at the request of his sailors after a three days' holiday on shore, by which, without drunkenness or disorder, they did honor to the accession of our gracious Queen, a proof at once of their own improved character, and of the value justly set upon their minister's blessing; and this became the commencement of a custom continued among them through many after years of coming in a body to church, when a special sermon was preached to them, before leaving for their annual migration to fish off other parts of our coast. The other sermon alluded to, was remarkable as one which, having been preached before the late Mr. Canning, had so arrested the attention of that statesman, that he requested a private interview with the preacher, which was followed by a brief but most interesting intercourse, and a remembrance shewn in later years. But these labors, renewed and persevered in after repeated attacks of sickness, hastened the result of that fatal disease from which he had suffered in early life. He was more than once obliged to seek relief in warmer climates, till even these failed; and on his second journey to Italy, in the autumn of 1847, he was seized with influenza at Nice, and there, on the 20th of November, entered into his rest. His last hymn (printed in our poetical department) gives a blessed transcript of his inner mind, and almost seems to breathe a prophetic prayer, which in a few short weeks was abundantly heard and answered. *Remains of the late Rev. Henry Francis Lyte. Rivington. On pinion strong aloft he flew, And soar'd in the sky above; He knew them all-and the lambs he fed And all to the gushing streams he led, Days have roll'd on-and I come again— The nest is there-but I look in vain, Lone sits his mate with her folded wing In aspect meek and sad: And these thoughts of the past her sorrows bring- The sheepfold! there I see it still With its flock, and a Shepherd too, Under that self-same sunny hill: But 'tis not He I knew. These are the clouds on earth-born joy Oh, haste then, pilgrim! and be thine employ May that widow'd heart once more rejoice In her children's duteous love! And the young Shepherd speak with his father's voice, The nests in that Rock no change can reach So holy and so high : No separation make a breach, Nor flocks, nor Shepherds die. Highgate. H. V. T. |