neva preacher, and that of our pious and eloquent countryman, Mr. Wilberforce, whose admirable treatise on religion is well known on the continent. Knowing, as we do, the common practice in Geneva, of devoting the evenings of Sunday to ordinary amusements and pleasures, we were rather prepared to expect that M. Cellerier would have marked with strong and distinct disapprobation the habits of those "petites sociétés" in which the sacred character of the Sabbath is so generally forgotten and disregarded. His own sentiments upon this point cannot in deed be doubted; nor would any one who should adopt his principles be in danger of acting inconsistently with regard to the duties of the Lord's-day yet the following extract, from that part of his sermon in which he describes the relaxations of the Christian, is perhaps not altogether satisfactory.

"C'est une réunion d'amitié, de famille, où président la concorde et la simplicité. Ce sont des amusemens que réglent l'ordre et la décence, car je ne prétends exclure du Jour du Seigneur aucune récréation innocente et paisible. Le

fidèle y portera le souvenir du bien qu'il a fait, un front riant, une âme tranquille et contente.. Mais j'en ai dit assez pour vous faire comprendre qu'il n'en a pas besoin, et que celles qui le distrairout le moins des sentimens qui remplissent son âme, seront pour lui les plus douces."

The last observation entirely coincides with our feelings upon this subject: but though we are very far from wishing to render the Christian Sabbath gloomy and uninteresting, we are so fully per suaded that the danger, in the present day, is rather on the side of relaxation than of strictness, that we feel it to be at all times our duty to insist on the necessity of devoting its sacred hours to employments and pleasures really corresponding with its grand design; believing that whatsoever is more than this, either "cometh of evil," or will too probably lead to

it. We refer the reader to what we have before remarked upon this subject, at page 526. It is in fact, a subject which painfully forces itself upon the Christian spectator, in every reference to continental

manners.

Of the remaining sermons in this volume, two are on theConsolations afforded by the Gospel under the Loss of Friends, and on the Duties of the Dying; two are directed against Luxury in general, and excess and impropriety in female apparel; two are on Filial Obedience, and on the means of securing it; and one is on the Respect due to Old Age. Each of these important and interesting subjects is treated by M. Cellerier with his characteristic judgment, piety, tenderness, and warmth of feeling; and of each we should be happy to afford our readers a more satisfactory and detailed account, but we have yet to notice another volume, to the consideration of which our limits admonish us to proceed.

The "Discours familiers d'un Pasteur de Campagne," were published by M. Cellerier as a farewel bequest to his parishioners on resigning the pastoral care of Satigny. They preceded the three volumes which we have already considered; but though they possess considerable merit and attraction, we must con fess that we have not altogether perused them with equal pleasure. M. Cellerier is evidently a great lover of rural life, and many of the subjects of his sermons, as addressed to a country congregation, are very justly drawn from rustic occupations and incidents. It is not, of course,

of this circumstance that we are disposed to complain. We deem it, on the contrary, an important part of the duty of a country clergyman, after the example of our Lord himself, to adapt his instructions to the capacities and habits of his hearers; and we admire the ability and taste displayed by M. Cellerier, with reference to this point, in several of the

discourses in question. We have, accordingly, "The Husbandman," "A Country Life favourable to Piety," "The Spring," "The Winter," "Disorder the Source of ""Drunkenness," "The FerRuin," tility of the Ground:" and they are treated in a very instructive and interesting manner. Now, considering the topics thus selected as forming, in all probability, a specimen of the general method of vil lage preaching adopted by their excellent author, we

on

were some

66

what surprised to find them embracing subjects of a moral nature, rather than such as directly relate to those grand and fundamental doctrines of the Gospel, of which, as we have seen, M. Cellerier is so able and zealous a supporter. It is true, that others of these parochial discourses-such as those on "the Rule of Labour," John vi. 27; "Resignation;" on Early Piety;" on "the Obligations of Catechumens;" on "the Widow's Mite;" on "the Prayer of Hezekiah;" and on the "Gift of Wisdom"-are of a more evangelical character, and that throughout the volume the great doctrines of the Gospel are referred to and taken for granted. Still, we could wish that something more definite and express, upon those all-important points, had been introduced into his parting legacy to his parishioners. Presuming, however, that the objects of his pastoral solicitude were not without adequate scriptural instruction concerning the way of salvation by the Gospel, the discourses in this volume are well calculated to cherish the piety, to preserve the simplicity, to correct the errors, to relieve the anxieties, and to promote the happiness of his rural flock. We extract a few passages from the sermon entitled "The Husbandman," in order to enable our readers to form some judgment of M. Cellerier's familiar and parochial style. "Réunissez maintenant, mes frères, les vertus dont nous avons parlé, la simpli.

CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 224.

cité, l'amour du travail, la piété; et peignez-vous ce bonheur d'une famille qui les fait régner dans son sein. "Elle n'est pas à l'abri, je l'avoue, des accidens et des revèrs de l'bumales consolations de la foi. La main penité; mais ces maux sont adoucis par sante de la pauvreté peut quelquefois s'y faire sentir, mais on n'y connoit point le tourment de la cupidité trompée ou de l'orgueil humilié; et si l'on en excepte ces cas imprévus qui sortent du cours ordinaire des choses, une telle famille jouit de l'aisance. Là, vous ver

rez des vieillards vénérables, blanchis dans les honorables travaux d'une carrière utile; des pères respectés, des enfans soumis, ingénus, à l'abri des nombreux écueils de l'oisiveté. Le voyageur qui s'arrête dans leur demeure, y respire, si je puis ainsi parler, un parfum de vertu; en voyant leur union, leur gaité, leur confiance, leur résignation aux décrets de la Providence, saisi d'un respect involontaire, il dit en secret, Voilà le vrai bonheur, voilà la vraie philosophie.

"Tel est même le prix de ces vertus que nous vous avons prêchées, telle est leur convenance avec la constitution de P'homme et sa félicité, qu'elles peuvent améliorer toutes les situations. Oui, mes frères, quelque soit votre état, quelque soit le lieu de votre séjour, si vous ne connoissez que les besoins de la nature; si votre cœur et votre ésprit sont simples comme elle; si vous savez rem

Ces

plir tous vos momens par des occupations utiles; si votre àme est nourrie des délicieux sentimens de la piété, fortifiée, aggrandie par les espérances de l'Evangile,-vous serez heureux, autant du moins qu'on peut être ici-bas. vertus sont faites pour tous les hommes; elles sont faites pour les peuples comme pour les particuliers, pour les villes comme pour les hameaux. Mais ne l'oubliez jamais, mes chers paroissiens, c'est à la campagne qu'elles sont plus faciles et plus nécessaires. Puissentelles être toujours votre partage! Puissiez-vous être jaloux de les faires régner dans vos maisons, et de les trans

mettre à vos enfans!"

We could willingly gratify our readers with larger extracts from these village discourses, which breathe the genuine spirit of Christian piety and benevolence, and present an attractive picture both of their devout and amiable author, 4 B

and of the flock to which he was so affectionately attached, and amongst whom he still continues to reside. May his labours, both in the country and in the city, be abundantly prospered; and may he, and those who are like-minded with himself in the Church of Geneva, enjoy the elevated satisfaction of having contributed to restore it to the distinction which it once possessed among the Protestaut churches of Europe!

We have given so ample a view of M. Cellerier's discourses, that it cannot be necessary to add much by way of general remark upon them. Allowing for the unavoidable difference of style and mauner between French and English preaching, we scarcely know a more finished model of pulpit eloquence than some of these sermons exhibit. With much of the clear

and simple statement, and the sound and perspicuous reasoning, of our English divines, there is much also of the vivacity and warmth of feeling and of colouring, which distinguish the best French preachers. Occasionally, no doubt, M. Cellerier betrays some of the characteristic faults of the Continental school; but in general he is free from any thing forced, unnatural, diffuse, or turgid. His good sense and good taste for the most part prevail; and the piety and devotion, the holy and heavenly feeling, the love of God and of man, which pervade all his discourses, render them in no common degree interesting and edifying. We take leave of him, therefore, with the sincerest respect for his talents and virtues, and with our renewed prayers for the Divine Blessing upon his labours.

GREAT BRITAIN. PREPARING for publication.-The Life of the late William Hey, Esq. of Leeds, by John Pearson, Esq. of Golden Square ;-Travels in Syria and Mount Sinai, by J. L. Burkhardt;-British Mollusca, by Dr. Leach-British Plants, by S. F. Gray;-Devonia, by the Rev. G. Woodley.

In the press -Two volumes of Sermons, by the late Dr. Milner, Deau of Carlisle ;-Antiquities of Stoke Newington, by Mr. Robinson.

Prisoner's Asylum.-An institution is about to be established in the county of Lancaster, for the reform of discharged criminals. The design has been taken up with spirit by the wealth and rank of the county, and is under the sanction of the collective magistracy-the Lord Lieutenant of the county is patrou. The Bishop of the diocese is also active in the undertaking. The purposes of the institution are thus announced in the prospectus:-" To provide a temporary asylum for persons of

both sexes liberated from penal confinement in the several jails and houses of correction belonging to the county palatine of Lancaster; to furnish them with the means of religious instruction; to habituate them to a system of moral and Christian restraint; to employ them in various trades of profitable labour, qualifying them, during their residence in the refuge, for the future exercise of some honest, industrious, and reputable calling; by mild restraints and reasonable motives to reform the character to the voluntary exercise of self-government, and to habits of practical virtue; and when, at length, such progress in amendment is made as to justify a readmission to the free intercourse of society, then to furnish recommendations, (which, it is hoped, the merciful part of mankind may receive,) or to secure for them, by other means, such situations in life as may be suited to their condition and acquirements."-No stronger proof needs be given of the pressing call for such an institution, than the following statement of prisoners confined for trial in the Liverpool county jails in the

years 1816, 1817, and 1818 respective ly:-In 1816, Males 482, Females 190: total 672. In 1817, Males 583, Females 135 total 718. In 1819, Males 991, Females 227: total 1218.

In the Manchester house of correcfion the boys from 8 to 18 are returned as follows:-1816, 61; 1817, 119; 1818, 181; so that in three years the number of juvenile delinquents has been very nearly tripled.

Compressibility of Water.-From a recent experiment, it has been ascertain ed that water is compressible in a much greater degree than appeared from the experiments of Cantou and Zimmerman. A cylinder, three feet long and four inches in diameter, into which a rod or piston was passed, with a sliding ring upon the rod, was filled with water, and lowered 500 fathoms into the sea, when it appeared, by the situation of the sliding ring, that the column of water which pressed upon the piston, had sunk it so as to have compressed the water one-hundredth part of its bulk. The same apparatus was placed in a cannon filled with water, when a pressure equal to 500 fathoms, was forced in by means of the hydraulic press, and the same results took place.

New Bank-Notes.-The preamble of an act of parliament, just passed, gives the following description of the intended bank-notes, for preventing forgery. The ground-work of each will be black or coloured, or black and coloured line work; and the words Bank of England,' will be placed at the top of each bank-note, in white letters upon a black, sable, or dark ground, sach ground containing white lines intersecting each other; and the numerical amount or sum of each bank-note in the body of the note will be printed in black and red register work, and the back of each note will distinctly shew the whole contents thereof in a reversed impression. The exclusive privilege of using this plan of printing notes is given to the Bank of England.

FRANCE.

The Protestants of France propose to publish a collection of portraits, &c. entitled, Musée des Protestans célèbres, &c.: "Museum of celebrated Protestants who have appeared from the commencement of the Reformation to the present day." The work will consist of lithographic portraits of the earliest Reformers, and others distinguished by their rank, their talents, or their suffer.

ings, with short memoirs of their lives. It is proposed to extend this collection to about one hundred and fifty portraits. It will be published at the Protestant Library in the Place du Louvre.

The following is a report of the number of persons imprisoned in France on the first of July, 1819:-Accused, 8,274. Sentenced, to imprisonment for a term less than a year, 2,389-to compulsory labours during their confinement, 1,160-to labour of a miscellaneous description,435-to solitary confinement, 9,521, of whom 6,206 are men, and 3,315 women-to one year's imprisonment and upwards, 9,824, of whom 7,158 are men, and 2,666 are men.-Total, 31,603. GERMANY.

The following ordonnance of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburgh Schwerin was published in February last :-" We make known, that after a mature deliberation with our most faithful knights and provincial states, and in concert with the Grand Duke of Mecklenburgh Strelitz, we have abolished personal servitude throughout the whole of our dominions."

AUSTRIA.

The Emperor of Austria has publish. ed the following ordonnance concerning the Jews in his dominions :-Before they are allowed to exercise any religious function, the Rabbins shall undergo an examination as to their acquaintance with the principles of the Jewish religion, and their progress in the philoso. phical sciences: the appointments allotted to them will be in proportion to their acquired knowledge, and their talents. The prayer-books of the Israelites shall be translated into the language of the country, which shall be exclusively employed in religious offices and discourses addressed to the people. The Israelitish youth shall participate among others in the benefits of the established public instruction.

RUSSIA,

The Count de Romanzow is fitting out, at his own expense, an expedition, which is to set out from Tehouktches, so as to pass over the solid ice from Asia to America, to the north of Behring's Strait, at the point where Cook and Kotzebue were stopped. The same nobleman is also fitting out an expedi tion which is to ascend one of the rivers on the western coast in Russian America, in order to penetrate into the unknown tracts that lie between Icy Cape and the river Mackenzie,