Recollections of the Conversation Parties of the R3v. Charles Simeon.
By Abner William Brown, M.A. (Hamilton, Adams, and Co.)—The Rev. Abner Brown, being of opinion tint Mr. Carus's "Memoirs of Simeon" do not give a sufficiently lively portrait of their subject, has conceived the idea of supplying this deficiency by publishing his own personal recollections of that divine, together with copious specimens of his conversation, gathered principally from notes of some of the conversation parties which he was in the habit of holding weekly during a large portion of his life. The book is, in fact, a collection of Simeon's table-talk. Mr. Brown has done his work with enthusiasm, and has consequently done it, on the whole, well. Admirers of Mr. Simeon will be delighted to find in the book, not only a full statement of his senti- ments on various subjects, but also a faithful reproduction of his peculiar manner ; while it is far from unlikely that many who are con- scious of entertaining a prejudice against him may, after its perusal, see cause to modify their opinion on more than one important point. Among the many curious personal traits of Simeon mentioned by Mr. Brown, we may notice the habit of cutting each text, as he preached from it, out of his Bible, so that he might not inadvertently select it on any future occasion. He sometimes preached an old sermon a second time, but he never wrote twice on the same text.
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