their fellows. There radiates from us all a mysterious something, which cannot fail to touch our kind at every point. LIFE.-Life is an arena; if we win the victory, we are made for ever; if we lose, we are irremediably lost. PREACHERS SHOULD BE NATURAL. Variety is a characteristic of Nature; monotony, of Art. Take the flower blooming in the landscape, and the flower painted on the canvas; or take the cedar towering in the forest and the cedar cut down, carved, and polished by the hand of Art to adorn some lordly mansion. The flower and the tree abroad in the bosom of Nature are changing their forms and tints every hour; but in the cold sphere of Art they remain from year to year almost the same. There seems to me as much difference between a teacher that is natural and the one that is artificial, as between the growing cedar and the polished pillar. The former 18 constantly varying, new branches sprout forth and new tints appear; but the latter, from its constant sameness, becomes uninteresting. The want of naturalness has always been the sin and weakness of reigious teachers. THE BIBLE.-Christ opened the understanding, not that He might thereby supersede the necessity of the Scriptures, but that His disciples may the better appreciate them. The Bible is our pillar, and we want it in every step of the desert until we reach the promised land. CHRIST A RESTORER.-Christ gives no new powers, but restores, strengthens, and per fects the old. He retunes the disordered harps, and makes every string give music at every touch. DEATH.-The loss of the body is to the soul but as the loss of the telescope to the astronomer, the harp to the lyrist, the house to the resident. Though the telescope is destroyed, the astronomer lives, and may procure another instrument that will give him a clearer and a broader view of the starry universe; though the harp of the lyrist be broken, the musician survives, and may employ some other instrument, and through it pour forth strains more lofty and thrilling than ever; and though the house of the resident fall to ruins, he may become the occupant of a palace. TENDERNESS.-Tenderness is the soul of eloquence; it tunes the voice into music; it breathes our thoughts into the hearts of our hearers, and makes them one with us. PREACHING. Sermons are mere intellectual productions until they are bathed in the life-giving current of devout emotions. Ideas become instinct with life as the soul grows prayerful. THE IMPORTANCE OF SOLITUDE. -Solitude is the scene for nursing impressions into virtuous principles. PREACHERS.-The best way, we think, to help preachers, is to supply good sermonic models. Give them sketches of sermons that grow out of the text as the oak out of the acorn, not sermons that are hung on the text, as old orthodox garments, stained and patched, hung upon a peg. The Preacher's Confidential Council Room. [There arise in the pulpit and pastoral experience of almost every minister certain questions of casuistry and doctrine which he would not care to have opened in a general journal, but upon which he would like the judgment of his brethren. This department will be available to such. Ministers of all denominations are invited to it.] CAN THERE BE PREMATURE DEATHS? SIR,-Perhaps you will permit me, in answer to the question of W. F., who finds a difficulty in reconciling two statements in reference to death which he has found in the Homilist, namely, 'There is nothing accidental in human history,' and that 'lamentation over graves is an absurdity,' with the occurrence of suicides, and with the statement of the Psalmist, 'Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days.' His question may be fairly resolved into another-How can you reconcile the immutable purposes of God with the free agency of man? How? This is the great puzzle of the ages. The greatest metaphysicians have wrestled with it and have been baffled. I don't wonder that W. F. says he feels 'a little foggy' on such a subject. Whenever the mind touches the question, it passes into a thick haze; and if it wants sunshine, it must come away and climb the heights of clearly revealed truth. "Yours truly, "ALPHA." : HYMNOLOGY. "MR. EDITOR.—I little thought that when I ventured on enterng, with your permission, on the work which I considered a duty that is, the work of exposing the absurdity of some popular hymns, that I should stir the ire of a mighty Caledonian, capable of inflicting blows that make one reel. He says that my 'logic is so hard that it injures my heart,' that my 'religion is iron logic, cold and colourless,' that I have 'sat too long in the company of leading bishops and eminent theologians,' for the sake of my heart. Well, all this one must bear. 'Persecuted, but not destroyed; cast down, but not in despair.' Strong as his lan guage is, he has neither excited my anger nor altered my convic tions. I am sure he says that, 'To want a crown to cast at the feet of Christ,' and 'a harp with which to praise Him, is not a wrong desire.' By this I suppose he really means that there are such tawdry things as crowns, and amusing instruments as harps in the better world. Will Mr. Solomon kindly inform me where these are made, and what reason he has to believe that Christ will approve of such a dedication? He says that the hymn beginning with Beautiful Zion,' and so on, is too beautiful to be banished from our hymn-books. In what sense can such a composition be regarded as beautiful, except it be in the absurd repetition of the word beautiful? He professes to be enraptured with the following lines in Bernard's hymn O land that seest no sorrow! O state that knowest no strife! O princely bowers! O land of flowers! O realm and home of life!' What on earth can he see in such childish stuff to admire? I consider this the silliest and weakest of rhapsodies. "I intended to proceed with the exposure of other hymns; but Mr. Solomon has interrupted me, and I fear that now I have taken up too much space to allow me for the present to proceed. 'I am, yours, etc., "CLERICUS." PSALM L. 21. THE DIVINE LONGSUFFERING. I. Its manifestation. II. Its 'abuse. III. Its vindication.-THOMAS BAROW. JAS. I. 26. UNBRIDLED SPEECH. I. A sin of general indulgence. II. An indication of vain religion.THOMAS BAROW. JOB XVIII. 4. "THE KING OF TERRORS." I. The origin of his empire. II. The characteristics of his reign. III. The overthrow of his dominion,-THOMAS Barow, 1 COR. I. 23, 24. APOSTOLIC PREACHING. I. Its grand subject. II. Its uncompromising character. III. Its diversified results.-THOMAS BAROW. Literary Notices. [We hold it to be the duty of an Editor either to give an early notice of the books sent to him for remark, or to return them at once to the Publisher. It is unjust to praise worthless books; it is robbery to retain unnoticed ones.] THE REVIEWER'S CANON. In every work regard the author's end, Since none can compass more than they intend. LIFE, JOURNALS, AND LETTERS OF HENRY ALFORD, D.D., LATE DEAN OF CANTERBURY. Edited by his Widow. Rivingtons, London, Oxford, and Cambridge. This is a volume of great interest, and fraught with varied and inspiring information concerning a noble life. Though written by the sorrowing widow, it has no fulsome adulation. Her judgment of the hero of the book will be endorsed by all who had the honour of his acquaintance or the high privilege of studying his valuable productions. There are lives that are life-inspiring, and that work more deeply, powerfully, and extensively after their departure from this world than before. Such a life was that of Dean Alford. We need scarcely recommend such a work; our readers are sure to make themselves acquainted with it. THE FRIENDSHIP OF BOOKS, AND OTHER LECTURES. By the Rev. F. D. MAURICE. Edited with a Preface, by T. HUGHES, Esq., M.P. London: Macmillan & Co. Maurice is as well known and as highly esteemed as Dean Alford. He wrought as hard, lived as nobly, produced as many, if not more, works than the Dean. In theological literature however, as a writer, he has always appeared to us to be somewhat vague in thought, and consequently hazy in expression. We have heard him preach, we have read many of his works, and although we have the highest regard for his intellect and his heart, we have always felt more or less difficulty in understanding him. It is very true that Mr. Hughes, who edits this work, contends against the charge that he is hazy in style. But Mr. Hughes always believes that he himself has exceptionally clear eyes. He looks into the heart of things. He can see forests in their most embryonic stages and even in November fogs. All men, however, are not blessed with such vision, and we are amongst the unfortunates. But in the volume before us we can understand Mr. Maurice in every page and every sentence. He does not write on theology here: he does not touch the foggy domain of metaphysics. He writes on books, on newspapers, and on men. And no man has ever written better on such subjects-clear, vigorous, philosophic, with a spirit thoroughly catholic, and a heart pulsating with sympathy for universal man. DISCUSSIONS ON THE GOSPELS. By Rev. ALEXAnder Roberts, M.A. London: James Nisbet, 21, Berners Street. This is another excellent volume, which should have been noticed long before. It is divided into two general parts. The first treats on the language employed by our Lord to His twelve Apostles; and the chief object of this part is to prove by the New Testament itself, that Greek was widely diffused and commonly taught in Palestine during the period spent on earth by our Lord and His Apostles. Here the author furnishes historical proofs, proofs from a general survey of the New Testament, special proofs from the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, and from the Epistle to the Hebrews. The second part treats of the original language of St. Matthew's Gospel, and the origin of the other Gospels. Our space will not allow us to go further into the volume, but we heartily recommend it to the study of every theological student. THE ENGLISHMAN. Edited by Dr. KENEALY, Q.C. J. Burns, 15, Southampton Row, London. Most of our readers know the interest that we feel in journalism, and the sacrifices that we have made in order to raise its tone. They will not be surprised therefore, that a weekly paper, the first number of which has just been sent to us, and which is not only written in the highest literary style, but breathes the purest morality, should arrest our attention. No man of thought, candour, and philosophic grasp could have read the speeches of Dr. Kenealy in the late trial in the Queen's Bench, without feeling that intellectually the greatest man on the bench seemed small before him, and that his superiority would, in all likelihood, rouse a jealousy that would ultimately seek his ruin. During the trial, numbers were afraid to express their sympathy, lest they should be committed for "contempt of court." Was the court contemptible? We do not say it was. But is not contempt for the contemptible natural? We believe the persecution of which he is at present the victim, will enrich his exchequer, and increase his moral influence a hundredfold. His name will ring in England when the names of the most eminent of his persecutors will be rotting in oblivion. We do trust that many of our readers will be induced to do what we shall do ourselves-adopt this journal for their weekly newspaper. [A large number of books are lying on our table which we have not space to notice here.] |