closes the daily service." Vol. I. pp. 202-206. After such a noble epitome of our services, we are prepared for an important observation which occurs in the course of this admirable and splendid sermon. << It has been objected to the Liturgy, that it is too long. But when, with serious deliberation, we have considered the matter, we shall discover unexpect ed difficulty in selecting the parts with which we would most willingly dispense; and shall perceive, that no part can be removed from it, without impairing its strength, disturbing its proportious, and diminishing its fulness." Vol. I. p. 198. We dare not trust ourselves with any further wanderings in this garden of sweets, this mine of choice gold though we are sensible no single quotations can do justice to the beauty of the whole discourse. We must add, that here, as too frequently in other sermons, our fervent Bishop blemishes his finest statements with the intrusion of single unguarded expressions. Thus he somewhat rashly ventures the observation, that no sacrifice more perfect in holiness hath been prepared to be offered to God in this world, since the fall of man, except the sacrifice of his adorable Son." (p. 209.) What sacrifice can, in the proper sense of the expression, be compared, with any degree of propriety, to that one perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction which He made upon the cross for the sins of the whole world? Surely not the service of our Liturgy, however excellent. Two discourses close this first head; the first a very neat and well conceived one upon PSALMODY; the other upon PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. Of the latter, truly we must say, "though last not least." Both are set forth with the energy of a man speaking with the most cordial and entire devotion to his subject. The following important statement, on the ends of preaching, ought not to be passed over by us. "Preaching has a higher object than the gratification of your taste. There are assigned to it more glorious purposes than the mere entertainment of your minds. It is its office to proclaim to you the only living and true God, and to make you acquainted with his character and laws, that you may believe, duct as becometh the offspring of such and, believing, may govern your cona Being, the subjects of such a King. It is its office to raise before you the cross, to shew you the sacrifice upon it, 'which taketh away the sins of the world,' and to entreat you to take of its blood, and sprinkle it upon all your raiment, that, when the destroying anAlmighty upon a guilty world, it may gel shall execute the vengeance of the be to you the token of everlasting pre. servation. It is its office, to open for you the oracles of truth; and thence to bring to you the true knowledge of the foundation and excellency of every vir tue; the motive by which it should be consecrated, and the extent to which it should be carried; and thence, also, to bring the probe which shall convict your hearts of sin. It is its office, to go before you into the tomb, with the bright torch which it receives from revelation; to disperse the blackness of darkness which hangs over its entrance, to shew you the place where Jesus lay; to wipe away the tears which are falling upon the mouldering relics; and, when the blood throbs at the heart, amidst the horrors of the scene, to restore it to its sober, equal flow, by reminding you, that Jesus is risen, and that this awful dominion, with its awful king, thall be finally overturned. It is its office, to draw aside the veil which conceals from view the eternal world; to shew you hell, and all its torments, and beseech you to escape them; to shew you heaven, and all its glories, and entreat you to enter." Vol. I. pp. 226, 227. The Bishop applies his remarks on Psalmody; first, to those who are singers; next, to those who are not. He shews himself to be felicitously gifted with the pleasing and often important faculty of being able" nugis addere pondus." We earnestly long for some Episcopal Charge in our own country, of weight sufficient to soften or suppress the excessive dissonance of sackbut, horn, and serpent, which have sometimes crashed upon our ears, instead of the soft, " significant, and delightful sounds," which the Bishop mentions, as "beautifying the services of God's temple." To talk of such things to us in Eng land, at least in many parishes, is like talking of water to a parched traveller in an Arabian desert. We proceed to the Second Part, or Series of Sermons, commencing with the twentieth and twenty first, on Advent, and proceeding through the various sacred seasons of the church to the end of Ser mon LIV. After every abatement hitherto made on account of the unfinished state of these discourses, and the almost extemporaneous flow of thought and expression which they exhibit, and by consequence the frequent recurrence of a certain wildness and uncontrolledness of style which we have intimated not to be wholly abhorrent, in our uotion, from American genius in its best state; we must still say, we look on this series, as a whole, with very high sentiments of satisfaction, and even admiration. The great mysteries of the Gospel involved in the Advent, Nativity, Circumcision, and other events of our holy Redeemer's life and death are set forth in a manner calculated to exalt our thoughts upon these several subjects to no ordinary pitch. A strain of eloquence, a richness of imagery, a fulness, and we may say exuberance, of matter, in which rather the modus than the copia is wanting, clearly characterise the style of the preacher. Many discourses upon each several sacred occasion, seem rather to give fresh wings to his invention, than to weary and exhaust it. Sometimes longer on the wing, and sometimes for a shorter period, he seems neither cramped in his lesser flights, nor overlaboured in his larger; and though he has evidently thought much more intensely on some topics than upon others, he still seems to have carried to all the collected powers of a strong mind, and to have shewn an equal measure of ease in playing with his subject, and of force in grappling with it. We shall not be backward to offer any qualification we may deem expedient to these general and high commendations, as they may be called for by any particular extract; but we shall principally give such passages as we doubt not will rivet the attention of our readers by their force, win them by their beauties, and, we trust, warm and animate their piety by their fervour. The two sermons on ADVENT state the ends and the evidences of our Saviour's mission. The evidences mentioned, are,-first, the general expectation of such a person; secondly, Christ's correspondence to that expectation, in his answering the wants of the Gentile world— in his fulfilling the predictions of the Jews-in the positive testimony, particularly of miracles, which he brought with him, and to which he himself appealed. The most remarkable point touched upon in these sermons, is the case of the Jews; in expounding which, Bishop Dehon gives his most clear verdict in favour of the interpretations of prophecy strongly offered and acted upon by the many pious, able, and disinterested benefactors of that despised but sacred nation at the present day. The Bishop evidences that his eye was fixed upon passing events, which, he says, shew us "the extension of Christ's kingdom, and the gathering to him of the people. To the occurrences in the East, one cau hardly refrain from applying the prophetic words, I am sought of them that asked not after me; I am found of them that sought me not." Vol. I. p. 237. And he adds, "But though the wall of partition is broken down, God hath not cast away his people. The inscription on the cross, though Pilate meant not so, shall yet be fulfilled: 'This IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.' 'He came first light glimmered in the sky, which to his own, and his own received him gradually decayed, and became not, and therefore are scattered a- almost insensible, but began to mong all the nations of the earth. Yet brighten again during the captivity they shall return, and look on him whom they pierced' and every tongue of the Jews by the Babylonian shall confess that he is Lord, to the monarchs; and, from that period, glory of God the Father.'" Vol. I. p. continued to gather strength, till, at length, the morning star took its station over the stable at Bethlehem. The Sun of Righteousness arose to set no more; and the light again was clear and universal." 238. We regret not presenting a much longer passage on this latter subject; but we shall, perhaps, gratify curiosity by giving a different kind of quotation, for the purpose of comparing it with one which occurs to us from the writings of Bishop Horsley, as an illustration of the difference we have hinted at between the somewhat dishevelled genius of our American divine, and the finished style of a genuine English theologian. "Thus, then, we arrange our ideas apon this point. The gracious promise to the first human pair, that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head,' was never wholly lost. In the heathen world, like the original sentiment of a God, it became faint, and was corrupted. But still a glimpse of it sometimes appeared, especially in the mind of the studious and virtuous sage. In the family of Abraham, it was kept alive. At intervals it was renewed and unfolded. When the Jews were separated from all other people, and formed into a nation under a Theocracy, the prophets of the Almighty repeated the promise, more and more explicitly ; till, like the dawn, obscure at first, and opening gradually, it expanded into full light; and all observers saw, that in the east the sun should presently appear. There was a full expectation of a Personage great, and greatly to be honoured, when Christ was born; and John sent no unmeaning nor untimely question to him in the text, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?" Vol. I. pp. 245, 246. ، The passage from Bishop Horsley occurs in his Dissertation on the Prophecies of the Messiah dispersed among the heathen :-" In this Balaam set the sun of prophecy in the horizon of the Gentile world; and yet a total night came not. For some ages a twi We should regret to quit such pleasing ground, but for what ensues in the three next sermons to the twenty-fifth, on Christmas-day. Here we find the blesings of our Divine Redeemer's mission more fully developed; first, from John iii. 16; next, from Nehem. viii. 10; lastly, from Isa. xliv. 23. These discourses are of the most joyous and brilliant complexion. We might safely select, at a venture, any pasnature, and use it as illustrating the sage from them of a descriptive exuberant powers of a fervid imagination, conversant with scriptural language, and pursuing scriptural views of the stupendous nature, divine attributes, and boundless and unsearchable mercies of the Son of God. On the great points of the entire fall of man, and the total absence of all claim or mendation to the favour of God, Bishop Dehon is particularly striking; as the following passage, amongst many others, will testify. It occurs in the first sermon in proof" how God loved the world." recom "You will observe, that the Son is said to be given unto us; which plainly indicates, that there was no claim in the receivers, neither obligation upon the giver. It is entirely to the free and disinterested compassion and goodness of God, that we are indebted for this great salvation. For, on the part of man, where was the least shadow of claim to this wonderful mercy? He had rebelled against his Creator. Under an his life. And who can limit the degree easy and equitable law, he had forfeited of sinfulness to which his depravity tends? Alas! it has been found sufficient to despise the humilation, to which his Saviour condescended for his ransom; to dash back the cup of mercy npon his Maker, and prefer the servitude of iniquity. Had the Most High, then, left him to the fruit of his own devices; nay, had he erased him utterly from among his works, who could have laid any charge against the righteousness of God? And, on the part of the Deity, what constraint of wisdom or interest could have caused our preservation? All angels that fill heaven are his; and so, for aught we know, are the iuhabitants of a thousand worlds. What are we, and what is our origin, that we should, by our being, add any thing to his glory; or by our service, to his happiness! He speaks, and it is done;' and were we removed for ever from the creation we have blemished, in the place we occupy, beings of surpassing innocence would, at his fiat, appear. Nay, from everlasting to everlasting, without aid or benefit from any of his creatures, he hath, in himself, the utmost plenitude of glory and bliss. Nothing, there fore, but that benevolence which induced him, for the communication of happiness, to give existence to the crea tures; nothing but that ineffable love, which makes him the fit object of the entire affection of every intelligent being, could have actuated him to resign the beloved Son of his bosom, for the recovery of our ruined race! He saw the unhappy condition into which his erring children had brought themselves by transgression; he saw and pitied them. He desired to rescue them from impending destruction. His own Son he would give to make atone. ment for their guilt, by the sacrifice of himself; his own Spirit he would give, to renew them in righteousness; his own nature he would permit to be united with theirs, that the dignity they had lost might be restored, and man be begotten again to the love of his Maker! In this way, he would commend both his justice and his mercy, to all the subjects of his government; and a beloved part of his family be brought back from the paths of perdition, to the enjoyment of that happiness for which he created them. In the moment, there. fore, in which he passed upon man the doom, which immutable truth required, he consoled the hopeless offenders with the promise of a deliverer. And when the fullness of time was come, the period which his wisdom had chosen, he sent forth his Son to appear in the flesh, and fulfil his gracious pleasure. It is difficult to conceive in what way God's love to the world could have been so strong. ly manifested. What could he have given us that was dearer to himself; what could he have given us of which we were more unworthy; what could he have given us that would be to us a source of such felicity? Made of God unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption; he is both the pledge and security to us, sinful beings, of the remission of sins and eternal life. But we strive in vain to rise to a full apprehension of the great. ness of this mercy. We may perceive the benefit; we may rejoice in the bliss; but we must say, with the great Apostle of the Gentiles, that the love which pro duced it 'passeth knowledge."" Vol. I. pp. 262-264. Amongst the causes of joy intimated under the sacred text, in which we are enjoined "not to be sorry, for the joy of the Lord is our strength," we find the following characteristic effort of our preacher's pathetic, as well as ardent, imagination. "By the coming of the Redeemer, that dominion of death is destroyed, which kept the living in terror, and seemed to threaten to hold the dead in eternal bondage. Anxiously had nature looked into the tomb. With a heart overcharged with emotions, she endeavoured to look beyond it. But all she could with certainty discover was mouldering relics of what man had been. Amidst these she stood, listen. ing in anxious awe, if from unseen forms any sound might be heard of departed beings, still in existence. But there seemed none to answer, neither any that regarded. Hope whispered to her, Listen more intensely, for that the spirits which had animated these relics yet did live. Again she paused; again she called; again she hearkened; but all was solemn stillness. She turned from the tomb, clinging to the consideration, that no voice had been heard unfa., vourable to her wishes. She looked back upon it, yet longing after im mortality; but it was a land of darkness as darkness itself; and where the light was as darkness.' But before the power of Immanuel this kingdom fell. He overcame the sharpness of death, and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.' Through his most blessed Gospel, we have the comfortable assurance from him who holds the keys of life and death, that when the waves of this troublesome world have subsided, we shall find a haven where there shall be no more storms, nor fears, nor death, and the tears shall be wiped from all faces. Forasmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their life-time subject to bondage." Vol. I. pp. 270, 271. In the former page we had been reminded by the Bishop, that through Christ, "We are assured of a righteousness, which shall supply our deficiencies, through which our sincerity shall be accepted instead of that innocence we have lost; and our imperfect obedience, for that perfection to which we are unable to attain. We no longer are left to err in vision, and to stumble in judgment." On this statement we submit how far our excellent bishop may not in some measure himself have "stumbled in judgment," when he makes our Saviour's righteousness a mere supply for deficiencies to those whom he so repeatedly shews to have no claim whatever on the favour of God, but that righteousness. We also entirely question the acceptance of sincerily instead of innocence; believing assuredly, that, in the place of our obe own innocence, no worthy substitute can be found but the perfect innocence of the all-spotless Lamb of God; and, for the perfection to which we are unable to attain, no obedience, we believe, will ever suffice, but the dience, ever perfect, of Him who, "being made perfect, became the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him." In short, these expressions, considered by themselves, we should regard as fundamentally unsound; though, we question not, used often, as now, with a very sincere and inno CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 246. cent intention*. They have two of the very worst effects when made, as they are, the system of some theologians. They insinuate some claim of our own on the favour of God, in conjunction with that exclusive claim to be urged through the righteousness of Jesus Christ; and they woefully mislead the practical Christian into a tendency, ever too easy, not to aim at the original and proper purity and perfection of his nature; contrary to the declaration of our good bishop, in the very sentence preceding the above quotation, where he appeals to "the help of God's Spirit, for assisting the feebleness of nature, in recovering its pristine excellence and beauty." We make these observations, not for the purpose of lowering the credit of our departed and truly pious instructor in the faith of Christ, from whom we should have expected the fullest acquiescence in our stricture, but for the benefit of the living, and to make our views stand perfectly clear in our attempt to do full justice to the work before us. It is not easy to stop to weigh the propriety of a passing expression when we are summoned to far other raptures than those of chilling eriticism; when the angels are described ushering in the day of the nativity, and their songs are We perceive that the epithet" imperfect," in the last extract, is of British manufacture, not being to be found in the American edition. Not having remarked the interpolation till this sheet was passing through the press, we have not time to compare the two editions, in order to discover what other alterations the English editor may have introduced into Bishop Dehon's text; but we are always very jealous of such unacknowledged alterations, and particularly after some well remembered specimens in the publications of the venerable Society of which Dr. Gask in is the Secretary. In the instance before us, the the inaccuracy which we have ourselves alteration proves that Dr. Gaskin felt adverted to; but we do not think that even his qualifying epithet obviates it, 3 C |