case with sermons is plentifully proved by the great French preachers. They satisfy the mind with the perfection of their workmanship, whilst they sway the heart with their fancy and eloquence. Mr. Liddon had scarcely gained his great reputation in my Oxford days, but his very excellence lies in this, that he follows French models instead of keeping to the clumsy fashion of the English pulpit.

However, these impressions have only come to me since I left the University. As an undergraduate I was much perplexed about this matter of preaching. The goal before most of us was the Christian ministry. Many were not likely to have any more direct training than that which Oxford afforded. How then, except

by miracle, could we suddenly become effective preachers? Without years of practice, of which practice our first congregations would be the victims, how could any, not born orators, hope to interest, much less instruct, an educated people? It was impossible to forget our difficulties, though we got little help towards removing them. The vast difficulties between the capabilities of the function of the preacher and its general effect in modern times were pressed upon one by daily thought and Sunday experience; and the same comparison was continually brought before one in the periodicals of the day. It may be a good thing for the clergy that everybody else takes leave to advise them on their own concerns;

but it is at least perplexing to find ourselves in the midst of so much good advice as is lavished upon us in the public press. Daily papers, weekly reviews, and monthly magazines, all consider themselves competent to instruct the instructors of the people. The Saturday, some time ago, had a sensible article on the impertinence of giving counsel indiscriminately. We were cautioned especially not to offer advice unless we were better informed on the matter in hand than the person advised. But, like the rest of mankind, Saturday Reviewers' find it more easy to lay down good rules than to follow them. So that, even

from this considerate quarter, the poor parson has his prescription sent gratis, with an ironical expression of regard, and a hope that his case is not quite past recovery. Far be it from us to claim exclusive interest in any religious questions. Law and physic may be safely left to doctors and lawyers, but every Christian must be in some measure a student of divinity. Still it is but fair to presume that those who have had the subject before them for years as their especial duty and difficulty, are better acquainted with it than reviewers, who, to judge from their tone, know very little indeed of either the purpose or the effect of sermons. I suppose that medical men were neither pleased nor edified when, some time in 1865, the Times made an attack on the profession for its ignorance of the nature of the cattle plague; and

VOL. II.

R

however willing we may be to be taught, we can gather nothing but vexation from articles which only deal in general complaints, which make no available suggestions, and show a lamentable ignorance of actual facts. We would listen with all meekness to the comments of our supposed audience, but their murmurs are so discordant, and their advice so various, that it is very difficult to find out what they want and what they expect. Fancy through what shallows and quicksands, what rocks and whirlpools, a man has to pick his way who turns to the periodical literature of the day, and asks for an opinion! Here he takes up a monthly magazine and glances at a notice of the 'Life of Irving,' and his soul is stirred with such words as these Until the servants of the living God do pass the limits of pulpit theologies and pulpit exhortations to take weapons in their hand gathered out of every region in which the life of man or his faculties are interested, they shall never have religion triumph and domineer in a country as beseemeth her high original, her native majesty, and her eternity of freely-bestowed well-being. To which the ministers of religion should bear their attention to be called, for until they thus acquire the pass-word which is to convey them into every man's encampment, they speak to that man from a distance and at a disadvantage. It is but a parley; it is no conference, or treaty, nor business-like communication. To this end they must discover new

vehicles for conveying the truth as it is in Jesus into
the minds of the people-poetical, historical, scientific,
political, and sentimental vehicles. For in each of
these regions some of the population dwell with all
their affections who are as dear in God's sight as are
others; and why they should not be come at-why
means should not be taken to come at them-can any
good reason be assigned? They prepare for teaching
gipsies, for teaching bargemen, for teaching miners, by
apprehending their ways of conceiving and estimating
truth; why not prepare for teaching imaginative men,
and political men, and legal men, and scientific men,
who bear the world in hand? and having got the key
to their several chambers of delusion and resistance,
why not enter in and debate the matter with their
souls, that they may be left without excuse? Mean-
while, I think we ministers are without excuse.' He
is no sooner filled with zeal and hope at such a picture,
than in the table of contents of another magazine his
restless eye catches An Essay on Sermons.' The
argument of the essay is shrewd and temperate, but it
soon brings him down from his soaring height. The
first preachers of Christianity were effective,' it says,
'because they brought men good tidings. They told
them of glorious hopes, and of possibilities that were
new and strange and fascinating. In such a case
their subject dressed itself in eloquence, however
plainly it might be proclaimed. But now, people

know the message.

Preachers have no news to tell.

They cannot interest the educated unless they are orators; and since orators are, and must be, scarce, the hold of preachers over town congregations is likely to be weakened. Worse still, there is little prospect of improvement, because for the last fifty years men have been trained rather to despise eloquence; and quiet common sense has been preferred to unction as a sign of superior education.' Such a conclusion about the use of his work might rather stagger a man were not relief close at hand. In a few days his spirits are revived by an article in a weekly Review. There he is assured he may be useful, though he fact, he and his brethren are

cannot be eloquent. In kindly exhorted to lay aside their poor attempts at pulpit orations, and to become sober expounders of considerable portions of Scripture. For people are

still willing enough to learn, if only you have anything All classes are more highly-educated

to teach them.

than formerly. You must adapt your teaching to this change. You must interest and satisfy the mind, or in these days you will never reach the heart and guide the life.' This seems good, sound advice, but it will not work. I know nothing of London churches, but certainly no man could keep a congregation together in the country if he only regaled them on Sunday with expository addresses. Old-fashioned folks don't consider such things sermons at all. In