_Return—Conclusion._
It was four months later than the incidents of my last chapter, when
after a tour on the Continent, I found myself safely landed at Dover, in
the gray dawn of a winter’s morning. I had left Paris, in all the
frightful confusion consequent upon the _coup d’état_ of Louis Napoleon.
In touching, once more, the free and happy soil of England, if I could
not say—“This is my own, my native land,” I could yet feel that it was
the sacred land of my religion, of my parentage, and of my mother
tongue. I was, once more, at home, and ceased to feel myself a
foreigner, as I had done in France and Italy. How good and honest,
sounded again in my ears, the language of Englishmen! As “bearer of
despatches” from Paris, to our ambassador at London, I was landed with
the advantage of precedence, and very rapidly passed through the
custom-house. The state of things in France, and the feverish anxiety,
in England, to learn the changes of every hour, invested my trifling
diplomatic dignity with a momentary importance, strikingly diverse from
its insignificance at other times: and I was amused to see how much
curiosity was felt by the officials as to the mighty communications
which might be going up to London in my portmanteau. Even an old salt,
as I stepped ashore, could not forbear accosting me with—“Any news this
morning, yer honour?” ‘Bad news,’ said I, ‘the Frenchmen are going to
have a bloody day of it; be thankful you are an Englishman.’ “So I am,
your honour,” was his hearty, and most honest reply.
I had been travelling in Southern Europe, where, to borrow a thought of
Dr. Arnold’s, no one can be sure that anything is real, which he seems
to see: where _Savans_ are not scholars—where captains are not
soldiers—nor judges lawyers—where noblemen are not men of
honour—where priests are not pure—nor wives and matrons chaste. I was,
again, in the land of facts, a land deeply involved, indeed, in the sins
and miseries of a fallen world; but still a land, where, for centuries,
everything has been steadily advancing towards a high realization of
human capabilities, alike in the physical, and mental, and moral of
man’s nature. I was once more in a land where it is base to lie; where
domestic purity and piety find their noblest illustrations, whether in
palaces or cottages; and where not even luxury and pride have been able
to vitiate the general conviction of all classes, that righteousness
alone exalteth a nation, and that sin is a reproach to any people.
On arriving in London, my very first employment was to visit the tomb of
the holy Bishop Andrewes, at St. Mary’s, Southwark. The prelate is
represented, at full length, stretched upon his sepulchre, and right
dear it was, after long tarrying amid the monuments of popes and
cardinals, to behold, once more, that of an honest and true man, and a
saint of God, who, in his day and generation, was “a burning and a
shining light.” The tomb of the exemplary and amiable poet Gower, is
also in this Church, and has often been described.
Attending Evening Service at Westminster Abbey, on the following Sunday,
I was so much struck with the effect produced by the light of candles,
in the choir, that it seemed to me, I had never before fully felt the
wonderful impressiveness of that Church, nor even of the church service.
The surpliced singers, ranged in their stalls—the many faces of the
worshippers—and the lofty arches of the sombre architecture received a
new aspect, from the mingled light and shade, and the tones of worship
were imbued, by association, with something strange and solemn. Deep
under the vaultings lay the shadows, and here and there shone out a
marble figure, or glimmered a clustered column. When the organ sent its
tremulous tide far down the nave, it seemed to come back in echoes, like
the waves of the sea—the more effective, because of the distance
through which it had stretched and rolled the surge of sound; and when
the responsive _Amens_ rose, one after the other, from the voices of the
singers, plaintively interrupting the petitions, and marking the
impressive stillness of the intervals between, which were filled only
with the low monotone of prayer, then I felt how amiable are the temples
of the Lord of Hosts, and how fair a resemblance of that temple not made
with hands, where they rest not, day nor night, from their hymns, and
responsive praises. By the sides of the altar fared two immense wax
lights, giving a fine effect to the sanctuary. After the Second Lesson,
the preacher, Canon C——, ascended the pulpit, in his surplice, and
preached the sermon; after which, the Evening Prayer continued, as after
a baptism, the choir taking up the _Nunc dimittis_, followed by the
creed, the collects, the anthem, and the prayers, while the organ
thundered through the lengths and heights of the abbey. I joined the
throng which passed down the nave, and looking back again and again, I
received such powerful impressions of the sublimity of the place, as had
been wholly wanting to the effect by daylight, as experienced on former
occasions. One parting look through the western door, through the dimly
illuminated perspective, and then I turned slowly and thoughtfully away.
On the preceding Sunday, I had left the cathedral service, at Rouen, in
circumstances precisely similar, and my mind naturally fell into a
comparative train of thought. There was a great similarity in the
effects produced on the senses by the two services. A stranger to the
Latin and English languages, would have failed to note any marked
difference between them. He would have recognized the Catholic unities
of the two rites, and would have failed to observe their diversities,
papal and reformed. The French sermon had been vastly better than the
English one: the former was preached by an orator, the latter by a
spiritless and formal favourite of Lord John Russell. Yet, between the
two solemnities, in their entire effect, the disparity was greatly in
favour of the English service, which was audibly and reverently
performed, while the other was mumbled, and not understood by the
congregation. I felt that the Church of England was strong, if compared
with that of France, in her heritage of Catholic and Apostolic truth, as
distinguished from the systematic falsehoods, which have made the
religion of the other, a mere fable, in the general estimation of the
French people.
At a later hour, the same evening, it was my lot to preach in St.
Bartholomew’s, Moor-lane, in the pulpit once filled by the worthy
Archbishop Sharpe. The incumbent of this Church had lately discovered at
Sion College a collection of papers and books once belonging to the
saintly Bishop Wilson; and he placed in my hands, for that evening, the
original _Sacra Privata_ of that holy and venerable prelate. I could not
but think how much we may owe it to his prayers, that the Church of
England is now what she is, as compared with what she was in his day;
and, in preaching, I took great delight in paying a parting tribute to
that Church, as compared with the churches of the continent.
I am convinced that the debt which England and the world owe to the
Anglican Reformers of the sixteenth century, has never been properly
appreciated. Like the air which we breathe, but do not perceive, the
spirit with which they have invested the religion of England, is that of
life and health. They banished nothing but the fogs and noxious
exhalations of the middle ages; and, as the result, we find England hale
and hearty, and bearing more fruit in her age, while the churches which
allowed the Tridentine vapours to become their atmosphere, are perishing
in the agues and fevers of a long and ghastly decline. Look at Spain and
Italy!
And I cannot forbear, in conclusion, to remark, that when American
travellers go to England, and copy the false statistics of some infidel
almanac, to justify their railings against the National Church, they are
about as wise as John Bull is, when he takes the statistics of our
(immigrant) pauperism and crime, as a test of the true state of American
society. It is true that there are great abuses connected with the
establishment; and it is also true that they are deplored by no class of
Englishmen, half so much as they are by the true churchman. If the
Church could be left to herself, they would be immediately reformed; but
the very creatures who rail at her, because of them, are they who refuse
to give her the freedom which she claims, and who do the most to enslave
her to the State power. I am no friend to that power in the Church of
God; but they who prate against the church, because of her misfortunes,
deserve the rebuke of all thinking men, whose knowledge of history, and
of the existing state of the world, enables them to compare what has
been done for England, by that church, even in her fetters, with what
all other religions put together have done for the residue of the world.
When we reflect upon the three great achievements of that Church for
English liberty—the Reformation, the Restoration of the Constitution
and Monarchy, and the repudiation of the Popish Stuarts, we may well
afford to laugh at such sneers as a Macaulay endeavours to raise against
her, on the ground of blemishes with which his own reckless and
treacherous political allies have deformed and afflicted her. And when
we attempt to estimate the blessings she has diffused through the whole
Anglo-Saxon people, and by them through the world, who can refrain from
blessing the dear Church which has placed the English Bible in every
cottage, and which, for three centuries, has read the _Ten
Commandments_, every Lord’s day, in the ears of millions of the people?
It is only when we think of what that Church has done, in spite of the
golden chains which fetter her, and in spite of the political miscreants
who have always hung like hounds upon her heels and hands, that we can
rightly estimate her strong vitality, and her vast beneficence.
And let it be remembered, too, that all that is good among English
dissenters, is sucked from the Church, as the parasite derives its
nourishment from the oak. The dissenters are mainly the small-tradesmen
of England, a people intelligent enough to perceive the faults of their
hereditary religion, but not generally enlightened enough to know its
value and its services to themselves. They are like the Dutch boors, who
thought the sun did no good among the Flemings, because they saw it so
seldom, and who concluded that daylight came from the clouds, which were
always visible. Whoever will take the pains to contrast the dissenters
of England with those of Germany, will learn how much even they derive
from the Church, against which they so ignorantly rail.
I desire to speak with great respect of many of the dissenters of
England, who, like their estimable Doddridge, are such by the force of
circumstances only, while they love and revere the Church of the nation;
but I have known even American Presbyterians to experience the greatest
revulsion of feeling against the mass of English dissenters, after
actual contact with their coarse and semi-political religionism. I was
not less surprised than gratified, moreover, to observe very lately, in
a widely circulated American newspaper, edited by eminent Presbyterians,
a full vindication of the Church of England from the odious and false
views current among us in America, with respect to the system of tithes.
The writer was himself an English or Irish dissenter, and he frankly
asserted the fact, that in paying his tithes, he suffered no wrong, and
contributed nothing to the establishment, which did not belong to her.
“In short,” said he, “the Church owns one-tenth of my rent, and I am
quite as willing to pay it to her, as to pay the nine-tenths to my other
landlord.” The nine-tenths might go to a popish priest; but does he who
pays it contribute to uphold Popery? No more than one who hires his
house of a play-actor, supports the stage.
But although the decline of dissent, in England, is universally
admitted, it is generally imagined that Popery is growing. So it is if
the immigration from Ireland, of thousands of _navvies_, who have built
Romish chapels and convents, out of their earnings on the railways, be
the basis of the remark. But nothing was ever more over-rated than the
late Apostacy, which is the fruit of a mere personal influence, over a
few young men at Oxford, gained by one brilliant sophist, and
perniciously directed by him towards ultramontane Romanism. It has spent
itself already in a spasmodic revolt against common sense, which is
breeding a reaction towards rationalism: but the Church of England is as
much in danger from Irvingism as from Newmanism; and Wesleyanism was
vastly more energetic against her than either. The chagrin and
disappointment of Mr. Newman himself is most apparent. After numbering
the “educated men” whom he had involved in his own downfall as _a
hundred_, he confesses that their defection from the Church has scarcely
been felt by her. “The huge creature from which they went forth,” he
says, “showed no consciousness of its loss, but _shook itself, and went
about its work as of old time_.” Yes, but with a newer and mightier
energy than ever before, and that in both hemispheres. The unhappy man
seems to have imagined that by getting into a balloon, he could kick the
earth from its orbit: but the planet still revolves around the sun,
while he dangles in the air, lost in the brilliant clouds of his own
imaginations, and fancying his petty elevation as sublime as her pathway
through the skies.
In the same manner, the Dublin reviewers are continually deploring their
powerless expenditure of vast resources against the religion of England,
which stands in its fortress of Scriptural truth, more impregnable than
Gibraltar. Let the reader reflect, for a minute, on the essential
characteristic of the Anglican Reformation, as it began under Wycliff,
in a _translation of the Scriptures_, and then weigh the importance of
the following citation from a Romish periodical.
“Who will not say,” says the _Dublin Review_, “that the uncommon beauty
and marvellous English of the Bible is not one of the great strongholds
of heresy in this country. It lives on the ear like a music that can
never be forgotten, like the sound of the church-bell, _which the
convert hardly knows how he can forego_. Its felicities often seem to be
almost things rather than mere words. It is part of the national mind,
and the anchor of national seriousness. The memory of the dead passes
into it. The potent traditions of childhood are stereotyped in its
verses. The power of all the gifts and trials of a man is hidden beneath
its words. It is the representative of his best moments, and all that
there has been about him of soft, and gentle, and pure, and penitent,
and good, speaks to him forever out of the English Bible. It is his
sacred thing, which doubt has never dimmed, and controversy never
soiled. In the length and breadth of the land, there is not a Protestant
with one spark of righteousness about him, whose spiritual biography is
not in his Saxon Bible.”
Action and reaction are always equal; and it is my own opinion that the
hand of God is visible in the permission of the late scandals, and their
sequel will demonstrate that He has been infusing into modern Romanism a
spirit which will blow it to atoms. Among the beardless boys, who have
swelled the numerical strength of the apostacy, there are some prodigals
who will yet come to themselves, and remember their father’s house with
penitent tears: and as to their leaders, the ex-Jesuit Steinmetz in his
narrative of a residence at Stoneyhurst, introduces the following
striking view of the case, which sustains my own impressions. “Though
the men of Rome,” he says, “exult in this reaction (as they call it)
which is making Oscott a _refugium peccatorum_, perhaps from among the
very men whose captive chains clank in their triumphal thanksgiving,
there will be shot the _lethalis arundo_, the deadly arrow that will
pierce and cling to the side of their mother church in the appointed
time. It is not children that they are receiving; but full-grown men,
accustomed most pertinaciously to think for themselves. They began with
being reformers, and it must be confessed with some of the boldness of
reformers. Will they be content to change their skins? To become sheep,
from having been, as it were, wolves? To smother the cunning and the
clever thought, which seems so flattering to one’s own vanity, in the
cold, dead ashes of papal infallibility? _We shall see._” This is
reasonable, and consoling. We may not live to see it; but a rebellion
against Truth must have its rebound, and Church and State will be
stronger for such rebellions in the end.
If then, the decline of English arts and arms be near, of which I am by
no means as confident as some, it will be a very slow decline, and
coincident with a new glory, and a brighter one, than England yet has
known. Instead of armies, she is now sending forth soldiers of the
Prince of Peace. She has discovered that it is cheaper and wiser to
sustain missionaries than bayonets. The era of her greatest work is
before her. She is to become the nursing mother of nations, and in her
language, the sound of the Gospel is to go forth into all lands, and
unto the end of the world. Hers is the deposit of the faith once
delivered to the saints. The Roman Churches have divorced themselves
from the promises, and in the Catholicity of England chiefly is
fulfilled the promise of Christ, to be always with His own Apostolic
commission, even to the end of the world. At the same time, there is a
moral life in English society, which must long salt the State, and
preserve it from decay. I appeal to the common sense of Christian men,
and I ask, in what other country under heaven is there such a mass of
domestic and social purity? Where else is there so large a benevolence,
so masculine a religion, so enlightened a conscience, among any people?
England has her shame as well as her glory; she is part and parcel of a
sinful world; but her light is not hid under a bushel: and if the hope
of the world be not in her candle, I am at a loss to know where to find
encouragement as a Christian, that the Gospel is to become universal. I
believe, indeed, that my own country is to share, with her, this
magnificent career of peaceful conquest. We are bone of her bone, and
flesh of her flesh: but I believe, also, that before we can heal the
nations, we must first heal ourselves of the wretched religious anarchy
which is the bane of our education, our society, and our National
character.
After lingering for a few days in the society of my friends, in London
and Oxford, I was, once more, for a short time, the guest of the friend
to whom this memorial is inscribed, and met at his table, again, the
venerable Vicar, who was one of the first to welcome me to England. To
part with such friends, and their families, perhaps forever, was only to
become aware how deeply I had entwined with theirs, my brotherly
feelings and Christian regards. But I had been long enough enjoying
myself amid the scenes and friendships which even our holy religion,
while it alone can produce them, forbids to our self-indulgence, in a
world where every Christian is called to the work of a missionary. Much
as I longed to mingle in the delights of an English Christmas, I felt
the call of duty, and the blessedness of giving as greater than that of
receiving. My own parishioners expected to see me at the altar, on the
approaching feast, and my heart warmed towards them, as deserving my
best endeavours to gratify their reasonable wishes. Thanks, under God,
to the good steamer Baltic, and its skillful commander, I escaped the
perils of a wintry sea, and on Christmas-eve, was restored to my flock,
and family, in Hartford. On the following day, as I celebrated the Holy
Eucharist, I trust it was not without befitting gratitude to God, nor
without a new and profound sense of the blessings we owe to him, whose
Gospel is the spirit of “peace on earth, and of good-will to men.”
* * * * *
DANA AND COMPANY,
No. 381 BROADWAY, NEW YORK,
(_Sign of the Imperial Folio Bible_),
HAVE FOR SALE—
The Holy Bible,
_Oxford University Editions_.
They have just published:—
_Two Superior Editions of_
The Book of Common Prayer,
16mo. and 24mo.
Styles and Prices as follows:—
16mo.
(1) Turkey Morocco, super extra, gilt edges $ 2.50
antique or flexible,
(2) The same with clasp 3.00
(3) Turkey Morocco, (Second Style) gilt edges 1.75
(4) The same with clasp 2.25
(5) French Morocco gilt edges 1.25
(6) Roan gilt edges 1.12
(7) Roan red edges 1.00
(8) Roan marble edges 88
24mo.
(1) Turkey Morocco, super extra, gilt edges $ 2.00
antique or flexible,
(2) The same with clasp 2.50
(3) Turkey Morocco, (Second Style) gilt edges 1.25
(4) The same with clasp 1.75
(5) French Morocco gilt edges 1.00
(6) Roan gilt edges 80
(7) Roan red edges 75
(8) Roan marble edges 63
These Editions are printed in a superior manner, and excel other
editions, of same general style, in the size of type of the Psalms and
Hymns.
* * * * *
UNISON OF THE LITURGY. _From Advent to Ash-Wednesday._ By Archer
Gifford, A. M. _12mo. 328 pages._
_Price_, $1.00.
It is pleasing to see a mind which has been long given to the
duties of a severe profession, turning thus for relief and
diversion into the brighter field of theological literature. Mr.
Gifford has already gained a distinction in New Jersey by
several legal works, which have had the patronage of our
Legislature, and now we have another volume from his pen,
intended, as it were, for a dutiful offering to his Church.
The design of the work is to unfold and illustrate the more
profound and unapparent excellencies of that most elaborate of
all productions, the Episcopal Liturgy. Although there may be a
difference of opinion as to the utility of this manual of
devotional formularies, yet no one can fail to admire it as an
æsthetical composition. The manner in which it has been arranged
and ordered is most strikingly beautiful. It is a frame filled
with moveable pieces. On no two occasions of its use does it
appear exactly alike, but constantly assumes new combinations
with the progressive sentiment of the ecclesiastical year. These
ever changing portions within this unalterable framework are
wholly of a Scriptural character. For every Sunday, two chapters
are selected from the Old Testament, and two from the New,
called the “Lessons;” and two brief passages, chosen for their
weighty and emphatic import, called the “Epistle” and the
“Gospel,” are appropriately prefixed by a comprehensive and
leading prayer, whose substance has been gathered out of them,
called the “Collect.” But this is not merely a superficial
arrangement: an aim and a principle underlies it all. Every
Sunday and Holy-day has an especial subject assigned to it,
either doctrinal or preceptive, which runs through and dictates
all these variations of the Service. Thus in every week the
Scriptures are made, by these manifold citations from them, to
cluster around some central thought and flash their light upon
it.
It is this which has furnished the design of Mr. Gifford’s book.
The Prayer-Book has had many commentators, all of whom have
alluded to the nearly-inspired wisdom of those who put it
together. The further they penetrate it the more they seem to
discover the long-forgotten ideal and matured plan out of which
it grew. The remarkable fact of an intentional unison of its
apparently diverse parts, has only been partially observed, and
it has been left to Mr. Gifford to discover and prove in every
case the beautiful appositeness of all to one nucleus idea.
This, under the heading of each Sunday, he distinctly sets
forth, and then traces its radiations first through the Collect,
then through the Epistle, then through the Gospel, then through
all the Lessons, to its remoter scintillations in the Catechism
and the Articles of Religion.
Such is the fine conception around which the above work has
grown. The service of each Sunday is analyzed and outlined—all
the information that could be compressed into a small space is
given, and a rich variety of association instantly suggested to
the devout worshipper. Probably no one could have been found
better fitted for such a task than Mr. Gifford, and his
cultivated taste and wide range of study have been now so
successfully called into requisition that we find here the
thoughts and beauties of many different writers blended about
his own design in a many-hued mosaic.
It is at once a noble eulogy upon the Liturgy, and a practical
standard guide to its use. In this latter, its real purpose, it
most admirably succeeds. The moral or spirit of each day being
fully set forth, the attention is sustained and devotion
quickened by the new colors and the defined interest thus thrown
over the Service as it proceeds. A Liturgy is liable to abuse if
people may go blindly and desultorily through it, but here the
clue of every recurring service is seized and industriously
pursued for them. One prominent topic is seen to draw its line
of light round all its parts, and bind them together as with a
girdle of gold.
We have been glad to devote more than usual space to the notice
of this work, because it is the production of one of our
townsmen. A few specimen pages appeared about a year ago, which
received the approbation of many of the most distinguished men
in the Episcopal Church, and the author, thus encouraged, has
put forth the present handsome volume, designing to follow it by
another, thus completing the circle of the year.
_Newark Daily Advertiser_
The work will do good in two ways: first, by furnishing valuable
practical matter for private reading and instruction; and
secondly, by dissipating the mist which some writers have
conjured up, in their efforts to show that the Prayer Book was a
piece of patch-work, with an Arminian or a Popish Liturgy, and
Calvinistic Articles; than which, no fancy could be more foolish
or futile.
_Calendar_
* * * * *
SERMONS FOR THE TIMES. By the Rev. Charles Kingsley, Author of “_Village
Sermons_,” “_Alton Locke_,” _etc._ _12mo., 360 pages._
_Price, 75 cents._
These Sermons are Kingsley all over; deep, daring, dashing
penetrating; vigorous. * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * It strikes us as being a kind of preaching
that we want just now—that it is indeed preaching “for the
times;” in character with the times, and, therefore, adapted for
the times: yet, not in any spirit of compromise with the world
therein, but rather combating the spirit of the world with the
Spirit of Christ, in a matter-of-fact way. We think, therefore,
that the Clergy may find some useful hints in the pages of this
volume, while the Laity may peruse them with practical
advantage.
_Churchman._
These are remarkable Sermons, as were those of his former
volume. They are models of a plain and direct style; sparkling
with forcible allusions and applications. They illustrate the
teaching of our Catechism to a considerable extent, and often in
the happiest manner, regarding it as a symbol of Catholic truth.
They are worth reading for their power and demonstrations of
most important doctrines, little heeded in these times, when the
Puritan and Sectarian spirit seeks to prevail.
_Banner of the Cross._
This is a reprint of one of the most characteristic, if not one
of the most extraordinary volumes of the day, which no one can
read without interest, and few without profit. There is
something striking, not to say startling, about everything the
author says; and yet the language is so simple and appropriate,
as to be perfectly intelligible to every one.
_Calendar._
A capital volume it is—his style seems to gain in directness,
crispness, vigor, and momentum, as he grows older. It is as
clear as English can be made. A healthy common sense rules
throughout * * * * * * In our day when muddy heads do so greatly
abound, a volume of such sturdy, pungent, powerful and
illuminating Saxon, is of the highest worth.
_Church Journal._
They are incomparable Sermons for _Lay_-reading.
* * * * *
SERMONS FOR THE TIMES. By the Rev. Charles Kingsley, _Author of_
“_Village Sermons_,” “_Alton Locke_,” _etc._ _12mo., 360 pages._
_Price, 75 cents._
These sermons abound in striking thoughts, presented with
remarkable clearness and simplicity.
_Christian Witness._
* * * * With all the faults of these sermons, we should like to
see them in the hands of our evangelical clergy. * * *
_Southern Churchman._
These sermons were written by the same pen that wrote “Alton
Locke,” and “Yeast.” It has been said that the author is only a
baptised infidel, and that he desecrates his pulpit and his
clerical character to the unhallowed purpose of promulgating a
skepticism, whose only redeeming feature is that it is
ill-concealed. These “Sermons for the Times” make an entirely
different impression on us. They seem to us to be the heart
utterances of one whose views are on some points, indeed, a
little peculiar, but who holds, with a clear intelligence and
lively faith, the great truths of the Gospel of Christ. If
Infidelity can sincerely preach and practice the doctrines with
which this volume is rife, we think it will be doing as much to
convert the world to true religion as some religionists we wot
of, whose strength is so exhausted in proving other folks
heretics, that they have little left to make themselves or the
world the servants of God. To such, and to all, we commend the
“Sermons for the Times.” They will do all good.
_Ohio Farmer._
This second volume of sermons by Mr. Kingsley contains the
earnest words of an English clergyman upon the evils of the
times. They are addressed to the hearers of a country parish
church, in plain, honest Saxon, enforcing the Church Catechism
and rebuking the selfishness, dishonesty, irreverence,
profligacy and godlessness of the day. In quaint,
straightforward simplicity, they remind us of the services of
the good Hugh Latimer, of blessed memory.
_Rome Daily Sentinel._
The discourses are remarkable for their simplicity, yet they
evince rare intellectual power, and each page gives evidence of
the genius of the author.
_Boston Evening Transcript._
They are so practical and sensible that they will be read with
profit and pleasure by all persons who are seekers after truth.
_Boston Daily Advertiser._
* * * * *
OUR CHURCH MUSIC.—_A Book for Pastors and People._ By Richard Storrs
Willis. _12mo., 138 pages._
_Price, 50 cents._
The Church has a good right to look to Mr. Richard S. Willis, as
being, perhaps, of all our youthful native musicians, the one of
whom she may expect the most true hearted and efficient service.
His training, however scientific, has not been that which would
qualify him the most readily for usefulness in this field: but
there is an earnest devotion of spirit, a reaching forth after
the deep and the true, a growing strength and manliness,
exercised and made firm by a steady industry, which promise the
best results. He has just issued a neat little volume on _Our
Church Music, a Book for Pastors and People_, which is the best
and most thoughtful practical essay that has for a long time
appeared among us.
_Church Journal._
Were it not for the copyright on this admirable book, we should
be compelled to transfer large portions of it to our pages. As
it is, we hope to give, hereafter, some specimens of it, and in
the mean time, cordially recommend it for its interest and the
usefulness of its suggestions.
_Episcopal Recorder._
Many of the articles collected in this pleasant and thoughtful
volume have been already published in our columns; and we are
glad to know that they have attracted that attention among our
readers which they deserve. The series is now completed, by the
addition of others, not so well adapted to a journal like this,
because requiring diagrams, etc., to illustrate them, but
harmonious with those in tone and teaching, and equally rich in
useful suggestions. Mr. Willis has brought the finest musical
cultivation of Europe to assist him in his task, but has never
allowed his artistic taste and knowledge to overlay and smother
his native good sense, or his instinctive perception of what is
demanded in true church music. We have found his writings on
this subject instructive and quickening; the more so, perhaps,
because our own half-formed thoughts have often been brought
back to us by him, more fully and clearly expressed than they
had been to ourselves, and clothed with the authority that
belongs to one who is so rapidly becoming a recognised Master in
his chosen department.
_Independent._
* * * * *
OUR CHURCH MUSIC.—_A Book for Pastors and People._ By Richard Storrs
Willis. _12mo., 138 pages._
_Price, 50 cents._
Mr. Willis in this work considers church music mainly as a part
of worship, which is its true and original design, and not as a
mere entertainment interposed between the graver offices of
devotion and instruction. He points out the objections to the
common modes of conducting church music, stating them with a
good deal of force and vivacity. * * * * Mr. Willis thinks that
to make our music what it ought to be, “we need to simplify the
congregational style and amplify the choir style.” He gives some
practical suggestions, well worthy of consideration, respecting
the singing of children in churches, the position of the choir
and organ, the importance of clergymen possessing some knowledge
of music as an art, and the training of the youth of a
congregation in singing. In a second part of his treatise, Mr.
Willis considers what subjects are proper for hymns, the
adaptation of hymns to music, the treatment of words, the
expression given to them in singing, and the introduction of
what he calls “secular efforts” in church music. His views on
all these subjects bear witness to his fine taste and careful
study of the subject. Mr. Willis has given to both the
scientific and practical part of music the study of years, and
is entitled to speak on the subject with a tone of decision.
_New York Evening Post._
The author is possessed of a profound scientific musical
education, perfected in the best schools in Europe. Since his
return home he has been engaged in editing the Musical World, a
paper which has done more than all other publications together
to diffuse and popularize a correct musical taste in this
country. His journal is not confined, however, to musical
criticism, but comprehends also every other branch of the Fine
Arts, and is characterized by candid and intelligent exposition
and elegant discussion. Mr. Willis has given much attention to
_Church Music_, and the just views so ably and earnestly
enforced in the Musical World, are beginning to produce a
practical impression that exhibits itself extensively in
improvements introduced into that department of public worship.
These he has embodied into a volume bearing the title “Our
Church Music: a book for Pastors and People.” It is full of
interest to the pastor, the choir, and the congregation.
_New York Journal of Commerce._
* * * * *
OUR CHURCH MUSIC.—_A Book for Pastors and People._ By Richard Storrs
Willis. _12mo. 138 pages._
_Price, 50 cents._
A little work, designed—as the title page indicates—“for
Pastors and People,” and one that may be advantageously studied
by both. The author is most favorably known to our lettered and
musical community, as editor of that excellent periodical, “_The
Musical World_;” but he here takes his stand upon a broader
basis. He does not treat of the choral arrangements generally
prevalent in the tone or spirit of a Professor. He sinks the
Art, of which he is a practised master, under the solemn claims
of the dignity and hallowed purposes of Church worship, and
plies his arguments for the benefit of congregations alone. He
complains—and with reason—that in many of the American
churches, the singing and chanting are just as much
_performances_, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, as
though auditors and singers were in a concert-room; and points
out very simply and cogently how this evil has arisen, and how
it may be modified, if not removed. Psalmody also comes in for
an examination; and we must say we have been greatly struck with
the combined boldness, delicacy, and religious sentiment,
displayed by Mr. Willis, in handling a somewhat delicate
theme—one in which many of the Clergy are averse to having
outsiders meddle.—In short, this duodecimo of one hundred and
thirty pages is an exceedingly suggestive little work; its
common sense and practical view bringing it within the
comprehension of non-professional readers. It has greatly
interested us. May it be of use.
_Albion._
A book this, full of common sense, and most happily adapted to
the state of things in ten thousand places of worship in the
United States. As we have turned over its pages we have
exclaimed again and again, “How true! How well said! Would that
everybody could read it!” The adoption of the suggestions made
in this volume would work a speedy revolution in our Church
music, transforming it from a mere professional display, into
simple and beautiful, because heartfelt, worship. Let it then be
widely circulated.
_Ohio Farmer._
A glance over its chapter-headings will reveal to all interested
in the subject of the volume, the richness of its themes. The
manner of their discussion seems to us judicious and sensible,
and almost wholly in the right direction. We do not accord with
some of the criticisms of the work, but we certainly believe
that its author is in advance of the world in his teachings, and
that the study of his treatise must make our church music
better.
_Congregationalist._
* * * * *
HEART AND HOME TRUTHS.—By the Rev. R. Whittingham, Jr. _12mo., 188
pages._
_Price, 75 cents._
_Heart and Home Truths_ is the modest title of a work, in which
will be found much more than the average of deep thought, and
true tender feeling. From the contemplation of the most familiar
features of natural things, the nature of _Truth_ is beautifully
illustrated, and the modes by which it is to be attained are
shown to be in the closest analogy with the other works of Him,
who hath composed in one Spirit, both the Book of Nature and the
Book of Revelation. Its doctrinal tone is high and
uncompromising, though altogether devoid of harshness; and the
drapery of style is as rich with the embroidery of fancy and a
glowing imagination, as the glorious face of nature itself can
make it. This unpretending work will make a way for the Truth in
the minds of many, upon whom a more didactic manner would be
thrown away.
_Church Journal._
* * * * *
THE END OF CONTROVERSY, CONTROVERTED.—By the Rt. Rev. John H. Hopkins,
D.D., _Bishop of Vermont_. _In two vols. 12mo., 918 pages._
_Price, $2.00._
The well-known work of the Romish Bishop, Milner, entitled,
“_The End of Controversy_,” was recommended some years ago by
the Romish Bishop Kenrick, to all our Bishops, as a book, the
perusal of which would bring them into the Romish Church; a
movement which he exhorted them to take soon, lest their
_people_ should all go before them, and leave them alone. That
work is still extensively circulated throughout all this
country, and many earnest Protestants have long desired a work
which might be a popular as well as a conclusive reply. This
want is now supplied. Milner is plausible, ingenious, bold,
unscrupulous, and withal _readable_. The difficulty has been
hitherto, not to answer the book—for that has been done again
and again—but to answer it in such a way as would enable them
to meet the enemy upon his own ground. The well-known
familiarity of the Bishop of Vermont with every phase of the
Romish controversy, his thorough learning, clear reasoning, and
brilliant and effective style, have all contributed to make this
one of the most successful of his contributions to the cause of
Truth. And the present position of the controversy with Rome,
and the keenness with which public attention is aroused to meet
her terrible aggressions, will give occasion for the circulation
of works like this, which, without ever compromising or ignoring
the truth still remaining in the midst of corruption, yet,
throughout, maintains the most vigorous and triumphant
opposition to the errors of Rome.
* * * * *
A PRESBYTERIAN CLERGYMAN LOOKING FOR THE CHURCH.—By the Rev. Flavel S.
Mines. _12mo., 600 pages._
_Price, $1.25._
This is now acknowledged to be the leading work in the
Controversy between Episcopacy and Presbyterianism. It has
already had a more extensive circulation than any other; and
from the vigorous style of the author, his glowing and copious
rhetoric, the popular ease with which he handles his subject,
and the masterly skill with which he arranges his argument, so
that the full force of every point shall, as it were, stare the
reader in the face, there is small probability that this
brilliant and standard work will ever be superseded.
* * * * *
DICTIONARY OF THE CHURCH.—By the Rev. William Staunton. _12mo., 474
pages._
_Price, $1.00._
This is the original work, which has since been the model of
others in England and elsewhere. In clearness of style, and
fulness of detail as regards everything peculiar to the
Protestant Episcopal Church in this country, it is altogether
without a rival. It will aid many a Churchman to render a reason
for the System of the Church; and, to those not of her
Communion, it will explain fully everything which at first sight
may appear to them strange or inappropriate.
* * * * *
THE PLAIN SONG OF THE CHURCH. _Recently Published. 16mo., 80 pages._
_Price, 38 cents._
For congregational chanting, to be done in _unison_ by all those
who can sing, the ancient _plain song_ of the Church is the only
music which will ensure success. The real _Gregorians_ have been
much talked of on this side of the water; but this is the
_first_ and only work in which they have yet _appeared_. All
other publications containing them, have so far modified or
altered them, as to ruin their true effect. In simplicity and
plasticity, in strength and dignity, and manly character, no
other chants are to be compared with them. The above work
includes all the Canticles of Morning and Evening Prayer,
together with the occasional Anthems appointed for Easter Day,
Thanksgiving, the Consecration of a Church, and the Institution
of a Minister. It gives also the ancient notation for all the
parts of the Service which may be performed chorally. The _canto
fermo_ is in the ancient character; the accompaniment is in the
modern notation.
* * * * *
MEN AND TIMES OF THE REVOLUTION; or, Memoirs of Elkanah Watson;
_Including Journals of Travels in Europe and America, from 1777 to 1842,
with his Correspondence with Public Men, and Reminiscences and Incidents
of the Revolution. Edited by his son_, Winslow C. Watson. _8vo., 460
pages._
_Price, $1.50._
Mr Watson has contributed an interesting and valuable work to
the literature of the Revolution. A worthy descendant of the
Pilgrims, he traversed our country several times during the
period of the War; and for about five years he travelled in
England, France, Holland and Flanders, associating familiarly,
at home and abroad, with statesmen, philosophers, and military
men, a shrewd observer, diligently recording his observations
and reflections.
_Publisher’s Critic._
“The American Merchant,” as we saw him in our boyhood at the
Academy from the easel of the great American artist, Copley, the
powder fresh on his hair, and the _shimmer_ of the velvet
leaving us in doubt whether his coat was the handiwork of the
painter or the tailor—the American Merchant, Elkanah Watson,
lives still on the canvas of Copley, in colors that time has
ripened, and not impaired; but all that is mortal of this man of
Revolutionary times, has been gathered to his fathers; and his
son, Winslow C. Watson, Esq., here presents us with a volume of
reminiscences, whose only fault is its brevity.
_Evening Post._
* * * * These posthumous papers will be universally welcomed by
the public. They form an invaluable repository of facts and
reflections, which will materially aid the researches of the
biographer and the historian. Mr. Watson’s correspondence with
public men, his familiar intercourse with the prominent
characters of the Revolution, his observations in Europe at a
time when the fortunes of America were trembling in the balance,
exhibit in a new light the multitude of influences which, in the
Old World and in the New, were brought to bear in favor of our
independence, and finally led to its acknowledgment, first by
France, Holland and Spain, and lastly by the mother country. * *
* * * * * * * * * * But here we must leave this
fascinating volume, not, however, without urging our readers to
seek a further acquaintance with its pages.
_New York Evening Mirror._
* * * * *
MEN AND TIMES OF THE REVOLUTION; or, Memoirs or Elkanah Watson;
_Including Journals of Travels in Europe and America, from 1777 to 1842,
with his Correspondence with Public Men, and Reminiscences and Incidents
of the Revolution. Edited by his son_, Winslow C. Watson. _8vo., 460
pages._
_Price, $1.50._
The title-page of this volume indicates very justly its real
character. The first seventy-five pages of the book are filled
with exceedingly interesting reminiscences of Mr. Watson’s early
life, including the minute details of his experience and
observations in his travels on horseback from Connecticut to
South Carolina and back, immediately after the commencement of
the Revolutionary War. The following one hundred and sixty pages
embrace a record of his experience and observation during a four
years’ sojourn and travel in Europe, from 1779 to 1784; and the
remaining two hundred and twenty pages are occupied with
recollections pertaining to a multitude of places, incidents,
and individuals, and with extracts from his correspondence with
many persons of distinction in the past generation. The period
through which the volume takes the reader, the rare
opportunities afforded its author of acquiring a personal
knowledge of its political history and the varied phases of its
society, his quick and keen observation, and his constant habit
of recording what he saw and heard, and his impressions in
regard to men and events, render it not only an interesting and
instructive volume, but an important acquisition to our sources
of national history.
_Protestant Churchman._
This is an entertaining and instructive biography of a gentleman
who was a leading American merchant during the Revolution.
_Episcopal Recorder._
* * * Few men had so long and varied an experience. More than
half these memoirs is an autobiography; the remainder has been
compiled from the manuscripts, correspondence, &c., of the
deceased. The whole work is exceedingly entertaining, and will
be of service to future historians.
_N. Y. Commercial Advertiser._
His travels, his extensive acquaintance with all sorts of
people, extending up from the Revolution until a very recent
period, make a volume of much more than ordinary interest.
_New Haven Morning Journal and Courier._
* * * * *
Transcriber’s note:
Hyphenation and archaic spellings have been retained as in the original.
Punctuation has been corrected without note. Other errors have been
corrected as noted below:
page xi, town—Litchfield Cathedral, ==> town—Lichfield Cathedral,
page 11, an ancient minister, ==> an ancient minster,
page 31, entered by Poet’s corner. ==> entered by Poets’ Corner.
page 32, objects in Poet’s Corner, ==> objects in Poets’ Corner,
page 33, the Dean’s ultilitarianism ==> the Dean’s utilitarianism
page 50, character of it scenery ==> character of its scenery
page 70, joys and sorows; ==> joys and sorrows;
page 118, busts in Poet’s corner, ==> busts in Poets’ Corner,
page 122, familiar to Shakspereans, ==> familiar to Shakspeareans,
page 123, visiting Hounsditch and Billingsgate, ==> visiting Houndsditch
and Billingsgate,
page 140, manuscript of Cœdmon, ==> manuscript of Cædmon,
page 165, Mall and St. James’ street ==> Mall and St. James’s-street
page 166, down St. James’-street, and ==> down St. James’s-street, and
page 166, (as pourtrayed in his ==> (as portrayed in his
page 168, by Lord George Lenox ==> by Lord George Lennox
page 193, tine artificial cataract ==> fine artificial cataract
page 239, most pleasing representive ==> most pleasing representative
page 246, Hanoverians, surrending art ==> Hanoverians, surrendering art
page 259, towards the Solant ==> towards the Solent
page 276, yet, unless _Encœnia_ ==> yet, unless _Encænia_
page 288, St. Wilfrids’ needle ==> St. Wilfrid’s needle
page 304, enthusiasm exibits itself ==> enthusiasm exhibits itself