SERMONS.

_Sermons Preached in the Temple Church._ By the Rev. ALFRED AINGER,

M.A., Reader at the Temple Church. (Macmillan and Co.) There is about

Mr. Ainger's sermons the great charm of perfect simplicity,

unconventionally, intelligence, and fearlessness. Neither in style nor

in thought are they like any sermons that we can recall. They are not

eloquent; or if so, it is the eloquence of a perfectly transparent

medium of thought. Not a fine word or a rhetorical figure occurs in

them; but neither is there anything commonplace. It is the fresh,

unconventional talk of a clear, independent thinker, addressed to a

congregation of thinkers. The uncultured would have no difficulty in

understanding; but the colourless thought would fail long to interest

such. For popular effect, it wants sensuousness and passion, and,

therefore, rhetoric. Mr. Ainger belongs to the liberal-orthodox school;

but he does not shape his opinions to any school. He speaks right out

what he thinks, and often surprises us with fresh views of familiar

texts. He is not great; but he is unconventional and earnest. In

doctrine he is broad, not however in any sense that is inconsistent with

what are understood by Evangelical views. The moral aspects of the

Atonement--forgiveness of sins, regeneration, and the life to

come--which he exhibits, are the highest truths of the Gospel; but he

exhibits them with such predominance, almost exclusiveness, that he is

apt to forget his own principle that the Atonement of Christ has many

aspects. Thoughtful men will be greatly charmed by this little volume;

they will learn from its perusal how the Gospel of Christ commends

itself to all the mind as well as to all the heart of men. The sermons,

moreover, are preached in the light of the thought of the present day,

and are rich glimpses of great questions now stirring men's

hearts.--_The City Temple Sermons, Preached in the Poultry Chapel,

London,_ 1869-70. By JOSEPH PARKER, D.D. (Hodder and Stoughton.) Dr.

Parker, also, is a City preacher; but, perhaps, the three kingdoms could

not furnish a greater pulpit contrast than between him and Mr. Ainger.

Dr. Parker's sermons are much stronger, but they are far less

thoughtful. They are more rhetorical, but less beautifully clear. They

are abrupt, striking, sensational in style, and abound with rhetorical

devices for catching the ear of the multitude. Sometimes, for instance,

Dr. Parker renounces the idea of a sermon, and tells a story, after the

manner of the Parables. His sermons often offend good taste, and are to

be excused only on the ground that the end justifies the means.

Certainly Mr. Ainger could not do what Dr. Parker is doing at the

Poultry.--_Christ Satisfying the Instincts of Humanity._ Eight Lectures

delivered in the Temple Church. By C. J. VAUGHAN, D.D. (Macmillan.)

_Half-hours in the Temple Church._ By C. J. VAUGHAN, D.D., Master of the

Temple. (Strahan and Co.) _Counsels to Young Students._ Three Sermons

preached before the University of Cambridge at the opening of the

academical year 1870-71. By C. J. VAUGHAN, D.D. (Macmillan and Co.)

Concerning three new books by the author of upwards of twenty volumes of

published sermons, it is almost enough to say that they are his: only

these sermons, while preserving the admirable simplicity and practical

spiritual unction of the parochial sermons, have more of intellectual

fibre. The conception of the first series addresses itself more to

thinking men, and the treatment has a more thoughtful cast. Seven of

these letters were delivered on Wednesday evenings in Lent, the eighth

on a Sunday just after. The instincts which Christ is represented as

satisfying are the instincts of Truth, Reverence, Perfection, Liberty,

Courage, Sympathy, Sacrifice, and Unity. The only text of doubtful

relevancy is that of the sermon on Courage, taken from the Corinthians,

'Quit you like men.' It is matter for devout thankfulness that a

preacher so single-hearted, so practical, so faithful to evangelical

truth, and so spiritual, should address so large a number of the learned

profession on the great themes of the Gospel, and that these qualities

should find such acceptance as they do. The crowds who gather round the

Temple pulpit prove that preachers need have recourse neither to strange

doctrines nor to oddities of manner to make the Gospel attractive. Dr.

Vaughan must preach almost all that he thinks, as he prints almost all

that he preaches. His sermons have the natural, simple strength and

freshness of an intelligent, scholarly, and devout man. They are not

made, they grow; if they may not claim the merit of great originality,

they are in every wise and wholesome sense independent. There is no

reason why his series of little volumes should not go on for ever, and

certainly we have every desire that they should. Dr. Vaughan's devout,

spirit-searching fidelity, and evangelical theology, make his books

almost everything that we could desire them to be for popular religious

reading. There can be no better sign of our times than the favour with

which such books are received. Because Dr. Vaughan's sermons are the

simple, spontaneous outcome of his mind and heart, they always have an

admirable adaptation, whether to the alumni of Cambridge or to the

lawyers of the Temple. He speaks with exact pertinence, and therefore

with power. We are devoutly thankful that both these classes should hear

such faithful, searching, loving words as are addressed to them

respectively in these three volumes.--_The Lost Found, and the Wanderer

Welcomed._ By the Rev. W. M. TAYLOR, M.A., U.P., Liverpool. (Edinburgh:

Oliphant and Co.) A lively series of expository and practical homilies

on the fifteenth chapter of Luke's Gospel. Almost too lively at times,

when the Prodigal Son is represented as departing to the 'El Dorado of

his dreams,' and hopes to return a 'nabob;' but there is a dash, and

force, and sweetness withal, that render the volume impressive and

attractive.--_Tender Herbs; or, Lessons for the Lambs_. By GEORGE W.

CONDER. (Manchester: Tubbs and Brook; London: Kent and Co.) Few more

charming volumes than this have ever been prepared for young Christians.

A 'Little Bunch of Herbs for the Lambs,' the author calls them; but they

have rare fragrance and beauty. Under such titles as 'The Broken Vase,'

'Thistle Gardens,' 'The Coat and the Dream,' 'The Golden Key,' 'The

Shepherd and the Lambs,' Mr. Conder pours forth his affluent treasures

of tender fancy and abounding affection. Underneath the almost playful

tone of some of his addresses, and the genial kindness of all, there is

plenty of strong masculine sense, of vigorous and noble thought, of

original and novel argument.--_A Practical Commentary on the Gospel of

St. John, in Simple and Familiar Language_. By G. B. (Nisbet and Co.)

Evangelical but feeble.--_Life and Truth; or, Bible Thoughts and

Themes_. _The Lesser Epistles._ By HORATIUS BONAR, D.D. (Nisbet and Co.)

In our notice of the two previous volumes of this series we have

sufficiently characterized the sermons of which it consists. Dr. Bonar

seems to have been guided in the selection of passages for texts simply

by his sympathetic fancy. In his treatment he is somewhat

ultra-orthodox, deeply spiritual, not very critical, and not very

original or striking. He is closely textual, and in his frame-work of

divisions, resembles some of the old Puritans, rather than divines of

the present day. Eighty-five discourses, in a small volume, necessitate

brevity; they are, indeed, outlines rather than compositions. Perhaps we

may best convey an idea of their character when we say they resemble

Chalmers' 'Daily Readings;' only they have more of a sermon-plan in

them--sometimes a division or sub-division is dismissed in a sentence.

Their most fitting designation would be 'Sermons in Outline.'--_Symbols

of Christ._ By CHARLES STANFORD. (Hodder and Stoughton.) A second

edition of a little book that has commended itself to devout readers by

its healthy spiritual tone of devout practical religiousness. Mr.

Stanford has just that tinge of mysticism which spiritualises events,

and uses emblems with unction; but he never becomes mawkish or obscure.

His sermons are pure and breezy; emotion is appealed to and excited in

an intelligent, manly way. Hence few more wholesome helps to the

spiritual life could be named. This is a companion volume to the edition

of 'Central Truths,' which we commended on its appearance a few months

ago.--_Sermons on Historical Subjects._ By the Rev. D. ROWLANDS, B.A.

(Hodder & Stoughton.) Mr. Rowlands' sermons are ingenious and effective.

In some of them he is remarkably happy in seizing and condensing into a

paragraph or two the essence of a great lesson; thus the sermon on

Jacob's dream at Bethel treats--1. The 'Duality of Existence;' 2. The

'Unity of Existence.' The treatment is sometimes inadequate, an undue

space being given to mere description with which imagination has a good

deal to do. On the whole, the sermons may be commended as fresh,

sensible, vigorous, and useful.--_Sermons_. By HENRY MELVILLE. Two

volumes. (Rivingtons.) Sermon readers will feel a great obligation to

the publishers for this cheap reprint of the sermons of one of the most

effective preachers of this generation. We are not too old to remember

the electrical way in which, for an hour, the preacher at Camden Chapel

held spell-bound the multitudes that crowded every available corner: A

severe critic might characterise Mr. Melville's preaching as somewhat

artificial, and his sermons as fanciful and sometimes wire-drawn; but

they are full of unction, and contain precious evangelical truth enforced

in a way not to be forgotten. We hope these volumes will be succeeded by

others.--_Beacons and Patterns; or, Lessons for Young Men._ By the Rev.

W. LANDELS, D.D. (Hodder and Stoughton.) These sermons, on some of the

historical characters of Scripture, containing lessons specially adapted

to young men, are reprinted from 'The Bible Student.' They rise to that

level of popular excellence which characterizes all that Dr. Landels

does, and are calculated to be useful.--_The Prophet's Mantle._ Being

Scenes from the Life of Elisha, the Son of Shaphat. By the Rev. JAMES

MURRAY, Minister of Old Cumnoch. (Blackwood & Son.) An exceedingly good

example of the expository preaching to which, much more than ourselves,

our Scottish brethren are given. Mr. Murray, while evidently having a

scholarly acquaintance with critical difficulties, knows how to keep

them subordinate to popular statement and practical uses. Great good

sense characterises all that he says, and regulates every touch. The

sermons are Biblical rather than practical, that is, they simply furnish

a running practical comment upon the Biblical narrative. Really useful

preaching demands somewhat larger and wider uses suited to the practical

life of our own day; the historical instance should not have larger

prominence than its application.--_Sermons._ By CHARLES WADSWORTH. San

Francisco. (R. D. Dickenson.) We welcome this volume of sermons from the

rapidly-growing and vigorous Christian life of San Francisco, where, as

everywhere else throughout the States, religious provision fully keeps

up with the rapid growth of the community. Mr. Wadsworth's sermons have

some of the characteristics of Western life: they are full of vigour,

fire, and fearlessness, but with that defective culture of form which in

its excess is designated pedantry. The thought is cast in a scholastic

form, the scientific illustrations are often in excess, and the style

wants ease and simplicity; hard words and harsh compounds occur, and,

together with this, the practical applications are too ejaculatory and

coercive. Mr. Wadsworth will do better as he mellows, but his volume is

able and has much good stuff in it.--_Foreign Protestant Pulpit._

Sermons by eminent Preachers of France, Germany, Holland, and

Switzerland. Second Series. (R. D. Dickinson). We can only adduce as

vouchers for the great excellency of this volume the names of the

preachers of these six-and-thirty sermons; they are Lange, Grandpierre,

César, Malan, Horace Monod, Tholuck, Bersier, Hocart, Gaussen,

Krummacher, Luthardt, Schwartz, Rothe, Pressensé, and Julius Müller. In

addition to the intrinsic excellence of the sermons, they have the

exciting freshness of modes of religious thought and pulpit presentation

which are different from our own; they seem to be well translated, their

flavour is carefully retained. We cordially commend them to both sermon

preachers and sermon readers.--_The True Vine; or, the Analogies of our

Lord's Allegory._ By Rev. HUGH MACMILLAN. (Macmillan and Co.) Mr.

Macmillan combines the eye of a poet and the knowledge of a _savant_

with the heart of a saint; while he analyses the phenomena of nature on

purely scientific principles, he interprets them on the principles of a

devout Christian theist. He sees in nature the wonderful ways of Him who

made it; 'looks through nature up to nature's God,' and often, in virtue

of his religious insight, invests familiar things with unobserved and

beautiful significance. Beneath the surface of natural symbolism he

discerns the religious and loving ways of a divine Creator and father;

and thus, in a subtle and beautiful way, he knits together the two great

departments of the one kingdom of God. In this volume he is primarily a

theologian, investigating the religious meaning of our Lord's great

allegory of the vine and its branches--perhaps the greatest of his

self-assertions on the one hand, and of his religious assurances on the

other. Mr. Macmillan here, therefore, makes science the handmaid of

theology, and brings his knowledge of natural phenomena to bear upon the

significance of our Lord's similes. He has, we think, a little overdone

this; the religious thought is overlaid, the illustration is more than

the thing illustrated; but he has thrown beautiful light upon many

points of natural symbolism. Readers and preachers who are unscientific

will find many of his illustrations as valuable as they are beautiful.

His wild luxuriance somewhat reminds us of that of James

Hamilton.--_Truth and Trust: Lessons of the War._ Four Advent Sermons.

By HENRY ALFORD, D.D. (Hodder and Stoughton.) These are the last

products of Dean Alford's pen, the last utterances from his lips. The

proof was but partly corrected when he died. We could not subject them

to criticism if we would. They are 'the sound of a voice that is still,'

and love for an honoured and noble-hearted servant of God, and for a

dear personal friend, seals our lips in reverence. Under any

circumstances, we should have only words of eulogy for them. They are,

in spiritual intelligence, strength, and cogency, about the best of the

many sermons that he published.--THE JEWISH TEMPLE AND THE CHRISTIAN

CHURCH; a Series of Discourses on the Epistle to the Hebrews. By R. W.

DALE, M.A. Second Edition. Revised, with additional notes. (Hodder and

Stoughton). We cannot but regret that Mr. Dale has not made this volume

much more than 'discourses, not for scholars, but for ordinary Christian

people to whom learned commentaries are inaccessible or useless.' He has

in them laid the foundations of an exposition of the Epistle to the

Hebrews of great spiritual insight and philosophic breadth, and he

might advantageously have wrought out his plan, even in successive

editions, until the work had become the worthy _magnum opus_ of his

life. It is, however, useless regretting what he has not done; we can

simply commend what he has done, as one of the best popular hand-books

to this great and suggestive epistle that is extant. Pulpit purposes

demand broad treatment and the avoidance of minute exegesis; but the

broad treatment here is always the fruit of careful exegesis, good

scholarship, and sound, vigorous thought. Some of the sermons are not

even wrought out as they were preached; the notes thereof only are

given. It is virtually what Robinson's 'Lectures on the Corinthians'

are, and will scarcely suffer by comparison with them.--_Lights and

Shadows in the Life of King David._ By CHARLES VINCE. (Elliot Stock.) In

ten discourses, Mr. Vince selects certain incidents and points in the

history of David. He makes no pretension to biographical completeness,

or to relative importance. Spiritual, and not biographical, reasons have

guided his selections. Thus one discourse is devoted to the influence of

Rizpah's pathetic fidelity in quickening David's conscience; and two to

the two things which David had never seen--'the righteous forsaken, and

his seed begging their bread.' The volume is a very charming one--full

of delicate spiritual discernment and tender religious sensibility; the

style is simple and chaste; and the quiet, natural way in which the

practical side of everything is presented is very felicitous. Mr. Vince

does not 'strive nor cry;' he has recourse to no feverish rhetoric or

tumultuous passion; his doctrine 'distils as the dew,' and, in a

searching, potent way, finds the soul of every hearer and saturates

it.--_Misread Passages of Scripture._ Second Series. By J. BALDWIN

BROWN, B.A. (Hodder and Stoughton.) Very different is Mr. Brown, who is

urgent with intellectual force and moral earnestness. His thought is

inquisitive, aggressive, and demonstrative; his spiritual zeal takes

cogent forms. He is full of intellectual surprises and unexpected

spiritual motives; very independent, very instructive, very forcible,

fulfilling the great practical religious ends of the ministry in a

masterly, forceful way. His books are full of strong, wise, earnest

words, such as place him among the noblest teachers of our day. Nothing

could be more characteristic of him than these two series of sermons on

'Misread Passages.' In the second, as distinguished from the first which

treats chiefly of textual misinterpretations, Mr. Brown deals with

doctrines and conclusions derived from misinterpreted texts; _e.g._,

'The Principle of Christian Unity,' regarded in the light of the true

reading. 'There shall be one _flock_ and one shepherd,' instead of 'one

_fold_ and one shepherd;' and the true significance of the simile of the

potter and the clay. We commend to special attention the sermon on the

'True Idea of Substitution,' in which, denying the theories of mere

martyrdom and commercial substitution, Mr. Brown insists upon the

substitution which has its character and power in Christ as the

_representative_ of the race--the true theory, as we venture to think.

The volume is full of thoughtfulness, light, and power.--_The Story of

Job, and Meditation on Passages of the Book of Job._ By Rev. ALFRED

CLAYTON THISTLETON. (Nisbet and Co.) There is no distinctive character

either of intelligence or strength in Mr. Thistleton's sermons. They are

devout and practical, but very commonplace, abounding in unctuous words,

and not over careful about exact meanings.--_Sermons for the Christian

Year._ By the Rev. W. H. LEWIS, D.D., Rector of the Church of the Holy

Trinity, Brooklyn. (R. D. Dickinson.) A reprint of a volume of sermons

published twenty years ago. It is a poor criterion of sermons to measure

them by the clock--a poor compliment when the first commendation is of

shortness; but Mr. Lewis's sermons have this merit. This little volume

of 500 pages contains sixty-six. Few of them could have exceeded the

orthodox Episcopal fifteen minutes. We differ from many of the tenets of

Mr. Lewis. Thus, from the text, 'Cease ye from man,' he teaches that we

are from human corruption to expect only ingratitude and wrong, to live

among men as among natural enemies. This is a very doleful and, we

think, an unwarrantable doctrine. Mr. Lewis is an orthodox evangelical.

He discourses in the old mechanical way. He is pious, sincere, and

earnest, but he furnishes no great help for men struggling with the real

difficulties of human darkness and experience. The volume is typical,

and should be very useful to rectors.--_The Measure of Faith and other

Sermons._ By PHILIP COLBORNE, Norwich. With Preface by the Rev. JOHN

STOUGHTON, D.D. (Hodder and Stoughton.) Mr. Colborne's sermons are

thoroughly individual, as if elaborated in some solitary place, with but

little reference either to theologians, critics, or conventional modes

of preaching. They somewhat lack fluency, but they are vigorous and

discerning. The working out of Mr. Colborne's conceptions is not always

so happy as the conceptions themselves; but his little volume contrasts

nobly with the vague vapid stuff that often comes before us under the

guise of sermons, and is a favourable specimen of that strength of the

Nonconformist pulpit which, under God's blessing, has made our churches

what they are. We would specially commend the sermon on 'Christian

Heroism,' and the two sermons on 'The Origin of Christian Life,' and

'God's Principle of Selection,' preached during the meetings in Norwich

of the British Association.--_Christ's Healing Touch, and other Sermons,

preached at Surbiton._ By ALEXANDER MACKENNAL, B.A. (Elliot Stock.) Mr.

Mackennal's sermons combine, in an unusual degree, the freshness of an

independent thinker and the power of a robust one, with the spiritual

penetration of a devout man, the evangelical fervour of a believing man,

and the practical urgency of an earnest man. No one, we think, can read

this unpretending volume without being interested--we might say

fascinated--by its manifold excellencies, or lay it down without a high

estimate of its author's ministerial power. The people who listen to

such a preacher are rarely privileged. The volume is one of the few

that, without qualification or reserve, we can heartily commend. Mr.

Mackennal has a rare faculty for eliciting the latent meanings of things

without obtruding the sense of his ingenuity, or failing in broad,

practical evangelical applications.--_The Wisdom of the King, or Studies

in Ecclesiastes._ By the Rev. JAMES BENNET, St. John's, New Brunswick.

(Edinburgh: William Oliphant.) Mr. Bennet writes with much intelligence

and good sense. In a plain, practical way he shapes the lessons to be

derived from Ecclesiastes into a series of week-day lectures, and his

book may be commended as worthy to take its place in the homiletical

literature of Ecclesiastes. Mr. Bennet still adheres to the almost

exploded notion that it is the veritable religious autobiography of

Solomon.--_Things Above._ By the late F. W. FRENCH, Rector of Newtown,

near Kells, County Meath. (James Nisbet and Co.) Mr. French was, as the

preface tells us, an aged minister, who had entered upon his eighth

decade, and who died before this little book was finished. It is a

series of short chapters or lectures concerning things above--their

reality, locality, character, &c.--written with devout feeling, and

largely illustrated by quotations from a considerable range of

writers.--_Sermons and Lectures._ By the late WILLIAM M'COMBIE.

(Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark.) Mr. M'Combie was the editor of the

_Aberdeen Free Press_, and a layman. He was accustomed to preach,

chiefly in the Baptist Church, of which he was a member; and these

discourses were prepared, not for publication, but for preaching. Mr.

M'Combie was one of the most able men in the North of Scotland. He had

much in common with Hugh Miller. His intellectual independence, vigorous

thinking, manifold attainments, and cultured beauty and precision of

expression, were not surpassed by any of his compeers. His 'Hours of

Thought,' and still more, his 'Moral Agency,' proved, in their revolt

from Predestinarianism, as commonly taught by Scotch Calvinism, both his

profound metaphysical thinking and his intellectual independence. These

sermons have not the finish of his own published works, but they are

full of rare thoughtfulness and wisdom, and of rich spiritual feeling

and suggestiveness. Their strong, unwavering faith in the sufficiency

and power of the religion of Jesus to satisfy every necessity of the

individual and social life of men is a fine tonic in these degenerate

days. It is something to hear a man who believes as Mr. M'Combie

believes speak as he speaks.--_Sermons for the Times, preached at the

Independent Chapel, Newbury._ By E. W. SHALDERS, B.A. (Blacket and Son,

Newbury.) Mr. Shalders has done most excellent service to the cause of

spiritual Christianity by the issue of this series of discourses on the

questions at issue between the Ritualist and the Free Churchman. The

topics chosen by our author have been 'Baptismal Regeneration,'

'Apostolic Succession,' 'The Childishness of Ritualism,' 'Exclusiveness

the real Schism.' Scholarship, candour, strength, clearness, and fine

manly tone, pervade each of these discussions. We should be glad to see

them circulated by tens of thousands.--_The Revision of the New

Testament, being a Popular Exposition of its Needs and Limits; a Lecture

delivered before the Norwich Young Men's Christian Association._ By

GEORGE S. BARRETT, B.A. (Hodder and Stoughton.) This lecture is

admirably well done. There is a refined tone in the discussion, and a

thorough grasp of the whole subject. When he was about it, however, Mr.

Barrett might as well have explained a little more fully what is meant

by 'The Text of Scripture.' The class addressed by the lecturer are

singularly hazy on this point. It is not uncommon to meet with pious

folk who, when the rejection, _e.g._, of 1 John v. 7, is made to depend

on its absence from all Greek MSS., are ready to exclaim--'So much the

worse for the MSS!' We heartily thank Mr. Barrett for his timely

publication.--_The Plymouth Pulpit._ Sermons by HENRY WARD BEECHER.

Third Series. (Dickenson.) The third series of Mr. Beecher's sermons

fully sustains the interest excited by the previous volumes. There are

the same high passion and earnest, practical love, the same brilliant

touch, the ring of the same musical metal which have charmed and

instructed us so often. This volume is characterized by more frequent

treatment of great doctrinal themes, when liberal views are guarded by

conservative love. There is a most powerful, practical, and useful

discourse on the fearful theme of 'The Sin against the Holy Ghost.'