For their own pleasure.' (Hebrews xii. 10.) opposite extreme. -By denying them innocent recreations: when we take from -By fickle and changeable rules-wrong to-day and winked at to-morrow-a want of evenness and steadiness in our government: this tends especially to 'discourage them.' (Col. iii. 21.) -By entrusting little children to ignorant, bad tempered, nursemaids, &c., who sadly 'provoke them to wrath.' "3. These evils have been sown broadcast in many of our public schools for all classes. -By the system of flogging and beating, for trifles, and indiscriminately-hardening the heart and brutalizing it. -By want of confidence in the children-destroying self-respect and love of truth, creating a conspiracy against the teachers; where no honour is reposed, none will be returned. -By making the hill of science artificially steep, burdening the memory and cramping the understanding. -By a want of nice and discriminating justice in their government-nothing" provokes" like this. -Such systems are entirely bad: and while they may succeed in forcing a certain amount of knowledge into the mind, they destroy the moral character. "II. CONSIDER THE APOSTLE'S BEAUTIFUL SYSTEM-'Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.' Every word here weighty, and much more so in the original, which here should be carefully examined. Not a word about the matter of teaching—all has respect to the mode and the training. "1. BRING THEM UP" (èkтрéQW). This word means educate, 'nourish them up' like Timothy(1 Timothy iv. 6)—from infancy, babes, infants, children, youth all to be nourished with suitable food, discipline, guidance, influence :-as of body, so of mind. It is a moulding of pliable materials, leading up to life and manhood. "2. NURTURE' (raideia). This is a comprehensive term; rather means regulation, discipline, bringing all moral and religious influences to bear on the heart and soul and mind-the will and the affections-with special reference to wise, moderate, affectionate correction &c. (Hebrews xii. 7.) "3. ADMONITION' (vovbería) is the forming of the mind, fixing the opinions, settling the judgment. It has to do with the understanding, reason, reflection. As parents should early mould the faith and principles of their children. "4. And all this IN THE LORD:' -a most comprehensive phrase, applicable to all the preceding ones -'educate' them in the Lord-train,' 'discipline,' them in the Lord-fix their creed,' their faith in Him. This is spiritual teaching and training-in the Lord's truth, in His ways, in His faith, fear, and love, in His word, the spiritual and religious element pervading all. "Let all parents ponder these apostolic injunctions, and be humbled. Who has come up to these directions? Who does not see with mortification his own faults repeated in his children? Yet let them take courage; there are many promises to godly parents-let them labour, watch, pray, hope, and leave the result to God. -Let children who have pious parents, and all who once had them, regard their injunctions, prayers, and instructions with deep reverence; and reflect on them with filial piety. Such education is a great responsibility, an opportunity lost, or redeemed for good. Have any of you ungodly parents? Do you see great faults, failings, perhaps sins, in them? Remember the sons of Noah. (Genesis ix. 23.) Draw a veil over their inconsistencies; pity and pray for them; honour what is good in them, and God will bless your reverence and affection. -Do we not all need to repent, and do we not all need forgiveness and mercy for Christ's sake, at the hands of God, for our manifold sins of omission and commission, as parents and children, brothers and sisters, neighbours and friends ?" Archdeacon Jones is not less to be heard on the subject of preaching than the dean of Carlisle, though less known perhaps in the metropolis. So long ago as the year 1815, he entered upon the important charge of St. Andrew's, Liverpool, where for many years, without being exactly what is termed a popular preacher, he formed and held together a large congregation, the most intelligent, exemplary and pious which Liverpool then knew. They were foremost in every good word and work; and long after the attractions of novelty had ceased, and other able ministers of the New Testament had filled the neighbouring churches of the town, the congregation of St. Andrew's still continued in zeal, affection, purity of life and doctrine, an example to the rest. The altered habits of society,-justified by a hard necessity, no doubt, yet still deeply to be deplored, on social and moral grounds,-have driven the higher classes of society, in Liverpool as in London, to suburban residences. In all our large towns the voluntary system miserably fails just where most wanted; and the archdeacon now preaches at Seaforth, where on the Lord's-day "merchants most do congregate." "This little book, with an unassuming title, is full of wise instructions, the fruit of much experience, and, as we believe it will one day appear, of much successful labour. If we must single out any one chapter as more interesting than the rest, it is, perhaps, the seventh, on "delivery from manuscript;" for the archdeacon is himself an instance of the success with which this method of preaching may be pursued. During his most successful years at St. Andrew's, he seldom preached extempore, and yet without any remarkable qualities of voice, and with very little of action, or what is generally termed manner, in the pulpit, he threw a life and fervour into his discourses which most extempore preachers might envy. Yet he is no enemy to extempore discourse, on which he gives some valuable "hints." Of these, we copy the fourth and last : "The fourth and concluding hint, which I would suggest to the young preacher who wishes really to excel, is, that he should study to avoid the faults into which extempore preachers are more or less prone to fall. He should be especially careful to guard against tediousness, diffuseness, and tautology. He must bear in mind that the audience will probably become weary before he himself is satisfied,-that whilst he is still fresh and desirous to continue his speech, they may be counting the minutes, and wishing him to come to a close. Though a little more indulgence may be shown towards a sermon delivered extemporaneously, patience must have its limits: and on few occasions should the preacher exceed thirty-five minutes. If he wishes, indeed, to keep up the attention of his hearers at all times, let him restrict himself for the most part to half-an-hour." Mr. Moore's thoughts on preaching well merit, and would certainly have obtained, a much larger space in our review than we now assign to them, had it not been "that portions of the matter contained in them were published in the Christian Observer in the spring 1859;" and therefore we are debarred, to some extent, by the fear of repeating what our readers may already be acquainted with. We are not surprised to learn that Mr. Moore has been requested, on more than one occasion, at large meetings of the clergy, to lay his thoughts on preaching before the public. He has done this in a volume much wanted, well considered, sufficiently comprehensive to form a manual for clerical readers, and likely to be very useful. Claude's Essay on the composition of a Sermon lays down the great principle of pulpit composition with admirable skill; it must always be a text-book; but something more was wanted "specially in relation to the requirements of the age;" and that something is exactly what Mr. Moore has now supplied; "The author was not deterred from his purpose by the great number of works which he could find already written upon the subject. On the contrary, in the way of set and formal dissertation on the principles and practice of preaching, the literature of our own age and country seems to have produced comparatively little. The subject has been presented, in its more didactic aspects, by Claude and Vinet on the continent; valuable suggestions for the Christian preacher are contained in the Ecclesiastes Anglicanus' of Mr. Gresley, and in the work on the 'Christian Ministry,' by Mr. Bridges; whilst hints, from the layman's point of view, characterized by all that eloquence and power which distinguish our periodical literature, are supplied in the pages of the Edinburgh,' and other reviews. And to each of these sources, it will be seen, the author has not been sparing in his acknowledgments. But he has met with nothing so comprehensive and com 6 plete upon the subject of preaching, as to make him think that further efforts in that direction were superfluous; or that, in suggesting means for increasing the efficiency of the modern pulpit, he should be found labouring in an exhausted field." Upon the present state of the pulpit in England, and especially in the church of England, we were prepared to make some remarks; but as we peruse Mr. Moore's book page after page, we find that we are anticipated, and all that we could offer, and much more, is well said already. We wished to protest against the clamour for the exclusive use of Saxon words; but Mr. Moore has protested. manfully, and with the greater effect, because he himself writes English well; and Anglo-Saxon is neither English, nor the sole fountain from which its "undefiled well" is fed. We wished to protest against the cruel dictum which maintains that every sermon, nay, every part of every sermon, must come down to the level of a mean capacity; but here again Mr. Moore is beforehand with us. A christian lady made a remark in our hearing (even ladies may be allowed to teach preachers something which they will not always learn from books, or even from clerical conferences) which is worth repeating. "It seems to me," she said, "that clergymen have set themselves to preach to children till they have brought their own minds down to the childish level." If any young clergyman would know whether his people comprehend his language and his thoughts, let him ascertain what is their favourite newspaper; and then divesting himself, as far as possible, of every prejudice, ask himself whether his own sermons, or the newspaper, contain the greater quantity of that which calls for the exertion of the thinking faculty. He will probably admit that the newspaper ventures on a style of composition which he discards as too difficult for the pulpit; and that, as to hard words he is fairly distanced. This is one reason why two-thirds of almost every congregation consist of women. Men are not addressed as men; and they feel that it is an impertinence to treat them as children. The clergy as a body, at least the evangelical clergy, preach below themselves; dissenting ministers, as a body, preach above themselves. These are faults on both sides; but, on the whole, the man who always does his best is most likely to succeed. It is not strong thoughts, nor hard words, that disperse a congregation. Uneducated and half-educated people love hard words. The housemaid's letter will contain far more fine words than that of her mistress; so will her conversation. Just as a child loves the jingle of syllabic sounds, so do uneducated people, or rather half-educated ones, the class which has nearly superseded the entirely ignorant in most of our parishes. What is wanted in the pulpit is "great plainness of speech;" that is, powerful thoughts sent home to the conscience; vivid illustrations to engage the attention; sympathy, like an electric current, connecting the preacher's heart with the hearts of those who hear him; and, as the foundation of all this zeal, untiring zeal, such as proceeds only from one source; a source which the apostle places before us in these memorable words :-" The love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then were all dead." NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 1. Miracles the Proper Credentials of a Revelation: being a Reply to an Essay "On the Study of the Evidences of Christianity," in "Essays and Reviews." By the Rev. J. Chapman, B.D., Secretary to the Church Missionary Society, and formerly Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. Seeleys, Fleet Street. 1861. 2. The Bible on what ground, and to what extent, can we believe the Canonical Books of Scripture to be inspired? A Plain Argument, for the Plenary and Verbal Inspiration of Holy Scripture, with Answers to certain Objections. By the Rev. C. H. Davis, M.A, Seeleys, Fleet Street. 1853. A CONSIDERABLE number of "Replies," "Answers," "Considerations," &c.,suggested by the Essays and Reviews, have already appeared, and others are promised by different writers of very different schools. Of course we can take notice of but a few of these; though all of them are, perhaps, likely to do good, at least in the circle in which the author moves. The pamphlets before us are of a higher class, and deserve a more extensive circulation. The pamphlet of Mr. Chapman is the work of no ordinary thinker, nor of a mind satisfied with ordinary modes of thought. He undertakes to show, in answer to Mr. Baden Powell, first, that miracles are not impossible; secondly, that they may be, and are, substantiated by testimony; and to point out, thirdly, the connection between the miracle and the doctrine. The pamphlet passed the ordeal of certain acute and well-disciplined minds before it was published, who do not hesitate to pronounce it a full answer to all that Mr. Baden Powell has advanced. Had none of the Seven Essays been written, we should still recommend it to our readers as a work of sterling and independent value, and especially to every student in mental philosophy. The pamphlet reached us at the close of the month, and our scanty space forbids us to enter further on its merits. Mr. Chapman was for some years a missionary in India, and principal of the Syrian college, Cottayam. If any of our readers should have been infected with the prejudice, that only men of mean intellects or uncultivated minds devote themselves to the work of missions, the single favour we ask at their hands is, that they will read this pamphlet, and grapple with its arguments. 2. Mr. Davis is well known as one of our best controversial writers. Always full of matter, always to the purpose, always firm and clear in doctrine, and never out of temper, his "Plain Argument" leaves the man without excuses,- —we do not say, who is not convinced by it-for |