And every thing beside was gay,

And full of young sweet health as they.
And there were all the things the eye
Had registered within the breast,
Wearing the same reality,

But not the charm of old possessed;
And where another's eye had seen
But little change in what had been,
To me, time seemed with quicker tread
His desolating hand to spread.

My heart had borne the blight and storm,
The toil of many years;

But there was round the darkest form
That woe or peril wears,

No gloom so deep as that which pressed
Heavily on the aching breast,

When hope its long-sought home surveyed,
And found each home-loved thing decayed.
'Tis not the retrospective glance

Adown the stream of years,

That makes us scorn the dizzy dance
Of earthly hopes and fears;

It is the change of things we love

For their sakes who are now above

The change of things whose forms are wrought

Into that linked chain of thought.'

Α

We regret to notice several typographical inaccuracies. stanza in the first page is ruined by the substitution of caves' for coves.

Farewell the wild coves of thy desolate shore,

Where the cliffs but re-echo the Triton's dread roar;
But there the free bark the proud Pasha defies,
And the Mainote exults o'er his Mussulman prize.'

Taken as a whole, this elegant miscellany does great credit to the taste and spirit of the Editor. The embellishments are decidedly superior to those in the former volume, and are very beautifully executed.

Art. VII. 1. Sermons, delivered, chiefly, in the Chapel of the East

India College. By the Rev. Charles Webb Le Bas, A.M. Professor of Mathematics, in the E. I. College, Hertfordshire, Rector of St. Paul, Shadwell, &c. 8vo. pp. 416. Price 10s. 6d. Lon

don. 1822. 2. Seventeen Sermons, by the Rev. Hugh M'Neile, A.M. Rector of

Albury, Surrey, Chaplain to H. E. the Lord Lieut. of Ireland, and to H. G. the Archbishop of Dublin. 8vo. pp. 440. Price

12s. London. 1825. 3. Parochial Sermons, by the Rev. W. Wilson, D.D. Rector of

Church Oakley, Hants, &c. 8vo, pp. 404. Oxford. 1826. THE HE resurrection of pulpit eloquence within consecrated

walls is a marked feature of the present times, and its consequences are already perceptible in the new moral impulse which has been communicated in many circles by this powerful organ. The church that neglects to avail itself of this means of influence, or that does not cherish and cultivate a genuine pulpit oratory, is as blind to its own interests as it is forgetful of its duty. Yet, till within comparatively, a recent period, no preaching was to be heard within the Church of England that deserved the name. Any thing approaching to eloquence was tacitly proscribed and effectually discountenanced as partaking of the character of enthusiasm. This prejudice has not ceased to operate. It affords too convenient a protection for incapacity and indolence to be abandoned without reluctance. There is something in talent, in eloquence more especially, which savours of a republican independence, a democratic energy, hostile to the repose of privileged mediocrity, and subversive of the claims derived from precedence, routine, interest, and prescriptive right. Preaching is an appeal to the people, though it be in the character of an instructor. It requires a species of competency, for which our ancient seats of learning have neglected to provide. On these and other accounts, it has been regarded as unworthy the patronage of the powers of Church and State. Now and then, such a one as Horsley could break through the fashion of dullness; and in his hands, that most tame and inane thing, as it had become, the sermon, resumed, in some measure, its force and dignity. But such instances were rare and few; and the contrast, in respect to any display of mind, between the English bar and senate and the English Church, has been, and still continues to a great extent, most singular and striking.

What is to induce a man who depends for no portion of his income, consideration, or respectability upon any intellectual effort, -who may even offend those whose good opinion be

he

values, by any insurrection of talent against customary forms and usage,-who knows that his advancement will be impeded, rather than promoted by the semblance of fervour and zeal,what is to induce him to waste his oil upon preparation for the pulpit, and to throw his serious efforts into a composition that is to perish with the utterance? We admit that other and purer motives ought to guide and animate the Preacher; but may be very conscientious, and yet, may content himself with a very indolent discharge of his duty. We admit, too, that the conversion of the sinner and the regeneration of the heart, are not to be accomplished by the efficiency of human eloquence or man's wisdom. But preaching is, as Hooker terms it, the blessed ordinance of God,' the most powerful instrument ever devised for ruling, and instructing, and softening the minds of men. It may be abused and misdirected, but the interests of society cannot be promoted by its being reduced to a nullity through the trammels of a false taste, and a dull, heartless formality. We rejoice, then, unfeignedly, that there are appearances of its assuming new life and energy in the pulpits of the Establishment, even though it should prove disadvantageous-and it will be their own fault if it does-to the cause of the Dissenters. That the multitudes who attend the parish church should be effectively taught, is a consideration that might serve to reconcile us even to a slight diminu tion of the numbers who attend upon what we may deem the more evangelical ministry. But this diminution will not take place, except as Dissenters suffer themselves to fall behind in the genuine qualifications of the Christian pastor and instructor.

From among a number of volumes, with the multiplication of which we find it impossible to keep pace, we have selected these three, as seeming to claim, though on different grounds, distinct notice. The first of the three has been for some time before the public, but as it had escaped our notice, it will probably be new to most of our readers. It belongs to a class of pulpit compositions, with which we are assuredly not overstocked, sermons excellently, though not exclusively, adapted to the higher classes. These were for the most part addressed to the young men in the East India College; and though not originally designed for publication, have evidently been composed, as the Author states, under a deep and constant sense of the solemn responsibility attached to the office of training men to fulfil a momentous destination in this life, and to stand before the presence of their God in that which is to 'come.' The Sermons are fraught with the most important instruction, conveyed in a style uniformly chaste, perspicuous, and unaffected, and not unfrequently rising into a most im

pressive strain of eloquent solemnity. Nothing could be more appropriate or striking, especially considering the Preacher's audience, than the whole tenor of the fourth sermon. The test is Prov. xiv. 9. “ Fools make a mock at sin.” We transcribe the close of the discourse.

- This caution is the more indispensable, because, in the earlier periods of life, the detestable effects of sin are seldom brought home to the conviction by personal observation and experience. The youthful mind is, generally, ignorant of the havoc which profligacy and ungodliness are hourly making with the peace of mankind. Wickedness, we know, is the parent of misery; but with misery, youth is but little conversant. Sin, therefore, unless it appear in the shape of some atrocious enormity, some act of open hostility against the established order of human society, is too apt to strike young persons as nothing more than a pardonable compliance with the inclidations of a nature which rejects all moral perfection as chimerical. They are consequently tempted to believe that the exact measure of indulgence can never be so important a matter as they find it represented in systems of religion and morality. They suspect that the censures of grave and pious men are dictated by a spirit of uncharitable exaggeration. Where a soul, long familiar with heavenly things, perceives a deadly provocation of the Divine Lawgiver, they see litile but the venial lapses of human frailty. This want of solemn impression, unhappily, leaves the mind sufficiently disengaged to seek amusement in all the grotesque distortions of the human character; in all the curious doublings and mazes of its deviation from rectitude ; in the thousand ludicrous accompaniments which so frequently relieve the most odious forms of transgression, converting the world into a motley assemblage, and imparting to life a sort of dramatic effect and variety. Hence, the very excesses of vice are, to them, fruitful in mirth and diversion. The worst obliquities of character may perhaps excite their contempt, but can scarcely ever awaken their sorrow. They are able to extract merriment from almost every infraction of morality, that does not entail positive infamy, or produce immediate and calamitous results. In short, they consider wickedness chiefly in its fantastic and extravagant exhibitions ; seldom in its remote and penal consequences. Such is the levity natural to characters as yet untutored by reflection, experience, or suffering! How awful then must be the danger of suffering it to remain uncorrected! To what a condition must that mind be hastening, which has never beheld sin in a formidable, or even serious shape : which has remained a stranger to its deformity; has been accustomed to treat it as a laughable weakness, and to scoff at all anxiety for its extirpation! By perseverance in such a course of pernicious trilling, a man may sooner or later deprive all solemn motives of any hold upon his conscience. He may utterly cut off all retreat from the dwellings of ungodliness to the peace and joy of the kingdom of heaven. He may even destroy within himself every wish for deliverance from his wretched captivity: and when this is the case, to all human apprehension the man is lost ;

and nothing can recover him but the mighty and especial working of God's Holy Spirit.

And where, under heaven, can be found a sight more dreadful than that of an immortal soul approaching the confines of eternity in this state of alienation from the love or fear of God? Let those who in early life are tempted to treat sacred things with derision, consider well the extremity to which the habit may lead them. Let them contemplate the aged scorner, that most hateful of fools, who, having survived his lusts, still cherishes the memory of their dominion; whose imagination still clings to evil, till at last he becomes a fanatic in the cause of licentiousness and irreligion, and delights to stifle, with fiend-like mockery, the scruples of hesitating and unpractised vice. This is a spectacle which even youth itself can scarcely look upon without loathing and contempt. There is in that age an instinct which, in the wildest delirium of pleasure, still perceives that gravity and holiness are the appropriate ornaments of the old; and that "the hoary head is a crown of glory," only "if found in the way of righteousness." The loosest votary of youthful indulgence feels, that irreverent sarcasm is odious in the mouth of decrepitude: he shrinks from the exhibition ás from something monstrous and unnatural. Let him then remember that he has before him an exact picture of the degradation that must ultimately await him, unless he seasonably, bursts the spell of this unhallowed folly. He may see his own future shame portrayed in the person of one, whose boast it is that, on the verge of the grave, at the very threshold of eternity, he can occupy, unconcerned, the "seat of the scornful." The spectacle of such depravity is well fitted to awaken the soul to "the terrors of the Lord," who hath prepared judgements for scorners, and stripes for the backs of fools," and thus, by their dreadful example, even the reprobate themselves may be compelled to minister to his glory.'

pp. 86-90.

There is a very striking sermon against profaneness, founded on Deut. xxviii. 58, 9., in the course of which the Preacher remarks, that numbers may trace the subversion of their prin'ciples to that unblest license of tongue which gradually robs every thing serious and holy of its command over the affections.' And he places this sin in a very awful but not less just point of view, when he suggests the reflection, whether there is not some alliance between this practice of degrading the Majesty of Heaven by trifling and irreverent allusion, and that sin which has been pronounced by our Lord himself beyond all hope of pardon. Equally solemn and impressive is the next discourse, on the danger of an imperfect repentance, illustrated by the allegory of the demoniac, Matt. xii. 45. Professor Le Bas rejects the usual interpretation of the parable, which applies it to the Jewish nation as a body, as not corresponding to the fact, as not likely to be understood by our Lord's hearers in so refined a meaning, and as incumbered VOL. XXVI. N.S.

2S