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necessary for the preacher to look far below the surface of things. Where the careless eye sees only bubbles on the deep swift currents of thought and feeling, he needs to know the course of those currents and whither they are tending. He must be familiar not only with the general questions which at all times naturally agitate the human mind, and which can never be put to rest, but will rise up before every generation and demand a solution; but also with the great questions of his day, which are pondered and discussed by his hearers. He needs to be familiar with such questions in their underlying principles. He must know the course of the great drift of thought among the men of his age. Error is to be met in its principles, or it is met to no good purpose. It is of little use to prick a bubble as it floats on the rushing stream of thoughtother bubbles will rise and the stream will still rush on to its destiny. Its course must be changed.

It has often been said of late that the pulpit, as compared with other agencies, is losing much of its influence. We do not think this is so. We think, on the other hand, that preaching has been steadily advancing. The sermons of the nineteenth century are superior in almost everything which gives value to a sermon, to the sermons of the third and fourth centuries. The latest sermons in these volumes are, as a general fact, the best; and if Mr. Fish shall fulfill, as we hope he will, his purpose to select another volume from the sermons of living divines, we do not doubt that that volume, though selected from the discourses of only one generation of preachers, will be equal in value to either of these. Not that the latest preachers have been greater and better men than their predecessors, but that they have learned from the past, have been borne along by the influences which have come on from the past, and have availed themselves of its garnered treasures. Still the pulpit ought to have more power than it has. If it has, as we believe it has, more efficiency to-day than ever before, it has not yet all it is destined to have. It ought even to be in advance of society, and to take the lead of all the influences that are borne to the hearts of men as God's plans of mercy hasten to their fulfillment. Preaching will gain power, first through more of the accompanying energies of the Holy Spirit, and secondly by a constant improvement in the modes of presenting truth. The first the preacher is to pray for; the second he must strive to attain by every means in his power; and the question which he ought most seriously to ponder is, "How can I best present the truth to the men of this nineteenth century-the men with whom I have to deal-so as to arrest their attention, to remove 24

VOL. XIV.

their errors and lead them to renounce their sins and become the sons of God." To effect his object, he has the same old truths of the gospel which have stood the test of centuries, and which, though old, are ever new, as mighty now as when apostles and reformers spake them, and destined ere this dispensation of the Spirit shall close, to evolve a power which shall destroy all the forms of human error, superstition and sin. With these great principles he is to render himself perfectly familiar in all the varying forms in which they are manifested and illustrated in the word and providence of God. He can do nothing without them; and the better he comprehends them, and the more he imbibes their spirit and feels their power, the better fitted is he for his work. And that he may know how to apply them, he is to study also the age in which he lives-its tendencies, its modes of thought and feeling. It is not enough for him that he knows he must know men, the men of his generation-the men whom he seeks to influence, and among whom he holds his dread responsibilities. He must know how to apply the truth to them, and if he would give his preaching its full power, he must manfully and boldly apply it to all the shifting forms of impiety. He must show himself in sympathy with God, and fearful of no harm to himself while he speaks the truth of God. He must construct his sermons too, not on the model of any bygone generation-not in the traditionary forms which he has received from his ances tors, but learning what he can from the best models of all times and all countries, and adopting this as his controlling rule, that that is the best sermon which is best fitted to answer the true end of a sermon; he must make every discourse, such both in matter and in form, as shall be best adapted to save the souls for which he is to watch and to give account.

man,

ART. III.-PROFESSOR SHEDD'S "DISCOURSES AND ESSAYS."

Discourses and Essays. By WILLIAM G. T. SHEDD. Andover: Published by W. F. Draper. 1856.

THE striking sincerity, vigor, and learning of this volume will be admired even by those readers, who cannot go with the anthor in all his opinions. Whatever debate the philosophical tendencies of the book may challenge, its literary ability and moral spirit will be commended everywhere. It is hard to criticize the style of these productions, apart from the matter. This we hold to be the evidence of a rare merit. For we seldom find the form so related to the contents of an essay-so identical with the contents that the two must be comtemplated together, or not at all. The strength with which the author enunciates his views, discovers the depth of his conviction that they are true and valuable. He marches, from beginning to end, with a straightforward, manly sense of power. And there are single passages here and there, which seize on the attention and strongly stir the heart, by their vigorous and animated tone. The expression leaps out from a deep place, and startles us, like a flash of lightning. Yet the conciseness and severity of the sentences is nowhere affected. The man is speaking to us, without artifice or any straining for effect. And the absence of timidity is not associated with arrogance or exaggeration. On the contrary, the volume breathes a genial and temperate spirit. There is often a singular vividness of language, as if the soul of the writer were all in motion. And this makes him uniformly earnest, and gives to the products of his mind a fresh and original aspect. From a writer with these qualities, we should expect a perspicuous exposition of whatever views he undertakes to present. In perusing this volume, we have seldom found reason to complain of obscurity or vagueness. thoughts stand on the page, in clean array. The sentence has the sharp, definite outlines of the idea which it embodies. The style of Professor Shedd would satisfy John Foster's craving for a conclusive manner of writing, where we may feel at the end of a paragraph or discourse, that something is settled and done. We have heard complaints of a want of clearness in the Essay on Original Sin, (the last in the volume,) but they are not justly made. It will be our duty, before we close, to find fault with

The

that dissertation, on other grounds. But we deem it sufficiently lucid. The meaning is not to be mistaken by persons who are competent to enter on such an investigation, and only this class is addressed. In our country, no broad line of distinction is drawn between men of science, and the rest of the people. In reference to metaphysics and theology especially, there is murmuring, if the most abstruse questions are not discussed in a way to be at once intelligible to men who have had no special culture in these departments of knowledge. This demand is unreasonable, and cannot be gratified, if we are to have any such thing as science. Knowledge and previous training in kindred studies, must be presupposed in the reader. Euclid is a lucid work; but Euclid cannot be mastered without preparatory discipline on the side of the learner. Kant-the most definite and rigorous of thinkers and writers-is censured more than he deserves on the score of obscurity. In general, the charge of obscurity leveled against philosophical works, is frequently the proof of clouds on the mind of the reader, which need to be cleared away by a severer culture before he ventures on such inquiries. The public should learn that skill in other things, does not qualify a man to pronounce a confident opinion in Biblical criticism, or apprehend with ease the abstractions of a purely mental science. It should be known that a technical terminology is just as necessary in Theology, as in Law or Medicine. Technical terms, instead of darkening a subject, contribute essentially to clearness of discussion. The taste the delicate appreciation of beauty, as well the sensibility to what is sublime in truth-are also eminent virtues in these productions; and are all the better for not being pushed into prominence. These qualities, as the Author has himself argued in various parts of his volume, are the blossom of a true education. Beauties of style must grow naturally out of the mind; and it is vain for a writer to gather them and try to lug them in from without. Among the numerous literary and historical allusions in this work, we have not observed one that appeared to have been sought with pains-taking, and attached for ornament. At a time when our public orations on questions vital to the common welfare, and even sermons, are taking on an artificial elegance, it is grateful to meet with so much of rhetorical honesty, as this volume evinces. Rhetoric, if cultivated without a moral

purpose, and if elevated out of its sphere, is a corrupt and debasing art. It is a species of falsehood that eats out the best feelings of the heart, and cannot long impose on discerning men. An artificial rhetoric thus baffles its own end, and becomes ineffective as well as disgusting.

We should be glad, if the opportunity allowed, to consider the papers in the book before us, severally. We must be content with a rapid and cursory description of them-reserving our space for the examination of the last essay, to which belongs the most theological value.

super

The discourse on "The Method and Influence of Theological Studies," is a just tribute to theology as the mother and nurse of what is great and lasting in literature. At the beginning, a distinction is made between what is "natural" and what is natural." The latter term is said to include what is religious -for example, in the attributes of God, his holiness, justice, and mercy. We do not think that the author has developed his idea with sufficient fullness. And this use of the terms, out of their ordinary import, makes him appear to disparage the science of Natural Religion. With this one criticism, we gladly make room for the following passage, which illustrates the character of the discussion:

"But sin always takes vengeance, and all literature which is purposeless, and does not breathe an earnest spirit, is destitute of the highest excellence. It will want the solemnity, the enthusiasm, the glow, the grandeur, and the depth, which proceeds only from a lofty and serious intention in the mind of the author. And this purpose can dwell only in the mind which is haunted by the higher ideas and truths of supernaturalism. It is in vain for the lite rary man to seek his inspiration in the earthly, or the intellectual, world. He must derive it from the heaven of heavens.

"Both in heathen and in Christian literature, we find the noblest productions to be but the embodiment of a purpose; and the purpose is always intimately connected with the moral world. The Iliad proposes to exhibit the battle of heaven and earth, of gods and men, united in defense of the rights of injured hospitality. This proposition pervades the poem, and greatly contributes to invest it with the highest attributes of literature. The Grecian drama is serious and awful with the spirit of law and vengeance. Its high motive, is to teach all those solemn and fearful truths regarding justice and injustice which constitute the law written on the heart, and are the substance of the universally accusing and condemning conscience of man. Pagan though the Greek drama be, yet when we consider the loftiness and fixedness of its intention to bring before the mind all that it can know of the supernatural short of revela tion, we hesitate not to say that it is immeasurably ahead of much of so-called Christian literature, in its doctrine and influence, as well as in its literary characteristics. As the scholar contemplates the elevated moral character running through this portion of Grecian literature, and contrasts it with much of that which is called Christian in distinction from heathen, he is led to take up that indignant exclamation of Wordsworth utttered in another connection,

* I'd rather be

▲ Pagan, suckled in a creed outworn.

"Of all literary men who have written since the promulgation of the Christian religion, Milton seems to have most strongly felt the influences of theology, and he more than all others was animated and strengthened by a high moral aim. In his literary works he distinctly and intentionally has in view the advancement of truth and the glory of God. These were his matins duly, and his even-song.' And to this noble purpose, as much as to his magnificent intel

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