science, the unity of nature. Profoundly Christian, too, is that humility which distinguishes the science that traces its paternity to Bacon from the proud but visionary philosophies of antiquity. Only in the Christian era could a philosopher have discovered that the principle of science-the condition of knowledge-is not to theorise upon the universe, but to interpret nature. Science, thus indebted to Christianity, has in these last days, begun to repay the debt. The superficial difficulties which the geological and ethnological sciences have unquestionably suggested in relation to the Mosaic writings are as nothing compared with the confirmation of the truth of Christianity derived from scientific enquiries into the nature and history of man, and from the gradual exhibition of the fact that in all ages and in all climes man has been a religious, a worshipping being. Critical and historical science has taught us that, the higher and purer man's religious consciousness became, the nearer did he approach to an apprehension of the fundamental verities of the Christian faith. We frankly admit that the revelations of science have entailed upon theologians the duty of revising those summaries of Divine truth and human obligation which human wisdom had drawn up, and which some may have fondly imagined to contain, in final and rounded perfection, all that can be known of the ways of God to man, and the duty of man towards God. But who will deliberately maintain that the reason of man is capable of presenting an exhaustive and errorless abstract of the will of God? Who will not admit that, earnest, able, and pious as were the Fathers of the Church in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there is more in the Bible than in any or all of the ecclesiastical formularies left us from those times? And is not a new impulse to activity, with material for that impulse to act upon, a healthful and beneficent influence-an influence to be welcomed and rejoiced in, either by man, by nation, or by Church? Of one thing we are certain :-that, in the history of the world, so far as it has hitherto gone, there has been no instance of a religion pausing and ceasing to advance, without at the same time commencing to decay; while, on the other hand, there has been no instance in which intrepid acceptance of new light, as it streamed in dazzling splendour from on high, has not been the prelude to higher attainments and the enjoyment of a loftier prosperity. The old, indeed, has not been thrown away, but the new has been blended with it or added to it. Judaism was not destroyed in Christianity, but transfigured. Christianity was to Judaism the spirit of a new life. The Judaism which refused to ally itself with the new spirit of life took its place among the fossilised faiths of mankind. Mediæval Catholicism, in the same way, was not destroyed by the Reformation. Those sublime and awful mysteries of the faith which the Latin Church had preserved inviolate-those great doctrines which form the basis of Catholic orthodoxy-were accepted by the Reformers. But Luther, Zwingle, and Calvin brought the blended and searching beam of Scripture and reason to dissipate the superstition in which Catholic orthodoxy had been gradually enveloped in the Church of Rome; they led Christianity, so to speak, once more into the van of civilisation by associating it with the knowledge poured over Europe at the Revival of Letters: it was the old faith that they proclaimed, but they arrayed her in the beauty of a new morning. Since that time the sciences of astronomy and of geology, to mention no others, have extended the sphere of human knowledge incomparably more than was done by the revival of literature in the sixteenth century. There are some who affirm that the Christian religion, which did well enough for a temple lamp when man conceived his world to be the centre of the universe, must go out when the blue dome of immensity, fretted with suns and systems as with dust of gold, has opened over his head. There are some who bid us put aside the Bible in days when, instead of imagining that the earth is a snug little house put together in six natural days expressly for his accommodation, man beholds the magnificent procession of creation stretching along for dateless ages down the solemn aisles of the past. But those who believe the religion of Christ to be imperishable and immortal can reply by showing that its light suffices to fill the universe after science has revealed its true dimensions. In the olden time, the universe was conceived of chiefly as the dwelling of man; science, inspired by Christianity, teaches us to conceive of it as the dwelling of God. Can it be denied that this affords a new vantage-ground to the preacher, or that the pulpit may be the instrument of a more august mission than before? And if we add that every province of creation explored by the man of science, every new and beautiful truth revealed as to the colouring of the stars, the grouping of the flowers, the wreathing of the sea-shells, the habits of animals, the phenomena of earthquakes and volcanoes, the tides and currents of the ocean, the storms and clouds and meteors, is a new illustration of the power and wisdom of the Christian God; a new means of elucidating, enforcing, in one word presenting, the Christian Gospel; it will be surely unnecessary to accumulate further proof that the progress of modern science is to be looked upon as auxiliary to the Christian pulpit. The other advantage which preachers of the Gospel possess in these times, is that, in comparison with other ages, the age in which we live is tolerant. There are, perhaps, no two words in which more may be said to indicate the difference between the mental constitution of society, as it existed a few centuries ago, and as it exists in our day, than in these, tolerance and sympathy. When the mind is tolerant and the heart sympathetic, the preaching of Christianity becomes quite another thing from what it can be when the fountains of the soul are frozen up by the antipathy of the bigot, or shut with the clamps of an iron dogmatism. One would have thought that on the very face of Scripture-infinite in its variety-was inscribed the intimation that the Almighty intends His people to differ in their apprehension of all non-essential points in His revelation; and, this being so, it might surely have seemed reasonable that men should agree to differ. But it is only in these last times that they have, to any extent, learned to do so. The zeal, the energy, the devout enthusiasm, which ought to have converted the world, were wasted in the controversy and contending of Christian with Christian. Even in our own day there is too much of this, and the reflective mind has still to ponder in wondering sadness over the phenomenon of Christian thinking it a duty to hate Christian because, for example, the one deems it right to worship God in one kind of vestment, and the other in another. But the aspiration of the higher Christian consciousness of the time is after union; the feeling of the vast majority of intelligent Christians is that, in respect of specialities of doctrinal opinion, every man ought to be left to the judgment of his own Master, and that all denominations, instead of disputing about the way in which the evil of the world ought to be attacked, should bring their energies to bear in assailing it. Thus relieved from the contagion and en cumbrance of those earthly passions, envy, malice, conceit, self-love,-which have so frequently masqueraded in the garments of the sanctuary, the Christian preacher can proclaim the good tidings more fully and more glowingly than heretofore. He can more freely and fervently expatiate upon the spiritual aspects of Christianity, and can more perfectly bring out the essential character of the religion of the Cross, as an appeal to the affections of mankind based upon a transcendent manifestation of the love of God. On the whole, therefore, we conclude that the Christian pulpit has not reached the period when its influence must decline. That influence is, if possible, more urgently required in these tumultuous and agitated times than it ever was before. Restricting itself, as by the modern division of labour between the pulpit and the press it is enabled to do, to its proper duties, aided by the revelations of Divine power and wisdom made by modern science, and inspired with a tolerance, a sympathy, a charity, unknown in the hard old time, the pulpit may, we think, be destined to achieve more illustrious triumphs, and to wield a mightier power in our time, than it did in any previous age. 8 REV. W. MORLEY PUNSHON. The man whom we have selected for our first sketch in a series designed to illustrate the various phases of pulpit power in Great Britain is a characteristic and favourable example of the modern preacher. The Rev. WILLIAM MORLEY PUNSHON has in an astonishing degree that sympathy with his time which is indispensable to a great orator. His mind thrills responsive to the best influences of the age; and as he is moved himself, he moves others. Connected with the Wesleyan-Methodists, a denomination always distinguished by emotional fervour and practical piety, he has little of the dogmatist, nothing of the bigot, in his composition; and, ---true again to the best instincts and traditions of Wesleyan-Methodism,-he is more intent upon saving truth than upon ecclesiastical peculiarities. Gifted with the utmost intellectual vivacity, and having the eye of a skilful rhetorician for every fact of science or of history that can be used to explain a principle, to point an argument, to adorn and recommend a proposition, he collects from a thousand provinces the materials which enrich or beautify his discourse. He has the ear of a poet for melodious words and rhythmical cadences, for vivid metaphors and felicitous analogies; and as you listen to him you are amazed at the breathless rapidity with which his thoughts rush forth, and at the brilliant, polished and impetuous torrent of his language. water to states of the human mind. The solid ice, the liquid wave, the fluid steam; the radiant snow, robing the mountain, the glittering cloud that floats above its crest, the rattling hail, the pattering rain; the placid lake, the stagnant pool, the stately river, the wimpling, wandering, wayward, capriciously-beautiful brook; the flashing cataract, the plunging billow, the faint, flitting, ghost-like vapour that lingers among the pines at dawn, the iris-painted foam of the cascade, the summer shower spanned by the bow of promise,—there was no form or semblance, in which water can appear, out of which he did not bring some spiritual significance. were Softly brilliant, however, and touched with evanescent lights of sweet imagining, as Mr. PUNSHON'S style commonly is, he can take, occasionally, the accent of the thunder. "Oh, if the righteous God," he once exclaims, to make inquisition for blood, upon the testimony of how many slaughtered witnesses might he convict pampered and lordly Britain! There is need, strong need, for our national humiliation and prayer. He who girt us with power can dry up the sinews of our strength. Let but His anger be kindled by our repeated infidelities, and our country shall fall. More magnificent than Babylon in the profusion of her opulence, she shall be more sudden than Babylon in her ruin; more renowned than Carthage for her military triumphs, shall be Polish and impetuosity may seem incompati- more desolate than Carthage in her mourning; ble; but in reality they are not so; and in Mr. princelier than Tyre in her commercial greatPUNSHON'S eloquence they are combined. His ness, shall be more signal than Tyre in her fall; mastery of thought and language is exactly of wider than Rome in her extent of territorial that kind which befits and distinguishes a great dominion, shall be more prostrate than Rome in orator as distinguished from a great poet. Mr. her enslavement; prouder than Greece in her PUNSHON has published poetry, and many of his eminence of intellectual culture, shall be more stanzas are remarkable for grace and sweetness; degraded than Greece in her darkening; more but he has not originality of idea, or power of exalted than Capernaum in the fulness of her reliimagination, sufficient for a great poet.. It is in gious privileges, shall be more appalling than listening to his sermons and orations that we Capernaum in the deep damnation of her doom." feel him to be a man of genius. Not least These are the words of a man in earnest; and remarkable is his extremely ingenious and it is impossible to hear Mr. PUNSHON speak, or brilliant fancy. Perhaps this word is sugges- to read what he has written, without feeling tive of a power more trivial than what we intend that his faith in Christianity is written upon his to indicate. We refer to Mr. PUNSHON'S capa- heart, and that the fervour which thrills in his city for detecting resemblances, and for tracing words is a reality for his own bosom. Take slight and delicate clues of analogy. The the following contrasted pictures, struck off symbolism of nature in relation to Christianity, with strong, rapid, decisive touch, to catch the he exquisitely apprehends. We shall never eye of youth :- "Young men, you cannot live forget the impression produced upon our to yourselves. Every word you utter makes mind by hearing him treat of the symbolism its impression, every deed you do is fraught of water, or rather apply the symbolism of with influences—successive, concentric, im heart of adamant was broken by the sudden memory of some dead mother's prayer.” a parted--which may be felt for ages. This is a terrible power which you have, and it clings to you, you cannot shake it off. How will you Mr. PUNSHON is by birth a Yorkshireman. exert it? We place two characters before you: He was born at Doncaster, in the year 1824. here is one :- he is decided in his devotedness His father carried on business as a draper, and to God-pains-taking in his search for truth- took a prominent part in connection with the strong in benevolent purpose and holy endea- Wesleyan cause in the district. In a worldly vour-wielding a blessed influence-failing oft, point of view, his father was successful, and he but ceasing never-ripening with the lapse of enjoyed every advantage of a gentle up-bringyears—the spirit mounting upon the breath of ing. His family connections were of an emiits parting prayer-the last enemy destroyed-nently respectable character, and he received his memory green for ages-and grateful thou- his second Christian name from his uncle, Sir sands chiselling on his tomb, HE, BEING Isaac Morley, of the West Riding of Yorkshire. DEAD, YET SPEAKETH.' There is another: When about eleven years of age, the charge of he resists religion's impression-outgrows the his education was committed to an Indepennecessity for prayer-forgets the lessons of his dent Minister residing at Heanor, Derbyshire. youth, and the admonitions of his godly home He soon gave proof of an unusual aptitude -forsakes the sanctuary-sits in the seat of the for learning. He is described at this time as scorner-laughs at religion as a foolish dream-stiff, chubby lad, with fresh curly hair, a full influences many for evil-runs to excess of wick- proportion of the love of sport, and above all, a edness sends, in some instances, his victims most extraordinary memory. He would comdown before him-is stricken with premature mit to memory, for the mere pleasure of the old age has hopeless prospects, and a terrible effort, long passages from the Speaker,' and death-bed-rots from the remembrance of his fel- recite them to his schoolfellows; and it is said lows-and angel hands burn in upon his gloomy that he could repeat the names of all the sepulchre the epitaph of his blasted life, AND British Constituencies, with the names of all the THAT MAN PERISHED NOT ALONE IN members representing them, without a mistake.” HIS INIQUITY."" This extraordinary power of memory has distinguished Mr. PUNSHON throughout his career, and can be distinctly traced as one of the most important elements which have contributed to the formation of his capacity as an orator. As he reads, whether it be in poem, in prose volume, or in newspaper article, the felicitous images and expressions cling to his mind, colour his thought, and, more or less modified by his distinctive genius, appear again in his orations. He has assimilated them, so that they have become his; and the faculty required for thus assimilating and using them is as strictly original, as much Mr. PUNSHON's own, as if he had been their inventor. The inventive power But Mr. PUNSHON is by no means a mere preacher of wrath and terror. On the contrary he feels that it is not by brandishing the fire of hell, as a hangman's whip," over the heads of men that they are to be turned from vice to virtue, but by bringing out, with persuasive efficacy, the tenderness of Christ. "The great work," he says once, "of the world's uplifting, now-a-days, is not to be wrought by the stern prophet of wrath, moving amongst men with the austerity, as well as with the inspiration of the wilderness, but by the mild and earnest seer who comes, like the Son of Man, 'eating and drinking,' of genial soul and blithe companionship, and divinest pity; who counsels without haughtiness, and reproves without scorn; and who bears about with him the reverent consciousness that he deals with the majesty of man. Neither the individual nor the aggregate can be lectured out of vice nor scolded into virtue. There is a relic of humanness, after all, lingering in every heart, like a dear gage of affection, stealthily treasured amid divorce and estrangement, and the far wards where it is locked up from men can be opened only by the living sympathy of love. Society is like the prodigal, whom corrective processes failed to reform, and whom gaol discipline only tended to harden, and whom enforced exile only rendered more audacious in his crime; but adown whose bronzed cheek a tear stole in a far-off land, at some stray thought of home, and whose 6 and comes into play in the adaptation of the stores of memory to his particular purposes; though the degree of invention is not so great as if word and metaphor had been absolutely minted in his own imagination, the faculty of invention is really present. Intentional plagiarism in the case of Mr. PUNSHON is out of the question. Let us, in a sentence, illustrate our meaning. Here is a pen-sketch of Bunyan in his cell in prison, after his children have left him for the night :- "His pen is in his hand, and his Bible on the table. A solitary lamp dimly relieves the darkness. But there is fire in his eye, and there is passion in his soul. 'He writes as if joy did make him write.' He has felt all the fulness of his story. The pen moves too slowly for the rush of feeling as he graves his own heart upon the - B page. There is beating over him a storm of I started once, or seemed to start, in pain, melody, to be taken into the mind and an The The two last lines of course suggested the MORLEY PUNSHON was not at first designed for concluding sentence in the preceding extract the clerical profession. He was entered, when from Mr. PUNSHON. Singularly enough, the fifteen years old, as clerk in a shipping house in orator had put, within inverted commas, im- Hull, and from Hull he proceeded to Sundermediately before, a comparatively trite and land. His fondness for study appears to have insignificant expression. He recollected that continued, and the development of his mind it was borrowed. The superb and original was evidently not interrupted; but it was not thought of Tennyson, which occurs in the until he was about twenty years of age, that he stanza quoted above, had made its home in his thought seriously of devoting himself to the mind, and by the very intensity of his delight ministry. At this time a powerful and salutary in it, he may have forgotten whence it came. influence was exerted upon him by his uncle, The adopted child was so loved that he mistook the Rev. Benjamin Clough, eminent as it for his own progeny. Accordingly, he does Oriental scholar, and one of the earliest Wesnot put marks of quotation to the clause for leyan Missionaries. In 1845, Mr. PUNSHON prewhich he was indebted to Tennyson. The sented himself in London, to be examined as a probability is that Mr. PUNSHON was not con- candidate for the Wesleyan ministry, and one scious in this case that the similitude adopted who was present on the occasion has testified to by him had been previously made use of, the impression produced by his answers. and it is almost certain that, even if he had first seven years of his ministry were passed in a feeling that he must have met with it the north of England, where he preached sucsomewhere, he could not have told where it cessively in Whitehaven, Carlisle, and NewWe are now-a-days constantly reading castle, and became extremely popular in the books and newspapers, and it would really be north. He had already published a small a frightful consideration if, by repeating one volume of poems; and when at Carlisle, he pubout of the hundred phrases or ideas which lished a little work, entitled, Tabor; or, the have happened to lodge in our minds, without Class Meeting." In subsequent years he has rementioning, or even knowing, that it was not tained his early delight in poetry; and, in 1867, our own, we should make ourselves liable to a he issued a small volume of verse, "The offcharge of plagiarism. In point of fact, the spring," as he gracefully says, "of a year's instinctive appropriation by memory of every enforced pause amid the activities of a busy happy image, every picturesque expression, ministry." He coveted for it three successes; every musical word which occurs in one's that, if God willed, it might be "a messenger of reading, is an invariable characteristic of the mercy to the wandering, a comforter to the poetical and oratorical mind. Scott says somewhere, if we recollect rightly, that he never forgot friends." He has had his wish, and the poems, troubled, and a memory of the writer to many a picturesque expression which he once heard; though not very striking, are exquisite in lanand in the poetry of Tennyson himself, distin-guage and pervaded with true Christian feeling. guished as it is by marked and indubitable We quote a few characteristic stanzas: was. originality, the attentive ear will detect echoes not a few from Shakespeare and from Scott. Young men who intend to devote themselves professionally either to the pulpit, the press, or the platform, may derive a most important practical hint from all this. So far as possible they should read only such books as are well written, and they should read them, not cursorily and carelessly, but with eye and ear vigilantly on the watch for any brilliant stroke of colour, any sweet and winning tone of On, swift and stern, the purpose runs, But ere its solemn funeral, The memories of its various times |