the pulpit, and with bitter feelings I listened to the closing sentence of the sermon, which was, "O house of Israel, why will ye die?-return to your best Friend, who in his dying hour prayed, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do!" At hearing the last words I was terror-stricken. My conscience told me that this prayer of Messiah did not include me. I seemed to myself at that moment as the most guilty of our nation. I could not plead ignorance. I felt that, if I any longer delayed to confess Jesus, he would not say, "Father, forgive him; for he knows not what he does." Condemned, abased, I could no longer restrain myself; and at that moment, simultaneously with the congregation, I dropped on my knees, and prayed, "Lord Jesus, have mercy on me!" SKETCHES. BY THE REV. DENIS KELLY, M.A., Minister of Trinity Church, Gough-square, No. LVI. THE CRITIC. "But where's the man who counsel can bestow, POPE "ESSAY ON CRITICISM." As this is an age of critics, a word or two upon the function assumed by so many may not be without its use. It may be observed, then, that the office of the critic is a high and honourable and responsible one. There is no character more deserving of our respect and esteem and admiration than the "critic" in the strict and eminent sense of that term. We assign to him some of the best qualities of the head and of the heart. He is the man of refined and cultivated taste, of acute powers of perception, of extensive reading, of solid and accurate judgment. He is candid, honourable, discerning, free from personal bias, from prejudice or partiality. He holds in his hands the even balances of justice. Truth is the object of his search. Truth is his guide, his pole-star. He feels the duty imposed on him to be a sacred one. He makes conscience of discharging it faithfully. He would not praise where he ought to censure, nor censure where he ought to praise, for worlds. He is a man also of enlarged, liberal, generous soul. He is free from all that is little, mean, peevish, captious, despicable. The man of a little, narrow mind is incompetent for the office of a critic-one that fights with straws, that makes one an offender for a word*, the hypercritic! No: the mind of the true critic is enlarged, bold, comprehensive: it is the most patient and liberal of all others, and makes the largest allowances and is the least offended with trifles. Such a one, therefore, naturally possesses * "Non ego paucis offendar maculis" (Horace). fluence-great moral weight. And perhaps there is no homage more sincere than that which the public mind renders to him. Whether they own it or not, men bow to his decisions. He influences, guides, and forms the public taste. He discovers and brings to light latent beauties and excellences which escape the notice of others. He repels mildly, yet firmly, empty, shallow pretence; but he is the true friend to real merit and genuine worth wherever found, and is therefore justly accounted a public benefactor. But, the higher, the more honourable and important the function of the critic in itself, the more we have to lament any abuse of it, because such an abuse is the prostitution of powers, which are designed to serve the most important ends, to the lowest and basest purposes. In that case, the beacon is converted into a treacherous light, the pilot into a false guide-a wrecker. Nothing naturally so shocks us as to discover want of principle in one whom we have been accustomed to venerate. The greater good the "critic" can do by the legitimate exercise of his vocation, the greater the mischief which results from the perversion and abuse of it. And, when the critic abuses the influence which he exercises over the public mind, by employing that influence to gratify personal spleen, when he allows prejudice to guide his pen, when he flings everything like justice and candour to the winds, when he makes up his mind beforehand, influenced merely by private personal pique, or whatever other motive, to condemn unheard, unread, he is guilty of an act the most unjustifiable. It betrays an unprincipled mind and an unfeeling heart. He who acts such a part has forfeited his claim on public confidence: he deserves not to be trusted. Let his talents and acquirements be of ever so high an order, he deserves not to be taken as a safe guide. You may admire his talents, but you cannot rely upon his fairness. It is deeply to be lamented that such an abuse should ever have been made of the critic's office. It has been a suicidal act. It has neutralized and destroyed an influence which would else have been as wholesome as it is powerful. It has made those decisions, which would have been deemed (and justly deemed) almost oracular, too often little better than a bye-word, a taunt, a scoff; so that it has become almost proverbial, "Who ever regards a criticism? The judgment given is determined merely by personal bias. It is prejudice or partiality that speaks, and not truth." So that, instead of regarding the critic's approval as the noblest commendation which could be bestowed on merit, as the deliberate voice of combined wisdom and talent and judgment and taste, it is now, alas! too frequently regarded merely as the word of the partizan. It carries little weight with it, inasmuch as (according to the general opinion) it shows rather the personal leaning of the writer of it, than his real, just, candid, conscientious opinion. It is cause for deep regret that this high and honourable trust should ever have been so abused. have The interests of literature, of truth, of taste, suffered great damage in consequence. But indeed these remarks apply not only to criticism in the sense generally understood-i. e., to in-criticism on books and literary compositions, but also to the judgments and criticisms passed (for all exercise the craft now-learned and unlearned, we a poor despised preacher; but it is a more serious all criticise) on teachers and public speakers, but affair, it is an unsafe experiment to laugh at the more especially on those who are charged with word of God. But let me not be mistaken. I the responsible office of teaching and ministering forbid not criticism. I do not deprecate it. in sacred things. For now-a-days-in this pro- On the contrary, if it be fair, candid, rational, foundly learned and most enlightened age-it is great good must come of it. I bid not people much more common for people to listen to a to muffle and blind their judgments when they sit preacher in order to criticize him, than in order to under a preacher; but I protest against putting obtain instruction from him. The great duty of shallow, paltry, ignorant, pitiful spite and spleen people now seem to be to sit in judgment upon what in the place of just and honourable and candid is said. All take on them to criticize. Every one criticism. I would merely say (and I think none now discusses the merits of the preacher. And it can find fault with this), condemn not without first may be noticed, as a somewhat remarkable fact, knowing what it is that you do condemn. Do that many who are incapable of clearly appre- not fight with shadows, with the coinage of your hending the meaning or the general bearing of own brain, as if the preacher were to be accountalmost a sentence that is uttered, from the begin-able for it. It is well to censure where censure is ning to the end of a sermon, can nevertheless cri- deserved; and I do not deprecate it. But do ticize a composition as a whole, and severely not censure without being able to say why you do enough too-nay, condemn it in unmeasured so. It is very fit and proper to correct a mistake; terms; and surely this is quite as easily done as but it is very foolish to correct where no mistake to pass a judgment upon a book, and consign it has been made. It may be admissible to feel a to its fate without reading it. They who cannot prejudice where there is good ground for it, but for the life of them tell what the text is, or what not where there is no ground whatever for it. it is about, or the connexion in which it is found, can yet speak most confidently upon the sermon delivered upon it. Their memory may be equally treacherous with regard to the discourse itself. They may equally fail in remembering a single sentence of it. But this makes no difference with them : they are not the less confident on that account: they do not stop at trifles. Now it may not be amiss to throw out two or three hints for the benefit of such critics, though I do so with great deference when addressing persons of their superior attainments. I would say then, first, if they must take on them the office, if they must criticize, let them do so fairly and impartially. Let them not make up their minds beforehand to condemn. Let them strive to give a better reason for condemning a discourse, for rejecting the reasons advanced, for casting all that is said to the winds, than this: "I do not like the man." Have some little regard to what he says. If we despise the critic who condemns a book without reading it, I do not think that he who condemns a preacher without taking into account a single word that he has said is deserving a much higher place as a critic in our estimation. It might be well for such to consider that, did they listen to an archangel in the same spirit in which they listen to some of their teachers, he could not profit them. I condemn not criticism. On the contrary, I invite it. But let it be exercised with good this case much good must result from it. A new sense, discernment, impartiality, good feeling. In interest will be awakened. The labours of ministers will be better understood and more prized. Hearing will become more profitable exercise, because prejudice and uncandid criticism are the great obstacles to profitable hearing. Criticism, become the most noble, the most worthy of the enfrom being the most contemptible of all arts, will lightened, liberal mind. By this means sball ther simultaneously. This will lead to a higher head-knowledge and heart-experience grow togeestimation of the work of the ministry," and to the greater edification of the people. Weekly Almanac. "There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father. the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one."1 JOHN v. 7. ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hast given unto us thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of tho eternal Trinity, and in the power of the divine Majesty to worship the Unity; we beseech thee that thou wouldest keep us stedfast in this faith, and evermore defend us from all adversities, who livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen. JUNE. MORN. LESSONS. EVEN. LESSONS. 6. Trinity Sunday.... {Matt. iii. It may be useful also to hint, for the information of certain critics very acute, that it might be of advantage to them to consider when they are disposed to carp and sneer and laugh, whether it is really the preacher's own words that are the subject of their ridicule, or the words of a much higher authority. For, alas! this unhappy mistake sometimes occurs; and I have known some self-complacent critics listen with a sneer of contempt and ridicule to words which were supposed to be the preacher's, but of which the preacher was quite innocent, which turned out to be the words of inspiration. This may be a useful hint to those who possess (or suppose they do, which is much the same) a keen sense of the ludicrous, and are fond of exercising their talent upon the discourses of their spiritual instructors. It is a "small matter" to laugh at the words of man-of 12. Saturday ........ ........ 7. Monday ........ 11. Friday (St. Barna- Ecclus x. bas) .......... 1 Acts xiv. Mark xii. Ecclus. xii. Acts xv. 1-35. Job xvii. xviii. 2 Cor. ix. "The economy of God in the gospel dispensation is shut up in a few words: We have access to God, through Christ, by the Spirit.' To give you a distinct conception of this, and of the different offices of the Son and by the Spirit, you must conceive the Spirit of God as always present with us, the Son as always in the presence of the Father. The Spirit dwells with the faithful, to guide and to direct them, to second and encourage all their good desires, to help them in overcoming their infirmities; in a word, to labour together with them in the work of their salvation, to make their calling and election sure. The Son of God is at the right hand of the Majesty on high: there he is our advocate; he intercedes for us; he receives and offers up our prayers; he obtains for us the remission of our sins, in virtue of the one oblation which he once made of himself upon the cross, the memorial of which is ever in the sight of God. This will teach us what it is to have access, by the Spirit, through Christ. For the Spirit abideth with us: he is at our right hand; and by his happy influence it is that we draw near to Christ, and by him approach to the Father. The Son is our Highpriest, clothed with majesty and power, and seated at the right hand of God, able to save all who will come to him; through whose powerful and all-prevailing mediation and intercession the way is opened to pardon and reconciliation. The Spirit is our Comforter, given us to dwell and abide with us, to be a principle of new life within us, to quicken our mortal bodies,' that, dying to sin, we may live unto God through holiness. To draw men to God is the work of the Spirit, who therefore resides and dwells with men. To reconcile God to man is the work of our High-priest, who lives in the glory of God, making continual intercession for us" (Bp. Sherlock). "O my soul, rejoice in the love of the Father, Son, and Spirit, that one God who hath done such great things for thee, and who will yet do more; yes, more than eye hath seen, ear heard, or hath entered into the heart of man to conceive. To this one God be glory. Amen. Hallelujah!" (A. Serle). "Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee. Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty! God in three Persons! blessed Trinity!" (Bp. Heber). H. S. THE TRINITY: A Sermon, BY THE REV. JOHN AYRE, M.A., Minister of St. John's Chapel, Hampstead. "To whom, then, will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him ?" IN the being and nature of the Deity there is much to abase human pride and to try human wisdom. We could have known little or almost nothing of him, had he not been pleased to show himself to us; and it is, therefore, not surprising that, when he does show us any thing respecting himself, it is beyond our conception and different from what we should have anticipated. We must only beware that, if this be so, we do not disbelieve the testimony afforded us, and refuse to imagine the Highest other than such a one as ourselves. I am led into this train of thought, because we are to-day invited to consider a high matter of God's subsistence, at which some to approach it with humble desire for the men have grievously stumbled. We ought Holy Spirit's teaching, and a simple submission of our faith to the Lord's will. It is so only that we shall reach that truth which it is of the vastest moment for us to hold fast. The prophet Isaiah, in the words which I have read to you as the text, is employing an emphatic question to convince those whom he addresses that the Lord of hosts is high above human imagination. "To whom, then, will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye It will furnish, I compare unto him?" think, an appropriate subject for our present consideration. I would invite your attention I. To the carnal notions men are apt to entertain of God; II. To the wise trial of faith which the scripture revelation supplies. I earnestly pray that the divine Spirit may bless the word which shall now be spoken to you. I. We find that the knowledge of the true God soon faded from the minds of Noah's descendants. That patriarch had been. favoured with a clear revelation; and he had offered a pure worship. But even among his sons depravity began to manifest itself. And in a generation or two very gross ideas prevailed. Men were not satisfied with the fact of a Being pure and spiritual, dwelling in the highest heaven, apart from mortal eye. And they chose to represent him by sensible figures, to which by-and-bye the most degrading worship was paid. Some practices of this kind are described in the verses immediately succeeding the text. "The workman melteth a graven image .... he, that is 80 impoverished that he hath no oblation, chooseth a tree that will not rot: he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved." Men must have something tangible, something that they can fully comprehend; and, therefore, they have rejected the glorious majesty of the invisible God, and have devised creations of their own brain; the foundation of all this being that "they became vain in their imaginations", and thus "their foolish heart was darkened", so that, "professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." 2. We find the same temper at work in the Jews. They too imitated the heathen in desiring idols, gods whom they might see; and they also, even if refraining from this open grossness, were continually prone to let their carnal reasonings interfere with their reception of the divine word. Thus we perceive that they were continually questioning God's ability to work miracles. In the wilderness, even after he had supernaturally supplied them with manna, they unbelievingly asked, "Can he provide flesh for his people?" They were discontented afterwards with the Lord's government of them, and demanded a king, who might go in and out before them, and command their armies, and judge them like the sovereigns of other people. They had a nobler privilege than other nations, but they could not appreciate this; they could not raise their thoughts so high. Then, again, when Christ came into this world, they could not understand his character, they could not conceive how he could be both David's Lord and David's Son, nor how while not yet fifty years old he had seen Abraham. They therefore supposed him guilty of blasphemy, because he made himself equal with God, and murmured when he spoke of giving his flesh to eat. Of the spiritual nature of his kingdom they could form no idea; and, going about to establish their own righteousness, they would not submit themselves to the righteousness of God. All this was because they reduced every thing to a mere worldly standard; they did not choose to recollect that there might be truths beyond the reach that there might be truths beyond the reach of reason, and that, as the heavens are high above the earth, so God's ways were higher than their ways, and his thoughts than their thoughts. 3. We may trace similar consequences even down to our own times. There have been men, of great natural parts too, who, because they never witnessed a miracle, have boldly denied that miracles were ever performed; men who, because some things in the scripture are hard to be understood, have rejected its inspiration; men who, because they could not fully measure with their finite minds the doctrines of the gospel, have cast them off. But, really, when one seriously reflects upon such conduct, it is to continue always in a state of intellectual childhood. He, who will credit nothing that is not apparent to his senses, cripples himself with the most enervating chains. He, who does not allow that the Deity is incomprehensible, is in truth the most irrational of reasoners; for he would make out that this vast universe was created and is upheld and governed by one whose mind he, a puny worm of the dust, is able to comprehend. How could such a Being be in power infinite, in wisdom past finding out? The doctrine of the Trinity has been impugned on no better grounds than those to which I have been adverting. Be cause men cannot comprehend its mystery, they would maintain that there must be no mystery at all: they cut the knot which they cannot unloosen they would liken God unto a man, and compare him to the likeness of such a one as themselves. The fact is most plainly revealed in scripture. The Word is been in the beginning with God, and to be God declared to have created all things, to have (John i.). The Spirit is pronounced divine; Holy Ghost, are said to have lied not unto man, seeing that the wretched pair, who lied to the but unto God (Acts v.). And the mysterious Three are conjoined in an Unity of Essence, when the rite of admission into the church is prescribed as baptism "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy to state in distinct propositions the doctrines Ghost". It is not the custom of the scripture it inculcates: the character of the books which compose the sacred volume forbids such a dogmatic statement. For, as you well know, those books are histories, prophecies, letters, poems; and no where, save as they record the establishment of the Mosaic cove nant, no where a formal code of laws. But it is really astonishing to see how consistent mental truth, a Trinity of Persons in an unity they are every where with this great fundaof substance; testifying, by incidental remark and by narrative of fact, by reasoning and by devotional expression, to the great doctrine that "the Father is God and the Son God, and the Holy Ghost God", in" glory equal, in majesty co-eternal", and yet "not three Gods, but one God". The mind, I admit, is lost in the contemplation; but so it is in the contemplation of God's eternity; an eternity, be it remarked, not only that shall have no end, but that had no beginning: so it is in the contemplation of God's immensity, extending without limit, and filling infinite space. And he, that would reject the truth of the Trinity because it is higher than his thoughts, would, I repeat, compare the likeness of God to a finite creature. One of the most remarkable proofs of the truth of this great doctrine is the fact that, in the books which are com monly written to assail it, the inspiration, the | Abednego learned at once that the fire would integrity of the scripture is assailed. These not kindle upon them, different indeed would assailants feel that the scripture as it is and their emotions have been; but what trial their notions cannot stand: they tamper with would there then have been of faith? God's the scripture first, that they may then over- dealings are secret: he dwells in the thick throw the foundation of our faith. "But to darkness, because he would prove men, and the law and to the testimony" must ever be make evident what is in their hearts. In no the simple honest appeal; and that doctrine other way, it is clear, could the graces of huwhich will not endure the test of the whole mility and trust, of patience and faith and scripture cannot be of God. hope and long-suffering, of self-denial and spiritual-mindedness, be wrought out. With the pure spirits that stand before his throne in glory such a process may not be needful; but with us, who are fallen, who have raised by our sins a barrier betwixt our souls and God, and who have to tread painfully the way of reconciliation and restoration to the divine image, a discipline of the kind is most valuable, most important. It is not intended to say that scripture asserts or that the church maintains fact occurs. any thing that is contrary to reason. I have, I believe, frequently begged you to mark the difference between the certainty of a fact and the comprehension of the mode in which that We are every day obliged to admit as truths things, the reasons of which we are unable to explain or account for; and no one imagines that this is irrational. Why should it appear so in spiritual things? Such are necessarily high above natural understanding. And herein the wisdom of God is eminently manifested; because, as I proposed to show, in the IInd place, there is thus a wholesome trial of our faith. God might, had he so pleased, ave revealed his will so plainly that men could no more be ignorant of it than they can, when they look up, of the fact that the sun is shining in the heavens. To take the case of our blessed Saviour, he might have been shown openly to the world, and have been pointed out so evidently as the One of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, that none even of the Pharisees or the Sadducees could have denied it. Or, take the fact of his resurrection. might have been performed before multitudinous witnesses, and Christ might again have lived openly as he did before his death, teaching and preaching again in such a way that not even the veriest child could have been ignorant that he lived who was dead. But where, in It such a case would have been the trial of faith? The whole system of God's dealings would have been changed; and we should have walked by faith, and not by sight. In regard to providential circumstances it might have been the same. God might have disclosed to Abraham his purpose of providing a ram for a sacrifice instead of Isaac; and, doubtless, the patriarch's heart, as he ascended the mount, would have been more cheerful, and his step more light, than it was when, as he thought, he was with his own hand to slay his son. So, had Hezekiah known at first, when Isaiah's message was delivered to him, that his days would be yet lengthened fifteen years, and had Shadrach, Meshach, and And 80 with regard to the revelation of doctrines. The scripture gives us this most remarkable announcement: "Behold, I lay in Sion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious; and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious; but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed" (1 Pet. ii. 6-8). It is thus that God severs the precious from the vile: it is for this reason that he has allowed difficulties in his sacred word, at which the worldly and the proud while they, who with a humble and a loving and the self-sufficient carp and are offended; spirit wait patiently upon him, and meekly seek his guidance, are admitted into the secret place of the Most High, and dwell under the shadow of the Almighty. There are some things that they know not now: they are content that they shall know them hereafter. Thus it was that to the very words of Christ himself some took objection. When he was discoursing of what was above their gross comprehension, they turned away, and would walk no more with him, He was not surprised at the result; he knew that the word would be to some a savour of life unto life,' to others "a savour of death unto death." It is not that God throws difficulties into men's way, or delights to perplex them, but that in pursuing his great plan of moral government he does find it needful to train, and try, and lead onward by degrees, thus letting it be seen who will be teachable scholars in his school, and who rebelliously refuse his gracious lessons. |