AN ardent and successful student of natural science once remarked to a company of friends who were gathered around him waiting their turn to have a look through the large telescope" next to the happiness of beholding these glorious orbs myself, is the pleasure of inviting my friends to look on them.' You may have experienced a feeling quite akin to this which the man of science felt when, in the course of reading a favourite author, you have come upon some pithy, racy saying, or some passage of singular beauty and power. If there is any one near you who is at all likely to appreciate the thought or sentiment, or to sympathize with the delight and admiration which stir you, you will very likely say, "now listen to this." And in your very best style you read the passage, probably when you have read it, you say now isn't that good?" Well, we have before us a book somewhere about two hundred and fifty years old, and in possessing it we think we have a treasure-not only because it is rarely to be met with, but intrinsically it is a gem of a book-a massive golden book. And it is our purpose to give our readers a few choice extracts from it, believing that they cannot but admire the genuine Saxon style, and the beauty and force of the truths expressed.

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The title of this work is "The Sermons of Mr. Henry Smith, gathered into one volume: whereunto is added God's arrow against Atheists," &c. And who was this Smith ? To be brief, he was preacher at St. Clement's Danes in

the Strand, London, in the reign. of Queen Elizabeth. He was, perhaps, the most popular man of his day; his church was crowded, and amongst his hearers were many of the great lights of the age. His sermons were printed and extensively read; and the wonder is, considering their freshness and vigour, that they have not been rescued from unmerited oblivion, and almost unreadable type, and placed in our libraries in modern garb, beside our Howes and Baxters. His career was short. As far as we can learn, he died when about thirty years old. But short as his course was, he proved himself a good minister of Jesus Christ-a champion of the gospel, an unflinching advocate of the truth-a humble godly man. Fuller, in his "Church Worthies," says of him-" He was unsatisfied in the point of subscription, and so he had no pastoral charge, but became lecturer at St. Clement's Danes, without Temple Bar, where he in a short time became so famous that his church was constantly crowded with auditors of no mean rank and quality. He was commonly called the silvertongued Smith, being but one metal in price and purity beneath St. Chrysostom himself." Unlike the preachers of that period, he does not interrupt and perplex you with endless divisions and vexatious subdivisions. But now it is time we should let the reader judge for himself. Take the following on preachers and preaching, from "The Art of Hearing".

"If you must take heed how ye hear, then we must take heed how we preach;

for you hear that which we preach. Therefore, Paul putteth none among the number of preachers, but they who cut the Word aright; that is, in right words, in right sense, and in right method; and because none can do this without study and meditation, therefore he teacheth Timothy to give attendance to doctrine, that is to make a study and labour of it. Daniel was a prophet, and yet he desired respite to interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Is the scripture lighter than a dream that we should interpret it without meditation? It seems then that Solomon and Daniel would not count them sermons which come forth like untimely births from uncircumcised lips and unwashen hands, as though they had the spirit at commandment. Wheat is good, but they that sell the refuse thereof are reproved. Amos viii. 6. So preaching is good, but this refuse of preaching is but like swearing; for one takes the name of God in vain, and the other takes the word of God in vain.

As every

sound is not music, so every sermon is not preaching, but worse than if he should read a homily. For if James would have us consider what we ask before we come to pray, much more should we consider before we come to preach; for it is harder to speak God's word than to speak to God: yet there are preachers risen up lately who shroud every absurd sermon under the name of the simple kind of teaching; like the popish priests who made ignorance the mother of devotion; but, indeed, to preach simply, is not to preach unlearnedly nor confusedly; but plainly and perspicuously, that the simplest who doth hear may understand what is taught as if he did hear his name."

From the same sermon we give the following paragraph, with the marginal note-" Bad hearers make bad preachers:”—

"But if you will know why many preachers preach so barely, loosely, and simply, it is your own simplicity which makes them think that, if they go on and say something, all is one, and no fault will be found, because you are not able to judge in or out; and so because they give no attendance to doctrine, as Paul teacheth them, it is almost come to pass that in a whole sermon the hearer cannot pick out one note more than he could gather himself; and many loath

VOL. LVI.

preaching as the Jews abhorred the sacrifice for the slubbering priests who cared not what they offered; and the greater sort imagine that there is no more wisdom in the Word of God than their teachers show out of it. What a shame is this, that the preachers should make preaching be despised! Therefore, let every preacher first see how his notes do move himself, and then he shall have comfort to deliver them to others, like an experienced medicine which himself hath proved."

These are wholesome words of advice for ministers; but here is something equally good for the hearers of sermons:

"As ye come with divers motives, so ve hear with divers manners. One is like an Athenian and he hearkeneth after news; if the preacher say anything of our armies beyond the sea, or council at home, or matters of court, that is his lure; another is like the Pharisee, and he watcheth if anything be said that may be wrested to be spoken against persons in high place, that he may play the devil in accusing his brethren-let him write that in his table, too; another smacks of eloquence, and he gapes for a phrase that, when he cometh to his ordinary, he may have one figure more to grace and worship his tale; another is mal-content, and he never pricketh up his ears till the preacher come to gird against some whom he spiteth, and when the sermon is done he remembereth nothing which was said to him, but that which was spoken against others; another cometh to gaze about the church, he hath an evil eye, which is still looking upon that from which Job did avert his eye; another cometh to muse, so soon as he is set, he falleth into a brown study, sometimes his mind runs on his market, sometimes on his journey, sometimes of his suit, sometimes of his dinner, sometimes of his sport after dinner, and the sermon is done before the man think where he is; another cometh to hear, but so soon as the preacher hath said his prayer, he falls asleep as though he had been brought in for a corpse and the preacher should preach at his funeral."

There is vivid portraiture in all this, applicable to many congregations now as well as in the olden time. What a keen touch of satire is that for the sleeper. Now, let us 12

present you with a cluster of fine pithy sayings:

"Peace beginneth when the battle endeth. The best of God's blessings are behind, that is everlasting life, and the way to it is death; thou art going to joy, therefore look not for it until thou come to thy journey's end."

"You must understand that purgatory is like your painted sepulchres which are framed more for the living than the dead."

"This is their work so soon as they rise to put a pedler's shop upon their backs, and colour their faces and prick their ruffs, and friffle their hair, and their day's work is done, as though their office were to paint a fair image in the morning and at night blot it out again."

"When the devil cannot stay us from a good work, then he laboureth by all means to make us proud of it, and so he staineth our work, and stealeth our reward."

"As the way to heaven is narrow, so the gate is low, and he had need to stoop who entereth in at it."

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There is one passage full of striking imagery and tragic power with which the sermon on the betraying of Christ" concludes. Seldom have we read anything more solemn or stirring than the following, called in the margin "Two Consciences:"

"There is a warning conscience and a gnawing conscience. The warning conscience cometh before sin; the gnawing conscience followeth after sin. The warning conscience is often lulled asleep; but the gnawing conscience wakeneth her again. If there be any hell in this world, they which feel the worm of conscience gnawing upon their heart, may truly say that they have felt the torments of hell. Who can express that man's horror but himself? Nay, what horrors are there which he cannot express himself? Sorrows are

met in his soul as at a feast: and fear, thought, and anguish divide his soul be tween them. All the furies of hell leap upon his heart like a stage. Thought calleth to Fear; Fear whistleth to Horror; Horror beckoneth to Despair, and saith, 'Come and help me to torment this sinner.' One saith that she cometh from this sin, and another saith she cometh from that sin: so he goeth through a thousand deaths and cannot die. Irons are laid upon his body like a prisoner. All his lights are put out at once. He hath no soul fit to be comforted. Thus he lieth, as it were, upon the rack, and saith that he beareth the world upon his shoulders, and that no man suffereth that which he suffereth. So let him lie, saith God, without ease, until he confess and repent, and call for mercy."

From another sermon, we close these extracts with a paragraph on prayer:

"A thing, dearly beloved, so precious, that nothing is more accepted in heaven, nothing more grateful to God; a service commanded by God, taught by Christ our Saviour, and frequented [. e., often visited] by the angels; a thing of more force with God than any oration of the eloquent. Hast thou not heard how the sun stood still in the firmament, and was not suffered to run his course? Joshua prayed, and the sun stood still. Hast thou not heard of the stopping of the lions' mouths? Daniel prayed, and his prayer stopped the lions' greedy and dethe dividing of the Red Sea ? The Israelvouring throats. Hast thou not heard of ites prayed, and the waters of the Jordan were dried up: yea, the Israelites prayed, and the waters stood about them like to a wall. Hast thou not heard how the fiery furnace lost its heat? The three children prayed, and the fire lost its heat. Hast thou not heard how the heavens were opened and shut? Elias prayed, and the heavens were shut up three years: Elias prayed, and the clouds poured down rain from Heaven. O sure fortress, more forcible than any engine, and stronger than the gates of hell, and to conclude the sum and substance of all in few words, the only thing whereby mortal men have the clouds, and the stars, and the angels, and all the powers of heaven at their command. For, as Deborah sung in her song, 'They fought from heaven, even the stars in their

courses fought against Sisera;' for all creatures have been subject to the prayers of the faithful, to revenge the Lord's quarrel, to help the Lord, to help the Lord against the mighty.

that I could engrave the love of it in your hearts as with a diamond, and so instil your minds that my words might be pricks to your conscience, and thereby give you occasion to pray often. It is a wonderful matter to be able to persuade men; but if prayer be able to persuade the living God, O how great is the force thereof; it goeth through the clouds, and ceaseth not till it comes near, and will not depart until the Most High have respect thereunto.”

Such were the words of living power uttered by this Puritan preacher in the reign of Elizabeth. We need not wonder that the effect of preaching so pointed and eloquent was, as Thomas Fuller, in a sketch of his life, in the volume of sermons, says, "his church was so crowded with auditors, that persons of good quality brought their own pews with them -I mean their legs-to stand thereupon in the alleys. Their

ears did so attend to his lips, their hearts to their ears, that he held the rudder of their affections in his hand, so that he could steer them whither he pleased; and he was pleased to steer them only to God's glory and their own good." After quoting the saying of Solomon, "The words of the wise are like nails fastened by the masters of assemblies," the biographer adds, "and certainly this Smith had as great a dexterity as any in fastening them in the judgment of his hearers by his solid reasons; in their fancies, by his proper similitudes; in their memories by his orderly method; and in their conscience, by his home applications." He lived but a short time, but long enough to make his influence felt as a preacher. His aim in all his labours, as a scholar, was "to improve his interest in the ministerial calling for the glory of God and converting of souls." May such be the high aim of every preacher.

"HATH not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" asks Paul, and then adduces proof of an affirmative answer to the question in the well-known words, "For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." A new method was employed to win men to the love of the truth, and to the practice of virtue; and its efficiency became so manifest as to silence all gainsayers of its utility. The preaching of the gospel was at once recognised as that "weakness of God which is stronger than men."

The history of preaching, from the

apostolic age to our own, if written with competent learning, and with becoming truthfulness and candour, would not merely mark the progress or decline of "the form of knowledge" amongst the various nations of Christendom, but exhibit the influence of ritualism and hierarchical pretensions upon the themes and structure of sermons. It would also demonstrate the important fact that whenever employed in the assertion

* Sermons in the East, preached before H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, &c., by the Rev. London: J. A. P. Stanley, D.D., &c., &c. Murray.

Sermons preached at Manchester, by the Rev. A. McLaren. London: Macmillan & Co.