look up to the pulpit, we caught a glimpse, not of a manuscript but of a printed document, with that tint of age upon it which, by a rapid process of thought, we identified with the outbreak of the French Revolution of 1789. Having thus adjusted our chronology, we listened, if not with profit, yet with more intelligent appreciation of the preacher's utterances than, without this clue, we had been able to supply. We could not help speculating, however, as to whether stores of these venerable records were preserved in the Jerusalem Chamber, or some other of the sequestered nooks which the Minster overshadows; and whether, if so, upon the whole, the arrangement was beneficial? There must have been much perplexity in the minds of others as well as ourselves on that Sunday; probably more perplexity than edification. This happened before the delivery of the Exeter Hall Lectures, to which admirable movement, which has never yet had its full recognition, we ascribe much of the recent improvement in preaching, more especially in the Church of England. We must not be tempted into a disquisition upon the subject; but our conviction is strong that that movement inaugurated a new era, in which the power of the pulpit to affect the masses was proved: it will be the fault of the Church if she flings away this mighty influence. It will be retained if those who have the control of it will keep well in mind that our cathedrals were not intended for lecture halls or music saloons, to be opened when the Crystal Palace and Alhambra are closed; but temples of the living God, in which the eternal verities affecting the salvation of perishing sinners are faithfully and fully proclaimed, and Jesus Christ is set before their souls, not in wooden images, but by winged words.

In a still earlier period of the Evangelical movement there had been much faithful preaching, but, for the most part, to limited and eclectic audiences. It was probably more doctrinally sound and faithful in application, although less sensational, than what usually finds acceptance amongst ourselves. But there was a great dearth of printed sermons which could be useful in families; and one effort in the earlier career of the Christian Observer was to supply this defect. For many years sermons were furnished which should spring from and lead to the Cross of Christ, and supplant the bald and jejune morality which formed the staple of teaching like that of Blair and his more feeble imitators. These were continued until the press began to teem with wholesome instruction, and from that time forward there has been almost an embarras de richesses, which often, we fear, hinders valuable teaching from meeting with so much acceptance and circulation as its intrinsic merits might justly claim. For ourselves we cannot profess to notice all who deserve notice from us: we can only from time to time select

specimens of the teaching now in vogue, which, from various causes, seems to be worth submitting to the notice of our readers. Upon such specimens we now proceed to comment.

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The first on our list is a volume by the Rev. Gordon Calthrop, well known in London and Cheltenham, and also in his own University, as one of the foremost preachers of the day. In the book we miss the "vivida vis," not of soul but of utterance, which distinguishes him, and helps to "mend" the divine truths which he enforces. The Sermons are a good specimen of the teaching requisite for an intelligent congregation, and might be studied with advantage by those who would wish to know how to address them. They have, however, higher merit: they are sound and scriptural; important topics are dealt with in a solemn and earnest manner; the word of truth is rightly divided; and many prevalent errors of the day are fairly grappled with. There is much essential doctrine dwelt upon, with no lack of dogmatic teaching; but practical topics, such as Capital Punishment and Woman's Dress, are handled with much good sense and discrimination. Like an honest and faithful steward of the mysteries of God, much of Mr. Calthrop's earnest pleading is with the souls of his people on those sins which are most likely to be their besetting sins. As they are sins to which our middle classes are much exposed in other places besides Highbury, we shall rejoice to find that the "Words" spoken to Mr. Calthrop's friends have reached circles to which he is only known by reputation. His "wounds" will be found faithful and profitable.

The "Watching Servants," with other Sermons, form a volume by Mr. Wright, formerly of Nottingham, now the Honorary Clerical Secretary of the Church Missionary Society. As might be expected from one selected for such a post, they breathe a thoroughly evangelical spirit, and are pervaded with much affection for the flock from whom, in the providence of God, he was separated, by whom that love was manifestly reciprocated. Apart from the merit of the sermons, which is considerable, it is of good omen to the Church to find that in our chief provincial cities such cordial relations exist between minister and people; and that in towns which have been often looked upon as the strongholds of Dissent, not by meretricious gewgaws, nor by arrogant assumption of priestly intolerance, but by faithful manifestation of the truth to the conscience, influence can be so abundantly and so honestly secured. Christian readers will find profit in Mr. Wright's Sermons.

It is due to the memory of a learned and excellent man to notice Mr. Blunt's volume of Sermons. Thirty years have elapsed since they were delivered; and he copes in them with a great deal which is now of the past. As much of his remarks

had reference to the state of things around him, this somewhat detracts from the present value of his book. Wild extravagances which he never dreamed of have since been indulged in by foolish persons, which would have been revolting to his sobriety and learning. His protest against the novelties of the Church of Rome is clear and decided; but the whole book is rather calculated for the academical student than for the edification of believers. It relates more to the Church than to Christ, though the excellent author was fully conscious of the subordination of the one to the other.

In the "Life of Temptation," by Mr. Body, we are transported into a different school altogether. We have a sacramental religion supplied to us, in which Baptism, Confession, Absolution, Fasting, Meditation, Communion, form the perpetual topics. If we are rightly informed, Mr. Body was formerly a Wesleyan minister, and has certainly contrived to infuse Wesleyan fervour into a multitude of religious ordinances. There is, of course, no reference to the Pope, nor to some of the peculiar tenets of Romanism, but the volume would be useful and congenial to Romanists. We trust the day is far distant when it will ever be accepted by spiritually-minded Christians within our own communion as wholesome or edifying. For those who would wish to make acquaintance with what is substituted for the Gospel in Ritualistic churches, the book may be suggested. It will show how much specious error is placed before the unwary, and what a commingling of truth and delusion is prevalent in such places. In his Preface, addressed to the Rev. G. H. Wilkinson, Mr. Body notes with complacency that the Mission movement, upon which he conversed with him in a "Retreat" at Coatham, has taken "its position among the recognised agencies of the Church."

The "City of the Lost" is a series of short sensational Sermons, apparently by different authors. The book has already reached a second edition, and therefore has so far obtained the stamp of public approval. The Sermons, if such they can be termed, are short, clever, and eminently sensational. Something may be learned from them in the way of hints for pointed addresses; but we cannot conceive of them as realising, to our apprehension, what ought to be the teaching of Christian ministers, either in matter or manner.

We owe an apology to Mr. Ferguson for not having noticed his Sermons earlier. He was a minister of the United Presbyterian Church, but fell under a charge of heresy for his interpretation of the obscure text in St. Peter relating to our Lord's

preaching to the spirits in prison. What Mr. Ferguson's teaching on this point was, we do not know; but so far as we have made acquaintance with the contents of the Sermons he

has published, there is much in them of which we can heartily approve. We have read sermons with more savour of spirituality, but there is much that is sensible and useful. "Jesus in the Midst" is a favourable specimen of Mr. Ferguson's style and matter.

CORRESPONDENCE.

ON PRIVATE CONFESSION AND THE ABSOLUTION OF THE SICK. To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

DEAR SIR,-Two most able and valuable Papers on this subject have already appeared in your pages. As a résumé of the mind of the Church of England, as shown by the various alterations and revisions of her formularies, those Papers leave very little to be said. Will you permit me to offer some further remarks on this most important and urgent question, treating the subject from a somewhat different point of view, and on broader grounds?

I for one am prepared to confess at once that the treatment of the subject by our own divines has been cruelly hampered and embarrassed by what we must venture to call the unfortunate retention of that form of Absolution provided in the Office for the Visitation of the Sick. But the time is surely come to speak out on this matter with plainness most unmistakeable. I have not the slightest wish to disparage the marvellous learning, the sober breadth of view, or the practical ability, of those brave and humble men to whom the Reformation of our English Church, under God, is due. If I were not profoundly convinced that, in venturing to plead for the removal of that form from our Prayer Book, I was doing exactly what they themselves would have done now many years ago, had they been living amongst us, my lips would be sealed; and any private opinion of my own would have been at once overruled by the just respect which I know, and feel more and more, every day that I live, to be due to their deliberate judgment.

In the Paper already referred to, it is well remarked that this is a Form of Absolution "which, it can scarcely be questioned, would not have been introduced into the Prayer Book for the first time by the Reformers." To go one step further, can it be reasonably doubted that it was one of those things retained to satisfy the scruples of the weak brethren of those days, who had been brought up in the most fearfully exaggerated notions of the character and essential importance to their souls' welfare of Private Confession such as would obtain Priestly Absolution? Does not the very manner of its re-appearance suggest this explanation? Wholly disconnected from any ordinary directions for the conduct of regular systematic confession, such as found a place in the Prayer Book of

* Vide supra, pages 519 and 565, in the July and August Numbers (1873.)

1549, it appears in a special Office provided to be used by those who were not preachers; and in that Office its use is hedged about by every imaginable check and precaution against abuse; it is to be said only to those whose condition of mind is such as to lead them "humbly and heartily to desire it," and even then its precise form is not obligatory,-the Minister is to absolve "after this sort." Short of the absolute and peremptory removal of a personal form of Indicative Absolution, short of the utter prohibition of it in all cases whatsoever, it is impossible to conceive a form of direction which could give less encouragement to its use.

Practically, as with several other matters, the wisdom of the Reformers was abundantly justified. In course of time, as men's minds became more enlightened and strengthened by their familiarity with the pure Word of God, there would be, and there was, less and less demand for the use of such a form; until at length, after no very great interval of years, it would become, as in point of fact it became, practically obsolete. There can be little question that the crystallization of rubrics, services, and similar matters (in themselves variable and non-essential), effected by the stringent provisions of the Act of Uniformity, was the real and only cause of the retention, up to our own day, of this particular form. And further, it must never be forgotten that it was a natural consequence of the Formularies being thus stereotyped and unchangeable, that a custom should grow up, a lex non scripta, by way of interpretation, which, having the sanction of the existing rulers of the Church, obtained an authority of a very grave and substantial character.

But we have lived to see the day when this "custom" of the Church of England has been suddenly and rudely attacked at every point, and an appeal, by way of re-action, made to the precise wording of Rubrics drawn up 200 or 300 years ago under circumstances totally different. And this is done with ulterior motives. By reproducing every feature of that border land of fast-fading twilight, which prepared men for the rising of a clearer and brighter truth, it is hoped that the transition to the comparative darkness of mediæval times will be allowable and easy.

In view, then, of this determined attempt to undermine the principles and reverse the results of the Reformation, are we to be charged with disloyalty to the Church of England, if we venture to recommend the alteration or removal of a single portion of a single Office of the Book of Common Prayer-a portion all but omitted by those who drew up its services-when we find it no longer an obsolete concession to obsolete prejudice, but perverted to a use for which there is the plainest proof it was never intended; and when we find it invariably used to bolster up theories and doctrines which the general tenor of the Prayer Book is constructed to discountenance? Or, to go beyond the boundaries of our own Church, are we to be charged with disloyalty to Catholic teaching, if we venture to advocate the removal from our services of a particular form of Absolution unknown to the Church Catholic during eleven centuries of its existence?

Surely the wants of the age are too pressing, and the abuses