us all. One man builds well, another ill; one is profitable, another unprofitable. While the preacher believes in Jesus Christ Himself, he may fail to bring Jesus out of the Holy Scriptures in his expositions and discourses. Or he may be ignorant of the human heart, or be unable to bring the truth home to the conscience; or he may be too controversial, or yield to the cry for more popular "common-life" sermons, and preach with levity of tone and in unworthy language. All these things and others may be the faults of the workman. Granted. But as the work is of vital importance to those who are members of the congregation, does it not become their duty to see that the workman has a fair chance? The work requires the whole energy, the whole mind and strengththat a man shall be able to give himself entirely and continually to the ministry of the Word and to prayer "-that he shall feel free to utter all the counsel of God without fear of men, without let or hindrance, and "as he is moved by the Holy Ghost." Is it so? Do we take care that our clergy shall be fettered by no unnecessary worldly cares and anxieties; that they shall have no need to think about making both ends of a scanty income meet, no secular duties to harass them, no party spirit (so far as we can help it) to tempt them to head rival factions? Do we, as far as possible, relieve them of all these burdens, and then pray for them (as the Apostle requests) that they may speak boldly, build rightly, and be upheld by the grace of God, to do their work as in His sight and to His glory? Is it so? And if not, is he the only loser? It may be that, obliged to resort to some foreign measures to eke out a scanty income; occupied hour after hour, not in the ministry of the Word and in prayer, but with the secular business of the parish, fettered by conventionality, hampered by strong partisans of some particular school of thought-it may be that his teaching is guilty of dulness, wearisomeness, and sameness; that his congregation does not grow in knowledge or in grace, but remains year after year in the same place, amongst the first principles, eager partisans but feeble Christians, narrow-minded, unlike Christ, unreal, and in many unchanged characters. But is this all his fault? We trow not. In no other profession would it be possible for a man to do his work with even tolerable efficiency, with such innumerable. drawbacks, and in the face of such egregious disadvantages. And yet the members of no other profession have to deal with subjects so vast in their range and of such incalculable importance both to themselves and those with whom they have to do Vol. 73.-No. 443. 5 R At the same time, looking at the other side of the question, we are prepared to admit, with Bishop Sumner,* that "the sermons of the preacher often run, as it were, in a groove, cast in a certain mould, modelled in their framework, and stereotyped in their conception. "Congregations listen to a dogmatic theology, irreproachable, except in excess; they detect nothing in the orthodoxy of the language to disturb their traditional belief; they recognise the old doctrinal truths, supported by the usual texts, but go away unaffected by the hearing, as full of worldliness as before, without a curb on their anger, malice, and uncharitableness, habits of life uncorrected, tempers unrestrained, affections unsanctified, passions unmortified, without growth in grace or spiritual-mindedness." Hence arises a dwarf, stunted spiritual growth in the souls of the people, a gradual decay of the inward life of religion, and a very low standard of personal holiness and saintliness of character. "Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, says Shakespeare. And, while humbly acknowledging that God alone can give the increase to the labours of a Paul or an Apollos, there is much that preachers can do to render their sermons more effective and efficient. Genuine earnestness, not a mere passing ebullition of feeling, goes far to arrest the attention of those whose minds are preoccupied with other thoughts, often utterly foreign to devotion. When an actor was asked why the utterances delivered from the stage were, as a rule, so much more effective than those from the pulpit, his reply was, "Because we say things which are not true as though they were; and you (clergy) say things which are true as though they were not." "What we need in the present day," says a writer in "The Church and the Age," "and especially among the poor, is not so much preaching as teaching, not the formal sermon based upon the conventional text, but simple, earnest pleading with men in the name of Christ, urging them to seek their rest in Him, and to make their peace with God through His precious blood. "We must speak to our people in plain and pointed terms, not in rounded periods and rhetorical phrases. We may be homely without being vulgar; we must speak to men as if we meant it; not as if we had to say something, but as if we had something to say. "The upturned faces which we see before us are the faces of men and women struggling with the temptations and dangers of the world,-wrestling with its principalities and powers. * Charge, 1862 "Each single face represents an immortal soul, which is looking to us for instruction and guidance, for spiritual counsel, for help in the narrow way. Our people are sent to us not merely to be pleased or instructed, but to be aroused from carelessness, to be convinced of sin, to be led to Christ, and to be made ready for His kingdom. The continual recollection of this will be, after all, the best security for effective preaching." In the same essay he urges the importance of endeavouring "to develope, to elevate, and to perfect the spiritual life of our more godly people," more especially by encouraging intercessory prayer. And he adds, in words which may fittingly conclude our remarks, that "It may be that this deepening of spiritual life, this increase of personal holiness, is the special work which is needed for the Church, in these days of busy toil and intellectual activity; and there are around us many indications that such a work is even now begun. "Within the century in which we live we have already seen a revival of faith and a restoration of worship. Is it too much to believe that the Church is now going on to perfection in the renewal of her spiritual life? "If this be, as yet, too much for our faith, it is, at least, not too much for our prayers. "The answer to these prayers will be like life from the dead to both Church and people." "Preach the Lord Jesus Christ" (says the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Charge already referred to above) "faithfully in your sermons and in your lives. Alas! there is far too little of Him in most of the sermons which we hear. Preach Him faithfully and wisely, knowing the wants, the peculiar wants, of the generation with which you have to deal; and you will thus help to keep the Church pure far more effectually than can be done by the decisions of any legal tribunals." It is a melancholy thing to be compelled to add, that he who urged this more "effectual way" so earnestly was himself constrained to bring into Parliament, last Session, what may not inappropriately be termed a "Mutiny Bill," to restrain lawlessness which neither he nor his brethren could by any paternal admonitions or gentler means control. E. C. SIR GEORGE LAWRENCE'S REMINISCENCES OF FORTY-THREE Reminiscences of Forty-three Years' Service in India. By Lieut.- A GENERATION of men has passed away since the events which form the staple of these reminiscences occurred; but the lapse of time has not deprived them of interest. In the main, the annals of our military history have been glorious, but they have not been uncheckered with reverses; on sundry memorable occasions there has been quite enough to abate human pride, and to teach lessons of wisdom and dependence upon a strength superior to our own. More than once, despite our insular position and the prowess of our fleets and armies, there have been disastrous and humiliating events, imperilling our fortunes, sometimes even our national existence; every prudent and sagacious statesman will seek to guard against the recurrence of them, and they should ever be deeply pondered by all who have at heart the safety and honour of our country. It is the highest wisdom which tells us, "In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider; God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him." None, probably, but those who were in India at the time can adequately realize the stupor and dismay which overwhelmed the public mind when from every fortress in the land the guns announced that a British envoy had perished, treacherously done to death beyond the frontier of our empire. Still more hopeless would it be to recall the sickening suspense which intervened between the departure of the troops from their cantonments till the announcement was made that a solitary horseman, the sole survivor of an army, had struggled into Jellalabad, more dead than alive. No Englishman, probably, despaired of the safety of the state, or doubted that even this disaster could be retrieved; but it was felt that our prestige had received rude attaint, and that the attitude of the myriads over whom we ruled would be different towards us thenceforwards. Nor were they mistaken who held this opinion. The history of our rule in India was from that time a series of anxious struggles, which did not terminate till the army, which we had created, and had borne us along to power, had disappeared, like foam from the crest upon the waters. The mutiny of 1857 was the direct product, the natural consequence, of these reverses in Affghanistan, notwithstanding all intermediate triumphs and successes. It was not only post hoc but prop ter hoc. It is with a mixture of shame and indignation that every one who has occasion to refer to this mournful episode in our Indian history recurs to it. There is not a redeeming feature in it throughout, from the first conception of the policy till its final extinction in disgrace and ruin. Undertaken in opposition to the counsels of all the wisest and most experienced in Indian affairs, such as the Duke of Wellington, at no period was it marked by instances of conspicuous valour or astute counsel. The military promenade which placed Shah Soojah on the throne was more conspicuous for lavish expenditure than for any incident of note; and the whole course of our dealings with the nation in whose affairs we had intermeddled, and whose chiefs we had provoked, was distinguished for lack of judgment and political wisdom. Even what might be termed the element of respectability was wanting; it has unfortunately, in many memorable instances, been grievously wanting, but it was notoriously deficient in our Affghan campaign. The topic is alluded to very delicately in the volume under review; probably even yet the time has hardly arrived for much plainness of speech about scandals which clung to names otherwise memorable, but evil was more than ordinarily rampant and offensive; it may not have been a chief cause of our overthrow, but it had to do with it in alienating the respect-it could hardly be added with justice, the affections-of the people from us. As for the fear of God, or the service of God, it seems hardly to have had a dwelling-place anywhere except with him whose Reminiscences are quoted, and some very few of a kindred stamp. Of our countrymen, in that awful overthrow, it might be said, with terrible significance, that they were given "" up unto their own hearts' lusts, and walked in their own counsels.' The story of the Affghan expedition has been often told, but it still bears telling again, especially when the narrative comes from the records of one who was intimately acquainted with its interior details, and was personally cognizant of all its chief— that is to say, its most disastrous-events. We have perused the volume with interest, and we may be perhaps permitted the use of a somewhat extravagant expression when we say that we have been awe-struck at the infatuation therein disclosed. It is quite impossible to lay it aside without feeling, quite apart from what is called being wise after the event, that even a moderate amount of sagacity and energy might have averted, if not the whole, yet the most fearful portion, of our disasters. It must have been painful in the extreme to |