he himself shall be despised and held up to reproach, in terms which must be far too generally understood to make it necessary that they should be mentioned ". Meanwhile, what is it that he sees with his own eyes, and hears with his own ears, of those around him? I would not willingly transgress the bounds of charity; but I should think there must be instances, and not a few, in which a single-hearted, sober-minded Clergyman must feel at least as much as this ;that many of those who claim to be the most religious, after the more modern fashion, are not the neighbours whom he either can trust, or most

h I cannot forbear, on this point, from entering a serious protest against such language, and decisions, and most unwarranted restrictions on every individual Clergyman's fair liberty of judgment, as may be traced (in far too many. instances, and surely in no meek or merciful spirit!) in the Commentaries of "Scott's Bible." Mr. Daniel Wilson's Sermon on Mr. Crowther may supply a more distinct and definite specimen. I do not mean, by such an observation, to disparage the just claims of either of these eminent names to the respect in which they are held; but only to illustrate the position, in which great numbers of their clerical brethren, who do not deserve to be forsaken, are placed by the loose general currency of imputations, such as it were well to throw out far less freely, even against those who in a certain sense and measure may possibly lie open to them.

love; that many who lay greatest stress upon their own depravity, are yet in their own eyes the most impeccable, and they who are the foremost in professing their own ignorance, are nevertheless the most infallible.

Now, in the midst of these and many other kindred difficulties, and all our multiformity of strife and self-opinion, I do not either mean, or dare, to undertake so vain an enterprise, as to advance any direct theory of conciliation. The blessing of the peace-maker (so far as it may be connected with success) is likely to descend only on more definite and private offices of love. That person has not (as it seems to me) pursued the ways of life with his eyes open, who still shall cling to the imagination, that avowed and positive attempts at arbitration, in the province of opinion, are of a nature apt to give content to either party, or to prove the best preservatives of peace. He, however, who proposes an example, to show a way by which "contention may be honestly cut off before it "be meddled with"-compassing no arts the while to make proselytes, but leaving every reader free to follow or reject the pattern, according to his own unfettered and unintimidated

judgment has somewhat of a fairer prospect of success, in that propensity of human nature by which men who will instantly defend themselves against direct counsel, are not by any means equally unwilling to fall in with a practice or a custom by and by, when they may seem to do it quietly, and of their own accord, And thus it may be possible, under Divine blessing, to quicken thought in some, on two especially important questions.

First, what may be the probable extent of connection between the real righteousness of any Christian people, and the prevailing manner of exhibiting the truths of Scripture to them, in their popular religious instruction?

Secondly, what may-upon dispassionate consideration-be judged to be the manner of religious teaching most fairly consonant with the prevailing tone and spirit of the Scriptures themselves? By consequence, what may be thought the likeliest and safest mode, thus far, of finally establishing the influence of true religion?

It is not intended to discuss these questions, either separately or at large; but only to point out their bearing on the contents and object of the present volume.

Often and often, and with the most painful anxiety, has the writer's mind been turned, and again and again has it reverted, to the question; "What may be thought, with reason, really the "best manner of setting forth divine truth to

a perverse generation, so as that the daily "views of men, their habits, and their princi

ples-in brief, their whole lives-may be at"tracted and subdued unto the wisdom that is "in Jesus Christ?" And the most satisfactory answer he has as yet been able to arrive at, is the following; which shall be thrown into the form of question also, that it may rather be presented to the reader's own decision in a spirit of deference, than wear the slightest air of being laid upon him in a spirit of dogmatism. "May "it not be likely to be found-in applying, through just and sober adaptations, the stores "of holy Scripture written for our learning, its "motives and its principles, its warnings and

k

* I use the expression "motives and principles," to the omission of the specific term "doctrines," designedly; believing it to be desirable, that we should be attracted to consider and to confess, that" principles and motives" properly deduced and set forth, do of necessity include "doc"trines." They are in fact the compound shape in which

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examples, to the current state and wants of the existing generation; thus drawing out the mani“fold internal evidence which almost every part

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of holy writ affords of its divine origin, and "endeavouring to convince the hearer of the reality of God's word, and of its intention "to supply the actual rule and law of life as certainly at this day, as in the days of prophets or apostles."

REALITY, I think, appears to be the most conspicuous feature of the Scripture method of instruction; the second is, perhaps, AFFECTIONATENESS. Now, so far as my own experience and observation have extended, I am unable to persuade myself that the prevailing tone and style of modern Sermons, of whatever school, abound in either of these qualities. It will hardly be supposed, that any sober-minded individual can mean to say this indiscriminately, or without exceptions; and it would be unjust to his intention, to construe such opinion as if the present writer thus presumed to pass an

doctrines come into action. Too constant setting forth of doctrines, as doctrines, in the abstract, more than in the practical form, appears to me to be among the material causes of many prevalent religious evils.