Page images
PDF
EPUB

bodying forth in undying forms the short-lived visions of joy! Others have enrolled themselves the high priests of mute nature's charms, enchanting her echoes with their minstrelsy, and peopling her solitudes with the bright creatures of their fancy. But when, since the days of the blind master of English song, hath any poured forth a lay worthy of the Christian theme? Nor in philosophy-the palace of the soul-have men been more mindful of their Maker. The flowers of the garden and the herbs of the field have their unwearied devotees, crossing the ocean, wayfaring in the desert, and making devout pilgrimages to every region of nature, for offerings to their patron muse. The rocks from their residences among the clouds to their deep rests in the dark bowels of the earth, have a most bold and venturous priesthood, who see in their rough and flinty faces a more delectable image to adore than in the revealed countenance of God. And the political welfare of the world is a very Moloch, who can at any time command his hecatomb of human victims. But the revealed sapience of God, to which the harp of David and the prophetic lyre of Isaiah were strung; the prudence of God, which the wisest of men coveted after, prefering it to every gift which Heaven could confer-and the eternal Intelligence himself in human form, and the unction of the Holy One, which abideth-these the common heart of man hath forsaken, and refused to be charmed withal."

On the Happiness of Heaven.

"Think you the creative function of God is exhausted upon this dark and troublous ball of earth? Or that this body and soul of human nature are the master-piece of his architecture? Who knows what new enchantment of melody, what new witchery of speech, what poetry of conception, what variety of design, and what brilliancy of execu tion, he may endow the human faculties withal?-in what new graces he may clothe nature, with such various enchantment of hill and dale, woodland, rushing streams, and living fountains; with bowers of bliss and Sabbath scenes of peace, and a thousand forms of disporting creatures, so as to make all the world hath beheld to seem like the gross picture with which you catch infants; and to make the

eastern tale of romances and the most rapt imagination of eastern poets like the ignorant prattle and rude structures which first delight the nursery, and afterwards ashame our riper years?

Again, from our present establishment of affections what exquisite enjoyment springs, of love, of friendship, and of domestic life. For each one of which God, amidst this world's faded glories, hath preserved many a temple of most exquisite delight. Home, that word of nameless charms; love, that inexhaustible theme of sentiment and poetry; all relationships, parental, conjugal and filial, shall arise to a new strength, graced with innocency, undisturbed by apprehension of decay, unruffled by jealousy, and unweakened by time. Heart shall meet heart

'Each other's pillow to repose divine."

The tongue shall be eloquent to disclose all its burning emotions, no longer labouring and panting for utterance. And a new organization of body for joining and mixing affections may be invented, more quiet homes for partaking it undisturbed, and more sequestered retreats for barring out the invasion of other affairs. Oh! what scenes of social life I fancy to myself in the settlements of the blessed, one day of which I would not barter against the greatness and glory of an Alexander or a Cæsar. What new friendships -what new connubial ties-what urgency of well-doingwhat promotion of good-what elevation of the whole sphere in which we dwell! till every thing smile in 'Eden's first bloom;' and the angels of light, as they come and go, tarry with innocent delight over the enjoyment of every happy fair. Ah! they will come, but with no weak sinfulness like those three lately sung of by no holy tongue; they will come to creatures sinless as themselves, and help forward the mirth and rejoicing of all the people. And the Lord God himself shall walk amongst us as he did of old in the midst of the Garden. His Spirit shall be in us, and all Heaven shall be revealed upon us.

God only knows what great powers he hath of creating happiness and joy. For this world your sceptic poets make such idolatry of, it is a waste howling wilderness compared with what the Lord our God shall furnish us. That city

of our God and the Lamb, whose stream was crystal, whose wall was jasper, and her buildings molten gold, whose twelve gates were each a silver pearl-doth not so far outshine those dingy, smokey, clayey buildings of men, as shall that new earth outshine the fairest region which the sun hath ever beheld in his circuit since the birth of time.

But there is a depraved taste in man which delights in strife and struggle; a fellness of spirit which delights in fire and sword; and a serpent mockery which cannot look upon innocent peace without a smile of scorn, or a ravenous lust to mar it. And out of this fund of bitterness come forth those epithets of derision, which they pour upon the innocent images of heaven. They laugh at the celebration of the Almighty's praise as a heartless service, not understanding that which they make themselves merry withal. The harp which the righteous tune in heaven, is their heartful of glad and harmonious emotions; the song which they sing is the knowledge of things which the soul coveteth after now, but faintly perceiveth. The troubled fountain of human understanding hath become clear as crystal, and they know even as they are known. Wherever they look abroad, they perceive wisdom and glory-within, they feel order and happiness-in every countenance they read benignity and love. God is glorified in all his outward works, and enthroned in the inward parts of every living thing; and man, being ravished with the constant picture of beauty and contentment, possessed with a constant sense of his felicity, utters forth his Maker's praise, or if he utters not, museth it with expressive silence.

The Character of Mr. Wordsworth.

There is one man in these realms who hath addressed himself to such a godlike life, and dwelt alone amidst the grand and lovely scenes of nature, and the deep unfathomable secrecies of human thought,-Would to heaven it were allowed to others to do likewise! And he hath been rewarded with many new cogitations of nature, and of nature's God; and he hath heard, in the stillness of his retreat, many new voices of his conscious spirit; all which he hath sung in harmonious numbers. But mark the epicurean soul of this degraded age! They have frowned on

him, they have spit on him, they have grossly abused him. The masters of this critical generation (like generation, like masters!) have raised the hue and cry against him; the literary and sentimental world, which is their soundingboard, hath reverberated it; and every reptile who can retail an opinion in print, hath spread it; and given his reputation a shock, from which it is slowly recovering ;all for what? For making nature and his own bosom his home, and daring to sing of the simple but sublime truths which were revealed to him; for daring to be free in his manner of uttering general feeling, and depicting natural beauty, and grafting thereon devout and solemn contemplations of God.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY W. HARDING, 11, RED LION COURT, AND 14, GRAY'S

INN TERRACE.

Printed by C. Roworth & Sons, Bell Yard, Temple Bar.

THE

CHURCH OF ENGLAND PREACHER. Patronized by the Clergy and others.

APOSTOLICAL PREACHING.

A SERMON

(PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY)

Preached at the Episcopal Chapel, Gray's Inn Lane, Saint Pancras, on Sunday Morning, August 13th, 1837,

BY THE

REV. T. MORTIMER, B. D.

MINISTER OF THE SAID CHA PEL.

TEXT." And he showed us how he had seen an angel in in his house, which stood and said unto him, send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter: who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning."-The 11th chap. of the book of the ACTS of the Apostles, the 13th and two following verses, being a part of the second lesson appointed by the Church for this morning's service.

THE Conversion of a Roman soldier to the faith of Christ as here recorded is an event of great interest and great importance. Of great interest, because one cannot but view with peculiar feelings of pleasure such a man so engaged—an officer in the army, devoted to martial pursuits, with many temporal cares to attend to, many things I mean connected with this life in that profession to which he belonged. But we contemplate this matter not merely with interest, but we speak of it as one of great importance. Why? because he was the first Gentile convert to Christianity. Hitherto the converts were Jews: here was a Gentile, a Roman officer, a devout man, one that feared God with all his house, and who gave much alms to the poor. He is to be instructed in Christianity, for there is [No. 7.]

I

« PreviousContinue »