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Sermons on Points of Doctrine and Rules of Duty. By the REV. R.
PARKINSON, M.A., of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Curate
of St. Michael's-on-Wyre. 8vo. Pp. 332. 10s. 6d.
Rivingtons. 1825.

London.

In a sensible and well written preface Mr. Parkinson assigns as the cause of the publication of the present volume, a wish to provide for that "thirst for religious enquiry," and taste for books adapted to Sunday reading, which is springing up in the middle classes. It would be well if all the works published with the same intention could as safely be disseminated as this. The author has evidently preferred the production of an interesting and useful book to that of a series of elegant essays or violent controversial sermons. His subjects are as follow: The New-Year.-The Treasures of Earth, and those of Heaven. The Christian's Hope of a joyful Resurrection.The Nature and Efficacy of Faith in God.-The Mercies of God displayed in Redemption.-The weakness of Conscience, and the heinousness of Sin.-The Christian's Obligation to be a doer of Righteousness.-The Power of Faith shewn in the Woman of Canaan.-The Duty of hearing the Word, and keeping it to the End.-The Unhappiness of Riches even in the present World.-Easter-Day.-Contentment the Privilege of the Christian alone.-The Duty of Watching and Walking cautiously. The Character of the Pharisee compared with the Publican.-The Privilege and Duty of an early Repentance. The Folly and Danger of boasting of To-morrow. The true Nature of Christian Charity. The Duty of Perseverance in Well-doing.—The Heart to be kept with all Diligence.-On Prayer.-The Benefits of an early religious Education.

There is nothing of a very striking character in these discourses, but they will be read with pleasure and with profit. There are a few notes so good, that we regret there are not moré. We cannot do more than give a single extract. Speaking of the brothers of Joseph recollecting their cruelty to him,

"This, as I have said, is an instructive instance of the manner in which a wounded conscience causes her voice to be heard, and of the means which she takes to rouse even the most hardened sinner to a sense of the enormity of his crimes. While the guilty purpose is planning, and the guilty deed is acting, she is silent; and it is only

in the pause of reflection that follows the completed wickedness, that she causes her still small voice to be heard and felt in the bosom. Nothing blinds the judgment, and darkens the understanding, like the influence of strong and ungoverned passions; and it is the influence of these passions that first leads the transgressor into crimes. Seen through their medium, the basest action loses half its blackness, and the threatened punishment more than half its terrors. The object in view is the only point on which the attention is, or can be fixed, and to attain it all consequences are to be risked, as mere trifles in the comparison. It is only when the guilty deed has succeeded, or has failed, and that weariness of disappointment in which all such false hopes of good must invariably end, has taken full possession of the mind, that the clouds which had darkened the judgment begin to clear away, and reveal the action in all its enormity, and the consequences of it in all their terrors. Such are the different lights in which the same action will appear to the biassed and the unbiassed understanding. Full of health and strength, and looking only to this world and its vanities, we do many things which we flatter ourselves are but venial offences, and for which the end in view, or our own infirmities, will be a sufficient apology. But when some misfortune or punishment overtakes us when age brings experience, or sickness reflection—it is then that we look back with a clearer view upon our past actions; and how much darker are the colours in which they appear!"

Sermons on various Subjects and Occasions. By the REV. JOHN EDmund Denham, A. M., of St. John's College, Cambridge; and Lecturer of St. Mary, Islington. Vol. II. 8vo. Pp. 380. 12s. Rivingtons. 1825.

We are always disposed to speak favourably of a volume of Sermons, because they can hardly be published but from motives, which, if not absolutely laudable, are at least excusable. And because, in truth, there are scarcely any which are not calculated to be of service to some of the various classes of readers, into whose hands they may chance to fall. Still, as critics, we feel ourselves compelled to adopt the improvement of the old adage, "de mortuis," and to say of sermons as of the dead, "nil nisi verum." We regret, therefore, that we cannot honestly bestow unqualified commendation upon the volume now before us; though, in some respects, it is very creditable to its author's professional character; since it displays a very familiar acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures,

and a ready application of them to the topics of his discourses, which are always enforced with much (perhaps too much) eloquence, and with a zeal, which, we doubt not, is founded in sincerity. But we object, decidedly, to the style of the Dedication to the Marquis of Bath, which is conceived in a spirit of adulation, in these times highly offensive to good taste, and at all times quite unworthy of a man of sense, and a clergyman. The idea that his labours may be preserved by association with that "dignified personage," as flies or straws are embodied and embalmed in amber; reminded us forcibly of a somewhat different use, which one of our best poets has made of the same image :—

"Pretty! in amber to observe the forms

Of hairs, or straws, or dirt, or grubs, or worms!
The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare,
But wonder, &c. &c.”

In estimating the merits of printed sermons, there are only two points for consideration, their matter and their style: what they may have gained or lost by a good or bad delivery, is out of the question. With respect to the matter of these, they seem to us to require little censure or applause. Their topics are of a popular character, suited to general congregations: and they are recommended by arguments which have been often urged before, founded upon the orthodox doctrines of our church. Their style is of a kind, upon which, though it may possibly have its admirers, we cannot bestow the smallest approbation. It is florid and diffuse, and overloaded with metaphor; of which ornament Cicero recommends the most modest use. Almost every page of the volume would supply an instance of this blemish, as we consider it to be; though some may perhaps deem it a beauty. We quote this passage, almost at random, from the thirteenth sermon, in justification of our opinion, and in illustration of the peculiarities of the author's manner.

"The promises of Jehovah derive their peculiar interest from the particular circumstances in which the fall has placed us. The darkness of that night, which closed the fatal day of transgression, has imparted its gloom to every succeeding hour of earthly joy. If the heart, when agitated by the tumults of pleasure, dilates with exultation, and vibrates with the pulse of gladness, amid smiling hilarity; if the sunshine of prosperity gild our path with its lustre, and domestic and social endearments solicit our enjoyment, and beguile us with their attractive charms; still the moan of sadness floats upon the gale, which had but just wafted its balmy fragrance to our heart: the

whispering breeze conveys the sullen murmurs of melancholy and of sorrow; and the plaint of grief assails those ears, which had but a moment before been opened to the melody of song, and the gladdening notes of pleasure. The black clouds of sorrow sweep along the heaven of our happiness, and obscure those irradiations of joy, which poured their splendour on our flowery track. No gratification ever comes unalloyed with pain, and something of anxiety still intermixes with every delight. The very springs of our comfort often become the very sources of our grief. To paint all the disquieting, if not distressing events, which occur with scarcely an interval between, and crowd the daily register of life, would be altogether superfluous. Every heart must have recorded too many events, which have probed its tenderness, and some which have indeed deeply wounded its sensibility, to require any other catalogue of human wretchedness and infirmity than what its own experience can supply."

Upon this ample extract we are content to rest our judgment; we have selected it in perfect fairness to the author: since by those who approve of the style, it will probably be thought one of the best passages in the book, whilst those of a contrary opinion will, we apprehend, rank it with the worst. But let us take a shorter specimen of the same kind. He is speaking of the day of judgment.

"This tremendous era; when the streamlet of time, having mixed with the gulph of death, shall be lost in the ocean of eternity; when the universal register of every act, and word, and thought, shall be unfolded before an assembled world, angels and archangels assisting at that last assize, is described in the most majestic and elevated language in the book of inspiration."

This sort of style naturally leads to the use of affected words and phrases, which are never less tolerable than from the pulpit. Most of these sermons, we are told, were delivered in the parish church of Islington: a meridian, we should have thought, little suited to such expressions as these. Speaking of our Saviour, he says, "he had, in infinite condescension, left the mansions of glory, put on the fretted garment of mortality, and tabernacled among the inheritors of Adam's guilt and Adam's misery." We are aware that the verb to tabernacle is not without precedent; but it is, to say the least, very unusual, and it has no advantage, that we can perceive, over several synonymous words, to induce us to drag it from its obscurity. The same may be observed of the word antepast, which, we should think, was preferred to foretaste, for no better purpose than to astonish the natives. Then we have "degradatory," which, however well sounding it may be, has escaped the rich harvest of Johnson, and the industrious gleaning of Todd. We object

We

also to "negative culpability" and the "bleeding cross." mention these things because we are persuaded that Mr. Denham's future productions for the pulpit will be much improved, if he is less ambitious of being eloquent, and is governed more by his mind than his ear in the composition of his discourses. Should he publish another volume we would suggest also, that a greater variety in his subjects would be desirable. Of fourteen sermons, the topics of several are very similar: viz.“ the 1st upon the death of Dr. Strahan," "the 5th upon the end of the year;" "the 6th upon the commencement of the year;" "the 7th, upon the fading of the leaf:" and "the 10th, upon the peaceful end of the righteous.'

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We will not part with him, however, without exhibiting one of the least objectionable passages we can find, in which just sentiments are clothed in appropriate language; though the judicious reader will perceive that it is not wholly free from the faults to which we have adverted. It is taken from the 10th sermon, upon "the peaceful end of the righteous."

"The world, at best, does not present an unmixed cup of pleasure. Happiness, pure and permanent, is not the portion of mortality. Riches, indeed, properly employed, contribute largely to the comfort of their possessors, in shielding them from many an external ill and inconvenience, which they might otherwise have experienced, and in procuring for them many an innocent gratification, of which they would otherwise have been debarred; but they cannot preserve those we delight in, from the lassitude of debility, the throbs of pain, or the shafts of death. Those who are privileged with the fruition of health, the greatest of all earthly and personal blessings, are frequently destitute of advantages, not withholden from the diseased and infirm. If we could enter minutely into the particular circumstances and cases of various individuals, we should find that none can boast of absolute felicity, but that the portion which has been allotted to humanity, in its présent condition, that modification of happiness which has been vouchsafed to the travellers through this wilderness of woe, has been almost equally distributed. Our temporal joys being so circumscribed and precarious the Christian is divinely taught to look upon this world merely as a passage to a more perfect state of existence; and like the pilgrim through the cheerless desert, where no water is to be found, he hails, with anticipative gladness, the destined spot where he may at length refresh his weary and exhausted frame."

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