BY PROFESSOR FREEMAN.

BETWEEN history and politics I can draw no distinction. History is the politics of the past, politics are the history of the present. The same rules of criticism apply to judging alike of distant and recent facts. The same eternal laws of right and wrong are to be applied in forming our estimate of the actors in either case. The championship of right, and the championship of wrong, bear exactly the same character in any age. A Montfort and a Gladstone, a Flambard and a Beaconsfield, must stand or fall together. It shows the low view that some men take of politics that they can conceive the word only as meaning a struggle to support some and upset others among the momentary candidates for office. Men who have no higher notion of politics than this seem unable to understand that there are those who support or oppose this or that ministry because he follows, or does not follow, a certain line of policy because it is or is not the policy of this or that minister. Politics, the science of Aristotle, the science of the right ruling of men and nations, means something higher than this. It teaches us how to judge of causes and their effects; it teaches us how to judge of the character of acts whether done yesterday or thousands of years ago. The past is studied in vain unless it gives us lessons for the present; the present will be very imperfectly understood unless the light of the past is brought to bear upon it. In this way history and politics are one. In my former little book, consisting of lectures read before a certain society at its own request, it would have been obviously out of place to do more than point the political moral of the story in a general way.

The subject naturally led me to show that the pretended reforms of the Turk were, in their own nature, good-for-nothing. I drew that inference from the general current of Mahometan history; and I think that the two and twenty years of Mahometan history which bears most directly on that, and on the immediate practical application of that position. I use the past history of the Ottoman Turks to show what is the one way which, according to the light of reason and experience, can be of any use in dealing with the Ottoman Turks of the present day. In this way, then, my book is at once political and historical. That is, it deals with the politics or the history-I use those words as words of the same meaning-both of past and of present times.

In opposition to all theoretical and sentimental ways of looking at things, I argue from what has happened to what is likely to happen. I argue that what has been done already can be done again. As every land that has been set free from the Turk has gained by its freedom, as every land which remains under the Turk has but one wish, namely, to get rid of the Turk; as the lands which are set free do not envy the bondage of their enslaved neighbours, while the lands which remain enslaved do envy the freedom of their liberated neighbours, I therefore argue from all this that the one work to be done is to put the enslaved lands on the same level as the liberated lands. So to do is the dictate of right; so to do is the dictate of interest. As long as any Christian

* The Ottoman Power in Europe. Preface.

SIGNALS FOR PREACHERS AND TEACHERS.

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land remains under the Turk there will be discontents, and disturbances, and revolts, and massacres; there will be diplomatic difficulties and complications; in a word, the "eternal Eastern Question will remain eternal." From the experience of the past I infer that the only way to settle that question is to get rid of the standing difficulty, the standing complication the standing cause of discontent and revolt and massacre, namely, the rule of the Turk. And I further infer, from the experience of the past, that the rule of the Turk can be got rid of, because, where ever men have thoroughly had the will to get rid of him, he has been got rid of. He has been got rid of in Hungary, in Servia, in the liberated part of Greece. With the same hearty will and zealous effort he may be got rid of in all the other lands where he still does his work of evil. By the policy of Canning, backed by the sword of Sobieski, the Eastern Question may be solved. But as long as there is neither sword nor policy, but only the helpless babble of a man who can never make up his mind, the Eastern Question will go on for ever.

Signals for Preachers and Teachers.

TO-DAY'S SERMON.

BY DR. HOLLAND.

These are

IN Scribner, an American monthly miscellany, for December, the following observations on the sermon for to-day occur. golden words

"Among preachers who are not 'sensational,' as the word goes, we hear a good deal now about and against 'sensational preaching.' We confess that we like sensational preaching, if by the phrase is indicated that which produces a sensation. If by this phrase, however, it is intended to indicate the kind which is accompanied by theatrical tricks, and startling phraseology, and rough pulpit manners, we dislike it as much as any one can. A clown is never more out of place than when he is in a pulpit; and we may add that the true orator is never more in his proper place than there. A man who has the power to wake up his audience intellectually, to rouse their sympathies, to address them by motives so powerful as to exalt them to determination or to action, is the true sensational preacher. This is the man who attracts a crowd; and the man who can be relied upon to do this every Sunday, is the man who holds the crowd.

"A great deal of fault is found with 'intellectual preaching,' but it is pretty well understood now that nothing else will be attractive. The world knows its duty well enough now. The sermon that is simply good, that is charged only with the commonplaces of religion and morality, and never rises into eloquence or a high range of thought or feeling, might almost as well go unpreached. It accomplishes little beyond disgusting its hearers with going to church. The obvious, common things that may be said about any given text of Scripture, are exactly the things that ought never to be said in the pulpit, for in these things the pulpit is no wiser that the pew. One of the great reasons for the lack of popular attraction to the pulpit lies in the fact that brains enough are not put into the sermons. The thinking in a sermon must

be superior to the average thinking of an audience, to produce any effect upon it; and if, in these days, any man-no matter how gifted he may be-imagines that he may halt in his enterprise of earnest and profound preparation for his preaching, without damage to himself or his work, he is sadly mistaken. His slipshod stuff will be detected every time, and pass to his discredit. We know of no profession or calling so exacting in its demands as that of the pulpit; we know of none that is capable of winning greater rewards of influence and affection; but in these days the pulpit is a bad place for a lazy man, or one who is inclined in any way to underrate popular intelligence concerning both his profession and himself. Goodish homilies have gone out, and high discourses have come in. The best thinking that the best men can do, the best English they can command, and the most impressive delivery of which they are the masters, are called for, every time they appear before those who have sufficiently loved and trusted them to place them in their high office. The public are not deceived. No facility of words can cover sterility of thinking. A preacher who does not do his best every time is in constant danger of doing himself irretrievable damage.

"There are certain economies of pulpit oratory that demand more attention from our most successful preachers of sermons. It is a great temptation to a powerful man who finds a plastic congregation in his hands, to continue his conquest of conviction and emotion beyond the point of triumph. There is a charm in mastery which leads to long sermons -to talking after the sermon is done. This breeds uneasiness, and always detracts from the best result. It is always a mistake, and we know of a dozen eminent men who are constantly making it.

"After all, the best and most important qualifications for preaching a good sermon is an overmastering belief in Christianity. There is so much preaching done that leads to admiration of the preacher rather than to faith in and love of Christ, that earnestness cannot be too much insisted on, or too highly estimated. So it is an excellent thing for a preacher to be a Christian, if he desires to acomplish by his preaching anything beyond his own elevation."

The Magic Lantern for “the Little Romans.”

OUR friend and messenger to the Romans, the Rev. N. H. Shaw, writes to say that the lantern and slides have arrived; and "that a better selection of slides could hardly have been made for him;" and he adds, "Please present my hearty thanks to the kind friends who have combined to render the Mission this valuable aid. Rome has great need of lanterns, and, D.V., this shall let its light shine to good purpose." I am very glad to say that our friend, Mr. George Wilkins, of Derby, has given us a batch of useful slides; and that we have received in addition to the sums named last month, the following: from Mr. Ryan's children, 5s. 6d.; Wood Gate S. S., Loughborough, per Mr. H. Coleman, 9s. 10d.; Mr. Hood, Huntingdon, 5s,; Mr. James, Praed Street, 10s.; Mr. Kiddal, Louth, 2s. 6d.; Dr. Carter, Liverpool, £1; Mr. Shaw himself has also given 22s. Heartiest thanks are hereby accorded to these donors, and specially to the young friends who have taken this interest in the descendants of the people to whom Paul wrote his Epistle and preached his gospel. We still need twenty-five shillings to clear this bill. May I say that I should like my young friends to have the honour of doing this good work? Think of it at breakfast next Sunday; or else in your Sunday school classes. Don't be afraid of sending more than twenty-five shillings, for we have something else in store for young Rome, if you will only help. It is the Roman saplings that we must plant in the cleansed and prepared garden of the Lord Jesus. JOHN CLIFFORD.

Christian Worship in Nottinghamshire.*

MR. GOODEVE MABBS has followed his book on Derbyshire, which we noticed in the G. B. Magazine for 1876, p. 341, by the publication of a brief but most valuable volume on "the Churches in Nottinghamshire." It is a book of statistics; and it is proverbially rash to reason on statistics, unless you have the additional lights proceeding from observation of the actual facts to which the figures refer. Still our Nottinghamshire readers will be glad to know what Mr. Mabbs has to say about the provision made for public worship by all the religious bodies within the limits of their county.

I. It seems there is now nearly sufficient provision for the county as a whole; although it is not disposed as it should be. The following table shows this

But these are not all where they should be, there being excess in some places of 39,406, and deficiency in others of 36,608.

II. The direction for extension of Church and Chapel accommodation is certainly not in the VILLAGES, but in the TOWNS. The Urban, or town, deficiency is 32,562; that of the rural districts is only 6,046; and the excesses in parts of towns does not reach any higher than 8,849; but in the rural area it amounts to 30,557. Broadly that points the direction for future evangelical enterprise as plainly as possible.

Looking for details we get them from the following table, showing the principal parish-deficiencies in the county. The approximate requirements are estimated up to 1879. Urban or town parishes are marked thus*.

These deficiencies show in what direction our churches should expend their evangelizing zeal; and at the same time constitute a distinct summons to aggressive activity. Nottinghamshire General Baptists have much more to do in Arnold, Snenton, Lenton, Radford, Carlton, in St. Mary's, Nottingham, and in Worksop. Let our churches, pastors, and local preachers, study these needs.

III. These tables show the necessity, in the interests of truth and of religious progress, of a pact amongst "the sects." Four sorts of Wesleyans are in some of our overdone villages. Baptists and Independents crowd each other and injure each other, it is to be feared, in thinly populated districts. We have no sympathy with the rage for "respectable" churches; and the denunciation of "weak" 66 causes." That spirit would have crushed out Christianity if it could, and annhilated some of the best churches we now have; but we see no sense in the multiplication of Chapels which can never be filled. It is high time Wesleyans

* The Churches in Nottinghamshire. By Goodeve Mabbs. London and Derby: Bemrose & Son. Nottingham: J. Dunn.

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came to terms" with one another;" and that Baptists and Independents made such arrangements as to cease wasting their money and their power. An excess is reported of 278 at Hucknall Torkard; of 421 at Beeston; 578 at Stapleford; 833 at Eastwood; 907 at Kirkby-in-Ashfield, and so on through sixty places.

No doubt some qualifications of these facts, so far as Nonconformists are involved, is seen in the provision made by

IV. Church and Chapel respectively.—The provision made by the Established and the Voluntary Churches is thus reported:-270 Churches are provided by the former, and 398 by the latter. The Establishment has increased since 1851 by 22, and the Free Churches by 16. We quote the following concerning the most important point, the sittings:

"Of the 194,976 sittings in the county, the Established Church provides 90,003, and the Free Churches supply 104,973. The relative proportions are, Established Church 46:16 per cent., and Free Churches 53.84 per cent. In 1851 the Established Church provided 76,960 sittings, and the Free Churches supplied 83,274 sittings. The relative proportions at that time were thus 48.0 per cent. for the former, and 520 per cent. for the latter. Thus the Established Church, with a numerical increase of 13,003 sittings, has lost about two per cent. in proportion to the whole number existing; while the Free Churches, with an increase of 21,699 sittings, have gained about two per cent. Of the sittings known to be in course of supply, the Established Church provides 680, and the Free Churches 1,590.

"COMPARATIVE DISTRIBUTION OF ESTABLISHED AND FREE CHURCH SITTINGS. -The existing sittings are thus divided between the urban and rural districts :

"It thus appears that in the rural districts where the sittings are greatly in excess of the requirements, the accommodation of the Free Churches is a little more than three-fourths in amount of that of the Established Church. On the other hand, in the urban districts, where the provision falls far short of the needs, the sittings of the Established Church are less than two-thirds of those provided by the Free Churches."

V. As to the relative progress of the different bodies in making provision for worship, since the last official census, the figures are, for Primitive Methodists 38 sittings per thousand as against 42; Wesleyans 106 as against 126; the Establishment 265 as against 285; Independents 35 instead of 32; and Baptists 54 instead of 53; the proportional increase in the two latter cases being attributed, in part, to the locating of the Congregational Institute and the Chilwell College in the county since 1851.

But we must draw this paper to a close, and we do so urging all who take any forward part in providing_for_Christian worship in Nottinghamshire to make themselves familiar with Mr. Mabbs' valuable work.

JOHN CLIFFORD.

TRANSFIGURATIONS.-Those who are ready to sacrifice themselves for immediate duty, transform their defects and disadvantages into positive aids. -Goethe.

Proportion

per cent.