ART. XII. Sermons, by William Laurence Brown, D.D. Princi pal of Marischall College and University, Aberdeen, &c. &c. 8vɑ, pp. 500. 78. Boards. Longman and Co.

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N no species of oratory are dignified plainness and simplicity more requisite than in that of the pulpit; since the professed object of the evangelical instructor is not to shine in tinsel eloquence,

to preach himself," "to parade it in the eye of the vulgar," to dazzle and soothe the imagination of his hearers, but to persuade and impress conviction on his audience by sober reason and argument, by an appeal to their consciences, their natural perceptions, and their acquired knowlege of good and evil. To accomplish this important end, the preacher should manifest sincerity and earnestness; and he should deliver his admonitions in clear and forcible language, imitating St, Paul, who speaks of himself as " using great plainness of speech," or as employing a manly freedom of address. Indeed, the foundation of good preaching may be considered as "laid in the apostles and prophets," whose example in this respect is peculiarly striking and worthy of imitation. If Dr. Brown, in the volume of Sermons now under review, occasionally departs from that noble simplicity which belongs to this species of composition, he manifests an attractive energy, and those illustrative powers which stamp a value on public addresses. His explanations and amplifications contribute to accuracy of conception and enlargement of idea; and his doctrine is replete with lessons of moral and religious wisdom.

The discourses are eighteen in number, and treat of the following important practical subjects:-1. The Duty of a Christian Preacher. 2. Love of God. 3. Believer's Joy. 4. Indifference to Religion. 5. Procrastination in Religious Matters. 6. Vanity of Religion without zeal. 7. Constancy and Perseverance in Religion. 8. Progressive Religion. 9. Prudence and Simplicity. 10. Same subject continued. 11. Ditto concluded. 12. Attachment to Truth and Duty. 13. Danger of Opulence. 14. Danger of Poverty. 15. Pride. Grounds of Pride. 17. Humility. 17. Humility. 18. Charity.

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This respectable author appears carefully to avoid all subtle and metaphysical researches on obscure and mysterious points: he does not even introduce critical discussions of scriptural. texts: but, making morals and the reformation of the heart and actions his principal aim, he consults the general purport and spirit of the sacred code; and considering this to be the true and "saving knowledge" of religion, he employs it as occasion demands, without descending to minute inquiries, or perplexing his hearers with the intricacy of the letter.

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We must remark, however, that these sermons are too often deficient in peroration or practical conclusion of the subject addressed to the audience; for though the application is sometimes happily enough interwoven with the body of the sermon, in other instances we find it altogether omitted. In the first sermon, for example "We preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus,”—after having shewn the duty of preaching the gospel, and in what it consists, the orator concludes by expressing a flattering expec tation of success in his sacerdotal office: but should he not have exhorted his hearers to "receive with meekness the engrafted word?" Should he not have pointed out the importance of attention on their side? Again, in the sermon on the evils of poverty, those evils are described at large: but are they then voluntary evils, from which the sufferers can escape by selfexertion? Is it to be presumed that the aurea mediocritas is attainable by all who give it the preference? If not, the poor who 1 heard the sermon should have been addressed with the word of patience and consolation, and their hopes excited by the anticipation of a brighter scene.-We will now proceed to a more pleasing part of our office.

The eloquence of Dr. Brown will appear in a passage taken from the sermon "on the Joy of believing and practising the Gospel."

What joy, short of heaven itself, can equal that which results from the testimony of a pure conscience, and the confident assurance of the divine favour? What higher wish could the heart of man, panting after happiness, form, than to experience within itself, a perpetual calm, unmoved by the storms of passion, unmolested by the intemperate cravings of appetite, untouched by the stings of remorse, while it entertained the firm persuasion that the whole frame of nature was under the dominion of its decided friend? The ignorance of such a mind, with regard to the immediate causes of events, creates no anxiety; for it is under the protection of Infinite Wisdom. Its weakness occasions no fear; for it is under the direction of Omnipotence. Its disappointments produce no vexation; for it can be des titute of no real good, nor suffer any calamity which will not, in the end, contribute to the increase of its happiness!

These are joys pure and substantial, suited to the dignity of the rational nature, and independent of our brutal part. These can never be carried to excess, never succeeded by corroding reflexion. Pleasing once, they please and delight us for ever. These neither birth, nor external events, nor the dispositions of men, nor disease, nor age, can affect. They attend us in society, and forsake us not in solitude. When enemies persecute us, they inspire us with courage, and endue us with strength. When false friends abandon us, they remain. They solace adversity and enhance and adorn prosperous circumstances. They lighten the burdens of life, and disarm death of his terrors! Compared with these, affluence is poor, grandeur is contemptible,

contemptible, senual pleasure is disgusting. External circumstances are appropriated to no inherent dignity of character, and are, often, the means of debasing it. But, religious and moral enjoyments are the peculiar privileges of the wise and good, who are not excluded from their share of worldly possessions, and can enjoy them with the highest relish. Still, should these be withheld, supported by their internal resources, by conscious integrity, by the exhilarating sense of the divine favour, and by the glorious prospect of a blessed immortality, the piously wise must, even in adversity and affliction, be possessed of a more abundant store of happiness than can belong to the impious and wicked, placed on the summit of power, basking in the sunshine of prosperity, and resounding the loudest strains of dissolute mirth. Like a rock towering above the deep, the man of piety and virtue beholds the storms of calamity roar around him, without shaking his resolution, or impairing his strength. When the tempest assails those of a contrary character, they are tossed, like the sand, from surge to surge, and, when the calm returns, sink under the weight of their own depravity!'

This quotation displays strength and dignity; and it shews that, where an author is himself animated by his subject, he rises superior to the artifices of oratory.

We particularly recommend the next extract, from a sermon in continuation of the subject of the prudent man in his religious concerns; which displays the liberal sentiments of Dr. Brown, and the candid mode which he recommends for investigating he sense of the sacred writers.

It is especially in religious concerns, that the character, wise as the serpent, and harmless as the dove, is displayed. Here the object is, of all the most important. Here, his own present happiness, and that of those with whom he is connected, are essentially interested, and his eternal salvation is at stake. Here, therefore, just principles, and a corresponding conduct, are matters of the highest magnitude. On this account, he acts not, with regard to religion, as men do in general, receiving, without enquiry, every opinion delivered to them, or thinking that an opinion, once embraced, must never be changed; or, with still greater folly, rejecting all religious doctrines, as equally false, and adopting, in their stead, the presumptuous speculations of sceptical philosophy. His desire to obtain right information, and his openness to conviction, in case of mistake, are proportioned to the importance of the subject. The reason, with which his Creator has endowed him, he employs for the noblest purpose to which it can be directed; the investigation of the Deity's character and perfections, of the course and order of his Providence, and of the rules of his moral government. From the contemplation of natnre he turns to the book of revelation, which furnishes the instruction that reason cannot supply; meditates on it day and night, and studies what it contains, not with the prejudice of a pre-conceived system, but with that enlargement of mind, which alone relishes divine truth, and with that simplicity which is suited to the gospel of Christ. In order to succeed in his

enquiries,

enquiries, he uses every aid which the learned, the intelligent, and the pious labours of others can afford him."

In investigating the meaning of scripture, he attends to manners, to times, and to idiomatical modes of expression. He examines sen. tences and periods in their connection, builds not general doctrines on expressions limited to particular cases, nor gives a close and literal ac. ceptatioh to language which is evidently metaphorical. He is not chained to the dead letter, but imbibes the spirit of what he reads, nor fears to employ that good sense which is the soul of all real knowledge, which is the director of all just criticism on religious, as well as all other subjects, and without which learning obscures, and variety of opinion perplexes and bewilders the judgment. While he exercises his own reason in this manner, he implores the Father of lights to teach him what he sees not, to dispel his doubts, to brighten his information, to quicken his desire of divine and saving knowledge, to guide him into all truth, and to make him wise unto salvation.

Dr. B. has given a full and accurate delineation of the virtue of Christian Humility, in his sermon on that subject; and it is impossible to read it without perceiving the true greatness and elevation which this attainment stamps on the human character:

Humility is that babit of mind which inclines to think of ourselves, not more highly than we ought to think, but to think soberly, It excludes not a proper sense of our own right, whether, by this, be understood what belongs to us by claims strictly legal, or what we are entitled to expect in consequence of the situation we possess in society, or of those becoming decencies which humanity and civilization have established, as due in different degrees from one man to another. Humi lity is, by no means, to be confounded with that meanness of spirit which submits to indignity for fear of incurring the resentment of the person by whom it is offered, or abandons duty, when personal detriment stands in opposition to the conscientious and virgorous discharge of it. On the contrary, this virtue will induce us to prefer duty to évery personal consideration, and resist, in a becoming and temperate manner, every degradation which tends to obstruct our utility by diminishing our influence.

Humility, directing the mind to God, perceives and acknowledges the insignificance, the baseness, and the aggravated guilt, of every human being, before his Creator. Turning our view towards our fellow-men, it recognizes that equality of right and obligation, which, according to the diversity of relations and circumstances, subsists among all mankind, but also admits and respects every occuring instance of merit, in any individual. As often as our own qualities and virtues are the subjects of consideration, humility disposes us rather to cherish the suggestions of modest diffidence, and the feelings of conscious defect, than to entertain the self-flattery of presumption and the audacity of arrogance.

From this general description of the virtue in question you already perceive, that it implies a justness and elevation of sentiment, and a certain tone of maguanimity, that dignify the soul in which they exist. It evinces enlargement of conception, and freedom from

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the fetters of selfishness. It proves that its possessor can expatiate beyond the contracted circle of his own qualities, can view, with the discrimination of impartiality, the merits of others, weigh them in the same balance with his own, and allow the former their full value, even when the latter must suffer by the comparison, and has fixed, in his mind, such a standard of excellence, as far surpasses any human attainment. Real worth is the object of his regard, and, wherever he finds it, he honoureth it, though in the lowest condition, and in circumstances the most unprosperous. Hence, the humble man thinks meanly of his own qualifications, not because his ideas flow in a shallow stream, and in a narrow channel, but because his conceptions swell to such a height, and are capable of such expansion, that his own importance is sunk, as it were, and lost amidst greater considerations. Such a person is, therefore, possessed of real dignity, and greatness of mind, to which the proud man is an entire stranger. It requires both a sound judgment, and no common degree of moderation, and firmness, to repress the impulses of self love, in such a manner as to give to our own qualities, no more value than they ought in reason to So difficnlt is this attainment, that I doubt whether it has possess. ever been completely found in any character merely human. To yield to the suggestions of pride, to suffer the imagination to be filled with her fantastic images, and the understanding blinded by her fascination, requires no exertion, no ability whatever. The weaker, the more ignorant and vicious a person is, the more easily and completely he runs the course which this passion prescribes. But, the cultiva tion of humility is a work that demands great discernment of the respective claims of those that surround us, the faculty of comparing them with our own, a judicious estimation of merit, and resolution to bend the violence and obstinacy of selfish passions to the nature and reason of things. These energies of mind, and their effects on conduct, command esteem, ensure benevolence and attachment, and evince a character, not only amiable in itself, but useful to mankind Every thing social, generous, and exalted, is much more to be expected from this, than from the opposite disposition. Is any personal hardship to be suffered, any sacrifice made, for the public good? The who considers himself as unimportant, in comparison of the person social body, will be more ready to exhibit such instances of magnanimity, than he whose chief object is his own exaltation. Is it necessary, for the peace of society, to relinquish a favourite scheme or tenet, or, at least, not to press it with a dogmatical spirit of contention? He, who is diffident of his own judgment, is much more likely to adopt such a measure, than the man who supposes his own opinions to be stamped with the mark of infallibility, and who is impelled to maintain them by the intolerant spirit of bigotry and pride. Is it desirable, for the common interest, to accomplish a reconciliation between contending parties? He, who is not inflamed with that resentment which wounded self-sufficiency inspires, will more readily step forward to meet his opponent, in the temper of pacification, than the man who considers the rejection of exorbitant claims as atrocious injustice, and resistance to insolence as an unpardonable crime.

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