CURRENT LITERATURE.
Life in the Light of Gods Word. Sermons by William, Lord Arch- bishop of York. (Murray.)—We know to some extent what wo may expect from the Archbishop of York. Of course, his sermons are shrewd. It would be superfluous for us to praise them. We may, however, find points on which we differ from him, and others on which he differs from himself. Take, for example, the passage from the Times which he, strangely enough, incorporates, and more strangely still endorses, in his sermon on the death of the Prince Consort. We read there of "the happy state of our internal polity'," of our enjoying "a degree of general contentment to which neither we, nor any other nation we know of, ever attained before." If the Arch- bishop will look at pp. 116-7 and p. 279 of his present volume he will find passages which bear rather hardly on this monstrous theory. In the one place he says, "Look over the sides of that triumphal chariot on which you have written ' Progress,' and see the thousands whom its wheels are crushing to pieces as it rolls, and then be proud." He adds, "I find it hard, believing in Calvary, to believe in Whiteohapel and St. Giles." And at the further page we find, " Oh, these things are worth your thoughts ! It is more profitable far to brood over them in silence, than to indulge in tumid talk about improvements and the general prosperity." But if archbishops quote tumid talk, what else can we expect from a daily newspaper? The very sermon on the Prince Consort's death rebukes its preacher. It is hard to conceive how a man who had uttered the almost magnificent words on the annihilation of worldliness could descend to such tame and false panegyric.
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