21 OCTOBER 1882, Page 21

The Holiest Manhood, and its Lessons for Busy Lives. By

Jolla Ellerton, M.A., Rector of Barnes. (Macmillan and Co.)—The unity of purpose, with variety of subject, which arc to be found in these sermons mark them off from the common style of parochial dis- courses. The Holiest Manhood is illustrated in each one of them by some incident in the life of Christ, and there is in the treatment of then well-known occurrences originality of manner and a certain eloquence of style which have made them worthy of reprodaotion, They are intended for busy London people, and they will do well to lay to heart the remarks on the loss which those experience who believe that "Christian doctrine may be wrangled over by theolo- gians, but is very unimportant to the rest of mankind." But, just now, when many who take an interest in such subjects are trying to see their path of duty with regard to such an organisation as the Salvation Army, the following wise questions, in the sermon on "The Baptism," are worthy of more special consideration :—

"The man who cannot sympathise with reality, even in religieue emotions which he does not share, and religions rights which for him are unnecessary, how can such a one have the Spirit of Christ in him ? The man who can stand with a sneer and watch the kneeling thousands as they murmur their litanies in the crowded aisles, or wait their turn by the confessional of some foreign shrine; the man who has nothing but a jest for the eccentricities of an American camp. meeting, nothing but a solemn rebuke for the fervid utterances of some band of evangelists among our own working people, how can such a man dare to claim fellowship with him who, spotless as he was in holiness, yet could no longer rest in his sacred seclusion, but was drawn by the power of a Saviour's sympathy down to the Jordan Valley, there, among trembling publicans and weeping harlots, to bend beneath the burning words of tho preacher of repentance, and to take his place in fulfilling all righteousness, his share in the great national act of return and restoration to God ?"