Six Short Sermons on Sin. Lent Lectures at St. Alban
the Martyr, Holborn. By the Rev. Orby Shipley. (Rivingtons.)—If Mr. Shipley was not so evidently in earnest, these sermons would be positively mischievous. Yet as we are convinced he means every word that he says, we will merely regret that he seems so often to address himself to the prejudices of his congregation, and to distort either the Bible or the Prayer Book in order to meet their preconceived wishes. Mr. Shipley may no doubt think that journalism is the mouthpiece of the world, and that the worship of Public Opinion is the most common and most debased form of idolatry. But the congregation of St. Alban's must have felt this already, and did not need to be told it as matter of instruction. If it was not meant for them, for whom is it intended? The outer world will hardly be converted by sheer assumption. The people of St. Alban's may have made up their minds already that when the Church of England says that there are two Sacraments only ordained by Christ in His Church, she means two only which are absolutely necessary for salvation; but that there are five others which, though not essential, are absolutely needful. But other people will scarcely accept this dictum without argument. Mr. Shipley's hearers may have felt that the
remorse of Judas when he brought back the thirty pieces of silver proved the existence of an authorized system of confession among the Jews, and that when the Apostles asked our Lord to send a suppliant away, they meant, "Send her away with her prayer fulfilled." But here, again, are matters for discussion rather than for dogmatism, if any effect is to be produced on those to whom such information is neces- sary.
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