3 JANUARY 1846, Page 20

THE REVEREND R. C. TRENCH'S HlULSEAN LECTURES. WHEN any art

has been long practised, and, as will always happen in a dense and civilized society, by many men of ability, a standard excel- lence is reached, which though in a philosophical sense it may be called common, is more aptly to be designated professional. No one can have had experience of a legal case without being struck by the acumen and ingenuity of well-trained lawyers, not merely advocates, but attornies and their clerks. How quickly they see the points of the matter; how closely they divine the probable strategy of the adversary, and adapt their tactics to meet his as soon as they are displayed ! A bailiff will track his prey with the skill of a Red Indian, and draw as sound in- ferences from the trail. In like manner, a policeman will "get up a case," not merely discovering and arresting the parties, but examining the witnesses and arranging the evidence, in a manner, as the reporter says, " reflecting the highest credit" upon Sergeant So-and-so. The same ability is displayed in physic, in military and naval affairs, in swindling, and in almost every pursuit that has been long established and attracts men into its ranks by the hopes of credit or gain. We do not mean that every craftsman has this kind of ability ; nor do we mean that rare ability to which is relegated, as by common consent, the difficulties of the art ; but what is called men of " good abilities," who are always to be found in every practical profession, and preserve their qualities amid the decay of letters and arts, and are among the last to sink in the general corruption of society. But their excellence is confined to the individual subject on which they are employed. In that sphere it excites our ad- miration • but when the professors pass beyond it, and call upon the world at large to look at them, the power may rightly be termed common.

It is so in the church. The majority of the clergy in all communions may, perhaps must, verge upon mediocrity ; but all communions have many able and learned ministers, well qualified to deliver admirable dis- courses on proper occasions. When this occasion is overstepped, with all its circumstances of personal presence, oratorical art, and the com- position of the congregation, the other and larger principle of judgment comes into play. To the public, the professional is merged in the artisti- cal ; and, as we formerly observed, it is only some peculiarity of character in the mind of the preacher, or some happiness in the choice of his sub- ject, which can give much rank to his sermons as literary and secular compositions.

The Hulsean Lectures for the Year MDCCCXLV possesses both these qualifications, though more indebted to the subject than the treatment. The will of the founder has determined the topics of the annual lectures to be, "the evidence for revealed religion; the truth and excellence of Christianity; prophecies and miracles ; direct or collateral proofs of the Christian religion, especially the collateral arguments ; the more difficult texts, or obscure parts of the Holy Scriptures." Out of this wide field Mr. Trench has selected a topic from what may be called the collateral category ; his subject, the proof of the truth of the Christian dispensa- tion from its influence upon the mind of man. Minute objections are not undervalued by Mr. Trench; but in his mode of considering the subject they are to be disregarded, and the truth of Scripture brought to a more comprehensive and spiritual test. For example, what other book has produced the same effect upon the character and advancement of man- kind ? what has been found so well adapted to all classes and conditions of the human race — the lowly, the high in rank, the ignorant, the cultivated, the savage, and the civilized? As a composition, what vo- lume has so much variety of subject, of matter, and of styles? yet pos- sesses so much unity of purpose when rightly understood ; is so inex- haustible to those who read it, ever yielding something fresh, and so fruitful of instruction and consolation under all circumstances and to all characters ? Then again, how it has maintained its ground under all the changes of society; that which was obscure or unintelligible to one age becoming clear to another. Thus, the Reformation developed the full power of the Pauline Epistles, whose scope could scarcely be understood during the complete supremacy of the Papacy, till Luther developed jus- tification by faith ; the Gospels are now standing out in consequence of the Rationalistic assaults of Germany; and the time will doubtless come when the obscurity and alleged mysticism of the Apocalypse shall shine effulgent as noon-day.

In many, perhaps in any of these arguments, there is no particular novelty; they derive their character from their combination and the plan they subserve. Nor are they altogether conclusive or unanswerable by a dialectitian, were this the place to discuss such a subject. Besides the general scope of the work, which knits together the collected reasons and gives them a power they might not independently possess, these lectures have considerable merit in point of composition. The poetical power of Mr. Chenevix Trench is felt in a general vitality, and occasionally shown in natural pictures, verging upon the florid, though not too much so for many tastes. The principal merit of the book, however, is more clerically exhibited. As passion and action are the great elements of the drama, so professional learning, a penetrating acumen, and a thoughtful compre- hensive spirit, are constituent parts of our Anglican Church, which rather discourages impassioned and theatrical appeal. It is that cast of mind, evolving the essential characteristics of things, which commands the assent of an audience, and procures perhaps a more lasting admiration than ministerial excursions in search of the picturesque, or pulpit efforts after dramatic scenes. This more penetrative style is in the main the feature of the Hulsean Lectures; and here is an example, from the in- troductory discourse—Lecture I.

THE POWER OF A BOOK.

Perhaps there will be no fitter introduction than a few general remarks on the connexion in which a book may stand to the intellectual and spiritual life of men. And would we appreciate the importance of a book received as absolute law, for the mental and moral culture of those who in such wise receive it, the influences which it will exert in moulding them, if only that book contain any elements of truth: let us consider for an instant what the Koran has been and is to the whole Mohammedan world; bow it is practically the great bond and band of the nations professing that spurious faith, holding fast in a community, which is a counter part, however feeble, of a Christendom, nations whom everything else would have tended to separate; how it has stamped on them the features of a common life, and set them, however immeasurably below the Christian nations, yet well nigh as greatly above all other nations of the world: let us consider this, and then what the book is that has wrought these mighty effects—the many elements of fraud and folly which are mixed up with and which weaken the truth which it pos- sesses—and then let us ask ourselves what by comparison mast be a Bible, or Scripture of absolute truth, to the Christian world? Or, to estimate the shaping, moulding power which may lie in books, even when they come not as revelations, real or pretended, of the will of God, let us attempt to measure the influence which a few Greek and Latin books (for the real effective books are but few) exert and have exerted on the minds of men, since the time that they have been familiarly known and studied; the manner in which they have modified the habits of thought, coloured the language, and affected the whole institutions of the world in which we live; how they have given to those who have sedulously occupied themselves in their study and drunk in their spirit, a culture and tone of mind recognizably differentfrom that of any other men: and this, although they come with the seal of no absolute authority; although, on the contrary, we feel that on many points (and some of these the very cluefest) we stand greatly above them: let us take this into account, and we shall allow that it is scarcely possible to overrate the influence of a book which does come with highest sanction, to which men bow as containing the express image of the Truth, and which is, as those are, only for a longer period and in a higher region of the spiritual life, the appointed instrument for calling out the true humanity in every

man.

The following is another example of the same kind from the sermon on the Unity of Scripture.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE.

And this unity if it can be shown to exist, none can reply that it was involved and implied in the external accidents of the book, and that we have mistaken the outward aggregation of things similar for the inward coherence of an organic body: since these accidents, if the word may be permitted, are all such as would have created a sense of diversity; and it is only by penetrating through them, and not suffering them to mislead us, that we do attam to the deeper and per vading unity of Scripture. Its unity is not, for instance, such as might appa- rently be produced by a language common to all its parts. For it is scarcely pos- sible, I suppose, for a deeper gulf to divide two languages than divides the two in which severally the Old and the New Testament are written. Nor can it be like- ness of form which has deceived us into believing that unity of spirit exists; for the forms are various and diverse as can be conceived: it is now song, now history; now dialogue, now narration; now familiar letter, now prophetic vision. There is scarcely a form of composition in which men have thrown their thoughts which does not find its archetype here. Nor yet is the unity of this volume brought about through all the parts of it being the upgrowth of a single age, and so all breathing alike the spirit of that age; for none such beheld the birth of this book, which was well nigh two thousand years ere it was fully formed and had reached its final completion. Nor can its unity, if it exists, be accounted for from its having had but one class of men for its human authors: since men not of one class alone, but of many, and those the widest apart—kings and herds- men, warriors and fishermen, wise men and simple—have alike brought their one stone or more, and been permitted to build them in to this great dome and temple which God through so many ages was rearing to its glorious height. Deeper than all its outward circumstances, since these all would have tended to an oppo- siM result, this unity must lie—in the all-enfolding seed out of which the whole book is evolved.