SEMit0148. — Serntons on the Catholic Sac, ifice. By Berdmore Compton. (Rivingtons.)—Mr.
Compton is vicar of an important church, All Saints, Margaret Street, and hid utterances have a certain significance, the more so, as he is understood not to be on the extreme right of his party. It is surprising, then, to find a man who, speaking in such a place, speaks, it may be supposed, with deliberation, and who has the opportunities of revision afforded by the process of pub- lishing, using such language as this,—" Forgiveness of sins under the Christian dispensation is given either in the Sacrament of Holy Bap- tism, or by verbal absolution." Surely this is sacerdotalism pushed into materialism. You could not have a closer parallel to those semi-materialists who say that God has established certain laws, and that this world is governed by them wholly without regard to Him. God cannot forgive sins, Mr. Compton would say, except, by the minister who baptizes, or by the priest whom He has commissioned to absolve. Apart from such extravagances, these sermons show careful study, and even theological learning. We disagree indeed from his con- clusions. We think that his language about the Anglican Communion Service is most dangerous and sophistical. He may lament the im- perfections of that service, but he is not entitled to supplement it at his pleasure, when he wishes to infer doctrine from it, from rituals to which it was distinctly preferred. The fact is that our Church, having a certain "use" before it, modified this " uee " in a most significant way. Of course, she modified at the same time her view of the doc- trine. Whether this was done through foreign influence or no, matters not, it was done authoritatively, and every Anglican is bound by it. He has no more right to appeal to the " use " of Sarum than he has to appeal to the " use " of Rome.—Sermons and Expositions, by the Rev. R. Winterbotham. (Henry S. King and Co.) These sermons, which come from New South Wales, aro in no inconsiderable degree eloquent and forcible. Indeed, the growth of rhetorical power in the sermons of the present day over those of twenty years ago is very clearly marked, though church-goers will probably allow that much still remains to be done. Mr. Winterbotham is a High-Churchman, higher, perhaps, if we are to be allowed to read between the lines, than he would seem to be. His vision of " Mother Church of ours, sitting as a woman within her ancient and noble house, exceeding fair, but very cold and still, and of how she lets the precious coins of the King be lost under mould and decay, and listens to the voices of those who would not have her disturb quiet things," strike us as having a familiar meaning. Aro not the "precious coins " so-called " Catholic practices " and " Catholic doctrines," which our Church has suffered to fall into disuse, and which she is urged to recover? But the Sermons are distinctly good ; that on The Rich Fool," for instance, is remarkable for its energy.--We must own, however, the superiority of another volume of sermons, that comes from the other side of the world, a posthumous volume, we are sorry to see,—Sermons, by the Rev. Peter S. Menzies. (Melbourne Robertson.) Mr. Menzies is described as having been of the " Scots' Church, Melbourne," and we may con- clude that he belonged to the Presbyterian community. We do not now learn for the first time that Presbyterian symbols find room for a broad and noble theology. Such, we do not hesitate to say, was that preached by Mr. Menzies. His second discourse, for instance, on "Seeming Loss—Real Gain," preached on the words of Mary Magdalene, " They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him," is a truly admirable one. The preacher shows in a most instruc- tive way how the present time is developing higher ideas of the Church, the Bible, and the Person and work of Christ. How true is this sen- tence, which we quote from the last of these three divisions !—" A God who merely hides His Divine Majesty behind the veil of flesh and blood, and who compels us to feel that every utterance which comes from Him is a movement of a divine impulse, not a human, such a God is not really incarnate ; He is not one with us, Re is an Omnipotent alien in disguise." "The House of Many Mansions" is another admirable sermon. In fact, we heartily recommend the volume for perusal and use, though, of course, without guaranteeing assent to the whole.—From another quarter of Presbyterianism comes the next volume on our list—not strictly a volume of sermons, by the way —Regeneration, by the late Rev. W. Anderson. (Hodder and Stoughton.) Dr. Anderson is as familiar with the human heart, in the most mysterious of its movements, its turning to God, as an anatomist with his subject, and lays down the law with scientific certainty. His volume has a certain theologioal value, but it takes a line somewhat remote from our sympathies. His bitter language about other communions is such as his editor ought never to have allowed to pass. "A miserable remnant of Jacobite prelacy" is his description of the Episcopal Church of Scotland. It is pleasant to read, though it gives us a shocking idea of the theological tone of the society in which such axioms need to be asserted, that "he contended for the salvation of infants" with "a mixture of love and wrath," and that "he had many a sharp rebuke for the indiscriminate consignment of masses of men to perdition, or for an absolute judgment on particular individuals."—Strangely enough. we find another preacher, the Rev. W. Taylor, author of a series of sermons entitled David, King of Israel his Life and its Lessons (Sampson Low and Co.), finding it necessary to make the same assertions. Mr. Taylor is "Minister of the Broadway Tabernacle, New York City." He thinks that "there is a moral im- possibility involved in the thought of infants being consigned to perdition." Are there, then, men who seriously think it a "moral possibility " ? Mr. Taylor's sermons have a certain interest and vigour. They are plain-spoken, and never attempt any dishonest special pleading. Sometimes we find a touch of humour, as when speaking of the causes of Absalom's popularity, he suggests that the " West-End tradesmen, if there were any such in those days," would contrast the seclusion of David unfavourably with the splendour of Absalom.—The Son of Man, His Lift and Ministry, by G. S. Drew (H. S. King and Co.), is a volume of discourses by a writer who has achieved a certain reputation, and does not here sink below it. The more novel part of the volume comes the first. "Lives of Christ," says the author, "are, for the most part, little more than paraphrases of the four Gospels." We do not see that they can be much more, or that Mr. Drew, while he makes out of the very brief notices of our Lord's early life an elaborate picture, really teaches us anything. There are the two or three authentic details. All beyond that is imagination, though we own that Mr. Drew's knowledge of Eastern life and Biblical learning make his picture interesting.—Sermons, by the late Rev. G. C. Harris, with a Memoir, by Charlotte M. Yonge (Macmillan), are discourses full of energy and life, such as, even as we read them, give us an idea of the power which, aided by the living voice and presence of a remark- ably earnest man, they seemed to have exercised. We cannot but regret an occasional glimpse of a somewhat narrow theological system. But Miss Yonge draws for us a striking picture of a blameless, devoted life, which would have transformed with a gracious influence any theology. —Sermons to a Country Congregation (Blackwood) are discourses of merit, but not, we think, especially meritorious on the ground that they are suitable to the audience to which they were preached. The first sermon, for instance, on the " darkness over the whole land " that occurred during the Crucifixion, is an interesting exercise of imagination which we should have been glad to listen to, but which would seem above the heads of " country congregations." The author, however, presumably preaches on the other side of the Tweed, and country congregations there may well appreciate what would really be more suitable for towns-folk here.—Sunday Morning with my Flock on St. Paul's Letters to the Colossians, by James Spence (Hodder and Stoughton), is a volume of elaborate discourses, too long, we should say,. for the greatest practical utility. To have the Sunday mornings for a whole year (allowing for a holiday) occupied with one epistle is surely disproportionate. But Dr. Spence is a "painful preacher," to use the word in its old and favourable sense.—The Stewardship of Life, by the Rev. James Stirling (Hodder and Stoughton), is a volume written in a very ambitions style,—" studies," as the title-page has it, "on the Parable of the Talents," and having, as we are told in the preface, " little in common with what generally issues from the pulpit." Here we agree with the author, not without satisfaction. What "issues from the pulpit" is often tedious, but tediousness is better than the affectation which disfigures these essays. What are we to say to such a sentence as this :—" Challenged by Christ's person and claims, men have bored the earth, fished the seas, anatomised the negro, and driven. the stars through a critical process ?" Nor is this a casual extravagance ; it is a not unfair specimen. There are traces of thought in Mr. Stirling's " studies," but they are sadly concealed by the tawdry glitter of false ornament.—We must be content with recording the titles of Sermons, by the late Rev. Thomas Groser, Second Series (Bosworth); The Twin Brothers and other Addresses to Children, by the Rev. Gordon Calthorp (W. Hurst); Christian Belief and Lift, by Andrew B. Peaboby, D.D. (Sampson Low and Co); and The Divine Gentleness, and other Sermons, by T. Campbell Finlayson (Hodder and Stoughton).
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