BOOKS.
DEAN CHURCH'S VILLAGE SERMONS.* 'THE late Dean of St. Paul's possessed such eminent gifts for public service, that regret has sometimes been expressed that he was permitted to spend so many years of his life as the clergyman of a remote village. We know from his Letters that he did not himself share in this regret ; and most readers of the village sermons will be disposed to
-regard it as a fortunate circumstance for the Church of England that he had thus the opportunity of ex-
hibiting his high fidelity to the duties of the Christian ministry in a sphere which is very apt to make an intellectual clergyman indolent or discontented. His sermons are not only models for the village preacher, they are a positive
inspiration to him, for they show with what unstinted ex- penditure of his best powers one of the most cultivated men in England gave himself to his quiet work. Those who are familiar with Dean Church's other writings—most readers of the Spectator know them well—when they recall the varied knowledge and the wide outlook which they display, cannot fail to be struck by the restraint he placed upon himself when speaking to his village congregation. With the exception of a quotation from the Imitatio, which is not named, there is
not a single reference to literature or history in the present volume. The experiences, outward and inward, which the preacher describes are always those with which villagers are, or may be, familiar ; nor is there a single sentence which a devout hearer, however unlettered, could not readily understand. This does not mean that the sermons do not reflect the mind and character of the author. These make themselves felt in the reverence with which religious subjects are handled, and especially in their tone of true Christian courtesy towards the hearers, equally remote from pompons arrogance, and from that condescension which is only arro- gance in disguise. It may appear strange to say it of sermons written with the definite purpose of meeting the wants of the unlearned, but it would be difficult to find a volume of recent sermons so suitable for highly cultivated people. Preachers make a sad mistake who imagine that such people are to be won by discourses blazing with quotations from literature, and filled with references to history and public affairs. They prefer to get their literature and history elsewhere, and positively resent their introduction into sermons. The entire absence of meretricious, and even of external, adornment which charac- terises Dean Church's sermons, and the sense they convey of the writer's confidence in the innate strength of his message, give to them something of the power which belongs to the Liturgy. We might indeed say of these village sermons what South said long ago of the apostolic preaching :—
" Nothing here 'of the fringes of the north star ; ' nothing of 'nature's becoming unnatural ; ' nothing of the 'down of angels' wings,' or 'the beautiful locks of cherublins : ' no starched simili- tildes introduced with a Thus have I seen a cloud rolling in its airy mansion,' and the like. No, these were sublimities above the rise of the apostolic spirit. For the apostles, poor mortals, were content to take lower steps, and to tell the world in plain terms, 'that he who believed should be saved, and that he who believed not should be damned.' And this was the dialect which pierced the conscience, and made the hearers cry out, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do ? ' "
These sermons are not, however, mere exhortations, or even devout outpourings. The author has said somewhere,— " Devotion, to be kept pure, needs ideas as well as feelings," and the village sermons contain many examples of the pre- sentation of important, and even profound, religions ideas in a clear and simple form. We have a fine example of this in the sermon entitled " The Gospel Preached to the World." The aim of the sermon is to show that Christianity was a universal religion as compared with the religions which had preceded it. This he might have done by comparing its teaching with that of earlier religions —a task he has performed elsewhere—but he here seizes upon the easily understood characteristic that it was a missionary religion. The earlier religions had been stay-at-home religions, satisfied to remain within their own boundaries ; Christianity was born with the consciousness that it was its mission to go forth and subdue the world, as the conquerors of the sword had done, only with other weapons. He adds that missionary
• Village Sermons Preached at WhatIey. B. th9 late It. W. Church. If A.., D.C.L.„ sometime Dean nf St. Pael'A, itee-or of Wliatte:, Falow of Oriel cal. legs. Thud Eerlea, Loudon: Mac:Li:La and Co.
zeal is an abiding mark of true Christianity. The proof, he writes, that we have not lost the old faith of the Church of Christ is that we are desirous to carry forward the broad plain line which divides truth from falsehood, light from darkness, goodness from evil.
Another example of a simple but illuminating treatment of a great religions idea will be found in the sermon on "The Blessedness of Temptation." It begins with a frank acknowledgment that neither the hearers nor the preacher were naturally inclined to welcome temptation, however understood, as a blessed experience. "We wish ourselves out of it, and we wish others out of it." But this feeling, natural as it is to all, arises, says Dean Church, from a want of understanding of the chief meaning of our lives; life is the season in which, by God's appointment, we are tried and proved to see what stuff we are really made of, whether we have it in us to fulfil God's purposes. Trial should be accepted not with resignation only, but with the recognition that it is the path to the higher life. Men repine at trials because trials often bring with them defeat and humiliation, and a consequent loss of self-respect. But this is only a seeming evil, for temptation and trial do not cause men's weakness, they only show it if it is there; and thus point to the true source of help. "Not till we have tried our own strength on occasions when our pride has been called out, or our wishes have been crossed, or we have felt the burden of the perverseness or folly or bad temper of others, do we know how weak we are ; not till then do we accept that wholesome rebuke and humiliation in our own esteem, which makes us feel that we want a greater strength than our own." The cheerful lesson is drawn from a seemingly gloomy subject, that as life is the season of temptation and discipline, failures afford no ground for despair. Let us be patient with ourselves, patient with our mistakes and defeats ; and hope on and strive on in spite of them.
The sermon on "The Gain of the Departure of Christ" contains some thoughts which might well be heeded by those who are disposed to make the whole of Christianity consist in the Teaching and Example of Christ. Christ left the earth and became invisible to his disciples, writes Dean Church, because his religion was to be a religion of unseen thoughts and hopes, of unseen intercourse between the invisible soul of man, and the invisible God in heaven. Had he remained upon earth we should have known him, as his disciples knew him upon earth, but only as outward to us—not within us, one with our spirits and living with our life.
Dean Church's most original contribution to religious thought was his estimate of civilisation from the Christian point of view, which is contained in his Oxford sermons on the "Gifts of Civilisation." Broad Churchmen had written of civilisation with sympathy and admiration, often as if it were the sole and satisfying goal of all human hopes, as if the Church were simply its pioneer and minister. High Church- men and Evangelicals, on the other hand, had often spoken as if He who bestows on man all his mental and bodily gifts looked with persistent displeasure on their natural employ- ment. Dean Church estimated at their full value the gains of civilisation, and he courageously defended the strivings of man to better himself and the world he dwells in; but he was careful to point out that such gains could never fully satisfy the highest longings of the human spirit. It is interesting to find him repeating, with a more limited outlook, in simpler language, these courageous and just sentiments to his village congregation. In a sermon in the present volume entitled "Man's Desire for Good," he writes thus about getting on in he world and of worldly success :—
"t am not going to speak against such a life. It is when worthily and with right thoughts carried on, an excellent and admirable one ; it is the life which in these days it is the plain call of God's providence for many to lead. God who made men to think and to work, to strive and to rise, to fight with hardships and to rejoice in success ; God who rewards the industrious and the honest with worldly wealth, and who has shown us what great and excellent things men may do with this world's wealth— God cannot be displeased at seeing men thrive and prosper in the world. But let them succeed,—what then ? Will success in the end satisfy all that is in the man's heart ? Will it bring him all he wants ? Will it save him from longing and wishing afterwards? When a man is rich and prosperous, has he then nothing more to do, but to sit still and take no more trouble? Is he then safe against the wants and fears that press down other men ? Will his riches give him all he wishes for ? We speak
unreally and by rote about these things, and I want to speak really, if I can. I don't want to say that there is no advantage, no good in being rich, merely because it is supposed to be the right and proper thing to say so; or merely because, as everybody knows, riches have their dangers in making men greedy, bard, selfish, and forgetful of higher things—forgetful that they have a greater hope to think of than the greatest worldly success— forgetful that they are of the same race and blood as the poor— forgetful that Gad made them, and made them for another world. But is it not a real thing to ask, whether any man, who has got on in life, in a small way or in a large, has found it answer all his hopes, has found that it has given him all he wanted, that it has taken the sting out of his unhappiness, has left nothing for him to wish otherwise, has left nothing which still preys upon his spirit and makes his heart ache ? Does it save him from still confessing his secret sympathy with the cry, 'Who will show us any good?'"
The sermons on "The Transitoriness of this Present Life," and on the " Rest of Old Age," contain pensive musings on certain familiar but all-important experiences which are common to the cottage and to the hall. The latter sermon sometimes recalls Montaigne—for whom Dean Church had a very kindly feeling—but the French essayist's placid Gospel of Nature is here illumined by brighter hopes and touched by a profounder emotion. Several articles could be filled with the good and wise sayings of the village sermons. It is a book to be read, not once, but many times ; and in whatever mood the reader opens it, he will find something to enlighten and to console.
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