DR. GUTHRIE'S DISCOURSE'S ON " INHERITANCE."— PROFESSOR BLUNTS PLAIN SERMONS.*

IP Dr. Guthrie's Discourses have not the human character, and variety of worldly matter and illustrations that distinguished "The City, its Sins and Sorrows," they equally well exhibit the preacher's _pulpit characteristics, perhaps better. Dr. Guthrie is undoubtedly a theologian of Calvin's school; but theology in a scientific sense is not his forte. Neither, we think, is doctrine in a very elaborate degree. Of course both these things appear in his sermons and, in fact, form the basis of the present series, but only as a starting-point, so to speak. His propositions, whether theological, doctrinal, or logical, are a sort of text, to be illus- trated and enforced; just as in the volume before us St. Paul's words to the Colossians, "the inheritance of the Saints" is the theme, the interpretation of " inheritance " being the key-note. Heaven and the way to get theresis the question of the discourses; and the preacher answers, by inheritance ; which at once, in his interpretation, shuts out the idea of good works.

"Volumes of theology have been written, and long controversies have waxed hot, about the question—whether heaven is or is not, in part, the

reward of our own good works ? Now it appears to me that there is one word in my text, whose voice authoritatively and summarily settles that matter ; and would have always settled it, had not men's hearts been fired with angry passions, and their ears confused with the din of battle. That word is—inhentance. What is inheritance? The pay of a soldier is not inheritance; neither are the fees of a lawyer or of a physician ; nor the gains of trade, nor the wages of labour. Rewards of toil or skill, these are earned by the hands that receive them. What is inherited, on the other hand, may be the pro- perty of a new-born babe ; and so you may see the coronet, which was won by the stout arm of valour, and first blazoned on a battered shield, standing above the cradle of a wailing infant. True, the ample estate, the noble rank, the hereditary honours were won. But they that won them are long dead= their swords are rust, their bodies dust'; • and underneath tattered banners, once borne before them in bloody fight, but now hung high in the house of God, the grim old barons sleep in their marble tombs. The rewards of their prowess and patriotism have desended to their successors ; who, holding these, enjoy honours and estates, which we do not grudge them, but which their wealth never bought, and their courage never won.

"Thus the saints hold heaven. In the terms of a court of law, it is theirs, not by conquest, but by heritage."

This idea is pursued throughout, directly in the outset, more indirectly as the preacher handles seemingly remoter topics. Throughout the twenty sermons of which the book consists, the Calvinistic theory is continually welling up, not always re- cognizable in form, but ever present in the idea, that man of him- self can acquire nothing, he can only inherit by grace; and that God and his Son are beyond all and above all, not merely in the metaphysical sense with which every one regards the attributes of the Deity; but in the purely Calvinistic meaning attached to the inherent corruption of man, and the utter impossibility of his deserving favour by the " ilthy rag of works. But whether laying his foundation or dealing with the Power of Darkness, the Kingdom of Christ, Redemption, Christ the Redeemer, or other subjects that Calvinistically considered, bear on man and heaven, it is less the scientific exposition of theology, or the logical enforcement of doctrine, that forms the essential charac- teristic of Dr. Guthrie as a preacher than impression by means of illustration. It would hardly be exaggeration to say that his positions are chosen for the sake of the illustrations they furnish, and that his logic is less shown in strict ratiocination than in se- lecting thoughts or images which enforce his positions by those illustrations. Thus after having established predestination by the image of a worldly inheritance, as we have seen, and shown from instances of legal decisions, how persons succeed un- expectedly to property through remote relations, the preacher proceeds to lay down the position that Christians must be pre- pared for their heavenly inheritance or they will not enjoy it when they attain it, any more than a peasant unexpectedly suc- ceeding to a peerage will find his new position contribute to his

• comfort. The idea that the wicked would find themselves out of their place in heaven, is by no mane new in theology; but it is forcibly impressed by the illustration of Dr. Guthrie.

"To a man stone-deaf, what the boldest blast of trumpet, the roll of drums, stirring the soldier's soul to deeds of daring valour, or the finest music that *ever fell on charmed ear, and seemed to bear the spirit on its waves of sound up to the gates of heaven? Or, what, to one stone-blind, a scene to which beauty has lent its charms, and sublimity its grandeur,—the valley clad in a many-coloured robe of flowers, the gleammg lake, the flash- ing cascade, the foaming torrent, the dark climbing forest, the brave trees that cling to the frowning crags, the rocky pinnacles, and, high over all, hoary winter looking down on summer from her throne on the Alps' un- trodden snows ? Just what heaven would be to man with his ruined nature, his low passions, and his dark guilty conscience. Incapable of appreciating its holy beauties, of enjoying its holy happiness, he would find nothing there to delight his senses. How he would wonder in what its pleasures lay ; and, supposing him once there, were there a place of safety out of it, how he would long to be away, and keep his eye on the gate to watch its opening, and escape as from a doleful prison. Such an inheritance were to such a man like the gift of a noble library to a plumed, painted savage. As ignorant of letters, he stalked from hall to hall amid the wisdom of bygone ages, and lolled his restless eyes over the unappreciated treasures, how he would sigh to be back to his native forests, where he might sit among his tribe at the council-fire, or raise his war-whoop, or hunt down the deer. People talk strangely of going to heaven when they die ; but what gratifi- cation could it possibly afford a man whose enjoyments are of a sensuous or sensual nature, whose only pleasure lies in the acquisition of worldly ob- jects, or the gratification of brutal appetites ? You hope to go to heaven ! I hope you will. But, unless your heart is sanctified and renewed, what were heaven to you? an abhorrent vacuum. The day that took you there would end all enjoyment, and throw you, a castaway, upon a solitude more

• Christ and the Inheritance of the igs,40‘ Illustrated in a Series of Discourses from the Colossians. By Thomas Guthrie, D.D. Author of "Pleas for Ragged Schools," &c. Published by Black. Edinburgh. Plain Sermons preached to a Country Oonpregation. By the Reverend J. J.. Blunt, S.D., late Margaret Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. Published by Murray.

lonely than a desert island. Neither angels nor saints would seek your company, nor would you seek theirs. Unable to join in their hallowed em- ployments, to sympathize with, or even to understand their holy joys you would feel more desolate in heaven than we have done in the heart of a great city, without one friend, jostled by crowds, but crowds who spoke a language we did not understand, and were aliens alike in dress and man- ners, in language, blood, and faith.

"it is the curse of vice, that, where its desires outlive the power of gra- tification, or are denied the opportunity of indulgence, they become a pun- ishment and a torment. Denied all opportunity of indulgence, what would a drunkard do in heaven ? Or a glutton ? Or a voluptuary ? Or an ambi- tious man ? Or a worldling ? one whose sonnies buried in a heap of gold ? Or, she, who, neglecting quite as much the noble purposes of her being, flits, life through, a painted butterfly, from flower to flower of pleasure, and wastes the day of grace in the idolatry and adornment of a form which death shall change into utter loathsomeness, and the grave into a heap of dust ? These would hear no sounds of eestacy, would see no brightness, would smell no perfumes, in paradise. But, weeping and wringing their hands they would wander up and down the golden streets to bewail their death,' crying, 'The days have come in which we have no pleasure in them.' On that eternal Sabbath, from which nor fields, nor news, nor business would afford escape, what would they do, who hear no music in church bells, and say of holy services, 'When will they be over ?' Oh, the slow' weary march of the hours of never-ending Sabbath devotions ! Oh, ;the painful glare of a never-setting Sabbath sun ! Than go down to hell, than perish in the coming storm, they would turn their prow to heaven ; but only as the last refuge of a sinking bark, a safe, it may be, but yet a friendless shore. Unlike the happy swallows which David envied, thy altar, 0 God, is the very last spot where many would choose to build their nests."

This, and passages like this, may not be free from theological question; and a severe criticism might perhaps raise objections on the score of taste. But if not the highest kind of Christian eloquence, it is powerful preaching. There is a wide range of knowledge from which to draw variety of images ; there is a fertile fancy to combine and a vigorous mind to enforce them ; while there is a style so forcible and a diction so well arranged, that except in some few places, where management or delicacy is requisite to avoid the flat or ludicrous, the composition actually delivers itself. Dr. Guthrie's is the perfection of strong pulpit rhetoric. He equals the very highest platform oratory without its obvious artifice, its rather tedious iteration, and its mannerism. Neither is his style likely to suffer by much imitation, for it does not depend upon common fluency and mere knack, but demands even for imitation Requirements and qualities of mind akin to his own. How far it is the best adapted for really Christian discourse is another matter.

The late Professor Blunt's Plain Sermons preached to a (bun- try Congregation, Congregation, form as striking and curious a contrast to Dr. Guthrie's volume as well can be. In fact they distinctly illustrate the difference between the pulpit oratory of the Scottish and English churches. Dr. Guthrie may top the generality of Pres- byterifin preachers ; Mr. Blunt may not quite reach the highest order of English divines, either as regards solid learning or vivid eloquence (though the kind of congregation to which these "Plain Sermons" were addressed, must be borne in mind.) But they are both types of their respective churches. In the Scotchman we have a palpable reliance upon telling points; a laboured effort, (though the idea of labour is almost lost in habit) to produce religious ef- fects through intellectual admiration and possibly fear. The Englishman is more quiet in his appeals, more measured in his manner and style and though the Scotch city divine may not reason

more than the English country clergyman, yet his reasonings, when we get them, are of a different kind. They take a more scholastic form—are harder as it were, than the quiet appeals of the parish pastor to the experience and common sense of his coun- try congregation. As a question of rhetorical composition, there is no comparison between the two volumes, any more than there is between the telling effect whether for pulpit or room delivery, although Mr. Blunt has a close style with a quiet strength. But for individual edification or family reading, the country clergy- man's plain composition would probably be the mrt suitable. Dr. Guthrie's style is more fitted for mtellectual ' people who go to a church pretty much as to a theatre, not be it said as to a mere assembly, but to an intellectual and critical entertainment, or to the perfervulum ingenium which looks at religion as a something to stand by and fight about, than for the humble- minded Christian intent upon learning and doing his duty as well as he can. Nay, we are not sure but that Doctor Guthrie might tire the intellectually or pugnaciously religious sooner than the mere placid flow of Mr. Blunt-

" That charm shall grow, while what fatigues the ring, Flaunts and goes down an unregarded thing. So when the Sun's broad beam, has tir'd the sight, All mild ascends the moon's more sober light."

The "Plain Sermons" have not the unity that arises from one theme being made the subject of a series of discourses, however discursively that subject may be handled. Still there is a frequent continuity. The first half dozen sermons or more, are really on the nature of sin, though it is only the first sermon which is no- minally and directly so. All in the volume for the most part have this feature in common ; that they treat of the various duties of life, giving greater prominence to duty, than to theological doctrines though not to faith. The resemblance between the two volumes is quite as curious though not so obvious as the differences. Dr. Johnson remarked that it was singular to observe the correspond- ence between the various Christian churches from the Calvinist to the Papal. In the great essential of justification by the atone- ment, no doubt all Trinitarian Churches agree ; but their corres- pondence is by no means close in many other matters, especially as regards discipline and clerical claims. Perhaps it is true that churches do not really differ in doctrine, so much as in the im-

portance or prominence they assign to certain doctrines. It is probable that Dr. Guthrie and Professor Blunt hold the same views on justification, works, and sin ; yet in treating of them they would present widely different results. We have heard Dr. Guthrie on works as illustrated by inheritance, and there is a passage on "Christ as an example," in which he really pooh poohs the notion. Professor Blunt treats the last theme with as much assent to the atonement as a sole reliance ; but he assigns far more pro- minence to Christ as an example of living.

"Had the passion on the Cross been all that was wanted of Jesus to se- cure pardon to the world, and, that undergone, man had received the favour of God subject to no conditions at all, what more was needed than for the Son of God to take flesh for a very short season, appear like a vision to the world, die the death, and purchase the gifts for men. Yet, on the contrary. He remained upon earth thirty whole years and upwards. He stood in all the various relations in which man usually stands to man during all that time. He knew what it was to be a child, to be a youth, to be a man. He knew what it was to be a son, to be a brother, to be a subject. He knew what it was to labour for a living, to have friends and foes amongst those about Him, to be a servant, to be a master. In short, he was in all respects a man (the God in Man) ; and having lived as a man for the term I have said, as a man He surrendered up His life. Now, why should our Lord have passed through this long and painful, and humiliating state for so many years, had nothing been wanting to the scheme of Redemption save His Cross and Passion only ? There would have been no need that He should have suffered so much in detail for this ; but the reason why He con- descended to this protracted existence upon earth can be accounted for in no other way, as appears to me, than upon the principle that His own 1ife was to serve as an example for the lives of His followers, just as assuredly. as His death was to procure a ransom for such as rejected not the terms. He submitted to be a child, that he might be an example to children—to be a sou, that sons and daughters might see in Him a mark for themselves to aim at—to be a labourer, that labourers might learn of Him—to be a master and a servant, that masters and servants might have in Him one by whom to guide and govern their own conduct in these situations. He sustained sorrow and sadness, that the sad and sorrowful might behold the man ' ! and do like him. He submitted to temptation, that we might be taught of him to be tempted and not to fall. To discharge all this was manifestly the reason why He allowed Himself to abide in the flesh so long as He did,

and endure the trials so many as He did. * •

"If, therefore, a hard-hearted, undutiful son or daughter turns to me and says, hope to be saved by my faith in the virtue of Christ's Death to save sinners,' I reply, You do well to look to the Death of Jesus for pardon —but you do ill not to look to His Life for a gauge. Now He, you will find, was not a hard-hearted or undutiful Son, but was subject,' we read, to Joseph and Mary. You have no right to apply to yourself His Cross and

refuse his character. • • •

"If a man steam in his possessions shuts up his compassion from the poor ; grinds, oppresses, or only neglects them ; and tells me that he trusts to have his sin (whatever of this kind I may remind Lim of) forgiven, by reason of Christ having shed His blood for Him and his faith in it; I make answer to such a man ; Be your faith this, and herein and in nothing else be your confidence—but be it your business too to observe that Jesus kept not His powers to Himself. Re did not shut up His compassion from the poor—but taught them, and fed them, and comforted them, and passed years in working miracles for their good, body and soul,; healing the sick among them, casting out devils, Disking the blind among them to see, and the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak, and the lame to walk. Why do you take unto yourself Christ Jesus partially—see Him in His suffering, but never see Him in His example—view Him in His death, shut your eyes to Him in His living."