Waiting for the Light, and other Sermons. By David Wright,
M.A., Vicar of Stoke-Bishop, Bristol. (Henry S. King and Co.)—Tho mental attitude of the writer of these Sermons is unfortunately an unusual one, for it is rare to find in tho same mind so reverential a regard for truth already delivered, and even for the forms in which it is expressed, co-existing with so confident an expectation of a fuller light to bo here- after received. Mr. Wright has an eye for the finer touches of Scripture narrative, and an insight into the trials and difficulties of human souls. In proof of this, one very remarkable sermon is especially to be recom- mended to the attention of readers, bearing the title, " Accepting the Inevitable," and founded on the text, "Put up thy sword into the sheath ; the cup which my Father bath given me, shall I not drink it ?" Of that cup the writer says, " We do not know what death is to any man. . . . . What the act of dying may bo is still to us all the mystery of mysteries. It is so in the case of the ordinary man ; it was infinitely more so in the case of Christ. Wo may state in terms of dogma, and perhaps some may know, with an acuteness of spiritual perception which terms cannot state, what his death was to us ; but no one, gifted with those mortal experiences only, can pretend to surmise distantly what his death was to him." There is true art in the way by which we are made to realise through force of constrast the accepting of this inevitable cup by Christ. " It was at this most sacred moment that a harsh interruption broke upon the solemn hush of things. As once before the word of Peter, so now his arm falls rashly and untowardly across the path of Christ. The interferences of this Apostle worn, for the most part, unfortunate, but we cannot blame him now. It was a bold act, and ho did it in hot zeal, but looking upon it, as we are allowed to do, from the high standing-ground of our Lord's own words and history, we find it
to have been most awfully out of place It is just hero—between the offering and the altar—between the perfect obedience of Jesus and the Father's will—that Peter's precipitate mind strikes a random blow ; all in keeping, it might bo thought, with the flashing of lanterns and the glitter of weapons and the clamour of voices which now broke upon the still night, but all violently out of keeping with the deep resigna-
tion of the soul of Christ, and that final act of self-consecration." If It is the special work of a Christian preacher to make the life that lies in
Christ manifest to the consciences of men, Mr. Wright has certainly capacities of a high order for this office, and we shall expect with in- terest further proof of them.
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