Village Preaching for a Year. By the Rev. J. Baring-Gould,
M.A. Second Edition. (W. Skeffington and Son.)—The merits and demerits of these sermons may be discerned from a single example,—a sermon on the text, " Take the rod, and speak ye unto the rock." " The taking the rod was a little bit of ceremony The fault of Moses con- sicted in rejecting a ceremony which God had enjoined, because he could not see any sense in it." The Church is then compared to a wife who, in the absence of the master of a house, "is left in p
n full that everything, and exercises his full authority
whilst her husband is away, a wife orders a servant to do a certain thing,—he is to return speedily, and she says, Your master will be home before long, make yourself tidy, put on a clean gown and apron, and smooths, your hair, that you may look neat and respectable when he arrives ; and light a fire in the drawing-room, that it may be warm and cheerful on his return.' And suppose the servant says,'I will not do so; master may come when he likes, and I will not put myself out for him, nor dirty a dean grate, which I shall have to blacken afresh to-
morrow.'" The application of all this and the meaning of the drawing- room fire are obvious enough.
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