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be now desolate and alive to neglect or want of sympathy, after possessing for thirty-seven years the first place in such a heart as my father's. One that teemed with affection; not cold, formal attention, but spirit-stirring love; ever the same, unceasing and unchanged to the last. His was indeed a heart of hearts, only too kind and too trusting; but he is gone, and I trust that, through the merits of our Saviour, is now in peace, and looking down upon his children with his own look of love."

Honoria Marshall proved herself worthy in head and heart and life, to be Henry Lawrence's wife. She was a voluminous writer, and we regret that we cannot give specimens, of which the biography contains many, from her letters and diaries, especially those recording her first impressions of Indian life and scenery, bright in poetry of expression, strong with thought and reflection, and running over with Christian tenderness. For a year or so she lived a roving tent-life; and we catch glimpses of Himalayan hills, sweltering plains, pompous native officials, and troublesome servants. Thus she speaks of her husband: "I never saw a being who had so right an estimate of the true use of money. He literally is but a steward of his own income, for the good of others. But he has even a higher generosity; he never blames others for faults he is himself free from. You know his perfect transparency of character. I suppose, since he was born, it never entered his head to do anything for effect, and his manner is precisely the same to all ranks of people....... His faults may be summed up in very few words. He wants method; he is occasionally hasty; and he is too careless of appearances. But if you were to see how his temper is tried by the nature of his work, you would not wonder at its giving way. And this fault is clearly mending. Indeed, I often wonder at his forbearance. His unprofessing simplicity of conduct often checks my wordy tendency."

Allusion was made above to a fund which the brothers established to provide for their mother in old age. So far little but good. Next comes a patch of shade. Scarcely a year after marriage, about the time of their son's birth, Henry Lawrence sent a challenge to an officer, who, he thought, had questioned his truth. The fault must be set down as it is: Christian courage yielded to the custom of the day. Happily other officers interfered, and decided that nothing more was necessary. The young mother's agony is poured out in a noble letter. We give a sentence or two. "On the question of duelling, I will not dwell on the reason of it, all that you admit; nor on the improbability of this matter becoming more serious, for that does not affect the general question; nor on the heart-scald I feel, and the injury this does to your wife: these are woman's feelings,-men must act on a

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different view. No, my own most-beloved husband, I only put it on the ground of fearing God, or fearing man. I know that to a man the imaginary disgrace that attends an open declaration against duelling is bitter and agonizing; but is not crucifixion the very word Christ applies to these mental sufferings, and that to which He calls us? You said, 'A man who submitted to the charge of untruth would be spit upon.' Was not Christ literally spit upon for us? O! darling, our Advocate on high feels for these trials. You may think I put the matter too seriously; but is it more seriously than it will appear in the hour of death and day of judgment? Do not imagine that I cannot enter into your feelings. Is your honour, your peace, your well-being less dear to me than to yourself? Nay, dearest; but when I see you do, not only what I think wrong, but what your own mind condemns, can I help speaking? To any other fault you may be hurried; but there is deliberate sin, not only in giving or accepting a challenge, but in intending to do so. O! consider these things; and before you decide on anything, pray earnestly that God may direct you. If I have exceeded what a wife ought to say, you will forgive me. You were perfectly right in saying, I ought to have known beforehand.' Yes, I ought. I do not recollect the question of duelling ever coming before my mind, in connection with you, before we married. Had it, I am sure I should have confidently appealed to your moral courage for an answer; for you had always shown that you could act on what you felt right, without minding what others said." (To be continued.)

THE MODERN PULPIT:

LIDDON'S "LENT LECTURES."

We cannot wonder at the interest which the preaching of Canon Liddon has awakened, in the metropolis and other places, among persons of education. The qualities of mind and heart evinced in his Bampton Lectures are obviously calculated to engage the sympathies of all who are accustomed to reflection, and who realize the importance of religious truth. More especially, the combination of breadth of view with intense religious earnestness can scarcely fail to give a charm to his pulpit addresses, and to impress them on the intellect and the affections.

The volume now before us will fully sustain Dr. Liddon's reputation. These Lectures embrace a wide range of topics,

"Some Elements of Religion. Lent Lectures, 1870. By H. P. Liddon, D.D., Canon of St. Paul's." London, Oxford, and Cambridge: Rivingtons.

related, more or less intimately, to the general subject of religion; and they are treated with the clearness, the force of argument, and the pathos, which are so marked in his larger work. And the sentiments which he advances commend themselves, generally speaking, to our judgment and conscience. Occasionally, though very rarely, we meet with expressions which indicate his high sacramentarian views; but, for the most part, we gladly follow his clear and earnest reasoning, and rejoice in the gifts with which the Head of the Church has endowed him. While the High Church theory denies to us a position within that sacred Society which Christ has instituted, though admitting the unaffected piety of many among us, we rejoice to recognize faithful Christians of other communions as belonging to the universal Church, and acknowledge with gratitude their graces and their usefulness.

The first of these Lectures is on the nature of religion. Dr. Liddon passes in review the sentiments of those who regard it simply, or chiefly, as the highest and purest form of feeling, -next of those who make the essential thing in religion the knowledge of God and of the things of God,-and then of those who represent it as consisting in morality, or the practical observance of duty. Each of these views, he shows, is defective. Religion comprehends knowledge, feeling, and practical obedience to the Divine Will. There must, of course, be an intellectual apprehension of the essential truths which relate to God and His government of man,-there must be the going forth of the affections to Him,-and there must be the cheerful and unreserved surrender of ourselves to Him, to do His will and seek His glory. "Religious life," he says, "is more than feeling, since feeling may be physical, misdirected, selfish. It is more than knowledge, which, even if it be complete and accurate, may fail to govern the moral nature. It is more than obedience to a moral code, because such obedience, if sufficiently complete to be religious, already implies relations to the Lawgiver. And yet religion is feeling; it is mental illumination; it is especially moral effort; because it is that which implies, and comprehends, and combines them all. It is the sacred bond, freely accepted, generously, enthusiastically, persistently welcomed, whereby the soul engages to make a continuous expenditure of its highest powers in attaching itself to the Personal Source and Object of its being. It is the tie by which the soul binds itself to God, its true Friend."

In the second branch of this Lecture, Canon Liddon enters upon an inquiry of deep interest,-the characteristics of that revelation of God and of His purposes which alone can meet the wants of the human spirit. Many of his observations

on this subject are very instructive and beautiful. His first remark is, that "an answer from God to the religious needs of man will be, at least in some degree, a mysterious answer: it will half unveil much which shades off into the unknown and the incomprehensible. To profess to reveal the Infinite, and yet to undertake to explain everything to the perfect satisfaction of a finite understanding, is worse than unreasonable. And a creed which should discover nothing that lies beyond the province of our experience can have no pretensions to be a religious creed at all. For religion is not a relation to or communion with nature, or with any natural force or law; it is communion with an unseen Person." The second characteristic of such a revelation as man needs is, that it should be definite,-presenting distinct facts and truths, and not poetic mists. Intimately related to this is the third particular, that "a real answer to the religious needs of man must be positive. It must state what is truth, and not merely what is not truth. The soul of man does not look inward and upward only in the hope of detecting falsehoods: its deepest desire is to know, not what is not, but what is. Merely negative teachers are as the wind; they destroy, but they cannot build; at their best they do but sweep away the unsubstantial fictions of human fancy or human fraud, but they erect nothing in the place of the discarded fictions. Positive truth alone can feed, sustain, invigorate the soul." The fourth characteristic of a revelation that shall satisfy man's deepest needs, is, that it should be absolutely, and not merely relatively, true. In explaining and enforcing this consideration, Dr. Liddon beautifully illustrates the character of Christianity as designed to be the Universal Religion, as "the one final unveiling," as far as this world is concerned," of the Universal Father's mind before the eyes of His children." And then he passes to the last particular, that the revelation which man needs must speak, not merely to his intelligence, but to his heart and will. "He cannot really rest upon the most unimpeachable abstractions. He needs something warmer than the truest philosophy. He yearns to come in contact with a heart; and no religion, therefore, can really satisfy him, which does not at least lead him to know and love a Person. An unseen Friend, who will purify, and teach, and check, and lead, and sustain him; -that is his great necessity. And this want, this last but deepest want of man's religious life, Christianity has satisfied. As humanity, sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death,' pleads with the Power whom it feels but cannot see,- Show Thou me the way that I should walk in, for I lift up my soul unto Thee,'-lo! the heavens drop down from above, and the skies pour forth righteousness. And One fairer than the children

of men presents Himself to all the centuries and countries of the world with the gracious bidding, Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'"

This analysis of the first Lecture will illustrate the general character of the volume. It shows the symmetry of thought which pervades the several discourses, while it evinces the ample range of the lecturer's views and reasonings. And it shows, too, the clear and pleasing character of Canon Liddon's style. Even when he touches on recondite topics, his observations are not obscure and perplexing: a perspicuity of language, a clear and obvious connection of thought, and a warm glow of sacred feeling, give a charm to all his discourses and appeals.

It is only in a more general manner that we can notice the remainder of the volume. The second Lecture is on GoD, as the Object of religion. After pointing out the fallacies of Materialism and Positivism, and showing that Deism removes God from the active government of the world and the care of individual men, while Pantheism virtually denies His existence, at the same time that it palliates and excuses moral evil, Dr. Liddon dwells on God as He is made known in nature, and in the actings of the human conscience; and then adverts to that distinct revelation of the Most High, especially in His moral glories, which has been given in the Lord Jesus Christ. We can only find room for the concluding appeal:-"Nothing among created things that can engage and stimulate thought, nothing that can warm and expand affection, nothing that can invigorate will and purpose, ought, in the judgment of any thinking human being, to compete with the Eternal God. Our reasonable duty towards God is to believe in Him, to fear Him, and to love Him, with all the heart, with all the mind, with all the soul, and with all the strength.' And yet that unbegun, unending, self-existent Life; that boundless Intelligence administering a boundless Power; that long array of moral Attributes which win our love, while they must also move our reverence and fear; what is He, our God, to us? Do we thirst for God? As the days, and months, and years pass, do we ever look out of and beyond ourselves upon that vast ocean of Uncreated Life which encircles us, which penetrates our inmost selves? Do we ever think steadily, so as to dwell with a real intellectual interest upon Him who is the first and highest of truths, to whose free bounty we ourselves owe the gift of existence, and to whom we must one day account for the use of it? Do we ever sincerely desire to love Him, and to live for Him? Or are we constantly

hurrying along our solitary path from one vanishing shape towards another, while we neglect the Alone Unchangeable? Be sure that, if we will, in God revealed in Christ, the soul may slake the thirst of the ages; and the dreariest, and darkest, and most restless

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