Of diamonds, rubies, chrysophrase. Makes an eternal clarity. When thou thy jewels up dost bind,-that day Remember us, we pray, That where the beryl lies And the crystal 'bove the skies, There thou mayst appoint us place In the scroll Of life and blissfulness enrol, That we may praise thee to eternity." The second hymn for Advent swells upon the ear with a fuller melody:— Lord, come away; Why dost thou stay? Thy road is ready; and thy paths made straight, The consecration of thy beauteous feet. Hosannah! welcome to our hearts: Lord, here Nothing but thieves and robbers dwell therein. Profane thy holy place, Where thou hast set thy face. And then, if our stiff tongues shall be Mute in the praises of thy deity, The stones out of the temple-wall Shall cry aloud and call Hosannah! and thy glorious footsteps greet." There is sweetness, as well as music in this stanza, from a penitential hymn:— But thou, my God, hast blood in store, Yet since the balsam of thy blood, Although it can, will do no good, Unless the wounds be cleansed with tears before; Thou, in whose sweet, but pensive face, Teach but my heart and eyes To melt alway, And then one drop of balsam will suffice. And in the Prayer for Charity, we observe an ease in the flow, and an engaging naturalness in the expression, which show us that practice would have imparted excellence: "Full of mercy, full of love, Look upon us from above, Thou, who taught'st the blind man's sight To entertain a double light, Thine and the day's (and that thine too); The lame away his crutches threw; The parched crust of leprosy Return'd unto its infancy; The dumb amazed was to hear His own unchain'd tongue strike his ear. The devil from his usurped place, Where thou thyself shouldst dwell, not he; CHAPTER XV. I. Taylor regarded as a preacher; Hooker, Hall, Donne, and THE 'HE most natural classification of Taylor's works would arrange them in four divisions,-practical, devotional, controversial, and casuistical. But his sermons claim a separate examination, whether we consider their dignity, originality, or success. Rust's allusion to his sweet and pleasant air is the only contemporary memorial of his preaching that has come down to us. In the wisdom of experience and thought he cautioned the clergy, not to suffer the love of their congregations to degenerate into popularity;1 but the legitimate advantages of elocu 1 Rules and Advices to the Clergy of Down and Connor. In the Great Exemplar (Works iii. 287,) he observes, "A good name may give us opportunity of persuading others in their duty, especially in an age when men choose their doctrines by the men that preach them." tion and manner he was not likely to overlook; since one of his own classical friends' had taught him, how powerfully the voice and countenance of the speaker concur in fixing an argument or admonition upon the hearer. The history of an illustrious predecessor added a forcible commentary. The judgment of the multitude proclaimed the inferiority of Hooker to Travers. Walton exhibits him in the pulpit of the Temple Church, his eyes turned steadfastly in one direction, and appearing to study as he spoke. Fuller mentions his want of graceful and significant pronunciation and gesture, but confesses that he made good music without resin. Donne, on the contrary, brought every aid of oratory to the service of truth, and we are assured by one who often heard him, that the congregation might take notes from his look and hand. The style of Taylor was, in a large degree, susceptible of these imparted graces. The eminent preachers of the seventeenth century did not read their sermons, but committed them to memory, after the most laborious.preparation. This precaution was not confined to great towns, or academic audiences. Hall preached three times in a week at Waltham, without ever venturing, as he tells us, to climb up into the pulpit, until he had previously penned every word in the same order in which he hoped to deliver it; although 1 Pliny, B. ii. Letter 3. with regard to the expression, he "listed not to be the slave of syllables." To Fuller, and those who enjoyed a lively faculty of verbal retention, the task was not severe; but upon men of weaker memory it entailed considerable toil. This was the case with Hammond, though the constitutional impediment yielded to his perseverance and zeal, and Charles the First declared him to be the most natural orator he had ever heard. In a later day, the fluency of Sprat revived the popular attraction of a moré intellectual school. The clear rapidity of the stream diverted the eye from its shallowness. Evelyn says that his talent was in a great memory, which enabled him to dispense with notes. Some of the characteristics of Taylor's pulpit addresses have been noticed in a former page. They frequently remind us of the poetry and architecture of the earlier part of that century in which they appeared. The stiffness is forgotten in the solemnity that pervades the whole. If we open a volume of old theology immediately after closing one of modern date, the sensation is extremely pleasurable. We escape from the gaudy flowerplots and shrubberies, into the stately and embowered walks, statued terraces, fruitful walls, and marble fountains of a more picturesque and meditative nature. Whatever be the eccentricities of construction or embellishment, we feel that they involved an outlay of study and wealth, which newer methods do not require.1 1 The late Mr. Taylor, of Norwich, the friend of Southey, has somewhere made a similar remark. JER. TAY. R |