1848.] Devotional Spirit. 301 follow any impulse, but to form independent, thinking, selfregulating men, to enthrone reason and conscience in every individual breast; and his first step toward this is to enthrone them, and to show that they are enthroned, in his own breast, and that they make him, not a visionary enthusiast, nor yet a timid timeserver, but a fearless and independent man. The "Sermons on Christian Communion" furnish evidence of a good degree of this independence and individuality in our pulpits. We do not mean that vexed questions in theology, or in practical morality and the application of the Gospel to social institutions and customs, are discussed here, but that each sermon gives more or less the idea of a free, generous, unshackled spirit in its author. The volume makes one feel that its writers are living men, standing upon the broadest platform of Christian truth, but each pursuing his own path, uttering his own thoughts in his own way, little embarrassed by the restraints and technicalities that have been supposed to enfeeble the utterance of the pulpit; that they are not imitators of each other or of any common model; that they suffer no human authority to come between the Bible and their own hearts, between God and their consciences. But while the discourses under our notice bear witness to the independence and individuality of the Unitarian pulpit, they may be thought to indicate some want, in our preaching, of a devout spirit, clear perceptions of the spiritual in man, and earnest appeals to this part of his nature. If we may make such a distinction, an intellectual religious spirit, rather than a devotional and affectionate religious spirit, pervades the volume. The collection, as a whole, is an exhibition of the religion of the understanding, rather than of the heart. The sermons are adapted to convince and persuade, to satisfy and assure the mind of the certainty of truth, rather than to rouse the affections, and determine the will to obey it. They unfold and illustrate duty with more power than they enforce it. In this respect the volume is not, we are inclined to think, a fair specimen of Unitarian preaching. In the usual preaching of our denomination there is, probably, more of unction and fervor, more of simple, earnest, affectionate appeal to the heart, than appears in this collection. These are not entirely wanting here, but the very manner in which the compilation was made would tend to give it an intellectual rather than a devotional character. Each contributor was called - upon to select his own sermon, with only a very general reference to the proposed title of the volume. Various considerations would direct his choice to a sermon marked by its thought rather than its feeling, to one that gave evidence of his intellectual gifts and accomplishments, rather than of his earnest and devout spirit. The volume, therefore, while it is a fair exhibition, and an honorable one, of the intellect, the average talent, of the Unitarian pulpit, is not, we apprehend, a faithful test of it in all other respects. If it be, then there is some want among us of that preaching which can alone persuade the heart to repentance and reformation, those simple, direct, earnest, affectionate exhibitions of God's mercy and the Saviour's love and man's duty which move the soul to its lowest depths, inspire it with a holy resolution to say, "I will arise and go to my Father," and bring it to the footstool of God's throne with the cry of supplication, "God be merciful to me, a sinner!” There probably is some want of this kind among us, and among other denominations also, in much of the preaching of the day. This is emphatically an intellectual age, and there is nothing to which the present generation more requires to have its eyes opened than to the folly of placing the intellect above the heart, and admiring knowledge, genius, talent, for its own sake, on its own account, independently of those religious affections whose sanctifying power can alone make it a benefit and a blessing to its possessor or to the world. In all denominations, has not the pulpit_become too much an arena for the display of talent? Has not preaching become too much a merely intellectual effort? Do not multitudes go to church, not to worship God, dedicate themselves afresh to his service, and gain new strength for that service, but to be intellectually entertained, to have their minds interested, their thinking powers called forth, their imagination pleased? Their demand as to preaching is like that made upon the prophet of old," Speak unto us smooth things." They do not like to have their selfcomplacency disturbed, or their good opinion of themselves undermined by a scorching, pungent, earnest, discriminating discourse, which arouses an accusing conscience within them, arrests their spirits with the iron grasp of God's truth, and leaves them no longer "at ease in Zion." They admire displays of poetic genius in the pulpit, eloquent painting, beautiful descriptions of God's goodness and his great mercy 1848.] Intellect in the Pulpit. 303 to men; but the severe duties of practical godliness and the inevitable issues of a worldly and sinful life, set forth in plain Scriptural terms, strong delineations of true holiness of character, delineations which convict men of sin and shut them up to condemnation unless they repent and reform, these are thought to be somewhat out of place in addressing an audience of refined, intellectual, cultivated persons. The community, at least the now large portion of the educated and cultivated community, has become so Christian in appearance, so improved in manners and conduct, that some are disposed to think that the stern and uncompromising features of the Gospel may be laid aside, or but seldom presented. In the progress of refinement, sin has so disguised itself in garments of beauty and grace, that many are deceived, and led to imagine that the thing itself no longer exists except in the lowest haunts of infamy and crime; and to those intrusted with its high duties and responsibilities it becomes a serious question to consider, whether, in the progress of refinement, the pulpit has not been so affected in its language and services as to lose something of that strong hold it ought ever to keep upon the conscience and the heart of the world, whether it does not speak too gently and softly of sin and punishment, and present too hesitatingly the necessity of repentance and regeneration and holiness. We do not mean that these should be incessant themes of discourse. We would give a large liberty and variety to the pulpit. We do not mean that preaching should be always suited to excite alarm, still less, that it should ever be denunciatory. We would have the preacher never forget that the goodness of God may lead men to repentance. But we would have him remember that Paul says he "persuaded men by the terrors of the Lord," and that, standing before Felix, he so reasoned "of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come," that the judge became the culprit and trembled before his prisoner. We would have him remember, that the solemn sanctions of the Gospel, the fearful delineations of the retributions awaiting the ungodly and impenitent, fell from the lips of him who was Divine love incarnate, mercy's messenger to a corrupt and misguided world; and we would have him not ashamed or afraid to use the language of his Master. Neither in what we have said would we be understood as decrying intellect, undervaluing knowledge, learning, talent, in the pulpit. The highest measure of these that can be had there, the better, if they be sanctified by those gifts of the spirit, those graces of the heart, that alone make them of any avail to the high purposes of the pulpit. We only mean, that intellect alone, arrayed in all the accomplishments of the most profound, splendid, or diversified scholarship, is not the first requisite. Moderate abilities, a limited portion of general knowledge and mental culture, united with a deep acquaintance with the word of God, and a fervent piety, living and growing in the soul, these will form a preacher of a higher order, of a higher order so far as the great object of preaching is concerned, a preacher with more power to persuade, regenerate, sanctify, to convert men to holiness and God, than the most exalted genius and the largest learning, destitute of this devout and fervent spirit. It was not Mr. Buckminster's intellect, exalted as it was, nor his profound and extensive learning,—it was his heart, that gave him his power in the pulpit. It was his piety, his serious and devotional spirit, his simple and profound love of God and goodness, that anointed his lips with a holy unction, and produced those sermons that are now read with interest and edification by so many minds of different religious creeds, and different degrees of mental cultivation. In a merely intellectual point of view, in the absolute amount of thought and range of knowledge embraced, the "Sermons on Christian Communion " are equal, if not superior to Mr. Buckminster's two volumes; but it may be questioned whether they have the same unction. and power, or whether, though read to an equal extent with his, they will ever reach and influence as many hearts. But our limits require us to leave the subject, and to omit several points that we intended to touch upon. Our chief object in this notice will have been gained, should we succeed in directing attention to the "Sermons on Christian Communion." Mr. Sullivan has done a good work in collecting and editing this volume. Although it does not correspond, as we have said, to our expectations, it is a collection of excellent, instructive, edifying sermons, in its general spirit and character highly honorable to our denomination, and we hope it will be extensively read and circulated. We intended to give some extracts, for the benefit of those of our readers who may not have seen the volume, but we have occupied all the space at our command. S. K. L. General Principles of the Philosophy of Nature: with an Outline of some of its recent Developments among the Germans, embracing the Philosophical Systems of Schelling and Hegel, and Oken's System of Nature. By J. B. STALLO, A. M., lately Professor of Analytical Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Chemistry, in St. John's College, N. Y. Boston: Crosby & Nichols. 1848. 12mo. pp. 520. THIS book will not find many readers; nevertheless, it is on many accounts a remarkable work. The author, as we understand, is a Catholic, an ex-Professor of a Catholic college in New York, of German descent, but born and educated in this country. His German affinities appear on every page, but we cannot say the same of his Catholic faith. On the contrary, a pretty careful perusal of the volume had led us to set him down as a rationalist. He holds, for example, that the Middle Ages were "the ages of faith," ," "when Christianity culminated"; he also speaks of" the Christian epoch" as something which" was,' and again he says, "the Spiritual never retraces its steps" (page 173). He is indignant at certain "philosophes" who make the faith of former ages to rest on "the artful device of a few impostors." "The saints and martyrs did not live and die," he contends," for an illusory shadow; they died for the divinity within them. 'L'homme dupe' is a fit subject for comedy and derision; but 'l'humanité dupe' has never existed." He goes on, however, to object to what he calls "an analogous assertion, which is not a jot the better," namely, that mankind have been exclusively indebted for the great revelations they have received to "a few chosen individuals." He will not allow that this is true except as "the spiritual sun of the world, at the break of each new historical day, gilds lofty eminences sooner than low valleys" (page 175). On the subject of miracles he is sufficiently explicit, for he says: "The verification of truths by external miraculous phenomena is a logical circle, and makes matter a criterion for mind, subordinates the essence to the phenomenon. The mind, reason, the Spiritual, is the Highest, and is absolutely incapable of deriving strength from another authority" (page 179). As has been intimated before, Mr. Stallo's habits of thought and expression are wholly German. This is to be regretted, for it prevents him from coming any nearer than most Germans -4TH S. VOL. IX. NO. II. VOL. XLIV. 27 |