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taken for improving his talent and making it more productive . The spirit and character of the discourses are very far from common-place . They are energetic , vigorous , pious towards God and generous towards man , perfectly free from bigotry , and full of
affectiouate attachment to the gospel . It is because they are aJl this , and because they testify plainly in many passages to the author's ability , that we regret the too obvious want of care in their preparation for the press . Besides that good taste is often sacrificed to effect , the instances of careless and confused
codstruction and grammatical inaccuracy are of frequent occurrence . The author must sureJy be aware that published sermons , at the very best , come to us under a great disadvantage : they are too short to fulfil the promise which some lofty exordium had perhaps held out . They do not Contain enough in their narrow limits to meet the doubts
or difficulties of the private thinker ; they are not sufficient under such circumstances for the purposes of instruction , and for those of excitement they commonly fail , because they want the accompaniments which make pulpit ministrations so effective . We miss the voice 3 the eye , the gesture of the speaker , which have much to do with our impressions of his sincerity , consequently with his powers of persuasion . We miss also the sacred associations of time and
place , the preparatory prayers and hymns , the consciousness of sympathy with many brethren . We have said that our author must be aware of all this . Can it be then that bis work is designed /?/ left in its present unfinished state , for the sake of presenting to his clerical brethren a specimen of sermons prepared with just that degree of care requisite for their delivery from the pulpit by well qualified preachers , who may enlarge upon and improve them ?
The author has , perhaps , observed that mere skeleton sermons , which offer only hints for general arrangement , though they accustom writers to a methodical distribution of their subjectmatter , suggest very little to the imagination or feelings ; his sketches , thei e-
iore t are to be of a different kind ; they are devoid of outline , of regular division , of Axed plan ; but they present us with many scattered beauties , more or less worked ont , according to his fancy . This , if we have guessed aright , is certainly not a bad idea , and it might have beeu much better executed . The be-
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ginnings of a passage designed to be eloquent , might surely have been correct , and unfortunately it is in some striking passages that defect is most apparent . We had marked a few sentences illustrative of the truth of this observation , but we forbear , and give with greater pleasure a specimen of the author ' s best style ; the spirit is uniformly good . Who but must admire the kind and
Christian benevolence of the following passage from the Sermon " On the Love of God and of ourjNeighbour" ? " You can love a thousaud things which you do not even yet kuow ^ to be worthy of your love , and can you not love him whose worth you do know ?—know beyond a doubt , know by every
test which your reason or your imagination can supply to you ? Can you not Jove him who is so mild , so geutle , so affectionate , and so kind and generous withal , that if we only give , as it were , a promise that we will try to love him , he will send his Holy Spirit into our hearts , which shall teach us to love him as we
ought ? Can you not love such a Being ? Ah ! you cannot love him—the creature love the Creator !—Well , then , take a lower range ; love him who is formed from the same dust , who inhabits the same earth , who possesses the same limited faculties with thyself ; \ o \ e him , love thy neighbour , love him as thou wouldst
love the thing dearest to thee in nature , love him as thyself . But ( you may ask ) who is nay neighbour ?—Man , in every rank , of every character , whatever may be his disposition , his feelings , his capacities , man universally , is your neighbour ; but nearest of all , that man who has been so blest as to have been
admitted into the fold of the Shepherd of Israel , who is called after the name of Christ ; to him you are knit by an indissoluble bond ; there may , indeed , be a seeming line of separation , but you are in reality one , one in the same Lord , the same faith , the same baptism , the same hope of your calling : this man observes days , and times , and seasons , and pays
respect or worship to departed men and angels ; some would call him superstitious , idolatrous ; do you call him fellowchristian , brother ; love him ; cherish liim ; if you can , win him . That man ( as it appears to us ) has shorn the Godhead of half its glory ; he believes not that the ' Word was made flesh , and dwelt among us : ' what are his errors to us ? To his own Master he will stand or fall ; he is our neighbour ; let us Ik : careful that we nay him every ueigli .
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404 Critical Notices , — Hievlogical
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1830, page 404, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2585/page/44/
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