qualities of the Chalmerian school-its vulgarity and its fustian. But the introduction of such a bold figure, as the Bible speaking from the desk with a human tongue, at the very threshold of a sermon, shews such a profound ignorance of all the principles of oratorical composition, that we may well smile to hear this sermon styled, as if par excellence, an Oration. This is an absurdity far, very far, beyond Chalmers's wildest flight. And then to complete the thing, Mr Irving enforces, a page or two after, the propriety of giving prompt and undivided attention to the calls of religious duty-by what argument, think you?-Why, by this, that, when the King asks a man to dine with him, he is " held disengaged, though preoccupied with a thousand appointments!" This is for the imaginative classes of the public. What was "Lieutenant-Colonel to the Earl of Mar," to the like of this?

As another specimen of that extravagance, which totally destroys the best intentions in a person addressing rational men, we must give the following short paragraph from the same

sermon :

"Go, visit a desolate widow with con

solation, and help, and fatherhood of her orphan children do it again and againand your presence, the sound of your approaching footstep, the soft utterance of your voice, the very mention of your name -shall come to dilate her heart with a ful ness which defies her tongue to utter, but speaks by the tokens of a swimming eye, and clasped hands, and fervent ejaculations to Heaven upon your head! No less copious acknowledgment to God, the author of our well-being and the father of our better hopes, ought we to feel when his Word

discloseth to us the excesses of his love.

Though a veil be now cast over the Majesty which speaks, it is the voice of the Eternal which we hear, coming in soft cadences to win our favour, yet omnipotent as the voice of the thunder, and overpowering as the rushing of many waters. And though the veil of the future intervene between our hand and the promised goods, still are they from His lips, who speaks and it is done, who commands and all things stand fast. With no less emotion, therefore, should this book be opened, than if, like him in the Apocalypse, you saw the voice which spake ;* or like him in the trance, you were into the third heavens translated, companying and communing with the realities of glory, which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived.

"Far and foreign from such an opened and awakened bosom is that cold and formal hand which is generally laid upon the Sacred Volume; that unfeeling and unimpressive tone with which its accents are pronounced; and that listless and incurious ved. How can you, thus unimpassioned,

ear into which its blessed sounds are recei

hold communion with themes in which everything awful, vital, and endearing, do meet together! Why is not curiosity, curiosity ever hungry, on edge to know the doings and intentions of Jehovah, King of Kings ?"

Now what good is there in thus pushing the best ideas to the verge of absurdity? Will anybody of sound mind listen to a man who says, that every time he opens the book of Revelations, it is his duty to feel the sanie degree of emotion with which the apostle, in Patmos, saw the Ireavens opened, and heard the angel of God speak to him the mysteries of futurity? St John himself could not feel the same degree of emotion as this in opening the book which he himself had written even a month afterwards. As well might Mr Irving tell the Duke of Wellington, that he ought to feel the same way when he turns over the history of the battle of Waterloo, as he did when he had the first glimpse of Buonaparte's columns on that great day. As well might he say, that we ought all to feel the same way in reading of, that we should in witnessing with our own eyes, a horrible murder. Such rant as this can have no tendency but to create suspicion in those, who hear a man of "gigantic stature," and with a beard on his chin, we suppose, uttering it. Does Mr Irving mean to say, that he himself sees THE SUN and the green fields every day with the same emotion, whereblindness, opens his eyes upon the with a man, suddenly delivered from beauty and the grandeur of nature?— These are just the sort of things that Whitfield dealt in-they are by no means adapted for being printed. But, to be sure, the book is meant for "the imaginative classes."

Nothing can be more painful than quoting, for the absurdity of language and style, passages which, of course, contain much serious matter for thought; but it must be done. We want to prove the servile Chalmerianism of Irving; and we think if we quoted no more, the following would be enough for our purpose.

"Methinks the affections of men are fallen into the yellow leaf. Of your poets which charm the world's ear, who is he that inditeth a song unto his God? Some will tune their harps to sensual pleasures, and by the enchantment of their genius, well nigh commend their unholy themes to the imagination of saints. Others, to the high and noble sentiments of the heart, will sing of domestic joys and happy unions, casting around sorrow the radiancy of virtue, and bodying forth, in undying forms, the short-lived visions of joy. Others have enrolled themselves the high-priests of mute Nature's charms, enchanting her echoes with their minstrelsy, and peopling her solitudes with the bright creatures of their fancy. But when, since the days of the blind master of English song, hath any poured forth a lay worthy of the Christian theme?+ Nor in philosophy, the palace of the soul,' have been more mindful of their Maker. The flowers of the garden and the herbs of the field have their unwearied devotees, crossing the ocean, wayfaring in the desert, and making devout pilgrimages to every region of nature, for offerings to their patron muse. The rocks, from their residences among the clouds to their deep rests in the dark bowels of the earth, have a most bold and venturous priesthood; who see in their rough and flinty faces a more delectable image to adore than in the revealed countenance of God. And the political welfare of the world is a very Moloch, who can at any time command his hecatomb of human victims. But the revealed sapience of God, to which the harp of David and the prophetic lyre of Isaiah were strung, the prudence of God which the wisest of men coveted after, preferring it to every gift which Heaven could confer-and the eternal Intelligence himself in human form, and the unction of the Holy One which abideth,-these the common heart of man hath forsaken, and refused to be charmed withal.

"I testify, that there ascendeth not from earth a Hosannah of her children to bear witness in the ear of the upper regions, to the wonderful manifestations of her God! From a few scattered hamlets, in a small portion of her wide territory, a small voice ascendeth like the voice of one crying in the wilderness. But to the service of our general Preserver there is no concourse, from Dan unto Beersheba, of our people; the greater part of whom, after two thousand years of apostolic commission, know not the testimonies of our God; and the

multitude of those who do, reject or despise them!

"But to return from this lamentation, which may God hear, who doth not disregard the cries of his afflicted people !" &c.

More consummate affectation-more babyish tinsel, were never, we venture to say, invented for the benefit of the "imaginative classes." We confess, that, regarding the last sentence as part of a printed book, and of a book written solely and expressly to be printed, there is something to us really all but blasphemous in the combination of its phrases. The sermon concludes thus:

"Mistake us not, for we steer in a narrow, very narrow channel, with rocks of popular prejudice on every side. While we thus invocate to the reading of the Word, the highest strains of the human soul, mistake us not as derogating from the office of the Spirit of God. Far be it from any Christian, much farther from any Christian pastor, to withdraw from God the honour which is everywhere his due, but there, most of all his due, where the human mind laboured alone for thousands of years, and laboured with no success— viz. the regeneration of itself, and its restoration to the lost semblance of the Divinity.-Oh! let him be reverently inquired after, devoutly waited on, and most thankfully acknowledged in every step of progress from the soul's fresh awakening out of her dark oblivious sleep-even to her ultimate attainment upon earth, and full accomplishment for heaven. And that there may be a fuller choir of awakened men to advance his honour and glory here on earth-and hereafter in heaven abovelet the saints bestir themselves like angels, and the ministers of religion like archangels strong!-And now at length let us have a demonstration made of all that is noble in thought, and generous in action, and devoted in piety, for bestirring this lethargic age, and breaking the bands of hell, and redeeming the whole world to the service of its God and King!

"As He doth know this to be the desire and aim of the preceding discourse, so may he prosper it to the salvation of many souls, that to his poor servant, covered over with iniquities, may derive the forgiveness and honour of those who turn many from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to the service of the living God."+

Have you forgot Cowper?

ped. It is in contemplating his method of handling some of those darkest and most impenetrable mysteries, from which the greatest and the wisest

of men and of divines have ever turned their modest eyes, that we have been continually and painfully remind ed of the truth of the saying-" That fools rush in where angels fear to tread." His speculations upon the intermediate state of the soul!-upon the actual, visible, and tangible occurrences of the DAY OF JUDGMENT!-and, perhaps, most of all, his minute and laboured disquisitions upon the precise nature of the torments of hell, have not merely disgusted us as specimens of the most outrageous bad taste, ignorance of the duties of his place and calling, and extravagant self-conceit but they have really shocked us as so many pieces of blasphemy. When we think of the delicacy and modesty of the great founders of the English church, in approaching the very outskirts of these forbidden regions, and then turn to this young and very imperfectly educated man, and observe with what vulgar and rejoicing audacity he treads the ground that a Hooker, a Taylor, a Barrow would have trembled to contaminate, by the footstep of even the most enlightened genius-we do fess, that we want words to express all our feelings. The boyish greenness the satisfied short-sightedness-theirreverent free-and-easy words, phrases, and images, which this person exhibits in many passages of the sort we have indicated, would probably do more harm to an elegant and imaginative mind, labouring under the weight of doubt, than all the open and avowed profanities of a thousand atheists. Let any man read dispassionately the following single specimen, and we shall be heartily content to stand by his judgment.

con

"The mercy and goodness of God need not be lauded here, after what hath been written in the third part of this discourse. But though exceeding great, and greatly to be adored, and sufficient for the salvation of all the earth, these attributes do consist with others of a firmer texture and a sterner mood. Here are we, the sons of men, suffering daily pain, misery, and

death, although we were not instrumental to the fall. God looks upon our case, and doth not hinder it. He hath sent a remehave never heard of it. Contemplate the condition of whole continents of the earth sweltering in sultry toil, or raging in fierce contests of mutual misery and destruction, oppressed by the wilfulness of single men, at whose pleasure they are bought and sold, imprisoned, and put to death, without knowledge of better things to come, or cheerful hope of any redress of wrong. All for what? for the sin of our first great parents, over whom we had no control; let them contemplate this, and see what stern

attributes dwell by the side of divine mercy and goodness. I confess, when I contemplate the administration of this woeful world since the fall, so far as it is recorded in the annals of nations, I feel a shrinking terror of the sternness of Him in whose hands the government rests. The world hath been a very furnace of hot and murderous passions, a seething vessel of blood, which hath never rested, but smoked to heaven in vain. Even still, after the great propitiation and atonement for the world's sins, it never resteth.

Every day men are immolated upon a bloody altar, and their unshrived spirits pass in most desperate moods into eternity. Wickedness rageth, princes combine against the Lord and his Anointed, they filch the sacred authority of God, they plant their scornful foot upon the neck of noble nations, and they defy the tears and groans of millions to melt their stony hearts. Oh, my God! when will this have an end? when wilt thou dash them in pieces like the potsherd, and vie them in thy hot disremember from what small beginnings it pleasure? This, when I look upon, and arose, I, for one, CANNOT DOUBT of the Almighty's force of character to carry anything into effect!! If God can exist with such a blighted region and tormented people under his government, why may he not also exist in the knowledge and permission of hell? Tragedies as deep as hell are consummating every day under his tender eye, and deeds of darkness, foul as the pit, transacted in highest places with make his name a sounding horn through the insignia of his holy authority. They which to blow blasphemy and cruelty over the world. They make his religion a veil of midnight, to darken the eye of reason, and deaden the free-born energies of man. Why, if his nature be so soft, doth he allow these most shocking sights for one instant? and, allowing them now, may he not allow them hereafter?

"Do these amiable enthusiasts now imagine that the Divine nature is grieved, and its enjoyment overshadowed, by the enormities into which this earth has broken

loose? No! The Divine nature is a strong texture of being, which is not troubled by any such provocations. It is bound in bands of eternity and unchangeableness. It giveth law, and rejoiceth in the execution of law. It giveth one law of blessedness to righteousness, another law of misery to sin; and it is pleased and satisfied with both. For, each is equally needful to the welfare of the universe; which standeth happy, because with obedience cometh all enjoyment and delight, with disobedience all misery and tribulation to its people. They step across the dividing line, and a thousand perplexities from within, a thousand troubles from without, invade their heretofore untroubled being. And they are shipped off by no active infliction of God, but as it were by the necessity of their nature, to herd and congregate with spirits accursed. This may seem, to soft and tender-hefted nature, a blemish in the character of God, and the construction of his creatures. But seem how it may to human nature, it is no less certain, and hath been evinced in the bevy of angels who were detruded from their seats in heaven to the bottomless pit, and too fatally evinced in all Adam's posterity denounced

for one offence. I wonder that we should speculate, who are labouring under the fatal reality! The beings of another sphere, who retain their constancy and enjoyment, may speculate about the limitations of divine infliction, and wonder to what length God's hatred of sin may carry him against the soft intercession of his mercy and goodness, and when these two principles of his nature will come into equilibrium and find a resting place. But for us, who taste and know, who feel and suffer, it is vain to urge such speculations against assurance, and to raise up tranquillizing delusions of God's nature against positive revelations of his nature.

"Next to meet their philosophical notion, that all punishment is for the reformation of the offender; however good it may be in human jurisprudence, it certainly is not the principle of the divine procedure, as that is to be gathered from what we know ; in evidence of which, I instance the condition of the apostate angels, who since, their fall have not been visited by hope nor relaxation of woe, but are ever urged, and ever to be urged, if Scripture is to be believed, with excessive woe. They were as good spirits as any other, as well ingratiated in their Creator's favour and advanced in his confidence, and had as good and rightful a hold of his tender mer. cy. But there they lie in chains of darkness, dreeing the everlasting penance of sin, which, when once it enters, deranges the fine tissue of happy natures for ever;even as we often see a stroke of terrible calamity derange for ever the organization of

reason and intellect, which no solacements of friends or softening influence of time shall afterwards restore. Sin is rightly conceived of, not by comparison with crimes against human law, that may be wiped away by a suitable forfeit, but when it is imagined to bring along with it an irremediable fall; God's provinces would not otherwise be secure, but always under calms and storms, like our habitation. Therefore, to insure the felicity of the whole, the part is sacrificed. Where sin comes, it weeds the creature out from his place, and transplants him into sinful regions, where he can have his humour gratified at its proper expense.

"Man is an exception certainly to this rule of steadfast and immovable conditions proceeding from sin. But, that it is the exception which confirms the rule is most manifest, from the terrible power of an Almighty Being, which was necessary to wrench us from the grasp of our enemy back again into hope; from the steps that had to be taken in the courts above, and the exhibition that had to be made in the world beneath, before recovery was even possible. And see, with all the sacrifice and suffering, by how slow degrees recovery comes about, how few have partaken of it, and with how much chance of failure it is surrounded; what a struggle, what a trial is involved in the salvation of any single man! Which all serves to shew how hard it was to win man back from under the curse that is engraven on all creation against sin; and how, with all the intervention of Christ Jesus, there has only, as it were, dawned on us the morning streaks of a day, which a thousand vicissitudes may overcast and utterly deface; it is but a star of hope that hath peered through the sorrowful gloom, unto which, if we take steadfast heed, the day will dawn, and the daystar arise upon our hearts-but if not, then double darkness and tenfold dismay will cover us for evermore.

"The true character of Sin, therefore, I

hold, both by the example of the reprobate angels and the history of man's redemption, is, that it brings with it irremediable conclusions. The Saviour's powerful arm hath, as it were, made a little clear space around us for holy action, and opened a bore in the cloudy heavens through which the light of restoration may come in upon the hopeless earth. And this illuminated spot shifts about and about upon the face of the earth, and a thousand angels of darkness are aye endeavouring to scarf up the bright sign of mercy in the heavens. Oh! they grudge us so much won from their rightful dominion over a sinful place, and it is A FEARFUL STRUGGLE which the power of the Sprit of God hath to maintain against them.