which is more diffuse and intellectual than would be suited to an ordinary congregation. There is not one of the sermons which does not stir up thought, and open views, here and there, of deep and abiding interest, whether to the general theologian, or to the inquiring practical Christian. Archdeacon Hare is no common We can scarcely doubt that he is destined to be one of the leaders of the public mind.

man.

Under these circumstances, without pledging ourselves to an agreement with all his opinions, we congratulate the country and the Church on the fact, that his heart and mind are wholly in unison with the tone and teaching of the Reformation. It is not merely to the Reformation, as an event which poured forth a flood of blessings on mankind, by emancipating thought and conscience, that the Archdeacon is ardently attached, after long and free examination; it is to the principles on which the Reformation was conducted. He has been baptized into its very spirit. He has entered into its inestimable importance, as a republication of the great, fundamental, life-giving doctrines contained in St. Paul's Epistles. In this respect, he supports the view which the Hulsean Lecturer at Cambridge, Mr. Trench, so boldly and clearly put forth in his Lectures, delivered before the University in 1845, which we noticed in our Number for March last, p. 218. We should be glad if this view were better known, and more thoroughly appreciated. It is a tangible one, and accurately distinctive of the Reformation; and if any Tractarian should again speak of "the principles of the Reformation" with the sneering addition " if any there be " (used by Mr. Oakeley, in his article on Bishop Jewel in the British Critic), the true-hearted and well-informed member of our Reformed and Protestant Church has but to open the Bible at St. Paul's Epistles, and say, These are the principles of the Reformation; long covered up and hid under the load of Romish errors and superstitions, but brought to light again by the Reformers. If there be no peculiar principles here, then you may doubt whether there were any peculiar ones which formed the quickening element in the Reformation.' It is scarcely too much to say, that Josiah did not confer so great a benefit, under God, on the Jewish people, by his discovery of the neglected copy of the Book of the Law in the house of God, and his restoration of it to public use, as Luther and his brother Reformers conferred on the whole Christian world, by calling its attention to the long-forgotten truths in St. Paul's Epistles.

It is on no narrow grounds, then, that Archdeacon Hare has taken a prominent position as a lover and defender of the Reformation. It is because, by the divine blessing on his studies, which

have been bold and discursive, he has entered into the inner life of Christianity, and has found that the Reformation was the honoured and blessed instrument of preserving and perpetuating that life, when it was nearly lost.

The great value of the Sermons before us consists in bringing the spiritual truths of our religion before the reader-as might be expected, if our description of the Author's character be correct. Indeed, the subject which gives the book its title naturally led him to take this line. But in the choice of the subject, he followed his own inclination. And when we consider the nature of his audience -consisting of as many of the under-graduates of Cambridge as could crowd into the space-no small one-of the University Church (for the Archdeacon is a favourite preacher-a good sign of the times!) to say nothing of the heads of colleges and masters of arts, we cannot but rejoice and thank God, that the old, dry, ethical kind of preaching is superseded at times, by one which summons men to follow the preacher into the heart of religion; and at the same time tells them that their doing this will call into exercise their highest powers of thinking and reasoning. We well remember in our day the cold and barren ethics we too often heard at St. Mary's-relieved occasionally by critical discussions, or by inquiries into the evidences of the truth of our religion, more suited to the closet than the pulpit, where the truth should be treated as open to no question. We fervently hope, that such preaching as Archdeacon Hare's and Mr. Trench's (preceded some years ago by Canon Dale's and Mr. Melville's) will ultimately render all other distasteful. No select preacher, whose heart does not feel for the immediate pressing necessities of his young and interesting auditory, and for the honour of that pure and glorious gospel which he has an opportunity of acknowledging and exalting, is fit to occupy the university pulpit.

That we may show what strain of thought and language our Author used in the discharge of his important duty, let us look a little at the first sermon. The text is: "It is expedient for you that I go away," &c. John xvi. 7.

"No other words," says the Archdeacon, "could have expressed so strongly what a rich, and gracious, and peerless gift that of the Comforter was to be. For never was there any intercourse or communion upon earth, between man and man, the blessedness of which could for a moment be compared with that found by the disciples in the presence of their Lord. Although Jerusalem, with her priests and her doctors, the expounders of the law which prepared the way for him, and the ministers of the sacrifices which foreshowed

The late Bishop Marsh was at the head of this school. It was made a matter of wager, among some of his irreverent hearers, that in any sermon he was about to preach the words "credibility" and "authenticity" would occur at least once in the first six sentences. The wager was always won.

him, would not listen, when he wished to gather them beneath the wings of his love, the fishermen of Galilee had listened to his call, had come to him, and found shelter. As they had forsaken all for him, in him they had found far more than all.... In him they had the fulness of truth, and grace, and wisdom, and peace, and love, yea, the fulness of God, dwelling with them, talking with them face to face, bearing patiently with all their infirmities, upholding them against their own frailties and perversities, warning them against all dangers, and when, through neglect of his warning, they fell, lifting them up again, strengthening their hearts and souls, pouring his light into their understandings, and guiding and leading them onward in the way of everlasting life. Time after time they had been taught by grievous experience, that, safe, and strong, and clear-sighted as they were by the side of their Master, when away from him they were still feeble, and helpless, and blind. Yet notwithstanding all this, notwithstanding the blessings which the disciples were daily and hourly receiving from the presence of their Lord, notwithstanding the many sad proofs they had seen of their own ignorance and weakness when out of his sight, still such were the riches of the grace which the promised Comforter was to bestow on them, that, for the sake of obtaining that grace, it was expedient for them, Jesus tells them, it was better for them, that he should go away and leave them, so that the Comforter might come to them in his stead, and might dwell with them and in them."— (p. 3.)

Thus does the Archdeacon prepare the way for an appreciation of the superior practical blessedness which we enjoy, who live under the dispensation of the Spirit. How does he show this? By showing that as long as the disciples had Jesus with them, they were like children, cleaving to outward and sensible helps. It was expedient for them that they should be left, that they might learn by the inward strength vouchsafed them to walk alone. Men will always prefer to walk by sight, and not by faith, if they may have the choice between the two. Now as long as their beloved Lord was with the disciples, their walking by sight was a thing inevitable, it was but consistent with the unlimited reverence due to Him, it was, as it were, sanctified by the circumstances of the case. It was needful for them, therefore, that his corporeal presence should be withdrawn, in order that a wholly spiritual union with him might be substituted, through the operation of the Comforter. Let us hear the Archdeacon's description of the effect of this substitution.

"Terrible as the blow was, overwhelming and irreparable as the loss could not but seem to the natural eye, that very loss was soon turned by the power of the Spirit into their endless and inestimable gain. The Master, whom they had lost, they found anew but they found him, not as a mere man, with the infirmities of the flesh, having no form nor comeliness to make men desire him; they found him as a God, as the Eternal Only-begotten Son of God, sitting at the right hand of the Father, governing all things with the power of the Father; and at the same time as the Saviour and Redeemer of all mankind; they found him whom the Jews had crucified, made by God both Lord and Christ. And greatly as their Master was changed and glorified in their eyes, scarcely less great was the change which took place in their own hearts and souls, in the bent and strength of their characters, and in all their feelings and desires, when the promised Comforter had come to

them. The fiery baptism of the day of Pentecost consumed and purged away the dross and weaknesses of their nature; and they came out as silver refined and purified seven times by the fire. Out of fearfulness they were made bold; out of blindness, they were enabled to see. Instead of being frightened, and shrinking and hiding themselves, they now came forward in the eye of day, and openly preached him whom the Jews had crucified; and they rejoiced with exceeding joy that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus.

"And as it was expedient for them, so through them has it been for mankind, and in divers ways.-For, as it was by the coming of the Comforter that the apostles were led to the whole truth, thereby were they enabled to lay up those treasures of truth which have been the riches of all subsequent generations. Through the coming of the Comforter were they seated on their thrones, where they have been the examples, the teachers, the guides of the Church for all ages. Nay, if Jesus had not gone away from them, we see not how the Gentiles would have been called into the Church. So long as he remained upon earth, the earnest desire of his disciples must needs have been to abide continually within hearing of his blessed words; at the utmost, they would have gone forth from him for a brief space, to return anon into his presence; and thus their preaching would have been confined, as it was during his life, to Judea. Not till he was taken away from them, did they learn to feel that he was with them, not merely in Judea, but in every part of the world. So long as he was living upon earth, he might give light to the country round, like a beacon upon a hill. But it was only from his sunlike throne in the heavens, that he could pour light over every quarter of the globe. It was only from thence, that his voice could go forth throughout all the earth, and his words to the end of the world. It was only when he was lifted up that he was to draw all men unto him. There alone could the foundations of his Church be laid so deep and wide that all nations could be gathered into it.''-(p. 20.)

We forbear to quote other passages equally beautiful, which strengthen or enlarge the view here taken. We trust that what we have set before our readers will incite them to procure and read the book for themselves. It is one which ought to be on the shelves of every well-furnished theological library. It is one which will reward diligent reading.

The Archdeacon's application of his argument to the young men before him is of exceeding value. What a cheering circumstance it is in these times, that in one of the great nurseries of our Church such sentiments as the following should be so boldly and strikingly expressed!

"We are all of us, even those who have been brought up with the greatest wisdom and the most diligent culture of their religious affections, far too apt to look at Jesus Christ in the first instance, in the same light in which the disciples mostly looked at Him, while He was with them in the body, as a man like ourselves, a perfect man indeed, but still a mere man, who came to teach us about God, and the things of heaven, and the way of attaining to them, and to leave us an example that we might follow his steps. We read the story of His life in the Gospels; and even our natural hearts are struck and charmed by the surpassing beauty of his character, by his purity, his meekness, his patience, his unweariable self-forgetting activity in every work of love. In our better and more serious moments, when the Bible is in our hands, or when we have been stirred by some eloquent picture of the graces manifested in his life, we wish to be like him, to do as he did, to obey his

commandments,—at least a part of them,—the part which requires the least self-sacrifice and self-denial. All the time indeed we may be in the habit of acknowledging with our lips that Christ is God, not merely in the public profession of the creed, but whenever our conversation turns upon religion, and whenever we bring the question distinctly before our own minds. Yet we scarcely think of him as God; we little think what that acknowledgment means or implies. Our thoughts are solely fixed on the excellence of his human character: and inasmuch as we admire him, and wish to be like him, we fancy we may take rank among his true disciples: nay, we even begin to fancy that we have something in common with him,-that our admiration renders us like him. Thus we glorify human nature for Christ's sake; and we glorify ourselves as sharing the same nature with Christ. Meanwhile we little think of his death, except on account of the virtues which he manifested before his judges, and on the cross. Now he who thinks of Christ in this manner, if he happens by nature to be of a kindly disposition, may at times really try to imitate him, as he might try to imitate any other good or great man in history. At times, when brought more immediately and consciously into Christ's presence, by hearing or reading about him, such persons may be kindled to a longing, and even to an effort, to resemble him. There are many such persons in the world: there are many assuredly in this congregation. Among the young, especially in the educated classes, this, or something like it, is the ordinary state of feeling with regard to our Saviour. Yes, my young friends, I feel confident that there are many, very many amongst you, who think of our blessed Lord after this fashion, who admire and revere and love the peerless graces of his character, who would rejoice at times to enrich your own character with a portion of those graces; but who have no lively consciousness that Christ is your God, that he is your Saviour, that he died for your sins to bring you to God; who do not feel that you need this help; who never seek to enter into a living communion with him; nay, who have no sort of conception what can be meant by such a communion. Accustomed as you are to contemplate the noblest and fairest examples of humanity, that History and Poetry have set up for the admiration of mankind,-accustomed to meditate on the brightest intuitions wherewith Philosophy has solaced her journey through the wilderness of logical speculation,-you are wont to think of the virtues exhibited in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, as of the same kind, only superior in degree, purer and more perfect.. For all such persons

as have no other knowledge of Christ, no other faith in him, than that which I have just been describing, it is most expedient that Jesus should go away from them. It is expedient for them, that the man Jesus, the fair ideal which they have formed of perfect wisdom and virtue, which has shone as an example before them, and which they have fancied themselves able to follow, should pass away from their minds,-that they should feel its inadequateness to strengthen what is weak in them, and to supply what is wanting,-in order that, by the teaching of the Spirit, opening their eyes to behold their own wants and those of all mankind, they may be led to seek Jesus and to find him, no longer as a mere Teacher and Example, but transfigured into their God, and Saviour and Redeemer. It is expedient for them that some great calamity, be it what it may,-some crack, through which they may look into their own soul, and into the soul of the world,-should befal them, if so be they may learn thereby, that no human virtue can uphold them, no human wisdom comfort them; and may thus be brought to seek a divine Saviour, and a divine Comforter. So long as they regard Jesus, whether consciously or unconsciously, as a mere man, they will fancy that something approaching at least to his excellence, will be attainable by man. Hence they will be content to walk by their own light, to lean on their own arm, and trust in their own strength; and they will not open their hearts to receive the true comfort of the Holy Ghost...... In a word, we must seek through faith to be justified by the blood of Christ; and casting off all pretensions to any righteousness of our