At a meeting of the Heads of Colleges, the Rev. Thomas William Lancaster, M.A. late Michel Fellow of Queen's College, has been appointed to preach the Bampton Lecture in the year 1831. Mr. William Henry Walter Bigg Wither has been admitted actual Fellow of New College. Richard Mitchell, Esq. M. A. of Wadham College, has been elected a Fellow of Lincoln College. Mr. Edward J. Wilcocks, Commoner of Exeter College, and Mr. Arthur Bedford Orlebar, Commoner of St. John's College, have been elected Scholars of Lincoln College; and Mr. David Thomas Knight, of Lincoln College, Mr. Robert Spofforth, of Pembroke College, and Mr. Daniel Butler, Lord Crewe's Exhibitioners in that Society. Mr. George Day, Mr. William Cother, and Mr. George Barnes, have been elected Westminster Students of Christ Church. In a Convocation, a new statute, "De Examinandis Graduum Candidatis," was submitted to the Members of Convocation. In order to afford an opportunity of ascertaining the sentiments of the University on every point connected with the proposed alterations, the whole was divided into fourteen sections, and the several sections were proposed one by one, with an understanding that the first was not to be submitted to the House, unless all the others had been previously agreed to. Of the remaining thirteen, five were adopted without any division, two were carried in the affirmative, and six were negatived; so that, for the present, the old statute, as amended in the years 1825 and 1826, remains in force. DEGREES CONFERRED. DOCTOR IN DIVINITY. Rey. Samuel Curlewis Lord, Wadham Coll. Grand Comp. BACHELORS IN DIVINITY. Rev. Charles Carr Clerke, Student of Christ Church, and Archdeacon of Oxford. Rev. John Anthony Cramer, late Student of Chr. Ch. Public Orator of the University. MASTERS OF ARTS. Rev. John Hall Parlby, University Coll. Rev. J. Medley, Wadham Coll. Gr. Comp. BACHELORS OF ARTS. Sir Walter F. Farquhar, Bart. Christ Ch. Christopher Benson, Queen's Coll. Travers Twiss, Schol. of University Coll. J. N. Harrison, Schol. of Worcester Coll. Joseph Hayward, Exeter Coll. MARRIED. At Cornwood, Devon, the Rev. Charles John Hume, M. A. Fellow of Wadham College, to Caroline, youngest daughter of the Rev. William Oxnam, Vicar of Cornwood. ELECTIONS. CAMBRIDGE. Tugwell Robins, B.A., George Urquhart, B. A., and Edward Yardley, B. A., of Magdalene College, have been elected Fellows of that Society. Frederick Thomas William Coke FitzRoy, B. A. of Magdalene College, has been appointed by the Hon. and Rev. the Master of that Society, to the Norfolk travelling Fellowship. Mr. Florence James Wethered, Scholar of King's College, has been admitted Fellow of that Society. At a meeting of the Philosophical Society (the Rev. Professor Sedgwick, one of the Vice-Presidents, being in the chair), among other presents laid before the Society was a collection of the eggs of British birds, the gift of Mr. Yarrell. The Rev. L. Jenyns read a communication on the subject of the late severe winter. The Rev. H. Coddington read a memoir on the subject of his improved microscope, which was again exhibited and tried on several of the usual test objects (striated scales or feathers of different butterflies and moths). Professor Whewell made some observations on the proof of the first law of motion. After the meeting, Professor Whewell gave an account of the arguments brought forward by the German writers, who reject the Newtonian theory of optics, and of the doctrines on this subject propounded by the celebrated Goëthe. At another meeting of the Philosophical Society (Dr. F. Thackeray, the Treasurer, being in the chair), various additions to the Society's collection of British birds, presented by the Rev. L. Jenyns, and some specimens of insects, presented by Mr. Dale, were laid before the meeting. A paper, by T. W. Chevalier, Esq., on the Anatomy and Physiology of the Ear, was read. After the meeting, Professor Cumming exhibited and gave an account of some philosophical instruments which have recently been invented or improved. He described the contrivance proposed by Professor Leslie, for measuring the specific gravity of powders; and pointed out the resemblance between the instrument on this account termed a koniometer, and the stereometer invented by M. Say in 1797. Professor Cumming explained also a method of applying a similar process in a more convenient and compendious manner by means of the air-pump. An account was likewise given of the apparatus of Mr. Meikle, for comparing the specific gravities of two fluids; and an improvement in its construction pointed out, Finally, Professor Cumming exhibited to the members an instrument, the object of which is to measure the total effect of the whole sunshine which occurs in the course of a given day, or any other time. DEGREES CONFERRED. HONORARY MASTER OF ARTS. Lord Pollington, Trinity Coll. eldest son of the Earl of Mexborough. DOCTOR IN PHYSIC. Thomas Elliotson, Jesus Coll. BACHELOR IN DIVINITY. Rev. David Jones, Queen's Coll. MASTERS OF ARTS. Beedam Charlesworth, Trinity Coll. F. T. Sergeant, Corpus Christi Coll. Rev. Theodore Dury, Pembroke Coll. BACHELOR IN CIVIL LAW. Rev. Frederick Baring, Christ Coll. BACHELORS OF ARTS. James Willis Sanders, Trinity Coll. Thomas Henry Say, Caius Coll. John Lachlan M'Lachlan, Sidney Coll. Robert Moulton Atkinson, St. John's Coll. James Sanders, Queen's Coll. NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. We have received a letter from the-publisher of "A View of the Scripture Revelations concerning a Future State," in which, at the desire of the author, he complains of the references to Scripture in our review of the work (see Christian Remembrancer, May, 1830, p. 272), and says that they have been transcribed inaccurately; "for that of the passages which the 'Country Pastor' is censured for not noticing, some, which do bear on the question, have been copiously discussed in the book (p. 110, &c.), and great part of the rest are such as no one could possibly for a moment imagine to have any connexion with the subject." We beg leave to assure our respectable correspondent that there is no deception in the matter, of which, indeed, we should be sorely ashamed, and that John viii. 28 ought to be John viii. 24, (how it bears upon the question may be learnt from Christian Remembrancer, January, 1829, p. 42); for Heb. xii. 18, read Heb. xii. 9, and see Christian Remembrancer, October, 1828, p. 637. These two are the only corrections we have to make, and we thank our correspondent for the opportunity. With regard to the influence of these texts upon the question at issue, we beg leave to differ from the opinion of our correspondent, and shall leave them to speak for themselves: "valeant quantum valent." As to the author's copious discussion of some of the passages, there is but one, we think, at all entitled to that honour, viz. 2 Cor. v. 1—9, which is handled in his Lecture upon the Day of Judgment (Lect. VI.), the topic of the intermediate state having been seemingly completed in the preceding pages, (Lect. II. III. IV.); and when we asserted that the Country Pastor had said “nothing” of the texts which we quoted, we meant to express our opinion, that his statement of our hypothesis was meagre and defective, and that it amounted to nothing—“ totum nil.” Though we must add, in our justification, that of the greater number of those texts, the Country Pastor has LITERALLY said nothing! 66 Vindex," “ T. B. B.” “H. H. L." and "E. H." are under consideration. "C. S." and a "Distant Reader" shall be attended to. Thanks to our friend near Manchester for his sermon. It will give us pleasure to hear from him again. "R. P.'s" kindness came four days too late; we hope shortly to notice it in another shape. Our friend "E. B." is not forgotten; press of matter alone has caused the delay. ERRATUM.-P. 271, line 28, for "supposing" read "suppressing." THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER. JULY, 1830. REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. ART. I.-Sermons on some of the most Interesting Subjects in Theology. By the Rev. GEORGE TOWNSEND, M. A. Prebendary of Durham, and Vicar of Northallerton. London: Rivingtons. 1830. 8vo. Price 12s. "YOUR business is," says Archbishop Secker, in his third Charge to his Clergy, "to set before your people the lamentable condition of fallen man; the numerous actual sins by which they have made it worse; the redemption wrought for them by Jesus Christ; the nature and importance of true faith in him; their absolute need of the grace of the Divine Spirit in order to obey his precepts. This will be addressing yourselves to them as Christian ministers ought to Christian hearers. The Holy Scriptures will furnish you with matter for it abundantly. Short and plain reasonings, founded on their authority, will dart conviction into every mind; whereas, if your doctrine and your speech be not that of their bibles; if you contradict, or explain away, or pass over in silence, any thing taught them; they who are best contented with you, will soon learn little from you, and others will be offended, and quit you when they can. We have, in fact, lost many of our people to sectarians, by not preaching in a manner sufficiently evangelical; and shall neither recover them from the extravagancies into which they have run, nor keep more from going over to them, but by returning to the right way, declaring all the counsel of God, and that principally, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth. (1 Cor. ii. 13.)" A more concise, judicious, and scriptural rule for the guidance of a Christian preacher could not easily have been framed; or one more accurately fitted to the present character of pulpit instruction. It is not to be concealed, that a great number, we had almost said a great majority, of the discourses which of late years we have been in the habit of hearing, are rather moral essays, or polemical disquisitions, than sermons, properly so called. From a dread of being numbered with those who have arrogantly assumed to themselves the exclusive title of Gospel preachers, and with a view of counteracting the noxious tenets which they have not scrupled to maintain, the more sober party in the ministry have nearly fallen into the opposite extreme; and in order to escape the imputation of being evangelical in a wrong sense, they have scarcely ventured to be evangelical at all. It is not that they are without a due sense of the paramount importance of the Christian doctrines, or that they would be thought to undervalue them by keeping them in the back-ground; but from an over anxiety not to say too much, they are led to say too little. Happily, this spirit of ultra orthodoxy is perceptibly on the decline, though it still prevails to a very considerable extent, and always with the effect of spare and drowsy congregations. We are no advocates for evangelical rant, and extemporaneous declamation; but we are sure that dull and heavy dissertations on abstruse subjects of theology and morality, are less adapted to the pulpit, than an awakening appeal to the heart and to the conscience; and we hope to see the day when Scripture truths shall be fearlessly promulgated by every Christian minister in Scripture language. The necessary union of faith and works, as indispensable conditions of salvation, will be more surely inculcated by the apostolic declaration, that one without the other "is dead,” than by a learned discussion of the perpetual obligation of the moral law; nor is it necessary to avoid all mention of the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit, in order to prove that man is not a mere nonentity in the work of his own salvation. In the religious instruction which a Christian preacher delivers to his assembled flock, there are obviously three grand points to be considered :—the doctrines which the gospel inculcates; the evidence upon which they rest; and the practical duties to be deduced from them. A due enforcement of each and all of these points, in their mutual dependence on each other, is the only means of confirming a believer in the principle of vital Christianity. Wherever doctrine is exclusively inculcated, the result is an undefined and speculative enthusiasm, which will either soar into presumption, or sink into despair. If, on the other hand, morality be the exclusive theme of discussion, the main principle of action is wanting, and self-righteousness will usurp the place of "our being accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." And where "the reason of the hope that is within us "fails, the basis of both faith and practice alike gives way, and the ruin of the superstructure is inevitable. In saying that a connected view of the doctrines, the precepts, and the evidence of Christianity should constitute the groundwork of pulpit instruction, we do not mean that a purely doctrinal or moral sermon should never be preached. But the preacher should never lose sight of any part of the Christian scheme; and if |