the breathless remains of beloved connexions. It is natural to feel a pang when the dearest ties, formed early in life, and strengthened by many a tender association, are for ever snapped asunder. It is natural

to sit down and weep, when the eye that used to beam kindness and love upon us is closed in death; when the hand that has a hundred times pressed ours in warm friendship, is cold and stiff, and makes no return to the kindliest grasp; and when that heart is motionless, which had long beat in perfect unison with ours. If this is natural, brethren, then it cannot be wrong in the abstract; and we are sure that it is the pure original impulse of our nature, because, had it been a sinful infirmity, it could never have appeared in Christ. Your tears and sobs, when they flow from natural grief, will not displease your heavenly Father, and will be healthful to yourselves, provided they are sanctified with the spirit of our great Master, who, in giving vent to pangs that almost tore his heart in sunder, could still exclaim, with the purest self-devotion, Abba, Father, not my will, but thine be done.'" -Pp. 6-9.

Plain Sermons, chiefly on particular occasions: to which are added, two Assize Sermons, preached in the Cathedral Church of Salisbury, in the year 1832. By the Rev. Fulwar William Fowle, Rector of Allington, and Perpetual Curate of Amesbury. 2 vols. London, Rivingtons. 1835-6.

THESE sermons are dedicated to the Bishop of Salisbury. The author states his aim in the preface:

"In the following sermons the author has had two principal objects in view. The first, to explain, in easy and familiar terms, the great Gospel truth of salvation through Christ alone. The second, by availing himself of the occasions that offered, whether of a public or domestic character, to impress upon the minds of his parishioners a conviction of the immediate superintendency of an all-wise, and all-merciful, no less than all-powerful Being, in the various vicissitudes of human affairs, particularly in the sufferings which he is pleased to inflict. May the divine blessing be with his humble efforts, and grant that they may prove in any degree instrumental in opening the eyes of the sinner to behold the wisdom, goodness, and justice of God, in awakening him to a sense of his own spiritual pollution, and in directing him to that pure river of the water of life,' in which he may wash, and be clean.'"

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We were much pleased with this preface; it shewed that the author had a high standard of Christian teaching; and the sermons themselves support his pretensions. There is throughout them a strain of deep piety, and an anxious interest for the spiritual growth of the people to whom they were addressed. We are not able, from these sermons, to decide what are the writer's sentiments on several important points, doctrinally his views are rather to be collected generally from the tone of the work. He evidently exalts Christ both in his own heart and in his ministry; and presses the necessity of an "exclusive" reliance upon his meritorious work. We will give a specimen of his general and occasional preaching, according to his own two divisions mentioned in the preface.

In Sermon III. of the first volume, on "Salvation through Christ alone," speaking of St. Paul's renouncing all trust in his own goodness, he says:

"And you, my brethren, like him, must throw away your self-righteousness, must divest yourself of every hope which is in the most distant degree derived from your fancied merits; you must renounce every claim to the mercy of God, to the pardon of your sins, or to your final justification and acceptance, which is, however remotely, founded on your obedience to the laws of God, or fulfilment of his will. Here is the rock of offence' to thousands and tens of thousands, who profess themselves to be servants of God, and believers in his Son; to some it is a stumbling-block,' to others foolishness. Many who have to this period followed Christ, yea, even through trials, troubles, and temptations, hearing these words, are offended, and follow him no further; they say, 'This is a hard saying, who can hear it?' Amid this melancholy defection, the blessed Jesus addresses himself to you, his disciples now assembled before him, and pathetically asks you, 'Will ye also go away?' Oh, my brethren, turn not back, as you value the salvation of your souls, but calmly and dispassionately examine the argument."

The specimen of an occasional discourse, which we shall give, is from an assize sermon, preached in Salisbury Cathedral. Its title is, The Abuse of Liberty, which he comprises under the three heads of spiritual, religious, and civil. Under the head of the first-mentioned kind he has the following just remark :

"The abuses of spiritual liberty are to be seen in the sins of the nation. To enumerate them all would be an arduous and irksome task; but I do not hesitate to name (as I always shall do) the profanation of the Sabbath as the fruitful parent of the rest. The rich and the poor, the nobleman and the mechanic, profane it alike; but which, think you, will be called to the heaviest account? The one who follows, or the one who sets the example? The one who has every day in the week at his disposal, or the one who might at least plead the labour of six days for the diversions of the seventh? From the neglect of the Sabbath arise all those crimes, those lusts of the flesh,'

adultery, fornication, drunkenness, lasciviousness, for

which the absence of vital religion leaves room in the heart of man. The guilty passions are indulged without so much as an effort to restrain them. The things, which it is a shame even to speak of, are done, not in secret, but openly: men talk of their evil deeds, and glory in their shame. Their spiritual enemy gains his victory without even the show of a combat, and men yield up their souls without a struggle."

From these two extracts it is clear that Mr. Fowle understands how to shew his people their sin and their Saviour. It is a dangerous ministry which does either without the other; that is a complete ministry which does both. We wish that sermons of this sort oftener came from the press,-sermons which, without pretending to theological "depth, set forth, in an earnest and persuasive manner, the things that pertain unto life and godliness."