The Press.
London, England, 1855-07-21 00:00:00

Come down, oh maid, from yonder mountain height.
What pleasure is in height, the shepherd sang,
In height and cold, the splendour of the hills?
He will st.ll tell you that " love is of the
" valley," that woman's sphere is among the
sweet charities of domestic life, and the sights
and sounds of home :

The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmurs of innumerable bees.

Practical Sermons. By G. William Brameld, M.A.
Second Series. London: Hope and Co.
THIS is a volume which does not invite criticism ;
and in village sermons that is a great merit. Mr.
Brameld has had the singular good sense and self-
denial to keep entirely clear of controversial topics—
with the one exception of baptismal regeneration—
andin place of them we have some good home truths
told in a plain but not commonplace manner—some
fine applications of the Parables—and some useful
explanations of Hebrew customs and prejudices.
The sermon entitled " The Sacrifice on Carmel"
is an excellent specimen of our author's best style,
and, as it appears to us, is calculated to produce a
stron; impression not I,ss on a cultivated than on
an ignorant audience :
We must bear in mind that a very small portion of the
history of the Israelites is preserved to us in the sacred
books ; and that, although the wonders wrought by Elijah
and his successor occupy a large space in the Scripture
record, they might still be, to a great extent, unknown to
the mass of the people. Men were generally left then, as
now, to the exercise of reason and of simple faith in the
unseen. And so, when idolatry and sin were favored by
regal authority and the influence of the great and noble,
while God's religion was persecuted and despised, we can
feel no surprise that the multitude fell away from the
truth, and that Elijah had to address the words of the
text to those who, while still not altogether unmindful of
the past, were nevertheless disposed to regard chiefly their
own safety or interest, and to yield to the seeming neces-
sity of the time.
This "necessity of the time" is indeed the rock
on which all faith, all high and noble traditions, all
true philosophy, have always been wrecked from the
beginning of history to the present day. And there
has been scarcely a reform in this country for the
last thirty years which has not been based by the
majority of its supporters on the "necessity of the
time," rather than on its intrinsic excellence. The
last sermon in the list, entitled " The Voice in the
Storm," was preached on the proclamation of war
last year. It is eloquent and pertinent :
May this and other like sweet intimations of the love
and mercy of our Redeemer be treasured as pearls of in-
estimable price, by those to whom the outbreak of this
great war has already assumed the character of a personal
calamity ; whose best beloved ones—the pride of many a
household—the sole stay, perchance, of many a widowed
heart—have already passed from the homes their love had
made so happy ; and it may be to return no more !
Brethren, when we put up our prayers to God this night,
ay ! and every night while this sad strife lasts, let us think
sorrowfully and pityingly ofthese ; the fatherless children and
widows, the desolate and afflicted, who shall be the certain
victims of the contest. Little do those who cry aloud for
war think of the sighs and tears, the racking suspense, the
awful certainty of irreparable loss which will sadden so
many an English hall and cottage for long years to come.
Let us, I repeat, pray fervently for these to our God. Amid
their great sorrow, may the voice that once spoke forth in
power from the storm speak peace to their hearts ! "It
is I, be not afraid."
In the discourse on the " Nature and Necessity
of Conversion " Mr. Brameld has written, we
think, too timidly. The catholic doctrine of bap-
tism is one about which no reasonable man need
feel the slightest uncertainty, and it is an injudi-
cious exercise of friendship to seek to disguise
it—for such is practically the result of Mr. Brameld's
observations. He endeavours to divert our minds
from regeneration by setting up the bugbear of
baptismal conversion—a doctrine which the most
enthusiastic Churchman surely never dreamed of
preaching. By baptism a child is, if we may so ex-
press it, put in a way of obtaining his salvation—no-
thing more ; and when Mr. Brameld denies that the
sacrament supersedes the necessity of repentance,
he is, we fancy, demolishing a henry of his own
creation. Whether he is here simply addressing
himself to an error which he found prevalent among
his own parishioners we know not ; but the sermon
has the air of an appeal to the world at large, and,
if so, we must say we cannot see that it was either
requisite or discreet.
We have no other fault to find. It is a book of a
thousand merits and one defect ; and sure we are that
if our village pulpits were more generally filled by
preachers of the like earnestness and eloquence,
many of our present sectarians would not be long in
returning to the bosom of the Church.

THE New Quarterly Review differs from the other
Quarterlies in limiting itself to notices, more or less
elaborate, of the principal books issued in the period
between the dates of its publication. In the present
Number the literature of the past three months,