The National Register.
London, England, 1814-02-20 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

19- ').

It is perfectly in the recollection of the present wtiter, by
the Tatty, that the Authors of the Sernionet have been
partly forestalled respecting an application to one portion of
those P)r whom their labours were designed, mid who con-

stitirte the class of beings that are most likely to be improved
by them. About two years since, there appeared an ad-
vertisement, in one of the mmning papers, respectfully
informing the public, that .the Rev. M. A. Maws had eotn•
posed a " Course orFifty-two Sermons far Children, on sub-
jects suited to their time of life, and in a style between Me
solemn and the playful;" which solemn )et playful sermons
the said ievereml gentleman was "desirous of an appoint-
ment to preach to the pupils of ally respectable seminary of
learning, or seriously-disposed family." Here the attraction
of delivery, moreover, might be obtained in addition to the
graces occomposition,'provided the preacher's presence was
conditioned for ; by which his plan of juvenile conversion
was evidently calcukted to operate more successfully on the
feelings of youth. Preaching will always prove more eller-
tual than reading. What patronage our clerical advertiser
met with, if any, does not appear; but we have only to do
with his scheme, in this pia e, which, rather than leave
children to preach to them-elves, went to teach, according
to expel ience, word of mouth.
Addressed. in time first instance, to "those who have not yet
acquired" the capacity to profit by the perusal of genuine
divinity,—formed, secondly, for the purpose of Amin.;
" those who may have lost the inclination to apply the
power of attention to compositions" worthy of time pulpit,—
designrd, in tine, for " those who are not in the
habit of reading a grown-,np sermon,"...stio religious man.
with this avowal of the objects of the " Sertnonets" as stated
the-authors of them, will be surprised to find. what other-
wise might have astonished him, that they are unifurmly en-
livened by anecdotes, which are appendid to each sermonet
°tali certainly is an aint,ing age, if, unfortunately, it be
lbfri an improving age. Anecdotes and divinity tmot hand-ins
hand. ‘V bile we have the art of itialiing grave things
libl t,
however we have the knack of making light things grave.
Philosophy amid politics, as well as divinity, hut too fearfully
attest our mum bidness of feeling, and superficiality of under.
standing.
Those who desire some further account of the volume now
adverted to, are informed—that it contaitu; sixty-six Sermo-
nets, from about eight to twelve pages each, occupied mostly
wi!ti piaetical suljects ; and to each of which is appended
a Note, recording some anet dote or circumstance in point.
This publication is also inscribed to the Rev,rend Thomas
Marten, B 9. F. R. and L. S. and Regius P we,sor of Bo_
,tany iu the University of Cambridge. It is not properly a
fall,sized octavo, but it comprises three hundred and sixty-
eight pages in all.
Unthinking religionists can see nothing serious in our
theological Innovations. Where is the harm, such men may
a.k, in the Sermonets which you have here intraduced to
our notice, and upod which you have already animadverted
at sonic length % Unpresuming in its prwension-, beneficial
in its design, and innoxions at lea,t in its te,idency, these
pers.ons will be disposed to imagine that the publication
in question ought by no means to have subjected it: authors
to the species of inquisition on this occasion exertwed.
It might have been thought so. )
mnderstood, the Composers of the Se(f lrtioiti:eo:
trll:va: vl-eilgl
eiirlerll
a-
voured to deserve well; vet their work is, after all, ail im-
plied libel on the morality., connected with the tif
their day. Surely it f .ortns an heinous inl! utation On tho.
religious character of this " most religious age, to insinuate
that there saint 41 those who may have loot the inclination is