The Sun.
London, England, 1824-06-19 00:00:00

FOR THE SUN.

ON SOUTHEY'S BOOK OF THE CHURCH.
( Continued from THE SUN of May 24.)
As it is the plain, and express declaration of
our blessed Loan himself that his House shall
be called a House of Prayer, it is strange that
there should be any diversity of opinion in men
that profess to be Members of his House, who
still will make it, as the Pharisees did in his
time, a Den of Thieves. Upon this last expres-
sion there have been various comments. It is
quoted from Jeremiah, who evidently alludes to
the dens and caves into which robbers used to
hide themselves and their spoils, not daring to
dwell in the more open places, where neither
they nor their plunder could he secure. These
he compares to the licentious people of his day.
46 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery,
and swear falsely, and come and stand before
me in this house, which is called by my name,
and say, 'We are delivered to do all these abo-
minations. Is this house become a dea of rob-
bers in your eyes ? Or think you to retreat
thither, as robbers retreat to their dens as places
of security, as if you could be safe in such a sanc-
tuary, and, if not concealed, yet protected in the i
midst of all your licentiousness by this asylum',
for sinners."

The same language is addressed to the Jews
of our Saviour's time, more especially to the Pha-
risees, whose name in Syriac, which was then the
common dialect, it is remarkable, coincides but
by one letter with the name for thieves, which
in the original means rather those who were ac.
customed to live upon unlawful gains, such
as the money-changers, who, from that time to
this, have never been highly rated in society ;
or it may allude to those among the priests, who
made a profit of the temple by their arts with the
people, and who performed their various offices
more from ostentation than any sense of religion ;
more to court popularity, and make a traffic of
their religious profession, so as to convert the
temple into a place of merchandize, and make
the tabernacle itself a feast.
There are the same characters, it is to be feared,
even among Christians, who to this day allure
the people, who know no better, into their ta-
bernacles to turn a penny by their credulity, and
pick their pockets, as they stand with their ears,
and even mouths, open to swallow all that they
can tell them—no matter what, so long as it ap-
pears to be the extemporaneous effusion of
im-
mediate inspiration.
Among the many arts by which the house of
prayer is converted into a den of thieves, the
most prominent is the delusion, which they never
fail to spread wherever they go, that there can
be but little or no occasion for prayer at all, or
at least that this house is built for other pur-
poses, to which prayer is only subordinate, and of
comparatively but little importance. Hence not
only enthusiasts out of the Church, but many
who are within its pale, and men too whose
sense abounds on other topics, are for ever en-
larging with the most fervent raptures upon the
pre-eminence of preaching as a religious office,
as if the whole intent of this sacred house were
chiefly to be a theatre for sermons and homilies,
and nothing more required of the Minister than
to preach, nor of the congregation than to hear.
So far, indeed, have some of these enthusiasts
carried this partiality to preaching, as not to
think it worth their while to attend upon the
House of God, unless the service is followed by
a sermon, and if they get only in time for that,
they care not how long they stay away, but
would not, for the world, lose, one syllable of the
harangue, or one drop of the extemporaneous
effusion, which is sweeter than honey, or the
honey-comb, to their infatuated taste. If the
preacher at any time should not hold forth as
long as usual, they think themselves stinted of
their spiritual portion, and are sometimes, in the
height of their grief and vexation, inclined to
apprehend that their minister is waxing cold in
his zeal for their interests in another-world,
and that he is by far too deeply intent upon this.
I have heard, that under this apprehension there
has been a standing order in some of their meet-
ings, that the spirit must move the preacher at
least ono hour at a time, or the preacher must
be moved from his place. If there is no such
positive order in writing, it is generally under-
stood that any who fall short of this, degrade
themselves to the level of the establishment,
who are apt to think with their fathers of old,
that " brevity is the soul of wit," and with the
wisest and purest of Christians at all times, that
we can hardly pray too much till all we want is
given us, nor speak too little, if it is only well-
spoken ; for one word in due season—how sweet
is it—and one word is enough for the wise.
This extravagant taste for popular preaching
was founded originally upon a fault so common
to humanity, of wandering into one extreme in
order to avoid another. This part of the service
had been totally overlooked in the dark ages of
Popery, and since our emancipation from this
spiritual bondage, "great has been the com-
pany of preachers" and pulpit-praters—as if
to make amends by their loquacity for the
long silence of the Church. Dow many have
arisen, both in and out of that Church as it is
established in this kingdom, who, in order to
escape from the office of the mass—their horror
and abomination—looking down upon prayer,
attach as much importance, as the author of the
Book of the Church says, to sermons and extem-
pore harangues, as the Rornanists did to what
they esteemed the sacrifice of the altar. Even
under the illustrious reign of our Elizabeth, that
nursling of the Reformation, the pulpit was but
too frequently made the hand-organ of State
policy, set to whatever tunes might best accord
with the present purposes, and its enemies, pro.
fiting by the fatal example, resorted as occasion
arose to the same influential means of spreading
their political as well as religious tenets. Hence
Lecturers were established wherever they could
be out of the funds confiscated from the Itomish
Treasury, and schools also, where their doctrines
were instilled into the minds of the young, who
were thus prepared under their auspices for the
University—that there might never he want-
ing At and godly men to preach throughout the
land their wild theories about Church and State,
which were so destructive to the establishment of

both. For we know how this fanatical faction went
forth in defiance of all consequences, to the cone
summation of what they so devoutly wished,
the triumph of their own creed, political and re-
ligious, particularly the latter,—the pattern on the
mount, the covenant by distinction which they
called the dominion of grace,—upon the ruins,
will not say of Christianity alone, but of common
sense, morality, and religion, in its genuine ac-
ceptation.

So far, indeed, have some of these fanatics car-
ried their predilection for preaching, as to contend
that the word itself is not able to save the soul
unless it sound from the voice of the preacher,
who himself must be inspired to awaken the sin-
ner from his deep lethargy. There seems by
their account another word deposited only with
themselves, without which, though a man may
study the scriptures day and night, he cannot be
converted. So far have men wandered in order
to avoid one absurdity into the grossest of all
absurdities, and because the Romanists erred so
long in neglecting to expound, or even to open the
Bible at all to the people, have at last flattered
themselves that the only "power unto salvation"
is not merely the word which is described se
46 quick and powerful," but the spirit of the
preacher, without whom that word is only
" dead letter," as if it were his spirit, and hi.:
spirit alone, that giveth life,—and preaching,
especially Evangelical, were all in all.

( To be continued. )

Mr. SINCLAIR made his first appearanco at
Dublin on Tuesday last, in the character of Or-
lando, in the Opera of The Cabinet, and was ex.-
trernely well received.

EALING SCHOOL.—On Thursday last tho pa-
rents and friends of the pupils at this respectable
establishment assembled to witness the annual en-
tertainments given by Dr. NICHOLAS. The
amusements in the morning consisted of recita-
tions. Sir W. Scott's celebrated Flodden Field
was delivered by Mr. French in a manner which
did him great credit. Campbell's Massacre at
Prague followed, by Mr. Blew, who evinced con-
siderable force and feeling. In the evening the
Adelphi of Terence was performed with much
approbation ; Mr. Blew, as Deluca, Mr.
Lynn, in the part of Mitio, Mr. flosch as
Ctesipho, and Mr. Hollings as ,S:yras, were seve-
rally very successful. 2Esehinus, in the hands
of Mr. French, although a comparatively insig-
nificant character, was made of much importance
by the superior style of his performance. The
other parts, of Samio, by Mr. King, Geta, by
Mr. Harrison, and Ilegio, by Mr. Palmer, were
also well represented. An amusing Epilogue
followed the entertainments of the day, and the
company separated highly pleased with the exer-
tion.; of the several pupils and by the hospitality
of Dr. Nicholas.

COAL-MARKET, JUNE 18.
Ships at Market. Ships sold - Price
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