The Sun.
London, England, 1815-01-10 00:00:00

THE SUN REVIEW.

LXI.)
SP.RmoNs, chiefly on Particular Occasions. Ancn!sitn
ALISON, LL.B.Trebendory of Sarum, Senior Minister of
dbe Episcopal Chapel, Cowgate, Edinburgh, &c. Svo. pp.
463, price 12s. Looga'ma and, Co. London; A. Consta-
ble and moo. ktlinbuigh.
If the private excellence of its Ministers were
to form the fame of an Establishment, our sera
might rank among the most triumphant days of
'the Church of England. For stronger • displays,
fiercer times may be required, and the RIDLEYS
and LATIVIEIeS, the faithful Martyrs and devoted
thamPions of the Faith, as the natural products of
an age of persecution are not to be looked for
among men who have no cause for peculiar fear
or courage. But in the virtues suited to their
state of Society, the world has never seen a body
so blameless. Apostolic benevolence and self-
denying righteousness, the greatest gifts of our
purified and accomplished nature, must be rare
among any association of human, beings ; but
History offers no instance where eleven thousand
men have acted so fully up to the rule of their sta-
tion, worn a robe so lightly tinged with the/temp-
tations of life, or with so little of evil, circulated
so large a share of good through Society. Yet
it is certain, that at no period since the Reforma-
tion has the Church fixed a feebler
.hold upon
the. People. We will not stray into the ettume-
ration of those multitudes and myriads of Secta-
ries, which, hot' the other day, revolting from
the Host of the true faith,' are now -getitering
with the spirit of deSerters; and only lingering-till
its array seems to shake. This spirit, is formida-
ble, and no eon-talon vigilance iu the Leaders of .
the Church is called for by its malign activity.—
But a more fearful symptom is to be found among
those who have still Stood. Their hearts.are not
entire in the cause. The great Church Commu-
nity is faint and listless, negligent and cold, at-.
• tached to the ancient doctrine- by
_little more
than custom, and combined against its adversa-
ries less by rational fidelity than by that light
contempeand pride of superior sense, which these
have so often known how to subdue. . For this
anomaly there must be some solution., Vulgarity
has no irresistible: attraction, Ignorance and folly,
extravagance and meanness, are not the indispeu-
sible arms of him who is to be Master of the Mul-
titude. The grace and dignity of the Church
Worship are not Originally less connected with the
heart than the squalidness awl mummery of the
Conventicle„ and yet the Establishment is beset
by schism. " That House" is built upon a
rock, and it is It-ell for the happiness and wis-
dom the Community that its foundations
sbould not lie within the power of the pass-
ing storm but without utter ruin there is much
to suffer, many a high memorial, many a stately
and revered bequest of 'other times, matt, -
wise rant costly provision for the
.happiness of
posterity., is to be lost ; and it is no timid eye of
querulous voice that looks to the whitening.of the
wave:, and summons the guardian's of its towers
to be vigilant and be secure, It is- a fact %villa'
may lead us far, that the great effort of the Sec-
taries has been directed to an object .which the
Established Clergy have apparently thought in-
capable Of productiveness. The Church had the
first choice of the soil, and its tracts of easy'and
tempting fertility were the natural settlements of
that multitude of
.distinguished labourers whoa;
she " sent forth into her harvest." Those who
followed were forced to a sterner selection. Like
the later Colonists of the New World, they found
the shore and the valley, the luxuriant and level'
',. regions already filled, and they were driven to the
desort and the-mountain, till in their barrenness
the treasure was discovered that was worth all
-Forced by their exclusion from the usual
accesses of the -popular mind, to 'abandon the
calmer and more- obscure conversion of private
influence, they ascended the pulpit and stormed
tic defences Which they could not undermine.—
The example- is not to be forgotten, with fee-
-hie means they have done much ; it will be
more the part of rashness 'than of courage
to. wait till a matured , and exulting strength
leads them on to a struggle in which success must
he still more doubtful, and even tfiumph to be
paa:hased only by heavier mutual
Oar' virtues have failed, our knowledge• of the
4orld, our high ~and polished literature, all have
"broken short in our hands against the (ode incur-
sion, the pike and club of this barbarian adver-
sary. We must try some superior modes.
The Church of Ungland, Ainong the crowd of
admirable 'qualities Avhich have raised her in the
estimation of, the world, has. neglected , the most
oper,ti,,, and p„we'rfid of all, Eloquence—the
large and commanding impression which gives one
111,in the svii!iog mastery over the minds or thou-
has been almost totally thrown out-of the

tomes with such decisive weight in the trans:ie.,
Lions of human life, has been scarcely reckoned
among the legitimate resources of the_ Church.
We have no great public preacher ; and we shall
have none, until such men arc called for by the
Hierarchy. We know the ambition, the fasti-
diousness, the self-willed pride, that may degrade
the value of this noble faculty, ; but it would be
absurd to suppose, that among the Clergy of Eng-
land there are not to be found men of talent, too
numerous to make its highest examples rare. And
who is to compute the effect of such a body, in-
vested with such acquirements, vigorous and Ar-
dent, seconding the zeal of " heavenly things"
by the finest qualities of earth, full of the enthu-
siasm that virtue may not disdain to borrow froM
genius, and meeting the flashes of that stolen and
.
fictitious fire of the impostor by the lightnings of
Heaven. Who shall compute the services that
are to be thus done even to politic society, the
fearful discontents that are still to be removed,
the firth obedience to be generated, the innume-
rable and contagious remnants of an unwholesome
time, that, ready to quicken again into pestilent
may be extinguished and swept -away with
the surge, recOing, before " that hreath'of Hea-
ven." The subordination of -the people is inter-,
woven vitally and thoroughly with. their religious
belief, and unless we are prepared to give the na-
tional allegiance into the hands of republican schis-
matics, we must adopt the means by which,beyond
all others, the mind of man in every age of the
world has been controuled. The . Sermons of
Which we give the present extracts, are an !man-
.
swerahle evidence that the pulpit is,,not incom-
patible with the noblest and most Animating elo-
quence ; a regundant style. a vigorous logic, and
that deep and interior acquaintance with 'Scrip-
. titre, which exhibits itself rather in the spirit than
theletter, something more of the feclitig than the
phrase,
.are the claims of this volume. But they
leave the Clergy of England only still more with-
out excuse offering an example of the powers
which -may give influence to the Preacher, they
offer lit front a Sektish pulpit ; and England has
still to find a vindicator of her clerical genius.
The volume contains twenty-two Sermons ;
nine on 'public subjects, five on the seasons, and
the remainder- on general topics. We have room
but for two
,extracts, which, for the purpose of
exhibiting the happy varionsuess and calm good
sense of those pages, we have taken one from a
private, the other from a public subject. The
► first is front a Sermon on Summer.

" Every scene of life has' its appropriate duties ; and I
trust I shall therefore lie forgiven, if I attempt at present to
draw your attention to this subject :—To • the consideration
of the duties and the dispositions which become those who •
possess this important share in `he property of their country.
" If-it be unfortunate for us, that we often undervalue
the blessings we enjoy, it is equally trof_orturate that we
sometimes undervalue the usefulness we possess. There is a
modesty in goodness, which sometimes leads men to estimate
their impOrtance in society too low. There is a carelessness, •
too, which the possession of power is alit to produce, and
which renders -them unconscionS of the exertious which are
d4tiius4ed of them.-. It is wise in men, therefore, sometimes
to remove themselves,, as it were, from their own situation
in Het—to look upon their condition in the light in which
the rest of the world consider it ; us •to return te
with pew impressions of the duties which it dematolls, and of
the oppor:upities of virtue which it affords
" If, in this view', my brethren, you survey the great scene
of human society, you trn: 'ec• that the condition in it the
most honourable, the most inipOrts and the Most fruitful
of usefulness, is that of the proprietor or ittnd, Other men
must struggle with the world, -before they can rwise them-
selves into distinction and influence. He, on the -contrary,
is born-a ruler of the people, and the same i.-evs which con-
vey to him the title to his laulds, convey to him the welfare
or the wretchedness of the men wim 'inhabit them. His
opinions, in many ways, become the model of theirs;--his
example is able, either-to strengthen or to shake their most
important principles of morality;—aod his power can make
itself felt, even within the walls of the lowest cottage, either
in disseminating joy, or diffusing sorrow. 'From the agita
tions of the great world, the obscurity of the • poor -renders
them happily free; and, amid the calm occupations of se-
moestered Industry, even the influence of legislature is but ,
distantly felt. 'But the influence of their landlord is felt in
every day and in every occupation of their lives ; and he
alone, of all the various members of society, has the power
of realizing the beautiful description of the Patriarch of
olds " When I went out of the gate, the young men saw
me, and hid themselves; and the aged arose, and stood" up.
When the ear heard me, then it blessed• me, and when' the
eye saw me, it gave witne,ss unto me. I delivered the poor
and the fatherless, and him that had none to help hint. The
blessing of hint that was ready to perish came upon use, and
I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy."

The second is from a striking Discourse on the
Fast, 1811.— •
If such then be the auspices under which we advance,—
if such be the ends we pursue,--let not the heart of this
country shrink ficim the dangers to which it is still exposed,
or from the luirdships it may be yet doomed to endure. Every
thing that is animating,--every
thing that is commanding in
nature, arc with us. The Providence of Heaven calls
nut only a not to be overcome with evil, but to ~!urcotue it
with good.'"lhe shades of our aiicestors beckon us to follow
them in the Math of freedom and: of honour;—the- Uplifted
hands of nations implore us to free them from their chains,
and to restore them to the liberty and the dignity of man.—
In so high a contest, he the struggles or the hardships that are
to await us what they may, there is yet glory in encountering
them. and I trust, that, even at this hour, there is not one
British heart that would exchange the perilous but majestic
attitude in which his country stands, for the hollow security
of any insidious peace, or the base tranquillity of ignomi-
nious submission.

'-'Voris it to he forgotten, my brethren, in our calcula-
tions of the fnthre, that there is an advantage which vice
itself eter gives to the virtue which opposes it; and.that the
effort' of guilt to defend itself, am ever destined, by the be-
nevolent laws of our nature, to add to its crimes and its (*tan-
gors. In the history of the dark and tremendous power that
opposes, us, who is there that has not read this awful pro-
gress? The mask of hypocrisy loss long•fallen ;—the features
the Well-known features) of tyranny are descried even by
the slaves who serve it ;—and the weight of military despotism
sinks every hour with heavier pressure upon the
People thetn-
selves that created it. Year after year (in that great but
wretched country), either takes something fr”at the happi-
ness of private life, or adds something to public
All that once distinguished it is gone ;—the gay soil harmless
intercourse of social life is forl)idden ,the voice of public
information or instruction is silenced;---the spy and The in-
former glide into the sacred 'privacies of domestic confidence;
and from the arias of the. mother, the children of her love
or of her widowhood are torn' that they may swell the ranks
of armies, whose paupers she dare not billow with her

More gtgaiiiic qrp lvt4 Tier Commet:, of tlle
worla is to he suspended;--the progress of every nation. to;
Avealth and to iMlepenthence is to be stopt T--t he project3,of
insane ambition are tube pursued, bot by the bravery
whiel, its armies can act, but by the taniethlss with which ILI
subjects-can suffer;—and the world around is to return to n
wilderness, that oge impious throne may be e3tr.blished upon
the ruins of all the former honours of humgaiity.ti

" There. is a limit, my brethren, to htunan suffelancO, and
there is an hour in oppresiion, whert resolution springs front
despair. To that hour, to that aveiving hour, time and
nature are approaching. " The cup of bitterness is full, and
there is a drop which will make it overflow. Unmarked a s
it may be amid the blaze of military g•lory, the drean baud is
yet "-writing on the wall" the sentence of its doom; and
however late may ht it's arrival, -the hour is yet steadily ap-
proaching, when " evil will be overcome with good ;"—and
when the life blood-of an injured_ world will collect at the
heart, and, by tine convulsive effort, throw off the load that
has oppressed it."
The " Continental System" was now in force.

To conclude—these beautiful Sermons add an-
other source of Christian delight to those which
BLAIR and LOGAN have already opened on nearly
the same Northern ground. They are fit compa-
mions for the closet of. the man of literature, for.
the family circle of the man of true wisdom, or the
lick chambers of the man nf.holinesi. .We would
dwell more at length
,upon their praise, did our
limits permit ; but arc compelled to lay down our
pen with only noticing the exquisite instance of
fine feeling displayed in Mr. ALisoN's choice of
text on the Jubilee :

"And Joseph asked them of their welfaye, and said, .1.) your
,father well ? the old wean of whore ye spahe, is he ya alive r'