The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-01 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Sabbath and Sunday under thei, various
Aspects and Obligations, considerd in Two
Discourses, delivered in Christ ..'hurch, New-
road, Brighton. By the Rev Robert Ainslie.
Judd and Glass, New Brige•street, London.
Waterfield Market-place,
Trighton.
An attentive reading °the above two discourses
has afforded us so muchmli
ghtenment, respecting a
question which hapdemanded no small share of
and social attention of late,
ain from noticing them, :as
theological,t
hatw e eanpn of 1 irtdeef!r)
being
espeepy worthy of perusal by the liberally-
minded
aucid account of the Sabbath vtion of the public. They yield a con-
cise of Eden, the
MOs .-; Sabbath, and the Christian Sabbath,
a
Evading to Bible chronology ; examining the
4thorities and obligations consecutively re-
garded by the Jewish Church and the Christian
Church, until the present time ; and produce an
ultimate deduction from all historical proof and
integral meaning, ccntained in Scripture ; that the
happiness and benefit of mankind are the great
purposes to be ministered to on our " day of rest."
In allusion to the Jewish consideration of the Sab-
bath, the author sass:—
"It was fearfully stringent, and minutely prescribed
nearly every action in iublic and domestic life which they
could perform. Yet it vas to be a day of rest for man and
beast, for son and daaghter, for man servant and maid
servant, and for the cattle and stranger within their gates.
The Pharisees were exceedingly strict in reference to the
Sabbath. They said it was wrong to heal—it was wrong
for the man whom Jesus healed to carry his bed after he
had been healed—it wts wrong to pick a few ears of corn
and rub them in their hands—and it was wrong to walk
more than a mile on tie Sabbath day. And there are at
the present time not a few Christians, who would not only
put us under the Fourth Commandment, but would
interpret it as stringently as the most bigoted of the.
Pharisees."

We own that we are compelled to accede unhesi-
tatingly to the declaration in the last sentence,
while mental observations and practical results at-
test that much evil may arise from the " excess of
good." Too severe an exaction of a rigid preserva-
tion of the Sabbath by those whose bodies and
spirits have few opportunities allowed them for the
freedom of physical enjoyment and the exercise of
pleasureable will, can never tend to much purer
development of Christian devotion in a people, than
the entertainment of a repulsive aversion to the
stern and ascetic dictators who would add sack-
cloth to the dust-worn skin, and fast days to the
life of scanty pittance. Holding these opinions, it is
refreshing to us to read such a passage as the
following, which occurs in the second discourse :
"We have not the shadow of proof that the observance
of the day was enforced among Christians, nor among those
who were not Christians. There was no law for its enforce-
ment, and consequently no authority to enforce it. Nothing
can be plainer, than that, in the time of Christ and of the
Apostles, the civil power never aided, but rather opposed
Christianity. Conceive of Jesus asking aid of :the civil
power to enforce his divaio 1,..3_,ns of wisdom and love. Or,
think of Paul going to the Roman magistrate to ask his
enforcement of the observance of Sunday. The
gospel contains moral and spiritual truth for the
moral and spiritual condition of all who embrace it. It
is not to be forced upon men by the civil power. The civil
power and religion should be for ever divorced. 'My
kingdom,' said Christ, is not of this world.' Those who
believe in Christ should follow, love, and obey him, and
those who do not recesve him should be unharmed, and
left perfectly free. Ccercion to believe in any article of
faith, or to receive the Lord's Supper, or to observe
Sunday, is a usurpation on the part of the civil power that
the apostles would hive denounced, and Jesus Christ
would have repudiated."

The Rev. Robert Ainslie appears to be thoroughly
qualified to maintain and justify the broad, honest
convictions which he offers to his hearere. His
style of eloquence combines energy with feeling,
scholarship with simplicity, and nervous vigour
with clear reasoning. Nis forcible elucidation or
what he conceives to be Christian truth, is entirely
destitute of the dogmatic egotism and declamatory
rant which offensively distinguish so many of our
modern " popular preachers."
Those persons who are capable of receiving reli-
gious impressions only through the mediums of
eccentric and presumptuous extravagaucies, start-
ling metaphors, and fanatical denunieations,
would probably rua to Appreciate the tone
and doctrine or this teacher ; but those whose
hearts and brains are susceptible of the prin-
ciples of sincere piety delivered by one, who,
however anxious he may be to enlighten his
fellow men, never forgets the reverence due to his
God, nor lightly jests with things mysterious and
divine—such hearts and brains must experience
rich, mental satisfaction and pure, spiritual eleva-
tion from the discourses of Mr. Ainslie. We are
induced, in conclusion, to give a short extract from
a sermon delivered by him at Christ Church on
Sunday, April 11th, on the subject---" A Rational
and Valid defence of Personal Religion," from the
text "Be ye always ready to give an answer to
every man that asketh you a reason for the hope
that is in you, with meekness and fear":—

"It is of groat ireportance that whatever, form of reli-
gion a man may profess, he should be able, not only to give
an account of it, but to defend it as the highest truth to
which ho has attained. . . A rational and valid defence
of our personal religion is required from every one of us.
We have a national religion, but that is not necessarily
personal. We have to do with the honest convictions of
the individual heart. The Apostle speaks of ' the hope
that is in you;' and who among us would be without hope ?
amiddeigtudiatyilyofduatiersatlivointhaloubteihnog_pe? Who
and
yet
clwVainshholawythoclaimhistoiltop the
resent life might have the termination
of the life of a brute ? That a fine mind, well disciplined,
highly educated, full of generous emotions, should have no
aspiration after a future life, and desire to be quenched in
death and eternal darkness,—this is not the moral nor the
mental state of him who has hope living in his heart, and
ruling him in all the scenes of existence. The Christian
has hope in his God as the creator of all things, the ruler
and upholder of all worlds, the author of all life, the foun-
tain of all intelligence and wisdom, the loving Father of
the whole human family. lie meditates upon realities,
and believes in and loves God. * * * * *

" Education and freethm will bring back Christianity to
what it was when Jesus, and James, and Paul taught it. It
is a reasonable service, and when the old ecclesiastical dogmas
aro neglected, and fanaticism and frenzy are laid (as they
used to lay the ghosts), reasonable men will look at it, ad-
mire, love, and obey it. Let us get rid of the additions and
corruptions which can be as accurately traced in ecclesias-
tical history as we can trace the hands upon the face of
a dial, and then men will listen to its claims, and be charmed
with its heavenly spirit, its saund philosophy, its practical
morals, and its divine hope of happiness and a future life."'

Such cheerful and strengthening inculcation as
this goes far to strike at the roots of the Upas
branches of Ignorance, Bigotry, and Intolerance.
We are glad to learn that Mr. Ainslie's congre-
gation is becoming as numerous as it is intelligent
--assign that Christianity, Truth, and Reason now
have only to be "taught ;" and those who " think"
will humbly and fervently acknowledge in that
teaching, the eternal and pure Trinity which can
alone unite the created with the Creator, and ren-
der Man fitted to properly serve the Incomprehen-
sible and Almighty Being, who " rideth on the
wings of the whirlwind," and " holdoth the waters
in the hollow of his hand."

Ihe C'onstable of the Tower. By W. Harrison

Ainsworth.

Another instalment of this brilliant historical
romance gives us, in the May number of Bentley's
Miscellany, the nine opening chapters of the Second
Book, entitled, " The Lord High Admiral of Eng-
land." In the vivid delineation of character and
in the intricate ravelling of the plot—the unravel-
ment of it has yet to be commenced—Mr. Ains-
worth shows the same facile rapidity as ever: as in
his " Windsor Castle," as in his " Tower of Lon-
don," as in so many other of his national, half
historic, half fictitious, wholly enthralling narra-
tives. Edward VI., in the May number of Bentley,
is depicted still as the student recluse in the Tower,
until the day comes for his riding forth to White-
hall, a noble pageant followed by a yet grander one
vii., the Coronation of the Boy King in the gorgeous
old Abbey at Westminster. Here it is that the
romancist, drawing aside the curtain of the past,
affords us a glimpse into the glorious edifice as it
looked when King Edward VI. entered it to be
crowneo.
The trumpet-blasts and the tremendous cheering had
apprised those within the abbey that the king was at hand,
awl all were on the tiptce of expectation; but before de-
scribing the entrance of the procession, let us cast a hasty
glance around the magnificent building. Magnificent, in
soeth, it looked on this occasion. A spectacle of extracr.
dinary splendour and beauty burst upon the beholder as he
passed through the great doorway and looked towards the
choirs With the exception of the railed and carpeted space
in the centre of the pavement, the whole body of the pile
was thronged with spectators clad in the variegated and
picturesque costumes of the period. Robes, cloaks, and
cloliblets there were Of cloth, silk, ulyet, and 013,cr itAfts,