The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-03-01 00:00:00

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Letters addressed to the Editor should be accompanied by the
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The Editor wishes it to be understood that he does not hold
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correspondents.

LETTERS ON FAMILIAR SUBJECTS.—No. II

LONG SERMONS.
To the EDITOR of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

SIR,-It will perhaps be deemed presumptuous for a layman
to comment upon a subject which may be considered the espe-
cial province of the Clergy; but, unfortunately for the exclu-
siveness of their position, the subject of sermons, both as to
-their length and quality, as being addressed to the laity, is one
which frequently forms the theme of conversation and free
criticism. This is a practice which I shall not attempt to
defend or to excuse, but content myself with asserting that, as
a true Churchman, holding the Clergy as a body in profound
respect, I shall treat the subject with becoming deference, pre-
mising at the same time that none of my remarks have the
slighte t reference to any particular individuals, but are in-
tended generally for whom they may apply.
Were I alone in my opinion as to the length to which a
sermon on ordinary occasions ought to extend, I should doubt
my own judgment, nor should I rashly take the opinion of in-
different worshippers, who may be biassed by their feelings,
and being anxious for the termination of the service in order
to hasten to some other pursuit, may incontinently deem the
merit of a discourse to consist in its brevity. I have, however,
read somewhere the opinion of a dignitary of the Church, that
a sermon should not commonly last more than a quarter of an
hour, and the most eloquent preacher should not exceed
twenty minutes. How often, on the other hand, do some of
our modern preachers occupy the best part of an hour, and
sometimes exceed it, and this not only by those who have the
rare gift of eloquence, and can make an attentive audience
think a long time to be short, but by others whose only skill
is in elaboration of expression, multiplying words without
knowledge, in a vain endeavour to exhaust the subject, when
they are merely repenting themselves with variations. To
take, however, the most favourable case. A congregation is
assembled for prayer and praise,—the best of all duties in which

man can be engaged,—and having gone through our beautifal
Liturgy, and become animated with the devotional feelings
which it cannot fail to inspire, where there is a spark of piety
or faith, the worshippers settle themselves down to listen to
the preacher, who ascends the pulpit, and, having selected
a short passage of Holy Scripture. proceeds to expound
its meaning and its practical application to the immortal
welfare of his hearers. In the space of half-an-hour he
may teach a lesson which ordinary capacities can ;with-
out difficulty remember ; and that this may be done
within this limit, is abundantly proved by the hundreds
of published sermons by our ablest divines, few of which will
occupy more than twenty minutes if read deliberately. A

manifest advantage has been gained,—the feelings inspired by
the preceding prayers have not been obliterated, a practical
lesson of piety has been received, and the worshipper retires
with his mind improved, and fresh with all he has heard,
because it has not been overcharged. Supposing, on the other
hand, that the preacher, full of the subject which he has atten-
tively and carefully studied, and with ample command of
language, with choice phrases and well-rounded periods,
detains his auditory for nearly an hour, or perhaps more, we
have but the choice of evils. Either he has wearied them with
his prolixity, and rendered the rememorance of his lessons by
ordinary minds almost a matter of impossibility, or if he has
retained their attention by the attractiveness of his style and
manner, he has diverted it altogether from the teaching to the
teacher. Their ears have listened to his accents and been
enchanted by his phrases, but their hearts are untouched, and
their minds, instead of being improved, are actually diverted
from that feeling of devotion with which they were previously
inspired. They listen to the preacher not as a messenger from
Heaven, with the glad tidings of pardon and peace for guilty
sinners, charged to warn the impenitent, to arouse the luke—
warm, to comfort the afflicted, and to encourage the faint-
hearted, but as they would listen to a well-graced actor, who
appeals to their sense of sound by his well-tuned modulations
of voice, and to their intellectual capacity by his appropriate
choice of language. Should he, however, possess none of
these attractive qualities, the evil is not lessened, for the
wakeful attention is substituted by listless weariness. In both
cases they result in a forgetfulness of the great object of
Divine worship, for which attendance at church is so manifest
a duty. Another evil also is, that persons are tempted to
become erratic in their church duties, and by irregular
attendance, in order to listen to favourite preachers, they vir-
tually destroy that unity of spirit and communion in worship
which is one of the great blessings in Christian England of our
parochial system.

I trust I have not exceeded the fair limit of legitimate dis-
cussion on a question which I approached with some trepida-
tion, though it is a not infrequent theme of conversation ; and
~.. _
EPHRA.

am, Sir, &c.,

-..-.41■••--

LIVERPOOL CLERKS

To the EDITOR of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

Sin,—The time is now drawing near when the position 'of
merchants' and brokers' clerks will differ materially from what
it has hitherto been. As one of that class, about to embark tor
Australia, I would venture to suggest to employers, in re-
ference to such as may remain at home, that in order to retain
the services of good and faithful servants, they should be remu-
nerated accordingly.
1 would suggest that a meeting be held by all the clerks in
this town, with the view of ascertaining more precisely what
their ultimate prospects are likely to be. As one instance out
of many, I may remark that between 40 and 50 per cent.
has been added to the salary of a friend of mine of ordinary
capacity, who has only been in his place three years,—thereby
showing that in some quarters the necessity of more ample
remuneration is understood. When we look to the number of
those gone last year, and those already gone this year, with
200 ships now loading, with high rates of passage, in the
Thames, Clyde, and Mersey, we must infer that very few
labourers will be left, and then masters will have to reform
their niggardly payments. In fact, clerkship is a species of
white slavery, and a "digger's" life, though attended with
great risk, is, after all, with due ease and caution, preferable
to being housed all day addling the brain with intricate calcu-
lations for barely such as will maintain himself, let alone his
wife and family.—l am, Sir, yours, &c.,
A REGULAR READER,
AND HOPE TO BE, IN AUSTRALIA.

PERJURY OF THE IRISH BRIGADE

To the EDITOR of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

Sr rn,—The last few days have afforded an additional proof of
the utter want of principle of some Irish Romanist members
of parliament. Notwithstanding the most solemn oath which
the ablest divines and lawyers could frame, Mr. Moore avd
Mr. Lucas have dared to speak of " religious equality" as the
only cure for Irish discontent and disaffection ; and, to prevent
any mistake of th it meaning, they declare that the spoliation
of the Church of Ireland is their object
Now,

Sir, the absurdity of such a proposal is only equalled
by its intolerable wickedness, as it would require not merely
that these Irish Papists should break their oath (as they have
already done, and shown to the world that no oath can bind
them), but also that the majorities of both houses of parlia-
ment should perjure themselves, and, more awful still, that
our Sovereign Lady the Queen should give the act the polemn
sanction of the royal assent.

Thank God, this is not very likely, for we may surely hope
that the spirit of Englishmen will be so roused by present
events as to put it for ever cut of the power of a number of
perjured Irish Papists to overthrew "our glorious constitution
in Church and State."

I have little doubt that abler heads than mine are anxiously

considering this subject, and, it appears certain, that it will
impart additional weight to the inquiry, with respect to May-
moth, of which Lord Winchelsea has given notice.

Must we, Englishmen, be taxed for the support of a false
religion, whose chief tenet, the sacrifices of the mass, I, and
every other lawful minister in England, are required by the
LAW OF 711 E LAND to declare to be blasphemous fables and
dangerous deceits?, Muet we be taxed for the education of
these "elasphemous fabulists and dangerous deceivers," who
are described as unable to pay for their own education, whilst
the man, whom the Bishop of Rome has sent to insult us, is
living like a prince ; whilst the Popish Archbishop at Dublin
occupies the best house in Dublin; and whilst magnificent
edifices, rivalling our cathedrals, are springing up all through
England? lam aware, Sir, of the warmth with which I write,
and I am also aware how unequal anything I can say is to do
justice to this subject ; I can only plead the enormity of the
insult and outrage offered to every Protestant in the United
Kingdom, from the Queen on her throne to the pauper in the
workhouse. I will not offer lengthy arguments or endless
quotations, but 1 will come to the point, for—