The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-02-24 00:00:00

LITERARY NOTICES

Portion of Jezreel ; a Sacred Drama. By the Rev

Bradley. London : Painter

sacred

strong objections to what are called
d whatever poetical merit this production may
`;naPtion of the author, it hash ot sufficient
:r Scriptural propriety. would serve
to discuss those objections in detail, but we may
at a sacred drama involves a contradicti
others
on in
Mr. Bradley, like diet
on
.ae same path, is liable to the charge of
-, no less than a literal, absurdity. What is a
drama the meaning of the Greek word is, a poem accom-
:tion. A drama, therefore, is a poem in which
aat
ct is not related but represented; and in " The
Portion of Jezreel" Mr. Bradley has observed, as far as he
could, all the rules necessary to make the representation
. Narrative there is none : it is sacrificed to
probable
considerations. The work, then, beidg essentially
dramatic
dramatic, can it be at the same
time sacred—that is, Scrip-
tural or spiritual? St. Paul shall answer this question-
- -- by inspiration of God, and is pro-

.suade us of the

bat ground

modate'

the actin

' All Scripture is given ii..
fitable for doctrine, for reproo
f, for correction, for instruc-
hteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
Lion in rig
thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Where is the
authority that it shall profit by representation? Nowhere ;
and not only so, but the whole of the sacred word is narra-
tive, not representative. Mr. Bradley, in the one case,
besides being reduced ad absurdam, has, in the other (though
we admit be may plead example), either overlooked or mis-
understood the practical character of the Eternal Volume.
In either view, the dramatization of any part of it, though
for the closet only, is exceedingly unworthy.

Concerning the work as a poem, little need be said. It is
ere are scattered passages of con-
siderable energy, but tameness and languor are its pre-
vailing characteristics.
---

unequally written

Church Clavering : or the Schoolmaster. By the Rev. W
Gresley, M.A., Prebendary of Lichfield. Burns, London

We certainly were never enamoured with Mr. Gresley's
writings, and the perusal of the work before us has not tended
to exalt our opinion of him as an author. His object is to
direct attention to the momentous subject of education,
especially its true principles—not as he implies in the pre-
e_the details, but to aid as best he may in dis-
- - And what is alleged by Mr.

sting sou

sding design—the main object—of educa-

nd PrinclP 'es

n his own words

u uv .--
Armt pritiCipie; we will give it

„Jain object of education to bring uut the good
natur and repress the evil, so tat the ways of godliness
it preferred and pursued, and at length become ha-
and again, ” the evil nature is to be kept down, the
' But is this so? Box
d and how much more scripturaily, did 'Air. Glad-
!' the object of instruction in his inaugural address
iate Institution in this town
a .4ening of the Colleg
Thus spoke that right 3

iod drawn out and established

leakarl

on. gen

..-iltbough it be important to supply every man with the
cans of the honourable and successful pursuit of his earthly
calling, yet there is something which is far more important
still ; the great purpose of education, the first and paramount
purpose of education, is not so much to supply a man with
'-o tools and instruments whereby he may fashion all things
pleasure, but it is to fashion and to mould man himself.
,trit cheering.) It is so to act upon and form his mind ;
-levelop his facuities thatit is so to cherish, the im-
-lof life eternal, he may be conscious of
',5 condition, and that he may not bound his
~.porary and perishing objects ; but that. recog-
at which was the state of his first parents before
likewise recognise the great and the ab-
. to recover that state is the great end of
earth. (Loud and tremendous cheering.)
so But,
mon with God was the law of his original nature, re-
on with God is the great purpose for
which be is now
which not the Christian religion
aced upon earth ; and to
ne, but, likewise the whole his social position,
experience of life, all that
'3113 him in it, his domestic position,
'tever is his, whatever is around him, it is one great dis-
ne, devised by a divine wisdom for the purpose of con-
ting to the accomplishment of that great work, the rer.o-
-3 of the nature of God in a race that was fallen away."

e may

g upon

dined to speak modestly whilst arguing with a

. _
his statements are so

our beloved church, but
IPposed to our convictions of truth, as con-

d in the scriptures, that we cannot but protest against
Does the Bible. in any part of it, sanction the idea of
drawn out

" to be

that every imagina-
to a note in the mar-
.

such—having any " good nature
• SA 1

What says it, wt

imagination, according,
a ; the Hebrew word signifieth not only the jum
of
p-
.l, but also the purposes and desires) of the thoughts
heart is only evil continually. " What does our Saviour
say, proceeds from the heart or" nature" of man—any
thi

Lion (the whole

i , verily, but the blackest sins which disgrace man-
, in connection with the motives and desires which lead
nen to commit them ; and when the same meek and gracious
Being enumerates the lovely features of Christian character,

e notion that they are " drawn out" from

n variably

Surely not—he.

" good nature" of man ?
bes them to supernatural agency, and denoMinates them
fruits of the spirit. Away, then, with the unscriptural
" St. Paul,

notion of " establishing the good nature of man.
as if in direct allusion to the heresy we complain of, exclaims,
after he had been baptized and was regenerate, " I know
that in me, that is in my flesh (or nature) dsvelleth no good
principlesWe might say much with reference to some other
princip laid down by Mr. Gresley, but forbear.
Now. in what does Mr. Gresley place reliance as the in-
strument for the mora
The grand instrument for the forniation

speak for himself.

of man's habits is the prayer-book. Whilst the Bible con-
tains the glad tidings of salvation, and is the standard of re-
ference for all religious truth, the Prayer-book is the practi-
cal instrument, by the use of which religious truth is con-
cal
in due measure to each soul." We will not clothe
our scntiments in language suited to the indignation we felt
on first pe

j rasing this passage, but we are sorry, very sorry,
,ee a minister of the Church of England circulating such
rifest error. The Bible e
t wel
orls d
of GOD ;" us that " fathat that ith comeword
s by
rinz, and hearing by h

id that we are to

) make us wise unto salvation

em we have eternal life

so unduly to exalt the Prayer-