New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-02-08
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
so,sr ppcENr SERMONS.

HARPER Bros limo. $50 pp
sERMoYs OF THE CITY, y nnsH 19Sc rSss AIT Dr. D. D.
arpM0Ns 70 STUDENTS AND THOUGHTFUL PER
Sons by LLEwELLyN ID. BEvAS, J.. L. b. ID. "
Eew.York: Charles scrihner's sons. l2mo'' Zoo Pr
Tbose who assert that the sermon Is losing its hoid
unon the people, may be rightly asked to account
for the fact that so many of the representative
preachers of this and other cities have been putting
themselves into print IN the last five years; that
tbev have been publishinp. too not their occasional
special eftorts-their Than ksgiving or missionary
sermons-but their staple pulpit Work.
IL VIC have in this modern sermon literature hints
of the way IN which preaching affects society," We
have likewise hints of the way in when society
reacts 10 shane its preachers Bacons remark, that
the master of superstition is the people,, may DC
stretched to cover better things than supersttio'
The pulpit may be the instructor but 1t caunot he'p
being Also in some sense, the interpreter Oh tne
people The preacher reflects as we'll as develops
the sentiment of his congregation 80 that volume
of sermons from pastor NAV afford us a look lh'o
the pews Us we'll as into the pulpit.
Little comment is needed upo n the work Oh frea-
erick William Robertson extensively - lie KnoWh
to both professional and other readers Ills serons
had reached their ninth edition in the United States
when Stopford Brooke published his biography III
1865, twelve years after his death: aud up to the
same date in England. eleven editions OF the nrst
volume had been published, nine of the second. ana
eight of the third. The volume before us furnishes
nothing to modify or lower the accepted estimate
There is tho same yigor and freshness OF thouSnt,
the same spiritual insight, the same Diendiog q.
strength end tenderness, and the same iucla.S Vi
STYLE He cuts into text at q different angie lrom
other nreachers: he Is eninently unconventional
PREACHER: vet his sermons are marked by no wrest-
ing OF forcing of texts. He is strong enough to
he natural too strong. too earnest, and Win 100
much faith in the power of the truth to STRAIN alter
effect Yet these sermons, even when WORKED out III
fu ~ few of them are forfeit their highest power
in the absence of the preacher. They are sermons
for delivery; and rich as they are in thought and
stirring in STYLE something is gone from them at
watch we can only guess. The spell upon his
audiences was wrought by the man, possessed by his
theme, charging the truth with bis personal mag
netism, and making his brave, true affectionate
nature for the time the property OF his hearers
thinker by constitution, a scholar by taste and
training; no speculative problem. no literary scns-
business ever withdrew him from men, ana from
helpful contact with the strange and sad problems
continually raised by their sin and sorrow. And at
this point we find a common element IN these SER
mon. and in the /" Sermons of the CITY," by the ac-
complished rector of Grace Church. Dr. Potter
does not move ON as high an intellectual plane. lie
does not like Robertson. throw flashes into unsls-
pacted depths of text; yet the sermons OF both
reveal their common feeling for the sin and agony
of men, and their Common endeavor to mpart that
feeling to the Church. Take, for instance, two pas
cages the first from RobertsOn's sermon on 1.-The
Human Race Tvpiiied by the Man of SORROWS"
"Christ's first acquaintance with sorrow was by
sympathy. When we nave thrilled over the
anguish that we see, there is q sense IN which we
are acquainted with grief. And in this knowledge
brethren, our Redecmers heart was rich. "ewlll
take but two cases which beOng to our resent pnr-
posc-the of poverty, and the case q corporea
maladies. IL was q most Distinguishing feature OF
the life of Jesus the compassion which lie felt Tor
the degraded. neglected, unbefriended poor 1t was
not, except by invitation in the rich mans house
that Christ was found; it not for his ears that
His instructions were framed. 1t was His pas
sion to teach those who were forgotten by
the national instructors There was burn
ing almost passionate. Indignation in His language
whenever it camo in His way to rebuke their OBJ
pcessors, who shut up knowledge from them and
would have kept thcm uneducated. who 0vcrreached
them I'm bible phraseology. "devouri1g WIDOWS
bousesnj who lived in purple and fine linen. While
Lazarus lay forgotten at their very threshold
Political economy has spoken its fine lessons or
philanthrophic humanity Demagogies have courted
the popular voice by loud harangues against
,ncpt las taken poverty under its patronage, and
adorned the cottage in touching stori;s win mag
mary graces and purlties that are never found
there But 10 man ever stood up the poor mans
cbampion but Christ aud those whO like Christ,
have lived with the poor and for them. Read the
ninth chapter of st. Matthew. 1t il filled With
tales of human suffering and human ignorance AT
last there comes before the Redeenler vast crowd
of these poor and ignorant ones When He saw the
multitude lie was moved with compassion on them
because they tainted and were scattered abroad as
sheep having no shepherd That was not the glow
of q demagOgue's indignation AGAINST the rch
venting Itself iu cheap words. 1t was not the
s;cklv sigh of a nove-reader repining that this
world is full OF woe. 1t was the loving tenderness
of the Son of Man. identifying himself with the
DOOR, and III deep cmOtlon pecohIins acquainted
with their sOrrOws"
In a similar strain speaks DR.. Potter in the sermon
OH 1.-THE Homes OF the Poor -" We may take the
n,nis,rv of Christ suppose. as at once prophecy
and pattern of what the work and ministry of the
church should be to-day. But Christ did not merely
ueach the Sc, mon Oh the Mount and die on the
Gross There was disease 50 loathsome hat lie
did not put forth Hi hand and touch It, There was
no home that lie went into whether II was the
home of that Pharsce whose dirty inhOspltallty lie
gently rebuked for giving Him no water where
with to wash His feet or the home of Simons wfes
another which ne did not leave until lie had ex-
pelled the fever which poisoned it and her there
was no home, say, which Christ entered, SO far as
we have any account of His ministry which lie
did not leave, both physically and morally
sweeter aud decenter and purer because He had
entered it. Aud what He did to the lame
and the blind and the halt and the
lep.r and the impure and the morally
vile, suppose that you and ]. who profess to be,
in one sense or another HIS baptized disciples may
wisely be concerned about dong also. For
what Is. or ought to be. tho burden of her (the
Churchs messagef Is it not that God is the Father
cf all His Children and that. in Christ humanity