The reader is requested to correct the following errata in Art. VI. of No. XXXIII. :— Page 139, line 16, for proposed read professed. 145, line 22, for existences read intelligences. 145, line 29, for a read the. 146, line 10, for inquirers read inquiries. 146, line 22, for now read never. 147, line 29, for person read wisdom. 148, line 13, for belos read belas. 148, line 20, for Alphorisms read Aphorisms. 149, line 4, for of read at. 149, lines 9-19, insert inverted commas. 153, line 2, for or read as. 153 note, line 2, for representation read representative. 154, line 2, for fresh read deep. 157 note, line 2, for para read pura. 157 note, line 10, for thus read this. 157 note, line 11, for representation read representative. 160, line 14, for often read after. 160, line 36, for his read this. 160, line 36, for views read view. THE PROSPECTIVE REVIEW. No. XXXV. ART. I.—PARKER'S SERMONS OF RELIGION. Ten Sermons of Religion. By Theodore Parker. London: J. Chapman. 1853. In this volume Theodore Parker returns to his first love, to the contemplations for which by his nature he is so eminently qualified, the contemplations of real Religion,— and he renews the gifts by which he first made his name known, and won the admiration and gratitude of so many hearts. Latterly he has been engaged in other tasks, tasks not of peace but of war. His eye has been drawn away from the tranquil heavens to some of the ugliest aspects of this world, and if whilst engaged in his great strife for his brother he has glanced upwards to his God it has been in protest, in menace, in appeal from shortlived oppression to eternal judgment. The whole currents of a nature fitted for thought, and meditation, and prophetic utterance, have been violently arrested, and turned against the horrid indignities to man and God that were meeting him in his daily walks. This is a fierce trial for any nature; to take it from its affinities and commit it to its antagonisms; to withdraw it from the loving pursuit of Good, and place it face to face in deadly contest with Evil. For though these make the two complements of holy power, there are but few whose sweetness will not sour in the shock of a conflict which they feel to be so unnatural, whose strength in God will not turn to violence, CHRISTIAN TEACHER.-No. 61. Y when it has to deal with what it cannot otherwise regard than as the monstrous iniquity of man. Rare and to be reverenced beyond all other power is the power to turn from what we love to what we hate without disturbing the balance of our spirit, so that it can serve God in conflict and in protest without bringing the turbid elements to the surface. Let no one who has not engaged in strife with some great iniquity, an iniquity that is popular, an iniquity that mounts upon the shoulders of the law, and makes public opinion its beast of burden-an iniquity that will not admit itself to be iniquity, but is bold, arrogant, shameless, insolent,-too rashly conclude that his equanimity, his might of gentleness, his severe power of love, would mix its elements with no baser matter, utter no harsh cry, and strike no angry blow in such a fight. That Mr. Parker has passed perfect through this ordeal we cannot say. We cannot say that no fierceness has mingled with his love, that his countenance has been as beautiful, as doubtless it might have been, in stern conflict as in prayerful thought, that there has been no rancour to open enemies, no injustice towards any whose too cold words falling upon his heat he has hissed off in scorn, like so much damp from red-hot steel. Towards one eminent man we cannot clear him of injustice. We will not name him here, because we love him too much to bring his name into connection with scoff and scorn. In the view that he has taken of the Fugitive Slave Act we do not agree, but that any proceeding of his, or absence of proceeding, any speech or silence, has been determined by selfishness, or cowardice, or inhumanity, we shall not believe. Even if we had to believe him guilty of the unnatural words which again and again he has denied, we could not but mourn to find Mr. Parker engaged in such bitter persecution, stabbing at a reputation with 'such determined purpose. The jeer, the insult, the scornful allusion, the calling of names, the imputation of base sordidness, the sudden descent from the flights of earnest eloquence to a personal animosity that actually plays with its contempt, these are not worthy of Mr. Parker's noble cause and nobler nature. To love God with a pure heart is comparatively easy. To fight His battles without our love curdling into hatred and injustice towards those we deem His foes or faithless friends requires the highest greatness. Mr. Parker should remember that it is not only in the nature of some men, but that it is their mission, the very part that God has given them to perform, to hold back when other men advance too far, to speak words of caution because other men have spoken words of violence, nay to sacrifice the delight they would have had in giving the rein to their impulses, because others have already indulged in them up to the limits of safety. Gladly should we see atonement and reconciliation made, and this one stain wiped off, with confession, from so high an advocacy, this one angry spot, this one flush of the carnal man, removed from the spiritual clearness of the prophet's brow. From heats and strifes of this kind Mr. Parker has now and again looked upwards to the eternal heights, and in this volume he tells us what he has seen and heard upon the Mount. Not that his gaze has been always steady. Even in looking up to God some hated form of human wrong, that has recently crossed his path, flits again across his field of sight,—and whilst listening to catch the music of the spheres the neighbouring sound of human passions, to which he lends an ear, disturbs the silence. Of this he is not insensible himself, and pleads, in his rich poetic way, that " as a country girl makes her festal wreath of such blossoms as the fields offer at the time, of violets and wind-flowers in the spring, of roses and water-lilies in summer, and in autumn of the fringed gentian and the aster, so must it be with the sermons which a minister gathers up under serene or stormy skies." Accordingly the style of this volume has not the sustained and joyous course of the noble Discourse of Religion, though even there there is many a withering word flung with hearty aim, many a side glance, from heaven to earth, in scorn of all pretenders. Even when treating of the highest themes, striving to look direct into the nature of God, he cannot forget the dishonour that the world around is doing Him. He pauses in his highest career of divine thought to pounce upon some human felon or felony. The style therefore is broken, irritable, scornful, occasionally peevish. The calm flow of its orderly development is interrupted to drag some folly or wickedness of the times into the light of its |