counteract so great an evil is a careful and fundamental instruction in the truths of the Gospel. They have from their hearts prayed to the Lord of the harvest, that he himself may grant this means of salvation, by awakening the zeal of those to whom the care of souls is committed, in those parts of France; or that he would raise up labourers, mighty in work and word, to dispel the darkness of spiritual ignorance. After having implored the aid of the Chief Shepherd of the church, we have requested some respectable prelates, who lament the prevailing corruptions, that if they judged the measure right, they would unite with us to advance the instruction of parishes by the circulation of pious books, but especially of the Holy Scriptures, the rule of faith for all Christians. We have signified our cordial willingness to contribute to multiplied impressions of the holy volume, that copies may be had at a cheap rate; as soon as it shall be satisfactorily determined what translation should be employed for this purpose. Our proposals have been accepted; and we have taken great pains in the revision of the version here offered to the public. The word of God, thus distributed to both the poor and the rich throughout all France, will now proceed in its glorious course, as the apostle prays (2 Thess. iii. 1, that the word of God may run and be glorified :) and this course will not only be resplendently glorious for the Divine Word itself, but also for the Gallican Church, which will thus obtain the distinction above other churches of understanding better than they how to sow the seed of the Gospel on those dry and barren soils where its very name had been scarcely known. Is it not very surprising, that so many persons have vied with each other in exalted recommendations of the sacred books, and yet have never thought of finding out means, by their own and other persons' efforts, of accomplishing the universal diffusion of the Scriptures ? Is not this, to make fine orations in praise of the wheaten loaf, to a company of poor hungry men; and yet give them none of it? We should, therefore, put forth our utmost diligence in concerting plans, yea in devising new ways to provide the poor, who have it not, with the bread of life: for to them it especially belongs, as Christ says, He hath sent me to preach the Gospel to the poor. We believe that we need no apology for enlarging in commendation of the Word of God. Who can commend and praise it enough? It is with it as with God himself to exalt HIM after the manner of men, is to lower him. God only can worthily speak of himself. The best praise that we can give to the Holy Scriptures, is to show by the most faithful obedience that we do indeed honour them. The most eloquent praises of men will not produce such a sense of the excellency of the Bible, as the reading a portion of it with a teachable and humble mind. It is with it as with honey, to which indeed the Holy Spirit compares it; a little drop on the tongue gives a better idea of its sweetness than ever so long a declamation about it.'

Then follows an Approbation by the Bishop of Auxerre, concluding thus:

"One of our principal solicitudes is to nourish the people intrusted to our care with the Word of God; for it is the bread of life for consolation and instruction. We pray the Father of lights, that he would be pleased to spread these Holy Scriptures throughout our parishes; that their inhabitants, by the light of this divine torch and the help of divine grace, may be brought to that heavenly home where the truth is seen with unveiled face, and is to all eternity enjoyed and loved. Given at Paris, this 9th of September, 1718.

The Bishop of Rhodez gives the following excellent Approbation :

"The church, ever careful for the spiritual wants of her children, hath never ceased to give into their hands the Holy Scriptures, particularly the New Testament. [Oh that this were so!-Hengstenberg.] Therein, as St. Augustine says, she has found a body of doctrine which is perfectly suited to the instruction and nourishment of souls; and which is so admirably adapted to the capacity of every person, that there is no one who may not derive therefrom sufficient instruction, if he reads this Divine Word with that faith and piety which true religion requires ; for, as that Father also says, in its plain and clear passages, it is like a familiar friend who, without parade or round-about phrases, speaks at once to the heart of both learned and unlearned; and when it couches a sublime truth under the language of sacred mystery, it uses no proud pomp of speech to deter the humble and simple from nearer approach. Hence the Holy Scripture has been so extensively translated into the common tongues of the nations, that unlearned believers might have ready access thereto. We cannot too much, or too earnestly, exhort those whom providence has placed under our pastoral care to the reading of the Scriptures; and thathose who desire to be fed with this hidden manna, may the more readily obtain it we earnestly desire that this Translation may be many times re

printed, and be most widely circulated in our diocese. Paris, 20th November, 1718."

Then follows an Approbation by H. Piessonnat, Doctor of the Sorbonne, Professor Univ. Par. &c. in which he zealously adduces passages from the Fathers to show their great anxiety to make the people of their churches well acquainted with the Holy Scripture.

A second edition of the translation adopted by this Society appeared in 1728, and a third in 1731. In the preface to the last, it is said that the principal contributors were not the rich, but the poor, yet that some rich persons had not merely contributed to the common expense, but had gratuitously distributed a great number of copies. The saying of the ancient French king Robert is introduced, that he would rather lose his throne than his Bible. Finally, the following Prayer before reading the Holy Book is recommended to be devoutly used; which is substantially the same as that lately quoted in our pages from Archbishop Trench's pocket Bible.

"Come, Holy Spirit; prepare my soul, that I may receive the Word of God with teachableness and deep humility. Purify my heart by sincere repentance and that living faith which worketh by love; and grant that, being filled with the saving knowledge of the truth and of thy holy will, I may with all diligence endeavour to practise the same through Jesus Christ our Lord.

"Lord, give me understanding to know, memory to retain, and the will to love and put in practice, the wondrous things of thy law !"

Other editions were printed in 1732 and 1735, with prefaces chiefly occupied in answering objections. About the year 1750, all traces of the operations of the Society vanish. Hengstenberg adds: "In these transactions, we have a proof that the influence of vital Christianity is every where the same."

PASSAGE ON TRADITION IN THE HOMILIES ILLUSTRATED FROM ARCHBISHOP SANDYS.

For the Christian Observer.

OFFENCE has been taken by some at the following passage in the second paragraph of the first of the Homilies: "Let us diligently search for the well of life in the books of the New and Old Testament, and not run to the stinking puddle of men's traditions." The epithet applied to puddle, is not pleasing to a modern ear; but there was no coarseness in it when it was written; and it has the advantage of being expressive and unmistakable. The contrast is between a well and a puddle; and the idea is illustrated by the following parallel passage in the twelfth sermon of Archbishop Sandys, (page 223, Parker Edition), "They want judgment that forsake the fresh living springs, and drink of a puddle; that contemn the saving word of God, and be altogether addicted to man's vain and deceitful doctrine; that forsake Christ's merits by sticking to their own." We cannot be too thankful for this blessed admonition in our admirable Homilies. Truly, as Article 35 says, "It is necessary for these times."

ON THE CLASSICAL PRONUNCIATION OF NEW TESTAMENT

NAMES.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

YOUR Correspondent "Suburbanus," in your February Number, in remarking on the faulty pronunciation of the proper names in Rom. xvi.,

omitted one instance, which I fear is more common and more serious than either of those mentioned. Urbane, the name of a man, is often read with three syllables, as if the name of a woman. I think the authorised printers are to blame for needlessly retaining the e according to the old spelling.

RUSTICUS.

*Our Correspondent mistakes in saying that the old spelling was Urbane. The first copy at hand in which we find Urbane is the authorised version of 1611, (Oxford Fac-simile reprint, 1833). We find Urban in Wickliff, 1380; Tyndale, 1534; and Cranmer's Bible, 1539. In the Geneva Testament, 1557, it is Urbanus; and in the Rhemish, 1592, the same, but with an accent on the penult. In the Rhemish Testament several other words in this chapter are accented-and some mis-accented; at least if Bagster's re-print of 1841 be correct; as we doubt not it is. (The only other Rhemish copy we have within reach while writing, is the edition of 1823, which has no accents.) Aristobulus and Andronicus are both mis-accented on the antepenult. There is another proper name in the same chapter, Nereus, which is sometimes mispronounced, being read as two syllables, instead of three, with the middle e short.

DR. FORDYCE, AND LINDSAY AND LINDSEY.
To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

IT was not Theophilus Lindsey (who, in 1773, resigned the vicarage of Catterick, and died in 1808,) who preached the funeral sermon of Dr. Fordyce in 1796; but it was a Scots Presbyterian, (as Fordyce was,) James Lindsay, who had been, I think, the colleague for a few years, and about 1782 (?) the successor, of Fordyce. He was NOT a Socinian, though it appeared but too plainly that he, as well as Fordyce, associated in a more than denominational way with the English Arian and Unitarian Presbyterians. All the Scotch did so, denominationally. Not long before Dr. Lindsay's death, he protested to a friend of mine his abnegation of the religious sentiments of those with whom he was thus statistically united. He was a man of fine talent and noble mind; I suppose that both he and Dr. Fordyce were included in the ranks of the Church of Scotland, and were technically considered as subject to the Presbytery of Edinburgh. No doubt they were of the Moderates, such as Robertson and Blair; the antagonists of Witherspoon, Robert Walker, Dr. John Erskine, &c., who were called the Wild party.

Dr. Lindsay was at a meeting of ministers in the Red Cross-street Library, upon Brougham's Education Bill. In universal education he took a most lively interest. I think he had spoken. He sat down, and died in a moment: Feb. 14, 1821.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

S.

IN mentioning Robert Hall's anecdote, quoted by Foster, of the minister who wrote "Cry here" in the margin of his sermons, you say "We have a reminiscence of having heard something of the sort of Dr. Fordyce; whose pretty, imaginative, sentimental discourses were deemed by thousands of polite gentlemen,-and we dare not say by how many ladies, the model of all that was elegant, beautiful, and touching."

Dr. Fordyce died in 1796; and many of your older readers must remember the testimonies, not obliterated in their youthful days, to his extraordinary powers of convincing and persuading, and will not be prepared to hear at this late era that he was guilty of such trickery as you seem to ascribe to him. His "Addresses to the Deity," and still more his "Sermons to Young Women,"—the last of which works ran through nearly twenty editions-were very generally admired and approved as the genuine effusions of a clear head, a tender heart, and an eloquent imagination.

SENESCENS.

*We have no great reverence for the memory of Dr. Fordyce as a theologian or a Christian pastor,—and it was in those respects that we were speaking of him-but we would not willingly do injustice to his memory. What we said was, we had "a reminiscence of having heard something of the sort" of him ;-not that he wrote the identical words "Cry here" in his margins; which we should doubt whether any man was so silly as to do; and possibly Robert Hall gave the story-to whomsoever it referred-after this burlesque manner, rather as an illustration thau a literal transcript. But be this as it may, we had a reminiscence of having heard that Fordyce used to dot his sermons with oratorical notices for their effective delivery; and on considering the compositions themselves, his style of delivering them, and the maxims in his "Eloquence of the Pulpit, an Ordination Sermon ;" and his "Essay on the Action proper for the Pulpit ;" there is no improbability in the supposition. A few notes respecting a man so celebrated in his day, may not be uninteresting, or destitute of a moral.

Dr. James Fordyce was born in Aberdeen in 1720. He became a minister of the Church of Scotland; and attracted much attention by a sermon preached in 1760 before the General Assembly, on "The folly, infamy, and misery of unlawful pleasures." The delivery of this discourse, says Alexander Chalmers, "entitled him to rank among the most popular orators of his country; and the discourse struck also with all the force of novelty, for nothing of that kind had hitherto been heard from the pulpits of Scotland." We never saw this particular sermon; but the very title, "folly, infamy, and misery,”—not ungodliness, sinfulness, and the eternal ruin of the soul,-shews that he had already advanced far in casting off the doctrines of his church, and substituting for them a mere Arianised moralism.

He was afterwards invited to Monkwell Street Chapel; first as co-pastor with Dr. Lawrence, and subsequently as pastor. Monkwell Street was as much" Unitarian," though not so in name, as Essex Street. Here he attained great celebrity as an orator. Chalmers says:—

"He acquired a higher degree of popularity than probably ever was, or will be, attained by the same means. It was the strong force of his eloquence which drew men of all ranks and all persuasions to hear him. His action and elocution were original and peculiarly striking, and not a little assisted by his figure, which was tall beyond the common standard, and by a set of features which in preaching displayed great variety of expression and animation. . . . . His meeting was attended by men curious in eloquence; and David Garrick spoke of his skill in oratory with great approbation. With respect to his theological sentiments, he appears to have possessed that general liberality which is civil to all systems, without being attached to any. As to the matter, morality appears to have been his chief object; and as to the manner, he evidently studied a polish and a spirit which has seldom been met with in English pulpits. His manners were peculiarly elegant and courtly. .... He was perhaps the first of sentimental preachers; but we question whether that pre-eminence be enviable. He drew largely on his imagination; and by striking allusions and graceful turns of expression produced all that eloquence can produce when it is not addressed to the judgment, namely, a temporary persuasion.

But he made no addition to our stock of theological knowledge: and although he appealed in a general way to the fundamental doctrines of the Christian belief, he illustrated none of its doctrines."

66

We demur to the statement that he appealed, even in a general way," to "the fundamental doctrines of the Christian belief." The old-endowed Presbyterian churches in England had for the most part sunk into Arianism; and Dr. Fordyce did not practically rise higher, if so high;-he was practically a Nothingarian. His most popular work, "Sermons to Young Women," was a series of sentimental declamations; in which he entreated such sweet, lovely, dimpled creatures, "to walk in the ways of virtue;" his very reproofs were pretty panegyrics; and we doubt not he heard many a "Fye, fye, Doctor, you ought not to be so severe upon us;" as he also received showers of flattering encomiums for having induced so many of his "fair friends"—this is his own pulpit style-to be as good as they were beautiful;—that is, not to be so superaboundingly vain and frivolous as some he feared were; but to cultivate modest graces, and to beware of the fascinating words of the thoughtless young men whom they met with at ball-rooms. He could not-far be from him any such harsh thought-banish novels and theatres;-but he urged moderation in the indulgence of a taste for them; and the cultivation of domestic graces. Some of his declamations are injudicious, to say the least, as pourtraying gross vice, instead of avoiding the contamination of mentioning it; and the young ladies to whom he addressed himself must have been much below the present standard of female character in England in the wellconditioned circles of life, if these exhortations were necessary. Of religion, in the sense of the standards of his own church, he seems to have had no notion; —or rather he rejected it as rigid and puritanical; and at war with the sweet instinctive impulses, and innate love of the good and the beautiful, which characterise our nature. Of the doctrine of the Fall of man he makes as little use as of the doctrine of the Atonement.

His "Addresses to the Deity" and his "Sermons to Young Women," being within reach while we write, we will give a specimen of their style;but we speak rather of their general complexion than of particular passages. Of the "Addresses to the Deity," the opening sentence will suffice as a specimen :

"From this temple, seated on a lofty cliff, and open on every side to behold the beauty and grandeur of Thy works, Almighty Maker, from this terrestrial temple, permit an humble, but delighted, worshipper, &c. &c. Vouchsafe to receive his address, proceeding from no hypocritical lips, but from a deep and reverential conviction of thy august presence, thou all-pervading Deity."

And thus he goes on declaiming to the Almighty throughout the volume. He has a habit in his sermons of introducing the name of God as an exclamation; as "Great God," "Gracious God," and the like.

But we turn to the "Sermons to Young Women;" and it will be instructive to shew what was considered, by a large portion of the educated classes of society in the reign of George the Third, appropriate, edifying, and impressive preaching; the perfection of pulpit eloquence, and the beauty of holiness. Love and marriage, and the attractions by which both are to be secured, are among the chief subjects which the preacher urges upon his “fair hearers,” (his usual compellation) and the love of praise is made a leading motive of action. In the first sermon we read much to the following effect. Having spoken of flowers and jewels; and the skill “to mould into form and heighten into splendour,” he says: