ness, [Cry here] but without whining, [Cry, but not whine]; and now he rises to a superior force and emphasis. In all the variations both of his voice and action, he shuns with the strictest care every appearance of art, and seems [art is to conceal art] manifestly to follow, throughout his whole performance, the present stream of sentiment and affection, flowing spontaneously [Cry naturally] from the occasion." "The powers of this engine are no less wonderful than various. He that is a master of it will take care to give every one of them its due operation. When he would express the mild and amiable feelings of devotion or humanity, his voice will dissolve into the most gentle, flowing, and insinuating sounds. When he would testify, or inspire, an indignation at vice, it will roughen into harsher and bolder tones. When he talks of the most venerable and stupendous objects of religion, or another world, he would compose it into a slow, majestic, solemn pronunciation. When he would warmly assert the interests of either, he will employ the most lively, pathetic, and invigorated accents. When he would describe, or promote, the meltings of repentance, or represent his grief for the follies and misery of mankind, he will melt into tender, plaintive, mournful measures." "Their studying to melt their sounds into a fine liquidity, or to swell them into an ample majesty, is of peculiar importance to their public performance." "A preacher's gestures are to accompany his words; never to come after them, seldom to precede them; though sometimes they may precede them, when the preacher [the hypocrite, in the Greek, if not in the English, acceptation] seems to be meditating intensely how to vent the strong and solemn swellings of his soul. In that case, a stretching out of the arm slowly, or laying it softly upon the bosom, before any of the words are uttered, will have an amazing effect to prepare the hearers for what is to follow, and to strike them with profound veneration." "The speaker should move always from the left to the right, but neither much nor quick; the hands should never be raised higher than the eyes, nor brought lower than the edge of the pulpit; the left hand should never be employed to express anything by itself; but only in concurrence with the right; the latter being the hand of power. [Note in the margin the proper hand, as thus, , or thus, .]" But enough. We do not know, and did not intimate, that Robert Hall referred to Dr. Fordyce; but his story reminded us of having heard that the eloquent Doctor used some oratorical dottings in his sermons, for pulpit use; and whether he did, or not, the above passages shew that he practised such trickery, even if he did not marginate it with a pen. In all that we have written, we have not uttered one syllable against the sober, manly, and we may add scriptural, employment of diligent study and exercíse to acquire clear, forcible, and impressive habits of delivery, without which the best compositions may fall lifeless to the ground. There is a grievous want of this in our Church; there is no suitable preparation for it at our colleges; even the lectures upon literature, composition, and eloquence, are valueless as respects "action"-delivery. But there is a wide difference between acquiring proper habits, which apply generally to a speaker's whole enunciation; and treating a sermon as a speech in a play which is to be studied line by line for oratorical effect, with languishings, and weepings, and starts, and suspenses, and outbursts, and bass tones, and tenor tones, and right-hand action, and left-hand action, all previously arranged "for performance." We have said that Dr. Fordyce usually avoids introducing any thing that is of a directly Christian tendency. We do not say that he never mentions the name of "the Saviour;" but when he does-which is rarely-it is in some such manner as the following. He is addressing the congregation in his Charge" on the ordination of Lindsay. "To conclude with my best advice to you: Love and honour your minister ....reverence your Creator, your Saviour, your Bible, and your conscience; remember all these require you to be good; that your minister was sent to call you to be good." Reverence your Saviour and your conscience; your Creator and your Bible! Reverence is either too large a word for conscience; or too small a word for Creator and Saviour; and what is meant by reverencing our Bible as we reverence our conscience? REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 1. English Episcopal Chapels in Scotland; with a Statement from a Committee of Managers and Members of St. Paul's, Aberdeen, of the Proceedings in the case of that Chapel. By the Rev. Sir WILLIAM DUNBAR, Bart. Aberdeen, 1845. 2. Historical Sketch of Episcopacy in Scotland, from 1688 to the present time. By the Rev. D. T. K. DRUMMOND, Minister of St. Thomas's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh. Edinburgh, 1845. 3. Episcopacy in Scotland. By the Rev. ALEXANDER EWING, of Forres. London, 1845. 4. Comparison of the Communion Offices of the Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal Church; by which it is proved that the Church of England rejects, and the Scottish Episcopal Church adopts, the complete language of Transubstantiation. London, 1844. 5. A Letter to the Right Rev. David Low, D.D., Bishop of Moray. By the Right Rev. W. DALY, D.D. Lord Bishop of Cashel. Dublin, 1845. 6. A Letter to the Lord Bishop of Cashel, in reply to his Lordship's Letter to Bishop Low. By the Rev. FRANCIS GARDEN, M.A. Junior Incumbent of St. Paul's Chapel. Edinburgh, 1845. 7. Letter to the Bishop of Cashel. By the Right Rev. C. H. TERROT, Bishop of Edinburgh. Edinburgh, 1845. 8. Holiness the true reforming Power of the Church; a Sermon preached before the Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese of Aberdeen in Synod assembled, August 7, 1844. By the Rev. P. CHEYNE, Minister of St. John's, Aberdeen. Aberdeen, 1844. 9. Remarks on Mr. Cheyne's Sermon. By the Rev. J. D. HULL, B.A. Episcopal Clergyman of Huntly, and Chaplain to her Grace the Duchess of Gordon. London, 1844. 10. A Reply to the Rev. P. Cheyne's Preface to the Second Edition of his Sermon. By the Rev. J. D. HULL. Aberdeen, 1845. 11. A Pastoral Letter to the Clergy of the Diocese of St. Andrew's. By the Right Rev. PATRICK TORRY, D.D. 1846. We are not inattentive to the aspect of affairs in the Scottish Episcopal Church; but we do not wish to super-saturate our readers with them. But the subject is of great importance South, as well as North, of the Tweed; on account of our national and ecclesiastical relationships; the latter having been much strengthened by the fraternal enactment which admits clergymen ordained by Scottish bishops to Anglican pulpits. There are at present three Episcopal Churches in Scotland. There is the Romanist Church; not, however, very extensive or popular; and which, in our present remarks, we need not particularly refer to. There is, secondly, the remnant of the indigenous Episcopal Church; which asserts that it is neither Romanist nor Protestant, and affects the designation of Catholic. There are, thirdly, offsets of the Church of England, which ever since the legislative roscription of the indigenous clergy, after the revolution of 1688, in consequence of their disloyalty and treasonable practices, has had ministers and congregations of the Anglican rite, legally and voluntarily established in that kingdom. The remnant of the indigenous church now asserts its claim to the whole territory of Scotland, and regards both Romanists and Anglicans as schismatical intruders upon its domains. The Romanists of course listen to no such arguments. They alone are Christ's holy Catholic Church; they acknowledge no other communion; and all without their pale are as heathen men and publicans. The churches of the Anglican rite proffer not such pretensions; but they urge that they have a valid right and longestablished standing in the country; that neither in intention, nor in fact, have they ever been schismatical; that they were never subject, nor were bound to be, to the Scottish indigenous Episcopal Church; that the latter is not a territorial church, but only a church of scattered congregations; that it has no rightful jurisdiction but over those whom it has formed into local communion; that the church of one nation, without any infringement of the principles by which the universal church of Christ is held together, may hold its own assemblies in another land, and ought to be peacefully allowed to do so, neither taking offence nor meaning to give it; and lastly, and specially, that the indigenous Church of Scotland imposes doc. trines or rites, or exacts terms of communion, which render it the duty of all Protestant Episcopalian communions to dissent from it; upon the self-same principles by This which it justifies its own dissent from the Church of Rome. is the turning point of the whole controversy. If Episcopalians in Scotland cannot in conscience receive the holy communion in the Scottish Episcopal Church, they must either belong to no church, or join one of the anti-episcopal bodies, or have an Episcopalian ministry according to their own doctrine and ritual. This last exhibits the condition of the Anglican churches in Scotland at the present time. The members of them, lay and clerical, say that they are not satisfied with their actual standing, especially if they are repudiated by the Church of England; which they do not consider themselves to be, though individual prelates of that Church regard their position as anomalous, not to say schismatical. They desire the full benefit of Episcopal superintendence; they esteem it a matter of very great importance that their children should be confirmed, and their ministers locally ordained; but if this cannot at present be, they consider themselves very much in the condition of a colony over which no bishop has been appointed; and they think it their duty to wait till it shall please God to vouchsafe to them the full privileges of their communion. If on the one side the Scottish Episcopal Church refuses to agree upon terms of communion to which they can conscientiously subscribe, and on the other they are rejected by the Bishops of England and Ireland, they hold that it will be right, and their duty, to seek an episcopacy of their own; and till it can be had, to remain in their present imperfect and painful position. The reply is, "Nonsense; absurdity! The Scotch Episcopal Church demands nothing unlawful: it is recognized by law, and also by the concurrence of many individual English prelates, as a true and apostolical church; though of course a fraternization cannot be effected with due ecclesiastical regularity, as the Church of England is deprived of her Houses of Convocation; but all Episcopalians in Scotland are bound to submit to its jurisdiction." This leaves the question just where it was, as respects those who still think the terms of communion unlawful; for conscience will not be phoh! phohed! It may be convinced; or it may be ridiculed, overborne, or crushed; but while unconvinced, and yet tender, it must testify. "I have no patience with these scrupulous clergymen and laymen in the North, who are rending the Church about something they fastidiously and foolishly object to in the Scottish Communion Office." There is the mistake; you ought to have patience with them; and the rather because their perplexities arise from their wishing to be what you wish to see them, sound Episcopalians; whereas they are locally situate where their conscience would be wounded by their uniting themselves to the indige nous Episcopacy; and you will not allow that any sister church can lawfully aid them. "Pshaw!"-Very well, Pshaw let it be; but no religious scruple was ever silenced by a Pshaw! You may distress or irritate men by calling them fanatics and scruple-mongers; but you only strengthen their prejudice, if it be one; you make no way in their convictions; and if your cause is not manifestly just, and temper. ately prosecuted, you enlist the sympathies of mankind in their favour. "The Bishop of Aberdeen did quite right to excommunicate Sir William Dunbar; there cannot be two Episcopal Churches in one country; and if Englishmen resident in Scotland, or Scotchmen themselves, do not like the church which they find there, they had better remove, and not make a CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 100 schism." What is the church which they find there? Is it the Established Church; the Presbyterian? "No, assuredly not; they ought to be Episcopalians." In a Romanist country, then, ought they to conform to Popery? "That is not the point: men ought to come out from Popery; but there is no reason for not submitting to the Scottish Bishops." Here recurs the question, "Is there any reason?" The ministers and laity of the Anglican churches in Scotland complain that no answer has been returned to this inquiry by those of their Southern brethren who tell them that it is their duty to submit to the native Scottish Episcopal jurisdiction. They ask, Will you listen to our difficulties? The reply is, "No; go and obey." Thus stands the matter at present. "Do I approve, do you say, of the manner in which some of the Scotch Bishops have pushed matters? Not at all; I think they have exhibited a want of good judgment; they have learned nothing and forgotten nothing; they cling to the bigotry of their nonjuring predecessors;-I mean some of them, not all;-the excommunication of Sir W. Dunbar was indiscreet; at least the style in which the document was drawn up: true, he deserved it; but men in authority should consider the temper of the times-and their own tempers too; but the jurisdiction of the Church must be supported. You cannot have two Popes at Rome; or two Protestant Episcopal Churches in the same land. Well, well; I know what you mean: they have dropped the word 'Protestant;' it was foolishly fastidious; but they are essentially one with ourselves;-sister churches.-No, I did not say I altogether approve of their Communion Office; it is upon the ancient model, but superstition grew out of it; and ours is more safe: I wish for peace sake 2 H to be most important truth, and to sink down to the level of your Erastian church, which has suppressed, if not denied, it ? These demand, Ought we to make ourselves partakers in the sin of countenancing the mischievous superstitions of the Popish Mass, which are involved in the Scottish office? A large portion of the Anglican clergy, without having studied the question either way, say that they do not see any great difference be tween the Scottish and the English office; that they could cheerfully officiate after the one form or the other; and that there is no right or reason either in pressing the Scottish book or in dissenting from it. the Scotch bishops and clergy would give it up, and adopt ours; but we have nothing to do with their concerns, except in the way of friendly intercourse and seasonable counsel; I cannot see how that service can offend any man's conscience; and if the Puritan faction in their church and ours would be quiet, all would be well enough. They are raising a party against the College at Perth; they say that it will be under Tractarian influence ;-very likely it will; and I have no love for Tractarianism any more than for Puritanism; but the Tractarians understand the structure and government of the Church; they wish to promote order and obedience-I wish they would always practise as they preach-whereas the low party are for driving us to Geneva. What we want is Churchmen. I care very little whether clergymen are called Tractarians, or Evangelicals, or anything else, provided they are regular parish priests, and attend to their schools and other duties; but if you put it to the vote, depend upon it, the Scottish bishops and their communion-office will have the potential influence of the English Church in their favour." We are not sketching fanciful dialogues; but only expressing what may be heard in daily intercourse in circles where such topics are discussed. The earnest men This is the question of doctrine; then comes the question of jurisdiction. Those who contend for the exclusive authority of the Scottish bishops are urging the Church of England to proceed to very active measures against Anglican clergymen officiating in Scotland, as their predecessors did by the express sanction of the legislature and of English bishops, for more than a century, and as they themselves have recently done, without molestation, upon their English orders. Thus in a memorial lately addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the subscribers say: "That the Church of which your Grace is Lord Primate, and your Memorialists are members, is in communion land. "That certain English Priests are at the present time exercising their ministerial functions in the dioceses of the Lordships' express injunctions to the Scottish Bishops, in defiance of their contrary; and that certain other English Priests do, from time to time, aid, abet, and encourage them in their schism. in Scotland, on both sides, complain with the ("Episcopal") Church in Scotthat they meet with very little sympathy from England. They are told to cast away their crotchets, to live in peace, to split the difference, and not to annoy their neighbours. We know not whether the sticklers for the Scottish Communion Office, or its impugners, are most displeased at such recommendations. The former affirm that they are maintaining great Catholic principles; the latter that they are opposing unscriptural doctrines. Those ask, How can you expect us to give up what we hold "That such proceedings have necessarily brought great scandal upon both Churches. "That your Memorialists, therefore, humbly beseech your Grace to take such prompt and decisive measures as suppression of these schismatic and unMay be necessary for the immediate canonical proceedings." |