have no regular public ministry, no time for calm attention to the preaching of the word, no place for the grand instrument of awakening souls, and building up the Christian temple.

"So important is the Lord's day, that it connects and holds together all links and obligations of human society, which the violation of it tends to destroy. Government cannot subsist without religion. The institution which sustains Christianity, sustains those duties and habits, those virtues of the heart, that mildness and humanity, that regard to truth and the sanctity of an oath, that sense of conscience and prospect of the tribunal of Christ, which strengthens human authority, preserves the peace of communities and nations, and is the bond of human society. The Sabbath recalls all these great principles, impresses them anew when effaced, urges them when neglected, deepens them more and more, and preserves them in activity upon the heart. If the Sabbath be duly observed, God governs the moral and intellectual being, the law of God sustains the just rule of man, the grace and mercy of God in Jesus Christ attract the weary sinner, and obligations of conscience are vigorous and effectual, peace reigns within the breast, and willing subjection to the authority as the ordinance of God, follows. Civil society is contained and held together by the Sabbath: which gives firmness and consistency to all the intercourse of man with man, to all the engagements which cement honourable commerce and the affairs of a peaceful agriculture, to all the current opinions and feelings which form the standard of morals."

One excuse for violating the Sabbath is thus disposed of-

"For what are the excuses which men allege in extenuation of a neglect of the day of God? Do they say that "every day under the gospel is to be kept holy?" They say truly; but each in its own manner. The working day is kept holy, as we have already shown, by performing diligently the duties of our callings, and interweaving religious feeling and exercises therein; the Sabbath, by celebrating devoutly the express worship of God. The six days, if given up to religious acts, would be idleness, superstition, and tempting of God; the seventh, if not dedicated to them, is impiety, pride, and contempt of the Almighty, Nor does he who pretends the universal sanctity to which the Christian is called, as a palliation of Sunday violations, ever serve God at all. If he knew anything of that delightful employment, all his affections would centre on that privileged day which God has given him for communion with himself, and for pub. lic and private acts of solemn devotion."

And he closes his volume thus:

"Let us, then, awake to the truth of the case. The day of Sabbath made and constituted for man, is essential to all his moral duties and hopes-it seals his evidence for a heavenly world—it prepares him for its joys and its employments-it forms its harbinger and foretaste.

"Let it again be remembered that we disclaim every thing harsh, uncommanded, ceremonial—we disclaim the Jewish, and much more the Pharisaical observances—we say with our Saviour, not man for the Sabbath ;" we follow also with delight the change of the day of celebration, authorised by "the Lord of the Sabbath." But all this only leaves the grand, fundamental principle more strong and clear. "The Sabbath was made for man," to give him repose and religious peace, to give him time for the worship and alloration of God on earth; to be the solemn guarantee and type of his last rest; and to prepare and introduce him to the joy and ceaseless adorations of that glorious state. The Sabbath is the glory of his religion, the highest exercise of his rational nature, the bond and link which connects him with all that is spiritual, all that is holy, all that is divine on earth; and which then transmits him to that exalted cene of eternal, and perfect, and uninterrupted spirituality, holiness, and blessedness in heaven, for which he was created and to which, may God be pleased to bring the writer and every reader of these pages through his infinite mercy in Jesus Christ our Lord!" A prayer in which we feel convinced, the excellent Author concurs in a

spirit of sincere and fervent piety, and to the fulfilment of which, we are convinced, nothing will tend more than the scriptural observance of the Sabbath. It is unnecessary for us to say, that we recommend the volume; it is a clergyman's and layman's manual, and renders, for general readers, the more systematic and bulky treatises upon the subject unnecessary, and has vindicated the character of the Church of England and its ministers from the opprobrium evoked by the anti-sabbatarian feelings of some* of our divines, upon whom the mantles of Laud and Heylin, and the spirit that concocted the Book of Sports, seems to have descended.

The Irish Pulpit; a Collection of Sermons by Clergymen of the Established Church. Second Series. Dublin, W. Curry & Co. 1830.

We are aware of the danger of reviewing the neatly printed volume on our table. Consisting, as it does, of a number of contributions from those whom we love and value, it is not wonderful that we should hesitate to apply our critical tomahawk to the works of our friends, while the remembrance of the dissatisfaction excited by our review of the last series of this work, impresses such a salutary dread of the odium theologicum as has almost held our hands. Our Irish Pulpit, however, must, in common decency, be noticed by the Church of Ireland Magazine; and we trust that our remarks will, at least, prove our impartiality, and our courage, if not our acumen. We approach this volume, too, under the influence of other and saddened feelings. Among the contributors to its pages, we perceive the names of two of those gifted and pious men, on whom we fondly rested our hopes for the improvement and stability of our Church-men, reared up, apparently by a gracious Providence, to exhibit the light of divine truth to our perishing countrymen in some of the darkest corners of our island. The close of the last year witnessed the publication of these Sermons, and the opening of the present was saddened by their removal-snatched away in the midst of their exertions, and their growing usefulness-snatched from the respect, the affection of their admiring parishioners-snatched from the completion of those plans of usefulness, which matured experience dictated, they have added another proof of the inscrutable dealings of the Most High with his creatures, another exercise of faith in that goodness, which blesses while it seems to frown, and hides its mercies from our feeble glance. Of one of these excellent individuals, the Rector of Buttevant, we have some few sermons published, which, with a few articles in our miscellany, to which he was an early and steady friend, form all the remaining memorials of bis talents and piety. Of Mr. Brougham, we believe, nothing, except the sermon before us, remains in print. His exertions were nearly confined to his pulpit and his parish, and while any of his mourning flock remains, no memorial will be required, and his labours for eternity, not for time, will find in that eternity their rest and their reward.

It cannot be questioned, that there is a very different style of preaching employed in the sister country, from that which is prevalent here, and a still different one from both characterises the established church in Scot

Our readers will perhaps recollect our notice of an article in what is termed the Church Publication of the day, the British Critic, in which we found it necessary to animadvert on the loose way in which the Sabbath is spoken of. The learned author referred to should have felt shame at borrowing without acknowledgment from such a writer as Peter Heylin, D.D. in his history of the Sabbath-a work recently confuted with spirit and piety by Mr. Smith, in the appendix to his Sermons before the University of Oxford.

land. The manner in England is much more calm, the discourses more measured, the composition far more accurate, than with us, while it is less intellectual, or (shall we say?) metaphysical, than with our Presbyterian brethren in Scotland. In Ireland our congregations require animation and appeal, nor do they generally relish essay preachers, however pious and talented the essay may be, while in the northern part of the sister island the character of the theology is so systematic, and the system formed upon such a metaphysical basis, that disquisitions are tolerated in the pulpit, to which the taste of both England and Ireland would with difficulty be assimilated. We are inclined to believe that the national character has a good deal to do with the progress of what is called extempore preaching, of late years, in Ireland, assisted perhaps by the comparative ease with which, it is said, and we believe there is some truth in it, an Irishman accommodates himself to unpremeditated addresses. This system has many advantages, but it is also connected with many evils, and none should have recourse to it, until he disciplines himself to a habit of rigorous reasoning and reflection, by the custom of writing with accuracy and labour.

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We are inclined to believe that the superficial character of our theology, too, may account for the characteristic style of our preaching; how few of our sermons are otherwise than either excursive statements of the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel, without any attempt at raising the Christian edifice or else hortatory declamations on common-place topics and duties? The pulpit, particularly of mixed congregations, is certainly not the scene for strictly exegetical discussion; but as certainly it might be expected that more would be communicated in that way than is usually permitted the text should be explained, the context should be dwelt on, the connexion with the grand plan of redemption pointed out, particular duties deduced from Gospel ethics, limited by Gospel principles, enforced on Gospel motives. But no-in too many instances the authors of sermons use the text as a sort of motto for the discourse; and with scarcely an allusion to it, hurry, with more boldness than ingenuity, to their favourite topics, which, however latent to the congregation, are found by the preacher lurking in every text, however various the selection may have been. An English divine thinks it necessary to consider his text, to divide his text, to offer some observations on each part; and although, to the rapid imagina tion of our countrymen, the style may seem beavy and prosing, devoid of spirit and animation, yet the topics which rise from one another become associated in the memory, and the hearer almost involuntarily carries away information and instruction. In Ireland, the topic is first selected, and the train of ideas pass through the mind, and the text is hunted for in a concordance, with, of course, very little more than a general bearing upon the subject.

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We have no intention of suggesting that such is generally the way of composing sermons in Ireland, but that in very many instances such might seem to be the way; nor do we mean to include all our countrymen under the censure we think applicable to many. No-we think the style of pulpit oratory in Ireland of a higher grade than it is in England consider ably; but there do not appear to us so many excellent in it the emphatic and rhetorical, to which our countrymen are inclined, require a peculiar degree of logical accuracy, good taste, and good sense, as well as theologi cal information, to act as ballast when there is so much sail to be carried and notwithstanding the intellectual acuteness of our nation, we think there is generally a deficiency in the exhibition of reasoning, when it is attempted in our pulpits, while as to mere scriptural information, generally

speaking, our congregations receive but little of it, amidst the many very interesting and very able appeals that are made to them. We feel we are about falling on a topic in which we are much interested, and which has engaged our attention more than once we mean, the education of our clergy We feel that much, very much, is required here still; we fear that the slender knowledge with which our students go into orders can seldom be increased in the hurry and bustle and action of a parochial life; and it is to this circumstance that we are inclined to attribute the rather meagre character of our theology. A College theme, or a familiar letter, form, perhaps, all the serious composition in which a young divine has tried himself, previous to his sitting down to prepare himself for the most awful and responsible situation that God has ever committed to man-the public instruction of immortal souls while a superficial acquaintance with Burnet and Paley, and some of the historical books of the Scriptures constitutes his divinity Assuredly such should not be the preparation for the sacred functions of the Church, and the reform proposed in our Establishment should commence with the students' course of study. The University may do much, the Hierarchy may do more, but until the system receives its improvement, there is always danger of the pastor, equally as of his flock, becoming the prey of those novelties, or rather revived errors, of the time, by which Satan is even now labouring to disturb the progress of divine truth.

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Let us not be thought to impute to the sermons in the volume before us the errors we have alluded to; though assuredly Irish in their structure, they are generally, and many altogether, free from the faults of a meagre and superficial theology, which wastes its strength in words, instead of supplying ideas. With such sermons as Mr. Woodward's and Mr. Ross's, we have been frequently instructed and delighted, and we are glad to meet such again in print. We would add, that the editor has obviated one of the objections we advanced against his former volume; and, although it does not perhaps present as impartial a view of the Irish clergy as in the former series, it is much more uniform in its aspect, as all the sermons are of the school called evangelical, and the greater part of the authors, standardbearers for the truth, for years before the public. It is only necessary to mention the names of Woodward, White, Murray (the Dean of Ardagh), Ross, Hamilton, Lloyd, and others, who will be immediately recognised; and, with the exception of the first of these clergymen, we believe, none were contributors to the former volume. We trust that many succeeding volumes will prove that Ireland has in the Church "five hundred good as these," and as willing to bear their testimony to the truth of that Gospel, which is "the power of God unto salvation." It has been frequently and justly said, that the most successful sermons from the pulpit may fail when committed to the press; and this must be peculiarly the case with Irish sermons. They generally owe so much to the animation of the preachers, to the intonation of the voice, and form of gesture, that when the pamphlet coldly lies on the study table, the "vis vivida" seems to have disappeared-nay, the better the sermon has been from these causes in the delivery, the worse and more uninteresting will it seem to be in reading. We are acquainted with an Irish preacher, (whose name does not appear in these volumes,) whose sermons are perhaps as powerful, when accompanied by his enerjetic and animating delivery, as any of the present day and yet, when he has ventured to publish, they have attracted no attention, and fallen "still-born" from the press. We speak thus to warn our readers not to anticipate too much when they turn to some of the ser

mons in the volume before us, with the silver tones of the preacher vibrating in their ears, and his animating gestures present to their memories; for they may experience a disappointment, which will be, however unjustly, attributed to the preacher. Sermons are usually composed for preaching, not for reading: and when the accompaniments are wanting, the full effect cannot justly be expected.

(To be continued.)

DOMESTIC RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

A meeting of the Ferns diocesan branch of the association for Discountenancing Vice, was held in Euniscorthy on 18th of February. The Lord Bishop of Ferns in the chair.

From the returns from the several depositories, it appeared that in the last year 81 Bibles, 82 Testaments, 247 Prayer-books, and 3875 religious books and tracts, were sold at reduced prices; and from the returns of the Catechetical examination, that 170 Bibles, 37 Testaments, 231 Prayer-books, and 102 religious books were distributed as premiums. The number of children examined at the Catechetical examinations held in the diocese, appeared to be 2640, and of children receiving instruction in the daily schools under the superintendance of the clergy, 3066. From the returns of the charity sermons preached in aid of the Association, it appeared that sermons had been preached in 36 churches, and that the sums collected, amounted to £209. 7s. 9d.

His Lordship addressed the clergy strongly and warmly on the necessity of making a decided stand for scriptural education, and urged them on no account to give countenance to any system which excluded the word of God.

In consideration of the exhausted funds of the Association, the rectors and curates of the diocese have entered into a resolution to double the amount of their subscriptions, and the Bishop has increased his to £50. It were to be wished that every diocese in Ireland would come forward in a similar manner; and then the venerable parent of the dissemination of the Scriptures, and of scriptural education in this country, would be provided with increased means for her increasing usefulness; and not be compelled to stay her hand when the fields are ripe unto harvest.

The Ferns branch is altogether distinct from that of Leighlin.

Connaught Superstitions.-Rev. GG, Curate of K, when driving his wife the other day in a phaeton, drawn by two cream-coloured poneys, met a funeral, and was stopped by one of those attending it, who said his honour must turn back with them. The reply given was to whip on the poneys. Twenty fellows pursued, but finding they could not overtake the charioteer, they roared out to the driver of a Scotch dray to make him stop. True to their bidding, he knocked down one of the poneys, on the edge of a deep dyke, and it is only a mercy that vehicle and all were not overturned into the ditch. The poney rapidly however regained his legs, and the parson succeeded in reaching a magistrate's gate, who happened to be standing on the spot, and who returned with them, took down the names of the principal offenders, brought them before him at the last petty sessions at Ballinrobe, and indicted them. The first aggressor pleaded he was brother of the deceased, and that it was as how he only wanted to save his Raverance, because he had a yallow horse; and do ye see, if he didn't turn back the boys wud murther him, as they'd all die of the same disorther with his brother, the Lord be good to his soul if the yallow horse didn't turn back with them! Mr. F, with whom I slept on Tuesday night, and was present at the investigation, informed me of these facts.

Anti-Duelling Society. We intended to have presented our readers with the petition of this Society to Parliament, but want of space compels us to omit it. We trust that the exertions of every friend of religion, every lover of that law which forbids the shedding of blood under any and every pretence, will not be relaxed, until this mode of honourable murder be cast not merely out of fashion, but cast into foul disgrace.