248 REVIEWS AND NOTICES. Eighteen Years of a Clerical Meeting; being the Minutes of the Alcester Clerical Association from June, 1842, to August, 1860. With a Preface on the Revival of Ruri-Decanal Chapters. Edited by RICHARD SEYMOUR, M.A., and J. F. MACKARNESS, M.A. Rivingtons. THE Volume before us conveys a very favourable impression of the Clergy comprising the Association in question, as well as of those in particular who have undertaken the Editorship, and who, it may be supposed, also usually conducted the Meetings. We strongly recommend its circulation both among clergy and laity, as there is scarcely any point affecting their relation to one another, and the relation of both to GOD which is not here touched upon. The choice of subject was generally suggested by the outward course of events, beginning as we should expect with the examination of Rubrics, and ending with Discussions on the Reports of Convocation. Ordination Lectures delivered in Riseholm Palace Chapel during Ember Weeks. By the Rev. H. MACKENZIE, M.A. (Rivingtons.) THIS little volume belongs to the same class as the one just noticed, but falls very far short of it in merit. The subjects are mostly such as concern the outward organization of a Parish, and are treated in a very sketchy manner. The writer seems to consider himself debarred altogether from touching on doctrine, and the reference to the inward life is most scanty and jejune. There is indeed great room for a manual of wise counsels for those about to be, or who have recently been, ordained -something less oratorical and more directly practical than the Bishop of Oxford's Lectures, and something which comes more directly from the experience of the writer, than a Commentary on the Ordination. Service can possibly be. Neither again may it be a cento of other persons' thoughts, like Mr. Heygate's Manuals; neither must the writer attempt to hold the balance, as all Bishops' Chaplains do, between contending parties in the Church. When may we hope for such a publication? Parish Sermons. By the Rev. M. F. SADLER, Vicar of Bridgewater. Bell and Daldy. THE great characteristic of Mr. Sadler's sermons is their practical good sense, and this quality, coupled with the exceedingly plain though forcible language in which they are written, renders them well fitted for their purpose as parish sermons. Very few persons can realise how plain the language must be which is to convey ideas to a country congregation, but Mr. Sadler excels in the art of placing the events of which he treats in so vivid a picture before the mind, that the lesson he would draw from it is easily discerned. He does not aim at a very high standard as regards the means of advancing the spiritual life, but on those in whom it is yet almost dormant these sermons must act with powerful effect. Night Offices for Holy Week. Masters. THIS is another very valuable contribution to our devotional literature, for which we are indebted to Mr. CARTER. It is in fact a kind of Appendix to the "Day Hours." At the end of the volume are some very beautiful "Meditations" on the Passion, translated by the Rev. Gerard Moultrie, from a MS. of the 14th century. We call attention to three new editions of Hymns Ancient and Modern, (Novello,) all of which are marvels of cheapness. 1. The Words of the Hymns alone. 2. The Words with each Part separately. 3. The Words with the Four Parts and Organ Accompaniment. As this Collection was already the best in existence, so now can it be said that there is none cheaper; and as cheapness is so much the order of the day, we trust that no parish priest who is able to appreciate the importance of Catholic Hymnody, will any longer rest content with Brady and Tate, or such collections as those of Mercer and the S.P.C.K. We have seldom seen a more abominable imposition than The Consecutive Prayer Book, (Kent and Co.,) which appears to have been undertaken at the suggestion of a writer in the Record newspaper. It is not the Prayer Book at all-leaving out all the Rubrics, the Psalter, the Epistles and Gospels, all the Occasional Services, (so called,) &c., &c. Neither is it truly "Consecutive," for besides seven separate Appendices, it does not give any of the Collects after the Anthem at Matins. From what has been said, it will be seen that the book is incomplete without the Bible to supply its defects; and so ignorant is the Compiler ("an influential Clergyman" although the Record declares him to be) that he imagines the Bible and Prayer Book Versions of the Psalms to be the same. The "Committee of Clergymen," whose labours we have before acknowledged, are continuing their useful series on The Seasons of the Church. (Palmer.) Mr. SHIPLEY also, from whose Series of Tracts we expect much, has published an excellent arrangement of Devotions on the Passion. We have just received from Messrs. Longman Archdeacon SANDFORD'S Bampton Lectures for last year, which will deserve a fuller notice. The subject of them is "The Church at Home." We should have given an earlier notice to the First Annual Report of the National Association for promoting Freedom of Worship. (Kent and Co.) There is an unusual combination of names among the supporters of this Society, without being any appearance of compromise. We should like to see the right use of the chancel for the choir brought a little more distinctly out as the complement of the people's right to the nave. The society is attempting to raise a fund for giving assistance to churches which are to be constructed on the "free" principle. We wish this heartily success. Mr. FORD having finished his Catena on the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, has now broken ground on the Epistles, with a goodly volume on the Epistle to the Romans. (Masters.) The illustrations, which were formerly derived from all sources, are now taken exclusively from "Divines of the Church of England," amongst whom we are glad to see no writer is more largely drawn on than Thomas Jackson. We look in vain however through the "List of Authors," for the name of Bishop Fell. A Second Volume of Dr. BESSER's Biblical Studies, under the Title of Christ the Life of the World, has appeared in Messrs. Clarke's "Foreign Library." It is a Commentary on the latter half of S. John's Gospel. As a Lutheran, Dr. Besser, as we showed in noticing the previous volume, still believes in Sacraments, while most of his coreligionists have ceased to do so. But looking to his teaching as a whole we must admit that they are at all events more consistent with themselves than he is. The Bishop of LICHFIELD has set a good example to his Episcopal brethren in, first, confining his Charge almost exclusively to a review of the condition of his own diocese ; and then, secondly, in publishing it at such a cheap cost that it can really be circulated among the laity of the several parishes under his jurisdiction. There is a slight allusion in the Charge, we are glad to see, to the education of the Clergy; but none of our Bishops have yet ventured to speak out on this subject. The deficiency of number in our Clergy, and still more their deficiency as respects a proper ecclesiastical toue is the "fons et origo mali' with us. NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS. WE have pleasure in inserting the subjoined note from Mr. Seymour : "DEAR SIR, "To the Editor of the Ecclesiastic. "In your April Number, at page 173, on 'Deacons and Deaconesses, &c.,' you say, 'Why however Mr. Seymour should persist in using the term 'Protestant' before Deaconesses or Sisterhoods, we cannot imagine. He must be fully aware, &c.' "For my own satisfaction I wish to say that I have never introduced the word 'Protestant' in this way. Newspapers, and even the Guardian in its heading of the Report of the Discussions in Convocation, did so. But I never did so. I dislike the word in its ordinary use quite as much as you or the writer of this article can dislike it, and I never have thus used it. "I am, dear Sir, "Yours faithfully, "R. SEYMOUR." 251 PROVERBS. WHAT is a proverb? A great many definitions have been given. An eminent English statesman has called it "the wisdom of many, and the wit of one." A neat epigrammatic definition, certainly; but, like most definitions, it is not exhaustive, for there are many proverbs which are not wise, and many more which are not particularly witty. It may be conceded, however, that every proverb must have seemed wise or witty at some time, or it could not have obtained that popular currency which is of the essence of a proverb. In the first three Gospels the figurative instructions of our LORD are called apaẞoλn. In S. John's Gospel this word does not occur once; but the word apopía is always used instead. It is true the latter means a similitude as well as the former; but it is the title given by the Septuagint to what we call the "Proverbs" of Solomon; and these, again, are sometimes called Tapaßoλaí, though they exactly correspond to what we should call proverbs. Besides the philological reasons for this commutation of terms, we may assign a very natural one,-namely, that what we call a proverb, a similitude, and a parable, are only more or less condensed forms of the same species of speech. A proverb, or sententious saying, containing in it deep meaning and practical truth, may be easily considered as the moral of a fable or a parable, and its frequently figurative form would very often give at once the clue to such an illustration. This building of stories upon proverbs has been so often done, that it would be almost childish to dwell upon it. Franklin's story of "paying dear for one's whistle" will suffice as an instance. Take, again, our LORD's remark to His unbelieving countrymen :-"Doubtless ye will say to Me this proverb, (πapaßoλv) Physician, heal Thyself." It is plain that this expression corresponds exactly to what we should call a proverb; yet who does not see in it at once a full parable, which scarcely requires development? A physician loudly proclaims his skill in curing complaints: a patient sends for him, and sees at once that he is as sick as himself, and that his boasted method of cure has not answered in his own case. He very naturally rejects him as an empiric, and bids him first cure himself with his nostrums before he tries them on others. "Physician," he exclaims, "heal thyself." It matters not whether the phrase arose out of an apologue, or leads to it; whether it be the fruit or the seed is all one. Thus we see how the names for a proverb, a similitude, a parable, came to be frequently interchanged among the Jews, and in the language of the Bible. A proverb was a parable in embryo; a parable was a proverb developed. 2 L VOL. XXIV.-JUNE, 1862. The great charm of a proverb lies in its antiquity, its coming to us stamped with the authority of ages, and the approval of distant generations. From the beginning of time men must have been seeing, and doing, and suffering things, out of which arose those small crystallizations of thought and experience. Those which have passed from age to age, from people to people, from land to land, and from language to language, or which have been born at once under various skies, and in various races and tongues, are but the hoary survivors of buried and forgotten multitudes. Many an adage must have been brought forth, and must have died with the circumstances and people which gave it life and circulation, long before Solomon sat down in his golden house to chronicle the wisdom of the mart and the wayside. Even amongst ourselves, in an age and country by no means favourable to these flowers of the common, we see something of the same process going on. A neatly expressed thought, a felicitous, a forcible, a ludicrous, or unfortunate phrase, catches the public ear, and is straightway in the public mouth. For a week or two, a month or two, or even a year or two, you find it occurring in speeches and articles, in private conversation, on the railway, or in the street; and then it dies, and is forgotten. Young people grow up, and if you use it in their presence, they ask you what it means; and in due time antiquarians or biographers will exhume it, and probably place an incorrect version of it in an entirely wrong mouth. With us these phrases generally come from the region of politics. How many, for example, use the common expression, "And no mistake," without any idea of its real origin, which was this:-When Mr. Huskisson was Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the Duke of Wellington's ministry, he took some offence at the Duke's conduct on a certain occasion, and in a pet sent in his resignation, expecting that the Duke would express himself sorry, and beg him to withdraw it. To his astonishment, however, the matter-of-fact Duke took him at his word, and at once accepted his resignation. Mr. Huskisson wrote to one of his friends in the Cabinet, suggesting that there must surely be some mistake. His friend consulted the Duke, who replied, "Tell him that I have accepted his resignation, and no mistake." Then there was "The bill, the whole bill, and nothing but the bill" of the Reform times. And more recently, the present Prime Minister, being then Foreign Secretary, informed a deputation of foreign exiles that his policy was a system of "judicious bottle-holding," an unlucky and ignoble metaphor, for which Punch is still grateful to his lordship. The popular phrase of the day is now "the right man in the right place"-one containing as much confusion of idea as ever lurked beneath a smart and epigrammatic sound. Thus each year yields its crop of sayings to the threshing-floor, where time and common winnow and sift it, housing the grain, and blowing away infinite sense |