'poor

against what they saw and heard, "dull sermon!" ". service!" and such like things. A good many came just because others came. They were mere dead logs upon the top of a river; as the stream rolled, they jostled one another, and so their course was shaped.

A good many were half convinced; they had heard words of Christ's that they had heard from no one else; and they would long ago have become religious, if it could have been done without their losing the good opinion of anybody.

There were, too, better people, real disciples, no doubt; but very dark, full of doubt, who looked upon religion as a generally regulating principle, producing a humanising effect upon the mind, but beyond that they never went; and they did not like a troublesome religion in anybody else. When they saw some poor soul struggling to come to the Saviour like Peter they wondered what in the world any one could want to touch Him for. Ah! but, thank God, there were still those who could not rest until they touched Christ!

And so, the Lord was amongst us still, and had round about Him just the same sort of people as He used to have. The lesson which this subject spoke to us wasIf we really meant to get the blessing, we must not be content until we actually touched Christ. The best people were not those who believed in a great outward demonstration and show of religion. Our life should touch His life. In all our weakness, suffering, and temptation, we were to touch Him. What did this touching imply? A sense that we wanted Him, had some inward malady which needed curing,-coldness of heart, self-conceit, addiction to sensual pleasures, love of riches, envy of neighbours; there was the taint: in addition to the consciousness of which, there should be the conviction that, unless Christ healed us, no other physician could. And where there was anything of this feeling, there would be a breaking through of difficulties. Didn't we think Christ's eye saw this woman before she touched Him? Didn't He know of her doubts ? "Shall I touch Him ?" "Will He hear me?" And didn't He hold her up?

A man might be full of ideas, but those ideas would remain unexpressed and useless, if he were placed among dull and unsympathetic boors. Even in things of the intellect, sympathy was required. So in affection. One of the main causes of unhappiness in domestic life was

D

that loving dispositions were surrounded by dead hearts, so that they could not throw out the warmth which was in them. So, too, in nature, the electric current could not communicate itself to the non-conducting gas; but, when brought into contact with some congenial element, forth leaped the living spark. So, though our Saviour was beside us, the virtue would not pass from Him unless the hand went forth to touch Him.

Let us this day, said the Bishop, in conclusion, seek to touch Christ with the touch of desire, the touch of prayer, the touch of act,-which is the last test of sincerity! Let us do something, this day, to help to send in orphan children to this asylum, and so touch the orphan's Friend with the touch of act!

Dr. Wilberforce had, in his nature, a keen sense of humour and some power of mimicry, which qualities,speaking against voluntaryism, from his place in the House of Lords,-it will be remembered that he displayed with remarkable effect, if questionable taste, in his wonderful take-off of Mr. Spurgeon during the Peers' discussion of the Irish Church Suspensory Bill. Not a suspicion of the witty side of his character would, however, have been entertained by those who formed their judgment from only having seen him when he was engaged in the public ministrations of his sacred office.

"No! he was serious in a serious cause,

And understood too well the weighty terms
That he had ta'en in charge. He would not stoop
To conquer those by jocular exploits

Whom truth and soberness assailed in vain."

His tenderness and solemnity at a confirmation service were overpowering; and his manner as a preacher, in which capacity we are now principally considering him, was grave and impressive in the extreme. His voice was full and mellow; he had been styled the "silver-tongued Wilberforce," and the phrase might not inaptly have been applied to him even up to the last. The Bishop's oratory was largely of the pictorial order. As on the occasion of the above discourse being delivered, he generally selected some narrative as the topic of his remarks; in which case, the first part of the sermon commonly consisted of an exquisite word-picture of the event or scene recorded,which the hearer realised to the life,-and then the

preacher deduced and applied, which he did with wonderful fidelity and force, and with many beautiful illustrations of his own, the practical lessons that were to be extracted from the subject. Dr. Wilberforce's sermons were delivered without the aid of notes. We suspect, however, that he spoke the greater part of them from memory; for besides his delivery being remarkably unlaboured, each word seemed to have been most carefully weighed; and the inspiration, for so it must be termed, which would be requisite to beget the impromptu utterance of such eloquence as the Bishop's would seem to one necessarily to have for its accompaniment, as the outward manifestation of the fire that burned within, a certain fervid and glowing style of expression of which Dr. Wilberforce's oratory was almost entirely devoid. Not, however, that this evidence of previous preparation was such as to justify one's describing it as constituting a positive fault. To the sermons of some of the best of preachers, the same objection might be taken that was urged against the first harangues of Demosthenes, of whose too carefully studied orations his contemporaries used to say they smelt of the lamp. And in the case of the sermons, such a defect would be of more consequence than it was in the instance which has been cited: in the first place, because one looks for greater naturalness in a preacher than in any other orator; and, in the second, because there would, of course, be counteracting excellencies in even the earliest speeches of the illustrious ancient that scarcely any sermons possess.

To Dr. Wilberforce's sermons, however, highly finished as they were, this phrase, as we have already indicated, could not justly be applied. No, his best passages never struck one as having been composed for mere effect, excepting, indeed, the grand effect,-to which all that he said as a preacher seemed subordinate,-of arousing the conscience and converting the soul. His action was gentle and graceful, being quite in harmony with the unimpassioned style of his preaching, the chief characteristics of which we would, in conclusion, describe to have been its union of simplicity and zeal with refinement of thought and picturesqueness of language.

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REV. DR. DAVID THOMAS.

ONE of the most intellectual, and, probably, the most metaphysical of Nonconformist, or any other ministers in London is, unquestionably, Dr. David Thomas, the editor of the Homilist. He is not, however, what would be called a popular preacher. Like the celebrated John Foster, he speaks, not unfrequently, to empty, or partially empty pews; and for the same reason, viz., that his sermons are too thoughtful to be generally attractive.

The house of God seems to be looked upon, by a great many persons, as a place of repose for both body and mind. The precept of the fourth commandment respecting the Sabbath: "In it thou shalt not do any work," they observe, indeed, in a sense in which the prohibition was never intended to be understood. They dare not even think on that day. As a rule, it will be found that the preacher who imposes the heaviest tax upon the attention of his hearers will have the fewest hearers to impose such a tax upon.

As a preliminary to describing our visit to Dr. Thomas's chapel, let us describe himself. Dr. Thomas is a man of over sixty years of age; rather above the middle height, and of a full habit of body. He has a fresh, healthy complexion, suggestive of the life-giving breezes of his native Welsh hills, and a handsome expressive countenance, with a head of large proportions and fine development, showing plenty of room,-to quote his own words in reference to his illustrious countryman and friend, the late Caleb Morris, "for the play of every high emotion and of every class of thought." The physiognomy is, as a whole, a striking one, instinct, as it is, with the grandeur of that grandest production of Deity,-a great soul. He looks, what he really is, a remarkable man.

A form of prayer is used at Dr. Thomas's church, in the morning. This service was compiled by himself, and is termed "The Biblical Liturgy." It consists of nothing but quotations from different parts of the Scriptures, collocated so as to illustrate without the addition of any words for which chapter and verse cannot be given,-as given indeed they are in the margin, the attributes of God, and one or two other subjects: thus, "God's Unity," "God's Power," "God's Faithfulness," "The Holy Spirit,"

"Christ as a King," &c. On the occasion of which we write, the subject of the service was 'God's Mercy," of which service, as the plan of this liturgy is novel, we will give an account.

First there was a chant:

"We will sing aloud of Thy mercy in the morning.
Thou art a God ready to pardon,

Gracious and merciful, slow to anger;

The long suffering of our God is salvation.

"Truly God is good to Israel,

Even to such as are of a clean heart;

He loveth righteousness and judgment,

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord."

And so on for five verses.

Then, the congregation resuming their seats, the minister read, "The Lord descended in the cloud, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy." To which the congregation responded,

"With the Lord there is mercy,

And with Him is plenteous redemption ;"

and so on for about ten or fifteen minutes. Then there was another chant, after which, the congregation standing,- came, what are designated in the book, "supplicatory responses;" the minister reading, "O Lord God of Israel, there is no God like Thee in the heaven nor in the earth; which keepest covenant, and showest mercy unto thy servants," &c.; and the people replying, "Remember, O Lord, Thy tender mercies and Thy loving kindnesses, for they have been ever of old;" and so on for a page. Then came a third chant, then an extempore prayer, and then the Doxology. After this a hymn was sung; then there was a short lesson; then was sung a Canticle; then came the sermon.

A few words now about the hymn-book used at Dr. Thomas's church! Having conceived a novel principle in liturgical prayer, Dr. Thomas next conceives, or rather revives, a novel principle in hymnology. Every hymn," he says, adopting an idea of St. Augustine's, "should be a direct address to the great Object of worship. Men, in acts