cannot reach. For we walk by faith | clear eye stands at the door of the mind, and nothing is allowed to enter without her approbation. Mathemathics are always a favourite study with this order of mind. A mind constituted after this type is often eminently fitted for the transaction of difficult secular business. There is a keenness of observation, an accuracy in the management of details, a precision in measuring the value of evidence, a freedom from the biasing influence of emotion or feeling, which renders it admirably adapted to deal with the difficult and intricate problems of human life. Such a mind will excel in the minute details of science and very often in discriminating the niceties of language. and not by sight. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known. The Bible which reveals to us the mysteries and realities of a spiritual and immutable kingdom-teaches us that the present sphere of existence is the scene of our probation. While passing through this life we are all put on our trial. There is a furnace for every man the caverns of burning light' are to be trodden by all. The critical processes of trial came to us in various forms, all are not tried in the same way; what is a temptation to one man does not present any source of trial to another. There is an essential difference in the constitution of our nature. Some are tempted through their bodily senses, and through the emotional elements of their nature -the lusts of the flesh-the susceptibilities to the splendours of outward show, and dazzling display -the love of the pleasures of the world-these are the points appealed to by the temptations from without, these are the impressible and ignitible parts which require to be watched with a sleepless eye, and to be under the guardianship of a severe and constant restraint. But this order of mind often stumbles at the very threshold of Revelation. The pride of reason is wounded in her baffling attempts to analyze and exhaust all the forms of divine truth. The supernatural is a bottomless sea, and reason with her diving bell will never fathom it. The Bible is a temple in which are exhibited pictures which have their origin in the divine and receive their colouring in the miraculous. There is an awful grandeur and an inspiring sublimity about much of its scenery. The ordinary laws of There are other men who are not nature are often set aside. The at all, or scarcely at all, tried elements of nature are at times disthrough the bodily senses or through solved and reformed by the touch of their emotional nature; the passions, an invisible hand. The great conare neither strong, fiery, nor rest-flicts of opposing forces which have less; they are able to exert a perfect self-control over all the sensations of the body. The emotions which swell like a billowy tide in some men, are held completely in check by them. Imagination has little to do with the operations of life. Such men are subjected to trial, but the seat of their trial is not so much in the body, or in the affections, as in the head. The stumbling block with them lies in the intellect. There is a kind of natural scepticism always present with them.* Everything must be analyzed-seen through and submitted to the processes of demonstration. Reason with her been moving the world for ages are depicted in the most vivid representations. The many-coloured lamp in which the world's future glitters and dazzles the eyes of the most piercing spirit, shines in awful lustre over this troubled earth. Mathematics and natural philosophy, and all those sciences which have their basis in mathematical formulae are of little service in tracing the pathway of Omnipotence, or in measuring the unfoldings of the divine love in the redemption of the world. Adoration may bow inawe, and piety may expand in gratitude, and poetry may burst in rapture, but Correspondence-The Association. unless they be subordinated to a victorious faith will encumber the mind rather than assist it in embracing the sublime realities of the Christian faith. 225 mathematics and natural philosophy | tion. It is requested that representatives and others wishing for beds at the houses of friends, if they have not already made arrangements with acquaintances in Nottingham, will apply on or before June 10th to one of the following brethren, Mr. T. Hill, Arboretum Street; Mr. J. S. Baldwin, Long Row; Mr. W. Baker, Villa Road. Such persons enclosing a stamp for reply, will receive by post, in the course of the week preceding the Association, a card stating the address of the friend at whose house they will be entertained. There Judging from the book which lies before me I should say that Dr. Colenso is a man of peculiar mental constitution. Roger Ascham would class him among the 'hard wits.' His mind is cold, critical, sceptical. The trial of his faith lies in his mathematical intellect. In my humble opinion he can hardly be called a man of genius. is a want of amplitude in the structure of his mind. He shrinks from the supernatural. His theological writing is dry, dreary, and common-place. The glow of poetry does not touch his pages. The finer elements of his mind have been cramped if not crushed by rigid mathematical studies. He puts his figures where he ought to place his faith. Arithmetic is the door of truth, and geometry the high road to heaven. He measures Moses as a tailor would measure a man for a coat; and, because the measurement of Moses differs from the measurement of Herodotus or Thucydides, he dismisses him as a myth, and his Pentateuch as a fable. I have a few more things to say, but as my letter is become, perhaps, now too long, with your kind permission I shall offer them in another letter, with the promise that there shall be only one more, And remain, May 4, 1863. Yours faithfully, G. H., L. THE ASSOCIATION. ANNOUNCEMENTS TO VISITORS AND DELEGATES. To the Editor of the General Baptist Magazine. DEAR SIR,-Permit me through you to make one or two announcements An omnibus meets the trains at both our stations, which for sixpence takes passengers to the more central parts of the town, but not to the Park, or beyond the Bluecoat school on the Mansfield Road. Cabs charge a shilling or eighteen pence, according to distance. We have arranged for a public dinner on the three principal Association days, at the George the Fourth Hotel, in Carlton-street. It is a quiet family hotel, the most respectable place of the kind in the town, and very near to Broad-street chapel. That very worthy body the Evangelical Alliance, when holding its sittings in Nottingham, honoured it by dining there. The charge for the dinner will be two shillings. For those who prefer more economical accommodation there are several dining-houses in the neighbourhood, though all on a comparatively small scale. It will be seen by the advertisement on the cover of the Magazine that several of the meetings are to be held in Stoney-street and Mansfield-road chapels, those places of worship being larger than Broad street. The College Bazaar will be in the Mechanics' Hall, adjoining Mansfield-road chapel. Trusting we shall have some happy meetings, pervaded by holy influences, and fruitful in good works, I am, dear Sir, Yours most truly, W. R. STEVENSON. relative to the forthcoming Associa- | Nottingham May 15th, lay delegates, but also to the hus- J. BURNS. THE COLLEGE BAZAAR. To the Editor of the General Baptist Magazine. MY DEAR MR. EDITOR,-Permit a DEAR SIR,-Allow me to remind According to the circular issued sometime since it will be remembered that packages are to be addressed to Mrs. Lewitt, Saint Ann's Hill - road, Mansfield - road; Mrs. G. Truman, Derby - terrace; and Mrs. T. Hill, Arboretum - street, Nottingham. Allow me to add that on a recent visit to the distressed districts of Lancashire, I was highly gratified to find that in one of the Sewing Schools under the superintendence of our excellent brother Gray, articles were in the course of preparation for the Bazaar. Surely if Lancashire does not forget us, more favoured churches and districts Notices of Books-Punch in the Pulpit. As will have us in remembrance. the Association is to be held in the town, the metropolis of the General Baptist denomination, I trust the strenuous effort the ladies of our churches here are making will be seconded by corresponding endeavours elsewhere, so that the numerous visitors from all parts of our denomination may have the opportunity of still further testifying their devotion to the education of young ministers among us. I am desired by the Treasurer to say that as the audit of the College Accounts is to be held on or about the 12th of June, it is very important that all monies on the current account as well.as for the building fund should be sent as soon as JAMES LEWITT. possible. Most truly yours, Nottingham, May 14th, 1863. COLLEGE BAZAAR. 227 Notices of Books. PUNCH IN THE PULPIT. By PHILIP CATER. London: Freeman & Co. 'IN the pulpits where reigns a bastard Calvinistic theology and the most Stygian darkness, funny preach ing is reduced to a system.' So says Mr. Cater; and his purpose in this book is to drive the clerical merryandrews to the blush with their own weapons. But whether telling them at the outset that joking about religion can only consist with the ribaldry of an infidel or with the levity of a fool, is precisely the way to secure from them a hearing is very questionable. That they cannot complain of his use of their artillery is evident enough; but it were well if in spoiling the Egyptians' he had not robbed them of their bitterness. Mr. Cater calls special attention to the worldly expedients of the comic school as mere imitations of Cremorne and the theatres. To this class he assigns advertising ladies of colour to preach special sermons, or the Right Honourable Lord Tinman, or a man who is known to sing his sermons in blank verse, or one who can marshal a long file of letters after his name. In the same category he also places announcements that the sacred drama of Joseph and his brethren will be performed in Bethesda chapel, the characters to be dressed in Oriental costume. Jocular preachers, according to Mr. Cater, have various well-known characteristics. They generally despise human learning, and are therefore in this rather children of the night than children of the day, They are given to a practice which often shows great ingenuity, but always shows a weak mind, and a want of sobriety on the subject of religion-spiritualizing. They thus put a meaning on texts they were never intended to bear, and dishonour the Bible by making it say what reason, religion, and common sense declare it never could say. 6 Preaching becomes under such a queer hymnology and the singing process a mere juggle, and the gallery. Hymns are often sung in all Bible a text book of unseemly jests. dissenting chapels, not exclusively in Comic preachers always speak fa- the chapels of the Hyper and comic miliarly of the devil, as though he school, that do not answer to what were an old acquaintance with whom he thinks hymns should be-direct they had been accustomed to pass addresses to the Supreme. There an evening,' and as if the great are descriptive pieces: as, 'Affliction design of the devil's existence and is a stormy deep; Behold how the devil's temptations was, to be a sinners disagree; 'Behold the perpetual source of amusement to wretch whose lust and wine.' There the dear people of God.' They are are Divine commands put into fond of puns and parodies and stupid rhyme: 'Go, preach my gospel saith questions, of laconic texts and so- the Lord;' Behold the potter and called impromptu sermons. Brother the clay; 'Blow ye the trumpet, Silvester preaches from the word blow.' Even sorrows are made the onwards! and thus divides his ser- subjects of songs, most unnaturally, mon: O, origin; N, nature; W, as Mr. C. thinks: 'Ah! wretched warfare; A, armour; R, redemp- souls that strive in vain!' 'Our tion; D, destiny; and S, song; and sins, alas! how strong they be,' &c. the Earthen Vessel says that the How sad our state by nature is.' sermon was pleasing and instructive, Nay, even in avowedly worshipping and elevated in the heart the God, all manner of characters and church's covenant head.' 'Dr. all manner of objects, animate and Nugator preaches from the fragment inanimate, are addressed: Have of a word-TION, and expatiates in you no words? ah! think again;' a superior manner on predestina-Hasten, O sinner to be wise: TION, justificaTION, sanctificaTION, and glorificaTION.' Latchford, Huntington, Gadsby, Warburton, Cockles, are quoted as examples of the 'Hyper' school, and of the comic too. Mr. Cater, however, reserves the vials of his wrath for him of the Tabernacle,' (p. 168) whom he also attacks under the soubriquet of Neaniskos. He could have endured the humour of Rowland Hill, because it was natural and spontaneous, and mingled with all his modes of thought and forms of expression. But Neaniskos premeditates his jokes, designs them to produce effect, and repeats them ad nauseam. Rowland Hill was scarcely conscious of his own humour when others were tickled by it. So much cannot be said for the comic school, or for their chief. Rowland Hill was never guilty of scurrilous jesting. But who was it that called Surrey chapel that dung-hole,' and avowed that there was something good in Antinomianism; but as to Arminianism, it is one of the devil's strongholds!' Mr. Cater has a fling also both at 'Ye islands of the northern sea; 'Vital spark of heavenly flame; 'Awake and mourn, ye heirs of hell.' The very doom of the wicked forms the subject of others : ·- 'My thoughts on awful subjects roll; 'Like grass they flourish till Thy breath Shriek out and howl beneath Thy rod.' Mr. Cater objects, and not without reason, to hymns being made to enliven a mixed and jocose evening party, or to their being sung to quell disturbances at chapels or elsewhere. Mr. Jay was once preaching in Broad-street meeting, when a fine bull dashed into the chapel. The deacons at once sought to arrest his progress, and looking up to the preacher, bawled out, the congregation following, Praise God from whom all blessings flow.' More recently than this, a well-known preacher stopt the service and gave out the same verse while the crowds standing in the aisles were accommodated with seats. |