That we ought to see CHRIST in the Histories of the Old Tes- The Desire of CHRIST sufficient for a Christian Soul The Necessity of a Preacher's making himself intelligible That Preachers should take the sense, as well as the words, of ERRATA. Page 74, note, for corruit read corruet. ,, 295, note, line 19, for consequenta.read consequenter. INTRODUCTION. No long time ago, in examining a village church in one of the midland counties, my attention was attracted by a paper in the Rector's pew, which somewhat resembled a placard. On investigation, I found it to be a sermon, headed, On the Vanity and Uncertainty of Human Life, and labelled, in case of an accident.' If, by chance, the worthy Incumbent should happen to leave behind him the discourse he intended to deliver, here was a safe reserve. Human life was sure always to be uncertain; moralists would always call it vain; the sermon, therefore, could never come mal-à-propos, and there it lay, bearing amusing witness to the character and value of if I may coin a word-English Homiliology. Of all stiff, unreal, stilted demonstrations of religion, probably the sermons of the last century were the most remarkable specimens; and if, perhaps nowhere to be found in their original pasteboard and brocade character, they are still formidable enough in the compositions of the school which denominates itself orthodox and moderate, and which is termed by others high-and-dry. The b |