ART. VI.-ASPLAND'S SERMONS.

Sermons on Various Subjects, chiefly Practical. By the late Robert Aspland, Minister of the New Gravel-Pit Chapel, Hackney. London: John Chapman, Newgate Street, 1847.-pp. 482.

WE profess ourselves no great readers of Sermons.-Yet our want of interest in this species of literature is occasioned-we must state in self-justification-not by its subject, but by its ordinary mode of treatment. Religion and duty are the grandest of all themes, lying close to the deepest, earliest wants of our mysterious frame; and like the objects of the outward world-the woods and hills and ever-circling stars-though celebrated age after age by prophets and bards, must possess an unfading freshness and beauty, would men only look at them earnestly with the eyes of their own minds, and, casting aside their technicalities and their conventionalisms, speak of them as they really believe and feel.-Few gifts would be more precious to the world, than the honest utterances of a prophet's heart. Few things could be studied with more profit, than the undisguised conclusions of a wise and thoughtful spirit, from his observation and experience of life.-What such a man has lived through, and reflected on, and gives back to the world, with the characters of his own moral individuality impressed on it-cannot fail to have the charm of novelty, though it should only be what happens to each one of us in passing from the cradle to the grave: and to be able to impart that gloss of novelty to themes that have been soiled and worn in the Schools-is the clearest indication of a great and powerful mind.

This merit attaches in no small degree to the volume before us. We have read it through, almost continuously; and yet we have never had a sense of weariness not that the discourses are all of equal excellence—not that the style does not at times border on the diffuse and the declamatory-not that the sentiments of the author are in every instance what we can regard as either profound or just ;-but there is diffused through the

:

whole a certain tone of freshness and vigour, a nobleness and elevation of spirit-the sure witness of an active and pregnant intelligence-which makes his words tell with a living power on the mind of the reader, and cast upon it the rich lights of a large and varied acquaintance with men and things.

The late Mr. Aspland was for many years a distinguished leader not only of the Unitarians, but of the once united Nonconformist body of the Three Denominations, in those generous struggles for religious freedom and equality, which marked the earlier part of the present century. His efforts in this cause aimed at something far higher than the mere emancipation of a sect, and were prompted by an enlarged and enlightened sense of the claims of every human intellect. Though a sincere believer in Revelation, and zealously attached to his own form of Christianity, he stood forward at a time, when such prominence incurred only obloquy and the grossest misrepresentation, as the intrepid and consistent asserter of the right of the Catholic, the Jew and the Deist, to the profession of their opinions and the exercise of their worship, unencumbered by the forfeiture of any political or social privilege.-His attachment to civil liberty, tempered by a wise reverence for the forms and usages of the British Constitution, was equally fearless and unswerving. With a well-cultivated and well-disciplined mind, thoroughly versed in the history, theology and general literature of his own country-he was pre-eminently a man of action, born to guide and to command; and if, with the common infirmity of our nature, he had some of the peculiarities incident to such a temperament-perhaps the condition of its associated excellence-they are all thrown into the shade, on a survey of his useful and noble life, by the remembrance of his generous spirit, his large philanthropy, his unwearied energy in the pursuit of the public good, and his contempt for every thing narrow, slavish and hypocritical.-The spirit of the man survives in his book. It bears on every page the strongest impress of his mind and character, softened by a copious infusion of deep devotional feeling, and displaying more human tenderness and a readier sympathy with the gentle and domestic affections, than many who had known him only in the public relations of life, might be prepared to expect.

What we most like in the volume, is its masculine and practical tone. It is the production of one who knew the world, had studied man and life, and dealt with realities— not the fancy work of a mere chamber student, dwelling amidst dreams, and trafficking in words.

These Discourses were selected from Mr. Aspland's papers, and have been given to the public with great feeling and good taste, by his Son.* In the religious communion to which Mr. Aspland belonged, they will without a doubt be much read and highly esteemed. They deserve, and are fitted for, a much wider circulation: and should these words of unfeigned commendation chance to catch the eye of any reader, not otherwise likely to become acquainted with the Volume, we can only hope they may introduce him to a work, which is not meant to set forth the views of a particular sect, but addresses itself in a truly Catholic spirit to the Christian sentiment of every thoughtful and pious mind; which arrests the attention, if not by any passages of highly impassioned and imaginative oratory, yet by the sustained dignity and mingled vigour and sprightliness of its clear and manly style; and in its abstinence from all subtle doctrinal questions, in its keeping to the broad high-way of the Gospel morality, in its earnest enforcement of the paramount claims of conscience and duty, in its rational and benignant theology, in its hearty love of good men of all churches and religions-carries back our thoughts to the best productions of the old Latitudinarian school of the Church of England.

Mr. Aspland's Christianity is distinguished by a generous toleration for the errors of all sincere and earnest minds. There is much wise and admirable reflection on this subject in the Discourse on Scepticism, which shows that he had conversed closely with his own heart, and had watched narrowly the workings of other men's minds. We have not a little sympathy with the mellowed conservatism of feeling which pervades the Sermon on Ancestry and Posterity. In the Addresses to the young, we have been much struck with a solemn and earnest pathos, springing evidently from a sagacious perception of

*A preceding volume with the same title was published during the Author's lifetime, in 1833.

the many perils of life, from generous sympathy with the erring and inexperienced, and a profound insight into the true sources of human happiness. Mr. Aspland's observations are drawn rather from life than from books. He seems more familiar with truth in its concrete applications than its abstract apprehension. There is no tendency to the vague and mystical in his views of things. Occasionally in a few bold and vigorous touches-he gives you an expressive outline of character, not without a deep and tender under-tint of pathetic colouring. See some admirable specimens in the Sermon on Changes of Mind and Character.

We might instance the two Discourses on the Government of the Thoughts, and those on the Prodigal Son, and on the Rich Man and Lazarus, as proofs of the power which a vigorous and observant mind always possesses, of infusing freshness into themes, which have been so often handled, that one might suppose every element of interest and instruction had long since been exhausted.

We cannot yield unqualified assent to his suggestion (p. 159) of the desirableness of keeping a minute diary of the daily thoughts, as a means of self-discipline and self-purification. A different process may, we know, be required for different minds. But for the scrupulous and the sensitive, who often find the greatest difficulty in regulating the train of their thoughts, we believe that any practice, which should give increased prominence in the mind to their personal condition, would prove pernicious rather than beneficial. There are numbers who need to be carried out of themselves, and to have their minds healthfully fixed on external duties and innocent activity. To record facts of daily observation, or even to institute a careful analysis of internal states and processes of thought -may often indeed be a great help to knowledge; but the practice in this case is a scientific exercise and not a moral discipline. Our Puritan forefathers, we are aware, were in the constant habit of keeping religious diaries; but religion with them, shaped into the hard and definite form of an absolute creed, was an objective reality; and moreover, the robust vigour and hardy discipline of their outward life, prevented the practice from degeneCHRISTIAN TEACHER.-No. 36.

Y

rating into a dreamy and corrupting sentimentalism. Yet even with them, we doubt whether it had not a narrowing effect on the mind, and did not generate spiritual selfishness and pride.

We cannot give a clearer idea of Mr. Aspland's conception of Christianity, than in the following powerfully written passage (p. 417) :

“There is not in reality a sound maxim in reasoning or science, or a just conclusion from history, or a truth built upon human nature, which does not agree with the grand moral principles of the gospel, as before described, and which does not directly or indirectly point to them. They have been spoken of, indeed, by those that make and those that bow down to and worship creeds, the worst idols that have come out of human hands, as generalized Christianity, as if all essential truth were not a generalization or induction from particulars. Did not one apostle generalize religion, when he resolved it all into the royal law of equity? Did not another generalize it when he declared the end of the law and the beginning of the Gospel commandments to be charity out of a pure heart? and did not our Lord himself generalise it, when he declared all the law and the prophets to be summed up and fulfilled in the love of God and the love of man? Here is divine authority for setting up great principles above forms and details— for magnifying the " weighty matters of the law" above "the tithing of herbs-the anise and the cummin" of creeds and ceremonies. These essential doctrines-rational and therefore Christian, moral and therefore powerful-are the spirit of truth, the spirit of God. All the vitality and power of every scheme of faith is owing to them, though they may be overlooked, and even for a time buried, in the huge mass of popular belief. When decomposed and disembodied, they will act with greater energy and produce fuller and wider social happiness. Christianity will then, in and by them, be glorified, and it will be acknowledged by wise and candid men, that a scheme of doctrine which will bear this reduction to the simplicity and purity of reason, which will be more like the original Gospel as it is thus reformed, and which in its simplest and purest state will be most efficacious in promoting love to God and good service to man- has within itself a witness of its truth, a witness strengthening with the succession of ages (for time sweeps away error and delusion) and growing with the vigour and activity of the human mind, before which all folly and falsehood are doomed finally to perish.'

There are some fine things nobly said in the Sermon on