PROGRESS OF THE SPECIAL SERVICES.
IT is with the greatest deference that we ask whether the subject and treatment of all the sermons at Westminster Abbey, or at its chapel-of-ease St. Margaret's, have been of a character to perform the office expected. from them ? We can perfectly understand the zeal and high feeling of the clergymen, who believe it to be their duty to expound the most sublime truths in the most direct and positive manner—who will proclaim their mission and its ultimate object from the first : but we may ask what is the special function of those sermons ? It is to draw into the Church those who have hitherto stood aloof, either through indifference, through the ex- clusiveness of our church-building arrangements, or through any other cause of repulsion. These sermons, therefore, are to act as a bridge for " the heathen," if we may so express A—between the heath and the temple—between the wilderness outside and the sacred enclosure ; and on the first entrance of the stranger he is perhaps scarcely to be addressed in a language which is still strange to him. It is the less necessary since there is a broader language through which the ear and heart of the heathen may be
reached. We see objections that the services are perhaps too complicated for the purpose ; and we could well imagine that the simple preaching of a sermon might in some respects be the most attractive and the least perplexing to the new corners. Yet there are advantages not to be slighted in the music. The Church of England cannot be expected to waive those rites which constitute its form of divine worship ; nor have the oongr egations evinced any indisposition to take part in the services. The fact is, that when men are brought together in considerable numbers, they are seldom or never hardened against the sympathetic in- fluence of an appeal to their religious feelings, and they will al- most invariably join with reverence in any form of decorous public worship.
Now what are the sermons that have told best ? They have been those on " common things," those which have drawn their illustra- tions from objects within the view of every one. They appealed to experience within every man's observation ; they told those who came to be taught what it was they were to do in order to be in harmony with the laws dictated by the Creator for the govern- ment of His works, and implanted in the conscience of thinking creatures ; for if religion is the life of morality, conduct is its body ; and the erring untrained multitude of our towns ever wel- come guidance when it comes in the spirit of a true Christianity. Preachers who address their congregation in this spirit speak in the language which reaches the heart of every created being. They are able to appeal to the works of the Creator as proofs of His laws. In their exalted mission they are empowered to make the creation it- self the vestibule of the temple. It is in this style of sermon that the preacher draws from science with its " latest intelligence" the evidence that goes home to the man of the world living in the events of the day, with a power that from the passing time speaks in the voice of eternity. Every additional step in researches of science discloses to us the fact that we are not alone in the creation. The newest discovery, or rather the newest reflections upon discovery, have made us ask whether it is possible that the beings by whom we are surrounded, widely as they may depart . from our own type, are themselves without some share in that consciousness, or that sense of beauty, or that happiness—that Ifs, which they assist in imparting. Is it possible that the rose, the forest, the mountain, the solar system, the firmament, and the firmaments upon firmaments, can exist solely for man ? Is it probable that the sense of love which is created by the aspect of beauty can exercise its power only in one direction ? While the botanist leads us to explore whole kingdoms of vegetation, he does but open up new evidences from the book of the creation available to the preacher ; just as the telescope gives Nichol the materials for an insight into " the Architecture of the Heavens," while the microscope again discloses to us a boundless view of Divine power. Amongst the myriads of illustrations that crowd upon us, we may take almost any, however minute. One of the most beautiful works which have lately been published is a series of photographs from objects magnified in the microscope. It is issued to subscribers in limited numbers, and may not have reached many of our readers. The last number is de- voted to the Bee ; whose sting excels the lancet in the elabora- tion, care, and finish of its manufacture ; whose hairy tongue is like a living hair glove, most elaborately designed to collect the materials'for honey; and whose powerfu_ wing is aided by a me- chanical contrivance of the most beautiful ingenuity. Every one ]nows, or may know, that the bee has two wings on each side. At the edge of one wing runs a stiff nerve which in the micro- scope is a bar. Along this bar at frequent intervals are ranged semicircular barbed hooks, like the half of a ring, so placed that the edge of the other wing lies within the semicircles which clasp it, and at the same time permit it to play freely, as the rings of a window-curtain move along the brass bar. By this contrivance, the two wings become united as one, yet freely play, from different hinges. " Design " is a human word implying in its very nature human imperfection, yet it is the only term which we can apply to the purpose which runs through formations like that of the bee's wing. It is the microscope with its minute search that enables us to discover this design in everything that we can dissect,— in all living creatures and the parts thereof, to millions upon millions, always tending to life and happiness. Who can exa- mine those illustrations of the power of the Creator and of the law which rules over His work, and not feel an impulse to sing in his soul " Gloria in excelsis " ?
Previous page
