15 JUNE 1867, Page 22

Church :Seasons and Present Times: Sermons. By George C. Harris,

M.A. Simple Sermons. By William Henry Ranken, M.A. Stanchns and Stumbling. By James Erasmus Philipps, M.A. (Rivingtons.)-

These three small volumes of plain and short sermons deserve a word of praise. It is not often that we hear three sermons one after another of which we can say the same. Still more rare is it to find three collec- tions of sermons of which it can be said truly. Yet if all clergymen would be content to preich simply and straightforwardly, to think what it is that their people want and what is in their power to give them, we should hear fewer strings of texts and metaphysical doctrines that are most puzzling to the speakers.