MR. T. T. LYNCH'S SERMONS.*

No one can read without emotion the simple preface with which Mr. Cox introduces these Sermons to the public. No more pathetic story of pious courage was ever told. All who ever heard Mr. Lynch preach must have felt something of pain at the too visible suffering of the preacher, mingle with the singular delight of listening to one who in copiousness of thought has, per- haps, never been surpassed. But, as Mr. Cox says, even those " who loved him did not know how much he suffered." He had endured for years the tortures of angina pectorm Any mental effort sufficed to bring on attacks of the disease, and an attack might at any time have been fatal. To stand up in the pulpit master- ing the pain which he knew might grow into the pang of death was an act of marvellous courage, and it was done not once, but many times. No heroic daring of outward peril seems to us to match it. Some of those who read these lines may have known what it is to feel, whether from real or from simulated disease, the terror of imminent death, and know how it unnerves the mind. To master not only the physical agony, but this dread, was surely one of the greatest victories that the spirit has ever won over the flesh. Mr. Cox may well say of his friend, "he was simply the bravest man I have ever known." The volume before us had its origin in circumstances connected with the author's health. He had tried, but in vain, to preach the two sermons which a congre- gation usually expects from its minister. The idea then suggested itself that be should write down what some of his friends might deliver from his pulpit. Accordingly he wrote the twelve sermons of this volume, furnishing each one but the last with, two prayers, • Sermons for mu Curates. By the late Thomas T. Lynch, Minister of Mornington Church. London Stratum and Co. 187L which were to precede and follow the discourse. But writing proved almost as exacting a work as preaching. Mr. Cox says:— " To think, to compose, was an unfailing delight to him ; the trea- suries from which he drew his thoughts seemed inexhaustible ; but to write was an agony which no words can fully utter. Hardly was he seated at his desk before he was assailed by the rending, suffocating pangs of his cruel disease. As the work went on, the anguish grew, until the intolerable agony compelled him to fling himself on the floor, where he lay, patiently and steadfastly enduring the pressure of his great pain. No sooner was the fierce spasm past than he rose, seated himself once more at his desk, and resumed his labour till seized by another intolerable spasm. And thus the day would wear on, labour and anguish alternating many times, until at last, utterly exhausted by the weary conflict, he would lie still and prostrate on the ground. On the original manuscripts of this volume there are pathetic marks of the agony he endured before be would yield. Here and there, especially toward the close, his handwriting, ordinarily so neat and regular, grows large, straggles wildly across or down the page, and looks as though his hand must have been jerked and dragged by an alien force. How gal- lantly his spirit bore him through these painful and dangerous contests is proved by the fact, that some of these services were written in a single day, although, besides prayers before and after sermon, the ma- jority of them contain discourses which occupied nearly an hour in the delivery. In copying them out for the press, I have found that each of them furnishes, in the mere penmanship, a long and hard day's work for a man in good health. And from this it may be inferred how much they must have cost him, with his frail body and that perpetually re- newed conflict with one of the keenest pains which flesh is heir to."

To this pain and to the heroic courage which endured and mastered it, the world owes something of rare excellence. Such of Mr. Lynch's sermons as have been published before were taken

down by reporters, and, in one sense, failed to do justice to the powers of the preacher. The exuberance of thought and fancy

were a distinct power to the speaker, though indeed they limited

the number of appreciative hearers, but they have sometimes a less favourable influence in the judgment formed on the writer.

They could not always satisfy fully the requirements which the reader, always more exacting than the hearer, is apt to make. In the sermons before us this exuberance is under restraint.

Abounding in thought—we would be understood to mean sug- gestive rather than argumentative thought—beyond all the ser- mons that we know, they show, to use Mr. Cox's words, "a more discriminate use of the inexhaustible wealth of his intellect and imagination."

It was said, in a brief notice of Mr. Lynch's works and character that appeared in these columns on the occasion of his death, that, great preacher as he was, he was not a great theologian. If, in speaking of the present volume, we repeat the observation, we certainly do not say it by way of disparagement. Those who know the story—a painful story, to which it will be sufficient thus to allude—of the relations between Mr. Lynch and the communion to which he belonged, will remember that it was a supposed defi- ciency on that side of theology which is most easily appreciated by ordinary minds,—doginatic statement, that was made the chief charge against him. We could imagine the charge repeated, but that all depreciatory voices must be silenced in the presence of such a life as his, by a reader of this volume. Those who demand in every sermon a statement of "the scheme of redemption" would be profoundly dissatisfied with it. Its language, indeed, implies throughout a belief that would be called orthodox by any but a Calvinist tribunal, but in dogmatic asser- tion it is singularly wanting. Mr. Lynch seems to move in a serene atmosphere, quite above the region of controversy. Man as he stands in Christ, in all the manifold relations of his life to

God and to his fellows, is his theme ; and he treats it with singular power of insight, and, if we may use the phrase in such a reference, with remarkable tact. The "experimental" discourse is apt to be even more distasteful to the ordinary hearer than the dogmatic. But it would be a very hard and worldly nature indeed that

should feel distaste for what is to be found here. From beginning to end there is not a touch of narrowness, a syllable of cant. We shall give a passage in which Mr. Lynch approaches as nearly as he ever does to dogmatic theology, and we think that our readers will feel that it bears out what we have said about Mr. Lynch's characteristic attitude on such subjects, while we are sure that they will appreciate its singular beauty :—

44 Here is the Atonement: right against wrong, good against evil, love against hate, in such a way as to nullify what the adversaries have done, conquer and bind them, rectify whatever has gone wrong, and replace man's dark and low estate by one of greater and safer glory than before ; and, as the Doer of all this, Divine Love shows its ardour and power in bearing the sufferings that the work involves. The Atone- ment is the great work of reparation, rectification, compensation, the making glorious amends to God by establishing what is eternally well- pleasing to Him on the ruins of what is eternally hateful: and the sufferings endured by Christ in thus overcoming wrong with right, evil with good, give a glory to this atonement, and make it very dear to / God, and very dear to us. They give Christ great power over us, mak- ing us both trust him as pledging God's love to us, and follow him, in so far as our way must be one with his, with devotion and courage. The sufferings are not the Atonement, but they make it very dear. They were the condition on which alone it could be made ; and, by their influence on our hearts, it is effectually made for us. The Atonement is the introduction by the work of the Lord Jesus, who died for us, of eternal righteousness and joy, in a way so glorious that the amplest, the noblest, the sweetest amends are made to God—yes, and to the suffering universe also—for the long dark reign of evil and all the mischiefs wrought under its sway."

One of the most remarkable things about the book is, as the editor says, its cheerfulness. Even such a sentence as this, " What a heaven must that be for which it is worth while to endure such a world as this !" stands almost by itself. Every page is full of a bright, clear, genial wisdom, which it seems impossible to dissociate from the idea of a thoroughly happy life. And he had the hap- piness of the servant who is always ready for his Lord. This characteristic of cheerfulness, sometimes seeming to break into a quiet smile, shows itself in the specimens which we give, almost at random, of the preacher's manner :— "A worldly man is a man not mended; a religious man is often a man spoiled in the mending."

"If we cannot merit heaven, we cannot have heaven without merit." "God does not reject what we can do because of what we cannot."

'' That which is best in you is your appreciation of what is bettor than you."

"Sometimes we may look at the stars ; sometimes we must look to our feet ; when we are resting we may do the one rather; when we are walking we must rather do the other."

With one more extract we must conclude. It is from the sermon called "The Great Refusal,"—on the young man who went away sorrowful, when he was told to sell all that he had:—

" There are very few extraordinary openings of any kind in most men's lives ; but there are sure to be at least a few very testing hours. And these hours often come just as the youth is turning man. He has professed, and has really felt, much admiration for noble things and noble persons. Education has directed his enthusiasm, and the world has not yet damped it. What lacks he ? Courage, perhaps, to become a foremost advocate of an unpopular truth, which truth ho has privately seen and honoured ; or, perhaps, hardness ' enough to become soldier for anything; he has a silver tongue, but not a strong hand ; he will be trumpeter on gala days, but must not be looked for among the slain, or the surviving, in decisive hours. Many have preached the kingdom of heaven, saying : 'It will come ; it is at hand ;' who, when it has come, but with 'garments rolled in blood,' have fled, not tarrying to welcome it. How indeed could they welcome such a

coming But let us not mistake. As the test may not come to us, being rulers and being rich, so neither may it come in one hour, but may rather be applied through many a weary day. 'Wilt thou be perfect?' is the question put to us. Canst thou persist in thy choice of the better part when it still exposes thee to the worse opinion ? Canst thou persevere in work unrewarded on earth, believing that thy reward will be great in heaven ? Canal thou still love according to the first pure love of thy soul, when great love itself does not yet appear, to be thy paymaster, though but in his own coin? Having been invited by thy God, by his word that " speaketh " day after day, by thy own soul that has listened with delighted awe, to give thyself wholly to what will cost thee friends, and fame, and ease, and gain thee only an honoured grave and a heavenly home—hast thou refused "Him that. speaketh ?"' It is the Great Refusal.' 'Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he bath no heart to it!' said the ancient sage sadly. The very poorest man holds, is some sort, the world in his hand, and might buy wisdom and honour if he would."