Notices of New Works. AURORA LEIGH. By ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. New York: C. S. Francis & Co. 1857. [From James Woodhouse, 137, Main Street. Here is a volume of uncommon energy from the pen of a very remarkable woman. "Aurora Leigh," is a novel in blank verse, into which the author tells us she has thrown her "highest convictions upon life and art," and it will probably be taken hereafter as the standard by which her true merits as a poet must be judged. Such judgment will place Elizabeth Barrett Browning foremost among the minds of the present age; and yet "Aurora Leigh," as a poem, is not pleasant reading. Rugged in the structure of its sentences, coarse, even to indelicacy, at times, in its language, the story occasionally kindles into poetry from the heat of the passion it embodies, but the object of the writer seems to have been to expose the shams and heartlessness of society, rather than to interpret Nature or open up new wells of enjoy ment in the human heart. Passages from the work descriptive of scenery in Eng land, France, Italy, might be given, which surpass any thing Mrs. Browning has be fore written, and dialogues occur throughout of wonderful dramatic force, but we think we can discern everywhere the influence of her husband upon her habits of thought and style of expression, an influence which has not been happy for her general popularity. We forbear presenting any outline of the plot of "Aurora Leigh," and must content ourselves with quoting the following passages, which will give the reader a good idea of the manner of the whole. Here is a suddenly awakened reminiscense of an old love: He bears down on me through the slanting years, The difference between men and women in love is thus hinted at: The man's need of the woman, here, Is greater than the woman's of the man, Said he) we see but one, ideally And really: where we yearn to lose ourselves And that's his way of thinking, first and last. SILVERWOOD. A BOOK OF MEMORIES. "Memories," which, like the music of Caryl, are pleasant and mournful to the soul. The unknown writer of this charming series of sketches endears herself more and more to the reader on every page of the volume, and we sincerely trust that we shall soon hear again from her, we use the feminine pronoun, for the writer is evidently enough a woman, and a woman of great delicacy of feeling and purity of sentiment. The words on the title page of any succeeding volume "By the author of Silverwood" will be a sufficient guaranty of its excellence, and we hail with pleasure the advent of a new Virginia claimant for the honours of literary fame. SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER. A MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO LITERATURE, SCIENCE AND ART. RICHMOND, FEBRUARY, 1857. THE INEFFICIENCY OF THE PULPIT. from every mountain-top and in every valley, week after week, with the grandest of themes to inspire, and the most tremendous of sanctions to enforce. This makes no reference to the innumerable week-day exercises conducted by ministers, which, in the way of regular sermons, prayer-meetings, revival services, miscellaneous addresses, &c., &c., would swell the number of appeals per week on this one topic, to the number of at least eighty thousand. Imagine a disciplined band of thirty thousand men (saying nothing of the irregular Methodist licentiates) steadily enforcing one cause, week after week! Men, too, of respectability and intelligence; with an audience, by associations and education, favorably prepossessed and inclined towards the subject. Imagine an active band of thirty thousand political speakers When we consider the vast appliances abroad in this country for the propagation of Christianity, is not every serious and reflecting mind surprised and disheartened at the apparently poor and inadequate result? There are in the United States, perhaps, forty-five thousand evangelical churches-and adding various irregular places of worship, the number would reach sixty-five thousand. There are more than thirty thousand regular ministers; besides an irregular Methodist clergy of some thirteen thousand local preachers; making in all fortythree thousand preachers of the gospel. A very respectable proportion of these men are the best educated men in the country. The others are, perhaps, men taken from the people, and sent out to preach, on account, it may be presumed, of their speaking faculties. One day in every week is appropriated to this body; it belongs exclusively to them. No busy hammers, no holiday pageants, no extra play-bills as at Paris, no governmentbands as at London, break in upon the solemn stillness of the day. All is tranquil, quiet. The Sabbath bells (most dulcet sound!) peal forth with unobstructed voice from every spire in the land every seventh day in the year. Public sentiment gives its sanction to the consecrated observance. The arm of the Law restrains all secular engagements. From so many pulpits, twice or three times, on that day, proceeds one general and uncontradicted testimony. "Tidings of great joy" are proclaimed been enlisted? VOL. XXIV-6 with no opposition-thus steadily haranguing through every week-a long succession of able minds having preceded them in the work-and what system could withstand them! How feeble have been the efforts of all other societies compared to such persistent, constant, methodised work as this! How poor the advocacy of any other philosophy compared to this eighteen hundred years' steady and sleepless energy! Take any one village: Sunday after Sunday we meet the same faces, sing the same hymns, hear the same appeals; and after five, ten, fifteen years, where are the results? How many intelligent, thoughtful men have Think, too, how their efforts are underlaid and backed by the tremendous social influences that work to the same end. The influence of wives, of mothers, of daughters, husbands, sons; the tone of society, the sentiment of the press, the religious books, tracts, newspapers, the Sunday-schools, Christian Associations, Bible societies, missionary societies, tract societies,-with their agents, colporteurs, &c., over the whole country, the efforts of individual Christians, &c. &c., these subtracted, and how much remains to be set down to the account of legitimate pulpit work! We presume no one, on taking this view of the matter, will doubt that the result of pulpit ministrations, taken as a whole, is enormously inadequate. No one, we think, can fail to see, that such a vast system of appliances ought to make an impression beyond what has followed from it. The press, for example, another power of the present age,clashing, diverse, multiform as it is,exercises an authority that has overshadowed every other; and why should a body, organized, compact, acting in concert, make itself less felt? There are fifteen hundred editors in the United States, and forty odd thousand ministers: which are the most potent? We mean in themselves, independent of the intrinsic authority and prestige of their subject matter? Certainly religion exercises in this country a very large and widely-reaching influence; but mainly this proceeds from a momentum already acquired from an energy long ago accumulated; and the question to be considered is, how much do the existing ministry add to the acting force? What accession do they contribute to its velocity and volume ? What then is the explanation of these things? What will account for the obvious discrepancy between so much expenditure and such meagre returns? We put aside of course, at once, the one great operating cause which contributes to obstruct and nullify the gospel; we mean that co-ordinate with and inherent in the subject. Any one who apprehends at all what true religion is, as the implantation of a new vital principle-the transfusion and impenetration of a radically diverse energy,—will not wonder if only here and there, some one evinces the transformation. It is the doctrine of a sound philosophy, and of the obvious construction of Scripture, that nothing less than the almighty power of Deity can effect this change. In one sense, therefore, it is not to be wondered at, that the world has been slow in accepting Christianity. All the activity of man is futile; all the effort of the church is impotent, until the dry bones shall be touched with the spirit of life. All this is true; but this is far from being the whole truth. God works by means; the ministry have been ordained to preach the gospel; and the blessing of the Spirit has been plighted for their success. Give us an active, skilful, sanetified ministry, and the dew of heaven will be forthcoming. Putting aside, then, this question of supernatural influences, we propose to inquire, why it is that the Christian ministry do not effect more than seems to result from so much labor. fine our inquiry to this country-though it will apply also to the evangelical pulpits of England and Scotland. We con A writer in the Edinburgh Review has divided the church parties of the English church into the High-church, the Low-church and the Broad-church. We would divide the churches (evangelical) of our country, into the Democratic, the Conservative, and the Genteel. The first will embrace the Methodist and Baptist denominations; the second, the various Presbyterians, the Congregationalists. &c.; and the third, the Episcopal church. For the purpose of our inquiry, we class together-first, the Episcopal, Presbyterian, Congregational, Lutheran, Dutch Reformed, &c., churches, and proceed to a consideration of the causes affecting their denominational development. We shall subsequently take up the Methodist and Baptist churches with reference to the same question,-premising that we regard the causes operating in the two cases to obstruct the progress of Christianity as, in most respects, essentially different. Take the Presbyterian church, (Old and New School.) Here is a body num. bering, say three hundred and seventy-six thousand. There are, perhaps, four thousand ministers. They are the best educated class of men in the community. In the way of general information and polite culture, unless the Congregational ministry be an exception, there is no question of it. That they are good men, no one will have a doubt of. That, as a body of Christians, they are faithful, devout, laborious, will be as freely admitted. Take them generally, their piety is of a high type. They are earnest, sincere, humble Christians. They give their lives to their work. They toil year after year on small salaries-often in trying situations, for the cause they are linked to. Here is piety, earnestness, learning, faithfulness, activity; what should there be to obstruct? What was the increase of the Presbyterian church during the year last reported?— The Old School numbered, in 1854, two hundred and twenty five thousand members; in 1855, two hundred and thirtythree thousand-an increase of eight thousand, about one to every twentyeight. The New School numbered, in 1854, one hundred and forty-one thousand members; in 1855, one hundred and forty-three thousand-an increase of two thousand, about one in eighty. The ministers of the Old School church numbered, in 1854, two thousand two hundred; those of the New School sixteen hundred. The number of converts to each minister of the first, was three and two thirds; to each minister of the second, about one. Sixteen hundred preachers preach a whole year, and each of them has at the end of the period one convert. On the other hand, take that portion of the Episcopal church in whom religion is not a mere system of posturing, of fashion, or of elegant sentiment, and where will you meet a more refined and beautiful Christianity? What church besides this could have produced that glorious and saintly minister, Henry Martyn? The modesty, the purity, the simplicity, the truthfulness, the self-de nial, the delicacy, the refinement, the zeal, the culture, the sweetness of temper-was not he the true forthputting of the true, real, apostolical church of England? It seems harder (as compared with other denominations) for the Episcopal church to throw itself cordially into the great popular evangelical movements of the day; but when it does do so, how entire, and single-minded, and unreserved the consecration! How pure, how true, how hearty the co-operation! Then, all the graces of Christianity seem to acquire new vigor from all that is pleasing and beautiful in the politer circles of social life. Here we find a clergy that are all emphatically gentlemen. They are no less faithful, earnest, laborious, than those we have just spoken of. They are also men of education. What are the statistics of the Episcopal church by the last returns? In 1853, there were one hundred and five thousand members of the Episcopal, church in the United States; in 1854, there were one hundred and seven thousand. The increase is two thousand, about one and one-fourth to each minister. One of the chief obstacles in these churches to a more rapid and marked success, lies, we believe, in the character of their preaching. Eleven thousand Presbyterian and Episcopal sermons are delivered every week; and how are they delivered? Accustomed as we are to good speaking in this country, let any one saunter, some Sunday, into (for example) a Presbyterian church. After hearing the choir sing a hymn or two, and one very short, and one enormously long prayer, the preacher commences the main service of the occasion. He is boxed up in a pulpit. He would think it sacrilege if he omitted to take a text, and accordingly a text he takes-applying naturally, or in the way of a conceit, to his subject. With this placarded thus in imagination above him, and which, according to his taste, he recurs to constantly as a sort of refrain-he launches out into his discourse, which will be sensible, or decorous, or fanciful, or vapid; but always formal. The sermon is written out. The speaker has come there with a discourse in his pocket, and its apothegms and its appeals he gives over to his auditors, whenever he can lay his finger on them. On their part, the congregation come to hear a sermon; yes, they come to hear a sermon; a certain amount is to be dispensed, and a general assent to be returned, and the church breaks up, and all go home. The sermon is criticised; the sentiments may be applauded; and it is considered very good advice; and there the matter ends. Not one heart has been touched-not one emotion awakened-not one resolution adopted. Not a human being, it may be, but, in a general way, has assented to, or admired the sermon; not one who, especially, and with a personal application, has grappled with its thoughts in his heart. How poor, to such a listener, such a speech-making as this!-after listening to the fervid appeals in the forum, where every sentence strives towards a markor to the varied, easy, familiar, elocution of the stump! Perhaps our adventurer has found his way into an Episcopal church. There is a death-like propriety. All is still as the grave. It is a "dim religious" edifice. There is stained glass, and lofty groined arches. People step about as if the ground were haunted. A genteel, grave sexton moves mysteriously from pew to pew. There are solemn texts staring out from the walls. The great emblem of Christianity is there broadly prominent, and now ingeniously evolved. Fashionable ladies and gentlemen, no one knows how, gradually fill the church. A solemn form comes silently forward in a stately robe, and, amid multitudinous folds, dramatically kneels in prayer. A strain of dream-like music breathes through the spacious aisles. And presently, "The Lord is in his Holy Temple, let all the earth keep silence before him," from a clear, chaste voice, initiates the pageant. The different parts of the service are then more or less devoutly gone through one of the most splendid and imposing rituals that the imagination has ever conceived, and one the most calculated to touch and impress an imaginative heart. A hymn is then read from the chancel, and sung in the gallery; and then twenty-five minutes are devoted to the reading of a perfectly unexceptionable and elegant produc tion. And that is the trumpet-call erst uttered "in the wilderness"-and which was thundered at Cesarea before Felix and Drusilla, touching that "righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come."! This is the dainty method by which the tremendous import of the gospellike arrow-root to the dying-is communicated to the mawkish stomachs of the higher society. How often is a true, manly, straightforward address heard in such a pulpit? Such are no highly coloured pictures of the preaching we hear in Presbyterian and Episcopal churches. Of minor points we will not just now speak. We commenced by speaking of the sermon. Here, as we have said, lies, we believe, one of the great and main obstacles to the success of these churches. It is in the mode of the preparation, and delivery, of these sermons, that is to be found in a great measure, we think, the source of that barrenness of results which characterizes this preaching. The Sunday address is prepared in the closet as a paper to be read, or as a discourse to be declaimed from a manuscript, and the mind becomes directed rather at a certain abstract theme, than on the audience itself as a body of living men to be incited to real action. The great question to be decided is, whether written sermons are effective? We assume, for such is the case, that the organizations in question do write their sermons. We know the vast difference of opinion that exists on this subject. We know how many of the most highly intelligent advocate it a priori. But our convictions are not at all the less implicitly established: we are, almost without a wavering of opinion, decisively fixed in our conclusion, that MS. sermons are the bane of these churches-and hang upon their ministries like a pesti |