HENRY WARD BEECHER'S SERMONS.*-It is a little remarkable that till now there has not been what might be called a handsome "library edition" of the sermons of Henry Ward Beecher, the preacher who is more widely known than any other in America. For years, it has seemed as if there could hardly be anywhere a first-class religious newspaper, in New York City or out of it, unless its conductors gave weekly a full report of one of his sermons; or at least a sketch of some one of his "lecture room talks." But at last we have two handsome good sized octavo volumes, which are published by Messrs J. B. Ford & Co., from "verbatim reports by T. J. Ellingwood," to which Mr. Beecher has himself added a preface. This preface covers but two pages, but it is by no means the least interesting part of the book. We should like to transfer the whole of it to our pages, as it shows what this great pulpit orator deems essential to success in gaining the interested attention of church going people who listen to sermons. Mr. Beecher says that sermons will be "interesting," not so much "by the merit of their contents," as "by their skilfull adap tation to the wants of men." And again: "The master sermons of one age will fall powerless on another." "The sermons that will be read by multidudes are those which bring God's infinite truth into vital relations with the thoughts, sympathies, enterprises, habits, loves, hatreds, temptations and sins, ideals and aspirations of the times in which the preacher lives." And again: "A few sermons there are, a very few, that so grasp the heart truths in their universal forms as to be interesting and powerful alike in every age. But few good sermons can live longer than the generation for which they were made. The true preacher is to be eminently a man of his own time." In other words, every congregation is always, and without exception, under the sway of a thousand subtle influences that are changing imperceptibly even from week to week. Each individual feels them, though no man can analyse them. There is what may be called the "spirit of the week," or the "spirit of the occasion,"- —more evanescent even than the "spirit of the times." Now the "merit" of the sermons of two preachers being equal, the *The Sermons of Henry Ward Beecher, in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. From verbatim reports by T. J. ELLINGWOOD. "Plymouth Pulpit." First Series— September, 1868-March, 1869. Second Series-March-September, 1869. New York: J. B. Ford & Co. 1869. 8vo. pp. 438,466. clergyman who takes advantage of this subtle state of feeling in the congregation, even by the slightest allusion, finds the fuel as it were all prepared, ready to his hand; and fire is kindled at once, and no one knows how. While the preacher who does not adapt himself to this subtle spirit, will find little or no response. He works at an immense disadvantage. He has to dry his wood before he can hope to fire it. During the war, a very popular clergyman preached a sermon on the nature of God's government over men. It was a solid, instructive sermon, and the congregation evidently followed him with interest and satisfaction as he developed his argument. But there was no special glow in the pulpit, and no warm response from the pews. At last, the preacher had sufficiently felt his way, and brought out the doctrine of his discourse in such a way as to convince the intellect, when he proceeded to remind his hearers that one of the characteristics of a good government is, that it does not make itself conspicuously seen or felt. Often under a good government men scarcely know that there is any government at all. But, said he, changing his manner, and with tones that fairly electrified the whole congregation, "if you want to find whether you are under a government, FIRE ON FORT SUMTER!" If a cannon ball had crashed through the walls of the church, it could not have produced more emotion. From that moment the orator had his audience breathless and spell-bound. Now suppose he had said those very same words five years before, they would have fallen cold and dead. Suppose they had been uttered before a a British audience, in a British church, that very Sunday morning. We repeat our quotation from Mr. Beecher's preface: "The master sermons of one age will fall powerless on another." Many a minister has found that a sermon which even one short year before seemed to carry all before it, had with the lapse of a twelvemonth somehow lost all its special power. To quote Mr. Beecher again, there must be a "vital relation " between the sermon and the "thoughts, sympathies, enterprises, habits, loves, hatreds, temptations and sins, ideals and aspirations" which then and there are swaying the minds of the hearers. And, as we understand it, it is by working ever on this line that Mr. Beecher has attained his success and his reputation. THE OVERTURe of Angels.*-Messrs. J. B. Ford & Co., have also published in a beautiful volume, with the title which we here put down, that portion of Mr. Beecher's forthcoming "Life of Jesus, the Christ," which depicts the scenes and events that cluster about the birth of our Lord. REV. MR. GAGE'S "RELIEF MAPS OF PALESTINE.-The Rev. W. L. Gage, of Hartford, Conn., published some months ago a "Relief Map" of Palestine, which has been widely sold, and is now quite generally known. He proposes to publish, on the first of May, "A Relief Map of New Testament Palestine," in similar style, and on July 15th, he will also publish a Map of the Sinaitic Peninsula, and the Scene of the Wanderings of the Israelites. The price of the first two maps, neatly framed, is $1 each; and they may be had by remitting this sum to Mr. Gage by mail. The price of the Map of the Sinaitic Peninsula will be $1.50. These sums will cover the cost of transportation to any part of the United States. The maps are put up in such a way that they ought to go without being injured to the most remote parts of the country. HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL. THE XI.TH AND XII.TH VOLUMES OF FROUDE'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND.-These volumes appear with a change of title, indicating that instead of proceeding to the close of Elizabeth's reign, the work terminates with the defeat of the Armada. These volumes are, therefore, the last of the series. Mr. Froude's reason for stopping at this point is not a very conclusive one; since the supremacy of Protestantism in England can hardly be considered to have been absolutely settled until the Revolution of '88. The two volumes before us are filled up with the intrigues of the European Princes and Cabinets, which are narrated with the author's wonted perspicuity and liveliness, and with the utmost detail. The stirring events are the execution of the Queen of Scots and the dispersion and defeat of Philip's fleet. The most obvious *The Overture of Angels. By HENRY WARD BEECHER. New York: J. B. Ford & Co. 8vo. pp. 55. + History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada. By JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE, M. A. (Vols. xi. and xii.) New York: C. Scribner & Co. 1870. merits of Froude are his masterly skill in the grouping of events, his descriptive power, and his animated and brilliant style. His work is not in the "old Almanac style," as the dry, unreadable method of composing history has been characterized. As to the more solid qualifications for historical writing, it is evident that Mr. Froude has diligently explored the materials offered to his inspection in the State Paper Office, and in the Spanish Archives. Whether he has accurately followed and cited his documents cannot be absolutely decided until they shall have been examined by others or presented to the public in print. A rather savage criticism of Froude, in the "Saturday Review," taxes him with "incurable inaccuracy," but brings little proof in support of the im putation. The examples of inexact statement, which the Reviewer adduces, are mostly trivial. At the same time, there is a smartness and evident taste for strong coloring in Froude, which excite a certain degree of distrust, and make us regret the absence of more abundant, and explicit marginal evidence for the statements of the text. As a lively and powerful picture of an eventful portion of Elizabeth's reign, the later volumes of this work will always maintain a very high rank. In some other aspects, as a historical production, it is, in a marked degree, deficient. The Constitutional History of this formative and preg nant period is very scantily and imperfectly treated. A student of the growth of the English system of government must resort to Hallam and other writers, for he will derive little satisfaction from Froude. The greatest defect, however, is in the way in which the ecclesiastical history of England is treated. Much complaint is made, and with some justice, of the hostility and contempt with which the English Episcopal Church is uniformly mentioned. What a meagre and, in many respects, positively incorrect idea of the progress and character of Protestantism in England would be gained, if a reader were shut up to the instructions of this history! The Author is one of the free-thinkers of the "earnest" type, and, with all his vigor and terseness, is not free from the cant of his school. Many sentences and paragraphs sound like an echo of some of the old, oracular utterances of Carlyle. In fact, the moral judgments of Froude are not only untrustworthy, but are often vacillating and inconsistent. It is not without indignation that one reads (Vol. I., pp. 35, 36) the observations upon the war in the Netherlands, and the expediency of a surrender to Spain on the part of the heroic people who were founding a Great Republic, and giving an immortal example of self-sacrificing patriotism. Mr. Froude's estimate of the character of Mary of Scotland is a righteous one, and will do something to dispel the halo which still lingers about the brow of this intellectual, energetic, fascinating, but bad, mischievous woman. So his unveiling of the mendacity, fickleness, imprudence, selfishness, and other evil traits of Elizabeth, will aid in correcting the exaggerated impression relative to her sagacity and genius, which has not been dislodged from the popular mind. Wherever she departed from Burghley's counsels, she uniformly blundered. We must say of Froude's book, as of so many other books, that being so good, it is a pity that it is not better. In these last vol. umes there is, at least, nothing so utterly unpardonable as the defense of the atrocious murder of Sir Thomas More, and the hardly less iniquitous execution of Cromwel, whom, it will be remembered, Froude praises through his whole career up to the very steps of the scaffold, but there turns round and apologises for his destruction. The story of intrigue and deception is spun out, in these volumes, to a somewhat wearisome length; and if Froude, in case he proceeded, were to continue his narrative with the same minuteness, it may be well that he stops at this point. We think, however, that the remainder of Elizabeth's reign might well have been presented with more brevity and condensation. and thus completeness be given to a work which is really left a fragment. Portions of history may profitably be written in this detailed fashion, but life is too short to render it possible for the whole long story of human affairs to be thus narrated. MOMMSEN'S HISTORY OF ROME, VOLUME II.-The first volume of this work was noticed at some length in the last Number of the New Englander. The one now before us takes up the history at the opening of the wars with Carthage, in 264 B. C., and carries it forward through about a century, to the close of the third Macedonian war in 168. To most readers, probably, it will appear a much more interesting book than its predecessor. In the twilight of the early centuries of Rome, little more can be seen than the great outlines of political and social institutions, and the *The History of Rome. WILLIAM P. DICKSON, D. D. 1870. 12mo. pp. 568. By THEODOR MOMMSEN. Translated by the Rev. |