sea. Perhaps the objects proposed are too numerous, and the Committee composed of men of minds too diverse to work together without compromise, which will impair the strength of their work; but it is possible, that under the circumstances this could not have been avoided, and therefore we will still hope that GOD may overrule all to the furtherance of His will, and the evangelization of the benighted and hitherto neglected masses which, swarm around our great metropolis,, Sermons by the late Rev. C. T. Erskine, M.A., Incumbent of S. Michael's Church, Wakefield: with a Memoir of his life. Edited by the Bishop of BRECHIN. London: Saunders, Otley, and Co. THE world's heroes are known, their deeds are extolled, and men love to speak of them, and are proud to own a connection with them. Their memories are revered, their examples set forth as beacons to lead others on to worldly distinction and heroic deeds. Monuments are erected to their memories, days are observed in their honour. In fact, the world worships its heroes, because it owes its successes apparently to their conquests or to their intellect it flourishes on their discoveries, and improves on their experience. And why is it that the memory of the Church's heroes is less generally revered ? T First, because it is the very nature of a saint to be humble and retiring, to conceal his own part in the good that is done, and to hide himself while his light is shining before the world; the very essence of his heroism consists in his willingness to be nothing, to glorify God, and not himself. Secondly this happens because the world appreciates display. The unobtrusive goodness, therefore, of a saint is too often regarded as something puerile by those who forget that "not many wise, not many noble" in their own esteem are called to be heroes of the Church; but those who become as little children, those who commit themselves to GOD, to will and to do with them as He sees fit. These are they who become pillars of the Church, and champions of the Catholic Faith; these are they in whom the Church rejoices, to whom she feels it a privilege to be united still in the mystical communion of Saints. But further, it must be admitted that the English character in its most refined form, and it need scarcely be said that it is in the Church such refinement is pre-eminently to be found-is essentially shrinking-shrinking, we may venture to say, to a fault. And so it has happened that the Saints whom the English Church has produced are mostly "hidden1 saints." It will be a great thing for her when she shall learn to cast off some of this reserve. Saintly undoubtedly was he whose memoir is now before usone whom we revere not only for his personal holiness and for the peculiar beauty and modesty of his character, but for his unflinching consistency in doctrine and the sound catholic views which have doubtless directed many a wavering soul aright. The influence set up by true objective teaching never ceases, but gathers strength as it goes. It is eternal in its origin, and eternal in its duration. In support of the above remarks we give extracts from the Memoir. 66 My friend, Charles Thomas Erskine, was of rare genius; by nature shy and reserved, to the last there was in him a constitutional sensitiveness which was often mistaken for pride; men who regard things from the outside did not at first appreciate the worth of the jewel within the casket; but the well defined print-marks which his influence left, wherever he was known, testify to the depth, the sincerity and purity of a singularly noble and intelligent disposition.”—Pp. i. ii. At a very early age Mr. Erskine manifested considerable intellectual powers, and was regarded by men of ability and learning as one in whom the germs of greatness could not be hidden. Naturally," says his biographer, "of a modest and retiring disposition and of delicate health, he took but little delight in the ordinary sports and occupations of children of his own age; of an essentially devout turn of mind, it was said of him by his mother, a short time before her death, a few years ago, that she believed from the age of four his earnest endeavour had been to serve GOD."-P. iii. Of his youth we give the following brief notice: "In 1836 he was confirmed by Bishop Walker, in Edinburgh, and in 1838 he was admitted a civis of the university of that city; and though he did not remain there more than six months he obtained a mathematical prize. During his residence in Edinburgh on this occasion he attended the church of the Rev. Daniel Bagot, now Dean of Dromore, and secured his kind notice and a friendship which ended only with his death. I find amongst his manuscripts long notes taken from Mr. Bagot's lectures delivered at S. James' at this time, and which he considered of much value as bearing on the Socinian controversy, in which Mr. Bagot was a well-versed and able champion on the side of orthodoxy. "A serious attack of illness prevented him from following any. systematic course of reading for nearly three years, though during that time he was not idle in pursuing his studies in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, 1 Under this title the Editor of the Churchman's Companion is collecting a gallery of modern worthies from the office, and the counting house, and the cottage, whose memories would certainly not otherwise have survived. All honour to the undertaking. It is one among many signs of energetic management in our contemporary 2 Q VOL. XXVI. Arabic, &c., and in mathematics, under the care of two of the Professors of Dollar Academy. His kind friend, Mr. Bagot, too, who sought the romantic scenery of the Ochils, during his summer holiday from the labours of his church in Edinburgh, bestowed a superintending care on his reading in theology during this period. This interruption of regular study, which in the case of many youths of his age would have been most detrimental, did not in his case produce any injurious effects. In truth, his was a mind which was peculiarly able to educate itself; and the locality in which he was now placed aided him in this. Botany and geology, these had from childhood been entrancing amusements to him; and now in his long wanderings in the hills he was able to pursue these sciences, and he soon acquired a knowledge of them which surpassed that of many professed students. To muse on the history of his native land, and to recall her wild legends, and the heroic deeds of her children; to behold the beautiful scenes around him, to meditate on God and God's works—all this was to him more real education at such a time, and tended more to make him such as his friends knew him in after life, than any systematic course would have done.", -Pp. xiv. xv. During this period of his life, from seventeen to nineteen, his thoughts were frequently committed to writing in the form of essays, sermons, and poems; many of which still remain. His university career began in 1842. He was matriculated at Durham, and shortly after was appointed to a foundation scholarship. "The year following he gained the Thorp Scholarship, and in 1844 was re-admitted to it, distinguishing himself at the same time by gaining the College Mathematical Prize. At his examination for B.A. degree he gained a double second class, the examiners signifying their sense of his merit by nominating him to the Van Mildert Scholarship; the following year he obtained the Hartley Theological Prize; and at his examination for M.A. degree he was placed in the first class for Classics. In the course of a few months (November 5th, 1846) he was elected to a Fellowship of his College."-P. xix. In some notes attached to a Bible given him by his mother when he went to college, he writes, "I was ordained to the holy Diaconate by the Right Rev. Edward Maltby, Bishop of Durham, June 28th, 1846, in Trinity Church, Marylebone, London ;" and his biographer describes him as fulfilling his office with great assiduity, though from his shyness and reserve he was scarcely likely to be appreciated by his people, a "rough and ready" congregation at Tynemouth. He did not, for the same cause, make many friends, but of his constant attachments when friendship was once formed it was said that, "except by death he never lost a friend." In the journal mentioned above Erskine records his ordination to the holy office of Priest on July 18th, 1847. In the autumn of this same year he settled down at Stonehaven, in the diocese of Brechin, and there he remained for a period of eight years, till he was appointed first incumbent of S. Michael's, Wakefield. "The congregation worshipping at S. James' consisted of two different classes of persons; one formed of the few country families residing in the vicinity of the town, and of the inhabitants of the town itself, together with a small number of the agricultural population; the other made up of the fishers of Stonehaven and of the little village of Cowie, to which allusion has already been made. Widely as these two classes differed from each other in almost every other respect, there was one quality in which they agreed, and that was zeal and love for GOD's Church, devotion to the minister set over them in the LORD, and the value they had for the sacraments and ordinances of the Church."-Pp. 32, 33. The indefatigable zeal both at Stonehaven and in other churches where Mr. Erskine was called to minister, and his conscientious dogmatism in Catholic Truth, are depicted in a lively manner by his biographer; but it will be more interesting to quote a short poem of his own, “In answer to one who said, ' Pray not for the dead.' "Yes, for the living pray, for they must die! Pray for the living, if that this be life, This scene of ignorance, and care, and strife! "Yet say not, say not that the mourner's prayer Hast THOU not said, O Highest GOD, Thou ne'er "Art Thou not Abr'am's, Isaac's, Jacob's Gop?.. Not less those who in Thy secure abode Than those whom weights of flesh and blood compress, "Prays not the friend on Scotland's snowy braes 66 For friends whose Christmas gilds the orange-grove, Or who, on the far-distant Himalehs, Think strange to see the flowers they used to love? 'Prays not the mother for her sailor son, Expos'd amid the dangers of the main? And if the bark some wish'd for port have won, "Twixt those who rest, and those who labour here, Yet God hath promised that which we implore: CHRIST shall return to judge the sons of men : Of God's Own Church-and for His mercy wait.”—P. xlii. In the midst of his clerical labours at Wakefield he found much time for private literary work. Especially he wrote a most valuable History of the Scotch Eucharistic Controversy. His life, which gave such promise of usefulness, was prematurely cut short in 1861, by an attack of quinsey; and his funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. Edward Twells, now Bishop of Orange River. The Sermons contained in the volume were preached chiefly to the congregation of S. Michael's, and are illustrative of the Church's great seasons. We have only space for one extract from the sermon for Christmas Day, which is a specimen of the stern objectiveness of the whole. "We learn to pray for all men, but I fear sometimes we pray with little faith. Take the worst criminal from our gaols, whom vice has most of all brutalized, whom crime has most of all demoralized, hard of heart, foul of soul. Can this ever be a meet companion for the angels of Heaven? If you say, no, then you deny that for that man GoD was made Man; you deny that it was the nature of that man which GOD the WORD took in Mary's womb. |