ain the Irish Protestant Church with
shame--by laws the most infamous the malice of man could devise, have
they got to be where they are; let them take the goods the gods provide
and be thankful. If anything could make a man sympathize with Roman
Catholics, it would be the history of the Protestant Church since its
first establishment there by the strong arm of law. On all other matters
Mr. Bellew seems equally to avoid the errors of partisanship; he ignores
the foolish ceremonial disputes of his own Church--the petty doctrinal
discussions, which are the more fiercely agitated the more trivial and
worthless they in reality are. His Christianity is something proud, and
majestic, and divine,--a universal remedy for a universal disease,--not a
skeleton of dead doctrine, or a bone of contention, or an obsolete word,
but a living, healthy, beneficent power.

But Mr. Bellew has other attractions. Not only are his sermons broad and
catholic in tone,--not only are they enunciated with oratorical
effect,--not only are they heightened by the charm of a commanding
presence,--but they are in themselves highly polished, full of passages
of rare eloquence, and retain the attention of the hearers. They all
open well, the exordium is always spirited, and its tone is maintained to
the end of the discourse. Thus one commences as follows, "Eternity is
the answer to life's question--immortality is the hallowed reward of
life's holy works." Another has, "Life is the expression of religion."
In another we get a quotation from Tacitus pregnant with meaning, "Truth
is established by investigation and delay." Then the circumstances of
the text are well brought out. If Paul speaks at Corinth, we see that
licentious city with its groves and temples; if on Mars' hill he
proclaims an Unknown God, the orator, with a lustre on his face brighter
than any genius could bestow, is in our midst; around him are the
restless Athenians, and in the background, the marble statues of their
deities--of silver-eyed Minerva, and Apollo, lord of the silver bow. If
some divine word of the Great Teacher himself is the subject of
discourse, then the Hebrew landscape is painted as only those can paint
who have trod the steps--as Mr. Bellew has done--where, more than
eighteen centuries ago, the Christ and his sorrowing disciples trod.
Occasionally a little pompous verbosity may be detected; instead of
simply telling us how the earth's great ones are despised to