Gems Prom Bro. Lawrence Sterne.

GEMS PROM BRO . LAWRENCE STERNE .

LONDON , SATURDAY , SEPTEMBTUR 15 , 1866 .

It is as a writer of humour ancl pathos that this celebrated man is best known . Comparatively feAV regard him as a divine of considerable repute and standing . There are UOAV lying before ns some volumes of sermons by Laivrence Sterne . A . M .,

Prebendary of York , and Vicar of Sutton on the Forest , and of Stillington , near York , a feiv extracts from which may not be unacceptable to the members of an Order in which he ivas enrolled , and to Avhich he ivas greatly attached .

The work bears on the title-pages the nom de plume of " Mr . Yorick , " but his real name is prefixed to the sermons themselves .

The edition from Avhich Ave shall quote Avas printed for J . Dodsley in Pall Mall , 1765 . It may be premised that the sermons are not what ivould be called evangelical , but are rather those to which the epithet of " moral essays "

would , in the present day , be applied . Nevertheless they contain , in common Avith all of Sterne ' s writings , passages of great beauty , force , and pathos ; as for instance , the folloAving from the sermon entitled , " Inquiry after happiness : " —

" There is a plain distinction to be made betwixt pleasure and happiness . Eor though there can be no happiness Avithout pleasure—yet the

reverse of the proposition will not hold true . We are so made , that from the common gratifications of our appetites , and the impressions of a thousand objects , we snatch the one , like a transient gleam , without being suffered to taste the other , and

enjoy the perpetual sunshine and fair weather which constantly attend it . This , I contend , is only to be found in religion—in the consciousness of virtue—and the sure and certain hopes of a better life , which brightens all our prospects , and leaves

no room to dread disappointments—because the expectation of it is built upon a rock , whose foundations are as deep as those of heaven and hell . "

" And though in our pilgrimage through this world—some of us may be so fortunate as to meet with some clear fountains by the way , that may cool , for a feiv moments , the heat of this great thirst of happiness—yet our Saviour , who knew

the world , though He enjoyed but little of it , tells ns , that whosoever drinketh of this Avater will thirst again : and we shall all find by experience that it is so , and by reason that it must be so . "

He then concludes the sermon with a short observation upon our Grand Master Solomon ' s evidence as to the true source of what we are all seeking- after—happiness : — " Never did the busy brain of a liar and hectick

chymist search for the philosopher ' s stone Avith more pains and ardour than this great man did after happiness . He was one of the wisest enquirers into nature—had tried all her powers and capacities , and after a thousand vain speculations and

vile experiments , he affirmed at length , it lay hid in no one thing he had tried—like the chymist ' s projections all had ended in smoke , or what was worse , in vanity and vexation of spirit- —the

conclusion of the whole matter was this—that he advises every man who would be happy , to fear God and keep His commandments . " In Sermon II ., on Eccles . vii ., 2 , 3 , " It is better to go to the house of mourning , than to

the house of feasting , " the native humour of the man bursts forth , thus : — " That I deny—but let us hear the wise man's reasoning upon it— for that is the end of all men , and the living will lay it to his heart , SOITOAV is better than laughter '—

for a crack'd-brain'd order of Carthusian monks , I grant , but not for men of the ivorld : Eor what purpose do you imagine has God made us ? for the social siveets of the well-watered vallies where

He has planted us , or for the dry and dismal desert of a Sierra , Moreno , ? are the sad accidents of life , and the uncheery hours ivhich perpetually overtake us , are they not enough , but we must sally forth in quest of them , belye our own hearts ,

and say as your text would have us , that they are better than those of joy ? did the best of beings send us into the world for this end—to go weeping through it , to vex and shorten a life short and vexatious enough already ? do you think , my good

preacher , that He who is infinitely happy can envy us our enjoyments ? or that a being so infinitely kind Avould grudge a mournful traveller the short rest and refreshments necessary to support his spirits through the stages of a weary

pilgrimage ? or that He would call him to a severe reckoning , because in his way he had hastily snatched at some little fugnicious pleasures , merely to sAveeten this uneasy journey of life , and reconcile him to the rnggedness of the road , ancl the

. many hard jostlings he is sure to meet ivith ? Consider , I beseech you , what provision and accommodation the author of our being has prepared for us , that Ave might not go on our Avay sorrowing