Independent Statesman

Literary Correspondence.

An Author Who Has Become Famous—A New Volume by Dr. Sears—Something for Temperance Advocates—A Review of the Sermons in the volume, etc.

Boston, Sept. 29.

There is an author who has become quite famous in theological and literary circles, about whom I wish to speak. I had the pleasure of visiting, at his own home in Weston, a town about 15 miles from Boston, the Rev. E. H. Sears, D. D., the author of the "Heart of Christ," "Foregleams and Foreshadows," etc. I do not propose to review his already famous works. It is sufficient to say that many theologians have informed me that his "Heart of Christ" is the best and most suggestive book that has yet been written on the Gospel of John. Dr. Sears lives in a modest, yet attractive house, situated near the Unitarian church in Weston, of which he has been pastor for ten years. He is an elderly man, agreeable and cordial. One cannot converse with him even for an hour without discovering that he has a superior mind. Though ranking so high as a scholar, he is very modest, and seems unconscious of having done anything wonderful. He has been content to preach to a small audience and labor in a small parish, because better suited to his tastes. He has had, certainly, more leisure and opportunity to think out and compose his masterly volumes than if he had been weighed down by the cares of a large parish. It has been my privilege, through the kindness of the Doctor and the publishers, Noyes, Holmes & Co., to read a portion of the advance sheets of a new volume by Dr. Sears, entitled "Sermons and Songs of the Christian Life." The range of subjects is not very broad, the Doctor wisely thinking it best to confine himself to a realm where he is most at home. He follows the plan adopted, at least, in one case, by Dr. Robinson, a pastor of New York, in placing a poem or poems at the end of each sermon—the only difference in this instance being that the poems as well as the sermons are the production of the same author.

Some of the poems, like those of Keble's, are tinged with the author's personal experience. They are all the better for this, as one's own experiences, when he is a man of learning and culture, are calculated to inspire and benefit. The songs are mostly lyrics, not strictly hymns such as those which Dr. Watts wrote to be sung at the close of a sermon. The "Young Hunter," a translation from Schiller, is finely done, and the poem on "Ideals" contains much beauty of thought and expression. It would be in vain for me to give extracts from these songs, as the space occupied in your paper would be too great.

The sermon on "The Universal Redemption" is certainly unique in its conceptions, and eloquent in its expressions. He speaks of the redemption of the body, of the animal creation, and of all insentient and inanimate things. A portion of it should be issued as a tract by the society for the prevention of cruelty to animals. The reading of another portion will do temperance advocates good, for he asks, as a prophet of the Lord, p. 177, "How long will ye distill the juices of my vineyards and orchards for your drunkenness and revelry?"

It would be difficult to tell the name of the denomination to which he belongs, judging from the sermons in this volume. The sermon on "Calvary" contains such language as the following, pp. 56, 57: "What eternal interests were at stake, requiring such a descent of the Divine Son into the depths of our human woe? We shall easily see that it was no speck on the surface of humanity, but a plague-spot at the heart, that was to be removed. Would all this costly sacrifice be made—this gift of the Son of God to go down into the profound of sorrow and suffering—merely for the removal of some superficial evil, which the race would out-grow of itself, and not rather of one that lay at the heart, like a canker, and threatened ruin to the whole?" His sermons, dealing with the resurrection and the future state, contain the same views as are presented in his "Foregleams and Foreshadows." These views were not primarily the result of the study of Swedenborg, of which he has made use in these later years, but the elaboration of a train of thought, as Dr. Sears informed me, started by Prof. Palfrey, when the Doctor was a student at the Cambridge Divinity School. Terms are used which sound strangely, yet one soon gets to like them. The sermon on the "Will Power" is particularly practical. Would that all wilful, obstinate men might read it. There are many things about this volume which call both for censure and praise. It is not my purpose in this letter to name special points. The volume cannot fail to give comfort, stimulus and joy to its many readers. The author proves himself in this volume as in his other productions to be a writer of clear intellect, chaste style and for the most part, of simple, elegant diction though faults appear which seem to be the necessary attendants of his rhapsodies when attempting to scale the heights of heaven.

BUCCLEUGH.