Practical Sermons

jury than to exhibit him in a dress which was not his own.

The great beauty of MILNER is, that no one can read a sermon of his without being convinced that he is in earnest. In every page we see a preacher concerned only to vin dicate the ways of God to men, and to save the souls of his hearers. Engrossed by this great object, he loses sight of every other. He cannot stay to trim his sentences, or round his periods; for he is aiming at the souls of his audience, and therefore has not leisure to consult their taste. Perhaps he may have carried this inattention to words to an extreme; nor does the Editor wish to recommend his Author's method to general imitation. But in the negligence of MILNER, combined with his strong sense and deep piety, there is a dignity which more laboured compositions do not often reach. His appeals to the conscience, though rough, are in a high degree forcible; and there is often an exquisite tenderness, with a natural eloquence, which at once makes its way to the heart.

Not to spoil all this by an officious emendation has been the Editor's great care. It would, he conceives, be barbarism of the worst kind, by pruning and polishing to deprive such a writer of his characteristic vigour.

He has therefore been more afraid of doing too much than of doing too little. And, though his minor corrections have been very numerous, yet the result of pretty long consideration of a questionable sentence has not seldom been, to let it remain in its original state.

After these explanations of the qualified liberties which the Editor has taken with the style of his Author, it is scarcely necessary for him to say, that he has taken none at all with the sense. In altering the phraseology of a sentence, he has been careful not to alter its meaning.

One thing more it may be proper to add.The quotations from the Bible or Prayer-book have been carefully examined; but in making these quotations, it is to be observed, that Mr. Milner frequently changes the number or person of a pronoun, or tense of a verb, that the passage quoted may fall in more naturally with the tenor of his discourse. To restore such passages to their original state would not be to correct the inadvertence of the Author, but to depart from his intention. In such cases, nothing was left for the Editor to consider, but whether he should or should not apply the inverted commas. Where the change was

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