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religion, to be what we appear, corresponds well to the first law of rhetoric to appear just what you are. Religion tends to promote individuality. It composes the turbid elements, and makes the character clear and transparent. It gives life and distinctness to all the original peculiarities of the man, sending the "living sap" to the topmost twig as well as the great trunk. The full tide of the sea conforms itself to all the indentations of the shore, be they small or large; and religion runs not men into one mould, but brings out all the distinctive features of each individual; qualifying him to be just what God made him. Wonderful is this power of the simple, the true, the natural! Other influences of piety there are, in aid of the preacher, to which we can give no more than a passing allusion. Such is its direct effect upon his hearers, if we may so express it, as a conductor to impression. Quinctilian, Cicero, and every writer of antiquity on the rhetorical art have mentioned among the essential qualifications of an orator, that he should be a good man. 'Tis true, in their passionate zeal for a favorite science, ancient rhetoricians claimed for it much which it could not appropriate to itself exclusively, since Milton's Belial was eloquent. But certain it is that persuasion in regard to that which is good is not easily effected except there be a feeling of confidence in the goodness of him who speaks. It is really, indisputably so with every preacher of righteousness. Confidence in his moral qualities is the great power which binds him to his hearers. Great are the advantages and opportunities for producing impression which he possesses. He associates with men on peculiar terms. He goes into the very sanctuary of domestic privacy. The portals of the heart are opened to his fidelity. Emotions which are told to no other, are told to him. His words are received with deference. But it is because of his character as a man of God that it is so. Let the confidence which is felt in his piety be impaired in the least; let his face lose the brightness which it has when coming from before God; and he becomes at once as other men, the rod of his success is broken, the secret of his power is gone.

After all, whatever aids and advantages the preacher may possess, in performance of his appropriate work, he must, at length, come to feel, that weak and worthless are the utmost endeavors of man, of themselves; and the same spirit of piety which enables him to speak most forcibly to men, leads him also to plead most fervently with God. It was the saying of a dis8

SECOND SERIES, VOL. VII. NO. I.

tinguished French divine that one half of the work of a preacher was to be achieved in his closet. It is true to the letter. His relations are both God-ward and man-ward. While pleading with men, without God he can do nothing. Not only has he to come forth unto his brethren; he must also go in unto the Great King, bearing the names of his people on his breast-plate. The celebrated sermon of Dr. Livingston in the kirk of Schotts, which resulted in the hopeful conversion of five hundred souls, was preached after a whole night spent in prayer. In ways which we can never define, the prayers of a devout preacher facilitate and perpetuate the impressions of the truth. Those sermons have accomplished the most, which were written with many tears, preached with fervent ejaculations, and followed by earnest prayer.

What, now, is the testimony of facts on this whole subject? Who have preached the gospel with the greatest effect? The very first time the gospel, distinctively as such, was proclaimed, three thousand were converted at once. Whenever the apostles spake in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, great multitudes believed. To what causes are such astonishing effects to be ascribed? To the miraculous prerogatives with which the apostles were invested? Little else, do we believe, did miracles accomplish than to furnish the truth that vantage-ground, which, now that its evidences are established, it possesses, without their aid. Shall we resolve them into the surpassing intellectual qualities of the apostles? The sturdy native sense of the fishermen of Galilee we cannot sufficiently admire; but thousands there were among their hearers, superior to them in learning and education. Perhaps their hearers were especially favorable to the truth. Never was prejudice half so inveterate, or hate so active. The Scribe was indignant. The Pharisee swept haughtily away. Philosophy uttered her sage contempt. The Stoic frowned. The Cynic sneered. The Epicurean jested. Yet whole cities and nations were moved. Their words were accompanied by the mighty power of God! 'Tis true. Without this they would have spoken in vain. But live we not under the dispensation of the Spirit, as well as they? And is not the promise of the same Spirit made to us as to them? Was not the experience of the day of Pentecost only the beginning of that which is yet to be repeated in a still larger measure? And are not certain modes of feeling, speaking and acting more coincident with the Spirit than all others? We

cannot mistake. The first heralds of the gospel were men, whose minds were thoroughly convinced of the truth of God; who had felt the power of the world to come; whose whole souls were animated by the motives and inflamed by the desires of religion; who gave themselves wholly to prayer, and under the irrepressible energy of this inward faith, they spake to the hearts of their hearers. Whole volumes are contained in the

concise but glorious biography of Barnabas. "He was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, and much people was added unto the Lord." Who, since their day have been the most successful preachers of the gospel? We think not first, of such men as Barrow, rich though he is as Pactolus with his sands of gold; not the courtly Tillotson, the silvery sweetness of whose speech made men forget the very salvation it was appointed to proclaim; not South, always over tempted by his wit and skill, as was the oriental Prince to display his adroitness, and the temper of his blade, by decapitating men at a stroke; not Horseley, moving only with measured step and solemn pomp, like a Castilian in his armor; not Paley, Alison, and Blair, clear, correct, ornate, but just as far as possible removed from the mode of reasoning on sin, and a judgment to come which made Felix tremble. The service which such men have rendered is of its own kind; nor is it of an ephemeral character. It has been justly claimed by Robert Hall as the peculiar boast of the English nation to have produced a set of divines, like these, who, being equally acquainted with classical antiquity, and inspired writ, and capable of joining to the deepest results of unassisted reason, the advantages of a superior illumination, have delivered down to posterity a body of moral instruction, more pure, more copious and exact than subsists among any other people; and had they infused a more evangelical spirit and life into their discourses, insisting more on Jesus Christ as the foundation of all morality, they would have left us nothing to wish and nothing to regret. But when we speak of preachers more readily do we think of Howe, Usher, Flavel, and even the Newtons and Doddridges of a later day; men who, in the splendor of particular talents were more than equalled by the illustrious names we have just repeated; but the fragrance of whose piety has come down even to us, and will live forever. Baxter rises before us serious, earnest, pungent, the secret of whose power was that he abode with God; Whitfield, not unadorned with the graces of the schools, but whose fervid

piety was the chariot of fire in which he mounted upward to the sky; and our own Edwards, than whom, if tradition does not mislead, no man has preached the gospel with greater effect, who, though he dwelt on the "top of metaphysical Niphates," made that the Tabor of prayer and transfiguration, the very mount of God.

It is a singular phenomenon in the process of education that many would rather be suspected of wickedness than weakness; and more patiently would they bear the imputation of a defective piety, than defective intellect. But why is it so? Is not the moral the higher property of human nature? Are not the affinities and gradations of immortal life to be decided wholly by moral qualities? Is there not truth in the trite expression of the poet: "The Christian is the highest style of man?" That, in addition to the temptations which are common to all, others of a peculiar kind are incident to the occupation of a preacher, cannot be questioned. Insensibly may he acquire the habit of looking at truth only with an intellectual and professional eye; and so starve his own soul, amid the abundance of bread which he dispenses to others. If these remarks should serve to deepen the impression on the mind of any one who is looking forward to the sacred office, that his duty and interest and hopes as an individual, and his entire success as a preacher are identical, they will not be in vain. If those who have already made trial of the holy ministry were asked, in what respects they would amend their course of preparation, if it were possible to recall it, their testimony, we doubt not, would be singularly unanimous; "We would not study less, but we would pray more. The intellectual study of the word of God, in all its parts, we would prosecute with double diligence; but much more time would we devote to its simple devotional perusal; partaking of the pure milk of the word that we might grow thereby, and often bowing the knee to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he would grant unto us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, that we may know what is the hope of our calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance among them that believe." God forbid, that the time should ever come when the churches of our beloved land shall be forced to choose between pious ignorance, and frigid scholarship. We believe that time will never come, The future wears to our eye a hopeful aspect. We are confident that the golden age of the

church and the world is not receding, but approaching. We look forward to the time when extremes shall meet and combine to form the true circle; when religion, enriched and adorned with all the spoils of science, shall put on her imperial robes and assume her unlimited sceptre; when the ministers of religion shall come forth to men, like the High Priest from the Holy of Holies, exalted and serene from communion with God, fragrant with the sweet odors of heavenly affections, their hearts suffused with human sympathies, and lips burning with seraphic fire. Isaiah's glowing lips, when foretelling the glories of the Redeemer's kingdom, first uttered what may be received as a description of every true minister of the everlasting covenant; "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord."

ARTICLE IV.

EXAMINATION OF CERTAIN POINTS OF NEW ENGLAND HISTORY, AS EXHIBITED BY PRESIDENT QUINCY IN HIS HISTORY OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY, AND BY OTHER UNITARIAN WRITERS.

By Enoch Pond, D. D., Professor in the Theological Seminary, Bangor, Me.

THE following article, as will appear from its plan and its peculiar phraseology, was prepared as a Review of President Quincy's History of Harvard University, with the intention of publishing it in the American Biblical Repository. But having been anticipated by the very able review of the same work "by one of the Professors of Yale College," I have consented, at the suggestion of the Editors of the Repository, to submit my article for publication, under another title. It will be seen, that the design of the two articles is very different, and that there is really no interference between them.

"This History," says President Quincy, "had its origin in the following circumstances. In March, 1836, the author accepted an invitation from the Corporation of Harvard University, to prepare a Discourse, to be delivered on the second centennial anniversary of its foundation, in commemoration of that event, and of the founders and patrons of the seminary. From the researches into which he was

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