assault thus originating in suspicion, (for as yet we had published nothing) has been persisted in till now; and still we have stood in the simple attitude of self-defence. We have indeed again and again attempted to arrest the progresss of this controversy; and to allay the agitation and alarm so causelessly excited by others. We have scrupulously avoided all personality and invective. We have called no man heretic, Unitarian, Pelagian, or Arminian. If then the peace of the churches has been disturbed, the responsibility does not rest with us. It is the apprehension of HERESY creeping in unawares, which, by sounding its note of alarm and denunciation, has disturbed the peace of the churches. And who has sounded this note-and professed to sound it from a sense of duty,'-aye, and to sound it only about theories! Will Dr. Tyler say that he has attempted and designed to produce no alarm and agitation in the churches, in view of all the evils he has predicted? And yet he complains of the injustice of being charged' with doing the very thing, which he professes himself in conscience bound to do!

Fitted, then, as I think the course adopted by Dr. Tyler has been, to injure myself and many of the most useful ministers of the Gospel, and to produce division and alienation among ministers and churches, I still esteem him conscientious, notwithstanding his errors and mistakes. These, freely as I have been obliged to speak of them, are not a sufficient, and still less the actual, cause of any unkind feeling on my part towards Dr. Tyler. To number him still on my list of friends, and to show him the respect and affection. due to a Christian brother and Christian minister, cannot be more acceptable to him than it will be grateful to me.

N. W. TAYLOR.

THE ELEMENTS OF POWER IN PUBLIC SPEAKING. AN ADDRESS, DELIVERED JANUARY 1, 1833, AT HIS INAU

GURATION AS BARTLET PROFESSOR OF SACRED RHETORIC IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT ANDOVER. BY THOMAS H. SKINNER.

The structure and inward workings of the human mind. are wonderful; and so are the MEANS by which that mind mainly reveals itself. The Psalmist deemed his tongue the glory of his frame.

The power of speech, its instrumental efficiency both to evil and good, is also wonderful. "So is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell." How fearful an instrument of evil. It is true also, on the other hand, that the chief good which has been done in this world, has been accomplished by means of the tongue of man.

Man has exerted vast power with the pen; but the power of speech excels beyond measure that of mere writing. However deeply we may be impressed by reading an oration, for instance, of Demosthenes, if we but imagine ourselves in the auditory to whom he pronounced it, we at once become sensible, that the effect of its mere perusal is comparatively as nothing. The sermons of Whitefield, as read, have no uncommon efficiency; as spoken by himself, such specimens of persuasive power have scarcely been known among men since the days of inspiration.

The power of speech, however, like all other human endowments, is of different degrees in different persons. One man rises in an assembly and opens his mouth but to infuse lethargy or disgust; another man, on the same subject, and the same side, speaks in sentences of electricity and flame, and keeps his hearers filled with the intensest emotion.

It is, we know, chiefly by means of human speech, that God maintains and advances his holy kingdom among men. The laws of his empire; the facts, principles, and wide relations and bearings of the Gospel; in short, all the moral truths which he employs in saving men, or glorifying himself on the earth; are by this means, more than every other, unfolded and enforced. It is principally through public speaking by human organs, that God has purposed to deliver his creation from the bondage of corruption, and make all things new in the civil and religious state of man.

The laws of speech-the principles by which it is governed in its just and efficient use, are the same in sacred, as in common application. Its success indeed, here, depends on preternatural influence; no unaided tongue of man or angel can win a ruined soul to holiness and God; but divine co-operation is wisely lent, always, to what has a direct tendency in favor of, not adverse to, the good pursued. It is powerful, and not tame and lifeless speaking, that the Holy Spirit ordinarily makes most effectual in reclaiming men from the paths of sin and destruction. The most successful pulpit-speakers are not those whose discourses are uninstructive, desultory, prolix, repetitious; but those who, in their pulpit-performances, observe

most carefully the laws, according to which, power in public speaking, universally displays itself.

I undertake, on this occasion, to exhibit, very briefly, THE ELEMENTS OF POWER IN PUBLIC SPEAKING. These are partly inherent in the structure of the discourse itself; and partly extrinsic or accidental to it, relating to those auxiliary circumstances which contribute to ensure a discourse attention and efficiency. I shall not, however, follow this method in specifying them, but mention one thing after another, in the order which the end aimed at in this exercise may seem to require.

The subject of a powerful discourse must be important. An ingenious tongue, exerting itself on a trivial theme, may amuse light-hearted hearers; but no such theme stirs the deep emotions of that mind which is wielding the lightning and thunder of true eloquence. To discourse of trifles, with whatever wit or labor, is, after all, to make a nugatory and empty discourse.

He who would speak with power, should take truth, not error, for his subject. Truth, if it relate to a matter of importance, is itself power. It is the law, the food, the strength, the life, of mind. The mind, therefore, which is much conversant with truth, becomes, itself, refreshed, invigorated, enlarged, and thus better qualified to do truth worthy homage, by attempts to illustrate it. To commune deeply with truth, is to acquire power; to speak of truth after long and deep communion with it, is ordinarily to exert great power upon others. I need not stay long, to show what advantages for speaking powerfully, truth gives to its advocate, over him who has the side of error to defend. How often, amidst a distracting diversity of opinions and arguments, has the mere statement of the truth, from judicious lips, proved at once decisive, and put all debate and all doubt to rest. A day will come, when, in respect to those matters which have more divided mankind than all others, the only matters of importance comparatively I mean the principles and ways of the divine government-one judgment will be formed by all rational beings; when conviction of the rectitude of that government, shall perfectly pervade the intelligent universe. Now, this conviction will not be the direct effect of force, or physical omnipotence; it will be only the result of a just exhibition and illustration of truth. Let men who would exert much power in discourse, always speak on matters of importance, and in speaking of such matters, always take the side of truth.

The subject of discourse should be one of personal concern to the hearers. It is almost impossible for a speaker to be

deeply interested himself by what interests no other person; and no man can speak powerfully of what does not excite strong feeling in his own mind. Power in utterance, is the result of power in intellectual conception and emotion. Now the mere impression that what is about to be discoursed of, is what will of itself awaken grateful feeling in the auditory, tends to stir up the speaker's spirit into intense exertion; and nothing more assists in the delivery of a discourse, than to see such feeling in the hearers' countenances and behaviour. How hapless, then, that person's self-imposed task, who attempts to speak with power on a subject in which mankind take no in

terest.

Now, men are interested most, by what most nearly concerns them personally. Minds indeed of a certain class, will be interested by instructive discourse, however remotely related to their individual well-being. To such minds, truth, in its most abstract forms, and in all its kinds, is inestimably precious, as involving, to their enlightened and comprehensive view, relations and results of infinite moment. But even as to them, subjects of direct personal concern are commonly most attractive; and there are few so in love with philosophical abstractions, but that they would withdraw their ear from any voice that ever gave utterance to such refinements, in order to attend to a ploughman's recital of some recently occurrent household disaster. The generality of men, certainly, give little heed to any thing which has not a connexion more or less close, with their own private state. With the multitude, the welfare of man has scarcely a thought; that of country may, at certain times especially, be less disregarded; that of party or neighborhood may excite lively feeling; but that of family or of self, is the theme of absorbing interest. A lecture on political economy is dull, compared to a debate on some point of party-politics; but, except in very rare cases, such a debate, on however important a topic, and with whatever eloquence sustained, has feeble influence over one, whom a pending law-suit invites into court.

Now, if this be so, what speakers, it may be thought, should be as powerful in discourse as preachers of the Gospel? A legitimate inference, it would seem, yet not in accordance with experience. The subjects of preaching, it is certain, concern all mankind alike; and concern them infinitely more than all things else. Compared to these subjects, riches, life, the affairs of nations, and of the great globe itself through its whole duration, are less than nothing; but two causes operate to enfeeble discourse on these themes of amazing interest. One is, that mankind, under the power of sensuality, are dead to their concern

in these awful matters; and the other is, that preachers themselves have, too commonly, almost no feeling or faith, in respect to these tremendous things. When, as at a remarkable effusion of the Spirit of grace, the ministers of the word speak, and the people hear, under some just impressions of the reality of unseen things, then is there demonstration given of the rule, that the power of discourse depends much on the personal concern which the hearers have in its subject.

It greatly heightens power, let me next observe, when the subject is not only of general interest to the hearers, but when it is adapted particularly, to classes, circumstances, and seasons. It is this, above all extrinsic things, which gives a discourse pungency, that it be spoken pertinently to present wants and demands. A word which rebukes a man in crime, or which comforts a man in trouble, or which saves a perishing man, is a word of power, though spoken with stammering lips. Let a discourse which a man has been hearing for an hour with unconcern, pass out of a general to a specific application to his own sin or sorrow, and all the feelings of his mind at once are stirred. Many a speech has been deemed, and rightly deemed, of wonderful power, not because it was intrinsically well wrought, or because it was very well pronounced, but because the speaker was wise in suiting his subject to the peculiar state and needs of his hearers. To be particular and pertinent in the adaptation of subjects to persons and occasions, should never be forgotten by him who would be always an efficent speaker.

It is essential, also, that the speaker understand well the subject of his discourse. He who speaks of what he does not understand, speaks with no confidence in his own utterances, or with an unwarranted confidence; and, in either case, his discourse will want the characteristics of true power. For assumed confidence always betrays itself, and to waver or faint in one's own judgment is to beget faintness, or something yet worse, in those to whom that judgment is expressed. Distinct apprehensions, enlarged and comprehensive views of the extended and various bearings and connexions of things, and firm convictions of truth, are indispensable to strong feeling and strong modes of expression. Without such inward furniture for speaking, a man, in discourse, can be expected to exhibit nothing in just proportion and symmetry. His statements, if not false, will be defective or extravagant; in different parts of his discourse he will be inconsistent with himself, or at least not make his self-consistency sufficiently apparent; and, in short, almost nothing will be spoken just as it should be. The