1

or eternity, he mentions the indisposition of men's minds. to the reception of divine truth,-the disgust which an attempt to introduce it is often found to occasion,-the facility with which its impressions are effaced, and, as a consequence, the extreme difficulty of producing the whole effect on the human character which is the leading design of Christianity; a difficulty, in short, not to be surmounted, without the aid of a celestial influence. The other difficulties of the Christian ministry, are such as result from the diversities of character in the subjects on which it is to act; and under this head, the preacher adverts to the principal duties, both public and private, which belong to the pastoral office.

The encouraging considerations he mentions, are the divine institution of the office itself, the perfection of the materials provided for discharging it, the dispensation of the Spirit which is promised to give it efficacy, the importance and diguity of its functions, and the reward of diligence and fidelity. A view of the advantages which it affords for the cultivation of personal piety, forms the conclusion of the discourse.

The most important practical truths connected with these topics, are no doubt tolerably obvious; and must be quite familiar to all proficients in theological literature But if any

one should imagine these topics are exhausted, that there are no truths remaining to be told, and that those which have been told cannot now be repeated in a manner so different and superior, as to engage and impress the attention more perfectly than before, we need only recommend the perusal of the following extracts from this sermon.

The great object of Christianity is justly considered in this discourse, to be a renovation of the human character; a change 'frequently slow,' proceeded in 'by imperceptible steps and gentle insinuations, but in its issue invariably the same, and so radical, as to be termed a new creation, and compared by the prophet to the planting of a wilderness, where what was barrenness and desolation before, is replenished with new productions. The nature and importance of this change are thus concisely but impressively represented.

In attempting to realize the design of the Christian ministry, we are proposing to call the attention of men from the things which are seen and temporal, to things unseen and eternal; to conduct them from a life of sense, to a life of faith; to subdue or weaken at least, the influence of a world, which being always present, is incessantly appealing to the senses, and soliciting the heart, in favour of a state, whose very existence is ascertained only by testimony. We call upon them to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts, to deny the strongest and most inveterate propensities, and to renounce

the enjoyments which they have tasted and felt, for the sake of a happiness to which they have no relish. We must charge them, as they value their salvation, not to love the world, who had been accustomed to make it the sole object of their attachment, and to return to their allegiance to that almighty and invisible Ruler from whom they have deeply revolted. We present to them, it is true, a feast of fat things, of wine on the lees well refined; we invite them to entertainments more ample and exquisite, than, but for the gospel, it had entered into the heart of man to conceive; but we address our invitations to minds fatally indisposed, alienated from the life of God, with little sense of the value of his favour, and no delight in his converse. The souls we address, though originally formed for these enjoyments, and utterly incapable of being happy without them, have lost, through the fall, hat right taste and apprehension of things, which is requisite for the due appreciation of these blessings, and, like Ezekiel, we prophesy to dry bones in the valley of Vision, which will never live but under the visitation of that breath which bloweth where it listeth. This indisposition to the things of God, so radical and incurable by human power, as it has been a frequent source of discouragement to the faithful minister, so it would prove an invincible obstacle to success, did that success depend upon human agency.' pp, 14-16.

The style of the discourse gradually rises. To particularize the beauties of the following passage, would be a task not, unworthy of the professional chair; and yet its charms are the least of its value.

A different set of truths, a different mode of address, is requisite to rouse the careless, to beat down the arrogance of a self-justifying spirit, from what is necessary to comfort the humble and contrite in heart; nor nor is it easy to say, which we should most anxiously guard against, the infusion of a false peace, or inflaming the wounds which we ought to heal. A loose and indiscriminate manner of applying the promises and threatenings of the gospel, is ill-judged and pernicious; it is not possible to conceive a more effectual method of depriving the sword of the Spirit of its edge, than adopting that lax generality of representation, which leaves its hearer not ing to apply, presents no incentive to self-examination, and, besides its utter inefficiency, disgusts by the ignorance of human nature, or the disregard to its best interests, it infallibly betrays. Without descending to such a minute specification of circumstances, as. shall make our addresses personal, they ought unquestionably to be characteristic, that the conscience of the audience may feel the hand of the. preacher searching it, and every individual know where to class himself. The preacher who aims at doing good will endeavour, above all things, to insulate his hearers, to place each of them apart, and render it impossible for him to escape by losing himself in the crowd. At the day of judgment, the attention excited by the surrounding scene, the strange aspect of nature, the dissolution of the elements, and the last trump, will have no other effect than to cause the reflections of the sinner to return with a more overwhelming tide on his own character, his sentence, his unchanging destiny and, amid the innumerable millions who surround him, he will moura apart. It is thus the Christian minister should endeavour to prepare

the tribunal of conscience, and turn the eyes of every one of his hearers on himself." pp. 16-18.

Instructious of a critical nature, from the writer of such sentences, are entitled to peculiar attention. In a short digression on the public duties of the ministry, Mr. H. justly complains, that many discourses from the pulpit are too formal and mechanical.

In the distribution of the matter of our sermons, we indulge too little variety, and, exposing our plan in all its parts, abate the edge of curiosity, by enabling the hearer to anticipate what we intend to advance. Why should that force which surprise gives to every emotion, derived from just and, affecting sentiments, be banished from the pulpit, when it is found of such, moment in every other kind of public address. I cannot but imagine the first preachers of the gospel appeared before their audience with a more free and unfettered air, than is consistent with the narrow trammels to which, in these latter ages, discourses from the pulpit are confined. The sublime emotions with which they were fraught, would have rendered them impatient of such restrictions; nor could they suffer the impetuous stream of argument, expostulation, and pathos, to be weakened, by diverting it into the artificial reservoirs, prepared in the heads and particulars of a modern sermon. Method, we are aware, is an essential ingredient in every discourse designed for the instruction of mankind, but it ought never to force itself on the attention as an object apart: never appear to be an end, instead of an instrument: or beget a suspicion of the sentiments being introduced for the sake of the method, not the method for the sentiments.'

The propriety of these remarks, in application to the sermons of a former age, and perhaps of certain religious communions in the present, admits of no dispute; sermons, which altogether consist of what is technically denominated a skeleton, and most honestly deserve that title by their want of animation, beauty, and force. The prevailing inclination, however, of modern preachers, especially of the superior order, is, if we mistake not, to the contrary extreme. The principal source of the impropriety, where it exists, is the facility with which a variety of topics are collected and arranged, in comparison of the difficulty of arguing and illustrating a few. This complexity of subject, this profusion of materials, infallibly betrays a defect of power, and where such an expedient is employed, a pointed enumeration of the several topics is found absolutely necessary to prevent their escaping the. memory or utterly bewildering the understanding. The su perior beauty of the plan Mr. H. recommends, of unfolding the order of a discourse by degrees, without a preliminary distribution of its minuter parts, is unquestionable; and though the scope of a sermon, in some cases, cannot be fully under

stood without presenting a complete view of the whole method, we apprehend, this may generally be accomplished, and, in many instances, with greater advantage, by a recapitulation. The solicitude which an audience may feel, from not being apprised what course or what distance they are to travel, is certainly favourable to the excitement of attention; and the exhibition of the various stages of an argument, in their natural order, is perhaps the true mode of giving it the greatest effect, and preserving the mind from perplexity and distraction.

In this part of the discourse, there are some excellent re marks on the importance of attention and seriousness, in performing the duties of public instruction.

In the most awful denunciations of the divine displeasure, an air of unaffected tenderness should be preserved, that while with unsparing fidelity, we declare the whole counsel of God, it may appear we are actuated by a genuine spirit of compassion. A hard and unfeeling manner of denouncing the threatenings of the word of God, is not only barbarous and inhuman, but calculated, by inspiring disgust, to rob them of all their efficacy. If the awful part of our message, which may be stiled the burden of the Lord, ever fall with due weight on our hearers, it will be when it is delivered with a trembling hand and faltering lips; and we may then expect them to realize its solemn import, when they perceive that we ourselves are ready to sink under it. Of whom I have told you be fore, said St. Paul, and now tell you weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. What force does that affecting declaration derive from these tears! An affectionate manner insinuates itself into the heart, renders it soft and pliable, and disposes it to imbibe the sentiments and follow the impulse of the speaker. Whoever has attended to the effect of addresses from the pulpit, must have perceived how much of their impression depends upon this quality, which gives to sentiments comparatively trite, a power over the mind beyond what the most striking and original conceptions possess without it.

Near akin to this, and not inferior in importance, is the second quality we mentioned, seriousness. It is scarcely necessary to remark, how offensive and unnatural is every violation of it in a religious discourse, which is, however, of wider extent than is generally imagined, including not merely jesting, buffoonery, and undisguised levity of every sort, but also whatsoever in composition or manner, is inconsistent with the supposition of the speaker being deeply in earnest, such as sparkling ornaments, far fetched images, and that exuberance of flowers which seems evidently designed to gratify the fancy, rather than to touch the heart. When St. Paul recommends to Timothy that sound speech which cannot be condemned, it is probable he refers as much to the propriety of the vehicle, as to the purity of the instruction. There is, permit me to remind you, a sober dignity, both of language and of sentiment, suited to the representations of religion in all its variety of topics, from which the inspired writers never depart, and which it will be our wisdom to imitate. În describing the pleasures of devotion, or the joys of heaven, there is nothing weak,

sickly, or effeminate; a chaste severity pervades their delineations, and whatever they say appears to emanate from a serious mind, accustomed to the contemplation of great objects, without ever sinking under them from imbecility, or attempting to supply a deficiency of interest, by puerile exaggerations and feeble ornaments. The exquisite propriety of their representations is chiefly to be ascribed to their habitual seriousness; and the latter to their seeing things as they are.' pp. 21-23.

In these, and many other parts of the discourse, it is impossible to avoid perceiving that the preacher descrives his own experience, and is at once the preceptor and the example. To refute, for the ten thousandth time, the charge of depreciating morality, so loudly and indiscriminately raised against all who inculcate faith and repentance, we shall add the instructions of Mr. Hall upon that subject.

'Not content with committing the obligation of morality to the arbitration of feeling, much less with faintly hinting at it, as an obvious inference from orthodox doctrine, you will illustrate its principles with an energy, a copiousness, a fulness of detail, proportioned to its acknowledged importance. You will not be silent on the precepts, from an ap. prehension of infringing on the freedom of the gospel, nor tink the character of the legislator in that of the Saviour of the church. A morality, more elevated and pure than is to be met with in the pages of Seneca or Epictetus, will breathe through your sermons, founded on a basis, which every understanding can comprehend, and enforced by sanctions, which nothing but the utmost stupidity can despise-a morality of which the love of God, and a devoted attachment to the Redeemer, are the plastic soul, which, pervading every limb, and expressing itself in every lineament of the new creature, gives it a beauty all is own. As it is the genuine fruit of just and affecting views of divine truth, you will never sever it from its parent stock, nor indulge the fruitless hope of leading men to holiness, without strongly imbuing them with the spirit of the gospel.' pp. 32 33.

The indispensable importance of cultivating a devotional spirit, and obtaining communications of heavenly influence, is thus eloquently illustrated.

Possessed of this celestial unction, you will not be under the temptation of neglecting a plain gospel in quest of amusing speculations or unprofitable novelties; the most ordinary topics will open themselves with a freshness and interest, as though you had never considered them betore; and the things of the Spirit will display their inexhaustible variety and deptn. You will pierce the invisible world; you will look, so to speak, into eternity, and present the essence and core of religion, while too many preachers, or want of spiritual discernment, rest satisfied with the surface and the shell. It will not allow us to throw one grain of incense on the altar of vanity; it will make us forget ourselves so completely as to convince our hearers we do so; and, displacing every thing else from the attention, leave nothing