■M^ 'n*t% :^* i^l? v^, ^^^ ^^^-■ -•s^ ?:;XIIGSTGH rHSOiiOGiGA: tUnmon ^ Sect! on. ^'„^^ No. 5^ ©'' A n|[B 0(5 5^1 Entered, according to Act of Consrress, in the year 1S7-1, by DODD & MEAD, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, John F. Tkow & Son, Pkinteks and Bookbinders, 205-213 Kast 12/A St., K8\V VOKK. PREFACE. The publication of this volume completes the original design of the "History and Repository of Pulpit Eloquence." That design was, in brief, to treasure up the acknowledged Masterpieces of the great pulpit orators of other ages, and, by means of his- torical sketches of preaching, and biographical and critical notices of eminent men, and the introduction of their discourses, to furnish a view of the Christian Pulpit in all ages and countries. The two preceding volumes, reaching back to the earliest of the " Fathers," brought forward a somewhat connected view of preach- ers and preaching, up to the beginning of the present century. The active life of few of the men there introduced, fell this side of that period. A fuller exhibition of the pulpit, as it noiu stands among the different nations of the earth, was therefore obviously req[uisite ; and such an exhibition is here given. Taken together, and in their different aspects, it is believed that these volumes embrace the materials for arriving at a fair estimate of the leading features of the ministry and its productions, in the different parts of Christendom, from the days of the apostles until now ; besides supplying a large amount of sanctified Christian eloquence, on a great variety of themes. The already wide circulation of the previous volumes, and the public and private commendations which many of the leaders of public sentiment have been pleased to express, together with the hope that they were, in some small degree, subserving the best of causes, have compensated for the labor involved in their i)repara- tion, and led to the j^ublication of this supplementary volume. Each of the countries where the Christian religion has extensively prevailed, has been as fully represented as the limits of the volume would allow, and each branch of the Evangelical family as well [y PREFACE. In aliPiOst every instance, tlie preacher has been requested to indi- cate his pleasure as to the discourse to be introduced. The Bio- graphical and Descriptive Sketches are designed to promote ac- quaintance with ministers in different countries, indicate the pecu- liarities of their eloquence, and give to the discourses presented additional interest. The facts which are furnished are the result of extensive correspondence, and may be relied upon as'authentic. Many of the discourses found in this volume are now for the first time published. This is especially true of the American depart- ment, which is exceedingly rich, and will compare favorably with either of the other pulpits represented. Of course, the number of preacliers in this department, and indeed in every other, might have been greatly increased, and with an equal display of ability, had the limits of the work permitted. The selections have been made with much deliberation, and in cases admitting of doubt, after proper consultation. It will be seen that one third of all the sermons in the volume (about sixty in number), are from the foreign languages. Diligent attention has been bestowed upon the translation of the discourses of tnis character, and no labor has been withheld to give to them their best possible rendering into the English tongue. Several em- inent scholars, announced in connection with the work of translations for the previous volumes, have in this rendered like valuable services. Their names need not be repeated. The most grateful acknowledgments are due to the various cler- gymen, at home and abroad, who have been so kind as to forward the interests of this publication. To their cheerful co-operation, counsel, and assistance, much of its present completeness is to be attributed. In its perfected form, the work is now laid upon the altar of His service, by whose favor its consummation has been reached : and may He cause these volumes still further to subserve the high interests, which it is the office of the Christian ministry especially to promote. Newark, N. J., AprU 21, 1857. Or PHIITCIITOIT \ TABLE OF CONTENTS THE GERMAN PULPIT ' FRED. AUG. GOT. TIIOLUCK CHRIST THE TOUCHSTONE OF HUMAN HEARTS, .... 33 JULIUS MULLER. LOVE THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.— 1 Jonx, iv. 16-21, III. .C. A. HARLESS. JOY IN CHRIST FOR ALL NATIONS.— Luke, ii. 8-11, lY. CARL IMMAXUEL NITZSCII. THE PREACHING OF CHRIST CRUCIFIED.— 1 Corinthians, i. 23, . . . A^ RUDOLF STIER. THE THREE PILLARS OF OUR FAITTL— 1 Corin-tuiaxs, xv. 1-10,. ~ VI. FRED. WILLIAM X RUM MAC HER. THE INTERVIEW OF JACOB'S WELL.— Johx, iv. 5-29 VII. W. HOFFMANN.' THE LAST JUDGMENT.— RKVEL.vnoN', xx. 11, 12. . . VIII. EMIL AV. KRUMMACIIER. " THE ABANDONMENT OF CHRIST ON THE CROSS.— M.vttiiew, xxvii. 45, 46, IX. nil LIP SCIIAFF. 'JACOB WRESTLING ^ITFI GOD.— Gexkstr, xxii. 21-;il, 103 Vi TABLE OF CONTENTS. THE FRENCH PULPIT. X. J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNE. PAOl THE THREE ONLYS.— Isaiau, viii. 20 , Ephesians. ii. 5 ; John, iil 6, ... 123 XI. S. .R. L. GAUSSEN. THE FALL OF CHARLES THE TENTH.— Revelation, iii. 11, 139 XII. CtESAR MALAN. THE PIETY OF YOUNG DANIEL.— Daniel, i. 8-15, .149 XIII. ADOLPIIE MO NOD.* THE ENDEARING ATTRIBUTE.— 1 John, iv. 8 164 XIV. J. II. GRANDPIERRE. THE TEARS OF JESUS.— John, xi. 35, 186 XV. ATHANASE COQUEREL. THE UNBELIEF OF THOMAS.— John, xx. 24-29, 194 XVI. WILLIAM MO NOD. GOD'S CONTROVERSY WITH HIS PEOPLE.— Micah, vi. 2-4, 204 XVII. J. J. AUDEBEZ. DEATH THE GATE OF HEAYEN.— Revelation, xiv. 13, 218 THE AMERICAN PULPIT. XVIII. * WILLIAM R. WILLIAMS. THE RELATIONS OF POPERY AND INFIDELITY— Romans, ii. 24, . . . 229 XIX. ALBERT BARNES. THE INFLUENCE OF THE GOSPEL ON THE IMAGINATION.— 2 Corinth- IJVNS, X. 5, 253 * Deceased since the preparation of the work was commenced. TABLE OF COXTENTS. XX. ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE. - FIDELITY IN OUR LOT.— Esther, iv. 14, XXL JOHN McCLINTOCK. THE GROUND OF MAN'S LOVE TO GOD.— 1 Jous, iv. 19 285 XXTI. MARK HOPKINS. THE RELATIONS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION.— 1 Timothy, vi. 20, 21, . 205 XXHL GEORGE W. BETIIUNE. VICTORY OVER DEATH AND THE GRAVE.— 1 Corinthians, xv. 5.5-57, . 309 XXIV. ALONZO POTTER. THE INTERNAL CREDENTIALS OF THE BIBLE.— 2 TmoTHT, iii. 16, . . 319 XXV. FREDERIC D. HUNTINGTON. THREE DISPENSATIONS IN HISTORY AND IN THE SOUL.— Galatians, iii. 6; John, L 17, 334 XXVI. RICHARD FULLER. ■^ THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS.— Haggai, ii. 7, 347 XXVIL THOMAS H. SKINNER. SPIRITUAL JOY AS AN ELEMENT OF STRENGTH.— Nehemiah, -riii. 10, . 3G3 xxvm. ELIPIIALET NOTT THE FALL OF HAMILTON.— 2 Samuel, i. 19 378 XXIX. JOHN P. DURBIN. THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD.— 2 CnuoxiCLES, vL 18, 394 XXX. LYMAN BEECHER. THE REMEDY FOR DUELING.— Isaiah, li.\-. 14, 15, , 409 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXXL JAMES KOMEYN. PA OB ENMITY TO THE CROSS OP CHRIST.— Philippians, iii. 18 423 XXXII. V. CHARLES PETIT McILVAINE. ■^~ THE RESURRECTION OP CHRIST.— Luke, xxiy. 34, 441 XXXIII. FRANCIS WAYLAND. THE MORAL DTGNITT OP MISSIONS.— Matthew, xiiL 38, 457 XXXIV. GEORGE F. PIERCE. DEVOTEDNESS TO CHRIST.— Romans, xiv. 1,8, 472 XXXV. RICHARD S. STORRS,Jr. -THE PRIVILEGE OF COMMUNION WITH GOD.— Psalm xvii. 15, ... . 486 THE ENGLISH PULPIT. XXXVI. HENRY MELVILL. THE REPRODUCTIVE POWER OF HUMAN ACTIONS.— Galatians, vi. 7, . 503 XXXVII. JOHN ANGEL JAMES. THE UNION OF TRUTH AND LOVE.— Epiiesians, iv. 5 518 ^ XXXVHI. BAPTIST W. NOEL. THE FAITH THAT SAVES THE SOUL.— Romans, iii. 25, ..541 XXXIX. JABEZ BUNTING. THE GUILT AND GROUNDLESSNESS OF UNBELIEF.— Mark, vi. 6, . . . 554 XL. HUGH Mo NEIL. JITSTFRIKS IN RELIGION.- ISAiMi, xiv. 15, 568 TABLE OF CONTENTS. ix XLL THOMAS BINNEY. PAGH LIFE AND IMMORTALITY EROUGIIT TO LIGHT.— 2 Timothy, i. 10, . . iiSO XLII. WILLIAM ARTHUR. THE GIFT OF POWER.— Luke, xxiv. 49, ,>»l8'^v^-. XLIIL .l^V?'^'^"'* "'■ -SONGS IN THE NIGHT.— Job, xxxv. 10, CHARLES H. S PURGE 0 MTp ^Xl^ C Si 'i'^^^ v> .604 THE SCOTCn rui^rii. -n^j XLIV ^'l^ivvv^i^V THOMAS GUTHRIE. THE NEW HEART.— EzEKiEL, sxsvi. 10, 623 XLV ALEXANDER DUFF. MISSIONS THE CHIEF END OF THE CHURCH.— Psalm Ixvii., 1, 2, . . . 638 XLVL JOHN CAIRD. RELIGION IN COMMON LIFE.— Romans, xii. 11, 654 XLVIL JOHN McFARLANE. A.LTAR-GOLD; OR, CHRIST WORTHY TO RECEIVE RICHES.— Revela- tion, V. 12, 672 XLVIIL JOHN GUMMING. THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR NO RELIGION.— John, vi. 67 68, . . . . 691 XLIX. JAMES BUCHANAN. THE DYING MALEFACTOR.— Luke, xxiii. 39-43, 703 L. ROBERT S. CANDLISH. THE UNIVERSAL DOOM.— Exodus, i. 6, 714 LT. JAMES HAMILTON. THE PARTING PROMISE, AND THE PRESENT SAVIOUR.— M.vTTnEW, xxviii. 20, 725 X TABLE OF CONTENTS. THE IRISH PULPIT. LII. HENRY COOKE. PAGR UNCONSCIOUS SPIRITUAL DECAY.— Revelation, iiL 1, 2, . . .... 739 LIIL RICHARD WHATELY. THE NAME IMMANUEL.— Matthew, I 23, 151 LIV. ALEXANDER KING. A WARNING TO THE CHURCHES.— Revelation, ii. 7, 765 LY. ROBERT IRYING. THE SELF-EYIDENCING POWER OF THE TRUTH.— 1 John, v. 10, . . . 774 THE WELSH PULPIT. LYL WILLIAM ROBERTS. CHRIST THE MIGHTY SAVIOUR.- Isaiah, Lxiu. 1, 785 LYII. WILLIAM REES. SORROWING SOULS AND STARRY SYSTEMS.— Psalm cxlvii. 3, 4, ... 795 LYIII. THOMAS AUBREY. CHRIST AND HIS WORK AWAKENING PRAISE.— Revelation, l 5, 6, . . 799 SUPPLEMENT. LIX. JAMES McCOSH. UNITY WITH DIVERSITY.— 1 Corinthians, xii, 4-6, 817 LX. NEWMAN HALL. THE PENITENT THIEF.— Luke, xxiii. 42, 830 TABLE OF CONTENTS. xi LXI. HENRY WARD BEE CHER. PAGE THE NATURE OF CHRIST.— Hkbkews, 4-17, 18, 847 LXIL ]\I A T T H E W S I I\l P S O N , ■INFLUENCE OF RIGHT VIEWS OF GOD.— Exodus, xxxiii. 18-20, . . 859 LXiir. GEORGE H. HEP WORTH. HAPPINESS IN ACCORD WITH LAW.— M.vttiiew, v. 17, 877 LXIV. T. DEW ITT TALMA ^GE. AS THE STARS FOREVER, 895 LXV. JOSEPH PARKER. 904 LXYI. WILLIAM ADAMS. THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD, 911 ALPHABETICAL INDEX TO PEEACHERS. PEEACnEB. A PAGE Arthur, 594 Aubrey, '799 Audebez, 218 B Barnes, 253 Beecher, 409 Bethune, 308 Binney, 580 Breckinridge, 267 Buchanan, 703 Bunting, 55G 0 Caird 654 Candlish, 714 Cooke, 739 Coquerel, 186 Cumming, 691 D D'Aubigne, 123 Duff, 639 Durbin, 391 P Fuller, 347 G Gaussen, 139 Grandpierre, 186 Guthrie, 623 H Ilarailton, 725 ITarless, 54 lioffman, 93 Hopkins, 295 Huntington, 334 I Irving, 774 J James, 518 PEEACnEE. K PAGI King, 765 Krummacher, Emil W 103 Krammacher, F. W 83 M Malan, 149 McClintock, 285 McFarlane, 672 Mcllvaine, 441 McNeil, 568 Melvill, 503 Monod, Adolphe, 164 Monod, Wm 204 Miiller, 44 N Nitzsch, 6.^ Noel, ' 541 Nott, 379 P Pierce, 472 Potter, 319 R Pees, 795 Poberts, 785 Ronieyn, 423 S Schaff, 110 Skinner, 363 Spurgeon, 606 Slier, 73 Storrs, 485 T Tholuck, 33 W Wayland, 457 "Whately 757 "Williams 223 SUPPLEMENT. Adams, Beecher, 847 Hall, Newman, 8:J0 Hcpworth, ^^~ McCosh, 817 McGlaren, 887 Parker, 004 Taluiadcre, ^i>.j INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. THE INFLUENCE OF THE PREACHER. The remark has been often made, tliat a scholar of but moderate powers can be more certain of a liveliliood in the profession of divinity, than in tliat of law or jDhysic. It is snid that men are more willing to hitrust the care of their souls, than of their bodies or estates, to incom- petent pretenders. In order to attain eminence at the bar, a man must analyze with great care the principles of ethics and jurisprudence, must be familiar with the intricate windings of the human heart, must be well versed in the history of nations as well as indi\idnals, must retain in his memory a multitude of statutes and precedents, must be capable of intense mental application to an individual case for a long time, must be calm amid the excitement of all around him, must think amid noise and confusion, must be ready for emergencies, for sudden rejoinder and rep- artee, for extemporaneous analysis and invention, as well a» unpremed- itated speech. But in order to succeed in the ministry, it is said, no more intellectual effort is required than to understand a number of truths in which the way-faring nuin, though a fool, need not err ; to pen homilies in the retirement of the study; to read them without the perils of being interrupted and confused or perhaps refuted by antagonists ; to go from house to house, uttering mild and sweet words to men, Momen and children. Thus has an opinion gone abroad that the clerical profession makes a less imperative demand than the legal, u})on the energies of the mind and will. It is recorded of certain men, that " being of a weakly habit," they were set apart for the church. Some eminent politicians have entered upon active life as clergymen, but have aban- doned their sacred vocation, because they deemed its sphere of activity too low and small. Young men of promise often turn away from the ministry, because it seems to demand of them a sacrifice of mental excel- lence. "Marrying and christening machines" have the clei'gymen of certain churches been called, not without some colormg of truth. "As dull as a sermon," has become a proverbial ])hrase. In the memoir of an eminent preacher we read the following words, which he addressed in a 14 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. letter to a friend : "I am so used to writing sermons, that I have prosed away here most unconsciously." But it was a sagacious remark made by Robert Hall to his fellow-clergymen : " The moment we permit our- selves to think lightly of the Christian ministry, our right arm is with- ered : nothing but imbecility and relaxation remains. For no man ever excelled in a profession to which he did not feel an attachment bordering on enthusiasm ; though what in other professions is enthusiasm, is in ours the dictate of sobriety and truth." In order to form a proper estimate of the worth and grandeur of the preacher's office, it is well to consider the influence which he exerts upon the community. It is often said, that the effiscts which he produces afford no argument in favor of the office which he holds ; for every man and every event may be the occasion of results which no finite mind is able to comprehend. The genius of Robert Hall received no inconsid- erable aid from the conversation of a tailor. A single leaf from Boston's Fourfold State, found and perused by an individual in Virginia, led to the small gathering at " Morris's Reading House," and to the preaching of Robinson in that house, and to the assistance of Samuel Davies in his education for the ministry, and to the subsequent employment of this '•^prince of preachers'''' in the vicinity of that same reading house, and to the long-continued results of his labors in the region which was first enlightened by a leaf from the " Fourfold State," But from the cii'cum- stance that all things are important in their operation upon society, it were singular to infer that the Christian ministry is not important. The agency of many causes is, in the common language, accidental; that of the pulpit is the uniform operation of known laws. It is a prominent agency, attended with consequences peculiarly extensive, and meliorating the state of man more directly than is done by other causes — more uni- formly and more radically. The preacher has an influence upon the intellect of his hearers. He presents to it the most enlivening and enlarging thoughts ; and nothing takes so deep a hold of the reasoning powers as the series of proofs which he may enforce. The mind is invigorated by grappling with the objec- tions that have been urged against the omniscience and goodness of God, the responsibility of man, the whole scheme of moral government. A sermon, if it be in good feith a sermon, reaches the very elements of the soul, and stirs up its hidden energies ; for such a sermon is a message from God ; is pregnant with what the mind was made for — the solemn realities of eternity ; is prolific, if need be, in stern and skillful argument, liolds out a rich reward to man's desire of mental progress, and allures, as Avell as urges, to an intense love of study. It is a book of mental dis- cipline to its hcareis, and its author is a schoolmaster for cliildieu of a larger growth. A Intc professor in one of our universities, who has been THE INFLUENCE OF THE PREACHER. 15 famed throughout the land for his effective eloquence at the bar and on the floor of Congress, says that he first learned how to reason while hearing the sermons of a New England pastor, who began to preach before he had studied a single treatise on style or elocution ; and two or three erudite jurists, who dislike the theological opinions of this divine, have recommended his sermons to law students as models of logical argument, and affording a kind of gymnastic exercise to the mind. It is thus that one of the most modest of men, while writing his plain ser- mons, was exerting a prospective influence over our civil and judicial tribunals. The pulpit of a country village was preparing speeches for the Congress of the nation. The discourses and treatises of such divines as Chilling-worth* and Butler have been often kept by lawyers and statesmen, on the same shelf with Euclid and Lacroix. Patrick Henry lived from his eleventh to his twenty-second year in the neighborhood of Samuel Davies, and is said to have been stimulated to his masterly efforts by the discourses of him who has been called the first of Amer- ican preachers. He often spoke of Davies in teniis of enthusiastic praise, and resembled him in some characteristics of his eloquence.f The minister's influence is upon the taste, as well as intellect. There is a kind of mystic miion among all the virtues and. excellences of the head and heart. A golden chain seems to bind them together, and when one link is gained all the rest are drawn along with it. Thus there is a strange tie between the sense of right and the sense of beauty, be- tween the good and the elegant. The preacher holds out before his con- gregation the choicest models of all that can please. the taste ; of that" * Chillingworth is the writer whose works are recommendea for the exorcitations af the student. Lord Wansfield, than whom there could not be a more competent autliority, pronounced him to be a perfect model of argumentation. Archbishop Tillotion calls him "incomparable, the glory of his age and nation." Locke proposes, "for the attainment of right reasoning, the constant reading of Chillingworth ; who, by his example," he adds, " will teach both perspicuity and the way of right reasoning, better than any book that I know ; and theretbre will deserve to be read, upon* that account, over and over again ; not to say any thing of his arguments." Lord Clarendon, also, who was particularly intimate with him, thus celebrates his rare talents as a disputant: "Mr. Chillingworth was a man of so great subtilty of understanding, and of so rare a tenrper in del^ate, that as it was impossible to provol^e him into any passion, so it was very difficult to keep a man's self from being a little discompased by his sharpness and quickness of argument and instances, in which he had a rare facility and a great advantage over all the men I ever knew. He had spent all his younger time in disputation ; and had arrived at so great a mastery, as he was inferior to no man in these skirmishes." Chillingworth has been named, for tho reasons above assigned, as eminently calculated to subserve the purposes of mental discip- line, for the student. He need not, however, be the only one : the subtle and profound reasonings of Bishop Butler, the pellucid writings of Paley, the simplicity, strength, and perspicuity of Tillotsou, may all be advantageously resorted to by the student anxioua about the cultivation of his reasoning faculties." — See Warren's Law Studies, §§ 153, 154, 160. f See Davies' Sermons, vol. i., p. xliv. Stereotyped ed. 1(5 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. spiritual comeliuess which is the archetype of whatever ij- graceful and refined in nature or art. By winning his hearers to whiil is beautiful and grand in religious truth, he fosters the love of those lo ver excellen- ces that are but the shadowings forth of the good tilings in heaven. In many minds he cherishes a taste for the elegances of Addis> n and Gray and Cowper and Wordsworth, and encourages that sense of honor, that interest in heroic deeds, that reverence for genius and worth, in fine, all those amiable sentiments, which are aUied with a due appreciaLion of the beauties of nature and art. Working, as the preacher does, upon the mental sensibilities, he of course modifies the literary character of a people. Whitefield made so little pretension to scholarship, that men often smile when he Is called the pioneer of a great improvement in the literature of Britain. They overlook the masculine and transforming energy of the religious priuci> pie, when stirred up, as it was, by his preaching against the pride and indulgences and selfishness of men. They forget that influence often works from the lower classes upward ; and that when the mass oi" men become intellectual, the higher orders must either become so, or must yield their supremacy. Whatever operates deeply on the soul of the humblest mechanic, will modify the character of the popular literature. The sermons of a parish minister are the standard of taste to many in his society ; his style is the model for their conversation and writing ; his provincial and outlandish terms they adopt and circulate ; and his mode 'of thinking is imitated by the school-teacher and the mother, the mer- chant and the manufacturer. You can see the eftects of his chaste or rude style in the language of the plowboy and the small-talk of the nui- sery. He has mor6 frequent communion than other literary men witl the middle classes of the people, and through these his influence extends to the higher and the loAver. He is the guardian of the languacce and the reading of the most sedate portions of society ; and in their families are trained the men of patient thought and accurate scholarship. His influence on the popular vocabulary is often overlooked, and is not al- ways the same ; but he often virtually stands at the parish gate, to let in one book and keep out another ; to admit certain words and to exclude certain phrases, and to introduce or discard barbarisms, solecisms, impro- priety and looseness of speech. The sermons of Leighton, South, Howe, Bates, Atterbury and Paley, show somewhat of the extent to which the literature of England is indebted to her priesthood. When Lord Chat- ham Avas asked the secret of his dignified and eloquent style, he replied that he had read twice, from beginning to end, Bayley's Dictionary, and had perused some of Dr. Barrow's sermons so often, that he had learned them by heart. Dryden " attributed his own accurate knowledge of prose writing, to the frequent perusal of Tillotson's works." " Addison regarded them as the chief standard of our language, and actually pro- THE INFLUENCE OF THE PREACHER. 17 jected an English Dictionary to be illustrated with particular phrases to be selected from Tillotson's sermons." " There is a living writer," said Dugald Stewart, " who combines the beauties of Johnson, Addison, and Burke, without their imperfections. It is, a dissenting minister of Cam- bridge, the Rev. Robert Hall. Whoever wishes to see the English lan- guage in its perfection, must read his writings." No one can be familiar wdth the style of Jeremy Taylor and that of several British essayists, without recognizing his influence upon them. The tincture of his phra- seology is discernible in the expressions of Charles Lamb even. The character of Herbert's writings is stamped upon those of Izaak Walton, and the insinuating power of Walton upon the English language has not been, nor will it be, inconsiderable. Had not Martin Luther been trained for, and in the pulpit, he had never been so forceful and popular in his written essays. It was in no small degree by his sermons that he woke up his own mind and that of his countrymen. The hterature of Ger- many and of the world has been animated and enriched by the results of his preaching. Who can estimate the intellectual influence of the Bishop of Hippo, upon his own age ; upon the Augustinian, and other monastic orders of succeeding ages ; upon John Calvin, and through him, upon Switzerland, Holland, and, by the intervention of John Knox, upon Scotland, England and America ; upon Schleiermacher and through liim upon Germany ? It is not too much to say, that Augustine would never have wielded this power over the race, had he not been a preacher ; for his sacred calling stirred up the depths of his soul, and gave him a strength and completeness of character, also a venerableness of name, which a mere philosopher, even one like Aristotle, can seldom, if evei-, acquire. The minister's influence is obvious upon the morals and business of a people. He touches the main-spring of the political machine, and its extremities are quickened. Waking up the intellect, he stimulates to enterprise. Refining the taste, he throws an air of neatness over the parish. He pleads for industry and method, for honest dealing and tem- perate habits, for good order in the family, and school and State. He preaches from that text which is the mother of friendship and thrift, " Study to be quiet and to do your own business." He infuses new vigor into the counting-room, and new ihithfulness over the farm. Where the true preacher is at work, you will see fruits of his labor in even roads and strong walls and thriving arts and a wholesome police ; but Avhere the doors of the meeting-house are left unhinged, and the windows bro- ken out, and the pulpit is given up to swallows' nests and the pews to sheep, there you will find a listless yeomanry and ragged forms, thin schools and crowded bar-rooms. The history of a church is often the history of a town ; when the one flourishes, the other feels its influence. More than twenty parishes in T^Tew England might bo mentioned, where 18 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. the settlement of a faithful pastor was the jireUide to rapid improvements in agriculture and trade, the style of building and of dress, the complex- ion of politics, and the whole cast of character. What one preacher does for a parish, thousands do for the nation. To the complaint that the ministry is expensive, we may reply m the words of Dr. South : " If there was not a minister in every parish, you would quickly find cause to increase the number of constables ; and if the churches were not employed to be places to hear God's law, there would be need of them to be pris- ons for the breakers of the laws of men."* Is it not as wise an economy to erect houses of worship, as houses of correction ; to support religious teachers as to support more watchmen and busier hangmen ? Even the history of the name, clergyman^ illustrates the humane relations that subsist between the ministerial ofiice and the literature, the morals, the penal code of the community. In the books of English law, we often read of criminals convicted with or without the benefit of clergy. This benefit was an exemption from the kind and degree of punishment pre- scribed for lay offenders, and the exemption was once extended to all criminals who could read and write. Still it retained its instructive natie, the benefit of clergy, because nearly all who had any acquaintance with the rudiments of education were clergymen, and an ability to read was a legal sign of the sacred oflSce. Hence clergy, scholars and clerks, were convertible terms in the old Enghsh style, and clerk is still the law-term for a preacher of the gospel. When a man was convicted of felony or manslaughter, he was " put to read in a Latin book, of a Gothic black character, and if the ordinary of Newgate said, legit ut dericus^ i. e., he reads Hke a clerk, he was only burned in the hand and set free ; other wise he suffered death for his crime." It is indeed a sad feature of past ages, that the circumstance of having received a clerk's education, should have released an offender from the punishment which he deserved ; still there is a pleasant meaning in the fact that such an education was sup- posed to be incompatibie with the grossest forms of sin, and that the term, clergyman, was regarded as synonymous with the words learned and good. It must be admitted that atheists are more frequently found in Christian lands than in any other. Where the true religion is known, the despisers of all religion are the most numerous Even such Pagan philosophers as discarded the popular faith, were unwilling to injure its credit with the mass of men. But among us there are friends of universal education -who decry the pulpit, though it is a great educator of the populace ; there are fervid philanthropists who ridicule the missionary, though he carries the blessedness of learning to the heathen ; and the founder of one of the most splendid colleges in our land has inserted the condi- tion in his will, that no clergyman shall 6tep his foot on the college grounds. When we hear Franklin speak so often in praise of finigality * Sermon or 1 Kings, xiii. 33, 34. THE INFLUENCE OF THE PREACHER. I9 and industry, and other virtues that derive their chief support from the Bible ; when vre read his question to an infidel associate, " If men are so wicked with religion what would they be without it ?" and his asser- tion to the same individual, that the great majority of men " need the motives of religion to restrain them from vice ;"* we naturally expect to find him a reverential advocate of the preacher's oftice. But in his letter to Whitefield, he says, " Now-a-days we have scarce a httle parson that does not think it the duty of every man within his reach to sit under his petty ministrations, and that whoever neglects them ofiends God. I wish to such more humility ."f And we, in return, wish more consistency to our great men. Why eulogize the end and sneer at the means ? Why praise virtue in the general and contemn it in its brightest particu- lar ? Our manufacturers say, that the preaching of the gospel makes better cotton-spinners ; our landlords, that it makes better tenants ; our physicians for the insane, that it hastens the recovery of the diseased in mind ; our friends of temperance and of social reform, that it affords efficient aid in every good Avork. A political economist may easily per- ceive, that the want of teachers of the truth in Gomorrah must have diminished the value of houses and lands in that doomed city, and that the kingdoms of ancient times would have been less unquiet and tran- sient, if they had been under the inffuence of a well read and an instructed priesthood. On the lowest principle, then, of a calculating patriotism, how can a Jefferson allow himself to neglect, st.J more to deride the pulpit, to which his own country, more than any other, owes her political salvation. How suicidal the policy of Lord Chesterfield, and other dev- otees of an elegant literature, who delight in sneering at the very office that creates a demand for all of enduring value in their writings, and without which there will remain but little of healthy politeness, or of sound letters in Christendom. As we read of an eminent teacher's being accustomed to remark, " Give me the religion of a country, and I Avill tell you all the rest ;" so we may add, the whole character of a peoj^le de- pends, far more than is commonly recognized, upon the teachings of the pulpit ; and the man who aims to undermine rather than regulate the inffuence of the sacred office, is not, so far forth, an intelligent friend of the State. The influence of a preacher on the intellect, the taste, the business and morals of a community, is but an illustration of his inffuence on the i-ellgioits sharacter. We shall not be suspected of implying, what is never true, that he transforms the heai*t without the special interposition of the Holy Ghost; and yet there is a sense in which a dependent apostle may declare : " I have begotten you through the gospel." It is not one soul only that he benefits, nor two, nor twenty, but perhaps a hundred ; and • Franklin's Worka, Phfl. Ed., vol vi, p. 24A. f lb, pi 36L 20 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 1 hundred eternities otherwise spent in the darkness that no light cheers, are now spent in the paradise of God. Of the hundred immortals thus transformed by the means of a single preacher, who knows but some one may be an instrument of interminable good to a hundred more — may be a Fuller, or a Payson, or a Harlan Page, or a Mrs. Judson ? Is it not a moderate calculation, that a hundred faithful disciples wall exert an influ- ence Avhich God will bless to the spiritual welfare of at least two hundred of their fellow-men, their kindred or friends for whom they toil and pray ; each one on an average bringing two additional talents into the sacred treasury ? And these two hundred Christians may impart, as parents do impart in a kind of legacy, their religious character to their children ; and a thousand of their children's children may labor, each one in his own circle, for the renovation of other souls. Each one in his own circle of friends, and here are a thousand diiferent circles, and each mem- ber of each of these circles has a separate band of his own associates, and the influence thus branches out into a new sj^here, dx\d will continue to widen and amplify, and to include still other multitudes. It is well to reflect minutely on the manner in which influence is propagated, filling one area after another, transmitted from a few ancestors to a niimerous posterity, and flowing on like a stream, broader and deeper, till it becomes a mystery how such great eflects can result from a cause so limited. Nor should we confine our view to the gradual and ceaseless propagation of'the influence which the minister may have exerted during his life. We should also consider the new imj^ressions which are often produced by his printed works long afl;er his death. The trains of moral cause and efiect which he started by his living voice, are not only con- tinued for ages, but his published discourses are setthig original trains in motion; and as the author of written sermons, he sometimes gives an impulse to more minds than he aflfected by his spoken Avords. Many a clergyman never dies. If his name were forgotten, he would still be producing eflects of which he is not recognized as the cause; but some- times a clergyman, like Chrysostom, lives and preaches, generation after generation, among a larger community of readers, than he ever orally addressed ; and in addition to the good that flows from the multitude who were benefited by his life, is a still greater good that is constantly si^ringing up in minds conversant with his posthumous sei'mons. He is still beginning to put in strain systems of moral influence which are entir-^ly distinct from the systems originated upon the minds of his contemporaries, and continued, by the natural laws of transmission and expansion, from one age to another of their posterity. The treatises of John Howe on "Delighting in God," and on the "Blessedness of the Righteous;" of President Edwards on the "History of Redemption ;" of George Campbell, on " Miracles ;" of John Fos- ter, on the "Evils of Popular Ignorance ;" of Di*. Chalmers, on the "Evi- dences of Christianity " Avere originally preached as sermons : they were THE INFLUENCE OP THE PREACriER. 21 sermons that did not soon grow old. At the last day, what a throng of witnesses will there be to the effect of John Newton's ministrations.* We are now feeling this effect in the hymns of Cowper, in the writings of Buchanan, who owed his religious character to the instrumentality of Newton — writings which are said to have first awakened the missionary spirit of our own Judson; in the works of Dr. Scott, another monument of Newton's fidelity, and a spiritual guide to hundreds' of preachers and thousands of laymen ; in the words and deeds of Wilberforce, who ascribed a large share of his own usefulness to the example and counsels of the same spiritual father. Edmund Burke, on his death-bed, sent an expression of his thanks to Mr. Wilberforce for writing the " Practical Christianity," a treatise which Burke spent the last two days of his life in perusing, and from which he confessed himself to have derived much profit* — a treatise which has reclaimed hundreds of educated men from irreligion, but which would probably never have been what it now is, had not its author been favored with Newton's advice aiid sympathy. What shall we predict as the ultimate result of Whitefield's more than eighteen thousand addresses from the pulpit, and of the impulse which he gave to the activity of the whole church, friends and foes, in America and Britain ? His power was felt by Hume, Bolingbroke, Foote, Ches- terfield, Garrick, Rittenhouse, Franklin, Erskine and Edwards ; by the miners and colliers, and fishermen of England, the paupers and slaves, and Indians of America. "Had Whitefield never been at Cambuslang, Buchanan, humanly speaking, might never have been at Malabar." When, too, will cease the influence of Payson's pulpit? For we read that during his ministry of twenty years, interrupted by frequent sick- nesses, he admitted to the communion-table more than seven hundi'ed who had never previously separated themselves from the thoughtless multitude. William Jay began to j^reach the gospel before he was six- teen years old ; he delivei'ed nearly a thousand sermons before he had passed his minority ; for more than fifty years he was active in the pas- toral oflice at Bath, and was honored there with numerous proofs of his usefulness ; among those who have been radically improved by his dis- courses, are the foimder of Spring Hill College, the martyred missionary, Williams, and several living preachers ; his practical writings have been the comfort of hundreds of families, morning and evening, on both sides of the Atlantic ; and his influence, though it may become less and less apparent, will become, in fact, more and more powerful through all time. If the Christian scholar would meditate often on this diffusive nature of truth and goodness, on the inherent value of even one mind, in its mfluence over its contemporaries, and still more over succeeding generations, an influenc e which is inevitable, resulting from our sympa- thetic nature ; if he would follow this widening train of moral causes ^hi-ough time to the judgment, when a single soul shall be revealed as * See Life of Wilberforce, Amer. ed., p. 183. 9,2 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. the spiritual benefactor of millions, he would then easily explain the words of an old Enghsh archbishop and keeper of the seals :* " I have passed through many places of honor and trust, both in Church and State, more than any of my order in England for seventy years before. But were I assured that by my preaching I had converted but one soul to God, I should herein take more comfort than in all the honors and offices that have been bestowed upon me." The influence of a preacher may be illustrated by the short time which he demands for securing an immense good. In a single discourse, he may put in operation a system of causes which will result in the moral renovation of thousands who never heard his name. On a certain Sab- bath about the year 1642, an obscure and unpolished clergyman from the country supplied the pulpit of Edmund Calamy, the noted London di- vine. When the congregation were ajji^rized that their favorite preacher was not to address them, many of them left the house. There was a young man, a stranger in the metropolis, who had come up to hear Mr. Calamy, and being disappointed in his expectation, was entreated " to go and hear Mr. Jackson, a man of prodigious apphcation as a scholar, and of considerable celebrity as a preacher." But the young man was an invaUd, and was unwilling to walk further. He had been for five years in deep despondency of mind ; he had at one season avoided al- most all intercourse with men for three months ; he " could scarcely be induced to speak, and Avhen he did say any thing, it was in so dis- ordered a manner, as rendered him a wonder to many." The discourse of the country clergyman was from the words : Why are ye so feai'ful, O ye of little faith ? (Matt., viii. 26.) It was a healing balm to this youthful invalid. It was a prominent means of relieving him from his moral, mental and thereby of his corporeal maladies. He began a Hfe of new Christian activity as well as of new confidence and joy ; he ac- quired an extensive influence both in church and State ; for five years he held the office of Vice Chancellor in Oxford University, and for nine years the office next to this in literary importance ; he numbered among his pupils John Locke, William Penn, Dr. South, Dr. Whitby, Sir Chris- topher Wren, and Launcelot Addison, father of the celebrated Essayist ; he published during his life seven folio volumes, twenty-one quartos, thirty octavos, and is still revered as a kind of prince and oracle among divines. It was John Owen, who thus ascribed his religious health and much of his usefulness to a single sermon. He was never able to find out the residence or even the name of the man, to whose words he owed his freedom from a Avasting melancholy. It seemed as if a spirit from a land of mysteries had touched him, and str lightway vanished into heaver. But though we can not ascertain who was the instrument of this eventful cure, we know that the word of God healeth all diseases * John "Williams. THE INFLUENCE OF THE PREACHER. 23 of the mind, and a single application of it may revive the spiiit of him who is to be the physician of many souls. One of the most effective discourses noticed by modern historians, was preached at the Kirk of Shotts in 1630, by John Livingston, an an- cestor of the well-known family, who bear that surname in our own land. He was at that time chaplain to the Countess of Wigtoun, was Ucensed but not ordained as a minister, and was only twenty-seven years of age. His discourse is thus alluded to by Rev. Mr. Fleming, of Cambuslang : "I can speak on sure ground, that near five hundred had at that time a discernible change wrought in them, of whom most proved to be lively Christians afterwards. It was the sowing of a seed through Clyddisdale, so that some of the most eminent Christians in that country could date either theu' conversion, or some remarkable confirmation of their case from that day." The religious mterest, resulting from this single etifoit of a youthful licentiate, extended throughout the west of Scotland, and among the inhabitants of the North of Ireland, and terminated in the moral improvement of thousands who, but foi- the sympathy excited by this discourse, might have remained indifierent to the claims of virtue. Similar eflects were produced by a sermon of President Edwards, l^reached July 8, 1741, at Enfield, Connecticut. It gave a great impulse to the powerful religious movemnt which began, about that time, to en- gross the attention of the American churches, and which is supposed to have resulted, in nearly thu'ty thousand instances of spiritual reformation. During the delivery of the sermon the auditors groaned and shrieked convulsively, and their outcries of distress drowned the preacher's voice, and forced him to make a long pause. His text was. Their foot shall sHde in due time (Deut., xxxii. 35) ; and at a certain instance of his re- peating these Avords, some of the audience seized fast hold of the pillars and braces of the iBceting-house, they felt so sensibly that their feet were sliding at the very moment into ruin. A large number of the most in- fluential of the hearers gave themselves no rest, till they had planted their feet on the sure ways of Sion. That discourse, which then alarmed hundreds of the citizens of Enfield and the adjoining towns, has been preached again and again, to the social circle, and the fireside group, in this and other lands, and it is not too much to say, that new monuments of its efiicacy are rising up every year. Nor is it only by a single disoourse that such great efiects are pro- duced ; it is sometimes by a single sentence in that discourse. The very first clause of a sermon may seize the attention of some leading mind, and may never cease its transforming efiicacy until that mind becomes an efticient advocate for God. Some plain statement, made without any anticipation of its peculiar consequences, is often referred to by a grate- ful convert as the point on which his destiny was suspended. Many instances ai'e on record of a permanent transformation, wrought by the remembrance of a word Avith its accompanying gesture and look. " O, 24 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. my hen.-ors, the wrath to come ! the wrath to come !" — these were the abrupt clauses that fell from the lips of an eminent orator, and fell in such a way as to sink like lead into the heart of one youth, who could not rest until he had become qualified for a useful station in the Cliriytian ministry. " God only is great," were the words of Massilon, and all his hearers rose and reverently bowed. " O eternity ! O eternity ! O eter- nity !" were the closing words of a discourse from M. Bridaine, and they seemed to concentrate into one sudden view the whole subject that had been discussed, and the audience were melted down, and not a few permanently humbled. If the students of moral history were as watchful as the students of nature, they would often trace the influence of a phrase over such an extent of space and time, that it would excite our Avonder and be gazed at like a licsus naturm. As we find the remains of fishes on mountains and deserts, so we may discover the effects of a spoken word where we would almost as soon have looked for the identical breath with which the word was uttered. Botanists have admired the wise" provision of nature for the dissemination of seeds. The embryo plant is encircled with gos- samer and swept by the wind over streams and v\'astes, and comes up in a strange land. And so a pithy remark is appended, as it were, to a tuft of down, and brings forth its fruit far away from where it was first ut- tered. There was a native of Dartmouth, England, a member of the trained band of Charles the First, who was present at the beheading of that monarch, had some acquaintance with Oliver Cromwell, and subse- quently found his way to Massachusetts, and lived first in the merchants' serAdce at Marblehead and afterward on a farm in Middleborough. At the age of fifteen years, while yet in his native land, he heard the pious Flavel preach from the text, " If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha ;" and at the age of a hundred years, Avhile sitting in his field at Middleborough, he recalled the sermon that he had heard eighty-five years before, and the scenes that ensued when Flavel dismissed the auditory. He vividly remembered the solemn appearance of the preacher rising to pronounce the benediction, then pausing, and at length exclaiming with a piteous tone, " How shall I bless this whole assembly, when every person in it who loveth not the Lord Josus Christ is anathema maranatha." This sinner of a hundred years, became at length alarmed by his reminiscence, and particularly by the fact that no minister had ever blessed him. He pondered on that closing remark of Flavel; and at the beginning of the second century of his life, gave evidence to the church that he was worthy to be enroUed among her members. He began to address pious counsel to his children and adorned his profession fifteen years, when he went to receive the benediction of God. His sepulchre remaineth with us, and his dwelling- spot is remembered to this day. The moral of his epitaph is, that a ;hrase, dropped into the mind of a lad on one continent, and in one cen- THE INFLUENCE OF THE PREACHER. 25 tury, may lie buried long in dust, and then spring up and bear fruit on another continent, and in another century, and be destined to perpetual remembrance. Such instances remind us that a thousand hallowed asso- ciations cluster around the preacher ; that his words come Avith power, not as his words, but those of God ; that they borrow efficacy from the house, the time, the whole scene of their utterance, and are retained in the memory long after they soem to be lost. A movement of the arm or eye has often a meaning in the pulpit which it has nowhere else ; for it is enveloped there with new means of suggestion, and is witnessed by men of excited, quick-moving sensibilities. The preacher stands like one insulated and charged with the electric fluid ; the touch is now startling, which a few minutes ago was like the touch of a common man. Or, if we may change the figure, he is like the surgeon operating on the most delicate tissues, and a hair's breadth movement of the knife saves or kills. That is not an ofiice for the indolent, weak, or trifling, in which the causes are for a moment and the eflects for eternity ; the causes are a short phrase condensing a world of import, or a breath of air making a significant interjection, or a line on the face indicative of a thousand hopes or fears ; and the effects are, what " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man." The influence of a preacher is illustrated by the bad effects which he may produce in a very short time. The evil which he sometimes does, sets out in bold relief the good which he our/hi to do. That is a man of power who may do mnch hurt, even if he can never become a positive and decided benefactor. The occupant of the pulpit may benumb the intellect which he ought to arouse and brighten. He may darken the conscience that he ought to illuminate, and may deprave mstead of purifying the tastes and affections. As the soul w^hich, with aid from above, he might have allured toward heaven, would never have ceased to gain new capacity for holiness and bliss, so the soul which he now indisposes for a pious life will be perpetually drinking in new sin and new punishment. The sin is just as debasing as the hoHness would have been exalting, and the punishment is as refined, and spiritual and keen, as would have been the reward. Nor does this soul go on alone to its ruin. Spirits move in sympathy, and make companions for their gloom if they do not find them. The man whom the preacher hardens in guilt imparts a like hardening influence to at least three or four of his friends, perhaps of his household ; and these will not shut up the contagion within their own bi-easts, but will spread it, perhaps, through nine or twelve of their admirers or dependents ; and in this geometrical ratio, the progress of the contamination may not cease in this world till the millennium, nor in the world to come till spirits no longer assimilate with each other. If the tide of virtuous influence flow upward from genera- tion to generation, what shall be the breadth, and depth and bitterness 26 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. of that river of death that flows downward .♦^ It is not merely from the aggregate of the preacher's life : it is also from one sermon alone, or even from one sentence, that a hearer may start in his course of despera- tion, and go on diverging further and further from the Une of hope. A single unguarded expression has gone from the pulpit, and eased a con- science that had for days been extorting the complaint, " O, wretched man that I am" I A rough remark on the perdition of infants has been known so to shock a hearer, as to make him leave the house of God, and never listen again to an evangelical ministry. A morose appellative on the doctrine of eternal punishment was referred to by an enemy of that doctrine, as the first thing that inflamed his mind against it, and induced him to become a minister of false tidings, proclaiming peace to large assemblies for whom there was no peace, said the Lord. " Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved ;" this was one of the first texts from which Mr. Murray discoursed on his first visit to Boston. " If one should buy a rich cloth, and make it into a garment, and then burn the garment, but save the remnant, what must be thought of him ;" this was one of his first sen- tences. Homely and clumsy as was the argument, it had a strange and sad efiect upon a yomig man of enterprise who heard it ; he carried it to his home in one of our inland towns, and made it the means of awaken- mg a curiosity and a prejudice, that terminated in the defection of a large neighborhood from the faith once delivered to the saints. From that neighborhood have gone several lettered men, who have blended the fascinations of learning -with the ungainly creed of their childhood ; and may it not be a rational fear, that many congregations will be seduced into a ruinous neglect of religion by a train of influences that started from the one witless illustration of John Murray? And well would it be if all the evil that flows from the pulpit were the emanation of an unsanctified ministry. Does not much of it come from the imperfect addresses of even idIous divines ; fi-om their bad utterance, that gives an unkind meaning to goodly words ; from their style of composition, that makes a hearer turn away the richest truth coming in such repulsive attire; from their want of forethought and skill ; from an undue neglect of prayer and study ; from clouded views, low purposes, little faith, obtuse feeling? And, moreover, must it not deepen our sense of the preacher's critical situation to reflect, that he often does not foresee the results of his language ? He docs good without knowing it, and evil also. A sentence that hastily escapes him, has performed its work as hastily, and has wrought a mischief which a century's discoursing will never repair. God has concealed from us the day of our death, so that every day may be the pivot on which our eternity is seen to depend. There is an apparent indefiniteness and obscurity flung over the works and ways of Jehovah, and therefore the seriousness which might other- wise be confined to a single point, is now diftused through a whole exist THE INFLUENCE OF THE PREACnEl^. £7 ence. If the preacher could always determine the moment when his auditory would be most impressible, he mioht set a double guard upon that moment. If he knew exactly what discourse or what paragraph would happen to seize the peculiar attendon of an inquirer or caviler, a bright child, or an inquisitive student, he miglit lay out his great strength on a few sentences, and feel somewhat Hecure. He can indeed foresee that some parts of his ministration will require more skill than others ; but he will often find a surprising efficacy where he looked for nothing. A discourse of Payson, which he thought little of, and wi'ote almost enth-ely at a sitting, was one of the most eflective that he ever preached. " 1 could not but wonder," he says, " to see God work by it." So, too, the sentence which the preacher utters, without even a thought of its power, excites a prejudice or foments an evil passion, fi-om the effects of which the mind will never be restored. The word fell almost unbidden from the pulpit, and it was perverted to the eternal sorrow of one who listened to little beside that word. The critical and momentous character of the preacher's work is therefore spread out over all its parts, even the most minute. He sometimes labors on his arguments, and has no fear for his illustrations ; but his illustrations are misunderstood, and more than undo the effect of his reasoning. He neglects to prove his doc- trine, and many, from that accident, infer that the doctrine is false. He fails to apply it. and thereby satisfies some with a dead faith. When he raises his hand to enforce a saying, he is like the man of old who drew a bow at a venture, and knew not whom or what he should smite. We have read of navigators, whose hair turned from black to gray while they were steering their bark through a dangerous pass, and feeling that a movement of the helm, even for a single inch, would be for the crew's life or death. But when immortal interests are suspended upon one felicitous or inapposite word from the pulpit, can we be surprised — how can we be surprised — at the remarks of Martin Luther: " I am now an old man, and have been a long time employed in the business of preach- ing ; but I never ascend the pulpit without trembling." Tlie influence of a preacher may be still further illustrated by the fact, that it becomes the greater and the better, as he becomes the more able and more faithful. If a sermon be grand iii its theme, and good in its in- fluence, then the more carefully the theme is studied, -so much the more im- portant will be the sermon ; the more skillfully the preacher adapts his style to the nature of man, so much the more exuberant is the fruit he may anticipate. True, he is only an instrument, and God is a sovereign and may bless the feeblest agency rather than the strongest. God may do so, but commonly docs not. If he require means, he thereby requires the best means. If he approve of prc^aching, then he gives most of hi« approval to the best, most real pre iching. It is generally his sovereign purpose to honor Avith the greatest success such instruments as are, ^ji 28 IXTRODUCTORY ESSAY. themselves, most wisely fitted to secure the end which he secures by them. He rules the wind and the tide as he pleases ; and yet the most cunning mariner will so adjust the sails, and prow, and helm, as to receive the largest share of the blessings coming from absolute sover- eignty. The man who is wise in winning souls to Christ will find out what are the laws according to which the decrees of heaven are fulfilled among hearers of the word, and he will strive to shape his discourses so as to meet these laws. And he is the best husbandman in the moral vineyard, who studies most faithfully the nature of the soil and the qual- ities of the seed, who plants and waters at the hour and in the w^ay which the soundest discretion advises, and moreover is sending up the devoutest and most persevering prayers to heaven, whence alone cometh mcrease. But what manner of man miist he be who is making these intricate observations, and toiling for a perfect conformity to the laws of God's highest workmanship ! What agonizing of the inner spirit must he often endure, when selecting and aiming the dart which may save or destroy a hearer dear to him as an own son ! If a Christian is the highest style of man, what must a preacher be ? If an undevout astronomer is mad, what shall we say of an undevout pastor and bishop ? If any man should .be one of various learning and severe, protracted study, of generous impulses and painful watchings, of intense longing after improvement, and of daily progress in mental and moral culture, what must be the character and purposes of the consecrated man who stands between the great God and a hostile congregation — who knows that at every openmg of his mouth he may so aiFect his hearers as to make them gems in the crown of his rejoicing, or make himself respon- sible for their ruin ? The homely words that Philip Henry Avrote on the day of his ordination over a small people, eji:press the feelings of every true preacher: "I did this day receive as much Jionor and work, as ever I shall be able to know what to do with. Lord Jesus ! proportion sup plies accordingly." In his " Dying Thoughts," Richard Baxter afiirms : " For forty years I have no reason to think that I ever labored in vain." He had toiled in season and out of season, in the study, and in the con- ference of the learned. During his life he published a hundred and sixty-eight volumes, all of them dis];)laying acumen and an amount of erudition that surprises us ; yet, in the conclusion of the whole matter, he thus avows his preference for the preacher's duties above those of the philosopher even : " I have looked over Hutton, Vives, Erasmus, Scali- ger, Salmasius, Casaubon, and many other critical grammarians, and all Gruter's critical volumes, I have read almost all the physics and meta- lohysics I could hear of I have wasted much, of my time among loads of historians, chronologers, and antiquaries. I despise none of their learning; all truth is useful. Mathematics, which I have least of, I find a pretty manlike sport. But if I have no other knowledge than these, what Avere my understanding worth ]^ What a dreaming dotard should THE INFLUENCE OF THE PREACHER. 29 I be ? I have higher thoughts of the schoolmen than Erasmus and our other grammarians had. I much vahie the method and sobriety of Aquinas, the subtlety of Occam, the plainness of Durandus, the solidity of Arimiensis, the jDrofundity of Bradwardine, the excellent acuteness of many of their followers ; of Aureolus, Capreolus, Bannes, Alvarez, Zumel, etc. ; of Mayro, Lychetus, Trombeta, Faber, Meurisse, Rada, etc. ; of Ruiz, Pennates, Saurez, Vasquez, etc. ; of Hurtado, of Albertinus, of Lud a Dola, and many others. But how loath should I be to take such sauce for my food, and such recreations for my business. The jingling of too much and false philosophy among them often drowns the noise of Aaron's bells. I feel myself much better in UerherPs temple?'' It was with a desire of contributing somewhat to perpetuate this en- thusiasm of Baxter in the sacred profession that the writer of this essay formed a plan, many years ago, of publishing in a connected form the most noteworthy sermons of the most exemplary preachers. The tend- ency of such sermons is to stimulate and strengthen wise men. This plan, however, he cheerfully resigned as soon as he learned that a sim- ilar enterprise had been commenced by the author of a premium essay,* which was itself a guaranty that the enterprise would be prosecuted with a good aim and a sound judgment. That author has already paid " a debt to his profession," and has piit the clerical profession under a debt to him, by the publication of two massive volumes,f containing many eminent sermons of deceased divines, and excellent models of Christian eloquence. To those inspiriting volumes the present work is a fit ap- pendage, and it needs no higher praise. This volume gives us an en- livening view of ministers who are now on earth, as the previous volumes refreshed us with the words of men who are now in heaven. It affords a cheering proof that amid all the mutations of style, thei-e is one spirit pervading the discourses of evangelical divines in all lands, and this is the spirit which has permeated them in all ages. The honored names of many whose discourses enrich the present volume convince us that some of the criticisms which the high priests of letters have pronounced upon modern clergymen, are too sweeping and indiscriminate. " Malig- nity itself," says a^ Edinburg Reviewer, " can not accuse our pulpits and theoloinjical presses of beguiling us by the witchcraft of genius. They stand clear of the guilt of ministering to the disordered heart the anodynes of wit or fancy. Abstruse and profound sophistries are not in the number of their offenses. It is mere calumny to accuse them of lulling the conscience to repose by any syren songs of imagination. If the bolts of inspired truth are diverted from their aim, it is no longer by * "Primitive Piety Revived, or the Aggressive Power of the Christian Church. A Premium Essay." From the Press of the Congregational Board of Pubhcation, Boston. f "History and Repository of Pulpit Eloquence, containing the Master-pieces" of do* ceased divines, in all ages and lands. From the Press of M. "W. Dodd, Now Torlc 30 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 'jTiticing words of man's wisdom. Divinity fills ujd her weekly hour by the grave and gentle excitement of an orthodox discourse, or by toiling through her narrow round of systematic dogmas, or by creeping along some low level of school-boy morality, or by addressing the initiated in mythic phraseology ; but she has ceased to employ lips such as those of Chrysostom and Bourdaloue. The sanctity of sacred things is lost in the familiar routine of sacred words. Religion has acquired a technology, and a set of conventional formulas, torpifying those who use and those who hear them." In the present age there are many preachers, as this volume warrants us in believing, who rise, and are raising others, far above the standard which hostile critics have imputed to us. A standard so low could have been tolerated in times gone by, less unwisely than it can be endured in our times. It can be allowed in other lands with less peril than in our own land. With us the high character of our clei-gy is our " national estabUshment." Now, and here, we can not maintain the authority of religious truth, unless it be preached hy- men to whom all others shall have reason to look up. The sermons that were " delivered at Golden Grove to the family and domestics of Lord Carberry, or, at most, to a few gentlemen and ladies of that secluded neighborhood, and to as many of the peasantry of the estate as could understand English"* should be surpassed in excellence by the sermons delivered before a thinking, an inquisitive, a reading, a free people, who have, and who know that they have, much of the civil and ecclesiastical power in their own hands, and who require of their preacher more acu men, more learnmg, more of moral excellence than has been demanded in other lands and times and churches. Our Sabbath-schools, and Bible- classes, our popular commentaries, our cheap books, our lyceums, yea, and even our railroads, make it needful for the minister to push his in- vestigations over and far beyond the line to which his predecessors ad- vanced, distant as that line may be, and to search for wisdom among treasures yet hidden. For all this expense of energy, his pecuniary emolument is but small ; therefore must he be a man of generous phi- lanthropy. He must undertake his labor for the love of it, and the love of its good results. In the best sense of the term, he must be a great man, for self-denial in the service of mankind is true greatness. Let him be animated in his high calling by a faith that the All-wise Mind who instituted the clerical office, and without whose interposing influence the efforts of the wisest men are " foolishness," will not disown the service which he has appointed, nor forget the instrument which he has devised, but wiU so regulate the influences of the world as to make his earnest ministers speak long after they are dead. * See Heber's Life of Jeremy Taylor, pp. 189, 190. Andoveh Theological Sesonaby May 6j 186T. C^e iuman f jtlpit. ( A.JkcLtl 34 FRED. AUG. GOT. THOLUGK. The conversion of Tholuck determined his call to the science of theology ; and immediately after completir g his three years' course at the University of Berlin, he became one of the private teachers, succeeding the celebrated De Wette, with the title of Professor Extraordinarius. At the time of assuming this elevated chair (1819), he was but twenty years of age. Here he devoted himself, at first, vnth special zeal to the study of oriental languages and hterature, and wrote, Avhen quite a youth, from Arabic, Persic, and Tm-kish manuscripts, a learned volume, De Surffismo Persarum., or the mystic theosophy of the Persians. His mental precosity was remarkable. He was but twenty-two years old, when he published his "Hints for the Study of the Old Testament," and but twenty-three when he wrote his " Treatise on the Nature and Moral Influence of Heathenism ;" an article which Gesenius pronounced the ablest which he had ever seen on the subject. He was but twenty-five years of age, when he published his " Commentary on the Rom- ans ;" which has passed through several editions in G-ermany, and has been trans- lated into English, for the " Edinburg Biblical Cabinet." De Wette, though far from evangelical in his sentiments, pronounced this Commentary superior to any that had preceded it on the same Epistle. Besides these works. Professor Tholuck has since published numerous others; some of which are his " Practical Comment- a'ies on the Psalms," "John's Gospel," and the "Epistle to the Hebrews." He has also, from the first, written very largely for the leading religious periodical literature of Germany. In 1839, he was favorably introduced to American scholars, by a sketch of his hfe, and several sermons, in the " Selections from German Litera- ture," by Professors B. B. Edwards, and Edwards A. Park. Dr. Knapp, Professor Ordinarius of Theology at Halle, ha%nng died in 1825, Tho- luck was appointed in 1826, when but twenty-seven years of age, the successor of that distinguished theologian. His appointment was violently opposed by the Ra- tionalists, at that time decidedly the most numerous as well as the strongest party at that seat of learning. He was scouted, hated, and ridiculed as a pietist, mystic, fanatic, radical, etc. But he persevered, and God has most richly blessed his labors. He has remained in his post ever since, with tlie exception of a short residence at Rome, in the capacity of a chaplain of the Prussian embassy ; and mainly through his influence, a revolution has been wrought in Halle, at least as far as theology is concerned. Rationalism has entirely disappeared from the theological faculty, and there is not one among its present ordinary professors (Tholuck, Miiller, Moll, Hup- feld, Jacobi), who may not be regarded as orthodox in essential points, and evan- gelical in sentiment. In personal appearance, Dr. Tholuck is said to be almost as modest and unpre- possessing, although not so original and startling, as the late Dr. Neander. He has a delicate frame, is of middle size, strongly bent forward, meager and emaciate