v 
 
 

 
t&sv • 
 
 AN 
 
 EARNEST MINISTRY 
 
 WANT OF THE TIMES. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN ANGELL JAMES 
 
 WITH AN 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 BY REV. J. B. CONDIT, D.D 
 
 OF NEWARK, NEW-JERSEY. 
 
 NEW-YORK 
 
 PUBLISHED BY M. W. DODD, 
 
 BRICK CHURCH CHAPEL, CORNER OF PARK ROW, 
 (opposite the city hall.) 
 
 
M 
 
 ->% 
 
 c 
 
 \*fl 
 
 Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1848, by 
 
 M. W ♦ DODD, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New- York 
 
 E. 0. JENKINS, PRINTER, 
 114 Nassau Street, N. Y. 
 
 3* * >. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT, 
 
 When the design of republishing this volume was 
 first contemplated, it was thought, a careful and 
 judicious revision of the work might better adapt it 
 to the circumstances of the American Churches and 
 Ministry. 
 
 Allusions to local circumstances peculiar to Great 
 Britain, and personal references which could not be 
 fully appreciated here, it was supposed, might be 
 omitted with advantage, in a work intended for 
 American readers. 
 
 But subsequent counsel and reflection, together 
 with the difficulty of securing such a revision as 
 would avoid injustice to the author, and leave un- 
 impaired the essential excellencies of a volume so 
 replete in matter and spirit with that which cannot 
 
IV ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 fail to do good wherever there is a Gospel Ministry, 
 led to the relinquishment of the original design. 
 
 It should, however, be borne in mind by those who 
 read this volume, that its author intended it for 
 
 British rather than American readers. 
 
 * 
 
 New- York, April, 1848. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 
 
 The Christian ministry, in its character and work, is a 
 subject of growing interest in this country. During the 
 last twenty-five years it has been the object of much effort 
 to furnish a sufficient number of men to meet the demand. 
 The claims of the office have been set forth strongly in 
 view of our extending and destitute population. Institu- 
 tions have been multiplied for the purpose of educating 
 men for the work. So deeply has this necessity been felt, 
 and so many were the agencies to be organized and sus- 
 tained to supply it, that we have been in danger of think- 
 ing too little of the character of the ministry. While the 
 efforts to increase its numbers ought not to be diminished, 
 it must not be forgotten that a numerous ministry may not 
 be an efficient one. 
 
 Many, it is believed, will rejoice in the appearance of 
 this work by Mr. James, who has presented the subject, 
 in one of its departments, in a most impressive manner. 
 If the respected author had written for American readers, 
 doubtless some things would have been omitted. But 
 nothing will be found in the book to hinder its usefulness. 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It is obvious that the subject has deeply interested the 
 mind of the writer. An earnest heart guides his able pen, 
 No minister, or candidate for the ministry, can read the 
 book without receiving a deep impression of the greatness 
 of the trust, and some valuable aid in the discharge of ti- 
 lt is generally acknowledged, that we must rely on the 
 living ministry as the principal agency for the extension of 
 the Gospel in this land, not simply in view of the prom- 
 inence which Christ has given it in his word, and in the 
 progress of the Church, but because of its adaptation to 
 the condition and character of the people. 
 
 The mind of this nation presents some remarkable fea- 
 tures in its present character and position, deeply interest- 
 ing to the Christian as well as the philosopher and states- 
 man. It is an intellectual life which is not marked by the 
 quiet pursuit of its object, but by an incessant and hurried 
 movement. It is not the intellectual action of a few, con- 
 centrating in one constellation the light of the age, but 
 it involves the entire people. It is pre-eminently a dif- 
 fused mental activity. The superiority of mental energy 
 is acknowledged from the town-hall of the country village, 
 to the chamber of the Senate. If this action is some- 
 what superficial, and if it is often sustained by unhealthy 
 means, yet it is everywhere discernible. 
 
 This mind is not of one common type, not having been 
 educated under the same political institutions, nor taken 
 the impress of any one system of religious faith. Many 
 old erroneous opinions, as well as new, have their ad- 
 herents, and are struggling for prevalence over the truth. 
 We have a mixture of intellectual and moral elements, 
 strikingly diverse. Tributaries from every quarter of the 
 globe are finding their way into our stream, and must ul- 
 timately impart to it their different hues. We wonder not 
 
INTRODUCTION. - Vll 
 
 that the wisest are unable to foretell what is to be the re- 
 sult in respect to the strength and permanence of govern- 
 ment or the religious character of coming generations. 
 We wonder not that we witness the conflict of thought and 
 feeling ; or that we are sometimes shaken with a sudden 
 and violent concussion. These cross-currents of mind will 
 be likely to keep up a deep agitation. 
 
 We must have a religious agency which is fitted to meet 
 this posture of things. It must be that which will power- 
 fully arrest mind, in the midst of its warm conflicts, and 
 bring the Gospel in its full power to the sympathies and 
 hearts of the people. It must be that which will come in 
 where worldliness, ignorance and corruption reign, with 
 resources adapted to overcome prejudice, supplant error, 
 and lay broad and permanent foundations for the reign of 
 truth and righteousness. It must possess the wisdom, 
 energy and facility in action, to meet character and opinion 
 of every type, and with the divine blessing to mould them 
 according to the truth and law of God. 
 
 To what agency do such qualifications belong, if not to 
 the Christian ministry ? It comes with the power of a 
 living character, visibly illustrating and practically enforc- 
 ing the truth. By its ever-living presence it encompasses 
 mind with an attracting and moulding influence. To this, 
 it adds the wondrous influence of oral delivery. We im- 
 pute no magic charm to the human voice and countenance. 
 Yet that voice is made to speak the truth in tones which 
 move the heart. In the human face there is a strange 
 power of speech. It is the language of the soul kindling 
 into sympathy with it the souls of the hearers. Reason 
 about it as we may, the fact is as wonderful now as it 
 ever was. There is no example of influence (nor mind 
 more simple and sublime than that of a man of (rod in the 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 earnest delivery of the gospel message. He does not 
 exert it by means of unholy stratagem or mere novelties in 
 style and action, but by the exhibition of truth on old, 
 familiar themes, with old and familiar tones. But he ex- 
 hibits that truth with a heart all glowing under its power. 
 He separates his hearers from the associations of worldly 
 business, and gathers them into the presence of Jehovah. 
 He charges their sins against them, arraigns them at the 
 bar of God, and pronounces their doom as impenitent men. 
 Now he collects over them the clouds of Divine wrath, and 
 then he draws them around the cross, and makes them hear 
 the winning voice of the Redeemer. He does it with the 
 strength and courage imparted by confidence in God, but 
 with the humility and love of a man and a sinner. They 
 love to hear the tones of such a voice ; to feel the power 
 of that speaking eye, as that voice and that eye utter the 
 gushing thoughts of a spirit intensely moved in sympathy 
 with them. What reader of Edwards' sermon, entitled 
 " Sinners in the hands of an angry God," is impressed 
 as they were who heard him utter it in the solemn earnest- 
 ness of the pulpit ? We read the sermons of Whitfield 
 without the realization of the power which accompanied 
 his preaching. We by no means attribute the astonishing 
 effects of his preaching only to his look, tone and action as 
 a speaker. We forget not that these were the expression 
 of a soul, into the depths of which the truth had come with 
 a penetrating, awakening influence, and that the power of 
 God attended him. Yet, in his ready speech, so as never 
 " to stumble at a word, and never to stop for the want of 
 one ;" in his natural gracefulness and inimitable power 
 of action ; in his ability " to paint with all the effect of real 
 scenery," and to make sinners tremble, as if about to 
 sink into perdition, and even believe themselves doomed. 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 as in the tone and air of a judge lie pronounced the sen- 
 tence, " Depart !" — we have those qualities which consti- 
 tute the peculiar advantage of the preacher in gaining 
 attention to the truth, and which are worthy of being 
 diligently cultivated. 
 
 Now we affirm that in view of the genius and habits of 
 our people, we must look to the living ministry to do a 
 great work in this nation. Such an agency will accord 
 with the method of awakening and guiding mind in other 
 departments of thought and action among all classes. If 
 this is true of the older sections of the country, it is even 
 more characteristic of communities less enlightened, and 
 less disciplined to the patient study of truth. The people 
 are accustomed to instruction and persuasion by the ear- 
 nest speaker. So the voice of the living preacher must 
 obtain the ear of the people, as with the Bible in his hand, 
 he unfolds its doctrines, if these glorious truths find a 
 lodgment, and mould the mind and character of successive 
 generations. We tremble to think of the amazing re- 
 sponsibility resting on the gospel ministry in its relation 
 to our country's salvation. In view of its intrusted work, 
 what importance belongs to its spirit and character. How 
 shall it execute its trust without a large endowment of the 
 graces of the Spirit, and a Christ-like devotion and self- 
 denial ? 
 
 In view of the work which it is called to perform, the 
 Christian ministry in this land must be eminently spiritual 
 and practical in its character. The importance of a com- 
 plete intellectual furniture is not disputed. The point is 
 settled that the men who are to occupy the sacred office, 
 must have the opportunity for making thorough literary 
 and theological attainments. The demand for learning in 
 the ministry is too loud to be disregarded. Wherever the 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 preacher finds his field of action, he will have occasion 
 for the most skillful use of the best weapons. Let him not 
 venture forth into the field of battle without full armor. 
 But if the result of that intellectual training is to appear 
 in abstract, philosophical preaching, the American pulpit 
 will never accomplish its appropriate work. Far off be 
 the day when the ministers of Christ shall exalt meta- 
 physical subtleties above the doctrine of the cross ; when 
 they shall seek, to attain skill in frigid argumentation, 
 rather than a holy facility in the spiritual and practical 
 work of guiding souls to Christ and to heaven ; when in- 
 tellectual gratification shall be more thought of, than the 
 edification of the humble Christian, in their mode of ex- 
 hibiting truth, overlooking the spiritual wants and difficul- 
 ties of the common mind. Such ministers will make the 
 pulpit jejune and powerless in respect to its most essential 
 objects. Their cold light will shine without touching the 
 hearts of men. They will defeat the mission of truth from 
 the throne to this world of sin and darkness. They cannot 
 compass the mighty work which God puts into their hands. 
 We need a ministry whose intellectual furniture and 
 energy have come under the influence of a spiritual piety, 
 nurtured in communion with Christ. Then it will be 
 " strong and do exploits. " The preacher must not only 
 know what conscience is, but how to reach it with the 
 truth. He must know what is the hungering of a soul 
 after the bread of life, and how to divide and distribute the 
 word so as to satisfy the hungry. It must be the " living 
 bread," and not the speculations of the theorist, however 
 expert he may be ; that which will be the element of vigor 
 and life to the spiritual man. To show unto men the way 
 of salvation, he must regard as the object worthy of his 
 most select and untiring efforts. The practical rules of 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 Christian living, must be his familiar themes of discourse. 
 Hence scholastic learning is not enough, lest he be a mere 
 scholastic preacher. Rhetorical rules, however thoroughly 
 mastered, are not enough, lest he be a mere orator. His 
 investigations of truth, though pursued with enthusiasm 
 and presented in elaborate discussion, will affect no human 
 heart, if they are not made to bear directly on the repent- 
 ance, faith and sanctification of men. If his commission 
 as minister of the gospel is executed in a manner appro- 
 priate to its high designs, he must be a man skilled in the 
 workings of the human soul, interested in all the relations 
 of common life, and apt in the inculcation of truth with 
 regard to all the difficulties and duties of those relations ; 
 while he is absorbed in the one great object for which 
 Christ died. 
 
 This characteristic of the ministry is worthy to be great- 
 ly exalted above the observance of any one law in the 
 structure of sermons* Yet this is not a point of little mo- 
 ment. We should much regret if the American pulpit 
 should ever become chiefly hortatory. Examples have 
 proved that the pulpit has lost power when the hortatory 
 style has been habitually adopted. That man will most 
 deeply impress a generation of mind, who, while skillful 
 in appeals to the conscience, is also the able teacher and 
 expounder of truth. "We believe, also, that the practice 
 of delivering written sermons is essential to the greatest 
 usefulness of the ministry. Without it, in all ordinary 
 cases, the permanent interest and power of the pulpit will 
 not be sustained. It is admitted that the immediate effects 
 of Pay son's preaching were often most striking in connec- 
 tion with some of his unwritten discourses. But this might 
 not have been, if he had not preached one written sermon 
 every Sabbath. This, his practice, was doubtless indis- 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 pensable to make his ministry what it was, and to perpetu- 
 ate its remarkable influence. t 
 
 The quality of the ministry to which allusion has been 
 made, would naturally tend to give it a more scriptural 
 character. And what improvement is more desirable than 
 a richer infusion into the discourses of the pulpit of the 
 pure word of God ? Not only make the text penetrate 
 the sermon, but let other parts of the Scriptures be 
 made to gather around it, to shed light upon it and re- 
 ceive light from it. Occasional American hearers of some 
 ministers in England and Scotland have marked this char- 
 acteristic with great pleasure. If it should diminish the 
 brilliancy of the pulpit, it would add to its richness. Fewer 
 orations will be delivered, but many better sermons. A 
 prevalent unhealthy taste may not be so well satisfied for 
 a time, but a better taste will soon be formed. It will fur- 
 nish the best opportunity for awakening emotion and af- 
 fecting the conscience, as well as -imparting instruction. 
 Thus obtaining vivid impressions of truth, the preacher 
 will possess one element of true earnestness in the pulpit ; 
 for he will speak not only with all the authority of truth, 
 but with a soul deeply imbued with the spirit of it. Then he 
 will have a holy unction, and will give forth both light and 
 heat. A spiritual, practical, scriptural, as well as learned 
 ministry, will be earnest ; and that is the ministry God will 
 bless for the enlightenment and salvation of our country. 
 
PROFESSORS AND COMMITTEE 
 OF CHESHUNT COLLEGE, 
 
 THE FOLLOWING TREATISE. 
 
 BEING THE EXPANSION OF A SERMON 
 
 PREACHED 
 
 BEFORE THEM AT THEIR LAST ANNIVERSARY, 
 
 IS INSCRIBED 
 
 WITH SENTIMENTS OF AFFECTIONATE RESPECT, 
 
 AND WITH EARNEST PRAYERS 
 
 FOR THE PROSPERITY 
 
 OF THEIR VALUABLE INSTITUTION. 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE, 
 
 Preface, . . . . . . .17 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Apostolic Ministry, . . . • .23 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Nature of Earnestness, 33 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Earnestness exemplified in the Matter and Manner of 
 
 Preaching, . . . . . 71 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Earnestness in Reference to Manner, . . .88 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Specimens of Earnestness from various Authors, . 101 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Earnestness, as manifested in the Delivery of Sermons, . 124 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Earnestness manifested in the Pastorate, . . 1&3 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Examples of Earnestness, . . . .167 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Motives to Earnestness, . . . . 181 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Means to be used for obtaining an Earnest Ministry, . 242 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 On the Necessity of Divine Influence for an Efficient Min- 
 istry, . . . . . .276 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Has the modern evangelical pulpit lost,, and is it still 
 losing, any of its power? This is a question far too 
 momentous to be asked in the spirit of mere curiosity, or 
 to be answered in unreflecting and ignorant haste. An 
 affirmative reply involves consequences so deeply and so 
 painfully affecting the eternal welfare of mankind, as well 
 as the cause of orthodox doctrine, that it should not be 
 given but upon indubitable evidence ; while on the other 
 hand, a negative answer will only perpetuate the evil, if it 
 really exists, by preventing all measures which might be 
 taken "to correct it. In settling this question, it is neces- 
 sary to define what is meant by the loss of the power of 
 the pulpit. If by this it is intended only to ask whether 
 evangelical ministrations have lost their attractiveness in 
 drawing the people together to hear them, it may be un- 
 hesitatingly affirmed that they have not, for perhaps there 
 was never anything approaching the numbers which now 
 are found listening to the glad tidings of salvation. The 
 true intent of the inquiry then is this : Has the modern 
 pulpit lost any of its efficiency as regards the great end for 
 which the gospel is preached, that is, the conversion of 
 2 
 
18 PREFACE. 
 
 sinners, and the spiritual advancement of believers ? In 
 coming to a right conclusion upon this matter, another in- 
 quiry still must be proposed, which is this : With what past 
 period of history is the present compared ? If we go back 
 to the time of Baxter, Howe, Owex, Bates, Maxtox, 
 and Ciiarxock, there can be little reason to believe, it may 
 be presumed, that the moderns preach with the same results 
 that these men did. As little can it be questioned whether 
 Whitfield and Wesley, with the men called up by their 
 labors, proclaimed the gospel of the grace of God, with 
 more power and success than the preachers of the present 
 day. It is better, therefore, to limit the range of inquiry 
 to the last quarter of a century, and to state the matter 
 thus: Does the preaching of the gospel now, taking all 
 evangelical denominations into the investigation, appear to 
 be followed with the same saving and sanctifying results, 
 as it was then ; and if not, does there appear to be a pro- 
 gressive diminution of effect still going on? 
 
 This, it must be obvious, is a question which cannot be 
 settled by very accurate statistics, and for the solution of 
 which we must depend pretty much upon general reports, 
 and concurrent testimony. It may be asked, then, whether 
 the want of efficiency is not matter of acknowledgment 
 and lamentation by all evangelical bodies ? True it is that 
 to a certain extent similar acknowledgments and lamenta- 
 tions have been made in every age, and by ministers of all 
 denominations. But the inquiry now supposed is made 
 chiefly by those who compare themselves with themselves ; 
 and their success at the present time, with their own suc- 
 cess in a past time. The confession from the United 
 States, made by Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Bap- 
 tists and Methodists, is concurrent, that there is a flatness 
 over the churches, that revivals are rare, and conversions 
 
PREFACE. ID 
 
 few, while the power of godliness among professing Chris- 
 tians is low. . The Methodist body in these United King- 
 doms, reported last year but an increase of about seven 
 hundred members. The evangelical clergy of the Church 
 of England lament the want of conversions by their preach- 
 ing, and confess that the power of Venn, and Romaine, 
 and Cecil, and Newton, seems wanting to their succes- 
 sors. The Baptists and Independents have no better 
 report to make. Dr. Chalmers, in a late article in the 
 North British Review, in speaking of Scotland, and that at 
 a time when the disruption of the Presbyterian Establish- 
 ment might have been supposed to have given new 
 activity to the Free Church at least, uses the following 
 mournful language : "As things stand at present, our 
 creeds and confessions have become effete, and the Bible 
 a dead letter ; and the orthodoxy which was at one time 
 the glory, by withering into the inert and lifeless, is now 
 the shame and reproach of all our churches." This is 
 strong language, and a startling opinion. But the most 
 melancholy thing connected with it is its truth. 
 
 Assuming then the fact that the modern evangelical 
 pulpit has lost, and is losing, something of its power, in 
 the way of converting sinners and carrying forward the 
 spiritual life of believers, it surely becomes us all to reflect 
 upon the painful fact with the deepest seriousness, and the 
 most intense anxiety, and at the same time to inquire after 
 the cause. It would ill become us, in a spirit of antino- 
 mian indolence or fanaticism, to resolve this whole matter 
 into Divine sovereignty, and to say, "God wills it." With 
 the same reason, and on as good ground, might the im- 
 penitent sinner be satisfied with his condition, and trace ii 
 up to a withholding of the influence necessary for his con- 
 version. That there is a suspension of Divine influence 
 
20 PREFACE. 
 
 must be admitted, if there be a diminished saving result ; 
 but as the Spirit uses appropriate means, may not this 
 very suspension itself be traced up to some fault of the 
 preachers themselves ? Would not a different order of 
 means lead to a removal of this suspension of the Spirit's 
 power ? The question for us to ask in all seriousness and 
 prayerful examination, is this : Does the diminished power 
 of the pulpit arise from a diminished adaptation of the 
 pulpit, or is the deficiency which is lamented to be traced 
 up exclusively to the circumstances of the times that are 
 now passing over us ? Something may be set down to 
 both these causes. 
 
 This is a matter that concerns all, and deeply concerns 
 them too, for the tendency of decline is always downward ; 
 what is weak will become weaker, if not stopped. 
 
 There is another consideration which may account for 
 the diminished effect of the pulpit, and that is an increased 
 power of the press and of the school. At one time the 
 preacher had the public mind almost to himself. There 
 were indeed Bibles, and schools, and tracts, but how few 
 and uninfluential, compared with what they are in the pres- 
 ent day ! Evangelical truth now comes before the million 
 in every possible variety of form, and in every variable quan- 
 tity : the child learns its lessons from the Sunday school 
 teacher, and the poorest adult reads it at home in the tract 
 and the penny magazine ; and though this is a help in one 
 respect to the preacher, it takes from him all the advantage 
 which novelty of representation can give him, for he has 
 been already forestalled by the living voice of the teacher, 
 and the silent invitations of the tract. These auxiliary 
 means of conversion will never supersede the pulpit, if the 
 pulpit does not allow itself to be superseded ; but it is evi- 
 dent that such competitors with it as these for the public 
 
PREFACE. 21 
 
 mind, should increase its labors to be, what God ever in- 
 tended it to be, his power to the salvation of men. That 
 the pulpit has nothing to fear from the increase of religious 
 knowledge by the school and the press, is evident from the 
 fact that as science multiplies its treatises, and cheapens 
 them down to the poorest pocket, it multiplies in equal 
 proportion its public lecturers. 
 
 The views thus set forth in this preface will account for 
 the subject of the volume which they introduce. We live 
 in an earnest age, and nothing but an earnest ministry may 
 hope to succeed in it. With this conviction, when honored 
 with an invitation to preach last year the anniversary ser- 
 mon for Cheshunt College, the author found his subject in 
 his own views and convictions. The publication of the 
 discourse then preached was solicited at the time of its 
 delivery ; but as it was given to the world pretty fully in 
 the pages of the Patriot newspaper, he abandoned all 
 thoughts of complying with a request so kindly preferred. 
 His attention was, however, called again to the subject, 
 and his resolution changed by the solicitation of that dis- 
 tinguished man who presides over the collegiate institution 
 at Cheshunt with so much wisdom and dignity ; and who 
 to all his other works, so rich in practical piety, has added 
 another of a very different kind, which, while it lays the 
 world under deep obligations to its author, will associate 
 the name of Dr. Harris with the most profound religious 
 philosophers of any age or any country. May his valuable 
 life be spared to complete that magnificent series of trea- 
 tises, which, with such adventurous but well-balanced in- 
 tellect, he has projected, and of which the volume lately 
 issued is but the commencement ! 
 
 When revising the manuscript for publication, the- author 
 of this work found it admitted of more expansion of thought 
 
22 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 and more extended amplification than at first struck him ; 
 and he resolved as soon as time should be found for it, to 
 prepare a small treatise which should have a better chance 
 of living than an ephemeral pamphlet. The subject grew 
 under his hand, and has at length swelled into this volume. 
 In undertaking to become, especially at such length, the 
 counsellor of his brethren, he can scarcely acquit himself 
 of the charge of presumption. He feels that he has little 
 claim upon the attention of his fellow laborers in the 
 ministry, even the youngest of them, and very little right 
 to ask it. True it is that he is now arrived at an a^e when 
 he takes his place among the fathers ; but then years do 
 not always teach wisdom. It is no less true that he has 
 now labored two and forty years in the ministry of the 
 Word, and has had no very limited opportunity of observing 
 and of knowing, experimentally, what contributes to minis- 
 terial acceptableness and usefulness ; still he can truly say, 
 without a grain of vanity concealed under a simulated 
 modesty, he offers the present treatise to the notice of his 
 brethren, with fear and trembling. He knows that what 
 is offered to them should, both as to matter and manner* 
 be worthy of their attention ; and had he a literary reputa- 
 tion to sustain, over which he was jealous even to fastidi- 
 ousness, he would feel still more solicitude about the 
 reception of his work ; but as he aims at nothing but use- 
 fulness, without making any pretensions to a finished style, 
 he can ask them to accept it as an affectionate endeavor, 
 made in his own way, to aid their usefulness. God has 
 helped him to do something for His cause, and knowing 
 how it has been done, he is anxious to draw others into 
 the same way. And now while his shadows lengthen on 
 the plain, and his eye is on the declining sun, he feels that 
 in the review of life, the thought of having done something 
 
PREFACE. 23 
 
 to save souls from death is more precious, than could have 
 been his consciousness of having made the largest acquire- 
 ments of learning and science. There is a time coming in 
 every man's history when the knowledge of having been 
 the instrument to pluck a single brand from the eternal 
 burning, will yield more real satisfaction than the certainty 
 of having accomplished the loftiest objects of literary 
 ambition. 
 
 The author anticipates a remark which will be made by 
 many of the readers of this volume, that it is a book of 
 extracts. They will, however, have no cause to complain 
 of this, since what he has given from the stores of other 
 men's thoughts is so much better than what he could have 
 brought from his own. Besides, in so important a matter 
 as advice to the ministry, he was anxious to be sustained 
 in what he advanced, by the authority of men, whose 
 names and counsels would carry far more weight than his 
 own. Be it so, then, that the book will present the 
 appearance of a literary mosaic, — the author is quite 
 content, for the sake of such precious stones, that his 
 own part of the volume should perform no higher office 
 than to be the framework in which they are set. 
 
 There will be found some repetitions of sentiment, and 
 even of expression, in the work ; and this was hardly to be 
 avoided from the nature of the subject. It is a poor 
 excuse for imperfections, to plead the want of time for 
 correcting them ; and yet it is the best excuse the author 
 has to make for the many that will be found in his little 
 volume. His situation exposes him to a thousand vexatious 
 interruptions, which many in more retired nooks know 
 nothing about. These pages have been written amidst 
 such abounding and various occupations, that they could 
 
24 PREFACE. 
 
 be composed only during snatches of time redeemed from 
 other duties, and from the intervals of busy activities. 
 
 If this work should do nothing more than draw the 
 attention of writers in our Reviews and Magazines, as well 
 as of our more talented authors, to a renewed considera- 
 tion of that most vital point, our ministry, it will, however 
 humble are its pretensions and low its merits, have accom- 
 plished a high and holy vocation. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE APOSTOLIC MINISTRY. 
 
 ''Now then we are ambassadors for Christ; as though God did 
 beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to 
 God."— 2 Cor. v. 10. 
 
 In this truly wonderful passage, viewed in connection 
 with its context, are set before us with beautiful simplicity, 
 yet with surpassing grandeur, the theme, the design, and 
 the method of the Christian ministry : the theme is God 
 reconciling the world to himself, a subject compared with 
 which the negotiations of hostile nations and the treaties 
 which put an end to the horrors of war, and bind in con- 
 cord the fiercest passions of humanity, are matters of only 
 momentary and limited importance : the design of the 
 ministry, which is strictly in harmony with its theme, is to 
 bring sinful men into actual reconciliation with God on the 
 ground of that system of mediation through Christ, which 
 God himself has devised and proclaimed : and its method 
 is the earnestness of persuasion addressed to the rebel 
 heart of man, to induce him to lay aside his enmity against 
 his offended Sovereign, and to accept the offer of a gracious 
 amnesty. The union and the harmony of these three views 
 of the ministry are singularly impressive: he who leaves 
 out the great scheme of Christian reconciliation from his 
 
 9* 
 
26 THE APOSTOLIC MINISTRY. 
 
 habitual ministration, omits the divinely appointed theme ; 
 he who does not supremely aim to bring sinners into a 
 state of actual friendship with God, falls short of the 
 design of the sacred office ; while he who does not employ 
 all the arts and efforts of persuasion, mistakes the method 
 of fulfilling its duties. 
 
 As the apostle is writing to a Christian church, it is per- 
 haps a matter of surprise to some that he should entreat 
 them to be reconciled to God, who by their veiy profession 
 of religion must have been supposed to be already in that 
 state. Upon looking attentively at the passage the reader 
 will perceive that the pronouns of the second person are 
 in italics, intimating that they are not in the original Greek, 
 but are supplied in our English translation to complete the 
 sense ; consequently any other term that would accom- 
 plish this better may be substituted for them. If there- 
 fore we put the substantive " men," instead of the pronoun 
 " you" in the first clause of the verse, and the third per- 
 sonal pronoun " them" for the second personal pronoun 
 " you" in the latter clause, we shall avoid the improbabil- 
 ity of his calling upon professing Christians to come into 
 a state to which they must be supposed to have already 
 attained, and shall bring out what the apostle intended to 
 set forth, the usual manner in which he discharged the 
 functions of his momentous office ; and with the alterations 
 it would read thus : " As ambassadors for Christ, as though 
 God did beseech men by us, we pray them in Christ's stead 
 to be reconciled to God." It was as if he had said, 
 " Wherever we go, we find men in unprovoked hostility, 
 inveterate enmity, and mad rebellion against God's holy 
 nature, law, and government. We carry with us, as his 
 ambassadors, the proclamation of mercy through the me- 
 diation of our Lord Jesus Christ. We tell them that we 
 
THE APOSTOLIC MINISTRY. 27 
 
 are appointed by the God whom they have offended, and 
 who could overwhelm them with the terrors of his justice, 
 to call upon them to lay down their arms and accept the 
 offer of eternal pardon and peace : but we find them every- 
 where so bent upon their sins and the enjoyment of their 
 worldly occupations and possessions, that we are compelled 
 to use the language of the most vehement entreaty and to 
 beseech and implore them, in God's name, and in Christ's 
 stead, to come into a state of reconciliation." 
 
 The apostle not only used the most intense earnestness 
 of entreaty as an expression of his own concern, but he 
 told the objects of his imploring anxiety that his importu- 
 nity for their welfare was but an imitation of, and a substitute 
 for, that of God himself — that his beseeching solicitation 
 to them, on behalf of their own salvation, was uttered in 
 Christ's stead. This is the most wonderful scene that the 
 universe will ever witness — a beseeching God, and an im- 
 ploring Saviour, standing at the door of the sinner's heart 
 with eternal salvation in his hand, knocking for entrance, 
 and begging to be let in ; the insulted Omnipotent Creator 
 of the universe, beseeching a worm, whom a volition of 
 his will could sink in a moment to perdition, and whose 
 justice would be glorified in the act, to accept his pardon- 
 ing mercy ; and waiting, year after year, in all long-suffer- 
 ing, for the sinner's reconsideration of his obstinate refu- 
 sals. Be astonished, O heavens ! at God's unutterable 
 mercy, and be horribly afraid, earth ! at man's indescri- 
 bable wickedness ! Here is the climax of God's divine 
 love, and man's desperate depravity. Infinite benevolence 
 did not reach its uttermost when Jesus Christ was nailed 
 to the cross ; that was reserved for the scene before us. 
 
 I might, with ineffable delight, expatiate at length on 
 this scene of matchless mercy ; but I pass on to other 
 
28 THE APOSTOLIC MINISTRY. 
 
 applications of the passage appropriate to the subject 
 before us ; and what a view does it give us of the Christian 
 ministry. It is an embassy from God to man, and there- 
 fore how dignified and honorable ! I admit that it is only 
 in a qualified sense that the title and office of an "ambas- 
 sador" for Christ can be applied to the ordinary ministers 
 of the gospel : but in such a sense it may be applied to 
 them, since they are ordained to do what he would do 
 were he personally present : they are to propose the same 
 blessings, to lay down the same terms of peace, as he 
 would, were he again on earth, and are, therefore, so far, his 
 ambassadors : and if the honor of an ambassador be in 
 proportion to the power and glory of the sovereign that 
 employs him, what is the dignity of him who is the ambas- 
 sador of the King of kings, and Lord of lords ; and, at 
 the same time, what ought to be the sanctity of his conduct, 
 and the elevation of his character ? If nothing unworthy 
 of the monarch who sends him, and the nation which he 
 represents, should be done by him who is dispatched on 
 an embassy to a foreign court and people, how vigilant and 
 solicitous to do nothing unworthy of God and his Christ, 
 should he be whose business it is to negotiate with man 
 the weighty affairs of judgment and of mercy from Hea- 
 ven. If he bears the dignity of office, let him couple with 
 it a corresponding dignity of character. How natural, 
 how just, how necessary the reflection, " I am an ambas- 
 sador for Christ : what manner of person ought I to be in 
 all holy conversation and godliness ? What should / be 
 who represent, so far as my office is concerned, the ma- 
 jesty of heaven and earth ?" 
 
 The ministry of the gospel is shown in this passage to be 
 an embassy of peace : this is its very designation, " the 
 ministry of RECoxeiuATiox." Never was anvthin£ more 
 
THE APOSTOLIC MINISTRY. 29 
 
 beautiful expressed or conceived : nothing could be de- 
 vised to throw over the ministry a charm of greater loveli- 
 ness. If in one hand the preacher of the gospel carry the 
 sword of the Spirit, it is only to slay the sin ; while he 
 holds forth the olive branch in the other, as the token of 
 peace and life to the sinner. He enters the scene of strife 
 and discord to harmonize the jarring elements, and goes to 
 the field of conflict to reconcile the contending parties. It 
 is his to proclaim the treaty of man's peace with God, to 
 explain its terms, to urge its acceptance, and to bring the 
 sinner into friendship with his offended lawgiver ; to carry 
 peace into man's troubled bosom, and reconcile him to his 
 own conscience ; to cast out the enmities and prejudices of 
 his selfish and depraved heart, and to unite him by charity 
 to his fellows ; to calm down the violence of his temper, 
 and give him peace at home ; and then to conduct him to 
 the realms of undisturbed tranquillity in the celestial 
 world. This is his business. Angels hover over him in 
 his course, and chant over his labors their ancient song, 
 " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and 
 good will to men ;" redeemed men and women saved by 
 his instrumentality from the wrath of God, the stings of 
 conscience, and the turbulence of passion, hail him in the 
 language of the prophet, " How beautiful upon the moun- 
 tains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that 
 publisheth peace ;" while the Saviour himself pronounceth 
 upon him the beatitude, " Blessed are the peace-makers, 
 for they shall be called the children of God." Honored 
 and happy man, where thy labors are faithful and success- 
 ful : minister of reconciliation, friend and promoter of 
 peace, the world knoweth thee not, because it knew not 
 Christ ; nor, perhaps, does even the church duly appreci- 
 ate or adequately reward thy services : hut even now thy 
 
30 THE APOSTOLIC MINISTRY. 
 
 work is its own reward : peace attends upon thy steps, and 
 its blessings spring up in thy path. 
 
 But still it is an embassy of difficulty. It is to treat with 
 those who are unwilling to be saved, and to persuade the 
 sinful, proud, and stubborn hearts of men to capitulate to 
 holiness and grace. The minister carries the offer of infi- 
 nite and ineffable blessedness, but it is to men who have no 
 taste for that species of felicity. .His were an easy office 
 did he find men everywhere predis posed to close in with 
 the proposals of infinite benevolence ; but he meets, 
 wherever he goes, with hearts, not only indifferent, but 
 hostile, to his message. The parable which represents the 
 excuses made for not coming to the marriage feast, is still 
 applicable to the children of men in reference to the invita- 
 tions of the gospel : men are, as they ever were, too busy, 
 or too well satisfied with their enjoyments and possessions, 
 to care about salvation. They are madly set upon the 
 objects of the present world ; they are asleep, and need to 
 be roused ; careless, and need to be interested ; indolent, 
 and need to be stimulated ; and it is with the greatest diffi- 
 culty we can engage their attention to the invisible realities 
 of eternity. No one can form a true estimate of the na- 
 ture, design, and difficulties of the ministerial office, who 
 leaves out of view the desperate wickedness of the human 
 heart : and the reason why there is so little of that hard 
 labor, and intense earnestness, and beseeching entreaty in 
 the ministers of the gospel is, that there is the want of 
 that deep conviction or proper consideration of the resist- 
 ance to their endeavors which is perpetually meeting them 
 from the sinner's heart. 
 
 This brings me to the subject of my present discourse, 
 and that is the necessity of an earnest ministry. Nothing 
 less than earnestness can succeed in any cases of great 
 
THE APOSTOLIC MINISTRY. 31 
 
 difficulty ; and the earnestness must of course be in pro- 
 portion to the difficulty to be surmounted. Great obsta- 
 cles cannot be overcome without intense application of the 
 mind. How then can the work of the ministry be accom- 
 plished ? Every view we can take of it replies, " Only by 
 earnestness.'' Every syllable of the apostle's language 
 replies, " Only by earnestness." Every survey we can 
 take of human nature replies, " Only by earnestness." 
 Every recollection of our own experience, as well as every 
 observation we can make of the experience of others, re- 
 plies, " Only by earnestness." This, this is what we 
 want, and must have, if the ends of the gospel are ever to 
 be extensively accomplished — an earnest ministry. 
 
 We have heard much of late about a learned ministry, 
 and God forbid we should ever be afflicted by so great an 
 evil as an unlearned one. We have been often reminded of 
 the necessity of an educated ministry ; and in this case, as 
 in every other, men must be educated for their vocation ; 
 but then that education must be strictly appropriate and 
 specific. We are very properly told from many quarters, 
 we can do nothing without a pious ministry. Nothing can 
 be more true, nor can any truth bearing upon this subject 
 be more momentous ; for of all the curses which God ever 
 pours from the vials of his wrath upon a nation which he 
 intends to scourge, there is not one so fearful as giving 
 them up to an unholy ministry. I trust our churches will 
 ever consider piety as the first and most essential qualifica- 
 tion in their pastors, for which talents, genius, learning, 
 and eloquence, would and could be no substitutes. It 
 will be a dark and evil day when personal godliness shall be 
 placed second to anything else in those who serve at the 
 altar of God. But still there is something else wanted in 
 addition to natural talent, to academic training, and even 
 
32 THE APOSTOLIC MINISTRY. 
 
 to the most fervent, evangelical piety, and that is, intense 
 devotedness. 
 
 It appears to me that this is the one thing, more than 
 any, or all other things, that is wanting in the modern 
 pulpit, and that has been wanting in most ages of the 
 Christian church. In a valuable article in a late num- 
 ber of the British Quarterly Review occurs the following 
 sentence: "No ministry will be really effective, whatever 
 may be its intelligence, which is not a ministry of strong 
 faith, true spirituality, and deep earnestness." I wish this 
 golden sentence could be inscribed in characters of light, 
 over every professor's chair, over every student's desk, 
 and over every preacher's pulpit. Condensed into that 
 one short paragraph is everything that needs be said on 
 this subject. I feel as though every syllable I have to 
 write were superfluous, if all our pastors, students, and tu- 
 tors would let that one sentence take full occupation of 
 their hearts, possess their whole souls, and regulate all 
 their conduct. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 Perhaps there is scarcely one single phrase more fre- 
 quently employed in the sphere of human activity, or 
 better understood, than this — be in earnest. What dis- 
 tinctness of aim, what fixedness of purpose, what resolute- 
 ness of will, what diligence, patience, and perseverance of 
 action, are implied or expressed in these three words. He 
 who would stimulate indolence, quicken activity, and inspire 
 hope ; he who would breathe his own soul into the soul of 
 another, and kindle the enthusiasm which glows in his 
 own bosom, says to his fellow, "Be in earnest :" and that 
 short sentence, uttered by his lips, has often been like a 
 scintillation flying off from his own ardent soul, which, 
 lighting upon the spirit of the individual whom he was 
 anxious to move to some great enterprise, has kindled 
 the flames of enthusiasm there also. And what else, or 
 what less, does Jesus Christ say to every one whom he 
 sends into the work of the Christian ministry than " Be in 
 earnest ?" 
 
 There is something in the aspect and power of earnest- 
 ness, whatever be its object, that is impressive and com- 
 manding. To see a man selecting some one object oi % 
 pursuit, and then yielding up his soul to the desire of its 
 attainment, with a surrender which admits oi' no reserve* 
 
34 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 a steadiness of aim which allows of no diversion, and a 
 diligence which consents neither to rest nor intermission; 
 which is so uppermost in his heart as to fill his conversa- 
 tion, and so entirely and constantly before his mind as to 
 throw into its broad shadow every other subject of con- 
 sideration ; and which borrows from the intensity of his 
 own feeling, a strange fascination to engage the feelings of 
 others — such an instance of decision, amounting to a ruling 
 passion, exerts over us, while witnessing it, an influence 
 which we feel to be contagious. We involuntarily, to a 
 certain extent, sympathize with the individual who is thus 
 carried away by his own fervor ; and if at the same time 
 all this be an earnestness for promoting our own interests, 
 its effect is absolutely irresistible. That man must be a 
 stone,, and destitute of the ordinary feelings of humanity, 
 who can see another interested, active, and zealous for his 
 welfare, while he himself remains inert and indifferent. 
 Even the apathetic and indolent have sometimes been 
 kindled into ardor, and led to make efforts for themselves, 
 by the solicitude which others have manifested for their 
 welfare. 
 
 How strictly does this apply to the ministry of the 
 "Word, which relates to the most momentous matters that 
 can engage the attention of the human understanding. 
 Sympathy is a law of our mental economy which has never 
 been sufficiently taken into the account in estimating the 
 influences which God employs for the salvation of men. 
 There is a silent and almost unperceived process of thought 
 often going on in the mind of those who are listening to 
 the sermons of a preacher really laboring for the conver- 
 sion of souls, of this kind : " Is he so earnest about my 
 salvation, and shall I care nothing about the matter ? Is 
 my eternal happiness so much in his account, and shall it 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS, *ii) 
 
 be nothing in mine ? I can meet cold logic with counter- 
 arguments, or at any rate, I can raise up difficulties against 
 evidence. I can smile at the artifices of rhetoric, and be 
 pleased with the displays of eloquence. I can sit unmoved 
 under sermons which seem intended by the preacher to 
 raise my estimate of himself, but I cannot stand this earn- 
 estness about me. The man is evidently intent upon saving 
 my soul. I feel the grasp of his hand laying hold of my 
 arm as if he would pluck me out of the fire. He has not 
 only made me think, but he has made me feel. His earn- 
 estness has subdued me." 
 
 But it will be necessary now to meet and answer the 
 question, What is meant by an earnest ministry ? 
 
 I remark, in the first place, that earnestness implies, 
 The selection of some one object of pursuit, and a vivid per- 
 ception of its value and importance. It is next to impossi- 
 ble for the mind to be intently employed, or the heart 
 very deeply engaged, on a multiplicity of objects at once. 
 We have not energy enough to be so divided and distrib- 
 uted. Our feelings, to run with force, must flow pretty 
 much in one channel : the attention must be concentrated, 
 the purpose settled, the action expended, upon one thing, 
 or there can be no efficiency. The earnest man is a man 
 of one idea, and that one idea occupies, possesses, and fills 
 his soul. To every other claimant upon his time, and re- 
 gard, and labor, he says, " Stand by ; I am engaged, I 
 cannot attend to you ; there is something else waiting for 
 me." To that one thing he is committed. There may be 
 many subordinate matters, amidst which he divides what 
 may be called the surplus water, but the main current 
 flows through one channel, and turns one great wheel. 
 This " one thing I do," is his plan and resolution. Many 
 wonder at his choice, many condemn it: no matter, he 
 
30 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 understands it, approves it, and pursues it amidst the 
 ignorance which cannot comprehend it, or the peculiarity 
 of taste which cannot admire it. He is no double-minded 
 man, unstable in all his ways, whose preference and pur- 
 pose are shaken by every cross-current of opinion. It is 
 nothing to him what others do, or what they say of his 
 doing : he must do that, whatever else he leaves undone. 
 No one can be in earnest who has not thus made up his 
 mind, and he who has, and is resolutely bent upon it, 
 keeps the object constantly before his mind ; his attention 
 is so strongly and tenaciously fixed upon it, that even at 
 the greatest distance, " as the Egyptian pyramids to trav- 
 ellers, it appears to him with a luminous distinctness, as if 
 it were nigh, and beguiles the toilsome length of labor and 
 enterprise by which he must reach it." It is so conspicu- 
 ous before him that he does not deviate a step from the 
 right direction, and every movement and every day is an 
 approximation. Break in upon him at any moment, you 
 know where you shall find him, and how employed. 
 
 There is the first part of the description of an earnest 
 minister : he too has selected his object, and made up his 
 mind concerning it, and insulating it from all others, sets 
 it clearly and distinctly before his mind. And what is it ? 
 What should it be ? Not science, nor literature, nor phi- 
 losophy ; not a life spent in the acquisition of knowledge, 
 nor the gratification of taste ; not the power of adding to 
 the treasures of national elegance in the department of 
 letters, nor to the ornaments which embellish our civilized 
 existence, and give amenity to our social intercourse. The 
 man who has entered the sacred office merely to luxuriate 
 in the haunts of the muses, has mistaken his errand to the 
 pulpit, and is no less guilty, though somewhat less sordid, 
 than he that says, "Put me in the priest's office that I 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 87 
 
 may eat a morsel of bread." That a minister may to a 
 certain extent indulge a literary or scientific taste, and 
 could even make it subservient to a higher and more 
 sacred object, is admitted. The pulpit has done, and is 
 doing, much service in all the departments of learning and 
 philosophy. It is in Christian countries that the valuable 
 remains of Eastern, Greek, and Roman wisdom and elo- 
 quence have been preserved, studied, imitated, and some- 
 times even excelled. Christian nations have conducted 
 philosophical inquiries with the best success, and improved 
 them for the most useful and benevolent purposes. " If 
 these things are good and profitable unto society, a large 
 portion of the honor of such usefulness belongs to men set 
 for the defence of the gospel, desirous by sound reasoning 
 to convince gainsayers, and conscious what arms human 
 literature furnishes for this holy war. And then in addi- 
 tion to all this, consider the effect of the pulpit upon what 
 might be called the popular mind. To thousands who 
 have comparatively little leisure or opportunity to form 
 their taste, and cultivate their rational powers, by conver- 
 sation with the wise and enlightened, or by reading their 
 works, a school is thus open, established indeed for higher 
 purposes, where men of sound understandings, though low 
 in rank, may, without expense, and almost without intend- 
 ing it, learn from example to distinguish or connect ideas, 
 to infer one truth from another, to examine the force of an 
 argument, and so to arrange and express their sentiments 
 as deeply to impress themselves and others. As in a lew 
 years the child gradually acquires the faculty of speaking 
 his mother- tongue with a considerable degree of ease and 
 fluency, without any formal lessons, merely by hearing it 
 spoken, so there is a natural logic and rhetoric which some 
 acquire without designing it, who go to church for nobler 
 
38 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 ends, whereby they are enabled to detect the cunning craf- 
 tiness with which the enemies of religion or of public tran- 
 quillity lie in wait to deceive. Indeed, the culture of the 
 talents and improvement of that respectable class of men 
 who earn their bread by the sweat of their brow, generally 
 rises or falls in proportion to the character and genius of 
 their religious instructors." 
 
 This is as true as it is beautiful, and should remind all 
 ministers of the gospel of the necessity and importance, at 
 all times, but especially in such times as these, of keeping 
 in mind the collateral and secondary objects of pulpit 
 instruction, and of preparing themselves for conducting it 
 with power and efficiency. There is not a temporal inter- 
 est of man as an individual, or of society, on which the 
 sermons and general influence of the ministry may not be 
 made to bear ; but then it must never be forgotten that 
 these things which have just been enumerated, are at best 
 only the incidental, secondary, and collateral benefits of the 
 ministry of the Word : they are among the many things 
 that may be touched, but are not the one thing that must 
 be grasped : they are, as I have already said, like the little 
 lateral rills which may be led off from the main stream for 
 the purpose of irrigation, but are not the great body of 
 water that rolls onward in its channel for the purpose of 
 commerce and national wealth. 
 
 Nor is it the great object of our ministry merely to pre- 
 side with dignity over the solemnities of public worship ; 
 to content ourselves and please our people with preparing 
 and delivering two well-studied discourses on the Sabbath ; 
 to keep all quiet and orderly in the church ; to maintain a 
 kind of religious respectability and intellectuality in the 
 congregation ; and to infuse into them much of the element 
 of political power. The end and aim of the ministry are 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 39 
 
 to be gathered from the apostle's solemn and comprehen- 
 sive language, " they watch for your souls as they that 
 must give account.' 7 There, in that short, but sublime 
 and awful sentence, the end of the pastoral office is set 
 before us. The design of the pulpit is in harmony with 
 that of the cross ; and the preacher is to carry out the 
 design of the Saviour in coming to seek and to save that 
 which was lost. Preaching and teaching are the very 
 agency which Jesus Christ employs to save those souls for 
 which he died upon Calvary. If souls are not saved, what- 
 ever other designs are accomplished, the great purpose of 
 the ministry is defeated. 
 
 We are now prepared to understand what is the nature 
 of real earnestness in a minister. I mean a distinct, explicit, 
 practical recognition of his duty to labor for the salvation 
 of souls as the end of his office. Such a man has settled 
 with himself that this is his vocation and his business. He 
 has looked at everything which could be presented to his 
 mind, has weighed the claims of all, and with intelligence 
 and firmness has said, and is prepared to stand by his 
 affirmation, " I watch for souls." He thus understands 
 his errand ; he is under no mistake, no uncertainty, no 
 confusion. He has entered into fellowship with God the 
 Father in his eternal purpose of the salvation of the human 
 race ; with the Son in the end of his incarnation and death ; 
 and with the Holy Spirit in his coming down upon our 
 desolate world. Of this salvation, which is the object of 
 his ministry, the prophets inquired ; to accomplish it 
 apostles preached, and angels ministered : and thus justi- 
 fied in his choice by the Triune God and the noblest of his 
 creatures in the universe, he leaves far below him, in the 
 aspirations and the soarings of his ambition, the scholar, 
 the philosopher, and the poet. He has taken up an object 
 
40 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 in reference to which, if he succeed but in a single instance, 
 he will have achieved a triumph which will endure infinite 
 ages after the proudest monuments of human genius have 
 perished like a garland in the conflagration of the 
 world. 
 
 I have spoken of the salvation of souls as the great 
 object of the ministerial office : this is a generic phrase, 
 including as its species the awakening of the unconcerned ; 
 the guidance of the inquiring ; the instruction of the unin- 
 formed ; and the sanctification, comfort, and progress of 
 those who through grace have believed — in short, the whole 
 work of grace in the soul. But I now direct the attention 
 of my readers to the first of these particulars as the most 
 commanding object of ministerial solicitude, I mean the 
 conversion of the unregenerate ; and if without an offence 
 of the law of modesty I may refer to my own history, 
 labor, and success, I would observe that I began my min- 
 istry, even as a student, with a strong desire after this 
 object : and long before this, while yet a youth engaged in 
 secular concerns, I had been deeply susceptible of the 
 power of an awakening style of preaching, which was 
 strengthened by the perusal of the rousing sermons of Dr. 
 Da vies,* of New Jersey. From that time to the present 
 I have made the conversion of the impenitent the great 
 end of my ministry, and I have had my reward. I have 
 been sustained in this course by the remarks of Baxter in 
 
 * I wish these discourses were better known and more imitated by 
 our young ministers. They are admirable specimens, formed upon the 
 model of Baxter, of persuasive, hortatory, and impressive preaching. 
 It is such preaching we want. In these striking discourses may be 
 seen what I mean by earnest preaching. They are by no means scarce, 
 and I would advise my younger brethren to buy and read them. The 
 sermon on the resurrection is exceptionable. 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 41 
 
 his " Reformed Pastor," a long extract from which I will 
 now furnish. 
 
 " We must labor in a special manner for the conversion 
 of the unconverted. 
 
 "The work of conversion is the great thing we must 
 drive at ; after this we must labor with all our might. 
 Alas ! the misery of the unconverted is so great that it 
 calleth loudest to us for compassion. If a truly converted 
 sinner do fall, it will be but into sin which will be pardoned, 
 and he is not in that hazard of damnation by it as others 
 are. Not but that God hateth their sins as well as others, 
 or that he will bring them to heaven, let them live ever so 
 wickedly ; but the spirit that is within them will not suffer 
 them to live wickedly, nor to sin as the ungodly do. But 
 with the unconverted it is far otherwise. They ' are in the 
 gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity/ and have 
 yet no part nor fellowship in the pardon of their sins, or 
 the hope of glory. We have therefore a work of greater 
 necessity to do for them, even *• to open their eyes, and to 
 turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of 
 Satan unto God ; that they may receive forgiveness of sins, 
 and an inheritance among them who are sanctified.' He 
 that seeth one man sick of a mortal disease, and another 
 only pained with the tooth-ache, will be moved more to 
 compassionate the former than the latter ; and will surely 
 make more haste to help him, though he were a stranger, 
 and the other a brother or a son. It is so sad a case to 
 see men in a state of damnation, wherein, if they should 
 die, they are lost forever, that me thinks we should not be 
 able to let them alone, either in public or private, whatever 
 other work we have to do. I confess I am frequently 
 forced to neglect that which should tend to the further 
 increase of knowledge in the godly, because of the lament - 
 3 
 
42 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 able necessity of the unconverted. Who is able to talk of 
 controversies or of nice, unnecessary points, or even of 
 truths of a lower degree of necessity, how excellent soever, 
 while he seeth a company of ignorant, carnal, miserable 
 sinners before his eyes, who must be changed or damned ? 
 Methinks I even see them entering upon their final woe ! 
 Methinks I hear them crying out for help — for speediest 
 help ! Their misery speaks the louder, because they have 
 not hearts to ask for help themselves. Many a time have 
 I known that I had some hearers of higher fancies, that 
 looked for rarities, and were addicted to despise the minis- 
 try, if I told them not something more than ordinary ; and 
 yet I could not find in my heart to turn from the necessi- 
 ties of the impenitent, for the humoring of them; nor 
 even to leave speaking to miserable sinners for their salva- 
 tion, in order to speak so much as should otherwise be 
 done to weak saints, for their confirmation and increase in 
 grace. Methinks as Paul's ' spirit was stirred within him,' 
 when he saw 'the Athenians wholly given to idolatry,' so 
 it should cast us into one of his paroxysms, to see so many 
 men in the greatest danger of being everlastingly undone. 
 Methinks, if by faith we did indeed look upon them as 
 within a step of hell, it would more effectually untie our 
 tongues, than Crcesus' danger did his son's. He that will 
 let a sinner go down to hell for want of speaking to him, 
 doth set less by souls than did the Redeemer of souls ; 
 and less by his neighbor than common charity will allow 
 him to do by his greatest enemy. therefore, brethren, 
 whomsoever you neglect, neglect not the most miserable ! 
 Whatever you pass over, forget not poor souls that are 
 under the condemnation and curse of the law, and who 
 may look every hour for the infernal execution, if a speedy 
 change do not prevent it. call after the impenitent, and 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 43 
 
 ply this great work of converting souls, whatever else you 
 leave undone." 
 
 "These powerful and impressive observations/' says the 
 editor of Baxter, " we cannot too earnestly recommend to 
 the attention of ministers. We have no hesitation in say- 
 ing that the most of preachers whom we have known, were 
 essentially defective in the grand and primary object of 
 the Christian ministry, — laboring for the conversion of 
 souls. From the general strain of some men's preaching, 
 one would almost be ready to conclude that there were no 
 sinners in their congregations to be converted. In deter- 
 mining the proportion of attention which a minister should 
 pay to particular classes of his congregation, the number 
 of each class, and the necessities of their case, are unques- 
 tionably the principal considerations which should weigh 
 with him. Now in all our congregations we have reason 
 to fear the unconverted constitute by far the majority ; — 
 their situation is peculiarly pitiable ; their opportunities of 
 salvation will soon be forever over ; their danger is not 
 only very great, but very imminent ; they are not secure 
 from everlasting misery, even for a single moment. Surely 
 then the unconverted demand by far the largest share of 
 the Christian minister's attention, and yet from many they 
 receive but a very small share of attention — their case, 
 when noticed at all, is noticed only, as it were, by the bye. 
 This no doubt is a principal cause that among us there are 
 so few conversions by the preaching of the word, and 
 especially in the congregations of particular ministers. 
 We feel this subject to be of such transcendent importance 
 that we trust we shall be excused for here introducing a 
 quotation connected with it, from another work of our 
 author, which has been introduced into the series of ■ Select 
 Christian Authors.' " 
 
44 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 " It is not," says lie, in his " Mischiefs of Self-Igno- 
 rance," " a general dull discourse, or critical observations 
 upon words, or the subtile decision of some nice and curious 
 questions of the schools ; nor is it a neat and well-composed 
 speech, about some other distant matters, that is likely to 
 acquaint a sinner with himself. How many sermons may 
 we hear that are levelled at some mark or other which is 
 very far from the hearers' hearts, and therefore are never 
 likely to convince them, or open and convert them ? And 
 if our congregations were in such a case as that they 
 needed no closer quickening work, such preaching might 
 be borne with and commended. But when so many usually 
 sit before us that must shortly die, and yet are unprepared 
 for death ; and that are condemned by the law of God, 
 and must be pardoned, or finally condemned ; that must 
 be saved from their sins that they may be saved from ever- 
 lasting misery — I think it is time for us to talk to them of 
 such things as most concern them, and that in such a man- 
 ner as may most effectually convince, awaken, and change 
 them. 
 
 " A man that is ready to be drowned is not at leisure for 
 a song or a dance ; and a man that is ready to be hanged, 
 methinks should not find himself at leisure to hear a man 
 show his wit and reading only, if not his folly and malice, 
 against a life of holiness. Nor should you think that suit- 
 able to such men's case that doth not evidently tend to 
 save them. But, alas ! how often have we heard such 
 sermons as tend more to diversion than direction ; to fill 
 their minds with other matters, and find them something 
 else to think of, lest they should study themselves, and 
 know their misery ! A preacher that seems to speak re- 
 ligiously, by a dry, sapless discourse, that is called a ser- 
 mon, may more plausibly and easily ruin him. And his 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 45 
 
 conscience will more quietly suffer him to be taken off 
 the necessary care of his salvation, by something that is 
 like it, and pretends to do the work as well, than by the 
 grosser avocations or the scorn of fools. And he will be 
 more tamely turned from religion by something that is 
 called religion, and which he hopes may serve the turn, 
 than by open wickedness, or impious defiance of God and 
 reason. But how often do we hear sermons applauded, 
 which force us, in compassion to men's souls, to think, 
 ' Oh what is all this to the opening of a sinner's heart unto 
 himself, and showing him his unregenerate state ? What 
 is this to the conviction of a self-deluding soul, that is 
 passing into hell, with the confident expectations of heav- 
 en ? What is this to show men their undone condition, 
 and the absolute necessity of Christ, and of renewing 
 grace ? What is in this to lead men up from earth to heav- 
 en, and to acquaint them with the unseen world, and to 
 help them to the life of faith and love, and to the mortify- 
 ing and pardon of their sins !' How little skill have many 
 miserable preachers in the searching of the heart, and 
 helping men to know themselves, whether Christ be in 
 them, or whether they be reprobates ! And how little 
 care and diligence is used by them, to call men to the 
 trial, and help them in the examining and judging of them- 
 selves, as if it were a work of no necessity. ' They have 
 healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, say- 
 ing, Peace, peace, when there is no peace, saith the 
 Lord.' " 
 
 Oh what preachers we should be, could we drink in the 
 spirit of these powerful passages! May God impress 
 them on our hearts, and lead us to mould our discourses 
 after this fashion. I would, however, by no means wish 
 to be thought unmindful of the importance oi building up 
 
46 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 the believer on his holy faith. Not only must the children 
 of the redeemed family be born, but they must also be 
 fed, watched, guided, and nourished up to manhood. The 
 growth in grace and in knowledge of the heirs of immor- 
 tality must be an object of deep solicitude with the faithful 
 pastor. His children in the faith are not glorified, as soon 
 as converted, but are carried through a probation, and often 
 a long one, of conflict, trial, and temptation ; and it is his 
 business, by the instrumentality of the truth, deeply 
 searched, carefully expounded, and appropriately applied, 
 to conduct them through the perplexities and the dangers 
 of the divine life. Hence, therefore, it is the duty of the 
 minister, not to be always dwelling on first principles, nor 
 teaching the mere alphabet of Bible knowledge, but to 
 lead his people " on unto perfection ;" yet still, amidst all 
 this, he is never to forget that by far the greater number 
 of those who are before him do not experimentally know 
 these first principles, and have not learnt even this alpha- 
 bet of practical piety. I once had a member of my church, 
 who had been brought out of the literary world to a deep, 
 experimental knowledge of divine truth. She was a woman 
 of uncommonly fine and tasteful mind. After her conver- 
 sion she dwelt for a season in London ; and on her return 
 from the metropolis, in giving an account of the various 
 preachers she had heard, expressed her surprise and re- 
 gret that their sermons, however excellent, seemed to be 
 addressed, almost exclusively, to true believers, as if they 
 took it for granted that their congregations were composed 
 wholly of such, and contained none who were dead in tres- 
 passes and sins. And I know a devoted and consistent 
 Christian, who, upon leaving a minister whom he had 
 heard for several years, declared he had scarcely ever 
 heard one thoroughly practical sermon from him during the 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 47 
 
 whole time : there had been much doctrinal statement, 
 much theological science, much religious comfort ; but no 
 vivid and pungent appeals either to saints or sinners. No 
 wonder he knew of no conversions there : and yet this 
 preacher is not an Antinomian. 
 
 Secondly. Earnestness implies that the subject has not 
 only been selected, but that it has taken full 'possession of the 
 mind, and has kindled towards it an intense desire of the 
 heart. 
 
 It is something more than the correctness of theory, and 
 the deductions of logic ; more than the cool calculation of 
 the judgment, and the play of the imagination — earnest- 
 ness means that the understanding, having selected and 
 appreciated its object, has pressed all the faculties of both 
 mind and body into its pursuit. It urges the soul onward 
 in its career of action at such a speed, that it is set on fire 
 by the velocity of its own motion. The object of an earn- 
 est man is never, for any long period of time, absent from 
 his thoughts. He meditates on it by day, and dreams of 
 it by night : it meets him in his solitary walks as some 
 bright vision which he loves to contemplate, and it comes 
 over him in company with such power, that he cannot 
 avoid making it the topic of his conversation, till he ap- 
 pears in the eyes of those who have no sympathy with him 
 in the light of an enthusiast. 
 
 Foster, in his " Essay on Decision of Character," has 
 alluded to Howard as supplying a fine illustration of this 
 mental quality. I furnish one extract bearing more di- 
 rectly than perhaps any other on our present theme. It 
 relates to the singular fact that this great philanthropist 
 turned not a moment from his course, when traversing 
 those scenes most calculated to awaken curiosity, and to 
 enkindle enthusiasm bv the associations of ancient glory 
 
48 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 with which they are connected — even Rome itself. " The 
 importance of his object held his faculties in a state of ex- 
 citement which was too rigid to be affected by lighter 
 interests, and on which, therefore, the beauties of nature 
 and art had no power : like the invisible spirits who fulfil 
 their commission of philanthropy among mortals, and care 
 not about pictures, statues, and sumptuous buildings. It 
 implied an inconceivable severity of conviction that he had 
 one thing to do; and that he who would do some great 
 thing in this short life must apply himself to the work with 
 such a concentration of his forces as, to idle spectators, 
 who live only to amuse themselves, looks like insanity. It 
 was thus he made the trial, so seldom made, what is the 
 utmost effect which may be granted to the last possible 
 effort of a human agent ; and therefore what he did not 
 accomplish, he might conclude to be placed beyond the 
 sphere of mortal activity, and calmly leave to the disposal 
 of Omnipotence." 
 
 There, again, is the representation of the really and 
 intensely earnest minister of Jesus Christ, and of the man- 
 ner in which he regards the object of his ministry, the sal- 
 vation of immortal souls. He has drunk in the inspiration 
 of those inexpressibly sublime and solemn words, so often 
 often already quoted, " They watch for your souls as they 
 that must give account, that they may do it with joy and 
 not with grief." This declaration has come over him like 
 a spell, from the fascination of which he neither tries nor 
 wishes to escape. Whether seated in his chair in his study ; 
 or carrying on the exercises of devotion in the closet ; or 
 preaching the gospel in the pulpit ; or enjoying the pleas- 
 ures of Christian friendship in the social circle ; or recreat- 
 ing his energies amidst the beauties of creation ; the w r ords 
 of Solomon stand out conspicuously before his mind's eye, 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 49 
 
 " He that winneth souls is wise ;" while, ever and anon, 
 the thunder of Christ's awful inquiry comes pealing over 
 his ear, " What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole 
 world, and lose his own soul, or what shall a man give in 
 exchange for his soul ?" To be useful in converting souls 
 is his constant and practical aim : with a view to which, 
 his texts are chosen, his sermons are composed and deliv- 
 ered, and his language, figures, and illustrations are select- 
 ed. That word usefulness has the same meaning in his 
 ear, the same power over his soul, as the word " victory" 
 has over the mind of the hero : and the preparation and 
 delivery of the most eloquent sermons, with all the plaudits 
 that follow them, will no more satisfy his ambition, than 
 the skillful evolutions, the military splendor, and the mar- 
 tial music of a field day, however they may be admired by 
 the multitudinous spectators, will content the desires of 
 the patriot warrior who burns to defeat his country's foe 
 upon the field of battle, and to rescue the liberties of his 
 enslaved nation from the grasp of a tyrant. By the ear- 
 nest minister, the salvation of souls is sought with the obli- 
 gation of a principle, and the ardor of a passion. It is 
 impressed upon his whole character, and is inseparable 
 from his conduct. It distinguishes him among, and from, 
 many of his brethren. When the congregations, either at 
 home or abroad, go to hear him, they know what to ex- 
 pect, and consequently do not look for the flowers of 
 rhetoric, but for the fruit of the tree of life ; not for a dry 
 crust of philosophy, not for a meatless, marrowless bone 
 of criticism, but for the bread which cometh down from 
 heaven ; not for a display of religious fire-works, splendid 
 but useless, but for the holding up of the torch of eternal 
 truth in all its clear shining light to guide the wandering 
 and benighted souls to the refuge of the lost. Tie has. by 
 3* 
 
50 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 the usual style of his pulpit discourses, established his 
 character as a useful preacher, and those who go to hear 
 him, would as soon expect to listen to a mere poetical or 
 classical effusion, instead of directions for health, from a 
 physician whom they consulted in a time of sickness, as 
 such matters from this servant of Christ, instead of a ser- 
 mon calculated and designed to do good to their souls. 
 He could possibly be eloquent, profound, or learned, and 
 when these things can aid him in securing his one great 
 end, he does not scruple to employ them. His aim is at 
 the heart and conscience, and if the poetic, the literary, 
 the logical, the scientific, will at any time so polish and 
 plume the shaft, or sharpen the point of the arrow, he will 
 not reject them, but will avail himself of their legitimate 
 uses, that he may the more certainly hit the mark. This 
 is his motto, "If by any means I might save some." 
 
 But this touches a third thing implied in genuine ear- 
 nestness, and that is the studious invention and diligent use 
 of all appropriate means to accomplish the selected object. 
 An earnest man is the last to be satisfied with mere for- 
 mality, routine, and prescription. He will often survey his 
 object, his means, and his instruments ; will look back upon 
 the past to review his course, to examine his failure and 
 success, with the causes of each ; to learn what to do, and 
 what to avoid for the future. His inquiry will often be, 
 What next ? What more ? What better ? And as the 
 result of all this, new experiments will be tried, new plans 
 will be laid, and new courses will be pursued. With an 
 inextinguishable ardor, and with a resolute fixedness of 
 purpose, he exclaims " I must succeed — How ?" 
 
 And shall we ministers possess nothing of this, if we 
 are in earnest for the salvation of souls ? Shall dull uni- 
 formity, stiff formality, everlasting repetitions, and rigid 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 51 
 
 routine satisfy us ? Shall we never institute the inquiry, 
 "Why have I not succeeded better in my ministry ? How 
 is it that my congregation is not larger, and my church 
 more rapidly increasing ? In what way can I account for 
 it, that the truth as it is in Jesus, which I believe I preach, 
 is not more influential, and the doctrine of the cross is not 
 as it was intended to be, the power of God unto the sal- 
 vation of souls ? Why do I not more frequently hear 
 addressed to me, by those who are constantly under my 
 ministry, the anxious inquiry, ' What shall I do to be saved ¥ 
 I am not wanting, as far as I know, in the regular discharge 
 of my ordinary duties, and yet I gather little fruit of my 
 labors, and have to utter continually the prophet's com- 
 plaint, * Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the 
 arm of the Lord revealed ¥ " Do we indeed indulge in 
 such complaints ? Have we earnestness enough to pour 
 forth such lamentations ? Or is it of little consequence to 
 us, provided we get our stipend, keep up the congregation 
 to its usual size, and maintain the tranquillity of the church, 
 whether the ends of the ministry are accomplished or not ? 
 Are we ever seen by God's omniscient eye pacing our study 
 in deep thoughtfulness, solemn meditation, and rigorous 
 inquisition ; and after an impartial survey of our doings, 
 and a sorrowful lamentation that we are doing no more, 
 questioning ourselves thus—" Is there no new method to 
 be tried, no new scheme to be devised, to increase the 
 efficiency of my ministerial and pastoral labors ? Is there 
 nothing I can supply, correct, or add ? Is there anything 
 particularly wanting in the matter, manner, or method of 
 my preaching, or in my course of pastoral attentions ?" 
 Surely it might be supposed that such inquiries would be 
 often instituted into the results of such a ministry as ours 
 
52 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 that seasons would be not unfrequentty set apart, espe- 
 cially at the close of the year, for such a purpose. 
 
 Here it may be proper for us to look out of our own 
 profession, and ask if the earnest tradesman, soldier, law- 
 yer, philosopher, and mechanician, are satisfied to go on as 
 they have done, though with ever so little success ? Do 
 we not see in all other departments of human action, 
 where the mind is really intent on some great object, and 
 where success has not been obtained in proportion to the 
 labor bestowed, a dissatisfaction with past modes of ac- 
 tion, and a determination to try new ones ? And should 
 we who watch for souls, and labor for immortality, 
 be behindhand with them? In calling for new meth- 
 ods, I want no new doctrines ; no new principles ; no 
 startling eccentricities ; no wild irregularities ; no vagaries 
 of enthusiasm, nor frenzies of the passions ; no, nothing 
 but what the most sober judgment and the soundest reason 
 would approve ; — but I do want a more inventive, as well 
 as a more fervid zeal in seeking the great end of our min- 
 istry. Dull uniformity, and not enthusiasm, is the side on 
 which our danger lies. I know very well the contortions 
 of an epileptic zeal are to be avoided, but so also is the 
 numbness of a paralytic one ; and after all, the former is 
 less dangerous to life, and is more easily and frequently 
 cured, than the latter. We may, as regards our preaching, 
 for instance, examine whether we have not dwelt too little 
 on the alarming, or on the attractive themes of revelation ; 
 whether we have not clothed our discourses too much with 
 the terrors of the Lord, and determine to try the more 
 winning forms of love and mercy, or whether we have not 
 rendered the gospel powerless by an everlasting repetition 
 of it in common-place phraseology ; whether we have not 
 been too argumentative, and resolve to be more imagina- 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 5.5 
 
 tive, practical, and hortatory; whether we have not ad- 
 dressed ourselves too exclusively to believers, and deter- 
 mine to commence a style of more frequent and pungent 
 address to the unconverted ; whether we have not been too 
 vague and general in our descriptions of sin, and become 
 more specific and discriminating; whether we have not 
 been too neglectful of the young, and begin a regular 
 course of sermons to them ; whether we have not had too 
 much sameness of topic, and adopt courses of sermons on 
 given subjects ; whether we have not been too elaborate 
 and abstract in the composition of our discourses, and come 
 down to greater simplicity ; whether we have not been too 
 careless, and bestow more pains ; whether we have not 
 been too doctrinal, and in future make all truth, as it was 
 intended to do, to bear upon the heart, conscience, and life. 
 1ST or must the inquiry stop here. There must be the 
 same process of rigid scrutiny instituted as to the labors 
 of the pastorate. We must review the proceedings of this 
 momentous department, for here also is most ample scope 
 for invention as to new plans of action. Perhaps upon 
 inquiry we shall find out that we have neglected various 
 channels through which our influence might have been 
 poured over the flock committed to our care, and shall dis- 
 cover many ways in which we can improve upon our former 
 plans in the way of meeting the inquirers after salvation, 
 giving our aid to Sunday schools, setting up Bible classes, 
 or visiting the flock. What is needed, is an anxious wish 
 to be wanting in nothing that can conduce to our useful- 
 ness, a diligent endeavor to make up every deficiency, and 
 a mind ever inquisitive after new means and methods of 
 doing good. Could we all but adopt the plan of setting 
 apart a day at the close of every year for solemn exami- 
 nation into our ministerial and pastoral doings, for the pur- 
 
54 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 pose of ascertaining our defects and neglects, to see in what 
 we could improve, to humble ourselves before God for the 
 past, and to lay down new rules for the future, we should 
 all be more abundantly useful than we are. And does not 
 earnestness require all this ? Can we pretend to it if Ave 
 do not ? The idea of a minister's going on from year to 
 year with either little success, or none at all, and yet never 
 pausing to inquire how this comes to pass, or what can 
 be done to increase his efficiency, is so utterly repugnant 
 to all proper notions of devotedness, that we are obliged 
 to conclude that the views of such a man of the design 
 of his office are radically and essentially defective. 
 
 Fourthly. Earnestness implies a purpose and power of 
 subordinating everything it meets with, selects, or engages 
 in, to the accomplishment of its one great object. 
 
 An earnest man has much sagacity in discerning objects, 
 even at a distance, that are favorable to his purpose ; 
 much power in seizing them as they approach ; and much 
 tact in pressing them into his service, and weaving them 
 into his schemes. He avoids at the same time the folly of 
 letting go his main object in the pursuit of lesser ones, 
 and of thus converting means into ends. The operations of 
 his mind resemble those of a vast machine, in which the 
 ruling power subjects to itself the thousand little wheels 
 and spindles that are set in motion, and makes them all 
 accomplish the purpose for which the engine has been set 
 up. Or the current of his thought and feeling may be 
 compared to the majestic flow of some noble river, which 
 receives into its stream, and bears forward in its course, 
 the numerous rivulets by which its waters are swollen, and 
 its power increased. So acts the earnest minister. There 
 are various matters which he may attend to, and ought not 
 to neglect, which may with great propriety bo considered 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 55 
 
 as means, but which cannot be viewed as the end of his 
 high and holy calling. 
 
 The first of these which I mention is learning, and 
 indeed, general knowledge of all kinds. Literature, sci- 
 ence, and philosophy, however excellent in themselves, and 
 however subservient they may be rendered as means to 
 accomplish the great ends of the ministerial office, must 
 never, I repeat, be exalted into the place of the ends them- 
 selves. Viewed as subordinate and subsidiary, they cannot 
 be too highly valued, nor too diligently sought. There is 
 not any kind of knowledge, nor any degree of it, which 
 may not be made tributary to the ends of gospel ministra- 
 tions. All other things being equal, he is likely to be the 
 most useful preacher, who is the most learned one. There 
 is nothing, there can be nothing, in literature and science, 
 which of themselves can be injurious to a minister of 
 Christ : the pride and vanity which produce such a result 
 are but as those weeds which flourish in a shallow and 
 sandy soil, but which wither and die in rich, deep loam. 
 The man who decries learning as mischievous per se to the 
 ministry, is fit only to be torch-bearer to another Caliph 
 Omar, and to act the part of an incendiary to all the libra- 
 ries of the world. A minister may have too little piety, 
 too little solicitude for the salvation of souls, too little de- 
 votedness, too little care to render his acquisitions subser- 
 vient to the ends of his vocation, but he can never have too 
 much knowledge. 
 
 " Perhaps the best answer that can be given to those 
 inconsiderate Christians who say that religion needs not 
 such foreign and meretricious aids as human learning, is 
 that of South, — ' If God hath no need of our learning, lie 
 can have still less of your ignorance.' In the spiritual 
 temple, as well as in the ark of the covenant, there i^ room 
 
56 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 not only for those humbler gifts, the skins and hair cloth, 
 but also for the gold and silver of human learning : and 
 even the sciences themselves, daughters as they are of the 
 uncreated wisdom, may receive consecration from seraphic 
 piety, and be made priestesses of the Most High, by the 
 very service in which we employ them." How beautiful 
 is the following language of Dr. Wiseman, and how correct 
 the sentiment which it clothes and adorns : (i You all, I 
 doubt not, have often admired those exquisite paintings in 
 the ceilings of the Borgia apartments of the Yatican, 
 wherein the sciences are represented as holding their sep- 
 arate courts ; each enthroned upon a stately chair, with 
 features and mien of the most noble and dignified beauty, 
 surrounded by the emblems and most distinguished repre- 
 sentatives of its power on earth, and seeming to claim 
 homage from all that gaze upon it. And judge what 
 would have been the painter's conception, and to what a 
 sublimity of expression he would have risen, had it been 
 his task to represent the noblest of all sciences, our divine 
 religion, enthroned, as ever becomes her, to receive the 
 fealty and worship of these her handmaids. For if, as 
 hath been proved, they are but ministers to her superior 
 rule, and are intended to furnish the evidences of her 
 authority, how much above theirs must be the comeliness 
 and grace, and majesty and holiness, with which she must 
 be arrayed ! And what honor and dignity must be con- 
 ferred on him who feels himself deputed to bear the tribute 
 of these fair vassals ; and how must his admiration of their 
 graces be enhanced, by finding himself brought so near 
 her presence."* 
 
 * Dr. Wiseman's "Lectures on the Connection between Science and 
 Revealed Religion." Vol. IT. p. 317. 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 57 
 
 This splendid passage expresses what I would urgently 
 enforce, that literature and science may be subservient, but 
 must be only subservient, to the ends of the ministerial 
 office. 
 
 Having thus quoted a passage from a Roman Catholic 
 author, let me subjoin to it another from a Protestant, of 
 a different kind indeed, but by no means inharmonious 
 with it. " Oh my brethren," says the amiable and pious 
 Doddridge, in his incomparable sermon on " The Evil and 
 Danger of Neglecting Souls," "let us consider how fast 
 we are posting through this dying life, which God has 
 assigned to us, in which we are to manage concerns of infi- 
 nite moment ; how fast we are passing on to the immediate 
 presence of our Lord, to give up our account to him. You 
 must judge for yourselves, but permit me to say for my 
 own part, I would not for ten thousand worlds be that 
 man, who when God shall ask him at last how he has em- 
 ployed most of his time, while lie continued a minister of 
 his church, and had the care of souls, shall be obliged to 
 reply, ' Lord, I have restored many corrupted passages in 
 the classics, and illustrated many which were before ob- 
 scure ; I have cleared up many intricacies in chronology 
 or geography ; I have solved many perplexed cases in 
 algebra; I have refined on astronomical calculations, and 
 left behind me many sheets on these curious and difficult 
 subjects ; and these are the employments in which my life 
 has been worn out, while preparations for the pulpit, and 
 ministrations in it, did not demand my more immediate 
 attendance.' Oh sirs, as for the waters that are drawn 
 from these springs, how sweetly soever they may taste to 
 a curious mind that thirsts after them, or to an ambitions 
 mind that thirsts for the applause they sometimes procure, 
 I fear there is too often reason to pour then out befo 
 
58 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 Lord, with rivers of penitential tears, as the blood of souls 
 which have been forgotten, whilst these trifles have been 
 remembered and pursued.'' 
 
 This is the language of a scholar, a critic, and a man of 
 varied knowledge ; but whose piety as a Christian, and 
 whose devotedness as a minister, were equal to his other 
 attainments. In a foot-note to this admirable discourse, 
 which we ministers should do well to read once a month, 
 is a quotation from a sermon of a Scottish minister, 
 preached before the Synod of Glasgow, which also I may 
 with propriety introduce here : — " A just sense of the re- 
 lation we stand in to our flocks, and a genuine feeling of 
 that affection which is due to them, will not allow us to 
 hesitate one moment, whether that part of our time is most 
 worthily employed, which is taken up in doing real offices 
 of friendship among them, or that part of it which is spent 
 in perusing the finest writings of the greatest genius that 
 ever appeared in our world, or in polishing any little com- 
 positions of our own. Is the arranging of words, the 
 beautifying of language, or even storing our own minds 
 with the divinest sentiments, an employment of equal dig- 
 nity and importance in itself, or equally pleasing in reflec- 
 tion, with that of composing differences or extinguishing 
 animosities, searching out modest and indigent merit, and 
 relieving it, comforting a melancholy heart, giving counsel 
 to a perplexed mind, suspending pain by our presence and 
 sympathy, suggesting to an unfurnished mind proper ma- 
 terials for meditation in the time of distress, or laying hold 
 of a favorable opportunity of conveying valuable instruc- 
 tion and religious impressions to a mind little susceptible 
 of them on other occasions. There is no need of saying 
 anything in confirmation of this : it was the glorious char- 
 acter of Jesus, that he went about doing good." 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 59 
 
 It might be admitted, and shall be conceded, that we 
 live in an age when, to carry out the main purpose of 
 the Christian ministry, and to render it efficient for the 
 salvation of souls, there requires a higher standard of min- 
 isterial qualifications, and larger acquirements of general 
 knowledge, than at some former periods. 
 
 It will, I hope, be clearly seen from all this, that I am 
 not decrying education, or learning, or the greatest dili- 
 gence in ministers for the acquisition of knowledge ; quite 
 the contrary : but I am enforcing with all the earnestness 
 I can command, the indispensable necessity of rendering 
 all acquirements subordinate to the great work of saving 
 souls. Learning, as an ultimate object and for its own 
 sake, is infinitely below the ambition of a holy and de- 
 voted servant of Christ ; but learning employed to invigo- 
 rate the intellect, to enrich the imagination, to cultivate the 
 taste, to give power to thought, and variety to illustration ; 
 to add to the skill and energy with which we wield the 
 weapons of our warfare, is in some cases indispensable, and 
 in all invaluable. Unhappily it is not uncommon for those 
 who have made large acquisitions in varied learning, and 
 acquired a scientific, philosophic or literary taste, to yield 
 to the seductions of the objects of their pursuits, and to 
 allow themselves to be led astray from the simplicity that 
 is in Christ Jesus. If there is one man to be admired, en- 
 vied, and imitated above all others, it is he who has bap- 
 tized large classic and scientific acquirements at the font 
 of Christianity, — has surrendered them at the foot of the 
 cross, and gathered them up into the nerve of his strength, 
 as a preacher of the gospel. To hear such a man chas- 
 tening and guiding, but not checking or freezing the unfil- 
 ing utterances of a full heart, by the rules of genuine 
 
60 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 eloquence ; and warming and sanctifying the finest speci- 
 mens of rhetoric by the glow of a soul on fire with the 
 passion of love to God and souls ; to see the genius of 
 Tully and Demosthenes clothing themselves with the 
 mantle of Paul, Peter, and John, and under the constrain- 
 ing love of Christ, employing all its resources of diction 
 and of metaphor, to persuade men to be reconciled to 
 God, — is an object of surpassing interest : to such preach- 
 ers we can almost fancy that not only men, but angels, 
 must listen with delight. 
 
 There is, however, too much truth in the following re- 
 marks of Dr. Vaughax: "The effect of learning and of 
 elegant scholarship, in the modern pulpit, has commonly 
 been to render men incapable of producing impression of 
 this nature in any degree. In the case of such preachers, 
 neither the diction they use, nor the mould into which 
 they cast their expressions and sentences, nor the compar- 
 isons they introduce, nor anything belonging to their 
 rhetoric, has been an object of study with a view to its 
 fitness to secure attention, and to move the thoughts and 
 passions of such assemblies as are generally convened by 
 the preacher — assemblies made up from the popular, much 
 more than from the thoroughly educated classes of society. 
 The great object of this class of preachers has been to 
 acquit themselves learnedly, or to acquit themselves ele- 
 gantly. It is grievous to witness the mischiefs which have 
 resulted from this conventionalism in pulpit taste. If our 
 pulpit lessons must be veiled in the language of a particu- 
 lar kind of scholarship, then the people generally, and even 
 men of good natural parts, who have not been initiated 
 into that scholarship, will fail to perceive our meaning, and 
 will begin, as the consequence, to cast about for some bet- 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 61 
 
 ter employment than listening to the utterance of our 
 unknown tongue."* 
 
 I go on now to mention another qualification for the 
 sacred office, and which the earnest minister will anxiously 
 cultivate with a view to the great object of his life and 
 labors, and to which I advance with a praying mind, an 
 anxious heart, and a trembling hand, ardently desirous to 
 set it forth in such manner as shall secure for it the 
 attention which its importance demands ; I mean personal 
 religion. We are weak in the pulpit, because we are 
 weak in the closet. An earnest man will not only train 
 his mind to understand his object, and draw around him 
 the resources of ways and means for its accomplishment, 
 but will discipline his heart ; for there, within, is the spring 
 of his energies, the seat of impulse, and the source of 
 power. If the heart beat feebly, the wliole circulation 
 must be sluggish, and the frame inert. So is it with us 
 ministers : our own personal religion is the mainspring of 
 all our power in the pulpit. We are feeble as preachers, 
 because we are feeble as Christians. Whatever other de- 
 ficiencies we have, the chief of all lies in the heart. The 
 apostle said, " We believe and therefore speak." We not 
 only speak what we believe, but as we believe : if the faith 
 be weak, so will be the utterance. In another place the 
 same inspired writer said, " Knowing the terrors of the 
 Lord, we persuade men." It was when standing as amidst 
 the solemnities of the last judgment, that apostles besought 
 men to be reconciled to God. The flame of zeal which in 
 their ministrations rose to such a height and intensify as to 
 subject them to the charge of insanity, is thus accounted 
 
 * Modern Pulpit, pp. 23, 24. 
 
62 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 for, " The love of Christ constraineth us." We have too 
 much forgotten that the fount of eloquence is in the heart ; 
 and that it is feeling which gives to words and thoughts 
 their power. An unrenewed man, or one with a lukewarm 
 piety, may preach elaborate sermons upon orthodox doc- 
 trines, but what are they for power and efficiency, when 
 compared with those of the peacher, who feels as well as 
 glories in the cross, but as the splendid coruscations of 
 the aurora borealis to the warm and vivifying rays of the 
 sun ? 
 
 The Christian minister sustains a double relation, and 
 has a double duty to perform ; he is a preacher to the 
 world, and a pastor to the church, and it is impossible he 
 can fulfill, or be in earnest to fulfill, the obligations he is 
 under to either, without a large measure of personal god- 
 liness. As regards the church which is committed to his 
 care, and of which he is made by the Holy Ghost the 
 spiritual overseer, he has not only to increase their knowl- 
 edge, but their holiness, their love, and their spirituality ; 
 to aid them in performing all the branches of their duty, 
 and in cultivating all the graces of their sanctification. 
 And what is the present spiritual condition of the great 
 bulk of the professors of religion ? Amidst much that is 
 cheering, there is, on the other hand, much that is dis- 
 couraging and distressing to the more pious observer. 
 We behold a strange combination of zeal and worldly- 
 mindedness ; great activity for the extension of religion in 
 the earth, united with lamentable indifference to the state 
 of religion in the soul ; in short, apparent vigor in the 
 extremities, with a growing torpor at the heart. Multi- 
 tudes are substituting zeal for piety, liberality for mortifi- 
 cation, and a social for a personal religion. No careful 
 reader of the New Testament, and observer of the present 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 63 
 
 state of the church, can fail to be convinced, one should 
 think, that what is now wanting is a high spirituality. 
 The Christian profession is sinking in its tone of piety ; 
 the line of separation between the church and the world 
 becomes less and less perceptible ;• and the character of 
 genuine Christianity, as expounded from pulpits and de- 
 lineated in books, has too rare a counterpart in the lives 
 and spirit of its professors. 
 
 How is this to be remedied, and by what means is the 
 spirit of piety to be revived ? May we not ask a previous 
 question — How came this spirit of slumber over the 
 church ? Was it not from the pulpit ? And if a revival 
 take place in the former, must it not begin in the latter ? 
 Is the ministry of the present day in that state of earnest 
 piety which is likely to originate and sustain an earnest 
 style of preaching, and to revive the lukewarmness of 
 their flocks ? I do not mean for a moment to insinuate 
 that the ministers of the present day among the Dissenters, 
 or Methodists, or the evangelical clergy of the Church of 
 England, are characterized by immorality, or even a want 
 of substantial holiness ; or that they would suffer, as 
 regards their piety, in comparison with those of some 
 other periods of the history of their denominations : but 
 what I am compelled to believe, and what I now express, 
 is that our deficiencies are great as compared not only 
 with what is always required of us, but is especially re- 
 quired by the circumstances of the times in which Ave live. 
 Amidst the eager pursuits of commerce ; the elegancies 
 and soft indulgences of an age of growing refinement ; the 
 high cultivation of the intellect, and the contests of politics, 
 the church needs a strong and high barrier to keep out the 
 encroachment of tides so adverse to its prosperity, and 
 needs equally a dam to keep in its spiritual feeling. And 
 
64 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 where shall we find this, if not in the pulpit ? It is not in 
 the nature of things to be expected that the spiritual char- 
 acter of the church should ever be superior to that of the 
 ministry ; and it is perfectly consistent with what we know 
 of human nature to expect that it will always hold itself 
 excused for being inferior. It will not tread a path which 
 its spiritual guides are slow to pursue ; and will deem it 
 an affectation of sanctity, and a presumptuous ambition, to 
 attempt to advance beyond them. How else than by 
 believing in a deficiency of our piety can we account for 
 the fact of a diminished efficiency in our ministry ? 
 
 I cannot resist the temptation of giving here a long ex- 
 tract from that beautiful tract entitled "A Revived Minis- 
 try our only hope for a Revived Church;" a tract so 
 eminently excellent, and so adapted to promote the end of 
 the pious and accomplished writer, that it is a proof that 
 we have little wdsh to be raised to higher attainments in 
 piety, that such a heart- searching, soul-reviving production 
 has yet reached only a second edition.* 
 
 " And for such a revived ministry there would be the 
 most hopeful preparation of mind. The object to be 
 aimed at would be distinctly conceived ; it would be loved 
 and cherished as the noblest to which a redeemed being 
 can consecrate himself ; and there would be a readiness to 
 yield everything to the urgency and grandeur of its claims, 
 together with the simplicity and guilelessness of intention, 
 which would mightily aid the judgment in seeing its best 
 way to the best methods of achieving it. In such circum- 
 stances, all the distracting influences arising from indistinct 
 
 * A pious clergyman of this town was so impressed with the beauty, 
 fidelity, and earnestness of this tract, that he purchased a hundred 
 copies for distribution among his brethren. 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 65 
 
 views, a divided heart, and infirmity of purpose, would be 
 withdrawn, and leave the minister of Christ free to take a 
 decided and energetic course. The subjection of the 
 church and the world to the dominion of the truth, in a 
 pure heart and holy life, would be ever present to his 
 mind as the sole and sublime end of his ministry ; and, 
 drawing after it the full tide of his sympathies, and per- 
 mitting no diversion of his strength to any inferior object, 
 it would command all his powers, and dispossess him of 
 every wish but that of living and dying for it. And that 
 moment would be the dawn of an era of prosperity. 
 
 " Everything which he did would be enlivened by the 
 presence of a warmer and holier zeal ; but it would be the 
 public administration of divine truth, in the ordinance of 
 preaching, in which the stronger and healthier pulsations 
 of spiritual life would be most signally displayed, and from 
 which the largest results might be expected. In this he 
 would be prepared for acting a new part. Himself saved 
 and eminently sanctified, as well as possessed of the whole 
 treasury of sacred knowledge in the inspired volume, he 
 would be well versed in the respective truths best calcu- 
 lated for awakening the unconverted, and promoting the 
 highest sanctification of the church, and administer them 
 with improved wisdom and force. The wretchedness of 
 the soul as guilty, depraved, and hastening to the judg- 
 ment-seat ; the blessedness of arresting it in its downward 
 course, and of exalting it once more to the glory of the 
 Divine image and favor ; the ample means provided for all 
 this in the mediation of Christ; the experience of their 
 efficacy in himself, and the conviction of their undiminished 
 power to do as much for others ; the rapid flight of time 
 and the possibility of all the mercy over-shadowing thai 
 hour being trifled with and lost forever, — these thrill his 
 4 
 
66 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 soul with mingled commiseration, hope, and fear, and urge 
 him to improve to the utmost the fleeting opportunity of 
 snatching sinners from perdition, and adding to the bright- 
 ness of the Redeemer's crown. How well chosen is his 
 theme ! no matter of curious speculation, but some one or 
 more of the solemn verities which concern the instant faith 
 and obedience of every hearer, and bring life or death, as 
 accepted or rejected. Away with those artificial rules 
 which some have prescribed, as if to prepare a sermon 
 were something like composing an epic ! He has a truth 
 to enforce, a moral effect to produce, and the sense of its 
 unutterable importance brings to bear upon it all the re- 
 sources of a judicious, intelligent, and impassioned mind. 
 Bent on winning souls to God, or quickening them to 
 higher obedience, this one desire possesses and inflames 
 him, and gives a unity and completeness to his subject, a 
 force and compactness of argument, a felicity of speech 
 and manner, an ardor and impressiveness of appeal, which 
 the art of the rhetorician could never have supplied. He 
 feels, moreover, that his strength is in God, and that the 
 pleadings of human wisdom and pity never availed apart 
 from a higher inspiration. Would there not be more than 
 hope from a ministry like this ? In itself so convincing and 
 persuasive, rendered still more so by the practical exhibi- 
 tion of all the faith, uprightness, benevolence, and spirit- 
 uality which it inculcates, looking to God, and owning its 
 weakness without his blessing, it would have all the char- 
 acteristics from which the susceptibilities of the human 
 mind, and the solemn promises of the Almighty, authorize 
 the expectation of enlarged success. When was such a 
 ministry known to be long in contact with the minds of 
 men, without producing the happiest effects ? ' The word 
 of the Lord would have free course and be glorified,' con- 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 67 
 
 verts press into the church, and the church be raised to a 
 higher renovation. 
 
 " And the minister thus revived would have unwonted 
 power in individual intercourse with the members of his 
 flock. Living only for their advancement in faith and 
 holiness, the warmth and tenderness of his concern for it 
 would make him prompt to seize every opportunity of 
 promoting it, and give an appropriateness and weight to 
 his sayings which a colder and less earnest piety would 
 never have dictated; while the objects of his solicitude, 
 feeling the point and force of his words, and impressed 
 with his singleness of purpose, and still more with that 
 uniform display of the Christian virtues, which was the 
 best voucher of his deep sincerity, would find themselves 
 drawn along by a combination of influences so pure and 
 commanding, that they must tread in the steps of his 
 piety, and bend to his hallowed purpose of extending the 
 limits of the church, and giving it a holier aspect. Every 
 faithful minister can look back upon seasons when, under 
 the kindlings of a warmer love and zeal, and a more 
 affecting sense of external things, he was animated to 
 increased exertion ; and he has found that, not only did 
 his preaching fix the attention and touch the souls of his 
 hearers more than at other times, but that, when he went 
 among them in private, the elevation of his spirit, the 
 seriousness of his converse, and the solemnity and unction 
 pervading his petitions, produced an evident impression, 
 and that he left them with improved feelings and resolves. 
 All emotion is contagious, and easily propagates itself to 
 other bosoms ; but, beside this, the wakefulness of his 
 zeal, and his steadiness of purpose, made him eager to 
 extract the highest amount of good from every oppor- 
 tunity, stimulated ingenuity, and gave an aptness and 
 
68 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 charm to all that he said, which fell with happy effect on 
 the understanding and the heart. And had the ardor and 
 determination of those seasons been permanent, the equa- 
 ble and healthy excitement of every day's labor, instead of 
 soon relapsing into the feebler sensibility of other times, 
 his ministry would, doubtless, have told a different history, 
 and been far more richly laden with precious fruit." 
 
 Happy shall I feel if this feeble tribute, not only of the 
 recommendation of my pen, but of my heart's gratitude 
 for the benefit I have derived from this production, shall 
 induce any of my brethren to peruse this precious gift 
 which has been offered to them by a writer who veils him- 
 self under the modest title of " One of the least among 
 the brethren," 
 
 Do we want examples and patterns of eminent and ear- 
 nest piety, how richly are they supplied both in number 
 and in quality in the pages of our own denominational his- 
 tory. Where is the deep, ardent, experimental religion of 
 our ancestors, the fathers and founders of Protestant non- 
 conformity ? What a theologian was Owen when he wrote 
 his Exposition of the Hebrews ! What a polemic when he 
 penned his controversy with Biddulph ! What an eccle- 
 siastic when he drew up his treatise on Church Govern- 
 ment ! But what a Christian when he indulged in his 
 " Meditations on the Glory of Christ," and gave us his 
 treatise " On Spirituality of Mind and the Mortification of 
 Sin !" What a logician and divine was Howe, when he 
 produced his " Living Temple ;" but what a Christian 
 when, in the shadow of this noble structure of his holy 
 genius, he poured out his heart in his work on " Delight- 
 ing in God," and " The Blessedness of the Righteous." 
 And then think of holy Baxter, who gained repose from 
 the labors of polemic strife, and relief from the tortures of 
 
NATURE OP EARNESTNESS. 09 
 
 the stone, in the believing anticipations of " The Saint's 
 Rest." Was their piety the result of their suffering? 
 Then for one I could be almost content to take the latter, 
 so that I might be possessed of the former. Lead me to 
 the spots, I do not say where they trimmed their midnight 
 lamp, and continued at their studies till the morning star, 
 glittering through their casement, chided them to their 
 pillow; but to those more hallowed scenes where they 
 held their nightly vigils, and wrestled with the angel till 
 the break of day. Mighty shades of Owen and Baxter ; 
 Howe and Manton ; Henry and Bates ; Goodwin and 
 Nye — illustrious and holy men, we thank you for the rich 
 legacy you have bequeathed to us in your immortal works ; 
 but oh, where has the mantle of your piety fallen ! 
 
 God of our fathers ! be the God 
 Of their succeeding race. 
 
 Here then let us begin, where indeed we ought to begin, 
 with our own spirits ; for what should be the piety of that 
 man on the state of whose heart depends in no small de- 
 gree the spiritual condition of a whole Christian commu- 
 nity ? If we turn to any department of human action, we 
 shall learn that no one can inspire a taste, much less a 
 passion, for the object of his own pursuit, who is not him- 
 self most powerfully moved by it. It is, as I have said, 
 the scintillation of his own zeal flying off from his own 
 glowing heart, and falling upon their souls, which kindles 
 in them the fire which burns in himself. Lukewarmness 
 can excite no ardor, originate no activity, produce no effect : 
 it benumbs whatever it touches. If we inquire for the 
 sources of energy, the springs of activity, in the most suc- 
 cessful ministers of Christ, we shall find that they lay in 
 the ardor of their devotion. They were men o( prayer 
 
70 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 and of faith. They dwelt upon the mount of communion 
 with God, from whence they came down like Moses to the 
 people, radiant with the glory on which they had them- 
 selves been intently gazing. They stationed themselves 
 where they could look at things unseen and eternal, and 
 came with the stupendous visions fresh in their view, and 
 spoke of them under the impression of what they had just 
 seen and heard. They drew their thoughts and made 
 their sermons from their minds and from their books, but 
 they breathed life and power into them from their hearts, 
 and in their closets. Trace either Whitfield or Wesley 
 in their career, and you will see how beaten was the road 
 between the pulpit and the closet : the grass was not al- 
 lowed to grow in that path. This was in great part the 
 secret of their power. They were mighty in public, be- 
 cause in their retirement they had clothed themselves, so 
 to speak, with Omnipotence. The same might be said of 
 all others who have attained to eminence as successful 
 preachers of the gospel. If then we would see a revival 
 of the power of the pulpit, we must see first of all a revi- 
 val in the piety of those who occupy it : and when this is 
 the case, then " He that is feeble among us shall be as 
 David, and the house of David shall be as God, as the 
 angel of the Lord before them." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS CONTINUED, 
 
 AS EXEMPLIFIED IN THE MATTER AND MANNER OF 
 PREACHING. 
 
 Fifthly. Earnestness will manifest itself by energetic 
 and untiring action in the use of those means by which its 
 object is accomplished. It does not satisfy itself with con- 
 templation, however enraptured ; schemes, however well 
 concerted ; wishes, however fervent, or anticipations, how- 
 ever lively : but proceeds to vigorous and well- adapted 
 exertion. An earnest man must of necessity be an active 
 one : he is the opposite and the contrast of an idle dreamer. 
 "I see my object," he exclaims ; " it stands out in bold re- 
 lief, clearly denned before my eyes, and I will leave no ef- 
 fort untried to accomplish it. I have made up my mind 
 to labor, self-denial, and fatigue ; and if I do not succeed, 
 it shall not be for want of determined and continuous 
 effort." Such is his resolution, and his practice is like it. 
 He is always at work. You know where to find him, and 
 how he is employed. He is the very type of diligence. 
 Labor is pleasure. No difficulties deter him, no disap- 
 pointments dishearten him. The ignorant do not under- 
 stand him, the indolent pity him, but the intelligent ad- 
 
72 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 mire him. There is something in his earnestness com- 
 manding, grand, especially when the object of it is wor- 
 thy. 
 
 Apply this to the ministry : there are two means by 
 which this accomplishes its end, preaching and the pasto- 
 rate. 
 
 In reference to the former, I advert first to the matter 
 of our ministrations. And this must consist of course of 
 those topics which bear most obviously and directly upon 
 the great ends we are seeking to accomplish. Earnestness 
 will take the nearest and most direct road to its object; 
 nor will it be seduced from its path by beautiful prospects 
 and pleasant walks, that lie in another direction. "I want 
 to reach that point, and I cannot allow myself to be at- 
 tracted by scenes, which, however agreeable and appropri- 
 ate to others, would, if I stayed or turned to contemplate 
 them, only hinder me in my business." Such is the lan- 
 guage of one intent upon success in any given scheme. 
 Now what is the end of our office ? The reconciliation of 
 sinners to God, and their ultimate and complete salvation, 
 when so reconciled. It is easy then to see that the matter 
 of our instruction and persuasion must be, the ministry of 
 reconciliation. Of course it must be our purpose to de- 
 clare the whole counsel of God, and to remember " that 
 all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profita- 
 ble for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction 
 in righteousness ; that the man of God may be thoroughly 
 furnished unto all good works." In the way of exposition 
 a minister should go through the greater part of the whole 
 Bible, fairly and honestly explaining and enforcing it. But 
 since the whole Bible, as explained by the most perfect 
 revelation of the ISTew Testament, directly or indirectly 
 points to Christ, or may be illustrated and enjoined by con- 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 73 
 
 siderations suggested by his mission and work, our preach- 
 ing should have a decidedly evangelical character. The 
 divinity, incarnation, and death of Christ — his atonement 
 for sin — his resurrection, ascension, intercession, and medi- 
 atorial reign — his spiritual kingdom, and his second com- 
 ing ; the offices and work of the Holy Spirit in illuminat- 
 ing, regenerating, and sanctifying the human soul ; the 
 doctrine of justification by faith, and the new birth ; the 
 sovereignty of God in the dispensation of his saving gifts 
 — these and their kindred and collateral topics should form, 
 so to speak, the staple of our public ministrations and 
 teaching. It surely must be this which the apostle meant 
 when he said, " I determined to know nothing among you 
 save Jesus Christ and him crucified." " The Jews require 
 a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach 
 Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto 
 the Greeks foolishness : but unto them which are called, 
 both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the 
 wisdom of God." If there be any meaning in language, 
 this must imply that the apostle in his ministry dwelt 
 chiefly upon the work of Christ, as the theme of his dis- 
 courses. His epistles all sustain this view of his meaning. 
 They are all full of this great subject. We may perhaps 
 smile at the simple piety of the individual who was at the 
 trouble of counting the number of times that the apostle 
 mentioned the name of Jesus in all his epistles, but at the 
 same time something is to be learnt from the fact that he 
 found it to reach between four and five hundred. This 
 teaches us how thoroughly Christian, how entirely imbued 
 with evangelism, his mind and his writings were. His mo- 
 rality was as evangelical as his doctrine, for he enforced all 
 the branches of social obligation by motives drawn from 
 the cross. His ethics were all baptized with the spirit oi 
 4* 
 
74 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 the gospel, so that the believer, in reading the writings of 
 Paul, has his eye as constantly kept upon the crucified one, 
 in the progress of his sanctification, as the sinner's eye is 
 turned towards the same object, for his justification. Here 
 then was the earnestness of the apostle, one constant, uni- 
 form, and undeviating endeavor to save men's souls by the 
 truth as it is in Jesus. 
 
 A question now arises whether it is the duty of modern 
 preachers to adopt the same method, and whether, inas- 
 much as their ends are the same with those of the apostle, 
 they are to seek them by the same means. One should 
 suppose there can be no rational doubt of this. If the 
 apostles were the inspired teachers of Christianity, and 
 have given us in their writings a full exhibition of what 
 Christianity really is ; and if it is our business to explain 
 and enforce their writings ; it seems to follow as a thing of 
 course that our teaching as to the matter of our discourses 
 must resemble theirs : and will any one pretend that this 
 resemblance can be established unless our preaching is 
 richly and prevailingly evangelical ? I am aware it is 
 sometimes said that the times are altered since the apostles' 
 days, and that the state of the world is different from what 
 it then was. But is not human nature in all its essential 
 elements the same ? Is it not the same in its moral aspect, 
 impotency, and necessities ? Does it not as much need, 
 and as much depend upon the gospel scheme, as it did then ? 
 Is not the evangelical scheme as accurately adapted to its 
 miserable condition as it was then ? Can sin be pardoned 
 in any other way than through the atonement of Christ ; 
 or the sinner be justified by any other means than faith in 
 the Lord our righteousness ; or the depraved heart be re- 
 newed and sanctified by any other agency than that of the 
 Holy Spirit ? Are not all the motive? of evangelical doc- 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 75 
 
 trine as adapted, as powerful, and as efficacious now, as 
 they were then ? No alteration of subject then can be 
 called for now, to meet the advancing state of society, 
 since the gospel is intended and adapted to be God's in- 
 strument for the salvation of man, in all ages of the world, 
 in all countries, and in all states of society. We reject 
 alike the ancient practice of conforming the evangelical 
 scheme to the systems of philosophy, and the modern 
 Puseyite notion of the progressive development of Chris- 
 tian doctrine. To the men who would revive the former, 
 we say, " Beware lest any man spoil you through a vain and 
 deceitful philosophy, after the traditions of men, after the 
 rudiments of the world, and not after Christ :" to the lat- 
 ter we say, " Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, 
 and forever. Be not carried about with divers and strange 
 doctrines : for it is a good thing for the heart to be estab- 
 lished with grace." It appears to me that something like 
 the same attempts are being made in this day to corrupt 
 the gospel by superstitious additions on the one hand, and 
 by philosophic accommodations on the other, as were car- 
 ried on in the early days of Christianity. Our danger lies 
 in the latter. 
 
 It should never be forgotten that the time when the 
 apostles discharged their ministry was only just after the 
 Augustan era of the ancient world. Poetry had recently 
 bestowed some of its golden favors on the empire of let- 
 ters in the works of Virgil and Horace. The light of 
 philosophy, though waning, still shed its lustre on Greece. 
 The arts, and their most splendid creations in architecture, 
 sculpture, and painting, still lived, though they had ceased 
 to grow. It was at such a time, and amidst such scenes, 
 the gospel began its course. Apostolic voices were listened 
 to by sages and their pupils who basked in tfce sunshjnc of 
 
76 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 Athenian wisdom, and were reverberated in echo from 
 temples and statues that had been shaken by the thunders 
 of Cicero and Demosthenes ; yet these holy men conceded 
 nothing to the demands of philosophy, but held forth the 
 cross as the only object they felt they had a right to exhibit. 
 They never once conceived such an idea as that they must 
 accommodate themselves to the philosophy or the taste of 
 the age in which they lived, and the places in which they 
 ministered. It is true the philosophy of that day was a 
 false one, but it was not known or acknowledged to be such 
 at the time. Whether the apostle addressed himself to the 
 philosophers on Mars Hill, or to the barbarians in the island 
 of Melita ; whether he reasoned with the Jews in their syna- 
 gogues, or with the Greeks in the school of Tyrannus ; 
 he had but one theme, and that was Christ, and him cru- 
 cified. And what right, or what reason, have we for 
 deviating from this high and imperative example ? Be it 
 so, that we are in a literary, philosophic, and scientific age, 
 what then ? Is it an age that has outlived the need of 
 the gospel for its salvation ; or to the salvation of which 
 anything else can supply a means, but the gospel ? The 
 supposition that something else than the gospel, as the 
 theme of our pulpit ministrations, is requisite for such a 
 period as this, or that the gospel must be presented in a 
 more philosophic form, appears to me a most dangerous 
 sentiment, as being a disparagement to the gospel itself, 
 and containing the very germ of infidelity. Let the taste 
 be cultivated as it may by literature, or the mind be enlight- 
 ened by science, or the reason disciplined by philosophy, 
 the heart is still deceitful and wicked, the conscience still 
 burdened with guilt, and the whole soul in a state of alien- 
 ation from God. The moral constitution is mortally dis- 
 eased, and nothing but the gospel is God's saving health, 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 77 
 
 which is as much required for the spiritual restoration of 
 the polished son of science, as for that of the savage of 
 New Zealand, or the Hottentot of South Africa. All else 
 is but pretence and empiricism ; and the man who would 
 be in earnest, and successful in the salvation of souls, must 
 have a clear conviction and a deep impression of these 
 facts. 
 
 But perhaps the danger to which the evangelical ministry 
 of the present age is exposed, is not so much a philosophiz- 
 ing spirit, or an attempt to conform the gospel to any met- 
 aphysical theory, as an effort to attain to a high intellec- 
 tuality in setting forth received truths. We hear a great 
 deal about this in modern times. It is become a kind of 
 cant term, (for there is a high cant as well as a low one,) 
 to speak of some men as very intellectual preachers. If 
 by an intellectual preacher be meant a man who applies 
 the acquirements of a vigorous and well-trained under- 
 standing to explain and enforce the great topics of evan- 
 gelical truth ; or the application, in the most attractive 
 form, of whatever knowledge such a mind, in the pursuit 
 after information of all kinds, can obtain, to the great end 
 of the Christian ministry ; or the employment of sound 
 logic and natural eloquence to make the doctrines which 
 are unto salvation bear down upon the heart and con- 
 science ; in that case a man cannot be too intellectual : 
 the great and glorious doctrines of revealed truth and life 
 eternal, deserve and demand the mightiest energies of the 
 noblest intellects. But if, as is too generally the case, this 
 intellectuality means the cold, dry, argumentative discus- 
 sion of religious truth, rather than evangelical subjects, or 
 even of the latter in an abstract and essay-like form : a 
 mere heartless exercise of the understanding of the 
 preacher, and intended or adapted only to engage the 
 
78 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 understanding of the hearers, without either interesting 
 their affections or awakening their conscience ; such intel- 
 lectuality will do nothing but empty the places of worship 
 in which it is exhibited, or at best draw together a congre- 
 gation of persons who cannot do without some religion, but 
 who prefer the* cold abstractions of the head to the warm 
 affections of the heart. 
 
 Here I would not be misconstrued to mean that every 
 sermon must be on strictly evangelical themes ; but that 
 these must be the prevailing topics of the man who is in 
 earnest for the salvation of souls. Nor would I go so far 
 as to say that each sermon must contain as much of the 
 gospel as would make every hearer of it acquainted with 
 the way of salvation, though he never should listen 
 to another discourse. There is such a thing as treating 
 these subjects so carelessly, so familiarly, and so fre- 
 quently, as to deprive them of all their power to interest 
 and impress. A man whose soul is possessed with the 
 passion for doing good, will make almost any and every 
 topic adapted for usefulness. Subjects, which in other 
 hands will be dry and uninteresting, will in his be invested 
 with the glow and the warmth which live in his own soul, 
 and which he imparts to everything he touches. His 
 heart beats with an action so strong, so steady, and so 
 healthful, that his fervid and holy intelligence circulates an 
 evangelical vitality through what in others would be a cold 
 and torpid frame, and thus causes the principle of gospel 
 life to reach to the very extremities of the system of gene- 
 ral truth. Still even he, though he dwell occasionally on 
 every topic which can with propriety be brought into the 
 pulpit, will, like the apostle, " glory only in the cross of 
 Christ." Resisting the temptations to neglect a plain 
 gospel, and to go in quest of airy speculations and unprofit- 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 79 
 
 able novelties, his aim will not be to gratify the imagina- 
 tive by what is tasteful and poetic, the philosophical by 
 what is profound, the metaphysical by what is subtle, or 
 the curious by what is strange, but by manifestation of the 
 truth to commend himself to every man's conscience in the 
 sight of God. Alas that any preacher of the gospel should 
 take any other aim, and seek any other object, than this ! 
 Do we want subjects for eloquence, where can we find them 
 in such abundance, grandeur, and sublimity, as in the 
 gospel scheme ? The cross is a fount of the purest, most 
 impassioned, and most pathetic eloquence in the world, 
 from which genius may go on to draw its streams without 
 ever exhausting it. Compare the most finished orations 
 and sermons of Massillon, Bossuet. or Bourdaloue, with 
 McLaurin's discourse on " Glorying in the Cross ;" and 
 though the former are more perfect as models of composi- 
 tion, more decorated by all the artifices and graces of rhet- 
 oric, yet how far below that incomparable sermon in the 
 sublimity of its theme, and the grandeur of its evangelical 
 eloquence, are these boasted models of the French pulpit. 
 Even the soul of Blair kindled into something like a glow 
 of pious warmth when he came, which he seldom did, 
 within the attraction of this object ; and though it was but 
 as moonlight, compared with the ardor of his colleague 
 Walker, yet in his sermon on " The Death of Christ," his 
 frigid elegance becomes enlivened by his theme, and fur- 
 nishes a standing proof that the heathen morals of Epicte- 
 tus are a barren source of eloquence, compared with the 
 Christian doctrines of the apostle Paul. I make no 
 apology for requoting a passage from an American author 
 which I have already given to the public in my Address 
 to Students: " My dear brethren, why are we not more 
 impressive ? Theology affords the best field for tender, 
 
80 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 solemn, and sublime eloquence. The most august objects 
 are presented ; the most important interests are discussed ; 
 the most tender motives are urged. God and angels ; the 
 treason of Satan; the creation, ruin, and recovery of a 
 world ; the incarnation, death, resurrection, and reign of the 
 Son of God ; the day of judgment ; a burning universe ; 
 an eternity ; a heaven and a hell — all pass before the eye. 
 What are the petty dissensions of the states of Greece, or 
 the ambition of Philip ; what are the plots and victories 
 of Rome, or the treason of Cataline, compared with this ? 
 If ministers were sufficiently qualified by education, study, 
 and the Holy Ghost ; if they felt their subject as much as 
 Demosthenes and Cicero did, they would be the most elo- 
 quent men on earth, and would be so esteemed wherever 
 congenial minds were found. "* 
 
 To know what themes contain the greatest potency over 
 the public mind, and which should form the subject of an 
 earnest ministry, we have only to consult the pages of 
 ecclesiastical history. It is unnecessary, after what I have 
 already written, to dwell upon the matter of apostolic 
 preaching. It was by the purest evangelism that Chris- 
 tianity was planted in the earth, and^it was when this gave 
 place to a religion of forms and ceremonies, that the power 
 and vitality of true godliness declined, and a mass of splen- 
 did corruption grew up, in the dark shadow of which the 
 man of sin erected his throne, and the Papacy commenced 
 its bloody reign. During the long night of the middle 
 ages the sound of the faithful preacher was not heard, and 
 the voice of Zion's watchman was silent, except in a few 
 obscure nooks and corners of the earth ; but wherever it 
 was then heard, the same effects followed. It was this 
 
 * Dr. Griffin's Sermon on the Art of Preaching. 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 81 
 
 subject with which Claude, of Turin, when nearly all the 
 world were wondering after the Beast, awakened in the 
 ninth century, the inhabitants of Piedmont, and commenced 
 that glorious work which was carried on, more or less, for 
 centuries, amid the seclusion of Alpine rocks and valleys, 
 and which the concentrated power and fury of the Papacy 
 could never entirely subvert. It was this evangelism which 
 our Wicliff preached in England in the fifteenth century, 
 and by it kindled a fire, amidst the smouldering ashes of 
 which lay concealed the embers that were again to ignite 
 when fanned by the breath of the reformers a century 
 afterwards. By what means did Luther achieve his im- 
 mortal triumph over the powers of the Vatican, and smite 
 off the fetters which had enslaved the judgment, heart, 
 and conscience of man ? By the potency of what subject 
 did he lift up into freedom and dignity the prostrate intel- 
 lect of the human race ? What was the instrument with 
 which he struck the empire of darkness, and inflicted a 
 blow which resounded through the civilized world ? It 
 was the great evangelical doctrine of justification by faith. 
 By what means did Whitfield and Wesley rouse the 
 slumbering piety of our nation, and call up a spirit which 
 is going on from strength to strength to this day ? By the 
 evangelical system of divine truth. What called forth the 
 missionary enterprise, and constructed all that moral 
 machinery which is at wprk upon the world's conversion ? 
 Before what system of truths have the inhabitants of Poly- 
 nesia and New Zealand surrendered their licentious habits 
 and bloody rites ; and the Hottentots and Esquimaux 
 dropped their barbarism, and risen up into the form and 
 manners of civilized men ? What is the doctrine by which 
 our missionaries are taking possession of India and China ? 
 I answer in one word, the doctrine of the cross. 
 
82 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 Here then is a fact attested by authentic history, and 
 uncontradicted by any one who is acquainted either with 
 the present or the past, that all the great moral revolutions 
 of our world, during the time of the Christian era, have 
 been effected by one simple process, by one set of means, 
 — and that process is the preaching of the gospel. Prov- 
 idential events may have prepared the way by levelling 
 mountains and filling up valleys, and making smooth the 
 course of the herald of the cross ; but it was that herald's 
 mighty voice proclaiming, " Behold the Lamb of God that 
 taketh away the sins of the world," which by the power 
 of God's Spirit has changed the moral aspect of our dark 
 and dreary world. All this has not been done by learn- 
 ing, science, and philosophy ; it is not the result of pro- 
 found speculations on any theory of morals or of fine pro- 
 cesses of reasoning; or of splendid creations of poetic 
 genius ; or of the subtleties of metaphysical discussion ; 
 no, but of the simple testimony of the gospel. While the 
 philosopher has been theorizing in his closet, and the moral 
 arithmetician has been carrying on his calculations in his 
 study, the preacher has gone forth into the midst of the 
 people, ignorant, wicked, and wretched as they were, has 
 lifted up the great truth of a loving God, a dying Saviour, 
 and a regenerating Spirit, and has by those means, as an 
 instrument of God, changed the aspect of society, and 
 revolutionized the moral habits of the nations. 
 
 Strange that with the knowledge of these facts, any of 
 our preachers should think of substituting these glorious 
 truths, which have wrought such wonders in the world, by 
 any other themes ; or should act as if weapons that had 
 proved their adaptation and their power, should be wielded 
 now with a doubtful mind, and with a hesitating hand. If 
 we would know how we are to convert souls to God, we 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 83 
 
 have only to ask, how has God converted them ? Nor is it 
 necessary to go back to past ages, or abroad to other coun- 
 tries. Let us only look round upon our own country ; let 
 us go to our largest congregations and our most numerous 
 churches, and ask what kind of preaching has done all this ; 
 what doctrine, and how handled, has drawn this multitude 
 together ; what magnet has put forth its attractions here ? 
 And the secret is soon discovered, and it will be found 
 that here is an exemplification of our Lord Jesus Christ's 
 words, " And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto 
 me." Go into other places where an evangelical intellec- 
 tuality is substituted for the vital truths of the gospel ; 
 where philosophical abstractions take the place of popular 
 addresses on great fundamental doctrines, and cold, logical 
 essays are read, instead of heart- stirring sermons being- 
 preached ; and the attenuated and still declining congre- 
 gation proclaims the want of adaptation in the pulpit min- 
 istrations, and prove that for the popular mind there can be 
 no substitute for the cross of Christ. Nor does this apply 
 exclusively to the uneducated, or partially educated classes. 
 Human nature in all its prevailing features, tastes, necessi- 
 ties, and enjoyments, is the same in the king and in the 
 peasant ; in the savage and the sage. All men are made 
 susceptible of emotion, as well as capable of feeling ; and 
 all men love to feel, as well as to think. A tradesman, or 
 professional man, who has been at work all the week, hav- 
 ing had his mind strained with hard thinking, as well as his 
 body by hard labor, when he takes his seat in his pew on 
 a Sabbath morning, wants something for his heart, as well 
 as for his head. With a sermon, however intellectual it 
 may be, which has nothing that comes home to his affec- 
 tions, and causes him to feel, he is sure to be disappointed 
 and dissatisfied. A dry essay on some gospel subject 
 
84 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 which only proves a point he never doubted, or starts a 
 difficulty he never dreamt of, is like giving him a stone 
 when he asks for bread. He wants to be made to feel 
 there is something higher and better than this world. He 
 desires to enjoy the luxury of hallowed emotion, he covets 
 the joy and peace of believing, and the anticipations of 
 that world, where the weary are at rest, and the din of 
 business will be forever hushed. That man, tired and 
 jaded by the cares, anxieties, and toils of six days, wants 
 to lie down and take repose on the soft green of evangeli- 
 cal truth, and not on the hard rocks of abstract specula- 
 tion. It is true, that being a man of education and read- 
 ing, his heart must be reached through his intellect, and 
 though it must be the substantial bread of evangelical truth 
 with which he is fed, yet it must not be coarse or chaffy ; 
 it must not only be prepared and made of the finest of the 
 wheat, but it must also be well mixed, and made pala- 
 table to a refined taste by a skillful hand. 
 
 Before I pass from this part of the subject, it may be 
 proper to remark that perhaps there are few expressions 
 more misunderstood, and on which more mistakes have 
 been made, than "preaching the gospel." Many by the 
 use of this phrase aim to exclude from the pulpit almost 
 every topic but a perpetual and almost unvarying exhibi- 
 tion of the death of our Lord, and consider this specifi- 
 cally, and this only, as preaching Christ. But it is strange- 
 ly forgotten by the preachers of this school, that as the 
 scheme of mediation by the Saviour is founded on the eter- 
 nal obligation and immutable nature of the law of God, 
 and was intended, not to subvert, but to uphold its author- 
 ity, the moral law must be explained and enforced, in all 
 its purity, spirituality, and extent. Repentance towards 
 God is no less included in the apostolic ministry, than faith 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 85 
 
 in our Lord Jesus Christ ; and how can a sinner repent of 
 his transgressions against the law, if he know not the law 
 he has violated ? for "sin is the transgression of the law ; M 
 and " by the law is the knowledge of sin." So that no man 
 can know sin without knowing the law : and herein appears 
 to me one of the prevailing defects of modern preaching, 
 I mean the neglect of holding up this perfect mirror, in 
 which the sinner shall see reflected his own moral image. 
 It is true that some are melted down at once into a sense 
 of wickedness, and brought to the exercise of both repent- 
 ance and faith, by an exhibition of divine love in the death 
 of Christ ; but I do not think this is so usual a method pf 
 conversion as the first awakening of the sinner by an expo- 
 sition and application of the perfect law. Dr. Dwight 
 says, " Few, very few, are ever awakened or convinced by 
 the encouragements and promises of the gospel ; but 
 almost all by the denunciations of the law. The blessings 
 of immortality, the glories of heaven, are usually, to say 
 the least, preached with little efficacy to an assembly of 
 sinners. I have been surprised to see how dull, inatten- 
 tive, and sleepy such an assembly has been, amidst the 
 strongest representations of these divine subjects, combin- 
 ing the most vivid images with a vigorous style and an im- 
 pressive elocution."* This is a strong testimony, but it is 
 perhaps a little overstated. Still I am persuaded there is 
 much truth in it, for it seems to stand by reason, that men 
 will care little about pardon till they are convinced of sin, 
 and as the apostle says, it is by the law that they come to 
 the knowledge of sin. In this particular there appears to 
 me a superior adaptation in the American preaching to the 
 work of conviction, than in the British pulpit : there is 
 
 * Vol. II. p. 417. 
 
86 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 more of this exposition of the law, and of the application 
 of it to the sinner's conscience ; more that is calculated to 
 make him feel at once his obligations and his guilt ; more 
 of that which silences his excuses, unravels the deceitful- 
 ness of his heart, strips him of self-righteousness, makes 
 him thoroughly acquainted with himself and his entire need 
 of a Saviour ; in short, more of what the apostle calls com- 
 mending himself to every man's conscience in the sight of 
 God. With this, however, is I think associated a want of 
 evangelical fullness and tenderness. I remember a discus- 
 sion, by a large company of ministers in my vestry, on 
 one occasion, as to what style of preaching had been found 
 in their own experience to be most useful ; and it was pretty 
 generally admitted, and some of them had been among 
 our most successful preachers, that sermons on alarming 
 and impressive texts had been most blessed in producing 
 conviction of sin, and first concern about salvation. At the 
 same time it must be recollected, that though descriptions 
 of sin may affect — exhibiting the consequences of it may 
 affright — vehement censures of it may alarm — reasoning 
 concerning it may open the gloomy road to despair — this 
 alone will not convert. Law without gospel will harden, 
 as gospel without law will only lead to carelessness and 
 presumption : it is the union of both that will possess the 
 sinner with a loathing of himself, and love to God. Still 
 our danger in this age lies not so much in neglecting the 
 gospel, as in omitting to associate with this the preaching 
 of the law. It is worthy of remark that Jesus Christ, who 
 was incarnate love itself, the living gospel, yea, the way, 
 the truth, the life, was the most alarming preacher that 
 was ever in our world. It is, however, especially incum- 
 bent upon us not to mistake grossness for fidelity, nor 
 harshness for earnestness. The remarks of Mr. Hall on this, 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 87 
 
 are as correct as they are beautiful. " A harsh and unfeel- 
 ing 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 efficiency. If 
 the awful part of our message, which may be styled the 
 burden of the Lord, ever fall with due weight upon our 
 hearers, it will be when it is delivered with a trembling 
 hand, and faltering lips." The look, the tone, the action, 
 when such subjects are discussed, should be a mixture of 
 solemnity and affection — the awfulness of love. To hear 
 such topics dwelt upon in strong language, vehement 
 action, and boisterous tones, strikes us as being an utter 
 violation of all propriety, and in every hearer of the least 
 discernment, is likely to excite horror and revulsion. Real 
 earnestness is the result of deep emotion, and the emotion 
 excited by the sight of a fellow- creature perishing in his 
 sins is that of the tenderest commiseration, which will 
 express itself, not in stormy declamation and thundering 
 denunciations, but of solemnly chastened expostulation and 
 appeal. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS CONTINUED. 
 
 EARNESTNESS IN REFERENCE TO MANNER. 
 
 I now pass from matter to maimer ; and when I say- 
 manner, I wish to be understood as including in that term, 
 not simply the method of communicating truth by voice and 
 gesture, but the cast of thought and the style of composi- 
 tion in reference to the truth so enunciated ; and what is 
 wanted for the pulpit is a vivacious, in opposition to a 
 stiff, formal, and dull method. Style must of course to a 
 considerable extent vary with the subject matter, and be 
 regulated by it. In exegetical preaching, or in that part 
 of a sermon which is merely expository, all that is re- 
 quired, and what is required, is a calm perspicuity, a flow 
 of clear, limpid, quiet thought, which shall instruct the 
 understanding, and gently draw after it the heart, without 
 being expected to move, in any great degree, the passions. 
 We have some beautiful specimens of this in the elegant 
 discourses of Dr. Wardlaw. Well would it be if, after his 
 manner, we could be critical without being pedantic; exe- 
 getical without being scholastic ; and invest exposition with 
 charms which should make it attractive to all our congre- 
 gations. But though a careful analysis of the text should 
 be the basis of almost all our sermons, there needs some- 
 thing more than mere exegesis, however clear or correct. 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 80 
 
 We have to do not only with a dark intellect that needs 
 to be instructed, but with a hard heart that needs to be 
 impressed, and a torpid conscience that needs to be 
 awakened ; and have to make our hearers feel that in the 
 great business of religion, there is much to be done, as 
 well as much to be known. We must give knowledge, for 
 light is as essential to the growth of piety in the spiritual 
 world, as it is to the growth of vegetation in the natural 
 one : and then the analogy holds good in another point, 
 for we must not only let in light, but add great and vigor- 
 ous labor to carry on the culture. We must, therefore, 
 rise from exegesis into exhortation, warning, and expostu- 
 lation. The apostle's manner is the right one,—-" Whom 
 we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man, 
 that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." 
 There must not only be the directive, but the impulsive 
 manner. All our hearers know far more of the Bible 
 than they practice : the head is far in advance of the 
 heart ; and our great business is to persuade, to entreat, 
 to beseech. We have to deal with a dead, heavy vis in- 
 ertue of mind ; yea more, we have to overcome a stout 
 resistance, and to move a reluctant heart. If all that was 
 necessary to secure the ends of our ministry was to lay the 
 truth open to the mind ; if the heart were already predis- 
 posed to the subject of our preaching, then, like the 
 lecturer on science, we might dispense with the hortatory 
 manner, and confine ourselves exclusively to explanation : 
 logic, unaccompanied by rhetoric, would suffice. But 
 when we find in every sinner we address, an individual 
 acting in opposition to the dictates of his judgment, and the 
 warnings of his conscience, as well as to the testimony oi 
 Scripture ; an individual who is sacrificing the interests of 
 his immortal soul to the vanities oi" the world, and the 
 5 
 
90 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 corruptions of his heart ; an individual who is madly bent 
 upon his ruin, and rushing to the precipice from which he 
 will take his fatal leap into perdition ; can we in that case 
 be satisfied with merely explaining, however clearly, and 
 demonstrating, however conclusively, the truth of revela- 
 tion ? To borrow the allusion which I have already made, 
 should we think it enough, coldly to unfold the sin of sui- 
 cide, and logically to arrange the proofs of its criminality, 
 before the man who had in his hand the pistol or the poi- 
 son with which he was just about to destroy himself? 
 Would exegesis, however clear and accurate, be enough in 
 this case ? Should we not entreat, expostulate, beseech ? 
 Should we not lay hold of the arm uplifted for destruction, 
 and snatch the poison cup from the hand that was about to 
 apply it to the lips ? What is the case with the impenitent 
 sinners to whom we preach, but that of individuals bent 
 upon self-destruction, not indeed the present destruction of 
 their bodies, but of their souls ? There they are before 
 our eyes, rushing in their sins and their impenitence to 
 the precipice that overhangs the pit of destruction ; and 
 shall we content ourselves with sermons, however excellent 
 for elegance, for logic, for perspicuity, and even for evan- 
 gelism, but which have no hortatory power, no restraining 
 tendency, none of the apostle's beseeching entreaty? 
 Shall we merely lecture on theology, and deal out reli- 
 gious science, to men who amidst a flood of light already 
 pouring over them, care for none of these things ? 
 
 It is a question of not a little difficulty, how far the 
 usual rules and qualities of secular eloquence may be car- 
 ried out in the composition of our sermons. The language 
 of the apostle, in reference to his own preaching, has been 
 thought to forbid all elaboration, — " Christ sent me to 
 preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 91 
 
 cross of Christ should be made of none effect." A right 
 understanding of his circumstances and ours, will show us 
 that there are differences which forbid too rigid and literal 
 an application of this sentiment to us. Miracles gave a 
 potency to his preaching, which is wanting, of course, in 
 ours. Besides, the wisdom here forbidden was not the 
 selection of the best words, and placing them in the best 
 order for the statement of divine truth, but that combina- 
 tion of false philosophy and artificial rhetoric, which was 
 the usual practice of the Grecian schools ; in short, he 
 forbade such a method of setting forth evangelical doctrine 
 as would have brought it into conformity, both as to mat- 
 ter and manner, with the fashionable systems of philoso- 
 phy. Provided the elaboration is carried on with a view 
 to make the sermon at once perspicuous and impressive, 
 to give it power to command the attention, and, at the 
 same time, to instruct the judgment, engage the affections, 
 and awaken the conscience ; to render the subject clearly 
 understood and deeply felt, it cannot be too perfectly done. 
 No elaboration which causes the hearer to forget the 
 preacher, and even the sermon as a production of art, and 
 to think only of himself and the subject ; which rivets 
 attention, and makes every one feel that he is in the pres- 
 ence, not only of man, but of God ; which lays open the 
 way of salvation so clearly that the most obtuse under- 
 standing shall comprehend it, and, at the same time, so forci- 
 bly that the dullest heart shall feel it, cannot be wrong. If 
 a preacher of the power of Demosthenes were to arise, he 
 would, and must, carry that power into the pulpit, and 
 ought to do so. But, on the other hand, an elaboration 
 that is betrayed in every part of the discourse, and which 
 makes it but too evident to any serious or observant mind, 
 that it was the preacher's aim, not to convert souls, but to 
 
92 • NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 catch applause ; which, in the view of the fashionable, the 
 giddy, and the frivolous, entitles the sermonizer to the 
 highest rank among pulpit orators ; which fills the dis- 
 course with flowery diction and gaudy metaphors, with 
 elegant declamation, and fanciful descriptions, with taste- 
 ful addresses, and beautiful pictures ; which, though it 
 takes the cross for its subject, almost instantly leaves it, 
 and runs out into the fields of poesy, or the labyrinths of 
 metaphysics, for its subtle arguments or its sparkling and 
 splendid illustrations ; which, to sum up all, engages the 
 judgment or amuses the imagination, but never moves the 
 heart, or calls the conscience to discharge its severe and 
 awful functions — such preaching may render a minister 
 popular, secure him large congregations, and procure for 
 him the plaudits of the multitude ; but where are the sin- 
 ners converted from the error of their way, and the souls 
 saved from death ? Verily I say unto you, if such a 
 preacher has his reward only in the applause of the multi- 
 tude, whose object and aim were as low as his own — it 
 was what he sought, and all hje sought, and let him not 
 complain if he have this, and nothing else. From such 
 preachers may God Almighty preserve our churches, and 
 may he give us men who better know their business in the 
 pulpit, and better do it. 
 
 Simplicity of style, then, as opposed to the artificial and 
 rhetorical, is essential to earnestness ; for who can believe 
 that man to be intent on saving souls, who seems to 
 have labored in the study only to make his sermon as fine 
 as glittering imagery and high sounding diction could ren- 
 der it ? I could as soon believe a physician were intent on 
 saving his fellow creatures from death, who, when the 
 plague was sweeping them into the grave, spent his. time 
 in studying to write his prescriptions in beautiful charac- 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 93 
 
 ters, and classical latinity. There are some judicious 
 remarks on the style of the pulpit in two papers which 
 came out some time since, one in the Edinburgh Review, 
 and the other in the Quarterly, on Hare's " Village Ser- 
 mons," those admirable models of simplicity. 
 
 The object of the reviewer in the Quarterly is to illustrate 
 the nature, to prove the necessity, and to urge the culti- 
 vation of simplicity, especially in those sermons which are 
 addressed to congregations which are composed in great 
 measure of the poor. After giving a quotation or two in 
 which Mr. Hare had made mention of " smugglers and 
 poachers," "tea and wheaten bread," the critic remarks : 
 
 " We have preachers in our time who would have flinched from 
 expressions so natural and straight-forward, and would infallibly 
 have warned their poor people against holding any intercourse 
 with the nocturnal marauder on the main or the manor ; and have 
 suggested to them the gratitude they owed for a fragrant bever- 
 age and farinaceous food. And so might Mr. Hare, if his taste 
 had been less correct, and his desire of doing good less earnest. 
 Affectation is bad enough anywhere ; in the pulpit it is intolera- 
 ble." 
 
 In speaking of illustrations, the writer goes on to advert 
 to the excessive quaintness which was one of the vices of 
 sermons before and about the time of the Reformation : 
 
 " Accordingly, within a century after the Reformation, we find 
 Thomas Fuller, the last man from natural temperament, one 
 would have thought likely to offer a caution upon such a subject, 
 saying of the faithful minister, ' His similes and illustrations are 
 always familiar, never contemptible. Indeed reasons are the pil- 
 lars of the fabric of a sermon, but similitudes are the windows 
 which give the best light. He avoids such stories whoso men- 
 tion may suggest bad thoughts to the auditors, and will not use 
 a light comparison to make thereof a grave application, lor tear 
 
94 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 lest his poison go further than his antidote.' Preaching, there- 
 fore, now took an opposite tack, and from having been certainly 
 once to succulent, by the time of John Wesley had become sap- 
 less. This was one cause which rendered the new style of 
 preaching adopted by him and his followers so attractive. The 
 standard, according to which the character of the imagery and 
 diction of the pulpit of modern days was regulated, was not fixed 
 before the divines of Queen Ann's time ; as the vocabulary of 
 poetry, according to Johnson, was not determined before the age 
 of Dryden. In both cases the restraint has been injurious to the 
 subject of it. There was a Doric simplicity — i wood-notes wild ' 
 — in the poets before Dryden, for which the greater correctness, 
 it may be, of those who have since lived, is but a poor substitute ; 
 and there was a homely vigor in the sentiments and phraseology 
 of the pulpit of the first and second Charles, which has-been ill 
 replaced by the decorous tameness of later times. Surely it is a 
 morbid taste, and one that requires correction, which would kick 
 at images that satisfied a Barrow ; and yet we could point to 
 numbers in his sermons which would now be rejected by the 
 preacher, even the village preacher too, as mean and pedestrian. 
 The familiar illustrations, therefore, by which a subject is ren- 
 dered clear to persons slow to apprehend, and interesting to per- 
 sons hard to be excited, is a figure not lightly to be renounced in 
 deference to the false refinement of the magnates of a congrega- 
 tion — though doubtless capable of abuse. We say false refine- 
 ment, for there are parables both in the prophets and in the 
 gospels, against which the same parties might raise the same 
 objection."* 
 
 In a similar strain, and with a like object, though with 
 still more expansion of thought, a masterly writer in the 
 Edinburgh Review remarks : 
 
 " We have long felt that the eloquence of the pulpit in its gen- 
 eral character has never been assimilated so far as it might have 
 
 * Quarterly Review, Article II., No. 117. 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 95 
 
 been, and ought to have been, to that which has produced the 
 greatest effects elsewhere, and which is shown to be of the right 
 kind, alike by the success which has attended it, and by an analy- 
 sis of the qualities by which it has been distinguished. If we 
 were compelled to give a brief definition of the truest style of 
 eloquence, we should say it was ' practical reasoning, animated 
 by strong emotion ;' or if we might be indulged in what is rather 
 a description than a definition of it, we should say that it consist- 
 ed in reasoning on topics calculated to inspire a common interest, 
 expressed in the language of ordinary life, and in that brief, 
 rapid, familiar style, which natural emotion ever assumes. The 
 former half of^this description would condemn no small portion 
 of the compositions called sermons, and the latter half a still 
 larger portion. 
 
 " We would not be misunderstood. It is far — very far — from 
 our intention to speak in terms of the slightest depreciation of 
 the immense treasures of learning, of acute disquisition, of pro- 
 found speculation, of powerful controversy, which the literature 
 of the English pulpit exemplifies. In these points it cannot be 
 surpassed. In vigor and originality of thought, in argumentative 
 power, in extensive and varied erudition, it as far transcends all 
 other literature of the same kind, as it is deficient in the qualities 
 which are fitted to produce popular impression. We merely as- 
 sert that the greater part of ' sermons' are not at all entitled to 
 the name, if by it be meant discourses specially adapted to the 
 object of instructing, convincing, or persuading the common 
 mind" 
 
 After some admirably judicious remarks on the topics of 
 the pulpit, designed to prove that these should be such as 
 are calculated to inspire a common interest in the mass of 
 a common audience, the writer goes on to speak of the 
 manner of discussing them, and observes : 
 
 " Where the topics are not such as are fairly open to cen- 
 sure, a large class of preachers, especially amongst the young. 
 
DC) NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 grievously err by investing them with the technicalities of science 
 and philosophy ; either because they foolishly suppose they there- 
 by give their compositions a more philosophical air, or because 
 they disdain the homely and the vulgar. We remember hearing 
 of a worthy man of this class, who having occasion to tell his 
 audience the simple truth that there was not one gospel for the 
 rich, and another for the poor, informed them, ; that if they would 
 not be saved on general principles,' they could not be saved at 
 all ! With such men it is not sufficient to say, that such and 
 such a thing must be, but there is always ' a moral and physical 
 necessity for it.' The ' will ' is too old-fashioned a thing to be 
 mentioned, and everything is done by ' volition ;' duty is expand- 
 ed into ' moral obligation ;' man not only ought to do this, that, or 
 the other, it is always ' by some principle of their moral nature ;' 
 they not only like to do so and so, but ' they are impelled by some 
 natural propensity ;' men not only think and do, but they are never 
 represented as thinking and doing without some parade of their 
 ' intellectual processes and active powers.' Such discourses are 
 full of ' moral beauty,' and ' necessary relations,' and ' philosophi- 
 cal demonstrations,' and ' laws of nature,' and a priori and a 
 fortiori arguments. If some simple fact of physical science is 
 referred to in the way of argument or illustration, it cannot bo 
 presented in common language, but must be exhibited in the 
 pomp of the most approved scientific technicalities. If there be 
 a common and scientific name for the same object, ten to one that 
 the latter is adopted. Heat straightway becomes ; caloric ;' light- 
 ning, 'the electric fluid;' instead of plants and animals, we are 
 surrounded by ' organized substances ;' life is nothing half so good 
 as ' the vital principle.' Not Gnly is such language as this ob- 
 scurely understood, or not understood at all, but even if perfectly 
 understood, must necessarily be far less effective than those sim- 
 ple terms of common life, which for the most part may be substi- 
 tuted for them. The sermons of Augustus William Hare 
 may serve to show how the abstract terms of philosophy may be 
 advantageously translated into simple, racy English."* 
 
 * Edinburgh Review, No. 145. On the British Pulpit. 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 97 
 
 So harmonious are the judgments on the best style of 
 preaching of two writers belonging to very different schools 
 of literature and religion, whose keen sarcasm it may be 
 hoped will correct the pedantry at which it is aimed, and 
 convince many an ambitious aspirant after popularity, that 
 whatever may be the method which will secure the ap- 
 plause of the frivolous and the ignorant, simplicity is the 
 only way to usefulness and to secure the approbation of 
 the serious, the wise, and the good. An affectation of 
 learning and science in the pulpit is not only a sin against 
 good taste, but betrays an utter want of that watching for 
 immortal souls, which is, or ought to be, the preacher's 
 steady and constant aim. To borrow the homely, but for- 
 cible language of Doolittle,-— 
 
 " The eyeing of eternity should make us ministers painful and 
 diligent in our studies to prepare a message of such weight as we 
 come about, when preaching to men concerning everlasting mat- 
 ters, and should especially move us to be plain in our speech, 
 that even the capacity of the weakest in the congregation, that 
 hath an eternal soul, that must be damned, or saved, might un- 
 derstand in things necessary to salvation, what we mean, and 
 aim, and drive at. It hath made me tremble to hear some soar 
 aloft, that knowing men might know their parts, whilst the meaner 
 sort are kept from the knowledge of it ; and put their matter in 
 such a dress of words, in such a style so composed, that the most 
 stand looking at the preacher in the face, and hear a sound, but 
 know not what he saith, and while he doth pretend to feed them, 
 doth indeed starve them. Would a man of any bowels of com- 
 passion go from a prince to a condemned man, and tell him in 
 such a language that he should not understand, the condition 
 upon which the prince would pardon him, and then the poor man 
 lose his life because the proud and haughty messenger mnst 
 his knack in delivering his message in fine English, which the 
 condemned man could not understand ?" 
 
98 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 I shall not inappropriately introduce here a quotation 
 from that great master of chaste eloquence, Robert Hall, 
 whose opinion on any subject, but especially on that of the 
 art of preaching, in which he was himself so extraordinary 
 a proficient, is entitled to peculiar deference : 
 
 " A great diversity of talents must be expected to be found 
 among them, (the evangelical clergy;) but it has not been our 
 lot to hear of any, whose labors a good man would think it right 
 to treat with indiscriminate contempt. As they are called, for the 
 most part, to address the middle and lower classes of society, their 
 language is plain and simple ; speaking in the presence of God, 
 their address is solemn ; and, ' as becomes the ambassadors of 
 Christ,' their appeals to the conscience are close and cogent. 
 Few, if any, among them, aspire to the praise of consummate 
 orators — a character which we despair of ever seeing associated, 
 in high perfection, with that of a Christian teacher. The minis- 
 ter of the gospel is called to declare the testimony of God, which 
 is always weakened by a profuse employment of the ornaments 
 of secular eloquence. Those exquisite paintings and nice touches 
 of art, in which the sermons of the French preachers excel so 
 much, excite a kind of attention, and produce a species of pleas- 
 ure, not in perfect accordance with devotional feeling. The 
 imagination is too much excited and employed, not to interfere 
 with the more awful functions of conscience ; the hearer is ab- 
 sorbed in admiration, and the exercise which ought to be an in- 
 strument of conviction, becomes a feast of taste. In the hand 
 of a Massillon, the subject of death itself is blended with so 
 many associations of the most delicate kind, and calls up so many 
 sentiments of natural tenderness, as to become a source of the- 
 atrical amusement, rather than of religious sensibility. Without 
 being insensible to the charms of eloquence, it is our decided 
 opinion that a sermon of Mr. Gisborne's is more calculated to 
 < convert .a sinner from the error of his way,' than one of Massil- 
 lon's. It is a strong objection to a studied attempt at oratory in 
 the pulpit, thnt it usually induces a neglect of the peculiar doc- 
 
NATURE OF EARNESTNESS. 99 
 
 trines of Christian verity, where the preacher feels himself re- 
 strained, and is under "the necessity of explaining texts, of obviat- 
 ing objections, and elucidating difficulties, which limits the excur- 
 sions of imagination, and confines it within narrow bounds. He 
 is therefore eager to escape from these fetters, and, instead of 
 1 reasoning out of the Scriptures,'' expatiates in the fkwery fields 
 of declamation." 
 
 It appears to me that a want of powerful, eloquent, yet 
 simple and unaffected exhortation, is among the greatest 
 deficiencies of the modern pulpit. Let any one read the 
 sermons of our great nonconformist ancestors, of Clark- 
 son, Doolittle, Manton, Howe, Owen, Bates, Flavel, 
 and especially of Baxter, and mark the all but overwhelm- 
 ing force of persuasion which is put forth in the applica- 
 tion of their powerful discourses ; let him see how these 
 great men exerted the mightiness of their strength to make 
 all they had said to the judgment, reach the heart and 
 awaken the conscience. And to come to more modern 
 times, let him read the sermons of Whitfield, Jonathan 
 Edwards, and Davies of New Jersey ; and to advance to 
 still more modern productions, let them peruse the sermons 
 of Mr. Parsons, of York, and many of the best preachers 
 on the other side of the Atlantic, Spring, Barnes, Skin- 
 ner, Beecher, Griffin, Clarke, and Sprague. Also 
 Robert Hall's sermon on " Marks of love to God," and 
 Bradley's sermon on "Our lamps are gone out," for fine 
 specimens of this hortatory method ; this bearing down 
 with the truth on the sinner's heart and conscience ; this 
 beseeching men to be reconciled to. God. Some specimens 
 of this method will be given in the following chapter. Now 
 this is earnestness in preaching ; when a man is seen to 
 feel the truths ho discusses ; when it is evident to all that 
 he believes what he says, in afSrming that his hearers are 
 
100 NATURE OF EARNESTx\ T E8S. 
 
 sinking into perdition, and that he is laboring to persuade 
 them to forsake their evil courses ; when his sermons are 
 full of close, pointed, personal addresses ; when, in short, 
 through the whole discourse, the preacher is seen moving 
 onward from the understanding to a closer and closer 
 approximation to the heart in the conclusion, and the hearer 
 feels at length the hand of the preacher seizing it with a 
 mysterious and resistless power, 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY SPECIMENS FROM VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Familiar as most of the readers of this work are with 
 examples of the kind of manner intended by me, I have 
 thought it would help to illustrate and enforce my mean- 
 ing, if I introduced a few extracts from different authors 
 by way of specimens. Those which are here presented 
 are not selected as possessing anything very extraordinary, 
 or as being the best of the kind that could be selected from 
 the same authors ; but they are sufficient to answer my 
 purpose. Nor are they exhibited as models to be in every 
 particular imitated in modern composition, but as pervaded 
 by that one quality of intense earnestness, which it is the 
 object of this work to recommend. 
 
 The first extract which I shall quote is from a sermon of 
 Mr. Doolittle. This eminent minister of Christ was eject- 
 ed by the Act of Uniformity in 1662, from the church of 
 St. Alphage, London Wall. He was a man of extraordi- 
 nary courage, power, and success in preaching ; and after 
 his expulsion from his living, educated young men for the 
 ministry. The extract which follows is taken from a dis- 
 course contained in that valuable series called " The 
 
102 SPECIMENS OF 
 
 ing Exercises,"* and is entitled, "How we should eye eter- 
 nity so that it may have its influence on all we do." It is 
 perhaps the most solemn and awful sermon in the English 
 or any other language ; and is overcharged sadly with ter- 
 minology, which, though it should be sparingly introduced, 
 ought not to be altogether excluded from the modern pulpit, 
 even in this fastidious age. The sickly sentimentalism 
 which would " never mention hell to ears polite," should 
 be abjured with as much disgust as a gross and almost 
 profane familiarity with these awful realities. It was not 
 only Doolittle's fault, but it was the vice of the age, to 
 approach somewhat too near to the latter extreme. But 
 then after this admission is made, let us look at the burn- 
 ing and overwhelming earnestness of the sermon. 
 
 " Is there an eternal state : such unseen eternal joys and tor- 
 ments ? Who then can sufficiently lament the blindness, madness, 
 and folly of this distracted world, and the unreasonable- 
 ness of those that have rational and eternal souls, to see them 
 busily employed in the matters of time, which are only for time, 
 in present honors, pleasures, and profits, while they do neglect 
 everlasting things: everlasting life and death is before them, 
 everlasting joy or torment is hard at hand ; and yet poor sinners 
 take no care how to avoid the one. or obtain the other. Is it not 
 matter of lamentation to see so many thousands bereaved of the 
 sober serious use of their understandings ? That while they use 
 their reason to get the riches of this world, they will not act as 
 rational men to get the joys of heaven ; and to avoid temporal 
 calamities, yet not to escape eternal misery. Or if they be fallen 
 into present afflictions, they contrive how they may get out of 
 them : if they be sick, reason tells them they must use the means, 
 if they would be well : if they be in pain, nature puts them on to 
 
 * A new edition of this work has been lately published by Tegg, 
 and let every young minister be sure to purchase a copy. 
 
EARNESTNESS. 103 
 
 seek after a remedy ; and yet these same men neglect all duty, 
 and cast away all care concerning everlasting matters : they are- 
 for seen pleasures and profits, which are passing from them in 
 the enjoyment of them ; but the unseen eternal glory in heaven 
 they pray not for, they think not of. Are they unjustly charged ? 
 Let- conscience speak, what thoughts they lie down withal upon 
 their pillow ; if they wake or sleep, fly from them in the silent 
 night, what a noise doth the cares of the world make in their 
 souls ? With what thoughts do they rise in the morning ? Of 
 God, or of the world ? Of the things of time, or of eternity ? 
 Their thoughts are in their shops before they have been in 
 heaven ; and many desires after visible temporal gain, before 
 they have had one desire after the invisible, eternal God, and 
 treasures that are above. What do they do all the day long ? 
 What is it that hath their endeavors, all their labor and travel ? 
 their most painful industry and unwearied diligence ? Alas ! 
 their consciences will tell themselves, and their practices tell 
 others, when there is trading, but no praying ; buying and selling, 
 but no religious duties performed : the shop-book is often opened, 
 but the sacred book of God is not looked into all the week long. 
 
 " O Lord ! forgive the hardness of my heart, that I can see 
 such insufferable folly among reasonable creatures, and can 
 lament this folly no more : good Lord, forgive the want of com- 
 passion in me, that can stand and see this distraction in the world, 
 as if the most of men had lost their wits, and quite beside them- 
 selves, and yet my bowels yearn no more towards immortal souls 
 that are going to unseen miseries in the eternal world. To see 
 distracted men busy in doing things that tend to no account is 
 not such an amazing sight, as to see men that have reason for the 
 world, to use it not for God, and Christ, and their own eternal 
 good: to see them love and embrace a present dunghill world, 
 and cast away all serious, affecting, and effectual thoughts of the 
 life to come : to see them rage against the God of heaven, and 
 cry out against holiness, as foolish preciseness, and serious godli- 
 ness, as madness, and melancholy. 
 
 "Let ns call the whole creation of God to lament and bewail 
 the folly of man. that wr.s made the best oi" nil God's \ 
 
104 SPECIMENS OF 
 
 works ; but now by such wickedness is bud beyond them all, 
 being made by God for an. everlasting state, and yet minds nothing 
 less than that for which he was principally made. 
 
 " O sun ! why is it not thy burden to give light to men to do 
 those works, and walk in those ways that bring them to eternal 
 darkness ? O earth ! why dost thou not groan to bear such bur- 
 densome fools that dig into thy bowels for gold and silver, while 
 they do neglect everlasting treasures in the eternal world ? O 
 ye sheep and oxen ! fish and fowl ! why do ye not cry out against 
 them that take your present life to maintain them in being, that 
 only mind present things, but forget the eternal God that 
 gave them dominion over you, to live upon you while they 
 had time to mind eternal things, but do not? O ye angels 
 of God, and blessed saints in heaven, were ye capable of 
 grief and sorrow, would not ye bitterly lament the sin and folly 
 of poor mortals upon earth ? Could ye look down from that 
 blessed place where ye do dwell, and behold the joy and glory 
 which is to us unseen, and see how it is basely slighted by the 
 sons of men, if ye were not above sorrow and mourning, would 
 not ye take this up for a bitter lamentation ? O ye saints on 
 earth ! whose eyes are open to see what the blind deluded world 
 doth not see, do ye bitterly take on, let }^our heads be fountains 
 of water, and your eyes send forth rivers of tears, for the great 
 neglect of eternal joys and happiness of heaven ? Can you see 
 men going out of time into eternity in their sin, and in their 
 blood, in their guilt, and unconverted state, and your hearts not 
 moved ? your bowels not yearn ? Have ye spent all your tears 
 in bewailing your own sin, that your eyes are dry when you 
 behold such monstrous madness, and unparallel folly of so many, 
 with whom daily ye converse ? Ye sanctified parents, have ye 
 no pity for your ungodly children ? Nor sanctified children, for 
 ungodly parents ?" 
 
 The next extract I give, is from holy Baxter, under 
 whose ministry Doolittle was converted, and from whom 
 he appears to have borrowed his own manner of preaching. 
 
EARNESTNESS. 105 
 
 " O sirs, they are no trifles or jesting matters that the gospel 
 speaks of. I must needs profess to you that when I have the 
 most serious thoughts of these things, I am ready to wonder that 
 such amazing matters do not overwhelm the souls of men ; that 
 the greatness of the subject doth not so overmatch our under- 
 standings and affections, as even to drive men beside themselves, 
 but that God hath always somewhat allayed it by distance ; much 
 more do I wonder that men should be so blockish as to make 
 light of such things. O Lord, that men did but know what ever- 
 lasting glory and everlasting torments are ! Would they then 
 hear us as they do ? Would they read and think of these things 
 as they do ? I profess I have been ready to wonder when I have 
 heard such weighty things delivered, how people can forbear 
 crying out in the congregation ; and much more do I wonder 
 how they can rest, till they have gone to their ministers, and 
 learned what they shall do to be saved, that this great business 
 should be put out of doubt. O that heaven and hell should work 
 no more upon men ! O that eternity should work no more ! O 
 how can you forbear when you are alone, to think with yourselves 
 what it is to be everlastingly in joy or torment ! I wonder that 
 such thoughts do not break your sleep, and that they do not crowd 
 into your minds, when you are about your labor ! I wonder how 
 you can almost do anything else ! How can you have any quiet- 
 ness in your minds ? How can you eat, or drink, or rest, till you 
 have got some ground of everlasting consolations ? Is that a 
 man or a corpse that is not affected with matters of this moment 
 — that can be readier to sleep than to tremble, when he hears 
 how he must stand at the bar of God ? Is that a man or a clod 
 of clay that can rise up and lie down without being deeply 
 affected with his everlasting state — that can follow his worldly 
 business, and make nothing of the great business of salvation or 
 damnation, and that when he knows it is so hard at hand ? Truly, 
 sirs, when I think of the weight of the matter, I wonder at the 
 best saints upon earth, that they are no better and do no more, in 
 so weighty a case. I wonder at those whom the world accounts 
 more holy than needs, and scorns for making so much ado, that 
 they can put off Christ and their souls with so little ; thai they do 
 
106 SPECIMENS OF 
 
 not pour out their souls in every prayer ; that they are not more 
 taken up with God ; that their thoughts are not more serious in 
 preparation for their last account. I wonder that they are not a 
 thousand times more strict in their lives, and more laborious and 
 unwearied for the crown than they are. And for myself, as I 
 am ashamed of my dull and careless heart, and of my slow and 
 unprofitable course of life, so the Lord knows I am ashamed of 
 every sermon that I preach : when I think what I am, and who 
 sent me, and how much the salvation and damnation of men is 
 concerned in it, I am ready to tremble, lest God should judge me 
 a slighter of his truth, and the souls of men, and lest in my best 
 sermon I should be guilty of their blood. Methinks we should 
 not speak a word to men in matters of such consequence with- 
 out tears, or the greatest earnestness that possibly we can. Were 
 we not too much guilty of the sin which we reprove it would be 
 so. Whether we are alone, or in company, methinks our end, 
 and such an end, should still be in our mind, and as before our 
 eyes ; and we should sooner forget anything, or set light by any- 
 thing, or by all things, than by this." 
 
 The third extract I give, is from the works of that great 
 and serene spirit, John Howe, whose surpassing grandeur 
 of thought and expression places him, in this respect, above 
 all his compeers. His sermon on the " Inquiry whether 
 we love God," is one of the finest pieces of solemn, heart- 
 searching expostulation, which can be found in the whole 
 range of English theology, from which I give the following 
 pages, the spirit of which should enter into the soul of 
 every minister and student who reads them. 
 
 " For further direction take heed of passing a false judgment 
 in this case, a judgment contrary to the truth : for — 
 
 " First, That is to no purpose, it will avail thee nothing, you 
 cannot be advantaged by it, for yours is not the supreme judg- 
 ment. There will be another and superior judgment to yours, 
 that will control and reverse your false judgment, and make it 
 signify nothing; it is, therefore, to no purpose. And, 
 
EARNESTNESS. 107 
 
 " Secondly, It is a great piece of insolency, for it will be to op- 
 pose your judgment to his certain and most authorized one ; who, 
 if this be your case, hath already judged it, and tells you ' I know 
 you^ that you have not the love of God in you.' It belongs to him 
 by office to judge : ' The Father hath committed all judgment to 
 the Son, 5 as a little above in this chapter ; from which will you 
 depose him ? dethrone him ? disannul his judgment ? condemn 
 him ? that you may be righteous ? (to borrow that, Job xl. 8.) 
 
 " Thirdly, It is most absurd, supposing such characters as you 
 have heard do conclude a man in this case, yet to judge himself 
 a lover of God. If against the evidence of such characters a 
 man should pronounce the wrong judgment, it would be the most 
 unreasonable and absurd thing imaginable ; for then let us but 
 suppose, how that wronged judgment must lie related to those 
 fore-mentioned characters, that have been given you. Let me 
 remind you of some of them : he that never put forth the act of 
 love to God, cannot say he hath the principle — he that is not in- 
 clined to do good to others, for the sake of God, 1 John iii. 17 — 
 he that indulges himself in the inconsistent love of this world, 1 
 John ii. 15 — he that lives not in obedience to his known laws, 
 John xiv. 14, 1 John v. 3, with many more. Now if you will 
 pass a judgment of your case, against the evidence of such char- 
 acters, come forth then, let the matter be brought into clear sight, 
 put your sense into plain words, and this it will be : — ' I am a 
 lover of God, or I have the love of God in me, though I cannot 
 tell that ever I put forth one act of love towards hiui in all my 
 life ; I have the love of God in me, though I never knew what it 
 meant to do good to any for his sake, against the express words 
 of Scripture : How dwelleth the love of God in such a man ? I 
 have the love of God in me, though I have constantly indulged 
 myself in that which he maketh an inconsistent love : Love not 
 the world, nor the things which are in the world: if any man 
 love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. I have the 
 love of God in me, though I would never allow him to rule me, 
 though I never kept his commandments with a design to please 
 him, and comply with his will. I have the love of God in me, 
 though I never valued his love. I have the love o( God in me. 
 
108 SPECIMENS OF 
 
 though I never cared for his image, for his presence, for his con- 
 verse, for his interest and honor.' I beseech you consider how 
 all this will sound ! Can anything be more absurdly spoken ? 
 and shall it be upon such improbabilities or impossibilities as 
 these, that any man will think it fit to venture his soul ! ' 1 will 
 pawn my soul upon it, I will run the hazard of my soul upon it, I 
 am a lover of God for all this !' Would you venture anything 
 else so besides your soul ? Would you venture a finger so, an 
 eye so ? It is to place the name where there is nothing of the 
 thing ; it is to place the name of the thing upon its contrary. 
 The soul of man cannot be in an indifferency towards God ; but 
 if there be not love and propension, there is aversion, and that is 
 hatred. And what ! is hatred to be called love ? If you bear 
 that habitual disposition of soul towards God, to go all the day 
 long with no inclination towards him ; no thought of him; no de- 
 sign to please him, to serve him, to glorify him ; if this be your 
 habitual temper and usual course, will you call this love ? Shall 
 this contrariety to the love of God be called love to him ? You 
 may as well call w T ater fire, or fire water, as so grossly misname 
 things here; and, therefore, again, 
 
 " That we may advance somewhat ; plainly and positively pass 
 the true judgment. If the characters that you have heard do 
 carry the matter so, come at last plainly and positively to pass the 
 true judgment of your own case, though it be a sad one ; and tell 
 your own souls, ' Oh my soul ! though I must sadly say it, I must 
 say it, all things conclude and make against thee : the love of 
 God is not in thee.' Why, is it not as good this should be the 
 present issue at your own bar, and at the tribunal of your own 
 conscience, as before God's judgment-seat ? Why should you 
 not concur and fall in with Christ the authorized Judge, whose 
 judgment is according to truth ? Why this is a thing that must 
 be done, the case requires it, and God's express word requires it, 
 
 1 Cor. xi. 31. Other previous and preparatory duty plainly en- 
 joined, doth by consequence enjoin it, and requires that it follow, 
 
 2 Cor. xiii. 5. What is examination for, but in order to judg- 
 ment ? It must, therefore, be done, and I shall show how it must 
 be done, and proceed to some further directions. 
 
EARNESTNESS. 109 
 
 " First, You must do it solemnly. Take yourselves aside at 
 some fit season or another, inspect your own souls, review your 
 life, consider what your wonted frame and your ordinary course 
 has been. And if you find by such characters as heretofore 
 were given, this is the truth of your case, then let judgment pass 
 upon deliberation : Oh my soul ! thou hast not the love of God in 
 thee, whatsoever thine appearances hitherto have been ; and 
 whatsoever thy peace and quiet hath been, thou hast not the love 
 of God in thee. Let it be done with solemnity. 
 
 " Secondly, Do it in the sight of God as before him. as under 
 his eye, as under the eye of Christ. That eye that is as a flame 
 of fire, that searches hearts, and tries reins ; arraign thyself be- 
 fore him. * Lord, I have here brought before thee a guilty soul, 
 a delinquent soul, wretchedly and horridly delinquent, a soul that 
 was breathed into me by thee, an intelligent, understanding soul, 
 a soul that hath love in its nature, but a soul that never loved 
 thee.' 
 
 " Thirdly, Judge thyself before him as to the fact, and as to 
 the fault. As to the fact : ' I have never yet loved thee, O God, 
 I own it to thee ; Lord, I accuse, I charge my soul with this be- 
 fore thee, this is the truth of the fact, I have not the love of God 
 in me.' And charge thyself with the fault. ' Oh horrid creature 
 that I am ! I was made by thee, and don't love thee ; thou didst 
 breathe into me this reasonable, immortal spirit, and it doth not 
 love thee ; it is thine own offspring, and does not love thee. It 
 can never be blessed in anything but thee, and it does not love 
 thee.' And then hereupon, 
 
 " Fourthly, Join to this self-judging and self-loathing. That 
 we are to judge ourselves is a law laid upon us by the supreme 
 Lawgiver, the one Lawgiver, that hath power to save and do de- 
 stroy. And his word that enjoins it as plainly tells us what 
 must go with it, that this self-judging must be accompanied with 
 self-loathing, Ezek. vi. 9 ; xx. 43, and xxxvi. 31. Do God that 
 right upon thyself that thou may est tell him, ' Blessed God ! I do 
 even hate myself, because I find I have not loved thee ; and 1 
 cannot but hate myself, and \ never will be reconciled to myself, 
 till 1 find I am reconciled to thee.' This is doing justice: doth 
 
110 
 
 SPECIMENS OF 
 
 not the Scripture usually and familiarly so represent to us the 
 great turn of the soul to God ; when poor sinners become peni- 
 tents and return, that they are brought to hate themselves, and 
 loathe themselves in their own eyes ? And is there anything that 
 can make a soul so loathsome in itself, or ought to make it so 
 loathsome to itself, as not to love God, to be destitute of the love 
 God ? And then, 
 
 " Fifthly, Hereupon, too, pity thyself, pity thy own soul. There 
 is cause to hate it. to loathe it, and is there no cause to pity it ? 
 to lament it ? Doth not this look like a lamentable case, ' Oh ! 
 what a soul have I, that can love anything else, that can love 
 trifles, that can love impurities, that can love sin ; and cannot 
 love God, Christ, the most desirable good of souls. What a soul 
 have I ! What a monster in the creation of God is this soul of 
 mine !' Me thinks you should set yourselves, if any of you can 
 find this to be the case, to weep over your own souls. Some 
 may see cause to say, ' Oh my soul, thou hast in thee other valu- 
 able things, thou hast understanding in thee, judgment in thee, 
 wit in thee ; perhaps learning, considerable acquired endowments, 
 in thee ; but thou hast not the love of God in thee. I can do 
 many other commendable or useful things, I can discourse plausi- 
 bly, argue subtilly, I can manage affairs dexterously, but I cannot 
 love God. Oh my soul, how great an essential dost thou want 
 to all religion, to all duty, to all felicity ! The one thing neces- 
 sary thou wantest, thou hast everything but what thou needest 
 more than anything, more than all things ; and oh my soul, what 
 is like at this rate to become of thee ? Where art thou to have 
 thy eternal abode ? To what regions of horror, and darkness, 
 and woe art thou going ? What society can be fit for thee — no 
 lover of God ! no lover of God ! what, but of infernal, accursed 
 spirits, that are at utmost distance from him, and to whom no 
 beam of holy vital light shall ever shine to all eternity ! Thou, oh 
 my soul, art self-abandoned to the blackness of darkness forever. 
 Thy doom is in thy breast, thy own bosom ; thy no love to God is 
 thy own doom, thy eternal doom ; creates thee a present hell, and 
 shows whither thou belongest.' 
 
 " Sixthly, * * * All disobedience and rebellion is summed 
 
EARNESTNESS. Ill 
 
 up in this one word, Having been no lover of God ; and won't it 
 make any man's heart to meditate terror, to think of having such 
 a charge as this likely to lie against him in the judgment of that 
 day ; that day, when the secrets of all hearts are to be laid open ? 
 Every work must then be brought into judgment, and every secret 
 thing, whether it be good or evil, Eccles. xii. 14. And it will be 
 to the confusion of many a one. It may be your no love of God 
 was heretofore a great secret ; you had a heart in which was no 
 love of God, but it was a secret, you took not care to have it writ 
 in your forehead ; you conversed with men so plausibly, nobody 
 took you to be no lover of God, to have a heart disaffected to God. 
 But now out comes the secret, that which you kept for a great 
 secret all your days, out comes the secret ; and to have such a 
 secret as this disclosed to that vast assembly, before angels and 
 men ! Here was a creature, a reasonable creature, an intelli- 
 gent soul, that lived upon the divine bounty and goodness so 
 many years in the world below, and hid a false disloyal heart by 
 a plausible show, and external profession of great devotedness to 
 God, all the time of his abode in that world : oh what a fearful 
 thing would it be to have this secret so disclosed ! And do you 
 think that all the loyal creatures that shall be spectators and 
 auditors in the hearing of that great day, will not all conceive a 
 just and a loyal indignation against such a one when convicted 
 of not loving God ; convicted of not loving him that gave him 
 breath, him whose he was, and to whom he belonged, whose 
 name he bore ? What a fearful thing will it be to stand con- 
 victed so upon such a point as this ! And sure in the meantime 
 there is great reason for continual fear, why a man's heart should 
 meditate terror ! One would even think that all the creation 
 should be continually every moment in arms against him ! One 
 would be afraid that every wind that blows, should be a deadly 
 blast to destroy me ; that when the sun shines upon me, all its 
 beams should be turned into vindictive flames to execute ven- 
 geance upon me ! I would fear that even the very stones in the 
 streets should fly against me, and everything that meets me be 
 my death ! For what ? I have not the love of God in me! 
 What, to go about the Streets from day to day with a heart void 
 
112 SPECIMENS OF 
 
 of the love of God! What a heart have T ! Fear ought to be 
 exercised in this case ; we are bid to fear if we do evil against 
 a human ruler : ' If thou do that which is evil be afraid, for he 
 beareth not the sword in vain.' Rom. xiii. 4. But if I be such 
 an evil-doer against the supreme Ruler, the Lord of heaven and 
 earth, have I not reason to be afraid, and to think sadly with my- 
 self, what will the end of this be?" 
 
 The next extract is from Jonathan Edwards' sermon on 
 " Pressing into the Kingdom of God." This extraordinary 
 man presents a remarkable proof and illustration that the 
 most acute logician and. the most subtle metaphysician, 
 may be at the same time the most earnest preacher. His 
 sermons are some of the most impressive and alarming in 
 print, but certainly not a little wanting in the tenderness 
 and melting pathos of the gospel of salvation. They may 
 be read with admirable effect to teach us how to expound 
 the nature and enforce the obligations of the moral law, so 
 as to awaken the slumbering conscience of the unconverted 
 sinner. His astonishing usefulness shows the adaptation 
 of his preaching to the age and state of society in which 
 he lived, but his method could not be rigidly followed, ex- 
 cept in its earnestness, in the present day. 
 
 " 1. I would address myself to such as yet remain unawakened. 
 It is an awful thing that there should be any one person remain- 
 ing secure amongst us at such a time as this ; but yet it is to be 
 feared that there are some of this sort. I would here a little 
 expostulate with such persons. 
 
 " When do you expect that it will be more likely that you 
 should be awakened and wrought upon than now ? You are in 
 a Christless condition, and yet without doubt intend to go to 
 heaven ; and therefore intend to be converted some time before 
 you die ; but this is not to be expected till you are first awakened, 
 and deeply concerned about the welfare of your soul, and brought 
 earnestly to seek God's converting grace. And when do you 
 
EARNESTiXESS. 113 
 
 intend that this shall be ? How do you lay things out in your 
 own mind, or what projection have you about this matter ? Is it 
 ever so likely that a person will be awakened, as at such a time 
 as this ? How do we see many, who before were secure, now 
 roused out of their sleep, and crying, What shall I do to be saved ? 
 But you are yet secure ! Do you flatter yourself that it will be 
 more likely you should be awakened when it is a dull and dead 
 time ? Do you lay matters out thus in your own mind, that 
 though you are senseless when others are generally awakened, 
 that yet you shall be awakened when others are generally sense- 
 less ? Or do you hope to see another such time of the pouring 
 out of God's Spirit hereafter ? And do you think it will be more 
 likely that you should be wrought upon then, than now ? And 
 why do you think so ? Is it because then you shall be so much 
 older than you are now, and so that your heart will be grown 
 softer and more tender with age ? or because you will then have 
 stood out so much longer against the calls of the gospel, and all 
 means of grace ? Do you think it more likely that God will give 
 you the needed influences of his Spirit then, than now, because 
 then you will have provoked him so much more, and your sin and 
 guilt will be so much greater ? And do you think it will be any 
 benefit to you to stand it out through the present season of grace 
 as proof against the extraordinary means of awakening there are ? 
 Do you think that this will be a good preparation for a saving 
 work of the Spirit hereafter ? 
 
 " 2. What means do you expect to be awakened by ? As to 
 the awakening awful things of the word of God, you have had 
 those set before you times without number, in the most moving 
 manner that the dispensers of the word have been capable of. 
 As to particular solemn warnings, directed to those that are in 
 your circumstances, you have had them frequently, and have 
 them now from time to time. Do you expect to be awakened by 
 awful providences ? Those also you have lately had, of the most 
 awakening nature, one after another. Do you expect to be moved 
 by the deaths of others ? We have lately had repeated instances 
 of these. There have been deaths of old and young : the year 
 has been remarkable for the deaths of young persons in the bloom 
 6 
 
114 SPECIMENS OF 
 
 of life, and some of thern very sudden deaths. Will the conver- 
 sion of others move yon ? There is indeed scarce anything that 
 is found to have so great a tendency to stir persons up as this ; 
 and this you have been tried with of late in frequent instances, 
 but are hitherto proof against it. Will a general pouring out of 
 the Spirit, and seeing a concern about salvation amongst all sorts 
 of people, do it ? This means you now have, but without effect. 
 Yea, you have all these things together ; you have the solemn 
 warnings of God's word, and awful instances of death, and the 
 conversion of others, and see a general concern about salvation ; 
 but all together do not move you to any great concern about your 
 own precious, immortal, and miserable soul. Therefore consider 
 by what means it is that you expect ever to be awakened. 
 
 " You have heard that it is probable some who are now awaken- 
 ed, will never obtain salvation ; how dark then does it look upon 
 you that remain stupidly unawakened ! Those come to adult 
 age, who are not moved at such a time as this, have reason to 
 fear whether they are not given up to judicial hardness. I do 
 not say they have reason to conclude it, but they have reason to 
 fear it. How dark doth it look upon you, that God comes and 
 knocks at so many persons' doors, and misses yours ! that God 
 is giving the strivings of his Spirit so generally amongst us, 
 while you are left senseless ! 
 
 " 3. Do you expect to obtain salvation without ever seeking it ? 
 If you are sensible that there is a necessity of your seeking in 
 order to obtaining, and ever intend to seek, one would think you 
 could not avoid it at such a time as this. Inquire therefore 
 whether you intend to go to heaven, living all your days a se- 
 cure, negligent, careless life. — Or, 
 
 " 4. Do you think you can bear the damnation of hell ? Do 
 you imagine that you can tolerably endure the devouring fire and 
 everlasting burnings ? Do you hope that you shall be able to 
 grapple with the vengeance of God Almighty, when he girds 
 himself with strength, and clothes himself with wrath ? Do you 
 think to strengthen yourself against God, and to be able to make 
 your part good with him ? 1 Cor. x. 22, * Do we provoke the 
 Lord to jealousy ? are we stronger than he ?' Do you flatter 
 
EARNESTNESS. 115 
 
 yourself that you shall find out ways for your ease and support, 
 and to make it out tolerably well, to bear up your spirit in those 
 everlasting burnings that are prepared for the devil and his 
 angels ? Ezek. xxii, 14. ' Can thine heart endure, or can thine 
 hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee ?' — It is 
 a difficult thing to conceive what such Christless persons think, 
 that are unconcerned at such a time." 
 
 The following extract is from that first of all preachers, 
 Whitfield ; and who that considers the circumstances 
 under which these flaming periods were enunciated, and 
 the feeling and action which accompanied their delivery, 
 can wonder at the effects they produced ? 
 
 Beseeching Sinners. " O my brethren, my heart is enlarged 
 towards you. I trust I feel something of that hidden but power- 
 ful presence of Christ, whilst I am preaching to you. Indeed it 
 is sweet, it is exceedingly comfortable. All the harm I wish you, 
 who without cause are my enemies, is, that you felt the like. 
 Believe me, though it would be hell to my soul to return to a 
 natural state again, yet I would willingly change states with you 
 for a little while, that you might know what it is to have Christ 
 dwelling in your hearts by faith. Do not turn your backs ; do not 
 let the devil hurry you away ; be not afraid of convictions ; do not 
 think worse of the doctrine because preached without the church 
 walls. Our Lord, in the days of his flesh, preached on a mount, 
 in a ship, and in a field ; and I am persuaded many have felt his 
 gracious presence here. Indeed, we speak what we know. Do 
 not reject the kingdom of God against yourselves ; be so wise as 
 to receive our witness. I cannot, I will not let you go ; stay a 
 little, let us reason together. However lightly you may esteem 
 your souls, I know our Lord has set an unspeakable value oii 
 them. He thought them worthy of his most precious blood. I 
 beseech you therefore, O sinners, be ye reconciled to Cio<\. \ 
 hope you do not fear being accepted in the Beloved. Behold, be 
 calleth you ; behold, he prevents and follows you with his n, 
 
116 SPECIMENS OF 
 
 and hath sent forth his servants into the highways and hedges, 
 to compel you to come in. Remember then, that at such an hour 
 of such a day, in such a year, in this place, you were all told what 
 you ought to think concerning Jesus Christ. If you now perish, 
 it will not be for lack of knowledge : I am free from the blood of 
 you all. You cannot say I have, like legal preachers, been requir- 
 ing you to make brick without straw. I have not bidden you to 
 make yourselves saints, and then come to God ; but I have offered 
 you salvation on as cheap terms as you can desire. I have 
 offered you Christ's whole wisdom, Christ's whole righteousness, 
 Christ's whole sanctification and eternal redemption, if you will 
 but believe on him. If you say you cannot believe, you say 
 right; for faith, as well as every other blessing, is the gift of 
 God : but then wait upon God, and who knows but he may have 
 mercy on thee ? Why do we not entertain more loving thoughts 
 of Christ ? Or do you think he will have mercy on others, and 
 not on you ? But are you not sinners ? And did not Jesus 
 Christ come into the world to save sinners ? If you say you are 
 the chief of sinners, I answer, that will be no hindrance to your 
 salvation ; indeed it will not, if you lay hold on him by faith. 
 Read the Evangelists, and see how kindly he behaved to his disci- 
 ples, who fled from and denied him : ' Go tell my brethren, 5 says 
 he. He did not say, Go tell those traitors ; but, ' Go tell my 
 brethren, and Peter f as though he had said, Go tell my brethren 
 in general, and poor Peter in particular, ' that I am risen :' O 
 comfort his poor drooping heart, tell him I am reconciled to him ; 
 bid him weep no more so bitterly : for though with oaths and 
 curses he thrice denied me, yet I have died for his sins, I am risen 
 again for his justification: I freely forgive him all. Thus slow 
 to anger and of great kindness, was our all-merciful High Priest. 
 And do you think he has changed his nature, and forgets poor 
 sinners, now he is exalted to the right hand of God ? No, he is 
 the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, and sitteth there only to 
 make intercession for us. Come then, ye harlots ; come, ye pub- 
 licans ; come, ye most abandoned of sinners, come and believe on 
 Jesus Christ. Though the whole world despise you and cast you 
 out, yet he will not disdain to take you up. O amazing, O infi- 
 
EARNESTNESS. 117 
 
 nitely condescending love ! even you he will not be ashamed to 
 call his brethren. How will you escape, if you neglect such a 
 glorious offer of salvation ? What would the damned spirits, 
 now in the prison of hell, give, if Christ was so freely offered to 
 their souls ! And why are not we lifting up our eyes in torments ? 
 Does any one out of this great multitude dare say, he does not 
 deserve damnation ? If not, why are we left, and others taken 
 away by death ? What is this but an instance of God's free 
 grace, and a sign of his good will towards us ? Let God's good- 
 ness lead us to repentance ! O let there be joy in heaven over 
 some of you repenting ! Though we are in a field, I am per- 
 suaded the blessed angels are hovering now around us, and do 
 long, ' as the hart panteth after the water-brooks,' to sing an an- 
 them at your conversion. Blessed be God, I hope their joy will 
 be fulfilled. An awful silence appears amongst us. I have good 
 hope that the words which the Lord has enabled me to speak in 
 your ears this day, have not altogether fallen to the ground. 
 Your tears and deep attention are an evidence that the Lord God 
 is amongst us of a truth. Come, ye pharisees, come and see, in 
 spite of your fanatical rage and fury, the Lord Jesus is getting 
 himself the victory. And, brethren, I speak the truth in Christ, I 
 lie not : if one soul of you, by the blessing of God, be brought to 
 think savingly of Jesus Christ this day, I care not if my enemies 
 v/ere permitted to carry me to prison, and put my feet fast in the 
 stocks, as soon as I have delivered this sermon. Brethren, my 
 heart's desire and prayer to God is, that you may be saved. For 
 this cause I follow my Master without the camp. I care not how 
 much of his sacred reproach I bear, so that some of you be con- 
 verted from the errors of your ways. I rejoice, yea, and I will re- 
 joice. Ye men, ye devils, do your worst : the Lord who sent will 
 support me. And when Christ, who is our life, and whom I have 
 now been preaching, shall appear, I also, together with his de- 
 spised little ones, shall appear with him in glory. And then what 
 will you think of Christ ? I know what you will think of him. 
 You will think him to be the fairest among ten thousand : you 
 will then think him to be a just and sin-avenging Judge. Be ye 
 then persuaded to kiss him lest he be angry, and so you bo ban- 
 
118 SPECIMENS OF 
 
 ished forever from the presence of the Lord. Behold, I come to 
 you as the angel did to Lot. Flee, flee for your lives ; haste, lin- 
 ger no longer in your spiritual Sodom, for otherwise you will be 
 eternally destroyed. Numbers, no doubt, there are amongst you, 
 that may regard me no more than Lot's sons-in-law regarded 
 him. I am persuaded I seem to some of you as one that mock- 
 eth : but I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not ; as sure as fire and 
 brimstone was rained from the Lord out of heaven, to destroy 
 Sodom and Gomorrah, so surely, at the great day, shall the vials 
 of God's wrath be poured on you, if you do not think seriously of, 
 and act agreeably to, the gospel of the Lord's Christ. Behold, I 
 have told you [before ; and I pray God, all you that forget him 
 may seriously think of what has been said, before he pluck you 
 away, and there be none to deliver you." 
 
 Not to multiply these extracts unnecessarily, I give one 
 more from a preacher who is perhaps, without any excep- 
 tion, the most impressive living example of earnestness, 
 both in matter and manner, I mean Mr. Parsons, of York. 
 
 " O, do not deceive yourselves ! I would strive to tear away 
 the veil. I tell you, O ye whose ' goodness has been as a morning 
 cloud, and as the early dew that goeth away,' — if unchanged you 
 die, and if unchanged you stand before the dread tribunal, where 
 an account must be rendered of all providences, all immunities, 
 and all feelings, you will be found fatally wanting, and will hear 
 a sentence of condemnation that will consign you to realms of 
 everlasting despair. As true as that Jehovah lives, is it that he 
 will thus execute the fierceness of his indignation. Abodes of 
 sorrow await you, where every past benefit will but be an instru- 
 ment of torture ; where memory and conscience will hold up the 
 mirror of by-gone privilege and promise, of abused mercy, of for- 
 sworn and perjured vows, only that remorse may strike upon the 
 soul its more than scorpion sting, and where grace and hope can 
 never alleviate the wailings that will reverberate through the dun- 
 geons of outer darkess forever and forever ! Your doom will be 
 more tremendous, precisely in proportion to the means you pos- 
 
EARNESTNESS. 119 
 
 sessed, and the signs you gave, of averting it : can any doom be 
 worse than yours ? When these ' terrors of the Lord ' are ex- 
 pounded, say if there be not an argument of mighty force why you 
 should now beware, and why you should now hear the voice of 
 God, lest you should be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, and 
 lest he should swear in his wrath that you shall not enter into his 
 rest ! 
 
 " But once more to appeal to those for whom this address has 
 been particularly designed. That such there are, / know. I 
 could turn round, and fix my eye, and rest my hand, on persons 
 by whom, if so arraigned, the accusation of the text could not be 
 denied or evaded. You have been again visited by the instrumen- 
 tality which is adapted for the impression of the heart. Do not 
 reject it : do not let it have that insufficient influence which is 
 but to be dissipated for the world, and which makes the end worse 
 than the beginning. No—nothing will avail but the entire sur- 
 render of the soul to him who gave it — the determination to live 
 to Christ, and to glory only in his cross. In the name of the 
 great God, who is not willing that any should perish, but that all 
 should come to repentance, I do now abjure you, that you trifle 
 not a moment longer, that you delay not a moment longer, that 
 you resist not a moment longer : ' Come and return unto the 
 Lord :' let this be a season of consideration ; let this be a season 
 of repentance ; let this be a season of prayer ; let this be a season 
 of dedication to your God : — Now, my hearers, now ! 
 
 " — Minister and people must part once more. The book must 
 be closed again ; the voice must be silent again ; the congrega- 
 tion must retire again. O Spirit of God, perform thy work ! 
 ' Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these 
 slain, that they may live !' Let there not be one here before thee, 
 of whom, when yonder heavens shall be on fire> and when this 
 earth shall be burned up, it shall be found — that their ' goodness 
 was as a morning cloud, and that as the early dew it went 
 away!' " 
 
 These extracts will illustrate what I mean by earnestness 
 better than any language which I have employed or could 
 
120 SPECIMENS OF 
 
 select, and they appear to me to answer well to the apos- 
 tolic method of beseeching entreaty. I do not of course 
 insist that the pulpit should be restricted to the specific 
 variety of preaching which we designate the hortatory 
 method, under which classification these specimens must 
 all be placed. There should be exegesis, as well as appli- 
 cation ; exposition, as well as expostulation. The judg- 
 ment must be enlightened in order that the heart may be 
 impressed, and the conscience awakened, and the believer 
 edified, no less than the sinner converted ; and for this a 
 less impassioned strain of preaching will not only suffice, 
 but indeed be more appropriate. Yet with regard to that 
 portion of our public ministrations, and it should be no 
 small portion of it, which has reference to the conversion of 
 the impenitent, w r here shall we find better models on which 
 to construct our sermons than the Doolittles, the Howes, 
 the Baxters, and the Whitfields of former times, so far 
 at least as their intense earnestness is concerned ? It is 
 true the moderns have improved upon these men in mat- 
 ters of taste, in reference to which we cannot of course 
 hold them up for imitation. In their numerous and com- 
 plicated divisions and subdivisions, through which, as so 
 many little rills and channels, they poured the current of 
 their thought, instead of causing it to roll onward in the 
 channel of their sermon with the majestic flow of a noble 
 river ; in their quaintnesses and quirks ; in their fantastic 
 imagery and uncouth diction ; in their occasional grossness 
 and vulgarity, in which some of them were but too prone 
 to indulge — they are to be studiously avoided. Yet even 
 in reference to some of these things, it may be afiirmed, 
 that though in their free and reckless resort to every mode 
 of stimulating attention, they were very often betrayed 
 into great violations of taste, the very same audacity of 
 
EARNESTNESS; 121 
 
 genius often produced felicities of imagery and diction, 
 with which, neither for beauty nor effect, will the blame- 
 less common place and the accurate insipidity of many mod- 
 ern discourses, bear any comparison. For pregnancy of 
 thought, for knowledge of the word of God, for raciness of 
 style, for evangelical sentiment, for anatomy of the human 
 heart, for closeness of application, and especially for inten- 
 sity of feeling, where shall we find their equals ? They 
 preached to their congregations, and not merely before 
 them : they felt that the objects of their addresses were 
 immortal souls in danger of being lost, and knew their 
 business in the pulpit was to save those souls from perdi- 
 tion : they preached as if they expected there and then to 
 achieve the great work of conversion ; and felt as if the 
 eternal destinies of their hearers were suspended on the 
 manner in which they discharged their duties, and as if 
 they were to ascend the next moment, after they had 
 finished their sermons, to give an account of them at the 
 bar of God. Do not the extracts given, and which are 
 but a sample of their works, bear out these assertions? 
 This is what we want more of in modern preaching. There 
 may be, and should be, more of classic elegance, more of 
 logical arrangement, philosophic precision, of vigorous and 
 clear argumentation ; but still at the same time, combined 
 with this, there should also be the pointed interrogation, 
 the pungent appeal, the bold apostrophe, the gush of feel- 
 ing, the forcible expostulation, and the tender invitation : 
 now the gentle flow of deep and solemn and placid thought, 
 and then the torrent rush of impassioned sentiment : the 
 beautiful and harmonious combination of reason, imagina- 
 tion, and affection : and all this employed to carry out the 
 purpose for which the gospel is to be preached, and to win 
 sonls to Christ. Those who were privileged to hear Mr. 
 0' v 
 
122 SPECIMENS OF 
 
 Hall, in his best days, deliver some of his most popular 
 and powerful discourses, will not fail to recollect how strik- 
 ingly he combined the intense earnestness of the passages 
 just quoted, with the chaste and classic elegance of our best 
 writers ; and thus, considering the evangelical strain of his 
 preaching, may be said to have poured forth a torrent of 
 the water of life, clear as crystal. He reminded you of 
 one who, in his yearnings for the salvation of sinners, 
 seemed to feel that language was too feeble an instrument 
 for such a purpose, and who, notwithstanding his sovereign 
 command and exquisite selection of terminology, was strug- 
 gling to burst the barrier by which words limit the com- 
 munication of thought, that he might by a still more direct 
 and facile method, reach and grasp the soul of his hearers- 
 There is, however, hope that our old theological writers 
 will not be quite forgotten or neglected, while such men 
 as Professor Stowell, of Rotherham College, shall em- 
 ploy their talents in writing prefaces to reprints of such 
 w^orks as those of Thomas Adams, and shall lend their 
 authority to recommend the perusal of these monuments 
 of sacred genius. Beautifully and no less correctly has he 
 said, " As Edwards constrains to closeness of thought ; 
 as Howe inspires sublimity of sentiment ; as Bates lights 
 up the soul with a soft and silvery light ; as Owen lades 
 the mind with a harvest of rich knowledge ; as Taylor 
 cheers the imagination with a vintage of delicious grapes ; 
 as Baxter fires the soul with longings for salvation, first 
 of ourselves and then of others ; — even so does Adams 
 lead to those springs of graphic power, of dramatic gran- 
 deur, and of subduing pathos, of which it is the fear of 
 many that they are dried up. We believe they are not. 
 We cannot but think there are minds now opening on the 
 awful solemnities of the Christian ministrv to whom this 
 
EARNESTNESS. 123 
 
 example will be inciting : let them look at things with 
 their own eyes, ponder them in silent and lonely thought, 
 pray over the fruits of such meditations, till they kindle 
 into living pictures ; and so let them pour out their feel- 
 ings in the best words they can find ; there will then be no 
 just complaint of the want of power and originality in the 
 English pulpit." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 EARNESTNESS OF MANNER CONTINUED, 
 
 AS MANIFESTED IN THE DELIVERY OF SERMONS. 
 
 By the delivery of sermons is meant voice and gesture, 
 or what Demosthenes called action ; who, on being asked 
 what was the first excellence of an orator, replied, " action :" 
 what the second, "action:" what the third, "action." An 
 impressive admonition this, from such an authority, to all 
 preachers, on the importance of that part of our subject 
 which we are now considering. 
 
 After the death of that flaming seraph, Mr. McCheyxe, 
 there was found upon his desk an unopened note from one 
 who had heard his last sermon, to this effect : " Pardon a 
 stranger for addressing to you a few lines. I heard you 
 preach last Sabbath evening, and it pleased God to bless 
 that sermon to my soul. It was not so much what you 
 said, as your manner of speaking it, that struck me. I 
 saw in you a beauty of holiness, I never saw before." 
 
 This is only one instance out of ten thousand, in which 
 the earnestness of a preacher's manner has secured that 
 attention to his matter, which w r ould not otherwise have 
 been paid to it. The power of oratory has its foundations 
 in the principles of our nature. It is not merely that ideas 
 are conveyed by articulate language through the ear to 
 
EARNESTNESS IN, DELIVERY. 125 
 
 the mind, but that also impression is produced on the af- 
 fections by agreeable tones and pleasant modulations of 
 the voice. Hence the power of music : and what is human 
 speech but music ? No instrument has ever yet been con- 
 structed which can emit sounds so exquisitely moving as 
 the human voice. Art is in this respect still below nature. 
 True it is, that we must go to the best of voices for this 
 superiority ; but even in voices far below the best, there is 
 an expression of the various passions which no instruments 
 can equal. All nations, therefore, savage as well as civil- 
 ized, have confessed the powers of oratory, not only as a 
 vehicle of instruction, but as a means of impression. It 
 is vain to pretend that matter is, or ought to be, every- 
 thing, and manner nothing. Truth, it may be said, ought 
 to make its own way, independently of the accompaniments 
 of good elocution and graceful action. So it should, but 
 then these things are necessary, in many cases, to gain for 
 it attention, and to secure that due consideration without 
 which it can make no impression. Manner is, so to speak, 
 the harbinger and herald of matter, summoning the facul- 
 ties of the soul to give audience to the truth to be commu- 
 nicated, and holding the mind in a state of abstraction from 
 all other subjects that would divert the thoughts and pre- 
 vent impression. It is not only the more illiterate and fee- 
 ble-minded, not only the multitude, who are led by feeling 
 more than by reason, that are influenced by good oratory, 
 but men of the sturdiest intellect, and the most philosophic 
 cast of mind. The soul of the sage as well as of the sav- 
 age is formed with a susceptibility to the power and influ- 
 ence of music, and therefore also to the power and influ- 
 ence of elocution. The importance of manner is conse- 
 quently great, yea, far greater than either tutors or preach* 
 ers have been disposed to admit. I am aware that a good 
 
126 feABNJESTttESS 
 
 voice is necessary to good speaking, but not always to 
 earnest speaking. Nature must do much to make a grace- 
 ful and finished orator ; but still in the absence of this, an 
 ardent mind, burning for the salvation of immortal souls, 
 can by an impressive earnestness of manner, be a more in- 
 tense and effective speaker, notwithstanding naturally weak 
 and unimpressive organs of speech, than the possessor of 
 the finest voice who is destitute of a vivacious and ardent 
 enunciation ; just as an exquisite performer can bring bet- 
 ter music out of a bad instrument, than a bad musician 
 can out of a good one. What may be done, where the 
 mind is resolutely bent on accomplishing it, for supplying 
 deficiencies and correcting faults in elocution, Demosthenes 
 has taught us ; and were half or a tenth part of the pains 
 taken by us to obtain a powerful and effective method of 
 pulpit address, which were submitted to by this prince of 
 orators to become an effective speaker ; were we as much 
 set upon it as he was, and were we to give ourselves to the 
 same means, by declaiming to the waves of the sea, or to 
 the winds of heaven, determining to overcome every ob- 
 stacle, we too should be orators, and that in a still better 
 cause than his. And surely if ambition, or patriotism, 
 prompted the Athenian and the Roman orator to such 
 studies and such efforts for self-improvement, ought not 
 the love of souls, zeal for God, and the interests of eternity, 
 to prompt us to similar endeavors ? Did they cultivate 
 elocution with such unwearied perseverance to counteract 
 the designs of Philip, or to defeat the conspiracies of Cata- 
 line, and shall we not do it, to destroy the works of the 
 devil, and to advance the kingdom of the Redeemer ? 
 
 It is impossible not to know how much the popularity 
 of some preachers depends upon their manner : they do 
 not say better., or more striking things, than other men ; 
 
IN DELIVERY. J 27 
 
 but they say them in a better and more striking manner. 
 There is a pathos in their tones, a power in their looks, a 
 gracefulness in their gestures, which other men have never 
 studied, and therefore have never acquired. This was 
 eminently the case with Whitfield, the greatest of 
 preachers. Much of the wondrous power of that extra- 
 ordinary man lay in his voice and action. I have already 
 given an extract from his sermons to illustrate his manner 
 as regards style of composition, but who that never heard 
 him, or indeed who that had, could illustrate his manner 
 as regards delivery ? Think of such paragraphs as those 
 I have just quoted, delivered in a manner appropriate to 
 their nature ; with an eye melting into tears ; a voice trem- 
 ulous with emotion, shrill, yet full, now swelling into thun- 
 der, and then dying away again into soft whispers ; one 
 moment apostrophizing to God, and the next piercing the 
 sinner's conscience with an appeal that was as sharp ar- 
 rows of the Almighty ; at one time pouring out a stream 
 of impassioned pity for the sinner, and the next moment a 
 torrent of burning indignation against his sin ; his very 
 hands all the while, and every gesture, seeming to help his 
 laboring soul and his matchless elocution : and all this, to 
 the conviction of his hearers, not the trickery of an artifi- 
 cial rhetoric, nor the effort of a man striving after popu- 
 larity, but the spontaneous gushing forth of a heart agoniz- 
 ing for the salvation of their immortal souls ! What ora- 
 tory must that have been which extorted from the skeptical 
 and fastidious Hume the confession that it was worth going- 
 twenty miles to hear it — which interested the infidel Bo- 
 lingbroke, and once warmed even the cold and cautious 
 Franklin into enthusiasm ? In those discourses which 
 roused a slumbering nation from the torpor of lukewarm- 
 ness, awl breathed new life into its dying piety, von will 
 
128 EARNESTNESS 
 
 find no profound speculation, no subtle reasoning, no meta- 
 physical disquisition ; for these never formed, and never 
 can form, the staple of pulpit eloquence : but you will find 
 " thoughts that breathe, and words that burn," and which 
 when enunciated with the magic of his wondrous voice, 
 spoke, by the blessing of God, life into thousands dead in 
 trespasses and sins. As a proof of the all- subduing power 
 of his oratory, take the following scene, extracted from his 
 Life and Times, by the Rev. Robert Philip : — 
 
 " In February, 1742, Whitfield returned to London, where 
 ' life and power soon flew all around ' him again ; ' the Redeemer 
 getting himself victory daily in many hearts.' The renewed 
 progress of the gospel at this time in London, he calls emphati- 
 cally, ' the Redeemer's stately steps.' Well he might ; for during 
 the Easter holidays, ' Satan's booths ' in Moornelds poured out 
 their thousands to hear him. This determined him to dare all 
 hazards on Whit-Monday, the great gala-day of vanity and vice 
 there. Gillies' account of this enterprise, although not incor- 
 rect nor uninteresting, is very incomplete, considering the fame 
 of the feat at the time. The following account is from the pen 
 of Whitfield himself; and written whilst he was reporting, at 
 home and abroad, his marriage. 
 
 " For many years, from one end of Moornelds to the other, 
 booths of all kinds have been erected for mountebanks, players, 
 puppet-shows, and such like. With a heart bleeding with com- 
 passion for so many thousands led captive by the devil at his will, 
 on Whit-Monday, at six o'clock in the morning, attended by a 
 large congregation of praying people, I ventured to lift up a 
 standard amongst them in the, name of Jesus of Nazareth. Per. 
 haps there were about ten thousand in waiting, not for me, but 
 for Satan's instruments to amuse them. Glad was I to find, that 
 I had for once, as it were, got the start of the devil. I mounted 
 my field pulpit; almost all flocked immediately around it. I 
 preached on these w T ords, ' As Moses lifted up the serpent in the 
 wilderness, so shall the Son of man be lifted,' etc. They gazed, 
 
IN DELIVERY. 129 
 
 they listened, they wept ; and I believe that many felt themselves 
 stung with deep conviction for their past sins. All was hushed 
 and solemn. Being thus encouraged, I ventured out again at 
 noon ; but what a scene ! The fields, the whole fields seemed, 
 in a bad sense of the word, all white, ready not for the Redeem- 
 er's, but Beelzebub's harvest. All his agents were in full motion, 
 drummers, trumpeters, merry-andrews, masters of puppet-shows, 
 exhibiters of wild beasts, players, etc., etc., all busy in entertain- 
 ing their respective auditories. I suppose there could not be less 
 than twenty or thirty thousand people. My pulpit was fixed on the 
 opposite side, and immediately, to their great mortification, they 
 found the number of their attendants sadly lessened. Judging that 
 like Saint Paul, I should now be called as it were to fight with 
 beasts at Ephesus, I preached from these words : ' Great is Diana 
 of the Ephesians.' You may easily guess that there was some noise 
 among the craftsmen, and that I was honored with having a few 
 stones, dirt, rotten eggs, and pieces of dead cats thrown at me, 
 whilst engaged in calling them from their favorite, but lying vani- 
 ties. My soul was indeed among lions : but far the greatest part 
 of my congregation, which was very large, seemed for awhile to 
 be turned into lambs. This encouraged me to give notice that I 
 would preach again at six o'clock in the evening. I came, I saw, 
 but what — thousands and thousands more than before, if possible, 
 still more deeply engaged in their unhappy diversions ; but some 
 thousands amongst them waiting as earnestly to hear the gospel. 
 " This Satan could not brook. One of his choicest servants 
 was exhibiting, trumpeting on a large stage ; but as soon as the 
 people saw me in my black robes and my pulpit, I think all to a 
 man left him and ran to me. For a while I was enabled to lift 
 up my voice like a trumpet, and many heard the joyful sound. 
 God's people kept praying, and the-enemy's agents made a kind 
 of roaring at some distance from our camp. At length they 
 approached nearer, and the merry-andrew (attended by others, 
 who complained that they had taken many pounds less that day 
 on account of my preaching) got up upon a man's shoulders, and 
 advancing near the pulpit attempted to slash me with a long heavy 
 whip several times, but always with the violence of his motion 
 
130 EARNESTNESS 
 
 tumbled down. Soon afterwards they got a recruiting serjeant 
 with his drum, etc., to pass through the congregation. I gave 
 the word of command, and ordered that way might be made for 
 the king's officer. The ranks opened, while all marched quietly 
 through, and then closed again. Finding those efforts to fail, a 
 large body quite on the opposite side assembled together, and 
 having got a large pole for their standard advanced towards us 
 with steady and formidable steps, till they came very near the 
 skirts of our hearing, praying, and almost undaunted congrega- 
 tion. I saw, gave warning, and prayed to the Captain of our 
 salvation for present support and deliverance. He heard and 
 answered ; for just as they approached us with looks full of resent- 
 ment, I know not by what accident, they quarrelled among them- 
 selves, threw down their staff and w r ent their way, leaving, 
 however, many of their company behind, who, before we had 
 done, T trust were brought over to join the besieged party. I 
 think I continued in praying, preaching, and singing (for the noise 
 was too great at times to preach) about three hours. 
 
 " We then retired to the Tabernacle. w T ith my pockets full of 
 notes from persons brought under concern, and read them amidst 
 the praises and spiritual acclamations of thousands, who joined with 
 the holy angels in rejoicing that so many sinners were snatched, 
 in such an unexpected, unlikely place and manner, out of the 
 very jaws of the devil. This was the beginning of the Taberna- 
 cle society. — Three hundred and fifty awakened souls were 
 received in one day, and I believe the number of notes exceeded 
 a thousand ; but I must have done, believing you want to retire 
 to join in mutual praise and thanksgiving to God and the 
 Lamb," 
 
 I shall perhaps hazard my reputation as a judge of ora- 
 torical power, when I venture to pronounce this the great- 
 est achievement of elocution which the history of the 
 world presents, next to the splendid triumphs of the apos- 
 tle Peter's sermon, over the murderers of Christ on the 
 day of Pentecost. Who that considers the spot on which 
 
IN DELIVERY. 131 
 
 Whitfield then stood ; the scenes by which he was then 
 surrounded ; the discordant noises of the motley crew, 
 which then rung in his ears, and in the ears of his audi- 
 ence ; who, in short, that recollects what is the wild uproar 
 and the hurly-burly of a London popular fair, must not 
 stand astonished first at the courage of the man who could 
 erect his pulpit, and preach a sermon in such a scene ; and 
 then wonder still more at the marvellous success of his 
 effort in the conversion of hundreds of souls by that one 
 discourse ? What, I ask, was the effect of the orations of 
 Demosthenes on the Athenians, in rousing them against 
 Philip of Macedon, compared with this ? The illustrious 
 Grecian had everything which the scenery, and the historic 
 associations that connected themselves with it, everything 
 which the prepared mind of his audience could give, in the 
 way of advantage, to his splendid declamation and its 
 success ; but the Christian orator had to combat with, and 
 to triumph over, everything that seemed inharmonious 
 with his theme, and opposed to the accomplishment of his 
 object : and what must have been the magic power of that 
 elocution which could blind the eyes and deafen the ears of 
 an audience to the sights and sounds so near them, and 
 produce such fixedness of attention, and power of abstrac- 
 tion, even there, as to leave them at liberty for those 
 processes of thought, which resulted in the conversion of 
 hundreds to God ! 
 
 And to what, in the way of instrumentality, shall we 
 attribute this astonishing effect ? I answer, to the power 
 of his wonderful oratory. This fact has stood for a cen- 
 tury upon record, and yet we have been slow to learn 
 from it the lessons it is adapted to teach ; and among these 
 lessons the chief is the effect produced by a commanding 
 method of address, in circumstances apparently the most 
 
132 EARNESTNESS 
 
 unlikely for such a result. I am not calling upon my 
 brethren to imitate this daring attack upon the very citadel 
 of Satan : even Whitfield never, I believe, repeated it, 
 and perhaps ought never to have attempted it : but my 
 object is to show the power of voice and action, and the 
 nature of ministerial earnestness. 
 
 I now bring forward another proof of this, which, if it 
 be less grand and commanding in itself, is perhaps as likely 
 to be useful to the readers of this little work, because it is 
 an instance brought nearer to their own times, and to the 
 level of their own circumstances : I mean the truly inter- 
 esting and much lamented Mr. Spenceb, of Liverpool. In 
 reference to this transcendent young preacher, Mr. Hall 
 remarks, "The writer of this deeply regrets his never 
 having had an opportunity of witnessing his extraordinary 
 powers ; but from all he has heard from the best judges, 
 he can entertain no doubt that his talents in the pulpit were 
 unrivalled, and that had his life been spared, he would, in 
 all probability, have carried the art of preaching to a greater 
 perfection than it ever attained, at least in this kingdom. 
 His eloquence appears to have been of the purest stamp, 
 effective not ostentatious ; consisting less in the preponder- 
 ance of any one quality requisite to form a public speaker, 
 than in an exquisite combination of them all ; whence 
 resulted an extraordinary power of impression, which was 
 greatly aided by a natural and majestic elocution.' ' In 
 this last expression Mr. Hall has disclosed much of the 
 secret of Mr. Spencer's popularity and usefulness : "a 
 natural and majestic elocution," accompanied with a most 
 engaging countenance and form, setting forth with simple 
 and unaffected earnestness of manner, the grand doctrines 
 of evangelical truth, constituted the charm, and led to the 
 success, of this most captivating preacher of modern times. 
 
IN DELIVER Y. 133 
 
 Let the young ministers of this age read his Life and 
 Remains, as published by his gifted successor, Dr. Raf- 
 fles, and also his posthumous sermons which have been 
 since given to the world, and they will find nothing what- 
 ever of extraordinary genius ; no lofty eloquence, in the 
 usual acceptation of that term ; no profound speculation ; 
 no splendid imagery or diction — but at every step they 
 will meet with the doctrine of Christ crucified set forth 
 with manly vigor, in plain, perspicuous language ; the 
 utterances of a mind well instructed in the way of salva- 
 tion, and of a heart overflowing for the good of his fellow- 
 creatures. To what then shall we attribute, under God, 
 his success, not only in filling the large town in which he 
 lived, and the nation at large, with his fame, but what was 
 infinitely more important in itself, and far more eagerly 
 coveted by him, in bringing so many souls to Christ ? 
 There is but one answer to be given to this, and that is, it 
 was the fascination of his manner. He was in earnest. 
 The stream of his simple, elegant, but by no means pro- 
 found thought, flowed forth with a resistless impetuosity 
 that carried away his hearers before it. I know no more 
 important lesson to be learnt, no inference more valuable 
 to be drawn from the short life of this most interesting 
 young man, so mysteriously cut off at the very commence- 
 ment of his career, than the vast importance of an anima- 
 ted manner of preaching the gospel. 
 
 We may here advert to another individual, who was 
 considered to be one of the most impressive preachers,, in 
 a particular way, of his times, the late Mr. Toller, of 
 Kettering, and who also, no doubt, owed much to his mode 
 of address, for the effect which his sermons produced : 
 and the effect in this instance proves that vehemence, bois- 
 terousness, and vociferation arc not essential lo earnestness 
 
134 EARNESTNESS 
 
 and deep impression, for nothing could be more calm and 
 more subdued, though nothing more solemnly commanding, 
 than his whole demeanor in the pulpit. His printed ser- 
 mons are characterized by manly strength of thought, ut- 
 tered in language of great perspicuity, though not irradiated 
 by the coruscations of what might be termed a brilliant 
 genius. " A noble simplicity and careless grandeur," says 
 Mr. Hall, with whom he lived on terms of most intimate 
 friendship, "were the distinguishing features of his elo- 
 quence." There was an irresistible charm in his manner 
 which threw a spell over all his hearers, and which fasci- 
 nated alike the learned and illiterate ; he made the latter 
 to understand, and the former to feel. I never heard him 
 but once, but it was a memorable occasion, on the ordina- 
 tion of Mr. Robertson, of Stretton, when Mr. Hall deliv- 
 ered the admirable charge which was afterwards published 
 under the title of " The Difficulties and Encouragements of 
 the Christian Minister." It is impossible ever to forget, 
 and equally so to describe, the effect produced by two such 
 preachers on such an occasion : it was the first time I had 
 ever heard either of them, and the last that I ever heard 
 Mr. Toller, and it almost seemed as if I had never heard 
 preaching before : both were excited no doubt, and stimu- 
 lated to do their best, not only by the occasion, but by the 
 presence of each other. The terms employed by Mr. 
 Toller's biographer were the most appropriate that could 
 be selected to describe his style and manner, "simplicity 
 and careless grandeur." It was impossible not to listen, 
 neither eye nor ear played truant for a moment, while he 
 was preaching : his delivery was not the rushing torrent of 
 impassioned eloquence which gushed afterwards from the 
 lips of his wonderful fellow-laborer, but the majestic, 
 silent flow of a noble river. " In the power of awakening 
 
IN DELIVERY. 135 
 
 pathetic emotions," says Mr. Hall, in his Memoir, " he has 
 excelled any preacher it has been my lot to hear. Often 
 have I seen a whole congregation melted under him like 
 wax before the sun : my own feelings on more than one 
 occasion, have approached to an overpowering agitation. 
 The effect was produced apparently with perfect ease^ No 
 elaborate preparation, no peculiar vehemence or intensity 
 of tones, no artful accumulation of pathetic images, led the 
 way : the mind was captivated and subdued, it hardly 
 knew how. Though it will not be imagined that this 
 triumph of popular eloquence could be habitual, much 
 less constant, it may be safely affirmed that a large propor- 
 tion of Mr. Toller's discourses afforded some indications 
 of these powers." The following is Mr. Hall's descrip- 
 tion of the effect of two sermons preached in his hearing 
 by this distinguished man : — 
 
 "It was about this period (1796) that my acquaintance with 
 him commenced. I had known him previously, and occasionally 
 heard him ; but it was at a season when I was not qualified to 
 form a correct estimate of his talents. At the time referred to, 
 we were engaged to preach a double lecture at Thrapstone, nine 
 miles from Kettering; and never shall I forget the surprise and 
 pleasure with which I listened to an expository discourse, from 1 
 Peter, ii. 1, 3. The richness, the unction, the simple majesty 
 which pervaded his address, produced a sensation which I never 
 felt before : it gave me a new view of the Christian ministry. 
 But the effect, powerful as it was, was not to be compared with 
 that which I experienced on hearing him preach at the half-yearly 
 meeting of the Association, at Bedford. The text which he 
 selected was peculiarly solemn and impressive : his discourse was 
 founded on 2 Peter i. 12, 15, ' Yea, I think it meet as long as T 
 am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remem- 
 brance : knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle.' 
 etc. The effect of this discourse on the audience was such as I 
 
136 EARNESTNESS 
 
 have never witnessed before or since. It was undoubtedly very 
 much aided by the peculiar circumstances of the speaker, who 
 was judged to be far advanced in a decline, and who seemed to 
 speak under the impression of its being the last time he should 
 address his brethren on such an occasion. The aspect of the 
 preacher, pale, emaciated, standing apparently on the verge of 
 eternity, the simplicity and majesty of his sentiments, the sepul- 
 chral solemnity of a voice which seemed to issue from the shades, 
 combined with the intrinsic dignity of the subject, perfectly 
 quelled the audience with tenderness and terror, and produced 
 such a scene of audible weeping as was perhaps never surpassed. 
 All other emotions were absorbed in devotional feeling : it 
 seemed to us as though we were permitted for a short space to 
 look into eternity, and every sublunary object vanished before 
 t the powers of the world to come. 5 Yet there was no considera- 
 ble exertion, no vehemence, no splendid imagery, no magnificent 
 description : it was the simple declaration of truth, of truth in- 
 deed of infinite moment, borne in upon the heart by a mind in- 
 tensely alive to its ideality and grandeur. Criticism was disarmed ; 
 the hearer felt himself elevated to a region which it could not 
 penetrate ; all was powerless submission to the master spirit of 
 the scene. It will be always considered by those who witnessed 
 it, as affording as high a specimen as can be easily conceived of 
 the power of a preacher over his audience, the habitual or even 
 frequent recurrence of which, would create an epoch in the re- 
 ligious history of the world."* 
 
 This description, even though some allowance should be 
 made for the eloquence of friendship, which was poured 
 forth by the pen of Mr. Toller's admiring friend, is re- 
 plete with instruction to our rising ministry. They may 
 learn the vast importance of the manner in which a sermon 
 is delivered, as well as the matter of which it is composed ; 
 
 * Memoirs of Mr. Toller, by Mr. Hall, prefixed to a volume of Mr. 
 Toller's sermons. 
 
IN DELIVERY. 137 
 
 for with all his vigorous and manly thought, Mr. Toller 
 owed much as a preacher to his method of address. $or 
 is this the only lesson, nor perhaps the most important 
 one, to be learnt from this short but precious piece of 
 ministerial biograph}^ ; for we gather what it is, that with 
 minds of the highest order, such as Mr. Hall's, constitutes 
 the nearest approach to perfect pulpit eloquence, and to 
 which even these commanding intellects yield themselves 
 up with the most willing submission — not the artificial 
 elaboration of men intent upon producing a great sermon ; 
 not the magniloquent diction and splendid imagery, which 
 have been sought with ambitious eagerness by those who 
 aim to shine ; nor the cold, abstract, philosophical reason- 
 ing of a metaphysical dialectician ; but the simplicity and 
 earnestness of a preacher, who aims to instruct the judg- 
 ment, awaken the conscience, and affect the heart. All 
 great minds love simplicity, and detest affectation. This 
 was especially the case with Mr. Hall. His censure of 
 the opposite quality to unaffected earnestness, amounted 
 sometimes to eloquent extravagance and burlesque, and his 
 sarcasms not unfrequently were tinged with uncharitable 
 bitterness ; while his admiration of simplicity was occa- 
 sionally expressed in somewhat exaggerated panegyric. 
 The ambition of a preacher whose aim is usefulness might 
 well be gratified in a remark which he once made after 
 hearing a sermon : "I should not wonder if a hundred 
 souls were converted to-night !" 
 
 These are only a few out of innumerable instances 
 which could be adduced, to prove the vast importance, 
 which belongs to an effective enunciation. Far greater 
 numbers of our preachers fail for want of this, than from 
 any other cause ; a fact so notorious as to need no- proof 
 beyond common observation, and so impressive as to de- 
 1 
 
138 EARNESTNESS 
 
 raand the attention not only of the professors but the com- 
 mittees of all our colleges. It is too generally the case 
 that no culture sufficient is bestowed upon the speaking- 
 powers of our students, from the beginning to the end of 
 their course of study. There is great assiduity manifested 
 in giving them a fullness of matter, but far too little in pro- 
 ducing an impressiveness of manner. Every assistance 
 is granted to them to make them scholars, philosophers, 
 and divines ; but as to good speaking, for the acquisition 
 of this, they are left pretty much to themselves. Nay, it 
 is not even inculcated upon them with the emphasis it 
 should be, to try to make good speakers of themselves. 
 A complete system of ministerial education must of neces- 
 sity include some attention to elocution, and which should 
 commence as soon as a student enters college : so that by 
 the time he is put upon the preaching list he may have 
 some aptitude for the management of his voice, and not 
 have his thoughts diverted then from his matter and his 
 object, to his manner. He should by that time have 
 acquired a habit of good speaking, so as to be able to prac- 
 tice it with facility, and without study. The great objec- 
 tion to lectures on elocution is, that they are apt to pro- 
 duce a pompous, stiff, and affected manner ; but this is an 
 abuse of the art, the object of which should be to cure the 
 vices of a bad, and to supply the wants of a defective 
 enunciation, and to form an easy, natural, and impressive 
 delivery. 
 
 I entirely concur, therefore, with Dr. Vaughan, in his 
 important and impressive remark, " that let our students 
 fail in the matter of a good elocution, and so far as regards 
 their ministry among Protestant dissenters, it will matter 
 little in what else they may succeed." This is sustained 
 by a reference to the great number we observe, who* 
 
IN DELIVERY. 139 
 
 though soundly orthodox in sentiment, possessed of large 
 acquirements in scholarship and philosophy, partakers of 
 undoubted piety, and even desirous of doing good — yet 
 make no way, can with difficulty procure a situation, and 
 are filled, perhaps, with wonder, that men very much 
 their inferiors in natural talent and literary acquirement, 
 are everywhere followed, while they are everywhere neg- 
 lected. The problem is easily solved, the mystery soon 
 explained : these inferior men, by their earnest, animated 
 manner, make their slenderer abilities tell more upon the 
 popular mind, and heart, and conscience, than the dull 
 scholars and cold philosophers do their accumulated but 
 useless stores of knowledge. 
 
 It should, however, be remarked, that there is nothing 
 more likely to be mistaken than animation in the pulpit. 
 There are some young ministers, who, aware of the im- 
 portance of a graceful and effective elocution, take no small 
 pains to acquire it, by studying and practicing the most 
 approved rules of the art. It is not, however, this alone 
 for which I contend : for as the lessons of the dancing 
 master form only a stiff and formal action, where there is 
 no natural ease and elegance, so also the teacher of elocu- 
 tion can do little to form an earnest and energetic speaker, 
 where there is no living source of animation in the soul. 
 It is not a pompous, swelling, ore rotundo style of speaking 
 that constitutes the excellence of an orator ; not " the start 
 and stare theatric ;" not modulations of the voice that 
 sound as if the speaker were regulating tones and cadences 
 by the fugle motions of a teacher standing before him : but 
 the impassioned vivacity of one who feels intensely his 
 subject, and who speaks under the influence of strong emo- 
 tion. The secret of animation, the nature of earnestness, 
 lie, as we have said, in an intense feeling of the subject o( 
 
140 EARNESTNESS 
 
 discourse ; in a mind deeply impressed, and a heart 
 warmed, with the theme discussed. All men are in earn- 
 est when they feel. Hence the anecdote of the pleader, 
 who, on being applied to by a client to undertake her 
 cause, upon perceiving the coldness of her manner in stat- 
 ing her case, told the applicant he did not credit her story. 
 Stung by this reflection upon her veracity, and this disbe- 
 lief of her grievance, she rose into strong emotion, and 
 affirmed, with expressive vehemence, the truth of the 
 story. " Now," said he, "I believe you." 
 
 The hackneyed, but valuable rule of the ancient teacher 
 of eloquence remains, and ever will remain, as true as when 
 it was first uttered, " Weep yourself, if you expect me 
 to weep." Sympathy is the speaker's most powerful 
 auxiliary : there is nothing so contagious as strong emo- 
 tion. We have most of us, perhaps, seen a large portion 
 of a congregation brought to tears by the pathetic and 
 faltering tones, the tremulous lips and suffused eyes of the 
 preacher. But then it must be on a subject which is 
 worthy of it — must be sincere, and not simulated emotion, 
 and must come only when the people's minds are prepared 
 to sympathize; for as there is only a step between the 
 sublime and the ridiculous, the same remark may be made 
 concerning the pathetic. Genuine emotion is the charm 
 of all speaking upon moral and religious subjects, in the 
 absence of which the most measured and stately elocution, 
 whatever pleasure it may impart to the ear, will have little 
 power to affect the heart. We have sometimes listened to 
 lofty and well composed music, to an overture for instance, 
 which we could not but admire; but it was still cold 
 admiration, for the whole piece had not a note of passion 
 from beginning to end : but some simple melody followed 
 it, which, by the pathos of its notes, or the power of its 
 
IN DELIVERY. 141 
 
 associations, touched every chord in our hearts, and raised 
 *n us a tumult of emotion. Thus it is with different 
 preachers : we listen to one, whose excellent composition, 
 and sonorous, perhaps even musical, voice, command our 
 admiration ; but not a passion stirs, all within is cold, 
 quiet, and without emotion ; the speaking is good, but it 
 does not move us : but there is another, with perhaps less 
 talent, yea, less oratory in one sense, but his tones, his 
 looks, his manner throughout, are full of earnest feeling ; it 
 is a strain, every word of which comes from the heart, and 
 every word of which awakens by sympathy a correspon- 
 dent state of feeling in our hearts. 
 
 Who is likely to be moved by hearing a man discuss the 
 most awful realities of eternal truth, such as the danger 
 and the doom of immortal souls, the glories of heaven, 
 and the torments of hell, with as much coolness, and with 
 as little emotion as a lecturer on science would exhibit 
 when dwelling on the facts of natural history ? Is it pro- 
 bable there can be any earnestness in the hearer, when 
 there is none in the preacher ? " How is it," said a minis- 
 ter to an actor, " that your performances, which are but 
 pictures of the imagination, produce so much more effect 
 than our sermons, which are all realities ?" " Because," 
 said the actor, " we represent our fictions as though they 
 were realities, and you preach your realities as though 
 they were fictions." It is difficult to believe that a dull, 
 cold, statue-like preacher, whose passionless monotony is 
 a mental opiate for his hearers, can himself credit the mes- 
 sage he is delivering. What, that man who never elevates 
 or depresses his voice from one given pitch of soporific 
 dullness ; whose tone never falters, whose eye never glis- 
 tens, whose hand never moves, who speaks as it' he were 
 afraid of awakening the slumberers, whom his "drowsy 
 
142 EARNESTNESS 
 
 tinklings" had lulled to sleep, — he feel the weight of souls ; 
 he in earnest for their salvation ; he endeavoring to pluck 
 them as brands from the burning ? Who will credit it ? 
 It is true he may have no great power of voice, and a 
 naturally phlegmatic mind, with a great deficiency in the 
 natural powers of oratory ; but, place him by the side of 
 a river where he has seen a fellow- creature fall into the 
 water, and has thrown a plank or a rope to aid the drown- 
 ing man to escape, will he not have power of voice, and of 
 animated tones, and of persuasive earnestness there, as he 
 directs the object of his solicitude to the means of deliver- 
 ance ? Will he not rise out of his monotone there ? Will 
 he not make himself heard and felt there ? 
 
 By an earnest manner, then, is meant, the enunciation 
 that is dictated by a deep and feeling sense of the im- 
 portance of our message. We are to persuade, to entreat, 
 to beseech, and these modes of speech have an utterance 
 of their own. What Paul's manner must have been, how 
 impassioned and impressive, when he made Felix tremble 
 and Festus exclaim, " Thou art beside thyself ; much learn- 
 ing hath made thee mad." But even the sublime and 
 awful truths of revelation, if they do not press upon the 
 heart, and lay hold of, and possess it, will be but coldly 
 handled and feebly discussed. It is only when the love of 
 Christ constraineth us, and beareth us away as with the 
 force of a torrent, that we shall speak with a manner be- 
 fitting our great theme. If we are not intensely real, we 
 shall be but indifferent preachers. 
 
 This shows us the vast moment of our living under the 
 powerful impression of the truths we preach. We can- 
 not, like the actor, have a stage dress and character to put 
 on for the occasion, and put off when the curtain drops. 
 There may indeed be a factitious earnestness excited by 
 
IN DELIVERY. 143 
 
 the sounds of our own voice, and by the solemnities of 
 public worship ; but this will usually be fitful, feeble, ora- 
 torical, and very different from that burning ardor which 
 is the result of eminent piety, and which imparts its own 
 intensity of emotion to the words and tones of the speaker. 
 It was the patriotism of Demosthenes that constituted the 
 fire of his eloquence : he loved his country, and trembling 
 for the ruin that Philip was bringing upon the liberties of 
 Greece, he poured forth his lightning words, in tones of 
 thunder. His philippics were a torrent of the strongest 
 emotion, bursting from his heart, though guided in its 
 course by the established rules of eloquence. He could 
 never have spoken as he did, had not the wrongs of Philip, 
 and the dangers of Greece, entered into his soul. So 
 must it be with us : our animation must be the earnestness, 
 not of rhetoric, but of religion ; not of art, but of renewed 
 nature ; and not designed to astound, but to move ; not 
 the manner studied and intended merely to attract a crowd, 
 and to excite applause, but to save the souls of men from 
 death. For this purpose, whatever means w^e employ > 
 and whatever rules we lay down, to cure the vices of a 
 bad elocution, and to acquire the advantages of a grace- 
 ful one — and such an aim is quite lawful — we must ever 
 remember that the basis of a powerful and effective pulpit 
 oratory, will consist of a deep and fervent piety ; in the 
 absence of which the most commanding gift of public 
 speaking will be but as sounding brass or a tinkling cym- 
 bal. 
 
 Dr. Cotton Mather, in his beautiful and invaluable 
 work, now nearly forgotten, entitled " The Student and 
 Preacher," in speaking on this subject, remarks : — 
 
 " It is a pity but a well prepared sermon should be a well pro- 
 
144 EARNESTNESS 
 
 nounced one. Wherefore avoid forever all inanes sine mente 
 sonos, and all indecencies ; everything that is ridiculous. Be 
 sure to speak deliberately. Strike the accent always upon the 
 word in the sentence it properly belongs unto. A tone that shall 
 have no regard to this is very injudicious, and will make you 
 talk too much in the clouds. Do not begin too high. Ever con- 
 clude with vigor. If you must have your notes before you in 
 your preaching, and it be needful for you de scripto dicere, 
 which even some of the most famous orators, both among the 
 Grecians and the Romans, did, yet let there be with you a dis- 
 tinction between the neat using of notes, and the dull reading of 
 them. Keep up the air and life of speaking, and put not off 
 your hearers with a heavy reading to them. How can you de- 
 mand of them to remember much of what you bring to them, 
 when you remember nothing of it yourself ? Besides, by read- 
 ing all you say, you will so cramp and stunt all ability for 
 speaking, that you will be unable to make a handsome speech 
 on any occasion. What I therefore advise you to is, let your 
 notes be little more than a guide, on which you may cast your 
 eye now and then, to see what arrow is to be next fetched from 
 thence ; and then with your eye as much as may be on them 
 whom you speak to, Jet it be shot away with a vivacity becom- 
 ing one in earnest for to have the truths w T ell entertained by the 
 auditory. Finally let your perorations be lively expostulations 
 with the conscience of the hearer ; appeals made and questions 
 put unto the conscience, and consignments of the work over 
 into the hands of that flaming preacher in the bosom of the 
 hearer. In such flames you may do wondrously." 
 
 Pity that Dr. Mather had not gone a little farther than 
 this, and affectionately advised his younger brethren in the 
 ministry to begin their career without any notes at all in 
 the pulpit ; advice still more necessary in this day, as there 
 seems a rising inclination to adopt the practice. Nothing 
 can be conceived of more likely to repress earnestness, 
 and to hinder our usefulness, than this method becoming 
 
IN DELIVERY. 145 
 
 general. True it is that some preachers may rise up, who, 
 like a few living examples, may in despite of this practice 
 attain to eminence, to honour, and usefulness, such as rarely 
 fall to the lot of ministers in any denomination ; but this 
 will not be the case with the greater number, who having 
 no commanding intellect to lift them above the disadvan- 
 sage of this habit, will find few churches willing to accept 
 their dullness, for the sake of the accuracy with which it is 
 expressed. And who can tell how much greater our 
 greatest men would be, if they delivered their sermons 
 without their notes ? Think of Whitfield, Hall, Par- 
 sons, reading their sermons ! What a restraint upon their 
 inoble intellects, and their gushing hearts ! Where is read- 
 ing tolerated but in the pulpit ? Not on the stage, nor at 
 the bar, nor in the senate. It is conceded that we lose 
 something of precision and accuracy by spoken discourses, 
 as compared with those that are read, but is not this more 
 than made up by what we gain in impression ? By him 
 who slavishly reads, the aid borrowed by the preacher from 
 the eye and graceful action is lost ; the link of sympathy 
 between his soul and that of the audience is weakened ; 
 the lightnings of his eloquence flash less vividly, and its 
 thunders roll less grandly, for this obstruction to their ef- 
 forts. Perhaps even those who do read are aware of the 
 disadvantages of the habit, and would say to their younger 
 brethren, whose habits are not yet formed, avoid, if you 
 can, the practice of reading your discourses. There are 
 however occasions, when from the nature and extent of the 
 subject, this practice is not only allowable, but necessary. 
 Before we pass from the subject of preaching, we may 
 consider with propriety the matter and manner of prayer. 
 Between these two there is a close and obvious connection, 
 for earnest sermons should be ever associated with earnest 
 7* 
 
146 EARNESTNESS 
 
 prayers ; and it cannot be doubted that a pious, faithful, 
 and devoted minister, is scarcely less useful, at least in the 
 way of keeping up the spirit of devotion in his congrega- 
 tion, by the latter, than he is by the former. His chastened 
 fervor, like a breeze from heaven, comes over the languid 
 souls of his hearers, and fans the spark of piety in their 
 hearts to a flame : while on the contrary, the dullness and 
 coldness of some public prayers are enough to freeze what 
 little devotion there may be in the assembled people. We 
 have thought too little of this, and have too much neglect- 
 ed to cultivate the gift, and seek the grace, of supplica- 
 tion. If entreating and beseeching importunity be proper 
 in dealing with sinners for God, can it be less so in dealing 
 with God for sinners ? Our flocks should be the witnesses 
 of both these, and hear not only how we speak to them, 
 but how we plead with God for them ; should be the 
 auditors of our agonizing intercession on their behalf ; and 
 be convinced how true is our declaration that we have 
 them in our hearts. How such petitions, so full of intense 
 affection and deep solicitude, would tend to soften their 
 minds, and to prepare them for the sermon which was to 
 follow. Who has not beheld the solemnizing and subdu- 
 ing effect of such holy wrestling with God, upon the con- 
 gregation ? they seemed to feel as if God had indeed come 
 down among them in power and glory during the prayer, 
 and was preparing to do some work of grace in their midst. 
 The rudest and most turbulent spirits have sometimes been 
 awed, and the most trifling and frivolous minds made seri- 
 ous, by this holy exercise. We who practice extempore 
 prayer have advantages for this, of which we should not 
 be slow to avail ourselves. Not being confined by the 
 forms of a liturgy, but left to our own choice, we can give 
 a harmony to all the various parts of the service, and 
 
IN DELIVERY. 147 
 
 make the scripture we read, and the hymns we sing, as 
 well as the prayers we present, all bear upon the subject 
 of the sermon, and thus give a unity of design, and a con- 
 centration of effect to the solemn engagements of the sanc- 
 tuary. This should be an object with every minister, in 
 order that the thoughts of the people may, without being 
 divided or diverted, flow pretty much in one channel, and 
 towards one point. Moral, as well as mechanical effect 
 depends upon the combination of many seemingly small 
 causes. But more especially should the prayers be in har- 
 mony with the sermon, and every preacher knows what 
 the sermon is to be. If he is about to address himself in 
 a strain of beseeching importunity to the impenitent and 
 unbelieving, how much would it tend to prepare them for 
 his appeal if his heart were previously, and in their hear- 
 ing, to pour forth a strain of fervent pleading with God on 
 their behalf. They would thus be awed and subdued into 
 a state of mind likely to render the forthcoming sermon 
 effectual, by the blessing of God, for their conversion. 
 Such a prayer would be the most appropriate introduction 
 he could give to his discourse. But then especial care 
 should be taken that the hymn, and even the tune, which 
 interposes between the prayer and the sermon, should not 
 be of a kind which would divert the current of thought, much 
 less efface the solemn impressions already produced, and 
 hinder the effect of the discourse about to be delivered. I 
 remember to have heard a preacher, who was going to 
 preach a very solemn sermon, breathe out one of the most 
 impressive strains of intercession for the impenitent I ever 
 listened to, as if even anxious to begin the work of conver- 
 sion by his prayer, which he hoped to finish by his sermon. 
 The people sat down in solemn awe, when as if by a 
 prompting of the wicked One, who catches away the seed 
 
148 EARNESTNESS 
 
 out of the heart, the clerk gave out a most inappropriate 
 hymn, and the choir, with a band of musical instruments, 
 sung a tune more inappropriate still : as may be easily 
 imagined, the seriousness produced by the prayer was in- 
 stantly lost, and the preparation for the sermon entirely 
 destroyed. How true is it that the singing seat is often 
 hostile to the usefulness of the pulpit, and the choir in op- 
 position to the effect of the preacher. Finney, in his book 
 on Revivals, descends to so minute a specification of the 
 circumstances to be attended to in preparing for the revival, 
 as to expose him to the ridicule of many of his readers ; 
 and no attempt is here made to defend him, or to recom- 
 mend his volume ; but still there is true philosophy in the 
 spirit of his directions, which amounts to this, that the 
 effect of sermons, and indeed of all public speaking, de- 
 pends often upon very little things. Trifles have great 
 power to divert the current of thought, to break the chain 
 of reflection, and to disturb the process of emotion. Every- 
 thing connected with public worship should be still, orderly, 
 solemn ; as befits a service conducted in the presence of 
 God, and with reference to him. 
 
 Returning to the subject of prayer, it becomes every 
 minister to take especial care that this should be conducted 
 with propriety, not only on account of its nature and de- 
 sign, as addressed to God, and as the medium of obtaining 
 blessings at his hand, but because of its moral effect upon 
 the people. We object to pre-composed forms, and we 
 think on sufficient grounds, as wanting in adaptation to the 
 ever-changing circumstances of the congregation, to the 
 events of the times, and to the services of the minister, 
 and as at the same time tending to produce formalism — 
 but then we are bound to take care that our free prayers 
 are such as are eminently adapted to edification. And is 
 
IN DELIVERY. 149 
 
 there not room for much improvement in our public devo- 
 tional exercises ? In some cases there is too much elabo- 
 ration and appearance of study ; though in far more, a 
 want of richness and fullness of unction and importunity. 
 The prayers are often too excursive and vague, a mere 
 string of petitions, which have no connection with each 
 other, and which leave the whole without unity of design, 
 or definiteness of object. There are some admirable re- 
 marks on the subject of public extempore prayer, in Fos- 
 ter's sketch of Mr. Hall's character as a preacher, which 
 go to prove that more concentration of thought on par- 
 ticular topics, would produce a greater effect, than that 
 unrestrained discursiveness, which characterizes most of 
 our devotional exercises. We pass too rapidly from one 
 subject to another, and thus as it were surprise our hearers, 
 by their being brought to a new topic before they were 
 aware they had left the preceding one ; and it may be safe- 
 ly affirmed that prayers which do not detain the thoughts 
 on any certain things for a few moments, take slight hold 
 on the auditors. " Things noted so transiently, do not ad- 
 mit of deliberate attention, and seem as if they did not 
 claim it." With the liberty of unrestricted variety which 
 we possess, why should it be thought necessary to go al- 
 ways over the same ground, and bring in the same topics, 
 in the same exact order, in much the same length, and in 
 almost the same words ? Why may we not sometimes 
 drop everything else, and break out into a continued strain 
 in reference to one selected object ? How deep would be 
 the conviction of the audience of the importance which 
 we, at any rate, felt to belong to it, and how likely would 
 be such a method to engage them in sympathy with us. in 
 reference to it. We should also be careful to avoid all 
 personalities which would excite curiosity or disturb devo« 
 
150 EARNESTNESS 
 
 tion, and especially all laudatory epithets on the one hand, 
 and criminatory ones on the other. In using our freedom 
 let us take care not to abuse it, and endeavor that the end 
 and object of our preaching shall be helped, and not hin- 
 dered, by the method of our praying. If pre-composed 
 forms of prayer have their disadvantages, so also has free 
 prayer, and while we consider the balance of advantage 
 vastly in favor of the latter, let us recollect that our breth- 
 ren of the Establishment are of the same opinion respect- 
 ing their liturgy ; let us therefore charitably bear with, and 
 not reciprocally reproach, each other. 
 
 The manner of prayer, as well as its matter, demands 
 also our serious attention. While the very nature of the 
 exercise forbids everything showy or elaborately ingeni- 
 ous, everything quaint, familiar, and irreverend, and en- 
 joins the utmost simplicity and spirituality, it no less pro- 
 hibits all flippancy, carelessness, and pompous oratory. 
 The most serious, reverend, and devotional manner is re- 
 quired, not only on our own account, but on account of the 
 audience. There are some men whose very tones are enough 
 to extinguish all devotional feeling at once. It is almost 
 impossible to conceive that it is a sinful mortal we hear 
 addressing himself to the Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God, be- 
 fore whom the seraphim veil their faces : while on the con- 
 trary there are others whose deep, devotional tones, whose 
 subdued manner, whose awe-stricken entire demeanor, 
 seem to remind us that we are indeed speaking to the Al- 
 mighty. It is not necessary to suppose that earnestness 
 requires bolster ousness ; a mistake too commonly made by 
 many who work themselves up into vociferation and actual 
 contortion. Such vehemence, like a violent blast of wind, 
 puts out the languid flame of devotion, when a gentler 
 breeze would fan it to greater intensity. It were well also 
 
IN DELIVERY. 151 
 
 to avoid that sing-song tone which we too often hear in 
 those who lead the public devotions. Still there must be 
 earnestness — the earnestness of deep feeling, of lively de- 
 votion, of a heart intent upon its own salvation, and the 
 salvation of those who are then and there waiting to hear 
 the word of life. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 EARNESTNESS MANIFESTED IN THE PASTORATE. 
 
 This must by no means be omitted. The pulpit is the 
 chief, but not the only sphere of ministerial solicitude and 
 action : just as preaching is God's first, but not his exclu- 
 sive means of saving souls. Different ministers have fal- 
 len into two opposite mistakes ; one class have thought to 
 do every thing in the pulpit as preachers, but they have 
 neglected the duties of the pastor ; while the others have 
 purposed to do every thing as pastors, and have neglected 
 the diligent preparation of their sermons. Of the two er- 
 rors the latter is the more mischievous, inasmuch as no 
 pastoral devotedness, however intense, will long keep to- 
 gether a congregation among Protestant Dissenters, much 
 less collect one, when the preaching is indifferent and un- 
 attractive ; while, on the other hand, good preaching will 
 of itself do much in the absence of pastoral attentions to 
 keep the flock from being scattered. But why should not 
 both extremes be avoided ? Good preaching and good 
 shepherding are quite compatible with each other, and he 
 who is in earnest will combine both. He will be a watch- 
 man for souls everywhere, and seek if by any and by all 
 means, he can save some. He can never entirely lay aside 
 his anxiety for the objects of his regard, and is ever ready 
 
EARNESTNESS IN THE PASTORATE. 153 
 
 to manifest it on all suitable occasions. His sermons are 
 composed and delivered for this object, and he is after- 
 wards inquisitive for the effect they have produced, and 
 watches and prays for the result. His anxious eye is 
 searching the congregation, even while preaching, to see, 
 not so much who is delighted, but who is seriously impress- 
 ed. He will not, cannot be content to go on, without as- 
 certaining whether or not his sermons are successful. Like 
 a good physician, who is minutely watchful for the effect 
 of his medicines upon his patients individually, according 
 to their specific varieties of disease, he will endeavor to 
 ascertain the impression which his sermons have produced, 
 and on particular persons. He Avill aim to attract to him 
 the anxious inquirers after salvation, and for this purpose 
 he will have special meetings for such persons ; will invite 
 and encourage their attendance, will cause them to feel 
 that they are most welcome, and by his tender, faithful, 
 and appropriate treatment of their case, will make them 
 sensible that to him they are as truly the objects of deep 
 interest, as the lambs are to the good shepherd. And 
 though he will very naturally wish not to be too frequent- 
 ly broken in upon in his private studies, by those to whom 
 he has given set times for meeting with him — yet a poor, 
 burdened, trembling penitent will never find him engaged 
 too deeply or delightfully in study, to heal the broken in 
 heart, and to bind up their wounds. It is really distress- 
 ing to know how little time some ministers are willing: to 
 give up from their favorite pursuits, even for relieving the 
 solicitudes of an anxious mind. They read much, and 
 perhaps as the result, preach well composed, though pos- 
 sibly not very awakening sermons ; but as for any skill, or 
 even taste, for dealing with convinced sinners, wounded 
 consciences, and perplexed minds, tney are as destitute oi % 
 
154 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 this, as if it were no part of their duty. They resemble 
 lecturers on medicine, rather than practitioners ; or are 
 like physicians who would assemble all their patients who 
 were able to attend, in the same room, and then give gene- 
 ral directions about health and sickness to all alike, but 
 who does not inquire into their several ailments, nor visit 
 them at their own abodes, nor adapt his treatment to their 
 individual and specific disease. It is admitted that some 
 men have less tact, and a still greater destitution of taste 
 than others, for this department of pastoral action ; but 
 some skill in it, and some attention to it, are the duty of 
 every minister, and may be acquired : and no man can be 
 in earnest without it. He who can only generalize in the 
 pulpit, but has no ability to individualize out of it ; who 
 cannot in some measure meet the varieties of religious per- 
 plexity, and deal with the various modifications of awaken- 
 ed solicitude ; who finds himself disinclined or disabled to 
 guide the troubled conscience through the labyrinths which 
 sometimes meet the sinner in the first stage of his pilgrim- 
 age to the skies, may be a popular preacher, but he is lit- 
 tle fitted to be the pastor of a Christian church. One half 
 hour's individual conversation with a convinced, but per- 
 plexed mind, may do more to correct mistakes, to convey 
 instruction, to relieve solicitude, and to settle the wavering 
 in faith and peace, than ten sermons. True, it requires 
 much love for souls, much devotedness to their salvation, 
 and much anxiety for the success of our ministry, to devote 
 that half-hour to one solitary inquirer after life eternal ; 
 but surely no really earnest minister will think his time 
 ill bestowed in guiding that single inquirer into the way of 
 peace. 
 
 This individualizing labor is more easily carried on in 
 some situations than in others', and is indeed more important 
 
THE PASTORATE. 155 
 
 in some situations to ministerial success. In small congre- 
 gations, for instance, especially when they are found in 
 small towns or villages, the objects of such special atten- 
 tion come more under the notice of a pastor, are more 
 accessible, and can have more time given to them, than in 
 large congregations in large towns. To these smaller 
 churches, individuals, though not of more importance or 
 value in themselves, since the soul and its salvation are of 
 equal worth everywhere, are of more consequence to the 
 comfort of the minister, and the prosperity of the cause, 
 than they are where a crowd is gathered. Pastors of 
 large churches are much more occupied, both with the 
 concerns of their own flock, and with public business, than 
 their brethren in more retired situations, and are often so 
 occupied and hurried, as to have too little leisure for the 
 individual attentions now recommended ; and are perhaps 
 apt amidst the aggregate of numbers, to think too little of 
 the units. Still some excuse may be made for them, of 
 which the others cannot avail themselves. The accession 
 of a single member to our smaller churches is felt to be of 
 more importance, and produces a more reviving and cheer- 
 ing effect, than the addition of several to the larger ones. 
 We have all something to learn even from the Scribes and 
 Pharisees of ancient times, who compassed sea and land 
 to make one proselyte ; and also from the Papists of mod- 
 ern times, who pursue a like course : or to change the ex- 
 amples, we want more of the benevolent disposition of an- 
 gels, who rejoice over one sinner that repenteth. No efforts 
 would be more likely to be successful, none would more 
 amply reward those who make them, than the selection of 
 the most hopeful individuals in the congregation, and fol- 
 lowing them up with all the assiduities of a special, affec- 
 tionate and judicious attention. Such a course of pastoral 
 
156 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 labor, though it would not altogether be a substitute for 
 pulpit attractiveness, and should never be allowed to super- 
 sede the most diligent pulpit preparation, would enable 
 many a minister, who may not be gifted with large abili- 
 ties, to retain a strong hold upon his flock. This is a line 
 along which almost any one may carry on a career of ear- 
 nestness. 
 
 As another object of pastoral attention may be mentioned, 
 attention to the young : and these may be divided into two 
 classes, the young persons who belong to the congregation, 
 and those which belong to the Sunday schools. With re- 
 gard to the former, it is a matter of congratulation that the 
 modern plan of Bible classes is not unfrequent nor unsuc- 
 cessful : but even at this time, they are rather the excep- 
 tion than the rule. It may be feared that there are some, 
 who, from the beginning to the end of the year, aye, and of 
 their ministry also, take no interest in the youth of their 
 congregations ; they have no catechetical classes, no Bible 
 classes, and even rarely preach to the young. Who can 
 wonder that such men have to complain that their young 
 people go off to the Church of England, or what is far 
 worse, to the world ? What have they ever done to at- 
 tach them to themselves, or to their place of worship ? 
 Let no man be surprised that his congregation, diminished 
 by death and removals, continually declines, if he neglects 
 to lay hold of the youth of his flock. Whence does the 
 shepherd look for his future flock, but from the lambs ? 
 And who are to constitute our future congregations and 
 churches, but our young people ? 
 
 I am an advocate also for the catechetical instruction of 
 the younger children, and am sorry that this admirable 
 method of imparting religious truth has fallen into such 
 general desuetude. Even the Bible class, however accom- 
 
THE PASTORATE, 157 
 
 modated to the capacity of these junior members of our 
 congregation, is not altogether a substitute for, but should 
 be regarded only as an addition to, the practice of catechis- 
 ing. There is still a great desideratum to be supplied to 
 our denomination, whose thanks would be pre-eminently 
 due to the man who should supply it, — I mean a set of 
 well composed catechisms, which might be introduced to 
 all our families, and thus set up a uniform system of reli- 
 gious instruction for the body. I say, which might be in- 
 troduced to all our families ; for it is by no means my wish 
 or my intention to obtrude the pastor between the parent 
 and child, and take the religious instruction of the latter 
 from his natural guardian and teacher, to devolve it upon 
 the pastor. It is to parents that the injunction is delivered, 
 " Thou shalt teach these words to thy children diligently, 
 and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and 
 bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.'' 
 No pastoral attention should be intended, or can be adapt- 
 ed, to supersede or lighten this solemn parental obligation. 
 But then the pastor should labor to the uttermost to keep 
 up the parents which are of his flock, to the right dis- 
 charge of their duty. There are few of us who are not 
 sorrowfully convinced that little is to be expected from our 
 sermons in the pulpit, or our instructions in the class room, 
 while all our endeavors are so miserably counteracted by 
 the neglect of domestic instruction, and the want of paren- 
 tal solicitude. I do not mean to justify pastoral neglect by 
 advancing the obligations of parental duty, for I believe w e 
 have been, and are, all verily guilty of a criminal defect of, 
 duty in not giving more of our time and attention to the 
 children of our congregations ; — but still even the time and 
 attention we do give is all likely to be lost, bj the low 
 state of religion in the homes of some of our people. 
 
158 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 We might very naturally expect that our churches would 
 be chiefly built up from the families of our members ; 
 whereas, the greater number of accessions are from those 
 who were once the people of the world. There is a great 
 mistake on this subject, into which both parents and minis- 
 ters have fallen ; and that is, that the conversion of the 
 children of the professor is to be looked for more from the 
 sermons of the latter, than from the instructions of the 
 former ; whereas the contrary is the true order of things ; 
 and were domestic piety and teaching what they ought to 
 be, this is the order which would be found to exist. There 
 is unquestionable truth in the proverb, " Train up a child 
 in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not 
 depart from it." I believe that were the nature and design 
 of the domestic constitution thoroughly understood, and its 
 religious duties early, judiciously, affectionately, and perse- 
 veringly discharged, the greater number of our young peo- 
 ple would be converted to God at home.** Were all reli- 
 gious professors, who are parents, real and eminent Chris- 
 tians ; were they from the time they became parents to set 
 their hearts upon being the instruments of their children's 
 conversion ; were they to do all that prayer, instruction, 
 discipline, and example could do for the formation of the 
 religious character of their offspring ; and were they care- 
 fully to abstain from every thing which would obstruct 
 these ends, I feel confident that it would be within the hal- 
 lowed precincts of such homes, and not in the sanctuary, 
 that the children of the godly would usually become godly 
 
 * I take this opportunity to recommend a most valuable volume, en- 
 titled " The Domestic Constitution," by the Rev, Christopher Ander- 
 son; anew and cheaper edition of which is lately published. Every 
 minister should know by reading it, the worth of this inestimable 
 book, and recommend it to his flock. 
 
THE PASTORATE. 150 
 
 themselves. Here then should and will be an object with 
 every truly earnest pastor, to bring up the parents in his 
 church to a right sense and discharge of their functions # 
 He will labor to impress upon them the solemn obligations 
 under which they live, to train up their children for God. 
 It will be a matter of prayer and solicitude with him to 
 excite them to their duty and keep them in it ; for this 
 purpose, he will not only make his pulpit ministrations 
 bear much upon parental obligation, but he will make it a 
 point of visiting the families which are in his church, to 
 pray with them, and to hold up the hands of the parents in 
 this godly duty. Deeply is it to be regretted that this 
 part of pastoral occupation, as well as catechising, has gone 
 out amidst the bustle and engrossing power of trade, and 
 the public business of modern religious institutions. How 
 little do the families of our people know of us in the charac- 
 ter and hallowed familiarity of the pastor ! When are we 
 seen amidst the domestic circle as the respected and be- 
 loved minister of that lovely and interesting group, labor- 
 ing by our affectionate, serious, and solemn discourse, and 
 by prayer as serious, solemn, and affectionate, to entwine 
 ourselves round the young hearts which there look up to 
 us with reverend regard ? Why, why do we neglect such 
 important scenes of labor, and hopeful efforts for useful- 
 ness ? What power would this give to our sermons, and 
 what efficacy to our ministrations ! These young ones 
 would grow up to love us, and it would not be a light or 
 little thing which would break them off from our ministry 
 when we had produced in them such a personal attach- 
 ment to ourselves. But then we must take especial can 1 
 that our conduct in the houses of our people should be such 
 as to give weight and influence to their religious instruction 
 of the family, and to ours in the sanctuary. We must be 
 
160 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 known there as the servants of God, the ministers of 
 Christ, the watchmen for souls ; and not merely as the table 
 guest, the parlor jester, the gossiping story-teller, the de- 
 bating politician, the stormy polemic, the bitter sectarian ; 
 much less as the lover of wine. Would God that those of 
 my brethren, who have acquired the habit of smoking, if 
 they cannot leave it off, would abstain from this practice 
 in the houses of their friends, and confine it to their own : 
 would that they did not permit the young inquisitive eyes 
 of the junior members of the families which they visit, to 
 see the pipe brought out as their necessary adjunct. Did 
 they know the regrets of their best friends, and consider 
 the power of their example, they would, at any rate, so far 
 abstain as to wait till they had reached their own habita- 
 tion, before they indulged themselves with their accus- 
 tomed gratification. Still, it is freely conceded, without 
 justifying the habit, there are some who are addicted to it, 
 so grave, and serious, and dignified in other respects, as to 
 furnish by their general demeanor an antidote against their 
 example in this one particular : but what antidote can be 
 found to neutralise the mischief inflicted by the levity and 
 frivolity of the parlor buffoon, whose highest object in go- 
 ing to the houses of his friends, seems to be to tell a merry 
 story, and to excite a hearty laugh. In his hands and lips 
 the pages of " Punch" are far more becoming, as they are, 
 perhaps, far more frequent, than those of David, Isaiah, or 
 Paul. Happily we have very few that go to this extreme 
 of lightness and frivolity, but far too many, as is the case 
 with all denominations, and with ours not more than others, 
 of those whose hilarity is destructive at once of their dig- 
 nity, their seriousness, and their usefulness as ministers of 
 Christ. Not that I contend for sanctified demureness, and 
 solemn grimace, or even a perpetual sermonizing conversa- 
 
THE PASTORATE. 161 
 
 tion ; as if a pastor could not talk without violating official 
 decorum upon any topic but religion, and were letting 
 down his dignity, or desecrating his sanctity, if he joined in 
 ordinary conversation, and partook of, or even helped the 
 cheerfulness of the circle. By no means : he is not to ap- 
 pear like a spectre that has escaped from the cloister, to 
 haunt the parlor, striking every face with paleness, and 
 every tongue with silence. He is a man, a citizen, and a 
 friend, as well as a minister ; and has a stake and an inter- 
 est in the great questions which occupy human minds, 
 and engage their conversation ; and provided he do not 
 forget what is due to the latter, he need not throw off what 
 belongs to the former. ISTay, his very cheerfulness may be 
 made a part of his earnestness, by being taken up and em- 
 ployed as a means to conciliate the affections of all around 
 him. The man who is seriously cheerful, who engages in 
 general conversation, and accommodates himself to the in- 
 nocent habits of those with whom he associates, and does 
 this in order really to do them spiritual good, and aid him 
 in the great work of saving their souls, will find in the sub- 
 limity and sanctity of his end, a sufficient protection against 
 the abuse of the means. This is widely different from the 
 unchecked levity, and unrestrained frivolity in which some 
 indulge, and which make it difficult to imagine how they 
 can feel the value of souls, or the obligation of attempting 
 their salvation. Howard at a masquerade, or Clarkson 
 at a fancy ball, would not have been more out of place, nor 
 a physician more out of character, who had just come from 
 the ravages of the plague, and was immediately going back 
 to them again, who was seen wasting his time, and amus- 
 ing himself with the tricks of a merry-andrew, than is a 
 messenger of God's mercy, and a preacher of Christ's gos- 
 
162 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 pel, in the circles of folly and vanity, and he himself the 
 Monms of the party. 
 
 But we now advert for a few moments to the scope for 
 earnestness which is presented to the pastor, by the chil- 
 dren of the Sunday school. By a most fatal error, too 
 many of our ministers deem these institutions as either 
 beyond their circle, or below their notice. They are neither. 
 A pastor is, or ought to be, the head and chief in the 
 department of all the religious instruction which goes on 
 in connection with the congregation under his care. He 
 is the teacher, the superintendent, and the responsible 
 organ of religious knowledge for all the flock, and the 
 Sunday school is a part of it. It is a wrong state of things 
 that has grown up among some of us Dissenters, in which 
 two, three, or four hundred rational minds and immortal 
 souls are brought every Sabbath-day to our Sunday 
 schools, and to our places of worship, for the very purpose 
 of receiving religious instruction, and yet all this is to be 
 carried on without its being once thought of by the pastor, 
 that he has something to do in this business ; or by the 
 congregation or the teachers, that he has by virtue of his 
 office a right and a reason to interfere. In most cases, the 
 pastor has given the matter out of his hand, and has thus 
 raised up, or has been accessory to there being raised up, a 
 body of young instructors of divine truth, who are acting 
 independently of him, and who, in some few instances, 
 have confederated against him. This is not as it should 
 be. The teachers are, or ought to be, a pastor's special 
 care ; to qualify them for their office, and to assist them 
 in its duties, should be thought by him no inconsiderable 
 part of his functions. ISTor should even the children them- 
 selves be viewed as persons with whom he has nothing to 
 
THE PASTORATE. 163 
 
 do. There are always among these, some whose minds 
 have been brought to serious reflection, who are inquiring 
 with solicitude after salvation, and whom he should take 
 under his own teaching and special care, and guide into 
 the way of faith, peace, and holiness : and he should not 
 neglect to give frequent, affectionate, and solemn addresses 
 to the rest. In a Sunday school of two or three hundred 
 children, there are of course two or three hundred immortal 
 souls, exposed by their very situation in life to peculiar 
 dangers, yet all capable of eternal blessedness, and all 
 brought weekly under the eye of the pastor : and yet by 
 how many of our pastors is this hopeful object of religious 
 zeal and benevolence thrown off from ministerial solicitude, 
 and handed over to the Sunday school teachers, as if there 
 were no hope of their saving the soul of a poor boy, nor 
 any reward for saving a poor girl. This obligation of at- 
 tending to the souls of the Sunday scholars, while incum- 
 bent upon all ministers, is especially so upon those who are 
 laboring amidst much discouragement, in small congrega- 
 tions. Many of these men are continually uttering their com- 
 plaints over the smallness of their congregations, and the in- 
 efficiency of their labors ; and yet, perhaps, have never 
 thought of turning their attention to the two or three hun- 
 dred youthful minds which are every Sabbath-day before 
 their eyes, and under the sound of their voice. No minister 
 who ever threw his mind and heart into his Sunday schools 
 had to complain that he labored in vain, and spent his 
 strength for nought. No part of ministerial labor yields a 
 quicker or a larger reward. By some it is made the main 
 pivot on which their whole system of religious instruction 
 turns, and flourishing congregations have risen up under its 
 potency. I have myself been the astonished and delighted 
 witness of this, especially in one well-known instance, and 
 
164 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 am so deeply impressed with its importance, that I conjure 
 my brethren not to neglect this means of usefulness, nor 
 throw away the golden opportunity which the present cir- 
 cumstances of our country still hold out. 
 
 Nor is it Sunday school instruction alone which claims 
 our attention, but daily education. In this we must be in 
 earnest also. It is one of the great subjects of the day, 
 and belongs to us, as much as to any one. We must not 
 allow the public mind to be wholly taken from us, but 
 must exert ourselves according to our ability and opportu- 
 nity to train it up for society and God. Others know and 
 feel the importance of this, if we do not. The Roman 
 Catholic priests are aware of it, so are the clergy of the 
 Established Church, and so are the Methodist ministers ; 
 and shall Dissenting ministers be behind the most zealous 
 and devoted friends of education ? I trust not. 
 
 But there are other departments of the pastorate, in 
 which earnestness will manifest itself; such as visiting the 
 sick, especially where the disease is chronic, and leaves 
 the mind at liberty for conversation ; and then also there 
 is the difficult, but incumbent duty of rebuke, warning, and 
 ecclesiastical discipline. No devoted servant of Christ can 
 neglect the state of the church, but will be solicitous to 
 maintain such order there, as shall be pleasing to Him to 
 whom the church belongs. Like a good shepherd he will 
 look after his flock, and will endeavor to avoid the denun- 
 ciations of God delivered by the prophet Ezekiel : u Woe 
 be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves ! 
 Should not the shepherds feed the flocks ? The diseased 
 have ye not strengthened ; neither have ye healed that 
 which was sick ; neither have ye bound up that which was 
 broken ; neither have ye brought again that which was 
 driven away ; neither have ye sought that which was lost." 
 
THE PASTORATE. 165 
 
 Impressive description of our duty ! May we be found so 
 discharging it as to avoid this fearful woe ! 
 
 How appropriately may I here introduce the words of 
 the Bishop of Calcutta, in his admirable and heart-search- 
 ing introduction to the edition of "Baxter's Reformed 
 Pastor," published by Collins, in his series of "Select 
 Authors :" 
 
 " What have we been doing as ministers ? Lamentably as we 
 have failed in a general estimate of the vast importance of our 
 office, we have failed as lamentably in all those parts of it which 
 relate to personal inspection and vigilance over our flocks. We 
 have confined ourselves to preaching, to ecclesiastical duties, 
 to occasional visits to the sick, to the administration of 
 the sacraments, to the external and secular relation in which we 
 stand to our parishes ; but what have we done in personal care 
 and direction, in affectionate catechetical conferences, in going 
 from house to house, in visiting every family and individual in 
 our districts, in becoming acquainted with the characters, the 
 wants, the state of heart, the habits, the attendance upon public 
 worship, the observance of the Sabbath, the instruction of chil- 
 dren and servants, the family devotions, of each house ? Have 
 we looked after each individual sheep with an eager solicitude ? 
 Have we denied ourselves our own ease, and pleasure, and indul- 
 gence, in order to i go after Christ's sheep, scattered in this 
 naughty, wicked world, that they may be saved forever V What 
 do the streets and lanes of our cities testify concerning us ? 
 What do the highways and hedges of our country parishes say 
 as to our fidelity and love to souls ? What do the houses and 
 cottages and sick chambers of our congregations and neighbor- 
 hoods speak ? Where have we been ? What have we been 
 doing ? Has Christ our Master seen us following his footsteps, and 
 going about doing good ? Brethren, we are verily faulty con- 
 cerning this. We have been content with public discourses, and 
 have not urged each soul to the concerns of salvation. Blessed 
 Jesus ! thou knowest the guilt of thy ministers in this respect. 
 
166 EARNESTNESS IN THE PASTORATE. 
 
 above all others ! We have been divines, we have been scholars, 
 we have been disputants, we have been students — we have been 
 everything but the holy, self-denying, laborious, consistent minis- 
 ters of thy gospel." 
 
 Such, then, is a view, and but an imperfect one too, of 
 an earnest ministry. 
 
 I would have made it more comprehensive and impres- 
 sive if I could : for the reality can never be overdrawn nor 
 exaggerated. Let any one consider what that object must 
 be which occupied the mind of Deity from eternity ; which 
 is the end of all the Divine dispensations of creation, 
 providence, and grace, towards our world ; which is the 
 purpose for which the Son of God expired upon the cross ; 
 which formed the substance of revealed truth, and em- 
 ployed the lives and pens of apostles ; to which martyrs set 
 the seal of their blood : in short, let him recollect that the 
 end of the Christian ministry is the salvation of immortal 
 souls, through the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and then say if anything less than an earnest ministry is 
 befitting such an object, or if that earnestness can compre- 
 hend in it less than has been set forth in these chapters, 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EXAMPLES OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 The power of example is proverbial. We are constitu- 
 ted to be moved by it, as well as directed. It teaches us 
 how to act, and impels us to action. Hence the excellence 
 of Scripture ; it is a book of models as well as of maxims. 
 Towering above all the rest, standing out in bold relief 
 beyond all the others, is the character of Christ. He is 
 an example to all persons. To the ministers of the gospel, 
 this beautiful and perfect embodiment of all that is holy 
 and lovely commends itself with peculiar energy. He was 
 himself a minister of the gospel, sent by the Father in the 
 same manner as he has sent others. He is the great 
 model, the divine archetype as a preacher and a teacher, 
 after which they are to copy. In his manner of preaching, 
 as well as in his matter, he is to be imitated ; in his live- 
 liness, his tenderness, his fidelity, his solemnity, he is to be 
 closely and constantly followed. We, of all men, are under 
 the most solemn obligations to tread in his steps and do as 
 he did. But I now select from all his qualities, his ear- 
 nestness. In this as well as in everything else he surpass- 
 ingly excelled all his most devoted servants. When he 
 came into the world he said, " Lo, I come ; in the volume 
 of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, 
 
168 EXAMPLES OF 
 
 God." When he emerged from his obscurity at Nazareth 
 and entered on his public ministry, he commenced a career 
 of increasing and untiring activity. His eye, his heart, 
 his tongue, embraced one object, and one only, — the salva- 
 tion of souls. We see him always in action, never in 
 repose. Follow him where we will, we find him always 
 working, preaching, praying, or weeping, but never loiter- 
 ing. He gathered up the very fragments of his time, when 
 waiting in the house of Martha for his food, and sitting 
 down at the well of Samaria for his disciples who had gone 
 into the city to purchase provisions, and employed them in 
 doing good. He was the compassionate Saviour, and not 
 the cold and heartless philosopher. His preaching was the 
 breathing of a soul replete with love, his discourse was the 
 overflowing of mercy. He was not a mere personification 
 of reason, but an incarnation of love ; and sent forth not 
 the moon-beams of a cold intellectuality, but the sun-rays 
 of a fervid benevolence. To save souls he scrupled not to 
 go, where, but for this object, we should have never seen 
 him, to feasts and weddings, as well as funerals, From 
 the hour when he thus addressed his mother, " Wist ye 
 not, I must be about my Father's business ?" his meat and 
 his drink were to do the will of that Father. He denied 
 himself all that was of a luxurious and self-gratifying 
 nature ; his only relaxation was devotion, which, after 
 laboring all day in the city, he sought by prayer upon the 
 mountains and in the midnight air. As a scene of earnest- 
 ness, never surpassed, till he ascended the hill of Calvary, 
 behold him bathed in tears over the guilty city, and choked 
 in his utterance by the sobs with which the foresight of 
 the approaching destruction of Jerusalem convulsed his 
 bosom ! 0, that was a spectacle which was enough to 
 draw into a sympathy of grief the moral universe ! What 
 
EARNESTNESS. 169 
 
 a heart that must have been, which on such a spot, and at 
 such a time, could find relief for its intense emotions only 
 in tears ! Truly has it been said, that melting scene is 
 inferior in pathos, in tender and solemn grandeur, only to 
 Calvary itself. But this was only a prelude to what fol- 
 lowed. In prospect of the hour of the solemn and myste- 
 rious scenes of Gethsemane and Golgotha, he exclaimed, 
 "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I 
 straitened till it is accomplished." His eagerness for man's 
 salvation was such that the guilty heart of the traitor was 
 too slow in its purpose for his love, and he quickened the 
 movements of Judas by those memorable words, " What 
 thou doest, do quickly." He made haste to the cross. He 
 was almost impatient for the hour of sacrifice. He could 
 brook no delay in love's redeeming work. 
 
 Here, ministers of the gospel, here is your pattern- 
 This earnestness is your model. You are to be something 
 like this. The work of Christ in saving souls is to be re- 
 garded in a double aspect by you, both as the means of 
 your personal salvation, and the example for your official 
 character. "We have too much forgotten the latter. Even 
 though as Christians we may have looked to his conduct 
 as our exemplar, we have too much neglected to do so as 
 ministers. As servants we have not kept our eyes fixed as 
 we ought to have done upon the Great Master. Shame 
 upon us, how little careful we have been to catch the fire 
 of intense and ardent devotedness from this glowing and 
 divine example. 
 
 We have seen the sun, let us now turn to the stars : we 
 have beheld the Master, let us now contemplate the 
 servants. Perhaps the former is so high above you, that 
 you are discouraged by its loftiness and perfection : well, 
 look now at some nearer your own level. First of all oh- 
 
170 EXAMPLES OF 
 
 serve the apostle Paul ; and where shall we find anything 
 so nearly approaching to the earnestness of his divine 
 Lord, as the conduct of this wondrous man ? From the 
 moment of his conversion on the way to Damascus, he had 
 but one object of existence, and that was the glory of God 
 in the salvation of souls ; and but one way of seeking it, 
 and that was the preaching of the cross. Wherever he 
 went, whatever he did, to whomsoever he addressed him- 
 self, he was ever watching for souls. Whether reasoning 
 with the Jews in their synagogues, or discoursing with the 
 philosophers on Mars Hill, or preaching to the voluptuous 
 inhabitants of Corinth, or appealing to the Ephesian elders 
 at Miletus, or pleading in chains the cause of Christianity 
 before the tribunal of Festus in the presence of Agrippa, 
 or writing letters from prison to the churches he had 
 planted, we find him everywhere, and always, the earnest 
 minister of Jesus Christ. There is one expression in his 
 address to the Ephesian elders which reveals, in a short 
 compass, the whole spirit and marrow of his preaching : 
 " Remember that by the space of three years, I ceased not 
 to warn every one of you night and day with tears." The 
 terror of the Roman government could not extract from 
 his firmness a single drop ; but the sight of an immortal 
 soul perishing in its iniquity, and pleased with its delusions, 
 altogether unmanned him, and suffused his face with tears, 
 which in other cases would have been the sign of weak- 
 ness. O those tears, those tears, how they reprove us for 
 our insensibility, and how they prove to us our deficiencies. 
 Every view we can take of this illustrious servant of the 
 cross fills us with astonishment and admiration. His con- 
 version and history seem designed to teach us what energy 
 may be compressed into one human heart, to be developed 
 in one single life ; what sufferings may be endured, what 
 
EARNESTNESS. 171 
 
 power exerted, what results produced, by one man, who 
 is constrained by the love of Christ, and filled with all the 
 fullness of God ; and what God can accomplish in fulfilling 
 the purposes of his wisdom and love, by the instrumen- 
 tality of an individual of our species. There is a short 
 sentence in his epistle to the Philippians, which, in a few 
 words, sums up his whole life and labors, — " For me to 
 live is Christ." What a compass of meaning, what a 
 manifestation of soul, what a comprehension of purpose 
 and plan, do those few monosyllables contain. " Christ is 
 my life : apart from him and his work I seem to have no 
 separate existence. I have grown into that one object." 
 
 This is earnestness : and what obligation rested on Paul 
 to cultivate it, which does not rest on us ? What was 
 Christ to him, which he ought not to be to us? Why 
 should he thus labor for souls, and not we ? Is there a 
 single reason which appertains to him, that does not ap- 
 pertain to us ? Ministers of Christ, read this great man's 
 life with a view to know what you ought to be, and how 
 you ought to live and labor. In view of what this blessed 
 apostle was, and how he labored, will you be satisfied with 
 cold intellectuality, flowery orations, subtle metaphysics ; 
 with thinking you have answered the end of your calling 
 when you have composed two sermons a week, and kept 
 the people tolerably well satisfied with your labors ? Will 
 you think it enough to be a close student, a hard reader, 
 a good writer — though all this while souls are not con- 
 verted to God, nor the cause of religion advanced in the 
 world ? Talk you of hard labor, and severe trials, and 
 scanty incomes, and ungrateful congregations, and fickle 
 friends? listen to his tale, and be silent : "In labors more 
 abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more fre- 
 quent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I 
 
172 EXAMPLES OF 
 
 forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, 
 once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and 
 a day have I been in the deep ; in journey ings often, in 
 perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own 
 countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, 
 in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils 
 among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in 
 watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, 
 in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are 
 without, that which cometli upon me daily, the care 
 of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not 
 weak? who is offended, and I burn not?" Is there to be 
 found in human composition such a passage as this ? In 
 reading this who can help asking : What have i" done or 
 suffered for Christ, that can give me a title to be ranked as 
 a minister of Christ after this ? 
 
 But perhaps this also is too lofty an example to have 
 much weight with you ; then take an instance next from the 
 Nonconformist's Memorial. It appears from the diary of 
 that eminent servant of Christ, Oliver Heywood, that in 
 one year, beside his stated work on the Lord's day, he 
 preached one hundred and fifty times ; kept fifty days of 
 fasting and prayer, and nine of thanksgiving ; and travelled 
 fourteen hundred miles in the service of Christ, and immor- 
 tal souls. And when we consider that these journeys 
 must have been either on foot or on horseback, this dis- 
 tance was more than ten thousand miles by our modern 
 railways. And then think of Baxter, that wondrous man, 
 who, though hunted and imprisoned by the demon of 
 persecution, and tortured with the stone, was always 
 preaching and writing, till he had composed and published 
 those hundred and twenty volumes, the very writing of 
 which, as to the mechanical act alone., seemed enough to 
 
EARNESTNESS. 173 
 
 occupy a whole life, and of the contents of which the cele- 
 brated Dr. Barrow said, that " his practical works were 
 never mended, nor his controversial ones ever confuted." 
 
 Now turn to those extraordinary men, Wesley and 
 Whitfield ; and who of us can read the account preserved 
 to us of their amazing labors, and equally amazing success, 
 without something of a self-reproachful and desponding 
 feeling, as if we were living almost in vain ? When we see 
 them dividing their whole lives between the pulpit, the 
 closet, and the class room ; sacrificing all domestic enjoy- 
 ment and personal ease ; encountering savage mobs, and 
 addressing congregated thousands ; pacing backward and 
 forward the whole length of the kingdom, and crossing the 
 ocean many times ; moving the population of cities, and 
 filling nations with the fame and the fruit of their evan- 
 gelical labors ; breathing little else than the atmosphere of 
 crowded chapels and preaching rooms, except when they 
 lifted up their voice under the canopy of heaven ; regaling 
 themselves, not with the dainties of the table, nor the 
 repose of the soft, luxurious couch, but with the tears of 
 the penitent, and the songs of the rejoicing believer ; 
 making it their one and only business to seek the salvation 
 of souls, and their one and only happiness to rejoice in the 
 number of their conversons ; indifferent alike to the savage 
 fury of their persecutors, and the fondest flatteries of their 
 followers ; sometimes rising from the bed of sickness to 
 address the multitude in circumstances which rendered it 
 probable the}^ would exchange the pulpit for the tomb ; to 
 sum up all in one short sentence, wearing out life in labor 
 so great that it looked as if they were in haste to die : 
 when we see this, how can we endure to think of the way 
 in which we are living, or scarcely imagine that we are 
 living at all ? How can we read their lives, and not blush 
 
174 EXAMPLES OF 
 
 for ourselves ? How can we witness their earnestness, 
 and not feel as if we knew nothing of the passion for saving 
 souls ? 
 
 And what shall be said of Brainerd, the missionary of 
 Christ, and preacher of the gospel to the American 
 Indians ? See him harassed by a nervous and gloomy de- 
 jection, wearing down by a slow consumption ; yet, for the 
 love of souls, dwelling amidst savages, helping to build his 
 own comfortless and ill-furnished hut ; living at times on 
 parched corn ; travelling and benighted in the woods, 
 sleeping, if sleep he could, wet and cold in a tree ; throw- 
 ing himself down on his return to his own solitary dwelling 
 on his hard bed, with none to comfort him ; and amidst all 
 this, long tried and harassed by the want of success in his 
 apostolical labors — and all this for the love of souls, and 
 the glory of Christ ! Where, where, even among mod- 
 ern missionaries, to say nothing of ministers at home, do 
 we find this rigorous self-denial, this self-sacrificing dis- 
 position, this intense desire after the salvation of souls ! 
 
 We may profitably refer to one more instance of minis- 
 terial devotedness — that is, the excellent Dr. Payson, of 
 America, whose biography should be read by every Chris- 
 tian pastor. Many have read it, and we would hope with 
 no small advantage. During his ministry his solicitude for 
 the salvation of souls was so earnest, that he impaired his 
 health by the frequency of his fastings and the impor- 
 tunity of his prayers. His whole life was spent in one 
 constant series of efforts to produce revivals of religion ; 
 and the anguish of his mind when his labors failed was so 
 acute, as to bring on bodily disease. It was said of him 
 by his biographer, that his language, his conversation, and 
 his whole deportment were such as brought home and 
 fastened on the minds of his hearers the conviction, that 
 
EARNESTNESS. 175 
 
 he believed, and therefore spoke. So important did he re- 
 gard such a conviction in the attendants on his ministry, 
 that he made it the topic of one of his addresses to his 
 clerical brethren, which he entitled, " The importance of 
 convincing our hearers that we believe what we preach" 
 In the course of this address he remarks, that a minister, 
 " in delivering his message as an ambassador of Christ, 
 would show that he felt deeply penetrated with a convic- 
 tion of its truth and infinite importance. He would speak 
 like one whose whole soul was filled with his subject. He 
 would speak of Christ and his salvation, as a grateful, ad- 
 miring people would speak of a great and generous deliv- 
 erer, who had devoted his life for the welfare of his coun- 
 try. He would speak of eternity, as one whose eye had 
 been wearied by attempting to penetrate its unfathomable 
 recesses, and describe its awful realities, like a man who 
 stood on the verge of time, and had lifted the veil which 
 conceals them from the view of mortals. Thoughts that 
 glow and words that burn would compose his public ad- 
 dresses, and while a sense of the dignity of his official 
 character, and the infinite importance of his subject, would 
 lead him to speak as one having authority, with indescrib- 
 able solemnity, weight and energy, a full recollection that 
 he was by nature a child of wrath, and that he was ad- 
 dressing fellow men and fellow sinners, mingled with com- 
 passion for their wretched state, and an ardent desire after 
 their salvation, would spread an air of tenderness over his 
 discourses, and invest him with that affectionate, melting, 
 persuasive correctness of manner, which is best calculated 
 to affect and penetrate the heart. To say all in one word, 
 he would speak like an ambassador of Him who spake as 
 never man spake, and who would say, 'we speak that we 
 do know, and testify that we have seen ?' r 
 
176 EXAMPLES OF 
 
 When disabled by increasing disease from preaching, Dr. 
 Payson carried with him into his sick chamber all his un- 
 diminished earnestness for the salvation of souls. Being 
 present on one occasion at the administration of the Lord's 
 Supper, he rose, and thus addressed his flock: "Ever 
 since I became a minister, it has been my earnest wish that 
 I might die from disease which would allow me to preach 
 a farewell sermon to my people ; but as it is not probable 
 I shall ever be able to do this, I will attempt to say a few 
 words now ; it may be the last time I shall ever address 
 you. This is not merely a presentiment : it is an opinion 
 founded on facts, and maintained by physicians who know 
 my case, that I shall never behold another spring. 
 
 " And now, standing on the borders of the eternal world, 
 I look back upon my past ministry, and on the manner in 
 which I have performed its duties ; and oh, my hearers, if 
 you have not performed your duties better than I have 
 done, woe ! woe ! be to you — unless you have an Advo- 
 cate and Intercessor in heaven. We have lived together 
 twenty years, and have spent more than a thousand Sab- 
 baths together, and I have given you at least two thousand 
 warnings. I am now going to give an account how they 
 were given ; and you, my hearers, will soon have to give 
 an account how they were received. One more warning I 
 will give you. Once more your shepherd, who w T ill be 
 yours no longer, entreats you to flee from the wrath to 
 come. Oh, let me have the happiness of seeing my dear 
 people attend to their eternal interests, that I may not 
 have reason to say, i I have labored in vain, I have spent 
 my strength for nought.' " 
 
 After this he entered the chapel but once more. Con- 
 fined now to his house and to his room, he still carried out 
 his intense desires to be useful in saving souls, by dictating 
 
EARNESTNESS. 177 
 
 letters and addresses to individuals and to bodies. Per- 
 sons under anxious concern for their salvation, young con- 
 verts entering on the Christian life, ministers just com- 
 mencing the arduous duties of their office, and various 
 bodies and classes of individuals, among whom were the 
 young men, were sent for to visit him in his sick chamber, 
 and receive his dying counsels and admonitions. What 
 messages also went forth from that scene of agony and of 
 glory, to ministers and friends ! His " ruling passion was 
 strong in death." His love for preaching was as invincible 
 as that of the miser for gold, who dies grasping his trea- 
 sure. Dr. Payson directed a lable to be attached to his 
 breast, with the words, " Remember the words which I have 
 spoken unto you, while I was yet present with you ;" that 
 they might be read by all who came to look at his corpse, 
 and by which he, being dead, yet spake. The same words, 
 at the request of his people, were engraven on the plate of 
 the coffin, and read by thousands on the day of inter- 
 ment. 
 
 Here was a beautiful instance of ministerial earnestness, 
 and if I have dwelt longer on this than on some of the 
 still more illustrious ones which have preceded it, the rea- 
 son may be found in the fact that it is the example of a 
 minister of our own times, and placed in nearly the same 
 circumstances as ourselves ; and also in the wish that many 
 who have not read this most instructive piece of ministerial 
 biography, may be induced by these extracts to peruse the 
 volume. That man's heart must be in a bad state indeed, 
 both as a Christian and a minister, who is not made the 
 holier and more earnest by contemplating this bright and 
 lovely example. 
 
 Leaving the ministry, and turning towards the laity for 
 some rare examples of unquenchable ardor, we Had two, 
 
178 EXAMPLES OF 
 
 deserving above most of honorable mention and assiduous 
 imitation — Lady Huntingdon, and the late Thomas Wil- 
 son, Esq., of Highbury. In the former we see a peeress, 
 related of course to many noble families, to whom the hon- 
 ors of the court and the elegancies of fashion were accessi- 
 ble, relinquishing, from the hour of her conversion to God, 
 all these pomps and gaieties of the world, and consecrating 
 her rank, her influence, and her wealth, to the glory of 
 God and the salvation of souls ; quitting the saloons of the 
 gay for the conventicles of the pious ; and the society of 
 nobles, statesmen, orators, and wits, to hold converse with 
 itinerant preachers ; selling her jewels to enable her to 
 purchase chapels ; opening her own drawing-room for re- 
 ligious worship ; and unmoved or undiverted by the won- 
 der, the reproach, and the sneers of a proud and scoffing 
 aristocracy, pursuing, with an intensity which they could 
 as little comprehend as they could the object to which it 
 was directed, the spread of evangelical truth and the sal- 
 vation of immortal souls, both among the rich and the 
 poor. In this one object her whole life was bound up, 
 apart from which she had neither occupation nor enjoy- 
 ment. 
 
 Pretty much the same may be said of the late Treasurer 
 of Highbury College. We waited not for the very valua- 
 ble and interesting memoir of this inestimable man, with 
 which his son has favored the world, to convince us of this ; 
 much as the conviction is deepened, and the impression 
 perpetuated, by the tout ensemble of the life and character 
 there presented to our view : those who knew Mr. Wilson— 
 and who in the religious circle of all parties did not know 
 him ? — ever considered him as a man of extraordinary zeal 
 and great benevolence, and a most useful specimen of an 
 earnest man. This character will be assigned to him, even 
 
EARNESTNESS. 179 
 
 by those who differed from him in some views of the object 
 on which he lavished the energies of his active mind, and 
 the resources of his ample fortune. But now that the 
 whole outward career of this indefatigable man is laid be- 
 fore us, and the mechanism of his heart, as the spring of 
 his energy, is disclosed to us in this seasonable and instruc- 
 tive biography, we learn the important lesson how much 
 one man, whose heart is given to the work, may accom- 
 plish in the way of evangelizing our dark and wretched 
 world. Perhaps modern times have produced or presented 
 few more striking instances of that quality of character, 
 which it is the design of this volume to illustrate and to en- 
 force. He selected his one object of life, and that was the 
 support and spread of evangelical religion, by means of 
 building chapels, and the education and support of minis- 
 ters, in connection with the denomination to which he be- 
 longed. For this he retired from business, and consecrated 
 to it his time, his fortune, his influence, and his piety. 
 His journeys from home, and his occupation at home, were 
 in a great measure devoted to this. He had his office, his 
 clerk, his house of business, his correspondence, in refer- 
 ence to this, as much as the merchant has for his commer- 
 cial affairs. To this was given his conversation in company, 
 and his musing and letters when alone. The consumma- 
 tion of one scheme of usefulness in his own line of effort, 
 was but the commencement of another. While others 
 talked he worked. We knew where to find him, and how 
 he was employed. If a voice from heaven had command- 
 ed him to build chapels and educate ministers, he could 
 not have pursued this object with more fixedness of aim, 
 unity of action, and steady perseverance, than he mani- 
 fested. He knew his object, and therefore needed no coun- 
 sel : he loved it, and suffered nothing to divert his mind 
 
180 EXAiMPLES OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 from it ; he saw its practicability, and hearkened to no ob- 
 jections. If others would act with him, well ; and if not, 
 he would go alone. It was not brilliant talents, nor a 
 princely fortune, nor a commanding eloquence — though he 
 had good abilities, a handsome income, and an easy utter- 
 ance — but it was earnestness that made him what he was, 
 and enabled him to do what he did. Yes, Thomas Wil- 
 son was an earnest man : and would to God that all whom 
 he helped to introduce into the ministry, partook, in the 
 still more sacred duties of their calling, of the same inten- 
 sity of action as he did in his.* 
 
 * It is important to the interests of the Congregational body that the 
 Memoir of Mr. Wilson, by his Son, should have a wide circulation. 
 
CHAPTER IX, 
 
 MOTIVES TO EARNESTNESS, 
 
 AND THE INDISPENSABLE NECESSITY OF IT. 
 
 I. It is demanded alike by the theme and the object of it. 
 
 When Pilate proposed to the illustrious prisoner at his 
 bar the question, What is truth ? he placed before him the 
 most momentous subject which can engage the attention 
 of a rational creature ; and if Christ refused to give an 
 answer, his silence is to be accounted for by the captious 
 or trifling spirit of the querist, and not by any supposed 
 insignificance of the question, since truth is the most valu- 
 able thing in the universe, next to holiness ; and it is truth 
 that is the theme of our ministry, even that which by way 
 of eminence and distinction is called the truth. Take any 
 branch of general science, be it what it may, and how- 
 ever valuable and important it may be considered, its most 
 enthusiastic student and admirer cannot claim for it, par 
 excellence, that supremacy which is implied in the definite 
 article, the truth. Who shall adjust the claims for this 
 distinction, between the various sciences of natural and 
 moral truth, and declare which is the rightful possessor of 
 the throne, against the false pretensions of usurpers ? 
 Who? The God of truth himself; and he ha ;« done it. 
 
182 MOTIVES TO 
 
 and placing the Bible on the seat of majesty in the temple 
 of truth, has called upon all systems of philosophy what- 
 ever to fall down and do it homage. This is our subject : 
 eternal, immutable truth — truth given pure from its Divine 
 source, and given with the evidence and impress of its own 
 omniscient Author. Oh, what are the loftiest and noblest 
 of the sciences ; chemistry, with its beautiful combinations 
 and affinities ; or astronomy, with its astounding numbers, 
 magnitudes, distances, and revolutions of worlds ; or geol- 
 ogy, with its marvellous and incalculable dates of by-gone 
 millions of ages — to the truths of revelation ? "What is 
 dead, inert matter, with its laws of materiality, however 
 diversified, classified, or combined, — compared with the 
 world of mind, of souls, of immateriality and immortality, 
 and with the laws of moral truth by which they are regu- 
 lated ? "What is nature, to the God of nature ? What 
 the heavens and the earth, to the glorious mind that looks 
 out upon them through the organ of vision, as from a win- 
 dow that commands the grand and boundless prospect ? 
 What the fleeting term of man's existence upon earth, 
 with its little cycles of care, and sorrow, and labor, com- 
 pared with the eternal ages through which the soul holds 
 on her course of deathless existence ? The works of crea- 
 tion are a dim and twilight manifestation of God's nature, 
 compared with the grandeur and more perfect medium of 
 redemption. The person of the Lord Jesus Christ is itself 
 a wonder and a mystery, which shall shine all other dis- 
 plays of Deity into darkness ; this is the shekinah in the 
 holy of holies of the temple of God's creation, towards 
 which, as they bend over the mercy-seat of his work of 
 redemption, all orders of created spirits, from the most dis- 
 tant parts of the universe, reverently turn and do homage 
 to the great God our Saviour. This, this is our theme, 
 
EARNESTNESS* 183 
 
 the truth of God, and concerning him ; the truth of an 
 incarnate Deity ; the truth of man's redemption by the 
 cross ; the truth of the moral law, the eternal standard of 
 rectitude, the tree of knowledge of good and evil; the 
 truth of the gospel, as the tree of life in the midst of the 
 paradise of God ; the truth of immortality, and of heaven, 
 and of hell ; the truth couched under the symbols of the 
 Levitical law, and the predictions of inspired prophets, 
 and fully exhibited in the gospels of evangelists, and the 
 inspired letters of apostles. Again I ask exultingly and 
 rapturously, what are the discoveries of Newton, or of 
 Davy, or the inventions of Watt, or of Arkwright, com- 
 pared with these ? Viewing man in his relation to immor- 
 tality, as a sinful and moral agent, what is art or science, 
 compared with revealed truth ? And shall we, can we, 
 be otherwise than earnest in the promulgation of this truth ? 
 Shall we touch such themes with a careless hand, and a 
 dronish mind ? Shall we slumber over truths which keep 
 awake the attention, and keep in activity the energies of 
 all orders of created intelligences, and which are the object 
 and the resting place of the uncreated mind ? Let us 
 look at the earnestness with which the sons of science pur- 
 sue their studies : with what enthusiasm they delve into 
 the earth, or soar on the telescope to the heavens, or hang 
 over the fire ; with what prolonged and patient research 
 they carry on their experiments, and pursue their analyses ; 
 how unwearied in toil, and how enduring in disappoint- 
 ment, they are ; and then how rapturously they hold up 
 to the world's gazing and wondering eye, some new parti- . 
 cle of truth, which they have found out after all this peer- 
 ing and prying into nature's undiscovered secrets ! Minis- 
 ters of the gospel, is it thus with the men who have to 
 find out the truths of nature, and shall Ave who have the 
 
184 MOTIVES TO 
 
 volume of inspired, revealed truth opened before us, drone, 
 and loiter, and trifle over such momentous realities ? Shall 
 the example of earnestness be taken from him who analyzes 
 man's lifeless flesh, to tell us by the laws of organic chem- 
 istry its component parts, rather than from him who has 
 to do with the truths that relate to the immortal soul ? 
 Shall he whose discoveries and lessons have no higher ob- 
 ject than our material globe, and no longer date than its 
 existence, be more intensely in earnest, than we who have 
 to do with the truth that relates to God and the whole 
 moral universe, and the truth that is to last through eter- 
 nity ? What deep shame should cover us for our want of 
 ardor and enthusiasm in such a service as this ! 
 
 And then what is the purpose for which this truth, so 
 grand, so awful, so sublime, is revealed by God, and to be 
 preached by us ? Not simply to gratify curiosity ; not 
 merely to conduct the mind seeking for knowledge, to the 
 fountains where it may slake its thirst ; no, but to save the 
 immortal soul from sin, and death, and hell, and conduct 
 it to the abodes of a glorious immortality. The man who 
 can handle such topics, and for such a purpose, in an un- 
 impassioned, careless manner, and an icy heart, is the most 
 astounding instance of guilty lukewarmness in the uni- 
 verse : to his self-contradiction no parallel can be found, 
 and he remains a fearful instance how far it is possible for 
 the human mind to go in the most obvious, palpable, and 
 guilty inconsistency. A want of earnestness in the execu- 
 tion of that commission, which is designed to save immor- 
 tal souls from eternal ruin, and raise them to everlasting 
 life, is a spectacle which, if it were not so common, would 
 fill us with amazement, indignation, and contempt. We 
 have read the speeches of the great masters of eloquence, 
 both of ancient and modern times ; and have read also of 
 
EARNESTNESS. 185 
 
 the intense anxiety, and untiring effort, with which they 
 have sustained by corresponding efforts, the mighty peri- 
 ods that flashed from their burning souls : and do we con- 
 demn as enthusiasts the Athenian orator who thus ago- 
 nized to save his country from the yoke of Philip ; the 
 majestic Roman who roused the indignation of the repub- 
 lic against the treason of Cataline ; or our own Wilber- 
 force, who for twenty years lifted his voice, and appealed 
 to the justice and mercy of a British Parliament, against 
 the atrocities of the slave trade ? On the contrary, we 
 deem no eulogy sufficient to express our admiration of 
 their noble enthusiasm. But our panegyric upon them is 
 a condemnation upon ourselves ; for how far short of them 
 do we fall in earnestness, though the salvation of a single 
 soul, out of all the multitudes that come under the influ- 
 ence of our ministrations, is an event, which in its conse- 
 quences is inconceivably more momentous, because endur- 
 ing through eternity, than all the objects collectively, for 
 which these men exhausted the energies of their intellect 
 and life. Do we really believe that we are either a savor 
 of life unto life, or of death unto death, to them that hear 
 us ? Or is this mere official phraseology, which is never 
 intended to be understood in its ordinary import ? Is it 
 a matter of fact, or only the solemn garnish of a sermon, 
 the trickery and puffing of pulpit vanity, that souls are 
 perpetually rising from beneath our ministry into the felici- 
 ties and honors of the skies, or dropping from around our 
 desk into the bottomless pit ? Are companies of immor- 
 tal spirits continually emigrating from our congregations 
 to colonize eternity, to people heaven or hell, to swell the 
 numbers of the redeemed, or to add to the multitude of 
 the lost ? If this be true, and we are gross deceivers, 
 more pulpit actors, reverend hypocrites, if wp do not 
 1) 
 
186 MOTIVES TO 
 
 believe in t'heir truth, — then where is the earnestness that 
 must give consistency to our professions, and which is 
 appropriate to our situation, and adequate to our convic- 
 tions ? Have we really become so carelessly, so criminally 
 familiar with such topics as salvation and damnation, that 
 we can descant upon this with the same calmness, coolness, 
 not to say indifference, with which the public lecturer will 
 discuss one of the minutest branches of natural philoso- 
 phy ? where is our reason, our religion, our consist- 
 ency ? 
 
 II. Earnestness is imperatively demanded by the state of 
 the human mind, viewed in relation to the truths and the 
 object just set forth. 
 
 This was glanced at in an earlier part of the work, but 
 must be now resumed and amplified. The entreating and 
 beseeching importunity employed by the apostle, and which 
 are found to be no less necessary to us, presuppose on the 
 part of its objects, reluctance to come into a state of recon- 
 ciliation with God, which must be assailed by the force of 
 vehement persuasion. Although we have to treat with a 
 revolted world, a world engaged in mad conflict with 
 Omnipotence, yet, if the guilty rebels were weary of their 
 hostilities, and in utter hopelessness of success, were pre- 
 pared on the first offer of mercy, to throw down their 
 arms, and in the spirit of contrition to sue for pardon, ours 
 w^ould be an easy mission, and we might spare ourselves 
 the trouble of earnestness and expostulation. But the 
 very reverse is the case. "The carnal mind is enmity 
 against God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither 
 indeed can be." The hearts of men are fully set in them 
 to do evil. We find them taken up, occupied, influenced, 
 governed, by the palpable and visible things of the present 
 life ; and our business is to engage them in a constant 
 
EARNESTNESS. 187 
 
 resistance of the undue influence of the things which are 
 seen and temporal, and to do this by a vigorous faith in 
 things thai^are unseen and eternal : our aim and labor are, 
 by the power of the unseen world to come, to deliver them 
 from the spell of the present state, with whose pageantry 
 they are enamored, and under whose fascination they are 
 well pleased to continue. And then apart from, or at any 
 rate in connection with this, they are so occupied by the 
 pursuits of business, so engrossed by the cares, the com- 
 forts, and the trials of life ; engaged in such breathless 
 haste to pursue, such distracting bustle to possess, and such 
 ardent hope to enjoy, the various objects of their earthly 
 desires, that when we call their attention to serious relig- 
 ion, as the one thing needful, we are as one who would 
 stop another in a race to offer him an object foreign to that 
 for which he is contending, and who, by the competitor 
 for the prize, is deemed intrusive, impertinent, and obstruc- 
 tive. 
 
 But the difficulty stops not here : if this were all, we 
 should have only a very small share of the opposition 
 which now calls forth our energy and requires our most 
 strenuous efforts ; for when we have succeeded in gaining 
 a hearing and arresting attention, we have to contend, not 
 only with an indisposition to receive the truth, but a deter- 
 mined hostility against it. We have, as our first business, 
 to fasten a charge of guilt upon men naturally disposed to 
 think well of themselves : to produce a sense of utter 
 worthlessness and depravity in those, who, in the utmost 
 length to which their concession will go, admit only some 
 few imperfections and infirmities ; to displace a feeling of 
 complacency by one of self-condemnation and abhorrence : 
 and to substitute for a general and unhumbled dependence 
 upon divine mercy, such a conviction of exposure to \hc 
 
188 MOTIVES TO 
 
 curse of a violated law, as makes it difficult for the trem- 
 bling penitent to see how his pardon can be harmonized 
 with the claims of justice ; to offer salvation upon terms 
 which leave not the smallest room for self-gratulation, or 
 the operation of pride ; indeed, to carry such a message as 
 frequently excites disgust, and calls forth the bitterest 
 enmity of the human heart, and arms all its passions in 
 determined hostility. And then the salvation exhibited in 
 the gospel is not only opposed to the pride, but to the 
 passions of the soul of fallen man. It requires the excis- 
 ion of sins dear as a right hand, the surrender of objects 
 which have enamored the whole soul, the breaking up of 
 habits which have grown with our growth, and strength- 
 ened with our strength. Sometimes we have, in addition 
 to all this, to summon our hearers to a war without, as 
 well as a conflict within, and to verify the words of Christ, 
 that he came to send a sword instead of peace, and to set 
 parents against children, and children against parents. 
 What minister has not sometimes felt his very courage 
 ready to quail, and his steadfastness in danger of faltering, 
 when called to lead on some persecuted convert to brave 
 the cruel mockings and reproaches, the frowns, the threats, 
 and the violence, of his nearest and dearest earthly con- 
 nections ? I agonize as I write, to think what I, among 
 others, have witnessed of this kind. Yerily it is through 
 much tribulation, that some, even in these peaceful times, 
 are called to enter into the kingdom of heaven. And then, 
 to follow on the difficulties of the Christian ministry, to 
 prevent the first impressions of divine truth from vanishing 
 like the cloud, or exhaling like the dew ; to guide the inquirer 
 from finding repose anywhere but at the cross of Christ ; 
 to guard the feeble, and to inspire the timid with courage ; 
 to detect the deceit of the heart, and to aid the novice in 
 
EARNESTNESS. 189 
 
 breaking off from besetting sins ; to inspire the resolution 
 to crucify the flesh, and to stimulate the soul to an ever 
 onward progress in sanctification ; to meet the epidemic 
 malady of our nature, which assumes so many shapes, 
 and appears under such a variety of symptoms, with a 
 proportionate and well-adapted variety of treatment ; to 
 help the believer to beat down his foes under his feet, and 
 amidst all his various trials, temptations, and difficulties, to 
 continue steadfast, immovable, and always abounding in 
 the work of the Lord, notwithstanding the counteracting 
 influence of much unremoved corruption in his heart ; — 
 this, all this, must require in him who has to do it, ear- 
 nestness of the most collected and concentrated kind. To 
 carry on the ministry of reconciliation in this revolted 
 world, with the intention and desire of recovering its inhab- 
 itants from sin and Satan unto God, when the opposition 
 to be overcome is considered, must appear to every reflect- 
 ing mind the most hopeless of all human undertakings, 
 apart from the promised aid of the Holy Spirit. It is this 
 alone that could induce us to continue in the ministry 
 another hour. Without this agency, we must retire in 
 utter despair. But then, even this is not to be viewed, 
 much less expected, apart from human instrumentality; 
 and man's earnestness is that very species of instrumental- 
 ity which the Divine Agent employs. It is not the feeble 
 ministrations of the lukewarm and the negligent that God 
 blesses for the conversion of souls, but the heart-breathed, 
 fervent wrestlings of the ardent and the diligent. He 
 maketh the winds his messengers, and flames of fire his 
 ministers. Here, then, is a double argument for earnest- 
 ness, in the difficulties which are to be subdued in the ac- 
 complishment of our object, and the co-operating agency 
 of the Spirit of God. The former shows its indispensable 
 
190 MOTIVES TO 
 
 necessity, and the latter encourages us to put it forth. 
 Without it, we cannot look for the aid of the Spirit ; and 
 without the aid of the Spirit, it would be exerted in vain. 
 May we be able to take a right view of our obstacles and 
 our resources. 
 
 III. Consider the aspect of the times, as affecting the hu- 
 man mind, and the objects of our ministry. 
 
 The view which has been just given of the difficulties 
 that lie in the way of the faithful minister, applies to all 
 countries and to all times, inasmuch as the depravity of 
 human nature is co-extensive with the race of man. But 
 still there may, and do, exist circumstances in one age 
 and country, to give greater force to these difficulties, 
 which are not found, at any rate to the same amount, in 
 others. The features of our own age are strikingly im- 
 pressive, and in no small degree hostile to the success of 
 the gospel, and the prevalence of evangelical piety. 
 
 The sphere of human pursuits, whether we consider the 
 active or speculative departments, is filled with unusual 
 energy and excitement. Earnestness is the characteristic 
 of the age. If we turn our attention to trade, we see men 
 throwing their whole soul into its busy occupations, and 
 laboring as if their salvation in another world depended 
 upon their success on earth. What ardor of competition ; 
 what rage for speculation ; what looking about for novel 
 schemes, and what eagerness to embrace them when of- 
 fered ; what hazardous and reckless gambling, do we see 
 going on all around us, — leaving out the impetus to all 
 this which the railway system has introduced, and saying 
 nothing of the multitudes who instead of plodding onward 
 in the beaten path of regular trade, endeavor, by watch- 
 ing the share market, to make a bound to wealth, — how 
 engrossing are the pursuits of secular business, in these days 
 
EARNESTNESS. 191 
 
 of large returns and small profits. Think of the consump- 
 tion of time, and the absorption of soul, which are neces- 
 sary to maintain credit and respectability ; and also the 
 strength of religious principle which is indispensable to 
 follow the things that are just, and true, and honorable, 
 and of good report. How many professors are in danger 
 of being carried away, how many are carried away, by the 
 tricks, artifices, and all but actual dishonesties of modern 
 trade : and what but a powerful and energetic ministry can 
 be expected to rouse and help G-od's professing people to 
 bear up against, and to keep in check, much more to sub- 
 due, this sordid and selfish spirit ? What can be sufficient 
 but an intense devotedness on the part of ministers to 
 make things unseen and eternal bear down the usurping 
 power of things seen and temporal ? Who but the man 
 that knows how to deal with invisible realities, and wield 
 the powers of the world to come, can pluck the worldling 
 from the whirlpool of perdition which sucks down so many 
 in the torrents of earthly-mindedness, or prevent the pro- 
 fessing Christian from being drawn into it ? If our own 
 minds are not much impressed with the awful glories and 
 terrors of eternity, we shall not and can not speak of these 
 things in such a manner as is likely to rescue our hearers 
 from the ruinous fascinations of Mammon. How in such 
 an age we seem to want a Baxter and a Doolittle : an 
 Edwards and a Howe ; a Whitfield and a Wesley, to 
 break in with their thunder upon the money-loving, money- 
 getting spirit of this grossly utilitarian age. 
 
 Then think of the engrossing power of politics. What 
 a spell has come over the popular mind, from this source, 
 since that tremendous outburst, the French Revolution : 
 for more than half a century the potency of this subject 
 has been perpetually augmenting, till the rustic oi the 
 
192 MOTIVES TO 
 
 village, as well as the merchant of the city ; the recluse 
 student of the cloister, no less than the man of the ex- 
 change, have alike yielded themselves up to the fascina- 
 tions of the newspaper, now accommodated, not only to 
 every party in politics, but to every creed in religion, and 
 at the same time cheapened down to almost the poorest 
 member of society. This is matter neither of surprise, nor, 
 provided it do not thrust out other and still more impor- 
 tant matters, of regret. It is but the constitution of our 
 country developing the energies of its popular element. 
 The people are claiming their share of power and influence ; 
 may they prepare themselves by knowledge and piety to 
 exercise it rightly. The stream and tendency of opinion in 
 Europe at large, as well as in our own country, is evidently 
 democratic ; but without education and religion the nations 
 will daily become desirous of more liberty, and at the same 
 time less capable of enjoying and preserving it. The less 
 they feel of outward force and of the compulsion of secu- 
 lar power, the more they need the control of moral prin- 
 ciples. At such a time, when the elements of good gov- 
 ernment are, so to speak, in a high state of excitement, and 
 amidst much repulsion and attraction amongst themselves, 
 are settling into their proper order, there will be such an 
 unusual degree of interest felt in this great matter, as to 
 throw into the shade matters of still deeper moment. 
 
 In sight of this, will any one deny that we want an 
 earnest ministry to break in some degree the spell, and 
 leave the soul at liberty for the affairs of a kingdom which 
 is not of this world ? When politics have come upon the 
 minds, and hearts, and imaginations of the people for six 
 days out of the seven, invested with the charms of elo- 
 quence, and decked with the colors of party ; when the 
 orator and the writer have both thrown the witchery of 
 
EARNESTNESS. 193 
 
 their genius over the soul ; how can it be expected that 
 tame, spiritless, vapid common-places from the pulpit, — 
 sermons without either head or heart, having neither 
 weight of matter, nor grace of manner, neither genius to 
 compensate for the want of taste, nor taste to compensate 
 for the want of genius ; and what is still worse, having no 
 unction of evangelical truth, no impress of eternity, no ra- 
 diance from heaven, no terror from hell ; in short, no 
 adaptation to awaken reflection, produce conviction, or 
 save the soul, — how can it be expected, I say, that such 
 sermons can be useful to accomplish the purposes for which 
 the gospel is to be preached ? What chance have such 
 preachers to be heard or felt, or what claim have they, 
 amidst the high excitement of the times in which they live ? 
 Their hearers too often feel, that in listening to their ser- 
 mons on the Sabbath, as compared with what they have 
 heard or read during the week, they seem as if they were 
 turning from the brilliant and tasteful gas-light to the dim 
 and smoking spark of the tallow and the rush. 
 
 Another characteristic of our age is an ever-growing 
 taste for elegance, refinement, and luxurious gratification. 
 We cannot wonder at this, nor if it be kept within proper 
 bounds, greatly regret it. It is next to impossible that the 
 progress of art, and the increase of wealth, should not add 
 to the embellishments of life, and multiply the sources of 
 tasteful enjoyment. But then, just in proportion as we 
 multiply the attractions of earth, is our danger of making- 
 it our all, of leaving heaven out of sight, and learning to 
 do without it. This is affecting the church, and the hardy 
 and self-denying spirit of Christianity is in danger of being 
 emasculated, and of degenerating into a soft and sickly 
 effeminacy. Elegance and extravagance, luxurious enter* 
 tainments and expensive feasts, are beginning to corrupt the 
 9* 
 
194 MOTIVES TO 
 
 simplicity that is in Christ ; and amidst sumptuous build- 
 ings, gorgeous furniture, costly dress, and gay equipages, 
 professors of religion are too much setting their affections 
 on things that are upon the earth, and turning away from 
 the glory of the cross to the glory of the world. Who is 
 to call them off from this pageantry, and make them by 
 God's grace feel how vain are all these things ? Who can 
 set up a breakwater against the billows of this ocean of 
 w^orldly-mindedness, and guard the piety of the church 
 from being entirely swept away by a flood of ungodliness ? 
 Who but a pastor that can speak in power and demon- 
 stration of the Spirit, — a man who shall rise Sabbath after 
 Sabbath in the pulpit, clothed with a potency to throw 
 into shadow, by his vivid representations of heaven and 
 eternity, all these painted nothings on which his hearers 
 are in danger of squandering their immortal souls ? 
 
 Akin to this is a continually augmenting desire after 
 amusement. A love for pleasure, diversion, and recreation, 
 is an appetite evidently increasing, for which there are 
 those who are ever ingenious and ever busy to furnish a 
 supply. Religion is no enemy to rational enjoyment, even 
 though it be not strictly spiritual ; and they who can sup- 
 plant the low and vulgar sensualities on which the multi- 
 tude have fed, by a more refined and elevated taste, even 
 if it should not rise into the element of religion, are doing 
 a service to their country and to their species. But still, 
 a taste for amusement, both mental and bodily, may be 
 carried too far, and many foreseeing and deeply reflective 
 minds are of opinion that it is going too far now. 
 
 There cannot be a thoughtful mind, one that looks upon 
 our sojourn in this world as a probation for eternity, but 
 must reflect with serious alarm and grief upon the endless 
 devices which are suggested by the wisdom that cometh 
 
EARNESTNESS. 195 
 
 from beneath, to hide from mankind their duty and their 
 destiny as immortal creatures. It seems as if by common 
 consent, mankind were striving who should be most suc- 
 cessful, by inventing new kinds of diversions, in blotting 
 from the mind all considerations of eternity. Pleasure - 
 taking is the rage of the day, a taste which has been excited 
 into a hungry appetite by the railway system. Before 
 this desolating influence, the sanctity of the Sabbath, and 
 with it of course the prevalence of religion, are likely to 
 be destroyed. It may be said that anything is better than 
 the alehouse and the gin-shop. This is freely admitted, but 
 it may be questioned whether some of the modern stimu- 
 lants to pleasure do not lead to, and not from, these scenes 
 of iniquity. The people, it is affirmed, must have recreation. 
 Be it so, but let it be of a healthful kind, and let the great 
 aim of all who have any influence upon the public mind 
 be to endeavor to implant a taste for the recreations 
 afforded by cheap and wholesome literature, by quiet home 
 enjoyments, and above all, by the sacred delights of true 
 piety. 
 
 In connection with this may be mentioned as one par- 
 ticular species of amusement, the taste for works of humor 
 which has been produced in this country within the last 
 ten years. There is no sin in mirth : man is made to enjoy 
 it, and there is a time to laugh as well as to weep. And 
 he must be a very misanthrope, a vampire which in the 
 dark night of sorrow would suck the last drop of happi- 
 ness from the human sufferer, who would forbid the smiles 
 of gladness and everything which ministers to the grati- 
 fication of the laughter-loving heart. But then it is a dif- 
 ferent thing from this, to wish to keep down this propen- 
 sity within due bounds, and to remind men that they have 
 
196 MOTIVES TO 
 
 other things to do in this world than to laugh and be merry. 
 Dr. Vaughan says : — 
 
 (i We are not certain that some of our wise men do wisely, who 
 are going abroad just now with their cap and bells, in the hope of 
 securing better attention to their lessons from the foolish. A 
 fondness for grotesque jokes and everlasting caricature, bears as 
 little resemblance to manly feeling, as the ecstacies of a young 
 lady over the ]ast new novel. Truth is a grave matter, and can 
 owe little ultimately to the services of a buffoon. It loses half 
 its dignity, if often presented in association with the ridiculous. 
 Those who find their chief pleasure in broad farce, are rarely 
 capable of a due exercise of earnest and reverential feeling. 
 Your great wits do not spare their best friends, and your votaries 
 of fun are generally persons prepared to sacrifice anything to 
 their god. The mind which is wont to pay much homage to the 
 laughers, too often forgets to pay a real homage to anything 
 higher. In such a service, the fine edge of moral feeling is al- 
 most of necessity worn away. Not that we would send a man 
 to the bow-string, because he has indulged a laugh. On the 
 contrary, the man who cannot so indulge is not a man to our 
 liking. There is something wrong in him, physically, mentally, 
 and morally. All truly healthful men, in the spiritual, as well as 
 in the natural sense, know how to enjoy their laugh. But your 
 great laughers are generally slow workers. To make a merri- 
 ment of folly is not to displace it by wisdom. Our proper busi- 
 ness here is neither to grin nor to whine, but to be men. We 
 say not that good may never be ('one by means of ridicule, but 
 we are convinced that its general effect is such as we have ven- 
 tured to indicate. It is an instrument, moreover, which has two 
 edges, — use it, and you have no right to complain of its being 
 used."* 
 
 These are wise and true sayings, as seasonable as they 
 are important, and called for by the excessive taste for this 
 
 * British Quarterly Review, No. VI. p. 254. 
 
EARNESTNESS. 197 
 
 species of composition which now prevails. If anything 
 need be added in corroboration of these arguments, it is 
 the fact stated by the justly lamented Dr. Arnold, that 
 since the publication of periodical works of humor, he had 
 perceived a visible declension of manly sentiment and 
 serious thoughtfulness among the elder boys of his school. 
 This is strong and decisive testimony as to the influence of 
 a continued indulgence in broad farce. Is there not pre- 
 cisely the same effect produced on the minds of our young 
 men, especially when to this is added the moral tendency 
 of the sentiments which are sometimes clothed in the garb 
 of humor ? Nothing can be more opposed to, or destruc- 
 tive of, the serious spirit which true religion requires, than 
 this constant and regular supply of materials for laughter. 
 Nor does the mischief stop with the young and the unde- 
 cided in religion, for it is infecting the professors of 
 religion. It is hard to conceive how earnestness and 
 spirituality can be maintained by those whose tables are 
 covered, and whose leisure time is consumed, by these 
 bewitching inspirations of the god of laughter. There is 
 little hope of our arresting the evil, except we make it our 
 great business to raise up a ministry who themselves shall 
 not be carried away with the torrent ; who shall be grave, 
 without being gloomy ; serious, without being melancholy ; 
 and who, on the other hand, shall be cheerful without 
 being frivolous, and who by their chastened mirthfulness 
 shall be among the laughers, if not as total abstainers, yet 
 as a moderate man among drunkards, and whose temper- 
 ance' shall check, or at any rate reprove the excesses of 
 their companions. And then what a demand does this 
 state of things prefer for the most intense earnestness in 
 our Sabbath-day exercises, both as to prayers and to ser- 
 mons. In this modern taste we have a new obstacle to 
 
198 MOTIVES TO 
 
 our usefulness of a most formidable kind, and which can 
 be subdued only by God's blessing upon our fidelity and 
 zeal. Such men are wanted, as shall by their learning, 
 science, and general knowledge, give weight to their opin- 
 ions and influence to their advice, in their private intercourse 
 with their flocks, and as shall by their powerful and evan- 
 gelical preaching, control this taste, and supplant it by a 
 better. 
 
 Nor must we omit to notice, and to notice with peculiar 
 emphasis, the impetus that is now given to the human 
 understanding through all its gradations, from the highest 
 order of intellect down to the humblest classes of the 
 laboring population. We have already alluded to this 
 subject, but on account of its importance must here refer 
 to it again, and a little more at length. As regards the 
 laboring classes, education is advancing among them with 
 rapid strides, as far at least as the counteracting tendency 
 of the manufacturing system will allow. The poor must 
 and will be instructed. The change of opinion on this 
 subject that has come over a large portion of the commu- 
 nity within the last quarter of a century, is indeed mar- 
 vellous ; and instead of loud descants upon the dangers of 
 an educated people, we now hear little else but as loud 
 descants on the evils of ignorance. This is a happy con- 
 version, and its results will be auspicious, not however 
 without some temporary admixture of evil. It is really 
 refreshing to read the programmes of educationary schemes 
 which are drawn up for the culture of the working classes, 
 by those who are promoting their mental improvement. 
 But improvement in education is not confined, and cannot 
 be confined, to the lower classes, but must be carried for- 
 ward in equal proportion among those that are above them. 
 The universal mind is awakened, and in motion onwards : 
 
EARNESTNESS. 199 
 
 it is in a state of intense excitement and irrepressible ac- 
 tivity. Discoveries in science and inventions in art come 
 so fast upon us, that we have scarcely recovered from the 
 surprise produced by one, before another calls upon us to 
 indulge in new wonder. Feats of science and art, especially 
 in the department of engineering, are performed or pro- 
 jected which look as if man in the pride of his intellect felt 
 that nothing was impossible to him. As might be expected, 
 all the knowledge thus obtained and accumulated is flow- 
 ing by the thousand rills of the press and cheap books, 
 through every department of society. The annual expen- 
 diture of millions of pounds in cheap literature will show 
 to what extent information on all subjects is reaching the 
 working and other classes. Knowledge is the great idol 
 around which the multitudes are gathering to pay their 
 homage and record their vows. Is there anything in such 
 a state of things at which the friends of religion should 
 take alarm ? Quite the contrary. Christianity began her 
 career, as every tyro in history well knows, in the most 
 enlightened age, and amongst the most polished nations of 
 antiquity ; and from that moment to the present, has never 
 shrunk from the broadest daylight of learning and science, 
 to skulk in the darkness and gloom of barbaric ignorance ; 
 and its ministers should ever be foremost as the patrons of 
 knowledge. But then it is evident that such a state of 
 things requires an indomitable earnestness in the sacred 
 duties of their calling to secure for religion its clue pre- 
 eminence amidst all the various claimants upon the public 
 attention. Giving to general knowledge all the importance 
 that is claimed for it, this, apart from religion, is not the 
 sovereign remedy, the grand eatholicon, which is io heal 
 the disorders and restore the moral health of diseased 
 humanity. There are some, and, indeed, not a few in our 
 
200 MOTIVES TO 
 
 own country, as well as upon the continent of Europe, who 
 dream, and all history proves it to be but a dream, of re- 
 generating the world by the principles of reason and the 
 aid of secular education. They think they can regulate 
 society without religion, and renew the heart of man with- 
 out God. We might ask them what philosophy did for 
 such purposes in Egypt, its cradle, or in Greece, its tem- 
 ple ? They forget that by the permission of Providence 
 a grand experiment was made in the latter country, during 
 the five centuries that preceded the Christian era, by the 
 sages of the schools, to see what knowledge, apart from 
 Divine revelation, could do to reform the moral world, and 
 make it virtuous and happy. We venture to call for the 
 resirit, and if the advocates of reason refuse to give it, an 
 apostle shall supply the answer, — " The world by wisdom 
 knew not God." It would seem as if, not satisfied with a 
 single demonstration, these men were hazarding a second 
 trial. Again with still greater advantages, and still greater 
 confidence, they are flocking to the ordeal. Education is 
 to be improved and extended ; the press is pouring forth 
 its cheap literature ; science is broken down to such frag- 
 ments and measured out in such drops, as even infant 
 minds can receive and digest ; and every appliance is to be 
 furnished to give effect to the knowledge thus communi- 
 cated ; lecturers on all subjects are travelling through the 
 country, and are pouring forth streams of information in 
 every direction ; while rational and invigorating amusements 
 are to come in to aid the general improvement. By the 
 advocates of the sufficiency of knowledge alone to improve 
 the taste and raise the morals of the nation, the largest 
 expectations are indulged of the regeneration of society, 
 as the result of all these laborious efforts ; but which, 
 without a prophet's eye we may predict, are doomed to 
 
EARNESTNESS. 201 
 
 certain and bitter disappointment; and may confidently 
 anticipate that the result of the second experiment will be 
 the same as the first, and prove not only that the world 
 by wisdom will never know God, but that nothing less 
 than the foolishness of preaching will achieve its moral 
 reformation. 
 
 The state of our popular literature, as moulded to a 
 considerable extent by these men, proves that such an 
 experiment as that of teaching mankind to do without 
 religion is going on. In much of what is read by the 
 masses, there is an unconcealed hostility to Christianity. 
 Infidelity of the boldest and most daring kind is associat- 
 ing itself with a great many of the cheap publications of 
 the day, with an energy and a success that would astound 
 as well as alarm those who are not in the secret. But still 
 there are many of the guides of the popular mind, perhaps 
 most of them, who would not patronize .this open assault 
 upon the foundations of our faith — they go a more insi- 
 dious, though scarcely less injurious way to work; they 
 are acting up on the principle that the best way to attack 
 religion, and the least likely to shock prejudice and excite 
 alarm, is to say nothing about it, to treat the whole subject 
 as a negative, a nonentity, a thing to be forgotten ; with 
 which it is no part of their business to concern themselves, 
 and which may be left to float quietly down the stream to 
 the gulf of oblivion. All that is thought necessary to 
 provide for the million in the way of reading, is amusement 
 and general knowledge : and, to a very great extent, the 
 object of all this is accomplished. The laboring classes, 
 with increasing knowledge,- are more and more alienated 
 from religion. The masses are not yet won to Christianity, 
 but are sullenly standing aloof from it. 
 
 In such a state of things, what kind of ministry is it 
 
202 MOTLVES TO 
 
 that is wanted ? The answer is easy — men of earnestness ; 
 of earnest intellects, earnest hearts, and earnest preaching ; 
 men whose understanding shall command respect, whose 
 manner shall conciliate affection, and whose ministrations 
 shall attract by their beauty, and command by their power. 
 The accessibility of the laboring classes gives us an advan- 
 tage in approaching them. Neither prejudice nor fashion 
 bars us out from them. We have neither to scale the walls 
 of bigotry, nor to silence or evade the dogs of angry intole- 
 rance : the door is open, and we may walk in. But we 
 must be men of the age, men who understand it, who are, 
 to say the least, up with it, and know how to avail ourselves 
 of its advantages, and to surmount its difficulties. But I 
 cannot do better here than refer to an admirable article in 
 the Eclectic Review, on the Modern Pulpit, from which the 
 following extract is given : — 
 
 "What is good preaching ? Alas, how many answers would 
 be given to this question ! And yet is not the true answer — the 
 preaching by which souls are saved ? Then, the best preaching 
 must be that by which the greatest number of souls are saved. In 
 order to that end, however, men must be brought within the 
 sphere of the pulpit ; and to bring the greatest number of men 
 within that sphere is the design of Dr. Vaughan in his treatise, 
 (on the Modern Pulpit,) and it is ours. In one word, what we 
 specifically want in the modern pulpit is — adaptation. Now we 
 have read a good deal in our time, not more than enough, of the 
 necessity of adapting the efforts of the pulpit to the constitution 
 of the human mind, to man's moral nature, to his actual condition 
 as fallen, guilty, wretched, and exposed to future punishment. 
 And not seldom have we read most seasonable injunctions, ad- 
 dressed to our young ministers, on the personal adaptation of 
 their discourses to the condition of individual men. All this we 
 regard as of equal importance at all times, and in all conceivable 
 circumstances. But, at present, our aim is to excite as much 
 
EARNESTNESS. 203 
 
 attention as we can to the truth — that along with these general 
 and fixed adaptations, there is required a constantly varying 
 adaptation to the constantly progressive changes of society." 
 
 The writer then goes on to explain what he means by 
 this varying adaptation of the pulpit to the advancement 
 in society, in reference to one portion of it — the working 
 classes. 
 
 " Education is raising these great masses of the community 
 into higher degrees of intellectual culture. New powers are at 
 work. Incredible facilities are multiplied for diffusing knowledge, 
 spreading opinions, and increasing the number of thinkers. Now 
 in such an age, to say nothing of other views of society, it is ob- 
 viously the duty of evangelical preachers to adapt themselves to 
 the circumstances in which they are placed ; not, as this talented 
 writer would be among the last to suggest, by withdrawing from 
 the pulpit the great themes of the mediatory system, and substi- 
 tuting for them philosophic truth, or a rationalized gospel, but by 
 such a general line of conduct with reference to the circum- 
 stances of a growingly enlightened age, and such a strain of 
 preaching as shall lay hold of the public mind, and bring it under 
 that doctrine, which, and which only, is the power of God unto 
 salvation. Let there be a just estimate formed, and which to be 
 just cannot be a low one, of the mental powers of the common 
 people ; a judicious and hearty sympathy with their real wants 
 and reasonable wishes ; a studious consideration of the means by 
 which the multitude shall be brought back to the sanctuaries of 
 religion, which they have to a considerable extent deserted ; an 
 assiduous endeavor to connect the functions of the pastor with 
 the literary cultivation of the people. For these purposes let 
 there be correct information of their state of intellect, their pre- 
 vailing habits, their peculiar temptations, their literary tendencies 
 and aspirations as to the books they read — let there be all this, but 
 then let it be only as so much power put forth to bring those 
 masses under the influence of the gospel. Oh, it were a noble 
 triumph of the modern pulpit to see men of strong principle, and 
 
204 MOTIVES TO 
 
 self-controlling wisdom, gathering round them the most boisterous 
 elements of our social atmosphere, conducting the lightnings with 
 which its darkest thunder clouds are charged, and showing to the 
 nation they have saved, that the preaching of the cross is still the 
 'power of God." 5 
 
 Of course, such an enterprise of home-evangelization will 
 require that our ministers shall be men of action* Adap- 
 tation, then, there may be, and should be, in the sermons 
 and the general habits of the ministry to the age in which 
 they live, in the way of laying hold of public attention, 
 widening the sphere of their action, and adding to their 
 influence as preachers of the cross. Stronger intelligence, 
 profounder thinking, more logical argumentation, more 
 varied illustration, more chastened composition, more re- 
 fined sentiment, more genuine, yet Christian, and unobtru- 
 sive philosophy, may be required in one age than another, 
 and in this than in some preceding ages ; but then all this 
 must be in harmony with the simplicity that is in Christ, 
 and only so much added to the height or the ornaments of 
 
 * Connected with my own congregation is an Institution, partly 
 religious and partly literary, for the benefit of the young men and elder 
 boys of all classes, but chiefly of the working classes, which has exist- 
 ed for more than a quarter of a century, which has a library of nearly 
 1200 volumes, and to the members of which lectures on miscellaneous 
 subjects are periodically delivered. As a proof of the advantages it 
 has conferred, as well as of the taste of the age, two of our members, 
 both of them formerly in our Sunday school, took an excursion last 
 summer, through France, up the Mediterranean to Athens, from thence 
 through Southern Greece, back to Sicily, Naples, Pompeii, Rome, and 
 Italy : and on their return delivered in three lectures an account of 
 their travels, that would bear no distant comparison with some other 
 accounts that have been given to the public from the press. They were 
 able to appreciate, and did appreciate with enthusiasm, the remains of 
 antiquity in Greece and Rome, as well as the exhibitions of modern 
 times. 
 
EARNESTNESS. 205 
 
 the pedestal which is to exalt the Saviour, and attract a per- 
 ishing world to the fountain of life. 
 
 Having referred to the state of public opinion and feeling 
 with reference to religion among the lower classes, it may 
 not be amiss to glance at the higher and more educated 
 portions of the community. Many of these are moving on 
 two lines, or in a stream that divides into two channels, and 
 flows in two opposite directions — the devout going off to 
 Puseyism, and a large part of the rest to a philosophical 
 infidelity. A loose, unsystematized theism is adopted by 
 many of our men of letters, in some cases a new edition of 
 the opinions of our English deists of the last century, and 
 in others, and a still more numerous class, bearing a strong 
 affinity to the pantheistic or mystic spirit of the German 
 philosophy. Of the disposition of modern science, in the 
 persons of some of its more illustrious votaries, to retire 
 from revealed religion as if ashamed to be seen in its com- 
 pany, we have an affecting instance in the great octoge- 
 narian naturalist of Prussia. It is indeed a melancholy spec- 
 tacle, to witness such a man as Humboldt — whose eye has 
 seen so much of the visible universe, and whose pen has 
 recorded so ably the researches of his vast genius ; whose 
 intellect seemed formed by the Creator, not only to study 
 his works, but to proclaim his glories — send forth such a 
 work as " Kosmos," and in that work declare it was no part 
 of his business to trace the wonders he describes to their 
 still more wondrous Author ! How deeply painful to see 
 this high priest of nature officiating with such zeal and de- 
 votion at the shrine of matter, and yet never throwing one 
 grain of incense on the altar of the Infinite Mind which 
 made the worlds. Yet this is only a specimen of other 
 similar cases. Alas, alas ! that such a mind should ho so 
 warped by the modes of thinking prevalent Among lii< 
 
206 MOTIVES TO 
 
 countrymen, and should have sent forth perhaps his last 
 gift to the lovers of science, in which the Hegelian panthe- 
 ism is too obviously, interwoven. 
 
 With such a view of the state and tendency of the edu- 
 cated mind in this age, we see an additional argument for 
 an earnest, and at the same time intelligent and educated 
 ministry. We shall want men, and we are not without 
 them already, who can enter the lists and do battle with 
 the seductive and dangerous forms of error, that have 
 done such mischief on the continent of Europe, and are 
 likely, without great vigilance and stout resistance, to re- 
 peat the mischief here also. The spirit of mental philoso- 
 phy which was called up by Locke, and has since been 
 sustained in different schools, by Reid and Kant, and 
 those who have descended from them, is at the present 
 moment widely diffusing itself through the English and 
 American mind. Education will no longer be confined to 
 literature and natural science. A disposition and deter- 
 mination are formed to explore the world of mind, as well 
 as that of matter, and to give to subjective studies a place, 
 and that a very high one, among the objective ones. Psy- 
 chology is now, and will be still more so, the favorite pur- 
 suit of great multitudes of reflective intellects. The mind 
 of Germany is operating with power and success upon the 
 mind of England, to an extent which is surprising, and in 
 some views of the case, alarming. It is, one should think, 
 impossible to trace the progress of Transcendentalism from 
 the time of Kant to that of Hegel, and to see how, as it 
 diverged more and more widely from the metaphysics of 
 our land, it has associated itself with Rationalism in the- 
 ology, and led on to Pantheism in philosophy, without 
 some apprehension for the result of its introduction to this 
 country. Perhaps the practical character of the English 
 
EARNESTNESS. 207 
 
 understanding will be one of our safeguards against a sys- 
 tem which to the great multitude must ever remain a mere 
 scientific speculation. It may, however, be feared that 
 some of our young ministers, and our students in theology, 
 especially those of speculative habits, captivated by the 
 daring boldness, the intellectual vigor, and the theoretic 
 attractions of the great German philosophers, may too ad- 
 venturously launch forth on this dangerous ocean, and make 
 shipwreck of their doctrinal simplicity and practical use- 
 fulness. Let them be assured that neither the transcen- 
 dentalism of Kant, nor the eclecticism of Cousin, are safe 
 guides for men who would be useful in saving souls. The 
 warning voice has already been lifted up in high places on 
 the other side of the Atlantic, where German philosophy 
 was likely at one time to be received with avidity, and 
 there will not be wanting voices to utter words of warning 
 in this country also. It would not only be useless, but 
 unwise to set out this, or any other system of philosophy, 
 as the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which we are 
 forbidden by the command of God, and the flaming sword 
 of the cherubim, to approach : this, as well as every other 
 object of human inquiry, may be studied, and by a cau- 
 tious and discriminating mind, may of course be studied 
 with advantage. We would by no means contend that 
 there is nothing in the industry of German investigation, 
 in its method of analysis, in its subjective taste, or even in 
 the systems which are the fruits of its researches, which 
 may not be borrowed with advantage by ourselves ; but 
 against that willing and entire surrender of their intellects 
 to a school the masters of which have advanced from one 
 degree of error to another, till they have left us no gospel 
 but a fable, and no God but nature, which some are be- 
 
208 MOTIVES TO 
 
 ginning to manifest in this land, we must raise an emphatic 
 and protesting voice. 
 
 A work has lately made its appearance, likely to be ex- 
 tensively circulated among those who have any taste for 
 philosophical studies, or any wish to become acquainted 
 with German literature ; a work which cannot fail to com- 
 mand attention, and will certainly secure for its accom- 
 plished author the admiration and respect of his numerous 
 readers — I mean the " History of Modern Philosophy, " 
 by the Rev. J. D. Morell. It is impossible to deny to 
 this gentleman the fidelity of the historian, the impartiality 
 and the candor of the true philosopher, and at the same 
 time the excellence of a very able writer. It is on some 
 accounts a happy circumstance that such a subject has 
 fallen into such hands, since Mr. Morell's attachment to 
 evangelical truth, united with his intimate acquaintance 
 with continental literature, will qualify him we trust to be 
 a safe pilot for the English mind through the perilous seas 
 he has undertaken to navigate. It may be hoped that his 
 own attachment to the subjective system of philosophy, 
 will not lead his ardent readers and admirers to go further 
 in that direction than his own discriminating and well- 
 balanced mind would wish or approve ; and we are quite 
 sure that he would join with many who are perhaps more 
 apprehensive than he is of the influence of German phi- 
 losophy, in the opinion that no surer way could our young 
 ministers take to hinder their usefulness than to allow such 
 studies to obscure the simplicity of their matter, or to 
 deaden the energy of their manner, as preachers of the 
 gospel, and that he would also most emphatically say, 
 "Beware, lest any man spoil you (as preachers) through 
 philosophy and vain deceit." 
 
EARNESTNESS. 209 
 
 From a very able and complimentary critique on Mr. 
 Moreli/s work, contained in the twelfth number of the 
 " North British Keview," obviously by Dr. Chalmers, the 
 following appropriate passage may with advantage be in- 
 troduced here : speaking of Carlyle, the reviewer says : — 
 
 " They are not creeds, but men, who are the objects of his 
 idolatry, which, under the name of hero-worship, he renders alike 
 to those of most opposite opinions — as to Luther, and Knox, and 
 Cromwell, on the one hand, so with equal veneration to the lofty 
 poets and transcendentalists of Germany, upon the other. He is 
 a lover of earnestness, more than a lover of truth : and it would 
 not be our counteractive at least, to urge that he should be a 
 lover of truth, more than a lover of earnestness. We should 
 rather say that both are best, and would our island only not be 
 frightened from its propriety by the high-sounding philosophy of 
 the continent — neither overborne by its pretensions, nor overawed 
 by its cabalistic nomenclature — would our savans and theologians 
 but keep unmoved on the ground of common sense, and by their 
 paramount demand for evidence at every step, lay resolute arrest 
 on the pruriencies of wanton speculation — then, while they re- 
 jected all that was unsubstantial and unsound in the dogmata 
 of the transcendental school, it were well that they imported the 
 earnest and lofty enthusiasm of its disciples, into the phlegmatic 
 universities, and no less phlegmatic churches, of our land. We 
 do not need to take down the framework of our existing ortho- 
 doxy, whether in theology or in science. All that we require is 
 that it shall become an animated framework, by the breath of a 
 new life being infused into it. Ours has been most truly de- 
 nounced as an age of formalism; but to mend this, we do not 
 need to exchange our formulas, only to quicken them ; nor to 
 quit the ground of our common sense for baseless speculations ; 
 nor to substitute the Divine Idea of Fichte for a personal and 
 living God ; nor to adopt for our Saviour a mere embodied and 
 allegorized perfection, and give up the actual and historical 
 Jesus Christ of the New Testament ; nor. finally, to go in quest 
 10 
 
210 MOTIVES TO 
 
 of a chimerical ontology in upper regions far out of mortal ken ; 
 and for visions of merest fancy there, to renounce either the cer- 
 tainties of our own palpable and peopled world, or the truths 
 which He who dwelleth in the heavens brought down from 
 heaven, because no man can ascend into heaven, or tell the mys- 
 teries and glories of a place which he never entered. What we 
 want is, that the very system of doctrine which we now have, 
 shall come to us not in word only, but in power. As things stand 
 at present, our creeds and confessions have become effete, and 
 the Bible a dead letter ; and that orthodoxy which was at one 
 time the glory, by withering into the inert and lifeless, is now 
 the shame and the reproach of all our churches. If there have 
 been the revival of a more spiritual philosophy in France, or else- 
 where, it might well humble us ; but this is not exactly the quar- 
 ter from which w T e should expect our revival to come. Prayer 
 could bring it dow T n from above ; and it is only thus, that all 
 which is good in Puritanism, its earnestness without its extrava- 
 gance ; its faith, without its contempt for philosophy ; its high 
 and heavenly-mindedness, without the baser admixture of its 
 worldly politics and passions — it is only thus the Augustan age 
 of Christianity in England, an age which Mr. Carlyle has 
 done so much to vindicate and bring to light, w T ill again come 
 back, to reform our State and bless our families." 
 
 From this article it is perfectly evident that if England 
 should have a tendency to go wrong, Scotland will do 
 something to put us right, and that the followers, but im- 
 proved ones, of Reid, will do much to keep the descend- 
 ants of Kant in check, and hold the balance even 
 between the Scotch and German philosophies. Surely 
 nothing more need be said to show and prove what kind 
 of men we want for such an age, and to indicate that for 
 times of such excitement, we must have men of strong 
 intelligence, simple faith, and entire devotedness. It is, in 
 every view we can take of it, an earnest age, and earnest 
 men alone can at such a time do anything" anvwhere. and 
 
EARNESTNESS. 21 i 
 
 least of all in the pulpit. Events with trumpet-call, summon 
 us to our post, with every faculty awake, and every energy 
 engaged. Amidst the din of business, of politics, of 
 science, and of fashion ; amidst the jests of laughers, the 
 eloquence of orators, and the clamor of parties, the voice 
 of the preacher will not be heard, unless he speak loudly, 
 nor listened to unless he speak earnestly : we shall gain no 
 heed for our holy religion, unless we put forth all our 
 strength ; it will be pushed aside, overborne, trampled 
 down in the jostling crowd, if we do not put forth our 
 mightiest energies to bear it up, and to make way for 
 it through the strife and the theory of abounding secu- 
 larises. 
 
 Let us not deceive ourselves by substituting anything 
 else for this. It may be all very well and proper in its 
 place to keep pace with the times in which we live, as re- 
 gards other matters ; in classical, mathematical, and philo- 
 sophical literature, in academic degrees, in tasteful architec- 
 ture ; but these things, in the absence of a living power of 
 intense devotedness, will be but as the flowers which shed 
 their fragrance upon our grave, or as the sculpture which 
 decorates our tomb. 
 
 IV. We may next contemplate the earnestness displayed 
 by some other bodies, with which it may be truly said, we 
 have to contend. 
 
 And first of all, let us look at the activity of the Church 
 of Rome. What a change has of late years come over 
 that wonderful and dreadful system, so far as its external 
 circumstances are concerned. Many are disposed to think 
 lightly of its present condition, efforts, prospects, and 
 hopes ; and it will be acknowledged it is unwise and im- 
 politic for Protestants to lend their aid in magnifying* the 
 power, and swelling the pride and expectations of the Man 
 
212 MOTIVES TO 
 
 of Sin. But then it is no less unwise and impolitic, on the 
 other hand, to miscalculate his forces, to shut our eyes on 
 his efforts, and to deny his victories. What we need is 
 just as much of alarm as shall rouse us to action, without 
 producing panic ; enough of fear to lead us to buckle on 
 our armor, and yet not so much as to paralyze our ener- 
 gy. Look at the present condition and prospects of Popery, 
 as compared with what they were soon after the French 
 Revolution. Weakened by the withering scorn of an infi- 
 del philosophy, to which its own corruption had given rise, 
 it was ill-prepared to sustain the shock of that awful out- 
 break of human passion, and it fell an apparently lifeless 
 corpse before it. The Gallican Church was subverted, its 
 priests were banished, its property confiscated, its places 
 of worship closed. A French army was in possession of 
 Rome, and the Pope was a prisoner in France, while his 
 adherents were trembling and dispersed in all parts of the 
 world. The opponents of Romanism exulted in the con- 
 fidence that its days were numbered and its end was come. 
 They exulted too soon. That lifeless corpse which lay 
 prostrate in Europe, has since then shown signs of return- 
 ing animation — its wounds have been healed — it has risen 
 from the earth — and recovering its full health, is going 
 forth at this time with giant strength to contend with Prot- 
 estantism for the mastery of the world. Popery has gained 
 political power in England. It is renewing its old fight in 
 France for the education of the people — its chapels, its 
 priests, its bishops, its monks, its missions, are everywhere 
 multiplying — its ancient craft and cruelty are again called 
 into activity, as Tahiti can witness — it is drawing hundreds, 
 I fear, if we include both clergy and laity, of influential 
 persons from the Church of England, and tainting with its 
 spirit hundreds more who remain behind to diffuse the 
 
EARNESTNESS. 213 
 
 corruption still more widely — it has done much to blot 
 from the memory of statesmen its past history, and to hide 
 from their eyes its hideous form — and with an ardor kind- 
 ling to an intense flame, and a hope flushed into a stronger 
 confidence by these victories, it is still going on from con- 
 quering to conquer. There are, it is true, for Rome fear- 
 ful and appalling portents to be set off against these bright 
 signs : there is the confiscation of ecclesiastical property 
 and the dissolution of the monasteries in Spain — the rapid 
 defection going on in Germany, under Ronge and Czerski 
 — the conversion of whole congregations and parishes in 
 the south of France to Protestantism— the rising spirit of 
 free inquiry even in Italy — with the growth of knowledge 
 and the advance of education everywhere. From all this 
 it is evident that the great battle of the Reformation is to 
 be fought over again, and we are in the field of action, 
 where the forces are mustered and the conflict is going on ; 
 and we are unworthy of our position and our occupation 
 if we do not give our energies, the best and the noblest, to 
 the cause. Let us take pattern from our foes, and imi- 
 tate their intensity of action. They are in earnest if we 
 are not. ■ Were it possible for us to see a perfect disclosure, 
 in one bird's-eye view, of all that is going on in the Vati- 
 can, that most astounding instance of centralization out of 
 the bottomless pit ; could we see the gigantic intellects 
 that are planning, and the burning hearts that are feeding 
 the fire of their zeal, and the busy hands that are working 
 in that focus of all that is daring in design and mischievous 
 in effect to the world's intellectual and spiritual welfare, we 
 should feel that we are safe from the tyranny of that auda- 
 cious system, only under the vigilance of an Omniscient 
 eye, and the protection of an Omnipotent arm. But that 
 help and that vigilance are not to be looked for by the 
 
214 MOTIVES TO 
 
 supine and lukewarm, and can be expected only in the way 
 of zealous activity and confiding prayer. To whom chiefly 
 should Protestantism look for the instrumentality necessary 
 for its defence, but to its ministers ? Let them, in answer 
 to the call which events are making upon their energies, 
 prepare themselves by study, by deep devotion, and by 
 intense action, to grapple with this ancient foe of spiritual 
 Christianity. 
 
 But this is not the only instance of earnestness offered 
 to us, which we should contemplate, and from which we 
 should deduce a stimulus to our own activity. We have 
 far more to fear from England than from Italy ; from Ox- 
 ford than from Rome. I do not now allude merely to the 
 Tractarian party ; we have little to fear from them, com- 
 pared with the other section of the Established Church — 
 the evangelical clergy. The Church of England is in ear- 
 nest. Many of us can recollect the time when it was not 
 so. A pervading secularity characterized her clergy ; a 
 drowsy indifference her people : if the former got their 
 tithes, and ate, drank, and were merry, and the latter got 
 christening, confirmation, and the sacrament when they 
 died, it was all they cared for. The only thing that moved 
 either of them to a pang of zeal was the coming of the 
 Methodists into the parish, and when these were mobbed 
 away, they relapsed again into their former apathy. Ex- 
 ceptions there were — bright and blessed ones — but they 
 were only exceptions. Thank God, it is not so now. A 
 vivifying wind has swept over the valley of dry bones, and 
 an army not only of living, but of life-giving men has 
 sprung up. Venn, Berridge, and Romaine ; Newton, 
 Cecil, and Simeon have lived and awakened a new spirit 
 in the church to which they belonged. Look at that 
 church as she is now to be seen, full of energy and ear- 
 
EARNESTNESS. 215 
 
 nestness : divided, it is true, into parties as to theological 
 opinion, to a considerable extent Romanized in her spirit, 
 and aggressive in her designs ; but instinct with life, and a 
 great deal of it life of the best kind. Even the orthodox 
 and the Puseyite clergy are all now active, preaching, cat- 
 echising, visiting the sick, instituting and superintending 
 schools. The day is happily gone by when the taunt of 
 fox-hunting, play-going, ball-frequenting parsons could be 
 with justice thrown at the clergy of the State church : 
 they are now no longer to be found in those scenes of folly 
 and vanity, but at the bed-side of the sick man, or in the 
 cottage of the poor one. We must rejoice in their labors 
 and in their success, except when their object and their 
 aim are to crush Dissenters. There are very many among 
 them of the true apostolic succession in doctrine, spirit, and 
 devotedness ; many whose piety and zeal we should do 
 well to emulate ; many with whom it is among the felicities 
 of my life to be united in the bonds of private friendship, 
 and public co-operation. Sincerely and cordially attached 
 to their church, they are laboring in season and out of 
 season, to promote its interests. Who can blame them ? 
 Instead of this, let us imitate them. For zeal and devoted- 
 ness they are worthy of it. I know their labors, and am 
 astonished at them. Think of a clergyman, and multitudes 
 of such there are, who, beside his other labors, spends 
 four or five hours every day in going from house to house, 
 visiting the sick, instructing the ignorant, comforting the 
 distressed. Can we wonder that such men should lay 
 hold on the public mind ? Is it not in the natural course 
 of things that it should be so ? It is admitted that the 
 clergyman of a parish has advantages for this species of 
 ministerial occupation which we have not ; he considers all 
 the people within certain topographical limits as belonging 
 
216 MOTIVES TO 
 
 to him, as being, in fact, his cure ; while, on the other hand, 
 most if not all of these persons, except such as by profes- 
 sion really belong to other denominations, look upon him 
 in the light of their minister. This ever-active assiduity, 
 in addition to the Sabbath-day exercises, is admonitory to 
 us. Can we see this new sight, the whole Church estab- 
 lishment, from the Archbishop of Canterbury down to the 
 curate of the smallest village, with all their modern and 
 comprehensive agency of Pastoral Aid Societies, Ladies' 
 District Visiting Societies, Scripture Headers, Church of 
 England Tract Societies, and other means of influence and 
 power, in busy commotion, dotting the land all over with 
 churches and schools, and thus, by all these efforts, labor- 
 ing to occupy so entirely the nation, as to leave no room 
 for, and to prove there is no need of, any other body of 
 Christians — can we see all this constantly before our eyes, 
 and not see the need of an earnest ministry, not only to 
 maintain our ground, but to advance ? Not that I mean 
 to assert that the evangelical clergy would altogether wish 
 to push us off the ground. No, I believe there are many 
 who unfeignedly rejoice in the existence, operations, and 
 success, both of the Methodists and Dissenters, and who 
 would consider it a deep calamity for the nation, if they 
 were arrested in their career of evangelical ministration to- 
 morrow. The spirit of the Evangelical Alliance is diffus- 
 ing itself abroad. Sectarianism is, we hope, beginning to 
 wither at the root, and Christian charity is grappling with 
 the demon of bigotry. But still we are at present not 
 prepared for the fusion and amalgamation of all parties 
 into one, and till then we may learn from each other ; and 
 with the most entire good will towards my brethren in the 
 Church of England, without envy or jealousy, I call upon 
 my other brethren within my own denomination to imitate 
 
EARNESTNESS. 217 
 
 the zeal of which they are the witnesses among the clergy 
 of the Establishment. I am a Dissenter from conviction 
 as well as by education, and know not the lure which would 
 induce me, or the suffering which would terrify me, to 
 abandon my principles. I believe, as I ever have believed, 
 since I reflected upon the subject, that the establishment 
 of religion by the enactments of secular legislation, has no 
 sanction from the New Testament, is a corruption of Chris- 
 tianity, and injurious to its spirit ; and I believe the time 
 will come, when the same views will be entertained by all 
 the genuine followers of Christ ; hence I am, and ought 
 to be, anxious, while I cultivate a spirit of brotherly love 
 towards those who differ from me, to uphold, though with- 
 out wrath, malice, or any uncharitableness, the denomina- 
 tion by which my conscientious opinions are embodied and 
 expressed. Dissenters of England, and especially Dissent- 
 ing ministers, I say therefore unto you, be in earnest ; first 
 of all and chief of all in attachment to the doctrines of 
 Evangelism, to the creed of Protestantism, to the great 
 principles which God has employed in every age and coun- 
 try where true religion has had existence, to vitalize a dead, 
 and purify a corrupt world. Be it your prayer, your en- 
 deavor, your hallowed ambition, to possess a ministry of 
 competent learning, and especially of soundly evangelical 
 sentiment ; a ministry which, as regards their matter and 
 manner, shall be the power of God to the salvation of 
 souls ; a ministry w T hich, in the simplicity of their discourses, 
 and the intensity of their zeal, the fervor of their piety, and 
 the all-comprehending extent of their labors, shall vie with 
 the best specimens of the clergy of the Church of England. 
 There is earnestness there, and if we would not be swal- 
 lowed up in the rising tide and increasing torrent of their 
 zeal, let us meet it with a corresponding intensity. Let 
 10* 
 
218 MOTIVES TO 
 
 each minister in his own separate and individual sphere of 
 action, set himself to work and put forth all his energies 
 without waiting for combination with others. Not that I 
 speak against combination. We have far too little of it, 
 and this is our weakness. In polity we are too independent, 
 and should be vastly improved as regards our internal con- 
 dition and our external influence, if we were more compact. 
 But as to ministerial earnestness we need not wait for oth- 
 ers : each man can do what he wills, and may do much, 
 though no other man did anything. Ministerial activity, 
 like Christian piety, is a matter of individual obligation, 
 and no one is so dependent upon his neighbors, as that he 
 needs to halt till they are ready to march with him. 
 
 Nor is it necessary nor proper, advocate though I be for 
 the Evangelical Alliance, that we should be silent as to our 
 views of the spirituality of Christ's kingdom. As we are 
 not to sacrifice love for truth, so neither are we to sacrifice 
 truth for love, nor to throw away a smaller diamond of 
 truth for a larger one. All truth must be held, as well as 
 all love. I differ from some of our brethren in my views 
 of certain confederations for the maintenance and spread of 
 our Nonconformity, because I believe that whatever good 
 they may do in one way, they do more harm in another ; 
 but I do not differ from them in my conviction that our 
 principles, as a part of the New Testament, ought to be 
 taught, and to be taught with earnestness too. If true, 
 they must be important, and if important at all, very im- 
 portant: subordinate I know, immeasurably so, to the 
 doctrines whereby men are saved ; but still of consequence. 
 Provided the gross misrepresentation, the exaggerated 
 statement, the studied caricature, the uncharitable imputa- 
 tion, the withering sarcasm, the bitter irony, and the 
 malevolent ridicule be expunged from controversy, and 
 
EARNESTNESS. 219 
 
 there be as much of the delicacy of love, as there is of the 
 firmness of truth, there can be no harm, but must be much 
 good, not only in stating our own opinions, but in answer- 
 ing those who differ from us. All systems of church polity 
 derive their value and importance from their subserviency 
 to the cause of Evangelism. Church of Englandism or 
 Dissent apart from this, is but as the pole without the 
 healing serpent which it was erected to exhibit ; and to be 
 zealous about either except as viewed in reference to the 
 truth as it is in Jesus, is but like contending about the 
 wood of the cross, to the neglect of the Saviour who was 
 crucified upon it. 
 
 How, then, are we to meet that abounding zeal which 
 we ourselves perhaps have been in no small degree the 
 occasion of awakening, but by a corresponding vigor of 
 action ? We cannot advance, nay, we cannot keep our 
 ground without it. We have to contend against an energy 
 which is astounding and all but overwhelming ; and if this 
 cannot move us to earnestness, nothing will. 
 
 V. This state of mind and action is within the reach of 
 every minister of Christ. 
 
 Some men, from a natural physical energy of character, 
 may be more prone to, and better qualified for, this fervid 
 and devoted zeal than some others. They are of a more 
 mercurial temperament than their phlegmatic brethren, who 
 creep while the others fly, and who require more stimulus 
 to rouse them into activity than is necessary to keep the 
 rest at the full speed of their progress. This is constitu- 
 tional to a very considerable extent ; but it is, after all, 
 more of a moral than a natural inability in many ; and the 
 sinners whom they address and call to repentance, and 
 to whom they declare, that the only hindrance they have 
 to true religion is an impotence of will, are just as excus- 
 
220 MOTIVES TO 
 
 able for their want of penitence and faith, as any minister 
 under heaven is for a want of earnestness. He may never 
 be able to be a scholar, or a philosopher, or a mathema- 
 tician, though he may acquire more of all these attainments 
 than he supposes is within his reach, if he will but give 
 himself to early-rising, make a good apportionment of his 
 time, and adopt a well-arranged plan of study. His situ- 
 ation and engagements may be such, however, that he 
 may not hope to rise to eminence in these things ; but 
 nothing forbids his activity, zeal, and entire devotedness to 
 the great work of preaching the gospel and caring for 
 men's souls. He may not be a consummate orator, for he 
 has not voice for this ; but he may, if he pleases, use what 
 voice he has with good effect : he may not have the ability 
 for finished composition ; but he can, if he gives himself 
 time and labor, produce sermons full of spiritual power : 
 he may not be able to attract around him the rich, the lit- 
 erary, or the great; but he can interest the poor, and 
 engage the children of the Sunday school, and perhaps 
 their parents : he may not have ten talents, but he need 
 not wrap up his one in a napkin and bury it in the earth. 
 Every man has one talent at least, with which he can 
 busily trade and acquire profit for his employer and reward 
 for himself. If the pride of some men over-estimates the 
 number of their talents, the modesty, or in some cases the 
 indolence of others, leads them to make too low a calcula- 
 tion of theirs. There is a source of latent energy in most 
 men, which they have been so far from exhausting that 
 they have scarcely touched it ; they have in many cases to 
 break up a virgin soil. I knew a minister of Christ, and 
 loved him well, who was in a situation where he had done 
 little, and feared he never should do more. Everything 
 was dull around him, and he was dull with it. It pleased 
 
EARNESTNESS. 221 
 
 God to remove him to a new situation, and then he became 
 a new man. He revived from his torpor, and everything 
 revived around him. An activity and energy were now 
 evinced which surprised himself and those who knew him. 
 He formed a new congregation, instituted a variety of re- 
 ligious organizations of a useful kind, and was one of the 
 most earnest men I knew. All this energy was not a new 
 creation, but a resurrection. So it might be with many more. 
 There are the principles of activity within them which are 
 only waiting for the influence of circumstances, or the 
 power of will, to give them life, motion, and vigor. Away 
 then with the excuses of indolence, the fears of timidity, 
 the objections of modesty, and the opiates of conscience ; 
 for it is these, and not impossibilities, which prevent any 
 man from being zealously affected in a good thing. Every 
 minister can be an earnest man if he so wills ; and he is so 
 when anything in which he has a deep interest is at stake. 
 Let his house be on fire, or his health and life be in danger, 
 or his wife or child be in peril, or some means of greatly 
 augmenting his property be thrown in his way, and what 
 an intensity of emotion and a vehemence of action will be 
 exerted and put in motion ; and there needs but the might 
 and pressure of the interests of immortal souls upon 
 his conscience ; there needs but a heart constrained by the 
 love of Christ so as to be borne away by the force and im- 
 petuosity of this hallowed passion ; there needs but a long- 
 ing desire to be wise in winning men to Jesus ; there needs, 
 in fine, but a heart fully set in him to accomplish the ends 
 and objects of his office, to possess that high and noble 
 quality of soul which it is the object of this work to rec- 
 ommend. There are the same constitutional varieties in 
 tradesmen as are visible in ministers, and yet we never 
 hearken to the former when in justification of their failure 
 
222 MOTIVES TO 
 
 for want of energy, they tell us they have no physical ca- 
 pacity for, or tendency to, activity. Our reply to them is, 
 that what is deficient in them by nature, must be made 
 up by reason and diligence. We say the same to the 
 preacher of the gospel, and while by this representation 
 we would constrain his conscience by a sense of obligation, 
 we would interest his heart by awakening hope. He may 
 never be able, with his measure of talent, to reach the suc- 
 cess of some more gifted and more favored brethren ; but 
 he may have a measure of his own, far more than enough 
 to recompense any labor he may bestow to obtain some 
 success ; and instead therefore of spending his time in en- 
 vying others, or sitting down in despair to do nothing, 
 because he cannot do as much as they, let him rise up, and 
 have the blessed consciousness and reward that he has 
 done what he could. * • 
 
 You who may read these pages can possess and exhibit 
 real earnestness ; all its delightful excitement, all its blessed 
 results, all its eternal consequences, are within your reach. 
 There is no lion in the street, except what your own imag- 
 ination sees there, and your own sloth has placed there. 
 Make the effort, it is worth the making : try, you can but 
 fail, and it is better to fail than not to make the attempt. 
 Think what a result may issue from a new devotedness. 
 We have never yet any of us rightly estimated the im- 
 mense importance and momentous consequences of our 
 work. How can we ? They are eternal, and who can 
 duly estimate eternity ? Do we believe what we preach, 
 that the conversion of a soul is of more consequence than 
 the creation of a world ? Is this sober truth or mere 
 rhetoric ? Is this fact, or the mere garniture of a sermon ; 
 only a dash of eloquence, an artifice of our oratory ? If 
 true, and we know it is so, how momentous ! A soul, 
 
EARNESTNESS. 223 
 
 weigh it in the balance of the sanctuary, and settle its 
 worth : appraise its value. Salvation ! wondrous word, and 
 more wondrous thing. One word only, but containing 
 millions of ideas ; uttered in a moment, but requiring ever- 
 lasting ages, and all the amplitude of heaven, for the un- 
 folding of its meaning. Archbishop Williams, who was 
 also Lord Keeper in the time of Charles the First, once utter- 
 ed this memorable speech : "I have passed through many 
 places of honor and trust both in Church and State, more 
 than any one of my order for seventy years before. But 
 were I assured that by my preaching, I had converted one 
 soul to God, I should therein take more comfort than in 
 all the honors and offices that have ever been bestowed 
 upon me." What a confession from an Archbishop, that 
 he did not know he had been the instrument of converting 
 a single soul to God ; what an impressive importance does 
 the confession stamp upon the work of saving souls ; and 
 what a stimulus should it supply to us who are engaged in 
 this divine employment ! 
 
 How vain and worthless a thing is the popular applause, 
 which some receive for eloquence, compared with the 
 proofs of usefulness in the conversion of immortal souls ! 
 What are the flatteries of the foolish, or even the eulo- 
 giums of the wise ; what the honeyed compliments, or the 
 golden opinions of the most distinguished circle of admir- 
 ers, weighed against the testimony of one redeemed sinner 
 that we have been the instrument of saving from death, 
 but as the small dust in the balance ! How have some 
 men, pre-eminent for their intellectual power and accus- 
 tomed to fascinate the spell-bound multitude by the power 
 of their eloquence, yearned amidst all their popularity for 
 some more substantial, satisfying, and abiding reward of 
 their labor, than that admiration of their talents which 
 
224 MOTIVES TO 
 
 they were accustomed to receive. It may be they were 
 not unsusceptible to the emotions of vanity, nor ungrati- 
 fied by the expressions of applause, at the time ; but when 
 they found that this was all the result of their labors, they 
 sickened of the incense and the honey, and exclaimed in 
 the bitterness of disappointment, and the anguish of self- 
 reproach, " Is this all my reward ? Oh, where are the 
 souls I have converted from the error of their ways ?" 
 We have a striking proof of this in the late Dr. McAll, 
 whom it was my privilege to call my friend. It was im- 
 possible for this extraordinary man to be ignorant either of 
 his great powers, of the estimate in which they were held, 
 or the effect they produced on others by his pulpit exer- 
 cises. Nor was he by any means unsusceptible of the in- 
 fluence of applause. But how empty did this appear to 
 him as compared with the abiding results of real useful- 
 ness ; which, if he had not enjoyed in such large meas- 
 ures as some others, it was not for want of any anxiety to 
 obtain it. " Deeply affected was he often," says Dr. Leif- 
 child, " by the fear of not being useful in his ministry." 
 " I have admiration enough," he would say, " but I want 
 to see conversion and edification." He spoke of some 
 other neighboring ministers whose churches, he said, re- 
 sembled a garden which the Lord had blessed, or whose 
 spots of verdure were more vivid than his own ; but 
 added that his emotions in making the comparison, partook 
 of a character that absorbed or overwhelmed sorrow for 
 himself. I remember on one occasion, after a brilliant 
 speech from himself, he listened to a much plainer and less 
 oratorical brother, whose address, however, seemed much 
 more penetrating on the minds of the audience, and pro- 
 duced an appearance of being deeply affected on their 
 countenances. At that moment the speaker, hearing a 
 
EARNESTNESS. 225 
 
 loud sobbing behind him, turned round ; it was McAll. 
 " Ah," said he, afterwards, ". that effect, in such a legiti- 
 mate way, I would give the world to be able to produce." 
 Though the desire thus ardently breathed, was elicited on 
 the platform, it extended to every description of ministe- 
 rial address. " Oh," said he to Mr. Griffin, again and 
 again, " I care nothing what the people may think or say 
 of my abilities, if I may but be useful to souls !" and once 
 with a kind of swelling indignation, " God knows, I do not 
 want their applause— I want their salvation." This is 
 eminently instructive and impressive, and is one of the 
 most convincing instances which the history of the pulpit 
 can furnish of the worthlessness of almost everything else 
 as an object of ministerial pursuit, and as the reward of 
 ministerial labor, compared with the salvation of immortal 
 souls. This was not the confession and the lamentation of 
 one whose envy led him to depreciate the value of that 
 which he had no hope of obtaining, but of one who was 
 the admiration of every circle into which he entered, and 
 whose surprising talents commanded the plaudits of all 
 who heard him. How much of the power of that vast 
 intellect, and that splendid eloquence, and of the admira- 
 tion and eulogium which they drew upon him, would Dr. 
 McAll have given up for a portion of that usefulness, which 
 he saw was granted to the humbler but more effective tal- 
 ents of some of his far less gifted brethren. Let the men 
 who are but too apt to envy such displays of genius, and 
 who, when they see the spell-bound multitude listening in 
 breathless silence, or dispersing in audible applause, fret 
 because they cannot do so with their enchantments, study 
 the scene before us : let them follow Dr. McAll home 
 from the crowded, fascinated, admiring congregation, leav- 
 ing behind him the atmosphere perfumed and vocal with 
 
226 MOTIVES TO 
 
 applause, to commune with God and his own heart in his 
 closet, and there hear him exclaiming with a burst of agony, 
 " Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom has 
 thine arm been revealed ?" Let them mark all this, and 
 learn that in the estimation of the most gifted minds, there 
 is no object of pursuit so sublime, nor any reward for 
 ministerial labor so rich, as the salvation of immortal souls. 
 
 VI. We may next direct our attention to the fact that 
 earnestness has usually been successful in the accomplishment 
 of its object, and that little has ever been achieved with- 
 out it. 
 
 We admit, and in the conclusion of this work, shall more 
 emphatically state, the necessity of a Divine influence to 
 convert the soul ; but still the Spirit works by means, and 
 by means well adapted to accomplish the end proposed. 
 We do not look for the Spirit to convert souls without the 
 truth ; it is by the presentation of this to the judgment, 
 and by the co-working of Divine grace upon the heart, 
 that the great change of regeneration is effected. It is 
 evident, however, that this blessed result can take place 
 only in those cases where the truth is really contemplated. 
 The attention must be fixed upon it, or no result can take 
 place. Attention, and to a certain extent abstraction 
 of mind, may be said to be essentially necessary to the 
 work of conversion. Hence those preachers are not only 
 likely to be most useful, but are most useful, who have the 
 greatest power of fixing attention upon the truth, and hold- 
 ing the mind in a state of abstraction from all other topics. 
 When the attention is so withdrawn by their manner of 
 preaching from foreign matters and fixed upon the truth 
 then presented, the Spirit in a way of sovereign mercy 
 gives forth his influence, to change the evil bias of the 
 heart towards the truth thus exhibited to the understand- 
 
EARNESTNESS. 227 
 
 ing faculty. We perceive in different preachers very va- 
 rious kinds of power to engage the attention : some do it 
 by a commanding eloquence ; others by an impressive ora- 
 tory ; others by a burning ardor ; others by a melting 
 affection ; and some even by eccentricity ; but amidst all 
 this specific variety of manner we shall find the one pre- 
 vailing characteristic to be, an adaptation to arrest and fix 
 the attention. A preacher may be immeasurably inferior 
 to many others in the vigor of his intellect and richness of 
 his imagination, and yet may be very far their superior in 
 seizing and holding the minds of his hearers. We cannot 
 hope to do good if we do not succeed in gaining the at- 
 tention of the hearers, and our expectations of accomplish- 
 ing the objects of our ministry, may be indulged with 
 much confidence, if we can so preach as to compel our 
 hearers, so to speak, to listen to us. There is a striking 
 incident mentioned in the Life and Remains of Mr. Cecil, 
 of St. John's Chapel, Bedford Row, that master of pulpit 
 eloquence. He was once invited to preach in a village, 
 where the joyful sound of evangelical truth was rarely 
 heard in the parish church, and where he thought it prob- 
 able he should have no other opportunity to proclaim it. 
 To his mortification when he had got half-way through the 
 sermon he perceived that he had not succeeded in gaining 
 that close attention of the people which he deemed essen- 
 tial to the success of his sermon. The time was going by, 
 the case seemed desperate, and it occurred to him that 
 something must be done, or the opportunity was lost ; and 
 pausing for a moment where the subject admitted of his 
 trying his experiment, he said, with some degree of that 
 impressiveness which pertained to him, "Last Monday 
 morning a man was hanged at Tyburn/' and then went on 
 to make the recent execution bear upon the subject o( dis 
 
228 MOTIVES TO 
 
 course. The expedient of course succeeded, the wander- 
 ing eyes of the congregation were fixed upon the preacher, 
 and their truant minds upon the sermon. He gained their 
 attention, which was riveted to him through the remainder 
 of the discourse. Such self-possession is a noble qualifi- 
 cation for a public speaker : and the moral of the anecdote 
 is, — we must have the attention of our congregations, or 
 we can do them no good ; and the more we can command 
 this, so as to lead them to think of the truth, the more likely 
 we are to do them good. The history of all successful 
 preachers will prove that amidst a vast variety of means 
 of gaining this, they each had the power of doing it, and 
 in that power lay the secret of their success. 
 
 Let any one who is at all in doubt whether the impor- 
 tance of earnestness is overstated in this work, consider who 
 among departed ministers have been, and who among liv- 
 ing ones are, the most distinguished as successful preachers 
 of the word of God. If he apply this to the fathers and 
 founders of Nonconformity, he will find that in the first 
 rank stand Baxter, Bunyan, Doolittle, C larks on, Fla- 
 vel, Heywood, and Howe ; and when he has read their 
 glowing, and pungent, and powerful appeals to the hearts 
 and consciences of sinners, he will not wonder that such 
 sermons effected the high purpose for which all sermons 
 should be preached, that is, the conversion of sinners. 
 Coming on to latter times, it is unnecessary, after what has 
 been said, to mention Whitfield and Wesley, except to 
 reiterate that in addition to other high and nobler qualities, 
 earnestness was the great means of their extensive success. 
 They lived and labored for scarcely anything else than 
 the salvation of immortal souls. As a proof of the intensity 
 of their zeal, reference may be made to the race of men 
 into whom they breathed the fervor of their own souls, 
 
EARNESTNESS. 229 
 
 and whom they raised up now and then, to carry on their 
 own great work. With here and there an exception, the 
 present race of Methodist and Dissenting ministers are 
 stiff, formal, cold-hearted men, compared with not only 
 the leaders, but the next immediate followers of those illus- 
 trious instruments of the modern revival of evangelical re- 
 ligion. How few of us are worthy to be mentioned with 
 Coke and Fletcher, Rowland Hill, Berridge and Grim- 
 shaw ; with Cecil, Newton, and Romaine. What men 
 were raised up in Wales by the Whitfield movement, 
 Daniel Rowland, Jones of Llangan, Howell Harris, and 
 their successors, John Elias, Christmas Evans, and Wil- 
 liams, of Wern ; men who caused the mountains of their 
 own romantic country to echo to their mighty voices, and 
 filled its valleys with the fruit of their impassioned oratory. 
 If we look across the Atlantic, what a wonderful man do 
 we discover in Jonathan Edwards, whose printed ser- 
 mons, and which were only in accordance with his ordinary 
 ministry, are full of such earnestness as is exhibited in the 
 specimen given earlier in this work, whose ministry was so 
 full of its successful results. Call to recollection Stod- 
 dart, Bellamy, Dwight, Davis, who, in the land of the 
 pilgrim fathers, diffused abroad by their unreserved devoted - 
 ness, the savor of that Name which is above every name. 
 In Scotland there have been the Erskines, the McLaurins, 
 the Walkers, the Dicks ons, and others of by-gone 
 days, whose remains tell us how they handled the word 
 of God, and whose memoirs inform us with what success. 
 In these venerated men we see the secret of all ministe- 
 rial power, a desire amounting to a fervor for the conversion 
 of sinners, and an adaptation to accomplish this in their 
 preaching. 
 
 If the illustrious company of reformers, who present the 
 
230 MOTIVES TO 
 
 most august examples of burning zeal, next to the apostles, 
 be not referred to, if the majestic and mighty Luther, 
 the profound Calvin, the heroic Zuingle, the intrepid 
 Knox, the elegant and classic Melancthon are passed 
 over, it is not only because they are too well known to need 
 a mention, but also because they may be thought too 
 high above the ordinary sphere of ministerial activity to 
 be imitated : and yet if the pattern of the great Master 
 himself is placed before us for contemplation and imitation, 
 surely that of the most renowned of his servants need not 
 be withheld. What singleness of aim, and unity of pur- 
 pose, and concentration of energy were there in these rare 
 and extraordinary men, and what less could have carried 
 them on through their noble career ? 
 
 But descending to others, what men have been with us 
 in the recollection of the present generation, and the brilliant 
 horizon of whose setting sun has scarcely ceased even yet 
 to glow with the radiance of their names : the gigantic 
 Fuller, the mighty Hall, the seraphic Pearce, and the 
 lion-hearted Knibb ; the intellectual Watson, and the mas- 
 culine Bogue ; the eccentric yet generous and command- 
 ing Wilks, the judicious Roby, the mild yet persuasive 
 Burder, the pathetic Waugh, the wise and tender Grif- 
 fin, the captivating and lovely Spencer, and the eloquent 
 McAll. Honored be their names, fragrant their memo- 
 ries, precious be the recollection of their example ! May 
 we who survive cherish the recollection of their life and la- 
 bors, and never forget that their greatness and their use- 
 fulness arose not more from their talents than from their 
 devoted earnestness in the cause of evangelical truth. 
 
 But descending to others and to living examples, more 
 upon the ordinary level, it may be well to look round upon 
 those by whom, in our own day and before our own eves. 
 
EARNESTNESS. 231 
 
 the ends of the Christian ministry, and the object of evan- 
 gelical preaching are most extensively accomplished, and 
 to inquire by what order of means this has been done. It 
 would be invidious to mention the names of living men, to 
 select from among the multitude those who are pre-emi- 
 nent above their fellows in usefulness, in popularity, in the 
 constant exhibition of evangelical truth. Two names, how- 
 ever, may here obtain a place, honored by us all, and an 
 honor to us ; the names of men of widely differing, yet 
 equally conspicuous and acknowledged excellencies, who 
 are too far above us to excite our envy, and whose celebrity 
 will defend this willing, affectionate, and admiring testi- 
 mony, from the charge of invidious selection or fulsome 
 adulation ; and who, each in his own sphere, one in the 
 northern, the other in the southern hemisphere, is shed- 
 ding the lustre of an evening star, and reflecting upon the 
 church the glory of that great Sun of Righteousness, in 
 whose attraction it has been their delight through a long, 
 and holy, and useful life, to revolve ; who yet live, and 
 long may they live, that our younger ministry may learn 
 in the holy labors of Chalmers and Jay, how beautiful 
 and how useful is human genius, when sanctified by grace 
 and devoted to an earnest preaching of the gospel of sal- 
 vation. 
 
 But we are not considering now what may be done, and 
 is done, by the gifted few, who by their rare endowments 
 are fitted, as well as designed, to enrich our theological 
 literature by their valuable works, or to gather around 
 their pulpits the literary or philosophical spirits of the 
 place in which they dwell : these are the exceptions in all 
 denominations to the general rule of preachers, even as 
 those who listen to them, are the exceptions to the general 
 rule of hearers. Our remarks apply to the men who move 
 
232 MOTIVES TO 
 
 the masses, who operate upon the popular mind as it is 
 most commonly found ; and what are they 1 not perhaps 
 men of high scholarship, profound philosophy, or elegant 
 composition ; but men of energy and earnestness ; men lay- 
 ing themselves out for usefulness ; man of tact and of 
 business in the management of their fellow-men ; men of 
 heart, of feeling, and perseverance. Where is a large con- 
 gregation, a flourishing, well-compacted church to be 
 found ? — there is an earnest man. Where, in what coun- 
 try, or in what denomination, does one such man labor 
 without considerable success ? Where has the faithful, 
 devoted, energetic preacher of evangelical truth, to borrow 
 and use in a figurative sense the words of the Lord's fore- 
 runner, had to say, "lam the voice of one crying in the 
 wilderness ?" Where do we find small congregations, dis- 
 satisfied or declining churches, and empty chapels ? Where 
 do the ways of Zion mourn, and her gates languish, be- 
 cause none come to her solemn feasts ? Certainly not 
 where the ministers are as flames of fire. No matter where, 
 or under what discouraging circumstances, such a man, 
 who is one of these sacred flames, may commence his la- 
 bors, he will soon draw around him a deeply interested 
 and attentive congregation : no matter what may be the 
 denomination with which he may be associated, he will not 
 only excite the indifference, or subdue the prejudice, by 
 which he is surrounded, but will awaken interest and con- 
 ciliate regard. Under the magic power of his devotedness, 
 blessed as it will be by God the Spirit, the verdure and 
 beauty of spring will succeed to the gloom, desolation, and 
 sterility of winter, and the wilderness and the solitary place 
 shall be glad for him, and the desert rejoice and blossom 
 as the rose. In some cases, the change has been as sud- 
 den and as complete as in Russia, from hybernal frosts and 
 
EARNESTNESS. 233 
 
 snows to vernal flowers and fragrance : churches that 
 seemed only the repositories of the dead, and places for 
 monuments and epitaphs, have become crowded with living 
 and listening hearers of the joyful sound ; and chapels once 
 far too large for the last remains of a former congregation, 
 have been soon found too small for the new one that has 
 risen up in its place. 
 
 It would be no unprofitable exercise for any one to look 
 round upon some of our most successful ministers, and 
 after surveying the extent of their usefulness, to say to 
 himself, " How has that man done this ? What have been 
 the means by which, under God, he has accomplished so 
 much ?" Unhappily there are a few, perhaps, who are 
 so enamored of what is literary, intellectual, or philosoph- 
 ical, that even in large ministerial success they see little 
 to admire or to covet, if this be not associated with scholar- 
 ship and science. This is a bad state of mind, indicates a 
 worse state of heart, and proves that the man who is the 
 subject of it, has totally mistaken the end of the ministe- 
 rial office. There are some of our most useful preachers, 
 who are far more conscious of their literary and philosoph- 
 ical defects, than these supercilious scholars can possibly 
 be ; and who would purchase, if they could be obtained 
 by money, at almost any cost, if they had the means, the 
 high attainments which their more limited education never 
 enabled them to acquire : but at the same time they would 
 not give up their usefulness for all the literature of Greece 
 and Rome, with all mathematics and philosophy in addi- 
 tion ; and amidst their deficiencies in all that would give 
 them weight and influence in the world of letters, feel 
 adoringly thankful for all that weight and influence which 
 they have acquired in the church. Their labors in the 
 pulpit have gained them an acceptance which is far more 
 11 
 
234 MOTIVES TO 
 
 surprising to themselves than it can be to others. Perad- 
 venture, also, they may have adventured on the sea of au- 
 thorship, and have had a prosperous course, where many 
 expected they must soon make shipwreck. None can be 
 more sensible than themselves of their defects in composi- 
 tion, and often they have been ready to blame their pre- 
 sumption in taking up their pen, and to resolve to lay it 
 down forever, when perhaps some instance of usefulness 
 has come to their knowledge, as if to reprove their vanity, 
 wounded by a sense of their own deficiencies, and to make 
 them thank God and take courage. They knew their own 
 department of literary action, and aimed at nothing higher 
 than to be useful ; willing to bear the sneer of literary 
 pride and endure the lash of critical severity, if this one 
 only object of their ambition could be accomplished, the 
 salvation of immortal souls, and the establishment of be- 
 lievers in their holy faith. Such men there are among us, 
 who. owe not their success to a finished education, for it 
 was their misfortune not to enjoy this precious advantage 
 to the same extent to which it is now carried ; nor to high 
 scholarshijo, to which they make no pretensions ; but to an 
 intense desire to be useful, and to something of earnestness 
 in carrying out the desires of their hearts : and in addition 
 to the direct usefulness they have accomplished by their 
 own labors, they may be abundantly useful in another 
 way, by showing that where large literary acquisitions 
 cannot be obtained, still simple earnestness without them 
 may be blessed of God, for accomplishing in no inconsid- 
 erable extent the great ends of the Christian ministry. 
 
 It has been said that a man who has decision of charac- 
 ter enough to make up his mind to the determination to 
 be rich ; who has a good share of talents to uphold his 
 resolution, and a rigid system of self-denying economv. 
 
EARNESTNESS. 235 
 
 will ordinarily succeed ; and observation seems to a con- 
 siderable extent to support the remark. With far greater 
 certainty may it be said, that he who enters upon his min- 
 istry with an intense zeal for God, an ardent passion for the 
 salvation of souls ; and with this, sustained by deep piety, 
 a tolerable share of talents and acquirement, and a. fixed 
 purpose in humble dependence upon God's grace, to be a 
 useful minister of Christ, will not fail of his end. The 
 failure of such a man would be a new thing in the earth. 
 We know of no such case, and we may not expect to know 
 it. We. say to every sinner, in calling him to repentance, 
 he may be saved if he will : not intending by such an ex- 
 pression, that he can be saved without the Spirit of God ; 
 but that he may secure that Divine power if he have faith 
 to receive it : so we may almost venture to say to every 
 minister of Christ, it is his own fault if he is not useful ; 
 intending by such an assertion, that as the gospel he 
 preaches is God's own truth ; as preaching is his own in- 
 stitute ; as the minister is his own servant ; and as to all 
 this, He has added the promise of his grace, it would seem 
 as if in the case of entire or extensive failure, he has him- 
 self to blame. - 
 
 But we may look at the power of earnestness, as seen 
 not only in the cause of truth, but of error. It has often 
 served a bad cause as well as a good one. Islamism owes 
 its existence and its wide dominion to this quality, in its 
 extraordinary founder : Mohammed exhibits one of the 
 most wonderful instances of this, the world ever witnessed ; 
 and with what dreadful results was it followed in his case ! 
 We may say the same of Popery : that stupendous fabric 
 of delusion, which throws its dark and chilling shadow 
 over so large a portion of Christendom, owes its erection 
 and its continuance to the intense devotedness with which it 
 
236 MOTIVES TO 
 
 has inspired its votaries : it is this that upholds a system 
 constantly at war against the dictates of reason, the doc- 
 trines of revelation, and the dearest rights and liberties of 
 humanity. It is this mysterious and indomitable earnest- 
 ness of the priesthood, which has resisted the attacks of 
 logic, rhetoric, and piety; of divines, philosophers, and 
 statesmen ; of wit, humor, and ridicule ; and which in this 
 age of learning and science, commerce and liberty, not only 
 enables it to maintain its ground, but to advance and make 
 conquests. The Church of Rome, which would, in the 
 hands of a lukewarm priesthood, fall by the weight of its 
 own absurdity, or be crushed by the hands of its constant 
 assailants, is still strong in the hearts of its members ; each 
 of whom, from the Pope down, through all its civil and 
 ecclesiastical gradations, to the most insignificant member, 
 is a type of concentrated and intensely glowing zeal. 
 
 The pages of ecclesiastical history furnish us with some 
 extraordinary instances of the power of the pulpit, as ex- 
 hibited in the cases of some Popish preachers. I do not 
 now refer to the court of Louis the Fourteenth, which, 
 with that grand and licentious monarch at its head, was 
 subdued into a transient frame and season' of devoutness 
 by the sermons of Massillon, but to the preaching of 
 far inferior, and less known orators, and to effects less 
 courtly, but not less striking. When Connecte, an Ital- 
 ian, preached, the ladies committed their gay dresses by 
 hundreds to the flames. When Narni taught the popu- 
 lace in Lent, from the pulpits of Rome, half the city 
 went from his sermons, crying along the streets, Lord have 
 mercy upon us, Christ have mercy upon us ; so that in only 
 one passion week, two thousand crowns' worth of ropes 
 were sold to make scourges with ; and when he preached 
 before the Pope, to cardinals and bishops, and painted the 
 
EARNESTNESS. 237 
 
 crime of non-residence in its own colors, he frightened 
 thirty or forty bishops, who heard him, instantly to their 
 own dioceses. In the pulpit at Salamanca, he induced 
 eight hundred students to quit all worldly prospects of 
 honor, riches, and pleasure, and to become penitents in 
 divers monasteries. Some of this class were martyrs too. 
 Here then was the power of earnestness ; but being in 
 this case given to the cause of error, being directed 
 rather to the imagination than to the heart, and intended 
 to correct mere ceremonial irregularities, rather than to 
 lead to repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, we are not surprised that the storm of 
 passion soon subsided ; that Narni himself was so dis- 
 gusted with his office, that he renounced preaching, and 
 shut himself up in his cell, to mourn over his irreclaim- 
 able contemporaries ; for bishops went back to court, 
 and rope-makers lay idle again. This striking fact is 
 replete with instruction, not only as showing the power of 
 the pulpit, but at the same time the essential feebleness 
 of that religion which does not aim at the renovation 
 of the heart, and the transient nature of that effect 
 which is produced by mere rhetoric, unaccompanied by 
 a sober exhibition of the truth to enlighten the judg- 
 ment, warm the affections, and awaken the conscience. 
 
 But it is not only on this grand scale that we see the 
 power and success of an ardent zeal, even in a bad cause ; 
 for there is no system of opinions, nor any course of relig- 
 ious practice, however remote, not only from the truth of 
 revelation, but from the dictates of common sense, and 
 even the decorum of society, but what, if preached and 
 propagated b}^ men of intense ardor, will gain, for a while, 
 some disciples to believe it, and even some apostles to 
 propagate it. If men are really in earnest in blowing bub- 
 
238 MOTIVES TO 
 
 bles, some will be found to look at, to admire, and to fol- 
 low their airy and unsubstantial balloons. It has been 
 already said, that earnestness is contagious : a man in this 
 state of mind and action, is sure to draw some others under 
 the influence of his own example. If this is the case with 
 a bad cause, how much more may we expect it to be so in 
 a good one. Everything, then, combines to prove, that 
 our want of success must be traced up, rather to our neg- 
 lect of the right means to obtain it, than to any backward- 
 ness on the part of God to give his blessing to our own 
 intelligent, judicious, and earnest exertions. 
 
 VII. The state of our denominations demands immediate 
 and devoted attention to the subject. 
 
 In speaking of our own denomination, we find in its 
 general condition, much cause for thankfulness and con- 
 gratulation. In the number of our churches and the compe- 
 tency of a very large number of their pastors ; in our col- 
 leges and schools ; in our missionary and other organiza- 
 tions ; in our periodical and other religious literature ; in 
 our public spirit and liberality — we see signs of prosperity, 
 and tokens for good : and if we are true to ourselves and 
 to our cause, we have nothing to fear. Our opponents 
 cannot do us so much harm as we may do to ourselves. 
 With a system of doctrine which we believe is taken from 
 the New Testament, and a system of polity which, in all 
 its general principles, is derived from the same source, we 
 may not only stand our ground, but advance, if we will 
 present the former in all its fullness, and will administer 
 the latter with discretion and charity. Everything, under 
 God's blessing, depends upon our ministry. This, which 
 is important to every denomination, is especially so to 
 ours. We go forth, not only unsupported by the wealth and 
 the power of the Established Church, but without the aid 
 
EARNESTNESS. 239 
 
 of that elaborately organized combination which is to be 
 found in some sections that separate from it. Our minis- 
 ters, so to speak, do not contend in regiments and in rank 
 and file, but single-handed, and should therefore be all 
 picked men, each possessed of courage and of skill. Let 
 us only take care to send none but such into the field, and 
 we may hope for a still more abundant measure of pros- 
 perity than we at present enjoy. There is room enough 
 for all denominations in the vast wilderness of our neg- 
 lected and unchristianized population, and we have no 
 need to look at each other's labors with jealousy and envy. 
 Satan is ruining souls faster than all of us united can save 
 them. It is a mark of deep malignity of heart, and a proof 
 that it is the distempered zeal of bigotry that moves us, 
 and not a pure love to God and souls, when we see with 
 uneasiness the success of other denominations of evangel- 
 ical Christians, and rejoice over their failure. To seize 
 with avidity any acknowledgments of, and lamentations 
 over, a want of usefulness, and then tearing them from 
 their connection and exaggerating their statements, to hold 
 them up exultingly to the world, and tauntingly to the 
 denomination from which in frankness and in sorrow they 
 have come, may suit well with the strategy of polemical 
 warfare, and serve the cause of a party, but ill accords 
 with the spirit of divine charity, and promotes but little 
 the cause of our common Christianity. 
 
 In how many places of worship connected with the Estab- 
 lishment, and even where the gospel is preached, but preach- 
 ed with feebleness, do we find small congregations, and few 
 souls converted to God. Do we rejoice over this ? On the 
 contrary, it is for a grief and a lamentation. And is there 
 a heart so envenomed with the gall of bigotry, as to 
 rejoice in the confession that is now made, that many of 
 
240 MOTIVES TO 
 
 our congregations are withering away under the effete min- 
 istrations of incompetent men ? Such a withering is in- 
 deed going on in many places. The fact cannot be con- 
 cealed, it is notorious. We have been incautious in the 
 admission, not of bad men, for few of these ever find their 
 way into our pulpits — not of heretical men, for we take 
 care not to receive such — but of incompetent men ; not 
 always incompetent in intellect, but in talents for public 
 speaking, and the active duties of the pastorate. From 
 this cause, combined with the increased energy and activ- 
 ity of the Church of England, our congregations are 
 diminishing in some places, though multiplying and in- 
 creasing in others. With the freedom of action we pos- 
 sess, unrestricted by parochial limits and ecclesiastical laws ; 
 with the world all before us, and Providence our guide ; 
 with a good feeling towards us on the part of the middle and 
 lower classes, we have every ground to hope for success, 
 if we can obtain an adequate number of energetic and 
 earnest preachers : but we have not taken sufficient care 
 to find out and educate this right sort of men, and in some 
 places are certainly losing ground. Considerable towns 
 might be mentioned, where congregations once numerous 
 and flourishing are reduced down to mere skeletons, under 
 the dull and deadening influence of heartless men, and 
 yet perhaps good men too. It is more easy to settle an 
 incompetent minister over a church than to remove him. 
 It is true, we have advantages for such removal, not pos- 
 sessed by the Church of England. The pastorate is not 
 in our churches a freehold ; yet it must be confessed that 
 even with us, the difficulty of getting rid of a pastor, 
 except for immorality or heresy, and only on the ground 
 of inefficiency, is not small. That a minister should wish 
 to stay when he has preached away nearly all his congre- 
 
EARNESTNESS. 241 
 
 gation, breeds a suspicion of the purity of his motives, 
 and is a reflection upon the integrity of his character. To 
 reduce a congregation and scatter a church, first by ineffi- 
 ciency, and then by obstinacy in retaining his post in oppo- 
 sition to the wishes of his flock and the advice of his 
 friends, is a serious matter to account for to God. Some 
 such men talk of waiting for the leadings of Providence. 
 One is at a loss to find out what rule of interpretation for 
 ascertaining the will of God they have adopted : to every- 
 body else but themselves, deserted pews and a dissatisfied 
 as well as a reduced church, are a sufficient indication of 
 the leadings of Providence, for their removal. In such a 
 case one should suppose there needed no voice from heav- 
 en to say to the minister, " Arise, and go hence ;" nor 
 any finger to come forth, and in flaming characters write 
 " Ichabod " on the walls. It is sometimes said in refer- 
 ence to such men and their flocks, that the people must 
 suffer the consequences of a hasty choice : and so far as 
 they are concerned, they deserve it ; but then they suffer 
 not alone, for the denomination in its strength, and charac- 
 ter, and efficiency, suffers with them. The work of con- 
 version, not only in our own denomination, but in the 
 Church of England, and among the Methodists, goes on 
 but slowly, and the spirituality of the great bulk of pro- 
 fessors is too low. This is confessed and lamented by the 
 Evangelical clergy, and by the Wesleyan ministers, as 
 well as by ourselves. The Spirit's influence seems in 
 some way and from some cause obstructed, and in the 
 absence of this, our denomination is more likely to feel 
 and manifest the visible results of it than almost any 
 other ; and such a consideration should lead us to more 
 serious thoughtfulness and earnest prayer for a re\ ived and 
 intensely devoted ministry. 
 11* 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 MEANS TO BE USED 
 
 FOR OBTAINING AN EARNEST MINISTRY. 
 
 This is a most important part of our subject ; for how- 
 ever desirable the blessing may be, yet if it cannot be ob- 
 tained, or if there are no means by which we can obtain it, 
 the discussion and contemplation of it are quite useless, and 
 even worse than this, being calculated only to excite a fruit- 
 less wish, or what is most injurious of all, a disposition to 
 neglect the means we have, in the hopeless desire after what 
 we have not. But we are not to entertain so desponding 
 a view. Such men there have been, and, blessed be God, 
 such men there are, and that in no small number, in every 
 section of the Christian church ; men laboring with intelli- 
 gence, and zeal, and success, both in the metropolis and in 
 the provinces ; men of whom their age need not be 
 ashamed, and over whom any age would have rejoiced. 
 Still there are too many of an opposite character ; far too 
 many to render the question impertinent and out of season^ 
 " How shall such a ministry be obtained ?" 
 
 I. It is imperative, first of all, to have the truth deeply 
 engraven upon all hearts, that the church is the conservator 
 of the Christian ministry, and that it is her business, and 
 almost her first and most important business, to see that 
 
MEANS FOR AN EARNEST MINISTRY. 243 
 
 she discharge well her duty in this momentous affair. She 
 has not only to provide for her own edification at the pres- 
 ent time, but also to secure by all possible vigilance and 
 care, the administrative transmission of our holy religion 
 through every age, pure, and undefiled, and unimpaired in 
 its capacity to confer essential and eternal benefits upon the 
 children of men. But then it is obvious that for such a 
 function the church must be regarded as a purely spiritual 
 body. And it should be deemed a question of no small 
 moment bearing upon the controversy about church gov- 
 ernment, what system of polity has the most direct tend- 
 ency and the greatest power to call out, to secure, and to 
 perpetuate, an evangelical and effective ministry. An 
 ecclesiastical system which of itself has no effectual provis- 
 ion for this, cannot surely be of Divine origin, and that of 
 which the tendency to this is most obvious and direct, is 
 most in accordance with the word of God. A church 
 without such a conservative principle cannot be the church 
 of the ISTew Testament, much less that which includes va- 
 rious and ever-active influences against it. Nothing but a 
 spiritual church can provide a spiritual ministry, and what- 
 ever spiritual ministry a worldly church may have, cannot 
 be so much the result of the system itself, as of something 
 extraneous to it : and even in spiritual churches, if disci- 
 pline be relaxed, and worldly-minded persons be admitted, 
 the conservative principle, which in fact consists of the vital 
 piety of the members, is impaired ; and if, at the same 
 time, there be neglect of discipline, it will be altogether 
 lost, and heretical men come in to fill the places of those 
 who were the preachers of the truth as it is in Jesus. It 
 is well, therefore, for all our churches to bear in constant 
 recollection, this their high and sacred function :is conser- 
 vators of an evangelical ministry, and to maintain 
 
244 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 of vital godliness, and the exercise of a salutary discipline, 
 as that in which this power of conservation resides. Let 
 the churches consider their high, their glorious commission ; 
 let them remember they must be of such character, and 
 such order, that Christian truth as to its essential doctrines 
 and holy practice, and at the same time the calling out 
 and supporting such men to uphold and preach it, may be 
 safely trusted to their vigilance and care. But let them 
 forget this, and corrupt their fellowship by the admission of 
 worldly-minded professors, "the mounds are gone, the 
 fence is broken up, and wolves may enter in, not sparing 
 the flock. Preserve this spiritual condition of the church, 
 and it is, what it was intended it should be, an undying 
 torch, which, while it is the light of the present age, shall 
 safely light successive ages along the only way which leads 
 to happiness and heaven." 
 
 II. Let the subject be thoroughly considered, and univer- 
 sally admitted, that this is the ministry we want, and must 
 have. 
 
 In an age, like the present, when so much is said about 
 knowledge, and such high value is attached to it, there is 
 a danger of our being seduced from every other qualifi- 
 cation, and taken up with this. The establishment of the 
 London University, and the incorporation of our Colleges 
 with it, have given access for our students to the fount of 
 academic degrees and honors ; and there is some danger, 
 in the new condition of our literary institutions, lest our 
 young men should have their minds in some measure drawn 
 away from much more important matters, by the hope of 
 having their names graced by a Bachelor's or a Master's 
 degree. It is a foolish clamor that has been raised against 
 all attention to such matters, and a vain and barbarous 
 precaution, that would fortify the ministerial devotedness 
 
AN EARNEST MINISTRY.. 245 
 
 of our students by restraining them altogether from such 
 scholastic distinctions. The studies necessary to enable 
 them to attain the object of their ambition, are a part of 
 their professional education ; while the vanity likely to be 
 engendered by success, will soon be annihilated by the com- 
 monness of the acquisition. Pride and vanity are founded 
 on conscious distinction, and when these academic Univer- 
 sity degrees are so common that almost all ministers pos- 
 sess them, they will no longer be a snare to the humility of 
 their possessors. Besides, like every other object of hu- 
 man desire, when once they are possessed, much of the 
 charm that dazzles the eye of hope has vanished. Henry 
 Martin, when he came from the Senate-house at Cam- 
 bridge, where he had been declared Senior Wrangler for 
 his year, and had thus won the richest prize the University 
 had to confer, was struck with the vanity of human wishes, 
 and expressed his surprise at the comparative worthlessness 
 of the bauble he had gained, and the shadow he had 
 grasped. No, it is not by closing the door against such 
 distinctions that we can hope to raise the tone of devoted- 
 ness in our ministry, but by fostering in the minds of our 
 young men at College, and equally in the minds of our con- 
 gregations, and ministers in general, the, conviction that 
 earnestness is just that one thing, to which all other things 
 must be, and can be, made subservient, and without which 
 all other things are as nothing, whatever else education 
 can impart. 
 
 Our congregations need perhaps a little instruction on 
 this subject. I am afraid the taste is not quite so pure, 
 correct, and elevated on this matter as it should be. There 
 is, it is true, a demand, audit is well there is, for a viva- 
 cious and animated manner of preaching ; and provided 
 there be what is intellectual, there is a decided preference 
 
246 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 for what is evangelical in association with it ; but there is 
 reason to fear that in some cases a small modicum of evan- 
 gelical truth would do, provided there was an abundance of 
 talent. Earnestness is demanded, but with some, it is 
 rather the earnestness of the head, than of the heart ; the 
 labored and eloquent effusion of the scholar, the philoso- 
 pher, or the poet, rather than the gush of hallowed feeling 
 of him who watcheth for souls, as one that must give ac- 
 count. Dullness, however learned or profound, will not do, 
 but the heartless declamations of the pulpit orator will do 
 for some, though it have little tendency to do anything 
 more than please the intellect or captivate the imagination. 
 There is an idolatry of talent in this day which runs through 
 society ; and this man- worship has crept also into the 
 church, and corrupted its members. It is painful to per- 
 ceive how far this is carried in many circles, and to see 
 what homage is paid, what incense is burnt to some popular 
 favorites. It is not religion or holiness that is thus elevat- 
 ed, but genius and knowledge : it is not moral beauty, but 
 intellectual strength, that is lauded to the skies : the loftiest 
 models of human goodness receive but few devotees and 
 scanty offerings at their shrine, compared with the gods of 
 the understanding. There can be no surer mark of a moral 
 apostacy, a lapse from man's primeval innocence when he 
 came perfect from the hands of his Maker, bearing the 
 moral image of his Creator, than this disposition to exalt 
 genius above piety. What an inversion is this of the right 
 order of things, since it must be allowed that man's intel- 
 lectual nature is inferior and subordinate to his moral being. 
 It is by this latter that he is removed to the greatest dis- 
 tance from the brute creation, is placed in most direct op- 
 position to fallen spirits, makes his nearest approach to the 
 angels of God, and bears the most correct resemblance to 
 
AN EARNEST MINISTRY. 247 
 
 the Holy and Eternal One. The God of the Bible is not 
 merely a Divine intellect, though it be true that his under- 
 standing is infinite ; nor is Omniscience his only attribute, 
 though this is one of his glorious perfections — but God is 
 Love ; and when the seraphim select for the subject of their 
 anthem, that view of his nature which calls forth their 
 loftiest praise, they contemplate him as the Holy, Holy, 
 Holy, Lord God Almighty. Infinite goodness, and not 
 merely infinite greatness, is the Deity we are called by the 
 inspired writers to worship, and all the most sublime spec- 
 ulations or descriptions of God that are not founded upon 
 true goodness, are but the mere inventions of men's minds, 
 and no true copies of God's representations of his own na- 
 ture. The prevailing disposition, therefore, to do such 
 homage to talent, rather than to moral excellence, is only 
 another species of idolatry, that exists in our world, more 
 refined and subtle than the worship of stocks and stones, 
 but still scarcely less guilty. 
 
 That some respect must be paid to talent, even in the 
 ministry of the word, is admitted ; such a disposition is 
 inseparable from human nature, and is a part of the design 
 of God in creating our race, and forming man with varied 
 powers of the understanding: a fine intellect is to be ad- 
 mired as well as an elegant form or beautiful flower; and 
 so much the more, as that which is mental, is superior to 
 what is corporeal. But when the Christian public shall 
 be so enamored of talent, as to admire that more than 
 the message which it is employed to set forth ; when no 
 preacher can be heard with pleasure or endurance, how- 
 ever sound his doctrine, or clear his statements, or impres- 
 sive his manner, or earnest his address, unless his discourse 
 is radiant with the light of genius, or fragrant with the 
 flowers of rhetoric ; when truth itself is unpalatable unless 
 
248 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 it be sweetened with the honey of human eloquence, and 
 even error so sweetened can be swallowed for the sake of 
 the luscious accompaniment ; when the hearer of a sermon 
 can turn from it with disgust, because it fails to regale his 
 fancy by the brilliancy of its images, or to lull his ear by 
 the smoothness and harmony of its periods ; when this is 
 the state of the public taste, and it is to be feared that to 
 a great extent it is the state of it ; surely, surely, it is time 
 to call the attention of our congregations to something 
 higher and better than such matters as these. 
 
 No one who is attentive to the features of the age, can 
 doubt that there is much now going on which has an 
 obvious tendency, though of course not a design, to cor- 
 rupt in some degree the simplicity of the public taste with 
 reference to preachers and their sermons. The pulpit has 
 some reason to be jealous of the platform, and the sermon 
 of the speech. If the modern practice of endless speech- 
 ifying had only done something to break down the stiffness 
 and formality of sermonic speaking, and to introduce a 
 more easy, fluent, and energetic method of address on the 
 part of the preacher, and a corresponding taste for a more 
 vivacious method of instruction on the part of the people, 
 it would have conferred a substantial benefit ;. but with 
 this has come perhaps the opposite evil of making the 
 preacher too oratorical and the people too fastidious, and 
 of destroying somewhat of the solemnity and spirituality 
 of both. No doubt some degree of earnestness will come 
 in with this, but it may be it is the earnestness which is 
 anxious to please, rather than that which is desirous to 
 convert, which aims to gratify the fancy rather than to 
 save the soul. 
 
 It is in vain then to hope for such a ministry as that 
 which it is the object of this work to describe and to recom- 
 
AN -EARNEST MINISTRY. 249 
 
 mend, till our congregations are brought to see its vast 
 importance, and to demand that it shall be given them. In 
 this case, as in every other, both the demand will bring 
 the supply, as well as the supply create the demand. 
 When the churches shall be brought up to that state of 
 piety, that deep solicitude about salvation, that intenseness 
 of pursuit of eternal life, which shall make them anxious 
 for ministers who will aid them in this momentous busi- 
 ness ; and when they shall say to the tutors and commit- 
 tees of our colleges, " You must not only send us learned 
 men, but earnest men," then will the minds of our excel- 
 lent professors be still more fixed on the most essential 
 qualifications of the Christian ministry, and still more 
 anxiously endeavor to meet this demand. And when our 
 destitute congregations shall let it be distinctly known that 
 it is not merely a Master of Arts, nor a merely eloquent 
 speaker, nor even a good divine, that they want, but one 
 who shall watch for their souls, and feed the flock of God, 
 the attention of our young ministers will be still more 
 turned upon the end of their ministry, and the necessary 
 qualifications for the just discharge of its functions. Let 
 the church therefore only be rightly instructed on this sub- 
 ject, and fix properly its standard ; let it be brought up to 
 this conviction, that nothing less and nothing else than 
 such men as are intently fixed upon saving souls, will be 
 likely to be useful ; and such men will come at its bidding ; 
 especially if — 
 
 III. There be much earnest prayer presented to God for 
 such a blessing. It must never be forgotten that ministers 
 are called, qualified, and blessed by the Lord, the Spirit 
 Hence the promise of God to the Jews, "I will give you 
 pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you 
 with knowledge and with understanding;" and also the 
 
250 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 language of the apostle, " He gave some pastors and 
 teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of 
 the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." It 
 was a special injunction of Christ to his disciples, and in- 
 tended to apply to his people in every age, to pray to the 
 Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into the field. 
 From these passages, as well as from the general principle 
 that every good gift is from the Lord, we learn that a 
 faithful ministry is one of God's gifts, and a precious one 
 it is ; and were the church in a high spiritual state, this 
 would constitute one of its chief subjects of prayer. Per- 
 haps we are not brought to feel with sufficient depth of 
 conviction our dependence upon God for this great bless- 
 ing, for 4here is little doubt that the church's possessions 
 and the church's prayers would bear in this particular 
 some tolerable proportion to each other. We cannot con- 
 ceive of any case in which the promise " Ask, and ye shall 
 receive," would be so abundantly fulfilled, as in reference 
 to this. It has not been enough considered what kind of 
 men are wanted at all times, and especially in these, for 
 the ministry of reconciliation ; that in fact we need men 
 formed exactly and in all respects, except inspiration and 
 the power to work miracles, upon the apostolical model 
 Much the same work is now to be done as was done by 
 them, and we must have men as full of the power of God, 
 and the graces of the Holy Spirit, to do it. Let it be seen 
 what ministers have to contend with in this day of their 
 vocation ; not indeed the spirit of persecution, not san- 
 guinary laws, not the amphitheatre, the axe, or the stake ; 
 but obstacles almost as formidable as these things, and in 
 some respects more so ; for such impediments, if they less- 
 ened the number of professors, raised those that stood 
 firm into the devotion of seraphs, the courage of heroes, 
 
AN EARNEST MINISTRY. 251 
 
 and the constancy of martyrs ; — but our obstacles are the 
 emasculating influence of ease and prosperity ; the insidious 
 snares of wealth, knowledge, and fashion ; the engrossing 
 power of trade, politics, and secular ambition ; and then 
 let any one consider what kind of preachers and pas- 
 tors we want for such an age. If we had nothing more 
 to do, and were contented to do this and no more, than to 
 keep religion up to the low level which it now maintains, 
 then ministers of common stamp might suffice ; but to 
 keep in check all the enemies of vital godliness which 
 threaten the devastation of the church ; to resist by the 
 potency of personal example and the energy of the pulpit, 
 the worldly spirit which threatens to eat out the very core 
 of vital piety ; to keep up the evangelizing zeal which is 
 awakened, and to blend with it a sanctity and a spirituality, 
 which shall make it as effective as it is busy ; to do battle 
 with all the forms of error by which our common faith is 
 likely to be assailed ; and to do this not only by the force of 
 intellect, but by being strong in the Lord, and in the power 
 of his might — to achieve this, we want men of the same 
 spirit as those who, under the direct commission of Christ, 
 preached the word of salvation, with the Holy Ghost sent 
 down from heaven. Have we many such men in the 
 field ? If not, why not ? Must not the church of God 
 blame herself, for has she sought such men by all the 
 wrestling power of believing prayer ? Had she felt the 
 need of such men, and had lifted up not her hands, or her 
 voice merely, but all the energies of her renewed nature, 
 in beseeching supplication to Him who is ascended to 
 bestow this very gift upon men, she would have obtained 
 all she asked or wanted. Let the church only set her 
 heart upon such a blessing as this, let her faith be equal 
 to the expectation of it, and her prayer be as her faith, 
 
5 2 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 and she will have it. And why should she not expect it ? 
 What is there in the nature of the boon that forbids her 
 to look for it? Does it contradict a single promise, or 
 contravene a single arrangement of her Divine Head ? 
 Does it compromise his honor, or require his miraculous 
 interposition? Does it involve any stepping out of his 
 ordinary course of action ? Why then should it be thought 
 incredible that she should obtain a more, a far more de- 
 voted and successful ministry than she now possesses ? 
 Does the gospel of God's grace, either at home or abroad, 
 prevail as could be wished and might be expected ? Does 
 the work of conversion go forward and Christ's kingdom 
 make those encroachments on the empire of darkness 
 which might be looked for ? Who will venture to answer 
 in the affirmative ? Whose love to Christ and souls beats 
 with so feeble a pulsation as to be satisfied with what is 
 doing, and to be contented that things should go on as 
 they do ? Is there nothing to be done, no way to accele- 
 rate the work of redeeming mercy, no method to pour the 
 principles of spiritual fertility more rapidly and more dif- 
 fusively through the moral wilderness of our barren world ? 
 One is yet open, and that is for Zion to awake and bestir 
 herself, and lay hold of God's strength, saying, " Send us 
 more laborers into the field." We have forgotten to pray 
 for ministers of a right stamp. The subject has never 
 occupied the place in our private, family, and social de- 
 votions, which its importance demands. It has been only 
 occasionally and coldly alluded to, but has not been lifted 
 up to heaven with all the importunity of men who felt that 
 they could not do without it. 
 
 " Truly, if ever there was a period when the whole Christian 
 world should be down upon their faces before the throne of mercy, 
 imploring with all the importunity, and boldness, and perse- 
 
AN EARNEST MINISTRY. 253 
 
 verance of faith, a race of ministers, each full of the Holy Ghost, 
 as was Barnabas or Paul, that period is passing over us. Not 
 from one place or another, but from all quarters of the earth, tes- 
 timony multiplies daily that amidst the greatest possible facilities 
 for converting the world, a greatly increased and more devoted 
 ministry is indispensable. This testimony comes to us, not in- 
 deed as the Macedonian cry came to the apostle in a supernatural 
 vision, but in a manner not less affecting or decisive as to its 
 purport. It is a real sound which flies round the land and rings 
 in our ears all the day long ; ' Send us preachers,' is the univer- 
 sal, ceaseless demand, at home and abroad. It comes from more 
 than a thousand of our destitute churches ; it comes from the 
 cities, from the wilderness, from the islands, from the uttermost 
 parts of the sea, from tracts until lately unknown to civilized man. 
 This cry, which sounds so loudly and so complainingly in our 
 ears, should, by general consent, be turned into prayer and sent 
 up to heaven. And shall we longer forbear to do this ? Shall 
 we stand and hear that unusual cry, and feel no inclination to 
 direct it to the ear of Him from whom help alone can come ? Is 
 it not a mysterious species of infatuation to forbear to lift up our 
 cry to the Lord of the harvest ? Why do we not if this be the 
 case abjure the very religion of Jesus, and abandon ourselves, as 
 well as the heathen, and the whole race of man, to despair ? 
 Why should not a reform forthwith commence, and the place of 
 prayer have more attractions than the eloquence of any mortal, 
 or any angel's tongue ? Why then will not every true Christian 
 make a covenant with himself to change his life in this particular, 
 and from henceforth make it one of his chief subjects of wrest- 
 ling supplication, that God would give us amore faithful, earnest. 
 and laborious ministry? Why will we not call to mind how 
 Abraham, and Moses, and Elias, and Daniel, and Paul, and above 
 all, how the blessed Jesus labored in prayer, and resolve in God's 
 strength to pray in the same manner? Oh what an amount of 
 beneficent power would such prayers exert upon the external 
 dostinics of our world? What wonders of grace would be wit- 
 nessed in our churches; what accessions would be made to the 
 
254 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 sacred ministry ; what an impulse would be given to the cause of 
 missions ; what brightness would be shed on all the prospects of 
 the church !"* 
 
 I echo these beautiful sentiments, and earnestly implore 
 for them the attention they demand. They touch us at 
 the right point, and they speak to us at the proper season. 
 We have multiplied and extended of late our collegiate 
 institutions, and greatly improved our systems of ministerial 
 education. We can speak of colleges whose architecture 
 would not disgrace either Cambridge or Oxford, and of 
 professors whose attainments in biblical literature would 
 not be surpassed by many of the teachers in our national 
 seats of learning ; but, as if to teach us our dependence 
 upon God, few of them are at the present moment filled 
 with students, and of those who are coming forth from 
 them, how much fewer are the eminent and earnest men 
 we would wish to see them. The same remark will apply 
 to the evangelical men of the Church of England, and of 
 all other denominations. I would be the last man to speak 
 lightly of education, but I would be the first to caution the 
 church of Christ against the sin and the folly of making this 
 our supreme dependence. Tutors can give Latin, Greek, 
 and philosophy, but God alone can bestow those physical 
 and spiritual gifts which constitute the chief qualifications 
 for the work of the ministry. It is a fact which must have 
 struck every attentive observer, that of those who are em- 
 ployed in the ministry of the word, whether in the Estab- 
 lished Church or out of it, very few are eminent in any 
 way. The brightest flowers of humanity are not in great 
 numbers laid upon the altar of the Lord. Many of those 
 
 * Religion of the Bible. Select Discourses, by Dr. Skinner, of New 
 York. 
 
AN EARNEST MINISTRY. 255 
 
 who are engaged are of a common order of intellect, while, 
 as in the firmament of heaven, only here and there a star 
 of unusual brilliancy meets the eye and attracts the atten- 
 tion by its magnitude and brightness. Let it not be said 
 that God chooses the weak things of the world to con- 
 found the mighty, This appertained to apostles, who, as 
 they were clothed with the power of God by their gifts 
 and miracles, could dispense with all other potency ; but 
 this is not the case with us, who, without appropriate 
 qualifications of native talent and education, can scarcely 
 expect the blessing of God. 
 
 IV. A revived state of the church would produce a min- 
 istry such as that which has been described in the foregoing- 
 pages. In the natural order of things it would seem that 
 the church cannot be revived without a previous revival of 
 the ministry, and yet, as the ministry are the children of 
 the church, they can hardly be expected to rise above the 
 level of the community out of which they spring. There 
 is a kind of average piety of almost every age and every 
 church, and our young men rarely come with more than 
 this to our colleges ; and therefore, although we do not 
 dispute the fact that little expectation can be indulged of 
 an increased piety in the churches, without an augmenta- 
 tion of ministerial devotedness, yet at the same time, the 
 latter can almost as little be looked for, without the for- 
 mer. Revivals have sometimes begun with the people, 
 who have drawn the ministry up to their own level. A 
 lively church could not long endure a dull and hike warm 
 pastor, who, if he partook not of the prevailing excitement, 
 would feel himself soon obliged to leave his situation. If. 
 therefore, the ministry cannot revive themselves ami each 
 other, it were unspeakable mercy if they should reeeh e 
 an impulse from the people. 
 
256 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 As we have already seen, there are many things in the 
 present age which are of a most auspicious character, and 
 which give it a lofty pre-eminence above some others that 
 have preceded it. Who can witness its busy activity, its 
 generous liberality, its exhaustless ingenuity, for the con- 
 version of the world, without admiration aud gratitude? 
 But, as we have before remarked, these are not all the 
 elements of true piety, and it may be apprehended that in 
 innumerable cases, these things are only the substitutes 
 for the essential work of regeneration and sanctification. 
 It may be feared that Satan is taking advantage of these 
 matters to blind the judgment, and to delude the souls of 
 many. Men of keen observation, who can penetrate the 
 surface, and see what lies below, are of opinion that under- 
 neath this external covering of liberality and zeal there lies 
 a want of vital godliness ; that much of what we see in our 
 multiplied public institutions, is but as the flowers which 
 bloom in a shallow and sandy soil. They who are best 
 acquainted with the state of our churches, express a doubt 
 whether there is not a deplorable lack of that separation 
 from the world in its spirit and customs which the 
 Christian profession implies. While this is the case, 
 the ministers who come out from such a state of things are 
 likely to rise no higher than the source. Hence does it 
 become our churches to consider the urgent necessity of 
 their being elevated to a higher tone of piety, and of join- 
 ing heartily in any efforts that are made to bring about so 
 desirable a state of things. Even they who have them- 
 selves drank deepest into the spirit of the world, will some- 
 times lament the want of intenseness on the part of their 
 ministers ; but do they not remember that their own worldly- 
 mindedness is exerting an influence over their pastor, and 
 producing that very state of mind in him which is the sub- 
 
AN EARNEST MINISTRY. 257 
 
 ject of their remark and censure ? He was perhaps a more 
 holy and heavenly man when, young and flexible, he came 
 to them from college, and was at first surprised and grieved 
 to witness the prevalence of lukewarmness, but after striv- 
 ing in vain to produce a better state of things among the 
 members of his church, he was gradually drawn down to 
 that low level from which he found it impracticable to 
 raise them. Thus while we admit there is little hope of a 
 revived church which does not rest on the previous revival 
 of the ministry, we are tempted almost to argue in a circle, 
 and to say there is little hope of a revival of the ministry 
 which does not rest on the previous revival of the church. 
 
 Let us then, both ministers and churches, set about in 
 good earnest the revival of religion. We act and re -act 
 upon each other. We help or hinder one another. We 
 both want more religion : let the ministry seek it for the 
 sake of the people, and the people for the sake of the min- 
 istry. If the ministers will not lead the people, let the 
 people lead the ministers. If the blessing cannot descend 
 from the pulpit to the pew, let it ascend from the pew to 
 the pulpit. Let the church of the living God arise, put on 
 her robe of righteousness, her garment of salvation, shake 
 off the dust from her apparel, and shine forth in the beau- 
 ties of holiness. We want a better church to make a bet- 
 ter world ; and a better church would most assuredly make 
 a better world : and we also want a better ministry to 
 make a better church ; but if we cannot have this order 
 may we have the other, and find that a better church is 
 making a better ministry. If the rain of heaven collect not 
 upon the hills to pour down its streams upon the valleys, 
 may the dew of the valleys rise to revive and refresh the 
 tops of the hills. 
 
 V. We should as pastors of the churches look round our 
 12 
 
258 MEANS TO OtfTAIN 
 
 respectlve flocks, and see what devoted youths of ardent piety 
 and competent abilities, we have in our circle, who are likely 
 to be useful as ministers of Christ, and should call them out 
 to the work, without waiting for the first impulse to come from 
 themselves. A radical mistake lias been committed through 
 our whole denomination, in supposing it is necessary in all 
 cases for the desire after the sacred office to rise up first 
 of all and spontaneously, in the breast of the aspirant. In 
 consequence of this many have thrust themselves forward 
 who were altogether unfit for the work ; while many as 
 eminently qualified for it have been kept back by modesty. 
 Does it not seem to be the work of the pastors and the 
 churches, to call out from among themselves, the most 
 gifted and pious of their members for this object ? Is not 
 this the working out of the principle we have already con- 
 sidered, that the church is the conservator of an effective 
 ministry ? Are not they the best judges of talent and other 
 pre-requisites ? Should this matter be left to the inflations 
 of self-conceit, the promptings of vanity, or the impulses, 
 it may be of a sincere, but at the same time of an unen- 
 lightened zeal ? Nothing can be more erroneous than that 
 this call of the church would be an officious intermeddling 
 with the work of the Spirit in calling the ministry ; for it 
 may surely be conceived to be quite as rational a notion to 
 suppose that the Spirit calls a person through the medium 
 of the church and its pastor, as to imagine that the com- 
 mission from above comes direct to the heart of the indi- 
 vidual, especially as the church and the pastor, or at any 
 rate the latter, is usually applied to, as a judge of the can- 
 didate's fitness for the work ; and thus after all, the power 
 and the right of pronouncing a judgment upon the alleged 
 call of this Divine Agent, are vested with the pastor and 
 the church. To affirm that an individual cannot be sup- 
 
AN EARNEST MINISTRY. 259 
 
 posed to have a very great fitness for the office, unless his 
 love of souls has been strong enough to prompt him to 
 desire the work of the ministry, and that he is not likely 
 to be very earnest in it, if he be thus sent, instead of his 
 going of his own accord, is assuming too much ; for in the 
 plan here recommended, it is supposed that the individual 
 who attracts the attention of the pastor is one who, in ad- 
 dition to true piety and competent abilities, has manifested 
 an active zeal in the way of doing good. It is only on such 
 an one that his eye would light, or to whom he would ven- 
 ture to make the suggestion. In all the official appointments 
 recorded in the New Testament, from an apostle down to 
 a deacon, the people were requested to look out for suitable 
 men, and not to wait till they presented themselves. Let 
 us then give our serious attention to this subject, and look 
 out for the most pious, the most intelligent, and the most 
 ardent of our young men, not forgetting at the same time to 
 ascertain their physical qualifications of voice and energy. 
 It is not studious youths only that will do for this work, 
 mere book-worms who will devour knowledge and make 
 no return ; but such as will unite a thirst for knowledge 
 with an intense desire to employ every acquisition for sav- 
 ing souls. We must be inquisitive after such ; and if 
 they are youths in the more respectable classes of society, 
 young men that have known something of good society, 
 and have acquired the manners and habits of gentlemen, 
 that have had something to do with business, and have ac- 
 quired such a proper degree of self-confidence as shall 
 give them weight and influence of character, all the better. 
 Low men, with coarse, vulgar manners, may by the power 
 of great talents rise above their origin, and be of value, as 
 diamonds uncut and unpolished ; yet how much would 
 the value of these spiritual diamonds be increased by the 
 
260 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 lapidary's art : but when vulgarity is associated with slender 
 talents, it is only as flint set in lead. There is nothing in 
 gentlemanly manners that deteriorates piety ; though 
 much, very much, that adds not only to the gracefulness, 
 but to the usefulness, of the ministerial character. The 
 graces, when baptized at the font of evangelical piety, ar- 
 rayed in the robe of righteousness, and wearing the orna- 
 ment of a meek and quiet spirit, are useful handmaids to 
 the Christian pastor, and procure favor for him in the 
 solemn duties of his office. If we may judge from the 
 specimens left on record in the Acts of the Apostles, Paul 
 united the manners of a courtier with the fidelity of a 
 prophet, and threw over the stern courage of a martyr, 
 the mantle of a gentle courteousness. "What could be 
 more polished, yet what more faithful, than his address to 
 Festus and Agrippa ? and we can imagine that even his 
 denunciation against the high priest, who had commanded 
 him to be smitten on the mouth, was all the more terrible 
 because of the dignified severity with which it was uttered. 
 Earnestness then is not incompatible with refinement, but 
 is rendered more effective by it, and hence the importance 
 of our sending our patrician youths to the sacred office. 
 
 Occasionally we may find in our churches, some who 
 are possessed of extraordinary talents for speaking and for 
 active duty, who are too far advanced in manhood to go 
 through a college curriculum, but who notwithstanding 
 would make admirable preachers and attain to considerable 
 usefulness, as well as respectability. A man of natural 
 genius, of strong intelligence, of eminent piety, and of pul- 
 pit power, is not to be rejected because he has not passed 
 through the schools. Those who remember William 
 Thorp, and especially that giant in theological litera- 
 ture, Andrew Fuller, will not deny that He who called 
 
AN EARNEST MINISTRY. 261 
 
 his apostles, not from the philosophers of Greece, nor 
 from the orators of Rome, nor the rabbis of Jerusalem, 
 but from the fishermen of Galilee, may sometimes, select a 
 servant, even in our day, from those classes which have 
 been debarred the privileges of a classical or a philosophi- 
 cal education. Among the prophets of antiquity was 
 Amos the herdsman of Tekoa. These however are the 
 exceptions, but not the rule. Even the bishops of our ec- 
 clesiastical establishment are lowering their standard of 
 qualifications as necessary in all cases for the ministerial 
 functions, and are accommodating their system to the wants 
 of the people by ordaining men to the sacred office whom 
 their predecessors, an age or two back, would have un- 
 questionably refused. We must not pretend to more fas- 
 tidiousness than they, nor be horror-struck at the idea of 
 introducing to the pastorate, men who, though they are 
 neither scholars nor philosophers, are likely to be power- 
 ful and useful preachers of the gospel. A collegiate edu- 
 cation must be our general rule, which it may be hoped 
 we shall never abandon ; but it is a rule from which we 
 must make exceptions in the case of those strong-minded, 
 warm-hearted, earnest men, whose tough broad sword, 
 and their strength in wielding it, may do more execution 
 than many a weapon whose blade has received the highest 
 polish that art can give it, and whose hilt sparkles with 
 the richest diamonds. 
 
 VI. This is a subject which demands the close and seri- 
 ous attention of the ministry themselves. The whole present 
 generation of our preachers, from the oldest to the youngest, 
 must give their attention to this matter. We have known 
 men of a past age, whose names are dear, and whose mem- 
 ory is fragrant, who to the last retained the ardor Of their 
 zeal, and whose labors, like the flame of the volcano rising 
 
262 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 from beneath the snow- covered surface of the mountain- 
 top, were carried on in association with their hoary hairs ; 
 and some such, though they are very few, still linger 
 amongst us. Even they, and we who come next to them, 
 and are verging on old age, must all do something more 
 and something better than we have done for Christ and 
 souls. Our sun is declining and our shadows lengthen on 
 the plain, but the day's work is not done ; and instead of 
 relaxing our diligence we must work the harder because 
 the time of working is nearly over. As long as we have 
 strength to grasp the sickle, or light to bind a sheaf, let us 
 work on. Harvest home will soon be here, and it is time 
 enough for enjoyment when that arrives, and we shall meet 
 the Master and our fellow- servants. To us comes with 
 solemn emphasis the admonition, " Whatsoever thy hand 
 findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work, 
 nor device, nor knowledge, in the grave whither thou 
 goest." For the sake of our younger brothers let us be 
 diligent. They look upon us as patterns, and let us there- 
 fore set them an example which shall come to them with 
 the correctness of a good model, and the power of an 
 ardent inspiration. Let there be no running from our post 
 as if we were weary of our service, and panting for the 
 otium cum dignitate. Let it be seen as if the earnestness 
 of our minds imparted vigor to our bodies, kept off the 
 infirmities of our declining years, and enabled us to renew 
 our youth like the eagle's. It is a spectacle which the ad- 
 mirer of military glory loves to witness, to behold the vet- 
 eran soldier, on whose countenance the suns of innumerable 
 campaigns, and the swords of his foes have left their visi- 
 ble marks, outstripping in courage, in feats of arms, and in 
 swiftness of foot, all the younger warriors that fight at his 
 side, and to see him rallying their fainting hearts by the 
 
AN EARNEST MINISTRY. 263 
 
 strength of his own. Veterans in the hosts of Emmanuel, 
 see then your duty ! On you it devolves to train the young 
 recruits, and form their character : let them feel that they 
 are by the side of heroes, and catch the inspiration of your 
 heroism. Cast over them your shadow while you live, and 
 they will then Be anxious to find your mantle when your 
 spirit has dropped it in her flight to the skies. Let them 
 see you intent upon the conversion of sinners, given up to 
 your work ~of saving souls ; and hear in your conversation 
 how much your heart is set upon this work. Show them 
 by the manner in which you are finishing your course, how 
 they ought to begin and carry forward theirs. Correct 
 their mistakes, elevate their aims, und inflame their zeal. 
 Do all you can by your private intercourse with them to 
 form their character aright for the service of the Lord. 
 Talk to them modestly of your own success in the minis- 
 try, and how you succeeded in this high and glorious 
 achievement. What manner of men ought ye to be, by 
 whom the ardor of others will be kindled or extinguished ? 
 May God's grace be sufficient for you. 
 
 But of what momentous consequence is it that our 
 younger ministers and students should give to this subject 
 its due attention. You have advantages which some who 
 have gone before you never enjoyed, and which at times 
 make them almost envy your privileges ; but if this be all 
 you seek, if it be the best and the highest object you as- 
 pire to, you have mistaken your way in going to the pul- 
 pit, and had better, whatever of literature you may acquire; 
 have drudged out life in one of the darkest of its recesses, 
 or the humblest of its occupations, than to have entered 
 the Christian ministry. Oh what scenes attract your at- 
 tention, and ought to engage your energies. There around 
 you are immortal souls perishing in their sins, each pi 
 
264 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 more value than the whole material universe, each capable 
 of being saved by your ministrations, or sure to acquire by 
 them a deeper guilt and a heavier condemnation — there, in 
 sight of your faith, is the Son of God, bleeding upon the 
 cross for their redemption — there beneath you is the pit 
 of hell, opening wide its mouth to receive them, if they 
 die in unbelief — there above you is heaven, throwing back 
 its everlasting portals to receive them, if they are saved — 
 there before you is the bar of judgment, at which you 
 must soon meet them, to account for your ministry in ref- 
 erence to them — and there, beyond all, is eternity with 
 its ever-rolling ages, which are to be spent by them and 
 you in rapture or in woe. Is this true ? Is it fiction or is 
 it fact ? If these things are not so, you are found false 
 witnesses for Christ, for they are the common topics and 
 the first principles of your discourses ; but if they are all 
 realities, then with what state of mind and heart should 
 they be handled? Begin your ministry, beloved young 
 brothers, with a clear understanding of its nature, and a 
 deep impression of its importance. Do you covet useful- 
 ness ? Earnestness is essential to it. You cannot do good, 
 at least in any extensive degree, without it. Listen to 
 those who have gone before you ; their testimony is founded 
 both upon experience and observation. All, all will unite 
 in this exhortation, " Be in earnest ;" as well the very men 
 who have had least, as those who have exhibited most, of 
 this quality of character, and mode of action. Without 
 this you cannot even be popular, to say nothing of useful- 
 ness. The public will hear an earnest minister, and will 
 not hear any other. You may call this, if you will, bad 
 taste, and wonder they will not listen to your highly intel- 
 lectual and philosophical discourses, and be ready in resent- 
 ment to withdraw the elaborate preparations they so little 
 
AN EARNEST MINISTRY. 265 
 
 value, and retire from the pulpit. No matter whether they 
 or you are wrong, this is the fact. He is an unwise trades- 
 man, who, because he thinks the public taste is vicious, 
 and ought to be corrected, will exhibit in his window, and 
 place upon his shelves, no other goods than those the pub- 
 lic will not buy. In this case the taste of the public may 
 be wrong, and that of the tradesman right ; but in the case 
 of preaching, if the people demand an earnest exhibition 
 of gospel truth, and the ministry instead of this will give 
 them nothing but dull, dry, abstract sermons, it is they 
 who are right and he is wrong ; they, better than he does, 
 know not only what they want, but what he was appointed 
 by God to furnish them. Do not then mistake, and deter- 
 mine to try to be useful in some other way than that which 
 the God of nature and of grace has determined upon. Do 
 not resolve to try the experiment of opening a new road 
 to usefulness for yourself ; another way than that which 
 apostles, martyrs, and reformers have trod, and which the 
 ministers and missionaries of every age and every country 
 have found to be the power of God unto salvation, even 
 the doctrine of the cross ; a way which you may deem more 
 befitting the talents of a scholar, and an age of philosophy. 
 You will inevitably go wrong if you do, and close your 
 career lamenting your folly, and confessing that your min- 
 isterial life has been a lost adventure ; a melancholy con- 
 fession, and one that is not unfrequently made. God gives 
 to no man in any department of action more than one life, 
 and affords to none an opportunity to live through another 
 term of existence, and to profit by his own experience ; 
 but he gives abundant opportunity to avail ourselves o( the 
 knowledge gained by trial, as it goes on, and by extensive 
 observation. You have known enough and seen enough 
 already of what will do, and what will not do, bo answer 
 12* 
 
266 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 the ends of your office, and save souls. You have only 
 to look back, and to look around, to find evidence to guide 
 you. You cannot mistake your means easily, if you do not 
 mistake your object. Settle with yourselves what is the 
 latter, that it is to save sinners by leading them to repent 
 of sin, to believe on Christ, and to lead a holy life ; and 
 then you can scarcely fail to perceive that this never has 
 been accomplished, and ordinarily never can be, but by 
 beseeching them and praying them, in Christ's stead, to 
 be reconciled to God. 
 
 We who are growing gray in the service of Christ, feel 
 somewhat anxious about those who are to succeed us. We 
 see with gratitude and wonder what God has wrought by 
 us ; and we know how, as instruments, we have done this 
 thing. We see how souls have been converted, churches 
 have risen up, and believers have lived and died in the 
 faith, and know full well that it was under the testimony 
 of the gospel, plainly but energetically stated. In looking 
 back we often feel regret that the activities of the age have 
 taken from us the opportunity to make greater attain- 
 ments in elegant literature and general knowledge, but 
 none that we have made the great theme of Christ cruci- 
 fied the subject of our ministry, and the salvation of souls 
 the object of our lives. We feel amidst the gathering 
 shadows of evening, a calm and sweet satisfaction that in 
 this we have made a right choice ; mingled at the same 
 time with a profound humiliation that we have not followed 
 it with more intensity of devotion. We see many things 
 in the review of the past that we would alter, but we 
 would make no alteration in these matters ; much that we 
 could improve, but only in the manner by which we could 
 more successfully accomplish this object : and if it were 
 permitted us to live over again our existence, or to speak 
 
AN EARNEST MINISTRY. 267 
 
 more correctly, to spend another term, and set out afresh, 
 it would be our high resolve to get more of what the men 
 of science and of literature admire, but only to enable us 
 to preach with greater power the doctrine of the cross, 
 and to be better qualified to seek with more ardor, and 
 better hopes of success, the end of our ministry. The love 
 of applause, and we have all too much of it, is we hope 
 dying in our hearts, or at any rate appears to be more and 
 more worthless in its object, and the approval of the great 
 Master more and more intensely desired. Whether we. 
 look back upon the past, or consider the complexion of our 
 feelings for the present, or look at the prospects and an- 
 ticipate the disclosures of the future, we know of no argu- 
 ments cogent enough, no language sufficiently expressive, 
 by which to enforce upon our younger brethren in the 
 ministry, and in reference to the purpose of their lives, the 
 important admonition, Be in earnest. 
 
 VII. Considerable care and caution are requisite, much 
 more than has been exercised hitherto, in the introduction 
 and reception of young men to our colleges. Incompetent 
 ministers are the burden, as inconsistent ones have been 
 the dishonor, of every section of the church, and the hind- 
 rance of the progress of the gospel in the world. In hear- 
 ing many of them, one is ready to wonder how it ever 
 entered into their hearts to conceive they had been called of 
 God to a work for which they seemed to possess scarcely 
 a single qualification beyond their piety ; and the wonder 
 is doubled to account for it that any minister could recom- 
 mend them, or any committee receive them : without in- 
 tellect, without heart, and equally without voice, they 
 seem sent into the ministry only to keep out Others more 
 competent for the work. How many have been permitted 
 to escape from the pursuits of business in which they 
 
268 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 might have done well, to endure the greatest privations, 
 and submit to the most humiliating mortifications, in an 
 office, for the functions of which they were deplorably un- 
 fit. How many of them have passed through life in the 
 misery of being amidst a discontented people, or in wan- 
 dering from place to place without remaining with any 
 church long. Such cases have been found in every age 
 and in every denomination, but they were never so numer- 
 ous as they are now. A spirit of fastidiousness has crept 
 over the churches, and of unsettledness over their pastors. 
 How great then is the responsibility of recommending a 
 young man to enter the ministry. It is an act drawing 
 after it consequences of a most momentous nature, and 
 should never be done without the utmost care and caution. 
 It would be well if ministers would call in others to bear 
 the burden with them, and to share the responsibility. It 
 may in some cases expose a pastor to some risk of giving 
 offence, if in the exercise of his fidelity he should discourage 
 the aspirations of an unsuitable candidate ; an evil from 
 which he would be sheltered, at least in part, by referring 
 the case to the consideration of two or three of the breth- 
 ren in the vicinity. It is not however the pastor only who 
 should be cautioned about recommending candidates, but 
 the committees of our colleges should be no less careful 
 about receiving them. It is extremely difficult by a first 
 examination, or even by a probationary term, to judge of 
 eligibility and fitness : as great excellence in some cases 
 lies hidden under a very uncouth and unpromising exterior, 
 and in others is very slow to develop itself ; while on the 
 contrary, in a different class, a showy exterior over a shal- 
 low substratum, is so deceptive, that not only months, but 
 even years must roll on, before the necessary qualifications 
 can be determined upon. A false delicacy however has 
 
AN EARNEST MINISTRY. 269 
 
 sometimes led all our committees to retain young men in 
 the college of whose unfitness there remained no question, 
 rather than put them and their friends to the pain of recom- 
 mending them to discontinue their studies and return to 
 trade. It should be recollected, that to carry on the edu- 
 cation of those of whom there is no rational probability 
 that they will ever attain to usefulness of any kind, either 
 as authors, tutors, or preachers, is on the part of the com- 
 mittee a betrayal of their trust, and a malversation of the 
 funds intrusted to their care. Let there be then a far 
 greater degree of care and discrimination exercised in the 
 initiative by our pastors, than there has been : ten earnest 
 men are better, and will do more for us, than a hundred 
 incompetent ones. It would be better that many of the 
 churches should remain longer without a pastor, than gain 
 an unsuitable one ; just as it is a far more endurable evil 
 for a man who wishes for connubial felicity to endure the 
 privations of celibacy any length of time, than to hurry 
 from those into the miseries of an unhappy marriage. We 
 must be more careful in the selection, the reception, and 
 the retention of our students, than we have been. Since 
 it is so difficult to find an egress for those who are once 
 in, it is highly incumbent upon us to watch with greater 
 vigilance the door of entrance. 
 
 VIII. There is no class of men to whom we can look so 
 naturally or with so much entreaty for their aid in furnish- 
 ing us with devoted ministers, as our Tutors. If the college 
 be the mould in which the preacher and pastor are cast, 
 the tutor is the man who shapes the mould, and pours 
 into it the metal. How much then depends upon these 
 beloved and honored brethren. What a trust is reposed 
 with them, how solemn, how awful, how responsible ! If 
 it be a momentous thing for a pastor to have the eare of 
 a single church, how much more so; for a tutor to ha\ i 
 
270 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 the care of twenty or thirty youthful minds, each of which 
 is looking forward to the pastorate ; and to have these 
 replaced by others every five years ! Such an occupation 
 is enough to make the stoutest heart to tremble under an 
 oppressive sense of its responsibilities. The strength of 
 our churches lies in our ministry ; of our ministry in our 
 colleges, .and of our colleges in our tutors. There is noth- 
 ing about which we ought to be more anxious than about 
 this part of our system. Happily, to whatever department 
 of ministerial education we look, whether to the philologi- 
 cal, mathematical, or philosophical ; whether to hermeneu- 
 tical or dogmatical theology, we find in our various 
 academic institutions, professors of whom we need not be, 
 and are not ashamed. If we need improvement anywhere, 
 it is in the homiletical and pastoral. We can scarcely 
 wonder that in such an age as this, our professors should 
 be anxious to push forward their alumni as far as possible 
 into the regions of literature and science ; or that they 
 should feel a solicitude, now that the London University 
 gives an opportunity to Nonconformists for obtaining 
 academic degrees and honors, to give full proof of their 
 official assiduity in the distinctions won by their students 
 in these laudable contests for scholastic fame ; but at the 
 same time it is well for them to remember that while these 
 things are not neglected, one popular, earnest, and suc- 
 cessful preacher will bring more real credit to their college, 
 and give it more favor with the public, than a dozen 
 Bachelors of Arts, and half-a-dozen Masters to boot. The 
 occasional exhibition, and it can be but occasional, of the 
 titular letters affixed to a man's name, will not often ex- 
 cite the inquiry, " Where was he educated ?" but the con- 
 stant exhibition and effect of his preaching powers will be 
 a public and permanent recommendation of the institution 
 where such a character was formed. It is true that natural 
 
AN EARNEST MINISTRY. 271 
 
 preaching talents will grow in almost any soil, and under 
 almost any culture ; but it may still be carried to a higher 
 degree of perfection in one place, and by one hand, than 
 another. There is also such a thing as colleges gaining 
 an identifying character, one for turning out better scholars, 
 a second for giving more philosophy, and a third for carry- 
 ing on a better theological training ; but that in the long 
 run will be the most useful, and deservedly the most popu- 
 lar, which succeeds in sending forth the greatest number 
 of earnest and successful preachers. 
 
 All earnestness has a tinge of enthusiasm about it, and 
 as no man can kindle enthusiasm in the soul of another, 
 who has none of this mental fire in himself, our tutors 
 should have some fire, though with judgment enough to 
 keep it in its proper place, and to do its proper work ; and 
 however enthusiastic they may be for classical, scientific, 
 and philosophical studies, let them concentrate their ener- 
 gies, their aims, and their hopes in the formation of the 
 popular, powerful, and useful preacher. They who know 
 how much there is to do with many young men that enter 
 our seats of learning, and how much of necessity the time 
 and attention must be divided among the various objects 
 of study, will confess that it is no easy matter to give that 
 prominence to homiletics which their supreme importance 
 demands. But notwithstanding this, opportunities will 
 continually present themselves to an anxious and observant 
 professor for inculcating upon his students that all he is 
 teaching them will be useless, if they do not make it sub- 
 servient to their great business in preaching the gospel, 
 and converting sinners. But it is of especial importance 
 that our tutors should be much upon the alert when the 
 students begin to preach, that these young men in t heir first 
 pulpit labors, should select the true subject of all preaching, 
 pursue it by the right course, and seek it with due \ 
 
272 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 What a student is in his first essays at pulpit effect, that 
 he is likely to be through life ; and if there be no earnest- 
 ness then, there is likely to be little afterwards. It happens 
 that as all excellencies rarely combine in one man, many 
 of our professors, though so highly gifted as regards tal- 
 ent and acquirement, are not all of them distinguished as 
 preachers, and therefore can present in themselves no living 
 models of what pulpit power, as to manner, really is. 
 Still, they who cannot illustrate it by example, can teach 
 it by precept. May they see the importance of the subject, 
 and labor to the utmost to inculcate it upon the youth 
 that are looking up to them for instruction, and labor to 
 the utmost to kindle in their breast the ardor of a pulpit 
 enthusiasm ! 
 
 We can easily imagine with what delight they must 
 sometimes witness the advance in extensive and accurate 
 scholarship, in analytical power, in logical acuteness, in 
 metaphysical subtlety ; and in some rare cases may felicitate 
 themselves on such results of their labor, though they can 
 foresee they will never be associated with pulpit efficiency 
 — but as a general rule nothing should gratify, much less 
 satisfy them, with reference to their students, short of 
 adaptation for popular effect. The demand preferred by 
 our country upon the military schools is, " Give us sol- 
 diers ;" upon our medical colleges, " Give us skilful sur- 
 geons and physicians ;" upon our Inns of Court, " Give us 
 lawyers." The cry sent up to our colleges is, " Give us 
 powerful preachers, devoted pastors,"— nor will it do to 
 meet this demand, any more than it would the others, by 
 replying, " We will send you Bachelors and Masters of 
 Arts." Much less will it do to send men who will feed 
 the churches with the dry and sapless verbal exegesis of 
 German theology, instead of the sweet and succulent ex- 
 positions of our Scotts, our Henrys, our Wardlaws, and 
 
AN EARNEST MINISTRY. 273 
 
 our Barneses. Ministers may study the profoundest criti- 
 cisms for their own improvement, and carry on a course of 
 exegetic exposition in the pulpit ; but it must be of a 
 character that shall combine impression with instruction ; 
 and let our tutors aim to train preachers, who shall make 
 their sermons expository, their expositions sermonic, and 
 both instinct with life, and essentially popular. Let them 
 with the men they send into our churches, give us as much 
 as they can of everything which can polish the taste, inform 
 or even adorn the intellect, and give weight and influence 
 to the character in general society, the more of all this the 
 better ; but let them never forget that what is always 
 wanted for the momentous subject of religion, and what is 
 especially wanted in these times of intense earnestness, is a 
 race of ministers as earnest as the times in which they live. 
 May God help them to train such ministers for us ! 
 
 IX. If it be the duty of the churches to call out a min- 
 istry, it must of course be no less their duty to provide the 
 mews for the, education of those who compose it. Among 
 all the objects of Christian benevolence, there is not one 
 which has a prior or a stronger claim than our collegiate 
 institutions, and yet it is too true that they are the last 
 whose demands are properly regarded. Among Protestant 
 Dissenters especially, the main pivot of their whole system 
 is their ministry ; upon this everything, under God, must 
 turn. As this is strong, everything else amongst us will 
 be strong ; and as this is weak, everything else will be 
 weak. The springs which supply the reservoirs of our 
 evangelizing societies, both at home and abroad, are to be 
 traced back to our colleges ; and yet the churches do not 
 yet seem, if we may judge from their conduct, io be duly 
 aware of this fact. They are not however io be consid- 
 ered as eleemosynary institutions, where a race of literary 
 paupers are sustained by the alius of the affluent : tor it i> 
 
274 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 becoming increasingly the practice for our students to pay 
 for their own board : but beyond this, we have the invalu- 
 able services of our professors to reward, and many other 
 expenses to defray. This must be borne by the churches 
 in all cases where there is no vested property, or where it 
 is not adequate to the support of the institution. How can 
 property be better applied ? What expenditure produces 
 a quicker or more abundant return ? A good education for 
 our ministry is cheaply obtained at any price ; and every 
 shilling we expend in this way tells at once and before our 
 eyes upon the object for which it is intended. And yet, 
 strange to say, there is no object for which we find it more 
 difficult to obtain a regular and adequate supply of means. 
 Foreign and home missions have an annual collection from 
 almost every church in our denomination, and yet how few 
 are there of these churches who grant an annual collection 
 for any college, and what multitudes who never grant a 
 collection at all ! The platform is the stage of modern 
 activity, but our colleges can make no exhibition there : we 
 can employ no succession of orators to advocate our cause 
 by speeches in support of resolutions ; can exhibit no for- 
 eigners ; can produce no excitement by tales of horror, of 
 pathos, or of adventure ; yet where would be the platform, 
 but for the pulpit, and what is the pulpit without the col- 
 lege ? We ought not, it is true, to do less for our other 
 organizations, but we ought to do far more for our educa- 
 tional system. We must bestir ourselves, and not allow 
 this, on which everything depends, to fall into the rear 
 and to pass into the shadow of one or two deservedly pop- 
 ular societies. If a larger part of the zeal manifested in 
 arguing for our voluntary principle were employed in a 
 more liberal support of our denominational institutions , 
 they would be in a far better state than they now are. 
 With all our ardor in the cause of ISonconformitv, it is 
 
AN EARNEST MINISTRY. 275 
 
 easier to raise large funds for other objects of benevolence 
 than for this. The London Missionary Society, which is 
 chiefly supported by the Congregational body, has an in- 
 come of nearly eighty thousand pounds a year, while that 
 same body does not raise by voluntary contributions more 
 perhaps than eight or nine thousand for our seats of learn- 
 ing, and even this is not so economically expended as it 
 might be by a consolidation of our colleges. It is high 
 time this whole system were looked into. 
 
 It is, however, somewhat cheering to know that this 
 subject is beginning to be understood by our churches, and 
 a more just appreciation to be made by the intelligence of 
 the age of the value of an educated ministry ; and as a % 
 natural consequence there is springing up a more general 
 disposition to support the expense which it incurs. Many 
 instances have occurred of late of the owners of property 
 apportioning a large share of it, either in the way of found- 
 ing colleges, or establishing scholarships for the education 
 of young men for the ministry. An individual who founds 
 one of these scholarships, may, if he give his property at 
 the age of thirty-five, and should live to be seventy, have 
 six or seven ministers preaching the gospel at the same 
 time, who were educated by his means ; and when he has 
 reached his heavenly home, may welcome to glory through 
 a long succession of ages the souls that were saved by the 
 labors of those ministers for whose education he had set 
 apart his property. How laudable and how noble an ob- 
 ject of honorable ambition does such a proposal present to 
 those who have at once the wish and the means to do good. 
 Let the churches collectively, and their wealthy members 
 individually, well consider then the obligation which is laid 
 upon them to provide all that may be accessary to insure 
 the education of a ministry adapted to the circumstances 
 of this extraordinary age. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 ON THE NECESSITY OF DIVINE INFLUENCE 
 
 FOR AN EFFICIENT MINISTRY. 
 
 This work would be essentially defective in the estima- 
 tion both of its author and its readers, if after so much has 
 been advanced about instrumentality, nothing were to be 
 said about the agency which is necessary to render it effect- 
 ual for the accomplishment of its object. In all Divine 
 operations, whether in the world of nature or of grace, 
 God employs a chain of dependent means for the working 
 out of his purposes and plans ; but though dependent, 
 they are appropriate. In acknowledging, as we must do, 
 the adaptation of these means to the production of the 
 intended result, we do homage to his wisdom ; while in 
 confessing their dependence for efficiency upon his blessing, 
 we do no less homage to his power and grace. There is 
 no analogy which we can borrow from the world of nature 
 that can satisfactorily illustrate the operation of Divine 
 grace on the human mind. We know very well that 
 second causes in the material universe depend for their 
 efficiency upon Divine influence ; but it is an influence of 
 a totally different kind, and exerted altogether in a differ- 
 ent manner from that of which we now write ; and we are 
 very little aided in our perceptions of the nature of the 
 
THE NECESSITY OF DIVINE INFLUENCE. 277 
 
 Spirit's operation upon the human mind, by anything we 
 observe in the world of vegetable or animal life. There 
 are two aspects in which man is to be viewed in relation to 
 the means employed for his salvation, as both a rational 
 and a sinful creature ; or as a rational creature whose rea- 
 son is under the dominion of sin : consequently, whatever 
 method be adopted for his salvation, he must be dealt with 
 in both these views of his condition. His fallen state as a 
 sinner has not bereft him of his reason, will, and responsi- 
 bility ; but his reason and will alone will never lift him out 
 of his condition as a fallen sinner. He cannot be dealt 
 with otherwise than he is, and as a rational creature he 
 must be treated as such, and not as a brute or a block. 
 His intellect must be appealed to by argument, and his 
 heart by motives. Now it will be seen that in the means 
 of grace, and especially in preaching, there is a provision 
 for all this. Here is truth to be presented to the intellect, 
 truth which represents the whole state of the case between 
 God and the sinner, the nature and obligations of the 
 moral law, the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the weight of the 
 tremendous penalty of the violated precept, the wonderful 
 love of God in the provision he has made for the salvation 
 of the sinner, with the eternal results of misery or bliss 
 which follow upon faith and unbelief. In all this, there is 
 something in its own nature adapted to engage the atten- 
 tion and to interest the heart of the sinner. It is not only 
 the truth, but just the truth that suits his condition. 
 In addition to this, there is in preaching the adaptation of 
 the manner as well as the matter to his circumstances, 
 the tendency of the living voice, and ministerial solicitude : 
 and earnest elocution, to engage the intellect and impress 
 the heart. It will follow of course that earnestness is a 
 part of this well-adapted system of means* and the wove 
 
278 THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 earnest a man is, the more likely, so far as means go, is 
 he to do good ; for if it be the matter which God blesses 
 to change the heart, it is also the manner which he blesses 
 to fix the attention preparatory to this change : there is as 
 obvious an adaptation in the latter as in the former. How 
 comes it to pass that there is greater efficiency usually at- 
 tendant upon hearing the word, than there is upon reading 
 it ? Just because there is a greater adaptation to fix at- 
 tention and to impress the heart ; and by the same rule 
 we argue there is more adaptation to do this in one man's 
 manner than in that of another. Hence we see that those 
 preachers are the most successful, whom, independently of 
 a Divine power, we might expect to be so. This does not 
 disprove the necessity of a Divine influence, but only 
 shows what order of instrumentality it is that the Divine 
 Spirit usually employs, and consequently what instrumen- 
 tality we should select. As God does not usually bless 
 ignorance, or dullness, or obscurity, or feebleness, we should 
 avoid these ; and to look for great results from them, is 
 to expect not only what God has not promised, but what 
 he very rarely bestows without having promised it. Thus 
 God deals with us as rational creatures, by presenting to 
 us that truth, and requiring us to understand and believe 
 it, the reception of which into the heart changes the whole 
 character and conduct. 
 
 But then there is in the heart of man, not only an in- 
 difference, but an opposition to this truth ; both a disrelish 
 for, and a dislike to it. " The carnal mind is enmity against 
 God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed 
 can be." The heart so blinds the judgment that " the nat- 
 ural man discerneth not the things of the Spirit of God, 
 neither indeed can he know them, because they are spir- 
 itually discerned.'' Therefore, however the attention may 
 
DIVINE INFLUENCE. 279 
 
 be gained by the manner, and gained it must be in order to 
 conversion, yet the heart is still opposed to the truth ; 
 hence the need of the Spirit's influence, to subdue this re- 
 sistance of the heart to truth itself. Now here it will be 
 perceived is the concurrence of the truth and the Spirit in 
 conversion — conversion is the sinner being brought to 
 know and love the objects presented in the truth — 
 therefore the truth must be presented to the intellect in 
 order that it might be thus known and loved ; but then it 
 never will be so loved, however theoretically understood, 
 till the Spirit takes away the disrelish for it, which is in 
 the heart. . Without the truth, there is nothing to engage 
 the attention and employ the intellect of man, as a rational 
 being ; without the Spirit, there is no inclination of the 
 heart, when the truth is so presented. If a certain quality 
 of an object be the ground of dislike to it, an increasing 
 knowledge of the object and of this quality cannot in the 
 nature of things subdue our hostility ; the taste must be 
 changed ere the object can be relished. It is precisely 
 thus with the sinner and the truth ; he dislikes the gospel 
 for its holiness, and no increase of light will vanquish en- 
 mity. Consequently, whatsoever be the earnestness of the 
 preacher's manner, or whatever be the clearness of his 
 matter, no saving result will follow, unless the Spirit give 
 his blessing. Yet preaching is as necessary as if all were 
 done by this alone, without the Spirit, because it is by this 
 order of means that the Spirit works in the conversion of 
 sinners. And since it is by appropriate means that lie 
 accomplishes his purposes, there is nothing in this doctrine 
 to discourage exertion. There are means which carry in 
 themselves the rational hope, if not promise, of success, 
 God will not accept the lame for sacrifice,, nor send down 
 the signs of his approval on the service which involves no 
 
280 THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 real effort of heart or mind in his cause. No : the influ- 
 ence of the Holy Spirit comes not as a bounty upon indo- 
 lence, but as a stimulus to exertion. Its office is not to 
 give the human faculties a license to slumber, but to sup- 
 ply them with motives to watchfulness. Its descent upon 
 the church is not as the creeping torpor which betokens 
 disease, but as an element of activity bespeaking moral and 
 spiritual health. This blessed influence is unquestionably 
 sovereign in the dispensation of it. God giveth it in such 
 measures, on such occasions, and to such instruments, as 
 it seemeth good unto him. He that directeth the course of 
 the clouds, and causeth them to drop their treasures where 
 and when he pleaseth, makes the dew of his grace, and 
 the rain of his Spirit, to fall according to the counsel of 
 his own will. There is no such necessary connection be- 
 tween the exhibition of the truth and the conversion of the 
 soul, as there is between the application of fire and the 
 combustion of inflammable matter. The apostle says, 
 " Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by 
 whom ye believed, even as God gave to every man ? I have 
 planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 
 So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he 
 that watereth ; but God that giveth the increase." 1 Cor. 
 iii. 5, 8. One should think it impossible to mistake the 
 meaning of this language, or to doubt whether special 
 Divine influence be necessary for the conversion of the 
 soul, or whether the communication of it be a prerogative 
 of Divine sovereignty. 
 
 Still there is every ground to expect the influence we 
 need. It is our privilege to live under the dispensation of 
 the Spirit, as well as under that of the Messiah. The 
 former of these follows the latter : or perhaps, more cor- 
 rectly speaking, they are identical; the covenant estab- 
 
DIVINE INFLUENCE. 281 
 
 lished in Christ's blood is the economy of the Spirit. 
 The ministry of reconciliation is the ministry of the Spirit. 
 We do -not mean to assert that this Divine influence is con- 
 fined to the Christian economy, for since the beginning of 
 time hath no soul been converted or sanctified but by this 
 heavenly power ; but the communications before the com- 
 ing of Christ were limited, partial, and scanty, compared 
 with what they have been since : they constituted not the 
 shower, but only the drops which precede it. Hence the 
 language of the evangelist, " This spake he of the Spirit, 
 which they that believe on him should receive, for the 
 Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not 
 yet glorified, " John vii. 39. This idea, that we are under 
 the Spirit's economy, should enlarge our expectation of the 
 richest communication of this invaluable and essential 
 blessing. The view we have given of Divine sovereignty 
 is not intended, nor when rightly understood, is it even 
 calculated, to discourage hope, but simply to teach depend- 
 ence. While God reserves to himself the right of be- 
 stowment, and acts upon his own rules of communication, 
 he warrants and invites the most expansive requests, and 
 the largest anticipations. Since he has promised to give 
 the boon in answer to the prayer of faith, it would seem 
 to be our own fault that we have it not in more abounding 
 measure. The very recollection of our privilege, as placed 
 under such an economy, might seem to be enough to call 
 forth our prayers and to awaken our expectations. In- 
 stead of being surprised that we receive so much of this 
 Divine power on our ministry at any time, even the most 
 successful periods of our history, we should be surprised 
 that we receive so little, and inquire after the cause of ob- 
 struction. In a country like Egypt, where rain seldom 
 falls, the shower is the exception, and a dry atmosphere 
 13 
 
282 THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 the general rule; but in our variable climate, the long- 
 drought is the rarity, and the frequent shower is the com- 
 mon occurrence. The husbandman ploughs and sows in 
 this land, with his expectant eyes upon the heavens, and 
 feels disappointed if the fertilizing rain is withheld. So 
 should it be with us, in reference to the shower of God's 
 grace. We are not under the dry and arid atmosphere of 
 the Levitical economy, but we enjoy the privilege of the 
 cloud-dropping, rain-falling dispensation of the Spirit ; and 
 with us the question should be, why have we not more of 
 this Divine influence ? What has provoked the Lord to 
 withhold from us the genial influences of his grace ? In- 
 stead of being at any time astonished that our ministry is 
 so much blessed, we should inquire why it is not always 
 so. When we consider what is said, that God " willeth 
 not the death of a sinner, but would rather that he should 
 repent and turn from his wickedness and live ;" when we 
 recollect what he has done for the salvation of sinners ; 
 when we add to this, that the gospel is his own truth, and 
 preaching his own institution ; we are sometimes ready to 
 wonder that he does not pour out that influence which is 
 necessary to give effect to the purposes of his own benevo- 
 lence, and almost to inquire, " What does the Lord now 
 wait for ?" In answer to this it might be replied, " He 
 waits for the earnest labors of his ministers, the faith of his 
 church, and the believing prayers of both." 
 
 It is quite perceptible that the necessity of Divine influ- 
 ence is rather a dogma of faith, than a principle of prac- 
 tice, both with ministers and their flocks. Did the people 
 really believe it, were it matter of inwrought conviction, 
 and there were the least seriousness of spirit in their re- 
 ligion, how much less dependence would there be upon 
 men, how much less said about talent, how much less 
 
DIVINE INFLUENCE. 283 
 
 homage paid to genius and eloquence, and how much 
 more looking up to God by intense and persevering sup- 
 plication. Recollecting that God works by means, and by 
 means adapted to promote the end, there would be no 
 danger of sinking into an enthusiastic and irrational neglect 
 of these, while on the contrary there would be more con- 
 stant and serious attendance upon them. The knowledge 
 that preaching, and especially earnest preaching, is the 
 Spirit's instrumentality, would lead men to seek that very 
 instrumentality, in order that they might have the blessing. 
 How highly would it exalt the minister to consider him as 
 the Spirit's instrument, and how important would it make 
 the sermon to view it as God's means to bless the soul. 
 It is immeasurably to sink both, to view them apart from 
 God's agency ; it is to cease to view the preacher as an 
 ambassador for Christ, and instead of this, to listen to him 
 only as the lecturer on religion. With what sacred awe 
 would he be heard, and with what fervent prayer too, by 
 those who viewed him as the appointed medium of that 
 influence, which, if it be received, would illuminate, renew, 
 and sanctify the soul? 
 
 But if it be incumbent on the people to remember the 
 dependence of means upon the Divine blessing, how much 
 more is it the duty of ministers themselves. It is an 
 article of our creed, it is often the subject of our sermons, 
 and it is acknowledged in our prayers; but after all, is 
 our conviction of dependence upon the Spirit so deep, so 
 practical, and so constant, as to prevent us from attempt- 
 ing anything in our own strength, and to impel us to be 
 strong only in the Lord, and in the power of his might ? 
 Do we conduct the pursuits of the study, as well as regu- 
 late the prayers of the closet, by this conviction ? Do we 
 with childlike simplicity, and in the very spirit we inculcate 
 
284 THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 upon our hearers in reference to their own personal salva- 
 tion, habitually give ourselves up to the guidance and 
 blessing of this Divine agent? Do we look up for 
 wisdom to guide us in the selection of our texts and 
 the composition of our sermons? Do the eye and the 
 heart go up to heaven, as we think and write for the 
 people ? Do we go to our pulpit in a praying frame, as 
 well as in a preaching frame,- praying even while we 
 preach, for our people as well as for ourselves? Do we 
 thus clothe ourselves with Omnipotence, and go forth as 
 with the Lord ever before us ? Do we recollect that from 
 all that crowd of immortal souls before us, we shall gather 
 nothing but human praise or censure, except the Lord be 
 with us ; that not one dark mind will be illumined, not 
 one hard heart softened, not one inquiring soul directed, 
 not one wounded spirit healed, not one uneasy conscience 
 appeased, unless God the Spirit do it? Do we really 
 want to accomplish these objects, or merely to deliver a 
 sermon that shall please the people, and gratify our own 
 vanity ? If the former, how entire, how confident, how 
 believing, should be our sense of dependence upon some- 
 thing far higher than the best and most appropriate instru- 
 mentality ! Such a feeling of dependence would cramp 
 none of the energies of our soul, would stunt none of our 
 powers, quench none of our fire, repress none of our in- 
 tensity of manner. So far from this, we should derive 
 from it unspeakable advantage in addressing our hearers ; 
 a seriousness, tenderness, and majesty would pervade our 
 discourses, beyond what the greatest unassisted talent 
 could command ; a something superhuman would rest upon 
 us, a Divine glory would irradiate us, and we should speak 
 in power and demonstration of the Spirit. " Possessed 
 of this celestial unction, we should be under no temptation 
 
DIVINE INFLUENCE. 285 
 
 to neglect a plain gospel, in quest of amusing speculations 
 and unprofitable novelties ; the most ordinary topics would 
 open themselves with a freshness and interest, as though 
 we had never considered them before ; and the things of 
 the Spirit would display their inexhaustible variety and 
 depth. We shall pierce the invisible world, we shall look, 
 so to speak, into eternity, and present the very essence of 
 religion, while too many preachers, for want of spiritual 
 discernment, rest satisfied with the surface and the shell. 
 We shall not allow ourselves to throw one grain of incense 
 on the altar of vanity, and shall forget ourselves so com- 
 pletely, as to convince our hearers we do so ; and dis- 
 placing everything else from the attention, leave nothing 
 to be felt or thought of, but the majesty of truth, and the 
 realities of eternity."* The preacher who cherishes such a 
 frame of mind will appear with a radiance not less dazzling 
 perhaps than that of genius, but far more sacred, heavenly, 
 and divine ; and when carried to his highest pitch of ear- 
 nestness and dependence, seems almost to reach that 
 sublime symbol of the Apocalypse, of the angel standing 
 in the sun. 
 
 " But this kind goeth not forth but by fasting and prayer." 
 A deep, practical conviction of the need of the Spirit, would 
 make us men of prayer, would send us much to our closets, 
 and keep us there. Here perhaps is the cause why we 
 have not more success in our ministry, and are not more fre- 
 quently and more heartily gladdened by the conversion of 
 souls to God : we seek to be men of the pulpit merely, and 
 are not sufficiently men of the closet. It is a mystery in 
 God's moral government that he should make the commu- 
 
 * Mr. Hall on the Discouragements and Support of the Christian 
 Ministry. 
 
286 THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 nications of his grace for the salvation of sinners dependent 
 in any degree upon the prayers of others : yet he does so, 
 and we know it ; and yet knowing it, ho w little have we 
 been affected by it and stirred up to prayer on this ac- 
 count. We have uttered our complaints of the fruitlessness 
 of our ministry long enough before one another ; but, as 
 the Bishop of Calcutta says in his introduction to the 
 " Reformed Pastor," " One day spent in fasting and prayer 
 to God is worth a thousand days of complaint and lamenta- 
 tion before men." The author of this work can assure his 
 brethren that it is not with any disposition to accuse them, 
 and exalt or exculpate himself, that he writes thus. He 
 takes his full share of blame in the deficiency of a spirit of 
 fervent prayer, and his full share of humiliation too on 
 that account. The activities of the age, which require us 
 to be so much in public, may furnish some mitigation of 
 blame, if not an excuse, for the too little time spent in the 
 fervor of private prayer. Devotion is damped by business. 
 Still, even with this palliation, we are verily guilty, for we 
 do not pray as if we believed we were sent to save souls 
 from death, and could not be successful in a single instance 
 without the grace of God. Who of us can read the dia- 
 ries of such men as Doddridge, and Brainerd, and Payson, 
 and Martyn, and very many others, and not stand re- 
 proved for our lamentable deficiency in the exercise of 
 prayer ? Perhaps in modern times there was never so much 
 of social prayer, and never less of private. We introduce 
 all our business transactions with prayer, and too often in a 
 kind of business spirit, and with a sad want of sincerity, 
 seriousness, and deep devotion ; so that the very frequency 
 and want of reverence with which we engage in these ex- 
 ercises of devotion, tend to diminish the spirit of prayer. 
 Nothing is more to be dreaded than a depression of the 
 
DIVINE INFLUENCE. 287 
 
 spirit of devotion, and nothing more intensely to be desired, 
 than its elevation. A praying ministry must be an earnest 
 one, and an earnest ministry a praying one. Let us then 
 feel ourselves called upon by all the circumstances of the 
 times, to abound more and more in fervent supplications. 
 Let us, if we can in no other way command more time for 
 prayer, take it from study or from sleep. We have neither 
 right nor reason to expect the Spirit, if we do not ask for 
 his gracious influence, and without him we can do nothing. 
 Let us take care lest a bustling activity, and the endless 
 multiplication of societies, should supplant, instead of call- 
 ing forth, as they ought to do, a feeling of intense devo- 
 tion. We never more needed' prayer, we were never in 
 more danger of neglecting it. There is plausibility in the 
 excuse that we had better abridge the time of praying 
 than the time of acting. But it will be found in the end 
 that doings carried on at the sacrifice of prayer, will end in 
 confusion and vanity. A public spirit, even in the cause 
 of religion, however prevalent or energetic, if it be not 
 maintained in a feeling of dependence upon God, will be 
 regarded by him as the image of jealousy in the temple, 
 which maketh jealous. Our sermons are the power of men, 
 or perhaps we might say, their weakness ; but our prayers 
 are in a modified sense the power of God. Let us not 
 slacken in preaching, but let us quicken in devotion ; let 
 us not quench a ray of intellect, but let us add to it the 
 warmth of devotion ; let us labor as if the salvation of souls 
 depended upon our own unaided energies, and then let us 
 feel as did the apostle when he said, "though I be noth- 
 ing." The eternal destinies of our heavers hang not only 
 upon our sermons, but upon our prayers ; we can)' out 
 the purposes of our mission, not only in the pulpit, but in 
 the closet ; and may never expect to be successful minis- 
 
288 THE NECESSITY OF DIVINE INFLUENCE. 
 
 ters of the New Covenant, but by this two -fold importu- 
 nity of first beseeching sinners to be reconciled to God, and 
 then beseeching God to pour out his Spirit upon them : 
 thus we honor his wisdom in the use of the means he has 
 appointed, and then his power by confessing our depend- 
 ence upon his grace. 
 
 Baxter concludes his " Reformed Pastor," with an ex- 
 pression of his confidence in the usefulness of the book he 
 had written, which it would be unwarrantable and ridiculous 
 vanity in me to adopt in reference to mine, at least in any 
 other way than that of hope and prayer, and in this spirit 
 I borrow the language of that great and holy man, and 
 say, " I have now, brethren, done with my advice, and 
 leave you to the practice. Though the proud receive it 
 with scorn, and the selfish and slothful with distaste, or 
 even with indignation, I doubt not but God will use it, in 
 despite of the opposition of sin and Satan, to the awaken- 
 ing of many of his servants to their duty, and to the promo- 
 tion of a work of right reformation ; and that his blessing 
 will accompany the present undertaking for the saving of 
 many souls, the peace of you that understand and perform 
 it, the exciting of his servants throughout the nation to 
 second you, and the increase of the purity and unity of his 
 churches. Amen." 
 
 THE END. 
 
M. W. DODD, 
 
 PUBLISHER AND BOOKSELLER, 
 
 Corner of Park Row and Sprwce Sts.? opposite City Hall, 
 NEW YORK, 
 
 PUBLISHES AMONG OTHERS THE FOLLOWING! 
 
 CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH'S WORKS. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
 BY MRS- HARRIET BEECHER STOWE, 
 
 AND A PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHORESS. 
 
 2 Vols. 8vo., 
 
 WITH SEVERAL ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
 ENGRAVED EXPRESSLY FOR THE WORK. 
 
 The Publisher invites the attention of the public to this 
 new Edition of one of the most popular and useful writers 
 of the present age. It contains upwards of 1500 large octavo 
 pages, and nearly thirty different productions ; several of 
 which in prose and poetry, make their first appearance in 
 our country in this edition. All her volumes, excepting 
 a few juveniles unsuited to a Standard Edition, are includ- 
 ed in this, making, to all intents and purposes, a complete 
 Edition of the Works of Charlotte Elizabeth. 
 
 To the attractions of our former Editions we have added 
 several engravings from steel, got up expressly for the 
 work, as Illustrations and Embellishments. 
 
 The news of the death of Mrs. Tonna has awakened a 
 new interest in her writings. Among her last labors as an 
 authoress, was the preparation for the press of Judaea 
 Capta. This we received from Charlotte Elizabeth in 
 manuscript, in advance of its publication in England, for 
 this Edition of her works, which has her express endorse* 
 ment, and is the only one in this country from which she 
 has derived a?iy pecuniary benefit. 
 
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 " Charlotte Elizabeth's Works have become so univer- 
 sally known, and are so highly and deservedly appreciated 
 in this country, that it has become almost superfluous to 
 praise them. We doubt exceedingly whether there has 
 been any female writer since Hannah More, whose works 
 are likely to be so extensively read and so profitably read 
 as hers She thinks deeply and accurately, is a great an- 
 alyst of the human heart, and withal clothes her ideas in 
 most appropriate and eloquent language. The present 
 edition, unlike any of its predecessors in this country, is 
 in octavo form, and makes a fine substantial book, which, 
 both in respect to the outer and inner, will be an ornament 
 to any library." — Albany Argus. 
 
 " These productions constitute a bright relief to the 
 bad and corrupting literature in which our age is so 
 prolific, full of practical instruction, illustrative of the 
 beauty of Protestant Christianity, and not the less abound- 
 ing in entertaining description and narrative." — Journal 
 of Commerce. 
 
 " In justice to the publisher and to the public, we add 
 that this edition of Charlotte Elizabeth's Works will form 
 a valuable acquisition to the Christian and Family Libra- 
 ry." — Christian Observer. 
 
 " We experience a sense of relief in turning from the 
 countless small volumes, though neat and often ornate, 
 that the press is constantly throwing in our way, to a 
 bold, substantial-looking octavo of 600 pages, in plain 
 black dress, with a bright, cheerful countenance, such as 
 the volumes before us. Of the literary characteristics of 
 Charlotte Elizabeth we have had frequent occasion to 
 speak. Her merits and defects are too well known to 
 need recapitulation here." — Newark Daily Advertiser. 
 
 This third volume completes this elegant oct^o edition 
 of the works of this popular and useful author. The 
 works themselves are so well known as not to need com- 
 mendation. The edition we are disposed to 6peak well 
 of. It is in clear type, on fine paper, and makes a beauti- 
 ful series. It is, moreover, very cheap."— New York 
 Evangelist. 
 
 WE ALSO PUBLISH THE FOLLOWING OF CHARLOTTE ELIZ- 
 ABETH'S WORKS, IN UNIFORM, NEAT 18mO. VOLS., 
 VARYING FROM 25 TO 50 CENTS PER VOL. 
 
Books Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd. 
 
 CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH'S WORKS. 
 
 IN 18mo. VOLUMES. 
 JUDAH'S LION. 
 
 " In a sprightly, well-written narrative, containing scenes of high dra- 
 matic interest; it portrays the character and hopes of the Jews in their 
 dispersion, and points to the means which may be blessed in restoring 
 them to the faith of Abraham, in the true Messiah." — Phila. Observer. 
 
 u Individuality of character is faithfully preserved, and every one is 
 necessary to the plot. The reader will find in thig book much informa- 
 tion that he can only find elsewhere by very laborious research. Char- 
 lotte Elizabeth is a firm believer in the national restoration of the Jews 
 to the possession of Palestine, but believes they will previously be con- 
 verted to Christianity. We advise our friends not to take up this book 
 until they can spare time for the perusal ; because, if they commence, it 
 will require much self-denial to lay it down until it is fairly read 
 through." — Christian Adv. and Jour. 
 
 THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
 
 A collection of deeply interesting Memoirs, beautifully 
 illustrated under the similitude of flowers. 
 
 SECOND CAUSES ,• 
 
 OR, UP AND BE DOING. 
 
 "We consider this little volume before us one of the best practical 
 works from the pen of this popular writer. It presents a series of inter- 
 esting illustrations of the efficacy of that faith which looks above and 
 beyond second causes, and relies for support on the word and promises 
 of God." — Christian Observer. 
 
 FALSEHOOD AND TRUTH. 
 
 "A beautiful and instructive volume, worthy to be put into the hands 
 of all children and youth, as a choice token of parental solicitude for 
 their preservation from insidious errors, and the establishment of the 
 truth as it is in Jesus. Few there are indeed of any age who can read it 
 without equal profit and pleasure." — Boston Recorder. 
 
 CONFORMITY. 
 
 " We read this little volume with great and unqualified satisfaction. 
 We wish we could induce every professor of religion in our large cities, 
 and indeed all who are in any way exposed to contact with the fashion* 
 ble world, to read it. The author, in this little work, fully sustains her 
 high reputation as a very accomplished and superior writer, and the 
 staunch advocate of Evangelical principles, carried out and made intlu- 
 ential upon the whole life and conduct." — Epis. Recorder. 
 
Boohs Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd. 
 
 CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH'S WORKS CONTINUED. 
 
 WRONGS OF WOMEN. 
 Part I. . ■ Milliners and Dressmakers ;' II. \ The 
 Forsaken Home ; III. s The Little Pin-Headers f 
 IV. ' The Lace Runners.' 
 
 " Is now published in handsomely bound volumes by M. W. Dodd. 
 These are the most popular and intensely interesting stories from the 
 ever-moying pen of Charlotte Elizabeth, and we are desirous to see them 
 widely read. They are eminently calculated to awaken sympathy for 
 the oppressed and the poor, and we therefore take pleasure in calling to 
 them the attention of our kind-hearted readers." — N. Y. Observer. 
 
 11 This volume contains Charlotte Elizabeth's most graphic, truthful, 
 and pathetic expressions of the ( Wrongs of Women.' She has come out 
 as the champion of her sex, and if they have no such wrongs to be re- 
 dressed in this country, they have thousands who sympathize with their 
 enslaved sisters in Great Britain." — lb. 
 
 11 The authoress of the ' Wrongs of Women/ Charlotte Elizabeth, haj 
 portrayed them in terms of exquisite pathos and heart-moving tender- 
 ness. Eloquently and forcibly has she denounced the inhuman policy 
 out of which they have grown ; and with all the susceptibilities and 
 overwhelming influences of woman's affections, she approaches the sub- 
 ject in the hope of being able to bring some alleviation, some mitigation 
 of the mental and physical degradation of her sex." — American (Boston) 
 Traveller. 
 
 DANGERS AND DUTIES. 
 
 " This volume is full of thrilling interest and instruction. Those who 
 commence, will not be content till they have finished it, and they will 
 find instruction presented in a form so irresistibly attractive and en- 
 chanting, that they will read it through, and wish it longer still." — 
 Christian Advocate. 
 
 PASSING THOUGHTS. 
 
 " Few volumes of 156 18mo pages, contain a greater amount of valuable 
 thought happily arranged to secure attention and promote reflection. 
 The anecdote of George IIL, p. 53, is new to us, as are indeed several 
 other illustrations, but they are striking and beautiful. Books like this 
 cannot be too widely circulated nor too frequently read. They supply 
 heavenly aliment to the weak, useful medicine to the sick, and safe sti 
 mulus to the healthy and the strong." — Boston Recorder. 
 
 We .also publish in elegant library style, illustrated with 
 Steel Engravings, what to all intents and purposes may be 
 considered a complete edition of the Works of this popu- 
 lar Authoress. The edition is comprised in upwards of 
 1500 large octavo pages. 
 
 3 
 
Books Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd. 
 
 THE DESERTER. 
 
 " We have never (we speak advisedly) read a story that more entirely 
 enchained us than this. We are not quite sure how much of it is 
 fancy, and how much fact ; but we rather suppose that the outline is 
 veritable history, while the filling up may have been drawn partly from 
 the author's imagination. The principal hero of the story is a young 
 [rishman, who was lead through the influence of one of his comrades, 
 to enlist in the British Army, contrary to the earnest entreaties of his 
 mother, and who went on from one step to another in the career of crime 
 till he was finally shot as a deserter ; though not till after he had practi- 
 cally embraced the Gospel. The account of the closing scene is one of 
 the finest examples of pathetic description that we remember to have met 
 <vith. The whole work illustrates with great beauty and power the 
 lownward tendencies of profligacy, the power of divine grace to subdue 
 me hardest heart, and the encouragement that Christians have never 
 to despair of the salvation, even of those who seem to have thrown 
 themselves at the greatest distance from divine mercy." — Albany Daily 
 Citizen. 
 
 " This is one of the happiest efforts of this exceedingly popular writer. 
 Its great aim appears to be to exhibit the truly benevolent influence of 
 real piety upon the heart of man, as well as the degrading nature of sin. 
 The narrative is admirably sustained — the waywardness of the unre- 
 generate exhibited in living colors, and so interspersed with sketches of 
 the ' soldier's life,' as to add a thrilling interest to the whole. It forms 
 a neat library volume of near &50 pages, and is handsomely printed and 
 bound in cloth." — Auburn Journal. 
 
 " One of the happiest productions of the author. The narrative is 
 well sustained, and the personages and character are true to nature " 
 — Commercial Advertiser. 
 
 COMBINATION. 
 
 " This is a tale, founded on facts, from the gifted pen of Charlotte Eliz- 
 abeth. It is well written, and contains the very best of advice. It lays 
 down with great force the mighty truth, that without Religion there 
 can be no virtue ; and that without the fear and love of God, man will 
 inevitably be dashed on the rocks of irredeemable ruin. Religion is the 
 Sheet Anchor, the only protection to hold by in the hour of violent 
 temptation ; but if that be lost, all is over. Such little works as these 
 are eminently calculated to produce a vast amount of good ; and there- 
 fore let the heads of families place them upon their table for the benefit 
 of their children. 
 
 " In no better way could an evening be spent than by having it read 
 aloud, that a warning may be taken from the folly of others, and that 
 the course which has led them to ignominy and disgrace may be most 
 carefully avoided." — Boston American Traveller 
 
 THE DAISY— THE YEW TREE, 
 
 Chapters on Flowers. 
 
 Three most delightful little volumes, made up in part from 
 her very popular Flower Garden Tales for those who prefer 
 them in smaller volumes. 
 
 m 
 
Books Published and for Sale by M. W. Dndd. 
 
 JUD/£A CAPTA. 
 
 ' Judrea Capta,' the last offering from the pen of this gifted and pop- 
 ular writer, will be esteemed as one of her best works. It is a tjraphic 
 narrative of the invasion of Judea by the Roman legions under Vespa- 
 sian and Titus, presenting affecting views of the desolation of her towns 
 and cities, by the ravages of iron-hearted, bloodthirsty soldiers, and of 
 the terrible catastrophe witnessed in the destruction of Jerusalem 
 The narrative is interspersed with the writer's views of the literal ful 
 filment of prophecy concerning the Jews, as illustrated in their extra- 
 ordinary history, and with remarks contemplating their returning pros- 
 perity. Her occasional strictures on the history of the apostate Josephus, 
 who evidently wrote to please his imperial masters, appear to have 
 been well merited. The work is issued in an attractive and handsome 
 volume." — Christian Observer. 
 
 "If the present should prove to be Charlotte Elizabeth's last work, 
 she could not desire to take her departure from the field of literature 
 with a better grace ; and we doubt not that it will be considered, if not 
 the best, yet among the best of her productions. It is full of scripture 
 truth, illustrated bv the charm of a most powerful eloquence ; and no 
 one, we should suppose, could read it without feeling a fresh interest 
 in behalf of the Jewish nation, and a deeper impression of the truth 
 and greatness, and ultimate triumph of Christianity." — Albany Daily 
 Advertiser. 
 
 "This volume contains a description of some of the most terrific 
 scenes of which this earth has been the theatre. But instead of con 
 templating them merely as a part of the world's history, it takes into 
 view their connection with the great scheme of Providence, and shows 
 how the faithful and retributive hand of God is at work amidst the 
 fiercest tempest of human passion. The work contains no small por- 
 tion of history, a very considerable degree of theology, and as much 
 beautiful imagery and stirring eloquence as we often find within the 
 same limits. Those who have the other works from the same pen, 
 will purchase this almost of course ; and they need have no fear that 
 it will disappoint any expectation which its predecessors may have 
 awakened." — Albany Religious Spectator. 
 
 Also just published — 
 
 *THE CHURCH VISIBLE IN ALL AGES." 
 
 A work, making attraction to the youthful as well as tha 
 more mature mind, a deeply interesting and important subject. 
 
 All the foregoing are printed on clear, white paper, and 
 bound to match, making an attractive and beautiful set of 
 books. They are sold in sets or separately, varying from 
 25 to 50 cents per volume. When purchased for Sabbath 
 Schools, a liberal deduction is made from the above prices. 
 (8) 
 
Books Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd. 
 
 THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF 
 GOOD AND EVIL. 
 
 By J. H. McIlvaine, op Utsca. 
 
 We have read this work with more than ordinary interest and profit. 
 It possesses great intellectual power and richness. In its composition, the 
 mind of its gifted author was filled with his subject ; and he has travelled 
 through it, as one acquainted with all the way-marks and crossings along 
 the avenues of Biblical interpretation. His clear, metaphysical mind, while 
 it solves difficult problems in revelation, detects the sophisms of mere 
 worldly wisdom, and wrests from socialism and infidelity the weapons they 
 would use against the Gospel of God. Man, is taught to bow his wisdom 
 to the wisdom of Jehovah, to sit at His feet and learn of him ; to under- 
 stand the natuie of the curse pronounced upon the serpent ; and of the 
 promise given to the woman. To understand the nature, too, of his own 
 creation ; of the subtilty of the serpent ; of man in his innocence and fall ; 
 of the institution of marriage ; its true unity, and of all the relations and 
 obligations growing out of it, between husbands and wives, parents and 
 children. The author's conception of the nature of marriage, as a union of 
 the earthly and mortal in creatures, of the desires and affections, of the 
 sympathies and love of this nature, and of the wisdom and prudence which 
 stand at its head — and not a union of spirit with spirit — is admirable, 
 and should be commended to the careful study of every individual.— Albany 
 Spectator, 
 
 IN PRESS, 
 
 A MEMOIR 
 
 op 
 
 CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH, 
 
 Embracing the Period 
 
 FROM THE CLOSE OF HER PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS 
 TO HER DEATH. 
 
 • WITH NOTES EXPLANATORY OF PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS. 
 
 BY L. H. J. TONNA. 
 
Books Published and for Sale ly M. W. Dodd, 
 
 DR. RfCHARD f S LECTURES. 
 Lectures on Mental Philosophy and Theology. By James 
 Richards, D.D. Late Professor in Auburn Theological 
 Seminary. With a Sketch of hfs Life. By Samuel H, 
 Gridley. And a finely engraved likeness. 8vo. 
 K For natural vigour of mind, practical wisd : om y fervent piety, and ud- 
 -jrearied diligence, both as a minister of the Gospel and teacher of Theo- 
 logy, the professor of Theology in the Theological Seminary at Aubura 
 stood deservedly high in the estimation of all who knew him o? his writ- 
 ingsv The discussions in this volume relate to some of the most profound! 
 and difficult subjects, yet are distinguished for great clearness of method, 
 strength of thought and simplicity of style. ..... We only regret that 
 
 the tas-tefor lighter reading will probably exclude this volume from the 
 libraries of Ihose who most need it. To students in Theology, and think- 
 ing laymen, it presents strong allurements, and will abundantly compen- 
 sate for the; time of more- than a single reading."— Com* Adv. 
 
 CHRISTIAN [MPERFECTIOM. 
 Lectures on the Moral Imperfection of Christians. De- 
 signed to show that while sinless perfection is obligatory 
 on all y it is attained by none. By Seth Willist on, D.D 
 ISmo. 
 
 " This is a work which will repay many a reading. In force of reason- 
 ing, felicity of illustration, and power of application and conclusion, ifc 
 will commend itself to tlie strongest intellect; while the Christian will 
 be convinced, that the Rev. author, instead of lowering the standard of 
 divine graces and duties, raises it to the highest point of Christian excel- 
 lence and to the perfections of God, so that the true disciple of Christ will 
 be led to humble himself before God, and repent daily in dust and ashes, 
 ef h% involuntary sins of omission and commission." — Alb. Spectator, 
 
 NEVfNS* SERMONS. 
 
 Sermons. By the late William JYevins, D. D. With a 
 finely engraved portrait. 12mo. 
 
 UNION TO CHRIST. 
 By Rev. JR. Taylor. 18mo. 
 
 NON-CONFORMITY TO THE WORLD, 
 
 BY THE RENEWING OF THE MIND. 
 
 By Rev. G. Jf. Judd. 32mo. 
 
 FRAGMENTS; 
 FROM THE STUDY OF A PASTOR. 
 By Gardiner Springy D, D. 12mo. 
 5 
 
Books Published mid for Sale by M. W. Dodd. 
 
 MRS. DWIGHT 80 GRANT. 
 Memoirs of Mrs. Elizabeth B. Dwight, of the Mission at 
 Constantinople ; and Mrs. Grant, of the Persia Mission. 
 12mo. 
 
 MEMOIR OFMRS. ISABELLA GRAHAM. 
 
 18mo. 
 
 TIMOTHY W. LESTER. 
 
 Memoir of Timothy W. Lester ; or, Eminent Piety the 
 great qualification for usefulness. By Isaac C. Beach. 
 18mo. 
 
 THE CONVERTED MURDERER,' 
 A Narrative. By Rev. William Blood ; with an Introduc- 
 tion, by William C. Brownlee, D.D. 18mo. Designed 
 to show the power of Divine Grace in renewing the most 
 depraved. 
 
 BIOGRAPHY OF THE SAVIOUR AND 
 HIS APOSTLES. 18mo. 
 
 THE BIBLE BAPTIST, NO. I. 
 
 OR, WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ON THE MODE OF BAP- 
 TIZM? 
 
 By Thomas P. Hunt. 18mo. 
 
 THE BIBLE BAPTIST, NOi II: 
 
 OR, WHO DOES THE BIBLE SAY MUST BE BAPTIZED 1 
 By Thomas P. Hunt. ISmo. 
 The above two works are published in neat pamphlet 
 form, and are furnished by the quantity for distribution 
 at a low rate. 
 
 RELIGIOUS EMBLEMS. 
 
 Being a Series of Emblematic Engravings, with Written 
 Explanations, Miscellaneous Observations, and Religious 
 Reflections, designed to illustrate Divine Truth, in ac- 
 cordance with the cardinal principles of Christianity. 
 By William Holmes and John TV. Barber. 
 
 THE CHURCH MEMBER'S MONITOR, 
 
 Containing a Pastor's friendly hints and advices on the 
 
 privileges, duties and encouragements of Christians in 
 
 Church fellowship, with a view to the revival and 
 
 spread of Scriptural religion. By Charles Moasc. 32mo 
 
 6 
 
Books Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd. 
 
 CHRISTIAN CONFIDENCE. 
 
 By Gardiner Spring, D.D. 18mo. 
 
 WINSLOW ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 Experimental and Practical Views of the Atonement. By 
 Octavius Wins low. IS mo. 
 " This is the first of a series of works which the author designs to pub 
 lish, of Experimental and practical Tie ws of divine truth ;' and if all 
 those forthcoming prove as valuable as this, they must greatly bless the 
 Christian Church. The work before us is a mirror in which Christ, in 
 his atoning sacrifice, is reflected in the face of the Church, and in which 
 phe beholds her entire beauty, righteousness and eternal life, as hid with 
 Christ in God." — Albany Spectator. 
 
 PROF. H. P. TAPPAN'S WORKS. 
 
 3 vols. 12mo. 
 1. A Review of ? Edwards' Inquiry into the Freedom of 
 the Will. 5 II. The Doctrine of the Will determined 
 by an Appeal to Consciousness. III. The Doctrine of 
 the Will applied to Moral Agency and Responsibility. 
 
 A GUIDE TO MOTHERS AND NURSES. 
 
 By the late Caleb Ticknor, A.M., M.D. 12mo. 
 
 THINKS- 1 -TO -MYSELF. 
 
 A serio-ludicro-tragico-comico tale. Written by Thinks- 
 I-to-Myself-Who. 12mo. 
 
 THE PILGRIM'S NOTE BOOK; 
 
 OR, CHOICE SAYINGS ILLUSTRATIVE OF CHRISTIAN CHA 
 
 RACTER AND DUTY. 
 
 Selected by Mrs. F. L. Smith. 32mo. 
 
 " It is a string of pearls, to be sought and kept and admired : just the 
 book to lie on every body's table, to be caught up and read at a leisure 
 moment for refreshment and reflection." — N. Y. Observer. 
 
 THE EXAMPLE OF WASHINGTON ; 
 
 COMMENDED TO THE YOUNG. 
 
 By Joseph Alden, D.D. 18mo. 
 
 This volume does not contain a narrative of the life of Washington 
 
 A few incidents are given, and some of his prominent qualities set forth 
 
 for the. imitation of the young in their efforts toward the formation of 
 
 character. 
 
 •4 
 
Books Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd. 
 
 THE GREAT SECRET DISCOVERED. 
 
 By Joseph Alden, D.D. 18mo. 
 
 Children will read this story with avidity, and it will teach them an 
 important lesson : that they can find happiness in pleasing one another, 
 and misery in trying always to have their own way. The writer has 
 very happily hit the vein that will lead to the hearts of the young, and 
 we trust that he will not let this be the last of his efforts for their in 
 struction. 
 
 PLAY-ROOM POETRY. 
 
 A collection of Poetry for children, combining amusement 
 with instruction. With beautiful illustrations. 16mo. 
 
 THE TRAVELLER 5 
 
 OR, WONDERS OF NATURE. 18mo. 
 
 MRS. SHERWOOD'S WORKS. 
 I ' The Drooping Lily.' 18mo. II. ' The Violet 
 Leaf.' ISmo. IIL * The Lofty and Lowly Way.' 
 
 18mo. 
 
 SCENES IN ROME, 
 
 IN THE EARLY DAYS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 By /. W. Taylor. 18mo. 
 u This little work carries us back into the heart of Pagan Rome, and 
 shows us Christianity in some of its most vigorous workings with the 
 power of evil. It narrates various scenes, which, without any great ef- 
 fort of imagination, may be supposed to have taken place under the reign 
 of bloody Nero ; and the lofty moral heroism which it exhibits on the 
 <me hand, and the spirit of fiend-like cruelty which comes out on the 
 other, fill us with alternate admiration and horror." — Alb. Daily Citizen, 
 
 THE CHILD'S BOOK OF DEVOTION, 
 
 A collection of Hymns for Children. ISmo. 
 
 THE STORY OF GRACE, 
 
 THE LITTLE SUFFERER WHO DIED IN NEW- YORK, 183T 
 18mo. 
 
 MY NATIVE VILLAGE. 
 
 Sketches from real life ; designed to aid the Temperance 
 Cause. ISmo. 
 5 
 
Books Published and for Sale by 31. W. Dodd. 
 
 THINKS I TO MYSELF; 
 A Serio-Ludicro-Tragico-Comico Tale. Written by Thinks I 
 To Myself Who 1 1 vol. 12mo. 
 
 ELIZABETH THORNTON, 
 
 Or the Flower and Fruit of Female Piety, &c. 1 vol. 18mo. 
 
 " This is the sketch of a young female possessing no common ex- 
 cellence of character ; although called away from her labors of Chris- 
 tian love when she scarcely numbered a score of years, she was truly 
 ripe for heaven. She lived and acted while life was hers for the great 
 end of being ; and no one of her sex could read this development of 
 an exalted character without the desire to imitate such an example. 
 It is just such a book we can most heartily recommend for the Family 
 and Sunday School Library." — N. Y. Com. Advertiser. 
 
 JANE BRUSH, AND HER COW. 
 
 " It is a beautiful story, and none the less so we dare say, for the 
 dovetailing of the translator's charming imagination into the text — for 
 ehe tells us that she has added to the original— though it is so very in- 
 geniously done that it is quite impossible for us at least to discover the 
 • spots in the wainscot.' The little volume furnishes one of the few 
 Instances in which a work professing to be written for children, has 
 been successful. It is not written down to their feelings and compre- 
 hensions but exactly upon a level with them. Its language, and the inci- 
 dents of the tale are precisely what they should be to make an im- 
 pression and do good. There is no baby talk about it, and yet, every 
 thing is so said as to adapt itself at once to the capacity of the young 
 mind at the earliest stage of its understanding. No better child's book 
 has ever been written, and toe, at any rate, have found it very delight- 
 ful reading for children of some age." — Courier $ Enquirer 
 
 MORAL TALES FOR CHILDREN. 
 
 By Uncle Arthur. Illustrated by seven engravings. 1 vol. 
 
 32mo. 
 
 " Uncle Arthur, the avowed narrator of these stories, must be a new 
 relation of Peter Parley and Robert Merry, he has so happy a faculty 
 of arresting the attention and winning the regard of the young. His 
 ■tories are simple and natural ; having a direct religious tendency, 
 and cannot fail to exert a salutary influence upon the juvenile mind.'' 
 —Boston Merc. Journal. 
 
 THE TRAVELER, 
 
 Or Wonders of Nature and Art. 2 vols. l8mo. 
 
 MEMOIR OF MRS. ELIZABETH B. DWIGHT; 
 
 Including an account of the Plague in 1837. By Rev. H. 0. 
 O. Dwight, Missionary to Constantinople. With a Sketch 
 of the Life of Mrs. Judith S. Grant, Missionary to Persia. 
 
 <7> 
 
Books Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd. 
 
 IN ADDTION TO THE FOREGOING IS ALSO PUBLISHED, 
 MEMOIRS OF REV. JOHN WILLIAMS, 
 Missionary to Polynesia. By Rev. Ebenezer Prout, of Hal- 
 stead. 1 vol. 12mo. 
 
 "Mr. Dodd has published a fine edition of Prout's Memoirs of Rev 
 John Williams, Missionary to Polynesia. The lives of few men afford 
 more ample material for an instructive and interesting biography than 
 that of Williams. His ardent, energetic, and successful labors as a 
 Missionary of the Cross, are almost without parallel. His self-denying 
 and eminently prosperous efforts in Polynesia have been extensively 
 before the public in the ' Missionary Enterprises? and the friends of 
 missions every where hold him in affectionate and melancholy re- 
 membrance as the ' Martyr of Erromanga.' The author of the Me- 
 moir now published, has, without drawing largely upon the facts with 
 which the Christian public are already familiar, produced a volume 
 of intense interest. The work is not merely the eulogy, but the his- 
 tory of the active and efficient life of a man whose works constantly 
 spoke his praise, even to the hour of his tragic death. We take plea- 
 sure in commending the excellent mechanical execution of the vol 
 ume." — 
 
 MEMOIR OF THE LIFE, LABORS, AND EXTENSIVE 
 USEFULNESS OF THE REV. CHRISTMAS EVANS, 
 
 A Distinguished Minister of the Baptist Denomination in 
 Wales. Extracted from the Welsh Memoir by David Phil- 
 lips. 1 vol. 12mo. With portraits. 
 
 " One or two specimens of the preaching of this celebrated Welsh 
 divine have been extensively read in this country, and have been sum* 
 cient to mark the author as a man of extraordinary genius. We are 
 glad to know more of him. The memoir before us gives a succint 
 account of his life and labors, and presents the portraiture of a man 
 of great talents, eminent piety, and most amiable character. There 
 are also several specimens of his writings which are exceedingly in- 
 teresting, and an account of the oiigin. nature, and influence of San- 
 demanianism, of which Evans was well nigh a victim, more complete 
 and satisfactory than any thing we have ever seen, except Andrew 
 Fuller's work on the subject. The memoir is a valuable addition to 
 our stock of religious reading. It is well printed, ana adorned with a 
 portrait of E/ans, the features of which are Welsh enough."— N. Y. 
 Evangelist. 
 
 THE ADVANCEMENT OF RELIGION THE CLAIMS 
 OF THE TIMES. 
 By Andrew Reed, D. D., with a Recommendatory Introduc- 
 tion by Gardiner Spring, D. D. 1 vol. 12mo. 
 Dr. Spring says, " At the request of the publishers I have paid some 
 mention to ue work of Dr. Reed, with the view of expressing my 
 humble jud?iient of its merits. The reverend author is favorably 
 known to the churches of this country, and iWa work will detract 
 nothing from his refutation. 
 
 (3) 
 
Books Published and for Sale by M. IV. Dodd. 
 
 With portions of it I have been exceedingly interested, as throwing 
 together very important thoughts upon the most important topics of 
 rcugious instruction, well arranged and favorably expressed. The 
 work evidently cost the author time, effort, and prayer, and it is well 
 worth the labor and solicitude it cost. Whoever reads it will be abun- 
 dantly compensated, and if he reads it with the spirit with which it 
 was written, cannot fail to become a more enlightened and useful 
 Christian. The object and aim of the writer is not a selfish one, but it 
 is to do good. He takes a wide range, and yet having read the work 
 the attentive reader will find that the substance of it is easily remem- 
 here 1. If our churches and our ministers would possess themselvea 
 of its principles and imbibe its spirit, they would have less cause to 
 lament the decay of vital godliness, either in their own hearts, their 
 families, or their congregations. 
 
 "The publisher deserves commendation and encouragement for the 
 attractive form in which he presents this volume to the public, and I 
 take great pleasure in recommending it to all who purchase books for 
 the sake of reading them." 
 
 PRAYERS FOR THE USE OF FAMILIES; OR THE 
 DOMESTIC MINISTER'S ASSISTANT. 
 
 By William Jay, author of Sermons, Discourses, &c., &c. 
 From the last London Edition. With an Appendix, con- 
 taining a number of select and original Prayers for partic- 
 ular occasions. 1 vol. l2mo. 
 
 "This volume has been long looked upon as one of the best collec- 
 tions of devotional exercises for the domestic circle, that has been 
 published, and by a large class of Christians we doubt not that it is 
 considered invaluable. ~The present edition will be still more desirable 
 to American Christians, who will not fail to thank the publisher for 
 the fine form in which he has presented it." — Courier $ New York 
 Enquirer. 
 
 A GOLDEN TREASURY FOR » ~~ ~ u " nREN OF GOD. 
 
 Consisting of Select Texts of the Bible, with Practical Obser- 
 vations, in Prose and Verse, for every day in the year. By 
 C. H. V. Bogatzky. A new edition, carefully revised and 
 corrected. 1 vol. l6mo. 
 
 "This is a reprint of a work written by a Polish Clergyman more 
 than a century ago. We have seldom met with a work more admir- 
 ably suited to the religious wants of families than the work before us. 
 There is a lesson for every day in the year ; a portion of Scripture ia 
 taken and such reflections are given as the text suggests. Tnose fam- 
 ilies who are in the laudable habit of calling their household together 
 in the morning cannot do better than procure this work. The por- 
 tion assigned for each morning lesson is short, but full of the true 
 spirit of Christianity, and could not fail to have a salutary influence 
 upon the thoughts and actions of the day. It is got up in the style of 
 elegance for which the publisher, M. W. Dodd, is so well known." 
 
 (4) 
 
Boohs tvLUshed and for Sale by M. W, Doda, 
 
 THE BOOK THAT WILL SUiT YOU; 
 
 Or a Word for Every One. By Rev. James Smith, Author ol 
 " Believer's Daily Remembrancer," &c. 
 
 "An elegant utile hand book of some 300 pages 18mo., and by an En 
 jHsh author Its contents are a rare selection of topics, treated briefly 
 o suit the circumstances of those who have fifteen or twenty minutes 
 .-o spend in rending, which it would be wicked to throw away, and yet 
 ILcou raging to commence a heavier volume. 'The Successful Mo- 
 mer,' 'The Child's Guide,' 'The Husband's exa.mple,' 'The Wife'* 
 Rule,' — these are some of the topics taken promiscuously from the 
 book ; and they show the author's mind to be travelling in the right di 
 rection, viz. : towards the theory of life's daily practice. We hope 
 that the time is near when Christian parlors will be emptied of ' The 
 Book of Fashion,' ' Somebody's Lady's Book,' etc., etc., made up of 
 love stories mawkishly told, and other drivelling nonsense ; and their 
 places supplied with works like the ' Book that will Suit you' — no less 
 pleasing, and far more useful." 
 
 GRACE ABOUNDING TO THE CHIEF OF SINNERS, 
 
 In a faithful account of the Life and death of John Bunyan, 
 pp. 176. 
 
 " We are pleased to see a very handsome edition of this admirable 
 treatise. It is just published, and will be eagerly sought after by all 
 who admire the spirit and genius of this remarkable man whose ' Pil- 
 grims Progress' stands nearly if not quite at the head of religious lite- 
 rature." 
 
 KIND WORDS FOR THE KITCHEN; 
 
 Or Illustrations of Humble Life. By Mrs. Copley. 
 
 "This admirable little volume is the production of Mrs. Esther 
 Copley, (late Mrs. Hewlett,) whose popularity" as an authoress has long 
 been established upon both sides of the Atlantic. The welfare of that 
 interesting and important part of society who discharge the domestic 
 duties of life has long engaged the attention of this distinguished and 
 accomplished lady. 
 
 w We have read the ' Kind Words for the Kitchen,' with a firm con- 
 viction that it is the best work we have ever seen in so small a com 
 pass for its designed purpose ; it suggests all that a sense of duty would 
 lead the head of a well regulated household to advise, and having 
 loaned the book to ladies distinguished for their judgment and skill as 
 heads of well-governed families, they have urged its publication with 
 a few omissions of matter deemed inappropriate to our country. 
 
 "We believe almost every Christian lady will be glad to place such a 
 manual of sound instruction in the hands of her domestics, and that 
 which is kindly bestowed will generally be gratefully received. With 
 an assurance that the general diffusion of this book would accomplish 
 a most valuable service in binding together more closely the interests 
 of the employer and the employed, and softening down the asperities 
 which so frequently grow out of the ill performed duties of the hou>e- 
 hold sphere, we should rejoice to know that this little volume wa« 
 placed by the side of the Bible in every kitchen of out country.' 
 
Bnnkq Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd. 
 
 SERMONS, NOT BEFORE PUBLISHED, ON VARIOUS 
 
 PRACTICAL SUBJECTS. 
 
 By the late Edward Dorr Griffin, D. D. 
 
 " Dr. Griffin may be regarded as having been a prince among the 
 princes of the American pulpit. He left a large number of sermons 
 carefully revised and ready for publication, part of which were pub- 
 lished shortly after his death, but the greater portion of which consti- 
 tute the present volume. They are doubtless among the ablest dis- 
 courses of the present day, and are alike fitted to disturb the delusions 
 of guilt, to quicken and strengthen, and comfort the Christian, and to 
 serve as a model to the theological student, who would construct his 
 discourses, in a way to render them at once the most impressive, and 
 the most edifying." 
 
 A MEMOIR OF THE REV. LEGH RICHMOND, A.M. 
 
 Rector of Turvey, Bedfordshire. By Rev. T. S. Grimshaw, 
 A. M.. Rector of Burton-Latimer, &c. Seventh American 
 from the last London Edition, with a handsome Portrait ok 
 Steel. 
 
 " We have here a beautiful reprint of one of the best books of il 
 class, to be found in our language. Such beauty and symmetry of cha 
 racter, such manly intelligence and child-like simplicity, such officiaf 
 dignity and condescending meekness, such warmth of zeal united witr 
 a perception of fitness which always discerns the right thing 10 ba 
 done, and an almost faultless prudence in doing it, — are seldom found 
 combined in the same person. It is a book for a minister, and a book 
 for parishioners ; a book for the lovers of nature, and a book for thf 
 friends of God and of his species. Never perhaps were the spirits am* 
 duties of a Christian Pastor more happily exemplified. Never dif 
 warmer or purer domestic affections throb in a human bosom, or exer 
 cise themselves more unceasingly and successfully for the comfort, th* 
 present well-being and final salvation of sons and daughters. From m 
 heart probably, did ever good will flow out to men, in a fuller, warmei 
 current. In a word, be was the author of the ' Dairyman's Daughter, 
 and the ' Young Cottager.' 
 
 " The engraved likeness of Mr. Richmond alone is worth the cost of 
 the work ; as illustrative of the uncommon benignity that adorned and 
 endeared the man to his friends and the world." 
 
 uncle barnaby; 
 
 Or Recollections of his Character and Opinions, pp. 316. 
 
 " The religion of this book is good — the morality excellent, and the 
 mode of exhibiting their important lessons can hardly be surpassed in 
 anything calculated to make them attractive to the young, or successful 
 in correcting anything bad in their habits or morals. There are some 
 twenty chapters on as many common sayings and maxims, occurrences 
 and incidents — in this respect bearing a resemblance to ' the Prompter, 
 a somewhat oracular book forty or fifty years ago. It is an excellent 
 book to keep in a family, and may be alike beneficial to parents and 
 children." 
 
Book* Published andjor Sale by M. W. Dodd. 
 
 PSYCHOLOGY; 
 
 Or a View of the Human Soul ; including Anthropology. 
 Adapted for the use of Colleges and Schools. By Rev. F. A. 
 Rauch, D. P., late President of Marshall College, Pa. Second 
 edition, revised and improved. 1 vol. 8vo. 
 
 " We have devoted more time to the examination of this work than 
 vc can usually devote to the books submitted to our consideration for 
 a passing notice, and in our opinion it is a work of great value. 
 
 " His first great object in these lectures is to teach man to know 
 himself. The second, is to give the science of man a direct bearing 
 upon other sciences, and especially upon religion and theology. The 
 execution of the work renders it admirably adapted to popular use, 
 and it should be studied by all. The clergyman should study it. The 
 lawyer would derive great advantage from it. The physician cannf i 
 he master of his profession without it." — JV. Y. Com. Adv. 
 
 A RESIDENCE OF EIGHT YEARS IN PERSIA, 
 
 Among the Nestorian Christians. With Notices of the Mu- 
 
 hammedans. By Rev. Justin Perkins. With Maps and 
 
 twenty-seven beautiful colored plates. 1 vol. 8vo. 
 
 "The attention of the Christian public has been called of late years 
 with great interest to the Nestorians of Persia, and the recent visit to 
 this country by Rev. Justin Perkins and Bishop Mar Yohanan, has 
 awakened still greater anxiety to know more of this people, 'the 
 venerable remnant of a once great and influential Christian Church.' 
 The theory of Dr. Grant, that this people are the lost tribes of Israel, 
 has attracted considerable attention, though since the examination of 
 that theory by Dr. Robinson, we do not think it has very generally 
 been embraced. These are obvious reasons to account for the anxiety 
 with which the work of Mr. Perkins has been looked for since his in- 
 tention to prepare a work on Persia was announced, and we are quite 
 confident that the public expectation will be more than answered by 
 the graphic interest, the valuable information, and unique embellish- 
 ments of the volume just issued. . . . Mr. Perkins has made a valuable 
 contribution to the literature and science of our country, as well as to 
 missionary annals. This handsome volume should adorn the library 
 of every literary institution, and of every man of intelligence, and we 
 trust it will thus be widely circulated." — N. Y. Observer 
 
 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMIS- 
 SIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 Compiled chiefly from the Published and Unpublished Docu- 
 ments of the Board. By Joseph Tracy. Second edition, 
 carefully revised and enlarged. 1 vol. 8vo. 
 
 "Mr. Tracy has performed his work well, and it is one that should 
 be found in the library of every intelligent citizen. It is interesting 
 in matter and subjects, and invaluable for a reference. The volume 
 is handsomely printed, and illustrated with numerous plates, some of 
 which vrere drawn and eng-avedand printed by natives at Missionary 
 
 (5) 
 
Books Published and for Sale by M. IV. Dodd. 
 
 stations. The whole comprises a neat octavo volume of 450 pages. 
 The research, and clear and concise style of the work, entitle it to 
 g»-eat commendation."— Boston Traveler. 
 
 PUNISHMENT BY DEATH; ITS AUTHORITY AND 
 EXPEDIENCY. 
 
 By George B. Cheever. Second edition, with an Introduction 
 by Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen. 
 
 " A luminous and forcible exhibition of the Scriptural authority as 
 well as the grounds of expediency on which the advocates of the ex- 
 isting laws rest their defence. We commend the book to the perusal 
 of those whose minds are unsettled on this subject, believing that 
 the author has gone thoroughly into the investigation of the argu- 
 ments of those opposed to Capital Punishments, and has faithfully at- 
 tempted to demonstrate both the inexpediency of the change, and its 
 direct contravention of the teachings of Divine Truth." — Neiu York 
 Observer. 
 
 TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS; OR FAITH REWARDED. 
 
 By the Author of " Emma, or the Lost Found," " The Adopt- 
 ed Child," &c. 1 vol. 18mo. 
 
 " This interesting little narrative combines entertainment with in. 
 struction of the choicest kind. It depicts, on the one hand, the meek- 
 ness and humility with which the faithful follower of the Redeemer, 
 reposing unwavering confidence in his abiding love and mercy, en- 
 dures the chastening dispensations of an All-wise Provi lence ; and, on 
 the other, the thankfulness and gratitude with which he receives un- 
 expected benefits and mercies. It is an excellent book for the young, 
 and from its perusal they cannot fail to derive both pleasure and profit." 
 — N. Y. Journal of Commerce. 
 
 MEMOIR OF MRS. ANNA MARIA MORRISON, 
 
 Of the North India Mission. By Rev. E. J. Richards. 1 vol. 
 
 18mo. 
 
 " Mrs. Morrison was the wife of one of the Presbyterian Mission- 
 aries in Hindostan, who was removed from the Church militant prior 
 to their arrival at their appointed station. It is an instructive deline- 
 ation of a superior and exemplary Christian female, just fitted to edify 
 young women, by displaying the excellency of the Christian religion, 
 and should be placed in the Sunday School Library for the special 
 benefit of the female department. — Christian Intelligencer 
 
 A MOTHER'S TRIBUTE TO A BELOVED DAUGHTER, 
 
 Or Memoir of Malvina Forman Smith. 1 vol. J8mo. 
 
 "The portrait of this much loved girl is drawn in a series of letters 
 from different members of the family, which are generally well writ- 
 ten, and deve'vop traits of intelligence, of affection, and of goodness, 
 worthy of imitation by those of her sex who shall have the good for- 
 tune to peruse her brief history."— Boston Traveler. 
 
Books published and for sale by M. W. Dodd. 
 
 MACKNIGHT'S EPISTLES. 
 
 A NEW LITERAL TRANSLATION 
 
 From the Original Greek, 
 
 OF ALL THE 
 
 APOSTOLICAL EPISTLES. 
 
 WITH A 
 
 COMMENTARY AND NOTES, 
 
 Philological, Critical, Explanatory, and Practical. 
 
 To which is added 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF THE APOSTLE 
 PAUL. 
 
 By James Macknight, D. D., Author of a 
 Harmony of the Gospels, &c. 
 
 A New Edition, to which is prefixed an Account of the Life 
 of the Author. 
 
 KNAPP'S THEOLOGY. 
 
 LECTURES 
 
 ON 
 
 CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE CHRISTIAN KNAPP, D. D., 
 Professor of Theology in the University of Halle. 
 
 Translated by Leonard Woods, Jun., D. D., President of 
 Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine. 
 
 Third American edition, reprinted from the last London 
 edition. 
 
Books Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd. 
 CRUDEN'S COMPLETE CONCORDANCE. 
 
 A COMPLETE CONCORDANCE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 HOLY SCRIPTURES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT; 
 
 OR, A 
 
 Dictionary and Alphabetical Index to the Bible : 
 
 Very useful to all Christians who seriously read and study the 
 inspired writings; 
 
 IN TWO PARTS : 
 
 CONTAINING, 
 
 1: The Appellative or Common Words in so full and large a manner, 
 that any verse may be readily found by looking for any material word in 
 it. In this part the various Significations of the principal words are given ; 
 by which the true meaning of many passages of Scripture is shown ; an 
 account of several Jewish Custonis and Ceremonies is also added, which 
 may serve to illustrate many parts of Scripture. 
 
 H. The Proper Names in the Scriptures. To this part is prefixed a 
 Table, containing the signification of the words in the original languages 
 from which they are derived. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED, 
 
 A CONCORDANCE TO THE BOOKS CALLED APOCRYPHA. 
 
 The whole digested in an easy and regular method : which, together with 
 the various significations and other improvements now added, renders it 
 more useful than any book of the kind hitherto published. 
 
 BY ALEXANDER CRUDEN, M. A. 
 
 From the Tenth London Edition, carefully revised and corrected by the 
 Holy Scriptures. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED, 
 
 AN ORIGINAL LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 11 Ever since the first publication of Cruden's Concordance, in 1736, it has 
 maintained the acknowledged reputation of being the very best work of the 
 kind in the English language. Indeed, no other has ever deserved to be 
 
Books Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd. 
 
 even compared to it. It maintains its superiority still ; and probably will 
 ever hold that pre-eminence. 
 
 M We speak of the complete edition, which is here presented to the pnblic. 
 A work in the market called Cruden's Concordance being only a compila- 
 tion from the complete work, and wanting many of its most valuable features. 
 To abridge this work of Cruden, as it came from his finishing hand, would 
 be to make it nearly valueless to ninety-nine of every hundred who need a 
 concordance. And of all aids to an accurate understanding of the Bible, 
 we believe Cruden's complete Concordance to be the best." 
 
 " Dear Sir : — I have carefully compared your edition of Cruden's Con- 
 cordance with a fine English edition, and find it true to the original. Know- 
 ing, from many years' use, the value of Cruden, I cannot but be glad that 
 you have thus presented a cheap edition of his invaluable work to the 
 American public. I find in your copy, an unimpaired, complete, Cruden. 
 This is not the case with another American edition, published last year. In 
 that, great liberties are taken with the original work — such as abridgments, 
 omissions, &c, greatly reducing the amount of its contents, and in the same 
 proportion diminishing its value. A student of the Bible needs a concord- 
 ance in which he can find every passage he wants. Your edition is just 
 such a one." 
 
 " We know, from long use, this full and admirable reprint of the original 
 Cruden's Concordance ; and we think that the whole value of the work 
 depends upon its being complete and entire ; and that its great value would 
 be impaired seriously by the omission of a single word or reference." 
 
 "The high price at which this gigantic work has been necessarily sold 
 hitherto, has prevented thousands from purchasing it. A complete edition, 
 with the very latest corrections, with the notes of the author and every line 
 of the London edition faithfully given, is now published, as above, for only 
 two dollars. It is the best commentary on the Bible that was ever 
 made : it is worth more to the diligent and devout student than the whole 
 of Henry, or Scott, or any other critic, and we would part with all our 
 commentaries rather than with Cruden's Concordance. It ought to be in 
 every intelligent family, and we presume that the low price at which it is 
 now sold will be the means of putting it into the hands of many who would 
 not otherwise have obtained it." 
 
Books Published and for Sale by M. W. Dodd. 
 
 THE ATTRACTION OF THE CROSS. 
 
 The Attraction of the Cross, designed to illustrate the 
 leading Truths, Obligations and Hopes of Christianity. 
 By Gardiner Spring, D.D. 12mo. Fourth edition. 
 " We are not surprised to hear that Mr. Dodd, the publisher, has al- 
 ready issued the third edition of the Attraction of the Cross, by the Eev. 
 Dr. Spring. It is the ablest and most finished production of its author, 
 and will undoubtedly take its place in that most enviable position in the 
 family, as a volume of standard reading, to be the comfort of the aged 
 and the guide of the young. We commend it as one of the most valua- 
 ble issues of the press." — N. Y. Observer. 
 
 11 This is no ordinary, every-day volume of sermons, but the rich, 
 ripe harvest of a cultivated mind — the result of long and systematic 
 devotion to the proper work of the Christian ministry. We regard Dr. 
 Spring as one of the most accomplished preachers of the country. We 
 never heard him preach a weak discourse ; and whenever he appears 
 from the press, it is with words of wisdom and power. A careful perusal 
 of this admirable book has afforded us great pleasure. We do not won- 
 der to find it so soon in a third edition. It will have a lasting reputa- 
 tion." — Baptist Memorial. 
 
 " This volume, which we announced two weeks ago, and which we then 
 predicted would prove to be the most excellent and valuable work yet 
 
 written by Dr. Spring, has more than equalled our expectations 
 
 We trust that every family in our land will read this precious work, 
 which illustrates so beautifully and attractively the leading truths, ob- 
 ligations and hopes of Christianity, as reflected from the Cross of 
 Christ." — Albany Spectator. 
 
 " We mistake if this neatly -printed volume does not prove one of the 
 most attractive religious works of the day. It presents the practical 
 truths of religion, which all ought to know, free from the spirit of sect- 
 arianism or controversy. The book is prepared for permanent use, and 
 bids as fair, perhaps, as any book of the kind in our times, to live and 
 speak long after the author shall have gone to test the realities he has 
 so eloquently described." — Journal of Commerce. 
 
 " Dr. Spring's new work, which we had occasion recently to announce, 
 is very highly commended elsewhere. A JNiew-York letter in the Boston 
 Traveller thus introduces it to notice : — ' A new work of Dr. Spring, 
 " The Attraction^ of the Cross," has been published by M. W. Dodd, of 
 this city. , . . " The Attraction of the Cross " is destined to live among 
 the very best productions of the church with which its respected author 
 is connected. The style is remarkably pure, the arrangements of the 
 topics lucid and methodical, and the arguments addressed with great 
 force to the reason and conscience. It will stand by the side of "'• Dod- 
 dridge's Rise and Progress," " Wilberforce's View," or the " Way of 
 Life," in the libraries of future generations.' " — Newark Daily Adv. 
 
 ''None will wonder at the rare success which this volume has wen, 
 who have read it. For comprehensiveness of views, beauty of style and 
 excellence and fervor of devotional feeling, few works have lately ap- 
 peared that surpass it." — New-York Evangelist. 
 
 " The grand relations of the Cross, its holy influences, its comforts and 
 its triumphs, are here exhibited in a manner cheering to the heart of 
 the Christian. And the perusal of this book will, we venture to say 
 greatly assist and comfort the children of God. . . J* 1 — Presbyterian. 
 
SABBATH SCHOOL 
 BOOK DEPOSITORY 
 
 BEING SOLE AGENT IN NEW- YORK FOR THE SALE OF THE 
 PUBLICATIONS OF THE 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS SUNDAY SCHOOL SOCIETY, 
 
 we have at all times on hand a full assortment of their publi- 
 cations, in quantities which we furnish at wholesale and retail 
 at the Society's prices in Boston. In addition to their valuable 
 series of Library Books, they publish a series of Question 
 Books, for Sunday schools and Bible classes, which are unsur- 
 passed, if equalled, by any now in use. 
 
 In connection with the above, we have a large assortment 
 of books published by ourselves and other individual publishers, 
 suitable for Sunday school libraries. 
 
 The above, with the publications of the Tract Societies, and 
 other Sunday School Societies, which are furnished by us at 
 Societies' prices, give us unusual facilities for rilling orders for 
 any thing needed for Sunday schools. 
 
 IN PRESS. 
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL LYRE. 
 Words and Music chiefly new : Compiled and Composed 
 
 By Thomas Hastings, 
 Author of various musical and miscellaneous productions. 
 
M. W. DODD, 
 
 IN ADDITION TO 
 
 HIS OWN PUBLICATIONS, 
 
 HAS ON HAND AT ALL TIMES A GOOD SUPPLY 
 OP WORKS IN 
 
 RELIGIOUS, THEOLOGICAL, 
 Stantrartu & ^tscrtlaweotts SLiteratttre, 
 
 SCHOOL BOOKS, &c. 
 
 AND IS RECEIVING CONSTANTLY 
 
 NEW WORKS, 
 
 AS THEY ARE ISSUED FROM THE PRESS, 
 ALL OF WHICH HE WILL SELL, AT 
 
 WHOLESALE OR RETAIL, 
 
 ON THE MOST FAVORABLE TERMS. 
 
 C85 82 'J 
 
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