before a mirror, till thou art able to repeat them with freedom and grace: so that when thou art called upon public duty, thou mayest effectually secure the approbation of thine auditors. Furthermore, when thou art about to visit any distant churches, lay up in thy portmanteau the choicest of thy sermons. And wherever thou art, take care to have, at least one discourse about thee, that thou mayest be prepared against any sudden emergency, and never appear unfurnished in the eyes of the people." The idea of such a passage in the epistles of St. Paul, whether publick or private, is too absurd to be endured.

What advantage has accrued to the church, by renouncing the apostolic method of publishing the Gospel? We have indolence and artifice, in the place of sincerity and vigilance. Those public discourses which were anciently the effects of conviction and zeal, are now become the weekly exercises of learning and art. "We believe and therefore speak," is an expression, that has grown entirely obsolete among modern pastors. But nothing is more common among us, than to say, As we have sermons prepared upon a variety of subjects, we are ready to deliver them, as opportunity offers.

Reading over a variety of approved sermons is generally supposed to be preaching the Gospel. If this were really so, we need but look out some school-boy of a tolerable capacity, and after instructing him to read over, with proper emphasis and gesture, the sermons of Tillotson, Sherlock, or Saurin, we shall have made him an excellent minister of the word of God. But, if preaching the Gospel is to publish among sinners that repentance and salvation, which we have experienced in ourselves; if it is to imitate a penitent slave, who, freed from misery and iron, returns to the companions of his former slavery, declaring the generosity of their Prince, and persuading them to sue for mercy; if this is to publish the Gospel of peace, then it is evident, that experience and sympathy are more necessary to the due performance of this work, than all the accuracy and elocution that can possibly be acquired.

In consequence of the same error, the ornaments of theatrical eloquence have been sought after with a shameful solicitude. And what has been the fruits of such useless toil? Preachers after all, played their part with much less applause than comedians; and their curious auditors are still running from the pulpit to the stage, for the pleasure of hearing fables repeated with a degree of sensibility, which the messengers of truth can neither feel, nor feign. Notwithstanding the above remarks have been expressed in the most pointed manner, we mean not to insinuate, that the er

rors already exposed are the only mistakes to be guarded against. Extremes of every kind are to be avoided with equal care. We condemn the carnal prudence of christian orators; but we as sincerely reprobate the conduct of those enthusiasts, who, under pretence, that Christ has promised to continue with his disciples to the end of the world, exhibit the reveries of a heated imagination for the truths of the Gospel. Too many of these deluded fanatics are found, who, taking their slothfulness and presumption, for the effects of a lively faith and an apostolic confidence, repeatedly affront the Almighty, and justly offend those candid hearers, who are least disposed to take offence. Offences will undoubtedly come, but it behoves us to make a just distinction between the real offence of the cross, and that, which is given by an unlicenced presumption on our part.

If we are honoured with the pastoral office, let us consider the holy scriptures as an inexaustible mine of sacred treasures. In the law of the Lord let us meditate day and night. Before we attempt to deliver evangelical truths in public, let it be our first care, to penetrate our hearts, in private, with an adequate sense of those truths. Let us arrange them in the most suitable order: let us adduce and compare the several passages of sacred writ, which appear to support or explain the particular doctrines we mean to insist upon: but, above all, joining faith and prayer to calm meditation, after becoming masters of our subject, let us humbly ask of God, that Parresia, that lively and forcible elocution, which flows from the unction of grace.

And here, instead of resting contented with barely requesting, we should labour to acquire what we seck, by frequently stirring up the gift, that is in us. Let us embrace every opportunity of exhorting both believers and catechumens. Let us carry, with unwearied constancy, instruction to the ignorant, and consolation to the afflicted. Let us be faithful in reproving sinners of every class, and diligent in training up the children of our parish.

It is necessary indeed to be scrupulously cautious, lost we abuse the liberty of preaching from meditation, by becoming followers of those, who are more worthy of censure, than imitation. There are pastors of this kind, who, having acquired a good degree of spiritual knowledge, and a wonderful facility of expression, unhappily begin to pique themselves upon appearing before a numerous assembly without any previous study. Conscious of their own. ability, these self-sufficient preachers make little or no preparation for one of the most solemn duties, that can possibly be discharged. They hasten to a crowded auditory without any apparent concern

and coming down from the pulpit with an air of the same easy confidence, with which they ascended it, contentedly return to that habitual listlessness, which had been interrupted by the external performance of a necessary work Alas! if these presuming pastors could be prevailed upon to write over their sermons, to how much better purpose might they thus employ their hours, than by heedlesly trifling them away, in frivolous conversation and shameful inactivity!

It is not to imitate examples of this nature, that we solicit the ministers of Christ to recover those hours, which are usually employed in composing their weekly discourses. How many are the important occupations, of which the faithful pastor has his daily choice! The wicked are to be reclaimed, and the righteous established. Hope must be administered to the fearful, and courage to the tempted. The weak are to be strengthened, and the strong to be exercised. The sick must be supported, and the dying prepared for dissolution. By frequent pastoral visits to hamlets, schools, and private houses, the indefatigable minister should continually be moving through the several parts of his parish; discovering the condition of those entrusted to his care, and regularly supplying the necessities of his flock; diffusing all around instruction and reproof, exhortation and comfort. To sum up his duties in a single sentence, he should cause the light, that is in him, to shine out in every possible direction, before the ignorant and the learned, the rich and the poor; making the salvation of mankind his principal pursuit, and the glory of God his ultimate aim.

Thus after having faithfully performed the work of an evangelist, when he is about to be removed from his charge by death, or by any other providential appointment, he may take an affectionate leave of his people, and say; Remember my children, that, while I have sojourned among you, "I have not ceased to warn every one of you night and day;" and if my word has not always been accompanied with tears, yet it has constantly flowed from the truest sincerity and affection.

MR. EDITOR,

COMMUNICATION.

An anecdote in your last number, on the efficacy of prayer, as verified in the case of the late Dr. Samuel Finley and his brothers, reminded me of a communication, with which that excellent man was pleased to favour me, at a time when a consider

able appearance of religious solicitude prevailed amongst the students of the seminary over which he then presided. It was occasioned by some suggestions of mine, which principally referred to the grounds of encouragement, afforded in the gospel, to importunity and confidence in prayer.

In the course of his instructive explanations, Mr. Finley adverted to a memorable incident which occurred to the experience of his earlier life. He observed that, after a progress of some considerable time of comfort and hope in the ways of religion, he began to fall, by very sensible gradations, into a state of darkness and perplexity of mind, both in respect to the truth and divine excellence of the gospel, and to the genuineness of his former religious exercises. That this distressful tendency of his mind, though in the mean, time opposed in his weak and ineffectual way, by almost continual prayer, self-examination, and searching the scriptures, still continued gradually increasing for the space of nearly two years, until it had well nigh amounted to a fixed habit of melancholy. That one morning, however, having risen rather earlier than usual, his mind was led with a force and interest much greater than any he had been sensible of before, into a consideration of the promised result of importunity united with confidence in prayer; and in regard to the contemplated devotional exercises of that morning, he felt an uncommonly pointed and resolute propension of soul to continue an unceasing effort of "wrestling with God," as Jacob of old, until He should bless him with the special manifestations of his grace and love in the Saviour, and with the consequent removal of that awful darkness and anguish of soul, in which he had so long been involved. For this purpose he speedily retired to the corner of a field, which communicated with, and partly enclosed, a neighbouring wood, with a fixed determination of not leaving the place, or to cease from pressing the throne of grace with his pleadings, until he should have received an answer of peace. In these intense engagements he accordingly continued, (with only a few short intermissions, for the purpose of more formal and explicit consideration of some particular interesting points, which occurred,) until near twelve of the clock; his resolution, as he proceeded, still becoming more firmly fixed and determinate, as his mind became gradually encouraged with some more comfortable intimations and views of that grace after which he was seeking. At this reviving crisis of dawning and long-wished for light, whilst his soul was carried out with a mighty force of enlightened confidence in pleading the promises of the gospel, the very hea

vens seemed to him in a manner to be opened to his view: not, as he observed, by any vision rendered sensible to his natural sight, as probably was the case with Stephen, when he saw the son of man standing at the right hand of God;" but, in consequence of the uncommonly elevating, soul-refreshing and divinely comforting conceptions of the freeness, the riches, the truth, the power, and the various glories of the grace of God in Christ Jesus, with which he was then favoured, and, as he added, almost overpowered.

In this singular state of mind he was not soon disposed, though fasting, to leave the place, which was to him as another Bethel. As prudence, however, directed, he returned before evening; and, in returning, had in himself a most sensible exemplification of the Eunuch's felicity, who, after the christian illuminations he had received, on his return to Ethiopia, "went on his way rejoicing." Although, as he believed, he had before that time experimentally known the loving-kindness of the Lord, yet, now, he appeared to be but as recently "brought out of darkness into marvellous light." He appeared to be introduced, as it were, into a new world, where every thing was strange and delightfully surprising. Nor was this sense of divine things of short continuance. He seemed to feel and to live as another or a new man. Every duty from this time became more pleasant than ever. He wondered how any thing could be a sacrifice, or how any thing could be an act of self-denial to a christian, with whom his God and his Saviour must be infinitely more precious than all other things; and he particularly noticed, that from that time he made more rapid, as well as more profitable progress in the studies in which he was engaged.

To me, who had frequent opportunities before of knowing president Finley's correct and scriptural conceptions, on the subjects of religion, this relation was not a little surprising; I should rather say, in part, objectionable. This, I took the liberty of briefly hinting to him. He answered, that the hint, was not unexpected. Nevertheless, that, what he related, was real matter of fact. And that, in the transaction he had never seen cause to suspect himself of having deviated from the rule of faith and scripture, in any point except that of having proposed to himself a certain specific, but not particularly promised, issue of his religious engagements at that given time. An issue, which depended absolutely on the sovereign unrevealed will of God, and which, as made by him 'a fixed term of the continuance of his suppliant pleas, bore very much the appearance of a presumptuous prescription to infinite