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of the pamphlets in which the discussion was carried on are now out of print; but whoever would master the entire argument should study Mr. Watson's "Remarks," and the "Inquiry into the Doctrine of the Eternal Sonship of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Richard Treffry, junior." The latter work, distinguished as it is by genuine theologic science, consummate criticism, and Christian temper, has taken an abiding place among the classics of English divinity. From many years of intimate friendship with the lamented author, and repeated opportunities of conversation with him while engaged in the labor of that work, I can testify that, so far as Dr. Clarke was personally concerned, he had in Mr. Treffry an admirer whose reverence for him was almost boundless.

This, it should be remarked in conclusion, is the flaw in the doctor's otherwise sound and Scriptural theology. No man was more steadfast than he, in life and death, in his affiance in the great truth that Jesus Christ, his Redeemer, was "over all, God blessed forever;" and to make this truth known to the world by preaching it, writing it, and living it, became his peace, his glory, and his joy. As to the peculiar point in which he differed from his brethren, he never gave prominence to it, except in the statements in his Commentary upon a very few texts. In his public preaching he carefully abstained from making any allusion to it; and that, from a sense of honor, as a minister of a body which, in common with the Church at large, held a doctrine in this one solitary instance opposite to his own; and from a persuasion, no doubt, that, could he otherwise make it with propriety an element in his popular addresses, it would be very far from promoting the edification of the people.‡

Dr. Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures is, on the whole one of the noblest works of the class in the Works, vol. iii. + Third Edition. London: Mason. 1849.

It deserves to be added, that when Dr. Clarke was elected President, after the Conference had pronounced on the Sonship question, he was most studiously exact in eliciting from each candidate for ordination a statement of his agreement on this point with the theology of the body.

entire domain of sacred literature. It is a thesaurus of general learning; and, as the exposition of an Eastern book, it abounds very properly with a great variety of Oriental illustrations, philological, ethnic, and antiquarian. In amassing these, he drew from the most choice lexicons of the Hebrew and cognate languages; from the rabbinical writings, either the authors themselves, or the collections of Schoettgen, Lightfoot, and others who have made selections of the most eligible places in those writings which are available for the commentator; from translations of the Indian mythologists, lawgivers, moralists, and poets; and from a whole library of historians, naturalists, travelers, and writers on the archæology of the Oriental nations. When we consider that this great undertaking was begun, continued, and ended by one man, and that man engaged in the zealous and faithful discharge of so many public duties; instead of reasonably complaining that here and there it has a blem ish, or that its general plan is not in all respects filled up as completely as could be desired, our wonder is rather excited that he should have brought it so far as he did toward perfection. The Commentary is not equal through all its parts. On some books he is more diffuse and effective than on others. The Pentateuch and the Gospels are done well; and so are the apostolical Epistles. On the historical books, also, he is in general satisfactory. But on the prophetic portions of the word of God he commonly fails. This, in one way or another, is a fault common with nearly all our popular expositors of the Bible. In effect, we are greatly in want of a Commentary, which, interpreting the oracles that relate to the future destinies of our world, upon sound principles, avoiding the rationalistic tendencies of the spiritualizing school on the one hand, and the extravagances of the ultra-millenarians on the other, shall be worthy of the present advanced stage made in the study of prophetical theology.

But, in comparison with the substantial excellences of the work, these defects appear almost inconsiderable. Its lumin

ous expositions of the Law and the Gospel; its earnest and forcible appeals to the conscience of the sinner and the unbeliever; its rich counsels for the well-understood wants of the Christian's inner life; its endless exhibitions of general knowledge, and its valuable aids to the students of those holy tongues in which revelation took its first recorded forms; all will render this book the companion and the counselor of multitudes as long as the English language may endure. The man who accomplished it achieved immortality, his name having become identified with an indestructible monument of learning and religion :

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BOOK III.-EVENING.

CHAPTER I.

THE ELDER REVERED IN THE CHURCH.

TIME glides on, and moves so insensibly that the shadows of the departing day come on many of us unawares. The lapse of years beguiles man of his strength, as the autumnal winds rob the woods of their foliage. The change may be slow, but it is sure; and the process, imperceptible for a while, becomes apparent enough in its effects.

But he who enjoys the faith and hope of the Gospel is not dismayed by these tokens of decay; he connects them with the purposes of the unalterable will which decrees that in this way man shall throw off what is corruptible in his nature, that mortality may be swallowed up of life. The Divine pledges of this blessed consummation fill him with expectations which contribute to render the latest days of his earthly life the most serene. He gives himself to the work of preparation, and waits. Meanwhile all is tranquil. What Jean Paul Richter says of himself in his last days, the Christian ought to say without misgiving: "I make ready for my journey, and take leave of the many companions I have loved. Strangely mingles the future with the present in my soul, while maturity passes away into age. Nevertheless the cloudless evening sky spreads itself out in roseate glory."

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So it was with Adam Clarke.

His last days were his

* Biographic, 6ste Epistel.

best. "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace." In resuming our narrative we must remind the reader of the pressure of bodily infirmity brought on by excessive exhaustion, under which Dr. Clarke was obliged to write these admonitory words: "Matters are come to this issue; if I do not at once get from many of my vocations, I shall soon be incapable of prosecuting any. I must hide my head in the country, or it will be shortly hidden in the grave." It was in this time of extreme necessity that Providence opened the way to such a retreat, in which he could repair for a time his wasted constitution, without ceasing altogether from those mental and religious activities which had become essential to his enjoyment of life. Millbrook, a compact little estate about ten miles from Liverpool, was offered to him on conditions so liberal, and accompanied with such munificence on the part of the proprietor, that he was enabled to make it his own, and thither, after some time spent in rebuilding the house, he repaired with his family in September, 1815.

His frame of mind on this occasion is intimated in a letter to Mr. Boyd, in which he says: "That I shall leave London, as a place, without regret, I am certain; but it will not be so with respect to many who are in it. I do not like to be put out of the way of old friends; and, as to forming new ones, that is nearly out of the question. So I must take care to keep up a good understanding with myself, which I cannot do without being on good terms with my God; and on those terms I cannot be, without having at all times a conscience sprinkled with the atoning blood."

This new arrangement in his temporal condition did not interrupt Dr. Clarke's public relation to the Methodist ministry. His name stood on the Minutes as one of the preachers of a neighboring circuit, in which he fulfilled the duties assigned him; lending, too, his powerful aid to the interests of Methodism in various parts of the country. At home, he revived the habits of his youth in horticulture and the tillage of the field, to the great improvement both of the

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