Much as I find to commend in Mr. Parsons, both as to his matter and manner, I can also perceive his defects, which strike more forcibly as contrasted with his excellences. He turns too completely round in his pulpit, and too frequently while he is praying, he accustoms himself to a disagreeable inclination, or shaking, of his head; and his action is not always perfectly chaste. He deals too much in amplification. His divisions are too numerous, and he pauses too long between them. As his matter would gain strength by condensation, so his method would acquire efficiency by simplification. His language, though on the whole comméndable, has many inelegances, and is sometimes chargeable with vulgarisms. He seems addicted to the pathetic, in which he does not

succeed.

Calvinistic as he is in sentiment, still he does not degenerate into enthusiasm. Knowing how much stress is laid on frames and feelings,' privately experienced, by the high professors of religion in this day, it was well in Mr. Parsons

S

to caution this portion of hearers, as he did, against judging of their general religion by their particular emotions. -No test is more

weak.

Edward Parsons is a sound divine, and a good preacher. I shall transcribe the following short extracts, as shewing the character of his discourses, and only as such. It is probable,' he will say, that this day with you is a day of deep distress. You are bowed down under a strange combination of afflictions, which you too boldly discriminate as the severity of God. Weakness and pain of body; disappointments and losses in your commerce with the world; bereavements in your families; harrassed by the fiery darts of the wicked one, defamed and persecuted by his emissaries; and, to aggravate these, you are tormented by a thousand anxieties and fears lest you should prove insincere in your profession of religion, and be found wanting when you are weighed in the balances. But, Peace, be still! there will arise light out of all this darkness; the greatest kindness will be

discovered, in all this reputed severity. The frowns of Providence conceal those smiles which will prove the perfection of your felicity, when the springs of life fail! Do not mistake the gentle rod of a faithful father, for the avenging sword of an implacable enemy; do not suffer any of your crosses to obliterate the remembrance of past mercies, or delude you from the anticipation of that state of bliss where all tears shall be wiped away from your eyes!' I scarce think the state of an Epicurean, who denies the being of Providence,and such still exist, in principle and practice,so unhappy as the state of that man who, under the obligations of a christian profession, pretends to admit the doctrine, and yet is for ever quarrelling with its operations; as in some instances unjust, and, in all as destitute of harmony.'

કર

JOHN TOWNSEND.

ABILITY cannot long endure obscurity. Talent will stimulate to action, private action acquire public honour; and he who feels what he is, may hope, one day, to be what he aims. Civilized communities are thus benefited by their individual energies. Were it not for men of mind, enterprising as ingenious, emulous of eminence, things would stand still. It is this troubling of the waters that restores its due vigour to the world. Society would otherwise soon stagnate.

The life of John Townsend suggests these thoughts to me. Rousing himself from the state of quiescence to which he was doomed, and at once pressing forward to his mark, he has long got the start of numbers who were his equals, and established no mean reputation

among mankind. He was trained to trade, but has lived to preach.

Notwithstanding that Mr. Townsend is the regular Minister of a Meeting at Rotherhithe, he so often preaches at Orange Street Chapel near Leicester Square, and seems so firmly settled at this place, that, while now speaking of him, I shall advert, by the way, to the present state of the chapel. The associated managers of this religious edifice are undoubtedly possessed of one of the most thriving concerns in our metropolis; and, if they propose to confirm it such, they have only to employ their usual singers and organist, and keep on the look out for eminent ministers. I suspect, indeed, that they know better than to flatter themselves with anticipating blessings on their cause, without adopting the measures necessary to insure its success.

Trading in chapels is understood to be a lucrative branch of commerce. Episcopalians and evangelicalians, obliterating here all distinctions, are nearly equal competitors in this market of