Ex Lions 
 '.. K. OGDEN
 
 DISCOURSES 
 
 ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS, 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 REV. ROBERT S. M'ALL, LL.D., 
 
 A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER, 
 
 REV. RALPH WARDLAW, D.D. 
 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JACKSON AND WALFORD, 
 
 18, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD. 
 1840.
 
 GLASGOW : 
 
 FULLARTON AND CO., PRINTERS, VII.LAFIELD.
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 Page 
 
 SKETCH OF LIFE AND CHARACTER. v 
 
 PREFATORY NOTICES clxxxix 
 
 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 A FUNERAL SERMON ON THE DEATH OF THE REV. WILLIAM ROBY, 
 
 MANCHESTER. 
 
 Luke xii. 42 44. " Who then is that faithful and wise steward, 
 whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them 
 their portion of meat in due season ? Blessed is that servant, 
 whom his lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Of a truth, 
 I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath." 3 
 
 Duties. 
 
 DISCOURSE II. 
 
 AN ADDRESS, DELIVERED ON OCCASION OF THE PRIVATE ANNUAL 
 MEETING OF MINISTERS, FROM LANCASHIRE AND NEIGHBOURING 
 COUNTIES, FOR PURPOSES OF SOCIAL DEVOTION AND MUTUAL 
 BENEFIT. . . 45 
 
 Discourses on tftc Opening of (Tiinpds. 
 
 DISCOURSE III. 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF BELGRADE CHAPEL, LEEDS. 
 Isaiah Ix. 13. " I will make the place of my feet glorious." . . 87 
 
 DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF EVERTON CRESCENT CHAPEL, 
 LIVERPOOL. 
 
 1 Cor. i. 23, 24. " We preach Christ crucified, unto 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." 145 
 
 1 1276-11
 
 IV CON1 KM i B. 
 
 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 Page 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE REOPENING OF QUEEN STREET CHAPEL, 
 
 CHESTER. 
 
 Rev. xxi. 3. " And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Be- 
 hold, the tabernacle of God is with men." .... 201 
 
 Ordination jerr.btr.r0.' 
 
 DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE AT THE ORDINATION OF THE REV. 
 THOMAS PARRY OVER THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN 
 BLACKBURN, LANCASHIRE 247 
 
 DISCOURSE VII. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE AT THE ORDINATION OF THE REV. MR. 
 SUNDERLAND AT BURY, LANCASHIRE 
 
 Exod. xii. 26. " What mean ye by this service?" .... 299 
 
 DISCOURSE VIII. 
 
 CHARGE ADDRESSED TO THE REV. JOHN ELY ON HIS REMOVAL 
 
 FROM ROCHDALE TO SALEM CHAPEL, LEEDS 
 Rom. xi. 13. " I magnify mine office." 341 
 
 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 CHARGE ADDRESSED TO THE REV. W. H. STOWELL, ON HIS SETTLE- 
 MENT AS PASTOR OF THE CHURCH, AND THEOLOGICAL TUTOR 
 OF THE COLLEGE, AT ROTHERHAM 
 
 Arts xx. 24. " That I might finish my course with joy." . . 393
 
 SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 REV. DR. M'ALL 
 
 NEVER was request more unanticipated than the one which, 
 in editing these Volumes, and in prefixing to them a sketch 
 of the life and character of their lamented Author, I now 
 fulfil. By the Trustees and relatives of the deceased, how- 
 ever, the request was presented in such a manner that I 
 could not find in my heart to resist it. I use this phrase, as 
 emphatically expressing the real state of the case. Had I 
 consulted only my judgment, I might have met the proposal 
 with objections of no mean strength. There were those 
 who, having enjoyed long and intimate acquaintance with 
 my departed friend, and, through this intimacy, multiplied 
 and varied opportunities of marking and duly appreciating 
 the peculiarities of his personal and official character, would, 
 on this as well as on other grounds, have been more compe- 
 tent for the interesting task; and, if it was requisite that one 
 who was himself so justly eminent should be introduced at 
 all otherwise than by the simple presentation to the public 
 of some of the products of his own powerful, accomplished, 
 and holy mind would have done it with more appropriate- 
 ness, efficiency, and grace. But there are occasions, when a 
 man must yield to the judgment of others, rather than rest 
 upon his own ; and there will be no great difficulty in obtain- 
 ing his acquiescence, when, how much soever his judgment
 
 vi LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 may misgive him, his heart is on the side of the solicitation. 
 This was pre-eminently the case. The memory of such a 
 
 friend not admired only and venerated, but embalmed in all 
 
 my affections; the wishes of those relatives, and fellow- 
 Christians, to whom, as well as to myself, he was dear; the 
 assurance given me of their unanimous conviction that, in 
 presenting the request, they were doing what would have 
 been most in harmony with his own wishes; the pleasure I 
 experienced in the thought, let the reader ascribe it to what 
 motive he will, of having my own name associated with 
 his, in a memorial rendered permanent by the intrinsic excel- 
 lence of those " remains" of which it was to be my duty to 
 superintend the publication; and the benefit I expected to 
 derive from the closer study of such a character, by which 
 my own mind and heart might be brought into more intimate 
 and influential contact with those qualities which constituted 
 its genuine worth, and gave it its undisputed claim to admi- 
 ration and love: all contributed to induce my compliance. 
 I had counted it an honour, and felt it a happiness, during 
 his life, to possess the affectionate confidence of such a mind ; 
 and it was like a prolongation of the honour and the hap- 
 piness, to be permitted thus to associate myself with him in 
 that posthumous life which his character and writings will 
 give him on earth; thus preventing the feeling of entire dis- 
 ruption, and forming a kind of intermediate stage between 
 his society in this world and the everlasting union of heaven. 
 I must confess, however, that the task was undertaken 
 with too little consideration of its sacred responsibility, and 
 
 of the difficulties attendant upon its creditable execution 
 
 One of these difficulties has arisen from the fact of the 
 lamented subject of this memoir having, immediately before 
 his death, laid his nearest relatives under an interdict, and 
 exacted from them a corresponding promise, that they would 
 furnish no materials for a LIFE of him. The cause or causes 
 for his taking this step may be found in certain features of his 
 character, which are thus, at the very outset, forced upon 
 our notice. It did not arise merely from a general dislike 
 though that, there is reason to believe, was not small of the
 
 THE HEV. DR. M<ALL. vii 
 
 too prevalent complexion of modern biography ; the eulogistic 
 partiality, the sentimentalism, the frivolous minuteness, the 
 interminable prolixity, which, with exceptions the more valu- 
 able for their rarity, are its regretted characteristics. It was 
 owing, I should apprehend, to causes more specific and idio- 
 syncratic than this. 
 
 In the first place, I believe him to have been influenced 
 by a sentiment of deeply humble self-annihilation in the pre- 
 sence of God. Fully aware of the estimation in which he 
 was held, of the affectionate and admiring partiality of his 
 intimate friends, he could not but anticipate, in such a LIFE, 
 no little amount of personal eulogy. But whatever might 
 be his estimate of himself in comparison with fellow-men, 
 when he viewed himself in God's sight, so overwhelming at 
 all tunes was his feeling of conscious unworthiness, of his 
 infinite distance, his universal failure, his utter nothingness, 
 that he shrunk from the idea of having either his personal 
 or his official excellencies blazoned. All who ever witnessed 
 the spirit of deep and prostrate reverence, of self-annihilating 
 lowliness and contrition, with which he contemplated and 
 approached the divine Being, will at once be sensible, that, 
 with the thought in his mind of the eye of that Being resting 
 upon him, and searching, with holy omniscience, his heart 
 and his reins, he would have shrunk, with inexpressible sensi- 
 tiveness, from any thing in himself being so much as named 
 under the designation of good. O could he but find accept- 
 ance, unworthy as he was, with his blessed Master ! To be 
 held up to the admiration of men, while in his whole soul he 
 was shrinking from the eye of the majesty and the purity of 
 the " High and Holy One," was a thought which he could 
 not for an instant have borne. 
 
 But in the second place for no mind, and especially no 
 mind like his, is always in the same mood, he was the sub- 
 ject, and that in no small degree, of another description of 
 sensitiveness, not inconsistent with the former, although to 
 some persons whose piety was greater than their discernment 
 it might appear so, I mean, sensitiveness as to character and 
 reputation amongst his fellow-men. That on this point he.
 
 Vili LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 was tenderly and quickly jealous, none who knew him will 
 question. It was at times indeed extreme ; and the source 
 to his own mind of no small amount of very gratuitous and 
 self-inflicted disquietude. That which affected him as to 
 living reputation, could not but be transferred by such a 
 mind to what was posthumous, transferred indeed with even 
 augmented intensity to the period when, although himself be- 
 yond the reach of the dreaded evil, he should at the same time 
 be beyond the means of repelling it from his memory. He 
 could not be perfectly sure of a correct representation of all 
 his principles, and tempers, and motives. A character of 
 whose peculiarities he himself was best, and perhaps, with 
 regard to some of them, alone aware, might not, by his bio- 
 grapher, in this point or in that, be correctly apprehended. 
 The anatomist of his moral constitution might not dissect 
 and demonstrate skilfully; and the surmise of an error, how 
 slight soever, was enough to give him prospective annoyance. 
 While, on the one hand, every feeling of delicacy and hon- 
 our within him would have recoiled from the thought of 
 eulogy without or beyond desert, yet, on the other, with a 
 sensitiveness hardly less nervous, would he have shrunk from 
 the needless exposure of defects and failings, of which he 
 was himself tremblingly conscious, and of which impartiality 
 might imperatively require the statement, while malice, en- 
 vious of his exalted fame, might take pleasure in exaggerating 
 and proclaiming them. 
 
 And there was still a third consideration, most credit- 
 able to his moral sentiments, by which I cannot but believe 
 him to have been influenced There were portions of his 
 history, passages both in his earlier and his later life, 
 which could not, he might imagine, be circumstantially 
 and faithfully detailed, without, possibly, inflicting a wound 
 on the feelings of some, or throwing a reflection on the 
 memory of others. As he would not willingly have done 
 this himself, neither would he submit to the risk of its being 
 done by others on his behalf. He had himself forgiven and 
 forgotten. He had lived to conciliate the favour of all who, 
 in his younger years, from misapprehension of his character,
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. LX 
 
 had taken part against him, to regain their confidence, to 
 enjoy their friendship, to become the object of their admiring 
 and devoted attachment. This would render him the more 
 averse to have cancelled grievances restored to publicity, and 
 sores that had long been closed opened anew; and the more 
 especially, when it would not be in his power to correct mis- 
 conceptions and prevent injurious results. 
 - While persuaded that such as these were the reasons by 
 which he was induced to impose the interdict and exact the 
 promise, I cannot but deeply regret his having done so. 
 It was a vain thought, if such a thought was possible, 
 that one who stood so high, and who knew himself to stand 
 so high, in private and public reputation, while he lived, 
 should cease to be spoken of when he was dead. He had 
 gathered around his living person too many affections of kind- 
 ness, and sentiments of esteem, and emotions of admiration, 
 and recollections of gratitude, to allow the possibility of his 
 life ceasing to interest, the moment the tomb closed upon his 
 ashes. There was a moral certainty that, in some form or 
 other, its details would come before the world; and the 
 only alternative was, whether the posthumous narrative should 
 have the advantage of being framed from full and authentic 
 information, or the disadvantage of being constructed from 
 materials necessarily scanty and but partially accredited. Of 
 such disadvantage I am at this moment painfully sensible. 
 The relatives of the deceased, with one exception, have felt 
 the sacredness of the restriction imposed upon them; and 
 while they " much regret their being placed under it," and 
 consider the feelings as " somewhat morbid by which it was 
 dictated," yet, from its determinate and imperative clearness, 
 they have felt themselves " left without an option."* I 
 complain not of this. I revere the feeling by which they 
 have been influenced, and gratefully acknowledge the kind 
 and respectful manner in which my request has been declined. 
 I have no intention to discuss the question of casuistry re- 
 
 * These are the terms used in a letter from the Rev. Edward M'All of 
 Winchester, a letter highly creditable, in all respects, to the feelings of the 
 writer.
 
 X LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 specting the obligation of a restriction imposed, and a pro- 
 mise exacted, in such circumstances. It is a question on 
 which not a little might be urged, and that with more than 
 plausibility, on either side, and on which feeling possibly 
 might dictate one decision, and principle another. The ex- 
 ception referred to amongst the relatives has procured me a 
 valuable communication ; but it is a delineation of character, 
 rather than a detail of biographical incident ; so that I come 
 to the execution of my task, a pleasant one notwithstand- 
 ing, under all the discouragement of necessarily deficient 
 information, to make the best in my power of the materials 
 I have been able to obtain. If I am asked Why, in these 
 circumstances, did you undertake it? why violate yourself 
 the known wishes and prohibitory injunctions of the dead? 
 should not these have been felt sacred by friendship as well 
 as by relationship? was not the restriction intended to ope- 
 rate as a preventive of the very thing you are now doing? 
 my answer is ready. I am satisfied that my revered friend, 
 however amiable and correct his motives, was wrong in im- 
 posing it. He was himself public property ; and he was 
 hardly entitled to alienate that property from public use and 
 public benefit. Could that benefit, indeed, be realized only 
 by a process injurious to the memory of my friend, even the 
 public good should not tempt my hand to the violation of 
 that sanctuary. I should be " doing evil, that good might 
 come;" and in doing it, should at once bring reprobation 
 upon myself, and more than counterpoise the problematical 
 good by the outrage which an act so unlovely and unnatural 
 would inflict on the moral sensibilities of the community. 
 But it is not so. No such " necessity is laid upon me." 
 The memory of my friend is the " memory of the just," and 
 it is " blessed." What I have to record will not detract from 
 the blessing that rests upon it, but enhance it. It is not the 
 nature of the materials that is the subject of regret, but their 
 deficiency. More might have enabled me to do it the greater 
 justice; and the greater justice would only have been the 
 greater honour. This the reader must take partly indeed on 
 faith, but partly too on legitimate inference. Ex ungue
 
 THE REV. DR. M*ALL. xi 
 
 leonem. A bone of the Mammoth is proof sufficient of the 
 gigantic magnitude of the frame to which it belonged. The 
 standing columns and scattered fragments of the Parthenon 
 carry conviction, stronger than any historian's description 
 could have imparted, of the extent and magnificence of the 
 structure of which they are the memorials. Between the 
 building however that stands in decay, and the building that 
 stands unfinished, there is a mighty difference. The former 
 was once complete ; and there are associated with the contem- 
 plation of it all our veneration of age, and all our pensive 
 sympathy with fallen grandeur. The latter bears the charac- 
 ter of an abortion; and we fancy on every stone of it the 
 inscription " This man began to build, and was not able to 
 finish." My hope, in the present instance, is, that, how 
 incomplete soever the structure I am about to rear, and how 
 unskilfully soever the materials with which I have been sup- 
 plied may be put together, yet, from an examination of the 
 materials themselves, of the intrinsic preciousness, the mas- 
 siveness, the beauty, the elegance, the symmetry, of the 
 several parts, some just idea may be formed how noble must 
 have been the edifice, could they all have been collected, and 
 disposed with a correspondent judiciousness and taste. 
 
 ROBERT STEPHENS M' ALL was the eldest son of the Rev. 
 Robert M'All, and Jane Lea, of St. Ives, in Cornwall. He 
 was born at Plymouth on the 4th of August, 1792. His 
 mother died in the year 1824. His father still survives, 
 having lived to witness, with paternal delight, the whole of 
 his honoured son's bright and brightening course, and now, 
 while, with a father's grief, he mourns its comparatively early 
 close, to enjoy, with a father's satisfaction, the admiration, 
 esteem, and love in which his memory is embalmed. To 
 both parents he was eminently affectionate and dutiful. 
 The facts illustrative of this I am not able to adduce from the 
 period of his boyhood ; but the affection, from its very nature, 
 must have been of early origination and growth. In after 
 life, principle might have dictated duty, but it could not 
 inspire love. Dr. Leifchild mentions that on one occasion,
 
 xii LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 when Mr. M'All was under his roof at Bristol, his father came 
 to meet him, and he adds : " Mrs. L., who is very partial 
 " to men of his age, appearance, and character, was more 
 "than ordinarily attentive to him. M'All, from that mo- 
 "ment, conceived the tenderest regard for her, and spoke 
 " with tears of her goodness to his revered father." But 
 while the strength of his attachment to both parents might 
 be equal, there was, in his affection for his mother, a special 
 tenderness; a feature of character, common to him with 
 many other minds of superior mould, and hearts of natively 
 refined and delicate sensibility. It was what I should have 
 expected to hear of him. I could hardly have credited the 
 contrary, it would have been so much out of harmony with 
 all the distinctive elements of his mental constitution, so 
 much out of keeping (to use the limner's phrase) with the 
 other lineaments of his moral portraiture I go further. 
 From the tenderness of his attachment to her while she lived, 
 and from the affectionate veneration with which he cherished 
 the remembrance of her when gone, I infer the excellence 
 of that unknown parent, whose person and whose memory he 
 thus loved. They are to me a sufficient guarantee of her 
 worth, of the rectitude, both in spirit and manner, with 
 which she fulfilled the duties of the maternal trust. I feel 
 assured she must have been worthy of approval and admira- 
 tion, when she thus touched, and bound, and melted a spirit 
 like his. Whatever, indeed, had been the character, he would 
 have exemplified, in the proprieties of filial conduct, the con- 
 straining sense of duty ; but so delicate were his moral per- 
 ceptions, and so shrinking his sensitiveness from all that was 
 unseemly, that, had there been aught incongruous, anything 
 in temper or in behaviour not in due adjustment with those 
 qualities which could not fail to enter into his conception of 
 a Christian mother, any note that jarred discordantly with 
 the sweet melody of a mother's love, admiring, revering, 
 confiding, melting affection could never have had the sway of 
 his bosom " My brother," writes the Rev. Samuel M'All 
 of Doncaster, "was peculiarly marked by Jilial piety. His 
 " attachment to his parents was not only strong, but singu-
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. Xlll 
 
 " larly reverential, and so tender that strangers would have 
 " mistaken it for a weakness. His mother, when visiting 
 " Macclesfield, had accidentally left a thread hanging from 
 " the mantelpiece. After she was gone, this slight memorial 
 " he preserved for a long time undisturbed. When intelli- 
 " gence reached him that this beloved parent was dead, he 
 "left home by the next coach, and, on his arrival in town, 
 " hastened to the room where the body lay. My father, who 
 " was present, told me, that he at once buried his face within 
 " the coffin, in an agony of affectionate grief, kissing the 
 " corpse, and entirely covering the countenance with tears ; 
 " nor could he, without great difficulty, be induced to quit 
 " the chamber. In one of his sermons at Macclesfield, as he 
 " was referring to the relation of parents and children, the 
 " recollection of his father and mother so affected him, that 
 " he was completely overwhelmed, and unable to proceed for 
 " a considerable time. It was indeed necessary to apologize 
 " to the congregation for the unusual suspension of the 
 " service." 
 
 I envy not the heart of the reader who calls this weakness. 
 If we do smile at the mantelpiece memorial, the smile should 
 not be that of scorn. The littleness of the remembrancer 
 was no proof of the littleness of the associating mind. He 
 who would estimate the strength of the real bond by the 
 slenderness of the thread that recalled it, would invert the 
 proper process of inference; for in truth, the slighter the 
 memorial, the greater the probable force of the affection it 
 suggests. I can fancy and all who knew him will fancy 
 with me the sweetness of the smile that played upon his 
 lips, when his eye chanced to fall on that thread, and, in 
 inward thought, looked upon his mother ; and I can fancy 
 too the change the darkening scowl of those lips and of that 
 eye, that would have rebuked the remotest surmise of affecta- 
 tion I dwell with delight on the reciprocations of maternal 
 and filial fondness, because I cannot doubt that, in his case, 
 as in not a few others, these were a part, and no inconsider- 
 able part, of the means that contributed to the formation of 
 the character, imparting to it that delicate refinement, and 
 
 b
 
 M\ LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 that exquisitely impressible tenderness, which, blending with, 
 and softening and chastising, its loftier and severer attributes, 
 constituted no small portion of its attractive and fascinating 
 charm. 
 
 From the cause, however, which has been adverted to, 
 the absence of all minute information respecting his early 
 history, it is impossible to trace that character, with any 
 satisfactory assurance of correctness, to its elementary origin- 
 ation ; to tell how the seeds, either of its more ordinary 
 qualities or of its more distinctive peculiarities, were first 
 sown, and under what influences their germination and pro- 
 gressive development were effected. The philosophy of its 
 idiosyncrasies is thus put beyond our reach ; and we must be 
 content to forego both the pleasure and the profit which 
 might have been derived from such a study What I have, 
 I give. 
 
 " Shortly after the birth of Robert, his father removed to 
 " Gloucester, having been appointed to the chapel in that 
 " city, in the connexion of the late Countess of Huntingdon. 
 " There Mr M' All remained several years ; and there Robert 
 " received the rudiments of his education ; and hence his re- 
 " collections of that place were always accompanied with in- 
 " terest and delight."* But " interest and delight," as many 
 a man who was once a school-boy will testify, are not always 
 the emotions associated with school-boy recollections. They 
 were his, however, at least as to this earliest seminary ; and 
 from this we are prepared for what follows : " On visiting 
 " the city in 1830, he sought out, with the greatest eager- 
 " ness, the individual who was honoured to impart to him 
 " the first elements of knowledge. From that individual he 
 " received many marks of kindness ; and he would often 
 " recite with pleasure various little circumstances connected 
 " with this very early period of his life."f They, indeed, who 
 enjoyed the familiar intimacy of his later years, are no 
 strangers to the sparkling and playful humour, the graphic 
 detail, the " suiting of the word to the action, and the action 
 
 * Dr. Raffles' Funeral Sermon, page 20. t Ibid.
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. XV 
 
 " to the word," with which, in his unbending moods, he 
 would rehearse the incidents of his " boyish days." 
 
 Whatever relates to his progress in education at that early 
 but important period, may be briefly despatched in the lan- 
 guage of Dr. Raffles : " The next removal of his father was 
 "to St Ives, in Cornwall ; and this little town and its sur- 
 " rounding neighbourhood became the scene of his most 
 " endearing recollections ; for here, during the intervals of 
 " study, he enjoyed the intercourse of his family ; and this, 
 " in every sense, he regarded as his home. Meanwhile, his 
 " education was advancing, at Penzance, Falmouth, and 
 " Redruth, successively. As a school-boy, it may suffice to 
 " say of him, that he early exhibited indications of superior 
 " genius, and at every school at which he was placed, he 
 " was distinguished by his ardent thirst for knowledge, the 
 " facility with which he obtained it, and the consequent pro- 
 " gress which he made in its acquisition. He was always far 
 " in advance of his companions, and was frequently applied 
 " to for assistance by them. His fondness for books, and 
 " his studious habits, even at that early period of his life, had 
 " an evidently injurious effect upon his health, which was 
 " never robust ; and frequent attacks of severe illness were 
 " the result. At the last-mentioned place, Redruth, his 
 " progress appears to have been particularly marked, and he 
 " is described as having left it, at an age still immature, more 
 " than usually acquainted with many branches of learning 
 " and science."* 
 
 With powers of both rapid and retentive acquisition, though 
 not miraculously precocious, yet far above the average of na- 
 ture's bestowment, there appears thus to have been united an as- 
 siduous and persevering diligence in their application, such as 
 the conscious possession of them, especially when aided by 
 injudicious eulogy, in too many instances precludes ; facility 
 becoming a temptation to vain-glorious idleness, a habit, for 
 which no imaginable amount of it can ever compensate, and 
 which has many a time left superior minds far in the rear of 
 
 * Ibid, page 27-
 
 Xvi LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 others, which, with less of readiness, have had more of per- 
 severance. And to a mind thus richly endowed with intel- 
 lectual capabilities, and thus early indicating its capabilities 
 in a growing variety and amount of acquirement, there was 
 added a heart ardent in its affections and passions, and dis- 
 covering this ardour alike in its moods of playfulness or of 
 seriousness, in its exquisite susceptibilities whether of plea- 
 sure or of pain from the conduct of others of gratitude for 
 favours, or of indignant offence from wTongs But to the 
 extreme sensitiveness of his temperament we shall hereafter 
 have occasion more particularly to refer. 
 
 Having been the subject of early religious tuition, trained 
 up " in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," by parents 
 who recommended their instructions by a correspondent 
 example, and drew down upon them by prayer the blessing 
 of a covenant God, his earliest years presented interesting in- 
 dications of the happy results. Impressions were made, which 
 were never effaced. Principles were introduced, bearing in 
 their influence the secret attestations of their divinity, which 
 survived every subsequent blighting and deadening exposure, 
 and proved themselves the indestructible germs of his perma- 
 nent character When tendencies to piety appear thus early, 
 they are most frequently of dateless origin and of impercep- 
 tibly gradual development. With the very first and simplest 
 element of divine truth which parents succeed in introducing 
 into the understanding, the Holy Spirit may commence his 
 silent, secret, gentle agency, and in that primary conception 
 of the infant mind may lay a foundation for eternity. But 
 even when there is no date determinable of first impressions, 
 there are often circumstances that fix subsequent stages of ad- 
 vancing decision, so awakening and deepening previous 
 thoughts and feelings, as to give them a definiteness, and 
 a commanding hold of the heart and conscience, such as they 
 had not before. In the case of young M'All, one of these 
 stages seems to have occurred at a very early age indeed. In 
 a letter from his father to Dr. Collyer, dated, St Ives, Novem- 
 ber 30th, 1807, I find the following sentences : 
 
 " About eight years ago, his mind was first affected with
 
 THE REV. DR. 3VPALL. XV11 
 
 " divine things, under a sermon I preached at Gloucester. 
 " The impressions he then received, and subsequent pious 
 " conversation with him, led him afterwards to pray extem- 
 " pore, and to seek the Lord in a way he had never done 
 " before. Repeated impressions, under sermons and other 
 " ordinances afterwards, together with reading and prayer 
 " from time to time, led him to desire to give himself up to 
 " the Lord. And his heart ever since ran upon the work of 
 " the ministry ; and every persuasion on my part, and every 
 " offer to engage him in some other calling and wait the 
 " Lord's pleasure, was quite unavailing to shake his desire of 
 " giving himself to the service of God, in whatever way it 
 " might please God to dispose of him, so be he would open a 
 " door for his entering on his holy work. I can say, as in the 
 " sight of God, that all the years I have been in the ministry, 
 " and with all the persons I have had to do with in going 
 " out on the service of the Lord's sanctuary, I never spoke 
 " with half the solemnity of the awful consequences of 
 " proving unfaithful or unworthy ministers, as I have from 
 " time to time done to him ; mixing it with special and so- 
 " lemn prayer for the direction and blessing of the great Head 
 " of the church. However, all has ever proved unavailing 
 " to shake his desire after the Lord's service. Now this 
 " course of conduct I took, not from any visible evidence of 
 " his not being sincere in his affections towards the Lord, but 
 " only because I would try as much as possible the ground 
 " of his heart, and eye the leadings of God with his soul." 
 
 From the date of this letter, and the distance of the time 
 before it at which this more decided impression of divine things 
 is fixed, the subject of our memoir must then have been only in 
 his eighth year. I have called it a more decided rather than 
 a first impression ; because when we speak of young persons, 
 in such circumstances, being "first affected with divine 
 things," we generally mean as I have found in many in- 
 stances, and as I believe to be the meaning in this not that 
 there had been no secret operation of truth in the mind before, 
 but only its then coming to such a point its laying such a 
 hold on the conscience and the affections as to induce de-
 
 III I. \M> C II AK.U TEU OF 
 
 termination and disclosure, and the avowed surrender of the 
 heart to God. It is rather the season of " first love" than 
 of first impression. There may be a series of successive im- 
 pulses, of which the subject of them himself is hardly con- 
 scious, and which do not appear to the observation of others, 
 which yet have been divine, and have contributed to prepare 
 the heart for the successful influence of that by which it is 
 ultimately won. This may at times be the case even with 
 persons advanced in life, and hardened in worldliness and sin. 
 By a succession of providential incidents, by the steady 
 consistency, silently watched, of some religious friend, by 
 " words spoken in season," by a thousand circumstances, 
 each in itself of a power hardly perceptible, there may be 
 a conviction long and gradually working its way in the mind, 
 an influence, counteractive of the previous domination of 
 evil, slowly but surely insinuating itself into the conscience, 
 by which the Spirit of God, in his own mysterious way, is 
 leading on to a final result, preparing for the still reserved 
 impulse, that is finally to loosen the heart from the last bond 
 that continued to hold it, and effect its avowed separation 
 from the world, and subjugation to God. By how many 
 unseen and long-continued physical agencies, by how many 
 winters' frosts and summers' thaws, how many secret oozings 
 and drippings, how many gradually yielding fragments and 
 slowly opening fissures, is the mountain avalanche brought 
 to that awful poise, which the impulse of a breath may disturb, 
 and send it thundering to the plain ! And that which is the 
 occasional experience of the oldest and most confirmed world- 
 ling, there is reason to believe is almost invariably the fact 
 in the early conversion of such as have been brought up under 
 Christian instruction. Not that I would place the workings 
 of the infant mind on a par with those of the man of maturity, 
 or bring upon myself the charge of the bathos by applying 
 to the former the image I have taken from one of Nature's 
 most magnificent and tremendous scenes. All that I mean 
 U. that when, as in the present instance, a child of eight 
 years, that has been religiously educated, is said to be " first 
 affected with divine things" under a particular sermon, that
 
 THE REV. DR. M<ALL. XIX 
 
 sermon is rather to be considered as the last of a series of 
 influences, to which those which had preceded were prepara- 
 tory, and by which they were brought to a decisive issue. 
 
 While passing through his varied schools, he appears to 
 have retained these early impressions; the agency that had 
 produced them evincing itself to be divine by their efficient 
 permanence. And along with the impressions, as the pas- 
 sage quoted from his father's letter shows, he retained the 
 desire for the ministry, which sprung up in his heart so soon 
 after his early decision to be " on the Lord's side." 
 
 The desire is no unusual accompaniment, or sequence, of 
 the decision. It is natural. It is amiable. But it is, by no 
 means, in all cases, a desire which ought to be gratified. It 
 may be the dictate of piety, while there is little in it of judg- 
 ment or self-knowledge; the fond and ardent wish of a first 
 love, uninstructed by the lights, and unrestrained by the 
 admonitions, of experience. But even the encouragement 
 and indulgence of the zeal of devout imbecility, has not been 
 the worst of the curses inflicted on the church. The mischief 
 of talent without piety in the Christian ministry, has been 
 still greater than that of piety without talent. It was a be- 
 coming conviction of this that induced the father, in the pre- 
 sent instance, to try, with so jealous a scrutiny, the motives 
 of his son, and to ascertain, by faithful converse and vigilant 
 observation, the reality and depth of his religious impressions, 
 and the probability of their permanence, as the "fruit of the 
 Spirit." He did well; and Christian parents generally would 
 do well to follow the example. The anxiety may be more 
 than excusable it may be right and pious to have a child 
 devoted to God in this " good work." But there must be 
 the consecration of the heart to God himself, before there is 
 the consecration of the person to his service. The premature 
 and hasty dedication of children, irrespective of personal piety, 
 to the work of the ministry, or what has been termed bring- 
 ing them up for the church, has been the occasion of a 
 negation of good and an actual production of evil, to an 
 amount that is beyond calculation. And while it has been 
 an injury to the church, and a stumbling-block to the world,
 
 XX LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 it is an act of anything but kindness it is the very refine- 
 ment of cruelty to the individual; consulting, it may be, 
 his temporal, but at the dreadful expense of his better in- 
 terests, rendering him, by the incongruity of his character 
 with his occupation, the pity of the serious and the jest of 
 the profane, rand either " searing his conscience with a hot 
 iron" by the habit of a heartless drudgery, or torturing it 
 with the stings of self-reproach, weaving a pillow of thorns 
 for his dying bed, and "treasuring up" for him "wrath 
 against the day of wrath," by an accumulation of official 
 delinquency and blood-guiltiness, of which it is frightful to 
 think. 
 
 It was when satisfied of the reality of his early religion, 
 of its divine origination and heart-felt power, that this judi- 
 cious parent determined on putting his son under such a pre- 
 paratory course of education for the ministry as, in union 
 with the principles of personal godliness, might, in due time, 
 qualify him for the creditable and useful discharge of its 
 sacred functions. He sent him, when, as would appear from 
 a comparison of dates, not quite thirteen years of age,* to 
 the Academy at Axminster, in Devonshire, then under the 
 superintendence of the Rev. Mr. Small. This he did, in the 
 first instance, at his own charge; and in introducing him to 
 his tutor, continued to follow out the same process of vigilant 
 solicitude respecting his religious character, and his fitness, 
 in that respect, for the work which he had now in anticipa- 
 
 * Dr. Raffles states the time of his stay at Axminster as "about twelve 
 months." This must relate to the period of his attendance as a student on 
 the fund ; for he had been a year and a half with Mr Small, before he en- 
 tered in that capacity. This makes the whole time of his stay at Axminster 
 two years and a half. Now, he was born, August 14th, 1792. The date of 
 the letter to which I have made reference is, November 30th, 1807. Accord- 
 ing to this letter, he left Axminster at the previous midsummer vacation. 
 He must then, therefore, have been towards the close of his fifteenth year. 
 So that, if he was, in all, two years and a half at Axminster, he must have 
 gone there when between twelve and thirteen ; and must, consequently, 
 have left Redruth earlier than at the age of fourteen, the date assigned by 
 Dr. Raffles. The point is not material, further than as it shows how very- 
 early at Redruth, whete his progress is represented as remarkable, his powers 
 must have begun to develop themselves.
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. XXI 
 
 "tion; begging that good and amiable man to watch care- 
 " fully over his dispositions and conduct, in order to find out 
 " what the state of his soul might prove, and to see how his 
 " thoughts ran, as he grew in years."* The experience of 
 a year and a half, during which he resided under Mr. Small's 
 roof, as a boarded pupil, and member of his family, drew 
 from his tutor a satisfactory testimony to the reality of the 
 work of grace in his heart, and a proposal accompanying this 
 testimony, to recommend him to be taken on the fund, as 
 one of the regular students of the Institution. This un- 
 expected proposal, being regarded as an additional indication 
 of the will of Providence, was assented to; and young M'All, 
 who, it would appear, had come home at the summer holidays 
 and been the bearer of his tutor's letter, returned to Axmin- 
 ster, and, on the recommendation of Mr. Small and another 
 minister, was received on the fund, and continued to prose- 
 cute his studies on this new footing. 
 
 All was thus promising. He continued to give his tutor 
 the greatest satisfaction, and recommended himself to his 
 affectionate regard. An unfortunate visit during the sub- 
 sequent Christmas holidays, the invitation to which was 
 prompted, on the part of him who gave it, by the kind con- 
 sideration of the distance of his home and the absence of all 
 the other students from the Academy, proved the occasion 
 of throwing a blight over these pleasant prospects. I know 
 not the name of his host; but it is generally understood 
 and indeed, at a late period of his life, under my own roof, 
 I heard the incident from his own lips, related with all his 
 characteristic naivete and glee, unembittered with an atom of 
 ill-humour that grave offence was taken, and a strong pre- 
 possession formed against him, in consequence of some smart 
 repartee to which, under the momentary impulse of provoca- 
 tion, he had given hasty utterance; his spirit, naturally quick, 
 and in such a case irrepressibly sensitive, having been fired 
 by a remark or question, in which, with or without reason, 
 there had appeared an implied taunt of those who were dearer 
 
 * Letter as before. 
 c
 
 xxii LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 to him than himself. I have no wish to exculpate the young 
 offender from the charge of unbecoming pertness. I may be 
 allowed to say, however, that if we dislike being stung, we 
 should deal gently with the stinging insect; if we depre- 
 cate explosions, we should take care how we handle the steel 
 and flint; if we are not partial to electrical sparks, we must 
 not excite the plate, and hold our knuckle to the conductor. 
 I may say further, that if it was wrong in our young friend 
 to forget that he was a boy, neither was it very right in his 
 host to forget it. It was the offence that should have been for- 
 gotten. If it could not with propriety be laughed at, nor its 
 impudence excused, the provocation given should have gone far 
 to cancel the one half of it, and its ready cleverness the other. 
 But we are all in danger of allowing such wounds to rankle, 
 and then of viewing every thing in those by whom they 
 have been inflicted, under the unfavourable influence of the 
 spirit of fretfulness which they engender. Whether at all, or 
 to what degree, this was the case in the present instance, it 
 belongs to a higher tribunal than mine to determine. Young 
 M'All, however, was charged with lightness of spirit, and 
 deficiency in the frequency and length of the exercises of per- 
 sonal devotion, both evincing the absence of sufficiently satis- 
 factory evidence of his possessing that experimental piety 
 which is requisite in a candidate for the Christian ministry. 
 His continuance at the academy was opposed; and so strenu- 
 ous was the opposition, that, although his tutor was in his 
 favour, and the committee, with the one exception, of the 
 same mind, it was ultimately thought best to advise his with- 
 drawment. Let the father speak again ; for he speaks calmly 
 and reasonably, although with the natural pathos of a father's 
 tenderness. The reader will not be displeased with me, when 
 he has read the pleading, for giving it entire. After men- 
 tioning the pertinacious firmness of the party in question to 
 his son's being retained, he proceeds : " On this Mr. Small 
 " wrote to me, just before the last midsummer vocation, to 
 " beg that my son might not return back, as, in the opinion 
 " of some, they had doubts of his knowing the work of con- 
 " version on his heart ; but that, as to himself, he had nothing
 
 THE REV. DR. M<ALL. Xxiii 
 
 
 
 " to say against his conduct, but that he was very sorry to 
 " communicate the matter to me, as he had a great partiality for 
 " my son. The only matter that he had to observe of him was, 
 " that he sometimes appeared to be light-spirited, and took 
 " great pleasure in studying, at his leisure, works of art and sci- 
 *' ence Now, dear Sir, I leave it to you to judge, whether a 
 " youth of his years might not, on a visit amongst friends, and 
 " during the time of relaxation from close studies, be in some 
 " measure off his guard, and fall into a degree of cheerfulness 
 " that might be quite contrary to his habitual seriousness, 
 " when in his regular course of life. Alas ! I have too often 
 " witnessed, among ministers of years and great experience, 
 " that when they have been in company and on visits with 
 " their friends, they have indulged in a strain of humour and 
 " vivacity, that if a stranger to them were to judge of their 
 "general character by those seasons, he would certainly form 
 " an estimate of them that would be very far from truth. 
 " And as to my son's studying the arts and sciences, at the 
 " times of recreation, it is to me rather a cause of commenda- 
 " tion than of censure. For it is confessed, that he never 
 " neglected his regular studies for those things ; but with his 
 " proficiency in them his tutor expressed himself highly satis- 
 " fied. He only robbed himself of the time that he might 
 " have devoted to walking, &c., to acquire an increase of use- 
 " ful knowledge. And I am quite satisfied that he read his 
 " Bible with care, from what I see by marks in it : and be- 
 " sides this, he has read many of the most excellent spiritual 
 " and practical writers on divinity. Hence, upon the whole, 
 " I am fully satisfied, that he must have been a diligent stu- 
 " dent. Besides, dear Sir, the testimony of his tutor, who 
 " told him, before he left him, that he had nothing against 
 " him, he has received letters from three of his fellow- 
 " students, who are still at the academy, and which letters I 
 " have seen. In all of them they write to him in terms of 
 "the highest respect, and with confidence of his being afel- 
 " low-partaker with them of the grace of life. I have like- 
 " wise seen his private journal, which he never showed to any 
 " creature before, nor did intend to show, even to his mother,
 
 XXIV LIFE AND CHAHACTEH OF 
 
 ** or me, or any one ; and which I should not have seen, had 
 " it not been for the close manner in which I talked with 
 " him, and my desire to know the state of his soul as in the 
 " sight of God, when he was at Axminster. Upon this, with 
 "great reluctance, united with becoming modesty, he let 
 " his mamma and myself see the manual I have alluded to : 
 " and I honestly tell you, that Mrs. M'. and myself were 
 " melted down in tears of thankfulness and joy at the reading 
 " thereof; which discovered the secret dealings of his soul 
 " with God, and the fervent desires of his heart after a full 
 " assurance of his personal interest in Christ, his desire to 
 " feel himself sanctified in all his powers to the Lord, and 
 " deep humiliation of soul before the Most High, for all his 
 "infirmities and short-comings. Indeed his dear mamma, 
 " as well as myself, was so much convinced of the unfeigned 
 " desire of his heart to be wholly consecrated to God for ever, 
 " that we felt our minds satisfied that the Lord was with him." 
 " Now, my dear Sir, I submit it to you or any other impar- 
 " tial person, whether Mr. Small, his tutor, with whom he 
 " had been two years and a half, and his fellow-students 
 " who were almost constantly with him, and one of whom 
 " slept with him, I say, I leave it to you or any one to judge, 
 " whether they had not a better opportunity of judging of his 
 " real disposition and character, both towards God and man, 
 " than a person could possibly do, who only saw him for one 
 " week, and that too when he was on a visit of friendship and 
 "relaxation from his studies Such, my brother, is the 
 " honest history of facts, which I can confirm by letters from 
 " the different parties."* 
 
 My judgment approves the sentiments, and my heart re- 
 sponds to the feelings, thus expressed. There is no evidence 
 that either the studies of our young friend were neglected, or 
 his morning and evening devotions, and the reading of his 
 Bible. And the reader must be left to form his own opinion 
 of the harsh and hasty estimate of his character, which led to 
 the cessation of his course at Axminster ; how far that esti- 
 
 * Letter to Dr. Collyer as before.
 
 THE REV. DR. M*ALL. XXV 
 
 mate was formed under the influence of candour, and how far 
 under that of temper ; how far it was the real, and how far 
 the ostensible, ground of the rigorous procedure against him. 
 A lad under fifteen years of age, naturally buoyant and 
 ardent in temperament, released for the holidays from the 
 regular severity of study, ought to have been encouraged 
 to take his full amount of the intended recreation, and to 
 enjoy himself, as far as was consistent with decorum, and 
 with such an unbending of the mind as would not unfit it for 
 a vigorous resumption of studious application. Had such a 
 youth even shown a propensity to be a little unduly frolicsome, 
 real kindness, in applying the check-rein, would have drawn it 
 in with a good-humoured smile. I have known cases in which 
 there has been such a measure of austerity, whether consti- 
 tutional or cherished under the influence of mistaken concep- 
 tions of piety, as to render, to the morbid spirit, all cheerful- 
 ness levity, laughter profaneness, conversation about any 
 thing else than religion conformity to the world, the gleam 
 of joyous pleasure lighting up the eye of youth the sure and 
 sad indication of a heart without grace, and any fondness 
 for aught but divinity the Bible and the Fathers in one 
 who anticipates the ministry, an augury, darkly ominous, of 
 his being " spoiled through philosophy and vain deceit," and 
 of his proving no better than a " well without water." 
 Where " lightness of spirit," therefore, is complained of, one 
 should be well aware of the character of the judge, ere the 
 justice of the complaint is taken for granted. And if, in the 
 present instance, there was no constitutional or acquired 
 austerity to account for the charge, I confess myself unable, 
 with the evidence before me, to trace it to a more creditable 
 source. 
 
 But let not the remarks just made be misunderstood and 
 abused, as if I would treat with ridicule or scorn a good prin- 
 ciple, even when carried too far. Let it not be supposed 
 that in condemning one extreme I am insensible to the danger 
 of its opposite ; that in censuring austerity I am giving my 
 sanction to levity. I have been speaking of a boy. There 
 are not wanting those who may give the excuse pleaded for
 
 XXVI LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 him little as even he appears to have stood in need of it 
 a much wider latitude of application. But let them be ad- 
 monished. There is such a thing, in the Christian, and 
 especially in the Christian pastor, as undue and unseemly 
 lightness. In " him who ministers and serves the altar," 
 cheerfulness should be serious, and seriousness cheerful. 
 There are few characters whose influence is more injurious 
 than the merry parson, who never appears in company but 
 whipped up to a froth, 
 
 " The foam upon the waters not so light ;" 
 
 who is full of jest, and gibe, and repartee ; every opening of 
 whose lips is expected to bring out something droll ; who, 
 even in the company of the world, forgets his dignity and 
 the sacredness of his official character, and 
 
 " Courts a grin, when he should woo a soul ;" 
 
 and whose pat and racy anecdotes are ever such as to " set 
 the table in a roar." Let not ministers set the example of 
 such a character; and let not students adopt it as their model. 
 O for the happy medium cheerfulness, equidistant from 
 levity as the one extreme, and moroseness as the other ! 
 
 It was after his leaving Axminster, it appears, that he was 
 received into fellowship with the church under his father's 
 pastoral care. This was an expression of continued confi- 
 dence in the genuineness of his piety, both on his father's part 
 and on that of the brethren, notwithstanding the unfavourable 
 surmises under which he had returned ; these surmises hav- 
 ing been more than overpowered by testimonies more entitled 
 to credit, and by the visible indications of personal religion. 
 " Since my son has been home," says his father in the 
 same letter, " his conduct has been very proper and satisfac- 
 " tory ; and the members of the church here, with whom he 
 " converses and prays, all think most kindly of him, and love 
 " him as a disciple of Jesus." 
 
 He was then fifteen, and " was immediately removed to 
 " Harwich, where he studied with the Rev. Mr. Hordle, and 
 " afterwards to Iloxton academy, which he entered in 1808."
 
 THE REV. DR. M ( ALL. XXvii 
 
 This brief statement of Dr. Raffles brief because the occa- 
 sion required its being so must be a little enlarged. The 
 precise time of his stay at Harwich does not appear in any 
 of my communications, and is of little moment. But previ- 
 ously to his admission into Hoxton, an application was made 
 for his reception into the college at Homerton ; which appli- 
 cation the committee of that seminary were induced to de- 
 cline, in consequence, as I have been given to understand, of 
 the pertinacious interference (I suppress the stronger term 
 I was about to apply to it) of the same offended gentleman 
 who had occasioned his removal from Axminster. And even 
 when the application was given in on his behalf to the Hox- 
 ton academy (now Highbury college), this individual, still, as 
 would seem, watching and tracking his steps, made a similar 
 attempt to intercept him there. I offer no comment, I 
 pronounce no judgment, on this apparently cruel course. 
 " The heart is deceitful," and through its deceitfulness, we 
 often succeed in concealing from our own consciences, under 
 covert of worthier motives, others that are less pure both in 
 their origin and their secret influence ; so that that which 
 began in selfishness, may by and by even assume the aspect 
 of godliness. A false impression of another's character may 
 originate in the pique and chagrin of offended pride; and then 
 from that impression may arise the conscientious conviction, 
 for which we may even take a delusive credit, that we " verily 
 ought" to set ourselves against his advancement in the course 
 he is following. It is not the first nor the thousandth time 
 that men, in indulging their own spirit, have " thought they 
 were doing God service." 
 
 Into Hoxton academy, however, after the committee had 
 seen him, and had put him, elsewhere, on a temporary proba- 
 tion, he was received, Dr. Raffles says, in 1808. The eminently 
 useful and respected treasurer of the college,* in a letter to 
 myself, says " His application to be received a student was 
 " made in January, 1809, before he was seventeen years of 
 " age." And respecting the application itself, the same 
 
 * Thomas Wilson, Esq.
 
 XXviii LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 authority adds "It was perfectly satisfactory, as it re- 
 "spected his religious experience, his doctrinal sentiments, 
 " and his motives for entering on studies for the ministry." 
 It is obvious, however, that, satisfactory in these and other 
 respects as such a letter of application might be, the circum- 
 stances under which he was admitted could not but engender, 
 and the very manner of his admission indicated, a hesitating 
 and suspicious jealousy, such as placed him in a situation by 
 no means enviable. His removal from Axminster on the 
 avowed ground of " doubts being entertained by some as to 
 his being truly serious," the refusal of his application to 
 Homerton, on the same ground, urged from the same quarter, 
 and the consequent probation to which it was thought 
 needful to subject him ere the committee could consent to his 
 being received, were grounds for an unfavourable preposses- 
 sion, such as it would have required, along with the most 
 undeviating and punctilious consistency, a discretion next to 
 infallible, effectually to live down. 
 
 I would not be understood as even insinuating a reflection 
 on the committee of either institution, for the part they re- 
 spectively acted, for the refusal of the one, or for the hesi- 
 tancy and cautious probation of the other. I know not a 
 more sacred trust than that with which such committees are 
 invested ; involving, as it does, a fourfold responsibility 
 to the candidate himself, to the seminary, to the churches, 
 and to Christ ; and requiring for its due fulfilment a com- 
 bination of discriminative judgment, impartial fidelity, resolute 
 decision, and affectionate delicacy, which are not often to be 
 found in union. Some are apt to forget that young men 
 have feelings at all ; while others, rather than wound those 
 feelings, forget the paramount claims of the cause of God, and 
 sacrifice, moreover, to a false tenderness, which shrinks from 
 inflicting a temporary pain, the real and permanent advantage 
 of the youth, whom they gratify indeed, but whom they 
 wrong. For beyond question, apart from other and higher 
 considerations, a greater wrong can hardly be done to any 
 one, than by putting him into a situation for which he is not 
 fit, and which he cannot occupy without making himself the
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. XXIX 
 
 object of pity, of censure, or of scorn. In those to whom 
 the duty, in such institutions, is committed, of judging of the 
 qualifications, and determining on the admission or rejection, 
 of candidates, a degree of even ultra jealousy may well be par- 
 doned, especially when the point in question is that of per- 
 sonal piety. A doubt here may be sufficient to justify even 
 more than hesitation, let the amount of other qualifications be 
 what it may ; but, at the same time, in proportion as those 
 other qualifications are desirable for the service of the church, 
 and in proportion too as character is precious to the young 
 man himself, ought it to be carefully ascertained that the 
 doubt has some real foundation. 
 
 Beginning his academic career in the circumstances speci- 
 fied, it may readily be imagined how everything said or done 
 by him would be seen through a medium of jealousy, and be 
 liable to misapprehension. Along with this, he was young, 
 ardent, and sensitive. Both in natural talents, and in extent 
 of previous acquirements, he possessed a decided superiority 
 over a great proportion at least of his fellow-students, a 
 superiority of which he could not fail soon to become con- 
 scious, and by which, to use the expression of one who knew 
 well the literary character of the seminary at the time, and 
 who was one of the attached friends of his after life,* " he 
 found himself, at a bound, facile princeps" And what 
 character, in age any more than in youth, is without its faults ? 
 That the sense of his superiority was not always over-carefully 
 concealed, may at once be granted. And if, on the one side, 
 it discovered itself in occasional indications of disdain, it could 
 not fail, on the other, to engender, in more bosoms than one, 
 some little spice of envy. The constitutional character of his 
 mind made him naturally fond of argumentation ; and for the 
 display of his superiority as a reasoner, a superiority arising 
 both from the natural acuteness and readiness of his mental 
 powers, and from his greater extent of acquired knowledge, 
 the customary practices of the institution afforded him abundant 
 opportunity : " There existed then, and long after," says 
 
 * The Rev. Richard Winter Hamilton. 
 d
 
 XXX LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 the frieiul above referred to, " a habit, or institute, of debate. 
 " As topics were mooted on which all professedly agreed, 
 "some had to reason against their own convictions. We 
 " took sides. Say baptism the extent of the atonement, 
 " &c. The philosophy, and the piety, of this I more than 
 "doubt. He, I have heard, rioted in this gladiatorship. 
 " The covert sarcasm was, not unfrequently, launched. 
 " He loved to surprise by startling passages of paradox and 
 " presumption. It looked like unsettled opinion, if it did not 
 " betray the latent scepticism. His auditors were not inat- 
 " tentive, and their suspicions were thus confirmed. This 
 " was certainly unjust dealing. Many might have been as 
 " plausibly condemned. Yet it is very likely that he loved 
 " to puzzle and to shock, to exercise a wantonness of in- 
 "genuity in his sophisms and banterings. This was the 
 " head and front of his offending." I agree with my friend, 
 in " more than doubting the philosophy and the piety" of the 
 practice spoken of. There is a twofold hazard in it. First 
 The moral feelings are in danger. There is a risk of 
 engendering vanity and self-sufficiency in some, and pique, 
 and jealousy, and resentment in others ; in some, a petulant 
 forwardness and overbearing dogmatism, in others, a morti- 
 fied and fretful despondency ; the former tempting to scorn, 
 the latter to detraction : while in all, the habit of often 
 speaking what is not thought can hardly be favourable to the 
 cultivation of the moral sentiment of sincerity and truth a 
 sentiment which can never be too sensitively delicate. And 
 then, further the doctrinal principles are in danger. The 
 very circumstance of our having invented and conducted an 
 argument, serves to make it our own ; and to what is our own 
 we are ever apt to attach weight and importance. When it 
 is keenly controverted, we get warm in its defence ; when it 
 is treated with scorn, we feel the scorn of our argument as if 
 pointed at ourselves, and our self-love thus attaches itself to 
 the argument; so that what began in feint may end in 
 earnest. And the risk is augmented, when our reasoning 
 has proved successful in foiling and bringing to a stand the 
 advocates of the orthodox opinions. We begin to think there
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. 
 
 is more force than we had apprehended in the arguments for 
 heterodoxy we have so triumphantly wielded: and even if 
 our principles are not actually subverted, there is apt to be 
 induced, by the very habit of defending error, an unsettled, 
 speculative, sceptical turn of mind. Thus, often speaking 
 what we do not think, may end in our thinking what we do 
 not choose to speak : our minds becoming the dupes of what 
 is no more than sophistically specious, but has derived a con- 
 vincing power over them from adventitious circumstances. 
 The whole practice, indeed, unless managed with a discretion 
 which is hardly to be expected at that period of life, is, to say 
 the least of it, of very questionable propriety. 
 
 In the present instance, the consequence was serious, but 
 not strange. From the causes which have been mentioned, the 
 feelings of not a few of his fellow-students towards him were 
 not of the most complacent description. " He was ill-sorted 
 " with the majority, as to attainments, tastes, and years." 
 They did not understand him; and he, in conscious supe- 
 riority, and with a portion of youthful self-will, was not so 
 forbearing and conciliatory as might have been wished, 
 especially on the part of a junior, in his behaviour towards 
 them. The fact of his so frequently supporting the heterodox 
 side of debated questions, was associated, in their representa- 
 tions of him, with hints of pride, and temper, and the neglect 
 of external religious duties ; all which coming to the know- 
 ledge of the committee, and being naturally viewed by them 
 under the biassing influence of the circumstances attending 
 his admission, the result was, that his curriculum in the 
 academy was cut short at the close of the first year. There 
 were not a few, however, by whom this measure was regarded 
 as one of " extreme harshness ;" and I cannot but avow the 
 conviction, that, had his character been rightly apprehended, 
 and a mode of treatment pursued better adapted to its peculiar 
 elements, the result might have been widely different. His 
 was a spirit that would draw, but not drive. If it must be 
 admitted, that conscious superiority rendered him at times 
 somewhat supercilious, and more sensitively indignant than 
 was becoming when his merits were not duly appreciated and
 
 XXX11 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 allowed ; if it tempted him on some occasions to the undue 
 expectation and exaction of deference ; it is not less true, that 
 he was exquisitely sensible to kindness, that some of the 
 dispositions with which he came into collision were not pro- 
 bably of the most refined description, such as would touch 
 the sensitive plant with a very delicate hand ; and that had 
 there been, on the part of those with whom lay the superin- 
 tendence, less of the authoritative and more of the winning, 
 less of the dictatorial and more of the persuasive, less of 
 the severity of censorship and more of the allowance of can- 
 dour towards youthful but remediable faults, he might have 
 been spared this second mortification, and the hazard to which 
 it exposed both the tempers and the principles of a mind con- 
 stituted like his. I would not, however, forget that I am 
 judging of the case by the after-lights that have been thrown 
 upon it ; and that such a judgment is a much easier matter 
 than a right decision at the time. Had the future been fore- 
 seen, the decision would have been different. It is most 
 gratifying to "have to record, how the minds of those who, 
 acting conscientiously according to the light in which the 
 case at the time appeared, felt it their duty to decide against 
 him, were subsequently turned in his favour, justly estimat- 
 ing and admiring his excellencies, and " esteeming him very 
 " highly in love for his work's sake." In the letter of the 
 worthy treasurer and most constant and generous patron of 
 the institution before referred to, after mentioning the satis- 
 factoriness of his application for admission, he adds, " He 
 " only remained one year, having indiscreetly manifested, in 
 " his intercourse with the students, too great a propensity to 
 " disputation, and thus excited in their minds a fear that his 
 " theological sentiments were not fully established. Future 
 " years clearly proved that there was no solid ground for 
 " such apprehensions ; so that none could have more sincere 
 pleasure than the tutors and committee of the college had, 
 " on his entering the ministry a devoted servant of Christ, a 
 " distinguished scholar, and a first-rate preacher of evangeli- 
 " cal truth." It is, moreover, a singular and interesting fact, 
 that the very youth, to the soundness of whose principles and
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. XXX111 
 
 the piety of whose character the stigma of suspicion was thus 
 affixed, should, at a later period of his life, have been invited 
 to the theological presidency of the very seminary from which 
 he was ejected ! 
 
 I have spoken of the hazard to his principles which a treat- 
 ment so summary and severe was fitted to induce. In such 
 a mind, the sentiment of indignant disgust, whether justifiable 
 or otherwise, could hardly fail to be the result. And no one 
 who knows aught of human nature need be told, how such a 
 sentiment, in such a mind, operating in connexion with an 
 inquisitive spirit of curiosity, a spirit thirsting for know- 
 ledge, fond of metaphysical research, disposed to take nothing 
 upon trust, but to have conviction settled upon sifted evi- 
 dence, and withal tinctured with a secret contempt for the 
 timid apprehension discovered by some about the safety of 
 principles, as if any sound principle could suffer by the freest 
 and fullest investigation, and for the shallowness of some of 
 the reasonings by which truth had been defended, of which 
 he had had so many opportunites of marking and exposing 
 the weak points, how such a sentiment, I say, was calculated 
 to throw the youthful subject of it adrift on the wide and 
 unsettled sea of sceptical speculation. And there cannot be 
 a doubt, that, whether from these causes or from others, the 
 stage of his progress immediately subsequent was marked by 
 a considerable measure of such speculative unsettlement. 
 
 This important and interesting period of his history I must 
 be allowed to give in the words of one, to whom, at the crisis 
 of his leaving Hoxton, he owed much, and towards whom, 
 while he lived, he cherished all the fervour of a grateful and 
 generous attachment. I cannot but regard it as an arrange- 
 ment of providence most kind and salutary, that at a period 
 so critical, when his spirit was wounded, his heart sunk, and 
 his prospects darkened, he should have fallen into such hands, 
 hands that, like his divine Master's, would not " break" 
 but bind " the bruised reed."" When Mr. M'All left Hox- 
 ton," says the Rev. Dr. Collyer, " he came immediately to 
 " my house; where he resided almost uninterruptedly, a year 
 " and a half. It was under my own roof, and at this early
 
 XXXIV LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " period, that I had opportunity to appreciate the mighty 
 " powers and the vast resources of his mind, as well in mo- 
 " ments of youthful levity, as when engaged in serious pur- 
 " suits. These Dr. Raffles has described, when ripened by 
 " time and enlarged by severe study and unremitting appli- 
 " cation, with a felicity which leaves me nothing to add, 
 " except the testimony that in his brilliant and feeling de- 
 " scription of them there is not the slightest tint of exagger- 
 " ation. Then all the elements of his future greatness were 
 *' distinctly visible, and rapidly unfolded their growing mag- 
 " nificcnce. His extraordinary mental faculties were so equi- 
 " poised with the finest qualities of the heart, as to produce 
 "a beautiful harmony; and when these were disciplined by 
 " experience, and purified by spirituality, they formed a 
 " character such as I shall never look upon again. Already 
 " he displayed that creative power which properly constitutes 
 "genius, and is discovered in unaffected originality of thought, 
 " and manner of communicating it to others. He possessed, 
 " at that time, a rich imagination, regulated by the most 
 ** delicate taste, and the rare combination, as in Robert Hall, 
 " of a metaphysical mind and the closest reasoning with com- 
 " mand of language supplying him at will with the finest 
 " and most powerful eloquence, the astonishing flights of 
 " which, on some occasions, seemed following his spirit into 
 " the region to which it was soaring, and to be alone capable 
 *' of embodying his conceptions. His mind was never at 
 *' rest. Intensity of thought characterized his studious pur- 
 " suits. His very recreation was thought. He wrought all 
 " that he read into his own mind, and tried every thing by 
 " his own intellectual powers. Whatever came before him 
 " was weighed in these balances ; and, while he had the 
 " highest appreciation of talent in others, he never admitted 
 " their representations without scrutiny, nor adopted their 
 ** opinions without conviction. His conclusions were drawn 
 " from the closest examination. He delighted only in that 
 " which was intellectual. He had a quick perception of all 
 ** that was beautiful and sublime in nature, and a correspond- 
 " ing taste for whatever was graceful and magnificent in art;
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. XXXV 
 
 " but mind was his world, a reverence for science and know- 
 " ledge in others, and an inextinguishable thirst for the in- 
 " creasing attainment of them himself. The disproportion 
 " between his unwearied mental labour and unceasing appli- 
 " cation, and the delicate texture of his frame and feebleness 
 " of his constitution, early awakened my worst apprehensions, 
 " and led me to anticipate, with many an aching heart, even 
 " a more premature close of his career than that which actually 
 " occurred. To use a familiar but expressive figure ' the 
 " sword was' too surely, at a very early period * wearing 
 " out the scabbard.' His constitutional temperament added 
 " to this mental excitement. With one of the sweetest 
 . " tempers that ever graced a human being, he was subject 
 " to great nervous irritability. His feelings were singularly 
 " quick and sensitive, and produced an almost morbid sensi- 
 " bility. His affections were warm and sympathetic, and his 
 " attachments as unalterable as they were sincere. The 
 " tenderness and fidelity of his character were alike displayed, 
 " as a son, a brother, a husband, a parent, a friend, and a 
 " minister, and diffused an indescribable but irresistible in- 
 " fluence over all these important relations. His sense of 
 " kindness was most acute, and his gratitude unbounded and 
 " inextinguishable. He never forgot one single act of friend- 
 " ship, nor ever failed to acknowledge it on every opportunity. 
 " While he was with me, the pulpits of the Rev. George 
 " Clayton and the Rev. Thomas Russell, together with my 
 " own, were opened to the young candidate for the ministry, 
 " and under peculiar circumstances, which have been alluded 
 "to; and the impression made upon him by this timely at- 
 " tention could never be obliterated. What I have said of 
 " him might, for the most part, be inferred from the testimony 
 " of his brethren, and especially of Dr. Raffles, who well 
 " knew him: but none were so intimately acquainted with 
 " him as myself. By none, therefore, was the development 
 " of his mind and character so well known, from the spring 
 " of his youth to the summer of his age, when his public 
 " career commanded universal admiration. I traced the pro- 
 " gress with delight, and comprehended the whole. For this
 
 XXXvi LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " reason, I am in full possession of a fact, which has not 
 " even been glanced at (as far as I am aware) in any account 
 " which has been given of him ; which was most probably 
 " unknown even to his family ; but which ought to be told, 
 " to the glory of the grace of God; and which will supply a 
 " link connecting his secular life with his public ministry, 
 " and throw some light upon the circumstance of his study 
 " of medicine, the hesitation for a season respecting the min- 
 *' istry, and his touching and feeling dying remark ' I am 
 " no fanatic, no enthusiast : no / have been too much of 
 " the speculatist in my time' Soon after his residence with 
 " me, he began to speculate very extensively upon the lead- 
 " ing truths of Christianity; and this circumstance is per- 
 " fectly consistent with those able defences which he has 
 " been stated to have made, at that very time, and on more 
 " than one occasion, of the claims of revelation. I am not 
 " aware that he ever questioned seriously the proofs of reve- 
 " lation, or lost in the slightest degree his reverence for the 
 " Bible; and it may be easily conceived with what scorn 
 " and pity he would look upon the flippant attacks usually 
 " made upon its evidences, with what virtuous indigna- 
 " tion he would repel them, and with what facility his 
 " master mind would expose their sophistry, and sweep away 
 " the objections. It is nevertheless certain, that he hesitated, 
 " and long hesitated, on some of those great doctrines of the 
 " word of God, which were subsequently the delight of his 
 " heart, the theme of his faithful and successful ministry, 
 " and the stay of his dying hour. It has been said, that ' he 
 " who never doubted never believed;' and it is certain, that 
 " they who have once been shaken, and are afterwards estab- 
 " lished in the truth, become the most powerful and effective 
 " advocates of it, and are best fitted to trace error through 
 " all its mazes, and expose the fallacy of its pretensions. It 
 " is probable that this former hesitation and final conviction 
 " imparted that force and cogency to the preaching and rea- 
 " soning of Dr. M'All, for which they were so pre-eminently 
 " distinguished. It is also possible, that the consciousness 
 " of his powers for disputation, and his fondness for argument,
 
 THE REV. DR. M<ALL. XXXvii 
 
 " arising from the very character of his mind, might at first 
 " betray him into a train of speculation so inauspicious and 
 " dangerous. To me it was a source of inexpressible sorrow. 
 " We argued these points, of such infinite importance, for 
 " weeks, for months, daily. I reasoned with him, prayed 
 " with him, prayed for him; and, when I could no longer 
 " refrain, wept over him. Years afterwards, he told me, that 
 " while he remained unshaken by all other appeals, those 
 " tears fell upon his heart, and he was obliged to withdraw to 
 " conceal his own emotions. When at length I became appre- 
 " hensive that he was settling down into erroneous sentiments, 
 " or at least given habitually to indulge in dangerous specula- 
 tions, knowing well what pernicious effects must result 
 " from such talents misapplied by him as a preacher, I entreated 
 " him to suspend his intentions as to the ministry, and re- 
 " commended to him the study of medicine, as congenial to 
 " what I knew to be his taste, and because I considered he 
 " would prove eminently useful in that noble profession, in 
 " the event of his ministerial views being finally relinquished. 
 " It was impossible, with his powers of mind and of applica- 
 " tion, that he should not excel in whatever direction he 
 " might apply them, or whatever pursuit or department in 
 " science he might eventually be induced to choose. 
 
 " In this unsettled state of mind he went to Edinburgh: 
 " and the circumstances in which he was there placed, at his 
 " age, and from his former connexions, did not contribute to 
 " its establishment. I have reason to think that for a time 
 " they acted unfavourably, although nothing shook his con- 
 " viction of the evidences of Christianity He followed the 
 " advice which I gave him before he left me, and thus be- 
 " came a student of medicine; at that time uncertain whether 
 " he should make it his ultimate object or not. So he con- 
 " tinued, until that ardour of pursuit which always distin- 
 " guished him so acted upon his delicate constitution, as to 
 " make it imperative upon him to embrace the very first 
 " opportunity that occurred to lay aside his studies, and try 
 " change of air and of scene. This he accomplished by a 
 " six weeks' tour in the Highlands. But, unable altogether
 
 XTXviii LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " to repress his mental activity, and under the influence of 
 " his wonted kindly feelings, recollecting that I was about 
 " sending to the press another edition of my ' Lectures on 
 " Scripture Facts,' he made them the companions of his 
 " journey, with the purpose of saving me trouble by a critical 
 ' examination of the Notes, and of suggesting to me any 
 " thing that might occur to him in the reading of the volume. 
 " In pursuing this friendly intention, he became gradually 
 " and deeply interested in the subjects themselves; his heart 
 "opened to them; and they awakened the most solemn re- 
 " flections. This was the finger of God. There was nothing 
 " in that Work which had not passed between us again and 
 " again in conversations far more extensively grasping those 
 "subjects, and other topics, as it might be thought, far 
 " more distinctly bearing upon his own particular difficulties. 
 " The same volume also had been lying before him for twelve 
 " months, and had been read by him. But so it was. The 
 " precarious state of his health produced a tone of mind 
 " favourable to impression. He read the Bible with new 
 " feelings, and with a child-like disposition to understand its 
 " testimony, and to receive the truths which it teaches in 
 " simplicity and godly sincerity. This spiritual docility had 
 " its reward. He soon became established in the faith, and 
 " returned to Edinburgh in a far different state of mind from 
 " that in which he had left it. From that moment his mind 
 " was completely made up to the work of the ministry; and 
 " he addressed himself to prepare for it with that vigorous 
 " energy peculiar to himself. He wrote me at the time a 
 " letter, full of humility and sensibility, giving me a com- 
 " plete statement of the process of his reflections, and couched 
 " in terms of the strongest affection. 
 
 " It was not long after his return from Edinburgh, that I 
 " had an opportunity of mentioning him at Macclesfield as a 
 " pre-eminently gifted individual ; and there his future min- 
 " istry began. 
 
 " The rest has been told, told by others, told better 
 " than I could tell it. With indescribable emotions I have 
 ** looked back on this early period of our connexion. Years
 
 THE REV. DR. M { AL,L. XXXIX 
 
 " of separation followed, in which we were each constantly 
 " engaged in public duty, and, severed by distance, could 
 " seldom meet. The shadow has come over my memory as to 
 " most of the former events of my life, and even as to later 
 " occurrences ; but the recollections of Robert M' All are 
 " inscribed there in characters of light which nothing less 
 " than the shadow of death itself can extinguish." 
 
 For this interesting statement the reader, as well as myself, 
 cannot fail to feel indebted to the esteemed friend from whom 
 it has been received. I have given it verbatim and entire, 
 because I am well aware to what a degree transfusion dimin- 
 ishes confidence, and how much greater is the satisfaction 
 felt of the authenticity of the contents of a document, when 
 we have the document itself before us, and are assured of its 
 genuineness, than when we have only an account, at second 
 hand, of what it sets forth. 
 
 The period of Mr. M' All's collegiate course in the Scottish 
 metropolis is a highly important one, in regard to the history 
 of his mind in incomparably the most momentous of all the 
 departments of its secret workings, and as affecting and de- 
 termining his subsequent destination for life. We have seen, 
 from authority which cannot be questioned, the state of his 
 religious sentiments at the time of his removal to the North. 
 According to this account, we must regard him as having 
 then been not a sceptic as to divine revelation, nor even a 
 disbeliever of those great truths, in the faith and ministration 
 of which he afterwards so firmly settled as the essential ele- 
 ments of the Christian system, but with respect to some of 
 the latter a doubting and debating speculatist. It is by no 
 means easy, however, to ascertain, with any thing like pre- 
 cision, the amount of scepticism in his views, either before or 
 after his arrival in Edinburgh. For my own part, convinced 
 as I have long been, that there is no consistent halting-place 
 between the faith of what is usually called evangelical truth 
 and absolute infidelity, I am apt, perhaps over apt, to think, 
 that serious doubts about what have previously been held to 
 be the essential doctrines of Christianity can scarcely come 
 to be entertained without being associated (though almost,
 
 x LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 it may be, unconsciously) with certain secret misgivings and 
 surmises as to the authority of the Book which contains 
 them. If on points manifestly essential in importance, it is 
 a matter of difficulty to ascertain whether one thing or its 
 opposite be there, the Book would seem to want one indis- 
 pensable quality of a divine revelation intelligibleness; 
 and, since all that merits the name of internal evidence must 
 manifestly rest on right conceptions of what Christianity is, 
 everything else being necessarily fallacious, because pro- 
 ceeding on a wrong assumption, it would seem hardly pos- 
 sible that what has heretofore been considered as the very 
 essence of Christianity, and as constituting the prime excel- 
 lence and recommendation of the revelation that makes it 
 known, could come to be the subject of serious doubt, with- 
 out some twinges of ulterior suspicion startling the spirit, 
 without some shadowy feeling of uncertainty being, for the 
 time, cast over the revelation itself, without the temporary 
 loosening of some of the mind's firm moorings to the Bible. 
 
 Yet that during the period between his leaving Hoxton 
 and his going to Edinburgh, he retained his faith in the 
 Bible as a divine revelation, it were certainly unfair to ques- 
 tion, in the face of that interesting anecdote which is recorded 
 by Dr. Raffles, and to which allusion is above made by Dr. 
 Collyer : 
 
 " At this period an incident occurred which I cannot for- 
 " bear to mention, because it marks the vigour of his intel- 
 " lect and the extent of his information, and the estimation 
 " in which, on these accounts, even at that early age, he was 
 " held by one well qualified to form an accurate estimate of 
 " both Calling one afternoon on Dr. Olinthus Gregory, at 
 " Woolwich, intending to stay a short time and return, the 
 " Doctor constrained him to remain, saying, that he expected 
 " some young men, students in the military college, to tea, 
 " who were under the influence of infidel principles, and that 
 " he knew of no one with whom he was more desirous they 
 " should converse upon the points at issue, than his youthful 
 " visitor. With his characteristic modesty, he shrunk from 
 
 " the proposed interview, and would fain have retired. Dr.
 
 THE REV. DR. M*ALL. xli 
 
 " Gregory, however, would take no denial, and he at length 
 " consented to remain, but only so far to take part in the 
 " conversation as that, in the event of Dr. G. omitting any 
 " thing that might seem to him to be material, he would en- 
 " deavour to supply the deficiency. The expected guests 
 " arrived the subject of Christianity was introduced its 
 " young apologist was induced to speak and, having once 
 " begun, he poured forth such a strain of eloquent and irre- 
 " sistible argumentation, that the conversion of at least two 
 "of the party was the happy result."* Now, although it 
 may be admitted to be characteristic of minds conscious of 
 their own powers, to enjoy a gladiatorial satisfaction in tak- 
 ing the side on which opportunity presents itself for their 
 display in detecting and exposing sophistries, unmasking 
 latent fallacies, humbling superficial vanity, grappling with 
 substantial difficulties, and showing, in the removal of them, 
 their treasured stores of information, and their superior skill 
 in dialectics ; and although it is quite conceivable, that one 
 who had been wont, for argument's sake, to take the side of 
 error, might, even at a time when his own mind was in a 
 state of uneasy but unknown instability, array himself on 
 that of truth ; yet the ground, in the present instance, is 
 not sufficient for any other supposition than that, on tne oc- 
 casion referred to, he gave utterance to what were the bona 
 fide convictions of his own mind. 
 
 We shall be not far from the truth, then, it may be pre- 
 sumed, if we conceive of him, at the time of his going North, 
 as under the influence of a spirit, though soothed and grati- 
 fied by personal kindness and individual appreciation of his 
 character, yet not quite recovered from the chafing of frus- 
 trated hopes, and of treatment which he could not but feel as 
 ungenerous, and which, in his youthful ardour, he would in- 
 terpret as indicating no great measure of the manly confi- 
 dence of truth ; with a strong propensity to speculation, 
 under the guise of free inquiry ; with serious and painful 
 misgiving on some of the essential doctrines of revelation; 
 
 * Rallies' Funeral Sermon pages 28, 29.
 
 xlii LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 and with a determination to sift to the bottom every senti- 
 ment he had ever held, and to retain nothing but what could 
 be clearly and fully reasoned out to his own satisfaction. 
 
 His bodily health, just before his removal to Scotland, ap- 
 pears to have been in a somewhat enfeebled and precarious 
 state; for in a letter to Dr. Collyer, dated at St. Ives, 
 September 29th, 1810, he says " When I first came down, 
 " I was accustomed to preach in my father's pulpit every 
 " Sabbath evening, when I met with a most flattering recep- 
 " tion indeed. This continued till, one Monday morning, 
 " before I came down stairs, I found myself spitting of blood ; 
 " and the same symptom appeared in the afternoon of the 
 " day. I then spat no more for a week or two ; but a few 
 44 days since I expectorated some more. Of course I have 
 4 ' not taken any share in the public exercises since the dis- 
 44 charge commenced ; and my health, although perhaps a 
 44 little better than it was, is still in a very poor state indeed." 
 
 I shall enter into no discussion of the tendencies of medical 
 studies, especially in some of their departments, in a religious 
 point of view ; but shall satisfy myself with saying, that I 
 can discern nothing in their own proper nature which is fitted 
 to operate unfavourably to piety, whether in principle or in 
 feeling Nor shall I institute any inquiry, what amount of 
 truth there may, in point of fact, have been in the stigma 
 \\hich has always, in a greater or less degree, been attached 
 to that school, as having engendered, or elicited, a larger 
 average than others of infidel and sceptical principles, the 
 principles of a heartless and hopeless materialism, or what 
 might, in this respect, be the character of the school in the 
 university of Edinburgh, at the particular period in question. 
 I am not in possession of such data on this latter subject, 
 as could be the ground of any reasonable judgment. But 
 while, with every sincere believer, I rejoice in the number 
 the increasing number of those who unite professional emi- 
 nence with Christian consistency and excellence, who are 
 not ashamed of the gospel, and give the gospel no cause to 
 be ashamed of them, and who, by their writings as well as 
 by their character, are contributing to roll away the reproach
 
 THE REV. DR. M { ALL. xliii 
 
 of irreligion from their honourable and useful vocation, I 
 shall not be considered as throwing out any undue reflection 
 when I say, that a young man, in the state of sentiment and 
 feeling above described, and with mental powers and capa- 
 bilities of an order such as could not fail to procure him no 
 small portion of that eclat which often proves so perilous to 
 principle, did not come into a sphere of influence peculiarly 
 favourable to the confirmation of what was right, and the 
 repression and correction of what was wrong, when he en- 
 tered as a student of medicine in the University of Edin- 
 burgh. The calculation, if I may speak so, of moral 
 chances, was certainly against him. 
 
 The following anecdote, which is quite of a piece with 
 the one we have just recorded, is given by Dr. Raffles, as 
 having had its date " shortly after his entrance into the 
 university." The importance of the date of which. I must 
 assume the correctness will appear immediately : " An 
 " interesting anecdote is recorded of him in connexion with 
 " Edinburgh, which I cannot persuade myself to withhold. 
 " Shortly after his entrance into the university, he was pre- 
 " sent at a meeting of a debating society, established among 
 " the young men of the medical class, when one or more of 
 " the members took occasion to introduce the subject of 
 " Christianity, evidently for the purpose of treating it with 
 " contempt, and giving expression to their own infidel opin- 
 " ions. Immediately on the debate taking this turn, he as- 
 " sumed such an attitude of fixed attention, and an expression 
 " of countenance so intensely interesting, that a very clever 
 " man who was present was induced to make a sketch of him 
 " on the back of a card, which is esteemed by some the best 
 " likeness of him ever taken ; and so soon as these sceptics 
 " had finished their virulent and unprovoked attack on that 
 " which it was but too evident they little understood, he rose, 
 " and, in a speech of considerable length, replied in a manner 
 " so striking, and with arguments so forcible, that all were 
 " filled with admiration, while a deep and permanent impres- 
 " sion was produced on the minds of several of his auditors. 
 " In the case of one especially, his reasonings on this occa*
 
 xllV LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " sion, and in repeated subsequent interviews, eagerly sought 
 " for the purpose of pursuing the subject, were so signally 
 " owned and blessed by God, that they ended, not only in a 
 " lasting friendship, but in his decided conversion to the faith 
 " of Christ." 
 
 I confess myself unable to regard this case otherwise than 
 as deciding the question respecting his convictions at the 
 time of the truth of revelation : because there is more here 
 than what is public, and what, as such, presents a tempting 
 opportunity for display whether in exposing and silencing 
 jejune and superficial flippancy, if such it was, or in the 
 still nobler, and therefore to him more inviting, task, of en- 
 countering, foot to foot, in the arena of argument, the select 
 champions of scepticism. There was here the subsequent 
 and deliberate following-up of public discussion with private 
 conversation ; and such conversation as terminated in the con- 
 viction and conversion of his companion. There could be no 
 feigning in this. 
 
 The reader, then, will not wonder at the perplexity I have 
 felt in adjusting, to my own satisfaction, this portion of my 
 friend's religious history, when I have introduced my next 
 authority. That authority is as unquestionable, in regard to 
 fidelity, as the former, and in regard to opportunity of 
 knowledge, if not equally, yet hardly less so. It is that of 
 one who was free of all prejudice, and of whatever could 
 tend to engender it, of one who fully appreciated his high 
 talents, and both felt and manifested a warm and most friendly 
 interest in his character and prospects, of one towards whom 
 he himself continued ever after to cherish the most affection- 
 ate regard a regard which I have myself repeatedly heard 
 him express, and which he evinced by correspondence and 
 occasional interchange of visits: and this authority, not in 
 terms of uncertainty and hesitation, but plainly, unequivo- 
 cally, undoubtingly, represents him as, at a later period of 
 his stay in Edinburgh the period of his own acquaintance 
 with him thoroughly sceptical. The authority to which I 
 refer is that of the Rev. Peter Brotherston, then minister of 
 the parish of Dysart, now of Alloa. And here, too, for
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. xlv 
 
 reasons similar to those before assigned, I must allow my 
 esteemed informant to speak for himself: 
 
 " When I first became acquainted with our deceased 
 " friend, he was an inmate in the family of the Rev. Mr. 
 " Macdonald, then minister of the Gaelic chapel in Edin- 
 " burgh, now minister of the parish of Urquhart. His 
 " father had sent him there by the advice of the late Dr. 
 " Campbell of Edinburgh, that he might be under the eye 
 " of a pious and respectable minister, while prosecuting the 
 " study of medicine. But in this family he did not continue 
 " long. A young medical student prevailed on him to leave 
 " Mr. Macdonald, and become a fellow-boarder in the family 
 " of a relation of my own. There I frequently met him, and 
 " found him completely under the influence of pride of un- 
 " derstanding, and fully impressed with the idea that the 
 " principles of Christianity were untenable, and that none 
 " embraced them who were capable of investigating evidence. 
 " The treatment he had received at Hoxton, where he had 
 " been studying for the ministry, had greatly hurt his feel- 
 " ings, and disgusted him at all religious characters. With- 
 " out making distinction, he considered them all as weak 
 " enthusiasts, with whom no gentleman of learning and taste 
 " could associate. Notwithstanding this fearful state of 
 " matters, I saw much in him that was interesting, and in- 
 " vited him to visit me at Dysart, though I scarcely expected 
 " he would do so He soon found the study of medicine did 
 " not suit his taste, and afforded him little prospect of prac- 
 " tising his rhetorical powers, of the possession of which he 
 " could not but be aware. I suspect also that the dissipation 
 " and profligacy of many of the medical students were too 
 " much for him even then.* He therefore became dissatis- 
 
 * This must not be understood as insinuating any surmise against the cor- 
 rectness, at the time, of his own moral deportment, as if there had been 
 discovered any thing like a disposition to go with them a certain length in 
 such courses, but not to their extremes. Nothing whatever of the kind. It 
 means merely, that the profligacy apparent in those who were the associates 
 of his collegiate studies was such as to render their company distasteful to 
 him, and to repel him from their principles by the manifestation of the ten- 
 dencies of them in their character.
 
 xlvi LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 44 fied with his situation and prospects, and was afflicted with 
 " lowness of spirits to a considerable degree. In this state 
 " of mind he complied with my request, and visited me at 
 " Dysart. I then found him not so provokingly inclined to 
 " disputation. And the change which about that time had 
 " been wrought in the mind of Dr. Chalmers, the zeal and 
 " talent with which he then maintained evangelical truth, 
 " had made a deep impression on his mind, and led him to 
 " reflect anew on the evidences of Christianity, and peruse 
 " several books which were put into his hand. At this time 
 " he had opportunity of meeting some of the most worthy 
 " ministers in the neighbourhood, such as my colleague 
 " Dr. Muirhead, Dr. Martin of Kirkaldy, Dr. Wright of 
 " Markinch, and many others. His disgust at good men 
 " seemed to give way ; and I was delighted to hear him 
 " speak of my worthy colleague in the very highest terms of 
 " respect. During this visit, he never, in so many words, 
 " acknowledged that any change was working in his mind, 
 " although I was delighted to see many things that convinced 
 " me it was so. When he was about to return to Edinburgh, 
 " I expressed myself gratified with his visit, and my hope that 
 " his prejudices against divine truth were giving way, and 
 " that, when he returned, I should find that he had received 
 " the love of the truth. After some months, he repeated his 
 "visit; and I was rejoiced to find the work still going on. 
 " He seemed to experience much anxiety of mind, and ex- 
 ", pressed a deep regret that he had for ever put it out of 
 " his power to be useful in the church. I remember well, 
 " that one day, when he repeated that regret, I said, that if 
 " God saw meet he might be made an honoured instrument 
 *' of doing much good in the way of preaching his gospel ; 
 " and, with seeming anguish of spirit, he replied, pointing 
 " to the sea, for we were walking on the beach, Impos- 
 " sible ; my heart is enough to pollute that ocean !' This 
 " at once gave me the best opportunity of dealing with him, 
 " which I did, chiefly in the way of bringing into view the 
 " * unsearchable riches of Christ.' : At this time I was in- 
 " rited to assist Dr. Hamilton of Strathblane in dispensing
 
 THE REV. DR. M*ALL. xlvti 
 
 " the Lord's Supper; and, although it was a considerable 
 " distance, I prevailed on Mr. M'All to accompany me. On 
 " our way, we visited several pious and respectable ministers, 
 " from whom he received great attention, and with whom he 
 " was much pleased. Dr. Hamilton's conversation, and the 
 " whole communion service at Strathblane, seemed to impress 
 " him deeply. 
 
 " This last visit to Dysart was a very short one. My 
 " youngest sister was then on her death-bed ; and, as my 
 " mind was much occupied about her, I could not devote so 
 " much time to him as I wished to have done : ^but I found 
 " him then quite decided, in as far as I could judge, and I 
 " prevailed on him to take part in the devotional exercises at 
 " the family altar. And here I had reason to be much de- 
 " lighted with the state of his mind, and especially with his 
 " humility before God. At this time, a copy of Raffles' 
 " Life of Spencer was sent me from Liverpool ; and though 
 " my young friend had formerly expressed the greatest con- 
 " tempt for Spencer, who had been his fellow-student, he 
 " read it with great avidity and with much satisfaction. 
 " The death of my sister occasioned his sudden departure; 
 " but I found in his room the memoir of Spencer, with the 
 " annexed lines written on the blank leaf. 
 
 " So many years have elapsed since the period to which I 
 " refer, that I cannot be more particular as to conversations 
 " held with him, with the view of gaining for the truth a 
 " candid and serious consideration. That his visits to me 
 " were of some use, has afforded me the greatest satisfaction. 
 " I considered him as possessed of very splendid talents; and 
 " I have rejoiced much that, by divine grace, they were con- 
 " secrated to the service and glory of God." 
 
 The language in which Mr. Brotherston expresses himself 
 is such as will hardly admit the interpretation, that the youth 
 to whom it refers retained his full conviction of the divine 
 authority of the Bible, and was only a sceptic with regard 
 to some of those articles of doctrine, which, by the writer, 
 were regarded as essential to Christianity, and their denial
 
 xlviii LITE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 as its renunciation. It evidently goes further.* And were 
 we to take Dr. Collyer's account and Mr. Brotherston's to- 
 gether, independently of the recorded anecdotes, of which the 
 one occurred before, and the other after, his coming to Edin- 
 burgh, we should find no difficulty. We should have be- 
 fore us no more than an exemplification, far from very un- 
 common, of the progress of scepticism, when the mind has 
 once been unsettled, from one stage to another. But the 
 anecdotes! what are we to make how to dispose of them? 
 I am satisfied that we have no right to conceive of him, either 
 in the one case or in the other, as taking a side, and arguing 
 against even the doubts, far more the convictions, of his own 
 mind, and that the circumstances of the latter especially are 
 such as to preclude every possibility of simulation. We are 
 not entitled to believe anything else than that, up to the 
 time of the second of these anecdotes, he retained his faith 
 in divine revelation. On the other hand, neither is it within 
 the limits of the supposable, that still retaining, in its full 
 force, the same conviction, he could have so spoken and so 
 acted as to impress the Christian minister, whose narrative has 
 just been given, and who, in his own words, "never thought 
 he was arguing for the mere love of debate," with the assur- 
 ance of his being a thorough sceptic We seem, therefore, to 
 be driven to the conclusion, that, subsequently to the second 
 of these occasions, his medical and scientific studies, to which 
 with such characteristic assiduity he addicted himself, and 
 the intercourse to which these studies introduced him, and 
 the pride of intellect, and the too grateful incense of ad- 
 miration and eulogy, combining with the disgust and scorn 
 associated with his recollections of the past, had actually, 
 for the time, undermined, to some extent, his faith in the 
 
 * Anxious to ascertain, with certainty, whether Mr. B., in the representa- 
 tion he gives of the sceptical state of Mr. M* All's mind, had reference to the 
 authority of divine revelation generally, or only to certain doctrines con- 
 tained in it, I wrote to him a second time, before putting to press ; and 
 his reply confirms, with the same unhesitating decision, his having reference 
 to the former. I have not felt myself warranted, after much embarrassing 
 solicitude, either to omit the statement, or even to qualify the strength of 
 the terms in which it i> given.
 
 THE REV. DR. M*ALL. 
 
 divine authority of the sacred oracles, and had strongly 
 tempted him, though happily without final success, to enrol 
 himself among the esprits forts of " science falsely so called," 
 and to prefer a place among the "wise and prudent" to one 
 among the " babes in Christ." Why should we shrink 
 why should even those, to whom his memory is dearest, 
 shrink from such a conclusion ? I concur in the sentiment 
 of my friend Dr. Collyer, that we owe it to the grace of 
 God, instead of covering, to note, whether in ourselves or in 
 others, such circumstances as contribute to the more signal 
 manifestation of its power and riches; and that we owe 
 it also to truth, instead of being backward to admit such 
 temporary aberrations as may seem to cast a shade over the 
 radiance of hallowed names, to give it, with cheerfulness, all 
 the advantage arising from the greater weight and satisfac- 
 toriness of the testimony subsequently borne to it by restored 
 and established faith. 
 
 There are two or three additional particulars which seem 
 deserving of notice, as to the fact of his sceptical state of 
 mmd, and as to the means of his recovery. 
 
 With regard to the former, there is, in the first place, a 
 passage in a letter of his own to Dr. Collyer, dated from the 
 Rev. Mr. Brotherston's, Dysart, July 14th, 1813, that is, 
 it would appear, after the close of his third session in Edin- 
 burgh, which, although the terms of it are general, I can- 
 not resist interpreting as, to a certain degree at least, the 
 record of his own experience, and as thus furnishing a key 
 to the mystery of the workings of his mind at this interest- 
 ing crisis. The letter is written after the time when, ac- 
 cording to Mr. Brotherston's statement, his mind had re- 
 covered from its distressing scepticism, and was again settled 
 in the faith ; and it is throughout distinguished by his cha- 
 racteristic ease and even playfulness. A few sentences 
 preceding the passage to which I have referred, and intro- 
 ductory to it, may be extracted, as affording the reader 
 information of the particular descriptions of reading and 
 study which were most in favour with him at that time : 
 "I was lately reading the Lectures on Scripture Facts;
 
 1 LIKE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " you may be sure, not without great satisfaction. As a 
 " proof how much I was interested in them, I will, when I 
 " see you, show you a long list of the reflections which 
 " occupied my attention, and the few inaccuracies which I 
 " thought might be easily corrected. These are the books I 
 " dwell on with delight. In them, more than my judgment 
 " is interested. I love literature better than science in every 
 " shape : but when that literature is sanctified by being 
 44 consecrated to divine subjects, I then feel as though I 
 " could not pollute my eyes again by casting them on a sci- 
 " entific performance. Some men in Edinburgh wonder that 
 " I don't like medicine, and botany, and chemistry, and that 
 ' a mind which they suppose to be somewhat inquisitive and 
 " tolerably informed, should witness without ecstasy the bril- 
 4 ' liant discoveries which philosophers are making on rela- 
 " tive forces, elective attractions, definite proportions, and 
 " all the other marvels of the age ; and that, while they 
 " are reading of the researches of Davy, and Berzelius, 
 " and the whole tribe of philosophers, (that is, modern great 
 " men,) I am busied in following the footsteps of a Cowper 
 44 through this valley of tears, or bending over the record 
 " he has given of the sublimest feelings in songs which thrill 
 " every chord of the heart. Let them wonder. If a man 
 " goes about to be astonished, he will find enough to be sur- 
 " prised at. I don't like science, nor Scotland, after all. 
 " Both are good in their places; but literature, religion, and 
 44 Blackheath,* suit my palate better. Is it not strange, 
 " that I should cry down science, and speak so lightly of my 
 " old friend Scotland, and particularly my Alma Mater Edin- 
 44 burgh ? Strange as it is, I can't help it. I am tired of 
 ** the one; three years is long enough to answer all that pur- 
 " pose : and of the other, I am very doubtful as to the mo- 
 " ral and religious tendency. I find and can account for it 
 " too that where those studies called, as a whole, by the 
 " name of science, are prosecuted (as they are in the present 
 44 day from the college to the drawing-room) to the exclusion 
 
 * The rc&idcnce of the friend he was addressing.
 
 C 
 
 THE REV. DR. M ( ALL. li 
 
 of elegant literature, such as language, history, and po- 
 etry, there, I say, will the reverence of God, and obe- 
 " dience to his gospel, and belief in his revelation, propor- 
 " tionally decline; and that, for two great reasons: because 
 " they pretend to account for every thing, and therefore 
 " render the interference of a superior power the less essential. 
 " One of those luminaries of the age, called chemists, was 
 " puzzled the other day to contradict (so plain was the testi- 
 " mony in its favour) the fact of Christ's raising the dead. 
 " The gentleman was not caught yet ' You know,' says 
 " he, ' that Galvanism can do very strange things ; it can 
 " make a man's muscles move after his head is off: how do 
 " you know but, in the progress of discovery, I shall one day 
 " restore one positively dead to the use of his limbs and 
 " senses?' This is the first ' because: now for the second. 
 " Here it is, then. Those studies, called by the name of 
 " science, are conversant only with things: the classification 
 " of dismembered and dissected flowers, the operation of a 
 " certain specific in a certain disorder, the relation of this 
 " same disorder to others of its genus, and its arrangement 
 " in its proper species, the effect of a certain acid upon a 
 " certain solid substance, and their mutual relation ; these 
 " constitute the whole of their inquiries. I might appeal to 
 " experience ; and you see that men of science too often act 
 " according to this rule. The elements of nature they re- 
 " gard only as inert substances obeying certain laws, which 
 " they call ' laws of nature.' The fearful and wonderful 
 " frame of man they look upon only as a machine, in which 
 " the parts actuate each other to produce that infinite variety 
 " of effects, which engage the understanding, and delight the 
 " eye. They are satisfied when they have traced the course 
 " of an artery, or estimated the force of a muscle. They see 
 " that the fact is so and there is an end. They personify 
 " they deify nature, even till one is tired of the very 
 "name: * nature does nothing in vain' 'this is a wise 
 " provision of nature' 'nature is sparing of her resources.' 
 " Thus they abuse our ears, till the absolute existence of 
 " God is forgotten, except when they bring it to remem-
 
 Hi LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " brance by their profane but fashionable imprecations. Am 
 " I wrong, then, in preferring literature to science, and la- 
 " menting that the latter is the rage of the day? See the 
 " converse of the picture. When a man devotes his time to 
 " the cultivation of languages, or poetry, or history, or mo- 
 " ral philosophy ; he learns from tongues that they may all 
 " be reduced to one original, and meets perpetually with con- 
 " firmations, both written and traditional, of the truth of 
 " religion. He finds everywhere traces of a deluge, of the 
 " fall, of the evil of sin, of a God, an atonement, and a fu- 
 " ture world. He learns from history the mental character 
 " of man ; sees the operations of the human mind under all 
 " the variety of circumstances and countries ; and, if he be 
 " inclined to investigate the causes of human actions, will 
 " often, from the unanticipated and surprising results of the 
 " most trifling event, be led to feel and to acknowledge the 
 " secret workings of a hidden but almighty agent Poetry 
 " derives her richest charms from depicting his nature, and 
 " her sublimest flights are directed toward his throne. Moral 
 " philosophy, like her, is engaged by researches into this 
 " great mystery, by enforcing our relation to him, the duties 
 " it involves, and those finest feelings of the human heart 
 " which she stamps with the seal of virtue and happiness. 
 
 " I beg pardon for this long and tiresome sermon I have 
 " never preached since I have been in Scotland; although, 
 " like you, I have been asked to officiate in several pulpits, 
 " but refused on account of the risk incurred by the worthy 
 " clergymen. He in whose house I write this is one of the 
 " most evangelical and popular preachers in the church. I 
 " long to stand again in the pulpit, and look forward with 
 " great eagerness to coming to London on that account. 
 " My views have become far more evangelical since I saw 
 " you last; and I am more determined to preach Christ cruci- 
 " fied as the only rock of salvation, as ' my Lord and my 
 " God.' I fear I shall have to struggle with strong preju- 
 " dices from the suspicion 9f heterodoxy. I look to God 
 "and conscience for my defence; and the testimony of my 
 " respected friends will do much. Doctor Collyer must not
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. liii 
 
 " refuse his support. I think he will rejoice in the change 
 " in the feelings of his friend." 
 
 Sincerely and ardently was this joy experienced by the 
 friend to whom he thus wrote, and by many more friends 
 than him. It was a happy change. If he had now become 
 " far more evangelical," however, than when, three years 
 before, he had parted from that friend, there seems good 
 ground for believing that he had, in the first instance, become 
 much less so. Whether, like Mr. Hall, he had ever become 
 a materialist, does not appear. But it is not improbable, 
 that he had imbibed somewhat, though how largely cannot 
 be determined, of the spirit of science, pursued on the prin- 
 ciples and in the manner he so truly describes as character- 
 izing too many of its most eminent votaries; that he had 
 become the subject of its anti-spiritual tendencies, and of that 
 insidiously sapping process by which it has so often, to a 
 greater or less extent, undermined, not only the firmness of 
 faith in the essential verities of the Gospel, but the strength 
 of reliance on the evidences of divine revelation. It is likely 
 that from some such experience arose the strong expression 
 above quoted of his disrelish of science and his preference of 
 literature ; in which, it must have struck the reader, he hardly 
 holds the balance fairly between the two, the evils imputed 
 to the one being such as arise from the abuse of it, and the 
 beneficial effects ascribed to the other, from its appropriate 
 use. No man better understood than he, nor could any one 
 more ably illustrate or more eloquently enforce, the legitimate 
 tendencies of science; its tendencies, when rightly used, 
 when wrested from atheistical NATURE, and consecrated to 
 " NATURE'S GOD." But his spirit was at this time, it may 
 be supposed, smarting from the remembrance of its recent 
 deleterious influence, while pursued under the tutorage of 
 undevout men men of nature, not of God, and in associa- 
 tion with fellow-students, too many of them of kindred char- 
 acter This was his time of high-minded speculation, 
 during which, in the language of Asaph, " his feet were 
 almost gone, his steps had well nigh slipped." This was the 
 period referred to in his dying moments, when, anxious to 
 
 9
 
 liv LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 assure men both of literature and science that the testimony 
 he then bore to the cross was not the testimony of a visionary 
 or educational enthusiast, but of one who had thought for 
 himself, and knew his ground, he used the terms to which 
 Dr. Collyer alludes, and which will be noticed in their pro- 
 per place. And in further evidence of the distressing scepti- 
 cism of his mind during this period, without endeavouring 
 to determine to what proportion it extended of his stay in 
 Edinburgh, I may refer to an expression of his own, used 
 by him in the outline of his religious history embodied in 
 the confession of faith delivered at his ordination, or induc- 
 tion, at Manchester; only premising that from lips charac- 
 terized, as his w r ould eminently be on such an occasion, by 
 a discreet abstinence from prosing detail, brief notices are 
 to be interpreted on the principle of multum in parvo. He 
 spoke, on that occasion, of " doubts once productive of un- 
 speakable anguish gradually yielding to increasing clearness 
 of evidence." He had never remitted his investigations. 
 His mind was of too inquisitive a character to admit of that ; 
 while it was too exquisitely sensitive, to harbour doubts on 
 subjects which his sound judgment pronounced of such 
 infinite importance, without an agonizing conflict The 
 result was happy. A brighter day returned, of which the 
 dawning and growing light dispelled the clouds that had 
 hung so densely and heavily over his soul. And he then 
 " went on his way rejoicing;" with augmented pleasure in 
 the exercises of devotion, and in the paths of faith and obe- 
 dience. So that, when he left the university to return home, 
 it was, as his letter shows, and his subsequent statements 
 certified, with a firmer determination than ever to devote 
 himself, unreservedly and for life, to the service of God in 
 the gospel of his Son. 
 
 The reader will have observed the state of his feelings 
 in reference to the ministry, as indicated by his startling 
 exclamation when walking on the sea-beach with Mr. Bro- 
 therston, on the supposition being made of his yet engaging 
 in it. And yet the letter, written evidently during the 
 same visit to Dysart, anticipates the employment with de-
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. lv 
 
 light. His extremely susceptible temperament made him 
 ever apt to use superlatives, giving vehement utterance 
 to vehement emotions, arising from some strongly-impressed 
 view of a particular subject at the moment, and producing an 
 apparent incongruity with other expressions, used perhaps at 
 no distant interval, when the same subject presented itself 
 under a different aspect, or to the mind in a different mood. 
 He might, I am satisfied, be quite conscious of the change 
 in his views and feelings, and be cherishing the desire to be 
 again employed in the sacred work of the ministry, even at 
 the time when, under an overpowering impression of its very 
 sacredness and of his own consequent unworthiness, he ex- 
 claimed with such energy " Impossible ! my heart is enough 
 to pollute that ocean !" It is not the man in whom there is 
 least sin that will think least of it. The holier the heart in 
 which sin remains, the more intense will be the abhorrence 
 of it, and the deeper the self-loathing on account of it. It is 
 the man in whom sin abounds and reigns, whose thoughts of 
 it will be lightest. So that we should form a very false 
 estimate of a believer's real character, were we to interpret 
 with a literal strictness what he says of himself, when groan- 
 ing under a sense of his remaining corruption, and longing 
 and struggling to be free. We should even, in such cases, 
 be nearer to the truth, were we to interpret by the rule of 
 contrary. And this I take to be the true secret of the 
 strong expressions used by Paul respecting himself " The 
 law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin O wretched 
 man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this 
 death?" 
 
 With regard to the means by which this favourable change 
 was wrought in Mr. M' All's mind, forming an epoch in 
 his history of which the results bore relation not to time 
 alone but to eternity, and which, therefore, in the estimate of 
 the Christian, must ever appear beyond comparison the most 
 important, it is not easy to speak with certainty Amidst 
 the doubts, whatever was their nature and extent, to which 
 he himself refers, there was still, all the while, I cannot but 
 believe, within his own bosom, a redeeming influence, a
 
 Ivi LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 germ of sound principle, retaining its vitality, how much so- 
 ever it might at times appear in danger of extinction. And 
 the influences by which the life of this germ was at length 
 fully recovered, and strengthened to renewed growth and 
 productiveness, appear to have been various They were 
 internal as well as external. He was not one of those, of 
 whom, alas! there are so many, whose vicious and libertine 
 propensities impart a false colouring to the pretensions, and 
 a factitious strength to the arguments, of irreligion. His 
 were rather the " lusts of the mind." With the conscious 
 powers of a lofty, penetrating, and excursive intellect, he 
 was determined to take nothing for granted, but to search 
 and sift the evidence of every alleged fact and of every re- 
 ceived doctrine. He scorned the thought of continuing to 
 hold for truth what he had not fully examined, what he 
 had rather adopted from others than embraced for himself, 
 and what, when investigated, might be found to rest on no 
 satisfactory proofs, but to have been, to those from whom he 
 had received it as well as to himself, the object of a merely 
 traditionary attachment, or educational prejudice. But amidst 
 all his inquisitive speculations, there was a deep-seated in- 
 fluence of early piety that never left his heart. He had still 
 the secret "witness in himself," in his conscience and in 
 his affections, of the divine excellence of the principles in 
 which he had been trained. His was no cold heartless scep- 
 ticism; it was rather the scepticism of solicitude after truth, 
 maintaining doubt till ground was seen for faith, and equally 
 fearful of retaining or of embracing what was not accredited 
 by sufficient evidence. Such a mind as his was capable of 
 discerning, almost by intuition, the weak points of any argu- 
 ment, of detecting the hidden sophistry of the plausible, and 
 exposing to merited scorn the shallowness of pretended depth : 
 and, his judgment not being warped by the power of worldly 
 and vicious propensities, while the pride of intellectual inde- 
 pendence was silently counterworked by the latent spirit of 
 early reverence for all that is sacred, we do not marvel at 
 the ultimately happy result. The Spirit of God, the Spirit 
 of light, and peace, and love, was brooding over the troubled
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. Ivii 
 
 waves of that mental conflict, controlling their turbulence, 
 and gradually inducing a settled and permanent rest. While 
 he was conscious to himself of the salutary influence, on the 
 moral feelings and habits, of those religious principles in 
 which he had been brought up, he had opportunity to wit- 
 ness the opposite effects of the principles of infidelity on the 
 characters of many of his associates in medical and scientific 
 study, by whose libertinism he could not fail to be revolted, 
 and swayed by the contrast to the side of truth. The cir- 
 cumstance, alluded to by Mr. Brotherston, of the remarkable 
 change on such a man as Dr. Chalmers, might tell also with 
 favourable influence on the course of his inquiries. The pre- 
 sent correspondence of parents and others might co-operate 
 with the recollections of early piety in inclining his heart to 
 God. The judicious conversation and discreetly directed 
 influence of his friend the minister of Dysart, evidently con- 
 tributed not a little to allay prejudice and help forward con- 
 viction. Then, in a state of health naturally conducive to 
 serious reflection, and in circumstances such as on a mind so 
 susceptibly alive as his to the beauties and sublimities of 
 nature were eminently fitted to impress the sentiments of de- 
 votion amid the wild, the lovely, and the grand of Highland 
 scenery, where his spirit would melt and swell alternately, 
 and his eye, swimming in ecstasy, 
 
 " Look through Nature up to Nature's God," 
 
 came the perusal of the volume on " Scripture Facts," thus 
 bringing before him at once the God of nature and the God 
 of revelation with abundant evidence of their identity, carry- 
 ing increase of conviction to his understanding and of right 
 feeling to his heart. I cannot wonder at my friend Dr. 
 Collyer delighting to dwell on what could not fail to com- 
 municate the liveliest satisfaction to his heart the thought 
 of any production of his having contributed to the settlement 
 of such a mind. But he must not claim a monopoly of this 
 pleasure. He must share it with other instruments. Some 
 have already been noticed. In addition to these, the Rev. 
 Samuel Thodey of Cambridge mentions Mr. Hall as having,
 
 Iviii LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 according to Mr. M' All's own statements, more perhaps than 
 any other then living writer, given his conflicting mind satis- 
 faction. Referring to certain letters of Mr. M'All to him- 
 self (which I regret not having been able to procure, as they 
 are described to have been " of a highly interesting charac- 
 ter" and to have "detailed some impressive circumstances con- 
 " nected with his own religious history") he says "Among 
 " other things he particularly specified the great obligation 
 " he had been under to the writings of Robert Hall, con- 
 " sidering that some of the best and most powerful impres- 
 " sions upon his mind, in favour of revealed religion, he owed 
 " to a deep and incessant study of the productions of that 
 " great man." And for myself, I am, as a biographer, bound 
 in fidelity to record the fact, of which I need not say with 
 what pleasure I had the assurance from his own lips, that 
 the " Discourses on the Principal Points of the Socinian 
 Controversy" came opportunely to his hands during the same 
 interesting period, and had a providential share in confirming 
 his faith of the great essential truths of the Gospel It is a 
 duty to mark these things. Not that in themselves they 
 were necessary to the result. The inward reflections and 
 arguings of such a mind, furnished from its own resources, 
 and unaided save by the word and Spirit of God, might have 
 led to the same blessed issue. But when Divine Providence 
 is pleased to employ extraneous instrumentality, even how 
 inferior soever the agency to the mind on which it operates, 
 it becomes us humbly and gratefully to acknowledge it. 
 
 In the narrative of Mr. Brotherston, mention is made, in 
 very plain terms, of young M' All's " contempt" of Mr. Spencer. 
 If, under the influence of an excessive admiration of intellect 
 and genius, and a consciousness of his own superior endow- 
 ments, both natural to youth, he did, at that early period, 
 indulge a somewhat disdainful feeling towards his inferior 
 competitors, never was wrong more thoroughly atoned for 
 than in the present instance : and I give this prominence to 
 the circumstance, because it bears directly upon character, 
 and affords an interesting illustration of the change in his 
 sentiments and feelings, when, after having passed through
 
 THE REV. DR. M ALL. lix 
 
 the deep mental conflicts to which we have been adverting, 
 his " soul returned unto its rest," and settled in the humble 
 faith of the gospel. He then saw both himself and others in 
 a different light. He had received a stronger impression of 
 the value of " the simplicity that is in Christ," of that 
 divine illumination, which is withheld from " the wise and 
 prudent," and vouchsafed to " babes," of the superior excel- 
 lence and desirableness of moral and spiritual qualifications 
 to all that is merely intellectual, and of the enviableness of 
 such endowments as, though of humbler pretension in regard 
 to all that confers literary and scientific eminence, fit their 
 possessor officially for a more than ordinary measure of use- 
 fulness, and personally for converse with God and for the 
 kingdom of Heaven. Every emotion of disdain then gave 
 place to humble and affectionate admiration of that lamented 
 youth, whom, how far soever his inferior in genius and mental 
 capacity, it pleased the Head of the Church so signally to 
 qualify for early service, so remarkably to honour with suc- 
 cess, and so mysteriously to remove at the very outset of a 
 career so full of promise. The Lines written on a blank leaf 
 of Dr. Raffles's Life of Spencer I should have thrown into a 
 note below, had it not been that I regard them as a touching 
 and pleasing memorial of the important change that had 
 passed upon the character of his own mind. On this account 
 I introduce them here. The date is " Dysart, June 6th, 
 1813." 
 
 "LINES 
 
 WRITTEN BY ONE OF MR. SPENCER'S FELLOW-STUDENTS ON 
 READING A COPY OF HIS * LIFE.' ' 
 
 " WAIT the great Teacher Death" the Christian says 
 " And wisely says ; for Death alone can teach 
 
 Unnumber'd truths so darkly imaged here. 
 
 How does his arm that awful cloud withdraw 
 
 That on the chambers of the grave is hung ! 
 
 To what wild realms of unimagined woe, 
 
 What shapes of horror, bear the guilty soul, 
 
 And plunge it in destruction ! What a scene 
 
 Shall Death unfold to the admiring eye 
 
 Of the rapt spirit, on the farthest verge
 
 Lc LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " Where Jordan rolls his dim-disco ver'd stream ! 
 " Regions of bliss, and armies of the sky, 
 " Immortal crowns, and flowers that never fade, 
 " Heaven's throne of light eternal, and the man 
 " That bled on Calvary, robed in beams divine ! 
 
 " Such, SPENCER ! such the fair unbounded view 
 " Burst in full brightness on thy ravish'd sight ! 
 " So, when the deepest shades of midnight fall, 
 " Though earth recedes, in darkness lost around, 
 " Quick on the traveller's eyes a thousand rays 
 " Dart through the gloom, a thousand orbs appear : 
 " The world's vast concave shines, at once reveal'd, 
 " And suns and systems, rolling through the void 
 " All that was veil'd in noontide's dazzling glare ! 
 
 " How does mortality's dread voice impress 
 " Departed goodness on the trembling soul, 
 " And give resistless charms to vanish'd worth 
 " Which life had never known ! It taught me soon 
 " To read of beauties in thy mind, and powers 
 " Before unseen, or but in part beheld. 
 " And even to thee, perhaps, this voice hath said, 
 " Not all the faults thy heaven- illumined eye 
 " In me had seen, were written on my heart. 
 " Vile and unworthy is that heart, I feel ; 
 " But yet methinks the day shall quickly come, 
 " When we shall meet in worlds of better joy. 
 
 " O could I mark thy footsteps on to Heaven, 
 " And, following with a firmer, speedier tread, 
 " Gain but the mount of bliss where thou art now ! 
 " Then, young like thee, in form so much alike 
 " That heedless eyes have oft the lines o'erlook'd 
 " That mark'd us from each other, I would rise 
 " With thee to glory, and with thee to grasp 
 " An angel's lyre, though in an infant's hand!" 
 
 R. S. M. 
 
 This was not the mere poetic utterance of temporary 
 emotion and pensive tenderness. We shall have a still more 
 satisfactory testimony hereafter of the permanence both of 
 the sentiment and the feeling. 
 
 That during his curriculum in the Edinburgh University 
 Mr. M'All was signally successful in the prosecution of his 
 literary, metaphysical, scientific, and medical studies, will 
 excite the surprise of none who knew him. He attracted the 
 notice, and was honoured with the favour and intimacy, of
 
 THE REV. DR. MALL. xi 
 
 that most eminent metaphysician and most accomplished arid 
 amiable man, the late Dr. Thomas Brown, then Professor of 
 Moral Philosophy, by whom his extraordinary talents, at 
 so early a period, were highly appreciated, and who is re- 
 corded to have, on one occasion, said to him, " Mr. M' All, 
 at Oxford and Cambridge there is the office of Christian 
 Advocate: there is no such office at Edinburgh; if there 
 were, we could not do better than elect you to it." Such a 
 compliment, from such a quarter, was no slight testimony to 
 the eminence of his endowments His powers were remark- 
 able, among other distinguishing qualities, for their versatility. 
 He had, as all have, his special predilections; but to whatever 
 'he applied his mind, whether the application was dictated by 
 choice or by duty, he was sure to excel. So eminent were 
 his advances in the various departments of medical science, 
 then anticipated as his probable professional career, that even 
 in the second year of his course, it was proposed to elect him 
 president of the Royal Medical Society, an Institution, in 
 whose discussions he had taken a prominent and brilliant 
 part ; but this distinction, high in itself, and at so early a 
 period of youth and of study, it is presumed, unprecedented, 
 he spontaneously declined, withdrawing his claims in favour 
 of another. 
 
 The views thus given of the assiduity with which his 
 studies were prosecuted, of the eminent mental powers dis- 
 played in their pursuit, and of the height of distinction which 
 he speedily attained and permanently kept, I am glad to be 
 able to confirm by the testimony of one who then became ac- 
 quainted with him, was fascinated by his talents and charac- 
 ter, and, retaining to the end his admiration, expressed it, at a 
 subsequent period, by proposing his name for the honorary 
 degree of Doctor in Laws to the senate of the university, 
 over which he continues to preside :* " I was first intro- 
 " duced to Mr. M'All in the house of the late Rev. Dr. 
 " Campbell, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, in 1810. I 
 " at once saw that the young Englishman was no ordinary 
 
 * Rev. Dr. Devvar, Principal of Marischal College, Aberdeen. 
 h
 
 btii LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 "man; an impression which was deeply made on the mind of 
 "the eminent minister whose name I have mentioned. I 
 " was struck with his power of observation, with the depth 
 " and acuteness of his remarks, and with his frankness 
 " and playfulness of manner, which was to me extremely 
 "engaging. Our friendship began that evening, which was 
 " intimate and lasting; and during the two following winters 
 "which I passed in Edinburgh, we met daily; and very often 
 " where we first became acquainted, at the hospitable board 
 "of Dr. Campbell. 
 
 " No one could be long in the company of my excellent 
 " friend, without perceiving the strong bent of his mind 
 " towards metaphysics and ethics. He had read much, and 
 "thought more, on these subjects; and they formed the 
 " theme of our frequent conversation in the class-room of our 
 " common friend the late Dr. Thomas Brown, where, after 
 " listening to a profound and eloquent lecture from that ad- 
 " mirable man, we often joined the professor in conversation 
 " on the topic or topics on which he had been discoursing. 
 " There was, indeed, a remarkable similarity in the mental 
 " character of Mr. M' All to that of the amiable and accom- 
 " plished professor of moral philosophy. Both were profound 
 " metaphysicians : both also were men of lofty genius and 
 " poetical imagination. They resembled each other also in 
 " their manners. They were both open and unreserved; and 
 " their conversation was full, even to overflowing, of brilliant 
 " remark. Perhaps there was more of the nervous irritability 
 " of the poet in the constitution of Dr. M' All than in that of 
 " Dr. Brown. 1 The range of his studies was ex- 
 
 " tensive ; and his ardour in pursuing them was beyond his 
 " bodily strength." 
 
 Trying as the circumstances were by which his destination 
 to medical studies at Edinburgh was necessitated, I cannot 
 but admire in it that divine foresight by which, in the ex- 
 perience of his people, " all things" are made to " work to- 
 " gether for good." I see the Master's hand preparing the 
 instrument for his work ; the " Captain of salvation" polishing 
 the shaft for his quiver. His studies at the university served
 
 THE REV. DR. M*ALL. Ixiii 
 
 to complete the furniture of his mind. Its powers were 
 sharpened and invigorated, their energy and their readiness 
 being alike augmented by competition with a stronger and 
 more trying antagonism than before, while both the variety 
 and the amount of its acquirements were greatly amplified. 
 The course of sceptical investigation and of mental conflict 
 through which he passed, while it gave acuteness and dexterity 
 to his powers of ratiocination, imparted what was still more valu- 
 able, a depth of self-experience, and a more intimate acquaint- 
 ance with the deceitful workings of the human heart ; and by 
 opening to his mind the many sophistries of infidelity, and the 
 various forms and phases of error, fitted him the more re- 
 ,markably for coping with the advocates of them all, and 
 contributed to the settled stability of his own subsequent pro- 
 fession. He was brought into personal contact and inter- 
 change of mind with unbelievers ; and had thus an opportu- 
 nity of discerning the secret sources of their hostility to re- 
 vealed religion, of acquiring a knowledge of their arguments, 
 and an experimental tact in meeting and confuting them, 
 which were of essential benefit to him in the sphere for which 
 the Master he was to serve was preparing him. By this 
 salutary process, moreover, he learned a lesson, at once more 
 difficult of attainment and more truly valuable than the know- 
 ledge of the extent of his powers, I mean the knowledge of 
 their limitation. His estimate of the capabilities of the human 
 mind was moderated : and in his own, the license of specu- 
 lation was restrained, without any abatement of the thirst for 
 knowledge; and the spirit of intellectual high-mindedness 
 was subdued into a more profound and lowly submissiveness 
 than ever to divine dictation. And, how prone soever the 
 philosophy of the world may be to call this weakness, it was 
 real strength, it was true mental vigour. The mightiest 
 and most capacious of human minds have bowed to the evi- 
 dences of divine revelation, and have pronounced them irre- 
 fragable. That is no proof of imbecility, unless Newton 
 himself was a driveller. And, when once the claim to divine 
 authority has been satisfactorily substantiated, genuine mental 
 strength lies in schooling and disciplining the mind to sub-
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 jefction, in controlling 1 and reining-in its natural wayward- 
 ness and dogmatism. When we have ascertained any principle 
 to be manifestly reasonable, and I know not of one more 
 palpably so than the propriety of implicit submission to divine 
 teaching, then the special effort to which the mind is sum- 
 moned, and success in which becomes the criterion of its 
 might and mastery, is the effort to bring all its dispositions 
 and tendencies into conformity with this principle. When a 
 child refuses to believe what all besides itself know to be 
 true, the cause is not largeness but limitation, not strength 
 but weakness, of intellect. When the mind attains subse- 
 quent expansion and vigour, the man becomes ashamed of 
 the incredulity of the child. He sees now to be folly what he 
 then thought wisdom, and that to be vanity which he deemed 
 spirit and independence. He perceives that what he wanted 
 when a child, was capacity enough to know his own in- 
 capacity, strength enough to admit his own weakness. We 
 smile at the child. Angels may so smile at us. The self- 
 sufficiency of unsubmissive intellect may be, in their eyes, 
 the mere positiveness of childhood, seeing, as they may, 
 that, had we the range of their mental vision, we should have 
 a clear and full perception of what our place in the scale of 
 being, or our situation as fallen creatures, requires us to 
 accept as matters of faith. There is no true strength of mind 
 in allowing a natural fondness for uncontrolled and self-willed 
 speculation, a lofty disdain of being dictated to, to come 
 between the understanding and a just perception and appre- 
 ciation of the evidences of revealed religion ; in allowing a 
 determination not to be fettered to prevent our examining 
 the divine workmanship of the chain, and discerning the 
 divine hand that imposes it. This would be the very bondage 
 of freedom. There is the same kind of mental greatness in 
 disdaining the teaching of omniscience, as there would be in 
 disdaining the support of omnipotence. In either case, how 
 misnamed! It is not greatness, but littleness; it is not 
 strength, but weakness. There is no diminutiveness more 
 pitiable, than the affected majesty of independence on the 
 part of a creature whose very power of thought is not his
 
 THE REV. DR. M<ALL. Ixv 
 
 own, whose very being, every instant, is at the will of another. 
 He js truly great, who has learned to disdain this affectation, 
 to take his true position, to feel his dependence, and to own 
 what he feels, to treat the contrary spirit as only the infla- 
 tion of self-importance, and its vaun tings as the " swelling 
 " words of vanity" at which " He that sitteth in the heavens 
 "shall laugh," and to acknowledge, with lowly gratitude, 
 its obligations to a divine instructor. This is what the 
 grace of God effects in minds of high intellectual stature, and 
 great consciousness of their superiority, when, from compar- 
 ing themselves with fellow-men, it brings them to a higher 
 standard to measure themselves by uncreated infinitude 
 and, sinking from their fancied loftiness, to set themselves 
 down, with the docile simplicity of children, at his feet. It is 
 when they thus sink, that they rise ; when they thus "humble 
 " themselves," that they are " exalted." They are " made 
 " wise," when they " become fools." They attain their truest 
 and noblest dignity, when, with those wings that have borne 
 up their most aspiring flights, they vail their prostrate faces 
 before the eternal throne. 
 
 We have seen that, before leaving Edinburgh, Mr. M' All's 
 mind was fully settled as to the destination of his future life ; 
 that the resolution was decidedly formed to devote himself, 
 agreeably to his original purpose, to the ministry of the 
 gospel.* And " notwithstanding the earnest entreaties of 
 
 * A respected correspondent states, that in the familiar intercourse to 
 which, at a particular time, he was admitted by Dr. M'All " About three 
 " years ago he passed an evening with him at his house, in the course of 
 " which, whilst glancing at some of the particulars of his early life, he in- 
 " formed him that his first destination was the bar, with a view to his enter- 
 " iny parliament, and that this was at the express solicitation of the proprie- 
 tor of a Cornish borough, for which he could have secured his return." 
 That to the minds of some who knew the peculiar adaptation of his talents 
 to that profession, it should have occurred as a suitable and desirable field 
 for their occupation, is in itself so exceedingly probable, as to give a previous 
 likelihood to this statement ; and, as the quarter from which it comes is one 
 in whose veracity I have the most perfect confidence, I cannot doubt that 
 such a communication was made on the Doctor's part, and that such a sug- 
 gestion must have been, at some time, thrown out, and possibly pressed upon 
 his friends, by the gentleman referred to, and perhaps by others. By any
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " some of his friends rather to enter the established church, 
 " and the flattering prospects held out to him in that djrec- 
 " tion,"f the resolution to give himself to the " good work" 
 was associated with the further resolution that it should be 
 " amongst the dissenters." The resolution was founded on 
 examination and conviction. That submission of his mind to 
 the dictates of divine authority, which by the grace of God 
 he had attained, would allow no considerations to enter into 
 the grounds of his determination beyond the one question 
 " What saith the scripture ?" His eye was single. Per- 
 sonal honours and secular advantages were of no weight 
 against the will of his Lord. A mitre had no fascinations, 
 when it could not be worn but at the expense of a clear con- 
 science. What was a mitred head, compared with an honest 
 heart ? Of his views on the subject of the constitution and 
 government of the Christian church, the reader will have 
 opportunity to inform himself in these volumes, especially 
 in the discourses delivered at the ordination of ministers. Of 
 these it is not my present business to say a word : and as to 
 the enlarged liberality of his spirit towards those who differed 
 from him, whether in the establishment or out of it, I shall 
 have occasion to notice it hereafter. 
 
 On leaving Edinburgh, he had only completed his 21st 
 year. This was an early season for commencing a work of 
 such magnitude and responsibility as the preaching of the 
 gospel. Yet we have seen that, even ere he went to the 
 North, he had occasionally engaged in it. There is no possi- 
 bility, indeed, of laying down any rule that will admit of 
 universal application, in regard to the time of life at which it 
 may with propriety be begun. There is no restriction in 
 
 inquiries, however, which I have felt myself at liberty to make, I have not 
 been able to receive aught of additional certain information on the point, 
 unless it be that Mr. M'All himself, when very young, had at one time a 
 leaning to that profession. While, however, I am satisfied that such a pro- 
 posal was made, I cannot but feel suspicious of some mistake, when it is 
 given in so unqualified a form as that " his first destination was the bar." 
 In the representations given by his father, there is no appearance of such 
 a thing having at all been originally contemplated, 
 t I>r. Raffle*.
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. 
 
 the New Testament, either as to commencement or cessation. 
 Timothy was a youth, when called to the sacred service ; 
 Peter, and Paul, and others were aged when they closed 
 it. While life and ability remain, the growing experience of 
 years only serves to augment the fitness, and to render pro- 
 longation the more desirable. Death of course terminates 
 the ministry of the earthly sanctuary ; and by many causes 
 inability may be induced before it. It may be assumed as a 
 general principle, that the extreme of youth is hardly con- 
 gruous with the weight and solemnity of the office. But 
 there are minds divinely fitted by their peculiar, even though 
 somewhat diverse, constitutions, for early usefulness, which, 
 when a strong desire for the good work discovers itself, it 
 would not be warrantable to keep back. Such were those of 
 Spencer and M'All, widely different, yet allied, " facies 
 non una, nee diversa tamen," their powers and capacities 
 hardly to be compared, yet both admirably, though vari- 
 ously, fitted for their respective modes and departments of 
 service. 
 
 Mr. M' All's father being at that time pastor of the con- 
 gregation in Zion chapel, London, thither he then repaired. 
 The following memorandums of him, at this period, are 
 from the pen of an esteemed congregational minister, already 
 referred to,* who was then a student at Homerton, and who 
 had previously known Mr. M'All as an occasional visitor at 
 his father's house during his stay at Hoxton : " On one oc- 
 " casion, Mr. M'All, shortly after his return from Edinburgh, 
 "spent a day with usf at Homerton; and on that occasion, 
 " the power of his conversation, and the versatility of his 
 " talents, produced an impression upon all who witnessed 
 " them, which no length of time has been able to efface. 
 " Even at that early period, such was the ripeness of his in- 
 " tellect, and the decided bias of his mind towards religious 
 " subjects, that it was impossible to be in his company, or to 
 " hear him engage in any religious exercise, without being 
 " convinced that he was marked by the hand of Nature and 
 
 * The Rev. Mr. Thodey. t The students, namely.
 
 THE REV. DR. M*ALL. 
 
 " Providence as no common man ; and all anticipated that he 
 '* would, at no distant period, shine forth as a star of the first 
 " magnitude, the light and ornament of the sphere to which 
 " he belonged. The students, who shortly afterwards heard 
 " him preach, were anxious to obtain some of his manuscript 
 " productions, which were read with avidity, and diligently 
 " copied : among which I may specify a beautiful sermon 
 " on the spiritual life, an outline of which I have in my pos- 
 " session at the present time Between the interval of his 
 " return from Edinburgh and his settlement at Macclesfield, 
 " he preached a sermon at the Adelphi, upon Col. ii. 8. 
 " ' Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain 
 " deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of 
 " the world, and not after Christ ;' which his more intelligent 
 " auditors considered to be one of the most masterly and elo- 
 " quent sermons they had ever heard upon the fallacious 
 " pretensions of the infidel philosophy, and the divine attesta- 
 " tions to the Christian faith. Nor was it only on subjects 
 "purely intellectual that his mind delighted to expatiate; 
 " he seemed equally at home in the minuter developments of 
 " character, and the detection of the sophistries of the heart. 
 " Many of the same persons who had heard his argumenta- 
 " tive discourse at the Adelphi, which, if I mistake not, was 
 " read throughout, were equally impressed with a sermon 
 " marked by much simplicity and pathos, which he preached 
 " at Clapton about the same time, from Acts vii. 39. ' And in 
 " their hearts turned back into Egypt.' This, though whol- 
 " ly extemporaneous, excepting the bare outline, exhibited 
 " a singular power in analysing the springs and motives of 
 "human action, his object being, to trace some of the 
 " causes that operated to produce a departure in heart from 
 "the love and service of God, on the part of those who 
 " neither relapsed into open infidelity, nor abandoned the out- 
 " ward profession of religion which they had made. These ser- 
 " mons were the more remarkable from the extreme youth of 
 " the preacher ; and were quite sufficient to indicate, that, 
 " whatever might be the minor variations of feeling through 
 " which he had passed, his own religious opinions, far from
 
 THE REV. DR. M<ALL. Ixix 
 
 ' ' being unsettled, were now fixed and decided, as the result 
 " in fact proves them to have been." 
 
 From preceding parts of this memoir, the respected writer 
 may have seen reason to doubt the accuracy of the conclusion 
 to which he here comes, if that conclusion is intended to bear 
 that Mr. M' All's views in religion had not before been "un- 
 settled." That at the time to which his memoranda refer he 
 is correct in saying they " were now fixed and decided," I 
 rejoice to grant. But the allusion seems to be to the sus- 
 picions of his steadfast soundness in the faith which, at a pre- 
 vious period, had been entertained. Now, there is absolute 
 certainty that, although not precisely at the date of those 
 suspicions, yet between that date and the date of Mr. Thodey's 
 recollections, he had passed through a conflict of sceptical 
 doubts, such as amounted to a great deal more than can be 
 comprehended under the qualifying phrase "minor varia- 
 tions of feeling." It is to me more than probable, that the 
 first of the discourses mentioned, on the claims of Chris- 
 tianity, owed not a little both of its clearness and its energy to 
 the investigations and experience of that period, and that 
 his lucid demonstration, in the second, of the morbid moral 
 anatomy of the human heart, was, in no small degree, the 
 result of the scrutinizing dissection and development of his 
 own, during the same trying time. 
 
 During the short interval, of which the preceding reminis- 
 cences embrace a part, he preached at various places, giving 
 high promise of his future eminence. The following circum- 
 stance is extracted from an article in the Manchester Times, 
 published immediately after the Doctor's death ; and, as I am 
 not aware of its having been contradicted, I presume on its 
 correctness : " Amongst other places he visited Nottingham, 
 " where he was engaged to officiate during the temporary 
 " absence of the regular minister. On the day before he was 
 "appointed first to preach, he felt much difficulty in selecting 
 " a subject, and walked out into the beautiful meadows near 
 " to the town, for reflection. The rich foliage of the trees 
 " and the verdant fields failed to rouse his imagination, and 
 "he returned home uneasy and anxious. In the evening,
 
 bfX LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " after tea, he walked through one of the streets, when his 
 " attention was arrested by a painful circumstance. A man, 
 " whilst engaged in repairing the front of a house, and stand- 
 "ing on a ladder at a considerable height, was suddenly 
 *' thrown from his position by the wheel of a cart striking 
 " against the bottom of the ladder ; but the workman suc- 
 " ceeded in laying hold of one of the ladder spokes as he fell, 
 "and his life was spared. This circumstance struck Mr. 
 " M* All's mind with the doctrine of a particular providence. 
 " He prepared an eloquent sermon upon it. And so salutary 
 " were its effects, that a physician of the town, who had long 
 " entertained sceptical notions, was so thoroughly convinced, 
 "by its reasoning and pathetic appeals, of the error of his 
 " ways, that he immediately embraced the gospel, and ever 
 " afterwards maintained an honourable and blameless life."- 
 The anecdote is quite in harmony with that readiness in 
 the use of his powers, by which he was so remarkably char- 
 acterized. 
 
 At this time, through circumstances to which it is quite 
 unnecessary to advert, a vacancy had occurred in the chapel 
 connected with the Sunday school at Macclesfield, " raised 
 by the exertions of the late Mr. John Whitaker ;" and Dr. 
 Collyer, of whose high estimate of Mr. M' All's talents and 
 character the reader is already aware, having, when on a visit 
 to that town, been consulted respecting a successor to the 
 former incumbent, mentioned the young subject of our me- 
 moir in terms of correspondent warmth, describing him, it 
 has been said, as possessing " an almost angelic genius." 
 The consequence was, that overtures were made to him by 
 the trustees, which issued, first in his visiting Macclesfield, 
 and subsequently, in his appointment to the chaplaincy of 
 the institution. He accepted the appointment; and his ordi- 
 nation there took place in the autumn of 1 823 : on which 
 occasion his father offered up the ordination prayer, the late 
 Mr. Roby, of Manchester, gave the charge, and Dr. Stewart, 
 of Liverpool, addressed the church and congregation. 
 
 Among the paternal admonitions of " Paul the aged" to 
 " his son Timothy," we find this brief but impressive one
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. 
 
 " Let no man despise thy youth." This is not, assuredly, an 
 admonition to sensitive high-mindedness. It does not mean, 
 " Be jealous of your dignity guard your honour see that 
 all about you be made and kept duly sensible that you are 
 not to be insulted with impunity let it be felt that, young 
 as you are, you bear an office, which age itself must not pre- 
 sume to treat with lightness." No. The meaning is 
 " Maintain such a character so marked by personal and 
 official consistency so worthy of a Christian, and of a ser- 
 vant of Jesus, a ' Man of God' as shall effectually command 
 respect, and counteract every tendency to the contrary which, 
 in some minds, the fewness of thy years might be a tempta- 
 tion to indulge ; so that thy very youth, instead of being 
 scorned, shall only serve as a foil to thy virtues, and enhance 
 approving admiration : So young ! yet so steady, so correct, 
 so consistent, so much what a minister ought to be !" This 
 meaning is brought clearly out by the connexion ; for it im- 
 mediately follows " But be thou an example of the believers, 
 in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in 
 purity !" Mr. M'All started thus young on his ministe- 
 rial career, with a mind of high capacities and splendid attain- 
 ments : and although it is perfectly true, in the terms of one 
 of my correspondents,* that " a seraph is not to be called 
 proud, because it knows its powers to be superior to those of 
 a babe," yet will it not be denied by any who have even the 
 slightest acquaintance with human nature, that, in such cir- 
 cumstances, there was no small hazard of the excess of con- 
 scious superiority. The vessel, however, that is laden with 
 bullion, carries, in its very freight, ballast as well as treasure. 
 Youthful too as he was, he had passed through a course of 
 experience, of which the happy tendency was to repress that 
 elation, of which the buoyancy had been greater at a still 
 earlier period. I am aware, indeed, that he did not pass 
 without the imputation, in some quarters, of self-sufficiency 
 and superciliousness. I strongly suspect, however, that in 
 most instances, if not in all, the charge might be found to 
 
 * The Rev. John Ely, of Leeds.
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 have rested with persons who themselves entertained a some- 
 what loftier sense of their own consequence than truth or 
 the estimate of others, warranted the would-be great the 
 learned of Lilliput " pert, conceited, talking sparks," with 
 abundance of pretension, but no great amount of reality 
 puffing frogs that vie with the dimensions of the ox. Now 
 from the first, and ever after, Mr. M'All regarded such 
 characters with an irrepressible and uncompromising con- 
 tempt : 
 
 " in his soul he loath'd 
 
 All affectation. 'Twas his perfect scorn, 
 Object of his implacable disgust." 
 
 His eye scowled, and his lip curled with disdain, on every 
 self-consequential attempt of which no man on earth had a 
 more intuitive discernment -to appear what the person was 
 not, to make gold-leaf and tinsel pass for bullion.* This 
 contempt, as he might be at little pains to conceal it, some 
 such great-little men might be made to feel, and might pro- 
 pagate their own prejudices against him, as supercilious, re- 
 pulsive, and over-bearing, when the fault really lay with 
 themselves. To true greatness it is indigenous to despise 
 pretension ; not inferiority, but inferiority setting up for its 
 opposite. Let an instance be pointed out of actual inferiority 
 associated with its appropriate self-diffidence and unpre- 
 suming modesty bringing against Robert Stephens M'AH 
 the charge of arrogant and disdainful treatment: such a 
 charge might be entitled to a hearing. But if a fool who would 
 pass himself for a wise man is made sensible of the really wise 
 man's scorn, who, at a glance, discerns his emptiness sees 
 to the bottom of his shallow, would-be profundity, who is to 
 blame ? 
 
 Youthful as he was, his mind was of an order to appre- 
 hend clearly the nature, and largely to grasp the magnitude, 
 of the charge on which he was entering ; and his spirit, or 
 constitutional temperament, was such, that whatever he felt 
 he felt intensely, and whatever he undertook he undertook 
 with corresponding ardour. The impression of the solemn
 
 THE REV. DR. M ( ALL. Ixxiti 
 
 responsibilities of the Christian ministry was deep from the 
 first, and became deeper and deeper as he advanced in years 
 and experience, of which his ordination charges, in the fol- 
 lowing volumes, may be referred to with confidence, as most 
 satisfactory and delightful proofs. 
 
 In his letter of acceptance to the Trustees of the School 
 and Chapel at Macclesfield, he not only expresses himself 
 with a due sense of his incompetency, dependence, and re- 
 sponsibility, but discovers a highly becoming and honourable 
 conscientiousness of explanation regarding his views as a 
 dissenter, which appeared to him to be required by certain 
 terms in the Trust Deed : " I beg you, therefore," he writes 
 to the Secretary, "to inform the Committee, that I accept, 
 " with humble dependence upon God, the station to which 
 " they have invited me; and purpose, by the assistance of 
 " his grace, to devote myself entirely to its occupations, so 
 " long as I retain it; fervently desiring, that, when it is re- 
 " signed into other hands, through my sickness, removal, or 
 " death, and when at last I give an account of my steward- 
 " ship to the Judge of all, it may be with the joy of finding 
 " even my feeble services acknowledged as faithful, however 
 " imperfect. 
 
 " But there are two or three particulars on which I think 
 " it right to remark, in coming to a conclusion in this affair. 
 " One relates to that Extract from the Trust Deed stipulat- 
 " ing that the Managers of the Institution shall ' maintain 
 " and disseminate the great and leading doctrines of religion 
 " as defined in the Articles, Homilies, and Liturgy of the 
 " Church of England.' Now, my dear Sir, you must per- 
 " mit me to remind you, that though I possess the highest 
 " reverence for the Establishment, and for the many excellent 
 " men who were in former times, and who now are, its 
 " members, I am yet in principle a dissenter, and have more 
 " than once refused to subscribe, ex animo, to all and every 
 " thing contained in the Book of Common Prayer and the 
 " other standards of the Church, even when prospects of 
 " considerable emolument and honour were offered me within 
 " its own communion. You cannot, therefore, but discover,
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " that it would be the grossest inconsistency if I should now 
 " enter upon a charge out of the jurisdiction of the same 
 " church, under the implied profession of maintaining all 
 " that may be included in its articles, homilies, and liturgy. 
 " I have mentioned this only as a point of honour; because, 
 " although I would never affix my signature to so large a 
 " body of opinions prescribed and expressed by men as liable 
 " to error as myself, I yet believe the great and leading doc- 
 " trines of the National Church to be those of the New 
 " Testament, and of course shall defend and enforce them in 
 " my public addresses and my private life."* 
 
 That he fulfilled the duties of his charge at this first scene 
 of his ministry under the due impression of the sacredness of 
 his trust, I shall leave the reader to judge from the following 
 extract of a communication before cited: " Upon a visit I 
 " paid to my lamented friend at Macclesfield," says the Rev. 
 Mr. Thodey, " shortly after the date of the letters referred 
 "to, I had ample opportunities of seeing the nature of the 
 " impression which his ministry produced: and it is difficult 
 " to say, whether his preaching did not produce as much 
 " impression upon the least instructed as among the best 
 " educated classes. This arose from the circumstance of his 
 " being so plain and powerful upon the turning points of 
 " religion, and the full and ample stress which he uniformly 
 " laid upon the leading doctrines of the gospel, the practical 
 " duties of life, and the method of a sinner's acceptance with 
 " God. We were perpetually together, during the fortnight 
 " I was with him. I visited the sick with him; was with 
 " him at his social interviews with his friends, and in the 
 " cottages of the poor; and was exceedingly impressed with 
 ** his entire devotedness to his work, his influence over other 
 " minds, and his facility in adapting his varied powers to the 
 *' different capacities of those with whom he associated. The 
 " signal respect he commanded, and the kind of homage he 
 " received from persons of almost every station in society, 
 " could not but be highly flattering to so young a man; and 
 
 Sketch in Manchester Times.
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. 
 
 " was evidently occasioned, not more by the eminence of his 
 " intellectual endowments, than by the general conviction 
 " that obtained of his moral worth, and that high tone of 
 " honour, and manly feeling, and religious principle, which 
 " appeared to pervade and regulate all that he said and did. 
 
 " His mind appeared to be fully occupied and engrossed 
 " with his pastoral duties; and the deep interest that he took 
 " in all that related to the progress of religion amongst his 
 " hearers, might have led you to lose sight of the man of 
 " science, the accomplished scholar, and the eloquent orator, 
 " in witnessing the quiet exertions of the pains-taking and 
 " considerate divine. I certainly never received from any 
 " individual, before or since, so full an impression of the 
 " importance and responsibility of the ministerial character 
 " and work, as in the intercourse which, at those seasons, I 
 " was favoured to hold with him. The entire subject of his 
 " ministerial duties, as the guide and director of his people, 
 " was as familiar to him as though he had studied nothing 
 " else. 
 
 " Among other things his remarks upon visiting the sick 
 " indelibly impressed themselves upon my mind, and have 
 " since been of no little service to me. He much lamented 
 " the slight and perfunctory manner in which this part of the 
 " sacred office is often performed, viewing it as one which 
 " tried the resources of a minister to the utmost, and which 
 " required a nice attention to the internal economy and work- 
 " ing of the human mind. He thought that many were 
 " faulty in not making a direct preparation for this part of 
 " their work. If they go to preach, or even to deliver an 
 " address at a prayer-meeting, they find they are not com- 
 " petent to do it properly without some previous forecast, 
 " fixing their line of thought and their leading illustrations. 
 " But they go into a sick room wholly unprepared for a much 
 " more difficult undertaking, depending only upon a few 
 " floating recollections of common-place truths, which they 
 " are content to utter without any adequate mental effort to 
 " develop the character of the individual, or to adapt their 
 " communications to his real state, as the key is fitted to the
 
 1XXV1 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " wards of the lock. The consequence is, that little good is 
 " done compared with what might have been expected with 
 " a deeper consideration of the case previously, and a more 
 " skilful adjustment of means to ends. 
 
 " Following out these views, he anxiously wished that dif- 
 " ferent ministers would agree to keep a record of the different 
 " cases which came before them, and of the advices they gave 
 " and the conversations they held, especially where there was 
 " any peculiar difficulty involved. As medical men were 
 " desirous of recording the different forms of disease, and the 
 " methods of treatment adopted, and as gentlemen of the 
 " legal profession had their law cases to which they could 
 " revert, so he would have the ministers of the gospel 
 " minutely furnished with instances of the chief difficulties 
 " they might be prepared to meet with on death-beds. Then, 
 " in the case of the infidel, the apostate, the pharisaic and 
 " self-righteous person, those under religious despondency, 
 " the young inquirer, the hardened reprobate, or one who 
 " seemed to be awakened only at the eleventh hour to a sense 
 " of his sin and danger, a minister previously conversant 
 " with the moral symptoms he might anticipate would be far 
 " better prepared with the religious instructions requisite 
 " He farther thought, that if a considerable number of these 
 " records were collected after a series of years, and the whole 
 " put into the hands of one man to revise, remark upon, and 
 " publish, it would form a most instructive manual, and sup- 
 " ply the most available assistance in visiting the sick. I 
 " am not sure that he did not at that time project a work of 
 " the kind himself.* 
 
 " One circumstance he related to me, connected with his 
 " own ministrations among the sick, which awakened con- 
 
 * A series of very interesting papers, continued, at longer and shorter 
 intervals, during the last four years, in the Scottish Congregational Maga- 
 zine, under the title of " Pastoral Recollections," and with the signature 
 of " Abijah,'' the productions of an esteemed minister, of sound judgment 
 and long experience, the Rev. Alex. Knowles, of Linlithgow, may be re- 
 ferred to, as an excellent specimen of such recorded " cases. " The writer's 
 introductory paper, in May 1835, proceeds on a similar principle to that on 
 which Dr. M' All's proposal is founded.
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. 
 
 " siderable interest in the neighbourhood. A pious person, 
 " residing at some distance from Macclesfield, had suffered 
 " for many years under the influence of religious despondency, 
 " partially resembling the melancholy case of Cowper. As 
 " he was held in much esteem, his mental sufferings created 
 " much sympathy. Many Christian friends, and eminent 
 " ministers, of different religious persuasions, visited him, 
 " endeavouring to kindle anew the spark of life in his bosom, 
 " and restore to his mind those religious consolations which 
 " he formerly possessed. These efforts proved wholly in 
 " vain, as he possessed, like many others in similar circum- 
 " stances, that kind of preternatural acuteness which led him 
 " to convert all the arguments and topics of consolation into 
 " the occasion of deeper discouragement and gloom. It was 
 " natural for me to inquire Did you go? ' Yes, he said, I 
 " did, though without any hope of a beneficial result; but I 
 " went, to express my sympathy with a disciple of Christ 
 " under one of the severest afflictions which could befall a 
 " good man, and to deepen my own impressions of the im- 
 " portance of spiritual things. You may suppose,' he added, 
 " * I was not very forward to speak; but I listened, with 
 " unwearied attention, to the sad detail of his doubts, his 
 " difficulties, his gloomy temptations, and his utterly despond- 
 " ing forebodings and fears. Meantime, my eye was not 
 " silent, and I noticed every circumstance, how r ever minute, 
 " which might assist me to place myself in his state of feel- 
 " ing, and to go along with the processes of his mind; and I 
 " was exceedingly anxious to detect any little discrepancy 
 " which might arise between the facts he advanced and the 
 " conclusions to which he came. -At last, looking towards 
 " the head of the bed, I observed upon the curtains several 
 " pieces of paper carefully pinned here and there, and appa- 
 " rently written upon. Though I suspected what might be 
 " the nature of their contents, I said, with apparent surprise 
 " and abruptness, What are these papers? O Sir, said the 
 " burdened man, they are texts of scripture. But what texts? 
 " I quickly rejoined. Sir, he added, with a slow and falter- 
 " ing voice, They are promises Promises! but what business 
 
 k
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " have they here? You say you are a cast-away from God's 
 " favour, an utter alien from his friendship, that all your re- 
 " ligion was a delusion, that you have no interest in one of 
 " the promises, and can look for nothing but to be an eternal 
 " monument of the divine displeasure. Why, then, should 
 " you have these texts and promises of scripture perpetually 
 " around you, when you have no sort of interest in the re- 
 " ligion they represent, or in the Saviour they reveal? The 
 " two things do not agree together. Either your despondency 
 " is excessive and undue, or those promises have no business 
 " there Let me take them away.' 'No, Sir no, Sir' said 
 " the sufferer, ' do not take them away. I love to see them. 
 " I had an interest in them once, and they are still precious, 
 " the memorial of them is sweet, though the enjoyment of 
 " them is wholly gone.' * Upon this,' said Mr. M'All, ' I 
 " altered my tone, and said, with the tenderness I really felt 
 " But, my dear friend, are you not aware that the truths 
 " are the same as ever, and your mind clings as tenaciously 
 " as ever to those truths, and the Author of those truths is 
 " ' the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever?' All the dif- 
 " ference, therefore, arises from your diseased apprehensions 
 " of things; and you are confounding the decay of consola- 
 " tion with the decay of piety. Recollect, that while these 
 " truths are precious to you, the emotions with which you 
 " still cherish the remembrance of them are precious in 
 " God's sight; and, whilst you have your memorials of the 
 " past, God has his memorials too! He says, " Yea, I have 
 " graven thee on the palms of my hands; thy walls are con- 
 " tinually before me :" " The mountains shall depart, and 
 " the hills be removed, but my loving-kindness shall not 
 " depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace 
 " be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee I' " 
 
 " It pleased God to bless this conversation (which has been 
 " too briefly and imperfectly sketched) to the afflicted man. 
 " His mind recovered its trust and consolation, and he shortly 
 " afterwards died in peace." 
 
 The reflections to which the contents of this extract natu- 
 rally lead, I must leave to the reader's own suggestion. I
 
 THE REV. DR. M<ALL. 
 
 have given it entire, because it is not only in itself interest- 
 ing, and susceptible of important practical application, but 
 an authentic exemplification of the admirable views of this 
 very youthful minister respecting the work in which he was 
 engaged, and of the astute and felicitous readiness with which, 
 in one of the most difficult as well as painful cases that pre- 
 sent themselves in the varieties of Christian experience, or 
 rather in what may be termed the spiritual pathology of the 
 heart, he reduced these principles to practice; bringing into 
 requisition at once his physiological and his biblical know- 
 ledge, his discriminative prudence, and his benevolent sensi- 
 bilities. 
 
 The attractiveness and, in the best sense of the term, 
 popularity of his ministry, during his residence in Maccles- 
 field, are sufficiently proved by the fact, that, after having, 
 for eight or nine years, occupied the situation there to which 
 he had been invited, it was found necessary to erect for him 
 a separate place of worship, on a larger scale. This gave 
 rise to St. George's chapel, which was built by subscription, 
 and opened in October, 1828. In this new sphere he con- 
 tinued to labour " with confirmed and enlarged success," and 
 " increasingly beloved and honoured by his people,"* for 
 upwards of three years more ; making the entire period of his 
 incumbency in Macclesfield about twelve years. 
 
 And, while Macclesfield was the scene of his first official 
 union with a Christian church, it was the happy scene also 
 of a union of a different description. It was not long after 
 his settlement there, that he was united in marriage to the 
 youngest sister of the late Mr. Whitaker, whom God was 
 pleased to spare to him, as the affectionate and faithful part- 
 ner of his joys and sorrows, in all respects a " help meet for 
 him," during the remaining years of his life. " Delicacy," 
 says one of his brothers, in a sketch of his character adverted 
 to in the outset of this memoir, " Delicacy forbids any par- 
 " ticular references to the endeared and happy intercourse 
 " subsisting between my brother and one who so well de- 
 
 * Dr. Raffles.
 
 l.XXX LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " served to be the partner of his life; but it may be said that, 
 " many as were her claims on a husband's attentions, they 
 " were met in a manner of which scarcely any other man 
 " could have been capable." 
 
 During his residence too at Macclesfield, he became a can- 
 didate for a sphere of more public and extended labour and use- 
 fulness, the pastorate of the Independent church at Stepney, 
 London. Of the circumstances of this case, however, which 
 ultimately led to the settlement there of another eminent and 
 esteemed friend, who has since filled, and continues to fill, 
 the situation with so much credit to himself and benefit to 
 the cause of the gospel,* I am not sufficiently in possession, 
 to enable me to do more than thus simply notice the fact. 
 That they were, in any respect, otherwise than entirely 
 creditable to the character, and talents, and honour of the 
 subject of our memoir, none who knew him will surmise, and 
 therefore it is unnecessary to affirm. They were under a 
 providential control. " Deo aliter visum." 
 
 " Throughout the whole period of his abode in Maccles- 
 " field," says Dr. Raffles, " he was a hard student. He had 
 " time then much more at his command than during the sub- 
 " sequent period of his life, when introduced to a far more 
 " extensive field of labour, and a weightier pastoral charge. 
 " He rose early, and sat up late, and denied himself recrea- 
 " tion and rest, that he might accumulate fresh stores of 
 " knowledge, and raise upon a foundation already laid, broad 
 " and deep to a degree almost unexampled, a superstructure 
 " which, for extent, solidity, variety, and beauty, has rarely, 
 
 " if ever, been surpassed Thus, ' thoroughly furnished, he 
 
 " at length received and accepted an urgent call from the 
 " church and congregation at Mosley Street chapel, Man- 
 " Chester, to become their pastor, and entered on his stated 
 " duties, in January, 1827." 
 
 This statement is not the mere exaggeration of partial 
 friendship. The extent and variety of Dr. M' All's acquire- 
 ments were the subjects of admiration to all who knew him ; 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Joseph Fletcher.
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. 
 
 as well as the largeness and solidity of the basis on which the 
 superstructure of his knowledge was reared, and the chaste 
 and symmetrical elegance by which the whole was so charac- 
 teristically adorned. And since the general subject of talents, 
 acquirements, and character has thus come before us, it may 
 be as appropriate here as at any subsequent point in his re- 
 maining course, to introduce such remarks regarding it as 
 now suggest themselves; the practice being one which has 
 never been congenial to my own feelings of returning upon 
 such ground after the solemnities of the dying hour have been 
 depicted, and the curtain has dropped upon the closing scene 
 of life. 
 
 The amount of his general information was surprising; in- 
 formation, a large proportion of which was of a description 
 not to be derived from books, but, by whomsoever possessed, 
 is, in a great degree, the result of an ever-observant activity 
 of mind, which, kept in exercise by an unquenchable thirst 
 for knowledge, marks with eagerness every fact and every 
 process, whether in nature or in art, that comes incidentally, 
 or that can be brought by an effort, under its notice, and 
 which, in the ordinary intercourse of life, takes all with whom 
 it comes into contact in their own departments, and, by a 
 felicitous tact, draws from each the information he is, profes- 
 sionally or otherwise, best qualified to impart, and thus at 
 once gratifies the companion, however accidental and brief 
 the interview, and derives advantage to itself. This inces- 
 santly active spirit of observation and inquiry, associated 
 with quickness of apprehension, retentiveness of memory, and 
 readiness of appropriate re-production, contributed greatly to 
 the extraordinary conversational powers of our departed friend. 
 There was in these a fascinating charm, of which they only 
 can form an idea who enjoyed the privilege of his company 
 in small and familiar parties, where he felt himself at his ease, 
 where the pulse of friendly feeling beat free and strong, where 
 the stream of conversation flowed without factitious impulse, 
 varying its channel in inartificial windings as the suggestions 
 of different minds gave it its natural and easy turns, some- 
 times deeper and graver, sometimes shallower and more mirth-
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 fill, as subjects and circumstances directed. Then he was 
 delightful. A few hours of such society was a treat of which 
 the exquisite relish was not soon to be lost. When in com- 
 fortable health, or overcoming the depressing influence of 
 morbid suffering by the counteraction of an affectionately 
 social and buoyant spirit, he was the life and the charm of 
 the social circle. On such occasions, the varied stores of his 
 richly furnished mind were often strikingly displayed, and 
 displayed without display, never with art, never with effort, 
 the art of those who are ever studiously on the watch for 
 an opening at which they may thrust in a favourite topic, 
 and the effort of those who, having succeeded in the attempt, 
 expend all that they know in set and laboured speeches, in 
 which self, instead of being concealed in the subject, is soli- 
 citously prominent, and which are the very bore of social 
 enjoyment. Of every thing of this kind his indignant nausea 
 was extreme. He was no monopolist of conversation. He 
 neither aspired at being sole speaker, nor chief speaker. He 
 gave it its turn, or he took the turn given to it, with the 
 same unaffected readiness and grace, leading or following, 
 as it might happen, drawing out others, or drawn out him- 
 self. He alternately imparted information and elicited it; 
 and in the very eliciting of it he imparted it, showing how 
 instantly and how perfectly he could make what was elicited 
 his own, and follow out facts and ideas to applications and 
 uses new even to the mind from which he had drawn them. 
 On all subjects he was at home, or, with the quickness of 
 intuition, made himself at home, even the inquiries of his 
 curiosity indicating the extent of his knowledge. He could 
 pass, by the most rapid transitions, from subject to subject; 
 and whether he spoke of the most ordinary or the most 
 abstruse, there was a rapidity of conception, an originality 
 and diversity of thought, and a varied appropriateness of 
 diction, elegant without ostentation, familiar without mean- 
 ness, and every word and phrase the best that could be chosen 
 without the appearance of selection, such as astonished stran- 
 gers, and gave ever fresh delight to familiar friends. There 
 was the sparkling of wit, and the playfulness of humour,
 
 THE REV. DR. M ALL. 
 
 and the happy hits of innocuous raillery, and the gravity of 
 serious reflection, and the pathos of exquisite sensibility, 
 and the vivacity of graphic anecdote, and the eloquence of 
 picturesque description, whether of natural or moral scenery, 
 and the accuracy and clearness of scientific statement, 
 and the lofty flights of fancy, and the quick and penetrating 
 pursuit, apprehension, and hair-splitting dissection of some 
 abstract nicety of metaphysics, all blending in rapid and 
 returning succession, according as the diiferent members of 
 the social coterie might, purposely or accidentally, supply 
 the varied impulse. 
 
 But the reader would be very wide of the truth, were he, 
 from any such description, to admit the surmise that Mr. 
 M* All's information, though extensive and diversified, was 
 superficial. I am aware there are some who, possessing a 
 little knowledge on almost every subject, have at the same 
 time the knack of making that little go a great way. These 
 are either clever men, who, glorying in their cleverness, have 
 despised labour and laughed to scorn the plodding drudge, 
 or men who have no taste for knowledge save for the pur- 
 poses of self-display, and who find on the surface enough 
 wherewith to show off in all ordinary society. Far diiferent 
 from either was the subject of our memoir. His thirst was 
 for the knowledge itself; and it was insatiable. He never 
 skimmed, but when the cream was on the surface. He was 
 not a man of specimens; he would explore the mine. He 
 would take nothing at second-hand that he could examine 
 for himself. He would hold his own convictions on the 
 ground of his own investigations. He read much ; he thought 
 more. He delighted to grapple with subjects that gave 
 scope to the energies of his vigorous mind; and, while he 
 regarded it as equal folly and impiety to waste those energies 
 in attempting to explore what was manifestly beyond the 
 range of human or created intellect, he would not, by aught 
 that came within that range, willingly allow himself to be 
 baffled When prosecuting his studies at the university of 
 Edinburgh, we are informed by himself, on the authority of 
 the Rev. Mr. Griffin of Manchester, with what intense and
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 prolonged severity he occasionally applied his mind. " He 
 " has told me," says that respected friend, in an admirable 
 portraiture of him, forming part of a discourse delivered after 
 his death, " that for five days and nights continuously, with 
 " the exception only of a few hours interval, he has pursued 
 " one topic of investigation, keeping himself awake by the 
 " application of damp cloths to the head. He mentioned this 
 " fact with as much regret as I heard it; too well knowing 
 " that his enfeebled constitution was already giving proofs of 
 " the tremendous wrongs it had suffered from such efforts. 
 " An ambitious ardour fired his soul. And as a literary as- 
 " pirant, he attained his object." Although, therefore, pos- 
 sessing, in the terms of the same writer, " a perspicacity that 
 looked like intuition," he did not allow this to stand as a 
 succedaneum for close application, in cases where such appli- 
 cation alone could master the subject of inquiry. Where he 
 could see to the bottom, (and his vision could go deeper 
 than that of most men,) there was no need for having re 
 course to the diving-bell; but the diving-bell, at whatever 
 risk, he would use, rather than not reach what he wished, 
 by his own consideration, to ascertain. 
 
 On the testimony of all who most intimately knew him, I 
 may, without hesitation, affirm, that his learning was as pro- 
 found as it was various. The extent and notoriety of his 
 classical attainments, and acquaintance with the elegant 
 literature of Greece and Rome, may be judged of from the 
 fact, that at the time when the London university was estab- 
 lished, it was the earnest desire of many of the leading dis- 
 senters that he would allow his name to be proposed as one 
 of the examiners; and, if I am correct in my recollection of an 
 incidental conversation with himself, an application was ex- 
 pressly made to him to this effect, with special reference to 
 the " liter* humaniores." " The Latin and Greek classics 
 the latter in preference," are mentioned first in the enumer- 
 ation of books that constituted his " habitual reading," by a 
 friend who had intimate opportunity of knowing his tastes 
 and habits; and the same friend subsequently adds " I have 
 " heard him profess that he took great delight in reading
 
 THE REV. DR. M { ALL. IxXXV 
 
 " classical authors with a critical eye, stating that he used to 
 " procure the worst editions he could meet with, in order to 
 " exercise his eye and his attention in the detection of errors. 
 " This was his practice in earlier days, in training himself to 
 " accuracy as a Greek scholar."* The general facility of 
 acquirement by which he was distinguished included, equally 
 with other departments, that of languages : and in addition 
 to those of classical antiquity, he is said to have been " mas- 
 " ter of several of the primary oriental languages and dialects."! 
 But his acquaintance with languages was not that merely of 
 words and syntax. Here, as in every thing else, he studied 
 in the spirit of philosophy ; entering, with enlarged views 
 and discriminative acuteness, into the questions respecting the 
 origin of speech and writing, the history of their variations, 
 the principles of general grammar, and the illustration of these 
 by the idiomatic peculiarities, analogous and discrepant, of 
 different tongues. 
 
 In the same spirit he studied all the departments of science. 
 With faculties such as his, and delighting in their exercise, 
 it might, without exaggeration, be said not to have been in 
 his power to be superficial. When a fact or an idea was 
 presented to his mind, that was in any measure new to him, 
 he was instantly on the alert for the pursuit. His eagerness 
 was like an instinct. He could no more forbear, than the 
 trained hound on the starting of game. Nor could he desist 
 from the chase, till the game was secured. And since the 
 image has suggested itself, I may carry it a little farther. 
 Such was the penetrating energy of his powers, and such his 
 determination to have the mastery of whatever subject he set 
 himself to understand to get to the very core and essence 
 of it, that, with the two combined, he seldom failed of sur- 
 passing competitors, and discovering to those by whom the 
 fact or the idea had been brought under his notice, further 
 facts and ideas associated with it or arising out of it, of which 
 they had not previously dreamed. He was, in this respect 
 
 * From an interesting communication by John Roberton, Esq., Surgeon, 
 Manchester, 
 f Sketch by Mr. Griffin, Lond. Cong. Mag., for March, 1839.
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 (not, it is needless to say, in disposition) like the hyena, 
 which, after even the lion and the tiger have gorged them- 
 selves with the flesh of their prey, and the inferior tribes have 
 picked what they have left, comes last, breaks the bones, and 
 sucks the marrow. His investigations, as a medical student, 
 laid open to him the wonders of the human frame, the in- 
 tricacies of its structure, the mysteries of its physiology, with 
 the overpowering proofs of Deity in them all ; while in the end- 
 lessly diversified and exquisitely adjusted adaptations of com- 
 parative anatomy, they multiplied and strengthened these 
 proofs to their fullest perfection. In botany, in chemistry, 
 in geology and mineralogy, in natural history, and in the 
 various branches of physical science, his acquirements are 
 said, by those who had the opportunity and the power of ap- 
 preciating them, to have been of no ordinary amount. The 
 same may be said of mathematics and geography, including 
 in the latter both its great general principles and outlines, 
 and its minute topographical details. And to this there 
 was added, as the result of observation, intercourse and read- 
 ing, associated with a minutely retentive memory, a general 
 sweep of knowledge on all even the most ordinary subjects, 
 and some of them the remotest from what any one would have 
 conceived to have engaged his notice. 
 
 I need hardly say that he was at home in the entire range 
 of mental or metaphysical philosophy. Two causes may be 
 considered as having conduced to his fondness for this depart- 
 ment of science ; a fondness, as appears from the antecedent 
 statement of Dr. Dewar, manifest from the first to all who 
 knew him. The subjects embraced by it gave scope, not 
 ample merely, but appropriate to the peculiar powers of his 
 mind, the powers, especially, of discriminative penetration 
 and impalpably minute analysis. These he possessed in an 
 extraordinary measure, and he luxuriated in their application. 
 From the high estimate of his mental character formed, when 
 he was at the university, by the late Dr. Thomas Brown, 
 fondness for such speculations, and eminent qualifications for 
 the successful pursuit of them, might naturally be inferred to 
 have even then discovered themselves ; congeniality attracting
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. 
 
 favour. And, besides the coincidence of the field with the 
 natural tendencies of his mind, it is a field that borders so 
 closely on that which it was his special duty to cultivate in 
 the capacity of a theologian, that the investigation of it might 
 be regarded as almost an integral part of his preparatory 
 course as a student, and his subsequent occupation as a minis- 
 ter. Not that metaphysics, as the term is very generally and 
 disparagingly used, as if they were something identical with, 
 or at best closely analogous to, the wild and unprofitable 
 subtleties of the schoolmen, are necessary either to the ap- 
 prehension or elucidation of those revealed truths which it is 
 the province of the servant of the Lord to unfold; for when 
 thus understood, and thus prosecuted, they can have no effect 
 but that of enabling the proficient in them and that in 
 the direct ratio of his proficiency " to darken counsel by 
 words without knowledge :" but when taken more compre- 
 hensively, as signifying the science of mind, in its essential 
 nature, its powers, capabilities, and relations, a kind of men- 
 tal chemistry, by which its minuter and more impalpable ele- 
 ments are analyzed and classified, it is a science with which 
 an intimate acquaintance, when divinely sanctified and used 
 with an enlightened and holy discretion, may prove a most 
 valuable auxiliary to him who, in the due discharge of 
 his official trust, has immediately and intimately to do with 
 " the hidden man of the heart." A clear and full acquaint- 
 ance with the constitution of the mind, with its different de- 
 partments, and its varieties in each, with the reciprocal in- 
 fluence of the intellect on the dispositions, of the dispositions 
 on the intellect, and of both on the will, cannot fail greatly 
 to facilitate, as well as to direct and assist, the application of 
 those instruments of moral and spiritual agency, which are 
 intrusted to his use, and are " the weapons of his warfare." 
 " He once spoke to me," says Mr. Thodey, " with his accus- 
 " tomed power and fervour, upon the extreme folly of those 
 " who professed to instruct other people, with little if any 
 " knowledge of the mental constitution of the beings they 
 " were called to address. ' Their business,' he said, ' is with 
 " mind; and mind is of all subjects that with which they are
 
 l.XXXviii LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " least acquainted.' He thought that a man best acquainted 
 " with the intellectual faculties and affections would have 
 " great advantage in tracing the grounds of men's prejudices 
 " against religious subjects, and in presenting the great truths 
 " and doctrines of the gospel in a clear, intelligible, and im- 
 " pressive form, to men encumbered with speculative doubt. 
 " But as he advanced in his ministry, though he never ceased 
 " to avail himself of the polished weapons he had at command, 
 " he laid an increasing stress upon those great evangelical 
 " truths, apart from which the conversion of the soul is hope- 
 " less, and all human appliances are vain." " His intellect," 
 says another friend of Dr. M'All, already referred to, " in 
 " all respects uncommon, partook of the intense mobility of 
 " his physical temperament ; its grand characteristics being 
 " activity, acuteness, and ingenuity, and each in a degree 
 " that has been rarely equalled. * The acuteness bor- 
 
 " dered on excessive subtlety, in which respect he resembled, 
 " I imagine, the late Dr. Thomas Brown, to whom indeed, 
 " in person, temperament, and mind, he bore a very consider- 
 " able likeness.* It penetrated whatever it attempted, and 
 " luxuriated in detecting and tracing out the nicest shades of 
 " distinction or of analogy ; of which, I must confess, it was 
 " not always easy to say whether they were real or ideal. 
 " His ingenuity, I should suppose, was all but inexhaustible, 
 " inclining him to look at every speculative question for 
 " himself, without reference to the opinions of other men, 
 " and, when mastered, to present it before his audience (in 
 " the pulpit I shall suppose) in different lights, unfolding all 
 " its imaginable relations, and reducing it to its elements with 
 " the most felicitous copiousness of thought and expression ; 
 " never losing himself for an instant in the mazes into 
 " which he had voluntarily wandered, but easily returning to 
 " this or that particular step of the process, or apposite illus- 
 " tration, when it suited his purpose. Indeed, analysis was 
 " his delight. He knew where his great strength lay. And 
 
 * The reader will recollect that the same resemblance presented itself to 
 the mind of Dr. Dewar, when he had the opportunity of coincident inter- 
 course with both. See ante, page Ixii.
 
 THE IlEV. Dll. M'ALL. 
 
 " as a solver of difficult moral problems, no entangled con- 
 " science could have wished for a more willing and expert 
 " casuist. If the power of great abstraction did not obviously 
 " appear, this was owing to the ease and amazing rapidity of 
 " his mental movements, his mind accomplishing in a few 
 " moments what, in the case of an ordinary though vigorous 
 " thinker, would have consumed hours of close application. 
 " I am apt to think, that in a talent for abstract reasoning 
 "he equalled, or excelled, any living contemporary. In 
 "rapidity of thought, and in the rare power of retaining the 
 " most filmy abstraction in the mind's eye, for what length of 
 " time he pleased, few can ever have surpassed him : and, 
 " when once fairly excited, and his powers attempted to be 
 " tasked by a friendly opponent, the glances of his mind, 
 "aided perhaps in their impression by the fire of his eye, 
 " have often reminded me of gleams of lightning ; darting 
 "in an instant, as if by intuition, to a remote and unexpected 
 " conclusion, while his more tardy opponent, unable either to 
 " refute or to follow, has been glad to accept of his help in 
 " discovering those intermediate steps, leading more slowly 
 " to the same result, but which his ethereal mind could over- 
 " leap at once. That he possessed a wide grasp and very 
 " superior powers of generalization, there can be no doubt: 
 " but I incline to think that the character of his mind was 
 "more analytical than synthetic, more fitted to elicit truth 
 " to penetrate and solve difficulties than, from apparently 
 " discordant and widely scattered materials, to construct new 
 " systems. Although bold, soaring, and far-sighted, I doubt 
 " if he possessed that patient determination and power of con- 
 " centration in a degree such as has generally distinguished 
 " the highest order of intellect." 
 
 The respected writer speaks of course comparatively; 
 few men, especially of those who are found to possess an 
 extraordinary measure of any particular class or description of 
 the mental powers, possessing all the rest in the same propor- 
 tion. Yet one should think there must have been no inferior 
 amount of the powers of concentration, and of close, and 
 patient, and persevering investigation, in the case of the five
 
 XC LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 days and nights appliance to one train of research or of ar- 
 gument, adverted to a little ago. 
 
 From the circumstances formerly mentioned respecting 
 the state of Dr. M' All's mind when a student, the conflict 
 of harassing and " agonizing" doubts through which he then 
 passed, and the consequence thence resulting of his investi- 
 gating for himself, with persevering solicitude, the evidence 
 of every point of faith, from the general claims of the Bible 
 as a divine revelation to the merits of every disputed doctrine 
 among its contents, the reader can hardly fail to form a just 
 conception of his theology. It was a theology which he had 
 thus fully and satisfactorily reasoned out for himself. His 
 faith in the authority of the Holy Scriptures was no mere tra- 
 ditionary or educational credence. It rested on an enlarged 
 and rigid examination of the proofs of genuineness, authen- 
 ticity, and inspiration, of all the departments of external, 
 internal, and experimental evidence. And, settled in the 
 enlightened conviction of this authority, his next solicitude 
 was, bowing his mind implicitly to its dictation, to have 
 his doctrinal views in harmony with the mind of God, 
 as contained in his word. In this department above all 
 others, a mind like his could take nothing upon trust. 
 He could not rest satisfied while, at any one point, the 
 basis on which his faith rested partook at all of what was 
 human. He was determined that, all round, it should 
 be the solid rock of divine authority. On this principle 
 carefully framing his system for himself, after a full in- 
 vestigation of existing controversies, not merely by exten- 
 sive reading, but still more in the meditative ratiocinations of 
 his own acute and profound intellect, starting and answer- 
 ing objections of its own, and striking out lights that had no- 
 where else been kindled, he adopted, with a clear and full 
 perception of their accordance with the only standard, those 
 views of divine truth which are usually known under the de- 
 signation of evangelical ; for, although the designation, as 
 might have been expected, has by some been condemned as 
 implying an unwarrantable assumption, I use it, because to 
 most of my readers it will convey a sufficiently distinctive
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. XC1 
 
 conception. He was decidedly a Calvinist ; but a Calvinist 
 of what has been termed the modern or moderate school. 
 While in divinity, as in science, there are points where the 
 mightiest and most penetrating powers will feel themselves 
 at a stand, and beyond which their researches cannot, with 
 any hope or possibility of success, be pushed, and while in 
 the scheme even of moderate Calvinism, as in others, such 
 points are to be found, he yet regarded it, in its leading 
 principles, as most in harmony both with scripture and with 
 sound philosophy, between which, indeed, there can never 
 be any real discrepancy. He had been a speculatist ; but he 
 had now learned a better lesson, in the spirit of deep yet 
 lofty devotion, of blended delight and awe, to model his 
 mind to that of God " It must not be supposed," says an 
 esteemed correspondent, when speaking of the Doctor's style 
 of preaching, " that he was prone to pass the limits of legiti- 
 " mate inquiry, and to entertain his hearers with theories, or 
 " even to form any of his own, on subjects which it is not 
 " given to man to know. He had no sympathy with those 
 " daring speculatists, who attempt to explain the mystery of 
 " the divine existence, the origin of evil, the nature of spirit, 
 " the essence of matter, the modus operandi of the Spirit's in- 
 " fluence on the heart of man, and such like topics. Though 
 " he knew and could describe all that had been broached 
 " on these subjects, he condemned such speculations, as not 
 " only useless, but almost profane. While his mind could 
 " easily grasp what other men had thought, his reason in- 
 " stinctively refused to admit as true, or even to hold as 
 " probable, what was incapable of proof. Hence he would 
 " restrain himself from indulging that curiosity, so natural to 
 " minds of his order, to penetrate the dark region of conjec- 
 " ture where truth refuses to guide the explorer, and would 
 " meekly wait for the disclosures of a higher state of being."* 
 It is, indeed, a somewhat surprising thing, that with a tem- 
 perament like his, so susceptible of excitation, so quick, so 
 ardent, so ethereal, so imaginative, there should have been 
 
 * Communication from Rev. Richard Fletcher of Manchester.
 
 XCI1 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 maintained, during his whole ministerial course, so large a 
 measure of perfect sober-mindedness in all his views, so 
 thorough an absence of every thing that could be called ex- 
 travagance. This is to be attributed greatly to the compre- 
 hensiveness of those views, and their thoroughly digested 
 and systematized character. The want of this is the most 
 frequent source of extravagance. Men who have not studied 
 the truths of Christianity in their mutual connexions, and 
 their divinely adjusted proportions, men whose imagina- 
 tions, at the same time, are more vivacious and impressible 
 than their judgments are vigorous and enlarged, and who are 
 prone to theorize on insufficient data, and to become en- 
 amoured of the theory, to give undue prominence and mag- 
 nitude to some truths, while others are left in diminutive- 
 ness and neglect, to caress and pamper such as they take a 
 fancy to with a sentimental and doting partiality, while 
 others are cashiered and put in durance for their real or sus- 
 pected unfriendliness to the favourite dogma ; such are the 
 men in whom the wild anomalies of religious profession will 
 most generally be found to originate, who build inverted 
 pyramids, who place the world upon the tortoise, and the 
 tortoise upon nothing, who outrage reason by the creations 
 of a crude but prolific fancy, whose wits are expended in 
 contriving instruments for making every text of the Bible 
 take its proper bend, who, by aggravated features and mon- 
 strous excrescences, disfigure the symmetrical beauty of truth, 
 making her the gazing-stock of the ignorant, and the ridicule 
 of the profane. The very converse of all this was the admir- 
 able subject of this sketch. While his imagination was 
 richly and mightily creative, it was under the control of a 
 judgment not less powerful than itself. His mind took a 
 wide range. It embraced, with clear and defining vision, 
 the whole system of revealed truth, each article of it in its 
 proper place and its due proportion. He did not use, in ex- 
 amining its different parts, lenses of opposite powers, the 
 convex for one, and the concave for another. That was not 
 assigned to faith which belonged to fancy, nor that to fancy 
 which belonged to faith ; nor did he allow faith to go
 
 THE REV. DK. M<ALL. Xciii 
 
 beyond evidence, and dogmatize, as too many have done, 
 with a confidence in the inverse ratio of the proof. The 
 exercise of well-assorted powers, under the presiding influ- 
 ence of the Divine Spirit, produced a well-assorted system 
 of belief. The balance-wheel of a sound discretion kept 
 the mental time-piece from either falling much behind, or 
 getting far in advance of, the divinely graduated dial of truth. 
 His reading, both theological and general, is said to have 
 been more select than extensive; more that of an epicure 
 than of a glutton. The truth is, it was, properly speaking, 
 neither. He neither read for the mere gratification of a 
 refined taste, nor for the reputation of having read every- 
 thing. His aim was, not so much to read largely though 
 largely in comparison with most men, he di(J read as to 
 read usefully. He was not a title-page man. Nor did he 
 gather a superficial knowledge of books from Reviews and 
 Magazines ; for with the mere periodical literature of the day 
 he did not pretend to maintain a regular acquaintance, re- 
 garding this as rather an unprofitable expenditure of time. 
 At the same time, " No one," says Mr. Roberton, " could 
 " be more pleased than he, when a friend brought him a 
 " number of a Journal, containing an article of sterling merit. 
 " In this way, what was most remarkable for excellence in 
 " the current periodical literature came under his eye, obtained 
 " from some one of his numerous providers. The same re- 
 " mark applies to his acquaintance with modern books, of 
 " whatever kind: none of them would he touch which did 
 " not present itself with a strong recommendation; and if a 
 " book was not to his taste, he laid it aside, and generally 
 " avoided all mention of it. Knowing that I was one of the 
 " committee of an extensive Circulating Library, I was often 
 " obliged to be his purveyor and taster; and, being aware 
 " that he was hard to please, I was careful to recommend no 
 " books, which I had not reason to hope he would like. My 
 " reward, when I succeeded in gratifying his taste, was in- 
 " deed great : for he would generally give me his opinion 
 " of the work, at considerable length, pointing out any valu- 
 " able thought, or striking and to him novel fact it might 
 
 m
 
 XC1V LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " contain. He was a slow reader, digesting as he proceeded, 
 " often expressing his approbation by a slight exclamation, 
 " or a remark addressed to such of his family as chanced 
 " to be near I shall never forget the extraordinary grati- 
 " fication Herschell's Introduction to the study of science 
 " afforded him. He thanked me again and again for putting 
 " it into his hand, remarking that he had read it twice, and 
 " that he knew of no book in our language to compare with 
 "it as a beautiful exposition of principles. After reading 
 " Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise, which he also admired, 
 " in reply to my inquiry, How he liked it, he said ' Yes 
 " this book of Whewell's is very able, very fine; but, as a 
 " thinker, he wants the elegance of Herschell.' 
 " Singular as it may sound, on my asking him, within the 
 " last two years, if he had read Scott's Novels, he replied he 
 " had never read one of them, though he looked forward to 
 " them as a source of amusement some time, when the state 
 " of his health might not allow of graver reading. Of modern 
 " Poetry and Romance I will not say that he had absolutely 
 " read none ; but assuredly the amount w r as very small. 
 " Works of science, however, were always welcome to him; 
 " and he had the curiosity to keep pace, in his knowledge, 
 " with the discoveries taking place in the natural sciences 
 " Among the Bridgewater Treatises, he selected, for careful 
 " reading, those of W'hewell, Sir Charles Bell, and Buck- 
 " land." 
 
 His theological reading embraced, along with works on 
 Biblical criticism, hermeneutical and exegetical, a depart- 
 ment to which, both from inclination as a linguist, and from 
 a sense of duty as a divine and a public expositor of the 
 Holy Scriptures, he paid special attention, an extensive and 
 familiar acquaintance with the Greek and Latin Fathers, 
 whom he studied in their original tongues. Amongst English 
 writers in theology, if I mistake not, he was fonder of those 
 of former centuries than of the more recent, though my in- 
 formation does not allow me to specify his special predilec- 
 tions, his most favourite and admired authors. 
 
 In Manchester, his sphere of usefulness was enlarged; and
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. XCV 
 
 the character of his congregation corresponded, as must ever 
 be the case, to the character of the preacher. The reputation 
 of his extraordinary talents and fascinating powers of elo- 
 quence, drew many to hear him of a somewhat superior caste 
 in regard to mental and literary endowments, persons of 
 cultivated understanding and refined taste; and not a few of 
 these belonging to a class that can never fail to command a 
 peculiar amount of interest in the mind of a Christian minis- 
 ter, young men, of good education, but who, instead of 
 " remembering their Creator in the days of their youth," have 
 unhappily contracted a taint of scepticism, and are living 
 without God, some of them, it may be, amiable in their 
 dispositions and manners, but all devoted to the businesses, 
 the vanities, the literature, or the dissipations, of the world. 
 To characters of this description Dr. M' All's ministry pre- 
 sented attractions such as, in many instances, induced attend- 
 ance, not of course for spiritual benefit, but for the mere 
 gratification of curiosity or of taste, of their fondness, re- 
 spectively, for dignity and chasteness of manner, for elegance 
 of composition, for varied and efficient oratory, or for close 
 and skilful ratiocination. To such hearers, of whom not 
 the least interesting portion consists frequently of members 
 of religious families, who have grown up in the habit of 
 attendance on the ordinances of the sanctuary, but have 
 yielded to the world's fascinations, and have not " received 
 the love of the truth," it was a matter of no slight con- 
 sideration and influence, to have a specimen before them of 
 piety (which they are so sadly prone to associate with imbe- 
 cility and littleness of mind) in union with powers of such 
 acknowledged pre-eminence, and at the same time with a 
 character of unimpeachable consistency, and a bearing of high 
 and commanding, yet not austere or haughty, dignity; and 
 to see and hear these transcendent powers engaged, with all 
 their acuteness, and vigour, and eloquence, and with all the 
 unequivocal indications of deep and heartfelt sincerity, in 
 illustrating, vindicating, and recommending, the grand essen- 
 tial verities of natural and revealed religion. This was fitted 
 to insure at least a feeling of respect for the cause pleaded,
 
 XCV1 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 to gain a favourable hearing, to disarm the mind of those 
 hostile prepossessions, by which the ear is so often closed, 
 and the heart barricaded, against the entrance of truth. This 
 is valuable vantage-ground; and no man ever possessed it in 
 a higher degree. 
 
 Everything in his pulpit ministrations concurred to recom- 
 mend religion to minds of the superior order alluded to. 
 When I say so, I mean, of course, specially, not, by any 
 means, exclusively In his public services, there was, in 
 regard to personal attire, an equal distance from " slovenly 
 neglect and rustic coarseness," and from everything bordering 
 on studied and frivolous finery, both being regarded by him 
 as alike incongruous, the one disgusting, the other con- 
 temptible. He was a conformist, however, in the use of the 
 ordinary official vestments and appendages, not considering 
 such conformity as affecting any principle. But apart from 
 these, and even in these, all was the chastest simplicity. If 
 there was aught in which he was fastidious, it was that in 
 which fastidiousness may almost be pronounced a virtue all 
 was purity itself. It seemed always as if he had felt that the 
 slightest spot of defilement would be out of harmony with 
 the sanctity of the functions he was about to fulfil, as if he 
 had had in recollection, when dressing, the " fine linen, white 
 and clean," which appears, in the visions of Patmos, as the 
 costume of Heaven. He ascended to the pulpit with grave 
 dignity and unaffected grace, sensitively conscious, it might 
 be, that the eyes of many were upon him, but rather shrink- 
 ing under the consciousness, than elated by it. His whole 
 demeanour there was meekly dignified, that of one who had 
 on his spirit the impression of solemn responsibility both to 
 God and to men. His reading of the Holy Scriptures was 
 chaste and effective, indicative of reverence, of intelligence, 
 and of a desire to convey at once the meaning and the im- 
 pression from his own mind to the minds of his hearers. Few 
 things are of more importance; and few are more shamefully 
 neglected. The slovenly, incorrect, and utterly anti-natural 
 reading of the word of God, which so extensively prevails, is 
 quite deplorable; that which might be rendered a commentary
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. XCvii 
 
 upon its import and a means of recommending its beauty and 
 contributing to its influence, being so often, from haste, from 
 drawling, from monotony, from mispronunciation, from the 
 listlessness of form, and from false, deficient, or excessive, 
 emphasis, a fretting offence to all taste, and an insult both to 
 the Book and its Divine Author In the devotional exercises 
 of the sanctuary, one of his leading characteristics was pro- 
 found humility a lowly self-annihilating prostration of soul 
 before the Majesty of the Holy One, and a desire to carry 
 every soul along with his own into the same dependent and 
 suppliant attitude. His adorations of the Divine Being were 
 distinguished by sublime loftiness of conception, with a cor- 
 responding elevation of feeling and of utterance. They were 
 the adorations of a Being whose transcendent greatness was 
 felt to be such as to annihilate all created distinctions, placing 
 the highest and the lowest on the same level of infinite in- 
 feriority. These abasing impressions of the divine Majesty 
 were blended with conceptions corresponding in amplitude 
 such as inspired emotions as full of delight as the others were 
 of awe of the boundless benevolence, the infinitely conde- 
 scending grace and love of the Godhead, conceptions de- 
 rived, though not exclusively, yet especially, from Calvary, 
 and of which the utterance was full of sweetness and pathos, 
 of filial confidence, of humble yet exalted joy, never for one 
 moment, or in a single expression, descending to undue fami- 
 liarity, but ever becomingly chastened with " reverence and 
 godly fear." The adoption of the same, or very nearly the 
 same, similitude by two able sketchers of his character, has 
 struck me as indicating how strong and general was the im- 
 pression of the spirit of devotion in his public acts of worship. 
 " At times," says the one, " he was borne away by the fer- 
 " vour of his feelings and the elevating topics which he in- 
 " troduced; and there were moments when he almost resembled 
 " a seraph bowing in meek but rapturous adoration before the 
 " throne"* " His manner," says the other, " always rever- 
 
 Rev. John Thorpe, in an elegant sketch inserted, at the time of Dr. 
 M' All's death, in the Sheffield Advertiser.
 
 XCV111 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " ential, was sometimes rapt as if the spirit had found admit- 
 " tance before the throne, and were bending amid the celestial 
 "worshippers."* He was not always alike; who is? and 
 in a morbidly sensitive temperament such as his, the variations 
 in the frame of his mind, bearing analogy to those in the 
 physical condition of his body, could not fail to be frequent 
 and marked. According to the temporary peculiarities of 
 that frame, the proportions varied in the different departments 
 of his addresses to the divine throne; and throughout the 
 whole, the difference was strikingly perceptible on different 
 occasions, in the surpassing copiousness, and ease, and felicity 
 of thought and expression, on one compared with another. 
 His prayer, says the latter of the two authorities just cited, 
 " varied according to his state of health ; so that a regular 
 *' hearer could tell, soon after the commencement, whether 
 " the mind and body were in tune, or deranged and uncom- 
 " fortable ; a circumstance indicated too by the smooth fore- 
 " head and placid look in the one case, and the knitted brow 
 " and restless glance in the other." 
 
 He seldom preached from written compositions; never, it 
 is presumed, except on subjects of a special character, and on 
 such public occasions as appeared to him imperatively to re- 
 quire more than ordinary preparation. When he did write, 
 he never committed to memory, but always read. In coun- 
 selling young preachers, he is said to have advised the writing 
 out of their sermons, leaving them to judge between reading 
 and delivering memoriter, according to circumstances, either 
 in the tendencies and habits of their own minds, or in the 
 character of their respective congregations, and the conse- 
 quent probable effects. The general reason for the advice 
 in favour of writing was, the necessity it imposed of bonajidc 
 study, and the danger, without it, of degeneracy into same- 
 ness, jejuneness, and common-place. He himself repeatedly 
 expressed to me, in conversation, his wish that he could get 
 more into the habit of writing his own discourses. But this 
 was, to correct a tendency of a very different description, a 
 
 * John Roberton, Esq., in MS. communication before referred to.
 
 THE REV. DR. M ( ALL. 
 
 tendency, when his mind had its full liberty, to discursiveness 
 and expansion, such as frequently tempted him too far out 
 of his direct course, and led him, all unconsciously, to expa- 
 tiate to a disproportionate extent both of matter and of time, 
 on particular departments of his subject; from which arose 
 the alternative of either cramping injuriously the illustration 
 of other departments, or an injudicious and unseasonable 
 lengthening out of the service. While he expressed the 
 wish, however, and the resolution to reduce it, gradually at 
 least, to practice and to habit, he confessed that it was 
 against the grain, that the very act of formally setting him- 
 self down to write seemed to produce a sudden stagnation of 
 mind, that he could not get his conceptions carried fast 
 enough to the paper, that they crowded upon him, and, 
 before one could be written, many were gone. Such was 
 his mental constitution. His mind was amply furnished, and 
 singularly ready in the use of all its stores; and its powers of 
 production, in the way of illustrative and argumentative am- 
 plification, were not less surprising than the quickness and 
 appropriateness of its recollections. And the rapidity of the 
 movements of these powers seemed to grow with their action. 
 They were like racers of high blood, whose eagerness and 
 speed augment as they warm, and the amount of whose spirit 
 is not apparent, till it is put out in the full animation of the 
 course. This was the secret of his great power as a public 
 speaker. " His custom was, to enter the pulpit with a 
 " 'plan,' written on a slip of paper, not exceeding perhaps 
 " half a letter sheet; and, when in good health, such extem- 
 " pore effusions, in richness, copiousness, and energy, sur- 
 " passed his read sermons."* So it might frequently be; 
 but assuredly it was not so always. His read sermons, while 
 they were of course more maturely elaborated and more 
 symmetrically proportioned than many of his more extem- 
 poraneous discourses, had in them, notwithstanding what he 
 said of his powers becoming stagnant on his sitting down at 
 his desk, no small portion of the vis vivida of his active and 
 
 * John Roberton, Esq.
 
 C LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 energetic mind, of the richness of his overflowing stores, and 
 the brilliance of his elegant fancy. Judging from the im- 
 pression made by some of them at the time of their delivery, 
 it may be questioned whether, had he got into the practice 
 of regular composition, and into the facility and efficiency 
 which the habit of reading imparts, his read sermons might 
 not have come to tell with equal if not even greater power, 
 on the average, than his extemporaneous ones. I might 
 take, as a specimen, the sermon on Isa. Ix. 13. " I will make 
 the place of my feet glorious," delivered at the opening of 
 Mr. Hamilton's chapel, in Leeds, and forming the third in 
 the first of these volumes. By more than one of my cor- 
 respondents, as well as by others who were present and 
 whose references to it I have chanced to see, the effect of 
 that discourse upon the auditory, especially upon the more 
 intelligent and enlightened portion of it, was so extraordinary, 
 so arresting, so elevating, so overpowering, as to form an 
 epoch in their recollections, and almost an era in the annals 
 of preaching He himself, I have reason to know (for I have 
 heard him say it, with a smile of good-humoured satire on 
 his hearers) was not altogether pleased at times, when to 
 himself commendation was bestowed upon some of his ex- 
 tempore sermons, and a preference of them expressed to 
 others on which he had bestowed much more pains, and 
 which were, in his own conviction, much more complete, 
 and in every respect better. There is one vast advantage, 
 it is true, of spoken over written and read addresses, that 
 coming, or so delivered as to appear to come, immediately 
 from the heart, they go more immediately to the heart. 
 Dictated by its spontaneous impulses, they find a more will- 
 ing, or effect a more forcible, admission. But in the present 
 case, we must take an average. We must strike a balance 
 of advantages and disadvantages, of excellences and defects. 
 There were both, on both sides. In the prepared and read 
 discourse, there was the absence of the electrical force of 
 spontaneous and direct address; but there was compactness 
 and completeness, a more thoroughly digested and duly 
 proportioned discussion of the whole subject there is a
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. Cl 
 
 general principle too from which his case was no exception 
 a man who is accustomed to address an audience will neces- 
 sarily, when he is preparing for such address, write in some 
 degree as he speaks, having the audience in imagination 
 before him, so that there will be some measure at least of 
 correspondence between his written and his extemporaneous 
 discourses ; and, if he has a quick eye and a rapid utter- 
 ance, there will be infused into his reading a little, or not 
 a little, of the spirit of his speaking. Dr. M'All was a 
 ready and efficient reader as well as speaker; and when he 
 read, he avoided certain risks, irregularities, and defects, 
 which were incident to his extemporaneous eloquence, which 
 were the subjects of frequent regret, and which, in some in- 
 stances at least, would hardly be compensated by the differ- 
 ence in efficient impression between speaking and reading, 
 when both were the best of their kind. My entire want of 
 acquaintance with my late friend's ordinary preaching, and 
 the extreme infrequency of my opportunities of hearing him 
 in the pulpit at all, disqualify me for forming, in his case, a 
 comparative estimate. I judge from the statements of others. 
 I would not, however, have my readers to suppose that, ac- 
 cording to these statements, the risks attendant upon his extem- 
 poraneous eloquence were invariably, or even in a majority of 
 cases, realized in such defects and irregularities as I have alluded 
 to. By no means. And from all that I have heard, I should 
 presume that on many occasions, when the discursiveness was 
 the most exuberant, many of his auditors, even while they 
 were sensible of the deviations being a drawback from the 
 unity and due proportions of the discourse, would be disposed 
 to apply to them the language of Dr. Johnson respecting the 
 "digressions" of the Paradise Lost " Superfluities so beauti- 
 ful who would take away?" Still, they were a drawback. Of 
 this he himself was abundantly sensible; and it was the con- 
 viction of it that made him desirous, notwithstanding the 
 general prepossession against the practice, to write and read 
 more frequently. And his most attached friends and most 
 intelligent admirers had the same conviction, although their 
 occasional ravishment with his extemporaneous eloquence
 
 Cil LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 would hardly allow them to give their vote for the remedy. 
 We have seen how one of them expresses the surpassing 
 excellence of his unfettered effusions. Yet even he admits 
 the defect; and, as he was for years in attendance on his 
 ministry, as regular as unavoidable professional engagements 
 would permit, and was abundantly competent to form a judg- 
 ment, I insert a paragraph or two of his description and 
 estimate, in addition to what has been already given. After 
 the sentences cited a little ago, he thus proceeds : " He 
 " was too perspicuous not to commence with a distinct aim, 
 " seeing the end of his argument from the beginning. His 
 " most logical mind was not to be supposed deficient in the 
 " powers of arrangement and rigid method in the stating and 
 " developing of his theme. And yet it must often have 
 " appeared to his hearers as though he was ' at large ' in 
 " the wide field of thought, owing to the disproportionate 
 " length of his introduction, and the temptation, to him gen- 
 " erally irresistible, of pouring out a flood of illustration on 
 " certain particulars in the text, until the plan and method 
 " seemed to be forgotten. Although this vast and too ex- 
 " hausting introduction was a defect, an attentive and intel- 
 " ligent hearer was sure to reap a rich reward in the stream 
 " of striking thoughts, poured forth with surpassing ease of 
 " manner, and in diffuse but beautiful and appropriate diction, 
 " until the passage of scripture stood in bold relief, its scope 
 " and all its important relations perceived, its difficulties mas- 
 " tered, and the listener, with his reason satisfied and con- 
 " ciliated, prepared to bow to the practical application of the 
 " great truth. This defect, however, was too considerable, 
 " to possess counterbalancing advantages. Too many hearers 
 " the majority I fear were lost and bewildered in the 
 " wide field he traversed, until they no longer could discover 
 " what he was aiming at, or what connexion at all his rea- 
 " soning had with the text. Besides, his time was often 
 " exhausted, when as yet the sermon was hardly, as some 
 " thought, begun ; so that he was led to be far too lengthy 
 " in general, and, in the end, had to dismiss numbers dis- 
 " satisfied with the brief and hurried, though pointed and
 
 THE REV. DR. IVTALL. Clll 
 
 " admirable, application of the subject As a further con- 
 " sequence, he was sometimes tempted to preach two or even 
 " more sermons on the same text; a practice not generally 
 " to be commended in any preacher, and especially in one so 
 " copious, discursive, subtle, and rapid in thought and utter- 
 " ance, as Dr. M'All. Such consecutive discourses, with 
 " some few exceptions, were the least profitable of any to his 
 " flock, because the least distinctly apprehended, and con- 
 " sequently the least perfectly remembered, after the hearer 
 " had reached his own home. 
 
 " But this inordinate length of introduction was not a uni- 
 " form practice, many of his discourses being in admirable 
 "proportion as to their separate parts; as a whole, models 
 " according to the most approved rules. In truth, it might 
 " be said, that no two consecutive sermons were exactly 
 "alike in style or construction. In variety, he surpassed all 
 " preachers ; and a stranger who, on one occasion, had been 
 " displeased by a rapid and lengthy introduction, full of pro- 
 " digious parentheses, and sprinkled with technical and 
 " scientific phraseology, would on the next, perhaps, hear a 
 " sermon remarkable for simplicity, and for the sweet and 
 " affectionate spirit with which it was delivered. 
 
 " Much of this diversity was owing to varying states of 
 " bodily health, or rather conditions of the nervous system, 
 " his being as susceptible of change as the most sensitive 
 " thermometer to variations of temperature. Sometimes, on 
 " his entering the pulpit, it would be apparent, from his 
 " pallid and anxious countenance, that his feelings were un- 
 " comfortable, owing, nine times in ten, solely to corporeal 
 " states ; in which case the discourse was sure to be delivered 
 " with rapidity and vehemence, often with surpassing elo- 
 " quence, but not exactly so as a lover of the gospel, and an 
 " admirer of the preacher, would have desired: for it might 
 " be noticed, that, in meeting the supposed arguments of an 
 " opponent, or in pointing out some fallacy in the ordinary 
 " modes of dealing with divine truth or with the text he had 
 " chosen, his manner would be severe and contemptuous, re- 
 " minding the listener of the Bar rather than the Pulpit. At
 
 CIV LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 "such times, too, the smallest interruption, as a loud cough, 
 " near or opposite to him, or the rattling of a passing car- 
 " riage, would produce a visible pang of annoyance. 
 
 " But ill or well, comfortable or uncomfortable in his feel- 
 " ings, there was never to be discovered the slightest obscu- 
 " ration, feebleness, or exhaustion, of mind; although I have 
 " often heard him complain of want of confidence in himself, 
 " so much so as to make him, on entering the pulpit, feel 
 " in doubt whether he should be able to go on. But such 
 " hesitancy and embarrassment were known to himself alone; 
 " to others he appeared self-possessed and masterly. In pri- 
 " vate, I ever remarked the same peculiarity. Even indeed 
 " throughout his long afflictive illness, his intellect, though 
 " not his spirits, appeared to remain above the influence of 
 " bodily conditions. With truth it may be affirmed, that 
 " his was the most ready and usable mind with which any 
 " mortal was ever gifted ; and, had his body possessed equal 
 " vigour and endurance, he would have been a phenomenon 
 " amongst men." 
 
 The propensity to digression took various directions, ac- 
 cording to the nature of his subject, the particular tempera- 
 ment of his mind, or the incidental, and to the hearer, as 
 might often happen, the hardly traceable suggestion of a 
 passing thought. Not unfrequently, the course on which he 
 started aside was metaphysical. An original and striking 
 thought crossed the path along which he was urging his 
 vehement career. He caught at it, and pursued it, and was 
 borne along by his fondness for abstract analysis or for in- 
 genious argumentative speculation, to a wide distance from 
 his main design, being loath, after having set out, to desist 
 till he had followed out the chase to its extremity, or, in 
 others words, to leave his point till he had, in some degree, 
 exhausted it. Although to his own mind all was clear, and 
 he still kept in view his original plan and anticipated a return 
 to it, a large proportion of his audience got bewildered, in- 
 capable of following out with any distinctness the abstruse 
 digression itself, and losing sight entirely of its connexion 
 with the course from which he had deviated. This was a
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. CV 
 
 fault, and although indicative of the richness and readiness 
 of his mind, and of the rapidity yet collectedness of its move- 
 ments, a fault of no inconsiderable magnitude. An excessive 
 tendency to analytical detail, indeed, not only appeared in 
 such digressive excursions, but at times too in the illustration 
 and establishment of his main position itself. Speaking of 
 his powers of analysis, another intimate friend and admirer 
 says of him " This faculty of Dr. M' All's mind was de- 
 " veloped to excess. It degenerated into prolixity and re- 
 " dundance. Rarely satisfied until he had exhausted a sub- 
 ject, resolved it into its elementary principles, and traced all 
 " its relations to kindred truths, he often did more than was 
 " necessary for the elucidation of his topic, or the edification 
 " of a popular auditory, on whom nice analysis is, to a great 
 " extent, thrown away. Had he been less analytical, he 
 " had been more effective. It was the perception of this 
 " quality in his preaching which occasioned the characteristic 
 " remark of the late Matthew Wilkes, when asked his opinion 
 " of a sermon of Dr. M' All's which he had just heard ' He 
 " is a good preacher, but a bad gauger. He is not content 
 " with plucking every feather out of the wing, but he strips 
 " every fibre off the feather.' " 
 
 But his digressions were not always of the kind described. 
 They were sometimes, if I may so express myself, not lateral 
 excursions on the same level, but flights upward. The 
 suggestive thought, on which his mind laid hold, was one, 
 we shall suppose, of an elevating character, leading heaven- 
 ward leading Godward. Then came the moments of in- 
 spiration. Thought succeeded thought, each surpassing that 
 which preceded it in lofty grandeur; every fresh sugges- 
 tion an additional plume to his soaring pinion; his spirit 
 kindling and expanding in its sublime ascent, and giving 
 utterance, as if he had "the tongues of men and of angels," 
 to " thoughts that breathed" in " words that burned," till 
 he seemed to reach the very " throne of the majesty on high," 
 and to be " filled with all the fulness of God." It is to occa- 
 
 * Rev. Richard Fletcher.
 
 CV1 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 sions such as these, I presume, that my eloquent friend Mr. 
 James refers, when he says " But after all, who could bound 
 " the eagle in his flight, with such an eye and such a pinion 
 " as his, with the mid heaven to float in, and the glorious 
 " orb of day as the object of his ambitious soarings ?" I may 
 be permitted to add to the figure, that there is grandeur in 
 the eagle's descent, as well as in his mounting. He is ma- 
 jestic when he sinks, as well as when he soars. And similar 
 was the graceful dignity with which the preacher came down 
 from these lofty flights, often adventurous but seldom unsuc- 
 cessful, to the immediate and proper theme of his discourse. 
 
 If even in this latter description of digressions, there was 
 occasionally a measure of recondite abstraction, beyond the 
 intellectual grasp of some of his auditors, no one acquainted 
 with the character of his mind will wonder at it ; nor am I sure 
 if it ought to be regarded, unqualifiedly at least, as a matter 
 of either reprehension or regret. It cannot be marvellous, 
 that a mind like his, when expatiating on themes so pregnant 
 with mysterious and incomprehensible greatness, should rise 
 unconsciously above the reach of inferior intellects. But 
 perhaps, while this is severely censured as a fault, too little 
 allowance is made by the censorious critics for minds of a 
 different order, of which there may be not a few amongst 
 the hearers in the pews, whose vision is of a wider range, and 
 can follow the man of God in the pulpit, and follow him with 
 interest and delight, in even his loftiest flights. Is no con- 
 sideration due to them ? It is true that the Gospel, strictly 
 so called, is characterized by its simplicity, and that this is 
 one of the very proofs of the divinity of a system which is 
 designed for the benefit of the weakest as well as the wisest, 
 of the lowest as well as the highest, of mankind. But still, 
 the Gospel stands in inseparable association with subjects of 
 transcendent loftiness, embracing the whole character and 
 government of the infinite God. And may it not operate as 
 a means of winning such superior minds even to its simplicity, 
 when they are made to feel the grandeur of its associations ? 
 May not their contempt be thus abated, and their more 
 favourable regard conciliated ? And is it not to be desired,
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. Cvii 
 
 that to minds of different orders the gospel should be pre- 
 sented though always " in its own simplicity," of which it 
 must never be divested yet under aspects and lights suited 
 to their respective characters, and calculated to mitigate their 
 prejudices, command their attention, and make them sensible 
 of the unreasonableness of their scorn? One other general 
 remark too may be hazarded, that it is better for a minister 
 to keep somewhat above, than to sink below, the average 
 mind of his congregation ; seeing it is only by this means 
 that he can ever succeed in bringing it up to a higher level, 
 as a teacher whose instructions are beneath the attainments 
 of his scholars, can never give their faculties due exercise, or 
 advance them to superior proficiency. The elements of 
 Gospel truth are within the apprehension of a child : they 
 are " revealed unto babes." Yet are they of a nature, in 
 elevation and vastness, to fill the grasp of a seraph's intellect : 
 they are things into which " angels desire to look." It is 
 the commanded duty of the disciples themselves, "leaving 
 the principles of the doctrine of Christ, to go on unto per- 
 fection." In an audience, there are hearers at every stage of 
 advancement; and a minister should be able to accommo- 
 date himself to them all. It would be unreasonable, on the 
 part of the provectiores, of " those who, by reason of use, 
 have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil," to 
 grumble at the introduction of " milk for babes." Nay, 
 since " leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ" does 
 not mean either slighting or losing sight of them, they will 
 rather delight in the lucid and simple presentation of elemen- 
 tary lessons. But on the other hand, would it be less un- 
 reasonable in those who are but "children in understanding," 
 to complain that any thing was introduced for " those who 
 are of full age," any thing beyond the range of their own 
 capacities ? The maxim that a preacher should make a point 
 of being always intelligible to the weakest and least advanced 
 hearer in his audience, would seem to have about the same 
 amount of reason in it, as if it should be enjoined on the 
 steward of a household, to make a point of providing food 
 for none but the children of the family.
 
 CV111 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 In a splendid passage in the Life of Waller splendid alike 
 in thought and in diction, Dr. Johnson set himself to account 
 for the assumed fact of the general failure in effect of sacred 
 poetry. Many of the sentiments in the passage are character- 
 ized, not by beauty and sublimity alone, but by truth : yet 
 there has always seemed to me to be an oversight in the gene- 
 ral principle of his discussion, rendering his conclusion, in some 
 degree at least, fallacious. The essence of his theory is com- 
 prised in the following sentences : " From poetry the reader 
 "justly expects, and from good poetry always obtains, the 
 " enlargement of his comprehension and elevation of his 
 " fancy : but this is rarely to be hoped from metrical devo- 
 " tion. Whatever is great, desirable, or tremendous, is com- 
 " prised in the name of the Supreme Being. Omnipotence 
 " cannot be exalted ; infinitude cannot be amplified ; perfec- 
 tion cannot be improved:" and the fine closing sentence 
 of the passage " The ideas of Christian theology are too 
 " simple for eloquence, too sacred for fiction, and too majestic 
 " for ornament : to recommend them by tropes and figures, 
 " is to magnify, by a concave mirror, the sidereal hemisphere." 
 The sentiments thus elegantly conveyed are true ; but in 
 the application of them in the conclusion to which they are 
 the premises there lurks, as I have said, a fallacy ; a fallacy 
 which the reader, captivated by the magnificence both of 
 the ideas and the language, is in danger of overlooking. It 
 is true that " omnipotence cannot be exalted, that infinitude 
 " cannot be amplified, that perfection cannot be improved:" 
 but the fallacy lies in this ; that it is not with the things 
 themselves that either poetry or eloquence has to do, but with 
 our conceptions and impressions of them. It is not the object 
 of the one or of the other, to exalt omnipotence, to amplify 
 infinitude, to improve perfection. What bard, or what ora- 
 tor, ever contemplated a purpose so vain ? But while every 
 thing of the kind involves contradiction, there is no contra- 
 diction in supposing our conceptions of these incomprehensible 
 realities enlarged and elevated, and our impressions of them 
 deepened and hallowed. That the truths of Christian the- 
 ology are " too sacred for fiction " may be granted in one
 
 THE REV. DR. M e ALL. cix 
 
 sense, and contested in another. It would be sacrilegious 
 profanation to desecrate them by any intermixture of the 
 fables and fancies of men ; yet what are all the parables of 
 Scripture but the employment of " fiction " for their elucida- 
 tion ? If in one view they are " too simple," in another they 
 may be pronounced too sublime, " for eloquence :" and if 
 " too majestic for ornament," how comes it that in the Bible 
 itself the stores of nature are ransacked to supply figures for 
 their illustration, and the richest investment of poetic imagery 
 is so often thrown around them ? Where are loftier strains 
 either of poetry or eloquence to be found, than in the writings 
 of those " holy men of God who spake as they were moved 
 by the Holy Ghost," when they set forth the excellencies 
 of Deity, and the wonders of his redeeming love ? Who 
 can read the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, without feeling self 
 humbled, and Jehovah exalted ? By the figures which are 
 there used the " measuring of the waters in the hollow of 
 his hand" the " meting out of heaven with his span" the 
 " weighing of the mountains in scales and the hills in a bal- 
 ance" the "taking up of the isles as an atom," the "nations 
 being before Him as the drop of a bucket and the small dust 
 of the balance, less than nothing and vanity " his " sitting- 
 en the circle of the earth," and viewing "its inhabitants as 
 grasshoppers" his "stretching out the heavens as a curtain, 
 and spreading them out as a tent to dwell in," omnipotence 
 is not exalted, infinitude is not amplified, perfection is not 
 improved; but who is not sensible that his own thoughts of 
 Jehovah are expanded and elevated, his impressions deep- 
 ened, and the spirit of devout adoration prostrated before 
 the everlasting throne? Nay, we may cite Dr. Johnson 
 against himself. His very negation is proof. In the passage 
 which contains and supports it, there is both eloquence and 
 poetry. And who is there who feels not that in reading the 
 very terms in which the denial is conveyed " omnipotence 
 " cannot be exalted, infinitude cannot be amplified, perfec- 
 " tion cannot be improved," he has a loftier conception and 
 a deeper and more devout impression of the omnipotence, 
 the infinitude, and the perfection, than before? that is,
 
 CX LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 that he has the very results which all good poetry is affirmed 
 to yield " the enlargement of his comprehension, and the 
 " elevation of his fancy ?" 
 
 It will hardly, however, I presume, admit of doubt, that in 
 the general style of Dr. M' All's preaching, there was more 
 than enough of what has been, not unappropriately, called 
 shooting over the heads of his hearers. This might, in many 
 instances, be owing to his forgetting that his own mind was 
 not a fair standard of estimate for the general mind of a con- 
 gregation, and that what was to him familiar, even as the 
 alphabet of knowledge, might be far above the range of even 
 well educated minds that could not compete with his gigantic 
 powers, and were strangers to his habits of thought. I am 
 far from meaning that his sermons were deficient in the intro- 
 duction of the essential doctrines of the Gospel. From the 
 charges contained in these volumes it will be seen, with what 
 earnestness he pressed upon the ministers of Christ the 
 primary objects of their stewardship, and the necessity of con- 
 forming to Paul's determination " not to know any thing 
 among his hearers, save Jesus Christ and him crucified." 
 He " gloried in the cross." He delighted in unfolding, in all 
 their variety, the evidences of Christianity, and in exposing 
 the sophistries of those by whom the great principles of evan- 
 gelical truth are assailed, and the cross "made of none effect." 
 And this he did with a majesty and a mastery quite his own, 
 with an acuteness, a clearness, a fulness, and a force, 
 before which all the power of the adversary was weakness. 
 And not seldom did he present the principles of the Gospel, 
 with the most touching effect, in their very rudimental sim- 
 plicity. But his own element was intellectual greatness. 
 His forte lay in penetration, and grasp, and loftiness of under- 
 standing ; and here, consequently, lay his temptation, con- 
 sisting in a propensity to close, and lengthened, and over- 
 refined ratiocination, and to a recondite abstraction and aerial 
 elevation of thought. This was probably the chief cause of 
 his not having been, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, a 
 popular preacher, a designation indeed, which, considering 
 the flimsiness of the qualifications necessary to its attainment,
 
 THE REV. DR. M 4 ALL. Cxi 
 
 the noisy shallowness, the declamatory emptiness, on which 
 it is so often bestowed, he would naturally be in danger of 
 holding too much in scorn. I say too much : for popularity, 
 while worse than worthless, as consisting in the mere gossip- 
 ping admiration of a nine-days-wonder, or the gaping 
 plaudits, even for a life-time, of the man who either has it 
 for the vox et pr&terea nihil, or panders for the sake of it to 
 vulgar prejudices or a vitiated taste, is yet not to be de- 
 spised as a medium of favourable access to the public mind, 
 and as thus furnishing a promising means of official useful- 
 ness. 
 
 On this subject, I must do my friend the justice to quote 
 a paragraph, in reference to it, from one of my correspond- 
 ents.* After mentioning " the great obligation under which 
 " Dr. M'All had been" (according to his own statement) 
 " to the writings of Robert Hall," he says: " This allusion 
 " to the usefulness of Mr. Hall may serve to rebut an impres- 
 " sion that was once common in certain circles of the so-called 
 " religious world, that that eminent man was not so useful 
 " as some others; and the impression was sedulously con- 
 " veyed, that he was too intellectual to be useful. But we 
 " are not always very accurate judges wherein usefulness 
 " consists; and we are apt to forget that God raises up dif- 
 " ferent minds, and invests them with peculiar qualifications, 
 " in order to meet and affect different orders of character. 
 " The apostle Paul was, no doubt, a very different preacher 
 "from the apostle John; but, though his preaching would 
 " be adapted to affect minds in a way very different from 
 " that of the beloved disciple, yet it would be difficult to 
 " say that he was less useful on the whole. There is reason 
 " to believe that Mr. Hall's preaching was much more exten- 
 " sively blessed than many persons are aware of; and it is 
 " certain, that he often influenced classes of character, and 
 " men of highly cultivated intellect, who either would not 
 " have heard, in the first instance, preachers of an inferior 
 " order, or might not have been prepared to receive the 
 
 * Rev. Samuel Thodev.
 
 CX11 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " humbling truths of the gospel from their lips. It happened 
 " to me, in journeying some months since, to travel for many 
 " miles with a clergyman of distinguished talents and piety, 
 " who, though ignorant who I was, stated the great advan- 
 " tage which he derived nearly forty years ago, whilst an 
 " undergraduate at Cambridge, from the ministry of Robert 
 " Hall. He mentioned also the names of noblemen and 
 " others, now occupying the high places of society, which of 
 " course I do not feel myself at liberty to repeat, who were 
 " accustomed, with himself, to attend on Mr. Hall's preach- 
 " ing. And he distinctly stated, that his own best religious 
 " impressions were derived from this source, and that he 
 " knew of others who could say the same. They were par- 
 " ticularly struck with the deep solemnity and reverence of 
 " his devotional exercises, with the impression of dignity and 
 " moral grandeur which he attached to the service of the 
 " sanctuary, with the ineffable contempt he poured on the 
 " infidelity then prevalent, and with the powerful vindication 
 " which he furnished of the doctrines of evangelical religion, 
 " and the claims of revelation. ' Mr. Hall,' said this excel- 
 " lent clergyman, 'was the first man who convinced us what 
 " a great thing it was to be a Christian indeed, and how 
 " utterly mean and contemptible every thing else was, when 
 " placed in competition with the gospel of Christ.' 
 
 " I have the more readily referred to this topic, as similar 
 " remarks have been occasionally made respecting the preach- 
 " ing of Dr. M'All himself; and it has been said, to use a 
 " common expression, that he shot over people's heads, 
 " and some of his brethren in the ministry were not unwilling 
 " to give currency to such a suggestion, till the almost uni- 
 " versal interest he awakened sufficed to silence the unworthy 
 " idea." 
 
 I have chanced myself to use, as the reader will perceive, 
 the very expression which my friend Mr. Thodey here cen- 
 sures. I had done so, without recollection of what I have 
 now quoted. And in the sentences which immediately follow 
 (which will be found on turning back to page Ixxiv.) Mr. 
 Thodey, in the account he gives of Dr. M' All's ministry
 
 THE REV. DR. M*ALL. Cxili 
 
 when in Macclesfield, expresses a difficulty to determine 
 " whether his preaching did not produce as much impression 
 " upon the least instructed as among the best educated 
 " classes," and assigns as the reason for this, "the circum- 
 " stance of his being so plain and powerful on the turning 
 " points of religion, and the full and ample stress which he 
 " uniformly laid upon the leading doctrines of the gospel, 
 " the practical duties of life, and the method of a sinner's 
 " acceptance with God." To this representation I rejoice to 
 give the most implicit credence. What I have said respect- 
 ing the style of his preaching at Manchester is founded in 
 the statements of those who had equal opportunity to judge 
 of his ministry there. These statements, let it be observed, 
 do not at all imply the want of " plainness and powerfulness 
 upon the turning points of religion," or of " full and ample 
 stress on the leading doctrines of the gospel;" but only a 
 tendency, more or less frequently apparent, to give scope to 
 the extraordinary powers of his mind and the excursive char- 
 acter of his surpassing eloquence, in trains of thought and of 
 argument hardly if at all accessible to the average mind of 
 his audience. And this might be only the result of the 
 principle, which Mr. Thodey approves, and which every 
 soundly thinking man will approve with him, carried some- 
 what beyond a discreet limit. I am ignorant of the com- 
 parative characters of his two successive congregations ; but 
 in the latter of the two, I can easily conceive him, knowing 
 as he did how many of his hearers (attracted, some of them, 
 by their very admiration of his powers) were persons of a 
 superior order of education and intellect, to have given a 
 freer indulgence to those powers in such trains of thought 
 and argument as have been alluded to, and to have done 
 this, not from inclination only, but from principle, feeling 
 it a relief to have the conviction that what the one naturally 
 dictated the other did not forbid, but at times carrying 
 the application of this conviction to an extreme. 
 
 I most heartily concur in the sentiment, that " we are not 
 always very accurate judges wherein usefulness consists."- 
 It is obvious, that the grand design of the gospel, in regard
 
 CX1V LIFE AND CHARACTEU OF 
 
 to men, being their salvation, the primary element in the 
 usefulness of its ministers must consist in whatever contributes 
 to the accomplishment of this design. He is useful, who 
 " saves souls from death, and covers the multitude of sins." 
 He is most useful, who effects this to the greatest extent. 
 Every minister ought to act with the remembrance always 
 before him, that his divine Master's end in coming into the 
 world was "to seek and to save that which was lost,"- 
 and that " woe must be unto him" if he satisfies himself with 
 any aim inferior to the following out of this divinely benevo- 
 lent end. But even as to this, the amount of faithfulness, 
 however generally, is by no means always, to be estimated 
 by the amount of actual success. Many circumstances, 
 which we cannot now enumerate, may prevent the ministry 
 of the most faithful from being the most directly and numer- 
 ously productive. Then, again, the results may not appear 
 at the time. The seed, sown in toil and tears, may have 
 begun to germinate beneath the soil; but " the blade, and 
 the ear, and the full corn in the ear," may not appear, till 
 the sower's eyes are closed in death ; and of not a little of 
 the product the origin and instrumentality may remain un- 
 discovered till " the day shall declare it." And still further, 
 a minister may contribute, and contribute largely, to salva- 
 tion, in ways that are less direct than the actual and known 
 conversion of sinners by his preaching. By the powers of 
 argument he may shake the strongholds of infidelity, " con- 
 fute the gainsayers," " put to silence the ignorance of foolish 
 men," and thus preserve many a victim especially many a 
 youthful victim from lending too ready an ear to the oracu- 
 lar subtleties of the " chair of the scorner." By the judicious 
 and candid criticism of sound learning, he may expose the 
 sophistries of soul-subverting error under the nominal guise 
 of Christianity. By his splendid talents, and the fascinations 
 of his eloquence, he may command respect and conciliate 
 attention to evangelical doctrines, in the ranks of literature 
 and the higher circles of society, disarming the force of 
 prejudice, and breaking the spell of unhappy associations. 
 By the power of his oratory at public meetings, and by his
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. CXV 
 
 active zeal in the agency of committees, he may effectually 
 and largely contribute to the extension of Bible and Tract 
 circulation, to the advancement of the cause of Home and 
 Foreign Missions, and to the interests of universal education, 
 as the preliminary to spiritual instruction. By the influence 
 of his example and of his counsel, he may elevate the stan- 
 dard of ministerial qualification, and may thus ultimately 
 raise the intellectual character and the average knowledge of 
 the church, by raising those of its pastors. In these and 
 other ways, he may lay extensive foundations for a super- 
 structure of future benefit, even though his own " labours in 
 the word and doctrine," how sound soever and faithful, may 
 not be honoured with many direct and palpable conversions. 
 On these, at the same time, every servant of Christ should 
 set his heart, and beware of " laying any flattering unction 
 to his soul," while no such tokens of the divine blessing upon 
 his ministry present themselves. He should be " instant " 
 for them " in season and out of season," pleading for God 
 with men, and, that he may succeed, pleading for men with 
 God, solicitous, whatever be the result, to " deliver his 
 own soul," and to be able with truth to say " I take you 
 to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men ; 
 for I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel 
 of God." 
 
 Of the solicitude thus recommended, the subject of our 
 memoir was a remarkable example. If his ministry was not 
 eminently useful, the deficiency was owing to no lack of 
 anxiety that it might be so " Deeply affected was he often 
 " by the fear of not being useful in the ministry. ' I have 
 " admiration enough,' he would say, * but I want to see 
 " conversion and edification.' He spoke of some other neigh- 
 " bouring ministers, whose churches, he said, resembled a 
 " garden which the Lord had blessed, or whose spots of ver- 
 " dure were more vivW than his own ; but added, that his 
 " emotions, in making the comparison, partook of a gladness 
 " for them 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
 
 CXV1 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " brother, whose address, however, seemed much more pene- 
 " trating on the minds of the audience, and produced an 
 " appearance of being deeply affected on their countenances. 
 " At that moment, the speaker, hearing a loud sobbing be- 
 " hind him, turned round. It was M'All. 'Ah!' said he 
 " afterward, ' that effect, in such a legitimate 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 ministerial 
 address " 'Oh!' he has again and again repeated to 
 " me," says Mr. Griffin, " with an emotion of almost dis- 
 " tress, ' I care nothing what 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 / leant their salvation!' " Of 
 the extreme keenness of his sensibility in regard to the 
 manner of discharging his Sabbath-day duties, and espe- 
 cially the preaching of the word, another instance has been 
 mentioned to me by an esteemed correspondent,! which he 
 " places at my discretion," not being sure apparently, from 
 the extraordinary character of the expression used, whether 
 publicity should be given to it or not. Regarding the words 
 as I do, in the light simply of a morbidly strong superlative, 
 I give the statement a place, as nothing could more affect- 
 ingly convey an impression to our minds of the weight of 
 responsibility upon his conscience, and the anguish of his 
 spirit from a sense of deficiency : " Perhaps I ought to place 
 " at your discretion a striking remark which Dr. M'All made 
 " to me, when speaking of the overwhelming sense he often 
 " had of the vast responsibility and importance of his engage- 
 " ments as a minister of the gospel, and especially referring 
 " to those of the pulpit. He said that nothing could induce 
 " him to continue them but the most absolute conviction of 
 " duty, and that he dared not to retire from them, else he 
 " should have done so long since; adding emphatically these 
 " words ' Oh! Sir frequently have I come home on Sab- 
 
 Dr. Leifchild. t Jh n Bowman, Esq.
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. CXvii 
 
 " bath morning, when, under the most agonizing feelings, I 
 " have thrown myself on that sofa, and, had it not been a sin 
 " to commit suicide, I should have done it, rather than preach 
 " again in the evening !' ' 
 
 This is quite the man. The Sabbath mornings when he 
 felt thus wretchedly, were those doubtless on which, whether 
 from the state of his physical temperament or from any other 
 cause, he came home with the impression of his having failed 
 to do justice to his subject, the morbid distress being pro- 
 portioned to his impression of its importance, to the high 
 standard of execution he had set to himself, and to his solici- 
 tude to make it available to the great ends of preaching : 
 'and the likelihood is not small, that in cases when he was 
 most cast down and tortured with agonizing reflections, the 
 impressions of his hearers might be the very opposite of his 
 own, and the good effected greater than when he was better 
 pleased. 
 
 In his pulpit ministrations, Dr. M'All was uniformly dig- 
 nified and serious. He felt the deep solemnity of his position, 
 as a "messenger of grace," "negotiating between God and 
 men the high concerns of judgment and of mercy." In no- 
 thing approaching to lightness would good taste, any more 
 than piety and charity, allow him there to indulge. No 
 "quip or merry turn" in all he ever spoke. A jest there 
 was to him insufferable; and a low thought, or mean and 
 vulgar expression, put his chaste and sensitive spirit on the 
 rack He did indeed give occasional utterance to keen and 
 scathing sarcasm; he did pour forth under-currents of in- 
 dignant and unsparing irony. But it was never in the spirit 
 of levity. He was never more deeply in earnest than at 
 such times. When he used such weapons, it was in defence 
 of truth against unworthy modes of assailing it, modes 
 which betrayed either some egregious want of candour, or 
 the dogmatical presumption of self-sufficient ignorance. These 
 were vices of which his honourable mind cherished an irre- 
 pressible scorn; and the vehemence with which he breathed 
 on them his withering rebukes was the vehemence of impas- 
 sioned zeal for truth, blending with his high-souled contempt 
 
 P
 
 CXV111 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 for whatever violated its sincerity or offered insult to its 
 majesty. Convinced of the truth of the poet Cowper's 
 maxim, that " no man was ever scolded out of his sins," he 
 never railed. The language of scurrility and abuse, even 
 when directed against systems, and still more when assuming 
 the form of personal invective, he would have regarded as 
 pollution both to his lips and to his subject. Even the 
 serious sarcasm and irony just spoken of, were drawn forth 
 only by strong cases of critical delinquency, and sometimes 
 too were symptomatic of a morbid temperament at the time 
 in his painfully sensitive nervous system. His ordinary style 
 was in harmony with that of Paul " by manifestation of the 
 truth commending himself -to every man's conscience in the 
 sight of God:" and in doing this, he usually avoided, not 
 only personal but even sectarian allusions; and when, from 
 the nature of the errors exposed, the party by whom they 
 were held could not fail to be recognised, there was a studied 
 avoidance of all names and epithets known to be offensive. 
 As this relates to a very important, and not less difficult and 
 delicate department of the ministerial function, I insert with 
 pleasure the substance of a communication from a member of 
 Dr. M' All's church, bearing exclusively upon it, and illus- 
 trating the beneficial tendency of his esteemed pastor's prac- 
 tice : 
 
 " You are probably aware, that one of the peculiar excel- 
 " lencies which distinguished the pulpit ministrations of our 
 " late invaluable pastor, was the entire absence of sectarian 
 " invective. Seeking to establish his hearers in their religious 
 " sentiments by instruction based on the everlasting gospel, 
 " he rejected the aid too often (in the present day especially) 
 " deduced from the errors of other denominations. I never 
 " heard from him one unchristian, or even unkind, remark 
 " upon any sect, however he might regret their unscriptural 
 " views. In reply to remarks and inquiries upon this prac- 
 " tice, involving, as some apology for it, * the necessity of 
 " exposing error, in order to the better establishment of 
 " truth,' I have more than once heard Dr. M'All observe 
 " as nearly as I can recall the language ' I conceive
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. 
 
 " ' truth will be better established by a less offensive mode 
 " 'of proceeding. I fear the mind which is irritated by 
 " ' wounded or angry feeling is ill prepared to listen calmly 
 " ' or dispassionately to any argument, and still less likely 
 " ' to review patiently and examine fairly the uncharitable 
 " ' censure and uncourteous refutation of sentiments which 
 " * have been long firmly impressed upon it, whether under 
 " ' the influence of early association, or the later decision of 
 " ' erroneous judgment. Truth, I apprehend, may be as 
 " ' clearly, as forcibly, and more successfully, contrasted 
 " ' with error without the offensive appropriation of either to 
 " ' any particular sect or party, than with it, even if we 
 *' ' could accurately demonstrate the correctness of our appli- 
 " 'cation; but our own minds are too frequently ignorant 
 " ' of some existing modification of those errors against which 
 " ' we angrily or positively declaim, or some variation, it 
 " ' may be correction, in the different sentiments of different 
 " ' ages, churches, or people, to render it either safe or 
 " 'judicious for us to pronounce judgment on another man's 
 " ' servant.' 
 
 " Many persons, unsettled in their religious opinions, and 
 "anxiously inquiring 'Who will show us any good?' 
 " distressed by the want of forbearance in other ministers, 
 " have found in Mosley Street a Christian Teacher, whose 
 " extraordinary endowments included the rare combination 
 " of tenderness and strength." 
 
 My correspondent then presents me with one or two facts 
 illustrative of this particular feature of his pastor's preaching, 
 which, as no names are mentioned, may, without impropriety, 
 be introduced : 
 
 " Travelling in the Manchester mail some years ago, I 
 " was present when a gentleman asked his friend Whose 
 " ministry he attended during his occasional residence in 
 " Manchester ' Mr. M' All's,' was the answer. ' Indeed !' 
 " rejoined the inquirer, hesitatingly, ' I thought you were 
 
 " ' ' A Unitarian,' interrupted the other; ' So I was, 
 
 " before I heard Mr. M'All ; but I thank God who made 
 " him instrumental in convincing me of ' the truth as it is in
 
 CXX LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " Jesus.' The gentleman, thus answered, looked curious and 
 " somewhat anxious, and, after a pause, asked, What first 
 " induced his friend to attend Mosley Street chapel. ' Acci- 
 " dent ' he replied ' I was directed to Cross Street chapel, 
 " but mistook the building. I soon discovered my error ; but 
 " the beauty of the man's voice and language was irresistible; 
 " and, though I did not agree then with many of his sen- 
 " timents, they were so evidently uttered under the deepest 
 " conviction of their accordance with Scripture, soaffection- 
 " ately pressed upon our prayerful consideration, that none 
 " could take offence; and I was so fascinated with his manner, 
 " that I staid that evening, and went again and again, until 
 " I never went anywhere else. The spirit of love was so 
 " manifest, his arguments so clear and calmly presented, his 
 " prayers so comprehensive, so fervent, so universal, that I 
 " felt attracted as I had never done before ; and now I always 
 " arrange matters so as to spend as many sabbaths as possible 
 "in Manchester.' 
 
 " The other circumstance is more recent, and affords a 
 " striking exemplification, by contrast, of the advantage of 
 " Christian tenderness over declamatory intolerance. As 
 " nearly as I can remember, about the year 1823, a friend 
 " mentioned to me that an acquaintance of hers, holding 
 " Unitarian sentiments, had become extremely unhappy in 
 "consequence of some doubts having been excited in her 
 " mind respecting the soundness of her religious views, and 
 " that she was occasionally attending the ministry of a popu- 
 " lar evangelical preacher. I felt much interest in this lady, 
 " and watched with some anxiety the result of her inquiries. 
 " The minister to whose church she occasionally repaired 
 " was one we sometimes attended ; and I had often regretted 
 " the angry censures he pronounced on every denomination 
 " but his own. Without any reference to the lady, I went 
 " one evening to his church, and heard remarks upon Urii- 
 " tarians and their sentiments, which distressed me ; for, as a 
 " kind and valued friend, I both knew and loved him by whom 
 " they were expressed. But they were far more calculated 
 "to excite hostility, than to reclaim the sinner, or convince
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. CXxi 
 
 " the ignorant; and I subsequently learned, with deep regret, 
 " that the lady and her husband were present on that occa- 
 " sion, and left the church under an abiding impression that 
 " the religion which sanctioned such uncharitable sentiments 
 " could not emanate from a God of love ; and, though not 
 " satisfied, the lady in future abode with her own people."* 
 
 " I believe it was about the same time, when a young 
 " Swiss lady visited Manchester, and was brought by her 
 " friends to Mosley Street. Here she also became doubtful 
 " and dissatisfied respecting her religious sentiments. But 
 " here the similarity ends. Not repelled by violent declama- 
 " tion, but encouraged by the display of Christian love, she 
 " besought an interview with our respected pastor, that she 
 " might seek the requisite application of scripture truth, for 
 " the solution of her doubts. This was readily granted, and 
 " several opportunities most kindly afforded. The young 
 " lady returned to her native country; and we heard no more 
 " until last April, when a letter was received from herself, 
 * expressing, in the most grateful and touching language, her 
 " affectionate sympathy with the family in their irreparable 
 " loss by the decease of its lamented master, acknowledging 
 " ' her large debt of gratitude to him, her deep anxiety to 
 " ' profit by her remembrance of his instructions, public and 
 " ' private, and, by the grace of our Mediator, to become his 
 " ' worthy disciple.' " 
 
 Most cordially do I hold, with the writer, the omnipotence 
 of love. " Drawing with the cords of love," is God's ordinary 
 method of bringing sinners to Himself: it should be ours, 
 in bringing fellow-sinners to God. How many other cases 
 there might be, of favourable impressions from Dr. M' All's 
 ministry, which were subsequently matured, and proved ulti- 
 
 * I understand my correspondent as referring to the spirit and manner of 
 the remarks referred to. I am sure he would not approve of that misnamed 
 sentimental charity, which compromises essential truths, or hesitates in de- 
 claring the danger of holding soul-subverting errors. I should not be dis- 
 posed to draw a very severe conclusion against the charity of any minister, 
 from the mere circumstance of the sentiments uttered by him being deemed 
 offensively uncharitable by a Unitarian, and the religion that sanctioned them 
 incapable of emanating from a God of love. This is no strange thing.
 
 CXX11 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 inately saving, who can tell ? If intellectual greatness ap- 
 peared the prevailing characteristic of his discourses, more 
 than the emotions of tender sensibility, this, I apprehend, 
 might, in many instances, be the result of the very depth of 
 the emotions rendering them less perceptible to ordinary ob- 
 servation. They might not appear on the surface, while 
 they were working mightily beneath. By the very energy 
 of masculine intellect their external indications might be re- 
 strained. The imposition of such restraint is one of the dis- 
 tinguishing efforts of great minds. It is not the most noisy 
 feeling that is the deepest, although its influence may be 
 more apparent on the generality of an auditory ; just as the 
 loud lamentations of hired mourners, who, according to 
 Eastern custom, " took up a wailing " for the dead, might 
 attract the notice and stir the sympathies of the undiscrimin- 
 ating multitude, more than the silent and perhaps tearless 
 anguish of the widowed heart. It is not the man who talks 
 most of his feelings, and whose tears flow most freely, whose 
 soul is most profoundly moved. It is the man who struggles 
 to suppress them, who would be ashamed to tell that he was 
 feeling, if what he was consciously uttering from the very 
 recesses of his heart failed of itself to make it sufficiently 
 apparent, and who, instead of courting the sympathy of 
 others by a theatrical display of sensibility on his own part, 
 would rather, if for a moment, when " pressed in spirit," 
 
 " The big round tear hung trembling in his eye,' 1 
 
 dash it away ere it fell. 
 
 Allusion has been made to the frequently excessive length 
 of Dr. M' All's pulpit services. In what has been said of 
 the ample furniture, the extraordinary readiness, and the dis- 
 cursive tendencies, of his mind, enough has appeared to ac- 
 count for this. He was on many occasions altogether uncon- 
 scious of the time he had spoken ; and has, I believe, been 
 known, on coming down from the pulpit, to say, with the 
 smile of self-satisfaction and of assured approbation, that for 
 once at least he would be admitted to have been punctual, 
 when he had actually continued for double his intended time,
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. CXxiii 
 
 two hours instead of one. This was a fault ; and the 
 irregularity arising from it, occasioning the long waiting of 
 carriages, and the annoying inconvenience of families, pre- 
 vented, it is feared, the attendance of some, and rendered 
 that of others less constant than it might otherwise have been. 
 True it is, that he did not speak against time, filling up 
 with nothing, as weaker minds have too often done, a certain 
 measure of the clock's progress from a vacuum of sense, or, 
 to use a familiar but expressive phrase, spinning out his yarn 
 when his tow was done. There was substance, and valuable 
 substance throughout. But the very nature of the material 
 was often such as to tax attention to excess, and to induce, 
 in many minds, a premature exhaustion, and prevent its being 
 maintained on the necessary stretch even to the close. Occa- 
 sionally also, the same unconsciousness of the lapse of time, 
 arising from the absorption of his mind in the exercise, ren- 
 dered his public prayers injudiciously long. And this, when 
 it does occur (and I incline to think it is rather a prevailing 
 error) is even more to be regretted than undue protraction in 
 preaching ; inasmuch as listlessness and wandering in address- 
 ing God are worse, more afflicting to the serious mind, 
 than the same evils in hearing man.* 
 
 All who have heard of Dr. M'All have heard of his elo- 
 quence. His rhetorical powers were indeed transcendent. 
 
 * On the only occasion of Dr. M'All 's occupying my pulpit, which was when 
 be visited Scotland in 1829, (the same time when he preached the Sermon for 
 the Scottish Congregational Union, which forms one of the series in these 
 volumes) his first prayer occupied upwards of thirty-five minutes. From 
 the pew I observed him, when, after giving out the second hymn, he sat down 
 in the pulpit, look at the clock, and start. In a few moments, he rose, left the 
 pulpit, and walked deliberately down into the aisle. I left the pew to meet 
 him, fearing he was indisposed. " What is the matter? you are not un- 
 well ?" " No, no ; nothing the matter : but you see how I have tres- 
 passed in time ; and I came down to ask you whether I ought to preach. 1 ' 
 " Preach !" said I, " most assuredly ; and take care there be no abridgment 
 not a sentence : we shall only meet a little later in the afternoon that's 
 all !" He preached accordingly, omitting no part of the discourse itself, but 
 only an addition which he had intended to make from another; and a some- 
 what later hour was announced for the afternoon's service, which usually 
 commences at two o'clock.
 
 CXX1V LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 When I say so, I have no reference to the studied and artifi- 
 cial graces and flourishes of oratory to 
 
 " attitude, and stare, 
 
 And start theatric, practis'd at the glass." 
 
 The remotest association of his name with any thing of the 
 kind, would have drawn a cloud over his forehead, and have 
 knit his brows with the scowl of indignant scorn. I can 
 fancy what his look would have spoken ; and, if his tongue 
 broke silence, what a specimen it would have given of true 
 eloquence, in exposing and denouncing the tricks of the fac- 
 titious. His was that, not of art, but of nature. His atti- 
 tudes were the simplest and most unartificial imaginable, 
 the perfection, indeed, of graceful dignity, but without the 
 slightest symptom of the dignity or the grace having been 
 acquired by study. His form was slender, but well-propor- 
 tioned, above the medium stature, but not tall ; his coun- 
 tenance fair, its features delicate and symmetrical, of singu- 
 lar flexibility, and capable of assuming every variety of ex- 
 pression. The gracefulness of his person, at the same time, 
 was not such as to be incompatible with masculine energy, 
 but had sufficient muscular vigour to be in full harmony 
 with the power of his utterance. That power was wonder- 
 ful. His command of language, felicitously appropriate to 
 every turn of sentiment and feeling, was such as, I may safely 
 say, was seldom equalled, and never, perhaps, surpassed. 
 It is difficult to settle, whether the rapidity of conception, or 
 the never-failing aptitude of expression, was the more extra- 
 ordinary. In the freedom of friendly confidence, he once 
 said to myself, that one of his chief difficulties in public 
 speaking arose from the multiplicity of thoughts which, at the 
 same moment, presented themselves for selection and pressed 
 for utterance, while each of them suggested itself under dif- 
 ferent modes of expression, between which also a choice was, 
 on the instant, indispensable. He asked me if ever I was 
 annoyed in this way. I looked him in the face, and laughed. 
 It is not a kind of annoyance, of which many public speakers 
 find reason to complain There could hardly be a more re-
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. CXXV 
 
 markable exemplification of the electrical swiftness of the 
 mind's movements, than that given in some of his speeches 
 at public meetings ; not speeches previously prepared, con- 
 ned over, and delivered, but speeches drawn from him by 
 the irresistible interest of some special occasion, by the rela- 
 tion of some incident, or the utterance of some sentiment, 
 that either roused his indignation, or awakened his delight. 
 When the perfect distinctness of his enunciation is con- 
 sidered, in which not a syllable was lost, and every word was 
 pronounced fully and with the most approved and unprovin- 
 cial correctness, the very velocity of his utterance was, on 
 such seasons of excitement, altogether astonishing. Yet his 
 tongue was not a match for his mind. The latter was ever 
 far in advance of the former, and seemed as if grudging at its 
 slowness while others were marvelling at its incredible volu- 
 bility. " In answer to a question I once put to him respect- 
 " ing the cause of this habit " (the habit of rapid speaking), 
 says the Rev. Richard Fletcher, "he stated, the only ex- 
 " planation he was able to give was this, that in the act of 
 " speaking his thoughts sprung up with such rapidity, and 
 " crowded so urgently for escape, that quick speaking was 
 " the natural and indeed the only mode of relieving him 
 " from the pressure from within, and that, with all his efforts, 
 " he was unable to discharge his thoughts with sufficient des- 
 " patch, that he has wished for a thousand tongues to give 
 " them utterance." This is in harmony with what I have 
 just mentioned as said by him to myself; and the statements 
 will be taken without hesitation and without abatement, by 
 all who have listened to him in his moments of happy excita- 
 tion. But the rapid accumulation of thought, and its urgency 
 for correspondingly rapid utterance, could not supply the 
 materials of that utterance. Thought does not clothe itself, 
 or produce its own vehicle. In the garb, indeed, in which it 
 appears it must be previously arrayed in the mind : the 
 vehicle in which it comes forth must be prepared for it there. 
 The mind must dictate the words as well as suggest the 
 ideas. And the quickness with which, in his case, both pro- 
 cesses were performed, was not the only wonder. The
 
 CXXV1 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 seemly chasteness and beauty of the costume was no less sur- 
 pressing than the instantaneousness of the investiture the 
 richly adorned and burnished elegance of the vehicle, the ob- 
 ject of equal admiration with the swiftness of its wheels. 
 There was the brilliance as well as the speed of the lightning. 
 He was a master of language. His readiness was not the 
 mere copia verborum ; but his words seemed the choicest 
 that could have been selected, and their collocation the most 
 idiomatic and classical, as well as effective. His voice was 
 sweet, rich, melodious, and, on occasions that demanded it, 
 powerful, capable of every variety of modulation, and without 
 the least appearance of effort, adapting itself to every change, 
 however sudden, in the current of thought, soft as the 
 whispering zephyr, or vehement as the sweeping hurricane. 
 He was not always alike. To be heard to advantage, his 
 nervous temperament required to be in a healthy tone ; no- 
 thing to have occurred to discompose his too sensitive spirit; 
 and his coming forward as a speaker, if not absolutely spon- 
 taneous, yet not to be against his will, but the result of a 
 compulsion which he felt to be friendly, and which, not being 
 pushed beyond the limit of courtesy, was not displeasing or 
 repulsive. 
 
 The following paragraphs are from a pen to which I have 
 been already more than once indebted. They are in unison 
 with the views I have just expressed. The reader will thank 
 me for them, as containing a graphic portraiture both of the 
 speaker and of his style of oratory : " Let the occasion be 
 " one of the large missionary breakfasts that are held annually 
 " in Manchester, when there is as great an absence of for- 
 " mality as can be supposed in an assembly of seven or eight 
 " hundred people, or a meeting for any benevolent or reli- 
 " gious purpose of more than usual interest : then, suppos- 
 " ing the Doctor in his ordinary health, something really 
 " great might be expected of him, without much risk of dis- 
 " appointment. On one who heard him for the first time, 
 " and saw him rise after having listened to the addresses of 
 " several preceding speakers, the personal appearance, man- 
 " ner, and voice, must have produced a striking effect,
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. CXXV11 
 
 " heightened by the exquisite grace and facility with which, 
 " it would be obvious, he entered upon, or rather glided into, 
 " the subject he meant more particularly to bring before his 
 " audience ; alluding, en passant, to one and another of those 
 " who had already spoken, with the most benign suavity 
 " and indescribable playfulness ; not commencing in a slow 
 " embarrassed manner, as is customary even with many ready 
 " speakers, nor with poised sentences and formal antitheses, 
 " nor with the rapid breathless haste by which some endea- 
 " vour to work themselves into energetic motion. There 
 " was nothing of any of these. In manner, action, voice, 
 " in the simplicity and propriety of expression, every thing 
 " was perfect. There was obviously no effort, and no art. 
 " It was nature exhibited in the rarest combination of those 
 " qualities which constitute a model of captivating eloquence. 
 " Speedily he would take up some one point of greatest 
 " interest connected with the object of the meeting. Was 
 " there, from any cause, a misunderstanding, calling for 
 " explanation or a pouring of oil on the waves ? his lips 
 " would literally distil peace. It is true he was constitu- 
 " tionally averse from strife, abhorring rudeness and alterca- 
 " tion ; but on principle too he was a zealous peace-maker, 
 " and had a happy art of healing differences, or at least of 
 " smoothing asperities, and for the time substituting sunshine 
 " instead of clouds and storm. But it was always to be ex- 
 " pected, that he would grapple with the arguments of op- 
 " ponents, or arguments which it might be supposed they 
 " would advance ; and these he would state in order with 
 " logical precision, and an exurberance of playful wit. It 
 " was in reply to the objections he had thus raised, that the 
 "fertility of his fancy and the wide range of his glance 
 "would be apparent. It would not be enough to refute 
 " merely. His hearers might have to complain of redun- 
 " dance, never of barrenness. There was no such thing in his 
 " speaking as the trick of climaxes, a device of limping 
 " orators, to elicit occasional applause. It was a strong cur- 
 " rent of argument and happy illustration, rising to noble, 
 " but rarely electric, bursts ; for, however the imagination
 
 CXXV111 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 "might be excited and enkindled, the feelings were never 
 " borne away except along with the judgment. Mere de- 
 " clamation was foreign to his style of speaking. His mind 
 " was too rich and full, and his reasoning faculties too vigor- 
 " ous, to permit him for a moment to address the passions 
 " and feelings merely of his audience. For this kind of ora- 
 " tory he expressed contempt, and would, at any time, have 
 "ranked a mere declaimer, however eloquent, lower as a 
 " speaker than the awkward stammerer who evinced the pos- 
 " session of sense and knowledge. 
 
 " Two or three years ago, Dr. Phillip visited Manchester, 
 " accompanied by Tzatzoe a Caffre and Stoffles a Hottentot, 
 " both converts to Christianity. In a few days, a meeting 
 " was held in Grosvenor Street chapel, to hear their account 
 " of themselves, and of missionary work in their country. 
 " The meeting was one of deep interest. The Caffre spoke 
 "in Dutch (interpreted by the younger Reid, himself a 
 " native of South Africa) with a modest propriety, dignity, 
 " and intelligence of manner extremely pleasing. The Hotten- 
 " tot was a kind of orator in his way, full of fire and gesticu- 
 " lation. Dr. Phillip too spoke, and some others When 
 " the meeting was about to close, the chairman dragged the 
 " Doctor by the arm forward on the platform into view, who 
 " had not been visible before, and who seemed much inclined 
 " to escape the trouble of making a speech. This, however, 
 " was not to be. He advanced to the front of the stage, 
 " his coat buttoned, a walking-stick in his hand, wearing, 
 " beyond his wont, a look of cheerful vigorous health. 
 " He began with some playful murmuring emitting many 
 " flashes of his brightest wit at the officiousness of his friend, 
 " who had compelled the meeting to resume their seats when, 
 " as he had hoped, they would have been allowed peacefully 
 " to depart. He then, with his usual ease, and most ingenious 
 " felicity, commented upon the proceedings of the evening : 
 " there being, it struck me, something of uncommon vigour 
 " both in his action and language, arising apparently from 
 " the deep interest he had felt in so remarkable an exhibition. 
 " By and by, he very naturally adverted to the arguments
 
 THE REV. DR. M ( ALL. 
 
 " of those who deny the identity of the human race as one 
 " species, who contend that the black races the Hottentot 
 " in particular are not properly human, but rather inter- 
 " mediate between humanity and the brute, and of course in a 
 " great measure incapable of cultivation, and of all manifesta- 
 " tion of the nobler and finer feelings of our nature. This 
 " line of argument he unfolded with as great clearness, ful- 
 " ness, and energy, as its supporters could have desired. It 
 " might have been imagined so earnest was he that it 
 " almost overpowered his own convictions : when, in a mo- 
 " ment, he turned, and, pointing to the Hottentot, who sat 
 " near, with thrilling emphasis exclaimed * But there is a 
 " specimen of this brutal clay ! This mockery of humanity 
 " has stood before you ; it has opened its lips ; you have 
 " heard a voice articulate as your own; you marked the ex- 
 " pression of thought and emotion, in every glance, and in 
 " every feature ; you heard the noble sentiments of grati- 
 " tude and of Christian affection gratitude spoken in more 
 " than words, in streams of tears : yet it was no man on 
 " whom you gazed, but a being to whom it would be de- 
 " grading to your sympathies to accord the name of brother ! 
 " Well : what explanation are we to give of the pheno- 
 "mena? What mysterious power produced those effects 
 " you witnessed ? Where was the electric agency which 
 " raised the hands and excited the countenance ? What 
 " latent galvanism kindled into momentary animation and 
 " intelligence this torpid mass ? My brethren ! we have 
 "seen enough with our own eyes to rebut a thousand 
 " such arguments, which are either the invention of shal- 
 " low unphilosophical minds, or the subterfuges of a base 
 " cupidity, which would batten on the degradation of a 
 " most interesting portion of the family of man.' Of the 
 " speech, as a whole, I retain a lively impression ; but, as 
 " I made no notes at the time, the chain of argumenta- 
 " tion, especially the brilliant and noble words in which 
 " it was breathed, it would be impossible for me to re- 
 " call. He stood forward detached from the groupe occu- 
 " pying the platform, so that his person and his action were
 
 CXXX LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " fully in view. The view I had was in profile; and I shall 
 " not soon forget the extraordinary beauty and dignity that 
 " shone in his look. Though I had heard him speak so 
 " often, he had never before appeared so replete with what 
 " the chisel or the pencil would call forth in delineating an 
 " ideal personification of Eloquence. Once for all let me 
 " observe, that his action, whether in public speaking or in 
 " preaching, was moderate, and so perfectly natural as gen- 
 " erally to escape any particular notice. In all respects he 
 " was nearly free from mannerism; so that it would not have 
 " been easy for a mimic to imitate his style of speaking. 
 " Early the following morning, I chanced in the street to 
 " fall in with Dr. Phillip; when we naturally adverted to 
 " the meeting of the preceding evening: ' What a wonder- 
 " fill being this Doctor of yours is !' said he ; * Fox never 
 " surpassed him in eloquence. To listen to such speaking 
 " as that of last night, would well repay the fatigue and 
 " trouble of a journey from London on purpose.' 
 
 That his addresses, on such occasions, were in the strictest 
 sense, extemporaneous, unpremeditated even on the plat- 
 form, and without so much as a previous thought of suitable 
 topics, is ascertained from his own statements on the testi- 
 mony of his most confidential friends; and, did these need 
 confirmation, it might be found in the many instances in 
 which his very best appearances were made in circumstances 
 when preparation of any kind was out of the question. Of 
 these I may mention two, communicated by different corre- 
 spondents ; the first, because it at the same time affords an 
 exemplification of the tact and efficiency with which he could 
 quell a gathering storm, and then take advantage of the calm 
 he had produced, for urging the claims of truth, the second, 
 as a striking exemplification of the irrepressible ardour of his 
 spirit, when a sentiment that specially pleased him was ut- 
 tered, and the instantaneous readiness with which he could 
 take it up, and expand it. " His ability to control a dis- 
 " turbed meeting, and overwhelm an opponent," says the 
 Rev. Richard Fletcher, " appeared strikingly on two or 
 " three occasions at the Bible meetings in Manchester, when
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. CXXxi 
 
 " the proceedings were interrupted by the Roman Catholics. 
 " On one of those occasions only was I present, when 
 " his powers, as an orator of the first class, were triumphantly 
 " demonstrated. One of the speakers having incautiously 
 " related an unauthenticated anecdote, reflecting on the Ca- 
 " tholics, was called upon by an Irishman present to name 
 " his authority. Not being able to do so, a scene of inde- 
 " scribable confusion ensued ; neither the speaker who oc- 
 " casioned the disturbance, nor the chairman, having the 
 " slightest power to allay the storm. When up rose Dr. 
 " M'All, with a majestic mien and commanding voice, and 
 " instantly hushed the commotion into a calm. He gained 
 " the ear of the disturbers by seeming to be their advocate. 
 " He presumed upon their good nature and generosity, and 
 " apologized for them, as if their motives in creating the 
 " interruption were misunderstood, and they themselves were 
 " under some mistake. But by and by he brought himself 
 " round, until he stood before them in the attitude of bold 
 " defiance. He then poured upon their heads such a torrent 
 " of invective and scornful irony, as made them silent and 
 " breathless through terror. This gave him an opportunity 
 "for a peroration to his magnificent speech, on the certain 
 " triumphs of Christianity and the Bible against every spe- 
 " cies of opposition, which I never saw surpassed for splen- 
 " dour, power, and effect." 
 
 " At a missionary meeting a few years back, near Notting- 
 " ham," writes the Rev. Dr. Leifchild, " I was combatting 
 " in my speech the phrenological absurdity which represents 
 " savages of a certain conformation of skull as incapable of 
 " exerting the thinking principle in a degree sufficient for 
 " the reception of the sublime system of Christianity. I 
 " mentioned an anecdote which Mr. Knill, the missionary, 
 " had recently related. Conversing with a converted Negress 
 " on the love of the Almighty in the surrender of his Son to 
 " be our Redeemer, he inquired if she was not astonished at 
 "it: 'No, Massa' was her reply 'it be just like Him!' 
 " M'All started up. 'What, Sir,' said he, addressing 
 " the chairman, ' have we lived to be instructed by a Ne-
 
 CXXX11 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " gress? A sublimer sentiment never met my mind, apart 
 *' from the Scriptures.' He then, in a long descant, applied 
 " the phrase to the works of God in creation, his dispensa- 
 " tions in providence, the wonders of redemption, and the 
 " light and glory of Heaven, ' light within light, and glory 
 " beyond glory' concluding each paragraph with the sen- 
 " tence * It is but just like Him :' so that, when he sat 
 " down, both the chairman and the other speakers felt that 
 " the meeting could not too soon close, as any attempt to 
 " continue the excitement must appear absurd, and any thing 
 " that was subsequently said would be flat and insipid." 
 
 Not seldom on the platform, though never in the pulpit, 
 Dr. M'All indulged in the playful. But he at no time de- 
 scended to the ludicrous. There was beauty in his very 
 playfulness like the light and flickering corruscations of the 
 aurora ; and they were often only the prelude to something 
 serious and lofty, which they who knew his manner would 
 anticipate, the preparatory dressing of the wings for a 
 majestic flight. And just as, from the nature of the occa- 
 sion, or from some incidental suggestion, his mind took its 
 impulse, the address would be characterized by the argu- 
 mentative, the imaginative, the hortatory, the animating, the 
 appalling, the pathetic, the deeply and solemnly devotional, 
 or a delightful succession and combination of the whole. 
 
 There were meetings too of a less public and more familiar 
 character, such as the social dinners of County Unions, 
 which are spoken of by his brethren, as having " called forth 
 " marvellous displays of off-hand colloquial eloquence, in 
 " which were blended a continuous strain of beautiful illus- 
 " trations, brilliancy of wit, quickness of repartee, felicity 
 " of allusion to passing circumstances, with the sweetest 
 " grace and benignity of manner. Not a few of his per- 
 " sonal friends treasure up the recollection of these semi-public 
 " appearances, as among their most delightful reminiscences 
 " of M'All."* 
 
 Nor must I leave unnoticed else they who have had the 
 privilege of at any time being present at them would think 
 
 * Rev. Richard Fletrher.
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. CXXxiii 
 
 I had omitted the best of all his addresses at the Monday 
 Evening Prayer-meetings in his own chapel, and incidentally 
 at similar meetings elsewhere. These I have heard spoken 
 of, from various quarters, in terms of rapture, as the most 
 exquisite and impressive effusions of holy eloquence. His 
 mind, on such occasions, was in the enjoyment of perfect 
 freedom, and the affections of his soul had their full and 
 delightful play. The addresses were usually founded either 
 on a passage of scripture that struck him at the time, or on 
 a thought suggested by some expression in one of the hymns 
 sung, or one of the prayers offered. Their appropriate title, 
 therefore, was Cardiphonia they were, emphatically, the 
 utterance of the heart ; while, at the same time, they were 
 often pregnant with the richest and loftiest thought : " A 
 " friend of mine, a professor in one of our colleges, informed 
 " me, that he attended one of those prayer-meetings, without 
 " being recognised, and heard an address from Dr. M'All, 
 " which, he said, contained as much thought and matter, to 
 " say nothing of beautiful illustration, as might have served 
 " any respectable preacher for five or six weeks for his Sab- 
 " bath's services."* Allowing for a little figure of speech in 
 this representation, it will still be a strong testimony to the 
 character of what was delivered. " Being once at Kidder- 
 " minster, on a Monday evening, he accompanied Dr. Ross 
 " to the prayer-meeting, but on the express condition that 
 " he would only offer prayer, and not give an address. Some 
 " expression, however, in the prayer of a plain man, who led 
 " part of the devotions, excited him; and, having asked per- 
 " mission to speak, he delivered an exhortation which aston- 
 " ished and thrilled the little assembly, and which Dr. Ross 
 " assured me was one of the most exquisite and celestial 
 " things he had ever heard On another occasion, he ac- 
 " companied the Rev. J. A. James of Birmingham to his 
 " prayer-meeting. That beautiful hymn was sung 
 
 " When I can read my title clear,'' 
 " which furnished him with a topic, and he poured forth an 
 
 * Rev. Richard Fletcher. 
 
 r
 
 CXXX1V LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " address, which seemed to have its source in heaven, and 
 " to be uttered with a seraph's tongue, and which Mr. James 
 " characterized as the very perfection of hallowed eloquence. 
 " That portion of the people of Birmingham who heard 
 " that address considered it, of all Dr. M* All's public exer- 
 " cises which they had witnessed in that town, the most 
 " extraordinary and delightful."* 
 
 I find this memoir swelling under my hand to an extent 
 which I did not at all anticipate. There is much remaining, 
 on which I could dilate with pleasure; but brevity is be- 
 coming indispensable Dr. M'All stood high amongst his 
 
 brethren, in the capacity of a counsellor. His more intimate 
 and confidential associates felt, on many occasions, the value 
 of his private advice; which he was always ready to give, 
 when it was applied for, with the unaffected interest of gen- 
 uine friendship ; never feeling such applications obtrusive, 
 grudging no trouble where he could be of service, whether 
 in settling the doubts, quieting the apprehensions, clearing 
 the perplexities, or in any way promoting the benefit or pre- 
 venting the injury, of those who thus gratified him with 
 their confidence. The character of a " busy-body" he held 
 in equal contempt and detestation, being infinitely above 
 the consequential littleness of the officious pragmatical inter- 
 meddler. He counselled, when counsel was asked; and I 
 may add, when it was asked in a manner that showed a real 
 wish to have it. No man could discern more intuitively 
 between the manner of the person who was sincerely desirous 
 of direction and settlement to his mind, and that of him who 
 came to him with the desire and the certainty of obtaining 
 his concurrence with the decision of a mind already made up. 
 To the case of the one he would instantly and earnestly 
 apply all his attention ; the other might expect his desert in a 
 somewhat distant and dignified repulsiveness, giving him to 
 know and to feel that such visits were not the most welcome, 
 or possibly inflicting a little merited castigation by taking 
 the opposite side, and showing how much might be said in 
 
 * From the same.
 
 THE REV. DR. M^ALL. CXXXV 
 
 its behalf. And in matters of more public interest, such as 
 fell to be discussed at the annual meetings of County Unions, 
 or in committees of these and similar institutions, his judg- 
 ment was highly prized. Although seeing at a glance the 
 bearings of a particular question or proposal, he was not 
 hasty in uttering his opinion. He rather inclined, unless 
 early urged for it, to wait till others had given theirs ; and 
 then took a clear view of the pros and cons of different pro- 
 posals, delivering his own mind, at more or less length, and 
 with more or less energy, as the relative importance of the 
 subject might seem to demand, but always with a becom- 
 ingly respectful deference to the sentiments of his brethren; 
 - unless, perchance, something pert or conceited, provok- 
 ingly shallow with the affectation of depth, or ridiculously 
 Quixotic with the gravity of deliberate conviction, or, in his 
 estimation, calculated to introduce a principle or a precedent 
 ominous of future evil, had fallen from the lips of any pre- 
 ceding speaker. Then, as the case might be, in terms of 
 caustic censure, or of sarcastic irony, or of humorous drollery 
 and banter, or of warm, honest, uncompromising dissuasion, 
 would he shape his address. 
 
 Meetings with his brethren in the ministry he himself 
 greatly enjoyed; while by all of them it was felt, that, on 
 such occasions, he was more a giver than a receiver of bene- 
 fit. An association of the congregational ministers of Lan- 
 cashire, for the express purpose of mutual improvement in 
 ministerial qualification, and above all of mutual excitement 
 in the spirit of devotion and of zeal, with an ulterior view to 
 the extension of such excitement amongst the people of their 
 respective charges, owed its origination chiefly, if not ex- 
 clusively, to his suggestions. At the meetings of this asso- 
 ciation, which were partly ministerial and partly public and 
 congregational, more than one of the addresses in these 
 volumes were delivered. 
 
 By his own extraordinary attainments, and by the loftiness 
 of the standard of desirable qualification for the office of the 
 ministry which he had assumed, he was eminently fitted for
 
 CXXXVI LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 taking part in the oversight of Academical Institutions It 
 will not, indeed, be surprising to any one, that he should 
 have been wistfully looked to as one that should occupy a 
 higher department in connexion with such seminaries, than 
 that of a mere superintendent or director. Previously to the 
 invitation of the present Theological Tutor in the Academy 
 at Blackburn, whose labours in that department, I believe 
 I may say without the risk of incurring a charge of partiality 
 towards him as a relative, have proved highly creditable to 
 himself, beneficial to the Institution, and satisfactory to its 
 directors, there existed a strong desire for the removal of 
 that seminary to Manchester; and that desire was associated 
 with another, with which too there was some expectation of 
 compliance, that Dr. M' All should occupy the Chair of The- 
 ology. Even at that time, there were surmises in the minds 
 of individuals of his brethren in the ministry surmises, of 
 which the origin is to be found in some of the circumstances 
 of his early history, formerly detailed, that on some points 
 his views of doctrine were not quite in accordance with the 
 scale of orthodoxy understood to be held by the body of 
 Congregational dissenters. When the proposal, therefore, 
 was suggested, of placing him at this important fountain- 
 head of influence on the church, it is not to be wondered at 
 that such surmises should have engendered a jealous appre- 
 hension, and should have been whispered privately by those 
 who entertained them. Whether these brethren had done 
 their duty, in retaining such surmises without any communi- 
 cation with himself to ascertain their truth or falsehood, I 
 will not take it upon me, in ignorance of circumstances, to 
 decide, nor to conjecture the motives by which such com- 
 munication might be prevented. At that crisis, however, 
 one of his fellow-servants, then in the same county, attached 
 to his friend, but attached still more to the truth, and cause, 
 and church of God, knowing that he had his confidence, 
 and that there was no danger of a forfeiture of that confi- 
 dence by friendly honesty, and feeling that, even if there 
 were, the forfeiture would, in such circumstances, be a sacri-
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. CXXXvii 
 
 fice to duty, ventured, with brotherly kindness and faithful- 
 ness being aware that though " his own uncertainty did not 
 amount to a misgiving," " there were some who were the 
 subjects of more than misgiving" to address a letter to him 
 on the interesting point. To that letter, the answer, which 
 is now before me, but which, as a private document, I am 
 not at liberty to publish, is in the full spirit of Christian 
 love; expressing, in the strongest terms, gratitude to his 
 friend for his frankness and candour, and the propriety and 
 delicacy with which they were associated, his regret that 
 such surmises should still exist in the minds of any of his 
 brethren, after the guarantee which he conceived them to have 
 had in his very connexion for so long a time with the body 
 of Congregational dissenters, of which the religious principles 
 were so well known, and still more, after the confession of 
 his faith delivered at his ordination as a minister of that body, 
 for the satisfaction of those who were to take part in the 
 service, this regret evidently blended with pain that such 
 surmises had not, as he had hoped, been long since thoroughly 
 eradicated, but without the most distant breathing of a re- 
 sentful feeling, or the slightest approach to high-mindedness 
 or disdain : every thing the very opposite. And while he 
 sets the mind of his friend and those of others at rest, in 
 regard to his theological views, avowing them to be " those 
 commonly understood by the term moderate Calvinism" and 
 expresses his obligations to him for the spirit and style of his 
 communication, he adds " At the same time you will un- 
 " derstand that my answer has no relation to the projected 
 " Academy. You know, indeed, that I stood in no respect 
 " whatever in the condition of a candidate for the office re- 
 " ferred to. The difficulties attendant upon the whole ques- 
 " tion, which others, in their zeal and kindness, have urged 
 " upon my attention, appear to me not less formidable now 
 " than when I had the pleasure to see you." 
 
 The reader will mark, in this sentence, the nature of the 
 grounds on which the proposal, so urgently pressed, was 
 finally declined by him; and, although " he meant not so,
 
 CXXXV111 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 neither did his heart think so," yet did he, by thus shrinking 
 from the task, read a lesson of modesty, such as can hardly 
 fail to visit with a conscious misgiving all the occupants of 
 such seats of public responsibility, and all aspirants after 
 them. In one respect alone could there be a question as to 
 his eminent fitness for such a trust. With all the amplitude 
 of the stores at his command, and all the readiness of his 
 powers to use them, a doubt might be entertained as to how 
 far his singularly sensitive and excitable temperament could 
 have sufficiently accommodated itself either to the measured 
 regularity, from day to day, of professional instruction, or to 
 the variety, sometimes trying enough even to the most self- 
 possessed and imperturbable spirits, of the tempers and the 
 talents with which he must have had to deal. 
 
 While speaking of Academical Institutions, it may be as 
 well to mention, that at a later, even a very recent period, 
 Dr. M'All was sounded, with the same view, and with the 
 same result, in reference to Springhill College, Birmingham. 
 On that Institution, lately commenced under such pro- 
 mising auspices, at once presenting a splendid monument of 
 private munificence, and holding out hopes of important 
 benefit to the church, on the other mentioned, of somewhat 
 older though still but of recent date, and for whose removal 
 and enlargement preparations, on a scale so nobly generous, 
 are now in progress, and on all others, more ancient or 
 more modern, by which an efficient evangelical ministry is 
 provided, may the copious blessing of the Head of the 
 Church descend ! The spirit displayed, in this department 
 of Christian benevolence and zeal, by the different bodies of 
 evangelical dissenters, a spirit engendered and maintained 
 by a growing conviction of the desirableness of as high attain- 
 ments as possible in " those who minister and serve the altar," 
 is one of the cheering " signs of the times." And to the 
 production and strengthening of this conviction, Dr. M' All's 
 example and influence in no slight degree contributed Of 
 this the committees of both the Institutions just named were 
 deeply sensible, and recorded, respectively, in their minutes,
 
 THE REV. DR. M*ALL. CXXxix 
 
 in the strongest terms, their acute though submissive feeling 
 of the heavy blow inflicted by his departure. I give their 
 resolutions below.* 
 
 I. 
 
 * " Extract from the Minutes of the Committee of the Blackburn Acad- 
 emy, at their half-yearly meeting, held in the Vestry of Grosvenor 
 Street chapel, on the 20th December, 1838; 
 
 Rev. DR. RAFFLES in the Chair." 
 
 " The Chairman having vacated the Chair for a few minutes, and it being 
 temporarily occupied by J. K. Heron, Esq., he (Dr. Raffles) introduced and 
 proposed the following testimony of the Committee to their sense of the 
 loss of the late lamented Rev. Dr. M'All. It was seconded by the Rev. 
 Richard Fletcher, but cordially and unanimously coincided in without vote, 
 and in silence. 
 
 " That this Committee cannot separate without giving expression to the 
 sense they entertain of the loss which, not the Blackburn Academy alone, 
 but the Church of Christ in general, has sustained, by the lamented death 
 of the late Rev. Dr. M'All Eminently qualified, as a scholar and a divine, 
 by his profound learning and his powerful eloquence, to be both the guar- 
 dian and the advocate of such an Institution, he never failed, on all occa- 
 sions, to testify his anxious concern for its prosperity. The Committee 
 deeply feel and unfeignedly deplore the loss of his judicious counsels, and 
 most efficient advocacy : arid, while they themselves bow, with humble 
 submission, to that mysterious Providence by which he has been so early 
 removed from the scenes of his extensive usefulness, they desire to tender 
 to his bereaved family and mourning Church the assurance of their unfeigned 
 sympathy." 
 
 The above resolution was transmitted, according to the vote of the Com- 
 mittee, to the family of Dr. M'All, to the Church in Mosley Street, and to 
 the Congregational and Evangelical Magazines." 
 
 II. 
 
 " Spring Hill College, Birmingham. 
 " At a Meeting of the General Committee, December, 1838, 
 
 " The Rev. J. A. JAMES in the Chair. 
 
 " Resolved, That the Committee deem it an act of justice to departed 
 " excellence, to place upon their Minutes a tribute of affectionate respect 
 "to the memory of the late Rev. Robert Stephens M'All, LL.D., and an 
 " expression of the deep sense of the loss which this College has sustained 
 " by his lamented decease : for, although it was not permitted to him to 
 " live long enough to watch its progress and assist in the direction of its 
 " affairs, yet the lively interest which he took in its establishment, and the 
 " willingness with which he consented to become one of its visitors and 
 " examiners, entitle his name to a place amongst its benefactors, and to the 
 " grateful veneration of its friends arid the Committee acknowledge it to 
 " be a call upon them for submission to the mysterious will of Almighty
 
 CXI LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 Few things have been more generally and deeply regret- 
 ted than that, with powers and resources so extraordinary, 
 our departed friend should not have given permanence, by 
 means of the press, to some work or works, on a more ex- 
 tended scale, and more thoroughly matured, than any thing 
 that can now be presented to the public. It was not that he 
 never purposed. He both purposed and resolved. When 
 urged by those whose judgment he respected and in whose 
 friendly sincerity he confided, he would admit the duty, avow 
 the desire, mention subjects, ask advice as to which might 
 be preferable, and, catching ardour at the recollection of one 
 which he had often thought of, would, with his customary 
 eloquence, lay out the field, from introduction to conclusion, 
 in a style of masterly clearness, comprehensiveness, and order, 
 discovering so familiar and penetrating an acquaintance with 
 all its details, and presenting touches of illustration so fine 
 and fascinating, as to quicken tenfold the longing for the 
 realization of the project. But the realization never came. 
 The vision was never embodied. Expectation became dis- 
 appointment; till at length repeated disappointment put an 
 end to expectation. 
 
 Different causes, it is probable, contributed to this. His 
 imaginary standard of excellence was so high, that he could 
 seldom please himself with his attempts to reach it. If at 
 one time, when in good trim, he flattered himself with having 
 done something that approached to it, his very next at- 
 tempt, through the variation of his nervous temperament, 
 would throw his sensitive 'spirit into despondency, and dis- 
 gust him with himself and with his work He was morbidly 
 fastidious, and thus apt to tire speedily of his own produc- 
 tions ; so that, if tolerably well pleased with Section I., he 
 might have several improved editions of it in his mind, ere 
 he had finished Section II. He had, if I mistake not, a sus- 
 
 ' God, that so early in the discharge of their official duties, they should be 
 ' deprived of the services of an individual, from whose vigorous intellect, 
 ' correct taste, vast and varied acquirements, sanctified as they all were by 
 ' fervent piety, they expected to derive so much advantage, especially in 
 'the educational department."
 
 THE REV. DR. M { ALL. Cxli 
 
 picion that his style was more adapted for effect when spoken, 
 than when read, fitting him more for an orator than for an 
 author ; and he was more touchily sensitive to criticism and 
 public opinion, and more feverishly jealous of his literary re- 
 putation, than comported well with the real greatness of his 
 mind. These causes, or what others soever produced the 
 effect, are surely to be regretted ; since it cannot be doubted, 
 that could he have set himself perseveringly to the following- 
 out of any "great argument," his sound judgment coercing 
 the tendencies of his style into appropriateness to his subject, 
 the simplicity and terseness of the dialectical being made 
 to alternate, as the occasion dictated, with the full flow of the 
 illustrative and oratorical, he might, instead of a posthu- 
 mous selection of insulated discourses, which, how admirable 
 soever, in many respects, they may be, do not afford suffi- 
 ciently enlarged scope for the riches and energies of such 
 a mind, have extended and perpetuated, both his useful- 
 ness and his reputation, by larger works of imperishable 
 worth. 
 
 He was more than once applied to, to take one of the 
 Courses of the CONGREGATIONAL LECTURE ; and more than 
 once his consent had been obtained, and his subject fixed and 
 intimated : but he subsequently drew back. When at one 
 time I stated to him my extreme disappointment, shared with 
 me by so many others, at his having declined, and urged 
 upon him, on various grounds, the importance of the task, 
 nay, the sacredness, as in his case it appeared to me, of the 
 incumbent duty, he yielded to my remonstrances, said he 
 would again write to London, and even mentioned two sub- 
 jects that I might advise him to a choice, of which the one 
 was the theory of atonement, the other, the internal evidences 
 of Christianity. I believe he did write : but afterwards his 
 heart again failed him. It is the opinion of his intimate 
 friends, that he might have been induced to prepare a Course 
 for delivery, had it not been for the requisition of subsequent 
 publication. It was from authorship that he chiefly shrunk. 
 The former of the two subjects just mentioned has since 
 been taken up, and discussed with eminent ability by another
 
 Cxlii LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " Master in Israel :" but how invaluable might a treatise 
 on the latter have been, from a mind possessing such powers 
 of acute and discriminative ratiocination, and which had be- 
 stowed so large an amount of its attention upon the thorough 
 investigation of the Christian evidences ! 
 
 There were other subjects too, on which his mind had 
 pondered and purposed, but failed of execution Speaking 
 of his study of early Ecclesiastical History, one of my corre- 
 spondents* says " Just before his last illness, he was engaged, 
 " I believe, in this kind of reading, with a particular object 
 " in view, an object which he would probably never have 
 " realized. It was the preparation of a Course of Lectures 
 " on the constitution of a Christian church, as deducible from 
 " the New Testament Scriptures, illustrated by the remains 
 " of Christian antiquity. This he preferred to a Course on 
 " the principles of English dissent, upon which he had been 
 " often strongly urged to preach." I am not sure, however, 
 whether this statement implies any purpose respecting such a 
 Course of Lectures, beyond their delivery. 
 
 From the manner in which he spoke on the subject of the 
 press, I have no doubt that at times he was not without 
 " compunctious visitings," induced by the representations and 
 importunities of his friends, lest he should be chargeable, in 
 any measure, with "hiding his Lord's money" not turning 
 his talent sufficiently to account : but of that talent, and the 
 probable results of its application, he never could bring him- 
 self to entertain, or at any rate to keep long enough in his 
 mind for any practical purpose, the high estimate formed by 
 others : so that, in this particular department of its utility, 
 from a principle widely dissimilar to that of the "unprofitable 
 servant" in the parable, it continued to lie buried in the 
 earth. 
 
 Dr. M'All was most decided in his principles as a dissen- 
 ter, and a Congregationalist. In some parts of these volumes, 
 his views on such subjects will be found stated with abundant 
 explicitness, and with all " plainness of speech." These I 
 
 John Roberton, Esq.
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. Cxliii 
 
 have not felt it my duty to suppress. I could not, consis- 
 tently with a just exhibition of his sentiments, or with a due 
 regard to truth. Sensible and candid churchmen will expect 
 to find him speaking as a dissenter ; and Episcopalians and 
 Presbyterians will anticipate, in ordination services, the state- 
 ' ment at least, if not the vindication, of the principles of Inde- 
 pendency. If the spirit and manner of such discussions are 
 in harmony with the love and courtesy of the Christian, none 
 can have any reasonable ground of offence ; and of those who, 
 in such circumstances, will take it, the splenetic imbecility 
 entitles them to little deference. 
 
 To myself, I frankly acknowledge, it was matter of regret 
 that my friend did not feel it his duty to take a more decided 
 and prominent stand in what may be termed the great 
 ecclesiastical controversy of the day. Never having conversed 
 or corresponded with him on the subject, I am not in personal 
 possession of the reasons by which, in this abstinence, he was 
 actuated. Of aught that approached to trimming he was in- 
 capable ; nor did he ever shrink, when opportunities offered, 
 of openly avowing, and manfully defending, his principles. 
 But he shrunk with a dread, of which, however commendable 
 in itself, the measure was perhaps excessive and the sensitive- 
 ness somewhat morbid, from the charge of either a political 
 or a sectarian spirit. " Although an Independent on full 
 " conviction, he objected to taking a prominent part in the 
 " great controversy of the day between the advocates of Na- 
 " tional Establishments and those of the Voluntary principle, 
 " on account of the connexion it would necessarily have, or 
 " be imagined to have, with temporary politics; from all con- 
 " tact with which he invariably shrunk with sensitive horror."* 
 " Although his own views on doctrinal subjects were per- 
 " fectly settled, and upon church government he was a de- 
 " cided congregational dissenter, nothing was more abhorrent 
 " to his soul than sectarianism. He was distinguished by 
 " the most generous and expansive charity, which could not 
 " be cooped up within the limits of any one denomination. 
 
 * John Roberton, Esq.
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " He had the utmost respect for many of the distinguished 
 " members of the Establishment, of the Wesleyan connexion, 
 " and of other denominations of Christians; and delighted, on 
 " all suitable occasions, amply to testify his regard. By some, 
 " indeed, he has been thought to have had hardly enough 
 " of denominational attachment, and has even been suspected 
 " of want of soundness and decision in his views as a dissenter. 
 " But this was the very antipodes of the truth; any apparent 
 " reluctance he might manifest to embark in schemes for the 
 " exclusive extension of his own denomination, arising solely 
 " from the sensitiveness with which he shrunk from anything 
 " which could by possibility be construed into a sectarian 
 " spirit."* 
 
 Without attempting either to draw the line, on such sub- 
 jects, between the ecclesiastical and the political, or to fix 
 the point, in the scale of Christian feeling, at which the spirit 
 of sectarianism should be considered as commencing, ques- 
 tions of rather thorny handling, and not very easy decision, 
 I must leave the reader to take these statements in connexion 
 with the sentiments he will find in some of the following dis- 
 courses, and to form his own judgment of my lamented friend's 
 course. The integrity of his motives must not be impeached. 
 The fearlessness of his attachment to principle is not to be 
 questioned. It will not be by any who knew him. But 
 even in the exercise of principles in themselves right, he 
 was, like other men, liable to extremes. Entirely to ap- 
 prove, would be (what few men are fond of doing) to con- 
 demn myself. 
 
 Neither shall I attempt the somewhat invidious and not 
 less difficult problem, of drawing with definite precision, the 
 line of demarcation between that wild latitudinarianism on 
 the one hand, which appropriates to itself the name of charity, 
 while it usurps Christ's prerogative, and presumes to think 
 it may treat with indifference whatever parts of his mind and 
 will it is pleased to regard as of little moment, grouping them 
 together under the convenient designation of non-essentials, 
 
 * Rev. Richard Fletcher.
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. 
 
 as if what Christ thought it worth his while to command it 
 was not worth its while to obey, and that uncharitable and 
 censorious bigotry on the other, which wraps itself up in its 
 own self-consequence, spits fire or puffs contempt in the face 
 of its stubborn and stupid opponents, and refuses to all others 
 the claim to conscientiousness which it stoutly maintains for 
 itself. These are the extremes, which it is far from difficult 
 to distinguish. It is the intermediate shadings, the approxi- 
 mating limits between them, which even men of moderation 
 and candour may find it somewhat hard to settle. The mind 
 of Dr. M'All was ample and liberal in its charity. His soul 
 was incapable of contracting itself into the littleness of 
 bigotry. He could not bear it. His charity, with exult- 
 ing delight, owned and embraced all whom he expected 
 to meet in heaven. In the language of his brother, of 
 Doncaster, " the love of Christ was with him the sole term 
 of communion." " To the ' liberal-minded,' in the proper 
 " sense of that much-abused term," writes the Rev. Dr. 
 Jabez Bunting in a letter to myself, " which led him to 
 " pay equal and united homage to the claims of scrip- 
 " tural charity, and to the inviolable majesty of revealed 
 " truth, and which, as you justly state, exhibited his charac- 
 " ter in one of its ' most interesting phases,' I have borne my 
 " humble, but willing and grateful, testimony in a private 
 "letter, lately addressed to my son, which Dr. M' All's 
 " Trustees have, I find, done me the honour to circulate. 
 " I cannot express this striking feature of Dr. M' All's 
 " character better than in the terms of the letter thus referred 
 " to; and the testimony comes gracefully as well as satisfac- 
 " torily from the minister of a different Christian denomina- 
 " tion : ' Among other admirable features of his personal 
 " and public character, one was his truly catholic and liberal 
 " spirit towards all who, as he believed, * hold the Head,' and 
 " ' love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.' He was too wise 
 "and good a man to be a latitudinarian in principle, and too 
 " great and noble to be a bigot, either in spirit or in conduct. 
 " Several instances of his Christian candour, kindness, and 
 "generosity, came under my own observation at different
 
 C.xlvi LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " periods; and we, as Wesley ans, must ever cherish a grate- 
 " ful and affecting reminiscence of the services he rendered 
 " to our Missionary Society, by preaching in its behalf both 
 " in London and at Manchester, services in themselves in- 
 " valuable, but rendered doubly interesting, on both occasions, 
 " by the cheerful promptitude with which they were under- 
 " taken, and by the expressions of cordial affection with which 
 " they were accompanied. That his last sermon was that 
 " in which he employed his lofty intellect and eloquence in 
 " the advocacy of Christian Missions, and that one of our 
 " pulpits was thus honoured by his latest effort in his Master's 
 " cause, are circumstances which constitute a special and 
 " touching claim on our respectful gratitude, and must ever 
 " endear to us his name and memory.' " 
 
 The liberality and brotherly feeling of these sentiments is 
 becomingly reciprocated in the funeral oration delivered at the 
 grave of him whose name called them forth : " It will never 
 " be regretted," says the Rev. J. A. James on that mournful 
 occasion, " by any who know the pre-eminence of love among 
 " the Christian graces, that his last sermon was preached to 
 " the members of another communion ; to whom his own 
 " flock will not grudge his closing effort, since it served to 
 " demonstrate how catholic was his disposition, gave him the 
 " opportunity to bear his dying testimony against religious 
 " bigotry, and enabled him to quit the pulpit for ever in the 
 " seraphic form and spirit of Christian charity." 
 
 I have formerly made prospective allusion to Dr. M' All's 
 Academical Degree, and to the source whence it was obtained. 
 I am not sure of its precise date ; nor is it a matter of any 
 importance to ascertain it. Dr. Dewar does not happen to 
 mention it, when, from Marischal college, Aberdeen, he 
 writes to me as follows regarding it : " I have seen it stated 
 " in a newspaper, that Dr. M'All was indebted for his degree 
 " to my friendship. If by this is meant, that the degree was 
 " conferred upon him by this university in consequence of my 
 " friendship, the statement is inaccurate. The time has gone 
 " by, if it ever had an existence, when a member of this 
 " college could procure a degree for a friend on the score of
 
 THE REV. DR. M*ALL. Cxlvil 
 
 " friendship. It is true, I mentioned the name of Mr. M'All 
 " to my colleagues soon after I came here : but his distin- 
 guished talents and great usefulness were so well known, 
 " that to confer an Academical Degree upon him was to do 
 " honour to the university. In this light the matter ap- 
 " peared to my colleagues ; and the Degree of LL.D. was 
 " unanimously conferred on him by the Senatus Academicus." 
 
 On the principle of detur digniori, few men assuredly were 
 ever more highly entitled to the honour. His friends were 
 not aware of his having received it, till, on signing a petition 
 from the church and congregation, he subjoined the LL.D. 
 to his name. He is said to have been influenced in accept- 
 ing it, more by a courteous wish to gratify the friend at 
 whose instance it had been conferred, than by any fondness 
 for the honour itself. There was probably a mixed motive. 
 Of inordinate ambition and of silly vanity I alike and en- 
 tirely acquit him; but if with the becoming courtesy of 
 friendship there blended a sober-minded satisfaction in a tri- 
 bute thus spontaneously paid to his talents and learning, as 
 there was nothing but what might be felt by himself without 
 delinquency, there is nothing but what may be admitted by 
 his friends without vindication. 
 
 In speaking, a little more particularly, of the less public 
 and official character of Dr. M'All, I rather choose to begin 
 with the mention of what some possibly might have reserved 
 till the close, and then have introduced as a drawback on 
 the excellencies previously portrayed. When, in an admired 
 character, there is any feature less pleasing than the rest, 
 but which is at all capable of being placed in such a light 
 as to diminish, if not to cancel, the unfavourable impres- 
 sion of it in the minds of those who, while they may have 
 observed its existence, are ignorant of its cause or of what 
 went far at least to account for it, I prefer noticing it first, 
 that in such minds the recollection of it may not be ever re- 
 curring as a deduction from the general excellence of the 
 character, and from each of its enumerated ingredients; 
 that, if there must be shadow at all, (and since Adam 
 sinned, what merely human character has been entirely with-
 
 Cxlviii LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 out it ?) that shadow may not be thrown with undue som- 
 breness over the sunlight beauties of the picture I allude 
 to the influence of his constitutionally nervous temperament. 
 By his medical friend and attendant, who, from his acquaint- 
 ance with physiology, and the study he has bestowed on the 
 effect of physiological peculiarities upon the mental charac- 
 ter, as well as by long and intimate acquaintance with the 
 subject of this memoir, was well qualified to form an impar- 
 tial and enlightened judgment, this topic of natural tem- 
 perament is placed in a very strong and affecting light. 
 " His," says Mr. Roberton, " was the nervous temperament 
 "of an unmixed type, such as is rarely found in the male, 
 " and even but seldom in the other sex. Hence, he was the 
 " most excitable of mortals :" " His countenance, when he 
 " was in health and in a happy mood, was often lighted up 
 " with a sweet smile, the forehead being smooth, and the 
 " eyes singularly clear and animated. At such times, the 
 <: profile in particular was almost angelic. However, unless 
 " when excited by conversation, or in public speaking, his 
 " expression was rarely that of tranquil happiness ; for his 
 " was a life of almost continual uneasiness or suffering. 
 " There was headache, or nausea, or pain in the limbs ; 
 " and then the look was absorbed and anxious. Let him 
 " begin to converse, immediately the countenance would be 
 " agreeably animated ; to change again, perhaps, the in- 
 " stant he ceased speaking, to an expression of uneasiness or 
 " pain. When irritated in temper, or displeased with his 
 " company, his eye was restless, and his manner taciturn, 
 " distant, and somewhat repulsive. His manners were al- 
 " ways, perhaps, in a slight degree stately, even when he 
 " was in the best humour, and most disposed to be agreeable. 
 " I used to think that he never, or very rarely, quite forgot 
 " his dignity :" " Unhappily, when once his nervous system 
 " had been excited, and disagreeably agitated, it was like the 
 " surface of a lake in winter, never still by day, and scarcely 
 " by night for a single moment. Now, sleep would, in 
 " great measure, forsake him, the stomach return a portion 
 " of his food daily, gloom would settle on his spirits, and
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. Cxlix 
 
 " everything appear to be unprosperous and wrong ; he 
 " discontented with himself, and a little out of humour with 
 " every one besides. Towards others he was naturally pla- 
 " cable : but it surprised a looker-on to notice, how readily 
 " his feelings were hurt by every unkind, rude, or ungrateful 
 " expression of even the humblest class of people, often 
 " when no offence whatever was intended. To designed 
 "rudeness he was rarely subjected; his more intimate 
 "friends, aware of his sensitiveness, treating him with uni- 
 " form suavity :" " With all his susceptibility of suffering 
 " and annoyance from a great variety of causes, he was 
 " himself most inoffensive, and, to his friends, gentle and 
 " kindly, as those in the habit of associating with him will 
 " delightedly bear witness." 
 
 All who are themselves the subjects of a nervous tempera- 
 ment like his, and all who have come into close and daily 
 contact with its distressful workings, will be disposed to visit 
 those parts of Dr. M' All's character and behaviour which 
 were the most apt to be felt as repelling and offensive, as 
 much at least with the tear of pitying tenderness as with 
 the frown of severe animadversion ; and will even regard 
 their exciting cause as not a little enhancing the power of 
 principle and of real benevolence of heart, by which it was, 
 to so great a degree, counteracted and repressed. I must 
 add another authority, the authority of one whose ample 
 details, now lying before me, of those varied excellencies that 
 had attracted and rivetted his almost idolatrous admiration, 
 bear the strongest testimony to the fidelity with which he 
 records any exception :* "His great failing, the leading 
 " infirmity of his nature, which infused more or less of its 
 " influence into his whole character and labours, was ex- 
 " treme nervous sensitiveness This was a constitutional pe- 
 " culiarity, having manifestly a physical origin. In him the 
 " nervous influence so greatly preponderated, that his frame, 
 " like the sensitive plant, gave indications of being affected 
 " by the slightest touch. ****! one could imagine a 
 
 * Rev. Richard Fletcher. 
 t
 
 Cl LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " highly- wrought chronometer endued with sensation and 
 " feeling, and exposed to clouds of dust and sand grating 
 " amongst its delicate wheels, some idea may be formed of 
 " our late friend's liability to inconvenience and suffering from 
 " exposure to the common calamities and annoying incidents 
 "of life." 
 
 Yet I would not be understood as carrying my apology 
 too far; as if I would make physical constitution a cloak 
 for all moral deficiency. The character before me is one that 
 needs no such partiality. It was not perfect ; but it had in 
 it a fulness of excellence, that could well bear a deduction. 
 That deduction I shall lay before the reader in the language 
 of the same faithful friend : " It cannot be denied, however, 
 " that Dr. M' All's disposition was naturally lofty and proud. 
 " He felt the consciousness of his superior powers. He could 
 " not be, and was not, ignorant of the fact that his talents 
 " were splendid and commanding ; and he was not the man 
 "to be satisfied if they were not, in some measure, appreci- 
 " ated. He was consequently jealous of his reputation, and 
 " apt to display irritation, if it was attacked or called in 
 " question. Perhaps, too, he was prone to receive and re- 
 " tain prejudices against individuals if he heard, or had oc- 
 " casion to suspect, that they depreciated his abilities, or did 
 " not treat him with generosity or fairness : and nothing 
 " could more readily provoke him to say something severe 
 " in the shape of retaliation. This indeed, may be regarded 
 " as his chief failing." 
 
 It undoubtedly was. And in whatever degree the charity 
 which " thinketh no evil" may incline us to trace it to the 
 source which has been mentioned, and thus to mitigate the 
 amount in it of moral defect, yet why should we be so 
 solicitous on this point ? It should be our desire to see 
 everything in the light in which God sees it, and neither to 
 think better nor worse of it than He. When we learn to 
 go beyond the limits of charity, and to find out, to an un- 
 due extent, physical causes for the moral failings of others, 
 we are in danger of converting them into palliatives for fail- 
 ings of our own, and of applying these balmy extracts of cha-
 
 THE REV. DR. M*ALL. cli 
 
 rity as " flattering unctions" to our own consciences. Why 
 should we deny that the bosom of our loved and admired 
 friend was the seat of a somewhat unduly proud and touchy 
 sense of honour ? I magnify the grace of God in him, when I 
 express my conviction, that, but for the dominance of Chris- 
 tian principle, that is, that had he been a mere man of the 
 world, uninfluenced by higher considerations than those by 
 which the men of the world in general are animated, he 
 would have been a duellist, and the giver too rather than 
 the accepter, of the challenge. But he was a CHRISTIAN ; 
 and the strong propensities of nature were reined in, and 
 held in subordination, by the power of grace. As he ad- 
 vanced, moreover, in years, and grew in religious experi- 
 ence, the efficacy of Christian principle was increasingly ap- 
 parent, in mellowing this effervescent spirit, and inducing a 
 stricter vigilance against its inward movements as well as its 
 external indications. Self was more thoroughly crucified; 
 his own spirit subdued by the Spirit of the God of love ; 
 and a larger and larger portion of the " meekness and gen- 
 tleness" of his divine Master infused into his whole temper 
 and demeanour. There was less heat, and more warmth, 
 a glow more genial, with less aptitude to burst into flame. 
 Most heartily do I subscribe to the truth of what Mr. 
 Fletcher immediately adds : " Even here his generosity of 
 " nature was apparent. It was chiefly a self-enclosed, self- 
 " interested, jealous disposition which excited his indignation, 
 " especially if it was combined with assumptions which 
 " were not borne out by substantial merits. He had no jea- 
 " lousy of rival talent, if only its possessor cherished and 
 " manifested a generous nature. No man had a higher ven- 
 " eration for superiority of mental power or moral character, 
 " or was more ready to give honour to whom honour was 
 " due. I have heard him speak in eulogistic terms, border- 
 " ing upon hyperbole, of his distinguished contemporaries, 
 " especially of the more eminent ministers of his own deno- 
 " mination. He only required to be treated honourably and 
 " fairly, and to be met with generous confidence ; and in re- 
 " turn, though he had a discriminating eye to perceive at
 
 flii LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " once the defects of every mind, and the weak points of 
 " every character, over these he would cast the mantle of 
 " charity, and dwell with delight and enlargement on the 
 " excellencies which he allowed and admired. In the earlier 
 " days of his ministry, he appeared in relation to his brother 
 " ministers, in a less amiable light. His natural pride of 
 " intellect was then less subdued and chastened ; and, as the 
 " treatment he had received was far from generous, he ima- 
 " gined himself to be suspected, and certainly felt himself 
 " an injured man ; and this produced for a time a haughty 
 " reserve. As, however, he became more intimately ac- 
 " quainted with his fathers and brethren in the ministry, and 
 " they came to understand his true character better, this 
 " distance gave place to mutual confidence and affection." 
 
 The truth is, that the disciplinary process through which 
 his mind passed, even during the early period of his resi- 
 dence in Edinburgh, had contributed to abate its natural ten- 
 dency to worship intellectual greatness; and in this respect his 
 estimate of ministerial qualifications and usefulness continued 
 to undergo a gradual correction. Not that his conception of 
 the value of mental superiority was reduced; but that his 
 impression was strengthened of the co-ordinate or even supe- 
 rior consequence of other qualities, qualities which, if they 
 did not fit their possessor for pursuing a metaphysical ab- 
 straction, or conducting a process of close and protracted argu- 
 ment, imparted pathos, and persuasiveness, and efficiency, 
 to his exhibitions and recommendations of truth The ob- 
 servation has been verified already, in the spirit of those 
 lines, before inserted, written by him, at the Manse of Dysart, 
 on the blank leaf of the Life of Spencer. And the manner 
 in which he ever afterwards spoke of that singularly useful 
 and lamented youth gave (as then hinted) permanent evi- 
 dence of its truth. " Having frequently heard him say, that 
 " he thought Mr. Spencer the most extraordinary young man 
 " this age had produced, I once asked him if that was always 
 " his opinion. He stated, with regret, that when they were 
 " fellow-students at Hoxton, he affected to despise him, as 
 " inferior in intellect, and scanty in attainments : ' but,'
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. cliii 
 
 " said he, ' I was not competent to judge of Spencer at that 
 " time. I was not sufficiently advanced in religious character 
 " to understand and appreciate him.' "* This change in his 
 estimate of ministerial character was coincident in its advance, 
 as the reader will readily imagine, with his own personal 
 progress in Christian lowliness and spirituality of mind. As 
 he grew in these himself, he prized them more in others. 
 
 I have mentioned his high sense of his own honour, and 
 jealousy of the homage to which his superior attainments 
 entitled him. But he had a sense of honour for others as 
 well as for himself. If he chanced to discover that he had 
 entertained an injurious thought of another which was not 
 founded in truth, it was not enough for him to be happy in 
 having the false impression removed, he was nervously un- 
 happy till he could find an opportunity of making suitable 
 acknowledgments to the party whom, even although but in 
 thought, he had wronged; and that too, sometimes, when 
 the making of the acknowledgment was the first intimation 
 to the party's self, of the mistaken impression having existed. 
 The following characteristic instance of this is worth record- 
 ing. There are different editions of the anecdote; but the 
 difference consisting, not in points of fact, but only in selec- 
 tion and omission, I venture to harmonize them. During 
 the short time that Mr. M'All studied at Hoxton, he went, 
 with some of his fellow-students, to the Tabernacle, on oc- 
 casion of one of the missionary services. They had scarcely 
 seated themselves in one of the front pews of the gallery, 
 before a stern-looking man came up, and said to the party 
 loud enough to be heard by all near them " Young men, 
 I am sure that you must be Hoxton students ; for none but 
 Hoxton students would have the impertinence to seat them- 
 selves in that pew : it is appropriated to ministers you 
 must leave it instantly." Young M'All felt this insult very 
 keenly ; and, having been told by some bystander that the 
 man was Mr. Roby of Manchester, he immediately conceived 
 towards that amiable and excellent, but to him unknown 
 
 * Rev. Richard Fletcher.
 
 fliv LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 minister, a strong antipathy, and continued so to cherish it, 
 that, when he settled in Macclesfield, he avoided intercourse 
 with him. Happening to preach on some public occasion, 
 he was much struck with the profound attention paid to his 
 sermon by a venerable gentleman whose countenance shone 
 with intelligence and benignity. Not long thereafter, Dr. 
 Collyer and he went together from Macclesfield to Manches- 
 ter; and the Dr. having some business at the shop of a silver- 
 smith, they called there. Mr. M'All was amusing himself 
 with the inspection of some articles, when Mr. Roby entered 
 the shop; and on Dr. Colly er's addressing him by his name, 
 he started, looked round, and at once discovered that this 
 was not the countenance of the insolent "brief-authority" 
 churl at the Tabernacle, but of his venerable and benig- 
 nant auditor. Having ascertained from Dr. Collyer, im- 
 mediately on the visitor's departure, that it was indeed 
 Mr. Roby, he insisted on the Doctor's driving to his resi- 
 dence. On the way he sat silent, with his face covered, 
 and much affected; and on arriving at the house, and obtain- 
 ing an interview with Mr. Roby, acknowledged, in the most 
 humble, contrite, and impassioned terms, his error, the false 
 conceptions and injurious impressions he had been cherish- 
 ing, and earnestly besought his forgiveness. I need not say 
 how frankly and how cordially the absolution was granted: 
 and from that day forth, they were the most attached 
 friends. 
 
 I call this a sense of honour, a generous impatience to 
 do justice to one towards whom, even ignorantly and in mis- 
 take, he had harboured and cherished an injurious prejudice. 
 The prejudice was not in fact against Mr. Roby; but he 
 had associated it with his name in his own mind at least, 
 and, it is possible, in his relation also of the incident to others. 
 The anecdote is in perfect keeping with his characteristic 
 sensitiveness; and it is delightful to see that sensitiveness 
 equally susceptible and quick in its apprehension of wrong 
 done by himself to others, as of wrong done by others to 
 him, and more eager to offer explanation in the one case 
 than to exact it in the other. It was no ordinary regard
 
 THE REV. DR. M<ALL. civ 
 
 which, to the close of his days, he cherished towards Mr. 
 Roby. He had a very exalted estimate of his worth, and 
 his deeply-seated feelings toward him were those of the most 
 affectionate filial veneration. He delighted in him; he looked 
 up to him; his heart and eye filled when he spoke of him; 
 his character was one of his favourite themes. Let the Ser- 
 mon on his death, which forms the first in these volumes, 
 bear witness. 
 
 Dr. M'All was a steady and faithful friend. All who 
 shared his intimacy will unite in this testimony. He was 
 ever ready with his kind offices, and would spare no cost of 
 self-denying labour within his power, to confer a favour, or 
 avert an injury. His friendships were truly those of the 
 heart. His extreme sensibility, it is true, exposed him to 
 proportionally poignant distress, when from any who ranked 
 among his friends the surmise -found admission into his mind 
 of neglect or unkindness ; but from the same sensibility arose 
 his most exquisite delights, the cordial interchange of the 
 social affections being one of the principal zests of his life. 
 Thus, what is an anomaly in nature was realized in his men- 
 tal experience " the same fountain sending forth both bitter 
 water and sweet." The sentiment which Johnson puts into 
 the mouth of Nekayah, the sister of Rasselas, in balancing 
 the claims to preference of single and wedded life " Mar- 
 riage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures" may, 
 with at least equal truth, be applied to the sensitive and the 
 phlegmatic temperaments of the human spirit: " sensibility 
 has many pains, but apathy has no pleasures." If the latter 
 escapes the sufferings of the former, it is a stranger to its 
 joys. All that it can boast comes under the category of 
 negation. 
 
 The sensibility which made him alive to the pleasures and 
 the pains of friendship, infused into his heart a sympathy 
 with all the lights and shadows of human life around him, 
 as well as with the enjoyments and the woes of all sensitive 
 existence With all the discriminative acuteness that char- 
 acterized his mind, he was easily imposed upon by the tale 
 of destitution or of suffering; his charity rendering him slow
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 to impute or even suspect imposture, and his pity opening at 
 once his ear, his heart, and his hand. " The kindness of 
 " his nature," says his brother of Doncaster, " was manifested 
 " in a peculiar manner towards the poor. He was most lav- 
 " ish in his benefactions to beggars, and allowed himself to 
 " be imposed upon by their artful tales. He was so painfully 
 " concerned for the suffering poor of Macclesfield, at a time 
 " of general distress, that, when his quarter's salary was 
 " brought him, he said to the gentleman who waited on him 
 " ' Can nothing be done for the poor? Take this back, 
 " and begin a subscription with it, rather than let them 
 " starve.' His visible emotion, and the generosity of the 
 " offer, determined his friends, after accepting part of the 
 " sum, to set on foot a public subscription, by which the 
 " distress was relieved. It was perhaps owing as much to 
 " his kindness for the poor, as to his high moral character, 
 " that in the riots which happened so generally in the manu- 
 " facturing districts about sixteen years ago, no injury what- 
 " ever was done to his house, when those on each side of it 
 " had all their windows broken. When the mob were ap- 
 " proaching that part of the town where he lived, persons, 
 " unknown to him, stationed themselves opposite his door, 
 " and when the crowd arrived, and asked, as it appears they 
 " did at other places ' Who lives here? shall we throw?' 
 " these persons, joined by others in the throng, cried out 
 " ' No no : he is a good man.' And the barrier was so 
 " effectual, that only a single pane of glass was broken, and 
 " that was supposed to be by a stone aimed at a neigh bour- 
 " ing lamp." 
 
 He felt keenly and tenderly, with an oppression of sym- 
 pathy, the difficulties and trials of his poorer brethren in the 
 ministry, especially when he knew them to be " bearing the 
 burden and heat of the day" putting forth cheerful and 
 exhausting energies, amidst many privations. And more 
 than one of those humbler fellow-labourers, who, from what- 
 ever source, had received unfavourable impressions of his 
 distance and hauteur, have found themselves, to their sur- 
 prise and delight, fascinated and attached by his unfeigned
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. civil 
 
 affability and kindness. If they were men of modest sin- 
 cerity, they found a full heart and a full eye in a moment. 
 
 The same sensibility, as will readily be supposed, extended 
 to the inferior creation " To persons less affectionate and 
 " susceptible than my brother, his kindness to animals would 
 " appear almost irrational. It may be said of him, as of his 
 " friend and preceptor Dr. Brown, ' the tenderness and the 
 " quickness of his sympathy were such, that he could not 
 " bear to see any living thing in pain. The cold-hearted 
 " would have smiled perhaps, had they seen the patient and 
 " anxious care with which he tried to relieve the sufferings 
 " of animals.' My brother's abhorrence of cruelty was be- 
 " yond expression. The knowledge of its perpetration har- 
 " rowed and overwhelmed him. I do not think that in his 
 " life he ever trode on a worm; and often have I seen him 
 " stop, when walking, to lift one from his path, and place it 
 " out of danger. Such indeed when he was not peculiarly 
 " observed, or only by his intimate friends, was his constant 
 " practice." 
 
 Allied to this quick and tender sensibility was the spirit of 
 ingenuous and open sincerity and incorruptible honour. His 
 sincerity was truly ItXtKpiveia it might be searched and tested 
 by sun-light; and his integrity and honour who ever trusted 
 and found them fail ? Did he ever mislead an inquirer? 
 did he ever inspire flattering expectations, and disappoint the 
 expectant? did he ever desert a friend? did he ever blab 
 a secret? did he ever betray a trust? did he ever, for ends 
 however tempting, play the sycophant? did he ever, in any 
 circumstances, feign himself what he was not? There were 
 not a few, both of his brethren in the ministry and others, 
 who betook themselves to him as their counsellor in their 
 troubles, and their confidant in cases of perplexing delicacy. 
 " Persons in pecuniary difficulties, in family trials, or under 
 burdens of conscience, made his bosom the depository of 
 their secret woes." To such his ear and his heart were ever 
 open; and, while his sensibilities were all awake to their 
 statements, his judgment searched and sifted them, and his 
 faithful candour gave counsel, palatable, or unpalatable, ac-
 
 clviii LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 cordingly. But to them all " his fidelity was absolute and 
 " unimpeached. One who had often put it to the proof was 
 " heard by the writer* to say * I feel as if I could open my 
 " heart to him almost as unreservedly as to my Maker.' " 
 
 There was as little in his character of the selfish as ever, 
 perhaps, was found in human bosom. And there was about 
 him a largeness and loftiness of soul, a nobility of spirit, 
 which, while it scorned the contractedness, and pitied the 
 wretchedness, of the man who adopted " number one" as his 
 principle of action and intercourse, shrunk, with a loathing 
 unutterable, from everything that was mean. With minds of 
 base material, low, vulgar, sordid in their caste of sentiment 
 and disposition, his was incapable of intercommunion. Con- 
 tact was contamination. 
 
 To our lamented friend's domestic character I have formerly, 
 in part, alluded, having mentioned his affectionate and faith- 
 ful discharge both of filial and of conjugal duties. It is a 
 common and, in many respects, a true saying, that a man is 
 best known at home ; and it is no less true, that there are 
 often secrets, both of sweet and of bitter, which Home never 
 discloses, joys and sorrows there with which " a stranger 
 doth not intermeddle." The disclosure of those secrets, I 
 have no doubt, would, in the present case, fully bear out the 
 affirmation that where best known he was best loved. His 
 parental character was in perfect keeping with his filial and 
 conjugal. If, indeed, there was anything that might be re- 
 garded in the light of a deduction from his domestic felicity, it 
 might, perhaps, be found in the excess of that very affection 
 whose exercise is one of its sweetest and most copious springs. 
 His solicitude about his children was morbid. It preyed at 
 times upon his spirit, to the detriment of his own health; and it 
 induced an over-apprehensive care and dread of exposure, 
 which was hardly fitted to prove beneficial to theirs. This was 
 one of the results of his extreme sensitiveness of temperament; 
 and by every reader, especially by parents, if censured at all, 
 it will be censured gently, as one of those " failings " which 
 
 The same as above the Rev. S. M'AH of Doncaster.
 
 THE REV. DR. M 4 ALL. 
 
 " lean to virtue's side." The maxims too above laid down 
 respecting sensibility have their full application here. If it 
 gave intensity to the bitter, it gave a corresponding inten- 
 sity to the sweet. He delighted in his family. The fond 
 and cheerful reciprocations of confiding affection were, to a 
 spirit like his, fountains of the purest and richest pleasure. 
 The irreligion and misbehaviour of his children would have 
 killed him; their affectionate dutifulness and early piety were, 
 to his paternal heart, the " light of life." In his daily inter- 
 course with them, he had the happy art of uniting the dignity 
 of the father with the familiarity of the companion, of main- 
 taining authority without asserting it, of being firm without 
 sternness, serious without moroseness, playful without buf- 
 foonery; mixing, with kind and frolicsome glee, in their 
 innocent pastimes, as the reward of their assiduity in hours of 
 graver occupation, and their encouragement to its renewal. Of 
 his system of training, the fundamental and pervading prin- 
 ciple was, not fear, but love. Love was its beginning, middle, 
 and end. His authority was the authority of love ; their sub- 
 jection, the subjection of love. They feared, without being 
 afraid. Their respect was familiar, their familiarity respect- 
 ful. In his presence and in his absence they were the same, 
 in every respect save that of enjoyment; for his presence was 
 not felt as a restraint, nor his absence as a liberty, but the 
 one as a pleasure, and the other as a privation. The fond- 
 ness with which he doated on them was amply repaid. They 
 looked up to him with affectionate veneration and guileless 
 confidence ; and even in their moments of most unfettered 
 freedom, the tricks on which they harmlessly ventured were 
 the tricks of sportive love. 
 
 " To servants," says his brother, " he had but one way of 
 " addressing himself. He always preferred a willing to a 
 " compulsory attendance, and therefore used entreaty rather 
 " than command. It appeared as if he was utterly unable 
 " to assume towards those that waited on him the airs of im- 
 " perious superiority. He mildly asked, almost as from an 
 " equal, whatever he wanted ; and the most ordinary service 
 " was not permitted to pass without thanks." I like the ex-
 
 ct LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 pression that he was "utterly unable" to assume such airs. 
 There was the inability of principle, of benevolence, of men- 
 tal greatness, and of innate courtesy. From principle, he 
 recognised the points of equality in the eye of that God 
 whose majesty annihilates all earthly distinctions; and, remem- 
 bering that " he also had a Master in heaven," he felt the full 
 force of Job's appeal " If I did despise the cause of my 
 man-servant or my maid-servant, when they contended with 
 me, what then shall I do when God riseth up ? and when 
 He visiteth, what shall I answer him? Did not He that 
 made me in the womb make him ? and did not one fashion 
 us in the womb ?" From benevolence, he delighted in the 
 ease and cheerfulness of all about him, and shrunk from the 
 incessant infliction of the irksomeness of felt inferiority; while, 
 at the same time, he had incomparably more satisfaction in 
 the spontaneous services of affection than in the drudgery of 
 official constraint. From mental greatness, he felt that " airs 
 of imperious superiority" were utterly beneath him, that 
 haughtiness is meanness, insolence littleness, and the tone of 
 scornful command the badge of a servitude worse than that 
 which is contemned, the master who assumes it sinking him- 
 self beneath the menial whom he insults And from innate 
 courtesy, he was incapable, with inferiors any more than with 
 superiors and equals, of behaving otherwise than as a gentle- 
 man. The biographer of Sir Walter Scott says of him, that 
 he was " a gentleman even to his dogs." This, in the full 
 spirit of it, was true of the subject of our memoir. There 
 was an unaffectedly refined politeness in his whole demeanour. 
 It was not a stiff conformity the result of observation and 
 studied effort to the usages of genteel society, but the indi- 
 genous product of a mind of native dignity and cultivated 
 elegance. He could no more be rude to his servant than to 
 his prince. 
 
 Associated with all these excellencies both in his public 
 and his private character, at once giving them its steady 
 impulse and diffusing over them its lovely influence, was 
 the deep-seated spirit of personal devotion. This was alto- 
 gether unostentatious. So sensitive, indeed, Mas his dread
 
 THE REV. DR. M*ALL. 
 
 of everything that might be construed into cant and sancti- 
 moniousness, that in mixed companies he rather shrunk from 
 thrusting forward religious subjects into conversation, 
 though he would gladly embrace any natural opportunity for 
 their introduction, and would permit nothing against religion 
 to escape without becoming notice and exposure. He might at 
 times allow the apprehensiveness mentioned to carry him to the 
 extreme of reserve ; so that strangers to his character, judg- 
 ing of him from a single interview in such circumstances, 
 might have little means of discovering the depth of his per- 
 vading piety. He specially nauseated the practice, two pre- 
 valent in some circles, of making personal experience the theme 
 of colloquial gossip. He was slow to draw aside the veil of his 
 soul's sanctuary. But the God of the covenant was there 
 enshrined; and the homage rendered to Hun was not the 
 less sincere and fervent, that the sanctuary was not thrown open 
 to public gaze, nor the incense the less pure and fragrant, 
 that every passer-by was not invited to inhale its odour. 
 " My brother," says the Rev. Samuel M'All, " spent much 
 " of his time in devotion. He did not neglect those stated 
 " religious exercises, which seem essential to Christianity ; 
 " but his devotion was not confined to. them, nor did he 
 " profess to be a stranger to the difficulty of commanding 
 " the thoughts in prayer.* It is well known, that he lay 
 " sleepless a great part of every night ; and this time was 
 " usually filled up with communion with God; his thoughts 
 " (as he himself expressed it) naturally forming themselves 
 " into prayer. He had often, as he told me, found it profit- 
 " able, to sit alone in his study, in the evening, and without 
 " a light, to indulge in religious meditation. It may be 
 " truly said, that he spoke the things which he had felt, and 
 " tasted, and handled of the word of life, never imposing on 
 
 * I recollect, while transcribing his brother's words, his once speaking to me 
 in conversation respecting this difficulty, and, while he inquired my own prac- 
 tice, mentioning that he did not feel it necessary to assume always in prayer 
 the same posture the customary one of kneeling, but that sometimes, for 
 the sake of keeping the mind awake and active, he prayed standing, or walk- 
 ing to and fro in his study.
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " others duties from which he excused himself, nor offering 
 " consolations which had not their full influence on his own 
 " heart." 
 
 Of this devotional spirit various pleasing instances are 
 mentioned by correspondents ; and while they stand associated 
 with his benevolent interest in his brethren, especially when 
 called to new and trying service or exposed to special difficul- 
 ties, they show, at the same time, the value he set on the inter- 
 cessions of others for himself. " His devotional habits," writes 
 the Rev. John Ely, of Leeds, "were often incidentally brought 
 " to light, in the mention of those intercessions which he of- 
 " fered up for his friends. One example of this, involving 
 " many elements of true loveliness, occurred, when I was called 
 " upon to preach before the Missionary Society, in London. 
 " ' Fletcher,' he said, ' we must pray for Ely, that assistance 
 " may be given him on this great and trying occasion, that 
 " he may take his proper station in London.' This Mr. 
 " Fletcher reported to me at the time ; and I felt that, while 
 " it betokened his warmth of friendship, it proved how strong 
 " was his faith in the efficacy of prayer, and how habitually 
 " he carried every matter that interested him into his closet." 
 " As an illustration of his habits of devotion, and to show 
 " how he valued the prayers of the righteous," says Mr. 
 Griffin of Manchester, " let me remind you of the fact men- 
 " tioned recently by Mr. Knill. Being, on some occasion, 
 "in this town, Dr. M'All sent for him to his house; and, 
 " after conversation on Christian character and the work of the 
 " ministry, he said ' I have requested to see you, brother, 
 " that you may pray for me : let us go up into my study, 
 " and you shall pray for me.' " " Some of the sweetest and 
 " most solemn moments I have ever spent," says Mr. Fletcher, 
 " were in his society, in the adoption of what he called the 
 " Dual system that is, two Christian friends engaging to 
 " pray with each other. He proposed to me to act upon 
 " this plan, a proposition to which I gladly assented ; and 
 "several precious seasons have we thus enjoyed in each 
 " other's studies. On these occasions, in which there was 
 " the nearest approach to the secrecy of personal devotion,
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. clxtti 
 
 " without being quite alone, his heart, free from all restraint, 
 " seemed to unveil itself; and nothing could exceed the ten- 
 " derness, the humility, the affection, the holy warmth, and 
 "panting desires after celestial good, which characterized 
 " his prayers in those never-to-be-forgotten interviews." 
 
 This devout and prayerful spirituality of mind appears to 
 have grow r n rapidly, in the observation of his brethren, dur- 
 ing the later years of his life. " About two or three years 
 " ago," (I cite the same authority,) " before that morbid con- 
 " dition of his frame which at length terminated his life had 
 " gained so much ascendency, he seemed to me to be under 
 " the special and extraordinary influence of the Spirit of God. 
 " He had the most powerful impressions of spiritual things, 
 " and the deepest conviction of the inadequacy of our ordi- 
 " nary religious emotions : and there are many of my breth- 
 " ren who can bear witness to the warm and holy influences 
 " which emanated from him, tending to a revival of religion 
 " in all around him. At that period, for a space of two or 
 " three years, you could scarcely converse with him but his 
 " soul seemed all on fire with devout affections ; and he 
 " evinced a constant anxiety to stimulate and raise all his 
 " brethren to the attainment of a higher tone of piety. In 
 " the fraternal meetings of his brother ministers in Manches- 
 " ter, which were held at frequent intervals, he freely poured 
 " out the hallowed emotions of his soul, and inflamed us all 
 " with a warmer love to Christ and his cause. M'All never 
 " appeared greater or lovelier than among his brethren. In 
 " such a circle, where he was perfectly at home, he gave 
 " vent to the gushing feelings of his heart. The most holy 
 " and heavenly affections, associated with the most lofty and 
 " noble thoughts, and clothed in the richest diction, fell in 
 " exhaustless abundance from his lips, which seemed touched 
 "with the fire of the altar. His brother ministers in this 
 " town are accustomed to look back to these meetings, as 
 "perhaps the most hallowed and delightful seasons they ever 
 " enjoyed." 
 
 By the manifest advancement of his spirit in devout affec- 
 tions, in humbleness of mind, in communion with God,
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 in zeal for his glory, in compassion for perishing souls, 
 in conscious responsibility and deep feeling of the weight of 
 his trust, and in earnestness of desire to rouse to more 
 prayerful activity not his own energies alone but those of the 
 Christian ministry around him, it seemed as if the exalted 
 Head of the church were qualifying him still more fully for 
 a course of distinguished usefulness on earth. But " God's 
 ways are in the sea." There is a depth in his counsels of 
 which the line of our wisdom is too short to take the 
 soundings. He was " meetening him " (to use a favourite 
 term of his) for a higher sphere of service. He was send- 
 ing down the spirit of Heaven into his soul, to prepare 
 him for a final removal to its exercises and enjoyments. 
 And symptoms of this approaching crisis began to discover 
 themselves. His friends marked, with boding solicitude, the 
 increasing nervousness and exhaustion of his delicate frame, 
 preyed upon as it was by the wasting sensibilities of his 
 over-susceptible spirit. The keen edge was wearing out the 
 scabbard. 
 
 It now becomes more than ever necessary for me to write 
 in the language of others. For the mournfully pleasing details 
 of my lamented friend's illness and death, I must of course be 
 indebted to those who witnessed them; and to attempt 
 clothing them in other terms than those in which they have 
 been conveyed, partly to myself, and partly to the public, 
 would be a useless expenditure of pains, with a failure well- 
 merited by the presumption. Taking, therefore, as my autho- 
 rities, my esteemed friends Mr. Roberton and Dr. Raffles, 
 the former one of Dr. M' All's medical attendants, whose 
 professional skill, and whose intimacy to the last with his pas- 
 tor, associated with Christian principle, eminently qualified 
 him for correct observation and faithful record, and the 
 other, depicting what he had received from others, and what 
 he had himself witnessed, with a glow of feeling and of elo- 
 quence worthy of an occasion so tender, so solemn, so heart- 
 breaking, yet so rich in consolation, I shall, as far as possi- 
 ble, interweave paragraphs from each, in the order of time. 
 My readers, I am sure, whatever they may think of the
 
 THE REV. DR. M ( ALL. cl.XV 
 
 undue length of any former parts of my narrative, would, 
 with one voice, censure me for abbreviation here; the 
 closing scene being ever, in all its associations, with the 
 dead and with the living, with the past, the present, and the 
 future, the one that is felt to be of most absorbing interest. 
 And in such a case as the present, how many unwonted 
 elements combine to enhance the interest, and to put sacred 
 curiosity on the stretch ! I seem to hear, from a thousand 
 voices the demand Let nothing be omitted. I comply with 
 it. There is much in this, as in every case, that is neces- 
 sarily painful ; but, at the same time, there are blended with 
 the saddening detail traits of character so beautiful and touch- 
 ing, and views of the spiritual life, amid nature's sinking 
 energies and last alarms, so pregnant with all that is con- 
 firming to faith, and animating to hope, and cheering to sor- 
 row, that the entire scene becomes one of the most valuable 
 instruction, and delightful though distressing interest. 
 
 Having taken notice, in terms formerly quoted, of the pe- 
 culiarly morbid sensitiveness of his nervous temperament, 
 Mr. Roberton adds in illustration of it, and as one of the "cir- 
 " cumstances attending the commencement of his melancholy 
 "illness"" About the beginning of the year, 1838, I had 
 " noticed that his look was unusually anxious, the face some- 
 " times very pale and sometimes sallow, the brow wrinkled 
 "as if the head ached, and that the whole aspect evinced 
 "an uncomfortable and declining state of health. In the 
 " course of January and February, he had to take part in 
 " church business fitted to excite and disturb his feelings, 
 " and, from the length of some of the meetings, heavily to tax 
 " his bodily strength : business, such as probably would not 
 " have much disturbed one of a tranquil temperament, but cer- 
 " tain to overthrow the equanimity of my too sensitive friend." 
 Into the nature of the business here alluded to, and of the 
 sources of annoyance to his mind and detriment to his health 
 arising out of it, I am not sufficiently informed to enter ; 
 nor, if I were, would the statement or discussion of it be at 
 all in accordance with my inclination. 
 
 " It was early in March that the Doctor was seized with
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " acute rheumatism of the scalp a very painful complaint. 
 " Amongst other distressing attendants of this disorder, his 
 " sleeplessness was all but complete, his nights being spent 
 " in lying on the hearth-rug, with the back of the head to- 
 " wards the fire, in the hope of relief from the warmth. Un- 
 " happily, he could receive no relief from opiates or other 
 " narcotics, for they produced increased watchfulness, vomit- 
 " ing, and feelings of aggravated misery. About the end of 
 " March, the pains in the scalp were nearly gone ; leaving 
 " him, however, greatly enfeebled, emaciated, and haggard 
 " in looks. 
 
 " About the 20th of March, his only daughter, Eliza, in 
 " her nineteenth year, was taken with a disorder which 
 " speedily showed symptoms of mesenteric wasting. She 
 " had had attacks of illness in several successive springs, 
 " was slender and fragile, and delicate in health, but dear, 
 " and most justly, (for she was sweet-tempered, sincere, and 
 " pious,) to her father, whose affection for his children had 
 " always been perhaps excessive. This untoward event, as 
 " he was still an invalid, kept him such ; for his anxiety was 
 "extreme, and daily, if possible, increased. Eliza faded 
 " rapidly, and the father faded with her, losing flesh in a 
 " degree which seriously alarmed those who remarked the 
 "change."* 
 
 " On the evening of Easter Monday, April 16th, he was 
 " induced, in a very unfit state for such a duty, to preach in 
 "behalf of the Wesleyan Missions, in Oldharn Street chapel. 
 " That sermon will never be forgotten by any who had the 
 " privilege to hear it. * * * For a full hour he poured 
 " forth the strains of a most powerful and impassioned elo- 
 " quence, when, at the suggestion of one of the ministers, 
 " who saw the state of physical exhaustion to which he was 
 " reduced, a hymn was sung, after which he resumed, and 
 " continued for nearly another hour, to rivet the attention of 
 " his audience by a discourse of surpassing magnificence and 
 " splendour. 
 
 * Mr. Roberton.
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. 
 
 " But this service, so kindly and generously rendered to 
 K testify his regard a regard which he had never failed for 
 " a long series of years to cherish for a most important 
 " and influential body of professing Christians, was his last. 
 " From that time every effort was made that medical skill 
 " could devise, or the tenderest solicitude employ, to recruit 
 " his exhausted frame; but to no purpose. His active and 
 " susceptible mind, worn down by numberless anxieties and 
 " cares, so preyed upon his physical constitution, never 
 " vigorous, that the downward progress could not be eifec- 
 " tually arrested."* Of the kindness and generosity evinced 
 in rendering the service, there cannot be a doubt : of the 
 kindness of allowing it to be rendered, perhaps there may. 
 It looks cruel. Yet as he was sincerely and gratefully be- 
 loved by those who did allow it, I am bound to believe that 
 there were causes consistent with the law of love to justify 
 them. And, indeed, in what service could the "man of 
 God " more appropriately waste, or risk, or even lay down, 
 his life ? By what purer or worthier flame could the sacrifice 
 have been consumed? 
 
 " The air of Southport having proved beneficial to his 
 " daughter in the previous spring, thither, on the 6th of 
 " May, the family removed, and she appeared at first to be 
 " revived; but it was soon evident that she could not recover, 
 " and this her father must himself have discovered. During 
 " the eight weeks he remained at Southport, I paid him 
 " several visits, and at each I perceived a gradual declension, 
 " both in looks and in spirits. He still vomited his food 
 " nearly after every meal; there were pains in the limbs, 
 " which rendered walking difficult ; and his nights were 
 
 * Dr. Raffles. In the sentence which I have marked as omitted, the Dr. 
 speaks of the sermon (which is the closing one of the series in these volumes) 
 as having been " the last,'' and, as the last, " so the most glorious and 
 the most effective, of all his mental efforts." Now, without instituting any 
 comparison of the discourse with others, which would, in my judgment, bear 
 the test, I have mentioned in a note prefixed to it, that it appears to have 
 been delivered more than once before ; so that if by " mental efforts " are to 
 be understood efforts of thought hi composition, it was not the last.
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " nearly sleepless, he going from place to place in the 
 " house, and paying (as had been his custom at times, I 
 " believe, for years) silent visits to his children's bedrooms."* 
 At Southport, the particulars given by Dr. Raffles are of 
 exquisite interest : " Our mutual friend, the Rev. Richard 
 " Fletcher, has favoured me with a record of an interview 
 " which he enjoyed with him there. The occasion of his 
 " visit was, to present a letter of affectionate condolence, 
 " agreed upon by his ministerial brethren in Manchester, and 
 " also to convey to him an account of the proceedings and 
 " devotional exercises which took place at the last Missionary 
 " meeting, in reference to himself. He saw him on the even- 
 " ing of Friday, June 22d, and spent upwards of two hours 
 " with him. He looked very ill, and reclined restlessly on 
 " the sofa. His dear daughter at the time was in imminent 
 " danger, and her state becoming daily more hopeless. Mr. 
 " F. announced to him his errand, handed him the letter of 
 " the ministers, and the resolution of the public meeting, 
 " both of which, at his request, he read to him, and then 
 " gave him an account of the proceedings of the anniversary, 
 " especially of the breakfast, and of the unanimity, cordiality, 
 " warm affection, and deep sympathy, which characterized 
 " all that passed in reference to himself. * It is impossible 
 " for me,' says Mr. F., * to describe the emotions he betrayed, 
 " on receiving this communication. He seemed overwhelmed 
 " by this expression of public sympathy and brotherly affec- 
 " tion, and for a time was unable to give vent to his feelings. 
 " When he could speak, he expressed himself as utterly un- 
 " deserving of such marks of esteem and regard, as grateful 
 " to God for the place he had given him in the hearts of his 
 " ministers and people, as greatly soothed and comforted by 
 " public and fraternal sympathy, as anxious to have an op- 
 " portunity to testify his sense of such kindness, and as much 
 " encouraged and cheered by the prayers which had ascended 
 " to the throne of grace on his behalf.' 
 
 " Mr. Fletcher made many inquiries after his health ; and 
 
 Mr. Roberton.
 
 THE REV. DR. M<ALL. 
 
 " the Doctor described, accurately and fully, all his distress- 
 " ing symptoms and painful sufferings. He could not but be 
 " conscious of the greatness of his intellectual efforts, and the 
 " rapidity of his mental movements ; he felt their exhausting 
 " influence; and as he was aware that the physical material 
 " of his frame was originally slender, his opinion was, that 
 " his constitution was worn out. When Mr. F. expressed to 
 " him a hope that he might yet rally and be restored to them, 
 " he said, that it was very doubtful; he believed his case to 
 " be very critical, for he felt that the spring and elastic re- 
 " storative power of his constitution was gone. His general 
 "impression seemed to be, that he should not recover; an 
 *' impression confirmed by the circumstance that, while at 
 " Southport, in the full anticipation of a fatal issue, he gave 
 " the necessary directions for the making of his last Will and 
 " Testament, the disposal of his papers, and the final arrange- 
 " ment of all his worldly affairs. But, though such appeared 
 " to be the impression on his own mind, yet the affection of 
 " his brethren, which Mr. F. was commissioned to bear to 
 " him, and the prayers of the people of God which, he as- 
 " sured him, were offered for his recovery, seemed for a time 
 " to shake this conviction, to light up a gleam of hope, and 
 " to produce a temporary belief that God meant to renew his 
 " strength, and to give him back to us with renovated vigour 
 " and capacity for labour. Certainly he felt at the moment 
 " a stronger desire to recover than he had been conscious of 
 " for some time previous, that he might have an opportunity 
 " of reciprocating the affection that had been shown him, 
 " and live more than ever to the glory of God. 
 
 " When Mr. F. adverted to his complicated afflictions, and 
 " spoke of them as being the mysterious appointment of the 
 " infinitely wise God, and the gracious chastisements of his 
 " tenderest friend and heavenly Father, he delightfully re- 
 " sponded to the sentiment, and expressed his firm conviction 
 " that all was right, and his unrepining submission to the 
 " will of God. Referring to the religious state of his mind, 
 " he admitted the sense of discomfort he endured from his 
 " physical ailments, but assured his friend that his soul was
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " not bereft of the presence and support of his Saviour. The 
 " principles and views of divine truth which he had long 
 " maintained, and of which he was so able and distinguished 
 " an advocate, appeared to him, he said, in this season of 
 " suffering, in a stronger light of demonstration, if possible, 
 " than ever: nor had he the shadow of a doubt of his per- 
 " sonal interest in the great salvation. He was resting, he 
 " said, as a guilty sinner, upon Christ crucified, and in full 
 " assurance that he was 'accepted in the Beloved.' 
 
 " The dear invalid spoke with great feeling of the church 
 " and cause of God, of his brethren in the ministry, of his 
 " own flock, of the interests of religion in Manchester, in the 
 " county, and in the world. He expressed his wonder and 
 " gratitude that God should have honoured him by permit- 
 " ting him to work in his vineyard, stated his readiness 
 " and desire to labour more abundantly, and with more single- 
 " ness of eye to the glory of Christ, should it please God to 
 " restore him, and his equal readiness to retire from the 
 " field and enter into rest, should it appear to be the will of 
 " his Master that his work was done Such was the sub- 
 " stance of this deeply-interesting conversation. ' But, O ! 
 " could I give you,' adds Mr. F., ' his own expressions, 
 " adorned as they were by his usual splendour, felicity, and 
 " copiousness, and softened by additional tenderness and 
 " humility ! But that is impossible."* 
 
 " By the time of his leaving Southport, his countenance 
 " was wan and wrinkled, and his whole frame reduced to a 
 " mere skeleton On the 28th of June, I went and accom- 
 " panied the family home from Southport, it being thought 
 " desirable that Eliza, if possible, (for she was rapidly sink- 
 
 " ing,) should be got home alive As for the Doctor, he 
 
 " bore the journey well, rode in front of the omnibus which 
 " contained his daughter, and seemed happy throughout the 
 " day, delighted as he ever was with travelling. His con- 
 " vereation, I well remember, was lively and varied. He 
 " talked of the plants that abound in the neighbourhood of 
 
 * Dr. Raffles.
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. 
 
 " Southport, pointing out, as we rode, one or two which are 
 " rare. Indeed, his spirits kept up to the last. I was not 
 " present when he entered his own house, which was about 
 " seven in the evening; but one noticed that, as he stepped 
 " into the lobby, he cast around him a gloomy and despond- 
 " ing look, as if anticipating a house of mourning. On 
 " visiting him a couple of hours later, he said, on seeing me, 
 " ' Eliza is gone to bed quite comfortable; and I thank God 
 " and man that we are once again safely home.' 
 
 " July 5th. The Doctor's health still declines. He never 
 " leaves his bed, unless to visit the room of his fast-fading 
 " daughter. The night-nurse, on my asking one morning how 
 '-' he had slept, lifted up her hands, declaring emphatically that 
 " she had never before seen any one pass so miserable a night. 
 " On requesting her to explain, she said ' Why, he tossed 
 " about in the most extraordinary manner, sometimes in bed 
 "reclined, then sitting up and retching violently; next he 
 " would be out of bed in an easy chair ; then would go into 
 " the school-room, and lie on the sofa; thence into Robert's 
 " room, to recline on his bed; and lastly back again to his 
 " own couch.' It also appeared, he had, during that night, 
 " paid a visit to his daughter, whence he speedily returned 
 " in a state of indescribable agitation and distress. I asked 
 " how he was occupied. * He prays a great deal, Sir,' she 
 " replied, ' chiefly for his daughter's recovery.' I further 
 " was induced to ask if, in the midst of so much suffering 
 " and sleeplessness, he did not display some degree of irrita- 
 " bility of temper a question I put through curiosity chiefly, 
 "for, contrary to my expectation, I had been struck with 
 " his singular patience, but fancied he might lay himself 
 " under restraint in the presence of his medical attendants. 
 " Her answer was ' Not irritable in the least, I assure you, 
 " Sir ; he is always patient, and grateful for everything that 
 " is done for him.' 
 
 " During his sickness, he rarely indulged in conversation 
 " of a religious kind, partly, I imagine, from modesty and 
 " natural reserve, and partly from the depressing nature of his 
 " complaint. A few expressions, however, indicative of the
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 " state of his mind toward God, dropped from Mm at different 
 " times in my hearing, and these I shall chiefly mention 
 " After his return with his family from Southport, I had 
 " reason to fear that he entertained some hopes of his daugh- 
 " ter's recovery. On the 2d or 3d of July (about three or 
 " four days before her decease) he said to me, as I sat beside 
 " his bed ' Don't you think Eliza is better ?' I replied 
 " * No : I fear she is getting rapidly weaker.' He seemed 
 " surprised and shocked, remarking that those about her 
 "had thought her better; 'but,' said he, 'she is in the 
 " hands of her merciful Lord, and there I desire to leave her.' 
 
 " July 5th. Eliza visibly near her end. The Doctor 
 " tranquil apparently, but his looks indicating inward dis- 
 " tress. He informed me he had had some conversation with 
 " Eliza the preceding evening, in the course of which she 
 " said to him ' Papa, I could wish you to recover for use- 
 " fulness; but I think I shall soon see you; I think we 
 " shall soon meet :' words which evidently had produced a 
 "peculiar impression on her father, for he repeated them in 
 " a way that was very solemn. 
 
 " July 6th. At half past 7, A. M. Eliza departed in peace. 
 " About 8 o'clock, I called, and found the Doctor laid on his 
 " bed, with his distressed wife sitting by, and his son. He 
 " was calm and collected, expressing great concern for Mrs. 
 " M'All. For his part, he said, he felt pretty well; but he 
 " requested my special attention to be given to her, as he 
 " feared that she would break down, now that the stimulus 
 " which kept her up was withdrawn. In reference to 
 " his departed daughter, he calmly said ' If a word of 
 " mine were sufficient to call her back again, that word I 
 " would not utter, if I might.' In the afternoon of that day, 
 " he had a couple of hours sleep, and awoke with a new 
 " symptom, a difficulty of breathing and a sense of constric- 
 " tion in the chest, as if a hoop were girded round it. 
 
 " July 7th, morning. I found him so weak as to be all 
 "but dead. The preceding night, the nurse assured me, 
 " was distressing in a degree beyond her power to describe. 
 " The retching, which had for so many weeks teased him,
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. clxxtii 
 
 " was gone ; but now the difficult breathing, and a sense of 
 " strangulation in the throat, were the causes of his sufferings. 
 " He was lying quietly on the bed in Robert's room, par- 
 " tially dressed, breathing better than for some hours pre- 
 " viously : but his countenance was ghastly, his pulse feeble 
 " and rapid, his whole aspect evincing a frightful state of 
 " exhaustion. His mind, however, was calm and collected. 
 " After giving utterance to a variety of kind expressions of 
 " gratitude for the assistance and attentions he was receiving 
 " expressions in which it was his daily delight to indulge, 
 " I said, thinking the tone of his remarks to be rather too 
 " desponding ' It will not do for us to have many such 
 " nights as the last, if a remedy can be thought of : you are 
 " indeed sadly exhausted and broken down this morning.' 
 " ' Yes,' he exclaimed with emphasis, ' I am broken in pieces 
 " like a potsherd ; but I am a potsherd that has ceased to 
 " strive with its Maker.'* After a pause, he said ' I will 
 " make no foolish resolutions ; that would be very wrong : 
 " but I think, or rather I hope, that should it please God to 
 " restore me once more to health, I should improve my time 
 " more than hitherto more to his glory.' These latter sen- 
 " timents were uttered with much calmness and serenity of 
 " manner, notwithstanding the excessive weakness which 
 " prevented him from speaking audibly except by an effort. 
 
 " On the following day the 8th the illness had increased 
 " to the most alarming pitch. From that day onward, my 
 " visits were paid in company with his other medical attend- 
 " ants a circumstance which prevented nearly all inter- 
 " course with him, as far as I was concerned, beside what 
 " was professional."! 
 
 About this time, change of air being wished, and a 
 lengthened journey impracticable, he was removed from his 
 own house to Swinton Park, the residence of his friend 
 James Knight Heron, Esq.; where he remained till his death. 
 And there, had it been in the ability of human care to 
 
 * A beautifully touching allusion to Isa. xlv. 9. 
 f Mr. Roberton. 
 
 y
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 save him, that death would not have arrived. All the 
 friends of the departed unite fervently in the grateful feel- 
 ings expressed by Dr. Raffles for the kindness experienced 
 by him under this more than hospitable roof. " I can never 
 " think of that spot, without calling to remembrance the 
 " tender, the unwearied, the unremitting attentions, which, 
 " with even more than ordinary fraternal affection, were 
 " rendered to the beloved sufferer, especially by two mem- 
 " bers of the excellent family by whom it is inhabited, and 
 " one other of a kindred spirit with themselves, who under- 
 " took with them the anxious post of observation, and night 
 " and day made it their one undivided care to minister to his 
 " comfort, anticipate his wants, and soothe and allay, as far 
 " as such tender assiduities could accomplish the design, the 
 " languor and the restlessness of increasing debility and ap- 
 " proaching death." Here he enjoyed the constant attend- 
 ance of those eminent medical gentlemen, to whom, in union 
 with himself, Mr. Roberton above refers. The air too was 
 here salubrious, and the surrounding scenery beautiful. " He 
 " was enabled to take a few rides in an open carriage; and 
 " once he was allowed to sit under a sunny bank in the 
 " garden, where he seemed to enjoy, with a peculiar zest, the 
 " exhilarating influence of the season, and the fragrance that 
 " breathed around him." Thus there were " occasional 
 gleams of hope." They were but gleams however. It 
 was now the time when " the clouds return after the rain." 
 And these clouds thickened from day to day, till no ray of 
 lingering hope could find an opening. 
 
 The incidental circumstances which remain to be related 
 appear to have been gathered as precious gleanings from 
 time to time, without any precise date, except in one instance, 
 having been affixed to them in the memory. They are rich 
 in instructive interest. 
 
 Although Mr. Roberton ceased, in consequence of the joint 
 attendance of others, to have opportunities of easy personal 
 communication, he has preserved a note of what passed in 
 presence of all the three medical gentlemen, at a visit paid by 
 them ten days before the fatal close, which must not be omit-
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. cbtXV 
 
 ted: " Tuesday morning, July 17th. Found the Doctor had 
 "passed a dreadful night, from embarrassed breathing and 
 " entire sleeplessness. When we entered his room, he sat, 
 " raised up in bed, and wore a look of the greatest con- 
 " ceivable exhaustion. After we had stood for a few moments 
 " around the bed, he addressed us separately, beginning with 
 " Dr. Robinson, and taking the hand of each in turn as he 
 " spoke. The words, as nearly as we can remember, were 
 " l Dr. Robinson, I gratefully thank you for your great kind- 
 " ness, and for all your attentions to me. You little thought, 
 " I dare say, when you visited me a few weeks ago at South- 
 " port, that you would see me so soon in the state in which I 
 " now am : however, you have done your best, and I thank 
 " you. And there is Dr. Lyon : I also most sincerely 
 " thank him, who, like an ancient friend, has re-appeared, 
 " and joined himself with you, to do whatever in him lay for 
 " my comfort and recovery.* And you, Mr. Roberton, my 
 " kind and tried friend, you, I know, have long done what 
 " you could for me by day and by night. But, gentlemen, 
 " it all avails not. I may be wrong ; but I cannot but feel 
 " I judge by my feelings that lam sinking into the arms 
 " of death.' Here he made a considerable pause, owing to 
 " breathlessness. He resumed : ' Gentlemen, I am no 
 " fanatic ; rather I have been too much of a speculatist : 
 " and I wish to say this, which I hope you will all forgive 
 " me for uttering in your presence, I am a great sinner, I 
 " have been a great sinner ; but my trust is in Jesus Christ 
 " and what he has done and suffered for sinners. Upon this, 
 " as the foundation of my hope, I can confidently rely, now 
 " that I am sinking into eternity :' And again he apologized 
 " for the great liberty he feared he had taken in talking to 
 "us in such a strain. Seeing him so greatly exhausted, we 
 " left the apartment." 
 
 The reader will perceive, in this statement, the fidelity of 
 a dying minister of Christ, solicitous to leave his testimony to 
 the gospel which he had spent his life in preaching, as now sus- 
 
 * " Dr. Lyon had been his fellow-student in Edinburgh."
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 taining him in death ; and anxious to leave that testimony 
 unassociated with any suspicion of nervous hallucination or 
 mental imbecility, and to deliver it in such a way as, instead 
 of giving offence, would insure the impression of its being 
 dictated by the spirit of grateful kindness, and of solicitude 
 for the honour and the recommendation of the truth of God. 
 It may be remarked too, how to the last he retains, along 
 with affectionate fidelity, his characteristic courtesy. If ever 
 it went to an extreme, perhaps it was now. If there are any 
 circumstances in which liberty of speech ceases to be presump- 
 tion, or to require apology, they are surely those of the dying 
 man on the verge of eternity. But politeness was in our friend's 
 very nature. And he was well aware too of the truth of 
 the adage " A soft word breaketh the bone." 
 
 The last interview of the Rev. Richard Fletcher with his 
 dying friend, as communicated by him to Dr. Raffles, im- 
 parts a still more delightful assurance of the firmness and 
 animation of his faith and hope. It was at a time when he 
 was appallingly " death-struck" and oppressed : " As Mr. 
 " Fletcher entered the room, he lifted up his eyes, and 
 " stretched out his hands to him, saying, ' Ah, Richard 
 " Fletcher, my faithful friend,' and embraced him. ' My 
 " outward_man, you perceive, is decaying day by day.' ' Yes,' 
 " Mr. F. replied, ' but I hope the inward man is daily re- 
 " newed.' ' I trust it is,' he answered. As well as he could, 
 " he expressed a wish that he should bear some message to 
 " his brethren, the ministers. He said, ' My brethren ' 
 " * What,' Mr. F. replied, wishing as much as possible to 
 " anticipate his meaning, and save him the pain of speaking, 
 " What shall I say to them ? All that is affectionate ?' 
 " ' Yes,' said he, and 'grateful' He asked him if the gos- 
 " pel he had preached to others now occupied his thoughts, 
 " and was dear to his heart ? ' Yes,' he said, with a smile, 
 " ' its VERY CORE, I cannot now trouble myself with its en- 
 " velopments.' Mr. F. observed, that he trusted he felt his 
 " soul safe, securely resting on the true foundation. He an- 
 " swered, ' Aye , on oaths, and promises, and blood.' When 
 " Mr. F. remarked that this was a mysterious dispensation of
 
 THE KEY. DR. M<ALL. 
 
 " Providence, he said, * His will be done in heaven and on 
 " earth.' As far as his broken heart and flowing tears would 
 " allow, Mr. F. prayed with him, and when he closed, the 
 " Doctor said, solemnly and slowly, ' Amen Amen Amen;' 
 " and, after a short pause, again ' Amen' 
 
 " Describing" (to one of those kind and faithful friends 
 who waited on him so assiduously during his illness) " the 
 " closing scene of his dear Eliza's life, he said, ' Dear girl, 
 " she had to pass indeed through a dark valley, but there 
 " were bright, bright prospects at the end of it. No hallu- 
 " cinations, but bright prospects.' There was a remarkable 
 " coincidence of circumstances, indicating the perfect com- 
 " posure with which both viewed the advance of death. 
 " Eliza, the night before her decease, requested that all lights 
 " might be removed, that all persons would leave the room, 
 " and that she might be left entirely alone. Such also was 
 " more than once the request of her beloved father, when the 
 " night appeared most likely to be his last. Often, amidst 
 " that distressing restlessness which attended his complaint, 
 " he entreated that patience might be afforded to him ; and 
 " often, when unable to obtain a moment's rest, he would 
 " pray, and request his friends to pray, that he might have 
 " power to recline, or to sleep, or to breathe, as his wants at 
 " the time might dictate, remarking that he thought it not 
 " sinful to pray even for so small a mercy as power to re- 
 " cline without restlessness. Once, about that time, he 
 " quoted the passage, ' I will make all his bed in his sickness, 
 " and added, ' What infinite condescension, to promise, / 
 " will make his bed. How beautiful ! Who but one situ- 
 " ated as I am can tell the sweetness and importance of a 
 " bed prepared with care, unable as I am to repose ?' 
 
 " To a young friend who visited him he said, ' Let me 
 " speak to you while I am able ; I may not be so long, per- 
 " haps not again.' He then exhorted him to prepare for 
 " death, by giving himself to God in his early youth. He 
 " alluded to a former conversation he had had with him, and 
 " said he remembered all that had passed, and then added, 
 " * What do you think I could now do, if I had to prepare
 
 LIKE AND CHARACTEK OF 
 
 "for eternity, in my present state of pain and restless- 
 " ness?' 
 
 " He had a keen relish for the beauties of nature ; and a 
 " touching instance of it was afforded during his abode at 
 " Swinton. Sitting in the garden on one occasion, already 
 " alluded to I believe the only one in which he was enabled 
 " to enjoy this luxury he was presented with a piece of 
 " sweet-briar, when he said, ' Did you ever see any sweet- 
 " briar hedges growing in the country lanes ? I have often 
 *' risen in the morning very early, and walked for hours in 
 " their neighbourhood to enjoy their fragrance, which, when 
 " the dew is upon the leaves, is particularly fine.' He then 
 " quoted an exquisite passage from Milton's Z,' Allegro, and 
 " passing from this, in language too beautiful to be remem- 
 " bered, he expatiated at considerable length on the blessed- 
 " ness and glory of the heavenly state, the variety of its 
 " engagements, and the perfect harmony that pervades the 
 " whole. He was powerfully excited, and the little group 
 " which had gathered round him were melted into tears, for 
 " they were reminded of some of his happiest closing ad- 
 " dresses from the pulpit, when there seemed to be something 
 " angelic in the tone of his feeling, and almost in his very 
 " form. 
 
 " Another lengthened conversation, principally on his part, 
 " is remembered with hallowed delight. In it he entered 
 " fully into his own views and feelings, in words which can- 
 " not indeed be preserved, but the impression of which will 
 " ever remain ; such deep humility, such simple reliance on 
 " the merits of Christ, and such lowly and mean views of 
 " himself, as to what he then was, all he had been, all he 
 " had done ; such confessions of sinfulness ! and then his 
 " gratitude for all his people had done ; his present circum- 
 " stances, and calm, undoubting, unhesitating confidence, in 
 " his own absolute safety ! 
 
 " The day succeeding this conversation was an agonizing 
 " day. The doctors appeared to have abandoned hope. He 
 " took an affectionate farewell of the partner of his bosom, 
 *' his beloved son, his affectionate friends. It is impossible
 
 THE REV. DR. M'ALL. 
 
 " to detail all that passed on that memorable day, and to de- 
 " scribe the anxiety which he evinced that his death might 
 " be blessed to all around him, and prove the life, the spirit- 
 " ual and eternal life, of others. Turning to one of his 
 " young friends, who had been in kind and constant attend- 
 " ance upon him, to whom he was much attached, and for 
 " whose eternal welfare he felt and cherished the deepest so- 
 " licitude, he said with great earnestness, ' Promise me, 
 " promise me, that you will meet me at the last day with an 
 " unclouded brow.' ' Look me in the eye,' he said, ' and 
 "promise me;' nor would he rest satisfied till he had re- 
 " ceived an unequivocal reply. 
 
 " " To his dear wife he said, on one occasion, amongst many 
 " other things, * Sarah, if I die this night, remember I die 
 " in perfect peace with all mankind, and in the sure and cer- 
 " tain hope of a blessed immortality.' And then extending 
 " his hands, he said, ' These hands are filled with love ! 
 " Mind, I have no quarrel with any man f 
 
 " Once, as he lay with closed eyes, apparently asleep, he 
 " suddenly lifted up his hands and eyes, and exclaimed 
 
 ' A guilty, helpless wretch am I ! 
 Yet Jesus died for me.' 
 
 " He was much in silent prayer, and often his lips were 
 " seen to move when no sound was uttered. Chapters of 
 " scripture were frequently read to him ; he delighted to 
 "listen to them; they had a soothing influence upon his 
 " mind; and much consolation he derived especially from the 
 " 14th to the 17th chapters of St. John, which were repeat- 
 " edly read in his hearing. 
 
 " My own feelings will not suffer me to dwell at any 
 " length upon the last interview which I was privileged to 
 " enjoy with my beloved and lamented friend ; and yet I 
 " cannot consent, on this mournful occasion, to suffer it to 
 " pass away without some notice, however brief. I had re- 
 " frained from visiting, or even writing to him, understand- 
 " ing that he was too weak to endure the smallest excite- 
 " ment, though of a pleasurable kind, and reluctant to do
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 "any thing that might in the slightest possible degree con- 
 " tribute to retard, even for a moment, a restoration I so ar- 
 " dently desired. But when the public prints told me that 
 " death had actually entered into his domestic circle, and 
 " taken from his arms the child he so tenderly loved, I could 
 " refrain no longer, but sent to the sorrowing parents the 
 " expression of my condolence and sympathy ; and the first 
 " moment I could seize, I hastened to the scene of his own 
 " personal suffering. I did not see him on my first visit, it 
 " not being deemed prudent that I should ; but the follow - 
 " ing day I was summoned to him, from an impression, on 
 " the part of his surrounding friends, that his end was ra- 
 " pidly approaching. In this mournful visit I was accom- 
 " panied by my most excellent friend, the Rev. J. A. James. 
 " We saw him together that evening (Tuesday, July 17th), 
 " but O, what a sight! Death was on his countenance; but 
 " never shall I forget the affection of his look as he gazed 
 " upon me, or the warmth of his embrace when he pressed 
 "me to his bosom ! nor will it be possible for any lapse of 
 " time to obliterate from the memory of either of us the 
 " touching and impressive things he uttered. ' O,' said he, 
 " ' my dear brethren, O that I could give expression to some 
 " of the sentiments and thoughts which at this moment fill 
 "my heart, even to bursting!' and after a pause, (for he 
 " spoke with extreme difficulty, panting for breath,) he add- 
 " ed, ' You see in me such an utter negation of all goodness, 
 " that I do not suppose it could be surpassed, even if the 
 " universe were burnt up to its last fragment, its last cinder; 
 " and yet, if the great and glorious God has condescended 
 " to make such a feeble, worthless creature as I am, in any 
 " measure, an instrument in the promotion of his glory, O 
 " what a wonder ! what a miracle !' 
 
 " I sat up with him that night, but he had no sleep. We 
 " prayed for it, but the boon was withheld. Still, however, 
 " there seemed to be a change for the better in the course of 
 " the night ; and about four in the morning, just as I had 
 " finished reading one chapter, and was about to commence 
 " another, he said, * I want to ask you a question. You
 
 THE REV. DR. M*ALL. clxxxi 
 
 " have seen how much God has enabled me to bear. Now, if it 
 " should be, after all, His will that I should recover, and be re- 
 " stored to health, how ought I to welcome it ? You know I 
 " have a desire to depart ; is that sinful ? may I have a prefer- 
 " ence ?' I answered, 'Yes; assuredly you may. The Apostle 
 " had, and it was not sinful in him ; but it would be sinful in 
 " you if you suffered your inclination to interfere with the will of 
 " God.' ' Ah !' said he, ' that's right.' Presently he spoke 
 " again, ' But should I be restored, it is highly probable that my 
 " restoration will be long and tedious, and I shall have much to 
 " suffer yet. How shall I endure it without murmuring and re- 
 " pining ?' I told him, ' that in this he did not manifest his 
 " Usual wisdom. It was accumulating upon the burthens of to- 
 " day the burthens of to-morrow. He should leave the future, 
 " assured that He who had enabled him to endure so much, 
 " could, and would, enable him to endure whatever else he might 
 " be called to suffer.' 
 
 " In the morning when the medical men came, the favourable 
 " symptoms which had appeared in the night were so decided, 
 " that I believe they began to perceive, or thought they per- 
 " ceived, some faint gleam of hope, a possibility, at least, that 
 " he might recover ; and under this cheering impression I re- 
 " turned to Liverpool. But O, how fallacious was the hope ! 
 " I had seen him for the last time in the body ! and when I 
 " repaired again to the chamber where I left him, it was to gaze 
 " upon his lifeless clay ! 
 
 " July 27th. THIS MORNING my revered friend died, at 
 "HALF-PAST TWO O'CLOCK: so calmly departing, that those 
 " about him failed to notice the precise moment when the change 
 " took place." 
 
 Yes ; but HE LIVES : lives, more emphatically, and in a far 
 higher meaning of the term, than ere he died. He died, to live. 
 Life, in scripture, is not mere existence, but happy existence ; 
 and the perfection of happiness is the perfection of life. Perfect 
 knowledge, perfect purity, perfect liberty, perfect love, perfect 
 joy these combined are perfect life, the life enjoyed in paradise 
 on earth, the life enjoyed " more abundantly" in the paradise of 
 
 z
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 Heaven. This life our departed friend lias obtained ; and lie 
 envies us not the half-death half-life of the present world. Let 
 the assurance of this be the solace how sweetly satisfying ! of 
 his surviving widow, and family, and friends. The Redeemer's 
 words may, in the spirit of them, be applied to the departure of 
 each one of his servants and people " If ye loved me, ye would 
 rejoice, because I said I go to the Father.' 1 Our friend has only 
 reached before us the Home of the ransomed family. To him to 
 live was Christ : to die has been gain. It is gain to the Chris- 
 tian, not merely when his pilgrimage below has been a scene of 
 more than ordinary temporal or spiritual privation and suffering, 
 but even when the present life, both temporally and spiritually, 
 has been enjoyed in its " best estate." We are apt, in forming 
 and stating this estimate, to take too low ground. In proving 
 death to be gain, we paint the present life too much in shadows. 
 To do Heaven and the life to come justice, we should throw all 
 the light upon our picture of the " life that now is' 1 that our 
 present imperfect state will admit : we should suppose all that 
 can be enjoyed, with as small an admixture as is supposable of 
 what must necessarily be endured. Still " to die,"" when death 
 is a transition from earth to heaven, will be "gain 11 gain beyond 
 computation, beyond conception. 
 
 And even the " lifeless clay 11 shall not be always lifeless. 
 There shall yet be breathed into it the breath of a second life. 
 " This corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal 
 immortality. 11 " Death shall be swallowed up in victory. 11 
 The whole man, redeemed unto God by the blood of his Son, 
 the soul from the death of sin, and the body from the death 
 of the grave, shall "enter into life" life eternal. O the 
 meanness of their conceptions of human nature, the un- 
 enviable contractedness of their spirits, who limit man's exist- 
 ence to his present short and ever-precarious condition, and 
 fancy him, when he dies, to " return to the earth as he was,' 1 
 without a living " spirit to return to God who gave it ! " 
 The revelation which " brings life and immortality to light " 
 bears the stamp of divinity in tfee very dignity and grandeur 
 of its discoveries. What majesty there is in a conscious 
 immortality ! And what sublime enjoyment to a creature
 
 THE REV. DR. M*ALL. 
 
 endowed with reason, to have the full assurance from his 
 Creator of his living in possession of an interminable exist- 
 ence, and from his Sovereign and Judge, of an existence 
 whose happiness is secured to him, though fallen, guilty, and 
 unworthy? by mediatorial mercy, and by the faithful promise 
 of a covenant ratified in Heaven and sealed with the blood 
 of a divine propitiation ! 
 
 Many are the topics that crowd into the mind on such an 
 occasion, soliciting notice, on which it would be a pleasant 
 indulgence to expatiate. I might speak of the unimaginable 
 strangeness of the transition of the disembodied spirit: of 
 the unsearchable mysteries of providence: of the "strong 
 consolations" of the gospel: of the value of the example 
 of faithful ministers : of the practical uses, for time and 
 for eternity, of afflictions and death. But my task has 
 already extended greatly too far to admit of such expatiation. 
 I shall close with one or two brief reflections, of a different 
 kind. 
 
 1. What a happy thing it is, that the gospel comes into 
 so little compass! Often have I felt this, when visiting the 
 sick and the dying. When I have found the mind incapable 
 of vigorous, expansive, or continuous thought, O how thank- 
 ful have I been that the gospel is so short and so simple! 
 that the elementary truths, which give peace to the conscience 
 arid hope to the heart, can be stated in so few words! There 
 is divine wisdom and divine kindness in this. There are 
 short sentences which contain, essentially, all that a sinner 
 needs to know, to give him a sense of pardon and confidence 
 towards God. " The wages of sin is death; but the gift of 
 God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord:" "This 
 is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ 
 Jesus came into the world to save sinners even the chief:" 
 " This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life; 
 and this life is in his Son : he that hath the Son hath life ; 
 he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." These, and 
 others of a like description, are precious sentences. These 
 are what the dying " man of God" so emphatically denomi- 
 nated the CORE, the VERY CORE, of the gospel. And if even
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 a mind like his, of such penetration, amplitude, and energy, 
 was fain to have recourse to the core of the gospel, and 
 " could not now trouble itself with its envelopments," how 
 invaluable the fact that the gospel has a core, has simple 
 elements, that constitute its essence, which are easy to be 
 understood, and enough to be the soul's food and life, inde- 
 pendently of those kindred doctrines, which, though in close 
 association with it, are not indispensable to its apprehension, 
 its envelopments, not itself! What a ground of gratitude 
 this, when connected with the declaration " To the poor 
 the gospel is preached !" 
 
 2. Connected with this is the striking fact, that in the 
 hour which is sure and common to all, the hour of nature's 
 last conflict and most pressing exigency, the hour when the 
 mind is shut up to one point, and that point peace icith God 
 and hope for eternity, that in that hour all minds come 
 to be so very much on a level, in regard to what imparts 
 their confidence It is the same truth, in all its simplicity, 
 that gives it to the greatest as well as to the least, and to 
 the least as well as to the greatest. It is most instructive 
 and interesting, to see how minds of the largest grasp and 
 mightiest power, when they come to this hour of trial and 
 of final decision, when passing through the valley of the 
 shadow of death, anticipating eternity, and conflicting single- 
 handed with the last enemy, have recourse to the same 
 simple elements of divine truth, that are the springs of 
 peace to the very weakest of the " babes in Christ !" I 
 have been mightily struck with this, in the biographies of 
 some of the most distinguished of our modern divines of 
 Fuller, of Hall, and now, last not least, of M'All. Look 
 to the terms in which they express the ground of their 
 everlasting hopes. Although, from previously knowing the 
 character of their minds, you of course conceive thoughts 
 of a higher order associated with those terms, and although 
 at times there may be corruscations of brilliant sentiment 
 emitted that indicate the undying light within, yet sub- 
 stantially they are the very same in which "poor Joseph" 
 expressed the ground of his : " ' It is a faithful saying, and
 
 THE REV. DR. M { ALL. clxXXV 
 
 worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the 
 world to save sinners' and why not Joseph?"* What 
 dying sinner can say more? I mean not that the minds 
 are equal, that were folly; but that, as the greatest and 
 the least stand on the same ground of condemnation, they 
 must stand also on the same ground of acceptance; so 
 that he who has traversed the whole round of theological 
 learning, has explored its depths and scaled its heights, 
 has argued with metaphysical acumen, and illustrated with 
 matchless eloquence, all its points, has read and has writ- 
 ten volumes upon volumes, when he comes to the test of 
 a dying hour, is shut up to all the simplicity of the " faith- 
 ful saying." This is what he needs, equally with the least; 
 and this is what the least, equally with him, enjoys. And 
 the perfectly child-like submissiveness with which master- 
 minds in Israel have avouched their reliance on the most 
 rudimental elements of the truth, is among the marks of 
 its divinity. It shows that, in the one point of need, in 
 which all are alike, and which, in all cases equally, the 
 gospel is intended to meet, the adaptation of means to end 
 is perfect. 
 
 3. It is a fact not less extraordinary, and not less preg- 
 nant with evidence of the divine origin of the gospel, that 
 it never yet has had a dying penitent I mean, any one, in 
 the hour of dissolution, repenting of having trusted to it. I 
 call attention to the fact. The gospel is the only system 
 of which this can be affirmed; and the fact is without 
 exception. I am in the full recollection, when I say so, 
 of the many believers who have passed through the valley 
 of the shadow of death in mental depression and gloom, 
 and whose fears have encompassed them even to the last. 
 But these are not exceptions to the fact; they are confirma- 
 tions of it. For whence has the gloom of these believers 
 arisen ? what has drawn the cloud over their souls ? 
 what has engendered their fears? Has it been any appre- 
 hension, starting up within them, of the solidity of the 
 
 * Sec the simple and affecting little Tract, entitled " Poor Joseph."
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 gospel foundation of hope? any doubt of its being trust- 
 worthy? any conviction, or even any suspicion, forced upon 
 them in this testing-time of human confidences, of its being, 
 after all, not rock, as they had fancied, but sand a delusion 
 _ a "refuge of lies?" The very reverse. Their doubts 
 have not been about it, but about themselves! The question 
 has not been about the security of the foundation, but about 
 the fact of their having built upon it : not about the suffi- 
 ciency of Christ, but about the reality of their interest in 
 him : not about the soundness of the hope, but about their 
 scriptural warrant to entertain it. That is a very different 
 matter. So far from repenting in the end their having 
 trusted to the gospel, their bitter regrets and their heart- 
 sinking fears are all about the reality of their trust. Their 
 hearts misgive them, whether under the morbid operation 
 of physical causes, or of mystical obscurity in their views of 
 truth, when they think of their past profession. They 
 fear they fear that they may have been self-deceived, 
 fancying themselves Christ's, when they were " none of 
 his." But regrets, lamentations, anxieties, and fears, spring- 
 ing from such sources, bear testimony, not against the gos- 
 pel, but for it. I ask for an instance of any individual, in 
 perfect possession of his mental powers, unaffected by any 
 morbid hallucinations, and in the full prospect of death, ex- 
 pressing regret for the folly, or repentance for the sin, of 
 having believed and followed Christ; disowning the foun- 
 dation on which he has rested through life, as now seen, 
 in the searching light of its closing hour, to be false and 
 unstable. Infidelity, and every system of human framing, 
 have had their dying penitents by thousands. How comes 
 it, that the gospel has had none? If it were itself human, 
 how should it have this extraordinary distinction from all 
 else that is human? Many are the schemes, with which 
 men have made shift to live, but which have misgiven them 
 when they have come to die. The last enemy is a ruthless 
 inquisitor. Many a time has he shown what a power he 
 possesses of detecting to the mind the sophistries by which 
 it had flattered itself in error, and of exposing to the con-
 
 THE REV. DR. M C ALL. 
 
 science the flimsiness of its favourite refuges. Even in the 
 valley of the shadow of death, there is often a revealing 
 light, which compels the sinner to see what he had been 
 shutting his eyes against before, and awakens him to a 
 late and appalling sense of his infatuation. How comes 
 it, then, that to no one mind has Death, in the hour of his 
 dread inquisition, ever made the discovery of the insuffi- 
 ciency and delusiveness of the gospel? How comes it that of 
 this foundation the hollowness, the unsoundness, the sandy 
 instability, has never been exposed, and the fool who has 
 trusted to it been convinced too late of his folly? Is there 
 not something extraordinary in this? that of all systems 
 this should be the only one that has stood the scrutiny of 
 death, and the test of anticipated judgment? Let the infidel 
 account for it. To me it appears as the seal of the God 
 of Heaven to his own truth; evincing its divine adaptation to 
 all our nature's consciousnesses, and to all our nature's exigen- 
 cies, and peculiarly in the hour of that nature's extremity. 
 It proves itself, in this unvarying experience, to have pro- 
 ceeded from Him who " knoweth what is in man." 
 
 " I own to you," says Sir James Mackintosh,* " that I 
 prefer the old custom of prefixing a modest preface by way 
 of memoir, to the modern practice of writing huge narratives 
 of lives in which there are no events; which seems to me a 
 tasteless parade, and a sure way of transmitting nothing to 
 posterity." Should my readers think that I have gone beyond 
 the due limit of such " modest prefaces," I flatter myself that, 
 when my subject is considered, the extent of my trespass will 
 not be deemed so flagrant as to render it unpardonable. The 
 incidents of a life like that which has been under review are 
 necessarily neither very numerous, very diversified, nor very 
 extraordinary. Such as they are, it has been my endea- 
 vour, not merely to record them with impartiality, but to 
 place them in those lights in which they might best answer 
 the ends of eliciting illustrations of character, and of suggest- 
 
 Letter to Dr. Gregory, in Preface to Mr. Hall's Works.
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF REV. DR. M*ALL. 
 
 ing profitable reflections. On the success of the endeavour, 
 it is for others to pronounce. My prayer is, that the influ- 
 ence of the Divine Spirit may so accompany it, as that God's 
 servants and people may be roused to emulation: "THAT 
 
 THEY BE NOT SLOTHFUL, BUT FOLLOWERS OF THEM WHO, 
 THROUGH FAITH AND PATIENCE, INHERIT THE PROMISES."
 
 PREFATORY NOTICES. 
 
 THESE relate to a variety of topics, and shall be very briefly 
 despatched. 
 
 I. MANUSCRIPTS. I regard it as a happy providential ap- 
 pointment, that, ere he died, the consent of my lamented 
 friend was obtained to the publication of such of his Manu- 
 scripts as might be deemed worthy of the public eye. It 
 would have been distressing, had no liberty been felt to raise 
 any monument to his memory from materials of his own. 
 The discourses, however, now published, will be subject, in 
 one respect at least, to much more than the ordinary draw- 
 back on what is posthumous. They will miss the living 
 voice, in a degree very rarely equalled. They who ever 
 heard him during his life, will hear him still, now that he is 
 dead; their imagination supplying the speaker, while they 
 read. Readers who never enjoyed this pleasure should not 
 forget, under what a disadvantage they peruse the discourses 
 of such a preacher ; what an amount of additional interest 
 and effect arose from his surpassing powers of utterance, 
 which cannot be transfused into the written composition. 
 From this cause, some, whose expectations have been inor- 
 dinately raised by the representations of others, may possibly 
 experience a measure of disappointment. Yet I feel confi- 
 dent, that there is an abundant sufficiency of intrinsic excel- 
 lence, both in matter and in style, to maintain the writer's 
 well-earned eminence of reputation, even when the tongue, 
 whose eloquence was wont to entrance his auditors, and to 
 give impression so vivid to the effusions of his mind, 
 
 " Lies silent in the grave."
 
 CXC PREFATORY NOTICES. 
 
 II. DELAY OF PUBLICATION. It was at one time my in- 
 tention, to enter into a detail of the various circumstances, 
 whether dependent on myself and others, or independent of 
 both, by which the regretted delay has been occasioned. This, 
 however, might only be a further trial of the reader's patience; 
 and I therefore think it better simply to say, which I can do 
 with all confidence, that there has been no delay which could 
 have been avoided ; but that, were I to enter into detail, I 
 could make out a case satisfactory to every reasonable mind. 
 The question now will be koto the task has been executed: 
 and should the reader chance to be pleased, I may safely leave 
 my cause with himself: we are not apt to judge with un- 
 charitable severity, when we are in good hum6ur. 
 
 III. PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS The original auto- 
 graphs were, at my request, transmitted to me, along with 
 transcripts for the printers, written out by my young friend 
 " beloved for the father's sake" as well as for his own Robert 
 W. M'All; in order that, in case of any suspected mistake, 
 the means of correction might be at hand. In a few instances, 
 I have found this reference to the originals of essential value 
 for the ascertaining of the true sense; while, considering 
 their great extent, and the evident rapidity and consequent 
 occasional obscurity of the hand-writing, the smallness of 
 the number of mistakes is extremely creditable to the care 
 and accuracy of the transcriber. I have felt it needful to 
 bestow special attention on the article of punctuation ; always 
 a matter of importance, and peculiarly so in compositions, 
 where the sentences are at times long and involved, con- 
 taining, it may be, several compartments, and each of these 
 several clauses, all well adjusted, and all coming out clearly 
 in the end, but to the reader requiring those points to be 
 accurately placed, which to the hearer were marked by the 
 pauses, however brief, and the varied intonations, of the 
 speaker. 
 
 IV. ARRANGEMENT OF DISCOURSES On this point, I 
 was at a loss ; and, without troubling the reader with the 
 reasons for and against different principles of order which 
 suggested themselves, I shall merely state the one that has
 
 PREFATORY NOTICES. CXC1 
 
 been adopted. I had no hesitation as to the discourse which 
 should stand first. The one on the death of Mr. Roby was 
 instantly fixed for that place, in what way soever the rest 
 might be disposed of. There was a natural association be- 
 tween the affecting scenes of his own dissolution, with which 
 the sketch of his life closes, and the expression of his views 
 and feelings in reference to an event of the same character : 
 and moreover, from what I knew of the singularly affec- 
 tionate veneration in which he held that excellent " man of 
 God," I could not doubt that the place thus assigned to a 
 tribute of reverence and love to his memory was precisely 
 what the fulness of his heart would have dictated. The suc- 
 cession of the other discourses was fixed upon, the principle of 
 gradual expansion in their respective subjects, beginning 
 with the family, and ending with the world. The order thus 
 produced is as follows: PARENTAL DUTIES: OPENING OF 
 CHAPELS : ORDINATIONS, comprehending Introductory 
 Discourses, Charges to Pastors, and Charges to the People : 
 MINISTERIAL ASSOCIATIONS: HOME MISSIONS: FOREIGN 
 MISSIONS, embracing Charges to Missionaries, and Discourses 
 at Missionary Society Anniversaries. 
 
 V. OBLIGATIONS TO CORRESPONDENTS. On this point, 
 I do not feel it necessary to say a word here; the names of 
 those friends to whom I have been indebted for the greater 
 part of my materials being mentioned in the " Sketch of the 
 Life and Character" itself. To each of them I tender my 
 heartiest thanks. Whether the selection of quotations, and 
 the general use made of the materials furnished, have been 
 judicious, it is not for me to decide. I can only say that I 
 have done my best, and leave the result with them, with the 
 other friends of the dead, and with the public I shall be 
 deeply concerned, should I be found to have fallen into any 
 material errors. For most of my statements, however, if 
 not for all, I have given my authorities; and these impart to 
 my own mind a comfortable confidence of accuracy. 
 
 The entire contents of the Volumes I commend to the 
 blessing of Him whose glory they are designed to promote : 
 and especially the admirable productions of that pure and
 
 CXC11 PREFATORY NOTICES. 
 
 lofty mind, whose extraordinary powers, though their exer- 
 cise on earth has terminated, and the Church of God has 
 felt and mourned the bereavement, have not been lost, but 
 have only been advanced to a more exalted sphere of service, 
 and in purity, energy, and expansion, fitted for its sublime 
 occupations. 
 
 " HE, BEING DEAD, YET SPEAKETH." 
 
 R. W. 
 
 LINN HOUSE, NEAR GLASGOW, 
 November 1 4th, 1839.
 
 A FUNERAL SERMON, 
 
 PREACHED IN 
 
 GROSVENOR STREET CHAPEL, MANCHESTER, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 DEATH OF THE REV. WILLIAM ROBY, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE CHURCH ASSEMBLING THERE, 
 JANUARY 24th, 1830. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 LUKE xn. 42 44. 
 
 " Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom 
 his lord shall make ruler over his household, to 
 give them their portion of meat in due season f 
 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord, when he 
 cometh, shall find so doing. Of a truth, I say 
 unto you, that he will make him ruler over all 
 that he hath." 
 
 AN attentive reader of this chapter will at once 
 perceive, that the design of all the exhortations it 
 contains is to enforce, primarily on the immediate 
 disciples of Jesus, and then on all his followers, the 
 necessity of watchfulness, in reference to the ap- 
 proach of eternity. Our Lord here exhibits that 
 necessity by the most solemn and forcible illustra- 
 tions, especially in the parable of the rich man, 
 whose soul was required of him in the very night 
 when he was vainly calculating on the security and 
 extent of his possessions ; and again, by reference 
 to the vigilance with which the master of the house, 
 when apprized of danger, would guard against the
 
 4 FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE 
 
 sudden coming of a thief at midnight ; and per- 
 haps more strikingly still, by the injunction " Let 
 your loins be girded about, and your lights burn- 
 ing, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for 
 their lord when he will return from the wedding ; 
 that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open 
 to him immediately. And if he come in the second 
 watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, 
 blessed are those servants." On hearing these 
 things, it appears that Peter was in doubt whether 
 the address were intended for all the disciples, and 
 for the promiscuous crowds who were about them ; 
 or specifically for the apostles, as those whom Christ 
 had chosen to be his messengers to the world, and 
 to direct the affairs, and preside over the adminis- 
 tration of his spiritual kingdom. " Speakest thou," 
 said he, " this parable unto us, or even to all ?" 
 How just and striking was the Saviour's reply ! 
 " If the necessity of care and vigilance be thus great 
 in reference to all my followers ; if the coming of 
 the judge be so appalling to all who shall be found 
 unprepared ; if there be none who need not to watch 
 with never-ceasing solicitude, and to labour with 
 never-wearying diligence, that, when I come, he 
 may be ready to appear before me : then, how much 
 more should you whom I have called to the re- 
 sponsible office of being stewards over my house- 
 hold, and made it your duty to distribute to all my 
 other servants their portion in due season, how 
 much more should you, my ministers, my special 
 representatives, and on whose fidelity and zeal the 
 interests of all are suspended, be instant in season
 
 REV. WILLIAM ROBY. 5 
 
 and out of season, and always abounding in the 
 work to which you are appointed ; that so, when I 
 shall return unto my household, or summon you 
 severally to answer in my presence, you may not 
 be unable or afraid to meet me !" I dare not, my 
 hearers, advert to those most awful and alarming 
 intimations which follow this address : I cannot 
 trust myself to dwell upon the terrific and hopeless 
 doom of the careless, the dilatory, and the unfaith- 
 ful servant : it is enough to hear our Lord himself 
 pronounce it, in words that, however brief and gen- 
 eral, convey to the serious mind a conception of 
 such accumulated and boundless horrors, as no lan- 
 guage could adequately portray : " But and if 
 that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his 
 coming, and shall begin to beat the men-servants 
 and the maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be 
 drunken : the lord of that servant shall come in a 
 day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour 
 when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, 
 and will appoint him his portion with the unbeliev- 
 ers." Who of us shall be cast out into this outer 
 darkness ? For whom amongst us is reserved this 
 weeping and gnashing of teeth? Pity us, O pity 
 us, my brethren, who stand charged with so fearful 
 a responsibility ! who, if we perish, perish not like 
 others, but sink into this far deeper and more dark 
 abyss of misery ; and shall be loaded, as we descend 
 from the tribunal, at once with the deserved male- 
 diction of our Master, and with the curses of those 
 whom we have involved with us in ruin. And as 
 you value your own souls, as you compassionate
 
 () FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE 
 
 the heaviest woes of others, as you would requite 
 our labour, and return our affectionate solicitude for 
 your salvation, I beseech you pray for us, that we 
 be not unfaithful, nor be visited with the intolerable 
 and unparticipated sufferings, which are reserved 
 for the false-hearted and the slothful, when the Mas- 
 ter shall appear ! 
 
 But I gladly turn from this unwelcome topic to 
 the immediate purpose of our present meeting : it 
 is to commemorate a character, and to derive im- 
 provement from an event, which cannot be better 
 nor more adequately represented than in the words 
 of the text. 
 
 The noble and animating sentiment expressed in 
 this passage, presents before us properly one undi- 
 vided theme, worthy of our highest and most devout 
 consideration. It is the happiness, and the exalted 
 honour, of the persevering and faithful minister ; 
 the welcome gratulation with which he shall be 
 greeted, and the boundless recompense which shall 
 be found awaiting him at the approach of death, or 
 in the day of final retribution. 
 
 But in endeavouring to exhibit somewhat more at 
 length, and to impress, distinctly and separately, the 
 several parts and bearings of this great subject, 
 we would direct your thoughts, my brethren, to four 
 important particulars, all of which you will discover 
 to be here most forcibly and certainly implied : we 
 would seek to show you, first, how, in the briefest 
 compass, but the most striking manner, the Saviour 
 instructs us as to the end and proper character of 
 the gospel ministry, "as that of a steward, whom
 
 REV. WILLIAM ROBY. 7 
 
 his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give 
 them their portion of meat in due season :" how 
 he next leads us to contemplate the qualifications 
 necessary for its discharge, as consisting, pre-emi- 
 nently in fidelity and wisdom : how beautifully he 
 then describes the peculiar happiness of being found 
 occupied in its fulfilment at the close of life ! 
 " Blessed is that servant whom his lord, when he 
 cometh, shall find so doing :" and how he termin- 
 ates this description with a sublime, though mysteri- 
 ous, reference to the glory of its final reward " Of 
 a truth, I say unto you, he will make him ruler over 
 all that he hath." 
 
 I. That ministry, we would first of all remind you, 
 is portrayed, not, as in so many other places, under 
 the similitude of those occupations and pursuits be- 
 longing to the husbandman, or the vine-dresser, 
 the watchman, or the shepherd, the builder in a 
 spiritual edifice, or the fisher of men ; not under 
 that of a military leader, whose conflict is " not with 
 flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers, 
 and the rulers of the darkness of this world ;" nor 
 yet of a herald, whose office it is to proclaim the 
 coming, and to prepare the way, not of an earthly 
 monarch, but of the King of kings ; nor even of an 
 "ambassador of Christ," commissioned to enforce 
 the claims, and to make known to men the mercy, 
 of the eternal Sovereign, " beseeching them, in his 
 stead, that they will be reconciled to God :" but in 
 one that manifestly indicates a peculiarity of char-, 
 acter, differing, perhaps, from them all ; and, though
 
 FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE 
 
 in particular respects analogous to several, yet fitted 
 to represent it as it now subsists amongst us in a 
 light of singular illustration and advantage. For it 
 is here offered to our contemplation under the name 
 and figure of a stewardship, the regulation of do- 
 mestic business and affairs, the exercise of disci- 
 pline and control, in the household, and amidst the 
 family, of God. In those before alluded to, the min- 
 isterial office is presented with an attendance of cir- 
 cumstances and qualities proper, in every case, to 
 the particular situation in which it is performed ; 
 and there are some amongst them that might seem 
 to be more appropriately applied to its discharge 
 under the characters of the evangelist, the mission- 
 ary, or the apostle. By that now before us, it is 
 exhibited in a manner peculiarly suited to describe 
 the pastor as a chosen and constituted ruler in the 
 church ; whose province it is to provide for its se- 
 curity and its spiritual supply, to preserve it in 
 harmony and obedience, to maintain inviolate its 
 order, offices, and general economy, to guard its 
 interests, and vindicate alike its privileges and its 
 honour, to superintend with care and vigilance, 
 as accountable for all the conduct and condition of 
 its individual members, and whose highest praise 
 it will be found at last to have relinquished and for- 
 gotten his own ease and indulgence, and all that 
 might conduce to his private gratification or emolu- 
 ment, in the diligent and unremitting pursuit of the 
 common welfare of the household, and the interest 
 and honour of his Master. 
 
 We would, in further illustration of this import-
 
 REV. WILLIAM ROSY. 9 
 
 ant similitude, offer next to your notice some very 
 natural and obvious remarks, on which it is not 
 our intention now to enlarge, but such as, on the 
 mere mention of their subjects and design, you will 
 instantly perceive to deserve (were it but permitted 
 by the necessary brevity of this discourse,) a more 
 serious and mature examination. They are such as 
 these : that the figure, in itself, conveys one of the 
 most pleasing and attractive pictures of the state 
 and character of the Christian church in general, 
 and of every separate community amongst the faith- 
 ful ; as being a family, a sacred brotherhood, 
 an united household ; in which, though there must 
 ever subsist diversities of station and influence, and 
 a well-compacted gradation of office and authority, 
 yet all are happily and indissolubly one. And 
 when we call to mind who is the head of this great 
 and universal family ; what is their inheritance ; 
 what the bond of their reciprocal connection ; 
 what their final abode ; who does not see, that the 
 lowliest and the meanest place amongst them is an 
 honour more exalted than the proudest monarchies 
 of the globe? who does not exclaim with the Psalm- 
 ist, " I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of 
 my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness!" 
 Again : the source of our ministerial commission 
 is pointed out in a manner not less accurate and 
 instructive, as proceeding immediately and exclu- 
 sively from the appointment of our Master, the 
 great Lord of the household ; without whose sanc- 
 tion and approval all other is in vain, and with 
 which, even in the absence of all besides, we may 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 10 FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE 
 
 challenge the acknowledgment of our fellow-serv- 
 ants, and demand to be received with honour, as 
 acting in his name ; a truth which, however gen- 
 erally admitted in profession, is perhaps imperfectly 
 and partially reduced to practice ; liable, beyond 
 all doubt, to the most dangerous and fatal abuse, yet 
 in itself of highest legitimacy and most salutary ap- 
 plication. Again : we would direct your medita- 
 tions to the wise and merciful design of this appoint- 
 ment, and to the evidences of divine benignity and 
 wisdom in setting apart an order of men, to be re- 
 newed in every age, and scattered over every coun- 
 try, whose single aim, and the sole business of whose 
 life, should be to prepare others for celestial blessed- 
 ness ; to instruct, exhort, rebuke, correct, console, 
 and by all other methods, varying according to the 
 exigencies of every changing season, and the pecu- 
 liar situation and necessities of every separate be- 
 liever, to adapt to each, and to apply to all, the di- 
 versified resources of divine truth ; that so at last 
 we may "present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." 
 Here, brethren, we might freely expatiate ; and, 
 while the theme would be profitable and encourag- 
 ing to you, to us it would be fraught with the most 
 momentous and valuable instruction : we could 
 not ponder it without mingled shame and satisfac- 
 tion ; shame, when we reflected on the imperfect 
 manner, and the very limited degree, in which we 
 can even hope to fulfil amongst you a ministry so 
 holy and so exalted ; yet not unmixed with purest 
 satisfaction, when we considered the end of our con- 
 versation, and the ennobling object of all our la-
 
 REV. WILLIAM ROBY. 11 
 
 hours, which is no other than to glorify our Mas- 
 ter in your salvation, to win you unto Christ, 
 and finally to claim you for our joy and crown. 
 Yes, Christian brethren ; we trust in this matter we 
 have a good conscience, both before God and men. 
 We would not please ourselves ; nor of men 
 would we seek either our recompense or our glory. 
 We would not seek our own ; but the things that are 
 Jesus Christ's. We would not live to ourselves ; 
 but ever labour, that, whether we wake or sleep, we 
 may be accepted of him. Farther : we call you 
 to consider and confess the authority with which 
 such an office is necessarily accompanied ; an au- 
 thority, which " the Lord hath given us for your 
 edification and not for your destruction," " a mea- 
 sure to reach even to you ;" of which it is easy 
 indeed to boast in such a manner as to move to si- 
 lent derision, even if it provoke not directly to anger, 
 the considerate and the sober-minded ; and yet 
 which it is at our peril to relinquish, as by so do- 
 ing we should at once disqualify ourselves, and im- 
 pede the efforts of others, to effectuate amongst you 
 the great purposes of our ministry, and thus to se- 
 cure the glory of our Lord. But on this head we 
 have the less occasion to remark, when we remem- 
 ber your cheerful obedience, and your ready mind ; 
 and that nothing was ever urged on you in vain, 
 when it was attended with the sanction of a divine 
 warranty, or might lead to the promotion of the 
 cause of Christ. After this topic, we have only to 
 direct your attention to the last of those suggested 
 by the mere figure in the text, that of the respon-
 
 12 FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE 
 
 sibility so awfully involved in all we do in this char- 
 acter ; and the account we must soon deliver up, 
 together with our stewardship, of the manner in 
 which all has been discharged. If the ministers of 
 Jesus be indeed rulers over the household of faith, 
 they have then no independent nor personal do- 
 minion ; and, far from being lords over God's 
 heritage, they are but his stewards, helpers of their 
 brethren's joy, and to be partakers with them finally 
 of their inheritance. 
 
 II. We would now, in the second place, direct you 
 to the qualifications which such a stewardship evi- 
 dently demands ; showing particularly, that those 
 mentioned in the text are the highest and the most 
 legitimate. These are fidelity and wisdom; the 
 one relating to our principles, the other to our 
 mental endowments ; and which, when combined, 
 are almost sufficient to complete the character of 
 " an able minister of the New Testament." We 
 have need, indeed, of divine and spiritual knowledge, 
 that so we may teach others what ourselves have 
 learned as " scribes well instructed in the mysteries 
 of the kingdom :" we have need of courage, that 
 we may boldly avow, and steadfastly defend, " the 
 faith once delivered to the saints :" we have need 
 of disinterestedness and self-oblivion, that we may 
 stand unmoved by every allurement, and superior 
 to every fear : we have need of patience, that we 
 may persevere amidst the most disheartening and 
 wearisome delay, and so, " after we have done the 
 will of God, receive the promise :" we have need
 
 REV. WILLIAM ROBY. 13 
 
 of zeal, that we may enkindle a sacred ardour in 
 the breast of others by the flame that burns so 
 brightly in our own : we have need of diligence, 
 that we may improve every opportunity, and seize 
 on every method, to accomplish the design of our 
 ministry, which, in its importance, and its difficulty, 
 and the uncertainty of the time allotted to us for its 
 fulfilment, might almost weigh down the firmness of 
 an angelic mind, and yet which is intrusted to 
 those who dwell in houses of clay, and who feel 
 themselves, not less than others, compassed about 
 with every form of mental infirmity and frailty : 
 we have need of meekness, that we may bear, as 
 our Master did, with the unbelief and hardness of 
 heart, and the strange indifference of men to the 
 truth of God, and the interests of eternity ; of 
 compassion, that we may never cease to labour, and 
 pray, and watch, for their salvation ; and of sim- 
 plicity, both of mind, and motive, and universal 
 character, that our eye being single, and our views 
 and objects visible to all, we may not only secure 
 the approbation of our Lord, and the testimony of 
 our own conscience, but have our record also in 
 every bosom, and our defence written on every 
 heart ; that so we may be able to appeal to them, 
 and say, " Ye are witnesses, and God also, how 
 holily, and justly, and unblameably, we behaved our- 
 selves among you," winning by our manifest and 
 unsuspected sincerity those whom we cannot move 
 by our entreaties, nor convince by our reasonings, 
 and hoping to persuade, by the silent but resist- 
 less eloquence of a holy and a blameless life, those
 
 14 FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE 
 
 who are alike proof against our threatenings, and 
 insensible even to our tears. But we have need, 
 above all, of faithfulness : -for nothing else will 
 suffice to bear us up above the stream of prevailing, 
 perhaps destructive, error; this alone will cause 
 us to pursue the same undeviating track, amidst all 
 surrounding changes and events ; and thus only 
 shall we be nerved with all that resolution and holy 
 boldness, which will prepare us to reprove, rebuke, 
 exhort, convince, reclaim, appal, subdue, whatever 
 be the evils with which we have to grapple, not in 
 the world alone, but often within the very bosom of 
 the church. We must be faithful to our convictions, 
 faithful to our people, faithful to our Lord. The 
 grace of Christian and ministerial fidelity must be 
 displayed in our statements of doctrine, in our incul- 
 cations of duty, in our resistance of false sentiments, 
 and in our defence of such as are unpopular or un- 
 welcome. It must be the first and the very last of 
 all our principles. Whatever else we lack may be 
 perhaps compensated, or even spared : but here a 
 defect is fatal ; the loss is such as nothing can 
 supply. 
 
 And only next to this indispensable and invalu- 
 able quality is that of wisdom : by which we mean, 
 not merely such an acquaintance with the things of 
 God as can be taught by systems, or gathered from 
 the writings of men ; not learning, or critical acu- 
 men ; far less the refinements of policy, or artifice, 
 or finesse ; not, assuredly, that sordid spirit, which, 
 from the fear of offending, dares neither to differ nor 
 to instruct ; not that servility, which accommodates
 
 REV. WILLIAM ROBY. 15 
 
 itself to every fancy, and bends to every caprice ; 
 not that spurious virtue, which so often bears the 
 names of prudence, moderation, and a pacific tem- 
 per ; but that which, pursuing noble and honour- 
 able ends, adopts the directest and the simplest means 
 for their accomplishment, yet can adjust its opera- 
 tions, and command its resources, in practical and 
 effective application to every varying exigence; and 
 when they fail in one form, can, strenuously and 
 with confidence of ultimate success, address itself to 
 altered circumstances, and reiterate that application 
 in another : the wisdom which, shining forth by 
 its own native lustre amidst the ever-shifting aspects 
 of our life and duty, shall compel the respect, and 
 secure the willing acquiescence, of our people, in 
 all things essential to our mutual prosperity, as well 
 as in those which involve the great and final object 
 of our ministry in the salvation of men ; the wis- 
 dom which, guiding us equally in the selection of 
 topics and the methods of their illustration, shall 
 demonstrate that " we preach not ourselves, but 
 Christ Jesus the Lord," and aim, not at the display 
 of our attainments, but at the edification of our hear- 
 ers : aiding us in the administration of discipline, 
 it shall insure its strictest maintenance, while it 
 seems to divest it almost of all its severity ; 
 teaching us how to counsel, or to reprove, it will 
 give to our advice the weight and value of an ac- 
 credited authority, united with the charm and inter- 
 est of the most generous friendship, and, if it can- 
 not render reproof welcome, may become the pledge 
 at least that it shall be seasonable, abating the
 
 16 FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE 
 
 keenness of its edge, while it may not wholly shield 
 from its consequences, nor allay its smart. This is 
 that " wisdom which is from 'above, first pure, then 
 peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of 
 mercy and of good fruits." And if in any station 
 it be requisite to have it resting as an unction on 
 the soul, that it may abide with us for ever, and 
 that its fragrance may be silently diffused over all 
 we do and all we purpose, it is in the station of a 
 Christian pastor ; surrounded as he is by all the 
 obstacles arising from diversity of age, and rank, 
 and intellectual character, by the superstitious on 
 the one hand, and the unbelieving on the other ; 
 by the presumptuous and the desponding, the sus- 
 picious and the scornful, the sordid and the proud ; 
 whose business is with men of every class, with 
 happiness or misery alike eternal ; and his duty 
 that described in the text, to " give to every man 
 his portion in due season." 
 
 III. We would next invite you to contemplate the 
 peculiar happiness of being found occupied in the 
 diligent fulfilment of our ministry at the close of 
 life, a reflection suggested to us by the gracious 
 words of the Redeemer, " Blessed is that servant, 
 whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so do- 
 ing ;" and one which, though brevity forbids us to 
 enlarge, we cannot but pursue, even if it be but for 
 a moment. We say not that it was in this precise 
 and limited sense that the language was first spoken ; 
 but it may serve at least to convey it with much and 
 peculiar force, in connection with the memory of the
 
 REV. WILLIAM ROBY. 17 
 
 deceased. How happy, to be spared those gloomy 
 remembrances and unavailing regrets, with which, 
 in other circumstances, the wisest and best men can 
 scarcely fail to waste away the sorrowful termina- 
 tion of a life previously devoted to the diligent and 
 successful prosecution of great objects ! How hap- 
 py, to be exempted from the suspicion that our mo- 
 tives in retirement may be misinterpreted, or our 
 decline of active exertion attributed to the diminu- 
 tion of zeal or ardour, and thus tend to the hin- 
 derance of those whom we would gladly further on 
 their way to heaven, or even to the reproach and 
 dishonour of the name of Christ ! What a distin- 
 guished privilege, to live amidst the grateful and 
 affectionate regards of those whom we have been 
 instrumental in training up for future blessedness, 
 ourselves still labouring amongst them, and guiding 
 them in every effort for the advancement of the Sa- 
 viour's glory ! With what peculiar satisfaction may 
 the active and laborious minister, already arrived on 
 the verge of the promised inheritance, yet striving 
 faithfully to conduct others thither, expect the wel- 
 come message that shall call him home ! O what an 
 unspeakable enjoyment, to lie down with every even- 
 ing, and rise with every returning day, indifferent 
 as to its close, whether it be on earth or in heaven ; 
 habitually prepared for the end, but not yet wearied 
 of the way; ready to be offered, longing to be 
 with Christ, but not unwilling to tarry, if we may 
 but be further honoured to advance his cause ; not 
 reluctant to live, since confident, by the aid of heav- 
 enly grace, that we shall not live in vain, yet de- 
 VOL. i. c
 
 18 FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE 
 
 sirous rather to die, since it is to cease from our la- 
 bours, and to enter into rest ! How delightful, to 
 go almost from the pulpit to the grave ; from at- 
 . tending on the dying bed of others, whom we have 
 comforted and strengthened in the prospect of their 
 departure, to place ourselves calmly in our own, and 
 resign our spirit, amidst attendant angels, of whom 
 it may be that these shall be among the first to urge 
 her upward pinions, and to sustain her flight ; to 
 lay down our labours and our life together ; to find 
 the last effort of piety scarcely completed, before the 
 reward is bestowed ; to be crowned, like a con- 
 queror, on the very field, and to raise our song of 
 triumph in the very midst of the conflict; and thus 
 to realize, on our first entrance into glory, that proud- 
 est, loftiest, and most thrilling joy, a joy that com- 
 pensates, by the rapture of a moment, for the toils 
 and dangers of a lifetime, the joy with which the 
 warrior hears the shout, and the trumpet, and the 
 cry of victory, mixed with the dying roar of battle, 
 and the sounds of the flying foe ! 
 
 IV. But we must remind you, in the last place, 
 that there is, in the language of this parable, the 
 most striking reference to the elevation and great- 
 ness of that final reward, which shall be adjudged 
 to the faithful minister, who is found steadfast to 
 the last, and diligently seeking to discharge his 
 stewardship at the coming of his Lord " Of a 
 truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler 
 over all that he hath :" an intimation so singular, 
 that we almost shrink from the task of attempting
 
 REV. WILLIAM ROBY. 19 
 
 its elucidation, yet which teaches us, evidently, 
 that the recompence of such services on earth will 
 not be the mere rest and security of heaven, not 
 alone the companionship of the blessed, or the 
 bright and beatific vision of God, but some station 
 and degree of honour, amongst the inhabitants of 
 that better world, correspondent to the sphere of 
 our former exertions, and to the fidelity and dili- 
 gence with which it was filled up. But how shall 
 we conceive of a felicity so exalted ? How shall we 
 describe it ? Are there, then, awaiting us, in the 
 sanctuary above, diversities of order and of service 
 in any wise resembling those we have left below ? 
 Shall we find the apostle, the prophet, the faithful 
 and suffering witness for the truth, wearing the same 
 form, and elevated to the same proportionate supe- 
 riority above the less distinguished and zealous of 
 the Saviour's followers, which it was their privilege 
 on earth to possess ? What means the declaration, 
 he who was once but a faithful steward of the 
 household shall be made ruler over all the posses- 
 sions of his Lord? In the realms of final bliss, 
 there needs no teacher to instruct, no comforter to 
 console, no guardian to protect, no watchful guide 
 to lead us. All is safe, and peaceful, and happy ; 
 all is light, and knowledge, and holiness. But is it 
 so? And does the faithful pastor, when he lays 
 down in the dust the burdens of his office, and bids 
 farewell for ever to its anxieties and cares, retain its 
 sacred honours, and its endearing relation to those 
 happy spirits, which it was his highest joy to cheer 
 and animate, and urge upon their way ? We do
 
 20 FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE 
 
 but suggest the inquiry ; we cannot follow it. Time 
 warns us to conclude. But O how truly might the 
 Saviour say, " If I have told you earthly things, and 
 ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I shall tell 
 you heavenly things ?" 
 
 It is impossible for such as were acquainted with 
 the principles and conduct of the late venerated pas- 
 tor of this church, not at once to recognise, under 
 the similitude in the text, their just and appropriate 
 description. If ever there was a man that might 
 be truly called a "wise and faithful steward" over 
 the household of God, surely he deserved that 
 honourable appellation : and if there be any view 
 of ministerial duty, and of personal excellence, pe- 
 culiarly applicable to his circumstances and charac- 
 ter, surely this is fitted to present him most di- 
 rectly and most perfectly before us. 
 
 He was, pre-eminently, a PASTOR. In the fulfil- 
 ment of the obligations belonging to that office, all 
 his energy was expended, and all his feelings con- 
 centrated and embodied. It absorbed his time, his 
 care, his interest. It stood ever prominently for- 
 ward to the observation of those who marked, how- 
 ever casually, the tenor of his conduct, or the habits 
 of his mind. There was, it is true, no part of the 
 general interest of the church of Christ to which he 
 did not give his serious and thoughtful attention ; 
 none which he did not set himself vigorously to pro- 
 mote, up to the very last extent of his personal abil- 
 ity or relative influence. But within the circle of 
 his own beloved congregation lay almost all that
 
 REV. WILLIAM ROBY. 21 
 
 could engage his highest affections, or call forth his 
 most eager concern. Here he might be said to have 
 found the very element and spring of a new exist- 
 ence, the fulness and perfection of his being. He 
 was, I acknowledge, the Christian and the philan- 
 thropist, and the patriot, and the friend : but he was, 
 more than all, the pastor. He felt for the welfare 
 of the public, and longed, by every method, to ad- 
 vance the amelioration of society, and the diffusion 
 of the gospel throughout the world : but his first 
 efforts were uniformly directed, and his best feelings 
 given, to the instruction and improvement, the pros- 
 perity and spiritual increase, of his own flock : and 
 it would be hard indeed to point out a man, who 
 combined so large an amount of universal benevo- 
 lence with so engrossing, and constant, and peculiar a 
 concern for those committed immediately to his care. 
 And he was not less honoured by the kind provi- 
 dence of God, with respect to the long period of 
 his labours, and the abundance of his success. It 
 was his singular happiness, to be found at last just 
 as our text describes the faithful steward, almost 
 in the very act of executing the commission with 
 which he was intrusted, about his Master's work, 
 when his Master came. In relation to many, even 
 amongst the most zealous and laborious ministers, 
 the ravages of sickness, or the decays of age, or the 
 wasting influences of domestic calamity, or the in- 
 auspicious and gloomy aspect of surrounding cir- 
 cumstances, cut off the best part of life from the 
 work to which they would have delighted to conse- 
 crate their whole both of energy and of being. And
 
 22 FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE 
 
 in such instances, who does not fearfully recognise, 
 who is not constrained to adore in silence, the in- 
 scrutable wisdom, the undisputed sovereignty, of 
 God? But in his case, all was reversed. A tedious 
 and painful disorder had, indeed, been permitted to 
 make his life, for many years, an object of anxiety 
 to his friends ; while it reminded him also continu- 
 ally to prepare for a happier world : but never had 
 it prevailed to deprive him, for any considerable 
 period, of the satisfaction he could experience only 
 in his work. The common infirmities of men were 
 not unknown to him ; nor the temptations and dan- 
 gers proper to the ministry, against which, like all 
 others, he felt himself called to a perpetual and 
 anxious struggle : but never, in his lengthened 
 course of public service, however conspicuous was 
 his station, and however jealous the scrutiny with 
 which, on that account, he was regarded, did even 
 a breath of slander sully or becloud for a moment 
 the lustre of his exalted character, or bring suspi- 
 cion upon the sincerity of his religious principles. 
 And he died as he had livfcd ; leaving behind him 
 an untarnished reputation, having received of his 
 Master a never-withering crown. He has finished 
 his course with joy ; and if in life he counted no- 
 thing dear, so that he might be found at last in peace, 
 having fulfilled "the ministry which he had re- 
 ceived of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the 
 grace of God," we cannot doubt, that, when he 
 came to die, his happy spirit, resting at length from 
 her labours, and followed by the memorials of her 
 constancy and diligence, found " an abundant en-
 
 REV. WILLIAM ROBY. 23 
 
 trance administered unto her into the everlasting 
 kingdom of our Lord and Saviour :" and now, 
 brethren, what reflection is so natural to ourselves, 
 or what lesson so profitable, as that presented in 
 the text " Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, 
 when he cometh, shall find so doing !" 
 
 Few men have ever lived, upon whose personal 
 labours the spiritual interest and happiness of a 
 greater number of their immortal fellow-creatures 
 have been made to depend ; few whose exertions, 
 directly or indirectly, diffused a more extensive or 
 more salutary influence, first over the condition of 
 the place in which they dwelt, and then more re- 
 motely over the welfare of the church at large. 
 
 Placed, almost from the commencement of his 
 ministry, in a prominent and commanding sphere, 
 and having inherited from nature, as well as re- 
 ceived from the God of all grace, precisely the 
 qualifications most suited to its due and successful 
 occupation, he has been honoured to have his name 
 and character associated with all that has conduced 
 so remarkably to the promotion of the cause of 
 Christian piety, whether at home or abroad, during 
 the long period of thirty-five years. It was his 
 happiness to witness the formation of those plans, 
 and the first suggestion of those societies, which 
 have now become so numerous and so important; 
 objects which it is impossible that the reflective and 
 serious Christian who is, in reference to the high- 
 est welfare of his species, the only true philosopher 
 should fail to regard as communicating a peculiarity 
 and dignity of aspect to the features of the present
 
 24 FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE 
 
 age, perhaps unknown to the most favoured of the 
 past. There was scarcely one amongst them which 
 did not boast to have enrolled him with the very 
 earliest and most zealous of its promoters ; not one 
 which did not derive, either from his personal lib- 
 erality, or his enlightened counsel, or his generous 
 and efficient advocacy, the most valuable and useful 
 contributions. But in the town of his immediate 
 residence, and in this great county, the impression 
 made by his labours, though always silent and un- 
 obtrusive in a degree excelled only by their number 
 and their effect, was such as attracted towards him, 
 while he lived, an amount of mingled veneration and 
 attachment, such as it has been given, perhaps, to 
 no other of our contemporaries to enjoy, and will 
 infallibly secure for him, now that he is departed, the 
 honours of an everlasting memorial. 
 
 He has usually been regarded rather as a good 
 than a great man. Perhaps, indeed, his justest 
 panegyric would be, to say that he was greatly good ; 
 yet we should not forget, that, as there are vari- 
 eties of greatness, so, besides that moral grandeur 
 which all will confess to have adorned and exalted 
 him, there were some, and those too amongst the 
 most valuable and important qualities of mind, 
 rare in their separate and individual perfection, 
 rarer still in their harmonious combination and 
 united influence, which were possessed by him in 
 a very pre-eminent and commanding degree. I 
 might refer to his profound and penetrating judg- 
 ment ; to his memory, which was alike retentive in 
 its grasp, and universal in its capacity of applica-
 
 REV. WILLIAM ROBY. 25 
 
 tion ; to that perfect mastery of all his powers, 
 which enabled him, though repressed by an almost 
 invincible modesty and reluctance to engage in con- 
 troversy, yet, when roused by a sense of duty to the 
 combat, to meet and to repel the most varied as- 
 saults of error, to baffle the subtlety of the most 
 sophistical, and to turn into utter contempt the over- 
 weaning confidence of the most daring of his anta- 
 gonists : so that, though involved, during his long 
 and public career, in many contests relative to the 
 evidences or the discoveries of divine truth, he was 
 perhaps never worsted in an argument, nor con- 
 victed of inaccuracy in his statement of a fact. I 
 might adduce his extensive and various theological 
 acquirements ; in one branch of which science, in- 
 deed, he had confessedly few competitors, that of 
 systematic and polemical divinity ; and in the rest, 
 if he did not enjoy the honours of enlarged and pro- 
 found erudition, it was rather, perhaps, because he 
 never aspired to their possession, than because he 
 was unworthy to have preferred the claim. I might 
 add to these, his singular and indefatigable perse- 
 verance ; which, though connected undoubtedly with 
 the moral virtues, is worthy to be recorded, as it 
 appeared in him, amongst the elements of intellec- 
 tual character, evinced as it was in patient thought 
 and constancy of effort, whether in personal study 
 or in the transaction of business ; securing, at the 
 same time, the uninterrupted increase of his own 
 stores of knowledge, and the correspondent advan- 
 tage and improvement of others. His literary curi- 
 osity never forsook him, but continued unabated to 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 26 FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE 
 
 the last. His attainments, especially in biblical cri- 
 ticism and all that belongs to the interpretation of 
 the Scriptures, were receiving perpetual augmenta- 
 tions. Those who were privileged to behold him in 
 his privacy, will long remember the place, the at- 
 titude, the look of serious and devout reflection, 
 the well-known copy of the sacred volume he never 
 ceased to peruse ; and they who were honoured 
 with his confidence, so far as to overcome the natu- 
 ral indisposition of his feelings to converse on mat- 
 ters most adapted to display the diversity and com- 
 pass of his resources, will bear me out in saying, 
 that he was a man scarcely less to be admired for 
 the sound and manly vigour of his understanding, 
 and the wide range of his inquiries, than beloved 
 for his condescension, or revered for his piety ; a 
 man surpassed by many in brilliancy, in solidity by 
 none ; yielding to many in the splendour of ora- 
 tory, in the play of fancy, or in the luxuriancy of 
 genius, but to none in all those stable and sub- 
 stantial excellencies, which form the mind for prac- 
 tical and effective usefulness, whether in the proper 
 duties of the ministry, or in the general regulation 
 and guidance of public affairs, and all that the 
 minister of Christ can hope to accomplish for the 
 promotion of the public good. 
 
 But this was his meanest praise. I cannot speak 
 of him, without recalling the depth of his humility, 
 the benevolence of his temper, his noble exemp- 
 tion from envy, selfishness, or jealousy of the suc- 
 cess and reputation of his brethren, even the least 
 and youngest of them all. I am persuaded you even
 
 REV. WILLIAM ROSY. 2? 
 
 now picture him in your imagination, listening, with 
 an almost unspeakable delight, to the effusions of 
 that eloquence, or the power of those appeals, which 
 were never the objects of his own ambition. It was 
 a spectacle never to be wholly effaced from recollec- 
 tion, if you had but once been witness to the warm- 
 hearted and unbounded satisfaction with which his 
 fine countenance became irradiated, and his gener- 
 ous breast would expand, when he beheld, especially 
 in the ministry, the union of piety and holy zeal with 
 whatever variety of mental excellence. I cannot 
 fail to bring back to your remembrance the ami- 
 able and unaffected kindness, with which he uni- 
 formly conducted himself towards all his brethren. 
 Never was a man more divested of all that could 
 repel or terrify, while yet it was impossible he should 
 cease to command ; none ever approached him but 
 with reverence, yet there was none who did not feel, 
 in that very approach, that he was drawing nearer 
 to an object whose attraction was increased at every 
 step. You could not refuse to love him, even though 
 you sometimes felt that love rebuked in its warmth 
 and eagerness, and forced yourself to the recollec- 
 tion that it should have assumed the aspect rather 
 of filial veneration than of fond and confiding re- 
 gard. In all our personal intercourse, in all our 
 public conferences and deliberations, wherever we 
 were honoured with his society, or called to co- 
 operation with him in the pursuit of public objects, 
 I am assured my colleagues in the ministry will bear 
 their united testimony, that they never remarked in 
 him a single indication of the consciousness of his
 
 28 FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE 
 
 superiority, either in station or influence ; and that 
 his highest emulation was, like his Master's, to be- 
 come " the least of all and the servant of all." 
 
 And the humility and kindness which thus dis- 
 tinguished his deportment towards his brethren, were 
 discovered, with equal grace and loveliness, in his 
 general conduct. Plain in speech, in manners, and 
 in attire, easy of access, unassuming in demeanour, 
 ready to hearken to every tale of suffering, and 
 to every petition for assistance or relief, candid, 
 liberal, hospitable, peaceful, prudent, possess- 
 ed of such peculiar uniformity, both in his disposition 
 and habitual carriage, that you might always calcu- 
 late on finding him the same, he gained an undis- 
 puted and universal ascendency, while he was aim- 
 ing only at the communication of happiness. 
 
 If in his social virtues there was any defect, it was 
 the product rather of an opposite excess in those 
 which were personal. He sometimes seemed re- 
 served ; but it arose either from his circumspection, 
 or his modesty. He might be censured for his un- 
 willingness to advise ; but it sprung out of that sus- 
 picion of his own judgment, which was ever in such 
 striking opposition to the unhesitating confidence 
 reposed in him by others. You might have wished 
 him to adopt, on some occasions, a firmer decision, 
 and a more frank and unembarrassed air ; but what 
 you attributed to timidity, or fear of consequences, 
 you would afterwards, perhaps, discover to have 
 resulted from a native tenderness of spirit, which 
 gave to his caution the appearance of distrust, and 
 to his unwillingness to wound or give offence to
 
 REV. WILLIAM ROBY. 29 
 
 others, that of a needless anxiety in reference to 
 himself. 
 
 Need I remind you of his marked and truly pa- 
 rental fondness towards the young, and how even 
 to little children, though denied the invaluable bless- 
 ing of their society in his own house, his gentleness 
 and condescension were such as to win for him their 
 general and almost unequalled attachment, thus 
 imitating the example of our divine Lord in one of 
 the most alluring and beautiful of all its features, 
 and seeming to breathe the very spirit of that en- 
 couraging and gracious declaration, " Suffer the 
 little children to come unto me, and forbid them 
 not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven ?" 
 
 Shall I tell you of his habitual seriousness, or 
 call to your admiring recollection the dignity and 
 sacred elevation of his whole manner in the public 
 services of this place, which was but the natural 
 result of that reverential sacredness of feeling with 
 which he never ceased to regard whatever was con- 
 nected with religion ? Or shall I rather remind 
 you, how this impressive solemnity was ever tem- 
 pered with the most winning cheerfulness ; so that 
 none was ever induced by his example to shrink 
 from the profession or the character of piety, under 
 the apprehension that it would abridge the innocent 
 enjoyments, or add to the sorrows, of life? 
 
 Shall I speak of him as a private Christian ; of 
 the closeness of his walk, and the intimacy of his 
 converse, with God ; of the fulness of his convic- 
 tion in all that pertains to the great and leading 
 doctrines of the gospel ; of his honest and unwav-
 
 30 FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE 
 
 ering adherence to those distinguishing opinions 
 which he had embraced, either as a nonconformist 
 generally, or a congregational dissenter; or, on 
 the other .hand, of his universal charity in matters 
 of this nature, and of the simplicity of his belief 
 in Christ Jesus, for all that related to his everlast- 
 ing welfare ? 
 
 Shall I lead you into the recesses of his personal 
 experience ; and apprize you, how the settled tran- 
 quillity of his spirit in prospect of eternity, was, for 
 a short season, and that at no very distant period, 
 interrupted by a sad interval of doubt and agitation, 
 arising, unquestionably, from the deep sense of his 
 own unworthiness, but which was soon to be ex- 
 changed for steady confidence and an untroubled 
 calm, the sweet and welcome foretaste of that 
 blessed state into which he is now entered ? 
 
 Shall I advert to the subjects of his ministry ; re- 
 minding you how, while he fulfilled the duty of an 
 intelligent and faithful expositor of divine truth, in 
 all its extent, and under every aspect, so that it 
 might be said of his public ministrations, as it is 
 said in scripture of the church, " Christ was all 
 and in all?" Without that restriction of his dis- 
 courses to a few favourite topics, so common to a 
 certain class of preachers, and fostered too much, 
 perhaps, by all classes of our hearers, his instruc- 
 tions, while possessing the greatest latitude and va- 
 riety of reference, related uniformly to the Saviour, 
 and led, either directly or by easy and natural con- 
 sequence, to the illustration of his offices, or to the 
 exaltation of his personal glory, or to evince the
 
 REV. WILLIAM ROBY. 31 
 
 infinite importance of his mediatorial work. Thus 
 wisely, and thus only, could he adopt the apostolic 
 declaration " I determined to know nothing among 
 you but Jesus Christ and him crucified.'* 
 
 Or shall I allude to that distinguishing prosperity 
 which attended his whole career ; so that he in- 
 creased continually in reputation and usefulness, 
 respected equally by good men of every denomina- 
 tion, and throughout the empire ; his last days being 
 the brightest, and the happiest, and the best ; leav- 
 ing behind him an almost unprecedented exhibition 
 of the worth and dignity of an unsuspected charac- 
 ter, of the small and insignificant extent to which 
 all other qualities can rival the grandeur and per- 
 manency of its effects, and of the equally limited 
 degree in which passion, of whatever kind, is neces- 
 sary to direct and stimulate the efforts of principle, 
 when it exists, as it so obviously did in him, in all 
 the grandeur of its unassisted energy, and all the 
 force and magnitude of its effects ? 
 
 Suffer me rather to point out to you, before we 
 draw this discourse to its conclusion, those causes of 
 gratitude, presented even by the most cursory and 
 casual view of his instructive history. Let me ex- 
 hort you, to acknowledge and adore the signal good- 
 ness of a most wise and benignant providence, in 
 sparing him so long ; in granting to him such 
 abundant and increasing success ; in indulging him 
 to witness, especially, the peace, and purity, and 
 growing zeal, of his own people ; in bestowing 
 upon him such distinguished honour, throughout all 
 the churches; in raising up about him, at the close
 
 3*2 FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE 
 
 of his ministry, so many amongst his younger breth- 
 ren, all proud and happy to copy his example, and 
 tread in his steps ; that he was not laid aside by 
 sickness ; that he was not enfeebled by age ; that 
 none of his faculties had sustained the smallest di- 
 minution ; that he had, in the course of a long pro- 
 fessional life, accomplished so much, and suffered, 
 comparatively, so little ; and that he was mercifully 
 spared at last all the pain and agitation of a dying 
 hour ; that we may almost say he did not die, but 
 fell asleep in Jesus : and that thus, not in the midst 
 of his days and the fulness of his manly vigour, 
 not when he might have hoped to devote himself for 
 many following years to the cause and glory of the 
 Saviour, not when his plans were as yet immature, 
 and his principles partially unfolded, and the effect, 
 therefore, of his talents and exertions imperfectly 
 attained ; nor yet, on the other hand, amidst the 
 melancholy reflections and sorrowful forebodings of 
 a decrepit and indolent old age ; but just at the 
 evening hour, when the shadows of advancing twi- 
 light had scarcely begun to deepen on his path, 
 just before the winter of life, when its fruit was fully 
 ripened, but its decay was as yet unperceived, he 
 has passed away at once from the toils and the sor- 
 rows of earth, and has entered, or ever we were 
 aware, into the rest and the inheritance of heaven ! 
 He had attained to the advantages of age, with- 
 out its infirmities ; to its maturity of experience 
 and wisdom, without its tardy decline. It had shed 
 its calm and attractive radiancy around him ; but 
 without its withering and blighting influences. Its
 
 REV. WILLIAM IIOBY. 33 
 
 serenity was in his features, and its crown was on 
 his head; but its cold hand had not yet chilled the 
 glow of his affections, nor frozen the current of his 
 soul. It looked forth indeed from his countenance, 
 and imparted to it a beauty all its own. But it had 
 not as yet breathed upon his joys, and hopes, and 
 friendships, to blast them in their greenness, and to 
 consign them to decay. 
 
 Death, too, has at length performed his office, as 
 an angel of mercy rather than " the king of terrors." 
 His approaching footstep was so soft and noiseless, 
 as not to disturb those slumbers which were soon to 
 be succeeded by an eternal repose. And when the 
 heaving of his breast was stilled for ever, and the 
 happy spirit dismissed from her tabernacle of clay, 
 it was by a touch so gentle that the last breath was 
 wholly unperceived : no mortal struggle, no agon- 
 izing convulsion, marked the moment of the soul's 
 departure ; and she was already towering on the 
 wing, and far remote from all the toils and dangers 
 of mortality, before the attendants had discovered 
 even the preparations for her flight. 
 
 In such a death, there was every thing to call 
 forth the devoutest gratitude of his surviving friends. 
 It had all the happiness of sudden dissolution, unac- 
 companied by its surprise. By it he was exempted 
 from all that natural solicitude, which even the firm- 
 est minds can scarcely fail to experience, when 
 roused to contemplate the near approach of the last 
 hour. He felt not the disruption of those tender 
 bonds, by which his affectionate heart was united so 
 closely to all who were associated with him, in what- 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 34 FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE 
 
 ever relation. How, otherwise, would that heart have 
 clung, with fondest and most sorrowful anticipation, 
 to the companion of his pilgrimage, endeared, as she 
 was, by long and faithful attachment, and a singular 
 conformity of habit and feeling to his own, which 
 had made her so peculiarly a " help meet for him" 
 while he lived, and cannot but consign her, now that 
 he is departed, to the more pungent sorrow, and the 
 deeper sense of desolation. How would he have 
 shrunk from bidding the last adieu to the friends he 
 had attracted by his blameless and amiable charac- 
 ter, and whose attachment he never failed to return 
 with all the constancy and kindness of his nature ; 
 and to the church, which, I had almost said, had, 
 more than all, entwined itself with his affections, and 
 engrossed his concern ! Could it have been fore- 
 seen, that the time of his removal from amongst us 
 would so soon arrive ; had his people known with 
 certainty, that, when they last heard him, they should 
 see his face no more ; what agonizing grief would 
 have penetrated every bosom in this assembly ! 
 what tears of passionate and hopeless lamentation 
 would have burst from every eye I and how would 
 the serenity of his last moments have been invaded 
 by the inquiries and the sad farewells of those whom 
 gratitude, and veneration, and more than filial love, 
 would have gathered around his death-bed, or placed, 
 in mute and solemn expectation, about the chamber 
 of his final repose ! But all this was mercifully 
 spared him : the bitterness of death was passed, 
 before the cup was tasted ; and he breathed out his 
 soul at the last hour, with holy and unruffled calm-
 
 REV. WILLIAM ROBY. 35 
 
 ness, even as an infant, slumbering unconsciously 
 beneath the smile of his mother, as he is folded in 
 her embraces, or pillowed on her breast. 
 
 And now, brethren, what is the improvement we 
 are severally concerned to derive from the event 
 before us ? 
 
 There are some reflections, that cannot but appear 
 peculiarly applicable to the members of his own 
 church and congregation ; and others, which may 
 be, with equal advantage and legitimacy, cherished 
 by us all. 
 
 To the former I would first briefly address my- 
 self. Permit not, then, I beseech you, the remem- 
 brance of his many and transcendent qualifications, 
 as a Christian pastor, to be dissevered for a moment 
 from the deepest sense of your own great and so- 
 lemn responsibility. Cultivate a spirit of thought- 
 fulness and self-inquiry, in the review of your past 
 abundant privileges ; and ask yourselves often, with 
 the seriousness of men that know they must give an 
 account, what returns you have made for all those 
 gracious opportunities, and merciful influences, which 
 have been brought to bear upon you, while enjoying 
 the benefit and honour of his ministry. Think, how 
 you shall be able to meet him at last, if you be found 
 still careless and impenitent, after all his warnings, 
 exhortations, and entreaties. What ! shall your kind, 
 and faithful, and tender-hearted pastor, rise up in 
 the judgment to condemn you ? Shall he that has 
 so often pleaded your cause with God, and even 
 with yourselves, but pleaded it in vain, appear at
 
 36 FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE 
 
 that awful day a swift witness against you, to silence 
 every entreaty for forgiveness, and every appeal to 
 mercy, by reminding you how you were command- 
 e<J, and besought, and threatened, and invited, with 
 every form of persuasion and of argument, but 
 were bent on your own ruin, and refused to turn 
 to God ! Remember how he wasted all his strength, 
 and consumed the very remnant of his days, in ef- 
 forts to promote your salvation. And ask your own 
 hearts, what excuse they can afford you to justify 
 another hour's delay ; when you know not how soon 
 as the most abundant and most powerful means of 
 spiritual benefit you can ever hope to enjoy are now 
 cut off for ever so the time allotted for repentance 
 and the day of grace may also terminate, and leave 
 you only to lamentation and despair. Have any 
 amongst you hitherto despised serious religion, and 
 deemed its very name a mockery, its profession a 
 hypocritical disguise ? Recollect, you have known 
 at least one man, who, in his profession of humble 
 and experimental piety, was not a hypocrite ; and I 
 charge it upon you, as in the sight of God, that you 
 will give to this consideration the weight and the 
 practical effect which its importance so obviously 
 requires. Are there any who have stifled convic- 
 tions, broken reiterated purposes and solemn vows, 
 and are now reproached by their own consciences 
 with having caused, to the venerable man who is 
 removed from amongst them, that pain and grief, 
 which can be known only by a pastor, when those 
 of whom he had once hoped well arc turned aside 
 to folly, frustrating his best efforts, and blasting his
 
 REV. WILLIAM ROBY. 37 
 
 fondest anticipations ? Let them ponder well their 
 guilt and danger. Will they grieve, too, the Spirit 
 of the living God ? Will they go on any longer to 
 provoke him finally to depart from them ? To the 
 young of this flock, I would recommend the fre- 
 quent meditation of his watchful and affectionate 
 concern on their behalf; and that they should espe- 
 cially reflect, how the very last act of his ministry 
 was directed to their spiritual welfare. O that his 
 dying counsels and expostulations may not be in 
 vain ! To its elder members, I would respectfully 
 suggest, that they should never cease to pray that, 
 in his infinite mercy, God would, in due time, raise 
 up amongst them another pastor, wise and faithful 
 like him : and, till his arm be made bare, and his 
 counsel of grace be thus revealed, let them not aban- 
 don themselves to despondency, uttering only the 
 natural but melancholy cry " My father, my father, 
 the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof!" 
 but watch, to see on whom the mantle of the pro- 
 phet has descended, and still confidently exclaim, 
 while girding themselves, as before, to every solemn 
 duty, and every form of service " Where is the 
 Lord God of Elijah?" 
 
 I turn, in conclusion, to the present congregation 
 generally ; and will only offer to you, my hearers, 
 two simple and natural reflections, derived from the 
 exalted character and happy death of our late ven- 
 erated friend. 
 
 Let it teach us, to realize with greater certainty 
 the approach and the nature of that happy state, into 
 which, we cannot doubt, that he has already entered.
 
 38 FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE 
 
 and where we, too, should now prepare to follow him. 
 Our views of heaven, during the present life, are 
 like those presented to us at the close of day, relat- 
 ing to the splendour of the nightly firmament. We 
 look up where all was blank before, and see, here 
 and there, a star casting a faint and feeble radiance 
 amidst the gloom of deepening twilight : and from 
 these, dimly discovered and spoiled of their glory by 
 the remaining light of evening, we gather the exist- 
 ence of some far distant region, beyond that canopy 
 that seems to encircle by day the whole visible crea- 
 tion ; and we begin to judge more wisely of the 
 magnitude of nature. But little could we learn, 
 from such a spectacle, of the overwhelming majesty 
 of the midnight sky ; of the constellations that 
 beam so effulgently upon us, with increasing char- 
 acters of greatness and of beauty, as the reign of 
 darkness advances, and while night, invisible her- 
 self, draws aside the curtain w r hich concealed the 
 wondrous whole. Little could we know of those 
 fields of light and glory, immeasurable and untrod- 
 den, which stretch beyond the boundaries of human 
 vision; those realms of varied life and intelligence, 
 which lie embosomed in the deep blue heavens, like 
 islands floating in the ocean of immensity. Little 
 could we guess, from that imperfect revelation, of 
 the amplitude of space and being ; of the order and 
 arrangement, beaming on the instructed eye of sci- 
 ence, in the many systems of that starry sphere 
 which glitters so silently above. Still less could we 
 conjecture, from the solitary glimmering of those 
 fires, so pale and distant, what is the garniture, and
 
 REV. WILLIAM ROBY. 39 
 
 what the boundless magnificence, with which the 
 eternal Architect has adorned the temple of the uni- 
 verse. Now, it is one of the highest benefits deriv- 
 able from the death of such men as we have here 
 revered and loved, that it diminishes the sensible 
 remoteness of that happier world to which we hope 
 hereafter to ascend. The strangeness and impal- 
 pable spirituality of its whole being seems abated, in 
 equal measure, with our familiarity with the names 
 and character of its inhabitants. We love to recal 
 their features, their voices, their conversation, their 
 gesture ; and to think of them, (for so indeed they are) 
 as still near to us, and unchanged. They revisit us 
 in our slumbers ; they meet us in our way ; the 
 remembrance and the emulation of their virtues is 
 blended with the animating consciousness that they 
 are the observers of our conflict, and shall, in a very 
 little while, come forth to greet us on our entrance 
 into the heavenly city. We feel that we are " com- 
 passed about" with them, as with " a cloud of wit- 
 nesses ;" and our principles gather strength and 
 energy with the increasing ardour of our hopes, and 
 the equally increasing depth and clearness of our 
 spiritual impressions: which, in proportion as they 
 are more immediately derived from the reality and 
 the life, as embodied in the deathless recollection 
 of those with whom we have taken sweet counsel on 
 earth, and who are now numbered before us among 
 the just made perfect, become not only more vivid 
 and of greater force, but more fitted also, by the 
 mere increase of their familiarity, to counteract the 
 operation of surrounding and perishable objects, and
 
 40 FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE 
 
 to aid us in the difficult achievement of substituting 
 
 O 
 
 faith for sense, and the influence of an eternal fu- 
 ture for the solicitations and ever-varying allure- 
 ments of the passing hour. 
 
 Finally, Let the event we this day contemplate 
 teach us to count upon the vanity, and to expect the 
 speedy dissolution, of all temporal things, and to lay 
 up our treasure, and elevate our affections, where 
 the changes and ills of mortality shall be remem- 
 bered no more. TIME is the empire of desolation 
 and of decay, wherein all that awes or delights us 
 moulders into magnificence, or fades into beauty. 
 Would you learn what here is beautiful ? Look not 
 on the glories of the summer, nor on the pride of 
 manly vigour, nor on the gorgeous splendours of the 
 noon-day sun ; but look rather on the withering- 
 leaf of autumn, on the silver locks of age, on the 
 soft and tender radiance of the declining day. 
 Would you learn what is noble and majestic, and 
 fills the mind with a sense of overpowering great- 
 ness ? Go not to the crowded city, or the busy 
 mart of commerce ; look not on the pavilions of 
 royalty, or the gaudy trappings of military state : 
 but go to the desert and the solitary plain, where 
 the remains of ancient glory stretch out in silent 
 and melancholy grandeur ; see there the bulwark 
 and the aqueduct, the column and the triumphal 
 arch, lie heaped together in indiscriminate and uni- 
 versal ruin. Repair not to the camp, resounding 
 with martial music, and glittering with a thousand 
 banners waving proudly to the sun ; but to the 
 field of ancient combat, where all is now still and
 
 REV. WILLIAM ROBY. 41 
 
 peaceful, and no other voice is heard than that which 
 murmurs so fearfully in the moans of the passing 
 wind. Go not to the temple, but the sepulchre ; 
 not to the palace, but the tomb. But ETERNITY is 
 the reign of endless youth and vigour. There, all 
 that is great is imperishable, all that is lovely blooms 
 without decay. Around that throne on high, in- 
 numerable bands of blessed and immortal spirits 
 adore, without weariness or repose, the unchanging 
 majesty of their Creator. Our fathers and our 
 brethren are there. There is our inheritance, and 
 our happy home. And they that have gone before 
 us beckon us away ; they point to the bright path 
 which leads us upwards to their peaceful and blessed 
 abodes; they tell us of the joys awaiting us, when 
 we shall be received into their society. Let us arise 
 and follow them, "for this is not our rest :" and never, 
 never let us remit in our exertions, till we have at- 
 tained to an habitual and holy separation of thought, 
 and feeling, and desire, from all we are so soon to 
 leave behind amidst these regions of death ; and 
 till, in the exercises of faith and hope, of patience, 
 and watchfulness, and meditation, and prayer, we 
 become prepared to partake of their enjoyments, and 
 to mingle in their songs, there ; where their powers 
 are ever active, and their pleasures are ever new. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 AN ADDRESS, 
 
 DELIVERED IN 
 
 GREAT GEORGE STREET CHAPEL, LIVERPOOL, 
 FEBRUARY list, 1837, 
 
 ON OCCASION OF THE PRIVATE ANNUAL MEETING OF MINISTERS FROM 
 LANCASHIRE AND NEIGHBOURING COUNTIES, FOR PURPOSES OF SOCIAL 
 DEVOTION AND MUTUAL BENEFIT ; THE SUBJECT HAVING BEEN PRE- 
 SCRIBED AT THE PRECEDING MEETING IN MANCHESTER, JUNE, 1836.
 
 DISCOURSE II. 
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 AMONG all the peculiarities attaching to the organi- 
 zation of that great system under which we live, and 
 which forms so important a part of the government 
 of the Creator, one of the most remarkable is the 
 prevalence of a reciprocal dependency, by which 
 every individual is made to derive his happiness, 
 and much of the complexion both of his character 
 and his resulting destiny, from the agency and in- 
 fluence of his fellows. It is worthy of our notice, 
 that the operation of this principle is confined only 
 by the actual limits of the system, being co-exten- 
 sive with it in every dimension. Like the force of 
 gravitation in the natural world, it is diffused through 
 all that is vital. The inferior animated tribes, by 
 which we are surrounded, acknowledge its dominion 
 equally with man ; and man, not alone in his phy- 
 sical or mental, but even in his spiritual and immortal 
 characteristics, is, like the meanest and most short- 
 lived amongst them, subject to its control. We do 
 not so much wonder, when we see it extending 
 to the derivation of corporeal being, together with 
 all its circumstances ; but it becomes an object of
 
 40 PARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 surprise, and of the deepest interest, when it is seen 
 to affect our welfare as candidates even for eternity. 
 
 So far as we are able to extend our inquiries, we 
 are not apprized that such an arrangement prevails 
 in other worlds ; and it seems almost certain, that it 
 does not so prevail either in the degree, or the form, 
 of its operation in our own. Elsewhere, its action, 
 if it be felt at all, is probably much more circum- 
 scribed ; reaching by no means, as it here does, to 
 the communication even of existence, to the virtual 
 control of moral freedom, and the almost immeasur- 
 able modification of responsibility. 
 
 When we think of angels, we cannot but suppose 
 them to spring immediately from the great Creator, 
 who thus becomes to them the common and univer- 
 sal parent, in like manner as to the first forefather 
 of mankind. And whereas the relations of the hus- 
 band and the wife subsist not amongst them, any 
 more than they shall amongst ourselves on arriving 
 at that perfection of our nature which awaits us 
 when we become "the children of the resurrection;" 
 so those also of the father and the child are un- 
 known beyond the precincts of the human family. 
 
 It would seem, at the first view, most natural, that 
 the great fountain of life should thus universally re- 
 veal itself by such immediacy in the derivation of 
 those streams which it is ever pouring forth from its 
 own fulness, that at least the impartation of intel- 
 ligent and conscious vitality (than which no greater 
 nor higher can be reckoned amongst the most divine 
 of his prerogatives) should be seen to reside in the 
 Creator essentially and singly ; and that, however
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 47 
 
 body might spring from body, yet mind the bright- 
 est and noblest of his resemblances should be found 
 emanating directly and solely from himself. We do 
 not affirm that the spirit of man is not thus exclu- 
 sively of his creation. On the contrary, we rejoice 
 in the belief that every separate soul is a fresh pro- 
 duction of his power ; and comes, as truly as the 
 earliest of creatures, instantly from beneath his hand. 
 Yet, so far as is cognizable in visible phenomena, 
 we seem to deduce our existence, together with all 
 its peculiarities, from those who have gone before 
 us ; and thus to owe to them more than the external 
 accidents of our nativity. Such as they were, such, 
 in a thousand things, are we destined to be also ; be- 
 ing linked with them in our happiness or misery, 
 our exaltation or meanness, our intellectual powers, 
 and the great aggregate of all our moral habitudes 
 and endowments. 
 
 Now with this arrangement strange as it is, con- 
 sidered as a deviation from principles that otherwise 
 universally prevail great advantages are obviously 
 connected. It is adapted to an economy that is, in 
 all its aspects, singular : chiefly, and above all, be- 
 cause it qualifies us for the operation of that great 
 restorative expedient, in the assumed relationship, 
 and consequent ministrations, of the Son of God, by 
 which we are exempted from the injuries otherwise 
 inseparable from its own application under another 
 shape, in the perilous federality of the first parent 
 of our species : subordinately, because it becomes 
 the source of unnumbered endearing affinities, and 
 tender attachments ; gives scope for the exercise of
 
 48 PARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 the most kindly and ardent affections, carrying our 
 nature, by the activity of its own most powerful tend- 
 encies, on towards perfection ; exhibits, in the min- 
 gled picture of age and infancy, of youth and man- 
 hood, of the parental and the filial charities in all 
 their glow and sweetness, more than the vernal bloom 
 of paradise ; every season blending its loveliness 
 with the most dissimilar of its companions ; and form- 
 ing a scene, perhaps unrivalled in any other pro- 
 vince of creation. 
 
 Hence, too, arise obligations the most forcible, 
 and of the noblest character. We are bound to 
 use our exertions, and put forth our resources, for 
 the common good. " None of us liveth to himself, 
 and no man dieth to himself." " If one member 
 suffer, all the members suffer with it ; if one member 
 be honoured, all the members rejoice with it." Each 
 relationship of life, according to the degree of its 
 proximity, generates new claims of corresponding 
 urgency. The care of households branches out into 
 that of the community ; and that of our country, 
 into that of the world. Every man has thus his 
 natural guardians, and his hereditary friends. And 
 to each is assigned also a proper sphere for the ful- 
 filment of his duty ; which, more than all other 
 causes, tends, in its due performance, to the aug- 
 mentation both of his dignity and happiness. No 
 theory could be more beautiful, no results more sal- 
 utary ; and it is only sin, with its desolating train 
 of calamity and danger, that, by introducing per- 
 plexity into this otherwise perfect arrangement, has 
 converted, perhaps the fairest, though not the lofti-
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 49 
 
 est, tract of being into an abode of pestilence and 
 death. 
 
 Paralleled alone in the singularity of this adjust- 
 ment, is the wisdom and the wonderful skill, with 
 which the very perturbations and disorders, arising 
 out of the reciprocal effects of moral evil, are made 
 to work out their own correction ; and from what 
 would have seemed the greatest imperfections of the 
 scheme, the largest benefit is ultimately derived. 
 Our mutual sufferings give rise to mutual affections. 
 Good in its very nature new, and singular, and 
 otherwise unknown is made to spring even from 
 transgression and sorrow. And the power of omni- 
 potent love has asserted its supremacy, in bending 
 to its sway the most malignant and destructive 
 agencies. This, too so far as we are able to dis- 
 cover is a phenomenon confined to the realm which 
 we inhabit. We know not that the principle we 
 strictly denominate compassion, or the interest we 
 derive from sympathetic tenderness, is, in its proper 
 sense, diffused through any other sphere. 
 
 Thus it is, that the social machinery of the world 
 is prepared, by its great Fabricator, for producing 
 here the most surprising and beneficial results. 
 There may be diversities of operation in the sys- 
 tems that encircle us, which, were they revealed, 
 would exhibit, not less impressively, the inexhaust- 
 ible resources of his skill, or the unlimited designs 
 of his benevolence : but these are our proper study ; 
 and in our practical conformity to their direction, 
 lies the duty with which we are intrusted. 
 
 The first in order, and the highest in importance, 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 50 PARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 amongst all their applications, is to the obligation 
 involved in the parental character. This, while it 
 has been recognised in every age and nation, as 
 among the primary enactments even of the law of 
 nature, derives yet higher sanction from that unerr- 
 ing code, which, while it ratifies the dictates of con- 
 science, and the deductions of right reason, super- 
 adds such special injunctions as concern man, not 
 alone in the relation of a creature to his Creator, or 
 a fellow-subject amongst his partners in existence, 
 but as the object also of redemption, and a partici- 
 pator of infinite and sovereign mercy. 
 
 And, as it is wisely provided for in the divine ad- 
 ministration, that no duty shall be unconnected with 
 a recompence, and that no obligation shall rest where 
 the capacity of its discharge is not secured, so to the 
 faithful accomplishment of the offices devolving upon 
 pious parents, the largest returns, and of the purest 
 satisfaction, are graciously accorded. The assidu- 
 ity, vigilance, and kindness, necessary to their per- 
 formance, are found more certainly and uniformly 
 efficacious than any other modification of effort for 
 men's spiritual welfare. 
 
 Christian families have ever been, and must be 
 always, the very spring-head of benevolent and holy 
 influences. Here it is that the dews of heaven are 
 first imbibed and collected. Here the refreshing 
 waters commence their earliest flow. Out of the 
 bosom of such families it is, that we derive the in- 
 numerable forms of pious fellowship, and of sacred 
 beneficence. Here are those germs and seedlings, 
 which are to fill the earth with fruitfulness, and to
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 51 
 
 clothe the church with beauty. Here those infant 
 graces receive their discipline, and mature their 
 strength, which are to go forth afterwards to the 
 encounter of every error and pollution. Those holy 
 purposes are here nurtured and confirmed, which 
 will soon reveal themselves under the commanding 
 forms of enterprise, and patience, and heroic self- 
 denial. If to the parent is committed the formation 
 of the commonwealth, then to the Christian parent 
 is assigned the arduous but honourable task, of re- 
 plenishing the church, not in earth alone, but 
 heaven ; of training up for glory that philanthropy, 
 which looks not to the body, but the soul ; that pa- 
 triotism, which embraces not an empire, but a world ; 
 that unquenchable ambition, which shall pursue its 
 conquests, and gather its rewards, beyond the bound- 
 aries of time and death ; and that emanation of di- 
 vine benignity, which shall shine, like its parent 
 beam, to guide the wanderer, to cheer the exile, and 
 to gladden the homeward path of spirits once far off, 
 but now returning to the habitation of their father. 
 The missionary, the pastor, the visitor of the forgot- 
 ten poor, the pious instructor of an unborn genera- 
 tion, the future champion of holiness and truth, and 
 the witness for God against the scoffs and infidelity 
 of a coming age ; these, and others like them, are 
 to be meetened for their several employments, and 
 girded for the hardships and honours which await 
 them, by the hand of parental instruction. 
 
 On this point, while the testimony of experience 
 is not less uniform than it is encouraging, there is 
 one fact so pre-eminently interesting, that I cannot
 
 V2 PARENTAL IHTli.-. 
 
 pass it over in silence. Whoever has cultivated a 
 familiar acquaintance with the details of religious 
 biography, will have been struck to observe, in 
 most frequent and impressive examples, the power of 
 such instruction, particularly as administered by 
 MOTHERS. To so large an extent is this power real- 
 ized, that, when we witness the admission of fresh 
 members into the church, or listen to the narratives 
 of personal experience presented by candidates for 
 ordination, at least if any favourable impression is 
 known to have been made upon their minds in ear- 
 lier life, we almost instinctively expect to hear them 
 acknowledging their unspeakable obligations to the 
 care and watchfulness of the maternal character. 
 Whether it be, that infinite benevolence would re- 
 quite in this form the humiliation and sorrow arising 
 from the priority of woman in the first transgres- 
 sion, even as, in unutterable condescension, it as- 
 signed to her the exclusive parentage of our great 
 Deliverer ; or whether it be only the result of that 
 peculiar combination of assiduity and mild forbear- 
 ance, by which the piety of a Christian mother is 
 wont to be distinguished; or whether the heart 
 yields itself, with a less reluctant submission, to one 
 whose very sex forbids the competition of mere force, 
 and the exercise of physical exertion ; or whether 
 there be, in the absoluteness of our dependence on 
 her in the first years of life, an efficacy to win and 
 to subdue, when every other influence would be tried 
 without effect ; or what other cause may be as- 
 signed, I know not : but the fact is certain, that 
 the instructions of such a mother are, in innumcr-
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 53 
 
 able instances, productive of more valuable and per- 
 manent results than all other forms of instrument- 
 ality together. And I doubt not, that, at the last 
 day, they will be confessed to have been rivalled, in 
 the magnitude of their effects, only by the actual 
 proclamation of the gospel, and the dissemination 
 of the holy scriptures. What encouragement is thus 
 afforded to pious mothers, I need not now stay to 
 point out ; but what impressive views of their re- 
 sponsibility are connected with the fact, it is of more 
 importance to submit to your attention. Allow me, 
 therefore, to attempt its corroboration by the cita- 
 tion of a single testimony. I will do so in the terms 
 in which it is embodied in one of those very useful 
 publications issued, under the denomination of " An- 
 ecdotes," by the Religious Tract Society, not being 
 aware of the authority from which it is derived. 
 " A few years ago, some gentlemen in America, who 
 were associated in preparing for the Christian min- 
 istry, felt interested in ascertaining what proportion 
 of their number had pious mothers. They were 
 greatly surprised and delighted, on finding that, out 
 of one hundred and twenty students, more than a 
 hundred had been blessed by a mother's prayers, 
 and directed by a mother's counsels to the Saviour. 
 Though some of them had broken away from all the 
 restraints of home, and, like the prodigal, had wan- 
 dered in sin and sorrow, yet they could not forget 
 the impressions of childhood, and each was eventu- 
 ally brought to Jesus, as well as proved a mother's 
 joy and blessing."* Is it not a natural reflection, 
 
 * Christian Ministers, page 6.
 
 54 PARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 what might be the probable amount of good, secured 
 through its whole extent, if every mother, who had 
 herself experienced the blessings of salvation, should 
 vigorously discharge her obligations, not to her 
 children only, but for the welfare of society and of 
 the world? 
 
 And might not similar results be expected from 
 correspondent efforts on the part of devoted and ju- 
 dicious fathers, especially with reference to their 
 female offspring ? Is there not reason to hope, that 
 the same elementary principles which give to the 
 mother so valuable an influence over the mind of 
 her son, would invest with like efficiency the well- 
 directed exertions of a father to promote his daugh- 
 ter's welfare ? Were she encouraged to commit to 
 him her wishes and* anxieties without reserve, and 
 to place herself unhesitatingly beneath his guidance, 
 would not her best emotions come in aid of whatever 
 counsels he might administer, and invest with an 
 almost irresistible authority whatever was known to 
 be an object of his affectionate and serious concern? 
 Instances of beneficial operation under this form are, 
 it is true, less familiar : but there are causes suffi- 
 ciently obvious to account for such a difference ; and 
 there can be little doubt, that the most extensive and 
 benignant consequences would be speedily realized, 
 were the subject better understood, and the duty 
 more faithfully discharged. 
 
 It is impossible, however, to think on such a topic 
 without adverting to another, calculated to bring 
 over the mind a shade of the deepest melancholy, 
 and to fill it with emotions of perplexity and appre-
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 55 
 
 hension. It is the appalling number of those in- 
 stances, wherein the children of pious parents have 
 been marked by open profligacy and the most irre- 
 claimable abandonment. In these, it is natural to 
 say, there has been a palpable and utter failure of 
 all pious effort ; and how shall we account for them, 
 without either discrediting the soundness of our 
 principles, or casting reproach upon many whom 
 we rank amongst the brightest examples of every 
 Christian excellence ? I am well aware of the deli- 
 cacy of this subject ; and yet it must not be hastily 
 dismissed. Many questions demand to be resolved, 
 before we reach so gloomy a conclusion as that we 
 have suggested. We must first ascertain, that the 
 change, so ardently yet vainly longed for, never 
 actually took place, not even in the latest hours of 
 life, not even when entering into eternity. Next 
 we must assure ourselves, that there was nothing 
 wanting, either in the simplicity or the steadfastness 
 of that faith, with which every effort was accompan- 
 ied, and every prayer presented. Then we must 
 seek for proof, that the domestic history of those 
 with whom we sympathize was marked by a just 
 consistency in principle and in behaviour ; and that 
 the detail of actions and pursuits, in themselves in- 
 considerable, but great in their results, was such as 
 to insure for their instructions the fulness of their 
 natural effect. We must then revolve the awful pro- 
 blem of the divine supremacy ; and the not less aw- 
 ful inquiry, whether it may not coincide with the 
 arrangements, and tend finally to the glory, of Him 
 who " giveth none account of any of his matters," to
 
 ')() PARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 withhold, in some conspicuous instances, the effusion 
 of his saving influence, that so it may be made mani- 
 fest to every beholder, that the blessing is not neces- 
 sarily associated with any form of human piety or 
 wisdom, any more than the rain and sunshine of 
 heaven with the seed we may have cast into the 
 
 m 
 
 earth ; and whether this be not one, therefore, of 
 those mysterious processes, whereby " he sealeth up 
 the hand of every man that all men may acknow- 
 ledge his work." * After this, we must remember, 
 that such cases of awful criminality are made thus 
 signally prominent by their very contrariety to the 
 calculations we so reasonably indulge, and the con- 
 sequences we so often and happily witness ; that 
 they would have attracted incomparably less of our 
 attention, had they occurred in irreligious families, 
 wherein, perhaps, equal or even greater manifes- 
 tations of depravity are presented every day ; and 
 farther, that the very checks and restraints, which 
 have been once resolutely surmounted, may operate 
 only to yield clearer demonstration of the malignity 
 of that dreadful principle, resident in every unre- 
 generated heart, so that it simply discovers itself 
 more openly, or asserts its power more boldly, than 
 in other instances, wherein its real domination is not 
 less absolute and fatal. When these considerations 
 shall have produced their due impression, we shall 
 be prepared to enter, cautiously and tenderly, on an 
 examination of those causes which may be reason- 
 ably thought to have contributed to so alarming and 
 sorrowful an issue. 
 
 * Job xxx vii. 7.
 
 PARENTAL DUTIEsi. 5| 
 
 Doubtless, in the case of many, from the pres- 
 sure, and perhaps the seduction, of public engage- 
 ments, the culture of domestic piety has been aw- 
 fully neglected ; and, while caring for other inter- 
 ests, the care of their own households has been 
 almost wholly forgotten. In many, too, the very 
 qualities which insured distinction and commanded 
 reverence abroad, may have been the least of all 
 adapted to conciliate esteem or confidence at home. 
 In many, the habits, and possibly the studies, requisite 
 to great and arduous enterprises, were hostile to that 
 play of the gentler and calmer affections, without 
 which all attempts of this nature may be even worse 
 than useless. In many, the developments of talent, 
 and, as it seemed, of piety, which won for their au- 
 thors the most unmingled public admiration, may 
 have been privately beheld springing from motives, 
 and conjoined with purposes, so uncongenial and 
 even so degrading, as to make their influence in- 
 
 O O' 
 
 tolerably loathsome. 
 
 m 
 
 There must have been also cases opposite to these, 
 where not our censure, but our pity, would, were 
 they fully known, be painfully excited. Religion 
 may have been rendered burdensome to the youth- 
 ful mind, by the injudicious frequency with which 
 it has been forced upon attention. Psalms, and les- 
 sons, and catechisms, may have been made to alter- 
 nate, in so wearisome a repetition, with sermons and 
 the formalities of public service, that the taste was 
 palled, and the energy of the soul borne down be- 
 yond recovery. An uninviting aspect may have 
 been presented, in the very piety we have desired to 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 .58 PARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 recommend. It may have been seen in combination 
 only with privations and mortifying restraints, to the 
 destruction of all innocent cheerfulness and rational 
 freedom. Experience has, perhaps, been spoken of 
 in a manner, not of discreet reserve, but so as that 
 the hearer could neither understand its origin, nor 
 apprehend its reality. Or else it may have been 
 vaunted, as if evidence of a superiority strangely 
 disproportionate to the known standard of practice, 
 or the common habitudes of thought. States of mind, 
 relating whether to belief or feeling, have perhaps 
 been urged upon his cultivation, without adequate 
 delineation of their nature, or practical direction as 
 to the means of their attainment. Forms of moral 
 virtue, when they happened to exist without the pale 
 of our prepossessions and attachments, have been 
 perhaps discredited, or cast into the shade. They 
 may have been even stigmatized as heathenish, or 
 denounced as hostile to the simplicity of Christian 
 dependence ; or the whole manner of their treat- 
 ment may have led to the conclusion, that at least 
 we had rather they should never have been culti- 
 vated, than that they should have flourished and 
 brought forth their fruits anywhere but within the 
 narrow limits of our own enclosure. On the con- 
 trary, displays of goodness infinitely less attractive, 
 and not above the reach of ordinary imitation, may 
 have been eulogized and emblazoned with the most 
 inconsiderate exaggeration ; until the ingenuous mind 
 has turned away, first with incredulity, and after- 
 wards with disdain. Some imagined paragon of ex- 
 cellence, who had been made the idol and the demi-
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 5 ( J 
 
 god of the parents, may have thus become insensibly 
 the secret scorn and mockery of their household, 
 perhaps for his infirmities, perhaps even for his 
 virtues, but chiefly for the ill-judged commendations 
 which were lavished so unsparingly upon him. Or 
 perhaps, while thus caressed and honoured at a dis- 
 tance, he was found, on closer inspection, querulous, 
 tyrannical, capricious, inconstant in purpose, or 
 inflated with vanity, jealous of a rival, or envious 
 of a superior, selfish, dissatisfied, morose ; and thus 
 the object of a blind idolatry has dwindled into one 
 of rancorous hatred, or indignant contempt. 
 
 Let these reflections be allowed their proper 
 weight ; and let us add to them the very obvious 
 truth, that the instances we speak of are, after all, 
 but exceptions from a rule abundantly verified on 
 the greater scale, while, on the other hand, the 
 cases of eminent devotedness presented by members 
 of ungodly households, stand in the same relation to 
 the vast and overwhelming majority of those who 
 follow naturally in the footsteps of their predeces- 
 sors ; and we shall be assisted at least to moderate 
 our distrust, however we may be unable to suppress 
 our lamentation. 
 
 The mention of this topic suggests some observa- 
 tions of a cautionary nature, to which I would now 
 respectfully solicit your regard. 
 
 I will not dwell merely upon the necessity of ab- 
 staining from whatever might oppress the spirit, or 
 awaken the suspicion, of your youthful charge ; but 
 attempt to specify, in a few particulars, what is most 
 to be avoided ; which may be probably more useful
 
 ()0 PARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 than to leave such generalities to their own uncer- 
 tain issue. 
 
 It is of the last importance, then, allow me to re- 
 mind you, in the business of religious education, 
 not to enforce as a task, what should rather be pro- 
 posed as an object of elevated hope and earnest ef- 
 fort ; not to require as a duty, what can only be re- 
 alized as a special and invaluable privilege ; not to 
 make the way of piety more narrow, nor its gate 
 more strait, by any needless restrictions or burden- 
 some demands ; not to render the sabbath, in par- 
 ticular, distasteful and wearisome, by such an ac- 
 cumulation of services, as shall cause the day of rest 
 to be even more physically irksome than the common 
 labours of the week ; not to enjoin the indiscrimin- 
 ate perusal of the Scriptures, and chide a natural 
 intolerance of long-continued but unsuccessful efforts 
 to penetrate what is unintelligible, or to bring the 
 mind into coalition with what is essentially repulsive, 
 without the impartation of the grace of God ; not 
 to repress hope, or discourage exertion, when we 
 discover even the most feeble and incipient inclina- 
 tion to religious exercises, or the first marks of seri- 
 ous thoughtfulness ; not to deal harshly even with 
 hesitation, or with actual doubt, respecting the more 
 obscure and elevated matters of religious doctrine or 
 experience ; not to construe at once into the mani- 
 festations of rising unbelief, those dubious inquiries, 
 and reluctant surmises, which may be only the sig- 
 nals of an interior conflict, that shall terminate, ere 
 long, in the expulsion and overthrow of every hos- 
 tile principle, if the mind be but duly sustained and
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 reinforced by the aid derivable from more mature 
 investigation, " bringing every thought into captiv- 
 ity to the obedience of Christ ;" never to expect 
 results arising from religious influences, dispropor- 
 tionate to the appreciable power of the occasion or 
 the agent, nor to cast upon its subject implied 
 though tacit blame, should such appearances be 
 wanting ; never to indulge in an uncharitable and 
 bitter spirit, confounding men's speculative errors 
 with moral delinquency, or suffering our zeal for 
 the truth to put on the disguise of a bigotted attach- 
 ment to our party, or our jealousy for the honour 
 of our creed to wear the aspect of a real, though 
 unacknowledged, incapacity for its defence; never 
 to convey such censure, without cautious and just 
 discrimination, as if all the sentiments of those from 
 whom we differ must be as erroneous as those against 
 which we solemnly protest, lest, in the progress of 
 life, our very interdiction should become only an 
 incitement to the more eager and credulous inquiry, 
 and our strongest denunciations a presumption in 
 favour of whatever we condemn. 
 
 Of all the evils against which it is necessary thus 
 to be upon our guard, perhaps there is not one more 
 dangerous, nor into which we may be more easily 
 betrayed, than the wanton dissection of religious 
 character ; the unrestrained, and often careless, 
 censure of the faults and foibles of professors ; the 
 disposition to magnify their frailties, to question 
 their motives, to find occasions of offence in their 
 infirmities and petty mistakes, and even to subject 
 their most insignificant peculiarities to a mode of
 
 f)2 PARENTAL DUTll -. 
 
 comment which evinces more of malignant gratifica- 
 tion than of charity or wisdom. By this means, 
 especially when directed, as it so frequently is, 
 against the ministers of the sanctuary, the most 
 injurious associations are inevitably generated ; 
 their name and office, rendered no longer venerable, 
 is robbed of all its value ; and their most impressive 
 statements of more than half their power. If to such 
 conduct be added the unsparing criticism of their 
 public discourses, who can wonder that the young 
 people of our congregations should so often desert 
 our ministry for one which, though not perchance 
 distinguished by more eminent endowments or a 
 loftier aim, is treated, in familiar intercourse, with 
 more becoming respect. I speak here the more 
 freely, because I am persuaded you, whom I now 
 address, have far too reverential a conception both 
 of the talents and the principles of the men who do 
 so much honour to their name, and are received with 
 such just and willing deference in every society 
 whereinto they enter, to fall beneath my reproof, or 
 to require my admonition ; and it may be said, 
 therefore, in this place, without offence, that the 
 parent who permits himself, in presence of his chil- 
 dren, to trifle with the reputation or the honour of 
 his pastor, takes the most certain course to ruin all 
 that is salutary in that pastor's influence ; and, by 
 directly contravening one of the most gracious of 
 divine appointments, acts the part of a destroying 
 angel, to tempt, to pervert, and to harden, and, as 
 far as in him lies, to cut off the very possibility of 
 their salvation.
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 63 
 
 Allied to this is a practice, once, alas ! too com- 
 mon, that of making religious phraseology, and the 
 language even of the Scriptures, the vehicle of sen- 
 timents sometimes ludicrous, sometimes trifling, some- 
 times almost profane. This practice seems now in- 
 deed to be very generally reprobated, and abandoned, 
 in a great measure, by the church to the world. 
 With respect to this latter class, however humbling 
 it might be to be reminded of the fact, they owe 
 some of the most sparkling ornaments of their dis- 
 course, and nearly all their wit, to that despised and 
 antiquated volume, at length so happily exploded, 
 that against it they have almost ceased any longer 
 to direct their raillery. Orators, novelists, poets, sen- 
 ators, the facetious and the scientific alike, find 
 the Bible now their most convenient jest-book ; and 
 it must be acknowledged they make ample use of it, 
 though not always with the facility or the discretion 
 which a larger acquaintance with its contents might 
 enable them to apply. A man moderately convers- 
 ant with its expression, might often assist them more 
 ingeniously to insult and outrage their Creator. He 
 might furnish them with happier allusions, and terms 
 more adequate to their design ; with forms of more 
 impious innuendo, and images of more delicately vail- 
 ed pollution. We have sometimes commiserated the 
 poverty of their invention, while admiring the bold- 
 ness of their adventure : that they would brave the 
 wrath of heaven on so slight a stimulus ; making its 
 own oracles, even for a jest, the very seal of their 
 damnation. Pity, that they should barter their im- 
 mortality for so poor a recompense, and gain for its
 
 04 PARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 surrender no more valuable boon than the honour of 
 some paltry witticism, or ill-constructed blasphemy ! 
 I repeat my conviction, that, amongst those who have 
 even the slightest pretensions to the name of godli- 
 ness, this most reprehensible and senseless practice 
 is declining, and will, ere long, wholly disappear ; 
 and I hope the time is at hand, when even to al- 
 lude, in his presence, to the word of God, in any 
 other manner than with the profoundest reverence, 
 and for legitimate and sacred purposes, will be felt, 
 by every believer in revelation, as a direct and per- 
 sonal offence. Yet it is impossible I should too 
 strongly caution the Christian parent against the 
 most distant approach to its indulgence. Nothing 
 is more criminal ; scarcely any thing is more cer- 
 tainly indicative of an unprolific and a vulgar mind ; 
 while its effects upon the sentiments and habits of 
 the young must be, in every aspect, indescribably 
 pernicious. 
 
 I must now hasten to the enumeration of certain 
 practical directions, intimately connected with our 
 present purpose. That enumeration shall be brief 
 and general ; nothing beyond it being consistent 
 either with the deference I cherish towards this au- 
 dience, or with the necessary limitation of our time. 
 
 It may seem almost superfluous to insist, that the 
 spirit uniformly manifested towards our children 
 should be one of visible affection and concern for 
 their immortal welfare. And yet, perhaps, there is 
 no point on which we are more liable to be mistaken 
 by them. Whatever be the consciousness of the 
 parent, the condition of the child is one essentially
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 65 
 
 and widely different; and the constructions naturally 
 put upon his conduct will assume a complexion cor- 
 responding to that difference. What the one deems 
 prudent restraint, the other will be prone to regard 
 as unnecessary severity. The same things will ap- 
 pear to the one of great and vital consequence, which 
 to the other wear an aspect wholly insignificant and 
 trivial. The one, guided by experience, will be 
 cautious and apprehensive of the future ; the other, 
 stimulated by momentary impulse, will be regardless 
 of all but present gratifications. Even in the wisest 
 and most prudent government, there must be much 
 which it is irksome to obey ; and it is probably im- 
 possible to conduct ourselves in such a manner, as 
 not sometimes to be thought unindulgent or unrea- 
 sonable. How great, then, is the necessity of so 
 acting as to make it apparent that our honest pur- 
 pose is the promotion of their happiness, that, 
 though they may deem us mistaken, no ground shall 
 be allowed them for ascribing our conduct to caprice, 
 or austerity, or a needless jealousy of power, or the 
 fear of seeming wrong in little things, and a deter- 
 mination blindly to maintain our mere authority ! 
 How important, that there should be no semblance 
 of a disposition to suspect their motives, and an 
 unwillingness to acknowledge either the justness of 
 their reasons, or the integrity of their intentions ! 
 How many a parent might have gained by a discreet 
 concession, what he has irrecoverably forfeited by 
 imbecile but uncompromising rigour ! What bene- 
 fits might have been insured, if in the father there 
 had been also, not the task-master or the despot, but 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 CO PARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 the friend ! That the case is not so in the vast ma- 
 jority of instances, is scarcely more humbling than 
 it is instructive ; and may furnish my apology for 
 pressing, with such earnestness, this very common 
 and obvious remark. 
 
 Care must be likewise taken, that all our efforts 
 should, as far as possible, commend themselves to 
 the unbiassed understanding of those from whom we 
 expect submission. Both our injunctions and our 
 methods should be rational. We should determin- 
 ately possess ourselves of definite and solid reasons 
 for the sentiments which we instil, and the course of 
 action we prescribe. And those reasons should not 
 always be withheld. It is not meet, indeed, for us 
 to rest on these alone our claim to their subjection ; 
 but it ought at least to be seen, that by such rea- 
 sons we are actuated ; or, though we may enforce 
 obedience, we shall never insure respect. And let 
 it not be forgotten, that arguments which may fail 
 at present either to confute objections or to suppress 
 complaints, may have their effect hereafter, and 
 come, even when we are gathered to our fathers, to 
 stand in the place of that authority which can then 
 be exerted no more. In this way, surely, should we 
 make it one of our first endeavours to render the 
 evidences, both of natural and revealed religion, 
 level to the most infantile capacity. By the frank 
 and cheerful solution of every difficulty we are able 
 to remove, and by the use of every simple and ap- 
 propriate illustration we are competent to apply, 
 we should show that we have not taken up our belief 
 without examination, nor adopted our system at ran-
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 67 
 
 dom. The proofs of divine power and wisdom in 
 the works of nature around us, and the proper evi- 
 dences of Christianity in their more plain and popu- 
 lar exhibitions, should form part of every scheme of 
 religious education. Their neglect, indeed, is such 
 as, while nothing can justify, nothing can repair. 
 I would extend this statement though certainly with 
 a far less eager application to those particulars 
 wherein we differ from our fellow-christians ; and 
 especially to those for which we conscientiously sep- 
 arate from the national establishment. An unre- 
 flecting protestantism, and a bigotted Catholicism, are 
 but the same thing under different names. A Cal- 
 vinism which rests on prescription, not on argu- 
 ment, or on the dogmas of men, not the oracles 
 of God, is but another aspect of those systems 
 which by implication it denounces. And in like 
 manner, a nonconformity, without any other sanction 
 than the accidental circumstances of our birth or 
 station, and the usages, perhaps the prejudices, of 
 our ancestors, would be the very same religion as 
 that which could find consecration in walls, and vest- 
 ments, and the puerilities of an unmeaning ceremoni- 
 al, even though it were administered by an atheistic 
 priesthood. It was not by things like these that the 
 founders of our nonconformist churches infused life 
 and energy, and an elementary identity of being, 
 into societies having no other basis but the integrity 
 of honest judgment, and no bond of union save the 
 equal relation of all to the one head and centre of 
 truth, and holiness, and love. We complain, as I 
 have before intimated, of the many who withdraw
 
 ()8 PARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 from our community, so soon as they are brought to 
 feel those attractions of wealth and splendour, which 
 are elsewhere more amply enjoyed : but are we not 
 chargeable with their defection ? For where is the 
 pastor, or where the parent, that has, with becoming 
 intelligence and seriousness, sought to fortify their 
 minds against the power of such allurements ? Or, 
 I may add, though it seem, perhaps, a digression, 
 where is the congregation that would even toler- 
 ate that earnest inculcation of principles, and that 
 temperate, but frequent and unhesitating, statement 
 of evidence, by which alone it is possible that allure- 
 ments, such as these, should be repelled ? 
 
 On the subject of personal religion, while we 
 should not, assuredly, thrust the theme upon their 
 notice, nor manifest impatience or petulance till it 
 be regarded as it ought, we must remember, that 
 they require to be stimulated and led on ; that they 
 are partakers with us of a nature alienated from such 
 pursuits and objects, and which would never of itself 
 return to God ; that it is unsafe, therefore, to leave 
 them in the indolent hope that, when or how we know 
 not, they will begin diligently to seek the first and 
 great concern ; that every salutary movement, and 
 every heavenward tendency, must originate from 
 without, not within ; and thus, that it behoves us, 
 depending on the grace of God, to use every prac- 
 ticable and prudent means of impressing on them 
 the realities of their condition, and urging them to 
 flee from everlasting ruin. We must not be afraid 
 to appeal to them plainly on this subject. Nor must 
 we hesitate because of even an honest avowal that
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 09 
 
 they experience at present no interest or concern 
 respecting it. We must be prepared to find them 
 embarrassed as to the sublimer truths of revelation, 
 and the mysteries of the new birth. It must not 
 surprise us, if they propose questions we are unable 
 to resolve, or difficulties we cannot overcome; and 
 there must be no shame or reluctance freely to con- 
 fess our incompetency : indeed, it is only by a manly 
 acknowledgment of our imperfect information, we 
 shall protect ourselves, in such circumstances, from 
 the suspicion of equal ignorance on other points, and 
 even, it may be, of secret unbelief, or consciousness 
 of error. 
 
 They should be dealt with candidly, and see that 
 we expect from them candour in return. No impedi- 
 ment should be allowed to hinder the most free dis- 
 closure of every doubt which may perplex them, and 
 of every obstacle which may impede their progress. 
 They should be invited, animated, fostered, in all 
 that may involve their future happiness. The way 
 should be made open to their early and welcome re- 
 ception into the society of the faithful. The barri- 
 ers to church communion should not be multiplied 
 and strengthened, till they are almost insurmount- 
 able. The terrors of that ordeal, by which they are 
 to enter it, should, by every practicable means, be 
 abated ; and their excuses for delay, instead of be- 
 ing suffered to operate till they may induce a habit 
 of unconquerable procrastination, should be met and 
 combated. It is thus we should imitate the conduct 
 of Jehovah toward Israel, when, "as an eagle stir- 
 reth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spread-
 
 70 PARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 eth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on 
 her wings ; so the Lord alone did lead him, and 
 there was no strange god with him ; until he for- 
 sook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the 
 rock of his salvation." * 
 
 As to the manner best adapted to secure the effect 
 of our instructions, it can scarcely be too familiar. 
 The freedom of incidental conversation, rather than 
 the formality of set and stated lessons ; the intro- 
 duction of religious topics in the common intercourse 
 of life, rather than the grave and forbidding annun- 
 ciation of a change from secular to spiritual themes ; 
 and the habit of referring all things to God, and 
 comparing the truths and maxims of the Bible with 
 the events of every hour, rather than the mere light- 
 ing of a Sabbath lamp, and forcing all things out 
 of their current when the season of devotion returns ; 
 these are the means for opening the avenues to 
 the youthful heart, and rendering religion, together 
 with its Great Author, the object, not of aversion or 
 terror, nor only of cold and distant homage, but of 
 mingled reverence and love. On this point, no- 
 thing can be more just and philosophic, any more 
 than of higher obligation, than the direction once 
 communicated from the source of infinite wisdom : 
 " These words, which I command thee this day, shall 
 be in thine heart ; and thou shalt teach them dili- 
 gently to thy children, and shalt talk of them when 
 thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest 
 by the way, and when thou liest down, and when 
 thou risest up."f I add only, that if we would, in 
 
 * Deut. xxxii. 11, &c. f eut. vi. 68.
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 71 
 
 this respect, make that faultless model, the teaching 
 of our blessed Lord, a subject of diligent and serious 
 study, we should need no other guidance to the most 
 effectual and perfect methods of religious education. 
 How wisely, yet how simply, did he blend the lofti- 
 est sentiments with matters of domestic history and 
 ordinary life ! The fields, the flowers, the trees, the 
 instincts of animals, and the familiar actions of men, 
 all were made available to his design. The merest 
 trifle furnished occasion of profound remark ; the 
 slightest casualty, materials for heavenly instruction. 
 This while all other expedients were alike at his 
 command may be reckoned his master principle as 
 a teacher of mankind. And, just as the Socratic 
 method was pre-eminently the interrogative, that of 
 our Lord may be denominated the allusive. It was 
 making all nature illustrate what uncreated intelli- 
 gence alone was able to reveal. Advantages beyond 
 description might be expected to result, were we, in 
 this manner, to preserve the mind in constant readi- 
 ness for devout and pleasing reflection : if, for ex- 
 ample, the bounty of God were thus recognised in 
 the provisions of our table, his protection, in the 
 safety of our slumbers, his watchfulness, in our 
 exemption from impending calamity, and his pa- 
 rental discipline, in all our light afflictions and cor- 
 rective restraints, while the impress of his power 
 and goodness should be shown in every form of 
 beauty blooming in our path, and in every elemental 
 change with which we were surrounded. 
 
 I will not weary you by further details. I will 
 only farther remind you of one or two among those
 
 72 I'AHENTAL Dl'TIES. 
 
 great and practical principles essentially involved in 
 our design, and whose application is inseparable 
 from success. 
 
 Remember, brethren, those whom you would ben- 
 efit are naturally depraved and sinful creatures, 
 fallen intelligences, degenerate spirits, impaired 
 and mutilated in their moral faculties, tending 
 awfully to ruin in their strongest propensities and 
 first elements of action. Their corruption is inhe- 
 rent and native. Its date is coeval with their being. 
 They have inherited its defilement from the womb. 
 Dear as they are to yourselves, they are apostates, 
 " children of wrath," fatally estranged from God, 
 and subject to the infliction of his anger. Tender 
 as you feel their alliance, and gladly as you would 
 give your very life for their redemption ; yet you 
 cannot stay, by all your efforts, that current of im- 
 purity and death, which flows so awfully within them : 
 and it is only an almighty arm which can snatch 
 them from perdition. Further ; they have derived 
 that heritage of guilt and misery immediately from 
 you. They have brought into this world of sorrow 
 only your rebellious nature. That disease with which 
 they sicken, you have imparted. Their blood is 
 tainted; but it has flowed first in your veins. Their 
 very soul is darkened with sin ; but its virulence and 
 its malignity you have communicated. Yet are they 
 prisoners of hope, " the children also of the pro- 
 mise," not " strangers from the covenant, not 
 aliens from the commonwealth of Israel." Think 
 of that animating declaration, "Else were your 
 children unclean, but now are they holy." " Ye
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 73 
 
 are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and your 
 offspring with you." There is strong confirmation, 
 then, to establish your best purposes ; and ample 
 encouragement to sustain your holiest anticipations. 
 Again ; their welfare is intrusted specially and im- 
 mediately to your fidelity. Their relation to you 
 is the nearest parallel to that which you bear to God. 
 You are chargeable for their salvation. Woe is unto 
 you if, through your neglect, they perish! But how 
 delightful the thought ! the ministry with which 
 you are invested is not left to your unassisted fulfil- 
 ment. The power that has appointed it is pledged 
 for its discharge. What is demanded of you is 
 faithfulness, not success. What may be confidently 
 looked for from its great Author, is the effectuation 
 of the purposes for which it was enjoined. Those 
 purposes can never deceive you. They are infalli- 
 ble. Let but your will be subordinated to that of 
 an all-perfect mind ; let it be brought into subjec- 
 tion to a counsel which, though inscrutable, is inca- 
 pable of error ; let it yield acquiescence to those 
 unsearchable decrees, which, if revealed with their 
 accompanying reasons, would call forth your un- 
 hesitating and most joyous complacency : and you 
 too shall " see your desire ;" the work of your 
 hands shall prosper ; and the plenitude of your 
 satisfaction shall at last be complete. Once more ; 
 the period of your charge is limited, not alone by 
 the duration of life, or of youth, but by that also 
 of moral susceptibility, a power which, alas ! by 
 inconsideration or forgetfulness, may be soon worn 
 out and forfeited. If you would secure for the un- 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 74 PARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 derstanding the just supremacy of truth, it must be 
 before prejudice or falsehood shall have first wrought 
 its perversion. If you would enshrine within the 
 heart an elevated and sublime devotion, it must be 
 before it is embruted by sensuality, and denied by 
 lust. If you would witness in action a noble and a 
 manlike piety, or purposes of exalted benevolence, 
 filling their path with light, it must be while yet 
 the throne of conscience has not been usurped, nor 
 the affections blunted and chilled, whether by selfish- 
 ness, or vanity, or guilty pleasure. Your relations 
 towards your children will remain ; but your posi- 
 tion will suffer a rapid and inevitable change. In a 
 little while, the superiority you now fail to exert may 
 be denied or challenged ; and the very power you 
 should convert to an ally may become your most 
 implacable and dangerous enemy. Thus your own 
 future peace may be invaded, and the tranquillity of 
 your last hours, if you neglect to turn to full ac- 
 count the present short and most important season. 
 And such, too, may be the bitter harvest which you 
 reap, when other scenes shall have opened, and 
 other issues are revealed. It is not long before the 
 phantoms of this bewildering dream shall vanish, 
 and we find ourselves spirits formed for an eternal 
 duration, with those amongst whom we are now 
 briefly sojourning. And oh ! with what emotions 
 shall we then contemplate that participation in each 
 other's destiny, which casts an air of such mysteri- 
 ous grandeur over the pilgrimage of life ! 
 
 Let us commence, then, the process of ameliora- 
 tion, as nearly as possible at the same period with
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 75 
 
 the earliest developments of sin. Even from the 
 cradle, let us labour to nurture and train up the 
 heir of glory. Let our efforts be perpetually di- 
 rected to crush the demon of innate depravity. Let 
 neither the gushing tear of infancy, nor the throb 
 of childhood under the hand of gentle chastisement, 
 nor the blushes of youthful shame at the detection 
 of its lighter follies, nor the sting of conscience in 
 the breast of early manhood, disdainful and self- 
 dishonoureJ at the sense of its deep pollution, 
 disguise from us the fact, that in all these changing 
 forms we encounter an evil of more formidable mag- 
 nitude than the most dire and terrible of physical 
 agencies. Our first, our chief design should be, to 
 counteract this influence ; to disclose its existence, 
 gradually and wisely, to its subjects ; to arm them 
 against its assaults, to rouse up all their better 
 principles in strenuous resistance, to exhibit its 
 dangers, and apprize them of its end ; and thus, 
 " chastening them while there is yet hope," to anti- 
 cipate the evil day, when, confirmed by indulgence, 
 and fortified by habit, it would bid defiance to our 
 efforts, and laugh at the withering of our hopes. 
 Let us put forth steadfastness, fortitude, and the 
 perseverance of invincible affection. It may plead 
 with us for tolerance towards all but wilful obdu- 
 racy, when we think how ruthless is that domina- 
 tion which, by contact with ourselves, has enthralled, 
 and manacled, and threatens to destroy. What 
 might excite to anger, may thus awake to pity; and 
 we may gather lessons of forbearance even from the 
 provocations which would inflame resentment or
 
 70 PARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 harden in despair. Actuated by these convictions, 
 let us undisguisedly announce them. Let it be 
 known to our children, that we have penetrated the 
 secrets of their history, and are acquainted, better 
 than themselves, with the operations they inwardly 
 experience ; that our end and aim is the detection 
 first, and the expulsion afterwards, of a malignant 
 power, which, while they feel in action, they know 
 not how to overcome ; and that, struggle as they 
 will against us, we will never be repelled or van- 
 quished, till, by the aid of almighty grace, we wit- 
 ness their deliverance. But above all, let us abound 
 in the exercise of fervent and believing prayer. 
 Let aspirations mingle with our instructions ; and 
 acts of secret intercession with every chastisement 
 and reproof. Let us lay fast hold of those securi- 
 ties which seal to the children, even through succes- 
 sive generations, the blessing of the God of their 
 fathers. Let our urgency of supplication be such 
 as to forbid denial, and to make the divine veracity 
 an inviolable guarantee for our success. 
 
 I have spoken, brethren, of believing prayer. It 
 is this we chiefly need ; on this we must chiefly 
 rely. The lack of faith it is, that entails upon us 
 every other deficiency. We do not honour the di- 
 vine fidelity ; and our punishment is an universal 
 penury of spiritual good. O that we could over- 
 come that almost only obstacle ! and that parents 
 who may have tried in vain an hundred other expe- 
 dients, and are now ready to give up their last hope, 
 retiring this night from the sanctuary, humbly re- 
 solved and confident, would strive and wrestle even
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 77 
 
 with omnipotence ; importuning, with a father's 
 earnestness, at the feet of the Almighty Father ! 
 Arise, Christian parent! "Let tears run down like 
 a river. Give thyself no rest. Let not the apple 
 of thine eyes cease. Arise, cry out in the night. 
 In the beginning of the watches pour out thine 
 heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift 
 up thine hands towards him for the life of thy young 
 children."* Emboldened, not by despair, but by 
 an affection stronger than death, resolve " I will 
 not let thee go, unless thou bless me." And, re- 
 member, it is the last triumph of mercy yielding to 
 the force it has itself administered, to utter the ani- 
 mating declaration : " Thy name no more shall be 
 called Jacob, but Israel ; for as a prince hast 
 thou power with God and with men, and hast pre- 
 vailed."! 
 
 If we reflect upon those instances, supplied so 
 strikingly in scripture, of the efficacy of unwearied 
 and persevering prayer, we shall find several, even 
 of the most affecting of them all, such as bear di- 
 rectly on our subject. For whom was it that the 
 Syrophenician endured the bitterest humiliations, 
 and the most disheartening delays, until at length 
 her faith and fervour called forth so signally the 
 testimony of the Saviour's approbation? Was it 
 not for a daughter, bound and oppressed by Satan ? J 
 What was the unconquerable impulse which sus- 
 tained that Jewish ruler, when, in spite of its appa- 
 rent hopelessness, he came and worshipped him, and 
 
 * Lam. ii. 18, 19. f Gen. xxxii. 28. 
 
 $ Mark vii. 25, &c.
 
 78 PARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 preferred not in vain this singular petition,- " My 
 daughter is even now dead, but come, and lay thy 
 hand upon her, and she shall live ?" * It is need- 
 less to multiply examples ; but there is one so 
 singularly applicable, and which may seem to touch 
 the case of parents agitated by an almost hopeless 
 solicitude for the spiritual welfare of their children 
 in so many separate points, and in a manner of such 
 striking adaptation, that I cannot pass it unnoticed. 
 I refer to that urgent, and, as it seemed, remediless 
 extremity, wherein our Lord, descending from the 
 mountain of transfiguration, found his disciples sur- 
 rounded by the cavilling scribes and an incredulous 
 multitude, in the midst of which there stood a sup- 
 pliant and half-desponding parent, with his demon- 
 iac son. How great was that parent's disquietude ! 
 How heart-sickening his affliction ! A fury, alto- 
 gether uncontrollable, maddened the spirit over 
 which he had watched and wept from its first dawn 
 of intellect. A malignant and resistless influence 
 had bowed even the body to the earth, cast it into 
 the fire, engulfed it in the waters, and sought its 
 destruction in a thousand ways. And now his last 
 dependence seemed utterly to fail. He had brought 
 his melancholy burden to the followers of Jesus : 
 they could not administer relief. The populace, 
 indignant at their incapacity, questioned, upbraided, 
 challenged them to the proof; while every scornful 
 objection, and every unsuccessful endeavour, brought 
 him nearer to despair. His knowledge was still im- 
 
 * Mat. ix. 18, &c.
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 79 
 
 perfect, respecting the power of that great prophet, 
 whose help at length he despondingly implored, 
 " If thou canst do any thing, have compassion 
 on us, and help us !" Bitter were the tears with 
 which he uttered that memorable confession, than 
 which there is none more consolatory to the afflicted 
 and the tempted soul, " Lord, I believe ; help thou 
 mine unbelief." And his cup of anguish appeared 
 to have received its last agonizing ingredient, when, 
 at the command of the Redeemer, compelled as he 
 was to a surrender, the possessing demon gathered 
 his utmost rage, put forth the last and fiercest de- 
 monstration of his energy, and left his prostrate 
 victim convulsed and breathless in the dust, so that 
 a murmur ran throughout the horror-struck assem- 
 bly, that the strife was over, and that life had de- 
 parted. But O how encouraging the issue ! Who 
 will any longer despair of the rescue and salvation 
 of his child? Who will desist from his entreaty, 
 because of the confirmation of those evil habits, or 
 the present exasperation and recklessness of that 
 infuriated spirit, whose ravages he can only de- 
 plore?* 
 
 Let us rest, therefore, no longer in that so preva- 
 lent and paralyzing adage, "that we cannot give 
 grace to our children ;" true in itself, but in its 
 operation frequently a most pernicious falsehood. 
 Far from us be the apathy with which many a pro- 
 fessor looks upon the irreligion of his household, 
 content, as himself would express it, " to wait God's 
 
 * Mark ix. 14, &c.
 
 ->!) 1'ARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 time," without rousing himself to diligence in God's 
 appointed way. We yearn with compassion for the 
 distant heathen. We send out missionaries, and es- 
 tablish schools. And when we have gained here 
 and there a convert, feel that our sacrifices are in- 
 finitely overpaid. We have begun to deplore the 
 misery of multitudes dying at our very thresholds ; 
 and the best feature of the age unquestionably is, 
 the enlightened and active concern of Christians 
 for the salvation of their hitherto neglected country- 
 men. But shall we rest contented, while even our 
 own offspring are withering beneath our eye ? 
 Because we cannot save, shall we abandon them to 
 perish? Shall disheartening calculations have place 
 here, which elsewhere we should reject with a wise 
 and holy disdain ? We may fail in these exertions ; 
 have we any certainty of direct success in others ? 
 And does not feebleness of effort, the natural pro- 
 duct of diminished confidence, invite and necessitate 
 that failure ? Where else is so properly our field 
 of labour ? Where is there demanded so small an 
 expenditure of our resources ? Where so ready and 
 complete an apparatus? Where so impulsive a 
 stimulus ? or where so blessed a reward ? 
 
 I cannot close this address, without turning, at 
 least for a moment, to the children of pious parents. 
 Some around me are seated side by side with those 
 before whom I have been pleading as the advocate 
 of their eternal interests. Many a sigh has arisen, 
 and many a vow has been breathed, of which " the 
 record is henceforth in heaven, and the witness is
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 81 
 
 on high." All this is expected by you ; and it is a 
 small, an infinitely small part of the weight which 
 presses on their spirits, whose greatest earthly care 
 is the burden of your everlasting welfare. You are 
 witnesses of the candour and earnestness I have 
 employed. You will bear me testimony, that I have 
 counselled them to no evasive artifices, no disingen- 
 uous pretensions, no exercise of an unreasonable 
 authority, nor any efforts to beguile or force you to 
 compliance. You will acquit me of all reservation, 
 either in the exposition of my own sentiments, or in 
 urging the necessity of a perfect and most transpa- 
 rent honesty in reference to theirs. Now, how could 
 I possibly have adopted such a course, while both 
 parties are mutually present, but from the assurance 
 that in thus acting I should be borne out by their 
 full and cordial concurrence, together with their 
 readiness to carry into practice every thing which 
 I have said concerning you ? And can you resist 
 such purposes ? Dare you set yourselves in array 
 to neutralize and to destroy their effect ? Is there 
 any reason to suspect, any pretext to arraign, their 
 integrity ? And if not, will you deliberately take 
 the guilt and charge of your own profligacy wholly 
 on yourselves? Do you, from this hour, consent 
 to stand responsible for the crime of an eternal 
 suicide ? Have you, in spite of every benevolent 
 exertion to the contrary, arrived at this dreadful 
 decision ? Others may perish without remedy ; and 
 there needs certainly no circumstance of gratuitous 
 enhancement in the loss and ruin of ihe soul ! Have 
 you pondered, then, the pressure of that more ter- 
 
 VOL, I. L
 
 82 PARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 rible curse which must come upon the head of him 
 who is bent on frustrating, for himself and for ever, 
 the compassion of God ? For I think it is impos- 
 sible you should not perceive, that your situation 
 becomes one of greater misery and guilt, because of 
 all the happiness that you reject, and all those mer- 
 ciful designs which your own obstinacy renders 
 hopelessly abortive. 
 
 Thus have I adventured to speak on behalf of the 
 living : but what voice shall I give to the dead ? 
 There are some whose departed parents are waiting 
 for the consummation of their blessedness, in the 
 happy day that shall witness their salvation. Of 
 these I am now the representative, and seem charged 
 with the solemn office of their advocacy. But what 
 can I say that is not as the babbling of infancy, 
 compared with those expostulations, which, were it 
 permitted them, they would now address to you? 
 They have other modes of estimation than any to 
 which I can attain, respecting the value and the 
 awful moment of whatever belongs to the salvation 
 of the soul. The things of eternity are apprehended 
 by them with an energy and vividness, which make 
 me tremble at the thought of attempting to embody 
 their conceptions, or to enforce their wishes. I will 
 cease, then, to plead with you on their behalf, and 
 appeal to you only on your own. You have bid 
 them a sad and a last adieu. You have seen them 
 go before you into the world of spirits. Recollect, 
 therefore, how fearfully diminished is the reason- 
 able probability of your salvation ! Not only is 
 their example and their counsel taken irreparably
 
 PARENTAL DUTIES. 83 
 
 from you ; but the tenderest prayer that could be 
 offered for your forgiveness is now hushed into 
 eternal silence, and the warmest tears that could 
 be shed over your profligacy are wiped away for 
 ever. You will be the subject of their intercession 
 no more. Thus one bulwark after another has been 
 swept away from around you. One ministering 
 spirit has been recalled after another, in your per- 
 ilous journey of life ; and you are by so much the 
 more defenceless in the solitude of your career. 
 How soon may the last be withdrawn ! How soon 
 may the pleadings even of the great advocate be 
 silenced ! Who can tell how speedily you may be 
 delivered over to a reprobate mind ! Besides the 
 terrible uncertainty which connects itself with the 
 duration of your life, how are you to determine 
 what shall be the period of your virtual probation ; 
 and within what limits that experiment shall end, 
 which is to decide your doom for eternity ? Have 
 you reflected on the consequences of going onward 
 in a course, which exposes you, at every step, to 
 more formidable opponents, and greater dangers? 
 Is your mind made up to your fate ? Are you pre- 
 pared for damnation ? 
 
 But why do I speak thus ? I have appealed to 
 those only who are walking in the way of unrepent- 
 ed transgression. All are not so. Over some 
 amongst you the hearts of your parents are tri- 
 umphing ; over others, throbbing with an uncer- 
 tain and tremulous hope ; on others they are look- 
 ing with a rational expectation, that advancing years 
 and opening faculties will give force to principles
 
 84 PARENTAL DUTIES. 
 
 now immature, and expand dispositions, amiable yet 
 unconfirmed, into the subjects of their grateful satis- 
 faction, and the assurances of your spiritual safety. 
 May "the good- will of him that dwelt in the bush" 
 be abundantly upon you, according to your respec- 
 tive circumstances, and the stages of your individual 
 advancement ! May those who have believed 
 through grace be kept humble, watchful, faithful ! 
 May the unestablished be led to serious inquiry, and 
 to resolute and happy decision ! May the bud and 
 blossom even of the most youthful piety be pre- 
 served from every uncongenial and destructive in- 
 fluence ! And in the great and terrible day, when 
 we meet each other at the bar, God grant that it 
 may be in peace !
 
 23i0rour0t at tfje Opening of 
 
 i. 
 DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED AT 
 
 THE OPENING OF BELGRAVE CHAPEL, 
 
 (REV. RICHARD WINTER HAMILTON'S,) 
 
 LEEDS. 
 
 JANUARY 6th, 1836.
 
 DISCOURSE III. 
 
 ISAIAH LX. 13. 
 " / will make the place of my feet glorious'"' 
 
 THE zeal and piety of those by whom this edifice 
 has been erected, behold their end accomplished, and 
 their desire fulfilled; and the emotion first excited, 
 in commencing the solemnities which are henceforth 
 to be performed, is one of awe, mingled with delight. 
 It cannot fail to be associated with the consciousness 
 of the things that are invisible. Here the devout of 
 other generations shall prostrate themselves before 
 God, and pour out the tide of joy and of thanks- 
 giving. The song shall echo here from the lips of 
 a remote posterity, when not a trace remains of the 
 hands that have reared the fabric and completed the 
 design. We may hear the sound of their hosanna 
 wafted upwards to the place wherein we worship; 
 or, commissioned on errands of mercy, may conduct 
 them to the mansions of repose, when the eye that 
 watches over them, and the wing that bears them, 
 are to themselves unknown. A veil of awful subli-
 
 88 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 mity rests, then, on our engagements, and the shades 
 of a solemn and overspreading darkness seem to 
 enwrap them. Everything that encircles us warns 
 us that we are travelling onward to eternity. The 
 very sight of such a structure is a memorial of the 
 world unseen; and every purpose with which it is 
 connected points to the distant future. Its use is 
 unintelligible, except as it prepares us for a loftier 
 temple, and for holier services. Its rites are all 
 unmeaning, except as they meeten us for heaven. 
 These, then, are sentiments which, as they arc 
 now pre-eminently appropriate, deriving augmenta- 
 tion from every present circumstance, so, I trust, 
 they will be habitually cherished by those who shall 
 here assemble after us, and that they will never pass 
 this threshold without at least a measure of their 
 influence. 
 
 We are next excited to gratitude ; beholding in 
 this edifice an evidence and promise of our religious 
 freedom. Its intention would be altogether frus- 
 trated, should it ever cease to be subservient to the 
 most unrestrained and liberal inquiry. To all do- 
 mination over the conscience, and all interference 
 with individual responsibility, you declare yourselves, 
 brethren, as Protestant dissenters, by every obser- 
 vance, but never more decisively than by the pre- 
 paration of places wherein to worship God according 
 to your own unbiassed conviction, irreconcilably 
 and for ever enemies. Here, therefore, is not more 
 truly the altar of your religion, than of your liberty. 
 You assert the one, while you obey the mandates of 
 the other. Grateful, I doubt not, for the unprcce-
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 89 
 
 dented extent in which you now enjoy the immuni- 
 ties both of Christians and of Englishmen, yet not 
 insensible to the dependence of them all upon the 
 intelligent and prudent firmness with which they are 
 maintained, you bind yourselves anew to defend 
 them with the utmost vigilance, and it will be your 
 effort to leave their inheritance unimpaired to your 
 successors. We hail, then, the rise of another 
 monument, to attest their greatness, and to insure 
 their permanence. These are the bulwark and 
 honour of our land. They are at once its beauty 
 and its protection. May that protection and that 
 beauty never pass away ! 
 
 We delight next to recognise, in this erection, the 
 accomplishment also of one of the present wishes 
 of enlightened philanthropy. For here, in every 
 diversity of their forms, are the labours of Christian 
 benevolence to be brought to bear on the necessities 
 of the surrounding population ; and here is the gos- 
 pel of salvation to be published to the ruined and the 
 lost. It is, then, as the disclosure of a fountain, to 
 cleanse from sin and from uncleanness, and of heal- 
 ing waters to take away the disease of moral pollu- 
 tion the proclamation of a remedy for the sickness 
 of the soul, and the discovery of a stream amidst the 
 desert from that pure river of the water of life, which 
 proceeds for ever out of the throne of God and of 
 the Lamb. Thus even may " its walls be called 
 salvation, and its gates praise." 
 
 We regard this sanctuary, moreover, with even a 
 more sacred and peculiar interest, since it will be 
 devoted to the unceasing annunciation and defence 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 <M) DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 of the work and glory of the great Redeemer. I do 
 but utter sentiments to which every heart will re- 
 spond, when I express my hope, that no other doctrine 
 will ever be taught within its walls, but the doctrine 
 of salvation through his cross. Rather let them 
 crumble into ruin, till not one stone shall be left 
 upon another, than that they should ever witness the 
 majesty of his godhead, or the glories of his atone- 
 ment, ceasing to form the theme of devoutest adora- 
 tion. Let them not remain to dishonour and defeat 
 their design, by the substitution of any other system 
 of belief or practice, for that which derives its source 
 from his supremacy, and its authority from his com- 
 mand. We would be far from denouncing unwar- 
 ranted and bitter censures upon those who differ 
 from us ; and are too well aware of our own liability 
 to error; to indulge in harsh vituperation, or the 
 anathemas of religious intolerance. Yet we will not 
 suppress the declaration, that we should exult to see 
 them rased from their very base, sooner than that 
 they who shall worship within them should be 
 ever found departing from the faith of their fathers, 
 pronouncing the name of Jesus without a cordial 
 reliance upon his salvation, or professing themselves 
 his disciples without acknowledging his glory as 
 we now do, while, prostrate before him in spirit, we 
 exclaim, " My Lord and my God ! " 
 
 All has been now fulfilled, except, indeed, the 
 most important purpose, and that to which every- 
 thing besides is but preparative. It is the invocation 
 of the Deity, and the consecration of the shrine. 
 What image, therefore, shall we set up, to be the
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 91 
 
 symbol and token of a present Deity ? With what 
 decorations shall we invest it, and what incense shall 
 we breathe around it ? Where is the oil for its 
 anointing ? or where the priesthood to fulfil the 
 ritual of its lustration ? How impressive is the con- 
 trast suggested by these inquiries ! and what light 
 they cast upon the genius of our religion ! Instead 
 of processions and ceremonies, here are only the 
 accents of supplication or praise. Instead of victims 
 and oblations, here are rejoicing hearts, happy in the 
 remembrance that the great day of propitiation is 
 past, and the sins of the people are forgiven. The 
 proper symbol of Him that is invisible subsists only 
 in the absence of every exterior representation ; and 
 the most august indication of His presence, in those 
 living oracles which are here henceforth to be un- 
 questioned and supreme. 
 
 Here is the footstool of mercy, instead of the 
 sacerdotal tribunal ; the chair of instruction, instead 
 of the altar of sacrifice; and the teaching of the 
 pastor, instead of the ministrations of the priest; 
 while the way into the holiest is tracked, not by the 
 blood of a typical atonement, but of Him who, by 
 one offering, has " obtained eternal redemption," 
 and " perfected for ever all them that are sanctified." 
 
 We dedicate this house to God ! How could that 
 dedication have been made more perfect, or by what 
 sign could it have been more impressively betok- 
 ened? Everything conspires to awake such feel- 
 ings as form the surest testimony of his presence; 
 and we could have no holier or more decisive evi- 
 dence of his approval, unless we should hear him
 
 92 
 
 saying, " Now I have chosen and sanctified this 
 house, that my name may be there for ever, and 
 mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually." 
 
 Let us rise, then, brethren, to the level of our 
 privileges, and indulge such reflections as corres- 
 pond to the peculiarity of our situation. Let it be 
 our first effort this day, to invite, by holy confidence 
 and the spirit of lowliness, the approach of Him who 
 delights to dwell with the humble, the thankful, and 
 the meek. Let our inquiries be devoted to the 
 honour of his great and terrible name, our medita- 
 tions expatiate amidst the glories of his power, our 
 inmost souls give thanks at the remembrance of his 
 holiness, and our voice flow forth with transport, 
 while we commemorate his mercy. " He is our 
 God, and let us praise him; our fathers' God, and 
 let us prepare him an habitation." Thus let us 
 "think of his loving-kindness in the midst of his 
 temple." 
 
 We ask for this house no other sanctity, and we 
 hallow it with no other consecration. The pomp of 
 earthly pageantry would but dishonour it; for it is 
 a dwelling-place for the great King. The mystery 
 of an imposing ceremonial w r ould but defile it; for 
 it is that of the Father of spirits. We should shud- 
 der to perform within it one unmeaning service ; for 
 it belongs to Him whose eyes are on all the ways of 
 man, and who spieth out all his goings. We should 
 shrink from mingling in its worship any meaner 
 regards, or such considerations as respected only our 
 own advancement or honour; for it is yielded up to 
 Him who " desireth truth in the inward parts, and
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 93 
 
 in the hidden part shall make us to know wisdom." 
 We would lose sight of ourselves we would forget 
 each other we would think only of God. Such 
 reverence belongs emphatically to the first solemn 
 act of adoration within the sanctuary; and not less 
 to the first exercise of exhortation and instruction 
 ever witnessed amidst it. Let us attend on both 
 with seriousness, and an earnest concern that they 
 may not testify against us, when the secrets of all 
 hearts shall be made known. Let us cherish no 
 other emotions, utter no other sentiments, and be 
 actuated by no other designs, than those we could 
 desire to have perpetuated within this abode, till its 
 name and its memory shall perish, and its last frag- 
 ment be scattered on the winds. 
 
 By the consent of the most eminent interpreters, 
 the prediction with which our text is connected has 
 not yet received its full accomplishment. Its primary 
 reference is plain : it is to the triumphs of true re- 
 ligion in the latter times, and the final increase and 
 prosperity of the church of God, when its resources 
 and the multitude of its people should be augmented, 
 not only by the first calling of the Gentiles, but by 
 their greater subsequent accumulations ; and when 
 the variety of the blessings it should both enjoy and 
 diffuse, should be seen in the correspondent variety 
 of their contributions and labours for the general 
 good. And all this is represented, with admirable 
 propriety and effect, in accordance with the accus- 
 tomed phraseology of scripture, under the similitude 
 of the extension and embellishment of the Israelitish
 
 94 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 sanctuary, as the place of Jehovah's habitation and 
 worship. 
 
 We proceed, therefore, without further comment, 
 to apply this passage to the design of our present 
 assembling ; premising only, that, though its earliest 
 reference be to the church of the living God, the 
 great and universal community of the faithful, yet, 
 we apprehend, it may be regarded as strictly de- 
 scriptive of the glories attendant on the scenes of 
 our religious solemnities, which may be properly 
 called " the places of Jehovah's feet," because they 
 are the chief depositories for the preservation and 
 diffusion of that truth which embodies the very tes- 
 timony of the Divine existence, because they are 
 specially honoured and distinguished by the clearest 
 manifestations of the Divine presence, and because 
 they are the familiar and appointed seat of the most 
 exalted and peculiar amongst the many forms of the 
 Divine operation and influence. 
 
 Our object, in the present discourse, is thus re- 
 duced to a single inquiry : On what account it may 
 be emphatically said, that God has fulfilled the pro- 
 mise of the text by conferring on the sanctuary a 
 pre-eminent dignity, and rendering it glorious. 
 
 The varieties of glory are as diversified as its 
 degrees. In the objects of our senses, it attaches to 
 majesty of form, to extension in space, to force of 
 action. In the productions of art or genius, it is 
 seen in the impress of the skill or power which gave 
 them origin. In the attributes of mind, it is the 
 strength of intellect, the firmness of resolution, and 
 the radiancy of benevolence. Thus the glory of
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 95 
 
 the sun is his light, of the moon her brightness, of 
 the earth her fertility ; and the glory of the soul is 
 her activity and moral power; while these, in their 
 different proportions, make one man the glory of 
 his age or country, and another the glory of his 
 kind. 
 
 As it belongs to place or time, it springs from the 
 manifestations of character, or the events of history. 
 Thus the seat of legislature, the abode of royalty, 
 the field of conflict, are rendered variously illustri- 
 ous. The glory of Athens was her philosophy, of 
 Rome her conquests, and of Zion her God. 
 
 It was the glory of Eden, that there God talked 
 with man face to face ; as it is of heaven, that he 
 there replenishes him with the joys of his eternal 
 fellowship : and it is not less the glory of the sanc- 
 tuary, that here he lifts up his countenance upon the 
 soul, filling it often with joy unspeakable, and peace 
 which passeth understanding. It was the glory of 
 Sinai and of Horeb, that there he displayed his 
 grandeur, and promulgated his law; and of Tabor 
 and Calvary, that there, under another form, he 
 unveiled his hidden majesty, or poured, in its deepest 
 tide, the fulness of his mercy : and it is that of the 
 sanctuary not less, that here, by an agency the most 
 exalted and spiritual, he effects those purposes of 
 grace which were of old from everlasting; and re- 
 veals, in holiest triumph, " the saving strength of 
 his right hand." For if the discoveries of his great- 
 ness were glorious, when they were allied to terror, 
 how much more the effects of his almighty goodness ! 
 " If the ministration of death was glorious, how shall
 
 96 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious ? 
 If the ministration of condemnation be glory, much 
 more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed 
 in glory. For even that which was made glorious 
 had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory 
 that excelleth. For if that which was done away 
 was glorious, much more that which remaineth is 
 glorious. And we all, with open face, beholding, as 
 in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into 
 the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the 
 Spirit of the Lord."* 
 
 We might now proceed to consider the different 
 sources of honour attaching to the sanctuary, pre- 
 sented, very strikingly, in the chapter from whence 
 the text is taken. These, however, are too numer- 
 ous to be the subject of present enlargement ; and 
 we can only commend them, therefore, to the future 
 meditation of devout inquirers. 
 
 We might further remark, how, in the case of 
 each, the statement of the text is established ; since 
 this glory is pre-eminently of divine communica- 
 tion, every ray of its splendour, and every form of 
 its diversity, being derived from God alone : not 
 from the fabrication or devices of man ; not from 
 the appendages of rank, or power, or any modifica- 
 tion of earthly greatness, which, in the same mea- 
 sure that they secularised, would enfeeble, and in 
 the degree wherein they assumed to facilitate, would 
 but encumber ; not from mystic observances, 
 which might dazzle, but could not enlighten, might 
 
 * 2 Cor. iii. 7 11, 18.
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 97 
 
 allure, but could not renovate, might lull into for- 
 mality, or fill with bigotry, but could not awake to 
 seriousness, or direct to duty. 
 
 But we will confine ourselves to two very obvious 
 topics, in which these are substantially embraced: 
 the glory of THAT SYSTEM OF DIVINE COMMUNICA- 
 TION, CONSIDERED IN ITSELF, WHICH BY THE SER- 
 VICES OF THE SANCTUARY IS CHIEFLY EXTENDED 
 
 AMONGST MANKIND, and the glory of THE CONSE- 
 QUENCES RESULTING FROM ITS PROPAGATION. 
 
 I. 1 . In speaking of the sanctuary, as being render- 
 ed glorious by the reflected glory of the truth itself, 
 whether as it is perpetuated in the scriptures, or 
 as it is practically imparted through the gospel, 
 our attention is invited to the nature and extent of 
 that necessity which its communication is intended 
 to supply. Deep and awful is our interest in ques- 
 tions, which are thus alone resolved ; and fearful is 
 that ignorance wherein we are naturally left respect- 
 ing them. While these continue undetermined, we 
 are conscious only of an existence at war perpetu- 
 ally with itself, alike mysterious in its exaltation, 
 and its meanness, in its alliance to the dust, and 
 its affinity to things that cannot die ; all that is 
 most important to man, either as a subject, or as a 
 transgressor. Every other voice is silent, and every 
 other illumination either so uncertain as to forbid 
 our confidence, or so delusory as to beguile it. To 
 the very first and most vital of our inquiries no an- 
 swer is often supplied, either by the native force of 
 reason, or the intimations of external phenomena: 
 
 VOL. i. N
 
 98 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 while analogy, which in so many cases is our only 
 guide, deserts us precisely at the point where aid is 
 most essential, leaving us in the mazes of wild 
 conjecture, or the impotence and darkness of des- 
 pair. 
 
 Of all the anomalies of the human mind, none is 
 more striking, than that, while all other sciences and 
 forms of thought exert a reciprocal influence upon 
 each other, and, as the one is advanced, the rest 
 partake the impulse, advancing at its side, religion 
 exists amongst them insulated and self-sustained, and 
 is often strangely unaffected with the general im- 
 provement. The most penetrating genius, and the 
 largest acquisitions, are not always a protection from 
 the grossest infatuation, or the most virulent fanati- 
 cism. Minds, in all things else the most enlighten- 
 ed, may yet be tinctured with the gloomiest enthu- 
 siasm, or enslaved by the most abject superstition. 
 Have we not beheld, beneath the loftiest forms of 
 intellectual grandeur, the features of a grovelling 
 idolatry, or a joyless atheism ; and the most majes- 
 tic spirits tainted and defiled with systems, which to 
 depict in all their grossness, would involve too great 
 an outrage on the feelings of this audience. 
 
 But a mistake here is one disqualifying us to 
 judge aright in every other case. As it is primary, 
 so it will be ultimate. Commencing in the first 
 elements of thought, it will extend to the last results 
 in action. What wonder, then, since the total his- 
 tory of man is but a confirmation of that melan- 
 choly truth, " There is none that understandeth, 
 there is none that seeketh after God," it should be
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 99 
 
 added, with equal severity and justice, " They are 
 together become unprofitable ; there is none that 
 doeth good, no, not one." 
 
 Could we be transported, like our blessed Mas- 
 ter, to some mount of universal vision, how should 
 we be confounded at the numberless pollutions and 
 puerilities of idol worship ! A thousand temples 
 would be seen, consecrated to impurity and lust ; 
 and the shouts of myriads would be heard, ascend- 
 ing before shapes of blasphemy and horror, whose 
 very invention must have been infernal ; while abo- 
 minations would be witnessed, hallowed as divine, 
 which, had they but been human, would have scat- 
 tered pestilence and death around them, and been 
 everywhere shunned and execrated as the destroyers 
 of mankind. 
 
 Now, from the poverty of sentiment, and the un- 
 mingled turpitude, of every mythologic system, the 
 most debasing influences must be propagated through 
 the whole structure of society ; for it is folly to 
 suppose, that men will be either better or greater 
 than their gods. The cloud which gathers above 
 will envelope all below ; and in the night they have 
 created they will wander and perish. When the 
 gods are converted into demons, it is a light thing 
 that their votaries should, in their turn, darken into 
 fiends. 
 
 It is vain to oppose to such statements the exalted 
 virtues of a few distinguished heathens. For, not 
 to mention that these very virtues have commonly 
 been the badges of a philosophic infidelity, the mere 
 fact that they had excited by their singularity the
 
 100 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 admiration of all ages, is enough to set aside the 
 appeal to their example. 
 
 And it is not less futile, to allege the elevated 
 sentiments of speculative theism ; which, though it 
 deny not the existence of a God, yet, from discred- 
 iting what he has written, loses the just import of 
 what he has made, and so, rejecting the one-half of 
 revelation, is incapable rightly to interpret or apply 
 the other. The deity of abstract reason, far from 
 operating upon men with any vital force, is himself 
 reduced to nothing. Robbed at every step of yet 
 another feature of reality, till every portion of his 
 existence is successively annihilated, he becomes a 
 mere impalpable and bodiless conception ; an in- 
 telligence, a power, a benignity, where none is be- 
 nignant, intelligent, or powerful; too great to be 
 compassionate ; too mindful of the universal wel- 
 fare, to be concerned for that of any single being 
 in the universe ; too awful even for adoration ; 
 and too remote for reverence or love. The pedes- 
 tal is reared so high, that the image which sur- 
 mounts it is unseen. The fabric must be admitted 
 to be noble ; but the divinity, lost in his own splen- 
 dour, disappears. Thus men, infatuated by their 
 wisdom, become the victims of their own delusion, 
 and, by a peculiar and singular refinement, confess 
 a deity, yet own no God. 
 
 It seems the easiest, as it is the most familiar, de- 
 scription of our Maker, to speak of him as of an 
 INFINITE SPIRIT. And yet the difficulty of framing 
 any definite notion of the proper meaning of this 
 term, is such as those only can estimate, who have
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 101 
 
 prosecuted, with becoming resolution, the effort 
 of practical and discriminating thought, thought 
 which, not satisfied with symbols, demands, and 
 steadily pursues, the things they are designed to 
 signify, by which the great elementary existences 
 of a spirit and of infinity, have been distinctly and 
 separately apprehended. 
 
 The noblest of our conceptions is, unquestionably, 
 the conception of infinity. We no sooner seize 
 upon it, than all that is limited or transitory sinks 
 into insignificance. Our spirit rises with the theme, 
 and seems instinctively to reveal our appetency for 
 that which is immeasurable. It is a joyous thought, 
 and, in every form, congenial to our nature. By it 
 we are forbidden to repose in the present reality of 
 our condition ; and whatever we have actually ac- 
 complished or attained, becomes only the incentive 
 to loftier wishes and prouder aspirations. How 
 strongly do these instincts point us to our Creator ! 
 He alone is infinite ! And yet how justly might 
 they humble us, by teaching us our incompetency to 
 search out or comprehend his being ; since the very 
 idea of infinity is, when traced to its first rudiments, 
 a pure and palpable negation ! 
 
 For the slightest reflection may convince us, that 
 we are capable of attaining to no direct or positive 
 apprehension of what is infinite ; much less of the 
 very essence of infinity. The method in which 
 alone we can approach to such an attainment is, by 
 detaching from whatever we reflect on the accident 
 of limitation, to conceive the perpetual expansion of 
 its boundaries, remembering that it is a process to
 
 102 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 which no period can ever be assigned. Still, though 
 the horizon of our thoughts is ceaselessly enlarging, 
 we experience a secret conviction that it is not illim- 
 itable, but rather like the wave, which spreads and 
 widens in its circles on the surface of the lake until 
 it is lost and melts away, yet, even at its last feeble 
 undulation, is as truly limited as before. We can 
 say of every manifestation of creative power " This 
 is not infinite, for beyond it the might of the Creator 
 might have travelled on for ever in unwearied en- 
 ergy." All that is existent, in number or relation, 
 is still suggestive of the same remembrance : These 
 things, though to me immeasurable, are not beyond 
 the possibility of mensuration. I can conceive that 
 they should be extended through a series of inter- 
 minable augmentations. Nay, I can conceive them 
 to be so far multiplied, that their present total accu- 
 mulation should constitute only an unit in the aggre- 
 gations of a greater sum, which would yet be not 
 less broadly and eternally dissevered from infinity. 
 
 But to think aright of God, would require, not 
 only that we should conceive him infinite, but that 
 we should recognise this wondrous character as 
 equally enstamped upon his several attributes. When 
 we think of his wisdom, we must remember that it 
 is only one form of the revelation of an infinite 
 mind : we are thinking of God, as wise. When 
 we think of his holiness or justice, we are thinking 
 of the same infinite mind, as just or holy ; and 
 when we think of his goodness, as good. And 
 these are not parts, or even modifications, of his 
 character, so as that the one should exist or act in
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 103 
 
 separation from the other; or that they should com- 
 bine, by independent agencies, to enforce, control, 
 or qualify each other's operations : for every action 
 equally combines them all, and yet is itself, even as 
 his nature is, indissoluble. That act, which is view- 
 ed by us in one aspect, may, perhaps, in other spheres 
 of being, be regarded wholly in another, disclosing 
 to each a congeries of relations, and of correspond- 
 ent principles, as different as are their opportunities 
 of observation. Severity in our apprehension, may 
 seem clemency in theirs. What we deem change, 
 may to them display a loftier immutability. What 
 we rejoice in for its beneficence, they may admire 
 chiefly for the mystery of its contrivance, or the 
 wonders of its power. The same event or process 
 may thus present numberless varieties of beauty. 
 All behold what is itself unlimited, under partial and 
 imperfect manifestations. Spectators in different 
 worlds, they look abroad into the same shoreless 
 expanse. What to the one is boundless altitude, is 
 to the other unfathomable profoundness. Each 
 gazes, from his own island of existence, onwards, 
 outwards. Each is lost and ravished with the same 
 scene of glory. Each pronounces it infinite, but 
 none beholds the whole. And could they, by the 
 combination of their faculties, give to created wis- 
 dom or discovery the comprehensiveness of all which 
 has been learned, in every world, from the first hour 
 of time, they would not, even to the last, approxi- 
 mate, by the most imperceptible gradation, to the 
 dread and awful science of infinity. 
 
 To think aright of God, we must realize the
 
 104 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 apparently impossible conceptions of universal 
 presence, without local extension ; of perpetual 
 duration, without successiveness ; of illimitable 
 power, expended upon finite operations; of thought, 
 embracing, at the same time, the opposite qualities 
 of boundless diffusiveness and minutest scrutiny ; 
 of expansion and concentration, equally absolute ; 
 of freedom, which owns no law external to itself, 
 co-existent with necessity so rigid, that the very idea 
 of deviation is at once impious and impossible. We 
 must think of purposes, whose date is of an anti- 
 quity earlier, by a thousand ages, than the first act 
 of creation, while yet their execution is every 
 moment new ; and of essential activity, united with 
 eternal repose. 
 
 And the attempt to substantiate to ourselves the 
 moral attributes of our Creator, is productive of 
 perhaps even greater embarrassments. To com- 
 bine the belief of unlimited compassion, with that 
 of inexorable justice ; of boundless benevolence, 
 with the unforced sufferance of evil ; of designs as 
 comprehensive as they are unchangeable, yet ad- 
 justed in practice to the conduct of dependent crea- 
 tures ; or of tendencies, whose force is capable of 
 estimation from no extent of actual or of developed 
 energy, and yet forbids not their frustration by be- 
 ings unceasingly sustained by their stability, as they 
 sprang at first from their omnipotence : this, I say, 
 demands, perhaps, even a more strenuous exertion, 
 than to conceive of Him who, in the perpetuity of 
 his existence, knows neither the future nor the past, 
 but lives in each moment through eternity ; and
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 105 
 
 who in the minutest point of space subsists in infin- 
 ite fulness, and vet, beyond all space, where all 
 that by us is imaginable of void and dark extension 
 dwindles to a point, fills an unmeasured and an 
 awful solitude with the plenitude of his power and 
 consciousness, even as the ocean does its bed- 
 How, then, should we imagine either the conde- 
 scension or the terrible majesty of Him, whom no 
 intelligence can fathom, and no thought can com- 
 prehend ; who, amidst the myriads of his creatures, 
 dwells fearfully alone ; actuatincr whatever is vital. 
 kindling whatever is joyous, yet himself de- 
 tached and unapproachable ; unmingled with the 
 being that he pervades ; unconfined by the universe 
 wherein he dwells ; the most indivisible of essences, 
 yet including within himself the sum and aggregate 
 of all ; around whom even Hght is a pavilion, yet 
 from whom no darkness can enshroud ; whom none 
 can discern in his brightness, and yet who "turneth 
 the shadow of death into the morning ;" that pwe 
 and uncompounded spirit, before whom all other 
 spirits seem but matter ; that dread and incompre- 
 hensible existence, before whom all others are as 
 though they were not, but, like shadows in the sun- 
 beam, melt and vanish away; or, to sum up every 
 thing, expressing in one short word what simply 
 declares itself incapable of afl expression, the aw- 
 ful, the EN FINITE GOD! 
 
 Should we seek to aid our conceptions, by com- 
 parison or contrast of this most glorious of beings 
 with any thing that is known amongst men, it 
 would but degrade the subject, and be fatal to its 
 VOL. i. o
 
 10() DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 proper effect. Every element of such comparison 
 is wanting. How should we place the eternity of 
 God beside the duration of him whose " breath is 
 in his nostrils," and who is " crushed before the 
 moth ;" or his wisdom beside the littleness of our 
 capacities, ignorant as we are of our own origin or 
 end, and slowly deciphering the signatures of all 
 that is around us ; or his goodness beside our 
 feeble benevolence, whose power is usually but a 
 modification of our tyranny ; or his greatness be- 
 side those short-lived and delusive splendours, which 
 glide and vanish like a luminous vapour deriving its 
 very substance from decay, so that the sceptre, as 
 it passes down from hand to hand, is only a premo- 
 nition of mortality, and the diadem is but the mock- 
 ery of our dust ? 
 
 How fearfully, then, does every voice re-echo the 
 solemn and humiliating expostulation " Canst thou 
 by searching find out God ? canst thou find out the 
 Almighty unto perfection ? It is high as heaven ; 
 what canst thou do ? deeper than hell ; what canst 
 thou know ? The measure thereof is longer than 
 the earth, and broader than the sea!" And who 
 shall determine, whether it were more the wisdom 
 or the ignorance of man, which, in the most en- 
 lightened city of the world, once reared its votive 
 altar to " the unknown God ?" 
 
 2. But if these communications are thus glorious, 
 for the removal of our most calamitous and awful 
 ignorance respecting the character of our Creator, 
 how great their worth and excellency, when the 
 aspect wherein they chiefly exhibit that character
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 107 
 
 is one every way fitted to exalt our sentiments, to 
 establish our confidence, and to conciliate our re- 
 gard ! 
 
 We do not refer to his unity, so magnificently 
 proclaimed by the voice of the Jewish legislator : 
 " Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God, Jehovah is one ;" 
 or his incorporeity, so energetically yet so simply 
 uttered, and applied to its proper use : " God is a 
 Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him 
 in spirit and in truth;" or his immutability, as 
 " the Father of lights, with whom there is no vari- 
 ableness, or the shadow of turning ;" or his eter- 
 nity, thus emphatically celebrated: "Before the 
 mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst 
 formed the earth or the world, even from everlast- 
 ing to everlasting thou art God;" or his unsearch- 
 able purposes, when " clouds and darkness are 
 round about him," while yet, for his inviolable jus- 
 tice, " righteousness and judgment are the habita- 
 tion of his throne ;" or his awful and supreme do- 
 minion, as " speaking, and it is done ; commanding, 
 and it stands fast for ever ;" calling the stars by 
 their names, and leading them forth as a shepherd 
 does his flock, while, "for that he is strong in 
 power, not one faileth !" We do not refer to these ; 
 since, as if to baffle r yet exalt our sentiments, the 
 very title he assumes is that of uncompounded, un- 
 conceived existence, " I AM THAT I AM !" Yet, 
 " should we speak of strength, lo he is strong ; 
 and if of judgment, who should fix us a set time to 
 plead ?" if of purity, " the heavens are not clean 
 in his sight ;" if of benignity, his very name is
 
 108 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 Love. The attempt to exhaust this theme would be 
 as weak as it is endless. It presents to us, in every 
 varied position, new varieties of lustre ; while, unit- 
 edly, they leave upon our minds the uniform con- 
 viction that, after all, they are but faint shadows of 
 the invisible, brief miniatures of the infinite, 
 gleams darted from afar by a light itself ineffable, 
 where all being and all thought would, as in a 
 fiery sea, be quenched and consumed together. 
 
 But it is worthy of special notice, that the repre- 
 sentations of God in his word are not more conspicu- 
 ously distinguished by their degree than by their pe- 
 culiarity. The God of revelation rises to an inacces- 
 sible majesty, by attributes not alone of greater mag- 
 nitude, but of sublimer nature. Nowhere besides are 
 embodied such features, as those here presented, of his 
 holiness and of his mercy. These are distinct sub- 
 stances in the elemental light of Deity. They are 
 of new creation in the rainbow that surrounds his 
 throne ; not combinations, merely glowing with a 
 softer effulgence, and causing the sardius and the 
 sapphire to melt into the emerald, but casting a 
 beam as fresh as when the veil of primeval beauty 
 was first drawn aside, and the dawn awoke from 
 everlasting midnight. 
 
 Here we behold the power of the Most High ac- 
 complishing his gracious purposes, not by a resist- 
 less decree, nor by controlling other events or 
 agencies for its production, but by an expedient 
 which, we have reason to believe, was before un- 
 tried, and without a parallel : selecting for this end 
 a being of higher worth and glory than all rational,
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 109 
 
 intelligent, and holy creatures, collectively regarded ; 
 yet consigning him, sinless as he was, and peer- 
 less in exaltation, to boundless sufferings, and to an 
 accursed death. We behold the feelings of the 
 eternal mind, in relation to the Mediator, wonder- 
 fully developed ; and they are such as might have 
 seemed to render this event more awfully impossible 
 than any other within the apprehension of created 
 intelligence, feelings, faintly shadowed forth by 
 the intensity of parental affection to an only son, 
 and which may be gathered, therefore, though still 
 indistinctly and imperfectly, by reflecting what are 
 our emotions towards one innocent, lovely, faithful, 
 and submissive always to our will, and with what 
 difficulty we could expose him (however powerful 
 the inducement) to want, or degradation, or sor- 
 row. And what, then, must be those of God to a 
 good man, to a sinless angel, to one infinitely good, 
 to his eternal, equal, Son? We are not less de- 
 lighted and overwhelmed, to reflect on the condition 
 and character of those on whose behalf this won- 
 derful expedient was adopted ; as to the compara- 
 tive meanness of their nature, as to their utter 
 estrangement from all which was holy, and as to 
 the ungrateful and unsuitable return with which 
 they would requite it. We are confounded and 
 lost in amazement, when endeavouring to estimate 
 those blessings in which it was destined finally to 
 issue ; rescue from everlasting death, the darkness 
 and the misery of hell, and an investiture in end- 
 less life, with all the blessedness of heaven. But, 
 above all, our admiration and our joy are alike
 
 110 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 enkindled, when we meditate on the glory of those 
 principles from which the whole proceeded. It 
 could not be from value, of whatever kind, in man : 
 nor yet from necessity, or high and commanding 
 expediency, of whatever aspect, in regard to God, 
 so that his honour would have been tarnished, or 
 his rule enfeebled, without it : nor yet from the 
 prompting of indiscriminate commiseration towards 
 suffering too great to be inflicted ; for what, as 
 contrasted with both, were the claims and moral 
 worth, and what the agonies, of the Redeemer, 
 and, to add no more, what the ruin of apostate 
 angels, for whom no such ransom was provided ? 
 It must have been from the voluntary and unprompt- 
 ed benevolence of God, his mercy, which, like his 
 being, originated only in itself : and thus it may 
 be truly said, his grace is manifested, in a sense 
 wherein no other of his attributes has ever been 
 made known. 
 
 We repeat it, the productions of his might, in 
 the formation and the preservation of all things, 
 however stupendous, yet are not infinite. The dis- 
 coveries of his wisdom in the order and harmony of 
 all things, though surpassing the knowledge and the 
 adoration of his noblest creatures, and though we 
 dare not allow ourselves to imagine that any of his 
 appointments could have been arranged more fitly 
 or better than they are, are still limited, both in 
 number and effect. They are, indeed, unsearch- 
 able, but in themselves not infinite. The demon- 
 strations of his anger on account of sin, even in the 
 perdition of angels and the torments of eternity,
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. Ill 
 
 might have been made more terrible, and assuredly 
 do not embrace the concentrated and final energy 
 of his omnipotence actively exerted to destroy. 
 They are immeasurable, but not infinite. But here, 
 in a single act, is absolute infinity. Beyond it, we 
 need not fear to say, the resources of the Almighty 
 do not any further extend ; they furnish nothing 
 higher, nothing more glorious. We speak it with 
 reverence he could do nothing more. 
 
 Other attributes, then, are revealed. Love is 
 made manifest. When he creates, we do but hear 
 him, from his sublime but distant dwelling-place, 
 saying, "Let it be," and it is done. When we 
 contemplate his government, mystery is thrown at 
 every step more fearfully about him : " His way is 
 in the sea, and his path in the deep waters, and his 
 footsteps are not known." When he comes forth to 
 punish, he clothes himself in a mantle of tempest 
 and thick darkness, whence the fire of his indigna- 
 tion flashes out at intervals, while still its fiercest 
 lightning breaks from the deepest cloud. But in 
 the work of man's redemption, we seem to look on 
 God, to be made acquainted with his thoughts and 
 counsel, to read the very secrets of his breast, and 
 to see him purposing, resolving, and at length act- 
 ing, as a man might mark the countenance and con- 
 duct of his friend. The impenetrable shadows are 
 for a while dispersed ; the curtain for a season is 
 withdrawn ; Jehovah is manifest ; but it is the 
 manifestation of love ! 
 
 3. We will only further remark on the glory of 
 this revelation, as consisting in the perfection with
 
 112 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 which it is exhibited in the person and the work of 
 him who is set before us in the gospel, as the very 
 " image of the invisible God" 
 
 We are now to speak of God as having become 
 incarnate. And if so great, as we have seen, be 
 the difficulty of conceiving even the first, the sim- 
 plest, the most certain, of the divine perfections ; 
 what must be the embarrassment attendant on the 
 mingling of divinity with what is human, the incor- 
 poration of dissimilar natures, and yet so as neither 
 to humanize the Deity, nor deify the humanity, but 
 that each shall be perfect, and yet both inseparable ! 
 
 Suppose the attempt were to be made fictitiously ; 
 and let us give to the author of such a fiction 
 every qualification he could desire ; yet with what 
 perplexities would he be surrounded! What motive 
 could be imagined, so mighty, yet so peculiar, as to 
 have become the origin of such a purpose ? Where 
 could have been found a nature so exalted, or of 
 such importance, as to warrant, much more to de- 
 mand, so stupendous a condescension, that the Cre- 
 ator himself should assume it ? Or how could we 
 imagine an exigence so pressing, or a claim so 
 powerful, that the very thought should be exempt 
 from indignation, or shielded from contempt ? What 
 emergency could be so extreme, that no other 
 method could relieve it ; or what danger so immi- 
 nent, that no other means could avert it ; or what 
 end so glorious, that, when no other was sufficient, 
 it could repay this infinite expenditure, or justify 
 this unparalleled proceeding ? 
 
 But it is to the condition of man the Deity is to be
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 113 
 
 represented as descending. Properties the most 
 broadly contrasted with each other are, therefore, 
 to be united ; modes of action the most alien to be 
 intimately blended ; forms of being, presenting no 
 mutual resemblance, are to harmonize and coalesce. 
 The same features are to reveal the frailty of man 
 and the energy of God. In the same wonderful 
 person, are the might of the Creator and the de- 
 pendence of creatures to be unitedly displayed. He 
 is to be omnipresent, and yet circumscribed ; self- 
 existent, yet participant of change ; the source of 
 life to others, yet deriving sustenance, like them, 
 from the air, and earth, and waters ; infinite, yet 
 subject to limitation ; God, yet man. 
 
 When at length the design has been liberated, and 
 the thought realized, how is it to be actually 
 wrought out ? Will not the author of such fiction 
 array this human deity with all the powers of a 
 celestial nature, and pour around him a celestial 
 brightness ? What shall we behold in him but an 
 insufferable radiance, and the emanations of uncon- 
 trollable might? Will not thunders play around 
 his brow, and the sun grow pale before his eye ? 
 What shall his robes be but the light, or his chariot 
 but the whirlwind ? If he speak, shall it not be as 
 the noise of many waters? if he frown, as the 
 gloom of midnight ? if he threaten, so as that the 
 very dead shall tremble ? if he bestow blessings, 
 so as to fill earth and heaven with gladness? 
 Shall not the verdure of a perpetual spring expand 
 before him, and the fruitfulness of summer dance 
 around ? Will not the attention of all men, with- 
 
 VOL. i. p
 
 114 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 drawn from meaner objects, be fixed and concen- 
 trated upon him, and the whole world become the 
 theatre for the manifestation of his glory ? Age 
 with its tottering footsteps, youth with its thrill of 
 exultation, even infancy with its babble of delight, 
 will they not all throng about him, and testify, by 
 a thousand signals, their various and universal 
 transport ? Will not disease and danger vanish at 
 his approach, and all tribes and tongues break forth 
 into one strain of harmony and joy ? 
 
 But where, in all these images, is the proper char- 
 acter of man ? How has the hand of genius accom- 
 plished its adventurous intention, by blending, not 
 confounding, the natures it aspired to mingle? Be- 
 hold the worm obscured by the divinity, and the 
 properties of the one mode of existence beclouded 
 by the effulgence of the other. Nothing here is 
 natural or human : it is the incongruous, yet easy, 
 figment of an imagination, distorting all things, and 
 turning them into fable. And yet it is, perhaps, 
 the highest, as it is certainly the most probable, 
 achievement of the powers of fiction, striving to 
 present the picture of an incarnate deity. 
 
 Let it now be imagined, that the design had been 
 to depict the coming of such an one into the world, 
 with the intention to suffer and to die ; that the 
 effort was to exhibit all that is summed up in this 
 short sentence : " The Son of man came, not to be 
 ministered unto, but to ^minister, and to give his life 
 a ransom for many." It is thus made necessary to 
 introduce this wondrous person into the society and 
 converse of men ; to conduct him through the
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 115 
 
 common stages of infancy and childhood, and to 
 place him amidst the familiarities of ordinary life, 
 and conform him to the multitudes around in habit, 
 circumstances, and behaviour ; to describe him, 
 suffering from their reproaches, vindicating himself 
 from their suspicions, wounded by their ingratitude, 
 and all without the loss of his essential greatness ; 
 cherishing for them an unquenchable compassion, 
 retaining, amidst their mockeries and brutal insults, 
 the meekness of wisdom, and the tenderness of pity ; 
 bleeding and faint beneath their violence, yet 
 refusing to let loose upon them the destruction that 
 slumbered in his hand ; undiminished in dignity, 
 yet shrinking from no humiliation ; and, as he had 
 blended, before, the widest extremes of being, now 
 uniting the most opposite of its conditions, omni- 
 potence with mortal weakness, and life uncreated 
 with all that is unfolded in the mystery of death. 
 
 Let it finally be supposed, that in all this he was 
 to be represented as possessing a perfect conscious- 
 ness of the combination of these contrasted natures ; 
 and that to this consciousness was to be given dis- 
 tinct yet harmonious manifestation. It will now 
 surely be acknowledged, that we have prescribed a 
 task, to which all human powers would seem to be 
 as unadapted as they are inadequate. If successfully 
 executed even in fable, it would constitute the most 
 surprising of all its prodigies; if substantiated in 
 event, we fear not to pronounce it the last and 
 mightiest achievement of uncreated goodness. 
 
 To the life and death of Jesus we confidently 
 direct you for this miraculous portraiture : and it
 
 116 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 may add to its effect to remember, by what pencil it 
 has been traced out, and by how unskilful hands 
 illustriously fabricated ; that this transcendent 
 image was not elaborated by art, nor fashioned by 
 design, but simply sketched in a narrative presenting 
 rather anecdotes than history, and by men whose 
 very last intention was to describe, what themselves 
 were so slow to apprehend, " God manifest in the 
 flesh." 
 
 Examine any portion of the conduct or character 
 of our Lord, and determine for yourselves, whether, 
 under either aspect, as the Son of Man, or as the 
 Son of God, he could have spoken or acted more 
 consonantly with this august and wonderful concep- 
 tion; whether he could have displayed more glo- 
 riously the features either of divine or human excel- 
 lence, consistently with the necessary subordination 
 of his inherent power to his assumed dependency ; 
 while the form wherein he condescended to appear 
 was not that of man elevated to the Godhead, but 
 of the Godhead dwelling among men. 
 
 Could power have been more terrible, or gentle- 
 ness more attractive ? God more exalted, or man 
 more lowly ? God greater in majesty, or man in 
 meekness ? the one more truly human, or the other 
 more awfully Divine ? 
 
 Were it our purpose to speak of him as God, we 
 would describe his imperial dominion over every 
 element, and his assertion of a right of universal 
 disposal over life and death, the visible and the 
 unseen worlds, the agency of spirits, and the desti- 
 nies of men. We would describe him, exercising,
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 11? 
 
 though in remote and single instances, the very high- 
 est prerogatives of Deity, in the forgiveness of sins, 
 and the disposition of the powers and services 
 whether of the mightiest or the meanest intelligences. 
 We would describe the manner and the obvious fa- 
 cility, rather than the number, or variety, or splen- 
 dour of his miracles; by which it plainly appeared, 
 that the still greater miracle lay ever in the repres- 
 sion of that energy, which but for a moment he per- 
 mitted to assume its natural command; so that of 
 the mightiest operation it might be said, " There 
 was the hiding of his power ! " 
 
 Speaking of him as a man, we must direct you to 
 a narrative most eventful and touching, though the 
 simplest which was ever written, and presenting, in 
 all its parts, and in one unbroken series, acts which 
 evinced the perfection of all human goodness, with- 
 out the most casual admixture of its frailties; 
 such as to exhibit him pure without moroseness, of 
 warmest affections, but unmoved by passion, capable 
 of the hardest endurance, yet compassionate to every 
 infirmity, tempering unconquerable ardour with 
 the most prudent discretion, consumed by zeal, yet 
 untainted with enthusiasm, the meekest in address, 
 though the most inflexible in purpose, amidst the 
 vilest contumelies, bestowing the largest benefac- 
 tions, and outraged by the grossest indignities, yet 
 without petulance, resistance, or complaint. 
 
 A thousand illustrations are afforded of these 
 separate glories, in relation to the wonders of his 
 Godhead. The confession of devils, equally with 
 the homage of angels and the irrevocable attestation
 
 118 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 of the Most High, is our warrant for every emotion 
 of reverence, and every act of worship. And what 
 exquisite discovery of his human graces beams 
 throughout all his career ! his ingenuous sympathy, 
 when he looked on the young ruler and loved him ; 
 his instinctive mildness, and the play of every 
 natural affection, when he permitted even infants to 
 hang upon his vesture, or blessed them as they 
 saluted him with undiscerning acclamations; his 
 pity, when he deplored the coming ruin of Jerusa- 
 lem; his generous self-oblivion, when he forbade 
 the lamentation of its daughters " Weep not for 
 me, but weep for yourselves and for your children ;" 
 his friendship, when he wept beside the grave of 
 Lazarus; and his humility, when he washed the 
 very feet of his disciples ! 
 
 Thus, too, there are not wanting instances wherein 
 the God was blended with the man, in combinations 
 of such equal beauty, that we know not which most 
 to delight in or admire. Such, to omit innumerable 
 others, are his tranquil slumber, yet his awful ma- 
 jesty, amidst the tempest; and his patience, and 
 submissiveness, and dying agony, mingled, and yet 
 mysteriously contrasted, with his saving might, upon 
 the cross. 
 
 It is thus we would delineate his glory. Still, 
 when we describe that glory, let us never for- 
 get that it is the glory of infinite condescension; 
 and hence, that its manifestations are to be sought 
 in his humiliation, not in his triumphs ; in his priva- 
 tions and awful self-abasement, not in the purposed 
 revelations of his supremacy. We must contemplate
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 119 
 
 HIM weak, who, without an effort, could bend all 
 things to his pleasure; afflicted, who could turn 
 with a word all sorrow into gladness; friendless, 
 who formed in his single person the centre of all 
 love, uniting heaven and earth in an eternal amity ; 
 accursed as a sinner, who, by enduring the charge 
 and penalty of sin, could alone destroy its curse and 
 its dominion; dying, who is the life of men, the 
 delight of angels, the brightness of uncreated glory, 
 the fountain of undecaying power, having the keys 
 of hell and of death, and who is now alive for ever- 
 more ! 
 
 And, whilst such are the wonders of his charac- 
 ter, such, too, is the glory of his work. In Him 
 every hope is attained, every desire is accom- 
 plished, every ministration fulfilled, every type 
 converted into reality, and every shadow into an 
 imperishable substance ; truth made immutable, and 
 joy eternal. 
 
 II. Let us now advert to the SECOND of the topics 
 already mentioned, the practical results proceeding 
 from the propagation of that great system, the pre- 
 servation and diffusion of which is so intimately 
 associated with the services and uses of the sanc- 
 tuary. 
 
 However glorious be the manifestations of divine 
 truth presented by the scheme of Christianity, one 
 or two of which we have thus endeavoured to point 
 out, yet all this is far from being its primary inten- 
 tion. Its end is far otherwise. It is practical, 
 rather than speculative ; and aims rather at effecting
 
 120 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 a change in our condition, than elevating or en- 
 larging our knowledge. Its glory as a revelation, 
 however exalted, is secondary to that which it pos- 
 sesses as a scheme of mercy; and the brightest of 
 its rays, considered as a discovery of the Deity, fades 
 and languishes before its lustre as a remedy for 
 human ruin. 
 
 And in like manner, whatever it offers to our 
 notice respecting the circumstances of a future life, 
 is invariably subservient to a far higher purpose; 
 Avhich is, to prepare us for those enjoyments it does 
 but incidentally describe. And these scattered and 
 brief allusions acquire, sometimes, even from their 
 indefiniteness, a peculiar and surpassing interest. 
 We gaze upon them, as on the uprooted sea-weed, or 
 the shivered pine, wafted by storms across the 
 waste of waters, revealing the existence and the 
 productions of a yet unknown world. 
 
 1 . Our attention is first invited, in this connexion, 
 to the glories of this great system, as seen in the 
 power attendant on its very propagation. 
 
 The more carefully we examine, either its struc- 
 ture in itself, or the history of its first announce- 
 ment, the more shall we admire in both the illustra- 
 tion, so luminously furnished, of that noble motto, 
 " Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, 
 saith the Lord." We have but to compare it with 
 what we experience of the human heart ; or to mark 
 how its progress is, through every age, tracked out 
 in suffering and blood ; or to contemplate its present 
 condition, as a " light still shining in darkness, while 
 the darkness comprehendeth it not," and, like its
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 121 
 
 Founder, everywhere a benefactor, yet an exile, and 
 an outcast, though a friend. We need but remem- 
 ber, that it is on the fallacy and falsehood of the 
 gospel only, that every man is held competent to 
 decide without inquiry ; that it is only when pour- 
 ing forth his sneers or sarcasms here, that the wit- 
 lingf is esteemed an oracle ; that it is while levelled 
 
 o * 
 
 against Christianity alone, that the most virulent 
 abuses and the foulest slander are deemed more than 
 excusable ; while it is admitted, without dispute, as 
 an indication of superior genius or more extensive 
 learning, of science more enlightened, or sagacity 
 more profound, only to revive the most antiquated 
 and oft-refuted suspicions of its truth: and the 
 proof will at once appear, that its prevalence and its 
 moral power must be ascribed to God alone. 
 
 No project was ever so magnificent; for it was to 
 regenerate the world. And yet never were any 
 resources so apparently inadequate. I do not allude 
 to the small number of its original disciples ; nor to 
 their defect of education, talent, or authority; nor 
 yet to the calumny and danger by which they were 
 confronted ; nor to the country wherein they rose ; 
 nor to the might, nor the malignity, which was pre- 
 pared, in every place, and by every engine, to crush 
 and to destroy them. I advert rather to the total 
 absence of all that would actually allure to their 
 standard men of whatever description, and to the 
 unattractive aspect, presented at once to every man, 
 as well by their circumstances as their doctrine ; 
 so that they would repel the rich by their poverty, 
 and the poor by the perils of their fellowship; the 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 122 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 proud by their external situation of dependency 
 and meanness; the voluptuous by their demand of 
 mortification and the strictest purity; the thought- 
 less by their injunction of seriousness, watchfulness, 
 and sacred contemplation; the speculative by the 
 simplicity of their teaching; and the enthusiastic by 
 contrast with whatever might have gratified that love 
 of obscurity and wonder, which forms the master- 
 passion of the mystic and the devotee. I point you 
 to the fact, that the attainment of their object was to 
 be accomplished by the mere force of conviction, 
 and that, too, exclusively connected with things 
 spiritual and heavenly; that, while the gospel al- 
 leged a divine original, its proofs, however unan- 
 swerable, were yet such as the most feeble raillery 
 might turn into derision; that, while courting in- 
 discriminately the acceptance of mankind, it de- 
 manded sacrifices which could be expected only 
 from the most exalted heroism; that, while de- 
 nouncing every criminal enjoyment, it promised a 
 reward which none had ever inherited, or was able 
 fully to describe; that, though addressed to unbe- 
 lievers, it appealed to sanctions which could have no 
 effect till itself was previously believed; that it 
 declared hostility against every vice, while it poured 
 dishonour on every boasted but unreal virtue ; that 
 against all other systems it breathed the spirit of 
 unpitying extermination, and yet assumed to be the 
 emanation of divine benevolence ; and that thus, in 
 a manner of the most unheard of paradox, it seemed 
 to forbid designedly its own advancement, to close 
 up every avenue, and to accumulate every obstacle,
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 123 
 
 as if to render it indisputably certain, that, should it 
 ever be successful, it must be by an almost miracu- 
 lous efficiency; since it aimed at nothing less than 
 the subversion of what was powerful, by what was 
 impotent, what was illustrious, by what was despi- 
 cable, what was revered for its sanctity, by what 
 was detested as impious, what was esteemed most 
 salutary, by what was abhorred as most pernicious. 
 Where should its advocate look for his allies ? 
 or to whom should he address himself with the hope 
 that his message would not be rejected ? If he ap- 
 pealed to the Jews, the Pharisee would load him 
 with execrations as a blasphemer of the law; the 
 Sadducee would turn away with disdain, as from the 
 abettor of a drivelling fanaticism; the ruler would 
 seek his destruction, because he endangered the 
 public tranquillity, bringing upon himself the blood 
 of the Messiah; and the common people would 
 turn to Calvary, reminding him how his master had 
 there suffered as the most infamous of impostors, or 
 the vilest of slaves. If he entered the cities of the 
 Gentiles, he would be first taunted as a Jew ; next, 
 spurned as a Nazarene; finally, exposed to torture 
 and death, as an enemy alike to the commonwealth 
 and to the gods. The philosopher would scorn him 
 for his credulity, and the vulgar for his devotion. 
 The priest would arraign his impiety ; and the poli- 
 tician would look with jealousy upon the revolu- 
 tionary tendency of his religion. He had no doc- 
 trines to inculcate, on which they who regarded them 
 without horror would not cast the bitterest contempt. 
 He enjoined no practices which could gain him a
 
 124 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 solitary proselyte, either by the indulgence they 
 supplied to sensuality, or the flattery they ministered 
 to superstition. His profession was one which ac- 
 corded with no man's habits, prejudices, or interest. 
 Its very genius was at war with all that could have 
 contributed to its support. It aspired to become 
 universal ; and yet was formed on such a model as 
 to prohibit, not to facilitate, its extension. To com- 
 mand the obedience and the hearts of all men, was 
 its undisguised design ; and yet it was so fabricated, 
 as to render it impossible that, by accommodation 
 or compliance, it should disarm a single enemy, or, 
 among all the myriads of mankind, discover even 
 one prepared by his circumstances or his preposses- 
 sions to become its friend. 
 
 We need riot dwell upon the early progress of the 
 gospel, nor on the present widening circle of its 
 influence. It is enough to remind you, that we this 
 day witness another fruit of its victories, and raise 
 another trophy to its power. In a region, which the 
 sun that shone on its nativity was supposed to visit 
 only with his expiring rays, dissevered from all 
 that first embraced it, not more by the breadth of 
 continents and the waters of the deep, than by ex- 
 tremest dissimilitude in the whole economy of life, 
 we are now walking in its light, and rejoicing in its 
 glory. Many within these walls have learned to 
 triumph in its consolations, and to repose on its 
 promises, with a certainty which no change can 
 enfeeble, and no sophistry confound. And thus 
 shall its radiancy be scattered still abroad, and 
 its pure and holy flame preserved as on a watch-
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 125 
 
 tower lighted from the skies, unfailing and un- 
 quenched, even to the very latest generation. 
 
 2. But we must now glance at the benefits it has 
 been found uniformly to secure and to disperse, 
 wherever it is known; benefits collateral to its 
 chief design, and which are scattered along its path, 
 only as the dew and fragrance of the morning, the 
 mere promise of the day. We must behold it iden- 
 tifying itself with every agency calculated to improve 
 and elevate the condition of our species, with the 
 progress of education, the extension of commerce, 
 and the advance of freedom; repelling, with an- 
 gelic purity, whatever would by its embrace en- 
 - feeble or pollute it; in its general diffusion, flour- 
 ishing the most where it is least protected; and, in 
 its directer influence, like the purest adamant, 
 which shines most resplendently within the darkest 
 setting, shedding its sweetest balm upon the couch 
 of sorrow, and its fairest illumination upon the 
 shadows of the tomb. We must witness it, infusing 
 into human bosoms a principle which can operate 
 alike in every various station of humanity, a prin- 
 ciple, fitted to subdue the ferocity of the barbarian, 
 to elevate the virtue of the enlightened and the re- 
 fined, to repress the excesses of luxury and the wan- 
 tonness of power, and to diffuse on every hand the 
 blessings of industry, content, and plenty ; to unloose 
 the bondage of corruption, and control the fury of 
 the passions; to mingle cheerfulness whether with 
 suffering or duty; to abate the anguish of pain, 
 sickness, and poverty ; to minister consolation to the 
 widow, and protection to the fatherless; to provide
 
 126 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 for the afflicted a refuge, for the aged an asylum, 
 for the stranger a home; and, by a sure though 
 gradual progression, to trample into the dust in- 
 justice, slavery, and war, to dispel all ignorance, 
 to subdue all prejudice, to vanquish all hostility, and 
 to insure for itself an infallible and universal con- 
 quest. 
 
 Even in its own familiar operations, how often have 
 we been arrested and amazed, to find it subverting the 
 most deadly infatuations, or the grossest vices; 
 making the drunkard sober, the impetuous patient, 
 the vindictive merciful, the proud compassionate, 
 the inexorable forgiving; and, in its remoter influ- 
 ences, causing the savage to become a man, and the 
 man a Christian. 
 
 3. To the inestimable blessings of a more perma- 
 nent and spiritual nature imparted immediately to 
 ?'fe subjects in their renovation and immortal hap- 
 piness. 
 
 We behold the greatness of God here discovered 
 in the might of his compassion. The earthquake, 
 and the tempest, and the fire, are here but the har- 
 bingers of his approach, and infinitely overpassed in 
 their effect by the "still small voice," which tells 
 that he is near. We have become sensible of an 
 operation, which casts the wonders even of creation 
 into comparative and strange inferiority. If the 
 formation of a single human spirit was as much more 
 glorious than that even of the sun, as that of life, in 
 its feeblest and lowest examples, is more exalted than 
 that merely of matter, or that of an insect than of an 
 atom ; what, then, is its redemption ! and what
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 127 
 
 its restoration from misery and death to the love 
 and the enjoyment of its Maker! The superior 
 dignity of the design, the higher interest of its con- 
 sequences, the difficulties surmounted, the princi- 
 ples disclosed, impart to such a work a magnitude 
 that nothing else can rival. Here, all that is won- 
 derful is associated with all that is lovely ; all that 
 astonishes by its might, with all that attracts by its 
 benevolence. The operation is not, as in other 
 cases, that alone of a will which cannot be resisted, 
 or of wisdom incapable of limit or frustration, but of 
 a new and far more glorious agent; it is that 
 of GRACE. The force of this great principle 
 .insures its own benevolent and holy purposes, not 
 by the invasion but the perfecting of freedom ; leav- 
 ing to its subjects all their susceptibility of moral 
 recompence, and yet securing to its Author that 
 revenue of praise which belongs to the source of all 
 their blessedness. Every spirit so restored assumes, 
 in a new and peculiar sense, the likeness of its great 
 Restorer. That likeness, it is true, is imperfect, by 
 reason of the littleness and dimness of the mirror 
 wherein it is reflected ; but it is diversified in each, 
 according to the diversity of his formation, in one 
 presenting the adumbration of one, in another of a 
 second, of the perfections of its great exemplar; 
 but all, by combination, offering to more intelligent 
 observers that wondrous spectacle, whereof the apos- 
 tle speaks, " That now unto the principalities and 
 powers in heavenly places might be known, by the 
 church, the manifold wisdom of God." They see, 
 in the advancing holiness of human spirits, a modi-
 
 128 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 fication of his greatness, which would be sought in 
 vain through every other region of existence. Our 
 defects and frailties they know how to resolve into 
 the infirmity of that nature which is still partially 
 renewed; and our graces, now only germinant and 
 pointing obscurely to their issue, they see, with a 
 prophetic eye, in all they shall become hereafter. 
 Looking forward to the period when these immature 
 productions shall attain their fulness, they already 
 anticipate the triumph, when the author of this pro- 
 gressive transformation shall have become its finisher, 
 and shall complete his mediatorial administration in 
 coming " to be glorified in his saints, and to be ad- 
 mired in all them that believe." 
 
 To that stupendous work which he shall then have 
 brought to its fulfilment, to that illustrious charac- 
 ter which he shall then realise in the consummation 
 of its glories, everything combines to impart an 
 equal measure of endearment and of honour. At 
 the very utterance of the name, a SAVIOUR, every 
 heart exults with a delight otherwise unknown. To 
 the generous breast no other object is so beautiful, no 
 other sound so welcome. Never do we shed such 
 rapturous tears, or feel so passionate a joy, as when 
 we witness the heroism and the self-devotion of some 
 act of magnanimous deliverance. Power softens 
 into loveliness, when thus exerted. Danger and 
 toil, encountered in such a cause, impart a stern, 
 yet irresistible attraction. It is thus we think of the 
 patriot, bleeding for the freedom of his country ; 
 of the philanthropist, regardless of his own security 
 amidst pestilence, and darkness, and the ministers
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 129 
 
 of death, that he may release the wretched captive, 
 and break the yoke of the oppressor ; of the advo- 
 cate, defending the home of the widow or the heri- 
 tage of the orphan, and turning into mockery the 
 venality of accusation, and the menaces of vengeance ; 
 of the statesman, who stands forth, single-handed, 
 but with a dauntless heart, to turn back the flood of 
 tyranny or faction, when threatening to engulf in 
 common ruin the welfare of his people, and the 
 safety of mankind ; and of the pilot, adventurously 
 urging his way through the pitiless and maddening 
 surge, that he may snatch some solitary victim from 
 the horrors of shipwreck, and bear him, naked and 
 shivering, to the shore. What, then, shall be the 
 glory of HIM who plunged, with all the consciousness 
 of unsheltered peril, into the very depths of misery, 
 to rescue the perishing soul ! Or what shall be the 
 measure, either of our admiration or our gratitude, 
 when we celebrate, beholding its last triumphs, the 
 emancipation of a world ! Advocate, friend, brother, 
 these are beloved names ; and, like a grateful odour, 
 they give life to the drooping spirit: but if the 
 name of Saviour be more endearing than them all, 
 then what is that ravishment of love, with which the 
 rescued sinner shall hail at length the blessed name 
 of Jesus ! By the depth of what misery shall we 
 estimate his tenderness ? By the exaltation of what 
 victory shall we compute the might of his salvation ? 
 4. But we observe, finally, if any thing were 
 wanting to complete the glory of that agency thus 
 witnessed in the sanctuary as emanating from the 
 truth therein deposited, it would be found in the 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 l.'SO DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 character with which it practically invests the par- 
 takers of its influence ; and whereby they are meet- 
 ened for never-ending felicity. 
 
 And here permit me to remind you, since more mo- 
 dern instances might seem liable to easier exception, 
 of the import attached, in the first ages, to that hon- 
 ourable appellation we are called to sustain, and the 
 extent of obligation essentially included in the profes- 
 sion of a CHRISTIAN. In those days of primitive sim- 
 plicity and truth, it was identical with all that could 
 elevate and ennoble. It signified no faint convictions, 
 no questionable motives, no equivocal condition. 
 The zeal it spoke of was an inextinguishable flame. 
 The joys of which it was the symbol were as life 
 from the dead. No danger could alarm, no oppo- 
 sition quell, that spirit of beneficence it was known 
 to indicate. The fury of the persecutor, and the 
 derision of the scorner, were alike powerless before 
 it. He who possessed it stood composed and daunt- 
 less against the combined assaults of violence and 
 slander. As if the shield of the cherubim were 
 stretched above his head, as if a buckler of triple 
 brass begirt his bosom, he was insensible to weak- 
 ness, and incapable of fear. He might fall ; but he 
 could not fly. He might perish ; but he could not 
 yield. His blood might be spilt upon the ground ; 
 but his hope could not waver, nor his honour be 
 trampled in the dust. You might crush his limbs 
 with torture, his affections with solitude, his name 
 with infamy, and his freedom with the chain ; but 
 he bore within him an imperishable principle, which 
 you could not crush nor impair : it was the energy
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 131 
 
 of living faith. This, like electric fire, acquired 
 force by resistance, and intensity by repression, 
 borrowing increase of splendour from surrounding 
 gloom. The planets might have grown weary in 
 their orbits, the lamps of heaven gone out in utter 
 darkness ; but this living flame could never languish, 
 this ethereal spirit never could expire. Here was 
 the fragment of a new creation, the germ and rudi- 
 ment of a yet unfashioned world. Infolding in it- 
 self the embryo of that last form of perfected exist- 
 ence, wherein the great parent mind would finally 
 enshrine the revelations of his power and glory ; it 
 was fitted to survive convulsion, and to forbid de- 
 cay. It could only waste with the waste of that 
 eternal spring from whence it was derived. Hence 
 it subsisted in perennial fulness, and poured its re- 
 newing influences with an unfailing stream. Chris- 
 tianity was then the religion of heroes, of saints, 
 apostles, and martyrs. It belonged to them, "of 
 whom the world was not worthy." It transfigured 
 all it touched into its own celestial likeness ; endu - 
 ing its subjects, of whatever age or condition, with 
 an inflexible constancy, and an exhaustless ardour, 
 before which the virtues of the patriot or the war- 
 rior dwindled into ordinary things. To be a Chris- 
 tian then, was to hold fellowship with uncreated 
 wisdom, to drink of the fountain of eternal purity, 
 and to breathe the soul of a philanthropy as un- 
 quenchable as it was unrestrained. It was to tread 
 in the footsteps of Jesus, and to partake the mind of 
 God. The pity with which a Christian was then 
 animated, was the same that had wept in Gethse-
 
 132 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 mane, and - bled in Golgotha. The sanctity with 
 which he was arrayed was in essence his who was 
 "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sin- 
 ners." The fervour which impelled him had once 
 looked on dissolution in its most hideous forms, and 
 said : " I have a baptism to be baptized with, and 
 how am I straitened till it be accomplished." The 
 energy which bore him onward was no other than 
 that which made death vital, and mortal agony the 
 source of endless beatitude, as it lighted the fea- 
 tures, and gleamed from the eyes, which were dim- 
 med, and shrouded, and closing on the cross. 
 
 Such was a Christian then. And has that solemn 
 designation declined in any measure from the import 
 which it once included ? Has it come to signify a 
 less exalted standard either of belief or practice? 
 Does it mean less than that we who have assumed 
 it have " tasted of the heavenly gift, and been made 
 partakers of the Holy Ghost, and felt the powers of 
 the world to come," while from the empire of Satan 
 we have passed into the kingdom of the Son of 
 God ? Do we call ourselves, by its assumption, any 
 thing less illustrious than " a royal priesthood, a 
 peculiar people," "fellow-citizens with the saints, 
 and members of God's household?" What mean 
 we by it, except that we are "not our own, but 
 bought with a price, that we should glorify God in 
 our bodies and our spirits, which are God's ?" Has 
 it now become less energetically true, that " if any 
 man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his?" 
 Or can we justify its application to a piety of mean-
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 133 
 
 cr stature than that of having the same mind in us 
 which was in him ? 
 
 Behold, then, my brethren, the model to which 
 you are pledged to be conformed ; the type you are 
 to bear, the inscription which is to be written upon 
 your forehead, the holiness which is to cleanse your 
 very garments, and the light which is to shine 
 around your path. You are CHRISTIANS ! Forget 
 not either the grandeur or the peril of that most 
 sacred name. The recollection of its force may 
 quicken you to action ; and the scrutiny which it 
 invites may teach you diligence, mingled with cir- 
 cumspection and lowliness. Think, then, respect- 
 ing it ; and learn to make such thoughts habitual, 
 as your joy, your heritage, your triumph ; that 
 so it may never become the seal of your perdition, 
 and the brand of your eternal dishonour ; to be a 
 signet of reprobation and the curse ; and, having 
 been the badge of your unfaithfulness on earth, to 
 become, in hell, the climax of your infamy, and the 
 consummation of your woe. 
 
 Such, I repeat it, was the majesty of the Chris- 
 tian character at that early period. These are the 
 "glorious things that are spoken of thee, O Zion, 
 city of God." As they adorned her rising, so shall 
 they complete the brightness of her evening hour. 
 Before that joyous epoch, churches shall rouse them- 
 selves, and awake as from the tomb. " Their dew 
 shall be as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast 
 forth her dead." Voices of gratulation shall be 
 heard, and the shout of a king in the camp of Is- 
 rael. To be enrolled among the saints, and to par-
 
 134 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 take their society, shall be no longer regarded as 
 involving privations, or creative of restraints ; but 
 multitudes, thronging around, shall press into the 
 temple, and cast themselves before the altar, ex- 
 claiming : " Doubtless thou art our Father, though 
 Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknow- 
 ledge us not ; yet thou, O Lord, art our Father 
 and Redeemer; thy name is from everlasting." 
 
 In that prosperous and happy era, thought, learn- 
 ing, genius, shall not remit their toils, nor veil their 
 brightness ; science shall not abandon her research- 
 es, nor eloquence withhold her glory ; but all shall 
 be invested with a holier beauty, and beheld amidst 
 diviner light. " The loftiness of man shall be bow- 
 ed down, the haughtiness of man shall be made low, 
 and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." 
 Wealth, consecrated by religion, shall no longer 
 cleave as a curse to its possessor, but it shall be 
 unto the Lord an offering in righteousness; while 
 happy and contented poverty, relieved from the bur- 
 den of want, not by mercenary hirelings, but by the 
 hand of a brother, shall be adorned and hallowed, 
 like the penury of the Son of God, by tranquil rest- 
 ing on a never-failing providence, and the calm cer- 
 tainty of an inheritance in heaven. The hoary head 
 shall be encircled with lambent glories, and a bright- 
 ening diadem already half revealed ; while ardent 
 and generous youth, panting after deeds of holy 
 enterprise, and fired with no other ambition than 
 might glow within the breast of angels, shall stand 
 prepared for every summons, and ready to spring
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 13.5 
 
 forth at the first call, either to honourable service, 
 or to triumphant death. 
 
 What can I wish for you, my brethren, more truly 
 blessed, while you enter on the services of this new 
 sanctuary, than that such may be the revelations of 
 God's glory by which it shall be signalized ; such 
 the events to render it for ever memorable ; such 
 the characters by which it shall be permanently 
 adorned : that you may partake most largely of 
 those heavenly influences, which shall thus irradiate 
 at once your personal history and your religious 
 services ; that for yourselves you may attain a 
 large and permanent augmentation of the power of 
 living piety, in all its applications and discoveries ; 
 
 that* the truth, whereof we have spoken, may 
 henceforth possess a more absolute command over 
 every dictate of your understanding ; the objects it 
 discloses in the spiritual world impress more vividly 
 your thoughts and feelings ; the laws which it pro- 
 mulgates exercise over your affections and your ac- 
 tual pursuits a more undisputed authority ; and the 
 influence it promises gain a more unobstructed en- 
 trance to the very spring and centre of your being : 
 
 that so your susceptibilities may be made more 
 tender, your gratitude more lively, your faith more 
 vigorous, your purposes more steadfast, your aims 
 more simple, your exertions more energetic, your 
 sacrifices more cheerful, and your affiance more 
 simple and unwavering ; and that you may witness 
 this sanctuary often pervaded with a divine illumin- 
 ation, casting a sacred glow over every service, and 
 every worshipper ; adorned, not by the fascinations
 
 130 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 of pomp or outward splendour, or only by the tri- 
 umphs of a master mind casting its spell on all the 
 spirits that encircle it, but by the tear of penitence 
 and godly sorrow, or the sweet and settled aspect of 
 hope, mingled with smiles of gladness, or glances of 
 enraptured contemplation ; that the word of life 
 may be invested among you with all its ancient 
 power, and the arm of the Lord put on strength as 
 in the days of old, till the stoutest heart shall yield, 
 and the proudest scorner stand silent and rebuked, 
 while by " signs and mighty deeds," not of wrath 
 but of mercy, it shall be manifest to all that God is 
 come into his holy temple, while all shall bow them- 
 selves and worship ; and that thus you may often 
 realize the wonders of that awful morning,' when 
 " the cloud of glory filled the house of the Lord, so 
 that the priests could not stand to minister because 
 of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled 
 the house of the Lord." 
 
 And to this end, what more can I desire, than 
 that you may be distinguished by those two great 
 Christian principles, which, in their combination, 
 constitute the pledge and earnest of every other 
 blessing, the spirit of promptitude in duty, and the 
 spirit of perseverance in prayer ? 
 
 May you possess largely the spirit of promptitude 
 in duty ; remembering that a design postponed is 
 virtually abandoned ; that what to-day we defer we 
 decree to be impossible to-morrow ; that there are 
 pressing claims on the activity of every hour, which 
 no other hour can enable us to execute ; that in- 
 tention is the seed of action ; that delay is the
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 137 
 
 blight and mildew of the soul ; that the moment of 
 deliberation is the crisis of our fate ; that all things 
 are within the compass of a determinate and steady 
 purpose, and nothing unattainable to him who, 
 relying on the grace of heaven, is prepared to say, 
 (not heartlessly and in the midst of reservations and 
 conditions, but with the singleness and concentra- 
 tion of a spirit collecting all its force,) "I am sa- 
 tisfied : I am resolved : I will begin." 
 
 May you have vouchsafed unto you, in the rich- 
 est measure, the spirit of perseverance in prayer ; 
 prayer, humble, united, instant; prayer which em- 
 braces effort, embodies fervent desire, confirms pious 
 resolution, lays fast hold upon the hand of Mercy, 
 or, prostrate at her feet, weeps, pleads, expostulates, 
 presses her suit, refuses to be thrust away or silenced, 
 urges the promise, alleges the securities of an invio- 
 lable covenant, and, by conscious weakness mingled 
 with importunity, infallibly prevails. O that this 
 Spirit may he shed more abundantly upon you ! 
 Every other benefit will follow in its train. But 
 without it, alas! we have but too surely fallen below 
 the just and proper standard both of relative and 
 personal godliness. A power like the blast of the 
 wilderness has seized upon our souls, and our bloom- 
 ing promise of fertility, as short-lived as it is deceit- 
 ful, will stand blighted and stricken, in hopeless 
 desolation, like a sepulchral garland withering in 
 solitude and darkness, and shedding its dying 
 odours only through the regions of the dead. 
 
 I cannot finally close this discourse, without 
 VOL. i. s
 
 138 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 briefly addressing a class of persons, of whom 1 
 would gladly persuade myself, were it but permitted 
 me, that none such were found in our assembly, 
 those who have entered on the solemnities of this 
 new house of prayer, without seriousness of purpose, 
 or devout ness of reflection ; just as, for months and 
 years, they may have already attended on the min- 
 istrations of the sanctuary. Consider, I beseech 
 you, how fearfully the services of that which you 
 have left bear witness even now against you, and 
 those walls which are to echo no longer with your 
 voice have become inscribed already with a decisive 
 and solemn record, which shall be reviewed amidst 
 the proceedings of the great day. Have they not 
 testified, with most emphatic condemnation, against 
 your carelessness, your irreverence, your worldly 
 thoughts, your wanderings of heart, and the awful 
 insincerity of your devotion ? Another scene is 
 opening upon you. Will you bring hither also 
 these defilements, and here renew the provocations 
 which have called so loudly and so long in the ears 
 of the Lord God of Sabaoth? Or are you not 
 rather resolved, that you will commence a new and 
 happier career ; and strive, by every effort, to se- 
 cure his blessing, who is especially to be sought in 
 the assemblies of his people ? Will you not come 
 with the remembrance " This is none other than 
 the house of God ?" Will you not " keep your 
 foot" when you draw nigh to its precincts, and strive 
 to present yourselves within them as those who ex- 
 pect and have prepared for an audience with the 
 King of kings? Will you not watch, with a
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 139 
 
 thoughtful mind, that you may catch the tokens of 
 his presence, and the intimations of his will? 
 Thrice happy and auspicious, then, is to you the 
 arrival of this hallowed morning. I hear the voice 
 of God graciously proclaiming " From this day I 
 will bless you." But, should you persevere in the 
 same course of indolence and folly, then better had 
 it been for you that it had never dawned, or had 
 shed its rays only on your darkened chamber, or 
 the couch of your last repose. What do you by 
 your present appearance at his footstool, but lift up 
 your hand afresh unto the Lord, that you will dili- 
 gently hearken to his voice, to fear him, and to keep 
 Ms commandments alway? And, as if all your 
 former impieties were not enough, will you treasure 
 up also this bitter memorial for the day of the com- 
 ing judgment? Here shall be awfully set before 
 you " life and death, blessing and cursing ;" are 
 you resolved to die? Have you "made a covenant 
 with death, and with hell are you at agreement ?" 
 Will you perish at the gate of heaven? perish 
 where others shall be saved? and go down into 
 destruction by the same way which others shall have 
 found the portal of salvation, and the path to glory ? 
 But I turn from this melancholy subject. I have 
 done. Brethren, we meet now only at the footstool 
 of our Father. We shall hereafter behold him on 
 his throne. We are travelling onward to the moun- 
 tain of his habitation, and shall, ere long, reach the 
 height of his eternal sanctuary. Here, we behold 
 him remotely ; there, at his very seat. We see him
 
 140 DISCOURSES AT THE OPENING, &C. 
 
 here, "as in a glass darkly ;" there, we shall " see 
 him as he is." 
 
 Receive my warmest congratulations, united with 
 those of the many brethren here assembled, on the 
 accomplishment of that sacred purpose which is at 
 length fulfilled. May every hope you have cherish- 
 ed, in this work of piety, be far more than realized ! 
 May your honoured pastor be spared for many years, 
 to " labour amongst you, and to admonish you in the 
 Lord," " building you up on your most holy faith," 
 being " comforted together with you," and behold- 
 ing continually your zeal, and charity, and obe- 
 dience to the will of God in all things ! " May the 
 Lord your God add unto the people, how many so- 
 ever they be, an hundred fold!" May he "increase 
 you with men as a flock ; even as the flock of Jeru- 
 salem in her solemn feasts !" And may you leave 
 your name hereafter for an inheritance unto his 
 chosen ! Thus may the blessing of the Holy One 
 be evermore upon you ! Let them who go by the 
 way say, " The blessing of the Lord be upon you ; 
 we bless you in the name of the Lord." For our- 
 selves, we will rejoice in your salvation, and account 
 your prosperity to be our own. And, though now 
 we sow not together, but haply with weeping, and in 
 a different heritage ; yet in the day of the final in- 
 gathering, may it be ours to bind our sheaves at 
 your side, and fill our bosom from the same field of 
 plenty; when we "joy among you with the joy of 
 harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the 
 spoil !"
 
 II. 
 DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED AT - 
 
 THE OPENING OF EVERTON CRESCENT CHAPEL, 
 
 (REV. JOHN KELLY'S), 
 
 LIVERPOOL, 
 
 NOVEMBER 23rf, 1837.
 
 DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 1 COR. i. 23, 24. 
 
 " We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stum- 
 bling-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." 
 
 AN air of singular antithesis will be observed to 
 pervade this passage, and the verses with which it is 
 connected. Several important subjects are thus 
 brought forward in the most forcible manner ; and, 
 their respective features being thus rendered more 
 striking by reciprocal opposition, the result is an 
 energy of statement perhaps never surpassed. The 
 wisdom of the world is contrasted with the inscruta- 
 ble wisdom of God ; and its vaunted science with its 
 own palpable folly, as evinced in an unnatural but 
 universal ignorance of God. The things which it 
 accounts to be foolishness, are placed in honourable 
 competition with those which it falsely reverences as 
 wise ; the things which it contemns for their weak- 
 ness, with those which it honours as mighty; and
 
 144 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 the things which it despises for their baseness, ac- 
 counting them even as nothing, with those to which 
 it ascribes the most substantial dignity. Again ; the 
 blind infatuation of the Jews is set over against the 
 unprofitable curiosity of the Greeks ; the prejudice 
 of the one, against the insolent derision of the other ; 
 and, to pursue the enumeration no further, the 
 degrading, though most dissimilar, sentiments of both 
 respecting the gospel, against its intrinsic excellency 
 and its real grandeur. And the whole is made to 
 illustrate a declaration the most emphatic it is pos- 
 sible to conceive, " The foolishness of God is wiser 
 than men ; and the weakness of God is stronger than 
 men." The peculiarity thus attaching to the text 
 will necessarily adhere, in a considerable measure, 
 to the order of our present reflections. Yet I trust, 
 however undesigned, it may not be found wholly 
 without advantage. 
 
 By the text itself, our attention is invited to a brief, 
 but most comprehensive, delineation of the character 
 and great subject of the apostolic ministry. It was 
 the preaching of " CHRIST CRUCIFIED." Its cha- 
 racter, therefore, consisted, not so much in the ex- 
 position of the Christian theory, or its defence either 
 by authority or argument, but in the narration of 
 those joyous events whereon the whole was founded; 
 while publishing, as its practical design, a message 
 of reconciliation to the rebellious and perishing, and 
 celebrating the achievements of infinite love. And 
 its subject was, not the truths of natural religion, 
 however clearly or perfectly presented ; not the pre- 
 cepts of moral virtue, however just in their elucida-
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 145 
 
 tion, or powerful in their enforcement ; but the work 
 and glory of the Saviour, as inseparably associated 
 with his own sufferings and death : a theme which 
 involved the profoundest mystery, exhibited unspeak- 
 able and boundless mercy, and offered the most 
 welcome intelligence even to the chief of sinners. 
 
 Now, concerning this ministry and all which it 
 embraced, two things are specially recorded. The 
 first, that it was, on various accounts, unwelcome to 
 the great majority of those among whom it was ori- 
 ginally exercised. To some it was a stumbling- 
 block, to others foolishness. And the second, that 
 its total efficacy was yet found to be dependent on 
 those very circumstances, which thus arrayed against 
 it the utmost opposition and contempt. The " stum- 
 bling-block" once removed, was removed for ever. 
 The "folly" once apprehended, commanded equally 
 the understanding and the heart. And that doc- 
 trine, which had been rejected on the one hand, and 
 derided on the other, was confessed on both, by such 
 as were called to be partakers of its regenerating 
 power, to be fraught with an energy that could be- 
 long only to omnipotence, and a wisdom that could 
 only be divine. 
 
 We are here, therefore, conducted to a practical 
 insight into the nature and tendency of the gospel ; 
 and taught, with equal directness, how to estimate 
 its claims, and how to attempt its advancement. For 
 neither are its essential elements, nor its relation to 
 the state of human society, or to the structure of 
 the human mind, so modified, as that it should not 
 still consist in the same unalterable truths, wear the 
 
 VOL. i. T
 
 146 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 same unattractive and yet winning appearance, and 
 encounter, consequently, the same obstacles, while 
 it is possessed of the same resources, as at the era 
 of its first promulgation: nor will it, accordingly, 
 permit, that its influence should now be extended, 
 but in a method substantially the same. 
 
 Two objects of inquiry are hence offered to our 
 notice, viz. In the first place, that aspect of repul- 
 siveness and folly which the gospel has, in every age, 
 presented to the greater portion of mankind. And 
 in the next, those transcendent manifestations of the 
 divine power and wisdom, with which it has been 
 ever seen to be accompanied, by all who have rightly 
 understood its principles, or imbibed its spirit. To 
 illustrate these particulars, and to apply to practical 
 use the reflections they are fitted to supply, will con- 
 stitute the business of the present discourse. 
 
 Let us consider . 
 
 I. That aspect of repulsiveness and folly which 
 the gospel has in every age presented to the greater 
 portion of mankind. 
 
 The attestations demanded for the establishment 
 of a new religious system must obviously vary with 
 the condition of those to whom they are presented. 
 They must differ with the differences of original con- 
 stitution, and of outward circumstances. And these, 
 ' whether they have sprung from national distinctions, 
 or more accidental causes, include almost numberless 
 peculiarities, to which the peculiarities of proof must 
 be correspondently adjusted. The greatest force of 
 argument may be expended in vain, if it comport
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 14? 
 
 not, in its form and bearing, with our habitudes of 
 thought. Had it worn another complexion, or been 
 offered in a different shape, it might, though infi- 
 nitely less direct or cogent, have secured our assent. 
 But, because it fails in adaptation, it is robbed of its 
 strength. Hence the unspeakable importance, that 
 the sources of authentication should be at least of 
 such elementary diversity, as to correspond to those 
 great and primary distinctions, which will ever sub- 
 sist amongst men. And hence, too, the reasonable 
 expectation, that, in a system proceeding from God, 
 such diversity will infallibly appear. 
 
 There are two comprehensive classes, into which 
 human minds may, with reference to this design, be 
 advantageously divided: such as are susceptible of 
 being wrought on through the medium of external 
 objects, and such as are affected chiefly by the force 
 of abstract reason ; those who would be gained most 
 easily by lucid statements, or visible phenomena, and 
 those who look for argument, and the demonstration 
 of anterior probability ; or, to use the illustration of 
 the text, those who " require a sign," and those who 
 " seek after wisdom." 
 
 Now, to these great classes, there are specific 
 forms of proof respectively adapted. There is the 
 evidence we are accustomed to denominate external; 
 consisting of accrediting signals, and actual events: 
 and that also which we call internal; namely, the 
 reasonableness, congruity, utility, and moral fitness, 
 of systems, considered in themselves ; together with 
 their harmonious correspondence with whatever 
 might have been predicted by a competent intelli-
 
 148 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 gence, or is exacted by the nature of the case. Nei- 
 ther of these should be wanting in a religion that 
 assumes to be divine. 
 
 The demand, therefore, referred to by the apostle, 
 if made with intelligence and candour, could not 
 have been disregarded. It is not only permitted, 
 but imperative, that, before we adopt, as a part of 
 the will of our Creator, any code of principles, or 
 any rule of conduct, we should require to have it 
 shown by clear and sufficient tokens, that they pos- 
 sess his sanction, and are imposed by his authority. 
 No censure, then, could have been reasonably pro- 
 nounced, either on the Jews or Gentiles, for urging 
 on the first propagators of the gospel, however reso- 
 lutely, the claim of corroborative evidence, under 
 this two-fold aspect. It was natural, and could not 
 be wrong, that they should call, in the one case, for 
 a sign, to show that an institute, in all its parts so 
 singular, had truly the impress of divinity ; and in 
 the other, for the manifestations of celestial wisdom, 
 to evince that what was alleged to be revelation was 
 beyond the reach of artifice, and the power of false- 
 hood. 
 
 Their fault lay only in this. It was with per- 
 verted sentiments, and obstinate preconceptions, this 
 demand was accompanied. And thus it happened, 
 that a system, which, in all its bearings, wore the 
 most full and various credentials, was by both these 
 classes misunderstood and rejected: the one, feeling 
 that its sublimest facts, whose true and spiritual 
 glory they were unprepared to estimate, were rather 
 a hinderance than a facilitation to their faith ; and
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 149 
 
 the other, discerning in its most exalted mysteries, 
 not the light of primeval intelligence, but rather the 
 infatuation of a feeble, or the enthusiasm of a heated 
 and distempered mind. 
 
 Yet both these forms of evidence were amply and 
 unitedly supplied. Each had its place. Each shone 
 with its own lustre. And in their combination, both, 
 rightly apprehended, were irresistibly decisive. 
 They who, with a mind open to conviction, had be- 
 held the Saviour's miracles, were awed by the reve- 
 lation of his power. " We know," said they, " that 
 thou art a teacher sent from God; for no man can 
 do those miracles that thou doest, except God be 
 with him." They who had listened candidly to his 
 discourses, were astonished at the discoveries of his 
 super-human wisdom, exclaiming, " Never man 
 spake like this man." Neither was it otherwise in 
 the case of his disciples. Their doctrine justified 
 that belief, which their miracles created. Thus, 
 when "the word of God increased, and the num- 
 ber of believers multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and 
 a great company of the priests were obedient to the 
 faith," this was the occasion: "Stephen, full of 
 faith and power, did great wonders and miracles 
 among the people;" and they that arose to dispute 
 with him stood confounded and abashed at his pre- 
 sence, for " they were not able to resist the wisdom 
 and the spirit by which he spake." 
 
 In different instances, indeed, it would appear, 
 that each of these kinds of evidence alternately pre- 
 vailed. It was probably the healing of the impotent 
 man, rather than the preaching of Paul, which con-
 
 150 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 strained the multitude at Lystra to exclaim, " The 
 gods are come down to us in the likeness of men." 
 And it was when the barbarians of Melita saw the 
 viper shaken from his hand, that for the hatred due 
 to a murderer they were willing to render him the 
 honours of divinity. But it was the elevated and 
 solemn strain of his discourse, blended with the se- 
 verity of a calm and philosophic wisdom, that com- 
 manded the belief of the Areopagite, when he deci- 
 phered to the Athenians the inscriptions of their 
 own altars, proclaiming, in that chosen seat of learn- 
 ing and idolatry, " the unknown God." Yet in 
 ordinary cases, the internal evidence was inseparably 
 linked with the external, and an answer equally pro- 
 vided for the satisfaction, or the silencing, whether of 
 those who demanded a sign, or of those who sought 
 after wisdom. 
 
 We need not dwell on the justice of the delinea- 
 tion, when the apostle here significantly affirms, 
 " The Jews require a sign." Blind to the spiritual 
 import of the scriptures they profoundly reverenced, 
 and insensible to the moral grandeur of a law they 
 scrupulously observed, they had surrendered them- 
 selves to teachers who could only bewilder and mis- 
 lead them. Their judgment was enfeebled with 
 puerilities, their conscience burdened with restraints, 
 fatal to the exercise of manly thought, and render- 
 ing the instructions of our Lord insufficient to con- 
 duct them to the just discernment of his character. 
 " Except they should see signs and wonders they 
 would not believe." Wonders, appealing to the 
 senses, and obvious to every observer, were accord-
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 151 
 
 ingiy multiplied at each stage of his ministry, such 
 as might have seemed incapable of contradiction, 
 and to preclude the possibility of error. And yet 
 they importunately asked, " What sign showest thou, 
 that we may see and believe thee ? What dost thou 
 work ?" Nay, after all the splendour of his mira- 
 culous actions, and his more miraculous example, 
 they could insult his expiring agony with the same 
 insatiable demand, " Let be, let us see whether Elias 
 will come to save him ! Let Christ the king of 
 Israel come down from the cross, that we may be- 
 lieve." The heavens shrouded in darkness, the 
 earth trembling to her centre, the veil rent within 
 the temple, and the grave yielding up her prey, 
 these, august and fearful as they were, were portents 
 too feeble to soften their malignity, or to subdue 
 their unbelief. Standing as if amidst the wreck, not 
 alone of their country, but the world, the one has- 
 tening to its fall, the other amazed and agitated by 
 convulsions as ominous as they were unparalleled, 
 they could yet urge their infatuated requisition: 
 they still required a sign ! Can it surprise us, if, 
 to reward such rebellious incredulity, they were 
 abandoned to a reprobate mind ? if God fulfilled in 
 them, at length, his own terrific declaration, " I will 
 choose their delusions ? " and if that which should 
 have been to them the seal and symbol of deliver- 
 ance, did but make sure their ruin, becoming the 
 last and greatest obstacle to hinder their repentance, 
 and to forbid all hope of their salvation ? 
 
 The demand of the Greeks was of a far different 
 order. They sought not miracles, but mysteries;
 
 1,52 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 not prodigies or portents, but doctrines that should 
 disclose the secrets of nature, or unfold the arcana 
 of religion. " Lead us," said they, " into the inner 
 sanctuary of Truth, and let us gaze upon her image, 
 radiant with holy splendours, and casting abroad 
 celestial emanations. Give us to pass the limits of 
 this dark and shadowy existence, and to penetrate 
 the realms that lie beyond. Aid us to rise above 
 whatever is accidental and transitory, and to behold, 
 in sublimer regions, those undecaying forms, which 
 alone are worthy to be accounted real. Tell us, 
 what is spirit ? what is power ? what is beauty ? 
 what is virtue ? and what the uncreated and un- 
 alterable good ? Initiate us into the relations of 
 things visible to things unseen. Teach us their 
 hidden sympathies, and how each separate chord 
 vibrates in unison with innumerable strings, filling 
 the universe with an unheard, but responsive, and 
 never-dying melody. Tell us the names, the origin, 
 and the occupation of the gods. Explain to us the 
 manner of their being, and lead us to the height of 
 their abode. Or unveil the wonders of destiny; and 
 show us what shall be, amidst the revolution of 
 innumerable ages. Will this mystic dance of reno- 
 vation and decay ceaselessly continue, and these 
 scenes of illusion be perpetually renewed ? Or, after 
 the completion of an appointed cycle, will the reign 
 of chaos and of night once more return, when gods 
 and men shall perish in equal ruin, and all things 
 shall vanish and expire ? " 
 
 It is easy to discern, how utterly the structure, 
 and whole scope of the apostolic ministry was un-
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 153 
 
 adapted to the solution of these inquiries. Directly 
 to evince its absolute superiority to the impertinence 
 of such demands, the message of forgiveness through 
 the cross, in itself most simple, was also accom- 
 panied by circumstances of intentional impotency 
 and dishonour. Unambitious and disdainful as it 
 was of ornament, the situation and endowments of 
 those selected for the proclamation of its claims 
 were such as strangely to verify the candid, yet tri- 
 umphant, avowal, that the instruments which God 
 had chosen were especially selected from amongst 
 those which the world accounted the most incompe- 
 tent to their design, " in order that no flesh might 
 glory in his presence." 
 
 On the qualifications of those first preachers, we 
 will not further enlarge. But it is important for us 
 to notice, with somewhat greater distinctness, the 
 expression they employ to designate the whole com- 
 pass of their teaching, " Christ crucified." The 
 frequent repetition of that term, or others like it, 
 proves that, in their esteem, it was significant of 
 the whole of Christianity, a synonyme for all 
 that is comprehended in the gospel. A slight 
 inspection of their writings is enough to show us 
 that this topic was engrossing and pre-eminent : but 
 they speak of it as if it were exclusive. In their 
 estimation, then, all besides was at least but depen- 
 dent or auxiliary. The doctrine of the New Testa- 
 ment, as declared by them, and I trust also as cordially 
 embraced by ourselves, is this, That man is utterly 
 corrupt and fallen, and all the world become guilty 
 before God : That the plea of righteousness, and the 
 
 VOL. i. u
 
 154 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 hope of pardon, are alike and for ever cut off, by the 
 depravity of our nature, as well as the greatness of 
 our offences : That repentance, however deep, and 
 sacrifices, however costly, will prove equally ineffi- 
 cacious : That our final happiness can be effected 
 only by the provision of deliverance through the 
 death of Christ, and of renewing grace by the ope- 
 ration of the Holy Spirit: That both have been 
 insured by that one and never-changing economy, 
 in fulfilment of which, as he had been prefigured in 
 preceding ages, so "now, in the end of the world, 
 the Son of God appeared to put away sin by the 
 sacrifice of himself:" And that, henceforth, for- 
 giveness and eternal life are to be freely offered to 
 all who believe in his name. 
 
 In the application of these principles, they sum- 
 moned the proudest to submission, and invited the 
 humblest to confidence; requiring of the most 
 sceptical an unwavering belief; of the most unblame- 
 able in outward conduct, a confession of universal 
 defilement ; and of those most abandoned in hopeless 
 turpitude, that they should come to the blood which 
 had been shed on Calvary, as to a fountain divinely 
 opened, where they might wash and be clean. And 
 while such was the matter of their preaching, we 
 know with what holy indignation they resisted at- 
 tempts, from whatever quarter, to " make the cross 
 of Christ of none effect." This doctrine of the cross 
 they held to be complete, a production of the infi- 
 nite mind, incapable of enlargement, and forbidding 
 mutilation, to be delivered as it was received, with 
 its image and superscription uneffaced and perfect,
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 155 
 
 and making up a system whereof Christ was the 
 author, and the substance, and the end. 
 
 Let us observe, further, the force of the term here 
 employed to describe the method adopted in their 
 publication of the gospel, "We preach," proclaim, 
 announce, in the manner of a herald, him who was 
 crucified at Jerusalem. We require of all men alle- 
 giance in his name ; and, denouncing all rival pre- 
 tensions, ascribe to him an absolute dominion. We 
 challenge as his right an authority higher than that 
 of the kings of the earth; one which extends, not 
 alone to the actions, but the thoughts of men; and 
 includes an illimitable empire. It is true, he died 
 -as a malefactor; he perished as an outcast; as a 
 slave he was scourged and bartered, and a price, 
 indicative of the most abject meanness, was put upon 
 his blood: but we announce him, as the arbiter of 
 destiny, and the single fount of honour, whose fa- 
 vour is life, his frown perdition, his decrees invio- 
 lable, his kingdom everlasting, and his resources 
 infinite. We present these claims, not as subjects 
 of debate, but of testimony ; not to be argued, but 
 obeyed. Our appeal is less to reason than to con- 
 science; and more to the actual subjugation of the 
 soul, than either. 
 
 Thus they visibly delighted to publish his prero- 
 gatives, and to declare his greatness. Never does 
 their force of thought display itself more strikingly, 
 than when they dwell on the various features of his 
 glory; speaking of him, sometimes as the Creator; 
 sometimes as the Redeemer; sometimes as the uni- 
 versal Ruler ; and sometimes even as possessing the
 
 156 DISCOURSES AT Till-: 
 
 brightness of celestial majesty, and, in the strictest 
 sense, " God over all, blessed for ever." 
 
 Now, preposterous as such pretensions must have 
 seemed, and fraught with all that could exasperate 
 either pride or prejudice, they would provoke to a 
 tenfold augmentation of malignity, when connected 
 with those peculiarities which made up the mysteri- 
 ous character of the Messiah. He that had been 
 rejected at Jerusalem, suffering the ignominy of the 
 basest felon, was proclaimed not only as a conqueror 
 or a ruler, but " the Christ ! " Is this, then, he, it 
 was natural for the Gentiles to exclaim, who was 
 foretold in your sacred books, and mystically referred 
 to in our own, as soon to arise in Judea, the heir of 
 an unresisted monarchy, before which the legions 
 that had vanquished the globe should quail and melt 
 away ? And where is his conquering phalanx ? Is 
 it dwindled into a band of trembling fugitives ? 
 And where is his signal of empire ? Is it sunk 
 into a cross ! Such are the taunts which might 
 be naturally looked for from the disdainful Roman. 
 But who shall paint the malice of the Jew ? What 
 are the curses that would burn upon his lip, and the 
 fury that would lighten in his eye ! Had the hope 
 of Israel been quenched in this night of darkness ? 
 Had the sun of Zion's glory thus gone down in 
 blood ? And must the heart-stricken exile of Judah, 
 while the last gleam was fading on the towers of 
 David, be told, that for her desolated altars, and her 
 ruined bulwarks, the daughter of his people should 
 now find consolation in the name of a despised Gali- 
 lean, and the cross of a rejected Nazarene !
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 157 
 
 And yet, as if the meanness of his outward cir- 
 cumstances had not been sufficiently opposed to all 
 their expectations, it was emphatically as " The 
 crucified" that they proclaimed him. However 
 easily they might have cast this fact into comparative 
 obscurity, by dwelling on his inflexible constancy, 
 his unparalleled benevolence, his heroic self-devote- 
 ment, his resurrection from the dead, and his ascen- 
 sion into glory ; or whatever advantage they might 
 have made even of his death, if, while expatiating on 
 the intrinsic elevation of his doctrines, together with 
 their singularity, novelty, and uncongeniality with 
 the tastes and feelings of their countrymen, they had 
 discreetly adverted to it as only an unlocked for 
 casualty, or a form of martyrdom, reserving the 
 more complete disclosure of the truth for the initi- 
 ated and the perfect; yet, disdaining all such 
 evasions, they boldly, and as it should seem, exult- 
 ingly, pointed to his crucifixion; now as a sacrifice, 
 now as a triumph ; and thus appeared to invite the 
 united scorn and hatred of mankind. 
 
 It is not easy adequately to conceive, what amount 
 of impulsive and imperious conviction must have 
 been required, in that earlier age, to proclaim, in 
 this manner, as the Christ, one that had been cruci- 
 fied. Accustomed, from our very cradle, to connect 
 with the symbol of the cross all that is exalted and 
 holy, we are little qualified to realize how revolting 
 it must have appeared to one who had never seen it 
 except with emotions of the utmost horror. Even to 
 admit the belief that the long-expected Deliverer was 
 no other than one who had died by that engine of
 
 158 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 disgrace and torture, would demand a conquest of 
 opposing principles we are imperfectly prepared to 
 estimate. But to avow that belief, in the face of 
 universal contempt; to defend it, when its bare 
 annunciation would seem an outrage on the very 
 name of reason; to make it the basis of appeal, 
 while it spread over every countenance an expres- 
 sion of ineffable disdain ; to identify with it a sys- 
 tem, which, while it professed to establish, must seem 
 to have subverted, the whole structure of religion ; 
 and to do this, not in a single instance, but through 
 the whole of life, traversing slowly, steadily, every 
 accessible region, and every encircling sea, with this 
 as their single and perpetual theme, until at last 
 the wanderer fainted on his path, or the martyr 
 found a more honourable exit amidst the shouts of 
 the amphitheatre, or the maledictions of the syna- 
 gogue ; must have demanded, I do not say a gran- 
 deur of moral heroism, but a strength and fixedness 
 of persuasion, such as the world has rarely witnessed, 
 and which few besides were ever called to exercise. 
 But such as the gospel appeared to the Jews and 
 Greeks of the first ages, such is still essentially its 
 aspect, when viewed in its primitive and unsophisti- 
 cated character, to multitudes in every country. They 
 hate or they despise it, for the same reasons. It 
 presents to some of them a cause of offence and irri- 
 tation; to others one of ridicule, or proud neglect. 
 There are the superstitious, who loathe its simpli- 
 city, and the speculative, who repel its practical 
 requirements. As to the one class, it is too spiritual 
 for their reliance on external ordinances, too strict
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 159 
 
 to bend to their self-indulgence and self-love, and 
 far too humbling to flatter or confirm their self-de- 
 pendence. As to the other, it is originally derived 
 from a source unknown to all their wisdom, estab- 
 lished by proofs not apprehensible by their investi- 
 gations and experiments, and enforced by sanctions 
 destructive of their vaunted freedom, recommended 
 by inducements which appeal not to reason, but to 
 faith, and, in its whole construction, hostile to their 
 strongest prepossessions ; whether in its representa- 
 tions of the necessities and state of man, or in its 
 overtures as to the only means of his recovery. The 
 latter, therefore, either discard it wholly, or refine it 
 away, or blend it with subtleties with which it holds 
 no natural alliance. The former view it always 
 through a medium which obscures while it magnifies, 
 and distorts while it assumes to heighten. They 
 may both conspire to acknowledge somewhat which 
 they call by its name ; but which has as little either 
 of its native features, or its inherent energy, as the 
 dogmas of the Mahometan, or the idolatries of the 
 Hindoo. 
 
 Here you behold it, accordingly, buried under a 
 load of cumbrous observances, associated with pro- 
 cessions, and pilgrimages, and penances, and the 
 childish glare of a delusive but dazzling ceremonial. 
 There, sunk into cold morality, or heartless scepti- 
 cism, or that strange and anomalous thing, faith 
 which abjures a creed, and piety which laughs at the 
 very semblance of religion. 
 
 Elsewhere, though its doctrines are professed, its 
 spirit is evaporated. The mass is no longer sacri-
 
 160 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 ficed; but the altar is retained. The fiction of 
 human infallibility is abandoned; but not the claim 
 of human absolution. The efficacy, whether of 
 sacramental or official grace, is hardly in words 
 pretended ; but the sanctity of vestments, and formu- 
 laries, and consecrated orders, is held as tenaciously 
 as ever. While in another quarter, the devotee of 
 reason disclaims all that is mysterious, renounces all 
 that is saving; and, when he has fabricated for him- 
 self a system, so devoid of obscurity that only the 
 most intelligent can understand it, so adapted to 
 the correction of human infirmity, that it forbids no 
 gratification, and imposes no restraint, so full of 
 comfort, that it does not recognise even the exist- 
 ence of a burdened conscience, or a mind disquieted 
 and eager in the pursuit of salvation; he strangely 
 calls it the gospel : as if he could imagine that it 
 was the same which had survived the fires of mar- 
 tyrdom, and was sealed with the blood of the cross ! 
 In the one of these cases, what do we meet with but 
 a pagan Christianity; in the other, what but an 
 infidel belief ? 
 
 In opposition, therefore, to all such attempts to 
 modify or to disguise its character, we fearlessly 
 allege the conduct of the first disciples. For it 
 should never be forgotten, that such as was the 
 strength of their conviction, such, too, must have 
 been the fulness of that proof by which it was sus- 
 tained ; and thus, the measure of their confidence is 
 the measure also of the credibility of the whole frame 
 and fabric of the gospel. The case was one in 
 which, as it was impossible they should have been
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 161 
 
 deceived, so it would have been more than miracu- 
 lous had they been deceivers; and hence, in the 
 study of the Christian evidence, and in a great 
 degree also of the Christian doctrine, we should 
 use, in one sense, rather their opportunities and un- 
 derstandings, than our own. It was theirs to sit in 
 judgment upon the phenomena; ours, upon them. 
 It is no longer requisite we should be able to canvass 
 and sift out every fact or fragment for ourselves : 
 we have rather to consider, what is human nature, 
 and how it would infallibly reveal itself amidst their 
 circumstances ; and thence to deduce our conclusion, 
 what, and why, they believed; what assurances 
 they gave that their belief was genuine ; and what 
 further assurances it would have been possible that 
 they should give. Thus, what was evidence to them 
 will become, in a two-fold manner, evidence to us ; 
 while we see, not only the belief in which it issued, 
 but that actual, and living character, which belief, 
 thus generated, was found in practice to create. 
 
 That it would prove, as it has ever done, offensive 
 to human pride, and unwelcome to human depravity, 
 calling for restraint, where we are madly set upon 
 indulgence, summoning to watchfulness, where we 
 are susceptible only of the blandishments of plea- 
 sure, and denouncing as criminal, what we feel too 
 dear to be relinquished, and thus that it could ex- 
 pect to prevail by no means inferior to those of ab- 
 solute and hard earned victory ; as it had not 
 escaped its great Author, so it did not fail to exert 
 its proper influence upon the minds of its first pro- 
 pagators and defendants. But they had counted on 
 
 VOL. i. x
 
 162 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 the consequences, and were prepared to meet them. 
 It occasioned them no surprise when they published 
 the divinest truths, or gave forth the most authori- 
 tative precepts, to find them repelled with the scowl 
 of defiance, or the smile of derision. They knew 
 well their resources ; and could calculate with cer- 
 tainty on the success of their cause. They could 
 encounter, therefore, present disappointment, and 
 abide the sure revelations of the future. Whether 
 they were called to grapple with the unbelief of in- 
 dividuals, or the rage of multitudes, was to them 
 indifferent. They maintained their cause, not alone 
 when stimulated by enthusiasm, but when abandoned 
 to silent and sickening reflection ; not when sur- 
 rounded by multitudes animated by a like belief, but 
 in the solitude of dungeons, and amidst the solem- 
 nities of judicial inquisition. Their heart failed not, 
 their arm was not unnerved ; and they would have 
 withstood, with equal calmness, the onset of the 
 world. 
 
 Nor was their confidence misplaced. The gospel 
 proved itself equal to every emergency, and adapted 
 to every design. The history of their conquests is 
 before us. Its monuments are on every hand ; and 
 its glory is as imperishable as their triumph was 
 divine. 
 
 By this consideration we are led to examine : 
 
 II. Those transcendent manifestations of the di- 
 vine power and wisdom, with which the gospel has 
 been ever seen to be accompanied, by all who have 
 rightly understood its principles, or imbibed its spirit*
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 163 
 
 It may facilitate this purpose, if we conceive our- 
 selves to have been in the situation of a calm and 
 intelligent observer, during the early periods of the 
 Christian history let us suppose, not at its pre- 
 cise commencement, but when the surprise connected 
 with the circumstances of the crucifixion had in some 
 measure subsided, yet before the full compass of the 
 system was publicly developed. What would have 
 been our impressions, as we watched the gradual 
 unfolding of those wonders, which have never ceased 
 to multiply in its eventful progress ! Doubtless, as 
 others did, we should have thought that its first 
 preachers were a band of misguided enthusiasts, or 
 unprincipled adventurers. Power, or resources, we 
 should be aware that they had none ; and that to 
 learning, or talents, few among them could make 
 even the slightest pretensions. Their fate would 
 therefore seem to be inevitable. They must speed- 
 ily disappear, and be forgotten. But by degrees, 
 we should have seen their opinions spreading, and 
 gaining ground. Some, both among the pagan, and 
 the Jewish priesthood, would be seen enrolling them- 
 selves amongst the adherents of this new and strange 
 religion. While the rude soldier, scrupling at his mil- 
 itary oath, tore from his forehead the sacrificial chap- 
 let, and carried in his bosom the once despised cross ; 
 yet he would be found foremost in enterprise, 
 dauntless in peril, and marching with redoubled 
 confidence to victory ; and the life he had never 
 trembled to hazard for his country, he would now 
 exult to surrender for his faith. 
 
 Continuing our observations, we should perhaps
 
 164 DISCOURSES AT TIIK 
 
 reason in such a manner as the following : " The 
 scene grows darker. Persecution rages, fierce, 
 bitter, pitiless. Here is a handful of men bent on 
 their own ruin. It is nothing less than their exter- 
 mination that is obviously resolved on. The might 
 of the empire is collected, and pledged to effect 
 their overthrow. But yet they give not back. They 
 attempt no concealment. They reveal no conspir- 
 acy. Neither threats nor sufferings can shake their 
 constancy, or persuade them into compromise, or 
 silence. A few among them, indeed, stagger, and 
 hesitate in the moment of danger. They deny their 
 principles, and consent to offer worship to the gods. 
 But they dare not impeach their companions. They 
 shrink into guilty silence before them. The tor- 
 ments even of death seem not so dreadful as the 
 very presence of those whom they have forsaken, 
 but cannot betray. And now they perish miserably, 
 the victims of remorse and terror." 
 
 The diffusion of their opinions at length becomes 
 more visible. Their cause wins its way more notice- 
 ably to the possession of popular favour. The schools 
 of philosophy, and the abodes of science, begin to 
 question and speculate. Incredible as at first it ap- 
 peared, their statement at least demands inquiry. 
 To admit its evidence is humiliating ; to contradict 
 it impossible. What was once thought too contemp- 
 tible to be examined, is now too formidable to be 
 neglected. Investigation can be withheld no longer. 
 
 A change is now sensibly effected in the applica- 
 tion of those terms by which they were wont to be 
 described. They have become less contemptuous,
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 165 
 
 less poignantly sarcastic. The common feelings of 
 society seem less directly outraged by the approach 
 of such as are known to hold these once stigmatized 
 opinions. They infect even the senate. They have 
 found their way into the very palace of the CaBsars. 
 The genius of Roman greatness appears not to dis- 
 dain their fellowship. Stricken, but as yet not de- 
 cayed, it gives forebodings of its fall. It is mani- 
 festly destined to perish by an alliance which it no 
 longer can repel. It will stand, ere long, like some 
 noble tree, withering amidst the luxuriance which 
 adorns it, and the clusters which droop from its 
 boughs ; while the vine that climbs about its trunk 
 is clasping it at every turn, with a more close and 
 fatal embrace. 
 
 And now the temples are deserted. The pomp 
 of lustrations and sacrifices has visibly faded. 
 They have lost their effect. Auguries and oracles 
 are alike neglected. The soothsayer and the priest 
 together are forsaken. Mysteries, which were held 
 too sacred for disclosure, are now spoken of as no 
 longer venerable. Men debate and reason, where 
 before they counted it sacrilege to doubt. A new 
 era seems dawning, new principles awakened, 
 and great events to be at hand. 
 
 Yet what corresponding change has happened, 
 either in the substance or the structure of this revo- 
 lutionary system ? Has the story of the cross been 
 abandoned? Is it so much as modified, or partially 
 suppressed ? What policy have its advocates adopt- 
 ed? what chicanery have they employed? Their 
 profession continues the same. Their narrative is
 
 166 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 still repeated, without reservation or abatement. 
 Their conduct has been that of artless, unfaltering, 
 simplicity ; the only means they have employed by 
 which to diffuse their tenets, is their honest and un- 
 wavering avowal. 
 
 To what now should we be compelled to ascribe 
 effects in themselves so wonderful, and, in the man- 
 ner of their production, so contrary to all previous 
 experience ? Surely a doctrine of such indestruc- 
 tible vitality would give evidence that it was sus- 
 tained by truth ; events so marvellous, that they 
 were wrought out by an agency above all human 
 control. For if this were denied, our only alterna- 
 tive would be, to conclude, that all had issued from 
 the death of a Jewish peasant, the downfall of a Jew- 
 ish impostor. 
 
 Our text assigns the reason. Another it is im- 
 possible to assign. 
 
 Let us endeavour, therefore, to form definite and 
 fixed conceptions of the sense wherein the apostle 
 intends to characterize the excellency of the gospel, 
 when he calls it, " the power of God, and the wis- 
 dom of God." It is plain that there are two accep- 
 tations, chiefly, wherein this statement may be un- 
 derstood : either as denoting, that that gospel, and 
 the great events which it makes known, constitute 
 an eminent manifestation of God's power and wis- 
 dom ; or else, that they are an instrument by which 
 his power and wisdom are eminently found to oper- 
 ate. We may, accordingly, understand him to say, 
 either " The doctrine of a crucified Redeemer, 
 however despised by the Gentile, and abhorred by
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. H)7 
 
 the Jew, relates to a fact embodying, in one glori- 
 ous discovery, whatever could be effected by the 
 united power and wisdom of our Maker," or else 
 " This doctrine, though often assailed with ridi- 
 cule, and often with frantic hatred, yet, wherever its 
 influence is truly felt, works out such stupendous, 
 and such salutary changes, as could be accomplished 
 only by power that is almighty, and a wisdom in- 
 finite." 
 
 According as we determine on the one or the 
 other of these applications, the great mediatorial 
 scheme will be naturally brought into comparison 
 with different portions of the divine workmanship, 
 to which it will be seen to possess different, though 
 not incongruous, affinities ; and the analogy of which 
 to itself may aid us more precisely to apprehend, 
 and more impressively to feel, its import. 
 
 If we select the former, the labour of human re- 
 demption will demand to be compared with those 
 manifestations of the Creator's agency presented in 
 the structure of the physical universe, or else with 
 those more exalted essences, formed by his word out 
 of nothing, angels and the spirits of men. If the 
 latter, then we shall be taught to compare the doc- 
 trine of redemption, in its practical effects, with the 
 inexhaustible energies of nature, and its numberless 
 and nameless influences, in quickening, renewing, 
 beautifying, that wondrous frame, whether of sen- 
 tient or material things, with which we are sur- 
 rounded. 
 
 By the one, our attention is directed to the work 
 and process of redemption ; by the other, to the
 
 168 DISCOURSES AT Tin: 
 
 tidings which proclaim it. It is the Saviour him- 
 self on the cross that, in the one, shines forth with 
 all the glory of omnipotence, bearing the burdens 
 of a guilty world ; and in the other, it is his gos- 
 pel, realizing, through the grace of his Spirit, the 
 sublime purpose of its renovation. In either case, 
 the language emphatically coincides with that noble 
 declaration : " I determined not to know any thing 
 among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified ;" 
 a declaration, which, as it concentrates the very 
 sum of the New Testament, so it presents, under the 
 loftiest form, the aim, the effort, and the habitual 
 theme, of all who rightly claim to be received as 
 " ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries 
 of God." 
 
 Perhaps it is not necessary wholly to separate 
 these references ; or to decide so rigorously between 
 them, as that either should be excluded in the ob- 
 servations that follow. 
 
 If we think of the design which was effected, and 
 the objects attained, upon the cross, how jarring 
 claims were re-adjusted in the divine administration, 
 how infernal principalities were overthrown, and 
 evils were decisively suppressed, extending probably 
 through a far wider sphere than the region we in- 
 habit, and tending to involve the whole empire of 
 God in anarchy and danger ; if we advert to the 
 honour which was thus insured to the great Ruler, 
 and the benefit acquired to his dominions, the way 
 set open for the exercise of his clemency, and the 
 barriers at length removed, which had been other- 
 wise insurmountable, to the progress of his right-
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. !()<) 
 
 eousness and mercy ; if we see the curse that had 
 blasted the earth, and was threatening to desolate 
 the heavens, now arrested, and withering no longer, 
 the law which, as it sprang from eternal recti- 
 tude, and, once pronounced, was irrevocable, now 
 no more at war with the happiness of God's revolt- 
 ed subjects, but made more honourable in their par- 
 don than their punishment, and the decree which 
 seemed to have unalterably sealed their perdition, 
 now more gloriously fulfilled in their recovery ; 
 and if, in connection with these things, we reflect, 
 that no right is ceded, no demand rescinded, no rule 
 
 O ' ' 
 
 of equity invaded, no element of truth made void, 
 -and that the great and marvellous plan, which be- 
 gan to be developed at the origin of all things, so 
 far from being set aside in the process of man's re- 
 demption, is only carried out to its accomplishment, 
 and has reached its end in a manner infinitely more 
 glorious than all created power could have effected, 
 or created wisdom conceived : we are ready to take 
 up the language of the text in its first and simplest 
 application, and to speak of the crucifixion of Mes- 
 siah, as the last and greatest of those wonders 
 which are for ever revealed in the wisdom and the 
 power of God. 
 
 Or, if we examine the actual effects flowing from 
 the proclamation of the gospel, and permanently 
 signalizing it as an instrument for the renewal of 
 mankind ; we shall be equally prepared to adopt, 
 though in another sense, the sentiment before us. 
 We speak not of its efficiency to ameliorate men's 
 secular condition. That topic is familiar, and its 
 
 VOL. I. Y
 
 170 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 truth happily beyond dispute. Our present refer- 
 ence is to consequences of a higher character ; it is 
 to those spiritual transformations, of which the gos- 
 pel has ever, from the first ages, been everywhere 
 productive. For the altars of heathenism sank not 
 alone ; but the strong-holds of sin within the soul 
 were equally demolished. While nation after na- 
 tion yielded to its sway, and the temples of number- 
 less false gods were successively rased to their foun- 
 dations, other victories were achieved of a glory 
 infinitely more exalted, and other spoils were won 
 in every field whereon its claims were debated. 
 Spirits were rescued. Immortal minds were eman- 
 cipated. Men, formed in the image of God, were 
 lifted again from the dust. The tyranny of rage, 
 and lust, and mad ambition, was subdued. The 
 night of falsehood was dissipated, and the phantoms 
 of error fled. The slumber of conscience was 
 broken. The captivity of the affections was un- 
 loosed ; and the imprisoned soul was invited to cast 
 away her chains. The world was renewed around 
 her. It was as if the voice of a fairer spring were 
 heard upon the mountain-tops, and echoed in every 
 vale. All things gave token of the descent of a new 
 and living spirit, and proclaimed the coming of 
 their God. 
 
 With the utmost justice, therefore, not less than 
 with the utmost magnificence, may this doctrine of 
 redemption be described under the appellations here 
 employed ; and it is not without reason that so emi- 
 nent a place is assigned it, when the apostle calls it 
 by the names of those two great attributes, which
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 171 
 
 stand foremost in the array of the divine perfections, 
 WISDOM and POWER. 
 
 Many are the modifications of glory associated 
 with them in the adorable character of God ; but 
 these are essentially connected with the very thought 
 of his existence. They are those with which we 
 come earliest into acquaintance, and which stand 
 related to his largest and most varied range of 
 operations ; and, having to do with the formation 
 as well as the government of all things, they meet 
 our view, not less in the constitution and primary 
 condition of every creature, than in its preservation 
 or its after circumstances. 
 
 . And it must be so : for without consummate 
 wisdom, a being of unlimited power would be most 
 inapt to the control of numberless free and account- 
 able agents ; but without power equal to his intel- 
 ligence, a being of infinite wisdom, baffled by his 
 own designs, and lost in the immensity of his own 
 purposes, would be supremely, and infinitely miser- 
 able. Their combination in equal measure, there- 
 fore, as it is inseparable from his nature, is required 
 alike in order to his rectitude and his felicity. 
 
 His manifestations, accordingly, are numberless, 
 and their diversity without end ; and though, in 
 particular instances, when we attempt their distinct 
 celebration, we are often confounded by the diffi- 
 culty of deciding between them, yet their essence 
 is as dissimilar as their glory is alike. Each has 
 its own sphere of action, and each its standard of 
 independent excellence. 
 
 It is power which brings out of nothing ; wisdom
 
 17- DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 which arrays and beautifies. Power is the source 
 of elements, wisdom, of affinities; power, 6f in- 
 nate forces and undirected energies, wisdom, of 
 useful adaptations, and beneficial results. Power 
 might create a chaos ; wisdom must fabricate a 
 world. 
 
 When we think of God's power, it is natural to 
 contemplate him as " speaking, and it was done ; 
 commanding, and it stood fast :" when of his 
 wisdom, as " preparing the heavens, and setting a 
 compass upon the face of the depth." His power 
 presents him as he " stood and measured the earth, 
 he beheld and drove asunder the nations ; and the 
 everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual 
 hills did bow," his wisdom, as he is arrayed with a 
 serener majesty, " weighing those mountains in 
 scales, and those hills in a balance." 
 
 His power finds its witnesses in the lightning, and 
 the whirlwind ; his wisdom, in those delicate and 
 just proportions, which fit the most destructive of 
 elements to sustain and nourish life. His power, in 
 the immensity, and innate properties, of matter ; 
 his wisdom, in those exquisite organizations, which 
 minister to hearing, sight, or touch, which sustain 
 the flight of the insect, or give residence and action 
 to the intellect of man. 
 
 We look for the emblem of his power in the vast 
 and fathomless ocean, which is yet held in the hol- 
 low of his hand ; we find the demonstrations of 
 his wisdom in the arrangement and the splendour 
 which makes every dew drop an abyss of wonders. 
 
 But they are usually presented with equal clear-
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 1J3 
 
 ness, and indissoluble union: and, whether we re- 
 gard them on the scale of an atom, or of the uni- 
 verse, their greatness is the same ; while from their 
 concurrence each becomes more glorious, and is 
 productive of effects more variously perfect. Meet- 
 ing, in every department of the divine workmanship, 
 with specimens as elaborate in execution as they are 
 consummate in design, we are unable often to deter- 
 mine which most we should admire ; and must con- 
 tent ourselves with the sublime reflection of the pro- 
 phet, " This also cometh forth from the Lord of 
 Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in 
 working." 
 
 Perhaps it is power which most astonishes us in 
 the productions of nature; wisdom, which excites 
 our greatest admiration in the disposals of provi- 
 dence; but the union of both, which we behold, 
 with the sublimest ravishment, in the mystery of re- 
 demption. 
 
 It is a high and sovereign exercise of power, to 
 pardon sin; but an arrangement of profoundest 
 wisdom, to make that pardon consistent with the 
 honour of the Lawgiver, and the security of his do- 
 minion. Power might rescue; wisdom would re- 
 deem. 
 
 It is benignant power we witness, when, after the 
 formation of this wonderful economy, and all its 
 preceding evolutions, Jehovah at length goes forth 
 in his chariot of salvation ; but it is the voice of 
 wisdom which we hear crying, " Prepare ye the 
 way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a high- 
 way for our God. Every valley shall be exalted,
 
 174 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 and every mountain and hill shall be made low; 
 and the crooked shall be made straight, and the 
 rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall 
 be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." 
 
 We behold almighty power, raising up from 
 amongst the nations the ancestry of the Messiah, 
 preserving his lineage unbroken through so many 
 ages, and fulfilling, by continued miracle, what had 
 once been uttered by an unalterable decree : " The 
 sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver 
 from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and to 
 him shall the gathering of the people be." We 
 hear its awful proclamation in regard to the mightiest 
 of surrounding states : " I will overturn, overturn, 
 overturn, until he come whose right it is to reign:" 
 and we acknowledge its effects, when an invisible 
 hand is found going before those on whom the fulfil- 
 ment of this purpose is anywise dependent, " to 
 loosen the loins of kings, to open before him the 
 two-leaved gates; to break in pieces the doors of 
 brass, and to cut in sunder the bars of iron." But 
 we discern not less of wisdom, so ordering all things 
 by the co-operation of natural causes, that, when the 
 long-looked-for Messiah actually came, the state both 
 of the world, and of his own people, should be such 
 as to insure his rejection, and to issue even in his 
 death; and yet to make the consequences of his 
 ministry the most extensively effectual, causing their 
 tidings to spread, and their influence to be experi- 
 enced, with the greatest speed and certainty, over 
 every land. 
 
 How illustriously is the agency of omnipotence
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 175 
 
 revealed, when at length, though lifted up upon a 
 cross, he becomes the conqueror of death, the spoiler 
 of the grave, the deliverer of captive souls, and the 
 emancipator of an enslaved world ! And yet, con- 
 spicuous as are these discoveries, the features of 
 unerring and awful wisdom are at least equally dis- 
 cernible. It is the part of such wisdom, to attain 
 the greatest ends, without profuse or ineffective ex- 
 penditure; to restrain the premature disclosure of 
 its objects; to provide, infallibly, against emergent 
 occasions, and contingent events ; to neutralize op- 
 position and hinderance ; or to convert opponent 
 forces into auxiliaries and useful allies; and thus 
 to secure its results, in a manner exempt from com- 
 plication or embarrassment, as well as from ostenta- 
 tious or unmeaning display. Now, in each of these 
 is revealed, and revealed as if each stood alone, 
 "the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and 
 knowledge of God," in the process of redeeming 
 mercy. An illustration of this may be derived from 
 the life and ministry of Jesus ; where we see every- 
 thing conducted in a method of consummate regu- 
 larity and order, nothing precipitated, nothing de- 
 layed, not a step taken unadvisedly, or before its 
 time, even from his first miracle in Cana, to the 
 day when Moses and Elias, like the ambassadors of 
 some great empire, appeared with him in glory on 
 the mount, holding a solemn and final conference 
 respecting "the decease he was to accomplish at 
 Jerusalem," and all that must yet precede that hour 
 of agony and triumph, when he should exclaim, on a 
 review of the whole, " It is finished."
 
 DISCOURSES AT TIIK 
 
 We select but one further discovery of the union 
 of these attributes as exhibited in the gospel, viz. : 
 in the practical effect of all upon the hearts and con- 
 duct of men. 
 
 When God had created the matter of the globe, 
 and was about to put the stupendous mass first into 
 motion, there remained one problem as yet unre- 
 solved, on which its welfare and permanency were 
 essentially dependent. It was this : What was that 
 specific direction, in which an impulse might be 
 given, which should originate, by the same act, 
 those complicated yet inseparable movements, which 
 insure the perpetuity of its place in the general sys- 
 tem, and the regularity of those changes which are 
 demanded for its own immediate service ? Poised 
 on its centre, and susceptible of being swayed indif- 
 ferently, to whatever side, there required an uner- 
 ring knowledge of its composition, its gravity, and 
 the relation of its numberless parts, to determine 
 what was that single and unalterable line, wherein a 
 sufficient force, once communicated, would cause it, 
 not alone to revolve about its axis, but to pursue, at 
 the same time, its path around the sun. Its orbital 
 and its diurnal motion were to be at once provided 
 for; but the deviation even of a hairbreadth from 
 its proper application, or the smallest deficiency or 
 excess in the force imparted, would destroy this 
 whole adjustment, and render the design irremedia- 
 bly abortive. 
 
 Here, then, was an occasion for the combined and 
 equal manifestation both of power and wisdom. 
 Neither could accomplish the purpose, separately
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. HI 
 
 from its fellow. Both must be exerted together, 
 and each infinitely. When, therefore, the Creator 
 drew back and paused, preparing himself for the 
 irrevocable blow, when his arm was at length up- 
 lifted, and his eye was beheld, measuring, with in- 
 fallible precision, the various amounts of distance, 
 mass, and power, which must all be known and al- 
 lowed for; what solicitude must the loftiest spirits 
 have experienced, and what admiring expectation, 
 to watch the issue of his computations, and the result 
 of his experiment ! And with what ravishment may 
 we believe them to have been filled, when the mighty 
 shock was given, and the huge sphere commenced 
 its silent and ceaseless revolutions, uniting every 
 movement with a perfection equally faultless, and 
 combining immeasurable swiftness with imperturba- 
 ble repose ! Hence followed the sweet interchange 
 of day and night, the grateful vicissitude of sea- 
 sons, the admirable diversity of climate, soil, and 
 temperature, the perpetual freshness of the air and 
 ocean, the inexhaustible plenitude of life, its con- 
 stant renovation, and its numberless diversity. All 
 was secured in a moment, but destined to continue, 
 without interruption or rest, until the same hand 
 should interpose, to stay its progress, or to change 
 its course. 
 
 Such is the analogous phenomenon, but pre- 
 sented on a sublimer scale, and in connection with 
 more awful elements, in the world, not of matter, 
 but mind, and in relation, not to the physical 
 events of nature, but the destiny of the imperishable 
 soul. The problem here was, to determine what 
 
 VOL. i. z
 
 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 was that mighty impulse, which, in one act, should 
 combine all that was essential to its separate happi- 
 ness with all that was necessary to the order of the 
 moral universe: what that mysterious movement, 
 which, once impressed upon it, should for ever con- 
 tinue unexpended, securing the completeness of its 
 nature, together with the perpetuity of its relations : 
 how the energy of duty could be united with the 
 calm of dependence; rectitude of action, with sim- 
 plicity of trust; quenchless aspirations, with unre- 
 sisting submission; the consciousness of perfect 
 liberty, with the necessity of unceasing obedience. 
 That impulse could be imparted only through the 
 agency of love. That love could accomplish its in- 
 tention, only in concert with elevated sentiments and 
 immortal hopes. And these were to be blended with 
 the renovation of its power and dignity, through the 
 equal renovation of its holiness. But all was ac- 
 complished on Calvary. All was effected by the cross. 
 And oh ! what marvellous transformations attest 
 the greatness of that one and all-commanding im- 
 pulse ! What beneficial consequences are insured, 
 through the whole compass of our spiritual existence ! 
 What rich and happy productions spring up together, 
 to reveal both its energy and its design ! Hence it 
 is, that love derives her flame, adoration her in- 
 cense, gratitude her song, hope her fairest visions, 
 fear her most purifying terrors, humility and 
 patience their most permanent motives and firmest 
 support. Reason here finds the loftiest inquiry, 
 contemplation the sublimest object, memory the 
 sweetest recollections. And thus the power of the
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 179 
 
 cross prevails, to sanctify the whole character both 
 of thought and action ; just as the same sap which 
 supplies the root with moisture, becomes verdure in 
 the foliage, fragrance and beauty in the flower. 
 
 Sin is hence made, not so much to be shunned 
 because it is dangerous, as to be hated because it is 
 unholy, and is put away, less with salutary appre- 
 hension, than with irrepressible abhorrence : while 
 the performance of duty is secured, rather by its 
 congeniality with the tendencies of a renewed nature, 
 than by its mere connection with the acquisition of 
 happiness. 
 
 And the manner in which these results are wrought 
 Out, is one equally applicable to every order of in- 
 tellect, and every condition of society. It is not by 
 formal mandates, but by secret and often impercep- 
 tible insinuations; not by the subtleties of reason, 
 but the surer instincts of the heart. Those whom 
 no demonstration could instruct, rectified propensi- 
 ties are thus made to actuate; and minds are often 
 reclaimed by the power of holy affection, which 
 would have proved inaccessible to argument, and 
 whereon ethical injunctions and moral inducements 
 might have been expended in vain. 
 
 Besides, the just and practical belief of these truths 
 is far from being limited by the boundaries of their 
 strictly intellectual revelation. Their benefits are 
 dependent, not on the evidence which establishes 
 them, but the objects they make known. They ope- 
 rate to save and purify, not because they are rational 
 or beautiful, but because they are divine ; being in 
 harmony with our whole spiritual nature, and pro-
 
 180 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 ceeding from the same hand which has fashioned the 
 constitution of our being. Many a voyager is there- 
 fore guided by these lights from heaven, by whom 
 the wonders of their mechanism were never pene- 
 trated; and their "sweet influences" are often rea- 
 lized where their mystic glories are unknown. 
 
 How does the message of salvation hence fre- 
 quently appear clothed with the power of God, and 
 how is his arm made bare in the might not of wrath 
 but mercy, when the stout-hearted are spoiled, 
 when the rebellious are subdued, when pride is laid 
 low, when self-will is humbled, when the dream 
 of self-righteousness and the hopes of delusion vanish, 
 when our refuges of lies are invaded and broken 
 down together, when the truth of our condition is 
 revealed, and the realities of an eternal world shine 
 out in all their grandeur; so that we feel ourselves 
 condemned, yet not without hope, " cast down, but 
 not destroyed," speechless, yet not without an ad- 
 vocate, helpless, yet not without a friend, and 
 turn, under the consciousness of utter misery, to him 
 that is " mighty to save !" 
 
 How impressively does it display this character, 
 when it ministers an infallible relief amidst earthly 
 privation and sorrow; when it dries the tears, 
 hushes the complaints, and lightens the anguish, of 
 the disconsolate and the forsaken; when it recon- 
 ciles to difficulty, comforts in tribulation, and sus- 
 tains in weakness; but above all, when it gives 
 firmness in the anticipation of death; aids us as we 
 are travelling onward, though at every step more 
 solitary, in our path to the tomb ; and makes the
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 181 
 
 night of mortality itself radiant with heavenly splen- 
 dours, and bright with the star of the morning ! 
 
 And now behold it in its not less wonderful effects 
 upon our social affinities and conduct, and on the 
 relation of the individual to the good of the whole. 
 To soften barbarian ferocity, to refine the habits 
 of the civilized, to strengthen the bands of human 
 sympathy, and to entwine more firmly the links of 
 universal brotherhood; these are the methods by 
 which it insures an unrestricted diffusion, and an 
 ever-widening control. Schools, hospitals, asylums 
 for the poor and aged, and missions of disinterested 
 charity to those who are perishing in darkness; 
 tj^ese are its monuments, these the pledges of its 
 immortality. It is hence we learn that self-propa- 
 gating energy with which it is endued. And there 
 is no proof more manifest of a divine original. Like 
 the mystic wheels of Ezekiel, it glows with celestial 
 fire, is prepared for universal motion, and instinct 
 with the spirit of life. Nowhere can it be unadapted 
 to the wants or situation of man : and the only rea- 
 son for which we should despair of its effect, if com- 
 missioned to publish it even in the regions of perdi- 
 tion, is, because the power of omnipotent mercy is 
 there for ever withdrawn. 
 
 And these are characteristics wherein it stands 
 single and alone. They mark it as an emanation 
 proceeding directly from the all-creative mind. And 
 they secure for it, not alone the means of propaga- 
 tion, but seals of irrefragable truth, to which no 
 other system has ever yet laid claim. Other sys- 
 tems may have had their martyrs ; but a Brainerd,
 
 182 DISCOURSES AT TIIK 
 
 a Martyn, and an Elliot, are productions, in the 
 moral world, as truly miraculous as the most splen- 
 did of those prodigies which signalized the first and 
 brightest era of the church. They are productions, 
 which the gospel only could create : and would you 
 see the genius of Christianity in all its purity and 
 vigour, you may behold it in that solitary vessel, 
 urging on its course amidst the storms and rocky 
 channels of an arctic sea; or in that little band of 
 exiles, encircled by privation and danger, and toil- 
 ing, unknown to the world, to impart the blessings 
 of humanity and the hope of heaven to the rude 
 Greenlander, or the savage Esquimaux. 
 
 For it may seem a light thing to labour for the 
 propagation of the faith, where gold, and gems, and 
 spices, are to reward our toil. Humility and the 
 love of God assume a questionable shape, when the 
 cowl and the hairy garment are expected to appear, 
 ere long, surrounded with embroidered canopies and 
 gorgeous tapestry. But to forsake the blessings of 
 society, the endearments of friendship, the sweets of 
 kindred, the calm of happy sabbaths, the sanctity of 
 Christian temples, the charm of united solemnities, 
 and the melting joy of Christian ordinances, for a 
 residence among savages and strangers, in lands of 
 desolation and darkness; to live unhonoured, to 
 die unrecorded, and to leave no name or reputation 
 behind us, but to pass away silently and be forgot- 
 ten; and all this, from the impulse of compassion, 
 or at the mandate of duty; is an achievement be- 
 yond the reach of enthusiasm, and opposed to all the 
 tendencies of falsehood. It is a new feature in the
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 183 
 
 constitution of our species. It stands alone in the 
 history of man. 
 
 Let us now attempt to deduce and apply to prac- 
 tical purposes, 
 
 III. The reflections which this review is, in both 
 its portions, fitted to supply. 
 
 1. It cannot, I think, be doubted, that a sanguine 
 calculator, judging from the rapidity and number of 
 the first triumphs of the gospel, would have expected, 
 before this period, its far more wide and unobstructed 
 diffusion. " Such," he might say, "were its effects, 
 when it began to be proclaimed among the nations; 
 - such the strength with which it was girded, in the 
 vigour of its youth. Why have those effects, in so 
 large a measure, disappeared? Why does that 
 youthful vigour seem sunk into a maturity of impo- 
 tence or slumber?" But the calculation would be 
 made in ignorance both of the gospel and of human 
 nature. Behold what it is really accomplishing, 
 wherever it is faithfully and simply preached. See 
 where whole islands have been recently reclaimed 
 from the grossest and most hopeless idolatry. And 
 consider, what other means within our knowledge 
 would have sufficed to subdue the cannibalism, or to 
 clothe the nakedness, of shameless savages, or to 
 teach to roving murderers the arts, not of destruc- 
 tion, but of peace ? Or let its results be estimated 
 in their more essential character. Examine them 
 intrinsically, and without reference to accidental 
 circumstances. When a single mind is illuminated, 
 and a single soul is saved, tell us by how much the
 
 184 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 change is greater than the civil regeneration even of 
 a whole people. Nobler in its real nature ; more 
 permanently beneficial in its consequences; how 
 much mightier and more salutary is the operation 
 which it indicates ? And what other means have 
 we ever heard of for this purpose ? Where are the 
 phenomena of conversion ever witnessed, except 
 where the gospel is published ? Does reason, or 
 philosophy, or science, ever effectuate this change ? 
 or does any other modification of religious senti- 
 ment, besides such as is distinctly and prominently 
 sealed with the impress of the cross ? And even 
 where the cross is lifted up as the signal of hope 
 and deliverance, how does it prevail ? Is it by the 
 garlands with which it may be hung, or the gems 
 with which it may be emblazoned; or is it not ra- 
 ther by the atoning blood with w r hich it is still 
 crimsoned, and the simple narrative of him who 
 hung and groaned upon it for the redemption of 
 men ? The experience of twenty centuries has 
 borne uniform testimony to this truth, that no other 
 apparatus is adapted to the momentous w r ork of 
 human renovation; and that even where this is em- 
 ployed, its efficacy depends, to a very large extent, 
 on its application being unincumbered and alone. 
 
 2. It is natural to inquire, Has the church been 
 at all times duly considerate of the method in which 
 only it might anticipate prosperity, in its efforts for 
 the diffusion of the gospel, and how it might legiti- 
 mately commend it to approbation and confidence ? 
 As a matter of divine revelation, we should surely 
 present it without addition or retrenchment, undis-
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 185 
 
 guised by human sophistries, and exempt from the 
 formality of human systems. As an instrument of 
 salvation, we should employ it with unquestioning 
 simplicity, calmly expecting the result, which is 
 guaranteed not by the skill of man, but the faithful- 
 ness of God. 
 
 Even in its external accompaniments, and the 
 circumstances attendant on its ministration, we 
 should preserve the same subordination of all things 
 to the discovery of its native greatness. Let our 
 sanctuaries lack no decent ornament, nor becoming 
 and reasonable accommodation ; and let the manner 
 of our worship be ever marked by a reverential and 
 wise solemnity ; but from the one let us exclude all 
 that is ostentatious and obtrusive, from the other 
 whatever is fitted to distract attention, or to excite 
 bewildering and divided emotions. The stateliness 
 of sumptuous buildings, and the splendours of a 
 gorgeous ritual, are little in harmony with the reli- 
 gion of the cross. The effulgent beauty of the gos- 
 pel requires not, and its majesty forbids, such en- 
 hancements. Its proper dwelling is not within 
 earthen walls, but purified and happy bosoms. Its 
 seat is conscience. Its altar, that of the heart. Its 
 incense, sanctified affections. Its shrine, the regen- 
 erated soul. While this interior residence of God 
 wants neither its veil nor its shekinah ; the former, 
 in that mystery which so sublimely enwraps the 
 truth, the latter, in that living power with which 
 the truth is felt to be invested. 
 
 3. We cannot but admire the method adopted by the 
 first advocates of Christianity, to secure the diffusion 
 
 VOL. i. 2 A
 
 186 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 of their principles ; and thus learn in what manner to 
 pursue the same object for ourselves. They presented 
 them, as we have seen, with the directness of an un- 
 wavering and solemn proclamation. And, granting 
 that their statements were true, this is the very form 
 in which they ought to have been announced. It is 
 not alone* more worthy of the majesty of God, but 
 more suited also to the dependent and guilty state 
 of man. To have striven to augment their effect by 
 the common modes of theoretic demonstration, but 
 especially to have abated or concealed the least par- 
 ticle of their peculiarity, with the hope of accommo- 
 dating them to more general acceptance, or securing 
 for them a more undisputed control, would have 
 been to obscure their dignity, and to displace them 
 from their just pre-eminence, as the single ground 
 of human safety, the only means of human resto- 
 ration. Their proper vehicle is testimony; their 
 appropriate attire, simplicity. There is no drapery 
 which would not veil their beauty; no ornament 
 which would not impair their grandeur. Uttered as 
 they ought to be, they are the voice of the lawgiver 
 to his subjects, of the sovereign to condemned trans- 
 gressors, of the parent to his rebellious yet not un- 
 pitied children. They speak the very language 
 these relations indicate; they breathe their very 
 sentiments; and their effect is, to awaken in the 
 breast of repenting sinners, reciprocal emotions. 
 
 And what has a creature, a culprit, to do, but to 
 obey ? What has guilty man either of right or in- 
 terest, to hesitate and cavil ? Can it be matter of 
 debate with him, whether he shall submit or perish ?
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 18? 
 
 Must he be wooed into acquiescence, or enticed into 
 belief, when it is not speculative principles, but stu- 
 pendous facts, on which his redemption is suspended ? 
 When transactions, involving the worth of an atone- 
 ment, and the efficacy of almighty grace, are the 
 matter of their preaching, must the ambassadors of 
 peace sue for an audience, by accommodation to the 
 haughtiness of reason, or the caprice of fancy ? Or 
 must the gate of life be set open with the pomp of 
 ceremony and the voice of music, before the outcast 
 will condescend to enter it, though the avenger of 
 blood is behind him, and the sword of justice is al- 
 ready flaming and unsheathed ? Must God conform 
 himself to artifice and to address ; or shall man de- 
 lay and parley, when eternity trembles in the bal- 
 ance, when salvation is at stake ? 
 
 Besides, if we are to judge what might have been 
 the result of such accommodation by its effect in 
 modern times, the expedient is one presenting little 
 claim to have been employed at such a period, or 
 by instructors so prepared. Ingenuity, with her 
 well-balanced theories and plausible conjectures, and 
 imagination, with her gorgeous pageantry, have 
 been sufficiently assiduous to recommend or to con- 
 ceal the mysteries of the gospel. Science, however 
 boastful of her supremacy, and taste, however jea- 
 lous of affinity with what is vulgar, have not dis- 
 dained sometimes to lend their mantle, that they 
 might cover its nakedness, and veil its deformity. 
 The doctrine of the dying Nazarene has not been 
 without its embellishments, or denied the patronage 
 either of philosophy or genius. They have cour-
 
 188 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 teously befriended the stranger, and deigned gra- 
 ciously to smile upon the half-unwelcome ally. 
 But what has been the issue ? Let the dreams of 
 the quietist, the visions of the mystic, and the re- 
 finements of the rationalist, whose religion, like 
 the body of the enchanter, casts no shadow, de- 
 clare, what has been the benefit accruing, either to 
 reason or to piety, from this inauspicious alliance. 
 Happy will it be, if, instructed by past failure, the 
 advocates of Christianity shall desist hereafter from 
 attempts blessed by no omen, and recompenced by no 
 success; and, forsaking the fruitless project of re- 
 conciling the license of speculation with the obe- 
 dience of faith, shall be willing to perceive, that, in 
 relation to a message of redeeming mercy, the truest 
 wisdom is humility, and the profoundest intelligence 
 is grateful adoration and unwavering trust. 
 
 4. How powerful is the inducement, and how 
 plain the directory, to seek for ourselves an interest 
 in the blessings of this great salvation ! If it be the 
 production of such wisdom and power, our hope can 
 never be disappointed, our dependence can never 
 deceive us, when it is upon this we rely; nor is it 
 conceivable, that a deliverance, wrought out and 
 presented thus freely to our acceptance, will be 
 denied to any who truly desire, and resolutely 
 seek it. Is there any amongst us, then, that may 
 have failed hitherto to secure it, through mere in- 
 difference ? Let him arise, and cast away his slum- 
 ber. Is there any that has deferred his application, 
 through fear of rejection or of difficulty ? Let him 
 direct his eye to Calvary, and hesitate no longer.
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 189 
 
 Oh ! is it possible, that, with such views of its 
 grandeur, and such convictions of its all-sufficiency, 
 any in this assembly should still neglect to make 
 that salvation their own ? In what colours shall we 
 portray their infatuation, or what delineation shall 
 do justice to their unspeakable and awful crimina- 
 lity ? How will the erection of every sanctuary, the 
 return of every sabbath, and the institution of every 
 sacred ordinance, rise up and witness against them ! 
 They will have placed themselves beyond the reach 
 of mercy, through whichsoever of its avenues it 
 might have sought their restoration, whether by 
 the might of omnipotent power, or the contrivances 
 of unlimited wisdom ! And what remains, but that 
 they miserably perish ! 
 
 Compared with such conduct, it would be safe to 
 sport with the most deadly of all physical agencies, 
 to play with the winged lightnings, to inhale the 
 breath of pestilence, to suck the blood of scorpions, 
 to embrace the putrifying carcase, or to defy, 
 amidst solitude and darkness, the madness of the 
 tempest, when the pillars of heaven tremble, and the 
 earth is moved from her place. It is to anticipate 
 the terrors of judgment, and make sure the decree 
 of perdition, to chide its lingering solemnities and 
 outrun the speed of time ; as if it brought too slowly 
 the morning of destiny, and the day of vengeance. 
 Alas ! they need not hasten it, when " damnation 
 slumbereth not," and the Judge is already at the 
 door. 
 
 5. What a test is supplied in this description, to 
 ascertain whether we have truly received the spirit
 
 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 of the gospel ! If it be adjusted by infinite wisdom, 
 and armed with infinite power; then, what should 
 have been its effects, and what have they actually 
 been ? Has it conquered our vices, eradicated our 
 evil propensities, humbled our presumption ? Has 
 it expelled the love of pleasure, the desire of riches, 
 the cravings of ambition ? Has it made us gentle, 
 forgiving, patient, forgetful of self-interest, and su- 
 perior to indulgence or ease ? Has it made eternity 
 to occupy the highest place in our affections ? Has 
 it taught us to seek first the kingdom of God ? Is 
 it supreme ? 
 
 Again, is it unresisted and absolute ? Is one evil 
 not supplanted by another, but all, increasingly, by 
 this new element of good ? We are not ambitious ; 
 but are we not irascible ? We are not inflated 
 by vanity ; but are we insensible to avarice ? We 
 have abandoned the pageantries of the world; but 
 have we sought no indemnity in the very pride of 
 having abandoned them? We have entered into 
 
 o 
 
 new associations, and professed ourselves willing to 
 be separated from the world ; but may we not have 
 brought our former spirit with us, as a demoniac, 
 who should hope to escape from his tormentor, by 
 flight into the wilderness, or by dwelling amidst the 
 habitations of the dead ? 
 
 Is the effect of Christian principle consistent and 
 uniform ? Does it pervade our total conduct, and 
 impart its character to all our actions ? Are we, in 
 the family, and in the place of business, and in the 
 view of all men, those new creatures in Christ Jesus 
 we assume to be ?
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 1Q1 
 
 If not, what is our religion but a whited sepul- 
 chre, beautiful without, but full of death within ? 
 and what will be its end, but to stand, another day, 
 before God, when disguise shall no longer be pos- 
 sible, silent at his accusations, and withering at his 
 rebuke ? Where, then, is that vividness of spiritual 
 perception, and that completeness of belief, which 
 should correspond to such an influence, both in its 
 origin and in its energy ? Where is that ardour of 
 desire, that calmness of hope, that meekness of sub- 
 mission, which it could not but bestow ? Where is 
 that firm grasp, that realizing sense, of truth, with 
 which it would endue the understanding, or that 
 purity with which it would refine and hallow our 
 emotions ? Where is that fervency of love, that 
 warmth of gratitude, that melting of tenderness, that 
 promptitude of judgment, that decisiveness of pur- 
 pose, that constancy of habit, that readiness of spiri- 
 tual action, which would have sprung from the infu- 
 sion of a new and heavenly nature ? Where are 
 those generous sacrifices, those holy sympathies, 
 those pious friendships, that forgetfulness of our 
 own honour, that oblivion of party, that immolation 
 of selfishness, that exaltation of the church above the 
 sect, and of the Saviour above all, which, from such 
 a source, must have infallibly proceeded ? When 
 free from extraneous control, and resigned to their 
 own guidance, what is the permanency, the unifor- 
 mity, the completeness, of those indications that we 
 are partakers of so rich a blessing ? Does this flame 
 tend ever upwards ? Like the faithful dove, does 
 the spirit, in the first moment of release, struggle to
 
 102 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 break through surrounding clouds and tempests, and 
 to reach her home ? 
 
 Behold how futile is the plea, so often adduced to 
 cover our deficiencies, how vain the apology for 
 the prevalence of our temptations, and how false 
 the subterfuges of our self-indulgent indolence, 
 when to faithful exertion, and to humble, confiding 
 prayer, no less is insured than the co-operation of 
 that power and wisdom, which framed, and animat- 
 ed, and uphold, this universal fabric, and impart a 
 ceaseless and unexhausted force to all its move- 
 ments ! 
 
 O, what miraculous self-delusion and ruinous 
 folly, if we substitute a name, a shadow, for that 
 momentous and most necessary change ! Melan- 
 choly indeed is his condition, and disastrous is his 
 path, who treads the way to ruin, wrapt in the man- 
 tle of a Christian profession ! Unworthy beyond 
 description is the pretence, that external reforma- 
 tions, and some amendment in the circumstantials 
 of external character, should be all that is accom- 
 plished by an agency like this. Here is indeed a 
 lie in the right hand, a staff too frail to lean upon ; 
 nor can any imagination realize the dismay and 
 anguish of that hour, when the cheat is at length 
 detected, and this broken reed is crushed, and sinks 
 beneath us. Become conscious at length of the se- 
 verity and pressure of our real wants, appalled at 
 our guilt, sickening at our forfeited hopes, and feel- 
 ing the stern arrest of justice, as it hurries us on- 
 wards to eternity, we shall look for succour, but 
 find none. And shall we not remember, with bitter
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 
 
 curses and far bitterer remorse, how we imposed on 
 ourselves with fallacies we should have despised or 
 pitied in another, and which the first interval of re- 
 flection, in the chamber of sickness, or on the bed 
 of death, was sufficient for ever to dispel ? 
 
 Let us nevSr, then, rest satisfied with dubious or 
 inoperative principles. Let us be content with no- 
 thing short of their experienced and vital power. 
 Henceforth, let the gospel itself be made a subject 
 of our more determinate and frequent examination. 
 Resolving to possess ourselves of its whole treasures, 
 let us explore it in all its dimensions. Seeking to 
 drink deeply of its spirit, let us secure for its truths 
 also a residence within the very depths of the soul. 
 Let us remember, that its first means of acquisition 
 lies in serious thoughtfulness, and its next in believ- 
 ing prayer. To each, therefore, let us resort with 
 direct and vigorous application, and so insure its 
 attainment. 
 
 If we are conscious that we have not hitherto se- 
 cured, in any ample measure, the result, whether of 
 our efforts or our prayers, while yet the fault per- 
 haps eludes our detection, and the method of cor- 
 recting it is beyond our knowledge ; still let us be 
 assured, that fault is altogether our own. It is not 
 that the Spirit is straitened. It is not that the pro- 
 mise is untrue. We may have been divided in mo- 
 tive, intolerant of effort, impatient of delay, remiss 
 in application, or prone to subsequent neglect, and 
 a speedy relapse into forgetfulness and folly. We 
 may have been presumptuous, looking for too im- 
 mediate or too palpable a result, or too hastily con- 
 
 VOL. i. 2 B
 
 1}M DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 eluding that the blessing was attained; a fault which 
 has been justly requited in our mortification and 
 distress. We may have been despondent. The 
 very sense of our unworthiness may have enfeebled 
 our trust; and thus, while we dishonoured the di- 
 vine fidelity, we may have impoverished ourselves. 
 We may have been ungrateful. Mistaking a spirit 
 of complaint for a spirit of humility, we may have 
 refused to render according to what we have re- 
 ceived. We may have been unwise. By the inju- 
 dicious application of standards unsuited to our 
 mental constitution, our station, or our abilities, we 
 may have failed in seeking that form and modifica- 
 tion of good which would have been the most adapt- 
 ed, and hence the most profitable. We may have 
 been self-deceived. What we took for devotion, 
 may have been the fruit only of pride. Our anxiety 
 may secretly have been, to attain to superior piety, 
 not so much in its heart-felt influences, as in its 
 visible distinctions. Little as we could have sus- 
 pected it, that fervour, that zeal, that charity, that 
 indefatigable labour, which we deemed ourselves 
 solicitous to consecrate singly to the glory of God, 
 may have been inwardly coveted with a desire to be 
 seen of men; and we may have "had our reward." 
 
 Let us examine ourselves, therefore, by these and 
 similar standards ; making it our first .aim to discover 
 and correct our errors. Then let no difficulty ap- 
 pal us, and no delay exhaust our perseverance; 
 and our success is sure. 
 
 6. We are taught, how to count on the future 
 progress and final triumphs of the gospel. Thus
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 1 ( J5 
 
 organized, and thus sustained, it might appear to 
 guarantee even its own perpetuity. But when, in 
 addition, we reflect on that omniscient Spirit with 
 which it is evermore accompanied, and which is 
 promised by the Saviour to his church throughout 
 all ages, we feel that it would be alike irrational and 
 impious, to question whether it shall continue to sur- 
 vive decay and danger, and vanquish opposition in the 
 future, as it has done already in the past. The towers 
 of imperial Rome once heard its voice, and trembled. 
 That mistress of the world beheld, with astonish- 
 ment, the eagles of her conquest, and the purple of her 
 dominion reckoned in the number of its trophies; 
 lost and overshadowed by the effulgence of its 
 power. What barrier shall now forbid its progress ? 
 What rampart is now so massive as to roll back the 
 surges of its might ? Let this trumpet be blown, 
 then; it shall be the signal of universal victory. 
 Let this ensign be reared; it shall gleam with in- 
 vincible splendour. Let this shield be fearlessly 
 uplifted ; it is bright with the heraldry of heaven. 
 
 What need have we to shrink because of the rav- 
 ings of blasphemy, the surmises of false wisdom, the 
 sorceries of perverted genius, the sneers of wit, the 
 antipathies of taste, the caprice of passion, the as- 
 saults of unbelief? Has not the gospel already en- 
 countered enemies at least as formidable ? Has 
 truth not been summoned to the combat in a crisis 
 at least as emergent ? Where was her buckler ever 
 loosened, her sword ever broken, her retreating foot- 
 mark ever imprinted on the ground ? And shall 
 we tremble now ? To a manlike and generous
 
 1C)6 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 spirit, there is a sentiment of what is great and no- 
 ble always intimately blended with the thought of 
 what is hazardous. To conceive strongly, and to 
 adventure calmly, are features of the same magna- 
 nimity. And it is thus we should calculate upon 
 the present posture of the church. To the men of 
 other ages, the exigencies which threatened her 
 seemed to the full as ominous as any which now we 
 witness. But the clouds parted, and the heavens 
 grew serene ; and they smiled at their former alarms, 
 when they found how immoveable was the rock of 
 their salvation. And we, whatever c&nvulsions 
 may menace, whatever distractions may divide, 
 whatever strife may embitter, let us learn never to 
 despond. Calling to mind the substantial greatness 
 of that truth we are solicitous to propagate, our con- 
 fidence, thus invigorated, will become the certain 
 presage of success. Away, then, my fellow Chris- 
 tians, with querulous forebodings, and feeble wail- 
 ings. Away with a piety at once superstitious and 
 effeminate. Away with its yearnings after an im- 
 practicable coalition, and a uniformity at war with 
 the unalterable constitution of our nature. Away for 
 ever with its visionary agitations. Let us refuse to 
 listen to its lamentations of past glory, or its pro- 
 phecies of coming evil. Be it ours to imbibe more 
 deeply, grasp more resolutely, that truth, \\hich is 
 one and immutable amidst all variety and change. 
 Let us strive to possess ourselves more fully of that 
 great reality, the mystery of the gospel. Amidst all 
 the minor diversities of profession and observance, 
 let us solace ourselves by reflection on that all-per-
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 197 
 
 vading Spirit by which the whole body of the church 
 is animated, and whereby he that has condescended 
 to become its Head will continue to renew and 
 beautify it, till, in all its members, it shall be found 
 at last faultless and without blemish. 
 
 Let us labour to rise more and more above preju- 
 dice, and bigotry, and intemperate zeal, in the same 
 measure as we do above indolence, and apathy, and 
 the spirit of sinful compliance. Emulous of the 
 highest examples, let it be our effort to resemble 
 those who have done honour not to their party, but 
 to their principles, and belong not so much to an 
 age as to all time; leaving behind them an imper- 
 ishable fame, the lustre of which is still preserved 
 and heightened, while it blends with the hallowing 
 radiancy of the cross. 
 
 With such elevated sentiments, be it our study 
 to combine unwearying exertions. These let us 
 steadily apply, in every department we are appointed 
 to occupy, while our object is the last attainable perfec- 
 tion in respect to each : in the discipline of our own 
 minds, mingling the strictest fidelity with the largest 
 forbearance; in the discharge of social duties, dif- 
 fusing the light of a holy example united with the 
 benefits of unremitting benevolence ; in the propa- 
 gation of our principles, joining the deepest humility 
 with self-consecration and heroic firmness; and in 
 the advancement of our Master's glory, being con- 
 tent to be offered even as its living sacrifices, while 
 we disappear and are lost in its blaze. 
 
 Thus impelled and animated, we shall infallibly 
 realize what is at once the end of our existence and
 
 198 DISCOURSES AT THE OPENING, &C. 
 
 the crown of all our joy. Our cause is mighty. Our 
 motives and inducements are mighty. And mighty 
 shall be our reward. 
 
 Finally: we cannot fail to be reminded, how 
 great must be the glory wherein all shall issue ! 
 What the consummation, when this scene of won- 
 ders shall be perfectly unfolded ! What the shout- 
 ing, when the top-stone shall be laid on this inde- 
 structible and living fabric, as a palace for the King 
 of kings ! And how joyous the acclamation, when 
 the last majestic ornament shall be added to com- 
 plete its grandeur ! If thus elaborate in its progress, 
 how finished in its end ! If such the mighty trans- 
 formation by which even its earthly elements have 
 been prepared to become his abode, what the aston- 
 ishing result, when, in the case of each, a nature 
 shall at length be acquired wholly refined and hea- 
 venly ! Or what the condition of the soul, when the 
 very body shall be rendered incorrupt and spiritual, 
 when the last traces of sin shall be destroyed, the 
 last vestiges of the curse disappear, the bonds of a 
 pure and happy fellowship be everywhere renewed, 
 the throne of God's rightful supremacy re-edified, 
 and set up in every breast, and, while the wonders 
 of his hand are beheld in the new heavens and the 
 new earth adorned with his beauty and reflecting 
 back his image, the further revelations of his 
 power and wisdom, unfailing still in their resources 
 as they are unsearchable in their designs, shall be 
 reserved to enkindle through eternity fresh ardour of 
 inquiry, and to inspire, without end, songs of sublimer 
 admiration, or contemplations of holier delight!
 
 III. 
 DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED AT 
 
 THE RE-OPENING OP QUEEN STREET CHAPEL, 
 
 CHESTER, 
 MARCH 7th, 1838.
 
 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 REV. xxi. 3. 
 
 " And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, 
 Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men!" 
 
 IT is not my design to enter into a minute examina- 
 tion of the occasion, or specific reference, of this 
 passage ; but rather to attempt an elucidation and 
 practical use of the principles it may suggest, and 
 of the obligations it is adapted to enforce. Derived 
 as it is from perhaps the most obscure among all the 
 sacred oracles, it would, even for this reason alone, 
 forbid, on my part, any lengthened or elaborate 
 comment. For, whatever may be the impression 
 resting upon other minds as to the advantage of an 
 anxious scrutiny into this book, I candidly acknow- 
 ledge my belief, that its just interpretation demands 
 not only an acquaintance with the history and con- 
 dition of the church, but with the genius of pro- 
 phecy, and with the mind of the Spirit, very far 
 beyond the reach of my attainment, and perhaps also 
 beyond the compass of those acquisitions which have 
 VOL. i. 2 c
 
 202 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 been too generally consecrated to the task. To 
 " darken counsel by words without knowledge," has 
 appeared to me, I confess, far easier, in relation to 
 this mysterious document, than to unravel what is 
 intricate, or to elucidate what is obscure. The pro- 
 gress of events, and the lights of advancing experi- 
 ence, seem essential to the proper understanding, 
 not only of many of its separate portions, but of 
 their general structure and mutual relations. Whe- 
 ther such an air of remoteness from our ordinary 
 apprehensions may not have been intentionally 
 given it ; and whether this may not accomplish, both 
 in the present and the future, objects of greater 
 value than could have been otherwise attained, in 
 the one, by teaching us expectation and humility, 
 in the other, by reserving for divine truth unlocked 
 for and irrefragable confirmation even to the latest 
 period ; perhaps it is not possible that we should 
 now determine. But so much, at least, is unques- 
 tionable, that a solemn reverence for the divine 
 authority, and a modest distrust of our own facul- 
 ties, are indispensable to the right application of 
 this, rather than perhaps of any other, part of scrip- 
 ture. 
 
 And yet, in the case before us, two or three par- 
 ticulars seem obviously certain. The first, that this 
 reference is to some glorious and happy era, near to, 
 if not absolutely at, the very close of time : the next, 
 that it relates to some illustrious manifestation of 
 God's favour, immediately and specifically to the 
 human family ; not as blended with the other parti- 
 cipators of celestial happiness: the third, that it
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 203 
 
 points out a state of honour and felicity to be en- 
 joyed, not in some distant region of existence, but in 
 direct connection with the sphere we now inhabit, 
 and the scene of all our present toils and conflicts : 
 the last, that it implies, respecting these enjoyments, 
 that they shall be as permanent as they are peculiar, 
 and thus constitute an imperishable memorial of 
 almighty grace, operating under an aspect of espe- 
 cial adaptation to the necessities and history of man. 
 For the magnificent scene here depicted is not the 
 opening of the heavenly paradise, and the entrance 
 of the church into that seat of blessedness ; but the 
 descent of heaven to earth, beheld under the simili- 
 tude of the new Jerusalem, prepared and beautified, 
 even as a bride adorned for her husband; whilst the 
 first heaven and the first earth have passed for ever 
 away. 
 
 Further; we are wholly uncertain, whether the 
 great voice, which uttered the proclamation before us, 
 was that of much people in heaven, such as we read 
 of repeatedly in the same book, and which was so 
 lately heard saying, " Hallelujah ! Salvation, and 
 glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our 
 God: for true and righteous are his judgments !" 
 while all the celestial company echoed, responsively, 
 " Amen. Hallelujah !" or whether it was that only 
 of some single angel, as in the instance of him who 
 was beheld " standing upon the sea and upon the 
 earth, while he lifted up his hand to heaven, swear- 
 ing by him that liveth for ever and ever, that time 
 should be no longer." The latter, however, appears 
 more probable; and it admits not of a moment's
 
 204 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 hesitation, that the emotions thus expressed are con- 
 fined within no individual bosom, but partaken in 
 common throughout all the regions on high. Hence, 
 by inquiring with respect to their origin and nature, 
 we shall learn, as far, perhaps, as may be practica- 
 ble, what is the light wherein the welfare of man is 
 contemplated, and what the feelings awakened by 
 everything which may involve its augmentation, and 
 secure its establishment, among all the inhabitants 
 of heaven. We shall thus ascertain, in the most 
 impressive manner, the collective mind of the uni- 
 verse on this great subject: and from such views it 
 will be easy to deduce, both the measure of its in- 
 trinsic importance, and the spirit wherein it ought to 
 be regarded by ourselves. 
 
 Dismissing, therefore, all other preliminary inqui- 
 ries, we proceed to consider, 
 
 I. THE SENTIMENTS OF WHICH THIS PROCLAMA- 
 TION IS EXPRESSIVE. 
 
 1. We perceive, in the announcement, the exulta- 
 tion of joyous discovery. 
 
 However little we can understand the nature of 
 that intelligence possessed in higher spheres, one 
 thing is certain, that it is bounded by the necessary 
 limitations of a created mind, and dependent upon 
 supplies essentially derivative, and which demand, 
 therefore, to be perpetually renewed. By these 
 characteristics it is separated, and that infinitely, 
 from the self-originating wisdom of God. Moreover ; 
 to think, to reason, to reflect, to perceive, to com- 
 pare, and to conjecture, thus from the past gather-
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 205 
 
 ing the indications of the future, with an approxima- 
 tion to certitude, and a conformity to truth, greater 
 and more decisive in proportion to the greater en- 
 largement of their capacities, and their more ample 
 opportunities of knowledge, these, together with 
 the satisfaction that attends their exercise, constitute, 
 on the other hand, the sources of their elevation 
 above the imperfection and the mental infirmities of 
 man. Approaching, probably, to the directness and 
 the force of instinct, and operating in a manner not 
 unlike to the facility of intuition, their thoughts, we 
 may believe, are seldom overborne by the extent, or 
 baffled by the perplexity and complication, of their 
 objects. Their dwelling is appointed near to the 
 seat of holiness and power, from whence are pro- 
 ceeding unceasingly those vital emanations, and 
 those irresistible decrees, which, while they animate, 
 control, and sustain while they govern, every 
 order of created being. They hear, in their first 
 utterance, mandates which determine both the move- 
 ments and the condition of the universe. They see, 
 even at their earliest dispersion from the central 
 fountain of light, gleams of uncreated glory, which 
 spread, as they travel onward, irradiation and love- 
 liness throughout all the dominion of God. Alike, 
 therefore, in its origin, to the information we are 
 permitted to obtain respecting him, their acquain- 
 tance with his purposes and character may be almost 
 immeasurably greater in degree. Still, like our 
 own, it must be drawn from a devout inspection of 
 his agency, or a reverent submission to his teaching. 
 We need not wonder, then, if their attention be pe-
 
 206 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 culiarly attracted to those departments of his empire, 
 or those exhibitions of his conduct, which concen- 
 trate, at any moment, the most numerous assemblage, 
 or the largest diversity, whether of his positive attri- 
 butes, or of the forms of their united illustration. 
 
 Now, it would be unreasonable to suppose, that 
 God's universal government presents, at the same 
 time, in every separate region, an aspect of equal 
 attractiveness or grandeur ; or that the same wisdom 
 and benevolence are acting in every place, or per- 
 haps in any more than one at the same period, 
 with the same intensity. This were to imagine all 
 the effect both of increase and of novelty withdrawn 
 from the contemplation of angels ; and to ascribe to 
 them an uniformity of intellectual happiness, capable 
 of co-existing only with infinity of knowledge. We 
 ought rather to conclude, that the scenes both of the 
 physical and spiritual creation are presented before 
 them in association with varieties of power and 
 beauty at every instant new; and that thus the pos- 
 sibility of weariness, and the danger of satiety, are 
 infallibly excluded ; fresh stimulus being perennially 
 supplied to faculties which, in themselves, experience 
 neither exhaustion nor decline. One while, it is 
 probable, that they are summoned to witness the 
 unfolding of God's designs in the formation of new 
 worlds, or in the adjustment and mutual dependency 
 of systems now, for the first time, fashioned out of 
 nothing. Ere long, they are called, perhaps, to at- 
 tend him on his progress towards some ancient yet un- 
 discovered territory, where life, and thought, and joy, 
 are about to be beheld under other lineaments, and
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 207 
 
 in combination with other affinities, than any hitherto 
 revealed. Anon, we may conceive them watching, 
 with a fixedness of regard such as only minds so 
 vigorous could exercise, the working out of some 
 great moral experiment, to confirm the purity, or to 
 enlarge the freedom, of the dwellers in some distant 
 province of immensity, or prepare for their transla- 
 tion to those mansions of bliss wherein themselves 
 eternally reside. Now we must suppose them to be 
 surprised and ravished by the breaking forth of a 
 new sun, as it pours its morning splendours over a 
 tract of space previously abandoned to desolation 
 and darkness; now listening with profoundest ad- 
 miration, while, where all before was silent, the 
 strain of gratulation, and the song of praise, swells, 
 for the first time, from innumerable worshippers, in 
 some fresh colony, peopled with immortality and 
 blessedness. For who could imagine, to select but 
 one example, that such was not the singleness of 
 its attraction amidst all the works of God, in the 
 hour when the world we inhabit first started into 
 being, and "the morning stars shouted for joy?" 
 Or, if another might be added, who could per- 
 suade himself that, in the day of our final judgment, 
 transactions will be at the same time proceeding, in 
 any other sphere, of equal magnitude, or of rival 
 importance ? But where such transactions are at 
 any period witnessed, there, at that period, is the 
 especial residence of God. The language of our 
 text, then, may be conceived to be that of him, who, 
 amongst all the spirits of the blessed, is the first to 
 discern the new and wonderful development of his
 
 208 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 power, in immediate contact with human restoration 
 and happiness, while he thus addresses his fellows, 
 under the impulse of feelings as natural as they are 
 triumphant. 
 
 2. That language expresses the rapture of sacred 
 astonishment. 
 
 Where is it that this celestial herald now sees the 
 bursting forth of effulgence, and the blaze of new- 
 created glory, such as to signalize the progress, or 
 attest the dwelling-place, of God ? In what quarter 
 of his illimitable empire does he catch the dawning 
 of those calm and holy fires that flame on his pavi- 
 lion, like the star which shed its mystic splendours 
 over the manger of Bethlehem ? It is amongst men ! 
 
 men, the least and the latest-born of all the spiri- 
 tual household, the frailest in origin, the lowliest 
 in condition, combining, perhaps alone, the wants 
 and weaknesses of an earthly extraction with the 
 exaltation of a heavenly alliance ; men, the mystery 
 and the enigma of all being, wherein the extremes 
 both of physical and moral existence are blended, in 
 a manner elsewhere unexampled ; men, whose ha- 
 bitation is in the dust, while yet their place is pre- 
 pared for them amidst the thrones of the seraphim, 
 
 tenants of flesh, though expectants of the sky, 
 wanderers amidst the gloom of mortality, though 
 holding in reversion a perpetuity of bliss; men, 
 with whom inferior natures dispute, in a thousand 
 ways, their vaunted pre-eminence, while they, in 
 turn, press hard upon the confines of that which is 
 celestial, holding a dubious position between the 
 material and the immaterial, between the grossness
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 209 
 
 of corporeal necessities, and the indestructible 
 energy of mind, the very zoophytes of the spiritual 
 world; men, moreover, so awfully revolted from 
 their allegiance, and enslaved by sin, amidst their 
 uttermost dependence, insensible to the bounty 
 which sustains them, and the power on which they 
 hang; in their will rebellious; in their desires un- 
 holy; as to their sentiments, in league with false- 
 hood ; and in all their tendencies alienated from the 
 life of God ! Yes, it is amongst men, the confede- 
 rates of his enemy, the outcasts of his kingdom, and 
 the most unprofitable part of creation, that his taber- 
 nacle is now set up, and the manifestations of his 
 power are now to be unveiled ! 
 
 " Lord, what is man that thus thou art mindful 
 of him ? or the son of man, that thus thou visitest 
 him !" What claims are those by which he has pre- 
 vailed to attract towards him thine especial and sin- 
 gular regards ? What profit is there either in his 
 redemption or his blood ? What peculiarity of value 
 is enstamped upon him, that, while angels perish in 
 their apostacy, he should be snatched from perdi- 
 tion ? Or what are the services he can repay, that 
 they should make the consequences of his rescue 
 more happy or more illustrious than theirs ? Yet 
 these have sunk in ruin ; their fate has become irre- 
 trievable ; their doom is hopeless ; the very elements 
 of their existence forbid recovery. Transgression is 
 become to them instead of law; hatred instead of 
 love; rebellion, with all its inevitable evils, instead 
 of obedience, with all the plenitude of its unfailing 
 satisfactions ! 
 
 VOL. i. 2 D
 
 210 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 Even to ourselves, imperfectly as we can estimate 
 the principles involved, and rendered partial in our 
 judgment by the natural perversion of self-love, it 
 must appear an evidence of indescribable condescen- 
 sion, a cause of unutterable wonder, that God 
 should not only deign to extend towards us some 
 measures of his paternal compassion, and to cherish 
 on our behalf some relentings of a parent's tender- 
 ness ; not only that he should receive us on our re- 
 turn, when prostrate at his feet, and stricken with 
 remorse and self-abhorrence ; but take up his dwell- 
 ing-place amongst us, and pitch his tabernacle side 
 by side even with our own : that he should estab- 
 lish towards us new and endearing relations, calling 
 himself our God, and us his people; chase our sor- 
 rows, succour our infirmities, cultivate our friend- 
 ship, invite our familiarity, and appear emulous of 
 our confidence, and studious to conciliate our attach- 
 ment. What, therefore, is the light wherein a dis- 
 pensation, in everything so wonderful, must needs 
 present itself to the view of angels, and the inhabi- 
 tants of heaven ! 
 
 3. Our text exhibits the eagerness of solemn ex- 
 pectation. 
 
 To a mind intelligently conversant with the divine 
 procedure, and habituated to observe its gradual 
 evolution from its first seminal rudiments to its last 
 marvellous perfection, the anticipation must be natu- 
 ral and constant, that what, in its commencement, 
 exhibits elemental agencies so wholly new and sin- 
 gular, will, in its progress, lead on to more profound 
 discoveries, and bring to light the power of hidden
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 211 
 
 causes, not less awful in their grandeur, than they 
 are, as yet, unsearchable in their effects. When the 
 footsteps of Deity are traced in their descent down 
 to the regions of misery and death, when his tent 
 is seen environed by habitations of clay, and the 
 symbols of his majesty shine out from amidst the 
 night of sorrow and the desolations of sin, some 
 process is surely to be carried on, and some work 
 accomplished, of corresponding peculiarity and 
 greatness. Such a mind could calculate, with con- 
 fidence almost predictive, on miracles, destined in- 
 fallibly to flow out of each other, and surpass each 
 other in succession the most extensive and stupen- 
 dous; while, at every stage in these sublime deve- 
 lopments, the inquiry would be emphatically sug- 
 gested, " What shall the end be !" 
 
 Nor would that inquiry be vain. It would direct 
 to no computation which would not be infinitely 
 overpast. It would excite no emotions that would 
 not lead to gratification higher than themselves. The 
 very contractedness of the sphere in which these 
 manifestations were to be exhibited, and the appa- 
 rently unfavourable circumstances selected for their 
 display, were only an additional omen of their real 
 magnitude, and a promise of loftier delight to attend 
 their contemplation. Improbabilities were thus to 
 be judged of on a different scale from any to which 
 we are accustomed. They were to be interpreted 
 in an opposite manner, and their proportion esti- 
 mated in an inverse ratio. For it is every way 
 more worthy of the divine power and greatness, and 
 more consonant with the inexhaustible fulness of the
 
 '212 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 divine resources, to educe the sublimest disclosures, 
 and effect the most comprehensive designs, out of 
 that which wears the semblance of feebleness and 
 limitation, than from what, on the contrary, might 
 have seemed adequate to its production, or com- 
 mensurate to its extent. And never does the 
 boundless energy of God array itself in features so 
 awfully majestic, as when, by a word or a volition, 
 it calls up out of the depths of nothingness the at- 
 testations of its grandeur, and the memorials of its 
 supremacy. God is then acting in a manner which 
 becomes himself, when he " speaks, and it is done, 
 when he commands, and it stands fast;" when he 
 but " looketh on the earth and it trembleth, or 
 toucheth the hills, and they smoke." 
 
 It is thus, we may conceive, that the children of 
 immortality would count upon the correspondence 
 between the peculiarity of this arrangement, and the 
 impressiveness and novelty of the instruction soon 
 to be derived from its results. If, while the habita- 
 tion of God was yet on high, and the compass of his 
 operations adjusted to that ampler sphere, they had 
 never ceased to discern in them new causes of ad- 
 miration, and fresh springs of pleasure, it was im- 
 possible that they should not hail this new and 
 strange disclosure, as pregnant with mightier revo- 
 lutions, and the sure presage of more deep and 
 thrilling joy. Pointing, therefore, to his descent, or 
 gazing on the brightness of his banner, as it floated 
 majestically over so mean a tabernacle, they would 
 accost each other with the animating salutation, 
 "Behold, where is now the dwelling-place of the
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 213 
 
 great King ! how great is his goodness, and how 
 great is his beauty ! and what are the mysteries 
 which are now to be revealed !" 
 
 4. Unquestionably we may consider this language 
 as expressing the force of a benevolent interest in all 
 that pertains to the welfare and destiny of man. 
 
 That interest they had never ceased to cherish. 
 It commenced at the beginning of our history, and 
 has continued to augment amidst all succeeding 
 events. The most generous in its origin, it is the 
 most permanent in its exercise. The most elevated 
 in its causes, it is the most benign and various in its 
 effects. At the formation of the globe, it awakened 
 songs of gratulation and rapture. At the era of our 
 redemption, it was testified by strains of devoutest 
 gladness, ascribing " glory to God in the highest," 
 and announcing " peace and good will towards 
 men." In every instance of conversion, its witness 
 is renewed, while " there is joy in the presence of 
 the angels of God over the repenting and reclaimed 
 transgressor." To the sanctification and the on- 
 ward guidance of every heir of glory, it insures the 
 vigilance of sleepless inspection, and the constancy 
 of unwearied defence. At the hour of our depar- 
 ture, it bids the mightiest spirits of heaven watch by 
 our dying pillow, that they may carry us, as they 
 did the soul of Lazarus, up to our last abode. 
 Amidst all the travail which wrought out our salva- 
 tion, and in every scene of the life of our Deliverer, 
 even from the manger to the cross, then as he slum- 
 bered in the sepulchre, as he arose from the grave, 
 and as he ascended to the right hand of the Father,
 
 214 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 they were his willing attendants, and the eager 
 spectators of his work. They shall attend his 
 second coming; rejoicing to behold its consumma- 
 tion, and enhance its triumphs. And, while they 
 fulfil his awful edict, binding the wicked with ever- 
 lasting chains, and casting them into the " fire that 
 never shall be quenched," they will spring forward 
 with ecstacy, to execute that more congenial com- 
 mission, when he shall bid them " gather his saints 
 together from the four winds," from the depths of 
 ocean, and the recesses of the earth, that they may 
 conduct them, complete in glory, to the mansions of 
 unfading blessedness. 
 
 But the topic is familiar, and requires no further 
 illustration. I will add only, how great must be the 
 accession to that interest, when, prepared as they 
 are to coincide with every decision, and sympathise 
 with every feeling, of the Almighty Ruler, they per- 
 ceive in this selection of his special dwelling-place, 
 and the consequent ratification of his new and unal- 
 terable connection with mankind, the seal of his ap- 
 proval enstamped on their unquenchable regard for 
 man's salvation, and their affectionate and fervent 
 solicitude for all which may involve their happiness. 
 " Behold," say they, " even the tabernacle of God 
 is with men !" Now we may freely partake their 
 converse, and solace ourselves, without rebuke, in 
 the delights of their society. They are redeemed, 
 restored, and glorified, and shall be the companions 
 of our felicity for ever. 
 
 5. The proclamation in our text evinces the satis- 
 faction of devout intelligence, beholding, in the
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 215 
 
 events which it contemplates, fresh attestations of 
 the stability and fulness of their own eternal wel- 
 fare, as dependent on the divine counsels and cha- 
 racter. 
 
 As it is the essence of piety, so is it the spring of 
 all true happiness, to cultivate a habit both of thought 
 and feeling in harmony with the conduct of our 
 Maker, and to submit ourselves, not by constraint, 
 but with delightful acquiescence, to all his dispensa- 
 tions and appointments. And in proportion to the 
 enlargement of our conceptions, and the greater in- 
 vigoration of our moral powers, we not only acquire 
 increase of acquaintance, but perhaps a yet more 
 decisive increase of affinity, both with the methods 
 of his agency, and the tendency of his designs. Thus 
 to the pure and unperverted intellect of angels, the 
 reality and permanence of their felicity must ever 
 manifestly lie in the most plenary accordance with 
 whatever they discern, whether of his purposes, or 
 of himself. But here, as we have seen, is probably 
 the loftiest, while assuredly it is the most benignant, 
 process, in his whole administration. And here, we 
 may suppose, they would consequently feel, while 
 rejoicing in every principle which it implied, that 
 they were presented with the brightest prospects of 
 a large and durable accession to their happiness. 
 The arrangement, however regarded, would en- 
 kindle their most cordial admiration, their purest 
 delight. But its value would be inconceivably en- 
 hanced, as it illustrated, even beyond the measure 
 of their direct experience, those methods of almighty 
 thought and action, which insured the constancy of
 
 216 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 their enjoyment, and communicated the highest 
 worth to their fruition. It would teach them, more 
 than all besides, how boundless was the treasure they 
 inherited in God. And, while they beheld him 
 lavishing his regards, and pouring the fulness of his 
 bounty, on a race so far inferior, and of such com- 
 paratively feeble claims, they would survey, with 
 enlarged conceptions, all which themselves might 
 expect from the same condescension and benignity. 
 In the exaltation of man, they would thus discern, 
 if I may be allowed the expression, God's greater 
 exaltation ; and from both would augur the wonders 
 of their own. The gifts would teach them more 
 both to admire and exult in the giver, whether they 
 were bestowed on others or on themselves. The 
 acts of righteousness and truth, towards whomsoever 
 they were exerted, would present, in a more glorious 
 light, the purposes of the great Ruler. And, as the 
 case was distinguishing, and its issues momentous, 
 perhaps in an unequalled degree, they would point 
 to it with a measure of satisfaction, which before was 
 unknown. 
 
 6. We will add no more on this portion of our 
 subject, but that the proclamation indicates prepara- 
 tion for instant and cheerful concurrence in the 
 effectuation of God's purposes, and the advancement 
 of his glory. 
 
 Separated from him, or denied the privilege of 
 co-operating in his designs, the never-ending dura- 
 tion of their existence would be, to spirits so consti- 
 tuted, a ceaseless and intolerable burden. Accus- 
 tomed to resolve every calculation by a tranquil
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 21? 
 
 repose upon his power and faithfulness, drinking 
 deeply into the spirit of that sublime though incom- 
 prehensible truth, " In him we live, and move, and 
 have our being," they seek no other delight than 
 is to be experienced in his fellowship ; they know no 
 happier occupation than to consecrate their utmost 
 efforts to his service. Where the pavilion of their 
 King is, there, also, on the first shout of annuncia- 
 tion, are his armies, encircling him in dense and 
 thickening phalanx, and prepared, whithersoever it 
 may be removed, to arise and follow him. Thus 
 when the cry was heard, " Behold, yonder is the 
 tabernacle of God !" it would be caught and re- 
 echoed by innumerable voices, and become the 
 rallying word to a countless multitude, hasting to 
 descend on the same field, that they might share in 
 the same august, though yet undisclosed, achieve- 
 ments. Even had the embassy been marked by the 
 terrors of justice, or the menaces of righteous indig- 
 nation ; had it been one of vengeance, to consume 
 and to destroy, and to leave behind it only the 
 monuments of divine displeasure in devastation and 
 awful solitude; still, to a mind like theirs, it could 
 not have been unwelcome. They would have 
 adored, even while they trembled, and bowed in 
 silent acquiescence, even where their milder sympa- 
 thies might have prompted them to expostulate or 
 weep. But now, all was promise and joy. The 
 notes of preparation were notes of unmingled plea- 
 sure. The expedition upon which they were to 
 embark was, not to conquer, but to save. It was to 
 complete a mighty and most auspicious revolution, 
 VOL. i. 2 E
 
 218 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 where all had once been anarchy and horror. Here 
 was an occasion for the mingled demonstrations of 
 their fealty and pity, of their allegiance to God, 
 and their generous desire of human happiness. Far 
 different were the functions they would henceforth 
 be summoned to discharge, from those they reluc- 
 tantly yet sternly executed, when they drove us from 
 the garden, or guarded with flaming swords against 
 our approach to the tree of life. And hence, never 
 did a sound more blissful ring through the eternal 
 arches, nor was a shout more animating reverberated 
 by the everlasting hills, than when this proclamation 
 was heard, like the sound of distant thunder, and 
 filling with ravishment not only earth, but heaven. 
 
 II. Let us now examine WHAT ARE THE EVENTS 
 
 BY WHICH THIS PROCLAMATION IS CALLED FORTH. 
 
 These, as was before remarked, we shall not make 
 the subject of such special inquiry, as would confine 
 our notice to what might be critically stated to be 
 the direct allusion of the text. It may suffice for 
 our present intention, to point out the sources from 
 whence the sentiments now traced derive their chief 
 force, or their most powerful excitement. And here 
 it may be permitted us to lose sight of the view pre- 
 sented by such events to the particular contempla- 
 tion of angels, and to dwell on them rather as they 
 are in themselves, and thus fitted to enkindle in our 
 own bosoms corresponding emotions. For the pro- 
 fitable use of this subject is to be deduced from re- 
 ference, not to the peculiarities of angelic thought 
 or feeling, but to the occasions, which, whether in
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 219 
 
 their case or ours, might fitly give rise to the exul- 
 tation so emphatically manifested in the text. 
 
 1. It is impossible not to be directed, in the first 
 place, to the wonders of providence, as exhibiting, 
 in all their succession and variety, the immediacy of 
 God's concern for human welfare, and the indivi- 
 duality, as well as constancy, of his regard. 
 
 How truly may it be affirmed, that he is, in this 
 sense, " not far from every one of us !" What mi- 
 nuteness of calculation as to each incident which 
 may involve our comfort ! What comprehensiveness 
 of foresight as to the remotest influence which bears 
 upon our safety ! What perpetual readiness to afford 
 us help and succour, however momentary be the 
 exigence, however sudden the emergency ! About 
 our bed, and about our path, and through all the 
 stages of our life, present at our right hand, he 
 could not, were we even the single objects of his 
 care, display more strikingly his nearness or his 
 solicitude. It is to this we owe those numberless 
 coincidences on which, though apparently fortuitous, 
 our whole career is practically suspended. Hither 
 must we trace up those astonishing combinations, by 
 which events, that would have separately proved 
 most perilous, are made subservient to our interest, 
 and surround us with an impregnable defence. The 
 malice of our bitterest enemies, the perfidy of our 
 most unfaithful friends, the pressure of our heaviest 
 calamities, the frustration of our best-concerted pro- 
 jects, and the very danger implicated in our most 
 humiliating misconceptions and infirmities, are by 
 this means rendered auxiliary to the attainment of
 
 220 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 what neither prudence could have compassed, nor 
 watchfulness insured, nor the noblest unassisted fa- 
 culties achieved. 
 
 Such is the relation of this great truth to the con- 
 dition of every separate individual. But its evidence 
 receives accumulated force, and its illustrations are 
 invested with more commanding splendour, when we 
 view it in connection with the circumstances of man- 
 kind collectively, and, above all, with those of the 
 church. See pride, and avarice, and revenge, and sen- 
 suality, and the demoniac fury of ambition, made to 
 work out the most momentous and most salutary 
 changes, and thus to prepare the way for the progress 
 of knowledge, liberty, and truth ! See them awaken 
 and stimulate all that is essential, either to the per- 
 fecting of the human mind, or to the advancement 
 of human dignity and happiness ! See persecution 
 and cruelty, together with the lust of religious domi- 
 nation, the assiduity of spurious zeal, the perversions 
 of heresy, the corruptions of false doctrine, the 
 dreams of superstition, the infatuations of bigotry, 
 and the pertinacity of error, each impotent to all 
 that is good, but of dire and terrible energy as an 
 instrument of evil, overruled to promote the gran- 
 deur, the extension, and, in a thousand unknown 
 ways, the establishment, of that empire, whose sole 
 foundations are righteousness and peace ! and thus, 
 by every operation and event, see the glory of God 
 inseparably linked with man's security and final 
 welfare ! and you will at once confess, that his 
 government is carried on with so special and un- 
 ceasing a reference to our true interest, as to imply
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 221 
 
 that his seat is fixed amongst us, and his tabernacle 
 placed in our very midst; while there is no region 
 of existence where his power is more efficiently ex- 
 erted, or the directness of its action more decisively 
 displayed. 
 
 What importance would be visibly enstamped on 
 every object, and what real greatness enfolded in 
 every event, were convictions such as these indulged 
 with a becoming seriousness, and followed out to 
 their legitimate results ! Beneath what a safeguard 
 should we feel ourselves to repose ! How holy and 
 serene would be the aspect of what is now often en- 
 shrouded in darkness, and surrounded only with 
 disastrous omens ! We should be cheered, in each 
 pious enterprise, by the belief, not alone of the suf- 
 ficiency of divine support, but of the directness of 
 divine co-operation. And besides this invigorating 
 conviction, no other stimulus would be required for 
 the resolute execution of our duty ; nor any other 
 consolation than a steadfast exercise of faith and 
 patience, amidst our greatest difficulties, or severest 
 sufferings. 
 
 2. But we turn to a still more elevated subject, 
 and notice the sublimer wonders of redemption, as 
 adapted, pre-eminently, to arouse the emotions, and 
 corroborate the sentiments, which our text embodies. 
 
 By these all other wonders are infinitely outshone ; 
 and their lustre fades away, and almost disappears. 
 The total succession of time presents nothing wor- 
 thy to be compared, either with the elements they 
 disclose, or the results to which they tend. Magni- 
 ficent as are many of the processes wrought out by
 
 222 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 God's providential arrangements, they sink into in- 
 significance, not of degree alone, but of essential 
 character, beside the structure and development of 
 the gospel system; wherein his whole mind is illus- 
 triously manifested, and his highest powers imme- 
 diately exerted. It is here that he appears under 
 the new and unequalled aspect of the God of our 
 salvation ; and hence that he derives a revenue of 
 praise, not alone for his excellent greatness or his 
 marvellous works, but for what he is, in his inherent 
 and illimitable goodness; and for what he imparts, 
 in the fruitions of his love. The very thought of 
 such discovery, is itself a new creation. It is the 
 product of inspiration, not of mortal intelligence. It 
 could proceed only from him by whom it is to be 
 substantiated and accomplished. It constitutes its 
 own evidence; it authenticates itself. Divinity is 
 not more its object, than its essence. Incommuni- 
 cable majesty is impressed on every feature, and 
 diffused over all its form. Well may it be said of 
 such a system, even as of him who is its Author, that 
 herein God is manifested in the flesh, beheld in his 
 express image, and his uncreated brightness. 
 
 That might should be vanquished by weakness, 
 cruelty by patience, and the rage of persecutors by 
 the submission of martyrs ; .that the flames of into- 
 lerance and murder should be extinguished by the 
 very blood of their victims; and that the church 
 should, from age to age, increase in strength, as it 
 has seemed a prey to all the ills of weakness, rising 
 in dignity as it has languished beneath the fury of 
 oppression ; can be ascribed, as we have seen, to
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 223 
 
 none but God. That in the night of thickest dark- 
 ness, the brightest luminaries should suddenly arise ; 
 that amidst the direst corruptions, examples should 
 appear, both of the loftiest purity, and the most 
 soaring intelligence ; that names should be found, 
 even as in Sardis, " which have not defiled their 
 garments, and shall walk with the Lamb in white, 
 for they are worthy," like a Paul, or a Fenelon, 
 amidst the harlotries of Rome ; that the most for- 
 midable evils should be made sometimes to work out 
 their own cure, and sometimes to call forth into an- 
 tagonism the utmost energy of truth and goodness ; 
 that a Bossuet should be confronted with a Claude, 
 a Voltaire appear at the same period as a Pas- 
 cal, Leland, Butler, Lardner, Watson, Paley, 
 flourish in the same era with Tindal, Bolingbroke, 
 Gibbon, Hume, and Paine; that a Henry should 
 prepare the way for an Edward, and a Leo for a 
 Luther; and thus, that the noblest champions and 
 best friends of truth should stand forth at the same 
 perilous hour with the fiercest or most subtle of her 
 foes; must be traced to the same origin, and fur- 
 nishes decisive confirmation of the same animating 
 sentiment. 
 
 But, Oh ! w T hat are these, compared with the in- 
 carnation of the Son of God, with the lowliness of 
 his nativity, the poverty of his condition, the gentle- 
 ness of his spirit, the condescending familiarity of 
 his converse, his unparalleled sufferings, his agoniz- 
 ing temptations, his mysterious death ! What, in 
 competition with the splendour of his miracles, the 
 light of his doctrine, the majesty of his command, the
 
 224 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 might of his resurrection, or the triumph of his de- 
 parture ! What, compared with that indwelling 
 radiance, which sometimes streamed from his person, 
 encircled his steps, transfigured his countenance, 
 penetrated his raiment, and made his humble vesture 
 to become more luminous than the firmament, more 
 dazzling than the effulgency of noon ! How are 
 they quenched, and vanish as in a flood of glory, 
 when seen in connection with his august and awful 
 person, his sacred offices, his sublime endurance, the 
 eternity of his benefits, and the omnipotence of his 
 compassion ! Behold, my brethren, the love, the 
 pity, and the ineffable greatness, of Immanuel, if 
 you would learn how the habitation of God is with 
 men. 
 
 3. We would briefly advert to the mysteries of 
 sanctifying influence, as signalizing the residence 
 of the Spirit of God even in the hearts of his 
 people. 
 
 Between the present and the last particular the 
 analogy is most instructive, and the inferences it 
 suggests the most encouraging; while yet the dis- 
 proportion is too great to be described. There, we 
 saw a human form become the shrine of Deity; a 
 human body his personal abode; human faculties 
 the medium of his unfettered operation; human 
 thoughts the vehicle of his primeval wisdom ; human 
 affections blending in the stream of his almighty 
 goodness ; human lips uttering his oracles ; and even 
 the anguish of a human heart expressing the min- 
 gled energy and travail of his eternal benevolence. 
 Here, we are taught to recognise the same vouch-
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 225 
 
 safement of his presence to mankind, in a form less 
 awful, less commanding, but not less real, or less full 
 of mercy. Within the breast which is yet imper- 
 fectly cleansed from defilement, and agitated still by 
 alarm and trouble, we see him constructing his resi- 
 dence, and preparing his throne. Entering into the 
 most intimate communication both with the powers 
 and tendencies of a mortal nature, we see the living 
 fountain of all good transfusing throughout its ac- 
 tions, and through the utmost range of its propensi- 
 ties, the stream of its own vital and purifying influ- 
 ence. Pollution insensibly removed, obduracy im- 
 perceptibly subdued, reluctance silently and sweetly 
 overcome, enmity exchanged for friendship, in a 
 manner which eludes our consciousness, while it 
 disarms our opposition, the burden of guilt un- 
 loosed, and its remorse alleviated by the same power 
 which arrays against it our severest indignation and 
 most determined efforts, and the allurements of the 
 world, under whatever form, (whether the voluptu- 
 ousness of sensual pleasure, or the beguiling splen- 
 dour of riches and of fame, ) robbed of their former 
 seductions, and detected in their fatal sorcery, 
 while the disenchanted soul becomes the subject of 
 heavenly attractions, feels the noblest impulses, cher- 
 ishes imperishable hopes : these are the attestations 
 of that great and fundamental truth, which, however 
 denied by some, misrepresented by others, and im- 
 perfectly apprehended by all, is essential alike to 
 the integrity of the Christian system, and to the 
 consolation of our guilty souls; that is, the indwell- 
 ing of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all who 
 VOL. i. 2 F
 
 226 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 believe : a truth, securing equally the fervour of our 
 gratitude, the tranquillity of our dependence, the 
 steadfastness of our obedience, the patience of our 
 submission, and the constancy and fruit of all our 
 perseverance. Thus is the church at large con- 
 verted into a living and most hallowed sanctuary ; 
 and, in the most literal sense, becomes a temple; 
 while even the body of every believer, partaking of 
 a lustration which shall have removed, ere long, the 
 last vestige of remaining impurity, is even now ex- 
 alted through successive stages of sanctity and 
 honour, to become " an habitation of God through 
 the Spirit." 
 
 4. Let us now recur to the topic more imme- 
 diately suggested by the text, namely, the final reve- 
 lations of the divine power and greatness, both at 
 the close of time, and through the ages of eternity. 
 To them an approximation is perpetually trace- 
 able, in those events which have already passed 
 beneath our notice. The abode of the Most High 
 seems to have been brought, at each stage, nearer, 
 while the privileges resulting from his presence are 
 shown to have been continually extended and en- 
 larged; the blessings of his providential govern- 
 ment being introductory to the kingdom of his 
 grace ; the immunities and pleasures of that king- 
 dom, receiving a boundless accession both of perma- 
 nence and of value under the personal administra- 
 tion of the Mediator ; the inestimable consequences 
 of his mediation next blending with the ministry of 
 the eternal Comforter; and the myriads of the 
 redeemed, lastly, prepared, as the subjects of his
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 22? 
 
 new-creating power, not only to inherit, but mysti- 
 cally to become, God's chosen dwelling-place, and 
 the habitation of his glory. 
 
 Now, it is impossible not to observe, how all this 
 is pointing to a happier era, and a higher economy. 
 It is plainly prophetic of some exalted purpose, the 
 fulness of whose accomplishment can be matter, at 
 present, only of conjecture. Herein it seems neces- 
 sary that such a work should terminate ; and without 
 it such extensive and valuable resources would have 
 been lavished in vain. The whole is announced in 
 the context, " I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, 
 coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as 
 a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a 
 great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the taber- 
 nacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with 
 them, and they shall be his people, and God himself 
 shall be with them, and be their God. And God 
 shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there 
 shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, 
 neither shall there be any more pain, for the former 
 things are passed away. And he that sat upon the 
 throne said, Behold, I make all things new." 
 
 The period, then, is approaching, when the church 
 shall no longer be indebted to external symbols, or 
 to intermediate agencies, as indicative of the pre- 
 sence, or confirmatory of the favour, of its great 
 Head. The pillar of cloud and of fire, which has 
 guided it through the wilderness, shall no longer 
 overshadow it, but melt away amidst that calmer 
 region, and that purer sky. No longer shall a flame, 
 once preserved with religious care through genera-
 
 228 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 tions of danger and darkness, burn on its secret al- 
 tars, or consume the incense of its daily offerings. 
 No longer, within its hidden chambers, shall an 
 approach to the majesty of God be tremulously 
 sought, by spirits bending in silence to catch the 
 faintest emanations of his splendour, or the softest 
 whispers of his voice. Even the glory of his sheki- 
 nah shall be enshrouded and concealed no longer ; 
 the ark of his covenant no longer deposited within 
 the inmost sanctuary; the seat of his mercy sha- 
 dowed no longer by the wings of the cherubim ; 
 the way into the holiest tracked no longer in blood. 
 The veil shall be wholly removed. The path to his 
 abode shall be accessible, and for ever open; the 
 communications of his fellowship uninterrupted and 
 familiar; the tokens of his grace perceptible on 
 every hand; and the pledges of his fidelity, enjoyed 
 without restriction, shall never be withdrawn. It is 
 thus that the mystery of God shall be finished, and 
 the work of redemption attain the fulness of its 
 close: God manifested in his highest glory, and 
 man in the consummation both of his nature and 
 his felicity. 
 
 III. For the direct improvement of this inquiry, 
 let us now examine, THE MANNER WHEREIN IT 
 
 TEACHES US TO REFLECT BOTH ON OUR PRIVILEGES 
 AND OUR DUTY. 
 
 1. We should meditate upon this subject with 
 mingled gratitude and wonder, as on a theme ma- 
 jestic even beyond our highest contemplation, and 
 yet not too elevated for our hopes.
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 229 
 
 It can never be sufficiently deplored, that, for the 
 want of such reflection, we derive small benefit even 
 from the most elevated principles, and the strongest 
 convictions. Truths which, were they seriously 
 revolved, might raise us almost above the sphere of 
 earthly influences, are often found to leave us 
 wholly without advantage, in the moment either of 
 exertion or of peril, for no other reason but because 
 they are hastily dismissed from our remembrance, 
 having been first feebly and inadequately appre- 
 hended. This, moreover, strange as it may appear, 
 is an evil great in proportion to the greatness, 
 and imminent in proportion to the importance, of 
 the objects with which it is connected. Their very 
 magnitude represses our attempt to understand 
 them; their momentousness induces despondency 
 of being able practically to apply them. If we would 
 escape this error, we must summon our most vigor- 
 ous attention, and resolve to possess ourselves of 
 every blessing we have been invited to consider. 
 
 Still, a half incredulous emotion can hardly fail to 
 unite itself with the exclamation, so naturally 
 prompted by the most cursory review, " Will God 
 in very deed dwell with man upon the earth, while 
 the heaven, even the heaven of heavens, cannot 
 contain him !" May we rest on this announcement 
 as one intended for the guidance of action, as well 
 as to the excitation of intellectual effort ? Are we 
 warranted to believe that the Author of all nature 
 is ever intimately present with us, and ready to im- 
 part, on the first feeling of their need, those supplies 
 of strength and comfort, which the extent both of
 
 230 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 his ability and of our dependence might urge us to 
 solicit ? Is he a God " at hand ?" Wherever we 
 seek him, will he graciously be found ? What, then, 
 should be the measure of our thankfulness, or what 
 the ardour of our praise ! 
 
 Ah ! how terrific had been our destitution, had 
 he finally withdrawn ! What judicial blindness 
 might have seized upon our understandings; what 
 impenetrable hardness upon our hearts ! How 
 might we have wandered in pursuit of phantoms, 
 ignorant both of our danger and of our safety ! In 
 what a maze of ruinous and guilty errors might we 
 then have been bewildered ! Must we ascend to the 
 heights above us, or plunge into the depths beneath ? 
 Must we traverse the remotest regions, and seek, 
 in every province of creation, him on whom our 
 everlasting all was dependent ? Alas ! what would 
 it have availed us to agitate these questions, while 
 still there remained another we could never resolve, 
 and one of infinitely greater and more pressing con- 
 sequence, Wherewithal shall we come before God, 
 or what offering shall we bring that may secure his 
 favour ? Where is the sacrifice that may take away 
 our sins ? Or who shall set open to us the way of 
 acceptance and of life ? Judge, brethren, from the 
 misery involved in that overwhelming conception, 
 an everlasting exile, an irrevocable prohibition to 
 approach to God, what is the privilege of dwelling 
 within the precincts of his tabernacle, and where he 
 waits continually to be gracious ! O let us never, 
 by a forgetfulness or an indifference the very op- 
 posite of all his conduct, renew the sentence of our
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 231 
 
 own exclusion, and thus seal immutably both our 
 condemnation and our ruin ! 
 
 2. We are thus conducted to our next remark, 
 namely, that we should reflect on the subject before 
 us with united watchfulness, diligence, and trust, by 
 which alone we can practically realize the enjoyment 
 of so great a blessing. 
 
 I say, with watchfulness ; for thus only shall we 
 do honour to the divine majesty and glory: with 
 diligence ; for this is requisite to protect us from the 
 guilt of trifling with favours we can never merit, and 
 which, if once withheld or forfeited, may never be 
 renewed : and yet with holy trust ; for this is due 
 equally to the condescension and the veracity of 
 God, and cannot be separated from our own fidelity 
 or happiness. And I repeat, further, that they 
 must be united; for, if we attempt the cultivation of 
 any of them separately, not only will our effort 
 prove abortive, but our very success, were it even 
 possible, would be almost worse than failure. It 
 would be to produce a spurious piety, and to present 
 the covert of a baseless confidence. Watchfulness 
 would degenerate into timidity or superstition; 
 diligence into self-righteous formality, or a vain and 
 profitless devotion; and trust, into irreverent pre- 
 sumption, the most offensive of all qualities that can 
 attach, either to a dependent creature, or to a ruined 
 and unpardoned transgressor. Let us learn, then, 
 so to think of God as to cherish an unmoveable re- 
 liance on his help, a sacred caution that we do not 
 outrage to the most awful of all beings, in his very 
 sight, and an habitual wakefulness of mind, that
 
 232 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 will prepare us for whatever is demanded to insure 
 his approbation. 
 
 3. Let us connect our meditations, in relation to 
 the truth thus certified, with a correspondent appre- 
 ciation of every ordinance which confirms it, and 
 every symbol whereby it is made known. 
 
 How beautifully is the presence of God signalized 
 amidst the assemblies of his people ! With what 
 assurance may we persuade ourselves, that he has 
 placed his habitation where he has " recorded his 
 name," displayed " his goings," stood " in the 
 midst to bless them," sent forth responses of 
 mercy from his holy oracle, comforted the sorrow- 
 ful, satisfied the hungry, refreshed the weary, given 
 strength to the feeble, and courage to the fearful in 
 heart ! these are the special indications of his pre- 
 sence in the sanctuary; and there, rather than in 
 any other spot in this degenerate and ruined world, 
 is his tabernacle usually set up, and the symbols of 
 his glory pre-eminently displayed. 
 
 With equal force does the declaration apply to 
 the volume of divine inspiration. The Bible, em- 
 bodying a transcript of the thoughts and sentiments 
 of God, presents, not an exposition only of his judg- 
 ments or his conduct, but his very mind, his intel- 
 lectual image, and, in the most impressive sense, 
 Himself. Its contents are the treasures of his wis- 
 dom, the announcement of his decrees, the ratifica- 
 tion of his covenant. It speaks by his living voice, 
 breathes his all-animating spirit, and pledges every 
 power of his ineffable nature to the fulfilment whe- 
 ther of its promises or its threatenings : nor is there
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 233 
 
 any other mode, whereby he could more deliberately 
 commit the whole glory of his empire to the decision 
 of a single issue, than by the stipulations it embraces, 
 and the authentications with which it is enstamped. 
 Surely here, then, emphatically, is the residence of 
 God! 
 
 For the like reasons, an inestimable worth at- 
 taches to the sabbath ; to the sacramental table ; 
 to the communion of the saints ; and to all the in- 
 stitutions of religion. It belongs to the solitary 
 walk, to the secret chamber, to the retirement of 
 the garden, or the field, or of the remote and echoing 
 shore ; in a word, to whatever brings us into director 
 contact with the great and all-pervading Spirit ; 
 whatever disposes us to his fellowship, or forcibly 
 reminds us of his observation. 
 
 A mind duly sensible of these advantages, and 
 alive to the causes out of which they flow, will ad- 
 vert, with similar feelings, to the effect of those 
 interior exercises, by which it may create for itself 
 that seclusion which is sometimes denied by our 
 external circumstances. It will esteem, beyond all 
 price, that stillness of the soul, that sabbatic quietude 
 of the affections, that escape from the vanities of 
 pleasure and the perturbations of business, that obli- 
 vion of anxiety and care, that sweet repose of sor- 
 row, which meetens it to listen to the small still 
 voice of its Creator, or aids it to pour out its every 
 wish and fear into his bosom. It will long for the 
 more undisputed mastery over its own habitual 
 thoughts, and the more settled elevation above 
 earthly operations and influences; that with the 
 
 VOL i. 2 G
 
 234 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 greater certainty it might forbid the intrusion of 
 objects tending only to distract and agitate, and hold 
 the more unobstructed fellowship with God. It will 
 remember, that, while God draws near to men, and 
 deigns, with infinite condescension, to take up his 
 abode amidst them; men, too, must reciprocally 
 strive, in meditation and holy feeling, to draw near 
 to God; or, for the practical enjoyment of his 
 friendship, all will be in vain. Far, therefore, from 
 a supine contentment with the degree wherein it 
 may have already realized this privilege, it will 
 maintain an unyielding struggle against the diversi- 
 fied and nameless hinderances, which so often inter- 
 cept, and so constantly enfeeble, the sense of its 
 actual possession. Rejoicing in the measure of 
 success which may now attend its efforts, and deem- 
 ing a day spent in the service of its Maker better 
 than a thousand, it will yet expect the completion of 
 its joy only when it shall have shaken off the lim- 
 itations, together with the burden, of the flesh, and 
 being "absent from the body, it shall be present 
 with the Lord." 
 
 4. The consideration of this blessing should in- 
 spire us with sacred ambition, and a generous 
 ardour, to diffuse both its knowledge and its parti- 
 cipation among those who are yet destitute of its 
 enjoyment. 
 
 An event commemorated with so much satisfac- 
 tion in the remotest regions, might be expected nat- 
 urally to excite the liveliest pleasure on their part 
 to whom it immediately relates; and the strong- 
 est impulse likely to arise within their breasts would
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 235 
 
 be, surely, to publish its tidings throughout every 
 land. Every one who heard those tidings might be 
 anticipated to become a fresh and zealous witness to 
 their truth ; and their diffusion to be equally secured 
 by the gratification of benevolence and the stimulus 
 of honourable emulation. For how strange were it, 
 if transactions which most vitally concern our wel- 
 fare should attract the attention, or awaken the ad- 
 miration, of angels, rather than our own ! And 
 what criminal insensibility would it evince, if, while 
 they celebrated them with rapture, as amongst the 
 loftiest wonders of heaven, we should allow them to 
 remain, either without acknowledgment, or lost in 
 the obscurity of imperfect apprehensions, or the 
 feebleness of inoperative meditation, or buried in 
 guilty silence, while millions were perishing around, 
 to whom they had never been made known ! Why, 
 then, is it yet a fact, that there are millions of our 
 fellow-men still utterly without this knowledge ? Or 
 why should even one remain, to whom it has not 
 been conveyed ? Can any motive be wanting which 
 the subject itself, united with the necessities and 
 miseries of the world, is not amply sufficient to sup- 
 ply ? Alas ! our apathy is but too familiar, or it 
 might indeed have been incredible ; and, though our 
 duty is obvious and most imperative, yet the habit 
 of neglecting it has become so fixed, that it is no 
 longer an occasion either of surprise or of shame. 
 It would imply, on the contrary, a deviation from all 
 ordinary practice, and an invasion of the most set- 
 tled maxims of society, were any one amongst us 
 now fully to awake to the adequate perception of
 
 236 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 the case; and, perceiving it, to adjust his mea- 
 sures, and direct his course, accordingly. Great 
 as are, unquestionably, the examples which Christian 
 piety and zeal have sometimes furnished, still it 
 may be doubted, whether any has yet equalled what 
 would thus be produced. An energy of holy com- 
 miseration, an intensity of compassionate desire, an 
 agony of effort, might be expected to attend this 
 discovery, which would cast whatever we have wit- 
 nessed, perhaps, into the shade. The self-consum- 
 ing pity of the Saviour would become the only 
 parallel to the emotions of his followers. They too 
 would have " a baptism to be baptized with ; and 
 they would be straitened till it was accomplished." 
 
 This sacred fire, however, would be so far from 
 devouring what else was derived from the same 
 source, that order, and just submission to the regu- 
 lations established by divine authority, would neither 
 be forgotten nor invaded. The utmost fervour 
 would be united with the utmost forbearance ; indi- 
 vidual earnestness, with mutual charity. The whole 
 body of the faithful being animated by one spirit, 
 harmony of co-operation would be secured by the 
 same influence with pious competition and enter- 
 prise. The fears of unbelief would be dispelled ; 
 and, by the same light, the vauntings of an atheisti- 
 cal presumption would stand rebuked and humbled. 
 The assurance of its coming triumphs would clothe 
 with resistless power every effort to advance the do- 
 minion of holiness and truth ; and sustain, through 
 each present trial, not alone the vigour of exertion, 
 but the confidence of prayer. The world would
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 237 
 
 present the spectacle of a rapid and almost mira- 
 culous incorporation with the church; while the 
 church became, at every moment, more illustrious 
 in achievement, and more indissoluble in affection. 
 The shout we have heard out of heaven, would soon 
 ring back again from earth. She would arise with 
 all her myriads, and the loud peal of her innumer- 
 able voices, to celebrate the advent of her King. En- 
 throned in the midst of a rejoicing and happy peo- 
 ple, and holding the sceptre of an undisputed sway, 
 he would pour abroad on every land, and through 
 each successive period, ampler demonstrations of his 
 greatness, and the more welcome impartation of his 
 blessings. 
 
 But to indulge in complaint or censure, is ill 
 adapted either to redress our errors, or to supply 
 our defects. A better method remains, perhaps 
 hitherto imperfectly attempted. It is, resolutely to 
 examine, and vigorously to act upon, our principles ; 
 to aim first at distinct and energetic conceptions, 
 such as shall substantiate and bring home the things 
 which either we believe or hope for, and then, 
 trusting in the all-sufficiency of divine assistance, 
 both to adventure fearlessly on their practical appli- 
 cation in our own sphere of duty, and to aim at 
 their most extended propagation in the case of 
 others. 
 
 Is there around us ignorance of God, contempt 
 of his authority, insensibility to his mercy, indiffer- 
 ence to his salvation ; and, as the consequence, 
 does every revolting shape of pollution and wretch- 
 edness present itself, wherever we direct our steps ?
 
 238 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 Are there whole provinces and countries, where his 
 name is unknown, and his dominion has never been 
 proclaimed ? And, though he has attested, in un- 
 numbered ways, his interest in the welfare of man- 
 kind, and the nearness and permanency of his rela- 
 tions towards them ; still, are there vast and almost 
 measureless territories, where, in the heart of his 
 own empire, he is utterly a stranger ? Let us ever 
 esteem it our happiest occupation, as it is so pal- 
 pably the first, best, noblest end of our existence, to 
 secure, whether by personal exertions, or through 
 any other channel, the universal proclamation of his 
 mercy. For this, let us be satisfied to live and la- 
 bour ; or, should it be demanded of us, even to 
 suffer and to die. 
 
 5. Let us, finally, contemplate the declaration of 
 the text with holy and unquenchable desire directed 
 habitually towards that happy period, wherein it 
 shall attain the perfect disclosure of its import, and 
 the perpetuity of its unlimited fulfilment. 
 
 Never let us relinquish the encouragement, nor 
 forego the instruction, springing from the remem- 
 brance, that what we at present behold is but a part, 
 a minute and imperfect fragment, of the great whole ; 
 that there are other observers, whose views re- 
 specting it derived from a larger survey and a lof- 
 tier point of vision are immeasurably more con- 
 formable to truth ; by whom it is contemplated with 
 supreme delight and wonder : and yet that even 
 they, great as are their capacities, and exalted pro- 
 portionately as are all their conceptions, behold it 
 still but in embryo, and as containing mysteries into
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 239 
 
 which they desire more perfectly to look. For 
 though " to the principalities and powers in heavenly 
 places is already known by the church the manifold 
 wisdom of God," yet its developments are continu- 
 ally enlarging, and growing more decisive ; while 
 they are destined, hereafter, to acquire an expan- 
 siveness and splendour both in their certainty and in 
 their glory, which none but their Author can ade- 
 quately estimate ; and perhaps, too, which none else, 
 in the present condition of his being, would be pre- 
 pared, or even able, to endure. 
 
 Of elementary truths, as pertaining to the great 
 work of our salvation, we have nothing further to 
 anticipate, either in the shape of additional intima- 
 tion, or essential evidence. Respecting the great 
 ends of their discovery, in the production whether 
 of holiness or comfort, we need ask no more. The 
 intrinsic excellency of their effects, in renewing and 
 purifying our degenerate nature, and thus leading 
 on to its perfection, is sufficiently exhibited in the 
 happy experience of others, and in our own. The 
 constancy of their advance, and the promise of their 
 universality, seem to admit scarcely any greater 
 confirmation. And thus, that the reign of God is 
 approaching to its final consummation and estab- 
 lishment, and that, in that reign, all danger, anar- 
 chy, and sorrow r , will be completely done away, 
 those cannot surely question, who have reflected on 
 the wonders of his character, or tasted the sweet- 
 ness of his grace. For, independently of the assur- 
 ances of scripture, there must come a period, when 
 the stupendous achievements, whether of creative
 
 240 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 power or providential wisdom, and the yet more 
 stupendous undertaking effected on the cross, shall 
 issue in nobler consequences, and be productive of 
 richer fruits, than any which have yet been made 
 known. The blood of Calvary must have an am- 
 pler recompense ; and the energy of an almighty 
 Spirit, still brooding on the chaos of the world, 
 musty after the lapse of so many ages, break forth 
 into brighter forms. The certainty of these things 
 appears so indisputably included in the very con- 
 ception of their nature, that even the era of their 
 accomplishment can add little to its force, however 
 it may modify and deepen its effect. 
 
 But, when such proclamations as that we have 
 now heard resound in loud accents from the heaven- 
 ly sanctuary; when they supersede the loftiest pro- 
 bability by the testimony of infallible assurance ; 
 we ought, surely, to exult in hope, to kindle with 
 longing expectation, and to make the inheritance 
 to which we are advancing, not alone the object of 
 our more fixed anticipation, but of our more prac- 
 tical and constant use, as a standard of judgment, 
 and a directory to action. 
 
 Despising, then, the cavils of infidelity, when they 
 point to the yet imperfect diffusion of the truth, and 
 blindly or basely charge on it the very evils which it 
 is singly, yet perpetually, tending to destroy, let us 
 learn to suppress also the murmurs of impatience, and 
 to banish the surmises of an immature faith, when, 
 either from the disorders or the miseries we now 
 behold, they would lead us to suspect the justice of 
 our convictions, or despond as to the glory that
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 241 
 
 shall be hereafter. Let it be our effort, to rise su- 
 perior both to our own infirmities, and to the weak- 
 nesses and errors of the church ; and to be willing 
 to wait and pray for that clearer illumination and 
 holier influence, before which all present ills shall 
 pass away, and every object be attained, which either 
 piety prompts us to desire, or hope to realize. Let 
 our exertions be stimulated, while our conceptions 
 are enlarged. Let our labour be, to become more 
 active and vigorous in our whole spiritual character, 
 and to make continual approaches to the measure of 
 the stature of the fulness of Christ. Instead of 
 querulous lamentations, or dark forebodings, let us 
 cultivate the spirit of animation and cheerfulness. 
 Let diligence and delight be combined in every 
 service ; and, with the spirit of triumphant joy, let 
 us smile at every obstacle, and banish every alarm. 
 
 Moreover ; the subject, rightly understood, may 
 well defend us equally against an impatient and pre- 
 sumptuous expectation, as if the day of Christ were 
 at hand. Even now, the footsteps of victorious 
 mercy may be discerned in their approach ; and the 
 very last feeling of our soul should be to despair 
 because of their delay, or to exclaim, " Where is 
 the promise of his coming ?" Yet let us leave to 
 others the unprofitable task of computing " the times 
 and the seasons, which the Father hath put in his 
 own power," or of seeking to unravel the intrica- 
 cies, and penetrate the gloom, in which the future 
 is designedly enwrapped. It is enough for us to 
 know, that the counsel of God can neither fail nor 
 alter ; that " his word shall stand for ever, even 
 
 VOL. i. 2 H
 
 242 DISCOURSES AT THE 
 
 the thoughts of his heart to a thousand generations." 
 Sobriety in judgment is the natural ally of simplicity 
 in faith. Let us occupy, therefore, with steadfast 
 perseverance, our sphere of present duty, while 
 waiting, in devoutest expectation, for the coming of 
 the Lord. 
 
 Meanwhile, gleams of approaching glory will 
 sometimes break sublimely on our vision. The short 
 interval of time will seem almost to be annihilated, 
 and " the day of redemption " be already dawning. 
 The chariot of the returning Saviour, and the last 
 conquest of his people, will be seen to be prepared. 
 And we shall expect the rapturous announcement, 
 " Behold, the coming of the Lord draweth nigh !" 
 
 O happy day ! when " the shout of the archan- 
 gel and the trump of God" shall proclaim that he 
 is here ; when the multitude of his redeemed shall 
 spring, at the first summons, from the dust of their 
 long slumber, and arise to meet him; when the 
 descending host of angels shall mingle with the 
 throng of patriarchs and prophets, and the saints of 
 every age, and the bridal of the Lamb be cele- 
 brated in an hymeneal, wherein the rapture of the 
 universe shall flow in one deep and majestic chorus, 
 sweet as the murmurs of Siloam, and awful as the 
 sound of many waters ! 
 
 Thrice blessed morning ! when the sun shall rise 
 no more upon scenes blasted by rebellion, and in- 
 vaded by sorrow; when his beam shall fall no 
 more, languid and joyless, on the glooms of sick- 
 ness, and the couch of agony; when no eye shall 
 again behold it with reluctance and a shivering
 
 OPENING OF CHAPELS. 243 
 
 horror, as it spreads over features of hopeless deso- 
 lation, or lights up the chamber of death ! Wel- 
 come, unutterably welcome, the hour of final eman- 
 cipation from the thraldom of corruption and the 
 defilement of sin ! the period, when temptation shall 
 cease to assail, and remorse to embitter; when to 
 be happy shall no longer be to be in danger, and 
 to desire the happiness of others, expose us no 
 longer to the baseness of ingratitude, or the anguish 
 of desertion; when confidence shall be secure of 
 its requital, and sympathy of corresponding tender- 
 ness; when the emotions of every breast shall be 
 hallowed and exalted by the pervading spirit of 
 love; and every sentiment, subordinated to the 
 power of truth, shall confess the control of an all- 
 perfect and unerring reason; when jealousy and 
 discord shall die away and be forgotten, the strife 
 of opinion, and the rivalry of interest, disappear 
 together, the imperfections of the church vanish 
 with the hostility and unbelief of the world, and 
 the frailties which now enfeeble us, filling us with 
 agitation or dishonour, be at length escaped for ever. 
 Knowledge shall be without ignorance or error; 
 trust, without suspicion or restraint; love, without 
 unfaithfulness or decline ; obedience, without wea- 
 riness or failure ; joy, without satiety or end. Each 
 perfected and happy spirit, resting in the conscious- 
 ness of the divine approval, and replenished by ever- 
 flowing communications of almighty power, while 
 the springs of a hidden life arise unceasingly within, 
 and the sense of undecaying blessedness is every 
 hour renewed, shall exult also, with a generous
 
 244 DISCOURSES AT THE OPENING, &C. 
 
 delight, in the equal perfection and felicity of all by 
 whom it is surrounded. Light, purity, and bliss 
 shall be the single conditions of their common exis- 
 tence. Every shadow shall have fled, every im- 
 pediment be surmounted, every apprehension dis- 
 pelled, and every danger past. No hinderance 
 shall remain to the most free and joyous communion, 
 both with God and each other. Their satisfaction 
 shall be absolute ; their cup shall run over. 
 
 Let the prospect, brethren, be often and devoutly 
 reviewed. Cherish, with profoundest reverence, the 
 belief of those promises by which it is made sure. 
 Ask yourselves frequently, by what efforts you may 
 hasten the period, when all shall be realized ; and 
 what preparation you have yet attained for its en- 
 joyment. Remember, it is the last crisis of your 
 history, the epoch, either of your consummate ex- 
 altation, or your everlasting shame. Its hour is 
 unalterably fixed; its issues unspeakably momen- 
 tous ; and its arrival becoming every moment nearer. 
 
 God is coming to judgment ; and we must stand 
 before him ! He is coming with vengeance, 
 " even God with a recompence," and we, yes, we, 
 must abide the day of his appearing ! He is coming 
 in triumph; and it is the triumph both of wrath 
 and of mercy : where then shall ice be found ?
 
 i. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE 
 
 AT THE 
 
 ORDINATION OF THE REV. THOMAS PARRY 
 
 OVER THE 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN BLACKBURN, 
 
 LANCASHIRE, 
 NOVEMBER 27th, 1834.
 
 DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 THE ordination of a Christian pastor is a solemnity 
 so intimately connected with all that is endearing 
 and tender, and with all that is sacred and im- 
 pressive, that nothing can be more unsuited to its 
 nature, than whatever is harsh, ungenerous, or re- 
 pulsive. It involves such momentous interests, points 
 to so awful a crisis, and brings us beneath the influ- 
 ence of so deep a consciousness of the divine pre- 
 sence, that all which attends it ought surely to be 
 regulated by the strictest regard, not to truth alone, 
 but to the unity and edification of the church. What 
 is censorious in statement, or ungentle in manner, is 
 in such circumstances pre-eminently inappropriate; 
 and our aim should be, to inflict, at least, no un- 
 necessary wound, even on the feeblest or the most 
 in error, of all by whom the scene is witnessed ; 
 whatever be their preconceptions or the habits of 
 their thought. On this account, it would be a just 
 subject of regret and condemnation, if the earliest 
 portion of our present services should be of a kind 
 to promote, rather than to allay, the hostility of one 
 denomination, and the jealousy of another ; and we 
 were now introduced into engagements, the most
 
 248 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 responsible and serious in which man can possibly 
 be employed, in a spirit of emulation, rather than 
 of peace, and of party feelhig, rather than of holi- 
 ness and love. Many, I am well aware, will be the 
 defects attaching to that part in these proceedings 
 which it is mine to fulfil : but from the evil thus 
 referred to, it shall be my study to escape ; and, if 
 I fail in every thing besides, I trust I shall not fail 
 in having refused to minister to the further estrange- 
 ment of brethren, already but too widely severed 
 from each other. 
 
 I. Before we enter directly upon the examination 
 of those great principles involved in the transactions 
 of this day, and which distinguish the churches 
 commonly called independent, or congregational, 
 from those by which they are surrounded ; it may 
 be profitable for us briefly to consider, the manner 
 in which all such inquiries ought to be conducted, 
 and the sources of information to which we ought 
 to apply. For, it may be, that some who hear me 
 may have been accustomed to view the whole matter 
 in so different a light from that wherein it may now 
 be placed before them, as not readily to admit the 
 justice or the force of conclusions, which they are 
 yet not prepared to dispute ; or perhaps to regard 
 that as trivial and unimportant, or else as incon- 
 siderate and presumptuous, which they may now 
 hear stated to be of fundamental consequence in 
 the government and structure of the church. Some 
 may perhaps expect the argumentative discussion of 
 our whole system of ecclesiastical polity; whereas
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. '249 
 
 we shall confine ourselves to its brief and didactic 
 
 exposition. Others may look for refutation, or 
 
 attempts at refutation, of the sentiments of those 
 
 from whom we differ ; whereas we shall contract 
 
 our design within the narrower limits, of seeking to 
 
 render only the most plain and peaceful statement 
 
 of our own. To some it may appear a defect, that 
 
 we do not answer to the contrary allegations of those 
 
 whom they, not we, may designate as our opponents ; 
 
 and we may seem to take too high ground, when 
 
 we pass by their reasonings, and still more their 
 
 confident assertions, without notice or reply. And 
 
 there may be those, who, because we do not touch 
 
 on every thing that may have been advanced, either 
 
 to prove the truth of our belief, or else to undermine 
 
 it, may think of us as having presented an imperfect 
 
 view of the whole case; and perhaps may go away 
 
 exulting in what they regard as the weakness of our 
 
 defence, or the impregnable security of what it was 
 
 no part of our intention to assail. 
 
 Let me state, therefore, first of all, that on this 
 occasion the practices of congregational dissenters 
 shall be presented, with as small as possible a mea- 
 sure of a controversial spirit. It is not the Church 
 of England, or any other church, that we meet here 
 to censure; but the churches of our own faith and 
 order, that demand from us the exhibition of their 
 principles. And further, those principles are now 
 to be adduced, not as if they were the subjects of 
 attack, and which we therefore were necessitated to 
 defend ; but as subjects of inquiry, and of conse- 
 quent exposition, which we are concerned only to 
 
 VOL. i. 2 i
 
 250 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 make plain to your understandings, and to recom- 
 mend to your most serious and deliberate scrutiny. 
 If they shall approve themselves to your enlightened 
 judgment, as consonant with reason and the word 
 of God, then, let us hope, you will adopt them for 
 yourselves : but if otherwise, let them be rejected. 
 We have nothing to complain of ; you nothing to 
 condemn. Use your own liberty, and refuse not 
 ours. Both you and we are answerable to God 
 alone. 
 
 In every examination of things connected with 
 religion, it is of the utmost importance that we pre- 
 serve the mind, throughout its whole progression, 
 free and unshackled; so that while, on the one 
 hand, we may not be perverted, on the other, we 
 may not be disgusted, and driven into opposite con- 
 clusions, by the repulsiveness of error. Our aim 
 should always be to keep the judgment (and much 
 more the conscience) exempt from every perturba- 
 tion and every bias. To this end, it is sometimes 
 requisite, that we should not even ask with whom 
 we agree, nor be solicitous to know from whom we 
 differ. We should learn to reason thus " Is this 
 established? It is neither the more authoritative, 
 nor the less probable, for that accidental circum- 
 stance. Is this branded as schismatical ? It may 
 nevertheless be true; and yet that stigma is no 
 presumption of its soundness. Here lies the New 
 Testament. It is written for all, and for me. I 
 have nothing to do with the practice or the senti- 
 ments of others. I must examine and think for 
 myself. If they agree with me, it is well. If we
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 251 
 
 differ, it is of no importance. I cannot believe 
 because they have believed before me. I dare not 
 reject a position merely because they have embraced 
 it. As to churches, synods, councils, ecclesiastical 
 edicts, or conventional usages, they matter nothing 
 to me. They cannot make that binding, which 
 scripture does not confirm ; neither can their de- 
 cision in its favour, invalidate its real claims, 
 however much it might have disposed me to sus- 
 pect them. I dismiss them, therefore, without a 
 moment's concern. I am not so arrogant, as to set 
 up my opinion against them ; yet I am not so timid, 
 as to submit to their dictation. A feeble and fallible 
 mortal, I depend alone upon the guidance of the 
 word and Spirit of God ; and it is an affair of per- 
 fect insignificance to me, what other mortals, fallible 
 and feeble like myself, may have pretended to de- 
 termine before me. I do not inquire as a church- 
 man, nor yet as a dissenter; as an episcopalian, 
 or presbyterian, or independent; but as a man, 
 and, by the grace of God, a Christian. I know 
 nothing, in this research, of such characters or de- 
 signations as these. I strive to act and judge as if 
 they were wholly destitute of being. I know not, I 
 ask not, who is right or wrong, learned or ignorant, 
 prejudiced or enlightened. My task is simple. My 
 way is plain before me. Here is the record: and I 
 must read it for myself." 
 
 It is a great part of wisdom, in the conduct of 
 religious inquiries, thus to avoid the disturbing in- 
 fluence exerted by other minds; and especially to 
 secure ourselves from being hurried to extremes, by
 
 252 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 the folly, or the violence, of those from whom we 
 find ourselves necessitated to dissent; and, through 
 mere disgust, embracing the very errors opposite to 
 theirs. The opposite of falsehood, is not always 
 truth; nor that of folly, wisdom. The extreme of 
 punctiliousness in one class, may have produced 
 the equal extreme of irreverence in another. The 
 puerilities of a gaudy ceremonial, may have goaded 
 on men, otherwise sober and temperate, into a con- 
 temptuous austerity; seeking to suppress, not to 
 control, those sympathies and impulses of nature, 
 which might have been made tributary to religion. 
 But what is the cause for which, if my neighbour 
 substitutes outward formalities instead of inward and 
 serious convictions, walking amidst the gloom and 
 twilight of a superstitious ritual, I therefore must 
 cast off all solemnity in the service of God, and 
 deem myself the more rationally devout, in pro- 
 portion as I am the more systematically indifferent 
 to all that might contribute to its decorum or its 
 beauty, or even to its grandeur, and the sanctity 
 and force of its impression ? When men were called, 
 like our forefathers, to struggle for the very life of 
 piety against a slavish subjugation to its forms, it 
 was natural, perhaps it was right, that they should 
 trample on those forms, as childish and unmeaning, 
 and even as dangerous to the soul; since thus they 
 usurped the place of things greater and more neces- 
 sary : but surely the time is come, when, without 
 a whit abating the strength and firmness of our pro- 
 test against the trickery and tinsel of a vain and 
 foppish worship, we may fearlessly incorporate into
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 253 
 
 our own whatever is conducive to its dignity, and 
 to the sober grace of its appearance, or may con- 
 spire with its other and higher qualities, either to 
 enhance its effect upon ourselves, or to protect it 
 from the vulgar ridicule, or the natural distaste, of 
 those by whom its uses and its spirit are unknown. 
 
 There is, in many minds, a native and almost 
 invincible prepossession in favour of all that is ac- 
 credited, or ancient, or associated with dignity and 
 high station. It may be a physical propensity ; it 
 may be an intellectual weakness ; it may be a moral 
 sentiment, estimable and virtuous in its affinities, 
 but in itself unintelligent and liable to much per- 
 version. There is, in others, a contempt of autho- 
 rity, a fierce independency of action, which may 
 be equally injurious, when carried to excess. Men 
 of the former class would be bigots everywhere; 
 those of the latter, everywhere unbelievers. You 
 would find the former, equally in all countries, at- 
 tached, like its very shadow, to rank, and power, 
 and pride, and all the pageantry and domination 
 of the state. The latter, you would meet with in 
 all countries, querulous, and restless, and prepared 
 for change. There is a constitutional churchman- 
 ship ; and there is a constitutional sectarianism : 
 and they are both equally contemptible and worth- 
 less. Our business is, to preserve the habits of our 
 mind, to the last practicable extent, free from the 
 perversions of either class, and to follow truth alone 
 wherever it may lead us; making candid allowance 
 for the failings and errors of other men, but using 
 the most vigorous exertions to surmount our own.
 
 254 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 It is in the same spirit that we ought, I conceive, 
 to state, and to maintain our principles; and it is 
 scarcely less important that thus they should be 
 exhibited, than that they should be thus acquired. 
 Too generally we have dealt, I think, with the 
 subjects implicated in this investigation, as those 
 altogether of polemical theology ; and it might per- 
 haps have been said, with equal justice, to the dis- 
 putants on either side "Ye fast for strife and 
 debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness." 
 Those of our denomination have propounded their 
 sentiments, too much in the manner merely of de- 
 fensive warfare. They have been too much con- 
 cerned to show, that they did not causelessly depart 
 from the national communion; and have conducted 
 their appeal, too generally, as an accused though 
 innocent party. Too much respect has been had 
 to those from whom we separate; as if there had 
 been some original and strong presumption on their 
 side, which we were required to surmount. Truth 
 has not been announced in a tone sufficiently tran- 
 quil and dispassionate; and we have not learned to 
 detach ourselves, so completely as was due, from all 
 connection, even in thought, with the opinions or 
 observances of any other society. Let us correct 
 this mistake. The times are favourable to its cor- 
 rection. Our own superior liberty, for which we 
 cannot be too grateful, and a generous regard to 
 those from whom we differ rather than secede, alike 
 invite us to it. Dissent is no longer a crime. Our 
 churches are conventicles no longer. We may 
 smile securely now, at the impotent malignity of
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 255 
 
 those, who, like the military judge of another and 
 less fortunate age, would doubtless renew the com- 
 mand, that we be "examined by" the most logical 
 method of " scourging." The date of fines, confis- 
 cations, and imprisonment, is past. Even political 
 disability for conscience' sake, is wisely and equi- 
 tably removed. Men are not now supposed in- 
 capable of administering an office, or executing a 
 trust, because they will not violate their convictions, 
 nor barter and prostitute their freedom. And now, 
 what have we any more to do with answers, refuta- 
 tions, or apologies ? or wherefore, in the publication 
 of our principles, should we so much as recognise 
 the very existence of those which we renounce and 
 abandon as erroneous? Episcopacy may be scrip- 
 tural, or otherwise ; so may the doctrines and 
 practices of any church whatever ; and ours, so far 
 as they are at variance with these, must be thus far 
 liable to censure : but for the guilt of noncon- 
 formity we can be arraigned no longer; and to all 
 charges or surmises of this nature, let us decline, 
 therefore, any longer to reply. 
 
 Indulge me in another remark, of the same pre- 
 liminary character. In this whole inquiry, nothing 
 can be more imperatively necessary, than an exclu- 
 sive adherence to the authority of scripture. On 
 whatever side we look, we see only confusion and 
 discord, and shall experience only uncertainty and 
 weakness, except as we are guided by this light, 
 and strengthened by this support. The most im- 
 posing pretensions are elsewhere associated with the 
 utmost imbecility; the loftiest claims with the most
 
 25() ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 puerile infatuations. The testimonies of one age 
 neutralize those of another. Authorities are equally 
 divided, and mutually contrasted. If there be truth 
 anywhere, it must either be amidst them all, or be- 
 yond them all; for it is impossible to determine 
 between them. In matters of so great consequence 
 as those belonging to religion, such uncertainty can- 
 not but be most oppressive to a serious mind; and 
 well may we cleave to any standard which may 
 assume to be infallible. This is the only refuge 
 from universal scepticism; and it can hardly be 
 doubted, that such a refuge is somewhere to be 
 found. Wherever it may be, it will be confessed 
 as the most precious gift of heaven to bewildered 
 and erring man. Where then shall it be sought? 
 Shall we search for it amongst the decrees of pon- 
 tiffs, and the decisions of councils, or in the plain 
 declarations of scripture? In any other quarter it 
 is not even pretended; and our choice is reduced 
 within very narrow bounds. We must acknowledge 
 it, if at all, either in the pope, or in the bible. 
 Make your election, therefore, brethren; and abide 
 the consequences. 
 
 It is easy to foresee the objections that might be 
 inconsiderately made to such an exclusive and con- 
 fident appeal to the testimony of scripture, in matters 
 of church polity: and, though it is no part of our 
 present business, we must be permitted to add also, 
 that it is easy to conceive in what manner they 
 might be repelled. Men might say, for example: 
 The period included in the history of the New Tes- 
 tament, was too short to permit the full develop-
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 257 
 
 ment of a constitution which was to extend through 
 all nations and all time. Every thing was immature, 
 and unsettled, and pressing on to the future for its 
 consummation. Why should we confine our views 
 to so restricted a field as that furnished by the dis- 
 cipline of the first age; before Christianity had put 
 forth all its powers, and shown how it was able to 
 control even the civil institutions of mankind ? But 
 to this, how natural would be the answer: That 
 period, which you complain of as too short, extended 
 through considerably more than half a century ; from 
 the death of Jesus, to the writing of the last of the 
 apostles; and this was amply sufficient, to give to 
 the primitive societies of Christians both their ful- 
 ness of evolution, and their stability of order. In 
 such an interval, every question was likely to arise, 
 which it was important to determine; and every 
 expedient to suggest itself, which it was fitting to 
 adopt. It might be said, again : The apostles were 
 too much occupied with fundamentals, to have leisure 
 for the settlement of such affairs. But to this it 
 would be enough, if we should oppose the whole 
 tenor of the narrative which records their "acts;" 
 and the specific replies to queries of this very nature, 
 as well as the superscriptions, salutations, and other 
 current references to points wholly of office or of 
 discipline, which abound in their epistles : and the 
 objection must be instantly withdrawn. Again, it 
 might be argued, that the state of the church was 
 too perilous, and all things too uncertain, and too 
 much depressed, to permit that such administrations 
 should be set up within it, as might yet correspond 
 VOL. i. 2 K
 
 258 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 both to the nature of Christianity in itself, and to 
 the ultimate designs of its great Author. But the 
 answer would be prompt and decisive : Neither 
 the dangers nor the agitations of the church could 
 operate to diminish, but much rather to increase, 
 the necessity of whatever was adapted to secure its 
 permanency, and to complete its order; and more- 
 over, it is an assumption too bold, to maintain that 
 any thing was wanting to its perfection, through 
 the mere repugnancy of its external circumstances, 
 while it was directly regulated by those whom he 
 had inspired with his own spirit, and invested with 
 all the plenitude of his own authority. It might be 
 asserted further, and in confirmation of the former 
 sentiment, that there was then as yet no single 
 country upon earth converted to the faith ; and 
 hence it could not be gathered from the Condition 
 of things before such an event, what would be their 
 aspect afterwards; and from an age of persecution 
 and internal weakness, it were too much to reason, 
 what would be the state of the church, when Chris- 
 tianity should come to be acknowledged by kings, 
 and rulers, and whole empires, as their general be- 
 lief, and assume the natural dominancy of the 
 popular religion. Who does not see, that it would 
 be just to answer to this statement that the case is 
 not altered yet; that in the vitality of its essence, 
 and the godlike purity of its control, the gospel has 
 never till this hour been embraced by a whole 
 people ; and that all which has been boasted under 
 such a name has been hollow and deceptive, and 
 unworthy to be called conversion. As an engine
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 259 
 
 of policy, or a form of prevalent superstition, it may 
 have been professed amongst the nations ; but it has 
 been only its mantle, tattered and defaced, that has 
 been worn by its bitterest enemies, or trampled be- 
 neath their feet, or rudely cast about, " free among 
 the dead, like the raiment of them that are slain," 
 while its angel beauty had fled, and its spirit of life 
 had departed. It might, once more, be said : 
 Whatever hints and fragments may be found in the 
 apostolic writings, bearing on this subject, are only 
 incidental and allusive; not of the nature of pre- 
 cepts, or historical testimonies, the use of which 
 would be obvious, and their authority decisive : and 
 further, even hence, as well as from the fountains 
 of tradition, or of antiquity, the most opposite con- 
 clusions have been constantly derived. But to meet 
 this twofold objection, it would be only requisite to 
 say there is no evidence so determinate, none so 
 rich in value, none so free from the suspicion of 
 imposture, as that which you refuse because it is 
 incidental, not directly affirmative. And further, 
 the diversity of interpretation and inference con- 
 nected with the documents of scripture, while it is 
 certainly a reason for diffidence in relation to our- 
 selves, is none for our distrust of the record; but a 
 ground only for the greater caution, fidelity, and 
 diligence, both while we explore, and while we apply 
 it to every practical design. 
 
 To such objections, others of like nature might 
 be readily subjoined; and replies, of equal force 
 and certainty, furnished with corresponding facility. 
 Should it, for instance, be inquired Do you discard,
 
 260 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 then, the judgment and the testimony of Christian 
 antiquity ; and set at nought the very fathers of the 
 church? We should be prepared to answer: We 
 neither discard, nor admit, the judgment of any 
 man, in things relating to God. To the testimony 
 of antiquity we give the utmost weight, and are 
 thankful to be permitted to learn, from holy men of 
 old, all which their situation qualified them to teach ; 
 which yet could be no more, than the opinions of 
 their contemporaries, united with their own, on 
 matters either unrevealed, or partially revealed, in 
 scripture. By this instruction, moreover, we con- 
 ceive our sentiments, in every important particular, 
 to be borne out and established. Were any one to 
 ask Do you set aside expediency in the govern- 
 ment of the church? We should reply: We are so 
 far from setting it aside, that we are studious in all 
 respects to conform to its requirements; and only 
 ask to be directed in so doing, by Him whose wis- 
 dom is the single competent judge of all expediency ; 
 and who has delivered his adjudication in a form 
 alike immutable and incapable of error. Should 
 any one affirm You presume too far, when you 
 allege that your polity is alone accordant with the 
 scripture ; for hence you virtually denounce all 
 other communities, as not only erroneous, but un- 
 scriptural, in every thing wherein they agree not 
 with yourselves : we should calmly remind the ob- 
 jector, that this is an accidental evil, from which 
 honest and resolute investigation can never be ex- 
 empt. Yet not for a moment would we sit in judg- 
 ment upon the integrity or piety of other Christian
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 261 
 
 communities. We question no man's right; we 
 censure no man's decision. We believe that there 
 is much truth mingled with much error in the sys- 
 tems of others; and are humbly apprehensive lest 
 it should at last appear, that there is much error 
 mingled with much truth in the fabrication of our 
 own. One thing, however, is certain: the scripture 
 cannot mislead us : let our system be tried by this 
 standard : and by the verdict that shall then be can- 
 didly pronounced, we are content that it stand or fall. 
 
 II. It may now be serviceable, to collect together 
 and exhibit in one view some of the most obvious 
 facts deducible from the intimations of the New 
 Testament concerning the constitution and govern- 
 ment of the church during the age of the apostles. 
 On these, for the sake of brevity, we shall not 
 further dwell; nor shall we dwell at length on the 
 specific proofs by which each is confirmed. They 
 have been often and elaborately examined ; and 
 though frequently disputed, as frequently established 
 by irrefragable evidence. In the present instance, 
 that we may pass to other matters, we shall rest their 
 confirmation rather on the general tenor of the 
 sacred writings, than on the testimony of individual 
 passages ; the citation of which, if carried to its full 
 extent, would exceed the limits of our time. Let it 
 be remembered, that in this service we do not so 
 much vindicate as explain our principles ; our object 
 being, not to justify them to the view of others, but 
 to recall and to enforce them practically, in appli- 
 cation to ourselves.
 
 262 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 From the apostolic writings we gather, then, the 
 following conclusions; and they are the basis of 
 that system we have received from our forefathers, 
 and still diligently observe, believing it to be not 
 less conducive to the edification of the church, than 
 consistent with the will of God, as it is made known 
 to us in scripture. 
 
 1. That in the primitive age every Christian 
 society was complete in its own structure, and pos- 
 sessed within itself all that was requisite for the 
 maintenance both of its worship and discipline, sepa- 
 rately from all others ; that, thus constituted, it 
 was independent of all external control, except only 
 that of the apostles, or else of special officers, (such 
 as Timothy and Titus, ) to whom they had delegated 
 the regulation of the whole community of the be- 
 lievers, within a particular district, and probably for 
 a limited time. Thus Paul himself, at his conver- 
 sion and early removal from Damascus to Jerusalem, 
 was not immediately admitted into the number of 
 the disciples in that city, until it had been announced 
 to them by Barnabas how many proofs he had afforded 
 to the brethren at Damascus of the sincerity of his 
 faith in the Lord Jesus; and then, on this satisfac- 
 tory evidence, presented to themselves, " he was with 
 them coming in and going out at Jerusalem."* 
 Thus too, we find the believers at Antioch refusing 
 to abide by the direction of some who came down 
 thither from Judea, in relation to the observances of 
 the Mosaic law, which were yet continued at Jeru- 
 
 * Acts ix. 2628.
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 263 
 
 salem ; and when, afterwards, they submitted the 
 affair " to the apostles and elders assembled at Jeru- 
 salem," they were called to receive their verdict and 
 abide by their decree, only as they spake expressly 
 by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.* Thus were 
 the Corinthians enjoined by Paul to put away from 
 among themselves a wicked person who had polluted 
 and dishonoured their society ; the Galatians to 
 restore a penitent offender; the Thessalonians to 
 "warn the unruly and support the weak," and to 
 " withdraw themselves from every brother walking 
 disorderly:" all in their own implied sufficiency of 
 power to carry such injunctions into effect; with 
 no exterior aid, or more decisive authority, f Thus, 
 too, were the disciples at Corinth rebuked by Paul, 
 for their neglect to judge between each other even 
 in civil matters, and so to prevent the scandal of 
 going to law before the unbelievers ; while, for an 
 abuse of administration, in instances of this nature, 
 the apostle James reproved, with equal severity, 
 those to whom he wrote. J And thus, in the book 
 of Revelation, each church is severally addressed, 
 as the subject of the divine approval or other- 
 wise, according as it had maintained within its 
 boundaries, or else forgotten to maintain, the purity 
 both of doctrine and discipline, for which it was 
 adjudged to be individually responsible, as it was 
 individually competent. And with respect to the 
 
 * Acts xv. 1, 28. 
 
 f 1 Cor. v. 13 ; Gal. vi. 1 ; 1 Thess. v. 14 ; 2 Thess. iii. 6. 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. vi. 1, &c. ; James ii. 2 4. 
 
 Chap. ii. 14, 20, &c.
 
 264 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 command possessed by Timothy and Titus, it de- 
 serves to be remembered, that the only term of 
 office employed in those epistles directed to them- 
 selves by which to define its character, is that of an 
 " Evangelist." While each of them, so far from be- 
 ing settled permanently as the ecclesiastical superior 
 of a particular district, is found travelling with Paul, 
 or else commissioned by him to visit various places, 
 and to assist in the labours of his apostolic ministry. 
 It is in this way Timothy was sent to Philippi, to 
 Corinth, to Thessalonica, and elsewhere ; and 
 Titus to Corinth, and to Dalmatia; clearly show- 
 ing, in what sense we are to understand the alleged 
 official primacy of the one at Ephesus, and of the 
 other in Crete ; and that it was by no means such 
 as to destroy, or to impair, that individual com- 
 pleteness, and consequent liberty, of the separate 
 churches ; which these extraordinary officers, whose 
 commission terminated with the exigence that gave 
 it origin, were appointed to establish, not to subju- 
 gate ; and to invest with the fulness of their order, 
 not, in perpetuity, to control.* 
 
 2. That such a society was invariably found of 
 no larger dimensions, than that all its members 
 could conveniently assemble in the same place, 
 both for the exercises of devotion, and for the trans- 
 action of business; and that this was strictly de- 
 nominated a church. 
 
 In proof of this it might be sufficient to remark, 
 
 * 2 Tim. iv. 5 ; Phil. ii. 19 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 10 ; 1 Thess. iii. 2 ; 
 2 Cor. viii. 6 ; 2 Tim. iv. 10 ; 1 Tim. i. 3 ; Tit. i. 5.
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 265 
 
 how familiarly the writers of the New Testament 
 speak of " prayer made without ceasing of the 
 church," as on behalf of the persecuted Peter, 
 when suffering under the violence of Herod.* It 
 might be enough to mention how they describe the 
 apostles, like Paul when, on his way from Ephesus 
 to Antioch, he landed at Csesarea, "going up and 
 saluting the church," and then passing forward on 
 their journey ; f or else on their arrival in a parti- 
 cular city, like Paul and Barnabas at Antioch, 
 " coming and gathering the church together, and 
 rehearsing all that God had done by them." J But 
 we will adduce rather the command of our Lord in 
 relation to private offences, after vainly expostu- 
 lating with the aggressor, to " tell it to the church :" 
 and the supposition of Paul "If the whole church 
 be come together into one place :"|| and, to enlarge 
 no further, that reference so repeatedly made to 
 the existence of a "church within a house" as in 
 the case of Philemon, and of Nymphas, and of 
 Aquila and Priscilla.^f 
 
 3. That where several such societies were situated 
 in the same city or province, they were never brought 
 into any closer connection, than that which every- 
 where subsisted amongst the congregations of the 
 faithful ; that they were never incorporated into 
 one; never subjected to the presidency of one spiri- 
 tual ruler; never forfeited their separate rights and 
 
 * Acts xii. 5. f Acts xviii. 22. 
 
 J Acts xiv. 27. Matt, xviii. 17. 
 
 II 1 Cor. xiv. 23. 
 
 IF Philem. ver. 2j Col. iv. 15 ; Rom. xvi. 5 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 19. 
 VOL I. 2 L
 
 '2(j() ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 jurisdiction: and hence, that they were never called 
 " the church " of such a city or province, but by the 
 plural term, " the churches." 
 
 Of this, even in reference to the congregations of 
 a single city, evidence seems to be furnished in a 
 case already alluded to " the church in the house 
 of Priscilla and Aquila" which can hardly be 
 thought to have been the whole or only church at 
 Rome ; and yet which is distinctly specified amongst 
 the salutations at the close of the epistle to the 
 Christians of that city. And this is rendered the 
 more probable by the fact, that the epistle is not 
 addressed, like some others, "to the church of God 
 at Rome," or by any similar superscription, but 
 " to all that be in Rome called to be saints :" so 
 that several small societies might, under such a de- 
 signation, be very naturally included; whereof this 
 probably was one. As to the congregations existing 
 in one province, the matter is beyond all reasonable 
 doubt : since we nowhere read of the church of Asia, 
 or of Macedonia, or of Galatia, or of Judea; but 
 uniformly, of "the churches of Asia," "the seven 
 churches that were in Asia," " the churches of 
 Macedonia," " the churches of Galatia," " the 
 churches of Judea which were in Christ," " the 
 churches of God which in Judea were in Christ 
 Jesus," and " the churches which for a short period 
 had rest through all Judea, and Galilee, and Sama- 
 ria :"* terms which unquestionably imply, that these 
 
 * 1 Cor. xvi. 19; Rev. i. 11; 2 Cor. viii. 1; Gal. i. 2; 
 1 Cor. xvi. 1 ; Gal. i. 22; 1 Thess. ii. 14; Acts ix. 31.
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 26? 
 
 societies were distinct and separate from each other ; 
 although the districts in which they were situated 
 were of very limited extent, and they might most 
 easily, had it been deemed desirable, have been 
 brought beneath some common and general control. 
 
 4. That in every such church there were two 
 orders of officers, and two only; viz. that of the 
 bishop, and that of the deacon ; but that the num- 
 ber of them, whether bishops or deacons, was various 
 in different instances, according to the extent of the 
 community, and the peculiarity of its circumstances. 
 
 We speak not now of those which were so mani- 
 festly of temporary duration, and essentially con- 
 nected with miraculous endowments ; but of such as 
 were attached to each particular church, and, in 
 their own nature, manifestly adapted to continue 
 through succeeding times. When these are com- 
 prehensively referred to, it is in terms like the fol- 
 lowing : " To all the saints in Christ Jesus which 
 are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons."* 
 When directions are professedly given, as in the 
 epistles of Paul to Timothy, for their proper regu- 
 lation and appointment, no others are described nor 
 hinted at ; but the qualifications of bishops only, and 
 of deacons, are largely insisted on, and rules en- 
 joined for their legitimate investiture.f And when 
 the duties of the ministry are enforced, in applica- 
 tion to those who sustained the general designation 
 Presbyters or Elders, those duties are found iden- 
 tical, both in character and even in name, with such 
 
 ... k 
 
 * Phil. i. 1. f I Tim. iii. 1, 8.
 
 268 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 as are included under the former only of these offices ; 
 thus proving that, in the apostolic age, no other 
 was acknowledged. So when Paul called for the 
 Elders of the church of Ephesus, he exhorted them 
 " Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock 
 over which the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops."* 
 When Peter exhorted " the elders" which were 
 among the faithful to whom he directed his epistle, 
 he, as being " also an elder, and a witness of the 
 sufferings of Christ," called on them to " feed the 
 flock of God, acting the part of bishops towards it, 
 not by constraint but willingly, not for filthy lucre 
 but of a ready mind."f And when Titus was in- 
 structed, in a manual drawn up designedly for this 
 end, that he should " set in order the things that 
 were wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as 
 Paul had appointed him," the character required 
 in these elders is plainly set before him, and the 
 reason assigned is this, that such is the very char- 
 acter demanded in a bishop; a statement wholly 
 inexplicable, and we will add impertinent and use- 
 less, unless those names, a presbyter and a bishop, 
 were then the same in import, and, with the other 
 facts we have adverted to, altogether unaccountable, 
 if at that period there had been any third office, 
 intermediate between that of the bishop and that of 
 the deacon; or one superior to them both, existing 
 and recognised amongst the churches of the saints. J 
 5. That the office of the bishop was wholly spiri- 
 
 * Acts xx. 17, 28 in the Greek. 
 f 1 Pet. v. 2. in the Greek. 
 t Tit. i. 5, 7.
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 269 
 
 tual, that of the deacon wholly secular ; the 
 bishop being appointed to preside over the services 
 and discipline of the church, the deacon, over the 
 management of its financial and economical affairs.* 
 This, surely, we may deduce, as relating to the 
 bishop, from reference to the case even of the apos- 
 tles, to whom the necessity of acting on such a prin- 
 ciple would be less than to ordinary ministers, and 
 yet who refused to bear the charge of distributing 
 the bounty of their brethren, unless they were at- 
 tended by others, chosen from among themselves, 
 and approved by their own letters, to bring their 
 liberality to those for whom it was designed; " avoid- 
 ing this, that no man should blame them in that 
 abundance that was administered by them ; and pro- 
 viding for honest things, not only in the sight of 
 
 * At the same time, it should not be forgotten, that the 
 duties of an office of this description, when existing in a com- 
 munity essentially spiritual, require to be performed in a manner 
 consistent with the character and ends of the community. The 
 provision for the poor, for example, being the fruit and expression 
 of spiritual love, ought to be distributed in such a way as not 
 merely to supply temporal wants, but to promote and quicken 
 the exercise of this love, and to lead the recipients of the charity 
 to a becoming recognition of the principle of Christian fellowship, 
 and of the kindness of the Church's Head, to inspire them 
 with gratitude, soothe them with comfort, cherish the spirit of 
 submission, point them to their better portion, and enliven their 
 devotion to God and their affection to their brethren. So that, 
 just as the distinction is, between the spiritual character of the 
 pastor's office and the secular character of the deacon's, yet is 
 there much of what is spiritual which not only may but must 
 enter into the appropriate fulfilment of the functions of the 
 latter. EDITOR.
 
 270 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 the Lord, but also in the sight of men." * And as 
 relating to the deacon, we have only to attend to 
 the occasion and circumstances of the institution of 
 that office, viz. " to serve the tables, and to attend 
 on the daily ministration" of the church's bounty, 
 as distinguished from " prayer and from the ministry 
 of the word;" to perceive that such was essentially 
 the nature of those functions he was appointed to 
 fulfil.f Not to mention that the different gifts of 
 " prophecy, and ministry, and teaching, and exhor- 
 tation," are specifically separated by Paul from those 
 of "giving, ruling, and showing mercy:" J and that 
 Peter, using one of these terms in a perhaps different 
 sense, seems to allude briefly to these two offices, 
 when he says, " If any man speak, let him speak as 
 the oracles of God : if any minister, let him do it as 
 of the ability which God giveth; that God in all 
 things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to 
 whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever." 
 6. That in each society, provision was made for 
 the support of the ministry; and also of the aged, 
 the sick, the poor, and those reduced to widowhood, 
 or rendered otherwise desolate and friendless ; and 
 moreover, for the assistance of other churches, if 
 they had been visited, either by persecution, or 
 famine, or any similar calamity: and that all this 
 was done, not by constraint but freely ; and as part 
 only of the obedience demanded from every disciple 
 to the law of love, which was the law of Christ. 
 
 * 1 Cor. xvi. 3, 4; 2 Cor. viii. 1921. 
 f Acts vi. 17. J Rom. xii. 68. 
 
 1 Pet. iv. 1 1.
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 271 
 
 This fact, in reference to the other classes we 
 have mentioned, has never, that we know of, been 
 denied, and requires, therefore, no confirmation : 
 but it may be proper to remark, in relation to the 
 ministry, that such provision is expressly claimed 
 by the apostles, not only as due to themselves, but 
 as the just return for the labours of all who rightly 
 discharge the pastoral office ; as when Paul says, 
 " Let him that is taught in the word communicate 
 to him that teacheth in all good things."* And 
 again " So hath the Lord ordained that they who 
 preach the gospel should live of the gospel."f And 
 again "Let the elders that rule well be counted 
 worthy of double honour, especially they who 
 labour in the word and doctrine;" where the word 
 we have translated honour, unequivocally relates to 
 a measure of support corresponding to their exer- 
 tions ; which is not only shown by the just interpre- 
 tation of that word itself, J in such a connection, but 
 by the whole current and tenor of the passage, 
 especially in the expressions following : for the 
 scripture saith, " Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that 
 treadeth out the corn ;" and, " The labourer is 
 worthy of his reward." 
 
 7. That the officers of each respective church 
 were as free from the legislative control or inter- 
 ference of those of other churches, as the churches 
 to which they belonged were independent of each 
 other; and, though they might solicit and receive 
 
 * Gal. vi. 6. f 1 Cor. ix. 14. 
 
 t *'&' 1 Tim. v. 17, 18.
 
 27*2 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 reciprocal assistance, or unite, when occasion de- 
 manded it, in mutual counsel, yet they were in no 
 degree amenable to each other's authority. 
 
 On this particular, waving all other proof, we 
 will only allude to the direction of Paul to the 
 church of the Colossians, " Say to Archippus, 
 Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received 
 of the Lord that thou fulfil it:"* a direction which 
 would have been totally misplaced, and have in- 
 volved a violation of ecclesiastical order, such as 
 we cannot for a moment imagine that Paul would 
 have sanctioned with his name, if there had then 
 been any court or conclave, of whatever form, to 
 which the conduct of the ministry was officially sub- 
 jected ; and much more, if there were any other 
 single officer, to whom pertained the right of in- 
 spection over the fidelity of its discharge. 
 
 8. That the relation between such officers, and 
 the churches to which they were attached, was not 
 fluctuating and temporary, so that they should be 
 removed from place to place, or cease after a season 
 to exercise their functions ; but continued the same, 
 till, either through death or some other providential 
 intervention, its duties could no longer be fulfilled. 
 
 This is surely intimated, when the apostles are said 
 to have "ordained them elders in every church:"^ 
 and when Epaphroditus is spoken of as specially 
 belonging to the church of the Philippians ; J 
 Onesimus and Epaphras, as equally connected with 
 
 Col. iv. 17. f Acts xiv. 23. 
 
 Phil. ii. 25.
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 273 
 
 the Colossians;* and Silvanus, as particularly at- 
 tached to those addressed by Peter :f and, still 
 more strongly, when believers are exhorted to 
 " obey them that have the rule over them, and sub- 
 mit themselves," and it is added, "for they watch 
 for your souls, as they that must give account :" 
 words which undoubtedly import a personal con- 
 nection between the pastor and the flock, and 
 point at the awful consequences of a personal in- 
 quisition, and the directness of a personal charge ; J 
 whereas these circumstances can be alleged, in 
 reference to a migratory or a temporary ministry, 
 in a sense only of manifest and most extensive abate- 
 ment. 
 
 9. That these officers, both sacred and secular, 
 were set apart to their employment by a public 
 form of ordination, consisting of two parts; first, a 
 distinct and voluntary call of the assembly, signified, 
 most probably, by the lifting up of their right hands, 
 and secondly, the exercise of special supplication, 
 generally accompanied with fasting, and the lay- 
 ing on of hands (a token of solemn benediction, not 
 merely of the impartation of spiritual gifts) by 
 such as had already received the same or a higher 
 designation and appointment. 
 
 We gather that such ordination emanated prima- 
 rily from the wishes of the people, and rested only 
 upon such as they had chosen, amongst other 
 sources, from the history of the investiture of office 
 
 * Col. i. 7 ; iv. 9, 12. f 1 Pet. v. 12. 
 
 | Heb. xiii. 7. 
 VOL. I. 2 M
 
 274 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 in the case of the first deacons ; wherein the apostles 
 commanded, " Look ye out among you men whom 
 we may appoint over this business :" and the saying 
 pleased the whole multitude; and they chose such 
 as they approved, and set them before the apostles ; 
 by whom they were then accepted, and inducted to 
 their ministry.* 
 
 We apprehend that the signal of this popular 
 election was the elevation of the right hand, from 
 the import of a term employed to signify it, in two 
 distinct places of the sacred writings; where it is 
 said, " When they had ordained them elders in 
 every church," &c., and " who was chosen of the 
 churches to travel with us," &c. :f in both of which 
 the word expressive of such appointment is one 
 implying to give the suffrages of a popular assembly 
 by that ordinary and well-known symbol. J 
 
 We learn that the outward sign of ordination, 
 used on such occasions, was the imposition of the 
 hands of those by whom the election was confirmed, 
 attended with prayer, and usually with fasting, 
 both from the passage first referred to, in which 
 this usage is particularly described, and from three 
 others in the epistles of Paul to Timothy : and, 
 especially, from the services performed at the set- 
 ting apart of that apostle and Barnabas, to their 
 intended mission among the Gentiles; when they 
 were solemnly designated to that ministry, by the 
 
 Acts vi. 3, 5, 6. 
 f Acts xiv. 23 ; 2 Cor. viii. 19. 
 
 \ %U($rnnr*tvn. %u(trtintns. 
 
 1 Tim. iv. 14 ; v. 22; 2 Tim. i. 6.
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 275 
 
 laying on of the hands of " certain prophets and 
 teachers in the church that was at Antioch" all, 
 however, of far inferior consideration to themselves, 
 and by whom no spiritual gift could, in this case, 
 be supposed to be imparted; and that too by the 
 express command of the Holy Ghost saying : 
 " Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work 
 whereunto I have called them. When, therefore, 
 they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands 
 on them, they sent them away."* This we con- 
 ceive to be a sufficient warrant for the adoption of 
 the same significant observance in the solemnities 
 which are now to be performed. 
 
 We will only further add, that this ordination was 
 accompanied, in the primitive times, by a public 
 and deliberate profession of faith in Christ, and at- 
 tachment to his cause, on the part of him by whom 
 the functions of the ministry were about to be un- 
 dertaken. Without such profession the investiture 
 itself would seem, even naturally, to be incomplete; 
 and that it was not then dispensed with, we con- 
 clude, by obvious analogy, from the address of Paul 
 to Timothy : " Fight the good fight of faith ; lay 
 hold of eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, 
 and hast professed a good profession before many 
 witnesses."! 
 
 10. That such ordination, while it was primarily 
 designed to seal their relation to the individual 
 church wherein it was solemnized, was "yet so far 
 regarded in others, that those who had received it 
 
 * Acts xiii. 13. f 1 Tirn. vi. 12.
 
 270 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 were everywhere acknowledged, and the validity of 
 their ministrations everywhere confessed. 
 
 Of this what farther evidence can we demand, 
 than is furnished by the address of Paul to the 
 Corinthians " Whether any do inquire of Titus, 
 he is my partner and fellow-helper concerning you; 
 or our brethren be inquired of, they are the mes- 
 sengers of the churches and the glory of Christ: 
 wherefore show ye to them, and before the churches, 
 this proof of your love, and of our boasting on your 
 behalf."* Or, if more ample confirmation were 
 required, it might be found in the reception given 
 to the representatives of the church at Antioch by 
 those of Phenice, and Samaria, and Jerusalem ;f 
 in the recommendation of Apollos, from the church 
 at Ephesus, to those of Achaia ; J in the acknow- 
 ledgment required by Paul himself from the believers 
 at Rome on behalf of Phoebe, " a deaconess of the 
 church at Cenchrea;" and in the repeated injunc- 
 tions to this effect in the New Testament scriptures, 
 of which we will mention only one, and with this 
 conclude our review : " For his name's sake they 
 went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles. We 
 therefore ought to receive such, that we might be 
 fellow-helpers to the truth." || 
 
 Our enumeration of passages might, in several 
 instances, be easily carried much further; but these, 
 we conceive, may suffice to testify, to a candid and 
 
 * 2 Cor. viii. 23, 24. f Acts xv. 3, 4. 
 
 J Acts xviii. 27. Rum. xvi. 1. 
 
 i| 3 Jolm, ver. 7, 8.
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 277 
 
 serious mind, that we have not lightly adopted those 
 views of the polity of the church, by which we are 
 distinguished from the several denominations of our 
 brethren; from all of whom, in different particu- 
 lars, we shall be seen to vary; and by none of 
 whom, through the entire compass of their applica- 
 tion, the statements we have thus derived from the 
 volume of revealed truth, can, in the same sense, 
 be adopted. 
 
 III. Now, to this beautiful economy, the traces 
 of which appear throughout the whole New Testa- 
 ment, and we may add also, (though that is of far 
 less consequence,) in the writings, not only of those 
 called apostolic fathers, but of others among the 
 very earliest of their number, it is our conviction 
 that nothing is wanting, to render it every way 
 adapted to the ends it was intended to secure. 
 What those ends are it may be profitable for us 
 next to bring beneath your notice. 
 
 Since many of our greatest difficulties, as Chris- 
 tians, arise not from ourselves but others, and the 
 cause for which it is so hard to maintain the life of 
 godliness, lies often, not so much in our own defec- 
 tive convictions, as in the opposition of an unbe- 
 lieving world; the brotherhood of the church was 
 appointed, that believers in Christ Jesus might de- 
 rive, from their mutual society and fellowship, a 
 counteractive influence ; fitted to mature* and in- 
 vigorate the social tendencies of their regenerated 
 nature, and that thus they might be enabled to 
 advance upon their way, with the courage and the
 
 278 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 satisfaction of feeling that they are not alone, but 
 supported by the concurrent sentiments, the similar 
 hopes, the united affection, and the tender sympathy 
 of all their brethren. In proportion as such a pur- 
 pose is attained that of this institution will be equally 
 accomplished. 
 
 A virtual sacrifice is demanded, when we declare 
 ourselves the followers of Christ, of much of the 
 respect and friendship, and much too even of the 
 intercourse, of men in general; and in times of 
 persecution, the privation and the hazard arising 
 from this cause must have been such as we are now 
 imperfectly prepared to estimate. For all this an 
 equivalent is wisely and graciously provided, not 
 only in the public ordinances, but in the social com- 
 munications, of the church; that so the promise of 
 the Saviour might lack nothing of its fulfilment 
 " Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath 
 left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mo- 
 ther, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and 
 the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundred-fold 
 now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, 
 and mothers, and children, and lands, with perse- 
 cutions; and in the world to come eternal life." 
 
 When we enter vigorously on a Christian profes- 
 sion, we shall be subjected to the most jealous 
 scrutiny of the ungodly around us; and it is of 
 the utmost consequence, that we should be fortified 
 against those evils, which might expose us, and 
 through us the cause of truth, to their condemnation 
 and censure. This is attained by our being under 
 the inspection of another community, whose honour
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 279 
 
 is implicated with ours, and yet whose judgment 
 will be less than ours exposed to the perverting in- 
 fluences of passion or self-love. And as it is society 
 that judges us, so it is meet that by a society we 
 should attain to preparation, to sustain their inquest, 
 and to defy their reproaches. 
 
 The character of divine revelation suffers also a 
 larger amount of injury, and its effect is more exten- 
 sively limited and impaired, by the resistance of the 
 common than of the individual feelings and opinions 
 of mankind. What is professed by a few, is re- 
 jected and despised by the many ; and thus the 
 confidence and zeal of its professors is often over- 
 borne, and their best efforts are neutralized, by the 
 example and the maxims of this present evil world. 
 Now to give to it the force of a collective testimony, 
 a solemn protest made by another body, which, 
 though smaller, is, on every account, more compe- 
 tent to pronounce upon the case against the unbelief 
 and the decision of the multitude, is one of the first 
 and most legitimate uses of this institution. 
 
 A church presents an united exhibition of the 
 gifts, and talents, and spiritual graces, of all of 
 whom it is composed; and according to the result 
 of their combined exertion, will be the measure of 
 that moral power proceeding from the whole. What 
 is omitted, therefore, will unquestionably be set 
 down as unattainable; what is feebly executed, as 
 having consumed their resources in vain. But no- 
 thing can be more contributory to the honour of 
 our Master, and of that Spirit he has graciously 
 bestowed, than when every portion of our common
 
 280 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 services, and every purpose of our zeal and piety, 
 is conducted in such a manner as to show that he 
 has not conferred his bounties with a niggard hand ; 
 but that there is a truth in his promises, and an 
 efficacy in his operations, such as to confound the 
 gainsayers, and awe into silence the mockeries of 
 the profane. This is the high and sacred destina- 
 tion appointed to the church. It is one which no 
 other association is intended or fitted to sustain. 
 Everything in its constitution, when modelled and 
 administered according to the rule of scripture, is 
 adjusted to this object, with a skill and foresight 
 that could only be divine. 
 
 Churches are thus made radiating points, for the 
 more effectual diffusion of the light of truth and 
 holiness throughout the earth. They are reservoirs 
 of spiritual influence, from which streams are on 
 every hand to flow abroad, carrying with them 
 agencies more energetic and salutary, than indivi- 
 dual example or effort is sufficient to exert. 
 
 By churches, chiefly, must the knowledge and the 
 life of Christianity be perpetuated amongst mankind. 
 They are its living memorials, reared on high by an 
 almighty hand, to attest the reality and certainty of 
 those events, of which we individually are incompe- 
 tent thus to witness. Wherever they exist, there is 
 the silent but impressive spectacle of the effect of 
 those great transactions on which our faith is found- 
 ed, not on a single mind, but on many, actuated by 
 the like convictions, and acknowledging the same 
 supreme authority, as claimed and exercised by 
 an ever-present but invisible ruler. They are, in
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 281 
 
 the highest sense, "the epistles of Christ," patent 
 and solemnly authentic, "known and read of all 
 men." 
 
 Churches are the proper seat of that empire and 
 administration which shall never end. They are 
 the rudiments of that kingdom which shall be eter- 
 nally subject to the reign of the Redeemer. Every 
 one of them is as his separate court. There his 
 laws are promulgated, recognised, enforced. Each 
 is as a garrison and stronghold amidst the territories 
 of his foe. There are the symbols of his conquest, 
 rescued souls, spirits emancipated from their 
 bondage, and rejoicing in his might. And from 
 thence shall his victories be published, his clemency 
 proclaimed, his summons issued forth, his destined 
 glories blazoned ; until his triumphant banner, 
 which is now seen gleaming from afar, shall wave 
 ere long in majesty over a subject world. 
 
 Churches are emblems, and initial modifications, 
 of the general aggregation of the faithful, in the 
 mansions on high. They are designed to meeten 
 us for heaven, by introducing us into the participa- 
 tion of that paternal spirit, and the performance of 
 those solemn social acts, which are there to be made 
 perfect and everlasting. We might have been dis- 
 ciplined by those secret processes for the other joys 
 of immortality. Contemplation, prayer, and the 
 various results of personal experience, would have 
 made us ready for the individual delights of the 
 celestial city. But it is by the cultivation and nour- 
 ishment of the same elementary sympathies on earth, 
 which must then flow forth for ever, that we are 
 
 VOL. i. 2 N
 
 282 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 trained for the festivities and the endearments of 
 " the marriage supper of the Lamb." 
 
 Now in proportion as Christian societies, of what- 
 ever name, answer to this description, and are formed 
 to secure these designs, they cannot but, in our esti- 
 mation, deserve the more emphatically to be con- 
 fessed as of heavenly origin, and worthy to be hon- 
 oured as the churches of the Son of God. Those 
 with which we are united, appear, in all the elements 
 of their existence, to comport, more accurately than 
 any others with which we are acquainted, both to 
 the delineation in itself, and to the fulfilment of 
 these practical intentions. We regard them as 
 suited, beyond those of any other structure, to meet 
 every native habitude of man, and to draw out, 
 and apply to its just uses, every various resource in 
 the whole commonwealth of Christianity. They 
 commend themselves to our approval especially, be- 
 cause they provide the largest measure of personal 
 freedom, consistent with order and due subordina- 
 tion ; the surest guarantee against error, without 
 infringing on the rights of conscience and of private 
 judgment; and the most legitimate and powerful 
 stimulus to the beneficial exercise of whatever talents 
 are intrusted to us, without ministering, either to 
 sordid avarice, or to unprincipled ambition. These 
 things, I say, they do, in as great perfection, as per- 
 haps the feebleness and the sinfulness of humanity 
 give us any reason to expect. Their regulation may 
 be defective in its practice ; and many glaring evils 
 may be perceptible in its results : but these we shall 
 find everywhere ; and perhaps in no inferior degree.
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 283 
 
 It is not of their actual government we now speak, 
 however, but of their beautiful, and, as we conceive, 
 their scriptural formation. If, therefore, it should 
 be said in contradiction to our sentiments " Your 
 independency is liable to very formidable abuses: 
 It generates pride, and emulation, and discord: 
 It weakens the church at large, by breaking up the 
 bonds of common fellowship, and making every little 
 congregation supreme within itself: It leaves each 
 separate society in a state of helpless exposure to 
 the domination of a few aspiring spirits : It pros- 
 trates the freedom of the pastor, to exalt that of the 
 church: It makes him too often, by a strange in- 
 version of office, subservient to those who are ap- 
 pointed only to aid him in his labours, by relieving 
 him from every form of secularity in their fulfil- 
 ment: It affords, in numberless instances, since all 
 is in the choice of the people, no adequate or certain 
 provision for the purity of ministration and order : 
 It lays you open to the unlimited assumption of con- 
 nection with you, on the part even of bad men; 
 and in fact, it would be hard to determine what are 
 your boundaries, or who they are that have, who 
 that have not, a right to class themselves among 
 you, and to be distinguished by your name : If it 
 were even to be universal, there would still be no 
 one church throughout the world, that could claim, 
 by its magnitude, or its power, to be an adequate 
 representative of its great founder ; all would still 
 be individually feeble and dispersed :" We could 
 not deny these charges. We would not retaliate 
 them; although perchance we might, and with no
 
 284 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 small share of just severity. We would admit them 
 honestly ; and confess our anxiety that they should 
 be, as far as possible, refuted, by the only legitimate 
 method, the correction of whatever is erroneous, 
 and the supply of whatever is defective, in our own 
 practice. But we would still deny their application 
 to our system; until it should be shown to be at 
 variance with the scripture, or unadapted to the 
 social character of man. 
 
 IV. The churches of the congregational order 
 present, in various parts of their constitution, many 
 and important correspondencies to the standard we 
 have thus described ; with the mention of only two 
 or three of which we will bring this discourse to its 
 conclusion. 
 
 And first, we cannot but allude to their simplicity. 
 Of all the forms of ecclesiastical regimen theirs is 
 the least involved. In their transparent fabric there 
 is nothing dark, or intricate, or mystical. It is 
 penetrated even at a glance. The reason and the 
 use of every part is visible on the first moment of 
 inspection. Here is no multiplication of discordant 
 agencies; no cumbrous machinery, operating alike 
 to embarrass the inquirer, and to be the source of 
 endless retardation in its actual effect. You have 
 not to acquire the meaning of an antique and quaint 
 vocabulary, the native dialect of superstition or 
 the elaborate invention and most finished work of 
 folly, before you can understand its offices, or 
 usages, or laws; or prepare yourself to partake in 
 its advantages, and to unite in all its practical de-
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 285 
 
 signs. The authority on which every thing is rested, 
 is single and undivided; that is, the will of the 
 Saviour. The rule by which all is determined, is 
 invariable and absolute; that is, the word of God. 
 The end to which all is directed, is as obvious as it 
 is sublime; that is, the perfecting of believers, and 
 the conversion of the world. The method by which 
 all must be decided, is exempt from complication 
 and delay; that is, the unbiassed suffrage of the 
 church. The functionaries by whom all is to be 
 administered are of two classes only, standing in 
 direct relation to the two classes of interests which 
 are inseparable from every such community ; those 
 are, the pastor and the deacon, the one to preside 
 over its spiritual, and the other over its temporal 
 concerns ; both elected freely by their brethren ; 
 yet deriving the sanction and legitimacy of their 
 respective offices, from no arbitrary or uncertain 
 origin, but from the very warrant and decree of in- 
 spiration. This is our rubric ; and this is our 
 appeal. We know no higher tribunal, nor more 
 binding sentence. The canonist and the jurist have 
 little here to do. But the enlightened conscience, 
 and the obedient heart, will instruct us sufficiently 
 in the execution of our duty. And here assuredly, 
 if anywhere, it is exhibited, how true was that de- 
 claration of our Lord, even in its most literal and 
 obvious acceptation, that the erudition requisite to 
 become his followers, was to be found only in the 
 spirit of a meek simplicity, and that our loftiest 
 discipline was but to become teachable and humble as 
 a child, if we would enter into the kingdom of heaven.
 
 286 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 Let us next, with equal brevity, advert to the 
 spirituality of their whole nature; by which they 
 are manifestly conformed to the genius of that re- 
 ligion they are intended to promote. Here, all is 
 spiritual. The powers and interests of the world 
 have here no scope for the exertion of their influ- 
 ence ; no theatre for their manifestation ; no tempta- 
 tion to encourage their alliance. Such a society as 
 that of which we speak can consist only of spiritual 
 members. All else are members only in name; 
 and incur the heaviest responsibility, and most ag- 
 gravated guilt, by the falsehood of its assumption. 
 It can be established only by the recognition of 
 spiritual and unseen realities. Its practices can be 
 regulated only by the mandates of an unseen and 
 spiritual ruler. Obedience to its laws can be en- 
 forced only by spiritual sanctions, and be conducive 
 only to spiritual ends. It can be surrounded by no 
 other splendour than such as, like itself, is spiritual, 
 not earthly. And all its ordinances and arrange- 
 ments can partake only of the same spiritual aspect. 
 Of such an institution as the church of Christ it 
 may be too much to affirm that it cannot, in its own 
 nature, be connected with any form of earthly polity ; 
 but it seems hardly beyond the truth to say, that 
 it cannot be amalgamated with it, and become one 
 of its integral portions ; to flourish or decay with it ; 
 to be subject to the same accidents and the same 
 interference; and dependent on the same support. 
 If the consciences of men should be controlled by 
 human power, or their judgments brought to co- 
 alesce by human legislation, the case would indeed
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 287 
 
 be otherwise : but until these things can be estab- 
 lished, then to establish religion by compulsory 
 enactments, must ever be to invade the rights of 
 God and man together, to put a price on false- 
 hood, and offer a bounty to deceit. It can only 
 legalize, either the indolence which refuses to in- 
 quire, or the hypocrisy which will assent to any- 
 thing. The proper and natural supports of such a 
 system are servility and ignorance; and its surest 
 defence is in the extinction of thought and freedom, 
 and the banishment of all that is honourable and 
 noble amongst mankind. Change your establish- 
 ment to-morrow, and yet retain your immunities, 
 and lavish your rewards upon the favoured sect; 
 and you shall have just as many and as able ad- 
 herents. Heresy shall instantly become sound doc- 
 trine, and the vilest anarchism the most devoted 
 loyalty, if you will but alter the scale in which you 
 have deposited the endowments of a state religion. 
 Honours and emoluments sanctify every thing ; con- 
 trol every thing ; support and protect every thing. 
 Might we not rather say, corrupt every thing; dis- 
 organize every thing; endanger every thing? Such 
 is the constant, the inevitable tendency of an incor- 
 poration of religion with the government and policy 
 of the state : and to this momentous fact not a few 
 are beginning now to be alive, who would at one 
 period have denounced its proclamation as the most 
 pestilent and deadly of republican errors. But in 
 the churches we have described, such coalition is 
 next to impossible. The mutual repellency of such 
 dissimilar elements, as must, were it attempted, be
 
 288 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 violently placed in contact, would issue speedily in 
 their wider separation. I know not whether there 
 be any system which would offer such resistance to 
 that unnatural project ; or any that would, with 
 equal certainty, assert its freedom, and break away 
 from its entanglements. Yet, not to pronounce 
 peremptorily upon the tendencies of others, of this 
 it may be safely asserted, that it is essentially, and 
 inherently, and must be therefore perpetually, as it 
 has always been, " not of this world." How legiti- 
 mate and powerful is such a recommendation, to 
 one who will consider deeply the character and end 
 of all things belonging to religion, I need not further 
 remark. But it may be proper to observe, while 
 about to dismiss the subject, that the very same 
 spirituality which thus disqualifies it from becoming 
 an auxiliary or a servant of the state, renders it 
 equally incapable of acting as its enemy. Detached 
 from it in every principle of its existence, living, 
 so to speak, in a different and a far loftier sphere, 
 able to carry on its operations and to realize its 
 objects, wherever there is liberty of thought and 
 action, and without respect to any of the diversi- 
 ties of human legislation; it can come into no col- 
 lision with the civil power, and have no benefits to 
 gain by discord or by revolution. Whatever system 
 may be dominant, this can never be so, in such 
 manner as to crush or subdue the liberty of others; 
 for that were suicide, and treason to itself. Its 
 very essence is freedom ; freedom to others, indis- 
 solubly blended with that freedom which it boasts 
 of as its own. A persecuting or a tyrannous inde-
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 289 
 
 pendency, is such an anomaly as nature could not 
 suffer, nor history supply ; and would demand to be 
 described by such a solecism in language, as the 
 most perverse ingenuity has hitherto been insuffi- 
 cient to create. 
 
 We must not pass, without at least a moment's 
 notice, this third particular, closely united as it is 
 with that now mentioned that the system we have 
 been portraying is, beyond all others, and unalter- 
 ably, voluntary ; not in the law on which it reposes 
 indeed for its subsistence, but in the choice by 
 which its outward practices must ever be deter- 
 mined. To combine our profession and our energy 
 with those of our brethren, for the maintenance of 
 religious ordinances, and the propagation of the 
 truth, is so direct a duty, that I know not how a 
 disciple and a subject of the great Redeemer can 
 excuse himself to his own heart for its neglect. But 
 with whom thus to combine, and in what place, and 
 beneath the care and guidance of what pastor, are 
 points which this system and might we not have 
 said this system only ? leads to the uninvaded free- 
 dom of conscience, and the tendencies of Christian 
 affection. No man can, according to the funda- 
 mental principles of our congregational government, 
 be claimed by any church, or any minister, or any 
 other power whatever, as belonging to their com- 
 munion, or subject to his jurisdiction, or compelled 
 to yield himself, whether by service or by contribu- 
 tion, to the prosecution of its objects, or the main- 
 tenance of its command. He is subject to no re- 
 striction, liable to the deprivation of his spiritual 
 VOL. i. 2 o
 
 290 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 privileges by the decree of no convention, and of 
 no superior. He holds his liberties as a man, and 
 his rights as a Christian, by the same inviolable 
 charter. His breath is not more his own than his 
 opinions; nor his opinions, than his opportunity to 
 avow and act upon them. He is, in every sense, a 
 free man. And the system he embraces cannot 
 flourish, cannot live, much less cannot propagate its 
 tenets, or extend its influence, except as it is free. 
 
 But this remark conducts us to a fourth, how 
 naturally such a construction of the church adapts 
 it to an indefinite and universal increase. No limits 
 are here imposed by the boundaries of any ecclesias- 
 tical territory, or the mandates of any ecclesiastical 
 authority; none by the fear of encroachment, or 
 the reluctance of a tardy and enfeebling co-operation. 
 Nothing can forbid the progress of such as act fully 
 upon these convictions, but either the interdiction of 
 Providence, or the inertness and ignorance of man- 
 kind. Is a mission to be despatched to some far 
 distant country, or another church to be planted 
 in the waste which deforms our own, or some noble 
 scheme for the advancement of learning, or the 
 efforts of philanthropy, to be matured and carried 
 out into effect ? you need consult no prejudices, 
 fear no jealousy, apprehend the danger of intrusion 
 on no prohibited enclosure ; but as far as your 
 system is understood, both by yourselves and your 
 brethren, may put forth, without hesitation or em- 
 barrassment, your utmost exertions, and your warm- 
 est zeal. And if your principles and objects were 
 but universally apprehended, there would remain no
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 291 
 
 obstacle sufficient to prevent their calling up the 
 sympathies and labours of your fellow- Christians, 
 into an activity equally universal. Even they who 
 most decry those principles, are compelled, when 
 they would do good on any other than a narrow and 
 despicable scale, to resort to them in practice; a 
 fact which the history and present procedure of all 
 the great societies for the propagation of the gospel, 
 and others like them, is enough to testify. And we 
 are fearless of confutation when we say, that it is 
 by such agency alone, gathering strength from con 
 viction, and ardour from success, that the darkness 
 of the whole earth shall be dispelled, its pollutions 
 cleansed, its miseries redressed, and men of every 
 nation shall be brought to "the obedience of the 
 faith." 
 
 We will observe only in the last place, that this 
 system is manifestly formed for perpetuity. There 
 is in it no element of weakness, except such weak- 
 ness as is "the power of God." It is leagued in 
 no degree with the dynasties of earth; but solely 
 and absolutely with the government of heaven. Not 
 created by the fiat of a mortal ruler, to subsist by 
 his protection, or to partake his fall, it can survive 
 every convulsion, and live through every change. 
 It shall remain an imperishable monument of the 
 grace and wisdom out of which it rose. Erected in 
 the earliest age of Christianity, it shall adorn and 
 beautify the last. Its foundations are laid, broad 
 and deep, in the nature of religion, and of man; 
 and, thus sustained, it never can be shaken. We 
 are not so lost to every feeling of modesty or can-
 
 292 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 dour, as to affirm so much on behalf of every minute 
 particular, wherein our methods or our sentiments 
 may differ from the judgment or practice of other 
 denominations of Christians. We lay no stress upon 
 the obligation to conformity with this or any other 
 scheme, as if to err in such a matter were to place 
 in jeopardy the welfare of the soul ; for we know 
 nothing, in our whole science of theology, about 
 " uncovenanted mercies," or the possibility that 
 humble and pious believers should be exposed to 
 perish, " without the pale of the church." But this 
 alone we would maintain, with all the literality, and 
 yet with all the firmness, of which we are capable, 
 that even things like these should not be precipi- 
 tately thrown aside, as affairs of trivial concern; 
 nor lightly disposed of, as if incapable of a satisfac- 
 tory or rational decision ; if they have found a place 
 amongst the documents of heavenly wisdom, and the 
 emanations of an infinite mind. 
 
 Nothing appears to us more certain, than that 
 steadfastness of conviction is intimately related to 
 an enlarged and magnanimous charity ; while bigotry 
 is evermore the vice of little and of narrow souls. 
 Even the love of freedom, and of the freedom espe- 
 cially of thought, may, we are painfully aware, be- 
 come vicious through excess; and so too may that 
 generosity of elevated sentiment, which would prompt 
 us to look with an undue tolerance even on error, 
 rather than trench, though it were but by a hair's- 
 breadth, upon the intellectual prerogatives of others. 
 But it is a vice, nourished by the aliment, and par- 
 taking of the very essence, of virtue; and of that
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 293 
 
 virtue too, without which no other that is great or 
 noble can at all subsist. We are not insensible to 
 the advantages that may incidentally accrue from 
 diversities of sentiment, and even of denomination, 
 in the more jealous conservation of the truth; in 
 the more perfect investigation and pursuit of indi- 
 vidual principles ; in the more delicate and decisive 
 trial of our spirits; in the occasion given for the 
 exercise of mutual forbearance ; in the discrimi- 
 nation enforced on us between the lesser and the 
 weightier matters of the Christian law ; in the 
 adaptation of the total system to meet the diversities 
 of human judgment, habitude, and feeling, and to 
 include, under the varieties of our Christian profes- 
 sion, such also as inevitably spring out of the various 
 conditions and propensities which subsist amongst 
 mankind. There is nothing in them all, if rightly 
 understood, destructive to the welfare or the peace 
 of the church; and, however fatal to its uniformity, 
 its unity is left by them unmutilated and untouched. 
 Yet we would urge the duty, and the high impor- 
 tance, of a careful examination of that economy, 
 developed in the sacred writings, as the proper 
 counterpart of that truth which they reveal; since 
 both are the products of the same divine intelligence, 
 and have sprung, like twin brothers born for immor- 
 tality, from the same bright source of light, and life, 
 and glory. 
 
 We are seriously persuaded, that nothing else is 
 wanting to the most enlarged success, in every pro- 
 ject connected with the extension of the reign of 
 Christ, than that just and impressive sentiments
 
 294 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 should everywhere prevail, respecting the respon- 
 sibility and the duty of churches, and the powers 
 which, when obedient to their high and solemn 
 destiny, they are appointed exclusively to wield. 
 Let them be unyoked from an unequal vassalage 
 with earthly ministers, and earthly institutions. Let 
 them evoke from slumber all those living agencies 
 which have been too long dormant within them, and 
 apply them to their several uses, with fearlessness 
 and vigour. Let every means be tried, and every 
 talent improved, and every resource expended, and 
 every spring of action stimulated and directed. Let 
 every name enrolled in their society be understood 
 to become, from that very hour, that of a plighted 
 soldier of the cross, to move in concert with a great 
 and conquering army, steadily and determinately, 
 upon the foe. Let the oath be taken, and the pledge 
 pass round amongst them, that each will do his ut- 
 termost, to enhance the common triumph. Let it 
 be seen what heaven and the church confederated 
 can accomplish, to dissolve the dire confederacy 
 between earth and hell. Let every man abide by 
 his own standard, or advance in his own place. Let 
 every man charge himself, in his full measure, with 
 the final event of the day. And I will not mock 
 you, brethren, with the vain endeavour to depict 
 that victory which then awaits us. I will only say 
 It is ours! Your throbbing bosoms, your exult- 
 ing hearts, these must speak the rest. 
 
 For ourselves, we cannot cast our eye over the 
 events of the last few years, nor reflect upon the 
 progress of free and manlike sentiments, which even
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 295 
 
 our short life has witnessed, without many a thought 
 of our great and noble-minded predecessors, and of 
 the magnitude of the precious trust they have be- 
 queathed us. We cannot look on the unquiet heav- 
 ings, and the mysterious portents of the troubled sea 
 around us, nor yet at the dovelike spirit of purity 
 and peace, which at intervals reveals its spotless 
 breast upon the dark and stormy wave, without 
 perceiving, that the angels of mercy and of wrath 
 are preparing for the contest. But we view the 
 scene with more of exultation than of fear. It is a 
 calm, yet a stern and solemn joy, brooding on 
 change and danger, yet resting in the confidence of 
 hope. 
 
 Ours is the happiness, my brethren, of feeling 
 that we are prepared for whatever may be demanded 
 of us, either by the current of events, or the dis- 
 coveries of reason and of truth. And in this we 
 are sometimes impelled to contrast our situation with 
 theirs, who deem that they have everything at stake. 
 We will not conceal, that so strange a contrast is 
 the occasion of thankfulness mingled with commis- 
 eration. We know no such enemies as knowledge, 
 enterprise, or free inquiry. We own no such allies 
 as superstitious veneration, or hereditary belief. We 
 do not look to see the church of God crushed or 
 trodden down, beneath the very mightiest of her 
 enemies. Our expectation is, that when, in the strife 
 and tumult of that dark hour which is approaching, 
 her bands shall be broken in sunder, and her arm 
 loosened from the chain, then, like her great 
 Master, she will exert her liberty, to bless, not to
 
 296 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 destroy ; and, stretching forth the hand, which is 
 now at length unbound, heal, with the gentlest touch, 
 those scars and bleeding wounds, which an incon- 
 siderate and furious zeal may have adventured rashly 
 to inflict in her defence.
 
 II. 
 INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE 
 
 AT THE 
 
 ORDINATION OF THE REV. MR SUNDERLAND 
 
 AT BURY, LANCASHIRE, 
 
 APRIL 24^, 1833. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 P
 
 DISCOURSE VII. 
 
 EXOD. xii. 26. 
 " What mean ye by this service ?" 
 
 THE purpose for which we are this day solemnly 
 assembled, is the ordination of a Christian Pastor 
 over an Independent Church. In such a purpose 
 there are several particulars which demand to be 
 explained and justified. They ought not to be 
 passed over inconsiderately, even by those to whom 
 they are the most familiar ; while both their high 
 importance in themselves, and the differences which 
 they essentially involve between us and the several 
 denominations of our brethren, require that they 
 should be distinctly stated, and temperately main- 
 tained. In thus stating them, we are especially 
 solicitous that we may neither wound nor irritate 
 the feelings of any class whatever of our fellow- 
 christians. We disclaim all hostility, and shall in- 
 tentionally utter nothing bitter or .invidious. The 
 cause of truth can never call for such assistance; 
 and that of candour and charity altogether rejects 
 it. We should rejoice with sincerest satisfaction, if 
 we might be so happy as to "give none offence;" 
 even though at the expense of seeming to forfeit, in 
 a large measure, the claims we might otherwise pre-
 
 300 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 fer to strength of reasoning or extent of knowledge, 
 much more to force of ridicule or keenness of in- 
 vective. And should it happen that, from this de- 
 termined moderation, we should be deemed to have 
 advanced but an imperfect and comparatively feeble 
 plea, or to have presented, in the outlines of our 
 system, an aspect less impressive and commanding 
 than we might have had it in our power otherwise 
 to exhibit, we would more willingly endure the re- 
 proach even of weakness, and almost that of cause- 
 less separation, than that by any efforts or expressions 
 of ours we should widen the breach, even by a hair's- 
 breadth, which already too far detaches us from any 
 of the faithful followers of Jesus, or crush, but for 
 a moment, the rising emotions of kindness, and 
 liberality, and brotherly regard. We know no 
 greater heresy than unnecessarily to divide good 
 men, nor any object more worthy of ambition than 
 to conciliate and unite them. Let the profane 
 calumniate ; let the sceptic deride ; let the bigot 
 frown; let the base and interested partisan seek 
 to cover with unmerited dishonour all who cannot 
 lend themselves to the support of his darling pecu- 
 liarities, or his still more darling emoluments : but 
 the Christian should endeavour, above all things, to 
 present in his own practice, and so to win upon his 
 brethren that they may equally present in theirs, 
 the all-attractive spectacle of fidelity, tempered with 
 gentleness, and blended with humility and love. It 
 is this alone that can make our cause to become 
 universally triumphant. Where this is wanting, the 
 deficiency is one which nothing can supply. Such,
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 301 
 
 therefore, is the spirit in which it is our wish, and 
 shall be steadily our aim, to conduct these services; 
 and by its prevalence or deficiency will we measure 
 our success. If it be increased and flourish, we 
 have attained our end ; if it languish and decline, 
 our failure is complete. 
 
 There are several very natural inquiries, which 
 may be supposed to suggest themselves powerfully 
 to the mind of an observer, which, if resolved, will 
 prepare us most effectually for the fulfilment of this 
 service ; and the reply to which, therefore, will con- 
 stitute the single purpose of the present discourse. 
 Those inquiries are such as the following : 
 
 I. Whence do you derive your authority for the 
 sentiments which you hold, and the institutions 
 which you practise ; and to what standard do you 
 appeal to warrant you, especially in those trans- 
 actions that are now before you, such as to establish 
 their legitimacy and insure their effect ? 
 
 II. What is it which you conceive to constitute a 
 church ; since you speak of the body here convened 
 as a church of congregational dissenters ? 
 
 III. What is the office and jurisdiction of the 
 pastor of such a church, with which this candidate 
 for ministerial employment is about to be invested ? 
 
 IV. By what evidence do you consider it to be 
 determined, that in thus investing any individual 
 with such an appointment and its concomitant func- 
 tions, you are acting in conformity to the purposes 
 and will of God, and that this, therefore, will be 
 a real ordination, accompanied with his sanction, 
 and fitted to secure his blessing ?
 
 302 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 V. What do you regard as the true nature of 
 ordination, considered in itself, as to its necessity 
 its essence and its design ? 
 
 VI. What mean you by those individual obser- 
 vances with which the rite is in this case attended ; 
 and why, in reference to each, do you perform 
 them ? And finally 
 
 VII. Wherein do you differ, in these several par- 
 ticulars, from other denominations of Christians, 
 and especially from the Church of England, as by 
 law established ? 
 
 It may, I trust, be permitted me, in attempting a 
 reply to these inquiries, to consider myself not so 
 much an advocate as an expositor of those principles 
 held by the great body of the English congregational 
 dissenters; and to regard them, in every instance, 
 simply as interrogatories which respect their nature, 
 not as objections which impugn their validity. 
 
 I. Is it asked, then, in the first place, " Whence 
 do you derive your authority for the sentiments you 
 hold, and the institutions which you practise?" 
 We answer, that authority is derived, exclusively 
 and absolutely, from the writings of the New Tes- 
 tament. 
 
 The best and most necessary preparation for fully 
 understanding the history of the church and the 
 external form of Christianity, so as to be able to 
 separate truth from falsehood, and the prescriptions 
 of fallible and erring men from the sanctions and 
 the will of God, is to have a clear and elevated 
 conception of the nature of Christianity itself, its
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 303 
 
 end, its genius, its necessary and immutable cha- 
 racter, its divine and yet simple origin, its abso- 
 lute dependence in all things upon the power and 
 protection of its founder, its inseparable connection 
 with the conscience and the soul of man, and its 
 perpetual and unvarying reference to the interests 
 of immortality. 
 
 There is no remedy so infallibly effectual, either 
 for a blind and ignorant superstition on the one 
 hand, or for a lawless irreverence and presumption 
 on the other, as a candid and devout spirit, con- 
 templating, as in the light of eternity, the great ends 
 and necessary tendency of genuine religion, that 
 mingled lowliness and spirituality, that solemn, not 
 unreal grandeur, the result of inherent majesty of 
 nature, not of the pomp of an imposing ceremonial, 
 or the trappings and appendages of earthly state, 
 which form the perpetual distinction, and the highest 
 glory, of the religion of the gospel. 
 
 To such a temper nothing can appear so intoler- 
 ably revolting as whatever is insincere, or oppressive, 
 or unjust, under the name and pretence of Chris- 
 tianity ; whatever diminishes, or in any way invades, 
 either the sacred rights of conscience, and the neces- 
 sary liberty of human judgment, or the divine and 
 incommunicable prerogatives of the Redeemer. 
 
 Names habits observances all which is in- 
 vested in the common judgment of the unreflecting 
 and the ignorant with so mysterious a sacredness, 
 and supposed to be communicative of such undefin- 
 able and yet transcendent benefits, will pass away 
 as phantoms seen but to be forgotten ; while the
 
 304 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 only question deemed worthy of a moment's anxiety 
 will be What is the testimony of scripture ? or 
 what is the obvious tendency, and the unquestionable 
 verdict, of Christian principles and of a manly judg- 
 ment ? These, once ascertained, will make all other 
 investigation appear impertinent, because wholly 
 superfluous, and leave the conscience as unfettered 
 to pursue them to their last practical consequences, 
 as if the establishment of Christianity were but an 
 event of yesterday, or as if its design and spirit, 
 thus unequivocally discovered, were in fullest har- 
 mony with the consenting judgments of councils and 
 of fathers, and with the practice of the universal 
 church. Now of all the causes of obscurity and 
 error commonly connected with inquiries of this 
 nature, none is so great in itself, and so extensive 
 in its operation, as the inconsiderate and often mis- 
 guided zeal with which we either allege or else 
 impugn the judgment of antiquity. 
 
 The Christian church, it is true, has now become 
 an institution of venerable age ; and its history 
 must always lead us up to a period equally remote 
 and obscure. To despise antiquity, therefore, and 
 to set it wholly aside, is as unwise as it is perilous ; 
 since it can never fail to lead more careful and 
 competent inquirers to suspect, that we are already 
 sensible that the judgment and practice of earlier 
 ages was at variance with our own. 
 
 But Christianity is itself immutable, and subsists, 
 at this day, in all the vigour of its undecaying youth, 
 as fresh and beautiful as when it first proceeded 
 from the hand of its Creator, and, like the imperish-
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 305 
 
 able spirit it is designed to save, growing no older 
 through eternity. This is the Christianity of the 
 scriptures, and which alone concerns our investiga- 
 tions or our duty. Of this, so far as it is practical, 
 and bears either on the perfection of man's nature, 
 or the glory of his final destiny, we, though borne 
 far down the stream of ages, and almost within view 
 of that sublime and awful spectacle when its dark 
 and ever-flowing waters shall be seen to mingle, and 
 to lose themselves in the vast ocean of eternity, 
 are still in a condition to decide upon its character, 
 and to estimate its tendency, just as if the days of 
 inspiration were not as yet departed, and we could 
 "yet listen to the instructions of an apostle, or a pri- 
 mitive evangelist, surrounded by that lowly band, 
 whose only path to heaven was through the storms 
 of persecution, or the flames of martyrdom. 
 
 Besides, if antiquity be at all appealed to, where- 
 fore should we not ascend at once to the very foun- 
 tains of all our knowledge ? Why do we permit 
 ourselves, in any case, to be beguiled by the senti- 
 ments or the practice of those who flourished after 
 this era of inspiration had passed already away ? 
 since it is obvious that these were, in no respect, 
 except indeed their lesser acquaintance with the 
 details and last practical effects of this great system, 
 in a situation different from ours. 
 
 To all intermediate and inferior antiquity we ren- 
 der the deference which may be justly regarded as 
 its due, for the measure of intelligence and fidelity 
 with which it has followed up the practice, or the 
 care with which it has scrutinized and recorded the 
 
 VOL i. 2 Q
 
 306 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 judgment, of the apostles and their successors of the 
 first and second century : but it is only to that of 
 this most venerable and truly sacred era that we 
 render the homage of our practical subjection even 
 for an hour. 
 
 We say not these things because we apprehend 
 that the voice and suffrage of antiquity that even 
 of the intervening period will be found, on the 
 whole, unfavourable to any of those great and dis- 
 tinctive peculiarities which form the substance of our 
 system. The contrary is our most firm and delib- 
 erate conviction; and that after the fullest exami- 
 nation we have been able to bestow upon the subject. 
 But it is because, whatever might have been the 
 doctrine of this secondary and subordinate antiquity, 
 we should have felt ourselves equally secure, and in 
 the equal execution of our duty, while sustained, in 
 all material points, by the unhesitating and palpable 
 concurrence of that which is indeed most worthy to 
 be called antiquity, that, whose records are un- 
 mutilated and infallible, whose precedency must 
 be admitted even by the most obstinate and bigotted 
 of partisans, and whose single authority is irrefra- 
 gable and divine. 
 
 The direction of the New Testament, however, 
 in such matters, is often declared to be insufficient 
 and imperfect. There are not a few who remit us, 
 on every occasion, to the writings of the fathers ; as 
 if in them alone there were any adequate or finished 
 exhibition of the economy and discipline of the 
 church. But how shall we decide, when those very 
 fathers are found to be at variance with themselves,
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 307 
 
 and much more frequently and remarkably at vari- 
 ance with each other? What shall we conclude to 
 have been the correct and authoritative practice, 
 when the forms of polity differed in different com- 
 munities, and in various countries, almost as much 
 as they now do in our own ? Whose is that decision 
 we must receive as final, when even canons and 
 councils are irreconcilably at issue? Not to speak 
 of interpolations, omissions, diversities of reading, 
 and incurable ambiguities of phrase ; not to allege 
 that even the custody of all ancient ecclesiastical 
 writings is itself a source of the most vehement sus- 
 picion, since they have been transmitted to us through 
 so long a succession of such partial and interested 
 guardians, that the preservation of any documents 
 whatever was never in an equal measure endangered, 
 and yet secured ; what shall we think of the mani- 
 fest feebleness and futility of those reasonings, and 
 the unsoundness of those trifling allegories and fan- 
 ciful similitudes, which encumber and deform the 
 very chiefest of them all ? Are we to surrender our 
 understandings to such guidance; and to set aside 
 the most simple and palpable bearings of the word 
 of God, in deference to such a standard ? 
 
 Still it may be alleged, that the sacred writings 
 are not sufficiently explicit on many points whereon 
 we wish for information. What are they ? We 
 may beforehand predict, almost without the possi- 
 bility of error, that they must be the very points 
 which it is of the smallest consequence should be 
 decided. But is it so in fact? Is there a single funda- 
 mental principle of church polity which the page of
 
 308 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 scripture is not amply sufficient to determine? We 
 know of none : nor have we heard of any, wherein 
 the very allegation has not obviously proceeded from 
 the spirit of party rather than the love of truth. It 
 shall suffice for us, if the doctrines we promul- 
 gate, and the rites we practise, be sanctioned by 
 the epistles or the history of scripture; whether 
 that sanction be afforded us by the directer law 
 of apostolical prescription, or by grave and valu- 
 able suggestions of incidental reference, or just 
 analogy; or whether it be deducible alone from 
 those still more remote and difficult, but yet authen- 
 tic, intimations presented in the scope and genius 
 of the system taken as a whole, to which, we may 
 be confident, every part was at the first strictly 
 conformable, and which all that opposes, therefore, 
 all in a word which impedes its efficiency, or defaces 
 its beauty, or interferes with its diffusion, or restricts 
 its benefits, must be completely and essentially erro- 
 neous. 
 
 In a system such as ours, it is not surprising if 
 the forms of worship and observance should be of 
 very great diversity; and when that unformity for 
 which alone we plead is fairly and candidly exam- 
 ined, all such discrepancies, however they may have 
 been censured as anomalous, or malignantly and 
 arrogantly cited as subversive of our pretensions, 
 will be considered by an intelligent inquirer as fitted 
 but the more clearly to illustrate the facility with 
 which, in the midst of all external differences, these 
 great principles have taught us to maintain "the 
 unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 309 
 
 II. Is it next inquired, " What is it which you 
 conceive to constitute a church?" We answer, that 
 we use this important and emphatic term in two dis- 
 tinct senses, and in these alone: because, however 
 frequently and confidently it may now be employed 
 in others, we are not aware that it is ever applied 
 in any one besides them in the sacred writings. 
 First, we intend by it that catholic or universal 
 church, which is invisible, and consists of the whole 
 number of the elect that have been, are, or shall be, 
 gathered into one under Christ, the head thereof; 
 and is the spouse, the body, the " fulness of him 
 that filleth all in all." In this use of it we concur 
 with that truly valuable and most comprehensive 
 summary, " the Confession of Faith of the Assembly 
 of Divines at Westminster." Next, we employ it 
 to denote, in conformity with the 19th Article of the 
 Church of England " a congregation of faithful 
 men, in the which the pure word of God is preached, 
 and the sacraments be duly administered according 
 to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of 
 necessity are requisite to the same." To give but 
 a single example of each from the scriptures, we 
 shall select two of the first and most obvious. In 
 reference to the great collective body of all the faith- 
 ful, and to them alone, it is that our Lord manifestly 
 speaks, when he says, " Upon this rock will I build 
 my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against it:"* and it is not less manifest, that it is in 
 reference to that smaller body of believers convened 
 
 * Matth. xvi. 18.
 
 310 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 in one assembly, and meeting together for purposes 
 of mutual instruction and discipline in one place, 
 that he thus commands us: "If thy brother trespass 
 against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee 
 and him alone : if he shall hear thee, thou hast 
 gained thy brother; but if he will not hear thee, 
 then take with thee one or two more, that in the 
 mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be 
 established; and if he shall neglect to hear them, 
 tell it unto the church ; but if he neglect to hear the 
 church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and 
 a publican." * We do not know that there is any 
 instance of its application to the Christian societies 
 collectively of a whole province or kingdom : on 
 the contrary, when any reference is made to them, 
 as in Judea, Galatia, Macedonia, &c., they are always 
 spoken of as churches, never as a church. We do, 
 indeed, meet with an allusion of a very different 
 kind; but it is to the church, not of a nation, but 
 in a private house. And with such facts before us, 
 we feel ourselves forbidden to apply the phrase, 
 when reasoning solemnly on affairs of ecclesiastical 
 government, to any conclave of religious function- 
 aries; much more to any class of civil officers, or 
 the dependents and delegates of any secular autho- 
 rity, with whatever formalities they may invest their 
 convocation, or by whatever penalties they may 
 enforce their edicts; and it appears to us a mere 
 perversion of language, to speak of a church, (other- 
 wise than by a known and customary familiarity of 
 
 * Matth. xviii. 1517.
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 311 
 
 idiom,) when we describe the walls or architecture 
 of any building set apart to the worship of God, 
 even though the rites of its consecration had partaken 
 not only of a mystical and superstitious sanctity, but 
 almost of a magical and a transforming power. To 
 the church universal we do not, of course, now im- 
 mediately allude, as it is not to that universal 
 church alone or chiefly that we are about to ordain 
 a Christian pastor. But our reference is necessarily 
 confined to particular and individual churches. 
 And of them we shall content ourselves with saying, 
 that they depend for the fulness of their existence, 
 the completeness of their character, the amplitude 
 of their privileges, and the force of their proceed- 
 ings, not upon numbers, for even where two or 
 three are thus gathered together in the name of 
 Jesus, there is he in the midst of them; not upon 
 the canonical formalities of place, or season, or any 
 other outward circumstance, for, had the case been 
 so, then in the first and purest age of Christianity 
 there could neither have existed such a thing as a 
 church court, nor any act of church authority ; not 
 upon the warrant or the sanction of civil governors, to 
 ratify its decisions, and to give weight and dignity to 
 its deliberations, for then, where would the church 
 have been, when all the powers of earth and hell 
 were alike arrayed against it, when every national 
 church, and every established religion in the world, 
 was false, persecuting, and pagan? They depend 
 not upon each other: on the contrary, they evi- 
 dently appear to have been, in the apostolic era, 
 separate and distinct communities, each perfect in
 
 312 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 itself, though all connected by the bond of common 
 principles and mutual affection, and all subordinated 
 to the universal control of their one Lord and Mas- 
 ter. Of this, perhaps, no stronger proof could have 
 been furnished, (inferential and indirect as it is,) 
 than that they are in scripture separately commanded, 
 as well as separately described. The very super- 
 scriptions of the epistles of the New Testament bear 
 this truth most vividly enstamped upon them. What 
 means the addressing of particular letters, and codes 
 of particular instruction, to the Romans the Co- 
 rinthians the Ephesians, and others, if all the 
 churches were dependent on any one convention, 
 or were parts of any one general society? How 
 much more probable, on that supposition, that as 
 in the case of the impostor of Mecca, or the usurper 
 of Rome the rescripts and decrees of an all-per- 
 vading authority would have gone forth from the 
 oracle with an indefinite appeal to the obedience of 
 believers wherever they were found, (just as, in 
 fact, those ancient and interesting documents, which 
 bear the spurious name of "Apostolic Constitutions," 
 assume to possess both the form and force of uni- 
 versal canons,) instead of being addressed to in- 
 dividual churches? To us few things seem clearer, 
 than that the Christian societies of the first age were 
 universally united, and yet absolutely distinct ; 
 that in the divine simplicity of their structure they 
 blended the characteristics of an individual com- 
 pleteness with a most perfect symmetry ; that thus 
 was exhibited in the impressive circumstances of 
 their formation, what is shown upon a different scale,
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 313 
 
 but in like manner, of the power and wisdom of their 
 great Master builder, in relation to believers person- 
 ally, when each is formally called the sanctuary and 
 residence of the Holy Ghost, and yet, by an extension 
 of the same figure, all are regarded but as living 
 stones, which, by the omnipotence of his renewing 
 agency, are " growing into a holy temple in the 
 Lord." We call this small assembly of Christian 
 believers, therefore, unhesitatingly, a church of Christ. 
 We consider it to be complete and perfect in itself. 
 Its members we esteem to be possessed of the most 
 unlimited control over their own common interests, 
 and to be answerable to no higher power on earth 
 for their proceedings. What they determine, in 
 relation to such matters, none can corroborate, none 
 can set aside. They may choose, with the most 
 absolute and unquestioned freedom, their own modes 
 of worship or forms of administration; and with 
 their admission, or refusal, of candidates for Chris- 
 tian fellowship, their election of pastors or other 
 officers, their adjustment of differences arising 
 among themselves, or their transaction of all which 
 belongs to them as a separate and independent com- 
 munity, none, according to our apprehension, has 
 the slightest right to interfere. In all these in- 
 stances, they may require, and ought then to solicit, 
 counsel and assistance : this, therefore, the sister 
 churches that surround them may with propriety 
 impart ; and when so imparted, they would discover 
 only an ignorance of their own principles, as well 
 as a presumptuous and arrogant reliance on their 
 own sufficiency, if they should discredit or reject it. 
 VOL. i. 2 R
 
 314 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 It can never be binding, however, though it should 
 issue from the assembled churches of the whole pro- 
 vince, or even the whole globe ; and they who should 
 feel themselves dishonoured by its rejection, could 
 have no other remedy than to retire in silence from 
 communion with them, inflicting no penalty, and 
 uttering no censure, but simply declaring, " If any 
 man seemeth to be contentious, we have no such 
 custom, neither the churches of God." In all these 
 instances, farther, they may judge and act erro- 
 neously ; but they are responsible, not before any 
 human tribunal, nor to any synod, convention, or 
 assembly of their fellow-men; but solely and finally 
 at the judgment-seat of Christ. 
 
 III. The next question we have supposed is 
 " What is the office and jurisdiction of the pastor 
 of such a church?" We regard such a pastor, when 
 duly chosen and appointed to his office, as invested 
 with all those powers that can, in any way, contribute 
 to the edification and spiritual benefit of the society 
 among whom he labours. It is his to instruct them, 
 by public preaching as well as private admonition, 
 and to watch over them in all their religious con- 
 duct, and regard them as committed, in a very 
 important sense, to his care, and forming the chief 
 part of that stewardship for which he shall give ac- 
 count in " the great and terrible day of the Lord." 
 He is, therefore, called on to reprove, rebuke, and 
 exhort, as well as to direct them in the way of truth 
 and holiness. He stands chargeable with the pre- 
 servation, as far as it is possible for him to accom-
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 315 
 
 plish it, both of their sentiments from error, and 
 their practice from pollution. His arguments, ex- 
 postulations, and reproofs, are not to be considered 
 those merely of a brother in the faith, but of an 
 office-bearer in the church. And his public teach- 
 ing, besides its intrinsic claims to their notice and 
 approval because of its consonance with the doctrine 
 and the design of scripture, should be received with 
 deference, as from one to whom is solemnly com- 
 mitted "the ministry of reconciliation." It seems 
 a natural consequence, that he is to preside in all 
 their assemblies, and to be officially consulted in all 
 their deliberations; and that, while faithfully and 
 diligently fulfilling the duties thus intrusted to him, 
 he should be held accountable to none but to his 
 Master neither of his brethren in office, nor of the 
 people of his charge; and that, as the church in 
 which he ministers is independent and complete, so 
 his functions also should be free from all dictation 
 or control, and both his services and his authority 
 in the same sense independent. Every thing con- 
 spires to assure us, that such was the state of things 
 in the age of the apostles. We read in all their 
 writings, and those of their immediate successors, 
 of no other permanent officers in the church, except 
 just such pastors as we have now described, and the 
 deacons who were chosen to assist them, not in their 
 spiritual but their secular engagements. On this sub- 
 ject we cannot dwell at large. The distinctions often 
 and confidently claimed by the abettors of diocesan 
 episcopacy, and the high and imposing sound of 
 many ecclesiastical offices and pretensions, have, we
 
 316 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 are aware, occasioned much prejudice against the 
 views we have thus given. But, while the scriptures 
 nowhere establish any fundamental difference be- 
 tween the office of a bishop and that of other minis- 
 ters, they often speak of them, or allude to them, in 
 such a manner as most clearly to imply that they 
 are the same, requiring the same qualifications, 
 and charged with the same commission, in a word, 
 only two interchangeable appellations for one and 
 the same appointment : and we will add, moreover, 
 this is the judgment of the greatest ecclesiastical 
 writers, both of ancient and modern times. So that 
 he must be little versed in inquiries of this nature, 
 that would now contend furiously for any other 
 essential orders in the church than those to which 
 the apostles so frequently refer, when they address 
 themselves " to the saints and faithful brethren which 
 are in Christ Jesus, with the bishops and deacons :"* 
 and call upon "the elders which were among them" 
 to " take heed unto themselves and to all the flock 
 over the which the Holy Ghost had made them 
 bishops."f 
 
 IV. It is probable a serious and devout observer 
 may next demand " How do you consider it to be 
 determined, that in thus investing any individual 
 with the pastoral office, you are acting conformably 
 to the purposes and will of God?" To this ques- 
 tion we reply with confidence, not we trust unmingled 
 
 * Phil. i. ]. 
 f Acts xx. 17, 28; 1 Pet. v. 1, 2. in the original.
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 317 
 
 with humility ; for it is one that most deeply and 
 extensively affects the total execution of our minis- 
 try. There is nothing we should contemplate with 
 greater alarm, than to enter on such a task unsanc- 
 tioned and unbidden : and next only to the solicitude 
 with which we would examine such a subject for our- 
 selves, is that caution we would invariably cherish 
 that we do not violate the apostolic precept, " Lay 
 hands suddenly on no man." All churches, however 
 corrupt in practice, yet at least in profession demand 
 on this head convincing and sufficient evidence. In 
 the Church of England, the most thoughtless and 
 dissipated youth that ever seeks for the distinctions, 
 perhaps in hope to receive with them the grace, of 
 ordination, is called on to declare that he trusts he 
 is inwardly moved to do so by the Holy Ghost : 
 and amongst the other bodies of dissenters, as well 
 as the establishment of Scotland, a rigorous trial is 
 imposed, and a solemn scrutiny enjoined, on the 
 admission of every candidate. I will not say we 
 have been wholly free from blame in this particular. 
 Perhaps a more careful examination, and a larger 
 probation, might have been substituted witn advan- 
 tage for the facility with which we have too often 
 admitted aspirants to the holy office. We shall ere 
 long, I trust, correct our deficiencies in this respect, 
 so far as they relate to practice, while, in relation 
 to principle, I know not that we have any which 
 peculiarly demand to be corrected. We utterly 
 disclaim such an educational designation to the 
 ministry as should place it on the level of any secu- 
 lar profession, and give to the person so disciplined
 
 318 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 almost a right to demand the investiture; and in 
 like manner, we admit no secret or mystical impres- 
 sion, existing on the part of the individual himself, 
 nor any powerful emotions of resolution or desire, 
 in the absence of sufficient qualifications, to consti- 
 tute a valid ground for his admission. It seems to 
 us, that a "trial of the spirits" is essential, before 
 any man be sanctioned to become a public and ac- 
 credited instructor of others in the great things of 
 religion. And we are not less convinced, that the 
 brightest talents, and the most assiduous preparation, 
 cannot supersede the necessity of a yet higher call. 
 The criterions, therefore, by which this point must 
 be determined, we apprehend to be, the possession, 
 first and chiefly, of the grace of God, evinced in 
 the whole character of personal and devoted piety; 
 the enjoyment of solid and sufficient abilities, both 
 for the acquisition and the impartation of knowledge, 
 with the general requisites to effective popular ad- 
 dress; a deep and settled choice of this as the 
 employment of his life, such as will not suffer a man 
 to rest in quiet satisfaction, while declining it for 
 any other, however lucrative or honourable ; a 
 correspondent persuasion resting on his own mind, 
 that God has appointed it, and that therefore God 
 will sustain him in its execution ; and, together 
 with all these, the external indications of the divine 
 approval, in the choice and invitation of some 
 Christian church, whether that with which he has 
 been associated as a private member attesting his 
 fitness for its general discharge, or that of one to 
 which he is about to minister, encouraging and ap-
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 319 
 
 pointing him to undertake it for themselves. All 
 this we conceive to be indispensable to a legitimate 
 induction into this high office ; and that unless 
 these several particulars coincide, the ordination is 
 either premature or invalid. It may seem that this 
 amount and variety of proof is greater than can be 
 easily obtained; but we can only state, that, con- 
 sidering the nature and the responsibility of the 
 employment, less appears to us to be utterly and 
 absolutely inadmissible, and that, where any of these 
 requisites are wanting, we hold that there is no 
 genuine and authentic impartation of this office; 
 so that by whomsoever the rite of its investment 
 may have been performed, we deem the man who 
 is disqualified by such deficiency to be without the 
 shadow of a claim either to the honours or the 
 authority of a Christian pastor. With respect to 
 our brother here before us, you will find, therefore, 
 that, having first carefully inquired into his talents, 
 both natural and acquired, having obtained the 
 most satisfactory information in reference to his 
 whole Christian character, having found him sanc- 
 tioned and excited to become a preacher of the 
 gospel, first by the church with which he has been 
 honourably enrolled in a more private capacity, and 
 then by this with which he is about to become offi- 
 cially connected, having ascertained that by the 
 apparent leadings of divine providence his course 
 has been directed to this place, and that here, as 
 well as elsewhere, he has already laboured not alto- 
 gether without success, having learned that it is 
 his earnest and unconquerable desire to be hence-
 
 320 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 forward employed in the full discharge of ministerial 
 and pastoral duties, and his solemn resolution to 
 devote all his faculties to the attainment of the gifts 
 and graces which they still more largely require, 
 and his whole life to their discharge ; we feel our- 
 selves warranted to call upon him, as we shall ere 
 long do, to testify more publicly, in presence of God 
 and of this congregation, his sentiments, his feelings, 
 his purposes, and the reasons of his conduct in the 
 step he is now taking : and, should that testimony 
 be of the same decisive and satisfactory tenor with 
 all which has preceded, no hesitation will remain 
 upon our minds, that in the solemnities of this day 
 we are sustained and countenanced by the mani- 
 fested will of God ; that he has a divine and valid 
 call to the office of the gospel ministry ; and that in 
 the act of his induction to this pastoral charge we 
 do but obey his mandate, who, by these tokens, 
 seems to address us and say, " Separate me this 
 your brother unto the work whereunto I have ap- 
 pointed him." 
 
 V. Having said thus much on the evidences of a 
 call to the ministerial office, we shall pass the more 
 briefly and rapidly over the next inquiry " What 
 do you regard as the nature, necessity, and design 
 of ordination?" Our hearers will all be prepared 
 to receive the declaration, that we do not believe it 
 capable of conveying any saving or consecrating 
 virtue, or of operating any internal change in the 
 condition of him to whom it is administered ; that 
 it does not, by any efficacy residing in itself, con-
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 321 
 
 stitute him one whit more a minister of Christ, or a 
 pastor of the church", than before; that it does not 
 give force and value to any rite he may perform, or 
 any sacrament he may administer, any more than 
 it can to any instructions he may dispense, or sen- 
 timents he may propound ; that, when thus ordained, 
 he will be no holier man, no better, wiser, or more 
 successful preacher, but, in all respects, what the 
 providence and the grace of God, and the free and 
 unsolicited election of this people, have already made 
 him. This solemn act, however, we by no means 
 look upon as unnecessary or unmeaning. It has 
 been, from the first era of Christianity, the appointed 
 and acknowledged signal of introduction into the 
 number, and (if the phrase may be used without 
 offence) the great incorporation of Christian pas- 
 tors. It was used by our Lord in relation to his 
 apostles, and by these to their contemporaries and 
 successors ; and, considered as a sacred and befit- 
 ting ceremonial of inauguration, it is of equal effect 
 and energy as in the very first ages of the church. 
 Then, as now, the act of ordination, considered in 
 itself, was but a sign, a symbol, and a seal, of the 
 divine appointment believed already to have taken 
 place. And now, as then, while viewed in its just 
 character, merely as such a sign, it must be con- 
 fessed, on all bands, one of the most significant, 
 impressive, and affecting. It is the stamp affixed 
 by those who are themselves recognised and actively 
 employed in this high calling, that they believe in 
 the validity of their brother's designation ; that 
 they consent to admit him to their fellowship, and 
 VOL. i. 2s
 
 322 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 inscribe his name in their fraternity ; that they 
 will afterwards endeavour to co-operate with him 
 in his labours, and to maintain the honours of his 
 character; and that, after serious reflection and 
 united prayer, they thus openly and affectionately 
 testify their approbation, both of the qualifications 
 of the pastor, and of the choice of the church. 
 Wonder not, then, my brethren, if, while we by no 
 means design to disparage the ministrations of those 
 good men who, holding other sentiments, or stand- 
 ing in a different association, omit the practice we 
 have thus adopted, we are accustomed to regard the 
 services of such a day as amongst the most solemn 
 and momentous ever witnessed in our assemblies. 
 
 VI. Akin to the last inquiry is that we next pro- 
 posed to answer " What mean you by those indi- 
 vidual observances with which the rite of ordination 
 is attended?" And the reply must be of the same 
 nature. We mean by them nothing which they 
 are imagined to accomplish of themselves, but by 
 sacred and most appropriate emblems, united with 
 acts of equal sacredness and effect, to set apart and 
 designate the man by whom this ministerial office 
 is now publicly undertaken, and to invoke those 
 blessings, both on himself and his whole ministry, 
 which we most solemnly and impressively pronounce. 
 I shall say nothing in respect to our demands of a 
 confession from himself, or of an open call from the 
 congregation ; both of which, by the ceremonial of 
 ordination, we confirm and ratify. I shall pass over 
 in equal silence the charge in which he is about to
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 323 
 
 be admonished, and the united importunate suppli- 
 cations we are soon to present on his behalf. These 
 require no comment, and surely no defence. But it 
 may be asked, why do you practise, by the imposition 
 of hands, a rite which either has no meaning, or one 
 which stands opposed to all the principles you have 
 thus avowed? Do you observe it merely as an imma- 
 terial and inexpressive custom ? Or do you perform 
 it as conveying to the minds of others notions of the 
 elevation and sanctity of the pastoral function, which 
 yourselves know and feel to be unfounded? Or do 
 you truly believe that you can make this act the 
 vehicle of any thing whatever, whether in office or 
 in character, which would not exist in the same 
 degree without it? Did it not, in the days of the 
 apostles, indicate the communication of miraculous 
 gifts, and do not others even now accompany it 
 with this fearful and presumptuous declaration 
 " Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; whose soever sins ye 
 remit, they are remitted; and whose soever sins ye 
 retain, they are retained?" And since, by your 
 own confession, you reject the arrogant and unwar- 
 rantable claim which such an act implies, ought you 
 not, if not in consistency, at least in condescension 
 and charity, considering the infirmities and the errors 
 of men, to abandon in like manner the abused and 
 perverted symbol with which it seems so inseparably 
 and naturally connected? A few words may suffice 
 as our reply. We practise this significant and so- 
 lemn rite, not because we believe it essential to the 
 genuineness or to the full effect of ordination; not 
 because we imagine that in it any power is imparted,
 
 324 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 or any dignity transferred ; not because we would 
 impose on those around by a striking and impressive 
 formality, so that they should think of us as our- 
 selves invested, or investing others, with any mystical 
 elevation, or hallowed above other men by any un- 
 definable and nameless sanctity : we practise it, 
 not because it was adopted by the apostles, while 
 signifying the performance or the gift of miracles; 
 nor yet, certainly, because the churches of Rome or 
 of England have set us the example : but because 
 we know no form so striking, and at the same time 
 so simple, by which to denote and seal the act of 
 recognition to the Christian ministry; because we 
 find it to have been employed in every period of 
 the church, as indicative of benediction, and in con- 
 junction with special prayer; because our Lord 
 himself, as well as his disciples, thus employed it 
 where no miraculous impartations were conveyed, 
 even to little children, when he " put his hands upon 
 them and blessed them;" because it was undoubt- 
 edly performed by believers, not of the rank of 
 apostles, nor otherwise distinguished than as ordi- 
 nary teachers, even upon primitive evangelists and 
 apostolic men, as in the case of Barnabas and 
 Saul, when " Simeon that was called Niger, and 
 Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen which had been 
 brought up with Herod the tetrarch" " certain 
 prophets and teachers" of the church that was at 
 Antioch " laid their hands " on these illustrious 
 heralds of the cross, already possessed of every 
 miraculous attestation and official dignity, and sent 
 them on their way with prayer and fasting, while
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 325 
 
 commencing a new embassy of mercy, and entering 
 on a fresh career of labour and of peril. On all 
 these accounts, and many others like them, we feel 
 that we may, effectively and advantageously, employ 
 it, in conformity to such high precedents, as desig- 
 natory of the fervour of our intercessions and of 
 the full and overflowing benediction of our hearts, 
 while supplicating every gift and grace of heaven 
 to descend and rest upon our brother; and in the 
 plenitude of our satisfaction and our joy, we not 
 only give to him, as in more ordinary cases, the 
 right hand of fellowship, but that very form of tes- 
 timonial which is most fitted to display that we 
 convey to him whatever of official and of friendly 
 recognition we have ourselves received ; and above 
 all, with hallowing and elevated confidence, "we 
 commend him to God, and to the word of his grace," 
 being prepared henceforth to regard him as a man 
 wholly given up and appropriated to the service of 
 the sanctuary, dedicated, separated, sealed, not 
 only, as before, by the anointing of celestial influ- 
 ences and of spiritual grace, but by the consenting 
 and the cordial gratulations of his brethren. On the 
 effects of such ordination we cannot permit ourselves 
 to enlarge; nor on many collateral and variously 
 important inquiries to which it may give rise : we 
 will only further remark, that, though it designate 
 the pastor, first and most directly, of an individual 
 church, and in its primary reference might seem, 
 from some apostolical precedents, to be restricted 
 to this single object; yet, as every private member 
 of a particular church becomes at once and of neces-
 
 326 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 sity a member of the church universal, so also the 
 pastor of such a church becomes, at once and of 
 equal necessity, a pastor in the church universal ; 
 and, though he may not claim the authority of a 
 pastor over any other assembly but that to which 
 he is specifically appointed, he may yet, with full 
 propriety, discharge all the offices, and, without the 
 necessity of a second ordination, claim to be received 
 with all the deference belonging to that simple yet 
 honourable office throughout the widest limits of the 
 whole Christian community.* 
 
 * That which is here questioned or denied, in the case of one 
 who lias been ordained to the pastoral or ministerial office, is 
 " the necessity of a second ordination," on his passing from the 
 pastorate of one church to that of another. But the imposition 
 of hands, with fasting and prayer, was not confined to the act 
 of ordination to office; it was used also in cases of designation 
 to particular missions. We have an instance of this in the case 
 referred to in the text, of the setting apart of Paul and Barnabas, 
 in the church at Antioch, " to the work whereunto the Holy 
 Ghost had called them;" which evidently does not mean, as 
 some critics have vainly imagined, their investment with the 
 apostolic office, but their appointment to a special missionary 
 excursion, appropriately called above " a new embassy of 
 mercy a fresh career of labour and of peril" the details of 
 which they laid before the church on their return to Antioch 
 " whence they had been recommended to the grace of God, 
 for the work which they fulfilled" Acts xiv. 26. It seems 
 to follow, that, if fasting and prayer and the laying on of 
 hands were attended to, in " commending to the grace of 
 God " for a particular mission those who were previously in 
 office, there can be no impropriety if there is no necessity, 
 but may, on the contrary, be both solemnity, and seemliness, and 
 benefit, in following the same practice, when, if there be no new 
 office, there is at least a new relation, and, in that relation, a
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 32? 
 
 VII. We have thus fulfilled our intention in refer- 
 ence to all excepting the last inquiry which we sup- 
 posed likely to present itself in connection with this 
 service viz. : " Wherein do you differ, in the severa I 
 particulars now stated, from other denominations of 
 Christians, and especially from the national church ?" 
 And here, our time alone compels us to a brevity 
 unsuitable at once to the importance of the subject, 
 
 new " work whereunto" the servant of the Lord " is called," for 
 the due discharge of which he needs to he " commended anew 
 to the grace of God." On an occasion subsequent to that re- 
 corded in the thirteenth chapter of the Acts, when Paul, on 
 parting from Barnahas in consequence of the unseemly disagree- 
 ment between them, set out with Silas on another journey, he 
 was again " recommended by the brethren to the grace of God," 
 Acts xv. 40. It is likely that the same forms were observed on 
 both occasions, since respecting both the same terms are employed 
 Comp. chap. xiv. 26. with xv. 40. On the same principle, we 
 may ordain a man as a missionary to the Heathen, recommending 
 him to the grace of God for the discharge of that general com- 
 mission. But there would be no inconsistency in repeating the 
 same forms of designation and recommendation to the same grace, 
 on his being allocated to a particular sphere, or commissioned to 
 go to a particular city or a particular tribe, or when subse- 
 quently he might change, and pass from one scene of labour to 
 another. At each time, the imposition of hands, with prayer 
 and fasting, might, it is presumed, with equal propriety, be used. 
 It seems to be the scriptural form of designation, whether to 
 a particular office in the church, or to any particular work or 
 commission connected with the office ; or, still more generally, 
 it appears to have been used to designate, or mark out, the per- 
 son on whom, for whatever purpose, or on whatever occasion, 
 the divine blessing was solemnly implored, which is all that 
 can be meant by one man's pronouncing a benediction upon an- 
 other. EDITOR.
 
 328 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 and to the respectful attention we would ever wish 
 to manifest to the members of other religious societies, 
 and above all to those of the Church of England, 
 from which, though conscience enjoins us to sepa- 
 rate, yet can we never willingly forget either its 
 place and standing amongst the churches of the re- 
 formation, or the rank, the learning, the piety, and 
 the benevolence of many amongst its members, or 
 the splendour of its past services to the cause of 
 letters and of truth, and the continual increase of 
 its present claims upon the gratitude and love of 
 all who delight to witness the progress of pure and 
 undefiled religion, of all who have learned, in the 
 judgment of meekness and of charity, to discriminate 
 between the errors of the system and the principles 
 and motives of its advocates, and, separating the 
 precious from the vile, to discern the growth of 
 intelligence and Christian wisdom, amidst all the 
 rubbish and the lumber of a darker age. But we 
 must hastily conclude our remarks on the whole 
 subject, and cannot therefore indulge our wish of 
 pointing out, courteously and with becoming fulness, 
 the nature and the reasons of our separation in re- 
 spect to the matters that have been already men- 
 tioned. This is a theme for other seasons, and for 
 engagements of a different order ; but in this service 
 we can do no more than barely to enumerate those 
 points of difference which have been brought of 
 necessity under our view; and thus to terminate 
 our discourse. 
 
 As to the authority and warrant for every reli- 
 gious observance While we regard with the utmost
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 329 
 
 apprehension and repugnance every attempt of men, 
 whether synods, or councils, or kings, to dictate in 
 the smallest particular, either by prohibition or pre- 
 scription, as an invasion at once of the liberty of 
 conscience, and the prerogatives of Christ, the 
 Church of England (for we can speak of no other) 
 delegates the supreme rule and government of all 
 ecclesiastical offices to a civil and secular power; 
 the monarch of the realm being the declared head 
 of that church, and the two houses of parliament 
 the actual seat not more of temporal than of spiritual 
 legislation: and, whereas we appeal invariably to 
 the scriptures, and thence alone derive whatever we 
 believe or practise, the Church of England, almost 
 as invariably, remits us to those suspected and con- 
 flicting testimonies of later antiquity, of which we 
 have largely spoken, and decisively pronounces, in 
 opposition to the single and unparticipated supre- 
 macy of scripture, that " the church hath power to 
 decree rites and ceremonies, and authority in con- 
 troversies of faith ;" while it somewhat inconsis- 
 tently adds after other matter of the same import 
 relating to the scripture " Yet, as it ought not to 
 decree any thing against the same, so, besides the 
 same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed 
 for necessity of salvation." Whether it have ad- 
 hered strictly to this rule in the minute and unintel- 
 ligible specifications of its creeds, and the imposition 
 of its cumbrous and incongruous ritual, we pretend 
 not to determine. At all events, the difference, 
 both in our fundamental principles, and our respec- 
 tive practice, will be confessed to be of no slight or 
 VOL. i. 2 T
 
 330 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 secondary character; and, if our canons be well 
 founded, to justify, and even to command, our sepa- 
 ration. 
 
 As to the essential constitution of a church of 
 Christ, we are not less irreconcilably at issue. 
 The ecclesiastical establishment of England profess- 
 edly embraces all born within the realm, admits 
 all to the most hallowed services and the highest 
 privileges, unless excluded by their own voluntary 
 secession, or cut off from their enjoyment by external 
 and flagrant immorality. It parcels out the land into 
 parishes, archdeaconries, dioceses, and provinces, 
 and appoints to them the different functionaries 
 whom the respective patrons or the government may 
 most approve, without the least concurrence or pri- 
 vity of the people ; commits the people to their 
 care, and charges them with the oft-times intolerable 
 burden of their maintenance, without resistance or 
 control. I need not say how much at variance are 
 facts like these, either with the purity of Christian 
 fellowship, or with the exercise of Christian freedom. 
 I need do no more than to repeat, that that church 
 is national, ours the aggregation of individuals 
 voluntarily assembled ; that, the result of accidents, 
 whether of birth or local residence, for all that ap- 
 pertains to spiritual edification, or for social worship, 
 ours, of deliberate conviction and unfettered choice, 
 according to the light of conscience, and the dictates 
 of affection; that, compulsory, ours, free; that, 
 professedly embracing all whom it does not specifi- 
 cally exclude, ours, gathering out of a world that 
 lieth in the wicked one the several individuals whom
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 331 
 
 it apprehends to have been renewed in the spirit of 
 their mind, and meetened or meetening for the com- 
 munion of the church triumphant. 
 
 As to the office and jurisdiction of Christian pas- 
 tors ; besides that by the Church of England it is 
 conveyed in a manner which we conceive to be sub- 
 versive of every claim whether of justice or expe- 
 diency, it is there limited and mutilated in a thousand 
 ways, almost in the same degree as it is in others 
 unwarrantably and injuriously extended. With us, 
 the pastor of his people's choice, dwelling among 
 them, and supported by their cheerful benefactions, 
 partakes their confidence, and shares their sympathy, 
 in the same measure in which he exercises on them 
 those legitimate and salutary powers with which 
 alone he is invested, the farthest possibly removed 
 from solemn pomp, or priestly usurpation. He is 
 controlled by no earthly superior, and amenable to 
 no human tribunal and, though not usually assum- 
 ing the name, is in reality a true and scriptural 
 bishop, ruling amongst a people for whom he shall 
 give account only to "the shepherd and bishop of 
 souls." The contrast is, alas! too obvious; and to 
 dwell longer on such a point, could be productive 
 of no other than invidious and unpleasing emotions. 
 We will, therefore, dismiss it at once. 
 
 As to the evidence of a right call to ministerial 
 employment; yourselves will this day witness the 
 solemn and public interrogations, and judge of the 
 sufficiency of the replies, by which it is our practice 
 to bring it to the test. You have heard also how 
 carefully, and in how many other methods, we
 
 332 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 demand that it be established, that we may not 
 incur the guilt of committing the immortal interests 
 of men to the vigilance and the fidelity of hirelings, 
 nor place them beneath the guidance of "blind 
 leaders of the blind." In this case, we speak not 
 of exceptions, however splendid, or characters of 
 individual excellence, however commanding ; we 
 speak of systems, mutually and broadly compared: 
 and the secularity, the indolence, the neglect, 
 often, alas! the moral turpitude. and open profligacy, 
 which have been systematically connived at in the 
 clerical character, will readily exempt us from the 
 odious employ of pushing this comparison to any 
 greater extent. 
 
 As to ordination; who knows not, that it is too 
 generally, in the Church of England, like the in- 
 duction to any civil function, a mere appendage to 
 the course of academic discipline, and, although with 
 not a few dissimilar and truly illustrious examples, 
 the introduction to a life either of mechanical and 
 heartless drudgery, or of proud and ignorant repose ? 
 Who does not also know, that this ordination is per- 
 formed by a remote and elevated functionary, far 
 from the observation of the people, and without re- 
 ference to their approval ; accompanied, moreover, 
 with declarations, on the part both of the ordainer 
 and of the ordained, which, however awful and im- 
 posing, admit no justification, unless the sentiments 
 we have this day advanced be altogether baseless ? 
 Thus situated, be not surprised, my brethren, that 
 we have shrunk from ordination in the Church of 
 England ; or that we prefer a quiet conscience, even
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 333 
 
 in the humblest sphere of ministerial labour, to an 
 appointment, however otherwise inviting, which must 
 be approached through such subscriptions, oaths, and 
 promises, and attended, in the very act of its in- 
 auguration, with such unwarranted and superstitious 
 ceremonies, as have appalled some, and disgusted 
 others, amongst the most strenuous advocates of the 
 Episcopacy, and made them to retire with terror 
 from the cure of souls. 
 
 Of these ceremonies we shall add no more. Our 
 own are now before you, few, solemn, simple ; 
 and, we trust, not more impressive than correct and 
 scriptural. We have only further to entreat your 
 candid, thoughtful, and devout attention. Having 
 declared to you our principles, we await, with 
 mingled confidence and humility, the verdict you 
 shall be induced to pronounce upon our practice. 
 
 QUESTIONS ADDRESSED TO THE PASTOR ELECT, PRE- 
 VIOUSLY TO HIS ORDINATION.* 
 
 Since you present yourself this day before us, as 
 having been elected by the free and united suffrages 
 
 * It has been thought right to give these questions, together 
 with what follows, a place here, for the sake especially of such 
 readers as may be strangers to the simple forms of ordination 
 usually observed in the congregational churches. The questions, 
 being according to no authoritative or conventional prescription, 
 are of course subject to optional variation, may be diminished 
 or augmented in number, or even omitted altogether; the pre- 
 vious mutual satisfaction of the parties of the church with the 
 chosen pastor, and of the chosen pastor with the church, and of
 
 334 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 of this church, henceforth to become their pastor ; 
 and since it is our earnest wish and prayer, that not 
 only by the act of ordination, but by the interchange 
 of every token of respect and fraternal affection, we 
 may be enabled to extend to you hereafter the re- 
 gard and fellowship due to a brother in Christ, and 
 to do all which may at any time conduce to the 
 promotion both of your own prosperity, and of the 
 welfare of those who shall be committed to your 
 charge ; permit me to inquire, in the name of these 
 my brethren, and of the churches which they seve- 
 rally represent, 
 
 1. What are the reasons by which you are en- 
 couraged to believe that you are personally a par- 
 taker of that salvation which, we trust, it will ever 
 be the business and pleasure of your life to publish 
 and make known to others? 
 
 2. By what means have you been led to the con- 
 viction that you are acting according to the appoint- 
 ment of the exalted and omnipotent Redeemer, whose 
 authority alone we can in such a case acknowledge, 
 when you aspire to the sacred and most responsible 
 office of the Christian ministry ? 
 
 3. What are your sentiments in regard to Chris- 
 tian doctrine, and those principles which you hold 
 it to be the duty of an ambassador of Christ to pro- 
 mulgate and to enforce? 
 
 the ministers who are to take part in the service with both 
 being all that is properly essential The questions, though they 
 stand here together, are, as the reader will naturally enough 
 suppose, answered in succession. EDITOR.
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 335 
 
 4. What are your views of ecclesiastical discipline 
 and order, and what those considerations especially 
 by which you have been determined to devote your- 
 self to the exercise of this ministry in connection 
 with the congregational dissenters ? 
 
 5. What are those purposes with which you are 
 about to enter on this elevated and most arduous 
 employment, and what the spirit and design with 
 which you promise, as in the sight of God, and of 
 these his people, to fulfil its duties? 
 
 TO THE CHURCH, WHEN THE ANSWERS TO THE 
 QUESTIONS HAVE BEEN GIVEN. 
 
 You, my beloved friends, the members of this 
 church, have heard the confession of our brother 
 here before you. You have already chosen and 
 invited him to become your pastor; and it is at 
 your solicitation we are this day convened, that we 
 may witness and attest his settlement amongst you. 
 Do you publicly confirm that choice, and renew 
 that invitation? Will you henceforward receive 
 him as your spiritual guide and overseer; render- 
 ing to him, for his Master's sake, the affection and 
 honour that belong to such an office? And is it 
 your desire that we should proceed to set him now 
 apart to its fulfilment by the offering of fervent 
 and united prayer ? Then let me call on you to 
 signify your wishes by the lifting up of the right 
 hand.
 
 330 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 TO THE MINISTER, WHEN THE CHURCH HAVE SIGNIFIED 
 THEIR ADHERENCE TO THEIR INVITATION. 
 
 And you, my brother, have now received from 
 the members of this church the testimony of their 
 affectionate and cordial solicitude that you should 
 defer no longer to enter on your office, not alone as 
 an evangelist or a religious instructor, but as their 
 chosen pastor; to watch over their spiritual inte- 
 rests, and to labour for their continued advancement 
 in the faith and hope of the gospel. Do you accept 
 the same, and will you certify us, by the like token, 
 that you will strive diligently to fulfil it ? 
 
 TO THE MINISTERS, AND CHURCH, AND CONGREGATION. 
 
 Let us now, my fathers and brethren in the min- 
 istry, and all who are here present, by humble sup- 
 plication and thanksgiving, glorify God, who has 
 put it into the hearts both of the church now as- 
 sembled, and of this its pastor, thus to submit them- 
 selves to his appointment, and to act in all things 
 in obedience to his will; beseeching him ever to 
 bestow upon them all that is essential to make them 
 mutually blessed in themselves, and blessings to each 
 other, and so to accompany with his almighty 
 grace the acts that are performed by us at this time, 
 that they may be graciously ratified and sanctioned, 
 even by the Saviour and the Judge, in the great 
 and dreadful day of his appearing.
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 337 
 
 [What is usually called the ordination prayer is 
 then offered up, in which the pastor elect is solemnly 
 and affectionately " commended to the grace of God 
 for the work" which he has undertaken to "fulfil." 
 This is followed, with intermediate acts of praise, 
 by an address to the newly ordained pastor, gene- 
 rally denominated the charge, and a corresponding 
 address to the church, relative to their reciprocal 
 duties, difficulties, and encouragements, the prin- 
 ciples and the ends of their union. Of such ad- 
 dresses, both to minister and people, several admir- 
 able specimens are presented in the immediately 
 following discourses. EDITOR.] 
 
 VOL. i. 2 u
 
 III. 
 CHARGE 
 
 ADDRESSED TO THE REV. JOHN ELY, 
 
 ON HIS REMOVAL FROM ROCHDALE, 
 TO BE THE SUCCESSOR OF THE REV. EDWARD PARSONS, 
 
 AS PASTOR OF THE 
 
 CHURCH IN SALEM CHAPEL, LEEDS, 
 AUGUST 21s*, 1833.
 
 DISCOURSE VIII. 
 
 ROMANS xi. 13. 
 " / magnify mine office" 
 
 I SHALL not attempt, my dear brother, to express 
 the various emotions with which I undertake this 
 solemn and momentous service. It would be in 
 vain that I should seek to give them utterance. 
 Their number and their strange diversity would 
 alike baffle and overwhelm me; while their indi- 
 vidual strength would defy such feeble powers as I 
 could summon to the task. The consideration of 
 those all-important issues involved in every part of 
 these proceedings, combines so energetically with 
 the feelings of personal regard, that they unitedly 
 constitute a force to which my verbal description 
 would be totally inadequate. My natural wish would 
 be, to assure you, in the presence of this great as- 
 sembly, and of these your honoured associates in 
 the ministry, with whom I fervently and most de- 
 voutly pray that you may long be spared to recipro- 
 cate, in all their fulness, the feelings and the offices 
 of holy fellowship, how steadfast is the attachment, 
 how cordial are the greetings, how ardent and how 
 universal are the desires for your prosperity of 
 those from whom the providence of God has now
 
 342 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 enforced your separation. I say enforced it ; for 
 nothing less, I am persuaded, than a solemn and 
 resistless sense of obligation could have effected 
 your withdrawment from a sphere, where you had 
 so long laboured with increasing comfort and suc- 
 cess, and from amongst brethren by whom you 
 were so highly honoured, so affectionately beloved. 
 But how can I trust myself to speak on such a 
 theme ? or with what calmness can I enter on a 
 subject which appeals so strongly to the most power- 
 ful and the purest sympathies; when every thing I 
 see revives my consciousness of change and of pri- 
 vation speaks of the mutability and frailty of all 
 earthly pleasures and tells me that connections are 
 dissolved which, at the very hour when they were 
 broken, I more fondly than ever counted on as per- 
 manent and that I am henceforward to be deprived 
 of that which, even at the moment of its resignation, 
 I valued more than at any former period, since it 
 seemed to promise higher satisfactions and more 
 ample improvement ? How can I escape from the 
 recollections of the past, or from disquieting and 
 melancholy thoughts of what may be hereafter? 
 Days that are now departed seem to rush upon my 
 mind, and bring back with them scenes and circum- 
 stances not to be recalled, but whose memory is 
 scarcely less painful than it is redolent with grati- 
 tude and joy. I am transported back again to spots 
 where we shall never more renew the pleasant inter- 
 course, nor pursue together the aims and purposes, 
 of Christian piety. I am reminded of deficiencies 
 and negligence, which can now never be repaired,
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 343 
 
 I am forced to the contemplation of advantages for- 
 feited and lost to me for ever; and of hopes now 
 quenched and extinct, which it was once most de- 
 lightful to indulge. It is with no common regret, 
 therefore, that I regard that removal which has led 
 to these solemnities ; and, however I am necessitated 
 to approve it, as coinciding with the manifested in- 
 dications of that will to which we are bound in all 
 things to be subject I must yet be permitted silently 
 to lament its consequences, as they bear, not upon 
 you certainly in that sense I hope all will be pros- 
 perous but upon myself, and on my brethren in 
 the county, and above all, on your late happy but 
 now disconsolate people. It is, I trust, no irrever- 
 ence to say, that, though the way of Lord has been 
 discovered in this instance, it has been, in relation 
 to us, as in the sea, and his path as in the deep 
 waters ; and, though his voice has imperatively 
 spoken, we have heard it from out of the thick dark- 
 ness. Brighter visions, indeed, dawn upon the view, 
 and more inviting scenes stretch themselves onward 
 in long and joyous perspective; but it is amidst the 
 remoteness and the uncertainty of the future, 
 amidst days that may never arrive, and events that 
 may be only as the phantoms of a dream. You 
 will not accuse me of an ungenerous self-love, if I 
 lament what was once the possession, and not less 
 the bright reversionary treasure, of those you have 
 been called to leave behind you; when you think 
 only of the plans which are thus frustrated, the 
 course of united exertion and expected usefulness 
 which is interrupted and broken off, and the large
 
 344 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 dependencies that are left apparently without sup- 
 port. I would not damp your joys, nor cloud the 
 fair and encouraging prospect which now rises before 
 you. I would not dim, even by a single tear of 
 grief, the eyes that are glistening around, while they 
 behold the animating transactions, and the still more 
 animating promise, of this day. And even though 
 it had been in my power to speak, therefore, as they 
 might demand to have been spoken, the tender and 
 fraternal regrets of those from whom you are hence- 
 forth to be separated, I would have restrained myself, 
 and sealed them up in silence. But I repeat, that 
 they are of a nature to repress such utterance as I 
 am qualified to give them. I pass away from them, 
 and gird myself to the fulfilment of a far more 
 welcome duty. Yet even to that duty how shall I 
 approach ? Of counsel, or of admonition, and much 
 more of information relative to the engagements 
 and objects of your future ministry, you certainly 
 have little need ; and were it otherwise, I am unable 
 to impart it. Even to stimulate you to a greater 
 activity, or to rouse you to holier and higher pur- 
 poses, or to excite you to loftier and more com- 
 manding anticipations, whether of the pleasing or 
 the sorrowful results attendant on your work, would 
 call for larger experience and maturer wisdom than 
 I have yet attained: and what can I hope for fur- 
 ther than to remind you of obligations you have 
 long and successfully fulfilled, and to enforce upon 
 you the cultivation of principles, and the review of 
 practical truths, which you have yourself illustrated 
 and commended to the adoption of others, in such
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 345 
 
 a manner as to leave nothing more to be accom- 
 plished either by the most comprehensive intelli- 
 gence, or the most fervent piety? I have, however, 
 a twofold consolation in attempting to fulfil this ser- 
 vice, arising, on the one hand, from the reflection, 
 that, from my very circumstances, I cannot be sus- 
 pected even by those around of desiring to dictate, 
 or to assume the slightest semblance of authority; 
 and, on the other, from the assurance that the sug- 
 gestions I am about to offer will by you be accurately 
 appreciated, alike in their value and their utility; 
 that they will operate in the precise measure of their 
 inherent truth and importance, and be completed 
 and carried out to a far larger extent both of expan- 
 siveness in knowledge and of efficacy in practical 
 application, than, from their own rudimental and 
 imperfect form as presented by myself, might seem 
 to be attainable. 
 
 In a situation such as that you occupy, consider- 
 ing as well the standing you have already acquired 
 as the commanding influence and high responsibility 
 which will unquestionably be associated with your 
 future labours, considering that your procedure in 
 all things will affect indefinitely the conduct and 
 habits of so many others in the ministry, as well as 
 the reputation and collateral effects of the gospel 
 throughout a most important district, considering 
 how truly it may be said of you that "you are set 
 for the fall and rising again of many in Israel," 
 and that there are few if any stations where either 
 greater benefits or more serious disservice must 
 accrue to the cause of truth and piety from the life 
 
 VOL. i. 2 x
 
 346 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 and labours of any single man; I know not that 
 any sentiment could be, in all its bearings, more 
 impressive, or more forcibly applicable, than that 
 emphatically presented by this text: " I MAGNIFY 
 MINE OFFICE." I know not that there is one which 
 you could, with more eminent advantage, make the 
 motto of your future course, or one which to have 
 fully realized in thought, and to preserve perpetually 
 before the mind in practice, could impart to your 
 efforts a truer elevation, a more sensible directness, 
 or a more sacred and infallible efficiency. 
 
 How this sentiment was understood, and in what 
 manner it was illustrated, in the whole character of 
 its great author, I need hardly stay to remind you. 
 But that it was by a course of feeling and of conduct 
 contrasted to the very utmost with the impressions 
 which might naturally be made on many who should 
 inconsiderately listen to its annunciation, will be 
 obvious even on the slightest reference to his history. 
 To them it would probably convey the idea of such 
 an aspiring estimation of our ministerial functions, 
 such a strict regard to the punctilios and formalities 
 of ecclesiastical precedency, as to forbid all com- 
 parison, and to overawe all interference. Deriving 
 their only methods of interpretation from the pomp 
 of sacerdotal pretensions, the solemnity of public 
 services, and the decorations of an imposing cere- 
 monial ; accustomed to think of the ministerial 
 order as of something mysteriously elevated and 
 abstracted, and connected by some magic virtue 
 with an undefinable and yet indestructible sanctity ; 
 they would rise in their imaginations, tardily and
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 34? 
 
 with fearful reverence, through the awful gradations 
 of priestly and episcopal to the sublime altitudes of 
 patriarchal and of apostolic pre-eminence; till no- 
 thing might seem left even to the great Ruler him- 
 self by which to challenge a superiority to these so 
 sacred and still advancing distinctions, but the throne 
 of heaven and the sceptre of the universe. With 
 them, happily, we have this day no concern. There 
 are others, by whom we are more anxious that our 
 design should be duly understood. When, in a 
 service like the present, we venture to dwell at 
 length on such a declaration, we are aware that 
 some amongst our hearers, more enlightened, though 
 not it may be more charitable, may still suspect us, 
 not of this folly indeed, but of designing to inculcate 
 the indulgence of assuming and dangerous notions 
 concerning the claims of our official character. And, 
 though their judgment in this case be inaccurate, - 
 their feelings are such as we are far from wishing 
 to condemn, and their whole state of mind one which 
 we rather hail and foster, since it is the safeguard of 
 liberty and truth. For our relief, however, from 
 every misconception, we need only appeal to the 
 method in which this manlike and honourable senti- 
 ment was illustrated in the conduct of the writer 
 himself. 
 
 Did he extol his office by vaunting proclamations 
 of its grandeur, its legitimacy, its divine investiture, 
 its solemn sanctions, its extended and fearful autho- 
 rity ? Was he ever found to challenge for it, other- 
 wise than as it was connected with miraculous 
 endowments, the unquestioning and instant submis-
 
 348 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 sion of men's hearts and consciences, as to an oracle 
 that must not be disputed, or their subserviency 
 in the conduct of life, as to a law that it was death 
 to disobey ? Did he ever exalt its possessors to a 
 height of unintelligible and mystical sacredness, 
 above the condition of humanity and the common 
 feelings and infirmities of nature, which might de- 
 mand the prostration of others at their feet, as if 
 separated from them by an impassable though in- 
 visible chasm an abyss which it was sacrilege to 
 traverse even in imagination, and which still divided 
 the priest, the bishop, or the pastor, from the man ? 
 You know, my brother, and you will remember it 
 in practice, that the reverse of all this was the case ; 
 and that while, upon just occasions, when the great 
 interests of righteousness and truth might be ad- 
 vanced by such a course, he did force his reluctant 
 spirit to the task of asserting that " authority which 
 the Lord had given him for the edification and not 
 for the destruction" of the church, he did rebuke its 
 disorders, and roll the thunders of heaven over its 
 heresies and its corruptions ; yet his ordinary career 
 was that only of gentleness and winning condescen- 
 sion ; and there was nothing of which he stood in 
 greater apprehension, nothing he repressed with a 
 more indignant and uncompromising severity, than 
 the undue and criminal elevation of the ministerial 
 character ; regarding it even as an usurpation on the 
 supremacy of the exalted Redeemer, which it was 
 his highest aim to inculcate, as it was his master- 
 passion to obey. Never did he more truly elevate 
 his ministry, than when he expostulated with the
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 349 
 
 uncharitable but servile spirit of those who said " I 
 am of Paul, and I am of Apollos :" never did that 
 ministry appear more exalted, and all beside it 
 dwindle into more just and impressive insignificance, 
 than when he expressed his exultation and thank- 
 fulness because his message had been obediently 
 received, " not as the word of man, but, as it was in 
 truth, the word of God," declared his unmoveable 
 determination "to know nothing among men but 
 Jesus Christ and him crucified," and exclaimed, 
 with mingled astonishment and delight, " Unto me, 
 who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace 
 given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the 
 unsearchable riches of Christ!" This was indeed 
 to magnify his office. He was nothing, aye, and 
 even his office itself was comparatively nothing, 
 that " Christ might be all and in all." 
 
 What were the feelings with which he habitually 
 contemplated his particular designation as the apostle 
 of the Gentiles, appears most plainly in many memo- 
 rable portions both of his writings and his life. It 
 would seem that this magnificent truth, that the 
 vail which had so long divided mankind into two 
 great portions, and shut out the larger of them from 
 all participation in the hopes of future happiness, 
 was at length rent in twain and destroyed, was no 
 sooner presented to his mind, no sooner did he 
 come to comprehend, even in its merest outlines, 
 that " mystery which from the beginning of the 
 world had been hid in God who created all things 
 by Jesus Christ," than his great and generous 
 spirit was ravished with irrepressible delight. The
 
 350 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 theme thenceforward assumed the mastery over all 
 his feelings. He was urged on by this remembrance, 
 through all conceivable or possible obstacles, to the 
 attainment of this godlike consummation, that by 
 him that mystery might be fully known, and that 
 the event might be hastened, whether by his labours, 
 privations, sufferings, or death. His seraphic ardour 
 bore him on, as on the wings of ecstacy, to the most 
 distant climes and ages. He saw every national 
 distinction obliterated; every cloud of ignorance 
 dispersed; every form of idolatry, cruelty, misery, 
 oppression, vanishing before the power of reno- 
 vating mercy ; every fetter broken ; every dun- 
 geon unclosed; every trembling spirit emancipated 
 from its thraldom; every wanderer reclaimed, and 
 rejoicing beneath the guidance and the peaceful con- 
 trol of the great Shepherd ; all sin destroyed ; all 
 sorrow banished from the habitations of men; and 
 the banners of salvation waving over every land. 
 The prospect fired his soul. He could not waste 
 even a thought on objects of inferior moment. A 
 sublime indifference to all things else was seen in 
 his heroic and magnanimous career. He had but 
 one existence, and it was capable of being supremely 
 devoted but to one great object. It was already 
 devoted. It was no longer his own. And if he 
 were even to be offered up upon the sacrifice and 
 service of the faith, he could not refuse the oblation ; 
 he must still joy and rejoice in that illustrious 
 designation which had bound him with so rigid yet 
 so glorious a necessity. Others might pursue their 
 more quiet and unadventurous track, while seeking
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 351 
 
 to evangelize their countrymen. He sought no less 
 than to evangelize the globe. They might seem to 
 be pillars in an edifice of bounds comparatively re- 
 stricted ; but for his part, his ample breast expanded 
 to the whole circumference of human being and of 
 human wretchedness. To him they added nothing 
 by their conferences ; he could not be restrained by 
 their timidity. They crept along the shore; he 
 spread his daring canvass to the winds, braving all 
 consequences, and certain of the issue. He was the 
 minister of Christ unto the Gentiles, that is, unto 
 the world. His understanding, stern and manly in 
 all its decisions, approved and delighted in a thought 
 so worthy of itself: his heart leapt with transport 
 at the tidings of a final and an universal ransom : 
 his best and highest faculties found here a theme 
 commensurate with their full exercise. He lent 
 himself wholly to its influence, and resigned his 
 concentrated and total being to its power. 
 
 There is something fearfully exalted and impres- 
 sive in the spectacle thus presented, of the power of 
 one absorbing interest, and one mighty object, to 
 take possession of the soul; to model its whole 
 habitudes and character into its own resemblance; 
 to bend its most rigorous purposes and the most in- 
 veterate of its prepossessions into subserviency and 
 absolute obedience; to avail itself of the strength 
 even of a giant intellect, and to sustain itself on the 
 resources even of the most masculine mind and the 
 most generous heart; till as the ivy enwreathing 
 the forest oak it outgrows its utmost height, 
 flourishes in all its luxuriance through the whole
 
 352 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 extent of its dimensions, and waves in verdure and 
 loveliness even amidst its ruin and decay. It is a 
 lesson of the richest value, to see the purpose thus 
 subduing, while yet it elevates, the man; the soul 
 transformed, yet vanishing amidst the irradiations of 
 its brightness, and its whole structure penetrated, 
 purified, and effulgent, with its consuming splendour, 
 and, like the clearest crystal, seeming to become 
 itself invisible through the dazzling confiscations of 
 a light which it concentrates, embodies, and diffuses, 
 or like the polished surface of a mirror, hid in 
 the lustre of its own reflections. It is great beyond 
 all other objects, even of our fancy, to behold a man 
 like Paul lost and absorbed in the grandeur of his 
 ministry, till that is realized to others which he so 
 strongly expressed as the condition of his private 
 feelings " I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in 
 me." It is fraught at once with invaluable instruc- 
 tion and with an all-commanding energy, to be fur- 
 nished with such illustration of a statement which 
 might otherwise have been suspected of inconsidera- 
 tion or extravagance "To me to live i-s Christ!" 
 
 But with this illustration, all is simple, useful, and 
 practical. We learn in him what the ministers of 
 Jesus are required to be. We perceive the true 
 genius of our office. We follow him from the secrecy 
 of those meditations in which his majestic mind is 
 swallowed up and lost, into the scenes of public 
 labour, and the toils and perils of an apostolic minis- 
 try. We watch his sustained and rational confidence 
 in the midst of opposition and danger ; his zeal 
 which never flags, and his efforts which know no
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 353 
 
 intermission, while environed with difficulties and 
 causes of alarm; his tranquillity, which never for- 
 sakes him while struggling with the greatest embar- 
 rassments; and his patience, which seems but to 
 be nurtured into vigour by the most wearisome de- 
 lay. When thus the image of his greatness swells 
 upon our sight, we recognise in every feature the 
 lineaments of one of the sublimest spirits of the 
 world; and yet it seems so hallowed, softened, and 
 pervaded by the mightier spirit of his Master, that 
 we soon forget him in his embassy, and seem to be 
 conversing no longer with one of the noblest of 
 mankind, but only with an apostle of the lowly 
 Jesus. We are half unconscious that it is a pro- 
 duct of the loftiest principles of individual character, 
 when we hear him say, " None of these things move 
 me : Talk not to me of danger, opposition, or 
 calumny. Think not to retard my progress by tor- 
 tures or by death. I am not to be daunted by 
 menaces, nor repelled by hardships. Hunger, cold, 
 and nakedness, are all alike in vain, if they would 
 assume to stand between me and the execution of 
 my purpose. Think not to melt me even by your 
 tears, though if to any influence I might yield to 
 them. My fame, my ease, my country, my kindred, 
 and my very life, is lighter than the dust of the 
 balance in comparison with my charge and my 
 fidelity. Necessity is laid upon me. I am bound 
 in spirit even as a victim ready for the altar. My 
 work and my reward are before me : and were earth 
 and hell together to oppose my progress, I must 
 go." On hearing words like these, we speedily 
 VOL. i. 2 Y
 
 354 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 dismiss from our recollection all but the constrain- 
 ing love of the Redeemer. The unequalled majesty 
 of that character which they betray, seems no longer 
 the appropriated excellence of its distinguished sub- 
 ject. It is felt to be no more than might become a 
 minister of heavenly mercy, a follower of the exalted 
 Son of God in the great work of human restoration. 
 It is not the man that is thus magnified; but exclu- 
 sively and pre-eminently " the office." 
 
 Thus it was that the declaration in our text was 
 first carried out and confirmed. Paul " magnified 
 his office" by his elevated and impressive concep- 
 tion of its nature and the great design of its appoint- 
 ment ; by his deep sense of personal unworthiness, 
 regarding it, with the highest gratitude, as but too 
 great an honour; by his supreme attachment to 
 its objects, and the cheerful surrender of every other 
 aim; by his unceasing labours, journeys, disputa- 
 tions, writings, and the constancy of his devotedness 
 to its fulfilment; by the patience and the fortitude 
 with which he encountered its difficulties, dangers, 
 and privations; by the noble calmness with which 
 he rose above its shame; by the anxiety and awe 
 with which he contemplated the period and conse- 
 quences of its final resignation ; and by the perse- 
 verance with which, to his last hour, he prosecuted 
 that godlike career, at length laying down his life 
 in attestation of the truth he had proclaimed, and 
 now rejoiced to ratify amidst the terrors and the 
 pains of martyrdom. 
 
 Now this, my brother, is our pattern ; and this 
 the comment on that energetic passage I have
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 355 
 
 chosen for our present meditations. It is manifest, 
 that if we would in such manner magnify our office, 
 we must learn in the same school, we must practise 
 the same discipline. Our earliest lesson must be, 
 to think of ourselves as the very chief of sinners, 
 not meet to be called the ministers of Christ, 
 having obtained mercy in the midst of the most 
 aggravated offences, that in us pre-eminently he 
 might "show forth a pattern of long-suffering to 
 them that should afterwards believe on him unto 
 life everlasting." If ever the office we sustain be 
 raised to its true dignity, it must be by such contrast 
 with ourselves;- and thus, while labouring ever in 
 the cultivation of our personal piety and the con- 
 stant invocation of sanctifying grace, we must 
 
 1. In the first place, Seek to possess ourselves 
 with the most just and influential apprehensions of 
 its nature and its high design. I do not intend by 
 this that we must study merely the true place and 
 order of this appointment in the scale of the divine 
 administrations, or what is the respect due to it 
 from the churches over which we preside : it is no 
 question of ecclesiastical regimen and polity that I 
 would now advert to, but rather, that we should 
 endeavour to obtain, and preserve in all their vivid- 
 ness, such solemn and commanding impressions of 
 its intrinsic character, spiritually considered, as shall 
 insure, by natural consequence, our perfect resigna- 
 tion to its power, and so, instrumentally, our fidelity 
 and our success. Of how much value this is likely 
 to be found in practice, will appear even from the 
 most casual reflection. It will regulate of course
 
 356 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 both our methods of address and the general cast 
 of our exertions. The spirit of office, and the sense 
 of its concomitant obligations, may be strikingly 
 discerned in the zeal, the courage, and the practical 
 elevation, it is found so often to impart; in many 
 most familiar forms and striking instances. It is 
 this chiefly which nerves the soldier in the day of 
 battle, and renders it impossible that he should fly. 
 It is this enables the physician to plunge without 
 alarm into the most pestilential atmosphere. This 
 gives firmness to the magistrate, when he pronounces 
 and urges on to execution a sentence which every 
 sensibility of his nature would have forbidden him 
 otherwise to utter. Let a man but feel " This is 
 my duty: it is inseparable from my station: it 
 must be accomplished; and its accomplishment de- 
 pends on me :" and there is little indeed that he 
 will not attempt, or which, attempting, he will be 
 unable to effect. Now, though we may be far from 
 misconceiving the theoretic character of our ministry, 
 I fear we may be equally far from carrying about 
 with us, through the wide circle of our pastoral en- 
 gagements, the direct and solemn sense of all which 
 it involves. And what we apprehend ourselves to 
 be, in this case, we shall commonly become. Though 
 we shall fall short, alas too surely, of the standard 
 we have set before us, we are certain that our con- 
 duct will partake much of its complexion, however 
 little it may bear a correspondence to its measure. 
 As Christians, and much more as ministers, our 
 achievements will be limited and unworthy, if such 
 be our attempts; and it admits not even of a mo-
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 35? 
 
 ment's doubt, that many amongst us live in a manner 
 shamefully and sadly disproportionate to the claims 
 and very nature of our office, from resting satisfied 
 with some inferior attainments, and forming our 
 primary and practical conceptions of the ministry 
 on some inferior model. "I am doing a great 
 work," is a remembrance never so appropriate as 
 in the employ to which we are called. " I am ne- 
 cessitated, every moment and at every step, to aug- 
 ment, in an inestimable but most important degree, 
 the happiness or misery of the universe. Each 
 movement of my public course, and all the minor 
 details of my history, are connected with the great 
 moral machinery which regulates the world unseen. 
 The destinies of an imperishable being are suspended 
 continually upon me ; and my most feeble efforts 
 are associated with the operations and the dread 
 results of that economy, which extends at once its 
 bearings and its effects through the whole realm of 
 spirits, and duration that can never end. I tremble 
 at myself, when I consider that the thoughts I utter 
 and the very words I speak will be recorded, not in 
 the register of earthly fame, nor among the produc- 
 tions of earthly genius, but on the living tablet of 
 the soul, written in light and glory or in agony and 
 blood. It is a fearful function, to walk abroad 
 amidst a world of perishing and guilty beings, and 
 know that, if I do not prevail to save, I must con- 
 tribute but the more emphatically to destroy them. 
 It is not permitted me to be neutral in my influence 
 upon them. If I cannot promote their welfare, I 
 am not suffered to console myself with the assurance
 
 358 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 that at least I have not become accessory to their 
 perdition. They must be saved or lost : and I must 
 minister, by the very necessity of my employment, 
 directly and most effectually, to the decision of this 
 dreadful alternative. And O, then, how powerful, 
 how resistless, is the motive, to attempt, by every 
 practicable method, the arrest of their infatuations, 
 and the rescue of their immortality ! Could I desist 
 from the task; or were it possible that, when I dis- 
 covered my inability to render them the aid their 
 miseries or their delusions may demand, I could 
 retire in silence, and weep in secret over those de- 
 lusions and miseries, but without by any agency of 
 mine contributing to their enhancement, I might 
 perhaps repose ; and the heart, though sad and sick- 
 ening, would be cheered by the peaceful conscious- 
 ness that it was at least guiltless of their doom. 
 But now, no other course is left me, but either to 
 become confederate tremendous thought ! with the 
 prince of darkness, in most effectually conspiring to 
 their everlasting ruin, or to apply my uttermost 
 vigour to the task, laborious and perplexing as it 
 may be, of 'opening their eyes and turning them 
 from darkness unto light, and from the power of 
 Satan unto God, that they may obtain forgiveness 
 of sins, and an inheritance among them that are 
 sanctified, by faith which is in Christ.' Yet where- 
 fore should I thus abandon myself to reflections, that 
 can but overwhelm me with an incurable and hope- 
 less melancholy ! Am I a messenger of wrath, or 
 mercy ? Is it my commission to proclaim the coming 
 of the Judge, or the blessed advent of the Saviour;
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 359 
 
 to sound the trumpet of doom, or of atonement; 
 to invite to the mercy-seat, or to summon to the 
 bar? Why should my soul sink within me, as 
 though I came with gloomy and disastrous tidings? 
 Have I forgotten that the blood of which I speak is 
 that of the great propitiation, and that my one de- 
 lightful employment is evermore to cry ' Behold 
 the Lamb of God?' Am I not a herald of peace, 
 and warranted to say to every guilty and condemned 
 soul ' The way of return is opened ; the overtures 
 of reconciliation await only thine acceptance, and 
 the mansions of heaven shall ring with loftiest ac- 
 clamations to attest thy welcome. All things are 
 ready; they are provided expressly for thy free 
 and joyous reception; and I am sent to bid thee 
 to the festival. Come, then ; return with me ; and 
 be persuaded to embrace eternal happiness. Believe 
 in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.' 
 Shall I despair then of success ; or go with haste 
 and bitterness of spirit, bearing the burden of the 
 Lord; or speak with coldness and indifference, as 
 conscious of a mournful or a dubious embassy? 
 Mine is a service which the brightest sons of the 
 morning might rejoice to execute. It surpasses, 
 not in importance only but in honour and delight, 
 the loftiest forms of earthly ministration. It is 
 second only to the agency of that almighty Spirit 
 by which the soul is quickened and renewed; or to 
 that mysterious solemnity wherein its redemption 
 was effectuated in the sacrifice of Calvary. * I will 
 go, then, in the strength of the Lord God, making 
 mention of his righteousness, even of his only.' I
 
 360 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 will entreat, beseech, exhort, persuade, with the at- 
 tractiveness and the fervency of love. Eternal 
 blessings wait on every step. They that are ready 
 to perish shall repent and live. The darkness of 
 many a mind will be dispersed, its fetters broken, 
 its sorrow turned into joy, and the solitude and 
 silence of its prison-house exchanged for the gratu- 
 lations and the sweet companionship of its partners 
 in freedom and in bliss. How animating and how 
 glorious is my employ, while I announce, not con- 
 demnation, but forgiveness, and dispense, not the 
 maledictions, but the blessings, of heaven!" 
 
 2. It is to magnify our office, my dear brother, 
 when thus, besides a deep and solemn sense of its 
 importance and its spiritual character, we cherish a 
 devout persuasion of its efficacy : when we appear 
 among our people with a cheerful countenance, as 
 expecting to do them good; when we speak with 
 a tone, not only of impassioned earnestness, but of 
 calm and settled confidence, as knowing that our 
 labour shall not be in vain. That such a course 
 tends most directly to the attainment of our object, 
 will be known to those who have witnessed the in- 
 fluence of a frank and confiding address in the 
 ministrations even of inferior men, and how the heart 
 is disposed to receive into its embraces, and to admit 
 to the participation of its fellowship, all that thus 
 casts itself upon its kindness, just as the hospitality 
 of the earliest ages extended its protection and its 
 bounty even to the bitterest foe, when thus gene- 
 rously thrown on its defence. The history of the 
 Christian church would, I am satisfied, confirm this
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 361 
 
 observation to the very last degree ; and those would 
 be found the most successful ministers in every age, 
 who to an ardent solicitude for the welfare of their 
 hearers added a steady and a manifest reliance on 
 the sufficiency of those means they were commis- 
 sioned to employ. They have ever been the in- 
 struments of the most extensive and diversified 
 advantages, whether to the church or to the world, 
 who have put most honour on their work, by dis- 
 covering the most fixed belief of its efficiency. 
 
 3. If we would magnify our office in the view of 
 all men, having thus first magnified it to ourselves, 
 we must next endeavour to imbibe and visibly to 
 cultivate the spirit appropriate to its discharge. 
 That spirit will reveal itself under several dissimilar, 
 yet not incompatible, aspects. It will combine the 
 loftiest reverence with the most childlike simplicity ; 
 the most elevated sanctity with a familiarity and 
 frankness at the utmost possible remove from all 
 that is scrupulous, or superstitious, or austere. It 
 will join the dignity of the public functionary to the 
 gentle play of every bland and kindly affection in 
 the communications of ordinary friendship. You 
 will feel yourself in the society of the man who at 
 once awes you by the grandeur of his principles and 
 the certainty of his habitual conversance with things 
 unseen, and yet, studious to accomplish, in relation 
 to every one around him, the largest practicable 
 amount of good, mingles with unaffected concern in 
 whatever relates to your individual happiness, or 
 brings even a shade of sadness over your temporal 
 or spiritual condition. He will be recognised as 
 
 VOL. i. 2 z
 
 362 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 one not unaccustomed to tremble beneath the powers 
 of the world to come. An awful solemnity, blended 
 with the profoundest humiliation, will sometimes rest 
 upon him, such as you would anticipate from the 
 beloved disciple, when he had seen the glories of 
 the celestial vision, and before the ineffable majesty 
 of the Son of man had fallen at his feet as dead; 
 and yet, that awe will be attempered by such suavity 
 and winning tenderness, it will be marked by such 
 unquestionable sincerity, as to assure you it is the 
 accompaniment, not of a theatrical or artificial cha- 
 racter, but of a deep and commanding sense of 
 everlasting realities. Levity and moroseness will 
 alike be banished from his whole demeanour. Fer- 
 vency of zeal will be exhibited in beautiful connec- 
 tion with a wise and salutary caution : boldness of 
 reproof, with gentleness and kind forbearance. He 
 will show that he possesses in himself the resources 
 and the confidence of an unwavering conviction; 
 and is ready, when legitimately called on, to crush 
 the sophist, or to overwhelm the scoffer, by the 
 strength of solid reason and the force of irrefutable 
 argument ; while yet he treats not with a supercilious 
 pity, but a considerate gentleness, the hesitations or 
 even the incredulity of those endangered by the 
 snares of error. Condescension to the weakest and 
 the meanest will be united with a sober and yet 
 unshrinking assertion of his independence on the 
 smiles or frowns of all men. He will invite all, and 
 feel for all, and seem to carry all in his bosom, even 
 as he is wont to carry them in his most secret sup- 
 plications ; but he will be abashed by none, and
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 363 
 
 give to none an opportunity to glory over him. 
 Succumbency or meanness will be so visibly abhor- 
 rent to his nature, that it will be the last possible 
 accusation that could be brought against him, or, if 
 brought, believed. A noble singleness of purpose 
 will appear enstamped on his whole course of action ; 
 and though he may be censured, feared, or hated, 
 he will never be suspected. That obvious unosten- 
 tatious benignity, which will glow in his address and 
 beam forth in his smile, his instant readiness to 
 adapt himself to the proper demands of his office 
 and his varying situation ; the ease and native 
 grace of his transition from more common and secu- 
 lar to more sacred and spiritual engagements, will 
 show that his is something more than an official 
 piety. All men will conspire to acknowledge him 
 (however different the feeling or the manner) as a 
 man of God; some by ridicule, some by reproach, 
 and some by veneration for an object on which it 
 trembles yet delights to dwell. " His Father who 
 seeth in secret will reward him openly." And thus 
 it will come to pass, that men will naturally " ac- 
 count of him as of a minister of Christ, a steward 
 of the mysteries of God." All other and more 
 factitious methods by which to elevate our office are 
 in vain. They outrage the convictions and the in- 
 stinctive feelings of mankind; and the more we 
 attempt the object, the further shall we ever be 
 from its attainment. But let qualities like these be 
 seen in all their native grace, their unadorned sim- 
 plicity, and we shall happily attain the end of that 
 most weighty, and, otherwise regarded, that most
 
 364 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 difficult injunction " Let no man despise thee." 
 The degree of men's applause, indeed, will be often 
 in the inverse ratio of their secret reverence; so 
 that, when they proclaim it the most loudly, their 
 emotions will usually be the least impressive. We 
 should aim to produce so settled a conviction of our 
 total consecration to our work, and of our conse- 
 quent oblivion of ourselves, that those who witness 
 it would feel it an impertinence to offer us the tes- 
 timony even of their approbation, much more to 
 approach us with the incense of their praise. We 
 should have that which is our chief business ever so 
 prominently in our eye, ever so assiduously pur- 
 sued in our exertions, that men should first fear, 
 and then forget, to praise us; that in comparison 
 of our office we should become unthought of, and 
 thus attain to the happy art the consummation of 
 ministerial excellence of disappearing from before 
 the view both of other men and of ourselves, just 
 as the swiftest motions and the mightiest agencies 
 are the least distinguishable in their progress, but 
 the most stupendous and lasting in their effects; 
 or as the angels of mercy traverse this desolate 
 world, silent though ceaseless, leaving behind them 
 not even the footmarks of their course to attest 
 where they have been, intent only on the mitigation 
 of evils and the impartation of benefits, while the 
 tears they have dried up, or the dangers from which 
 they have defended us, remain as their .only memo- 
 rial, and the kindly ministrations by which all was 
 accomplished are themselves unobserved and un- 
 known.
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 365 
 
 4. Our office must be magnified by the unreserved 
 and constant dedication of our highest powers to its 
 fulfilment. And this must appear under the triple 
 form of preparation, of public labour, and of 
 private assiduity. You, my brother, will never con- 
 sider yourself exempted from obligation to the most 
 continued and anxious study for the public duties 
 of the sabbath. Of this I am well assured; both 
 from your former practice, and from the wisdom 
 and experience you have thus necessarily acquired. 
 Little, indeed, is the fruit of that man's studies, who 
 has not learned that he is still at the very threshold 
 of knowledge; and small is his progress, who does 
 not feel, after many years of unabated application and 
 diligence, that he is more remote than ever from 
 the consciousness of having, in this sense, " attained 
 or being already perfect." Many will doubtless 
 imagine that, after the unwearied labours of your 
 previous ministry, you will now have the less to 
 attend to of this nature, and that all will henceforth 
 be comparatively easy and familiar. But they little 
 know that the volume you have perused most fre- 
 quently, next only to the word of God, is, like that 
 wondrous book, incapable of being grasped and 
 mastered by any human understanding; and that 
 it is to this the heart of man, your own that you 
 have still occasion to recur for illustration of every 
 practical truth; for readiness to every rising emer- 
 gency ; and for capacity to divide, according to the 
 endless diversity of human circumstances and neces- 
 sities, the word of eternal life. They may find it 
 hard to realize the fact but you well know it that
 
 366 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 you have been becoming, in your own esteem, still 
 more and more a learner, and one too of more dull 
 and tardy apprehension, in relation to the things of 
 God, through every day and year ; that perplexities 
 have multiplied upon you, and difficulties thickened 
 around you, at every step of your advance; that 
 you have found the most unexpected and mortifying 
 opposition between that mechanical facility which 
 may have been increased by application, and that 
 spiritual wisdom and discernment which should sat- 
 isfy you in relation to the truth, enabling you, while 
 "bringing out of your treasure new things and old," 
 to appear before the congregation feeling that you 
 are " a workman that needeth not to be ashamed." 
 But here it would be truly a mere waste of time 
 should I enlarge; since such is the nature of our 
 office, rightly understood, that the longest practice, 
 and the maturest wisdom, and the very loftiest facul- 
 ties, will never supersede, but rather the more insure, 
 a diligent, a careful, an anxious, and devout employ- 
 ment, in the unceasing studies of the closet, not less 
 than in the labours of our public life : and on you, 
 therefore, however furnished for your task, however 
 distinguished and happy in the rich results of former 
 indefatigable acquisition, it rests not less, but with a 
 yet more solemn and impressive sense of its neces- 
 sity, still to " meditate on these things, and to give 
 yourself wholly unto them, that your profiting may 
 appear unto all men." But before I dismiss the 
 topic, permit me to remind you, how necessary to 
 this end is such a distribution of your time as may 
 now be made doubtless with the utmost advantage,
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 307 
 
 but to which you will be unable afterwards to adhere, 
 unless it be at first steadily resolved on and publicly 
 announced. I cannot but remark, that ordinarily 
 the first part at least of every day should be your 
 own ; and that you should be equally permitted to 
 secure from all intrusion the precious season of early 
 and advancing night, for such engagements as are 
 then most congenial, and pursued with the largest 
 measure of effect. The distractions of other business 
 should be as much as possible avoided, especially 
 that connected with those institutions of Christian 
 benevolence which, though very unquestionably the 
 glory of our age, yet are often found to involve the 
 most destructive sacrifice of that invaluable time, 
 which the pastor, in a great town, will find all too 
 little for his arduous and never-ceasing employ. In 
 the present state of society, I must profess my belief, 
 that it is at least as much a duty to claim, and vigo- 
 rously to maintain, the sanctity of our more private 
 exertions against encroachment from this quarter, 
 as to guard against any other waste, whether of our 
 energies or of our time. Had the liberal and active 
 spirit of the present age existed but a century ago, 
 the world and the church would have been immea- 
 surably impoverished in the loss of some of the most 
 precious fruits of silent industry and sacred medita- 
 tion ; and though there are doubtless many whose 
 maximum of effort may be found in this direction, 
 yet permit me to say, your brethren throughout the 
 land, and the churches generally, will feel with me 
 that they have cause for no common lamentation, if 
 a mind like yours should be exhausted by avocations
 
 368 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 merely diurnal, and if it do not multiply the posses- 
 sions and augment the wealth of the great mental 
 community by fresh and durable productions. Let 
 me not be deemed forgetful of the delicacy with 
 which, at such a time, I am bound to respect your 
 feelings, if I say, you have it in your power in this 
 manner also, and besides your necessary professional 
 employments, largely to accomplish the first and 
 highest objects of your ministry, and to realize the 
 sentiment of the text. 
 
 With reference to the duties of the pulpit, my 
 observations shall be equally brief and simple. You 
 will still strive to manifest, not in detached and 
 mutilated fragments, but in a consistent order and 
 harmonious proportions, " the whole counsel of 
 God." Your aim will be, by the discovery of His 
 mind, not your own, to lead men into the very 
 depths of the divine economy. With a fearless 
 confidence, you will yield yourself up to every direc- 
 tion of the sacred oracles, and follow it to its last 
 consequences ; despising the ignorant calumnies of 
 those who may, at different periods, denounce you 
 as the promulgator of the most opposite errors. 
 Your modes of illustration and enforcement will be 
 diversified to the utmost bounds of your invention ; 
 while the substance of your preaching will still re- 
 main invariable. The great and cardinal doctrines 
 of revelation will be made continually prominent, 
 and among them chiefly the misery of man, the 
 grace and power of Jesus, the necessity and means 
 of renovation by the application of an omnipotent 
 influence, and the approaching events of judgment
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 369 
 
 and eternity : In one word, your great theme will 
 be redemption, and your total efforts only "the 
 ministry of reconciliation." And yet these doc- 
 trines will not be exclusively nor always your specific 
 subjects of discourse : that were to contract and to 
 degrade, not to magnify, your office. You will ex- 
 hibit all other scriptural disclosures in their mutual 
 and perfect relation ; enforce all sacred obligations, 
 whether individual or social; rebuke all forms and 
 modifications of impiety; give separate place and 
 distinct enunciation to the separate duties of every 
 station and character ; present in fullest delineation 
 the various and progressive movements in the expe- 
 rience of good men; describe the illusive forms 
 and perilous influences, by which it is so often and 
 fatally imitated; drag forth to view the artifices 
 and the effects of temptation ; and discriminate, 
 and teach your hearers to do so, between what is 
 truly such, and argues therefore only the malice or 
 subtlety of their great spiritual foe, and what, on 
 the other hand, arises from their own native ten- 
 dencies, evincing, as a most serious though much 
 neglected test, the true condition of the heart as in 
 the sight of God. Your aim will be, to preach to 
 every single member of your congregation, as if he 
 only were the object of your care. Your manner, 
 therefore, will be diversified almost illimitably, while 
 treating on such dissimilar topics, and pursuing ends 
 so different from each other. You will resign your- 
 self to the inspiration of your theme, and speak only 
 as this spirit gives you utterance : sometimes threat- 
 ening with all the severity of a holy indignation ; 
 VOL. i. 3 A
 
 370 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 sometimes expostulating with the eagerness of frater- 
 nal solicitude; sometimes seeming to be transfixed 
 in wonder and in mute astonishment, at once at the 
 compassion of God and at the obduracy of men; 
 sometimes melting into pity, and pleading with the 
 eloquence of tears. But the prevailing character 
 of your address will assuredly be tenderness; not 
 that whining softness, which is the proper attire of 
 affected sensibility or of unaffected feebleness, but 
 that grave and sober yet compassionate air, which 
 speaks a mind alive to the danger and the guilt of 
 men, and yet unable to forget either their common 
 brotherhood or their common infirmities. We think 
 of a perfect preacher, as of a man acquainted with 
 all the forms and varieties whether of moral truth 
 or error; conversant especially, in all its extent, 
 with the sacred volume, in the languages of its 
 original communication ; familiar with its style, 
 and using it with graceful facility wherever it might 
 serve the purposes of his address, yet not so bound 
 by its phraseology as (in the method of too common 
 quotation) to permit its language to be often sub- 
 stituted for his own, thus operating to degrade the 
 one, and to destroy the propriety and energy of the 
 other ; not unread in history or science ; not rude 
 and uninstructed in the elegancies of literature or 
 the embellishments of life; having a full and con- 
 scious mastery of all which is demanded, whether 
 for the illustration or expression of such sentiments 
 as he may be called to enforce ; but above all, 
 learned in all the mysteries of the heart of man, 
 because a diligent and serious observer of his own,
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 371 
 
 and impressed, from solemn contemplation, with 
 the reality and the awful consequences of whatever 
 he declares : we conceive such a man coming forth 
 from his closet, to transact with his perishing and 
 criminal fellow-creatures the fearful concerns of 
 eternity ; careless in respect to himself ; giving 
 himself up, not to the iteration of common-places, 
 nor the utterance of thoughts traced out in all the 
 calmness and coldness of retirement, but to the irre- 
 sistible impulse of present objects and impressions, 
 and absorbed by the single purpose, the all-com- 
 manding passion, of bringing them to the partici- 
 pation of blessings that can never decay. He will 
 pause, and examine, with an eye of tender inquiry, 
 the effect of all he has already adduced; will re- 
 trace his course, and add yet other elucidations and 
 enhancements; will strengthen what is feeble, and 
 give force to what is yet inoperative, whether on 
 the conscience or the heart; will teach, command, 
 rebuke, with all long-suffering; will apply alter- 
 nately the energy of stern remonstrance and the 
 stimulus of gentle invitation ; will arraign, convict, 
 condemn, and finally denounce the wrath of God 
 on all unrighteousness. He will pour out the flood 
 and fulness of his soul upon the people, in entreaties, 
 warnings, and pathetic and irresistible appeals; 
 in arguments dictated, not by the calculations of 
 reason, but by the power of an over-mastering sym- 
 pathy; till the most callous breast is softened, and 
 the proudest spirit bowed into submission. Or, if 
 nothing more can be attained, he will leave them 
 with the solemn and deeply felt assurance that he
 
 372 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 can never cease to plead on their behalf before the 
 throne of mercy, and is appalled by nothing so much 
 as the terrific apprehension of witnessing against 
 them at the tribunal of judgment. And thus while, 
 seeking alone to exalt the Saviour and to deliver 
 them from going down into the pit, he elevates 
 unconsciously his office as a herald and ambassador 
 of Christ, will he calmly retire, being " pure from 
 the blood of all men." I am satisfied that the 
 greatest benefit will result to us from frequently and 
 distinctly tracing out such conceptions, and that by 
 such means, rather than almost by any other, we 
 shall accomplish the purpose, and become imbued 
 with the spirit, of the text. 
 
 Though I adverted, when introducing this par- 
 ticular, to a third form in which we should thus 
 attain to the effectual prosecution of our object, viz. 
 by assiduity in the more private and familiar engage- 
 ments of the pastoral office, I must dismiss it almost 
 without any enlargement. However little I have 
 had opportunity to witness the due effect of such 
 engagements, I have yet been convinced beyond 
 dispute that it is from hence chiefly we must look 
 for the most valuable and legitimate success in all 
 our ministry. In all besides we are liable to error 
 and exposed to disappointment: here only, in the 
 catechising of children, the ministrations to the sick, 
 and the pastoral visitation of families, has it appeared 
 to me we are exempt even from the possibility of 
 failure ; and I reckon it among the most encouraging 
 omens of the present day, that in every denomination 
 of Christians this subject, almost beyond any other,
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 3?3 
 
 is becoming one of lively and increasing interest. 
 To reconcile its duties with the ceaseless labours of 
 the study and of the house of God, and still to meet 
 the numerous and pressing claims arising from every 
 quarter and of every various kind in a station such 
 as yours, involves indeed no small embarrassment, 
 and imposes the necessity of an exertion to which 
 few are equal: but by you I know already they 
 will never be overlooked, and pass them by there- 
 fore without additional remark. 
 
 5. To exhibit our office in its true and highest 
 dignity, we must continue in the course thus de- 
 scribed, with patient perseverance and watchfulness, 
 even to the end; enduring meekly every privation 
 and trial to which it may expose us; and making 
 with cheerfulness every sacrifice necessary to its 
 fulfilment or effect. And here I cannot but more 
 directly advert to the situation wherein now you 
 stand, and to the change which has recently been 
 made in the sphere of your pastoral avocations. It 
 is, I am most firmly assured, on this great principle 
 alone that you have acted in the movements which 
 have issued in this day's solemnity. However im- 
 portant or inviting is the station here assigned you, 
 it could not be accepted without the most arduous 
 struggle and the most powerful conflicting emotions. 
 The anxious labour of nearly twenty years is left to 
 become the harvest of another. The tenderness of 
 endeared companionships has been resolutely sup- 
 pressed, at the stern and irresistible mandate of 
 duty. Bonds which you had been accustomed to 
 think of as to be severed only in dissolution, have
 
 374 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 been torn forcibly asunder; and, while yet in the 
 fulness of your days and at the zenith of your use- 
 fulness, you have heard a call you dared not disobey, 
 and, forgetful of every other consideration but the 
 allegiance which you owed to your great Lord, have 
 girded yourself, and bowed to his command. The 
 demands of your office have thus outweighed every 
 inclination and feeling of a more personal nature, 
 and, like your Master when he was entreated to 
 remain among them by those who had learned for 
 a season to delight in and to prize his ministry, 
 your language also has become " I must preach 
 the kingdom of God to other cities also; for there- 
 fore am I sent." And the sphere of exertion to 
 which you are now summoned is not less arduous 
 than it is honourable. There will here be much to 
 flatter, much to gratify, but much perhaps to try 
 you. Here, as in all other places, you must expect 
 to meet with disappointment, and to be chastened 
 by sorrow. Your best designs and your most honest 
 and benevolent exertions will, here as elsewhere, be 
 subject to misrepresentation, and assailed by slan- 
 der. The calm and quiet reflections which were 
 wont to arise within you, when you could say, with 
 all the placidity of one who knew as yet no change, 
 "I dwell among mine own people" will now pro- 
 bably be succeeded by harassing and solicitous 
 exertions to accomplish what you will leave at last 
 unfulfilled, and to make your powers and labours 
 keep pace with the perpetual extension of a sphere 
 which their own exercise shall still indefinitely widen. 
 Neither in this nor any other sphere can we expect
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 3?5 
 
 exemption from the resistance of prejudice, of par- 
 tiality, and of self-will. From some among your 
 hearers you will probably encounter the antipathy 
 of the carnal mind, under forms new and even yet 
 unfamiliar. In some you may discover that caprice 
 and waywardness, which, were it manifested in any 
 other case than in relation to the things of eternity, 
 would seem irreconcilable with a sound and manly 
 understanding. And in all you will find occasions 
 of anxiety, such as only the progress of your pastoral 
 avocations can enable you to realize. And this too, 
 while the people among whom you minister are, as 
 I doubt not, of the very highest character, and wor- 
 thy of the most cordial esteem. For the nature of 
 man is everywhere the same; and such too is the 
 essential difficulty of the ministerial office. Every- 
 where is it found, that the mind revolts from the 
 authority of its Creator. Law is in itself a neces- 
 sary abridgment of liberty, and will always be 
 resisted and repelled as such, until the heart is won, 
 till we are conscious of obtaining the new and 
 more delightful freedom of being willing subjects to 
 the power of love; -just as the lamb will struggle 
 and endeavour to break away, though bound with 
 the most flowery garland, and led by the gentlest 
 hand. And if it be thus in reference to the merely 
 instinctive feelings of our nature, such as we inherit 
 in common with the most innocent and happy of the 
 creatures that surround us, how much more to our 
 condition in a state of sin! Everywhere is there 
 natively a settled and unconquerable apathy to the 
 things of God, increased by the whole influence of
 
 376 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 surrounding scenes and objects, and gathering, in 
 great towns especially, accumulated strength from 
 augmentation of numbers, and absorption of the pub- 
 lic mind in the affairs of business and of secular life. 
 The minister of Christ must everywhere expect, in 
 reference to the greater part of those who hear him, 
 that his voice shall be like the wind of the desert as 
 it wanders among the habitations of the dead. He 
 must look forward to becoming everywhere the 
 enemy of some, because he will tell them the truth ; 
 and to mourn over others, who have forsaken 
 him, and, though they ran well, were hindered. 
 The sympathies of his heart will in every place be 
 liable to be sometimes checked and repressed; and 
 it is well if, in such circumstances, like a vigorous 
 tree, which, when its finer fibres are obstructed or 
 cut off, strikes its descending root but the deeper 
 into the earth, so his principles increase in strength, 
 from solitude, meditation, and prayer, just as the 
 tenderness of his human feelings is restrained through 
 the denial of reciprocal affection. Here, as in all 
 other places, you will have occasion often to adore 
 in silence the sovereignty of those disposals, which, 
 while you dare not question them, yet baffle all your 
 comprehension, and seem formed often in the direct- 
 est opposition to your hopes. Your most strenuous 
 efforts will ordinarily prove far from the most suc- 
 cessful ; and all the force of your most urgent and 
 well-directed addresses far from the most effective, 
 either to win, or to alarm, or to accomplish, in 
 one word, any of their legitimate and natural results. 
 The power of renovating grace will still assert its
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 377 
 
 freedom unconstrained, -and take its own direction, 
 heedless of the course which your most ardent piety, 
 equally with your most reasonable and deliberate 
 reflections, may have anticipated or desired. And 
 where you are at length successful, it will often be 
 in such a manner as to mock your calculations, and 
 humble your self-complacency into the dust. A 
 sentence, or a word, a single incidental reference, 
 a detached and casual remark, or a passing citation 
 of scripture, shall effect what your most animated, 
 most pungent, most impassioned appeals, and the 
 rich train of your illustration and argument, shall 
 have attempted in vain. This shall survive in its 
 influence upon the soul, when all besides is forgotten. 
 This shall have been the single arrow to penetrate 
 the breast, when the fulness of the quiver was ex- 
 pended without effect. Fresh lessons of lowliness 
 and of self-distrust must be expected day by day to 
 await you; fresh instances of your own frailty and 
 feebleness, united with fresh discoveries in others of 
 the malignity of sin, the instability of human pur- 
 poses, the evanescence of the most promising and 
 sacred impressions, and the awful power of that 
 great spiritual agency by which our labours for the 
 salvation of man are directly and unceasingly op- 
 posed. 
 
 From other and severer trials, I trust, you will 
 be long and graciously exempted; such as might 
 rend your heart with the anguish of domestic be- 
 reavement, or break it by that irreparable stroke 
 which would desolate and scatter into nothing the 
 hopes and visions of your conjugal or your parental 
 
 VOL. i. 3 B
 
 378 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 fondness. But in relation to these and any similar 
 events, while the future is dark and unknown, you 
 will be still taught to rejoice with trembling; 
 knowing that to the ministers of Jesus it is often 
 given to sustain most heavily the burden of affliction, 
 that they may thus imbibe most largely the sympathy 
 and tenderness of the Redeemer, and become most 
 perfectly " ensamples to the flock." Still, as to 
 every faithful pastor, so to you, he seems to repeat 
 the inquiry, " Canst thou drink of the cup that I 
 drink of, or be baptized with the baptism wherewith 
 I am baptized?" And, should the brightness of 
 joy and love thus fade and pass away ; should per- 
 sonal, or pastoral, or relative distresses be multiplied 
 upon you; should it be demanded of you that, in 
 the midst of your high functions, you should bleed 
 and pine away with inward sorrow, and yet be for- 
 bidden, like the high priest of old, to suspend your 
 ministration, or to retire and weep : you will have 
 but another occasion forced upon you, in which to 
 present your office and your work before the people 
 in its legitimate superiority to all human interests 
 and feelings, commanding, absorbing, and seeming, 
 when opposed to its fulfilment, even to banish and 
 to supersede them all. 
 
 And your own character, moreover, even as a 
 Christian, how necessary that it should be still 
 the object of a vigilant, an unslumbering solici- 
 tude! Your consistency and purity of conduct, 
 your stability of principle, and exemption hitherto 
 from the very shadow of reproach alas ! how 
 little can they shield you from the most pressing
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 3?9 
 
 dangers in the time to come, or be a guarantee 
 for the continuance of your fidelity! Happy and 
 prosperous has been the career through which you 
 have already been conducted; and ample the proof 
 it has afforded of the existence and growth of the 
 most sacred and elevated principles. There is none 
 to question your motives, none to augur your future 
 declension and unfaithfulness. Your path has hith- 
 erto increased steadily in its brightness. Your sun 
 has reached, even if it have not passed, in glory the 
 meridian of your days. But O how solemnly should 
 you remember, that you are still subject to tempta- 
 tion and compassed with infirmity ; that against 
 you the adversary of souls will still exert his strata- 
 gems, and level the fiercest of his fiery darts ! How 
 sad is the suggestion, and yet how necessary, that, 
 while your rise has been the progression of years, 
 and you may now take up the language of the apostle 
 " Having obtained help of God, I continue even 
 to this day," yet your fall might be the event of 
 an hour ; and a single act might precipitate you 
 into the depths of bitterest humiliation, and of a 
 grief the more poignant and hopeless for the very 
 prosperity that had preceded it ; like a cloud which 
 seems the darker for the rainbow which so lately 
 glittered on its breast. I need not urge on you, my 
 brother, experienced as you are in the unmeasurable 
 deceitfulness of our nature, and no stranger to the 
 devices of our foe, not to presume on character, 
 or on a stability hitherto unshaken. I am persuaded 
 that you hear this day in secret the solemn and mo- 
 nitory language of a teacher whose voice I can but
 
 380 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 faintly echo, addressing you with irresistible effect, 
 and reminding you, if you would escape the doom 
 of the apostate, if you would fly from the horrors of 
 a perdition known only to the inconsistent or the 
 unfaithful pastor, if you would fulfil your ministry 
 with honour, and finish your course with joy, then 
 must you still be found straining every nerve in 
 steadfast, ceaseless exertion, preserving every faculty 
 alive and wakeful; and be, at once on the decep- 
 tiveness and frailties of your nature and on the work 
 and business of your sacred calling, thoughtful, 
 humble, earnest, jealous of your own heart, and 
 watching unto prayer. 
 
 6. Finally, let me call to your remembrance, that 
 if we would fulfil this noble declaration, and magnify, 
 as we ought, the ministry we have received of the 
 Lord Jesus, we must do so by cultivating habitual 
 and solemn anticipations of its issues; by pondering, 
 with a realizing conviction, the transactions and the 
 consequences of the day when it must be rendered 
 up into the hands of Him from whom it was derived ; 
 together with a strict account of all the circumstances 
 and character of its fulfilment. The separate in- 
 quisition which waits on every human soul, its 
 solitary appearance at the bar of God, its deep 
 terrific consciousness of individual responsibility for 
 acts which might have seemed before the effect only 
 of uncontrollable external influences, and to depend 
 far less upon itself, than upon others, is a theme sur- 
 passing, not only in its grandeur, but in the difficul- 
 ties of its conception, even the loftiest powers in their 
 most vigorous exertion. An abyss of being is not
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 381 
 
 alone before it, but within itself; and an eternity of 
 blessedness or woe exists not in its inheritance more 
 truly than in the essential and deeply felt reality of 
 its emotions. It shall need no lengthened scrutiny, 
 no exterior symbols, no fearful thrilling enunciation 
 of the sentence of its Judge, to indicate its character, 
 or to decide its doom. Standing before the uncreated 
 and insufferable splendours of eternal justice, and 
 filled throughout its innermost recesses by that all- 
 revealing radiance ; and, just as you have beheld 
 an insect placed by the hand of science within the 
 solar beam, dilated and exposed in every part, even 
 to the minutest branches of its interior organization, 
 amidst a flood of light, so the soul, frail, sinful, 
 conscious of its utter helplessness and insignificancy, 
 when " God ariseth to judgment, and shall set its 
 iniquities before him, its secret sins in the light of 
 his countenance" while all is as tremblingly alive 
 and sensitive within, as it is transparent and luminous 
 around will feel at once the unalterable certainty of 
 its condition, take its own place at the tribunal, and 
 by a natural and instinctive necessity associate itself 
 for ever with the saved or the lost. But for the 
 minister of Christ surely a more conspicuous and 
 public investigation is fearfully reserved. To none 
 besides was committed a trust of such tremendous 
 magnitude; and on none was suspended an amount 
 of interests so unspeakably momentous. Even the 
 proudest conquerors, and the mightiest potentates, 
 whose smile was as the sunshine of prosperity, and 
 their anger more terrible than the wasting pestilence 
 or the thunderbolts of heaven, though the hope of
 
 382 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 myriads hung upon their favour, and devastation 
 and ruin waited but their command, yet was the 
 charge assigned to them by the supreme Ruler such 
 as bore only in its remoter aspects upon men's spiri- 
 tual and everlasting destiny. But to him was com- 
 mitted the direct accomplishment of those designs 
 which formed, and which sustain and regulate, the 
 movements of the spiritual world. It was his to 
 act in awful and mysterious concert with the trans- 
 actions of Calvary and the mediations of heaven. 
 The powers of that renewing agency, so unsearch- 
 able in its nature, so fearfully exalted in its effects, 
 were committed to his instrumental distribution. 
 He was, to spirits dead in trespasses and sins, as 
 the very sound and utterance of that voice which 
 called the light out of darkness, and gave to the 
 chaotic mass the form and the resplendency of this 
 magnificent creation. Should he, therefore, be found 
 unfaithful, himself a hypocrite, and his ministry a 
 hollow and ruinous pretence, what torments will 
 be adequate to such aggravated criminality! what 
 execrations from the souls he has deluded, or what 
 mingled indignation and abhorrence from the Saviour 
 he has insulted and betrayed ! Or if he stand ac- 
 cepted in the presence of his Lord, what recompense 
 of glory and of bliss awaits him! What unfading 
 honour ; what never-ending joy ! While the thunders 
 of eternal vengeance shall break upon the head of 
 the deceiver and the false-hearted with a crash of 
 tenfold fury ; while the unprofitable servant, denied 
 at last by his Lord, is abandoned without defence 
 to the cursings and the insatiable revenge of those
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 383 
 
 whom he has carried downwards to the same gulf 
 of ruin; his shall be the transport, to receive, at 
 once from his Master and from the happy subjects 
 of his ministry, the gratulations and the plaudits of 
 a service, compared with which the extension of the 
 material universe over fields of space yet uncreated 
 and untrodden were but a secondary achievement, 
 and to have enhanced the glories of the firmament 
 with other stars and suns of brighter lustre, would 
 be accounted but the triumph of a day. It is aston- 
 ishing beyond all thought, that we can speak with 
 calmness, or reflect with languid and feeble emotion, 
 on an event so unspeakably magnificent, on issues 
 so overpowering in their grandeur. Nothing can 
 account for our indifference, but either the compa- 
 rative incredulity with which they are believed, 
 or else the dimness and remoteness of their appear- 
 ance, even to the eye which is smitten most directly 
 with the vivid and resistless perception of their ap- 
 proach. Could any effort be more profitable, there- 
 fore, than frequently to conceive ourselves, I will 
 not say at the seat of judgment, but on the bed of 
 death? Is any train of reflection more adapted to 
 promote the vigour and efficiency of all our pastoral 
 engagements, than to bring near to ourselves in 
 imagination the hour, the moment, when they must 
 terminate ? Imagine yourself, therefore, in one 
 of those solemn intervals when the attendances 
 of a sick chamber may be for a while suspended; 
 when the gloom which enshrouds you, and the 
 silence that hushes every whisper, tells that the day 
 is spent, the evening closing in shadows, and the
 
 384 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 night at hand. Picture to yourself the visionary 
 renovation of your whole past life, as it floats away 
 in fragments and melting images before your mental 
 eye* And let your fancy dwell, as it will then per- 
 haps awfully repose, upon the vast, the impenetrable 
 realm of mingled gloom and brightness, on which 
 you are about to enter. Conceive yourself to fix, 
 as then perhaps you may, on individual instances of 
 indolence, irresolution, or failure ; and, on the other 
 hand, fear not to anticipate, for it may be pregnant 
 with the holiest effects, the sacred calm with which 
 you may revolve the former scenes of labour and of 
 usefulness. Think of that solemn crisis, then so 
 near to its arrival, when the last breath must be 
 heaved, and the last struggle of mortality encoun- 
 tered, and you must stand immediately before the 
 presence of your Lord. At that dread hour, how 
 little will all other things appear, excepting those 
 which were connected with salvation and eternity ! 
 Then, what will be your estimate of fame or influ- 
 ence, or all worldly glory? What would you not 
 then relinquish or attempt, to relieve your burdened 
 spirit from the apprehension of such evil as may 
 have been incurred, not by intentional or even con- 
 scious delinquencies, but by the failings and the 
 unprofitableness of every day ? Let it be conceived, 
 that then, when the curtain of life is already loosen- 
 ing and ready to descend, when the scenes of im- 
 mortality are opening in their indistinct and their 
 awful mystery, when an interval immeasurably brief 
 divides you from his presence, a messenger is sent 
 you from the throne of God, to offer you a reprieve,
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 385 
 
 and an extension of your probationary period. Let 
 the terms of the proposal be these : on the one 
 hand that you shall return for a season to earth, 
 shall enjoy its utmost pleasures, and rise to its lofti- 
 est pre-eminence, and then, after having inherited, 
 through an extended period, its amplest gifts and 
 most refined enjoyments, lie down again and die, 
 not laden with more aggravated guilt, not doomed 
 to a more fearful retribution, but surrounded with 
 equal uncertainty in reference to your approaching 
 audit, and shrinking with similar apprehension 
 from the change which awaits you, and the step 
 which must so soon be taken into the land unknown : 
 or, on the other hand, that you should now be 
 permitted to employ only another sabbath in the 
 labours of the sanctuary, or another solemn hour in 
 the ministrations of the social assembly, or beside 
 the bed of death ; that thus only one other immor- 
 tal spirit should be given you as your crown, or one 
 even of the feeblest of believers raised to greater 
 security and an ampler plenitude of happiness, 
 through the toils and throes of your expiring min- 
 istry; if you might be lightened from the guilt but 
 of a single negligence, purified from the contami- 
 nation but of one unworthy motive, extricated from 
 the perplexity but of one questionable effort, aided 
 but by the remembrance of one undoubted token of 
 the divine acceptance, to lay hold with greater energy 
 and a more tranquil confidence upon the hope and 
 refuge of the gospel, or catch but by the illumina- 
 tion of another ray the beamings of the Saviour's 
 complacency, while the shadows of death are thicken- 
 VOL. r. 3 c
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 ing and deepening around you : think, my brother, 
 would you hesitate in your desire ? would you 
 breathe forth your last orisons in a feeble and in- 
 decisive entreaty? Would you waver? would you 
 half revoke the petition? Would to God it might 
 be mercifully vouchsafed us thus to think and feel, 
 while yet the resulting emotions might be turned to 
 practical account ! O why should it be, that after 
 our most strenuous exertions, we should yet live so 
 far beneath the impressive and the natural effect of 
 things which may be separated from us only by a 
 breath? Why do we still remain so fearfully in- 
 sensible to their nearness and their appalling gran- 
 deur, till our feet already stand within the billows, 
 and, as their thunders break upon our ear and the 
 shores of time recede, the dark waters stretch them- 
 selves before us, while, surprised, reluctant, and 
 trembling, we are compelled to adventure our frail 
 bark upon their bosom, yielding to a stern necessity, 
 rather than rejoicing to launch away. Let us rouse 
 ourselves from this mysterious slumber spring for- 
 ward to our task with renovated vigour and holy 
 resolution and spend the short and uncertain re- 
 mainder of our days in such a manner, that life or 
 death to us shall be alike happy, and alike indiffer- 
 ent seeing that in both Christ shall be magnified 
 the cause of God promoted and the interests 
 of immortality secured whether as those interests 
 affect the salvation and the bliss of other spirits, or 
 the ever-heightening glories of our own. 
 
 Indulge me in but one other reflection, dictated 
 by the peculiarity of our present circumstances, and
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 387 
 
 the character of that solemnity for which we have 
 this day assembled. It is one that, in some portion 
 of its influence, appeals perhaps more powerfully to 
 the impressions of others, than to those whereof you 
 may be personally conscious. That noble band of 
 brethren who now exultingly encircle you, this 
 Christian congregation, and the multitudes who gaze 
 with so intense an ardour upon these transactions, 
 will understand my allusion, and participate in the 
 emotions with which it is connected. We behold 
 this day a scene such as it is seldom given us to 
 witness; and are reminded by it of another, the 
 most animating and glorious which shall hereafter 
 be unfolded. We see, with gratitude and joy, a 
 striking illustration of the nature and perpetuity of 
 that ministry which shall continue without interrup- 
 tion or failure till the close of time : men of two 
 following generations, the one relinquishing the pas- 
 toral authority in this church, and the other invested 
 with that authority, to possess it, as we fervently anti- 
 cipate and pray, through a long and happy period, 
 and then to transmit it, as it is now transmitted, in 
 a manner which affords the largest and the happiest 
 security for the permanency of so great a trust. 
 Thus we are delightfully invited to the contempla- 
 tion of that day, when all the faithful ministers of 
 Christ shall rest at length from their labours, and 
 meet around the throne; and when the general con- 
 vocation of all Christian pastors shall receive the 
 honours and inherit the rewards of eternity. It is 
 not the hand of death that has wrought these changes. 
 It is no decline of usefulness or of fidelity, no event
 
 388 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 alike humiliating and calamitous, that has given oc- 
 casion to this hallowed service, and convened us 
 here. One light has arisen, before another is ob- 
 scured or set. The effulgence of evening and the 
 brightness of noon are beheld strangely together ; 
 fair emblems of that approaching and thrice happy 
 season, when all that have followed in the footsteps 
 of the Redeemer and laboured for his glory shall 
 mingle their radiance with his own for ever. I 
 rejoice with you, my brother, in the inestimable 
 advantage of having still in your view a man whom 
 you will never cease to love and cherish as a friend, 
 while you honour and revere him as your predeces- 
 sor ; a man on whose long life of arduous and faithful 
 service the hand of infinite munificence has showered 
 the most ample and abundant measure both of in- 
 fluence and of prosperity ; whom it has pleased the 
 great disposer of all things peculiarly to distinguish 
 in every varied relation, whether to society at large, 
 or to this flock, or to a family, which, amidst all the 
 eminence of a name almost unrivalled, still boasts 
 as its highest glory that it is privileged to call him 
 father. That such an example is ever present ; such 
 a counsellor ever at hand ; such a bosom, long itself 
 the habitation of all the solicitudes and trials of the 
 ministry, ever near, to afford you rest and solace, 
 when even the loftiest and the firmest spirit may 
 languish for repose; is indeed a felicity such as 
 few are permitted to enjoy. Long may that life, so 
 precious, be still spared and guarded by a benignant 
 and a gracious providence ; and that much honoured 
 head crowned with still higher distinctions ! And
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 389 
 
 hereafter, amidst the calm and softness of an hour 
 gilded by splendours that, like his, shall melt away 
 without a cloud, may you too, my brother, enjoy 
 the tranquil satisfaction, which it must be his now 
 to experience, of retiring from your labours, not 
 amidst gloom and solitude, not in the struggles and 
 the anguish of mortality, to be followed by an un- 
 known successor, and one haply regardless of your 
 pattern, or jealous of your still remembered instruc- 
 tions, and your imperishable fame, but like Aaron 
 on the mount of Hor, or Moses on the awful summit 
 of Pisgah, (save only that death shall be commis- 
 sioned for a season to forbear his office) may you 
 peacefully put off your vestments in the sight of all 
 the congregation, and, while the glories of the land 
 of promise lie outspread beneath you, there resign 
 your charge ! And may it, as at this most solemn 
 day, be transferred to one who will rejoice to ac- 
 knowledge himself your very son in the gospel, 
 one in whose vigorous maturity and noble consecra- 
 tion you also shall behold the renovated vitality of 
 those great principles you have still sought to pro- 
 pagate, the security of those interests over which 
 you have watched with all a pastor's fondness, and 
 the living evidence that all your toil and care has 
 been expended for a cause that cannot die !
 
 IV. 
 
 CHARGE 
 
 ADDRESSED TO THE REV. W. H. STOWELL, 
 
 ON HIS SETTLEMENT 
 
 AS PASTOR OF THE CHURCH, AND THEOLOGICAL TUTOR 
 OF THE COLLEGE, 
 
 AT ROTHERHAM, 
 
 OCTOBER 29th, 1834.
 
 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 ACTS xx. 24. 
 " That I might finish my course with joy" 
 
 IN applying myself to the duty assigned to me this 
 day, I feel it a source of relief, that the very cir- 
 cumstances which might appear the most to enhance 
 its difficulty are those also which will not only fur- 
 nish the readiest apology for every defect in its 
 execution, but from which I may derive the surest 
 defence against such misconception of my sentiments 
 as would be far more painful than any other conse- 
 quence of this engagement. It is impossible that I 
 can be accused of assuming to prescribe to you, as 
 though I were possessed of any superiority in wis- 
 dom or experience. Your long and arduous exer- 
 tions as a Christian pastor, your distinguished 
 success in having, as a writer, stimulated others to 
 the loftiest purposes of zeal and piety, and your 
 present responsible and honourable office as an in- 
 structor of the rising ministry, will all, I trust, 
 defend me from the suspicion, as they do in fact 
 from the danger, of forgetting for a moment what 
 is due both to yourself and to your station, and of 
 speaking in any other spirit than that of the utmost 
 diffidence blended with the sincerest respect. 
 
 VOL. I. 3D
 
 394 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 But I cannot so easily divest myself of the embar- 
 rassment arising from my inadequacy fitly to supply 
 the place of that most eminent individual to whom 
 this task was originally intrusted, and on account of 
 whose necessary absence I participate in all your 
 regret. Most fervently do I desire that his remain- 
 ing illness may be soon removed, and that his life, 
 now more than ever precious to his friends and to the 
 church, may be spared for many years; that his 
 almost unequalled services may be crowned with 
 yet greater success ; and that his reputation, which 
 has hitherto received continual accessions, and has 
 now become the common property and boast of all 
 his brethren, may be sustained with increasing lustre 
 to his last hour. In these wishes, I am confident, 
 there is not one who hears me that does not cor- 
 dially unite.* 
 
 The more effectually to avail myself of the advan- 
 tages of my present situation, I have selected, as the 
 basis of my remarks, a passage which, instead of 
 leading to the specification of details, will guide at 
 once to those great elementary principles which must 
 equally apply to us both, and wherein it shall be my 
 effort to cherish, throughout, the sense of my per- 
 sonal concern. The admonitions that might be pro- 
 fitably pressed on a younger man, relating either to 
 study, or to preaching, or to the fulfilment of the 
 pastoral office, such as, to diligence in preparation, 
 
 * The Editor regrets his having been too late of obtaining 
 information of the minister to whom reference is here made; 
 but he does not think it of sufficient importance to warrant his 
 delaying the press.
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 395 
 
 or constancy in labour, to sobriety of spirit, or to 
 meekness, gentleness, and modesty of deportment, 
 would be unseemly here, and I shall waive them 
 entirely. These, while they would befit better an 
 address to a candidate for ordination than to one 
 long tried and held in the highest esteem, will be 
 presented, together with others of like tendency, in 
 your own exhortations to your theological class, with 
 a greater weight of authority and reason than I 
 could aspire to command. My aim shall be, there- 
 fore, more simple ; to unite for a short time solem- 
 nity with encouragement, in relation to this grea^ 
 and influential undertaking, which, I sincerely trust* 
 may never be relinquished, till you resign your spirit 
 unto him who gave it, and enter into the joy of your 
 Lord. 
 
 Permit me to suggest for your reflection 
 
 I. The delightful and most animating object re- 
 ferred to in the text, the joyful termination of our 
 ministerial course ; as one not more worthy to have 
 inflamed the zeal and awakened the solicitude of the 
 apostle, than to be made the theme of earnest con- 
 templation in your present circumstances. 
 
 I need not endeavour largely to expound this 
 sentiment, as it operated in the life of Paul. His 
 habitual conduct presents it with the most perfect 
 of all commentaries, as it supplies the strongest con- 
 ceivable enforcement by which to recommend it to 
 our adoption. We cannot fail to perceive that it 
 was inclusive of such aspirations as the following : 
 That at the end of his Christian course he might be
 
 396 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 satisfied in the review of the past, seeing that it 
 had not been unprofitable, and was now peacefully 
 at an end; that he might be happy in the prospect 
 of all which then awaited him, that prospect being 
 distinctly realized, and its enjoyments certainly se- 
 cured ; that he might be fortified against the appall- 
 ing circumstances of the event itself, even though it 
 should approach surrounded by the terrors of mar- 
 tyrdom, or surprise him amidst the gloom of fetters 
 and imprisonment, the fear of death being removed, 
 and its shame or pain forgotten, for the glory that 
 should follow ; and hence, that he might be enabled 
 to pass through it in a manner honourable to his 
 principles, since they had endured the trial and were 
 found sufficient to sustain him, honourable to his 
 brethren, that they might neither sink in their con- 
 stancy or courage, nor sustain from their persecutors 
 increased revilings and contempt, because a leader 
 in the armies of the cross had fled or fainted in the 
 hour of peril, honourable above all to his Master, 
 for whom it was his supreme ambition alike to live 
 and die, that so Christ might be magnified in his 
 body, whether it were by life or death ; finally, 
 that its effects might be those only of gratulation 
 and joy, both in his personal emotions and in their 
 influence on others, tending to instruct, to con- 
 vince, to encourage, and thus, in every sense, to 
 promote the ends of his high calling, and to con- 
 summate his labours while it insured their reward. 
 
 I need not press on your remembrance, that this 
 desire was not of casual origin or short-lived opera- 
 tion, but that, under its commanding influence, both
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 3[)7 
 
 in its sterner and its milder forms, he acted and 
 suffered every hour, and could adopt the magnani- 
 mous declaration, "I die daily;" so vivid was his 
 perception of the nearness, so steadfast the gaze 
 with which he contemplated the end, of his Christian 
 and apostolical career.* 
 
 I need not remark, how noble was its present 
 agency; how beautifully, in the history before us, 
 dignity is blended with tenderness, and the loftiest 
 heroism with the gentlest condescension. It will be 
 enough thus briefly to have reminded you, that this 
 is the spirit it is adapted to enkindle, and this the 
 character it is fitted to create. 
 
 You will call readily to mind, how other apostles 
 participated in its influence, thinking continually of 
 the end of all things as at hand, and of the Judge 
 as standing before the door. In this, moreover, as 
 in every feature of their faith and piety, you will 
 reflect that the temper of the first preachers was 
 that also of the primitive believers. They felt them- 
 selves each moment near to immortality; so near 
 indeed, that the eagerness of their anticipations 
 sometimes required the check of apostolic wisdom, 
 lest the affairs of life should be neglected, or its 
 relations overlooked, and the citizen of heaven be- 
 come unmindful that he was not yet passed into the 
 skies. 
 
 * It may be matter of question, whether the apostle's words, 
 here cited, signify his living in the constant contemplation of 
 death, or in a state of daily, that is, incessant exposure to it ; 
 whether, that is, it expresses an exercise of his mind, or a cir- 
 cumstance in his lot. EDITOR.
 
 398 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 How thoughts like these corresponded with those 
 of one holier and greater than all, and were exhibited 
 in the conduct of the Saviour, I need not and cannot 
 describe. The joy divinely set before him was ever 
 in his view. The heaven from whence he came at- 
 tracted his ceaseless regards. Even the very death 
 he was appointed to endure so boundless in agony, 
 so unparalleled in shame, was frequently recurring 
 in hints and casual allusions amidst his most familiar 
 conversation, testifying how habitually it was present 
 to his recollections, and how much the animating 
 spring of his obedience. 
 
 I contemplate you as having this day arrived at 
 the very meridian both of your life and ministry; 
 and the highest wish, whether of your own heart or 
 of ours, can seek no greater happiness than that the 
 last scenes of neither may be such as to shed a dis- 
 astrous gloom over the remembrance of our present 
 solemnities. In the profession you have chosen, 
 and the denomination to which you are united, you 
 can acquire no higher honours, and be invested 
 with no weightier charge ; and I am irresistibly 
 compelled to regard these considerations, as inviting 
 to the anticipation of that hour, when the issue of 
 your labours shall be all revealed, and, with a solemn 
 consciousness of their effects, you shall lay them 
 aside for ever. You stand now upon an elevation, 
 one of the very few in the journey of human exis- 
 tence, on which it is allowed us calmly to retrace 
 our progress and to take a prophetic survey of all 
 that lies beyond. Though it be by a long and 
 painful process that such advantage is attained, it
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 399 
 
 is itself inestimable. You may hereafter combine 
 the certainty of experience with novelty of effort, 
 the maturity of wisdom with the freshness of new 
 engagements. You may prosecute your work with 
 all the benefits of habit, but divested of all its en* 
 cumbrances. A noble prize is before you; and the 
 course is through a great part trodden. The goal 
 can never be more clearly than it is now, in sight. 
 I am persuaded, too, that the sentiments of solicitude 
 and of humble dependence can never be felt more 
 deeply. This, therefore, is an hour pregnant with 
 the richest blessings. But from this mount of vision 
 you must speedily descend to those daily cares and 
 labours which, though so sacred in their object, are 
 too often polluted by the utmost secularity in their 
 motives and actual design. Before this short-lived 
 gleam shall have departed, let me then affectionately 
 remind you, that its light returns no more. Improve 
 it, as you shall wish that it had been improved, when 
 your next step is to the tribunal of God. 
 
 And think not that the prosecution of our theme 
 will require that we be detained in melancholy ab- 
 straction amidst the shadows of the sepulchre, shut 
 out from all those more exhilarating associations 
 which such a service might otherwise supply. An 
 air of funereal sadness is the very last that should 
 be cast over an event like this. We are met on an 
 occasion of thankfulness and of delight. The em- 
 ploy on which you are entering in this place is one 
 every way adapted to excite to pleasurable expecta- 
 tion. It is the illumination of the benighted, the 
 rescue of the perishing, and the training up of be-
 
 400 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 lievers for their everlasting inheritance. It is to 
 break the bands of death, to give freedom to the 
 enthralled and captive souls, to direct the wander- 
 ing, to restore the exile, to comfort the mourner, 
 and to maintain, against the direst powers of ruin, 
 the cause of mercy and of God. And its result is 
 sure. 
 
 And yet, if the case were otherwise, and we could 
 not fulfil our design without bringing our thoughts 
 into prolonged and solemn contact with the closing 
 events of life ; if our path must be beside the dark 
 waters of mortality ; still why should we turn 
 aside or shrink from the pursuit? where can we 
 anticipate to rise to holier contemplations, or sublimer 
 emotions ? Often have we attained to more of truth 
 and of practical wisdom from a single hour spent 
 by the bed of death, than from whole days of specu- 
 lation, or from months and years consumed in the 
 routine of mechanical performances. 
 
 Perhaps few who have been exalted to distin- 
 guished usefulness in the sacred office have passed 
 through life, without having been led, at some period, 
 near, in their own conceptions, to the confines of 
 eternity ; while some, like Baxter, have lingered 
 there almost continually. Or else, by the death of 
 a father, or a mother, or a child, or some endeared 
 companion, the soul has been roused from her slum- 
 bers, and brought into conscious and awful proximity 
 to the things unseen. And as Luther was impelled 
 to become a recluse, and Vanderkemp a missionary, 
 when those they loved were stricken and fell at their 
 side, so they have felt for the first time, from such
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 401 
 
 causes, the obligation to zeal and energy and faith- 
 fulness in the labours of the ministry. The methods 
 may be different, but the effect is the same ; and 
 there are probably few who have ever sustained this 
 charge in all the fulness of its blessings, who have 
 not first been prepared to do so by the plenitude of 
 irresistible convictions in having felt thus deeply 
 the powers of the world to come. When such an 
 event has occurred early in their career, it has often, 
 doubtless, proved of incalculable service. Its bene- 
 ficial influence may have pervaded every subsequent 
 stage ; and the sickness or death of one may have 
 been for the life of thousands. Happy will it be 
 for us if, by devout contemplation, we attain its 
 advantages, but without its hazard ; and feel its stimu- 
 lating and hallowing effects, without thus tasting of 
 the bitterness of death. 
 
 How rich a treasure has the experience of the 
 death-bed yielded to the church! From scarcely 
 any quarter has so large a measure of improvement 
 been derived. It is here the hopes of piety have 
 been beheld triumphant over every fear. Here, the 
 faith of Jesus has shone forth with mingled simpli- 
 city and splendour, beyond the loveliest of its other 
 forms. Here, every sympathy of nature, as it was 
 rudely crushed by the last enemy, has been seen 
 blended and renewed in the one absorbing affection 
 of love to the ever-living Redeemer. The struggles 
 of dissolution have completed the operation of celes- 
 tial principles. The casting away of this garment 
 of the flesh has revealed for a moment the awful 
 beauty of the soul, now passing into glory, and 
 
 VOL. i. 3 E
 
 402 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 adorned with her bridal vesture for the festival of 
 heaven. Never, besides, have we seen such deep 
 submission, such sublime anticipations. Our hearts 
 have throbbed with equal delight and wonder, when 
 we have beheld that being, which but a little while 
 ago was feeble and sinful like our own, now expand- 
 ing, rising, brightening into immortality. We have 
 been awed and humbled at the presence of those 
 with whom we had before conversed in the familiar- 
 ity of ordinary life, when we perceived that they 
 had already experienced the first impulses of that 
 mysterious power which shall ere long convert these 
 frail and falling tabernacles into the fitting residence 
 of a never-dying spirit. As we wiped the sweat 
 from the forehead, or moistened the quivering lip, 
 we felt that we were ministering with ministering 
 angels, assured that when our poor services should 
 terminate, theirs would begin; that when we should 
 weep over the deserted clay, they would bear their 
 higher charge up to the mansions of glory. We 
 almost trembled to intrude upon their presence, 
 and wished, yet were half afraid, to catch their 
 whisper, or to witness their approach. We felt that 
 the place whereon we stood was holy. In such a 
 scene, how precious were the lessons of celestial 
 wisdom ! how sweet the accents of immortal hope ! 
 how forcible the demonstration of the vanity of 
 time with all its interests! how blessed the pros- 
 pect of an inheritance beyond the grave ! Here 
 we have learned to rise above all that is earthly, 
 and to look with longing to our everlasting rest. 
 As the track of the ascending chariot faded not
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 403 
 
 yet in its brightness, and the enfolding clouds hid 
 it not yet from our view, we too could have re- 
 joiced to depart and to be with Christ; and O 
 how intensely have we wished that the way might 
 yet be open, and it might be permitted to us also 
 to quit this region of darkness, and climb to the 
 mount of God! 
 
 Delightful thought to the Christian, burdened 
 with the trials and temptations of life, that they 
 shall not always endure ; that the hour is coming, 
 when every snare shall be broken, and every sorrow 
 shall have vanished away, when he shall feel the 
 pressure of that gentle hand which wipes away his 
 latest tear, and awake at its touch from the struggles 
 of this troublous dream into the blessedness of an 
 everlasting day ! How confidently may he now defy 
 the rage of all his enemies, and say " Your tri- 
 umphing is short, your malice impotent, your 
 greater fierceness shall but hasten my release. The 
 day of my deliverance is at hand. When I fall I 
 conquer. When I lie outstretched at your feet, I 
 am free. Like my victorious Lord, who attained 
 his brightest honours when he sank into the dust; 
 and when he passed the frontiers of death, broke 
 down their proud and gloomy barriers, and erected 
 on their base an ever-during monument of his own 
 glory. I behold it, reared like an arch of triumph 
 across the gulf of death, and shall soon sweep 
 exultingly beneath it, forth from the rocks and 
 eddies of this narrow sea, into the light and ocean 
 of eternity." 
 
 Delightful thought! that now it is not joy in us
 
 404 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 that dies, but sorrow ; not purity, but sin ; not energy, 
 but weakness ; not life, but death ! 
 
 Transporting remembrance ! that we cannot tra- 
 vel now beyond the boundaries of the Redeemer's 
 empire ; that we shall equally partake his care, and 
 be the subjects of his protection, in every realm 
 of being; that one passport shall still insure our 
 safety, one pledge of favour guarantee the supply of 
 our resources, be our defence, when we traverse 
 the solitary regions of the grave, our seal of wel- 
 come, when we stand amidst the splendours of the 
 cherubim, our solace and our tranquillizing joy, 
 when we hear the pinion of the attendant angel 
 cease at length to beat, and find ourselves all 
 strange and unaccompanied before the burning 
 throne ! 
 
 Let us remember, how through death our highest 
 interests were eternally secured. It is death by 
 which we live. It is death that destroyed our bon- 
 dage, and vanquished for us him that had the power 
 of death. Death sealed our peace, regained our 
 heritage, reversed our exile, restored our crown. 
 And now by death alone do we individually break 
 from the fetters of corruption, from the power of 
 Satan, from the sorrows of earth, and the imperfec- 
 tions of time; becoming complete in every faculty, 
 secure in every possession, and exempt from every 
 hinderance and disquietude; and from abiding in 
 houses of clay, are enrolled among the dwellers of 
 that city which " the glory of God doth lighten, and 
 the Lamb is the light thereof." Let us not won- 
 der, then, that from death, in its circumstances and
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 405 
 
 accompaniments, the church derives this ceaseless 
 revenue of holiness and comfort; that the noblest 
 examples, the most salutary counsels, the sweetest 
 consolations, the brightest visions, the loftiest pur- 
 poses, the mightiest hopes, are still nurtured beneath 
 its shade, and come upon the heart in all their force, 
 when the chilling horrors of its presence repel all 
 lesser influences, and rebuke all lighter thoughts. 
 Let us adore the wisdom which has brought this 
 greatest good out of the deepest fount of evil, and 
 converted the severest calamity into the source of 
 varied and most valuable blessings. Availing our- 
 selves of its aid, let it be our care to prepare habitu- 
 ally for its results. 
 
 In melancholy contrast to these reflections, a wise 
 and considerate survey of the conduct of men will 
 convince us that the greater number act without 
 even the remotest reference to its issue ; carried 
 forward by the current of events, while their cha- 
 racter is the product, not of reason or determination, 
 but of accidental circumstances, on the results of 
 which they never ponder, and whose tendency they 
 put forth no effort to control. Even in the exercise 
 of the sacred ministry, have we not too often allowed 
 ourselves to proceed in the same unreflective man- 
 ner? Do we not find ourselves rebuked, as often 
 as we hear of the departure of some eminent minis- 
 ter, or are called to stand beside some dying fellow- 
 creature, for our habitual forgetfulness of this great 
 subject ? When some fatal pestilence has spread 
 its ravages around us, have we not started as if 
 from slumber, and wondered at our former supine-
 
 406 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 ness? Have we not felt a quickening impulse, 
 which for a season taught us more accurately to 
 measure our advance, and to press with a more 
 direct and settled aim towards the mark ? Has it 
 not been, more than at other times, our concern, to 
 be able to say with the apostle " So run I, not as 
 uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the 
 air?" 
 
 How often, at the close of the Sabbath, has a sad 
 and solemn feeling stolen over us, at the remem- 
 brance that another day of labour and of useful- 
 ness was gone, beyond recovery! What shame and 
 regret has seized us, when we have compared our 
 diligence with our obligations, and our execution 
 even with our purpose ! Have we not then detected, 
 in the light of serious meditation, deficiencies we 
 had never apprehended, and failings we had wholly 
 overlooked? If that one day could be permitted to 
 return, how much more earnest, resolute, and faith- 
 ful have we not persuaded ourselves we should then 
 become, and what an increase of vigilance and of 
 humility we should certainly put forth in all its ser- 
 vices ! What, now, if we were warned by a messen- 
 ger from the invisible world that this very Sabbath 
 had been, though we knew it not, our last; that 
 our work was done, our stewardship at an end, and 
 before another week we must appear in the presence 
 of God! With what concern should we then look 
 back on our indifference compared with our respon- 
 sibility ! With what a fearful recoil would conscience 
 shrink from the reflection, if in the services of that 
 day there had been any measure of pride, or insin-
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 407 
 
 cerity, or criminal diffidence, and the thirst of human 
 approbation, if the topics treated of, or the illustra- 
 tions chosen, or the language and manner adopted, 
 had been such as to amuse, or to surprise, or to 
 attract applause, not to secure the divine glory, and 
 the salvation of men ! and how should we shudder 
 as we slowly pronounced the soliloquy, " Such has 
 really been my last sabbath, such my last sermon ; 
 I shall preach no more !" 
 
 Ah ! why can we not carry more of this solemnity 
 into the actual fulfilment of those duties which must 
 so soon and so awfully terminate ! Our last sabbath 
 and our last sermon cannot be far distant. The 
 time is coming, when we shall perceive, with a ter- 
 rible assurance, that our race is run, and our pro- 
 bation ended; that we must go forward into the 
 arena of judgment, just as we are, with all our un- 
 accomplished services, and our many and grievous 
 imperfections, and not another hour remains to 
 repair our negligences or to make ready our ac- 
 count. 
 
 If any thing could prevail to insure our cultiva- 
 tion of such habits of salutary thought, it might 
 surely be the consideration of the confusion and 
 horror which await the unfaithful or the indolent 
 minister at the close of life; and that still darker 
 and more fearful doom to which he is advancing. 
 While he lives, he stands amidst the church a column 
 of fearful and portentous omen, not only itself to be 
 smitten with the fiercest wrath of heaven, but to 
 attract and concentrate its lightnings, and around 
 which they roll and gather, till, incapable of further
 
 408 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 accumulation, they scathe, and blast, and wither all 
 below. The blood of perishing souls, sprinkled upon 
 his garments or deepening on his brow, baptizes him 
 as to perdition. In the most emphatic and awful 
 sense, he is the author of his own misery, and pro- 
 nounces, more than any other man, the verdict and 
 the sentence of his own everlasting condemnation. 
 In none besides is so terribly presented the realiza- 
 tion of that apostolic sentiment, " Ye judge your- 
 selves unworthy of eternal life." For a season he 
 is now " reserved unto judgment," like the apostate 
 angels; and, like them, "in chains of darkness:" 
 but "his judgmejit lingereth not, and his damnation 
 slumbereth not :" the day of death, much more the 
 day of final retribution, shall declare it ; and O how 
 fearful the disclosure, when the dread secret is at 
 length revealed! 
 
 How vividly may we conceive that, when we come 
 to die, our motives, principles, and actions may be 
 remembered and recalled! Days and services long 
 since forgotten may then stand prominent in the 
 review of our departed years, as objects in some 
 distant scene of mountains, where clouds and sun- 
 shine chase each other in uncertain and rapid suc- 
 cession, presenting here deep valleys, there rugged 
 precipices or rushing waters; while each, as the 
 gleam steals onward, shines out with a distinctness 
 that darkens all besides. Thus, even in death, may 
 it be given us sometimes to anticipate, with an un- 
 natural and terrific energy, that dreadful revisitation 
 of the past, which, in the world of misery, shall 
 bring back all our career, still furnishing occasions
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 409 
 
 of astonishment and regret, and elements of torment 
 perpetually new. 
 
 In such an hour, how contemptible will appear 
 the struggles of ambition, the intrigues of jealousy, 
 the collisions of party ! How unwise and criminal 
 our too frequent weariness of the restraints or diffi- 
 culties of our office, and our secret longing after 
 some more palpable recompense, or more secular 
 pursuit ! How strange our indolent complacency, 
 amidst engagements which bore no conscious refer- 
 ence to an eternal state! How terrible the impiety 
 of having trifled with things so sacred as those with 
 which our ministry forced us into contact ! How 
 miraculous the insensibility of our consciences to 
 the guilt and danger of dealing deceitfully with souls 
 that could never die ! How perilous the presump- 
 tion of making light of truths associated with the 
 agency of God's eternal Spirit, thus handling with 
 rash forgetfulness the very thunderbolts of heaven ! 
 as if, greedy of perdition, and content with no com- 
 mon ruin, we would invoke to meet upon our heads 
 the curses of almighty vengeance, and gather all its 
 arrows together into our breast, as if like the 
 self-devoted patriot of Switzerland,* when he sprang 
 upon the foe, grasping every spear within his reach, 
 and burying them together in his bosom, then, 
 breaking their impenetrable phalanx, stood trans- 
 fixed, a shield for his advancing countrymen, who 
 now rushed on to conquestf it had thus become 
 
 * Winkelreid. 
 
 -f- The immediately preceding words " like the self-devoted 
 patriot," &c. were found on a loose slip of paper, " as if" (the 
 VOL. I. 3 F
 
 410 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 our desire O strange and fatal philanthropy ! 
 that the shafts which might have pierced a thou- 
 sand hearts should meet and centre in ours ; or 
 that the damnation of thousands perishing around 
 us should be felt the less intolerable from contrast 
 with the aggravations of our own. 
 
 The doom of the unfaithful minister may be re- 
 garded as inclusive of all the varieties of final con- 
 demnation and torture. Whatever be the penalty 
 incurred by the most dark hypocrisy, the basest 
 ingratitude, the most wilful self-deception, all may 
 
 transcriber says) " to be used or not at pleasure." I hesitated 
 about their insertion, and had actually omitted them, assigning 
 in a foot note my reasons for doing so. On reconsideration, 
 however, it appears likely that the comparison was in the mind 
 of the author when he wrote the sentence, although not ex- 
 pressly introduced, and that subsequently he had resolved on 
 its insertion. While on this consideration I have given them a 
 place, my reasons for their omission have not ceased to appear 
 as having weight : namely, in the first place, that they rather 
 load and encumber the sentence ; and, in the second place, 
 that the comparison does seem to me somewhat strained, and 
 scarcely moreover in harmony with the emotions meant to be 
 awakened ; inasmuch as, judging by my own experience in 
 reading the passage, the current of feeling is suddenly and vio- 
 lently turned from a channel of deep and deepening dread of 
 gathering and swelling guilt and condemnation, to the contem- 
 plation of an example of lofty patriotic self-devotion, which com- 
 mands our admiring reverence, to which we award the meed 
 of a nation's honour and a place in its most sacredly preserved 
 records, and to which we can hardly apply the exclamation 
 which follows " O strange and fatal philanthropy !" with 
 feelings at all the same as those with which we apply it to the 
 case meant to be illustrated. I may, however, be in the wrong. 
 The reader must judge EDITOR.
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 411 
 
 be apprehended here. Such a man neglects no 
 common privileges, perverts no common mercy. 
 He stands pre-eminent among the traitors and mur- 
 derers of his Lord. By him especially is he cruci- 
 fied afresh. By him is he betrayed with a kiss. 
 Others may have sinned through ignorance ; but he 
 presumptuously. They may be as the crowds that 
 cried while the Saviour stood before his judge, 
 " Away with him, away with him ! it is not fit that 
 he should live!" but he, like the wretch that sold 
 him, or the high priest that denounced him, or the 
 caitiff that thrust on him the gall and vinegar, and 
 mocked his dying thirst. If there be intenser pangs 
 amidst the torments of the damned, if gloomier 
 horrors in the regions of eternal night, if a more 
 concentrated and deep-felt misery, where all is agony 
 and hopelessness for ever; if there be darts that 
 smite with deadlier fury, or flames that seize more 
 fiercely upon their living prey, if heavier groans, 
 or bitterer tears, or eyes that burn, yet weep not, 
 with more insupportable anguish; all these must 
 mark the ruin of that man that has thus practically 
 renewed the rejection of the Son of God, accounted 
 the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, contemned 
 a known salvation, outraged that pity, and trampled 
 on that pardon, which himself proclaimed. The 
 curses that rest upon his soul, are those not of Sinai 
 but of Calvary ; and the power which blasts him is 
 that, not of the " spirit of judgment or of burning," 
 but of the " Spirit of grace." 
 
 Some, perhaps, among whom he has exercised his 
 ministry, may, through abounding grace, be finally
 
 412 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 accepted, and, though he perish, they may be re- 
 ceived into glory. Of others he shall find himself 
 branded as the destroyer, when they descend to- 
 gether with him to the pit. In the former, what 
 affecting memorials shall he behold of what he might 
 himself have attained ! what new incentives to self- 
 accusation, when he reflects that the very truths 
 which issued in their safety were imparted by his 
 instruction ; that they formed the matter of his daily 
 study; that he put forth efforts to defend, illustrate, 
 and enforce them ; that he believed in them as cer- 
 tain, while he neglected personally to apply them ; 
 and they have now been all confirmed in the salva- 
 tion of others, while he has gone down into destruc- 
 tion with a lie in his right hand ! What a combination 
 of rage and envy, and of the agony of unavailing 
 desire, mav thus be conceived to issue from the 
 
 
 
 contrast between their blessedness and his eternal 
 misery ! In those that perish with him he shall find 
 only fiercer accusers; to mock, and to taunt, and 
 to upbraid him; to pour upon him the bitterest 
 imprecations, as the author of their woe; and to 
 awaken his remorse by reminding him perpetually 
 of his base unfaithfulness. He shall meet them in 
 every path, shall seek in vain to hide himself from 
 their reproaches ; dreading their fiery glance more 
 than the countenance of demons ; or looking on their 
 silent wretchedness with pangs more exquisite than 
 of the worm that never dies. For him there re- 
 mains no mitigation in the thought that his calami- 
 ties were rendered inevitable by his circumstances, 
 or that he was misled by others into the ways of
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 413 
 
 death. To him it is not permitted to lie down in 
 darkness, and to ruminate with inward sorrow on 
 his solitary couch. His name shall be a watchword 
 for the mockery of hell ; his steps assailed with all 
 its maledictions; himself a beacon of superior ruin, 
 a theme of public scorn, among the myriads of the 
 damned. He shall drink the deepest cup of suffer- 
 ing, and sink into the lowest degradation, and be 
 for a hissing and an astonishment through all the 
 regions of despair. 
 
 But such as is the horror of the unfaithful, such 
 too must be the gladness and the peace of the de- 
 voted minister, at his last hour, and in the realms 
 of future being. When he comes to die, he shall 
 be soothed by the calm remembrance of having been 
 enabled by the grace of God to preserve his purposes 
 inviolate, his efforts simple, his dependence steadfast ; 
 that he sought not the applause of men, but the 
 divine approval, not his own interest or advance- 
 ment, but the honour of his Master; that for the 
 salvation of his people he was prepared to trample 
 upon every thing besides, and to maintain that sim- 
 plicity and godly sincerity which, though we find it 
 now so difficult to keep without contamination, could 
 alone afford one ray of satisfaction in that solemn 
 review. And in the mansions of eternity, the bliss 
 provided for him is the purest and the most exalted. 
 Himself a partaker of renovating mercy, and sharing 
 in all the blessedness of the redeemed, he shall in- 
 herit loftier joys, and rise to holier transport, as the 
 means of bringing them to glory. His work has 
 been the most important and honourable ; so shall
 
 414 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 be his recompense. In every trophy won by his 
 faithfulness, he shall renew the memory of his toils 
 and conflicts, only to enhance the rapture of his 
 reward. In every regenerated soul, the subject once 
 of his imperfect ministry, he shall find a brother 
 with whom to range through fields of unwithering 
 joy. I see him on the couch of death ; and a com- 
 pany of ransomed immortals, the first-fruits of his 
 travail, wait to conduct him to the habitations of 
 peace. I see him at the bar of judgment; where 
 the accuser is silenced, and his last thrill of appre- 
 hension subsides into repose, while a multitude of 
 happy voices attest his diligence, and bear witness 
 that it was by his exertions they were made meet 
 for heaven. I see him mingling with the great as- 
 sembly, in the chorus of salvation; and the harp 
 trembles in his hand, while his eye glistens ecstati- 
 cally, and his touch lingers on the string, as he 
 pauses in silence to catch the melting strain from 
 another and yet another lip, which he first taught 
 to utter the accents of praise, or plead in the omni- 
 potence of prayer. I know not whether among 
 creatures, of whatever rank or order, there be any 
 higher form or purer modification of enjoyment. 
 Perhaps there is none which partakes more fully of 
 the nature of that sublime felicity possessed by the 
 Creator himself; as there is surely none which 
 approximates more nearly to the happiness of the 
 divine Redeemer. With what high and holy agen- 
 cies will our poor efforts then be seen to have been 
 allied; how many and what formidable obstacles 
 will they be found to have surmounted ; what ends
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 415 
 
 to have accomplished, what possessions to have se- 
 cured ! Surely such an enterprise, and such an 
 issue, was worthy to have consumed the powers, not 
 of a feeble mortal, but of the mightiest spirit in all 
 the dominions of God. When fruits thus imperish- 
 able were to be the product, that mightiest spirit 
 would have exulted at such a commission. Whence 
 at least one reason, why this heavenly treasure was 
 intrusted, not to angelic, but human distribution; 
 and deposited in vessels of earthly, not ethereal 
 mould. We should have shuddered to ascribe to 
 man a bliss so elevated, as implying almost too large 
 a participation in divine prerogatives, too intimate a 
 fellowship in uncreated joys, had we not been taught 
 to do so by the express language of scripture; had 
 we not found apostles thus appealing to the subjects 
 of their ministry " What is our hope, or joy, or 
 crown of rejoicing? are not even ye in the presence 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? Ye are 
 our glory and joy." 
 
 Behold, then, my brother, the mark ! Behold the 
 prize of your high calling! It is this "whereunto 
 you labour, striving according to his working which 
 worketh in you mightily." Hither let your pur- 
 poses be directed. Here let your hopes repose. 
 Be not satisfied with the uncertain expectation of 
 this happiness ; but labour to insure it against every 
 hazard. It is ascertained to fidelity and patience. 
 Grasp it in thought. Realize it in expectancy. Lay 
 hold on it by persevering effort. 
 
 Such, I am persuaded, is now your sincere deter- 
 mination and most earnest desire. All other con-
 
 416 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 siderations, I am persuaded, fade into insignificance. 
 You have not a thought to waste, nor a feeling to 
 expend, upon the greatest and most dazzling of 
 earthly acquisitions. If the kingdoms of the world 
 and all their glory were here stretched out before 
 you, and you saw them, like your Master, glittering 
 in aerial perspective, towers palaces temples 
 the pomps of empire, and the proudest ensigns of 
 victory ; like him, you would despise the pageant, 
 and frown the seducing spirit from your presence, 
 superior to every stratagem, and unshaken by every 
 assault. But, ah! the inconstancy and feebleness 
 of man's degenerate heart! Do you not shudder at 
 the suggestion, lest after all you should forget your 
 vows, and become insensible to your accumulating 
 obligations? A thousand times have you deliber- 
 ately pledged yourself to all that might become a 
 minister of Christ. You have cherished hopes, and 
 meditated plans, which, while they tended to in- 
 crease your personal holiness, were fitted also to 
 insure the right discharge of every ministerial func- 
 tion. But what is the comparison between such 
 purposes, and all that you have hitherto attained? 
 It is not pain or sorrow which you, I am persuaded, 
 are studious to decline; not desertion or neglect, 
 not even perfidy or ingratitude, not jealousy, or 
 coldness, or caprice. You fear no evil that can be 
 brought upon you by the power of man. " None 
 of these things move you." Having counted the 
 cost of your undertaking, you are prepared to esti- 
 mate both its possible sacrifices and its certain re- 
 compense. These cannot endanger, because they
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 417 
 
 cannot surprise you. Your ardour is not such as 
 that they should quench it; your spirit is not such 
 as they have force to subdue. But O remember 
 those terrible words of the apostle, " Lest, after 
 having preached to others, I myself should be a 
 cast- away." What if the artifices of temptation, or 
 the decline of vital piety, should one day number 
 even you among the apostate ; if the enemy should 
 seduce you in an unguarded hour, so that your 
 memory should become a reproach among the faith- 
 ful, and a source of triumph among the unbelieving 
 or profane ! Or if the advance of years should chill 
 your fervour, and the promise of your youth, and 
 your earlier fruits of manhood, should be blighted, 
 and become as dust and rottenness before it; if, 
 while externally distinguished by no signal of apos- 
 tacy, you should grow secretly indifferent or scep- 
 tical, and continue to discharge, with heartless iter- 
 ation, services in which the will has no concurrence, 
 and conscience no concern, when affection is wasted, 
 and delight is fled ; till at length the last sand runs 
 out, and the scene is awfully exchanged, and you go 
 approved, admired, applauded, but, alas, unprepared, 
 into the presence of your Lord! Your spirit fails 
 you ; your blood curdles in your veins, yet it is 
 by this tremendous contrast, almost more than by 
 the attractions of desire or hope, that you are now, 
 methinks, impelled to pray that, whatever be the 
 sufferings, or whatever the difficulties, of your lot, 
 even though they should be aggravated to seven- 
 fold wretchedness, and continued through every step, 
 you may endure them all; that not one grief 
 VOL. i. 3 G
 
 418 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 may be abated, not a single pang escaped, which 
 may be of avail to shelter you from influences so 
 destructive; so that you may at last but be ac- 
 counted faithful, and " finish your course with joy." 
 Let us turn, therefore, to the second portion of 
 our subject, and consider 
 
 II. The effect of such contemplations in tending 
 to realize their object, and to become the means of 
 insuring that tranquil satisfaction at the close of 
 our ministry, which is set before us in this passage, 
 as a sufficient requital for every privation and hard- 
 ship experienced in its discharge. 
 
 It would be easy to enumerate many methods 
 wherein they bear most forcibly on this design ; and, 
 in a more general address, they ought not certainly 
 to be overlooked. We might dwell on the fact, that 
 they prompt more powerfully than any other cause, 
 to decisive investigation of our interest in redeeming 
 mercy, to direct and repeated application to the 
 Saviour, to steadfast and settled reliance upon his 
 support, to active exertion in his cause, and fervent 
 devotedness to his glory, to the faithful use of every 
 ordinance, and means of spiritual advancement, to 
 the sedulous avoidance of whatever might become 
 the occasion of future lamentation or alarm such as 
 worldly attachments, wavering convictions, divided 
 motives, or secret inconsistencies. But we shall 
 direct our consideration rather to such commanding 
 habits of thought as bear more immediately on the 
 vigorous execution of our ministry, and from which 
 all the subordinate acts, whether of personal piety
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 419 
 
 or of pastoral diligence, may be expected to pro- 
 ceed. 
 
 Allow me, then, to remark, how naturally they 
 will produce a frequent recurrence to those great 
 and primary conceptions of the nature, the respon- 
 sibility, and the certain results of our office, which 
 may operate to exalt our sense of its importance, 
 rendering it impossible that we should ever become 
 weary of its labours, or ashamed of its fulfilment. 
 We shall learn to account of ourselves as stewards 
 of the mysteries of God, as ministers of the new 
 covenant of redeeming mercy, as having committed 
 to us "the ministry of reconciliation" for a lost 
 world, as soldiers of Christ Jesus, warring not 
 with carnal weapons, but " against principalities and 
 powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places," 
 as "workers together with God" in that spiritual 
 cultivation which is called " God's husbandry" 
 in the erection of that everlasting temple which is 
 called " God's building," as evangelists, charged 
 with the proclamation of pardon to mankind, as 
 pastors in a church bought with the blood of atone- 
 ment, as ambassadors for Christ, who, when they 
 negociate the great affairs of immortality, plead not 
 in their own name, and pledge the spirits of men to 
 solemn stipulations, not by their own authority, but 
 "as though God did beseech by them" so that 
 " he that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God."* 
 
 * Of course, it is but in an inferior and qualified sense that 
 the language here cited can be applied to ministers of Christ 
 now. In its highest and strictest acceptation, it belonged to 
 inspired men. They were properly Christ's " ambassadors,"
 
 420 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 This perpetual reference to the issue of our min- 
 isterial functions, will lead us to an equally solemn 
 estimation of their dignity. We shall think of our 
 office as glorious, and learn to glory therefore in its 
 discharge; glorious, as well for the principles we 
 are appointed to diffuse, as for the collateral advan- 
 tages we can never fail to impart; glorious, in its 
 connection with the noblest aims of benevolence and 
 virtue, in the conquest of evil, and the communi- 
 cation of happiness. The philosopher has his glory, 
 as well as the warrior or the sovereign; and the 
 glory of a Howard is superior to them both. " But 
 the glory of the terrestrial is one, and the glory of 
 the celestial is another." Ours are divine philoso- 
 
 who spoke by his Spirit, and with his authority. And the 
 authority, strictly so called, is still with them in their writ- 
 ings, as it was in their preaching. The pastor now speaks with 
 authority, only as holding and executing an office in the church 
 which is of divine appointment. But his instructions have in 
 them no authority whatever, unless they are in harmony with 
 the recorded word of inspired prophets and apostles. It is only 
 when he speaks according to their word, that it can with truth 
 be said of him " He that despiseth, despiseth not man, but 
 God." Our deceased friend had no idea of any authority in 
 human teaching now, beyond this ; no idea of such apostolical 
 succession as possesses the magical virtue of transmuting false- 
 hood into truth, and imparting apostolic sanction and efficiency 
 to what is subversive of the apostolic faith. That has God's 
 authority which was dictated by God's Spirit, and that alone. 
 The meanest Christian teacher whose instructions harmonize 
 with " the law and the testimony " speaks with authority ; the 
 highest in nominal designation among men, if he speaks not 
 " according to that word," has " no light in him ;" and his 
 word is not merely without, but against, authority EDITOR.
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 421 
 
 phy, and the emanations of primeval wisdom. The 
 conquests of power, and the triumphs of benevolence 
 are ours; but that power is omnipotence, and that 
 benevolence divine. 
 
 We shall be prepared by such reflections for the 
 sublime belief that we are appointed, as living ora- 
 cles, to announce, as ministers of the temple, to 
 interpret, the utterances and will of God. It will 
 be our labour, to possess ourselves of an assured 
 conviction of the reality of those objects to which 
 we point the contemplation of our hearers. Dread- 
 ing the enfeebling influence even of the slightest 
 suspicion that these objects are unsubstantial, or the 
 hopes rested on them delusive, we shall seek to 
 repose continually on that animating declaration 
 " This is a faithful saying." It will not suffice us 
 that we are able to give a reason for our faith, in 
 answer to the inquiries of others; we shall feel the 
 necessity of those higher forms of proof, which are 
 essential to assure ourselves, silencing the objec- 
 tions, not of men, but Satan. Not satisfied with the 
 faith which can withstand only the assaults of out- 
 ward infidelity, we shall aspire to that plenitude of 
 assurance, which may soothe the anguish of involun- 
 tary scepticism, and still the clamours, not of a dis- 
 satisfied understanding, but an unbelieving heart. 
 We shall cultivate the faith, not merely which admits 
 the evidence, or credits the report, but which sub- 
 stantiates the object, brings it within its apprehen- 
 sion, and is affected by it in the same manner, 
 though invisible, as if it were displayed in noonday 
 light before us. The necessity of such conviction
 
 422 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 is, to a minister of Christ, beyond all parallel ; con- 
 stituting at once the bulwark of his safety, and the 
 nerve of all his strength. 
 
 By the same influence, we shall be led to delight 
 in the divine simplicity of the gospel system. Not 
 insensible to the perplexity in which its explanation 
 is so frequently involved, we shall rejoice, while 
 eternal consequences are before us, to think that it 
 is not in matters impenetrable to the strongest in- 
 tellect, but in those which lie open to the feeblest, 
 that its use and its majesty reside; that it is by the 
 knowledge and practical belief, not of disputable 
 explications, or obscure and complex theories, but 
 of the plainest facts, that men must universally be 
 saved. We shall be cheered by the reflection, that 
 what we teach is perfect, however imperfectly it 
 may be taught; that, amidst all the discoveries or 
 possible evolutions of the future, nothing can super- 
 sede, nothing cast into the shade, the matter of our 
 instructions ; that these, as a spring of living water, 
 shall continue to flow forth, through every genera- 
 tion, for the refreshment of weary spirits in their 
 pilgrimage to heaven. 
 
 While habituated to such methods of contempla- 
 tion, we shall not shrink, on the other hand, from 
 the examination or avowal of those parts of Chris- 
 tianity which lie the most remote from human ap- 
 prehension, and require the lowliest submission of 
 our reason to the authority of God. Religion, it is 
 true, has been evermore accompanied with myste- 
 ries; and we have ours. But there is this essential 
 difference between these and all other mysteries:
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 423 
 
 their only veil is their simplicity. Elsewhere, be- 
 neath the gorgeous splendour of rites, fitted to cap- 
 tivate the fancy, and to bewilder every sense, or 
 the jargon of a dreamy and superannuated wisdom, 
 nothing was hid except the merest elements of 
 morality, or the most rudimental principles of natu- 
 ral science. Here, all is reversed as to our obser- 
 vances, while the truths they shadow forth are the 
 loftiest in sublimity, and the most transcendent in 
 importance. They are themselves divested of all 
 pageantry or complication. There is no glare of 
 torches, no coverture of night, no darkling grove, 
 no long-drawn procession, no muttered voices, no 
 initiation by ablution or by sacrifice. The noblest 
 realities are embodied in the plainest symbols; 
 the richest blessings sealed by the most unembar- 
 rassed usages. Our truest preparation is a sense of 
 mere necessity; our surest investiture, an humble, 
 unquestioning reliance. This is the sprinkling 
 water, and this the mystic crown. And with re- 
 spect to the doctrines we inculcate, we shall rejoice 
 in the deep-felt certainty that their sublimest mys- 
 tery resides in the unfathomable abysses of that 
 mercy whereof they all bear witness; and that, as 
 they are ever intimately associated with that love 
 which " passeth knowledge," so they are productive 
 of that joy which is " unspeakable and full of glory." 
 We shall learn, under the same impressions, prac- 
 tically to think of our ministry in its connection 
 with the operations of almighty influence. Ennobled 
 by the exercises to which they are accustomed, our 
 minds will instantly reject, as unworthy of serious
 
 424 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 attention, whatever argument might be for a moment 
 opposed to the belief of such an influence. That we 
 are accessible to all other modes of spiritual power, 
 we shall need no other proof than our own conscious- 
 ness, and the experience of every day. A thousand 
 impulses are felt, and instantly obeyed, of which 
 we know that we are not ourselves the originating 
 spring, nor any of the material scenes and changes 
 that surround us. When, therefore, we ascribe to 
 God the like immediacy of operation, what do we 
 but follow out the very plainest evidence, and render 
 to him the honour of his own unquestioned work ? 
 None else can be so intimately present to the soul; 
 none can be prepared to act with such unerring 
 and determinate effect. Of the necessity or value 
 of such influence, I shall now say nothing, and will 
 only add, that in proportion as it becomes an object 
 of our thoughts, it will be found also a principle of 
 action; leading to holy superiority to all inferior 
 considerations and dependencies, and to the dis- 
 charge of every portion of our office in the spirit of 
 humility, watchfulness, and prayer. 
 
 Such reflections, while they will inspire us with 
 a sacred confidence, will tend most powerfully to 
 repress all temerity, and to beget reverential caution 
 in the execution of our office. Feeling in every 
 function that we have to do with God, we shall 
 shrink from the thought of trifling with what he has 
 appointed, and with adminstrations over which he 
 presides. Seriously shall we reflect, how, in the 
 profanation of such things, he is outraged in a more 
 offensive manner than by almost any other trans-
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 425 
 
 gression; that the revelation of his power which 
 we pervert is, more than all others, unquestionable, 
 those forms of operation connected with our min- 
 istry, the most exclusively his own; not to add, 
 that they are the most condescending and merciful; 
 and hence that an indignity offered to the teaching 
 or the sanctifying grace of the Divine Spirit, in in- 
 stances like these, partakes, beyond all other crimes, 
 of the audacity of a personal defiance, and the gross- 
 ness of a personal insult. That ministry will be 
 felt to be responsible indeed, to which the power of 
 God is thus intimately present. We shall stand in 
 awe and tremble, when we find the energy of his 
 living Spirit attendant on our word. Our condition 
 will resemble that of the disciples in the hour of 
 their Master's transfiguration. They saw with won- 
 der the approach of that overshadowing glory with 
 which they were soon to be encircled; and, as it 
 bore majestically onwards, and its first splendours 
 began to compass them about, sank down with min- 
 gled amazement and delight; for "they feared as 
 they entered into the cloud." 
 
 Acting under the influence of these reflections, 
 we shall cultivate the most hallowed and solemn 
 associations with all that bears, however remotely, 
 on our work. The scriptures will become invested 
 with a character of such sublime authority, that all 
 puerile accommodations, all spiritualizing of their 
 narratives, all subtle inductions of their imagined 
 hidden sense, all, in a word, that is not palpable, 
 consistent with their legitimate and obvious design, 
 will be shunned for its irreverence, not more than 
 
 VOL. i. 3 H
 
 426 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 it is repudiated for its folly. In the same manner, 
 we shall dread to employ its sacred phraseology in 
 our public discourses, not cited as authority, but 
 adduced only to give emphasis to our own sentiments, 
 or to fill up the sound and measure of our cadence ; 
 much more shall we tremble to adopt it in a manner 
 of heedlessness and familiarity, in the intercourse 
 of common life. Deeming no extent of labour too 
 great or arduous, which may bring us into a more 
 perfect acquaintance with its import, instead of 
 wasting our inquiries on the minutiae even of sacred 
 criticism, we shall learn the higher art of scrutiniz- 
 ing not words so much as sentences, and even these 
 less than that current of holy thought and feeling, 
 that method of conception so unequalled and so 
 manifestly divine, which is everywhere exhibited in 
 the pages of inspiration. Our chief aim will be, by 
 prayerful meditation to enter into the very counsel 
 of God, and to learn in all its fulness what is the 
 mind of the Spirit. 
 
 The same solemnity of feeling will attach to all 
 the engagements of the sanctuary, and, I may add, 
 to the very place of our religious convocations. We 
 indulge a natural veneration for every spot which 
 has become the scene of illustrious events, sealing 
 to nations or to families blessings of the richest 
 value, and most permanent duration. Never can a 
 participant of British freedom pass lightly by the 
 little Isle of Athelney, or tread but with exultation 
 on the plain of Runnymede. But what was the 
 heroic virtue which gave to the one its lustre, or the 
 liberty which has insured for the other an inde-
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 427 
 
 structible remembrance, compared to the magnitude 
 of that transaction which establishes our now right- 
 ful claim to the blessings of a treaty with the King 
 of kings, and ratifies our investiture in all the im- 
 munities and privileges of his children? Often is 
 this treaty solemnized in the place of our assemblies ; 
 and many a lowly edifice has thus been rendered 
 memorable in the archives of eternity. If that spot 
 is hallowed, where friendship has mingled its con- 
 verse and plighted its fidelity; or where we have 
 received a parent's benediction, if his voice seems 
 there to linger, and the faint and tremulous farewell 
 to vibrate still upon the ear; if it be accounted 
 wise and pious, to hold in reverence the abode, the 
 walks, the image, and especially the sepulchre, of 
 departed greatness ; then how should that place be 
 approached, where the smile of heavenly reconcilia- 
 tion is wont to beam upon the soul, where God 
 draws nigh to talk with us, as a man doth with his 
 friend, and where the counsels of heaven are ex- 
 panded to our view ! Into scenes like these no 
 other thoughts should find admission but those of 
 veneration and holy delight; and he will best con- 
 sult the compound nature of man, and the means of 
 his own spiritual improvement, who, while he care- 
 fully abstains from superstition, neglects not the 
 cultivation of those habits which make the instincts 
 and the very fancy not hostile but auxiliary to 
 devotion. 
 
 It was a noble conception of the great artist of 
 antiquity, who, to express the grandeur of the father 
 of the gods, placed his statue, composed of ivory
 
 428 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 and gold, and crowned with olive, in the midst of 
 the most sumptuous temple of Greece, but enthroned 
 and sitting, and of such dimensions that the roof of 
 that majestic edifice was but a little elevated above 
 the summit of the image, and conveyed the striking 
 intimation that this noblest structure was after all 
 too limited to contain the uplifted form of the divi- 
 nity. To the vulgar eye, the magnitude of this 
 stupendous image appeared as a defect, and the 
 proportions of the general fabric seemed to have 
 been forgotten. But, on a closer inspection, this 
 very circumstance contributed, more than all be- 
 sides, to its impression, engrossing, absorbing, and 
 overwhelming the spectator, not more with the rich- 
 ness of its materials and the perfection of its sym- 
 metry, than by the gigantic scale of its greatness, 
 casting a new and unexpected glory upon the dwelling 
 which it far outshone. But what is the dwelling we 
 can fabricate for the invisible and infinite God ! 
 Where is the house we build him, or what is the 
 place of his rest! How the very insignificance of 
 every earthly sanctuary, contrasted with his infini- 
 tude, adds to the force of these emotions ! How his 
 unmeasurable grandeur swells upon our thought, 
 when we remember, that, though here his foot may 
 tread, his power upholds the stars, and his glory 
 outshines the firmament, while the amplitude of all 
 creation lies like a pebble from the shore within 
 the hollow of his hand ! 
 
 We need not tremble, it is true, now to draw 
 nigh unto God : but, Oh ! it becomes us to approach 
 with a true heart, as well as in full assurance of
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 429 
 
 faith, bending in lowliest adoration, and saying, 
 " How dreadful is this place !" All thoughtless pre- 
 cipitancy, all insincerity of form or language, all 
 vagrancy of thought, alas ! how perilous will they 
 appear, when we feel ourselves advancing into the 
 presence-chamber of the great King ! And yet how 
 often might we say, " Surely God is in this place, 
 and I knew it not!" Too little have we trained 
 ourselves to feel that it is his finger has inscribed 
 the pages we are called to expound, his voice that 
 speaks from heaven, in every word of power or 
 consolation flowing from our lips ; and that, as his 
 ministers, we are now performing deeds that tran- 
 scend the compass of all created might, soothing 
 the anguish of wounded spirits, lodging the arrows 
 of guilt and fear within the stricken conscience, 
 opening in the breast the fountain of penitence and 
 godly sorrow, or calming the tempest of remorse, 
 and chasing away its gloom ; while the Mediator of 
 the new covenant, like the angel of Manoah, is put- 
 ting forth his -rod, to consume with celestial fire the 
 sacrifice our hands may have placed tremblingly 
 upon the altar. Why is it that we do not come 
 with a considerate footstep within the circle of such 
 mighty operations? And what a revolution would 
 be often wrought in all our feelings, if we could but 
 take up the remembrance "God is here!" This 
 would be our safeguard against the numberless temp- 
 tations which beset us in the sanctuary. Under the 
 influence of so august a presence, and while powers 
 thus sacred rested on the soul, we should become 
 objects of fear even to the spirits of darkness. The
 
 430 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 broad bright shield of heaven would be seen spread 
 over us, and by its very effulgency would prove our 
 inviolable defence. The eye of demons would be 
 unable to behold it, blazing so near. 
 
 No considerations can be more adapted than those 
 we have thus referred to, to insure that we should 
 cultivate, in all the functions of our ministry, the 
 utmost activity and vigilance. Remembering that the 
 business we have undertaken to transact is in itself 
 the most momentous, that its accomplishment is 
 obstructed by the greatest difficulties, that it is the 
 most uncertain in the time allotted for its execution, 
 and yet the most inevitably productive of lamenta- 
 tion and sorrow, or else of unspeakable rejoicing, 
 another day ; we shall shrink from nothing so 
 much as coming to such engagements with sluggish 
 affections, exhausted faculties, and a torpid mind. 
 Even in our personal capacity as Christians, is this 
 remembrance necessary; but in our official, as the 
 ministers of Christ, it is so pre-eminently. As men 
 appearing in the presence of their judge, we shall 
 feel it essential to mark every process of the cause 
 on which our all is dependent : but as messengers 
 of grace to condemned and perishing souls, we shall 
 fear to remit, even for a moment, the operation of 
 any faculty which may conduce, either to effect their 
 welfare or to insure our own acceptance, when we 
 reflect that in a little while our embassy will be re- 
 called, and our commission finally surrendered. 
 
 When the Saviour terminated his admonitory dis- 
 course to his disciples, he summed up all in these 
 emphatic terms : " What I say unto you I say unto
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 431 
 
 all, Watch!" There is something singularly striking 
 in the manner wherein this solitary word is made to 
 finish his discourse ; as if he had said " Beyond 
 this, I have nothing more to add: you need no fur- 
 ther direction: this contains the whole." The de- 
 sign was, manifestly, to secure for it their permanent 
 recollection; that it might be as a motto applied 
 to every practical use. Being the last he uttered, 
 and probably followed by an interval of silence, 
 and as moreover it was brief, single, and in the 
 highest degree expressive, they would feel that it 
 contained matter for the most extended meditation. 
 In many an hour, when they might otherwise have 
 sunk into indifference or torpor, they would seem 
 to hear it again, rousing them to diligence, or urging 
 them to caution. Its appeal lay equally to their 
 hopes and their alarms, their sense of duty and their 
 consciousness of danger. Every spring of vigour 
 would be summoned into action, and every effort 
 regulated and impelled. 
 
 It was worthy of this prominence. Nothing could 
 be more essential in itself, or more inseparably united 
 with the other forms of an intelligent and active 
 piety. The spirit of watchfulness is at once the 
 richest product of all others, and the living power 
 by which they must be quickened and sustained. 
 It is required by all, and by all it is invigorated. 
 When this nourishes, nothing else can decline; 
 when this is weak or languishing, nothing else can 
 flourish. I need not say how closely it is connected 
 with persevering prayer; prayer which embraces 
 effort, embodies fervent desire, confirms pious
 
 432 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 resolution, lays fast hold upon the hand of mercy, 
 or, prostrate at her feet, weeps, pleads, expostulates, 
 presses on her suit, refuses to be th*ust away or 
 silenced, urges the promise, alleges the securities of 
 an everlasting covenant, and, by conscious weakness 
 mingled with importunity, infallibly prevails. As 
 watchfulness advances, praise takes wing, and rises 
 into a sphere of loftier adoration ; knowledge is 
 widened in its boundaries, and deepened in its foun- 
 dations ; experience is expanded and matured ; affec- 
 tion becomes more hallowed ; devotion more intense ; 
 faith more simple ; resignation more absolute ; zeal 
 is purified; holy purposes are corroborated and ex- 
 alted; and hope lifts up to heaven a calmer and a 
 steadier eye, instructed, chastened, humbled. No- 
 thing so fortifies us against the gloom of disappoint- 
 ment and the corrosions of anxiety. Nothing pre- 
 serves us so securely from the inflation of vanity, or 
 the seductions of pleasure. By no other cause can 
 we be rendered so superior to accident or failure; 
 by none so happily meetened for success. In this 
 spirit we can scarcely be deprived of all which it is 
 good for ourselves to realize, or which our faculties 
 and opportunities qualify us to impart to others. It 
 is the ally of every virtue, and the omen of all pros- 
 perity. If we would express, therefore, in a single 
 term, the secret of happiness, the fruit of wisdom, 
 the defence of purity, the fount of energy, and the 
 pledge and promise of the most abundant reward, 
 we would designate it, as our Lord has done 
 before us, and say, emphatically and distinctly 
 "Watch!"
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 433 
 
 The subjects and occasions for such watchfulness 
 are numberless: we can mention only two or three. 
 We should watch the ever-varying aspects of the 
 world, and of the church; the indications of that 
 spiritual agency with which we are on every hand 
 surrounded; the machinery and the directions of 
 providence ; the opportunities of usefulness, or the 
 prognostics of danger, they unceasingly present ; 
 the changes and progression of our own character, 
 especially the operation of our most secret motives ; 
 the effects of our ministry on others; and the 
 coming of the day of God. Our watchfulness should 
 extend to little things and casual circumstances, 
 to the sedulous improvement even of the fragments 
 of our time, to matters of taste, of habit, of ex- 
 pression, to the regulation of our temper, and to 
 the silent influence of our example. 
 
 Now this is the very spirit which the habits we 
 have been describing are, beyond all others, fitted 
 to sustain; and surely nothing is more requisite to 
 the due fulfilment of our ministry, than, under such 
 influence, to cultivate a steadfast contemplation of 
 the scenes which encompass us, and the consequences 
 to which we are advancing. We have but to catch 
 the inspirations, not of fancy, but of truth, to pierce 
 the shades that surround us, and look into the reality 
 they hide. Thus only shall we attain to that advan- 
 tage adverted to by the most eloquent of modern 
 preachers, himself an example of its sublimest 
 effects, who, speaking of the sober dignity and the 
 chaste severity everywhere exhibited by the sacred 
 writers, strikingly remarks : " The exquisite pro- 
 
 VOL. i. 3 i
 
 434 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 priety of their representations is chiefly to be ascribed 
 to their habitual seriousness ; and the latter, to their 
 seeing things as they are." 
 
 Ah, if we truly beheld all objects as they are, 
 what stimulus should we not derive from the impres- 
 sive spectacle! what energy and irresistible effect 
 would it not impart to all our exertions! We have 
 but to bring practically near what we familiarly 
 believe, to make our convictions the measure of our 
 solicitude; and we need no more. Let us but re- 
 flect deeply on the immortality of the beings amongst 
 whom we labour ; assure ourselves, in serious medi- 
 tation, of their swift passage to eternity; recall the 
 awful fact, that it is ours to fit them for its habita- 
 tions, and to conduct them forward to all which it 
 involves, that every individual amongst them bears 
 the impress of an importance greater than that of 
 empires, and a duration that shall outlast the globe, 
 that for every one we must render an account, 
 and receive a reward of satisfaction or of sorrow, 
 greater, perhaps, than either the felicity of seraphs 
 or the agony of fiends. We have but to remember 
 " The words which now I speak will be inscribed 
 in imperishable tablets. They will be as a spell to 
 blast, or a talisman of mercy to protect, those spirits 
 that are travelling beside me on to judgment. Though 
 now forgotten, they will be remembered through in- 
 numerable ages. I am charged with the custody of 
 interests that are everlasting; with the effectuation 
 of purposes framed before the formation of all things, 
 and sealed by the blood of the Lamb. The souls 
 of those who hear me are the very same that stood
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 435 
 
 present to the view of the Messiah, when he assumed 
 the office of his mediatorship, or drank the cup of 
 death. These are they that shall attest the triumphs 
 of his grace by their salvation, or by their ruin the 
 terrors of his justice, when the heavens depart as 
 a scroll, and all the glories of creation are wrapped 
 in midnight. I stand at this hour among them, the 
 messenger of bliss or woe; scattering around me 
 the elements of life or of perdition; to swell the 
 anthems of redemption, or the blasphemies of hell!" 
 Let us thus, I say, reflect; and nothing can im- 
 pede, much less forbid, our success. All that can 
 attract, and all that can impel, will be equally secure 
 of its effect. Hope and fear will urge us equally 
 forward. We shall proceed with an energy sus- 
 tained by every principle, and superior to every 
 disaster. All hinderance and opposition will but 
 excite our ardour. It will be, as when a warrior 
 rushes into the thickest of the field. A light and 
 adverse breeze may bear back the plume as it floats 
 upon his helmet, or his mantle as it streams upon 
 the wind; while it is all too feeble to arrest his 
 progress, or to change his course. So these oppos- 
 ing influences may add dignity to our purpose, and 
 grandeur to our mien; but to stay our advance, 
 though by a single step, will be beyond their power. 
 It will be, as if these earthly tabernacles should 
 fall and crumble before us,* or else, becoming 
 suddenly transparent, reveal the very spirits they 
 so darkly enshroud. Here, we shall see the impress 
 
 * Pointing evidently to the assembled audience. EDITOR.
 
 436 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 of renovating grace, there, the mysterious emblems 
 of perdition; the presages of glory here, there, 
 melancholy lineaments, faint and dimly to be per- 
 ceived, but which shall ere long deepen into the 
 aspect of despair, growing deadlier and more fixed 
 throughout eternity. A vital flame will thus be 
 lighted up within our bosom. A temper of mag- 
 nanimous charity will be imparted. And instead 
 of being crushed by the difficulties or impediments 
 of our employ, our aspirations will become more 
 elevated, and our resolution more unquenchable. 
 We shall be like David, when " he encouraged 
 himself in the Lord his God." We shall remember 
 that, though evil seems now triumphant, and the 
 reign of good hopelessly retarded, yet the date of 
 evil is fixed, that of good eternal; that while evil 
 is perpetually and by its own nature tending to 
 extinction, good is accumulative in its resources, 
 undecaying in its elements, boundless in its appli- 
 cations; that evil is confined to a limited and nar- 
 row sphere, but good pervades the universe; that 
 evil is of the creature, but good of the Creator; 
 that evil can act only by permission of omnipotence, 
 but good springs from its directest agency ; that evil 
 may be overruled for the promotion of good, but 
 never good to work out evil; and hence, while 
 " greater is he that is for us than all they that can 
 be against us," we shall feel the force of that inspir- 
 ing exhortation, even in its widest reference " Be 
 not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." 
 And why do we not thus think always? for let 
 us never forget such only are the dictates of sobriety,
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 43? 
 
 and such the reflections of wisdom. It is not that 
 whereon the hand can lay her grasp, or to which the 
 eye can direct her vision, that is substantial and en- 
 during, while all besides is delusive. These are the 
 phantoms and the shadows. The truth of all things 
 is beyond them, and invisible. It is hid, like those 
 fires above, which, though quenched by the glare of 
 day, are beheld in brightening beauty amidst the 
 shades of evening, and shine in all their grandeur 
 when every other object is unseen. 
 
 Let us gather up our reflections, then, and accus- 
 tom them to flow onward in this channel. Let us 
 learn to think upon no lower scale, to grasp and 
 make our own no feebler or meaner conceptions. 
 Men are perishing around us. They are as sheep 
 appointed to the slaughter. The angel of death is 
 behind them; and the precipice of ruin is before. 
 Onwards they rush, with headlong and fearful rapi- 
 dity. But we may stay their course. We may 
 avert their destruction. We have the promise and 
 the power of heaven to aid us. The Mediator is 
 pleading, and the Spirit of mercy waiting, to give 
 energy to our attempt. The decrees of God are 
 inscrutable, and his principles of action illimitably 
 above our knowledge. But his commands are plain. 
 And they bind us to the task of seeking their sal- 
 vation, as much as if we saw the mansions of glory 
 and of woe together opened, and had it at our option 
 to determine into which it should be their doom to 
 enter. Without a miracle, we know that some will 
 die if we refuse or hesitate. And by the help of 
 God's almighty influence, we know as surely that
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 we shall recover some at least from the pit, for 
 whom it might have been suspected that there was 
 found no ransom. Their destiny is suspended on 
 our faithfulness : their destruction will be charged 
 to our neglect. O let us resolve then strenuously 
 resolve that we will leave nothing unattempted 
 which may issue in the rescue of a soul. It is a 
 prize contested by both worlds ; a trophy either of 
 Satan or of God; and it is ours to mingle in this 
 mighty strife. If we are plighted, let us not fear; 
 for God is plighted too. So long as there remains 
 but one that seems not yet determinately claimed on 
 either side; let us never abandon the effort to seize 
 on that single soul, and to rear it from the dust 
 rejoicing at its new-found freedom, and lifting its 
 glance to heaven in speechless adoration of the 
 might of its deliverer. 
 
 On the strength and clearness of these sentiments 
 everv thing else is dependent ; and this must be my 
 apology for having pressed them at so great length 
 on your attention. Before their greatness all other 
 objects of ministerial ambition will have lost their 
 charm. All affectation and artifice will be displaced 
 by a dignified and earnest simplicity; all subtlety 
 of statement, by impassioned and urgent entreaty. 
 All pompous exaggerations, and glittering epithets, 
 and playful antitheses, and studied alliterations, will 
 be indiofnantlv discarded. Instead of dazzling, we 
 shall seek practically to enlighten. We shall speak 
 only to convince or to persuade. A noble plainness 
 will pervade our whole design. It will be enstamped 
 on our very attitude and manner. Its sincerity will
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 439 
 
 insure its acceptance. And by the single expedient 
 of forgetting ourselves in our object, all will be at- 
 tained. "By manifestation of the truth, we shall 
 commend ourselves to every man's conscience in 
 the sight of God." Methods will present themselves 
 unsought, adapted the most expressly to our use, 
 which no labour of invention would have led us to 
 discover. Arguments will be spontaneously sug- 
 gested, such as ingenuity would have failed to sup- 
 ply. Persuasion will dwell upon our lips, and pity 
 will melt in our glance, alike unforced and irre- 
 sistible. The sympathy of other breasts will be 
 awakened by the same energy which thus trans- 
 forms our own. We shall find ourselves supported 
 by unexpected reinforcements of conviction and de- 
 sire, on the part of those we strive to benefit. The 
 soul will be agitated through her utmost depths of 
 consciousness and feeling. Her strongest tenden- 
 cies, at war with each other, will partake with us in 
 the struggle ; while the elemental principle of a new 
 being diffuses itself through every faculty, and gives 
 vitality to every emotion. Thus, while our minis- 
 try assumes a decisiveness, a vigour, a boldness of 
 thought, a force of utterance which the arts of a 
 mere secular eloquence could never compass ; it will 
 flow in upon the heart in an undivided current, with 
 the energy of that power which "worketh all in all." 
 The noblest and the most efficacious character 
 of such a ministry, will be invariably found in the 
 directness of its reference to the Saviour. The very 
 name of JESUS will become unspeakably delight- 
 ful to our ear ; and we shall never utter it but with
 
 440 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 gratitude and love. No force will be required to 
 bring whatever we would illustrate beneath the light 
 and glory of his cross. When we would stimulate 
 inquiry, or impel to effort, no circuitous process will 
 conduct us to such inducements as are discoverable 
 only in his divine example or in the unmeasurable 
 grace of his salvation. The centre of all our affec- 
 tions, and the light of all our reason, we shall feel 
 ourselves incapable of passing beyond the sphere of 
 his attraction. His emanations of life and power 
 will rest continually on us. Fresh beams of un- 
 created splendour will stream from his presence on 
 every object we behold. New sensations of surprise 
 and pleasure will be enkindled by every truth we 
 contemplate, since it is part of that great system of 
 which he is at once the author and the end. Far 
 from being constrained by the mere conviction of 
 duty to resort to topics of this nature, we shall find 
 it impossible even to avoid them. An interdict on 
 their adoption would be felt, not more destructive 
 of the interest than of the satisfaction and power of 
 our whole ministry. They will be always at our 
 side, fitted for every use, and seeming as if parts 
 of our living frame inseparable from its execution. 
 Could we forget them, our right hand must forget 
 her cunning. They will be inwoven in every de- 
 monstration; they will glow in every appeal. 
 
 Another of its characteristics, scarcely less impor- 
 tant, will be our uncompromising fidelity ; whether 
 in the statement of doctrine, or in the enforcement 
 of obligation. Expecting to meet our people at the 
 bar of God, we shall spare no man's errors, respect
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 441 
 
 no man's prejudices, fear no man's indignation. 
 And, though we would willingly give none offence, 
 yet shall we reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all autho- 
 rity. Should our honest zeal excite their jealousy, 
 or alienate their esteem, we shall know how to com- 
 mit our cause to the arbitration of him who will 
 decree righteous judgment; remembering that it is 
 better to forfeit men's attachment, than to betray 
 their interest; and to endure even their pity, and 
 much more their anger, than be implicated in the 
 guilt of their destruction. Amidst their severest 
 censures, our conscience will secretly bear witness 
 that we are free from their blood. To their bitterest 
 revilings we shall answer in a meek and quiet spirit 
 "I can endure your reproach, but not your mis- 
 ery; and if forbidden to share your confidence or 
 to partake your friendship, I will not be denied the 
 privilege to long, and strive, and pray for your sal- 
 vation." 
 
 Another yet will be the absence of all self-indul- 
 gence^ not only in studious ease and literary trifling, 
 but in the selection of favourite themes, or methods 
 of discussion bearing the signature of our own pecu- 
 liarities, rather than of a manifest concern to benefit 
 our hearers. Under so strong and so exalted a 
 stimulus, we shall be free from the temptation to 
 prosecute what, though ingenious, or original, or 
 impressive, and fitted to display to advantage the 
 very qualities in which we most excel, would yet be 
 found unprofitable. And with the same integrity of 
 purpose, shall we study to escape that undue limita- 
 tion in the subjects of public discourse, which springs 
 
 VOL. i. 3 K
 
 442 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 too often from indolence or fear. Thus the very 
 prevalence of one commanding principle, acting ac- 
 cording to the diversity of occasions and of character, 
 will conduce to an inexhaustible variety, guiding us 
 unerringly to " declare the whole counsel of God." 
 
 The last that I shall mention will be tenderness, 
 a fraternal anxiety for the welfare of our people. 
 We shall enter into all their cares, partake the pres- 
 sure of all their perplexities, feel for the welfare of 
 their families, and watch, almost with a parent's 
 eagerness, over the principles and conduct of their 
 children. In their prosperity we shall find our 
 highest satisfaction; in their declension or incon- 
 stancy, our severest disappointment. Often shall 
 we bear their interests to the throne of grace. And 
 it may be, that when our hearts languish and our 
 tongues falter in pleading for ourselves, we shall 
 sometimes experience a happy freedom while we in- 
 tercede for them. We shall drink deep into the 
 spirit of our Lord, whose last prayer before the 
 period of his mortal agonies was offered, not for 
 himself, but for his followers; and whose ceaseless 
 occupation on high is still to prepare a place for 
 their reception, and to insure their safety, thus 
 expecting, in the completion of their happiness, the 
 fruit of his obedience and the fulness of his reward. 
 
 Such is the spirit which, when these sentiments 
 possess their due effect, will distinguish all our con- 
 duct ; such the union of zeal, and purity, and stead- 
 fastness, and patience, with which they will adorn 
 our character. Beyond it there is nothing left to 
 our attainment, nothing to our desire: and though
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 443 
 
 we may be far from arriving at the completeness of 
 its measure, we need not despair of enjoying, in the 
 exercise of faith and prayer, a large and increasing 
 share of its results. Keeping our hearts with all 
 diligence, instant in season and out of season in 
 our ministerial work, ruling our households in the 
 fear of God, studious in every act of life not to 
 impair but confirm the impression of our public 
 labours, mild, candid, forbearing even when called 
 to suffer injury or to endure neglect, generous in 
 our construction of other men's motives, and chari- 
 table to their failings in the same degree in which 
 we are intolerant of our own, too deeply in ear- 
 nest to be careful to maintain appearances, and too 
 visibly to be suspected of disguise, our hopes, our 
 aims, our ambition, all summed up in this, that we 
 may not be ashamed before our Master at his com- 
 ing; we shall add to all the other graces of the 
 pastoral character this union of sanctity and affec- 
 tion, and stand, like the high priest of other ages, 
 with these as the badges of our glory inscribed in 
 living symbols: upon our breast the names of all 
 the people, and on our forehead "Holiness unto the 
 Lord." 
 
 Persevering in this course, a nobler function awaits 
 us, and loftier forms of ministration, in the sanctuary 
 above. While this anointing rests upon us, we are 
 already invested with an earnest even of the joys 
 and honours of an eternal priesthood. We have not 
 all the emblems of our inauguration yet to be re- 
 ceived; nor all the ritual of that sublimer service 
 yet to be acquired. We know already the theme,
 
 444 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 the song, the sacrifice, and all but the felicity of 
 heaven. We stand at the gate, and shall ere long 
 enter it. Even now,, we may almost hear the ac- 
 clamations that swell triumphantly within. Sweet 
 momentary perfumes give faint relish of that fra- 
 grance, which is ever ascending from the altar, or 
 breathed around the throne. A light of more than 
 earthly beauty steals sometimes around us, and, as 
 its last ray flashes from the height of the inner 
 shrine, reveals from whence it came. The herald 
 will soon beckon us, and the summons welcome us 
 to advance. But what a scene will open when we 
 pass the threshold! Is it possible, that we, laden 
 with impurity, surrounded with infirmity and sor- 
 row, we, whose best efforts scarcely suffice to pre- 
 serve unextinguished for a single day the flame of 
 zeal and love, or to prolong through one sabbath of 
 rest the exercises of devotion, shall stand so soon 
 amidst the blaze of uncreated radiancy, and drink 
 in the plenitude of infinite delight ! 
 
 Yes, though the darkness of earth intercept our 
 view into those innermost recesses of the divine 
 abode; though the curtain of mortality divide us 
 from them, and a vapour, which shall melt so soon 
 and be no more, for a little while obscure their 
 brightness; they are near, intimately near. We 
 press closely upon them, and are almost within their 
 precincts. Let the mist dissolve, or rise, as soon 
 it shall, slowly and majestically from before us, 
 and they shall then be seen in all their glory, and 
 that awful cloud, that vails while it betokens the 
 majesty of the Creator, shedding its insufferable
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 445 
 
 splendours throughout the heavenly temple. Let 
 us learn, then, this purest, calmest, noblest exercise 
 of whatever can give peace to the believer, or seal 
 with an indelible consecration the minister of Jesus, 
 so every day to act, and think, and feel, as that 
 it would be a cause, not of amazement and dismay, 
 but of placid thankfulness, to be invited at any mo- 
 ment to pass within the barrier, and to partake in 
 the adorations of angels and of seraphim, lost in in- 
 effable contemplation, or rapt in the vision of God ! 
 I add no more. I have done. Receive my final 
 congratulations, and the warmest expressions of my 
 esteem and friendship. I exhort you only to the 
 cultivation of a firm and settled confidence, that the 
 results of your ministry shall be such as infinitely 
 to outweigh its toils and its disquietudes, and to 
 surpass not less your highest hopes and most joyous 
 aspirations. Go on, my brother, and prosper in 
 your course. May every day bear witness to your 
 steadfastness and your success! You are leagued 
 with all that is good, and pure, and blessed in the 
 universe. You can neither suffer the frustration of 
 your purpose, nor be defrauded of your recompense, 
 till the decrees of eternity shall be rescinded, or the 
 resources of omnipotence shall fail. Acting in the 
 spirit of your office, you bring, not mortal vigour, 
 nor the might of angelic intelligence, but the force 
 of redeeming love, to bear upon the issue. The 
 mansions of glory wait their fulness of fruition, and 
 the realms of darkness their last aggravations of 
 misery, together at your hands. It is an awful, 
 yet an illustrious and godlike enterprise. And the
 
 446 ORDINATION SERVICES. 
 
 temper in which it ought to be pursued, is that of 
 this most animating passage; counting all exertion 
 easy, and every grief and trouble lighter than vanity, 
 and rejoicing, as you travel on your course, in the 
 high and holy confidence that you shall finish it 
 with joy. 
 
 Your advancing prosperity has not been coldly 
 witnessed by your brethren ; nor failed to enkindle 
 complacency and heart-felt satisfaction, wherever it 
 is known. Believe me, I am not insensible to these 
 emotions. I feel it an honour and happiness, to 
 have participated with you in these impressive so- 
 lemnities. I shall ever rejoice to hear that you, 
 together with the people of your charge and the 
 subjects of your academic care, are preserved in 
 harmony, purity, and active usefulness; that "the 
 Lord is among you, as in Sinai in the holy place ;" 
 that the shelter of his pavilion is around you, and 
 the shout of a king in the midst. 
 
 May the invincible energy of his truth be felt in 
 all your ministrations ! May the might of his salva- 
 tion attend on all your steps ! And thus may many 
 souls be gathered around the cross of Jesus, who 
 shall grace his final triumph, and many a scene be 
 witnessed which shall excite to loudest thanksgiving 
 in the worlds above! 
 
 And at last, may you die like Stephen, saying 
 " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," and calmly fall 
 asleep ! May you lean your head in death upon his 
 breast, and feel yourself upborne in the very arms 
 of the great Shepherd! May you yield up your 
 labours and your life together into the hands that
 
 ORDINATION SERVICES. 44? 
 
 were nailed for you to the cross, and now wait to 
 invest you with the crown. May the voice of hea- 
 venly welcome fall softly on your ear, before that 
 of earthly tenderness is silent ; while kisses of 
 immortal love and the tear of mortal anguish are 
 mingling together on your cheek. May you breathe 
 the air of paradise, before you have wholly passed 
 the confines of the wilderness, and find yourself, 
 while sinking in utter weakness, rising into unde- 
 caying vigour! In death may it be given you to 
 live, as you have sought in life to die! Standing 
 as shall that mighty angel on the land and on the 
 sea, who shall raise his hand and swear that time 
 shall be no longer, may it be yours to feel yourself, 
 for one short blissful moment, secure and happy 
 alike in earth and heaven ! Then, lifting your last 
 step from the wave, having passed the stream of 
 death, you shall linger and look wonderingly back 
 on its dark waters, now gilded with the light of 
 immortality, and rippling peacefully on the eternal 
 shore. 
 
 Whole centuries of toil and grief are not worthy 
 to be compared with such a glory ; and every suffer- 
 ing of this present time may well be called a " light 
 affliction which is but for a moment." How immea- 
 surably shall that moment surpass and recompense 
 it, though it were protracted through the duration 
 of ages! This is a joy which angels know not; 
 which we must die to know. 
 
 END OF VOLUME FIRST.
 
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