however gratifying to ourselves, would be hardly tolerated by the equitable laws of copy right, even if it were not rendered unnecessary by the extensive circulation which the pamphlet has already obtained. To enter into any critical discussion would be a waste of time. It is sufficient to say that it is every way worthy of its distinguished author; displaying all his characteristic liberality of temper, refined discrimination, tender feeling, and impassioned eloquence. For a Churchman to be so praised by a Dissenter, may well fill both parties with honest exultation.

In the first portion of the speech, Mr. H. after adverting to the prominent part taken by Mr. Robinson, in the formation of the Leicester Auxiliary Bible Society, and his anxious. wishes for its prosperity, draws an animated picture of the great and various benefits conferred by him, during a long course of years, on his fellow townsmen-his unwearied solicitude in promoting every institution designed for their temporal and spiritual welfare, and his faithful discharge of the clerical duties. We have never met with a finer description of what ought to be the effects which the Christian minister should aim to produce, than in the following passage.

It is not necessary to recal to your recollection the talents of Mr. Robinson as a public instructor; you have most, if not all of you, witnessed his pulpit exertions, on that spot where he was accustomed to retain a listening throng hanging upon his lips, awed, penetrated, delighted, and instructed by his manly, unaffected eloquence. Who ever heard him without feeling a persuasion that it was the man of God who addressed him; or without being struck with the perspicuity of his statement, the solidity of his thoughts, and the rich unction of his spirit? It was the harp of David, which, struck with his powerful hands, sent forth more than mortal sounds; and produced an impression far more deep and permanent than the thunder of Demosthenes, or the splendid conflagrations of Cicero.

The hearers of Mr. Robinson were too much occupied by the subjects he presented to their attention to waste a thought on the speaker; this occupied a second place in the order of their reflections; but when it did occur, it assumed the character, not of superficial admiration, but of profound attachment. Their feelings towards him were not those of persons gratified, but benefited; and they listened to his instructions, not as a source of amusement, but as a spring of living water. There never was a settled pastor, probably, who had formed a juster conception of the true end of preaching, who pursued it more steadily, or attained it to a greater extent. He preached immortal truth with a most extraordinary simplicity, perspicuity, and energy, in a style adapted to all capacities, equally removed from vulgarity and affected refinement; and the tribute paid to his exertions consisted not in loud applauses; it was of a higher order; it consisted of penitential sighs, holy resolutions, of a deter

mination of the whole soul for God, and such impressions on the spirits of men as will form the line of separation betwixt the happy and the miserable to all eternity." pp. 7, 8.

To be the instrument of doing good, so pure in its nature, and on so extensive a scale, is a distinction which few individuals are privileged to enjoy.

It was the boast of Augustus, that he found the city of Rome composed of brick, and left it marble. Mr. Robinson might say without arrogance, that he had been the instrument of effecting a far more beneficial and momentous change. He came to this place while it was sunk in vice and irreligion; he left it eminently distinguished by sobriety of manners and the practice of warm, serious, and enlightened piety. He added not aqueducts and palaces, nor .did he increase the splendour of its public edifices; but he embellished it with undecaying ornaments; he renovated the minds of the people, and turned a large portion of them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. He embellished it with living stones, and replenished it with numerous temples of the Holy Ghost. He extended its intercourse with Heaven, and prepared a numerous class of its inhabitants for the enjoyment of celestial bliss. Of the number of those who will devoutly acknowledge him as their spiritual father at the day of final audit, that day only can determine.' pp. 9, 10.

His personal influence appears to have been singularly great. It is possible some men may have extended their influence to a wider circle, and moved in a more extended sphere. But where influence is diffused beyond a certain limit, it becomes attenuated in proportion to its diffusion; it operates with an energy less intense. Mr. Robinson completely filled as large a sphere of personal agency as is, perhaps, possible to an individual. He left no part of it unoccupied, no interstices unsupplied, and spread himself through it with an energy, in which there was nothing irregular, nothing defective, nothing redundant.

Our deceased friend was eminently distinguished by a steady uniformity of conduct. While he appeared to multiply himself by the extent and variety of his exertions, the principles upon which they were conducted, the objects they were destined to promote, were invariably the same. He was not active at intervals, and at other times torpid and inert; he did not appear the public nan at one time, and at another absorbed in selfish pursuits; his efforts to do good in season and out of season were constant, and his course knew no other variety than that of the shining light, which shineth... more and more unto the perfect day. His goodness, founded on principle, and corroborated by habit, operated with the steadiness of a law of nature, the beneficial results of which can never be sufficiently appreciated till they are suspended. They who contemplated Mr. Robinson at the distance of forty years, viewed him with the same emotions which he excited at a more advanced age, moderated, however, and chastised, by the apprehension, that it was possible VOL. X.

PP

some unexpected temptation might occur to divert him from his career: we have seen it completed, we have witnessed his perseverance and his conquest, and have seen his virtues and his fame placed under the safeguard and seal of death and immortality.

6

Though he had reached that period of life which constitutes old age, it was a cruda viridisque senectus. His age had impaired little or nothing of his vigour; its chief effect was that of imparting additional dignity to his countenance, and weight to his character. He fell like a noble tree, after two or three strokes, with all his sap and verdure, with extended boughs and rich foliage, while thousands were reposing under his shadow and partaking of his fruits. Seldom has death gained a richer spoil than in the extinction of the earthly existence of this admirable man.' pp. 13-15.

To this account of his beneficial labours, succeeds an admirable portraiture of the leading features of his character.

The predominant property of his mind, intellectually considered, appeared to me to be a strong and masculine understanding, copious in its resources, versatile in its operations, and eminently prompt in its decisions. He saw with a rapid glance the different bearings of subject, and the proper measures to be adopted in the most intricate concerns. He possessed good sense in an exquisite degree, rarely, if ever, misled by the illusions of imagination, either in himself or others. To this was united a warmth and vivacity of temperament, which made business his delight, action his element, accompanied with a resolution in his pursuits not to be relaxed by fatigue, nor damped by discouragements, nor retarded by difficulties. To resolve and to execute, or at least to make a vigorous attempt, were with him the same thing.' pp. 15, 16.

The foundation of all these virtues was laid in Christian piety.It was this which formed the basis of his character, and directed and regulated his pursuits. His piety was warm, manly, enlightened; at an equal distance from the moroseness of bigotry, the weakness of superstition, and the intemperate sallies of enthusiasm. His character is a practical illustration of the efficacy of the Bible, of which he was a humble and diligent student, whence he deduced his principles and formed his maxims. Religion with him was not an occasional feeling, but an habitual element; not a sudden or transient impulse, but a permanent principle, a second nature, producing purity of intention, elevation of mind, and an uninterrupted series of useful exertions.' pp. 17, 18.

The following passage, which speaks of his sudden death, is, we think, deeply affecting. The fine thought which describes the mind, on being overtaken by unexpected calamity, as scarcely believing to be possible what it knows to be certain, is one of those vivid exhibitions of familiar truths in which our author so peculiarly excels.

We knew the precarious tenure by which we possessed him, in common with all other blessings; we knew he was mortal, but notwithstanding we received repeated warnings by a succession of at

tacks, few had sufficient fortitude steadily to realize the approaching event. When the intelligence was circulated through the town, "Mr. Robinson is dead," " Mr. Robinson is dead," it was a thunder-clap; it produced a sensation of dismay and astonishment, as though we scarcely believed to be possible, what we knew to be certain; and such an air of desolation and sorrow was impressed upon the countenance of the inhabitants, that a stranger must have perceived they had sustained no ordinary calamity. It was such as no event could have produced, but the removal of a saint and a prophet. Whoever wishes to learn how much piety dignifies a character, how much sainted worth, in its power over the heart, preponderates over every other species of eminence, let him turn to this scene, and compare the tears of a populous neighbourhood with the unmeaning decorations of funereal grandeur. None spoke of his virtues, none was eloquent in his praise; every heart was oppressed with a sense of its loss. pp. 19, 20.

The concluding reflections of the address are in the highest degree appropriate and impressive. We put a restraint on ourselves in transcribing only the last.

• The life and ministry of this great man of God affords a demonstration of the futility of the clamour which is raised against the doctrine of salvation by grace, through faith; as though it tended to relax the obligations to virtue, and to annul the commands of God. Who ever insisted on this doctrine more constantly, or urged its importance more earnestly than he? and where amongst its opponents shall we discover indications of similar usefulness? Through a period of more than forty years he employed himself in beating down the arrogance of a self-justifying spirit, in evincing the impossibility of being accepted on the footing of our own works, and in directing men of every description to seek for pardon in the blood of If there were any one topic on which he delighted to dwell more than others, this was unquestionably the topic.

the cross.

To his manly and unsophisticated understanding it was evident to a demonstration, that repentance must be grafted on humility, and that there was no room to apprehend his hearers would be tempted to contemn the authority, in consequence of being abased before the majesty of God. He was also perfectly convinced that the blood of Christ, sprinkled by faith, was the only effectual balm for afflicted consciences. On these principles he conducted his ministry for near half a century, and we may challenge his enemies (if there be any remaining) to deny that its fruits were most salutary. If the apostolic doctrine, which affirms that we are justified by faith without the deeds of the law, possess the tendency to licentiousness which its opponents ascribe to it, that tendency could not have failed to operate under a course of instruction so long continued, and of which the tenet in question formed so distinguishing a fea ture.' pp. 21-23.

Shall we be forgiven if, in closing this imperfect notice, we blend our acknowledgements with regret? We are well

aware of the sacred claims of the pastoral office; we know, too, how much of the foregoing representation of ministerial and personal worth; is applicable to the incomparable individual who delineates it; and have not to learn that he, too, as well as his deceased friend, would willingly sacrifice the honours of literary eminence to the sublimer purpose of doing good. But among the various instruments of accomplishing this purpose, is not the press too little regarded? It is impossible not to recollect that, while of all human distinctions, that of the orator is, perhaps, the greatest, still it is of a nature peculiarly fleeting and evanescent-exhausting its immensity of force in a comparatively limited sphere, and trusting the record of its greatness to tradition., The press, on the other hand, has an influence extensive as it is per-. manent: and it is surely to he lamented, that it is so seldom put in requisition by a writer who unites all that is excellent in sentiment with all that is captivating in manner.

The reader will already have anticipated us in remarking the occasion which has called forth this beautiful effusion of manly feeling and Christian kindness. It is one more illustration of the natural tendency of the British and Foreign Bible Society to unite the hearts of good men in the bonds of charity; to give them a common feeling in their first and best interests; and to place their unimportant differences in their true light and just subordination. We do not mean to say that such views and feelings are created in minds where they do not previously exist; but it is not the smallest praise of this admirable institution that it serves to bring them into prompt and vigorous exercise. We think its friends must be highly gratified to reflect, that, while malice and cunning are endeavouring to give currency to the most absurd misrepresentations of its objects and constitution,-they can point to such an exemplification of its true spirit and temper as the present address.