happen to be dealing with. We have an example of this innocent and salutary accommodation, in Paul: Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ) that I might gain them that are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I became all things. to all men, that I might by all means gain some.

It is a great thing to know how to present truth, so that it shall be most effectual in its office of sanctification. It requires a deep insight into man, in all his states, of sin and ignorance, of interest, prejudice and passion, and in all his stages of culture and refinement. It requires accurate acquaintance with the laws of mental and moral action; and great shrewdness in adapting the message to the mass to be moved, and the end to be gained. Ministers are wanted who are skilled in this knowledge of men and this facility of adjustment to varying characters and circumstances.

Ministers are too much inclined to prosecute one undeviating method of doing things. This is well within certain limits. But it is carried too far. It goes often into the business of preaching, and imparts dulness to the efforts for winning souls to Christ. The sermons are sound, full of thought, replete with instruction, all adjusted in logical order, and with rhetorical skill. Every part is placed as the book directs, and the whole is constructed with the accuracy of the square and compass. When completed, they are elaborate and noble sermons; but when delivered, somehow or other, they fail in doing Christ's work on the souls of men. The difficulty is not, that it is a written sermon. A written sermon may be charged high with feeling and power; every sentence may be an arrow with barbed and sharpened point. The difficulty is, that it is not adapted to the souls that hear it; it is not adjusted so as to meet the responses of nature and conscience, in the breasts of the audience. It falls upon the ear, but finds no passage to the heart. On this point much remains to be learned. As yet, but little is known about it. We want men who will study the matter and not leave it, till they learn the style of thought and address, of illustration and language, which will go most directly into plain men's bosoms; and who, when they learn, will condescend to use it. True, it will cost the sacrifice of some scholarly notions, the VOL. IX. No. 25.

10

yielding of some stately words, and well turned periods; the withering of some flowers, and the defacing of some beauties. It may even cost, in some respects, rebellion against the authority of rule and the despotism of books. But preachers must do it, if they would do good to the population, that is now taking its turn to live on this globe. We are not pleading for a wild and ranting eccentricity, nor for a debasing of truth by vulgar admixtures; but for a sound, well disciplined common sense, to guide in the establishing of its positions, and in the pressure of its appeals. Men, at the present day, will not be converted by philosophy, nor by fine writing, nor by graceful speaking. These are good in their place; but the gospel, thrown into a living form of pungency and power, is better than the whole of them. Ministers must take the naked gospel, and go forth, and preach Jesus Christ, the atonement, and eternity to busy men, with the same tact and earnestness with which these men preach the world in the heat of a bargain.

Let there then be more fervent men raised up among us; not shallow, noisy men; but deep as well as rapid, men of light as well as heat, of vigorous logic, as well as glowing passion.

Eloquence," said one who is a practitioner in the matter, "is logic set on fire." This is what is wanted to melt and burn away, the empire of Satan. We want both the logic and the fire; strong, intense, ready men, who can make a sermon at any time, any where, any how; who have knowledge, and can use it; who have souls, and can throw them out, and throw out with them truth, in heavy and glowing masses, in just such order and shape as will come with most power to the souls that are in the way of it. Said Rowland Hill to his Welsh curate, "never mind breaking grammar, if you can only break hearts." We do not advocate a propensity to blunder; accuracy is far better; but there is much good sense in this direction. It means that ministers must risk something, if they would ever be any thing, or ever do anything. After they have piled up their shining stores of knowledge, and they cannot pile them too high, let them impregnate the mass with the fires of holy passion, throw away the shackles of a timorous and benumbing restraint, in faith and prayer commit themselves to God, go forth and do good as circumstances require, and as fast as they can.

But whilst ministers are wanted who, in some respects, are pliable and yielding, who have the tact of a ready adaptation to men and circumstances; in other respects, they should be un

bending. Never more than now were demanded those, who in all essential points, on all fundamental questions of doctrine and practice, are immovable, uncompromising. It is admitted, that the apostles were of this character. They obeyed God rather than man. It is admitted also that the circumstances amid which they stood, the work to which they were committed, required these robust properties. What obstacles they had to meet; what idolatries to breast; what sins to encounter; venerable sins, legalized sins, religious sins; and all the power, learning, and influence of society, went to defend and uphold these sins, and to crush the intruders who dared to question their propriety. And what could they have done against such powers and perils, without those fixed, intense, and inflexible attributes of character, which they manifested, and which sustained them up to the hour of their victory, and their reward in heaven. The reformers were such men, Wiclif, Luther, Calvin and Knox. The puritans were such men; in matters of principle, rigid, indomitable, who would not swerve a hair to keep their heads. In all ages of the church they have been such men, who have made any signal encroachments upon the empire of sin. It has been done only by bold assault and uncompromising conflict.

Our position is, that the same rigorous elements of character are now demanded in those who are expected to lead the way in the warfare against sin; our proof is, that the enterprise to be achieved stands undiminished in its difficulties, and in certain respects, in its sacrifices and its perils. We are sensible that it is a favorite notion with some, that the world has grown better by being let alone; that opposition to holiness is subsiding, false religions are crumbling and falling by the weight of their own absurdities; in short, that every thing is getting ready for an easy and unresisted subjugation of it to the reign of God. Pleasing and amiable dreams; but very far from the fact.

It is more probable that there has been an augmentation of the hindrances, if not of the dangers, by these centuries of delay. We are constrained to believe that sins have become more extended, and more firmly intrenched, by the long and quiet sufferance of them; that the intellect of Satan, the author and finisher of all unbelief and mischief to our world, like all other created intellects, has increased in compass and strength by time and exercise; of course, that his six thousand years of labor and practice, in the work of temptation and death, have rear

ed him to the might and stature of a terrible opponent to the cause of truth and God. How plain, then, that men of an undaunted spirit are wanted for such a conflict; men who will plant themselves on principle and stay there till they die; men who will maintain an inflexible adherence to, and uncompromising utterance of the whole gospel, though it cost them their characters, their places, or their heads. Here is the point which has ever made and ever will make the greatest resistance and trouble; it is simply the holding to, and the preaching of the whole gospel. A part of the gospel is a very gentle and innocent thing. Carry it any where almost, and it will be well received. Go with the gospel to China, and make a few exceptions, and even the China man will bow assent. Make a few concessions to the Mussulman, and the Mussulman will say, very good." Make a bow to the American, and the American will respond, "I will be a Christian, sir."

66

The truth is in respect to every unregenerate man on the face of the globe, there is a particular spot where the gospel, when brought snugly in contact, pinches and galls him most grievously; there is a particular point, where it comes most offensively across his track; and at this point, is the whole of his quarrel with God's revelations; at this point are marshalled all his passions and all his prejudices, and all his bitterness, and they boil and burn together. But just give up this point and he will be as quiet as a lamb. Peace may be obtained in this way, but no increase of purity, no extension of the kingdom of Christ. The world will be made christian, only by an inflexible maintenance, of all that, upon which God in the gospel insists, until the controversy is ended by the submission of the rebel. For this work may God raise up men, of a meek and prudent, at the same time of a bold, unblenching spirit, who will dare to assail idolatry in its most firmly intrenched lodgements; who will venture to rebuke and impugn sin in its most imposing strength and extension, in its refinement of aspect, respectableness of standing, and prescriptiveness of claim; in its alliance with wealth and learning, influence and interest.

We might here conclude and sum up all the qualifications of heart and intellect which have been named, in the single declaration, that the times demand a ministry thoroughly pervaded and imbued with the light and spirit of the Bible. This sentiment is presented in a clear and impressive attitude in the work before us. "The preacher in the pulpit," says Dr. Cox,

"and the pastor out of it, and the minister of Christ every where, should be the living personification of the whole contents of the inspired volume." Then indeed he will be a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. Drawing so bountifully from the divine source, he will be vigorously equipped for every difficult enterprise, "thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Intimate and commingling fellowship with the word of God will foster a profound and glowing piety, will give acuteness and compass and practicalness to the intellect, will compact and rear up a resoluteness of spirit for the trying emergencies of duty. There lie the models to be studied and copied; there sleep the spirits to be resuscitated and brought back in renewed life and power upon the world. The world needs the like again. There are wanted as defenders of the faith, such men as John in greatness of conception, simplicity of utterance, in fidelity and mildness of spirit. Reprovers of high-handed wickedness like Peter; aggressors on the empire of pollution and death, like Paul, are wanted to impart a quicker predominance to the principles of purity and life. From no where else can they arise but from the Bible. They must be begotten and educated by the word of God. They sprang out of that book in the sixteenth century the men that shook heaven, earth, and hell. Luther, Calvin, Zuingle were made by the Bible. The history of the church assures us, that just in proportion as the ministers and messengers of God have become incorporate in soul and spirit, thought and feeling, with the Bible, they have moved upon the world in renovating energy, and scattered, widely on their track, the gifts and blessings of redemption.

Never more than now, was there wanted a ministry, formed on the model, equipped in the armor, and imbued with the spirit and the power of the Bible. The rankness and rifeness of an organized infidelity, the numberless attitudes and aspects of beguiling error, the chilling and depressing influence of an almost unlimited worldliness, call for an energetic administration of the pure word of God. They must be men for this work who understand this word both experimentally and critically, who, like Edwards, have both their intellectual and spiritual being in the Bible; who love to range in that element of vigor, and dwell in that world of light and wonders. The Bible must be their field, their treasure, their habitation, their food, their atmosphere, their light and life. Wherever they go they will be strong and efficacious ministers. Let them be multiplied and