Every Thing Subservient to the Pulpit

It is of great importance to the wise and successful prosecution of any object of pursuit, that it be made the great and absorbing object; — that the mind be perseveringly directed to it, unobstructed by other pursuits, undivided by an inferior impulse. A divided heart, and a divided intellect are but cumbrous obstacles in the career of usefulness; the object must be single, and steadily pursued, in defiance of difficulties and dangers, be they imaginary, or real.

In the selection of his object, every man is under obligations to make choice of one that is worthy, and that God approves; else, if he be a good man, it will be impossible for him to pursue it with a tranquil conscience, and with hearty good will. But when once lie has selected it, it should be the object of his life, and the accomplishment of it the fulfilment of his joy.

This is the only true principle of success in any department of labor; it is the great principle acted upon by men who attain any thing like eminence. They select their object; — for the most part they select it in early life, and pursue it with unshaken resolution and firmness.

Now this is what we urge upon every minister of the Gospel. His vocation is selected, and his great object is to fulfil the ministry which he has received of the Lord Jesus. But there are different departments of labor in this comprehensive profession, some one of which is very apt to have the pre-eminence in his own thoughts and purposes. If we have presented just views of this great Christian institution, and have not given an undue estimate of the power of the pulpit; we have no embarrassment in asserting, that the great object of every minister of the Gospel ought to be to give the services of the pulpit the p’e-eminence over every other de-partment of ministerial labor. He may be tempted to make them a secondary concern, and though very far from subjecting himself to the reproach of clerical indolence, direct his most vigorous efforts to other departments of labor.

It were the wiser part for most ministers to come to the conclusion seasonably, that they may scarcely hope to excel in every depart’ ment. If their great object is to be finished and accomplisliod scholars, it is one which may easily bo attained, — much more easily than to be linished and accom])lished preachers; but it is only by making it the great object; any thing- short of this, will at best assign them a secondary rank among literary and scientific men. They may be good scholars, and men of highly respectable attainments in all the departments of human learning; and in those departments more immediately allied to the exposition of the sacred Scriptures, they not only may, but ought to be eminent; but if they aim at more than this, the pulpit must be a subordinate o])ject. They may Iiim at authorship; they may enrich the periodical publications of the age with dissertation upon dissertation, and review upon review, and on subjects which have very little relation to the work of a Christian minister; and though they may do good service to the Church and the world, it is at the expense of the pulpit. The press ought not to be the great object of a Christian minister, except as he makes use of it to diffuse the instructions of the sanctuary. The best and most important publications issued from the press by the stated preachers of the Gospel, both on the Continent of Europe, in the British islands, and in our land, are those which were first prepared and preached to their own people. The published works of

Chillingworth, Charnock, Home, Butler, Pascal, Fenelon, Saurin, Massillon, Robert Hall, Chalmers, Edwards, Davies, Emmons, and Dwight, were selected from the choicest discourses they delivered to the people of their own charge, and were the cream of the pulpit.

Let every minister of the Gospel, therefore, select his object, and let that object be to give the services of the pulpit the first and paramount claim. Every young man, when he enters the ministry, ought humbly, and with a grateful and encouraged dependence on God, to aim at this important end, patiently, and with a strong and undivided purpose. No matter what the temptations to do otherwise, nor what the labor, nor what the temporary mortification; let him be assured of this one thing, that it is only by so doing that he will best accomplish the great end of his solemn and delightful vocation, accomplish most for God and the souls of men, possess an approving conscience, and finish his course with joy.

These thoughts suggest the general observation on which we propose to offer some more extended illustrations. The observation is this: that every thing with which a minister of the Gospel is concerned, ought to he made subservient to the pulpit. Wherever he is; whatever he does, suffers and enjoys; whatever he sees.

hears, or understands — every thing should have but this single aim.

We often have occasion to refer to the remark of the Saviour, that “the men of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.” The most accomplished and successful in other departments of professional life are in no one particular more worthy of imitation by the Christian ministry, than the pains-taking to which they subject themselves in order to render every thing subservient to their professional duties and character. They have but one object, and to that every thing gives way, and becomes subordinate.

This is what we solicit for the pulpit, and from those who occupy it. The fruits of their observation ought to be consecrated to the service of the sanctuary. Ministers form a part of this great and busy world. There are men and things everywhere about them, both in the sensitive and intellectual creation; there are facts with which they are conversant, every one of which may suggest some appropriate instruction for the pulpit. To observe them, and thus to employ them, ought to be the aim of the preacher; and even if he is curious in observing them, and inquisitive in searching into them, they may be turned to good account for the souls of men. The heavens and the earth, the clouds, the rain, the vapor, the day, the night, the flowers of the field, the crowded city and peaceful hamlet, read affecting lessons to those who are the appointed teachers of their fellow-men. Everv individual with whom the preacher associates; every place, every pastoral visit, every chamber of sickness, every house of mourning and every house of feasting; every old man and every youth, every parent and every child may teach Mm something which may the better enable him to instruct them. Every pursuit of men, every relation in human life, every change in human affairs; every pestilence, every season of mercy and every startling judgment; every changing period in the life of man, every moral and intellectual revolution; every change either in the strategy or the tactics of the great spiritual Enemy of mankind; and every marked event in the Divine Providence, ought to be made subservient to the pulpit. There every thing should be made to speak, as God would have it speak; should utter his voice and enforce his claims; should proclaim that “he is the Lord in the midst of the earth,” and call upon high and low, rich and poor together, to “kiss the Son lest he be angry, and they perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little.”

More especially are these remarks applicable to every minister’s intellectual attainments.

Men there are of enl;iro;ed views, men not only of sound and tlioioii<i;li theological training, but men of literature and science, and of extensive and growing research; who, through lack of consideration, or of competent views of the great work of the ministry, or of spirituality of mind, render the services of the pulpit very little the better for all their attainments. There are not a few examples of such men among the living; nor are examples wanting among the illustrious dead, of those who possessed great literary and scientific attainments, but were far from being so able ministers of the New Testament as others of fewer attainments. Isaac Banin was far inferior to John Newton as a preacher, though so much his superior in human learning. Ezra Stiles, the venerable President of Yale College, though the most learned man of his age, was far inferior in the pulpit to his distinguished contemporary, Joseph Bellamy. The late Samuel Stanhope Smith, the accomplished President of Nassau Hall, eminent as he was in the pulpit, may scarcely be compared with one of his predecessors, Samuel Davies, as an effective preacher of the Gospel, though the former was confessedly the more erudite scholar. This is an unhappiness; it is at least an oversight; it may deserve a harder name. Such ministers are not so successful in “winning souls” as many of their less learned and humble brethren who lay their little stock of knowledge, under constant contribution to the all-absorbing duties of the sanctuary. The reason why the more learned men in the ministry are not always the richest blessings to the Church, and the highest luminaries in the world, is, that they so depreciate the importance of the pulpit.

If a minister of the Gospel knows more than he makes use of for the cause of his Divine Master, he knows too much. Yet he cannot know too much if his attainments are wisely and devoutly employed. They ought to be of a high order; but they should be sanctified attainments, consecrated to God, and so employed as to promote the great object of preaching. They are of little worth unless they give him additional facilities of illustrating and enforcing God’s truth; additional facilities of access to the heart and conscience, and make him a better man and better minister. This is the class of preachers which are so much needed by the Church of God in the present age of the world; and they are formed, not by human learning merely, but by this subserviency of all human, attainments to the great object of preaching the Gospel.

Human learning is not more the handmaid of Christianity, than the natural ally of the pulpit. It may be made subservient to the pulpit

■witlioiil preacliiiig learnedly. A discourse that is truly and strictly learned, is rarely called for: while the simplest and plainest exhibition of God’s truth, other things being equal, is very apt to be exhibited in the best way from learned lips. It is a beautiful remark of the great Usher, “It will take all our learning to make things plain,” The true value of human learning in a minister of Christ depends upon the character of the minister himself. The biographer of that eminently godly man, John Brown, of Haddington, who had few superiors in classical, oriental, and theological lore, remarks that, “he never showed his learning in the pulpit, except by bringing down the great truths of God to the level of common capacities.” In a brief auto-biography, Mr. Brown says of himself, “Notwithstanding all my eager hunting after all the lawful learning that is known among the sons of men, God hath made me generally to preach as if I had never read any other book but the Bible.” There have been distinguished preachers like John Bunyan, and Paul Couch, of New England memory, who had very little learning save what they drew from the Divine Oracles in their mother tongue; but they were men of no ordinary intellect and piety, and peculiar fitness for their work. Here and there God raises up such men, that “no flesh should glory in his presence.” He has given them personal qualifications which, in some instances, are of more value than all human learning, and which no human learning can give. Such men form exceptions to the general law of his Providence. It is far from the intention of the preceding remarks to discourage the vigorous prosecution of learning in a preacher of righteousness. Those there ought to be among this large class of men, who are not only able to give a Christian literature to the world, but who, from the eminence and the opportunities they enjoy, as the professed teachers of theological science, are under obligation to give an elevated and right direction to the minds, even of severely studious pastors. We gratefully acknowledge our obligations to such teachers; their names are an ornament to the American Church; they have not toiled in the field of Biblical knowledge and sacred geography in vain; and we fondly hope that the sheaves they have gathered are but the first-fruits of still more luxuriant harvests. No matter how extended the researches of the pastors of the churches, so long as their attainments subserve the great object of preaching the Gospel. The limit imposed upon them must be imposed by an honest conscience, and with an eye single “to the glory of God in the salvation of men. If the preacher, himself be a true-hearted man, this great object will imi)ose the riiilit limit. The work itself in which he is employed, cannot be magnified beyond its intrinsic greatness. It is directly allied to that Gospel to which all things are subservient, both “of things in heaven, and things that are on the earth,” to that Saviour “for whom are all things, and by whom are all things,” and whose triumphs involve the “subjection of all things under his feet.” Never is the human intellect, in all the extent and minuteness of its researches, so honored as when its brightest thoughts blend and mingle, with tlic pure rays of God’s truth. Whether it expand itself over the vast extent of human inquiry, or penetrate into deep caverns, or soar to the loftier firmament of thought, never is it more profitably or delightfully employed, than when the pulpit makes it subservient to the exalted Saviour. Philosophy and sound thinking; chronology, history, and biography; science and the arts; poetry, music, and painting; the languages and characters of men both among the living and the dead, are then in their true

place, when they are made to serve and honor Jesus Christ. Cultivated and accomplished habits, embellished and forcible diction, every resource and every acquisition the preacher can command; have their highest adornment and greatest practical utility when they are made tributary to the cross of Jesus.

To a much greater extent than is sometimes supposed may the intellectual attainments and general information of the preacher exert this propitious influence upon the services of the pulpit. Every hook he reads may furnish some aliment for the pulpit, because it may furnish some illustration of God’s truth. But to secure this end requires thought, and prayer, and pains. When he takes a book in his hand, or even an inconsiderable pamphlet, let him inquire. What is there in these pages that may he turned to good account in the service of my Divine Master? He may find a single fact only, a single character, or a single date, or it may be a single thought, which he may break up into many thoughts, and profitably spread over a wider surface. He may find matter for a series of discourses, in some prolific thought that is contained within three lines of the author he is reading. Original authors, like Bishop Butler, Dr. Samuel Clarke, and Dr. Nathaniel Emmons, if he know how to make a wise use of them, will not only furnish him with thoughts, but give him the power to think, and to strike out trains or associations of thought that are new to his own mind.

It is one of the most mistaken notions in the world for a preacher of the Gospel to lay himself under a sort of devout interdict from an acquaintance with the teachers of error. His

222 THE POWr.R OF THE PULPIT.

business is to become acqiminted with all sorts of error; more especially will he find great advantaije in cultivating a familiarity with the published works of the great champions of error. I would not like to be ignorant of the writings of those great masters of infidelity, Hume and Bolingbroke, Voltaire and Herbert; nor of the philosophic views of Price, nor of the researches of Priestley, on the great question of the Saviour’s character; nor of the able and subtle discourses of John Taylor, of Norwich, and Whitby; nor of the works of Hartley, Chauncey, and Winchester. Modern infidels. Unitarians, Arminians, and Universalists, have done little more than repeat the thoughts of these original thinkers. There is a class of ministers wdio never preach truth so clearly and forcibly as w hen they have been reading error; there is so much that is antagonistic in their temperament, that they are never better qualified to urge the more positive claims of God’s truth, than when they come dis2:usted and sickened from their interviews w ith its enemies. If an evangelical preacher be a strong man, he will make the enemies of truth subserve the truth itself; more especially if they be strong and powerful enemies, and men of original powers of mind, he w ill make the eater bring forth meat, and find honey in the carcass of the lion.

It is one thing to read cursorily, and for amusement; another, to enter into the spirit of the author, and sympathize with the operations of his cautious or ardent mind. It is by pursuing the latter course that we read to advantage, and that the minds pf men of a hiiiher order than our own, become for the time our own minds, and are employed in the work of our Master. It is much easier to do this than it would appear to be at first view; though it may not be done without a good degree of intellectual discipline, nor without tasking the invention of the reader, and developing his powers of thinking and discrimination. It is recorded by the biographer of Robert Hall, that “a page to him was more serviceable than a volume to many. Hints from reading, or discourse, passing through his great mind, expanded into treatises and systems, until the adopted was lost in the begotten; so much so that the whole appeared original.” There is an exemplification of this remark, in that beautiful discourse of Mr. Hall’s, entitled, “The Vanity of Man apart from his Immortality.” Every reader sees that it is a discourse which bears the marks of the author’s great mind; yet is it very difficult to resist the impression, that he had caught the flame from the burning thoughts of John Howe upon the same topic. Nor is it (liflicuK to see tlmt Dr. Emmons, with all his powers of original thinking, had diligently studied the sermon of Dr. Samuel Clarke, on the “Unchangeableness of good and Evil,” before he wrote his masterly discourse on “The essential an immutable difference between Right and Wrong.” Some of the most original thinkers, and best preachers, have been led to strike out trains of thought for themselves, and to put their own genius to the greatest efforts, by being familiar with authors of the same cast of mind with themselves.

A thinking man too, if he understands and relishes an original author, though he be far inferior to the author he is reading, will often perceive important trains of thought on topics that are altogether foreign to the subject of religion, but which are equally fitted to illustrate and enforce some great principle of Christian truth and duty. And he will mark them. By dwelling on them, imbibing their spirit, and catching the enthusiasm of his author, he can scarcely avoid making them his own; and when he does so, he will find them of great service, especially in his more extemporaneous efforts. There is many a fine train of argument, illustration and appeal in the writings of Cicero and Edmund Burke, which, though the authors “meant not so, neither in their heart did they think so,” is, for the spirit of it, applicable to more hallowed themes than those to which they were applied by the great Roman and English orators.

We see for ourselves with what ingenuity and adroitness distinguished men in other professions turn their reading, and their hearing too, to good account. Who has not heard splendid arguments at the bar, which, though truly original, were not a little indebted to the pulpit? The same maybe said of some of the best efforts of statesmen, poets, and artists. The writer well remembers a remark made to himself, by a distinguished Christian statesman, who at the time to which the observation refers, was a member of the Cabinet at Washinton, that in preparing his own mind and heart for one of the most important discussions that ever came before that body, he took pains to fortify himself, by reading one of the discourses of Robert Hall. Would that statesmen were all thus pure, and thus influenced by Christian principle! And if statesmen, and lawyers, and poets, and artists may learn something from the ministers of the Gospel, why may not the ministers of the Gospel learn from artists, poets, lawyers, and statesmen? I will venture to emphasize artists, because the products of the pencil are too much overlooked by Christian teachers. The writings of Sir Joshua Reynolds are not more important to a professor of rhetoric, (lian the productions of Iiis pencil are to the preacher. There are scenes in the Academy of Fine Arts in New York and Pliiladelpliia, and more in the Louvre, in the gallery of the Luxembourg, and of the Prince of Orange, and in the Vatican, on which a preacher might dwell for hours, and from which lie might retire to his closet and his study, with sensible benefit to his hearers. The historical associations which a well-informed artist throws upon the canvas, as well as the impressiveness of the lessons he teaches, possess great interest for the mind of an enthusiastic advocate of God’s truth. What the artist holds up to the eye, the preacher may proclaim to the ear. I would go far to see such a man as Whitfield, in the Louvre of Paris, or the gallery of the Vatican, at Rome, and then to have heard him preach!

The danger to which a well-furnished preacher is exposed is to make his varied attainments serve himself, rather than the Master to whom he owes allegiance. The temptation is subtle and powerful; for the “sin that dwelleth in him” is not subdued, and he has many a sinful and corrupt tendency to struggle with. Many a laurel is entwined around the Saviour’s brow more for the sake of showing the skill with which the wreath is formed, and the grace with which it is thus entwined, than for his sake whom it professes to honor, and on whose brow it is so gracefully placed. It is not always that an accomplished preacher gives the adorable and ever-blessed Je.sus the first place. To do this is one of the ordeals of a self-sacrificing spirit, with which he must lay his account; it is one which nothing but large measures of grace, intimate fellowship with things unseen, and probably frequent and severe personal trials, will enable him to endure. His duty is to merge the man of letters in the humble preacher of the Gospel; his danger, that of merging the preacher in the man of letters. Human learning is the natural auxiliary of God’s truth; nor is that minister to be envied who overlooks this relation and forces it to honor himself rather than him to whom all honor belongs.

But they are not only the observation and attainments of the preacher, that ought to be made subservient to the pulpit; the cause he advocates has strong claims on his own personal experience. It is not so much his experience of men and things to which reference is here had, as his own spiritual experience as a child of God, and the minister of his Gospel. There are emotions of which he is conscious, w hich relate to his own eternal well-being and to the state of his own soul, which ought to exert a very important influence on his usefulness. If lie is a child of God, and his heavenly Father has truly called him to preach the Gospel of his Son; and more especially if he designs to make him eminently useful, he will fit him for his work by those experiences of his faithfulness which show that “he leads the blind by a way they knew not, and in paths that they have not known.” It is most delightful to mark the hand of God, and observe his abounding grace toward his ministers in training them for his service, even from their youth. He thinks much of them, even when, like Saul of Tarsus, John Newton, and Mowes of Prussia, they are thinking little of him. He is preparing them for the hardships, and even the peculiarity of their spiritual warfare, and shaping their course with a view to the field of labor they are to occupy, even when he is not in all their thoughts.

When it pleases him to call them by his grace, and reveal his Son in them, that they may preach the unsearchable riches of his grace, his dealings with them are generally more observable and strongly marked. They have much to learn of themselves; much of the varied workings of their own deceitful and wicked hearts; much of the subtle and powerful temptations of the great Adversary; much of God and the fulness of his grace in Jesus Christ, if they become able and faithful ministers of the New Testament. And they have no such teacher as their Divine Lord. He well understands wdiat they most need to learn, and when, and by what means to instruct them most effectively. There is a remarkable adaptation in his teaching to the temperament, and character, and associations of his ministers; to their internal spirit and their outward condition; to their experiences and their weaknesses, and to the peculiar labors which they are called to perform. ‘’ I girded thee,” says God to Cyrus, “though thou hast not known me.” In a qualified sense, this is true of all the faithful ministers of Christ. Their ignorance of what God is about to do with them, and for them, and by them, is a veil woven by heavenly mercy; and had it been removed, many a time had their heart sunk within them. No small part of their history is one either of painful or agreeable disappointments. Often they are disappointed in their fears; and at the very crisis when their apprehensions are most excited, and their hopes most depressed, God gives them “the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the .spirit of heaviness; and instead of the depression they looked for, they are enabled to say with the Psalmist, “Thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great.” On the other hand, they are often disappointed in llieir hopes. The j)rovideiice of God toward them seems to have scarcely an immiugliiig of lii>:lit with darkness; (heir cup is bitter, and full of wormwood and gall. Sins oppress them; Satan ensnares them, and his fiery darts compass them about on every side; terrors take hold on them as aters; God hides his face, and they arc troubled; and they know not how to speak in his name. How various, and often how wonderfully mysterious, are the ways, the dark and intricate paths by which he leads his ministers! Sometimes ife is by being left to great sins, and sometimes by being subjected to great afflictions; sometimes by the sins of others, and sometimes by the sweetness and richness of their graces; sometimes by friends, and sometimes being left friendless; sometimes by honor, and sometimes by dishonor; but always by methods which may be employed for their usefulness as the dispensers of his truth.

If a minister w ould give the pulpit its appropriate energy, he will make all his varied experience subservient to the duties of the sanctuary. The burden of every man’s preaching will be very apt to be that which most interests his own mind and heart. It is the obvious design of God, both in the dispensations of his providence and grace, to lead their own minds to feel an interest in subjects, and thoughts, which it is of special importance they should present to their hearers. Hence the importance of their observing his dealings with them, and making the best use of their own experience in the instruction of those committed to their charge. If he smiles or frowns upon them; if he suffers Satan to have them that he may sift them as wheat; if he gives them unwonted and humbling views of their own sinfulness; and with great experience of their own wickedness, great experience also of their Saviour’s love and mercy; if he covers them with darkness; or enables them to walk in the light of his countenance; it is not for their sakes only, but for those to whom they minister. When we read the life of the Apostle Paul, how obvious is it, that it was the gracious purpose of God to teach the world by the religious experience of this his chosen servant. Or when we read the life of Edward Payson, we cannot repel the conviction, that it w as for their sakes to whom he preached the glorious Gospel, that his religious experience was so strongly marked, and so various; that he w’as so often plunged into the horrible pit and miry clay, and that his feet were so firmly set on the Rock of Ages, and a new song put in his mouth.

There are shades of difference in the experience of God’s ministers in different periods of their history. Youthful ministers are more apt to be severe and objurgatory; the more a<i:c{l arc more pcM’suasivc. Youthful ministers breathe the atmosplicre of Sinai, more freely, aiul more fully utter forth its thunders; while, in a few passing years, these same preachers (hvell more on the matchless love of Christ, and in melting and simple strains beseech men to become reconciled to God. It is not often that you hear a man in the vigor of matured years, representing in all their terrors the torments of the damned; he alludes to them, he affectionately affirms them; but he knows too much of the terrors of the Lord, to dwell upon the fearful theme. Youthfid preachers make less of a single topic; w hile older ones throw around it the scattered rays of thought, and collect them together in richer and brighter, though less gorgeous constellations. Youthful preachers have more to do with argument and demonstration; older ones assume what they have so often proved, and are more familiar with the duties of the Gospel, than its doctrines. Men require both these kinds of preaching; there must be sons of thunder, and sons of consolation; duties as well as doctrines, must occupy a wide space in that system of religious instruction which is to regenerate the world; nor would the pulpit become the full and round echo of God’s truth, if it did not partake of all that variety of instruction, and those changing shades of thought, which form the counterpart of the preacher’s own experience.

Not only does God prepare his servants for this well-adapted and elTectivc teaching, but, if they are “wise, and will observe these things,” they will learn of him who thus “teacheth them to profit, and who leadeth them by the way that they should go.” They never preach with so much simplicity and power, as when they come to the duties of the Sabbath, with the lessons which the Spirit, or the providence of God, or both, have been instilling into their own minds during the week. They are sometimes precious Sabbaths then, and they are sometimes fearful Sabbaths; but they are effective Sabbaths; there is a solemnity, a tenderness, an impressiveness, and even a jjeculiaritij attached to them not soon forgotten. “In my preaching of the word,” says John Bunyan, “I took special notice of this one thing, namely, that the Lord did lead me to begin where his word begins with sinners; that is to condemn all flesh, and to open and allege that the curse of God by the law, doth belong to, and lay hold on all men as they come into the world, because of sin. Now, this part of my work I fulfilled with great feeling; for the terrors of the law and guilt of my transgressions lay heavy on my conscience. I preached what I felt, — what I smartingly did feel; even that under which my poor soul did groan and tremble to astonishment. Indeed I have been sent as one to them from tlic dead. I luent myself in chains, to preach to them in chains; and carried that fire in my own conscience that I persuaded them to be aware of. I can truly say, and that without dissemblini, that I have gone full of guilt, and trembling even to the pulpit-door; and there it hath been taken off; and I have been at liberty in my mind until I have done my worlv.” Just think of Bunyan’s preaching such a discourse as the one we find in his published works, entitled “The Barren Fig Tree,” with such a state of mind as this! Listen, while he represents the angry God as saying,” Death, come smite me this fig tree. Fetch away this fig tree to the fire; fetch this barren professor to hell. At this. Death comes with grim looks to the chamber; yea, and hell follows with him to the bedside, and both stare this professor in the face, — yea, begin to lay hands upon him. And now he begins to bethink himself, and cry to God for mercy. Lord, spare me! Lord, spare me! Nay, saith God, you have been a provocation to me these three years. How many times have you disappointed me? How many seasons have you spent in A’ain? How many sermons and other mercies did I of my patience afford you, but to no purpose at all? Tahc him Death! O! good Lord, saith the sinner, spare me but this once; raise me but this once; try me this once, and see if I do not mend. Well, saith God, let this professor alone for this time; I will try him a while longer. But by the time he hath put on his clothes, and come down from his bed, he doubleth his diligence after this world, and the heart of this poor creature is fully set in him to do evil. Now God takes hold of his axe again, and heaves it higher; for now indeed he is ready to smite the sinner. His fury comes up into his face; now he comes out of his holy place, and is terrible; now he sweareth in his wrath, that they shall never enter into his rest. I exercised toward you my patience, yet you have not turned unto me, saith the Lord. Because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I cause my fury to rest upon thee; — cut it down, why doth it cumber the ground? And now Death is at work, cutting of him down, hewing both bark and heart, — both body and soul asunder. The man groans, but Death hears him not; he looks ghastly, — he sighs, — he trembles; — but Death matters nothing. He that cuts him down, sways him as the feller of wood sways the tottering tree; — now this way, then that; at last a root breaks, an heart-string snaps asunder;

—out fyoes llic weary, trembling soul, down to the chambers of death.”

But it was not always thus with this remarkable preacher; he himself refers to other and more delightful seasons; different words from these often dro])ped from his lips. To the treml)ling and heavy-laden sinner, he could say, “Christ hath everlasting life for him that Cometh to him, and he shall never perish. He hath everlasting righteousness to clothe him with; and precious blood, that is like an open fountain for him to wash in; and precious promises, and he shall have a share in them; and fulness of grace for him, and wonderful love, bowels, and compassion. He is open and free-hearted to do thee good; he hath prepared a golden altar for thee to offer thy prayers and tears upon; he hath strewed all the way, from the gate of hell to the gate of heaven, with flowers out of his own garden. Behold how the promises, invitations, calls, and encouragements, like lilies, lie round about thee! Yea, he hath mixed them all with his own name, his Son’s name; also with the name of mercy, goodness, compassion, love, pity, grace, forgiveness. Coming sinner, hast thou not now and then a kiss from the sweet lips of Jesus Christ; — I mean, some blessed word, dropping, like a honeycomb, upon thy soul to revive thee? Hast thou not sometimes, as it were, the very warmth of his wings overshadowing the face of thy soul, that gives thee, as it were, a glow upon thy spirit, as the bright beams of the sun do upon thy body, when it suddenly breaks out of a cloud, though presently it is all gone away? Well, all these things are the good hand of thy God upon thee, to constrain, to provoke, to make thee willing and able to come, that thou mightest in the end be saved.”

Speaking of the seasons of terror to which we just now referred, Bunyan says: “After which the Lord came in upon my soul with some sure peace and comfort through Christ; for he did give me many sweet discoveries of his blessed grace through him. Wherefore I now altered in my preaching, for I still preached what I saw and felt. Now therefore, did I much labor to hold forth Jesus Christ in all his offices, relations, and benefits to the world, and did also strive to discover and condemn or remove those false supports and props, on which the world doth both lean, and by them fall and perish. — And when I have done the exercise, it hath gone to my heart to think the word should now fall as rain on stony places; still wishing from my heart, that they who have heard me speak this day, did but see as I do what sin, death, and hell, and the curse of God is; and also what tlic cracc, love, and mercy of God is, through Jesus Christ.”

There is a tact in some ministers in thus makini all their observation, learning, and experience subservient to the services of the sanctuary. George Whitfield probably possessed this faculty more than any other preacher since the days of Christ. His biographer remarks, “that it was no ditficuit matter to see on wdiat subjects he had been reading during the week; for, whatever they were, they would be sure to give freshness and novelty to his illustrations of divine truth on the ensuing Lord’s Day.” And we may add, that his habits of observation seemed all to have this single aim. And so did his own religious experience; for he frequently narrated it from the pulpit, and with a freedom that would appear unbecoming in our fastidious affe. These were some of his great excellencies as a preacher. He made “the things that be of men savor the things that be of God.” His “hands dropped with myrrh, and his fingers with sweet-smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock.” He seemed to carry the *’ bundle of myrrh “within his own bosom. He had an aptitude and skill which were most remarkable, in seizing upon the last author he had read, and upon passing events, and his own recent experience, and applying them with prodigious power to the great object of preaching the Gospel. But the remark may not be omitted, that he not acquire this facility without effort; his mind and heart were trained to it by great vigilance and much prayer. We may be allowed to furnish a single example of this last observation. On his first visit to Edinburgh, soon after his arrival, there was an unhappy man to be executed. On the day of the execution, Whitfield mingled with the crowed, and was deeply impressed with the decency and solemnity with which the awful scene was conducted. On the next day, he preached to a very large assembly in a field near the city, on the subject of the Saviour’s crucifixion; and in the course of his sermon adverted to the scenes of the preceding day. “I know,” said he, “that many of you will find it difficult to reconcile my appearance yesterday with my character. I went as an observer of human nature, and to see the effect which such an example would have on those who witnessed it. I watched the conduct of almost every person present on that awful occasion; and I was highly pleased with their demeanor, which has given me a very favorable opinion of the Scottish nation. Your sympathy was visible in your countenances, particularly when the moment arrived when your iinlinppy follow-creature was to close his eyes on this world forever. Then you all, as if moved hij one impulse, turned your heads aside and wept! And those tears were precious, and will be had in remembrance. How different was it when the Saviour of manJdiul luas extended on the cross! The Jews, instead of sympathizing in his sorrows, triumphed in them. They reviled him with words even more bitter than the gall and vinegar they gave him to drink. ISot one of all that witnessed his pains turned aside his head, even in the last pang! — Yes, my friends, there was one; — that glorious Luminary veiled his brightness, and travelled on his course in tenfold night .-’”

The effect may well be believed to be electrical. But it was no casual remark of the great preacher; nor was it from the impulse of the moment. It was premeditated; he took time, and pains, and even subjected himself to obloquy in order to make the execution of this poor criminal subserve the claims of Him who was crucified.

Few men are equal to this. Yet ought every preacher to do all that in him lies to give effect to his preaching, and make every thing subserve the pulpit. The pulpit is his place. There is his work. There he stands as God’s ambassador to guilty men; and just in the measure in which he magnifies his office, will he make all that he is, and all that is committed to him, tributary to the work which God has given him to do.