aid and counsel of an experienced pastor, and the voice of christian friendship to cheer us in the arduous toils of this self-denying office. To induce our readers to become possessed of a book eminently adapted, we believe, to do good, we shall give its outlines by recording the titles of the chapters, and by a single extract-presenting views which we wish particularly to commend to the attention of our readers, and which may serve as a fair specimen of the general style of the work. The volume contains a discussion of the following subjects. General view of the christian ministry.-General causes of the want of success in the christian ministry. Causes of ministerial inefficiency, connected with our personal character. The public work of the christian ministry. The pastoral work of the christian ministry.-Recollections of the christian ministry.

The extract which we shall present relates to habits of study.

Nor let it be thought, that studious habits must necessarily infringe upon the more active employment of our work. What shall we say to the nine ponderous folios of Augustine, and nearly the same number of Chrysostom, volumes not written like Jerome's, in monastic retirement, but in the midst of almost daily preaching engagements, and conflicting, anxious, and most responsible dutiesvolumes not of light reading-the rapid flow of shallow declamation, but the results of deep and well-digested thinking? The folios also of Calvin, the most diligent preacher,* and of Baxter, the most laborious pastor, of his day, full of thought and matter, bear the same testimony to the entire consistency of industrious study with devoted ministerial diligence. The secret of this efficiency seems to have much consisted in a deep and important sense of the value of that most precious of all talents-time, and of an economical distribution of its minutest particles for specific purposes. Mr. Alleine would often say, 'Give me a christian that counts his time more precious than gold.' Mr. Cotton would express his regret after the departure of a visitor, I had rather have given this man a handful of money, than have been kept thus long out of my study.' Melanethon, when he had an appointment, expected not only the hour but the minute to be fixed, that time might not run out in the idleness of suspense. Seneca has long since taught us, that time is the only thing of which 'it is a virtue to be covetous." And here we should be like the miser with his money-saving it with care, and spending it with caution. It is well to have a book for every spare hour, to improve what Boyle calls the 'parentheses or interludes of time, which, coming between more important engagements, are wont to be lost by most men, for want of a value for them and even by good men, for want of skill to preserve them. And since goldsmiths and refiners,' he remarks, are wont all the year long to save the very sweepings of their shops, because they may contain in them some filings or dust of those richer metals, gold and silver; I see not why a christian may not be as careful, not to lose the fragments and lesser intervals of a thing incom

"What shall I say of his indefatigable industry, even beyond the power of nature, which being paralleled with our loitering, I fear will exceed all credit? and may be a true object of admiration, how his lean, worn, spent, and weary body could possibly hold out. He read every week in the year three divinity lectures, and every other week over and above; he preached every day, so that, (as Erasmus saith of Chrysostom,) I do not know, whether more to admire the indefatigableness of the man, or his hearers. Yea, some have reckoned up that his lectures were yearly one hundred and eighty-six, his sermons two hundred and eighty-six, besides Thursday he sat in the presbytery," etc. etc. Clark's Lives

parably more precious than any metal-time; especially when the improvement of them by our meleteticks may not only redeem so many portions of our life, but turn them to pious uses, and particularly to the great advantage of devotion. PP. 58-60.

The work is designed evidently for the clergy of Great Britain, and particularly those of the established church. Coming from the bosom of that church, and designed for its members, we hail it as an omen of great advancing good. We regard it as an indication of no small progress towards a better state of things there, that such a work as this is patronized, and that in less than five months, a second edition has been demanded. But though intended particularly for that church, it is adapted to christian ministers of all denominations. Indeed it contemplates the work of the ministry as it was appointed by the Lord Jesus, and wherever it is read, it will do good.

With one thing we have been particularly struck in its perusal, viz. that no small part of its illustrations, and of the anecdotes and authorities introduced on the subject of the ministry, are taken from this side the ocean. This fact is a voluntary tribute to the descendants of the Puritans, which we were not quite prepared to expect from England, and especially from the bosom of the established church. As a people, we are young. We have no established religion. We have been without ecclesiastical patronage, without the fostering care of government, without sinecures, and without such independent provision for the ministry, as to give leisure for that intellectual advancement, which might be expected under an established religion. Preachers in this land are doomed to toil; and one of the most laborious and active occupations here, is, without doubt, the christian ministry. It is a tribute of which we would speak with deep interest;-it is a voice which we desire all men to hear in favor of our free institutions, when foreigners turn their eyes to this country for illustrations of the true nature of the pastoral office, and for examples of self-denying industry and faithfulness among the heralds of salvation. We turn instinctively to our free institutions, and look over our history with new gratitude and delight, to trace the molding power of their organization in this country, in forming the ministry. We ask ourselves whether the nature of our institutions is fitted to give appropriate beauty and largeness to the embassy which the preacher bears? And what is the kind of ministry which is best adapted to our civil and religious organization, and connected with the preservation of our civil rights, and the welfare of the church of God?

Commending the book which is the occasion of our remarks, to the cordial notice of our readers, we desire at this interesting period of the history of our republic, to do as much as in us lies to hold VOL. IV.

27

before our countrymen what we deem to be the appropriate character of this class of men, and from the memory of the past, the aspect of the present, and the anticipations of the future, to keep full in the public eye, a subject on which we mean frequently to dwell, the importance of an able and well educated clergy.

It is impossible to contemplate the history of this republic without feeling that the whole of its organization, has been such as to give developement to the proper powers and influence of the christian ministry. From its settlement a series of events has been in progress, demanding profound wisdom, indefatigable activity, rich and varied learning, and indomitable courage and integrity. Every one knows that the whole system of society in New England, was framed under the auspices of the christian religion, and of course under the direction, in no small degree, of those whose office it was to preach the gospel. Nor was it possible that ignorant or inactive ministers should have been adapted to that state of things, or that they could have met the crises which occurred in the foundation of a mighty empire. The constitution of a vast civil polity was to be framed. The formation of churches was an object of deep solicitude, and required profound wisdom. Laws adapted to a new and peculiar community were to be enacted. The earth was to be subdued and cultivated. Morality, chastity, industry, intelligence, and order, were to be promoted among the people. The eye of the lawgiver and the christian could not but run along future ages, and anticipate the grandeur of a mighty christian empire. For the enjoyment of freedom they had sought the dreariness and solitude of a vast wilderness; and they were conscious of living to mold the destiny of countless millions.

Many would have thought that to preach to a handful of people on the shores of Plymouth, to instruct the little flock that came across the waters, and who were encountering all the perils of the wilderness, and the privations of a life in a strange and inhospitable country, an ignorant ministry would have been sufficient. Thus many think now about our western world. But our Puritan fathers had different conceptions of the nature of this office. Profoundly learned when they came to these shores, they have been unequaled in this country or any other for patient study and toil, even after their arrival. Till within a few years, there were no men in this country, and scarcely in any other, who have been so profoundly skilled in the oriental and ancient languages, or so laborious in writing books, as the men who came first to New England.

Here we are happy to record the high eulogium of a man, than whom no one in our country is better qualified to speak, or whose opinions in the literary and political world, have more the authority

which by common consent has been conceded to him on the bench.

"They were so fortunate," says Chancellor Kent, "as to enjoy the presence and guidance of one man who had been early initiated in university learning, and proved to be one of those superior and decided characters, competent to give a permanent direction to human affairs. No sage of antiquity was superior to him in wisdom, moderation, and firmness; none equal to him in the grandeur of his moral character, and the elevation of his devotion. This learned audience will have perceived that I allude to the Rev. Thomas Hooker, whom his distinguished biographer has termed the light of the western churches, and oracle of the Connec ticut colony."*"The leading puritans of New England and the great body of protestant clergy every where, no less than the fathers of the primitive church, were scholars of the first order. Let us take as a sample from among ten thousand, the Rev. John Cotton, styled the father and glory of Boston. He was advanced in early life, by reason of his great learning as a scholar, to a fellowship in the English university of Cambridge. His skill in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages, as well as in textual divinity, was unrivalled. His industry was extraordinary. He wrote and spoke Latin with ease, and with Ciceronean eloquence. He was distinguished as a strict and orthodox preacher, pre-eminent among his contemporaries for the sanctity of his character, and the fervor of his devotion. He died as he had lived, in the rapturous belief than he was in reality to join in the joys and worship of the saints in glory."t

Nor did they deem any of their acquisitions to be useless in the wilderness. One of the first of their measures was to found Harvard College. Never did a puritan conceive that a minister of the gospel could be fitted, even for the western wilds, without a long and profound training in the schools. Every idea which he had of the perpetuity of liberty, was blended indissolubly with the thought, that the ministry should be profoundly trained for their work.

Under auspices such as these our country rose. There are few subjects from which the mind less willingly departs, than from the contemplation of that peculiar and wonderful race of men. We feel that the ministers and people of that age had been formed for each other; and both had been formed to meet the toils and hardships connected with the subjugation and culture of the rocky soil to which God directed them. And though they were a sect which has been "every where spoken against," yet their memorial is the virtue, the order, the intelligence, and the piety of the northern States, and no small part of the results of the effort to spread the knowledge of the gospel, and religious freedom, among all the empires of the earth.

It would almost seem as if the conceptions of our fathers on this subject, had been formed by a prophetic anticipation of what this republic is destined yet to be. One can hardly help reflecting on what might have been the state of things in this land, if they had

* Address before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, 1831. p. 9. + Ibid. pp. 25, 26.

possessed different views respecting the nature of the gospel ministry. Had they believed that an ignorant ministry would be adaptto the new world;-had they been men of limited views, or weak judgment, or slender learning and piety, these qualities would have gone into all the veins and sinews of our empire. Had the Catholic placed his foot on the rock of Plymouth, instead of the Puritan, New England would have been now what South America is. Ignorance and superstition would have spread over all the hills and vales, and the intellect now so free, so enlightened, so manly, would have been prostrate beneath a base and groveling superstition. We cannot but add, had they possessed the views which have prevailed among some protestant denominations in our country, in regard to the christian ministry, those views would have done more than all the subsequent efforts of the statesman could have undone, to form a wild and fanatic population, and to shed over all this nation the elements of ignorance and misrule.

It was the glory of New England, that her first preachers were fitted to any possible intellectual or moral growth of this republic. There has not been, and there will not be, a state of the public mind, in which the first preachers of New England would not have been competent to meet all that could be demanded of ministers of the gospel. First in industry, first in toil, first in piety, they stood at the head of this Republic, not only as leading the way to this western world, but as illustrating most impressively, what America must have, and must be, if her institutions are to be free; if her schools are to flourish; if her science and arts are to be under a mild and wholesome discipline; and if her broad fields and streams are to continue to invite from afar the stranger, the oppressed, and the fatherless, to the hospitalities of freedom, and the dwelling place of virtue and peace. Our eyes delight to dwell on the wonderful sagacity of those men, in foreseeing what our country would demand in her religious teachers; and upon that stern and indomitable firmness which sustained them in the perils of the western wilderness, that we might be blessed with the labors of a ministry which should blend all that is profound in learning, courteous in refined life, eloquent in persuasion, bold in investigation, and mild and lovely in the religion of the Son of God. We give humble and hearty thanks to the Great King of Zion, that we are permitted to look back to an early history like this. And we cannot but be struck here with the indications in our national infancy, that the God of nations contemplated in the formation of our republic, some gigantic purpose respecting the future condition of all mankind. Under what different auspices has our country risen, from those of the Greek, the Roman, and even the German, the French, and the British people. Age after age, in all those nations, rolled away