old and agreeable companion, and that whatever might be the fate of the history, the life of the historian must be short and precarious."

These thoughts, with others, would have been natural and proper; but, as the only sentiments of the occasion, we can but wish they had been different. At the close of such a work, we could desire at least a passing thought of its probable influence upon man; an honest glow of satisfaction at the consciousness of meritorious effort; a single heartfelt aspiration, that this effort might be crowned with the divine blessing. One such redeeming thought were worth the most brilliant chapter of his history. Yet, alas! that thought could never emanate from the cold and sluggish breast of Gibbon. It is the offspring of better and purer motives, of higher and more generous feelings.

J. W. S.

ARTICLE V.

PAYSON'S WORKS.

BY THE EDITOR.

Payson's Complete Works, in three vols. 8vo. 608, 608. Portland. Hyde, Lord & Duren.

pp. 606, 1846.

THE publications of Dr. Payson are chiefly posthumous. Four pieces only from his pen saw the light during his life-time. These were three sermons, and an Address to Seamen. Since his death, a full biography has been printed, prepared by Rev. Mr. Cummings, the editor of the present volumes, a small compilation of select thoughts, and two or three volumes of sermons. The first of the volumes now issued contains the Memoir and Select Thoughts, and six additional pieces, of which five have never before appeared. The two other volumes contain nothing but sermons. The second is wholly a reprint. The third comprises twenty-six new sermons. Thus the amount of matter in the volumes, never before

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4*

printed, is equivalent to thirty-one sermons, embracing three hundred and eleven pages, or about as much as one half of one of these volumes. We present these statements because the admirers of Dr. Payson, who have obtained any or all his works, previously issued, will naturally ask the question, how much they will add to their stock of his productions by procuring these volumes. The Memoir, as originally published, and in a form slightly abridged by the American Tract Society, has enjoyed a wide circulation. The same is true of many of the other materials of these works. This fact will operate as an important barrier to their being extensively purchased.

It is due to the publishers to say that these fine volumes are printed on good paper, with attractive appearance, and are an honor to the press from which they have been issued. And besides this, we esteem the volumes a valuable contribution to our standard theological literature. No American work within our knowledge could be printed, which would have given us more sincere satisfaction. Such reading as these volumes supply is fitted to kindle the flame of piety in the breast of the true Christian; to awaken, inspire and direct the unconverted; to console the afflicted; to restore the wayward; to animate the dejected; and to promote the growth of godliness, self-consecration, and holy living. We anticipate the best results from their influence. Even private Christians and others, engaged in the common pursuits of mankind, who may not know that such volumes have ever been printed, will experience their benign and sanctifying efficacy. Impressed upon the minds of evangelical pastors, their refreshing influence will flow, meandering through the ordinary walks of life, elevating, refining and adorning. And when the "record on high" shall be unfolded and read, we believe that many stars will cluster in the crown of this servant of God, the fruit of his undying influence; the seals of a ministry, which even death has not cut short; the natural results of his faithfulness and devotion to his Master's work. In these volumes, and in the abridged and cheap Memoir, pub

* On the monument erected over the tomb of Dr. Payson is the simple and tasteful inscription,-" His record is on high."

lished by the American Tract Society, he, being dead, yet speaketh. His holy example cannot perish. The eloquence of his writings does not surpass the eloquence of his life. They stand side by side, and both will be heard. Men will ask how he became so holy a man; by what process he attained such lofty elevation; whence his useful career, and his glorious death? Where was the hiding of his power? What were the chief elements of his life and manners?

These questions are fully and satisfactorily answered by the Memoir. It is a graphic delineation of the entire man; such as he was by nature and by grace; in youth and manhood; in social and in public life; in the pulpit, in his pastoral intercourse, and in secret. It is rare that a memoir gives us so complete an acquaintance with the subject of it. Thousands of copies of it have already been circulated. For twenty years it has gone forth on its high mission. To how many minds it has brought saving health, none can tell. Its divine influences and impulses have been felt in various nations, and in the four quarters of the globe. It has opened in unnumbered hearts a fountain of holy feeling. It has awakened many a sluggish spirit. Showing how a Christian can die and how a Christian can live, it has taught many so to live and so to die. Only the revelations of eternity can exhibit its immense and ceaseless influence in purifying, elevating and sanctifying the souls of men.

The Memoir of Dr. Payson seems to us, on some accounts, peculiarly valuable, for the very causes which have exposed it to censure. We cannot join in the common reproach, that it details, in an undue manner, feelings of despondency, doubt and sorrow ;-that it does not exhibit sufficiently cheerful views of religion;—and that it presents Dr. Payson too much with the air of an ascetic, a self-torturer on account of religion, or a gloomy recluse. The Memoir is designed to be a description of the man; and these were parts of the man. They were the elements of his being and his life. A description that should omit them would not be a description of the man. It would be defective in a prominent particular. It would omit that which was in the highest degree characteristic of him. Besides, in these very points, it may prove useful. It may serve as a warning in those things in

which he was injudicious or excessive; as an encouragement to persons of the like temperament, in their seasons of gloom; as an incitement to those who are sluggish in their Christian career. It may exhibit errors in a good man's course; but should they have been omitted?-or, should it be darkly said that he was guilty of errors, the nature of them being concealed? No one would have been satisfied with either. It may exhibit excesses; but it exhibits the man; what but this is the office of biography? We can easily see that many of Dr. Payson's self-denials and struggles were not necessarily connected with his religion. We can see that much of his despondency is chargeable to his temperament and to the state of his health, more than to any thing in his moral state. We may believe that he relied too much upon fastings, and watchings, and other mortifications, as stimulants of his graces. Perhaps he did; but at present we have more occasion to incite men to greater attainments in piety than to hold them back. We have more reason, in general, to fear that they will come short, than that they will be excessive. They are more in danger of not being sufficiently righteous, than of being "righteous overmuch." Here and there one may, perchance, be injured by such a memoir; what good thing is not abused? But the number will be very small. On the other hand, the editor affirms in the preface to the works, that instances have come to his knowledge of cases where it had been very useful to the very class of persons, who, it might be apprehended, would be most liable to suffer injury from it. We like it as it is. Nothing essentially different would be a portraiture of the eminent man whom it describes.

We shall confine ourselves, in these remarks, to Dr. Payson's character as a preacher, and to an analysis of two or three of the new sermons in these volumes.

The sermons of Dr. Payson have numerous excellences. They combine many of the elements of good preaching; yet they are not great sermons. They manifest no towering greatness of mind. They are, moreover, of unequal value. Some of them evidently require the excitement of the occasion and the circumstances to which they belonged, the power imparted by the eye, the vivacity attendant on the tones of the living voice, and

the feelings of the auditors, which made them the brilliant productions they appeared at the time of their delivery. The adaptation of sermons to the occasions for which they are written, gives them life and power. Their effectiveness is the combined result of their intrinsic goodness and greatness, their suitableness, their eloquence of style, manner and delivery, and-that which is often overlooked-of the mental state of the hearers. This latter is an important element. The same sermon, preached at different times to the same congregation, will appear, at one time, instinct with vividness and force; at another, common-place, tasteless and uninteresting; not because the sermon is any less meritorious, but because the auditors are in a different mental state. Hence a sermon cannot be judged simply from its effectiveness or its want of effectiveness at the time of its delivery; nor can we expect, from the printed page, to form any adequate idea of the impression produced by a sermon upon an excited and expectant auditory. We apprehend that the preaching of Dr. Payson owed something of its power and its fame to the high esteem in which he was held by a circle of admiring and affectionate parishioners. Still we would not underrate the discourses contained in these volumes. They are doubtless above the common range of pulpit efforts; but, notwithstanding this, they are not, we think, above the sermons preached every Sabbath-day, in a hundred pulpits of New England, by men of far less fame.

The discourses of Dr. Payson are of a peculiar character, and unlike those of many distinguished divines. They are generally less pungent and overwhelming than the sermons of Edwards, although often kindred with them. in manner and spirit. They are less strong and grasping than the sermons of South; but of quite a different order, and far more spiritual. As dignified and overwhelming statements of doctrine, they are very much below the lectures of Dr. Griffin. They are inferior as literary productions to the sermons of Hall; but as the means of alarming the careless and encouraging the despondent disciple, they are much more pointed, close and powerful. They are more awakening than the sermons of Jay and of John Newton. They deal more thoroughly with the conscience of the hearer, and make it more difficult for