a few plain and forcible truths evidently resulting from that portion of the Divine Word: we take a text, and make an oration. Edification was then the object of both speaker and hearers; and, while this continues to be the object, no better method can be found. A parable, or history, or passage of Scripture, thus illustrated and enforced, is the best method of introducing truth to any people who are ignorant of it, and of setting it home with power on those who know it; and not formal, doctrinal, argumentative discourses.

TRUTH and SYMPATHY are the soul of an efficacious Ministry.

The Puritans were still farther removed from the primitive method of preaching: they would preach fifteen or sixteen Sermons on a text. A primitive Bishop would have been shocked with one of our sermons; and, such is our taste, we should be shocked with his. They brought forward Scripture: we bring forward our statements. They directed all their observations to throw light on Scripture: we quote Scripture to throw light on our observations. More faith and more grace would make us better preachers, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Chrysostom's was the right method. Leighton's Lectures on Peter approach very near to this method.

IN acting on matter, the art of man is mighty. The steam-engine is a mighty machine. But, in religion, the art of man is mere feebleness. The armour of Saul is armour in the camp of the Israelites, or in the camp of the Philistines— but we want the sling and the stone. I honour Metaphysicians, Logicians, Critics, and Historians -in their places. Look at facts. Men, who lay out their strength in statements, preach Churches empty. Few men have a wisdom so large, as to see that the way which they cannot attain may yet be the best way. I dare not tell most academical, logical, frigid men how little I account of their opinion, concerning the true method of preaching to the popular ear. I hear them talk, as utterly incompetent judges. Such men would have said St. Paul was fit only for the Tabernacle. What he would have said they were fit for, I cannot tell. They are often great men-first-rate men-unequalled men-in their class and sphere: --but it is not THEIR sphere to manage the world.

IF a Minister could work miracles, he would do little more than interest the curiosity of men▬▬ "I want to eat, and I want to drink, and I do it. I get on with difficulty enough, as things are; and you talk about treating with heaven! I know nothing of the matter, and I want no such thing" -This is the language of man's heart. A FUTURE

thing! An INDEFINITELY FUTURE thing! No! if a man could even authoritatively declare, that the Day of Judgment would be this day seven years, he would have little influence on mankind. Very few would be driven from the play-housevery few from the gaming table-very few from the brothel. The din on 'Change would be very little diminished. I frequently look back on the early periods of my life, and imagine myself treating with such a character as I know I then was. I

say to myself, "What now can I possibly say, that will affect and interest that young fellow of eighteen?"

SOME Christian Ministers fail in their effect on their hearers, by not entering as Philosophers into the state of human nature. They do not consider how low the patient is reduced-that he is to be treated more as a child-that he is to have milk administered to him, instead of strong meat. They set themselves to plant principles and prove points, when they should labour to interest the heart. But, after all, men will carry their natural character into their ministry. If a man has a dry, logical, scholastic turn of mind, we shall rarely find him an interesting preacher. One in a thousand may meet him, but not

more.

THE Christian will sometimes be brought to walk in a solitary path. God seems to cut away his props, that he may reduce him to Himself. His religion is to be felt as a personal, particular, appropriate possession. He is to feel, that, as there is but one Jehovah to bless, so there seems to him as though there were but one penitent in the universe to be blessed by Him. Mary Magdalene at the Sepulchre was brought to this state. She might have said "I know not where Peter is: he is gone away-perhaps into the world-perhaps to weep over his fall. I know not where John is. What are the feelings and states of my brethren, I know not. I am left here alone. No one accompanies and strengthens me. But, if none other will seek my Lord, yet will I seek Him!" There is a commanding energy in religious sympathy. A Minister, for example, while his preaching seems effective, and life and feeling shew themselves around him, moves on with ease and pleasure. But there is much of the man here. If God change the scene-if discouragements meet him-if he seem to be laid by, in any measure, as an instrument-if the love of his hearers to his person and ministry decay-this is a severe trial: yet most of us need this trial, that we may be reduced simply to God, and may feel that the whole affair is between Him and ourselves. A dead fish will swim with the stream, whatever be its direction: but a living one will not only resist the

stream; but, if it chuses, it can swim against it. The soul, that lives from God, will seek God, and follow God--more easily and pleasantly, indeed, if the stream flow toward the point whither God leads; but, still, it will follow God as its sole rest and centre, though the stream of men and opinions would hurry it away from Him.

GRAVITY is, doubtless, obligatory on Ministers. The Apostle connects it with sincerity. Yet it must be natural-not affected. Some men give every thing in an oracular style: this looks like affectation, and will disgust others: they will attribute it to religion: but this is not a sanctified gravity. Other men are always disposed to levity: not that a man of original fancy is to be condemned, for thinking in his own way: but the Minister must consider that he is a man of a consecrated character: if it should not be difficult to himself to make transitions from levity to gravity, it will be difficult to carry others with him therein. Who has not felt, if God brings him into a trying situation, in which he sees that it is an awful thing to suffer or to die, that Gravity is then natural? every thing else is offensive! That, too, is evil, which lets down the tone of a company: when a Minister loses his gravity, the company will take liberties with him. Yet, with a right principle, we must not play the fool. Gravity must be na