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which his office had on his heart. But-listening with his whole soul to that injunction, Meditate these things, give thyself wholly to them-it may be doubted whether he did not sometimes challenge to his office more respect than the party concerned could be expected to allow due.

AND TRAINING

Mr. Cecil's PREPARATION FOR THIS EXALTED OFFICE have been already spoken of in the view of his personal character. This was, as has been seen, of no common kind.

His QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE DISCHARGE OF THE MINISTRY were peculiar. The great natural powers which God had given him, were moulded and matured by the training and discipline through which he was led, and were consecrated by grace to the service of his Master. It will not be requisite to recapitulate what has been said on this subject. I shall here speak only of those qualifications which were more appropriate to him as a public teacher.

His LEARNING consisted more in the knowledge of other men's ideas, than in an accurate acquaintance with the niceties of the languages. Yet he was better acquainted with these, than many who devote a disproportionate time to this acquisition. His incessant application, chiefly by candle-light, when at Oxford, to the study of Greek, of which he was enthusiastically fond, brought on an almost total loss of sight for six months. He had determined to become a perfect master of the niceties of that refined and noble language. The counsel, however, which he received from Dr. Bacon, and which is recorded in his "Remains," under the head of "Miscellaneous Remarks on the Christian Ministry," put him on proportioning his attention more according to the future utility of his pursuits than he had been accustomed to. "I was struck with his advice," he said. "I had an unsettled sort of religion, but enough to make me see and choose the truth which he set before me."

So solid and extensive was Mr. Cecil's real learning, that there were no important points, in morals or religion, on which he had not read the best authors, and made up his mind on the most mature deliberation; nor could any topic be started in history or philosophy, on subjects of art or of science, with which he was not found more generally acquainted than other men. But, while he could lay these parts of learning under contribution to aid him in his one object of impressing truth on man, he was a master in the learning which is more peculiarly appropriate to his profession. He was so much in the habit of daily reading the Scriptures in the originals, that, as he told me, he went to this employ naturally and insensibly. He limited himself to no stated quantity; but, as his time allowed, he read one or two, and sometimes five or six chapters daily.

Mr. Cecil had THE POWER OF EXCITING AND PRESERVING ATTENTION above most men. All his effort was directed, first to engage attention, and then to repay it-to allure curiosity, and then to gratify it.

Till the attention was gained he felt that nothing could be effected on the mind. Sometimes he would have recourse to unusual methods, suited indeed to his auditory, to awaken and fix their minds. "I was once preaching," he said, "a Charity Sermon where the congregation was very large, and chiefly of the lower order. I found it impossible, by my usual method of preaching, to gain their attention. It was in the afternoon, and my hearers seemed to meet nothing in my preaching, which was capable of rousing them out of the stupefaction of a full dinner. Some lounged, and some turned their backs on me. I MUST HAVE ATTENTION,' I said to myself. 'I WILL be heard.'-The case was desperate; and, in despair, I sought a desperate remedy. I exclaimed aloud, 'Last Monday morning a

man was hanged at Tyburn'-instantly the face of things was changed! All was silence and expectation! I caught their ear, and retained it through the Sermon." This anecdote leads me to observe that Mr. Cecil had, in an unusual degree, the talent of adapting his ministry to his congregation. While he was, for instance, preaching on the same day at Lothbury, at St. John's morning and afternoon, and at Spitalfields in the evening-he found four congregations at these places, in many respects, quite distinct from one another; and yet he adapted his preaching, with admirable skill, to meet their habits of thinking.

But when he had gained the attention, he was ever on the watch not to weary it. He seemed to have continually before his eyes the sentiments of our great critic and moralist:* "Tediousness is

the most fatal of all faults: negligences or errors are single and local, but tediousness pervades the whole: other faults are censured, and forgotten; but the power of tediousness propagates itself. He that is weary the first hour, is more weary the second; as bodies forced into motion, contrary to their tendency, pass more and more slowly through every successive interval of space.' Mr. Cecil

would say, "You have a certain quantity of attention to work on: make the best use of it while it lasts. The iron will cool, and then nothing, or worse than nothing, is done. If a preacher will leave unsaid all vain repetitions, and watch against undue length in his entrance and width in his discussion, he may limit a written sermon to half an hour and one from notes to forty minutes; and this time he should not allow himself to exceed, except on special occasions."

His POWER OF ILLUSTRATION was great and versatile. His topics were chiefly taken from Scripture and from life. His manner of illustrating his

* Lives of the Poets, vol. iii, p. 35.

subjects by Scripture examples, was the most finished I have ever heard. They were never introduced violently or abruptly; but his matter was so moulded in preparation for them, by a few wellturned sentences, that the illustration seemed to be placed in the Scripture almost for the sake of the doctrine. The general features of the character or history were left in the back-ground, and those only which were appropriate to the matter in hand were brought forward, and were thus presented with great force to the mind. His talent in discriminating the striking features, and connecting them with his matter, was so peculiar, that the histories of Abraham, of Jacob, of David, and of St. Paul, seemed in his hands to be ever knew, and to be exhaustless treasures of illustration.

The turn both of his mind and of his experience seemed to lead him to this method. What he did, therefore, with ease and feeling, it was natural should be done frequently; and, accordingly I have scarcely ever heard a sermon from him in which there were not repeated exercises of this peculiar talent, and in some sermons almost the entire subject has been treated in this manner.

This talent of illustrating his subjects, and particularly of seizing incidents for improvement, gave an edge to his wise admonitions in private; and fixed them deep in the memory. Riding with a friend in a very windy day, the dust was so troublesome, that his companion wished they were at their journey's end, where they might ride in the fields free from dust: and this wish he repeated more than once while on the road. When they reached the fields, the flies so teized his friend's horse, that he could scarcely keep his seat on the saddle. On his bitterly complaining, "Ah! Sir," said Mr. Cecil, "when you were in the road the dust was your only trouble, and all your anxiety was to get into the fields: you forgot that the fly was there! Now this

is a true picture of human life; and you will find it so in all the changes you make in future. We know the trials of our present situation; but the next will have trials, and perhaps worse, though they may be of a different kind."

At another time, the same friend said he should esteem it a favor, if he would tell him of any thing which he might in future see in his conduct which he thought improper. "Well, Sir!" he said, "many a man has directed the watchman to call him early in the morning, and has then appeared very anxjous for his coming early; but the watchman has come before he has been ready for him! I have seen many people very desirous of being told their faults; but I have seen very few who were pleased when they received the information. However, I like to receive an invitation, and I have no reason to suppose you will be displeased till I see it so. shall therefore remember that you have asked for it."

I

His STYLE, particularly in preaching and in free conversation, was easy and natural. If he ever labored his expression, it was in search of emphasis, rather than precision-of words which would penetrate the soul, rather than round his period and float in the ear. He considered that vigorous conceptions would clothe themselves in the fittest expressions

Verbaque provisam rem non invita sequentur. Or, as Milton has admirably said-"True eloquence I find to be none, but the serious and hearty love of truth: and that, whose mind soever is fully possessed with a fervent desire to know good things, and with the dearest charity to infuse the knowledge of them into others, wHEN SUCH A MAN WOULD SPEAK, his words, like so many nimble and airy servitors, trip about him at command, and, in well-ordered files, as he would wish, fall aptly into their own places."

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