do any thing to purpose, there must be such a concentration of energy and resources, such a rigid frugality of time, and such entireness of surrender and dedication, as to many will appear unsocial and selfish, fantastic and absurd-and to some, perhaps, insane. It is now as in the days of the ancient prophet,—the man, who, in good earnest, departs from iniquity, and offers himself a living sacrifice unto God, is "accounted mad." The whole secret of soul prosperity, of preaching eminence, and of pastoral success, is disclosed in the remarkable resolution of the apostles-" We will give ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word." Glorious determination! Let the business of your life, then, be the business of prayer, and be assured, you will be rendered useful to the church and to the world-loved in the one, and respected in the other. This will give strength, and energy, and life, to all your ministrations; it will render you what you ought to be, a sun in the midst of your little system, diffusing light and warmth to all around. The means of attaining this happy state may be quickly recited-they are simply the "word of God and prayer." In proportion to the labour bestowed on these adjacent fields will be the harvest of purity and spirituality. One thing I will tell you, that experience has taught me. I am not wholly insensible to the waste of time and the neglect of advantages with which I am chargeable; I am aware, too, that thousands of my honoured brethren have forgotten more science, and general knowledge, and theological erudition, than I have learned—and yet I am free to tell you that it is in none of these things that I feel my chief and most lamentable deficiency. I seldom experience much want or difficulty from these quarters; nor do I imagine, that for general duty, as a preacher and a pastor, I should be much benefited by any conceivable augmentation in these points, without a diminution of that which constitutes my bitter infelicity-my faint impressions of truth in all its parts-my dim visions of eternal realities-my inability to realize in any degree, as I would, those things which belong to sin and grace, to life and death, and an immortality of existence in its distinct characters. These, and such as these, are my burdens, and they will be yours. For this great evil I know of no remedy, other than a larger measure of the Spirit of God dwelling within us. Human culture or acquirements can do nothing for us. We want more of the Spirit and grace of Christ. Therefore give yourself to prayer. Pray with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watch thereunto with all perseverance.

2dly. Take heed to your pastoral ministrations. As to the form of sound words, I have no fear respecting you. It has been your lot

to sit under two expositors of truth inferior to none in any part of the empire, and, in common with many, you have reaped your due share of benefit. I feel the highest confidence, that, from this place, the word of God will sound forth in all its grace, and fulness, and purity, and proportions, unabridged, unadultered. Before any charge concerning it I am constrained to offer a few thoughts, which have originated in experience, relative to some differences characteristic of the northern and the southern parts of the empire, as affecting the style of preaching proper to be adopted and cultivated. The first difference is educational. The ability to read, and the habit of reading, and the reflective cast of mind induced thereby, are less prevalent in England than in Scotland; excepting congregations of the most enlightened, and, every way, of the most elevated character, consisting, largely, of choice persons, whom eminent ministers have attracted, by the virtues of their character, and the splendour of their talents, and congregated around them-and whom they have led and are leading forward to still higher attainments-and excepting, also, individuals, more, or fewer, of a like character, in all congregations, the remainder, that is the mass of the population, are less cultivated than in the north, and require to be treated accordingly. The English ministry must condescend to be "instructors of the foolish, teachers of babes," to dwell much on first principles, and to simplify every thing to the utmost. Yonder an apparatus is at work, by which intelligence is greatly equalized; hence congregations do not so much consist of many classes, as of one of very similar attainments. The body of the population are drilled, from earliest infancy, in day-schools, of several orders, every day in the week, and almost every week in the year. There they are sedulously trained in the Assembly's and other catechisms, and the Bible is a principal class-book, always in their hands. While this description of agency deals with the childhood of the land, there is another, which treats, still more sacredly, with those farther advanced in the Sabbath schools which fill the country. The sole objects of these is the communication of religious knowledge, in every way, recommended by experience. Every where, connected with these, are the congregational and school libraries. The effect of this system is very great, and that effect receives completion and permanence, from the classes almost every where formed by ministers, wherein the instruction is of a still higher order. This reduces the difficulty of adaptation in the pulpit. This equality of attainments has diminished the necessity of a graduated ministration, suited to learners in various stages. It authorises, perhaps, it demands, a difference of procedure as to matter and to style, from what would

be allowable in this country, where the inequality in our congregations is so great, the majority being as much above the minority in number, as beneath it in attainments, as to claim for it three-fourths of our attention, and require that this attention be devoted, almost exclusively, to elementary instruction. As far as is admissible, the welfare of the few must be sacrificed to the good of the million, and we must be as babes to those who are babes, if by any means we may save them. The second difference I term metaphysical. The prevalence or absence of this is characteristic of the literature of the two countries. My residence in England has demonstrated to me the truth of the following striking paragraph, from the pen of a gifted Scotchman: "Whatever, indeed, may be the species of an Englishman's oratory, its generic character is always matter of fact-and, therefore, an English orator, independently of the superior style of his diction, the superior grace of his manner, and the greater purity of his elocution, is always much more easily understood, and, consequently, much more agreeable to listen to, than either the Scotch or the Irish. In his ordinary speaking, the Englishman deals with the ordinary occurrences of human nature-the plain, practical results, which are level to every capacity-and when he rises into eloquence, it is the eloquence of history, much more than of philosophy, which distinguishes the Scotch, or of passion, which marks the Irish." This deserves to be deeply pondered by every Scotchman, as ignorance of the truth or contempt of the lesson arising from the inference, will, infallibly, ruin his usefulness. This question is not one of national politics, or of criticism, but of plain facts-nor is it a question as to which of the two styles is, abstractly, the better one-perhaps a judicious union of the chief elements of both, might constitute something better than either; perhaps the eminent preachers of both nations, are essentially and substantially one, and this similarity or sameness arises from a combination of different excellencies, attended by the exclusion of defects. Perhaps the attempt at such a union is right, and wise.

But, assuredly, the attempt to substitute the method of either nation for that of the other, were unwise, and might be fatal— and the substitution of the Scotch for the English would be much more hazardous than the substitution of the English for the Scotch. Every Scotch pulpit is, in point of fact, a union of three academic chairs that of logic and mental philosophy, that of moral science, and that of polemic theology. In three of the universities, the logic and ethical chairs have, for a century, been filled with men of the greatest genius and celebrity, who invested their subject with such interest, and threw around them such lustre, as to cast the other

classes into something like obscurity. No honours were sought or regarded, but such as were procured from these subtle and intellectual regions. This metaphysical mania has descended from sire to son, and hardly can a minister escape the contagion. As all the leading

denominations have decreed that no one shall be admitted to minister among them who has not passed the college curriculum, all are imbued more or less with the scholastic, philosophical spirit; and thus it has diffused itself like a flood over the whole national mind. The colleges mould the ministers, and they mould the population. The mass of the public instruction is strongly cast in this logical frame, and every thing must be clothed in the garb of argument. So much is this the case, that the philosophic and the popular are actually synonymous terms. In England, different causes have produced different effects, and, hence, there is an avowed hostility to the name, and a felt aversion to the thing,—that is, to metaphysics. In our universities, mental and moral science, especially the former, have been but little cultivated. In dissenting colleges, these studies have received just that portion of attention which their relative importance demands; sometimes less, perhaps, but never more. They have not been allowed to absorb every other consideration, as in the north. Hence, they have exercised no tyrannous sway over the mould of thought, or the cast of diction. Hence the educated ministry of England, themselves pure from the metaphysical virus, have not contaminated the people. Moreover, for nearly a hundred years, lay preaching has been very prevalent in the south. Multitudes, with no other than common education, not always that, have begun to preach, and ultimately settled over churches. On the foundation of good sense, often of great natural abilities, and in general of fervent piety, these worthy men have frequently reared an honourable edifice of pastoral accomplishments, retaining all the matter-of-fact character, and manly simplicity, and business-like earnestness of style and manner, which are distinctive of the nation. Almost the entire ministry of the greatest dissenting body amongst us is of that class now mentioned. And it is, perhaps, not too much to affirm, that nearly one half the ministry of the other bodies of the same description are of the above species. This host of teachers shed an influence over a great portion of the people-for it holds in this, as in other matters, like priest like people. Finally, the majority of our mighty population are uninfluenced by any process of teaching whatever. The late Special Commissions have disclosed the condition of the lower classes, and revealed to ministers the state of those whose salvation they are labouring to promote. In Berkshire, of 130 prisoners committed to

Reading jail, twenty-five only could write; thirty-seven only could read; and seventy-six could neither write nor read; and yet 120 were under forty years of age, varying from thirty-five down to eighteen, and therefore must not be confounded with the ancient men, in whose youth the systems of education, now extant, had no being, but may be viewed as a fair sample of the several counties. Of the thirty prisoners, tried at Abingdon, six could read and write-eleven could read a little-the remainder were wholly uneducated. In Bucks, of the seventy-nine prisoners convicted at Aylesbury, only thirty could read and write. In Hants, of 332 committed for trial at Winchester, 105 could neither read nor write; and nearly the whole number were ignorant of even the rudiments of religious knowledge. In Kent, about half the prisoners committed to Maidstone jail were unable to read or write, and nearly the whole were totally ignorant of the nature and obligations of religion. In Sussex, of fifty prisoners put on trial at Lewes, thirteen only could read and write; twelve could read a little-only one could read well! I quote these melancholy facts, not to show the connexion between ignorance and crime, but simply in illustration of the statements which I have made, and that you may learn the true condition of the labouring classes, and be the better enabled to meet their necessities. The third difference may be termed theological. The extent of this is credible to those only who have had evidence from personal observation. Speaking generally, the religion of the north is chiefly an affair of the judgment; that of the south an affair of the affections. In the one country there is a vast amount of unproductive doctrinal speculation; in the other there is no less an amount of bastard, barren emotion. The watchword of the former is, "By all means, let us have correct doctrine." Of the latter, "By all means, let us have strong excitement." And while they have severed truth from feeling, and feeling from truth, they have conspired to sacrifice the claims of practical godliness. Wesley said too truly of the Scotch, they "heard everything, understood everything, and felt nothing;' a fact that has been already accounted for. Yonder your difficulty lay in reaching the heart; here it will consist more in reaching the head. The one will not think, the other will not feel. Be prepared for provocation on every hand. You will sometimes meet with a voracious appetite for excitement, accompanied by an intolerant loathing of doctrinal instruction- —an impatience of statement, and a longing for effect-a sighing for comfort, and a rejection of that truth, through which alone the Holy Spirit imparts it. This will call for much tenderness, and patience, and fidelity, that you may wean them from cordials and stimulants, and by a proper