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gentiles? "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Was Paul a deluded and raving fanatic? If he was not, then there is one kind of glory which is more worthy of the "aspiration of a generous spirit," than even the gratitude of a nation.

But we pass on-and what will our grave and puritanical readers think of such an encomiastic flight as this? "Hitherto, fellow-citizens, the fourth of July has been celebrated among us only as the anniversary of our Independence, and its votaries have been merely human beings. But at the last recurrence, heaven itself mingled visibly in the celebration, and hallowed the day anew by a double apotheosis." p. 425. A double apotheosis! Adams and Jefferson added to the list of the gods, on the fourth day of last July, and "heaven itself" coming down to assist in the rites of deification!! Where are we? What is the religion of the country in which we live? We had thought that this was a Christian land, or that Washington was a Christian rather than a pagan city, and that Mr. Wirt delivered his eulogy before a Christian audience. But we are carried back at once to heathen Rome, and to the age of the Cæsars. When Augustus died, he was exalted at once to a seat among the tutelar deities of the empire. So when Adams and Jefferson died "heaven itself hallowed the day by a DOUBLE APOTHEOSIS!" Alas! to what lengths will not even great men sometimes go, rather than suppress a bright thought, however hostile to Christianity, or leave out a fine classical allusion, however extravagant or heathenish the application. In the case before us the temptation was too strong to be resisted, and the stamp of paganism is indelibly fixed upon one of the brightest pages, of the most splendid eulogy in the volume before us. In vain will any

one attempt to justify this bold experiment upon the moral sense of a Christian people, this more than "double" hyperbole, by claiming for it the immunities of rhetorical license; for the recognition of this claim would go to justify the bringing in of the whole system of heathen mythology to give point and eclat to our patriotic celebrations. What effect this would have, in time, upon the minds of the people, and indeed, what effect has already been produced by the absurd mixturs of paganism and Christianity in the popular orations of half a century, we cannot stop to inquire. But we shall not cease to protest, on every suitable occasion, against bringing in these heathen ornaments to embellish the temple of our liberties.

There is one other class of transgressions in this volume, which cannot escape the eye of the Christian reader, and which we feel bound to notice in this place. We refer to the improper use of scripture; and we are the more solicitious to state our views on this point, because such transgressions are extremely common both in books and conversation. They abound in all the light and fashionable literature of the day. They are committed at the dinner party, at the bar, in the halls of legislation, and even some, times in the social intercourse of Christian professors, and ministers of the gospel. But our present concern is with the selection before us, and against such quotations and allusions as the following, we strongly object.

"As he has ena

bled the American eagle to soar aloft," (how else could he soar?) "with healing in his wings, may he give him strength to continue his flight through the heavens with unblemished majesty." p. 54. What a perversion of sacred imagery! A passage in which the prophet foretels the coming of Christ, and the spiritual blessings which he will con

fer upon mankind, divested of its glorious import and identified with the militant emblem of our civil liberties! Such handling of holy things must shock every pious mind. "They," (Adams and Jefferson) "passed indeed through the valley of the shadow of death, but it was lighted up by the brightness of their own day of Jubilee-their spirits rose upon the songs of joy and the prayers of gratitude of millions whom they had made free, and had the prophet but lent his "chariot of fire" and his "horses of fire" their ascent could hardly have been more glorious." p. 152. This, according to a brother eulogist, is a most felicitous allusion.' it strikes us, we must confess, very differently. The miracle of Elijah's translation could never have been recorded, to point a brilliant sentence in any such book as this. And after all, what resemblance is there between the sinking of grey hairs and decrepitude into the grave, and going up bodily in a chariot of fire to heaven?

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Again: "Well might they on that anniversary, which was so peculiarly marked both by religious and political feeling, unite in the pious ejaculation, Let now thy servants depart in peace, for our eyes have seen the salvation of our country.' This is an accommodation of one of the most fervent ejaculations of scripture which we cannot possibly approve. The occasion did not call for it. No proofs of extraordinary piety are adduced to justify it. And how is the ejaculation desecrated, by leaving out the divine object which prompted it and substituting one that with all its importance dwindles into nothing in the comparison.

We shall quote only one more perversion of scripture; but it is one which will shock and grieve the pious reader as much, perhaps, as any thing we have quoted, since the" double apotheosis." "What

profiteth it a nation if it gain the whole world and lose its own liberty?" p. 321. It is difficult to conceive how any man who believes in the truth and inspiration of the gospel, can bring his feelings to trifle in this manner with one of the most alarming texts which it contains. What is even a nation's slavery to the eternal loss of an undying soul? And if it were possible to compare things temporal with things eternal, how improper would it be, to divest a text of all its solemnity and sacredness by the mere conceit of accommodation.

These strictures will stand but little chance of ever meeting the eyes of the nineteen authors now before us, or any considerable number of them; but our labour will not be lost, if any of our readers should feel themselves reproved for trifling and irreverent allusions to scripture, and should conscientiously guard against such improprieties.

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

A Sermon, preached Sept. 14, 1826, before the American Board of Missions, at Middletown, Connecticut. By EDWARD D. GRIF

FIN, D. D. President of Williams' College. E. & H. Clark.

If we judge correctly, it is now much more difficult to write a good missionary sermon, than it was some fifteen or twenty years ago. It requires more talent, more labor, and a vastly better acquaintance with the state of the heathen world, and with what may be technically called missionary history. Not but that the same things can be as well, and even better said, than they were then. Not but that the same

facts, arguments, motives, and illustrations, can be more easily arranged, and quite as forcibly presented. The difficulty lies partly where it does in writing a good fourth-of

July oration, or in meeting any other similar call of yearly occurrence; and partly in keeping up with the march of the "sacramental host of God's elect."

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What was new and striking, when slumbering thousands of Christians were roused up to prayer and to action, by the thrilling voice of Melville Horne-when the apostolic Buchanan pointed out to their wondering eyes a new "star in the east" and when Dr. Griffin himself. so eloquently pleaded the cause of a dying world before the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church-much of what was new and striking then, has now become like "household words." Time was when the mention of Juggernaut, and mothers casting their babes into the Ganges, and widows shrieking on the blazing funeral pile, were sure to excite the strongest emotions of sympathy and horror; but the "horrid car" has been brought out so many thousands of times, and those widows and moth ers and infants have been so often exhibited, that they have come to be regarded as mere matters of course. The missionary preacher, who at this day would instruct and move an enlightened Christian audience, must forget the things which are behind, and reach forth to what is before.' He must not content himself with beginning where others began, a quarter of a century ago, and saying what they said, and stopping where they left off. He must bring forth out of his treasures things new, as well as old.'

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Let us not be misunderstood.A great deal that has been said and printed again and again, on missionary topics, will bear to be repeated. Even good men are too often "slow of heart to believe." They must have line upon line, precept upon precept.' Old objections too, though a thousand times refuted, are continually re

iterated, and must be met with the same answer, to the hundredth, or thousandth edition. All this is very plain. But who shall go over and over the long beaten track? By what means, chiefly, shall the pure minds of God's children be stirred up by way of remembrance?' And how shall the temerity of the haters and villifiers of the missionary cause, be chastised in all its protean forms? However useful and necessary such services may be, they do not at this late day, require the greatest talents in the church. They might in general, we should think, be devolved upon the missionary periodical press, upon the friends of the cause at the monthly concert, and upon the great body of the clergy in their regular ministrations.

But when a sermon in favor of missions is to be preached, especially before the largest and most efficient society in the land, and by a distinguished member, long before designated to the service, something out of the ordinary course is naturally and reasonably expected-some new thoughts and original illustrations-some freshplucked "apples of gold in pictures of silver"of silver" some goodly territory added to those ample domains which have already been surveyed and claimed by the church. Here is room for the mightiest champions of the cross to put forth all their strength. To the high demands of such an occasion the preacher does not approximate, unless he carries his audience up to an eminence hitherto rarely trodden, and there bids them look at some bright outline, some thick clustered hill-side, or far-off mountain of the land of promise, which they had never seen before. Let him not then waste his time in the discussion of elementary principles, which are already as firmly established as any of the ordinances of heaven. Let him begin where others have left

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off, or let him present the subject in some new light, kindled by the focal intensity of his own meditaWhat his predecessors have clearly and unanswerably proved, let him assume as the basis of his arguments, and from this "vantage ground" take a still wider range. As they have saved him the trouble of laying the foundations, let him in his turn, add something to the height and strength of the walls. In this way, should the great work steadily advance, till the stone is brought forth with shoutings, grace, grace unto it."

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As it is one thing for a warrior to burnish Saul's armour, and another to fabricate a new suit for himself, so it is one thing for the annual preacher to add a "new pamphlet to the missionary files, and quite another thing to enrich it with facts, and thoughts and reasonings and illustrations drawn from regions hitherto unexplored. But thus enriched, (if we may venture to say it,) should every discourse be, which is delivered before a leading and popular missionary society. This being admitted, it follows of course, that the requisite preparation must demand no little time and talent. The preacher must have read and thought much on the great subject before him. He must have kept up with the rapid march of events, auspicious to the holy cause of missions. His

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eye must have looked right on, and his eyelids straight forward," and his heart must have been warm within him. Who will say, that our standard is too high, or that gifts such as we have specified, need not be " earnestly coveted" by the missionary preacher? But if the correctness of our views be admitted, then it cannot be denied, that his task is far more difficult, than was that of those who first called up the churches from their long slumber.

How much the popular author of

the discourse now before us, has increased his well earned celebrity as a preacher, or how much he has added by this contribution, to the classical and shining affluence of the American Board, it is needless for us to say. Much was expected.

The profound attention of a great assembly testified how much they were interested at the time; and we doubt not, that multitudes have since read the discourse with similar interest. The topics of argument, indeed, are not new; but then they are well selected, judiciously arranged, and ably enforced. They bear the impress of the author's mind and manner throughout.

The reader who has seen his other occasional sermons, or who has at any time heard him preach, will recognise the likeness in every paragraph. It is Dr. Griffin's "image and superscription" and not that of any other man. He always thinks and writes like himself, as well as for himself.

A cool and severe critic might perhaps say, that the thread of this discourse is uneven-in some places very fine and in others rather coarse and unwrought. He might possibly charge upon a few strokes, the seeming affectation of pathos; or might say that at any rate, the audience could not have become so entranced as to hear sounds unearthly in the third paragraph. He might object to one or two expressions, as savouring more of conceit and studied singularity, than of the true eloquence of thought and feeling; and to a very few words and phrases, as wanting in taste and classical propriety.

Now while we protest against that hypocritical fastidiousness, which would "make a man an offender for a word," we must confess, though we speak it with great deference, that a few slight corrections before the discourse went to press, would in our judgment have considerably improved it. We

were not at all prepared, for example, to hear the thunder which broke upon us at the bottom of p. 4. And when we came to the question, p. 5. "Are you a universalist ?" it seemed to us, that considering who they are that attend our missionary anniversaries, the use of the third person would have been preferable to that of the second. So again, p. 9. “ You may take your opinions from yourself if you will ; I will take mine from the word of God." It is giving more point to a sentence, no doubt, to say you, than they; and our objection is not general but particular. The preacher in this case, probably, had no particular reason to suspect that any of his hearers would deny the authority of the scriptures, in regard to the duty and necessity of sending the gospel to the heathen and if not, why did he speak to the absent, as though they had been present. At p. 24, we find this sentence. "It is fourteen years since New-England broke her

slumbers, and now the mass of her population seems drenched in the missionary spirit." Is this a felicitous use of the word drenched? and if so, can it be said without hyperbole, that the mass of our population seems drenched in the missionary spirit? We had thought otherwise. In the closing paragraph, which is highly animated and eloquently climacteric, a single word occurs, over which the preacher might have drawn his pen to great advantage. It is found in the twelfth line of page 26, from the bottom.; and almost necessarily calls up associations which are not in keeping with the brilliancy which surround it. The last clause of the last sentence we cannot possibly admire. Otherwise the close is very fine. As the whole discourse is, we presume, already in the hands of most of our readers, we shall quote but a single paragraph, which by the way, has more soul in it, than

a whole library of "liberal and doubtful speculation," concerning the character and offices of Christ."

How delightful to contemplate the honours which encircle the Lamb in the midst of his Father's throne. After wandering an exile from heaven for more than thirty years for our revolt, how joyous to know that he has found a home. After the crown of thorns, we are happy to see him wear the diadem of the universe. After depending for bread on the charity of his female followers, we are glad to see him the Heir of all things, and able in his turn to impart to others. After being so long neglected and despised by men, we rejoice that he has found those who know how to honour his worth; we exult to hear the shout of all heaven in his praise. After the agonies of the garden and the cross, we sing and shout for joy that he has found infinite and eternal delight in the glory of his Father and the salvation of his church.

Let him have his

happiness and his honours. Amidst solace that the despised Nazarene has all the sufferings of life it shall be our found his throne, that the man of sor

rows is happy at last. Of all the luxuries that ever feasted the human soul, the sweetest is to see the Lamb that

was slain in the midst of his Father's

throne. We will embalm his name in our grateful hearts. We will embalm it by our praise, which shall live while we have breath and sink away upon our dying lips. And we will embalm it among the songs of the upper world. If we are permitted to come and stand where the elders bow, how will we bow and sing. When we shall look down to hell and see our old companions there, and then back to Caltouching traces of love in those meltvary, and then look up and read the ing eyes and among the prints of the nails and the thorns, we will embalm his name if love and songs can do it. We will tell all heaven of his love. If ever new inhabitants should come in from other worlds, they shall hear the story of Calvary. If commissioned other systems, we will carry the amain remote ages of eternity to visit zing tidings to them. We will tell them to all we meet. We will erect monuments of the wonderful facts on

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