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ting several passages of scripture on this subject, he observes,

Do you wish to know what is included in these fearful denunciations? It is not in my power completely to unfold them. All that is contained in that fearfully comprehensive, but commonly abused word hell; the wrath of God; remorse of conscience, and eternal despair, are the chief ingredients in this cup of torment. How angry is God with such persons now, and how heavily will he inflict his wrath

hereafter! I cannot conceive of one character, with whom Jehovah will be so awfully severe as the scoffer; his is the loftiest height of vice, and his will be the lowest depth of punishment. God's patience in bearing with such impious creatures is wonderful; and his justice in punishing them will be in proportion. Oh let me be any thing in the day of judgment, rather than the scoffer. He will be no mocker there. No. I see him hanging down his head like a bulrush; the haughtiness of his spirit is all gone: trembling with consternation and dismay, there he stands the object of divine scorn and indignation. His wit, his irony, his mimicry, avail him nothing there. He cannot play the buffoon amidst the fearful solemnities of the last judgment. Oh no the poor trembling creature finds it a far different thing to see God, than to speak of him. He is now at the bar of the Judge of the whole earth, waiting his eternal destiny with certain and dread

ful of what it will be. He is presages no longer surrounded with a circle of applauding auditors who laugh at his wit; he no longer hears the inspiring chorus of folly no, no; he is before the tribunal of the God whom he has

insulted on one side he sees the men

:

looking on him with horror, whose ruin he accelerated by his scoffs; and on the other, the holy objects on whom his scorn was vented. Aye, and how is he confounded at the latter. Every thing on that day will combine to fill him with consternation; yet, methinks neither the voice of the archangel, nor the trump of God, nor the dissolution of the elements, nor the face of the Judge himself, from which the heavens will flee away, will be so dismaying and terrible as the sight of the

saints of the most high God, whom having spurned, ridiculed, and mocked in the days of their humiliation, he will then behold with amazement, united with their Lord, covered with his glory, and seated upon his throne. How will he be astonished to see them encompassed with so much majesty and loaded with so much nonor! How will he How will he curse his folly in treating cast down his eyes in their presence! them with so much ridicule and forming such an inadequate idea of their principles and character!

And then who shall tell the secrets of his prison, or conceive of what the scorner shall endure in the dark world

of hell! There will be no saint near sions of his ridicule; no piety shall him there, on whom to utter the effu. there offend his eyes; far as heaven is from hell shall these be removed out of his way. He has only to wait a little longer, till he has reached the destiny on which his crime is impelling him, and he will inhabit a world, where the hated, persecuted form of piety will trouble him no longer. Will he assuage his own agonies, or divert the companions of his misery with merry jokes upon the saints? Not one flash of wit will for a moment relieve the darkness of eternal night; not one sally of humor resist the oppression of eternal despair. Hell will no longer be a subject of merriment when its torments are really felt the burning lake, when the soul is plunged in its fiery billows, will be found something else and worse than a mere scene of diversion for a wretched imagination to sport in and devils, when the spirit is subjected to their tyranny as tormentors, will be no longer regarded, as the mere images of appalling recreation. In the bottomless pit the scorner shall learn, if he learn not before, that there is truth in the bible, and reality in religion. Yes, the recollection of those jests and those witticisms, those drolleries and those anecdotes, intended to make piety appear ridicu lous, and the saints to appear contemptible, will fill him with torture a thousand times more intolerable, than the venom of serpents and the stings of scorpions.-pp. 39-43.

In concluding the representation above, which finishes his sermon as

far as to the application, there is a most sublime and affecting accommodation of the words which our Saviour uttered in his last moments. He is addressing the scorner:

Beware, thou art playing a desperate game; thy soul is the stake, thy loss is certain, and hell will be the consequence. The objects of thy attack are open to conviction, but are invulnerable to scorn. They have no prejudice which fortifies them against argument; but against the shafts of ridicule they are armed at every point, and calmly and silently leaving you to exhaust your quiver of its last and weakest arrow, will abandon your harmless and imbecile weapons to publish your defeat, and then amidst the consciousness of innocence and victo

ry, content themselves with saying, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.-p. 43.

His application is in the old fashioned manner. "By way of improvement" he says "1. Let no man think the worse of religion, or of any of its doctrines, because some are so bold as to despise them."

"2. I shall lay down some means of securing ourselves and our religion against the attacks of the scorner."

"3. If however it be impossible to ward off the attacks of scorn, and to avert the scoffs of the profane, then bear them with unruffled meekness."

Under the second head of the application relative to the means of security, there are several particulars. As his rules are marked by much good sense, they may be here mentioned. One which he lays down is " An enlightened and enlarged acquaintance with the evidences of the truth of revealed religion, and of those particular doctrines, duties, and practices, which we believe it contains." Another is "The feeling of that courage and decision which enable us unblushingly to avow our attachments to

religion, or any of its opinions or practices in the face either of ridicule or rage." Another is "The cultivation of the disposition, and practice of all the duties of a holy life." The fourth is "Not suf fering ridicule to intrude itself into matters of controversy betwixt Christians themselves." The last is "A caution as to indulging the most distant approach to this impious and injurious practice in our social intercourse, our habitual conversation, and our remarks upon each other." The last named rule he illustrates by the following appropriate and well timed remarks.

Let us cherish to the uttermost

that awe which warns us how we touch a holy thing. The name of

God should never be uttered but with reverence. Religion should never be introduced but with respect. A light and frivolous manner of speaking on sacred subjects is very criminal; how much more that profane practice of adapting the inspired language of Scripture, to the ordinary occurrences of life. A Mahometan never picks up by chance a fragment of the koran, without marks of reverent respect, and yet some professing Christians employ the words of the Holy Ghost, to season a jest, or give a smartness to a repartee. If there be any truth in religion, it is the most solemn thing in the world; and as such let it be treated, especially by those who profess to know its nature, and submit to its claims.

The discourse, as a foreign production, may deserve a critical remark or two; but we cannot stop long for this purpose. It is marked by earnestness and sincerity, and is bold, severe, and perhaps pointed, in reference to the sort of people with whom the preacher was dealing. He may never have read a New England sermon; and yet his production differs not so much from a New England sermon, that we should be greatly disinclined to own it. Still there is a certain something-a sort of manner and

tone about it, not easily to be described, which internally demonstrates it to be the pulpit effort of a foreigner. Compared with the common run of sermons among us, it is perhaps less compact, less formed and modelled by rules of art, more loose, and even more verbose; but it excels in sprightliness, in originality, in copiousness of illustration, in variety of matter. We are not certain that it does not contain too much matter for one sermon, or even for two. The vaThe va rious rules under the second inference, duly explained and enforced, might alone suffice for one sermon. It is wise, so far as depth of impression is concerned, not to include too much discussion, or to go over too wide a field in a single sermon. It is wise, whatever may be the subject, not to say too much upon it, and to stop when it becomes necessary to repeat what has been said before.

In regard to the dreadful sin, on which the author has so seasonably animadverted, we have a few thoughts further to suggest of our own. It is perhaps needless to remark, that its immediate and abundant source is the depravity of the heart; and that in its more matured stages, it evinces a hardened indifference to religion, and a fearful flagitiousness of principle, if not of practice. It is perhaps needless to say also, that when carried to a certain extreme extent, it nearly or quite ensures the damnation of those who are addicted to it. As committed among us, it demands the serious consideration of the ministers of religion. Pungently and awfully should it be reproved, and as often as occasions render this measure necessary. Unhappily the occasions are too frequent, and probably increasing in the land. The depravity of sinners, and our growing imitation of foreign practices, aided by our free institutions and free press, our tolerant habits

and entire equality, are connected with many offences on this subject, notwithstanding the generally healthy tone of public morals and religion. Both in private circles, and in the periodicals of the day, much that is highly objectionable on this ground, is said and written.

There is one subject we would particularly bring into view, in regard to which the scoffers of the times have vented their malice, and in regard to which they will be peculiarly apt to offend. That subject pertains to revivals of religion. As these have been, and are still frequent, and are doubtless connected with some abuses, it will be natural for the enemies of piety, to make this a sort of watch-word or rallying point. And already, indeed, has the stream of sarcasm and invective begun to pour through the land. The pretext of these attacks-these scoffs and sneers and bitter aspersions, is furnished by the abuses which grow out of revivals of religion; and truly none should countenance so dreadful an evil. The ministers of the gospel, as some have already done, should raise the warning voice, and guard their hearers against the devices of satan in corrupting revivals. It is their duty, and the duty of all good men and citizens, to expose an abuse of so eminent a mercy as a genuine revival of religion. But then an occasion is afforded on the part of enemies, in connexion with so unhappy a perversion of heaven's best blessing, to denounce the whole system, and to calumniate its supporters. An occasion is afforded for them, we fear, to speak even against the blessed Being--the holy Agent, who, we believe, is employed in producing all pure religious excitement. If the friends of the system are not sufficiently vigilant, and the tendency to abuse an irregu larity is not seasonably checked, the Christian community among us, will, to all human appearance be

thrown back at length, to that state of religious apathy, which preceded the era of these remarkable effusions of the Spirit upon our churches. We would not excite unreasonable alarm, but we are constrained to say, that Christians have perhaps been too confident, that a glorious career--that many days of brightness were immediately before them, without anticipating the possible intervention of a very different state of things-the withdrawment of these high and heavenly influences. Who knows what reverses are necessary in order to impart to the friends of Christ deeper humility-a more impressive sense of dependence, and to put to the test the genuineness of that faith, which so many of late have professed. If we are not mistaken, there are no doubtful indications of gathering hostility to the best of causes, and that not merely under the decent disguises hitherto adopted, but in direct, decided, and open attacks. If we do not miss our reluctant calculations, judging from the existence of certain papers in our land, the battle even with infidelity, is to be fought over again, and spiritual dangers of no ordinary magnitude, are to thicken around the church of God, for a time. We may say at the least, that it is the part of wisdom, to be on our guard against these foes, and to gird ourselves up manfully to the contest, should it become necessary.

Hannam's Pulpit Assistant ; con taining three hundred Outlines, or Skeletons of Sermons: chiefly extracted from various authors. With an Essay on the composition of a Sermon, complete in three volumes. First American from the 4th London Edition.

lithographic sermons, are very little in vogue, we trust, in this country. Nevertheless, since an enterprizing publisher has presumed the fact to be otherwise, and upon the strength of this presumption has ventured to reprint five English octodecimos of skeletons,— since, especially, a worthy corresponda desperate enterprise we hope,—and

ent has looked at these skeletons and sent us his reflections over them, we have concluded to give them a place in our Review,-writing, however, this prefatory paragraph as a sort of disclaimer of any imputation on the clerical fraternity which, in the minds of some, such a book, or such a notice of it, might seem to carry with it. We believe we are sure-that these "labor-saving" volumes will meet with no prevalent demand in this country, however welcome they may be to a certain description of clergymen in the land of pulpit skeletons. We say labor-saving volumes, for such they profess to be, though the fact is doubtless otherwise. For a borrower of thoughts is like a borrower of tools : both spend much time abroad which might be much more economically, in the long run, as well as much more pleasantly and effectively occupied at

home.]

THIS work, it seems, "has met with general acceptance from the religious world," and has passed through four editions in England. Its general design, as stated in the preface to the fourth London edition, "is to suggest ideas to those preachers whose situation renders it impracticable for them to peruse those works, from which a great part of them are extracted; being fully persuaded that if read with prayer and meditation, they will be a service to themselves and a blessing to others."-It is also said they are principally designed to promote

[Pulpit assistants, and script and the usefulness of young ministers.

are

We doubt not the design of the compiler of these volumes was good. The authors from whom he has chiefly taken these skeletons are of a high character, and the sentiments contained in them are evangelical, many of them taken from old authors, and are rather outlines of treatises, than plans of sermons of course they are too prolix, and contain quite too many subdivisions. But we seriously question whether they will not prove a detriment rather than an 66 assistance to the pulpit." Ministers like other men are naturally indolent; as they have a weekly task to perform, they are disposed to defer it as long as possible. If by any unusal pressure of business, or unexpected interruption, they are straitened for time to prepare for the sabbath, it is peculiarly grateful to find a text and an "outline of a sermon" made to their hands. This so much relieves their minds from distressing anxiety, that they will be extremely apt to neglect every opportunity to be furnished for the duties of the sanctuary. They will fail to pick up the little 66 scraps of time" that lie scattered through the week, and a habit of procrastination, if not of indolence will be formed. What has proved very convenient under peculiar - circumstances, will be likely to be resorted to under ordinary circumstances. We have very serious objections against a clergyman's owning such a work as Hannam's Pulpit Assistant, or Simeon's Skeletons, for, if he own them he will use them. We believe many a preacher has been almost ruined by these works. We will state some of the evils that arise from a use of other men's plans in composing sermons. In our own country preaching other men's sermons has ever been, and we trust, ever will be, regarded dishonorable to the clerical profession, and injurious to the interests of religion.

In the first place; Composing sermoas from other men's plans,or using a book of Skeletons leads to indolence. We have alreadyhinted at this. But a minister who is conscientious in the discharge of his duties, may be injured by this practice. Let us look for a moment at the situation of a minister, who is settled over an extensive congregation. He will necessarily be subjected to many calls from strangers and from his own society-visits to the sick and the afflicted, and parochial visits will occupy no inconsiderable por tion of his time. While visiting, he will feel, from the pleasure and the benefit of it, that he could prof. itably spend his whole time in that important part of a minister's duty. The sabbath approaches. Two sermons are to be prepared: before he is aware of it, half of the week has elapsed. With just sufficient time, to compose two sermons hastily, with only enough to write one sermon well, he begins his task-calls, and interruptions occur to embarrass and perplex him-he resorts to his “ Pulpit Assistant" and gets through with his two sermons. Now it is easier to visit than to study—and it is easier to write a sermon from a full skeleton than to arrange a method and fill it out, from original reflection. The ease and readiness with which we contract habits are proverbial. The practice of deferring to the latter part of the week the necessary preparation for the sabbath is a fruitful source of evil to ministers, who, like others, too often suffer themselves to become the sport of circumstances, and who accomplish only as much as they are obliged to. These courses combined operate to the prejudice of good habits, and induce many good ministers to resort to

pulpit assistants,' when they ought to be thrown upon their own

resources.

Secondly; The use of published Skeletons destroys originality, and

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