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TO VAUNT ONE'S ORTHODOXY.

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to show that it was not the sense or the way of the Spirit, and especially not our way, to sanction Morrisonianism!

It is not so honorable for a minister of Christ, especially in an orthodox ecclesiastical connection, to be sound in the faith, and a cordial and entire friend to the revealed system in all its truth, as it is shameful and nefarious for him to be any other than such a theologian and such a preacher. His orthodoxy is analogous in society to the purity of woman. It must not be impeached, or suspected, or defended, or handled in common. The winds of heaven may not blow on it exposed. Besides, the practice of self-vindication is only contemptible, as a species of self-impeachment and the implication of morbid consciousness. Qui se excusat, magis accuOne should mainly trust himself and his reputation to God, caring for realities rather than appearances, and desiring to do good to souls more than eclaircise his own reputation. Let a man mind to do his duty, and ordinarily his actions will tell their own story in the instinctive sentiments of men. We have seen and remember some bragging orthodoxy-venders, whose terminus justified their accusers—they gloried self-righteously in their orthodoxy-pshaw! and accused and calumniated some of the best and the most useful ministers of God. De talibus citius dicto obliviscendum est. But rest we here for a moment.

sat.

On the appointed morning, a fine day of boreal summer, we arrived too soon at the place by some forty minutes, and yet too late, as it seemed, to find easily a seat. The apart ment had been commonly unused for its present purpose; and its largeness was made by a summary mode of "church extension," known by some of our own missionaries, that of removing the partition between two rather small rooms, as it appeared. Well, it was overflowing full; but the sexton, having some hint or word that I was to assist Dr. Chalmers that morning, began to purvey me a seat, near the table, at which the place of the doctor was awaiting him. With dif

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A SUDDEN AND STRANGE SERVICE.

ficulty and his assistance, I reached it, and saw the crowds collecting without, as well as squeezed together within; yet no Dr. Chalmers. I felt that some irregularity must ensue, and remained more anxious than happy, till the sexton or beadle came, amain, through the parted crowd, and informed me that Dr. Chalmers was waiting in another room near, and very desirous to see me! I objected, it seemed so difficult to get there through the mass, and then so hopeless to return. But he was earnest and firm. He marshaled me. the way; I followed him, and was soon in the presence of the doctor, when, after despatching the commonplaces, he said,

2. My dear sir, you see here how it is a larger audience on the outside than there is in the inside, and many of them men of sense and standing in this city. Well, I have just given orders, and you must come into the arrangement. They will have a large table spread there, a carpet to cover it, a small table on it, and the Bible on the table. So you must climb up and preach there, and I will try it inside. There's just no other way, you see; and plainly you are called to it.

I acquiesced with real regret, as it settled the question of my ever hearing Chalmers again, and I knew it! Soon I was mounted, and explaining the matter to my very intelligent and Christian-looking audience, mostly of my own sex, the ladies having found accommodations within. The text was, Isai. 55: 1. Ho! every one that thirsteth; come ye to the waters-and so to the end. My position was not very easy or commodious, yet I proceeded and finished the service. They were very attentive; and probably some curiosity to see and hear an American might explain much of it; probably the grace of God may be credited for more of it. At any rate, I spoke with freedom and directness-not scared out of my proper consistency with a fear of the charge of Morrisonianism, nor anxious particularly to vaunt my undoubted orthodoxy. I let my reputation take care of itself, or, rather, commended it and its proprietor to the care and grace of God.

THE PREACHING OF CHALMERS.

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What was enacted within, I was not there to witness. Each preacher could hear the voice of the other, without any discrimination of the sense in the sound. But from several others who were present I mainly describe it. The doctor preached in his own admirable way to an arrested and solemn auditory-yet, whether so familiar or not might be a question. His text, ii. Cor. 5: 20.-Now then we are ambassadors for Christ; as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, BE YE RECONCILED TO GOD-was rich and excellent, and one might be allowed to guess how Chalmers used it. His notes were before him, though he seemed remarkably unconfined to them. such a mind as his, so philosophical, so affluent, so disciplined, and so habituated to revel in scholastic forms and phrases, it is quite possible that there was too much of learned abstraction, and too little of practical directness and familiar plainness, in his admirable sermon; that I could not hear it, was a privation and a disappointment, as I felt then, and feel now, almost wounded with the thought that I had lost the only opportunity I might ever have to hear him once more, in the spirited and powerful discharge of his appropriate and holy function.

But to

But I am now to narrate another, but a related matterwhich, if it were to come off, I regret that I was not "there to see." Among his hearers, for the first and the last time in his life, was the venerable Dr. Beecher; and he was, in his feelings and his thoughts, no ordinary hearer! He was filled with the subject, enthusiastic in his correspondence with it, and not a little impressed with the idea of a practical defect in it, as wanting more direct and personal application. Consequently, after its close, he enacted a part, which, however it might be appreciated in America, was quite singular, if not censurable, in Scotland, especially in the city of Edinburgh, the great Athens of North Britain, and most especially as a quasi addendum to the sermon of Chalmers! As I give

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VOLUNTARY OF BEECHER.

the narration only from hearsay, though from the lips of concurrent witnesses, I must remind the reader that I may not be minutely correct in all the forms, and the details, and the phrases of that memorable address, "on the voluntary principle." He spoke mainly as follows:

My friends and brethren here present, I trust you will allow one in my circumstances, with the consent of the honored preacher, to say an additional word on his great theme, the more, if possible, to impress its rich and solemn truth on the minds of you all. I am four or five thousand miles from my home and country, have lived long in God's world, and can scarce hope much longer to continue in it, and for half a century have been occupied as a preacher of the gospel. Hence, my friends, you may see some reason for my special interest in the subject on this special occasion. I pray that this solemn and faithful discourse may not be lost on any of us; and that, on the contrary, you may aright improve it to your everlasting advantage, suffer, I pray you, the word of exhor tation; though from the lips of a stranger, yet from the heart of a friend. I shall never meet you again, most probably, till we stand together at the judgment-seat of Christ. · Well, there are four things that I would affectionately enjoin on you, connected with the sermon just delivered to us :

First. Try to review, that you may retain, that you may understand, that you may improve, the great truths you have heard, lest at any time you may let them slip, and be forgotten and lost.

Second. Resolve here, now, on the spot, that you will improve them, will be reconciled to God, his enemies no more; his friends, his subjects, his children, from this hour.

Third. Remember it to-morrow; act on it; keep and carry it about with you; think—a savor of death to death, if not of life to life; and this necessarily, one or the other; and then comes heaven or hell, at last; just as you treat the message, to improve it or not. I join with the preacher, old

DIFFERENT OPINIONS.

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er than he, and both of us earnest, though not half earnest enough, yet with gray hairs and warm hearts, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you, in Christ's stead, BE YE RECONCILED TO GOD. Yes, here all God's ambassadors are one; and now it is as if America and Europe, and heaven and earth, all as one, and above all, GOD HIMSELF, prostrate, at the feet of the moral agents that he made, your suppliants, beseeching you! Can you slight it—what? and yet hope to be saved? But,

Fourth. With all your resolves and efforts, it will come to naught but death to death at last, without the grace of God, to help, keep, gird, guide, and guard you in the way, and all the way; therefore PRAY TO HIM. Pray now, pray every day, pray always, pray without ceasing, pray in faith, pray for faith, pray till praise prevents you; and let prayer and praise, in their happy alternations, make the salubrious and the celestial atmosphere of all your pilgrimage, till you come home to heaven, where praise, and song, and progression in eternal blessedness, shall be all your delight and all your business, without weariness, or imperfection, or fatigue, or any infirmity, forever active and forever young!

The audience heard all this with strange and rapt emotion; some pleased and rejoiced beyond measure; others, withholding their approbation till they saw whereto this would grow; others, waiting for some authority to give them an opinion; and others, almost angry and censorious at the unwonted venture or interruption from Ohio! It took them all aback. Such an occurrence, or a similar one, I dare say, Chalmers' ministry never before encountered. But I have reason to think the spectacle was viewed, generally, as happy, and even sublime. Beecher was the senior of Chalmers about five years. How different, too, their education and the career of their usefulness; and on theatres how dissimi* The one born March 17, 1780; the other October 12, 1775, nine months before our national Declaration of Independence.

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