get acquainted with the vocables of the languages so as by and by to read them as easily and fluently as the translation. Reiteration leaves traces in the memory not to be obliterated. You will thus become rich in the raw material, though not in Scripture criticism. I would hope that, among the numbers here, there are a devoted few destined to make real discoveries, and to become the future Griesbachs of Scotland. are set for the defence of revelation, and, unless skilled in the original languages, infidelity may paralyze you with a quotation. Many, I hope, will not stop at the point I have mentioned, but will find their way to the Latin of the continental theology, and to the Latin and Greek of the fathers.

You

III. Study the text-book diligently. I also expect you to read the books I shall mention as we go along. Here varieties of mind will be evident among you; some having favourite walks which they will prefer. This we cannot forbid, while at the same time we consider a general scholarship indispensable for all. A well-filled library is necessary; and I am glad the one we have here is so good. The increasing demand for reading is also encouraging; it is the barometer to which I look as indicating your mental progress.

IV. My next advice is with respect to composition. We are first to import knowledge; then to export it. Write daily and elaborately, if only for one hour. Avoid verbiage; do not multiply, but select your words, and lop off redundancies as you would scatter chaff. In the hands of a writer who adopts these precepts, a multitude of words is not verbiage, because each gives some new view or adds to the effect of the old. There is a splendour in his strength, and a strength in his splendour, because there is weight as well as brightness in the metal. Nothing so fixes and consolidates your views of any subject as this practice. A local habitation in the manuscript seems to give them a local habitation in the mind.

V. With respect to societies for mutual improvement, they are powerful engines for upholding knowledge, and may be turned to the best purposes: but I have serious doubts as to debating societies in divinity, and would rather they should be deliberative. I do not like special pleading in theology, and prefer inquiry to controversy. It is a mistake

to suppose there is nothing to say, because there is nothing to object.

In theological societies, it is not fair to set any one to defend the wrong side. It is dangerous to tamper with truth; this is especially to be remembered in writing, for we are not so liable to be talked into error as to be written into it. I have noticed in controversy, that, if a man had only spoken an opinion, he might be induced to change it; but if he had written in support of it, though only a pamphlet, he was perfectly irreclaimable.

I should like a small society to be formed from the élite of the class for the study of Biblical criticism. It is delightful to think of the eminent men in this department sent forth by the English universities. This is the true heraldry of colleges,-the honours which rest on the brows of their sons,-not the renown of their ancestors.

In these societies, some write their speeches beforehand, others try to speak extemporally. Never try to combine both. Either write your speech wholly, or not at all; if not, you will break down, as did a friend of mine before the House of Commons, although he was well acquainted with his subject.* The heavy artillery of written speeches is often effectually aided by the light guns of the extemporaneous speakers. know of only one in our church who has the faculty of excelling in both, and with him the latter is anything but a light gun. It is to me an enviable faculty, more especially as in a minute or two you are visited with the very thought and expression that would have foiled your opponent, when the opportunity is irrecoverably gone.

I

VI. Give as much time as you can spare to general knowledge. I should like some to outpeer all their fellows, and, conversant with science as with sacredness, to support the cause of religion in the highest literary circles. Theology should be presented in all the styles of the same language, from the dialect of peasants to that of savans. I should like you, therefore, to be able so to speak as to be understood by the most illiterate, and at the same time to be so conversant with the current phraseology of literature, as to be acceptable to the most learned. We do not sympathize with the pre

The late Dr. Andrew Thomson.

judices which some entertain against general knowledge; as if truth brought from one quarter were inimical to that derived from another, and as if one part did not illustrate the other. The parables of the Gospel, and the allusions of Paul to the literature and mythology of the Greeks, are conclusive on this subject. In the Psalms, and the Propheeies, and the book of Job, the sacred writers constantly illustrate invisible by visible objects; and our Saviour does the same when he points to the beautiful lilies of the field, or to the fowls of the air. There is nothing in true poetry inimical to true piety. There is a harmony between the subordination of imagination to reason in the things of science, and the subordination of reason to revelation, in the things of sacredness. If a few of the friends of religion were to keep pace with the progress of science, it would be of essential service. It should never be forgotten that the most learned of the apostles was also the most efficient; and this without detracting anything from the power of the word, by which the hearts of his hearers were converted. Learning is a powerful auxiliary, if it bring the mind and the word into juxta-position: this is illustrated by the translation of the Bible; for though the power is preserved to the word, learning is a necessary part of the process; as without it the word would never have been brought into juxtaposition with the mind. While, therefore, learning does not intermeddle with the ultimate step in Christianization, it is all in all in the preparatory. The learning of Paul opened to him many channels for promulgating the truth; it secured him attention, so that one king, while he spurned his doctrine, could not do it without a compliment to his learning; and another declared himself almost converted by his reasonings. It gained him favour with the centurion, enabled him to speak with an air of confident advice to the captain of the vessel, obtained for him an audience at Athens and admission into the most polished circles. Longinus places him among the first of orators, and many, we doubt not, would read his works for their own sake. Learning has given us a translation of the Bible, learning guards its purity, and when infidelity speaks as if with authority, what but learning can rebuke the heresy? The eloquence of a sermon will not convert, but it may

bring the mind within the sphere of the converting influence of the word.

VII. With respect to your habits of study, I shall not attempt to lay down the proportion of time to be devoted to the various subjects I have indicated; I have placed them in the order of importance, but must leave the rest to yourselves. I should not think it well if a monotonous and mechanical uniformity prevailed among you; many will rise above the general level, and it belongs to yourselves to determine in what walk you will attain the rank of mastership. But I consider it indispensable that each should make a distribution of time for himself, so that each hour may find its fixed and determinate employment; it must not be a ramble, but a routine. You will thus make ten times the progress, and have hours to spare for recreation. At your age of buoyant hopes, I cannot imagine a more delightful alternation than that of successful study, and the converse of friends, or exhilarating walks.

More is to be expected from laborious mediocrity, than from the erratic efforts of a wayward genius. There may be a harlequin in mind as well as in body, and I always consider him to have been of this character, who boasted that he could throw off a hundred verses while standing on one leg; it is not to such a source as this we are indebted for good poetry. Demosthenes elaborated sentence after sentence, and Newton rose to the heavens by the steps of geometry, and said, at the close of his career, that it was only in the habit of patient thinking he was conscious of differing from other men. It is generally thought that men are signalized more by talent than by industry; it is felt to be a vulgarizing of genius to attribute it to anything but direct inspiration from Heaven; they overlook the steady and persevering devotion of mind to one subject. There are higher and lower walks in scholarship, but the highest is a walk of labour. We are often led into a contrary opinion, by looking at the magnitude of the object in its finished state; such as the

Principia" of Newton, and the pyramids of Egypt; without reflecting on the gradual, continuous, I had almost said creeping progress, by which they grew into objects of the greatest magnificence in the literary and physical world. In the one case, indeed, we may fancy the chisel which wrought each successive

stone, but in the other we cannot trace the process by which the philosopher was raised from one landing place to another, till he soared to his towering elevation; it seems as if the work were produced at the bidding of a magician. But Newton has left as a legacy the assurance, that it was not power but patience. He did not look down on the crowd, as though he had attained his elevation by dint of a heaven-born inspiration, out of the reach of many, but by dint of a homely virtue within the reach of all.

It was a good reply of Dr. Johnson, when asked if a man should wait for an

"afflatus" before he began to write ;'No, sir; he should sit down doggedly." Now if you wait for an "afflatus," the probability is it will never arrive; if deficient in your prescribed exercises, I shall hardly deem it a sufficient excuse, that you have had no " afflatus." Such a life must be a delightful alternation of indolence and self-complacence. In his careless wanderings abroad, he might solace himself with the reflection that he had had no visit from his " afflatus" to keep him at home. It would be a day of enjoyment, but a day without any result.

PRAYER FOR THE SLAVE.

GOD of the helpless, friend

Of those who bleed in woe;
To thee, to thee we send

Our supplications now.
Hear from thy throne on high,

O hear, and send relief;
Look with propitious eye
Upon the black man's grief.
In thraldom's chain he pines,
Degraded and oppress'd;
No light within him shines,

Nor joy upheaves his breast. For him, for him we pray,

And thy good will bespeak;

O let a happier day

Upon his eyelids break.

Let light and love abound,

The whites their duty see,

And haste with joy profound
The day of jubilee.

ALPHONSO.

THE CHORUS OF HEAVEN.

"And they sung as it were a new song before the throne."-Rev. xiv. 3.

FROM CONDER'S "CHOIR AND ORATORY."
WHAT blissful harmonies above

In vocal thunders swell?
The perfecting of joy and love
What raptured legions tell?
The glorious apostolic band,

Do they in triumph sing?
Do prophets from the Holy Land
Their inspiration bring?

Or from the noble army breaks
The deep, adoring strain;
Who won their way from fiery stakes,
And were for conscience slain?

shall

THE SCEPTRE OF BRITAIN. "And all nations shall call you blessed, for ye s be a delightsome land."-Mal. iii. 12. FROM CONDER'S "CHOIR AND ORATORY." LAND of the free indeed!

Whose glorious conquests own
Subjects of every creed,

Your Christian name is known
Where'er your martial trumpet rings;
Bid it proclaim the King of kings.
O laud, whose wondrous reign,
Its peaceful sceptre bends,
From eastern mount aud main,
To earth's remotest ends!
Unsetting suns your empire bless:
Announce the Sun of Righteousness.
His throne is on your hills:
All may draw near, and live.
His train your temple fills,

The beams of grace to give.
Then bid the seraph-missions fly,
Touched by the living flames on high.

Your conquering standards claim
Allegiance to your sway:
Extend it in his name

Whom heavenly hosts obey.

O'er earth your banner is unfurled:

Then plant the cross throughout the world.

Our author has very justly remarked that Mr. Simeon "might be considered, in many respects, as a species of public property, 'set for the defence of the Gospel,' for the benefit of the church universal, rather than as the mere partisan of any division of it, though he was always considered, what he wished to be esteemed, a zealous churchman." No enlightened or liberal Dissenter could look upon the career of such a man as Simeon without feelings of gratitude to that gracious Being who raised up an instrument of such extensive and diversified usefulness in the church of Christ. That he was the means of effecting a great revival of religion in the church of England, which had its effect upon other denominations of Christians, will prove a matter of settled history in the sacred memorials of the age in which he lived. No single name could be selected among the evangelical clergy, associated, in an equal degree, with the spread of vital godliness in the establishment. He was a reformer in the strictest sense of the term, though his energies were devoted to an improvement in the working of the system, rather than to a change in the system itself. In the early part of his religious history, when zeal and piety in a clergyman were regarded more as a blemish than as an excellence, he had to encounter a measure of obloquy and reproach from men of his own profession, in a high degree honourable to his own decision of character, but deeply disgraceful to his polished persecutors; but long before he entered into his rest he acquired a reputation and a standing in Cambridge which elevated him far above the petty onset of those who saw nothing in devoted piety but the brand of hypocrisy, and who dreaded nothing so much as the triumph of the party in the establishment to which he had given his conscientious adherence. It is in the spirit of unfeigned charity that we say to men of his school, "Study moderation and candour in the day of your prosperity, and beware of losing the ground, the spiritual ground, you have acquired, by suspicious alliances, on the one hand, or by an imperious and dogmatical spirit, on the other." Let them remember, that, except on political grounds, they are deeply hated by that class of the clergy who adhere, in general, to the doctrines of the "British Critic" and the "Quarterly Review," and who, in point of influence and property, VOL. XV.

are by far the most powerful section of the churcho f England up to the present day.

If we did not know the fact, we could scarcely believe that in the city of Cambridge, the seat of one of the most renowned universities in Europe, such violent persecution could have been raised against a man whose only crime was that he preached, with uncompromising fidelity, the much-neglected doctrine of the cross.

"The extent of the opposition and contumely," observes Mr. Thodey, "which for years he endured, can scarcely be estimated at this distance of time, and by those who are strangers to college life. Few persons, it is said, of any consideration in the university would notice the despised fanatic, as he was then considered. Constables were sometimes necessary; and he was once openly insulted in his church, during divine service, by a gownsman, who was afterwards very properly compelled, by the university authorities, to make a suitable apology, dictated by Mr. Simeon himself. On this occasion he took the young man aside, prayed with him, and affectionately intreated him to consider his ways and to alter his course; and with so much success, that this individual afterwards united with others to protect the persecuted minister from apprehended outrage, on his return from church.

"This protracted struggle, however, was not carried on without exciting much anxiety and concern, as was well known to his friends. He was peculiarly sensitive to reproach, as he was accessible to kindness; but no hostility could induce him to qualify, in the slightest degree, those principles which he felt himself bound to maintain, though it cost him real suffering. This may be judged of from the slight circumstance, that when a poor man took off his hat to him in the streets, he is said to have been affected even to tears, that any one bearing the form of a man should then notice him with respect. At that time, as I have recently been informed by a gentleman of the university, Mr. Simeon, being in great distress of mind, took a solitary walk along the Hill's Road, earnestly praying God to lighten or remove the cross, fearing lest he should sink under it. But taking out his New Testament, his eye fell upon the affecting passage, And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon (or Simeon), a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, and compelled him to bear it after Jesus.' The coincidence was striking, and the effect upon his mind most salutary. The burden was at once removed, and, in his own emphatic manner, he exclaimed, Lord, lay on the cross! lay it on-I can bear it now!'

"It was this opposition, however, that

C

ultimately made him what he afterwards became, compelling him to search the Scriptures, and master all the arguments and objections that could be brought against the system he advocated. He was rendered eminently useful; whilst the stand that he made in such a place as Cambridge was felt as a strong support to all who favoured his views throughout the country."

Mr. T. has admirably sketched the personal and public character of Mr. Simeon; and though we hope next month to give a detailed memoir of his life and labours, we cannot forbear presenting our readers with the following interesting extract:

"Mr. Simeon will always be remembered with veneration in this town, for the noble stand he made for what he deemed the great principles of evangelical religion, at an early period of his religious career. His merit was the greater that he stood almost alone and unsupported at Cambridge, and in a very small minority throughout the country. It is easy to admire the splendour of the setting sun, and posthumous praise is sometimes as worthless as it is cheap; but the true greatness of individuals is to be seen, not at the close of their career, when they have extorted the reluctant homage of the world, but at the commencement of it, when, without any possible anticipation of the greatness subsequently awaiting them, they have made their unbefriended way through obstacles and discouragements which would have been utterly fatal to inferior minds. In the unpropitious outset, 'wisdom' will find few able to justify' her course, or appreciate the moral sublimity of her purpose, but the little band of her own 'children. A sordid and calculating world has no eye for the principles, it judges only of the issues, of actions. Many are willing to build the tombs of the prophets, whose premature graves they would once have digged; and when the tide of public opinion has turned, some may extol him as a saint, whom they would previously have sacrificed as a martyr.

"In point of doctrine, he decided at once, and for the whole of life. His sentiments were what is usually deemed Calvinistic, and coincided in main points with those of the excellent Thomas Scott, the commentator. He laid great stress in his preaching upon the depravity of human nature, the divinity and atonement of Christ, the justification of a sinner exclusively through the merits and righteousness of the Redeemer, the necessity of the agency of the Holy Spirit to restore the Divine image, and final perseverance. He firmly believed the doctrine of election, though it was not very frequently introduced in his ordinary preaching; and he differed from the Genevan reformer, as professor Scholefield remarks, chiefly upon the points of reprobation, and of general redemption. But, whilst he strongly advocated the doctrines

of grace, he was as strenuous in the enforcement of holiness, moral obligation, and the unfettered invitations of the Gospel to sinners, as Richard Baxter, George Whitfield, or Andrew Fuller, could possibly be. These truths he regarded, in common with ourselves, and the great body of orthodox Protestant Dissenters, as among the leading and fundamental doctrines of Divine revelation, those doctrines upon which the first reformers especially insisted, when they opposed, to the death, not only the ecclesiastical pretensions, but also the false and anti-scriptural theology, of the corrupt church of Rome. It was with the dauntless assertion of these principles that Protestantism began; it is with the honest and unequivocal maintenance of them that Protestantism will flourish: but with the neg lect, the denial, or the timid advocacy of them, Protestantism will of necessity decline, losing, in the loss of its identity, all title to its name. These doctrines he also stedfastly maintained, from the first to the last hour of his ministry, to be the true principles of the church of England; and I have in my possession, through the kindness of a friend, some interesting specimens in manuscript of his early sermons, preached fifty years ago, in which this accordance of his own views with those contained in the articles and homilies of his church, is insisted upon with much earnestness and ability.

"It was the uncompromising advocacy of these views, and his unqualified denouncement, with all the zeal which naturally belonged to his character, of everything opposed to the realities of internal and practical godliness, that secured to him the honour of a strenuous and long-continued opposition, as well from some of his own communion who differed from him in opinion, as from others who disliked and despised altogether that spiritual religion which he was so anxious to promote. The crime of having a little too much religion, has always been one of the most unpardonable sins in the code of this world's laws; though we have, in reality, little to apprehend from the excess, but everything to dread from the deficiency, of this grand pre-requisite to human happiness."

Mr. Simeon's industry as a minister and an author is well described by our author in the following passage:

"In his indefatigable industry in the studies peculiar to his profession, without which, eminence can rarely be deserved or retained, Mr. Simeon was a bright exemplar to all Christian ministers. His great work, the Hora Homileticæ, now incorporated in one uniform edition of his writings, by his own hand, may remind us of the labours of Caryl and Dr. Manton. It comprises twenty-one octavo volumes, thick and closely printed, averaging about 600 pages each, containing between two and three thousand sermons, upon the whole Scriptures; some