ART. IV. Sermons by the late Rev. Samuel C. Thacher; with a Memoir, by F. W. P. GREENWOOD. Wells & Lilly. 1824. 8vo. pp. lxx. 335.

We are seldom called to a more interesting duty, than that of noticing Mr. Thacher's Sermons; still more seldom to one that revives so many pleasing and so many sad recollections. Mr. Thacher was born and educated among us. His memory is dear to many; to some, because he was the companion of their early years; to others, because he counselled and encouraged them along the busy ways of manhood, where they are now left to go onward alone; and to yet more, because the transparent purity of his life and character brought home to their hearts, with the most effectual persuasion, the doctrines and precepts of the religion he professed and taught. Indeed, he is most truly associated with the best interests and feelings of a large portion of this community, for the chief duties and main occupations of his life were so many contributions to our improvement and happiness. And if not one of those in whose service his life was spent, and, perhaps, sacrificed, was permitted to witness its close, he was still hardly less present to their thoughts and affections, than if he had been the object of their immediate solicitude and cares; and his memory is now treasured up in their hearts with their best recollections of their friends and benefactors.

It was certainly not easy to speak as would become such an occasion and subject; but Mr. Greenwood, in his Memoir, has done the most delightful justice to both. He has set Mr. Thacher again before us, as he was known to so many, with his peculiarly gentle and winning manners in all-social intercourse, and with the persuasive fervour that gave such power to his eloquence from the pulpit. We see him again as he lived, as he spoke, as he taught; and we feel sincerely grateful to the kindred spirit and beautiful genius, that has given us an enduring record of such a rare combination of talents and virtues.

'Mr. Thacher's piety,' says Mr. Greenwood, 'was indeed, the feature of his character, which, more conspicuous and perfect than any other, reflected on all the rest its excellence and beauty. It was so connected with his principles, his actions, his conversation, and his manners, that it appeared not merely to be united with

them, but to control and guide them. It seemed to occupy the place of judgment and will; to rule in his mind, as it did in his heart; and to lead him to those just conclusions, both in speculation and conduct, which others attain to, by the exercise of what is called good sense and discretion. It seemed also to improve and enlarge his intellectual powers; to be as it were a distinct and central talent, supplying the rest with light and vigour, and inspiring his thoughts with a strength superiour to their natural capacity. In short, it would be impossible to give an idea of his character, without taking into view this ruling principle; for he was one, whose reference to the will of God, sense of dependence on him, and trust in the promises of the Gospel, were so constant and ardent, that they gave a peculiar complexion of holiness, purity, and sweetness to all that he said and did. He was one

"In whom persuasion and belief

Had ripen'd into faith and faith become
A passionate intuition; whence the soul,

Though bound to earth by ties of pity and love,
From all injurious servitude was free."'

Indeed, whenever Mr. Thacher returns to our thoughts, it is, as an eminently religious man; as one, in whose presence it was impossible to remain, even during a transient visit, without feeling that he was a Christian. He was full of that genuine politeness, which was not the less graceful, because its evident principle was a desire to avoid whatever could diminish the pleasure and happiness of common intercourse. His conversation was the overflowing of a highly cultivated and elegant mind, more than commonly pleased with intellectual excitement, and always rising to the level of the occasion; but breathing, above every thing else, a spirt of kindness, of good will, and affectionate interest, which easily won its way to the heart, and left there a persuasion so much the stronger, as it was impressed by the sincerest benevolence. And in all that he wrote, whether for the literary journals in which he took an interest, or as a publick teacher, there is the same elevated character, the same dignified eloquence and careful thought, not because he was led on by the desire of literary distinction, for after this he made no effort; but because his genius, like his heart, had been raised and purified by the influences of the religion he professed, and his literary taste perfected by his moral sensibility.

Mr. Thacher was ordained as pastor of the New South Church in 1811, and continued in the exercise of duties,

which, with talents and dispositions like his, gave him a very important influence in society, until the autumn of 1815, when he was thirty years old. A renewed attack of disease on the lungs, which had been with difficulty resisted three years before, then compelled him to abandon his accustomed pursuits, and endeavour to find health in other climates. He went first to England, and thence, to avoid a northern winter, to the Cape of Good Hope, where he passed a part of 1817. In the autumn of that year, he returned again to England, but instead of being permitted, as he had hoped, to come immediately to America, the physicians he consulted thought it necessary for him to pass the coming winter in France. He obeyed their injunctions cheerfully, though with little hope; and that little gradually faded away, as the cold season advanced. The feelings that must have possessed his spirit under these circumstances are exquisitely described by Mr. Greenwood.

'It is a sad thing,' he says, 'to feel that we must die away from our own home. Tell not the invalid, who is yearning after his distant country, that the atmosphere around him is soft, that the gales are filled with balm, and the flowers are springing from the green earth; he knows, that the softest air to his heart, would be the air, which hangs over his native land; that more gratefully than all the gales of the south would be the low whispers of anxious affection; that the very icicles clinging to his own eaves, and the snow beating against his own windows, would be far more pleasant to his eyes, than the bloom and verdure which only more forcibly remind him, how far he is from that one spot, which is dearer to him than the world besides. He may, indeed, find estimable friends, who will do all in their power to promote his comfort and assuage his pains; but they cannot supply the place of the long known and the long loved; they cannot read, as in a book, the mute language of his face; they have not learned to wait upon his habits, and anticipate his wants; and he has not learned to communicate, without hesitation, all his wishes, impressions, and thoughts to them. He feels that he is a stranger; and a more desolate feeling than that could not visit his soul.' pp. lxi. lxii.

Those who saw Mr. Thacher in the last months of his life, will never forget with what solemn tenderness his thoughts were constantly turned towards his home; how warmly and brightly his affections burned to the very last, and what a gentle spirit of religion inspired all his feelings, and was breathed visibly around him. Indeed, those who were in his presence

felt as if they were already within the confines of a purer state of existence.

Such a man would, of course, be a most successful preacher, and the present volume of Sermons is destined to be a lasting monument of the consecration of his talents to this peculiar service. They are generally practical; not, however, without a free and full exposition of his opinions on the most important doctrines of religion, especially where these doctrines. are more intimately connected with the formation of character. They are written with great care. His mind was evidently filled with his subject, whenever he began to write, and the views he gives are, therefore, clear and distinct. The illustrations with which they are accompanied and enforced are rich, abundant, and happy, and the style of the whole is vigorous, direct, and equal, sustaining the subject at the height to which it belongs, and carrying forward the interest and attention of the reader to the main principles, which are intended to be enforced.

The following passage, for instance, from a sermon on humility is, we think, singularly happy and striking in its application and illustration of the subject, from circumstances of life, within the experience of all.

'Since then it appears, that humility is necessary for all just reverence and all genuine gratitude to God, the assertion was not too strong, that he cannot be a pious man, who is not, at the same time, a humble man. But, I believe, that more than this is true. No one will be really and uniformly benevolent to his fellow man, who does not possess humility. Vanity is a most unsocial passion. The portion of time and attention, which mankind are willing to spare from their avocations and pleasures to devote to the admiration of each other is so small, that every successful adventurer is felt to have impaired the common stock. The success of one is the disappointment of multitudes. Hence a man, in whom vanity is a strong passion, is necessarily led to regard his rival as his enemy, and tempted to rejoice in his miscarriage, and repine at his success. At least his heart will be gradually formed to a profound indifference to the welfare of others. Attentive only to himself, instead of feeling tenderness for his fellow-creatures, as members of the same family, beings with whom he is appointed to act, to suffer, and to sympathize, he considers life as a stage, on which he is performing a part, and mankind only as spectators, who stand by to admire and applaud.' pp. 103, 104.

As an example of the purity of his thoughts and feelings towards all men, and of his Christian temperament towards his opponents in religious belief, who had not been accustomed to treat him with great gentleness, we would cite the beautiful introduction to his sermon on the Unity of God.

It is my design, on the present occasion, my Christian friends, to depart in some degree, from the rule which I habitually prescribe to myself, in the selection of topicks, on which to address you from this place, and to give you a brief survey of the question, which has for so many ages existed in the Christian church, with relation to the unity of the divine nature.

In endeavouring to fulfil the duty of ministers of the Gospel of Christ, those who bear that office among you have usually contented themselves with presenting those views of its great truths, which have seemed to us, after the most careful inquiry we could make, to be the real doctrines of that Gospel. We have ever believed, that the religion of Jesus stands clear of the controversies, in which his disciples have engaged; and that it is possible to have a perfectly just view of its essential principles without the smallest knowledge of the greater part of those differences, which have so long troubled the repose of Christendom. Entertaining this belief, we have seemed to ourselves to discharge our duty, when, according to the measure of our best ability, we have unfolded, without addition and without diminution, what we have conscientiously thought to be the true principles of the Christian system. It is very seldom, that we have felt it necessary to allude to the different statements of those principles made by other Christians. It was painful to dwell on what could not but be esteemed the mistakes, and sometimes the weaknesses of our fellow believers. Thinking you to be very little exposed to danger from the influence of their errours, we could take no joy in holding them up to your derision, and still less in exciting your animosity against those who have, in our judgment, departed from the simplicity that there is in Christ. We have, therefore, been always more solicitous to impress on you what is true, than to discuss what is false; and have thought it more in the spirit of the religion of peace, to show you in how much Christians agree, than to magnify the importance of those points in which they unhappily differ. We trust, that it has ever been the wish nearest our hearts to give you a practical impression of the nature, the worth, and the beauty of those great features of the Gospel, on which our Lord himself insisted; under the influence of which the true Christian character is to be formed, and on which, therefore, our final hopes of salvation must depend. The very last object of our ambition would be to make you skilful controvertists; to indoctrinate you in the miserable technicks of