rightly forming the mind and heart, of a young clergyman. In publishing it, therefore, he seems to himself engaged, in the discharge of a very sacred duty and he shall be amply recompensed, if it does but half the service to any one individual, which Mr. Knox benevolently wished, and intended, it might do to him. Without further preface, then, here it is: .

I THANK you much, for your last letter: I sat down to answer it, several days ago; but I began, on a larger scale, than I was able to accomplish: I must, therefore, be content, to take in my sails; not, as is customary, because there is too much wind,.. but, because there is not enough to fill them.

What you say of........ is just, in every respect: he is an uncommonly good man; and you cannot do better, than keep up a correspondence with him. The grand deficiencies in right temper and conduct, arise, much more, from want of right feelings, than from want of knowledge: and right feelings cannot, so certainly, be either obtained, or improved, as by communication, and close intercourse, with those who possess them. • As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the countenance of a man, his friend' Solomon said some true things; and this is not the least important of them.

You say, that, it is nearly impossible, that many

.

of those, who attend.... 's divinity lectures, should not imbibe some of his spirit, and be warmed by a portion of his zeal.' It is, indeed, impossible. True religion is happily contagious: and, I am sure, it owed its rapid progress, in the early ages of the church, infinitely more, to the divine infection, (if I may use such an expression,) that attended the spirit of the apostles, than to the demonstrative evidence of their miracles. I believe, there never yet was a really good man, I mean, a zealous, decided christian, whose lively expression of his own feelings, did not, more or less, reach the hearts of those who heard him.

At

And this, in some degree, answers your question, What christian preaching should be'? least, it points out an indispensable pre-requisite: christian preaching can arise, only, from a christian mind and heart. This is the great want in the preaching of to-day: there is no spirit in it. It is the result of a kind of intellectual pumping; there is no gushing from the spring. Our Saviour, speaking to the woman of Samaria, of the happiness which his religion would bring, into the bosoms of those who cordially embraced it, elegantly and expressively represents it, by a well of water in the breast, springing up into everlasting life.' Where this is in a minister, it will spring out, as well as spring up and it will be felt to be living water, from the pleasure and refreshment which it conveys, almost even to minds hitherto unaccustomed to such communications.

:

What HORACE says, is quite in point:

Non satis est PULCHRA esse poemata, DULCIA sunto:
Et, quocunque volunt animum auditoris agunto.
Ut ridentibus arrident, ita flentibus adsunt
Humani vultus. Si vis me flere, dolendum est

Primum ipsi tibi; tunc tua me infortunia lædent: ..

the PULCHRA, is all, that a man who does not himself feel, can attain to the DULCIA, is the offspring of an impressed, and interested heart. But, if such effects were to be produced, by the mere feeling exhibition of human distress, what may not be looked for, from divine truths?.. interesting to the hearer, no less than to the speaker; and interesting, beyond all that can be conceived, to every natural sentiment of man, . . when done justice to, in the same way, that Horace here demands for the drama. A witty poet has well said,..

The specious sermons of a worldly man,
Are little more, than flashes in the pan :
The mere haranguing upon what men call
Morality, is powder without ball:

But he, who preaches with a christian grace,
Fires at our vices, and the shot takes place.

But you also ask,What do I conceive to be the mean, between cold morality, and wild enthusiasm’? To this, I answer, that the mean between all extremes, is christianity, as given in the new testament. An attention to the exhibition of Christ's religion, as taught, by himself; as exemplified, in the acts of the apostles; and as expanded and ramified, in the epistles, particularly of Saint Paul,

is the best, and only preservative, against cold

ness, against fanaticism, and against superstition. But, let me tell you, that this simple, direct view of christianity, has very seldom been taken. Most men, in all ages, have sat down to the gospel, with a set of prejudices, which, like so many inquisitors, have laid the christian religion on a bed like that of Procrustes; and, as it suited them, either mutilated it by violence, or extended it by force.

I agree, however, with Mrs. Chapone, in her ingenious essay on the subject, that coldness is a far more dangerous extreme, than over much heat. The one, may consist with real goodness: nay, may be the consequence of real goodness, commixing with a perturbed imagination, or an ill-formed judgement. But coldness, can be resolved, only, into an absolute want of feeling. Enthusiasm is excess, but coldness is want of vitality. The enthusiast, in a moral view, is insane; which implies the possibility of recovery, and perhaps, a partial or occasional recurrence of reason. The cold person

is like the idiot, where reason never shows itself, and where convalescence is desperate.

But, let it ever be remembered, that he who has really found the mean, between the two extremes, will, and must, be reckoned enthusiastic, by those who are in the extreme of coldness. You can

easily conceive, that, when any one stands on a middle point, between two others, who are, with respect to him, strictly equidistant, he must, from the inevitable laws of perspective, appear to both,

not to be in the middle, but comparatively near the opposite party, He therefore,

Auream quisquis mediocritatem
Diligit,..

must make up his mind, to be censured on both sides by the enthusiast, as cold; by those who are really cold, as an enthusiast.

This, however, is a digression. I return, to the new-testament view of christianity.

Now this, I repeat, (for the reasons above given,) is most surely, to be sought, in the new testament itself. And the representation given of christianity there, differs, in my mind, from that given, in most pulpits, in very many, and very important instances. I shall notice two instances particularly : .

I. Christianity is represented, in most pulpits, rather as a scheme of external conduct, than as an inward principle of moral happiness, and moral rectitude.

In modern sermons, you get a great many admonitions and directions, as to right conduct: but, what David asked for, so earnestly, is seldom touched upon, Create in me a CLEAN HEART, O God! and renew a RIGHT SPIRIT within me.' Now, the new testament dwells on this, as its main object: make the tree good,' says Christ, and its fruit will, also, be good': . . Except ye be converted, and become as little children, you can, in no wise, enter into the kingdom of heaven.'

These expressions evidently imply, that, in order to be christians, persons must undergo a moral