devils, would they think, would also feel. They know it. They know, too, that this is the very reason, that they refuse to think. The Savior charged both the fact, and the reason of the fact, upon the consciousness of them that do evil. Their refusal to come to the light is the fact; and the conviction that they should feel its influence, in deep impressions of guilt and danger, is the reason of the fact. They know both the tendency and the effect of placing themselves unshielded and unprotected before the truths of divine revelation; and therefore they will not bare their bosoms to these arrows of the Almighty.

If, then, the sinner is a moral agent, and the change in regeneration is a moral act; if the reason assigned by many orthodox divines for the necessity of a divine influence in regeneration is the true reason; if the mind cannot act voluntarily, except in the view of motives which have a tendency to voluntary action; if the truths of God's revelation have any tendency to turn man, considered as a moral agent, from sin to holiness, and if, on this account, there is guilt in resisting them; if the reason of such resistance, on the part of the sinner, is the known tendency of attention to truth to conduct his mind through a process of thought and feeling which tends to a change of heart; then the mental acts and states which we have been considering, have, according to the laws of moral agency and the nature of moral action, a tendency to produce regeneration. Unless, therefore, the Spirit of God, in regenerating the sinner, violates the laws of moral agency, and destroys the nature of moral action, it follows that these acts have the same tendency, when the sinner is regenerated by the Holy Spirit. By this decisive characteristic of tendency, then, the mental acts and states which have been specified, are shown to constitute using the means of regeneration.

In our next number we shall resume the subject; and shall show, from other considerations, the existence and the influence of the tendency in question.

ART. II.-REVIEW OF THE NATIONAL PREACHER.

The National Preacher: or Original Monthly Sermons from living Minis ters. Edited by Rev. AUSTIN DICKINSON. New-York. Vol. I. 1826, 7. Vol. II. 1827, 8. Vol. III. 1328, 9. 8vo.

Ir is now three years, since the indefatigable editor of this valuable series of discourses issued the first number, containing Dr. Mason's celebrated sermon from the text, to the poor the gospel is preached. As Christian Spectators, we have not been inattentive to the character and progress of the work, thus auspiciously commenced: and that we have withheld from our readers a formal and extended notice of it, till the end of the third volume, has not been owing to a low estimate of its general merits, or of the good which it has begun to accomplish.

When this novel plan of a Monthly Preacher was first announced, it was regarded by many as of doubtful success. But that the public mind was fully prepared to sustain it, when Mr. Dickinson put forth his prospectus, was soon demonstrated, not more conclusively by his success in obtaining subscribers, than by the number of similar works which soon sprung up in different parts of our country. Of the religious character and various success of these prompt competitors for public favor, we shall say nothing in the present article. However it may have fared with any of them, the patronage of the National Preacher has been very liberal from the first; and has, if we are correctly informed, been steadily increasing, till it vies with the most popular of our American periodicals, in the wide extent of its circulation. How well it de serves this extraordinary encouragement, it is our legitimate province to inquire.

But waving this inquiry for the present, we do not hesitate to say, that Mr. Dickinson has adopted one of the happiest expedients hitherto devised, for eliciting that “ diversity of gifts" in the Christian ministry, which infinite wisdom and benevolence have bestowed for the edification of the body of Christ, and for bringing sinners to the foot of the cross. Far be it from us to disparage the "good old way" of publishing separately the sermons of such distinguished preachers as Witherspoon, and Davies, and Edwards, and Bellamy, and Dwight. We could wish that a holy relish for the “ of the gospel," with which their writings abound, might supersede that morbid and sickly craving for light and high seasoned aliment, which we fear must be pronounced the religious epidemic of the present age.

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But should scores of new and solid octavos of this class be sent forth annually from the press, still there would be ample room for Monthly Preachers to exercise their sacred function and indeed, they must even possess some obvious advantages over the rich and heavy tomes of our mightiest living, or departed elders.

In the first place, a sheet that comes out by itself, may be sent at once in every direction; and may, in a few days, be in the hands of thousands of subscribers scattered over the whole land. This is no trifling advantage; for there is always something peculiarly attractive in that which is new, though its intrinsic value may give it no claim to the preference. A sermon that comes to us literally smoking from the press, is sure to be taken up with greater avidity, and to be read with more interest, than if it had lain upon the shelf in a large volume for several years, or even for a single month. When a book comes bound and lettered from the office of the publisher, it is new but once; when issued in the form of the Monthly Preacher, it is new twelve times, before the volume is completed.

A second and still greater advantage is, that a periodical preacher is enabled to take up many important subjects, at the very moment when public inquiry is awake, and discussion is imperiously demanded. Of this we have some admirable examples in the work before us, which will be particularly noticed hereafter.

A third advantage is, that in the hands of a judicious and enterprising editor, a Monthly Preacher brings out talents, which would never venture of their own accord to encounter public observation; and thus, by stimulating retired and retiring members of the sacred profession to make unwonted efforts, it is instrumental in raising the standard of their ordinary ministrations, to the great and lasting advantage of their stated hearers.

A fourth advantage of a periodical preacher, sustained as this is, lies in the great variety of ministerial gifts and talents, which it embodies. Every new sheet brings us, literally, a new writer, with all his peculiarities of style, thought, and illustration. And though we may not expect to be addressed by a Mason, or a Beecher, every month, we are sure of having divine truth presented to us in a greater variety of useful and impressive lights, than if a single individual, though in most respects more highly gifted than his brethren, were regularly to furnish the sermons. Moreover, where thousands are to be instructed and edified, who differ so much from one another, as the patrons of the National Preacher do, in education,

natural temperament, literary taste, habits of investigation, and compass of thought, the varieties of the north, the middle, and the south, cannot fail of being interesting and profitable in a high degree. We of this frosty climate, need to be warmed, occasionally at least, by more tropical fires; while our brethren nearer the sun, may, in their turn, be equally benefitted by the bracing elements of these higher latitudes. But the usefulness, after all, of a Monthly Preacher must depend upon its character: its soundness in the faith, its talent, its holy unction, and its general adaptation to the spiritual wants of the community. False doctrines destroy the soul. Mere philosophical speculations about the nature and loveliness of virtue and charity, leave the conscience untouched. Fine moral essays, resting upon a classical, rather than a scriptural basis, divert the mind from "the truth as it is in Jesus," and powerfully tend to congeal the whole current of holy affections.

As the publication now before us, purports to be a National Preacher, and as it has much higher claims to this title than ony other with which we are acquainted, we shall take the liberty of inquiring, in the first place, what its character ought to be, and then, what it actually is.

1. A National Preacher ought to be an able work. Mediocrity of talent can never give it currency in such a community as ours; and if it could, we should deplore the consequences. A work is wanted, which can interest and instruct thinking and educated men, as well as the common people. Nor is there any such incompatibility in the case, as many have supposed. There is such a thing as coming down to the level of ordinary minds, and at the same time, rendering a discourse extremely interesting to the best cultivated intellect. A man of real talent, and of a thorough education, knows how to fathom very unequal depths with the same line. He, and he alone, is qualified to do good on a broad scale; to adapt his teaching to the condition and religious improvement of the high and the low, the learned and the unlearned. As some men who are very useful in narrow and humble spheres, would be extremely inadequate to fill the most important pulpits of a great city, so a monthly series of sermons, which, with moderate pretensions, might do good to a class of readers, would utterly fail of success, by aspiring to the rank of a National Preacher. It would be exceedingly inapposite, not to say ludicrous, therefore, to apply this title to bare mediocrity.

2. A National Preacher ought to bring forward all the fundamental doctrines of the gospel; to make them stand out in

bold relief upon its illuminated pages; to show their divine harmony; and to exhibit all their practical bearings upon the present condition and future destiny of mankind. In handling these great doctrines, there should neither be timidity on the one hand, nor presumption on the other. The several writers should make it their grand aim, to present the truth, just as it lies in the sacred volume, never stopping to inquire who will applaud, or who will condemn, any doctrine which is clearly taught in the volume of inspiration. The way to make such a publication eminently worthy of patronage and confidence, is for the contributors to take a strong hold of every prominent doctrine, to forget themselves, to be "constrained by the love of Christ," and in the progress of their labors, faithfully to "declare all the counsel of God." A different course may be popular with a large class of readers; but there is nothing like the simple, uncompromising truths of the bible, to gain over the conscience, to pierce the heart, and to build up the church in holiness and faith.

3. A National Preacher should be distinguished for its liberality: not that good natured indifference to all religious opinions that supple dereliction of essential truths, which at the present day so complacently arrogates to itself the exclusive name of charity; but that true gospel liberality, which while it "contends earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints," overlooks those minor differences of sentiment which may be retained consistently with holy christian fellowship, and high attainments in piety. Much has the cause of truth suffered from the prevalence of narrow, sectarian jealousies. Lamentably frequent and pertinacious disputes have arisen, about "mint, anise, and cumin," among those who were agreed in "the weightier matters of the law." Indeed, nothing has been more afflictive to true charity, than to behold the several divisions, in the "sacramental host of God's elect," warring upon one another, instead of uniting to defend their common faith against "the armies of the aliens." But we trust that a spirit of true catholicism is now rapidly pervading all the great religious denominations in our country, and it is needless to say, that an able and widely circulated Monthly Preacher, can do much to facilitate the spread, and hasten the consummation, of this divine liberality. Not that we believe an entire amalgamation of all sects to be practicable, or even desirable, in the present state of the world. There is an advantage in their separately "provoking one another to love and good works ;" and we doubt not that more will be done to circulate the scriptures, to raise up ministers, and to evangelize the nations, than if our

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