Christianity; and consequently the exposition which supplies, beyond every other, a common ground ou which opposing parties may meet and proceed forth, in the whole armour of God, to contend with the common enemies of their faith. And, if there has been, as we are bound to admit, a painful abandonment of these formularies in the case of many individuals, there have not been wanting at any time, and es pecially now there are not wanting, a large body of churchmen, true to the spirit and temper of the illustrious parent from whose lips they draw the lessons of life, and under whose banner they go forth to the conflict with the world, the flesh, and the powers of darkness. But we must return to our author. We have seen the merited tribute which Dr. Chalmers bas rendered to clerical learning in general, and to the learning of the Church of England in particular. He proceeds, however, to state, that li terature, though highly valuable, is not the only, nor even the first, requisite in a teacher of religion. And here we shall let him deliver his opinion in his own words. But, though learning must be en listed on the side of Christianity, for the purpose of upholding her in credit and acceptance, among influential men; yet it is not indispensable for the purpose of conveying her moral and spiritual lessons into the heart of a disciple. The truth is, that many of the topics about which eccle siastical learning is conversant, are exterior to the direct substance of that Bible which professes to be a written communication from God to man: such as the historic testimonies that may be quoted in favour of religion, and those church antiquities, to acquire the knowledge of which we must travel through many a volume of ponderous erudition, and at least the history, if not the mat. ter, of the various controversies by which the Christian world has been agitated. We are aware that much of this controversy relates to the contents of the record, as well as to the credentials of the record. Yet, however its plainer passages may have been darkened by heretical sophistry, on the one hand, and its obscure passages may have divided the opinion of critics and trans lators, on the other; this does not hin der, that, from the Bible, and the English Bible, there may be made to emanate a flood of light, on the general mass of an English peasantry—that, to evolve this light, a high and artificial scholarship is neither necessary nor available-that, on the understanding of a man, unlettered in all that proceeds from halls or colleges, the word of God may have made its sound, and whole. some, and sufficient impression: and that from him the impression may be reflected back again, on the understandings of many others as unlettered as himself-that thus all in the book of God's testimony which mainly goes so to enlighten a man as to turn him into a Christian, may be made to pass from one humble convert to his acquaintances and neighbours; and, without the learning which serves to acquire for Christianity the dignified though vague and general homage of the upper classes, he may, at least, be a fit agent for transmitting essential Christianity throughout the plebeianism that is around him." pp. 307-309. Much of what follows in this interesting paper is dedicated to the establishment of the above position; and we shall endeavour, partly by quotation, and partly by abridgment, to present the sub stance of it to our readers. The author begins by shewing that the word of God is the grand instrument by which saving knowledge is to be conveyed to the mind of a lost and miserable sinner. This instrument he compares to a stamping machine-to a machine that is so constructed as to be capable of conveying a deep and enduring impression to any object to which it is forcibly applied, but demanding some exterior agency in order to convey that impression. This exterior agency, in the case of the Scripture, is nothing less than the sacred power and influence of the Holy Spirit. The illustration is homely, but it is accurate, and serves to shew us with much precision what are the exact circumstances of the minister of religion, He has the instrument of impression in his hand-he may exhibit it to his people-he may bring it in contact with their minds; but it is, after all, the Spirit of God who must apply the impelling force, and stamp the lesson, or truth, or promise upon the heart. If any ob. ject against this statement, the danger of enthusiasm, inasmuch as it leads to a reliance on some unknown and invisible power, the answer is, That the Spirit is not upon this by pothesis supposed to act either with out means, or by means which are vague, dubious, or undefined, but simply, and altogether, by the instrumentality of the word of God. He takes the truths of " this holy book," and impresses them on the mind. And, under the power of the impression thus applied, says Dr. Chalmers, a man of "humble scholarship may be transformed, not into an erratic and fanciful enthusiast, but into a sound scriptural Christian, without one other religious tenet in his understanding than what is strictly defined by the literalities of the written record, and without one other religious feeling in his heart, than what is most pertinently called forth by the moral influence of the truths which have thus been made known to him." p. 311. The next step in the argument of Dr. Chalmers is, whilst he points out some of the services which may be rendered to religion by the merely learned minister, to shew also what services must not be expected of him. As, without the teaching of the Spirit, he may read, and, generally speaking, understand the sacred record; he may, as it were, know, and be able to explain, "the impression on the seal." By his natural sagacity he may be capable of carefully analysing the character and conduct of the professors of religion. And, by comparing them with Scripture, he may ascertain whether these professors are, in fact, nominal or real Christians. And thus he may, by the detec tion of hypocrisy or fanaticism, render essential services to the Truth. The author endeavours to illustrate, by the example of President Edwards's celebrated work, on "the Religious Affections," the distinct offices of learning and piety. "The American divine affords, per. modern times, of one who stood richly haps, the most wondrous example, in gifted both in natural and in spiritual discernment: and we know not what most to admire in him, whether the deep philosophy that issued from his pen, or the humble and child-like piety that issued from his pulpit; whether, when, as an author, he deals forth upon his readers the subtleties of profoundest argument, or when, as a Christian minister, he deals forth upon his hearers the simplicities of the Gospel; whether it is, when we witness the impression that he made, by his writings, on the schools and high seats of literature, or the impression that he made, by his unlaboured addresses on the plain consciences of a plain congregation. In the former capacity, he could estimate the genuineness of the Christianity that son of a disciple; but it was in the late had before been fashioned on the perter capacity, and speaking of him as an instrument, that he fashioned it, as it were, with his own hands. In the former capacity, he sat in judgment, as a critic, on the resemblance that there was between the seal of God's word, and the impression that had been made in the latter capacity, he himself took on the fleshly tablet of a human heart; up the seal, and gave the imprinting touch, by which the heart is conformed noto the obedience of the faith. The former was a speculative capacity, under which he acted as a connoisseur, who pronounced on the accordancy that obtained between the doctrine of the Bible, and the character that had been submitted to its influence; the latter was au executive capacity, under which he acted as a practitioner, who brought about this accordancy, and so handled the doctrines of the Bible, as to mould and subordinate thereunto the character of the people with whom he had to deal. In the one, he was an overseer, who inspected and gave his deliverance on the quality of another's work; in the other, he was the workman himself: and while, as the philosopher, he could discern, and discern truly, between the sterling and the counterfeit in Christianity, still it was as the humble and devoted pastor that Christianity was made, or Christianity was multiplied, in his hands." pp. 318, 319. We are not altogether satisfied with the wording of this state ment. Admitting fully to the author the inefficacy, as to conversion, of mere learning, we would guard against any language which has even the appearance of assuming the necessary efficacy of real piety. According to his own illustration, the power to "stamp" is not in the hand of the minister, be he who or what he may. It is the exclusive office of the Holy Spirit. But, if so, He may work by what instrument he will. Nor can we doubt, with some examples before us which readily present themselves to our memories, that it often does please Him to work by the instrumentality of men who are themselves very defective in personal piety; to use them as the "rod of his power," in smiting the conscience; or as the "staff" of his power in guiding, sustaining, and controlling the heart. And a statement, therefore, which would seem to imply that only the real convert can be the instrument of conversion, would be, in our judgment, not merely to mistate the fact, but to undervalue the efficacy of scriptural truth, when enforced on the heart by the Holy Spirit. As to the facts of the case, nothing can be more evident than that bad men, who themselves held the truth in unrighteousness, have sometimes been the media by which that truth, so inoperative in their own case, has been efficaciously conveyed to the mind of others. And as to the Scriptures, it is to be remembered, that they are instruments whose value and efficacy is far from depending on the human hand by which they are wielded.-A part of the confusion which is apt to cling to this subject, arises, we conceive, from the indiscriminate application of the word" instrument" equally to the book and to the preacher. But they are not instruments in the same sense. If the' man is considered as an instrument, it is only in a secondary sense: he is the channel through which the "water of life" is poured-the arm by which the mighty engine is set in motion-the voice by which utterance is given to the "word of truth." And the Spirit, though He confine himself to the same pri mary instrument, the word of God, in the work of man's conversion, yet sometimes does employ, as secondary instruments in this work, those whom perhaps we should' least expect Him to employ-persons who, though they know the truth, have not themselves really experienced its renovating power. Let us not, however, be mistaken. It is not our intention, in what we have said, to convey the idea that Dr. Chalmers would not agree with us in this point; or that he is disposed to attach to mere human instrumentality any undue influence; or that he would either question the impossibility of the mere speculative believer bringing converts to God, or assert that every true believer would necessarily become a successful preacher of the Gospel. We are only desirous of guarding against the impression to which the language employed in the above passage, if unexplained, might undesignedly lead. As to the question, whether a greater, infinitely greater, efficacy is not to be anticipated from the labours of converted than of unconverted individuals, it can scarcely become a matter of discussion. In the first place, few unconverted individuals will be found to preach the truth at all. In the next place, where doctrinally correct, a want of earnestness and feeling will ordina. rily characterize their labours, and diffuse itself, as by sympathy, over their hearers. Nor is this all. The lives of such preachers will, generally speaking, tend to neutralize or vitiate their reasonings. And still further, it is certainly only to the honest, simple, believing minister of the word, to the preacher, devoutly seeking the assistance of the Holy Spirit, that any promise of such assistance is made; and it is therefore on his ministry alone it can be expected ordinarily to fall. The success of a bypocritical ministry is an exception, not a rule. The success of the true prophet is the rule, not the exception. If, therefore, the query be proposed, whether more is to be hoped from learned indifference or unlettered piety in a minister, we can have no more hesitation in deciding for the latter than we should in preferring the fishermen of Galilee to the council of Trent. In this view, we give our hearty concurrence to the following important passage in the pamphlet before us, "It is here that churches, under the domination of a worldly and unsanctified priesthood, are apt to go astray. They confide the cause wherewith they are entrusted to the merely intellectual class of labourers; and they have overlooked, or rather have violently and impetuously resisted, the operative class of labour, ers. They conceive that all is to be done by regulation, and that nothing, but what is mischievous, is to be done by impulse. Their measures are generally all of a sedative, and few or none of them of a stimulating tendency. Their chief concern is to repress the prurien cies of religious zeal, and not to excite or foster the zeal itself. By this process they may deliver their establishment of all extravagancies, so as that we shall no longer behold, within its limits, any laughable or offensive caricature of Christianity. But who does not see that, by this process, they may also deliver the establishment of Christianity altogether; and that all our exhibitions of genuine goodness may be made to disappear under the same withering influence which deadens the excrescencies that occasionally spring from it? It is quite a possible thing for the same church to have a proud complacency in the lore, and argument, and professional science, of certain of its ministers; and, along with this, to have a proud contempt for the pious earnestness, and pious activity, of certain other of its ministers. In other words, it may applaud the talent by which Christianity is estimated, bat discourage the talent by which Chris tianity is made. And thus while it con tinues to be graced by the literature and accomplishment of its members, may it ren and useless inefficiency as to the great practical purposes for which it was ordained." pp. 320, 321. come to be reduced into a kind of bar The following passages also, in which Dr. Chalmers meets the objections against " jections against "quackery" and "empiricism" in religion, cannot fail to be gratifying to our readers. "Now, this parallel between physic and theology does not hold; nor is the power of working a given effect on the corporeal system arrived at by the same steps, with the power of working a given effect on the moral or spiritual system. To be a healing operator upon the body, one must be acquainted with the manifold variety of effects which the agents and applications innumerable of matter have upon the maladies, equally innume rable, to which the body is exposed. To be a healing operator upon the soul there is one great application revealed to us in Scripture, which, in every instance where it does take effect, acts as an unfailing specific for all its moral dis orders. In the former profession, every addition of knowledge is an addition of power; and the best guarantees for an effectual exercise of the art medical are the science, and study, and experience, of a finished education. In the latter profession, these are useful too, for estimating the effect that has been made upon the character, but not indispensa ble for working that effect. That mighty truth, the belief of which is the power of God, and the wisdom of God, unto salvation may be deposited by one man in the heart of another, without the aid of any scholastic art or scholastic preparation. It is too simple to be illus trated hy human talent; and the mode of its conveyance from one bosom to another depends on certain influences which are as much beyond the reach of a philosopher as of a peasant, and as much within the reach of a peasant as of a philosopher. Grant that the one has just as much of personal Christianity, and as much of devotedness in the cause of hu man souls, and as much of the spirit of believing intercession with God, in be half of those among whom he is labour ing, and then is he in possession of just as powerful instruments as the other, for bringing them under the dominion of the truth, as it is in Jesus." pp. 326, 327. “And it is the same with a Christian effect. He who can best work it on ano. ther's mind is a Christian himself. It is the sympathy of his kindred feelings It is the observation of his actual faith, and of its bright and beautiful influences upon his own character-it is the winning representation of a doctrine that may be read a thousand times over, without effect, in the written Epistles of the New Testament, but which is armed with a new power to engage and soften the heart of an inquirer, when he sees it exemplified in the person of that believer who is a living epistle of Christ JesusIt is the melting tenderness by which he presses home the overtures of the Gospel on his fellow-sinners, and, above all, the efficacy of his prayers for grace to turn and grace to enlighten them; these are what may accomplish a man who is unlettered in all but his Bible, to be a far more efficient Christianiser than the most profound or elaborate theologian; these are what essentially constitute that leaven by which either with or without philosophy, a fermenting process for the growth and the diffusion is made to spread far and wide among our population." pp. 328, 329. When it is affirmed, in the latter part of the first of these quotations that the unlettered man is "in possession of just as powerful instruments" as the lettered individual for the instruction of others, supposing their moral state to be the same, the affirmation must be taken, we think, with considerable limitation. We cannot consent so to depreciate letters as to imagine that, cæteris paribus, the habits of investigation and reasoning and public speaking, the taste which seizes on the finest images and expressions of Scripture, the power of clearly conveying what is strongly felt, are thrown away upon an au dience however coarse or unedu cated, Religion is, we imagine, al ways a gainer by such auxiliaries, witness Dr. Chalmers himself. John Wesley attributed much of the success of his own ministerial labours to his skill in logic, acquired in the schools of Oxford; and the most successful missionaries have generally been men of respectable literary attainments. It must, however, be admitted, that where men of letters have thus triumphed over the vices and prejudices of their hearers, it has been when their love of souls has induced them to descend from that higher level in society to which their circumstances or education had raised them, to the lower level of those whom they were desirous to instruct. And till this is the case till the minister is able so far to divest himself of the fastidiousness of a refined education and taste as to converse much with the poor, to mingle with them in the ordinary scenes of life, to enter into their cabins, to see them as it were in their every-day attire, and to let them witness his religion, not in discourse only, but in action; notwithstanding all his talents and acquirements, he will stand lower in the scale of efficient instructors than the pious, though comparatively unlettered, man, who is thus associated with the poor, who does tread the same path of duty with them, who is exercised by the same trials, and who displays to their daily observation his superiority to the very temptations by which they themselves are overcome. Without, however, dwelling longer upon these minuter parts of the subject, we may now, we think, confidently call upon our readers to put their seal to the testimony of Dr. Chalmers respecting the impolicy of ministers refusing to avait themselves of the agency of those lay members of their flock upon whose piety, good sense, and scriptural intelligence, they are able to rely. We have heard considerable clamour against the plans of the author, founded upon this very circumstance. "What (it is asked), are we to cast upon the unlettered part of our congregation the important office of moulding the |