ritual splendours that devotional skill can devise. But with all its trappings and seeming royalty it is still a prisoner, cut off from its proper sphere, and as one mourning in captivity, and longing for his lost liberty and for those activities and friendships which are necessary to his existence, and to the accomplishment of his cherished aims.

The proper home of religion is the heart. The only dwelling-place in which the Saviour resides in this world is the believing, loving soul. The only throne which the King acknowledges and occupies is that which is raised and adorned and incensed by the affections of his redeemed and devoted children. Religion is a personal thing. It only exists in experience. It is only expressed in the language, "We know." Otherwise it is a mere name, an unmeaning shibboleth, a heart-denying and a lifeignoring profession. And it should be our aim as Christians, the aim of our life's prayer and effort, to arrive at that state of spiritual consciousness -at that measure of gracious experience, which will enable us to say, with all assurance and joy, not only that we believe, or hope, or wish, but that we know all the word and work of Christ to be true and saving, and for ever blessed. Hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us."

REVEREND DR. GARDINER SPRING; PERSONAL REMINISCENSES OF HIS LIFE AND TIMES.*

DR. GARDINER SPRING was born in Newburyport, February 24, 1785. His lineage was of the "seed royal" of heaven, and in the line of the Covenant. His mother's ancestors for several generations were ministers of the Gospel-Nonconformists and English Puritans; her grandfather, Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D.D., of West Springfield, Mass. (not the author of " Hopkinsianism), was the son of a sister of the elder President Edwards. His father was the Reverend Samuel Spring, D.D., pastor of an important church in Newburyport, Mass.; descended also from some of the best Puritan stock.

Than the subject of our sketch few men have enjoyed a more thorough Christian training, or during childhood and youth breathed an atmosphere of purer domestic piety. The letters of his mother, now published, and the high-toned religious character of his father, are sufficient proof of this. The effect became apparent in repeated seasons of seriousness and alarm, not without occasional intervals of trembling hope, especially under impressive sermons and in times of revival, through his childhood, youth, and early manhood. He entered Yale College in 1799. His eyes becoming weak through severe study, his father wisely withdrew him at the end of the freshman year, and after a year's absence persuaded him to return to a lower class. He was a severely diligent student, and graduated with the highest honours of his class. The topic of his valedictory oration, Aut Cæsar aut nullus, was significant. His father, after the conclusion of the Commencement exercises, took an affectionate leave of him, and threw him upon his own resources, he having but four dollars in his possession. He cordially accepted the allotment, at once commenced the study of law, and sustained himself by singing in church, and teaching sacred music; while Moses Brown, Esq., one of his father's parishioners, whose name is inseparably connected with the munificent endowment of Andover Seminary, at his request, loaned him two hundred and fifty dollars on his own terms. Afterwards he accepted an invitation to teach a classical and mathematical

*Compiled from an article in the Princeton Review, occasioned by the recent appearance of Dr. Spring's "Personal Reminiscences." These volumes of the venerable author, who is so well known and highly esteemed in the Christian Church, and whose public life runs back nearly to the beginning of the present century, are invested with peculiar interest, and have been eagerly welcomed, specially by the Presbyterian public.

school in the island of Bermuda. Meanwhile he was married. He earned enough to support himself and family until he was established in the successful practice of law in Newhaven. Having reached this point, his religious impressions were revived and developed into such clearness of Christian faith and hope, that he made a profession of faith in the Centre Church, Newhaven, then under the pastoral care of the Rev. Moses Stuart, afterwards the celebrated Professor of Biblical Exegesis and Literature at Andover.

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He soon found himself dissatisfied with the law, of which he had been a very thorough and zealous student, and in which he had already won an encouraging practice. His heart yearned for the ministry; he found himself in attending and addressing religious meetings in the suburbs of the city, and was ill at ease in the prospect of devoting his life to secular occupations. At length his mind was brought to a decision in the following manner, which is well worthy of record :"At the following Commencement of Yale College, I was to take my degree of A.M., and to deliver an oration. My theme was 'The Christian Patriot;' nor were my views as yet decided with regard to the change in my professional career. Early on the morning after the Commencement, the Rev. Dr. John M. Mason preached his great sermon on the text, 'To the poor the Gospel is preached.' As I led the choir, I sat immediately opposite the preacher; and never did I hear such a sermon. I could not refrain from weeping. Hundreds wept; Dr. Dwight_wept ; Dr. Backus wept like a child; senators wept. When I left the church, I could think of nothing but the Gospel. I crossed the green exclaiming 'The Gospel! the Gospel!' I thought, I prayed, I resolved, if the providence of God should prepare the way, to become a preacher of the Gospel. I said nothing but to Mr. Watts. My purpose was formed."

His purpose once formed, in dependence on God, ways and means were quickly found for carrying it through. A wealthy lady of Salem, Mass., Mrs. Mary Norris, learning his circumstances and plans, took his family, now consisting of a wife and two children, under her hospitable roof and provided for them, while he pursued his studies in Andover Seminary, then just established. In less than a year he was licensed. He received formal calls and informal overtures for settlement in a number of important churches in New England, but for various reasons declined them. Soon, however, passing through New York, and preaching an evening lecture for Dr. Romeyn in his absence, he was heard by some members of the Brick Church. They soon procured him to preach a Sabbath, and immediately gave him a unanimous call, which he accepted. Having experienced some friction in his examination before Presbytery, on account, as he says, "of the views I then entertained on the subject of human ability," he was duly ordained and installed in the pastorate which he has so honourably filled during the life-time of two generations.

There is nothing in Dr. Spring's life and history more instructive and profitable than his methods of preparation for the pulpit, and of manifold pastoral labour. His transcendent success in these respects renders his example worthy of all consideration by junior ministers and candidates for the ministry. The following extracts speak for themselves. They show no royal road, but only the beaten track of incessant toil, and a wise husbandry of time and resources, as the only and sure condition of ministerial success or eminence.

After his ordination he says:—" By solemn oath I was pledged to my work, and set about it in earnest, though with fear and trembling. I neglected everything for the work of the ministry. I had a strong desire to visit the Courts and listen to the arguments of the eminent jurists of the city; but I had no time for this indulgence. I had none for light reading, none for evening parties, and very little for social visiting, or even for extensive reading. Everything was abandoned for my pulpit ministrations. Three of the eight sermons I had prepared before I left Andover, I had preached in New York already, and the remaining number was kept good for several years. Under God it was this laborious and unintermitted effort that saved me from shipwreck. There is nothing of which I have been constrained to be more economical, and even covetous, than time. whatever else I have been wanting, my habits have been habits of industry." The following passage presents the same fact in another important aspect.

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habits and modes of preparing for the pulpit of such a man as Dr. Spring, reveal the true secret of success in himself and others. "I have preached many, very many, very poor sermons, but very rarely one that was hastily written. I have found that my mind was uniformly most active at the close of my Sabbath services; and for a series of years I rarely retired to my pillow of a Lord's-day evening without having selected my subject for the following Lord's-day. I have found great advantage in doing this, in that my mind was not embarrassed by conflicting subjects, or no subjects at all; in that I had a subject to think of, to pray over, and sometimes to dream about; and in that one subject naturally led to another. More generally, and almost uniformly, I began my sermon on the morning of every Tuesday; so that if I finished it by Friday noon, I had one day to spare for general reading. If my subject required more than a week's study, I gave it two weeks, sometimes three, sometimes four, and in one instance six weeks, and was greatly the gainer by so doing. One sermon, thus elaborated and prayed over, is worth, to the settled pastor and to his people, more than a score of hasty discourses. In order to carry this arrangement into effect, I obtained help from my brethren, or fell back upon the old store, or preached with no other preparation than a few outlines of thought treasured up in memory, and delivered without notes. I say, ' delivered without notes,' because I found by experience, that when my mind was divided between my notes and my invention, I was more embarrassed than when my invention was left unshackled. I have reason to believe that some of my best and most profitable discourses, saving a few outlines of thought, were truly extemporaneous, and so literally extemporaneous that from beginning to end I did not know before-hand what would be my next sentence. I say, literally extemporaneous.' In one view only is this true, and in another, it must be borne in mind, that they are they result of some mental discipline, and express the thoughts laid up by previous study and the use of the pen. If he has self-possession and the use of language, attained by reading, writing, and study, and any interest in the object of his vocation, any man can preach extemporaneously, and preach well."

"On the subject of preaching with notes or without them," Dr. Spring continues, "it is difficult to express any satisfactory views. A minister's mind needs the careful and laborious culture of the pen when this is attained and persevered in, the more he preaches without notes the better. If he has the spirit of devotedness to his work, intellectual resources, self-possession, a free command of his mother-tongue, intense interest in his subject, and confidence in God, he will preach far better with nothing before him but God's Bible and the God of the Sanctuary. If a man can lose sight of himself in preaching, and rise above the fear and applause of his hearers; if he can be so far thoroughly master of his subject that in his illustrations his memory shall not embarrass his invention, he will preach better without notes than with them. The danger with extemporaneous preachers is, that they are not students: the defect and danger of written discourses, that the preacher has not the confidence to look his audience in the face, unless he is endorsed and sustained by his manuscript. My own discourses on the Lord's-day have been for the most part written out and with care, because I am conscious that I lack those pre-requisites for a purely extemporaneous preacher. My weekly lectures have never been written: I have rarely carried anything in the form of paper into the pulpit in these services. They have cost me no labour except a solitary walk, or a ride on the saddle: yet they have been amongst my best discourses. They have been studied discourses, not of the day, but of years of study long since past, gathered up and concentrated for the

hour."

The main point here signalized is, thoroughness of preparation for each particular exercise, so far as circumstances admit, supported by that general study and mastery of topics which render one semper paratus on occasions for which there can be little more special preparation. As to the mode of preparation, whether by writing out in full, and then memorizing or delivering from a manuscript, or by otherwise making one's self fully master of the subject and the occasion, as to manner and matter, no uniform rule can be laid down. There, everything depends upon the peculiarities of the minister and his people. The method best for one

man is worst for another. Only one thing can be laid down of universal application. That is, the necessity of incessant and wisely directed study, both for the general furnishing of the mind and the best practicable preparation for each particular public exercise. That is the sure and only means of permanent success and usefulness in the ministry.

Dr. Spring made all things bend to and subserve his pulpit preparations. He say's "I have rarely been embarrassed for want of subjects. The wonderful facility with which one subject leads to another-the state of the congregation-an interview with some individual or family-a watchful observance of the leadings of Divine providence-intercourse with ministerial brethren-some unexpected suggestion during the night-watches-a solitary ride on the saddle-my index rerum -and the inexhaustible treasures of the Bible-furnished me with subjects which I have not yet undertaken. My reading has been uniformly with a view to enrich my mind for my pulpit ministrations. To this end I have not slighted the works of the great Errorists; and have felt strong for the truth of God the more I have possessed myself of their sophistical reasoning."

In regard to the themes and tone of his preaching he says:'I have generally aimed to preach on important subjects. The more important they were, the better were they suited to my taste and wishes. I have laboured to distinguish between the precious and the vile; to insist largely and earnestly between the friends of God and his enemies, and say to the righteous it shall be well with him, and say to the wicked it shall be ill with him. I began my work rather with the view of being instrumental in the conversion of sinners than of comforting the people of God. I have found, too, that the discourses prepared for unrepenting men more generally interested and, indeed, comforted the people of God. I early found that I could more easily prepare a good sermon from an awakening and alarming subject than from one that is more comforting. The fact is, I knew more of the terror of the law than the preciousness of the Gospel. My own obligations to holiness, the strength and the evil of sin, my absolute dependence upon sovereign grace, my infinite and everlasting desert of God's displeasure, were subjects with which I was familiar. I knew much about them from my own experience. Of other and less distressing thoughts, though they have not been hidden from me, and have sometimes made my bosom warm and my tongue glow, I knew less and felt less deeply. I could never understand why the great body of ministers preach with less embarrassment on fearful themes than on those which are more attractive, unless it be that an alarmed conscience has more to do with our preaching than a loving heart, nor how this can be except that the heart is of nature desperately wicked. The difficulty of preaching well on the more attractive and winning themes has sometimes alarmed me and made me fear lest after having' preached to others I myself should be a castaway.''

Again :-"I endeavoured to exhibit the fundamental doctrines of grace as the great means of bringing the benighted and lost out of darkness into God's marvellous light. I dwelt largely on the Divine attributes; upon the spirituality and obligations of Divine law; upon the unmixed and total depravity of man; upon the all-sufficiency of the great atonement, the fulness there is in Christ, and the unembarrassed offer of pardon and life to all that have ears to hear; upon the great wickedness of unbelief; upon the absolute dependence of saint and sinner upon the power of the Holy Spirit; upon the Divine sovereignty and electing love; upon the perfect righteousness of Christ as the oniy ground of the believer's acceptance with God," etc., etc.

It is this class of topics that alone can permanently give body and force to preaching, or penetrate the souls of men. He who brings such truths home to the hearts and consciences of his people, will find that the word so preached is quick and powerful." He will not need to discourse of secularities in order to interest his hearers.

All who have observed the earlier and later sermons and publications of Dr. Spring, have doubtless observed the gradual mellowing of his tone, of the benignity of the Gospel, so that without ceasing to persuade men by the terrors of the Lord, he was in his later ministry wont more and more to constrain them by the love of Christ. This is a welcome change. No doubt the theology in which he was

trained accounted in part for this predominance of the alarming and terrific in his early preaching. It is to be observed, however, that it is quite easy and common for ministers to overlook the lightnings of Sinai, as they are charmed with the benignant radiance of Sion,-to forget that the law gives a knowledge of sin and is a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. Our observation has led us to the belief that very many preachers would find the evangelism of their preaching more powerful if they would rouse their hearers to a better appreciation of it by more abundantly and earnestly warning them to flee from the wrath to come.

One other extract on this subject, upon which Dr. Spring has a right to speak with an authority second to no one living man, puts in a strong light a truth well worthy of the prayerful consideration of all ministers, especially those who are mourning over a barren and fruitless ministry. It is necessary to be not only industrious in the preparation of sermons, but to shape them all to the accomplishment of the great end of preaching-the conversion of sinners and the edification of saints. He says:-"The great end and object of the ministry, though very imperfectly, I have endeavoured constantly to keep before my mind. I have generally found that laborious ministers gain their object. If it is to write elegant sermons, they write them and gain their object. If it is to enrich their discourses with the pithy and concentrated sentences of other days and great men, they do it and gain their object. If it is to be popular, they are popular and there the matter ends. They look no further, they gain their object and have never thought of anything beyond it. It was not the conversion of sinners they were aiming at, and therefore they never attained it. I know a most worthy minister who preached more than a year to the same people, and his preaching was sound in doctrine, logical, and able; but during that whole period I have yet to learn that a single sinner was alarmed, convinced, or converted to God. And the reason is, that was not his object. He did not study for it, nor pray for it, nor preach for it. He gained his object most effectually, but it was not the conversion of men.

'I have adverted to this kind of preaching because, as it seems to me, this is the snare of the modern pulpit. I have listened to not a few sermons within the past ten years in which there was no want of instruction; they were full of weighty and solemn truths; great pains were taken in the use of metaphor and illustration, to indicate the preacher's progress in science, and to show that he stood ahead with the improvements of the age, but in which the great end of preaching was lost sight of the turning the wicked from the error of their ways— the salvation of the immortal soul. The preachers had power, but it was not directed to this great object. With all their intellectual effort, there was a want of amplification and earnestness in addressing the different classes of their audience, and crowding the conscience of the impenitent. Why is it that there is so little adaptation in so much of the preaching of the present day to produce the conversion of men? Too many ministers preach now as though they thought all their hearers were Christians, overlooking the multitudes who are dead in trespasses and sins, and pressing on the broad way that leads to destruction!

Another topic of high moment handled in these volumes is Revivals of Religion. In regard to the first season of refreshing under his ministry, he writes as follows:

"This season of mercy was an emphatic expression of God's goodness to the youthful minister. He had been but six short years in the ministry, but God foresaw that he was to occupy a place in his earthly sanctuary for more than half a century. It was a weary wilderness he was appointed to traverse, and the God of Israel refreshed him with some of the grapes of Eshcol. Poor thing as I have been, and still continue to be, without devout gratitude I record it here, that it was this work of grace that made me what I am,-which enlarged my heart, gave vigour to my thoughts, ready utterance to my tongue, new views of the great object of the ministry, made my work my joy, and stimulated me to reach forward to greater measures of usefulness. I loved preaching the Gospel before, but never as I have loved it since. But for this early season of mercy during the summer of 1814, I should have changed from place to place, and turned out what the Scotch call a 'Sticket Minister.' It was the Lord's doing, and marvellous in our eyes. ingathering was not great, but it was the 'finest of the wheat.'"'

The