AMERICAN

QUARTERLY REGISTER.

VOL. X.

FEBRUARY, 1838.

No. 3.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE REV. SAMUEL GILE, D. D.

SAMUEL GILE was born in Plaistow, N. H., July 23, 1780. He was the son of Major Ezekiel Gile, an officer in the revolutionary army, and one of the most respectable inhabitants of the town in which he lived. Both his parents, it is believed, were pious, and died in Christian triumph. Their son, having finished his preparatory studies at Atkinson academy, entered Dartmouth college in 1800, and sustained an unblemished character and a high standing as a scholar during his connection with that institution. After leaving college, he commenced the study of divinity under the care of the Rev. Jonathan French of Andover, Ms.—a minister highly esteemed for his piety and for his success in training men for the ministry. The services of Mr. Gile, on being licensed to preach, were eagerly sought after. Few young men, at that period, were more acceptable. His commanding presence, his rich style, his powerful voice, and, especially, his extraordinary devotional powers, rendered him always an engaging and acceptable preacher. On the resignation of the Rev. Joseph McKeen, D. D., Mr. Gile was invited to occupy his place as pastor of the Congregational church in Milton, Ms. He was ordained Feb. 18, 1807.

Soon after his settlement in Milton, Mr. Gile was married to Miss Mary Henley White, daughter of the late Isaac White, Esq. of Salem, Ms. He lost a number of children in infancy. For several years, his family consisted of his wife, an only son and an only daughter. The son-a young man of an excellent spirit, an example of meekness and Christian resignation-descended to the grave in 1827. The daughter, long an invalid, and the widow, still live to mourn the loss of one of the best of fathers and husbands. His various domestic afflictions, Dr. Gile bore with quietness and exemplary patience. His parochial trials, too, he endured in the same spirit. He was dismissed from the first parish in Milton, by an ex parte council, Jan. 6, 1834. The authority of this council he never acknowledged, and did not regard himself bound by its result. He never considered that he unreasonably refused a mutual council, and such an unreasonable refusal is necessary, according to the decisions of the Massachusetts Judiciary, to make the result of an ex parte council valid. His trials in the course of this ecclesiastical controversy, were very painful; yet he continued to exhibit towards those who differed from him in religious opinions, the same kind, yielding and forgiving spirit. The church unanimously adhered to him.

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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE REV. SAMUEL GILE, D. D. [FEB.

Dr. Gile never manifested any fondness for public life. He however performed a number of important public duties, and he held several important offices in the religious community. He was called to preach before the Foreign Mission Society of Boston and Vicinity, the Norfolk Education Society, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the Society for Propagating the Gospel, the Convention of Congregational Ministers in Massachusetts, etc. In the education of indigent and pious young men for the Christian ministry, he took the deepest interest. the time of his death, he was Secretary of the Norfolk Auxiliary Education Society, and a member of the Board of Directors of the American Education Society. A few months before his decease, he received the honorary degree of doctor in divinity, from the university of Vermont.

At

Dr. Gile's religious opinions were well known. He was cordially attached to the system of faith held by the fathers of New England. He was remote, on the one hand, from a lax system of theology, and on the other, from ultra orthodoxy. In the belief of the evangelical doctrines, he lived, and in the belief of them, he died. Though firm in his religious sentiments, he was liberal towards those who differed from him. Nothing was further from his bosom, than a spirit of denunciation and censoriousness. He was no polemic nor controversialist. His preaching was rather experimental and practical, than doctrinal.

He was much distinguished for his extraordinary gifts in prayer. His devotional exercises were marked by a sublimity, a richness, a freedom and a power, which elevated the souls of his fellow-worshippers above this world, to sweet and holy communion with God. Dr. Gile was a very affectionate pastor. In the chamber of sickness and beside the bed of death, he was kind, soothing and prompt. In the temporal as well as spiritual concerns of his flock, he took the most lively interest. They ever found him a prudent counsellor, a timely peacemaker and a confiding friend.

In the domestic circle, his character shone in the fairest colors. Public life had few attractions for him, and at home, in the bosom of his family, he found the sweetest pleasures. Benevolence was a marked feature, or rather one of the foundations of his character. He felt tenderly for the poor, and contributed largely for their relief. His heart overflowed with the most unaffected compassion for all in distress, and had his means been as large as his benevolent desires, no case of suffering would have gone unrelieved.

Prudence was another trait in his character. Persons intimate with him for many years, rarely or never heard an unguarded expression fall from his lips. His prudence might seem at some times, perhaps, to have degenerated into excessive caution.

Dr. Gile was remarkably distinguished for uniformity and consistency of character. He was endued by nature with a disposition peculiarly amiable, and the grace of God, when added to it, rendered his temper and conduct singularly uniform and delightfully consistent. He was always the same. The same benignant smile played on his countenance, in the family and in the social circle, and was sometimes seen lingering there, chastened by religious awe, in the house of God. Consistency, that rare virtue, was one of his most striking characteristics. There was a perfection, a completeness, a beautiful symmetry in his character, which made him one of the most estimable of men. This would not however be manifest, on a cursory observation. By his intimate friends, it was strikingly and most delightfully seen.

Under the trials, numerous and severe as they were, which he was called to experience, he was patient. He possessed great Christian meekness, and an uniform disposition to forgive injuries. By these dispensations in the providence of God, and by the influence of the Holy Spirit, which he earnestly desired and constantly sought after, he was rapidly ripened for the rest which remaineth for the people of God.

Dr. Gile died at Milton, on Sabbath, Oct. 16, 1836, at the age of fifty-six. The circumstances of his decease, were unusually affecting. In the public service of the morning, he was present in his usual health and strength, and officiated in the exercises, offering the first prayer and reading a portion of the Scriptures. The sermon was preached by the Rev. S. A. Bumstead. During the exercises, Dr. Gile seemed much engaged and devotional; often was he seen to wipe the falling tear from his eye. When the exercises were closed, he returned home. Scarcely, however, was he seated at the dinner table, when he was stricken by the hand of death, and in less than an hour, ceased to breathe, and at the very time the people were assembling for the afternoon worship.

On Tuesday, Oct. 18, his remains were committed to the earth, amidst the tears of his affectionate and bereaved flock. On this occasion, the Rev. Dr. Codman of Dorchester, who had been his neighbor and intimate friend for more than thirty years, preached a highly appropriate and interesting sermon, which has since been published. To this sermon, we are indebted for most of the facts contained in the preceding brief sketch, as well as for the terms by which they are communicated.

THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE MINISTRY.

[By the Rev. Calvin Hitchcock, of Randolph, Ms.]

WHAT minister, of ordinary faith and feeling, can reflect on the fact that one sermon may prove a savor of life to one hearer, and a savor of death to another, without exclaiming, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"-"Who is sufficient for these things?" Moral truth cannot be presented to the mind, without calling forth moral affections of some kind; and every hearer whose attention is gained to a sermon, is, during its delivery, filling up rapidly that account which will bring him joy or wo forever. For many reasons, the difficulties of the ministry should be distinctly disclosed and felt.

1. It is difficult for a minister to feel as he ought. On account of the constant recurrence of the same round of sacred performances, he is peculiarly exposed to formality. Indeed, this is one of the principal dangers, both of the ministry and of the church, in every age. The minister needs to feel the emotions of a strong faith. It will not do for him to believe the Bible only, as most men do. He must feel the thoughts of God in every line and word. His soul must dwell amidst such discoveries of the glorious attributes of God, of the evil of sin, of the loveliness of a pure spirit, and of the joys of saints, and of the sorrows of sinners, now and hereafter, as will call forth his strongest emotions. When under the influence of this strong faith, the word of God will be an exhaustless storehouse of texts and sermons. But let his faith fail, let him realize only what is common among ordinary Christians, and his study becomes a prison-preaching, a burden; he cannot find a text; he knows not what to preach; his hopes of usefulness flag; his courage sinks; his comforts die; his discourses become lifeless; his prayers formal; and if his people do not complain, it is because they are too dead to distinguish between what is spiritual and what is carnal. And "who is sufficient for these things?"

2. It is difficult for a minister to preach as he ought. It is not difficult for a man, with a small genius and smaller learning, to preface a few popular sermons with beautiful figures and rhetorical flourishes. He may even understand a few subjects without much patience of study or depth of thinking. On these he may be tempted to dwell, merely because it is easier to discuss them than others. And he is in some danger of thinking that what he understands best, is of chief importance. But a conscientious minister will be desirous to declare the whole counsel of God. He must keep back nothing that will be profitable. Of course no labor must be spared to understand it. He must preach long as well as laboriously. Objections against the truth of the Scriptures, or against their plain declarations of doctrine, of duty, or of motives, he must meet and sweep away, for he is "set for the defence of the gospel;" whether they arise from false philosophy, or perverted truths and facts. In this way he must take from the hands of sinful men the weapons by which they resist their Maker, and reject their own mercies. To accomplish all this, requires the most wakeful, vigorous intellect, the most devoted assiduity and indefatigable industry; a research that never flags, and a sagacity that is not easily circumvented. And "who is sufficient for these things?"

That

3. It is difficult for a minister to live as he ought. His example may easily destroy the effect of all his preaching. He must be able to say, "Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblamably we behaved ourselves among you," 66 even as a nurse cherisheth her children." minister might nearly as well be in his grave, as to be preaching, of whom it can be said in truth, that he is covetous, or proud, or selfish, or passionate; not to mention greater faults. How often is it said of one minister, he is a good man, but he is rather reserved and melancholy; of another, he has fine abilities, but he is vain and aspiring; of another, he is very learned, and preaches well, but he is rash and hasty in his spirit, and extravagant in speech; of another, he is an able man, but a party man in his spirit; of another, he has great excellencies, but is worldly; but time would fail me to carry out fully this description. These are the "dead flies which cause the ointment of the apothecary," however deliciously perfumed, "to give forth an unsavory smell." Any little fault may nearly ruin a minister's usefulness and prospects. And "who is sufficient for these things?"

4. It is difficult for a minister to please every man "for his good to edification." This must be his single motive for even desiring to please men, that he may instruct and save them. To this it is indispensable that they should be pleased. If he offends them, he may almost as well stop the avenues to their hearts. They will not receive the truth at his mouth. But in a congregation of several hundred, how many varieties of taste, of education, of judgment, of opinion, of feeling. Yet they must all be pleased with the minister. It not unfrequently happens, that, in the course of a day, or a week, he will meet with a dozen of his friends. They all mean well. One will express a wish that he would dwell more upon the doctrines; preach oftener upon the fall and total depravity of man, his need of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, the sovereignty of divine grace in his salvation, the doctrine of election, of the saint's perseverance, and the future and endless punishment of the wicked. And this man must be pleased.

Another desires that he would preach more practically. This man is distressed at the state of morals, and wishes to hear more upon that subject. He sees no other way to save the country, but for the pulpit to speak out; the grand "defence and ornament of virtue's cause.” And this man must be pleased.

The next suggests the importance of preaching more argumentatively; of proving his doctrine more fully, and pouring on the unbelieving mind such a flood of demonstration as will carry all before it. And this man must be pleased.

Another kindly inquires if he cannot preach more upon the invitations and promises, and try to melt the hard hearts of his hearers, by an exhibition of the love of Christ. And he must be pleased.