of them, indeed, would recoil with horror were a minister to propose such a thing. Yet they value the privilege of going to the sanctuary. They have been taught from their childhood that the preaching of the Gospel is the great instrumentality appointed by God for the salvation of men. They go in the hope of one day finding that which they know to be essential to their happiness even in this life. Others may be influenced by the force of education, or by that of habit, by fashion, by the desire of seeing others and being seen, by the charms of the preacher's eloquence, and so forth. In no other part of the world, perhaps, do the inhabitants attend church in a larger proportion than in the United States; certainly no part of the Continent of Europe can compare with them in that respect. The contrast between the two must strike any one who, after having travelled much in the one, comes to see any of the cities of the other, with the single exception of New-Orleans, which is hardly, as yet, an American city, and even it, in point of church attendance, is far better than Paris, Rome, Vienna, Hamburg, or Copenhagen.

pleases God to make the faithful preaching of his Word instrumental to the salvation now of one, now of another; and sometimes, by a special outpouring of his Spirit, He brings many at the same time into his kingdom.

The non-professing hearers of the Word, then, are to be considered as simply what we call them, members of the congregation, not of the church. We can look, as I have said, for their assistance in many, if not all good undertakings, as well as in the ordinary support of the Gospel. Many, in the character of trustees, are faithful guardians of the property of the church and congregation. Many teach in our Sundayschools, and find instruction themselves in their endeavours to instruct others.

One great advantage in this is, that unconverted men, who know themselves to be such, occupy their proper place. No law, no false custom, compels them to be members of the church. Hence their position is less dangerous in several respects. They are less tempted to indulge self-delusion, and are more open to the direct, unimpeded shafts of the truth. Their position, too, tends to give them a remarkable simplicity and frankness of character. The term "Christian" generally signifying with us, not a mere believer in Christianity, but one who professes to be a disciple of Christ, and is known as such, nine

Not only do persons who have not yet become members, by formal admission as such, attend our churches; they form a very large part of our congregations. In many cases they constitute two thirds, three fourths, or even more; this depend-persons out of ten of those who make no ing much on the length of the period during which the congregation has been organized, and hardly ever less than a half, even in the most highly-favoured churches. Nor do they attend only; they are cheerful supporters of the public worship, and are often found as liberal in contributing of their substance for the promotion of good objects, as the members of the church themselves, with whom they are intimately connected by the ordinary business of life, and by family ties. Multitudes of them are like the young man whom Jesus loved, but who still "lacked one thing.' They attend from year to year, as did the impotent man at the Pool of Bethesda, nor do they attend in vain.* It

profession of religion would, on being asked, "Are you a Christian?" promptly reply, “No, I am sorry to say I am not ;" meaning thereby that he was sorry to say that he is not a truly religious man, or what the word Christian ought to signify, and is with us so often employed to express. This is obviously better for unconverted persons-better for their own consciences-than to be involved in a church relation, and yet be without religion. It is every way better, also, for the pastor and the church; and the prospect of the Word of God gaining an entrance into the heart of the unrenewed is many times more encouraging than if they were members of the church, and had " a name to live" while in reality "dead in trespasses and sins."

Sylvester Larned, of New-Orleans, one of the most eloquent pulpit orators of his day, to say that he it for a long period of time. The results are most wished to join his church, and to receive the sacra- striking, and clearly demonstrate the blessing of ment of the Supper, "for," said he, with an oath, having the stated and regular use of the means of you are the most eloquent man I have ever heard!" grace. It has been found that, of those who habituMr. Larned spent an hour with him in explaining ally attend churches where the Gospel is faithfully what was required in order to his becoming a mem- preached, the number who, sooner or later, are made ber of his church; in other words, what it is to be a to experience its saving power is surprisingly great; true Christian, and the Spaniard went away with a and, on the contrary, the number of those who die heavy heart, to reflect on a subject which had never without giving any evidence of possessing true piety been presented to his mind in the same light before. is small. The investigation has been made in all In the State of Connecticut a series of most in- parts of the State, and has everywhere conducted to teresting inquiries have been prosecuted, during the the same important and delightful conclusion. I last few years, under the auspices, I believe, of the know not whether this inquiry has ever been prosGeneral Association of the Congregational Church-ecuted so thoroughly and extensively in any other es; one of which relates to the influence which the part of the world. faithful preaching of the Gospel in a community-a parish, for instance-exerts upon the mass who hear

CHAPTER V.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF DISCIPLINE.

I HAVE been often asked in Europe, What measures are adopted by our churches in enforcing discipline-how unworthy persons, for instance, are prevented from coming to the Lord's Table? The very question indicates familiarity with a state of things very different from what prevails in the United States-with a state of things in which the decisions of the ecclesiastical authority are enforced by the civil.

In regard to church members who subject themselves to censure for open sin, or gross neglect of duty, they are dealt with according to the established discipline of the body to which they belong; and that, in all our evangelical churches, is founded upon the simple and lear directions given by our Lord and his Apostles. Unworthy members, after having been dealt with according to Scriptural rule, are excluded until they give evidence of sincere contrition for their sin. Where the case is flagrant, and the sin persisted in, after all attempts to reclaim the offender have failed, he is openly excommunicated before the church and congregation. A less open declaration of the offence and punishment takes place in other cases. But whatever be the course pursued, unworthy men are excluded in all our evangelical churches as soon as their offence can be properly taken

fact. Once excluded, the world does not long remain ignorant of what has taken place, and the church thus avoids the charge of retaining persons of scandalous lives in her communion.* Any defect in our administration of church discipline does not lie, I conceive, generally speaking, in its being harsh and impatient; while, on the other hand, there is nothing in the institutions of the country, or in the opinions and habits of the people, to prevent its being as rigid as the legislation of the great Head of the Church demands. If there be failure anywhere, it is chargeable to want of fidelity on the part of those who are intrusted with the exercise of it.

Church discipline with us, though wholly moral, is thought quite sufficient. The case must be rare, indeed, of any one, not a member of some recognised church, coming forward to receive the sacrament in an evangelical church. He hears the qualifications necessary to a worthy participation in the ordinance; he knows that none but Christians of good repute in other evan-up by the church. I state this as a general gelical churches are invited to join the members of that particular church on the solemn occasion; and if he belongs to neither of these categories, he is not likely to unite himself to the Lord's people. But if he should, he does so on his own responsibility before God; the Church is not to be blamed for his conduct. Even were a person who had been excommunicated for open immorality, and universally known to be so, to take his seat among the members of the church, its office-bearers, in carrying round the symbols of the Saviour's body and blood, would probably pass him by; or, if that could not be done, they would rather allow the matter to take its course than risk confusion at so solemn a moment, in the conviction that the Church, having done her previous duty to the unhappy man, she is not to blame for his unauthorized intrusion. I know of one solitary occasion in which one of the officebearers whispered in the ear of a person who ought not to have been among the communicants, that it would be better for his own soul, as well as due to the church, that he should retire, and he did so. But this was unobserved by most of those immediately around, or, if observed, they did not know the cause of his retiring. I never knew or heard of another case in which such a step was necessary.

CHAPTER VI.

CHARACTER OF AMERICAN PREACHING.

IN order adequately to describe American preaching, one should be intimately acquainted with the churches of the country throughout its vast extent; but this knowledge it falls to the lot of few to possess. Foreign writers on the subject have been either travellers, whose books betray a very limited acquaintance with the churches and their ministers, or untravelled authors, whose judgment has been formed upon such specimens as they could find in printed discourses, or hear from the lips of preachers from the United States during visits to Europe. In either case, whatever may have been the impartiality of the judges, the data for forming a sound opin

No difficulty whatever, I repeat, can arise on this subject. Our discipline is moral, and the people are too well instructed on the subject of their duties not to know what they should do, and what to abstain from doing. We have no gens d'armes, or other police agents, to enforce * The deposition of a minister of the Gospel, when our discipline, and if such functionaries are it occurs, which, when we consider how numerous ever seen about our churches in any char- the ministry is, cannot be thought frequent, is comacter but that of worshippers, it is on ex-monly announced in the religious and other journals, traordinary occasions, to keep order at the in order that the churches may be duly guarded against the admission of the deposed person into door; and their services are not often their pulpits, through ignorance of his character and needed even for that purpose. present position.

ion upon the subject have been manifestly | in Latin, Greek, the Natural and Moral insufficient. Few persons in Europe have Sciences, and Theology, such as is now read enough of American sermons to form pursued at our colleges and theological an accurate judgment respecting the vari- seminaries, or what is tantamount to it. ous qualities of American preaching, for Many, especially the younger men, have few preachers, comparatively, in America some knowledge of Hebrew. As for the have published volumes of sermons, or Baptist ministers, it is not easy to say how even isolated and occasional discourses. many have gone through a similar courseSome of the most effective preachers have certainly not half, perhaps not a fourth of published very little, and many nothing at them. A still smaller proportion of the all. And as for those preachers from the Methodist preachers have had that advanUnited States who have visited Europe, tage, though, upon the whole, they are not a dozen have been able to preach in probably as well informed as the Baptist any language but the English; and any ministers are. Ministerial education among other language, with all but one or two of the Cumberland Presbyterians is much in these, has been German. Except in Great the same state as among the Methodists. Britain and Ireland, then, and to a very The clergy of certain denominations, limited extent in Germany, American who have not passed through a collegiate preaching is unknown, except from books course, are often spoken of, but very un-and the reports of persons who have visited justly, as "uneducated," "unlearned," "ilthe country. As for the American preach-literate," and so forth. Very many such ers who have visited Europe, they have been few in comparison with the whole body, and have been confined for the most part to those of three or four denominations. Many of them have crossed the Atlantic as invalids for the recovery of their health; others have come with some object to accomplish, which left little time for preaching. Under such circumstances they could hardly be expected to preach as well as at home; and yet there have been some who, while in Europe, reflected no discredit on themselves or their country as pulpit orators.

*

Preaching in the United States varies exceedingly both in manner and in substance, but most in manner. The clergy in the Presbyterian, Congregational, Episcopal, Reformed Dutch, Lutheran, German Reformed, Moravian, Reformed Presbyterian, Associate, and Associate Reformed churches, have, with few exceptions, passed through a regular course of education

*

Among the American preachers whose visits are still remembered with interest in Great Britain (and some of them on the Continent also), but who are no longer with us, may be mentioned the Rev. Drs. Mason, Romeyn, Bruen, Henry, Hobart, Emory, Fisk, and Clark, who were certainly no mean men. Of those who have visited Europe within the last few years, and who are still permitted to prosecute their work among us, the Rev. Drs. Spring, Humphrey, Cox, M'Auley, Codman, Sprague, Breckinridge. Patton, and Rev. Mr. Kirk, of the Presbyterian and Congregational Churches; the Rev. Drs. Bethune and Ferris, of the Reformed Dutch; the Rev. Drs. Milnor, M'Ilvaine (bishop of Ohio), Meade (bishop of Virginia), Hawks, and Tyng, of the Episcopal; the Rev. Drs. Olin, Capers, President Durbin, and Bishop Soule, of the Methodist; the Rev. Drs. Wayland, Stowe, Sears, and M'Murray, of the Baptist; and the Rev. Dr. Kurtz and the Rev. Mr. Riley of the Lutheran and German Reformed Churches, are widely known in Great Britain, and some of them on the Continent. The last-named two were kindly received in Germany, and heard with attention, both when they spoke of the infant seminaries for which

they pleaded, as well as when they proclaimed "that Name which is above every name," and which is "like ointment poured forth."

have, by great application, made most respectable attainments. Some have acquired a considerable knowledge of the Latin and Greek classics, and a far greater number have, by the diligent perusal of valuable works in English, stored their minds with a large amount of sound learning, which they use with much effect in preaching. Nor is this surprising. A man may acquire an immense fund of knowledge through the sole medium of the English tongue. Benjamin Franklin knew nothing of the ancient languages, and not much of any of the modern, beyond his mother tongue and French; yet few men of his day were better informed, or wrote their mother tongue with equal purity. So, also, with Washington. And who ever used the English language with greater propriety and effect than Bunyan; or where in that language shall we find a sounder or abler theological writer than Andrew Fuller ? Yet neither Bunyan nor Fuller was ever at a college.

66

It is a great, though a common mistake, to suppose that Methodist ministers, when on the circuit," read nothing. There being generally two on each circuit, each has a good deal of time, especially in the older portions of the country, for making up his reports, carrying on his correspondence, and prosecuting his studies; and that this last is done to some good purpose is clearly shown by the preaching of the great majority. Those who are labouring on the "circuits" in the frontier and thinly-settled districts, have much less time for reading and study. Those who are stationed in the cities and large towns have as much time for study as other ministers similarly situated. Many Baptist ministers, also, who have never attended college, are close students, and carefully prepare for the pulpit; while others, of whom so much cannot be said, give themselves much to the reading of certain favourite authors.

Nearly all the Episcopal and Congrega- course of reading prescribed to them for tional clergy write their sermons, and read the four probationary years preceding their more or less closely when delivering them. being ordained elders or presbyters. DuSo do many of the Presbyterian and Re-ring that time they have their circuit laformed Dutch, and some, also, of the Bap-bours to perform; what they learn is put tist ministers. A large proportion of the to instant use, and incorporated, as it Presbyterian clergy, the great majority of were, with their very being. Now, this the Baptist, and nearly all the ministers of preparatory course has no tendency to the Methodist, Cumberland Presbyterian, keep down the eagerness for energetic and some other evangelical denominations, preaching, so much felt by men who reneither write their sermons in full, nor read gard themselves as called by God to preach any considerable part of them. Few, how- his Gospel, but which is so much restrainever, of any church commit their sermons ed by the precise knowledge and artificial to memory; the great majority of such as rules of eloquence taught in colleges. Bedo not write out their discourses, carefully sides, as they generally preach to moderstudy the subjects of them, and generally ate assemblages, and these, in many cases, note down the principal heads to be used mainly composed of the plainer classes, in the pulpit, as taste or habit may incline. they are far less apt to feel embarrassed The delivery of the ministers among us than youths who, having first spent severwho read is not, in general, very animated; al years at a college, and then several still, it is sufficiently attractive in most more at a theological seminary, have acinstances to interest hearers endued with quired so fastidious a taste, and have beany capacity for distinguishing between come so nervously sensible to the slightest sound and sense, and who prefer a well- deviations from the strictest rules of gramreasoned, well-expressed, and instructive mar and rhetoric, that they almost dread discourse to mere animated declamation, to speak at all, lest they should offend accompanied with much less, commonly, against both. But the grand advantage posof these qualities. Good reading, though sessed by the Methodist itinerant preachin all countries much more rare than at- er, and one which, if he has any talent at tractive and effective speaking, will gen- all, he cannot fail to profit by, is, that he erally be preferred, nevertheless, by hear- may preach sooner or later in many or all ers of high intellectual acquirements. of the eight, ten, or more places in his circuit, the discourse with which he sets out, and which he has been preparing during the intervals of repose which he enjoys. This frequént repetition of the same sermon is an inestimable means of improvement. Each repetition admits of some modification, as the discourse is not written out, and enables the preacher to improve what seemed faulty, and to supply what seemed deficient in the preceding effort. No men, accordingly, with us become readier or more effective speakers. Their diction, indeed, may not always be as pure as that of men who have spent several years in the schools; yet it is surprising with what propriety vast numbers of them express themselves, while in point of forcible and effective delivery they far surpass, upon the whole, preachers who have passed through the colleges.

Ministers of all denominations who do not read their discourses, possess a much more animated delivery, and generally display more of what may be called "oratory" in their manner, than their brethren who read. But their sermons can hardly have the same order, clearness, and freedom from repetition. Still, they need not be defective in instructiveness, and they have greatly the advantage in point of fervour, and in those direct and powerful appeals which owe their effect almost as much to look, tone, and manner, as to the truths which the speaker expresses. Not that such appeals can be of much avail if no truth be conveyed by them, but truth may become much more effective when pressed upon the attention in an attractive and impressive manner.

Those of the clergy of the evangelical churches in the United States who have What has been said of the Methodists passed through a regular classical and the- applies to the Cumberland Presbyterians, ological course of education, and who in a body of Christians which we shall give point of numbers may be estimated at some account of hereafter, and which is about 7000, taken as a whole, would be to be found exclusively in the West and in pronounced less animated than the most Texas. Like the Methodists, they have celebrated preachers in Great Britain and circuit or itinerant preachers, and about an Ireland, France and Germany, and, I may equal proportion of their ministers have add, Denmark and Sweden. Not a few of never pursued a course of study at colthem, however, are not wanting in fervour, lege. It may be applied, also, but not to and even fire in their delivery. But this is the same extent, to what is called, neither not the case with those of our ministers with strict propriety, nor always in kindwho have had a less complete education, liness of feeling, the "uneducated" porand have been very differently trained. tion of Baptist preachers. They have not Our Methodist ministers have a certain the advantages of the itineracy, and many

of them are too much occupied with their | secular pursuits to have much time to spare for study. Still, among them, also, there will be found a great deal of energetic eloquence--rather homely at times, yet often highly effective -- and flowing from a mind more intent upon its conceptions than upon the language in which they are to be clothed, and more desirous of producing a lasting effect on the understanding and hearts of the hearers than of exciting admiration for the graces of a fine style and elegant delivery.

rusal of the Bible, and the assistance of valuable commentaries, besides being generally well informed, and with a heart full of love to God and concern for men's souls, even although he may never have frequented the groves of an academy, or studied the nicer graces of oratory. Το the labours of such men more than 20,000 neighbourhoods in the United States are indebted for their general good order, tranquillity, and happiness, as well as for the humble but sincere piety that reigns in many a heart, and around many a fireside. To them the country owes much of its

inculcated more effectively those doctrines which promote obedience to law, respect for magistracy, and the maintenance of civil government; and never more than within the last year or two, during which they have had to resist the anarchical principles of self-styled reformers, both religious and political. No men are more hated and reviled by these demagogues, whose projects, I rejoice to say, find comparatively but a small and decreasing number of friends and advocates. To the influence of the pulpit, and that of the religious and sound part of the political press, we owe a return of better sentiments in several states, in relation to capital punishments in the case of murder in its highest degree, and the more frequent condemnation and execution of those who commit it. And in a late insurrectionary movement in Rhode Island, the leading journals of that state attest that the clergy of all denominations exerted a highly salutary influence.*

Some of the tourists from abroad who have visited the United States have affect-conservative character, for no men have ed to despise our "uneducated" and "ignorant" ministers, and have thought what they call the "ranting" of such men a fit subject of diversion for themselves and their readers. Such authors know little of the real worth and valuable labours of these humble, and, in comparison with such as have studied at colleges and universities, unlettered men. Their plain preaching, in fact, is often far more likely to benefit their usual hearers* than would that of a learned doctor of divinity issuing from some great university. Their language, though not always refined, is intelligible to those to whom it is addressed. Their illustrations may not be classical, but they will probably be drawn either from the Bible or from the scenes amid which their hearers move, and the events with which they are familiar; nor would the critical knowledge of a Porson, or the vast learning of a Parr, be likely to make them more successful in their work. I have often heard most solemn and edifying discourses from such men. I have met with them in all parts of the United States; and though some, doubtless, bring discredit upon the ministry by their ignorance, their eccentricities, or their incapacity, and do more harm than good to the cause of religion, yet, taken as a whole, they are a great blessing to the country. A European who should denounce the United States as uncivilized, and the inhabitants as wretched, because he does not everywhere find the luxuries and refinements of London and Paris, would display no more ignorance of the world, nor a greater want of common sense, than were he to despise the plain preaching of a man who enters the pulpit with a mind replete with Scriptural knowledge, obtained by frequent pe

* Let me not be misunderstood. I would not for a moment convey the idea that the people who attend the preaching of the non-classically educated Methodist and Baptist ministers consist only of the poor and uneducated. On the contrary, in many places, both in the North and in the South, they have a fair share of the most intelligent and respectable part of the population among their hearers. At the same time, it has ever been the peculiar glory of the former, indeed, of both, that through their labours "the poor have the Gospel preached to them."

But the subject of preaching ought to be viewed in its highest and most important aspect-that of the salvation of souls.

The first characteristic of American preaching, I should say, is simplicity. It is simple in the form of discourse or sermon, usually adopted by the better-educated part of the ministry. The most natural and obvious view of a subject is preferred to the far-fetched, the philosophical, it may be, and the striking. The grand aim of our preachers, taken as a body, is to present the true meaning of a text rather than to produce what is called effect. Again, preaching in the United States is simple in point of language, the plain and familiar being preferred to the ornate and rhetorical. Such of our preachers as wish to be perfectly intelligible, prefer words of Saxon to those of Latin origin, as being better understood by the people. Vigour, too, is preferred to beauty, and perspicuity to embellishment. Not that we have no preachers whose composition is ornate,

"Nothing," says the Providence Journal of July, 1842, "has filled the enemies of law and order with greater rage than the high and noble stand taken by the clergy against their insurrectionary doctrines."