may find ample scope in this work; and that on the other hand, decided weakness of intellect is a disqualification. Good sense he must have; but brilliant powers are by no means indispensable.

It is self-evident too, that he must have time to learn, before he can hope for success in his work. Common sense decides so, in regard to all acquisitions which are to be made by study. In the first schools of Europe, established for the two great professions, law and medicine, the period of study is three, four, and in some cases, five years, superadded to an academical education. In the same departments, three years of professional study is made a legal requisite in different parts of our own country. But is the care of men's immortal interests a business that demands less maturity of preparation than that of their bodies or estates? Is the interpretation of the sacred oracles, and the preaching of the everlasting gospel, so trifling an affair, that it may be safely left to any novice who chooses to undertake it ? Plainly, he cannot be a successful teacher in the church of God, who has not had time to learn. The knowledge that he needs is to be gained, not by intuition, not by inspiration, not by any royal road,' but by patient long-continued study. Solomon has told him all the secret of gaining this knowledge; he must dig for it as for hidden treasures.1

1 'If knowledge is not to be despised, then it will follow that the means of obtaining it are not to be neglected, viz. study; and that this is of great use in order to a preparation for publicly instructing others. And though having the heart full of the powerful influences of the Spirit of God, may at some times enable persons to speak profitably, yea, very excellently without study, yet this will not warrant us needlessly to cast ourselves down from the pinnacle of the temple, depending upon it, that the angel of the Lord will bear

Need I add that he must have instruction? Not a few young men of bright promise, who might have become champions of the truth, have been so impatient to hasten into the ministry, that they have fatally blighted their own prospects; and instead of attaining to distinguished success, have scarcely reached the point of mediocrity. The minister now, whose maxim is to expect little things, and attempt little things, mistakes the day in which he lives. What was knowledge in the thirteenth century, is ignorance now. What was energy then, is imbecility and stupidity now. another case, it becomes not our sacred profession in this period of intellectual progress, to remain like the ship that is moored to its station, only to mark the rapidity of the current that is sweeping by. Let the intelligence of the age outstrip us and leave us behind, and religion would sink, with its teachers into insignificance. Ignorance cannot wield this intelligence. Give to the church a feeble ministry, and the world breaks from your hold; your main spring of moral influence is gone.

As was said in

Would you then become burning and shining lights in the church of God, study-indefatigable, systematic study, is essential to the attainment of your object.

us up, and keep us from dashing our foot against a stone, when there is another way to go down, though it be not so quick.'-EDWARDS.

'How few read enough to stock their minds? and the mind is no widow's cruise, which fills with knowledge as fast as we empty it. Why should a clergyman labour less than a barrister ? since in spiritual things, as well as temporal, it is "the hand of the diligent which maketh rich."-BICKERSTETH.

APPENDIX.

I.

ON THE DELIVERY OF SERMONS.

BY THE EDITOR.

ONE of the most important subjects connected with preaching, which Dr. Porter has omitted to notice in his Lectures, is that which relates to the delivery of sermons. The Editor is by no means insensible to the indifference which is frequently attached by preachers themselves to the manner in which they deliver their discourses from the pulpit: but when he has noticed the effect produced by the preaching of such individuals, however distinguished for their piety, their zeal, or their talents, he has generally perceived symptoms of inattention, and a want of interest in their discourses, on the part of their congregations. It is mortifying indeed to think how many excellent sermons, fraught with wisdom, and piety, with depth of argument, and beauty of style, are vainly scattered, as it were, to the winds, every Sabbath in the year, for want of that attention to their delivery from the pulpit, which alone can ensure the attention of the hearers. It is quite irrelevant to plead the doctrine of human corruption, and the alienation of the

natural heart from God, and thus to account for the inattention of a congregation. That corruption and that alienation remain precisely the same, whether they are addressed in a lively, natural, energetic manner, or in a manner exactly the reverse but whilst in the latter case they will generally be found inattentive and indifferent, in the former they will appear to be interested and alive to the subject. God works by means,' and generally by the means best adapted to the end. He makes use of the talents with which he endows his ministering servants; and if of the talent of composing, why not of the equally important talent of delivering a discourse? "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But how shall they hear without a preacher," who studies to make himself heard, and to deliver his message in a manner calculated at once to awaken and rivet their attention?

The Editor would here premise that many of the following observations should be reduced to practice, if possible, before the sacred student assumes the character and station of a preacher. It is with delivery as with composition, there should be previous discipline and preparation. As in the one case the style should be already formed so as to require little or no attention from the writer, whilst expressing his thoughts on paper, so in the other, a happy and vigorous species of elocution, should be attained before the preacher ascends the pulpit, where he must become absorbed at once with the grandeur and importance of his subject. It happens, however, in numerous instances, that young men enter on the work of the ministry without having had their attention at all directed to this subject, and in consequence not only feel a considerable embarrassment in the pulpit, but frequently fall into an unnatural, and to say