moral purity, is the medium of introducing it to the heart. It is probable that, separate from the classic pages of antiquity, which have handed down to us the very spirit and mauners of the age in which their writers respectively flourished, and have supplied us with an enlarged and intelligent view of the state of the heathen population, that, apart from these, no man can duly appreciate the invaluable blessings conveyed to us by the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. There is yet another benefit to be derived from the study of the classics. The very acquisition of language tends, in common with the pursuit of the abstract sciences, to give an acuteness and a vigour to the thinking faculty, which, perhaps, no other studies can so effectually impart. They call all the mental powers into exercise, and, by practice, give them a strength and a facility similar to that which the bodies of the ancient Athlete acquired by exercise in the Gymnasium. If I add, that a considerable acquaintance with the learned languages is essential to an accurate etymological knowledge of our own tongue, no other argument will be necessary to persuade you to apply with vigour and perseverance to the study of this branch of learning. It must be confessed that, allowing you possess considerable preparatory knowledge, four years is but a short time to dig in the mine of classic lore; it is, however, enough to remove those strata which cover the precious vein, and which health and a moderate degree of leisure will enable you eventually to work. As to the modern languages, it is certainly very desirable, if time and opportunity be afforded, that you should gain some knowledge of the French, Italian, and even Spanish tongues. The fre quent changes which occur in the governments of those states in which these languages are spoken, and the spirit of liberty, and the love of knowledge, which are now so widely diffused, encourage us to hope that, ere long, numerous and effectual doors will be opened for the labours of those men who, endowed with piety, zeal, devotion, and knowledge, are indifferent as to the scene of their labours, provided they may but sow in a wide field, and hope for an abundant, if not an early harvest. Rhetoric, and the philosophy of the mind will, I believe, occupy a portion of your time. After all that Reid and Stewart have written, the former with precision and force, the latter with great taste and beauty, Locke, in my judgment, stands pre-eminent. It must be acknowledged, indeed, that they have detected and exposed a few errors in the writings of this illustrious man; but yet, amongst the writers on mental philosophy, his work on the Understanding deserves not a cursory, but careful and repeated perusals. An inferior mind may very frequently discover a defect, a redundance, or even a weakness in a great one; but the latter originates that on which the former can indeed comment, and at which it may perhaps carp, but which it never could have produced. The study of writers on this subject is recommended, for the purpose of giving precision to our ideas, and accuracy to our expressions. It is certainly well calculated to do this, at least so far as the science itself is concerned; and the habit in the particular instance may produce a general correctness inyour composition. But a much wider range will be necessary to produce that copia verborum, which is so necessary to a public speaker. Such writers as Paley, Chalmers, and R. Hall, will well repay frequent and careful perusals. They are not only simple and luminous, but full of vigour. The thought is not encumbered with a multitude of words; nor does the period flag for want of thought. Add to these the best of our English classics, and you will secure an abundant supply; you will have the copia rerum as well as verborum. The style of the pulpit is a different, and, it must be confessed, a difficult subject. The mere essay, the harangue, the discourse, subtilely and curiously divided and arranged, are inadmissible here. Every man has his own proper gift of God; but every minister of truth ought to avoid that which has a tendency to lull rather than to impress, to surprise rather than to benefit, to puzzle rather than to enlighten. The simple, or even the plain, is preferable to the decorated; and the dignified and solemn infinitely before the light, the low, or the ludicrous. As to the choice of phraseology, you can have no better guide than part of Fóster's Essay on the Aversion of Men of Taste to Evangelical Religion; and the remarks of the Eclectic Reviewer (1805) on that Essay. The latter corrects, most wisely, the rather too fastidious taste of the former with respect to the use of Scripture language. Nor can I omit, in addition to the authors whose works will be recommended to you by your tutors, a paper in the above named periodical, for June 1827. In that article, there are some things liable to objection, but it contains many very useful hints and observations. Blair, Campbell, and Fenelon will not be overlooked; nor need I point you for an example of divine eloquence to the man who stood up, without fear, before philosophers and statesmen, before princes and kings, before strangers and his own countrymen-or, to Him who spake as never man spake, with a point, an energy, a lustre of truth unknown before. But what shall I say of the spirit to be maintained, the dangers to which you will be exposed, and the advantages you will enjoy, during your academical course. I am truly glad to hear there will not be many pulpit engagements for you during the two former years. You will, I presume, have Saturday and Monday, either to prepare for your lectures, or to devote to mental improvement in other branches of knowledge; and you will not have so much time occupied in preparation for the pulpit; for which, indeed, nothing but varied information and long experience can render you efficiently qualified. There are three great enemies to a student, against which you will do well to be on your guard. I mean indolence, carelessness, and levity. The first is a dead weight; allow it its full preponderance over every counterpoise, and you are degraded for life. The second will render all your knowledge indefinite, inaccurate, and indigested. The last will endanger your moral as well as your mental character; I need not tell you that by levity, I do not mean cheerfulness. The latter is far removed from folly, the former is ever entering on her borders. To one of the above three vices almost every student is constitutionally prone. To know that by which you are endangered, is the best means, as it is the first, to guard against it. So far as I am acquainted with your physical and mental constitution, I do not suspect you of the last; may I ask you, if there be not a tendency towards the first? It is the "well circumstanced sin," (TMηY EVжEpisαrov aμapriav,) of most literary men. Is it yours? If it be, endeavour by every means in your power to subdue it. The indolent mind must be barren; the active, provided it be employed on that which is good, will always be improving. One subject remains, and it is mentioned last, not as if it were of inferior, but because it is of the greatest moment. I refer now to that spiritual, or devotional peace, which is not easily maintained, and which, when once lost, is not readily recovered, The studies of the college, even biblical and theological pursuits, regarding theology, for a moment, merely as a science, are not, perhaps, the best adapted to cherish personal religion. They are, however, indispensable; and where the heart is always kept in a right state they will not be injurious; and while they strengthen the intellectual faculty, they will not destroy the fine sensibilities of the renewed heart. Perhaps one reason why the studies of an academy have in some instances so bad an effect on the religious character of the student, is the very sudden transition of the mind to trains of ideas perfectly novel. This, together with the facts, that the whole ardour of the soul is frequently consecrated to the pursuits of literature and science; that a smattering of knowledge is too apt to puff up the young aspirant for literary fame with pride or vanity;-that some of the studies are dry;-that all of them tend to furnish the head, rather than to mend the heart, and improve the moral and spiritual feeling-these considerations may be adduced to develop some of the causes for that loss of humility and spirituality, which four years occupied in scholastic studies too frequently occasion. It would be well for all students to consider, that their intellectual is far inferior in real importance to their moral and religious character. It is not what a man is as to talents and attainments, which principally commend him to his fellow men; but, rather, what he is as a genuine penitent, an humble disciple, a devoted imitator of the moral excellence of Jesus the Son of God; what he is as a man of faith and of prayer, as a man of high moral and spiritual sensibility. Satan has talents, and we are ready to admire them; but his moral deformity as the enemy of all that is good, renders him hateful. It is not in highly gifted men that God takes pleasure; beauty of countenance, as in Absalom ; grace of demeanour, as in Eliab; remarkable powers, as in Simon Magus, may set, indeed, the whole world a wondering ; but God looketh not at the outward appearance, he taketh not pleasure in these inferior qualifications-he looks at the heart-he takes pleasure in them that fear him, in them that hope in his mercy. While the improvement of the understanding, therefore, is earnestly sought, let not the cultivation of the principles, and a careful attention to the practices of genuine piety be neglected. The holy calm, the heart-felt cheerfulness and joy thus induced will be the very best preparatives to intellectual exertion, and the surest pledge of success. The old adage is founded in truth," he who prays well, studies well." Be assured it will always give me pleasure to hear of your intellectual and spiritual progress, your piety as a Christian, your faithfulness and success as a minister. I am, My dear young Friend, Affectionately your's, ON THE PERSONAL REIGN OF No. II. The general Difficulties of the Modern I WILL now proceed to point out It may be considered as in some measure a presumptive evidence against it, that comparatively few who stand connected with a truly evangelical ministry, whether within the pale of the Establishment, or among Protestant Dissenters of various denominations, were ever led into these views by their devotional attention to the word of truth. It would, indeed, be passing strange, were many found who had dared to adopt sentiments contradictory to almost every orthodox creed, and impugned, by a diversity of talent, which time and piety have uninformed youth, but to hoary rendered venerable, not only to hairs, in the way of righteousness; not only to private members, but to the most distinguished officers of the church of Jesus. Calvinistic divines, of various hue, from the flaming supralapsarian, down to the cool moderator, with the various orders of their Arminian brethren, agree to discard the idea of a scheme so carnal. An Owen, an Edwards, a Watts, a Whitby, a Wesley, a Fletcher, looked for the spiritual reign, but denied the territorial kingdom ascribed to the Redeemer. I allow, that should this view of the millennium appear reasonable and scriptural, the names of thousands, whose praise is in all the churches, must fall prostrate before triumphant truth; for truth, not names-truth, I say, and truth alone, demands with sovereign right the homage of the mind. never antiscriptural; some of the particulars are certainly believed by most, if not by all, who regard the writings of the prophets as the true sayings of God; and it is owing to an association with these, that those which are absurd in themselves, pass currently with the undiscriminating multitude. Besides, no inconsiderable portion of this scheme consists of matters of doubtful speculation, on which the most learned have agreed; it would therefore be ridiculous to agitate questions which might be proposed, ad infinitum, on these principles, in your periodical miscellany. It may suf fice for your work, and it ought to suffice for your readers, if it be shown that the system, as a whole, is destitute of evidence, and by no means entitled to the cordial reception of the Christian public. N. S. No. 34. But when it is considered that the men adverted to, as well as those who are named-that an almost innumerable multitude of godly, learned, inquiring, devoted men, through a long succession of ages-private Christians, laborious ministers, and luminous commentators, have all declared themselves opposed to a visible and literal reign of the Redeemer on earth, because they could not find it 3 Y revealed in the Scriptures of truth; a man, methinks, should not wonder if he be charged with temerity when he hastily adopts the scheme, or with pride and vanity, when with boundless confidence he asserts it, and determines too that others shall see with him, or be reproached as novices, if not anathematized as heretics. The belief of both the learned and the vulgar of several successive ages, and in distant nations, that the reign of Christ will be spiritual only, may be allowed to weigh with wavering minds, unless it could be shown that some prejudice, no less universal than the opinion itself, had given it birth, and perpetuated its existence; for it seems in this case to be one of those truths which, when presented to the mind, is so obvious and clear, that it might be expected that men would universally agree to its establishment. As with respect to many natural truths, we find no dissent, unless, perhaps, that of a few sceptical or fanciful philosophers; so, some religious truths, like that of the spiritual reign of Christ, are generally recognized, except by sceptical or fanciful religionists; and in both cases they who dissent are justly suspected to differ from the rest of mankind, through pride or obstinacy, some favourite passion, some artful design, or determined singularity. Neither you nor your readers, Gentlemen, I trust, will misunderstand me; mental vassalage, of which an enslaved body is but a living picture, I abhor. Let the day of intellectual freedom, now dawning on the world, go on with the rapidity of light to meridian splendour. Show me unequivocal testimony for the personal and visible reign of the Redeemer on the earth for 1000 years, and in defiance of the whole world, I will believe, admire, and bow submissive at the feet of re velation, free as I was born, from the shackles of party, and the domination of synods. I will not, however, be influenced by bits and shreds torn from the beautiful contexture of Scripture; detached portions and mutilated texts will not suffice to induce me to adopt the doctrines of the mediatorial monarchy; the whole, as a whole, must be harmonized with the tenor of revelation, before I can sit at the feet of these illumined and illuminating advocates of the territorial kingdom of Jesus. But can we reconcile this whole statement with the scope of the prophets and apostles, any more than with the general faith of modern and ancient Christians; nay, will it not be found that its most prominent features are repugnant to the tenor of the word of God, and diametrically opposed to some of its plainest declarations ? To the law and the testimony, if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. The oracles of God teach us, perhaps, that the return of the Jews to the land of their fathers is not impossible, not improbable, or, if you please, that it is absolutely certain. On their return they will exist no more as two distinct kingdoms, but Judah and Israel will be one kingdom under one King; for their tribeship is lost, nor can the line of demarcation be drawn between the ten tribes of Israel and the other two, much less between each of the twelve tribes of Jacob. The Jews will be converted to the faith of Christ, and probably become most efficient instruments in the diffusion of the knowledge of his name to the ends of the earth. But may not all this be admitted without the extravagant assumption that the Jews will be elevated above all the nations of the earth, by the miraculous interposition of his arm who is no respecter of persons, neither of the Jews above the Gentiles, nor of the modern |