unlocks all the mysteries of Scripture. If a philosophical theory, it explains all and harmonizes all. It resolves every thing, and every thing is resolved into it. Whether it take the name of Scottish or German, sensual or transcendental, it is equally positive of being the philosophy of philosophies, and having the exclusive right to interpret the Scriptures in its own way.

There are, also, theoretical preachers and practical preachers, the former always explaining difficulties, and always finding difficulties to explain; the latter earnestly and incessantly urging men to duty, and mourning and wondering that men think so little of their exhortations. There are men passionately attached to old things, and men equally fond of new things. In the former the divines of the seventeenth century speak, though dead; in the latter, the mode of argument and expression, which some fortunate enthusiast, of the warm tempered West, has transferred from the forum to the pulpit, make us almost to doubt, whether we are, in reality, in the temple of the Lord or the market-place. The extremes of delicacy and of vulgarity may find their way into the language of the sanctuary; a delicacy, so extremely fastidious, that the most common names of things, made prominent in the Bible, are rejected as unfit for the public ear; a vulgarity, which is not offended by the grossest illustrations, the coarsest humor, and the use of colloquial contractions and inaccuracies of language.

How much the candidate for the sacred order, needs that best and rare intellectual endowment, a practical wisdom, which, as it were, instinctively discerns the true, the pertinent, the proper, and enables a man to maintain the happy medium between extremes, and to command the respect of all by falling into the extravagances of none.

The need of such wisdom is seen, secondly, in the pastoral office.

In pastoral life extremely delicate questions arise. The limits of pastoral authority are ill defined; the duties and responsibilities of church members far from being settled; and the whole course of ecclesiastical discipline full of uncertainty and perplexity. Matters of difference between the individual members of a church, between different churches, or between a church and its pastor, often involve points of much difficulty and delicacy, and demand the exercise of the nicest discrimination and the utmost sagacity and good judgment, in adjusting them. Our form of church government leaves great responsibility to rest on the pastor, and renders a well balanced mind, an eminently wise man, an invaluable treasure not only to his own people, but to the whole circle of churches with which they are on terms of Christian intercourse. In the ordinary intercourse of a minister with his people, there is room for the exercise of all the wisdom we are capable of attaining. Discretion out of the pulpit gives authority to the pulpit itself. A skilful husbanding of the resources of the pastor, secures a respectful audience to the preacher. An obstinate adherence to a favorite measure, and a fickle and fluctuating course, may equally abridge the influence of a minister. There are particular cases in the history of communities, which cannot safely be overlooked or disregarded. There is a time to sow and a time to reap; a time to take a stand on some great truth or principle of duty, with a martyr's fortitude, and a time to flee from one city to another. Happy, happy the man, to whom God giveth wisdom to discern the signs of the time, and to adapt himself to the exigencies of the Divine Providence.

The need of wisdom is, also, obvious in the relations of the minister as

a man.

It is not possible to separate the professional from the private character; the pastor and the preacher, from the citizen, the neighbor, the husband and the parent: indeed, the eloquence, the influence, the usefulness of a minister depend essentially on his personal character. It is not simply, nor mainly, what a man utters in the desk, or does in his profession out of it, that determines the impression he makes. The life of the man, known and read of all men, insensibly infuses its influence into his speech and his measures. The very same words are the same no longer, when they drop from other lips; and the identical policy, which adopted by one man is coldly approved and reluctantly supported, meets the wishes and engages the enthusiasm of all, if proposed by

another. Nor is it altogether a difference of direct personal influence; the policy and the speech of men of opposite characters, however alike in form and every definable feature, are nevertheless as different as the zephyr that floats to us over the stagnant marsh, from the zephyr that is wafted across a garden of spices. It is a zephyr still and a zephyr only—a soft breath of air; but in the one case we involuntarily turn away our faces; in the other, it is luxury to breathe.

The differences of private character, which we have now in view, are such only as result from different degrees, not of moral excellence, but of wisdom and discretion. A man may do a real kindness, with true good will, but with so bad a grace, that he gets no credit for it. He may reprove a fault with a gentle spirit, but a most ungracious tone. One may shake hands with his neighbor in a manner that seems to wish him farther off. Men, of whom such are specimens, complain of being perpetually misapprehended; and with great reason, for they are continually misrepresenting themselves. We may be over precise also, or loose in pecuniary matters, and in manners-in one style of living and in dress. An intelligent people choose to see the man whom they have selected for a spiritual teacher, neither vain of idle distinctions, nor careless of the proprieties and dignity, which befit a cultivated mind and an honorable profession. A fop, a sloven, are equally condemned. He who haggles with market men and stage proprietors, and he who cannot safely be trusted with his own money or his own horse, are alike subject to reproach.

In all these views, the character of a minister of the gospel is hard to maintain. He is a wise man, who does not materially err.

These remarks are made of course with reference to the young men, who are preparing for the sacred office; and in the hope that they may serve to remind the fathers and brethren, already in the profession, of the service they may render to the cause of truth, by inculcating the cultivation of clerical wisdom on their young friends and pupils.

One of the principal means of cultivating the wisdom we have spoken of, is keeping it in the student's eye as a qualification to be aimed at. The very idea of the character itself, steadily held in mind, directs attention to the exhibitions of it in others, and to the occasions which call for it, and thus unconsciously leads to those trains of thought and habits of action, which generate and develope it. One of the great points in education is to secure attention to things always near us, and yet, generally overlooked. It is especially so in reference to those influences, which, though slight and insensible, are rendered important by their constancy. Of this kind are the influences, which gradually form the manners and the spirit of a man, in the society of his fellow-men and amid the scenes of nature. Of the same sort, in a great degree, are the sources of that peculiar trait of character, of which we are speaking.

Another means of improvement in this respect is the careful observation of our own minds. It is an evil of the present state of society, that a man's own feelings and judgment are last and least consulted by himself. The individual is lost, or trodden down, in the multitude. Yet one of the best guides of the theologian, or the pastor, or the man, is the oracle in his own bosom. Let the divine ask himself what his own intellect approves, what his own heart feels, what his own soul needs; and he may, for the most part, presume, that just that will commend itself to every intellect, touch every heart, and satisfy every soul. At any rate, if in such a man's theology, or manners, or measures, there should be striking peculiarities, they will be his own, full of an original spirit, and not necessarily oddities, or extravagances.

But, doubtless, the best aid is furnished by the study of the Scriptures. There is no circumstance more characteristic of the Bible, than its peculiar modes of exhibiting truth and the models it contains of moral and professional wisdom.

To illustrate the peculiarity of Scripture eloquence would require a great deal of time, and would, after all, be but imperfectly done, by the best criticism. It can be well understood only by taking the sacred volume itself into the

closet. We discover in it no traces of art. We hear no note of preparation for effect. We seem at ease, in the company of men nowise extraordinary, in most respects, and acting their parts in common scenes-men subject to like passions with us-scenes very like our own homes. And the truths with which we are conversant, here, when we gather them up from this and that portion of the record, and place them side by side in systematic order, seem just like other bodies of divinity.

us.

Still, as we give ourselves up to the guidance of the inspired writers, and follow, somewhat minutely and carefully, the train of events, the development of character, the interviews of men with one another and with God, which make up these wonderful books, how changed all things appear. What strange impressions are made; what mysterious objects pass before us and stand around What a life we are living, what an end we are approaching, what a world we dwell in, what scenes await us. We feel as if we were penetrated by the eye of God and surrounded by his presence. We are filled with a mingled feeling of abasement and exaltation; compelled to look on ourselves as at once the worst and the most privileged of beings-too mean and too guilty to deserve any thing, and yet solicited to accept of all things-captives, redeemed; enemies, reconciled. We seem to ourselves to be living in vain, with every thing to do; to be striving for nothing with every thing to gain. And, if the heart is yet sensitive, in spite of our pride, we weep tears of regret at the ignoble life we lead, and give ourselves, with earnestness, to the work of our own salvation and the promotion of the glory of God. Such impressions and such resolutions we cannot avoid, but by shutting up the Book of life, and laying it away out of our sight. A wicked man dreads to be alone with it. We cannot too much study a book of this spirit, nor fail to catch something of its style of eloquence, by habituating ourselves to feel its influence on our own hearts. The diligent reader of the sacred Scriptures and the careful student of his own heart, will soon find, that to these sources he owes more of whatever true wisdom he may attain, than to all the schools.

The nearest approach to this style of teaching, which the history of heathen eloquence, and, perhaps, of uninspired eloquence, in any state of society, affords, is exhibited in the public instructions of Socrates. In Plato's Banquet, Alcibiades is made to say, "When I heard Pericles, or any other great orator, I was entertained and delighted; and I felt that they had spoken well. But no mortal speech has ever excited in my mind such emotions as are kindled by this magician. Whenever I hear him, I am, as it were, charmed and fettered. My heart leaps like an inspired Corybant. My inmost soul is stung by his words, as by the bite of a serpent; it is indignant at its own rude and ignoble character. I often weep tears of regret, and think how vain and inglorious is the life I lead. Nor am I the only one that weeps like a child and despairs of himself; many others are affected in the same way."

Among Christian writers few possess this peculiar power like Paschal. Who ever sat an hour over the "Thoughts," without feeling the consciousness of a new being coming over his soul-without wondering that he had lived so long, and known so little what it is to live.

Socrates acquired his power by abandoning the schools of the Sophists, and following the advice inscribed over the gate of the temple at Delphi, “Fvõbe σɛavtov "—know thyself. Paschal, also, and every truly eloquent minister of Christ, has studied moral wisdom in his own heart, and in the school of the inspired Teachers.

ALUMNI OF The theoLoGICAL SEMINARY, ANDOVER.

THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES are not a new kind of institution. They have existed in some form almost from the Christian era; though established upon a less permanent basis than at the present time. Theological education in this country was conducted by the enterprise of individual clergymen, till the commencement of the present century. In 1808 was established the Seminary at Andover-the first that was erected upon a permanent basis in this country; and since that time, the superiority of instruction in public seminaries over that given by private individuals, has become generally acknowledged. Consequently theological seminaries have been established by the principal Christian denominations in the land. More than thirty have been founded within the last thirty years. We are glad to see this interest in providing an able ministry for this country and the world. And we are not displeased to see Andover still holding, and promising to retain the rank which, by its greater age, belongs to it. Its continued prosperity will be seen from the following schedules :

SCHEDULE I.

Showing the number that have annually finished their course in the Andover Theological Seminary : designating the Colleges at which they were graduated, and the number that have deceased.

71

1112

Hamilton.

Union.

Vt. University.

CoN. J. College.

| Other Colleges.

| Not Graduates.

113

21

312

421112

1211112

2

Total, 34 125 141 142 70 106 47 102 22 21 7 7 11 50 785 101

*Several that were once missionaries have returned, which, if added, would raise the number to ninety.

79

3541432

1131112

13

12

2121112

1824,

1825,

1826,

1827,

1828,

1829,

23

674

1135232

1830,

1831,

1832,

1833,

1834,

1835,

1836,

SCHEDULE II.

Showing the States in which the Alumni of the Theological Seminary, Andover, had their original residence, and the Colleges at which they were graduated: also, the number of the deceased, and of Foreign Missionaries.

From the preceding it appears the number annually leaving Andover is gradually increasing; for the four largest classes have left within the last ten years. Previous to the establishment of Amherst College, a plurality of those belonging to Massachusetts were graduated at Williams; many were graduated at colleges out of the State; more came to Andover from Yale than from any other college. Since Amherst College was established, its graduates have been most numerous at Andover. But, for the whole existence of the Seminary, the graduates of Dartmouth are much the most numerous. Heath, September 27, 1839.

ANNIVERSARIES OF SOCIETIES CONNECTED WITH THE AMERICAN EDUCATION SOCIETY.

CENTRAL AMERICAN EDUCATION

SOCIETY.

An account of the public services at the time of the last anniversary of this Society was given in the August number of this work. An extract from the Report follows:

Emerging from the clouds of adversity that have been lowering around their path for two years past, and commencing a new era in this work of benevolence, the Directors have thought proper to re-survey the ground and examine anew the principles upon which they act.

The system of parental loans, judiciously administered, they continue to regard with undiminished favor. The voices of those

who have had the most ample opportunities to witness the results of its operation, bear of the plan. The wisdom of this prominent uniform and decided testimony to the utility principle, in our mode of furnishing assistance, must now be considered as completely demonstrated. Experience has shown it to be safest and most prudent for the benefactor, and at the same time, most agreeable to the feelings of the beneficiary.

Another important feature is, the certificate of character and accurate account of expenses, required once a quarter, of every one under patronage. By this means the Directors become acquainted with the moral and religious character, the scholarship and habits of all the beneficiaries. Is any one inattentive to his studies, or extravagant in