day and fire by night, which still guide those who wish to walk right. I was led by the way that I knew not. Surely it will not be my fate to be arraigned for dwelling so much on the eloquence of the pulpit. Religion is alone worthy of eloquence. If there be one thing to loose and fire the tongue of man, it is the WORD of that God who taught us, under its impulse, to take no heed what we shall say when we are to speak of the hope of faith. It is then that the speech should be all heart, and the heart all speech. Few are, however, such men. Enough there are of preachers of the good gospel;' but 'good gospel preachers' are still wanted. The fault is not in them that hear it is in them that preach. Accounts of many of the preachers whose names occur in the present volume, it may be right to state, successively appeared, some months since, in the 'National i Register.' I state this, not because it is of much moment now, but as it may solve some occasional allusions to men and things and times: for it will be found that this series of papers, in which such allusions are met with, is now thoroughly revised, considerably augmented, and, indeed, re-written. Here too is another fact recalled to my mind. Attempts were frequently made, during this period, to seduce and decoy me, and to deter me too, from independence and integrity of writing. It will be seen that such attempts were thus made in vain. Honorable information I shall feel always happy in receiving, and to candid reproof I bow; but here let me strongly protest, once for all, against those who would designedly ensnare me into error, and against those who foolishly think that there are means by which to influence my decisions. 1 / Whatever may be the fate of this publication, nothing can deprive me of the satisfaction, that my testimony is borne to LIVING MERIT. While some still wait for the grave to close on the worth they love, and then decorate its tomb; it has been my wish to encircle the brow of the man, with that wreath which they will place on his bust! I much prize the word of good men; and, as far as this work goes, I hope to have it: but, as the poet of the pulpit well sang, 'But all is in His hands whose praise I seek.' 1 LONDON, ONESIMUS. |