If, therefore, his earlier ministrations were pervaded by a controversial and polemical spirit, it was because he believed the age demanded Christian warriors to defend the evangelical system, especially in its Presbyterian form, from the bold assaults of infidelity, the perversions of its professed friends, and the arrogant assumptions of false pretenders. And if the times made it necessary to lift the voice of stern remonstrance and earnest protest against the invasions of falsehood and heresy, who should obey the summons, but they whom the Master has qualified to lead on the sacramental host to victory? Who, but our military heroes who have the strength to wield the "sword of the Spirit," courage to mount the batteries of the enemy, sagacity to interpret his most subtle manœuverings, and generalship to take command of the whole field. This intrepid and valiant defender of the faith felt that he was only following the cloudy pillar that went before him, and obeying the divine voice that articulately summoned him to "Go forward!" when the camp of Israel were generally faltering in the presence of the mountains and the sea, and the advancing hosts of the enemy. He certainly was instrumental in doing a work, which would not have been done by others; either, because constitutionally averse to warfare; or, too timid and self-distrustful to grapple with a dangerous and formidable foe; or, too indifferent to theological doctrine, to appreciate the importance and sublimity of the contest; or, too indolent in their temperament to contend for truth at all.

But the crowning excellence of this illustrious preacher, the chief inspiration of his eloquent discourses, which charmed away the weariness, that his extreme prolixity would otherwise have occasioned, was his absorbing love to the Saviour. The tongue of the preacher was kindled with a live coal from the altar of Calvary. His discourses abounded with doctrinal discussion. They were often controversial, as well as argumentative. They were sometimes scholastic, replete with erudition, laying a severe tax upon the understanding of the hearer; and yet his lecture room was crowded, overflowing, with interested and enthusiastic audiences, to listen to an hour's discussion of the principles of Presbyterianism. It was not the intellect that towered like a mountain, nor the imagination, that shone

like the sun, but the heart, that heaved like the ocean with the love of Jesus-that caught the sympathy of his hearers, and bore them away upon its rolling waves. Christ, and his cross, were all his theme. He presented the doctrine, as the mirror of Christ, and the creed as a breakwater, to roll back the tide of error, that would, if unchecked, sweep away the cross, and its sacrificial victim. He preached Presbyterianism, because he believed that no other polity preserved in its integrity, the Calvinistic system, and no other system does full honor to "Christ and Him crucified." The cross, he viewed, primarily, as a manifestation of love, rather than justice-love, surmounting the obstacles of law and justice. We have heard him remark, in substance, that justice should form the dark background, and love, the bright foreground of Gospel preaching; that Sinai should stand behind Calvary, and, at least, so far away, that the thunders of the law shall not drown the accents of mercy. He never left the guilty, condemned sinner, at the bar of judgment, or on the brink of hell; but always at the foot of the cross, or at the household door, within the sound of the Saviour's inviting voice, and the Father's extended arms of love and mercy. He could not preach, without pleading with sinners. He could not reason and argue, without pouring out his heart in the most tender and melting expostulations. His great, generous, benevolent heart was strung with the chords of love, like an Æolian harp, that responds to the gentlest breath that passes over it; so that, whatever theme he touched, his heart could be seen vibrating with the love of Jesus, in the moistened eye, the trembling utterance, the tender manner, and in language, in which all the synonyms of love seemed to flow as naturally as waters gush from a fountain. "Our pulpits," he said, "may glitter with the beauties of learning and eloquence and orthodoxy, but if these be not warmed with love, universal love, the brilliancy will prove like the glitter of that region, where all is chill and dead."

Another element of the success of his preaching, was its remarkable appropriateness, its studied adaptation to the times in which he lived, and to the immediate wants of his people. No public event, from which he could draw a useful lesson, escaped his notice. The startling providences of God he used,

with great power, as interpreters of the divine word, and emphasizing its teachings. No spiritual want of any member of his congregation was overlooked. He would preach a series of discourses to relieve a single anxious soul of doubt or distress. He would lay aside his laborious preparations for the Sabbath, near the close of the week, to adapt his preaching to any sudden change of circumstances of a public, domestic, or personal character.

But we cannot leave the consideration of his labors as a preacher, without adverting to his zeal in the cause of Missions.* If the love of Jesus was his crowning excellence, his missionary spirit was the crowning form of this excellence. If the former furnished the material, the latter determined the position and shape of the crown. No theme so absorbed his large, expansive heart, or developed and exalted the mighty forces of his intellect, as that of Missions. The most exalted title than can be applied to Christians, in his estimation, is "Christ's representatives and agents for the conversion of the world;" the most essential element of "Christian character and happiness, self-denying love and liberality." "The Gospel," he remarked, in his eloquent discourse upon the above theme, "is the expression of God's love, and the believer is a man, who, filled with Heaven's emanating kindness, becomes, in turn, a living Gospel." When a student of Highbury College, pursuing his theological studies, he was expecting to enter the missionary field, under the auspices of the London Missionary Society, but was disappointed by the failure of his health, and removal to this country. Resuming his studies at Princeton, N. J., he was on the point of making a missionary tour to Florida, in company with some fellow-student, when he received an invitation to supply your vacant pulpit. He seemed to have dedicated himself to this great work, and probably nothing but ill health would have deterred him from planting the standard of the cross on heathen shores. He was, for many years, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Missions, in the Synod of South Carolina, and, doubtless exerted a more direct and extensive influence in awakening ar 1 diffusing a missionary spirit than any other minister in our church. No one *See Appendix, p. 800, I.

preached so much, and wrote so much on the subject of missions. It was during his able and zealous discharge of the duties of this office, that he prepared those soul-stirring missionary discourses, entitled: "The Conversion of the World;" "Faith, the Principle of Missions," and "Obedience, the Life of Missions;" which were preached before the Synod, and published by their order. We know of no pastor who did so much to infuse his own burning enthusiasm into the hearts of his people. His missionary lectures were among his most elaborate preparations. Every means was exhausted to make the monthly concert for missions an interesting and profitable exercise.

He preached and published several earnest discourses on "Juvenile Missionary Effort." He regarded it "as one of the most hopeful signs of the time-the attention paid to children, and the increasing efforts made to educate them in a missionary spirit, and for missionary effort." He argued that, as a missionary spirit is the most essential characteristic of Christianity, and as baptized children are members of the visible Church, and ought to be educated as christians; therefore, they should be taught to pray, to give, and labor, in their humble way, for the cause of missions.

As early as 1832, he organized a Juvenile Missionary Society in connection with his church, which was held quarterly; and in the same year he commenced the publication of a Juvenile Missionary Paper. His missionary zeal burned on a brighter, warmer flame, as the smoking flax of life sunk into its socket. Always present, at the monthly concert, in the most inclement weather, his stammering tongue glowed with the eloquence of former years, when he poured out his heart in prayer or plead for a perishing world, and for the glory of the Redeemer. He was accustomed to say that the monthly "Missionary" possessed, for him, the interest of a novel or romance, and that he felt reluctant to lay it down until he had read the last page. We here discover the secret of this man's greatness, energy and self-sacrificing devotion in every department of christian labor-the reflex influence of his missionary spirit. His mind

†See Appendix, p. 800, II. See Appendix, p. 800, III.

and heart were in living, active, unceasing sympathy with a lost world, with its teeming populations, and unborn millions; with the eternal purpose of God, that "all flesh shall see" the Great Salvation; with all the glowing predictions of the Hebrew Prophet; with the everlasting kingdom of Messiah; with the suffering Son of God in the travail of His soul; with the great cloud of witnesses, who, through faith and obedience have inherited the promises; with the sacrifice and self-denial of missionaries of the Cross, and all "Christ's martyred clan;" and with the dawning millenium, when the sun of Righteousness shall flood the hemispheres with his life-giving beams, and the whole world shall be given to Christ.

The soul that lives amid these grand and sublime realities, whose faith gives them a present subsistence, whose love expands until it circumscribes the globe-such a soul must grow great. It feeds upon the elements of greatness, and wherever its energies are expended, at home or abroad, in the lecture room, in the sanctuary, on the platform, or in the deliberative assembly, they will exhibit something of the grandeur and sublimity of the missionary theme. It was this spirit which gave Dr. Smyth the reputation he so generally and deservedly bore, of being a "working pastor of a working church."

Passing from the pulpit to his household ministrations, we follow him to the homes of his people, and we are as much impressed with the fidelity and tenderness of the pastor, as with the ability and power of the preacher. He regarded his church as a family, and watched over it with a paternal care and solicitude. This great and good shepherd knew all his flock, and could call them all by name; and he entered, by a personal and heartfelt sympathy, into all their temporal and spiritual trials. He was, as a pastor, no respecter of persons, and showed no partiality save that which is imperatively demanded by the poor, the lowly, and the ignorant of his flock. He wrote, in his diary, at the beginning of his ministry, that he "determined to discharge the duties of the pastoral office without fear or favor of any individual or family, excepting as capacity and character justly demanded special consideration."

49-Vol. X.