in this place, it behoves me not to shrink from the task of recording my opinions with fidelity.

Mr. Hodgson is in his person respectable, but there is nothing striking in his manner. His entrance into the pulpit, however, is highly becoming; and he announces his text, which is. always a leading point, with a precision that is really impressive, and an earnestness that indicates sincerity. So far all is well.

Now it is that his great faults are seen. The elongated emphasis that constituted much of his excellence during the service of the altar, and which gave weight to his commencing sentences as a preacher, becomes wearisome and vexatious. His reading is, therefore, good; his preaching is, therefore, bad. Labouringly. sententious, needlessly magnificent, noisily monotonous, his grandeur is without greatness, his earnestness without impression, and he is authoritative without being commanding. His voice is doubtless manly; but he forces it beyond its natural pitch; while his falling tones sink invariably below its general scope.

M

Respecting the literature of his discourses, and as to their style, can I do better than refer Mr. Hodgson to the judicious hint given on this head by St. Paul, in his first epistle to the church at Corinth? My speech,' writes the Apostle of the Gentiles, and my preaching, was not with enticing words of man's wisdom; but in demonstration of the spirit, and in power!' Elegantly correct as is Mr. Hodgson's language, one must regret to observe that his sentences are often either studiously inflated or pompously ornamental.

Mr. Hodgson frequently apologizes for the freedom he is required to use in his addresses from the pulpit. I must be permitted to enter my serious protest against this condescension on his part, however it may consist with the clerical decorum expected in the vicinity of Hanover Square; where, perhaps, the preacher is principally acceptable,

• Who never mentions hell to ears polite.'

THE GREATEST

PREFERMENT

UNDER

HEAVEN,' writes the memorable George Whitfield, in one of his Letters to Cornelius Winter, dated in London, on the 29th of January, 1767, 6 IS TO BE AN ABLE, FAITHFUL, SUCCESSFUL, SUFFERING MINISTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT -Will Mr. Hodgson dispute this? I think not. Remembering whose servants they are, and that the humblest situation in the sanctuary is infinitely more exalted than the most elevated station of human greatness,―let the ministers of religion, awfully conscious of the importance of their commission, uniformly assert the dignity with which they are everlastingly invested! Let them talk less, but feel more, of their truly illustrious destination. It is not for them to beseech, in the discharge of their divine duties, the patience and forbearance of those to whom they are sent; or to apologize, fashionably apologize, for honestly declaring 'the whole counsel of God!' Very different is the errand of him, by whom

The violated Law speaks out

Its thunders!'

Certified of his credentials, well remembering whose authority e beareth, and to whom alone he stands responsible, he will not, even when

'In strains as sweet

As angels use, the Gospel whispers peace;'

he will not, even then, descend to the littleness of supplication. This legate of the skies' must better know the infallibility of his commission.

I have to notice Mr. Hodgson's manner, or action, in the pulpit: and I shall pass some general strictures on the tendency of his preaching.

Action, like oratory, is best when it is least artificial. Mr. Hodgson's action seems too careful to be sufficiently casual. It is not altogether uninteresting, it is sometimes emphatic; yet he has the awkwardness of mostly holding his sermon-case with both his hands, and continually bobbing it up and down, from off and on his cushion. He also extends his left, too.

much in preference of his right, hand. When most animated, he has, owing to the suddenness of his transitions from one side of the pul pit to the other, the appearance of bustling. Notwithstanding the measured, and not undignified, solemnity of his enunciation, there is something hurried throughout his delivery.

Either his sermons are frequently too long, or he is uniformly too slow in preaching them. His illustrations might be rendered more pertinent and conclusive. He does not satisfactorily explain the purport of his positions, nor does he properly avail himself of the divinity by which they are sanctioned. Aware as he must be of the fanatical application of religious doctrines, I was rather surprised to hear Mr. Hodgson exhorting the poor to look up to God only for the supply of their most urgent wants; without duly cautioning them, at the same time, against suffering themselves to repose in an improvident dependence on the Divine Providence, to which they so often fatally, though devoutly, abandon themselves. Hanover Square, one might have