ISAAC SAUNDERS, M. A.

WITHOUT being unapprised of the errors and vices of the times, still I can frequently derive consolation from the virtues, and delight from the information, of my contemporaries. Let us often contemplate the favorable aspect of things. Is it not honest, is it not grateful, is it not generous, to discover worth for ourselves, and commend it to the attention of others? Checquered and mixed as this scene of action confessedly is, still, amidst degeneracy and depravity, every where are to be found illustrious evidences of goodness, knowledge, ́nd talents. It has been so long the fashion to complain of the clergy of this nation, without any proper investigation of the grounds of this complaint, that what at first was, fairly speaking, erroneously asserted, seems, by the repetition of it, to have become almost indubitably admitted. Es

H

tablishments may be indebted to their adversaries. Accusation naturally roused enquiry, enquiry produced circumspection; and the result is, respecting the great object of this discussion, that we possess many eminent clergymen, while, at the same time, various young divines, emulous of adorning the most important of professions, are rising rapidly into estimation and usefulness. Infidelity has called forth ability, and schism has given birth to energy.

Isaac Saunders, who promises to become an ornament to his church, is from St. Edmund's Hall, Oxford. Early set apart for the christian ministry, while his lot was his choice, he was first placed, by his friends, under the preparatory superintendance of the late Alphonsus Gunn, previous to his being sent to the university. Considering this circumstance, coupled with the character of that preacher, it must not be wondered at if Mr. Saunders is principally reputed among the evangelical advocates of the hierarchy.

Alphonsus Gunn, notwithstanding some

extravagances, was no common preacher. He was a burning and a shining light.' Wonderful was his eloquence. Serious, zealous, impassioned, he communicated his own agitation to the souls of others. His voice also gave singular efficacy to all he said; and there was a searching expressiveness in his looks. Being in earnest himself, his hearers felt him to be in earnest. Transgression was terrified at his approach; unbelief stood abashed in his presence., There was then an awful horror in the man. He was not man. Going out of himself, nature was by him exceeded, subdued, surpassed. This fervour consumed him, His day was more than his strength, and he died just when he could give weight to life.

When I class Mr. Saunders among evange lical preachers, in compliance with prevailing terms, let him not be confounded with the calvinistic methodists. He is practical, as well as doctrinal. While he earnestly contends for the faith once delivered to the saints, he soundly inculcates the necessity of living so as in all

things to adorn the christian vocation. Works, indeed, are never to be substituted for faith; but they are as certainly the necessary fruits of it.

What first struck me in the present preacher, of whose whole deportment my situation enabled me to judge, was the manner in which he ascended the pulpit. I think it impossible for time to obliterate the impression which he then made on my mind. His look, his manner, was devotion itself. A preacher so evidently, yet unaffectedly, impressed with the awful importance of his divine commission, I recollect to have but seldom seen. His only difficulty seemed to consist in labouring to control the emotions of his heart; and of him I am confident to affirm, that

If

the tear,

That dropped upon his Bible, was sincere!'

my aim were to flatter individual presumption, or to gratify the execrable taste of satirical

minds, Mr. Saunders, and such as he, would

not be the objects of my selection and the subjects of my commendation. I cannot cater, I confess, for the depraved appetites of too many of my contemporaries.-God forbid that I should! Let me, however, indulge the hope, that honest exertions, in the best cause, may still be productive of some good,

Mr. Saunders's discourses are entirely extempore; and, while he displays much of the excellence of the system of preaching he has adopted, he exhibits some of its disadvantages. His reasoning is not always connected; his expressions, which are not uniformly appropriate, are frequently repeated and sometimes recalled; and his metaphors partake both of inelegancy and inaccuracy. Metaphorical language is, indeed, that in which the extemporary speaker is most liable to failure. To be forcible, metaphors should evince correctness of construction and propriety of application; but these are qualities which require premeditation, and are therefore seldom discovered in the effusions of unstudied oratory.