of America. Men whose names will live for ever, in the hearts, not merely of their own countrymen, but of all who learn the history of their virtues. They were benefactors to the world. By serving their own generation in so noble a manner, they served the human race; and their fame, as well as the benefits they conferred, must be considered the property of every age and of every nation.

I have one more remark to make on the services which David rendered to his generation; and it applies equally to every part of that service he served his own generation by, or according to, the will of God. This was his great directory, his infallible guide. Had he made aught else the rule of his ministrations, into how many mischievous errors would he have been betrayed! Had he followed that ever shifting conductor, expedience, how crooked the course she would have prescribed to him! Witness the endless perplexities of the nations of Europe, who have followed hardly any other guide for centuries past; and witness, too, the history of any individual who holds a like course! Had he followed the calculations of human prudence, in pursuit of what appeared to him the chief good of himself and his nation, as inhabitants of this world, how often would his calculations have proved false; and the conduct, to which they led, injurious. But from these errors and mischiefs David was preserved, by taking the word of God for a "lamp to his feet and for a lantern to his paths." He not only made the will of God his rule of action, but also his motive to act. Hence, when the way in which he ought to go was laid down before him, he had a motive sufficiently strong to engage him to walk therein; and whoever acts according to the will of God, will not only act right, but with promptitude, and vigour, and perseverance.

II. We are next to notice the fact asserted in the text-" He fell on sleep." From the context, we learn that, by this mode of expression, David's death is recorded. Death is the lot of the whole race of Adam. Two only, of all his numerous posterity, have been exempted from this fate. Among all the rest, no wisdom, nor might, nor goodness, nor usefulness, has availed to put aside the sentence,-"Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return !" But there is something in the manner of recording the death of David, which deserves particular attention. It is said, "After he had served his own generation, by the will of God, he fell on sleep." And I would observe,

1. Death is here spoken of as a resting from toil. We know that sleep is another word for rest-it is, "Tired nature's sweet restorer !" David is said to have fallen on sleep, after he had served his own generation. How beautiful is the allusion! David, long and arduously employed in labouring for the benefit of his age and nation, retires from his toil, and falls, or lies down, in the lap

or upon the bosom of death, to enjoy repose. He is not seized on, or borne down by death; but he falls or lies down upon death, as upon a pillow or bed of down, to take that refreshment which his previous exertions had rendered necessary and desirable. Happy those to whom death will be a state of calm repose, after a life of busy exertion for the benefit of their fellow creatures!

2. It is not exertion merely, nor even exertion for the benefit of others, that will entitle us to repose in death. These exertions for the good of others must be consecrated to him who has the keys of death, if there we would "rest upon our beds." David served his own generation according to the will of God. This was the rule of his action; this was the motive which influenced him, and this was the limit which terminated his labours of love. He never said, "It is enough," until his MASTER, who had employed, and who alone had the right to dismiss him, gave him his discharge. Happy the servant who is thus found persevering unto the end! He, and he only, can lie down in peace.

3. In the phraseology here used, to express the death of David, there is a strong intimation that there was a principle in him that did not die. In sleep, though the senses are shut up from surrounding objects, yet the mind is capable of any of its usual exercises. We remember and reason; we sorrow and rejoice; we can hope and fear; can confide and distrust: in short, the operations of mind can proceed in sleep just as when we are awake. So, although death closes up all the senses against impressions from without, nay, though it altogether destroys these senses; yet the immaterial soul, distinct in its nature, and independent on the body in its operations, may live, and act, and be conscious of its own actions; while the corporeal machine, which it once employed, lies mouldering to ashes.

4. The future resurrection of the body itself is strongly insinuated by this mode of representing death. The benumbing influence of sleep cannot always continue. In the nature of things, according to our present constitution, sleep repairs the wasted energy of the nervous fluid, and of the muscular fibre; and man awakes to livelier sensibility and more vigorous activity. It is not, indeed, as I conceive, a law of our natures that the dead should be resuscitated but the God of grace, by representing death under the image of sleep, condescended to intimate, what he more clearly, afterwards, promised,-that "those who sleep in the dust of the earth, shall awake, some to everlasting life; and some to shame and everlasting contempt;" and, especially, that "those who sleep in Jesus, shall God bring with him." Those, then, who, like David, having served their own generation according to the will of God, have fallen on sleep, shall awake to a joyful resurrection-to a glorious immortality.

(To be concluded in our next.)

BIOGRAPHY.

MEMOIR OF PROFESSOR FRANCK.

The following brief Memoir of Professor Franck, is taken from the Magazine of the Reformed Dutch Church.

THE name of Professor Franck is associated, in the minds of those who are acquainted with the modern history of true religion, with all that is learned, pious, useful, and excellent. This eminent Christian divine, evidently appears to have been one of those who are raised up, from time to time, by the great Head of the church, to revive the decaying spirit of piety, and to promote the languishing interests of his kingdom. He was indeed" a burning and a shining light.

Augustus Herman Franck was born at Lubec, in the year 1663. His father, who was aulic counsellor to the duke of Saxe Gotha, died when he was only seven years old, having, however, from the evident indications of his son's piety, even at that early age, destined him to the church. About three years afterwards, he felt, as he himself describes it, a divine attraction in his soul, which made him disrelish and despise the common amusements of childhood; and a most fervent desire, which was frequently the subject of his prayers, that his life might be directly and solely devoted to the glory of God. In the mean time, the advancement of his studies was so remarkable, that he was publicly elected for the university at the age of thirteen. He afterwards declared, and the observation is well worthy the attention of students, that he found by long experience, that the more assiduous he was in devotion, the greater progress he made in his studies; and that, when he neglected prayer, he could do nothing well at his desk, even though he exerted himself with the greatest application. "Bene orasse," it has been justly observed, "est bene studuisse."

Mr. Franck passed eight years in the universities of Erfurt, Keil, Leipsic, and Lunenburgh, where his diligence and success were very conspicuous. There was scarcely any branch of science in which he did not excel; and he was accounted, for his years, one of the most learned men then living. Besides the classical, and the principal modern languages, he studied, with particular application, and under great advantages, the Hebrew tongue. Hitherto, however, the studies of Mr. Franck had been chiefly directed, as he expresses it, ad pompam: his main design had been to acquire learning, preferment, wealth. And though he had frequent seasons of devotion and seriousness, he was still drawn away by the multitude, and his knowledge of divinity was speculative and theoretical. "I was," he observes, "in my heart, a mere natural man, who had a great deal in his head, but nevertheless remained a stranger to the truth, as it is in Jesus."

About this time, however, God was pleased to touch his heart more effectually, and to convince him that a mere speculative acquaintance with divinity, was by no means a sufficient qualification for the ministry; and that, were he to undertake the office before he himself practised the doctrines of the gospel, he should only be imposing on mankind. Affected by these considerations, he besought the Lord, with great fervour, to work in him an entire change. The effect of this prayer was a deeper sense of his natural depravity and weakness, and increased desires for divine deliverance. At this time, he was providentially advised to hear the divinity lectures of the famous superintendent Sandhagent at Lunenburg. There he spent the greater part of his time in retirement; giving himself up to prayer and meditation. Having been desired to preach at one of the churches in this city, Mr. Franck chose for his text, the last verse of the 20th chapter of St. John, proposing to show, from those words, the properties of a true and living faith, as distinguished from that which is barren and speculative. In meditating, however, upon this important subject, he felt that he himself was destitute of the faith which he would describe. This reflection at once checked his study, and turned all his thoughts upon himself. After several days of darkness and distress, it pleased the Lord to lift the light of his countenance upon him; and to fill him with that faith, the want of which he had so deeply deplored. Two days afterwards he preached the sermon; and could truly apply to himself those words of the apostle, 2 Cor. iv, 13: "Having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken: we also believe, and therefore speak."

"This," said he, "is the time from which I date my real conversion. Since that period, I have always felt it easy to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in the present evil world. I have kept close with God, and have accounted, as nothing, all promotions and preferments in this world, its grandeur, riches, ease, and pleasures. And whereas I had but too much idolized learning, I now perceived that a grain of faith far exceeds all human sciences and that all attainments made at the feet of Gamaliel, are to be valued as dross, in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord."

Before we proceed with our narrative of this eminent man, we would pause for the purpose of making one or two brief observations on the preceding part of it.

The just and solemn sense entertained by Mr. Franck, of the necessity and importance of personally experiencing the truth, and efficacy of the doctrines which he was about to preach to others, is, in the first place, deserving of attention. How many, it may be feared, of those who enter upon the work of the ministry, are not even theoretically acquainted with divinity, to the extent which VOL. XI. August, 1828.

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this excellent man had attained, when he so strongly expressed his conviction of his own deficiencies; and how much smaller a number appear, really, to feel and exemplify their own instruction? We are far from thinking that a minister of the gospel must, in every case, be a scientific divine, or that he is not to enforce upon others a measure of faith and holiness beyond what he has himself experienced but no one who engages in the sacred office ought either to be ignorant or a novice, unacquainted with the grand scheme of salvation revealed in Scripture, or uninfluenced by the peculiar doctrines and motives of the gospel. In short, if we expect to be the instruments of teaching and converting others, we must ourselves be as scribes well instructed into the kingdom of heaven, and sincerely and thoroughly devoted to the service of our God and Saviour.

We cannot help remarking, in the next place, the holy and active influence of a true faith in the striking declaration of Mr. Franck; and opposing this decisive example of the practical efficacy of that divine principle, to the crude and heterodox opinions which we had occasion lately to controvert and expose. Doubtless, a lively faith in the mercies of redemption, will work by love to God and man; and a more satisfactory proof of the truth of this scriptural doctrine can scarcely be found, than in the subsequent life and conduct of the excellent subject of this memoir.

We would only add here a few words of caution, as to the strong terms in which Mr. Franck expresses his renunciation of all human learning, in comparison of the knowledge of Christ. The sentiment has been frequently avowed by other eminently pious men, and cannot certainly but be admired and approved. We would only wish it to be remembered, that this is not the declaration of uninformed or indolent, but of learned and studious men-that from St. Paul to Franck, the renunciation of human attainments has ever been, when they were compared with the superior excellency of all those which are divine; and that the men who have most highly adorned and promoted the gospel, have not been those who set out with despising human learning; but those who, having laboured diligently to attain it, have afterwards humbly laid all their stores at the feet of their Lord and Master, and employed them zealously in his service. But to return to Mr. Franck.

In the year 1685, he commenced Master of Arts at Leipsic; and soon after was eminently instrumental in promoting a most extensive and wonderful revival of religion in Germany, the foundation of which had been laid by the celebrated John Arndt, the general superintendent of the churches, under the princes of Lunenburg, about the commencement of that century. This excellent man, after having, amidst much opposition, been the means of awakening thousands from a mere formal profession, to an experimental acquaintance with true religion, died full of faith, hope,