"Coarse, blunt, and vulgar expressions.-These, if indulged by good men, indicate, or infallibly produce, the want of that delicacy of feeling, which, next to conscience and piety, is our greatest safeguard against impropriety."

"A harsh and severe mode of addressing sinners.-Whatever language a man uses, it tends to beget in him the style of feeling of which it is characteristic. In the time of Davenport, they used to address men from the pulpit as "cursed sinners," and talk about their being "damned to hell;" which made some people wonder what had got into ministers to swear so.

"New era in revivals-reformers-reformation always opposed, even by good men, &c.-Such ideas, cherished, bring to the naughty and deceitful heart of man no small danger, and havè ruined many; for though multitudes have thought they were raised up to be reformers in the church, but a small number of men have been in reality such; and as to opposition from good men, the facts generally have been the other way."

"A self-sufficient and daring state of mind, which is reckless of consequences, and incorrigible to argument or advice. It was this "know-certain-feeling," which emboldened Davenport to chastise aged and eminent ministers, and to pray for them, and denounce them as unconverted, and to attempt to break them down by promoting separations from all who would not conform implicitly to his views,-by setting on fire around them the wood, hay, and stubble, which exist in most communities, and may easily be set on fire, at any time, by rashness and misguided zeal."

"Whatever the code of public opinion has adopted which is sinful, must be rejected; but there are a multitude of things which belong to man as an intellectual and social being, which cannot be disregarded, without destroying alike civilization and Christianity. There are some things which adorn, and some which disgrace religion, and should we therefore in our zeal strip religion of the mildness, and kindness, and courtesy of civilized decorum, and exhibit her in alliance with all the repellencies and roughnesses of uncultivated humanity, as well might the bodies in the valley of vision have been animated and sent forth in all their unsightly nakedness before the skin came upon them."

"Success an evidence that all which is done in revivals is right. The grounds of deception are two. 1. Drawing general conclusions from particular premises; inferring that because some preacher's mode of address or action has been useful in some circumstances, it is applicable to all circumstances. As if the shipmaster, who had once been driven out to sea before boisterous winds, without anchor, or compass, or chart, or rudder, and who reached by miracle his port in safety, should return to denounce VOL. IV. No. IV-3 P

henceforth these means of safety, and insist that nothing was needed to conduct auspiciously the commerce of the world but a direct course, and mountain-waves, and all sails standing, and a hurricane for a breeze. 2. Judging from limited views and immediate effects, without regarding general and permanent results, The world, both material and intellectual, is governed by general laws, and though the violation of them may produce a temporary good, the certain result, on the great scale, will be more than a balance of general evil. Now the importance of the soul and of eternity is such, as that good men in a revival are apt to feel no matter what is said or done, provided sinners are awakened and saved. But it ought to be remembered, that though the immedi ate result of some courses of conduct may be the salvation of some souls, the general and more abiding result may be the ruin of a thousand souls, destroyed by this conduct, to one saved by it; and destroyed by it, as instrumentally, in the direct and proper sense of the term, as any are saved by it."

"To some of the consequences of a revival, conducted under such auspices as I have described, I beg leave now to call your attention.

"It will become more and more exceptionable. Urged by circumstances, men will do things, which, if in the beginning they had been predicted, they would have said, 'Are thy servants dogs, that we should do these things? By degrees, however, all landmarks will be removed, and what was once regarded as important will be set at nought, and what would once have produced horror, will be done fearlessly. Like the cave of Eolus, or the gate of Pandemonium, a single arm may suffice to let out the storm. But when once the atmosphere is put in motion, no human power can stop it, until it has exhausted its fury in works of moral desolation." "Another of the evils to be apprehended, is opposition on the part of good men, and the consequent disunion of the churches by a civil war. The peculiarities of the system I have recognised, cannot go through the churches without opposition. Splendid by its early power, many have yielded to it who disapproved, for fear they might quench the Spirit: and many have been silent, because they feared that they might speak against a work of God. But when the work shall have given out its distinct character, and put off the natures of love and gentleness, &c. and put on those of wrath and strife: when other reformers shall hasten on to new discoveries, and surpass their predecessors as much as these surpassed others and denounce them as they denounced those who could not go with them; when stripling imitators of pious men, having nothing in common with them but their imprudence, without their age and moral power, shall go out to outrage humanity, and caricature revivals of religion, then will these irregularities be

met, and then the collision will be keen and dreadful. For, in every church, there is wood, hay, and stubble, which will be sure to take fire on the wrong side."

"Another evil to be feared is, that it will unavoidably array a large portion of the unrenewed part of the community against revivals and religion; and produce infidels, scoffers, Unitarians, and Universalists, on every side-increasing the resistance seven fold to evangelical doctrine; withdrawing in proportion, the voluntary support of the Gospel; and consigning the precious cause of Christ, which ought and might govern public opinion, to the hands of a feeble, despised, dispirited few, who watch the holy fire upon the deserted altar of God."

"Another effect to be deprecated is, that it will prevent the great evangelical assimilation, which is forming in the United States, and paralyze general efforts as much as private churches. The rumor of extravagance would soon begin to press hard upon the friends of revivals in New-England; who could not and would not take the responsibility of justifying what they disapproved, and would be compelled in self-defence, publicly to clear themselves, as having no part nor lot in such matters."

"Another thing to be feared is, that meeting in their career with the most determined opposition from educated ministers, and Colleges, and Seminaries, all these in succession would be denounced, and held up as objects of popular odium, and a host of ardent, inexperienced, impudent young men be poured out, as from the hives of the North, to obliterate civilization, and roll back the wheels of time to semi-barbarism."

"Dear brethren in Christ; you must not, for a moment, suppose that I do not fervently love you or that I ascribe to you, in extenso, all the defects to which I have alluded; but that I have drawn the outlines of a moral chart, which such a disastrous revival, as your present course could not fail to lead to, would amply fill up, I have not a doubt."

The following extract is from the letter written by him to. the editors of the Observer, on the occasion of his requesting the publication of the above:

"But recently, circumstances to which I need not allude, have brought me to the conclusion that it is my duty to consent to its publication. Indeed, from the principles contained in Mr.'s Sermon, and from what I know concerning revivals which have taken place under his immediate auspices, I am sure that the new measures,' as they are justly called, though not unattended with some good, do nevertheless introduce into revivals another spirit, of whose nature and general influence those who countenance these measures seem not to be aware.

It is a spirit of fanaticism, of spiritual pride, censoriousness, and insubordination to the order of the Gospel, which, if not met by the timely and decided disapprobation of ministers and churches, threatens to become one of the greatest evils which is likely to befall the cause of Christ."

These admirable paragraphs need no comment. It required no small amount of moral courage to pen such a letter; and if the ministers of Christ throughout the land, had then come out and supported this timely and powerfu ltestimony, the good done might have been unspeakable.

It was at the same critical season that the venerated Asahel Nettleton lifted up his warning voice, against the rising and dangerous evils, which Dr. Beecher, as we have seen, then rebuked with such nobility and truth.

Since the days of Edwards no man has arisen in our country, so eminently fitted as he to do justice to this subject. His experience, his wisdom, and success in revivals of religion, so far as we know, are without a parallel.

Mr. Nettleton united with Dr. Beecher in deploring, and in labouring to correct, the evils already mentioned. He rebuked them with the heroic spirit of an apostle, he foretold their desolations with a prophet's ken, and when no longer sustained by

"Zions friends and his,"

he weekly withdrew, shunning, perhaps, the very painful, but otherwise inevitable alternative of silent acquiescence of public and protracted controversy. We welcome his recent return to his native land. We trust he has been restored to us at this solemn crisis, with renovated health, to renew his labours of love, attended as heretofore, with the peculiar smiles of the great head of the Church.

We find the following notice of Dr. Beecher and Mr. Nettleton's letters on "the new measures," in the Preface to these Lectures.

"It was originally the author's intention to have republished the well known letters of Dr Beecher and Mr. Nettleton written several years ago, in which the same general views which this volume inculcates, are defended with great zeal and ability. But upon examination he finds they are so much identified with the occasion in which they originated, that he thinks it best to omit them."

Now our reason for their introduction here is, that the

"occasion with which they are identified, and in which they originated," was the very point at which the present abuses of revivals arose; and at which therefore the inquiry into their nature ought to begin.

But the letters in the Appendix, written several years after those of Dr. Beecher and Mr. Nettleton, fully confirm their sentiments, and sustain their views.

Take the following as examples:

"Many of those who become truly pious, entertain for a while, hopes, which they afterwards are convinced to be unfounded; and to pronounce such persons converted at once, and hurry their admission to the Lord's table, would be the most effectual method of preventing their saving conversion. There may be an error on the other side, of too long a delay, and of discouraging real believers from approaching the table of their Lord; but the error is on the safest side. As to apostolical precedent, it is just as strong for a community of goods; and after all, there is no undoubted case of any convert being immediately received to the Lord's supper."-Dr. Alexander.

"But the great, shall I say the fatal error in the management of revivals, is the hasty admission of the subjects to the privileges of the church. Convictions, we have reason to apprehend, are often mistaken for conversion ;-a momentary impulse for the renewing of the Holy Ghost,' without which no man can see the Lord." -Dr. Proudfit.

"Another remark I would make, is, that we have carefully guarded against a speedy admission to the privileges of the church. Seldom in times of revival have we admitted persons to the communion in less than six months after they first became serious."Dr. McDowell.*

"The whole number received into the church, during my ministry, is six hundred and seventy-four. None of these have presented themselves for examination, under two and three months, after they began to cherish a hope of having passed from death unto life."

"Neither have I seen it to be proper, even in seasons of the greatest excitement, to call upon impenitent sinners, either in our public meetings, or in the inquiring room, to manifest their determination to seck religion, or to give any pledge that they would do it."-Dr. Hyde.

"A sinner may be converted at too great an expense. I mean, that measures may be adopted, that shall issue in the conversion of a sinner, which measures may, at the same time, by exciting prejuWhose experience in pure, enlarged, and repeated revivals, is hardly exceeded in the Presbyterian Church.