confiding friends and sure of their sympathy, he gave free scope to his mind and feelings, and was often borne away by his excitement into regions of thought and imagination which surprised both himself and those who heard him. I understand that he placed great confidence on these meetings as eminently adapted to be useful. His particular opinions respecting them may be learned from a passage in a letter to a young minister, which is so just and important that it deserves to be quoted at length.

"With regard to extra meetings for religious instruction, I will make a few remarks, suggested by my own experience. I believe that they may be very useful; but great discretion and independence are necessary in managing them. They should never be placed on the same ground as is public worship on the Sabbath. People should not be taught, that attending these meetings is a commanded duty, and that all worldly duties must yield to them; nor are those to be censured who entirely neglect them, provided they exhibit the proper evidence of piety. I believe too that these meetings, as to their frequency, and the manner of conducting them, should be entirely under the control of the minister. He should appoint them when he thinks expedient, and discontinue them, when his own health, or the situation of his people demand that they be discontinued. They may be frequent, or otherwise, as occasion may require, always having regard to circumstances, and guarding carefully against producing a surfeit of preaching, the worst kind of surfeits. In the management of such meetings, it is worse than useless to attempt to run a race with those, who depend for success on the mere excitement of passion. *** I am disposed to think that in these meetings, plain instruction should be dispensed, in a plain and forcible man

ner; and especially that great care should be taken to render people able to read with understanding the Scriptures, and that a pungent application of the truths communicated should be made to their hearts and consciences. Extemporary preaching on these occasions I believe to be the best : and you will find it not difficult to practise, and a great relief to you in the discharge of your duties. With respect to the devotional exercises, I uniformly ask no one to assist me. I have several individuals, whose aid would be valuable to me; but I do not call upon them for assistance. My reasons are these. Those best able to be useful in this way, are very modest men. It would be painful to them to make themselves prominent, and nothing but a strong sense of duty would induce them to do it. There are, on the other hand, others who would delight to be thus distinguished, but who are totally unfit for the service. If I were to ask assistance from the wise only, the vain would be grieved, and become uneasy. If I were to call upon the latter, it would destroy what little humility they now possess; injure them, and as I think, the cause of religion. I therefore perform myself all the devotional exercises."

It is often thought that private meetings, such as are here spoken of, should be made to have a different object from those of the regular congregation on Sunday. But Dr Parker appears to have thought otherwise. I cannot find that in his selection of subjects or his manner of treating them, he varied from his ordinary preaching, excepting that in his private lectures he pursued courses of subjects, and thus was somewhat more systematic in his instruction. The topics of these courses were very various: The exposition of a book; a view of fundamental truths and duties; the

history and ritual of the Old Testament; the parables of Christ; the being and attributes of God:- which last series is remembered with peculiar delight by those who heard it. But various as they were, he adhered sacredly to his rule of immediate usefulness. Whatever the discussion, he always conducted it to an appeal to the heart and conscience. You would suppose it had been selected for no other purpose than to afford an opportunity for an exhortation to a religious life, and that instruction and argument had no other end than to lay the foundation of a call to faith, repentance and obedience.

I close this view of his character as a preacher, with a description, from one who heard him much, of his manner at these private lectures. It is written in a glowing style, but is valuable for its corroboration of what has been said, and for some hints respecting the preacher's personal ap

pearance.

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"And here I must say, I think he was truly eloquent; or if it was not cloquence, it certainly had all its effects. Often were his hearers chained down by the hour together, in almost breathless silence, by these solemn and pathetic appeals;-and what gave a charm and effect to his eloquence, was the remarkable and ever varying expressions of his fine face. With a countenance sometimes haggard, worn down, perhaps, by a series of almost sleepless nights, and painfully contending with his physical difficulty at the commencement, from his faltering manner, it might be doubted whether he would be able to proceed. But soon, all doubts would vanish; as he became engaged in his subject, his dark eye would brighten, his countenance become more and more animated, his language more and more rich and fervent,

and his whole manner more and more warm and glowing, till the infirmities of the flesh were merged in the triumph of the spirit, and preacher and hearer, unconscious of time, were completely carried away by the sublimity of the subject. In some of these touching appeals, I have seen the tear start, the spirit of the hearer quail and his cheek burn with shame, as with a flashing eye, a contemptuous curl of the lip, and a deepening shade upon his dark countenance, expressive of his abhorrence of the enormity and detestation at the meanness of sin, he laid bare to itself some bosom loaded with guilt, and probed to the quick its slumbering conscience. But his severity was confined to sin in the abstract; his heart melted with pity for the sinner. Depicting to him with a subdued tone, and in most mournful strains, the awful consequences of continued transgression, the doom of the ungodly; he would, — his countenance lighting up with an almost heavenly radiance, and a sweet smile all the while playing upon his face, as if he had discharged a painful duty, and thrown a heavy burden from his heart, and was in haste to touch a theme more congenial with his own pure spirit, - he would, with the most winning accents, descant upon the beauty of holiness the peace and joy of believing-the bliss of heaven,― and kindred subjects, on which he so much delighted to dwell, long after the time, usually allotted to such exercises, had expired."

Dr Parker's views of the ministry and its objects, as well as the bent of his own mind, led him to attach peculiar importance to the private duties of the pastoral relation. The mere preacher, however excellent, seemed to him to be fulfilling very partially the design of the sacred office. He

regarded the minister as the servant and guide of the people, not only, like the priests of old, by appearing before God for them in the temple, but by a constant intercourse of sympathy, counsel and kind offices, teaching from house to house, and watching for souls in season and out of season. Upon this idea he formed his own ministry. As I have already said, he regarded his time, his knowledge, his talents, himself, as not his own, but as belonging to his people, and to be devoted absolutely to their service. He was therefore always amongst them, sharing their joys and sorrows, and close at hand in every moment of trial, anxiety and sin, with consolation and warning. This was his favorite employment. Many men have more frequent formal conversations on religion; perhaps he had less of this than would have been well. But there is a religious silence as well as a religious speech, and the very air and presence of a truly devout man has oftentimes more influence than an exhortation. When occasion required, he could speak, and at any length; but his habit was, to watch the course of conversation, turn it imperceptibly to useful channels, and point to the Christian moral by a brief remark or a single expression; and many are the weighty sayings of wisdom and truth, couched in his own terse and occasionally quaint manner, which are remembered and repeated, but which might have been forgotten if thrown out in a great flood of words.

It was in acts rather than words that his influence as a pastor lay; acts, which sometimes cost him no little sacrifice, and which evinced a reality of faith in God and a strength of sympathy in men, which mere words could not have expressed. The substantial kindnesses which he thus rendered did service to religion, and testify to his fidelity.