to know himself according to his absolute divinity and his human development; and if we suppose that only so much of his divine self-consciousness as was necessary for his mediatorial office, passed over into his human self-consciousness, this twofold self-consciousness is in perfect agreement with his purely human life and with his mediatorial office. As to the divine attributes or powers that are connected with the divine self-consciousness, there is nothing self-contradictory in the supposition that the divine Ego of the Logos acted with the powers of human nature, with human self-consciousness and human will, if we adopt the above mentioned relative self-limitation of the divine knowledge and will as necessary for the mediatorial office. But even if by this view of the personal oneness of the divine and the human in Christ the metaphysical difficulty should not be fully removed, we would prefer confessing the unfathomable depth of this mystery to any philosophical solution of the problem which we could not fully reconcile with the plain teachings of the word of God.

ART. VIII.-THE AMERICAN PULPIT.

Annals of the American Pulpit; or, Commemorative Notices of Distinguished American Clergymen of various Denominations, from the Early Settlement of the Country to the close of the Year eighteen hundred and fifty-five. With Historical Introductions. By WILLIAM B. SPRAGUE, D. D. Six volumes, 8vo. Volumes I and II, Trinitarian Congregational; III and IV, Presbyterian; V, Episcopalian; VI, Baptist. New-York: Carter & Brothers. 1857-60. THE most important result of the discovery of America was the opening of a new continent to Christianity. Worldly men interested in that discovery, whether navigators or monarchs, thought only of new fields of commerce and dominion. The Church of that period had just vitality enough to be eager for such enlargements of its territory and its revenues as might be won by the easy process of ceremonial occupation. Ambition and avarice worked freely together in the conquest of the New World, and both won bloodstained trophies of triumph in the fair lands upon which they precipitated their hordes of adventurers. Judging from the results of the Christianization which papal countries introduced into Mexico and Central and South America, it is questionable whether, in a religious point of view, those parts of the New World might not as well have been left to their original heathenism. We would not under

rate the good which Romanism has done in abolishing human sacrifices and semi-civilizing sundry tribes of savages; but we must be allowed to deprecate in the severest terms its parody of true Christianity, its compromises with paganism, and its interdict of God's word from the regions over which it has obtained sway in America and elsewhere. Not for such results only was the New World thrown open to the Christian Church. God, in his providence, was beginning to disturb the slumbers of the dark ages. The Bible was about to be exhumed from its conventual grave, and men were about to be raised up who, by their earnest religious life, and their faithful proclamation of divine truth, were to shake the papal throne to its foundation. Room was wanted for the glorious movement-room not preoccupied by decaying nationalities, and the stumbling-blocks of semi-pagan ceremonies and debasing superstitions. At the right time such room was provided, and as years advanced it was occupied, too, in such a manner as to bring the results of a ceremonial Christianity into direct contrast with the earnest spirit and practical zeal of a preached Gospel.

In Spanish and Portuguese America there can scarcely be said to be a pulpit. Preaching desks there are in the larger churches and cathedrals, but they are only occasionally used; rarely, indeed, save on festival occasions, when they are employed more usually for eulogizing the saints than for preaching Christ. Not so in the America of the pilgrims and their descendants. Here, from the first, the pulpit has been an institution of the land and an essentiality of the Church. Ceremonies have been ignored, but the Gospel has been preached. The camp of the emigrant, the cabin of the settler, the log school-house and meeting-house, the chapel and the church, have successively been made to resound with the word of life. By the pulpit the masses of the people have been instructed, and the fruits of righteousness have appeared.

Thus, in two hundred years, has sprung up one of the fairest and most promising branches of the Christian Church. Around her altars has the gathering of the nations been. But not content with. instructing the strangers that have come within her gates, the American Church has sent forth her messengers into all the world to preach the Gospel. While many of the more ancient Churches are still slumbering at their ease, and known chiefly in the history of the past, the Church of America is already making her influence powerfully felt in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the islands of the most distant oceans. This, too, is the Church of North America, while that of South America requires itself to be evangelized.

The pulpit, as the living exponent of God's word, is the grand

characteristic of American Christianity; and while it has been doing so much for our land and for the nations of the earth, numerous have become the preachers. "The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it." The clergy of America have never aspired to hierarchal honors; they have never been salaried by a national treasury. They have never been the stipendiaries of ancient foundations, but, trusting to the voluntary support of an intelligent people, they have gone to their work like men of God, and he has graciously sustained them in it. The world has never known a class of men of higher intellectuality, of more generous culture, of larger benevolence, of more consistent piety, or of a more positive personal influence. Living, they make their mark upon every feature of their age; and dead, they yet speak, their works following them.

Such men are the makers of history; and though they do not figure in scenes of strife, and oftentimes their noblest deeds never challenge the public gaze, yet they live for glorious purposes, and they receive "the honor which cometh down from God." It is fitting, too, that men should honor them, and that the pulpit should have its published annals.

Jerome, in the fourth century, saw this, and wrote his celebrated work, "De Illustribus Viris," a book from which we have the best notices of the Christian preachers who succeeded the apostles down to the author's day. The true history of the Church must ever be largely composed of the lives and actions of Christian ministers; and treatises upon ecclesiastical history, whether ancient or modern, are usually interesting in proportion to the power and skill of their authors in displaying the characters who have moulded and influenced successive ages, together with the bearings of their individual and collective action. History, whether sacred or secular, if written without lively portraitures of character, is stiff and stately, like dull frescoes on solid walls. That which throws humanity into the foreground, and gives it life and motion, charms us like a moving panorama.

But even though we see characters moving and acting upon the historic page, it is pleasant and instructive oftentimes to contemplate them in their individual relations. Hence from the best written Grecian and Roman histories we delight to turn to the pages of Plutarch, to gaze as in a gallery upon the well-drawn portraitures of individuals; to see Cicero and Demosthenes, Pericles and Fabius, Cesar and Alexander side by side.

Biography, in whatever form it is written, must ever be the soul of history. Hence the work of Dr. Sprague, to which our attention is now directed, although primarily contemplating another design, is

one of the most generous contributions to American Church history yet made. We prefer, however, to regard its chief merit in accordance with its primary object. It was due to the memory of the fathers of the American Church that their names should be rescued from the obscurity of the past, and presented for edification and instruction to the present and future. Not less fitting was it that worthy names of the present day should be embalmed in cotemporary records, and handed down to rising generations. The inspiration of so noble an undertaking came upon the right man at the right time.

The middle of our century is a fitting terminus adquem for such a work. Closing at a much earlier period, it would have lacked a certain completeness which the annals have. Deferred later it would have been difficult if not impossible to secure much of the data without which no future work of the kind can ever be complete.

Dr. Sprague has now been more than forty years in active ministerial life, in circumstances which have brought him into most favorable and extensive personal acquaintance with the clergy of various denominations. From early life he has cherished a peculiar interest and manifested extraordinary diligence in the collection of autographs. This taste of itself naturally brought him into correspondence with a vast number of clerical celebrities, while his careful habits of observation and his fondness for the illustration of character have for a series of years been co-operating to accumulate a mass of data under his hand which Providence was evidently designing for some worthy end.

About fourteen years since the idea occurred to him of a work like the present. With characteristic energy, and a skill which nothing but previous and extensive practice in authorship could have qualified him to exercise, he at once set about the accomplishment of a task of the magnitude of which at that time even he himself had but a limited conception. Not content to avail himself merely of published sources of information, and wielding the pen of a "ready writer," Dr. Sprague at that time commenced a series of personal correspondence which, though far from finished, yet has probably never had its equal in the history of letters.

The plan of the "Annals of the American Pulpit" became gradually developed, and though not free from various difficulties, has been matured with large discretion. The first temptation of an author contemplating "commemorative notices of distinguished clergymen" would doubtless have been prolixity, especially in cases where abundant materials were accessible. Yet to have indulged in extended memoirs, even of extraordinary characters, would necessa

rily either have excluded many worthy names or have rendered the work interminable. The author in this respect has hit upon a golden mean well adapted to his purpose. The Annals are indeed voluminous, but this is a necessity growing out of the great number of subjects, among whom his pages are divided with a very just equation of space. Not unfrequently the reader becomes interested to read more about a given person than the Annals contain, and at such a moment to complain of them as meager in detail. A little reflection will show that such complaint would be unreasonable, for had a volume been devoted to each character, few libraries could have aspired to embrace the entire series. The most however, that can be desired in any special case is indicated by the notes and marginal references, which specify with great care all the sources of information extant with reference to individual subjects.

The author's general plan has been to prepare from the best sources, and usually in his own language, a brief memoir of each subject, to be followed by one or more letters of personal recollection from individuals who actually knew the deceased while living. For the sake of securing this original testimony on the important point of character, Dr. Sprague has been willing to sacrifice some literary attractions, but he has gained greatly in positiveness and fidelity of description. He says, in his general preface:

"The rule, in every case practicable, has been to procure from some wellknown person or persons a letter or letters containing their recollections and impressions illustrative of the character; but where there has been no one living to testify, as was uniformly the case with all who died before 1770, I have availed myself of the best testimony of their cotemporaries, from funeral ser mons, obituary notices, etc., that I could obtain. And where, as in a few instances, I have not been able even to do this, I have endeavored to substitute that which seemed to me to come nearest to original testimony, that is, the opinion of those who, without having known the individuals, were best qualified, from peculiar circumstances, to form a correct judgment concerning them."

"The other characteristic feature of the work is, that it at least claims an exemption from denominational partiality. Though I have of course my own theological views and ecclesiastical relations, which I sacredly and gratefully cherish, I have not attempted in this work to defend them even by implication. My only aim has been to present what I supposed to be a faithful outline of the life and character of each individual without justifying or condemning the opinions they have respectively held."

In respect to the claim of impartiality, now that six volumes are before the public, it is but just, while it is faint praise, to say that the author has succeeded. In the language of a prominent weekly journal, "Thus far he has not only satisfied but delighted his various denominational readers." The catholicity of the Annals is admirably illustrated in the beautiful commingling of original letters