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tated by the Holy Spirit, as well as the ideas, because without the inspiration of words, that of ideas would become doubtful, and even incomprehensible. The author examines, first, the objections which have been brought against the divine origin of the Scriptures; then, what he calls the evasions or arguments of certain divines; lastly, he draws his principal reasons in support of his position from the Word of God itself. The perusal of this work presents nothing of the dryness of a didactic treatise; it is singularly attractive. M. Gaussen has poured into it all the treasures of a cultivated mind and of a loving heart.

But it is especially as a preacher that M. Gaussen has obtained a high place in our contemporary literature.

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has a style peculiarly his own, which it is difficult to define, and which gives to his sermons an inexpressible charm. It is a happy mixture of imagination, cordiality, simplicity, and especially of unction, which we meet with nowhere else to the same degree. M. Gaussen commonly selects a considerable por tion of holy writ, particularly in the Old Testament, and without doing violence to his subject, he connects with it the leading features of evangelical doctrine and of the Christian life. He has a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures, and his frequent use of the sacred text is always in complete harmony with the general scope of his ideas and the individuality of his style. We behold in him a brother, a friend, who, full of the most ardent love and the most winning kindness, comes to converse with us upon our eternal interests. He never irritates, even in pronouncing the severest censure, because he always speaks in accents of tenderness. I still remember the lively and profound impression which I experienced on reading the first discourses published by M. Gaussen, and I am confident that he has been the instrument of permanent good to a great number of souls.

M. Merle d'Aubigné, the friend and fellow-labourer of M. Gaussen, was born on the 16th of August, 1791, in the country-house which he now occupies as his residence. Having finished his studies in the Academy of Geneva, where he had already given evidence of solid piety, he was called to fill the pastoral office at Hamburg, which enabled him to familiarize him

self with the theological learning of Germany. Though then but a young man, he did not suffer himself to be moved by the captious sophisms of the Rationalist school, and he knew how to avail himself of what was good in the native land of Luther, while rejecting what was worthless. About this time his name began to be known by the articles which he contributed to the Archives du Christianisme. He was felt to be a conscientious writer, who was seeking to share with his readers the intellectual riches which he had accu. mulated.

Being appointed to the pastorate of the Protestant Church at Brussels, M. Merle d'Aubigné brought to this new post an understanding matured by reflection, and a firm determination to advance the interests of evangelical religion. He acquired the esteem of the royal family of Nassau, and maintained relations with it alike honourable to both parties. The flock at Brussels derived from the labours of its

eminent pastor the most salutary benefit, and probably M. Merle d'Aubigné would have remained in that city, but for the Belgian revolution, which took place in 1830. By that event, the state of things in Belgium was entirely altered. Popish priests took possession of the political power of the country. The mass of the people, whom they governed at their pleasure, were carried away by blind passions, and M. Merle d'Aubigné thought that he could no longer exercise his ministry in the same tranquillity and with the same results as before. He therefore withdrew to Geneva-a happy circumstance, since it facilitated his undertaking the great work of his life—the History of the Reformation.

He has published at different periods detached sermons-The Confession of the Name of Christ in the Sixteenth and Nineteenth Centuries; Christianity carried to the Heathen Nations of the Earth; the Signs of the Times; the Voice of the Church one under all the Successive Forms of Christianity, and others, which indicate in their author the true Christian and the superior theologian. M. Merle d'Aubigné's discourses exhibit firm and solid powers of reasoning, decided piety, and language always in keeping with the essential nature of the subject. Nothing approaching the efforts of an artificial rhetoric, no affectation of ele

gance, the true and the good united in one well-sustained composition; such is the preaching of M. Merle d'Aubigné.

His reputation rose still higher with the publication of his History of the Reformation. We have not in the French tongue any production which could give us the most distant idea of such a work. Our ecclesiastical historians date from the seventeenth century, and had more erudition than talent in the elucidation of facts or in the presentation of them in a graceful style. We had but a vague notion of the lives and labours of our illustrious reformers. The appearance of M. Merle d'Aubigné's History was therefore in all respects a cheering circumstance for us, and pious men hastened to read a book which offered them so many instructive facts, combined with such edifying reflections. Even men making no pretensions to religion, desired to possess a composition which opened to them, so to speak, a wholly new world. The History of the Reformation, however, has not yet met with the success in our literary circles to which its merits fairly entitle it. The French character does not seem sufficiently serious to appreciate as it ought a work which exhibits in every page the great truths of salvation. It prefers histories of the Revolution of '89, in which political questions play the principal part. But I doubt not that the celebrity of this book will increase with each succeeding volume; and indeed the priests, by the bitterness with which they have already attacked it, have clearly shown that the modern historian has dealt terrible blows upon them. They have felt that M. Merle d'Aubigné has recommenced, in some sort, the conquests of the Reformation by relating them. This impression will be felt still more sensibly when the author arrives at the life of Calvin, and tells of his successes in our land.

My readers will not need to be informed respecting the merits of the History of the Reformation. All, as

suredly, will have read that book before opening mine. M. Merle d'Aubigné had been at great pains to collect his materials before taking the pen of the historian. His is not a fantastic composition, in which imagination occupies the place of reality. The author well knows the facts of which he speaks. Throwing aside second-hand erudition,

he has gone direct to original sources, and what he has not found in printed books he has had the patience to seek in manuscripts. Often a single word, a passing reference, in the correspondence of the Reformers has revealed to the eye of the acute historian certain forgotten aspects of questions. From this labour has resulted a really new and original work. One would think that the men of the sixteenth century, shaking off their cold winding-sheets, had themselves come to relate to us their joys, their sorrows, their hopes,— the vicissitudes so various and so interesting of their missions, in the simple and unaffected language which was familiar to them.

M. Merle d'Aubigné, in writing this history, has had the inestimable advantage of possessing a faith in common with our great Reformers. He has lived the life of Luther; he believes and loves what Luther believed and loved. He knows by his own spiritual experience what was the experience of the doctor of Wittemberg. The Spirit who, in his essential operations, is always the same, has animated them both. M. Merle d'Aubigné has therefore been able to resuscitate Luther by a sort of lively and fertile intuition. The most powerful genius, without piety, would never have fathomed those intimate secrets, nor revealed those hidden mysteries of the soul which have appeared to the view of the modern historian, because in them he has retraced the trials of his own heart.

The style of this history is easy, copious, and masculine, without either bombast or triteness. It is the language of a serious man, who is doing an action rather then making a book, and who is thinking much more of God's glory than of his own.

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M. Alexandre Vinet was born on the 17th June, 1797, at Lausanne, in the Canton de Vaud, of a family originally from France. "His father," writes a friend in Switzerland, from whom I have requested information, was beadle of the Academy of Lausanne; he was a respectable man, of rigid morals, very severe with his children, and some things, with respect to which Evangelical Christians of our day are very indulgent, were not excused by him. M. Vinet prosecuted his studies with success. Though still young, he was charged by his fellow students to deliver a parting address over the grave

of a venerable professor, and he acquitted himself of the delicate task with that sense of propriety which was one of the distinctive features of his character.

Some time afterwards, he was called to Basle, to give lessons in French literature. This was an humble office, but he elevated it by his personal merit. This Swiss city became to him, in some sort, a second native land. From the superiority of his mind, the strength of his religious convictions, and the amenity of his manners, he exercised vast influence in this place. Without belonging to the theological class, he became the guide and model of the pious students of the University. But Lausanne was jealous of Basle, and would no longer suffer the latter to retain the most eminent of her sons. M. Vinet was repeatedly invited to return to the Canton de Vaud. It cost him much to sever connexions which had existed for nearly twenty years, but at length he responded to the wishes of his fellowcitizens, and accepted the appointment of professor of divinity at Lausanne. That he might remain faithful to his principles on ecclesiastical polity, he afterwards resigned this appointment, and became professor of literature. Now, he is no longer a member of the Academy! The Radicals have ejected him, because he attended the meetings of the Free Church! His European renown has not protected him from the effects of popular prejudice!

There is in M. Vinet several equally remarkable men combined. First, the advocate of religious liberty; then, the preacher; next, the scholar and the publicist; and lastly, the private Christian. To depict, as they deserve, the excellencies which distinguish him in each of these characters, would require a long biography.

As the advocate. of religious liberty, M. Vinet, in 1825, composed a memoir which obtained the prize offered by the Society of Christian Morals. The report on the adjudication of the prize was made by M. Guizot, who expressed his deep joy (joie profonde was the phrase he used) at the sight of so pious and so conscientious a writer. "This memoir," he added, " contains a great number of just, precise, and sometimes new and original ideas, almost always presented in an ingenious form, often, indeed, with the most graceful and brilliant

talent.* M. Vinet published other writings on religious liberty, and attacked the intolerant law which had been promulgated against Dissenters in the Canton de Vaud. On account of his masculine energy in defending the rights of conscience he was even subjected to prosecution. Finally, pushing his principle to its utmost limit M. Vinet, in a book which I have already mentioned, demanded the separation of the Church from the State, as the only means of establishing religious liberty in all its plenitude. Those who do not adopt M. Vinet's opinions, admire his elevated views, his skill in wielding the weapons of logic, and his tone of perfect sincerity.

As a preacher M. Vinet occupies, in my opinion, a still higher rank, and his two volumes of Discourses on Religious Subjects will form his noblest title to glory with succeeding generations. He quits common places and beaten tracts. Seek not in these discourses the artificial divisions or traditional forms of preachers of the old school. They are the original effusions of a vast intellect and a sanctified heart. We meet a Christian philosopher, who, elevating himself without effort into the sublime regions of pure thought, deigns to take his hearer by the hand, and endeavours to make him soar to the lofty heights which have been reached by himself. M. Vinet does not preach: he speaks with the authority of genius and the simplicity of piety. In exploring his topics, he digs so deep, that he brings forth new ideas, where others would have supposed the subject exhausted. In his elocution there is not the slightest effort or affectation; his delivery is calm and impressive. He is always serious and pathetic, and when the matter requires it extremely forcible. He persuades, he moves his auditory by the natural flow of his argumentation. This apparent absence of art, is perhaps its very perfection.

As a scholar, M. Vinet has published Christomathia Francçais, or choice selections, taken from our best authors, together with preliminary dissertations and notes, which render this miscellany one of the most valuable works in our lan

guage. "M. Vinet," says a very good judge, "is one of the most enlightened masters of diction, because if I dare express all I think, I should say, that

*M. Guizot's speech at the general meeting held August 13, 1826.

next to M. Dannon for the old school, and next to M. Villemain for the more recent school, he is, to my judgment, of all French writers, the one who has most thoroughly analysed the best models, reduced to its elements and given an exact survey of the language, investigated its limits and its centre, noted its variations and its correct acceptations. And how ingenious and lively has he shown himself in imparting animation to the most abstract grammatical analysis!"*

M. Vinet has moreover contributed to the Semeur many literary, philosophical, and ethical articles, every line of which glows with his acuteness of observation, his depth of thought, and his originality of style. He is ordinarily indulgent in his judgment of other writers, and loves to point out their beauties rather than their defects. not indulgence also one of the appendages of genius? Mediocrity only is spiteful because it is envious.

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What shall I say, in fine, of M. Vinet as a private individual? He possesses incomparable modesty and humility. Far from claiming the first place, which so legitimately belongs to him, he always seeks the lowest, and a thousand times reminded of his universally acknowledged superiority, he yet retains a very humble opinion of himself. Alas! at the moment I write these lines, my heart is filled with grief. M. Vinet has constitutionally but indifferent health; he is now really ill. ... May the Lord yet preserve him for many years to his friends and to the Church of Christ at large.†

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M. Adolphe Monod was born on the 21st of January, 1802. His father was then pastor of the French Church at Copenhagen, but he soon afterwards received a call from the Consistory of Paris, and it was in that city that his son commenced his education for the ministry. To complete his studies, he went to the National Academy of Geneva, and even then astonished the professors by his proficiency in the oratorical art. The young student gave promise of the great preacher.

Received, in 1824, as a candidate in theology, M. Adolphe Monod went the

"Critiques et Portraits Littéraires," by M. Sainte-Beuve, Vol. V. p. 147.

† Our hopes have been disappointed. M. Vinet died at Clarens, in the Canton de Vaud. This is an immense loss to our churches; but let us bow with reverence to the Lord's will.

year following to exercise his ministry in a small Protestant flock at Naples. Surrounded in this country by the thick darkness of Popery, his convictions became more settled, his religious principles more decided; and when, in 1827, he was appointed pastor of the Reformed Church at Lyons, he brought with him to his new post a strictly orthodox style of preaching. The more eloquent he was in his sermons the more he excited against him those who disliked his doctrines. The opposition of the majority of the Consistory grew stronger and stronger. Adolphe Monod was accused of intolerance in his functions, and at length, in 1832, ejected. I omit the particulars of this grievous affair.

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Expelled from the National Establishment, M. Monod opened an Evangelical Chapel at Lyons, not on the settled principle of Dissent, but that he might have an opportunity of preaching the Gospel, according to the dictates of his conscience, to those who wished to hear him. This effort was abundantly blessed. A numerous flock, composed in part of converted Romanists, ranged themselves under the superintendence of the ejected pastor. But in 1836, at the express request of many friends to the Gospel, M. Adolphe Monod was appointed to a chair in the Theological College of Montauban. He could accept this post without doing the slightest violence to his conscientious convictions, because, I repeat, he had quitted the National Church, not because he refused to serve it, but because he had been compelled. has recently received a call from the Protestant Consistory of Paris to the office of assistant pastor in that city.

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The special and providential vocation of M. Monod, is preaching. For this, he presents a combination of all that could be wished-sincere and ardent attachment to the faith, a powerful conception, justness of thought, argumentative energy, a talented style, a finished delivery, and lastly, a sonorous and powerful voice. I know not any preacher of our age who unites so many of the qualities which go to form the pulpit orator, and that to such a degree, as M. Monod. Those who read his sermons are stirred to the very depths of their souls, and how much more those who hear them!

M. Adolphe Monod has not, properly speaking, invented a new style of

preaching, like M. Vinet, but he has improved that which is established to such an extent, that originality is also one of his distinctive characteristics. When he has chosen a subject which to vulgar minds would seem commonplace, he elevates it, and renders it prolific by his patient reflections; for no one views the labours of the Christian pulpit in a more serious light than he. M. Monod is no rhetorician, making it his business to please those who hear him; he is an expositor of the Gospel, a servant of Christ, whose great aim is to promote the interests of his Master. A sermon is with him a solemn duty, a matter of conscience; and were he to succeed in being admired only, he would reproach himself with having missed his aim. Admiration is excited, doubtless, in the minds of his hearers-lively, ardent, and lasting admiration; but it is, so to speak, in spite of the preacher's efforts. He retires and hides himself as far as he can behind the greatness of his mission.

The talent of generalising his ideas is also one of M. Monod's peculiar merits. He begins by laying down some principle, simple in itself, and easy of apprehension; then he borrows arguments from the discoveries of science and the phenomena of creation, from the testimony of experience and Divine revelation; so that his principles, which at first appeared isolated, grow, expand, and are at length seen to bear a relation to everything which it most concerns man to know. Each

of his sermons is, as it were, a world in itself, in which every object occupies its proper place, and does its part to strengthen the preacher's general argument; or, to change the figure, each of his discourses resembles a vast focus, which, concentrating in itself a thousand scattered rays, throws an immense and brilliant light into the distance.

M. Monod, after having committed to the press some isolated discourses, published in 1844 a volume of sermons. M. Vinet, in reviewing these sermons, said] that they gave him the best idea of perfection. "Thus much is certain," he added, "that no preacher among all these whom we have the opportunity of knowing, appears to us to be

more

serious, more holy, or more pathetic. Certain it is, that no preaching with which we are acquainted breathes a deeper sense of the holiness of God, a more tender anxiety for the souls of

men, or a more pressing desire for their salvation."*

M. Adolphe Monod has also written other productions, the most remarkable of which is entitled Lucilla; or, the Reading of the Bible. It has passed rapidly through three editions, which is a very rare circumstance with our religious books. In the first part of his work, written in the form of a dialogue, the author defends the doctrine of the inspiration of the Bible against the objections of infidels. In the second, he uses the epistolary form to show that every human being has a right to read and interpret the Bible. There is a peculiar charm in the style of this work: it is clear, precise, sometimes animated, and always in harmony with the nature of the subject. The author neither conceals nor eludes the arguments of his adversaries; he gives them credit for integrity of purpose, treats them as intelligent and upright men, and by this moderation of language he has done much good among the Roman Catholics.

Besides the preacher and the writer, there is in M. Monod, the excellent Christian, the man of sound understanding and accurate judgment, ever ready to do a service to others, and who acquires more influence the better he is known. Celebrated authors commonly gain by being seen from a distance. It is quite otherwise with him. He is seen to best advantage in the intercourse of private life, and even his adversaries speak of him in the highest terms.

The pleasure which I have felt in tracing the characters of these eminent men has led me to be longer than I had intended. There are several others who have much merit, but I shall not name them, lest I should commit involuntary omissions, or fail to do full justice to their talents. I shall make only one exception, in favour of a lady, the Countess Agenor de Gasparin, who has written, among other works, an essay on Marriage Considered in a Christian point of View, which at once acquired for her a brilliant reputation. Two of her works have obtained prizes from the French Academy, on account of their moral tendency. Madame de Gasparin has fervent piety, a fertile imagination, correct views, and an attractive style. She suffers her pen to run on to the great satisfaction of her readers, who * See the Semear for Nov. 19, 1845.

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