The altar is neat, without useless ornaments. The orchestra is supported by columns similar to those of the portico, and from between them the organ is seen to great advantage. The ceiling, which rises nine feet in the centre, is peculiarly neat and magnificent, and is equally advantageous to the Minister and the congregation; enabling the one to speak, and the other to hear, with greater ease than in many chapels of much smaller dimensions. This part of the plan will, it is hoped, be extensively copied. This noble edifice was opened for divine worship on Sunday the 10th, and Monday the 11th of September, 1826. On Sunday the Rev. Adam Clarke, LL.D., preached in the morning, the Rev. Robert Newton in the afternoon, and the Rev. Jabez Bunting, A.M., in the evening. On the same day, two sermons were preached in the Hill-Gate Chapel, by the Rev. James Everett. On Monday, Dr. Clarke preached in the morning, and the Rev. Robert Newton in the evening. Of these sermons it is enough to say, that they were marked by the characteristic excellencies of these "able Ministers of the New Testament," and were "not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." The building is about thirty-three yards long, and twenty-three wide, exclusive of the wings. The whole expense is esti mated at 11,000!., including the purchase of the adjoining land, which will be used as a burial-ground. About 4,000l. were subscribed by a few families before the building was begun; and notwithstanding the unprecedented depression of trade in all its various branches, and the absolute wreck of fortune which many respectable and liberal families have sustained here, 5507, were collected at the opening. Such liberality has never been surpassed in any part of the Methodist connexion; and rarely, if ever, has it been equalled. The pews in the chapel let well, and ever since it was opened it has been crowded with attentive hearers. A brighter day has at length dawned upon Methodism in Stockport. By the erection of Tiviot-Dale Chapel,

wished to attend the Methodist Ministry in that part of the town continuing to increase, the trustees, encouraged by other pious gentle men, resolved to erect a new one. A large sum was offered for a plot of land near to Park-Street chapel, and in a situation far more eligible; but here also they met with disappointment. In June, 1825, land, in a situation less central indeed than some could have wished, but in all other respects most desirable, was procured for a chapel and burialground. On part of this land a chapel every way suited to the spiritual wants of the surrounding population, and to the wishes of those who have long been endeavouring to place Methodism on more conspicuous and more advantageous ground, has been erected. This building, which, with the school rooms beneath it, is one of the largest structures belonging to the Wesleyan Methodists, is throughout chastely magnificent, and does equal honour to the architect (Mr. Lane, of Manchester) and the Building Committee, under whose judicious and indefatigable superintendence his plans were carried into execution. The prevailing order of architecture is the Doric; an order which, on account of its bold projections, and the united strength and grandeur by which it is characterized, is well suited to public buildings, and especially to buildings consecrated to religion. The front, consisting of a centre and two wings, ornamented with pilasters, is open in all its amplitude to the great London road. The principal entrance is through a portico of four columns, formed after the example of the Ionic Temple on the river Ilissus at Athens, and when completed will give to the exterior a beautiful and striking appearance." The interior is generally and justly admired. The lower gallery is supported by fluted Doric columns, and ornamented with "the triglyphs and other characteristics of the order." The upper gallery, erected solely for the use of the children belonging to the Methodist Sunday-School, has the appearance of "lightness and stability."

really deep, but you cannot see to the bottom because of their contrivance to make the water muddy. They are not really tall, and so they strain on tiptoe. They have not a native beauty that always appears to most advantage without finery; and so they would make up the deficiency by excess, and complexity, and cumbersomeness of ornament. He who cannot rise in the simple grandeur of a morning sun, can excite notice by the gaudy brilliancy of manufactured fire-works, and flame and sparkle down as well as up. To notice in some respects a style that has been constructed, (for it could hardly have been involuntary,) so inverted, involved, obscure, difficult, half blank verse, might seem to be going out of our province. We leave, therefore, others to remark, that this style, though it may be extolled by the lower orders of professional men, and half-educated artisans, and exciteable youth, with a smattering of science and a bad taste, it will never obtain the approbation of the really judicious and discerning. We leave others to remark, that it is disdained by scholars, and at war with classical purity. Lord Kaimes tells us, that in every language clearness of expression and simplicity of thought are the first marks of elegance. Milton observes, that nothing accords with true genius but what appears easy and natural when once it is produced. Agreeably to which Addison says, that the secret of fine writing is for the sentiments to be natural without being obvious; and he contends, that what produces surprise without being simple, will never yield lasting pleasure to the mind. Hume, in his essay on refinement and simplicity of style, comes soon to this conclusion, That it is better to err in the excess of simplicity, than in the excess of refinement; the former extreme being more beautiful and less dangerous than the latter. He observes, that the works read again and again with so much pleasure, all lean more to the one side than the other; that it is increasingly needful to be guarded against the extreme of refinement when learning has

made much progress, and good writers appear in every species of composition; as men will then be the more tempted to endeavour to please by strangeness and novelty, and so fill their writings with affectation and conceits, and that simplicity may be lost, not only in subtlety but in effort and straining, and nature and ease be buried ander an artificial load of laborious diffusion.

But while we leave others to speak upon this subject as a literary question, it cannot be improper to notice it in another and far more important connexion; and to deprecate the adoption of such a style in divinity, and to warn our younger brethren against every approach and tendency towards it. For how perfectly is it unlike the language of inspiration! What an entire contrast does it form with the simplicity there is in Christ Jesus! And how useless must such hard and unintelligible diction be to ordinary minds! And who are the mass in almost every audience? They who are often comparatively neglected, if not despised, there. Leighton, and Watts, and a thousand other names, whose works praise them in the gate, and are now useful to all, might have so written as to have been useless to many. Had our Saviour felt the low ambition of some, he might easily have been beyond the comprehension and the attraction of the multitude. In Him were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He spake as never man spake. But was it a proof against his manner, or the highest recommendation of it, that the common people heard him gladly? And that all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth? The writer of these remarks would not for the world be in the condition of that Preacher, whose attendants do not and cannot say, "Here the poor have the Gospel preached unto them." They not only need it, and should excite our compassion by their temporal privations and sufferings, as well as by their spiritual condition, but they are capable of understanding, and receiving, and admiring it. Learning is not necessary here. The

doctrines of the Gospel are not the result of research, but testimony, There are funds of good sense and good feeling in the common people, as well as in others; and they are even capable of appreciating what is truly superior in preaching, if it be properly presented and illustrated. The fault is always much more with the Preacher than with them. He does not adapt himself to those he professes to teach; he does not make them his aim; he does not study them; he does not throw himself into their modes and habits of thinking and feeling; he has nothing simple and natural in his official being. They understand and relish the Pilgrim's Progress, and the history of Joseph, and the parable of the lost sheep, and of the prodigal son. They are casily informed and impressed by the sayings of our Lord, and the language of the Scriptures. But nothing is to be done in them without excitement; and they are addressed without emotion. Their very understandings must be approached through their imaginations and passions; and they are lectured as if they had none. They are never to be starved into a surrender; and they are circumvallated and trenched at a distance. They are only to be taken by an assault; and they are slowly and formally besieged. They want familiar and seasonable imagery; and, to show the Preacher's learning, they are furnished with allusions taken from the arts and sciences. They want striking sentences, and the words of the wise, which are as goads and as nails; and they have long and tame paragraphs. They only want truths to be brought home to their consciences, for they admit them already; and they are argued and reasoned into confusion or doubt. They want precedents; and they are furnished with precepts. They want instances; and are deadened by discussions. They want facts; and are burdened with reflections.

The Bible adapts itself to the state of our nature; and by knowing how little all are, and how little they can be affected with abstract representations of virtues and duties, it blends

;

religion with history and biography; so that while we read the rule, we may see the exemplification; and may be reproved, excited, and encouraged, while we are informed. It is not a series of logical definitions, like dead bodies well laid out and dressed: all is life and motion. It gives us actions rather than words. We view the fruits of righteousness growing on the tree. We have, not the pilgrimage, but the pilgrim; and go along with him from the city of destruction to the shining city. We are not spectators only, we are his companions; we are interested in all he meets with; we weep when he weeps, and we rejoice when he rejoices. It is not Christianity that is set before us, but the Christian. and we attend him following his Saviour, denying himself, taking up his cross, resisting temptation, struggling with unwearied patience through a thousand difficulties, braving with fortitude every danger, and emerging out into glory, honour, and immortality. By nothing can the attention of children be so effectually caught as by facts and narratives: and "men are but children of a larger growth." What is the greater part of the Old Testament, but history? There is scarcely a Psalm, but it refers to some fact in the experience of the composer. What are the Prophets, but historians by anticipation? Many of them state various past and cotemporary events. The Book of Jonah has only one prediction in it; but it describes in the most vivid and interesting manner the actual and wonderful occurrences that befell the bearer himself. How pleasing and striking are the short and simple annals of Ruth! What is the Book of Job, but the matchless dramatic story of a good man in his affluence, his adversity, and deliverance? In the Book of Genesis we are present at the creation, the destruction, and the repeopling of the world; we live, we travel, we worship, with the Patriarchs; we stand round their dying beds. It is needless to add that the remainder of the Pentateuch, with the Books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, are all of the

narrative kind, including general and individual sketches of the most wonderful people on earth. But what is the Gospel itself, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? It is the history of the Son of God. While the Acts are a portion of the history of the Apostles; and the Epistles are even more enlivened with characters, incidents, and allusions. Is this the work of God? Does he know perfectly what is in man, and necessary to him? Has he herein abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence? Is it not then surprising that religious instructers should not think it necessary or desirable to resemble him? And can any thing be more unlike this inspired, and attractive and irresistible, and impressive inode, than the structure of many of the discourses that are delivered in our public assemblies? Hence, they awaken so little attention, and yield so little pleasure, and take no firm hold on the mind and feelings, especially of the young and the common people,

"And drowsy tinklings lull the distant

folds."

General declamations and reflections do little in a popular audience. The Preacher must enter into detail, and do much by circumstances. Nothing can penetrate but what is pointed. Every indictment must particularize and specify. The eye may take in a large prospect, but we are affected by inspection. We must not stand long with our people on the brow of the hill, showing them a wide and indistinct expansion; but take them by the hand, and lead them down to certain spots and objects. We are to be characteristic, not only with regard to persons, though this is of great importance, but also with regard to vice and virtue, faults and excellencies. To what purpose is it to admonish servants to be good? The question is, In what is their goodness to appear? Therefore says the Apostle, "Exhort servants to be obedient to their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; not purloining, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine

of God our Saviour in all things." Does Solomon only condemn drunkenness? What is there in the wretched crime; in its excitement, progress, evil, danger, misery, that he does not strike? Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright: at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things: yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again."

A Preacher also must indulge in a certain degree of diffusiveness. He another, is not likely to impress, or who passes rapidly from one thing to indeed even to inform, the majority of his audience. To affect them, he must commonly dwell upon the thought a little; even with an enlargedness that may seem needless ; and with a repetition in other words and exemplifications, that may go for tautology with persons of quicker apprehensiveness. Hints will please the scholar, and set his own mind pleasingly in motion; and he can instantly add from his own stores. But many have nothing but what they receive. Besides, some are more struck with one species or instance of illustration and confirmation, and some with another; and he whose mind was wandering or heedless at first, may haply be seized afterward. "For precept must be upon precept, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:" and the Preacher will often see by the look and manner of a hearer, that what he failed to accomplish by a first stroke, has been done by a second.

In the pulpit also, it is presumed, large use should be made of Scripture language. If holy men spake as