and dwelt upon the more abstruse and controverted doctrines too much? I frankly answer, that I think they have. This seems to me to have been the fault of some very able and pious divines of the last age. They gave too much ground for cavillers to say, that they could think and preach of nothing else but depravity, divine sovereignty, election, regeneration and other kindred topics, and there may be here and there a preacher still who dwells too much, rather than too little, upon these doctrines. But I am free to express it as my opinion, that where one errs on this hand, five may be found, who err more or less on the other. The present is not so much an age of fundamental principles and calm discussion, as of action, and aiming at immediate results. I wish you, my son, to be more thoroughly doctrinal in your preaching than most young ministers of the present day are. But I hope to convince you before I am through, that I lay as great stress as you could wish, upon practical preaching also.

There are several ways in which the doctrines may be brought into the pulpit; and with regard to these, as well as to the proper times and seasons, "wisdom is profitable to direct." Sometimes, as when the opposite errors prevail and are gaining ground, it is necessary to adopt the style, (not the bitter spirit,) but the style of controversy. The enemy is at the gates, and you must meet him hand to hand. There is no other way. When truths which you believe to be fundamental are assailed, you are bound, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, openly and manfully to defend them. When "damnable heresies" are brought in,

or when error in any form is obtruded upon your people, and efforts are made to turn them away from the "faith once delivered to the saints,"-if this should ever happen, it will be your duty to dispute every inch of ground with "the sword of the spirit," which has so often "turned to flight the armies of the aliens." Whether they who trouble you be the open and avowed enemies of the gospel, or wolves in sheep's clothing, you must keep them out of the fold if you can. Whatever popular errors may be promulgated, you must take them up one by one, and show their falsity by bringing them to the test of Scripture. You must convince your hearers by arguments drawn from the word of God, that their faith, however artfully it may be assailed, stands "not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." This is controversial preaching. Under such circumstances it is called for. It cannot be avoided without giving up the truth.

Some excellent preachers and defenders of the faith, it appears to me however, unnecessarily expose their own positions by going abroad as it were, in quest of the enemy, when they should be strengthening themselves within their own entrenchments. They read of some heresy, new or old, which is springing up and gaining proselytes a thousand miles off, but which not one in twenty of their congregation knows anything about, and for fear that it will ere long be brought in by somebody, and spread among the people, they introduce it into the pulpit, tell every body what it is, warn every body against it, and in this way excite a fatal curiosity in unsta

ble minds, which, but for the pastor's zeal to guard them against error, might have always remained in happy ignorance of it.

If you ask me what course I would advise you to pursue in such cases, I will tell you what I have always done, and it has worked well. When, from my watch-tower, I have descried the enemy at a distance, but threatening no immediate danger, I have gone quietly to work on that side, without sounding the alarm, and fortified against him. In this way I have endeavored to make my defences too strong for him, if he should ever come. Or to speak without a figure, I have always tried to keep myself informed with regard to the existence and progress of erroneous doctrines, wherever they might prevail, and to meet them, not by heralding their coming, but by preaching the opposite truth and thus preparing my hearers to reject them at once. If the blasphemies of such infidels as Voltaire and Paine, or Abner Kneeland, should ever become rife where you are stationed, you must rebuke them fearlessly in the name of the Lord. So if those who "deny the Lord that bought them," or reject the doctrine of future punishments, or aspire to "something newer" in the mystical vagaries of a transcendental gospel, or the atheistical dreams of pantheism, should seek within the circle of your influence to "draw away disciples after them," it would undoubtedly be your duty to withstand them face to face. But I hardly know how a minister could be more unprofitably, I was going to say worse employed, than, for the sake of showing his zeal or his skill in controversy, in collecting and retailing

infidel objections and erroneous expositions of the Bible to his people, which, had he been silent, they never would have heard of. You know the adage, that it is easier to raise the evil spirit than to lay him. There is always danger, considering the wrong biases of the human heart, that the objections will be remembered, after the answers are forgotten. If the objections come, meet them in the threshold and scatter them; but if they will stay away, never bring them in yourself, nor say anything which may move your people to go out and invite them. The best way to keep out error is, to pre-occupy the minds of your hearers with the truth.

But although doctrinal preaching ought not, in my judgment, to be controversial, except where the truth is directly assailed, I am equally well satisfied, that all the important doctrines ought to be brought forward and fully discussed from appropriate texts of scripture, by every minister of Christ. Is it the entire depravity of the human heart that he wishes to prove, let him select a passage which asserts the fact, as Rom. 8: 7. "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Is it regeneration by the Holy Spirit, or the doctrine of the Trinity, or the Divinity of Christ, or faith, or repentance, let him do likewise. The doctrines of Christianity are its fundamental principles, which ought from time to time to be clearly stated, each by itself, and substantiated by appropriate arguments. This may be done without assailing or answering anybody; and I can

not think that any preacher does his duty, who is not in this sense a doctrinal preacher.

Another way of preaching the doctrines, is to bring them forward, in their scriptural relations and harmony. This is called systematic preaching. Dr. Griffin's Park Street Lectures are a very good example of it; and it has some important advantages. I would not advise you to proceed in this respect, just as you would, if you were a theological professor in Andover, or Princeton. Perhaps it may not be expedient for you to go through with a regular system of divinity before your people, and perhaps it may be, with such alternations and interruptions as the state of your church and congregation may require. But at any rate, I would strongly recommend that you attempt something of the kind. The doctrines of the Bible illustrate and support each other. If you cannot find time for a regular course, take up one part of the system at one time, and after a suitable interval take up another, and so proceed as you find it most profitable and convenient. You will derive great advantage from it yourself, while your congregation will be more interested and confirmed in the truth than they could be in any other way. I verily believe that one great reason, why many serious minded persons look with so much dread and suspicion at some of the Calvinistic doctrines, is, they contemplate them as standing out, each by itself, in stern and lonely repulsiveness;—whereas, if they had been taught to view these same doctrines in their proper harmony, according to the analogy of faith, they would have seen their consistency and embraced them.