a sermon decently. Almost any body may learn to deliver a sermon extempore, to the edification of christians, both learned and unlearned. But to learn to read a sermon in a manner to convince, to move, to persuade the illiterate, is what scarcely any one can attain. It appears to me very wrong to make literary characters the sole judges of preaching; or to aim principally at edifying them by preaching. Much more attention is requisite in feeding the lambs than in feeding the sheep; as the.lambs are much the most numerous, and the least capable of feeding themselves. Orton observes in a letter to a young clergyman; "Remember that nine-tenths of your audience are children-children in knowledge and understanding." This is a subject, which may profitably engage a considerable of your attention; a subject upon which I should be glad to lecture you, or rather to converse with you three or four hours. It is an excellent subject for disputation in some of your societies. I hope you will not think of any other profession, than that of the ministry. I wish you to procure Maury's "Principles of Eloquence adapted to the pulpit and the bar," and study it through and through. Now is the time for you to make a business of studying eloquence. I have no doubt that at least one half the excellence of the best of preaching, and of the best of pleading, and of the best of conversation, consists in eloquence. No doubt it constituted nine-tenths of Whitefield's. I should think therefore, that we ought to study eloquence at least the tenth part of our time. All your treasures of knowledge and understanding, will avail you little, very little, as a minister or a lawyer, without eloquence.

I have it in contemplation to visit New Haven within eight or ten weeks. One of my principal objects is to see Dr. Dwight upon some important business.

He accordingly took the proposed journey to Connecticut; the "important business" of which, in addition to the benefit of his health, was to subject his Primer to the inspection of Dr. Dwight and others, for the double purpose of obtaining their remarks and their recommenda tions, both of which were readily given.

He always insisted in conversation, as he does in this letter, on the duty of preaching in such a manner,

that

EXTEMPORE PREACHING.

195

common hearers can understand the discourse; and he remonstrated, with equal justice and severity, against the wicked vanity of introducing "learned terms" into a sermon. And what he urged in theory, he exhibited in practice. Perhaps he even went to an extreme, in this very important article of reform, as the power of his discourses was sometimes diminished in his zeal to be perfectly understood by the feeblest capacity. His predilection for extempore preaching, was modified in subsequent years, as already remarked. He was even more opposed to memoriter preaching, than to mere reading, as he thought it a waste of time to commit sermons to memory, and that it tended to a declamatory and heartless delivery. Probably the happy medium" is, for a minister to prepare one written discourse, with much care, for each sabbath; and to preach one extempore. Each will then be better than either would probably be, were he to confine himself exclusively to one mode. Careful writing

will help him to extemporize with more accuracy and power; and extemporizing will teach him to write with greater simplicity and vivacity. It is also to be remembered, that sermons may be written extempore, and may partake of all the faults of such discourses, with but a part of their advantages. Such is often the fact, when the pastor, pressed with other labors, attempts to write two sermons a week. It is also true of some, if not of all men, that they can study the matter and arrangement of a sermon more thoroughly in six hours without writing any thing more than a pretty complete sketch, than they can in twelve hours by writing the whole. The extempore discourse will, therefore, be often the most thoroughly studied, as well as the best delivered. Still there is danger that the preacher will neglect to study sufficiently his extempore performances. Diffident men will be the least likely to trust themselves in the pulpit without due preparation; they may, therefore, be the more safely encouraged in the practice of extemporizing, if endowed with the requisite self-possession.

CHAPTER X.

FROM HIS THIRD

MARRIAGE TO HIS DISMISSION FROM HIS PEOPLE. 1810-1816.

Infirmity in his limbs-Early zeal for foreign missions— Tour to Ballstown-His missionary sermon—. -Advocates total abstinence-Tour to Wiscasset-Interest in revivals-Edits the writings of Miss F. Woodbury— visits Norfolk, Ct.-Excursions in that region—His return and dismission.

Early in the year 1810, he was married to Miss Rebecca Hasseltine of Bradford, Mass. who still survives him.

Under date of Aug. 27, 1811, he thus writes. "My wrist, though a little better, is still so weak that I can write but a few lines. As sister Charlotte is very low, I cannot attend your commencement."

His sister, C. Read, soon died of the same complaint that had proved fatal to his second wife, whose example she piously followed in the work of instruction.

A singular infirmity had now, for some time, disabled his right wrist. This will account for the long chasm of more than two years between the letters from which I quote. During most of this period, he probably wrote but very little. The like infirmity ere long, settled also in his left wrist; and then in one of his ancles;—and then in the other. Or rather, I may say, that the constitutional maladies under which he had long labored, concentrated their forces, in successive attacks, on these outposts of his physical nature. Happy that they did so; for had they struck at once at the citadel of life, I fear we should have been left to mourn his fall, when his more extensive usefulness was but just begun. A slight sprain of the limb, in an accident while riding, was the signal for the first attack. A similar sprain in each of his other limbs,

INFIRMITIES-STENOGRAPHY.

197

in distant succession, was apparently the occasion of each successive assault. Under these accumulating infirmities, he suffered exceedingly for many years; nor was he entirely free from them to the day of his death. They baffled the skill of many physicians. Still his mind was active; and perhaps would have been even more so than before this distant location of the unknown disorder of his system, had he not been curtailed in his customary exercise. Sawing wood had been one of his favorite modes of exercise. Of this he was totally deprived on the failure of his wrist. He was still more fond of walking; and, when in vigor, was often seen rapidly passing the most nimble-footed on the side-walks. Of this, too, he was finally deprived. Neither could he longer take exercise on horseback, of which he was also fond, as his limbs became too feeble to hold the reins. Numerous were the expedients to which he resorted for supplying what is just as needful as food to the health of both body and mind. One of these expedients which succeeded beyond expectation, was that of rocking backward and forward in his chair, and swinging his arms at each vibration. That effeminate exercise of riding in a chaise, (which was then, in the declared opinion of President Dwight, becoming the disgrace and the slow death of many clergymen,) was but a poor substitute for the more vigorous action to which he had trained his muscles. Still he lived; and was considerably efficient in study, and the performance of such parochial duties as he could attend upon at all. He had a chair fixed in his pulpit, in which he could easily sit while discharging the duties of the sanctuary, And his diligence now, when thus admonished, was doubled, if possible, in whatever his hand found still in his power. He was among the last of all men to avail himself of an excuse for inaction. The kind sympathy of friends comforted his heart and cheered him to labor; and his invention was active in finding, not only employment to which his restricted powers were competent, but in contriving new means and facilities for increasing his own usefulness and that of others. sequence of the weakness of his wrist, he invented, at a subsequent period, a system of stenography, by which he saved about one half the labor of writing. He had once been acquainted with a pretty common method which is

In con

more brief; but he deemed it too arbitrary, and preferred to cast himself on his own resources for forming one of a more legible character. This he used for many years in compositions for his own eye, and in letters to one or two of his friends who became acquainted with it. He once had the purpose of rendering it as perfect as possible, and publishing it. But this purpose he relinquished, as he became more deeply sensible of the evils of writing in a manner which few understand.

The following is to his brother at Holles.

Beverly, Nov. 28, 1811.

I think

MY DEAR BROTHER W.,—I have lately been thinking of a plan which I wish you to help me execute. it may prove of some advantage to us both. The object is to remember the dates of important events that have occurred since my remembrance. My plan is to assoIciate them with events that I have witnessed and can familiarly recollect. For example, I can recollect of being in Franklin in the latter part of the year 1799. About that time Gen. Washington died. It is very easy, therefore, for me to recollect the year of Gen. W.'s death by associating it with my being at Franklin. My object in writing to you is to ascertain the dates of a number of events that are familiar in my mind, though I cannot tell the respective dates, nor perhaps the years when they took place. I send them on the inclosed paper and wish you to annex the dates against each respectively, as far as you can ascertain them.

Dec. 12.-Since writing the above I have had a fit of sickness, and have been unable to preach for two Sabbaths. I am now much better, and hope to be able to preach next Sabbath. My family are in comfortable

health.

The facts he wished to ascertain, respected chiefly the history of his relatives and friends. He ever took a deep interest in whatever concerned them, and, I doubt not, gratefully improved in a religious manner, the past mercies of God toward them. The mode of associating the facts which he here mentions, is well worth the consideration of those who wish to treasure up accurately the facts of