Superior and truly religious minds cannot be taken with so small a thing as popularity. Such minds are truly thankful to God for large congregations, as they enlarge their sphere of usefulness; but they are careful to guard against that self-complacency which would say "these congregations are a compliment to your powers of eloquence."

Superior and religious minds cannot but know that the capabilities of the greatest men are very limited. That the public judgment and taste are not in every place and at all times correct. That a few persons possessing influence, and admiring in a preacher what does them no solid service, may by their opinions leaven a whole mass, and a dense multitude-and all may go wrong together, Men with such minds can therefore be easy and in no degree disconcerted when, upon some occasions, and in some places, they preach to a few. But the popularity of such, while not courted and fondly delighted in themselves, is highly important to the community. Had such men as Wesley, and Whitfield, and Adam Clarke, Andrew Fuller, and Robert Hall, with many others, been unpopular, they would have been but little known, and their usefulness most sadly contracted. But they became pop

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ular, and their services were widely extended. Thousands upon thousands will have to praise God in heaven that, attracted by the fame of these men, they went to hear them preach, and found their sermons the power of God to their salvation.

Now when popularity results from the exercise of superior talents and zeal in the preacher, it improves the public taste and the public morals. It increases the number of true christians, and promotes the honour and glory of God.

The popularity of superior ministers is always blended with usefulness, whether immediate good results are perceivable or not. It should never be said that superior popular preachers are not always the most useful. This however has often been most obstinately asserted. Whether the propensity to assert this arises from jealousy, or distaste,

r prejudice, or fanaticism, or a preference given to pulpit vulgarities, I stay not to enquire; but the assertion is untrue, and I give it my flat and unequivocal contradiction.

When a truly great preacher is good as well as great, he is more useful than an inferior man, though we may not immediately perceive the fruit of his labours.

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He may be inferior to less talented men, who have for their converts numbers of stony ground" hearers, who hear the word with joy, and in time of temptation fall away.

But he is superior to such men as to the quality of the piety of those who are converted by his ministry. And even those who are not brought to decision under his preaching, are so held in restraint by the solemn convictions which his awakening and enlivening sermons produce upon their minds, that they do not 66 run to the same excess in sin" as formerly. The partial reformation of thousands is owing to the check given to their vices by sound and wholesome preaching.

Besides this, it will be found, that in the course of any considerable number of years, a talented and popular minister has not only brought many sinners to repentance, but instrumentally preserved thousands in the way of holiness which, under a less efficient ministry, would have declined and fallen away. We ought also to look at the impetus which an eminent minister gives to the mental industry and zeal of other preachers. We have a host of useful ministers, in this and in other countries, who, it is probable, would not have been preachers at all, much less good preachers, had they

not been privileged to hear, from time to time, the sermons of popular and gifted divines.

Again, we should consider, that the numerous conversations, criticisms and comments, which occur in serious families, and in social parties, respecting particular and extraordinary sermons, preached by the superior men in question, all tend to the spread of divine truth, and to render christianity a subject of high interest and general concern.

Who can calculate the amount of good done in this indirect way by the long established and well deserved popularity of superior preachers in our established church, amongst the Wesleyan methodists-independents-baptists and numerous other sects, not necessary to be mentioned.

Again, how often in the progress of years are scepticks and educated infidels obliged, most happily, to yield to the force of truth when preached by such men! Infidels whose pride and prejudices effectually hindered their conversion under men of an inferior description! Facts illustrative of this might easily be adduced but we think it unnecessary.

We must assert the superior usefulness of superior men, or come to the conclusion that God would rather put his sanction to the la

bours of an ignorant and self-sufficient agency, than to the agencies of deep piety, honourable mental cultivation, and apostolic zeal. The ungenerous reflection too often indulged in that we do not hear of any good done, or see any good done, by such and such popular ministers, is a reflection upon which the Almighty frowns. If we do not hear of any good or see it, others will; and future generations, if not the present, shall rise to bear testimony to the gracious effects resulting, though remotely, from the faithful labours of the gifted man of God. And as to present good effects, who can tell that they are not realized every time a superior man preaches. The subjects of those effects, may not think it expedient immediately to declare their conversion, or their deliverance from the power of sin after conversion. They may question the propriety of publicly announcing their religious attainments; and placarding them on walls and in shop windows. § They may think it more consistent with the meekness and humility which should adorn the christian character, to let men find out for themselves that they are converted, by seeing, that though once they lived in sin, they have now renounced it, and can, by the assistance of the holy spirit, § This to grief of humble christians was done in Sheffield.