ART. X.-Memoirs of the Life and Ministry of the Rev. John Summerfield, A. M. Late a Preacher in connexion with the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. By JOHN HOLLAND. 1 vol. 8vo. New-York: 1829.

THE subject of this book is still vividly alive in the memory of many hundreds of persons in the cities of Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New-York; and must be known, in the outline of his character and vocation, to a large number of the readers of American newspapers. Since the days of Whitefield and Wesley, there had been no apparition of a preacher of the same class, which excited so much private and public interest, as that of Summerfield. In whatever town or village he held forth, the most lofty and ardent panegyric, the most fond and minute descriptions, immediately followed:-he was so heralded, that he could be sure of full benches and crowded aisles, and he generally produced, in the exercise of his ministry, a sensation which warranted the poet Montgomery in celebrating him as "a fervent, fearless, self-sacrificing preacher, the delight of wondering, weeping, and admiring audiences, wherever he went." His youth, his juvenile aspect, his valetudinary condition, his natural cloquence, his intense zeal, altogether operated irresistibly upon a considerable portion of his hearers, who were already prepared to admire and sympathize by the chorus of praise which we have noticed. The desire of religious instruction has been styled one of the noblest characteristics of our race:-certainly, one of our commonest traits is an avidity to hear it when conveyed in popular harangues, under circumstances like those which formed the case of Summerfield.

From the preface to this volume, it appears that delays and difficulties occurred with regard to the Memoir of his edifying life, which it was deemed proper to issue. The "originally anticipated biographer," the Rev. Doctor Townley, of London, and also the poet Montgomery, were compelled to decline the office, in consequence of their professional engagements. Finally, Mr. Holland,-with whose literary reputation we are unacquainted-was recommended by Montgomery, and confidently accepted. In a letter included in Mr. Holland's preface, the poet vouches fully and emphatically for the biographer and the book. More kindness, than judgment or taste, is displayed in this testimony; for the composition is in general awkward and heavy, and strikes us as a sample of the art of sinking a personage like Summerfield below his true level of interest and dignity, in the very effort to exalt his attraction and excellence beyond the human standard. We have never been able to entertain an opinion of Montgomery, as a bard or general writer, so

flattering as that which his immediate admirers improve every occasion to proclaim; and in the capacity of a literary critic, he would fall much lower in our estimation, if we could believe that he decided upon Mr. Holland's qualifications and labours, without the strongest bias which personal friendship and community of religious sentiments could produce.

If this biography had been designed exclusively for the denomination of Christians to whom Summerfield belonged, we should not object to the peculiar dialect, the hazy, mystical style, the passionate eulogy or idolatry, the technical cast of language, feeling, and doctrine, by which it is marked throughout; and probably we should not have ventured to speak of it here. We abundantly esteem sincere piety, and we think, with Edmund Burke, that as long as men hold charity and justice to be essential, integrant parts of religion, there can be little danger from a strong attachment to particular tenets in faith. But an elaborate volume respecting Summerfield, could not be intended nor reserved for his own sect alone; it is necessarily given to all Christians, and all readers; and therefore we, or others, may, without uncharitableness or injustice, irreverence or spleen, represent it as it affects our understandings and wishes. The strain and belief of Mr. Holland are broadly Methodistical; many of his pages will excite derision or disgust in persons who are not familiar with the history, creed, and phraseology of Methodism. Had we not frequently, in our youth, visited tabernacles, and re-perused lately, that masterly and most engaging work, Southey's Life of Wesley, we should have been ourselves often shocked, and often again moved to laughter or ridicule, by Mr. Holland's tone and his choice of incidents and terms. We do not utter this in an invidious sense, or from original prejudice or disrespect; but with real regret for the error which we think has been committed, in not exhibiting the qualities and achievements of Summerfield in the manner most widely efficacious.

If the subject had been kept clear of the matter and dress likely to prove offensive, or seem ludicrous, to others than thorough Methodists and congenial religionists, it would have redounded more to their credit and advantage, and more to the good of society. They have suffered less, or gained more, we apprehend, with the literary and religious public at large, by Mr. Southey's exhibition of Wesley, and his narrative of the rise and progress of Methodism, than they would have done by the workmanship of an adept and enthusiast of their own order of authors, supposing that his volumes were equally sure of getting into the hands of that public. When there happens to be in the calendar of any religious or political sect, an example, or worthy, whose positive merits and peculiar course and fate are calculated to excite

in every breast deep and kindly emotions-to extort sympathy and esteem,-special care should be taken, for the common benefit, to adhere to the plan of delineation which we have just suggested.

The father of John Summerfield was an English mechanic, deeply imbued with the theory and spirit of Wesley. John was born at Preston, in England, on the 31st January, 1798; and, says our biographer, "at the time of the birth of the babe, his father solemnly dedicated him to the work of the ministry." At school he was distinguished for his intelligence and amiable temper; at an extensive Moravian institute near Manchester, he made considerable progress in the dead languages, and some other branches of a liberal education. The bankruptcy of his father in 1809, caused him to be prematurely called home. Though so young, he opened a night school, in which he instructed "many young men twice as old as himself," and the proceeds of which he scrupulously handed to his mother for the support of the family. His religious impressions at this period were lively. Before he was fifteen years of age, he filled, at Liverpool, the station of clerk in a mercantile establishment, being principally employed in managing a French correspondence, and considered an excellent book-keeper and accountant. At this stage of his career, Mr. Holland takes occasion to relate one of his dreams as "remarkable"-of course a struggle with Satan, an enemy easy to escape or overcome during "curtained sleep." While at Liverpool, the youth-whose rhetorical propensities were already active-sought every opportunity of hearing the best speakers, whether in the pulpit, the bar, or even in popular meetings. In 1812, he removed with his parent to Dublin, where he fell into bad company, and wasted his time at the theatre, the billiard room, and the card-table. He became an expert and daring gambler, to the horror of his father and pious friends. His fluent elocution, various acquirements, and quick discernment, rendered him a favourite companion for all sorts of intelligent persons. If we had been in the place of Mr. Holland, we should have omitted to relate, that his enthusiastic benevolence once provoked him to bestow, clandestinely, upon a person in distress, all the silver spoons which he could snatch from the family board.

His irregularities were alternated with paroxysms of severe contrition, during which he prostrated himself frequently on the ground, vociferously lamented his transgressions, and thus inspired his father with hopes of his amendment. Happily, the Rev. Thomas Raffles's "Life of Spencer" fell into his hands, and filled him with the desire of becoming "an ambassador of Christ;" but before this ripened into action, he sinned again by very devious courses; he indulged an extravagant fond

ness for theatrical amusements, lounged whole days in courts of justice, and absented himself, for weeks together, from home, his family "having no idea where he was." When brought back, by the same kind of necessity which restored the prodigal son of the Gospel, he would take fits of seclusion and intense application to books. His father associated him with a man of business in the Coal Trade; he totally neglected his duties, played truant again, contracted debts, and was thrown into the Marshalsea prison, Dublin, in which he remained seven months. During his confinement, he employed himself in drawing up memorials for such of his fellow-prisoners as wished to apply to the courts under the Insolvent Act. His clear and elegant penmanship, and readiness in composition, procured for him lucrative business of this nature, after his own liberation. When very rigidly cross-examined in one of the courts, as a witness against an applicant, he gave his testimony with so much ability and effect, that the Judge asked him what was his profession; and being told that he had none, exclaimed, nevertheless-Depend upon it, you will one day or other be a shining character in the world."

Within a few months from the date of this prediction, but not until four years of reprobateness had elapsed, and after frequent temptations to suicide, the unfortunate or fortunate youth was suddenly struck with remorse for the distress to which he had reduced his father, and with alarm at the darkness of his own worldly prospects. In the year 1817, his "mental agony" so overwhelmed him, that he wept bitterly as he wandered about the streets of Dublin. One day, when in this mood, he was accosted by an edge tool maker, a pious personage, who, says Mr. Holland, "with the tact of a Methodist, and the simplicity of a saint," ascertained his state; took him to his cellar; persuaded him to pray with some devout soldiers from the barracks; and, that very night, "gave peace to his soul." This conver sion, "at once signal and scriptural," worked so well and speedily, that he betook himself the next day to the barracks, in order to cure the disorder and vice reigning there. He first won the regard of the soldiers by pleasant anecdotes and kind offices, and soon made them docile auditors for pious exhortation and copious prayer. He then enlarged the sphere of his zeal, edified class-meetings, and wrote stanzas on his first classleader, and an acrostic on the leader's wife, with exuberant fervour of godly spirit, but no poetical inspiration. We are sorry to learn, that the muses are so little propitious, or so little dear to the order, as the following passage of the biography implies: "John and Charles Wesley, and one or two of their contemporaries, have written hymns of unsurpassable merit, and deserved celebrity; but their succes sors in the ministry, however eloquent in discourse, or fervent in prayer, have

generally become impotent, the moment they have invoked the muse; and it is a remarkable fact, that though they have contributed their full share to the stock of amateur poetry, there is not (so far as I am aware) one popular piece of verse, written by a Methodist preacher. Summerfield, however, ought not here to be defrauded of the higher praise, of having ever afterward (with perhaps a single exception) let alone the unprofitable art of verse-making, in favour of the more sacred duty of preaching the everlasting gospel."

At the age of twenty, Summerfield emerges an enthusiastic apostle of righteousness, keeping a diary of the workings of grace within him, and of his pious resolves. He recorded his advances which were astonishingly rapid-in the esteem of the prayer-meetings, and the occasions on which he was most successful in officiating in the chapels. He had a natural impediment in his speech, that was quickly overcome in his public addresses. He studied the Scriptures systematically and most earnestly, devoted a portion of each day to the education of his younger sisters, attended to the settlement of his father's accounts, and would have been unexceptionable in the eyes of the fond parent, if he had not persisted in staying out at night at prayer meetings, much later than was consistent with domestic order. At this date, he tells in his diary, that "his soul was melted down in the furnace of Divine love;" that he enjoyed "miraculous interpositions of Divine aid;" that he received "the heavenly mould," and so forth. His biographer acknowledges that the diary is quite "poor in incident," but he is delighted with its rhapsodical ecstacies, and what he calls the memorials of happy soul-experience. A few specimens of some portions of the text and the commentary, will make known the stuff of too many of Mr. Holland's pages.

Diary.

"This day, February 12, 1818, I purpose getting a flint and steel, as my fire is so often out that I am obliged to lie in bed till day-light, as was the case this morning."

Comment of Mr. Holland.

"On what small things frequently depend our convenience, our happiness, nay the most important issues of life itself! The purchase of a flint and steel, for a few pence, added at least two hours to his day, during the winter-months. Let nobody who reads of this simple incident despise; let nobody be afraid or ashamed to go and do likewise," &c.

Entry.

"Called on W.; was pressed into the parlour, where were two ladies, in whose company I spent two hours-I feel it was wrong; my soul suffered by it." Comment.

"How tender was his conscience! Few persons could see any sin in spending two hours in respectable society; nor perhaps was it otherwise wrong, than as he felt it so much time lost from communion with God."

Mr. Holland seems to approve decidedly the deep compunction which Summerfield expresses elsewhere for having written-by compulsion from a lady-an extempore acrostic. Be