ment to the great characteristics of Christianity; and to find, in him, an honourable and convincing assertor of the faith originally committed to the saints. Oh, for more of those, who, in these times, can thus fight the good fight, and keep the good faith!

When the sermons of Mr. Budd are described as contradistinguished from the many volumes of modern divinity, by their spirituality and consistency, it must not be inferred, even for a moment, that he grinds divinity of other days down into modern use;' nor must it be understood, that, because his sermons are written, he cheats the eyes of gallery critics by a thousand arts.' Such grinding arts, despicable in themselves and unworthy of countenance, this preacher scorns. Thoroughly studied, his sermons are impressively delivered. Hence some who refuse to listen to gospel axioms, differently inculcated, yet imbibe them from the present preacher, because written and preached in a way more suited to their taste. Nor does this form his praise, if one may call it his praise. Philosophical, but perfectly, and at all times, scriptural, philosophy is, with him, the handmaid of scripturality.

His deportment, serious and earnest, announces him. Benignity seems in him conspicuous. Of

him it may be said, with a just application of the encomium of the poet, that

Meek as the chosen children of the just,

Who o'er the earth with Heaven's glad-tidings ran,

The messenger of God, the friend of man!

MERCER.

SAMUEL BURDER, A. M.

PIUS, the fourth pope of the name, exhibiting the magnificence of the papal palace to Thomas Aquinas, about three hundred years ago, observed with triumph,- This, Brother Thomas, is no longer the time when Saint Peter said, I have neither gold nor silver.'- True;' rejoined Thomas Aquinas. • But it is also no longer the time when the same Apostle said to the Paralytic, That which I have, give I unto you: in the name of Jesus Christ, rise and walk!' There is something pertinent in this. Let us take it as a test, and try our times by it.

We see but few burning and shining lights in our day. Notwithstanding the general diffusion

of religion, preached as the gospel now is by some of the ablest of its preachers,-religion seems generally divested of vivification. Passive Christians abound-zealous Christians decline! There are found but few whose zeal for the Church of Christ may be said to eat them up, as David's did; whose meat and whose drink it is, to serve and spread the cause of truth! Wanting neither the gold nor the silver, either of which St. Peter had not to impart, nothing fails but the faith that removed mountains! There is much truth in the church of our land; but there wants more faith, more love, more life, more zeal. We walk, but do not run, in the ways of truth; or, when we do run, are apt to faint.

Powerful and persuasive preachers, preachers who thus evidence their earnestness for the conversion and salvation of their hearers, and who shew that they have felt the great truths which they preach, preachers of this description are eminently to be desired, and esteemed as the greatest blessings christianity can communicate. Not that such men have not their faults; but they are the faults of such men. We are told of Whitfield, that, during preaching, he had contracted an habitual mode of lifting up his hands too high; so that when at one time he looked at a printed likeness of himself, he exclaimed, referring both

to attitude and expression,- Sure I do not look such a sour creature as this sets me forth!' Such was the remark of Whitfield, it seems, against himself; and yet, though true, who would not prefer seeing the lifted hands of such a preacher, uncourtly as might have been some of his attitudes, to the motionless monotony of those teachers who stand stock-still in the pulpit, and will not so much as move a finger,' observed Addison, to set off the best sermons in the world?' Hearers find not time to see, however, the slight faults of great speakers. Once let eloquence captivate the ear, the eye criticises attitudes no more.

Samuel Burder, A. M. latterly of Clare-Hall, Cambridge, has been for some time Morning Preacher at St. Margaret's, Lothbury, and Curate and Assistant Preacher of St. Dunstan's in the West, Fleet Street; and he was recently chosen the Sunday Afternoon Lecturer at Christ Church, near Newgate Street, on the decease of the Rev. Mr. Meakin. Related to the present final Editor of the Evangelical Magazine, Mr. S. Burder was not originally within the bosom of the national church, having formerly been Minister of an Independent Congregation at St. Alban's; but he was ordained into the Established Church of

England, nearly three years ago, by the venerable Bishop of Durham, to whom he has, honourably and gratefully, since inscribed his Scripture Expositor. The Rev. S. Burder is also a Chaplain to his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent.

Conscientious men of the description traced here,-Dissenters become Episcopalians,-have proved illustrious stars in the Establishment. Biography will bear out this assertion. Let not the church then scorn to receive, when they voluntarily seek her, persons who were not once of her fold. Why hesitate to affiliate them? Policy urges a peculiar liberality towards proselytes,-a liberality always expansively bestowed by foreign churches. Naturalization has not been more conducive to political strength, than affiliation might be to ecclesiastical.

Observations of this kind, however, are not here made with any particular bearing towards the present preacher, who, notwithstanding his high attainments, too much inclines to the stock-still sermonising yet cherished by the establishment. This sort of preaching is now flat. Never did it work good; nor can it work any. Pulpiteering is far short of evangelism.

'We can talk of life and death in remarks Addison, already quoted;

cold blood,'

and keep