anticipate every objection, and to prevent the possibility of a suspicion that the account was forged, and yet the whole account seems just as if it were designed to leave as much for the imagination to supply as possible. Fewer words could not have been used in the description; and how the Saviour looked; what was the aspect of the heavens; what was the effect on the minds of those who witnessed these scenes-who is there that has not been disposed to ask of some one who knew? The resurrection of Jesus-the most solemn and grand event that has occurred in the world-entering into all the hopes of man, and shedding new light around the grave-how simple and short the account, and what a degree of obscurity rests upon it where the imagination may roam! The final resurrection of the just and unjust; the bursting of the graves, and the sea giving up its dead; a world on fire, and all the dead mounting up to meet their final judge-how simple the details in the Scriptures, yet what a field where the fancy may range. The employments of heaven; the everlasting joys there; the appearance of that world-how brief the details in the Scriptures; how almost tantalizing the statements; and yet what a field of glory! How sublime! How obscure!

How much to imagine-to think of to desire; just as if it were meant to fill the mind, and to win the heart; to make all on earth appear little and mean, and to make us pant to break away from the clods that fetter us, and to go and know what there is there! There are, indeed, great landmarks set up along the future. The mind does not range without bound or limit. Light is thrown on a few distant objects, and the imagination is left to fill up all that is intermediate. We know we shall be holy; we know we shall see the Redeemer, and meet with the departed pious dead, and gaze upon the throne, and drink of the river of life, and sin and die no more. And with these great landmarks what a range of thought is there on which the mind may dwell! What a world! Just as if it were made for the flights of a pure and boundless imagination!

From our subject we learn,

1. The importance and value of early piety. It is in youth that the imagination is most active, and it is then that the most deep and permanent impressions are made upon the soul by its exercise. No young person can properly estimate the value of a pure fancy in regard to his future character, nor of the influences which he allows his mind to be subject to at that period of life. If the observation be correct which I suggested at the beginning of this discourse, that the imagination has more to do in forming the character than any other faculty of mind, then the importance of keeping it within the limits of purity, is at once apparent. Of all checks and restraints in regard to this faculty, none is so valuable as religion. Its objects are all pure; its influences are all holy; its tendencies are all heavenly. At the same time, as we have seen, its revela

tions are just such as give the widest range to this faculty, and one presented in just the form at once to gratify and to elevate the soul. No youth can be injured by bringing his mind under the restraints of religion; there is no one who is certainly safe if he allows the mind to range without restraint, and the fancy to riot uncontrolled.

2. This subject is of great importance to the Christian. If the remark already made more than once, that the imagination enters deeply into the formation of character be true, then we see how directly this bears on the subject of Christian character and Christian peace. I address, probably, few, if any, who have passed the season of quite early life, who have not been materially and permanently injured by an improper indulgence of the imagination. In our anticipations of happiness in this world, in the associations which bind our thoughts now together; in our wishes and desires, and in the ordinary trains of thought which pass through the mind, our views are oftener formed under the guidance of this faculty than of any other. The improper indulgence of this faculty at some period of our lives, has left traces deep and dark on the soul, which nothing, not even religion, in this world will wholly obliterate, and which will attend us, though, if Christians, with diminished weakness, down to the grave. We have been injured, not by the decisions and promptings of conscience; not by the deductions of reason; not by the exercise of our own judgment; not by the advice of pious friends; but by the passage of the corrupt thought, leaving pollution behind it; by unreal views of what life is; by day-dreams of earthly bliss, and by allowing the mind to roam unchecked on forbidden pleasures. There our character has been injured, and the injury is so deep and abiding that it goes with us till we are made pure by that extraordinary change which is wholly to cleanse our souls when we die.

3. Finally. Christians may learn from our subject what is needful to be done to stay, as far as possible, the evils which have been already caused by a corrupt imagination. It is found in bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. It is not difficult to apply the remedy, and to make the soul eminently what it should be. Christian, when some corrupt image presents itself to the eye of thy mind, or comes, thou knowest not whence, or how, into thy heart, think then of thy Saviour, of Gethsemane, of Calvary. When the world presents itself with delusive attractions, and visions of happiness, in the gay circle and among the thoughtless and the vain, begin to charm thy heart, then think of brighter scenes in heaven; of thy everlasting home; of the crowns of gold and the harps of praise, and the shining ranks of the redeemed. Let not these visions of earthly bliss, or images of forbidden joys, dwell in thy mind and stain the purity of thy redeemed soul; but turn thy thoughts to thy Saviour-to his holy life, and his pure words; think of that eye, where purity always beamed, and of that heart, where no unholy thought found a home; think of the glories of the resurrection

morning, and of that world where no envious lip, or wanton eye, shall see or taste the bliss! The range of thy thoughts, like those of thy Saviour, is to be in a world of purity. Thou art to dwell not amid earthly and sensual pleasures, but hereafter with the pure seraphs above. Thou art to anticipate not the poor groveling, debasing, transient joys of this life; not the pleasures sought by the world in halls of splendor, and in dress, and song, and the banquet, but the joys of heaven. Let thy thoughts be there. Let the images that float before thy fancy come from that world. Fix thine eye, radiant with the anticipation of eternal purity, on the wonders of that heaven where are now the pure spirits, redeemed from this lower world; where are angels and archangels; where is thy Redeemer and thy God. Thus shall these wild, roving imaginings be checked and stayed; and hope, and faith, and love combine to keep steadily before thy soul the transforming image of a holy

heaven.

DISCOURSE XX.

ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, D.D., LL. D.

This distinguished leader among the Old School Presbyterians, was born at Cabells-Dale, the homestead of his father, near Lexington, Kentucky, on the 8th day of March, 1800. He was left, by the death of his father, when six years old, to the care of his mother, along with two sisters and four brothers, all minors. Only himself, his venerable mother, and his brother, Rev. Dr. W. L. Breckinridge, survive. His father was that John Breckinridge who was the leader of the democratic party in the Senate of the United States, at the close of the administration of the elder Adams, and afterward Attorney-General of the United States in Mr. Jefferson's administration. His mother was Mary Hopkins Cabell, daughter of Colonel Joseph Cabell, a colonel of the Virginia line of the Revolutionary army. He was raised in a family that had been Presbyterians since the Reformation; and joined that church, on profession of his faith, in Lexington, Kentucky, in the spring of the year 1829. The means, if any, especially blessed to this end, were the instructions of a pious schoolmaster, in his very early years; the example and influence of his first wife; the company and conversation of Christian friendsespecially his brother John; and severe afflictions. He was educated at the schools and academies of his native State, until at the age of sixteen years; then spent three years between Princeton, Yale, and Union Colleges, and graduated at the last in 1819. He was ordained, and settled as pastor of the First Presbyterian church in Baltimore, in 1832, and occupied that field for nearly thirteen years—leaving it to become President of Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, in 1845, where he remained for two years, being at the same time pastor of the church in the village of Canonsburg. In 1847 he left Pennsylvania, and became Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Kentucky, and, at the same time, pastor of the First Presbyterian church in Lexington, Kentucky. These situations he occupied for six years; and, in 1853, was elected, by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church in the United States, the first Professor of Exegetic, Didactic, and Polemic Theology, in the new Seminary then established in Danville, Kentucky. He has held this situation to the present time, with honor to himself and the Institution. Dr. Breckinridge was educated for the bar, and practiced law in Kentucky-from 1823 till 1830-about eight years; and during that period was four or five times a member of the Kentucky Legislature, from his native county of Fayette. He has written and published quite extensively. During the years 1835-1843, he edited the "Literary and Religious Magazine," and the "Spirit of the Nineteenth Century," at Baltimore. He published two volumes of "Travels in Europe, in 1838." He has published a number of speeches, letters, arguments, occasional sermons, and con

troversial tracts and essays, relating to all the great movements and controversies, religious, moral, philanthropic, literary, scientific, and even political, of the last thirtyfive years. His writings, if collected, would probably be as voluminous as those of almost any American writer; while his life has been one also of incessant activity. He is said to have never taken sufficient interest in what he wrote, even to preserve copies of his own publications; many of which are out of print, and are often inquired for. It is understood that the Carters, of New York, are about to bring out a large work on theology from his pen.

Few men have taken a livelier interest in general education. The commonschool system of Kentucky, now embracing all the children of that State, is chiefly the result of his labors, and the Theological Seminary at Danville, Kentucky, would hardly have existed but for him. In the direct work of the Christian ministry, God has, in a remarkable manner, not only blessed his labors in the particular churches he has been pastor of, but widely over several of the middle States, where he has gone preaching as a kind of evangelist. Probably few ministers have preached more frequently during twenty-five years. In the great disruption of the Presbyterian church, he was very efficient in extricating the controversy from all personal aspects, and basing it exclusively upon what were considered fundamental principles. He was elected Moderator of the Assembly, in May, 1841, after only eight and a half years' service in the ministry.

In the question of the black race which has so deeply agitated this country, Dr. Breckinridge has taken an active and decided course. He has been the firm opponent of extreme opinions on either side, and has striven for the amelioration of the condition of the colored people, both bond and free, both in America and Africa, both by public sentiment and by the civil power. At a particular crisis in Maryland, so great were his services to the free blacks, that more than a thousand of them united in publicly presenting him with a valuable piece of gold plate. In the various controversies with Roman Catholics, Universalists, and Semi-Pelagians, in which he has seen fit to engage, he has been a firm defender of the faith; and, what is remarkable, he has uniformly and positively refused, at all times, to enter into any controversy with an evangelical sect, under any provocation-always saying they were nis brethren in Christ. On no subject, perhaps, has he labored more earnestly than the great temperance reform from the origin of that effort in America more than thirty years since.

Dr. Breckinridge is a strong thinker, and a powerful writer. Few men wield a more vigorous pen. He always speaks and writes with a purpose; and having set before his mind a point to be gained, he presses toward that point with a force that tarries not and can not be repelled. His preaching is almost always extemporaneous, or unwritten, and he rivets the attention of both the learned and illiterate. His style is remarkably simple, nervous, and direct. No one is in doubt as to what is intended by the speaker, nor need any one fail of bearing away a deeplyformed impression.

The sermon kindly forwarded for this work, is the substance of a discourse preached by the appointment of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, in the United States of America, at their Annual Meeting in the city of Nashville, Tennessee, in May, 1856, and was first published under their order by their Board of Domestic Missions.