vior. In this metaphorical description of what passed in his mind, all the inward emotions or outward circumstances, which might invite him to turn aside from the great objects of his mission, are personified under the figure of the Devil, or the Tempter.

But he stood firm against all the enticements of self love. He would not worship at the shrine of unholy ambition. He would not swerve from his high duties, for the sake of promoting his own comfort or advancement. The application is plain and easy. The Savior's example is a support and encouragement to his disciples of every age. He, 'who was tempted in all points as we are,' invites us to press onward in the bright path which he trod before us, with his own self denial, moral energy and spotless holiness. Let no temptation divert us from strict and sacred duty; let no sin present charms too strong for our virtue; let no earthly joy detain us a moment from following the blessed Jesus in his Heavenward way. C. S.

MEMOIRS OF REV EDWARD PAYSON D. D.
Portland, 1830

The subject of this memoir has been extensively known in this part of our country as a preacher, and within the circle of his own religious connexion his name is in great repute. By those, therefore, of his religious friends, who can sympathize in his peculiar views and feelings, this Memoir will undonbtedly be

welcomed with much pleasure. They will probably esteem it as a faithful and just record of the various experience, the joys and sorrows, the anguish and the peace, the struggles and the conquests of a true servant of God. By those of us, who cannot thus sympathize; who are compelled by what we have deliberately adopted as truth, and by what all may observe of the common principles of our nature, to see here, not only the effects of religion, but of what is often mistaken for it, the workings of a physical temperament, and of a most excitable frame, this little volume will still be read with the interest, which the history, and especially the religious history, of all fellow christians and fellow-creatures must inspire. We deem it profitable and wise to mark the various affections and course of conduct, which religion in its diversified forms exhibits in the human character; to trace the influence of local circumstances, of early associations, of insensible prejudices and especially of a predominant passion on the whole life; and at the same time, to perceive, as we may distinctly do, how all that is truly valuable, all that is vital in religion, or constituting religion itself, may spring up and flourish, notwithstanding this diversity, and from principles, too, not of doubtful and and limited, but of general acknowledgement.

Neither our limits nor disposition will lead us into the details of this book. By a large portion of the religious community who would probably read either the Memoir itself, or any notices, that it might call forth, the character of Dr Payson is well known. He has been very generally regarded as an eminent and successful preacher; distinguished by an ardent eloquence,

by a bold and fertile fancy, by an exquisite sensibility to whatever concerned his ministerial usefulness, and by an unwearied devotion to his work. That he was deeply and habitually impressed also, by every thing, that was included in his view of religion; that he had a sincere 'love of souls,' and a most earnest desire, as he must have been conscious also of peculiar gifts, to persuade and save them; no one, we presume, who knew or often heard him, would deny. But that these excellencies and gifts, greatly to be esteemed, and when wisely directed and controlled, desirable for every Christian minister, were mingled with much extravagance, and serious mistakes, both of system and conduct, these Memoirs equally show.

We write with a sincere reluctance upon this subject; because we are aware, how much easier it is to magnify the errors of a good man, than to be certain, that the same, or far greater, are not our own; and especially in adverting to those, which seem fairly to be ascribed to the infelicity of temperament, to hereditary or constitutional infirmities, we would not be deficient in a tenderness, which misfortune, and not sin, may always claim. But when extravagance of feeling, or conduct, proceeding from such sources, is mistaken for religion, and held up for admiration as an evidence of Christian virtue, while, in truth, it is a proper subject for our charity, as an infirmity or a fault, it is well, nay, it becomes a duty, to distinguish between them. How, for example, shall we otherwise explain such passages as this.

'O, the temptations, which have harrassed me for the last three months! I have met with nothing like them in books. I dare not

mention them to any mortal, lest they should trouble him, as they have troubled me; but should I become an apostate, and write against religion, it seems to me that I could bring forward objections, which would shake the faith of all the Christians in the world. What I marvel at is, that the arch deceiver has never been permitted to suggest them to some of his scribes, and have them published.'

And, again, it appears that his mind must have been in a most unsettled condition, and that he had great reason to distrust the whole system, he had adopted, when it could admit or tolerate, for a moment, such doubts as these. It is in a letter to one of his friends, that he writes.

'My difficulties increase every year. There is one trial, which you cannot know experimentally. It is that of being obliged to preach to others, when one doubts of every thing, and can scarcely believe that there is a God. All the atheistical, deistical, and heretical objections, which I meet with in books, are childish babbling, compared with those, which Satan suggests, and which he urges upon the mind with a force almost irresistible. Yet I am often obliged to write sermons, and to preach, when these objections beat upon me like a whirlwind; and almost distract me.'—Memoir, p. 384.

In reading this extraordinary passage, we are at a loss, whether to sympathize with the writer in the mournful disorder of his intellect; or to lament, that he should have received and inculcated such a system of doctrines, so fatal to all filial confidence in God, to all peace of religion; and the natural operation of which upon minds sensitive and distrustful, as was his, has driven men to the despair of infidelity, and even to suicide itself. We look with an unfeigned compassion upon a state like this. We hardly know of a condition of suffering humanity, more suited to awaken our commiseration. But by all our regard to the peace and welfare of men, would we expose the delusions of the religious system, by which it is produced.

There is much like this in the history of the subject of these Memoirs, that we should deem altogether inexplicable, or rather highly censurable, did we not believe that it might be ascribed to a diseased imagination, to a temperament allied to insanity. He was himself by no means unconscious of his exposure to such a calamity. His fears concerning it are frequently expressed in his journals and correspondence, much of which, except that they explain parts of his character, had been better suppressed. When, therefore, he describes the agonies,-unutterable, inconceivable agonies' of his soul; when we find in his journal-'I suffered more of hell to-day, than I ever did in my life. I wanted but little of being distracted;' when, writing to his mother, he says I have no where to look for comfort either in heaven or earth;' My prayer seems to be shut up, though in reality I know it is not; my health begins to decline, and all hell broke loose within me :-When, again, he describes his heart as a compound of every thing bad,' and compares it to the bottomless pit, out of which a thick noisome smoke arises with a tribe of hellish locusts,' we see, supposing him sincere, the workings only of a disordered frame; and can only regret, that if such things were suffered, they should ever be proclaimed. Confessions of this sort are not the natural expressions of humility, and they are sometimes imitated by others, when any thing but humility is felt.

This natural tendency in Mr Payson's mind was unquestionably aggravated, as his biographer laments, by an imprudent abstemiousness in the earlier periods of his ministry, and by his habitual seclusion. Though at