instance of this morbid estimate of himself occurred while preaching for his brother-in-law, in Broadway Tabernacle, New York. He was preaching in a delightful strain. The sentences were dropping from his lips, like beautiful pearls, when, reaching a convenient place for arresting the discourse, when it had been about two-thirds passed through with, he closed the book and sat down. No other course remained but to conclude the services in the usual manner. On being inquired of afterwards, why he did not complete the delivery of his sermon, he replied: "It is a little thing, it is not worth preaching." On another occasion, when proposing to visit us in Philadelphia, he exacted a promise in our correspondence, that he should not be urged to preach if he came. The promise was made, and he came and spent one or two Sundays, without preaching; and this I know was not to avoid labour, but simply from the apprehension that his sermons would not be worthy to be listened to by the audience. The other point, to which reference was made, was an indisposition to mental labour. This was connected with the morbid state just adverted to. It was not from indolence and the love of repose; but from sheer apprehension that his composition must be tame and worthless. This is the true reason why he furnished nothing for the press, save three or four sermons, during a ministry of a quarter of a century. Those compositions which received the last finish from his hand before going to the press, were elegant; and we cannot but proceed with some trembling, in sending forth others which he intended for no such destination. If they shall not be thought to indicate a genius and scholarship corresponding with his former reputation, they will doubtless afford a real satisfaction to those whose impressions of his qualities as a preacher and a man of mind are fixed.

Dr. Adams had peculiar idiosyncrasies of character.

He was naturally irascible in his temper, and yet was so much of a philosopher, and carried with him such a sense of the worth of personal dignity, that he seldom betrayed this weakness except to his most intimate friends. Yet those were the very persons who loved him best.

The closing scenes of his life were affecting in the extreme. His faith rose to a sublime triumph. All the tenderness of his soul was drawn out towards his family and his friends. While he felt himself to be "one of the meanest of God's servants," he confidently hoped in his Saviour's mercy. He had no misgivings at the last, in regard to the doctrines which he had preached. "I believe," said he, "I have always preached the truth, but I have not always done it with that unction and faithfulness that I should have done." At another time he said, "O, at such a time as this, we have a mountain of sins that we wish to cast somewhere, and where should it be if not on the Saviour? God has said 'Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as wool."

His death was not characterized by the triumphs that marked the last hours of Payson. His joys were solemn, and, at times, overcast with a tinge of melancholy, growing out of a deep sense of personal unworthiness. "My love," said he, “has been exceedingly cold. How can such a sinner, covered all over with pollution, be cleansed and fitted for that bright and glorious place, where they tune their shining harps, and the streets are paved with gold?" He faithfully admonished his children to give up the vain and foolish things of the world, and to seek their Saviour. The closing scene has been alluded to with sufficient particularity, in an extract from the productions of another pen. After Dr. Adams's decease, the session of his own church not only, but also that of the Park Church, the consistory of the Dutch Church, and the Baptist Church,

severally passed resolutions expressing a deep sense of their own and the public loss, and sympathizing with the bereaved family.

This sketch cannot be more appropriately closed than in the language of a little poem written by himself, and which was indited, probably, more than twenty years since. It is entitled in the manuscript

THE HAPPY TRANSIT.

Did e'er thine eye watch the dewy morn,
As it merged itself in the glowing day,
And threw its light o'er the silvery lawn,
And chased the mists of the night away?

Did e'er you mark, when the smiling sun

Looked forth from his dark retreat of the cloud,
And the storm was hushed and the dark mists gone,
And the day had laid off her gloomy shroud?

When the earth walked forth in her green attire,
And the dew-drops were pendent from every flower,

And the angel of song had waked up his lyre,

And the music of heaven inspired the glad hour?

So the saint, when he passes from earth to the skies,
Leaves a region of storms and a solitude drear;
The soft light of eternity breaks on his eyes,
And ravishing songs pour their tide on his ear.

- SERMON I.

CHRIST'S RENOWN.

"His name shall endure for ever; his name shall be continued as long as the sun and men shall be blessed in him. All nations shall call him blessed."-Ps. lxxii. 17.

THIS Psalm is a composition of transcendent beauty. It was written by David, near the close of his brilliant career as king of Israel. It refers, subordinately, to Solomon, his son, and is descriptive of the extent and glory of his kingdom. But its chief reference is to Christ, of whom Solomon was but an imperfect emblem; and it furnishes us with a most glowing description of the prosperity and magnificence of his empire. Some parts of it are entirely inapplicable to Solomon, and can have a perfect fulfilment only in the person and kingdom of Jesus Christ. The Jews themselves always considered it as having a reference to their Messiah.

That part of it which I have announced as containing a suitable subject for our present meditations, is a prediction of the extent and perpetuity of Christ's fame, with the blessings that should stand connected with it. "His name shall endure

for ever; his name shall be continued as long as the sun and men shall be blessed in him. All nations shall call him blessed."

Upon these topics it may be interesting and profitable for us for a few moments to dwell.

"His name shall endure for ever." By name, here, is not meant that personal appellation which was used to distinguish Christ from other individuals; but it is employed to signify his fame or renown. The word is often so used in the Scriptures.

It is, then, predicted in this passage, that Christ's renown should be great; that it should be as extensive as the habitable globe; that it should fill every land, and inspire every tongue: "All nations shall call him blessed." "Blessed," says David, in a subsequent verse, "be his glorious name for ever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory.'

Now, it is to be remembered, that this prediction was uttered more than a thousand years anterior to the birth of Christ, and when, notwithstanding the perpetual and costly sacrifices in which he was prefigured, there was a deep obscurity resting upon everything pertaining to the person and character of the Messiah. The Jew was taught to believe, that it was through the shedding of blood that remission of sins must be obtained, and he obscurely anticipated a Saviour who should make provision for the salvation of his people; but of the distinctive traits of character which Christ should possess, or of the peculiar nature of the work which he