Quarterly List of New Books and Pamphlets [pp. 463-470]

1841.] Quarterly List of New Books. 465
Sermonq k~ the Rev. Joseph J. F~~ot. D. D, late President elect of ~Vash ington Ctrll ge, East Tenr~essee: with a hnef Biogra~rhical Sketch, by
Rev. George Foot. Philadelphia: Hooker & Agnew, New York, Gould,
Newman & Saxton. 1841.
The author of these discouyses was a ripe scholar and theologian. Hi~
sudden and tragical death, just as he had reached the meridian of his years,
strength and usefulness, while he was on hi way to pass through the ceromony of being inducted into an office which, more than any other, would
have called his faculties and endowments into profital~le use, is one of those
mysteries of Providence, by which God shows the church that his ways are
not as our ways. Amidst the general dcarth of profound theolrrgieal erudition,
and thorough mastery of the vital points of Christian doctrine, the loss of
such a m~n as Dr. Font, in the fulness of his pu~~ ers, is a calamity to the
church. lIe had f~ithfblly studied the Scriptures; he was wel read in the
master treatises of the Refbrr.~ed and Puritan divincs; he gave pleasing evi.
dence of ireing illuminated iry the Holy t host, who guides into all truth;
withal he was valiant for the truth, and under all circumstances, however
urgent the temptation to a contrary couise, he was an unwavenug and uncompromising defender of the faith once dvlivered to the saints, against all
the errors by which it is either dtrcctly anrl boldly, or indirectly and covertly
impugned. But if the loss of such a man is to be devoutly depl~rred, it is a
solace that being dead he yet speaketh. ~e rejoice therefore that this collection of his sermons has been pulrl~shed, not only because th~'y farm a
durable and honourable monument ofthe author's worth, but becau~e we think
them fitted to instruct arid edify the church-and thus the void occasioned
by his untimely death may he measurably filled.
These sermons are wmarkable for the amount of sound and edifying instruction which they contain in regatd to the more vital pointS of religion~
~Vhoever gi~es these discourses a careful perusal, will find that he has n~t
been wasting his Ume and attention upon frigid moral essays, vapid sentimentalities, empty declamations, metapl~ysical refinin 5, s~eculative dreams,
or mere vagu(. exhortations to duty, without any clear atid full enunciation
of those lifegiving truths, which alone can nourish or stimulate Christian
pracrice. He will find that he rises from the perusal not nierely with some
twilight sbadowy impressions, which confuse and perplex l~is n~ind instead
of clarifying and guiding it in the great concern of salvation-tbat he has
not been feeding on husks which heathen moralists, philosophers and other-,
who know not whether there be any Holy Ghost, would furnish him as
abundantly as writers professedly Clrristian-that he has not been dealitrg
with treatises on Christian truth only to be thrown into uncertainty and confusion in his views of them, by reason of that loose, indefinite and distrustful
manner, wherewith some Christian divines ha~dle them as those that beat
the air, as if they feared the clear announcement of what God has re'ealed
would injure rather than benefit the souls of men. lie will find in this v~