Short Notices [pp. 567-576]

Short Notices.
any charm of voice and manner, than to the intrinsic excellence of his discourses. His sermons are of very different
kinds, but all have certain characteristics which belong to all
the productions of his pen. We find everywhere the same
exquisite felicity of expression; the same freedom from redundancy; the same perspicuity and order; the same refined
taste; the same weight of thought, soundness of doctrine, and
devotional spirit. With these general characteristics, which
never failed to delight his hearers, those accustomed to attend
upon his preaching are aware that no two consecutive discourses were often constructed on the same plan. Sometimes
he obviously had for his object, even when he selected a single
verse for a text, to bring out all the richness of the context,
and to show the intimate relation of the several parts of the
discourse of which his text was only a fragment. At other
times he would take a single idea and exhibit it in its manifold
bearings. In some sermons the impression is produced mainly
through the imagination, by a succession of imagery and
graphic description, filling the mind with the radiance of
truth. In others, the largest views are presented of the whole
scheme of divine dispensations as unfolded in the Scripture,
bringing everything to converge on a single point. Examples
of these several modes of sermonizing may be found in these
volumes. He rarely, if ever, preached a doctrinal sermon,
that is, he was not wont to take up a theological subject, such
as justification, regeneration, or the like, and give it a formal
discussion. His discourses were all biblical in their form, and
truth was always presented as he found it in the Bible. In
everything he showed the hand of a master; and we doubt not
that these sermons will go wherever the English language is
known, and be read as long as that language is understood.
Forty Years' Familiar Letters. By James W. Alexander, D.D. Consti tuting, with Notes, a Memoir of his Life. By the surviving correspond ent, John Hall, D. D. In two volumes. New York: Charles Scribner,
Grand Street. London: Sampson Low, Son & Co. 1860.
The reputation of few men could stand the publication of
their familiar letters, written almost weekly for forty years.
That the reputation of Dr. James W. Alexander passes through
this ordeal unscathed; that he appears from first to last, in the
most unreserved self-revelations, the same man, the same gentleman, Christian, and scholar we contemplate, in the more
formal and public exhibitions of himself, is the clearest proof
of his sterling worth. It is natural that those who have been
accustomed to contemplate him themselves, or who wish him
to be remembered by others, as the preacher and author,
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