In cathedral services, one is used, when the reverend Dean ascends the pulpit, to observe a handsome quarto manuscript, enveloped in a cover of clerical jet, nicely squared, and paged to prevent mistake, which is safely pressed upon the cushion, and containing in characters so legible as to defy mistake the approaching lesson of instruction. On the occasion to which I now refer, these preparations were dispensed with. The good pastor began his discourse without the least hesitation; and being a man of pleasing address, and of distinct, though not very powerful voice, the attention of an overflowing audience was immediately arrested. After several introductory observations, of somewhat discursive tendency, he applied himself to the explication of the passage chosen for the occasion; and never in my life was I more surprised. The remarks made seemed as if directly levelled at myself, not recollecting that, as all have sinned alike, so all are to be saved through one Mediator. I had imagined that the workings 241of my mind were necessarily secret, and was sure the preacher knew nothing either of my life or creed. I therefore strove to elude the unexpected application of unwelcome truth; but the thing was impossible; there was no getting away from the searching pursuit of the speaker. He traced the half-awakened sinner through all the lanes and by-paths of subterfuge to which the pride of human nature is so prone, and having concentrated his energy, at once assaulted the conscience and convicted the heart. He then entered, with such minuteness, into my condition; gave such an account of the causes and cure of my uneasiness; hit upon my general train of thought and reasoning with nicety so miraculous; anticipated, and then overthrew my doubts with such force; guarded the moral law with penalties so terrific; and depicted the wide waste of human transgression with a pencil so true, that all my resources vanished. What was also wonderful, he entered into and conducted the discussion with such earnestness, as clearly proved the deep interest he took in the matter. No legal pleader, however magnificent the expected fee, ever took more pains to prove his point. The observations contained in the body of the discourse were acute, and to me original; from some of them, native corruption naturally recoiled; but before the mind had time to gather up itself, and put on the show of defence, he advanced some powerful scriptural quotation, so perfectly apposite and conclusive that all resistance was vain. Nor was I less delighted with the trouble he took to make himself understood; not that his enunciation was defective, or his style obscure or far-fetched, but, afraid lest the least portion of his meaning should be misapprehended, he placed himself, as it were, in different positions, from which he took varied and delightful views of several cardinal points of gospel truth; so that in the collected light, thus produced, it was next to impossible for