George Washington Flo 
 
 Memorial Collection 
 
 Dlkl i MVI RSI IV I [BRART 
 
 ESTABLISHED BV THE 
 FAMILY Or 
 
 COLONEL \ LOWBEI 
 
/ *h*" 
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE OF THE 
 
 LIFE, CHARACTER, AND GENIUS 
 
 or THE LATE 
 
 REV. J. H. THOMWELL, D.D., LL.D. ; 
 
 Professor op Didactic akb Polemic Theoloot i* the Thxolooical Semtnabt at 
 Columbia. S. C 
 
 DELIVERED 
 
 By Rev. B. M. TALMER, D. D. 
 
 i,r M MA, fi i 
 
 MOTH] IAN 8TF.' ■•• PREBft. 
 
 1 -62. 
 
^ library 
 
 DISCOURSE.* 
 
 " We all of u- reverent e, and must ever reveren 
 men i " u<v. adda Mr. ( larlyle, in his terse, epigrammatic way, 
 "the history of what man ha> accomplished in this world 
 is at bottom the history of the great men who have worked 
 here;" "in every" epoch, the great event, parent o 
 others, i- it not the arrival of a thinker who teacbea other 
 nicn Jris way of thought, and spreads the shadow <>t hi- <>wn 
 Likeness Over sections of the history of the world? " Wh.lt 
 remains have we of the hoary past, §ave a few monumental 
 works, and a few names linked to th<^<- in eternal memory ? 
 All beside is buried in the fbrgetfulnees of history, from 
 which there is no resurrection. And when this busy time 
 <>t' <>ur- BhaU retreat before the coming age that crowds it 
 . thai n<»w Write, and plot, and work, will flit 
 among ti, l be known M the nun without v, 
 
 ild not have bean! The worl« •■ masters 
 
 nnn-i A- tnnii l l'b nndnlatin o 
 
 only here and there a mountain peak lift- 
 
 nnli'iir. wrapping t' • around it* 
 
 atinterva - a trne thinker lift hii 
 
 ahoae the mean Level upon whicb 
 
 * The M 1 
 
 i t. ThornwelL, rai de 
 
 na, oil t! 
 
 and in ll -r4 of 
 
 ' 
 
ration of society demands this gradation 
 in in teacher and taught, betvi 
 
 i the led; and do such democracy will ever 
 i. in which the many do H01 DOW with tin- in- 
 stinct of loyalty before the Imperial supremacy of tho%e 
 whom God haa given to be princes in intellect among them. 
 Christian Gathers and brethren, such a thinker has passed 
 from the midst of oft; and we ail together this day under 
 the shadow dt' a bitter bereavement, doing homage to one 
 of earth's best heroes — it is assembled Greece placing the 
 laurel wreath upon the brow of one who wrestled nobly in 
 the Olympic game iof life. A bright and beautiful vision 
 anished from us forever : a man gifted with the highest 
 genius, — Dot that fatal gifl of genius which, without guid- 
 . so often blasts its possessor, its baleful gleam blighting 
 every thing pure and true on earth, — but genius disciplined 
 by the severest culture, and harnessing itself t«~> the practical 
 duties of Life, until it wrought a work full of blessing and 
 
 comfort to mankind: a mind which ranged through the 
 broad fields of human knowledge, gathered up the t'ruits of 
 almost universal learning, and wove garlands of beauty 
 around d »ns the mosl thorny and abstruse; an intel- 
 
 lect Steeped in philosophy, which soared UpOD its eagle 
 
 wings into the highest regions of speculative thought. then 
 stooped with meek docility and worshipped in childlike 
 
 faith at the CIOH of Christ : a man who held eomiuuuion 
 with all of SVerj age that had eternal thoughts, and then 
 
 brought the treasures hoarded in the literature of the past, 
 and sanctified them to the uses of practical religion. Yet. 
 :i man Dot coldlj 'Meat, but who could stoop from h«ft\ oew- 
 
 templatiOD tO .-port and t >\ with theloving Ones around his 
 
 hcarin.-toii,- jjvith a heart warm with the instincts of firiend- 
 ahip, so bravi . terous and true, that admiration of his 
 
 genius was Lost in affection for the man, and the breatjb of 
 eu\ , ingle leaf of all the honors with 
 
The late Rev. Dr. Thornwcll. 5 
 
 which a grateful generation crowned him. Alas! that death 
 should have power to crush ou1 suoh a lit'*'! Our Ohrysos- 
 
 tom is no more! The "golden mouth" is sealed up in 
 silence for ever ! 
 
 "The ohord. tho harp'a full chord, is hushed; 
 Tin- voir.' h'lih dud 
 
 Whence music, lTki- sweel waters, gushed 
 But 3 
 
 " The glory of man is as the flower of grass ; " " our fathers, 
 where are they: and the prophets, do they live for 4 <■<>• 
 Tin- men who with their heroic deeds make history to-day, 
 become its theme and song to-morrow! 
 
 This rude outline, dashed upon the canvass, it is the privi- 
 lege of one who loved him well to fill up now with cautious 
 touches; and if the affection of the artist should impart a 
 warmth of coloring to the picture, the truthfulness of the 
 portraiture will yet, we trust, vindicate itself to those who 
 knew the original. 
 
 l>r. James II. Thornwcll was born of poor but honorable 
 parentage, December 9, 1812, in the District of Chesterfield) 
 South Carolina; hut as hi- parents removed, in the -ccond 
 month of his infancy, into Marlborough, he always hailed 
 from the latter I ►istrict, where he simp 1 being born, 
 
 and with which the associations of his boyhood were identi- 
 fied. By the early death of I r, a young family was 
 thrown, in straitened circumstances, upon the guidi 
 widowed mother, who pn i often the ease, i 
 to her high ibed by those who knew 
 
 woman \ landing, i 
 
 strength <>f will, firm . and a bound 
 
 hition for the advancement of her sons, in who 
 indications ol more than ordina 
 
 ire thus furnished with another ill Millar 
 
 Id, intellectual trait* 
 
 
. while i lie moral qualities I 
 
 more conspicuously from th<- paternal. It may well be 
 
 • ioned if hit ingle ii of a truly 
 
 • man who I • ! for his mother. It is still i 
 
 u rve, in this the fulfilment of His 
 
 promise) who has said : " Leave th* fatherless children, 1 will 
 preserve them alive, and let thy wiaows trust in me." Who 
 
 of been compelled to ootice the blessing of Gk)d apon 
 broken households, in which b feeble and desolate 
 woman baa lifted op her soul to God for strength to bear 
 the burdens of her own Bex, increased by these which should 
 have devolved apon her Btrioken fellow J amidst weakness 
 and pain, poverty and Borrow, toiling to su^porl her father- 
 
 ones, and reaping, in the lapse of yean, the pious 
 widow's reward, in Beeing her orphan children emerge 
 from obscurity and want to the highest distinctions in 
 
 y ': The full recompense of her toil and tears was 
 
 d out to this widowed mother; she lived to see her 
 
 prophetic hdpes realized, as her son. clothed with all the 
 
 honors of the academician, sat among the senators and 
 
 nobles of the land, the noblest patrician of them all, the 
 
 pride of his Dative State the joy and ornament of the 
 
 Church, and, with a Came spread over two continents, the 
 
 peerless man of his time. At length, in a satisfied old 
 
 she lay dowq to her long rest beneath his roof; and now the 
 
 lasting marble speaks the revefenoe he felt through I'm 
 
 her to whose firm guidance the waywardness of bis youth 
 
 much a debtor. 
 
 The education of young Thonawell was commenced in 
 
 log-cabin schools which have oof yel entirely 
 
 disappeared from the country. Bat the first teacher whose 
 
 uaiuc deserves to be linked with his in grateful remem- 
 
 brsjnjee was a Mr. \lt luivre, from North Carolina, who 
 
 taught in, his mother's neighborhood one of those mixed 
 schools, partly supported bj I chool policj of the 
 
The J cir h'rr. Dr. Thormn-ll. 7 
 
 State and partly by the fees of more affluent scholars. 
 Upon removing t0 a different portion of the District, Mr. 
 Mclntvrc determined upon taking with him a pupil in 
 whose rare promise he had become so deeply interested, 
 and effected an arrangement by which he was gratuitously 
 
 led in the family of Ijr. Pegues, While he imparted an 
 equally gratuitous instruct ion. A Bentiment of delicacy 
 wouy prompt the historian to pass over these more private 
 
 . if they did not form the links in the chain of oppor- 
 tunities furnished by ■ gracious Providence*, and without 
 which this 3'outh might have shared 1 1 1 « - Gate of those 
 less sons of genius deplored by Gray: 
 
 " Vt it the md of empire might hav< 
 
 Or waked to ecstacy the living lyre. 
 
 " But knowledge to their eyes her ample page, 
 
 with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll : 
 Chill penury N >"ir nohle I 
 
 And fro/.i- tlM i.< -iiial current of the soul." 
 
 Another hand was now stretched forth to pluck from ob- 
 scurity our " mute, inglorious Milton." A physician, Dr. 
 Graves, whom pr I attendance at the house of Mr. 
 
 dly into contact with the subject 
 of our story, was to impressed with 1 
 
 make liiin th< [uent, and of win.' 
 
 tic, A 
 Samuel W. Gillespie upon the youth* 
 ml prodi 
 with the ;idv. . the future 
 
 'Hiiirv. This byperl five of our di 
 
 w . y • f tliinkii. -how the 
 
 tnd im] 
 trom eariit it youth upon all with whom 1 
 ■ 
 
 ■ 
 at tli. 
 
8 I ■ < 
 
 joint stum. Pale and sickly in appear- 
 
 . and ol lely diminutive stature, his pen 
 
 med a bnrleaqne of the hopes entertained on 
 his behalf and provoked many a qniel jesl at the expense 
 of thoee who had ventured Buch lofty predictions of hie 
 future eminence. Bn1 these forgol the apothegm ofWatts, 
 mind is the measure of die man;" ami uever did a 
 frail body enshrine a spirit of nobler mould, a soul move 
 allied to die God who gave it. His removal, in L825, t<> 
 Cheraw, conseqienl upon these new relations, brought him 
 under the immediate superintendence of his patron. Mr. 
 Bobbins; with whom he lived, and who undertook his 
 private instruction, evincing from the beginning his appre- 
 ciation of hlS ward, by lifting him at once into the con- 
 fidence and intimacy "i an equal, lie was soon, hpwever, 
 transferred from the private preceptoreVp of Mr. Bobbins 
 to the more systematic discipline of the Oheraw Academy, 
 where he remained until prepared lor admission into col- 
 instructive to pause at every stage in such a 
 history and trace the Influences by which a capacious intel- 
 lect wa- trained tor unparalleled usefulness and honor. It 
 can ii"t he doubted that a familiar association of five years 
 with an improved and mature mind, stimulated a most 
 rapid and vigorous dcvelopenient of mind and character. 
 'aid aside at so early an aev the things kA a child, and 
 
 assumed so early the attitude and proportions of a man. 
 Posse.-HiiLf. according to his own testimony, the ambition 
 to become all that was possible — with a burning thirst for 
 knowledge which no acquisitions could quench, he had 
 
 daily before his Byes, lO his patron and friend, what seemed 
 
 to him the personification of knowledge; ami whose Culler 
 
 stores poured forth ID hourly converse the aliment upon 
 which a growing mind would delight to feed. Under the 
 promptings of such a nohlc amhition, with a lofty ideal 
 ever beckoning him forward, he laid in these early yeats 
 
The late Rev. Dr. Thornwetli 
 
 the foundation <>i' those habita of intense application which 
 never 1 1 . ■ - . • : • i • ■ < i him fcd if. ,' filr: and >, was 
 
 laid the ■!' that accurate scholarship which only 
 
 needed the eulargenvejil r years ami fuller oppor- 
 
 tunit' flde.r him the wonder he became in th 
 
 scholars like himself. Perhaps the most remarkabh 
 lure ot this f . the happy training Jby which he was 
 
 disciplined from the opening ot I :•. Not only did 
 
 :dv while cfther hoy- gambolled and Bported; not only 
 did he dig into the intricacies "\ obsolete I; through 
 
 the long watches of the night, wlulst other hoy- slept; hut 
 he always studied the right things, in the right time, and in 
 the right way. Whether by the instinct of his own g< 
 or. whether by the wise direction of his superiors, or whether 
 by the mysterious guidance of an unseen providence, which 
 men eall accident, or whether by all these combined, he 
 read the best books, and precisely at the time to s< 
 their determining inl'uenee upon himself. The light works 
 written for amiwment. and which at most but embellish 
 I enrich the fancy, had no chi i u to 
 
 his boyish mind. Liki the Hercules of ancient story, lie 
 rose from hi- I tapors; and so became the 
 
 tell all the truth would seem to many 
 rt Jiini in h. An inci 
 
 . not (Hi!;. falla. within the ehroi t this 
 
 lhistrati< 
 
 eh Mr. I. 
 with Mr. I. ry in hie hand-, he v 
 
 I upon I ;' undertaking 
 
 Piou< 
 
 ■ of his p 
 and i 
 
 th< II ima . Mind, also 
 
 - 
 
10 
 
 with avidity. as a dream which he once 
 
 had in sleep: that having passed t li r< -u url i death into the 
 world of spirits, he first found himself in a spacious chamber 
 • covered with strange hieroglyphs. I 
 
 wived themselves into a perfect map 
 of his own litr. with all its intersections and connexions, and 
 
 influence which had contributed to shape hia destiny. 
 
 rcely needs a revelation from another world to deter- 
 mine the effect of this incident in giving its final direction 
 to a mind which was, perhaps, the only mind on this con- 
 tinent which could be classed without peril with that of 
 Sir William Hamilton. It gave him a bias to philosophy 
 from which he never swerved, and was the pivot upon 
 
 which the whole intellectual history of the man afterwards 
 turned. 
 
 In December, 1829, he matriculated in the South < farolina 
 College, and from the hour <>f his entrance within its classic 
 
 walls, the superiority of his genius was universally acknowl- 
 edged. Coupling the fervor of an American Btudenl with 
 the assiduity of the German, he devoted fourteen hours a 
 day to severe study. It does not, therefore, -surprise us thai 
 
 he hole off. in ls:51, the highest honors from rivals, some of 
 whom have Bmce achieved eminence in civil and political 
 life. Either he intuitively penetrated the character of the 
 
 age in which he lived, and pierced the fallacy which sup- 
 poses that genius can win permanent BUCCesS without learn- 
 in-', as the material upon which, and the instrument by 
 
 which, it must work; or else he was led blindly on by an 
 avaricious love of knowledge, rendering the toil with which 
 
 it is gathered itself a delight; hut certain it is, lie turned 
 away with the severity of an anchorite from the blandish- 
 ments of society: and like an athlete of old, with contin- 
 uous and cruel rigor trained every muscle and every limb 
 for the Olympic sace and the Olympic prize before him in 
 During his college career, be omitted no opportunity 
 
The late Rev. Dr. Thormccll. 11 
 
 of discipline, neglected no part of the prescribed curricu- 
 lum, wasted no hour in dissipation qr indolence; hut with 
 elaborate care prepared himself for every public exercise. 
 In the literary society of which he was a member, the same 
 assiduity availed itself of «every privilege. Despising the 
 baldness of mere extemporaneous harangues, he armed 
 himself for the conflict of debate; and few were -they who 
 could withstand his vigor of argument, or parry hi> tren- 
 chant criticism, when he chose to indulge his power of sar- 
 casm and invective. This example, with its attendant and 
 grand results, stands op in scorching rebuke of the egotism 
 and folly which would exall the triumphs of genius by dia- 
 ling the discipline through which its es are di- 
 i. As iron sharpeneth iron, so the mind confess* 
 obligation to any influence by which it has insensibly 
 toned. I»r. Thornwell, in later years, gratefully acknowl- 
 i the benefit he derived in college from contact with 
 the classical taste and attainments of Dr. Ibnry. tie 
 fessor of Philosophy at the time; the enjoyment of whose 
 friendship he recognized as one of the felicities of his col- 
 lege COUMe, and by Whom he was both stimulated and di- 
 ■ I in the acquisition of < ilassk and philosophical lore. 
 This devotion to study does not, ho ar at this 
 ■i to h.T. ve or tl • 
 
 His religi' It 
 
 ■ ( • 1 o idolatry, indeed : but -till, as an idolater, be 
 inly at tb 1 the 
 
 :,.••• ot 1 nbition . 
 
 Ml til'' • B 
 
 biam but tl • n. « •iui ly but i 
 
 tion. .k 1-iH ' world." 
 
 select an instrun 'ring 
 
 ■ 
 trained for his fut 
 
 y in- 
 
12 °f 
 
 solution from which such a crystal must 
 shortly In- formed; refl< wards did, from 
 
 oven- :iii_ flory of the Etedei mer— the priBin through 
 
 whicl of divine truth were transmitted", and 
 
 to other minds. Tl e ; . ipse of thirty years 
 will often sink into the repose of death the passions which 
 
 society to its depths The opinions ami ac- 
 tions of one generation are calmly reyfewed by the ni \t. 
 and I pronounces hef impartial and irreversihle v. r- 
 
 dict It is .-imply a matter of history that, at the period of 
 which we are now treating, the eoilege was the seat «>t* in- 
 fidelity, it- President, Dr, Geo$wr, in the language of the 
 sje historian',** "had drunk deep :.t tin- fountain of in- 
 fidelity; he had sympathized with tin.- sneering Bftvai 
 Pari-, air; the fee] <•(" t ho mbst B£eptical philosophers 
 
 of Englaud;" "thestroni ing of his nature was the 
 
 feeling of opposition to the christian religion, which he be- 
 i to he a fraud and imposture." It w;is 1 1 < » t wonderful 
 that the Christian people of the State rose up to defend 
 
 "the altars whlCO he proposed to suhvert." and to protect 
 
 their- gainst the influence of a folse and soul-destroy- 
 
 ing philosophy, a species of Pyrrhonism, a refined ami 
 Bubtle dialectics which removed all the foundations .of be- 
 lief, ami Spread over the mind the dark and chilling cloud 
 of doubt and uncertainty.-" The issue was slowly mil stub- 
 bornly joined between the religious faith of the masses, on 
 the one hand, ami a cold, bloodless deism on the other; 
 which had throned itself upon the high places of intelligence 
 ami power, and was poisoning tin; wrv fountains of knowl- 
 edge in the State, h was Bcaroelv credible that Birch a con-* 
 
 ili< t Bhould fail to arrest the attention of our jialc ami patient 
 
 student : whose dialectic ability would etouse him. with 
 
 almost the love of romantic adventure, to seek truth in the 
 
 wild clash of opposing opinions. Wetiud hfrn*, accordingly, 
 
 ! ^ l.^: — -. 
 
 * Dr. LaU>rd>/.- History ul' the South Carolina Cc&lege, pp. 175-7. 
 
The late Rev. Dr. ThornwHL 1 B 
 
 bending the vigor of his intellect to to examination 6t flie 
 claim- of deism; and rising; after ;i carefnl perusal of its 
 ablest apologists, with nn int< ooavictioa of the ie- 
 
 v of a <li vinf revelatie-h. II.- next turned to the u 
 figation of Bociaianfem, towards* wim-h h*e i -I an 
 
 early bia-. and 'of wtibae truth lie ardently dfesfyed to be 
 
 eonvinoed. With *he j£irowled£e we li.iv oi hi- whole 
 chars .1 in la' --■. it would irrcaily in- 
 
 td trace tin- mental conflict phvoktgh which he um.-t, 
 new I . ;ui<l diil we not know tin- peewit, we i 
 
 tremble for' the decision which is to 1»«- reader! d. On the 
 "ii <■ hand, it v jteoj peculiarly uttfacGve to aJjiiii 
 
 speculative as hi<. i criticism strips Chris- 
 
 tianity of all that is supernatural, and drags ita -ni. ' 
 rajteteriea before the bar of hnman reason* It degrades 
 "the signs and wonde.rs" of the Bible int<j $e b 
 a fabuiou? ;• < -"nvi-rN them into myth and all. _ 
 
 i of philosophy, inasking itsteachjn^ undet 
 
 I rise of faie-v ; or constrtfes them int.. the jugglery of 
 
 nature, beneath wlm-h we are to detefej the working only 
 
 Of h.-r gecre't and invariahle laws. Shall our Student be 
 dazzled with the boldness of \ which 
 
 AV),' k ;" 
 
 which pn i subdue things divine und6r th< dot 
 
 to compass all truth, puff up the 
 soul with vanity; which u emindbyiti s 
 
 of unbridled liberty of thought! Or, on th< 
 
 shall hi- j the 
 
 v from it 
 which 
 
 faith : and w 
 
 ■ 
 
14 /.;'< . ( 'har I > i of 
 
 ceitful mirage upon the distant horizon? Still more, shall 
 not bis warm :in<l loving heart find itself chilled in the 
 frozen atmosph re of a system which offers nothing t<> the 
 embrace <>t the affections! Can such a nature as bis be 
 content to dwell in the beautiful Bnow houses of this polar 
 Latitude, shining, Indeed, with crystalline Bplendor, but 
 beneath a -pun Whi eli neither cheers nor warms? Th< 
 oision trembles not long apon the balance: he turns away 
 from Socinianism with tin- indignant sareasra of Mr. Ran- 
 dolph : " What a Christfess ( Shristianity is this !" He would 
 not have "tire plav of Hamlet with the part of Hamlet left 
 out." Inns tar, a purely intellectual examination liad con- 
 ducted him to an intellectual recognition of the Scriptures 
 as the revelation of ( fodf, and of ( Ihristianity as Uie scheme 
 it unfolds. CTpon the interpretation of this hook lie had 
 iVano'd no hypothesis, and had formed no system of doc- 
 trinal belie£ He was not, however^ to rest li«-iv. Stum* 
 bling, during an evening stroll, into the bookstore of the 
 town, his eye rested apon a small volume, entitled "Con- 
 :i of Faith." lie bad never before beard of its exist- 
 ence : be only saw thai it contained an articulate statement 
 and exposition o¥ Christian doctrine. He purchased and 
 read it through; and for the first time felt that be had met 
 with a system which held together with the strictest logical 
 connexion. He could not pronounce it true without a 
 careful comparison of the text with the scriptural proofs at 
 the foot of each page. But he was powerfully arrested by 
 the consistency and rigor of itslogie: granting its funda- 
 mental postulates, all the conclusions must follow by neces- 
 Bary-sequence. This book determined him as a Calvinist 
 and a Presbyterian; although he had never been i In-own into 
 any connexion with this branch of the church of Christ, 
 and had never been, except in one instance, within aby of 
 their sanctuaries of worship. The circumstance, however, 
 
 Of most interest in the whole Beries, i^ the fact that the 
 chapter which most impressed him in this " Confession" 
 
The late Rev. Dr. ThornwdL 15 
 
 was the chapter on Justification — tlmt doctrine which is 
 the key to the whole Gospel; as father styles it, u arttcvlu8 
 stantis dut cadentu I \\>wx rural hd with the his- 
 
 tory of Luther himself, and of the great IJerbrmers of the 
 sixteenth century ! who by this clue extricated themselves 
 from the Labyrinth of popery, and who built Protestant 
 Christianity apon it. as the keystone of the arch by which 
 llif whole superstructure was Buppqrted. Those who I 
 the fn nflict which raged in the Presbyterian church 
 
 at the very time our friend was introduced into its ministry, 
 and who remember the distinguished pari he waa called Bo 
 
 mi defence of the-very doctrines of the Reformation, 
 which arc onlv the doctrines of grace, can not foil to*r< 
 nize here the wonderful method by which he wi 
 
 sly trained for a similar work of reform. Xom 
 fail to see that those who :ire raised up to be the - ham- 
 
 - of truth in an age of defection and 
 who are destined to Bhape the theology of their age, must 
 drink tho truth from no secondary streams, hut fresh from 
 the oracles of God, and from those symbolical books in 
 which the faith of the universal Church is Sacredlt 
 
 shrined. But iftl arches led him within the temple 
 
 of Christian truth, it w;is only to wonder, and not to wor- 
 ship. He stood beneath it- majestic dome, and mu- 
 its cathedral . iie had wand< red through the 
 
 paused beneath the porch of the 
 The Gospel was oothing than a sublime 
 
 philosophy : and if il I the hoi 
 
 • control tie- aflectioi t It he 
 
 '! 
 
 it ww only as a teacher, 
 and mop- divine than Plal 
 How — d it 
 ■ 
 Upon hi- graduatii m, ii 
 of hii 
 
1'i /. . I 
 
 future gre&tnees. In whatever gaartef of th« s he 
 
 should eham-e to rise, iii n 1 in w luiivvcT - "i!-tc!1;itinn to >hine, 
 all f.\ in I.im ;i -tar of the fir-t magnit ink-. I 
 
 , wIjou, by ti • 
 tiohe, ho returned to the 1"' as di^tiiiim.- 
 
 amoqg it- teachers u.- he ha<j S>< , " 1 ''' '"'''" arnaiig its pi 
 Id ill.- -.]., ■ 1 1 i r i ir .it his twentieth year. , 
 
 V, the otliee of Ms patron. Mr. Kobbiu- : but did net 
 remain. Hi.- .- ] . i r i t of manly independence could not 
 
 brook Logger to be a pensioner ijcpou the bounty 
 
 had befriended him thu- far: he mu<t. also, stretch 
 
 tlic hand of help to those of his own blood who de-iivd 
 likewise to elimb the 8teep ;:.-eeiil of knowledge. |1. 
 cor«lin-!v devoted the two -■>- and 1^J8 to K 
 
 :d\-i in Sunir.-r\ die. and then at ("heraw. the -.■,■]„■ of 
 dermic toils. During the lir-t of these ; 
 tbe ■-' < d of religious trutli. whicli liad Imtii .-eeretiy swelling 
 in tin' snul. btir8t thron-li the parted vrn.-t. in t h<- tender 
 blade. Jn the -] 'rin •_ . lit; united, hy open profession 
 
 of his faith, with the Com-onl 1 're.-hyterian ctuircb, mar 
 Sumterville. Thus did the - p spirit of (b»d. who 
 
 chooses GCje ,iw!i avenue of approach^ come to him through 
 
 the eonvieliolis ot the illteileel ;(]l«l by the lo-'je o|' the llll- 
 
 ilei'.-landine;. But He who had previously BO illuminated 
 the luind. now (juiekeiied the affections and subdued the 
 will: and with k - every tllOUghl brought into captivity to 
 the obedience of Chri<t." our friend bowed, witli all Ins 
 powers united, before the .'lw--. Thwarting the in- 
 hi- own anibition and the fond hope- ><l' political prefer- 
 lnein cherished by his admirer.-, he forthwith re-olved upon 
 devoting him.-eif to the •■ ministry of i eeomdiatiom'* This 
 resolution wa- formed and kept under the pressure ^\' a 
 
 tremendous ( \ i.tion. Three years later, at the period qi 
 
 hie licensure, whether through a coriscientjdQfl apprehension 
 of the saeredness pf the « » H i « - < • . or whether through an 
 earthly ambition not wholly subdued, he cherished the 
 
Tlu laU /-,', r. hr. Thornwell. 17 
 
 secret hope of being rejected l>y tl bytery, upon 
 
 whom would devolve th< osibility pf releasing him 
 
 from the pressure of th Ji is a fearful 
 
 struggle when, one-' for all, a noble spirit brings its Longing 
 after feme and laya if down a perpetual sacrifice to con- 
 science and to Qod. For though the pulpit lias ita honors 
 and rewards, woe! woe! to the man w] I mder this 
 
 temptation — 
 
 urrlly. no) 
 
 The shadow,* rful curse falls upon him who "does 
 
 this work of the Lord deceitfully,*' win. can not with a 
 purged eye look beyond the meed of human appla 
 
 iiction of the great Master as his final crown. During 
 these two years of retired and .-<-li< >la-t ]<■ improvi 
 prosecuted with diligence tin- study of divinity: and in 
 1 to the CJnivere i iridge, where, tin 
 
 il months, he perfected his knowledge ol In 
 
 autumn of the same year, he was licensed as a ] 
 tioner by the Presbytery of Harmony, and soon alter com- 
 menced his ministerial labors in the Districl of Lano 
 In tip ordained by the Presbytery 
 
 of Bethel to th<- full I iristian ministry, 
 
 haw, 
 Six Mile Creek, and i wing De- 
 
 matrimonial alliance with a 
 lonel Ja 
 of which were only d 
 
 ■ 
 i 
 
 brilliai ! ' the 
 
 • tul iiiii - 
 
 by tl Indeed, in the 
 
18 !.'■' . I > 
 
 opinioD o . for popular effect those early discourses 
 
 were nev< ded by the riper prodnctiona of his later 
 
 Though his learning became more various, and his 
 
 discut ore profound, yet the first impr< >f his 
 
 ended. 1 'erhape, however, this is 
 due toe Beverer taste and a deeper christian experi< 
 which learned to disregard those mere graces of rhetoric 
 by which a popular assembly is so often dazzled. We shall 
 have occasion hereafter to describe him more fully as a 
 preacher; and will discover that his eloquence dug for itself 
 a deeper channel than in his earlier years, and poured itself 
 in a much broader flood, rather overwhelming by it< majesty 
 than simply charming by its grace. 
 
 We now follow him to a different sphere. The chair of 
 Logic and Criticism in the South Carolina College being 
 made vacant by the death of the lamented Nbtt, the remem- 
 brance of his brilliant scholastic career, and the splendid 
 fame lie had acquired through the northern portion o( the 
 Stale, brought him before the electors as the man for the 
 place. Be waa accordingly chosen to the vacant chair in 
 tnber, 1 s; m. which he soon occupied, the department 
 being shortly after enlarged by the addition of Metaphysics. 
 If- entered with characteristic seal upon the office of in* 
 
 attraction, in studies so peculiarly adapted tO his acute and 
 
 analytical mind. Metaphysical science he speedily vin- 
 dicated from the charge of inutility, showing the applica- 
 tion of its principles to the practical business of life, and 
 as Implicitly involved in the whole current <>f human inter- 
 course. His lucid exposition dispelled the haze of uncer- 
 tainty and doubt hanging around themes bo abstract and 
 difficult of research. The warmth of his enthusiasm quick- 
 ened into life and clothed with flesh the marrowlesa bones 
 of what was regarded only ai a dead philosophy. The re- 
 animated form, Instinct with the beauty which his -lowing 
 rancy diffused, invested with the drapery which his varied 
 learning supplied, and speaking in the magnificent dictiou 
 
77tc laic Ma: Dr. ST%or7jwe#. 10 
 
 which lii.s matchless eloquence inspired, no Longer repelled 
 the embrace of ardent scholars, as when she lay a ghastly 
 skeleton, covered with the dust of centuries of barren 9] 
 lation. During his loug connexion with the college she 
 sat enthroned among the sciences, and tar be the day when 
 she shall be deposed from this queenly ascendency ! But 
 nial as were these pursuits to the young professor, 
 ran to be disturbed with scruples which 
 robbed hie repose. We have ah- n with what un- 
 
 usual solemnity and depth of conviction he assumed the 
 office of the holy ministry. His ordination vow presses 
 hard upon him. lie had covenanted to make the procla- 
 mation oi grace to sinners the business of his life. 
 Did this comport with a life spent in teaching others only 
 the endless see-saw of the syllogism, or even the subline)- 
 ries of the human mind? The opportunities afforded 
 lor the occasional ministration of the Word, how frequent 
 so ever, did not seem to till up the measure of obligation 
 he had contracted by "the laying on of the hands of the 
 \i'Tv. lie must preach, with constancy and sys- 
 tem, as a man plying his vocation : "the word of the Lord 
 in his heart, a- a burning lire shut up in his bones, and 
 hew. with forbearing." Under this pressure of 
 cons' ' Eered his bion to the Board of 
 Trustees in May, 1889, with a view to accept the past 
 of the Presbyterian church in Columbia, South Carolina. 
 The transfer WW I at the close of the year, and on 
 January 1. L840, he was installed by the Presbytery of 
 Charleston in this new relation. U er, to 
 too invaluable to iipi 
 usage. An opportunity 
 ail. Thl as Bishop 
 ocese of Ge< dj.it without 
 
 him, 
 
 . with th- ature 
 
 and the Evidences of I scru- 
 
which h:t<l withdrawn him from the «h:iir of Phi 
 
 smbarrass hla acceptance of a imu position, 
 where he would be intrusted with tl 
 
 of a iii' * ~ t important • of th<- 
 
 1841, he entered upon hie in the college amidst 
 
 mentation and tears of hie ed charge, who during 
 
 bad drunk ; el at his lips aa never be 
 
 In thia renewed connexion he remained through I 
 with almost utibroken r ccept ilmt In the ii 
 
 ra ii-' was seriously threatened with a pulmonary 
 affection, L w\hich interrupted his labors, and necessitated a 
 visit of several months to Europe. During this time, he not 
 only reestablished his health, but came into acquaintance 
 with many of the leading minds in England and Scotland ; 
 which, leading to a call for hia published writings as fast 
 afterward appea ; ,- <'d him a reputation in 
 
 Europe as envialb ■ wide, as that he enj 
 
 in America; Upon his return, hia studies' were resumed 
 with redoubled • ndered all the more valuable to 
 
 himself from the y of daily imparting his knowl- 
 
 edge to others: for true u is, in the language of the noet, 
 
 ■ man is the lord of any thing, 
 Though in ami of him there be much consisting, 
 Till he communicate his parts t<> others — 
 N.ir doth in- of himself k 1 1 > > w tin-in for aught, 
 Till be behold them formed in the applause 
 Where they're extended ; which, lik<- an arch, reverberates 
 The voice again ; or, like teel, 
 
 Fronting the Biin, r< I renders bach 
 
 iii» figure mill hi- beat." 
 
 The chair which he now held combined in its embrace the 
 mysteries both of philosophy and revelation. Studies so 
 lofty, and yt't bo comprehensive, pursued through ten years 
 
 miller tin- stimulus and in the daily reflection Of his own 
 teaching, deepened incredibly the bed of hia mind, and laid 
 up in its chambers -tores of knowledge which made him 
 rich for eternity. The prestige of his gcuius and hia facility 
 
Tht l&l< Rev. Dr. Thornwell. 21 
 
 position rendered him the idol of his pupils : the tacl 
 he displayed in discipline, and the practical wisdom of all 
 as on the subjecl of education, won more and 
 more the admiration and confidence of the State; while the 
 sanctification of all his p6wera bo the glory of the !.'• 
 deemer and the salvation of souls, knit to liim the i 
 
 of the Chut d. The results of Ins long min- 
 
 chapel will be known only at the 
 judgment. Many received here their first saving impres- 
 sions of divine truth, which, in aft , and under other 
 ministrations, ripened in a sound conv< and not a 
 
 to his fidelity were more Lmmedial 
 into his crown. In that day of revelation, when all the 
 - of time shall be gathered into a Bingle view, he will 
 be greeted as h spiritual father by many sons whom h< 
 begotten in the Gospel. Nor, in framing ai 
 the la this period, should we overlook the influence 
 
 of his scientific and elaborate defences of the christian 
 (kith, uttered in the class-room; by which many w< 
 from the delusions of infidelity, and 
 
 i ative belief in the word of God. I. here 
 
 and adore the mya that providence which worketh 
 
 not after the human ition. W ho, that 
 
 ten y 
 
 infidelity, and sending ■ . 
 all the land, dreamed that th< 
 
 unpion for the truth, ould T.ik«- op 
 
 ff the pi iumphai 
 
 Who. • 
 
 at th' I drinkii 
 
 his counsels th< 
 
 own I Wno could tl 
 
 :m infidel ]>h 
 shoufd QUI 
 
by which its own life should be pierced: that itself 
 
 should tn • _ by \\ hich its own i . 
 
 .should be demolished, ami the BpeU of ita own fool en- 
 chantment be dissolved ! All. it La the young Saxon monk, 
 climbing Pilate's stair-case upon his knees, who now shakes 
 the g papal Rome! It is the young man bearing 
 
 of the first martyr and consenting to his 
 
 . who now fills the world with the faith he destroyed ! 
 In May. L851, he was released from the college, and, re- 
 moved to the city of Charleston, on the acceptance of a call 
 from the Glebe Street church. l>ut before these am 
 ments were consummated, In' was unexpectedly remanded 
 to his old relations. The resignation of the presidency of 
 bhe college by the" Son. William C. Preston turned the 
 
 if the whole Mate to the only man who was deemed 
 worthy to be his successor: ami now. the third time, the 
 State became a Buitor for his services; and a third time, by 
 the unanimous voice of her whole constituency, he was 
 horn i • into the academic halls with which his whole Life had 
 be< n bo Btrangely identified. It was no small tribute paid 
 to hi> merit, thai be. should be summoned to fill a Btation 
 which, from the foundation of the college, had been graced 
 by the mosl illustrious names. The unanimity of the sum- 
 mons was hut a mark of appreciation wh'nh his great genius 
 might justly claim as its due Fpr the office itself he had 
 a surpassing fitness. Sis long experience in the govern- 
 ment of young men ; the exquisite Lad he had bo frequently 
 displayed in times of emergency; the freshness off his sym- 
 pathies, which hound him to them by cords whose tender- 
 ness was only equal to their strength ; the complete ascen- 
 dency k<- had acquired over them, not less by the force of 
 
 his character than hy the brilliancy of his intellect; the 
 
 confidence in his integrity inspired by the transparent 
 
 honesty of his heart; the affectionate rr\< r< nrr in which 
 be was held by his colleagues in the faculty; and the cordial 
 support he mighl i '\;>uct to receive from a confiding public, 
 
The fate tim I>r. ThornwW. 
 
 who trusted him With an unbounded faith : all gave the 
 ige of a most successful administration. In January, 
 . he pat <m the mantle once worn by a Maxey, a Bum- 
 well, ami a Preston; by a redistribution of the chairs, re- 
 suming his position as Chaplain and as Profi isor of the 
 Evidences and of Moral Philosophy. We do not ear* to 
 interrupt the continuity ol his personal history with di 
 tations upon the of his character which 
 
 • ml relation! reveal to as. Reserving these to 
 another place, let us trace die thread of Ms life until it is 
 ■ b al ill*- grave. Prom the Lints already given, the 
 presidency of Dr. Thorawell would not probably be marked 
 by much that is external. The college would 1"' 
 rather to move forward upon its wheels thro daily 
 
 routine, without those jars and discords which, like revolo- 
 
 in the State, denote something oul of joint, thn 
 the unskilfulness of rulers. The same clear expositioi 
 divine truth, and the same passionate appeals to th< 
 
 heard, n- ben 1 >re, i very Sabbath, in the chapel : 
 the same powerful vindication of die Christian faith, and 
 the same luminous tracing of analogies betv nat- 
 
 ural and tli" moral government of Gted, v □ the 
 
 ore. But what large plans that fertile 
 brain was maturii aw up I f the 
 
 land to a higher summit level; what modifici rf the 
 
 curriculum of study to secure greater mental d . and 
 
 arge the cultui 
 -all this, which might have wrougl I at in the 
 
 history of the institution which he lov< d. 
 
 which plucked him from his seat, and ■ ■ 
 
 ion with the enl'. 
 
 Tn the tenith of bis fame, ii 
 with nd judg 
 
 ■ 
 which turned the • 
 
 red with aca< with t ; ■ 
 
_4 
 
 reward, a richer meed of praise, to be lavished upon this 
 
 on of learning? There remains bu1 one, and that 
 
 must conie from the Church of God. A- intimated by her 
 
 d, "tin- Kingdom oi I m< tb not with 
 
 and her rewards may Beem paltry to the eye 
 
 tee, when hang in oontraejl with the splendid prizes of 
 earthlj distinction. Yet the caU apon this man by th Re- 
 deemer's Church,. to turn from these academic titles and 
 train her sons fofr the ministry of reconciliation, was the 
 crowning glory of a life bright with applause i'rom its be- 
 ginning, Through eighteen years the Ohurch, holding in 
 her hands his pledge of allegiance, bad lent him to the State; 
 through eighteen years he had devoted himself to it- most 
 vital interest, with an assiduity of which only an earnest bou! 
 
 capable, Now, in the noon of bis life, in the ripem 
 bis intellect, and in the richness of Ids learning, the Church 
 saw lit to reclaim him to herself; Bhe would pass those rare 
 gifts under the baptism of a renewed consecration to her 
 service, It was thought by some ;l waste to fritter the 
 of sueh a mind in the mere police requisite for 
 
 vernment of undergraduates, <>r in the details pf an 
 
 tive office, however honorable, [t was feared by 
 others that his frail constitution would succumb beneath 
 
 oxiety and care continually exacting upon a frame 
 already taxed to its ui most endurance by the habits of a 
 Mud. nt. It was fell by all that if the Church of thi- •.•••u- 
 
 ■ I inii-t swell i he wisdom of the past by a contribution 
 of its own. this was the representative of her choice, whose 
 immortal writings should teach to children's children the 
 
 and faith of their fathers. Dr. Thorn well had evinced 
 singular aptitude in repelling the false philosophy of the 
 day in its oofvert assaults upon the word of Qod* Holding 
 in liis grasp I he entire history of philosophy, from the times, 
 
 of PiatO and AMstOtle to those of Ficfcte and ol Kant; 
 possessing a lo^ie that could detect and tear oH' the dis- 
 
The late Ber. Dr. Thmnwdk 25 
 
 guises of error ; and withal, imbufid with profound 
 erence for the dogmatic authority of Scripture: such a 
 man could, of all others, unmask the hypocritical ration- 
 alism which seek- by craft to unden r faith in an 
 objective revelation, and bon >ws the very dialect ofthe 
 
 el to ir.", . it vital trutl 
 
 a man. i nly tone the rising min- 
 
 istry ofth< Church, and fashion them in part upoi 
 
 id ; but would reproduce the fixed thei 
 of the past in its new relation 
 
 ntain which leane it d head against the skyj 
 
 \ ne for i diflereu through the 
 
 shifting atmosphere which surrounds it: so tl 
 the Bil.le. eternal aa the being ami governm< 
 affect"(l by the shifting hues of the philosophic medium 
 through which it is <^aw and interpreted. It was the high- 
 est mark of the Church's favor to Dr. Thornwell, that he 
 n for * task : and that he i 
 
 are for its accomplishment, the Church with 
 him from the garish eplendor ol the world within hei 
 tranquil shades, and hoped and prayi 
 
 tiil the work v Three things the 
 
 Chun at hi- b would I 
 
 yield him ward on high : • 
 
 oin his own poL xhibitin 
 
 ■ 
 unity 
 
 . and a b in whit 
 
 lation . of human oblig 
 
 'i n all tl, 
 
 abundantly ti 
 
 lined hut to dn 
 
 r the 
 
 Only a part o to be 
 
 •1 
 
1 i nius of 
 
 '..<■ dowa into the silence of his tomb, 
 
 from which coup ■ • our wall of sorrow. 
 
 [n Deo he pronounced his fourth and last 
 
 I, obedient to the call of the two Byn< 
 
 .a ;iii<l Georgia, turned bia back upon the halls 
 
 in which he had ao long taughl the sons of the State, and on* 
 
 ol of the prophets, hard by, to train the 
 of the Church for their mission of love to a dying world. 
 Dr. Thornwell, with all his various learning, eminently 
 illustrated the adage, "Beware of the man of one book." 
 In his own search after truth, whibt he read in a <rood de- 
 gree discursively, he studied a few trreat masters. Plato 
 and Aristotle among the ancients — Milton. Locke, and Be> 
 eon among the moderns, he read and re-read ; until he cot 
 only digested their contents, but was saturated with 
 spirit, and stood prepared to grapple independently with 
 th<- highest problems of human existence. The same policy 
 marked his course as a teacher. The text-hook by which 
 Bcipliued his college pupils into habits of Bevere thinks 
 niL r . was the celebrated Analogy of Bishop Butler, which, 
 nndiafigured by the pedantry of foot-notes, shows in the 
 text itself a perfect mastery of the entire literature of the 
 suhjeet. lint whatever text-book was chosen by Dr. Thorn- 
 well, it served only as a thread upon which to Btring the 
 pearls of knowledge he had himself collected. A college 
 student once remarked to the speaker: "Dr. Thornwell is 
 the only teacher for whose recitation l can never Bay 1 
 am fully prepared ; 1 Btudy Butler until I can repeal every 
 word, and fancy that I can answer every possible question, 
 and in three minutes [ stand before him a perfect fool, and 
 feel that I know nothing at all. lie has, sir, the happiest 
 knack of drawing 0U1 of Butler what was never there. ex« 
 cept as he put it in." The teacher knew — the pupil did 
 not — how deep those simple and BUggestive sentences of 
 the author actually drew : only an equal mind could take 
 the soundings of such a work. The selection of a text- 
 
The late Bev. Dr. Thorn mil. 27 
 
 t 
 book in theology Was typical of the mail ; it WM tin- Insti- 
 tutes of John Calvin. Wonderful association of nam< 
 drawn together by an electric i fflnity bo close that, with 
 the men transposed, the Calvin three centuries back might 
 have been the" Thornwell of to-day, and our Thornwell 
 nnL r lit equally have been the Calvin of 1 1 j * ■ Reformation. 
 The same profoundness of learning, evincing itself rather 
 in the results it achieves than in the idle display "i' tin' ap- 
 paratus with which it works: the same logical aenmen, 
 which reeolved the nK-st intricate problems and laid bt 
 the rinciples wrapped within their fold- me 
 
 intellect, which imbedded these in pr< gnant utter* 
 ances capable of endless exposition; the same candor in 
 the investigation of truth, and the same passionate 1 
 which mad.' them worshippers at her shrine ; the same B 
 cub/an industry, which sported with labor and found refresh* 
 
 nt in toils by Which others were' exhausted ; the same 
 practical judgment, whose counsels were almost akin to 
 prophecy, and seldom led astray those who asked advice; 
 the san. tility of genius, which mad'- the eccf 
 
 an able counsellor < - j the same simplicity of char* 
 acter, which pr< ness of childhood in the ma- 
 
 tur, • he -.'on. -on], which shrank 
 
 ther from reproach nor peril in tl b1 : tlip 
 
 sincerity, which never un< 
 rked by indirection: a] rau 
 
 the paralh 'ding tl. 
 
 oentnriei a]. art. I i m to b 
 
 blanoe is pi d in thii dental. 
 
 ■rly maturity of mind, which eoabll 
 
 at t "he 
 
 Kr.m h king, and which pli 
 
 in * >phy \ the fa 
 
 frail body, which scarcely contained the indwelling 
 
 lea with t«j own 
 
 activity, and threa down the wall* 
 
28 
 
 of it- finally, the coil in their 
 
 one in bia fifty-fifth, 
 the other in*] b year, i while 
 
 high dood with both; these are poiuta ofree 
 bich, tho ital, we cannol bul paose to 
 
 admii is it strange thai the theologian of the nine- 
 
 b century, sh a » back to the theologian of the six? 
 
 i find a master for his pupi i had dug 
 
 the truth for himself from the quarry of the Scriptures, and 
 the Bymbols of the Church, would naturally carry his 
 pupils up the stream of theological tradition to the very 
 spot where it broke out afresh from the earth. Like the 
 fabled river of Al'rh malic theology had for 
 
 buried it.- channel beneath the superstitions and era 
 popery: and, as from >the foot of a great mountain, it em< _ 
 anew at the period of the Reformation. Precisely here the 
 water.- would be found the purest, except as he might carry 
 his pupils ii'. L, to the original fountain, and causa 
 
 them to drink from the oracles oi God. But when it be- 
 came necessary to employ human aid in constructing an 
 articulate system of doctrine, be found do master equal to 
 greai theologian of the Reformation. John Calvin 
 stand.- in the same relation to Protestant theology as Francis 
 i to modern philosophy; each beinga constructor in 
 
 Own sphere, and each putting the stamp of his own 
 
 thought apon the science of after times. Nay, if it be nol 
 irreverenl thus to couple inspired with uninspired name-, 
 John Calvin stands in the college of the Reformers e 
 what as Paul in the college of the Apostles, the penman 
 and logician of his day. After the lapse of three centuries, 
 lie finds an expositor worthy of himself — he Plato alter Soc- 
 Bappj master, to find such a commentator ! Sap* 
 py expositor, to find Buch a master! Sappy pupils, to sit 
 under tin' combined light of two such kindred int 
 
 Drs Thornwell's method of instruction was the Socratic 
 xarnined his elass upon the text of the author, so 
 
The la/, H,r. Dr. PtornwelL 29 
 
 shaping hia ii J to evolve the truth from the 
 
 mind of the student itself, i. m by rote was an im- 
 
 possibility; the repetition of the text did not answer the 
 requisitions of the olass-room. [nterrogation was poured 
 upon the pupil's head like a shower of bail, until hi 
 driven back through all the rigorous 
 
 analysis ; then he must Iran;'' pre menta of the doe- 
 
 trine, while a critical . by to i at and pare until it 
 
 re the eye with the utmost sharpni 
 profile, I . the student was put upon hia 
 
 against every form o I to which the champion tor 
 
 the truth might he exposed. It the Li - un- 
 
 skilful, the pupil found himself in the toils of an . 
 who wound tightly about him tin' meshes in which h< 
 involved. No< till then came the hour of extrication. 
 at last there would follow lucid exposition, searching anal- 
 ysis, and Baling the web and probing 
 every difficulty to its core. Th< "'in was tin; 
 like the studio of the statuary, who chip- away upon the 
 senseless block until he "moulds every joint and member 
 into an immortal feature of loveliness ami pel 
 it was the gymnasium, where the living mind was taught 
 to unfold itself according to its own law of developem 
 and work tut into the con 
 which it> own texture, I 
 who commas new and grand thought : but 
 he is twice a I 
 
 ;". ('ii'; double weijj ide ] »r. Tl 
 
 well i Ilia pupils : no v. 
 
 a ohil . well 
 
 n mourning ' I taring I 
 this L" 
 
 will 1 
 kiudliDg of b 
 
30 and 6 
 
 B -' lea his la! a theological pi . lie dis- 
 
 charged on * more the dirties of a pastor in tbe Colombia 
 clmivli: over which he ws ind time installed, in con- 
 
 junction villi a younger brother, one of bis own pupils, 
 upon whom the sole pastorship was finally devolved. Dn 
 ring the past two yean, his constitution, naturally frail, 
 manifested symptoms of sure but gradual decay. B< 
 application to study such as his, protracted through so many 
 years, must tell upon the physical frame, to soon as its raw 
 cuperative energies begin to be impaired. His nervous 
 system commenced now giving way. and he experienced 
 that prostration of strength more distressing than i 
 acute Buffering. Coupled with this, the fears of pulmonary 
 disease, which had been excited in his earlier life, were now 
 renewed. Ju consequence of this two-fold m, he 
 
 made, in I860, a second trip across the Atlantic, and re- 
 turned improved, hut not, as before, renovated. Unques- 
 tionably, too, the intense excitement of the present war 
 wore Qpon his shattered and nervous body, beyond its power 
 either to su-tain or resist The love of country burned 
 always in his breast at a white beat. In former years none 
 gloried more than he in the spreading power of the old Re- 
 public, and his sanguine hope painted her future splendor 
 in colors absolutely gorgeous. The speaker well remem- 
 bers, three, years ago, the spontaneous burst of applause in 
 the General Assembly, so unusual in an er.-lesiastical coun- 
 cil, produced by one of his sudden outbreaks of patriotic 
 He was describing his emotions while surveying iu 
 the Tower of London the various trophies of British prow- 
 ess; and how he drew himself Up to his highest Mature, and 
 proudly said to his attendants, ** YoUT country bafl Waged 
 two l"ii'4 wars against mine, but I see here no trophies of 
 luocessful valor wrested from American hands." But those 
 were days when America had not learned to bow the supple 
 knee before a vulgar despotism of her own creation ; the 
 slime of the serpent's trail had not then been seen winding 
 
The late Rev. Dr. Thornwell. 31 
 
 around the steep ascent to the presidential chain From 
 the moment a Motional party obtained the supreme control, 
 his clear judgment saw at a glance the momentous issue that 
 must be joined. II - heart turned at once t<» his beloved 
 South, as all the country that was kit to him, in whose en- 
 tire independence rested the last hope of republican 
 dom. Jlis patriotism hurst forth into a consuming passion, 
 and his cultivated moral sense looked upon his country's 
 wrongs with a ment which was holy. From the pul- 
 
 pit and the platform he poured forth his fiery i e, in 
 
 words scarcely h ve than those hurled b 
 
 thenes against the Macedonian Philip. In eke 
 he unfolded, with a statesman's power, the mighty prin- 
 ciples of religious and political liberty which were impli- 
 cated in the struggle; and through the newspaper 
 prophetic words were borne upon the wind, like the l< 
 of the Sybil, through the whole Confederacy. These 
 writings will be gathered into the portfolio of the states- 
 man, as among the ablest documents of the time. They 
 reveal the order of statesmanship he would have attained, 
 if he had chosen to walk in the paths of political pn 
 ment; and those who may have regretted his turning aside 
 from these, may take in the thoughl t ; thus, 
 
 when life was flickering in its & fulfilled 
 
 man's task, and left behind him I 
 this moment South Carolina weeps at bi- 
 as she learned to shed around the bier 
 Calhoun. 
 
 As usual, Dr. Thornwell spent hi- last vacation ii 
 vain effort to recruit his health, 
 
 Wilson's springs, in North Carol,' 
 
 benefit from their wat ' ' 
 
 the tl pnia. 1 1 
 
 v. returned upon him with redou": 
 
32 of 
 
 after a short conflict with the powers of nature, overthrew 
 tini. and bore him to the tomb. Through this last 
 Bickness he was not permitted to- speak much. A] ■• Prom 
 irve, which shrunk Prom every tiling 
 approaching . the nature of his malady was Buch as 
 
 to becloud his mind. JI«- lay, for the most part, in stupor; 
 
 . aroused^ indeed, bo Hie recognition of those about 
 his bed, bat speedily sinking hack into lethargy. His 
 troubled and incoherent utterances revealed the habit oi 
 his lite: lifting his Anger, as if 'addressing an imaginary 
 
 . he would say. * - Well, you have Btated your position, 
 now prove it ; " ami then, as if musing upon the qualities 
 of the human mi ml. he would articulate: "The attribul 
 first, the moral, then tin- intellectual, and thirdly, the 
 pious or spiritual : '' reminding us of the good Neander, who, 
 in like manner, would lift himself from his dying couch 
 and say. M To-morr©w, young gentlemen^ we will resume 
 our exercitations upon tin- sixth chapter of John." It is our 
 loss that we can not treasure the last savin-'- of such a 
 master, for 
 
 "Tlio tongues of dying men 
 Enforce attention; like deep harmony ; 
 The setting sun. and musio at the close, 
 As the last taste of Bweets, i~ Bweetest last, 
 Wril in remembrance more than things long past." 
 
 Yet they are not needed; our brother's whole life was a 
 continued tyong: and memQry, with her faithful chord, like 
 
 an .Kolian harp, will prolong its music till we, too, .- 
 
 On th<' first day of August, 1802j h>' entered gentty into the 
 rest of <io.l. Six years ago, the last time hut one it was 
 the Bpeaker!s privilege to hear him from the- pulpit, in one 
 of those outbursts of strong emotion which we all remem- 
 ber, he cxclained: •• 1 am often very weary — weary with 
 work. . feeble body reels beneath its accumulated toils; 
 
 weary in struggling with my own distrustful and unbeliev- 
 ing heart; weary with tin' wickedness of men, and with 
 
The lettt Rev. Dr. ThormoiJ. 33 
 
 the effort to pal B bridle upon human passions, and I often 
 sigh to be at rest"! Brother! ihou hast entered into rest, 
 and we are the more weary for loss of thee! 
 
 The thread is broken which has conducted us from the 
 cradle to the grave: in what manner it haa been gathered 
 up by unseen hands, and woven into a broader and brighter 
 web beyond the skies, it is not for as yel to know. The 
 foregoing sketch presents only the connexions of his earthly 
 history, and the tacts which afford a key to the consummate 
 excellence he achieved. A complete memoir would 
 this discourse into the proportions of a hook, and it is 
 reserved, we trust, for some future day and for some abler 
 hand. It only now remains to consider the relation^ in 
 which he stood to society, and to analyze the powers which 
 in their combination produced the genius we have so long 
 admin d. 
 
 ry attribute of his mind, natural and acquired, G 
 him to be the educator of youth, in which relation he 
 stood so long prominently before the public eye. The 
 range of his learning was immense. Though he studied 
 severely certain great masters, his reading was discursive 
 and large: and su titration, that 
 
 med to take up knowledge by absorption. It was 
 playfully said ol the learned Murdock, the Amen 
 
 Mosheim, that he w 
 such intellectual stores ui 
 
 pages of a book at once. The secrel Lay in that ran 
 cipline by which the attention wai id knot* 
 
 was inn i rnwell | 
 
 this £ 
 
 such control that, wl i with an autl 
 
 was 1< -t all intrusive thouji I 
 
 Id of wl 
 him i 
 
•".4 . ( 'A' Q 
 
 though tin- whole poem was daguerreotyped apon the 
 bis memory j and, more wonderful still,, entire odes 
 of Borace, when it was certain the original had not been 
 opened for years. Without the aid of an index* or any 
 artificial digest, he couljJ refer to volume and page of any 
 author he had once perused. Bis memory could not only 
 
 ill.' logical contents of a book, but the pr 
 language of many extended passages which mosl impressed 
 him. Besides the studies which he had made his specially, 
 ccelled in other branches of universal knowledge. Be 
 was a ripe classical scholar: Latin he could write correctly 
 and with ease, and in Greek he was singularly proficient. 
 The works of A ristotle lay always upon his table, and he 
 revelled in the philosophy and poetry of Plato. The group 
 of scholars wljo would sometimes with him pour over tin- 
 pages of the Phiedo. knew not which most to admire, the 
 exquisite finish of his translation, or his philosophic com- 
 mentary on the text The Btudy of Hebrew he had never 
 carried to any remarkable extent, but his knowlege was 
 sufficienl for the purposes of a careful i French 
 
 and German he had mastered bo for as to put him in living 
 communion with the literature of both Language's, and only 
 required larger practice to render them the medium of con- 
 versational intercourse. To tbe study of mathematics he 
 had no original bias, and probably never pushed his knowl- 
 edge beyond the pointto which a liberal college curriculum 
 conducted him. lie certainly sympathized in the views 01 
 Sir "William Hamilton upon their precise value as a method 
 
 of intellectual discipline, and the place they should occupy 
 
 in a course of general education. In belles-lettres he was 
 far from being deficient He had read the beautiful clas- 
 sics of his own and other tongues, and was by no means 
 insensible to the charm6 of poetry and song. Bui his 
 severer order of mind led him through more thorny paths ; 
 and bis ardent search after absolute and unadorned truth 
 left him little leisure to cull tbe beauties which wow 
 
The lati Rev. Br. Thornwcll. 35 
 
 in the flower-beds of the Muses. But when it pleased him, 
 he could selecta beautiful bouquel from the garden of Bug- 
 lish literature, and his owu affluent diction was tinged with 
 ife inimitable sweetness and grace. Endeed, the exqaiaitoc 
 Mas of hia Literary taste was a seriou.- impediment with 
 him to authorship. Fastidious as to style, he conceived 
 disgust for his own writings as soon as he departed from 
 that region of argumentative and didactic philosophy where 
 he was bo completely at home; and upon this ground 
 
 ted the importunities of friends who were continually 
 urging him to write lie lived to overcome and to n 
 tins fastidiousness, but too late for the world to recover 
 what it has thus lost forever. In history, both ancient and 
 modern, of the Church and of the State, he wt ively 
 
 and accurately read ; and could enforce argument by many 
 an apposite appeal to the recorded experience of mankind: 
 and no one generalised more safely the practical conclu- 
 sions which should be drawn from its universal teachings. 
 In natural science he had never carried his researches 
 through the many departments in which it is now subdi- 
 vided. His information was not, therefore, minute : but 
 
 • neral knowledge was accurate and full, and he some- 
 adorned hia discourse with beautiful illustrations 
 drawn from the ai of the material world. He hat 
 
 been i of disparaging the natural as a pail 
 
 of liberal education, in which ws 
 
 misapprehension of his true positiom EL oertah j did not 
 estimate them highly as instrumi tal discipline, 
 
 and i d them a -mall place in tl 
 
 education which is intended to discipline and tram the 
 Blind. B would give them ample verge ii 
 
 btoader which I 
 
 adorn- it with various Icnowli .ply shir 
 
 ium to the unh 
 
 D their cultivation as the furnitu 
 
 the diet, of ti. 
 
36 G / 
 
 • 
 
 The aceoracy of his knowledge was even mora won- 
 derful than its extent We aaj deliberately*, and exactly 
 what the words imply, that we have never known a 
 man who made his knowledge ao peculiarly his own. 
 It was not learning codified in common-place books, 
 nor locked op in pigeon-holes nicety Labelled and tied op 
 op with red tape, to be drawn forth from duel and brown 
 paper when wanted, bal it was part and parcel of his own 
 mental substance. Whenever reproduced, it oame 
 from his own mint, stamped with the coinage of his own 
 jlit. It did not simply stmin through his memory, 
 like water through a sieve, but it entered into the boue, 
 and flesh, and blood of his own thinking. Hence, he was 
 never overborne by it, as too many arc. nor did it impair, 
 the individuality and freshness of his mind. When he 
 wrote and Bpoke, the Btream flowed forth with an even 
 fulness, under the pressure of ita own abundance. All 
 this entered into his merit as an instructor. The variety 
 and depth of his learning invested him with the highest 
 authority; while hie perfect command over it, enabled 
 him to present truth antler any form level to the students 
 apprehension, lie had the most remarkable facility of ex- 
 planation:; his thoughts ran in no stereotyped phrases, but 
 could be cast into a hundred moulds, suited to a hundred 
 different minds. The strongest sympathy, too, was; estab- 
 lished between the teacher and his pupils. He never 
 wrapped himself up in an artificial dignity, butwon all who 
 approached him by the genial kindness of Ins temper, and 
 by the childlike simplicity of his address. Even under the 
 
 ■■• inojnisitions of the das— room, the pupil felt that his 
 teacher was his friend, and would be his helper in the pain- 
 ful search for knowledge ; while in private, the great man 
 let himself down into the playfulness of a child, and chased 
 timidity away by the unceasing flow of humor and sportive 
 wit. Thoroughly digesting his own knowledge, he became, 
 as wc have seen, a perfect master of the JSoeratic method, of 
 
The lat, Rev. Br. Thornwell 
 
 instruction. BO difficult except in the hands of a master. 
 Teaching his pupils to search for ultimate principles, he 
 taught them ths happy art of generalization, which is, after 
 all, the true secret of large mental acquisitions; for these 
 ascertained principles not only afford the nucleus around 
 which the most diffuse reading may oollecl itself, bul give 
 the key by which the secret stores may be unlocked and 
 brought into use. lie could not, therefore, but excel u an 
 instructor in those branches which he particularly taught. 
 For similar reasons, he was equally fitted to represent 
 and conduct the general interests of education through the 
 
 at Large. Upon this entire subject hi- \ 
 strongly defined. He properly considered the discipline of 
 the mind to he the first ohject of education : to elicit its dor- 
 mant powers, ami to train these for vigorous self-action; 
 while the mere acquisition of knowledge he regarded as sec- 
 ondary in time and important, ii,. therefore disappi 
 the attempt made in our American colleges, to cover the 
 whole area of science, and to compass within a four j 
 course, peculiar and professional stud'.. -. I i - : rorite idea 
 • rict undergraduates to studies by which the mind 
 may i i ally developed, and to engraft upon tl 
 
 ribed and compulsory curriculum, 
 tree of the nniv< i tern, with its 
 
 varied ap; ller communication of know,. 
 
 He was a warm advocate for conn. 
 
 among I I to the idea that knowl- 
 
 r all, is diffused 1>\ 
 • . below; percolating thi 
 to the lowest bed th all his 
 
 I 
 the surest way to quicken and enligl 
 mass* roughly imbued witl 
 
 - 
 
 for f: 
 
38 and G 
 
 uoa between the two jurisdictions, he resl 
 through life the doctrine which places secular education 
 among the positive duties of the Church. In her organised 
 capacity, according to hisstricl construction of her charter, 
 inateswith the religions training of mankind — 
 anctuary, her class-room; the pulpit, her chair; and 
 J< us. her discipline, [tie not the historian's 
 province to arbitrate in such a controversy; 1 >u t only to 
 represent opinions firmly held by the Bubjecl of his story* 
 He found able critics ijpon either hand — those who upheld 
 in this matter the prerogative of the Church; and those 
 who as stoutly denied his postulate touching the duty of 
 the State It is hard to swim against the current of the 
 1 1 i s grand ideal of an institution which should unite 
 the advantages of the gymnasium with those of the univer- 
 sity, was never realised; and he has left the great problem 
 of education yei to he solved — how- to adjust the wide dif- 
 fusion of knowledge with that breadth ami depth Of learn- 
 
 . hich it was the object of his lite t.» secure. But, w ho- 
 ever may have differed from him on these points, none 
 ever questioned the sincerity of his convictions, I >ubted 
 the purity of his motives, or denied the impulse which the 
 cause of education received at his hands — an impulse chiefly 
 due to the personal influence which lias given tone to 60 
 many yet living, through whom it will he perpetuated to 
 generations yet to come. 
 
 \\r ahall be pardoned tor combining next the imiilos- 
 
 OPHBB and the THE0L0G1 \n : not only because of the natural 
 
 affinity between the two, hut because of their actual coin- 
 junction in the history and labors of l>r. Thornwell. In 
 them we have the ripest fruits of his genius, and upon 
 these two pillars the whole of his future fame must rest. 
 We have Been that his mind was early biased towards 
 philosophy — it would probably have been determined in 
 this direction by its inherent proclivity. The culture 
 through which it subsequently passed, places him without 
 
The laic Em />>-. Thornwetti 
 
 a peer in this department After the splendid euloginm 
 which he has pronounced upon Sir William Hamilton — 
 ••in depth and aooteness of mind i rival of Aristotle, in 
 immensity of learning a match for Leibnitz, in compre- 
 hensiveness of thoughl an equal to Bacon' 1 — it may t 
 a perilous ponmexioti to mention the name of the impas- 
 sioned paneygyrisl himself. I »nt truth demands the utter- 
 ance of the conviction that, after EamiltOn, no mind was 
 more thoroughly imbued with the spirit of philosophy than 
 his. It is unfortunate that, aside from the aroma which 
 breathes through all his writings, the evidence of his splen- 
 did acquisitions can be gathered only from monographs; 
 and those upon topics which rather implicate philosophy 
 than lie wholly within its domain, lie was unquestionably 
 
 r 01 its history, from its dawn amidst ti i 
 Greece, through the mid-day slumbers in which it ■; 
 witli tin' Schoolmen, to the frenzied and fantastic dreai 
 our modern transcendentalists. Passing through all the 
 schools into which her followers have been divided, and 
 acquainted with every Bhade of opinion by which the] 
 distinguished, the fan <>t his own criticism winnowed the 
 chaff from the wheat: and whatever contribution 
 school or Age may hav<- ma imrnon 
 
 d into the chambers of liis memory. 
 The traits which specially chara* teri illa- 
 
 tion- were, modest] ami earnestness in th< 
 
 ve truth. Hi- first • ftorl w ■■ k the 1.. 
 
 aeon; within whose limit- he thought with all the • 
 and self-reliance charao terisl 
 own . rhioh h< 
 
 himsell to Ee was thu d from thai pr< sump- 
 
 rationalism which so much 
 i 
 
 m tie' pi 
 
40 ' , ■ > of 
 
 d its tone to reel on theories, however splendid* 
 anleee he could discover a solid basis apon which to build 
 them, it was ii.it content simply with beating the air with 
 it.- wings, however high it might sour; nor did he ever mis- 
 take the fantastic Bcenery of the clouds for the mountain 
 landscape of which be was in search. Taking his departure 
 from the LI i ; ir 1 « ^ 1 1 and Scotch schools, that all our knowledge 
 begins in experience, he concurred with these in the doctrine 
 of fundamental beliefs as essential to experience, and by 
 which alone it is made available. He struck thus a middle 
 course between the doctrine which makes the mind only a 
 passive recipient of impressions, working op the materials 
 it gathers from without, and the antagonist view which 
 finds in the mind itself the data of all knowledge, "of which 
 universal and ail-comprehensive principles the reason is 
 held to be the complement." Ee was able thus to steer 
 safely between the Bcylla and Charibdis of philosophy ; be- 
 tween the Atheistic materialism of the French Encyclope- 
 dists 00 the one band, and the pantheistic audacity of the 
 Gtarman rationalists upon the other. Hi- oonsistenl and 
 intelligible doctrine held that, while knowledge begins in 
 experience, yet "experience must include conditions in the 
 subject which make it capable of intelligence." "There 
 must be," he says, "a constitution of mind adapted to that 
 specific activity by which it believes and judges." The 
 mind is, therefore, "subjected to laws of belief under which 
 it must necessarily act" — "certain primary truths involved 
 in its very structure." As "undeveloped in experience, 
 these do not exist in the form of propositions or general con- 
 ceptions, but of irresistible tndeneies to certain manners of 
 belief, when the proper occasions shall be afforded." But 
 "when developed in experience, and generalized into ab- 
 stract BtatementS, they are original and elementary cogni- 
 tions, the foundation and criterion of all knowledge.'' While, 
 however, "the laws of belief qualify the subject to know, 
 they can not give the things to be known. These are fur- 
 
Tfu M Rev. Dr. TkornweU. 41 
 
 nished in ex] . which thus not only affords the occa- 
 
 sions on which <>ur primiti nitiona are developed, but 
 
 also the - bonl which <>ur faculties are conversant." 
 
 Starting from these principles, it i same 
 
 reform is carried into mental phil< whieh long 
 
 Ins be< d ft( hi< ?ed in the natural or | The knowl- 
 
 substantive and real ; because it is :i knowl- 
 
 our appre- 
 ed by ol u. and of 
 
 being lized by induction. The mind, insl being 
 
 lations which transcend its limil with 
 
 confidence upon thos ive truths which i1 is 
 
 tinually to Verify. But it would be idle to map out, in this 
 connexion, the whole Bcheme ol philosophy wrought out by 
 Dr. Thornwell through the studies of a long lit". Tims 
 much has aid to indicate the position which he i 
 
 mly for the positive and the real in all his 
 ffis mind, from its modesty an 
 united.-, d safely. Feeling the ground beneath his 
 
 feet al . with fixed prin guidance, he 
 
 wrought within this broad field of observation and ii 
 tion, in the lai who has described him, with 
 
 ''an i mind that rvelloas, with a quick- 
 
 and rapidity of thought n< 
 d. and with a po* i if by the 
 
 touch of the 
 into its simph 
 
 T>r. Thornwell'i in philosophy w\ 
 
 him : ian : if ] 
 
 the hound- of not likely to trans- 
 
 cend them in the other. ited with tl 
 
 that G be known only i n pleased 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 ■ ■ 
 -•ian. 11 
 6 
 
i_' /,,/",. < ■, ■■■ ■ -, .-. and Q 
 
 ■■: and wherever he found a "thus Baitb the Lord," lie 
 
 1 to reason and began, to worship. 9e first sought, 
 
 by a most careful - rtain the meaning of 
 
 God's word; then »•• collate and classify, until he built up 
 
 itematicl _ , As the inductive philosopher ranges 
 
 through nature, collects his facts, and builds up his science ; 
 so the theologian ranges up and down the inspired record, 
 collects its doctrines as they are Btrewn in magnificenl pro- 
 fusion through the histories, narratives, poems, epistles, and 
 predictions of the Bible, and in the same spirit of caution 
 constructs his scheme of divinity. The system deduced by 
 our brother from this venerable and authoritative testimony, 
 was precisely that articulately set forth in the Westminster 
 Confession. It was, in hia view, the only complete system 
 of truth which a thorough and candid exposition could 
 extract from the Bib}e< By many, doubtless, be has been 
 regarded as extreme in some of his theological views; a pre- 
 judice founded, perhaps, upon the positive tone with which 
 his convictions, like those of all earnest men. were an- 
 nounced, and the fervid zeaJ with which they were cherished 
 and defended. Never was a prejudice more unfounded. 
 Ilis examination was too cautious, and his knowledge too 
 exact, to allow extravagance in any single, direction. His 
 theology was uncommonly symmetrica] in its proportions. 
 He knew the. limitations upon every single doctrine, and 
 the relations of all in a common system, by which they are 
 checked and qualified. There could be no overlapping; for 
 every part was go sharply cut and defined, and the articula- 
 tions were so close, that to a mind severely Logical the whole 
 must stand or fall together. We think it doubtful if a -in- 
 gle instance can be produced, in all his writings or in his 
 extemporaneous addresses, of that extravagance, even in 
 
 language, which so shocks a pious ear, and by which the 
 forcible-feeble amongsl us often attempt to make the truth 
 intense. Always earnest indeed, he was remarkably exact 
 and logical in his statements of doctrine ; cautious uot to go 
 
Th i«t' Re*. Dr. TkomwtU. 
 
 be}'ond the clear testimony of the written word, and careful 
 never to disturb the harmony subsisting between the truths 
 themselv< onstituent memb >ne entire system ; 
 
 and always relying upon the simple majesty of the truth to 
 carry its own convictions to a loyal understanding. EBfl 
 discussions were exhaustive and profound, bringing all the 
 light of philosophy to elucidate the principles of religion; 
 which, as to their substance, could only be derived by a di- 
 revelation from Jehovah him 
 W"e next turn to view Dr. Tnornwell in rafi pulpit, an 
 ambassador of God to sinful men. And her<- may b 
 • 1 of him whal \ 1 with so much emphac 
 
 Ebeneeer Erslrine, that "he who never heard him, i 
 heard the Gk)spel in its majesty." From all that has I 
 said of his logical proclivity and scholastic training, it may 
 be rightly inferred that his preaching was addressed pre- 
 dominantly to the understanding: we do not mean, of 
 course, to the exclusion of the heart, as we Bhall presently 
 see. But, looking upon man as a being of intelligence, and 
 upon the truth as the instrument of sanctification, ] 
 that truth to knock at th< ' the understanding until 
 
 she was admitted and entertained. Be had a sublime faith 
 in tin " and power of truth, and in God's ordained 
 
 method of n achii through the proclamation 
 
 of lli> wr.nl. Eschewing all to work upon ti 
 
 perficial i i to play upon natural sympatl 
 
 94 '1 himself in < I the whoh truth 
 
 tal principle 
 men. Bis analytic power wu richly display d in the pulpit 
 The deai 
 
 ment. Btri] : if all that w 
 
 titioue or . ..; : .i'. ral, be laid bar 
 principle upon which it turn< 
 
 ■ untrained I • 
 what wm to b< 
 
 bending 
 
44 /. / . ( G 8 of 
 
 to one conclusion; towards which the hearer was carried, 
 with his will L captive in chains of 
 
 could do where be broken. i had woo Lta 
 
 way t«> the i ion, and the mind 
 
 own into a Btate of complete submission, the 
 argument would be gathered up*in its i and pra 
 
 . and hurled upon the coj • impelling 
 
 either the confession of guilt upon the one hand, or the moat 
 complete stultification, of reason on the other. These ap- 
 - to the heart were often fearful in their solemnity.; and 
 all the more, as being based upon the conviction of the un- 
 derstanding, previously gained. They were not Bimple ex- 
 hortation : Inn a judicial finding in the court Of the hearer's 
 own conscience. The preacher stood then' as an atto 
 from heaven, to indict and prosecute the sinner; the plead- 
 ing has been heard, and the argument for his conviction is 
 concluded; and the -inner hears only the sentence of con- 
 science, from its throne of judgment, echoing through ail 
 the chambers of the soul, it was upon tins plan most of 
 the discoi this matchless preacher were formed. It 
 
 red little whether the exposition was of moral law or 
 3pel grace; there was the Bame statement and enforce- 
 ment of eternal and immutable principles, and the same 
 judicial finding of guilt and shame, whether the form of 
 offence was against the one or the other. We have de- 
 scribed J)r. Thornwell as being predominantly argumenta- 
 tive. He was not, however, polemic. Indeed, the cm-rent 
 of his argument was too rapid and vehement to pause and 
 deal with unpugners and their -mail objections. It was 
 the rushing down pf the .Nile, swollen with Its mountain 
 tributaries, and bursting through the sedge which impedes 
 He rightly judged that to build up truth in its 
 ive form was the better way to remove difficulties, 
 which in its light soon come to appear as mere imper- 
 tinenc 
 
The i-it, Rev. Dr. Thornwdt. 
 
 Nor were hia public efforts always thus exclusively i 
 mentative. Be i fc • lied in the exposition of Scripture . 
 had be nol chosen to I as, he might have 
 
 been the first of commei I analytical talent was 
 
 brought richly into play. It dealt little in dry, verbal crit- 
 : but, after a sum seized 
 
 the great principles which were inv< d marshalled 
 
 in their proper order— 
 which, with all hia dogmatism, w< 
 pie in Haldane ; and • 
 ful to the genei . a- pn 
 
 their logical connexion mind. His relat 
 
 moro 
 
 him into much pn ■ upon the common d 
 
 of life; characterized still by the 
 final principles which, either i mining the aatui 
 
 morality ific rules for the conducl 
 
 vealed the strong thinker and the practical mi 
 
 Bu' <ure most remarkable in this prince of pulpit 
 
 orator I he rare union a^ rigorous logic wi 
 
 emotion. He rea ^r but never coldly. 
 
 ■ truth only in what Bacon oalk "the dry 
 light deed, but without the 
 
 which a\ . ;i the 
 
 polar the poli 
 
 face a 
 
 tiou \\ bid it every Dr. 1 
 
 ml warmed with th< 
 
 . 'it-, and 
 
 own i : and th- 
 
 > him 1 
 
 j 
 tarce, he could not j 
 
46 /./' . 
 
 with the freezing :i philosopher. As the flood 
 
 of hie discour eive the ground-swell 
 
 from beneath, the heaving tide of passionate emotion which 
 
 rolled it on. Kindling with b I inspiration as he pro- 
 
 d, lii- manner lost iis Blight constraint ; all angularity 
 
 nd ungracefulnees of posture Buddenly disap- 
 
 spasmodic shaking of the head entirely ceased ; 
 
 his slender form dilated : his deep black eye lost its droop- 
 
 ■! : the soul came and looked forth, lighting it 
 
 up with a Btrange, unearthly brilliancy; his frail body rocked 
 
 and trembled as under a divine afflatus, as though the im- 
 
 t soul wouid rend its tabernacle and fly forth to < 
 and heaven upon the wings of his impassioned words; until 
 his fiery eloquence, rising with the greatness of his concep- 
 tions, would burst upon the hearer in some grand climax, 
 overwhelming in its majesty and resistless in its effect In 
 all thi9, a> may be conceived, there was no declamation, no 
 "histrionic mummery," no straining for effect, nothing 
 approaching to rant. All was natural, the simple product 
 oi thought and feeling wonAgrfully combined. We Baiw 
 the whirlwind as it rose and^nhered up the waters <u" the 
 we saw it in its headlong course, and in the bursting 
 of it- power. ITowever vehement his passion, it was justi- 
 fied by the massive thought which engendered it: and in 
 all the storm of his eloquence, the genius Of Logic could be 
 seen presiding over its elements, and guiding its course. 
 The bearer had just that sense of power, which power gives 
 when seen under a measure of restraint. The speaker's 
 fulness was not exhausted ; language only failed to convey 
 what \\as left behind. 
 
 But this picture would be inoomplete, if we tolled to 
 speak of the magnificent diction which formed the vesture 
 of his noble thoughts. "It is," says one, "the'piuma 
 
 the royal bird which bears him upward to the -im : " and 
 Dr. Thornwell WftS far from being insensible to the power 
 of language. In his early life, it was with him an aft'ec- 
 
The lai Rev. Dr. Thornweli. 
 
 donate study; and in later years, it wan hit habit before 
 any great public effort to tone hia Btyle by reading a few 
 
 pages from le master in composition — sometimes it was 
 
 a passage from Robert Sail, sometimes of Edward Gibbon, 
 sometimes of Edmund Burke, sometimes 
 Milton; but oftener y«t In- drank from thai old well of 
 eloquence, Demosthenes for the Crown. Hi- spoken style 
 was unquestionably, however, the ■_ result of his life's 
 
 study. IIi> habits of close thinking exacted a choice of 
 words. AW' think in language, however unconaciou 
 may be of the process. It i- the only embodiment of 
 thought, without which we can not represent it to ourselves. 
 re, is not so much cut and fitted to tip' thought 
 by an artificial and secondary labor, a.- it i- woven by the 
 thought in the course of its own developement. II- mce tin- 
 precision which uniformly characterized Dr. Thorn well's 
 He was, above other men, a close thinker: a thinker 
 who had daily to think his thoughts aloud in the b 
 
 ipils. The utmost exactness in langu required 
 
 by the studies of his department The Bubtle spirit of phi- 
 
 hy could only be held, as it was caught and i t 1 1 j • i i ~ 
 in the precise word which fitted it ; and so his whole « i 
 a training t'<>r himself as a master in - 
 which he pursued so diligently when 
 young, and which were never remitted ev< □ to tl • 
 his life, were a continued i on of Is i that, 
 
 in a thousand oases, you shall not find a ripe scholar who 
 is not equally a finished writer. In add,: 
 pious reading opened to him the whole vocabulary of his 
 nativ. 
 
 full man ; writing, an 
 man.'' I >i. Tl ornwell was all three, habitually, and thl 
 
 a long lit-', lb' read abundantly, and in all -. 
 
 formi Bui it w. 
 
 , oi precision with ruli d his 
 
Q 
 
 utterance - Btyle 
 
 md impeachment. I _rli t word 
 
 for the thought, and tb ilary of language 
 
 could not have furnished a substitute; while, in the ampli- 
 i\<\r: Lh ought, hia mind, like a kaleidoe 
 
 an infinite variety of terms, and the Bame com- 
 never palled by repetition. To this precision ami 
 copiousm added a richness of expression, a 
 
 court f style; which can only be explained by the 
 
 if his thought, which disdained to appear in the 
 38 of the clown. 
 To understand I >r. Thornwell'a power in the pulpit, these 
 al elements must be combined — his powerful logic, 
 hie passionate emotion, hi -of which it may 
 
 Lord Brougham's, that "he wielded the club 
 of Hi ! with i 5 neration will 
 
 r look upon his like again; a single century can not 
 aJFord to ; I. We Bhall listen to much lucid 
 
 exposition, much ful reasoning, much ten- 
 
 der and earnest appeal, much beautiful and varied ima. 
 But i in from one man Bhall our bouIb 
 
 irred by vigor of argument fused by a seraph'B glow, 
 and pouring itself forth in Btraina which linger around the 
 memory like the chant of angels. Since his death, we have 
 heard the regret expressed that his unwritten sermons had 
 not been preserved through the labors of a reporter. It is 
 well the attempt was never made Dr. Thornwell could 
 not have been reported. The Bpell of his eloquence would 
 have paralyzed the skill of the most accomplished Bti 
 
 vapher. But if not, what invented symbols could COI 
 
 thai kindling eye, those trembling and varied tones, the 
 expressive attitude, the foreshadowing and typical gesture, 
 the wnole quivering frame, which made up in him the com- 
 plement of the finished orator? It were as vain to sketch 
 the thunder's roar or the lightning's" Hash — to paint the 
 fleecy cloud or the white crest of the ocean wave. No! 
 
The late Rev. Dr. Thornwell. 49 
 
 the orator must live through tradition : and to make that 
 tradition these feeble words are uttered by me tonight. 
 
 We transfer Dr. Thorn well, and view him next in the 
 church courts, tlic ecclesiastical statesman. Were we not 
 addressing those perfectly conversant with the fact, we 
 should fear to presenl this man of the closet as the v, 
 of practical counsellors. Yt't the combination, though rare, 
 is not unexampled. Paul, the writer and logician among 
 the tpostles, was, above them all, the man of action* lie 
 had upon him the care of all the churches, and was not 
 inferior to the practical James in executive direction. 
 vin, the great writer and expositor of the Reformation, bore 
 upon his shoulders the weight of the Genevan state. So 
 solid was his judgment, that all portions of the Reformed 
 Church turned to him for advice; and the burden of his 
 correspondence alone would have overwhelmed any ordi- 
 nary man. So with him whose memory we cherish this 
 day. In every sphere in which he moved — whether as a 
 professor in the college faculty, or as a trustee in its hoard 
 of administration, or in the broader area of an ecclesiastical 
 council — he was remarked for his practical good sense, and 
 became a leader among equals. One secret of this i> found 
 in the fact that his principles of action were all settled. 
 They were not left t<> be gathered ap in the hurry i 
 emei _ mid the dust ai of debate; hut 
 
 antecedently determined, and n<> temptation could induce 
 him to swerve from their maintenance. No man was ever 
 less under the goida diency than he, 
 
 whetl, ' ■•<■ prival ^fse of 
 
 man with man, or ranged upon a big D matters 
 
 Of public | ohMhat so -hitting a 
 
 rule M that ol I X] 
 
 consistent El nelly 
 
 : prim iblio 
 
 . ity, ami I tides through ei 
 
 of doubt. In this is found ^on between 
 
 7 
 
50 /. '•" . ' . and a 
 
 a rip* urn and the stock-jobbing politician : the one 
 
 starts out with catholic and fandamental principles, which 
 - • n tire course : the other floats upon the cur- 
 rent of events, is borne off into every eddy, and reflects 
 little else but tin 1 changefulness of popular opinion. There 
 is. Indeed, with the former, continual danger of mistake in 
 the application of Lis banons to particular cases. But an 
 -i and dear mind, guarding itself against prejudice 
 and passion, will not often trip; hut will preserve, for the 
 most pari, «i manly and beautiful consistency through all 
 the shiftings of a public career. 
 
 Another element of J)r. Tfcornwell's influence in council 
 lay in the caution with which all his particular judgments 
 were formed — waiting for a full rendering of facts* and 
 suspending his opinion until the case had been considered 
 on every side. Even in the intimacy of private life, this 
 cautiousness marked his utterances. An ini se of 
 
 justice and ran- integrity of heart seemed to check a pre- 
 mature expression. Thus he was Beldom constrained to 
 retract his judgments. lie was preserved, on the one 
 hand, from the weakness of vacillation, and on the other, 
 from the criminal obstinacy of adhering to opinions which 
 ought to yield under the pressure of 'convincing reasons. 
 Public confidence was continually challenged by this pru- 
 dence of reserve, which had its springs alike in the dictates 
 of wisdom and of moral propriety. He found an advan- 
 tage, too, in the rapidity of his mental operations sweeping 
 him on to his conclusions, far in advance of others. His 
 woneprful power of analysis resolved complexities in which 
 others were entangled : and whilst they were searching for 
 the clue by whic^ to extricate themselves, he had already 
 seized the ultimate principle which unravelled all difficul- 
 ties and settled every donbti Nor should we omit, in this 
 enumeration of his praetica I Qualities, a certain po.-itiveness 
 of mind, which lifted him above the danger of indecision, 
 and, as if by a sort of internal necessity, compelled him to 
 
Tin late Rev. Dr. Thornwell. 51 
 
 frame a positive judgment upon every issue* It is the 
 infirmity of some minda to be always trembling upon the 
 balance, incapable of deciding whether to descend upon 
 this side or apon that of every question. These are the 
 unfortunate incapables who swell the list of non-liquets on 
 the record* of our Church oourta : or who, in their despera- 
 tion, leap blindly upon ;i vote, as ;< mat would leap from ;i 
 railway train, nol knowing whether he will land upon a 
 bed of aand or in a brake* of thorns. Oil the contrary, 
 every deliberative body reveals examples <>t men who, by 
 their greater positiveness of mind and character, lead those 
 far superior to them in ability and general attainments — 
 
 in whom strength oi will and decision of chai 
 stand in the stead of intellectual power. In a body of 
 counsellors, the ready always lead the unready. From the 
 imbecility here rebuked, Dr. Thornwell was perfectly free. 
 In every situation lie could not but think — if difficulties 
 embarrassed any question, he only thought with more 
 intensity — but he always thought to a conclusion. If he 
 was caution- not to -peak till his convictions were matured, 
 
 yet he always came to time, and BO always led. 
 
 the moral quality which d him unbounded in- 
 
 !■ was, 1 rty of hi* 
 
 heart. I !■ ■-. a- no inl bad no i plish, 
 
 rked by indirection. His h in his 
 
 y man could read it. WM< 
 the i 1 to be engrave^ upon hi- I 
 
 believed, tie ' I spoken ; '" and 
 
 None doubted tie utterani 
 
 trap to catch the feet of I ?ard him* 
 
 \ with hi 
 arry his poii 
 Winning confid< ooe thai by his manly and trutbl il b< 
 Qcy ol h id with lift .• 
 
 imbed under 
 def i 
 
52 I .'n\ Character, and Ge?rius of * 
 
 For nil the duties of a churchman* Dr. Thormvell was 
 perfectly equipped. Be had sifted the control hich, 
 
 through eighteen centuries, have been waged touching the 
 organization of the Church, and had deduced from the 
 writings of the apostles the principles which are funda- 
 mental to her existence through all coming time.* He had 
 studied with care the constitution of his own church, from 
 those great principles which underlie bar whole polity, to 
 the minutest rule of order for her internal management; 
 and no man ever surpassed him as an expounder of her 
 laws. He was also versed in those parliamentary rules by 
 which deliberative assemblies are usually governed; and 
 thus, upon every hand, was fitted to be a leader in our eccle- 
 siastical councils. Over the entire church he wielded the 
 influence, though not clothed with the jurisdiction, of an 
 acknowledged primate. The chnrch signalized her appre- 
 ciation of his abilities, not only by Conferring upon him the 
 highest honor in her gift, that of once presiding over her 
 highest court, but also by calling him to the most responsi- 
 ble and difficult duties in all her assemblies. Both before 
 and since the rupture of our national and ecclesiastical 
 bonds, the delicate task of revising her code of discipline 
 was twice placed mainly in his hands. Great as her loss 
 may be, when she mourns over the greatest of her theolo- 
 gians and preachers, it will be felt heaviest, in this day of 
 genera] reconstruction, now that her wisest statesman is 
 removed from her connc.ls. .Never was there an hour, ac- 
 cording to human view, when she could have spared him 
 les3; now, in the infam-.y of her new national existence, 
 when her public policy needs to be dialled, and the prin- 
 ciples clearly announced upon which her great enterprises 
 are to be conducted, he that had the ear and the heart of 
 the whole country is taken away, and the bereaved church 
 covers her head with a mantle, and sits a mourner beside 
 his grave. May it not be that he lie who is supremely 
 jealous of His own honor has, for a purpose, smitten our 
 
The late Rev. Dr. Thormcell 53 
 
 trust in a human arm, and challenges a sublime faith in His 
 own power and grace to lead as through all perils? [f this be 
 the lesson of His providence, may His spirit seal it with sanc- 
 tifying virtue ii] '<»n the heart of the nation and of the Church! 
 Our survey will be complete when he hate view* d Dr. 
 Thornwell. in the las! place, as \ Christian avd a man. Of 
 an exceedingly Bpare habit, his medium stature diminished 
 by a slight stoop; with i forehead well developed, bat not 
 ample: the features of his race small; with i carrifl 
 ili«' body rather marked by negligence than grace; bit 
 Bonal | s can not be described as commanding. Xel 
 
 he would be singled out from n convention of men even by 
 a careless observer. His hair rivalling the raven in its 
 blackness, and. above all, his redeeming eye, d< ep Bel and 
 black, and capable of the utmost intensity of ex 
 and a certain air of abstraction upon his countenance, deno* 
 ted a man who was to be separated from others, The retire- 
 ment of scholastic life, and the bound I had 
 within himself, withdrew him in a large measure from gen- 
 eral intercourse with society. While his official relations 
 sometimes forced him from seclusion, and his valuable 
 counsels were invoked by many, he did not ordinarily put 
 
 amunion with the buttling world 
 around him. Though by no ind while 
 
 arm sympal '< hold of life upon every std< 
 
 r 1<> be SOUght than to be bin 
 
 ever i might readily approach him: no man 
 
 I himself repelled either by I ndif- 
 
 ference of his manner. In general . for which lie 
 
 had i . he was rather thoughtful 
 
 sih-nt than communicative. But in ti • <<\ his < 
 
 friends, and in the I lily, he poi 
 
 tits of his soul. It •• 
 the man was • I. Bndowed with ra 
 
 mptied fa 
 Ltd tboHiOB of philosopi .'.!«ner 
 
54 I.'/ . • G 
 
 mysteries of religion, and uttered the experiences of his 
 own hearl ; or else, descending from these graver topics, he 
 -ported with the i childhood Itself in banter and jest, 
 
 abounding with repi sing the glow of Ins 
 
 humor, full of anecdote, and fond of badinage, his 
 tighter conversation sparkled with wit; carried Bometimea 
 
 . if one did not recognise it as the recreation 
 mind that ' thus to unbend itself, and found its re- 
 
 freshment only in the easier play of its own powers. His 
 affections were warm and enduring, often Leading him to 
 overestimate those in whom be eonlided. Lifted by his 
 own greatness above the tempjtation of jealousy, he rejoiced, 
 without the slightest infusion of envy, in the advancement 
 of others. Generous in all his instincts, there was no - 
 ti.r lie would not make for his friends. Indulgent to his 
 own household, he passed through its petty cares without 
 itting himself or them to be corroded by the anxieties 
 of earth : but, smoothing over disappointments, be made 
 life's path lees rugged to their feet Cherishing in bis own 
 
 heart the Utmost loyalty t(J truth, he was never soured when 
 
 thwarted in his projects; but waited with sublime conn* 
 dence for truth and right to vindicate their own majesty. 
 In this way, the dew of his youth was never exhaled; he 
 remained elastic and fresh to the last, no generous senti- 
 ment or instinct of his nature being withered by age; With 
 such attributes, he possessed the power of all truly great 
 men, of magnetizing those brought under his influence/) 
 and it musl have been a very strong or a very feeble na- 
 ture that did not yield to his attraction. His friends are 
 
 bound to him by cords of affection which even death will 
 prove unequal to break. 
 
 " He was one 
 Tli • truest rnanner'd; such a holy witch 
 That he enchants societies unto him : 
 Half all men's hearts were his." 
 
 As a Christian, it will suflice to say that the type of his 
 theology was the type of his experience. He was not the 
 
The late Rev. Dr. Thonwrll. 
 
 man to divorce the understanding from the heart, lie con- 
 curred rally with all the Reformers in their definition of 
 true faith, which, as Calvin Bays, La " no! formed by thi 
 dition of pioua affecti< 3ent, hut the 
 
 assent itself consists in pious affection." In his own lan- 
 guage, "the form of Christian knowledge is lov< 
 higher energy than bare speculation; it blends into indis- 
 soluble unity intelligence and emotion: knows by loving, 
 and loves by knowing." Those, therefore, entirely mis- 
 conceived him who supposed the form of his religiout 
 perience bo 1"' even predominantly intellectual ; a religion 
 
 rn principle alone, separated from th< usofthe 
 
 heart. On the contrary, in his own beautiful exposition, 
 "the mind sees not only the reality of truth, l»ut its beauty 
 and gJoiy ; it BO sees as to make it feel : the perceptions 
 analogous to those of the right and beautiful, in which 
 feeling exactly expresses the intellectual ener. His 
 
 inner life practically illustrated this happy union of the 
 mind and heart, and revealed the "faith which worketh by 
 love." T sriewi which the theologian held 
 
 upon the nature of sin. bowel t! ■ l inn in penitential 
 
 grief before tl ; the same cl< sition 
 
 given by die one of man's he iture, 
 
 upon the infinite power and riches of divine 
 
 : the same clear di 
 sufficiency of the atonement which made t i from 
 
 which the preacher's dia 
 to throw the arms of his affetl md the Baviour with 
 
 ight; th< riction of th< 
 
 a divine revelation which h 
 stand moel stoutly in i 
 his reason into the docilit 
 
 ture : tl htful su] 
 
 vhich in the class-] 
 
 beneath nt reason 
 
56 Life, Character, and Genius of 
 
 which owned the majesty and eternity of divine law, brought 
 the will into the subjectioa of constant obedience to its 
 commands : the same clear view of the resistless operatii 
 
 of the Iloly Spirit, invoked His aid in the whole work of 
 his own personal sanctification : and the same srnse he en- 
 tertained of the nature and functions of the Chnrch of God, 
 engaged him with his whole heart in her sublime efforts to 
 
 evangelize the world. In short, a most beautiful harmony 
 obtained between his secret exercises and his public utter- 
 ances. There was no conflict between his preaching and 
 his prayers. It was not one man in the class-room with his 
 pupils, and another man in the closet with his God ; but a 
 delightful consistency ran through his character, both as a 
 teacher and Christian. 
 
 We only state the great law of the Christian life, when 
 we speak of growth — first the tender blade, and then the 
 full corn in the ear. Dr. Thornwell ripened in holiness to 
 the very hour of his translation. His humility became 
 more profound, hifl faith more abiding, his love more glow- 
 ing, his will chastened into deeper submission. lie did not 
 escape the discipline of sorrow by which the Lord retines 
 His people. The cup of bereavement, with its bitterest in- 
 gredientsj was once and again put to his lips. A delightful 
 softness was diffused over his Christian character. The 
 sharper and sterner features were worn down into more 
 perfect symmetry and grace. He became more gentle in 
 his censures, more catholic in his love. His views of the 
 Divine holiness and of the Redeemer's glory, were always 
 grand; they now became more sublime and adoring. He 
 rose above the speculations of reason, and approached more 
 nearly the ecstacy and rapture of a seraph. Upon his dying 
 bed, the Holy Spirit placed His last seal upon his brow. 
 Lying apparently unconscious for hours, most delightful 
 smiles played over his countenance, like the flashings of a 
 summer evening's cloud. His last broken words, upon 
 which the departing soul was borne into the bosom of God, 
 were ejaculations of wonder and of praise. " Wonderful ! 
 
The late Rev. Dr. Thornwell. 57 
 
 beautiful ! nothing but space! expanse, expanse, expanse 
 and so he passed upward and stood before the Throne. 
 
 Christian fathers and brethren, it is idle to utter words of 
 grief over the irreparable loss we have sustained. 
 
 "Our size of sorrow, 
 Proportioned to its cause, must be as ^reat 
 As that which makes it." 
 
 There are no words in which it may be embalmed 
 brought forth into public view. Rather let us, in the depth 
 of our own sadness, bow in thanksgiving before that Infinite 
 Goodness which lent him to us so long. We may, too, 
 lawfully enter into his joy. With our hearts' love twining 
 around him, we follow him in hie sublime ascension, and 
 heaven is brought nearer than before. Think of his first 
 half-hour in heaven! standing within the gates of pearl, 
 and looking with open gaze upon the transporting glories 
 :he scene! Behold him in personal communion with 
 those worthies of the Church militant with whom on earth 
 he once held refreshing converse through their precious 
 writings ; sitting beside Owen, and Howe, and Charnock, 
 and Flavel, and Baxter, and Krskine; joining in immortal 
 di.-eourse with Luther, and Bcza, and Melancthon, and 
 Zwingle, and Calvin : holding fellowship, face to face, with 
 Peter, and with John, and with the beloved Paul, wh< 
 sacred w«>rd- had bo often inspired nil holiest eloqn< 
 earth; and passing up through the shining hierarchy, until 
 his fresh crown is cast before the Lamb, while tl - of 
 
 the grand T- mple ring with tl ind 
 
 thir thousand and thousands of thou 
 
 the triumphant anthem of redeeming gr. 
 
 now, with vision purified 
 At th" Ewential Truth, entirely h 
 From error, h<\ investigating 
 
 id at pleasure roves. >n wing 
 
 < >f h'hv.-, i BMMl ;incicnt *ag' i^ara 
 
 wonders of the wondrous wori 
 
 •8