The work is dedicated "To the Departed Ghost or Surviving Spirit of the late Reverend." The author defends himself from the charge of saint-worship in this dedication, on this plea: "You were never esteemed a saint while you lived, nor ever thirsted after that title." The author lays down and discusses thirteen maxims of moderatism, showing among other things that ecclesiastical persons suspected of heresy are always to be esteemed men of genius; that men are not to be vexed for indulging in what "a hopeful youth" lately styled in a sermon "good-humored vices;" a moderate man should never speak of the Confession of Faith but with a sneer; a minister must quote heathen writers instead of the Scriptures, and he must be very polite, and ever carry with him the air of a fine gentleman; the patron is to be pampered and the people despised; opponents are to be called knaves or fools. The creed of the genuine moderate is, "I believe in the beauty of Dame Nature and in Almighty Fate, her only parent and guardian; the universe is a huge machine wound up from everlasting by necessity, and I am a piece of clockwork, and my soul, if I have any, is an imperceptible bundle of corpuscles smaller than the finest Holland. sand," etc.

When Witherspoon launched this bolt into the moderate camp he was just about thirty years old, and from that time he was a recognized power in the land.

As a writer on theology, Witherspoon takes rank among the ablest and soundest. His Essay on Justification is excelled by no treatise on that subject in the language. His treatise on regeneration and the bulk of his sermons are worthy the study of any mind. Dr. Plumer writes, "All his theological writings are remarkable for perspicuity, soundness, earnestness, a just moderation and practicalness. It is risking nothing to say that they have had a powerful influence in moulding and establishing the views of large numbers of theologians in all countries where the English language is spoken. This remark is specially true of Ireland, Scotland and North America. It would be a great contribution to our popular theo

logical literature if this land could be well supplied with Witherspoon on Regeneration." His discourse on the theatre is a powerful exposition of that fountain of sin and shame.

The fame of Witherspoon had reached America, then many thousand leagues farther from Scotland than it is now, and on the death of President Finley, of the College of New Jersey, he was elected as his successor. On the evening of his arrival at Princeton the college edifice was brilliantly illuminated, and the whole town and country round united in demonstrations of delight. He was inaugurated on August 17, 1768, the subject of his inaugural address being "The Unity of Piety and Science;" and from that time during the whole period of his presidency he discharged the duties of pastor of the Princeton Church. He introduced into this country the method of teaching by lecture, and he himself delivered lectures upon eloquence, composition, taste, criticism, moral philosophy, chronology, history and divinity, and also taught the Hebrew language. Dr. Ashbel Green writes, "In the period of less than eight years between his arrival in America and his entrance into political life, the number of students in the college was considerably increased, the course of study was greatly improved, the funds of the institution, which had been nearly exhausted, were replenished and its influence widely extended. In a word, Nassau Hall had never before risen to an elevation of character such as it then possessed." Under his preaching and pastoral labors in the third and fourth years of his presidency a powerful work of divine grace was experienced among the students, bringing into the kingdom of Christ a considerable number who in after-life occupied high places in the church and in the state.

Like Mr. Lincoln, Witherspoon was ever aglow with a sunshiny humor. His "History of a Corporation of Servants, discovered a few years ago in the interior parts of South America," will not suffer by comparison with Gulliver's Travels. In conversation and discussion his repartee was ever ready and always to the point. On his way hither

across the sea an old sailor, whom he often reproved for profanity, began during a fearful storm to talk very piously, and said to the doctor, "Well, sir, if we should never see land I hope we are all going to the same place." Instant was the reply, "I hope we are not!" While Congress was hesitating over the Declaration, some one advised caution and said that the colonies were not yet ripe for the measure, to which Witherspoon replied, "They are rotten for the want of it." When Congress was about to vote an elegant sword to the officer that brought from General Gates the news of the surrender of Burgoyne-as that officer had lingered egregiously by the way-Witherspoon moved "that the present be a pair of golden spurs." Rising suddenly from his seat in a parlor he struck his head against the mantel-piece and said, "My head rings." "Does it?" said one of his intimates; "it must be empty." "Why, does not your head ring when it is struck?" "No." 'Why then it must be cracked."

He was a very companionable man, abounding in anecdote and a happy talent in giving it its proper application; hence young people delighted in his company.

He was very punctual in keeping appointments. A man who had made an appointment with him having failed to keep it, said," Well, doctor, I will positively meet you at such a day and hour."

"No, you won't," was the reply. "I must change my mind greatly if I ever make another appointment with you while I live."

Witherspoon will always be affectionately remembered by true Christians for his piety, by Presbyterians for his faithful and able championship of their doctrine and polity, and by all the citizens of this republic acquainted with the facts of the case for the invaluable services he rendered in those days that so sorely tried the patriotic heart. As early as 1774 his name came prominently before the American public as an able and fearless champion of the great cause. "In New Jersey," says Bancroft, "Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister and as high a son of liberty as any in America,

met the committee at New Brunswick in July, 1774, and with William Livingston, member of the Presbyterian congregation of Elizabeth, N. J., labored to instruct their delegates that the tea should not be paid for."

Again: "The new Provincial Congress of New Jersey, which came fresh from the people, with ample powers, and organized itself on the evening of the 11th of June, 1776, was opened with prayer by John Witherspoon, an eloquent Scottish minister of the same faith with John Knox, a man of great ability, learning and liberality, and ready to dash into pieces all false gods."

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Attention had been turned to him by a remarkable sermon which he preached on May 17, 1776, on the occasion of a fast appointed by the Provincial Congress of New Jersey. The subject of the sermon was The dominion of Providence over the passions of men," in which he said, "I willingly embrace the opportunity of declaring my opinion that the cause in which America is now in arms is the cause of justice, liberty and human nature."

"I exhort all who go not to the field to apply the with themselves utmost diligence to works of industry. Suffer me to recommend to you frugality in your families and every other article of expense. Temperance in meals, moderation and decency in dress, furniture and equipage, have, I think, generally been characteristics of a distinguished patriot."

This sermon was published and dedicated "To the Hon. John Hancock, Esq., President of the Congress of the United States of America." Soon after this the distinguished preacher found himself elected a delegate to the New Jersey Provincial Congress. His patriotic firmness is intimated in a letter, in which he says, "Were our condition ten times worse than it is, nothing short of the clear independence of this country would be accepted."

Witherspoon was the only clergyman in the Congress of the Declaration, and eloquently did he plead for the passage of that immortal, life-giving instrument.

"When the Declaration of Independence

was under debate "--we quote the words of the Rev. Dr. John M. Krebs, of New York -"doubts and forebodings were whispered through the hall. The house hesitated, wavered, and for awhile liberty and slavery appeared to hang in even scale. It was then that an aged patriarch arose―a venerable and stately form, his head white with the frost of years.

"Every eye went to him with the quickness of thought, and remained with the fixedness of the polar star. He cast on the assembly a look of inexpressible interest and unconquerable determination, while on his visage the hue of age was lost in the flush of burning patriotism that fired his cheek.

"There is,' said he, 'a tide in the affairs of men-a nick of time. We perceive it now before us. To hesitate is to consent to our own slavery. That noble instrument upon your table, which insures immortality to its author, should be subscribed this very morning by every pen in this house. He that will not respond to its accents and strain every nerve to carry into effect its provisions is unworthy the name of freeman.

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For my own part, of property I have some, of reputation more. That reputation That reputation is staked, that property is pledged, on the issue of this contest; and, although these gray hairs must soon descend into the sepulchre, I would infinitely rather that they descend thither by the hand of the executioner than desert at this crisis the sacred cause of my country.""

This eloquent outburst of patriotic fervor, there is every reason to believe, bore with telling effect upon the fate of the Declaration, which two days after was passed, settling at once the momentous question of a nation's independence.

Nor were his services confined to words. The firm and united adherence to Washington and his cause of the Scotch and ScotchIrish population was due in no small degree to their confidence in his piety, ability and wisdom.

He was a member of the "Secret Committee" and of the "Board of War." Indeed, there was hardly an important com

mittee appointed by Congress of which he was not a member.

In the superlatively-important financial questions that harassed and imperilled the infant republic, the adjustment of which "saved the country and exalted Morris to the rank and grandeur of a Washington," Witherspoon was, more than any other man, the trusted counsellor of the great financier.

The

As the Revolutionary War drew to a close, the momentous question forced itself upon thinking minds, What next? colonies entered into the struggle as separate and independent bodies. Shall they, at the close of the war, when victory has crowned their efforts in the field, revert to their former state of isolation?

In a debate upon this subject, the opinion was maintained that a permanent union among the colonies was impracticable.

But the organizing spirit of Presbyterianism was too strong in Dr. Witherspoon to allow such an opinion to go unchallenged and unrebuked. With all the force of his genius and with all the ardor of his eloquence did he combat the fallacy and urge the prompt formation of a compact confederate union.

"I look upon delay here as in the case of the repentance of a sinner-though it adds to the necessity, yet it augments the difficulty."

And he concluded an eloquent appeal for the measure with these words: "For all these reasons, sir, I humbly apprehend that every argument from honor, interest, safety and necessity conspire in pressing us to a confederacy; and if it be seriously attempted, I hope by the blessing of God upon our endeavors it will be happily accomplished."

And as the life of the colonial cause had been at stake in the war, so every element of subsequent national prosperity and safety was involved in the question of national organization. Recalling then the fact that Witherspoon was a Presbyterian, backed by the combined Presbyterianism of the country, and that he threw the whole weight of his and its influence in favor of compacting the several commonwealths into one body,

we may form some estimate of the share which Presbyterianism had in constructing and launching the majestic ship that now rides in grace and might over the waves, bearing in its bosom its sixty millions of

voyagers.

Patriot, orator, theologian, man of genius, he was above all a devout Christian. "Few men," writes Dr. Ashbel Green, "were more anxious to walk close with God, and by a solid, righteous and pious life adorn the doctrine of the gospel. Besides the daily devotions of the closet and the family, he regularly set apart, with his household, the last day of every year for fasting, humil

iation and prayer. He was also in the practice of spending days in secret exercises of this kind as occasion required."

On Friday, the 20th of October, 1876, a colossal statue of this Christian Presbyterian patriot was unveiled in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. The statue is of bronze, about twelve feet six inches in height, and for dignity and impressiveness it is exceeded by no statue in the park or elsewhere in this land. Presbyterian visitors to Philadelphia will find few objects in our park more worthy of their attention.

PHILADELPHIA, PA.

W. P. BREED.