MR. RICE'S LETTER.

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time past. The rage for novels is so great that I have long wished to see that species of writing converted to a better purpose. Miss Hannah More has very completely answered my wishes, and has, by the way, obtained that credit with the religious world which I think in all reason belonged to you. If you differ with me on this point, we will discuss it after we shall have talked over this new-fashioned school affair and other matters; which I hope to do in May next. At that time Mr. Speece and I hope to be with you, and then! I give you notice that Mr. Speece will come with his pockets loaded with money, in the full spirit of trade. I know that he intends to make some grand speculation, for he has within the year past sold nearly two hundred dollars' worth of books, with a view of taking the money to Philadelphia.

"I think the state of religion in this country worse by some degrees than when you left it. Presbyterian congregations are decreasing every year, and appear as if they would dwindle to nothing. The Baptists and Methodists are at a stand. A strange apathy has seized the people. The judgments with which our nation has been visited, and the more awful ones which impend, have produced no effect; or if any, a most disastrous one. Instead of being a blessing they are a curse. The people feel about nothing but money. As to religion, the very stillness of death reigns amongst us. can find no resemblance to this part of the country, but in Ezekiel's valley of dry bones. I am sure you do not forget your old friends. Remember them, then, at the throne of

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PREACHING IN THE CITY.

grace, and let me, particularly, have an interest in your

prayers.

"I am affectionately yours,

"JOHN H. RICE."

The years spent in Philadelphia were doubtless important both as to direct usefulness and the formation of character. Yet a change thus abrupt brought with it not a few privations and annoyances. His children were sickly, the salary was small, the modes of domestic management were novel and embarrassing, and he was often tempted to wish himself back among the wide plantations and open forests of Lower Virginia. "But these," says he, "were small matters. I enjoyed health, and had on the Sabbath large assemblies of attentive people; and the preaching did not seem altogether without saving effect. The congregation appeared one and all to be pleased with my services, and many strangers as well as members of other churches came to hear me." It may be safely said, that these expressions much underrate the degree of acceptance and popularity which attended his public ministrations. The vivacity and freedom of his discourses, always during this period pronounced without the aid of any manuscript, attracted very general admiration; and their solid contents and evangelical unction made them peculiarly welcome to experienced Christians. He was, moreover, silently acquiring reputation as a theologian, of original and clear views, and strict adherence to the Reformed tenets; and was thus preparing for the important career for which he was destined by Providence.

Being now brought nearer to libraries, learned men and the means of acquiring books, he entered with great freshness of zeal into several interesting walks of clerical study. In every thing connected with the criticism and interpretation of the sacred text, he used assiduous application; taking Hebrew lessons of a learned Jew, perusing the Septuagint, collating other versions, and pushing more deeply those researches which he had long before commenced, into the original of the New Testament. His shelves began also to fill themselves with those folios and quartos, bound in vellum, of Latin theology, which always continued to be characteristic of his library. In some departments of learning he was no doubt surpassed by many of his brethren; but it is believed that none of his coevals had read more extensively in the theology of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; including Romanist and Lutheran, as well as Reformed divines. The practice of preaching without writing produced in him one of its ordinary effects, namely, an indisposition to commit his thoughts to paper. Consequently his judgment and taste in composition so much outstripped his ability to execute, that it was many years before he could bring himself to give any thing willingly to the public. He always wrote with ease and even with rapidity, but never to his own satisfaction. During his residence in Philadelphia, therefore, it is not known that he committed any thing to the press, except two sermons, one at the opening of the General Assembly of 1808, and the other on the conflagration of the Richmond theatre, and a few papers in the old Assembly's Magazine, which cannot now be pointed out with certainty.

In his pastoral work he found increasing satisfaction, and was surrounded by good auxiliaries. "Of my own people," says he, "William Haslitt and John McMullin were my unwavering friends. James Stuart was warm-hearted and very zealous, and often showed me the way to the houses of the poor, the widow, and the suffering; and in the prayermeetings he was my right-hand man. Joseph Eastburn, who was a kind of city missionary, was often at our social gatherings; his heart was warm and his feelings were kind. Though this truly good man had read scarcely any thing but his Bible, he preached more acceptably and profitably than many learned men. He was originally a member of Arch Street church, but falling into scruples about his infant baptism, he went into the country and got a Baptist minister to immerse him, but on condition that he should remain a Presbyterian, as he did to the day of his death. When the Methodists occupied the old Academy which once belonged to Whitefield, Eastburn, who was his follower, began to exhort publicly, and spoke with so much warmth and tenderness that the people were much impressed. All seemed to think that he ought to be licensed as an exhorter, which was then a new thing in the church. The Presbytery gave him authority to preach in the jail, almshouse, and other institutions. But he could not confine himself to these, and spoke at prayer-meetings, and sometimes supplied the place of ministers, when they were absent or indisposed. He even attended Quaker meetings, and was moved to speak there, so often as to give some umbrage to the old broad-brims. An old Quaker lawyer said "he was afraid that friend Joseph spake sometimes before he was moved by the Spirit."

A surviving member of the congregation thinks that Mr. Alexander read but three discourses during his ministry in Pine street. Dr. Milledoler's preaching had brought in a a number of young persons; the success of Mr. A. was chiefly among those of riper years. At one of the early communions, out of twenty-seven who professed their faith, only one was in youth. The same informant recalls the interest taken by Dr. Benjamin Rush in the performances of Mr. Alexander. He augured his future eminence, and when told that the discourses were very simple, quoted the Latin adage, Ex pede Herculem; adding that he was reminded of what John Newton says in his Cardiphonia, that in his own preaching he followed the advice of a minister who fixed his eye on one of the humblest of his audience, and adapted his language to this hearer. From another venerable Philadelphian, Mr. William Bradford, a friend has derived a second anecdote. Dr. Rush and Dr. Abercrombie were in a carriage at a funeral, when Dr. Rush said, pointing to the Pine street Church, "That is the church Mr. Alexander is coming to." "Do you call that a church?" said the clergyman. "Yes, sir," replied Rush; "wherever two or three old women meet together in the name of Christ, there is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." On another occasion, when some one spoke of the crowds who came to evangelical preaching, Dr. Rush replied, "Yes, in this sense also, unto Shiloh shall the gathering of the people be."

He was naturally awakened to compassion by observing the great religious destitution prevailing in the outskirts of Philadelphia. It was not a time of revival, and missionary