poetic, prophetic and didactic parts of the Old Testament. We wish that he may be so encouraged by the reception of these, as to proceed now to put his hand to the historical portions. The Pentateuch would furnish a suitable subject for his scholar-like industry.

N. L. F.

ART. IX.-REV. JOHN BRAZER, D. D.

DIED, at the house of his friend and class-mate, Dr. Benjamin Huger, of South Carolina, on the twenty-sixth of Feburary, 1846, Rev. John Brazer, D. D. of Salem, in the fifty-seventh year of his age.

He was born in Worcester, September 21, 1789. For a time he was employed in a mercantile house in Boston, but his tastes led him into widely different pursuits, and he was graduated at Harvard College, with the highest honors of his class, in 1813. In 1815 he was appointed Tutor, and in 1817 Professor of Latin in Harvard College, where he continued about five years. On Tuesday, November 14, 1820, he was ordained Pastor of the North Society in Salem, in which place he continued till his death, more than a quarter of a century. From an article in the Salem Gazette we learn, that "he was the third pastor of that society. Rev. Dr. Barnard, the first minister, having been ordained January 13, 1773, continued his pastoral relation there till his sudden and lamented death, October 1, 1814. The gifted and pious Abbot succeeded him, and was ordained on the twentieth of the April following. He died October 7, 1819, after a lingering illness of upwards of two years. Thus the pastoral office has been vacant but twenty months, from the first settlement to the present time, a period of more than seventy-three years."

Dr. Brazer held always a prominent place in the community where he resided, and among the members of his own profession. Judge Story, Judge Putnam, Col. Benjamin Pickman, and Hon. Leverett Saltonstall, were among the parishioners who entertained a high opinion of his talents, and the late Dr. Bowditch, though never a parishioner, left him at his death a small legacy as a token of his

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Dr. Brazer as a Theologian.

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confidence and respect. He was for several years Secretary of the Bible Society of Salem and vicinity, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was also a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, from which institution he received the degree of S. T. D. in 1836.

We have always supposed that Dr. Brazer was one of the most accurate of our classical scholars. He was a hard student, and a diligent and successful one. Two articles on Cemeteries, one in the Christian Examiner and the other in the North American Review, and an article on Mill's Logic in a recent number of the latter journal, show how far and how thoroughly he sometimes pursued studies which lie only upon the borders of his profession.

As a theologian, he was clear, systematic, and exact. A series of discourses which he gave on the Atonement, we have heard spoken of by one competent to judge, as a most complete and satisfactory elucidation of that difficult subject. He spared no pains to make himself master of what he wished to teach; and never in his writings permitted himself to go beyond the bounds of his knowledge. His attainments, therefore, were uncommon in extent, and still more so in the distinctness with which they were brought out. His theological views were clear and precisely defined, indicating more the laborious scholar and exact reasoner than the profound and original thinker.

The efficacy of prayer and the influence of the Divine spirit, were always with him favorite topics. He longed earnestly, as a great want of his nature, for the strength which can thus alone be given to us in our weakness, and the encouragement which in our despondency we can receive only from God. In 1832 he published a tract on Prayer, which may be read with profit by those who have philosophical doubts on the subject. In 1835 he published quite an extended treatise on Divine Influence, which may serve as an exhibition of his powers as a writer. The subject is minutely and exactly reasoned out; objections are sought, examined, and refuted; the true doctrine defined and established; the abuses, to which it is liable, pointed out and guarded against; and all this is done so thoroughly, that, if the spirit of prayer and devout reliance be not quickened within us, we are at least well informed upon

the subject, our intellectual scruples are silenced, while the reasonableness and advantage of faith in the ever present and sustaining presence of God are clearly understood.

A single paragraph we subjoin, not only to show Dr. Brazer's power as a writer, but to afford some slight idea of his own spiritual experience and insight.

"As another proof of the reality of God's presence to the human soul, we add, in conclusion, that of Experience. We speak here of no mystical influence, but of one which is clear, distinct, rational, and matter of habitual consciousness with the truly pious spirit. It is a religious peace; a holy joy in God, in His Son, and in the revelations of His will, that no words can adequately express. The soul, thus visited from on high, will perceive, that Christian truth is to all its capacities like light to the eye, each being made for the other; that the revelation of the Gospel is but the enlargement and confirmation of all other truth; that it interprets all the secrets of our mysterious nature; meets all its inner wants; answers to all its higher aspirations; solves all the dark problems of Providence; presents a noble aim to life; gives an all-concerning significance to human conduct; relieves the mind from the anguish of uncertainty respecting the future, from the distress of conflicting passions, from the solicitations of bad desire, from the opposition between duty and feeling, from the stings of remorse, and all the sad requitals of an outraged and hostile conscience. The spirit, thus touched of God, experiences what is emphatically called in the Scriptures a "joy in believing." It opens, continually, to new displays of His exhaustless love; perceives, more and more clearly, His stupendous plan of grace in the salvation of man; attains a blessed consciousness of thinking worthily and acting well; and gains more and more of that temper of our Divine Master, which elevates, tranquilizes, amends, and hallows the life. In every dark hour, its language will be, as it has been, 'O what a power there is in the Infinite Mind of Deity, to communicate itself to the soul that looks singly to Him for comfort and support! The greater the exigence, the more perfect the adaptation; the more troubled the sea is around us, the more we feel the security and firmness of our hold upon the Rock of Ages!' In a word, the spirit, thus guided from above, will experience, more and more, that the Saviour's parting promise of 'peace' to his immediate disciples is not confined to them, but is fulfilled to his faithful followers now; that it is, indeed, 'his peace;' that it is given, in very truth, not as the world giveth;' that it adds to every token of Divine Beneficence some relishes of heavenly blessedness; makes the whole creation one august temple for praise; renders life one continued offering of

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Dr. Brazer as a Preacher.

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love and homage; and clothes every event, even while it is 'seen and temporal,' with the sublimer wisdom of 'things unseen and eternal.'" - pp. 142–144.

These same qualities which we have noticed, marked his preaching, which was, we should say, peculiarly intellectual and moral, appealing more to the reason and conscience, than to the delicate sensibilities of our nature and those vague, but powerful emotions, which reach out towards the infinite and eternal. He was no dealer in paradoxes or startling assertions, but presented the great doctrines of Christian truth with the limitations and qualifications which must necessarily belong to them in their manifold applications. He was bold to rebuke the fashionable sins and follies of the day, but may not have been equally skilled in reaching the affections of his hearers, and through all their tender sympathies winning and binding them to Christ. Religion was perhaps with him more a life of severe and solemn duties, than a delightful offering of the soul to God, enjoining acts of painful self-denial, but cheered by hopes and promises, by inward joys and silent thoughts, the dearest and most inspiring that man can know.

Few ministers have been so faithful and laborious in their preparations for the pulpit; and few have been in the habit of giving discourses so elaborate and thoroughly finished. He used to say, that he never began upon a new discourse without trying to make it a better sermon than he had ever written before, and that he seldom went into the pulpit without feeling that in the study he had done the best that it was in his power to do. His published writings bear marks of this same elaborate care. The discourse which he preached after the death of Dr. Holyoke is, in its literary execution, in the fidelity and exactness of its delineations, and the tone of feeling that runs through it, almost a model for that species of composition.

Dr. Brazer's later discourses on Col. Pickman and Hon. Leverett Saltonstall, parishioners such as it is the misfortune of few ministers to lose or their privilege to have, are distinguished for their severe fidelity and discriminating acuteness. They contain nothing that savors of the unmeaning eulogy, which so often impairs our confidence in what are called funeral sermons. Indeed we should rather object to them, that they are too much a sharp intellectual

analysis, and have too little to soothe the feelings of bereaved affection through the ministrations of a divine consolation. But the measure which he meted to others, he asked for himself. A short time before his departure for the South, talking with the brother who has since preached his funeral discourse, in allusion to the possible occurrence of such an event, he said with earnestness, "Let there be no panegyric."

As a pastor, Dr. Brazer was particularly attentive to the destitute, the sick and the afflicted. "To you," he said, "who are prosperous and happy, it is of little consequence whether I come or not." But there are those who remember how constant and how thoughtful he was in his attentions to them through long and wearisome weeks or months of sickness, though he may seldom have visited them at other times. And the poor he did not neglect, but, as the almoner of a wealthy and generous society, was always faithful to them. In one of his last letters to his family he enjoined it upon them, to "remember his poor." "Remember the poor!" How much of that charity, which covereth the multitude of sins, is contained in these words, and how at his death do our feelings warm and soften towards him who has been true to their meaning. "I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; naked, and ye clothed me. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." There is no part of a minister's life on which at its close he may look back with richer satisfaction.

Dr. Brazer had been most happy in the nearest of domestic relations, and the death of his wife, in February, 1843, was a blow from which, in the opinion of those who knew him best, he never entirely recovered. From that time he suffered severely from what after his death was found to be an organic affection of the heart, till early this last winter, when it was often only with extreme difficulty, that he could go through with the labors of the Sabbath. The last sermon which he preached to his own people in the same pulpit from which Dr. Greenwood preached for the last time was on the first Sunday in the year, from the words, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap ;" and was spoken of at the time by those who heard