BIOGRAPHY.

BY REV. JOHN G. ADAMS.

SINCE an efficient ministry is necessary, that the Gospel be preached to mankind, we rejoice in every real accession to this ministry. Give us, we say, all the power that can be summoned in the advocacy of Christian truth. Error's pens and tongues and voices are in constant operation. They cease not day nor night.” Truth's means and energies should not be less operative and sure. We therefore rejoice, we say, in every valuable accession to the Christian ministry.

We think we have such an accession in the subject of these remarks. He has been before the public as a Christian minister for more than twelve years past, in which time he has won his way as a writer and speaker into great favor with nearly all, of every denomination, who have become acquainted with him. During this period, as might be expected, the usual amount of criticism has been called forth in reference to his claims as a popular orator and author. Some of these notices have been quite as remarkable for fervor as for accurateness; and one or two which we have read, evidently pretending to no small share of acuteness, were in many respects widest from the truth. We do not pretend to any extraordinary light upon the subject; yet we shall venture to write down what we know and what we think of this distinguished man. Though we acknowledge, in advance, our admiration of his gifts, yet having witnessed so much of the outpouring of strong words in different descriptions of him, we would seek, in what we say, to exercise a becoming soberness and decorum.

Mr. Chapin was born in Union Village, Washington county, N. Y.,

December 29,* 1814. He received most of his early education in Bennington, Vt.; and entered upon the study of the law in Troy, N. Y. Becoming much interested in theological and religious subjects, he was induced to leave his law studies, and enter upon the duties of an associate editor of the "" Magazine and Advocate," published in Utica. It was while here that he commenced preaching. His talents proving highly acceptable, he was invited to the pastoral charge of the Independent Christian Church in Richmond, Va., where he remained two years and a half. His literary, as well as his other ministerial talents, made a very favorable impression in this place, and his popularity as a public speaker was very high. In September, 1839, immediately after the decease of Rev. Thomas F. King, Mr. Chapin preached his first discourse in the Universalist Church in Charlestown, Mass., where Mr. King had been for some time pastor. He soon received and accepted an invitation to take charge of this society, and remained in Charlestown until 1846, when he was installed as colleague with the venerable Hosea Ballou, at the Second Universalist Church in this city.

During his residence in Massachusetts, he held the office of member of the Board of Education of the State; and in 1844 he preached the annual election sermon before the state legislature. In addition to his regular pulpit services, many other calls were made upon him for his labors as a public speaker. In 1848 he was invited to the pastoral care of the Universalist society in Murray-street, New York city, to which place he removed in May, of that year. Since then he has visited Europe; during which visit he attended the Peace Convention, at Frankfort-on-the-Main, in August last, and there made a very deep impression in a brief speech he was invited to offer. The London Non-Conformist thus speaks of the effort: "M. A. Cocquerel, the active and eloquent son of the celebrated minister of the Oratoire in Paris, as well as his father's coadjutor, elicited much applause by a spirit-stirring address. To him succeeded various speakers, the time of the meeting fast expiring, conspicuous amongst whom was the Rev. Mr. Chapin, of New York, who, by masculine eloquence, ready utterance, and apt imagery, fairly carried the audience away with him. He is decidedly the most effective American speaker it has been our lot to hear." Mr. C. is at present enjoying his many labors in that great city of his residence, to which his genius is so well adapted, and where he can do good service to the cause of Christian truth.

We are free to declare that we deem Mr. Chapin an extraordinary man; not because the multitude listen with so much interest to

his oratory, for we have long since learned not to make this a criterion in judging of the real merits of a public speaker; but because of the intellectual as well as the physical and moral energy manifested in him. Find him where you will, in the pulpit or popular assembly, in our reform meetings, in the religious conference, at the social festival, he seems always in readiness' to break forth into some strong, musical, and truthful strain, that shall find a response, not only in the gratified taste or fancy, but in the intellect and heart, of those who hear. His eloquence is of a kind "adapted to general use." It makes him welcome wherever he appears in an expectant public assembly. No matter who else is to speak, the name of Mr. Chapin announced is a known indication of the interest, brief or protracted, that will follow. On various and widely differing occasions, this versatility of his genius as a public speaker has been well tested. We question whether there is any Christian minister in our community, whose public-speaking talents have been as excessively taxed, who has acquitted himself on all occasions with such uniform favor and honor.

As a pulpit orator, Mr. Chapin may not answer to the rules of pulpit oratory taught in books. He may transgress some of them. But that he has in him the very essentials of eloquence, and that he uses some of these with extraordinary power, will not be questioned by most of those who have heard him. His voice is one of the strongest, of great compass, rich, and melodious; his enunciation is remarkably distinct; and his action, though suited to his intense words, sometimes, perhaps, too vehement for the pulpit. Had he more moderation in certain parts of his discourse, more of the easy and conversational, at times, — such an offset would be in grand keeping with his really stirring and eloquent passages. As it is, however, he cannot preach without strong effect. If there is monotony in his voice, you lose it in his noble thoughts, wellchosen and forcible and often burning words, and continual action. He is all alive, and keeps his hearers so. Often, when filled with his theme, and roused to strong inspiration therewith, will he hold an audience spell-bound, swaying them as the swift wind does the forest or the grain-field. This, despite all books, all rules, all criticisms, this is eloquence; and though certain manifestations of it may be better adapted to some other sphere than the pulpit, still it cannot fail of its wonderful effect even there.

Pastors living in and near many of our large towns and cities, and having much popularity as public speakers, have many calls for their services aside from the ordinary discoursing expected of them

in their own pulpits. But very few such pastors, we think, can devote the greater part of their time to the preparation of sermons. We should wonder to hear of one like the Rev. Henry Melvill, of London, mentioned in Grant's " Metropolitan Pulpit," devoting from seven to eight hours each day, during six days of the week, to the preparation of one sermon to be delivered on the Sabbath; "shutting himself up in his study, and refusing to be seen by any visiters, except in very peculiar circumstances, for this length of time, every day, from Monday till Saturday." Such pastors here are neither plenty nor popular. Our pastors must oftener write their two sermons per week; and write them, too, as they can seize on time in the midst of other pressing duties. As a clergyman and pastor, while in New England, Mr. Chapin labored under the usual disadvantage of preaching some discourses that must have been hastily prepared. He became accustomed to extemporizing; and in this he excels. His mind is so suggestive, his fund of words so inexhaustible, and his skill in using them so complete, that he can hardly be otherwise than successful in such efforts. Coming out of the pulpit once in Boston, he was met by a friend who had been exceedingly interested in the morning discourse. "You are coming to our place to preach, soon," said he; will you not bring this discourse and repeat it?" The preacher thought he should be unable to, so that the hearer would recognize it at all as the same discourse, as he had not prepared it till that morning, and then only in the most meagre skeleton.

As a writer, Mr. Chapin evinces that strength and beauty greeting us in his oratory. He will bear reading, as well as hearing. There is a freshness, an ease and unwavering energy, in his pen, which leads the reader "captive at will." It is not that new and startling truths are so often advanced; it is not that we are consulting a peculiarly original thinker; it is because he writes old profitable truth and common sense with such brilliancy and gorgeousness, that we admire him. He is a most excellent dresser of an ordinary idea, or he will give pleasing introduction and effect to a rare one. is one great secret of his power with the pen. Other writers can get as much good substance into an oration or sermon; but few can do it with a more admirable rhetorical power. His representations of ideas are living, actual, standing out in pictures of boldest light and shade, and now and then of rare tinting. We can make but few references, and these among the first that come to hand. Here is a description of Doubt and Faith contrasted.

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