RECOLLECTIONS OF THE REV. JOHN SUMMERFIELD. BY THE REV. DR. BETHUNE, OF PHILADELPHIA. "THE portrait of Summerfield, though much too healthful, is perhaps the best likeness imitative skill could give of that most apostolic young man. It is impossible to impress upon canvass or steel the holy sweetness, which they who had the privilege of knowing him, remember irradiating his pale, worn features, when he talked of the love of Jesus from the pulpit, on the platform, or by the fireside. Much less can the cold pen describe the charm of his eloquence, so simple that you could discover in it no rhetorical art, or of his manner so mild, and from bodily weakness often so feeble, that the entranced hearer knew not how he was so deeply moved, or so irresistibly carried away. The secret of his power was undoubtedly his sincerity, his earnest delight in the truth as it is in Jesus, and his zeal to win souls from eternal death for his master's glory, and also, the peculiar efficacy with which the Holy Spirit, who inspired that truth he loved to preach in such pureness, unfeignédness and charity, accompanied the labors of one so devoted to his work, whose course on earth was to be so brief. Like "His discipline, by the Providence of God, was severe. the apostle Paul, 'he had a thorn in the flesh,' a painful and, as he had reason to believe, an incurable disease. He knew that his life could not be long. With eternity ever before him, 'he endured as seeing him who is invisible.' To him, as he 'died daily,' the world's applause and the pleasures of this life were little worth. He was continually looking at the things which are not seen and eternal.' He felt that there was nothing left for him, but to crowd into his few remaining days as much usefulness as was possible through the permission of God upon whom he relied. The usefulness he desired, was the best usefulness, the edification of saints and the conversion of sinners. The means he employed were the very best means, the pure word of the Gospel, 'the wisdom of God, and the power of God.' "It is said, 'he was a man of prayer,' but he was in no less eminent degree a man of the BIBLE. He appeared to lose himself entirely in the preacher. He was free from what is frequently little better than tricky conceit, textual' divisions. He struck immediately at the main thought. He gathered his argument from the connection, or that of parallel passages. It was his text preaching, rather than himself. His language was very |