went directly to our minister, and asked him to give me the earliest opportunity of coming before the church and the congregation, and confessing my shame and sorrow that I had so long denied Christ before men, and neglected the great salvation."

RECOLLECTIONS OF GIDEON

BLACKBURN.

GIDEON BLACKBURN was in the prime of life at that period when the great revival of 1800 visited the population of the western country. He had been preaching, it is true, quite a number of years-how many I do not exactly know - before the commencement of that extraordinary visitation from on high; but the portion of time embraced between the years 1800 and 1830 may be put down as the meridian of his ministry. Most of the great events of his life appear to have occurred between those dates; while it should be borne in mind, that both the morning and the evening of his days were crowned with varied and extensive usefulness. A full and faithful record of the great and good results of his long and laborious life would fill the pages of a very voluminous work. A mere sketch of a few important facts is all that will here be attempted.

1. His Creator had bestowed upon him an exceedingly fine person. He was rather above the middle size, and well proportioned. His form was that which unites strength and activity in a very high degree. Thus it was that the "Lord of the harvest" had evidently fitted him for the important part he was designed to act in the great field where his lot was cast.

The

exposure he was called to endure, together with the arduous and multiplied labors that devolved upon him, must have soon crushed a man of ordinary constitution. But to him the promise was made good, "As thy days, so shall thy strength_be." While as yet the country was very new, no regular roads established, and the rivers in general without ferries, he traversed almost every part of the great west where settlements had been formed. He penetrated the canebrakes, he travelled through the wilderness, he swam the rivers, "always abounding in the work of the Lord." In very many of the newly-formed neighborhoods, he was the first to set up the standard of his divine Master. Should you now visit Knoxville, Nashville, Gallatin, Huntsville, Cincinnati, Louisville, or almost any of the prominent cities of the west, and inquire of the aged people concerning the state of the church at the period of their first recollections, you will hear the name of Gideon Blackburn pronounced, with a frequency and a fervor of enthusiasm which show how intimately his life and labors are interwoven with the early religious history of those sections of our country.

2. He had a singularly captivating countenance, in which benignity and authority were delightfully blended. When he arose in the house of God; and cast over the assembly that benevolent and commanding look, every human being in the congregation felt the power of his presence. His voice was musical and attractive to an extent that enabled him at once to seize the attention of any company or crowd which he undertook to address. In the court-yard, or in the markethouse, on the public square, or on the crowded wharf, wherever the tones of his remarkable voice reached the

ear, and his graceful and impressive attitude caught the eye, the multitude was instantly reduced to silence and attention.

The venerable Dr. Griffin has remarked, that in attempting to promote religion among the careless and the ungodly, the first great object at which we should aim is, to secure "attention" to the gospel. There is no doubt that a leading instrumentality in that immense success which attended the preaching of Gideon Blackburn, is to be found in that extraordinary power, with which he was endowed by his Creator, for arresting the attention of men. Sinners would press near to

him in crowds, and while they were melted into tears, they wished those overwhelming addresses to continue. They were reluctant to have the meeting close, and the opportunity pass away: even children would designedly throw themselves in his way, that he might say a word to them concerning the salvation of their souls. I remember, distinctly, when he had spent a night at my father's house, and was about to depart in the morning, that I, though then very young, went out and took his horse by the bridle, and stood there till he came. There was no need for me there at the horse's bridle; but it was my wish to throw myself in the good man's way, that he might speak to me of the great salvation. He did speak; and not only the substance of what he then said, but the very words in which it was expressed, are indelibly engraven on the tablet of my heart.

There was something in Blackburn's manner of preaching, that fastened his text, for life, on the memory of his hearers. You will mark this peculiarity whenever you hear the old people, at this day, speak of his

preaching; and one will say, "I heard Blackburn preach at Knoxville, in the year 1805, on this text, (Ex. xii. 30:) And there was a great cry in Egypt: for there was not a house where there was not one dead.'"

Another will say, "I shall never forget the sermon which he preached at Maryville, in 1807, on the text, (Ex. xiv. 15,) Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward.'" A third will speak up, "I heard him at Nashville, in 1810, and his text was, (John i. 14,) ' And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." On my arrival in Boston, May, 1849, I found venerable old deacons who spoke with the warmest interest of the preaching of Blackburn in Boston, as early as the year 1802 or 3, when evangelical religion in Boston was very low. And I was delighted to find that these old men could yet repeat the texts on which those discourses were founded, that so much encouraged and revived the people of God. At Ipswich, in Massachusetts, I was addressed thus by a man advanced in years:

"You are from the west ? "

"Yes, sir."

Well, I heard a man from your country preach, many years ago. His name was Blackburn. never forget that sermon. His text was,

I shall The tree of

life, that bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."" (Rev. xxii. 2.)

I know no reason for the texts on which he preached being so accurately and so long remembered, except that his preaching abounded in exposition of the sacred text. His aim was, to place the truth, the beauty, the