steadily, and is as patient in harness as out of it. He has northern
blood in his veins which checks impulsiveness and everything
approaching that solemn ferocity sometimes displayed in Methodist
pulpits. There is nothing oratorical in his style of delivery; it is
calm, slow, and has a rather soporific influence upon his hearers.
There is more practical than argumentative matter in his sermons;
but, in the aggregate, they are hard and dry--lack lustre and
passion; and this, combined with his stoical manner of delivery, has
a chilling, rather than an attractive, influence. He always speaks
in harmony with the rules of grammar. His sentences, although
uttered extemporaneously, are invariably well finished and
scholarly. His words are well chosen; they are fit in with
cultivated exactitude and polished precision. They will stand
reading; nay, they will read excellently--infinitely better than the
burning rhapsody of more phrensied and eloquent men; but they fall
with a long-drawn dulness upon the ear when first uttered, and
don't, as Sam Slick would say, "get up one's steam anyhow." Mr.
Mearns has a clear head and a good heart, but his spoken words want
power and immediate brightness, and his style is deadened for the
want of a little enthusiasm.

The Rev. Mr. Tindall comes up in a more polished, energetic, and
fashionable garb. He is eloquent, argumentative, polemical. His
literary capacity is good, and it has been well trained. He has read
much and studied keenly. His sermons are well thought out; he has
copious notes of them; and when he enters the pulpit they are made
complete for action--are fully equipped in their Sunday clothes and
ready for duty. His delivery is good; but physical weakness deprives
it of potency; and his contempt of the clock before him renders
people now and then uneasy. His manner is refined; his matter is