"comprehensiveness" in the lecture room. In the course of a free discussion upon some controverted point, a student once asked him if a certain view which he held, and which the doctor deemed erroneous, was not erring on the "safe side." "It is not safe to err on either side," was the prompt reply. With these views of duty in his professional chair, Dr. Tyler could say nothing for effect. He could awaken interest by no promises of new revelations of truth. That he overcame these difficulties in his position, so as to be a popular teacher of theology for twenty-four years, even with many who came to the seminary deeply prejudiced against him, must be regarded as complimentary to his talents. Whether his views of professional duty were right, is referred to the "sound mind" of the church.

Another characteristic of Dr. Tyler as a teacher of theology should be noticed. He aimed to act upon the mind of each student so as to do him the most good possible. With a love literally without partiality, he labored to develop the ordinary mind with as much assiduity as he bestowed upon the most gifted. Richter once said of himself, "Of one thing I am certain, I have made as much of myself as could be made of the stuff, and no man should require more.' This might Dr. Tyler say of each student under his instruction.

But what gave Dr. Tyler peculiar power in the lecture room, was the impression made by him that Scripture truth deeply affected his own heart. None could doubt that he most firmly believed what he was teaching. It was evident to all that he loved the doctrines of grace,

and felt their power. To his "reasoning out of the Scriptures," the affections of his heart responded. His lectures, therefore, were not cold intellectual discussions, but were intimately connected with his own Christian

experience. There is a power in goodness, in personal Christian character, which is superior to the power of mere greatness. This it was in Dr. Tyler's teaching which impressed truth upon his students, brought it home to their moral feelings, by that law which demands that he be moved by truth in that part of his nature which he would move in others by the same truth.

The following letter from an alumnus of the seminary, it is believed, expresses views and feelings to which the great body of Dr. Tyler's students will most cheerfully subscribe:

room.

WILLIAMS COLLEGE, November 15, 1858.

Rev. and dear Sir: I am very much gratified to learn that you are preparing a short Memoir of Dr. Tyler. The lives of such men are a legacy to the church, and a record of their labors may prove a blessing long after they have themselves passed away. I am sure that a Memoir of Dr. Tyler will be welcomed by all those who have listened to his instructions from the pulpit or in the lecture His students could never fail to love him, whether they agreed with him in doctrine or not. Dr. Tyler was clear and decided in his views, zealous for the truth, and therefore always ready to take up his pen in defense of what he considered sound doctrine. As he was decided in his views, he was decided also in his mode of expression; and very few men have been more misunderstood than he by those who knew him only by his controversial writings. He had nothing of austerity, but all around him was sunshine. No man more completely separated men from their doctrines. No bitter or uncharitable word escaped him toward those who differed from himself, though he attacked their doctrines with an earnestness and keenness which were often mistaken, by those unacquainted with him, for manifestations of per

sonal feeling. It is, however, in the study, by the fireside, and in private conversation, that we have the truest exhibitions of his real character and feelings. In all the intercourse which I was privileged to have with Dr. Tyler in various relations, and sometimes under circumstances of peculiar trial to himself, I can not remember a word or an act that manifested any thing but kindness, Christian humility, and self-sacrifice when the general good required it. His peculiar strength was in the heart and the affections. These were made prominent in his systematic theology; but more than this, they were his life. As a teacher, his instructions were clear, never to be mistaken. He had the faculty of presenting abstruse subjects, in the pulpit or lecture room, in a manner so clear that he never failed to interest.

But every lecture came with an earnestness from his lips that kept the gospel of Christ above all philosophical speculations or mere theological controversies.

For us, who are away from the seminary, it seems hard to realize that Dr. Tyler is gone. And to many of us, I know, his presence will almost be felt upon that ground. His kind words, his cordial greetings, his patient labor for our good, and quick sympathy in every trial, will, I doubt not, be recalled by every student who has been under his care. The close of every letter," Affectionately yours," they knew to be no mere formal salutation. His words of counsel will still be cherished, and his Christian character, so child-like and joyous, so free from vanity and complaining, can never lose its influence. I trust the Memoir you are preparing, will serve to bring that character more distinctly before us who have known him, and present it in its true light to those who may have misunderstood it from the position he has often occupied as a

controversialist. I am happy to add this slight tribute to one to whom I am indebted for so much instruction, Christian counsel, and cordial friendship. Most truly yours,

P. A. CHADBOURNE.

REV. NAHUM GALE, D. D.

CHAPTER IX.

DR. TYLER AS A PREACHER OF THE GOSPEL.

DR. TYLER was a preacher of the gospel for half a century. Though a professor of theology twenty-four years, he was, during most of this period, pastor of the church connected with the seminary, and preached either there or abroad a large part of the time. He loved to preach. He was ever ready to help a brother, or to supply a vacant pulpit. Even in vacation, when the people around the seminary had no claim upon him, he would volunteer to sustain the regular Sabbath services.

When a young man, Dr. Tyler stood in the first rank of popular preachers in Connecticut. At Dartmouth College, such was his reputation in the pulpit, that he was called to succeed Dr. Payson, at Portland, without preaching to the people a single sermon previous to the call. How he met the expectations of the Portland church, has already been noticed. It was during this pastorate, about the year 1830, that the writer of these pages first heard Dr. Tyler preach, in the Central Church, Worcester, Mass. The writer was then a young man, devotedly attached to a very youthful pastor: he had a decided taste for preaching adorned with the varied flowers of rhetoric, and sparkling with poetic imagery. He saw a stranger enter the pulpit, and from his appearance and the manner of conducting the services preceding the sermon, he was led to hope for little that day except the solid and the safe, which he had been accustomed to associate with silvery hair and the dignified steps of the "past meridian" preacher.. 11*

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