text for the occasion was 1 Kings iii. 5-9. The subject was Solomon's choice of wisdom and understanding, that he might be able to judge the people of God, and go out and in before them in a becoming manner. The sermon was characteristic. Of course the General Assembly was Solomon, a little child, placed in the midst of a large people, acknowledging its insufficiency for the great work before it, and asking wisdom, and strength, and grace from God. In 1837 he was Moderator of the General Assembly. Its sessions were also held in Princeton that year. From the time of Mr. Donnell's maturity in the ministry, he was regarded as the leader of the Southern portion of the Church. No other man contributed so much toward directing its theological inquiries or its practical policy. For thirty years he was the highest authority in these matters. He was a great natural man. Furthermore, by extraordinary application and industry in his early ministry, he had made himself a respectable scholar. It used to be said that he carried his English Grammar and other elementary books in his saddlebags on his circuits, and studied them on horseback between his appointments. I expect what was said was true, as it was the custom of those days. He possessed fine administrative abilities, and could not well have been otherwise than a leader. At the same time it is to be remarked that no man seemed less anxious to be a leader. If he was ambitious, the world never knew it. Personally, he was a man to be observed any

where. His figure was commanding. He was something over six feet in height. His usual weight in later life was about two hundred and twenty. He was always neatly dressed-stood erect in the pulpit, delivering his message in an unusually solemn and impressive manner. He never descended to what is called the arts of elocution. Nature had

done enough for him in this respect. His voice was like the voice of a trumpet: he never lacked words, and notwithstanding the defects of his early education, his words were always well selected. His thoughts were very clear, and his method of utterance unusually distinct. No man needed misunderstand him. Above all, there were a spirituality and an unction in his pulpit performances which subdued, while his mind and manner led. I have heard him often when he seemed to be absolutely overwhelming. He was not always so, it is true, but was always interesting. Mr. Donnell belonged to a race of men that has passed away. We may not see their like soon again. I never expect to see it myself. Let their memory be cherished. It is a sacred legacy to the Church. Their mantle has fallen: let us see to it that such a mantle be never desecrated; that it be worn by men at least worthy of them, if not their equals.

I saw Mr. Donnell for the first time in my early boyhood. He called at my grandfather's, with whom I then lived. He was accompanied by his mother, an aged lady of serious and quiet appearance. They had been on a visit to one of his

sisters. But one thing occurred in this visit which made any impression on my mind. My grandfather had a large family Bible which he had packed over the mountains from Virginia to this country. This, with the Hymn-book, Confession of Faith, and the Travels of True Godliness, made up the principal part of his library. Mr. Donnell, in walking over the house, found the Confession of Faith, and made some jocular remark about it. The controversy was then raging which gave rise to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. My grandfather replied in an equally jocular, but characteristic manner, that the Confession of Faith was a very good book, but that Mr. Donnell and his party were trying to disembowel it, and that such treatment was very cruel. This occurred whilst the revival party were struggling in the capacity of a Council.

In 1817 he delivered the sermon occasioned by the death of Mr. McGee, at a camp-meeting at the Beech Meeting-house, in Sumner county. Mr. McGee had once lived in that neighborhood, and been pastor of the congregation. My recollection is that it was an exceedingly tender occasion. The preacher himself wept freely, and but few eyes in the great congregation were dry. I was then a very young Christian.

In 1820 he preached at the same Beech Campground. It was late in October, and the weather was unusually cold for the season. He was then in the prime of life, and was certainly a noble specimen of humanity. He preached in the open air. It

was cold; there was no shelter, and snow was falling during most of the time of the sermon. But the large concourse of people kept their places, and heard apparently with intense interest. The text was, "That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." I had been licensed to preach but a few days before, and was, perhaps, in a good frame of mind for hearing. It is certain that I never heard a sermon with more intellectual interest. "Sin has reigned unto death” -in throwing darkness into the understanding; in perverting the judgment; in controlling the will; in impairing the memory; in depraving the affections; in subjecting the body to the power of disease and death. Grace reigns in enlightening the understanding; in correcting the errors of the judgment; in persuading and enabling the will; in rendering the memory more tenacious of what is good; in renewing the affections; and finally, in restoring the body to life and immortality in the resurrection of the just. This is an outline of the sermon which was delivered that cold day. My recollection of it is distinct and vivid after the expiration of forty-six years. It was almost the only sermon of another that I ever tried to make my own, and to use as such.

In 1823 the Cumberland Synod met at Russellville, Kentucky. At the close of the sessions of the Synod, a camp-meeting was held at a place about four miles from town. I believe the name of

the place was Moriah. Mr. Donnell preached on Saturday evening. The text was, "I speak as unto wise men; judge ye what I say." The sermon consisted of an exposition and vindication of the doctrines of his Church. On one topic he gave a direction to my thoughts which they have still kept. I had entertained a confused notion that regeneration was a sort of physical change. The sermon of that evening relieved my mind on that subject. It seems to me now that he was very distinct and satisfactory, and the wonder is, that with the means of information which Cumberland Presbyterians then had, he could have been so much so. The next day he preached the funeral-sermon of Judge Ewing.* It was a massive discourse.

It has been stated already that he preached the opening sermon of the first General Assembly. In 1843 he delivered a sermon at the General Assembly at Owensboro, Kentucky, upon the life, character, and death of Rev. Samuel King. In his latter years he showed in his performances in the pulpit something of the effects of age. He was always heard, however, with interest. He continued to preach, too, while he had physical strength for his work. Both nature and grace had formed and fitted him for the pulpit. It was his forte and his throne. He loved its labors, and would have stood in the front rank of preachers in any Christian communion.

*An uncle of the later Judge Ephraim M. Ewing.