1792] REV- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 36 1 



It is obvious, from the rhetorical structure of all parts of this 

 discourse that it gave full scope for those elocutionary powers of 

 which Dr. Smith, even at the age of sixty-five years, which he 

 had now reached, remained a master. Beyond giving a venerable 

 aspect to his fine face and figure, time had produced but little 

 effect upon his frame or physical powers. The force, richness, 

 and other fine qualities of his voice remained unimpaired, and his 

 articulation was as clear, neat and distinct as it had ever been. 

 The sermon produced great effect. It made every one feel that, 

 even with Ashbel Green beside him, and the memory of Gilbert 

 Tennant's best days yet fresh. Dr. Smith was still what he had 

 been for forty years, the pulpit orator of Pennsylvania. 



After the sermon, Dr. Benjamin Moore, afterwards the honored 

 Bishop of New York, in whose house Dr. Smith always lodged 

 during his occasional visits to that city, and with whom he was 

 now walking home, began to speak of the sermon, and to con- 

 gratulate Dr. Smith on the attention which it had drawn from the 

 very large and mixed audience which had been in Trinity Church. 

 "There is," said Dr. Moore, in his gayety and love of coining 

 words, "in your manner of delivery such a concernedness, such an 

 inlookingncss, such appearance of being in earnest, that I seek 

 nothing further to command my attention." "What," said Dr. 

 Smith, "do yoii not look for the glittering ring, the lily-white 

 hand and handkerchief as white, displayed and lifted up towards 

 heaven, with the right eye pursuing it aloft; and the gilt sermon- 

 cover in the other hand, stretching downwards towards the con- 

 gregation, with the left eye squinting after it, as if to ask, ' WJiat 

 tJiink you of this?' However," adds Dr. Smith, who records the 

 pleasant walk and talk, " we both agreed that the truth is that 

 neither kind of oratory, internal or external, can have any great 

 influence on the mind of rational and judicious auditors without 

 great care in the choice of subjects, a proper method and disposi- 

 tion of the matter, a correct and chaste style, and some degree of 

 elegance, or at least neatness, in composition on the part of the 

 preacher; things, all of them, to be felt equally by the learned and 

 the unlearned." 



The convention of 1789 was the great organizing legislature of 

 the church, as the Congress of 1789 was the great organizing legis- 

 lature of the nation. Each made those organic acts by which the 



