DISCOURSE LII.

HENRY COOKE, D.D., LL.D.

THIS distinguished divine is tall, slender, and erect, in his exterior-possesses a very piercing eye, high brow, and aquiline nose. His early ministerial career commenced in a small country charge in county Antrim. He was subsequently translated to Killileagh, in county Down, and finally to May Street, Belfast, which is his present charge. His great forte lies in polemics; and a hard conflict with Unitarianism-which was spread over five years, between 1824 and 1829-tried his controversial powers most severely. He was brought into contact with no ordinary metal during this controversy, but he gained a signal triumph; and, under God, was the instrument of regenerating the Presbyterian church of Ulster.

During the rage of voluntaryism in Scotland, and prior to the late disruption in the national church, Dr. Cooke's powers as a polemic were once more tested in a vivâ voce discussion, which spread over two entire nights, with Dr. Richey, of Edinburg, known as the "Potter Row" Doctor. The issue of this contest was the demolition of the Edinburg doctor, and the silencing, ever since, of the controversy in Ulster. In 1841, Daniel O'Connell, then in the zenith of his glory as a demagogue, proposed to visit the province of Ulster, with a view to agitate the Repeal of the Union. Dr. Cooke issued a challenge to the Liberator, so-called, which appeared in all the metropolitan and provincial papers of the kingdom; but the Repealer, on the principle of discretion being the best part of valor, "backed out," and the Rev. Doctor walked over the ground in solitary triumph.

The doctor's writings have been somewhat restricted, owing to his public calls and his unbounded popularity. He edited Blackie's edition of Brown's Bible, adding some 20,000 original notes, exegetical and practical. In a fire which broke out in one of the hotels in London, in 1840, while in the metropolis on church business, a large pile of valuable MSS. belonging to him, was destroyed. It embraced a "Concordance" nearly ready for the press. Whether he has undertaken the work again, is not known.

Dr. Cooke, besides being pastor of the Presbyterian church in May Street, Belfast, is Professor of Sacred Rhetoric in the Assembly's College. He is a man of unbounded generosity of heart and soul, possessing, in a most extraordinary degree, the attributes of the lion and the lamb. In debate he is fierce, keen, hair-splitting, and sarcastic. In the pulpit, exegetical, illustrative, argumentative, eloquent and practical; in the parish, full of mirthfulness and pleasantry, abounding in anecdote, and profuse in the use of such epithets as belong to the figure of speech called alliteration.

The sermon which follows contains some striking passages and weighty counsels. It was preached at the opening of the General Synod of Ulster, in 1825, when Dr. Cooke was stationed at Killileagh. A considerable part, as delivered, was purely local in its bearings. In striking out these parts, the form of the sermon has been necessarily somewhat changed.