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 LECTURES AND SERxMONS. 
 
l,iUi-li.W 'vi. aulluMKN.ii.l .' M,,nli,wil 
 
(•-■^ 
 
 (TuRJ'S AND bERMOXr 
 
 BY THI 
 
 H'-V \V. MORLEV PUNSHON, LL.D. 
 
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Lectures and Sermons. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. W. MORLEY PUNSHON, LL.D. 
 
 TORONTO : 
 
 ADAM, STEVENSON & CO 
 
 1873- 
 
^ 
 
 
 19935S 
 
 .1 
 
 ! 
 
 Entered according to the Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one 
 thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, by ADAM, St£V£NSON & Co., 
 in the office of the Minister of Agriculture. 
 
 
 HrjNTER, POSE k CO., 
 FRINTERS. BLECTKOlYi'UKS AND BUOKBTNDRR& 
 
 ToaoNTO. 
 

 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 n the year one 
 
 f£NSON&CO., 
 
 THERE are times in a man's life when it is not graceful to 
 withstand external pressure, and when one must risk a 
 reputation for being wise, to secure a reputation for being kind. 
 It is, therefore, that, at the request of many friends, 1 consent 
 to the publication of these Lectures and Sermons, as a memo- 
 rial volume. 
 
 I have not aimed to alter the form of direct address. I have 
 thought that possibly the perusal of what multitudes have 
 heard, may recall the voice that spoke — when the speaker is 
 far away. Thus not only may the truth remain, but the per- 
 sonal memory linger ; not only may the oak be a substantial 
 and helpial thing, but the invisible dryad be remembered too. 
 
 I take pleasure in the thought that, although not native to 
 the Dominion, I have learned to identify myself as loyally with 
 its interests as if I were "to the manner born ;" and in the 
 separation to which duty calls me, I shall cherish an unceasing 
 attachment to its people and its fortunes sHll. 
 
 When I consider that here is a land which reaps all the 
 benefits of monarchy without the caste and cost of monarchy — 
 a land where there is no degradation in honest toil, and ample 
 chances for the honest toiler; a land whose educational appli- 
 
r 
 
 VI 
 
 ances rival any other, and whose moral principle has not yet 
 been undermined ; a land which starts its national existence 
 with a kindling love of freedom, a quickened onset of enquiry, 
 and a reverent love of truth, and of its highest embodiment. 
 Religion — I feel that never country began under fairer auspices, 
 and that if Canada's children be but true to themselves, what- 
 ever their political destiny may be, they will establish a stable 
 commonwealth rich in all the virtues which make nations great — 
 mighty in those irresistible moral forces which make any people 
 strong. Esto perpetiia ! May no Marius ever sit among the 
 ruins of a promise so fair. 
 
 W. MORLEY PUNSHON. 
 
 Toronto, May, 1873. 
 
 "•a^i 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Author's Preface, 
 
 Lectures : 
 
 i. daniel in babylon, . 
 
 2. macaulay, . . 
 
 3. john bunyan, .... 
 
 4. wesley and his times, . 
 
 5. florence and the florentines, 
 
 6. the huguenots, . . . , 
 
 A Pr .GRIMACE TO TWO AMERICAN ShRINES, 
 
 Sermons : 
 
 I. KINDNESS TO THE POOR, 309 
 
 [Preached before the Members of St. George's Society, In the Metropolitan Obiirch, Toronto. 
 
 Paor. 
 
 V 
 
 3 
 
 39 
 
 lOI 
 
 149 
 
 195 
 235 
 
 295 
 
 2. THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL, 
 
 3. THE LORDS SUPTER, , . , 
 
 4. THE TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST, 
 
 6~l 
 345 
 363 
 
THE Publishers embellish the cover of these Lectures with 
 a miniature outline of the Metropolitan W. M. Church, 
 Toronto, which owes its origin to the earnest labour and elo- 
 quence of the Rev. Dr. Punshon. It was thought, moreover, 
 that the design, on this literary memorial, might not inappro- 
 priately point to the architectural memorial of the author's 
 residence in Canada. The Steel Portrait appears in deference 
 to an expressed wish. 
 
 '^i.a^ 
 
 \ 
 
.ectures witli 
 M. Church, 
 )Our and elo- 
 it, moreover, 
 not inappro- 
 tlie author's 
 in deference 
 
 DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
J^ 
 
 'E 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 Inv 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 HERE were giants in the earth in those days, for those 
 old Hebrew prophets were a marvellous race of men. It 
 i$ difficult for us to regard them as parts of the ordinary cre- 
 aiion of God. Only in such an age, when Revelation was a 
 simple thing, and men felt, as they saw the symbol or the vision, 
 ti^at the Divine was "not far away from any one of them:" 
 Cply beneath such a sky, whose sun, as it blasted the desert 
 iiito desolation, or greened the olive slope into beauty, was a 
 pi^rpetual monition both of threatening and of promise : only 
 ailttong such a people, of deep religious instincts, and impressi- 
 Ijle in a high degree, could they have lived, and flourished, and 
 bfcome the powers they were. They were not soldiers, but when 
 they rebuked kings, theirs was a courage which the most stal- 
 wart crusader might have envied. They were not priests, but 
 never priest spake solemn words with greater seemliness of ut- 
 terance, nor with diviner power. As we trace their long and 
 loi^y line, and their notable ones crowd upon our memories, we 
 seem to shrink from any discussion of their characters, as if they 
 were creatures from the spirit-land. Some such feeling steals 
 over us, as might have prompted the affrighted Gadarenes, when 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 they prayed for the departure of the Saviour, or as might hav- 
 burdened the wondering soul of Peter, when in his first visior 
 of Christ's miraculous power, he said, " Depart from me, for 
 am a sinful man, O Lord." They seem to be in the nature c 
 humanity rather than of it, to be surrounded by conditions, an 
 to dwell in an existence of their own, with which the rest of tli 
 world can have but a scanty sympathy, or rather a mingled fei 
 ing, which is half admiration and half awe. They are not me 
 so much as distinct individual influences, passive beneath the 
 swelling inspiration, standing before the Lord, like the liglr 
 nings, which are his messengers, or as the "stormy wind, fult 
 ling His word." 
 
 It is evident that the peculiarities of their office, and the 
 comparative isolation from the experiences of common huma: 
 ity, prevent us, in the general, from acknowledging their fitno 
 as examples by which to regulate our own life and condiic 
 There is a shrewd impiety in human nature, which has fornii 
 its own estimate of what its patterns ought to be, and whu 
 demands that certain initial conditions shall be rigidly fulfille 
 There must be identity of nature, and there must be similar: 
 of circumstance. The man must have like passions, and tho 
 passions must have been powerfully tried. Failure in these cc 
 ditions would at once neutralize the force of the example, ev 
 as a blemish in physical beauty would, to a Greek of the old' 
 time, have ostracised Apollo from the fellowship of the God^ 
 
 There is none among the brotherhood of the Prophets, w 
 so thoroughly comes home to us as that Hebrew youth, of t 
 royal line of Judah, from whose history we are purposing to 
 instructed now. He was inspired, but he had a life apart fr 
 his inspiration, and we recognize in it the common clcnu: 
 
 ill. T 
 |ave 
 
 !een \ 
 emm 
 I'wall 
 fan tn 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON 
 
 )r as might havf 
 n his first visior 
 •t from me, for ; 
 
 in the nature g 
 y conditions, an; 
 ich the rest of tli 
 er a mingled fet 
 
 hey are not mc 
 ive beneath the 
 d, Hke the ligh 
 ormy wind, fult 
 
 office, and tlu 
 common huni:i; 
 ging their fitne- 
 life and conduc 
 vhich has fornii 
 to be, and wliii 
 )e rigidly fulfille 
 iiust be similar; 
 assions, andtho 
 ilure in these a 
 the example, ov 
 Ireek of the old' 
 hip of the God> 
 he Prophets, w 
 Drew youth, of t 
 re purposing to 
 d a life apart ti 
 common clcme: 
 
 Df which lives are made. Principle and persecution — sorrow 
 $nd success — the harp-song of thankfulness and the breeze-like 
 jroice of grief — all the constituents which are shapely in the 
 formation of character j we meet with them in his experience, 
 lust as we have felt them in our own. He comes to us, therc- 
 ibre, no stranger, but robed in our own humanness. He is no 
 Jneteor vision — sweeping out of darkness to play for a brief space 
 |he masque of human living, and then flitting into darkness as 
 |inbroken — he comes eating and drinking, doing common things, 
 thrilled with common feelings— ^hough those feelings prompt 
 liim to heroic action, and those common things are done in a 
 tnajestic way. My object is to teach lessons from the life and 
 character of Daniel. My chief purpose, I am not ashamed to 
 iivow, is to do my listeners good, and though the platform is 
 |)roader than the pulpit, and may be indulged with wider lati- 
 tude of range and phrase, I should be recreant to my great, 
 )ved life-work, if I were not to strive mainly to make my words 
 jU upon that future when eternity shall flash upon the doings 
 ^f time. 
 
 It is affinned of the religion of Jesus, that it is adapted for 
 11 changes of human condition, and for all varieties of human 
 laracter. Clearly, a religion which aims to be universal must 
 iossess this assimilating power, or, in the complexities of the 
 prorld, it would be disqualified for the post which it aspires to 
 in. The high claims which its advocates assert for Christianity, 
 iave been passed through the crucible of the ages, and have 
 feen verified by the experience of each generation. It is not 
 lemmed in by parallels of latitude. It is not hindered by any 
 I* wall of partition." It can work its marvels in every clime. It 
 |an translate its comforts into every language. Like its founder, 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 its delight is in the "'habitable parts of the earth," and wher- 
 ever man is, in rich metropolis or in rude savannah, whether 
 intellect has exalted, or savagery degraded him, there, in the 
 neighbourhood and in the heart of man^ is the chosen sphen. 
 of Christianity, where she works her changes, diffuses her bless- 
 ings, raises up her witnesses, and i)roves to every one who em- 
 braces her his angel of discipline and of life. It may be that 
 you are thinking, some of you, that your circumstant'es are ex- 
 ceptional, that Religion is a thing only for stream-side villages 
 and (juiet hours — not for the realm of business, nor "the tragi* 
 hearts of towns." That is a grave error, my brother. Heaven 
 is as near the great city as the breezy down. You can preserve 
 as bright an integrity, you can hold as close a fellowshij) with 
 the true and the Divine in the heart of London, the modern 
 IJabylon, as did Daniel in Ikibylon, the ancient London. 
 
 This brings me to my first thought — the earnest piety 7iihic/i 
 7i'as the foil )idation-f act of Daiiicrs eofisistent life. He was a 
 religious man. His religion inlUienced his character, kindled 
 his heroism, and had largely to do with his success. His reli- 
 gion, moret)ver, was not a surface sentiment, traditionally inher- 
 ited, and therefore loosely held. Opinions have often been 
 entailed with estates, handed down as reverenced heir-looms 
 from one generation to another. Men have rallied round a 
 crimson banner, or shouted lustily for the buff and blue, for no 
 better reason than that the same colours had sashed and roset 
 ted their fathers perhaps for a century of years. In the history 
 of human 0})inion it would be curious to enquire how much ot 
 it has been the pride of partisanship, or the inheritance of affec- 
 tion, how little of it the force of conviction, and the result of 
 honest thought and study. But Daniel's was an inwrougb 
 
DANIEL IN HAIiYLON. 
 
 th," and wlicr- 
 mnah, whether 
 I, there, in the 
 chosen sphere 
 ffuses her bless 
 ry one who em- 
 It may be that 
 istan(!es are e\- 
 im-side vill;i[j;es 
 nor " the tra^i< 
 :)ther. Heaven 
 oil can i)reservc 
 fellowship with 
 )n, the modern 
 London. 
 est piety 7vhich 
 ifc. He was a 
 iracter, kindled 
 cess. His reli- 
 ditionally inher- 
 ave often been 
 iced heir-looms 
 rallied round a 
 md blue, for no 
 shed and roset 
 
 In the history 
 e how much ot 
 eritance of affec- 
 id the result of 
 
 an inwroughf 
 
 piety, whose seat was in the heart, and it was ol that brave sort 
 which no disaster was able to disturb. 
 
 And ix was no easy matter to maintain it. Look at him ns 
 Ik- is first introduced to our notice. He was lonely, he was 
 tein|)te<l, he was in peril. Loneliness, temptation, dauger, — 
 these are words which perhaps fn^m |)ainful personal experience, 
 some of us can understand. Add to these the further condition 
 of bondage, a word, thank (iod, whose full meaning a free j)eople 
 does not understand, and you have s(jnie conception (jf the 
 position of Daniel, when we first become acquainted with him 
 in the j)alace of the King of HabyUjn. 
 
 Moreover, the circumstances of liabylon, at the time when 
 he was carried there, would necessarily expose his [)iely to 
 greater hazards. It is always difficult for a slave to profess a 
 faith other than the faith of his master. The victory which 
 Nebuchadnezzar had gained would barb the tongue of the Chal- 
 dean scoffer with shari)er sarcasms against the Hebrew creed, 
 babylon was wholly and earnestly given to idolatry. There 
 Belus was magnificently worshipjjed. There the soothsayer 
 wrought his spells, and the astroUjger affected to read in the 
 heavePo, as in a sparkling liible. There the followers of Zoro- 
 aster lingered, and clung tenaciously to their pure and ancient 
 error, for of all idolatries fire-worship is at oncj the most primi- 
 tive and the most plausible. There the commonest things of life 
 \\ ere linked with idol associations, and consecrated by idol cere- 
 monies ; so that the conscience of the Hebrew was in momen- 
 tary (l.mger of attack, and active resistance became the duty of 
 every day. 
 
 Hut Daniel's ])iety did not fail, because it was thorough in its 
 consistency and in its grandeur. It has been a fa\oiirite scoff 
 
w 
 
 DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 in all ages ever, since the words "Doth Job serve Ciod for 
 nought ?'' fell from the hps of the old original liar, that Christians 
 arc Christians only when no motive tempts them to the con- 
 trary, and when their j^olicy is on the side of their religion. 
 Hence, some Chaldean sceptic, or some ca])tive of a Sadducean 
 spirit, might have flung the gibe at the young enthusiast Hebrew, 
 " Ah ! there will come a change upon him soon. He has 
 breathed a Hebrew atmosphere, and been bound by Hebrew 
 habits. His soul is but the chrysalis, just emerging from the 
 cocoon of dormant thought and dull devotion. Wait until he 
 is fledged. Wait until he has preened his wings amid the sun- 
 shine and the flowers of Babylon. The Jordan is but a sluggish 
 stream, the Eu])hrates rolls grandly in its rushing silver. Trans- 
 late him from the slopes of Olivet to the plains of Shinar. Let 
 him taste the luxury of Chaldean living, and join in the i)omji 
 of Babylonish worship, you will soon hear of his abandonment 
 of his former friends, and he will plunge, as eagerly as any, into 
 the gaieties of the capital." But that scoffer, hke most others ot 
 his kindred, would have been grievously mistaken. Did Daniel's 
 piety fail him ? Was he entangled in the snare of i)leasure, or 
 frightened by the captor's frown ? Knelt he not as fervently in 
 the palace at Shushan as in the temple at Jerusalem ? Amid 
 the devotees of Merodach or Bel, his Abdiel-heart went out, as 
 its manner was, after the one Lord of earth and heaven. Oh, 
 what are circumstances, I wonder, that they should hinder a 
 true man, when his heart is set within him to do a right thing ? 
 T^et a man be firmly principled in his religion, he may travel 
 from the tropics to the poles, it will never catch cold on the 
 journey. Set him down in the desert, and just as the palm tree 
 thrusts its roots beneath the envious sand in search of sustenance, 
 
 8 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 2 (lod for 
 Cliristians 
 
 the ron 
 r religion, 
 sadducean 
 t Hebrew, 
 He has 
 Y Hebrew 
 
 from the 
 it until he 
 1 the sun- 
 a skiggish 
 ;ir. Trans- 
 linar. I>et 
 the pom]i 
 ndonment 
 s any, into 
 t others ot 
 d Daniel's 
 easure, or 
 Mvently in 
 1 ? Amid 
 nit out, as 
 
 •en. Oh, 
 hinder a 
 
 ht thing? 
 lay travel 
 
 d on the 
 
 l)alm tree 
 
 istenance, 
 
 he will manage somehow to find living water there. Banish him 
 to the dreariest Patmos you can find, he will get a grand Apoca- 
 lypse among its barren crags. Thrust him into an inner pri- 
 son, and make his feet fast in the stocks; the doxology will 
 
 I reverberate through the dungeon, making such melody within 
 
 1 its walls of stone that the gaoler shall relapse into a man, and 
 
 I the prisoners, hearing it. shall dream of freedom and of home. 
 
 i Young men, you who have any ])iety at all, what sort is it? 
 
 1 Is it a hot-house plant, which must be framed and glassed, lest 
 March, that bold young fellow, should shake the life out of it 
 in his rough play among the flowers? — or is it a hardy shrub, 
 which rejoices when the wild winds course along the heather or 
 howl above the crest of Lebanon ? We need, believe me, the 
 
 I bravery of godliness to bear true witness for our Master now. 
 
 ^ There is opposed to us a manhood of insolence and error. 
 The breath of the plague is carried on the wings of the wind. 
 
 ,^Ours must be a robust piety — which does not get sick soon 
 
 lin the tainted air. The forces of evil are marshalled in un- 
 I wonted activity — and there are liers in wait to surprise and 
 
 •^to betray. Ours must be a watchful piety, which is not fright- 
 ^ened from its steadfastness by the "noise of the captains and 
 Uhe shouting." Through the heavy night, and beyond the em- 
 battled hosts, there glitters the victor's recompense. It must 
 be ours to press towards it on our patient way, saying to all who 
 differ from us, " Hinder me not, I mean to wear that crown." 
 
 One main cause of Daniel's consistency, which I would fain 
 commend for your imitation, was this. He made the stand at 
 once, and resisted on the earliest occasion of encroachment 
 upon conscience and of requirement to sin. He purposed in 
 his heart that he "would not defile himself with the king's 
 
iCT" 
 
 DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 n 
 
 meat, nor with the portion of wine which he drank." Now, as 
 a true Hebrew, bound by the rescripts of the Mosaic law, cer- 
 tain meats were forbidden to him, which other nations ate with- 
 out scruple. Moreover, the chances are that the bread and tin 
 wine had been idclatrously consecrated, for those old Pagans 
 were not ashamed, as wc art% to pervade the common things ot 
 life with their religion. To Daniel, therefore, these things were 
 forbidden, forbidden by their ceremonial uncleanness, forbidden 
 c(|ually by their idolatrous association, and it was his duty to 
 refuse them. 
 
 I see that curl of the lip on the face of that unbeliever, and 
 as it might hurt him, possibly, if his indignation had not vent. 
 I will try to help it into words. "A small thing, a very insigni- 
 ficant occasion for a very supercilious and obstinate disi)lay I 
 \v hat worse would he have been if he had not been so offen- 
 sively singular? He was not obliged to know that there had 
 been any connection with idolatry about it. Why obtrude his 
 old-world sanctimoniousness about such a trifle as this ?" A 
 tritle ! Yes ! but are not these trifles sometimes among the 
 mightiest forces in the universe ? A falling apple, a drifting log 
 of wood, the singing and puffing of a tea-kettle ! Trifles ail- 
 but set the royal mind to work upon them, and what comes ot 
 the trifles then? From the falling apple, the law of gravitation. 
 From the drifting log of wood, the discovery of America. 
 From the smoke and song of the tea-kettle, the hundred-fold 
 appliances of steam. There are no trifles in the moral universe 
 of God. Speak me a word to-day; — it shall go ringing on 
 through the ages. Sin in your heedless youth ; — I will she\\ 
 you the characters, long years afterwards, carven on the walls of 
 "the temple of the body." Hence the good policy as well as 
 
 lO 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 " Now, as 
 lie law, cer 
 ns ate with- 
 ead and tlu: 
 old Pagans 
 3n things ot 
 things were 
 ;s, forbidden 
 his duty to 
 
 leliever, and 
 ad not vent, 
 very insigni- 
 ate display I 
 ;en so offen- 
 Lt there had 
 obtrude his 
 this ?" A 
 among the 
 drifting log 
 Trilles all- 
 lat comes ot 
 gravitation, 
 of America, 
 lundred-fold 
 Dral universe 
 ringing on 
 I will shew 
 the Wvills of 
 :y as well as 
 
 % 
 
 piety of Daniel. He made the stand at once, and (iod 
 honoured it ; and, the foremost champion of the enemy slain, 
 it was easy to rout the rest. Do I address some one now over 
 whom the critical moment impends? You are beset with diffi- 
 culties so formidable that you shudder as you think of them. 
 Does wealth allure, or beauty fascinate, or endearment woo, or 
 authority command you to sin? Does the carnal reason gloss 
 over the guiltiness, and the deprecating fancy whisi)er "Is it 
 not a little one?" and the roused and vigorous passion strive 
 with the reluctant will? Now is the moment, then, on your 
 l)art for the most valorous resistance, on my part for the most 
 affectionate and solemn warning. It is against this beginning 
 of evil, this first breach upon the sacredness of conscience, 
 that you must take your stand. It is the first careless drifting 
 into the current of the rapids which speeds the frail bark into 
 the whirlpool's wave. Yield to the temptation which now in- 
 vites you, and it may be that you are lost for ever. Go to that 
 scene of dissipation, enter that hell of gambling, follow that 
 " strange woman" to her house, make that fraudulent entry, engage 
 in that doubtful speculation, make light of that Sabbath and its 
 blessings — what have you done? You have weakened your 
 moral nature, you have sharpened the dagger for the assassin 
 who waits to stab you, and you are accessory, in your measure, 
 to the murder of your own soul. Brothers, with all a brother's 
 tenderness, I warn you against a peril which is at once so 
 threatening and so near. Now, while time and chance are 
 given, while, in the thickly-peopled air there are spirits which 
 wait your halting, and other spirits, which wait to give their 
 ministry to the heirs of salvation — now, let the conflict be de" 
 cidcd. Break from the bonds which are already closing around 
 
 1 1 
 
f 
 
 DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 
 you. Frantic as a bondsman to escape the living hell of slavery^ 
 be it yours to hasten your escape from the pursuing evil of sin. 
 There, close at your heels, is the vengeful and resolute enemy. 
 Haste ! Flee for your life ! Look not behind you, lest you be 
 overtaken and destroyed. On — though the feet bleed, and the 
 veins swell, and the heart-strings quiver. On — spite of wearied 
 jimbs, and shuddering memories, and the sobs and pants of 
 labouring breath. Once get within the gates of the city of 
 refuge and you are safe, for neither God's love nor man's will 
 ever, though all the world demand it, give up to his pursuers a 
 poor fugitive slave. 
 
 Having mentioned the piety of Daniel, the Corinthian pillar 
 of his character, we may glance at some of the acanthus leaves 
 which twine so gracefully round it. 
 
 It will not be amiss if we learn to be as contented, under all 
 change of circumstance, as Daniel's piety made him. He is 
 supposed to have been about twenty years old when he was 
 carried away to Babylon. He was then in the flower of his 
 youth j at an age when the susceptibilities are the keenest, when 
 the visions of the former time have not faded from the fancy, 
 when the future stretches brightly before the view. His con- 
 nexion with the royal family of Judah might, not unnaturally, 
 have opened to him the prospect of a life of state and pleasure, 
 haunted by no pangs of ungratified desire. It was a hard fate 
 for him to be at once banished from his fatherland and robbed 
 of his freedom. Every sensibility must have been rudely 
 shocked, every temporal hope must have been cruelly blighted, 
 by the transition from the courtly to the menial, and from Jeru- 
 salem to Babylon. How will Daniel act under these altered 
 circumstances, which had come upon him from causes which he 
 
 13 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 f slavery 
 /•il of sin. 
 :e enemy. 
 St you be 
 , and the 
 f wearied 
 pants of 
 le city of 
 dan's will 
 )ursuers a 
 
 lian pillar 
 lus leaves 
 
 under all 
 1. He is 
 m he was 
 i^er of his 
 lest, when 
 the fancy, 
 
 His con- 
 maturally, 
 . pleasure, 
 . hard fate 
 id robbed 
 en rudely 
 ^ blighted, 
 from Jeru- 
 se altered 
 1 which he 
 
 could neither control nor remedy? There were three courses 
 open to him, other than the one he took. He might have re 
 signed himself to the dominion of sorrow, have suffered grief 
 for his bereavement to have paralyzed every energy of his 
 nature, and have moaned idly and uselessly, as, beneath the 
 trailing willows, he "wept when" he "remembered Zion." He 
 might have harboured some sullen purpose of revenge, and 
 have glared out upon his captors with an eye whose meaning, 
 being interpreted, was murder. Or he might have abandoned 
 himself to listless dreaming, indolent in present duty, and 
 taking no part at all for the fulfilment of his own dreams. But 
 Daniel was too true and brave a man, and had too reverent a 
 recognition of the Providence of God to do either the one or 
 the other. He knew that his duty was to make the best of the 
 circumstances round him, to create the content, and to exhibit 
 it, though the conditions which had formerly constrained it were 
 at hand no longer. Hence, though he was by no means in- 
 different to his altered fortunes ; though there would often rise 
 upon his softened fancy the hills and temples of his native land, 
 he v.'as resigned and useful and happy in Babylon. It may be 
 that some among yourselves may profitably learn this lesson. 
 Wearied with hard work, done for the enrichment of other 
 people, you are disposed to fret against your destiny, and to 
 rebel against the fortune which has doomed you to be the toiler 
 and the drudge. Ambition is, in some sort, natural to us all, 
 and could we borrow for a night a spirit more potent than the 
 lame demon of Le Sage, and could he unroof for us hearts as 
 well as houses, there would perhaps be discovered a vast amount 
 of lurking discontent, poisoning the springs both of usefulness 
 and of happiness for n-iany. Under the infiuence of this em- 
 
 13 
 
% 
 
 
 4 
 
 l'\ 
 
 I 
 
 DAN/EL IN BABYLON. 
 
 bittered feeling some rail eloquently at class distinctions in 
 society, and sigh for an ideal equality with an ardour which the 
 first hour of a real equality would speedily freeze, while some 
 drivel into inglorious dreamers, and are always on the look-out. 
 like the immortal Micawber, for something to " turn up," which 
 will float them into the possession of a Nabob's fortune, or into 
 the notoriety of some easily-acquired renown. 
 
 I am not sure whether our dispensation of popular lecturing 
 is altogether guiltless in this matter. Young men, especially, 
 have been so often exhorted to aspire, to have souls above busi- 
 ness, to cultivate self-reliance, to aim at a prouder destiny, and 
 all that sort of thing ; and we hav*.: heard so much of the men 
 who have risen from the ranks to be glorified in the world's 
 memory — Burns at the plough-tail, and Claude Lorraine in the 
 pastry-cook's shop, and Chantrey the milk boy, and Sir Isaac 
 Newton with his cabbages in the Grantham market, and John 
 Bunyan mending the kettles, and Martin Luther singing in the 
 j-treets for bread — that it is hardly surprising if some who have 
 listened to these counsels have been now and then excited into 
 an anti-commercial frenzy ; not, it is hoped, so fiercely as that 
 silly lad who attempted, happily in vain, to destroy himself, and 
 left a note for his employer, assigning as the reason of the rash 
 act, as the newspapers always call it, that "he was made by 
 God to be a man, but doomed by man to be a grocer." Well, 
 if we lecturers have fostered the evil, it should be ours to atone 
 by the warning exhibition of its peril. I can conceive of 
 nothing more perilous to all practical success, more destructive 
 of everything masculine in the character, than the indulgence 
 in this delirious and unprofitable reverie. The mind once sur- 
 rendered to its spell has lost all power of self-control, and is 
 
 14 
 
 ? passil 
 I narcd 
 
 cL. 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 ictions in 
 kvhich the 
 hile some 
 : look-out. 
 p," which 
 le, or into 
 
 lecturing 
 ;specially. 
 )0ve busi- 
 >tiny, and 
 the men 
 le world's 
 ine in the 
 Sir Isaac 
 nd John 
 ig in the 
 v'ho have 
 ited into 
 as that 
 self, and 
 the rash 
 nade l)y 
 Well, 
 o atone 
 eive of 
 tructive 
 ulgence 
 ice sur- 
 uid is 
 
 i passive, like the opium-eater, under the influence of the horrible 
 I narcotic. Real life is discarded as unlikely, and the dream is 
 ■f arranged with all the accuracy, and very much of the adventure 
 J of a three-volumed novel. A high-born maiden becomes sud- 
 idenly enamoured of the slim youth who serves her with the 
 I silks she rustles in, or, some rich unheard of uncle dies, just at 
 ^the crtical time, or he turns out to be somebody's son, and by 
 
 ■ consei j lence heir to a fortune or a large-acred landed proprietor, 
 or he is hurtling an imaginary senate with very imaginary elo- 
 quence; or, fired with the hope of hymeneal bliss, he is 
 
 I whirled off with a bride and a ibrtune (always a fortune) in a 
 
 I chariot and four ; and so he revels in these impossible heavens, 
 
 until, as in the dream of Alnaschar, crash goes the crockery, or 
 
 down falls the bale of muslin upon his most bunioned toe, or 
 
 an ecjuivocal river of gamboge is too sure prediction of the 
 
 ■ annihilation of the basket of eggs. But how unreal and foolish 
 ;^all this is! how hurtfiil to all healthiness of moral sentiment, 
 
 '!and to all industry of patient toil. How nearly akin to the 
 K spirit of the gambler, who has lost all his fortune at hazard and 
 then risks his last quarter just because it is so small. "But," 
 says some indignant youth, "what do you mean? Are all the 
 counsels to which we have listened in the former time to go for 
 [nothing ? Are we not to aspire ? Are we to grovel always ? 
 [Are we never to rise above the sphere of society in which we 
 lmo\cd to-day ? " Oh yes ! some of you may, and if the ele- 
 [ments of greatness are in you they will come oiit^ aye, though 
 [an Alp were piled upon them, or though the sepulchre hewn 
 [out of the rock hid them in its heart of stone. But it is no use 
 [hiding the truth ; ninety out of every hundred of you will re- 
 jmain as you are. "Grocers" to-day, you will be grocers or 
 
 IS 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 something like it to the end of the chapter. Well, and what ui 
 that ? Better the meanest honest occupation than to be a das 
 tard, or a deceiver, or a drone. Better the weary-footed wan 
 derer, who knows not where the morrow's breakfost will be had. 
 than to be the sordid or unworthy rascal, whirled through tin 
 city in a carriage, built, cushioned, horsed, harnessed, all with 
 other people's money. God has placed you in a position in 
 which you can be honest and excel. Do your duty in the pre 
 sent, and God will take care of the future. Depend \\\)o\\ it. 
 the way to rise in lite, is neither to repine, and so add to tin 
 trou' 'es of misfortune the sorer troubles of passion and envy. 
 nor to waste in dreams the plodding energy which would go far 
 to the accomplishment of the dreamer's wealthiest desire. It 
 the Passions rule you, there will be a Reign of 'i'error. It 
 Imagination be suffered to hold the reins, you will make small 
 progress, if indeed there be no catastrophe, for though Phfeton 
 was a very brilliant driver, yet he burnt the world. 
 
 Don't aim, then, at any impossible heroisms. Strive rather to 
 be quiet heroes in your own sphere. Don't live in the cloudland 
 of some transcendental heaven ; do your best to bring the glorv 
 of a real heaven down, and ray it out upon your fellows in this 
 work-day world. Don't go out, ascetic and cowardly, from the 
 fellowships of men. Try to be angels in their houses, that so a 
 light may linger from you as you leave them, and your voice 
 may echo in their hearing, " like to the benediction that follows 
 after prayer." The illun ■>'ation which celebrates a victory is but 
 the vulgar light shining through various devices into which men 
 have twisted very base metal ; and so the commonest things can 
 be ennobled by the transparency with which they are done. 
 Seek then to make trade bright with a spotless integrity, aiui 
 
 i6 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 1, and what ut 
 n to be a das 
 •y-footcd wan 
 St will be had, 
 \ through tin 
 ;ssed, all with 
 a position in 
 ity in the pre 
 pend upon it. 
 so add to till' 
 ion and envy. 
 11 would go far 
 est desire. If 
 of Terror. If 
 ^^ill make small 
 hough Ph?eton 
 
 krive rather to 
 the cloudland 
 
 iring the glory 
 
 Ifellows in this 
 rdly, from tht 
 
 [uses, that so a 
 id your voice 
 >n that follows 
 victory is bin 
 ito which men 
 test things can 
 ley are done, 
 lintegrity, and 
 
 '^ business lustrous with the beauty of holiness. Whether fortune 
 smile on you or not, you shall " stand in your lot," and it shall 
 $ be a happy one. The contentment of the soul will make the 
 I countenance sunny ; and if you compare your heritage with tluii 
 . of others who are thought higher in the social scale ; dtjwercd 
 I more richly with the favours of that old goddess who was .said 
 I to be both fickle and blind, the comjjarison will not be a ho]Jc 
 ■ less one if you can sing in the Poet's stirring words — 
 
 % " Cleon hath a thousand acics, 
 
 Ne'er a one have I ; 
 ■^ Ck'on dwelletli m a mansiu;i, — 
 
 In a lodginji, I. 
 Clcon hatli a tlo/.cn fortune.--, 
 
 Hardly one liuve 1 ; 
 Yet the poorer of the twain 
 Is Cleon and not 1. 
 
 "Clcon, true, [)o.sse.sselh acres, 
 
 I!ul the landscape i ; — 
 llair the charms to me it yii ld(th 
 
 .Money cannot buy. 
 Cleou harhours sloth and duhi«s, 
 
 Freshenuig vigour, I ; — 
 He in velvet — I in broadcloth — 
 
 Richer man am 1. 
 
 " Cleon is a slave to grandeur, 
 
 Free as thought am I ;— 
 Cleon fees a score uf doctois ; — 
 
 Need of none have I. 
 Wealth-surroundetl — care-environed, 
 
 Cleon fears to die ; — 
 Deatli may come, he'll find me rei.Jy, 
 
 Happier uun am 1. 
 
 17 
 
DANIEL L\ BABYLON. 
 
 " Cleon sees no charms in nature, 
 
 In a daisy, I ; — 
 Cleon hears no antliems ringing 
 
 In the earth and sky ; — 
 Nature sings to me for ever, 
 
 Eaiu'ist listener 1, 
 State for state with all attendants, 
 
 Who would change ? Not 1.' 
 
 The religion of Daniel influenced him ftirtlier to be coinicoti\ 
 to those by whom he was stirroiinded. In the early years of his 
 residence in Babylon, he won " the favour and tender love of 
 the prince of the eunuchs.'' His resistance to what he deemed 
 unworthy stibserviency was not rudely nor harshly manifested. 
 " He requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not 
 defile himself." He bore himself respectfully, yet without an 
 atom of servility; never compromising his fidelity to God, but 
 neither insolent in his contempt of idolatry, nor forward to with- 
 hold honour and custom where honour and custom were due. 
 h will not, perhaps, be amiss to commend him in this matter to 
 the age in which we Xwo. \ and amid many incentives to inde- 
 [>endence, original thought, intolerance of shams and scorners, 
 md the like, to whisper a word in favour of good manners. 
 There ts so much of outspokenness now'-a-days, and it has been so 
 intich and so eloquently enforced that there is some danger lest 
 ui our re-action from servility, we should exhi])it the " fidsehood 
 of extremes." Some men fancy themselves extremely clever, 
 when they are only extremely coarse, and obtrude before ali 
 comers a boorishness which they mistake for bravery. I covet 
 for you all, the more if you be Christians, the grand old name 
 of gentleman — manhood and gentleness — inborn and intlueit- 
 
 1 8 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON, 
 
 to be courteous 
 •ly years of his 
 tender love of 
 hat he deemed 
 ilv manifested. 
 It he might not 
 yet without an 
 ty to God, but 
 brward to with- 
 torn were due. 
 n this matter to 
 intives to inde- 
 is and scorners, 
 good manners, 
 d it has been so 
 )rne danger lest 
 the " fiilsehood 
 jemely clever, 
 ude before all 
 very. I covet 
 :rand old name 
 n and influen- 
 
 cing energy, but with affability and courtesy to t'imper it. You 
 
 have heard of the Nasmyth hammer. It can chip an egg-shell 
 
 tl without breaking it, or can shiver with a stroke ihe ponderous 
 
 ; bar of iron. We are awed by the wonderful force, but we are 
 
 .' especially attracted by the machinery which holds it in control. 
 
 So a rough strength of character will repel even while it attracts 
 
 i us, but a frank and winning courtesy comes stealing into our 
 
 ? hearts like a sunbeam, and flings an otto of July over the chil- 
 
 lest November air. 
 
 This courtesy which I recommend you to exhibit is not only 
 auxiliary to your religion, but a part of it. " The wisdom which 
 ;is from above," I leave you to guess where the other wisdom 
 comes from, is "gentle, and easy to be entreated." "Christ," 
 Emerson says, " was a prince in courtesy, as well as in benefi- 
 .cence and wisdom," and a Christian is not more bound to main- 
 main his own rights than to be tolerant of the feelings and opin- 
 '^ons of others. Even Fashion, at the bottom, (though, as in a 
 muddy road, the l)ottom may be a long way down) is based 
 lipr)n religion, and is a sort of Rabbinical perversion of Chris- 
 tianity. There is not a usage of cultivated society to-day, which 
 lad not its origin in some real or flmcied benevolence. Love 
 the essence of religion, and courtesy is but love in society — 
 ^e " good Samaritan'' genial in the drawing-room, as on the occa- 
 idon he was self-sacrificing on the highway and in the field. The 
 J^olden rule of all the politeness which it is worth a man's while 
 to seek after, is in the old music-master's counsel to his pupil 
 nrhcn she asked him the secret of performing with expression 
 Ittid effect — " Cultivate your heart. Miss, cultivate your heart." 
 *|'here is no reason surely why you should be otherwise than 
 courteous. Good men are not necessarily abrupt and disagree- 
 
 19 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 able. There is no inevitable connection between Christianity 
 and cynicism. Truth is not a salad, is it ? that you must always 
 dress it with vinegar. It will be foul shame if some of your 
 quondam friends should be able, with any truth, to say, " He 
 was a fine, frank, generous, open-hearted fellow before he became 
 a Christian^' as if that had contracted the sympathies, which 
 only can rightly expand them, as if that had frosted the heart, 
 under whose warmth alone spring up " all that is of good report 
 and lovely." Have a care to wipe away this reproach, even if 
 it has but begun to cleave to you, or, so far as you are concerned, 
 your religion will be "wounded in the house of her friends.' 
 You should be so firm in your principles that you can afford to 
 be kind. Let yours be the heroism which can sing even from a 
 shattered heart, 
 
 " Ten thousand deaths in every nerve. 
 I'd rather suffer than deserve." 
 
 Preserve this unfailing kindliness whatever betide; though 
 you are deafened by the strife of tongues, though, loudest in the 
 scoff or the slander, you hear the changed tones of your owe 
 familiar one \ though your heart be wrung until its very fibres 
 start, — yet beseem yourself as becomes God's child, the chile 
 of one who bears with " the unthankful and the evil." You wili 
 find your account in it, and in earnest prayers, and charity whid. 
 never faileth, and compassions delicately shewn, and opportun 
 ities eagerly embraced for piling up " coals of fire," you ma) 
 secure the nobility of revenge. 
 
 And not for your own comfort only, but in your work o: 
 Christian witness-bearing, there must be gentleness in the rebiik; 
 and in the icstimony, if either of them are to prevail. A bin: 
 
 20 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 a Christianity 
 a must always 
 some of your 
 to say, "He 
 efore, he became 
 pathies, which 
 ted the heart, 
 of good report 
 roach, even if 
 are concerned, 
 )f her friends.'^ 
 u can afford to 
 ,ng even from a 
 
 betide; though 
 h, loudest in tht 
 es of your own 
 il its very fibres 
 child, the chile 
 t evil." You wii 
 nd charity vvhid 
 and opportun 
 )f fire," you ma; 
 
 in your work o: 
 less in the rebuk 
 prevail. A blu; 
 
 I countryman once strayed into Westminster Hall, and sat, with 
 edifying patience for two mortal hours, while two lawyers wran- 
 \ gled over the merits of a case which was as much Greek to him 
 ^ as Curran's famous quotation from Juvenal was to the jury of 
 Dublin shopkeepers. Some bystander, amused at his bewilder- 
 \ ment, and amazed at his attention, asked him *' which he thought 
 \ had the best of it?" His reply was ready — "The little one, to 
 I be sure, because he put the other matt in a passion.'^ There was 
 shrewdness, if not logic, in the answer, and it shews how all 
 argument is likely to shape itself to the bucolic mind. Believe 
 i me, neither Christianity, nor sound political dogma, nor any 
 i other good thing was ever yet permanently advantaged, either 
 % by the sword of the bigot, or by the tongue of the scold. The 
 one only elevates the slaughtered into martyrdom, even though 
 ;they were in life "lewd fellows of the baser sort f — the other 
 I rouses resistance, and enlists manliness upon the side of error. 
 I Brothers, in all seriousness I protest against grafting upon our 
 holy religion a spirit that is tmculent and cruel. Speak the 
 truth, by all means ! Speak it so that no man can mistake the 
 utterance. Be bold and fearless in your rebuke of error, and 
 in your keener rebuke of wrong-doing, all Christ's witnesses are 
 bound to be thus " valiant for the truth ;" but be human, and lov- 
 ing, and gentle, and brotherly, the while. If you must deliver 
 the Redeemer's testimony, deliver it with the Redeemer's tears. 
 Look, straight-eyed and kindly, upon the vilest, as a man ought 
 to look upon a man, both royal, although the one is wearing, 
 and the other has pawned, his crown. 
 
 The religion of Daniel constrained his fidelity to duty and his 
 diligefit fulfilment of every trust confided to him. It is a grievous 
 itrror, but partly from the mistakes of religionists, and partly 
 
 21 
 
DA XI EL IN nABVLON. 
 
 from the malignity of infidels, it is one which has very 
 largely o])t;iined, that the interests of the life that now 
 is are in tL.^ct antagonism to the interests of the life that is to 
 come. You may hear it reiterated from many a Sanhedrim of 
 worldly self-sufticiency, and from many a Rabbi's supercilious 
 lips. They will tell yd: that high moral excellence and deej) 
 religious feeling are inconsistent with shrewd business habits, 
 and with the effective discharge of the commoner duties o' 
 life ; and that, if a man would serve his God aright, he must 
 forthwith abandon all hope of temporal advantage, and transfer 
 his thought exclusively to the inheritance which awaits him in 
 the sky. There is in this view, as in all prevalent errors, a sub- 
 stratum of important truth. A Christian will not hesitate ♦o 
 tell you that he lives in the recognition of Eternity, and there 
 is that in his glad hope of the future which will smite down his 
 avarice, and turn away his footsteps from the altar of Mammon, 
 but he has not forgotten, that as the heir of promise, he in- 
 herits this world too. The present is his by a truer charter 
 than that by which the worldling holds it, and his eye may 
 revel in its beauty, and his ear may listen to its music, and he 
 may gather up its competence with a thankful heart, while yet 
 his faith pierces through the cloud, and sees in the wealthier 
 heaven his treasure and abiding home;. 
 
 How fine an illustration of diligent and successful industry 
 we have in the character of Daniel ! He rose rapidly in the 
 king's favour, and by his administrative ability secured the con- 
 fidence of four successive monarchs who sat upon the throne of 
 Babylon, Darius the Median, who succeeded to the empire 
 after Belshazzar had been slain, discerned early the excellent 
 spirit that was in him, promoted him to be chief of the presi- 
 
 22 
 
 *t ' 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 ch has very 
 *e that now 
 life that is to 
 Sanhedrim of 
 s supercihous 
 nee and deep 
 isiness habits, 
 iner duties o^ 
 ight, he must 
 J, and transfer 
 awaits him in 
 ; errors, a sub- 
 lot hesitate ♦o 
 lity, and there 
 jmite down his 
 r of Mammon, 
 romise, he in- 
 L truer charter 
 his eye may 
 music, and he 
 .eart, while yet 
 1 the wealthier 
 
 ;essful industry 
 rapidly in the 
 cured the con- 
 n the throne of 
 to the empire 
 1 the excellent 
 ef of the presi- 
 
 dents, to whom the hundred and twenty princes were amenable, 
 and thought to set him over the whole realm. The duties thus 
 devolved upon Daniel must have been of the most onerous and 
 resi)onsible kind. The empire extended southward to the Per- 
 Isian (iulf and northward to Mesopotamia. Naturally fertile, it 
 ihad been cultivated to the uttermost. Babylon, the capital, to 
 Iwiiich Herodotus assigns dimensions of almost fiibulous magni- 
 ude, had, on the lowest computation, an area twice as large as 
 hat of modern London, and enclosed within its walls a j^opula- 
 ion of a million and a cpiarter souls. How complicated must 
 ave been the problems of government which Daniel was called 
 |Li])on to solve ! He had to deal, in a foreign language, 
 ith foreign customs, and under different dynasties of kings, 
 lany of those with whom he had to work were the " wise men 
 f Babylon," not inconsiderably versed in starry lore and bear- 
 g a high reputation among their fellows. He must have 
 crefore political sagacity and scientific research. His must be 
 he ruling mind to disentangle a sophistry, and the seer's fore- 
 light to perceive the end from the beginning. Then the ad- 
 iuistration of justice formed no small part of his duty. Before 
 |iini, as he sat in the gate, appellant and defendant came, 
 t was his to hear the cause, to weigh the jirobabilities of 
 ividence, to adjudicate, to execute the decision. Then, further, 
 fee must make provision for the contingencies which in those 
 turbulent times were constantly occurring. He must be Argus- 
 eyed against intestine fliction, and against aggressions from 
 beyond : quick to catch and quiet the murmurs of discontent at 
 home ; equally quick to scent the battle from afar. On him 
 |lso devolved, in the last event, the financial administration of 
 the realm. He had to get from each reluctant satrap the tribute 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 assessed upon his province, to check the accounts of the presi- 
 dents, and to see, as the tale was told into the treasury, that the 
 king suffered no damage. Now, when you think of all the 
 resjionsibility thus thrust upon one busy man, how he was at 
 once Finance Minister, Lord Chief Justice, Home and Foreign 
 Secretary, War Minister, and Premier to boot, you will readily 
 conceive that Daniel had about enough on his hands, and that 
 he would require, rightly to discharge his duty, both tact and 
 energy, and a rigid and conscientious frugality of time. 
 
 In the differing play of mind before me, this consideration 
 may have suggested different thoughts just now. I will imagine 
 one or two of them, and turn them to profit as we proceed. 
 
 There may be perhaps what I will venture to call the nar- 
 rowly pious thought ; the thought of a mind, evil from the ex- 
 treme of good; the apprehension of a sensitive spirit, which like 
 the mollusc of the rock, thrusts out its long antennae at the barest 
 possibility of danger. " Enough on his hands ! yes ! and far too 
 much, more than any man ought to have who has two worlds to 
 think about and provide for. It would be impossible, in this 
 round of ceaseless seculr -itv, to preserve that recognition of 
 Eternity, and that preparation for its destinies which it is so need- 
 ful for man to realize." The apprehension does you honour, 
 my brother. I won't chide you for it ; there are sadly too few 
 who are thus jealous for the Lord in the midst of us : but you 
 need not fear. See him ! He comes out of the presence- 
 chamber, where he has been having audience of the king. 
 Whither will he go ? Ah ! he goes to the closet, and the lattice 
 is reverently opened, and the knees are bent towards the un- 
 forgotten temple at Jerusalem, and there trembles through the 
 air the cadence of some Hebrew psalm, followed shortly by 
 
 24 
 
 :!illi 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 ; of the presi- 
 Lsury, that the 
 ik of all the 
 ow he was at 
 ; and Foreign 
 lu will readily 
 ids, and that 
 )oth tact and 
 time. 
 
 consideration 
 
 I will imagine 
 
 proceed. 
 
 call the nar- 
 
 from the ex- 
 
 rit, which like 
 
 e at the barest 
 
 s ! and far too 
 
 two worlds to 
 
 ssible, in this 
 
 cognition of 
 
 it is so need- 
 
 you honour, 
 
 adly too few 
 
 us : but you 
 
 he presence- 
 
 pf the king. 
 
 d the lattice 
 
 ards the un- 
 
 through the 
 
 shortly by 
 
 some fervent strain of prayer. Oh ! there is no fear, while the 
 track to that chamber is a beaten one, while the memories 
 of home and temple are so fragrant ; while through the 
 thrown-back lattice the morning sun shines in u]jon that silver- 
 haired statesman on his knees. He who can thus pray, will 
 neither be faithless to man nor recreant to God. In that 
 humiliation, and thrice-repeated litany of prayer, he finds his 
 safety and his strength, and he exhibits for your encouragement 
 and mine that it is possible to combine, in grandest harmony of 
 character, fidelity to duty and to God ; and amid the ceaseless- 
 [ness of labour, whether of the hand or of the brain, to keep a 
 [loyal heart within, whose every pulse beats eagerly for heaven. 
 Then out speaks a frank and manly worldling, knowing little 
 
 md caring less about religion, but delighted with Daniel because 
 [he is so clever ; almost worshipping the diplomacy which is as- 
 [tute, and sagacious, and above all successful. " Time for thought 
 lof eternity. No, and why should he ? His deeds are his best 
 Iprayers. Surely if ever a man might make his work his wor- 
 Iship, it is he. He is a brave, true man, doing a man's work in 
 right manly way. What needs he to pray, except perhaps that 
 
 lis own valued life may not come to a close too soon." Ah ! 
 ^so you think that the thought of Eternity must paralyze the 
 "effort of Time. You think that your nature, when a strong 
 ^man wears it, may claim its own place among the Gods. You, 
 |to whom prayer is an impertinence, and the acknowledgment of 
 ,fein hypocrisy, alas for you that you are not in the secret ! 
 fV\^hy, this prayer is the explanation of everything which you 
 ladmire in the man. Is he brave ? What makes him so ? Be- 
 ^cause the fear of God has filled his heart so full that there is no 
 
 Iroom for the fear of man to get in. Does he walk warily on a 
 
 J 
 
 ■-»' 
 
 25 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 ■ : 
 
 giddy height, which would make weaker brains dizzy ? It is 
 because he knows that the sky is higher than the mountain, and 
 cherishes in all his ways the humbled feeling of dependence and 
 laith. Is he rigid and conscientious in the discharge of daily 
 duty? It is because he has learnt, and recollects, that " every 
 one of us must give account of himself to God." Go then, and 
 learn his piety, and humble thyself in thy chamber as he does. 
 It will teach thee higher views of life than thou hast ever rea- 
 lized yet. Immortality shall burst upon thee, as America burst 
 upon Columbus, a new world, flashing with a new heaven, and 
 thou shalt be shewn that not in stalwart arm nor cunning brain 
 shall be thy strength, but in quietness, and confidence, and in 
 "the joy of the Lord." 
 
 It may be, though I would fain believe it otherwise, that a 
 third discordant voice is speaking, the voice of one who hides 
 beneath a seemly exterior, a scoffing soul. " He a statesman ' 
 what ! that man of psalm and prayer, who cants along about 
 right, and conscience, and duty, — you will find out diffeiently by- 
 and-bye. I am greatly mistaken if he does not turn out incom- 
 petent or wicked ; they will have a hard life who bear office 
 under him. I hate these saints. Look narrowly into his accounts, 
 perhaps you will make some discoveries ; there'll be a fine ex- 
 posure some day of his blundering, and rapacity, and wrong." 
 It would please you, I dare say to find yourself among the pro- 
 phets, but happily the answer is at hand. Your ancestors shall 
 come forward (you are not the first of the line) and with their 
 own reluctant lips they shall refute your sarcasm. Mark them 
 how they gather, presidents and princes, and counsellors, and 
 captains — "vile conspirators all of them, devising mischiel 
 against the beloved of the Lord." Now we shall know the wo'st' 
 
 26 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 you may be sure. If Daniel's administration has been faulty or 
 fraudulent, all the world will be privy to it now. Malice is on 
 his track, and it has a keen scent for blemishes. Envy is at 
 work, and if it cannot see, it will suborn witnesses to swear they 
 see, spots upon the sun. All his administration is brought into 
 unfriendly review. Home and Foreign politics, Finance, Jus- 
 tice, all are straitly canvassed. Well, what is the result ? Come 
 scoffer, and hear thy fathers speak. " We shall not be able to 
 find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against 
 him concerning the law of his (jod." What? Did we hear 
 aright ? No occasion of charge against the chief minister of a 
 great empire, when men are seeking for it with all their hearts ! 
 Was ever such a thing heard in this world ? No failure of fore- 
 sight ! No lack of sagacity, which they might torture into pre- 
 meditated wrong ! no personal enrichment ! no solitary nepo- 
 tism in the distribution of patronage ! This is very marvellous, 
 and it is very grand. Speak it out again, for it is the noblest 
 testimony which malice ever bore to virtue. " We shall not be 
 I able to find any occasion against this Daniel !" There he stands, 
 j spotless on the confession of his enemies. It matters not what 
 becomes of him now, the character — which is the man — has 
 been adjudged free from stain. Cast him to the lions, if you 
 like, his faith will stop their mouths. Fling him into the seven- 
 [fold heated furnace, you can't taint his garments with the smell 
 of fire. Heir of two worlds, he has made good his title of inhe- 
 |ritance for both : — Daniel, faithful among men ! Daniel, the be- 
 I loved of the Lord . 
 
 Brothers, if the exhibition of this character has produced the 
 I effect upon you which I fondly hope, yoj will have learnt some 
 |lessons, which will make all your after-life the briglUcr. You 
 
 27 
 
« I 
 
 i[l i I;! 
 
 I'B 
 
 I li 
 
 liiji' I ii' ■ 
 
 DANIEL IN BABYLON 
 
 will learn that though there may be, here and there, a favourite 
 of fortune, who goes up in a balloon to some high position with- 
 out the trouble of the climbing, the only way for ordinary men 
 is just to foot it, up the "steep and starry road." You will learn 
 that Labour is the true alchemist which beats out in patient 
 transmutation the baser metals into gold. You will learn that 
 atheistic labour and prayerful idleness are alike disreputable, and 
 you will brand with equal reprobation the hypocrite who is too 
 devout to work, and the worldling who is too busy to pray. You 
 will learn how hollow is the plea of the procrastinator that he 
 has no time for religion, when *^he Prime Minister of a hundred 
 and twenty provinces can retire for prayer three times a day. 
 Above all you will learn that a reputation, built up by th^ wise 
 masonry of years, does not fall at the blast of a scorner's trum- 
 pet, that God thrones the right at last, in kinglier royalty, because 
 its coronation is delayed, and that neither earth nor hell can 
 permanently harm you, if you be "followers of that which is 
 good." 
 
 It needs only that I should remind you that when the interests 
 of the tivo worlds came mto collision, and there are periods in 
 every man's life when they will, Daniel dared the danger, rather 
 than prove faithless to his God. The vile council which met to 
 compass his ruin laid their scheme cunningly. They knew him 
 to be faithful, faithful in all respects, and it may be that like 
 that other famous council of which Milton sings, they were aboiu 
 to separate in despair without accomplishing their purpose, when 
 some Belial-spirit suggested that his fidelity to man should l)e 
 pitted against his fidelity to God. The scheme succeeded. The 
 King's consent was hastily gained to the promulgation of a de- 
 cree, that for thirty days no petition should be offered to (jod 
 
 28 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 2, a favourite 
 position with- 
 Drdinary men 
 ?'ou will learn 
 it in patient 
 ill learn that 
 eputable, and 
 te who is too 
 to pray. You 
 lator that he 
 of a hundred 
 times a day. 
 3 by th*^ wise 
 corner's trum- 
 yalty, because 
 nor hell can 
 that which is 
 
 en the interesU 
 re periods in 
 ianger, rather 
 which met to 
 ley knew him 
 be that like 
 ey were about 
 jurpose, when 
 an should be 
 cceeded. The 
 ition of a de- 
 ■fcred to God 
 
 or man, save to the King's own majesty, and the men, who knew 
 Daniel's habit of prayer, exulted as they deemed his ruin sure. 
 
 And what has he done, this man, whom they thus conspire to 
 destroy ? Alas ! for the baseness of human nature, his only 
 faults are merit and success. It is the same world still. The 
 times are changed from those of Smithfield and the Lollard's 
 Tower • men fear not now the stake and the headsman, but the 
 spirit which did the martyrs to the death is the spirit of the car- 
 nal heart to-day. 
 
 How will Daniel meet this new peril ? It is mevitable — Da- 
 rius cannot relent, for " the law of the Medes and Persians 
 altereth not." Then shall Daniel yield ? shall there be evasion, 
 compromise, delay ? His manner was to retire, that he might 
 commune with God undisturbed ; to kneel, in the prostration of 
 a spirit at once contrite and dependent ; to open his window 
 towards Jerusalem, that the prayer which Solomon, as if pres- 
 cient of their exile, invoked at the dedication of the temple, 
 might be realized and answered. Shall he omit an observance, 
 ' or suspend, even for an hour, the constancy of his devotion to 
 his God ? I think you could answer these questions from wti-it 
 you already know of the man. He did exactly as he had been 
 accustomed to do. He did not then, for the first time throw open 
 his window. If he had done that, he would have been ii Phar- 
 isee. He did not close his window, because, for the first time, 
 there was danger in opening it If he had done that, he would 
 have been a coward. He was neither th' one nor the other, but 
 simply, a bmve, good man, who loved life well, but who loved 
 God better ; and who when a thing was put before him, when 
 |Timidity whispered, "Is it safe?" and Expediency hinted, "Is it 
 ■politic?" and Vanity suggested, "Will it be popular?" took coun- 
 
 29 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 sel of his own true heart, and simply enquired, *' Is it right ?" 
 You can see him as on the fated day he retires for his accus- 
 tomed worship, and with a quickened pulse, for he knows that 
 his foes are in ambush, he enters his room, and opens his west- 
 ern window. Now he reads in the law of the Lord — then the 
 psalm rises, a little tremulous in its earlier notes, but waxing 
 louder and clearer as the inspiration comes \7ith the strain ; 
 then the prayer is heard — adoration, confession, supplication, 
 thanksgiving; nist as it had arisen from that chamber through 
 the sea. J as of some seventy years. And now the room is filled 
 with the envious ones, their eyes gleaming with triumph, and 
 they accuse him fiercely of a violation of the King's decree. He 
 does not falter, though he might have faltered as he thought of 
 the cruel death, from which the King laboured vainly until sun- 
 down to deliver him; though he might have faltered as he 
 thought of the hungry lions, kept without food on purpose thai 
 they might the more fiercely rush upon their prey ; but he does 
 not falter \ and rather than betray his conscience goes calmly 
 down to death, with the decision of the martyr, with the deci- 
 sion of the martyr's Lord. 
 
 Surely tnis is true heroism. It is not physical daring, such 
 as beneath some proud impulse will rush upon an enemy s 
 steel ; it is not reckless valour, sporting with a life which ill- 
 fortune has blighted, or which despair has made intolerable ; it 
 is not the passiveness of the stoic, through whose indifferent 
 heart no tides of feeling flow ; it is the calm courage which re- 
 flects upon its alternatives, and deliberately chooses to do right ; 
 it is the determination of Christian principle, whose foot resteth 
 on the rock, and whose eye pierceth into Heaven. 
 
 And now surely the eneiiiies are satisfied. They have com- 
 
 30 
 
 I 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON 
 
 passed the ruin of the Minister, they have wounded the heart 
 of the King ; they have removed the watchfuhiess which pre- 
 vented their extortion, and the power which restrained them 
 from wrong ; now they will enjoy their triumph ! Yes ! but 
 only for a night. The wicked do but boast themselves a 
 moment, and the shrewd observers, who meditate upon their 
 swift destruction, remember the place where it is written, 
 " They digged a pit for the righteous, and into the midst of it 
 they are fallen themselves." Oh vain are all the efforts of slan- 
 der, permanently to injure the fair fame of a good man ! There 
 is a cascade in a lovely Swiss valley, which the fierce winds 
 catch and scatter so soon as it pours over the summit of the 
 rock, and for a season the continuity of the fall is broken, and 
 you see nothing but a feathery wreath of apparently helpless 
 spray; but if you look further down the consistency is re- 
 covered, and the Staubbach pours its rejoicing waters as if no 
 breeze had blown at all ; nay, the blast which interrupts it only 
 fans it into more marvellous loveliness, and makes it a shrine 
 of beauty where all pilgrim footsteps travel. And so the blasts 
 of calumny, howl they ever so fiercely over the good man's 
 head, contribute to his juster appreciation and to his wider fame. 
 Preserve only a good conscience toward God, and a loving 
 purpose toward your fellow-men, and you need not wince nor 
 tremble, though the pack of the spaniel-hearted hound snarl 
 at your heels — 
 
 Nearer you fear, but go ahead 
 
 In self-relying strength ; 
 What matters it that Malice said, 
 
 " We've found it out at length." 
 Found out ! Found what ? An honest man 
 
 Is open as the light, 
 
 31 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 ' •; 
 
 So search as keenly as you can, 
 You'll only find — all right. 
 
 Aye ! blot him black with slander's ink. 
 
 He stands as white as snow. 
 You serve him better than you think, 
 
 And kinder than you know. 
 Yes ! be the scandal what you wil!, 
 
 Or whisper what you please ; 
 You do but fan his glory still 
 
 By whistling up a breeze. 
 
 T trust there are many of you who are emulous of Daniel's 
 heroism. The brutality of the olden persecutions has passed 
 away. Saul does not now make havoc of the Church, nor 
 Caligula nor Adrian purify it by lustrations of blood, but the 
 spirit of the oppressor lives, and there is room enough in the 
 most uneventful life for exemplary religious decision. The exi- 
 gencies of the present times, regard for your own character and 
 honour, the absolute requirement of God, all summon you to 
 this nobleness of religious decision. Resist all temptations to 
 become recreant to the truth. Remember that the Christian 
 ought to be 11 .e Achilles, who could be wounded only in the 
 heel, a part of the body which good soldiers tio not generally 
 show. Don't let the question ever be asked about you, " Is 
 such an one a Christian ? ^'' The very necessity to ask suggests 
 a negative answer. Some painters in the rude times of art are 
 said to have put under their works, '* This is a horse ! " Of 
 course ! it was necessary, for no one could possibly recognize 
 it without being told. But it is a poor sign when either a 
 work of art or a work of grace needs to be labelled. Who 
 thought of asking where Moses had been when he came down 
 
 32 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 from the mount? They looked at him, and they saw the 
 glory. Let your consistency be thus steadfast and pure. If 
 you know that the " writing is signed" which will throw you 
 upon the world's cold pity or cruel scorn because you will keep 
 your conscience inviolate, take heart from the example ot 
 Daniel. Don't shut your lattice-window. Men may ridicule 
 you, but they will respect you notwithstanding ; and if they do 
 not, you can atford to do without their good opinion, while God 
 looks down upon you with complacency, and the light of His 
 countenance shines, broad and bright, upon your soul. 
 
 I have never despaired of the future of the world in which I 
 live. I leave that to infidelity, with its sad scorn of the im- 
 mortal and its vaunt of brotherhood with the brutes that perish. 
 Humanity has been at once ransomed and glorified by Christ, 
 and though there are still dark omens round us, though " this 
 dear earth which Jesus trod is wet with tears and blood," yet 
 there is a power abroad to whose call there is something in 
 every man responsive, and the glad gospel of peace and bless- 
 ing shall yet hush the voices of earth's many wailings, and 
 speak of resurrection amid the silence of its many tombs. 
 
 And the work is being done. When I think of the agencies 
 which are ceaslessly at work to make this bad world better, I 
 iam thankful that I live. From the eminence of the proud To- 
 |day, as from an Alp of clear and searching vision, I have 
 [looked backward on the past and forward on the illimitable 
 , future. I look, and that former time seemeth as a huge pri- 
 jmeval forest, rioting in a very luxury of vegetation ; with trees of 
 [giant bole, beneath which serpents brood, and whose branches 
 [arch overhead so thickly that they keep out the sun. But as 
 
 look there is a stir in that forest, for " the feller has come 
 
 33 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 m 
 
 ill 
 
 up against the trees." All that is prescriptive and all that is 
 venerable combine to protest against the intrusion. Custom 
 shudders at the novelty ; Fraud shudders at the sunlight \ Sloth 
 shudders at the trouble ; "grey-bearded Use " leans upon his 
 staff and wonders where all this will end \ Romance is indig- 
 nant that any should dare to meddle with the old ; Affection 
 clinging to some cherished association, with broken voice and 
 with imploring hands, says^ "Woodman, spare that tree." But 
 as I look the woodman hath no pity, and at every stroke he 
 destroys the useless, or dislodges the pestilent, or slaughters? the 
 cruel. The vision vanisheth, but again— 
 
 "I look, aside the mist has rolled, 
 The waster seems the builder too ; 
 Upspringing from the ruined old 
 I see the new ! 
 
 *• Twas but the ruin of the bad, 
 
 The wasting of the wrong and ill ; 
 Whate'er of good the old time had, 
 Is living still." 
 
 The woodman is there still, but he has thrown his axe aside, 
 and now drives the ploughshare through the stubborn soil, or 
 delves in the earth as lustily as though he knew that the colours 
 of Eden were slumbering in the clods, and close upon him 
 come the planter and the sower, and soon upon the cleared 
 ground^ there is the laugh of harvest, as reapers with their 
 sickles bright 
 
 "Troop, singii 5, down the mountain-side." 
 
 That vision of the present vanisheth, and, yet further away, 
 there dawns on me the sight of the To-morrow. The wood 
 
 34 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 man and his co-workers are dead — all dead ! — but the work 
 lives on. The seeds of the former time have ripened into a 
 goodly growth, and there, on the spot where once the swamp 
 was sluggish, and where once the serpent ^vrithed, lo ! a Para' 
 dise, wherein is man the loving and the happy, into whicli 
 angels wander as of yore, and where the " voice of the Lord 
 is heard speaking in the cool of the day." 
 
 Brother, this vision is no fable. It is for an appointed time, 
 and it will not tarry. It is nearer for every outworn lie, and 
 for every trampled fraud, for each scattered truth-seed, and 
 I each kindly speech and deed. Each of us may aid it in its 
 coming. Children who fling seeds about in sport — Youth in 
 its prime — Age in its maturity — Manhood in his energy of en- 
 terprise — Womanhood in her ministry of mercy — all may speed 
 it onward. In a reverent mingling of Faith and Labour, it is 
 lours to watch and to work for it. Do not mourn the p^.st, my 
 [brother, it has given place to better times. Do not dread the 
 :oming of the future. It shall dawn in brighter and in safer 
 jlory. Come, and upon the altars of the faith be anointed as 
 the Daniels of to-day, at once the prophet and the worker — 
 le brow bright with the shining prophecy, the hands full of 
 earnest and of holy deeds. 
 
 "Thine the needed Truth to speak, 
 Right the wronged, and raise the weak j 
 Thine to make earth's desert glad, 
 In its Eden greenness clad. 
 Thine to work as well as pi"/, 
 Clearing thorny wrongs away, 
 Plucking up the weeds of sin, 
 Letting Heaven's warm sunshine in. 
 
 35 
 
DANIEL IN BABYLON. 
 
 hi: 
 
 Watching on the hills of Faith, 
 Listening what the Spirit saith, 
 Catching gleams of temple-spire - 
 Hearing notes from angel-choirs. 
 Like the seer of Patmos, gazing 
 On the glory downward blazing. 
 Till, upon earth's grateful sod^ 
 Rests the city of our God." 
 
 56 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
rfff 
 
 I 
 
 bet 
 gle; 
 amc 
 con 
 dra\ 
 my 
 a lo 
 alrn( 
 beer 
 has 
 with 
 If I 
 of n 
 The 
 has t 
 finds 
 jamn 
 Acad 
 pictu 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 I AM in (!ifficulties. There are three pictures vivid to my 
 mental eye, which will haply illustrate these difficulties 
 better than any long array of words. The first is that of a 
 gleaner, by the dim light of the moon, searching painfully 
 among the unwealiny stubble, in a harvest-field from which the 
 com has been reaped, and from which the reapers have with- 
 drawn. I am that gleaner. About the great man who is 
 my subject there has been as much said as would suffice for 
 a long course of lectures, and as much written as would 
 ahnost furnish a library. Where is the tongue which has not 
 been loosened to utter his eulogy? Where is the pen which 
 has not been swift in his praise? I have, therefore, to deal 
 with matters which are already treasured as national property. 
 If I am to furnish for you any but thin and blasted ears, I must 
 of necessity enrich myself from the full sheaves of others. 
 The second picture is that of an unfortunate individual, who 
 has to write an art-criticism upon a celebrated picture, but who 
 finds himself, with a small physique and with a horror of crowds, 
 jammed hopelessly into the front rank of the spectators at the 
 Academy, with the sun dazzling his eyes, and so near to the 
 picture that he sees little upon the canvas but a vague and 
 
 39 
 
MAC AC/LAY. 
 
 
 shapeless outline of colour. I am that unhappy critic, dazzled 
 as I look upon my subject — and both you and I are too near 
 for perfect vision. Macaulay,.as every one knows, was through 
 life identified with a political party. Even his literary efforts 
 were i)rompted by political impulses, and tinged necessarily 
 with political hues. It would seem, therefore, that to be accu- 
 rately judged he must be looked at through the haze of yeais, 
 when the strife of passion has subsided, and prepossession and 
 prejudice have alike faded in the lapse of time. The third pic- 
 ture is that of a son, keenly affectionate, but of high integrity, 
 clinging with almost reverent fondness to the memory of a 
 father, but who I'ls become conscious of one detraction, from 
 that father's excellence, which he may not conscientiously 
 conceal. I am that mourning son. There are few of you who 
 hold that marvellous Englishman more dear, or who are more 
 jealous for the renown which, on his human side, he merits, and 
 which has made his name a word of pride wherever Anglo- 
 Saxons wander. If this world were all, I could admire and 
 worship with the best of you, and no warning accompaniment 
 should mingle with the music of praise; but I should be 
 recreant to the duty which I owe to those who listen to me, 
 and traitorous to my higher stewardship as a minister of Christ, 
 if I forbore to warn you that, without godliness in the heart and 
 in the life, the most brilliant career has failed of its allotted 
 purpose, and there comes a paleness upon the lustre of the 
 very proudest fame. It is enough. Your discernment per- 
 ceives my difficulties, and your sympathy will accord me its in- 
 dulgence while we speak together of the man who was the mar- 
 vel of other lands, and who occupies no obscure place upon the 
 bright bead-roll of his own — the rhetorician, the essayist, the 
 
 40 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 poet, the statesman, the historian — Thomas Babington, first 
 and last Baron Macaulay. 
 
 From a middle-class family, in a midland county in England, 
 was born the man whom England delights to honour. The 
 place of his birth was Rothley Temple, in Leicestershire, at the 
 house of his uncle, Mr. Thomas Babington, after whom he was 
 naMied ; and the time the month of October, when the century 
 was not many moons old. His grandfather was a minister ot 
 the Kirk of Scotland, who dwelt quietly in his manse at Card- 
 ross on the Clyde. His father, after the manner of Scotchmen, 
 travelled in early life toward the south, that he might find wider 
 scope for his enterprise and industry than the country of Ma- 
 callum More could yield. His mother was the daughter of a 
 bookseller in Bristol, who was a member of the Society of 
 Friends. Some of his critics, on the ^'■post hoc propter hoc" 
 principle, have discovered in these two facts the reasons of his 
 after severity against Scotchmen and Quakers. When, in these 
 times, we ask after a man's parentage, it is not that we may 
 know by how many removes he is allied to the Plantagenets, 
 nor how many quarterings he is entitled to grave upon his shield. 
 Estates and names are not the only inheritances of children. 
 They inherit the qualities by which estates are acquired or 
 scattered, and by which men carve out names for themselves, 
 the prouder because they are self-won. Influences which are 
 thrown around them in the years of early life are vital, almost 
 creative in their power, upon the future of their being. You 
 look upon a child in the rounded dimples of its happiness, with 
 large wonder in its eyes, and brow across which sun and sliadow 
 chase each other ceaselessly. It is all unconscious of its solemn 
 stewardship, and of the fine or fatal destiny which it may 
 
 41 
 
MACAULAY, 
 
 , I .' 
 
 achieve ; but you take the thoughts of responsibility and of 
 influence into account, and you feel that of all known and terri- 
 ble forces, short of Omnipotence, the mightiest may slumber in: 
 that cradle, or look wistfully from out those childish eyes. You 
 look at it again when the possible of the child has developed 
 into the actual of the man. The life purpose has been chosen, 
 and there is the steady striving for its accomplishment. The 
 babe who once slumbered so helplessly has become the village 
 Hampden, or the cmel Claverhouse ; the dark blasphemer, or 
 the ready helper of the friendless ; the poet, in his brief felony 
 of the music of Paradise, or the missionary in his labour to re- 
 store its lost blessings to mankind. You migh^ ;dmost have pre- 
 dicted the result, because you knew the : fi^ cnces, subtle but 
 mighty, which helped to confirm him in the right, or which 
 helped to warp him to the wrong. And who shall say in the 
 character of each of us, how much we are indebted to heredi- 
 tary endowments, to early association, to the philosophy of pa- 
 rental rule, and to that retinue of circumstances which guarded 
 us as we emerged from the ^'■eamland of childhood into the 
 actual experiences of life? 
 
 In the character and habits of Macaulay the results of these 
 influences may be very largely discovered. Those of you who 
 are familiar with the wicked wit of Sydney Smith will remember 
 his reference to " the patent Christianity of Clapham ; " and in Sir 
 James Stephen's inimitable essay, the worthies of the Clapham 
 sect are portrayed with such fidelity and power that we feel their 
 presence, and they are familiar to us as the faces of to-day. Let us 
 look in upon them on a summer's eve some fifty years ago. 
 We are in the house - ': Henry Thornton, the wealthy 
 banker, and for many years the independent representative of 
 
 
 43 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 the faithful constituency of Southwark. The guests assemble 
 in such numbers that it might almost be a gathering of ihe 
 clan. They have disported on the spacious lawn, beneath the 
 shadow of venerable elms, until the evening warns them 
 inside, and they are in the oval saloon, projected and deco- 
 rated, in his brief leisure, by William Pitt, and filled, to 
 every available inch, with a well-selected library. Take 
 notice of the company, for men of mark are here. There is 
 Henry Thornton himself, lord of the innocent and happy revels, 
 with open brow and searching eye ; with a mind subtle to per- 
 ceive and bright to harmonize the varied aspects of a question ; 
 with a tranquil soul, and a calm, judicial, persevering wisdom, 
 which, if it never rose into heroism, was always ready to coun- 
 sel and sustain the impulses of the heroism of others. That 
 slight, agile, re itless little man, with a crowd about him, whose 
 rich voice rolls like music upon charmed listeners, as if he were 
 a harper who played upon all hearts at his pleasure, can that 
 be the apostle of the brotherhood ? By what process of com- 
 pression did the great soul of Wilberforce get into a frame so 
 slender ? It is the old tale of the genius and the fisherman re- 
 vived. He is fairly abandoned to-night to the current of his 
 own joyous fancies j now contributing to the stream of earnest 
 talk which murmurs through the room, and now rippling into a 
 merry laugh, light-hearted as a sportive child. There may be 
 seen the burly form, and heard the sonorous voice of William 
 Smii/i, the active member for Nonvich, separated from the rest 
 in theological beliefs, but linked with them in all human 
 charities; who at threescore years and ten could say that he 
 had no remembrance of an illness, and that though the head of 
 a numerous family, not a fuiural had ever started from his 
 
 43 
 
AfACAULAY. 
 
 •door. Yonder, with ;in absent .u'r, as if awakened from some 
 dear dream of proj^liery, sits GravviUc Sharp^ thai man of 
 chivalrovis goodness : st(Mn to indignation against every form of 
 wrongdoing. gentU' to tenderness tow.rds the individual wrong 
 <1oer. The author of many pubhralions, tlie patron of many 
 so( ieties, the exjioser of many abuses, there was underlying the 
 earnest ]nniiose of his life a festive himiour which made the 
 worUl hapin' to him, and which gladdened the circle of his 
 home. His leisure was divided, when he was not <alled to the 
 councils of Clapham, between his barge, his pencil, and his 
 harp, the latter oi which he averred was after the jirecise pat- 
 tern of David's; and strollers through the Temple (hardens in 
 the early morning might often hear his voice, though broken by 
 age, singing to il, as in a strange land, and "by the river" ol 
 the modern " l^abylon," one o'i the songs t)f Zion. In his later 
 yeai-s the study o^ ]nophecy absorbed him, and wo smile at the 
 kindlv aberrations which devised portable wool-packs to save 
 the lives at once of exjiosed soldiers in the Peninsula, and of 
 starving artisans at home ; which thought that in King Alfred's 
 law K>i tVankpledge there was a remedy for all the sorrows of 
 Sierra Leone, and which mourned over the degeneracy ol 
 statesmen, because Charles VV»x, whom he saw at the l'\)reign 
 C)tlue. had never so much as heard of Daniel's " Little Horn." 
 Ai^iironching with a half impatient look, as if he longed to be 
 breathing the tresh air in some glen of Needwood Chase, comes 
 Thomas Gishornc, the sworn friend of Natui'c, to whom she 
 whisjiered all her secrets (^i bird and stream and tree, and who 
 loved her with a p'are love, less only than that which he felt for 
 the souls in his homely parish to whom he ministered the Word 
 of Lite. There, in a group, eagerly conversing together, are the 
 
 44 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 Inmcnlcd yA'7fv//r/', and the elder Strphcti, —Charles (i)aftt,\\\v\\ 
 the reputed mitocrat of that Leadenh.ill Street whose glory has 
 so recently dei)artcd, and /(?////, TA^rd Teij^nmouth, whose ([iiiet, 
 gentlemanly fare one rould better imagine in the chair of the 
 IJihle Society, than ruling in viceregal i (mp over the vast em- 
 pireof India. Summoned up from ('amhridge to the gathering 
 there is Isaac Mihicr, "of lofty stature, vast girth, and super- 
 incumbent wig," charged perhaps with some message of affc«:- 
 tion from good old John Venn, who then lay (juietly waiting 
 until his change should <-f)me ; and Charles Simeon., redeemed 
 from all affectations, as he is kindled by the reading of a letter 
 which has just reached him from the far lOast, and vvhidi bears 
 the signature of Iletn-y Martyn. Are we mistaken, or did we 
 discover in the crowd, lighted up with a fme benignity, the 
 countenance of the accomplished Mackintosh ? And surely 
 there (lilted by us, with ( haracleristic liaste, that active, working, 
 marvellously expressive face which could answer to no oiIkt 
 nanu' than that of f/enry fhouij^ham. 'I'here is just one more 
 figure in the corner upon whom we must for a moment lin- 
 ger, and as we p.iss towards him that we may get a nearer 
 vision, look at that group of three ingenuous youths, drinking 
 in the rich flow of soul with feelings of mingled shyness and 
 pride. Oui you tell their fortunes? The interpreting years 
 would show them to you — the one dying beloved and honoured 
 as the Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, the second 
 living, as the active and cloipicnt I'ishop of Oxford,* and the 
 the third the future historian of his country, and one of her 
 most renowned and most lamented sons. 
 
 With beetling brows, and figure robust but ungaijily, slow ol 
 
 
 * Now of Wiiichcslcr. 
 
 45 
 
%i: 
 
 MACAULAY. 
 
 !:ii 
 
 speech, and with a face which told no tale, described as the 
 man " whose understanding was proof against sophistry, and 
 his nerves against fear," and who, though his demeanour was 
 " inanimate, if not austere, excited among his chosen circle a 
 faith approaching to superstition, and a love rising to enthu- 
 siasm." — What was the secret of Zachary Macaulay's power ? 
 Just this, the consecration of every energy to the one purpose 
 upon which his life was offered as a living sacrifice — the sweep- 
 ing from the face of the earth of the wrong and shame of 
 slavery. An eye-witness of its abominations in Jamaica, a long 
 resident at Sierra Leone, with the slave-trade flourishing around 
 him, he became impressed wi*^h the conviction that God had 
 called him to do battle with this giant sin, and from that 
 moment he lived apart, lifted above ordinary cares and aims by 
 the grandeur of this solemn inspiration. For this cause he 
 laboured without weariness, and wrote with force and vigour. 
 For this cause he suffered slander patiently, made light of fame 
 and fortune, wasted health, and died poor. His friends marked 
 thi. self-devotion, and respected it. They bowed in homage to 
 the majesty of goodness. They regarded him almost as a 
 being of superior order, while so deep was his h\imility, and so 
 close his fellowship with God, that it became easy to imagine 
 that he dwelt habitually in the presence of the shining ones, 
 and that the glory of the mount upon which his footsteps often 
 lingered, shone about him as he sojourned among men. 
 
 Such were the men who, as leaders of the "Clapham sect," 
 aj it was called, drew down the wonder of the worldly, and 
 provoked the scoffing of the proud. 
 
 Oh rare and sacred fellowship ! Where is the limner who 
 will preserve for us these features upon canvas ? Already 
 
 46 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 upon our walls we can live with the renowned and the worthy. 
 We see the great Duke in the midst of his com panions-in- arms ; 
 we are at home with Dr. Johnson and his friends ; we are pre- 
 sent when John Wesley dies ] we can nod familiarly to a group 
 of free-traders ; we can recognise noble sheep-breeders and 
 stalwart yeomen at an agricultural show -, why should our moral 
 heroes be forgotten ? Who will paint the Clapham sect for us ? 
 Their own age derided them ; let us, their posterity, enthrone 
 them with double honour. They sowed the seeds of which the 
 harvest waveth now. It was theirs to commence, amid un- 
 friendly watchers, those wide schemes of philanthropy which 
 have made the name of England blessed. Catching the man- 
 tle of those holy men who in the early part of the last cen- 
 tury were the apostles of the second Reformation, they had 
 perhaps a keener sense of the difficulties of evangelism, and a 
 more practical knowledge of the manners and customs of the 
 world. Fearlessly as their fathers had testified in attestation of 
 some vital doctrine, they bore their heroic witness against in- 
 solent oppression and wrong ; and to them we owe the creation 
 of that enlightened public opinion which has made the nation a 
 commonwealth, and the world a neighbourhood, which is so 
 prolific in its merciful inventions in the times in which we live ; 
 and which, while it screens the peasant's thatch, protects 
 the beggar's conscience, and uplifts the poor man's home, is so 
 world-wide in its magnificence of charity, that it has an ear for 
 the plaint of the exile, a response to the cry of the Sudra, and 
 a tear for the sorrows of the slave. 
 
 With such healthy and stirring influences surrounding him, 
 Macaulay passed his childhood; and though in after years he 
 became the student rather than the worker, — " brought over," 
 
 ( 
 
 47 
 
M AC AULA Y. 
 
 as Mr. Maurice significantly says, "from the party of the saints 
 to the party of the Whigs." — the results of the association 
 stamped themselves upon his character, and we can trace them 
 in his sturdy independence and consistent love of liberty, in 
 his rare appreciation of the beauty of moral goodness, and in 
 the quiet energy of perseverance which urged him to the mas- 
 tery of every subject he handled, a.id which stored his mind 
 so richly that he grew into a living encyciopcedia of knowledge, 
 i'he world has recently been enriched with information upon 
 the subject of Macaulay's childhood, from the letters addressed 
 to his father by the venerable Hannah More. This remarkable 
 woman — sprightly at seventy as at twenty-five — was a living 
 link between the celebrities of two ages, and wielded, from her 
 retirement at Barley Wood, an influence of which it is scarcely 
 possible for us to estimate the extent and value. Rich in 
 recollections of Garrick, Burke, Walpole, and Johnson, she 
 entered heartily into the schemes and interests of the world of 
 later times, and many were the eminent names who sought her 
 counsel, or who prized her correspondence and friendship. 
 Her interest in the Macaulay family was ir.creased by the fact 
 that the Selina Mills, whom Zachary Macaulay afterwards mar- 
 ried, had been under her charge as a pupil, when she and her 
 sister kept a school in Bristol. From her letters we learn the 
 impression of extraordinary endowment which the young 
 Macaulay gave. When he had attained the mature age of 
 eight, she rejoices "that his classicality has not extinguished his 
 piety," and adds — " his hymns were really extraordinary for 
 such a baby." What better illustration can there be of the old 
 adage that poets are born, not made ! " He lisped in numbers, 
 and the numbers came." In his twelfth year, when the mo- 
 
 48 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 in 
 
 mentous question of a public school was debaced in the 
 j)arental councils, Hannah More gives her judgment in favour 
 of his being sent to Westminster by day — thus, as she thought, 
 securing the discipline and avoiding the danger. And in the 
 same letter she says, " Yours, like Edwin, is no vulgar boy, and 
 will require attention in proportion to his great superiority of 
 intellect and quickness of passion. He ought to have compe- 
 titors. He is like the prince who refused to play with anything 
 but kings, I never saw any one bad propensity in him ; nothing 
 except natural frailty and ambition, inseparable, perhaps, from 
 such talents and so lively an imagination. He appears sincere, 
 veracious, tender-hearted, and affectionate." It would seem 
 that private tuition was thought to have the advantage over 
 public schools, for the Rev. Matthew M. Preston, then of 
 Shelford, Cambridgeshire, and subsequently of Aspden House, 
 Herts, was entrusted with the educational guardianship of young 
 Macaulay. During his residence here, he is described as a 
 studious, thoughtful boy, rather largely built than otherwise, 
 with a head which seemed too big for his body, stooping 
 shoulders, and pallid face ; not renowned either at boating or 
 cricket, nor any of the other articles in the creed of muscular 
 Christianity, but incessantly reading or writing or repeating 
 ballad-poetry by the yard or by the hour. Hannah More says 
 that during a visit to Barley Wood, he recited all Bishop 
 Heber's prize poem of " Palestine," and that they had "poetry 
 for breakfast, dinner, and supper." She laboured hard to 
 impress him with Sir Henry Saville's notion that poets are the 
 best writers of all, next to those who have written prose, and 
 seems to have been terribly afraid lest he should turn out a 
 poet after all. It was about this period that he wrote an 
 D 49 
 
MAC/fULAV. 
 
 !■' 
 
 epitaph on Henry Martyn, which has been published as his 
 earhest effort, and which other judges than partial ones will 
 pronounce excellent, to have been written by a boy of twelve : — 
 
 *' Here Martyn lies ! in manhood's early bloom, 
 The Christian hero found a Pagan tomb ! ^ 
 
 Religion, sorrowing o'er lier favourite son, 
 Points to the glorious trophies which he won. 
 Immortal 1 rophies ! not with slaughter red, 
 Not stained with t ars by helpless orphans shed j 
 But trophies of the Cross ! In that dear Name, 
 Through every scene of danger, toil, an*^ shame, 
 Onward he journeyed to that happy shore, 
 Where dah jer, toil, and shame are known no more. " 
 
 In the fifteenth year of his age, we find the young student, 
 with characteristic eneigy, coming out as a church reformer, 
 assailing the time-honoured prerogative of parish clerks, and 
 making "heroic exertions" to promote, in the village where he 
 worshipped, the responses of the congregation at large. The 
 same period was signalised by the appearance of his first 
 cr'tical essay, and of his earliest published work — the criticism, 
 however, ventured only in a letter to Barley Wood, and the 
 work being neither an epic nor a treatise, but an index to the 
 thirteenth volume of the Christian Observer, It seems that his 
 fatLer shared the jealousy of his poetical tendencies which 
 Hannah More so frequently expressed ; and to curb his 
 Pegasus, imposed on him the cultivation of prose composition, 
 in one of its most useful, if not of its most captivating styles. 
 The letter in which Macaulay talks the critiques, and alludes to 
 the forthcoming publication, shall tell its own tale, and you 
 may forget or remember, as you please, that the writer was not 
 
 50 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 yet fifteen. After alkiding to the illness of Mr. Henry Thornton, 
 and to Hannah More's recovery from the effects of an accident 
 by fire, he says : 
 
 " Every eminent writer of poetr}'-, good or bad, has been 
 publishing within the last month, or is to publish shortly. Lord 
 Byron's pen is at work over a poem as yet nameless. Lucien 
 Buonaparte has given the world his ' Charlemagne.' Scott has 
 published his ' Lord of the Isles,' in six cantos — a beautiful and 
 elegant poem ; and Southey his ' Roderick, the last of the 
 Goths.' Wordsworth has printed ' The Excursion' (a ponderous 
 quarto of five hundred pages), bcmg a portion of the intended 
 poem entitled 'The Recluse.' What the length of this intended 
 poem is to be, as the Grand Vizier said of the Turkish poet — 
 ' n'est connu qu'4 Dieu et k M. Wordsworth ' — this forerunner, 
 however, is co say no more, almost as long as it is dull ; not 
 but that there are many striking and beautiful passages inter- 
 spersed ; but who would wade through a poem 
 
 *' Where perhaps one beauty shines 
 In the dry desert of a thousand lines." 
 
 To add to the list, my dear Madam, you will soon see a work 
 of mine in print. Do not be frightened ; it is only the Index 
 to the thirteenth volume of the Christian Observer, which I 
 have had the honour of composing. Index-making, though the 
 lowest, is not the most useless round in the ladder of literature ; 
 and I pride myself upon being able to say that there are many 
 readers of the Christian Observer who could do without Walter 
 Scott's works, but not without those of 
 
 " My dear Madam, your affectionate friend, 
 
 " Thomas B. Macaulay." 
 
 51 
 
 
 i 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 !^:i I' 
 
 ii i 
 
 From Mr. Preston's roof Macaulay proceeded in due course 
 to Trinity College, Cambridge, the alma mater of so many 
 distinguished sons, proud in the past of the fame of those 
 whose " mens divinior''' first developed itself within her classic 
 precincts — her Bacon, Newton, Milton, Barrow — as she will be 
 proud in the future of her later child, who spake of their great- 
 ness to the world. Such is reported to have been his distaste 
 for mathematics that he did not compete for honours, but he 
 twice carried off the Chancellor's medal for prize-poems on the 
 subjects respectively of "Pompeii, ' und "Evening;" gained 
 the Craven scholarship; and in 1822 obtained his Bachelor's 
 degree. It should not be forgotten, and the mention of it may 
 hearten into hope again some timid youth who has been dis- 
 couraged by partial failure, that a third poem, on the inspiring 
 subject of "Waterloo," failed to obtain the prize. In 1825 his 
 Master's degree was taken, and in the year following he was 
 called to the bar. 
 
 It was during his residence at the University that he started 
 as an adventurer into that world of letters, which is so stony- 
 hearted to the friendless and the feeble, but v/hich, once 
 propitiated or mastered, speeds the vigorous or the fortunate to 
 the temple of fame. He was happy in the enterprising indi- 
 vidual who first enlisted his ready pen. There were times when 
 the publisher was as a grim ogre, who held the writer in his 
 thrall ; and there would be material for many an unwritten 
 chapter of the " Calamities of Authors," if one could but 
 recount the affronts put upon needy genius by vulgar but 
 wealthy pride. They are to be congratulated who find a pub- 
 lisher with a heart to sympathise and a soul to kindle, as well 
 as with brows to knit and head to reckon. It was well for 
 
 52 
 
I 
 
 MACAULAY. 
 
 Macaulay, though his genius would have burst through all 
 trammels, that he was a genial leader under whose banners he 
 won his spurs of literary fame. There are few names which 
 the literature of modem times should hold in dearer remem- 
 brance than the name of Charles Knight, at once the Meca^nas 
 of youthful authorship, and a worthy fellow-labourer with the 
 band whom he gathered around him. He yet lives in tht; 
 midst of us, though in the winter of his years. Long may it 
 be ere Jerrold's apt epitaph be needed, and the last " Good 
 Knight " be breathed above the turf that wraps his clay ! 
 
 A goodly band of choice spirits those were, who, under 
 various names, enriched the pages of " Knight's Quarterly 
 Magazine." It is not too much to say, however, that though 
 John Moultrie, Nelson Coleridge, and Winthrop Praed were 
 among the valued contributors, the great charm of the magazine, 
 during its brief but brilliant existence, was in the articles 
 signed " Tristram Merton," which was the literary alias ot 
 Thomas Macaulay. In these earlier productions of his pen 
 there are the foreshadowings of his future eminence, the same 
 flashes of genius, the sanxe antithetical power, the same pro- 
 digious learning, the same marvellous wealth of illustration, 
 which so much entrance and surprise us in his later years. His 
 versatility is amazing. Nothing comes amiss to him : Italian 
 poets and Athenian orators — the revels of Alcibiades, and the 
 gallantries of Caesar, the philosophy of history, and the abstruser 
 questions of political science, — all are discussed with boldness 
 and fervour by this youth of twenty-four summers ; while those 
 who read his fragments of a parish law-suit, and a projected 
 epic, will pronounce him " of an infinite humour ;" and those 
 who read his "Songs of the Huguenots," and of the "Civil 
 
 53 
 
 
 ii 
 
 .; I 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 m 
 
 War," will recognise the first martial outbursts of the poet-soul 
 which flung its fiery words upon the world in the "Lays ot 
 Ancient Rome." His old love of the ballad, which had been 
 a passion in his schoolboy life, was not entirely overborne by his 
 api)lication to graver studies. Calliope had not yet been sup- 
 planted by Clio, and he sung the Battle of Naseby, for example, 
 with a force of rushing words which takes our hearts by storm, 
 in spite of olden prejudice or political creed, and which, in 
 what some critics would call a wanton perversion of power, 
 carries away the most peace-loving amongst us in a momentary 
 insanity for war : 
 
 ■* Oh ! wherefore come ye forth, in triumph from the North, 
 With your hands ana your feet and your raiment all red ? 
 And wherefore doth your rout send forth a joyous shout? 
 And whence be the grapes of the wine-press which ye tread? 
 
 " Oh ! evil was the root, and bitter was the fruit, 
 
 And crimson was the juice of the vintage that we trod ; 
 For we trampled on the throng of the haughty and the strong. 
 Who sate in the high places and slew the saints of God. 
 
 *' It was about the noon of a glorious day of June, 
 
 That we saw their banners dance and their cuirasses shine ; 
 And the Man of Blood was there, with his long essenced hair. 
 And Astley, and Sir Marmaduke, and Rupert of the Rhine. 
 
 '• Like a servant of the Lord, with his Bible and his sword, 
 The General rode along us to form us for the tight, 
 When a murmuring sound broke out, and swelled into a shout, 
 Among the godless horsemen upon the tyrant's right. 
 
 *' And hark ! like the roar of the billows on the shore, 
 The cry of battle rises along their charging line — 
 For God ! for the Cause ! for the Church ! for the Laws! 
 For Charles, King of England, and Rupert of the Rhine! 
 
 54 
 
MAC A (/LAV. 
 
 " The furious German comes, with his clarions and his drums, 
 His b-avoes of Alsatia and pages of "Whitehall; 
 They are bursting on our flanks. Grasp your pik«s: — close your 
 rank? : 
 For Rupert never comes but to conquer or to fall. 
 
 Stout Skippon hath a wound : — the centre hath given ground : — 
 Hark ! hark ! — What means the trampling of horsemen on our rear? 
 
 Whose banner do I see, boys ? 'Tis he, thank God, 'tis he, boys, 
 Bear up another minute. Brave Oliver is here ! 
 
 Their heads all stooping low, their points all in a row, 
 
 Like a whirlwind on the trees, like a deluge on the dykes, 
 
 Our cuirassiers have burst on the ranks of the Accurst, 
 And at a shock have scattered the forests of his pikes. 
 
 Fast, fast the gallants ride, in some safe nook to hide 
 Their coward heafls, predestined to rot on Temple-Bar, 
 
 And he — he turns, he flies, — shame on those cruel eyes 
 That bore to look on torture, and dared not look on war. 
 
 " Fools ! your doublets shone with gold, and your hearts were gay and 
 bold, 
 When you kissed your lily hands to your lemans to-day. 
 And to-morrow shall the fox, from her chambers in the rocks, 
 Lead forth her tawny cub? to howl above the prey. 
 
 " And she of the seven hills shall mourn her childreri's ills. 
 
 And tremble when she thinks on the edge of England's sword; 
 And the kings of earth in fear shall shudder when they hear 
 What the hand of God hath wrought for the Houses and the Word.' 
 
 Tt has been said that a speech delivered by Macaiilay, on 
 the great question which absorbed his father's life, attracted 
 the notice of Jeffrey, then seeking for young blood wherewith 
 
 55 
 
MACAU LAY. 
 
 to enrich the pages of the " Edinburgh Review," and that this 
 was the cause of his introduction into the guild of literat'ire, of 
 which he became the decus et tutamen. The world is now 
 familiar wi i that series of inimitable essays, which were poured 
 out in rap.d and apparently inexhaustible succession, for the 
 space of twenty years. To criticise them, either in mass or in 
 detail, is no part of the lecturer's province ; and even to 
 enumerate them would entail a pilgrimage to many and distant 
 shrines. As we surrender ourselves to his masterly guidance, 
 we are fascinated beneath a life-like biography, or enchained 
 by some sweet spell of travel we pronounce upon canons of 
 criticism, and solve problems of government with a calm 
 dogmatism which is troubled by no misgivings ; we range 
 unquestioned through the Court at Potsdam, mix in Italian 
 intrigues, and settle Spanish successions \ and, under the robe of 
 the sagacious ^^urleigh, peer out upon the presence chamber of 
 Elizabeth herself. Now, with Clive and Hastings, we tread the 
 sultry Ind — our path glittering with " barbaric pearl and gold" 
 — now on bloody Chalgrove we shudder to see Hampden fall, 
 and anon we gaze upon the glorious dreamer, as he listens 
 musingly to the dull plash of the water from his cell on Bedford 
 Bridge. We stand aside, and are awed while Byron raves, and 
 charmed while Milton sings. Addison condescendingly writes 
 for us, and Chatham declaims in our presence ; Madame 
 d'Arblay trips lightly along the corridor, and Boswell comes 
 ushering in his burly idol, and smirking like the showman of a 
 giant. We watch the process curiously as an unfortunate poet 
 is impaled amid the scattered Sibyllines of the reviews which 
 puffed him ; and we hold our breath while the Nemesis descends 
 to crucify the miscreant Barfire. In all moods of mind, in all 
 
 56 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 varieties of experience, there is something for us of instruction 
 or of warning. If we pause, it is from astonishment ; if we are 
 wearied, it is from excess of splendour ; we are in a gorgeous 
 saloon, from whose walls flash out upon us a long array of 
 pictures, many of them Pre-Raphaelite in colour ; and we are 
 so dazzled by the brilliant hues, and by the effective grouping, 
 that it is long ere we can ask ourselves whether they are true to 
 nature, or to those deeper convictions which our spirits have 
 struggled to attain. Criticism, for a season, becomes the vassal 
 of delight; and we know not whether most to admire the 
 prodigality of knowledge or the precision of utterance — the 
 sagacity which foresees, or the fancy which embellishes — the 
 tolerant temper, or the moral courage. 
 
 In these essays Macaulay has written his mental autobiography. 
 He has done for us in reference to himself what, with all his 
 brilliancy, he has often failed to do for us in his portraitures of 
 others. He has shown us the man. He has anatomised his 
 own nature. As in a glass we may here see him as he is. He 
 is not the thinker — reverent, hesitating, troubled, but the rare 
 expositor of the thoughts of elder time. He is not the 
 discerner of spirits, born to the knowledge of others in the 
 birth-pangs of his own regeneration, but the omnivorous reader, 
 familiar with every corner of the book-world, and divining from 
 the entrails of a folio, as the ancient augurs from the entrails of 
 a bird. He is not the prophet, but has a shrewdness of insight 
 which often stimulates the prophet's inspiration. He is not the 
 philosopher, laying broad and deep the foundations of a new 
 system, but the illustrator, stringing upon old systems a multitude 
 of gathered facts ; not dry nor tiresome, but transmuted into 
 logic or poetry by the tire that burned within him. He is not 
 
 > i 
 
 57 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 iiM r 
 
 the mere partisan, save only "in that unconscious disingen- 
 uousness from whicl] the most upright man when strongly- 
 attached to an opinion is seldom ^ wholly free," but the 
 discriminating censor, who can deride the love-locks and 
 fopperies of the Cavalier, and yet admire his chivalrous loyalty ; 
 who can rejoice in the stern virtues of the Puritan, and yet 
 laugh at his small scruples and his nasal twang. He is not, 
 alas ! the Christian apostle, the witness alike amid the gloom of 
 Gethsemane and on the Mount of Vision ; not for him are either 
 those agonies or that mountain-baptism ; " he would have feared 
 to enter into the cloud." He '.s rather the Hebrew scribe, 
 astonished at the marvellous works, eager and fluent in recording 
 them, and yet retaining his earthward leanings, and cherishing 
 his country's dream of the advent of a temporal Messiah. 
 
 The first essay, that on Milton, at once established 
 Macaulay's fame. In later years, he spoke of it as overloaded 
 with gaudy and ungraceful ornament, and *' as containing 
 scarcely a paragraph such as his matured judgment approved." 
 There are many yet, however, with whom its high moral tone, 
 courage, and healthy freshness of feeling will atone for its 
 occasional dogmatism, and for the efflorescence of its style. 
 Who has not glowed to read that description of the Puritan 
 worthies, " whose palaces were houses not made with hands ; 
 their diadems crowns of glory which should never fade away. 
 On the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests, they 
 looked down with contempt, for they esteemed themselves rich 
 in n more precious treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime 
 language; nobles by the right of an earlier creation, and priests 
 by the imposition of a mightier hand ?" 
 
 Scarcely less eloquent, though much less known, is the 
 
 58 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 description of the influence of the literature of Athens, which 
 I quote as a fair example of the essayist's early style : 
 
 " It is a subject on which I love to forget the accuracy of a 
 judge in the veneration of a worshipper, and the gratitude of a 
 child. If we consider merdy the subtlety of disquisition, the 
 force of imagination, the perfect energy and eloquence of 
 expression, which characterise the great works of Athenian 
 genius, we must pronounce them intrinsically most valuable ; 
 but what shall we say when we reflect that from hence have 
 sprung, directly or indirectly, all the noblest creations of the 
 human intellect — that from hence were the vast accomplish- 
 ments and the brilliant fancy of Cicero ; the withering fire of 
 Juvenal ; the plastic imagination of Dante ; the humour of 
 Cervantes ; the comprehension of Bacon ; the wit of Butler ; 
 the supreme arid universal excellence of Shakspeare? All the 
 triumphs of truth and genius over prejudice and power, in 
 every country and in every age, have been the triumphs of 
 Athens. Wherever a few great minds have made a stand 
 against violence and fraud, in the cause of liberty and reason, 
 there has been her spirit in the midst of them — inspiring, 
 encouraging, consoling ; by the lonely lamp of Erasmus ; by 
 the restless bed of Pascal ; in the tribune of Mirabeau ; in the 
 cell of Gahleo ; on the scaffold of Sidney. But who shall 
 estimate her influence on private happiness? Who shall say 
 how many thousands have been made wiser, happier, and 
 better, by those pursuits in which she has taught mankmd to 
 engage? — to how many the studies which took their rise from 
 her have been wealth in poverty, liberty in bondage, health in 
 sickness, society in solitude ? Her power is indeed manifested 
 at the bar, in the senate, in the field of battle, in the schools of 
 
 ' 4 
 
 59 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 w\W 
 
 
 philosophy. But these are not her glory. Wherever literature 
 consoles sorrow, or nssiiages pain, wherever it brings gladness 
 to eyes which (ail with wakefulness and tears, and ache for the 
 dark house and the long sleep, there is exhibited in its noblest 
 form the immortal influence of Athens. The dervise, in the 
 Arabian tale, did not hesitate to abandon to his conrade the 
 camels with their load of jewels and gold, while he reiained the 
 casket of that mysterious juice which enabled him to behold at 
 one glance all the hidden riches of the universe. Surely it 
 is no exaggeration to say that no external advantage is to be 
 compared with that purification of the intellectual eye which 
 gives us to contemplate the infinite wealth of the mental wcrld, 
 all the hoarded treasures of its primeval dynasties, all the 
 shapeless ore of its yet unexplored mines. This is the gift ol 
 Athens to man. Her freedom and her power have for more 
 than twenty centuries been annihilated ; her people have 
 degenerated into timid slaves ; her language into a barbarous 
 jargon ; her temples have been given up to the successive 
 depredations of Romans, Turks, and Scotchmen ; but her 
 intellectual empire is imperishable. And when those who have 
 rivalled her greatness shall have shared her fate ; when civil- 
 ization and knowledge shall have fixed their abode in distant 
 continents ; when the scei)tre shall have iv^sed away from 
 England ; when, perhaps, travellers from distant regions shall 
 in vain labour to decipher on some mouldering pedestal the 
 name of our proudest chief — shall hear savage hymns chanted 
 to some misshapen idol over the ruined dome of our proudest 
 temple, and shall see a single naked fisherman wash his nets in 
 the river of the ten thousand masts — her influence and her 
 ^lory will still survive, fresh in eternal youth, 'exempt from 
 
 60 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 miit.ihility and d'.;cay, immortal as the intellectual principle 
 from wlich they derived their origin, and over which they 
 exenise their control." 
 
 Yoi' v'll not fail to perceive in the last sentence of this 
 (inotation the first sketch of the celebrated New Zealander, 
 who has certaitily earned the privilege of a free seat on London 
 Bridge, by tlie fre(|iiency with which he has "pointed a moral 
 and adorned a tale." In his finished form, and busy at his 
 melancholy work, he appenrs in an article on " Ranke's 
 History of the I'opes," to illustrate Macauiays principle of the 
 perpetuity of the Roman (Jatholic Church: — "She saw the 
 commencement of all the governments, and of all the ecMJc- 
 siastical establishments that now exist in the world ; and we feel 
 no assurance that she is not destined to see the end of them 
 all. She was great and respected before the Saxon had set 
 foot in Britain, before the I'Vank had passed the Rhine, when 
 (irecian elocjuence still flourished at Antiocli, when idols were 
 still worshipped in the temi)le of Mecca. And she may still 
 exist in undiminished vigour when some traveller from New 
 Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on 
 a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. 
 Paul's." As one reads this oracular announcement, one is 
 ready to en(|uire, ' Is it really so ? Is the tide to roll back so 
 far? Are all the strugg[es of the ages fruiUess? Has the 
 light streamed into the darkness only that the darkness may not 
 comprehend it? The blood of our lathers, shed in the battle 
 for dear life, that life of the spirit which is costlier far than this 
 poor life of the body — has it ilowcid in vain ? ' Ah ! he sees but 
 events on the level, and the mists of the past dim the eyes that 
 would penetrate the future. Let us get up higher, higher than 
 
 6i 
 
 <^-f<^ 
 
M,u .in .iy 
 
 I. J.. 
 
 thr p iin. l\i|iluM tli.m (hr pl.tlraii. hij^luM \\\:\u \]\c t.iMc l.in<l, 
 c\An on to llu^ siimnni wlu-x' I'liilh n^sls upon llu- piDtuisi's 
 :\\u\ .'nvMils |\UiiMillv tluMV luliilnuMil ; ;iM(| in llir Iij-JH ol th,U 
 « K\n n7in(% \vln» h is itnrloiidi^i In llic loji oi bv (lir 'JmiIo 
 
 w 
 
 shall lo.nn otlu'i lessons (Ii,\n llu^so. \\"r sli;)l 
 
 w, 
 
 -I r one 
 
 |>\nposo in t'lo Inst. 'y >! the mitions, in tlu- |M('|);n,nion ol 
 1% = tval '^1 Inndt-uh rs. in llir sulitii(!in,iMtin, 
 rovtnnr. to tl»o inilt^Min}' ol" (mic r.i ind 
 
 rUion* los. \n 
 
 bvMh of r.Oi^l ,;• i 
 
 ilosign. Wo sbai -oo a ; -^UMnul vi'lij;ioiis nioxenu'iil Mw.ilvcncd. 
 jirownig. jvuhoving sitcnglh. and piop.ning in scnrl loi (ho 
 
 tninistrv \vln« h its nvniliood is \o wu-ld. \\"r sli.dl 
 
 llial 
 
 ]^\Hostantisni has hold «^l the world's nnrlltrlual wcahh. 
 sproails hcrsolt anionj; now juoplos as a nnssionaiv power, 
 broathrs o\im> ni Kt^nnsh ronntiii^s as a hoahn}; and saliilary 
 breath, and is luaxu);; mv (Mis» loiislv \n ommv traini<lrd land 
 whi«"]i voavns and pjoans lor trei dvMn. \\\^ shall s(\' st irnco 
 CNtondinj; Ium discoxerios. anil Topcav is at xariamr wUh 
 seienv'o . VMuration ilitVusinj; her hrniMil. and Topriv shrinks 
 hon) knowlodi^o ; 1 ihertv pintnii; lorlh ho\ hand that sials may 
 tourh It. and loa]> at tho tvMuh nUo lioonion. and Topcry 
 
 annot harho\n tho tV 
 
 00 . Sonpturo \nu\ orsallv «iroulalod. ani 
 
 Follow 1o\os uo{ tlio \\\h\c . and ihon. rt^noniluMini; that W(> 
 1 o\ pri>phoov. wo Kntwv that its tlooni is 
 
 ha 
 
 \o a sinv worv 
 
 ;po 
 
 kon. an 
 
 ,1 that 
 
 ni 
 
 rn>d" 
 
 d ti 
 
 s LivHHl tunc\ I t>porv shall ponsh 
 
 tin-own tVoni tho tnoil world whioh has writhoil biMioalh its 
 voko so lonj;. ]Hnisli. I'roni its so\on hills, and iVom its spiritual 
 wiokodncss. utiovh and tor o\oi. boloro tho Lord, "slain by the 
 breath ol His mouth, and oonsumod by tho brij;htnoss ol" His 
 coming." 
 
 To tlie wealth ot" Maoaulay in illnstration we have already 
 
MAtAULAV 
 
 In is 
 
 uly 
 
 in.'ulc K Icrrntc, ;iH(l nlso lo tlir (;n I tlinl Ins im;)^rs uw dr.iwn 
 lull r.McIv (inin rxtcm.il iimIuic. hi liodk'; he (miukI llir 
 rH(li;inl((l <;iv(' wlii* It !('i|iiii<'f| ImiI liis " (»|i(n scs.imc" to 
 disclose lo liim lli(> tuidiMl lr(>;isii!(' ; njid in his disMirsivc 
 V(';i(liiij'. llir liiglu'sl liouk w;is not loi|M)ll("n. TIm' rc'i'Icr of liis 
 v;iiioiis works will not I'nl to Ik- sliixk with Ins lrr(|iirnl 
 s( ii|)lm,il jilliisioMs ; iind i( lie is in sr;ir( li o( n, |icror;ition, ;ind 
 Inis n|iou ;tn imngc wlii* li rings inoic rniisi»nlly <tn tlir cir, or 
 wln<h lnif',('is longer in llic nicniory |Ii;hi ,'in(»thrr, •' will he 
 sli;in)M" il lie li;is not dciwn it (ioin iIkiI wonderful k. ;)|t Iik li 
 «lis|)enses lo ;ill men, nnd is none the itoorerfor ;ill e In dies 
 ol lis in;i)',nili( (III giving. I S(de< I hiil Iwo l(ri(>f "s.. cs ; the 
 one Irom the I'ss.iy on Lord I'nroM, Jind the ollie; irr i l!i;il on 
 Hoiilliey's ('oIlo<niies of Society : "Cowley, who • "i .' -nong the 
 inosi .irdent. ;ind not ;iniong the least discerning lollow(>rs f)t 
 the new |ihiloso|)hy, has, in one (tf his finest poems, rompared 
 I{a< on lo Moses standing on Mount I'isgah. It is to l»a( on, 
 we Ihink, as he /ippears in the first hook of the Novum 
 < )rganum, that the <(tmparison applies with peniliar felif ity. 
 Tluai" we see ihe great lawgiver looking round from his huvly 
 clexation on an infinite exjianse, hehinci hin) a wilderness 
 Ol dreary sands and hitler waters, in which successive gencr 
 ations have sojourned, always moving, yet never advancing, 
 reaping no harvest, and building no abiding (ity ; beff^rc him 
 a goodly land, a land of promise, a land flowing with milk and 
 honey ; while the multitude below saw only the flat sterile 
 desert in which they had so long wandered, bounded on every 
 side by a near horizon, or diversified only by some deceitful 
 mirage, he was gazing from a far higher stand on a far lovelier 
 country, following with his eye the long course of fertilising 
 
 63 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 m 
 
 rivers, through ample pastures, and under the bridges of great 
 capitals, measuring the distances of marts and havens, and 
 portioning out all those wealthy regions from Dan to Beer- 
 sheba." The other extract represents the evils of the alliance 
 between Christianity and Power, and commends itself to our 
 literary taste, even if we suppose that there are two sides to the 
 shield : "The ark of God was never taken till it was surrounded 
 by the arms of earthly defenders. In captivity its sanctity was 
 sufficient to vindicate it from insult, and to lay the hostile fiend 
 prostrate on the threshold of his own temple. The real security 
 of Christianity is to be found in its benevolent morality, in its 
 exquisite adaptation to the human heart, in the facility with 
 which its scheme accommodates itself to the capacity of every 
 human intellect, in the consolation which it bears to every 
 house of mourning, in the light with which it brightens the 
 great mystery of the grave. To such a system it can bring no 
 addition of dignity or strength, that is part and parcel of the 
 common law. It is not now for the first time left to rely on the 
 force of its own evidences, and the attractions of its own 
 beauty. It3 sublime theology confounded the Grecian schools 
 in the fair conflict of reason with reason. The bravest and 
 wisest of the Csesars found their arms and their policy 
 unavailing, when opposed to the weapons that were not carnal, 
 and the kingdom that was not of this world. The victory 
 which Porphyry and Diocletian failed to gain, is not, to all 
 appearance, reserved for any of those who have in this age, 
 directed their attacks against the last restraint of the powerful, 
 and the last hope of the wretched. The whole history of 
 Christianity shows that she is in far greater danger of being 
 corrupted by the alliance of power, than of being crushed by 
 
 64 
 
 i'^ii 
 
ai: 
 
 MACAC/LAV. 
 
 its opposition. Those who thrust temporal sovereignty upon 
 her, treat her as their prototypes treated her Author. They 
 bow the knee, and spit upon her ; they cry ' Hail !' and smite 
 her on the cheek ; they put a sceptre in her hand, but it is 
 a fragile reed ; they crown her, but it is with thorns ; they cover 
 with purple the wounds which their own hands have inflicted 
 on her ; and inscribe magnificent titles over the cross on which 
 they have fixed her to perish in ignominy and pain." 
 
 Every reader of the essays must be impressed with the 
 marvellous versatility of knowledge which they disclose. What 
 has he not read? is the question which we feel disposed to 
 ask. Quotations from obscure writers, or from obscure works 
 of great writers ; multitudinous allusions to ancient classics, or 
 tc» modem authors whom his mention has gone far to make 
 classic — references to some less studied book of Scripture — 
 names which have driven us to the atlas to make sure of our geo- 
 graphy — or to the Biographical Gallery to remind us that they 
 lived ; — they crowd upon us so thickly that we are wildered in 
 the profusion, and there is danger to our physical symmetry 
 from the enlargement of our bump of wonder. It is said that, 
 in allusion to this accumulation of knowledge, his associates 
 rather profanely nicknamed him " Macaulay the Omniscient ;" 
 and indeed, the fact of his amazing knowledge is beyond 
 dispute. Then, how did he get it ? Did it come to him by the 
 direct fiat of heaven, as Adam's, in Paradise ? Did he open 
 his eyes and find himself the heir of the ages, as those who are 
 born to fair acres and broad lands ? Did he spring at once, 
 like Minerva, from the brain of Jupiter, full-armed, a ripe and 
 furnished scholar ? Or was he just favoured, as others, with a 
 clear mind and a resolute will—with a high appreciation of 
 
 E 
 
 65 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 knowledge, and a keen covetousness to make it his own? He 
 had a wonderful memory, that is true; so that each fragment 
 of his amassed lore seemed to be producible at will. He had 
 a regal faculty, that also is true ; by which all that he had 
 gathered goldened into a beauty of its own ; but it was the 
 persevering industry of labour which brought stores to the 
 retentive memory, and material to the creative mind. Work, 
 hard work, the sweat of the brain through many an exhausting 
 hour, and through many a weary vigil, was the secret after all, 
 of his success. Many who slumber in nameless graves, or 
 wander through the tortures of a wasted life, have had memories 
 as capacious, and faculties as fine as he, but they lacked the 
 steadiness of purpose, and patient thoughtful labour, which 
 multiplied the "ten talents" into "ten other talents beside 
 them." It is the old lesson, voiceful from every life that has a 
 moral in it — from Bernard Palissy, selling his clothes, and 
 tearing up his floor to add fuel to the furnace, and wearying his 
 wife and amusing his neighbours with dreams of his white 
 enamel, through the unremunerative years ; from Warren 
 Hastings, lying at seven years old upon the rivulet's bank, and 
 vowing inwardly that he would regain his patrimonial property, 
 and dwell in his ancestral halls, and that there should be again 
 a Hastings of Daylesford j from William Carey, panting after 
 the moral conquest of India, whether he sat at the lap-stone o- 
 his early craft, or wielded the ferule in the village school, or 
 lectured the village elders when the Sabbath dawned. It is the 
 old lesson,— a worthy purpose, patient energy for its accom- 
 plishment, a resoluteness that is undaunted by difficulties, and, 
 in ordinary circumstances, success. Do you say that you are 
 not gifted, and that therefore Macaulay is no model to you? — 
 
 06 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 that yours is a lowly sphere or a prosaic occupation, and that 
 even if you were ambitious to rise, or determined to become 
 heroic, your unfortunate surroundings would refuse to give you 
 the occasion ? It is quite possible that you may not have the 
 affluent fancy, nor the lordly and formative brain. All men 
 are not thus endowed, and the world will never be reduced 
 to a level uniformity of mind. The powers and deeds of some 
 men will be always miracles to other men, even to the end of 
 time. It is quite possible, too, that the conditions of your life 
 may be unfavourable, that your daily course may not glow with 
 poetical incident, nor ripple into opportunities of ostentatious 
 greatness. But, granted all these disadvantages, it is the part 
 of true manhood to make its own occasions. The highest 
 greatness is not that which waits for favourable circumstances, 
 but that which compels hard fortune to do it service, which 
 slays the Nemasan lion, and goes on to further conquests, 
 robed in its tawny hide. The real heroes are the men who 
 constrain the tribute which men would fain deny them, — 
 
 " Men who walk up to Fame as to a friend, 
 Or their own house, which from the wrongful heir 
 They have wrested : from the world's hard hand and gripe. 
 Men who — like Death, all bone, but all unarmed — 
 Have ta'en the giant world by the throat, and thrown him, 
 And made him swear to maintain their name and fame 
 At peril of his life." 
 
 There are few of you, perhaps, who could achieve dis- 
 tinction ) there are none of you who need be satisfied without 
 an achievement that is infinitely higher. You may make your 
 lives beautiful and blessed. The poorest of you can afford 
 
 67 
 
is '"ii. Il: 
 
 MACAULAY. 
 
 WP^. 
 
 I- > 
 
 n, ■ I 
 
 ■Ml 
 
 I .i 
 
 
 
 
 to be kind ; the least gifted amongst you can practise that 
 loving wisdom which knows the straightest road to human 
 hearts. You may not be able to thrill senates with your 
 elocjuence, but you may see eyes sparkle and faces grow gladder 
 when you appear ; you may not astonish the listeners by your 
 ac([uiremcnts of varied scholarship, but you may dwell in some 
 spirits, as a presence associated with all that is beautiful and 
 holy ; you may neither be a magnate nor a millionaire, but 
 you may have truer honours than of earth, and riches which 
 wax not old. You may not rise to patrician estate, and come 
 under that mysterious process by which the churl's blood is 
 transformed into the nobleman's, but you may ennoble your- 
 selves in a higher aristocracy than that of belted earl. Use 
 the opportunities you have ; make the best of your circum- 
 stances, however unpromising. Give your hearts to God, and 
 your lives to earnest work and loving purpose, and you can 
 never live in vain. Men will feel your influe'ice like the scent 
 of a bank of violets, fragrant with the hidden sweetness of 
 the spring. Men will miss you when you cease from their 
 commjnions, as if a calm, familiar star shot suddenly and 
 briglitly from their vision ; and if there wave not at your funeral 
 the trappings of the world's gaudy woe, " eyes full of heart- 
 break" will gaze wistfully adown the path where you have 
 vanished, and in the long after-time, hearts which you have 
 helped to make happy will recall your memory with gratitude 
 and tears. 
 
 The union of great acquirements and great rhetorical power 
 so manifest in Macaulay's mind, could not fail to render 
 him a desirable acquisition to any political party ; and as he 
 had imbibed, and in some sort inherited, Whig principles, an 
 
 68 
 
 oppor 
 
 where 
 
 first R 
 
 influer 
 
 borouc 
 
 the R 
 
 represe 
 
 1834 1 
 
 devotei 
 
 that J); 
 
 legislati 
 
 form fr 
 
 exquisit 
 
 impract 
 
 on the ! 
 
 superb 
 
 is prob 
 
 plan of 
 
 others, 
 
 Warren 
 
 in Parlis 
 
 Abercro 
 
 rc-electe 
 
 occasion 
 
 election, 
 
 the bru! 
 
 and part 
 
 grant, to 
 
 him wer 
 
 condcnu: 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 opportunity was soon found for his admission into Parliament, 
 where he appeared in time to join in the discussions on the 
 first Reform Bill. He was returned, in February, 1830, by the 
 influence of the Marquis of Lansdowne, for the nomination 
 borough of Calne. He sat for Calne until the passing of 
 the Refoxm Bill, when he was elected one of their first 
 representatives by the newly created constituency of Leeds. In 
 1834 he was appointed a Member of Council in India, and 
 devoted himself to the construction of a new penal code for 
 that i)art of her Majesty's dominions. This was his .sole 
 legislative offspring, and, from the best estimate which we can 
 form from imperfect knowledge, it would seem to havo been 
 exquisite on paper, but useless in working — a brilliant, but 
 impracticable thing. During his residence in India he continued 
 on the staff of the " Edinburgh," and contributed some of his 
 superb criticisms from beneath an Eastern sky. Here, also, it 
 is probable that he gathered the material and sketched the 
 plan of those masterly articles which, perhaps, more than most 
 others, aroused English sympathies for India — the articles on 
 Warren Hastings and Lord Clive. In May, 1839, he reappeared 
 in Parliament, on the elevation to the peerage of Mr. Speaker 
 Abercromby, as the representative of Edinburgh. He was 
 re-elected at the general election of 1841, and twice on 
 occasion of his accessioft" to oflfice. In 1847, ^.t the general 
 election, he failed to obtain his seat, partly, as it is said, from 
 the brusque manner in which he treated his constituents, 
 and partly from his consistent support of the enlarged Maynooth 
 grant, to which many of those who had previously sui)ported 
 him were conscientiously opposed. The papers were loud in 
 condenuialion of the Edinburgh electors, who were represented 
 
 69 
 
 i 
 
V' m 
 
 MACAULAY. 
 
 as having disgraced themselves for ever by their rejection of a 
 man of so much excellent renown. Well, i^ a representative rs 
 to be chosen for his brilliant parts, or for his fluent speech, 
 perhaps they did; but if men vote for conscience sake, and 
 they feel strongly on what they consider a vital question, and 
 if a representative is to be what his name imports — the faith- 
 ful reflex of the sentiments of the majority who send him — 
 one can see nothing in the outcry but unreasoning clamour 
 I cannot see dishonour either in his sturdy maintenance of un- 
 popular opinions, or in his constituents' rejection of him be- 
 cause his sentiments were opposed to their own ; but I can see 
 much that is honourable to both parties in their reconciliation 
 after temporary estrangement, — on their part, that they should 
 honour him by returning him in 1852, unsolicited, at the head 
 of the poll, — on his part, that he should, with a manly genero- 
 sity, bury all causes of dissension, and consent to return to 
 public life, as the representative of a constituency which had 
 bidden him for a season to retire. There is, indeed, no part 
 of Macaulay's character in v/hich he shows to more advantage 
 than in his position as a niember of parliament. We may not 
 always be able to agree with him in sentiment, we may fancy 
 that we discover the fallacies which lurk beneath the shrewdness 
 of his logic, we may suffer now and then from the apt sarcasm 
 which he was not slow to wield ; but we must accord to him 
 the tribute that his political life was a life of unswerving con- 
 sistency and of stainless honour. In his lofty scorn of dupli- 
 city he became, perhaps, sometimes contemptuous, just as in his 
 calm dogmatism he never seemed to imagine that there were 
 plausible arguments which might be adduced on both sides of 
 a question; but in his freedom from disguise, and abhorrence 
 
 70 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 of corruption, in his refusal to parley when compromise would 
 have been easy, and in his refusal to be silent when silence 
 \;ould have wounded his conscience but saved his seat, in the 
 noble indignation with which he denounced oppression, and in 
 his independence of all influences which were crafty and con- 
 temptible, he may fairly be held up as a model English states- 
 man. Before the Reform Bill, the members for the city usually 
 subscribed fifty guineas to the Edinburgh races, and shortly after 
 the election of 1841, Mr. Macaulay was applied to on this be- 
 half. His reply was a fine specimen of manly decision. " In 
 the first place," he says, *' I am not clear that the object is a 
 good one. In the next place, I am clear that by giving money 
 for such an object in obedience to such a summons, I should 
 completely change the whole character of my connection with 
 Edinburgh. It has been usual enough for rich families to 
 keep a hold on corrupt boroughs by defraying the expense of 
 public amusements. Sometimes it is a ball, sometimes a re- 
 gatta. The Derby family used to support the Preston races. 
 The members for Beverley, I believe, find a bull for their con- 
 stituents to bait. But these were not the conditions on which 
 J undertook to represent Edinburgh. In return for your gene- 
 rous confidence I off"er faithful parliamentary service, and 1 offer 
 nothing else. The call that is now made is one so objection- 
 able, that I must plainly say I would rather take the Chiltern 
 Hundreds than comi)ly with it." All honour to the moral 
 courage which indited that reply. Brothers, let the manly ex- 
 ample fire you. Carry such heroism into your realms of morals 
 and of commerce, and into all the social interlacings of your 
 lifej let no possible loss of influence or patronage or gold tempt 
 you to the doing of that which your judgment and conscience 
 
 7« 
 
 ":^, 
 
MACAULAY, 
 
 \\\<\ 
 
 disapprove. Better a thousand times to be slandered than to 
 sin; nobler to spend your days in all the bitterness of unheeded 
 struggle, than become a hollow parasite to gain a hollow friend. 
 Worthier far to remain poor for ever, the brave and self-respect- 
 ing heir of the crust and of the spring, than, in another sen.se 
 than Shakspeare's, to *' coin your heart," and for the " vile 
 drachmas," which are the hire of wrong, " to drop your" gene- 
 rous ** blood." 
 
 Macauiay's speeches, published by himself in self-defence 
 against the dishonest publication of them by other people, bear 
 the stamp and character of the essay rather than of the oiorion, 
 and reveal all the mental qualities of the man— his strong ":e:r-.e 
 and vast learning, his shrewdness in the selection of \\).h i?),;t">.,- 
 rials, and his mastery over that sort of reasoning which siler je's 
 if it does not convince. They betray also, very brgcly, tlie 
 idiosyncrasy which is, perhaps, his most observable facu! the 
 disposition to regard all subjects in the light of t^2 ^^ast, iv\V to 
 treat them historically, rather than from the exi^erience of actual 
 life. Thus in his speeches on li": East India Company's charter, 
 on the motion of want of confidt:ncf in ihe Melbourne miristry, 
 on the state of Ireland, on the Furt. >iit.i> Bill, on the question 
 of the exclusion of the Master of the Rolls from parliament, he 
 ransacks for precedents and illustrations in the histories of 
 almost every age and clime, while he gives but vague and hesi- 
 tating solutions on the agitating problems of the day. Hence, 
 though his last recorded speech is said to have been unrivalled 
 in the annals of parliamentary oratory for the number of votes 
 which it won, the impression of his speeches in the general was 
 no, so immediate as it will, perhaps, be lasting. Men were 
 conscious of a despotism while he spoke, and none wisiied to 
 
 72 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 be delivered from the sorcery ; but when he ceased the spell 
 was broken, and they awoke as from a pleasant dream. They 
 were exciting discussions in which he had to engage, and he 
 did not wholly escape from the acrimony of party strife. There 
 are passages in his speeches of that exacerbated bitterness 
 which has too often made it seem as if our politicians acted 
 upon the instructions which are said to have been once endorsed 
 upon the brief of an advocate — " No case, but abuse tlic plain- 
 tiff's attorney." 
 
 There is one extract from the speeches which 1 quote with 
 singular pleasure. It will answer the double purpose of afford- 
 ing a fair specimen of his clear and earnest style, and of reveal- 
 ing what, to a resident in India, and one of the most shrewd 
 and sagacious observers, appeared sound policy in reference to 
 the method in which that country should be governed, it i5 
 from his speech on Mr. Vernon Smith's motion of cen;iure on 
 Lord Ellenborough anent the celebrated gates of Somnauih. 
 " Our duty, as rulers, was to preserve strict neutrality on ali 
 questions merely religious; and 1 am not aware that wc have 
 ever swerved from strict neutrality for the purpose of making 
 proselytes to our own faith. But we have, I am sorr o say, 
 sometimes deviated from the right path in an opposite rection. 
 Some Englishmen, who have held high office in Indi.i. seem to 
 have thought that the only religion \/hich was not utitled to 
 toleration and respect was Christianity. They rer u Jed every 
 Christian missionary with extreme jealousy and uisdain ; and 
 they suffered the most atrocious crimes, if enjoined by the Hin- 
 doo superstition, to be perpetrated in open day. It is lament- 
 able to think how long after our power was firmly established 
 in Bengal, we, grossly neglecting the first and plainest duty oi 
 
 73 
 
 ;lH 
 
 
 mm 
 
 
 
 I 
 
Il 
 
 V 
 
 Ul 
 
 III' 
 
 MACAULAY. 
 
 the civil magistrate, suffered the practices of infanticide and 
 suttee to continue unchecked. We decorated the temples of 
 the false gods. We provided the dancing girls. We gilded 
 and painted the images to which our ignorant subjects bowed 
 down. We repaired and embellished the car under the wheels 
 of which crazy devotees flung themselves at every festival to be 
 crushed to death. We sent guards of honour to escort pilgrims 
 to the places of worship. We actually made oblations at the 
 shrines of idols. All this was considered, and is still consid- 
 ered, by some prejudiced Anglo-Indians of the old school, 
 as profound policy. I believe that there never was so 
 shallow, so senseless a policy. We gained nothing from 
 it. We lowered ourselves in the eyes of those whom 
 we m.ea!?t to flatter. We led them to beli'^ve that we attached 
 no importance to the difference between Christianity and hea- 
 thenism. Yet how vast that difference is ! I altogether abstain 
 from alluding to topics which belong to divines; I speak merely 
 as a politician, anxious for the morality and the temporal well- 
 being of society; and so speaking, I say that to countenance the 
 Brahminical idolatry, and to discountenance that religion which 
 has done so much to promote justice, and mercy, and freedom, 
 and arts, and sciences, and good government, and domestic 
 happiness, which has struck off the chains of the slave, which has 
 mitigated the horrors of war, which has raised women from serv- 
 ants and playthings into companions and friends, is to commit 
 high treason against humanity and civilization." I should like to 
 commend this manly and Christian utterance to our rulers now. 
 The old traditional policy is yet a favourite sentiment with 
 many, though it has borne its bitter fruits of bloodshed. 
 While we thankfully acknowledge an improved state of feeling, 
 
 74 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 and the removal of many restrictions which in former times 
 hindered the evangelization of India, we must never forget that 
 at this day, not by a company of traders, but the government 
 of our beloved Queen, there is in all government schools on 
 that vast continent, a brand upon the Holy Bible. It may lie up- 
 on the shelf of the library, but for all purposes of instruction it 
 is a sealed book. The Koran of the Mussulman is there, the 
 Shastras of the pagan are there, the Zend Avesta of the Parsee 
 is there; and their lessons, sanguinary or sensual or silly, are 
 taught by royal authority, and the teachers endowed by grants 
 from the royal treasury; but the Book which England acknow- 
 ledges as the fountain of highest inspiration, and the source of 
 loftiest morals ; from whose pure precepts all sublime ethics are 
 derived; which gives sanction to governmen. i\d majesty to 
 law; on which senators swear their allegiance, and royalty takes 
 its coronation oath, — that Book is not only ignored but pro- 
 scribed, subjected to an Index Expurgatorius as rigid as ever 
 issued from Rome; branded with this foul dishonour before 
 scoffing Mussulmen and wondering pagans at the bidding of 
 state-craft, or spurious charity, or fear. It is time that this 
 should end. Our holy religion ought not to be thus " wounded 
 in the house of her" enemies, by the hands of her professed 
 "friends." An empire which extends " from Cape Comorin to 
 the eternal snow of the Himalayas," *' far to the east of the 
 Burrampooter and far to the west of the Hydaspes," should not 
 demean itself before those whom it has conquered by a procla- 
 mation of national irreligion. We ask for Christianity in India 
 neither coercive measures nor the boastful activity of govern- 
 ment proselytism. Those who impute this to the Christians ol 
 England are either ignorant of our motives, or they slander us 
 
 75 
 
II'* 
 
 MACAULAY. 
 
 for their own ends. The rags of a poHtical piety but disfigure 
 tlie Cross around which they are ostentatiously displayed, and 
 to bribe a heathen into conformity were as bad as to persecute 
 him for his adhesion to the faith of his fathers. All we ask ol" 
 the government is a fair field; if Alexander would but stand 
 out of the way, the fair sunshine would stream at once into the 
 darkness of the Cynic's dwelling; if they will give freedom to 
 the Bible, it will assert its own supremacy by its own power, 
 and Britain will escape from the curse which now cleaves to 
 her like a Nessus' robe — that in a land committed to her trust, 
 and looking up to her for redress and blessing, she has allowed 
 the Word upon which rest the dearest hopes of her soils for 
 eternity, to be forbidden from the Brahman's solicitude, and 
 trampled beneath the Mollah's scorn. 
 
 In the year 1842 Mr. Macaulay appeared in a new character, 
 by the publication of the " Lays of Ancient Rome." This was 
 his first venture in acknowledged authorship. It is often not 
 safe to descend from the bench to the bar. The man who 
 has long sat in the critic's chair must have condemned so many 
 criminals that he will find little mercy when he is put upon his 
 own trial, and has become a suppliant for die favour which he 
 has been accustomed to grant or refuse. The public were taken 
 by surprise, but surprise quickly yielded to delight. Minos and 
 Rhadamanthus abdicated their thrones to listen; every pen 
 flowed in praise of that wonderful book, which united rare cri- 
 tical sagacity with the poetic faculty and insight; and now, 
 after the lapse of years, the world retains its enthusiasm, and 
 refuses to reverse the verdict of its first approval. By one critic, 
 indeed, whose opinions are entitled to all respect, the ballads 
 are said to be as much below the level of Macaulay, as the 
 
 76 
 
 " Cato" ( 
 
 his pen. 
 
 spirited s( 
 
 those mil 
 
 colouring, 
 
 that granc 
 
 Gilt their 
 
 " none of 
 
 and passic 
 
 should be 
 
 or read ih 
 
 Macaulay 
 
 human syr 
 
 who has n^ 
 
 feel. The 
 
 unerringly 
 
 in earnest, 
 
 this test in 
 
 anatomist ( 
 
 todon, and 
 
 spell of the 
 
 siege of De 
 
 years of ag( 
 
 Macaulay's 
 
 {be " Parad 
 
 when first i 
 
 throbs with 
 
 and the firs 
 
 more than 
 
 charms of si 
 
 r\ 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 ** Cato" of Addison was below all else which proceeded from 
 his pen. But there is surely more in them than " rattling and 
 spirited songs." These are expressions which hardly describe 
 those minutely accurate details; that gorgeousness of classic 
 colouring, those exquisite felicities of word ; and, above all, 
 that grand roll of martial inspiration which abounds through- 
 out their stirring lines. Another critic strangely says that 
 " none of the characters have the flesh and blood, the action 
 and passion of human nature." The test ot this, I suppose, 
 should be the effect which they produce upon those who hear 
 or read them. It has not been an unfrequent charge against 
 Macaulay that he had no heart, and that he was wanting in that 
 human sympathy which is so large an element of strength. He 
 who has no heart of his own cannot reach mine and make it 
 feel. There are instincts in the soul of a man which tell him 
 unerringly when a brother soul is speaking. Let me see a man 
 in earnest, and his earnestness will kindle mine. I apply 
 this test in the case of Macaulay. I am told of the greatest 
 anatomist of the age suspending all speculations about the mas- 
 todon, and all analyses of the lesser mammalia, beneath the 
 spell of the sorcerer who drew the rout at Sedgemoor and the 
 siege of Derry. I see Robert Hall lying on his back at sixty 
 years of age, to learn the Italian language, that he might verity 
 Macaulay's description of Dante, and enjoy the " Inferno"' and 
 ^he " Paradiso" in the original. I remember my own emotions 
 when first introduced to the Essays; the strange, wild heart- 
 throbs with which I revelled in the description of the Puritans : 
 and the first article on Bunyan. There is something in all tliis 
 more than can be explained by artistic grouping or by t'lo 
 charms of style. The man has convictions and sympathies lm 
 
 77 
 
 f.l; ti 
 
 II 
 
xMACAULAY. 
 
 his own, and the very strength of those convictions and sympa- 
 thies forces an answer from the "like passions" to which he 
 appeals. It is just so with the poetry. It were easy to criti- 
 cise it, and perhaps to find in it some shortcomings from the 
 rules of refined melody, and a ruggedness which the linked 
 sweetness of the Lakers might not tolerate; but try it in 
 actual experiment, sound it in the ears of a Crimean regiment, 
 and see how it will inspirit them to the field; rehearse it with 
 earnestness and passion to a company of ardent schoolboys, 
 at the age when the young imagination has just been thrilled 
 with its first conscious sense of beauty and of power; and you 
 shall have the Bard's best guerdon in their kindling cheeks and 
 gleaming eyes. " The Prophecy of Capys" is perhaps the most 
 sustained, " Virginia" the most eloquent, and " The Battle of 
 the Lake Regillus" the one which contains the finest passages; 
 but I confess to a fondness for " Horatius," my first and early 
 love, which all the wisdom which ought to have come with 
 maturity has not been able to change. Perhaps you will bear 
 with a few stanzas of it, just to try the effect upon yourselves: 
 
 " But the Consul's brow was sad, 
 
 And the Consul's speech was low, 
 And darkly looked he at the wall. 
 
 And darkly at the foe. 
 * Their van will be upon us 
 
 Before the bridge goes down ; 
 And if they once but win the bridjje. 
 
 What hope to save the town ? ' 
 
 *'Then out spake brave Horatius, 
 
 The Captain of the Gate : 
 ' To every man upon this earth 
 
 Death cometh soon or late. 
 
 78 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 And how can man die better 
 Than facing fearful odds, 
 
 For the ashes of his fathers, 
 And the temples of his gods ? ' 
 
 ** * Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul, 
 
 With all the speed ye may ; 
 I, with two more to help me, 
 
 Will hold the foe in play. 
 In yon strait path a thousand 
 
 May well be stopped by three, 
 Now who will stand on either haml. 
 
 And keep the bridge with me ? ' 
 
 ** Then out spake Spurius Lartius ; 
 A Ramnian proud was he : 
 
 * Lo, I will stand at thy right hand, 
 
 And keep the bridge with thee.' 
 And out spake stronj- Herminius ; 
 Of Titian blood was he : 
 
 * I will abide on thy left side, 
 
 And keep the bridge with thee.' 
 
 *• ' Horatius,' quoth the Consul, 
 
 ' As thou sayest, so let it be.' 
 And straight against that great array 
 
 Forth went the dauntless Three. 
 For Romans in Rome's quarrel 
 
 Spared neither land nor gold, 
 Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life, 
 
 In the brave days of old. 
 
 *' Then none was for a party ; 
 
 Then all were for the state ; 
 Then the great man helped the poor, 
 
 And the poor man loved the great j 
 
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 I/. 
 
i^i I 
 
 MACAULAY. 
 
 Then lands were fairly portioned ; 
 
 Then spoils were fairly sold : 
 The Romans were like brothers 
 
 In the brave days of old . 
 
 « « -« • 
 
 *' But all Etruria's noblest 
 
 Felt their hearts sink to see 
 On the earth the bloody corpses, 
 
 In the path the dauntless Three I 
 And, from the ghastly entrance 
 
 Where those bold Romans stood, 
 All shrank, like boys who unaware, 
 Ranging the woods to start a hare, 
 Come to the mouth of the dark lair 
 Where, growling low, a fierce old beir 
 
 Lies amidst bones and blood. 
 
 " Was none who would be foremost 
 
 To lead such dire attack : 
 But those behind cried ' Forward ! ' 
 
 And those before cried * Back ! ' 
 And backward now and forward 
 
 Wavers the deep array ; 
 And on the tossing sea of steel 
 To and fro the standards reel ; 
 And the victorious trumpet peal 
 
 Dies fitfully away. 
 
 " But meanwhile axe and lever 
 
 Have manfully been plied ; 
 And now the bridge hangs tottering 
 
 Alx)vc the boiling tide. 
 ' Come back, come back, Horalius ! ' 
 
 I.oud cried the Fathers all. 
 'Back, LartiusI back, Ilerminius 1 
 
 Back, ere the ruin fall I ' 
 
 So 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 ' Back darted Spurius Lartius ; 
 
 Herminius darted back ; 
 And, as they passed, beneath their feet 
 
 They felt the timbers crack. 
 But when they turned their faces 
 
 And on the farther shore 
 Saw brave Horatius stand alone, 
 
 They would have crossed once mort". 
 
 "But with a crash like thunder 
 
 Fell every loosened beam, 
 And, like a dam, the mighty wreck 
 
 Lay right athwart the stream ; 
 And a long shout of triumph 
 
 Rose from the walls of Rome, 
 As to the highest turret-tops 
 
 Was splashed the yellow foam. 
 
 "Alone stood brave Horatius, 
 
 But constant still in mind ; 
 Thrice thirty thousand foes before. 
 
 And the broad flood behind, 
 • Down with him ! ' cried false ScxtuS, 
 
 With a smile on his pale face. 
 *Now yield thee,' cried Lars Porsena, 
 
 •Now yield thee to our grace.' 
 
 *' Round turned he, as not deign Hg 
 
 Those craven ranks to see ; 
 Nought spake he to Lars Porsena, 
 
 To Sextus nought spake he 1 
 But he saw on T'alatinus 
 
 The white porch of his home ; 
 And he spake to the noble river 
 
 That rolls by the towers of Ktune. 
 
 81 
 
[I^ 
 
 MACAULAY. 
 
 ♦' ' Oh, Tiber ! father Tiber ! 
 
 To whom the Romans pray, 
 A Roman's life, a Roman's amis, 
 
 Take thou in charge this day ! * 
 So he spake, and speaking sheathed 
 
 The good sword by his side, 
 And with his harness on his back, 
 
 Plunged headlong in the tide. 
 
 *' No sound of joy or sorrow 
 
 Was heard from either bank ; 
 But friends and foes in dumb surprise, 
 
 With parted lips and straining eyes, 
 Stood gating where he sank ; 
 
 And when above the surges 
 
 They saw his crest appear, 
 All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry, 
 And even the ranks of Tuscany 
 
 Could scarce forbear to cheer, 
 I « # « « t 
 
 " Never, I ween, did swimmer, 
 
 In such an evil case. 
 Struggle through such a raging flootl 
 
 Safe to the landing place ; 
 But his limbs were borne up bravely 
 
 Hy the brave heart within. 
 And our good father Tiber 
 
 Bare bravely up his chin. 
 
 " ■■ Curse on him ! ' quoth false Sextus ; 
 
 * Will not the villain drown ? 
 But for this stay, ere close of day 
 
 Wc should have sacked the town.' 
 * Heaven help him ! ' quoth Lars Poriena. 
 
 'And bring him safe to shore ; 
 For such a gallant feat of arms 
 
 Was never seen before. ' 
 
 8a 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 " And now he feels the bottom ; 
 
 Now on dry earth he stands ; 
 Now round him throng the Fathers 
 
 To press his gory hands ; 
 And now, with shouts and clapping, 
 
 And noise of weeping louii, 
 He enters fhrough the River-gate, 
 
 Borne by the joyous crowd. 
 
 *' They gave him of the corn land, 
 
 That was of public right. 
 As much as two strong oxen 
 
 Could plough from morn till night 
 And they made a molten image. 
 
 And set it up on high, 
 And there it stands unto this day 
 
 To witness if I lie. 
 
 ** And in the nights of winter. 
 
 When the cold north winds blow, 
 And the long howling of the wolves 
 
 Is heard amidst the snow ; 
 When roui.d the lonely cottage 
 
 Roars loud the tempest's din. 
 And the good logs of Algidus 
 
 Roar louder yet within — 
 
 •• When the oldest cask is opened, 
 
 And the largest lamp is lit ; 
 When the chestnuts glow in the embers. 
 
 And the kid turns on the spit ; 
 When young and old in circle 
 
 Around the firebrands close ; 
 When the girls are weaving baskets, 
 
 And the lads are shaping bows — 
 
 83 
 
II 
 
 MACAULAY. 
 
 " When the gooclman mends his armour, 
 
 And trims his helmet's plume ; 
 When the goodwife's shuttle merrily 
 
 Goes flashing through the loom ; 
 With weeping and with laughter 
 
 Still is the story told, 
 How well Iloratius kept the bridge 
 
 In the bmve days of old.'* 
 
 It is undoubtedly as the historian that Micaulay will be 
 longest remembered. His work, fragment though it is, possess- 
 es a sort of dramatic unity, will survive at once flattery and 
 criticism, and will be shrined among the classics of our litera- 
 ture in calmer times than ours. It is amusing to read the va- 
 rious opinions of reviewers, each convinced after the manner of 
 such literary craftsmen that he is nothing if not critical, and 
 gloating over some atom of inaccuracy as if he had found hid- 
 den treasure. I deemed it my duty in the preparation for this 
 lecture to go through a course of review reading, if haply I 
 might find confirmation of the senUmcnts I had entertained, 
 or some reason to change them ; and while I was delighted 
 with and proud of the vast and varied talent of the articles, 
 the result as to opinion was only to unsettle my own, and 
 to induce a mental dyspepsia from which I was long to 
 recover. I was told that it is t/ie History of England — a 
 history of England — an attempt at history — a mistaken notion 
 of history — an historiette — an historical picture gallery — 
 an historical novel. I was intormed that it is thorough- 
 ly impartial, and I was informed that it is thoroughly fac- 
 tious : one critic tells me that his first object is to tell the 
 story truly ; anotlier, that his first object is i)icturesque effect. 
 Some christen him Thucydides, and others Walter Scott. One 
 
 84 
 
ArACAULAY. 
 
 eulogist exalts my confidence by assuring me that * he does 
 not lie, even for the Whigs ;" and just as I have made up my 
 mind to trust him thoroughly, I am thrown into terrible be- 
 wilderment by the averment of another learned Theban, that 
 " his work is as full of political prejudice as any of his partizan 
 speeches, and is written with bad taste, bad feeling, and bad 
 faith." The impression left upon my mind by all this conflict 
 of testimony is a profound conviction of Macaulay's power. 
 All the faults which his censors charge upon him reappear in 
 their own writings, as among the supple courtiers of Macedon 
 was reproduced the wry neck cf Alexander. They charge him 
 with carelessness, but it is in flippant words. If they call him 
 vituperative, they become atrabilious. If he is said to exagge- 
 rate, not a few of them out-Herod him ; and his general im- 
 partiality may be inferred from the fact, that while his critics 
 are indignant at the caricatures which they allege that he has 
 drawn of tlieir own particular idols, they acknowledge the mar- 
 vellous fidelity of his likenesses of all the world beside. More- 
 over, for the very modes of their censorship they are indebted 
 to him. They bend Ulysses' bow. They wield the Douglas 
 brand. His style is antithetical, and therefore they condemn 
 him in antitheses. His sentences are peculiar, and they de- 
 nounce him in his own tricks of phrase. There can be no 
 greater compliment to any man. The critics catch the conta- 
 gion of the malady which provokes their surgery. The eagle 
 is aimed at by the archers, but " he nursed the pinion which 
 impelled the steel." To say that there are faults in the history 
 is but to say that it is a human production, and they lie on the 
 surface and are patent to the most ordinary observer. That he 
 was a " good hater " there can be no question ; and Dr. Joht • 
 
 85 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 son, the while he would have called him a vile Whig, and a sac- 
 religious heretic, would have hugged him for the heartiness with 
 which he lays on his dark shades of colour. That he exagge- 
 rated rather for effect than for partisanship, may be alleged with 
 great show of reason, and they have ground to stand upon who 
 say that it was his greatest literary sin. There are some move- 
 ments which he knew not how to estimate, and many complex- 
 ities of character which he was never born to understand. 
 Still, if this be not history, there is no history in the world. 
 Before his entrance history, for the masses of English readers, 
 was as the marble statue ; he came, and by his genius struck 
 the statue into life. 
 
 We thank him that he has made history readable ; that it is 
 not in his page the bare recital of facts, names and deeds in- 
 ventoried as in an auctioneer's catalogue, but a glowing por- 
 traiture of the growth of a great nation, and of the men who 
 helped or hindered it. We thank him that he has disposed 
 for ever of that shallow criticism, that the brilliant is always the 
 superficial and unworthy, and that in the inestimable value of 
 his work he has confirmed what the sonorous periods of John 
 Milton, and the long-resounding eloquence of Jeremy Taylor, 
 and the fiery passion-tones of Edmund Burke had abundantly 
 declared before him, that the diamond flashes with a rarer lustre 
 than the spangle. We thank him for the happy combination 
 which he has given us of instruction and literary enjoyment, of 
 massive truth decorated with all the graces of style- We thank 
 him for the vividness of delineation by which we can see 
 statesmen like Somers amd Nottingham in their cabinets, mar- 
 shals like Sarsfield and Luxembourg in the field, and men lik<» 
 
 86 
 
MACAULAV. 
 
 Buckingham and Marlborough, who dallied in the councii-room 
 and plotted at the revel. 
 
 We thank him for the one epical character which he has left 
 us — William, the hero of his story, whom he has taxed himself 
 to the utmost to pourtray — the stadtholder adored in Holland — 
 the impassive monarch who ' lived ai)art' in the kingdom which 
 he freed and ruled — the audacious spirit of whom no one could 
 discover the thing that could teach him to fear — the brave sol" 
 dier who dashed about among musketry and sword-blades as if 
 he bore a charmed life — the reserved man upon whom *' dan- 
 ger acted like wine, to open his heart and loosen his tongue"— 
 the veteran who swam through the mud at the Boyne, and re- 
 trieved the fortunes which the death of Schomberg had caused 
 to waver — " the asthmatic skeleton who covered the slow retreat 
 of England " at Landen — the acute diplomatist who held his 
 trust with even-handed wisdom — the faithful friend who, when 
 he loved once, loved for a lifetime — who kept his heart barred 
 against the multitude, \ )ut gave pass-keys to the chosen ones 
 so that they might go in and out at pleasure — the stern and 
 stoical sufferer who wrote, and hunted, and legislated, and de- 
 vised, while ague shook the hand which held the pen or the 
 bridle, and fever was burning away the life which animated 
 the restless brain — the rigid predestinarian, who though he 
 grieved over noble works unfinished, and plans which could 
 never become deeds, submitted himself calmly as a child when 
 the inevitable hour drew nigh. We feel that, if there had been 
 nothing else, the working out of that one character, its investi- 
 ture with " newer proportions and with richer colouring," the 
 grand exhibition which it gives us of the superiority of mind over 
 matter and circumstance, and native repulsiveness and alien 
 
 87 
 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 t" 
 
 habits, is in itself a boon for which the woi.d should speak 
 him well. 
 
 Above all, we thank Macaulay for the English-heartedness 
 which throbs transparently through his writings, and which was 
 so marked a characteristic of his life. It may be well said 
 of him as he said of Pitt, " he loved his country as a Roman 
 the city of the Seven Hills, as an Athenian the city of the Violet 
 Crown." Herein is his essential difference from the hero whom 
 he celebrated, and whom in many things he so closely resem 
 bles. William never loved England. She was but an appan- 
 age of Holland to him. One bluff Dutch burgomaster would 
 outweigh with him a hundred English squires, and he was never 
 so happy as when he could escape from the foggy Thames to 
 the foggier Meuse, or be greeted with a Rhenish welcome by a 
 people to whom an enthusiasm was as an illness which came 
 once in a lifetime, and was over. But with Macaulay the love 
 of country was a passion. How he kindles at each stirring or 
 plaintive memory in the annals he was so glad to record I 
 Elizabeth at Tilbury ; the scattering of the fierce and proud 
 Armada ; the deliverance of the Seven Bishops ; the thrilling 
 agony and bursting gladness which succeeded each other so 
 rapidly at the siege of Derry ; the last sleep of Argyle ; Lord 
 Russell's parting from his heroic wife ; the wrongs of Alice 
 Lisle ; the prayer upon whose breath fled the spirit of Algernon 
 Sydney ; they touch his very soul, and he recounts them with a 
 fervour which becomes contagious until his readers are thrilled 
 with the same joy or pain. 
 
 It is not unfashionable among our popular writers to de- 
 nounce the England of to-day, and to predict for us in the 
 future auguries of only sinister omen. There is a school of 
 
 88 
 
 I'll 
 
MACAU LAY. 
 
 prophets to whom everything in the present is out of joint ; 
 who can see nothing around theui but selfishness, and nothing 
 beyond them but the undiscoverable bourn, to whom there is 
 " cold shade " in an aristocracy, and in the middle classes but 
 a miserable mammon-worship : and beneath a trampled people 
 in whom the sordid and the brutal instincts strive from day to 
 day. Of these extremes of sentiment, meeting on the common 
 ground of gloomy prophesyings about England, her history, as 
 Macaulay has told it, is the best possible rebuke. He has 
 shown us the steps by which, in his own eloquent words, " the 
 England of the Curfew and the Forest laws, the England of 
 Crusaders, monks, schoolmen, astro! gers, serfs, outlaws, be- 
 came the England which we know and love, the classic ground 
 of liberty and philosophy, the school of all knowledge, the mart 
 of all trade." He has shown us how, through the slow strug- 
 gles of yerjrs, the component forces of society become equalized 
 in their present rare and happy adjustment ; how each age has 
 added to the conquests of its predecessors, by the truer solution 
 of political problems ; by the readier recognition of human 
 rights ; by the discovery of richer resources in nature, and of 
 more magnificent capabilities in man. He has shown us how 
 in health, in intelligence, in physical comfort, in industrial ap- 
 pliances, in social and moral culture, the tide of progress has 
 rolled on without a refluent wave. He has shown us how the 
 despairs and hopes, the passions and lassitudes of the former 
 generations have helped our national growth ; how our country 
 has been rallied by her very defeats, and enriched by her very 
 wastefulness, and elevated by her disasters to ascendancy ; how 
 the storms which have howled along her coast have only ribbed 
 her rocks the more firmly ; and the red rain of her slaughtered 
 
 89 
 
MACAU! AY. 
 
 II ! 
 
 sires has but watered the earth for the harvest of their gallar^t 
 sons. Oh, if the young men of our time would glow with a 
 healthy pride of race ; if they would kindle with the inspirations 
 of patriotism ; if they would find annals wealthier in enduring 
 lesson, and bright with the radiance of a holier virtue than ever 
 Rome embraced or Sparta knew, let them read their own land's 
 history, as traced by the pen of its most fervent recorder ; and 
 while grateful for the instruction of the past, let its unwavering 
 progress teach them to be hopeful for the future. What hin- 
 ders that the growth of England's i)ast should be but the type 
 of the yet rarer splendours of its coming time ? There are many 
 who wait for her halting, " wizards that peep and that mutter" 
 in boodess necromancy for her ruin ; but let her be true to 
 herself and to her stewardshij), and her position may be assured 
 from peril. On the " coign of vantage " to which she has been 
 lifted, let her take her stand ; let her exhibit to the wondering 
 nations the glad nuptials between liberty and order ; let her 
 sons, at once profound in their loyalty and manly in their inde- 
 pendence, be fired with ambition greater than of glory, and 
 with covetousness nobler than of gain ; let her exult that 
 her standard, however remote and rocky the islet over which 
 it waves, is ever the flag of the freeman ; let her widen with 
 the ages into still increasing reverence for truth and peace and 
 God, and " she may stand in her lot until the end of the days," 
 and in the long after-time, when the now young world shall 
 have grown old, and shall be preparing, by reason of its age, 
 for the action of the last fires, she may still live and flourish, 
 chartered among the nations as the home of those principles 
 of right and freedom which shall herald the coming of the Son 
 of man. 
 
 90 
 
Af AC A CLAY. 
 
 The one great defect in Maraul.i) "s life and writings, viewed 
 from a Christian standpoint, is his negativism, to use no stronger 
 ^'ord, on the subject of evangeHcal rchgion. Not that he ever 
 impeaches its sa^redi.'^ss ; no enemy of rehgion can claim his 
 championship : he was at once too refmed and too reverent for 
 infidelity, but he nowhere upholds Divine presence or presi- 
 dency ; nowhere traces the unity of a |)urpose higher than the 
 schemes of men ; nowhere speaks of the precepts of Christian- 
 ity as if they were Divinely-sanctioned ; nowhere gives to its 
 cloud of witnesses the adhesion of his honoured name. As we 
 read his essays or his history, when he lauds the philosophy of 
 Bacon, or tells of the deliverances of William, we are tempted 
 to wonder at his serene indifference to those great (juestions 
 which sooner or later must present themselves to the mind of 
 every man. Did it never occur to him that men were deej)cr 
 than they seemed, and restless about that future into which he 
 is so strangely averse to pry ? Did the solemn problems of the 
 soul, the whence of its origin, the what of its purpose, the 
 whither of its destiny, never perplex and trouble him ? Had 
 he no fixed opinion about religion as a reality, that inner and 
 vital essence which should be "the core of all the creeds?" or 
 did he content himself with " the artistic balance of conflicting 
 forces," and regard Protestantism and Popery alike as mere 
 schemings of the hour, influences equally valuable in their day 
 and equally mortal when their work was done ? Did it never 
 strike him that there was a Providence at work when his hero 
 was saved from assassination, when the fierce winds scattered 
 the Armada, when the fetters were broken which Rome had 
 forged and fastened, when from the struggles of years rose up 
 the slow and stately growth of English freedom ? Did he 
 
 91 
 
m 
 
 11 
 
 
 ;'-f^« 
 
 : 
 
 MACAULAY. 
 
 never breathe a wish for a God to speak the chaos of events 
 into order, or was he content to leave the mystery as he found 
 it, deeming *' such knowledge too wonderful for man ? " Why 
 did he always brand vice as an injury or an error? Did he 
 never feel it to be a sin? Looking at the present, why always 
 through the glass of the past, and never by the light of the 
 future ? Did he never pant after a spiritual insight, nor throb 
 with a religious faith ? Alas, that on the matters on which these 
 questions touch, his writings make no sign ! Of course, no one 
 expected the historian to become a preacher, nor the essayist a 
 theologian ; but that there should be so stiidious an avoidance 
 of those great, deep, awful matters which have to do with the 
 eternal, and that in a history in which religion, in some phase or 
 other, was the inspiration of the events which he records, is a fact 
 which no Christian heart can think of without surprise and sorrow. 
 It has become fashionable to praise a neutral literature which 
 prides itself upon its freedom from bias, and upon the broad 
 line of separation which it draws carefully between things secu- 
 lar and things sacred ; and there are many who call this liberal- 
 ity, but there is an old Book whose authority, thank God, is 
 not yet deposed from the heart of Christian England, which 
 would brand it with a very different name. That Book tells 
 us that the fig-tree was blasted, not because it ^^ is baneful, but 
 because it was baiTen ; and that the bitter curse was denounced 
 against Meroz, not because she rallied with the forces of the 
 foe, but because in her criminal indifference she came not up 
 to the help of the Lord. Amid the stirring and manifold ac- 
 tivities of the age in which we live, to be neutral in the strife is 
 to rank with the enemies of the Saviour. There is no greater 
 foe to the spread of His cause in the world than the placid in- 
 
 92 
 
 m\, 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 
 diflferentism which is too honourable to betray, while it is too 
 careless or too cowardly to join Him, The rarer the endow- 
 ments, the deeper the obligation to consecrate them to the 
 glory of their Giver. That brilliant genius, that indefatigable 
 industry, that influencing might of speech, that wondrous and 
 searching faculty of analysis, what might they not have accom- 
 plished if they had been pledged to the recognition of a higher 
 purpose than literature, and fearless in their advocacy of the 
 faith of Christ ! Into the secret history of the inner man, of 
 course we may not enter ; and we gladly hope, from small but 
 significant indications which a searcher may discover in his 
 writings, as well as from intimations, apparently authentic, which 
 were published shortly after his death, that if there had rested 
 any cloud on his experience, the Sun of righteousness dispersed 
 it, and that he anchored his personal hope on that "dear Name" 
 which his earliest rhymes had sung ; but the regret may not be 
 suppressed that his transcendant powers were given to any ob- 
 ject lower than the highest. And when I see two life courses 
 before me, both ending in Westminster Abbey, for the tardy 
 gratitude of the nation adjudged to Zachary Macaulay's re- 
 mains, the honour which it denied to his living reputation ; 
 when I see the father, poor, slandered, living a life of strugde. 
 yet secretly but mightily working for the oppressed and the 
 friendless, and giving all his energies in a bright summer of 
 consecration unto God ; and when I see the son, rich, gifted, 
 living a life of success, excellent and envied in everything he 
 undertook, breathing the odours of a perpetual incense-cloud, 
 and passing from the memory of an applauding country to the 
 tomb, b It aiming through his public lifetime only at objects 
 which were "of the earth, earthy," I feel that if there be truth 
 
 93 
 
il i 
 
 III' I 
 
 MACAULAV. 
 
 in the Bible, and sanction in the obligations of religion, and 
 immortality in the destinies of man, " he aimed too low who 
 aimed beneath the skies;" that the truer fame is with the pains- 
 taking and humble Christian worker, and that I had rather have 
 the amaranth which encircles the father than the laurel which 
 crowns the forehead of the more gifted and brilliant son. 
 
 In 1856 he resigned his seat for Edinburgh, in consequence 
 of failing health ; and in 1857 literature was honoured with a 
 peerage in the person of one of the noblest of her sons, and the 
 peerage was honoured by the accession of Lord Macaulay's 
 illustrious name. Thenceforward in his retirement at Kensinir- 
 ton he devoted himself to his History, " the business and the 
 pleasure of his life." The world rejoiced to hope that succes- 
 sive volumes might yet stimulate its delight and wonder, and 
 wished for the great writer a long and mellow eventide, which 
 the night should linger to disturb. But suddenly, with the 
 parting year, a mightier summons came, and the majestic brain 
 was tired, and the fluttering heart grew still. Already, as the 
 months of that fatal year waned on, had the last harvestman 
 multiplied his sheaves from the ranks of genius and of skill. 
 There had been mourning in Prussia for Humboldt, and across 
 the wide Atlantic there had wailed a dirge for Prescott and 
 Washington Irving ; Brunei and Stephenson had gone down in 
 quick succession to the grave ; men had missed the strange 
 confessions of De Quincey, and the graceful fancies with which 
 Leigh Hunt had long delighted them ; Hallam and Stephen 
 had passed the ivory gates ; but, as in the sad year which 
 closed upon our national sorrow, it seemed as if the spoiler 
 had reserved the greatest victim to the last, that he might give 
 to the vassal world the very proudest token of his power. 
 
MAC A UL AY, 
 
 If Macaulay had an ambition dearer than the rest, it was that 
 he might He in " that temple of silence and reconciliation where 
 the enmities of twenty generations lie buried ; " and the walls 
 of Westminster Abbey do enclose him "in their tender and 
 solemn gloom." Not in ostentatious state, nor with the pomp of 
 sorrow, but with hearty and mourning affection, did rank and 
 talent, and office and authority, assemble to lay him in the 
 grave. The pall was over the city on that drear January morn- 
 ing, and the cold, raw wind wailed mournfully, as if sighing 
 forth the requiem of the great spirit that was gone ; and amid 
 saddened friends — some who had shared the sports of his child- 
 hood, some who had fought with him the battles of political 
 life — amid warm admirers and generous foes, while the aisles 
 rang with the cadences of solemn music, and here and there 
 were sobs and pants of sorrow, they bore him to that quiet 
 resting-place, where he " waits the adoption, to wit, the re- 
 demption of the body." Not far from the place of his sepul- 
 ture are the tablets of Gay, and Rowe, and Thomson, and Gar- 
 rick, and Goldsmith ; on his right sleeps Isaac Barrow, the 
 ornament of his own Trinity College ; on his left, no clamour 
 breaks the slumber of Samuel Johnson ; from a pedestal at the 
 head of the grave, serene and thoughtful, Addison looks down ; 
 the coffin, which was said to have been exposed at the time of 
 the funeral, probably held all that was mortal of Richard Brins- 
 ley Sheridan ; Campbell gazes pensively across the transept, as 
 if he felt that the " pleasures of hope" were goi^.e ; while from 
 opposite sides, Shakspeare, the remembrancer of mortality, re- 
 minds us from his open scroll that the *' great globe itself, and 
 all that it inhabit, shall dissolve, and, like the baseless fabric of 
 a vision, leave not a rack behind ;" and Handel, comforting 
 
 95 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 us in our night of weeping by the glad hope of immortality, 
 seems to listen while they chant forth his own magnificent 
 hymn, " His body is buried in peace, but his name liveth for 
 evermore." There are strange thoughts and lasting lessons to 
 be gathered in this old Abbey, and by the side of this latest 
 grave. From royal sarcophagus, and carven shrine ; from the 
 rustling of those fading banners, which tell of the knights of the 
 former time ; yonder where the Chathams and Mansfields re- 
 pose ; here where the orators and poets lie, comes there not a 
 voice to us of our frailty, borne into our hearts by the brother- 
 hood of dust upon which our footsteps tread ? How solemn 
 the warning ! Oh for grace to learn it ! 
 
 •' Earth's highest glory ends in — ' Here he lies ! ' 
 And 'dust to dust ' concludes her noblest song." 
 
 And shall they rise, all these ? Will there be a trumpet blast 
 so shrill that none of them may refuse to hear it, and the soul, 
 re-entering its shrine of eminent or common clay, pass upward 
 to the judgment? " Many and mighty, but all hushed," shall 
 they submit v/ith us to the arbitrations of the last assize ? And 
 in that world is it true that gold is not the currency, and that 
 rank is not hereditary, and that there is only one name that is 
 honoured ? Then, if this is the end of all men, let the living 
 lay it to heart. Solemn and thoughtful, let us search for an 
 ass; red refuge ; childlike and earnest, let us confide in the one 
 accepted Name ; let us realise the tender and infinite nearness 
 of God our Father, through Jesus our Surety and our Friend ; 
 and in hope of a joyful resurrection for ourselves, and for the 
 marvellous Englishman we mourn, let us sing his dirge in the 
 words of the truest poet of cur time : — 
 
 96 
 
MACAULAY. 
 
 nortality, 
 ignificent 
 iveth for 
 essons to 
 his latest 
 from the 
 hts of the 
 sfields re- 
 lere not a 
 e brother- 
 w solemn 
 
 mpet blast 
 I the soul, 
 ss upward 
 led," shall 
 ze ? And 
 
 and that 
 Ime that is 
 Ithe living 
 Irch for an 
 
 n the one 
 nearness 
 
 r Friend ; 
 
 d for the 
 
 Irge in the 
 
 " Al! is over and done : 
 Render thanks to the Giver I 
 England, for thy son. 
 Let the bell be tolled. 
 Render thanks to the Giver, 
 And render him to the mould. 
 Let the bell be tolled 
 
 And the sound of the sorrowing anthem rolled, 
 And a deeper knell in the heart be knolled. 
 To such a name for ages long 
 To such a name 
 
 Preserve a broad approach of fame, 
 And ever- ringing avenues of song. 
 
 Hush ! the dead march wails in the people's ears, 
 
 The dark crowd moves, and there are sobs and tears ; 
 
 The black earth yawns — the mortal disappears j 
 
 Ashes to ashes — dust to dust ; 
 
 He is gone who seemed so great. 
 
 Gone, but nothing can bereave him 
 
 Of the force he made his own 
 
 Being here, and we believe him 
 
 Something far advanced in state, 
 
 And that he wears a truer crown 
 
 Than any wreath that man can weave him. 
 
 But speak no more of his renown, 
 
 Lay your earthly fancies down. 
 
 And in the solemn temple leave him : 
 
 God accept him, Christ receive him." 
 
 97 
 

JOHN BUNYAN. 
 
11 
 
 i 
 
JOHN liUNYAN. 
 
 IT wrc liiipossiMc t(» ^.v/.v. upon the f'yrarnifis, thoHC vast 
 sc|)iil( lues which rise, < olossal, (rorii thi- l,il»yan dcscrl, 
 without sdli-iiiii Irchii}^'. They exist, hut where arc their build 
 crs? Where is the ("uhihiicnt (jI Ihcrir large ambition? lOnler 
 them. In I heir silent heart there is a sar(;o|>hagus with a hand- 
 ful of dust in it, and Ihis is all that remains to us of a proud 
 race »>( kings ! 
 
 Histories are, in some sort, the pyramids of nations. They 
 cnloml) in olden chronicle, or in dijn tradition, pco|Wcs which 
 once fille<l the world with their fame, men who stamped the 
 form and |)re.ssure of their < haracter upon the lives of thousands. 
 The hislori<' jinge Has no m(jr-e losay of them than that they lived 
 and died. "Their acts and all that they did " are corn[)resscd 
 into scantiest record. 'J'hey are handed down to us, shrivelled 
 and .solitary, only in the letters which sjjelt out their names. It 
 is a serious thought, sobering enough to our aspirations after 
 that kind of immortality, that multitudes of the men of old have 
 their histories in their epitaphs, and that multitudes more, as 
 worthy, slumber in nameless graves. 
 
 But although the earlier times are wrapt in a cloud of fable ; 
 though tradition, itself a myth, gropes into mythic darkness; 
 
 lOI 
 
JOHN BUN VAN. 
 
 though /Eneas and Agamemnon are creations rather than men 
 — made human by the poet's " vision and faculty divine ;' 
 though forgetfulness has overtaken actual heroes, once " con- 
 tent in arms to cope, each with his fronting foe ;" it is interest- 
 ing to observe how rapid was the transition from fable to evi- 
 dence, from the uncertain twilight to the historic day. It was 
 necessary that it should be so. " The fulness of time" de- 
 manded it. There was an ever-acting Divinity caring, through 
 all change, for the sure working of His own purpose. The 
 legendary must be superseded by the real ; tradition must give 
 place to history, before the advent of the Blessed One. The 
 cross must be reared on the loftiest platform, in the midst of the 
 ages, and in the most inquisitive condition of the human mind. 
 Hence the atonement has been worked out with grandest pub- 
 licity. There hangs over the cross the largest cloud of wit- 
 nesses. Swarthy Cyrenian and proud son of Rome, lettered 
 Crfreek and jealous Jew, join hands around the sacrifice of Christ 
 — its body-guard as an historical fact — fencing it about with 
 most solemn authentications, and handing it to after ages, a 
 truth, as well as a life, for all time. In like manner we find 
 that certain periods of the world — epochs in its social progress — 
 times of its emerging from chivalric barbarism — times of recon- 
 struction or of revolution — times of great energy or of nascent 
 life, seem, as by divine arrangement, to stand forth in sharpest 
 outline ; long distinguishable after the records of other times 
 have faded. Such, besides the first age of Christianity, was the 
 period of the Crusades, of the Reformation, of the Puritans, and 
 such, to the thinkers of the future, will be the many-coloured 
 and inexplicable age in which we live. The men of those times 
 are the men on whom history reizes, who are the studies of the 
 
 102 
 
JOHN BUN VAN. 
 
 aftertinie ; men who, though they must yield to tlie law by 
 which even the greatest are thrown into somewhat shadowy 
 perspective, were yet powers in their day : men who, weiglied 
 against the world in the balance, caused " a downward tremble '' 
 in the beam. Such times were the years of the seventeenth 
 century in England. Such a man was John Bunvan. 
 
 Rare times they were, the times of that stirring and romantic 
 era. How much was crowded into the sixty years of Bunyan's 
 eventful life ! There were embraced in it the turbulent reign of 
 the first Charles — the Star-chamber, and the High Commission, 
 names of hate and shuddering — Laud with his Papistry, and 
 Strafford with his scheme of Thorough — the long intestine war 
 — Edgehill, and Naseby, and Marston, memories of sorrowful 
 renown — a discrowned monarch, a royal trial, and a royal exe- 
 cution. He saw all that was venerable and all that was novel 
 (iianging places, like the scene-shifting of a drama; bluff cava- 
 liers in seclusion and in exile ; douce burghers acting history, 
 and moulded into men. Then followed the Protectorate of the 
 many-sided and wondrous Cromwell ; brief years of grandeur 
 and of progress, during which an Englishman became a power 
 and a name. Then came the Restoration, with its reaction of 
 excesses — the absolutism of courtiers and courtezans — the mad- 
 ness which seized upon the nation when vampyres like Gates 
 and Dangerfield were gorged with perjury and drunk with blood; 
 the Act of Uniformity, framed in true succession to take effect 
 on St. Bartholomew's day, by which, " at one fell swoop," were 
 ejected two thousand ministers of Christ's holy gospel ; the 
 Conventicle Act, two years later, which hounded the ejected 
 ones from the copse and from the glen ; the great plague, fitting 
 sequel to enactments so foul, when the silenced clergy, gather- 
 
 103 
 
v.lH 
 
 ! 
 
 yoU.V DUNYAS. 
 
 
 \ : 
 
 !il 
 
 i: i 
 
 % ' lit' 
 
 ing in pestilence imnuinity from law, made the Red Cross the 
 snd badge of their second t)rdiriati()n, and taught the anxious, 
 and cheered the timid, at the altars from which hirelings had 
 lied. Then followed the death of the dissolute king — the acces 
 sion of James, at once a dissembler and a bigot -the renewal 
 of the struggle between i>rerogative and freedom -the wild con- 
 spiracy of Monmouth the military cruelties of Kirkeand Claver 
 house, the butchers of the army, and the judicial cruelties of 
 Jeffreys, the butcher of the bench— the martyrdoms of Elizabeth 
 Oaunt, and the gentle Alice Lisle -the glorious acquittal of the 
 seven bishops — the tinal eclii)se of the house of Stuart, that perfi 
 dious, and therefore fated race — and England's last revolution, 
 binding old alienations in marvellous unity at the foot of a parental 
 throne. What a rush of history compressed into a less period 
 than threescore years and ten ! These were indeed times for the 
 development of character — times for the birth of men. 
 
 And the men were there — the wit, the poet, the divine, 
 the hero — as if genius had brought out her jewels, and furnished 
 them nobly for a nation's need. Then Pym and Hampden 
 bearded tyranny, and Russell and Sydney dreamed of freedom. 
 Then Blake secured the empire of ocean, and the chivalric 
 Falkland fought and fell. In those stirring times Chamock, 
 and Owen, and Howe, and Henry, and Baxter, wrote, and 
 preached, and prayed. "Cudworth and Henry More were still 
 living at Cambridge ; South was at Oxford, Prideaux in the close 
 at Norwich, and Whitby in the close of Salisbury. Sherlock 
 preached at the Temple, Tillotson at Lincoln's Inn, Burnet at 
 the Rolls, Stillingfleet at St. Paul's Cathedral, Beveridge at St. 
 Peter's, Cornhill. Men," to continue the historian's eloquent 
 description, *' who could set forth the majesty and beauty of 
 
 104 
 
JOHN liUNYAN. 
 
 Christianity with such justness of thoii)j;ht and sudi cncrf,'y of 
 language that the indolent Charles roused himself to listen, and 
 the fastidious Hu< kinghauj forgot to sneer." Hut twelve years 
 before the liirlii of llunyan, all that was mortal of Shakespeare 
 had descendi'd to the tomb. Waller still flourished, an easy 
 and graceful versifier ; C'owley yet presented his " perverse 
 metaphysics" to the world; butler, like the parsons in his 
 own lludibras, 
 
 " Proved his doctrine ortliodox 
 Ly apostolic blows and knocks." 
 
 Dryden wrote powerful satires and sorry plays "with long- 
 resounding march and energy divine ;" (ieorge Herb rt clad his 
 thoughts in (|uaint and (juiet beauty; and mid the groves of 
 Chalfont, as if blinded on j)ur|)ose that the inner eye might be 
 flooded with the " light which never was on sea or shore," our 
 greater Milton sang. 
 
 In such an era, and with such men for his contem[)oraries, 
 John Tkinyan ran liis course, " a burning and a shining light," 
 kindled in a dark place, for the praise and glory of God. 
 
 With the main facts of Bunyan's history you are most of you, 
 I presume, familiar ; though it may be doubted whether there 
 be not many —his hearty admirers withal, — whose knowledge 
 of him comjjrehends but the three salient particulars, that he 
 was a Bedfordshire tinker, that he was confined in Bedford jail, 
 and that he wrote the "Pilgrim's Progress." It will not be 
 necessary, however, to-night, to do more than sketch, succinctly, 
 the course of his life, endeavouring — Herculean project — to 
 collate, in a brief page, Ivimey, and Philip, and Southey, and 
 Offor, and Cheever, and Montgomery, and Macaulay ; a seven- 
 
 105 
 
JOHN BUN VAN. 
 
 fold biographical band, who have reasoned about the modern, 
 as a seven-fold band of cities contended for the birth of the 
 ancient Homer. 
 
 He was born at Elstow, a village near Bedford, in the year 
 1628. Like many others of the Lord's heroes, he was of 
 obscure parentage, " of a low and inconsiderable generation," 
 and, not improbably, of gipsy blood. His youth was spent in 
 ex'cess of riot. There are expressions in his works descriptive 
 of his manner of life, which cannot be interpreted, as Macaulay 
 would have it, in a theological sense, nor resolved into morbid 
 self-upbraidings. He was an adept and a teacher in evil. In 
 his 17th year we find him in the army — " an army where wick- 
 edness abounded." It is not known accurately on which side 
 he served, but the description best answers certainly to Rupert's 
 roystering dragoons. At 20 he married, receiving two books 
 as his wife's only portion — " The Practice of Piety," and " The 
 Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven." By the reading of these 
 books, and by his wife's converse and example., the Holy Spirit 
 first wrought upon his soul. He attempted to curb his sinful 
 propensities, and to work in himself an external reformation. He 
 formed a habit of church-going, and an attachment almost idol- 
 atrous to the externalisms of religion. The priest was to him 
 as the Brahman to the Pariah ; "he could have lain down at his 
 feet to be trampled on, his name, garb, and work did so intoxicate 
 and bewitch him." While thus under the thraldom which super- 
 stition imposes, he indulged all the licence which supersition 
 claims. He continued a blasphemer and a Sabbath-breaker, 
 running to the same excess of riot as before. Then followed in 
 agonizing vicissitude a series of convictions and relapses. He 
 was arrested, now by the punL;cncy of a powerful sermon, now 
 
 106 
 
 \ 'i 
 
JOH^ BUN Y AN. 
 
 by the reproof of an abandoned woman, and anon by visions in 
 the night, distinct and terrible. One by one. under the lashes 
 of the law, " that stern Moses, which knows not how to sjiare," 
 he relinquished his besetting sins — from which he struggled 
 successfully to free himself while he was yet uninfluenced by the 
 evangelical motive, and with his heart alienated from the life 
 of God. New and brighter light flashed upon his spirit from 
 the conversation of some godly women at Bedford, who spake 
 of the things of God and of kindred hopes and yearnings " with 
 much pleasantness of scripture," as they sat together in the sun. 
 He was instructed more perfectly by " holy Mr. Gifford," the 
 Evangelist of his dream, and, in " the comment on the Gala- 
 tians " of brave old Martin Luther, he found the photograph of 
 his own sinning and troubled soul. For two years there were 
 but glimpses of the fitful sunshine dimly seen through a spirit- 
 storm, perpetual and sad. Temptations of fearful power assailed 
 and possessed his soul. Then was the time of that fell combat 
 with Apollyon, of the fiery darts and hideous yells, of the lost 
 sword and the rejoicing enemy. Then also he passed, distracted 
 and trembling, through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and 
 a horror of great darkness fell upon him. At length, by the 
 blest vision of Christ '* made of God unto him wisdom, and 
 righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption," the glad 
 deliverance came — the clouds rolled away from his heart and 
 from his destiny, and he walked in the undimmed and glorious 
 heaven. From this time his spiritual course was, for the most 
 part, one of comfort and peace. He became a member of the 
 Baptist Church under Mr. Giffbrd's pastorate, and when that 
 faithful witness ceased his earthly testimony, he engaged in 
 earnest exhortations to sinners, " as a man in chains speaking 
 
 107 
 
JOHN BUN VAN. 
 
 i4 
 
 ill 
 
 to men in chains/' and was urged forward, by the concurrent 
 call of the Spirit and the bride, to the actual ministry of the 
 gospel. His ministry was heartfelt, and therefore powerful, and 
 was greatly blessed of God. In 1660 he was indicted "as a 
 common upholder of unlawful meetings and conventicles," and 
 by the strong hand of tyranny was thrown into prison ; and 
 though his wife pleaded so powerfully in his favour as to move 
 the pity of Sir Matthew Hale, beneath whose ermine throbbed 
 a God-fearing heart like that which beat beneath the tinker's 
 doublet, he was kept there for twelve long years. His own 
 words are, "So being again delivered up to the jailor's hand, I 
 was had home to prison." Home to prison. Think of that, 
 young men ! See the bravery of a Christian heart ! There is 
 no affectation of indifference to suffering — no boastful exhibi- 
 tion of excited heroism ; but there is the calm of the man " that 
 has the herb heart'sease in his bosom." 
 
 Home to i)rison ! And wherefore not ? Home is not the 
 maible hall, nor the luxurious furniture, nor the cloth of gold. 
 If home be the kingdom where a man reigns, in his own mo- 
 narchy over subject hearts — if home be the spot where " fireside 
 pleasuresgambol,"where are heard the sunny laugh of the confid- 
 ing child, or the fond "what ails thee ?" of the watching wife— then 
 every essential of home was to be found, " except these bonds," 
 in that cell on Bedford Bridge. There, in the day-time, is the 
 heroine wife, at once bracing and soothing his spirit with her 
 womanly tenderness, and, sitting at his feet, the child — a clasp- 
 ing tendril — blind and therefore best beloved. There, on the 
 table, is the " Book of Martyrs," with its records of the men 
 who were the ancestors of his fiiith and love ; those old and 
 heaven patented nobility whose badge of knighthood was the 
 
 108 
 
JOHN BUN Y AN. 
 
 hallowed cross, and whose chariot of triumph was the ascending 
 flame. There, nearer to his hand, is the Bible, revealing their 
 secret source of strength ; cheering his own spirit in exceeding 
 heaviness, and making strong, through faith, for the obedience 
 which is even unto death. Within him the good conscience bears 
 bravely up, and he is weaponed by this as by a shield of trii)le 
 mail. By his side, all unseen by casual guest or surly warder, 
 there stands the Heavenly Comforter ; and from overhead, as 
 if anointing him already with the unction of the recompense, 
 there rushes the stream of glory. 
 
 And now it is nightfall. They have had their evening wor- 
 ship, and, as in another dungeon, " the prisoners heard them." 
 The blind child receives the fatherly benediction. The last 
 good night is said to the dear ones, and Bunyan is alone. His 
 pen is in his hand and his Bible on the table. A solitary lamp 
 dimly relieves the darkness. But there is fire in his eye, and 
 there is passion in his soul. " He writes as if joy did make 
 him write. " He has felt all the fulness of his story. The pen 
 moves too slowly for the rush of feeling as he graves his own 
 heart upon the page. There is beating over him a stonn of 
 inspiration. Great thoughts are striking on his brair, and flush- 
 ing all his cheek. Cloudy and shapeless in their earliest rise 
 within his mind, they darken into the gigantic, or brighten into 
 the beautiful, until at length he flings them into bold and burn- 
 ing words. Rare visions rise before him. He is in a dungeon 
 no longer. He Is in the palace Beautiful, with its sights of 
 renown and songs of melody, with its virgins of comeliness and 
 of discretion, and with its windows opening for the first kiss of 
 the sun. His soul swells beyond the measure of its cell. It is 
 not a rude lamp that glimmers on his table. It is no longer the 
 
 \\ 
 
 109 
 
JOHN BUNYAN. 
 
 dark Ouse that rolls its sluggish waters at his feet. His spirit 
 lias no sense of bondage. No iron has entered into his soul. 
 Chainless and swift, he has soared to the Delectable Mountains 
 — the light of Heaven is around him — the river is the one, clear 
 as crystal, which floweth from the throne of God and of the 
 Lamb — breezes of Paradise blow freshly across it, fanning his 
 temples and stirring his hair — from the summit of the Hill Clear 
 he catches rarer splendours — the new Jerusalem sleeps in its 
 eternal noon — the shinini^ ones are there, each one a crowned 
 harper unto God — this is the land that is afar off, and that is 
 the king in His beauty \ until the dreamer falls upon his knees 
 and sobs away his agony of gladness in an ecstasy of prayer and 
 praise. Now, think of these things — endearing intercourse with 
 wife and children, the ever fresh and ever comforting Bible, the 
 trancpiil conscience, the regal imaginings of the mind, the faith 
 which realized them all, and the light of God's approving 
 face shining, broad and bright, upon the soul, and you will 
 understand the undying memory which made Bunyan quaintly 
 write " I was had home to prison." 
 
 In 1672, Richard Carver, a member of the Society of Friends, 
 who had been mate of the vessel in which King Charles escaped 
 to France after his defeat at Worcester, and who had carried 
 the king on his back through the surf and landed him on French 
 soil, claimed, as his reward, the release of hi? co-rel'gionists who 
 crowded the jails throughout the land. After some hesitation, 
 Charles was shamed into compliance. A cumbrous deed was 
 prepared, and under the provisions of that deed, which was so 
 framed as to include sufferers of other persuasions, Bunyan 
 obtained deliverance, having lain in the prison complete twelve 
 
 years. 
 
 no 
 
JOHN BUNYAN. 
 
 From the time of his release his life flowed evenly on. Escaped 
 alike from Doubting Castle and from the net of the flatterer, he 
 dwelt in the Beulah land of ripening piety and hope. The last 
 act of the strong and gentle spirit brought down on him the 
 peace-maker's blessing. Fever seized him in London on his 
 return from an errand of mercy, and after ten days' illness, long 
 enough for the utterance of a whole treasury of dying sayings, 
 he calmly fell asleep. 
 
 *' Mortals cried, 'a man is dead :' 
 Angels sang * a child's born ;'" 
 
 and in honour of that nativity " all the bells of the celestial city 
 rang again for joy." From his elevation in heaven his whole 
 life seems to preach to us his own Pentecostal evangel, "There 
 is room enough here for body and soul, but not for body, and 
 soul, and sin." 
 
 There are various phases in which Bunyan is presented to us 
 which are suggestive of interesting remark, or which may tend 
 to exhibit the wholeness of his character before us, and upon 
 which, therefore, we may not unprofitably dwell. 
 
 As a WRITER he will claim our attention for a while. This 
 is not the time to enter into any analysis of his various works, 
 nor of the scope and texture of his mind. That were a task 
 rather for the critic than the lecturer ; and although many 
 mental anatomists have been already at work upon it, there is 
 room for the skilful handling of the scalpel still. His fame has 
 rested so extensively upon his marvellous allegories, that there 
 is some danger lest his more elaborate works should be depre- 
 ciated ; but as a theologian he is able and striking, and as a 
 contributor to theological literature he is a worthy associate of 
 the brightest Puritan divines. His terse, epigrammatic aphorisms, 
 
 III 
 
JOHN BUN Y AN. 
 
 his array of "picked and packed words," the clearness with 
 which he enunciates, and the power with wliich he applies the 
 truth, his intense earnestness, the warm soul that is seen beating 
 through the transparent page, his vivacious humour, flashing 
 out from the main body of his argument like lightning from a 
 summer sky, his deep spirituality, chastening an imagination 
 princely almost beyond compare — all these combine to claim 
 for him a high place among that band of masculine thinkers 
 who were the glory of the Commonwealth, and whose words, 
 weighty in their original utterance, are sounds which echo still. 
 The amount of actual good accomplished by his writings it 
 would be difficult to estimate. No man since the days of the 
 Apostles has done more to draw the attention of the world to 
 matters of supremest value, nor painted the beauty of holiness 
 in more alluring colours, nor spoken to the universal heart in 
 tenderer sympathy or with more thrilling tone. In how many 
 readers of the " Grace Abounding " has there been the answer 
 of the heart to the histor5^ What multitudes are there to whom 
 "the Jerusalem Sinner Saved" has been as "yonder shining 
 light " which has led through the wicket gate, and by the house 
 of the Divine Interpreter, to the blest spot "where was a cross, 
 with a sepulchre hard by ;" and at the sight of that cross the 
 burden has fallen off, and the roll has been secured, and, sealed 
 and shining, they have gone on to victory and heaven. How 
 many have revelled in silent rapture in his descriptions of the 
 " Holy City" until there have floated around them some gleams 
 of the "jasper light," and they felt an earnest longing to be ofi 
 from earth — that land of craft, and crime, and sorrow — 
 
 *' And wished for wings to flee away, 
 And mix with that eternal day," 
 
 1 12 
 
JOHISi BUN Y AN. 
 
 Oh, to thousands of the pilgrims that have left the city of De- 
 struction — some valiant and hopeful, others much afraid and 
 fearing — has Bunyan come in his writings, to soothe the pang 
 or to prompt the prayer, to scare the doubt or to solve the 
 problem — a Great-heart guide, brave against manifold ill 
 favoured ones — a faithful Evangelist, pointing the soul to the 
 Saviour. 
 
 Of the "Pilgrim's Progress" it were superfluous to speak in 
 praise. It seizes us in childhood with the strong hand of its 
 power, our manhood surrenders to the spell of its sorcery, and 
 its grasp upon us relaxes not when " mingles the brown of life 
 with sober gray," nay, is often strongest amid the weariness ot 
 waning years. Its scenes are familiar to us as the faces of home. 
 Its characters live to our perceptions no less than to our under- 
 standing. We have seen them, conversed with them, realized 
 their diversities of character and experience for ourselves. 
 There never was a poem which so thoroughly took possession 
 of our hearts, and hurried them along upon the stream of 
 the story. We have an identity of interest with the hero in all 
 his doubts and dangers. We start with him on pilgrimage ; we 
 speed with him in eager haste to the Gate ; we gaze with him 
 on the sights of wonder ; we climb with him the difficult hill ; 
 the blood rushes to our cheek, warm and proud, as we gird 
 ourselves for the combat with Apollyon ; it curdles at the heart 
 again amid the Valley of the Shadow of Death ; we look with 
 him upon the scoffing multitude from the cage of the town of 
 Vanity ; we now lie, listless and sad, and now flee, fleet and 
 happy, from the cell in Doubting Castle ; we walk with him 
 amid the pleasantness of Beulah ; we ford the river in his com- 
 pany ; we hear the joy-bells ringing in the city of habitations \ 
 
 "3 
 
 H 
 
JOHN BUNYAN. 
 
 \ 11 
 
 we see and greet the hosts of welcoming angels \ and it is to us 
 as the gasp of agony with which the drowning come back to lile, 
 when some rude call of earthly concernment arouses us from 
 our reverie, and we wake, and, behold, it is a dream. 
 
 There must be marvellous power in a book that can work 
 such enchantment, wrought withal with the most perfect self- 
 unconsciousness on the part of the enchanter himself. "The 
 joy that made him write" was, in no sense, the prospect of 
 literary fame. With the true modesty of genius he hesitated long 
 as to the propriety of publication, and his fellow-prisoners in 
 the jail were empanelled as a literary jury, upon whose verdict 
 depended the fate of the story which has thrilled the pulses of 
 the world. In fact his book fulfilled a necessity of his nature. 
 He wrote because he must write : the strong thoughts within 
 him laboured for expression. The " Pilgrim's Progress " was 
 written without thought of the v'orld. It is just a wealthy mind 
 rioting in its own riches for its own pleasure; an earnest soul 
 painting in the colours of a vivid imagination its olden anguish, 
 and revelling at the prospect of its future joy. And while the 
 dreamer thus wrote primarily for himself — a "prison amusement " 
 at once beguiling and hallowing the hours of a weary bondage 
 — he found to his delight, and perhaps to his surprise, that his 
 vision became a household book to thousands ; — worldlings 
 enraptured with its pictures, with no inkling of the drift of its 
 story ; Christians pressing it to their hearts as a " song in the 
 night " of their trouble, or finding in its thrilling pages " a door 
 of hope '^ through which they glimpsed the coming of the day. 
 
 It has been often remarked that, like the Bible, its great 
 model, the ** Pilgrim's Progress " is, to a religious mind, its own 
 best interpreter. It is said of a late eminent clergyman and 
 
 114 
 
JOHN BUNYAN. 
 
 ;oners in 
 
 commentator, who published an edition of it with numerous 
 expository notes, that having freely distributed copies amongst 
 his parishioners, he sometime afterwards inquired of one ot 
 them if he had read the " Pilgrim's Prugress." " Oh, yes, sir :' 
 "And do you think you understand it ?" *' Yes, sir, 1 understand 
 //, and I hope before long I shall r.nderstand the notes as well." 
 One of the most amusing and yet conclusive proofs of the 
 popularity of this wonderful allegory is to be found in the liber- 
 ties which have been taken with it in the versions into which 
 it has been rendered, and in the imitations to which it has 
 given rise. Mr Ofifor, in his carefully-edited edition of Bunyan's 
 works, has enumerated between thirty and forty treatises, mostly 
 allegorical, whose authors have evidently gathered their inspi- 
 ration from the tinker of Elstow, The original work has been 
 subjected to a thousand experiments. It has been done into 
 an oratorio for the satisfaction of play-goers ; done into verse at 
 the caprice of rhymesters ; done into elegant English for the 
 delectation of drawing-rooms ; done into catechisms for the use 
 of schools. It has been quoted in novels ; quoted in sermons 
 innumerable ; quoted in Parliamentary orations ; quoted in 
 plays. It has been put upon the Procrustes' bed of many who 
 have differed from its sentiments, and has been mutilated or 
 stretched as it exceeded or fell short of their standard. Thus 
 there has been a Supralapsarian supplement, in which the 
 Interpreter is called the Enlightener, and the House Beautiful 
 is Castle Strength. There has been a Popish edition, with Giant 
 Pope left out. There has been a Socinian parody, describing 
 the triumphant voyage, through hell to heaven, of a Captain 
 Single-eye and his Unitarian crew ; and last, not least note- 
 worthy, there has been a Tractarian travesty, in which the editor 
 
 115 
 
' ! ■■ 
 
 JOHN BUN Y AN. 
 
 \ I 
 
 digs a cleansing well at the wicket-gate, omits Mr. Worldl) 
 Wiseman, ignores the town of Legality, makes no mention of 
 Mount Sinai, changes the situation of the cross, gives to poor 
 Christian a double burden, transforms Giant Pope into Giant 
 Mahometan, Mr. Superstition into Mr. Self-indulgence, and 
 alters, with careful cociuetry towards Rome, every expression 
 which might be distasteful to the Holy Mother. Most of those 
 who have published garbled or accommodated editions have 
 done their work silently, and with some sense of shame ; but 
 the editor of the last mentioned mutilation dwells with ineffable 
 complacency upon his deed, and evidently imagines that he has 
 done something for which the world should speak him well. 
 He defends his insertions and omissions, which are many, and 
 which affect important points of doctrine, in a somewhat curious 
 style. "A reasonable defence," he says, "is found in the follow- 
 ing consideration : — The author whose works are altered 
 wished, it is to be assumed, to teach the tmth. In the editor's 
 judgment, the alterations have tended to the more complete 
 setting forth that truth, that is, to the better accomplishment of 
 the author's design. If the editor's views of the truth, then, are 
 correct, he is justified in what he does \ if they are false, he is 
 to be blamed for originally holding them, but cannot be called 
 dishonest for making his author speak what he believes that, 
 with more knowledge, the author would have said." Exquisite 
 logic ! How would it avail in the mouth of some crafty forger, 
 at the bar of the Old Bailey ! " I am charged with altering a 
 cheque, dra.vn for my benefit, by making ;!^2oo into ^1,200. 
 I admit it, but a reasonable defence maybe found in the follow- 
 ing consideration. The gentleman whose cheque I altered 
 wished, it is to be assumed, to benefit me and my family. In 
 
 116 
 
JOHi\ n UN VAN. 
 
 my judgment, the alteration has tended to the better accom- 
 plishment of the gentleman's design. If my views in this matter 
 are correct, I am justified in what I have done ; if they are in- 
 correct, I may be blamed for originally holding them, but cannot 
 be called dishonest for doing what, with more knowledge of my 
 circumstances and his own, the gentleman himself would have 
 done." Out upon it ! Is there one shade of sentiment, from 
 the credulousness which gulps the tradition and kisses the relic, 
 to the negativism of "the everlasting No," which might not lay 
 the flattering unction to its soul, that " with more knowledge" 
 Banyan would have been ranged under its banner. Rejoicing 
 as I do in substantial oneness of sentiment with the glorious 
 dreamer, I might yet persuade myself into the belief that, with 
 more knowledge, he would have become an Evangelical Armi- 
 nian, and would hardly have classed the election doubters among 
 the army of Diabolus : but shall I, on this account, foist my 
 notions into the text of his writings ? or were it not rather an 
 act from which an honest mind would shrink with lordly scorn ? 
 I cannot forbear the utterance of an indignant protest against a 
 practice which appears to me subversive of every canon of 
 literary morality, and which in this case has passed off, under 
 the sanction of Bunyan's name, opinions from which he would 
 have recoiled in indignation, which war against the whole tenor 
 of his teaching, and which might almost disturb him in his 
 grave ; and especially is my soul vexed within me that there 
 should have been flung by any sacrilegious hand, over those 
 sturdy Protestant shoulders, one solitary rag of Rome. 
 
 Though the " Pilgrim's Progress " became immediately popu- 
 lar, the only book save the Bible on the shelf of many a rustic 
 dwelling, and though it passed in those early times through 
 
 117 
 
!,i 
 
 JOHN BUNYAN. 
 
 twelve editions in the space of thirty years, the " inconsiderable 
 generation " of its author long prevented its circulation among 
 the politer classes of the land. There was no affectation, but 
 a well-grounded apprehension in Cowper's well-known line : 
 
 " Lest so despised a name should move a sneer." 
 
 At length, long the darling of the populace, it became the 
 study of the learned. Critics went down into its treasure-cham- 
 bers and were astonished at their wealth and beauty. The 
 initiated ratified the foregone conclusion of the vulgar ; the 
 tinker's dream became a national classic ; and the pontificate 
 of literature installed it with a blessing and a prayer. 
 
 No uninspired work has extorted eulogies from a larger host 
 of the men of mark and likelihood. That it redeemed into 
 momentary kindliness a ferocious critic like Swift ; that it sur- 
 prised, from the lips of Johnson, the confession that he had read it 
 through and wished it longer ; that Byron's banter spared it, and 
 that Scott's chivalry was fired by it ; tha* Southey's analysis, and 
 Franklin's contemplation, and Mackin. .^h's elegant research, 
 and Macaulay's artistic criticism, should have resulted in a sym- 
 phony to its praise ; that the spacious intellect and poet-heart 
 of Coleridge revelled with equal gladness in its pages ; that the 
 scholarly Arnold, chafed by the attritions of the age, and vexed 
 by the doubt- clouds which darkened upon his gallant soul, lost 
 his trouble in its company, and looked through it to the Bible, 
 which he deemed it faithfully to mirror; — all these are testi- 
 monies that it established its empire over minds themselves 
 imperial, and constrained their acknowledgment of its kingly 
 power. 
 
 It would, we suspect, be of no account with Bunyan now 
 
 ii8 
 
JOHN BUN VAN. 
 
 that critics conspire to praise him ; that artists, those bending 
 worshippers of beauty, have drawn sumptuous ilhistrations from 
 his works ; or that his statue, the tinker's effigy, standing in no 
 unworthy companionship with statesmen, and heroes, and men 
 of high degree, should decorate the British House of Commons. 
 But if the faithful in glory have earthly sympathies and recog- 
 nitions still ; if, from the region where they ** summer high in 
 bliss upon the hills of God," they still look down lovingly upon 
 the world which has missed and mourned them ; if their invio- 
 late joy may be enhanced from aught below — it might surely 
 thrill the heart of the dreamer with a deeper ecstacy, that his 
 Pilgrim yet walks the earth, a faithful witness for Jesus ; that it 
 has guided thousands of the perplexed, and cheered thou- 
 sands of the fearing ; and that it has testified to multitudes, of 
 many a clime and colour, *' in their own tongues, the wonderful 
 works of God." No book but God's own has been so honoured 
 to lift up the cross among the far off nations of mankind. The 
 Italian has read it under the shadow of the Vatican, and thf. 
 modern Greek amid the ruins of Athens ; it has blessed the 
 Armenian trafficker, and it has calmed the fierce Malay ; it has 
 been carried up the far rivers of Burmah ; and it has drawn 
 tears from dark eyes in the cinnamon gardens of Ceylon. The 
 Bechuanas in their wild woods have rejoiced in its simple story ; 
 it has been as the Elim of palms and fountains to the Arab 
 wayfarer ; it has nerved the Malagasy for a Faithful's martyr- 
 dom, or for trial of cruel mockings, and tortures more intolera- 
 ble than death. The Hindoo has yielded to i<^^s spell by 
 Gunga's sacred stream ; and, crowning triumph ! Hebrews have 
 read it on the slopes of Olivet, or on the banks of Kedron, and 
 the tender ,hearted daughters of Salem, descendants of those 
 
 119 
 
JOHN BUNYAN. 
 
 who wept for the sufferings of Jesus, have " wept" over it " for 
 themselves and for their children." 
 
 Dr. Johnson, in his life of Waller, advances the strange opin- 
 ion that spiritual subjects are not fit subjects for poetry; and 
 he dogmatizes, in his usual elephantine style of writing, upon 
 the alleged reason. He says : " The essence of poetry is inven- 
 tion \ such invention as, by producing son^ething unexpected, 
 surprises and delights. The topics of devotion are few, and 
 being few are universally known ; but few as they are they 
 can be made no more ; they can receive no grace from novelty 
 of sentiment, and very little from novelty of expression." Such 
 an unworthy definition of poetry might answer for an age of 
 lampooners, when merry quips and conceits passed muster as 
 sparks from the Heaven-kindled fire. We prefer that of Festus, 
 brief and full: 
 
 *' Poets are all who love, who feel great truths 
 And tell them." 
 
 And the greatest truths are those which link us to the invisi- 
 ble, and show us how to realize its wonders. If, then, there be 
 within each of us a gladiator soul, ever battling for dear life in 
 an arena ofrepression and scorn — a soul possessed with thought, 
 and passion, and energy invincible, and immortal hope and 
 yearnings after the far off and the everlasting, which all the 
 tyrann/ of the flesh cannot subdue ; if there be another world 
 which sheds a holy and romantic light upon every object and 
 upon every struggle of this, — if by the Word and Spirit divine 
 there can be opened the soul's inner eye, that sublime faith 
 which is " the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence 
 of things not seen " — to the visions of which our nature becomes 
 
 1 20 
 
JOHN BUN VAN. 
 
 a treasury of hidden riches, and which instates us in the heirship 
 of " the powers of the world to come;" — then there can be 
 poetry in this world only because light from heaven falls on it, 
 because it is a subtle hieroglyph full of solemn and mystic mean- 
 ings, because it cradles a magnificent destiny, and is the type 
 and test of everlasting life. It must be so. All conceptions of 
 nature, or of beauty, or of man, from which the spiritual ele- 
 ment is excluded, can be, at best, but the first sweep of the 
 finger over the harpstrings, eliciting, it may be, an uncertain 
 sound, but failing to evoke the soul of harmony which 
 sleeps in the heart of the chords. Macaulay shall answer 
 Johnson : " In the latter half of the seventeenth century there 
 were only two minds which possessed the imaginative faculty 
 in a very eminent degree. One of those minds produced the 
 'Paradise Lost;' the other the ' Pilgrim's Progress.'" Religious 
 epics these ! the one painting the lapse and the doom of our 
 race in all shapes of beauty or of grandeur ; the other borrow- 
 ing nothing from voluptuous externalisms, dealing only with 
 the inner man in his struggles and yearnings after God. We 
 want to see, in this age of ours, more and more of the genius 
 that is created by piety ; of a literature informed with the spirit 
 of the Gospel of Christ. Critics have predicted the decay of 
 poetry with the spread of civilization ; and literary men speak 
 with diffident hope of its " ultimate recovery from the stagger- 
 ing blows which science has inflicted ;" and, in truth, if its in- 
 spiration be all of earth, there may be some ground for fear. 
 As mere secular knowledge has no antiseptic power, so mere 
 earthly beauty has no perennial charms. But draw its subjects 
 from higher sources, let it meddle divinely with eternal things, 
 and it can never die. 
 
 121 
 
 Jii'"'^ 
 
JOHN BUXVAN. 
 
 " O si\y not tliat ]ioesy waxclb old, 
 That all her loj^oiuls were loiij; since told I 
 
 It is not so ! It is not s) ! 
 For while there's a l)K>sson» by sununer drest, 
 A si^h for the sad, or a smile for (he blest, 
 Or a changeful thoujjht in the luunan breast, 
 
 There'll be a new string for her lyre, I trow. 
 Do you say she is poor, in this land of the free ? 
 Do yiHi call her votaries \xwy as she ? 
 
 It may be so I It may be so 1 
 Vet hath she a message more high and clear, 
 From the burning lips of the heaven-taught .-.ocr; 
 From (he harp of /ion that charms the ear. 
 
 From the choir where the seraph minstrels glow." 
 
 Not, of" roufso. that the monotone shoviUl be tlie measure of 
 every lito-sotii;: rather should it How after Scriptural precept 
 ami preceilont. now in " psalms," grand, solemn, stately, the 
 sonorous burst of the full soul in praise, now in '* hymns," 
 earnest, hopeful, winning— the lyrics of the heart in its hours of 
 hope or pensivenoss, — ami now in "songs" light and hearty — 
 the roundelay, the ballad, the carol of a spirit full of sunshine, 
 warbling its melodies out o'i its own exuberance of joy. Nor, 
 o{ course, that literary men should write oidy on Christian 
 themes. We woukl have them illustrate the goodliness of 
 nature, the inductions of science, the achievements of art. 
 They should speak to u in the language of the sweet affec- 
 tions, give soul and sentiment to the harmony of music, and 
 strike the chords of the resounding lyre. They should take, in 
 comprehensive and sympathetic survey, all nature and all man. 
 But tlicy must submit to the baptism of Christianity, and be 
 leavened with her love divine, ere they can be chroniclers of 
 
 122 
 
 I i 
 
JOHN IWNYAN. 
 
 the august espousals, or guests al the liapj)y bridal of the bcauti 
 ful and true. 
 
 Young men, lend your energies to this hallowed consuiniiia- 
 tion. You are not [)oets, perhaps, and according to the old 
 ^^ Poeta fwn fit " adage, you are not fit to he. If you have the 
 " divine afflatus," by all means give it forth ; but if you have 
 not, do not strain after it to the neglect of nearer and more 
 practicable things. One would not wish to sec a race of Byron- 
 lings, — things of moustache and turndown collar, — moody 
 Manfreds of six feet three, with large loads of fine frenzy and 
 infinitesimal grains of common sense. And it is woful enough 
 to meet the weird youth of a later day, with his jargon of " sub- 
 jective " and "objective,'' who looms dimly upon us through 
 the blended smoke of mist and meerschaum, and who goes 
 floundering after tran.scendental nonsense until iic is nearly nin 
 over in Cheapside. It is given to very few of us to live ethereal 
 lives, or to be on familiar terms with thunder. Hut if you are 
 not the writers, you arc the readers of the age. You have an 
 a|)i)reciation of the beautifiil, an awakened intelligence whirh 
 pants hard after the true. Terminate, I beseech you, in your 
 own experience, the sad divorce which has too often existed 
 between intellect and piety. Take your stand, utiswcrving, 
 heroic, by the altar of truth ; and from that altar let neither 
 sophistry nor ridicule expel you. Let your faith rest with a 
 child's trust, with a martyr's gripe upon the .ruth as it is in 
 Jesus. Then go, humbly but dauntlessly, to work, and you c;in 
 make the literature of the time. Impress your individuality 
 upon others, and in so far as you create a healthier moral sen- 
 timent and a purer taste, the literature of the future is in your 
 hands. The literature of any age is hut the mirror of its pre- 
 
 123 
 
 
 fi Hi 
 
 
 A 
 
l;'l 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 JOllX nUA'YAN. 
 
 vnlcnl tendencies. A liealthy appetite will recoil from garliage 
 and carrion. Testilent i)eriodical.s and a venal ])ress reveal the 
 depraved moral fechng which they pamper. Work for the 
 uplifting of that moral feeling, and by the blessing of (iod upon 
 the elTorts of the fair brotherhood who toil for Him, the dew of 
 Hermon shall descend upon the hill Parnassus, and there shall 
 be turned into the tabled Helicon a stream of living waters. 
 Religion shall be throned ii. her own cpieenly beauty, and 
 literature shall be the comeliest handmaid in her virgin train. 
 
 There is no feature more noticeable in Ikmyan's character 
 than i/it- derout carnesffiess with 7ohiih he studied the Dii'hie 
 Word, and the ra'ercme which he cherished for it throughout the 
 whole of his life. 
 
 Jn the time of his agony, when, " a restless wanderer after 
 rest," he battled with fierce temptation, and was beset with 
 Antinomian error, he gratefully records, *' the 13ible was precious 
 to me in those days ;'' and after his deliverance it was his 
 congenial life-work to exalt its honour and to proclaim its 
 truths. Is ho recommending growth in grace to his hearers? — 
 The Word is to be the aliment of their life. " Every grace is 
 nourished by the Word, and without it there is no thrift in the 
 soul.'" Has he announced some fearless exposition of truth ? — 
 Hark how he disarms opj)osition and challenges scrutiny ! 
 " Give me a hearing : take me to the IJible, and let me find in 
 thy hea' ■ no lavour if thou fmd me to swerve from the stand- 
 ard"' Is he uplifting the Word above the many inventions of 
 his fellows ? — Mark the racy homeliness of his assertion : " A 
 little from God is better than a great deal from men. What is 
 from men is often tumbled over and over ; things that we 
 receive at God's hand come to us as things from the minting- 
 
 124 
 
JOHN liUNYAN, 
 
 house. Old truths arc always new to us if they come with the 
 smell of Heaven u|»on them. " Is his righteous soul vexed with 
 the indifference of the faithful, or with the impertinences of the 
 profane? How manfully he proclaims his conviction of a 
 pressing want of the times ! "'I'here wanteth even in the hearts 
 of Ciod's peo[)le a greater reverence for the Word of (iod than 
 to this day ajjpeareth among us ; and this let me say, that want 
 of reverence for the Word is the ground of all the disorders 
 that arc in the heart, life, conversation, or Christian commu- 
 nion." 
 
 If ever Bimyan saw with a seer's insight, and spoke with a 
 pr{)|)het's inspiration, he has in this last (juotcd sentence fore- 
 seen our danger, and uttered a solemn warning for the times in 
 which we live. There never was an age in which reverence for 
 the Word needed more impressive inculcation. There never 
 was an age when there were leagued against it fiercer elements 
 of antagonism. Not that infidelity proper abounds — the danger 
 from this source is over. Some rare specimens of this almost 
 extinct genus do occasionally flounder into sight, like the 
 ichthyosaurus of some remote period, blurting out their blasjjhe- 
 mies from congenial slime ; but men pity their foolishness or 
 are shocked with their profanity. That infidelity is the most to 
 be dreaded which moves like the virus of a plague, counterfeit- 
 ing, by its hectic glow, the tlush of health and beauty, unsus- 
 pected till it has struck the chill to the heart, and the man is 
 left pulseless of a living faith, and robbed of the rapture of life 
 — a conscious paralytic who " brokenly lives on." This kind oi 
 scepticism, — a scepticism which apes reverence and affects 
 candour — which, by its importunity, has almost wearied out 
 some of the sturdy guardians of the truth — which seems to have 
 
 >25 
 
JOHN nUNYAN. 
 
 i vn 
 
 talked itself into a prescriptive right, like other mendicauts, to 
 exhibit its sores among the highways of men, — has, it is not to 
 be denied, done its worst to infect society, and to wither the 
 energy of religion in multitudes of souls. It may be that som'e 
 amongst yourselves have not altogether escaped the contagion. 
 Could I place the young men of this country in the confessional 
 to-night, or could their various feelings be detected, as was the 
 concealed demon at the touch of Ithuriel's spear, I might find 
 not a iQw who would tell that stranger doubts had come to them 
 which they had not forborne to harbour — that distrust had crept 
 over them — that unbelief was shaping out a systematic residence 
 in their souls — that they had looked upon infidelity, if not as a 
 haven of refuge amid the conflicts of warring faiths, at least as a 
 theatre which gave scope for the ideal riot of fancy, or the actual 
 riot of sense, in indulgences and excesses far fitter for earth than 
 heaven ? 
 
 And there are, unhappily, many around us, at the antipodes of 
 sentiment from each other, and yet all after their manner hostile 
 to the Divine Word, who fan the kindled unbelief, and whose 
 bold and apparently candid > jections are invested to the 
 unsettled mind with a peculiar charm. 
 
 The Jew, with prejudice as inveterate as ever, rejects the 
 counsel of God against himself, and crushes the Law and the 
 Prophets beneath a load of rabbinical traditions, the Mishna 
 and Gemara of his Talmuds. The papist still gives to the 
 decretals of popes and the edicts of councils co-ordinate autho- 
 rity with the Scriptures, and locks up those Scriptures from the 
 masses, as a man should imprison the free air while men perish 
 from Lvsphyxia around him. The rationalist spirits away the 
 inspiration of the Bible, or descants upon it as a fascinating 
 
 126 
 
 .'ili; 
 
JOHN BUN Y AN. 
 
 myth, to be reviewed like any other poem, by ordinary criticism, 
 or postpones it to the proud reason of Eichhorn and Paulus, or 
 Strauss and Hegel, or Belsham and Priestley. The mystic 
 professes to have a supplemental and superior revelation drafted 
 down into his own heart. Printing furnishes unprecedented 
 flicilities for the transmission of thought, and man's perdition 
 may be cheapened at the stall of every pediar. And finally, 
 some ministers of religion, yielding to the clamour of the times, 
 have lowered the high tone of Scriptural teaching, and have 
 studiously avoided the terminology of the liible. What wonder, 
 with influences like these, that upon many over whom had 
 gathered a penumbra of doubt before, there should deepen a 
 dark and sad eclipse of faith ? 
 
 Brothers, nothing will avail to preserve you amid the strife of 
 tongues but to cherish, as a habit ingrained into the soul — as 
 an affection enfibred with your deei)est heart — continual rever- 
 ence for the Divine Word. We do not claim your feudal 
 submission to its sovereignty. It recks not a passive and 
 unintelligent adhesion. Inquire by all means into the evidences 
 which authenticate its divinity. Bring keenest intellects to 
 bear upon it. Try it as gold in the fire. Satisfy yourselves, by 
 as searching a process as you can, that the Eternal has really 
 spoken it, and that there looms from it the shadow of a large 
 immortality ; but do this '^ncefor all. Don't be '■'■ever learning, 
 and ne^'er able to come to the knowledge of the truth." Life is 
 too short to be frittered away in endless considerings and 
 scanty deeds. There can be no more pitiable state than that 
 of the eternal doubter, who has bid the sad " vale, vale, in 
 jeternum vale," to all the satisfactions of faith, and who is tossed 
 about with every wind of doctrine — a waif upon the wreckage 
 
 127 
 
 ■ f*! 
 
 
 It I, 
 
»■ i' 
 
 yo/ix nuxvAX. 
 
 I '.'.. 
 
 i! 
 
 ' n 
 
 o{ a world. Scdlc your principles early, and then place them 
 " on the shelf," secure I'roni subseciuent assault or displacement. 
 Then in after years, when some rude inlidel argiuuent assails 
 you. and, busied amid hfe's activities, you are unable, from the 
 absorption of your energies otherwhere, to recall the train of 
 reasoning by which you arrivcHl at yom- conclusion, you will 
 say. "1 tried this matter before— I threw these doctrines ituo 
 the crucible, and ihey came out pme- the assay was satisfactory 
 — the princii>les are on the shelf;" and when the Sanballats 
 and Tobiahs gather malignantly below, you \\\\\ ciy with good 
 Nehemiah, girt with the sword, and wielding the trowel the 
 while, " I am doing a great work- I cannot come down — why 
 should the work sto]i while I i ome down to you ?' Oh it will 
 be to you a source of peremiial comfort, that in youth, after 
 keen investigation of the lUble — the investigation, not of frivo 
 lity or prejudice, but of candour, and gravity, and truth-loving, 
 and prayer — you bowed before it as (lod's imperishable utter- 
 ance, and swore your tealty to the monarch-word. Depend upon 
 it the Bible demands no incjuisition, and requires no disguises. 
 It does not shrink before the light of science, nor crouch 
 abashed belore the audit of a scholarly tribunal. Rather does 
 it seem to say, as it stands before us in its kingliness, all j>ride 
 humbled and all profanity silenced in its majestic presence — 
 Error lleeing at its approach — Superstition cowering beneath 
 the lightning of its eye, '* I will arise, and go forth, for the hour 
 of my dominion is at hand." 
 
 As a Preacher of the Truth Buny. n had a high reputation 
 in his day. Sympathy, earnestness, and ower, were the great 
 characteristics of his successful ministry. He preached what he 
 felt, and his preaching therefore corresponded to the various 
 
 128 
 
 f'l 
 
JOHN nUNYAN. 
 
 stages of his personal experience. At first, hitnsolf in clmins, 
 he thundered out the terrors of the law, like another I'.aptist, 
 against rich and poor together ; then, happy in heUeving, he 
 |)roelainied salvation and the blessedness of life hy Christ, "as 
 if an angel stood at his hack lo encourage him ;" and then, with 
 advancing knowledge, he disclosed the truth in its rounded 
 harmony — "the whole counsel of (lod." Instances of conver- 
 sion were fre(iuent under his nn'nistry— many < hun lies were 
 founded by his labours. Dr. Owen assured King Charles that 
 lor the tinker's ability to prate he would gladly barter his own 
 stores of learning; and in his annual visit to I.cnulon, twelve 
 hundred people would gather, at seven in the morning of a 
 winter's working day, lo hear him. Nor can we wonder that his 
 ministry should have had "favour both with (lod and man," 
 when we listen to his own statements of the feelings with which 
 he regarded it. " In my preaching I have really Ijeen in pain, 
 and have, as it were, travailed to bring forth children to (icjd. 
 If I were fruitless, it mattered not who commended nic ; but if 
 I were fruitful, I cared not who did condemn." " I have 
 counted as if I had goodly buildings and lordships in tho.se 
 places where my children were born ; my heart hath been so 
 wTappcd up in the glory of this excellent work that I counted 
 myself more blessed and honoured of Ciod by this, than if He 
 had made me the emperor of the Christian world, or the lord of 
 all the glory of the earth without it." This is what we want 
 now. We will not despair of the speedy conversion of the 
 world if you give us an army of ministers who have, burned 
 into their hearts, this passionate love for souls. 
 There are those, indeed, who tell us that the mission of the 
 
 l)ulpit is fulfilled. They acknowledge that in the former ages — 
 
 I 
 
 129 
 
 f 
 
 1 
 
JOHN BUNYAN. 
 
 1 
 
 in the times of immaturity, when men spelt out the truth in 
 syllables, it did a noble work. But the world has outgrown it, 
 they tell us. It is an anachronism now. Men need neither its 
 light nor its warning. The all-powerful press shall direct them 
 — from the chair of criticism they shall learn wisdom — the 
 educational institute shall aid them in heavenward progress — 
 they shall move upward and onward under the guidance of the 
 common mind. But the divine institution of the ministry is not 
 to be thus superseded. It has to do with eternity, and the 
 matters of eternity are paramount. It has to deal with the most 
 lasting emotions of our nature — with those deep instincts of 
 eternal truths which underlie all systems, from which the man 
 can never utterly divorce himself, and which God himself has 
 graven on the soul. This opposition to the pulpit, however the 
 inefficiency of existing agencies may have contributed to it, 
 however the memories of olden priestcraft may have given it 
 strength, cannot be explained but as originating in the yet 
 unconquered enmity of the carnal mind to God. The teaching 
 of the political theorizer, of the infidel demagogue, of the bene- 
 volent idealist — why are they so popular ? The teaching of the 
 religious instructor — why is it so repulsive to the world ? The 
 main secret will be found in the fact that the one exalts, the 
 other reproves, our nature— the one ignores, the other insists 
 upon, the doctrine of the fall. If you silence the ministry, you 
 silence the only living agency which, of set purpose, appeals to 
 the moral sense of man, and brings out the world's conscience in 
 its answer to moral obligation and to the truths of the Bible. 
 The minister divides empire over the other faculties. He 
 may speak to the intellect, but the philosopher will rival him; 
 he may charm the imagination, but the poet is his master ; he 
 
 130 
 
 ii 
 
 jiill'L'-^ 
 
JOHN BUN VAN. 
 
 may rouse the passions, the mob orator will do it better : but in 
 his power over conscience he has a government which no man 
 shares, and, as a czar of many lands, he wields the sceptre over 
 the master faculty of man. It is absolutely necessary, in this 
 age of manifold activities and of spiritual pride, that there should 
 be this ever-speaking witness of man's feebleness and God's 
 strength. That witness dares not be silent amid the strife of 
 tongues ; and however the clamour may tell — and it does tell 
 and ought to tell, upon the time-serving and the indolent, upon 
 the vapid and the insincere — it is an unanswerable argument for 
 the mission of the ministry itself, even as the blast which 
 scatters the acorns roots the oak more firmly in the soil. — 
 Standing as I do to-night, in connection with an association * 
 which I dearly love, and which has been so highly honoured as 
 an instrument of good, I must yet claim for the pulpit the fore- 
 most place among the agencies for the renovation of the world. 
 Neither the platform nor the press can supersede it. So long 
 as they work in harmony with its high purpose, and aim at the 
 elevation of the entire man, it will hail their helpings with glad 
 heart and free, but God hath set it on the monarchy, and it may 
 not abdicate its throne. 
 
 One great want of the times is a commanding ministry — a 
 ministry of a piety at once sober and earnest, and of mightiest 
 moral power. Give us these men, ^'fiiil ot faith and of the 
 Holy Ghost," who will proclaim old truths with new energy, not 
 cumbering them with massive drapery, nor hiding them beneath 
 piles of rubbish. Give us these men ! men oi sound speech, who 
 will preach the truth as it is in Jesus, not with faltering tongue 
 and averted eye, as if the mind blushed at its own credulity — 
 
 * The Young Men's Christian Association of London, England. 
 
 131 
 
 
JOHN BUN VAN. 
 
 " ii 
 
 not distilling it into an essence so subtle and so speedily 
 decomposed that a chemical analysis alone can detect the faim 
 odour which tells it has been there — but who will preach it 
 apostlewise, that is, ** first of all," at once a principle shrined 
 in the heart and a motive mighty in the life — the source of all 
 morals, and the inspiration of all charity — the sanctifier of ever)- 
 relationshij), and the sweetener of every toil. Give us these 
 men ! men of dauntless courage, fronj whom God-fear has 
 banished man-fear — who will stand unblenched before the pride 
 of birth, and the pride of rank, and the pride of office, and the 
 pride of intellect, and the pride of money, and will rebuke their 
 hypocrisies, and demolish their false confidences, and sweep 
 away their refuges of lies. Give us these men ! men of sympa 
 thy, who dare despise none, however vile and crafty, because 
 the " one blood " appeals for relationship in its sluggish or 
 fevered flow — by 'vhom the sleeper will not be harshly roused, 
 and who will mourn over the wanderer, " My brother — ah ! my 
 brother 1 " Give us these men ! men of zeal untiring — whose 
 hearts of constancy quail not although dull men sneer, and 
 proud men scorn, and timid men blush, and cautious men 
 deprecate, and wicked men revile ; who 
 
 " Think 
 Wliat others only dreamed about, and do 
 What others did but think, and glory in 
 ■\Miat others dared but do." 
 
 Give us these men ! in whom Paul would find congenial rea- 
 soners \ whom the fervent Peter would greet with a welcome 
 sparkle in the eye ; to whom the gentle John would be attracted 
 as to twin souls which beat like his own — all lovingly. Give us 
 these men ! and you need speak no more ol the laded greatness 
 
 132 
 
JOHN nUNYAN. 
 
 of the pulpit ; the true God-witnesses shall be reinstated in their 
 ancient moral sovereignty, and '^ by manifestation of the truth 
 shall commend themselves to every man's conscience in the 
 sight of God,' 
 
 One main reason of Bunyan's repute among the people was 
 his thorough humaftness. He was no bearded hermit, sarcastic 
 in his seclusion upon a world which he had forsaken, or which 
 he never knew. He was no dark ascetic, snarling at his fellows 
 from some cynical tub, inveighing against pleasures which were 
 beyond his reach, and which he had toiled in vain to enjoy. 
 He was a brave, manly, genial, brotherly soul, full of sympathy 
 with the errors and frailties >f men, mingling in the common 
 grief and in the common cheerfulness of life. See him as he 
 romps with the children in their noisy mirth, himself as great a 
 child as they. Listen to him as he spins out of his fertile brain 
 riddles to be guessed by the pilgrims, such as " keep Old 
 Honest from nodding." Mark the smile that plays over his 
 countenance as he writes how Ready-to-halt and Much-afraid 
 footed it right merrily, in dance of joy, for the destru«^tion of 
 Giant Despair. Observe the ineffable tenderness with which he 
 describes Feeblemind and Fearing. See in his real life the 
 wealth of affection which he lavishes upon his sightless child. 
 Oh ! it is charming — this union of the tender and the faithful in 
 a master-mind — this outflow of all graceful charities from a 
 spirit which bares its breast to danger, and which knows not to 
 blench or quail ! Beautiful are these gushes of sensibilit) from 
 a manly soul, — as if from some noble mountain, with granite 
 heart and crest of cedar, there should issue a crystal rill, bright- 
 ''ning the landscape with its dimpled beauty, or flashing archly 
 beneath the setting sun. 
 
 133 
 
 1 
 
 :^i 
 

 I 1 I, 
 
 >iiii 
 
 \:( 
 
 iii ];>: 
 
 yOJ^.V IiUA]AN. 
 
 Strength and gentleness are tinis coinMned, in grandest liar 
 tnony, o\\\y under the lunuanizitig rule ot" Cliiistianity. Wo 
 might exjieel, under the old stoical morality, to lind rndnranc c 
 and bravery — the perfection of an austere manhood Roman 
 virtue and Spartan pride. Under the precepts of a philosophy 
 whicii .lever compromised with human weakness, we do not 
 wontlerat a 1 .eonidasat the pass of 'rhcrmopyl;v%or at a Milliades 
 on the plains o( Marathon, at a high souled l''i)amiMondas or a 
 meditative Nuvia. at an Aristides consenting to his own ostra- 
 cism, or a Hrulus pronouncing the death doom of his son. They 
 arc the natural clUotoseence of such culture and such soil. Aiul, 
 in truth, there is a hardy endeavour, an heroic self abandonment, 
 n < apacity tor deed aiul sulVering, in s<une o( these brave old 
 Heathen, that would make many a modern Christian tlwindlo 
 into the shadow of a man. Hut it was reserved f(M Cluistianity, 
 by the inspir.ition o( her faith and love, to exhibit human nature 
 in its "highest embodied possibility," to show the bravery ot 
 heroes chastenetl by the meekness o( t hiUlren — an endurance 
 more resolute llian stoii'ism ever knew, combined with an all' 
 embracing tenilerness that wouM "cl.isj) the universe to keep 
 it warm." In Christianity, and ii^ Christianity alone, can ho 
 discovered character \<^ harmonious wlmleness, at once the 
 " fii^hUous man," high in the practii i^ of all social virtues, stern in 
 his inflexible adhesion to the utter right, and the "'i^ood \w\\\,'' 
 who has won for himself a revenue oi aliection at whose name 
 men's eyes snarkle and tlieir spirits glow as ii ,\ sunbeam glinted 
 in- and lor whom some, in their strength of tenderness, woukl 
 even dare to die. 
 
 Jt would seem, indeed, to be Cod s usual method to prepare 
 men lor extensive useiulness by the personal discipline of trial 
 
 'o4 
 
JOHN BUSY AN, 
 
 HciKc. wIuMi wc Rcc lUiiiyan encom()aRsc(J l)y terrible tempta- 
 tions, and iinnuircd in bondage ; lAilhcr in the fortress on tlic 
 VVard)urg, pining in sore sic kncss, and battling, in fane y, with 
 embodied evil; Wesley wandering to Georgia and back, led 
 Uiroiigh doubt and darkness to the long deferred moment vvhic \\ 
 ended his " legal years," and then weleomed on his evange- 
 listic jonrncys with ovations of nnsrepresentations and mud ; — 
 wc remember that this protracted suffering is but the curriculum 
 of heavenly disci})line by which they are shriven of self and 
 pride, and which superadds to the fortitude which bears all, and 
 to the courage whi( h dares all, the meekness and gentleness of 
 Christ. Vou will reniend)er a notable instani c of the teaching 
 of the Master on Uiis matter in the history of the dis(iples. (Jii 
 one occasion, misers of that wealth divine which could have 
 enriched every man of die five thousand, and have been none 
 the [)Oorer for the sumptuous dole, they exhibited a sad lack of 
 needful symjjathy, and imi)atiently murmured, "Send the mul- 
 titudes away." Mark the se([uel. "Straightway He (onstruined 
 His disciples to get into a ship, and go before Ilim to the other 
 side, while Me sent away the people." I'hcy must be sent away 
 like the multitudes, that they might know what such banish- 
 ment meant, and feel, by bitter experience, tlie pangs of an 
 absent Lord. Stormfully howled the wind on i'iberias' lake 
 uuit night ; deep would be the discjuietude as the vexed wa\-s 
 tossed the vessel, and the eyes of the watchers, straining wist- 
 fully through the darkness, saw no star of hope nor glitnjjse of 
 Saviour. But there came blessing to the world out of that storm. 
 They would be better apostles for that niglu's anxious vigil ; 
 more thoroughly human in their sympathy ; better able to pro- 
 claim to the benit;htcd nations the overcoming might of love. 
 
 ^35 
 
yOH^ BUAYAN. 
 
 \ \ 
 
 If you look from the Master's teaching to the Master's example, 
 who fails to remember that for this purpose He became " touched 
 with the feeling of our infirmity," and was tempted, tl at He 
 might succour the tempted — that hunger and thirst, and weari- 
 ness, and pain came upon Him — that He felt the pangs of 
 desertion when those whom He trusted forsook Him, and the 
 pangs of bereavement when those whom He loved had died — 
 that He sorrowed with human tears over a freshly opened grave, 
 and feared, with human apprehension, under the shadow of 
 impendmg trial ? 
 
 Brothers, he must be no fiery recluse who J\zS[ preach the 
 people into a new crusade. The great work of the world's 
 uplifting now-a-days is not to be wrought by the stern prophet 
 of wrath, moving amongst men with the austerity as well as 
 with the inspiration of the wilderness, but by the mild and 
 earnest seer who comes, like the Son of Man, ** eating and 
 drinking," of genial soul, and )lilhe companionship, and 
 divinest pity ; who counsels without haughtiness, and reproves 
 without scorn ; and who bears about with him the reverent 
 consciousness that he deals with the majesty of man. Neither 
 tlie individual nor the aggregate can be lectured out of vice nor 
 scolded into virtue. There is a relic of humanness, after all, 
 lingering in every heart, like a dear gage of affection, stealthily 
 treasured amid divorce and estrangement, and the far wards 
 where it is locked up from men can be opened only by the 
 living sympathy of love. Society is like the prodigal, whom 
 corrective processes failed to » form, and whom gaol discipline 
 only tended to harden, and whom enforced exile only rendered 
 more audacious in his crime, but down whose bronzed cheek 
 a tear stole in a far off land at some stray thought of home, and 
 
 136 
 
 IK'W 
 
JOHN BUN Y AN. 
 
 whose heart of adamant was broken by the sudden memory of 
 dead mother's prayer. Let us recognize this truth in all 
 our endeavours for the benefit of men. It is quite possible to 
 combine inflexibility of adhesion to the right with forbearing 
 tenderness towards the wrong-doer. Speak the truth, by all 
 means, — let it fall upon the hearts of men with all the imparted 
 energy by which the Spirit gives it power ; but speak the truth 
 in love, and, perchance, it may subdue them by its winsome 
 beauty, and prompt their acknowledgment that it is altogether 
 lovely. 
 
 Such a one in his teachings will be equally remote from lax 
 indifferentism and from cynical theology. He vill not dare a 
 hair's breadth deviation from the Bible ; but he will not graft 
 upon it his own moroseness, nor mutilate it into his own 
 deformity. Such an one will not complain that he has no 
 neighbours. He will find neighbours, aye, even in the heart ol 
 London. He will be a kind husband and tender fiuher ; but his 
 hearthstone will not bound his sympathy. He will be a patriot ; 
 he will be a philanthro})ist. His love, central in his home and 
 in his country, will roll its far ripples upon all men. He will 
 see in the poorest man a brother, and in the worst man a 
 nature of divine endowment, now sunk in darkness, which he is 
 to labour to illumine and to save. Such an one will not call 
 earth a howling wilderness. He will not slander this dear old 
 world because some six thousand years ago an injury befel it 
 which disfigured it sadly, and has embittered its subsequent 
 history. Against that which did the wrong he will cherish 
 intensest hatred — he will purge it Irom himselt — he will root it 
 out of oth rs, if he can. He will love the world as a theatre 
 for the display Oi noble energies, oi rich benevolence, ol ' lauly 
 
 137 
 
JOHN BUN VAN. 
 
 ;r 
 
 
 i)B 
 
 \\\ 
 
 ■ ii- 
 
 i; 
 
 1 
 
 ( 
 
 1 
 
 ^1 ! 
 
 
 'k '1' 
 
 
 I! 
 
 r 
 
 
 strength, of godlike pity ; and he will work in it with an honest 
 heart aid loving purpose, until the finger beckons him into the 
 wealthier heaven. 
 
 Young men, the age of chivalry is not over. The new crusade 
 has already begun. The weapons are not shaped by mortal 
 skill, nor is the battle with garments rolled in blood. Strong- 
 souled, earnest men — knights, of the true Order of Jesus, are 
 leagued in solemn covenant, and are already in the field. 
 " Theirs are the red colours, and for a scutcheon they have the 
 Holy Lamb and Golden Shield." '' Good-will to man" is their 
 inspiring banner-text. " Faith working by love" is broidered 
 on their housings. Not to prance in the tilt-yard, amidst the 
 sheen of bright lances and bright eyes, don they their armour. 
 They have too serious work on hand to flaunt them in a mimic 
 pageant, or to furnish a holiday review. They have caught the 
 spirit of their Master. As, with eyes dimmed by their own sym- 
 pathy. He looked upon the fated Jerusalem, they have learnt 
 to look upon a fiillen but ransomed race. They war for its 
 rescue from the inexorable bondage of wrong. Ignorance, im- 
 providence, intemperance, indifference, infidelity ; these are 
 the giants which they set lance in rest to slay. I would fain, 
 like another Peter the Hermit, summon you into the ranks of 
 these loving and valiant heroes. The band will admit you all. 
 In this, the holier chivalry, the churl's blood is no bar to honour. 
 The highest distinctions are as open to the peasant's offspring 
 as to the scion of the Plantagcnets and Howards. Go, then, 
 where glory waits you. The field is the world. Go where the 
 abjects wander, and gather them into the fold of the sanctuary. 
 Go to the lazarettos where the moral lepers herd, and tell them 
 of the healing balm. Go to the haunts of crime, and float a 
 
 1^8 
 
JOHN BUN VAN. 
 
 gospel message upon the feculent air. C)o wherever there are 
 ignorant to be instructed, timid to be cheered, and helpless 
 to be succoured, and stricken to be blessed, and erring to be 
 reclaimed. Go wherever faith can see, or hope can breathe, or 
 love can work, or courage can venture. Go and win the 
 spurs of your spiritual knighthood there. 
 
 " Oh ! who would not a champion be, 
 In this, the lordlier chivalry ? 
 Uprouse ye now, brave brother band, 
 With honest heart and working hand. 
 We are but few, toil-tried, but true, 
 And hearts beat high to dare and do ; 
 Oh ! there be those that ache to see 
 The day-dawn of our victory ! 
 Eyes full of heart-break with us plead, 
 And watchers weep, and martyrs bleed ; 
 Work, brothers, work ! Work, hand and brain, 
 We'll win the Golden Age again. 
 And love's millennial morn shall rise 
 In happy hf.rls and blessed eyes ; 
 We will, we will, brave champions be, 
 In this, the lordlier chivalry." 
 
 It remains only that we present Bunyan before you as a 
 Confessor for the Truth. One would anticipate that a 
 character like his would be sustained during the hour of trial, 
 and that, like Luther, whom in many points he greatly resem- 
 bled, he would witness a good confession before the enemies 
 of the Cross of Christ. A warrant was issued for his apprehen- 
 sion in the dreary month of November. The intention of the 
 magistrate was whispered about beforehand, and Bunyan's 
 friends, alarmed for his safely, urged him to forego his 
 
 139 
 
JOHN DUN Y AN. 
 
 K 
 
 Si:::;: 
 
 i''i 
 
 || :i 
 
 1 
 
 
 :!. 
 
 ! 1 
 
 
 announced pii»'pG"o to preach. Nature [)leacled hard for 
 compHance, and urged the claims of a beloved wife and four 
 children, one of them blind. Prudence suggested that, escaping 
 now, he might steal other opportunities for the preaching of the 
 tmth. Me took counsel of God in prayer, and then came to 
 his decision. " If I should now run, and make an escape, it 
 will be of a very ill savour in the country ; what will my weak 
 and newly converted brethren think of it ? If God, of His 
 mercy, should choose me to go upon the forlorn hope, if I 
 should fly, the world may take occasion at my cowardliness to 
 blaspheme the Gospel." At Samsell, in Bedfordshire, the 
 people assembled ; there were about forty persons present. 
 Some of the timid sort advised, even then, that the meeting 
 should be dismissed. Bravely he replied, ** No, by no means ! 
 I will not stir, neither will I have the meeting dismissed. 
 Come, be of good cheer, let us not be daunted ; our cause is 
 good ! we need not be ashamed of it ; to preach God's word 
 is so good a work that we shall be well rewarded if we suffer for 
 that.' Accordingly he was cast into prison. After seven weeks 
 imprisonment the session was held at Bedford, and Bunyan v.'as 
 arraigned at the bar. This was his sentence : " You must be 
 had back again to prison, and there lie for three months 
 following ; then, if you do not submit to go to church to hear 
 divine service, you must be banished the realm \ and after that, 
 if you should be found in the realm, without the special 
 license of the King, you must stretch by the neck for it, 1 
 tell you plainly." So spake the rude and arbitrary Judge 
 Kelynge, who, like Scroggs and Jeffreys, enjoys the distinction, 
 rare among English judges, of being in infamy immortal, 
 Bunyan answered, inspired with Lutheran and Pauline courage, 
 
 140 
 
JOHN BUN VAN. 
 
 *' I am at a point with you : if I were out of prison to-day, I 
 would preach the Gospel again to-morrow, by the help of Ciod." 
 His spirit blenched not with the lapse of time, though he lay 
 twelve years in that foul dungeon, the discovery of whose 
 abominations, a century afterwards, first started John Howard 
 in his " circumnavigation of charity." Towards the close of 
 his imprisonment we hear the dauntless beatings of the hero- 
 heart : " I have determined— the Almighty God being my help 
 and my shield — yet to suffer, if frail life might continue so long, 
 even until the moss shall grow over my eye-brows, rather than 
 violate my faith and my principles." Oh, rare John Bunyan ! 
 thy " frail life " has become immortal ; the world will not let 
 thee die. Thou art shrined in the loving memory of thousands, 
 while thy judges and persecutors are forgotten, or remembered 
 only with ridicule and shame. " Tlie righteous shall be in 
 everlasting remembrance, but the memory of the wicked shall 
 rot." 
 
 Our lot is cast in gentler times than these. No indictments 
 are prefen^ed against us now for " devilish and pernicious 
 abstinence from church-going." Felons are not now let loose in 
 liunour of a monarch's coronation, while men of God are hailed 
 to closer durance. Phoenix-like, out of the ashes of the martyr- 
 fires, arose religious freedom. The flames of outward persecu- 
 tion have well nigh forgotten to burn. And yet the offence of 
 the cross has not ceased. The profession of the Gospel does 
 not always bring peace, but a sword. Trouble is yet the 
 heritage " of all that will live godly in Christ Jesus," and there 
 is strong need in all of us for the exhibition of the main 
 element in a confessor's character — nobleness of religious deci- 
 sion. We must have convictions of duty wrought so strongly 
 
 141 
 
JOHN BUNYAN. 
 
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 into our soulb, that neither opposition nor difficulty, nor even 
 disaster, shall make us foltcr in the course which we have 
 intelligently chosen. For lack of these sincere and abiding 
 convictions many have erred from the faith, and have mani- 
 fested an instability of character that is truly deplorable. 
 Many young men have run well for ^ season — have formed 
 largo plans of usefulness, and have been full of promise in all 
 thr was of good report and lovely ; but a fatal indecision has 
 b; ghted the promise and rendered the plans abortive ; and 
 their course has reminded us of Emerson's ludicrous account of 
 the American roads, starting fair and stately, between avenues 
 of branching pines, but narrowing gradually as they proceed, 
 and at last ending in a squirrel track, and running up a tree. 
 It may be questioned, indeed, whether any of us, in this matter, 
 approximate to the standard. Let us ask ourselves, if we had 
 lived in the days of the Master, should " we have left all and 
 followed Him?" As we look at Him in the garb of a peasant, 
 and a Nazarene, of ignoble origin and vagrant life, opposed by 
 all recognized authorities, alone against the world, shocking 
 ever}' ancient prejudice, and pronouncing the doom of a ritual, 
 gorgeous in its ceremonial, and en fibred, by the ties of ages, 
 round the hearts of men, what should we have thought of such 
 a questionable man ? Should we have dared to have come to 
 him, even by night, while living, much less to have gone boldly 
 and begged His body when dead ? Should we have foregone, 
 for His sake, the chief seats of synagogues, and the uppermost 
 rooms at feasts, and for the pleasure of His Divine discourse, 
 have cast ourselves on His fidelity, even for daily bread ? Let 
 us look into the glass of our own consciousness, that we may be 
 humbled and reproved. And, in the present, with the light oi 
 
 142 
 
 
JOHN BUN Y AN. 
 
 His teaching and of His example, how are we hving ? Would 
 it please us that the hidden man of the heart should be unveiled 
 to our neighbour's scrutiny ? Do we the right always, because 
 it is the right— without thought of profit — and at the sure risk 
 of ill ? 1^0 we rejoice to be brought into contact with a man^ 
 that we may put our own manhood to the proof ? Can we 
 nsolve to work ever for the good of this bad world, not bating 
 from weariness, nor deterred by ingratitude, nor palsied with 
 fear ? Dare we speak lionestly and act bravely, though loss 
 and shame should follow speech and deed ? Is there in us no 
 division of activity against itself ; are our thought and action 
 mutually representative of each other ? In one word, are we 
 sincere? Do we serve one Master? with no reserve of our 
 endowments? with every fragment of our influence ? at every 
 moment of our time ? Oh ! let us search our hearts on this 
 matter. There is a great deal more of this sincere and decisive 
 godliness wanted in the world, and you are to furnish it. I 
 assume, of course, that you are decided for God ; that the 
 great change has taken place in you, and that you are walking 
 in the fear of the Lord, and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost. 
 If it be not so with you, seek first, for yourselves, the kingdom 
 of God. It will be a terrible thing if the " Perdidi diem " of 
 the regretful Roman should deepen into a " Perdidi vitam " 
 for you ; or if there be one torturing thought of unforgiven sin, 
 which, like Poe's raven 
 
 *' Never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting 
 On the pallid bust of Pallas just above your chamber door ; 
 And its eyes have all the seeming of a demon's tliat is dreaming, 
 And the lamplight o'er it streaming, throws its shadow on the floor ; 
 And your soul from out that shadow that lies float ng on the floor 
 
 Shall be lift xl — Nevermore." 
 
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 But I rejoice to know that many of you are already the Lord's, 
 living in the conscious enjoyment of rehgion, and anxiotis to 
 make the world the better for your presence, 'i'o you we make 
 our a|)peal. Of you, Christian young men, it is asked that y(m 
 cast out of yourselves Oie false, and the selfish, and the defiling, 
 and that you l)e sincere workers for die glory of (lod and for the 
 benefit of men. We ask it in the name of Truth, that you may 
 man her bulwarks and tell her to the generation following. VVc 
 ask it in die name of Christianity, that you may join her in hor 
 brave battle with world, and flesh, and devil. We ask it in the 
 name of Society, that she may not be convulsed by the crimes 
 of the lawless, nor by the frenzy of the despairing. We ask it 
 in the name of our •'omni'^n country, bewildered as she is hy 
 the burdens which oppress her, and distract<'d as she is by the 
 contentions of her children. We ask it in die name of 
 Humanity, struggling to deliver herself from a thousand wrongs. 
 Wo ask it in the name of multitudes, sharing your own man- 
 hood, who arc passing down to darkness, wailing as they go— 
 " No man hath cared for my soul.'' ^Ve ask it in the name of 
 the Redeemer, who has shed for you His own most precious 
 blood, and who waits, expecting to see of the travail of His 
 soul. 
 
 Wearily have the years passed, I know : wearily to the pale 
 watcher on the hill who has been so long gazing for tlie day- 
 break : wearily to the anxious multitudes who have been waiting 
 for His tidings below. Often has the cry gone up t)i rough the 
 darkness, "Watcher, what of the night?" and often has the 
 disappointing answer come, " It is night still; here the stars are 
 clear above me, but they shine afar, and yonder the clouds 
 lower heavily, and tlie sad night winds blow." But the time 
 
 144 
 
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 vvn man 
 
 JOHN nUNYAN. 
 
 shall rome, and perhaps sooner than we look for it, when the 
 countenance of that pale watcher sjiall gather into intcnscr 
 cxiKHtancy, and when the challenge shall be given, with the 
 hopefulness of a nearer vision, "Watcher, what of the night?" 
 and the answer will come, " The darkness is not so dense as it 
 was ; there arc faint streaks on the horizon's verge ; mist is in the 
 valleys, but there is a radiance on the distant hill. It conies 
 nearer- that promise of the day. The clouds roll rapidly away, 
 and they are fringed with amber and gold. It is, it is the blest 
 sunlight that I feel around me- Morning!" 
 
 IT IS MORNING! 
 
 And, in the light of that morning, thousands of earnest eyes flash 
 with renewed brightness, for they have longed for the coming of 
 the day. And, in the light of that morning, things that nestle 
 in dust and darkness cower and flee away. Morning for the 
 toilworn artisan ! for oppression and avarice, and gaunt famine, 
 and poverty are gone, and there is social night no more. Morn- 
 ing for the meek-eyed student ! for doubt has fled, and sophistry 
 is silenced, and the clouds of error are lifted from the fair face 
 of Truth for aye, and there is intellectual night no more. 
 iMorning for the lover of man ! for wrongs are redressed, and 
 contradictions harmonised, and problems solved, and men 
 summer in perpetual brotherhood, and there is moral night no 
 more. Morning for the lover of God! for the last infidel voice 
 is hushed, and the last cruelty of superstition perpetrated, and 
 the last sinner lays his weapons down, and Christ the crucified 
 becomes Christ the crowned. Morning ! Hark how the earth 
 rejoices in it, and its many minstrels challenge the harpers of 
 the sky — " Sing with us, ye heavens ! The morning cometh, the 
 
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JOHN BUN VAN. 
 
 darkness is past, the shadows flee away, the true lif^ht shincth 
 now." Morning ! Hark how the sympathetic heavens reply, 
 " Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon with- 
 draw herself, for the Lord shall be thine everlasting liglit, and 
 the days of thy mourning shall be ended !" 
 
 IT IS MORNING! 
 
 *' The planet now doth, like a garment, wear the beauty of the 
 morning." And the light climbeth onward, and ui)vvard, for 
 there is a sacred noon beyond. That ;aoon is Hkaven ! 
 
 "AND THERE SHALL BE NO NIGHT TUEI^E." 
 
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WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
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WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 THE history of Christianity has not been a continuous 
 progress. It has had its times of decay and of revival. 
 Now it has appeared as though all hearts would welcome it — 
 and as though, like an undisputed king, it had only to proclaim 
 itself to be received and crowned. Again it has languished from 
 the affections of a people, and has seemed to live only by 
 effort and struggle. In the time of the Apostles its march was a 
 triumph. Ere the last of them fell asleep beneath the purple sky 
 of Ej^hesus, it had reached and subdued the most considerable 
 cities of the world, and everything seemed fair and promising 
 for the speedy conversion of men. But then came a season of 
 indifference. Through the dreary ages succeeding, the light 
 shone more dimly, until, like the torches at a funeral, it shone 
 only on the mourners for the dead. The Church became formal 
 and haughty, ambition seized upon the truth, and established 
 upon its possession a vast ecclesiastical power, and thus the 
 Popery of Iiildebrand overlaid the Christianity of Paul. Then 
 again came a season of revival. The world was weary for the 
 light Morality and faith were languishing together — men's 
 minds brooded over the state of things, some with a strange 
 disquiet, some with a stranger hope — the hour was ripe for 
 
 149 
 
 f: 
 
WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 change, either by amendment or by ruin. From German clois- 
 ters, amid Alpine heights, from the plains of France, there rose 
 the simult' leous cry of multitudf 1 of spiritual bondsmen. God 
 heard and answered, and the Reformation came. Yet again, 
 as if with the regularity of a law, there came a period of decay. 
 The zeal of the churches became fitful, their faith loosely held, 
 the morals of the people dissolute, until there grew a need of 
 a second Reformation, which should put life into the truth 
 which had been established by the struggles of the first. ' All 
 accounts agree to represent the sad religious state of England 
 when George the Second succeeded to the throne. The right- 
 eousness which exalteth a people was hidden in secret places, 
 and, to the mourning eyes of the few faithful, it seemed as if a 
 cloud hung darkly over the land, and as if the vials of Divine 
 wrath were almost full. The literature of the age, which may 
 be regarded as the index to its prevalent tendencies, was for the 
 most part corrupt or irreligious. There were exceptions, of 
 course, for this was the period at which the British classics 
 started into being, but the design of Steele and Addison, and, 
 still later, of Johnson, was to counteract the follies and vices 
 whose desolations they deplored ; and it may be easily conceived 
 that the moral aspects of society were of no doubtful badness 
 when Pope's Pantheism and Bolingbroke's Infidelity were 
 fashionable ; when, according to Dryden, the loose wit of Con- 
 greve was the only prop of a declining stage ; when the popular 
 novelists were Smollett and Fielding, and Mrs. Aphia Behn; 
 and when even divinity could so far forget its sacred calling as 
 to pen the ribaldries of Swift and Sterne. If you look into the 
 churches the decline is equally lamentable, and you find, even 
 among the reputedly orthodox, the looseness of thought which 
 
 150 
 
WESLEY AND HIS TIMES, 
 
 too frequently introduces to looseness of life. There had been 
 hard thinkers and great preachers, men of massive thought and 
 burning word, both in the established and non-conforming 
 churches, but the words of the preachers fell powerless, and it 
 was as though the theology of the writers was embalmed. The 
 works of Collins and Tindall were more in vogue tV an those 
 of Baxter and Howe. Men sat at the feet of Chesterfield 
 rather than of Tillotson. Whiston lapsed into Arianism at 
 Cambridge, and Clarke dispensed it at the church of St. James. 
 Among Dissenters, if the truth was held it was as a sentiment 
 rather than as a power, and while a large number of the 
 clergy sought relief from subscription to articles which they had 
 long disavowed, others drank or dreamed away their lives; 
 shepherds were profligate or idle, while the hungry sheep 
 looked up and were not fed. 
 
 It would be easy to multiply testimonies that these are not 
 random shafts from a bow that is drawn at a venture. Butler, 
 Burnet, Seeker, Leighton, and many others in the Establishment, 
 Watts, Guyse, Doddridge, and many more among the Non- 
 conformists, have left their sorrowful witness on record, and 
 there is everything to assure us that, in Isaac Taylor's forcible 
 words, " the Anglican Church was a system under which men 
 had lapsed into heathenism," and that '* languishing non-con- 
 formity was in course to be found nowhere but in books." 
 
 There are strange omens in the midst of us to-day — the sneer 
 and the scoff mingle with the welcomes which are given to 
 godliness — the truth is still cast into " the place for gold where 
 they fine it ;" the ravens wander forth from the ark and return 
 not; but there io morality in place of shameless vice, and we 
 breathe a bracing atmosphere instead of tainted air ; and in view 
 
 151 
 
 
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 WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
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 of the times of rebuke and trouble to which we have referred, 
 there is much to make us thankful for present privilege, and 
 that with all our faults our condition has not fallen so low. 
 
 The Rectory of Epwcrth — a small town among the flatlandc 
 of Lincolnshire, where ague is a frequent visitant, and melan- 
 choly pollard-willows rise, on dreary winter's days, through 
 levels often lying under water — was held, in the first years of the 
 last century, by a brave and much enduring man, who, with a 
 noble wife, like minded, struggled with a small income to rear 
 and educate a large family. This man was Samuel Wesley. 
 His own sturdy independence was rooted in him by the like 
 virtue in his ancestors. Bartholomew Wesley, his grandfather, 
 was one of the ejected ones at the Restoration. John Wesley, 
 son of Bartholomew, attained still higher rank in the spiritual 
 peerage than his father, for he endured repeated imprisonment, 
 and at length sank into the grave a brave confessor for the 
 truth he loved so well. Samuel Wesley inherited the strong 
 soul of his father, with a more robust habit of body. Designed 
 originally for a Non-conformist minister, he saw reason to 
 review and change his opinions, and with characteristic decision 
 he trudged off to Oxford, and entered himself as a poor scholar 
 at Exeter College. He was known through his University life 
 as a devout, laborious man, whose leisure was occupied in main- 
 taining himself by his pen, save when he snatched an hour for 
 a visit to a poor man's cottage, or to the felons' prison. After 
 his marriage he accepted a cure in London, and was " passing 
 rich on thirty pounds a year." A bra'^e fearlessness distin- 
 guished him through life, and sustained him under the trials to 
 which, sometimes by his imprudence, sometimes by his fidelity. 
 he was exposed. For years he had but fifty pounds, and one 
 
 152 
 
 
WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 child additional, per annum. His dedication of a work to 
 Queen Mary procured for him the Rectory of Epworth, where 
 he struggled on a nominal salary of two hundred pounds to 
 sustain the nineteen hostages which he had given to society, 
 ten of whom grew up to adult years. He eked out his living 
 by his verses, and his thoughts ran in rhyme so swiftly that his 
 publisher declares that two hundred couplets were born, on the 
 average, per day. His searching ministry and his unpopular 
 politics gave great offence to the raLLile of his parish, who vented 
 their spleen, sometimes by drumming beneath his windows to 
 the damage of the symmetry of his sermons, and sometimes by 
 acts of more serious annoyance and cruelty. They broke his 
 doors, they wounded his cattle, they stole his tithe corn, they 
 cut off the legs oi. his house-dog, and, on two several occasions, 
 they set fire to his house. His friends advised him to remove, 
 but he said that would be cowardly, and by his fierce crusade 
 against evil he earned his right to the escalop-shell which was 
 graven upon his family arms. Arrested at the doors of the 
 church for a small debt which he could not at the moment 
 discharge, he remained three months in Lincoln prison; but there, 
 like the Vicar of Wakefield, he began to preach to the prisoners, 
 and wrote to the Archbishop of York that " he expected to 
 do far more good in his new parish than in the old one." He 
 had a stubborn will and a firmness which bordered upon obsti- 
 nacy, and withal a relish for joking, and a rich vein of native 
 humour. He lived long enough to rejoice in the labours of his 
 noble sons, to see, with an insight wliich approaching death had 
 sharpened, the dawn of a brighter moral day for England; to 
 testify to his own inward witness of acceptance with God; to 
 exult, though in the chastening of strong pain, that he could 
 
 153 
 
WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
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 " thank, love, and bless God for all," and then the brave heart 
 broke, and the strong tind gentle spirit mounted to Heaven 
 upon the breath of the communion prayer. 
 
 Yet even more largely than to his father, was John Wesley 
 indebted to " the elect lady " who scared her husband's fortunes, 
 and gave him heart by the sight of an endurance that was even 
 more heroic than his own. In all galleries of noble and illustrious 
 women Susanna Wesley deserves a foremost place. Dr. An- 
 nesly, her father, was a noted Puritan leader, and his daughter 
 inherited his spirit and his bravery. At thirteen years of age she 
 examined for herself the points of difference between Dissenters 
 and Churchmen, and though familiar with her father's wrongs, 
 and " rich," as Isaac Taylor says, " in a dowry of non-conform- 
 ing virtues," she became a zealous Church woman. After her 
 marriage with Samuel Wesley she was most exemplary in her 
 discharge of every social and parental duty, and exhibited the 
 completeness of her character in all sweet sanctities of home. 
 She bestowed great pains and skill upon the education of her 
 children, watching over them with a vigilance which never 
 slumbered, and teaching them with a patience which was never 
 tired. She was asked, " Why do you tell that boy the same 
 thing twenty times over ?" " Because nineteen times telling 
 were not enough," was her common-sense reply. During her 
 husband's absence she established services for her poor neigh- 
 bours in the kitchen of the rectory, which so scandalized the 
 affrighted curate that he sent post haste to apprize the rector 
 that a conventicle had been set up in his house. In answer to 
 her husband's remonstrances she calmly stated her reasons for 
 the step she had taken, and the results which had followed, and 
 then said, " If you wish me to desist, do not advise, but com- 
 
 154 
 
WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 mand me," thus recognizing her conjugal duty, and preserving, 
 at the same time, her own good conscience towards riod. Her 
 healthful piet)' enabled her to warn her son sagainst the mys- 
 ticism towards which they often wavered. Her sagaciousness 
 saw the good which lurked in the employment of lay agency, 
 and she urged the early recognition of Thomas Maxfield 
 and others, foremost of a bright succession of true workers 
 for the kingdom of God. Her cheerful soul smiled on amidst 
 various fortune, through years of struggle, almost of hunger — 
 when sharper sorrows came, — when the rings from her fingers 
 went to comfort her husband in his prison, — when she bowed 
 heavily over nine fair children claimed early by the covetous 
 grave, — when she waded with scorched hands and face through 
 the fires of her own dwelling, — when she mourned over the 
 sorrows of her living children with a fiercer pang than had 
 smitten her at the burial of her dead. Of rare classic beauty, 
 dignified and graceful, as became her noble blood, one of those 
 firm but gentle natures which, like sunbeams, shine without an 
 efibrt, and leave us genial like themselves ; with a far-seeing 
 s.igacity and with excellent common-sense — a pattern of all 
 womanly virtues — a lightener of all manly cares, ruling her 
 household with a quiet power, yet alive to the accomplish- 
 ments of society, and ready to pass her verdict upon books and 
 men — faithful in the common things of life, withal an heiress 
 of the heavenly, and holding daily converse with the place 
 where she had hid her treasure, she moved on in her course, 
 a (iuecn uncrowned and saintly — 
 
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 No angel, but a dearer being, all dipt 
 In angel instincts ; breathing Paradise ; 
 
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 Interpreter between the gods and men ; 
 Who looked all native to her place, and yet 
 On tip-toe seemed to touch upon a sphere 
 Too great to tread." 
 
 Wise in counsel, with a discernment which was almost prophetic, 
 attracting to ; rs ': uie reverent love of her children, she lived 
 for years in ti , ;.<u^!. vhich John Wesley had provided for her, a 
 very marvel of g :cn an<-' kindly age, imtil at length, in an almost 
 absolute negation of death, she finished her course whispering, 
 *• Children, as soon as I am released, sing a psalm of praise to 
 God." Then, leaving a fragrant name and an affluent 
 inheritance of prayer, she looked calmly upward, and all was still 
 until the hymn arose in the death-chamber, and Heaven was 
 the richer for another of those "honourable women " who with 
 gladness and rejoicing "are to be brought into the palace ot 
 the King." 
 
 Of such i)arents was John Wesley born. The world is fami- 
 liar with his marvellous deliverance from the burning house in 
 the sixth year of his age. When thirteen years old he was sent 
 to the Charter House to proceed with the education which had 
 been commenced beneath the home discipline of his mother. 
 That discipline had wonderfully prepared him for life at a pubhc 
 school, so that, though the fagging system was in full operation, 
 and he had to bear his share of oppression and robbery, he was 
 neither crushed into the spirit of a slave, nor goaded to be the 
 despot when his own upper-form days came. The little 
 Methodist preserved his health by a morning scamper, in which 
 he thrice made the circuit of the garden, nor would he suffer 
 any gloom either of spirits or of weather to frighten him from 
 his trinity of rounds. There was even thus early a combination 
 
WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 Df buoyancy and manliness about him which attracted the notice 
 !)f his masters, and made the shrewder among them predict that 
 his X\^Q would not be an unnoti>'^ed calm. The half-confessed 
 presentiment of ordination lo distinguished service seems to 
 have been upon him almost unconsciously, and as a student ot 
 Christ Church, and subsequently as a fellow of Lincoln College, 
 he subordinated everything to the preparation for that future 
 which as yet he knew not, save in the high hopes which bounded 
 in his breast, and in the patient watching for the 1 ,i.' as a 
 sleepless one watcheth for the morning. 
 
 Thomas A'Kempis, William Law, and Jeremy Ta;:or, were 
 the three writers who, at this period of his history, * ok the 
 greatest hold upon his mind. It is needless to rwell in detail 
 upon the methods in which his convictions of sin ^ j npted him 
 to seek rest of soul. He toiled painfully through an ascetic 
 discipline which almost consumed him. He was rigid in the 
 observance of each rite and rubric, mapping out every moment 
 of his time, and accounting for every farthing of his property as 
 if with a morbid hope that he might lacerate himself into holi- 
 ness, or purchase acceptance by a devotion which ceased not 
 from its prayers. At one time he contemplated flight from the 
 fellowship of men, and sought a school in some wild Yorkshire 
 dale as most congenial to the temper of his soul. He went to 
 Georgia on a bootless journey, where his rigorous interpretation 
 of the glad tidings brought " not peace but a sword " through- 
 out the whole colony. He returned to England to discover 
 that he, who had been labouring for the conversion of the 
 Indians, was not himself converted, for in those ends of the earth 
 Moravian cheerfulness had rebuked his severity, and Moravian 
 simplicity had chided his ritualism, and Moravian resignation 
 
 157 
 
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 WESLEY AND FIIS TIMES. 
 
 had contrasted with his unbehef. And we see, in all tln-^c 
 incidents of his hfe, parts of the great discipline by which he was 
 prepared for service, by which he was taught sympathy and 
 patience and courage — those apostoUc graces which his apostle's 
 hfe required. 
 
 How marvellous are the ways in which God works to fulfil 
 his plans ! The sower sows his seed, rejoices over the filled 
 furrows, mourns over that which the birds of the air snatch and 
 scatter; but those winged wanderers are often, like the ravens 
 of Elijah, charged to bear food to some famishing prophet, or 
 to sow the germs of harvests where plough was never driven. 
 Slight as the thistledown may be the breath of prayer, but God 
 marks it as it rises to Heaven. Quietly, as the acorn to the 
 earth, the pleading word may fall, but its influence shall be fruit- 
 ful and mighty, even as the " oak which looseneth golden leaves 
 in a kind largess to the soil it grew on." Man, in the ardour 
 of enterprise, sounds a trumpet to the living, but when God gives 
 his clarion-call, He gives it in the valley full of bones, and among 
 the corpses breathes the generous life which springs armed and 
 eager to the battle. The feeblest agency and the lowlie t 
 worker, the heart which has strange stniggles between the 
 hero's purpose and the coward's fear, with God's help may drive 
 the aliens before them, and shout in the raptures of victory. 
 Aye, and when the dank grass waves over the sepulchres of 
 wearied or slaughtered ones who have died disheartened for the 
 cause they loved, their spirits may walk the earth in a prophetic 
 resurrection. Like the Bruce's heart, they may be silent leaders 
 of armies, and thousands of exulting followers, catching inspira- 
 tion from their memory, may be proud to follow where their 
 ashes lead the way. 
 
 158 
 
WESLEY AND HiS TIMES. 
 
 More than 300 years had rolled away since the sky of 
 Constance reflected the fires by which the initial martyrs of the 
 Reformation were consumed. The sapient council which offered 
 Jerome and Huss in sacrifice, and wreaked its puny vengeance 
 upon VVickliffe's bones, wist not that they were both rooting and 
 spreading the doctrines they were wishful to destroy. Scarcely 
 had the council been dissolved when the Bohemian peasantry 
 arose to avenge their teachers, and to battle for their own 
 religious freedom. For twenty years, under the brave Count 
 Ziska, did they maintain the strife with varying fortune, but with 
 a spirit which never quailed ; and though persecution afterwards 
 arose, and the Hussites filled the prisons, the truth was 
 preserved and handed down from the father to the children 
 as a heritage more precious than of lands or gold. 
 
 In the early part of the i8lh century one of these Bohemian 
 confessors, Christian David by name, led a few followers into 
 Lusatia, where dwellings were built for them upon the domain of 
 the young Count Zingendorf. Hence arose the establishment of 
 the Moravian brotherhood, who, starting from Herrnhut, as they 
 named their settlement, spread their earnest missions into many 
 a land, won grand gospel triumphs among the most forlorn and 
 hopeless, and became, in the providence of God, powers tor 
 good to lead into the perception of a better life some who were 
 to accomplish yet mightier works than theirs. About a week 
 after his arrival from Georgia, John Wesley, still striving to 
 establish his own righteousness, went to a select meeting which 
 these indefatigable Moravians had established in London. Here 
 he met with Peter Bohler, a name never to be forgotten in 
 connection with Wesley's history, because God chose him to be 
 the Ananias to his later Paul. Bohler convinced him of his 
 
 159 
 
11 ' i » 
 
 M 1 
 
 m 
 
 wm-i 
 
 WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 unbelief, pressed home upon him the necessity and happiness of a 
 living faith in Christ, urged him to immediate reliance, and thus 
 cleared away the mists which had obscured to him the shining 
 of the sun. At length, on the 24th May, 1738, the hour o[ 
 deliverance came. In a meeting in Aldersgate Street, while a lay- 
 man was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans, 
 John Wesley says " I felt my heart strangely warmed ; I felt I 
 did trust in Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was 
 given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved 
 me from the law of sin and death," Thus it is that truth can 
 never die, that the good which men do lives after them, repro- 
 ducing itself like multiplying grain. Through the intervening 
 centuries John Huss becomes an instrument in the conversion 
 of John Wesley, and the Apostle of the Second Reformation is 
 quickened from the death of sin through the living words of 
 the dead Apostle of the First. 
 
 Here then we have the starting point of Wesley's labours — 
 the key to the solution of all his mysteries of toil and triumph. 
 Consciously reconciled to God, and having peace by faith in 
 Jesus, he burned to declare the glad tidings which had made 
 himself so happy. All estimates of his character will be 
 unworthy if they do not start from his conversion. All histories 
 of him will be unsatisfactory if this great fact fails to be 
 apprehended. The real reason which barbed many a contempora- 
 neous slander, and guided the pens of such critics as Lavington 
 and Nightingale, which led Sydney Smith to scoff profanely 
 at the thing he knew not, which threw a warp over the fine 
 mind of Southey, so that he understood but dimly the character 
 he would fain have drawn, is perhaps to be found, not in per- 
 sonal malignity, not in wilful disingenuousness, but in the simple 
 
 160 
 
IVES LEV AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 j)OStulate of Scripture : " The natural man knoweth not the 
 things of the spirit of God, neither can he know them, because 
 they are spiritually discerned." 
 
 While John Wesley was thus receiving his fitness for his 
 great mission, his coadjutors were led, by the same Providence, 
 to the same end. A bright rosy lad, with the blue apron of a 
 common drawer in an inn, struggling with a confusion of great 
 thoughts about himself and about his destiny, which he could 
 neither exclude nor comprehend — a pale servitor of Pembroke 
 College, choosing the meanest drudgery, wearing the coarsest 
 serge, eating the homeliest food, and but little of that ; stand- 
 ing in the biting frost until he had no feeling either in feet or 
 fingers ; wandering in Christ Church meadows at the gloomy 
 nightfall ; — trying hard to fast through the whole forty days of 
 Lent ; — the chosen butt for the ridicule and insult both of town 
 and gown — these are the glimpses we get of the childhood and 
 youth of George Whitefield, who afterwards became an 
 evangelist such as the world has never known since Peter 
 the Fisherman witnessed a Pentecost under the first Gospel 
 sermon. Rescued from his self-righteousness in an illness, and 
 opening his heart to receive the love of the Saviour, he went 
 forth to his loved work of preaching, beginning in the church 
 whe -e he had been bapt'zed and had humbly knelt to receive his 
 first communion. His directness offended the sinful, and his 
 earnestness startled the timid, so that church after church was 
 closed against nim, until at length, thinking little of irregularity, 
 and less of the revival he was beginning to inaugurate, he went 
 forth into the open air, and proclaimed to listening thousands 
 the unsearchable riches of Christ. The effects which 
 followed were extraordinary. As he stood forth, his frank, manly 
 
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 WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
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 countenance seemed to bespeak a hearing, and when once his 
 voice was heard, so exquisitely was it toned, and so skilfully 
 wielded, that high and low were subject to its spell. Add to 
 this a wealth of eloquent action which made every sentence 
 dramatic, an earnestness which the heat of holy passion kindled, 
 and above all a subject which had stirred his strongest convic- 
 tions, and which bore him as with a torrent's force upon its 
 stream ; and you will not wonder that wilh all these advan 
 tages, and withal the " demonstration of the Spirit," his should 
 be a mighty and transforming word. His power of dcscrii)tion 
 must have been marvellous. Men saw the scenes he painted. 
 'I'hey heard the ripple of the (lalilean waters. They felt the 
 awful shadows of tli(.' Tabor cloud. Tiicy shivered as the fierce 
 wind swept among the olives, or the 'pale moon gleamed upon 
 the paler brow of the sufferer in Cicthsemanc. They crouched 
 as if they heard the tramp of nearing demons when he propiie- 
 sied of doom. Not only were Ciarrickand Pulteney, themselves 
 orators, eager listeners to his burning words, but David Iliunc 
 hearkened till he forgot to sneer ; the philosoi)hIc Franklin 
 acknowledged the sorcery, and emptied his pockets like a 
 common man ; the artificial Chesterfield yielded for once to an 
 impulse of real feeling, and sprang forward to arrest the fall of 
 the blind beggar whom the speaker pictured on the cliff's 
 extremest verge. Among the rude and turbulent his triumphs 
 wcic greater still. " 1 came to break your head, and you have 
 broken my heart," said a niffian, as the brick-bat dropped out 
 of his nerveless hand. *' lie preaches like a lion," was the 
 testimony of one whom he had terrified by some strong appeal, 
 In single-handed defiance he went into Bartholomew Fair, and 
 while lie spoke the booths were deserted, the acrobats tumbled 
 
 162 
 
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 i'tl' 
 
WESLEY AND IflS TIMES. 
 
 nee his 
 
 skilfully 
 Add to 
 cntcncc 
 dndlcd, 
 convic- 
 ipon its 
 I advan 
 s should 
 icription 
 painted, 
 felt the 
 he fierce 
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 :rouehcd 
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 Hume 
 ranklin 
 like a 
 cc to an 
 10 fall of 
 cliffs 
 riuniphs 
 ou have 
 pcd out 
 ^vas the 
 appeal, 
 air, and 
 tumbled 
 
 in vain, and the baffled showmen found their occupation 
 rone. The deaf old woman who had cursed him as he i)assed 
 alonii; the street was found presently clambering up the i)ulpit 
 stairs that she might not lose a syllable of his sermon. "The 
 prisoners heard him," and they wept and trembled. The flow- 
 iu"^ tears made little rills of cleanliness down the swarth faces 
 of Kingswood colliers, ruder than tlie foresters who dwelt in the 
 old C'iia^e before them. Children luuig u[)()n his li])s with loving, 
 earnest eyes ; and perhaps the most touching illustration of 
 his influence was in the case of a little boy, who sickened after 
 he had heard him preach, and whose sole cry in the pauses of 
 his pain was, " Let me go to Mr. Whitefield's God." AH descrip- 
 tion must fail to make us realize his wonderful power, luiless 
 we couUl transfer the countenance, and fix the flashing eye and 
 sweeping hand upon the page. And this power was not, as 
 ha:, been said, "the power of the cambric handkerchief or of 
 the simulated tears." lie could not help being an orator, but 
 he aimed to be an evangelist, and so great was his success that 
 he is said in one week to have received i,ooo letters fixnn those 
 who had been blessed by his ministry. lie had no great grasp 
 of mind, nor was he born to organize or to c(jinmaiid. " I hate 
 to head a party. If I were to raise societies, I should only be 
 weaving a Penelope's web." These were !iis words. When he went 
 to Scotland he was received by the Associate Presbytery, who 
 were about to elect a Moderator and proceed to business. " What 
 about?" he asked. They told him it was to set him right on 
 some matters of church government. He answered that they 
 might save themselves the trouble, that his time was wanted 
 for highways and hedges, and that, if the Po[)e himself would 
 only lend his pul[)it, he would gladly preach the righteousness 
 
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 103 
 
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 WESLEY AAV HIS TIMES. 
 
 of Christ tlicrcin. His work was preaching, and he knew it. 
 The i)ul['.it was his throne, and never monarch filled a regal scat 
 with kinglicr prcsrn<-e. Worn down with labour, the physicians 
 jjrescribed a [)er[)ctual blister. He says he tried perpetual 
 preaching and found that it answered as well. When winter 
 l)rc\ ented his journeys he mourned like a smitten child — when 
 spring opened his way he bounded to his beloved labour, glad 
 as a gazelle upon the hills. His seal had for its device a winged 
 heart, soaring above the globe, with the motto '■^ Astra pciatnus,'^ 
 and this was emblematic of the business to which he had conse- 
 crated his life. " I hope to die in the pulpit, or at least soon 
 after I come out of it. It is } our cowardly Christians, who have 
 borne no witness while they live, whom God honours at the last. 
 I shall die in silence ; my testimony has been given in my life." 
 Such was his language as, after thirty-four years of labour, lie 
 gathered himself up for what [)roved a tinal discourse. For iwu 
 hours, though he had recently suffered fr^ai the cruel asthma 
 which destroyed him, he spoke with a pathos and power which he 
 had never surpassed, to a people who lingered like the hosts on 
 Carmel, and as if they knew that for another Elijah there awaited 
 a chariot of fue. The pavement and entrance hall of the house 
 in which he lodged were thronged witli jieople, who craved a 
 parting word. Exhausted with his labours he rec^uested anotlur 
 minister to speak to them, and with the candle in his hand was 
 ascending the stairs to rest. Suddenly he turned, and, as if with 
 a sense of opportunity rapidly vanishing, and of moments nioiv 
 precious than gold, addressed them from the stairway, and 
 paused not in his labour of love until the candle burned down 
 into the socket as he held it in his hands. The next morninii 
 he was not. In the night the messenger came, and, like liis 
 
 164 
 
WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 Master, he ascended from the summit of the mountain of prayer. 
 Such was George Whitefield, strangely reviled in his day. but 
 whom time has amply avenged : 
 
 " We need not now beneath well-sountling Greek, 
 Conceal the name the poet dared not speak." 
 
 Ilis praise is in all the churches and he belongs to them all. 
 You can no more chain him to a sect than you can tame the 
 libertine breezes or control the wilful spring. The works that 
 follow the good rnan will keep his memory green, and cause his 
 fame to grow, until world-wide as his benevolence and his 
 ministry shall be the estimation in which he is held, and ages 
 yet unborn, as they read the marvel of his life, shall bless God 
 for this Prince of Preachers, this noblest, grandest embodiment 
 of the Revelation angel, who " flies through the midst of heaven 
 having the everlasting Gospel to preach to every nation, and 
 people and tongue." 
 
 " Let me make the ballads of a people, and I care not who 
 makes their laws," was a great man's saying. U there be force 
 in this statement, and it is a just recognition of the marvellous 
 power of song, Charles Wesley deserves a more extended 
 notice than our time will allow us to render. Like his brother, 
 he was below the middle stature, but of stouter build. He was 
 shortsighted, warm-tempered (for did he not belong to the 
 " genus irritabile " of the poets ?) and had an abrupt and rapid 
 manner. It is said that his visits at college used to be dreaded 
 by his exactor brother, for he would stumble against the table, 
 disarrange the papers, offend against the small proprieties which 
 neat men covet, and i)erhaps ask a dozen questions, and 
 bounce out of the room before he had heard the answer to any 
 one of the number. A child of feeling, with a soul formed for 
 
 '65 
 
 _jaLiA_ 
 
WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
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 II I'll!! 
 
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 I '' 
 
 friendship, and blessed with the endearments of a happy home, 
 he entered more deeply than most men into the common 
 grief and cheerfulners of life. With less evenly balanced facul- 
 ties than his brother, and with a more limited range of vision, 
 he had a heart which yearned as tenderly over sinners, and an 
 eloquent tongue which spoke with warmth and freedom of the 
 things concerning the King. As a linguist he greatly excelled. 
 He was well acquainted with five languages, had a critical 
 knowledge of the Scriptures, and was so enamoured of \ \rgil 
 that he had the vEneid almost by heart. This latter accom- 
 plishment sometimes stood him in good stead. Dr. Johnson 
 is said to have once silenced an abusive fishwife by calli^^^L her 
 an isosceles and a parallelogram. Charles Wesley det", • ;;;ed 
 himself in Latin against a drunken sea-caplain with whom he 
 sailed from Charleston ; and when John Wesley's 'jnhappy 
 wife had secured the brothers in a room an'' opened up them, 
 like a very Xantippe, the whole battery of her fcuriniiu \ rath, 
 Charles Wesley pelted her with Virgil until he obtained for 
 them respite from clamour ai.d permission to escape. His joy 
 in the great work of 1^ '^formation wns -dent and sincere, though 
 checked often by alarm about ii.eguiarity, and by a misgiving 
 of the consequences whereunto these things might grow. Ke 
 neither soared above the times nor looked keenly beyond them, 
 but, with a uniform inconsistency of which he was hardly 
 conscious, his mind clung to opinions which his heart prompted 
 him daily to violate. Hence, though in theory a rigid Chinch- 
 man, so much so that he requested he might not be buried 
 in any but consecrated ground, in practice he was the most 
 dari'vj innovator of his time. He preached in church hours 
 w'thout scruple ; wr».s the first, it is believed, to administer the 
 
 i66 
 
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 jiiipted 
 
 
 Jhurch- 
 
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 biiried 
 
 
 L' most 
 
 
 1 hours 
 
 
 ter the 
 
 
 WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 Lord's Supper in a Methodist place of worship ; defended lay 
 preaching when bishops impugned it ; and, in fine, he manifested 
 through a long course of years, that Avhile his mind reposed in all 
 the secmliness of ecclesiastical order, the glorious irregularities 
 which he witnessed and shared commanded the deeper passion 
 of his soul, and all the activities of his honoured life. He 
 publicly censured some of his brother's proceedings, but he 
 would allow no one else to blame him. He declined to write 
 an c[)itaph for Hervey's tomb, because he conceived that the 
 " letters'' which were posthumously published did a t,reat wrong 
 to John Wesley's name, and when Lady Huntingdon attempted 
 to alienate them, he endorsed her letter with the words, " unan- 
 swered by John Wesley's brother." Though the brothers were 
 sometimes opposed in their views of polity, their love for each 
 other was inviolate, and their influence to some extent mutually 
 beneficial. If John went often too fast for Cliarles, Charles not 
 unfiequcntly moved considerably too slow for John. Charles 
 was prudential when John was sanguine, timid when John was 
 daring, the drag upon the wheel not always put on when the 
 coach was going down hill — the brake, perhaps of safety, upcn 
 the flying train. The difference between the brothers wis once 
 quaintly illustrated. " Brother John," said Charles if the 
 hord were to give me v/ings I'd fly." " Ah ! Brother iarles," 
 was John's reply, " if the Lord told me to fly I'd do it. \ nd leave 
 Him to find the wings." in his later years he resided 'rincipally 
 , in London and Bristol, preaching as often as he w Vole, and 
 pouring out his soul in song. He lingered until close upon 
 eighty years of age,though oft "in feebleness extreme," and then, 
 with a hymn to Christ upon his lips, he sweetly fell asleep. In the 
 terse obituary which his brother inserted in the "Minutes," Lc 
 
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 167 
 
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 WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 says, *' his least praise was his talent for poetry," but it will be by 
 his incomparable hymns that he will be longest remembered. 
 Few have left a wealthier legacy than these noble lyrics, which 
 he has bequeathed to the church and to the world. Entering 
 into the hearts' deep secrets ; striking every chord of subtlest 
 and holiest feeling ; giving forth, not echoes from old harp songs, 
 but melodies of the present, poured from a soul which enacts all 
 the melodies that it sings ; now plaintive as the breath of 
 evening, now with a grand roll, like that of the thunder of God ; 
 expressing every variation in the changing music of life, and 
 moreover piercing the invisible and standing like a scra})h in 
 the full vision of the throne — seldom has the sacred lyre been 
 swept by a more skilful hand. It is renown enough to satisfy 
 the most covetous seeker after fame that he has furnished to 
 tens of thousands their happiest uttei .nces of religious hope 
 and joy. His words abide in th« memory of multitudes, second 
 only to the words of inspiration in their charm and i)ower. 
 They have chased away trouble from the sorrowful, as David 
 from the melancholy Saul. They have inspired the Christian 
 warrior as the "' Marseillaise " the ])assions of France, or the 
 '* Ranz des Vaches,'' the patriotism of the brave Swiss peasantry, 
 and, greatest triumph, — in cases without number they have 
 been the Hallelujahs of the dying, who have lingered upon the 
 notes of the song until they caught the notes of the trumpet 
 which was ** sounding for them upon the other side." 
 
 I cannot do more than mention other names which deserve 
 to be remembered in connection with the great revival : Sclina, 
 Countess of Huntingdon, who, in spite of the contempt ol 
 courtiers, threw the influence of her rank into the movement, 
 and, by her piety and benevolence, conciliated the esteem o( 
 
 i68 
 
WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 m11 be by 
 MTibered. 
 ;s, whicli 
 Entering 
 
 subtlest 
 rp songs, 
 enacts all 
 )reath of 
 
 of God ; 
 life, and 
 jcraph in 
 yre been 
 to satisfy 
 lished to 
 )us hope 
 >, second 
 d [)0\ver. 
 as David 
 Christian 
 :e, or the 
 leasantry, 
 hey have 
 upon the 
 : trumpet 
 
 1 deserve 
 . : Selina, 
 itempt ot 
 ovemcnt, 
 isteem of 
 
 the many who derided her enthusiasm. How^em, Harris, the 
 fervent and successful herald of the Gospel in Wales. Jamp:s 
 Hkrvev, the pious and the scholarly, whose fancy revelled in 
 the beauty of the truth, and whose zeal wasted his frail body 
 till you could almost see the spirit through the veil ; whose gay 
 style has allured towards godliness many who have been after, 
 wards charmed by its native loveliness, just as the child, whose 
 first love of flowers is awakened by the tulip-bed, becomes 
 enamoured in manhood of the rarer beauty of the algaj and the 
 ferns. John Bp:rridge, the wise and witty Vicar of Everton, 
 of whom it was said that he thought in proverbs, whose 
 quaintness attracted the sinners who were slain from his quiver, 
 and who feathered his arrows so pleasantly that men were 
 scarcely conscious of their flight until the barb was in their 
 heart, and they cried with the sore smart * jain. William 
 RoMAiNE, who early in life committed the unpardonable offence 
 of overcrowding St. George's, Hanover Scjuare, and disturbing 
 the calm devotions of its worshippers by the intrusion of a mob 
 of vulgar people who had souls ; and who for fifty years bore 
 sturdy w'tness which threats could not silence — preaching, 
 when they put out the lights of the church, by a solitary candle 
 which he held in his hand. William Grimshaw, the gallant 
 West Riding evangelist, — hardy as the heather which grew 
 upon the moors around him, humble and lowly as the mosses 
 which peep from out their shadow — a brave trooper in his 
 Master's service who used to chase men out of the taverns 
 while they were singing the hymns before the sermon, and 
 who made such head against the heathenism of his little 
 parish that his name was a terror to evil-doers long years after 
 his death. John Newton, the tamed lion, transformed from a 
 
 169 
 
 
II 
 
 WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 v ri 
 
 I 
 
 marvel of profanity to a miracle of grace, with the old sailor's 
 fondness for yarns and the old sailor's shrewdness in telling 
 them, the kindly adviser of half the godly people in the city — 
 the sweet correspondent who wrote and warbled by turns his 
 hymns, setting to music the "cardiphonia" which his letters 
 traced. John Nelson, whom the clergy of his neighbourhood 
 contrived to get pressed for a soldier, and who sang hymns in 
 the dungeon with a chorus of friends outside, — a mason who 
 shaped many stones for the temple, " polished after the simili- 
 tude of a palace." 'I'homas Olivers, one of tlie "consecrated 
 cobblers " against whom Sidney Smith would have sneered, but 
 a poet of no mean order, and who in the tilt of controversy 
 bore himself so bravely that his adversary lost his temper, and 
 for once a baronet forgot to be a gentleman. Thomas Coke, 
 Wesley's tried friend and counsellor, who belted the globe in 
 his missionary travel, and at last sank down in death with the 
 great sea for a sepulchre, as if so mighty a heart could not rest 
 in a narrower grave. Charles Simeon, moulding the Univer- 
 sity f) an evangelical type, and standing in his commanding 
 pulpit, like a pharos on a hill, a light for the storm-tossed who 
 were anxiously making for the land. And last, not least, John 
 Fletcher, in many respects the goodliest in the band, so that 
 "no tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty." 
 Of fine talents, accurate scholarship, and almost seraphic piety, 
 his face shining as if, like Moses, he had lingered on the mount 
 until he had stolen the glory ; keen in irony and powerful in 
 rebuke, but with a temper which no abuse could ruffle, and a 
 zeal which no labour could satisfy ; preaching with the death- 
 dews on his forehead, — exclaiming, as he passed feebly from 
 tlie pulpit to the altar, " I am going to throw myself under the 
 
 170 
 
WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 shadow of the Mercy-seat " — then carried fainting to his bed, 
 from which he rose only to ascend to his reward. Oh, they 
 are a bright brotherhood — never country boasted truer hearts 
 and purer Hves. Though the godless deride tii-^m, and the 
 annals of common fame pass them by, their recora is on high, 
 ■'.nd in the majority of the world, that grand corhing time when 
 it shall " put away childish things," and enter upon its moral 
 manhood, these will be the names which will be treasured as 
 its choicest inspirations, and which will stir the pulses of its 
 holiest pride. 
 
 With such helpers did John Wesley enter upon that course 
 of marvellous labour which continued for half a century almost 
 without pause, certainly without holiday. With no aim but to 
 warn the careless and save the lost, never dreaming of personal 
 enrichment, either of wealth or fame, with no ambition but a 
 passion for saving souls, with no enthusiasm but a strong faith 
 in God, and, perhaps, a too ready trust in man, these evangelists 
 of the later time emulated the first heralds of the Gospel in 
 toil, in peril, in success. The record of Wesley's labours is 
 something wonderful, whether you consider their kind, their 
 number, or the circumstances under which they were done. 
 Rapid, punctual, earnest, he is the "man of one business" 
 throughout. One day of his work would furnish some of us 
 with ample employment for three. One of his weeks would 
 tell heavily upon the relaxed nerves and feeble throats of his 
 degenerate sons. At the rate of 15 sermons a week and 5,000 
 miles a year, done on horseback, when railways were not, and 
 when roads, uneducated by Macadam, were often feeble com- 
 promises between swamp and sludge, he manfully journeyed, — 
 at all hours, in all weathers, riding himself into a fever, and then 
 
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 f'-)' 
 
 WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 preaching himself out of it, — now entertained hospitably, now- 
 treated like an angel, and, by consequence, offered no food,— 
 now hooted in the streets, now honoured by the authorities, but 
 never faltering in his purpose, whether the learned would bribe 
 him to silence, or the persecutor snarled at his heels. Outwardly 
 calm, while his heart burned within him ; with an even temper 
 held in almost perfect control, with a fine flow of animal spirits 
 which, he says, he never remembers to have been for a cjuarter 
 of an hour below zero; never unemployed, but never in a hurry; 
 moving everyone around him to activity, but keeping, calm and 
 lordly, the possession of his own soul, and, above all, smitten 
 with a high sense of duty whose spell bore him onward through 
 every discouragement, he had all human conditions of success ; 
 and when the Divine influence breathed upon his ministry, it is 
 not wonderful that the startled people heard and wept and 
 lived. His preaching was not the announcement of novelties ; 
 the doctrines he taught lay in the formularies of the Church, 
 and had been enforced by other lips before him ; he was no 
 iconoclast of ancient institutions, nor did he gain a hearing by 
 exposure of the errors of others. Man a sinner, all men sin- 
 ners, exposed to wrath, but embraced in a covenant of mercy ; 
 another world close at hand, with its unalterable and solemn 
 issues — so near that men could almost see the gleams of glory or 
 the forks of flame ; the truth pressed home upon the conscience, 
 "You are lost;" and when that was apprehended, that other 
 golden sentence, " God is love," presented for the soul's com. 
 fort, like a sheltering splendour to relieve and scatter the cloud, 
 These were the burden of the message which he spake, and 
 he spake it with a prophet's singleness, authority and power. 
 It is not needed that we should dwell either in analysis or in 
 
 172 
 
 
 ,l!!lll 
 
m 
 
 WESLEY AND ///S TIMES. 
 
 apology upon the physical phenomena which at times waited 
 upon the word. These phenomena, which have staggered the 
 philosophers and furnished scoffers with choice material for 
 derision, were no essential parts of the revival, — were produced 
 under calm and logical preaching, and, when the subjects of 
 discourse were rather comforting than terrible, seized upon both 
 sexes and often upon those who had been bitterest in their 
 complaint against the scandal, and astonished the preachers 
 full as much as their critics, leaving them in doubt whether 
 they were the works of confusion, or whether they were done 
 by the finger of God. The proof of success, however, was not 
 in bodily convulsions, but in reclaimed lives Out of the 
 inevitable disorder Christianity could recognize its own, and the 
 result was a revived life in the churches, a large recovery from 
 among the vilest to Christ, and a moral reformation more 
 complete and lasting than had ever before been dreamed of. 
 
 The spots in which Wesley preached were, in many cases, 
 highly romantic, and added as secondary causes to the effect ol 
 his ministry. In quiet rural glens which nestle here and there 
 in the neighbourhood of large towns ; on green hillsides, with 
 fair branches of the woodland above, and a lively stream laugh- 
 ing on its course below ; in the Gwennap Amphitheatre ; on 
 the fragment of rock at St. Ives, with the great sea in sight, and 
 the clear swell of the preacher's voice finding a grand accom- 
 paniment in the low murmur of the waves ; on his father's 
 tombstone, overhung by the funeral cypress, and with " the 
 grassy barrows " of the dead around him ; under the spreading 
 sycamore, screened from the heat of the summer, or sheltered 
 by the roofless walls of a ruined cathedral while frost u'as in 
 the air and the hills still white with snow ; in places like 
 
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 WEBSTER, NY. MSSO 
 
 (716) 873-4503 
 

 l/j 
 
IVESLEV A AD HIS TIMES, 
 
 these, as well as in every available building, from the university 
 church and the large Foundry chapel to the court-house in Aln- 
 wick and the St. Ives round-house, built of brazen slags, which 
 he supposes ** will last as long as the world," he rejoiced to 
 preach the Gospel. By the blessing of God upon His word, 
 the drunkards became so^^er, the dishonest upright, the 
 licentious chaste \ " sharp arrows of the mighty " fastened in the 
 hearts of turbulent and scornful sinners ; and, when the results 
 were not so marked and decisive, there was a leavening power, 
 as if there broke upon society the air-waves of a fresher atmos- 
 phere : and the health, and the beauty, and the manliness 
 remain as our heritage to-day. 
 
 It could hardly be expected that a work like this could be 
 suffered without hindrance and insult. The prince of this 
 world had reigned too long in quiet to be dispossessed without 
 a struggle. Hence the work of the Wesleys and their com- 
 patriots was subjected to the oddest misunderstandings, assailed 
 with foulest slanders, and hunted by a persecution as malignant 
 in its spirit as those of the early church, though the power 
 of the oppressor was not always equal to his rage. Many among 
 that species of the clergy, now happily almost extinct, to 
 whom a full church was an impertinence, and a consistent life a 
 perpetual rebuke, were the bitterest enemies of the revival. They 
 instigated, in some cases even headed the mob. They coaxed 
 or threatened the magistrates. They abused the teaches, 
 repelled then and their converts from communion, and punished 
 them ns vagrants for whom the most effectual remedy was the 
 duck-i)ond or the pillory. The cold dislike of the gentry 
 chimed with the coarse passions of the baser sort, until 
 Methodism became a thing for or against which nearly every man 
 
 174 
 
I 
 
 5. 
 
 rom the university 
 ourt-house in Aln- 
 razen slags, which 
 ,," he rejoiced to 
 i upon His word, 
 nest upright, the 
 y " fastened in the 
 , when the results 
 L leavening power, 
 of a fresher atmos- 
 nd the manliness 
 
 like this could be 
 he prince of this 
 spossessed without 
 ys and their com- 
 rstandings, assailed 
 ution as malignant 
 though the power 
 age. Many among 
 most extinct, to 
 a consistent life a 
 the revival. Tlicy 
 3b. They coaxed 
 sed the teaches, 
 lion, and punished 
 al remedy was the 
 ke of the gentry 
 baser sort, until 
 1 nearly every man 
 
 WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 took up his parable, and the nation was divided into those whose 
 delight it was to listen to the earnest preachers and those whose 
 deliglit it was to hunt them down. The most absurd ideas had 
 currency about the men and about their communications. In 
 Oxford they were the " Bible moths " and the " Godly club." 
 Some said they were Atheists and allies of the Pretender. In 
 Cornwall they were called, with some propriety, considering 
 their sufferings and their valour, the Maccabees. In Ireland, 
 from the text of one of their preachers, who preached about 
 the child in swaddling-bands on a Christmas-day morning, they 
 were christened Swaddlers. One sapient critic thought he had 
 hit upon the thing exactly when he said they were " Presby- 
 terian Papists." " The Methodists !" asked an acute Irish 
 Colonel of Dragoons, *' isn't that the new sect which has 
 risen up whose religion it is to wear long beards and whiskers?" 
 (Some of you may, perhaps, imagine that the honest colonel 
 was for once, like Saul, *' among the prophets," and that his 
 chief mistake was in speaking of the new sect about a century 
 before its time.) Wesley was said to be a Jesuit, a correspon- 
 dent of the Pope, in league with France, in the pay of Spain, 
 and so thorough and deep-rooted was the enmity against them 
 that, in his own forcible words, they were " forbidden from New- 
 gate lest they should make men wicked, and from Bedlam lest 
 they should drive men mad." Nor were ruder assaults wanting. 
 They were arrested, imprisoned, drafted into the ranks of the 
 army. Churchwardens and constables panted for the chase 
 after the Methodists like a leash of eager hounds. The mob 
 were too glad to gratify their love of disorder and their hale 
 against religion together, and outrages were perpetrated, now bv 
 the impulse of passion — now by bands organized for purposto 
 
 175 
 
;i il 
 
 I 
 
 
 :i('i [ 
 
 I Mi"'' 
 
 IVES LEV AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 ot cruelty, by which many were seriously injured, and othus 
 driven into a martyr's grave. 
 
 John Wesley was often in personal danger ; often had he to 
 confront enraged mobs and suffer personal violence at their 
 hands. But his faith in God sustained him, and, with a courage 
 which might shame many of the world's chartered heroes, he 
 blenched not from his duty and from his work. Meeting with 
 hard fare and little food during a tour in Cornwall, he congratu- 
 lates himself that " blackberries are plentiful," and after three 
 weeks lying upon the floor, in the same county, with the brave 
 John Nelson beside him, one having an overcoat and the other 
 " Burkitt'.s Notes" for a pillow, he cries out in the middle of 
 the night, " Be of good cheer, the skin is only off one side yet." 
 Alone with the rabble at Walsall, with torn clothes and bleed- 
 ing mouth, he subdued a noted prize-fighter by his calmness 
 and by his words, with his strange escort passed harmless 
 through the crowd, and records in his journal that at the door 
 of his lodgings they " parted with much love." Threatened 
 with being thrown into the river, he says that he was as 
 collected as if seated in his study, and that his only thought was 
 that the papers in his pocket would he spoiled. Told that the 
 mob were coming to pull down the house at Epworth m which 
 he was preaching, he assured the congregation that if the 
 report was true they had better make good use of it while it was 
 still standing. Like Paul, he knew when to stand upon his 
 privilege — " a Roman and uncondemned." A pompous chief 
 magistrate, big with the small dignities of his office, sent to 
 discharge him from preaching within the limits of his borough. 
 " Tell his worship," was Wesley's cool rejoinder, " that as long 
 as King George gives me leave to preach I shall not ask the 
 
 176 
 
WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 ed, and othus 
 
 Mayor of Shaftesbury." When his moral character was slan- 
 dered by fierce opponents, from whom better things might have 
 been hoped, and to whom I grant in this lecture the mercy of 
 my silence, his faith rose into sublimity. " Brother, when I 
 gave to God my life, my time, my all, I did not leave my repu- 
 tation out." When asked how he would spend the intervening 
 time if he knew that hff should die on the morrow, he answered 
 with the same cheerful calmness, " Just as I intend to spend 
 them now. I should preach at Gloucester to-night, and at five 
 o'clock in the morning, ride on to Tewksbury, preach in the 
 afternoon, and meet the societies in the evening. I should 
 then repair to Friend Martin's house, who expects to entertain 
 me, converse and pray with the family as usual, retire to my 
 room, commend myself to my Heavenly Father, lie down to 
 rest, and wake up in glory." Surely neither legends of chivalry 
 nor annals of authentic heroism can surpass the grandeur of 
 this simple trust in God. You talk of heroes, large, world 
 renowned, kingly men, men of colossal fame, who have filled 
 the great spaces of the world with their names ; men who have 
 leaped into renown from the corpses of the trampled, or cleaved 
 their stern way to it through the battle's dust and blood. What 
 are their claims to his ? Look at his brave life from the time oi 
 its devotion to the Gospel. See him as he loosens his grasp 
 upon the things he loved the most, mortifies his desire after 
 honour, spurns the lust of wealth as only nobler natures can, 
 foregoes the endearments of social and the delights of cultivated 
 life. Mark him as, little in stature but great in soul, he stands 
 calmly amid the mob who burn to kill him, and they are sub- 
 dued at his glance, as the manly eye can awe the lion into fear. 
 See him as, in conscious integrity, still as the patient stars, he 
 
 L 
 
 177 
 
 i 
 
WESLEY AND H/S TIMES. 
 
 bids slander do her worst to defame him, smiles at neanng 
 danger, holds all hardship light, and regards death but as a 
 vassal — a vassal without a terror and without a sting ;— and 
 then tell me whether in that life-long devotion, fearless out- 
 speaking of the truth, and fervent trust in God, there is not 
 greatness as lofty as was ever recompensed by glittering orders 
 or embalmed in minstrel's song. 
 
 My time fails me to proceed further with the history on wliich 
 I have already lingered too long. On the separation from 
 Whitefield ; on the dignity with which he offered the costliest 
 sacrifice to God — the sacrifice of slain affections ; on his ill- 
 judged and unfortunate marriage, three days after which he 
 makes the significant entry in his journal, " Met the single men 
 of the society and exhorted them to continue single f on his 
 accurate and varied scholarship, — an accomplished logician, and 
 one of the first Greek scholars of his time, — on his subsequent 
 labours prosecuted without intermission through a long course 
 of years; on the organization of his societies, and his care for 
 their purity and extension ; — on ah these matters I must forbear 
 to dwell. Neither can I do more than mention the gradual 
 growth of honour which sat upon his forehead like a crown- 
 how prejudice changed into respect, and " troops of friends " 
 gave reverence in his kindly age ; how John Howard blessed 
 his loving words, and under their irispiration went forth to his 
 prison journeys with greater heart than ever ; how Bishop Lowth 
 sat at his feet and hoped he might be found there in anotlier 
 world ] how Samuel Johnson delighted in his conversation, and 
 was only vexed because he would take his leave just when the 
 great Moralist had stretched his legs for the luxury of an 
 intellectual evening ; how Alexander Knox kindled in rapture 
 
 178 
 
 . . L 
 
WESLEY AND HIS TIMES, 
 
 as he recalled the fine old man, " with a child's heart and a 
 seraph's faith," realizing his notion of «ngelic goodness, and 
 impressing him with the pang at parting that he " ne'er should 
 look upon his like again ;" and finally how, in perfect peace, 
 and leaving a reformed nation and a flourishing church as his 
 nionuiiient, the good John Wesley died : these are tempting 
 subjects for enlargement, but the inexorable hand moves on. 
 
 A brief estimate of some of the more noticeable features of 
 John Wesley's character must not, however, be omitted. Dur- 
 ing his life he endured more abuse than any man of his time, 
 and since his death so many Daniels have "come to judgment" 
 upon him, that he has been credited with almost every fault and 
 virtue that can be named. Many failings have been gratuitously 
 ascribed to him, and some from which I am by no means 
 concerned to defend him. It is said he was ambitious. He was, 
 but not with the vulgar lust of power or fame, or gold. His ambi- 
 tion was a large and lofty thing, a yearning magnanimity, like 
 that of Moses — a ceaseless self-sacrifice, like that of Paul. It is 
 said that he was enthusiastic. He was, but his enthusiasm was 
 neither a wild rant nor a delusive expectation of the end without 
 the means j it sprang from a passion to do good, and was 
 sustained by faith in God, — the results justified him. It is said 
 that he was arbitrary. In the true sense of the word, he was — 
 for never man was born who exerted more influence upon other 
 men ; but he valued and used his power, not for its own sake, 
 but as a trust. His was the legitimate influence of mind and 
 character ; and was neither got by despot force nor wielded 
 for despot ends. From the charge of credulity he cannot be 
 deemed wholly free, but those who consider that the age in 
 which he lived was an age of scepticism, and that it was neces- 
 
 179 
 
WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 sary for the doing of his great work that he should realize the 
 nearness of the other world, will hardly wonder that he shared, 
 though in no excess by comparison with others of his time, the 
 prevalent infirmity of noble minds. That in fifty years he 
 sometimes erred in judgment ; that he chose not a helpmeet 
 worthy of him ; that his ideas of the education of children were 
 severe and impracticable, as proved by the successive failures 
 of his plans at Kingswood school ; that his continual submis- 
 sion to what he believed to be the will of God involved him in 
 inconsistencies which he was not careful to reconcile, and which 
 gloriously vindicate the disinterestedness of his life; these 
 things may be admitted, with nc other result, on the part o( 
 those who love him, than that they can look without being 
 dazzled upon a brightness which would otherwise be insuffer- 
 able. But after you have made all the subtractions which 
 candour and even honest prejudice demand, the manhood of his 
 excellence remains, and it is a manhood of loftiest type and 
 truest soul — human, and therefore leavened with human frailty, 
 but living as near to Heaven as merely human may : 
 •• Who never sold the truth to serve the hour, 
 
 Nor paltered with Eternal God for power ; 
 
 Who let the turbid streams of rumour flow, 
 
 Through either babbling world of high and low , 
 
 Whose life was work — whose language rife 
 
 With rugged maxims hewn from life ; 
 
 Whose eighty winters freeze with one rebuke, 
 
 All great self-seekers trampling on the right : 
 
 Greatest, yet with least pretence, 
 
 Foremost -hearted of his time. 
 
 Rich in saving common sense, 
 
 And, as the greatest only are, 
 
 In his simplicity suMime." 
 
 1 80 
 
WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 This simplicity was indeed the great feature of his character, to 
 which everything else must be referred as to a central motive 
 power. From the time of his entrance upon his public work 
 he was a man of one purpose. That purpose absorbed him, 
 and against that purpose he would not harbour a thought that 
 was disloyal. If ever man was perfectly devoted to the service 
 of God it was he. He was a " living sacrifice." The usual 
 and strong instincts which prevail among men, love of ease, 
 fame, wealth, were almost trampled out of his soul. Even the 
 fondest affections were crucified, though he had as warm a heart 
 as ever beat in the breast of man ; and, at the bidding of the 
 high purpose which possessed him he could surrender the 
 dearest friend, and expend the costliest tribute, endure the 
 keenest pang, and be unmoved under the foulest slander, with 
 a courage which to us, who dwell in lower regions, seems well 
 nigh stoical, and which we must breathe the upper air to under- 
 stand. The secret of this ^elf-control, as of the marvellous 
 power of liis ministry, was in the morning hour, which for many 
 years he was accustomed to spend in the closet. If in Luther's 
 prayers was the mystery of the Reformation, in Wesley's prayers 
 may be found one explanation of the great revival. He could 
 afford to be calm in human tumult, who had memories of the 
 lone mountain-top and of the manifested glory. To him it was 
 a necessity to be in earnest, who had just come from the ford 
 of Jabbok, where the strange wrestler had striven with him until 
 the breaking of the day. He could surely calculate upon a 
 blessing to whom the Lord had pledged it in the secret place of 
 his pavilion. And it is so still — prayer can preserve any peace 
 unbroken and any arm in strength. If the pulpit be powerless, 
 the churches feeble, the truth wounded in the house of her 
 
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 11 
 
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 31 ' 
 
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 WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 friends, the source of the lan^aor is here. Let the closet fires 
 be bright and the flame is sure to spread, and, like that which 
 brave Hugh Latimer saw in the vision of his martyrdom, it shall 
 never be put out. Give us the men of prayer, and from every 
 hill of Zion there shall be baptisms of power from on high. 
 
 Wesley's indefatigable industry has already been noticed, and 
 when we consider the object for which he redeemed the time, 
 his frugal and conscientious use of it cannot be sufficiently 
 admired. Incessantly travelling, constantly preaching, he 
 conducted an extensive correspondence, dealt with cases of con- 
 science, settled family disputes, wrote or abridged 200 volumes, 
 kept himself abreast of the literature of the times, maintained 
 his classical studies, and managed the whole concerns of a 
 society which numbered at his death more than 70,000 souls. 
 With all this, as he once said, " he had no time to be in a hurry," 
 was always ready for a visit of sympathy, for a sight of a fair 
 landscape or a fine building, for a cheerful evening or part of 
 one with a friend ; and now and then for recreation, as when he 
 listened to the oratorios of "Judith" and " Ruth," and " The 
 Messiah." Do you ask how he managed to have this wealth of 
 leisure at command ? I answer, by his practice of early rising, 
 by his methodical habits, and by the patient avarice with which 
 he hoarded each moment as it flew. Thus he tells us that he 
 read " History, Philosophy, and Poetry, for the most part, on 
 horseback." We do not wonder, by the way, that his poor steed 
 so often stumbled. Detained in Wales because the tide was 
 over the sands, so that he could not cross them, he tells us : "I 
 sat down in a little cottage and translated Aldrich's Logic " 
 His mind could not fail to be stored so richly when he thus 
 diligently fed it. If a man will pile up the moments of life he 
 
 182 
 
WESLEY A^D HIS TIMES. 
 
 will be sure to have a pyramid at last. It is hard work washing 
 in the cradle the sand of the gully-stream, but it hath dust of 
 
 gold. 
 
 Wesley's benevolence was, perhaps, never surpassed. Beyond 
 what was absolutely necessary to sustain and clothe him, he 
 gave all he had in charity. There were no bounds to his gene- 
 rosity save his means. " Two silver spoons in London and two 
 silver spoons in Bristol," thus he made his return of plate to the 
 astonished Commissioners of Excise, " and I shall not buy any 
 more while so many around me want bread." He was accustomed 
 to declare that his own hands should be his executors, and said, 
 in print, that if he died worth ten pounds, independent of his 
 books, he would give the world leave to call him a thief and a 
 robber. Although this was an incautious announcement, made 
 in the excess of his zeal, yet, as his friends expected, he almost 
 literally kept his word, for when the silver cord of his great life 
 was loosed, his chaise and horses and his clothes were about all 
 that he left behind him, except, as has been quaintly said, " a 
 good library of books, a well-worn clergyman's gown, a much 
 abused reputation, and — the Methodist Church." 
 
 His charity, in the wider sense, was as remarkable as his bene- 
 ficence. With a temper naturally quick, as is perhaps inevita- 
 ble in all lively natures, he was enabled so far to conquer 
 himself that he bore personal injury not only without anger, but 
 without apparent emotion, and it was as easy for him as to 
 breathe. Gathering the materials of his judgment from his own 
 transparent goodness, he suspected no evil in others, and it was 
 difficult to make him think that any had intended to deceive 
 him. Although this trustful spirit exposed him to the schemes 
 of the designing, it sets forth in beautiful relief the guilelessn ess 
 
 183 
 
 % 
 
IVES LEY Ai\n 1/fS TIMES. 
 
 li 
 
 w 
 
 of liis own Mnniclcss life. Ilis m()(lcrali«)n in ronfrovrrr.y wns 
 rcmatk.iMo, aiul was maintained nndor provocation whidi 
 mii;lit well havr kindlnl any storm wlii( h *' ran in the sliiriin|t 
 currents of tlic Mood." On the testimony of one of Ins 
 unfriendly »riti( s, " he kept his temper and his ground," and it is 
 refreshing to lind him rceeiving the sac rament from the hinds 
 of IJishop I,avingtt>n, and sitting down to a eosy breakfast wiilj 
 his old antagonist, l-'ather ()'l,eary. llis catholicity, indeed, 
 was extraordinary, lie had as a keen a scent for goodness as 
 slanderers have for evil. Kvon among the nightshade and the 
 nettles it was hard if he could not discover some Iragrant viokl 
 or balm of healing. Hence he sneaks of the " strong faith" 
 mingled with the "gross superstition " of the Chun h of Konic; 
 commends and publishes the life of Thomas I'irmin, a I'nita- 
 rian, *' whose real piety — notwithstanding his erroneous notions 
 on the Trinity —lie says he dares not tleny," and " makes no 
 doubt that ^^arcus Antoninus, the hcatl\cn h'mperor of Komo, 
 shall be of the many who shall come from the wst and lioni 
 the west ami shall sit down in the kingdom of (iod." 
 
 While Wesley thus preached and lived a high state of religious 
 purity, bis freedom fnvn aseciiiism was a marked and fir.e 
 characteristic. There was abcnit him, especially as he grew in 
 years, a courtesy and grace which made him the choim of social 
 circles, and which especially attracted the young, lie often 
 selected them as the companions of his walks, and was wont to 
 give them his blessing and some small trifle of money. Alex- 
 ander Knox speaks of his '* sportive sallies of innocent mirth, 
 which delighted the young and thoughtless," and when his wit 
 had play, his conversation would sparkle as when the moon 
 glances upon the silver sea. He often used his native humour to 
 
 184 
 
WESLEY ANI^ HIS IIMES. 
 
 rcroni bis ohscrv.itionH on men and tliinf^s, to silence a trf)iil)lc- 
 sorne opponent, or tea< li a lesson to sr)mc refra< tfiry lHl|»er. 
 riuis lie records: "Spent an af;reeal)le hour with Dr. S., the 
 greatest j^enius in little thinj^s that ever fell under my notice. 
 I really believe, were he seriously to set about it, he »ould invent 
 the best mouse traf^ that ever was in the world." A^ain, with a 
 sly hit at the j^lorious uiK ertainties of the law, he says: "To 
 oblige a friendly gentlewoman I was a witness tf> her will, 
 wherein she befpieathed part of her estate to charitable uses, 
 and |)arl, during his natural life, to her dog 'f'oby. \ suppose, 
 though she should die within the year, her legaf y to Toby may 
 stand good, but that to the poor is void by the statute of 
 mortmain." lie was troubled l»y a visit from some |)retended 
 prophets, who told him he was to be /"'A"//'// again, and that they 
 were to wait till it was done. He politely shewed them into 
 what he calls a " tolerably cold room," and kept them twelve 
 hours without fooil or fire, after which, he says, " they quietly 
 went away." One came to him j)rofesse(lly with a warning 
 from the liOrd, that he was living in luxury, and heaping up 
 treasure upon earth. He told her the f/Ord knew better, and 
 that if He had sent her He would have given her a more proper 
 message. A very weak little man, one of Wesley's helpers, 
 Michael Kenwick by name, came to him with an imploring 
 countenance and begged a favour, which was that as Wesley 
 was revising his journals for the press, and as these journals 
 would live, Michael might have a place in them, and .so stand 
 some chance of immortality. Wesley promised compliance, 
 and the entry appeared : " About one preached at Clayworth ; I 
 think none was unmoved but Michael Fcnwick, who fell fast 
 asleep under an adjoining hay-rick." These are but random 
 
 '85 
 
 \V 
 
:i 
 
 WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 instances of a wit which ever played across the clear sky of 
 Wesley's life, like summer lightning, having no fork to wound, 
 and only seen in the still evening, when the labours of the day 
 were done. 
 
 It marks a great man that he is before his age, and that he 
 initiates plans upon which after ages can improve. It would be 
 difficult to name a man more endowed with this prophetic and 
 forecasting goodness than John Wesley. There is scarcely an 
 enterprise of the church or an active form of charity, scarcely 
 an acknowledged good at work amongst us, which he did not 
 attempt, and often with a success which later times can only strive 
 to parallel. You talk of a cheap press and its blessings. John 
 Wesley was the first man to write for the million, and that not 
 for gain but for the people's benefit. His were the first popular 
 Grammars, Dictionaries, Histories, Compendiums, and they were 
 issued not in learned leisure, but in the intervals of the busiest 
 life of the age. You rejoice in the Tract Society's labours. 
 Though the " Jubilee Memorial '" makes no mention of his 
 name, he was a diligent writer and systematic distributor half a 
 century before the Tract Society was born. Do you hail the 
 Strangers' Friend Society, with its open hand for the friendless 
 and the alien ? It was of Wesleyan origin. Do you believe in 
 Ragged Schools ? Wesley's Orphan Houses were the germinant 
 idea. Do you subscribe to Loan Libraries? He established 
 them a hundred years ago. Are you proud of your country as 
 you see the sick huddling together before the Dispensary gates, 
 and think that charity has furnished them with the skill and the 
 medicines which they are too poor to buy ? The first Dispen- 
 sary that I read of was set up by John Wesley at the Foundry. 
 And not only in matters of active charity did he thus anticipate 
 
 1 86 
 
WESLEY AND HIS TIMES. 
 
 the future, but in the silent revolutions of opinion. Take his 
 " Primitive Physic," with which wits make merry, and which is 
 certainly funny enough to win even Niobe from her tears ; but it 
 compares very favourably with a treatise published but a little 
 earlier by the celebrated Robert Boyle ; and the Pharmacopoeia of 
 the day, which was in constant use among the faculty, contains 
 offensive and frivolous prescriptions which Wesley disdains to 
 mention. He was a Temperance advocate when Total Absti- 
 nence Societies were not. He was a Law Reformer, speaking of 
 that " foul monster — a Chancery Bill," and declares that he 
 will " no more encourage that villainous tautology of lawyers, 
 which is a scandal to the nation at large." He believed in 
 the marvels of electricity while the sceptic world yet sneered at 
 Franklin's name. With a far-sighted view of the magnificent 
 capabilities of India, he spoke of it as ** enslaved to a 
 company of merchants " while Leadenhall Street was still in its 
 glory. And, finally, when the nation was only half alive to the 
 evils of slavery — when Lady Huntingdon trafficked in human 
 nature, when George Whitefield held slaves — John Wesley 
 roused himself in behalf of the poor trampled bondsmen ; 
 denounced slavery in general as " the sum of all villanies," 
 and American slavery in particular as " the vilest that ever saw 
 the sun." 
 
 Looking at these things, who shall say how much of our 
 present philanthropy and privileges are the results of the 
 merciful shadow which John Wesley projected upon the coming 
 age? If you decorate the conqueror with stars, who at the 
 head ol his gallant armies achieves a victory, look upon the 
 man whose g>niius drew the plan of the battle, and let his breast 
 glitter too. If you reward the reaper who gathers amid the 
 
 187 
 
\\'i:.sri V AM) ///.v ri.MKs. 
 
 A 
 
 t 
 
 Jnspir.ilioM ol" plonly .iinl tho voice «!' singing, |)\it l)y of your 
 jusli« I « liiiin il lor (ho sower, who alone, under iW. grey 
 wintry sky, went loKh ior the si.ittering e»l the seed. 
 
 And now. to sum up the whole, hiok upon this < h;n.ulcr, \\\ 
 (irst " hke the young moon with a lagged edge, slill in ii^ 
 itupeiioelion beaiUilul." but w.ixing hn-eher and larg(M-, iiniil, 
 (uU oihc^l and cahn, it shines in its rompleteness helore hkh 
 Think ol the ehMuents which y*Mi su])po.sc necessary to nioi;i| 
 greatness. T'ervent pitMv. stiong taith in (lod, a seU saciiiu jng 
 p\Mp«)se in hie. n^anly daring, womanly tenderness, an indiisiiy 
 which \\c\c\ (ires. a henevoUMice whi( h never says " it is enoiipji," 
 an almost perlecl «onlrol* »)ver passion, an ahnosi ix-ilcd 
 al>neg,\tion ol" s»,>llishness, a catholic heart and a world widr 
 sytupathv. a gentlem.m's courtesy and a scholar's learning; it 
 these things, combining in an individual, make up an artisiic 
 wholeness olchanicler which ihe worM should reverenc(>, tlun 
 look at (ha( h(tle o\k\ m.m wi(h (he band and '-assock, wnlkinq 
 a( a brisk pace d»)wn the sheet, neat in his dress and busy in 
 his manner. " with aquiline nose and (|uick bright eyo, silver 
 hair, auvl clear smooth lorehead, and lolour fresh .is a hoy's." 
 do. mark him well, lor (ha( wholeness of characler is his, and his 
 name is John Wesley, and, in the aj^t words of one who has 
 deeply studied him. " a greater, and by the grace o'i (lod, a 
 better man. the wim Id has not known since the days of .St. raiil." 
 
 And now for owe jiarling word. U is for us these great men 
 labour. All (he pas( is ours. Us splendour Hashes that wc 
 may not walk in darkness. Its manluxnl appeals to our own. 
 The records oi its greatness and goodness abide that we may be 
 inspired by (he example, and ''quit ourselves like men " in (he 
 common stnigglos of every day. Urodicrs, to your duty ! lot 
 
 1 88 
 
WESLEY AMT) If IS TIMES. 
 
 your lives show tli.it (lie heritage Jia« dcsc ended into no nnw i \\\y 
 haiul. He not the poor pensioners ii|)on the bonnfy of the past. 
 Ho not the gn> spendthrifts of its ri( hes. ISo it yours to husband 
 its rcsour( es that you may iiH rease its returns, so that the legaf y 
 you hc(|ueath, enric hed by your own fjersonal tribute, may hv. 
 wealthier than the |)orlion whi( h you rereivcd. "(iivc mc 
 nl.ue for my lever," said a great one of old, "and f will move 
 the world." We do not lack in our moral ma( hinery either the 
 fulcrum or the power. Of small account and limited sphere of 
 action, considered as individuals, most of us n)ay be, but from 
 each of us there is shed an influence which, by the law of accel- 
 erated fon e, will gather intensity as it spreads, and will tell 
 ujjon the future as with avalanche power. There is sorrieMiing 
 grandly terrible in this asi)cct of it in an assembly like this. 
 Muiig upon life, unable to rid yourselves of life; compelled, 
 whether you will or no, to wield the resf)onsibilities of life, like 
 eharged clouds whi( h must discharge their contents either in 
 tlic havoc of storms or in the kind weeping of the summer rain, 
 you must go on, influential every moment, a blast or a blessing 
 forever. ( )h I choose the good— choose it from this moment if 
 you have never chosen it before - renew, if you have already 
 chosen it, your high and grand consecration. F 'vould fain bind 
 it upon you by a spell from which you cannot disenchant your- 
 selves, and under whose j)ower you shall pass to your eternity. 
 It is done — surely it is done. You 7i>iil be the Lord's servants ; 
 and, for I lis sake, the servants of men. 
 
 This is an age of transition, and, in many respects, of suri)rise 
 Amidst its endless activities for good and evil, it is difTicult 
 to trace the progress which, in spite of all discouragements, 
 is constantly going on. But that progress is not the less real 
 
 189 
 

 vVEsr.F.v AXD ins riA/ES. 
 
 ■u 
 
 I I 
 
 .i i 
 
 
 '■■«! 
 
 If* 
 
 i 
 
 lii 
 
 because \vc cannot sec it, for that our poor liunian eyc^s are 
 dimmed by the tihns of sense or blinded by the tears of sorrow. 
 There is a lesson for us in the recently published experiend'sof 
 those intrepid voyagers who, for scientific purposes, Jiavo 
 ventured into the regions of upj)er air. Tliey tell us that " they 
 experienced as they ascended a feeling of profound rcpdso;" 
 by and by they record "that it was very dark beneath, but 11^1,1 
 above, with a clear sky," and "amid the solemn stilliioss iho 
 only sounds they heard were the striking of a clock and ihc 
 sounding of a bell." Oh ! rare and beautiful teaching for iis- 
 tossed about with many fears, depressed by the clouds wliidi 
 hang over us, and longing for the coming of the day ! The rest 
 and hope o( the spirit must come with the faith wiiich leaves 
 this earth behind it. Thouu;h to us — the toilers — it is night 
 still, to Him— the Master who watcheth our labour, and to them 
 — our fellows whose labour is done — ** there is light with a dear 
 sky."' Though to us, down below, there is but the deafening 
 roar, the shriek of discord, the wail of pain, blent in one jargon 
 of strange sounds which have no chime ; to them, above in the 
 high calm silence, there are heard only the striking of the hour 
 which tells of the sure speed of time, and the voice of the 
 joy-bells already ringing for the world's great bridal. And it is 
 always so in respect of the matters which bewilder us and make 
 our hearts sad. Down below, strange struggles between hope 
 and fear, problems of existence which bailie our poor wit to 
 solve, mourning over new-made graves of wise or kind ones 
 snatched from the midst of us ere yet, to mortal thought, their life's 
 great work is done. Up above, a throne that is never vacant, 
 a King who sits assured of an accomplished purpose, and 
 waiting an expected end, — grand solutions of life which make all 
 
 190 
 
WESr.EY AND /ffS TIMES. 
 
 Heaven wonder, and stir the s|)irits of the just made perfect 
 with new throbs of joy— rest from earth's weariness, and rapture 
 in the stead of its sorrow — the joining; of hands and hearts long 
 un(lasi)ed from cacli other's wehomes, in the eternal rc-union 
 of the sky. 
 
 Down licinw, a Rnd, mystcrioim music, 
 
 Wailinf^ from (lie wooils and on tlic shore ; 
 
 Burdened with a ^rand, majestic seerel, 
 
 Wliicli keeps sweeping from us ever mor« 
 
 Up ahove, a music that entwineth, 
 
 In eternal llire.ids of golden sound, 
 The great jjoem of tliis strange existence, 
 
 All whose wondrous meaning liatli been fouml. 
 
 Down below, the grave within the churchyard, 
 And the anguish on the young face pale. 
 
 And the watcher, ever as it dusketh, 
 Rocking to and fro with long, sad wail. 
 
 Up ahove, a crowned and happy spirit, 
 
 Like an infant in the eternal years, 
 Who shall grow in light and love for ever, 
 
 Ordered in his place among his peers. 
 
 O, the sol/bing of the winds of autumn I 
 
 O, the sunset streak of stormy goM ! 
 O, the poor heart, thinking in the churchyard ! 
 
 Night is coming and the grave is cold. 
 
 O, the rest forever, and the rapture I 
 
 O, the hand that wipes the tears away ! 
 O, the golden homes beyond the sunset ! 
 
 O, the God — that watches o'er the clay ! 
 
 191 
 
i 
 
FLORENCF 
 
 AND SOME NOTABLE FLORENTINES. 
 
 M 
 
FLORENCE 
 
 AND SC'IE NOTABLE FLORENTINES 
 
 A GREAT CITY is a great poem, a poem whose story unfolds 
 through the ages, and whose characters are striving and 
 suffering human hearts. Unheard often amid the rattle of its 
 busy streets there are plaintive undertones of rarest music. 
 Beneath its outer life there is an inner one, in which Tragedy 
 and Passion, Pity and Enterprise, Wrong and Sorrow, are the 
 daily actors. If, moreover, the city has a history, if it has passed 
 through those sharp transitions which wring the hearts of nations 
 as they wring the hearts of men ; if it kindle with the memories 
 of a glorious past, or, amid present sorrow, glows with the 
 prophecy of a more glorious future, the melody becomes more 
 audible and strong — the voice has louder tones to soothe or to 
 inspire ; and a ramble through the streets of such a city, or a 
 visit to its shrines, becomes at once a profit and a pleasure. 
 
 With this intent let me lead you for a while to what, until 
 lately, was the capital of the new Kingdom of Italy — beautiful 
 for situation, affluent in annals of the former time ; far renowned 
 in song ; and let us 
 
 ** Muse in hope upon the shore 
 
 Of golden Arno, as it shoots away 
 Through Florence' heart beneath her bridges four. " 
 
 195 
 
 ! 
 
HI . ?i 
 
 /! 
 
 i'.'i 
 
 ■■* ! 
 
 FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES. 
 
 There are some pictures, world-wide in their reputation, the 
 first sight of which disappoints the eye, and it is only by the 
 study of their various parts that you grow into a perception of 
 their wondrous beauty. Of such is Florence. Its river is the 
 "golden Arno " only by a strong poetical license, and its narrow 
 streets, unfinished churches, and massive, prison-like houses, 
 look sombre to a stranger after the artistic symmetry of Milan, 
 and the superb palaces of (lenoa. Each day's sojourn, however, 
 lessens the impression of disajjpointment, until it is not difTicult 
 to emulate the Tuscan enthusiasm for " Firenze la bella." The 
 loveliness of Florence does not consist so much in separate 
 gems as in the exquisite harmony of the whole. If you wish to 
 see it to perfection, 'iw u]jon such a day as Florence owes the 
 sun, and climbing the hill of Dellosguardo, or past the stages oi 
 the Via Crucis to the Church of San Miniato, look forth upon 
 the scene before you. You trace the course of the Arno from 
 the distant mountains on the right, through the heart of the city, 
 winding along the fruitful valley toward Pisa. The city is 
 beneath you, " like a pearl set in emerald." From the midst of il 
 rises Brunelleschi's dome, high above all the minor spires which 
 flash back the noontide rays. Hard by is the beautiful campa- 
 nile lifted by Giotto, " like an unperplexed fine question heaven 
 ward." The hill behind the city is Fiesol6, of which Milton sings : 
 
 " The moon, whose orb 
 Througli optic glass the Tuscan artist views 
 At evening from the top of Fiesolti." 
 
 This is where Milton and Galileo met — neither of them then 
 blind, but both heirs of such darkness as only purges the vision 
 of the inner eye \ patricians of the nobility of Genius, whose 
 meeting was grander than of monarchs on some field of the 
 
 196 
 
FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES. 
 
 Cloth of Gold. On the extreme right, dimly discernible, is the 
 sanctuary of Vallombrosa, hidden in its wealth of beach and pine 
 some twenty miles away. Far to the left is Pistoja, with the 
 pillar of Catiline, and the majestic Appenines close up the view. 
 All colours are in the landscape, and all sounds are in the air. 
 The hills look almost heathery. The sombre olive and funereal 
 cypress blend with the graceful acacia and the clasping vine. 
 The hum of insect and the carol of bird chime with the blithe 
 voices of men, while dome, tower, mountains, the yellow river, 
 the quaint bridges, spires, palaces, gardens, and the cloudless 
 heavens overhanging, make up a panorama on which to gaze in 
 trance of rapture, until the spirit wearies from the exceeding 
 beauty of the vision. 
 
 Florence is said to have sprung out of the ruins of the ancient 
 Fiesol6. It is supposed to have been originally the place where 
 the markets of Fiesol^ were held, the commercial spirit of the 
 age being not slow to perceive that there were fewer facilities 
 for barter on the mountain summit than on the fertile plain. In 
 pursuance of the wise policy of the time, a policy upon which 
 after ages have been unable to improve, it was speedily colo- 
 nized from Rome. The dwellings of the traders gathered other 
 dwellings round them. It was politic to dwell in company, both 
 for accommodation and for defence. By cultivation, also, the 
 earth is cleared from many noxious vapours, the air is purified 
 by the kindling of household fires, and so places formerly 
 unhealthy become fitted for the habitation of men. In the sixth 
 century the new city was destroyed by Totila, King of the 
 Ostrogoths. It remained in ruins for two hundred and fifty 
 years, when it was rebuilt by Charlemagne. From this time it 
 grew in numbers and influence ; not rapidly, because of the 
 
 197 
 
1 1 ;" ' ■ 
 
 ; ;! W^ 
 
 1 
 
 
 i:^ 
 
 ihf 
 
 I'll! 
 
 1 ' r 
 
 ■I al ii 
 
 < \m 
 
 \m 
 
 Ml , . 
 
 FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES. 
 
 oppression of its many rulers. Its history for a long series of 
 years is but a record of the alternate triumphs and misfortunes 
 of Guelph and Ghibelline, Bianchi and Neri, Cerchi and Donati, 
 — foolish partisans, who fretted for supremacy during their little 
 hour, and heeded not that the city languished beneath the 
 sickness of their perpetual distemper while the great world was 
 moving on. As we read these stormy Florentine annals, and 
 remember that those of other nations can furnish parallels, it is 
 humiliating to think how long great nations linger in the 
 swaddling-bands and primers of their childhood. The logic of 
 the fist is a very juvenile branch of study, and is resorted to 
 only until boys and nations become wise enough for the logic 
 of the brain. 
 
 The history of Florence does not need to be followed until, 
 about the middle of the fourteenth century, Cosmo de Medici 
 appeared upon the stage. He was bom on the day of St. 
 Cosmo, in the year 1389. His early years were full of trouble, 
 and the discipline prepared him for the government. He learned 
 in captivity and exile the prudence which gained him a fortune, 
 and which enabled him to wield an influence over a distracted 
 state, admired both by friends and enemies for his consummate 
 skill. He was as generous as he was wealthy, and as moderate 
 as he was powerful. At the head of the state he remembered 
 that he was one of the people ', a mighty ruler, he had sagacity 
 to see that the strength of his power lay in the discretion 
 with which he used it ; and amid a people so given to change 
 as to be proverbs of inconstancy, he held his position until a 
 generation had faded by his side. He encouraged the learned 
 to make Florence their home, for he had that prescient wisdom 
 which foretold by how much the glory of letters transcends and 
 
 198 
 
FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES, 
 
 will survive the glory of war. Some of his sayings are notable, 
 as indicating a sprightly mind, with some portion of the gift ol 
 prophecy. The rebels who had been banished gave him to under- 
 stand that they " were not dreaming." He said he believed it, 
 for he had " robbed them of their sleep." Rinaldo, his great 
 rival, to warn him that he must not consider himself secure, sent 
 him the enigmatical message that " the hen has laid." His only 
 reply was that " she did ill to lay so far from her nest." After 
 his own return from banishment he was told by some citizens 
 that he was injuring the city by driving out of it nobles and 
 monks. His answer was : " It is better to injure a city than to 
 ruin it ; two yards of rose-coloured cloth will make a gentleman, 
 and it requires something more to direct a government than to 
 play with a string of beads." In his later years he suffered much 
 from bodily infirmity, and from apprehension lest the glory 
 would depart from the Florence which he loved so well. As his 
 illness increased he shut his eyes, as he quaintly said " to get 
 them in the way of it ;" and so died in the zenith of his power, 
 leaving a name honoured by princes and people, and justifying 
 the proud title of the " Father of his Country," which the city 
 inscribed upon his grave. He was no vulgar or sordid miser oi 
 authority, but stands out amid Florentine history a " bright par- 
 ticular star," to trace whose orbit it is worth while to sweep the 
 heavens. He showed how, amidst perpetual tumult, there can 
 be empire in one commanding mind, and was the founder ot 
 that wondrous family of the Medici, who were the good or evil 
 angels of their city through so many stormful years. 
 
 The state of Florence, during the long years in which the 
 Medici governed her, was in the main peaceful and prosperous. 
 There were many conspiracies, of course, and the rulers were 
 
 199 
 
.;i 
 
 FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES, 
 
 not equally competent, but Florence became a power in Italy 
 under their ambitious rule. Their memorials are seen every- 
 where ; in the palaces where they dwelt ; in the magnificent 
 galleries which they founded and enriched ; in the Mausoleum 
 which contains their dust, and sets forth their virtues as with a 
 marble tongue. Arrogant, indeed, is the conception of this 
 splendid sepulchre. The walls are covered with the richest 
 Florcntme mosaic, the roof of the dome is embellished with 
 frescoes, and the shrines profusely ornamented with precious 
 stones. Here are the urns and cenotaphs of six successive 
 Grand Dukes, whose ashes are in the crypt below. Nowhere 
 in the world can be seen such pomp of marble piled upon the 
 grave. These Grand Dukes were inferior, both in address and 
 excellence, to the citizen princes of the earlier time, of whom 
 alone we think when we speak of the greatness of the Medici. 
 Cosmo il Vecchio, of whom I have already spoken, and his 
 grandson, Lorenzo the Magnificent, assume proportions of 
 grandeur which dwarf their lesser kindred. 
 
 Of the character of Lorenzo de Medici it is not easy to speak, 
 so conflicting is the evidence upon which any opmion must 
 rest. His detractors are loud in their censure, his admirers 
 indiscriminate in their praise. An air of romance attaches to 
 him and his doings, through whose brilliant cloud one can 
 hardly see him as he is. Judged by the light of his age, he 
 must have been one of the Anakim, alike in the faults which 
 were charged upon him and in the qualities which add lustre 
 to his name. Born to a noble destiny, he leaped forth to meet 
 it, as a war-horse scenteth the battle. Called to power while 
 yet unripe to wield it, he gathered wisdom from the ready brain, 
 and hope out of the boy's heart, and by his prudent enthu- 
 
 200 
 
FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES. 
 
 slasm became the man for thj hour. Cautious as the most 
 practised diplomatist, he had the reckless valour of the most 
 daring soldier. Crafty in his policy, he was yet steady in his 
 friendships, and generous, even to prodigality, with his wealth. 
 Flung upon a rude, iron age, and forced to be a man of war, 
 he was a munificent patron of letters, revelled in each golden 
 legend or occult discovery, and peopled his city with the learned 
 until it became the Etruscan Athens, no unworthy rival of the 
 " city of the violet crown." Intent upon the aggrandizement of 
 his family, and dreaded for his overshadowing authority, he 
 made Florence a city of palaces, her neighbourhood a garden 
 of delight, so that he seemed to rise only with the rise of the 
 commonwealth, and was at once trusted by the citizens and 
 the friend and counsellor of princes of ancient blood. With 
 consummate address he rescued himself from the jaws of a 
 conspiracy which had assassinated his brother, and won over, by 
 his eloquence, the whole city to his side. With like address he 
 concluded peace with the King of Naples, cajoled the Pope, 
 courted the clergy, strengthened himself by alliances among the 
 nobles, obtained diplomatic relations with other states, and had 
 a son in the Roman Conclave, a Cardinal of Holy Church, not 
 yet fourteen years old. His public policy was equally sagacious. 
 Now he endowed a monastery, now he built and garrisoned 
 a fortress. Now he startled the city by ostentatious conviviality, 
 now he caused it to wonder by ostentatious devotion. He 
 mingled freely with the people, but he kept train-bands in 
 his pay and at his bidding. To-day he opens a University, 
 to-morrow he will preside at a magnificent banquet. He held 
 ou vardly to the Church, but was an ardent patron oi the 
 philosophy which threatened to uproot it, and commemorated 
 
 201 
 
1 1 1 m 
 
 FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES. 
 
 All Saints' Day by a festival in honour of Plato, when that 
 " Attic Moses" furnished at once liturgy and gospel, and received 
 intellectual homage which was little short of idolatry. In counsel 
 he was acute, and in execution prompt and resolute. He 
 delighted equally in the play of wit and the play of children, 
 and, indeed, seems to have had that union of the stronger and 
 lighter qualities which are necessary to the full-orbed character 
 of a man. His incessant anxieties told too early upon his 
 constitution, and, like a sword so keen that it cuts through its 
 scabbard, the fire of his soul consumed the tabernacle in which 
 it was ordained to burn. In his 44th year, when the preposses- 
 sions of youth are commonly over and the infirmities of age 
 are yet afar, when the speed of the spirit is not that of the 
 breathless, when the eye can look calmly forward, nor be 
 dazzled by a broad sweep of vision —he was called to sicken 
 and to die. Leaving Florence for his country-seat at Careggi, 
 he wasted through some months of suffering, " now comparing 
 himself to Lot in Sodom, and again to Orpheus leaving his 
 Eurydice in hell," borne down somewhat by the ingratitude of 
 the people, burdened somewhat by the memory of sin, and 
 giving vent to his feelings sometimes in plaintive song— as in 
 the following stanzas, in which he breathes out his soul's 
 wistful desire. 
 
 " Go, devout soul, enjoy that sacred fire 
 Which plenteous mercies in the heart inspire ; 
 Whither the shepherd bids thee haste away, 
 Hie thee submissive, and his voice obey. 
 
 "Or, if awhile thou weepest, and with sighs 
 Art scattering seed upon a barren soil, 
 Cherish thy holy madness, it shall rise 
 In fruit eternal to repay thy toil. 
 
 202 
 
FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES. 
 
 " The people have devised vain things, but thou 
 Sit still ; to Jesus hearken ; let them say 
 What lists them ; harmless is the tumult now- 
 At home, in Bethany, thy refuge, stay." 
 
 As his illness increased, his physicians administered pearls in 
 solution, and mixtures of amalgamated jewels, as if to conciliate 
 that grim warder who is, after all, inaccessible tT bribes. He 
 received the viaticum with all humility on the 8th April, 1492, 
 confessed to Savonarola, whom he especially desired to attend 
 him, and shortly afterwards passed away. Many affirmed that 
 there were portentous omehs about the time of his dying, and 
 that the highest pinnacle of the cathedral was struck with 
 lightning, as if in token of disasters that were to follow. Shrewd 
 observers regarded him as the only man who could moderate 
 the distractions of Italy. He was said to be like the isthmus 
 which connects the Peloponnesus with the rest of Greece, and 
 prevents the waves of the -^gean and Ionian seas from battling 
 in perpetual storm. Being midway in position, and having both 
 a reputation for prudence and an arm of power, he was as the 
 breakwater between the pride of the King of Naples and the 
 ambition of the Duke of Milan, upon which the rival billows 
 broke, indignant but harmless as the spray. When he died all 
 Italy grieved, as though smitten by a common trouble ; while 
 Florence wept over him with a genuine sorrow, and, despite the 
 faults of his person and of his family, glories in his memory 
 still. 
 
 There is not a picture nor a statue in Florence, of any 
 repulation, about which the reading public of the world is not 
 sunkienlly informed. It would be impertinent, therefore, and 
 an endless task withal, to lead you through the rich galleries ot 
 
 203 
 
'V, : ;i 
 
 M-! 
 
 FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES. 
 
 the Uffizi and Pitti palaces. The latter, which is now the palace 
 of the King, owes its erection to Luca Pitti, a wealthy Floren- 
 tine, and a great opponent of the Medici family. The Palazzo 
 Strozzi was formerly the largest and richest in Florence. " [ 
 will build a palace," said Pitti, " large enough to hold the 
 Strozzi in its courtyard." Before its completion, however, he 
 had fallen from his high estate, and it was finished by other 
 hands. Inferior in extent to the galleries of the Vatican 
 and the Louvre, those in Florence are probably the richest in 
 the world. " Here," to quote from one who has entranced 
 thcasands by his eloquent words, "in their beautiful and calm 
 retreats, the ancient sculptors are immortal ; those illustrious 
 men of history beside whom its crowned heads and harnessed 
 warriors shew so poor and small, and are so soon forgotten. 
 Here the imperishable past of noble minds survives, placid and 
 equal, when strongholds of assault and defence are overthrown, 
 when the tyranny of the many, or the few, or both, is but a tale; 
 when pride and power are so much cloistered dust." 
 
 There is one picture in the Pitti gallery which ought surely 
 to be in English hands. It is an authentic portrait, painted by 
 Sir Peter Lely, of Oliver Cromwell. It is said that the sturdy 
 old Roundhead, heedless for the moment of that Puritan humour 
 which objected to the imposition of hands, shook the artist 
 roughly by the shoulder, and threatened him with severe 
 displeasure if he dared to make the portrait one whit handsomer 
 than the man. And . .ere it is — the stern, rough face, with a 
 v/orld of energy latent in the mouth, and gleaming from the 
 deep-set eyes ; with every blotch and wart upon the counte- 
 nance which Nature, or hard usage, or scrofula, or excess, had 
 placed there ; a face which requires the jack-boots and the buti 
 
 204 
 
FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES. 
 
 jerkin ; which seems as if it would be more at home at Naseby 
 than in St. James' ; and yet a face with such d^poiuer in it, that 
 throu"-h seam and scar you can almost see the lordly soul it 
 shrined. It was a present from the Protector to the Grand 
 Duke of Tuscany, and as such things are not now, it is a pity 
 that it should not lend its inspiration to the land which the 
 Kino' uncrowned did so much to uplift and to save. 
 
 On the way from the Arno to the Pitti palace, as the observant 
 eye glances right and left with that eager rest'.^ssness which 
 possesses one in a strange city, if the heart underneath the eye 
 be susceptible, it will perhaps begin to beat quickly, as mine 
 did, smitten by a sweet surprise. The cause of this emotion 
 was a small square slab, inserted just above the door of a 
 decent-looking house in a narrow street, bearing an Italian 
 inscription, which, being translated, reads thus : "Here wrote and 
 died Elizabeth Barrett Browning., who, to the heart of a woman 
 joined the science of a scholar and the spirit of a poet, and 
 who made with her golden verse a nuptial ring between Italy 
 and England. Grateful Florence places this memorial." I could 
 not help wondering how long it would be before similar tributes 
 appealed to us from our walls at home. In the nineteenth 
 century we are but beginning to learn that the pen is mightier than 
 the sword, and that those who strike the harp of life, and sing 
 to us its many toned music, leave worthier memories than those 
 who spill its heart out on the stained sward of some field of 
 blood. All honour to Florence for her appreciation and her 
 gratitude, and all honour, too, to the great, true woman who 
 wept over Cowper's grave, from whose wrung spirit wailed forth 
 the " Cry of the Children," and who burned into the national 
 soul the lessons of Aurora Leigh. 
 
 205 
 
FI.OKEiyCE AXn Tine Fl.ORP:XT/I\'/es. 
 
 m 
 
 Among the cliiirilics of Florcnrc there arc (wo wliidi arc 
 noticeable; one because it verges on (he ridicnious opf 
 because it approaches the subhnie. (Mose under the shadow of 
 the church of San Lorenzo there is a inii(|ue asyhnn, ciulowcil 
 in ]>erpetuity under the will of some spinster of the fornior lime 
 It is an asylum f«)r cats. Mere foundling cats are (;ikcii, aiui 
 distressed ones sheltered. Suiiernumerary cats arc saved from 
 (he Arno ; all proper cat courtship is jiromoted within loiison 
 able limits ; and aspiring cats, anxious to go out into the woilij, 
 are provided with suitable situations, in which, as the advertise 
 ments say, "salary is not so much an object as a conifotlahlc 
 l\ome." Oh, ]->oor human nature! If, sometimes, from our 
 weaknesses our strongest princii)les of action are born, as the 
 oak from the tran.pled acorn, how often arc our best instinds 
 warped to folly, and our virtues, by their own devi()us ciKM:;y, 
 become objects of derision. 
 
 Turn we from this eccentricity of benevolence to look alone 
 of the noblest charities o\' lunope. Driving through the Vhm 
 of the Duomo, 1 was met by what seemed to l)e a fiinml 
 procession. The colVm was borne on the shovdders of men, and 
 they who bore and they who followed were dressed in long 
 monastic robes of black, with crap.e hoods, masks concealing 
 the face, into which holes were cut for the eyes and nioulh, 
 This was the " Compagna della Misericordia," which has exist- 
 ed in Florence for upwards of six hundred years. It is .said to 
 have had a moral origin, for it was eslabli.shed from a fund 
 created bylines lor profane swearing, imposed upon themselves 
 by the porters in the cloth manufactories of the city. Gradually 
 it assumed vaster proportions, until it grew into a corporation ol 
 bouoiu', and the most distinguished citizens wore proud to enrol 
 
 206 
 
 '■ M 
 
'7NICS. 
 
 FI.ORENCE AND THE FJ.ORENTINES. 
 
 ' (wo wliidi lire 
 ridiciiloiis -one 
 cr the shadow nf 
 isyhim, nulnwoi 
 " the former lime, 
 T arc taken, anil 
 s arc saved fidiii 
 xl willuM reason 
 lit into the world, 
 , as the advertise- 
 as a comfoUalilo 
 ctimcs, IVoni our 
 arc born, as tlic 
 our best insliiKts 
 n devious energy, 
 
 ice to look al one 
 
 irough tlic Piazza 
 to be a funeral 
 
 Ulcrs of men, and 
 dressed in long 
 
 masks concealing 
 eyes and niuutli, 
 " which has exist- 
 ars. It is said to 
 icd from a fund 
 upon themselves 
 e city. Gradiuilly 
 o a corporation ot 
 ere proud to enrol 
 
 themselves in its band. f'he city is divided into distrif ts, and 
 the members, of whom there are some luindrcds, are t(dd (;ff for 
 daily duty with all the dis(:i|)line of military rule. 'I'licir office 
 is to carry the sick to hospital, Uie wounded to srjrne place of 
 refngc, and the dead to burial. One of the bells in the Cam- 
 nanile is called the '* Misericordia." It is tolled when their 
 services arc needed, and at the summons of that bell, whether 
 it be heard at sunrise or on Sabbath ; whether it strike upon the 
 silence of midnight, or boom Sfdemnly through the hall of 
 banquet, each member of the brotherhood is bounfl, forsaking 
 all other engagement, to obey its bidding. It is rif;t an ecclesi- 
 astical fraternity, notwithstanding its hideous dress, 'f'he Flor- 
 entines raise the hat, and the military j)resenl arms, when the 
 "Miscricordia" passes, and the (irand Duke himself, in the days 
 when there was such a personage, has been known to leave his 
 guests at the bancpiet, and take his turn, perhaps with the 
 humblest, as a helper in this work of mercy. What an illustra- 
 tion at once of the sweetness and of the immortality of charity 1 
 Through all change of dynasty, amid the rise and ffill of nobles, 
 while the sky has been dark with troubles and the streets have 
 been dishonoured with blood, while the tem[jc.st has uprooted 
 governments which seemed so stable, and the fortunes of the 
 city have been alternately on the crest and in the trough of the 
 waves, this institution has survived — like a pharos in a stormy 
 sea, flinging its white light across the waters, though the waves 
 howled about it in fury, and the "broad shoulders of the hurri- 
 cane" pressed heavily against its solid form. Oh, it is beauti- 
 ful to think that wherever Christianity has gone, even in partial 
 ' or corrupt manifestation, this human charity, a stranger from 
 some other world, has found for itself a mission and a home. 
 
 207 
 
FLORENCE AND TJIE FLORENTINES. 
 
 Who shall despair of a world, however fallen, when " one touch 
 of sorrow can make all men kin." We may not suljstitiui; 
 charity for godliness, but there is room for the Divine love in 
 the heart which has been touched by the human ; and there is 
 more than poetry in that exquisite Arabic parable which Leigh 
 Hunt has crystallized into verse : 
 
 1 1 ' 
 
 " Abou lien Adhcm, may his tribe increase ! 
 Awoke one night from a deej) dream of peace, 
 And saw, witiiin the moonlight in his room — 
 Maldng it rich, and like a lily in full bloom — 
 An angel writing in a book of gold. 
 Exceeding peace had made l>en Adhem bold, 
 And to the presence in the room he said, 
 " What wrilcst thou? " The vision raised its head, 
 And, with a look made all of sweet accord, 
 Answered : "The names of those who love the I-ord," 
 "And is mine one?" said Abou. " Nay, not so," 
 Replied the angel. Abou spake more low, 
 But cheerly still, and said, " I pray thee, then, 
 Write me as one who loves his fellow-men." 
 The angel wrote and vanished. The next niglit 
 It came again, with a great wakening light. 
 And showed the names whom love of God had blest, 
 And lo ! Ben Adhem 's nanie led all the rest." 
 
 One of the sacred snots which no stranger in Florence should 
 omit to visit is the Church of Santa Croce, where are grouped 
 the cenotaphs of the illustrious dead. In this " temple of silence 
 and reconciliation," the Westminster Abbey of Florence, lie 
 or are commemorated some of the greatest names in the history 
 of the fair city. Alfieri, the sweet poet, Lanzi, the historian of 
 the arts, Raphael Morghen, the engraver, Aretino, the illus- 
 
 208 
 
FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES, 
 
 trious scholar, live in company on the walls of this hallowed 
 
 shrine. Here also is the monument of Galileo, sturdy Protestant 
 
 of the pre-Protestant ages, whose "yet it moves," uttered in the 
 
 moment of enforced recantation, startled the conclave who had 
 
 condemned him, like thunder out of a clear sky. Boccaccio has 
 
 his tablet here, whose " Decameron " is among the classics of 
 
 Italy. Here also, by the efforts of an English nobleman, is 
 
 perpetuated the memory of Niccolo Machiavelli, who has had 
 
 charged upon him, as the tempter, political crimes without 
 
 number, — Niccolo Machiavelli, " out of whose surname," says 
 
 Macaulay, " we have coined an epithet for a knave, and out of 
 
 his Christian name a synonyme for the devil." Here also, 
 
 mourned by the three sister arts — Architecture, Sculpture, and 
 
 Painting — is the tomb of Michael Angelo, the site said to have 
 
 been chosen by himself, that when the doors of the church were 
 
 open it might be in sight of the cupola of the cathedral. Here 
 
 also the remorseful gratitude of Florence, swelling like the tide 
 
 about a stranded wreck, too late, has given to the memory of 
 
 Dante a monument, something less than a grave. There is an 
 
 inspiBfttion and a solemnity as you tread the marble pavement 
 
 beneath, while, all unheeding of the feet which tramp above 
 
 them, these great hearts lie still. But Italy has gazed into these 
 
 graves somewhat too long. Her prophets have ceased out of the 
 
 land ; it is some four hundred years since the last bright-browed 
 
 one vanished. Is it therefore that she has ceased to pray ? Is she 
 
 so enamoured of her sires' memory that she has no heart to 
 
 imitate their example ? She, whose citizens so often clave their 
 
 way to freedom, will she ever be content again to be " no nation, 
 
 but the poet's pensioner, with alms from every land of song and 
 
 fiream ?" These men of cunning brain and stalwart arm, foster- 
 
 N 
 
 209 
 
M 
 
 FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES, 
 
 gods of her glorious former times, can their successors ever be 
 serfs, or men degenerate and lazy? 
 
 *' Oil-eaters, w'th large, live, mobile mouths 
 Agape for maccaroni. " 
 
 Oh ! it were to desecrate the sepulchre only to wail upon its mar- 
 ble. We dishonour the dead when we entomb our manhood 
 with theirs. They loom, large and solemn, upon the sky, not to 
 dwarf our stature, but to show us to what bigness we may grow. 
 Confessors witness that the holy seed may follow. It is for the 
 birth of heroes that the martyrs bled, and that the conqucriiK 
 human angel standeth in the sun. Thermopyl?e were a rash 
 impertmence if Sparta be not free. He who swears by Marathon 
 must fight for Athens, if the leaguers threaten or the Medcs 
 surround. The dead but oped the door through which the living 
 were to pass to valorous deed, to enterprise, to victory. If we 
 ourselves would not shame an ancestry that is honoured, we 
 shall haste forward with their memory to speed us on, that so, 
 when we have borne our age yet nearer to the paradise it panteth 
 for, our children may strew violets on our sepulchres, and evoke 
 from us, as we from our fathers, the inspiration of the immortal 
 dead. 
 
 Modern Florence is not backward in her recognition ot the 
 memory of Dante, and this is a name so illustrious that we may 
 not pass it hastily by. In the narrow Via Ricciarda, a marble 
 slab over a modern Gothic door tells you, " In this house was 
 Alighieri born, the Divine poet." In the cathedral is his portrait, 
 placed there by decree of the Republic in 1465. In the Palazzo 
 del Podesta, which has an ancient chapel of its own, there is a 
 fresco by Giotto, which with Vandal barbarism was covered with 
 
 210 
 
 ;-' 
 
 ■ )^( ,'iii ■ I. i ' 
 
XES. 
 
 FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES. 
 
 cessors ever be 
 
 iis 
 
 III upon its mar- 
 ) our manhood 
 I the sky, not to 
 jS we may grow. 
 \\\ It is for the 
 the conquerinjj 
 ylre were a rash 
 ars by Marathon 
 1 or the Medes 
 which the living 
 I victory. If we 
 is honoured, we 
 d us on, that so, 
 iradise it panteth 
 chres, and evoke 
 of the immortal 
 
 cognition ot the 
 ious that we may 
 ciarda, a marble 
 n this house was 
 al is his portrait, 
 In the Palazzo 
 s own, there is a 
 was covered with 
 
 whitewash, nearly two inches thick, and with equally Vandal 
 indifference was so suftered to remain for years, until English 
 and American liberality subscribed to reveal it. On the south 
 side of the Piazza del Duomo, a slab let into the pavement is 
 inscribed, " Sasso di Dante," where he was wont 
 
 " to bring his quiet chair out, turned 
 To Brunclleschi's church, and pour, alone, 
 The lava uf his spirit when it burned, 
 While some enamoured passer used to wai 
 A moment in the golden day's decline, 
 With ' Good night, dearest Dante,' " 
 
 And in the centre of the Piazza of Santa Croce, on the 12th ol 
 May, 1865, six hundred years after his birth, and on the spot 
 where, just before he came into the world, the Florentine republic 
 was proclaimed, his statue was uncovered amid flaunting of 
 banners, and salvoes of cannon, and invas of an enthusiastic 
 people, by the king of a free Italian kingdom, holding his court 
 in the Florence which the passionate exile loved so long and so 
 well. At the time the poet-politician was bom, Florence had 
 become a considerable city. There were 100,000 inhabitants 
 within its walls. Few cities exerted so imperial a command, and 
 but for the intestine strifes which distracted it, it might have 
 climbed to well nigh unapproachable renown. There was much 
 in the aspect of affairs, in a past of tradition and legend, in a 
 present of tumult and hope, to fire a youthful imagination with 
 patriotism and valour, "With the romantic love, all free from 
 passion, which filled him for the Beatrice of his dream and 
 song, he had no room for meaner attachments, and the young 
 Guelph partisan rode in the fore front of the battle, and was a 
 tiusted counsellor when victory had purchased peace. So great 
 
 211 
 
FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES, 
 
 I "! i : 
 
 
 was his reputation for wisdom, even in early life, that he was 
 nominated to many foreign embassies, and indeed it was during 
 his absence on one of these that the wheel of fortune turned liis 
 adversaries uppermost, and he was summoned to aj)pear before 
 the podesta within forty days, and pay a fine of 8,000 livres. The 
 charge against liim was that he had resisted tlie pacific mission 
 of the French prince, to which was added an unworthy innuendo 
 that he had misused the public money. We can fancy the high 
 souled scorn with which he would treat an accusation like this. 
 Failing to appear at the summons he was declared a rebel, and 
 banished from the city for ever. Then began those long and 
 regretful wanderings which ended only with his life, and which 
 caused him to lament over the bitterness of the bread which is 
 eaten at the table of a foreigner, and the weariness of the feet 
 which travel up a patron's stairs. The celebrated Can Francosca 
 received him at his court and paid him honour: but the iron 
 had entered into his soul. It was the fashion to have l)uffoons 
 and jesters in the prince's pay, and the more license and auda- 
 city they exhibited, th'^ greater was the courtier's relish for their 
 company. The Duke .id to Dante, "I wonder that these 
 buffoons, who are so grossly ignorant, should i)leasc us and be 
 so much beloved, while you, who are reputed to be so learned, 
 fail to win our love." The reply was bitter and bold : " Your 
 grace would not wonder if you consider that friendship is always 
 based upon similarity of disposition." After some years an offer 
 of recall was made, but on degrading conditions which Dante 
 indignantly refused, and after the failure of a negotiation on 
 behalf of Ravenna with the Council of Venice, his mortification 
 induced an illness of which he died, in the fifty-seventh year of 
 his age. There were many considerations which hindered the 
 
 212 
 
 
that he was 
 t was duriiif^ 
 10 turned his 
 ppcar bcforo 
 D hvrcs. The 
 uilic mission 
 thy innuendo 
 ancy the hiyh 
 tion hkc Uiis. 
 d a rebel, and 
 lose h)ng and 
 ifc, and which 
 bread which is 
 ;ss of the foot 
 Can Franresca 
 -. but the iron 
 have l)ulToons 
 LMise and auda- 
 rehsh for their 
 idcr that these 
 Msc us and he 
 be so learned, 
 bold: "Your 
 dship is always 
 e years an offer 
 ns which Dante 
 negotiation on 
 lis mortification 
 .scvcnlh year of 
 ch hindered the 
 
 1 
 
 FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES. 
 
 early popularity of his works. Men rouhl hardly read j)oetry 
 while its most tragic scenes were being enacted around them. 
 The poet had mingled too sternly in the strifes of the day to be 
 favourably judged by all. Ih'gots hated his writings because, 
 though an orthodox son of the Church, he was not insensible to 
 her errors. I f e denounced the sale of parcU^ns and indulgences, 
 and was an immislakeable foe to the tem[)oraI power of the 
 I'ope. It sounds like an utterance of the after ages when he 
 represents the Church as one which, 
 
 *' Mixing two governments thai ill assort, 
 Il.'itli lost her fooling, fallen into the mire, 
 And there lierself and burden much defiled." 
 
 Moreover, it commonly requires a century to create a classic. 
 But Dante, in spite of all hindrances, gradually climbed to the 
 throne. Professorships were established in the Universities of 
 Italy to expound the " Divina Commedia." The people, who 
 rarely err on questions of standard reputation, when the matter 
 submitted to them is one which they understand and teel, 
 delivered their verdict of approval. The vernacular of modern 
 Italian was henceforth as Dante had written it ; and Italy rose, 
 sad with the remorse of ages, and crowned him as the bard c f 
 truth and of religion — the teacher, perhaps the prophet, of 
 his country's freedom. Political error ! Misuse of funds out o" 
 the Treasury ! He scorned to answer these charges, but what 
 dust of their defdemcnt settles upon Dante now? The ages 
 have been empannclled as the jurors, and time has pronounced 
 him free from sordid stain. .Since his death the neglect and exile 
 of his life have been mourned and atoned. If a man do the 
 right, and can learn the secret of grandly waiting, he shall have 
 
 213 
 
 Bm 
 
 W 
 
FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES, 
 
 a world to witness his acquittal or his triumph by and by. Not 
 only did powers, civil and ecclesiastical, gather to do honour to 
 the man whom both had formerly decried, but the memory ol 
 Dante had an ampler atonement still. On the day when the 
 first charter (afterwards shamelessly withdrawn) was given by the 
 Grand Duke Leopold, the people, bright with such new hope as 
 can kindle only in the eyes of freemen, gathered by thousands 
 to welcome the charter of their liberty. But where was their 
 trysting-place ? Not on the broad Cacine, dedicate to fashion 
 and pleasure. Not in front of the palace, laden with recollec- 
 tions of many an illegitimate Caisar. Not by the Loggia, where 
 stand superb the masterpieces of stone. None of these were 
 sacred enough for the solemnity of such an occasion. 
 
 *' Not there ! The people chose still holier ground ; 
 The people, who arc simple, blind and rough, 
 Know their own angels, after looking round. " 
 
 They met by Dante's stone. The earliest charter of the modern 
 liberties of Tuscany dated from the seat of Tuscany's most 
 illustrious exile as if, on that spot, hallowed alike by the memo- 
 ries of his rapture and of his banishment, it was meet that they 
 should shake hands with Freedom. 
 
 Turn we to another shrine. In the Via Ghibellina is the 
 Palazzo Buonarotte, the house, the veritable home, of Michael 
 Angelo. It has been preserved inviolate, and much of the 
 furniture is as it was in the artist's time. Here, in a snug little 
 closet, are the table at which he used to write, his inkstand, his 
 sandals, the sword which he took on his journeys, the crutch 
 handled walking-stick which he daily used, notched with strong 
 iron ferules, to prevent his falling on the slippery pavement; 
 
 214 
 
FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES. 
 
 many of his original drawings ; the mo(k'l for his " David ;" his 
 sketch for his greatest work, "The 1-ast Judgment;'' his aulo- 
 yrai)h correspondence with Vittoria Colonna ; an early sculp- 
 ture chiselled before he was sixteen ; the bronze bust of him, by 
 John of Bologna, his favourite pupil, which is considered the 
 most faithful likeness, and which shows the broken nose which 
 'I'orrigiani's jealousy gave him ; — all are here, and you can enter 
 into almost palj>able communion with the i)rou(l, grand old man, 
 whom one of his biographers describes as "unique in j)ainting, 
 unparalleled in sculpture, a perfect architect, an admirable poet, 
 and a divine lover." He was born at the castle of Caprese, in 
 Tuscany, of a good family, and his father was greatly chagrined 
 at his son's attachment to art, for no amount of argument could 
 teach him the difference between a sculptor and a stone-mason. 
 The astrologers had cast the nativity of the young Buonarotti, 
 and had predicted for him great distinction, because at the hour 
 of his birth the conjunction of Mercury and Venus took place, 
 and they were received into the house of Jupiter with benign 
 aspect. After this starry prophecy his father could not brook 
 the idea of his following a pursuit which he deemed fitted only 
 for the lowly born. Genius, however, is not always to be 
 restrained, even by parental authority, so the youth won his 
 father's reluctant consent that he should be placed in the studio 
 of Cjhirlandajo, that sculpture and painting might contend for 
 the mastery. Here he devoted himself to art with an assiduity 
 which soon led hnii to distance all competitors, and was even 
 bold enough to correct his master's errors. A tall dignified 
 stranger one day entered, and scrutinizing the works of the 
 students, i)aused before the easel of Michael Angelo. " By 
 your leave," said he to the master, " 1 select this vouth for the 
 
 •*L..i , 
 
FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES, 
 
 garden of St. Mark. Will it accord with his views ? " " Ay ' 
 was the significant reply, " think ye the eagle does not ken his 
 eyrie ?" When the stranger left, J3u onarotti asked of those near 
 him who the noble was. ** Do you not know ? " they asked, in 
 astonishment, " it was the Duke, Lorenzo di Medici." " 1 was 
 not aware," the proud youth replied, " but henceforward wc 
 shall know each other." The death of Lorenzo, after three 
 years of friendship, affected the artist so much that he retired to 
 Caprese, brooding over his loss until he became misanthropical, 
 but was softened at length by the tender preachings of nature. 
 and by the wise natiencc cf lUe healer, time. Pictro di Mcdi<i, 
 Lorenzo's unworthy son and successor, was one of those feeble 
 princelings whose rank is so much larger than themselves that 
 their small souls crouch behind it. Though his taste was 
 corrupt and his manners overbearing, he had just wit enough 
 to know that a great artist would be an acquisition to his court. 
 Hence he invited Michael to return, and lodged him in the 
 same apartments which he had occupied in the time of dv^ 
 Magnificent. His estimate of his guest, however, may he 
 gathered from his recorded boast : " I have two extraordinary 
 persons in my house ; the one a Spanish running footman, who 
 is so Vapid on foot, and so long breathed, that I cannot get 
 before him when riding at full speed ; and the other is — Michael 
 Angelo." It was in this character of patron, and perhaps to 
 humble the genius which was getting somewhat too manly for 
 the palace serfdom, that on a winter's day, in the Via Larga, he 
 bade him carve a statue in the snow, and as he watched the 
 mighty worker at his toil, laughed his paltry laughter from the 
 palace window. For three days the statue was the admiration 
 of Florence, so grand and sharp were the proportions ; on the 
 
 216 
 
 ii^: 
 
FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES, 
 
 fourth, the returning sun left nothing of it hut a mennory. It is 
 not easy to divine the motives whicli bowed the artist-soul to 
 consent to the humiliation. Perhaps the memory of the dead 
 father threw a present halo round the meaner son. Perhaps he 
 was conscious of power, and would impress upon the Floren- 
 tines tliat genius is not dependent upon the fittest materials to 
 create its forms of beauty. Perhaps he flung an eagle gaze into 
 the future, and " read a wrong into a i)rophecy." You can 
 fancy the world of scorn which would gleam through the honest 
 eye, just lifted from its perishing labour to shoot a glance into 
 the balcony where the Prince watched the people's enthusiasm. 
 
 "I think thy soul said then, I do not need 
 
 A princedom and its quarries, after all, 
 For if f write, paint, carve a word indeed, 
 
 On book or board or dust, on floor or wall, 
 The same is kept of God, who takcth lieed 
 
 That not a letter of the meaning fall. 
 Or ere it touch and teach the world's deep heart ; 
 
 Outlasting therefore all your lordsliips, sir ! 
 So keep your stone, beseech you, for your part 
 
 To cover up your grave-place, and refer 
 Tiic projicr titles. I live by my Art ! 
 
 The thought I threw into this snow shall stir 
 This ga/iiig pco|)lc when their gaze is done ; 
 
 And the tradition of your act and mine, 
 When all the snow is melted in the sun. 
 
 Shall gather uu, for unborn men, a sign 
 Of what is the true princedoTi ; ay, and none 
 
 Shall laugh that day, except the drunk with wine." 
 
 There was a school of virtuosi in Florence who were never 
 weary of decrying contemporary merit. To their sagacious 
 criticism it was needful that a work should have the rust of 
 
 217 
 
FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES. 
 
 years upon it before they would allow it to have any excellence 
 at all. Michael Angelo taught these gentlemen a practical 
 lesson. He made a statue of a Slee[)ing Cui)id, which he 
 stained to represent it as anticjue, and, having cut off an arm he 
 procured its burial in a vineyard, and its discovery in due 
 course ; and, when all the works of modern artists were pro 
 nounced to be trash in the comparison, he ([uietly produccdihe 
 arm, and covered the critics with confusion. Returning to 
 Flore ^e after a brief sojourn in Rome, he had to contend with 
 i^eonardo da Vinci for the sculptor's palm. The contest was 
 on this wise. There was a huge block of marble, which had 
 been embossed by Simon da Fiesolci for the statue of a giant, 
 but he had failed in his attempt, and the marble had lain 
 neglected for years. Leonardo was asked to finish it, but he 
 declared it to be impossible without additional material, because 
 it had been irreparably injured. Michael Angelo took hold oi 
 the marble, thus marred in the hands of the designer, and at 
 his bidding it grew into a colossal statue of David, with a Hice 
 of perpetual youth, and the firm, lithe limbs ofthe athletic shep- 
 herd boy. Not only did he require no additional marble, but 
 it is said that he left some of his predecessor's work untouched, 
 so that it was a common Florentine saying, that Michc^l Angelo 
 had raised the dead. Soderini, the chief magistrate, who deemed 
 himself bound, in his official capacity, to patronize art, and who, 
 perhaps, imagined that criticism is at once the most enlightened 
 and the most condescending form of patronage, said, as he 
 looked at the statue, " The nose is too large." The artist 
 mounted the scaffold with a chisel in one hand and a litde 
 marble dust in the other, and pretended to work upon the face, 
 letting the dust fall as if he were. Shortly he turned sbout 
 
 218 
 
FLORENCE AND THE FL0REN7 /\ES, 
 
 " How is it now ? " "Excellent," was the rc[)ly, "you have 
 civen it life." The critic was not undeceived, and Michael 
 Aniiclo, with proverbial self-confidence, said that Soderini's was 
 as good as most criticism. 
 
 On the accession of Julius II. to the Papal Chair, Michael 
 was invited to Rome, and received a commission, unlimited as 
 to expense, to decorate a mausoleum, so gorgeous that it should 
 hand down patron and artist to posterity. 'I'hc design was 
 approved, and the Pope ordered San (iallo, the architect, to 
 devise the best means for placing the work in St. Peter's. San 
 Gallo, struck with the grandeur of the design, represented to 
 His Holiness that such a monument recjuired a chapel that was 
 worthy of it, at the same time suggesting that St. Peter's was an 
 old church, and that any alteration would mar the unity of the 
 building. The Pope listened and pondered, until the purpose 
 arose in his mind to rebuild St. Peter's itself; and this was the 
 origin of that wonderful edifice, which grew slow and stately 
 for a hundred and fifty years. What great events from tiniest 
 causes spring ! What remote and subtle analogies nin through 
 life, like a silent spring through its bed of rock and sand ! It 
 would startle you to be told that Michael Angelo began the 
 Reformation ; but mark the unbroken chain of causes, and 
 explain them as you may. The great sculptor designs a monu- 
 ment. The monument demands a worthy shrine. The exist- 
 ing buildings are all too poor, so that a new one must be built 
 on purpose. Money is required to finish the building and to 
 replenish the exhausted treasury. Indulgences are sold to raise 
 the money. Tetzel the friar, licensed hawkei in this sorry 
 trade, travels into Saxony to sell them. Martin Luther is 
 startled, protests, searches, is converted, becomes a witness, 
 
 219 
 
Fi ()KiX('h: Axn thf rioRFxrmr.s. 
 
 \'' I 
 
 mil. 
 I'l, 
 Mild, 
 
 giixls himsoir for {\\c bnlllo, sIimKcs tlio woiM. And so Mi. l,,,] 
 Anj;rlo Im'j'.-iii [\\c Krlonn;)li<'H. 
 
 l'pt>p (I\r I.Uoi- yr;i!s n( this ^',i(\i( \\\;\\\ \V(^ tniiy ikiI |ni),,, 
 dwell. His i>;iii\(in(;s in the SislimM '|\;i|»rl cslnlilish liisdm, 
 MS M )>;nnlrr. I lis ronspii \ions sIim'c in llu^ ImildiDj; oi ,| 
 V(M»m's .issnvrs liis ;n< hil(-« lui.il K^pnl.ilion. Mis wmk,,! 
 M;«sUm ol llu' ()nln;nit(' in I'loicm r. ;n r iniMinniciii; nl In 
 ongiiUMMinj', sKill. Ilis sotnuMs shew ;t iclined ;ntd Icmlri s 
 !\\\y\ no sni.dl ni,\slrrv (»l Ihe ;nl ol pocii y. S( iilplni. |i.|j|, 
 ;n«hitort, nin h.mii inn. )>or( , nnpinMliclcd in snni(\ in nil 
 lu^lding his own ;i};.nns| ih(> lollicsl ; ('xrcllcnl in nil ; livinj- 
 cujv>y thi' \v(\\llh whirh his l,d>o\n h;id r.nncd . nn.ihif in liij 
 hitnsrir of tho llnlltMV (or whit h h(^ < Micd so liUlc ; (Ih' sinn 
 noss ;nul jo;\lo\!sv «>1 his cntlici yens nicllowing w'il,]\ (luMlcciiri 
 study Mnd lh(^ (iinuM Tiith ; not \n\loy('d, nllhoiijrh \v\\\v\ '.nnic 
 how »hop|U'd o\\\ olhis hoiostopc, l>nl ro( riving (he l)(iin;i|;('i)i 
 boanlilnl ;ind gilli^l women. \\\v,\\ < rown could yon piil ii|iiiii 
 a doslin\ like his. (Act^pl th.il " whi< h ladelh no! away?" Adil 
 \o his olluM tian)os iho nanuMil ('hiislian. which Ihcio is ro.isoii 
 {o \ c'^\o\c von may lawlully ^\o, and ytMi hav(M)n(^ ol llio hij^hcsj 
 stvlos of nion. second only (o (hose whose liyes have liccn ,i 
 grautl seirsacriliee. »>r who. aliet years ol tinicwanled lalidiir, 
 have got the glory of ihe niarlyr's graye. Mi(hael /\n;;cl(>liv('(| 
 thvongh a pilgtiniage of ninelv V(\us. and then, in his will, 
 conuuitled his sonl to (\ok\. his hody to Ihe eailli, and lii^ 
 pv>ssessions \o his nearest ri>la(ives, adding that he died ir. 
 the taith ei Ji^sus Christ, and in Ihe lirni hope of a i)i.'llor life. 
 His own WiM(1s will I'lUingly close this endeavour to loall 
 and exhibit l\in\ : 
 
 230 
 
N77iV/:,s\ 
 
 II.OKENL'I: AND I III: l-l.()h'l:NI/NI:S, 
 
 (\. And sn M 
 
 I'll.l. 
 
 1 csl.-iMisli I,,,; („,„ 
 (!"' |iuili|j|||f n( ,1 
 
 "». His wmlo,, :,, 
 ■ nuMniniciii'i ni l,,, 
 
 l('<I ;lll(| Icllllci snill 
 
 •'^' "Ip'"'. p.iinln, 
 i" «">in(\ ill ,,||iri, 
 -III ill ;ill ; liviii,; In 
 in'<l . uii.iMc to liii 
 '"» lillli' ; lli(> si, III 
 vin^ wilji llir(l.Y|iri 
 lton|fh Venus <,omi,' 
 iving (ho li(Mii;i)Tiif 
 '■'Mild von pill upoii 
 li nol ;nv,iy?" Ailii 
 hiili IIi(M(; is nMsoii 
 Tonr ()("llioliii;lirsi 
 
 lives li.ivc lircii ,1 
 nnnnvanlcd I.tlmiir, 
 i< li.'irl An;;('lo|ivn| 
 
 lIuM). in liis will, 
 
 lIlC (Mltll. ,111(1 Ills 
 
 g (Ii;il lie died ir, 
 ipr of ;t I It'll or life, 
 luK'.ivonr lo rci.ill 
 
 .ScMlptMn' firi'l [iriinliti^ ! rivni nrts ! 
 
 V'f fnn no lori^'-r ^/)(ltlK• my lir"ast 
 'Tis IdV hiviri'- ni'iii'- if(i[p:irfq 
 S, I'lif pruirii'if of ri fiiliif rfsf. 
 
 On llinf my slpn'lfn'^t 'i'liil rf|if>t;, — 
 
 My Irii'^l fti'" f'ru^K^ jt\y li'ip" lfi<> ^V'tf"; 
 
 fri flic ' Iiiirf li of Sfifi M;\r( () is flic (»iil|(if from wlii' h Savon 
 Apoi A ':|iokc ill fliiind(.T ; in flic nfljoinirig (f^nvcrit is the fell 
 ill wliK li li' wifjfr, ;uid in flic I'iazza (iran hiira, the foiinfain 
 (,f Neptune stands iifion flic s|»fit where his sf>nl went out in fire. 
 Any nntice (»f Idorcncf: would he iiri[i' rfcct wlii' li slionpj ornit 
 the rcferctif c fo fhis ( f>iirage(His rnartyr for flif; frnfh. Just a 
 i/fiienilion after (he ashes of [fdin ffiiss fiad been ^ivcn to the 
 wafers of the Rhine, he was horn at Kcrrara. fff; was early 
 ■(teeiied in the works of Aristotle arifl I'lafo, hanfcand F'etrarch , 
 the masters of (ircian |»liiloso(»hy, the masters of lt;iliari song, 
 hi early life also he entered a f)f;rniriican f onvcnt, f,ikc many 
 other men of ardent ima^'inatifni anrl austere morals, he was 
 (jisajipoinfed in a monastic life, ffe expected to find absorbing 
 rievofion, (Christian fellowslii[), the real deadness fo the world 
 wlii'li the fowl and the cloister simulated. Ffe found only 
 [)assi(jns intensified by their jirofcssed rcnun( iation, languor in 
 the clia[)el, and worldliness in the cell. After a seven years' 
 novitiate he entered upon [jriest's orders, and as the brother- 
 liond of the monastery felt that the reputation of '''n'ar Jerome 
 reflected honour upon his order, they encouraged his desire to 
 I)reach, and he accordingly essayed in the church of San r/>ren/,o 
 at I'lfjrcncc. The congregation was numerous, and high in ex- 
 pectation ; but he delivered his sentiments with ungainly action, 
 in a shrill, uncultivated voice, hesitatingly, and in meagre style> 
 
 ^iii 
 
 22f 
 
Ill ' ' V 
 
 FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES, 
 
 so that in a few days the thousands had dwindled down to 
 twenty-five, and he vowed for the present to abjure the pulpit 
 saying " I could not have moved so much as a chicken ; I had 
 neither voice, lungs, nor style." He felt, however, that the 
 Divine gift was in him, and like Demosthenes, he spared no 
 pains to acquire the power of commanding speech. Hence in 
 four years more we find him again in Florence, named by 
 Lorenzo the Magnificent Prior of San Marco, no longer an 
 ineffective preacher, but a master of the tribune, and of the 
 hearts of men. The lecture-room soon became too small for the 
 multitudes who thronged to hear, so he lectured in the convent 
 garden. Florence had by this time become both a commercial 
 and a collegiate city, and it was a motley group which the friar 
 gathered around him. There were merchants, scholars, priests 
 and princes. Here might be seen the Boliemian, privileged, 
 above others, with the euchd.ristic cup j there, the cultured but 
 sceptical adversary of ecclesiastical pride. Here would be the 
 enterprising Lombard, there the zealous WicklifRte, and yonder, 
 looking askance at the gathering, some wary stranger from 
 Rome j and as the tall spare form of the monk stood forth, 
 with the sky for the roof of his cathedral, the rosary for 
 his chancel, and for his incense the sweet breath of a thousand 
 flowers ; and as he thundered out his denunciations of the 
 corruptions of the Papacy, and the godlessness of the new 
 philosophy into which many of its adherents had recoiled; 
 every one felt that a power to control and to command abode 
 in that emaciated frame. 
 
 As superior ol the convent he was thrown into a new relation 
 towards Lorenzo ^^is relation became at first an embarrass- 
 ment and then a cause of quarrel. It is difficult to exonerate 
 
 222 
 
FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES, 
 
 Savonarola from the charge of ingratitude. His independence 
 revolted from being the Duke's minion, but the fear of being 
 so regarded became a morbid one, and induced a studied 
 discourtesy towards his patron which was as marked as it was 
 bold and unlovely. San Marco had been built by the Medici, by 
 them enriched v/ith a costly library, raised by their munificence 
 to a position of prosperity, and even of grandeur. Savonarola 
 himself was indebted to Lorenzo for his introduction to Florence, 
 and for the office which gave him all his power. There was a 
 respect which would have been graceful, and a courtesy which 
 he might have paid without compromising his principles by the 
 breadth of a hair. The monk, however, was haughtier than 
 the Medici, and, in his scorn of patronage, exhibited the pro- 
 verbial "falsehood of extremes." It was a custom to pay a 
 visit to Lorenzo when the new Prior was installed. Savonarolaf 
 refused to go. "Who elected me Prior, God, or Lorenzo?" 
 Of course the monks said God. " Then to God I will give 
 thanks, and not to mortal man." The Duke, anxious to con- 
 ciliate, sent some valuable presents. These Savonarola coldly 
 received and coarsely alluded to : " the good dog will always 
 bark to defend his master's house, and, if a thief comes, and 
 tries to quiet him by throwing him a bone or a mor?el, the good 
 dog just picks it up, drops it on one side, falls a barking again, 
 and bites the thief." Lorenzo was present when Savonarola 
 spoke these words, and could hardly fail to make the application. 
 This irritating collision, however, was soon ended by Lorenzo's 
 untimely death. On his death-bed he gave the most unequivo- 
 cal mark of confidence by seeding for Savonarola in preference 
 to his own confessor, '• for," he said, " I have not found another 
 religious except him." It is said that in this latest interview 
 
 223 
 
 I 
 
 Ui 
 
FLOrUCNCE AND THE FLORENTINES. 
 
 the monk Insisted npon throe conditions before he wouUl .ibsolv,. 
 the dying man. First — a spiritual one, — that he sho-.ikl cxonjsp 
 a Hvely (liith ; second— a pecuniary one, — that he sliouKl restore 
 wliatever had been acciuircd by unhuvful means ; and third- a 
 pohtical one, — that he should loose Morcnre from the Mo(li( Qn 
 yoke, and re-establish the republic as of old. I -orcnzo pniiuiscj 
 the two first, but demurred to the last, shrewd enough to see 
 that to give such a promise was utterly out of h.is [)owcr ; honest 
 enough to refuse to disinherit his children of the authority wliuh 
 the State had conferred upon his Aimily ; and manly cnouirh 
 even with the death-dews on his brow, to protest againsl politi- 
 cal conditions of salvation, and to shake loi)se from the intoler- 
 able tyranny which would gag the departing spirit, and hide 
 from it, beneath the cloak of a spurious patriotism, the Cross 
 of an insulted Saviour. 
 
 After the death of Lorenzo, Savonarola entered with holy 
 boldness upon that wider career in which we may follow him 
 with admiration almost kindling into rapture. A preacher, 
 famed for elociuence ; a prophet, stern as Ezekiel in the inspired, 
 or Cassandra in the fabled canon ; a vigorous reformer both in 
 church and state ; a legislator among distracted counsels ; he 
 seemed to be possessed with the great ideaof destiny, and went 
 on his course heedless of discord or danger. Me knew that it 
 was impossible to speak as he had spoken without gathering 
 against himself a rancorous opposition, and the hatred of that 
 relentless enemy which dogs its victims to the death. " Do 
 you ask me," he says, " in general what will be the end of the 
 conflict ? I answer, Victory ! But if you ask me /// particukr, 
 then I answer Death. But death is not extinction. Rather it 
 serves to spread abroad the light." His own mind, though ii 
 
 224 
 
FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES. 
 
 had largely freed itself from errors of morality, was still, and 
 indeed always, bound by superstitions of doctrine. Me stood 
 among the ages, midway between two great periods, orphan of 
 the old, proi)lict of the new, like .>Joah among the worlds of 
 God. While behind him was the thick darkness, and before 
 him the glorious morning, he lived and died in the gloaming, 
 with dim ideas of truth and power which it was never given him 
 fully to comprehend. Hence sacramental efficacy and personal 
 trust in Christ ; reverence for the Scri[)tures and pretension to 
 an immediate revelation ; the profoundest humility and the 
 most marvellous fanaticism, alternated from his lips and in his 
 
 life. 
 
 Under his influence the reformation of morals in the city was 
 wonderful. Monasteries became pure, the churches crowded. 
 His was no Ash Wednesday denunciation, following upon a 
 permitted carnival. The carnival itself was restrained in its 
 excesses, and religious entertainments were publicly given, to 
 which the masses of the people thronged. Eight thousand 
 children were banded into a sort of juvenile republic, and were 
 called " The Children of Jesus Christ." They attended service 
 in procession, stood by little portable altars in the streets on 
 feast-days, soliciting the offerings of the people, and went from 
 house to house, begging for immodcsi pictures, and vanities of 
 apparel or furniture, which were given up to them to bedestroyed. 
 On the last day of Lent there was a grand and general burning. 
 A pyramid was reared in one of the large squares, the inside of 
 which was fdled with combustibles, and on the steps of which, 
 rising to the apex, were the motley vanities which were to be 
 given to the fire. Latin and Italian poems, music-books, cards, 
 lutes, pictures, false haii-, looking-glasses, wigs, beards, masks, 
 
 225 
 
 N' 
 
FLOKi':xci': Ai\n rut: r/oh'/uxr/iX/is. 
 
 m 
 
 clutincr bo.inls, rosiuctic s ;\H(I iM'iiimK's, iill were devoted iniii,^ 
 hnimless ,n//<^ ,/<i /f. l'"om (Mpl.iin !)(»>"<, cu h widi liis |(,i,|| 
 f'ucd .1 eotnerwheM \]\c liiimpels gave tlic sigmd, the liells i;iii(._ 
 {\\r |»e.>|)le shoiiled, iho Hatnos rose and swelled, and m ,i lew 
 mouunls luxmies and works ol" art and inia;;ina(i()n, ihc hmr 
 ilrcssei s sloek in hade, ihe life lahonrs of tlie arli,| and ii^, 
 port, were rcihn rd to ashes. The intention ol all tins wis 
 (loublless good, and it the ht^itt went with the sa« lilice, mid n 
 was not a sell righleouj, < oinplai ency in trampling npoii pndf 
 with greater p^id(^ it might be a eonseeration as snMime ;is dio 
 bnrning ot' books at I'dihesns ; il otherwise, it was a nol.dilr Kt 
 notwithstanding; it is a perpelnal testimony of SavcmauiJa's 
 
 pOW CY. 
 
 Meanwhile the breaeh between the monk and the Papary 
 grew wider day by day. Alexander VI., who then Idled the 
 papal ehair, perlUlions, licentious, venal, covetous, (luel, lo a 
 degrcH^ so shameless that he, Horgia of the Horgias, stands on a 
 bad eminence of his own, was not likely to < oimnend liinisdi 
 to the Morentine monk's good will. 'The Tope Inst silciKcd 
 him in the indpil, but by the interlerenec of the magislraUs the 
 inhibition was withdrawn. The next step was .in endeavoiirto 
 bribe him. " (live him a red hat, and so make al eiuc a 
 cardinal anti a frietul." Savonarola answered from the pulpit 
 of St. Mark, " 1 will have no other red hat than that of nuirlyr- 
 dom. coloured with my own blood." 'Then came the trial to 
 get the n\onk into his [)ower, by the proposal, in a very affec- 
 tionate letter, of a journey to Rome. His answer was that his 
 preaching was very useful in Florence, and that he begged to be 
 excused. After the invitation came a brief, conunaiiding him 
 to appear in Rome. He answered the letter, but did not obey 
 
 226 
 
rfjUy/.M'/'. ANn I HI: I'l.oia' ni ini.s. 
 
 the siiinmons, and, iiflcr a few weeks' silence, preadierl ji^airi in 
 (lisrcg.iifl "f •li*" l'""li''. •'^J'yi'i/^ lie wasiirj^erl to do so l»y Kirn 
 who is i»rel.'il<.' «»! |)relates and pope ol popes, Attnnpts were 
 „,;i(|c to lake his life, hy stiletto and poison, ;nid niffiiin h;inds 
 
 all olwhicli were frustrated by the I'loviden'e of {',<A, .md 
 hy the wat< hfiiiness and valour of his friends. Invitation, inlii- 
 lalion and Ijrief having failed to snhdiie the iM)f onrpierahle spirit, 
 Alexander proceeded further, atxl, in flu- Lent of 149^, fuhni- 
 naled the Hull <>f I'-xf ()inniuni( ation. I»ut the monk li;id \LiA 
 long |)ast the age at whi< li so very harmless a thing (oiild jri;ikc 
 iiini tremble. Hear his answer: " lie whf) ( ormnands a thing 
 contrary to the law of ('hrist, is himself ex( omrniinirated. On 
 what side tlie'i wilt thou stand? Shall tliey l*e blessed whf^rri 
 the I'ope blesses, altliongh their life is the curse of (,'hristenflorn, 
 or shall they be exc onnmmic aled whom he exf f)mirinnif;ates, 
 although all the fruits of the Spirit be displayed in lh<;ir life. 
 1 may have failed in many respects, for I atu a sinner, but I 
 have not failed, inasmuch as J have preacherl the (ios;>el of 
 Christ freely and without fear of man. They threaten, tof>, that 
 they will not bury us. 'J'hat will give me nf> corn ern when I 
 am dead. Fling me into the Arno if you will, my body will be 
 found in the judgment, and that is enough." 
 
 Florence, however, was not equally brave. She had before 
 her the terrors of interdict, and war, and the i>ossiblc extinf;tion 
 of the state, so that her fickle people and lier cowardly magis- 
 trates became the betrayers of the man who had deserved .so 
 well of their city. He was arrested und'ir a safe conduct, after 
 a night attack upon the convent, and uj^on his friends in the 
 streets, which, in its measure, was a minor St. Bartholomew. 
 Of course the sale conduct was violated. Jt could not be other- 
 
 227 
 
FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES. 
 
 wise, when fear and hate combined to make his death a neces- 
 sity. The closest examination furnished no proof either of 
 sedition or impiety. Then the torture was apphed, until beneath 
 its agony he was weary of his life. Sliil there was nothing to crimi- 
 nate him, until a heartless rogue, Ser Coccone by name, altered 
 and interpolated one of his written statements, so as to serve 
 the purpose of his foes. And on this forged confession, broiu^it 
 about by an artifice which Savonarola disdained to expose, the 
 iniquitous mockery ended, and he was adjudged to die. The 
 official record says : " On the said 23rd day of May " (that is, 
 May, 1498) " Friar Jerome, Friar Dominic, and Friar Silvester 
 were degraded at 13 of the clock, and then burnt in the Piazza 
 de Signori." Three platforms were erected in front of the 
 palace. Savonarola was taken up into the presence of a Bishop, 
 clad in priestly robes. Then, piece by piece, the vestments 
 were removed in the presence of the multitude, and the Bishop 
 pronounced the degradation : " I separate thee from the Church 
 Militant and from the Church Triumphant." " Nay," said the 
 intrepid spirit, " from the Church Militant if you please, but not 
 from the Church Triumphant, that is more than you can do." 
 He then mounted the pile, uttered but one sentence, "0 
 Florence, what hast thou done this day ? " Soon there was a 
 glo'ving heap of ashes, from whose heart, as if in a fiery chariot, 
 a man had arisen to the throne of God. 
 
 The re-action soon set in. Ere yet the flames o'" the martyr- 
 fire were quenched, noble matrons and citizens, faithful to the 
 last, snatched some of the charred bones as treasures more 
 precious than gold. By order of the commune the ashes were 
 thrown into the river, that they might be scattered beyond 
 recovery. But, as in the case of all such impotent persecution, 
 
 228 
 
FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES, 
 
 they could not kill the living words nor the immortal memory. 
 That memory became an inspiration to the Italian people. It 
 stirred them to a deep-seated anger against both ecclesiastical 
 and civil oppression. Priests who courted popularity were forced 
 to emulate Friar Jerome the martyr. Medals were struck in his 
 honour, and sold under the eye and with the approbation of a 
 future pope. Poetry embalmed his virtues, and associated him 
 with freedom and piety ; at this day the friends of religious 
 liberty inscribe his name upon their banners ; and as his words 
 of fire '■'' Italia renovabitur" (Italy shall be renewed,) pass monthly 
 into thousands of ItaHan homes, they stir every worthy purpose 
 into life, and at once eloquence and prophecy shrine him in a 
 remembrance as fragrant and more inspiring than the violets 
 which for centuries regretful Florence was wont to strew upon 
 the pavement of his doom. 
 
 The present state of Florence, and indeed of all the cities of 
 the free Italian Kingdom, entails solemn responsibility upon the 
 witnesses for God. The successive blows which have been 
 already struck at the Papacy, and the bolder political changes 
 which are sure to come, have of necessity brought with them 
 much spiritual unsettlement and indecision. The whole coun- 
 try is in transition. Popery, as a vital force creative of other 
 forces, a power from the heart upon the life, has lost its hold. 
 It survives, a ceremonial, as a tradition, as an engine of political 
 power, but as a conviction, a faith, an incarnation of the Divine, 
 it lives no longer. There is fear lest in the fierce rebound from 
 its discovered vanity, the nation should rush into infidelity 
 defiant and terrible. Now is the time for Christian work. The 
 people enquire. There is hunger of heart for knowledge. The 
 people are filled with strange yearnings. There is hunger of 
 
 229 
 
rfA^Nf\(-l< /L\7> 77//-: /■7,('AV'.W77A7';.V. 
 
 hr;)rl lor n^sl. Tlir proplc ;nr cliilc with llu> new inl('iii|ici;iii(r 
 ol lir((lt)n). (";ii) tlinc hr ;i nobler oppoiliinity or ;i slKnii-if 
 ucv{\ loi Cnlliolir liciiilod ( "hiisli;inily to siilisly llu- nviiiw ('(,,( 
 kiU)\vlr(lj;o liy llu> rovcliilion o( (lod mikI I lis Cliiisl ; lo siiH 
 the tiui« k troiiltU' by [hv (iospel's (livii)csl )>e;Mc ; to It'll loili, 
 libcialod, even in llu" lover oflhrir joy, tluil 
 
 •' llo is (lie firomnii wlinin (lie 'I'mtli iimKcs frer, 
 Ainl nil !iro sluvcs lirsidc," 
 
 Yes ! Italy shall be renewed. There is an inner tnilli wliid) 
 like a sound ol power goes ringing throngh llu" ages, i') S;i\() 
 nunila's propheti< word. 'I'lu" light, whi( h was the iii()riiii)|. 
 iwilighl to him. has ( linToed higher np the sky, and is jhoikIch 
 ing fast into a noon ol" s|)lendonr. \'es ! Italy shall b(> reiicucd. 
 The pine truth shall win its way, in spite of hindraiKc mikI 
 insnit, against banded foes, or traitorous or lime serving liicuds. 
 The historical prestige ol' I'opery has departed (Vom it. I'l ukc 
 will never re'troduee a House of (luise, nor S|)ain a Diikcof 
 Alva. The griMt wild souls who united a. brilliant ( hivalry with 
 a prostrate laith, have passed away. No martial Julius or 
 sirong sonled I ,eo will fill the Pa|»al chair. The world is moving 
 on. Mtai's minds march to its progress. The llowers ii|i()n 
 the martyrs' graves will suggest ihc harvests which their ()Hs[)nng 
 m.iy gather, till 
 
 *' Thoy \vli>> have slivwn (he violols rcnp the corn, 
 
 Aiiti liiwing ri'upnl ami ganuMcd, bring the plniij;;]! 
 And draw new fuirows 'iumIIi the healthy morn, 
 '\nd jilaiU the grciil lloroafltM in llh< Now." 
 
 Meanwhile, let the Anglo-Saxon race see to it that il he not 
 again enslaved. The onset is steady and determined. Warders 
 
 230 
 
ilAJKKNCE AND Till: ILU KEN TINES. 
 
 sliirnbrr at case ii|)on their i)()Sfs. 'f"raiff>r'j play intf) Hir rrif-rny's 
 hnivls. Alrrady llic li^^lit is in tlic ryf, arul tlif: hoast iipf)ri fhr 
 lips as if with flic assiiraru c f)f vif tory. Anrl shall it rf-ally l.< 
 so? |)i!;;rrowii(;'l and fiifMlivc in the larifls where it has ficen 
 1 aedisforncfl to he honoiircfl, is the error tf» find f^h'ltrr and 
 royally in lands whose freedom dates from the sliivrriri;^ of hf-r 
 yok(; of old? With the snn shinin;/ in thr firnvris, are w tr> 
 choose the (rypt for a dwelling? With the hfalinj^ air at hanrl, 
 sjiaij we abide in the red-crossed hfjiises wher(; tlif; (>laf^^ne waits 
 for its prey? The wizards "peep arxl mutter," and f rrjon in 
 their distenipercfl age -is it among fiornes of liberty tfiat their 
 ancient sjjells are to [>revail ? f arn no [)rr>[)het, nor the sr^n of 
 one, hut I know this, if sneh a {.,\y should e.ornf; it will [>e in an 
 ohiivion of liistf>ry and in a.n eclipse f>f faith ; it will he from a 
 f;ital indifference or from a si)nrif>ns charity; it will hf: when 
 Anf.^lo-Saxf)ns shall have sunk into a degenerate manhood, whose 
 eye kindles with no fif>ly [)ridc as they recall their gallant sires. 
 Never mc>rf; than today were needed the mf:n of calm and 
 resolute faith. Iirf>l}iers, to your knees and to your ranks ! '/'o 
 your knees in humblest suf)plication to your rar.lcs in steadfast 
 hravery which no foe can cause to rjuail. Stand forth in f;ourage 
 and in gentleness for the 'I'ruth which you believe to be allied 
 to Freedom, and Progress, and Ood. fie so strong that you are 
 not afraid to be just. (Jherish a tender humanity and a catholic 
 heart. In yf;ur righteous anger against destructive error, show 
 your tnaiily compassion for the souls which bad systems enslave. 
 Then take your stand, calm and moveless as the stars, and say 
 to ultramontane insc;Icnce and error : *' The advancing tide shall 
 ncit he rolled back with our good will. Our cjvil freedom ! Our 
 reformed faith 1 Our unsealed and open fJible ! These are our 
 
 231 
 
 -■^*if 
 
 ■-'if. 
 
I*'l 
 
 FLORENCE AND THE FLORENTINES. 
 
 landmarks, and they shall not be taken away. Amid many 
 divisions these are our points of rallying. We abide here 
 Touch not this ark of our covenant We will guard it, we will 
 possess it, until we die I" 
 
 232 
 
7TINe:s. 
 
 'ay. Amid many 
 
 We abide here. 
 
 II guard it, we will 
 
 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 N 
 
 #« 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 F 
 
 ROM the Reformation, may be dated a new era in the 
 history of history. As presented to us in the writings of 
 the older historians, history consisted, for the mosc part, of 
 the bare recital of events, unaccompanied by |)hilosophical 
 reflections, or by any attempt to discover the mutual relations 
 and tendencies of things. After the Reformation, the adherents 
 of the rival churches, each from his own standpoint, moralised 
 upon 'tiiat wondrous revolution, and upon the circumstances, 
 political and social, which introduced and attended it. That 
 which had been chronicle thus became controversy. Writers 
 not only narrated events, but fringed them with the hues of 
 their own thought, and impressed upon them the bias of their 
 j own opinions, and as one result of this there sprang up the 
 I Philosophy of History. Men began to think that if the Reform- 
 ation, and the events connected with it, might be canvassed in 
 their sources and issues, all national changes, all events upon 
 the mighty stream of tendency, might be legitimately subjected 
 to similar criticism. Gradually this survey of the past took a 
 loftier stand, and spread over a wider range. The causes of the 
 rise and fall o( empires • the elements of national prosperity or 
 
 235 
 
tloclino -the ohsololoncss or .Kl.ipl.iiion of v.iri xis forms of 
 govcrnnionl the (.'vidcn'-cs of growth and transition .i,,,,,,,, 
 the peoples ol" maiikiiKl, all in their tmii were iicidc iii;|||,,| 
 <)'." hist<»rie;d in(|iiiiy. Thus history, at lust luinalivc .ind ii,,,,, 
 polemical, has heeonu', in our day, a re<-ord ol pKmicss i 
 triumphal euU)L;y of the j^rowih (>l Civili/ation. 
 
 Hut both wruers and readers of history form an imwortln 
 estimate ol its province if they restrict it within siu li lin),|. 
 They only realise its mission who see in its transitions tln' 
 successive developments of Providence, ever workin<f, wiiliom 
 |)ause and without failure, the counsel ot the Divine will. |t |v 
 not enough, if we would study history aright, that we should 
 follow in the track of battle, and listen to the wail of tlic 
 vaiKjuished and the shouts of conipierors ; it is not oiioiii;!i 
 that we should philosophic-ally analyse the causes of uphcival 
 and remodelling ; it is not eiu)ugli that we regaid it as a 
 school for the study of character, and ga/e, with an adiiiiiatinn 
 that is almost awe, upon the " world's foster-gods,' ilu' stal 
 wart nobility of mankind ; it is not enough that we should ici^ard 
 it as a chaos of incident, "a mighty ma/.e, and all without a 
 plan :"' we realise the true ideal of history only when we dis( over 
 (lod in it, shai)ing its ends for the evolution of His own (ksii;ii. 
 educing order from its vast confusions, resolving its coiniilua- 
 tions into one grand and marvellous unity, and making it a 
 body of completeness and symmetry, with Himself as tik 
 informing soul. 
 
 Let this faith be fastened on our spirits, and history I )ccoiiiis 
 a beautiful study. The world is seen linked to Christ— an 
 emerald rainbow round about His throne. In His great purpose 
 its destiny of glory is secure. There is sure warrant for the 
 
 236 
 
 
r v.iri (US Coiiiis (ii 
 1 Irausition .imd,,. 
 wore m;i(lc iiiMHn, 
 nnrralivc and tlun 
 lord ol inogifss, ,1 
 >n. 
 form an uinvorllu 
 within such limJu. 
 its transitions ihc 
 CM" workiiij^, withdiii 
 J I )ivii\o will. It iv 
 ^ht, that \vc should 
 to tin; wail of the 
 ; it is not ciioiii^h 
 causes of (iphcaval 
 wo rc)j,ar(l it as a 
 with ail adiiiiraiiDii 
 stcr-<;o(ls,'' the stal- 
 Kit wc should ici^aid 
 c, and all without a 
 dy when wc discover 
 1 of His own (ksigii, 
 olvin^j; its comiilia- 
 y, and making it a 
 ith Himself as the 
 
 and history hccomcs 
 
 nked to Christ-aii 
 
 In His great purposL' 
 
 urc warrant for the 
 
 I HI: inn.ui.xo IS. 
 
 ,.x|)C( latiou of till! proi^rcss of whirji iIk.- poet wat( hers havesf) 
 jv»|>cfully sun}.,'; i)ro;,'ress unintcriiiitlin;.;, Iiir'ni;.,'li every disistcr 
 of iIk: |)ist, heralding progress yet diviner in every |)o,si!)ility 
 of the future. Tiie eye of sense may trace hut scanty ff)re- 
 shadowings of the hrightness ; there may he dark omens in the 
 ;ispc< Is of the times and the wistful glance, strained through 
 the darkness, may discern but fciint traces of the coming of the 
 (lay ; hut it sihtll come, and every movement brings it nigher - 
 for "'.he Word of the I-ord hath spoken it," and that Word 
 "cudiireth for ever." 
 
 In our study of the history of I'Vance, or, indeed, of any other 
 nation, we must remend)er certain i)e(adiarities which, though 
 apparently (»f small account, are influential elements in national 
 l)rogress, and means towards the formation of national character. 
 Kadi raic, for exam|>le, has its distinctive temf)erament, which 
 il transmits from generation to generation. The character wfiich 
 C;esar gave of the (iallic. tribes two thousand years ago is, in 
 its inf)st noticeable features, their c.ha,racter still. "Tfiey are 
 wadike, going always armed, ready on all occa.sions to deci.ie 
 their differences by the sword ; a j^eople of great levity, little 
 inclined to idleness ; hospitable, generous, f:onfiding anrl sincere." 
 This transmission of (pialities, while it fosters tiie jiride of a 
 nation, stamps upon it an individuality, and f)revents the adop- 
 tion of any general changes which have no affinity with the 
 national mind. 
 
 In like manner the traditions of a nation are pr)tent influences 
 in national culture. The memory of its heroes, and of the 
 battle-fields where their laurels were won ; of its seers of science 
 its prophets of highest-mounted mind ; of its i>hilosophers, the 
 hi','h priests of nature ; of its poets, who have played upon the 
 
 237 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 people's heart as upon a harp of many strings ; of its great men 
 who have excited wonder ; of its good men, who have inherited 
 love ; all the old and stirring recollections of the romantic past 
 which flush the cheek and brighten the eye ; all these are sub- 
 stantive tributaries to an empire's education, and aid us in 
 forming our estimate of its career and destiny. 
 
 But more potent than either of the causes we have mentioned 
 are those external agencit^s which from time to time arise, in the 
 course of events, to stamp a new form and pressure on the 
 world. The sacred isolation of the Hebrew commonwealth— 
 the schools of (ireece — the militocracy of Rome — the advent of 
 the Redeemer — the Mohammedan imposture — feudalism, with 
 its blended barbarity and blessing — the Crusades — the invention 
 of Pr' iting — the Reformation, — all these were not only incidents 
 but POWERS, each of them exerting an appreciable influence 
 upon the character of the nations of mankind. In tracing the 
 history of the Huguenots, therefore, we are not merely following 
 the fortunes of a proscribed people, nor reciting a tale of indi- 
 vidual suffering — we are depicting the history of P>a nee, we are 
 evolving the subtle cause of that miysterious something which 
 has been, through a long course of years, an element of national 
 disquiet, which has alternately impelled the attack of passion 
 or/urthered the schemes of tyranny, and under which that sunny 
 and beautiful land has groaned in bondage until now. 
 
 The doctrines of the Reformation took early root in France. 
 The simultaneous appearance of its confessors in different 
 countries is one amongst the many collateral proofs of its 
 divine origin. Movements which men originate are local and 
 centralised, arranged in concert, and gathering ripeness from 
 correspondence and sympathy. When God works there is no 
 
 238 
 
 
 ih; 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 I 
 
 
 barrier in geographical boundaries, nor in the absence of inter- 
 course. He drops the rrath-seed, and it falls into world-wide 
 furrows. When the hour is ripe— full-grown, heroic, and ready- 
 there springs forth the man. Events had long been preparing 
 the way for the mighty change. In the Church, whether through 
 ignorance or faithlessness, pagan ceremonies had been grafted 
 upon the "reasonable service" of the worship; discipline had 
 become rather a source of immorality than a guard to holiness ; 
 and the traffic in indulgences had shaken the foundations of every 
 social and moral bond. Former protests against encroachment 
 and error, though crushed by the strong hand of power, were 
 not utterly forgotten. Tne voices of Claude and Vigilantius 
 yet echoed in the hearts of many ; traditions of Albigensian 
 confessors, and of saints in Vaudois valleys, were in numerous 
 homes ; the martyr songs of the Lollard and the Hussite lingered 
 
 strange and solemn music — in the air. By and by, in cotem- 
 
 poraneous blessing, came the revival of learningand the invention 
 of Printing. The common mind, waking from its long, deep 
 slumber, felt itself hungry after knowledge, and more than three 
 thousand works were given to appease its appetite in the course 
 of seventy years. The sixteenth century dawned upon nations 
 in uneasiness and apprehension. Kings, warriors, statesmen, 
 scholars, people, all seemed to move in a cloud of fear, or 
 under a sense of mystery, as if haunted by a presentiment of 
 change. Everything was hushed into a very agony of pause, as 
 Nature holds her breath before the crash of the thunder. Men 
 grew strangely bold and outspoken. Reuchlin vindicated the 
 claims of science against the barbarous teaching of the times. 
 Ulrich von Hiitten, who could fight for truth if he had not felt its 
 power, flung down the gage of battle with all the knightly pride 
 
 239 
 
 I: 
 
THE HUGUEAOTS. 
 
 t i i ■[<■ 
 
 of chivalry. Erasmus, the clear-headed and brilliant coward 
 lampooned monks and doctors, until cardinals, and even the 
 pope himself, joined in the common laughter of the world. All 
 was ready, — the forerunners had fulfilled their mission, and the 
 Reformation came. 
 
 In 1517, Tetzel, the indulgence-peddler, very unwittingly 
 
 forced Luther into the van of the battle, and the ninety-five 
 
 propositions were posted on the cathedral at Wittemberg.— 
 
 In 15 18, Bemardin Samson, another craftsman in the sorry 
 
 trade, performec in Switzerland the same kind office for Ulrich 
 
 Zwingli ; and in 1521, while Luther was marching to the Diet 
 
 of Worms, Lefevre, in a green old age, and Farel, in a generous 
 
 youth, proclaimed the new evangel in the streets and temples 
 
 of one of the cities of France. The city of Meaux was the first 
 
 to receive the new doctrine, and Bricjonnet, its bishop, a sincere 
 
 protester against error — though not made of the stern stuff which 
 
 goes to the composition of heroes — published and circulated 
 
 widely an edition of the four gospels in the French language. 
 
 So rapid was the spread of the truth, so notable the amendment 
 
 in morals throughout the provinces which were pervaded by it, 
 
 so loud were the complaints among the monks and priests of 
 
 lessened credit and diminished income, that the dignitaries both 
 
 of Church and State became alarmed and anxious ; and, as the 
 
 readiest way of putting the testimony to silence, they ber- to 
 
 proscribe and imprison the witnesses. 
 
 The doctors of the Sorbonne had already declared I.u'u.w'i 
 doctrine to be blasphemous and insolent, " such as should be 
 answered less by argument than by fire and sword." The parlia- 
 ment, though no friend to monkish rule, could not understand 
 why, when people were satisfied with one form of government, 
 
 24 J 
 
 j] ilk ■■„... 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 they should want two forms of religion. The court, remembering 
 that the pope had an army at his back which would have 
 astonished St. Peter not a little even in his most martial 
 moments, and wishful to secure the aid of that army in the wars 
 of Italy, favoured the spirit of persecution. Louisa of Savoy, 
 queen-regent in the absence of her son, who was then a prisoner 
 at Madrid, asked the Sorbonne, in 1523, " by what means could 
 the damnable doctrines of Luther be soonesi extirpated from 
 the most Christian kingdom ; " and the clergy, not to be outdone 
 in zeal, held councils, at which cardinals and archbishops 
 presided, in which they accused the reformer of "execrable 
 conspiracy," exhorted the king " to crush the viper's doctrines," 
 and proposed to visit yielding heretics with penance and prison, 
 and to hand over obstinate ones to the tender mercies of the 
 public executioner. 
 
 This combination of purpose soon resulted in acts of atrocity 
 and blood. The names of Leclerc, Pavanes, and the illustrious 
 Louis de Berquin, deserve to be handed down to posterity ar, 
 the proto-martyrs of the Reformation in France. In 15",'; there 
 was a solemn procession through the streets of Paris. Never had 
 such a pomp of relics been paraded before the awestruck faith- 
 ful. The veritable head of St. Louis, a bit of the true Cross, one 
 of the nails thereof, the real crown of thorns, and the actual 
 spear-head which had pierced the body of the Saviour — all were 
 ted to an innumerable crowd of people, who swarmed upon 
 ' • 'V/is^topS' ^^"'d ^^^ perched upon every available balcony 
 orpj^utment of stone. The shrine of Ste. Genevieve, the patron 
 ■^aint of Paris, was carried very appropriately by the corporation 
 of butchers, who had prepared themselves for the occasion by 
 a fast of several days' duration. Cardinals and archbishops 
 
 241 
 
THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 Vm 
 
 «! !' 
 
 1 ,:1H! 
 
 I !i:ll; 
 
 abounded, until the street was radiant with copes, and robes 
 and mitres, like a field of the cloth of gold. In the midst of the 
 procession came the king, bareheaded, as became a dutiful son 
 of the Church, and carrying a lighted taper, for the blessed sun 
 was not sufficient, or its light was too pure and kind. High 
 mass was celebrated, and then came the choicest spectacle of the 
 raree-show. Six Lutherans were burned. With their tongues cut 
 out, lest their utterances of dying heroism should palsy the arm 
 of the hangman or affect the convictions of the crowd, a move- 
 able gallows was erected, which alternately rose and fell— now 
 plunging them into the fire, and now withdrawing them for a 
 brief space from the flame, until, by the slow torture, they were 
 entirely consumed. Such was the villainous punishment of the 
 estiapade — a refinement of cruelty which Heliogabalus might 
 have envied, and which even the Spanish Inquisition had failed 
 to invent for its Jewish and Saracen martyrdoms. The execu- 
 tions were purposely delayed until Francis was returning to 
 the Louvre. He gazed upon his dying subjects, butchered for 
 no crime, and the eyes of ecclesiastical and courtly tigers 
 in his train glared with gladness at the sight of lAitheran 
 agony. 
 
 Shortly after came the yet more horrible butcheries of 
 M^rindol and Cabri^res, by which the Vaudois of Provence, a 
 whole race of the most estimable and industrious inhabitants of 
 France, were exterminated because of their religion. Men, 
 women, and children were slain in indiscriminate massacre, some 
 in the frenzy of passion, others, more inexcusably, after a show 
 of trial, and therefore in cold blood. Their cities were razed to 
 the ground, their country turned into a desert, and the murd(rers 
 went to their work of carnage with the priests' baptism on their 
 
 343 
 
 •% 
 
 '■' ii i 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 copes, and robes, 
 ti the midst of the 
 :ame a dutiful snn 
 Dr the blessed sun 
 and kind. High 
 :st spectacle of the 
 
 1 their tongues cut 
 uld palsy the arm 
 le crowd, a niove- 
 )se and fell— now 
 rawing them for a 
 torture, they were 
 [junishment of the 
 eliogabalus might 
 uisition had failed 
 )ms. The execu- 
 
 was returning to 
 :cts, butchered for 
 ind courtly tigers 
 
 ght of lAitheran 
 
 )le butcheries of 
 3is of Provence, a 
 ous inhabitants of 
 r religion. Men, 
 te massacre, some 
 ably, after a show 
 ities were razed to 
 md the murdtrers 
 baptism on their 
 
 swords, and were rewarded for its completion by the prayers and 
 blessings of the clergy. 
 
 The usual results of persecution followed. In the fine old 
 classical fable the dragons' teeth were sown in the field, and the 
 startling harvest was a host of armed men. It is a natural 
 tendency of persecution to outwit itself. A voice is hushed for 
 the while, but, eloquent though it may have been in its life, there 
 issues from the sepulchre of the slain witness more audible and 
 influencing oratory. A community is broken up, and companies 
 of worshippers are scattered in many lands of exile ; but though 
 there be dispersion of families, unlike the banishment of Babel, 
 there is no confusion of tongues ; each in his far-off wandering 
 becomes a centre of truth and blessing, until "their sound has 
 gone forth through all the earth, and their words to the end of 
 the world." 
 
 There is something in the inner consciousness of a religious 
 man which assures him that it must be so. You may practise 
 on a corpse without let or hindrance. Wrap it in grave-clothes, 
 it will not complain ; perpetrate indignities upon it, it will be 
 sealed in silence ; let it down into the cold earth, no rebuke will, 
 protest against its burial. But life is a more intractable thing 
 With a touch of the 'old Puritan humour, it abides not the 
 imposition of hands ; it ivill move at liberty and speak with 
 freedom. Cast among barbarous peoples, when men babble in. 
 strange speech around him, the man who has divine life in his 
 soul will somehow make it felt ; the joy of his bounding spirit 
 will speak and sparkle through the eye, if it cannot vibrate on 
 the tongue ; the new song will thrill from the lips, though 
 there be only the echoes to answer it ; how much more when, 
 there is the neighbourhood of sensitive and impressible men ! 
 
 243 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 I'M 
 
 Hence you will not wonder that it happened to the Reformed 
 ^s it happened to the Israelites of old, "the more they were 
 vexed, the more they multiplied and grt w." The progress of the 
 Reformation during the closing years of the reign of Francis I. 
 and during that of his son and successor, Henry H., was rapid 
 and continual. Several large provinces declared for the new 
 doctrines ; and " some of the most considerable cities in the 
 kingdom, — Bourges, Orleans, Rouen, Lyons, Bordeaux, Toul- 
 ouse, Montpellier, and * the brave' Rochelle, — were peopled 
 with the Reformed." It was calculated that in a few years they 
 amounted to nearly one-sixth of the entire population, and 
 almost all classes ranged beneath the Reformation banner. 
 The provincial nobles were nearly all secretly inclined to it. 
 Merchants who travelled into other countries witnessed the 
 ■development, under its influence, of industrial progress, and the 
 display of the commercial virtues, and brought home impres- 
 sions in its favour. The people of the tiers4tat^ who had 
 received a literary education, perceived its intellectual superi- 
 ority, and on that account were prejudiced to give it welcome. 
 " Especially," says Plorimond de Remond, a Roman Catholic 
 writer, with a simplicity that is amusing, but with an ingenuous- 
 ness that does him credit, — " Especially painters, watchmakers, 
 goldsmiths, image-makers, booksellers, printers, and others, 
 who in their crafts have any nobleness of mind, were most easily 
 surprised." There were, indeed, scarcely any classes which 
 •collectively adhered to Rome, except the higher ecclesiastics, 
 the nobles of the court, and the flmatic and licentious mob of 
 the good city of Paris. This was the purest and most flourishing 
 era of the Reformation in France. They of the Religion, as 
 rthey were afterwards called, meddled not with the diplomacy of 
 
 244 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 cabinets, with the intrigues of faction, nor with the feuds of the 
 rival houses of the reahii. " Being reviled, they reviled not 
 a'^in ; being persecuted, they threatened not, but committed 
 themselves to Him who judgeth righteously ;" and the record of 
 their constancy and triumph is on high. 
 
 The Reformation in France may be considered as having been 
 fully established at the time of the first Synod. This was held 
 at Paris in 1559- From this assembly, to which eleven churches 
 sent deputies, were issued the " Confession of Faith " and the 
 "Articles of Discipline," which, with little alteration, were handed 
 down as the doctrinal and ecclesiastical standards of the Pro- 
 testants of f>ance. 
 
 The reign of Henry H. was mainly distinguishable for the 
 Edict of Chateaubriand, which made heresy a civil as well as 
 an ecclesiastical offence, and for the massacre of the Rue St. 
 facques, and the arrest and sentence of the celebrated Anne 
 Dubourg. The martyrdom of this distinguished and pious 
 councillor, which the king's death by the lance of Montgomery 
 (lid not suspend, inspired many with the persuasion that the 
 faith professed by such a man could not be a bad one, " melted 
 the students of the colleges into tears ;" and more damage 
 accrued to Rome from that solitary martyr-pile than from the 
 labours of a hundred ministers, with all their sermons. 
 
 Meanwhile the affairs of the kingdom were daily involved in 
 more embarrassing complications. The new king, Francis H., 
 the husband of the unhappy Mary Stuart, was imbecile in mind, 
 and had a sickly constitution of body. The factions of the 
 realm, which had been partially organized in the preceding 
 reign, practised upon his youth and feebleness, that he might 
 aid them in their struggles for power. There were at this time 
 
 245 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 : I ; ii, 
 
 '! V ', r: 
 
 three notable factions in the field, and it may be well for n 
 moment to suspend our interest in the narrative, that the 
 dramatis persona may appear upon the scene. 
 
 The leaders of the various parties were all remarkable men 
 The real heads of the Catholic party were the two celebrated 
 brothers of the house of Ciuise. Claude de Lorraine the 
 ancestor of the family, came to seek his fortune in France "with 
 a staff in his hand, and one servant behind him ; but his imme- 
 diate descendants were all in high places, and wielde;t, some of 
 thern, a more than regal power. Francis, Duke of Guise, the 
 eldest son, was a skilful and high-spirited soldier, whose trustv 
 blade had carved its way to renown in many a well-fought field. 
 He possessed a sort of barbaric generosity, but was irascible. 
 unscrupulous, and cruel. He pretended to no learning save in 
 martial tactics, and held his religion as a sort of profitless entail, 
 which, with his name, he had inherited from his father. 
 " Look," said he to his brother, after the massacre at Vassy, "at 
 the titles of these Huguenot books." " No great harm in that." 
 replied the clerkly cardinal ; " that is the Bible." " The Bible :" 
 rejoined the Duke, in extreme surprise; "how can that bei* 
 This book was only printed last year, and you say the Bible is 
 fifteen hundred years old." Knowing little, and caring less, 
 about religious controversies, a man of ceaseless energy and 
 ready sword, he was the strong hand which the crafty head of 
 the cardinal wielded at his will. 
 
 His brother, Charles de Lorraine, Cardinal and Archbishop 
 of Rheims, of courtly address and pleasing elocution, .sagacious 
 in foresight and skilfu;. in intrigue, was the soul of all the 
 projects which, ostensibly for the honour of the Holy Church, 
 were really for the advancement of the fortunes of the house of 
 
 246 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 Lorraine. He was a man of no personal valour, but influential 
 enough to make a jest of his own cowardice. The pope of that 
 
 ji,jie for, in spi^e of presumed infallibiliiy, popes and cardinals 
 
 do not always see eye to eye — was uneasy at his an.bition, and 
 was accustomed to call him " the pope on the other side the 
 mountains;" and, in fcict, it was the dream of his restless life to 
 see the crown of France upon his brother's brow, and the tiara 
 of the supreme pontificate encircling his own. 
 
 The chiefs of the Politiques, as they were called, the middle 
 party in the state, who counselled mutual concession and for- 
 bearance, were the Chancellor I'Hopital and the Constable de 
 Montmorency. The chancellor was one of those statesmen of 
 whom France has reason to be proud. A man of stern integrity, 
 and of high principle, he worked his way through various offices 
 cl trust into one of the highest positions in the Parliament of 
 Paris. As superintendent of the royal finances, by his good 
 management of affairs, and by his inflexible resistance to the 
 rapacity of court favourites, he husbanded the national resources 
 and replenished the exhausted treasury. Wise in counsel, 
 tolerant in spirit, and with views broader than his age, he was 
 the unfailing advocate of religious freedom. For his efforts in 
 this behalf he was ultimately deprived of his seals, and ran in 
 danger of being included in the massacre of St. Bartholomew. 
 So great was his peril that the queen-mother sent a troop of 
 horse with express orders to save him. When they told him that 
 those who made out the list of proscription had forgiven him, 
 "I was not aware," was his sublime reply, "that I had done 
 anything to merit either death or pardon." 
 
 The Constable de Montmorency was a rough-hewn, valiant 
 knight, rude in speech and blunt in bearing, of an obstinate 
 
 247 
 
 ii; 
 
Si! 
 
 tJ)!. 
 
 THE HUGUEXOrS. 
 
 disposition and of a small soul. He had two articles in his 
 creed, — the first, that he was the first Christian baron — and the 
 secOi!d, that the kings whom he served were Catholics. From 
 these he deduced the very substantial corollary that it was his 
 duty to shew no quarter to heresy, wherever it was found 
 Hence it is almost wonderful that he should have allied himself 
 with the Moderates in counst', but the Chatillons, the chief 
 Huguenot family, were his nephews, and he had an old-fashioned 
 loyalty towards the princes of the blood. The Abbe Brantonie 
 has transmitted to us the particulars of his extraordinary piety ; 
 he fasted regularly every Friday, and failed not to repeat his 
 paternosters every morning and every r.ight. It is said, however 
 that he occasionally interjected some matters which were not in 
 the Rubric. *' Go and hang such a man for me ; tie that other 
 to a tree; make that one run the gauntlet; sel; fire to every- 
 thing all round for a quarter of a league;" — and then, with 
 exemplary precision, would begin again just where he had left 
 off, and finish his aves and credos as if nothing had happened. 
 The individual whom circumstances rather than merit had 
 thrown into the position of one of the leaders of the Huguenot 
 party, was Antoine de Bourbon, the husband of the heroic 
 Jeanne D' Albert, and, through her, titular King of Navarre. 
 Indolent and vacillating —a mere waif thrown upon the wave— 
 a Calvinist preachment or a Romish auto-da-f6 were t qually in 
 in his line, and might both rejoice in the honour of his patro- 
 nising presence. Destitute both of energy and principle, his 
 character shaped itself to the shifting occurrences of each 
 successive day, or to the wayward moods of each successive 
 companion. The purpose of his life, if that may be so called 
 which attained no definiteness and resulted in no action, was 
 
 248 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 
 f 
 
 -St 
 
 to exchange his nominal sovereignty for a real one, over any 
 country and upon any terms. He was one of those whom the 
 words of the poet accurately describe : 
 
 " So fair in show, but, all ! in act 
 
 So overrun with vermin troubles, 
 The coarse, sharp-corner'd ugly Fact 
 
 Of Life collapses all his bubbles ; 
 Like a clear fountain, his desire 
 
 Exults and leaps towards the light ; 
 In every drop it says ' Aspire,' 
 
 Striving for more ideal height ; 
 AiiJ. ciS the fountain, falling thence, 
 
 CrawU baffled through the common gutter, 
 S(j, from nis l^ravery's eminence. 
 He shrinks into the present tense, 
 
 Unking'd by sensual bread and butter." 
 
 To say that he abjured his faith were to do him too much 
 honour. ' The pope's legate, the cardinals, the princes of 
 Lorraine, and the Spanish ambassador, angled for him as for an 
 enormous gudgeon, and they baited the hook with crowns. 
 Tunis in Africa was suggested as a somewhat desirable sover- 
 eignty, Sardinia, which was represented fertile as Arcadia, and 
 wealthy as Aladdin's cave, might be had on easy terms. Nay, 
 Scotland dangled from the glittering line, and the poor befooled 
 hungerer after royalty put up his conscience to perpetual auction, 
 and, like others of such unworthy traffickers, " did not increase 
 his wealth by its price." The Reformation owes nothing to 
 Antoine of Bourbon. By him the selfish and the worldly were 
 introduced into its claims, and, shorn of its spiritual strength, it 
 dwindled in after reigns into a politico-religious partisanship, a 
 menial at the levee of ministers, a sycophant in the audience- 
 
 249 
 
 ^-^< 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 rooms of kings. Shame on thee, Antoine of Navarre ! renegade 
 and companion of persecutors ! the likeness of a kingly crown 
 is decoration enough for a puppet-head like thine. Pass quickly 
 ■out of sight ! for we are longing to look upon a man. 
 
 Behold him ! Of ordinary stature, his limbs well proportioned 
 I's countenance trancjuil, and with a lambent glory resting 
 : >;i it, as if he had come recently from some Pisgah of divine 
 •: i..,nmunion — his voice agreeable and kindly, though, like 
 MO", • slow of speech — his complexion good, betoke Miig purity 
 amid courtly licentiousness, and temperance in an age of excesses 
 — his bearing dignified and graceful — a skilful captain, an illus- 
 trious statesman, magnanimous in good fortune, unruffled in 
 ■disaster — a patriot whom nQ ingratitude could alienate— a 
 believer whose humble piety probed its own failings to the quick, 
 but flung the mantle of its charity over the errors of others— 
 Eehold a man ! That is Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of 
 France, the military hero of the Reformation, whose only taults 
 iieem to have been excessive virtues — who was irresolute in 
 battle because too loyal to his king — who was lacking in sag- 
 acity because, his own heart all transparent, he could scarcely 
 realise the perfidy of others — Gaspard de Coligny, who lived 
 a saint — Gaspard de Coligny, who died a martyr. France en- 
 graves upon her muster-roll of worthies no braver or more 
 stainless name. 
 
 Whilst the rival leaders were contending for power, another 
 influence, which all by turns feared and courted, was that of the 
 •queen-mother, the many-sided Catharine de Medicis. It is 
 humiliating to our common nature to dwell upon the portraiture 
 which, if history says sooth, must be drawn of this remarkable 
 -woman. Her character is a study. Remorseless without cruelty 
 
 250 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 avarre ! renegade 
 f a kingly crown 
 ne. Pass quickly 
 
 a MAN. 
 
 ^ell proportioned, 
 ^nt glory resting 
 Pisgah of divine 
 iy, though, like 
 betoke Miig purity 
 an age of excesses 
 captain, an illus- 
 une, unruffled in 
 ould alienate— a 
 ings to the quick, 
 rrors of others— 
 igny, Admiral of 
 whose only faults 
 kV-as irresolute in 
 LS lacking in sag- 
 e could scarcely 
 igny, who lived 
 rtyr. France en- 
 braver or more 
 
 power, another 
 ~l, was that of the 
 iMedicis. It is 
 
 the portraiture 
 I this remarkable 
 
 without cruelty 
 
 and sensual without passion— a diplomatist without principle 
 and a dr-eamer without faith — a wife without affection ana i 
 mother without feeling — we look in vain for her parallel. She 
 stands " grand p.nd gloomy in the solitude oi her own origin- 
 ality." See her in her oratory ! Devouter Catholic never told his 
 beads. See her in the cabinet of Ruggieri the astrologer ! Never 
 Ldared fiercer eye into Elfland's glamour and mystery — never 
 were philter and potion (alas ! not all for healing) mixed 
 with firmer hand. See her in the counci' "oom ! Royal caprice 
 yielded to her commanding will ; soldi*:.- 'i i ered beneath her 
 glance who never cowered from sheer. >^ s^ -..irs nor blenched 
 at flashing steel ; and hoary headed .cte. nen, who had made 
 politics their study, confessed that she Outmatched them in her 
 cool and crafty wisdom. See her disaster I More philoso- 
 phical resignation never mastered suffering; braver heroism 
 never bared its breast to storm. Strange contradictions are 
 presented by her, which the uninitiated cannot possibly unravel. 
 Power was her early and her lifelong idol, but when within her 
 grasp she let it pass away, enamoured rather of the intrigue 
 than of the possession — a mighty huntress, who flung the game 
 in largess to her followers, finding her own royal satisfactions in 
 the excitement of the chase. Of scanty sensibilities, and with- 
 out natural affection, there were times when she laboured to 
 make young lives happy — episodes in her romantic life during 
 which the woman's nature leaped into the day. Toiling con- 
 stantly for the advancement of her sons, she shed no tear at 
 their departure, and sat intriguing in her cabinet, while an old 
 blind bishop and two aged domestics were the only mourners 
 who followed her son Francis to the tomb. Sceptical enough 
 to disbelieve in immortality, she was prudent enough to provide, 
 
 P 251 
 
 !l'; 
 
 'i;;i 
 
':kl 
 
 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 as she imagined, for any contingency; hence she had her 
 penances to purchase heaven, and her magic to propitiate hell 
 Queenly in her bearing, she graced the masque or revel, smilin? 
 in cosmetics and perfumes — but Vicenza daggers glittered in her 
 boudoir, and she culled, for those who crossed her schemes 
 flowers of most exquisite fragrance, but their odour was death 
 Such was Catharine de Medicis, the sceptred sorceress of Italy 
 for whom there beats no pulse of tenderness, on whom we gaze 
 with a sort of constrained and awful admiration, as upon an 
 embodiment of power, — but power cold, crafty, passionless 
 cruel — the power of the serpent, which cannot fail to leave 
 impressions on the mind, but impressions of basilisk eye, and 
 iron fang, and deadly gripe, and poisonous trail. 
 
 The first false step of the Protestants was the enterprise 
 known as the conspiracy of Amboise. Exasperated by petty 
 persecutions, and goaded by the remembrance of their wrongs 
 they plotted to expel the Guises from the land, and to restore 
 the real government to the king. Terrible was the vengeance 
 which succeeded. Twelve hundred conspirators were put to 
 death without investigation or trial, until the Loire was choked 
 with the corpses of those who had been flung into its waters to 
 drown. The immediate results of this ill-concerted scheme 
 were to establish the Duke of Guise as lieutenant-general of the 
 kingdom, with a powerful army at his bidding, and to enable 
 the cardinal to fulminate an edict against heresy, by which it 
 might be judged and doomed at an Episcopal tribunal. This 
 roused the Huguenots to passion, and in some parts of the 
 provinces to arms. 
 
 Then followed the Fontainebleau assembly, at which, in 
 presence of the king and nobles, Coligny presented the petition 
 
 
 252 
 
 'II 
 
 h- 
 
xRE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 ice she had her 
 to propitiate hell, 
 e or revel, smiling 
 ers glittered in her 
 sed her schemes, 
 odour was death, 
 sorceress of Italy, 
 on whom we gaze 
 ation, as upon an 
 :rafty, passionless, 
 Limot fail to leave 
 f basilisk eye, and 
 rail. 
 
 vas the enterprise 
 asperated by petty 
 ice of their wrongs, 
 ind, and to restore 
 was the vengeance 
 .rators were put to 
 Loire was choked 
 g into its waters to 
 concerted scheme 
 nant-general of the 
 ing, and to enable 
 eresy, by which it 
 lal tribunal. This 
 some parts of the 
 
 of the Reformed, asking for the free performance of Protestant 
 worship. **Your petition bears no signature," said Francis. 
 " True, Sire," was the admiral's reply ; " but if you will allow us 
 to meet for the purpose, I will undertake, in one day, to obtain 
 fifty thousand signatures in Normandy alone." Such an assertion, 
 from such lips, was no unholy gasconade, but indicated a 
 threatening and deep reality of danger. As the result of the 
 debates which followed, as no one seemed able to grasp the 
 great idea of liberty of conscience, it was agreed that a national 
 council should be summoned to determine upon the religious 
 faith of France. The princes of Lorraine had prepared for this 
 convocation arguments that were somewhat peculiar. One was 
 the assassination of the princes of Bourbon ; the other was the 
 banishment of every one who refused to sign a creed of the 
 cardinal's devising — " a creed," says Jean de Serres, " that no 
 man of the religion would have either approved or signed for a 
 thousand lives." The first of these projects failed from some 
 touch of humanness or cowardice which arrested the kingly 
 dagger ; the second failed because a pale horse, in the mean- 
 while, stood before the palace gate, and the rider passed the 
 wardens without challenge and summoned the young king to 
 give account at a higher tribunal. The death of Francis was, in 
 fact, a revolution. For awhile the court became Calvinist, 
 feasting in Mid-Lent upon all the delicacies of the season, 
 making sport of images and indulgences, of the worship of the 
 saints, and of the authority of the pope. Another intrigue, 
 however, restored the Guises to power, and their return was 
 marked by the edict of 156 1, which shewed at once the animos- 
 ity and the caution of the princes of Lorraine. The private 
 worship of the Huguenots was sanctioned, but their public 
 
 253 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 f 
 
 celebrations were forbidden, and they were promised a national 
 council to adjust all differences of religion. This council met 
 in the convent of Poissy, on the 9th of the following September 
 The boy-king, Charles IX., sat upon the throne. Six cardinals 
 with him of Lorraine at their head, and doctors, whose name 
 was legion, appeared as the Catholic champions. Twelve 
 ministers and twenty-two deputies from the Calvinistic churches 
 were by and by admitted, rather as culprits than as disputants 
 The Genevese prized the safety of Calvin so highly that thev 
 required securities for his protection, in the absence of which 
 the more courtly and eloquent Beza appeared in his stead. The 
 discussion, like all others, failed utterly of the purpose which it 
 was intended to effect. A dispute arose about the laws of the 
 combat, and about the very issue that was put upon its trial. 
 What were to be the questions of debate ? " The whole round 
 of the doctrines," said the Huguenots. " The authority of the 
 Church, and the Real Presence in the sacrament," said the 
 creatures of the cardinal. What was to be the test ? " Holv 
 Scripture as interpreted by tradition, and by the Fathers r.nd 
 Councils," said the followers of the Papacy. " Holy Scriptjre 
 alone," was the sturdy reply of the Reformed. Who arj to 
 adjudge the victory ? '* The civil government," said Ber.a and 
 his friends. "The Church authorities," was the Romanist 
 rejoinder. Why dispute at all when all the conditions of con- 
 troversy seem so hopelessly involved ? Both parties agree in the 
 answer — *' Not to overcome our antagonists, but to encourage 
 our friends." We shall not wonder, after this, that the colloquy 
 at Poissy came to a speedy and resultless conclusion. The 
 Huguenots were at this time estimated by the chancellor to 
 amount to one-fourth of the population, and though such calcu- 
 
 254 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 promised a national 
 This council met 
 )llowing September, 
 one. Six cardinals, 
 )ctors, whose name 
 lampions. Twelve 
 Calvinistic churches 
 than as disputants, 
 so highly that they 
 t absence of which 
 i in his stead. The 
 he purpose which it 
 )0ut the laws of the 
 put upon its trial. 
 *' The whole round 
 rhe authority of the 
 icrament," said the 
 : the test? "Holy 
 by the Fathers r.nd 
 . " Holy Script are 
 rmed. Who ar.' to 
 lent," said Ber.a and 
 was the Ro.Tianist 
 e conditions of con- 
 1 parties agree in the 
 s, but to encourage 
 is, that the colloquy 
 s conclusion. The 
 y the chancellor to 
 i though such calcu- 
 
 lations are of necessity uncertain, it is evident that they were no 
 obscure sectaries, but a compact and powerful body, who could 
 demand privilege in worship and redress from wrong. The 
 Guises however, were incessant in their hostility ; and after the 
 secession of the frivolous Antoine of Navarre, who, with the 
 proverbial animosity of the renegade, was rancorous in his 
 hatred of his former friends, they sought aid for the extirpation 
 of heresy from the forces of Spain. As the Duke of Guise was 
 marchino- to Paris in support of this enterprise, he heard the 
 bells of the little town of Vassy, in the province of Champagne, 
 summoning the faithful to their prayers. With an oath he 
 exclaimed, "They shall soon Huguenotize in a very different 
 manner," and he ordered them to be attacked. Unarmed as 
 they were, they could only defend themselves with stones. It 
 is said that one of these stones struck the Duke upon the face, 
 and that in his anger he let loose upon them all the fury of his 
 armed retainers. Sixty were left dead upon the spot, and two 
 hundred more were severely, some mortally, wounded. The 
 news of this onslaught was carried speedily to Paris, and the 
 Duke on his entry had a triumphal ovation from the populace, 
 whom the priests had taught to regard him as the Judas Macca- 
 bjeu.A of his country — the heaven-sent and heaven-strengthened 
 defena'ir of their endangered faith. Encouraged by his success 
 he seized upon the persons of the queen-mother and her son, 
 and kept them in strict though gentle captivity. Then the whole 
 land was roused. The butchery of those unarmed worshippers 
 was the red rain which made the battle-harvest grow. Fearfully 
 was the slaughter of those slain witnesses avenged ; for from the 
 massacre at Vassy, and from the seizure of the king, may be 
 dated the commencement of the sad wars of religion ; and cT all 
 
 255 
 
 \\\\ 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 wars there are none so fierce and so terrible as those of intestine 
 
 strife, when fanaticism sounds the clarion and nerves the frantic 
 
 hand — 
 
 " When rival nations, great in arms, 
 
 Great in power, in glory great, 
 Rush in ranks at war's alarms, 
 
 And feel a temporary hate ; 
 The hostile storms but rage awhile, 
 , And the tired contest ends ; 
 
 But oh 1 how hard to reconcile 
 
 The foes tliat once were friends," 
 
 It is not our province to dwell largely upon the sad period 
 which followed, nor to enter here into the vexed question as to 
 how far the use of the sword is, under any circumstances, 
 defensible for the maintenance of religion. War is a terrible 
 scourge, one of the direst and most appalling of the effects of 
 sin. There is no more Christianity in the consecration of 
 banners than there is m the baptism of bells ? They A^ho battle 
 for the glory of renown, or for the lust of dominion — sin. The 
 conqueror, who fights for conquest merely, is but a butcher on 
 a grander scale : and even in the sternest necessity that can 
 compel to arms, so deceitful is the human heart, so easily can it 
 mistake pride for patriotism, and baptize the greed of glory with 
 the inspirations of religion, that we must ever feel that the camp 
 should not be the chosen school for godliness, and that they 
 have deepest need to claim a Saviour's intercession who have 
 to meet their Maker with sword-hilt stained with slaughter, 
 and with the hands, uplifted in the dying litany, all crimsoned 
 with a brother's blood. The sentiments of Agrippa d'Aubigno. 
 a historian of the sixteenth century, (whose name has again 
 become illustrious in the field of historic literature in the person 
 
 256 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 se of intestine 
 ves the frantic 
 
 he sad period 
 question as to 
 :ircumstances, 
 ir is a terrible 
 ■ the effects of 
 )nsecration of 
 ey .vho battle 
 3n — sin. The 
 : a butcher on 
 jsity that can 
 
 easily can it 
 
 1 of glory with 
 that the camp 
 and that they 
 ion who have 
 ith slaughter, 
 all crimsoned 
 )ad'Aubigno. 
 ne has again 
 
 in the person 
 
 of Dr. Merle d'Aubigne, his lineal descendant,) are worthy of 
 being mentioned here. " It is ever worthy of note that, when- 
 ever the Reformed were put to death under the form of justice, 
 however unjust and cruel the proceedings, they presented their 
 necks, and never made use of their hands. But when public 
 authority and the magistrates, tired of kindling the piles, had 
 flung the knife into the hands of the mob, and by the tumults 
 and wholesale massacres of France had deprived justice of her 
 venerable countenance, and neighbour murdered neighbour by 
 sound of trumpet and by beat of drum, who could forbid these 
 unhappy men opposing force to force, and sword to sword, and 
 catching the contagion of a just resentment from a resentment 
 destitute of all justice? Let foreign nations decide which party 
 has the guilt of civil war branded on its forehead." 
 
 Both parties asked for aid from other nations in the struggle. 
 Spearmen from Spain, and soldiers from Italy, obeyed the sum- 
 mons of the pontiff to the new crusade ; (Hermans and English 
 enrolled for the assistance of the Huguenots ; and the Swiss, 
 with mercenary impartiality, stood ready for the cause which 
 had the longest purse and readiest pay. Both sides put forth 
 manifestoes, both professed to be moved with zeal for the glory 
 of God, and both swore fealty to their lawful sovereign. At the 
 commencement of hostilities the Huguenots gained somr 
 advantages, but they wasted their time in useless negotiation 
 while their adversaries acted with vigour. They laboured, in- 
 deed, under the misfortuneof being led by the Prince de Cond6, 
 who, though a brave soldier, was of the blood-royal of France, 
 and might one day, if he did not commit himself too far, be 
 lieutenant-general of the kingdom. It is a grievous thing, in 
 a struggle for principle, to be cursed with a half-hearted com- 
 
 257 
 
f. ! 
 
 "! 8 1 
 
 i 
 
 
 n.. 
 
 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 mander. Fancy the sturdy Puritans of our own country led to 
 battle by some gay Duke of Monmouth, instead of *' trusting in 
 God, and keeping their powder dry" at the bidding of Ireton 
 and Cromwell ! 
 
 The death of Antoine of Navarre, who was mortally wounded 
 at the siege of Rouen, the fal) of Marshal St. Andr6 on the field 
 of Dreux, and the assassination of the Duke of Guise, which to 
 the soured temper of the homicide seemed but a legitimate act 
 of reprisal, were the occasions of that suspension of hostilities 
 which resulted in the hollow treaty of Amboise. It satisfied 
 neither party, and was at best only an armed truce, during which 
 frightful enormities were committed on both sides. War speedily 
 broke out again, and the Catholics triumphed on the plains of 
 St. Deiiis, though the Constable de Montmorency, the last of 
 the triumvirs, died of a wound which he had received upon the 
 field. Again, during the progress of the conflict, did the 
 Huguenots appear to prevail ; but again did the matchless 
 cunning of the queen-mother triumph over the unstable leader, 
 and he signed the peace of Longjumeau, "which," says Mezerai, 
 " left his party at the mercy of their enemies, w'th nc other 
 security than the word of an Italian woman." The treaty never 
 existed save on paper ; the foreign mercenaries were still 
 retained in the kingdom ; the pulpits resounded with the doc- 
 trine that no faith should be kept with heretics ; the streets of 
 the cities were strewed with the corpses of the Huguenots, ten 
 thousand of whom, in three months of treaty, were barbarously 
 slain. The officer of the Prince de Condc^i, while carrying the 
 terms of peace, was arrested and beheaded, in defiance of the 
 king's safe-conduct; and the prince and the admiral, fleeing 
 from an enemy wliom no ties could restrain nor oaths could 
 
 258 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 bind, flung themselves into the city of Rochelle. Thither came 
 the heroic Queen of Navarre with an army of four thousand 
 men ; thither flocked also the most renowned captains of the 
 party ; so that, at the commencement of the third war of religion 
 the Huguenots had at command a more considerable force than 
 ever, and Coligny repeated the aphorism of Themistocles — 
 " My friends, we should have perished if we had not been 
 ruined." On the bloody fields of Jarnac and Montcontour, 
 where the Duke of Anjou, afterwards Henry HI., won his first 
 spurs of fame, their ruin seemed to be complete, for their army 
 was well nigh exterminated ; and of their leaders, the Prince de 
 Cond^ and d'Andelot, the brother of Coligny, were slain ; and 
 the admiral himself was carried, weary and wounded, from the 
 field. But nothing could daunt the spirit of this brave soldier, 
 and while the victors were quaffing their nectar of triumph, and 
 carousing in the flush of victory, he appeared before the gates of 
 Paris at the head of a still stronger and better disciplined army. 
 Again peace was concluded, and the Reformed in appearance 
 obtained more favourable terms. The leaders came to Paris, 
 and were received with fair show of amity by the king and court; 
 but it was only a brief interval of repose, soon to be succeeded 
 by dismay and confusion, for even then the dark Italian and 
 the fanatic Spaniard were brooding over the fierce tragedy to 
 follow. 
 
 For the honour of humanity let us pass rapidly over the 
 massacre of St. Bartholomew — that premeditated and most 
 infamous atrocity. On the 24th August, 1572, at the noon 
 of night — fit time for deeds of blood — the queen-mother and 
 her two guilty sons were shivering in all the timidness of 
 cruelty in the royal chamber. They maintained a sullen 
 
 259 
 
u 
 
 ill "1 
 
 T//£ HUGUENOTS. 
 
 silence, for conscience had made cowards of them all. As 
 they looked out uneasily into the oppressed and solitary 
 night, a pistol shot was heard. Remorse seized upon the 
 irresolute monarch, and he issued orders to arrest the tragedy. 
 It was too late, for the royal tigress at his side, anticipating 
 that his purpose might waver, had already commanded the 
 signal, and even as they spoke the bell of St. Germain aux 
 Auxerrois tolled, heavy and dooming through the darkness. 
 Forth issued the courtly butchers to their work of blood. At 
 the onset the brave old admiral was massacred, and the 
 Huguenots in the Louvre were despatched by halberdiers, 
 with the Court ladies looking on. Armed men, shouting 
 "For God and the king," traversed n\: streets, and forced 
 the dwellings of the heretics. Sixty thousand assassins, wield- 
 ing all the weapons of the brigand a: id the soldier, ran about 
 en all sides, murdering, vvithout dis ction of sex or age, or 
 suffering, all of the ill-fated <x ,"ed ; the air was laden with a 
 tumult of (-""unds, in which the roar ci: arquebus and the crash 
 of hatchel nunglcd with blaspheming taunt and dying groan. 
 
 *' For ]• .ieously, 'mid rapf^ and -.ack, 
 i'he murderer's laughter ans .vered back 
 His prey's convulsive laughter. '"' 
 
 The populacj, already inflamed by the sight of blood, followed 
 in the track of slaughter, mutilating the corpses and dragging 
 them through the kennels in derision. The leaders, the Dukes 
 of Guise, Nevers and Montpensier, riding fiercely from street to 
 street, like the demons of the storm, roused the passion into 
 frenzy by their cries — " Kill, kill ! Blood-letting is good in 
 August. By the king's command. Death to the Huguenot ! 
 Kil' ! " On sped the murder, until city and palace were gorged. 
 
 260 
 
 .hi;.ii 
 
 
 TS 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 Men forgot their manhood, and women their tenderness. In 
 worse than Circean transformation, the human was turned into- 
 the brutal, and there prowled about the streets a race of ghouls 
 and vampires, consumed with an appetite for blood. The roads 
 were almost impassable from the corpses of men, women, and 
 children — a new and appalling barricade ; " The earth was 
 covered thick with other clay, which her own clay did cover." 
 Paris became one vast Red Sea, v/hose blood-waves had no 
 refluent tide. The sun of that blessed Sabbath shone, with its 
 clear kind light, upon thousands of dishonoured nnd desolate 
 homes ; and the air, which should have been hushed from 
 sound until the psalm of devotion woke it, carried upon its 
 startled billows the yells of blasphemers, flushed and drunk 
 with murder, and the shrieks of parting spirit:., like a host of 
 unburied witnesses, crying from beneath thi; altar unto "od, 
 " How long, O Lord, how long ! " 
 
 The massacre was renewed in the provinces. For seven long 
 days Paris was a scene of pillage. Fuieen thousi.nd in the 
 capital, and one hundred thousand throughout ti^e whole of 
 France, are supposed to have perished, n.any by tiie edge of 
 the sword, and many more by the otracted perils of lligl t and 
 of famine. 
 
 Consider all the circumstances it St. Bartholomew's massacre ; 
 the confederacy which plotter . it in secret ; the complicity 
 of the king and court ; the res laid for the teet of the 
 Huguenots; the solemn oath, of safety under whose attesta- 
 tion they were allured to Paris ; the kisses by which, like the 
 Redeemer whom they honoured, they were betrayed to ruin ; 
 the dagger of wholesale murder, whetted upon the broken tables 
 of the Decalogue, and put by prio<?ts and nobles into the hands 
 
 261 
 
 "Wm 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 'of a maddened crowd ; the long continuance of the carnage — 
 the original as it was of the Reign of Terror ; and, lastly, t'.ie 
 uplifting of red hands in thanksgiving, the ringing of joy-bells 
 at Madrid and Rome, and the baptism of all this horrible 
 butchery by the insulted name of religion ; — and we cannot 
 avoid the conclusion that nothing in the annals of human 
 history involves such flagrant violations both of earthly and 
 heavenly law ; that there is a combination of atrocious elements 
 about it for which we look elsewhere in vain ; and that it stands, 
 in unapproachable turpitude, the crime without a shadow and 
 without a parallel. 
 
 We dwell upon the wars of religion and the tragedy of St. 
 Bartholomew, not to keep alive old animosities, but to induce 
 our thankfulness that we live in kindlier times ; to inspire a 
 more reverent appreciation of the priceless heritage of religious 
 freedom ; and, not least, to impress upon our hearts the truth 
 that banded armies and battle's stern array are no meet mission- 
 aries of "the truth as it is in Jesus." Oh, never, we may boldly 
 say it, never did the cruelties of war, nor the tortures of tyranny, 
 advance one iota the cause of our holy religion. The Crusader's 
 lance reclaimed no Saracen from his error. The scimitar of the 
 Moslem might establish a military domination, but the fear of it 
 wrought no spiritual change. Covenanters still gathered in the 
 •dark ravine, and raised the perilous psalm, though the sleuth- 
 hound tracked them tLrough the wild wood, and some, whom 
 the soldiers of Claverhouse had slaughtered, were missing from 
 each successive assembly. With the torture and the stake in 
 prospect ihe coward lip might falter, and the recreant hand might 
 sign the recantation, but the heart would be Protestant still. 
 Christianity is a spiritual kingdom, and no carnal weapons 
 
 262 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 might 
 still. 
 :apons 
 
 glitter in her armoury. To her zealous but mistaken friends 
 who would do battle for her she addresses the rebuke of her 
 Master, " Put up thy sword into its sheath again, for they that 
 take the sword shall perish with the sword." A beautiful and 
 healing presence ! she comes to soothe, not to irritate — to 
 unite, not to estrange. Oh, believe me, Christianity forges no 
 fetters for conscience ; she rejoices not, but shudders, at the 
 stream of blood ! While, on the one hand, it were insult to the 
 sincerity of faith to proffer boon in requital for devotion ; on the 
 other, it were felony of the crown-rights of man to " rob even a 
 beggar of a single motive for his worship ;" and that were an 
 unworthy espousal which would wed the destiny of heaven 
 to the intrigues of earth, and " hang the tatters of a political 
 piety upon the cross of ar ^.; ulted Saviour." 
 
 Alas ! that in our fallen nature there should be such a strange 
 disposition to make persecution coeval with power. Calvin 
 raised no voice in the Genevan Council against the sentence 
 which adjudged Servetus to the stake. The fanatic Roundhead, 
 in his day of power, searching the baronial hall for hidden cope 
 and missal, was to the full as brutal and, because he had clearer 
 light, more criminal than was the roystering cavalier. The 
 Pilgrim Fathers, men honoured for conscience' sake now as 
 much as they were despised a century ago, were not long 
 established in their Goshen home, when, unmindful of their 
 own sharp discipline, they drove out the Quakers into the 
 Egypt of the wilderness beyond. The fact is that persecution 
 generates persecution, the lash and fetters debase as well as 
 agonise the races of the captive and the slave. 
 
 While, however, we admit this tendency, and watch over its 
 beginnings in ourselves — while we confess that in the sad wars 
 
 263 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 •of religion there were Michelades as well as Dragonades, 
 Huguenot reprisals as well as Romanist massacres, we ought 
 not to omit to notice one essential difference which should be 
 ever kept in mind : When Protestants persecute, they persecute 
 of their own " malice aforethought," and in direct opposition 
 to the rescripts of their holy religion — in the other system, 
 persecution is no exotic growth, but springs, indigenous and 
 luxuriant, from the system itself Persecution, in the one case, 
 is by Protestants, not of Protestantism ; in the other case, it is 
 not so much by Romanists, as of Popery. I rejoice to believe 
 that there are multitudes of high-hearted and kindly Roman 
 Catholics who are men, patriots, aye, and Christians too, in 
 spite of their teachings in error. And I am proud of my country 
 and of my humanity, when, in the breach and in the battle, on 
 the summit of Barossa or in the trenches at Sebastopol, I see 
 nationality triumph over ultramontanism, and the inspiration of 
 patriotism extinguish the narrowness of creed. But if the spirit 
 of persecution be not in the heart of the Catholic, it is in the 
 .book of Popery, in the decretal, in the decision of the council, 
 in the fulmination of the Pope. The Church of Rome can 
 only save her charity at the expense of her consistency. Let 
 her erase the "Semper Eadem" which flaunts upon her banner. 
 There is an antiquated claim of infallibility put forward on 
 her behalf sometimes, which she had better leave behind her 
 .altogether. But she cannot change. When she erases penal 
 .statutes from her registers, and coercion and treachery from her 
 •creed — when we see her tolerant in the countries where she 
 lords it in ascendency, as she would fain have us think her in 
 •our own, where, thank God, she yet only struggles for the 
 mastery — when she no longer contemplates aggression — when 
 
 264 
 
 ■ \ 
 
 11:1 
 
onades, 
 2 ought 
 Duld be 
 irsecute 
 position 
 system, 
 Dus and 
 ne case, 
 ise, it is 
 believe 
 Roman 
 too, in 
 country 
 ittle, on 
 )1, I see 
 -ation of 
 he spirit 
 in the 
 council, 
 Ime can 
 y. Let 
 banner, 
 ard on 
 ind her 
 s penal 
 om her 
 re she 
 her in 
 for the 
 -when 
 
 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 lady tract distributors are no longer incarcerated, and when 
 Madiais are free — when papal protection comes not in the form 
 of grape-shot over Tahitian women — when metallic arguments 
 are no longer threatened frcm French corvettes against King 
 George of Tonga — when all these marvels come to pass (and 
 when they do, there is hope of the millennium), then, possibly, 
 we may listen more willingly to the advances of Popery ; but 
 until then, it is the duty of us all, while careful to preserve our 
 own charity — wanting neither gags, nor gibbets, nor penalties, 
 nor prisons, allowing the fullest liberty to hold and to diffuse 
 opinion, robbing of no civil right, and asking for no penal bond 
 — to take our stand, as did our brave and pious fathers, by the 
 altars of our faith, and to cry in the homesteads of our youth, 
 and in the temples of our God, "All kindness to our Romanist 
 fellow-subjects, but a barred door to Popery, and No Peace 
 WITH Rome." 
 
 Horrible as was the massacre of St. Bartholomew, the sub- 
 sequent celebrations of it were yet more revolting. Rome and 
 Madrid were intoxicated with joy. Pope Gregory and his 
 cardinals went to church, amid the jubilee of citizens and 
 the booming of cannon, to render God thanksgiving for the 
 destruction of the Church's enemies. A medal was struck to 
 commemorate the event to the faithful, and a picture of the 
 massacre embellished the walls of the Vatican. Protestant 
 Europe was struck with astonishment and horror. Germany 
 began to hold the name of Frenchman in abhorrence. Geneva 
 appointed a day of fasting and prayer, which continues to this 
 day. Knox, in the Scottish pulpit, denounced vengeance for 
 the deed, with all the boldness of the Hebrew Prophet ; and 
 when the French ambassador made his appearance at the court 
 
 265 
 
 %\ 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 of Queen Elizabeth, she allowed him to pass without a word of 
 recognition through files of courtiers and ladies clad in the 
 deepest mourning. 
 
 Shortly after these events, Charles IX. miserably died, con- 
 sumed with agonies of remorse, and, whether from corrosive 
 sublimate, or from some new and strange malady, with blood 
 oozing out of every pore of his body. Henry III., his brother 
 and successor, was a strange medley of valour and effeminacy, 
 of superstition and licentiousness. His youth of daring was 
 followed by a voluptuous and feeble manhood. He was crafty, 
 cowardly, and cruel. One of the chief actors in St. Bartholo- 
 mew's tragedy, he afterwards caused the assassination of his 
 confrere, the Duke of Guise, who was poniarded in the royal 
 presence-chamber. When revolt was ripe in his provinces, and 
 treason imperilled his throne, he would break off a council, 
 assembled on gravest matters, that he might sigh over the ship- 
 wreck of a cargo of parrots, or deplore in secret the illness of 
 some favourite ape. The Leaguers hated him, and preached 
 openly regicide and rebellion. The Huguenots distrusted him, 
 and Henry of Navarre routed his armies on the field of Coutras. 
 Gifted with high talents, and of kingly presence, he shrank into 
 the shadow of a man — a thing of pomatums and essences — the 
 object of his people's hate and scorn. His reign was a 
 continual succession of intrigue and conspiracy between all 
 the parties in the realm ; and, in 1589, he fell by the knife 
 of Jacques Clement, who was canonised by the Pope for the 
 murder ; and the Vicar of Christ, seated in full consistory at 
 Rome, dared the blasphemous avowal that the devotion of this 
 assassin formed no unworthy comparison with the sacrifice of 
 the blessed Redeemer. 
 
 266 
 
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THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
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 In Henry III. terminated the "bloody and deceitful" race of 
 Valois, ** who did not live out half their days." Francis I. died 
 unregretted ; Henry II. was killed by the lance of Montgomery ; 
 Francis II. never came of age; Charles IX. expired in fearful 
 torments; Henry III. was murdered by a Dominican friar; 
 the Duke d'Alen^on fell a victim to intemperance ; Francis 
 and Henry, successive Dukes of Guise, fell beneath the daggers 
 of assassins. The heads of the persecutors came not to the grave 
 in peace. It is not without an intelligible and solemn purpose 
 that retribution should thus have dogged the heels of tyranny. 
 Oh, strange and subtle affinity between crime and punishment ! 
 Lacratelle, in his *' History of the Wars of Religion," has accu- 
 iiuilated the proofs that nearly all the actors in the massacre of 
 St. Bartholomew suffered early and violent deaths. In the earlier 
 persecutions of the Reformed, the clergy instigated the cutting 
 out of the tongues of the victims to stifle their utterances of 
 dying heroism. See the sad example followed by the frantic 
 populace against the clergy two hundred and fifty years after- 
 wards, in the Reign of Terror ! In the time of the Cardinal of 
 Lorraine, the Loire was choked with common victims ; in the 
 time of Carrier of Nantes, it ran with noble blood ! Henry, Duke 
 of Guise, kicked the corpse of Coligny on the day of St. Bartho- 
 lomew, with the exclamation, " Thou shalt spit no more venom." 
 Sixteen years passed over, and the monarch of France, spurning 
 the slain body of this very Duke of Guise, exclaimed, " Now, at 
 length, I am king." Charles IX., in the frenzy of cowardice, or 
 in the contagion of slaughter, pointed an arquebus at the flying 
 Huguenots ; two hundred years after, Mirabeau brought from 
 the dust of ages that same arquebus, and pointed it at the^throne 
 of Louis XVI. Beza spoke truly when he said, " The Church 
 
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THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 is an anvil upon which many a hammer has been broken." 
 "Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth," and though 
 " the heathen have raged, and the kings of the earth taken 
 counsel together against the Lord, and against His anointed," 
 drifted corpses on the Red Sea shore, Babylon's monarch slain in 
 his own palace, scattered v-^ssels of a proud Armada, wise men 
 taken in their own craftiness, the downfall of a fierce oppressor, 
 the crash of a desolated throne, — all these have proved that 
 " He that sitteth in the heavens doth laugh, the Lord doth have 
 them in derision." The bush in the wilderness has been often 
 set on fire, flames have been kindled on it by countless torches, 
 flaring in incendiary handb ; but the torches have gone out in 
 darkness, the incendiaries have perished miserably, and 
 
 ** The bush itself has mounted higher, 
 And flourish'd, unconsumed, in fire." 
 
 Henry of Navarre succeeded to the throne, but found himself 
 in the peculiar position of a king who had to conquer his king- 
 dom. The Leaguers refused allegiance, and set up as king the 
 old Cardinal of Bourbon, under the name of Charles X. The 
 Duke of Mayenne had convened the states-general in Paris, and 
 was ready to be the Catholic champion, and many of the nobles 
 attached to the party of the court refused to march under a 
 Huguenot leader. The Protestant captains remained faithful 
 and were less exacting. The chief of them, the Duke de Bouil- 
 lon, de Chatillon, the son of Coligny, Agrippa d'Aubigi:^, La- 
 noue, the illustrious Duplessis Mornay, and the still more illus- 
 trious Baron de Rosny, afterwards Duke of Sully, rallied round 
 him and inspirited his small army of seven thousand men. At 
 the head of this army, scanty in numbers but sturdy in valour, 
 and having the new obligation of loyalty added to the old obli- 
 
 268 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
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 gation of religion, Henry joined battle with his adversaries, and 
 triumphed both at Arques and on the memorable field of Ivry. 
 A fe\^ days before the latter battle, Schomberg, general of the 
 German auxiliaries, demanded the arrears of payment for his 
 soldiers. The finances fell short, and the matter was reported 
 to the king. In the first moment of impatience he said, " They 
 are no true men who ask for money on the eve of a battle.'* 
 Repenting of his ill-judged rebuke, he hastened, before he went 
 into action, to offer reparation. " General," said he, in the pre- 
 sence and hearing of his troops, " I have offended you ; this 
 battle will perhaps be the last of my life. I know your merit 
 and your valour ; I pray you pardon and embrace me." Schom- 
 berg replied, " It is true. Sire, that your Majesty wounded me 
 the other day ; but to-day you have killed me, for I shall feel 
 proud to die on this occasion in your service." In the hour of 
 danger Henry called to mind the instructions of his pious 
 mother. Raising his eyes to heaven, he invoked God to wit- 
 ness the justice of his cause. " But, Lord," said he, " if it has 
 pleased Thee to ordain otherwise, or if Thou seest that I shall be 
 one of those kings whom Thou givest in thine anger, take from 
 me my life and crown together, and may my blood be the last 
 that shall be shed in this quarrel." Then riding through the 
 ranks cheerful as a lover speeding to his bridal, he thus addressed 
 his soldiers : " You are Frenchmen, I am your king, and yonder 
 is the enemy." Pointing to a white plume which he had fastened 
 in his helmet, " My children," he said, "look well to your ranks. 
 If the standards fall, rally round my white plume, it will shew 
 you the short road to glory." Animated by strains like these, 
 the soldiers fought like heroes, the Leaguers were utterly routed, 
 and the French historians say that this single field of Ivry has 
 
 269 
 
 
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THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
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 covered Henry of Navarre with a wreath of immortal fame. It 
 has indeed immortalized him, though in a manner on which 
 they would hardly calculate, for it has throned his memory in 
 the stanzas of Macaulay's undying song : 
 
 " Oh, how our hearts were beating when, at the dawn of day. 
 We saw the army of the League drawn out in long array ; 
 With all its priest-led citizens, and all its rebel peers. 
 And Appenzel's stout infantry, and Egmont's Flemish*spears. 
 There rode the brood of false Lorraine, the curses of our land ; 
 And dark Mayenne was in the midst, a truncheon in his hand : 
 And, as we looked on them, we thought of Seine's empurpled flood, 
 And good Coligny's hoary hair all dabbled with his blood ; 
 And we cried unto the living God, who rules the fate of war. 
 To fight for His own holy name, and Henry of Navarre. 
 
 The King has come to marshal us, all in his armour drest. 
 
 And he has bound a snow-white plume upon his gallant crest. 
 
 He looked upon his people, and a tear was in his eye ; 
 
 He looked upon the traitors, and his glance was stern and high. 
 
 Right graciously he smiled on us, as rolled from wing to wing 
 
 Down all our line a deafening shout, ' God save our lord the King.' 
 
 ' And if my standard-bearer fall, as fall full well he may. 
 
 For never saw I promise yet of such a bloody fray ; 
 
 Press where ye see my white plume shine amid the ranks of war, 
 
 And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre.' 
 
 A thousand spurs Are striking deep, a thousand spearS in rest, 
 
 A thousand knights are pressing close behind the snow-white crest ; 
 
 And in they burst, and on they rushed, while, like a guiding star. 
 
 Amidst the thickest carnage blazed the helmet of Navarre. 
 
 Now, God be praised, the day is ours. Mayenne hath turn'd his rein, 
 
 D'Aumale hath cried for quarter. The Flemish count is slain. 
 
 Their ranks are breaking like thin clouds before a Biscay gale ; 
 
 The field is heaped with bleeding steeds, and flags, and cloven mail. 
 
 270 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 But we of the religion have borne us best in fight, 
 
 And the good Lord of Rosny hath ta'en the cornet white. 
 
 Our own true Maximilian the cornet white hath ta'en, 
 
 The cornet white with crosses black, the flag of false Lorraine. 
 
 Up with it high ; unfurl it wide ; that all the host may know 
 
 How God hath humbled the proud house which wrought his Church such 
 
 woe ; 
 Then on the'ground, while trumpets sound their loudest point of war, 
 Fling the red shreds — a foot-cloth meet for Henry of Navarre. 
 
 " Ho 1 maidens of Vienna ; Ho ! matrons of Lucerne ; 
 
 Weep, weep, and rend your hair for those who never shall return. 
 
 Ho ! Philip send, for charity, thy Mexican pistoles, 
 
 That Antwerp monks may sing a mass for thy poor spearmen's souls. 
 
 Ho ! gallant nobles of the League, look that your arms be bright ; 
 
 Ho ! burghers of Saint Genevieve, keep watch and ward to-night : 
 
 For our God hath crush'd the tyrant, our God hath raised the slave, 
 
 And mocked the counsel of the wise and valour of the brave. 
 
 Then glory to His holy name, from whom all glories are. 
 
 And glory to our sovereign lord, King Henry of Navarre !'* 
 
 After this spirit-stirring eulogy it may seem rather an anti- 
 climax to question whether the cause of the Huguenots has in 
 the long run been furthered or damaged by the patronage of 
 Henry of Navarre. Indeed, it was in many respects a grievous 
 misfortune to the interests of Protestantism in France that it 
 was allied for so many years to the fortunes of the house of 
 Bourbon. It was deserted and betrayed by them all, Anthony 
 of Navarre forsook it in hope of a sovereignty ; his brother, 
 Louis of Cond6, for the chance of becoming lieutenant-general ; 
 the younger Cond6, to save his life on St. Bartholomew ; 
 Henry IV., not content with one apostasy, was recreant twice, 
 
 271 
 
 ■ 
 
 ^ j , 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 first for the preservation of his life, and then for the preservation 
 of his crown ; and the three following Bourbons " persecuted 
 this way unto the death." Surely, if they of the Reformed had 
 been docile scholars, apt to learn the lessons of experience and 
 wisdom, they would have profited earlier by the admonition "Put 
 not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is 
 no help." The abjuration of Protestantism by Henry IV. has 
 found some earnest and zealous defenders. It is said that by 
 adhering to the Reformed Church he would have prolonged 
 war, dismembered France, been a king without a crown and 
 without a kingdom, abdicated in favour of the Guise, and 
 delivered up the defenceless Huguenots to the blind fury of the 
 Leaguers and their party. On the other hand, by returning to 
 the Romish communion he restored peace, secured toleration, 
 established an empire, and transmitted a dynasty. With what 
 reason, say they, in the prospect of such consequences, could 
 he persist in the maintenance of a creed to which he had only 
 given, at any time, a traditional and thoughtless adhesion ? 
 Such apologists are worse than any accusers. Henry of Navarre, 
 with all his faults, was a truer man than these defenders make 
 him. He was no hypocrite when he led his gallant troops at 
 Coutras and at Ivry ; and to suppose that for long years he 
 conducted one of the deadliest civil wars which France has 
 ever known without one honest enthusiasm, is to fasten upon 
 him the brand of a colossal blood-guiltiness for which history 
 would scarcely find a parallel. Some ascribe his apostasy to a 
 humane and politic foresight ; others, quite as plausibly, to the 
 absence of commanding principle, the power of seductive 
 influences, and a weakness for sensual pleasure. But whether 
 prompted by godless expediency or by fatal flexibility to the 
 
 272 
 
THE HUG UENO TS. 
 
 influences of evil, it was a great sin. It deserves sharp and 
 stern reprobation. Taking the best view of it, it exalted hrman 
 sagacity above God's great iaws of truth and right, which cannot 
 be violated with iniininity. Taking the worst view of it, it was 
 an impious blasphemy against all sacred things, — in the strong 
 but just words of a modern French historian, " a lie from begin- 
 ning to end." But honesty is the best policy as well as the 
 noblest practice ; and it may be questioned fairly whether the 
 abjuration was not, h la Talleyrand, " worse than a crime — a 
 blunder ;" whether the political results of it were not fraught as 
 much with mischief as with blessing. It conciliated the Catholics, 
 but by presenting religion as a profession which might be changed 
 like a garment, it tended to .sap the foundations of all i)iety, and 
 prepared the way for those godless philo.soi)hising ideas which 
 cursed the France of the future with infidelity. It gave the 
 Huguenots a comparative and mistrusted toleration, but it 
 robbed them of their severer virtues, and imperilled their con- 
 sistency by the contagion of its example. It secured to himself 
 a reign of seventeen years, but they were years of vice and 
 error, abruptly terminated by the assassin's dagger. It rescued 
 France from the rivalry of a disputed succession, but it entailed 
 upon her two centuries of misrule and despotism. It trans- 
 mitted the crown to seven of his posterity in succession ; but 
 one was a monkish hypochondriac, one has left an infamous 
 name, three were deposed by their tumultuous subjects, and one 
 perished on the scaffold. Louis XIV. seems to be the only 
 exception to the fatality which, like a weird spirit of disaster, 
 waited upon the house of Bourbon, and even he — a despot and 
 a debauchee, a prodigal and a persecutor — entailed ruin, if he 
 did not suffer it, upon his name and race. So true are the 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 ! 
 
 273 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 maxims of the Holy Book : " A lying tongue is but for a moment, 
 hut the lip of truth shall be established for ever." " The righteous 
 shall be in everlasting remembrance, but the memory of the 
 wicked shall rot." 
 
 We have said there was in the character of Henry of Navarre 
 a fatal tlexibility to evil influences, anJ we are inclined to think 
 that if we regard him as too indolent to rebel against the pres- 
 sure of present advisers, constant only in fickleness, we shall 
 explain many of the seeming inconsistencies of his conduct and 
 of his reign. He seems to have had, mingled with the bravery 
 and intellect which he undoubtedly possessed, a marvellous duc- 
 tility, which yielded to well nigh every touch of interest or pas- 
 sion. He never seems to have said " No," to any one. " My 
 son," said Jeanne d'Albret, " swear fealty to the cause of the 
 Reformed." The oath was taken. " My brother," said Charles 
 IX., " don't bury yourself in the country, come to court." 
 Henry came. " Don't you think you had better marry Marguerite 
 of Valois?" No objections. "The mass or the massacre," 
 thundered out the assassins on the day of St. Bartholomew. 
 " Oh, the mass, by all means." " Follow after pleasure," whis- 
 pered Catharine de Medicis ; " kings and princes are absolved 
 from too strict adhesion to the marriage vow." Henry too 
 readily obeyed. " Let us form an alliance," said Henry of 
 Valois, although he had told the States at Blois that they were 
 not to believe him, even if he promised with most sacred oaths 
 that he would spare the heretics. " With all my heart," was 
 the reply of Navarre. " Become Catholic," shouted the nobles 
 of the court, "and we will swear allegiance." "Wait a bit," 
 was the answer of the king. " Abjure," was the soft whisper 
 of the all powerful Gabrielle d'Estrdes ; " the pope can annul 
 
 274 
 
 
THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 your marriage, and then ours shall be love and gladness." 
 Henry abjured. " Sire, we look to you for protection," respect- 
 fully said the Reformed. **Oh, of course ; only if I should 
 seem to favour the Catholics, remember the fatted calf was 
 killed for the prodigal, and you are the elder son." *' Sire, don't 
 you think it is rather hard upon the Jesuits that they .should be 
 banished from France? May they not come back again?* 
 " Oh, certainly, if they wish it ;" and they came — and among 
 them Ravaillac the assassin. Throughout the whole of his life 
 there is scarcely a recorded instance of his maintenance of an 
 individual opinion, or of his assertion of a commanding will. 
 Oh, these men who cannot say "No;" what mischief they 
 have wrought in this world ! Their history would be a sad one 
 if we could only trace it. Advantages thrown away, opportunities 
 of golden promise slipping by unheeded, fortune squandered, 
 friends neglected ; one man drawn into difficult controversy, 
 another involved in ruinous speculation, a third wallowing in 
 the mire of intemperance, a fourth dragged into the foul he A 
 a gaming-house. Gambling, drunkenness, felony, beggary, ruin 
 both to body and soul, all because men could not say " No." 
 
 Believe me, he who can say "No," when to say it is to speak 
 to his own hurt, has achieved a conquest greater far than he 
 that taketh a city. Let me exhort you to cultivate this talent for 
 yourselves. You need not mistake sauciness for strength, and 
 be rude, and brusque, and self-opinionated in your indepen- 
 dence. That extreme were as uncomely as the other. But let 
 it be ours to be self-reliant amid hosts of the vacillating — real in 
 a generation of triflers — true amongst a multitude of shams ; 
 when tempted to swerve from principle, sturdy as an oak in its 
 maintenance ; when solicited by the enticements of sinners, firm 
 
 275 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 as a rock in our der'il. I trust that yours may never be the 
 character which, that you may be the more impressed by it, I 
 give you in the poet's pleasant verse : 
 
 ** • He had faults, perhaps had many, 
 
 But one fault above them all 
 Lay like heavy lead upon him, 
 
 Tyrant of a patient thrall. 
 Tyrant seen, confess'd, and hated. 
 
 Banish 'd only to recall.' • 
 
 *' • Oh ! he drank ?' ' His drink was water ! ' 
 • Gambled ? ' ' No ! he hated play.' 
 ' Then perchance, a tenderer feeling 
 Led his heart and head astray ? ' 
 ' No ! both honour and religion 
 Kept him in the purer way.' 
 
 " ' Then he scorned life's mathematics. 
 Could not reckon up a score. 
 Pay his debts, or be persuaded 
 
 Two and two were always four ? ' 
 ' No ! he was exact as Euclid, 
 
 Prompt and punctual — no one more.' 
 
 •• • Oh ! a miser? ' ' No. ' ' Too lavish ? ' 
 ' Worst of guessers, guess again. ' 
 ' No ! I'm weary hunting failures. 
 
 Was he seen of mortal ken ? 
 Paragon of marble virtues, 
 
 Quite a model man of men ! ' 
 
 ** • At his birth an e 'il spirit 
 
 Charms and speils around him flung. 
 And with well concocted malice, 
 
 276 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 Laid a curse upon his tongue ; 
 Curse that daily made him wretched 
 Earth's most wretched sons among. 
 
 " ' He could plead, expound, and argue, 
 Fire M'ith wit, with wisdom glow ; 
 But one word for ever failed him, 
 
 Source of all his pain and woe: 
 Luckless man ! he could not say it. 
 
 Could not, dare not, answer — No !' " 
 
 The sole result of advantage immediately flowing from the 
 kings's apostacy, was the power which it gave him to promulgate 
 the celebrated Edict of Nantes, the great charter of the French 
 Reformation. In i! e preamble it was acknowledged that God 
 was adored by all the French people, with unity of intention 
 though in variety of form j and it was then declared to be a 
 perpetual and irrevocable law — the main foundation of union 
 and tranquillity in the state. The concessions granted by it 
 were, — i. Full liberty of conscience (in private) to all; 2. The 
 public celebration of worship in p aces where it was established 
 at the time of the passing of the Edict, and in the suburbs of 
 cities ; 3. That superior lords might hold assemblies within the 
 precincts of their chateaux, and that gentlemen of lower degree 
 might admit visitors to the number of thirty to their domestic 
 worship \ 4. That Protestantism should be no bar to offices of 
 public trust, nor to participation in the benefactions of charity ; 
 5. That they should have chartered academies for the education 
 of their youth ; 6. That they might convene and hold national 
 synods ; and 7. That they should be allowed a certain number 
 of cautionary towns, fortified and garrisoned to secure against 
 infractions of the covenant. This Edict, though as it appears 
 
 277 
 
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 to us recognising an imf>erium in imperio, and as such giving 
 freedom but in grudging measure, was for eighty-seven years the 
 rule of right, if not the bulwark of defence, for the Protestants of 
 France. Those years, after all, were years of distrust and 
 suspicion, of encroachment on the one hand and of resistance 
 on the other. The f;ill of Rochelle, and the edict of pardon in 
 1629, definitively terminated the religious wars of France, and 
 the Protestants, excluded from court employment and from the 
 civil service, lost their temptations to luxury and idleness, and 
 became the industrial sinews of the state. They farmed the fine 
 land of the Cevennes and the vineyards of Berri. The wine- 
 trade of Guienne, the cloths of Caen, the maritime trade on the 
 seaboard of Normandy, the manufactures in the north-western 
 provinces, the silks and taffetas of Lyons, and many others 
 which time would fail us to mention, were almost entirely in their 
 hands ; and, by the testimony of their enemies, they combined 
 the highest citizenship with the highest piety, industry, frugality, 
 integrity— all the commercial virtues hallowed by unbending 
 conscientiousness, earnest love of religion, and a continual fear 
 of God. 
 
 The Edict of Nantes was revoked on the 22d October, 1685. 
 The principal causes which led to this suicidal stroke of policy 
 were the purchased conversions and the Dragonades. Louis 
 XIV. had a secret fund which he devoted to the conversion of 
 his Protestant subjects. The average price for a convert was 
 about six livres per head, and the abjuration and the receipt, 
 twin vouchers for the money, were submitted to the king 
 together. The management of this fund was entrusted to 
 Pelisson, originally a Huguenot, but who became a convert to 
 amend his fortunes, and a converter to advance them. The 
 
 278 
 
THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 establishment was conducted iij)on strictly commercial princi- 
 ples. It had its branches, correspondents, letters of credit, lirts 
 of prices current, and so forth, like any other mercantile concern. 
 There is extant a curious letter, perhaps we should say circular, 
 of Pelisson's, which shews that, amid all his zeal, he had a keen 
 eye for business, and was not disposed to be imprudent in his 
 speculations with the consciences of others. " Although," he 
 says, *' you may go as far as a hundred francs, it is not meant 
 that you are always to go to that extent, as it is necessary to use 
 the utmost possible economy ; in the first place, to shed this 
 dew (O blessed baptismal dew !) upon as many as possible ; and 
 besides, if we give a hundred francs to i)eople of no consequence, 
 without any fannly to follow them, those who are a little above 
 them, or who bring a number of children after them, will demand 
 far larger sums." Pelisson's success was so great that Louvois 
 was stimulated with the like holy ambition, only his converting 
 agency was not a charge of money, but a charge of dragoons. 
 Troops were quartered upon Huguenot families, and the soldiers 
 were allowed every possible license of brutality, short only of 
 rape and murder. All kinds of threat and indignity were prac- 
 tised to induce the Protestants to abjure ; the ingenuity of the 
 soldiers was taxed to devise tortures that were agonising without 
 being mortal. Whole provinces were reported as being 
 converted. One of the agents in the Cevennes wrote to the 
 Chancellor thus: "The number of Protestants in this province 
 is 240,000. I asked until the 25th of next month for their 
 entire conversion, but I fixed too distant a date, for I believe 
 that at the end of this month all will be done." No day passed 
 without bringing to the king the news of thousands of conver- 
 sions ; the court affected to believed that Protestantism in France 
 
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 279 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
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 was at an end, and the king, willingly deluded, no longer hesi- 
 tated to strike the last blow. On 22d October 1685, he signed 
 the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The following were the 
 chief provisions : The abolition of Protestant worship through- 
 out the land, under penalty of arrest of body and confiscation 
 of goods. Ministers were to quit the kingdom in a fortnight, 
 but if they would be converted they might remain and have an 
 advance of salary. Protestants schools were closed, and all 
 children born after the passing of the law were to be baptized 
 by the priests, and brought up in the communion of Rome. All 
 refugees were to return to France in four months, and to abjure, 
 otherwise their property was declared confiscate, under pain of 
 the galleys for men, and imprisonment for women. Protestants 
 were forbidden to quit the kingdom, and to carry their fortunes 
 abroad. All the strict laws concerning relapsing heretics were 
 confirmed; and finally, those Protestants who had not changed 
 their religion might remain in France until it should please God 
 to enlighten them." This lasi sentence sounds bravely pious and 
 liberal, and many of the Protestants began to rejoice that at 
 least private liberty of conscience remained to them ; but they 
 soon found that the interpretation of it was, " until the dragoons 
 should convert them as they had converted whole provinces 
 before." The provisions of the edict were carried out with 
 inflexible rigour. The pastors were driven into immediate 
 banishment, the laity were forbidden tc follow them ; but in spite 
 of prohibitions and perils, in the face cf the attainder and of the 
 galleys, there were few abjurations and many refugees. Some 
 crossed the frontier sword in hand, others bribed the guards, and 
 assumed all sorts of disguises j ladies of quality might be seen 
 •crawling many weary leagues to escape at once from their per- 
 
 280 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 er hesi- 
 sigiied 
 rere the 
 hrough- 
 iscation 
 Mtnight, 
 have an 
 and all 
 3aptized 
 ne. All 
 ) abjiire, 
 pain of 
 )testants 
 fortunes 
 ics were 
 changed 
 
 mse God 
 
 ous and 
 
 that at 
 
 Dut they 
 
 ragoons 
 
 ovinces 
 
 lit with 
 
 mediate 
 
 in apite 
 
 d of the 
 
 Some 
 
 •ds, and 
 
 be seen 
 
 eir per- 
 
 secutors and their country. Some put out to sea in frail and 
 open boats, preferring the cruel chances of wind and wave to 
 the more cruel certainty of their fierce human oppressors ; and 
 fair women, who had lived all their lives in affluence, and whose 
 cheeks the air of heaven had never visited too roughly, fled 
 without food or store, save a little brackish water, or gathered 
 snow by the road-side, with which the mothers moistened the 
 parched lips of their babes. Protestant countries received the 
 refugees with open arms. England, America, Germany, Swit- 
 zerland, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Prussia, Holland — all 
 profited by this wholesale proscription of Frenchmen. It is 
 difficult to estimate the numbers who escaped. Vauban wrote, 
 a year after the Revocation, that France had lost 100,000 
 inhabitants, 60,000,000 of francs in specie, 9000 sailors, 12,000 
 veterans, 600 officers, and her most flourishing branches of 
 manufacture and trade. Sismondi considers the loss to have 
 exceeded 300,000 men; and Capefigue, the latest writer on the 
 subject, and an adversary to the Protestant cause, reports that 
 at least 225,000 quitted the kingdom. But all are agreed that 
 the refugees were among the bravest, the most loyal, and the 
 most industrious in the kingdom, and that they carried with 
 them the arts by which they had enriched their country, and 
 abundantly repaid the hospitality whic!^ afforded them in other 
 lands that asylum which was denied them in their own. 
 
 So early as the latter half of the sixteenth century thousands 
 of French fugitives had taken refuge in England from the 
 persecutions which followed the massacre of St. Bartholomew. 
 The first French church in London was established in 1550, 
 and owed its origin to the piety of King Edward VI., and to 
 the powerful protection of Somerset and Cranmer. Churches 
 
 281 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 W ': 
 
 were subsequently founded, by successive emigrations, in Can- 
 terbury, Sandwich, Norwich, Southampton, Glastonbury, Dover, 
 and several oth'^r towns ; so that at the period when the Edict 
 of Nautes was revoked, there were centres of unity around 
 which the persecuted ones might rally. It is estimated that 
 nearly eighty thousand established themselves in this country 
 during the ten years which preceded or followed the Revocation. 
 About one-third of them settled in London, especially in the 
 districts of Long Acre, Seven Dials, and Spitalfields. Scotland 
 and Ireland received their share of refugees. The quarter in 
 Edinburgh long known as Picardy, and French Church Street 
 in Cork, are attestations of their presence there. The French 
 Protestants were very efficient supporters of William of Orange 
 in those struggles for principle which drove the last of the 
 Stuarts from the throne. The revolution in England was effected 
 without bloodshed ; but in Ireland numbers of the refugees 
 rallied round the Protestant standard. A refugee, de la Melo 
 ni6re, was brigadier at the siege of Carrickfergus ; a refugee, 
 Marshal Schomberg, led the troops at the Battle of the Boyne ; 
 and when William was established in London, and, breaking off 
 diplomatic relations, enjoined the French ambassador to quit 
 within twenty-four hours, by one of those caprices which are 
 strangely like retribution, a refugee, de I'Estang, was sent to 
 notify his dismissal ; and a refugee, St. Leger, received orders 
 to escort him safely to Dover. 
 
 The influence which the refugees exerted upon the trade and 
 manufactures of the country was more widespread and more 
 lasting. The commercial classes of England ought, of all 
 others, to feel grateful to the Protestants of France ; for the 
 different branches of manufacture which were introduced by 
 
 a82 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 le and 
 more 
 of all 
 )r the 
 
 led by 
 
 them have mainly contributed to make our " merchant princes, 
 and our traffickers the honourable of the earth." They estab- 
 lished a factory in Spitalfields, where silks were woven on 
 looms copied from those of Lyons and of Tours ; they taught 
 the English to make " brocades, satins, paduasoys, velvets, and 
 stuffs of mingled silk and cotton." They introduced also the 
 manufacture of fine linen, of Caudebec hats, of printed calicoes, 
 of Gobelin tapestry, of sailcloth, and of paper. Most of these 
 things had previously been obtained only by importation ; 
 where native manufactories were at work they produced articles 
 of coarser material and of less elegant design. It has been 
 ascertained, by calculation, that the manufactures introduced 
 into this country by these same despised Huguenot traders 
 deprived France of an annual return of ;;£" 1,800,000. The J 
 is an old proverb, " Whom the gods would destroy they first 
 madden ;" and certainly the revocation of the Edict of Nantes 
 was not only an atrocious wickedness, but an act of unparalleled 
 folly. 
 
 Many of the refugees and their descendants attained honour- 
 able positions, and well served the country of their adoption in 
 art, and science, and statesmanship, and jurisprudence, and 
 literature, and arms. Thomas Savery, a refugee, was the 
 inventor of a machine for draining marshes, and obtained a 
 patent for it so long ago as 1698. Dennis Papin, a refugee, 
 realised, a century before Watt watched the tea-kettle, the great 
 idea of steam power, and had a notion, which they called " a 
 pretension " then, of navigating vessels without oars or sails. 
 Saurin burst into the reputation of his eloquence at the Hague ; 
 but at the old French church in Threadneedle Street he 
 " preened his wings of fire." Abbadie discoursed with mild 
 
 R 283 
 
 I 
 
m 
 
 1,1 If 
 
 ,f. 
 
 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 and earnest persuasion in the church at Savoy, and then wrote, 
 with abiUty and effect, from the deanery of Killaloe. The first 
 literary newspaper in Ireland was published by the pastor Droz, 
 a refugee, who founded a library on College Green, in Dublin. 
 The physician Desaguli6rs, the disciple and friend of Newton ; 
 Thelluson (Lord Rendlesham), a brave soldier in the Peninsular 
 War, more distinguished than notorious ; Thelluson, the million- 
 aire, the eccentric will-maker, more notorious than distinguished; 
 General Ligonier, who commanded the English army at the 
 battle of Lawfield ; General Prevost, who distinguished himself 
 in the American War; General de Blaquiere, a man of high 
 personal valour and military skill ; Labouch^re, formerly in the 
 cabinet ; Lord Eversley, who, as Mr. Shaw Leftvre, was Speaker 
 of the House of Commons ; Sir John Romilly, the present 
 Master of the Rolls j Sir Samuel Romilly, his humane and 
 accomplished father ; Majendie, some time Bishop of Chester; 
 Saurin, once Attorney-General for Ireland ; Austen Henry 
 Layard, the excavator of Nineveh, — all these, it is said, are 
 descendants of the families of the French refugees. 
 
 The descendants of the Hugenots long remained as a distinct 
 people, preserving a nationality of their own, and entertaining 
 hopes of return, under more favourable auspices, to their 
 beloved fatherland. In the lapse of years these hopes grew 
 gradually fainter, and both habit and interest drew them closer 
 to the country of their shelter and of their adoption. The fierce 
 wars of the Republic, the crash of the first Revolution, and the 
 threatened invasion of England by the first Napoleon, severed 
 the last ties which bound them to their own land, and, their 
 affinities and sympathies being for the most part English, there 
 was an almost absolute fusion both of race and name. 
 
 284 
 
THE HUGUENOTS, 
 
 ote, 
 
 first 
 
 >roz, 
 
 blin. 
 
 ton; 
 
 sular 
 
 llion- 
 
 shed; 
 
 it the 
 
 imself 
 
 f high 
 
 in the 
 
 peaker 
 
 )resent 
 
 le and 
 
 lester \ 
 
 Henry 
 
 id, are 
 
 there 
 
 One hardly knows, indeed, where to look for a genuine Saxon 
 now, for the refugee blood circulates beneath many a sturdy 
 patronymic whose original wearer one might have sworn had 
 lived in the Heptarchy, or trod the beechen glade in the time 
 of Eanwolf and Athelstan. Who would suppose for a moment 
 that there can lurk anything Norman in the colourless names 
 of White and Black, or in the authoritative names of King and 
 Masters, or in the juvenile name of Young, or in the stave-and- 
 barrel-suggesting appellation of Cooper, or in the light and airy 
 denomination of Bird ? Yet history tells us that these are the 
 names now borne by those who at the close of the last century 
 rejoiced in the designations of Leblanc, Lenoir, Loiseau, Le- 
 jeunes, Le Tonnellier, Lemaitre, Leroy. The fact was, that 
 when Napoleon threatened to invade England, to which they 
 owed so much, they felt ashamed of being Frenchmen, and 
 translated their names into good sturdy Saxon. Thus did these 
 noble men — faithful witnesses for God, brave upholders of the 
 supremacy of conscience — enrich the revenues and vindicate 
 the liberty of the land which had furnished them a home ; and 
 then, as the last tribute of their gratitude, they merged their 
 nationality in ours, and became one with us in feeling, in 
 language, in religion. 
 
 Protestantism in France — oppressed by many restrictions, 
 suffering equally under a parricidal republic and under a 
 " paternal despotism " — yet lives and struggles on. Though 
 small in its numerical extent, it does no unworthy work; 
 though unostentatious in its simple worship, it yet bears no 
 inglorious witness against apostasy and sin. There is hope for 
 the future of France — hope in the dim streaks of the morning, 
 that the day will come — hope in the hoariness of Popery, for it 
 
 285 
 
 
ii^ 
 
 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 is dismally stricken in years — hope in the inability of scepticism 
 and philosophy, falsely so called, to fill a national heart, around 
 which an unsatisfied desire keeps for ever moaning like the 
 wind around a ruined cairn — hope, above all, in the unexhausted 
 power of that Divine Word which, when it has free course, will 
 be glorified ; and in the sure promise, faithful amid all change, 
 that " the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms 
 of our God and His Christ, and He shall reign for ever." 
 
 And England, what of her? The dear old land, rich in 
 ancestral memory, and radiant with a younger hope ; the Elim 
 of palms and fountains in the exile's wilderness — whose soil the 
 glad slave blesses as he leaps on her shores a freeman : England 
 — standing like a rock in mid-ocean, and when the tempest 
 howls elsewhere, receiving only the spent spray of the revolu- 
 tionary wave \ or as the Ark in the Deluge, the only mission of 
 the frantic waters being to bear it safely to the Ararat of rest ; 
 England — great by her gospel heritage, powerful by her Pro- 
 testant privileges, free by her forefathers' martyrdoms ! What of 
 her ? Is she to be faithful or traitorous, gifted with increasing 
 prosperity — or shorn of her strength, and hasting to decay? 
 The nations of old have successively flourished and faded. 
 Babylon and Carthage, Macedon and Persia, Greece and Rome 
 — all in their turn have yielded to the law of decline. Is it of 
 necess. 7 uniform ? Must we shrivel into inanition while 
 " westward the course of empire takes its way ? " I may be 
 sanguine, that is an error of enthusiasm ! I may be proud of 
 my birthland, of all pride that is the least unholy — but both the 
 patriot's impulse and the seer's inspiration prompt the answer. 
 No — a thousand times No ! — if only there be fidelity to prin- 
 ciple, to truth, to God. Not in the national characteristics of 
 
 286 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 :icism 
 
 round 
 
 ce the 
 
 Eiusted 
 
 ,e, will 
 
 hange, 
 
 gdoms 
 
 rich in 
 le Elim 
 soil the 
 uigland 
 tempest 
 ; revolu- 
 ission of 
 of rest ; 
 er Pro- 
 What of 
 [Creasing 
 decay ? 
 Id faded, 
 id Rome 
 Is it of 
 m while 
 may be 
 proud of 
 both the 
 answer, 
 to prin- 
 iristics of 
 
 reverence and hope — reverence for the struggling past, hope 
 in the beautiful future ; not in the absence of class antagonisms, 
 or in the fine community of interest in all things sacred and 
 free ; not in the true practicalness of the British mind, doing, 
 not dreaming, ever \ not in any or all of these, valuable and 
 influential as they unquestionably are, put we our trust for the 
 bright destiny of England. Her history has facts on record 
 which we would do well to ponder. " One uniform connections^ 
 as Dr. Croly has accurately shewn, " between Romish ascendency 
 and national disaster — between Romish discountenance and national 
 renown.^* To the question of Voltaire then, " Why has England 
 so long and so successfully maintained her free institutions?" 
 I would not answer, with Sir James Stephen, " because England 
 is still German," though that may be a very substantial political 
 reason ; but rather " because England is still Protestant, with 
 a glad gospel, a pure altar, an unsealed, entire, wide open 
 Bible." Let her keep her fidelity and she will keep her 
 position, and there need be no bounds to the sacred magnifi- 
 cence of her preservation. For nations, as for individuals, that 
 which is right is safe. A godless expediency or an unworthy 
 compromise are sure avenues to national decline. Oh, if we 
 would retain that influence which, as a nation, we hold in 
 stewardship from God, there must be no adulterous alliances 
 between Truth and Error, no conciliations at the expense of 
 principle, and an utter abhorrence, alike by church and cabinet 
 and crown, of that corrupt maxim of a corrupt creed, that it is 
 lawful " to do evil that good may come." 
 
 •' Do ill that good may come, so Satan spake. 
 Woe to the land deluded by that lie ; 
 
 287 
 

 THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 Woe to its rulers, for whose evil sake 
 The curse of God may now be hovering nigh : 
 
 Up, England, and avert it ! boldly break 
 The spells of sorceress Rome, and cast away 
 
 Godless expedience. Say, is it wise. 
 
 Or right, or safe, for some chance gains to-day. 
 
 To dare the vengeance from to-morrow's skies ? 
 Be wiser, thou dear land, my native home. 
 
 Do always good — do good that good may come. 
 The path of duty plain before thee lies. 
 Break, break the spells of the enchantress Rome. " 
 
 And now, at the close, let me repeat the sentiment advanced 
 at the beginning. God is working in the world, and therefore 
 there shall be progress for ever. God's purpose doth not 
 languish. Through a past of disaster and struggle, " Truth for 
 ever on the scaffold, Wrong for ever on the throne," through 
 centuries of persecution, with oppressors proud and with con- 
 fessors faithless, amid multitudes apostate and shame-hearted, 
 with only here and there an Abdiel, brave, but single-handed — 
 God has been always working, evolving, in His quiet power, 
 from the seeming the real, from the false the true. Not for 
 nothing blazed the martyrs' fires — not for nothing toiled brave 
 sufferers up successive hills of shame. God's purpose doth not 
 languish. The torture and trial of the past have been the stern 
 ploughers in His service, who never suspended their husbandry, 
 and who have " made long their furrows." Into those furrows 
 the imperishable seed hath fallen. The heedless world hath 
 trodden it in, tears and blood have watered it, the patient sun 
 hath warmed and cheered it to its ripening, and it shall be 
 ready soon. " Say not ye, there are yet four months and then 
 Cometh harvest ! Lift up your eyes," and yonder, upon the 
 
 288 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 crest of the mountain, the lone watcher, the prophet with the 
 shining forehead, looking out upon God's acres, announces to 
 the waiting people — " The fields are white unto the harvest ; 
 thrust in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe." But the Lord 
 wants reapers. Who of you will go out, sickle in hand, to 
 meet Him ? The harvest is ripe ; shall it droop in heavy and 
 neglected masses for want of reapers to gather it in ? To you, 
 the youngs in your enthusiasm — to you, the aged, in your 
 wisdom — to you, men of enterprise and ardour — to you, heirs 
 of the rarest endurance, and affection of womanhood — to you, 
 the rich in the grandeur of your equalising charity — to you, the 
 poor, in the majesty of your ungrudging labour, the Master 
 comes and speaks. Does not the whisper thrill you ? " Why 
 stand ye here all the day idle ?" Up, there's work for you all 
 — work for the lords of broad acres, work for the kings of two 
 hands. Ye are born, all of you, to a royal birthright. Scorn 
 not the poor, thou wealthy — his toil is nobler than thy luxury. 
 Fret not at the rich, thou poor — his beneficence is comelier 
 than thy murmuring. Join hands, both of you, rich and poor 
 together, as ye toil in the brotherhood of God's great harvest- 
 field— heirs of a double heritage — thou poor, of thy kingly 
 labour — thou rich, of thy queenly charity — and let heaven bear 
 witness to the bridal. 
 
 i 
 
 The rich man's son inherits lands, 
 And piles of brick, and stone, and gold, 
 
 And he inherits soft white hands. 
 And tender flesh that fears the cold, 
 Nor dares to wear a garment old : 
 A heritage, it seems to me, 
 One scarce would wish to hold in fee. 
 
 289 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 The rich man's son inherits cares, — 
 The bank may break, the factory bum, 
 
 A breath may burst his bubble shares ; 
 And soft white hands could hardly earn 
 A living that would serve his turn : 
 A heritage, it seems to me, 
 One scarce would wish to hold in fee. 
 
 What doth the poor man's son inherit ? 
 Stout muscles and a sinewy heart, 
 
 A hardy frame, a hardier spirit'; 
 King of two hands, he does his part 
 In every useful toil and art : 
 A heritage, it seems to me, 
 A king might wish to hold in fee. 
 
 "What doth the poor man's son inherit ? 
 A patience learn'd of being poor. 
 
 Courage, if sorrow comes, to bear it, 
 A fellow-feeling that is sure 
 To make the outcast bless his door : 
 A heritage, it seems to me, 
 A king might wish to hold in fee. 
 
 Oh, rich man's son I there is a toil 
 That with all others level stands, 
 
 Large charity does never soil, 
 But only whiten soft white hands ; 
 This is the best crop from thy lands : 
 A heritage, it seems to me, 
 Worth being rtch to hold in fee. 
 
 Oh, poor man's son ! scorn not thy state^ 
 There is worse weariness than thine 
 
 In merely being rich and great ; 
 Toil only gives the soul to shine. 
 
 290 
 
THE HUGUENOTS. 
 
 And makes rest fragrant and l>enign : 
 A heritage, it seems to me, 
 Wortli being /tfor tt hold in fee. 
 
 Both, heirs to some six feet of sod, 
 Are equal in the earth at last. 
 
 Both, children of the same dear God, 
 Prove title to your heirship vast 
 By records of a well-fiU'd past : 
 A heritage, it seems to me. 
 Well worth a life to hold in fee. 
 
 
 291 
 
:^ 
 
 A PILGRIMAGE 
 
 TO 
 
 TWO AMERICAN SHRINES. 
 
1 
 
 t-; 
 
 1 
 
 |3 
 
 : 
 
 'fl 
 
 ■! ^,|j 
 
 
 i^JI 
 
 ' 
 
 
 rm 
 
 
 
 ' p* 'l 
 
 1 
 
 
 
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 c 
 
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 11 
 
 s 
 a 
 a 
 b 
 
 V 
 
 Hi 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 t 
 
 c 
 c 
 
A PILGRIMAGE 
 
 TO 
 
 TWO AMERICAN SHRINES. 
 
 IN an old country, where almost every plain has been a 
 battle-field, and every hill top an altar of freedom ; where 
 castled crag and fairy glen have each a legend of their own ; 
 where in every journey you light upon a spot which some hero 
 has glorified, or of which some minstrel has sung — shrines are so 
 numerous, and so often trodden by pilgrim feet, that they lose 
 somewhat of their venerableness because they arc so accessible 
 and common. America, too young, by comparison, for history, 
 and too stirring and real for romance, has but few holy places ; 
 but these are treasured with a solemn affection in the hearts of 
 the choicest of her sons. Two days in the month of August, 
 1869, are days that will live in my memory, as the days on 
 which I became familiar with places which for many years I 
 had longed to see — the one the sepulchre of an Apostle — the 
 other the birthplace of a nation. Leaving Portland (in Maine) 
 by the Eastern Railway, a ride of some seventy miles along the 
 Atlantic coast brings the traveller to a small town in the State 
 of Massachusetts, called Newburyport. There is nothing to 
 distinguish it from an ordinary New England village ; and as 
 
 295 
 
 1 
 
 n 
 
A PILGRIMAGE TO TWO AMERICAN SHRINES. 
 
 you pass along its narrow streets, not overcrowded with traffic 
 or passengers, it does not strike you as looking like the scene 
 of anything stirring or memorable. But come with me, down a 
 lane somewhat narrower than the rest ; pause before this build- 
 ing, now two comfortable residences, but in the former time the 
 parsonage of the old Federal Street Church — with spacious 
 entrance hall, out of which the fine oak staircase led into the 
 rooms above. It was here, on the evening of the 29th of Sep- 
 tember, 1770, that a blue-eyed evangelist — tall, manly, earnest, 
 though in feeble health, and older in constitution than in 
 years — gazed on an eager crowd, who filled the hall and 
 stretched out on the pavement beyond, craving some loving 
 message from the lips on which they were wont to hang. 
 It was on this staircase that he paused; and, as if with 
 a sense of opportunity that was rapidly vanishing, and moments 
 that were more precious than gold, gathered up his fast waning 
 strength and delivered his latest exhortation upon the things of 
 God. It was in the room above that, on the following night, 
 amid the pomp of watching stars, the brave spirit wrestled with 
 its agony ; and it was here that, when the Sabbath sun was just 
 rising over the neighbouring waters, the chariots of God came, 
 and GEORGE WHITEFIELD, the later Elijah, " was not, 
 for the Lord had taken him." Passing up the lane again, you 
 enter the church, large and elegant, and so perfectly constructed 
 that a whisper will travel to its farthest extremity. Near the 
 altar, a massive marble monument commemorates the great 
 evangelist. You are then taken behind the pulpit, and the 
 guide takes a lantern in his hand and lifts up a trap-door. As 
 it is lifted it is impossible to avoid seeing, and smiling as you 
 see, what American shrewdness has "calculated" to catch the 
 
 296 
 
th traffic 
 he scene 
 , down a 
 lis build- 
 ■ time the 
 spacious 
 
 into the 
 h of Sep- 
 ', earnest, 
 
 than in 
 hall and 
 ne loving 
 to hang. 
 ls if with 
 i moments 
 St waning 
 
 things of 
 ing night, 
 stled with 
 
 1 was just 
 
 od came, 
 
 was not, 
 ain, you 
 structed 
 ear the 
 
 the great 
 and the 
 or. As 
 
 ^g as you 
 Itch the 
 
 A PILGRIMAGE TO TWO AMERICAN SHRINES. 
 
 eye. There is indeed a mathematical exactness in the angle at 
 which the light is made to fall upon the words, "Please ta 
 remember the sexton." You descend into a crypt and thence 
 into the vault, where, with two former pastors of the church, 
 is the open coffin of the Prince of Preachers, in which, all 
 exposed to view, are his decaying bones. Some years ago the 
 right arm was stolen and carried to iingland, but remorse of 
 conscience, or the dread of popular anger, so scared the anti- 
 quarian felon that he was moved to make restitution. Hence 
 it is part of the sexton's lesson to inform you that Whitefield 
 crossed the Atlantic thirteen times, but his right hand has been 
 fourteen times across ; and then, when you are sufficiently 
 astonished, he proceeds to expound the riddle, You can take 
 the skull into your hand and muse upon this dome of thought, 
 with its breadth of brow and brain. This handful of dust : is it 
 all that is left to us of him who to hundreds of thousands was 
 as the angel in the sun ? I could not gaze into that coffin un- 
 moved, nor without a multitude of thoughts within me — thoughts 
 of mortality and hope, thoughts of high emprise and ambition 
 that were not all unholy. How mighty the work ! How fra- 
 grant the memory of the great spirit whose dust lies here ! 
 Beneath his surpassing renown how mean is the glory of " all 
 great self-seekers, trampling on the right ! " Oh, for a race of 
 such apostles ! strong-souled and lipped with flame, who shall 
 preach as he preached, or, if not with equal eloquence, with 
 equal sincerity and zeal. If, as the great moralist has said, 
 " Patriotism grows warm upon the plains of Marathon, and 
 piety is enkindled amid the ruins of lona," surely each pilgrin» 
 to George Whitefield's grave will leave it with a holy purjjose, 
 and breathe over it a self-consecrating prayer. 
 
 297 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
A PILGRIMAGE TO TWO AMERICAN SHRINES. 
 
 I travel on to the quaint city of Boston, but do not linger in 
 the American Athens just now, though it has much to stay the 
 footsteps ; and Cambridge is hard by, and especially Mount 
 Auburn, that beautiful city of the dead. I leave it at the old 
 Colony Depot, and pass through a country which presents 
 few points of interest to a stranger ; so I betake myself to 
 reverie, in which I picture the scene as it once was — unbroken 
 forest and inhospitable shore, serpents writhing in the swamp 
 and deer bounding on the hills — an ocean innocent of ships 
 and a land free of inhabitant, save when some lordly Indian 
 trapped his game in the wildwood. Then, too, I wander into 
 speculations as to the subtle causes which affect and determine 
 the growth of nations and of men, until my reverie is broken by 
 the announcement of the conductor of the train — " Plymouth !" 
 I step out of the cars, and realise, though with some difficulty, 
 that I am in the first settlement of the Pilgrim Fathers. In 
 these days of fast living and haste to be rich, when even in 
 America " westward the course of empire takes its way," 
 Plymouth has shared the fate of many of the smaller New Eng- 
 land towns, and is looked down upon somewhat as a laggard 
 behind the age. Well, it may be so ; but it is all the better 
 fitted for the memories which it is called to preserve and 
 embalm. It enshrines a spirit nobler than the trade spirit, and 
 a heritage costlier than gold. Plymouth consists of one or two 
 principal streets, and a number of tributary lanes branching off 
 into the country and towards the sea. The streets are lined 
 with neat frame houses, with verandahs to shade from the sun, 
 up whose trellises creeping plants are climbing. There are a 
 fine State house and one or two excellent hotels. Rows of 
 elnis — the arbor domesticus of New England — are planted on 
 
 298 
 
1 
 
 :s. 
 
 ler in 
 
 ly the 
 
 [ount 
 
 e old 
 
 jseiits 
 
 ;elf to 
 
 iroken 
 
 ;\vamp 
 ships 
 
 Indian 
 
 er into 
 
 ermine 
 
 ken by 
 
 outh !" 
 
 [fic.ulty, 
 
 rs. In 
 
 jven in 
 way," 
 vv Eng- 
 laggard 
 better 
 e and 
 |rit, and 
 or two 
 ing off 
 |e lined 
 |he sun, 
 |e are a 
 ows of 
 ted on 
 
 A PILGRIMAGE TO TWO AMERICAN SHRINES. 
 
 either side of the road, and are of such stately growth that the 
 branches meet in the centre, suggesting poetry while they 
 contribute shade. It is a meet spot for the dwelling of a quiet 
 spirit ; such a spot as Izaak Walton would have gloried in ; or 
 in which, except that he would have missed the church's ivied 
 tower, George Herbert might have warbled of contentment, or 
 gazed, enraptured, upon ** the lace of Peace's coat." 
 
 Nearest to the railway station, after passing the "Samoset 
 Hotel," so called after the friendly Indian who ' elcomed the 
 pilgrims, we come to the " Pilgrim Hall," a substantial stone 
 building with a wooden vestibule, built in 1824 by "The Pil- 
 grim Society," with the laudable object of perpetuating the 
 memory and gathering the relics of *' the forefathers." In front 
 of the hall is a piece of the veritable " Rock " on which the pil- 
 grims landed, surrounded by an iron railing, for all the world 
 like the railing of a tomb. In the iron are cast the names of 
 the signers of the compact in the cabin of the " Mayflower." 
 This piece was detached from the main bpdy of the rock as a 
 sacrifice to Plymouth patriotism. 
 
 In 1775, during the excitement which preceded the revolu- 
 tionary war, the people of the town were anxious to show their 
 zeal and patriotism ; and, not being under very reasonable 
 guidance, a mob of them formed the notion of removing the 
 rock to the town square, and planting a flagstaff by its side 
 from which the flag of Liberty should wave. So they met, with 
 screws and levers and shouting, and proceeded to lift the rock, 
 intending to draw it to its destination in a carriage drawn by 
 thirty yoke of oxen. Suddenly it burst asunder. Strange and 
 sinister omen ! There were many Cassandras in the crowd, 
 who regarded it as a mute prophecy of separation from the 
 
 s 299 
 
 
 i 
 
 I, 
 
A PILGRIMAGE TO TWO AMERICAN SHRINES. 
 
 mother country — while, possibly, some thoughtful ones deemed 
 that it illustrated the proverbial sei)aration between fools and 
 their wits. After long consultation they lowered one part into 
 its place again, and drew the other to the town square in 
 triumj)h. There it remained until, in 1834, it was removed to 
 its present position in front of the Pilgrim Hall. 
 
 Entering the hall we find many genuine relics of the pilgrims, 
 and many other things which have but little connection with 
 their history. Near the door are the old oak chairs of Governor 
 Carver and Elder Brewster — substantial enough once, but, 
 partly from the lapse of time and partly from the " whittling " 
 of irreverent relic-hunters, too frail for occupancy row. In 
 the cabin of the "Mayflower" these old chairs have assisted 
 at many a *' Diet " of heroic faith and patient hope, and long 
 meditation of the things of God. There is an inlaid dressing- 
 case belonging to William White, and a deed signed by his son 
 Peregrine, the child born on board the " Mayflower," who 
 obtained a grant of two hundred acres of land on the strength 
 of his petition that he was " the first Englishman born in these 
 parts," and who lived to the great age of eighty-three. This 
 deed, signed by Peregrine White, is witnessed by " Miles 
 Standish," the redoubtable warrior of the pilgrims, whose 
 exploits contributed, under God, to secure their early and peace- 
 ful settlement, and whose " courtship " Longfellow has set to 
 such skilful music. Here also are his last will and testament, 
 the iron pot in which his stews were cooked, and an enormous 
 pewter dish on which he was accustomed to have them served, 
 savouring, from its size, of the " giants " that were " in the 
 earth in those days." Hard by these lies his sword, on the 
 back of which is an Arabic inscription, indicating that it was 
 
 300 
 
 he 
 
 lane 
 
 B 
 
 ^'th 
 fron 
 
A'ES. 
 
 deemed 
 )ols and 
 )art into 
 Lliiare in 
 noved to 
 
 pilgrims, 
 tion with 
 :;oVernor 
 nee, but, 
 ^rhittUng " 
 11 ow. In 
 e assisted 
 and long 
 i dressing- 
 by his son 
 kver," who 
 e strength 
 •n in these 
 ree. This 
 
 A PILGRIMAGE TO TWO AMERICAN SHRINES. 
 
 ^y 
 
 i( 
 
 Miles 
 
 ms, whose 
 and peace- 
 US set to 
 testament, 
 \ enormous 
 lem served, 
 in the 
 
 ire 
 
 (( 
 
 ord, on the 
 that it was 
 
 one of those " glittering Damascus blades " which were formerly 
 held in such special repute. It is not large nor elegant, but 
 made for work, and has evidently seen and done real service. 
 Hanging against the wall is a sampler wrought by " Lora," or 
 as she signs herself, '• Lorea" StmJish, his daughter— a worthy 
 specimen of an art known to our mothers, but now gone, with 
 spinnet and spinning-wheel, into forgetfulness. The sampler 
 reads thus : 
 
 Lorea Standish is my Name. 
 
 Lord, guide my hart that I may doe thy will, 
 Also fill my hands with such convenient skill 
 As may conduce to vertue, void of shame, 
 And I will give the glory to Thy name. 
 
 We may not dwell upon a multitude of other relics ; noticing 
 simply the cap of King Philip, the Indian ; a plate of Governor 
 Bradford ; a charter signed by Edward Winslow ; Thomas 
 Clark's pocket-book, a wallet capacious enough to absorb a 
 score of more degenerate size ; and a copy of the Bishop's 
 Bible, the treasured property of John Alden, the proxy wooer 
 of Miles Standish's Priscilla, and the successful one who ran 
 away with the bride — John Alden, of whom tradition says that 
 he was the first to leap upon the rock when the pilgrims 
 landed, and the latest of the band who survived. 
 
 But we are all this while detained from the actual spot of 
 landing, and are impatient to tread, if we may, where first 
 " they, the true-hearted, came." Passing beneath the elms in 
 front of the neat court-house and the bank, we turn down a 
 
 301 
 
 
A PILGRIMAGE TO TWO AMERICAN SHRINES. 
 
 w 
 
 rather steep descent to the left, and are on our way to the Fore- 
 fathers' Rock. To the right of us is an abrupt ridge, called 
 Cole's Hill, from which a flight of steps is cut to the rock 
 beneath. This was the original burying-place of the pilgrims 
 during the mortality of the first sad winter. The God's Acre 
 has become man's acre now, for the ridge is covered with 
 dwellings, and no stone or memorial remains. Formerly this 
 eminence overhung the beach, and immediately underneath it 
 was the cove in which the shallop grounded, and the projecting 
 boulder which received the first tread of freedom. Now the 
 whole is altered. The rock is eight feet above the water, and 
 some rods further in shore than the high water mark. It is sup- 
 posed that the whole neighbourhood has been lifted and filled 
 up with gravel, to make the road and wharves which commer- 
 cial enterprise has needed. It is averred, however, and this is 
 some consolation to our chilled enthusiasm, that it lies immedi- 
 ately over^ if not actually <?;?, the original spot of landing. By 
 a series of uninterrupted testimony, stretching back to the very 
 days of the forefathers, the " Rock " is declared to have been 
 the identical one on which they leaped to shore, so that when 
 you stand beneath the canopy of Quincy granite, and place 
 your feet on the piece of rock about two feet square, which is 
 all that, for fear of the sacrilegious, dare be left exposed, you 
 may be sure that you stand where have stood the conditores 
 hnperiorum — the founders of empire, to whom Lord Bacon 
 assigns the highest meed of earthly fame, and who deserve a 
 higher eulogy than his, because they planted not for dominion 
 or renown, but for freedom, for conscience, and for God. 
 
 From the rock we re-ascend into Leyden street, so called 
 from the city which afforded the pilgrims shelter for so long, 
 
 302 
 
ES. 
 
 Fore- 
 called 
 rock 
 Igrims 
 3 Acre 
 I with 
 •ly this 
 eath it 
 jecting 
 DW the 
 er, and 
 , is sup- 
 td filled 
 ommer- 
 i this is 
 Lmmedi- 
 ig. By 
 ;he very 
 e been 
 ,t when 
 ,d place 
 hich is 
 ,ed, you 
 nditores 
 Bacon 
 leserve a 
 lominion 
 
 .d. 
 
 called 
 o long, 
 
 A PILGRIMAGE TO TWO AMERICAN SHRINES. 
 
 then climb the steep pathway to Burial Hill, 165 feet above the 
 sea. This is the hill on which the fort was erected, at once a 
 watch-tower and a stockade. It is high enough to cover the 
 settlement and to guard against surprise, but not high enough 
 for isolation from the neighbourhood below. Here, like the 
 ancient Hebrews, they wrought, armed with sword and trowel, 
 and up the slopes of this hill they toiled, with exemplary steps, 
 when the Sabbath summoned them to worship. From this 
 elevation all the places made sacred by the pilgrims are visible. 
 Down below, a little to the east, is the harbour where the little 
 vessel was guided by a skill more prescient than that of the 
 bewildered pilot at the helm. Far in the distance, indistinctly 
 seen through the haze, is Cape Cod, the scene of five weeks* 
 weary waiting. V^ithin the bay, to the south-east, is the 
 Manomet Ridge, crested with pines, by which the pilot guided 
 his bark to the place where he wished to land. To the north 
 is Clarke's Island, where the first Sabbath was spent, and where 
 
 " Amidst the storm they sang, 
 And the stars heard, and the sea." 
 
 On the north-east is the green hill of Duxbury, where Standish 
 made his home, and where, linking gloriously ancient heroism 
 and modern progress, the French Atlantic Cable takes posses- 
 sion of American soil. Across the Town Brook, to the south, 
 is Watson's, formerly Strawberry Hill, where Massasoit, the 
 friendly sachem, appeared with his followers, and where the 
 treaty was made which was so faithfully observed on both sides. 
 The place teems with their memories, and to the eye and heart 
 of those who are in sympathy with their cause, every spot is 
 hallowed ground. On the hill itself, though a populous city of 
 
 303 
 
 % 
 
 tji 
 
A PILGRIMAGE TO TWO AMERICAN SHRINES. 
 
 the dead, we look in vain for the forefathers' graves. It may 
 be that some of the moss-covered old stones just peeping above 
 the soil cover the dust of heroes ; but we cannot tell. The 
 pilgrims died, but " no man knovveth of their sepulchres." 
 Haply they are hidden lest '^•uperstition should canonize, or 
 avarice make merchandise of their bones. A column rises to 
 the memory of Governor Bradford, bearing this inscription : 
 " Under this stone rest the ashes of William Bradford, a 
 zealous Puritan and sincere Christian, Governor of Plymouth 
 Colony from April 162 1 to 1657 (the year he d.ed, aged 69), 
 except five yeprs which he declined." The descendants of the 
 early settlers are all buried here. It needs only to wander 
 amongst the tombs to be impressed with the longevity which 
 prevails in a community established upon Bible laws, and to be 
 impressed, also, with the quaint Puritanism which would fain 
 have made Plymouth a Theocracy, extending to the minutest 
 detail of the ancient pattern, and perpetuated even in the 
 names. In a ten minutes' ram.ble I saw upon the gravestones 
 the following Scripture names, which, I do not doubt, might 
 have been multipl.ed by farther search : — Abigail, Bathsheba, 
 Bethiah, Drusilla, Ebenezer, Elisha, Esther, Experience, Elna- 
 than, Eunice, Gideon, Heman, Ichabod, Job, Jerusha, Jabez, 
 Joanna, Lemuel, Lois, Mercy, Miriam, Priscilla, Phoebe, 
 Patience, Phineas, Rufus, Rebecca, " that virtuous woman, 
 Ruth," Sylvanus, Seth, Thankful, Zabdiel, Zoeth, Zilpah, Zac- 
 ch'ius. But with quaint manners and quaint names these men 
 had the hero heart and the confessor's faith. Their faith was, 
 indeed, their strength. Strong in the supremacy of conscience, 
 in that real earnestness which springs from conviction and 
 which prompts to enterprise ; far-sighted in political sagacity, 
 
 304 
 
A PILGRIMAGE TO TWO AMERICAN SHRINES. 
 
 because seeing Him that is invisible ; shrewd enough to know 
 that the truest policy ^or the life that now is, is a reverent 
 recognition of the life ""'lat is to come, they were brave in 
 endurance and patient under trial; and, never losing sight of 
 the principle for which they struggled, and of the purpose of 
 their voyage afar, they " won the wilderness for God." 
 
 This age needs to be reminded of them. It is hard, unreal, 
 materialistic, money-loving. There is corruption in its high 
 places. It is tainted with the lust of dominion, and defiled 
 with the greed of gain. It were happy for it, and for all of us, 
 to visit in person, or by proxy, these Massachusetts shrine?, 
 and to learn from them that Faith is the highest virtue, and 
 labour for God the most exalted calling; and that, as a 
 promised recompense of Faith and Labour, " the righteous 
 shall be in everlasting remembrance, while the memory of the 
 wicked shall rot." 
 
 305 
 
I 
 
 KINDNESS TO THE POOR. 
 
( 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
KINDNESS TO THE POOR. 
 
 " If there be amoTifj you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of 
 thy gates, in thy land wliicli the Ivonl thy («i>il ^ivelh thee, thou shall not 
 harden tliine heart, nor shut thine hand from tliy poor l)rother ; but thou 
 shalt open tiiine hand wide untohiui." — Deut. xv. 7, 8. 
 
 " For tlie poor shall never cease out of the land." — Deut. xv. 1 1. 
 
 IT docs not need that I sliould remind you at any length of 
 the circumstances under which this command was given. 
 It occurs in that grand valedictory service to which Moses, the 
 great Jewish lawgiver, summoned the children of Israel, and in 
 the course of which he repeated the commanduients of the law, 
 and urged upon them to be consistent and faithful in the land 
 of promise which they were about to inherit. There was a pathos 
 in his utterances — for he knew that he si)oke his latest counsels 
 to the people who had often tried him, who had often rebelled 
 against him, but whom he loved with a love stronger than death. 
 And there was also the deeper pathos of the remembrance that 
 he, and the few elders who survived, had forfeited their own 
 entrance into Canaan— and that by the decree of an unchange- 
 able penalty each silver-haired ancient who had started from 
 Egypt, and had been concerned in the condemning unbelief, 
 
 309 
 
KINDNESS TO THE POOR. 
 
 must lay his bones in the wilderness, while the speaker himself 
 could but gaze in one brief trance of rapture upon the people's 
 inheritance, and then lie down and die. In this uircwell charge, 
 which comprises the whole Book of Deuteronomy — not only are 
 motives to obedience pressed upon them with overwhelming 
 power — but circumstantial directions are given upon all matters 
 connected with the establishment of their new life. There are 
 denunciations of idolatry — the one crowning sin which was the 
 cause of their sacred isolation — and then follow regulations 
 touching the four great principles of theocratical government : 
 I. Worship and sacrifice ; 2. The institution of the family, and 
 its concuirent obligations ; 3. The consecration of time, with 
 the Sabbath as God's especial portion ; and 4. The consecration 
 of the substance, and its apportionment to the requirements of 
 personal and family need — of legitimate business — of the sanc- 
 tuary — and of the calls of charity. In the last of these comes 
 the injunction of the text. As if, by provident foresight, God 
 had ordained the existence of the poor on purpose to be the 
 check upon the rich man's selfishness, and the outlet for the 
 rich map's bounty ; it is predicted that they shall '* never cease 
 out of the land ; " and the duty of the now highly favoured in 
 regard to them, and the specialty of the claim upon the ground 
 of a common nationality, are both included in the words I have 
 read. And let no man suppose that the command is of any 
 less obligation, t that it comes with sanction less divinely 
 authenticated, because spoken from Hebrew lips, and addressed 
 to one wayward people's needs. But there is in many respects 
 a close analogy between our circumstances and theirs. We are 
 not newly enlightened, the last trophies of some venturous mis- 
 sionary's toil, as were many of those to whom the Apostles 
 
 310 
 
KINDNESS TO THE POOR. 
 
 wrote J if there do linger about us any remnants of our Paganism, 
 it is because we have cherished them for years, and habit has 
 made us fond of the badges of our darkness and shame. We 
 revel in the light which only dawned greyly on the former time ; 
 we dwell beneath institutions which will begin to cast forth 
 shadows soon. To us it is fitting that the prophet's lips should 
 speak; we may be aptly rebuked by the faithfulness of the seer's 
 warning. The principles enunciated for the guidance of the 
 Jewish people, so far at any rate as high religious ethics are con- 
 cerned, are principles which must govern us to-day. This is an 
 interesting service which has gathered us, a time when in the far 
 country we evoke the memories of home, those deep-lying and 
 long lasting instincts which years have no power to stifle, and 
 which even haid usage and all the buffetings of a pitiless world 
 cannot utterly destroy. Here we summon our patriotism to 
 prompt our charity — haggard strangci^ ioom through the sea- 
 fret, ever coming near to us with their cry of distress and need — 
 and as they approach us through the parting mists, we find that 
 they are brethren, heirs with us of glorious history and traditions 
 which make the blood leap the fleeter through the veins — chil- 
 dren of the dear island mother from whom our own breath 
 was drawn, and who sits in sceptred state, shaking her tresses 
 of freedom to the winds, and girt about in loving enibrace by 
 the arms of the triumphant sea. It is an occasion, therefore, 
 in some sort, of national concern and sympathy, and those espe- 
 cially who have named the name of Josus, and so march under 
 more sacred banners than that of the old Cappadocian hero, 
 are bound to be helpful in their measure, that our good may not 
 be evil spoken of, and that our religion, in one of its ccmeliest 
 developments, may come before the observation of men. No 
 
 311 
 
KINDNESS TO THE POOR. 
 
 ft- 
 
 great claboraticin is necessary to impress upon you the princi- 
 ples which the text embodies and enforces, y/ir chxiin is that 
 of tJie piwr man loit/iin thy :^atcs, who never ceases out of the land^ 
 and the e/aini /'eeontes the sfroni^er heeaitse of the feeuliar circum- 
 stance that the poor man is one of thy brethren. Let us ilhislrate 
 these thoughts for a brief while. " Clod has made of one blood 
 all nations of men, for to dwell upon the face of the whole earth." 
 This is the announcement of a grand fact, which has never yet 
 been s'accessfi'''y disproved. " One blood " — there is the dis- 
 tinct, individual unity of the human race ; one family — though 
 sundered by climate and language ; one deep underlying iden- 
 tity, however clKH|iicred by the varieties of external condition. 
 This relates man to man everywhere, makes all the world a 
 neighbourhood, and fountls upon uni^'ersal alTinily a universal 
 claim. The oUl Roman could say, with a far-sighted percep- 
 tion of this great truth : " 1 am a man ; nothing, therefore, that 
 is human can be foreign to me," and Christianity has exalted 
 this sentiment into a per[)etual obligation, and stamped it with 
 the royal seal of heaven. This general law, however, must be 
 divided into minor modifications, or it will be practically use- 
 less. It is not intended to contravene nature, but to assist and 
 regulate its affections ; and if it be the world at large which is 
 the object of pity, the very magnitude of the area will induce a 
 mental vagueness which will fritter away the intenseness 
 of the feeling. That is a suspicious affection which attaches 
 itself to nobody in particular, which makes no heart its centre, 
 which brightens no hearthstone by its light. Its words may be 
 loud and swelling ; like the blast of March it may sweep noisily 
 about men's houses and drift the dust about in clouds, but they 
 are conscious only of discomfort when it blows; they do not 
 
 312 
 
h'INDNESS TO THE P00h\ 
 
 trust it ; it " passes by them like the idle wind, wliich they respect 
 not." Hence all private affections arc recognized and hallowed, 
 and arc indeed the source from which all ])ul)lic virtues sj)ring. 
 They are not inconsistent with the love of the whole race ; they 
 prepare for it, and lead to it, and scoop out the channels through 
 which the tributes of its bounty may flow. Who shall sympathize 
 with oppressed peoples but the patriot-heart which rejoices in 
 the sacredness of its own roof-tree, and in the security of ils own 
 altars? Who shall be elocpient for the rights of others but he 
 who is manly in the assertion of his own ? Who shall succour 
 breaking hearts, and brighten desolate houses, but the man who 
 realizes in daily up-welling the unutterable happiness of home? 
 These two obligations, therefore, the claim of universal sympa- 
 thy and the claim of particular relationships, are not incompati- 
 ble, but fulfil mutually the highest uses of each other. God 
 has taught in the Sciiptures the lesson of a universal brother- 
 hood, and man must not gainsay the teaching. Shivering in the 
 ice-bound, or scorching in the tropical regions ; in the lap of 
 luxury or in the wild hardihood of the primeval forest ; belting 
 the globe in a tired search for rest, or quieting through life in 
 the heart of ancestral woods ; gathering all the decencies around 
 liim like a garment, or battling in fierce raid of crime against a 
 world which has disowned him, there is an inner humanness 
 which binds me to that man by a primitive and indissoluble 
 bond. He is my brother, and I cannot dissever the relation- 
 ship. He is my brother, and I cannot release myself from the 
 obligation to do him good. I cannot love all mei: equally ; nriy 
 own instincts, and nature's provision, ...nd society's requirements, 
 and God's commands, all unite in reprobation of that. My 
 wealth of affection must be in home, children, kindred, country. 
 
 313 
 
 r 
 
 it 
 
 It 
 
KINDNESS TO THE POOR. 
 
 1 ]■! 
 
 but my pity must not lock itself in these, my regard must not 
 compress itself within these limits merely — my pity must go 
 forth wherever there is ^ uman need and human sorrow ; my 
 regard must fasten upon the ,nan, though he has flung from him 
 the crown of his manhood in anger. I dare not despise him, 
 because there, in the depths of his fall, as he lies before me 
 prostrate and dishonoured, there shines, through the filth and 
 through the sin, that spark of heavenly flame — that young im 
 mortal nature which God the Father kindled, over which God 
 the Spirit yearns with continual desire, and which God the Eter- 
 nal Son offered his own heart's blood to redeem. Yes — there 
 is no man now who can rightfully ask the infidel question of 
 Cain. God has made man his brother's keeper. We are bound 
 to love our neighbour as ourselv.^s ; and if, in a contracted 
 Hebrew spirit, you are inclined to press the enquiry, " And who 
 is my neighbour ? " there comes a full pressure of utterance to 
 authenticate and enforce the answer, Man. Thy neighbour 1 
 Every one whom penury has grasped or sorrow startled ; every 
 one whom plague hath smitten or whom curse hath banned ; 
 every one from whose )me the darlings have vanished, and 
 around whose heart the pall hath been drawn. 
 
 " Thy neighbour ! 'Tis the fainting poor 
 Whose eye with want is dim, 
 Whom hunger sends from door to door ; 
 Go, thou, and succour /t/w." 
 
 I observe further that the last clause of the text is as true 
 to-day as in the time of its original utterance, the " poor shall 
 never cease out of the land;" and although in this new Dominion, 
 with its large acred wealth of soil, and comparatively scanty 
 population, you can know nothing of the overgrown pauperism 
 
 314 
 
KINDNESS TO THE POOR. 
 
 sm 
 
 which is at once a fault, a sorrow, and a problem to the rulers of 
 older states, yet here, as in every age and in every clime, there 
 are distinctions of society in the world. It must be so fiom the 
 nature of things ; it is part of God's benevolent allotment, and 
 of His original economy. He makes no endless plains, or 
 uniform mountain ridges. He has stamped His own deep love 
 of beauty on the undulating woodland, and on the flower-sprent 
 hill, and on the pleasant varieties of peak, and copse, and stream. 
 A level creation were not the creation of God, and it is so- 
 with society. It has its inequalities of necessity ; men may fret 
 against them, but they cannot help themselves. Nothing can 
 alter the irreversible law, and if by the fury of some revolutionary 
 deluge, all things were reduced to a drear level of waters to-day, 
 you may be sure that some aspiring mountain-tops would 
 struggle through the billows to-morrow. Society could not 
 cohere as a union of equals ; there must be graduation and 
 dependence. God hath set the poor in his condition as well as 
 the rich, for " He that despiseth the poor reproacheth his 
 Maker ;" and the announcement of the Saviour, *' The poor ye 
 have always with you," is at once the averment of a fact and a 
 perpetual commendation of them, as Christ's clients, to the help 
 and succour of His church. In the text, benevolence towards 
 them is positively enjoined, and enjoined because of their 
 abiding existence as a class of the community. He^ce it has 
 been well sai i, " Poverty is the misfortune of some and the 
 disgrace of more, but it is the inheritance of most." There will 
 always be those who will need and claim the friendliness of 
 their fellows above them. "^ Some by native energy, or favouring 
 circumstances, will raise themselves in the social scale, (and here 
 are ampler opportunities than most other lands afford,) but the 
 
 T 315 
 
 ' i' 
 
 w 
 
 
A'/NPN/':SS TO THE POOR. 
 
 mass will t,>il on through a lifetime in the condition in which 
 they were horn, with few reliefs and fewer aspirations, the mouth 
 demanding and absorbing the ceaseless labour of the hands. 
 There is that also in the constitution of society which requires 
 that the class from which the ranks of clamant poverty arc 
 recruited should be always the largest class amongst us. The 
 pyramid must stand upon its base. The wants of the population, 
 naturally large, have been increased by the rcfmements of civili- 
 zation. The poor are the stalwart purveyors to the necessity, 
 and to the comfort of life. Who shall say that in seasons of 
 exigency they have not a claim upon the state they serve, and 
 upon the charity which is but the justice of others ; some of 
 whom have risen from their ranks ; some of whom have been 
 enriched by their toil. Once recognize the relationship, and the 
 claim will inevitably follow, the sense of service rendered arid 
 obligation created thereby will make that claim more sacred, 
 and religion, attaching her holiest sanction, lifts the recognition 
 of the claim into a duty which may not be violated without sin. 
 " I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." " Whoso seeth his 
 brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion, 
 how dwelleth the love of God in him?" Nay, Christ himself, 
 once poor in the travail of His incarnate life, and therefore 
 touched with the feeling of their i'lfirniities, "adopts them as His 
 own peculiar care, and pointing to them as they shiver in rags, 
 or parch from hunger, commends them to His church, that they 
 may be warmed and fed," adding the benediction which is itself 
 a Heaven : '* Inasmuch as ye 'lave done it to one of the least 
 of these, ye have done it unt ) Me." There are, moreover, 
 peculiarities in the poor man's 1. f which I may here briefly 
 remind you, which tend to the enforcement of the claim which 
 
 316 
 
 I i 
 
KINDNESS TO THE POOR, 
 
 both Rc.a.;on and Scripture commend. Think Xhcno^ the tialure 
 af the occupations in which sy many pass their lives. It is true 
 that th^re is an inherent dignity in labour. It is not, as some 
 have erroneously supposed, a penal clause of the original curse. 
 There was labour, bright, hjiithful, unfitiguing, in unfallcn 
 Paradise. \\y sin labour became drudgery — the earth was 
 '^estraincd from her spontaneous fertility, and the strong arm of 
 the husbandman was re(iuired, not to develop, but to " subdue " 
 it. But labour in itself is noble, and is necessary for the ripe 
 unfolding of the highest life. lUit how many are there to whom 
 the days pass in dreary monotomy, little to task the intellect, to 
 engross the affections, or to call into play the fmer sensibilities 
 of the man. It is "Work, work, work, as prisoners work for 
 crime." The man within the man is degraded by the uninter- 
 mitting toil ; the task-work is performed, the holidays come but 
 seldom, and when they do come, he is too listless to enjoy them. 
 Day after day rolls wearily along, and there i' no prospect of 
 retirement ; a family grows up around him, and the children are 
 clamorous for bread. Each morning summons him inexorably 
 to labour ; each evening sets unpitying on his weariness. The 
 frosts gather upon his head ; the lithe limbs lose their supple- 
 ness, there is a strange sinking at the heart, but he must work, 
 until at length infirmity disables him ; then he dies, and there is 
 his wife exposed to the cold world's buffetings, and his children 
 to a stranger's charity or an early grave. Think again how the 
 poor are circumscribed from many ordinary sources of enjoyment. 
 Though sin has sorely afflicted humanity, there are yet Jopen 
 many sources of pleasure, and from books, and friends, and 
 intellectual conversation, and taste, and rambles among the 
 flowers, or the woodland, or on the pine-clad hills, or by the 
 
 317 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
,t" 
 
 KINDNESS TO THE POOR. 
 
 fringe of the living sea ; as well as from those exercises which 
 belong to Christian fellowship, benevolence, and enterprise, there 
 can be realized a rapture which mitigates the curse, and which 
 leaves no remorse behind. But from many of these the poor are, 
 by the necessities of their position, debarred. They do not start 
 fairly with their fellows in the race of intellectual acquirement. 
 To them, as a rule, the sciences are sealed. It is but rarely that 
 they can kindle before a great picture, or travel to the spots 
 renowned in song or story, or be thrilled beneath the spell of a 
 great Poet's mighty words. Not for them the pleasures of sense, 
 the ample board, the convenient dwelling, the gathered friends,, 
 the appliances of comfort with which wealth has carpeted its own 
 pathway to the Tomb. Their life is a perpetual struggle beneath 
 the winner and the spender, and unless they are happy at home, 
 and blessed by the consolations of religion, existence will be a 
 joyless peril, a weariness which ceaseth not, or, if there be a 
 respite, it will be one which gives " no blessed leisure for love 
 or hope, but only time for tears." Think again o( the pressure 
 with which the ordinary His of life fall upon the poor. There is 
 no part of the world where the curse has not penetrated. Man 
 is born to trouble amid Arab hordes, and in Siberian wilds, as 
 well as in royal courts and teeming cities. The cloud, like the 
 sun, is no respecter of persons. Everywhere disappointment 
 tracks the footsteps, and sickness steals into the dwelling, and 
 Death waiteth at tho door. But these ills, common to all men, 
 fall most heavily upon the poor. They have to bear the penalty 
 in their condition as well as in their experience. They cannot 
 purchase the skill of many healers, the comforts which soothe 
 the sickness, the delicacies which restore the strength. They 
 cannot afford the time to recover thoroughly, for effort is required 
 
 3i8 
 
KINDNESS TO THE POOR. 
 
 to keep ahead of the world, and to the quickened apprehension 
 there are many visions of the wolf of Hunger glaring in through 
 the panes of the uncurtained window. Their very maintenance 
 is dependent upon contingencies which they can neither foresee 
 nor control. Their prospects in life, their hopes of supply, their 
 only chance of provision for emergency, are derived from their 
 labour. That labour is contingent upon the state of trade, upon 
 the measures of government, upon the yield c f harvest, upon the 
 price of money. Sometimes upon the caprice of their employers, 
 sometimes upon the coarse tyranny which they exert over each 
 other, and sometimes even upon the thoughts, purposes and 
 quarrels of a people whom they never saw, and from whom they 
 are separated by a waste of waters upon whose breast they never 
 ■cared to sail. If labour fails, bread fails and hearts fail. The 
 more provident can struggle for a while on the results of their 
 thrift and care, but if the scarcity be protracted, and if no 
 friendly succour interpose, you can trace the inevitable progress 
 downward. The little savings for which the industry of the 
 past had toiled, and on which the hopes of the future rested, 
 are frittered away to supply the need which will not wait ; the 
 cottage comforts vanish one by one, and there is a sickness at 
 the heart as they go, for long habit has made them grow up into 
 familiar friends, until, in extremest desolation, the picture of the 
 poet is realized : 
 
 " A shatterec' roof — a naked floor, 
 
 A table — a broken chair, 
 And a wall so blank, their shadow they thank 
 
 For sometimes falling there." 
 
 Then sickness comes — the fever follows hard upon the famine. 
 The comfort is gone — the strength is gone— the hope is gone. 
 
 319 
 
KINDNESS TO THE POOR, 
 
 Death has nothing to do but take possession. They have neither 
 power nor will to resist him. Not hopeful, but sadly, strangely, 
 terribly indifferent, they await his approach, and if you tell them 
 of their danger, they might answer in the words of the strong 
 and gentle spirit from whom we quoted before : 
 
 " But why do you talk of Death, 
 That plantom of grisly bone, 
 
 We hardly fear his terrible shape. 
 It seems so like our own." 
 
 And this is no fancy sketch or fevered dream. There are 
 homes of your countrymen where the Ruin is in progress 
 to-day. I enlarge no further but to remind you that there is a 
 specialty in the case of the poor for whom 1 plead, in that 
 ihey are at once '•''strangers^ and of your brethren " — of the one 
 bloody but in a strange land. In many aspects the lot of the 
 emigrant is a painful one. However, if he attains a position in 
 a new country, he may become proud of its institutions and 
 rooted in its soil The parting from the home of his youth 
 cannot be without a pang. Even those who come, blithe 
 venturers for fortune, under the patronage of youth and hope 
 — own to the first feeling of desolation as they realize the 
 stranger's loneliness ; and when, as in many cases, the emigration 
 has been constrained by adversity, and the man must part per- 
 force from old associations, and friends, and belongings — there 
 is a cruel wrench of the tenderer fibres of the soul ; and if, in 
 addition to the regretful memories of the past and the sickening 
 sense of homelessness — there be the forebodings of an uncer- 
 tain future — and the fear comes creeping over the spirit of 
 exhausted means and a pining family ; of the Want which is a 
 
 320 
 
KINDNESS TO THE POOR. 
 
 deadly tempter, and of the Hunger which is a sharp thorn. Oh 
 that is a condition surely of extremest need, and, I tell you, a 
 word of kindness in such a strait is welcome as the smile of an 
 a.ngel, for it may redeem from hopelessness and despair ; and a 
 helpful hand-grasp, with something in the hand the while, is 
 worth a hundred-fold its cost, for it may have ransomed for all 
 future time the most kingly thing on earth, the tnanhood of a 
 man, for industry, and society, and God. 
 
 I do not know much about the real or mythical personage — 
 I am unable to determine which — who, alleged to have been 
 born in some Cappadocian fastness, has been adopted as the 
 patron saint of England, whatever that may mean. I cannot 
 separate the fact and the fable. I know not whether or not he 
 slew the monster who is represented to be transfixed by his 
 spear,and delivered some fair princess Aja,beautiful exceedingly, 
 from durance or from doom, but I know this, that in the heart 
 of this legend there are underlying symbols of the Christian 
 warfare in which all who love the Lord Jesus should be valiant 
 for the truth upon the earth. What is our life-work but to 
 release, in ourselves and in each other, the maiden graces of the 
 Christian character, which have been in bondage to the tyrant 
 of the Fall ? What is the whole work of our Religion but a 
 warfare with the Dragon — that old and cruel serpent who still 
 creepetli to empoison and destroy. Sirs, if ye would not shun 
 the plainest meanings of the symbols under which ye gather, 
 embody these teachings in your lives. Let your daily experience 
 shew that you have learned this secret of life, that it is not a 
 mere provision for the flesh to fulfil the lust thereof^that it is not 
 an hour of idleness, to be wasted "in rioting and drunkenness, 
 in chambering and wantonness, in strife and envying," but that 
 
 321 
 
A7A7)y /CSS TV 77/ JC /H)0/<. 
 
 3 % 
 
 it i:- A stowaiilship to be accounted for licrcaftcr— an earnest 
 gift, full of earnest longings, and tending to earnest ends — some- 
 thing to he gi\en ])rini;irily to Christ, who redeemed it, and for 
 His sake to be emi)lo)cd for men. Let your Keligion be the 
 base of your character, and there will be a goodly superstructure 
 o{ Knterprise and ratriolism and Charity. It is right that on 
 this occasion you should remember the land of your birth or of 
 your fathers. The i^ride of patriotism is a pride that is not 
 all unholy. Not in vaunting but in thankfulness — not captive 
 by the rive, s of Habylon, but happy in the beneficent outgrowth 
 of ancient biessir.gs on the soil of a New Dominion, the " \scen- 
 dants oi the dear old mother isle gather in this fair C-anada the 
 comclicst of her daughters to recall her advantages, and to be 
 generous to her fugitive sons. vShe is worth all our love and 
 ]iride. Se(Uire from invasion, prolific in produce — of tiny extent 
 but of tremendous inlhience — a speck upon the world's charts 
 but an ^taperor in the world's councils — the school of the wise 
 and the home of the free — her sails whitening all waters, and in 
 all lalituiles her llag llying upon some tVinge of coast — girding 
 the glolic with her possessions, and owning archipelagos of isles 
 — Nvhiie, as the late National Tiianksgiving proved, in the 
 remotest dependency there throbs the great heart-pulse of home, 
 "She is the anointed cherub that covereth, and God hath set 
 her so."' Hat not in t'lcsc things are hor saletyand her strength. 
 Tiiey are in her etjuil laws, an.! in her national honour, in the 
 fict th,it.o\orcoitage auvl pilvr(vilike, the aigis ofthe constitution 
 rests, and in tli it all the michinery o^ justice is set in motion 
 to protect the peasant's "home if high-horn wrong assail it ; and 
 to gu;\rd the beggar's conscience, if he but fancy it aggrieved ; 
 above all in lier adhesion, though imperfectly rendered, to the 
 
 322 
 
KINDNESS 70 THE POOR. 
 
 i 'i()s|)cl of ('hrist, and to the grand principles of morality, and 
 cliarity, and godliness, which that (lospel has established among 
 men. T,ct her decay from these, let there come corrii|)tion in 
 her high places, the repudiation of national honour -the reign 
 of encroaching error —the supremacy of a fell infidelity in the 
 national mind—and her condemnation will not slumber, and, 
 wilh her proud forerunners in empire, her greatness will be 
 forgotten as a cloud. Let her hold to these great principles, 
 widening through the ages into increasing reverence for Truth, 
 and Peace, and (iod, and her greatness shall be assured until 
 the last fires blot out the sun. 
 
 "This ICiiglanrl never did, nor ever shall 
 Lie al the proud fool of a conf|ueror, 
 lUil when it first did help to wound itself. 
 Come the three corners of the world in arms, 
 And we shall shock tlicni. Nou^jht shall make us rue 
 If I'-ngland to hcrselfdo rest but true." 
 
 Dear Brethren, to the duty which awaits you you need not 
 be further urged. Your countrymen, forced to stranger shores 
 by blighted hoi)c and ruined fortune. T'/icsc are our clients. 
 " Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these, ye did it 
 unto Me." 7'his is our J)\vincly furnished argument. ** Ye 
 know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though he was 
 rich, yet, for oursakes Me became ])Oor." This is our example. 
 " She hath done what she could." 'J7iis is to be the measure of 
 our gii'ini^. "He that hath pity upon the ])oor lendeth unto the 
 Lord. And look ! what he lendeth, He will pay him again." 
 yViis is our surety. "Thou hast been faithful over a few things 
 I will make thee ruler over many things. Lnter thou into the 
 joy of thy Lord." V'/iis is our exceeding , threat rc7vard. 
 
 .323 
 
Th 
 
Ij 
 
 THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL. 
 
TH] 
 
 "Oh 
 
 bringeth 
 shall be i 
 
 T 
 
 ^H 
 
 the hop 
 which ^ 
 clearest 
 their ov 
 ward c: 
 freedom 
 Yet the 
 disastro 
 within t 
 either b 
 the cen 
 vicissitu 
 long caj 
 nation, 
 raournfi 
 
THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL, 
 
 '^ 
 
 •'Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion ! When God 
 bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel 
 shall be glad," — Psalm liii. 6. 
 
 'T'^^HIS is one of those Psalms which were wailed out at 
 X intervals during the time of captivity ; when, though 
 the hope of deliverance was still inertly cherished, the day 
 which was to realize it had not yet dawned even upon the 
 clearest vision. All these Psalms have a plaintive character of 
 their own, such as might have been expected when all the out- 
 ward circumstances were untoward, and no joy of home or 
 freedom quivered in the heart whose fingers swept the strings. 
 Yet the prisoners were ''prisoners of hope." Throughout all 
 disastrous changes confidence in the brighter future existed 
 within them, as a principle too firmly established to be shaken 
 either by tyrannous exactions or by fleeting years. Brethren, 
 the centuries have rolled away, each with its own burden of 
 vicissitude, and with its own record of progress ; but there is a 
 long captivity which has never once been lifted from one fated 
 nation, and beneath which it Is languishing to-day. The 
 mournful story which Vespasian's medal tells is the story of 
 
 327 
 
 1 
 
 
 " / 
 
 
 
 I" 
 
 I ) 
 
 U 
 

 rifK SAT.VATION OF rSKAFT.. 
 
 the Jewish n;ition now. The weeper still sits beneath the pahii 
 tree, tiie one hand hsiless ahke from Mnisir and labour, the 
 other covering the eyes, whose lids droop heavily ; and she 
 makes her sad plaint to a world which has too often scorned 
 her, and to a church which has too often been indilVerent to 
 her claims. In the meet language of ancient propliecy, •' Is it 
 nothing io you. all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there 
 be any sorrow like imto my sorrow, which is done unto mc, 
 wherewith the Lord hath afllicted ffir in the day of his fierce 
 anger." (Lam. i. w.) It is my imrpose — a purpose which I 
 fear 1 shall very imperfectly fultil — to present before you, in 
 condensed lulness, the condition and the destiny of the once 
 favoured race of Israel, reminding you : 
 
 I. That their salvation is needed ; 
 
 II. That their salvation is promised ; 
 
 III. That Christians are bound to seek it l)y personal effort 
 and prayer. 
 
 I. There is nothing which more strongly moves the sym- 
 pathies o^ the thoughtful than to behold some imj)overishcd 
 descendant oi an ancient house gazing mournfully upon the 
 demesne which he once called his own, but which has passed 
 into the hands oi tho stranger ; or some scion of the Dc 
 Courcys and Plantagenets starving in the destitution to which 
 his spendihrit't habits have reduced him. The inspiring asso- 
 ciations of the past do but deepen the present desolation, and 
 our pity for his f;ill is the deeper because of the contrast with 
 his tbrmer heritage of rank and fortune. Here is, not an 
 individual but a nation, thus homeless and ruined ; a nation 
 tnat could once outrival the proudest and most highly privileged. 
 If it be considered that the antiquity of a family, and the great 
 
THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL 
 
 names won by lliosr who have hrlonj^rd to it, nggravntc the 
 (itl.'iinity of its fall, tl.cn your pity (or this prostrate people may 
 l)c intcnser, beranse in their ( ase both these conditions exist. 
 The haughtiest noble who boasts of Norman blood has nf)t an 
 ancestry half so renowned, or a lineage lialf so pure, as the 
 poor Jew pedlar on whose vagran(y he thinks with pity, or 
 whose sordidness he rebukes with scorn. 'I'he Jew had had a 
 liislory for long years before the I'>abylonian ein|»ire laid the 
 foundations of its power ; before a dwelling rose on the ( 'apitolinc 
 hill ; before the <onfederate (ireeks assembled beneath the 
 walls of Troy. While the records of other nations arc lost, or 
 have drivelled into the veriest fable, you have accurate recfirds, 
 drawn under Divine guidance, of patriarchal customs, and times 
 when this wondrous people were c liosen to be witnesses for 
 God. When the anlicpiarian e^e glistens before some fragment 
 of the ancient Habylon, it may be that he gazes on the disinterred 
 luuuhwork of some Jewish builder. When tiie traveller is 
 wearied with the climbing of the Pyramids, he may remember 
 that it is not improbable that the Jews piled uj) their steep stairs 
 of stone. When the explorer penetrates into the royal tombs 
 at Thebes, Hhere stares out at him from the walls the very 
 Hebrew physiognomy which is ,0 familiar in the midst of us 
 to-day. Hebrew chieftains were brave, and Hebrew shepherds 
 wealthy, when time itself was young. It will be remembered, 
 also, that theirs arc some of the most illustrious names which 
 the annals of the world record. Why should they despair of 
 statesmanship for whom Moses enacted his wise and patient 
 lawgiving, and in whose veins the blood of Daniel flows ? Why 
 should not they be brave who are the descendants of Joshua 
 and of the valiant Maccabeus ? Why scorn them, as if they 
 
 329 
 
 11 
 
 I 
 
 li! 
 
THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL. 
 
 were incapable of genius, when they are of the kindred of 
 Ezekiel the fiery-eyed, or Isaiah the glorious, or the minstrel- 
 monarch of Israel ? Who shall say that all their wealth of 
 wisdom was monopolised by Solomon ; that all their power 
 of command was translated with Elijah ; that all their marvels 
 of eloquence ceased with the last words of Paul ? Who will 
 not weep that they should ever be stubborn and degraded, " of 
 whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, 
 God blessed foi ever." But this nation, thus venerable in its 
 history and rich in its renowned sons, has vanished. It is now 
 " scattered and peeled," anc* its children inherit the displeasure 
 which, as we believe, eighieen hundred years ago their fathers 
 invoked upon themselves. The prophet promised by Moses 
 rose up in the midst of them, but they refused to hearken to 
 his words. The Messiah " came to his own, but his own 
 received him not.'"' The day of visitation dawned in clearness 
 and brilliancy, but they trifled or opposed through its noontide 
 to its twilight, until it set before their eyes. Their own obdu- 
 racy in the rejection of the Saviour issued in their own rejection 
 from being the privileged people, and in their exile from the land 
 where such glorious opportunities had been given. 
 
 Just look more largely at each of these thoughts for a 
 moment. The whole ritual of Jewish service supposes that 
 there is a living heart in the worshipper ; otherwise there is 
 nothing in the services to redeem them from formality, or to 
 distinguish them from any other ceremonies of unmeaning 
 symbolism. In Levitical times this inspiring heart was the 
 hope and promise of Messiah : in the times of the Redeemer's 
 incarnation, it was the belief in the Messiah who had come, 
 and whose coming had been approved by miracles, announced 
 
 330 
 

 THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL. 
 
 ired of 
 [linstrel- 
 ;alth of 
 f power 
 marvels 
 /■ho will 
 led, "of 
 over all, 
 lie in its 
 [t is now 
 jpleasure 
 .r fathers 
 y Moses 
 arken to 
 his own 
 clearness 
 noontide 
 vn obdu- 
 rejection 
 the land 
 
 ts for a 
 )ses that 
 
 there is 
 ty, or to 
 imeaning 
 
 was the 
 ideemer's 
 id come, 
 mounced 
 
 by angels, and attested by divine sanctions of impressiveness 
 and power. But to the mass of the Jewish people this heart, 
 this trust, was lacking. To them first were the tidings pro- 
 claimed — their ancestral rights and the boundlessness of Christ's 
 compassion alike necessitated that — but they " rejected the 
 counsel of God against themselves." By consequence the 
 vitality languished out of their system ; the symbol of God's 
 presence abode no longer in the temple, and the temple itself 
 was by and by " razed to its foundation, so that not one stone 
 was left upon another." How remarkable a fulfilment has there 
 been of the woes of Hosea's prophecy, " For the children of 
 Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a 
 prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and with- 
 out an ephod, and without teraphim." (Hosea iii. 4.) From 
 that time there has been no king of the Jews, nor even the rem- 
 nant of a nation over which he could reign. They have now no 
 high priest — for their genealogies are lost — and they know not 
 who are of the tribe of Levi, and who of the family of Aaron. 
 Their sacrifice is no longer presented, for the chief rabbi is an 
 officer unknown to their law, and invested with no mediatorial 
 authority ; and in burdensome ceremonies they spend the annual 
 day of expiation, ceremonies which cannot possibly profit them. 
 The Mishna and Gomara of their Talmuds have so encumbered 
 the law, that they no longer study it with reverence as their 
 fathers did ; and though there are reactionary symptoms here 
 and there, and some are evidently panting after the true light of 
 the Word, of the mass it may be said with truth, that now, as in 
 the days when Paul wrote to Corinth, " when Moses is read 
 the veil is upon their heart." Not a few of them, from this 
 fatal neglect of God's Word, have relapsed into a species of 
 
 u 331 
 
THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL. 
 
 Doism, and imillitudcs into a total and eclipsing worldlincss, 
 ivhich renders them practically Atheists in the world. Their 
 worship is more a l)odily than a spiritual service, and there is 
 mournfully little cither of instruction for the mind or of the cul- 
 tivation (^( purity for the heart. They cling yet vainly to the 
 dream of the coming Messiah, but are readier to anticipate their 
 uplifting from their manifold afflictions and their restoration to 
 their patrimonial home, than the circumcision of the heart and 
 the mastery over human passion which we have learnt to be 
 the highest glories of His kingdom. Alas ! for them. They 
 have been so often mocked with shadows that it is said they 
 have a curse for him who shall calculate the time of the 
 Redeemer's advent. Alas ! for them. If they arc sincere and 
 earnest, their ccnscic ces are but lashed into accusing activity 
 to be lulled into a delusive repose. Alas ! for them. To a 
 crouching fear of death they are all their lifetime subject to 
 bondage, and at the best have but a glimmering ray with which 
 to light their pilgrim footstep- in their travel to the dark 
 unknown. Surely they need the kind offices of Christian com- 
 j^/assion, and the prayer unceasingly offered that their eyes may 
 be delivered from their films of blindness, and the " hearts of 
 the disobedient turned about to the wisdom of the just. " 
 
 If you take the other thought — their dispersion into all lands 
 — their condition Avill be still more appreciated in its painfulness 
 and ruin. It is not idly that Jeremiah says, " God hath delivered 
 them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their 
 hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all 
 places whither I shall drive them." (Jer. xxiv. 9). How mar- 
 vellous their history has been and continues to be in this matter ! 
 They are scattered, but one in the mighty sympathies which 
 
 332 
 
THE SALVATION OF /SRAJCf.. 
 
 have defied all the disasters of" the years to denalionahze them. 
 There you see them, present everywhere, but having nowhere 
 their belongings, rising up in the midst of national combinations 
 — like a strange chemical element which refuses afhnity with 
 everything with which men try to mingle it — always identical, 
 but always homeless. 'J'hcre never was possibly a more terri- 
 ble siege, either in ancient or in modern warfare, than the siege 
 of Jerusalem. The mind sickens over the recital of the com- 
 bined horrors of the slaughter and the famine, as they are 
 recorded in the annalist's pages ; but there were darker woes 
 and fiercer cruelties behind. Decree.-, of banishment succeeded 
 the downfall of the city. 'J'he first wild atteini)t at insurrection 
 was expiated by the destruction of half a million of the remnant 
 that wfcS left. In the time of Hadrian the heaviest penalties 
 were threatened upon any Hebrew who remained in Jewry. He 
 might not oar the blue waters of Tiberias, nor own a rood in the 
 fertile Sharon, nor, save by stealth, even glance upon the hill of 
 Zion ; and, cruellest of all, he could not even have in Hebron 
 the poor comfort of a grave, for 
 
 II lands 
 
 fulness 
 
 llivered 
 
 )r their 
 
 ;, in all 
 
 mar- 
 
 latter ! 
 
 which 
 
 " He must wander witheringly 
 In other lands to die; 
 And where his father's ai;hes were 
 His own could never lie. 
 
 Throughout succeeding ages, though surrounding governments 
 ran through all grooves of change, no reversal of the attainder 
 came upon the disinherited Jew. Jerusalem had been overrun 
 by sucesssive hordes of strangers. All religions but the purest 
 had been professed within its walls. All alien tribes could find 
 shelter and traffic — but it was inexorably barred against the 
 
 333 
 
THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL. 
 
 h n 
 
 entrance of its own children. From the minarets there might 
 wave the crescent of the Ottoman, or shine the bright lances of 
 the tameless Arab, or gleam the crucifix of the Papist — the Jew 
 was still proscribed. Or if now and then there dawned a milder 
 policy or more merciful times, he lived in his own home by suf- 
 ferance ; and in literal fulfilment of the prophecy, " he had a 
 trembling heart and failing eyes, and sorrow of mind, and feared 
 day and night, and had none assurance of his life." (Deut. 
 xxviii. 65, 66). And now, though they have larger immunities 
 than before, they are practically in banishment still. They have 
 no portion in Jerusalem, and scarcely a memorial. They owe 
 their tolerated presence in the holy city to the protection which 
 the British flag gives to its own subjects everywhere ; or they 
 have bargained for a foothold, and, to regain this inalienable 
 birthright, have " purchased the gift of God with money." Not 
 only are they exiled still from Jerusalem, exiled so thoroughly 
 that it is computed that at this day there are fewer Jews in 
 Palestine than in London, but there has been no colonization 
 among them by which they have become politically consider- 
 able in any other country, and have gathered to a head of power. 
 The scattering has been complete and perpetual. This mar- 
 vellous people have a sort of ubiquity. They live in every 
 nation of Europe. They swell the tide of emigration, and turn 
 up, mysterious and shrewd, at the Antipodes. They shiver in 
 Siberia and Greenland, and sccrch in Africa's heart ; they bow 
 before the simoom of the desert, and lave their wearied limbs in 
 Gungas' sacred stream. In all countries where they have wan- 
 dered, persecution and contempt have awaited them. In the 
 East their sufferings have been multiplied. The lazy Turk 
 rouses himself to express his momentary anger against the 
 
 334 
 
THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL. 
 
 Hebrew. Chivalrous France, classic Italy, romantic Spain, 
 tolerant and thoughtful Germany — all in former days have 
 treated the Jew with cruelty, and in later times with slander 
 and with scorn. And in England, free, enlightened, happy, 
 there are dark historic pages which record the calamities of the 
 Israelite \ how avarice was rapacious, and chivalry unknightly, 
 and honour, even royal honour, belied, and the common 
 laws of right and honesty forgotten where their interests were 
 concerned ; how Saxon thane and Norman noble alike thrust 
 them from the courtesies of life ; and how even the swineherd 
 and the jester dared insult the velvet gaberdine with ribald 
 oaths and with unseemly scorn. It is but lately that all the 
 reproach of persecution has been wiped away ; and even now 
 there are but few of us that have felt as we ought for this peo- 
 ple, still, after so many ages, branded with their original curse, 
 still without a prince and without a sacrifice. Think with 
 Christian sympathy of their political dispersion and of their reli- 
 gious danger, and I am sure that there will be struck upon your 
 hearts such a consciousness of needed salvation that you will 
 cry out in the entreaty of the text, " Oh that the salvation of 
 Israel were come out of Zion ! When God bringeth back the 
 captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be 
 glad." 
 
 II. We come to notice that their salvatiofi is attainable. The 
 harp is not always to hang idly upon the willows, nor to be 
 swept by troubled fingers to wild and plaintive music. The 
 penal curse is to be reversed. The malediction, though it has 
 hung over the unhappy race for ages, is not eternal. 
 
 There are many proofs that a widespread belief of this has 
 obtained in the Christian Church. When you feel tenderly 
 
 m 
 
 II 
 
 335 
 
 
/'///•; sAi.wrnox or / <raei.. 
 
 towards this disinherited elder brother of the family, and long 
 for his reinstatement in the iniicritance which he has " sold for 
 nonj;ht. " you feel that you have both .arrant for your lender 
 wishes, and hope that they will be realized, in the love and words 
 Qi{ the I'allK'r, Hut what do we mean when we speak of the 
 salvation K^^i Israel? It is perhai)s necessary to explain onr 
 terms, as the Wcuxl may be variously understood. We at one e 
 alhrm oiu' meaning to be the conversion of the Jewish nation 
 unto Christ -their "looking uj^on I lim whom they have pierced," 
 not in rage as many of then". (\(^ mnv ; not in remorse and ho|)e- 
 essness, as in the quick recoil of con\iction they might be 
 tempted to do.— but in contrite and goilly sorrow. All other 
 meanings which juay be put upon the Word arc lacking if 
 they include not this first ami highest. Some look for political 
 deliverance— a social elevation beneath whose amenities they 
 shall be relincd into that higher character from which their long 
 persecutiotis have debased them. Hut if you invest them with 
 all rights <,^{ citizenship here — or bring them to their own land 
 with all the spontaneous gladness of a jubilee — and do not at the 
 same time change their hearts, the curse which has cleaved to 
 them in their wanderings would cleave to them e((ually in the 
 citv of their solemnities — " an abomination of desolation "more 
 hateful than the Roman Kagle tlaunting in " the holy i)lace. ' 
 Some look tor mental emancipation — an emergence from the 
 bondage \^i the Rabbinical law into a sort of free-thinking 
 liberalism which is cousin-gernn\n to absolute infidelity. Some 
 expect only to see the Hebrews come over to a speculative 
 adhesion to tlie Messiahship of Christ, or to a mere nominal 
 adoption of the Christian name. Brethren, if all we do by our 
 etTorts be but to dislodge the Jew from his ancestral faith ; to 
 
 ^ E 
 
rm-: sai.vaiion of israij.. 
 
 unsettle his cIuMisliod ideas, and to supply hiin with notliiug 
 l)elter, we iiu iir a very alaiuiinf^ respoiisihilify, and aceomphsh 
 a very doiihiriil f^ood. If we |)ersii;Mle to an inteUectual assent 
 only - thonj^h we secure silenee from the blasphemers and 
 removal of the prejudice -we are just hiding lij^ht in darkness, 
 and making darkness denser l»y liie sad eclipst". If we are con- 
 tent with a nominal profession of (Christianity, we giv premiums 
 lo the crafty r.nd the sv)rdid, and lay ourselves open to the 
 perpetration of those; disc reditahle frauds upon us wlii( h hav:j 
 already c reati-d a //mr/ //ir/V' impression of distrust against a 
 converted Jew. Nothing will at on<e fulfil iIk; mission of the 
 Christian Cihtnch, aiul satisfy her pants of roused desire, hut the 
 real renovation of the Jewish race ; that they may individually 
 l)Ccome heirs of the grace of |)ar(lon, reconciled to ( iod through 
 (-'hrist "having their fruit unto holiness, and the end ever- 
 lasting life." That this result will he accomplished we do verily 
 and in truth believe, and that not by special miracle, not by 
 any process other than that which makes every conversi(;n 
 miraculous, but by the power of the Holy (Ihost, acting in 
 persuasive might upon their own free jjower of choice, and 
 making effectual the appeal of the ministry or the utterance of 
 the Word. Surely there is no irreversible hindrance in (Jod, 
 nor invincible stubbornness in Hebrew hearts against the truth. 
 It is true that the curse has been jileaded in bar of Christian 
 endeavour to reclaim them — just as it was pleaded in justification 
 of the accursed system of slavery, but "Cod hath not cast off his 
 people whom he foreknew." It is true that the Jews themselves 
 acknowledge a peculiar hardness about Jewish nature, and that 
 many others would be inclined to the opinion which Luther 
 somewhat rouglily affirms : "A Jewish heart is hard as a stock, 
 
 337 
 
 I 
 
 ! 
 
 
 I 
 

 I ,■ 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 ■ 11 
 
 H li 1 
 
 » fli 
 
 IB IH 
 
 r//^' SALVATION OF ISRAEL. 
 
 as a stone, as iron, as the spirit of evil;" but it is t^^e "stony 
 out of the flesh " whicli God h.as specially promised to remove. 
 Roote IS are their prejudices they can be rooted out by (lospel 
 husbandry. It was not only for a witness that Christ's pityin^^ 
 tenderness enjoined "the beginning at Jerusalem" of the 
 tidings of great joy ; and as if to shame and silence for ever 
 Gentile indolence and unbelief, God gave, in the initial cam- 
 paign of the Apostles, a glorious Pentecostal type of the 
 conversion of Israel, in the three thousand Jews who were 
 smitten and saved under Peter's rousing word. 
 
 There are many circumstances, moreover, which exalt our 
 hopes for the conversion of the Jewish people. It is not for 
 nothing surely, but in fulfilment of some Divine purpose, that 
 they have })reserved their individuality through so many cen- 
 turies of years, and that the land of theirfathers has been held 
 in such marvellous abeyance of possession. Interi)rcting the 
 future by the past, we may well conclude that Mis mercy yearns 
 over them, " though his hand is stretched out still." Mercy hid 
 herself behind all their sufferings in the former time. Behind 
 the bondage of l\gypt was the education for a magnificent 
 nationality, and the prestige which came upon them by the 
 manner of their deliverance and the destruction of their enemies. 
 Behind the wandering in the wilderness was the training, never 
 interrupted during the forty years, for the Canaan of inheritance 
 and rest. Behind the Assyrian and the Babylonish captivities 
 there was puri)ose to disgust them with idolatry, and to make 
 their witness to the Divine unity more distinct and impressive. 
 Some gracious design is manifested in each painful infliction or 
 seeming abandonment. And why should it not be so now? Is 
 it not astounding that they should continue to exist ? Aboriginal 
 
THE SALVATION OF rSRAEL. 
 
 tribes of the forest have died out before advancing civilization. 
 The Jew has had more persecutions than any of them, l)ut he 
 lives still. Violence and strife have pursued him unrelentingly. 
 lie has been driven before Pagan lances, and scorched by 
 Roman faggots, and gashed by Turkish scimitars with cruel 
 wounds ; all the enginery of torture and all the exactif)ns of 
 tyranny have been employed to exterminate him — and yet he 
 lives ! Empires have decayed, and he seems to have risen 
 from the ruins. Kingdoms have been born, he has assisted 
 at the birth. Iwerywhere he waiiders on his sei)arate way— 
 amid the Bourses of Europe, beneath the glare of tropic 
 suns — amid costly archipelagos of ocean. His distinction 
 even 'jf suffering is as glorious to him as were the displayed 
 [)hylacteries to the Pharisees of old. Amid many temi)ta- 
 tions to coalesce — though not the balance only, but the entirety 
 of temi)oral motive inclined to persuade him to amalgamate 
 — though with but little difficulty he might at one time have 
 united with the Mohammedan power and so have secured 
 impunity and the chance of revenge, yet through all hazards he 
 has maintained his se[)aration, exclaiming, with all the fervour 
 with which men express a passion of their souls : " I am a Jew, 
 I can never be anything else but a ]f^\s. \ may become a 
 Christian, I can never become a (ienlile." Thus wearing his 
 national reproach as a fallen king his diadem, and faithful to 
 the traditions of his ancestors even in his altered fortunes, " as 
 the sun-flower turns to the sun when he sets the same look which 
 she turned when he rose."- 
 
 If )''ou add to this consideration that which invests it with a 
 still greater marvel, namely, that it is computed that there has 
 not only been preservation of race, but an approximate equality 
 
 339 
 
THE SALVATION OF ISKAKL. 
 
 IjKflj 
 
 '^ 
 
 fHfl 
 
 
 Vf^H 
 
 wt .) 
 
 
 ■B 
 
 ^KH 
 
 BJ 
 
 .wCH 
 
 1 'f 
 
 
 
 
 
 in number — and that there arc three niiUions and a-half of Jews 
 in the world to-day, just as there were when the "chariots 
 dravo heavily' after thcni, and the Red Sea rolled back at their 
 glorious leader's signal, — you cannot refuse the conviction that 
 all this has not been an arbitrary impulse, but a Divine arrange- 
 ment ; that the Father has tracked the prodigal in all his 
 wanderings ; and that by and by there shall be the best robe and 
 the music of the festival because of die '' dead that is alive 
 again, and of the lost that is found." 
 
 There are not wanting indications, moreover, in the feeling of 
 all thoughtful nien, of an awakened interest in this great matter 
 o( Israel's salvation. The mind o( Christendom is no longer 
 indifferent. Christians of every name have interred their ancient 
 nrejudices against the IIel)rew, and vie with each other to atone 
 for the criminal apathy oi the past by being no longer laggards 
 nor idlers — but by compassing this cause with the teiidoriiess of 
 sympathy, with the diligence of faithful labour, and with the 
 importunity of prayer. Amoug the Jews themselves there are 
 strivings and (luickenings as of a nascent birth. Many (luestious 
 and customs, which the Rabbinism of the ages have enjoined, 
 have been discarded by their modern intelligence, and there has 
 been struck in many hearts a chord of earnest feeling which has 
 led them to the study of the rroi)hecier, only to be dismayed 
 by the conclusion that the Messiah has already come. Their 
 prejudices against Jesus have in many instances been diminished. 
 There is an eagerness to receive, and an insatiabh^ness to 
 devour, the New Testament Scriptures, amongst many who a few 
 years ago would have scorned to touch them as unclean. And 
 last, not least, many among them have been actually converted, 
 
 340 
 

 THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL. 
 
 and evidence, in consistent living and earnest missionary toil, 
 that they have " passed from death unto hfe." 
 
 In this review of probabilities I have abstained from the men- 
 tion of that which forecloses the entire argument, while yet it is 
 a sure resting-place for Faith-- -the absolute promise of Ood. It 
 is, however, impossible to read many parts of Jeremiah, Kzekiel 
 and tlosea's prophecies, or to follow the Apostle's argument in 
 the eleventh chapter of the I'4)istle to the Romans, without 
 resting ujjon the assurance, as clearly revealed as any part of the 
 Divine Will, that " if the casting away of them be the reconciling 
 of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from 
 the dead." (Rom. xi. 15.) 
 
 Yes, Israel shall be saved! (Jod bath promised it — and it 
 shall be so. Vain shall be all the efforts of the world and die 
 devil to hinder it. Through the degeneracy of character, and 
 through th'.* incrustation of prejudice, through the inveteracy 
 of habit and through the teeming slaveries of years — the con- 
 quering word of Jesus shall make its resistless way. In deepest 
 sorrow for the great wrong they did to the crucified, ** the land 
 shall mourn, every family apart," until, sprinkled with the blood 
 they shed, they shall rejoice in His purity and healing. And in 
 the great day when the multitudes shall gather for the corona- 
 tion of the Son of Man, there shall be the ]<t'H, eldest born among 
 the aristocracies ; with an ancestry that dates before parchments ; 
 " concerning the flesh " of the kindred of the king ; bending the 
 knee, foremost in the homage, lifting the voice most tuneful in 
 the praise ; and, with an eagerness that no other can outrival, 
 bringing forth the royal diadem, "to crown Him Lord of all.* 
 Brethren, to hasten this consummation all of you may contribute. 
 The Hebrew people have many claims upon you. They are men, 
 
 »! 
 
 341 
 
THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL. 
 
 and they appeal to )'ou for the common pitifulness of manhood. 
 They are men in need and in peril, and their sorrows, like the 
 wounds of the ancient Greeks, are their advocates before you. 
 Much of our present privilege came to us by their means. Their 
 bards sang for us, their prophets thrill us jet. The grand 
 fishermen and tent makers whom they sent fcrth are inspira- 
 tions to us at this hour. They kept through a long dark night, 
 and amid a horde of prowling enemies, the " lively oracles of 
 God." We have to atone to them for the wrongs of ages. 
 Children of those who oppressed them, and who killed their 
 prophets, we should do better than " build their sepulchres," we 
 should teach them how holily to live, and how hopefully and 
 triumphantly to die. God has not finally cast them away. Christ 
 died for them, and intercedes in His royalty for their recovery. 
 The Spirit strives with them with a powe^ which many of them 
 are unwilling to acknowledge. Now your duty is before you, to 
 work and to pray for their salvation, and to let the active bene- 
 volence testify to the sincerity with which the lips have breathed 
 the prayer : " Oh, that the salvation of Israel were come out of 
 Zion ! When God bringeth back the captivity of His people, 
 Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad." 
 
 
 ^•^ 
 ^e^ 
 
 342 
 
I 
 
 lood. 
 I the 
 
 you. 
 rheir 
 ;rand 
 ipira- 
 light, 
 es of 
 ages, 
 their 
 ," we 
 ■ and 
 !!hrist 
 >very. 
 them 
 »u, to 
 Dene- 
 
 hed 
 ut of 
 ople, 
 
 THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 ( 
 
 I 
 
Lord 
 
 T 
 
 had 
 
 instr 
 
 with 
 
 coun 
 
 heed 
 
 fathe 
 
 accoi 
 
 of th 
 
 Corir 
 
 here : 
 
 not p 
 
 strick 
 
 annoi 
 
 who, ; 
 
 invite 
 
 had n 
 
THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 " For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink thi«^ 
 Lord's death till He come." — i Cor. xi,, 26. 
 
 ■», yc. Jo show the 
 
 THE Apostle Paul sustained to the C( "inthian church the 
 relation of a father to his child. . / nim the Gospel 
 had been first preached in the rich and sensual city, — by his 
 instrumentality the first converts had been won to Christ ; and 
 with all a father's yearning did he watch over their welfare, 
 counsel them in their ever recurring perplexities, and guide the 
 heedless footsteps which were too prone to go astray. To his 
 fatherly care for their interests we owe the circumstantial 
 account which he has given us in this chapter, of the institution 
 of the Lord's Supper, in the celebration of which, among the 
 Corinthians, certain abuses had crept in. His account of it, 
 here recorded, is a valuable and welcome revelation. He was 
 not present in the upper room. He was not among the awe- 
 stricken company who were thrilled with horror by the 
 announcement that amongst them was a foul betrayer, and 
 who, scarce recovered from the shock of such sad tidings, were 
 invited to join in the tender and prophetic feast ; and yet he 
 had not been left to the hazard of a traditional knowledge, nor 
 
 345 
 
 f 
 
 I ' 
 
 :i'. 
 
THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 \\ 
 
 received his impression of the scene from the glowing descrip- 
 tions of another. He distinctly repudiates the thought that he 
 '■ had either received it, or had been taught it of man," and 
 expressly states that " he had received it " directly " from the 
 Lord." So distinguishing was the honour put upon the Apostle 
 of the Gentiles, and so important the institution itself, that there 
 was given to him a new revelation — that its Divine paternity 
 might be placed beyond all cavil, and that it might be authen- 
 ticated by yet weightier evidence, and more firmly homed in 
 the hearts of believers, in the perpetuity of its obligation unto 
 the end of ti .e. 
 
 To the Lord's Supper, then, with its hopes and memories, 
 with its delights and duties, standing out as a Divine institu- 
 tion, solemn and beautiful, our attention is to be directed, and, 
 as our object is not critical but practical, we shall but briefly 
 refer : 
 
 L To the nature of a Sacrament ; and more largely 
 
 IL To the aspects under which the Sacrament of the Holy 
 Communion ought to be considered. 
 
 The word Sacrament, derived from the Latin, and in use among 
 the armies of Rome to denote the great military oath by which 
 they swore allegiance to their country, was used by the early 
 church to signify any of its ceremonies, especially those that 
 were figurative and typical. Gradually, however, it became of 
 more restricted meaning, and in the narrower sense it is com- 
 monly understood now. In the general definition of a Sacrament, 
 it may be said to be a sign and seal of a covenant, and to dis- 
 tinguish it from a ceremony it is further necessary that it should 
 be expressly of Divine institution. The creative power of the 
 Papacy has swelled the Sacraments into seven — the less mystery- 
 
 346 
 
THE LORD 'S SUPPER. 
 
 and 
 
 Holy 
 
 among 
 which 
 
 early 
 e that 
 ime of 
 
 com- 
 iment, 
 to dis- 
 
 hould 
 of the 
 
 stery- 
 
 loving genius of Protestant Christianity is content with the two 
 which are admittedly of Divine appointment — Baptism, by which 
 we are initiated into the fellowship of the church, and the Lord's 
 Supper, by which we commemorate the Redeemer's death. 
 
 There are various views entertained of the nature of the Holy 
 Communion, into the discussion of which we cannot largely 
 enter, and of which we can only hastily remind you. There is 
 the opinion of the Church of Rome, which believes that after 
 the act of consecration the bread and wine lose their essence, 
 and are verily and indeed transmuted into the " body and 
 blood, soul and divinity, bones and nerves of the Son of God." 
 We object to this monstrous dogma because, in certain 
 instances connected with the administration of the Eucharist, it 
 has led to gross and revolting impiety \ because it brings us back 
 from the dispensation of the spiritual into the age of material 
 symbol, which is the church's childhood ; because it is plainly 
 opposed to the whole scope and genius of Scripture ; and 
 because, in the quaint words of a German critic, " it creates a 
 new Christ — a dead Christ by the side of the living one." In 
 opposition to this theory, and in extreme recoil from its 
 absurdity, some have deprived the Sacrament of all religious 
 significance, and have commended it solely on account of the 
 salutary influence which it may have upon the mind — like 
 reading of the Scripture, or the act of prayer, or any other duty 
 of the Christian life. We object, likewise, to this bold and dis- 
 honouring interpretation, because it is an affectation of inde- 
 pendence to forms which theScripture will not sanction; because 
 it strips into unworthy bareness an act official and solemn ; 
 because it does injustice to the memory of the Saviour, takes 
 the beauty from His ordinance, and the heart and force out of 
 
 V 347 
 

 i I 
 
 Mis Nvonls. riirvi' »s anothri vnw whit l\ ;ip|M(>\Mn;Ui's lo tl\(' 
 lirst luontionctl. iu\tl is siMucMnu s hcM (onjoinlly, though il iw 
 likrwiso ;\Hinur«l hv (hoso who w«m\M hcsil.Mir In he rlnssnl 
 ;\inv>ngsl tho ;ulh(M(M\ts ol ihr rh\iH h nl Kotnc lh;U ihc ch- 
 uuM^s al'trv « i>nscn,\t»on \\,\\c \\\ {\\v\\\ ;in inh»M(t»l vitUic, iiir 
 spcrtuo ;Utogo(h»M ol thr thsposUum .uul Ut'snc ol the person 
 In whvMU tho\ ;\i»' ir« (M\,-i1, Who h;\s >»ol th'plonMl (he \)\v\.\ 
 lon» ol this noi\on ;\>\u>ng \\\c y\i\\\\v\\vA \\\;\ssvs o( our Iniul t* 
 In ni;nn u>s(;>\\rcs. thovigh the lilc h;\s \ycv\\ ronsmnc*! m sin, 
 aiul \\\ uoglovt o1 ov srofhtig against vch.iioti. ils inn\istn is. 
 haslilv sent 1»m m th«' n^oital su kncss ; aiul. by iho giving oi 
 the sa* wvl ombUMUs i( is jMOsiniuil that Ihi^ cmumuv is rhcaled ot 
 his ]MV\. aiul the sjMiit * hamuli into tho hapjuncss ol ihc sky- 
 Wo nci\\ haixily nttcv ou\ |n\>tosl against this tlot tiiiir ol ikmcs 
 saw olhoacy. W(^ v>hjcil t»> i( In^ansollod niakos no niuiMv 
 ditu)nal tovonants ov pvoiuisos oi Mi-ssing ; because. In 
 \nviiuing inviniouMuc ov shnnbov. it has Ikhmi largely used bv 
 Satan as a vievieo to nun souls ; bceause it intnuhues other 
 tonns ol salvation than those whivh Christ has solemnly »le 
 elarcd. and because it Iranslovins a holy rite into the mere trit k 
 ol A ooujuror. a "lying wonder" ot perverse and manipulating 
 >vi7Ardvy. C^ir view ot" the Supper ol our Lord is thai there is 
 in u no vuluc ot alonenienl or power lo subdue ihc rebellion 
 ol a sinner, nor even any exelusivc conveyance ot" grace or tom- 
 tort . but that, rightly and reverently used, il is a blessed means 
 ot" grace ; an ordmancc in which ihere couches much spiritual 
 protil ; and which, perhaps above all others, draws aside the veil 
 for the lailhtul, and reveals to the rapt soul already somewhat 
 of the lustre and ecstacy ot" Heaven. 
 
 11. By one or other of the s;icred writers the Sacrament of 
 
 34S 
 
/•/// /('AV.v sum R. 
 
 ihr I.nnl'q Snpprr is prrqrnl'd niidri (frl'iiii !m|i''f ir wlii» li 
 UHlnld (o (IS lis (IrsiffM ;uif| lilcssin(',s. \'\\vy \r\\ im tliit if is ; 
 
 ml. /{ (I'tnntrmi'rii/f'rr i<ri/ifhvhc. " riiis(l(Mii mnnnlit^Hif r 
 (»f inc." It IS ii(» iiiM •MniMMii lliiM^^ ill llir liisloiy <»l lutfioim 
 to ( tMiiincmoiMlc cvciils u( n;ili(»n;il iiiiporliiiif r l»y rxprrssivr 
 symbolism. M(mI;iIs ;iir strmk In rrlrl»r;ilr ;i vif lory (u to prr- 
 pclu.ilc llip prowess o( ;i licio. TIm' sl;iliics o( llie wise ;in'l ol 
 \\\v vnliimi iur iik lied iii tlicii ( (iimlry's frmples ( oliimiis rear 
 their (ail Iicm<Is on the mounds o( world (ame(| |»allle fields, or 
 on some holy plac e olliherly proressions;ind paj^e.inls n\ liij/li 
 and sol(Mnn leslivity Iransmil from f^cneralioti to ^ener;itir»n the 
 memory of nolahle days and deeds. And it is ri^ht thai it 
 should lie so. We are no friends lo llw nilhless nlililarianisni 
 that < an see no ^ood in these things, and that would she.ir off 
 all the trappings from Slalr, and all the pageantry from Power. 
 They are nnsiibsl intial, and expensive too, sometimes, hiit they 
 arc expressions ol something great and tnu;, and liy how mil' h 
 they are invested with imposing gr.indein, by so miie.h is the 
 likcliluxKl that they will he fastened upon the memory and the 
 heart. There is hope of a nation when its gratitude lives, 
 though tl e exhibitions of that gratitude may be extravagant and 
 unseemly. If you c.ome from the national lo the individual, 
 how memory clings round some relic of sanf;tity bestf)wed on 
 us by some far off IViend, some dear gage of affection ; the gift, 
 peiv»aps in the latest hour, of the |)recious and .sainted dead. 
 As wc gaze upon them -mute but eloquent reminders of a past 
 that has lied for ever, how closely they seem linked with our 
 every coaccplion of the giver, and in what an uncounted value 
 we hold them for the giver's sake. Surely then tfiere is a fitness 
 in the institution of the Lord's Sujjper as a standing memorial, 
 
 349 
 
 ^ 
 
////• /.'AVA A/r/V A' 
 
 \\ 
 
 \i (, in. I In \\ ln< h iht hi \i i ol r n li inln iil\nl Iw lii \ i i \\\ \\ lio 
 
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 I In I 
 
 c tvc 
 
 (h, 
 
 n i«M\i. w w 
 
 pi >•»' 
 
 n 
 
 r; i>iihn lUi r li M (hi 
 
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 N'ou \\!\.^ iii<>\i(- in till' \\\\ 111 <n piiii Ii r>.-il I>\ lli. ihiii', nil 
 
 no( In! Willi )-i ilidi.lr ind l.iilh (o 
 
 hi'w lh( 
 
 I M(l 
 
 ;ilh 
 
 111 
 
 ml 1 
 
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 riu- (uur .\l \vljii h thr (i.hniii. i' w,\'< iiv;l itiilr'l \v,r; ihr Inur 
 
 ^^^ th>" I r I'.l ol (h>' r.i'«Mn ,i 111. ii 
 
 W .IS .1 lll<'lllo| il ill I lrll\ ( I 
 
 ;\n> V- \\ii>iii'hl o;i( li>i ih 
 
 i" I Mllill iMl iM 
 
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 llllllv III ,1 
 
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 .s« 
 
 MU»" ^^( \\\ (IwrlK'l • llUi i> 
 
 M'M ii>,r 
 
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 w 
 
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 sv>iVv>\\ Iroiu ]\\l,Ut\ ,uul n\ in Mi>n, uiii i iili,ii;i' ; tn h ;inil |iiinr 
 )>rv>ugl>( \\'\\k'' v1v'>svM (v'lunvship h\ (hr >',um( IrxrUri, liiniltlr 
 
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 Ov-liv>t\t (,u iMU intv> (hi' vliikiv. 
 
 .niil .uiuii I 111" )-l,ii r ol liMi hes 
 
 ;U\d Vac tv,\ni]> v>l ]\.\\{^ h-<'(.«\\ili « h,-clv M.nii hril mU> ;iu .I'.hc 
 
 \Uon 
 
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 WiMils ot ;u;onv 
 
 ViV,uiii,\llv \\\c kniM\lv\l;;o IS j-;,i(luiOil (h,i( \]\c di-.d luiion is ;i 
 Ov\inUv>n vino, .uul (h.U Iumu ^nnv vlwclhii;; (hi^ loiiilcsl .nui 
 nv^st troasuiwi h.\A A^iwWcA, lor " (hiiMi!;hou( iho whoh' l.niil 
 thoro \v;is not .m ' 1\!;\ pti.in" honso in whu h (hcio \v;is nol tino 
 do.ui" WoU nUi:lu thoro bo " .) on m l'\!;\ pi. suoh .is ihcio 
 
 w 
 
 .^s r,v>no hko u. nvM- sb.iU ho liko il ,\\\\ nioii 
 
 Hut 
 
 soo in lie 
 
 \M\d vM' r>oshon, thoso d\vollini;s whoso »ioorpi>sts ,iro siuinklrd 
 with b;Ov\i ; dwolhncs \\]\wh tho pivnid sons o\ Va\\\)[ would 
 hAvo soovnod to oiitor. d\volhni;s ol' nuMU;ils and sl.ivos, hut 
 within thoni oil th.\t nii;ht ot" dis.istor thcro is no " 'iwling hoait 
 
 J.^< 
 
/ /// / I 'A'/'". './777 A' 
 
 1)111 ':l:iili III I'lVi'l nil' , lull r V'l V \vl Ml »' 'I'lliir'; 'il I li I ii !■ :;;r| VIH^^, 
 liiiii i> Il nil I '111'! ,1 I II I ;ii Ml i| iii'l '^'ih mil i'ly ( r-i'l lii-; ^^ I 
 Ii|i; |ii| I II ii|iiiii llin;' (| VI llinii-; <il h.i ii I . iK' y vv f lie i'lt'l''; 
 V\ « II I I \ ' iMi I 1 1 iii|i ;, ;ilii| ;i ; Im |ii;;<i| ll|i|ii liy Hi' A7'lit'ili(( 
 Ail!',il Miilliil !ii'<' till 111 lliMi;l (Mil III Im,I(_ mui'Im'I v/itli III' 
 Hill III ( tl I III II 1 1| i| II i; ;i II ; , ' Il i "i li ililu III m I I y I ii loi ' I li' IJ i;t i ,\ 
 II niJHiii''; Irii , |i i\iii!', llii liii'l III I ii iii'l.ij^' li'liiii'l ill' in, 
 jiilii i|i\ iiiii ( nil iiM liiM i| .ili'l li;i|>|iv li'iiii l':ilii' ';< •; I'l ',ii' ' 'illi , 
 ;ii\i| llii II |iili liiiii', llii II li III ; .r. Ill I till II, II' yiii'l tli' li ;li ' >\ 
 I III' I I .1, 111 I ;!' I , iii'l (|' I \' HI vnii'l' ! til .1 II' Ml h; ';Ii'imI'I (' ' I iii'l 
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 "rill'i w.lJ ill'' nil iiinis' ii|i|i' I iiii p ;l in iIm iniii'l; '»( tli'' 'li-,' |j)|*•^ 
 wIh'II III'' .'ii\iiiill "I'i'il 111' I'l iii'l III' '.,';''(| il, ;iii'l l/i.ik'' it, 
 uii<l )',;t\i' In ill' 111," ,iiii| lli'iU'li till' v'll VV.I-; 'Ml lli'ir \)';\t\^ 
 jir.l tln'ii, Ml lliil till V' I "' >v iii>l ill' Inll ■■,i;'iiifi' ui' '• i,\ th'- ,i' f, 
 Mill < I iiii|ii rli'ii' III I til' ('i.iii'l'iii III ill' II Mi'.t'f''; irii .•,i'»fi, III 
 tlir ;iltri I mil', wli' II ill' \ lii'l Ic ill M li'i'il' 'I III lli'' ii|i[»''f roorn, 
 Mini li;ii| ';l I.I I I'll iii I In' I'. i|>lr.m nl l''iil' ' n;! , I li''/ wiul'l nn'l'r 
 sl.iU'i It lii'tli'i, .iii'l woijl'j ■,i-i\ ,\<; \vr ';'■'• in tli'' li;;lit of ,'i pff 
 (cited l\''vi'l.il Mill, Imc.v IiIIv 'i'i tli' nii'Jil '»f tli'' l',r. .'c/'r v/;is 
 iir.tiluti'il till- iiii'IiihimI nl 'I'Iivmim '• fi'nn .i ii'iri'i i;!;'' (^^r'";it''r 
 lh;m l'',";v|»i IIII, -in'l ii'mi lli'' 'l'',i'lli''r |i''til-i of ;i d'Mtn tli.u 
 licvci <lif!;. 
 
 |{iil il tin iiimil, (»l ill'- <lr,' i|»l''i '.vy fill'-d witli tlioii;dif', (>i 
 (lie r.r/.ovci ,iii'l il . iMi'it ■,;ilv;iti')ii, vvli it w-ri- tli'; tliO!i;dit'- of 
 llic I\c Ji'iMii'T i' II" w.r. i'l.! ''iili'i in;', witliiii tli'; '-.li-i'low of 
 Ills l',i,,ioii. riicic 'itii't' li"(| ')iil 'I'-forr llr, ''^n,' i'>ir-. i-yi: tfi'j 
 wlinjc «'(»iii-,i' (if Milf'-riii'; wlii' Il II'iIimI •,'■! Iiiin ,':lf t>r;i.v';ly t'j 
 Ir.ivcl. Ills l)i'tr,iy,il, 1 1 is ;irr''-.t, tli': (iir'l''ii, Umj Jii'l;^rn(:rit 
 ll;ill, tlic (!i()ss, iIk- S('|)iil( lire, that slr.iMf^'M.onl-'irt with sin, 
 
 35' 
 
THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 AH 
 
 m I 
 
 t Mil 
 
 I tfi H 
 
 ' '■ B 
 
 " m Hi 
 9 ^ 
 
 that mysterious curse-bearing which was to His pure soul the 
 greatest of all possible humiliation — that drear and lonely 
 moment of desertion hv the Father — the most terrible of all 
 possible endurance, all these were before Him ; and distinct and 
 near He saw the approach of the sorrow. " It was the same 
 night on which He was betrayed." It was the last Supper Table- 
 He gazed with ineffable tenderness upon the disciples whom He 
 had chosen, and who were so soon to be orphaned of His love. 
 He knew them, save the betrayer, to be true at heart though 
 infirm of purpose, and earthly in conception, and dazzled with 
 high imaginings of a temporal kingdom. " With desire," — then 
 broke out the strong affection which many waters could not 
 quench — " With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with 
 you before I suffer ;" as if He had said, My time is at hand, I 
 can no longer delay the completion of my solemn purpose. I 
 have forewarned you of this. I go to my Father and ye see 
 me no more — yet a little while and I must die. Ye are my 
 sheep whom I have led, but tlie sword must awake against the 
 shepherd, and the sheep must be scattered abroad. This is 
 the Feast of the Passover. Ye have been remembering its 
 deliverance, but ye will soon have a tenderer memory. Take, 
 eat this bread, it is my body, soon to be broken for sinners. 
 Take, drink this wine, it is " the New Testament in my blood." 
 Forget me not when ye no longer see me, " This do in remem- 
 brance of me." Deeply would the words sink into the hearts 
 of those faithful disciples, and as deeply should they sink into 
 ours, for the words have come thrilling on, sounding with a 
 deepening pathos '* through the corridors of time." We, too, 
 must enter into the Saviour's sorrow. For us, if we believe in 
 Him, He breaks the bread and pours the wine, and when we 
 
 352 
 
THE LORD 'S SUPPER. 
 
 €at and drink we do " show the Lord's death until He come." 
 ^is death, not His life, though that was lustrous with a holi- 
 ness without the shadow of a stain. His death, not His teach- 
 ing, though that embodied the fulness of a wisdom that was 
 Divine. His death, not His miracles, though His course was 
 a march of mercy, and in His track of blessing the world 
 rejoiced and was glad. His death ! His body, not glorious 
 but broken ; His blood, not coursing through the veins of a 
 conqueror, but shed, poured out for man. On the summit of 
 the Mount of Transfiguration, when the hidden Divinity broke 
 for a while through its disguise of flesh, and Moses and Elias, 
 those federal elders of the former time came down in confer- 
 ence, and th? awe-stricken disciples feared the baptism of the 
 cloud, " they spake of His decease, which He should accom- 
 plish at Jerusalem." His death ! Still His death ! Grandest 
 and most consecrating memory both for earth and Heaven. 
 
 " See Him set forth before your eyes, 
 Thai precious bleeding Sacrifice ! 
 His oiTer'd benefits embrace, 
 And freely now be saved by grace.'' 
 
 You are to remember His death ; you are to see your sins, all 
 loathsome and unsightly, laid upon Him ! Your souls, pol- 
 luted and impure, washed by Him ! Your doom, accursed and 
 terrible, reversed by Him ! Your life, present and eternal, 
 secured by Him I Then " show tiie Lord's death until He 
 come." 
 
 2. // is a confifmatoKy ordinance. — It is manifest from the 
 solemnity of its inauguration, and from the singular reverence 
 with which it was regarded by the early Christians, that the 
 Lord's Supper was not intended to be a thing of one generation, 
 
 353 
 
 I, 
 
THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 ,1 
 
 but to be a precious and hallowed memorial to the end of time. 
 So broad and deep was the impression of its perpetual obliga- 
 ion, that in every age of the Church, alike when it was crushed 
 by persecution, and when it had degenerated into worldly 
 alliance and conformity, the continuity of this great festival 
 sustained no interruption ; it remained in general acknowledg- 
 ment through all external changes. This perpetuity of the 
 Sacrament seems to stamp it as a confirming ordinsare — con- 
 firming man's faith in God, confirming Gcd's fidelity ':o man. 
 
 The disciples had long cast in their lot with the Master, and 
 with leal hearts had followed his fortunes *' throu jh e\'\\ and 
 through good report," bu*: they were more faitlilul wMiesses 
 after that night's solemnity than they had ever been before ; 
 and wiien their Master walked no longer with then^ ; and when 
 their minds recalled Him, as they saw Him last, r'^-^ding from 
 their view in his chariot of cloud ; and when, in oue'lieive to 
 His command, they partook of the orc'inp.nce which He had 
 bequeathed to them, ;. i-- no wonder that they should come 
 away from each successive celt- i. ration of the communion of 
 His body and blooJ with •.mv;;]- lourage, more /aliant i'l His 
 service, both to dare and to do. And it is so with God's people 
 still. By thus waiting upon the Lord in His own endeared 
 ordinance, they renew their exhausted strength, "mount up 
 as eagles," on the wings of spiritual thought, and "run" on 
 errands of charity, or "walk" in consistent conduct, "without 
 weariness or fainting." 
 
 The Sacrament confirms the two things which it exhibits — 
 the atonement and the second advent of the Lord. It links 
 the humiliation and the royalty, the scornful trial and the 
 ;-ession of judr.nent, the accomplished part and the assured 
 
 354 
 
^«f«^ 
 
 THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 future, together. The gone and the coming converge in its 
 blissful present. It is the Lord's sign on the earth, as the sun 
 is in the heaven. It is like a pause in eloquent conversation, 
 which yet is not a pause, because the eye takes up the tale of 
 the tongue, and " fills with light the interval of sound." It is 
 the wedlock of the believer's meuiory and hope : memory which 
 lingers round the Cross, hope which already revels in the glory 
 of the throne. It is the *' angels' food," which tlie children of 
 Israel did eat in the wilderness, again di jpping from heaven 
 for the nourishment of the believer's life. We are now \\\ 
 circumstances closely similar to theirs. They had a past of 
 bondage and a future of blessing ; the deliverance from Egypt 
 to remember, the inheritance of Canaan to anticipate ; and all 
 through the weary desert journey fell God's sign — the manna. 
 We have to remember the time when He died for u«;, and to 
 expect the time when He shall come to " be admired of" us, 
 with tens of thousands in His regal train ; and we, too, arc- 
 in a desert land, and sickened Hope, and drooping Fakb, 
 have often asked the question, " Can God furnish a table m 
 the wilderness?" Can He? Yes, He spren 's it in His ov*'n 
 banquet hall — a feast of royal dainty and ^ rous welcome — 
 and He speaks to his disciples in the word . invitation now, 
 "Come, eat and drink; eat, my friends ; cat abundandy, oh, 
 my beloved ! " 
 
 For the confirmation of your faith an< your devotedness 
 God has set up the sacramental sign. Now come witli docile 
 hearts and learn its mystrc meanings. It is to confirm your 
 faith in His death — in its reality that it was not a prolonged 
 swoon, nor counterfeit of dying, nor simulation of martyrdom 
 as the crowning cheat of the grand imposture of His life ; but 
 
 355 
 
 ■I % 
 
 i y 
 
THE LORD 'S SUPPER. 
 
 that He died, that His body was broken, and that the water and 
 the blood issuing from the spear-wound of the Roman soldier 
 were the signs of life actually departing from its tabernacle. It 
 is to confirm your faith in His death ; in its vicarioiisness, that 
 He was offered, not for His own sins, but for the sins of others 
 — for the unjust, for the leprous, for the abandoned, for all, for 
 you. It is to confirm your faith in His death ; in its efficacy as 
 an accepted atonement, as an oblation which has made it Just 
 for God to pardon you ; as an all-comprising and perpetual 
 reconciliation, which has made "at one" both earth and heaven, 
 *' to show forth His death until He come." It is to confirm 
 your faith /// t/ie certainty of His coming. He shall come ; the 
 Church is not for ever orphaned of His presence ; the disciples 
 need not mourn over a dead Christ the weeping Virgin may 
 dry her tears, for her son liv-nh, glorified, exalted. King of 
 Kings ,md Lord of Lords. It is to confirm your faith in the 
 recotnpense that awaits you at His coming ; all wrongs redressed, 
 all mysteries cleared, the prisoning stone rolled away from the 
 door of every sepulchre ; no flaming sword at the gate of the 
 new covenant Eden ; all temptation overcome ; sorrows woven 
 into elements of stronger character \ the image of the earthly 
 faded, the burning of the fiery trial having purged the features 
 into the reflected beauty of the King ; sin eradicated, Satan 
 trampled under feet, death destroyed, the glad welcome, the 
 abundant entrance, the triumphal honours, the everlasting joy ! 
 Of all these, believer, the sacramental sign speaketh ; it sparkles 
 for thy strengthening with all this fulness of joy. 
 
 You are called, those of you who believe in Jesus, to meet 
 the Saviour in this confirming and witnessing ordinance though 
 there is no necessary efficacy of conversion about it, do not 
 
 356 
 
 <.■«.;<?: 
 
THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 1 woven 
 
 thou, poor penitent, earnest and sin-hating seeker after mercy, 
 be discouraged and imagine that its comfort is not for thee. 
 If thoii seekest Jesus, surely He will not send thee empty from 
 His OH'n table. But for you who have not met with the 
 Saviour ; who, amid outward decorum, keep your hearts alien 
 and your habits worldly, there is no grace in the sacrament for 
 you. It is rather a confirming than a covenanting ordinance. 
 Like the blessed sun and kindly rain, it will shine and fall upon 
 the stone, and the stone will remain insensible, because it hath 
 no hidden principle of life ; but it will foster the growth and 
 develop the blossom of the flower, because the life is there. 
 Give yourselves first unto the Saviour. Make your humble 
 confession of sin and your solemn '^onsecration of service. 
 *' Repent and be converted ;" then ' *ie sacrament will be a 
 precious means of grace ; then, through its influence, " the 
 times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." 
 You will be strengthened by it for effort or for trial, and your 
 souls, like so many passion flowers warmed into beauty by the 
 sun, will exhibit the tender memory of the Saviour's passion, 
 and thus " show forth His death until he come." 
 
 3. It is a covenanting ordinance. The definition of a Sacra- 
 ment seems to lack completeness, unless it be regarded not 
 only as a sign but as a seal — a solemn federal act which involves 
 mutual pledges, of fidelity on the one hand and of blessing on 
 the other. The expression of the inner dispositions by appro- 
 priate symbol is by no means of uncommon occurrence in the 
 Sacred Writings. When tTie Psalmist speaks of his own deliver- 
 ances, and, in astonishment at their extent and magnitude, asks 
 " What shall I render ? " he replies, as the most public and 
 graceful utterance of his gratitude, " I will take the cup of Sal- 
 
 357 
 
 I 
 
 ^ 
 
THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 vation and call upon the name of the Lord ;" and the next verse 
 may be regarded as the translation of the symbol into language, 
 " I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all 
 His people." And your participation of the Holy Communion 
 must be thus regarded as the fresh act of your espousals, as the 
 solemn renewal of your covenant ; as your surrender, entire and 
 unhesitating, to the service of the Lord. It is thus that you 
 confess Christ and witness of Him to the world. If you eat 
 and drink without discerning this great purpose, you eat and 
 drink unworthily ; if you repudiate such purpose, either in 
 thought or act, you crucify in your measure " the Son of God 
 afresh, and put Him to an open shame." By your profane use 
 of the means of grace without the slightest desire for the grace 
 of the means, it is as if you cut and wounded the Saviour in this 
 the house of His friends, and sharpened the daggers of your 
 treachery upon the tables of the violated law. But I am 
 speaking to those who love the Saviour ; who will rejoice to 
 confess their discipleship, and to renew their covenant in the 
 ordinance of bread and wine. Your heart longs to express its 
 devotion, and throbs with affection and reverence towards the 
 Lord who has redeemed you, but within you there lurks a not 
 unnatural fear, and you shrink from involving yourself in the 
 obligations of a covenant so solemn. That this Holy Sacra- 
 ment may be for your comfort, and that the cup may be " a cup 
 of blessing;" remember that there are two parties to the cove- 
 nant ; and that the Sacrament is the divinely instituted seal of 
 the fidelity of God's promise to you, just as — in allusion to the 
 ancient custom of ratifying covenants — the presence of the Lord 
 under the symbol of " the smoking furnace and the burning 
 lamp " passed between the portions of the divided sacrifice 
 
 358 
 
THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 rning 
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 which Abraham had offered, that he might know thereby that 
 he should inherit the land. So the presence of the Lord, not 
 in the fire, but in the still small voice, comes down in the Sa- 
 crament for your consolation and mine. Hark ! the Lord 
 speaks to the Father of the New World as He looks from the 
 altar of Ararat upon the earth from which the waters had but 
 recently assuaged, " I do set my bow in the cloud," and it 
 shall be for a token of the covenant between me and the earth. 
 You can imagine how the patriarch would impress it on his 
 children, and they to their posterity in lengthening succession. 
 And you can fancy how some grey father of a later time, some 
 pious Hebrew of the next generation, would hush the ailing, and 
 would soothe the fretful, and would cheer the timid, as he 
 pointed in the hurricane to the brilliant arch that spanned the 
 angry cloud. " It will subside by-and-by, there's the rain- 
 bow ; never mind the blackened Heaven and the howling tem- 
 pest, there's the rainboivT Do you tell me that the " skies pour 
 out water," and the river has burst its banks, and the " foun- 
 tains of the great deep are broken up," there's the rairibow. 
 God has set it in the cloud, and for the sake of His plighted 
 word, of which that is the token and seal, He will say to the 
 proud waters " Hitherto shalt thou go, and no further." 
 
 Brethren, here in the sacrament is the rainbow of the new 
 and better covenant, the ever renewed pledge of salvation 
 purchased, and strength imparted, and blessing conferred on 
 the believing soul. And now, as in your covenant you pay 
 your vows, time, talent, influence, property, life, all God's ^ — He, 
 the Infinite, in boundless condescension stoops to whisper, '* My 
 light, my strength, my grace, my purity, my joy, my Heaven, 
 all yours." " Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy 
 
 359 
 
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THE LORD 'S SUPPER. 
 
 God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His statutes, and His 
 commandments, and His judgments, to hearken to His voice ; 
 and the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be His peculiar 
 people, as He hath promised thee." And thus, brethren, in a 
 mutual covenant of blessing, you do "show forth His death 
 until He come." 
 
 The Lord's Supper is the privilege of believers — the banquet 
 of the servants in the house of the Master whom they confess 
 and whom they serve. 
 
 That same Master has provided a great supper, to which He 
 has bidden me to invite you all. Come, for all things are now 
 ready. 
 
 That same Master, Jesus, our Immanuel, will receive you if 
 you come, pleading no worthiness ; trusting in no name but 
 His. And when the probations of earth are over, and the 
 gospel invitations have ceased, and the typical ordinances are 
 not necessary, because of the fulness of the vision, you shall sit 
 down, if faithful unto death, at the Marriage Supper of the 
 Lamb. 
 
 360 
 
THE TRANSFIGURATION 
 
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THE TRANSFIGURATION 
 OF CHRIST. 
 
 "And this voice, which came from Heaven, we heard when we were 
 with Him in the Holy Mount."— ii. Peter, i. i8. 
 
 THE Apostle is writing to the churches at a time when 
 scoffers had begun to cavil against the truth, and when 
 a swarm of false teachers had put the faith of believers in peril. 
 He encourages their endangered confidence by reminding them 
 of the evidences of Christianity ; evidences of which he had a 
 right to testify, for he *' could not but speak which he had 
 heard and seen." One of the chosen witnesses to the Lord's 
 Transfiguration won early the crown of martyrdom ; but the two 
 survivors both allude to that wondrous scene, which they used 
 to strengthen the confidence of others while it had fastened 
 itself upon their own minds, at once an inner strength and an 
 indelible memory. Peter speaks of it in the text as the best 
 possible proof to him that he had not followed a "cunningly 
 devised fable." John, reverently recognising the Divinity 
 incarnate, tells us that " the Word was made flesh and dwelt 
 among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only 
 
 W 363 
 
THE TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Brethren, I 
 want you to stand with me upon the Holy Mount this morning : 
 a spot haunted by such hallowed memories must have a charm 
 and a lesson of its own. It is in Galilee, so we shall be in the 
 footsteps of Jesus. It is "apart," so it is suitable for a Sab- 
 batic ramble. It is higii, so our thoughts will rise in sympathy, 
 and we shall become the heavenlier for our climbing. Let us 
 enquire : 
 
 I St. What are the circumstances. 
 
 2nd. What are the purposes of the Transfiguration of Christ? 
 These will hirnish u.3 with ample material, both for thought, and 
 faith, and love. 
 
 The second year of that loving and instructive ministry is 
 now fast drawing to a close. Already have the miracles been 
 multiplied, and the faith of the disciples, at first tremulous, has 
 expressed itself without wavering in the confession of Peter, 
 the ever ready spokesman of the rest. They are prepared to 
 believe in Him as the Christ, though they are yet intensely 
 Jewish in their ambition for a temporal kingdom. It is time 
 now that their faith should enter upon its higher education, 
 and that they should be fitted for their work of witness-bearing 
 by the study of the mystery of suffering. Hence it is with the 
 first intimation of the coming trouble that the narrative of the 
 Transfiguration properly begins. " From that time forth began 
 Jesus to show unto His disciples how that He must go into 
 Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief 
 priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third 
 day." About six days " after these sayings," when time had 
 been given for them to sink deeply into the hearts which had 
 doubtless been perplexed concerning them, with imaginings 
 
 364 
 
THE TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 diverse and sad, Jesus takes Peter and James and John to be 
 the sharers of His hours of midnight prayer. They wend their 
 way together to the " high mountain apart," perhaps some 
 bold hill of the Hermon ridge, where, in the majestic solitude 
 of night upon the hills. He was accustomed to commune with 
 his Father. While He prays the fashion of His countenance is 
 changed. The inner radiance shines through the serge and 
 sackcloth of His incarnate life ; and for once they " see Him as 
 He is," — "the brightness of the Father's glory and the express 
 image of His person," — and they wonder at the awful grandeur 
 of the Divinity which the Man of Sorrows possessed, but which 
 He had veiled even from their vision until now. And see ! 
 there are two forms appearing, whom, by some instinct or 
 instruction, they know to be Moses and Elias ; the c ne a dis- 
 embodied spirit, clothed for the time in some material vehicle ; 
 the other yet wearing the body of which he had cheated death, 
 and which had gone to "put on immortality" by another road 
 than his. They speak, and the disciples listen in a sort of sor- 
 rowful trance, for the talk is of some " accomplished decease." 
 They are startled by the sound, and willingly " slow of 
 heart to comprehend." And now there encompasses them a 
 luminous cloud, and from the midst of it an authoritative voice 
 speaks, attesting the Divine Sonship and Mission of the Master 
 whom they loved so well. These poor frail mortals faint 
 beneath the privilege which has so highly favoured them, and 
 when they recover from their svvoon of awe the dazzling vision 
 has vanished. There are the stars shining in the clear and far 
 off sky ; the piercing night wind blows keenly upon the hill, 
 and on its summit there is nothing living but themselves — 
 themselves and "Jesus only." By and by they descend and 
 
 365 
 
THE TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 rejoin their fellows, but it is with a great secret in their hearts, 
 which they were straightly charged to conceal, except in the 
 contingency, whose remoteness would seem to them almost as 
 an everlasting seal, " until the Son of Man be risen from the 
 dead." This is the great sight which, in the calmness of this 
 Sabbath morning, when our eyes are not heavy with sleep, we 
 may turn aside to see ; and with the added light which the inter- 
 preting years have cast upon its significance, we may learn its 
 lessons of suggestiveness and wisdom. 
 
 " He took Peter and James and John." There seem to 
 have been distinctions among the Apostolic brnd, although 
 the Saviour had said "All ye are brethren." The three whom 
 we now see in the Holy Mount would appear to have been the 
 innermost circle round the Lord ; the nearest in intimacy ; the 
 most favoured in fellowship ; the chosen to testify any special 
 revelation of His love. Their very names were significant of 
 the great purpose for which Christ came into the world, that the 
 "gift or mercy of God," founded upon a "rock" of impreg- 
 nable strength, should "supplant" all idolatry and error. If 
 then, the first power of Christ over death is to be displayed in 
 the weeping household of the ruler of the synagogue, whose 
 little daughter had faded into the beauty of the tomb, Peter 
 and James and John must be the only witnesses of her miracu- 
 lous recovery. If there is to be a revelation of " God manifest 
 in the flesh " on the Mount, or a mysterious burst of more than 
 mortal agony in the Garden, the same witnesses must watch until 
 their eyelids droop and close, wearied with the twin excite- 
 ments of the joy and sorrow. If great truths are to be pro- 
 claimed in the hearing of the nations, who so fitting to declare 
 them as those " first three," He, the Man of Rock, and they, 
 
 366 
 
THE TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 the sons of thunder ? If every variety of character is to be 
 joined in " bearing witness " to the truth, you secure constancy 
 in the person of the earliest apostolic martyr, fearless and 
 ardent advocacy :n the impetuous Peter, and intelligent affec- 
 tion in the " disciple whom Jesus loved." There they stand, 
 those fit and chosen witnesses ; their frames thrilling with a 
 strange emotion ; their weather-beaten faces shining in the 
 reflected glory of the transfigured Saviour. Who of us does not 
 feel his heart within him tremble to their words : " Lord, it is 
 good for us to be here." 
 
 " And there appeared unto them Moses, and Elias talking 
 with him." These are the parties summoned to this solemn 
 mountain conference ; representatives from the invisible world, 
 whose constituency were " the law and the prophets." Moses 
 and Elias — the one girt with the awful honours of Sinai, the 
 other bright with the remembered triumph of Carmel. Moses 
 and Elias — the one, whose death was hastened on account of 
 sin, but over whose dying Death had no cause to rejoice, for 
 he had a God-prepared sepulchre and a divinely ordered funeral; 
 the other, whom God summoned in such haste that he had no 
 time to die, and went off to heaven, as kings travel home, with 
 the " chariots and horsemen of Israel." Moses and Elias — 
 the viceroys rendering up their commissions of delegated 
 sovereignty because the Monarch is enthroned : the servants 
 hastening humbly to discharge themselves of their trust in the 
 presence of the well-reverenced Son. 
 
 " Talking with him ;" both in their ancient garb and in their 
 familiar speech ; treading a planet which they had for ages 
 ceased to visit ; using voices which for long years had never 
 spoken with tongues ; unrecognizable by the Apostles ; not 
 
 367 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 
THE TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 living upon earth ; and yet consciously and happily alive ; 
 bright strangers from the spirit-world, who had risen to tell the 
 living that the dead can rise. 
 
 And what shall be their theme when they converse together? 
 these immortals, fresh from the presence of the Holy One. 
 What heavenly intelligence shall fire their willing lips ? What 
 newer discovery of harmonious perfection shall animate them 
 to loftier praises of the Divine? They, newly initiated into 
 Heaven's secret — the Son of God, who had been the " Wisdom 
 of God" from the beginning — what shall be the subject of their 
 solemn midnight converse? Oh marvellous condescension of 
 the Divine ! Oh wonderful exaltation of the interests of the 
 human ! They spake of His decease, which "He should accom- 
 plish at Jerusalem." Their interest centred on that coming 
 Agony and on that lifted Cross. Their highest topic was the 
 topic of Redemption. Not on the might and marvel of creation ; 
 not on the omnipotence which sustained each minute or vaster 
 organism in its native design ; not on the general adaptedness 
 and harmony of all things : not even on those heavenly bands 
 of bright obedient mind, the eldest born of God, did these 
 shining visitants dwell ; but on the glory which was to suffer 
 sad eclipse so soon \ on the over-mastering mercy which van- 
 quished Death for others by the agonies of its own dying ; on 
 the "grace which stooped so low to succour human woe." In 
 blessed sympathy with those who kept their first estate, these 
 glorified ones desired to look into the fellowship and the 
 mystery of the Cross. This was their chiefest interest and 
 their grandest contemplation ; this, which believers on earth 
 rejoice in with exceeding joy ; this, whose symbol John in 
 heaven beheld " as in the midst of the throne ; " this, upon 
 
 S6& 
 
THE TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 which, alas ! sinners trample, and " account it an accursed 
 thing." 
 
 "And He was transfigured before them."' It has been well 
 observed that this was ?iot the Transfiguration : the Mount but 
 showed him as He was — the actual Transfiguration was in the 
 humiliation of the incarnate life. He. essentially glorious, was 
 "transfigured" into poverty and shame. But now, lest any 
 lingering doubt should lurk in the minds of the Apostles, 
 which might make their future utterances falter, they see His 
 glory ; they had suspected it before. There was a heavenliness 
 in His teaching, and a lustre from His miracles, and a brightness 
 in His spotless life, which, amid the meanness, had betrayed the 
 God ; but here the inner Divinity shines forth through its 
 fleshly covering, and the attesting Shechinah comes down in 
 the encompassing cloud. Well might the mortal spirit live, and 
 the mortal senses faint, before a revelation like this, while yet 
 the desire struggles with the awe, and the bewildered Peter 
 would fain have been busy with the " tabernacles " in which 
 the illustrious visitors might rest. Who of us, even at this far 
 distant period endeavouring to contemplate this scene, as he 
 looks at the Redeemer's form thus lighted up with its own 
 glory of Godhead, but must declare in the Psalmist's words, 
 "Grace is poured into Thy lips ;" "Thou art fairer than the 
 children of men." 
 
 But it is time, secondly, that we enquire into the purposes 
 of the Transfiguration. What were the designs for which it was 
 arranged, and the lessons which it was intended to impress ? 
 
 The first and great design, as we have already intimated, was 
 the solemn inauguration of Christ as the supreme lawgiver in His 
 Church. This was the " honour and glory " which He received 
 
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THE TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 of the Father, as the Apostle in the context distinctly declares. 
 The exposition of the whole transaction, then, is in " the voice 
 from Heaven." After Moses had received his commission 
 he prophesied of a greater than himself: " The Lord thy God 
 will raise up to thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy 
 brethren like unto me ; unto Him ye shall hearken," and on 
 this solemn occasion was the promise fulfilled. If you keep this 
 idea in mind you will see the fitness of the appearance of Moses 
 and Elias, rather than any other of the old Testament saints. 
 They were the representatives of the law and the prophets ; the 
 two great authorities of the Jewish Church ; the rigid jurists 
 who upheld, in all its strictness, the rubrical exactitude of the 
 law. There was strong contention among the early Church, 
 many of whose members believed that the ceremonial and 
 moral laws should be of equal force for ever ; and the Apostles, 
 in the First Council, were called to legislate on matters affecting 
 the Church's spiritual freedom from the yoke of ancient observ- 
 ance. Now, unless there had been some formal abrogation of 
 authority, the laws of Moses, which God had solemnly enjoined, 
 and to the violation of which He had annexed heavy penalties, 
 must have continued in force. But only He who anointed the 
 lawgiver could supersede Him. The same authority which 
 enacted the law must be the power to revoke its provisions. 
 This authority was here given — given in the presence of the 
 man by v/hose lips the former law was spoken, and of the man 
 by whom it was championed, when degenerate Israel had for- 
 gotten it. The voice spake from the cloud for the confirma- 
 tion of the words of Christ, just as at His baptism it had spoken 
 in acceptance of His person. The servants were henceforth to 
 stand aside. They had done their work, and done it well ; but 
 
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THE TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 they were not needed now, and on the crest of the mountain 
 they were to render up their commission to the Son. In the 
 last chapter of Malachi they appear, Moses and Ellas, closing 
 up the old covenant. In the 17th of Matthew they appear at 
 the instalment of the new. It is not a little remarkable that 
 the circumstances attendant upon the giving of the law furnish 
 almost a parallel to the circumstances of the Transfiguration in 
 which that early lawgiver was superseded by a higher. Aaron, 
 and Nadab and Abihu, instead of Peter, James and John ; 
 Mount Sinai instead of the Mount in Galilee ; the face of 
 Moses shining with reflecte- glory instead of the indwelling 
 brightness radiating from the incarnate Son. With these points 
 of difference there was the same pomp of legislation, the same 
 solemnity of utterance, and the same glorious and encompassing 
 cloud. 
 
 The conclusion of the marvellous scene answers to all the 
 rest, like the last stamp of the signet-ring, sealing and confirm- 
 ing the whole. When the fainting disciples recovered conscious- 
 ness and looked around, " they saw no man, save Jesus only." 
 Moses and Elias had been aforetime the objects of their devout- 
 est reverence — the recognized teachers whom they felt them- 
 selves bound to follow. Where are they now? They have 
 renounced all claims to empire — they retire willingly from the 
 field. There is but one royal lawgiver. There must be no 
 division of authority, no admixture of legislative claim. " Jesus 
 only " reigning in unchallenged and sole lordship over each heart 
 and mind. Brethren, for us as well as for them was this solemn 
 instalment given. Christ is the lawgiver to His Church for all 
 time. Prophets and Apostles — they are valuable to us only as 
 they repeat the words of Christ. Holy men and confessors ! 
 
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THE TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 We rejoice in them because they give to us transcripts of Christ 
 — laws, decretals, confessions, catechisms, creeds — we accept 
 them only as they are embodiments of the words of Jesus. Let 
 a thousand rubrics or canons condemn what Christ hath not 
 condemned, we may snap them as Samson the withes with which 
 they sought to bind him. Let a thousand enactments enforce 
 what Christ hath forbidden, and disobedience becomes a Christ- 
 ian duty, and brave death were preferable to life unworthy and 
 dishonoured. " Jesus only," — no surrender of personal thought 
 and freedom ; no binding of the conscience with the scorpion 
 yoke of a consistory, or at the bidding of a man who " as God 
 sitteth in the temple of God." " Jesus only ! " Then rejoice, 
 believers, in your freedom, and in all matters of perplexed me- 
 ditation "appeal " directly '* unto Caesar." Listen submissively 
 to the faintest syllable from the lips which cannot err. Render 
 a homage more dutiful and willing than you have ever rendered 
 yet. Look for ever into this " perfect law of liberty," that you 
 may be blessed in your deed. Our souls exult to feel and to pro- 
 claim that there is but one authoritative teacher ; and just as one 
 fond spot in a landscape, hallowed by some tender or pensive 
 memory, may fasten the gazer's eye until he is insensible to the 
 charms of woodland and waterfall, and copse and spire — so we, 
 waking in bewildered trance and dim memories of shining visi- 
 tants on the Holy Mount, seek not for accessories and back- 
 grounds to the picture which fills the soul and fastens the eye — 
 we see " no man save Jesus only." 
 
 We cannot help thinking, however, that the Transfiguration 
 must be regarded also as the solemn baptism of the Saviour into 
 His priestly and mediatorial office. 
 
 The great purpose of the Incarnation, as you are aware, was 
 
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THE TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 the offering upon the Cross. They who do not keep this in mind 
 fall grievously short in their comprehension of the mystery. It is 
 not enough to explain the Incarnation as designed only for the 
 spiritual teaching, or for the loving miracles, or the exhibition 
 of the illustrious and perfect pattern. These were all collateral 
 and subsidiary. They are not unimportant, any of them. It 
 is necessary that we should learn God's will from lips that are 
 authorized to declare it. It is necessary that that will should 
 be authenticated by signs following. It is necessary that we 
 should see humanity uniform and consistent in its bright obedi- 
 ence. But the teaching was glorified by the dying, and the 
 miracles were the smaller illustrations of that mercy whose 
 crowning act was the draining of its own heart in sacrifice, 
 and the obedience was an '* obedience unto death." Present 
 ever before the Saviour's mind was the grand issue to which His 
 earthly sojourn tended — to make an atonement for the world's 
 sin. This was "the Father's business" which He had offered, 
 and was embodied, to do. For the accomplishment of this end 
 " it behoved Christ to suffer," and there was not a moment of 
 His incarnate life, whether He taught in synagogues or prayed on 
 hill-side altars, or rested from His incessant toil in the brief 
 holidays of Bethany, when this purpose was absent from His 
 mind. He did not for some Mme declare it to those who fol- 
 lowed him. You do not harass a child, while his education is 
 proceeding, by setting before him the probabilities of orphanage. 
 His children must be instructed in His doctrines, and trained 
 for the fulfilment of their mission before they were told. But 
 the influence of the thought may be traced from His very earliest 
 years — did not leave Him in the temptation and in the triumph 
 
 373 
 
 J 
 
THE TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 — enstamped itself indelibly on each word of the lip and o n 
 each action of the life. 
 
 The inner connection between the first announcement of the 
 sufferings and the more formal consecration to them on the 
 summit of this mountain is preserved by St. Luke, who tells us 
 that it was about "an eight days after ihese sayings," that is, 
 six days intervening, one on which the sayings were spoken and 
 one on which the Transfiguration took place — " about an eight 
 days after t/iese sayings " that He went up into the Mount to pray. 
 This was, so to speak, the meridian of his incarnate day. His 
 sun began after this to go down towards the clouds, which 
 awaited its setting. The first shadow of His approaching suf- 
 fering now darkened upon the sky. 
 
 It will not be uninteresting to remember the history of the 
 three heavenly voices of which we read in the lifetime of Jesus. 
 You will find that they do not speak capriciously — even as to 
 the moment of their utterance there is an arranged and intel- 
 ligible plan which they are designed to aid in its working. The 
 first voice spake at Christ's baptism, when, in fulfilment of the 
 great design which required Him to be " made like unto" sin- 
 ners, he was baptized by John in Jordan, not in confession of 
 sin— but as he himself declared, "to fulfil all righteousness.** 
 There is force in that argument which represents the baptism 
 of Christ as the closing up of the old covenant — the obedience 
 to the " baptism of repentance " which John preached, and 
 which was the last external commandment given by God unto 
 Israel. But the significance of the act would not be completely 
 discerned if you exclude the prophetical character — if you do 
 not recognize that beneath the Divine humility which says " thus 
 it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness," there is a reference 
 
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THE TRANSFIGURA TION OF CHRIST. 
 
 to that other baptism, that baptism of agony and blood, about 
 which Christ declared Himself " straitened until it was accom- 
 plished." Now it was at this first anointing of the person of 
 Jesus that the voice from Heaven spake, " This is my beloved 
 Son, in whom I am well pleased." The last occasion on which 
 the voice spake was when Christ had entered upon His passion, 
 and felt already the sharpness of its mental anguish : " Now is 
 my soul troubled, and what shall I say ? Father, save me from 
 this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, 
 glorify Thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, 
 saying, " 1 have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." Mid- 
 way between these voices spake the one upon the Holy Mount. 
 Is it not evident that there was unity of purpose and harmony of 
 counsel between the Son and the Father? The continued 
 watchfulness in heaven of the working out on earth of the scheme 
 of Redemption— the attestation never failing to be given when 
 it might authenticate the work, or encourage the brave worker 
 in His trial? 
 
 Not only, therefore, do we witness on the Holy Mount the 
 installation of the royal lawgiver, but of the great high-priest. 
 It is a grand valedictory service in which He is re-ordained to 
 duty— as the banners are blessed before the army marches to 
 the field. And the voice speaks from Heaven as a sovereign 
 gives audience to a chosen commander, and cheers him with 
 the encouragement of royal favour. With what reverence, 
 brethren, should we, sinners, look upon the scene ! As we see 
 Him standing alone upon the mountain — fresh from His ordi- 
 nation of glory — calm, and kingly in His heaven-imparted 
 strength ; and then as we see Him, with firm step, treading the 
 dark avenue which, through desertion, agony, insult, abandon - 
 
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THE TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 ment, terminates in His death upon the Cross — surely our dis- 
 trust should vanish, and in reliance upon such a champion we 
 should have "joy in believing." Surely our indignation against 
 the vile sin which made all this suffering necessary should be 
 roused within us. Surely our hearts should bound with a 
 fervour of devotion and gratitude which the obedience of a life- 
 time can only inadequately express. Surely we shall mark His 
 track and follow in his footsteps, triumphant in the endurance 
 of our own portion of sorrow, and, quaffing bravely the cup 
 which He, who drained the bitterest has mingled, go on our 
 patient way, singing : 
 
 " O Lord, my God, do thou thy holy will, 
 
 I will lie still. 
 I will not stir, lost I forsake thine arm, 
 
 And break the charm 
 Which lulls me, clinging to my Father's breast, 
 
 To perfect rest. " 
 
 It hardly comes within our scope to educe the various lessons 
 which m:iy be taught us in the Holy Mount. Our aim, very 
 imperfectly fulfilled, has been to elicit the meaning of the great 
 event before us, if haply some of its thoughts may linger in our 
 hearts — Uke chimes heard withindoors — softened by the silence 
 and the comfort in which we sit and hear them, and ringing 
 on, long after the actual sound has ceased, in the melody of 
 each remembered tone. We can but suggest how, when we 
 have recovered from the thrilling consequent upon the glorious 
 vision, we might learn much of collateral instruction and bless- 
 ing. Gospel narratives teach truth and scatter fragrance inci- 
 dentally, as the sick folk were healed " by the shaitow of Peter 
 passing b;'." 
 
 37<5 
 
THE TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST 
 
 We might learn, for example, the immortality of the soul, 
 from the real appearance of two men, who had long ceased to 
 be inhabitants of earth, again revisiting the glimpses of the 
 moon. We might learn the conscious existence of the spirit 
 after its separation from the l)ody, that it does not sleep, as some 
 affirm through dishonoured and inactive ages, but is possessed 
 of intellectual vigour, and, in the case of the righteous, of a 
 residence in glory. We might learn that Christ crucified is the 
 grand theme of contemplation and converse, both to believing 
 hearts on earth and to the ransomed spirits of the sky ; and our 
 faith in the one offering which has redeemed us might become, 
 therefore, more precious than ever. We might learn that God 
 prepares for coming trial by special manifestations of His favour, 
 and that though we may " fear" as we " enter into the cloud," 
 we shall come out of it with manlier hearts and truer courage. 
 Those who are not, alas ! partakers of Christ, might learn, and 
 shudder as they learn, the value of that Divine communion from 
 which they sinfully exclude themselves, and of that inherit- 
 ance of glory which they sell for nought or alienate with scorn- 
 ful hands. Those who have believed, and rejoice in mountain 
 fellowship with Jesus, might learn that, refreshing as is the diffi- 
 cult air, bracing as is the steep ascent, rare and elevating as is 
 the glorious companionship, we must not '* build our tabernacles 
 there." In the valley below there is work for us to do, and we 
 must hear our Master's voice as He asks us to descend, and 
 leads us down into the great field of toil and travail and triumph : 
 
 " Think not of rest, though dreams be sweet, 
 Start up and ply your heavenward feet. 
 Is not God's oath upon your head, 
 Ne'er to sink back on slothful bed, 
 
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THE TRANSFIGURATION 01 CHRIST 
 
 
 Never again your loins untie, 
 Nor let your torches waste and die, 
 Till, when the shadows thickest fall, 
 Ye hear the Master's midnight call. 
 He calls you angels — be your strife 
 To live on earth the angels' life. " 
 
 PRIKTKD AUD BOUND BT HnSTER, ROBE & CO., TORONTO. 
 
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