imitable. The office Whitfield discharged some who peruse these lines may not be called to. In such a field as the Divine Master assigned him, few are commissioned to labour. Gifts like his none can attain. Yet ought every Christian to be inspired somewhat with his zeal. All may be so inspired. Men can copy this model, reducing the scale of its sublime dimensions. The form may be a miniature, yet may it faithfully catch the spirit and expression of the original. So did one in our day strive for a little while, but, alas! apparently in his own strength, to condense in his own parochial toils the counterpart of Paul's wide mission. Sad to think he gave it up so soon; but it was not because of its impracticability; for it is plain enough, and has been often proved by fact, that the vastest spiritual life may be so epitomized, as that "it would be no longer from Jerusalem to Damascus, to Arabia, to Derbe, Lystra, Ephesus, that he would travel; but each house of his appointed parish would be to him what each of those great cities was a place where he would bend his whole being, and spend his heart for the conversion, purification, elevation of those under his influence. The whole man would be for ever at work for this purpose; head, heart, knowledge, time, body, possessions, all would be directed to this end." In like manner, Whitfield's true zeal for the conversion of souls, which blazed out so conspicuously in large churches, market-places, fields, and commons-which carried him from one end of the island to the other, and took him ofttimes over sea-may be caught and compressed by each Christian, so that, in the support of religious institutions-in the work of Sunday-school

instruction-in visiting the poor and sick-in seeking the conversion of ungodly friends, the zeal expressed may be seraph-like. The wise imitation of great religious examples does not consist in a hard, stiff copying of outward actions, line for line, but in catching the Christian spirit and temper which was, or is in them; and then, when, by the grace of God, we have assimilated our inner life to theirs, we are to work out the external expression-to shape our forms of activity according to our talents, stations, and office. It would be a very foolish thought to suppose that to be like Whitfield or Paul in zeal, people must be ministers; to imagine that zeal can only show itself in preaching (perhaps the pulpit is, after all, the easiest place for a man to be zealous in); -but in retired life, though presenting great difficulties, there is plenty of scope for zeal, in a thousand quiet ways of doing good, never publicly talked of, never historically recorded; but seen in heaven, approved of, and remembered and rewarded there.

The reader is, then, earnestly called upon to remember that "it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing." Be zealous in serving God, and in seeking the salvation of souls. Be direct in your aims, and in your efforts concentrate your strength. Of some men of great energy it has been said, “Beautiful sheet lightning, but not condensed into thunderbolts." Ah! the falsehoods, the sins, the miseries of men, these are the things we should set ourselves to rive and shiver,-not to play round them, like the thin diluted electric light that flashes vaguely through the sky, but to pierce and penetrate them to their destruction, like the bolt which cleaves

the oak. And whence is this zeal to come? From above. Thence it was that he of whom we have spoken sought and received it. Meditation, deep, earnest meditation, on gospel truths; and prayer, fervent, constant prayer, to the Father of spirits,-these were the means by which he kindled and kept alive his zeal. He was a man of strong faith, and mighty in prayer; and our Christian zeal will ever be proportioned in its measure to the intensity of our belief and fervency of our devotion. The zeal of unreflecting minds,-minds that seldom pray, or pray only carelessly-is but wildfire, like the crackling of thorns. The zeal of thoughtful and devout men is alone like the fire which God sent down from heaven on the temple-altar.

This chapter relates to an eminent preacher of Christ, who, with wonderful earnestness and love, used to preach the gospel to his fellow-sinners. How winningly he talked of heaven! how terrifically of hell! how solemnly of the soul! how reverently and gratefully of Christ! We almost wish that, with the increased light and love he has now obtained, he could revisit the world, and preach to men on things unseen and eternal! We are ready to fancy that such representations as he would make, such appeals as he would deliver, would constrain more multitudes than ever to believe and obey the gospel. We are apt to think no one hearing him would remain not pricked to the heart! But He who knows what is in man, and what is suited for his salvation, and how ample is the provision already made for it, has said, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."

CHAPTER X.

JOHN WILLIAM FLETCHER,

OF MADELY;

OR, INTENSE DEVOTION.

"Our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." 1 JOHN i. 3.

"If you search the world," says Plutarch, "you may find cities without walls, without letters, without kings, without money; but no one ever saw a city without a deity, without a temple, or without prayers." Even the ancient pagans were wont to lift up their voice to heaven; not only in connection with the formalities of public worship, but in their individual character, and with reference to their own personal affairs. The heathen sailors of Tarshish, when, as they carried Jonah in their ship, a great wind from the Lord overtook them, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, "at once began to cry every man unto his god;" and great was the shipmaster's wonder that the prophet should slumber in the hold, in that perilous hour, and not call upon his God. Some of the old philosophers recommended prayer-"Remember God; call upon him for aid, as mariners do on Castor and Pollux in a storm."

"Grief, fear, desire, cannot be otherwise conquered than by looking to God alone and relying on him." "To worship the gods, and to pray to them, is above all things fit, decent, beautiful, and conducive to a happy life." Passages of this kind are found in classic literature. Such passages, however, are not very numerous; and it is remarkable, that they are strongest in the later writers, who may be supposed to have owed something to Christianity, though they acknowledged not the debt. Plato is almost the only one of the more ancient who has been cited as an authority in favour of prayer; and in a dialogue on the subject he represents his great teacher, Socrates, speaking dubiously as to its advantages, owing to the ignorance and sinfulness of men. Philosophical opinion on behalf of prayer was never so strong as the inward moral instinct which impelled the multitude to pray. Nor in either the vulgar or accomplished was there anything like a true conception of God. At the best, only a misty pantheism floated before their minds. The existence of a personal Creator, present throughout nature, but distinct from and superior to nature, they did not apprehend. Nor were they in possession of any Divine promise or command in reference to prayer. Their appeals to Heaven were the result of human prescription or their own impulse. They had no Divine voice or word to guide them.

We enter a new world of facts when we leave the

pagan to look upon the Hebrew at his prayers; a new world of thought when we close the old books of philosophy which touch on the subject, and open the Bible. Abraham, full of anguish for the impending fate of Sodom, interceded with the Almighty; Moses,