Page images
PDF
EPUB

ead ers, enlisted many from the higher classes in those great undertakings, we must seek in the more extended and more vigorous sway of Arminian Methodism, for that popular influence which rallied the masses to them. We take, then, our final leave of Calvinistic Methodism, not regretting it as a failure, but rejoicing over it as a mighty auxiliary to its Arminian and more permanent associatea symmetrical historical fact, having already fulfilled a complete and sublime mission, in the order of Divine Providence, whatever may be its future career." pp. 448-51.

MR. WESLEY AS A PASTOR.

"With his travels during the present decade, Wesley combined no small amount of pastoral visiting.' He went often from house to house among the members of his principal societies. He did so at Kingswood, 'taking them from west to east,' and saw that it would be unspeakably useful to them.' In London, he 'began at the east end of the town to visit the society from house to house;' he knew, he says, no branch of the pastoral office which is of greater importance. This he did when more than seventy years old, and when burdened with the cares of all his Churches. At Bristol, also, he writes, aged seventy-three, that he began what he had long intended, to visit the society from house to house, setting apart at least two hours in a day for that purpose.

"He plunged into the most wretched places on these pastoral errands. In his seventy-fourth year he says, 'I began visiting those of our society who lived in Bethnal Green hamlet. Many of them I found in such poverty as few can conceive without seeing it. O why do not all the rich, that fear God, constantly visit the poor! Can they spend part of their spare time better? Certainly not. So they will find in that day when every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. Such another scene I saw the next day, in visiting another part of the society. I have not found any such distress, no, not in the prison of Newgate. One poor man was just creeping out of his sick-bed, to his ragged wife, and three little children, who were more than half-naked, and the very picture of famine: when one brought in a loaf of bread, they all ran, seized upon it, and tore it in pieces in an instant. Who would not rejoice that there is another world ?'" pp. 462-63.

MR. WESLEY VINDICATED FROM THE CHARGE OF CREDULITY. "Besides the minute imperfections which belong to most men, Wesley has been charged with ambition and credulity.

"The writer who dwells most upon the latter weakness has, nevertheless, however inconsistently, deemed it a sort of fitness for Wesley's peculiar mission, and with a noticeable credulity himself, has supposed, as we have seen, that even the mysterious noises at the Epworth rectory were preternatural, or at least extramun. dane, and were a means of laying open his faculty of belief, and of creating a right of way for the supernatural through his mind. When it is remembered that Wesley's age was one of general scepticism among thinkers, we cannot be surprised if he revolted, in his great work, to the opposite extreme, and the error was certainly on the best side. Credulity might injure his work, but scepticism would have ruined it, or rather would have rendered it impossible.

"If his followers cannot deny the charge; if they must admit that in a certain form this defect pervades his Journals and fragmentary writings, yet should they make the admission with well-guarded qualifications. They should remind them. selves that he seldom gives a direct opinion of the supposed preternatural cases which he so often records: that they are presented with circumstantial particularity as the data for an opinion on the part of others; that, singularly enough, and a noteworthy proof of his good sense, they seldom or never appear in his standard theological writings, hardly tinge the works which he left for the practical guidance of his people, but are almost invariably given as a matter of curiosity and inquiry in his miscellaneous and fugitive writings; and that no one doctrine or usage of Methodism was permitted by him to bear the slightest impression of them to posterity.

"The severity with which this weakness of Wesley has been treated by his

critics, is an exception to the usual treatment of historical characters; for what great man has not had some marked eccentricity of opinion or conduct? And what was this defect of Wesley but an eccentricity of opinion? If it was charac teristic of his opinions, it was not characteristic of the man; for what man was more rigorously practical in piety, or more liberal about opinions? What man ever combined the noble, self-possessed enthusiasm which is essential to the heroic character, with so little of the passion or uncharitableness which is essential to fanaticism? His critics would impair his authority as a thinker by contemning his credulity; but they deem it no wonder, or at least no detraction, if indeed not an amiable illustration of the heart, apart from the intellect, of his friend, the greatest writer as well as the greatest 'moralist' of his age, who shared so largely this very weakness of Wesley. Men who sneer at Wesley, are but amused when, in reading the pages of Boswell, they find Johnson dissenting from a ghost story of Wesley, only because the latter did not, in his opinion, investigate the case sufficiently, and affirming that 'this is a question which, after five thousand years, is yet undecided; a question, whether in theology or philosophy, one of the most important that can come before the human understanding.' Plato, as Johnson called Wesley, might certainly linger when all the rest of the audience had slunk away, if Johnson still stood in the lecturer's desk. The Cock Lane ghost story has never impaired Johnson's rank as an author; but had Wesley shown the superstitious weakness of the literary giant in many well-known and ludicrous instances, he could scarcely have been treated with more scorn than he has incurred by his record of supposed preternatural facts, of a class, too, which have not yet ceased to be believed by the most of mankind. He recorded these facts, it should be borne in mind, in an age in which Christian Scotland executed at the stake a supposed witch, and in the next century after that in which the good Sir Matthew Hale had condemned to the gibbet two women for witchcraft, and the great Bacon had avowed his belief in astrology, and sat in a Parliament in which an enactment was passed against witchcraft-a statute which was not repealed till Wesley himself was thirty-three years old.

"The treatment which Wesley has received on account of this one weakness, so different from the usual charity of writers towards great men, is perhaps a real though undesigned compliment. It would seem to arise from the fact, that little else can be found in his pure life and noble character for sarcasm, and that this, therefore, must be made as available as possible." pp. 680–82.

Methodism As It Is. With some of its Antecedents, its Branches and Disruptions; including a Diary of the Campaign of 1849, protracted during a Period of Seven Years; with a Special Reference to the Character, Power, Policy, and Administration of the "Master Mind" of John Wesley's Legislative successor. Part XIX. London: W. REED, 15, Creed Lane. 1864.

THERE! A volume in a title page! No similar work, so far as our acquaintance extends, is to be found in all the diversified range of ecclesiastical literature. So deeply impressed are we with its manifold merits, that we earnestly counsel every member of the wide family of Methodism instantly to procure a copy. From the nature of the work-considering its multitudinous details, its minute, and elaborate analysis of official documents, and its innumerable personal references-it is impossible to give an adequate summary of its multifarious and most exciting contents. The execution of the stupendous design reflects the highest credit upon the genius, the patience, the magnanimity, and candour of the author. It is truly a great work. It exhibits the most minutely exact acquaintance with every phase of the most multangular ecclesiastical system that ever

arose in Christendom. Nothing escapes the eagle-eyed author. Never did the most plodding and penetrating advocate more thoroughly sift, weigh, and estimate, the most complex and bewildering evidence, than has the gifted author disentangled and systematically marshalled the testimonies necessary to the elucidation of his theme. Not a stone is left unturned. The yellowest documents are exhumed and transcribed. Words spoken in secret are thundered from the house-top. Apparently trifling incidents are so neatly arranged alongside the main historic line, as to light up with an appalling vividness some of the darkest passages of the history. Conversations at coach-offices, on the roadside, at the dinner-table, and in the hotel, are given with Boswellic precision and copiousness;-the whole constituting a work of entrancing interest and transcendent importance.

We are not conscious of presumption in affirming, that no man can know the whole history of English Methodism, who has not read this humiliating narrative. We had almost called it an indictment; for such it is in reality. The author does not declaim, but states circumstances, produces documents, quotes dates, gives the names of persons and places; so that one of two things is true-either this is one of the most iniquitous attacks ever made upon an ecclesiastical system, or " Methodism as It Is" is chargeable with a despotism the most rampant and detestable that ever dishonoured any civilised form of government, or outraged the spirit of the Christian religion. Which of these things is true will be determined in due time. The problem is being solved. Names long shaded will glow with their right full lustre, and the clay which has been gilded and exalted, will be trodden under foot. Time is the inflexible friend of Truth; and the day of the coronation of justice will surely come.

We have been greatly charmed by the felicitous variation which the author has secured. On page after page, we have solid paragraphs of philosophy, interblended with the more exciting paragraphs of history, and many a happy sketch of individual character relieves the ponderous masses of documentary evidence. The whole structure betokens the skill of a wise master-builder. There are no marks of the "prentice hand." The pen that wrote this history, has exhausted many an inkhorn. Though it is anonymous, we may speculate as to its authorship; and it strikes us that if it were not written by JAMES EVERETT, it must have been produced by a second EDMUND BURKE. Again and again, by the precision of the evidence, the brilliance of the illustration, the depth of the wisdom, the merciless pungency of the sarcasm, and the relentless severity of the logic, we have been reminded of the immortal impeachment of the Indian despot. Terrible is the lot of miscreants who fall into such hands! Every blow is answered by blood-every stroke is felt at the marrow ! We are thankful that such men are amongst us; for they know not the meaning of the word fear, and are ever ready to drive off the tigers that would slake their thirst in innocent and gentle blood.

It must not be understood that the author is ungenerous. On the contrary, he says some of the kindest things even of Dr. Bunting

that have ever been said of him. Great men are essentially generous, and would rather magnify a virtue than enlarge an infirmity. Such is the case with the powerful writer of this book, whom we thank with the fullest cordiality for his noble contribution to the history of Methodism. J. P.

The above review of "Methodism as It Is," is by an eminent minister of the Congregational body; we have pleasure in inserting it, instead of our own usual monthly notice of the work, and only add a somewhat amusing extract from the current number. ED.

THE "WESLEYAN TAKINGS" AND THEIR IMITATORS.

"These "Takings' appear to have lit a fire in other bosom besides that of Mr Rattenbury, which, in fitful gleams, are found ever and anon, to be breaking out in different directions upon their reputed author. As a little relief to the reader, from what may appear tedious in this long prosing trial, we add, as a farewell to the 'Takings, two or three remarks more, to show the conflicting views and feelings they awakened.

"Great as was the noise made, and hostile as was the array of Conference, against them, prompted and carried on by Dr. Bunting, it was insufficient to deter others from entering upon the same path. Among imitators of the author of the "Takings,' Richard Wrench occupies a prominent stand, who has taken the liberty, like the gentleman he imitates, to meddle, in his 'Pen and Ink Sketches, with both the dead and the living, as Newton, Beaumont, Guttridge, and others, which would lead to the conclusion, that it was not the original work so much that gave the offence, as the occasion it furnished to leak off a little spleen against the author. It is not sufficient to state, that Dr. Bunting and his party grounded their hostility on the stinging Preface to the Third Edition, because that Prefac formed no part of the work, which was making its peaceful way among both clerics and laics. It was a mere pretext for attack, on the success of the work, and suspicion as to the author. Mr. Wrench moves on quietly in the original track which Mr. E. marked out, and with not a little applause. Whence is this? Mr. Wrench is what is termed a Conference man,' and writes accordingly and, to render his "Takings' the more taking with the Conference, embraces the opportunity of giving, what is vulgarly called a fling' at James Everett, of whom he speaks as the redoubtable author of Wesleyan Takings;-one, who, had he been rightly directed thirty years ago, would have greatly adorned and enriched Methodistic literature; but, who, alas! has dipped an angel's plume in wormwood and gall. Yes, a man whom heaven, apparently, designed to blaze as a central sun, has become but a wandering star.' A writer, descanting on this passage, says Let "the redoubtable author" take comfort: it is not every one who, according to the confession of an enemy, while endowed with "an angel's plume," has the capacity for becoming either "a central sun," or "a wandering star." We hope that his light will long continue to shine in "this diurnal sphere." "It was not the interest of Mr. Wrench, as it would otherwise have wrenched him out of the Conference-socket, in which it would have been difficult to replace him in the esteem of his brethren, to have stated, that dark SUSPICION sought to place an extinguisher on this "central sun," and that rampant DESPOTISM gave the first hitch to this "star" which had been fixed for nearly half a century, in consequence of which, to the great dismay of the Conference magnates, it became a “wandering star," giving light to those who "sat in darkness" in "Wesleyan Matters," and scaring others who, for a series of years, had been carrying on their transactions in concealment.

"One thing perceptible in Mr. Wrench, as an artist, is, that he is a collector and a copyist, not an original. He displays ingenuity and industry; but in sentiment, phraseology, illustration, there is a constant recurrence of what we have met with

* See the United Methodist Free Churches' Magazine for November, 1861.

before, like an old face or friend turning up, seen elsewhere, though memory does not always help to fix on the precise date, place, or person, owing to other circumstances, together with lapse of time, intervening between the first meeting and subsequent appearance. The impression is left on reading his sketches, of a person who, having fixed on a subject, collects in his course of reading reviews, and what else, every scrap of thought and expression that can at all be appropriated to his purpose, and, stringing them together, gives a oneness to the whole, and then presents his made-up man to the world as a new creation. To change the allusion, we have various patches of ground, belonging to different proprietors, thrown together, formed into one estate, and tenanted by a new occupant of another name, called-WRENCH. Were the real authors of all the transplanted and self-appropriated 'tropes and figures,' 'fancy-work,' 'varied coloured glass,' sprigs, flowers, sentiments, allusions, and technicalities, to come upon the plagiarist for their own, he would appear in a state of bankruptcy. The jackdaw would be stript of its peacock-feathers, and left bare of breech as the withered branch of a leafless tree." Page 579.

Airay on the Epistle to the Philippians, and Cartwright on the Epistle to the Colossians. Edinburgh: JAMES NICHOL. Crown

Quarto.

THIS is the first volume of a second series of Commentaries of the Puritan period, and worthy of commendation both for quality and price. Surely, it is not the least marvel of this wondrous age, that three such volumes, "Crown Quarto, strongly and neatly bound," may be had for sixteen shillings and sixpence by subscribers who prepay! For the information of our readers, we subjoin an extract from the publisher's prospectus :

*

"It is not contemplated that this Supplemental Series shall include all the Commentaries of the Puritan period, but that it shall extend-if it is sufficiently supported-to the republication of those works which, by common consent, are prized as precious legacies to the Church, valuable to the modern theological student, and which, from their high price and rarity, are not easily obtainable. * * It is intended that this series shall be as remarkable for its cheapness as that of 'The Standard Divines.' It will be as carefully edited and produced; and it is confidently expected that the projected editions will possess great advantages over the originals in accuracy. In addition to this, the works which will be supplied for 16s. 6d. cannot be obtained at present, in a perfect state, under £7 7s.

"The works of which this Series will be composed are not all in the form of what are now commonly called Commentaries. Many of them are Lectures on the books or parts of the books. But in every case they will be characterised as being valued expositions of continuous portions of Scripture.

"No exertion will be spared on the part of all connected with this Series to produce it, so as to merit the same commendation which has so largely been bestowed on their previous efforts to reproduce the writings of a period remarkable for abounding with men mighty in the Scriptures,' in a form acceptable to the modern student of theology, and at a price hitherto unparalleled for its moderation."

The volume now before us fully realises the promises here made. The Complete Works of Stephen Charnock, B.B. With Introduction by the Rev. James McCosh, LL.D. Vols. I. and II., containing Discourses on Divine Providence, and the Existence and Attributes of God. Edinburgh: JAMES NICHOL.

FEW of the Puritan writings are more worthy of a place in Mr. Nichol's series, than those of Stephen Charnock. He was born in the parish of St. Catharine Cree (or Cree-Church, London, in the

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »