obeyed-that the officers waited on Mr. | twixt the strength of his own belief and Walker in a body, to thank him for the the spuruing haste of his over-ardent spirit, reformation he had effected in their ranks. he gave his works a frequent air of scornOn the morning of their march many of ing arrogance and keen contemptuousness. these brave fellows were heard praising Perhaps, even with theologians of his own God for having brought them under the persuasion, his credit has been injured by sound of the Gospel, and as they caught the warmth of his invective; but on the the last glimpses of the town, exclaimed, same side it will not be easy to find trea"God bless Truro !" Indeed, Mr. Walk- tises more acute or erudite-and both er had much of the military in his own friends and foes must remember that to the composition, the disencumbered alertness writer his opinions were self-evident, and of his life, the courage, frankness, and that in his devoutest moments he believed through-going of his character, the firmness God's glory was involved in them. It was with which he held his post, the practical the polemic press which extorted this huvalor with which he followed up his man bitterness from his spirit; in the pulpreaching, and the regimental order into pit's milder urgency nothing flowed but which he had organized his people, bewray- balm. His voice was music, and spiritualed the captain in canonicals; as the hard-ity and elevation seemed to emanate from ness of his services, and his exulting loyal- his ethereal countenance and light unmorty to his Master, proclaimed the good sol-tal form. His vivacity would have caught dier of Jesus Christ.

the listener's eye, and his soul-filled looks In the adjacent county of Devon, and in and movements would have interpreted his one of its sequestered parishes, with a few language, had there not been such comcottages sprinkled over it, mused and sang manding solemnity in his tones as made AUGUSTUS TOPLADY.* When a lad of six- apathy impossible, and such simplicity in teen, and on a visit to Ireland, he had his words that to hear was to understand. strolled into a barn where an illiterate lay- From easy explanations he advanced to man was preaching, but preaching reconci- rapid and conclusive arguments, and warmliation to God through the death of his ed into importunate exhortations, till conSon. The homely sermon took effect, and science began to burn and feelings to take from that moment the Gospel wielded all fire from his own kindled spirit, and himthe powers of his brilliant and active mind. self and his hearers were together drowned He was very learned. Universal history in sympathetic tears. And for all the spread before his eye a familiar and de- saving power of his preaching dependent on lightful field; and at thirty-eight he died, the Holy Spirit's inward energy, it was remore widely read in Fathers and Reform-markable how much was accomplished both ers than most academic dignitaries can at Broad Hembury and afterwards in boast when their heads are hoary. He Orange Street, London. He was not only was learned because he was active. Like a race-horse, all nerve and fire, his life was on tiptoe, and his delight was to get over the ground. He read fast, slept little, and often wrote like a whirlwind; and though the body was weak, it did not obstruct him, for in his ecstatic exertions he seemed to leave it behind. His chief publications were controversy. Independently of his theological convictions, his philosophising genius, his up-going fancy, and his devout, dependent piety, were a multiform Calvinism; and, by a necessity of nature, if religious at all, the religion of Toplady must have been one where the eye of God filled all, and the will of God wrought all. The doctrines which were to himself so plain, he was perhaps on this account less fitted to discuss with men of another make; and be

* Born 1740. Died 1778.

It

a polemic and a preacher, but a poet. He
has left a few hymns which the church mi-
litant will not readily forget.
"When
languor and disease invade," "A debtor to
mercy alone," "Rock of ages, cleft for
me," "Deathless principle, arise:" these
four combine tenderness and grandeur with
theological fulness equal to any kindred
compositions in modern language.
would seem as if the finished work were
embalmed, and the lively hope exulting in
every stanza; whilst each person of the
glorious Godhead radiates majesty, grace,
and holiness through each successive line.
Nor is it any fault that their inspiration is
all from above. Pegasus could not have
borne aloft such thoughts and feelings;
they are a freight for Gabriel's wing; and
if not filigreed with human fancies, they
are resplendent with the truths of God,
and brim over with the joy and pathos of

the heaven-born soul. However, to amass | else came into it, was sure to be neutralized knowledge so fast, and give out so rapidly into common sense-pathetic, humorous, not only thought and learning, but warm or practical, as the case might be; and so emotion, was wasteful work. It was like strong was his fancy that every idea in rebleeding the palm-tree; there flowed a ge- appearing sparkled into a metaphor or emnerous sap which cheered the heart of all blem. He thought in proverbs, and he spake who tasted, but it killed the palm. Con- in parables; that granulated salt which is sumption struck him, and he died. But so popular with the English peasantry. And during that last illness he seemed to lie in though his wit ran riot in his letters and his glory's vestibule. To a friend's inquiry, talk, when solemnized by the sight of the with sparkling eye he answered, "Oh, my great congregation and the recollection of dear sir, I cannot tell you the comforts I their exigencies, it disappeared. It might feel in my soul: they are past expression. still be the diamond point on the sharp arThe consolations of God are so abundant rows; but it was then too swift and subtile that he leaves me nothing to pray for. My to be seen. The pith of piety—what keeps prayers are all converted into praise. Iit living and makes it strong-is love to enjoy a heaven already in my soul." And the Saviour. In this he always abounded. within an hour of dying he called his "My poor feeble heart droops when I friends, and asked if they could give him think, write, or talk of anything but Jesus. up; and when they said they could, tears Oh that I could get near Him, and live beof joy ran down his checks as he added, lievingly on Him! I would walk, and talk, "Oh, what a blessing that you are made and sit, and eat, and rest with Him. I willing to give me over into the hands of would have my heart always doting on my dear Redeemer, and part with me; for Him, and find itself ever present with Him." no mortal can live after the glories which And it was this absorbing affection which God has manifested to my soul." in preaching enhanced all his powers, and At Everton in Bedfordshire, not far from subdued all his hazardous propensities. the spot where J. Bunyan had been a preach- When ten or fifteen thousand people were er and a prisoner, lived and labored a man gathered on a sloping field, he would mount not unlike him, the most amusing and most the pulpit after Venu or Grimshaw had vaaffecting original of all this school--J. BBR-cated it. A twinkle of friendly recognition RIDGE. *For long a distinguished member of darted from some eyes, and a smile of comic Clare Hall, Cambridge, and for many years welcome was exchanged by others. Perstudying 15 hours a day, he had enriched his masculine understanding with all sorts of learning; and when at last he became a parish minister, he applied to his labors all the resources of a mind eminently practical, and all the vigor of a very honest one. But his success was small-so small that he began to suspect his mode was wrong. After prayer for light it was one day borne in (6 his mind, upon Cease from thine own works only believe ;" and consulting his Concordance he way surprised to see how many columns were required for the words Faith and believe. Through this quaint inlet he found his was into the knowledge of the Gospel and the consequent love of the Saviour; and though hampered with academic standing and past the prime of life, he did not hesitate a moment to reverse his former preaching, and the efficacy of the Cross was soon seen in his altered parish. His mind was singular. So predominant was its Saxon alkali, that poetry, sentiment, and classical allusion, whatever

Born 1716. Died 1798.

haps a merry thought was suspected in the
corner of his lips, or seen salient on the
very point of his peaked and curious nose.
And he gave it wing. The light-hearted
laughed, and those who knew no better
hoped for fun. A devout stranger might
have trembled, and feared that it was going
off in a pious farce. But no fear of Father
Berridge. He knows where he is, and how
he means to end. That pleasantry was in-
tended for a nail, and see, it has fastened
every ear to the pulpit-door. And now he
proceeds in homely colloquy, till the blunt-
est boor is delighted at his own capacity,
and is prepared to agree with what he says
who makes so little parade and mystery.
But was not that rather a home thrust?
"Yes, but it is fact; and sure enough the
man is frank and honest ;" and so the blow
is borne with the best smile that can be
twisted out of agony. "Nay, nay, he is
getting personal, and without some purpose
the bolts would not fly so true."
And just
when the hearer's suspicion is rising, and he
begins to think of retreating, barbed and
burning the arrow is through him. His

soul is transfixed, and his conscience is all and was translated into the marvellous light on fire. And from the quiver gleaming to of the Gospel by reading the first six chapthe cord these shafts of living Scripture fly ters of the Epistle to the Romans in Greek. so fast that in a few minutes it is all a field He was exceedingly revered by his likeof slain. Such was the powerful, impact, minded contemporaries; and some idea of and piercing sharpness of this great preach- his preaching may be formed from his printer's sentences-so suited to England's rus- ed discourses. They are essentially sertic auditories, and so divinely directed in mons on the heart, and are remarkable for their flight, that eloquence has seldom won their aphoristic force and faithful pungency. such triumphs as the Gospel won with the But his most interesting memorial is a posbow of old eccentric Berridge. Strong men thumous volume of "Private Thoughts on in the surprise of sudden self-discovery, or Religion." These "Thoughts" are detachin the joy of marvellous deliverance, would ed, but classified sentences on "God" sink to the earth powerless or convulsed; and "Christ," on "Human Depravity," and in one year of "campaigning" it is "Faith," "Good Works," "The Christian calculated that four thousand have been Life," and kindred subjects, and though awakened to the worth of their souls and a neither so brilliant nor so broad as the sense of sin. He published a book, "The "Thoughts of Pascal," they are more exChristian world unmasked," in which some- perimental and no less made for memory. thing of his close dealing and a good deal The Spirit's coming into the heart is the of his drollery survive. The idea of it is, touch of Ithuriel's spear, and it starts up a a spiritual physician prescribing for a sinner devil." "Christ is God, stooping to the ignorant of his own malady. "Gentle senses, and speaking to the heart of man." reader, lend me a chair, and I will sit down" Christ comes with a blessing in each hand; and talk a little with you. Give me leave forgiveness in one, and holiness in the other, to feel your pulse. Sick, indeed, sir, very and never gives either to any who will not sick of a mortal disease which infects your take both." "Mankind are perpetually at whole mass of blood." After a good deal variance by being all of one sect, viz. selof altercation the patient consents to go fists." "A poor country parson fighting into the matter, and submits to a survey of against the devil in his parish, has nobler his life and character. ideas than Alexander had." "Not to sin may be a bitter cross. To sin is hell.” "Let me step into your closet, Sir, and peep"Wilt thou be made whole? is a trying upon its furniture. My hands are pretty honest, you may trust me; and nothing will be found, I fear, to tempt a man to be a thief. Well, to be sure, what a filthy place is here! Never swept for certain since you were christened? And what a fat idol stands skulking in the corner! A darling sin, I warrant it! How it simpers, and seems as pleasant as a right eye! Can you find a will to part with it, or strength to pluck it out? And supposing you a match for this self-denial, can you so command your heart, as to hate the sin you do forsake? This is certainly required; truth is called for in the inward parts: God will have sin not only cast aside, but cast aside with abhorrence. So he speaks, ye that love the Lord, see that ye hate evil."

Many readers might think our physician not only racy but rude. They must remember that his practice lay among farmers and graziers and ploughmen; and if they dislike his bluntness they must remember his success.

Of the venerable THOMAS ADAMS* little is recorded, except that he commenced his religious life a disciple of William Law,

*Born 1701. Died 1784.

qoestion, when it comes to be well consider-
ed." Those who love laconic wisdom will
find abundant
manual. But it is not all pemican. Be-
specimens in this pithy
sides the essence of food it contains extracts
from bitter herbs; and some who might
relish its portable dainties will not like its
wholesome austerity.

In some respects the most apostolic of
this band was WILLIAM GRIMSHAW.
* Like
many in his day, he struggled through years
of doubt and perplexity into that region of
light and assurance where he spent the
sequel of his fervent ministry. His parish,
and the radiating centre of his ceaseless
itinerancies, was Haworth, near Bradford,
in Yorkshire-a bleak region, with a people
as wild and almost as ignorant as the gorse
on their hungry hills. From the time that
the love of Christ took possession of his
soul, Mr. Grimshaw gave to His service all
the energies of his ardent mind and power-
ful frame. His health was firm, his spirit
resolute, his understanding vigorous and

* Born 1708. Died 1763.

practical, and having but one object he con- the son of the desert, he was a man of a tinually pursued it, alike a stranger to hardy build, and like him of an humble fatigue and fear. With a slice of bread spirit, and like John, his joy was fulfilled and an onion for his day's provision, he would when his Master increased. At last, in the trudge over the moors from dawn to summer- midst of his brave and abundant exploits, dusk in search of sheep in the wilderness, a putrid fever, which, like Howard, he and after a night's rest in a hay-loft would caught when engaged in a labor of love, resume the work. In one of his weekly came to summon him home. And when he circuits he would think it no hardship to was dead his parishioners came, and-fit preach from twenty to thirty times. When funeral for a Christian hero-bore him away he overtook a stranger on the solitary road, to the tomb amidst the voice of psalms. if riding he would dismount and talk to But perhaps among all these holy men him, and rivet his kind and pathetic exhorta- the completest and most gracious character tion with a word of prayer; and into what- was HENRY VENN* of Huddersfield. Cersoever company thrown, with all the sim-tainly we have learned to contemplate him plicity of a single eye and the mild in- with that patriarchal halo which surrounded trepidity of a good intention, he addressed and sanctified his peaceful old age-and we himself to his Master's business. It was have listened to him only in his affectionate he who silenced the infidel nobleman with and fatherly correspondence; but so far as the frank rejoinder, "the fault is not so we can gather, his piety was of that winmuch in your Lordship's head as in your some type, which, if it be not easy to record, heart;" and many of his emphatic words it were blessed to resemble. Simeon loved haunted people's ears till they sought re-him dearly, and tried to write his life: but lief by coming to himself and confessing in the attempt to put it upon paper, it all all their case. When his career began, so seemed to vanish. This fact is a good biosottish were his people, that it was hardly graphy. No man can paint the summer. possible to draw them out to worship, but Venn's was a genial piety, full of fragrant Mr. Grimshaw's boldness and decision warmth and ripening wisdom, but it was dragged them in. Whilst the psalm before free from singularity. And his preaching sermon was singing, he would sally forth was just this piety in the pulpit-thoughtinto the street and the ale-houses to look ful, benignant, and simple, the love of God out for loiterers, and would chase them into that was shed abroad in his heart often apthe church; and one Sabbath morning a pearing to shine from his person. But there stranger riding through Haworth, and seeing were no dazzling passages, no startling nor some men bolting out at the back-windows amusing sallies. A rugged mountain, a and scrambling over the garden-wall of a copsy glen, a riven cedar, will mako a landtavern, imagined that the house was on fire, scape, but it is not easy to make a picture till the cry, "the Parson is coming," ex- of a field of wheat. Mr. Venn had a rich plained the panic. By dint of pains and and spontaneous mind, and from its affluent courage he conquered this heathenish parish; soil the crop came easily away, and ripened and such was the power which attended his uniformly, and except that it yielded the preaching, that, in later life, instead of bread of thousands, there is little more to hunting through the streets for his hearers, tell. The popularity and power of his when he opened his church for a short ser- ministry are still among the traditions of the vice at five in the summer mornings, it West Riding-how the Socinian Club sent would be filled with shopmen and working its cleverest member to caricature the people ready to commence their daily toil. preacher, but amidst the reverential throng, And so strong was the attraction to his ear- and under the solemn sermon, awed into the nest sermons, that besides constant hearers feeling, "surely God is in this place," he who came from ten or twelve miles all remained to confess his error and to recant around, the parsonage was often filled with his creed-how the "droves" of people Christian worthies who came on Saturday came from the adjacent villages, and how nights from distant towns. And when they neighbors would go home for miles together, crowded him out of his house into his barn, so subdued that they could not speak a word. and out of the church into his church-yard, He published one book, "The Complete he was all in his glory, and got up on Mon- Duty of Man." It is excellent; but like day morning early to brush the shoes of Wilberforce's " View," and other treatises the far-come travellers. He was a gallant evangelist of the Baptist's school. Likel

Born 1724. Died 1797.

new.

of that period, it has fulfilled its function-St. George's, Hanover Square; but his ferthe world needs something fresh, something vent preaching brought a mob of people to older or something newer, something which that fashionable place of worship, and on our immediate predecessors have not com- the charge of having vulgarized the congremon-placed. Still, it is an excellent treat-gation and overcrowded the church, the recise, a clear and engaging summary of prac- tor removed him. He was popularly elected tical divinity, and it did much good when to the Evening Lectureship of St. Dunstan's; Some instances came to Venn's own but the rector there took possession of the knowledge. Soon after its publication he pulpit in the time of prayer, so as to exwas sitting at the window of an inn in the clude the fanatic. Lord Mansfield decided west of England. A man was driving some that after seven in the evening Mr. Romaine refractory pigs, and one of the waiters helped was entitled to the use of the church; so, him, while the rest looked on and shouted till the clock struck seven, the church-warwith laughter. Mr. Venn, pleased with this dens kept the doors firm shut, and by benevolent trait, promised to send him a drenching them in rain and freezing them book, and sent him his own. Many years in frost, hoped to weary out the crowd. after, a gentleman staying at an inn in the Failing in this, they refused to light the same part of England, on Saturday night Church, and Mr. Romaine often preachasked one of the servants if they ever went ed to his vast auditory with no light except to a place of worship on Sunday. He was the solitary candle which he held in his surprised to find that they were all required hand. But "like another Cocles"--a comto go at least once a day, and that the mas-parison already fairly applied to him-"he ter of the house not only never failed to attend, but maintained constant family prayer. It turned out that he was the waiter who had helped the pig-driver-that he had married his former master's daughter, and that he, his wife, and some of their children, owed all their happiness to the "Complete Duty of Man." The gentleman told the landlord that he knew Mr. Venn, and soon intended to visit him, and in the joy of his heart the host charged him with a letter detailing all his happy history. And once at Helvoetsluys, when waiting for a fair wind to carry him to England, he accosted on the shore a gentleman whom he took for an Englishman; he was a Swede, but having lived long in England, knew the language well. He turned out to be a pious man, and asked Mr. Venn to sup with him. Af-day which first drew their thoughtless steps ter much interesting conversation, he opened his portmanteau, and brought out the book to which he said that he owned all his religious impressions. Mr. Venn recognised his own book, and it needed all his humility not to bewray the author.

WILLIAM ROMAINE* began his course as Gresham Professor of Astronomy, and editor of the four folios of Calasio's Hebrew Concordance. But after he caught the evangelical fire he burned and shone for nearly fifty years so far as the Establishment is concerned the light of London. It needed all his strength of character to hold his ground and conquer opposition. He was appointed Assistant Morning Lecturer at

* Born 1714. Died 1795.

was resolved to keep the pass, and if the bridge fell to leap into the Tiber." Though for years his stipend was only eighteen pounds, he wore home-spun cloth and lived so plainly that they could not starve him out. And though they repeatedly dragged him to the courts of law they could not force him out. And though they sought occasion against him in regard to the canons, they could not get the Bishop to turn him out. He held his post till, with much ado, he gained the pulpit of Blackfriars, and preached with unquenched fire till past four-score, the Life, the Walk, the Triumph of Faith. For a great while he was one of the sights of London, and people who came from Ireland and elsewhere to see Garrick act, went to hear Romaine discourse; and many blessed the

to St. Dunstan's or St. Ann's. And in his more tranquil evening there was a cluster of pious citizens about Ludgate Hill and St. Paul's Churchyard, who exceedingly revered the abrupt old man. Of all the churches in the capital, his was the one towards which most home-feeling flowed: It shed a sabbatic air through its environs, and the dingy lanes around it seemed to brighten in its religion of life and hope. Full of sober hearers and joyful worshippers, it was a source of substantial service to the neighborhood in times of need; and whilst the warm focus to which provincial piety and travelled worth most readily repaired, it was the spot endeared to many a thankful memory as the Peniel where first they beheld that great sight, CHRIST CRUcified.

1