The volume ought

of high reputation in our sister island. certainly to have been condensed, as the length to which the narrative is protracted frequently takes away from its interest, and renders it somewhat monotonous. Still it is really a superior book, especially as being the life of a man of God and a devoted minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. He seems to have possessed great natural courage and decision of character, which was mightily helpful to him in enabling him to stand his ground against the opposition which he had frequently to encounter from enemies, and even from the dignitaries of his Church. At first his doctrinal views were far from clear upon the gospel, but a rapid and decided change seems to have taken place in these soon after he entered upon the ministry. His devotedness to the work of the ministry, both in preaching and also in labouring amongst the people, is truly exemplary. Take the following extract from a passage in which the proceedings of a clerical society are detailed.

“August 1, 1804.-The subject of lecturing occupied nearly the whole of our time this day; and the conversation which took place was truly profitable and instructive. All agreed as to the expediency of teaching the people by this mode; and those who had already tried it, bore the strongest and fullest testimony to its utility. It seemed to be the general opinion, that the best method of lecturing was to go regularly through the Bible, as the people would thus be stirred up to read it; and many passages, at present but little understood, would be cleared up. It was also concurred in, that if a minister assembles his people only on the Sabbath day, he cannot be heartily engaged in his Master's work; and that a minister is at all times to consult the welfare of his flock, and not his own ease and comfort.

"September 5, 1804.-The doctrine of imputed righteousness was examined by scripture, the articles, and homilies, and from them it appeared to be the doctrine of the Church of England, and the great foundation of a sinner's hope, that as by the disobedience of one, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one, might many be made righteous;' and that where the righteousness of Christ was imputed, holy desires, good councils, and just works must proceed.

"February 5, 1805.-Spoke principally this day on the evils arising from the very great decay in the discipline of the Established Church; and concurred in heartily wishing that it might be again restored." Pp. 87, 88.

Take another extract as a specimen of his diligence in his ministerial work :

"The following paper, which seems to have been written in 1803, gives an outline of his weekly proceedings; and may serve to exhibit that methodical allocation of his time by which he was enabled to go through labours, which, to those engaged in the ministry in this city at present, seem most surprising:

"Sunday.-Lecture, eight; catechise, ten; half-past eleven, service; vestry; general hospital; six, evening service.

"Monday-Eight, M. G. meeting; ten, asylum; twelve, vestry; one, blankets; three to four, private in vestry.

There is, moreover, occasionally a little high churchmanship dropping from the pen of the biographer, for which we have no great liking.

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Tuesday-Factory; school; gaols.

-'s;

"Wednesday.-Gaols; eleven, church; twelve, catechism, Mr Lone, poor school; three to four, private in vestry; half-past five, lecture. Thursday.-Factory; charter school; poor-house; lecture for the men. Friday. Ten, gaols; eleven, church; twelve to two, catechise in church; half-past five, lecture.

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46 6

Saturday.-Spend as much of it at home as possible; practise for singing at one o'clock.

"Read a little every day in the Greek Testament. "Visit at least two sick people every day.

"Beware of procrastination.

"Mark on Sunday those who are absent, and speak to them on Monday. "Every night before tea write day's observations.

"Whom did you intend to visit?

"Whom did you visit?

"What prevented you?

66.6

What letters are unanswered?

"Are you careful to lend books?

"Are you careful to distribute tracts?'

"On this last point, a friend, whose pen has already afforded us some interesting reminiscences, says, his self-denial at this early period was remarkable. His income was only sixty pounds per annum, yet he devoted a large portion of it to the poor, and to the distribution of religious tracts and books. He always breakfasted on bread and milk; and if he dined at home, his dinner was bread and cheese and a glass of ale. He never had a dinner dressed for himself. His diary, too, has the following entry:- I find I am much to blame for the unprofitable manner in which I lay out my money. I find it wastes away by little and little, and that nothing is done. I trust that I shall resolve for the future to take more care of it, and use it as a gift from the Lord, for which I must give an account. Thus shall I be enabled to relieve the wants of the distressed."" Pp. 129-131.

One brief quotation more we add, as furnishing two anecdotes of the well-known Berridge.

Friday, July 7.-I have become acquainted with the Rev. Mr R▬▬▬▬▬ of Wakefield, and find him a sensible, pious, and experienced man. He was long intimate with Mr Berridge of Everton, whom he represents as a deeply devoted, spiritual, and humble man; possessing a vein of great natural humour, but of very serious manners. He gave in fact all his goods to feed the poor; and at one period, after a long illness, he was in actual distress, not knowing where to turn for support. Whilst musing on his state, he heard a rap at the door- the postman was immediately announced with a letter, on which was charged a shilling. Mr Berridge had not a shilling to pay for it, and would not take; but requested the postman to take it back to the office, as he said he never wished to have any thing in his house that was not paid for; but the postman said he would call on the morrow, and insisted on leaving it. When he opened it, he found to his great surprise a bank-note for thirty pounds from John Thornton. Who," said he, can doubt after this the existence of a particular Providence?"

66

"He mentioned another anecdote of Mr Berridge :-One day, during the period of his itinerancy, he had occasion to pass through a town where he had often met the scoffs and taunts of the ungodly; but instead of riding through the main street, he turned through a by-way to avoid the profane people who were in the streets. Here he was met by a pig-driver, who immediately addressed him, and said-" You, cowardly John Berridge, you are ashamed of your Master, and therefore you skulk along here to avoid the cross." This

incident, he said, was of incalculable benefit to him; it spoke with effect to his heart, and he became more and more determined not to be moved in bold confession of Christ." Pp. 285, 286.

The last work on our list is the fifth volume of Mr Jay's works, containing the memoirs of Cornelius Winter. This is valuable in a threefold way. It is valuable as a new volume of Mr Jay's works. It is valuable as a memoir of that devoted man and singlehearted Christian minister, Winter. And it is valuable because Winter's letters contain some interesting accounts of Whitefield, with whom Mr Winter held intimate intercouse. We hand the volume over to our readers, especially to students and ministers, with those brief extracts by way of specimen. The first is concerning his training of students for the ministry, and this certainly deserves attention both from students and professors. We trust that in the new college, which must be erected forthwith upon our disruption and disestablishment, such hints may be kept in mind.

"They were almost constantly with him; he was always familiarly in-、 structing them; and the love he inspired was such as to endear and impress everything he said. Whether they were walking in the field, or sitting in the house; at the fireside in the evening, or at the table at meals, improvement was blended with pleasure. Reading always attended the hours of breakfast and tea, intermingled with remarks derived from the subject. It was no unusual thing for one of his students to accompany him in his visits to the chamber of sickness, and the house of mourning; he knew that young men should be sober-minded; and that by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. To prepare them for social and edifying intercourse, they also frequently attended him in his friendly visits. They sometimes joined him in his preaching excursions. There are few things in my life that I can remember with so much vivid pleasure, as my going with him,-walking by the side of his little horse, and occasionally riding,-on a fine summer's evening, into a neighbouring village, and returning again the same night, or very early in the morning. In these instances I was required to take sometimes a part, and sometimes the whole of the service; but it was a privilege rather than a task to do any thing before him. He heard our discourses and prayers with the greatest tenderness, and beamed with pleasure at every presage of improvement. A backwardness to notice imperfections was his extreme; he loved to commend; it was hardly in his power to find fault. Yet though his approbation seemed easily gained, it was not rendered the less desirable. It was delicious to enjoy it, and therefore it always supplied a stimulus.

"He engaged his students to preach very early after they were with him. This arose principally from the state of the neighbourhood, which so awfully wanted help. Souls were perishing for lack of knowledge, and they who could not as yet hope for acceptance in large and polite audiences, were able to show the way of salvation to those who were generally more deficient than themselves. But I believe it also, in a degree, resulted from his conviction of the propriety of the measure, independent of this necessity." Pp. 187-189.

The second concerns Whitefield, and is a loud word of admonition to ministers. "Spend and be spent! Work while it is day.” "As though he heard the voice of God ever sounding in his ears the important admonition, Work while it is called to-day,' this was his work in London at one period of his life:-After administering the Lord's supper to several

hundred communicants, at half an hour after six in the morning; reading the first and second service in the desk, which he did with the greatest propriety, and preaching full an hour; he read prayers and preached in the afternoon, previous to the evening service, at half an hour after five; and afterwards addressed a large society in public. His afternoon sermon used to be more general and exhortatory. In the evening he drew his bow at a venture, vindicated the doctrines of grace, fenced them with articles and homilies, referred to the martyrs' seal, and exemplified the power of divine grace in their sufferings, by quotations from the venerable Fox. Sinners were then closely plied, numbers of whom from curiosity coming to hear a sentence or two, were often compelled to hear the whole sermon. How many in the judgment day will rise to prove that they heard to the salvation of the soul! The society which, after sermon, was encircled in the area of the tabernacle, consisted of widows, married people, young men and spinsters, placed separately; all of whom, when a considerable part of the congregation was resettled, (for hundreds used to stay upon the occasion,) used to receive from him, in the colloquial style, various exhortations comprised in short sentences, and suitable to their various stations. The practice of Christianity in all its branches was then usually inculcated, not without some pertinent anecdote of a character worthy to be held up for an example, and in whose conduct the hints recommended were exemplified." Pp. 23, 24.

The last is from a letter of Berridge to Winter:

Pray frequently, and wait quietly, and the Lord will make your way plain. Jesus trains up all his servants to waiting, and if you are called to the ministry he will exercise your soul beforehand with sharp conflicts. Joseph must be cast first into a pit by his own brethren, then into a prison by his master, before he rules the kingdom; and David must be hunted as a flea upon the mountains before he gets the sceptre. How can you tell what others feel, unless you have felt the same yourself? How can you sympathise with a prisoner unless your own feet have been fast in the stocks? How can you comfort those who are cast down, unless you have been often at your wit's end? Expect nothing but conflicts, day after day, to humble and prove you, and teach you to speak a word in season to every one that is weary. This is, indeed, the high road to the kingdom for all, yet a minister's path is not only narrow and stony, like others, but covered also with bushes and brakes; and if you labour to remove them by your own hands, they will quickly tear your flesh, and fill your fingers with thorns. Let your Master remove them at your request; and remember it is always his work, as it is ever his delight, to clear our way and lead us on till sin and death are trodden down. Undertake nothing without first seeking direction from the Lord; and when any thing offers that is plausible and inviting, beg of God to disappoint you if it be not according to his mind. You cannot safely rely on your own judgment after God has told you, 'He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.' This advice relates to all important changes in life. Go nowhere, settle nowhere, marry nowhere, without frequent usage of this prayer." Pp. 63, 64.

These, then, were the men whom God so signally honoured in their day! Whence then arose the success of these apostolic men, and wherein did their great strength lie? A most natural question truly, and one which no living minister of the Lord Jesus Christ can refrain from asking, as he reads such records, and marks the ministerial success which they describe. This question is, in part at least, very truly answered by pointing to the truths with which

the whole preaching of these mighty men was imbued and impregnated. Doubtless, much of their success did flow from the breadth and prominence given by them to these momentous doctrines, which their co-temporaries either overlooked or contemned: and hence when Whitefield proclaimed with such fervent boldness, justification by grace, and the necessity of the new birth, men listened, and looked, and wondered, as at something altogether strange and new. Many in our own day, accordingly, have been led to study the sermons and treatises, as well as to treasure up the golden sayings of these giants of other days, in the hope that the truth which they so successfully proclaimed a century ago, may have as free a course in our own time, and prove as efficacious and resistless, when preached by other lips, and falling upon other ears. And, without doubt, there is much that is sound and reasonable in such an expectation; for the truth which God honoured in a former age, he will not assuredly leave unblest in ours.

Still we are persuaded there is a fuller answer to be given to the query above suggested. To the men, even more than to their doctrine, we would point the eye of the inquirer who asks, whence came their success, and why may not the same success be ours. We do not mean to disparage the importance of the doctrine they preached. Far from it. Yet still, while exhorting him to take heed to their doctrine, we counsel him yet more deeply to study the men themselves. It is not enough that we are imbued with the same mighty truths which, in their hands, were so resistless; we must come into contact with the men, and be moulded by them, even more than by their doctrines. The full, masculine, and scriptural theology, which they held and preached, will do much for us, but assimilation to their spiritual character, as well as to their ministerial walk and life, will do unspeakably more. We may take the sermons of Whitefield, or Berridge, or Edwards, for our study or our pattern, but it is the individuals themselves that we must mainly set before us; it is with the spirit of the men, more than of their works, that we are to be embued, if we are emulous of a ministry as powerful, as victorious as theirs. It is not the cold marble of the statue that we are to make our model, however perfect in its symmetry and polish,-it is the breathing form of man,-the living person. The marble is but the cold outline, the material resemblance, -incapable of reproducing itself, or imprinting its lincaments upon surrounding objects, or transfusing any secret qualities and virtues into the most ravished beholder.

If this be true of the servants, much more is it of the Master. If the study of their characters be so profitable, much more must be the contemplation of his. If personal contact with them be so fitted to mould us into their likeness, how much more must personal