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THE

NORTH BRITISH REVIEW.

AUGUST, 1847.

ART. I.-Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Charles Simeon, M.A., late Senior Fellow of King's College, and Minister of Trinity Church, Cambridge. With a Selection from his Writings and Correspondence. Edited by the Rev. WILLIAM CARUS, M.A., Fellow and Senior Dean of Trinity College, and Minister of Trinity Church, Cambridge. London, 1847.

SENT from Heaven, but little thought of-locked up in that trite small-printed book, the Bible-lies the germ of moral renovation-the only secret for making base spirits noble, and fallen spirits holy. Received into the confiding heart, and developed in congenial affections, it comes forth in all the wonderful varieties of vital Christianity; and, according as the recipient's disposition is energy or mildness, activity or contemplation, it creates a bold reformer or a benign philanthropist―a valiant worker or a far-seen thinker. In bolts that melt as well as burn, it flashes from Luther's surcharged spirit; and in comprehensive kindliness spreads its warm atmosphere round Melanchthon's loving nature. In streams of fervour and fiery earnestness, it follows Zuingle's smoking path, and in a halo of excessive brightness encircles Calvin's awful brow. In impulses of fond beneficence it tingles in Howard's restless feet, and in a blaze of in-door gladness welcomes Cowper's friends. But whether its manifestations be the more beauteous, or the more majestic, of all the influences which can alter or ennoble man it is beyond comparison the most potent and pervasive. In the sunny suffusion with which it cheers existence, in the holy ambition which it kindles, and in the intensity which it imparts to character, that Gospel is "the power of God."

And just as its advent is the grand epoch in the individual's progress, so its scanty or copious presence gives a corresponding aspect to a nation's history. When its power is feeble-when VOL. VII. NO. xiv.

U

few members of the community are up-borne by its joyful and strenuous force-when there is little of its genial infusion to make kindness spontaneous, and when men forget its solemn future, which renders duty so urgent and self-denial so easy-the public virtues languish, and the moral grandeur of that empire dies. It needs something of the Gospel to produce a real patriot; it needs more of it to create a philanthropist; and, amidst the trials of temper, the seductions of party, and the misconstructions of motive, it needs it all to give that patriot or philanthropist perseverance to the end. It needs a wide diffusion of the Gospel to fill a Parliament with high-minded statesmen, and a country with happy homes. And it will need its prevailing ascendancy to create peace among the nations, and secure the good-will of

man to man.

The world has not yet exhibited the spectacle of an entire people evangelized; but there have been repeated instances where this vital element has told perceptibly on national character; and in the nobler tone of public acting, and higher pulse of popular feeling, might be recognised a people nearer God. In England, for example, there have been three evangelic eras. Thrice over have ignorance and apathy been startled into light and wonder; and thrice over has a vigorous minority of England's inhabitants felt anew all the goodness or grandeur of the ancient message. And it is instructive to remark, how at each successive awakening an impulse was given to the nation's worth which never afterwards faded entirely out of it. Partial as the influence was, and few as they were who shared it, an element was infused into the popular mind, which, like salt imbibed from successive strata by the mineral spring, was never afterwards lost, but, now that ages have lapsed, may still be detected in the national character. The Reformers preached the Gospel, and the common people heard it gladly. Beneath the doublet of the thrifty trader, and the home-spun jerkin of the stalwart yeoman, was felt a throb of new nobility. A monarch and her ministers remotely graced the pageant; but it was to the stout music of old Latimer that the English Reformation marched, and it was a freer soil which iron heels and wooden sandals trode as they clashed and clattered to the burly tune. This Gospel was the birth of British liberty. Its right of private judgment revealed to many not only how precious is every soul, but how important is every citizen; and as much as it deepened the sense of religious responsibility, it awakened the desire of personal freedom. It took the Saxon churl, and taught him the softer manners and statelier spirit of his conqueror. It "mended the mettle of his blood;" and gave him something better than Norman chivalry. Quickening with its energy the endurance of the Saxon, and temper

The Puritan awakening.

307

ing with its amenity the fierceness of the Gaul, it made the Englishman. Then came the Puritan awakening-in its commencement the most august revival which Europe ever witnessed. Stately, forceful, and thrilling, the Gospel echoed over the land, and a penitent nation bowed before it. Long-fasting, muchreading, deep-thinking-theology, became the literature, the meditation and the talk of the people, and religion the business of the realm. With the fear of God deep in their spirits, and with hearts soft and plastic to His Word, it was amazing how promptly the sternest requirements were conceded, and the most stringent reforms carried through. Never, in England, were the things temporal so trivial, and the things eternal so evident, as when Baxter, all but disembodied, and Howe, wrapt in bright and present communion, and Allein, radiant with the joy which shone through him, lived before their people the wonders they proclaimed. And never among the people was there more of that piety which looks inward and upward-which longs for a healthy soul, and courts that supernal influence which alone can make it prosper; never more of that piety which in every action consults, and in every incident recognises Him in whom we move and have our being. Perhaps its long regards and lofty aspirations, the absence of short distances in its field of view, and that one all-absorbing future which had riveted its eye, gave it an aspect too solemn and ascetic-the look of a pilgrim leaving earth rather than an heir of glory going home. Still it was England's most erect and earnest century; and none who believe that worship is the highest work of man can doubt that, of all its predecessors, this Puritan generation lived to the grandest purpose. Pity that in so many ears the din of Naseby and Marston Moor has drowned the most sublime of national melodies-the joyful noise of a people praising God. The religion of the period was full of reverence and adoration and self-denial. Setting common life and its meanest incidents to the music of Scripture, and advancing to battle in the strength of psalms, its worthies were more awful than heroes. They were incorruptible and irresistible men, who lived under the All-seeing eye and leaned on the Omnipotent arm, and who found in God's nearness the sanctity of every spot and the solemnity of every moment.-Then, after a dreary interval—after the boisterous irreligion of the latter Stuarts and the cold flippancy which so long outlived them, came the Evangelical Revival of last century. Full-hearted and affectionate, sometimes brisk and vivacious, but always downright and practical, the Gospel of that era spoke to the good sense and warm feelings of the nation. In the electric fire of Whitefield, the rapid fervour of Romaine, the caustic force of Berridge and Rowland Hill, and the fatherly wisdom of John

Newton and Henry Venn-in these modern evangelists there was not the momentum whose long range demolished error's strongest holds, nor the massive doctrine which built up the tall and stately pile of Puritan theology. That day was past, and that work was done. For the Christian warfare these solemn ironsides and deep-sounding culverines were no longer wanted; but, equipped with the brief logic and telling earnestness of their eager sincerity, the lighter troops of this modern campaign ran swiftly in at the open gate, and next instant huzza'd' from the walls of the citadel. And for spiritual masonry the work was too abundant and the workers too few to admit of the spacious old temple style. Run up in haste and roofed over in a hurry, its earlier piety too often dwelt in tents; and before the roaming architect could return, his work would sometimes suffer loss. But when growing experience urged more pains, and increasing labourers made it possible, the busier habits of the time could still be traced in the slighter structure. The great glory of this recent Gospel is the sacred element which it has infused into an age which, but for it, would be wholly secular, and the sustaining element which it has inspired into a community which, but for its blessed hope, would be toil-worn and life-weary. No generation ever drudged so hard as this, and yet none has worked more cheerily. None was ever so tempted to churlish selfishness, and yet none has been more bountiful, and given such strength and wealth away. And none was ever more beset with facilities for vice and folly, and yet none has more abounded in disinterested characters and loving families full of loveliness. Other ages may surpass it in the lone grandeur and awful goodness of some pre-eminent name; but in the diffusion of piety, in the simplicity and gladness of domestic religion, and in the many forms of intelligent and practical Christianity, it surpasses them all. With "GOD IS LOVE" for the sunny legend in its open sky, and with Bible-texts efflorescing in every-day duties round its agile feet, this latter Gospel has left along its path the fairest specimens of talents consecrated and industry evangelized. Nor till all missionaries like Henry Martyn and John Williams, and all sweet singers like Kirke White and Jane Taylor, and all friends of humanity like Fowell Buxton, and Elizabeth Fry, have passed away; nor till the Bible, Tract and Missionary Societies have done their work, will it be known how benign and heart-expanding was that Gospel largess which a hundred years ago began to bless the land. Three evangelic eras have come, and two of them are gone. The first of these made its subjects. Bible-readers, brave and free. The second made them Biblesingers, full of its deep harmonies and high devotion, and from earthly toil and tumult hid in the pavilion of its stately song,

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