JOHN WESLEY'S USE OF THE PRESS.

ornamental style. I cannot admire French oratory: I despise it from my heart." These statements apply, it is true, specially to the style Wesley adopted in the composition of his sermons; but they indicate his preferences in respect to "style" generally, and are in perfect harmony with his character, and the opinions expressed in other places. In a letter addressed to the Rev. Mr. Furley, Wesley says that "perspicuity, purity, propriety, strength, and easiness, joined together," constitute a good style. He adds, "I never think of my style at all; but just set down the words that come first. Only when I transcribe anything for the press, then I think it my duty to see every phrase be clear, pure, and proper. Conciseness (which is now, [1764] as it were, natural to me) brings quantum sufficit of strength. If, after all, I observe any stiff expression, I throw it out, neck and shoulders." This ready and entire subordination of the scholar, the critic, the disputant, the man of refined taste and culture, to the purposes of godly instruction, demands the most profound admiration; and should stereotype the name of John Wesley upon the grateful memory of the nation, and secure him the respect and love of all great and good men.

In this article it is not intended to review Wesley's writings: all that will be attempted is to present a general notion of the use he made of the press. The wide range of subjects embraced by his almost numberless publications calls for special remark and commendation. It would be no light work for a book-collector to enumerate the books Wesley wrote; and would severely tax his memory to repeat the titles of the several works he published. The catalogue of these works might be easily elaborated to a very great length by giving the descriptive title of each work in full; but this is avoided, and the briefest possible mention made. of them. His Grammars in five different languages; his Classical Exercises; his complete English Dictionary; his Compendium of Logic; his History of England, in four volumes; his short Roman History; his Ecclesiastical History, in four volumes; his Compendium of Natural Philosophy, in five volumes; his Notes on the Old and New Testament, in four volumes; his Christian Library, in fifty volumes; his Monthly Magazine, continued by himself for fourteen years; his numerous polemical works and treatises, by the publication of which he was frequently brought into severe competition and dispute with some of the first scholars and leading men of the day; his one hundred and forty Sermons, the greater portion most carefully composed and published as standard pieces of doctrinal, experimental, and practical theology; his invaluable poetical and musical works, numbering more than fifty separate publications; his Abridgments and Extracts of the best works of other authors, extending to more than one hundred, each containing a preface of his own; his political Tracts, and his Answers, Addresses, &c. all these publications, most of them passing through numerous editions, issued from John Wesley's pen, or received its careful correction, whilst he travelled more miles and preached more sermons, year by year, for some fifty years in succession, than any man living.

All this, it should be borne in mind, was accomplished by a public

character, who carried on the most extensive private correspondence, and exercised the weighty and responsible charge of caring for and directing one of the largest ecclesiastical communities in existence; it was the work of a Clergyman faithful to his ministerial calling, and not of a professional author; and it was successfully effected at a time when little demand for books created a market of supply, but when the very taste for reading on the part of the public had to be formed. And, in addition to all this, it ought to be known that it was John Wesley who, by his cheap publications, and liberal mode of circulating them, mainly originated. a system of instruction for the masses, scarcely, if at all, surpassed in spirit and plan, at the present day of popular serials, and cheap literature, and tract-distribution.

Now and then individuals who have concentrated their great powers upon some one subject, have obtained a niche in one of our great national temples,―a statue or a bust in Westminster Abbey or St. Paul's, commemorating alike a hero's fame and a nation's pride. In other cases, men have enshrined their names as household words in the homes of the people,-men who have merely devoted their lives to the promotion of science, or art, or political economy. In respect to these instances of achieved success, the reward obtained is not begrudged: but, if he who really merits the palm should wear it, and if inspired authority require us to render "honour to whom honour" is due; then let it be fearlessly affirmed that the day has yet to come when Wesley's claim upon the homage of this country shall be recognised, were it only for his free and generous use of the press,- a use not made for gain, but for godliness,not for the achievement of a triumph, but the promotion of truth; not for purposes of personal honour, but that he might be useful to man, and be able to augment the glory of God.

S. R. H.

Dread not thy days of weariness, hours of decay, O soldier of the

The

THE EVENING OF LIFE. "Ar evening time it shall be light." (said a living Preacher,) dread not thine Cross new lights shall burn when the old lights are quenched; new candles shall be lit when the lamps of life are dim. Fear not! night of thy decay may be coming on, but "at evening time it shall be light." At evening time the Christian has many lights that he never had before; lit by the Holy Spirit, and shining by His light. There is the light of bright experience. He can look back, and he can raise his Ebenezer, saying, "Hither by Thy help I've come." He can look back at his old Bible, the light of his youth, and he can say, " This promise has been proved to me; this covenant has been proved true. I have thumbed my Bible many a year; I have never yet thumbed a broken promise. The promises have all been kept to me; 'not one good thing has failed.'"

And then, if he has served God, he has another light to cheer him he has the light of the remembrance of what God has enabled him to do. Some of his spiritual children come in and talk of times when God blessed

his conversion to their souls. He looks upon his children, and his children's children, rising up to call the Redeemer blessed at evening time he has a light.

But at the last the night comes in real earnest: he has lived long enough, and he must die. The old man is on his bed; the sun is going down, and he has no more light. "Throw up the windows; let me look, for the last time, into the open sky," says the old man. "The sun has gone down. I cannot see the mountains yonder; they are all a mass of mist; my eyes are dim, and the world is dim too." Suddenly a light shoots across his face, and he cries, "O daughter! daughter, here! I can see another sun rising. Did you not tell me that the sun went down just now? Lo, I see another; and where those hills used to be in the landscape, those hills that were lost in the darkness, daughter, I can see hills that seem like burning brass; and methinks upon that summit I can see a city as bright as jasper. Yes, and I see a gate opening, and spirits coming forth. What is that they say? O, they sing! they sing! Is this death?" And ere he has asked the question, he hath gone where he needs not to answer it; for death is all unknown. Yes, he has passed the gates of pearl; his feet are on the streets of gold; his head is bedecked with a crown of immortality; the palm-branch of eternal victory is in his hand. God hath accepted him in the Beloved.

ARE YOU ZEALOUS ?

A ZEALOUS man in religion is pre-eminently a man of one thing. It is not enough to say that he is earnest, hearty, uncompromising, thorough-going, whole-hearted, fervent in spirit. He only sees one thing; he is swallowed up in one thing, and that one thing is to please God. Whether he lives, or whether he dies; whether he has health, or whether he has sickness; whether he is rich, or whether he is poor; whether he pleases man, or whether he gives offence; whether he is thought wise, or whether he is thought foolish; whether he gets blame, or whether he gets praise; whether he gets honour, or whether he gets shame; for all this the zealous man cares nothing at all.

He burns for one thing; and that one thing is to please God, and to advance God's glory. If he is consumed in the very burning, he cares not for it; he is content. He feels that, like a lamp, he is made to burn, and, if consumed in burning, he has but done the work for which God appointed him. Such a one will always find a sphere for his zeal. If he cannot preach, and work, and give money, he will cry, and sigh, and pray. Yes; if he is only a pauper, on a perpetual bed of sickness, he will make the wheels of sin around him drive heavily, by continually interceding against it. If he cannot fight in the valley with Joshua, he will do the work of Moses, Aaron, and Hur, on the hill. If he is cut off from working himself, he will give the Lord no rest till help is raised up from another quarter, and the work is done. This is what I mean, when I speak of zeal in religion.-Ryle.

"IS ANY SICK AMONG YOU?"

THE Apostle has in his mind a very likely event:* some one of the members of the church he was writing to would sometime be sick; he anticipates such a fact, and he gives advice beforehand, and directs such a person how to act when he is ill. Now, there is scarcely an epistle so little read as St. James's, and there is hardly a precept of his so little regarded as that which sets forth the first duty of a sick Christian. When a man is taken ill, it often happens that his common sense forsakes him; at all events, he acts on principles which in health he would disown.

Perhaps one-half of all good people who have been sick, have taken for granted that their Minister or Leader must know all about it. The thing would be too strange for belief if it had not been proved many a time in the experience of every Pastor who is familiar with the firesides of his people. In the daily round of visitation, he often meets with a member who is sick. He is introduced to the bedside, and he finds that, amongst other maladies, his friend is suffering under the delusion that he has been grievously neglected. "I have been confined to my bed for a week or more, and nobody has been to see me." Of course, his mind is hurt, and Ministers and Leaders are set down as very thoughtless people.

I am not grey-headed; but the case I now give is only a sample of many more that have come under my own eye. In making a number of pastoral calls one day, I knocked at the door of a widow lady. I found that she had been very unwell for more than a fortnight, but was recovering. We were living within five minutes' walk of each other, but I had not heard of her illness. She told me her case, and I expressed my sympathy. I soon perceived, however, that her chief ailment now was mental. "All the time was ill, my Leader never came to see me." I tried to soothe her mind, but she began again: "I had the doctor attending me nearly a fortnight; I was very ill; and it was unkind of Mr. not to come near me." "You had the doctor a fortnight? I suppose he was passing one day, and happened to call in and find you ill." "No; I sent my servant for him, of course." "But you don't mean to say that you sent for the doctor ?" "Yes, I did: we always call in medical men; else how should they know we are ill." "Exactly; when you are sick, and need a doctor, you very reasonably send for one: and when you are ill, and wish to see your Leader, why don't you send for him? St. James says, 'Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church.'' I reasoned with the lady at some length in this style, and succeeded, I think, in convincing her that it would have been as reasonable to lie in bed ill day after day, expecting the doctor to come without being sent for, and grumbling at him because he didn't come, as to be ill for a fortnight and complain that her Leader did not visit her, when she had not even let him know that she was ill.

There are cases very much like this every day. Sick folk complain that the Minister or the Leader has not been near them, when they have not taken the least pains to let any one know of their illness.

Now, on behalf of all Leaders and Ministers, I say that we have no supernatural means of getting to know when this or that person is ill. Some of my brethren may have ten talents; but this is not one of them. We are just like other people: if we are to know, we must be told. You might as reasonably expect a medical man to know immediately when one of his friends is sick, as expect a Leader to know at once when one of his members is taken

* James v. 14.

ill. You don't expect the doctor to drop in by instinct just at the moment you need his services; but this would be as reasonable as to expect a Minister to knock at your door the first day that you are ill. When you need a visit from your medical man, you send for him: when you desire a visit from your Minister, do likewise. Don't wonder why he does not come: there is nothing to wonder over in that. Don't lie in bed brooding over his neglect: that won't do any good either to soul or body. Don't grumble at him, if he should happen to come in: you don't like being grumbled at, neither does he. But if you wish to see your Minister, send for him, as you do for the doctor.

"But a Leader ought to see all his members every week, and then he would get to know if any one of them was ill." With many Leaders this is simply impossible, because of the large number of members who are absent from the class-meeting. Some of these would come, but cannot; others could, but do not; and the end is, Leaders cannot visit within the week all who are not present when the class meets. But if the Leader could, there is still this fact: a member may, within the week, sicken and die; and how is the case to be met, except on St. James's principle?

As to Ministers, the case is still stronger. By dint of hard work, a Preacher may call upon such members as are visitable once or twice a quarter. Of course, there will be an interval of six weeks between his visits. During this time a member is smitten down by sickness: how is the Minister to know of this, if he is not told? If you wish him to know that you are ill, send him word; and if you wish him to visit you, ask him to call. At all events, set this down as a most certain fact, there is no miraculous method by which Ministers can learn when members are ill.

There once lived in the town of Bethany a man whose name was Lazarus. One day he fell sick. He had two sisters living with him, and they three were honoured with the friendship of the Lord Jesus. He loved them all. Now, when Lazarus was taken ill, his sisters did not depend upon the omniscience and kindness of the Saviour. They did not say, He knows very well how sick Lazarus is, and He will be sure to come and see him. No; but "his sisters sent unto Him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick." They thought, I suppose, that as they wished the Lord Jesus to come and see their brother, the least they could do was to send Him word that Lazarus was ill.

Your duty is much plainer. Martha and Mary had reason to believe that the Saviour knew that their brother was sick: you are sure that Ministers do not know that you are ill, except as you send unto them. It is very likely that you will be sick some time this year. Don't keep it a secret. Don't fret and chafe, as did my friend, the widow lady; but rather do as did the sisters of Bethany when you wish for a visit from Minister, or Leader, or friend, do as they did-send unto him.

Upper Holloway.

MARRIED LIFE.

J. B.

Eph. v. 25-33; Col. iii. 19; 1 Peter iii. 7; Eph. v. 22-24; Col. iii. 18;

1 Peter iii. 1—6.

THESE passages of holy Scripture appointed, so appropriately, to be read at the solemnization of marriage, set forth authoritatively the relative duties of man and wife. That only can be a happy union where the rules thus laid down are reduced to practice. Very little consideration will show how true are the remarks of a recent writer. The happiness of society (he says) depends on just views of the marriage relation. It is true, the world over,