DR. CHALMERS

AT THE HANOVER-ROOMS,

HANOVER-SQUARE.

I WAS present, eight or nine years ago, in the Hanover-square-Rooms, at crowded meetings, among which were the flower of the English aristocracy, the leaders of the Tory party; and where, on sofas placed at the foot of the platform, were seated Princes of the royal family, Ministers of State, and Bishops. The speaker who electrified these large meetings was Chalmers, that Prince of British orators.

Sometimes energetic words in favour of political liberty, and of the independence of the church, fell from his burning lips: for he was then bearing witness in London, in the Queen's Concert-Room, to the same truths which, five years after, he maintained in the rustic hall of the Cannon-Mills at Edinburgh. He alluded to the saying, so famous in England, that " every Englishman's house is his castle." He repeated those well-known words, that no one has a right to enter it,"The King cannot; the King dare not;" and then returning suddenly to the church, he declared that the political power could not meddle with her power, could not meddle with her doctrine, and her spiritual administration; and thus, taking his stand, as it were, at the door of the church, he hurled forth these words, which resounded like thunder through the assembly, "The King cannot; the King dare not." When Chalmers had thus spoken in the honour of true liberty before this English aristocracy, think not that murmurs were heard aloud. No, there was unbounded applause. Loud declamations arose from this multitude of noblemen and Tories; and when this cheering had subsided, it began again, and was thus three times renewed. I then saw the fine and venerable head of the Duke of Cambridge, the Queen's uncle, nodding with an expression of the most cordial acquiescence. I was confounded. How magical, thought I, is eloquence! "Do you know," I said, as I went out, to a Tory friend, "that if, on the Continent, even in France, they were to hear this applause given, such homage rendered to liberty, they would think themselves in a conventiele of carbonari." — D'Aubigne's "Germany, England, and Scotland."

LONDON SOLITUDE.

IN London anything may be had for money; and one thing may be had there in perfection without it, that one thing is solitude. Take up your abode in the deepest glen, or on the wildest heath, in the remotest province of the kingdom, where the din of

commerce is not heard, and where the wheels of pleasure make no trace, even there humanity will find you, and sympathy, under some of its varied aspects, will creep beneath the humble roof. Travellers' curiosity will be excited to gaze upon the recluse, or the village Pastor will come to offer his religious consolations to the heart-chilled solitary; or some kind spinster, who is good to the poor, will proffer her kindly aid in medicine for sickness, or in some shape of relief for poverty. But in the mighty metropolis, where myriads of human hearts are throbbing, where all that is busy in commerce, all that is elegant in manners, all that is mighty in power, all that is dazzling in splendour, all that is brilliant in genius, all that is benevolent in feeling, is congregated together,there the penniless solitary may feel the depth of his solitude. From morn night he may pensively pace the streets, envying every equipage that sweeps by him in its pride, and coveting the crusts of the unwashed artificer. And there shall pass him, in his walks, poets that musically sing of human feeling, Priests that preach the religion of mercy, the wealthy who pity the sorrows of the poor, the sentimental whose hearts are touched by the tale of woe, and none of these shall heed him; and he may retire at night to his bedless garret, and sit cold and hungry by his empty grate; the world may be busy, and cheerful, and noisy around him, but no sympathy shall reach him; his heart shall be dry as Gideon's fleece, while the softening dews of humanity are falling around him.-Atlas.

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LEGH RICHMOND'S MANNER OF PREACHING. LEGH RICHMOND was a Clergyman of the Established Church of England. He was "blessed with an intelligent and piouslydisposed mother, who early instructed him in the holy Scriptures, and the principles of true religion." Although his mother knew not fully the way of salvation by faith, experimentally, till after he obtained the 'knowledge of the remission of sins," yet he was indebted to her early and pious instructions, instrumentally, for his religious bent, and for his greatness as a holy and useful Minister. He was not made personally acquainted with the "spiritual nature of the Gospel system, the vital character of personal religion, the corruption of the human heart, and the way of salvation by Jesus Christ," until two months after he had taken charge of his first flock in Brading, in the Isle of Wight. "It pleased God, who had marked him out as a chosen instrument of extensive

usefulness in His church, by an apparently trivial and unimportant circumstance, to produce a complete revolution in his religious sentiments. A thoughtless candidate for the ministry, one of Mr. Richmond's college friends, having been presented by one of his relatives with a copy of Mr. Wilberforce's work on "Practical Christianity," and having no disposition to peruse it, sent it to Mr. Richmond, with a request that he would read it, and inform him what he was to say respecting its contents. In compliance with this request, he began to read the book, and became so deeply interested, that he did not lay it down till he had finished it." The reading of this book led him to Christ, and laid deeper and broader the foundation for his practical usefulness and effective ministrations, for which he was so distinguished through a long course of life.

This very

useful book, following in the train of his pious mother's plain and lucid mode of explaining religion and philosophy to him in his earlier youth, operating on his ardent temperament and deeply devotional soul, gave that simple, practical, and powerful impressiveness to his style and manner of preaching, which so eminently distinguished him above the mere ministerial rhetorician. The following extract from his life presents him in his style as a model Gospel Preacher :

"In his preaching he was very plain and familiar, so as to be understood by the most unlearned in his congregations; nor was he satisfied till he explained his idea in every possible variety and point of view. On this account he sometimes seemed, to persons unacquainted with his design, to employ a needless number of words. It was once pleasantly said by one who heard him, 'An excellent sermon, but with too many various readings.' He used to refer his friends, who conversed with him on the subject of preaching, to the advice of his college tutor: Don't use terms of science. The people have no abstract ideas: they cannot understand comparisons and allusions remote from all their habits. Take words of Saxon derivation, and not such as are derived from Latin and Greek. Talk of riches, not affluence; of trust, not confidence. Present the same idea in a varied form, and take care that you understand the subject yourself. If you be intelligent, you will be intelligible.'" -Pittsburg Christian Advocate.

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eminence which you have gained, you will gradually familiarize your mind to consider its other aberrations as only more rare than sleep or dreams; and in process of time they will cease to appear to you much more horrible. You will thus be delivered from that constant dread which so often brings on the very evil dreaded; and which, as it clouds the whole of human life, is itself a greater calamity than any temporary disease. Some dread of this sort darkened the days of Johnson; and the fears of Rousseau seem to have constantly realized themselves. But whoever has brought himself to consider a disease of the brain as differing only in degree from a disease of the lungs, has robbed it of that mysterious horror which forms its chief malignity. If he were to do this by undervaluing intellect, he would indeed gain only a low quiet at the expense of mental dignity. But you do it by feeling the superiority of a moral nature over intellect itself. All your happiness has arisen from your love and pursuit of excellence. appointed in the pursuit of union with real or supposed excellence of a limited sort, you sought refuge in the contemplation of the supreme excellence. But, by the conflict of both, your mind was torn in pieces; and even your most powerful understanding was unable to resist the force of your still more powerful moral feelings. The remedy is prescribed by the plainest maxims of duty. You must act: inactive contemplation is a dangerous condition for minds of profound moral sensibility. We are not to dream away our lives in the contemplation of distant or imaginary perfection. We are to act in an imperfect and corrupt world; and we must only contemplate perfection enough to ennoble our natures, but not to make us dissatisfied and disgusted with these faint approaches to that perfection, which it would be the nature of a brute or a demon to despise. It is for this reason that I exhort you to literary activity. It is not as the road of ambition, but of duty, and as the means of usefulness, and the resource against disease. It is an exercise necessary to your own health, and by which you directly serve others."

VALUE OF EARLY RISING. THE difference between rising every morning at six and at eight, in the course of forty years, supposing a man to go to bed at the same time he otherwise would, amounts to 29,200 hours; or 3 years, 121 days, and 16 hours, which will afford eight hours a day for exactly ten years; so that it is the same as if ten years of life were added: a weighty consideration, in which we could command eight hours every day for the cultivation of our minds or the despatch of business.

THE BIBLE CHAINED IN

CHURCH-PORCHES.

"THE secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." This is one of the declarations connected with the committal to the congregation of Israel of the "oracles of God." The written word was for them and for their children. They being "broken off because of unbelief," we are "graffed in," that we, likewise, might partake" of the root and fatness of the olive-tree;" and surely our privileges are not to be more confined than theirs. promise is unto us and our children;" and therefore to us and them do the written records of the promises belong. Everything that is said in the New Testament agrees with this view of the case: to the contrary, there is not a word, not a hint. If privileges,

"The

hitherto by the very letter of the grant open and unconfined, are to be limited, the enactment of limitation ought to be plain and accessible; but where is it said in the New Testament that Christians are not to read, not even to possess, the holy Scriptures, without the licence of their ecclesiastical superiors?

For a long period, dark and melancholy, the Scriptures were a prohibited book to the common people. The last Romanist Council, that of Trent, confirmed this prohibition, and solemnly re-enacted the prohibitory law. And this is still the law of Rome. Whether in Protestant countries, to conceal the disgraceful fact, licences are granted with more freedom than elsewhere, we know not; but the prohibition, except where leave is given, is the positive, written law of Rome. In England and her colonies we sometimes hear of Bibleburning; and how opposed are the Priests

to Bible-reading in Ireland, is matter of common notoriety. It was the law in England till about the year 1535 or 1536. Shortly after, prohibition was again restored. Under Edward VI., Scripture-reading once more became a common privilege; but the people were deprived of it by "bloody Mary." When Queen Elizabeth came to the throne, the word of God was declared to be free, and in our favoured country has continued so to the present day.

But when, three hundred years ago, the people at large were admitted to the perusal of the word of God, times were not as they have since become. Printing, then comparatively a recent invention, had not become cheap. Reading was not so generally diffused through the community; and as readers were scarce, books would not be plentiful. Fewer copies would be printed in a single edition, and the entire expense would have to be divided among those few. To all other hinderances of the free circulation of Scripture, this would have to be added, that the price would be far beyond the ability of the great majority of the people. And what was the plan devised for meeting this difficulty, and overcoming it as far as possible?

In 1536, Henry, then under Protestant influence, issued certain " Injunctions.” This was one of them: "Item, that every Parson or Proprietary of any parish church within this realm, shall, on this side the feast of St. Peter ad vincula next coming, provide a book of the whole Bible, both in Latin and also in English, and lay the same in the quire for every man that will to look and read therein; and shall discourage no man from reading any part of the Bible, either in Latin or English, but rather comfort, exhort, and admonish every man to read the same, as the very word of God, and spiritual food of man's soul, whereby they may better know their duties to God, to their Sovereign Lord the King, and their neighbours; ever gently and charitably exhorting them, that using a sober and a modest behaviour in the reading and inquisition of the true sense of the same, they do in nowise stiffly or eagerly contend or strive one with another, about the same, but reserve the declaration of those places that be in controversy to the judgment of them that be better learned." The next year it was enjoined that the Bible should be " of the largest volume in English," and "the same be set up in some convenient place within the said church that ye have cure of, whereas your parishioners may most commodiously resort to the same and read it."

The Bibles thus "set up in churches," sometimes in the "porch," were usually strongly bound, literally "in boards," and

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were chained to the desk on which they were placed, that they might not be removed. In those days he who could read "occupied the place of the learned" among his neighbours; and to him the task was allotted of reading aloud for the public good. And deeply interesting were the scenes that often presented themselves. On Sabbaths and holidays all the parishioners that could leave their homes would congregate in the "convenient place," where the book of God, the food of their souls, was placed; and would listen earnestly and devoutly to the "words whereby they might be saved." The collections that have been made from authentic sources by our great martyrologist, Foxe, prove that from the very days of Wycliffe there had always been, among the "common people of England," a goodly succession, many of whom sealed the truth with their blood, who felt the oppressions of Popery to be a grievous burden, and who longed for the liberty of intercourse with God by means of His word. And the day long desired, scarcely anticipated, at length came in a way as mysterious as it was unexpected. The wrath of man was turned to the praise of God. A despotic and sensual tyrant, loving neither truth nor purity, chose to quarrel with the Pope; and the wicked were corrected, and had their plans subverted, by the wicked. But whatever were the instruments, the results were good. How delightful it would be to see the inhabitants of a village, the grey-headed elders, the robust labourers, the good housewives, young men and young women, boys and girls, all surrounding that good man who stands before a desk, to which a large folio Bible is fixed, and opened, and with a loud voice he reads to them,-not idle legends, but that which he can introduce with, "Thus saith the Lord!"

The times are indeed changed. There are now few persons who cannot read. And Bibles are so cheap, that not only may there be one in every house, as the "large family Bible," not even one merely in every room, -but one for every inmate. The very children now desire to have a Bible of their own. And the Bible is not a neglected book. Still, is the privilege valued and improved as it ought to be? When the villagers only heard the divine sayings, they would treasure them in their memory; by reflection they would seek to realize their import; and by meditation they would fan the flame, as well as increase the fuel, of devotion. Let us not, in these times of plenty, prize our blessings less than was done by our ancestors in days of scarcity. Is not the rule a most just one," Where much is given, much shall be required?"

LORD MANSFIELD.

LORD MANSFIELD, after the determination of some cause, found reasons to alter his opinion in the directions he had given to the jury. Some time after, he saw one of the Counsel to whose client his opinion had not been favourable, and desired him to make a motion for a new trial. Lord Mansfield was telling this circumstance one day to one of his brethren, who seemed rather astonished at the cool and easy manner in which he mentioned his change of opinion. Why," said he, "after all, it is only showing the world that you are wiser to-day than you were yesterday."

A literary friend of this nobleman applied to him for materials for a biographical record, wishing, as he said, to perpetuate the memory of so great a luminary of the British law. His Lordship's answer was, "My success in life is not very remarkable: whatever powers nature gave me I was enabled to cultivate; my father was a man of rank and fashion, and early in life I was introduced into the best company, where my circumstances permitted me to support the character of a man of rank and fashion; and to these circumstances I chiefly owe my success in life. But if you wish to write the life of a truly great man, take that of the late Lord Hardwicke. He was indeed a

wonderful character. He became Lord Chancellor of England merely by his virtues, abilities, and learning. His father was an obscure attorney, and his grandfather an humble peasant." Such was the noble mind of Lord Mansfield, the victim of factious persecution.-Chambers's Journal.

CURIOUS HISTORICAL FACT. DURING the troubles in the reign of King Charles I., a country girl came up to London in search of a place as a servant-maid; but not succeeding, she applied herself to carrying out beer from a brewhouse, and was one of those then called tub-women. The brewer observing a well-looking girl in this low occupation, took her into his family as a servant; and, after awhile, she behaving herself with so much prudence and decorum, he married her; but he died when she was yet a young woman, and left her a large fortune. The business of the brewery was dropped, and the young woman was recommended to Mr. Hyde, as a gentleman of skill in the law, to settle her affairs. Hyde (who was afterwards the great Earl of Clarendon) finding the widow's fortune very considerable, married her. Of this marriage there was no other issue than a daughter, who was afterwards the wife of James II., and mother of Mary and Anne, Queens of England.—Ibid.

WILLIAM WILBERFORCE.
DIED JULY 29TH, 1833.

THE British Senate presents a roll of names as illustrious as any legislative assembly in the world can boast; and among the most illustrious must ever shine that of the man whose energies were successfully consecrated to the cause of oppressed and suffering humanity. The name of Wilberforce is embalmed in the hearts of tens of thousands, and will be had in everlasting remembrance. This truly great and good man, whose respectable ancestry had long possessed a large estate at Wilberfoss, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, was son of a Hull merchant, at which town he was born on the 24th of August, 1759. Before he reached his tenth year, his father died, and he was committed to the care of a paternal uncle, whose property he inherited along with what fell to him on the death of his father.

After having received the rudiments of his education at the grammar-school of Pocklington, in Yorkshire, he was removed to St. John's College, Cambridge, in his seventeenth year, where he became a FellowCommoner in 1776. No sooner had he passed through his college-course than, at the general election of 1780, he was returned to Parliament as the representative of his native town, having just completed his twenty-first year. He was at once carried into the vortex of fashionable and political society; and having formed an acquaintance with Mr. Pitt, at Cambridge, he entered into a friendship with that celebrated statesman that continued unchanged amidst all the vicissitudes of his stirring career.

Four years after his first appearance in Parliament, he made a speech at a public meeting held in the Castle-yard at York, which so won the regard of the electors, that he was chosen Member for the county of