Charterhouse school and his undergraduate course at Oxford, in moderately religious habits of the kind to which he had been bred." This, which is substantially Dr. Rigg's view also, is much nearer the truth than the assertion that Wesley left the Charterhouse "a sinner," having entered it “ a saint."

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Dr. Rigg's defence of our founder's college career is not less successful. Against Mr. Tyerman's too hasty conclusion that Wesley was from the age of eleven to twenty-two "an habitual if not profane and flagrant sinner," and moreover something of a spendthrift, our author produces conclusive evidence. Indeed, Mr. Tyerman, in concluding this from Wesley's own confession," indicates the cause of the austere criticism which he has too often dealt out to his hero. Wesley is just the man not to be estimated at his own price, or strictly judged "by his own confession." After his evangelical conversion, he writes with undue severity about his earlier life, under the influence of the very natural horror with which he had come to look upon selfrighteousness. In the sense that

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going about to establish his own righteousness, he had not submitted himself unto the righteousness of God," he was 66 a sinner;" but certainly not in the sense suggested by Mr. Tyerman's mode of expression. Least of all, had he lapsed from a state of grace and saintship into a state of sin! His career was rather one of ever-advancing progress towards the light, guided by the simple and strong desire to be wholly consecrated to God. Mr. Davies not unjustly compares some of his teachings, as illustrated by the letters of his college pupils and companions, to the sentiments ex

pressed by R. Hurrell Froude in the palmy days of the Tractarian movement. His aim-and that of those who agreed with him-was, as the rector of St. Marylebone remarks, "to lead a pious life by rule."

As to the charge of extravagant expenditure, it is, as Dr. Rigg shows, exactly the opposite of the fact.. Nor, on the other hand, in spite of the strictness of his views and the severity of his habits, must we think of Wesley the collegian as a morose ascetic. The descriptions given of him by his friends, and the whole tone of his correspondence with home, especially with his mother and sisters, to whom "Jacky" was evidently especially dear,demonstrate the contrary; and his clear perception, even at this early period, of salvation as "a present salvation from guilt and fear, through the indwelling of Christ' involves a happy view of religion, which coming from so high & Churchman and such a stickler for outward observances is not a little significant. His natural disposition was cheerful and joyous, and needed only the experience of " the love of God shed abroad in his heart" to make him the brightest of men.

Dr. Rigg devotes an exceedingly interesting chapter to Wesley's relations during his earlier manhood with certain ladies, especially with Miss Kirkham and Mrs. Pendarves,-afterwards the celebrated Mrs. Delany. His correspondence with these ladies is curious and remarkable in a high degree, and reveals a susceptibility to feminine influence with which he has scarcely ever been credited. It is indeed odd, to one who has only read of Wesley in his later manhood, and been familiar with the simple and homely beauty and strong common sense of his published Works, to

The correspondence to which these remarks allude is valuable, however, as throwing light upon the theological views of the Oxford collegian. Dr. Rigg truly says that "there is absolutely nothing of the righteousness of faith" in any part of it.

We have not space to discuss the episode of Wesley's career in Georgia. Here, as in so many other instances, Mr. Tyerman, apparently under an exaggerated sense of the duty of impartiality, seems to put the worst construction possible on certain parts of his hero's conduct, especially in his relations with Miss Hopkey. This part of his work should be read with Dr. Rigg's corrective in hand. That corrective will also prove a very valuable antidote to much that Mr. Davies says of Wesley's relations with women, and of certain alleged defects in "delicacy."

But by much the most valuable section of Dr. Rigg's book is that entitled, "John Wesley after his Conversion and in the Maturity of his Powers." After a very acute and masterly chapter on "Wesley's Ritualism and Mysticism,”—a curious combination indeed, but one which is clearly made out,Dr. Rigg proceeds to deal with his "Evangelical Conversion." The contrast drawn between Wesley the self-righteous legalist, going out to Georgia, and Wesley on his return, the truly awakened and humbled penitent, ready to be taught by any one the way of salvation, is very beautifully drawn; and the picture of him on his voyage home,-that

“critical season of searching, gracious, humbling experience; a seedtime, overcast with heavy clouds, but rich in promise; a seed-time of weeping, which was to be followed by a life-long harvest of spiritual fruitfulness,' "-is exquisitely tender and touching. Our author's remarks also on Wesley's intercourse with Böhler deserve to be seriously pondered, especially in connection with what Mr. Davies says on that subject, and on the general subject of Wesley's relations with the Moravians.

But the two chapters on "Wesley the Preacher," and "Wesley as a Thinker," deserve especial notice, inasmuch as in some respects, they set our founder before us, if not entirely in a new light, certainly in a clearer and more explicit one than any earlier writer has done. Our author justly remarks that Wesley's "character as an organizer has usurped public attention to such an extent as quite to obscure his character as a preacher." Whereas it is certain that the accomplishment of his mission depended on and resulted from his success as "the most awakening and spiritually penetrative and powerful preacher of his age." The notion that he was habitually a preacher of short sermons is combated and exploded here. Dr. James Hamilton's picture of him as "after his mornin g sermon at the Foundery, mounting his pony, and trotting, and chatting, and gathering simples, till he reached some country hamlet where he would bait his charger, and talk through a little sermon with the villagers, and remount his pony and trot away again," is shown to be an altogether "misleading specimen of fancy-painting." Considering that he often preached nineteen or twenty times a week,

it stands to reason that he preached many more short sermons than long ones. But his sermons after Church hours, and on some special weeknight occasions, were often very long Dr. Rigg quotes several instances in proof of this from the celebrated "Journal" of our founder.

The ridiculous idea that "he seldom coped with the multitude" is disproved by the whole tenour of that document. Who can read the accounts of his preaching in Newcastle, Staffordshire, Kingswood, Cornwall, Kennington Common, and Moorfields, without recognising in him the prince of open-air preachers? (not second to Whitefield himself in all the elements of true preaching influence, and more profound and intense ;) and who cannot see that he did not shrink from protracted as well as heartsearching and passionate appeals to his multitudinous hearers?

The mistake about the length of his sermons seems to have been occasioned partly by his attaining to such extreme old age, and being known to the later generation of his people in the time of declining vigour and decaying life; partly by the fact that his printed sermons are-as indeed his brother Samuel complained-"rather notes than sermons," and especially that his later printed discourses were prepared with a theological and educational purpose; and partly by the frequency and urgency with which he exhorts his preachers to preach short, which Dr. Rigg justly explains by the fact that "the great majority of them were men whose stock of knowledge was very small, and who had received no intellectual training whatever." The following is a vivid and most real picture of Wesley himself as a preacher :

"Like many terse, nervous writers, Wesley was not only a nervous but a copious speaker. His words flowed in a direct, steady, powerful, sometimes a rapid stream, and every word told, because every word bore its proper meaning. With all the fulness of utterance, the genuine eloquence, there was no tautology, no diffuseness of style, no dilution. Close logical, high verbal, adequate philosophic culture had, in the case of Wesley, laid the basis of clear, vivid, direct, and copious extempore powers of speech. Culture and discipline, such as had prepared Cicero for his oratorical successes, helped to make Wesley the powerful, persuasive, at times the thrilling and electrifying, preacher which he undoubtedly was.”

To the possession of these natural and acquired advantages must, above all, be added the doctrine which he preached: "His perception of the doctrine of salvation by faith not only transformed him thereafter into a preacher, as his first and greatest calling, but breathed a new soul into his preaching." From this beginning "the whole of Methodism unfolded."

The chapter on 66 Wesley as a Thinker" is remarkable alike for its penetration, its grasp, and its freshness. It has been too easily assumed that he was 66 comparatively wanting in the capacity of philosophic reflectiveness." Dr. Rigg, on the other hand, contends that his intellectual tastes inclined him hardly less to the study of philosophy than to that of theology. Indeed the founder of Methodism was, during his earlier manhood, in some danger from the strength of the contemplative element in his nature. To this probably must be attributed the hold which mysti

cism at one time gained on him. Dr. Rigg points out, too, that he inclined to philosophical scepticism; and instances the fact that he abandoned the study of mathematics" because he found it undermine his faith in all moral conclusions." He considers him to have been "fifty years in advance of his age "in the department of historical criticism; and quotes from his brief but searching criticisms on Hook's "Roman History," Dobb's "Universal History," the "Life of St. Patrick," Leland's "History of Ireland," and similar books, some very striking passages in proof. This whole chapter is most instructive and valuable; it sets Wesley's intellectual character on a higher level than probably most of his followers have been accustomed to assign to it. The rectorof St. Marylebone has done Wesley no small injustice. He has entirely mistaken in some cases; and, on the whole, has greatly underrated his intellectual character and capabilities. But in this, as in other respects, he has been triumphantly answered beforehand by Dr. Rigg. We believe this chapter to be the first attempt fairly to weigh and measure the intellectual characteristics of the founder of Methodism; and Dr. Rigg is especially happy in dealing with his alleged credulity and superstition. The closing chapter on "Wesley's Disposition and Character

repay perusal.

will also amply

that he may possibly, if life be spared, address himself to the preparation of a new 66 'Life of the Methodist Reformer." We know no man who could fulfil Dr. Rigg's ideal of a life "clearer, and more discriminating, as to some matters of primary importance "better than Dr. Rigg himself.

Sermon preached in Carver Street Chapel, Sheffield; and Official Charge to Young Ministers, on their Ordination to the Christian Ministry, delivered in Norfolk Street Chapel, Sheffield, on August 1st and 4th, 1875, respectively. By the Rev. W. Morley Punshon, LL.D., Ex-President. London: Wesleyan Conference Office. 1876.-These powerful twindiscourses are very fittingly combined, the former being in fact a Charge to the Methodist people, as the latter is to the rising ministry. Both are worthy of the occasion and the preacher, being grave, weighty, earnest, straightforward, frank, genial, kindly even to tenderness, timely and judicious, in one word, if that word be admissible,-Presidential. To the charm of genuine Methodist simplicity is added that of a sober and restrained imaginativeness, and an unbidden and outbursting eloquence, very beautiful and effective. The preacher, in giving to the young Ministry the most seasonable and suitable advices, has also incidentally set before them a model of a rich, yet vigorous, chaste, and manly pulpit style.

not only a worthy but a distinguished place in the noble series of Presidential deliverances, and may be profitably perused and pondered by the whole Methodist Body.

A History of the Councils of the Church, from the Original Documents. By the Right Reverend Charles Joseph Hefele, D.D., Bishop of Rottenburg. Vol. II.A.D. 326 to A.D. 429. Translated from the German, with the Author's approbation, and Edited by Henry Nutcombe Oxenham, M.A. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark. 1876.-A minute acquaintance with Church History is indispensable to all who would master the searching Church questions of the day, and next to the study of the Scriptures that of Church History is most essential to the intellectual culture of a Christian. In this department Dr. Hefele is doing admirable service. The accomplished translator justly pronounces this to be "the classical work on the History of the Councils of the Church." "The present volume takes up and completes the record of the Arian controversy, properly so called." This volume has all the elaborateness, thoroughness, and completeness of the former (for a notice of which see this Magazine for September, 1871). It has a strong charm as well as a high value for all who are eager to know all that can now be known of some of the most momentous controversies which have ever agitated Christendom. Of

course, the original documents form the most important part of the work, but the elucidating and connecting historical details are also of great value and interest. The Bishop's abstinence and self-control are only of less value than his learned, candid, and cool-headed

reticence he leaves his readers to draw obvious inferences from unchallengeable documents and unquestionable facts. We do not wonder that the Jesuits are so irate at the bringing to light by the pen of a Catholic Bishop of documents so fatal to their outrageous Church theories. As little can we wonder that one who has such a profound and open-minded familiarity with the earlier history of the Church should revolt against the barefaced falsifications of the Vatican. Dr. Hefele has himself become an historical personage, by the exceptionally noble stand he made at the Council of the Vatican, and as one of the leaders of the Old Catholic Movement. And yet even he unconsciously gives undue advantage to Papal assumptions, for example, by again and again giving the word " Pope" where clearly the true translation is simply the Bishop of Rome; and by suggesting extravagantly unlikely meanings to decisions which on the face of them bear condemnation of subsequent Romanist enactments.

The name of Mr. Oxenham gives ample guarantee for accuracy and fidelity of translation. Whether as the well-told story of an eventful century of Church history, or as an indispensable book of reference, the volume is of great value.

Oliver of the Mill. By Maria Louise Charlesworth. London: Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday.— Thousands will hail the reappearance, after so long retirement, of the author of "Ministering Children." The present work has all the piety, tenderness, and lovingness of her former productions, and exhibits a very noticeable growth in intellectual and