MAN AFTER DEATH. 45 or the not hearing; what this universe is, what the laws of God are, the life of every man will a little teach it you, the life of all men and of all things, only this could wholly teach it you, and you are to be open to learn." What Tennyson says of the flower, may be justly said of HISTORY. "Flower in the crannied wall I pluck you out of the crannies ; What you are, roots and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is." When the term SCIENCE is used as descriptive of a region which ought to be traversed for light concerning the possibilities of the human race, it is used in its fairest and broadest sense; not as restricted to physical science, as though the science of clays and stones, and fluids and gases, were the only science important to man; but as comprehending all the reasoned and verified results of investigation and thought concerning man and his present dwelling-place, the whole of man; his physical structure, his instincts, his intuitions, his reason, his conscience, his experience, and his home. God has not left men without a witness for Himself, even where they have no open Bible and no written history. "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made." "There is a law written in our hearts:" men are a law unto themselves." God's autograph is upon us, as it is also upon the material world. The universe glows with the splendour of His glory, radiates with the brightness of His face, and thunders with the resonance of His terrible power. Man's nature is trumpet-tongued concerning the Almighty, and in clear and ringing notes proclaims His purity and majesty. Surely earth and man will not both be dumb about death and all that follows it! Surely God, who is the God of all, and who cares for all, will have supplied to all, within the narrow boundaries of their own being, some unerring witnesses to His mind and will about our destiny! Yes, the Lord who has made us has not forgotten to put into the very structure of our being the heralds of our future. But what if these books conflict! What if Revelation contradicts History, and Science denies both! They do not: they will not: they cannot. Our interpretations may be at variance: but the texts will never war with each other. Truth is one; and the Bible, History, and Science, are one, as the God is one who wrote them. They are all three governed by the same idea, written with the same redeeming and gracefilled purpose, and as essentially correlated to one another as light to heat, and heat to electricity, and electricity to chemical affinity. When we know all we shall find "the Correlation of God's Teachings" to be as much a fact as "the Correlation of Forces." We may, therefore, dismiss all fear of conflicting authorities, conscientiously and fearlessly seek for truth, and then patiently attempt the difficult task of putting all the evidence from SCRIPTURE, HISTORY, and SCIENCE together, so as to make it an organically articulated, living and breathing whole. JOHN CLIFFORD. No. I.-George Whitefield: his Youth and Training. THE annals of Christianity show, that the Church has a Niagara-force of influence, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail. This influence has never been checked but to break forth with greater power; it never has fallen, but to show its innate resistance to ruin; like its great Author, it baffles all the enmity of evil by its essential virtue. And, "as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be," even to the end of time. Again and again has the Church been cradled by a nation, and nursed by a monarch; but through treachery to the truth, the nation has been unworthy of its treasure, and the monarch has been false to his trust; till the heaven-born guest has fled to a more worthy realm, and welcome home. Christianity possesses the marvellous attribute of adapting itself to all stages of the world's growth; and God reveals his wondrous design in preparing and empowering instruments of singular suitability to propagate His truth. During the first Christian age the prejudices of the Jews, strengthened by extravagant tradition, and fortified by false glosses of Scripture, were triumphantly encountered by the keen. and cleaving force of the fiery argument and powerful logic of St. Paul. The Romans, haughty and luxurious, priding themselves on their philosophy and power, were successfully met by the philosophic Fathers, whose power of word-painting, and of wielding the sceptre over the master-faculty of man, has been the admiration of succeeding generations. And during the long night-from the fall of the Western Empire to the German Reformation-when a thick darkness, illumined only by the clashing of the sword and spear, covered the world; even then there were bold reformers, whose qualities of mind and heart were suited to the exigency of the time. To convert the princes of the Romish Church, clothed in purple and fine linen, was hopeless. Christlan teaching was for the Lazarus at the gate; and winning sympathy from the serfs, and gaining the ear of the abject multitude, the workers roughly rebuilt that church, of which the foundations had never totally disappeared. And when Rome had changed her tactics and her title; when she no longer reposed upon the mere assumption of power, but grounded her claims upon antiquity; when the rustic hands of the Italian reformers would be too feeble to meet the enemy, and learning and scholarly strength were needed, then a race of scholars suddenly raised their heads in Europe, whose learned toils were a match for the foe; and in the crisis of French atheism, when the strife of factions and the stirrings of revolt were so rife, the genius of the Church repelled the scathing creed of infidelity. With the sunshine of truth there come the genial atmosphere of peace and prosperity, the growth of mind, and the fruitage of invention. The Reformation age gave us a race of poets, in front of whom stood Shakespeare; a school of philosophy, which looked to Lord Bacon as its founder; a company of brilliant, many-sided men, for whom Raleigh and Sydney may stand as types. It likewise brought out THE PRINCE OF PULPIT ORATORS. 47 a brilliant constellation of divines, shining conspicuously in the Christian sky. Luther, the solitary monk that shook the world; Knox, who feared not the face of clay; Baxter, who now enjoys the rest in heaven he so beautifully depicted on earth; Bunyan, a second John, who was cast into Bedford gaol, as the first John had been banished to the Isle of Patmos, that there he might write his inimitable allegory, as the other had written the Apocalpse; and further along in time, came Watts, whose heart-stirring hymns are still carolled by thousands of congregations; Wesley, whose walk and talk were Christianity in earnest; Whitefield, the prince of pulpit orators, who could charm and convince like no other man; Robert Hall, whose style was beautiful as the rainbow, and whose piety was lofty as the stars; Richard Watson, who lived a saint, who had the mind of a sage, and who wrote like a seer; Andrew Fuller, who excelled all scholars, and yet studied at no university; Carey, who taught governments that the soundest policy in religion is the safest in politics, and statesman that the way to civilise is first to Christianise; and hosts of others who could set forth the majesty and beauty of Christianity with such justness of thought and energy of language that the indolent were roused to listen, and the fastidious forgot to sneer. One of the brightest luminaries among these apostolic men, with apostolic call, apostolic spirit, and apostolic success, was George Whitefield. Born in England, and buried in America, he was the Christian hero of two hemispheres, honoured and beloved in both. Gloucestershire is renowned for many noteworthy men, who were born within its borders; Tyndale, who translated the New Testament into English three hundred years ago, unlocking the "fountain sealed," and giving England the "water of life;" Sir Mathew Hale, the kindest judge of his time, beneath whose ermine throbbed a God-fearing heart; brave Bishop Hooper, who was burnt at the stake, fell a martyr for the truth, and, Elijah-like, ascended to heaven in a chariot of flame; Robert Raikes, who first countenanced the culture of slighted youth, and mapped out the nursery-field of the Church; George Whitefield, the "burning and shining light," the mirror of his great Master, ever on duty in doing good: honoured is the county that cradled such men ! Six months after all that was mortal of Matthew Henry had descended to the tomb, George Whitefield was born at the Old Bell Inn, Gloucester, when the hum of the Christmas-tide bells was heard from the old cathedral tower. His birth put forth no buds of hopeful promise, and his descent augured no brilliant future. Many of God's heroes are of obscure parentage and birth. Whitefield was scarcely weaned from his mother's breast when his father died; and thus early was he left to maternal care. Doubtless, he who starts from the training school of a good mother, graduates from a school which is better than the university of Oxford or Cambridge, with a diploma in each hand. Yet a town tavern is, at best, but a sorry sort of seminary for the proper training of youth. As might be expected, from such home influences, and amid such surroundings, Whitefield's early career was an evil one. Fun was his element, and mischief his delight. Boyish trickery, and youthful dissipation, grew with his growth, and strengthened with his strength, until detection tripped him up on his slippery path, and the timely rebuke curbed him in his wild career. In early life he had to be proxy for a house-maid; so he donned the blue apron, and did the double duty of house-cleaner and bar-room waiter. During this period the proclivity for his great calling in life revealed itself. He would imitate clergymen, read prayers, and, as he grew older, compose sermons. Often did the midnight lamp burn brightly at the Old Bell Inn, Gloucester, as young Whitefield husbanded the still hours in reading the Word of God. Deeper went the sounding line into his evil heart; higher rose his breathings after a purer life. And he who, awhile ago, was in danger of filling the scorner's chair, now became a seeker after God. About the age of sixteen he dreamed that he was to see God on Mount Sinai. Doubtless this dream had great influence in shaping the future destiny of the dreamer; for Whitefield viewed it as a call from God. His mother, at first, tried to dissuade him from his high purpose; but finding her efforts fruitless, she at length encouraged him, prepared the way for his collegiate course by making sacrifices, and eventually sent him to Pembroke College, Oxford, where, as servitor, he soon found congenial companions in the Wesley brothers, who tried to build each other up in the knowledge and fear of God. Alas! neither knew the sinner's short way to God. Each, like an infant, was feeling for the Fountain of life. Charles Wesley lent Whitefield a book entitled, "The Life of God in the soul of Man," the reading of which brought light to Whitefield's mind, and led him to rest upon the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness, life, and joy. Some trees are garlanded with flowers, some wealthy in fruit, and others stately with colossal timber. Whitefield was a tree of God's own planting; and he possessed both gifts, graces, and fruit. His flowers were not mere May-blossom, falling fruitless; his fruit was not shrivelled and scanty, nor was his timber a mere dwarfish stem. Heaven-endowed, he came forth an Apollos in eloquence, a Peter in zeal, and a Paul in principle. Conversion to God always creates a missionary spirit. Whitefield largely imbibed this spirit, and God sealed his ministry with early fruit. He was honoured at the outset of his ministerial career in being despised both at Oxford and Gloucester. That burly idol of literature, Dr. Johnson, was a fellow-student of Whitefield's, and while the leviathan-lipped Doctor waxed eloquent in praise of Blackstone the judge, and Shenstone the poet, both students of the same college, he coldly calculated the genius of Whitefield. At Gloucester the Bishop refused to ordain him; but, happily for the young minister, the persuasive powers of Lady Selwyn soon cleared away the Bishop's scruples, and Whitefield was ordained. His ordination was no mere passing ceremony to him it was as sacred as a sanctuary-service, and as solemn as the judgment-day. His spirit was wound up to the highest pitch of ardour, throbbing and thrilling with strong emotions, and, like a renovated eagle, impatient to break away; so that we naturally look for a corresponding swiftness of flight and width of sweep, and feel that we shall not be surprised by anything which may follow. He discloses from his heart a "secret place of thunder" and " a fountain of tears," from which we expect alternate bursts of terror and tenderness-bolts of Sinai and dew of Hermon-and we shall not be disappointed. Whitefield was born an orator! His face was an attraction; his voice was both musical, magical, and mighty; he could roar like the lion of the forest, or whisper like the sweet carollings of the song-bird; ADMISSION TO THE CHURCH. 49 he could revel in an ebullition of gaiety, or move the deep emotions of the heart. His eloquence was pathetic and enthusiastic, touching two zones of the soul. His was the eloquence which weeps, fires, glows, is gentle or impetuous; woos, denounces, breathes, burns; flows like a gliding ripple over the calm surface of the inland lake, or shakes the resonant welkin with the majesty of its thunder-tones; and, in fine, weaves and winds around and within the mazes of the human heart such a web of enchantment as may well captivate its very will to welcome and hail so sweet a bondage. His natural gift, moreover, was fired by the unction of the Holy Ghost, hence hundreds were pricked in their hearts under his touching appeals. JOHN ROSE. Admission to the Church. QUESTIONS TO CANDIDATES. THE following document has been forwarded with a strong desire that it should appear in the pages of "our own Mag." We insert it, but wish that it should be remembered that the questions appended to the address are only suggested as patterns of what may be put in order to elicit the information desired. Too much weight should not be given to fulness of knowledge and fluency of speech. The children of Bunyan's Talkative are not all dead. We must be on our guard. Talk is not the only, or the best, sign of vitality. Children eat and drink, and laugh and cry, and do much besides, before they report their experiences in clear and ringing phrases. Life shows itself in manifold and diverse ways; and if we can only be sure that it exists, that is the main thing. The Church is the home of "babes in Christ," and babes are not accustomed to give a very full account of themselves within the first month or two of their existence. Most churches have forgotten this, and have erred in putting their babes to the WORLD to nurse, and only welcoming within the protecting and nourishing family circle those who have survived the severe handling of their unnatural foster-mother. This is a grave blunder to be committed in the name of that Shepherd who taketh the lambs in his bosom. Let us foster the life that cannot talk with the tenderest solicitude. Another observation may be added. There are many other questions that might, with advantage, be put to candidates for church fellowship, not as indicating conditions of admission, but as a means of directing the mind, and giving sharpness and definiteness to convictions, e.g., Why are you a Protestant? What is your reason for choosing a Free Church as your home? etc. But this suggests another point. Would it not be a good plan to have a CLASS in connexion with our churches for young members in which they shall be fully instructed in the grounds of their belief in Baptism, Nonconformity, Protestantism, etc., as well as on points of theology and of Christian practice. We have no warrant to make such knowledge requisite for admission; nor have we any right to suffer our |