perfect blending of the moral, intellectual, and physical, which forms the ne plus ultra of ministerial ability and service. In the firmament in which he was lodged he shone and shines "the bright particular star," beyond comparison, as he is without a rival. But had not the subject of our sketch his failings ? Of course he had; but it is not our business to discuss them now. Had we not possessed acuteness enough to detect them ourselves, to say that we were familiar with Bishop Lavington's shrewd, humorous, and thoroughly clever book, with all the added venom of Polwhele's annotations, would be quite enough to show that few faulty features of his proceedings had escaped our notice. We admit that he was an enthusiast, but only to the degree in which a man more than ordinarily filled with the Holy Ghost would be an enthusiast. We allow that he was fanatical at times; but this only amounts to the confession that he had some taint of human infirmity, cleaving to a nature in the main noble, self-possessed, and wise. We put our finger on one instance of fanaticism;-the ordination of some of his ministers by the Greek bishop Erastus, a person of questionable pretensions, and who, not knowing one word of English, performed the service in Greek-an unedifying rite. But fanaticism is confined to no period. This finds its parallel in our days. On the first day of the year 1843, writes an American missionary from Constantinople, a religious service was held, in which Greeks, Armenians, Hebrews, Italians, and English sang at the same time, to the same tune, IN THEIR DIFFERENT TONGUES, a hymn of praise, to the great delight of those who shared in the medley, and to the seeming approval of all the rence. religious publications which have recorded the occurTo ourselves it always seemed an instance of gross fanaticism and folly. It is not reasonable, therefore not right. The fanaticism of John Wesley rarely went beyond this. His faith in humanity was so great, that anything man would aver he would receive. Some absurdities were sure to spring from so capacious a belief; and having nothing to suspect in himself, he never suspected others. He was perhaps the only public man that ever lived, of whom it could be said, he habitually formed too favourable an opinion of those about him. The consequences were sometimes annoying, but the cause was a virtue, not a blemish. His greatness was so tempered with goodness-his nature, so sturdy and conscientious, was nevertheless so overlaid with an unslumbering, genial, godlike sympathy for his race a golden thread of pervading kindness runs so unbrokenly through his life-that no one who can appreciate the force of rare ability, combined with a spotless character and singular sweetness of disposition, can wonder how he became so early a celebrityΟἱ τὸ μυρίον κλέος Διῆλθε κᾐπί νύκτα καὶ πρὸς ἀπ, and that his name is now the symbol of all that is holy and just and good. Say, gentle reader, as you pass his tomb, in the language of the Sicilian muse Χαιρέτω οὗτος ὁ τύμβος ἐπει WESLEY THE CATHOLIC. THE more than ordinary movement within the last few years, looking toward a higher state of union and fellowship among the several sects or divisions of Christians, ought certainly to be ranked among the most interesting of the signs of the times. The existing state of the Church Catholic-a state of distinction into what are termed denominations or families, and grounded upon certain differences of theological views, -is certainly a startling fact; and, taken in connexion with the consequent divisions of heart, as well as of head, and the numerous misunderstandings of each other's views and characters-the mournful waste of energies and time in religious controversy, and the occasion thus given to the enemies of true religion to blaspheme-the fact alluded to comes to bear an aspect as melancholy as it is startling. That there is wrong, great wrong, somewhere, is indubitable. The existing position of the Church of God on earth is not the original and apostolic position; it is not that prayed for by Christ, in the seventeenth chapter of John; it is not that, consequently, with which Christ. is well pleased; and, finally, it is not the position of H the Church of God on high, nor as that Church will be through eternity. Such being the truth, it is by no means to the point, we think, to enumerate, as is sometimes done, the supposed advantages of the present attitude of the Catholic Church; and especially with a view to indicate that such an attitude is, for the sake of these advantages, ordered in God's providential dispensations. Solemn trifling, nay, worse than trifling, should we deem it, if that is imputed to God which, when predicated of men, makes, as saith an apostle, their damnation to be just. The truth is, the present division of Christians for opinion's sake is evil,-a veritable moral evil, a sin; and the God of providence, therefore, is not to be charged with it. But being sinful, it becomes, as a matter of course, especially to the deeply thoughtful and pious man,—a subject not merely for speculation, but alarm. Not only are his eyes open to the sad spectacle before him, but his heart is crushed and bleeding at the sight. He stands amazed, and weeps before God, as well for the desolations of Zion, as for the wickedness of the surrounding nations. And such a man is prepared, above others, to hail with exceeding interest the first and smallest effort toward a happier and holier state of things. It has been somewhere written, since the agitation of the matter of Christian union commenced,-written, too, by a strong pen, and beyond the pale of Methodism, that no division of the Church Catholic holds a more eligible position for the promotion of such union, and none would be more likely to step forth in prominent action for a consummation so devoutly to be wished, than the Methodist Episcopal Church. Nor |
