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promoted had Henry, laying aside the blindness of prejudice and subduing the turbulence of passion, been the zealous and consistent supporter of the Protestant cause, the virtuous husband of one virtuous wife, and the parent of children all educated in the sound principles of the Reformation! Again, had the Popes effectually reformed themselves, how might the unity of the church have been promoted, and even the schisms which have arisen in Protestant communities been diminished! It would be superfluous to recapitulate other instances; these, it is presumed, being abundantly sufficient to obviate any charge of the most distant approach towards the fatal doctrine of Necessity.

WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, 1759-1833.

THIS renowned philanthropist was born at Hull, on the 24th of August, 1759. While at school, he gave a remarkable indication of the character by which his future life was to be distinguished:-he sent a letter to the editor of the York paper, "in condemnation of the odious traffic in human flesh." From school he was transferred, at the age of seventeen, to St. John's College, Cambridge, of which, in his diary, he gives no very favorable account. On leaving college he immediately entered upon active life, being, in 1780, sent by his own town of Hull to Parliament, when he had just completed his twenty-first year. He soon found his way into the highest circles of fashionable and political society; and in the autumn of 1783 he set out for a tour in France with Mr. Pitt, with whom he had formed an acquaintance at Cambridge,—an acquaintance that ripened into a friendship that lasted through life. He returned in 1784, and in the latter part of the same year he went again on the Continent, accompanied by the celebrated Isaac Milner, Dean of Carlisle. This excursion forms a memorable era in his life; since, through the influence of Milner, his early impressions of religion, which had been greatly dissipated by his political life, were fully revived, and a deep and fervent piety took entire possession of his mind and regulated the whole of his future conduct.

In the year 1787 he entered upon his labors in that great cause with which his name will forever be associated, the Abolition of the Slave-Trade. To that holy cause he now dedicated his days and nights, even to his closing hours. In the year 1789 he first proposed the abolition of the slave-trade to the House of Commons, in "a speech which Burke rewarded with one of those imperishable eulogies which he alone had the skill and the authority to pronounce; and the zeal, the patience, the talents, and courage which he dis

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1"But a victory over Guinea merchants," | tionists had much to contend with; but then says the Edinburgh Review, "was not to be numbered among the triumphs of eloquence. The slave-traders triumphed by an whelming majority. In the political tumults of those days the voice of humanity was no longer audible, and common sense ceased to discharge its office." The English aboli

they had a host of good and eloquent and learned men on their side. They had Burke and Pitt and Fox and Wilberforce and Brougham in Parliament; they had Cowper, Montgomery, Coleridge, Campbell, Hannah More, and many others, in the higher walks of literature; and they had a large number of

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played during the many dispiriting delays and formidable difficulties which he had to encounter before the cause of justice and humanity finally triumphed, are above all praise." In 1797 he published his celebrated work on Practical Christianity, which met with such remarkable success that not less than five editions were called for within the first six months; and it exerted a most powerful influence in stemming the tide of irreligion and nominal Christianity. In 1807, after twenty years of anxiety and unremitting labor, he had the high gratification of seeing the slave-trade abolished by act of Parliament. From this time forward, until he quitted the House of Commons, in the year 1825, his parliamentary labors were devoted to a ceaseless watchfulness over the interests of the African race; and he lived to witness the consummation of the struggle for the abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions. He died July 27, 1833, when within a month of completing his seventy-fourth year, and was interred in Westminster Abbey, near the tombs of Pitt, Fox, and Canning.

"Few persons," says Lord Brougham, "have ever reached a higher or more enviable place in the esteem of their fellow-creatures, or have better deserved the place they had gained, than William Wilberforce. His immense influence was no doubt greatly owing to the homage paid to his personal character; but he possessed many other qualifications which must of themselves have raised him to a great eminence." As a public speaker he enjoyed great and wellmerited celebrity. Sir Samuel Romilly esteemed him "the most efficient speaker in the House of Commons ;" and Pitt himself said repeatedly, "Of all men I ever knew, Wilberforce has the greatest natural eloquence." But of what worth is eloquence when not joined to purity of character and enlisted in the cause of God and of humanity? Few think of William Wilberforce as an orator; but as a philanthropist his name will be revered by the good in all time to come.3

THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE-TRADEA

MR. SPEAKER:-I cannot but persuade myself that whatever difference of opinion there may have been, we shall this day be

the clergy, especially of the "dissenters." The | his might, till even American slavery-THE press, too, was open to them to a great extent. VILEST THING THAT EVER SAW THE SUN-shall Let us, then, never despair of the ultimate vanish away before it. That He who has triumph of truth, however numerous and in-guided you from your youth up may continue fluential they may be who combine to stop its to strengthen you in this and all things, is the onward march! (Written in 1853, eight years prayer of, dear sir, your affectionate servant, before the breaking out of the slaveholders' "JOHN WESLEY." great Rebellion.)

1 Among the letters of encouragement addressed to Mr. Wilberforce is one written by John Wesley, from his death-bed, dated February 24, 1791. As they are probably the last written words of that extraordinary man, I subjoin them :—

MY DEAR SIR:-Unless Divine Power has raised you up to be as Athanasius contra mundum, I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise. in opposing that execrable villany which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils; and if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? Oh, be not weary of well-doing! tio on in the name of God and in the power of

2 It is said that nearly one hundred editions have been printed in England; and it has been translated into the French, Italian, Spanish, and German languages.

3 Read Recollections, by John L. Hartford, Lond. 1864; also his Life, by his sons, in five volumes, one of the most interesting and instructive memoirs ever published. It is deeply to be regretted that the American editor and publisher have given us such a mutilated edition in two volumes,-following the example of the American Tract Society by leaving out its strongest anti-slavery expressions. (Written in 1853.) But-blessed be God!-all that is now (1866) changed. The great slavemongers' rebellion has worked a wonderful revolution in the sentiments of professing Christians!

4 From his speech, delivered on the 2d of April, 1792.

at length unanimous. I cannot believe that a British House of Commons will give its sanction to the continuance of this abominable traffic, the African slave-trade. We were for a while ignorant of its real nature; but it has now been completely developed and laid open to your view in all its horrors. Never was there, indeed, a system so big with wickedness and cruelty: it attains to the fullest measure of pure, unmixed, unsophisticated wickedness; and, scorning all competition or comparison, it stands without a rival in the secure, undisputed possession of its detestable pre-eminence.

But I rejoice, sir, to see that the people of Great Britain have stepped forward on this occasion, and expressed their sense more generally and unequivocally than in any instance wherein they have ever before interfered. I should in vain attempt to express to you the satisfaction with which it has filled my mind to see so great and glorious a concurrence, to see this great cause triumphing over all lesser distinctions, and substituting cordiality and harmony in the place of distrust and opposition. Nor have its effects among ourselves been in this respect less distinguished or less honorable. It has raised the character of Parliament. Whatever may have been thought or said concerning the unrestrained prevalency of our political divisions, it has taught surrounding nations, it has taught our admiring country, that there are subjects still beyond the reach of party. There is a point of elevation where we get above the jarring of the discordant elements that ruffle and agitate the vale below. In our ordinary atmosphere, clouds and vapors obscure the air, and we are the sport of a thousand conflicting winds and adverse currents; but here, we move in a higher region, where all is pure, and clear, and serene, free from perturbation and discomposure:

As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form,

Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm;
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head.

Here, then, on this august eminence, let us build the temple of benevolence; let us lay its foundation deep in truth and justice, and let the inscription on its gates be "peace and good will toward men." Here let us offer the first fruit of our prosperity; here let us devote ourselves to the service of these wretched men, and go forth burning with a generous ardor to compensate, if possible, for the injuries we have hitherto brought on them. Let us heal the breaches we have made. Let us rejoice in becoming the happy instruments of arresting the progress of rapine and desolation, and of introducing into that immense country the blessings of Christianity, the comforts of civilized, and the sweets of social life. I am persuaded, sir, there is

no man who hears me, who would not join with me in hailing the arrival of this happy period,-who does not feel his mind cheered and solaced by the contemplation of these delightful

scenes.1

THE HOPE FOR OUR COUNTRY.

My only solid hope for the well-being of my country depends not so much on her fleets and armies, not so much on the wisdom of her rulers or the spirit of her people, as on a persuasion that she still contains many who, in a degenerate age, love and obey the gospel of Christ;--on the humble trust that the intercession of these may still be prevalent; and that, for the sake of these, Heaven may still look upon us with an eye of favor.

THE SUPPORTS OF RELIGION.2

When the pulse beats high, and we are flushed with youth and health and vigor, when all goes on prosperously, and success seems almost to anticipate our wishes, then we feel not the want of the consolations of religion; but when fortune frowns, or friends forsake us, when sorrow, or sickness, or old age comes upon us, then it is that the superiority of the pleasures of religion is established over those of dissipation and vanity, which are ever apt to fly from us when we are most in want of their aid. There is scarcely a more melancholy sight to a considerate mind than that of an old man who is a stranger to those only true sources of satisfaction. How affecting, and at the same time how disgusting, is it to see such a one awkwardly catching at the pleasures of his younger years, which are now beyond his reach, or feebly attempting to retain them, while they mock his endeavors and elude his grasp! To such a one gloomily, indeed, does the evening of life set in! All is sour and cheerless. He can neither look backward with complacency, nor forward with hope; while the aged Christian, relying on the assured mercy of his Redeemer, can calmly reflect that his dismission is at hand, that his redemption draweth nigh. While his strength

1 On the final triumph of the bill for abolishing the Slave-Trade, the vote was 283 to 16. Several comrades went home with Wilberforce after the house was up. "Well, Henry," said be to his friend Thornton, "what shall we abolish next?" "The lottery, I think," was the answer. William Smith said, "Let us make out the names of these sixteen miscreants. I have four of them." "Never mund," said Wilberforce, who was kneeling on one knee at the table, writing a note, and looking up as he spoke; "never mind the miserable sixteen: let us think of our glorious two hundred and eighty-three." As for himself, all selfish triumph was lost in unfeigned

gratitude to God. "How wonderfully," he writes in his Journal of March 22, 1807, "the providence of God has been manifested in the Abolition Bill! Oh, what thanks do I owe the Giver of all good for bringing me in his gracious providence to this great cause, which at length, after almost nineteen years' labor, is successful !"

2 "Nobody can deny but religion is a comfort to the distressed, a cordial to the sick, and sometimes a restraint upon the wicked: whoever, therefore, wants to argue or laugh it out of the world, without giving an equivalent for it, ought to be treated as a common enemy." LADY M. W. MONTAGU.

declines, and his faculties decay, he can quietly repose himself on the fidelity of God; and at the very entrance of the valley of the shadow of death, he can lift up an eye, dim perhaps and feeble, yet occasionally sparkling with hope, and confidently looking forward to the near possession of his heavenly inheritance, "to those joys which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man." What striking lessons have we had of the precarious tenure of all sublunary possessions! Wealth, and power, and prosperity, how peculiarly transitory and uncertain! But religion dispenses her choicest cordials in the seasons of exigence, in poverty, in exile, in sickness, and in death. The essential superiority of that support which is derived from religion is less felt, at least it is less apparent, when the Christian is in full possession of riches, and splendor, and rank, and all the gifts of nature and fortune. But when all these are swept away by the rude hand of time or the rough blasts of adversity, the true Christian stands, like the glory of the forest, erect and vigorous; stripped, indeed, of his summer foliage, but more than ever discovering to the observing eye the solid strength of his substantial texture.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, 1772-1834.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, "the most imaginative of modern poets," was the son of the Rev. John Coleridge, vicar of Ottery, and was born at that place in the year 1772. Losing his father in early life, he obtained, by the kindness of a friend, a presentation to Christ Church Hospital, London. "I enjoyed," he says,1 "the inestimable advantage of a very sensible, though at the same time a very severe, master, the Rev. James Bowyer, who early moulded my taste to the preference of Demosthenes to Cicero, of Homer and Theocritus to Virgil, and again of Virgil to Ovid, &c." He made extraordinary advances in scholarship, and amassed a vast variety of miscellaneous knowledge, but in that random, desultory manner which through life prevented him from accomplishing what his great abilities qualified him for achieving. His reputation at Christ Church promised a brilliant career at Cambridge, which university he entered in 1790, in his nineteenth year. In 1794 he became acquainted with the poet Southey, then a student at Baliol College, Oxford, and a warm friendship soon ripened between them; and at Bristol they formed the resolution, along with a third poet, Lovell, of founding what they termed a Pantisocracy, or a republic of pure freedom, on the banks of the Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania. In 1795 the three poets married three sisters, the Misses Fricker, of Bristol; and thus the whole pantisocratic scheme was upset.2

1 Biographia Literaria.

2 Coleridge's union with Sarah Fricker was not a happy union, on account of simple incom

patibility of temper and disposition; for Mrs. Coleridge was wanting in all cordial admiration or, indeed, comprehension of her hus

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