But he who passes the ancient church
Stops in the shade of its belfry-porch
And ponders the wonderful life of him
Who lies at rest in that charnel dim.
Long shall the traveller strain his eye
From the railroad car, as it plunges by,
And the vanishing town behind him search
For the slender spire of the Whitefield Church;
And feel for one moment the ghosts of trade,
And fashion, and folly, and pleasure laid,
By the thought of that life of pure intent,
That voice of warning yet eloquent,
Of one on the errands of angels sent.
And if where he laboured the flood of sin
Like a tide from the harbour-bar sets in,
And over a life of time and sense
The church-spires lift their vain defence,
As if to scatter the bolts of God
With the points of Calvin's thunder-rod,-
Still, as the gem of its civic crown,
Precious beyond the world's renown,
His memory hallows the ancient town!"

VIII.

SELINA, COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON.

THE history of early Methodism, like the history of primitive Christianity, shows that not many mighty, not many noble were called to the work of the Gospel. Both won their trophies chiefly among God's great family of the poor. But as there were those of Cæsar's household who acknowledged Christ, so there were those of noble rank who became the friends of Methodism. One of the most notable of these was Selina, Countess of Huntingdon.

The names of Wesley and Whitefield are inseparably joined as the apostles of Methodism. Yet, a difference of opinion on doctrinal grounds soon led to a divergence of operations and a division of interests. Whitefield was destined to be the flaming herald whose mission it was to revive the almost extinct spiritual life of the Church of England, and to establish that Calvinistic Methodism which is so potent for good in the principality of Wales to the present day.

It was with this branch of Methodism that Lady Huntingdon was connected. She was of noble birth, the daughter of the Earl of Ferrers, and was remotely connected with the Royal Family. In her early

life she was married to Theophilus Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon. Lady Elizabeth and Lady Margaret Hastings, her sisters-in-law, had become interested in the Oxford Methodists. Through their influence, and through severe personal and family affliction, the Countess was led to a religious life and to a strong sympathy with the methods and principles of the evangelists, especially of Whitefield.

Her husband sent for Bishop Benson to restore her to a "saner mind," but the learned prelate failed in the attempt. Although she moved in the most aristocratic circles, the Countess was not ashamed of the lowly and despised Methodists through whom she had received such spiritual benefit. She invited John Wesley to her residence at Downington Park, where he preached to fashionable congregations the same uncompromising Gospel that he declared at Gwennap Pit or Moorfields Common. With a wise prevision of one of the greatest evangelistic agencies of the age, she specially encouraged the employment of a lay ministry, against the strong prejudices of the Wesleys.

When the separation took place between Whitefield and the Wesleys on the ground of the Calvinistic controversy, she sought to win the blessing of the peacemaker by mediating between them. She succeeded in bringing about a reconciliation, which was confirmed by the exchange of pulpits and of kindly offices. The friendship thus happily cemented continued unbroken through their lives, their only rivalry being one of hallowed zeal in promoting the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Lady Huntingdon still considered the moral unity of Methodism unbroken, and when Wesley's first Conference was held in London, in 1744, the entire body were entertained at her elegant mansion at Chelsea. She used her social influence in high places with much effect on behalf of brave John Nelson, who had been impressed into the army and suffered bonds and imprisonment for conscience' sake. He was rescued from his persecutors and set free to range the kingdom, proclaiming everywhere the great salvation.

In 1748 Lady Huntingdon became a widow. Henceforth her life was devoted to the promotion of Christ's kingdom. Whitefield became one of her permanent chaplains, and the trembling plumes on the heads of the court dames in the elegant salons of the mansion at Chelsea, no less than the tear-washed furrows on the grimy faces of the Cornish miners, attested the power of his message. High-born and titled hearers were now brought under the influence of the simple Gospel story, and not unfrequently with saving and sanctifying results. Lord St. John became a convert from the fashionable scepticism of the times to the faith of Christ. His brother, the witty Bolingbroke, complimented the preacher, but despised his message. The wife of Lord Chesterfield and her sister, the Countess of Delitz, received the Gospel and died in the triumphs of faith. Many "elect ladies" of the highest rank became devout Christians, adorning with their holy and useful lives the doctrines of the Lord Jesus.

Many of Whitefield's courtly hearers were doubtless attracted by the fashionable character of the assemblage, as they would be to the opera. Others were fascinated by the eloquence of the preacher, as they would be by the skill of an actor. The sceptical Hume, for instance, said that he would go twenty miles to hear him; and Garrick, the actor, who doubtless took lessons in style from his matchless elocution, declared that he could make one weep by the way in which he pronounced the word Mesopotamia.

Chesterfield paid him courtly compliments, and Horace Walpole employed his keen wit upon the earnest preacher whose solemn messages they both neglected and despised. The notorious Countess of Suffolk, the fair and frail favourite of George II., procured admission to one of the fashionable religious services. Mr. Whitefield's burning denunciations of sin, which probed her guilty conscience to the quick, were an unwonted and unwelcome experience to the proud court beauty. She flew into a violent passion, abused the Countess to her face, and declared that she had been deliberately insulted. Deeply mortified, she went her way and returned no more.

Nor was the zeal of the high-born and pious lady, whose life and character are the subject of our present study, restrained to mere passive patronage of those zealous evangelists-a sort of dilettante piety that cost her little. She proved her sincerity by her self-sacrifice, and by her generous donations to the cause of God. She curtailed her expenditure and