the purity of the law of life which is to lead man to the regions of bliss."

He had passed about three years as a tutor, gaining during that time two prizes for Latin essays, offered by the members of Parliament for the University, when he was seized with an illness so alarming as to stop "the career of his worldly purposes, overturn all his projects of human greatness, lay him low in the dust of contrition and self-abasement, and thus prepare his mind to receive those lessons of heavenly wisdom and life, which the Almighty is ever desirous to impart to all His creatures, but which He cannot impart safely and to advantage, until His creatures are taught the want of them by a feeling sense of their own natural blindness and corruption."

Prostrate in mind and body, he asked himself what he had gained by his pursuit of science and distinction?—the ruin of health and capacity for this world's enjoyments; and what capacity for future bliss? In this state of distress, he was one evening invited to a supper party, and arriving at his friend's room before the rest of the company, he took up a book, and glancing over its pages, his eye was attracted by the word Eternity. It is impossible," he says, "to describe, or for anyone else to conceive, the effect produced by this single word. In a moment it called all his former sins to remembrance, passed sentence upon them, rent the veil of separation between him and the eternal world, and seemed to place him in the immediate presence, and under the scrutinizing inspection of the Father of the universe." He had often read that word before, without being moved by it; " but," he continues, "it was the Divine power and Spirit of the Most High, which operated at that time in and by that word." And he recorded the circumstance "as a convincing proof, among many others, that man is the continual subject of such Divine operation, and that though by his thoughtlessness and impenitence he may frustrate its blessed purposes and be hardened against its salutary reproofs, yet, whensoever his heart is in a due state of preparation, he is then made sensible that he is not left alone, but that all the host of heaven, under the influence and direction of their God, are his ministering spirits, to convince him of his sins, to soften and subdue his obduracy, to excite repentance, and thus to open the gates of everlasting life and salvation."

Too much affected to remain in company, he made an excuse for leaving it early, and passed the night in a state of great

mental agitation, "between the dread of eternal death, and the bright prospect presented of endless bliss, through repentance and sincere conversion to the Father of Mercies."

Gradually his mind was settled and established in "a full conviction of the comparative vanity of all earthly gain and glory, and at the same time of the substantial reality of those invisible and eternal goods announced in the Gospel. He was struck with astonishment at the reflection that this conviction had not met him sooner, and that he had so long acted under the delusion of contrary persuasions. Yet he felt thankful to the Almighty, that though called to work in His vineyard at so late an hour, it was not yet too late to work effectually."

The life of the aspiring student was now laid down, and that of the religious disciple taken up. He had been already ordained to holy orders by Dr. Terrick, the Bishop of London, and he now determined to dedicate the few, as he believed, remaining years of his life to the work of his sacred calling.

CHAPTER 2.

Entrance on the Ministry. Introduction to the Writings of Swedenborg.

The Church of St John's in Deansgate, now in one of the least attractive parts of Manchester, was, when built in 1768, in a fashionable suburb. A private Diary of the times contains the following entries:

"1768, April 28, Thursday. Went to the Quay to Cousin Byrom's to see the first stone laid of a church that he is building in the field behind his house, called Camp-field: The church is to be called St John's Church."

1769, January 21st, Saturday. Went to drink tea at Aunt Byrom's, and Lawyer Clowes was there. Cousin Byrom, before he went to London, offered cousin John Clowes, the lawyer's son, the Rectory of St John's; the lawyer had a letter to-day saying that he would be glad to accept of it."

"August 13th. St John's Church opened. We all went there in the forenoon. The Rector, Mr John Clowes, (Lawyer Clowes's youngest son,) preached from the words, "He loveth our nation, and hath built us a synagogue."

Mr Clowes in his autobiography speaks of his having at first refused the offer of St. John's, as quite inadequate to his expectations. Contrary to all probability, on the completion of the church, it was tendered again to his acceptance. "It was tendered, too," says the autobiography, "at a time when affliction had broken his heart, and laid him low in the dust of humiliation and repentance before his God; and when the kingdom of sin and folly having been thus weakened, he saw things with new eyes, and made his calculations accordingly. He was now, therefore, led to accept what he had before in haughtiness refused, and to accept it with thankfulness, as a boon of Providence intended for the improvement and security of his eternal good. How unsearchable are the counsels of the Almighty, and His ways past finding out!"

At the ceremony of induction to the living, as soon as the new rector had locked the church-door on the inside, instead of proceeding immediately to toll himself in, he walked to the altar, there threw himself on his knees, and fervently implored the Divine aid to render his future labors blest to the flock committed to his charge. Having risen from his knees, he

completed the remainder of the ceremony; and, upon unlocking the door, was congratulated by his friends in waiting on the length of time he was to be their pastor. Inquiring what they meant, he was informed that he had tolled the bell fifty times, which was a sign that he was to hold the living fifty years. "Ha" said he, "fifty weeks will be more likely, with my present health!" His anticipation was wonderfully falsified, and their test proved unequal to the truth. He remained rector of St. John's for nearly sixty-two years. His fitness, or unfitness, in his own estimation, for the situation he was thus called to occupy, will be best stated in the words of his autobiography :

"Perhaps no Christian minister ever entered upon the sacred duties of his calling under circumstances more singular, and, in some respects, more apparently unpropitious, than the author, when he took leave of the University, and commenced his ministerial labors at his church in Manchester. His theological researches had been very limited, and his religious views were accordingly very imperfect. He had, indeed, read the Thirtynine Articles, which form the code of doctrine peculiar to the Established Church, and he had perused some of the more distinguished authors who endeavor to explain and confirm that code of doctrine. But this was all: he had no clear and distinct views of the eternal truth in his own mind, and his ideas on the subject were rather those of others than his own. He believed, indeed, in the Sacred Scriptures; at least he fancied he believed in them, because, from childhood, he had been taught to acknowledge their Divine authority, as inspired of God; but he discerned nothing of their own internal evidence, and still less of that deep and instructive wisdom which he afterwards discovered to be concealed as a hidden treasure in the sacred volume. Thus, in beginning to teach others, he found that he wanted a teacher himself; and he has since been exceedingly shocked to think that he should ever have had the presumption under such disqualifications to ascend the pulpit."

Conscious of his want of knowledge as a doctrinal expositor, but deeply impressed with "the tremendous effects of sin" on the one hand, and "the peaceable fruits of righteousness" on the other, his discourses from the pulpit were addressed to "the wills and affections of his congregation" rather than to their intellectual powers; "because he felt more anxious to convert them to God, and make them sensible of His love, than to build them up in any particular form of speculative doctrine and opi

nion. If his congregation, then, were not enlightened by his preaching with the bright light of the eternal truth, they were at least warned against sin, and encouraged to depart out of the land of spiritual Egypt and the house of bondage, to seek an asylum of peace, of innocence, and of protection in the heavenly Canaan of the love of God and the kingdom of his righteousness.'

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He preached, 20 August, 1769, on the text, John 10. 14; I know my sheep, and am known of mine, and commenced thus: May the humble, inexperienced disciple, without offence, make use of his Divine Master's words? If so, how can I better open my sacred commission, so freely and generously, and without any asking of mine, committed to my charge, than by the affecting topics which this important Scripture plainly recommends to our consideration? We are here assembled before God in the church of whose dedication you have been so lately witnesses: a church magnificently built and properly adorned with a decency and propriety every way suited to the majesty of Him who hath graciously promised to dwell therein. We cannot but take pleasure in beholding a congregation of Christian people met together-many of whom have long been in some measure destitute of the great privileges of Christian communion, and too sadly deprived of the many advantages of assembling themselves together, to render thanks for the great benefits they have received at God's hand, &c."

He then assures his flock of his earnest desire to do his duty diligently, and exhorts them to do theirs. "You are to consider that the good fruits and success of my attendance here will depend upon yourselves; and that I must be indebted to you for the most important advantages which I can expect from it. Your minister cannot hope to acquaint himself with you, unless you are equally disposed to know him, and embrace every opportunity of meeting him in this house."

In the afternoon he preached again on the same text, and gave a remarkable earnest of the faithfulness which thus, from the very beginning, characterized his ministry. "Remember," he said, "that it is the business of a minister (and a noble one it is, if God should bless him with success) to teach you the knowledge of yourselves, to lay open to your view the corruptions of your own hearts, and those iniquities of life which are possibly concealed even from yourselves. The more a minister does this with the modesty and meekness of the Gospel, the more he merits your esteem, the greater proof he gives of his sincerity