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was connected with the early Methodists; he was thus brought within a strong religious influence, and an impression seemed to be thence produced upon his mind. But the intelligence of this was not pleasing to his grandfather, who determined on recalling him to Hull. Thither he attended his mother at twelve years old, and was speedily introduced to the gaieties of the place. Here, and at Pocklington grammar-school, where he lived under little restraint, he spent the years till his removal to the university with the reputation of a very fair scholar. His religious impressions had vanished in the society and habits he had, since his return from London, been accustomed to; but it is remarkable, that at fourteen, the first spark of a fire which afterwards burned so brightly was kindled. He addressed a letter from Pocklington to a York paper, in condemnation of the odious traffic, as he called it, in human flesh. It would be interesting to recover this document, and to mark in it the rudiments of the future friend of oppressed Africa.

from persons who, he felt, could ill afford the loss, inspired him with a disgust for such amusements. Though encircled with perpetual incitements to luxurious gaiety, Mr. Wilberforce attended diligently his duty in the House of Commons. He had renewed his acquaintance with William Pitt, whom he knew slightly at Cambridge, and who was just then commencing his unparalleled career. Their acquaintance soon ripened into intimacy and confidential intercourse during the remarkable political crisis that ensued. Wilberforce had entered parliament as an independent man, and opponent of the American war and Lord North's administration; and his first important speech, in 1782, was in favour of a motion for peace with America.

It enters not into the plan of this narrative to describe the political events of those times; but I may observe that Mr. Pitt soon after became Chancellor of the Exchequer, but resigned his post in April 1783. Freed from the trammels of office, he was glad to relieve his attention by a tour. Accordingly, in the autumn of that year, he proceeded, in company with Mr. Wilberforce and Mr. Eliot, to France. At Rheims, the travellers stopped to improve their acquaintance with the language, before they ventured to present themselves on the more public stage of Paris. But unfortunately they had forgotten to take letters of introduction; and the only acquaintance they could form was that of an honest grocer, who frankly acknowledged that he knew none of the gentry of the place, and therefore could not introduce them. Meantime they were reported as suspicious characters to the police; but the archbishop's secretary, finding who they were, carried them to that prelate, by whom they were most hospitably treated. From Rheims they proceeded to Paris, and thence to Fontainebleau to the court, where their adventures furnished considerable amusement. The queen, particularly, would often inquire of Mr. Pitt how his friend the grocer

Wilberforce entered St. John's College, Cambridge, in October 1776. He was now, by the death of his grandfather and uncle, in possession of an independent fortune, under the sole guardianship of his mother. It is not surprising, therefore, that, with his social disposition, and from the many temptations that were thrown into his way, he should have fallen into the loose habits of his associates. He was, indeed, mercifully preserved from actual profligacy, but his time was devoted to pleasure. He was a good enough classic to acquit himself, without reading, passably at the college-examinations, and mathematics he thought he might entirely neglect; but it reads a striking lesson to every young man similarly inclined, to know that Wilberforce, in after-life, deeply deplored his earlier remissness; and though he endeavoured, by subsequent application, to supply his deficiencies, he never could attain the mental regularity and welltrained habits which the wholesome discipline of youthful study can alone impart. Even at this time, however, a vein of deep and conscientious feeling lay be- On their return to England, parliament was just neath his gay thoughtlessness; and he declined sub-assembling, and speedily followed Mr. Pitt's accession scribing to the Articles, which he was sensible he had not properly examined. Inquiry removed this hesitation; but it was not, on this account, till 1781, that he graduated as B.A.

Prior to his quitting the university, Mr. Wilberforce had formed the design of entering parliament. Instead of being ambitious of mercantile eminence, he aspired to shine in a very different sphere. Accordingly he declined entering on the business which, since his grandfather's decease, had been carried on in his behalf by his cousin, Mr. Abel Smith; and, content with the ample fortune he inherited, he canvassed his native town, in expectation of a speedy dissolution of parliament. Just after the completion of his twentyfirst year the anticipated event took place; and Wilberforce was returned for Hull by a triumphant majority. The expenses, however, of this election were not less than between 80007. and 90001. This success invested his entry on public life with great éclat. He was welcomed by every circle of London society, and was introduced into all the leading clubs. Here the temptations of play surrounded him ; but the seasonable winning of a considerable sum

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to power. It was felt important, by his opponents, that the great county of York should declare against him; and accordingly a meeting was convened. Mr. Wilberforce and his friends felt it equally important to attempt to direct its voice in favour of the minister; and therefore, though at present acquainted with few persons out of his own immediate neighbourhood there, he hurried to York. Many had spoken of both parties, and the meeting was wearied when Wilberforce came forward. Boswell (Johnson's biographer) was present, and has graphically described the scene. "I saw," says he, "what seemed a shrimp, mount on the table; but as I listened, he grew and grew, till the shrimp became a whale." His clear voice was distinctly heard through the vast assemblage, and his lively eloquence was enchaining every heart, when he was interrupted by an express from Mr. Pitt, authorising him to declare that the king had dissolved the parliament. An electric effect was produced: the address in favour of the ministry was carried, and the congregated freeholders exclaimed, "We'll have this man for our county member." It was a bold attempt for him to canvass that great county; and though he eagerly

desired the honour of representing it, he dared not resign his hold of Hull. For that place he was unanimously elected, and for Yorkshire too. The enthusiasm for his success was wonderful; a large sum was subscribed to bear his expenses, not one-fourth of which was spent; and he and another ministerialist were triumphantly returned. The example was set to other counties; and Mr. Pitt's power was firmly established.

At the end of the parliamentary session, after a flying visit to the York races, he set out with his mother and sister, and Isaac Milner, for the south of France. From thence he was summoned, in January 1785, to the House of Commons, to support Mr. Pitt's motion for parliamentary reform. Milner, in this journey, was his only companion. During the session, Mr. Wilberforce was constantly in his place; but in the summer, he and Milner returned to rejoin his relatives at Genoa. This intercourse with Milner was the instrumental means of leading him to the saving knowledge of Divine truth. He had not previously been aware of his companion's religious principles; who, though at that time so far deficient in practical piety as to attend Sunday parties, &c., was not inclined to permit any raillery of religion. When Wi!berforce, therefore, laughed at it, Milner would reply, "I am no match for you in this running fire; but if you really wish to discuss these subjects seriously, I will gladly enter into them with you." On their hastily quitting Nice, in 1785, Wilberforce, having taken up Doddridge's "Rise and Progress," asked his friend its character. "It is one of the best books ever written; let us take it with us, and read it on our journey," was the reply. They read it; and Wilberforce determined, at some future season, to examine the Scriptures to see if the statements of Doddridge were borne out. In their journey the following summer, their conversations became more important. They began, as Milner had proposed, to read the Greek Testament, and seriously to investigate its doctrines. The result must be stated in Mr. Wilberforce's own impressive words :-" It would indicate a strange insensibility to the ways of a gracious Providence, if I were to suffer the circumstance of my having Dr. Milner for my fellow-traveller to pass without observation. Wishing for an intelligent and agreeable companion, I requested my friend Dr. Burgh, of York, to accompany me, a man of whom it is difficult for me to speak with moderation, full as my memory must ever be of marks of a kindness that could scarcely be exceeded, and of a disposition always to forget himself, and to be ready to conform to his friends' wishes. A fund of knowledge of various kinds, great cheerfulness of temper, and liveliness of fancy, rendered him a delightful companion. But he had qualities also of a higher order-an entire conviction of the truth of revelation, a considerable acquaintance with ccclesiastical history, just principles of religion, and as affectionate a heart as ever warmed a human bosom, with a continual promptitude to engage in every office of benevolence; but the habit of associating with companions, and living, for the most part, in society which, whatever might be the opinion assented to by the understanding, exhibited no traces of spirituality in its ordinary conversation, had induced a habit of

abstaining from all religious topics in his common intercourse, and even an appearance of levity, which would have prevented his being known-except by those who were extremely intimate with him, or rather by those who, being themselves also religious, were likely to draw forth his secret thoughts and feelings to have any more reflection than that average measure for which we are to give people credit whose only visible attention to religion consists in their going to church on a Sunday. A gracious Providence prepared him, I doubt not, by a long illness, for that change which he was to experience much sooner than could have been anticipated, from the uncommon strength of his constitution, and the temperance of his habits; but had he been my fellow-traveller, I should never have benefited by him in the most important of all concerns; indeed, I am persuaded that we neither of us should ever have touched on the subject of religion, except in the most superficial and cursory way. To my surprise, Dr. Burgh declined accepting my proposal; and I next invited Dr. Milner to accompany me, chiefly prompted by his acknowledged talents and acquirements, and by my experience of his cheerfulness, good nature, and powers of social entertainment. It was the more important to me to secure such a fellow-traveller, because we were to have a tête-à-tête in my carriage; the ladies of my party travelling with their maids in a coach. It is somewhat curious, that, as I learned accidentally long afterwards, my grandfather had declared that in afterlife I should go abroad, with Isaac Milner as my tutor. I am bound to confess that I was not influenced to select Dr. Milner by any idea of his having religion more at heart than the bulk of our Cambridge society; and in fact, though his religious opinions were the same as his brother's, yet they were then far from having that influence over his heart and manners which they subsequently possessed; though it is due to him to declare that his conduct was always what is called correct, and free from any taint of vice ; and he had a warmth of benevolence which rendered him always ready to every good work. I must go farther; had I known at first what his opinions were, it would have decided me against making him the offer; so true is it that a gracious hand leads us in ways that we know not, and blesses us not only without, but even against, our own plans and inclinations. The recollections which I had of what I had heard and seen when I lived under my uncle's roof, had left in my mind a prejudice against their kind of religion as enthusiastic, and carrying matters to excess; and it was with no small surprise I found, on conversing with my friend on the subject of religion, that his principles and views were the same with those of the clergymen who were called methodistical: this led to renewed discussions; and Milner (never backward in avowing his opinions, or entering into religious conversation) justified his principles by referring to the word of God. This led to our reading the Scriptures together; and by degrees I imbibed his sentiments, though I must confess, with shame, that they long remained merely as opinions assented to by my understanding, but not influencing my heart. At length, however, I began to be impressed with a sense of the weighty truths which were more or less the continual

subjects of our conversation. I began to think what folly it was, nay, what madness, to continue month after month, nay, day after day, in a state in which a sudden call out of the world-which, I was conscious, might happen at any moment-would consign me to never-ending misery; while, at the very same time, I was firmly convinced, from assenting to the great truths taught us in the New Testament, that the offers of the Gospel were universal and free-in short, that happiness, eternal happiness, was at my option. As soon as I reflected seriously upon these subjects, the deep guilt and black ingratitude of my past life forced itself upon me in the strongest colours. I condemned myself for having wasted my precious time, and opportunities, and talents; and for several months I continued to feel the deepest convictions of my own sinfulness, rendered only the more intense by the unspeakable mercies of our God and Saviour, declared to us in the offers and promises of the Gospel. These, however, by degrees, produced in me something of a settled peace of conscience. I devoted myself, for whatever might be the term of my future life, to the service of my God and Saviour; and with many infirmities and deficiencies, through his help, I continue until this day."

During Mr. Wilberforce's journey, on his return to England, in the autumn of 1785, a change in his conduct was already visible; and some of his gay associates, whom he met in places he passed through, were surprised to find that he did not choose to travel on Sunday. When he reached home, he had a difficulty in acquainting his friends with the alteration in his views. Mr. Pitt was one of the first, whom he apprised, that though he should, in general, still support him, he could not be so much of a party-man as heretofore. Mr. Pitt received the intelligence most kindly, and assured him that nothing of the kind should affect their friendship. He now formed the acquaintance of Mr. Newton, the well-known rector of St. Mary Woolnoth; and was a frequent attendant on his ministry, and guided by his advice. His intimacy, however, with Mr. Newton, would, he expected, fix on him the brand of Methodism; and his mother, it appears, had heard some such rumour. In a letter, therefore, dated Feb. 19, 1786, he says to her, "It is not, believe me, to my own imagination, or to any system formed in my closet, that I look for my principles; it is to the very source to which you refer me, the Scriptures. . . . All that I contend for is, that we should really make this book the criterion of our opinions and actions, and not read it, and then think that we do so of course; but if we do this, we must reckon on not finding ourselves able to comply with all those customs of the world, in which many who call themselves Christians are too apt to indulge, without reflection; ... we must of course, therefore, be subject to the charge of excess or singularity. But in what will this singularity consist? Not merely in indifferent things; no, in these our Saviour always conformed, and took occasion to check an unnecessary strictness, into which he saw men were led by overstraining a good principle. In what, then, will these peculiarities appear? Take our great Master's own words: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; and thy neighbour as thyself.' It

would be easy to dilate on this text; and I am afraid that we should find at the close of the discourse, that the picture was very unlike the men of this world. 'But who is my neighbour?' Here, too, our Saviour has instructed us, by the parable which follows. It is evident, we are to consider our peculiar situations; and in these to do all the good we can. Some men are thrown into public; some have their lot in private life. These different states have their corresponding duties; and he whose destination is of the former sort, will do as ill to immure himself in solitude, as he who is only a village Hampden would, were he to lead an army, or address a senate. What I have said will, I hope, be sufficient to remove any apprehensions that I mean to shut myself up, either in my closet in town, or in my hermitage in the country. No, my dear mother, in my circumstances this would merit no better name than desertion; and if I were thus to fly from the post where Providence has placed me, I know not how I could look for the blessing of God upon my retirement; and, without his heavenly assistance, either in the world or in solitude, our own endeavours will be equally ineffectual. When I consider the particulars of my duty, I blush at the review; but my shame is not occasioned by my thinking that I am too studiously diligent in the business of life; on the contrary, I then feel that I am serving God best, when, from proper motives, I am most actively engaged in it. What humbles me, is the sense that I forego so many opportunities of doing good; and it is my constant prayer, that God will enable me to serve him more steadily, and my fellow-creatures more assiduously; and I trust that my prayers will be granted, through the intercession of that Saviour, by whom' only we have access with confidence into this grace, wherein we stand ;' and who has promised, that he will lead on his people from strength to strength, and gradually form them to a more complete resemblance of their divine Original.”

Those who read this letter may easily see that it was no enthusiastic temper, but the calm spirit of scriptural piety which now swayed Mr. Wilberforce's mind. I shall add another letter, in a similar tone, addressed to his sister on Easter-day of the same year. He had on Good Friday, after much serious thought, communicated for the first time, and experienced somewhat of the blessing which the sacred feast yields to the faithful participator of Christ. The next day, he visited Mr. Unwin of Stock, the friend of the poet Cowper. "About five o'clock yesterday I put myself into a post-chaise, and in four hours found myself safely lodged with the vicar of Stock. It is more than a month since I slept out of town; and I feel all that Milton attributes to the man who has been

Long in populous cities pent,

Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air.'

I scarce recollect to have spent so pleasant a day as that which is now nearly over. My heart opens involuntarily to Unwin and his wife; I fancy I have been with them every day since we first became acquainted at Nottingham, and expand to them with all the confidence of a twelve years' intimacy. dear sister wonder, that I call on her to participate in the pleasure I am tasting? I know how you sympathise in the happiness of those you love; and I could not therefore forgive myself, if I were to keep my

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raptures to myself, and not invite you to partake of my enjoyment. The day has been delightful: I was out before six, and made the fields my oratory, the sun shining as bright and as warm as at Midsummer. I think my own devotions become more fervent, when offered in this way, amidst the general chorus with which all nature seems, in such a morning, to be

swelling the song of praise and thanksgiving; and,

except the time that has been spent at church and at dinner and neither in the sanctuary, nor at table, I trust, had I a heart unwarmed with gratitude to the

in the sun.

On any other day I should not have been

so happy: a sense that I was neglecting the duties of my situation might have interrupted the course of my enjoyments, and have taken from their totality; for in such a situation as mine, every moment may be made useful to the happiness of my fellow-creatures. But the Sabbath is a season of rest, in which we may be allowed to unbend the mind, and give a complete loose to those emotions of gratitude and admiration, which a contemplation of the works, and a consideration of the goodness of God, cannot fail to excite in a mind of the smallest sensibility. And surely this Sabbath, of all others, is that which calls forth these feelings in a supreme degree; a frame of united love and triumph well becomes it, and holy confidence and unrestrained affection. May every Sabbath be to me and to those I love, a renewal of these feelings, of which the small tastes we have in this life, should make us look forward to that eternal rest, which awaits the people of God; when the whole will be a never-ending enjoyment of those feelings of love, and joy, and admiration, and gratitude, which are, even in the limited degree we here experience them, the truest sources of comfortwhen these, I say, will dictate perpetual songs of thanksgiving, without fear and without satiety. My eyes are bad; but I could not resist the impulse I felt to call on you, and tell you how happy I have been."

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| would urge him to pray for, in behalf of his beloved disciples. St. Paul was now, to use his own words, an ambassador in bonds," and "the prisoner of Jesus Christ for" the gentiles;" i. e. he was now detained at Rome, as an accused and suspected individual, under the orders of Nero, for teaching doctrines unpalatable to the Jews; though, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, he was allowed to "dwell in his own hired

Giver of all good things,—I have been all day basking house," where "he received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ." The peculiar doctrine, by the preaching of which the apostle had given so much offence to the unbelieving Jews of his day, was that," the middle wall of partition between" them being "broken down," the gentiles were now called by God to be equal partakers with the Jews of the privileges of the Gospel, without any necessity for the observance of the outward form of circumcision. For maintaining openly this truth at Ephesus and elsewhere, "the mystery of Christ," as he terms it, "which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto the holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit," St. Paul had undergone, at the hands of the Jews, the greatest indignities; and it was only by appealing, as a free-born subject, to the emperor, previous to his imprisonment at Rome, that he was suffered to escape with his life. Well might he, then, call himself "the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you gentiles," when addressing his converts in an idolatrous city like Ephesus; to which converts he was peculiarly attached, and who, it is thought, from the epistle which bears their name not having any mention of, or reproaches for, a contrary conduct, were well grounded in the true faith and practice of the Gospel. Apprehensive, however, that these his children in the Lord might, from any rumours that were abroad, suppose he was then actually sinking under persecution at Rome, and that, from a danger to themselves of similar treatment at the instigation of the Jews, they might afterwards waver in the faith, or be inclined not openly to profess it, -St. Paul "desires" the Ephesians not to "faint at," or be discouraged by the "tribulations" he had undergone for their sakes, but, on the contrary, to esteem it their

[To be continued in the next Number.]

S.

ST. PAUL'S PRAYER FOR HIS EPHESIAN
CONVERTS:

A Sermon,

BY THE REV. HENRY CURTIS CHERRY, M.A. Rector of Burghfield, and Chaplain to the Right Hon.

Lord De Saumarez.

EPH. iii. 14-19.

"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family

in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."

It would be difficult for language to express more fully, or more ardently, than these words of St. Paul to the Christians of Ephesus, all that the heart of a zealous apostle

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glory" that they had now so bold a defender of their rights, as gentiles, against the malice of their enemies. For this cause, that He who had begun so good a work as to bring them to the knowledge of his truth, might confirm them in it, and bear them up hereafter against any persecution on account of their religion, he tells them, he ceases not

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to bow his knees" in prayer to "the Fa- And as prayer brings us in direct communither of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the cation with God, from whom cometh every whole family is named," both of saints and good and perfect gift, so is kneeling the best angels" in heaven," and believers on earth, posture with which we children of the dust, whether Jews or gentiles. And then the and 66 as the clay in the potter's hand," can apostle enumerates the several spiritual bless- bow to" the high and lofty One that inings for which he supplicates God on their habiteth eternity." That the duty of prayer, behalf: these, in the order in which they and its suitable attitude, kneeling, should be stand, will briefly form the several points overlooked, or little regarded, amid the enfor our consideration; for the limits of a joyments of home and the endearments of the single sermon will not permit of our treating domestic circle, argues a heart insensible of them more at length. But before we enter the Source from whence such comforts flow; upon them, we must not pass over the two and strange indeed is that man's infatuation, particulars expressed in the words, " I bow who waits to be taught his dependence solely the knee" I mean prayer as the medium by upon God, by the deprivation of some one or which all blessings are derived; and bowing other of the mercies he has enjoyed, or by the knee, as the posture which bespeaks a reve- the untimely removal, as no doubt it will rent frame of heart in prayer, and a humble appear in his eyes, of some beloved object of sense of its unworthiness in the sight of heaven. his affections! Surely, when competence, if If in the days of his flesh, Christ not plenty, in our households has fallen to offered up prayers and supplications, with our share, by God's indulgence; when, by strong crying and tears, unto Him that was his preventive aid, no accident or long wastable to save him from death"-if almost ing sickness, has either on a sudden, or after with the dying accents of a life laid down an anxious interval of care, caused a blank in "for us men and our salvation," the same the accustomed countenances of those we great Pattern of righteousness enjoined us to love,-surely the heart itself should tell us, pray that we enter not into temptation;" that we ought to pray, and that the knee and when he was withdrawn from the objects should bow to the God and "Father of our of his care" about a stone's cast," himself Lord Jesus Christ." And if individual and "kneeled down and prayed"-if we read of private blessings, in their peculiar sphere, David, Solomon, Daniel, Stephen, St. Peter, claim suitable returns at our hands, can we St. Paul, and the other apostles, that they all for a moment doubt that prayer and kneelkneeled down and prayed,"-what can be ing are inseparable requisites in the house of said of those who "bow" not their "knees" God, where we meet, as a congregation of in prayer to "the Father of our Lord Jesus worshippers, and members of God's family Christ?" Is it that they need not pray? Alas! on earth, to adore him for the yet greater can man, the creature of a day, whose every mercies of redemption, "for the means of step through the wilderness of life is beset grace, and for the hope of glory." And yet, with thorns and briars, and whose will and my brethren, (suffer the word of affectionate affections are ever inclining him to evil,-can rebuke, as now offered by me who must one he hope to live without prayer-to live, not day give account of your souls), many a in the sense which chains him down to earth heart is cold, and in unison with the lips as a mere mortal," without God," and there- that seem to move in prayer, but utter not fore" having no hope;" for in this many are its language; when " every tongue should dead even while they live,-but to exist as an confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory heir of immortality? If such were even pos- of God the Father;" and many a knee is sible, to what end is it that our divine Teacher otherwise, for ease or convenience' sake, emhath left on record, for the use of his praying ployed, when" at the name of Jesus every people until time shall be no more, that patknee should bow, of things in heaven, and tern of words, called after his name, things in earth, and things under the earth." Lord's prayer?" Why are we enjoined," But, beloved, we hope better things of you, "continue instant in prayer," and " pray without ceasing?" why assured, on authority that might silence the most unbelieving heart, that "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much ?" All these are taught us, my brethren, to shew that the Christian is a man of prayer, and that by prayer, and for the sake and merits of Him whose name he bears, all his services ascend to God, and all blessings, temporal and spiritual, are conveyed to him.

"the

and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak :" happy are ye, that ye know these things; happier, if ye do them: your very knowledge of what is right will, if ye fail, increase your guilt: "for this," said our Saviour, "is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light." "I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say."

I

pass on now to the first blessing which St. Paul sought from God for his Ephesian

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