30 SEPTEMBER 1854, Page 12

BOOKS.

JAY'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND CORRESPONDENCE.* WITJ.Tkir YAY of Math belonged to a race of Dissenting ministers that was perhaps extinguished on his death. They were not of the present class of respectable and educated men, who differ nothing from the clergymen of the Establishment as to worldly substance, and little in the amount of acquired learning, unless it be in the less classical cast of their studies ; the main distinction now between the -English and Dissenting ministers arising from the sectarian epirit and narrow views of the latter, with the rather obtrusive self-sufficiency that social and educational narrowness is apt to create. The race to which Jay belonged sprang from the _people ; and, though fortune or accident assisted many of them, -their success in life and in the ministry was the result of their ex- ertions and their abilities, very often only reached by labour and privations which nothing save enthusiastic zeal could have sus- tained. A natural aptitude for preaching of course characterized the class ; though the mode varied in different individuals. Rude power and a coarse facetiousness, sometimes luscious sometimes -dry, was a general characteristic of those men ; offensive on the whole to taste, but frequently very telling in particular passages, and always adapted to the rude and excitable audiences they chiefly addressed. Some of them had been loose livers if not ab- solute profligates ; many of them " worldly "; most of them had passed through the throes of the "new birth." They could ex- cite or terrify their auditors by pictures of the strivings of con- science aroused to a sense of sin ; the doubts and fears of the mind looking back upon its past career and forward to an indefinite future ; -the unconscious metapbysical struggles of a wholly ig- norant and half-awakened human creature to comprehend his na- ture, his duties and his final condition : all represented as actual operations of Satan, with whom the tormented must wrestle by prayer. They were almost as lavish in promises as in terrors, but essentially they were Protestant in their promises. They described the entrance of the Spirit; they could define the moment of grace" ; they could picture with Oriental exuberance and mystic unctuousness the heavenly condition of the regenerated creature : but they did not, (whatever misconstruction their words might bear,) like the Romanist priest, promise safety by virtue of the priesthood. They could describe the symptoms, and the means of cure ; but they did not undertake the cure as of themselves.

- The age differed from ours in all that may be called religion, as much as in the character of the Methodist ministers. Those who did not "profess -religion" were either avowed sceptics, or alto- gether "dead," or High Churchmen with a heathen morality _and a pharisaic feeling, or worse than all, the sporting, tavern- -haunting "parson." Those Churchmen whom the example of Whitefield and the Wesleys had stimulated to religious thought became Evangelicals ; and they offered the " right hand of fellow- -ship" to all denominations who, in their own phraseology, held fast by the "Head." Other circumstances than religious liberality influenced them in this course. Besides the advantage of the alliance against the world, and of united action upon philanthropic objects, the dread of Popery had ever since the Revolution brought the Low Church into friendly relations with the Nonconformists. Then, as in all other times, manners and position had their in- fluence. The coarser and more violent preachers among thelle- thodists might be rather tolerated in their place than admitted to familiarity ; but the difference between the Church and Noncon- formists was so lightly considered, that in the case of a promising youth, his destination to any particular church was if not absolutely matter of accident yet determined by questions unconnected with iseete.

Tay himself was an example of this. His father was a village working stone-mason ; to which trade the son was brought up. His parents were respectable -people, with competent means for their station in life, and religious according to their age. The chapel of the village was Presbyterian, and the minister personally a "lovely character, exceedingly tender, kind-hearted, and ge- nerous," and who took much notice of little William Jay. His doctrine, however, was " Clarkean Arian," and he himself a "very dry and dull preacher." A place, however, had been opened at Tisbnry for the "preaching of the Gospel" at the expense of a Mr. Turner. Thither William Jay went in search of a more spiritual doctrine, and excited the attention of Mrs. Turner, and -subse- quently of Cornelius Winter, an eminent man in those days—circa- 1780—both as a preacher aim an educator of Dissenters for the ministry. He was so struck with the appearance, manner, and answers of young Jay, then in his early teens, that he offered to receive him into his academy for such remuneration as could be raised ; and the offer was accepted. It was the custom of Winter to send out his most promising pupils to preach, as well for prac- tice as to supply the great dearth of gospel tidings in those days. Tay was by nature adapted for a popular preacher. His mind, as leckford years afterwards expressed it, was a " clear transparent string" whence ideas flowed freely ; and though his style wanted platform force and iteration, it was remarkably clear and unaf- fected, with sufficient matter, though diffused. Such a youth was not allowed to hide his talent under a bushel. His master -sent him out to preach at sixteen, and he acquitted himself with • The Autobiography of the Rev. William Jay; with Reminiscences of some dis- tinguished Contemporaries, Selections from his Correspondence, tte. Edited by George Redford, D.D„ LL.D., and John Angell James. Published by Hamilton and Adams. so much acceptance that some Episcopalians who 'contributed to his support proposed that he should go to the University and en- ter the Church. Winter did not object; but Sir Richard Hill and John Thornton, Churchmen, opposed it, on the ground that " God has opened the young man's mouth, and for years to come we dare not shut it, while there are so many immediate and pressing calk for exertion." Had this scheme been carried out, the regular educa- tion and stricter training of a University, by giving William Jay a closer and more polished style, would have given him a more enduring reputation, and he would probably have risen in the Church ; for his manner, while searching and effective, and varied by anecdote, was equable and pleasant, with occasionally a pithy strength more like the Establishment -than Dissent. The same rapid success, however, he could not have attained in the Church, nor perhaps so satisfactory a position. In 1788, when not more than of age, he was selected by Rowland Hill to preach at the then celebrated Surrey Chapel,-and became a London religious lion. The next year he opened the chapel at Bath, of which he was soon the permanent minister. This congregation he never left till he retired in January 1853, after a connexion of sixty-three years ; though he frequently preached in other places, his services being in great demand, especially where a "collection" followed. As we shall not recur to the mere events of his life, -we may here note that he appears to have been born in 1768: -he preached his last sermon in September 1853; corrected his last sheet of "Female Scripture Biography " on the 23d December in the same year; and died on the 27th—so calmly, that the exact time of his departure was -not observed. He was twice married ; once in very early life, to the daughter of a clergyman of the Esta- blished Church ; and on the death of this amiable woman, in 1845, he wedded again the following year, when he was approaching eighty. The volume before us consists of an incomplete autobiography, with explanatory passages inserted by the editors. The editors have also brought down the narrative to the death, and added a selection from MT. Jay's letters, with some reminiscences of-distin- guished contemporaries whom he personally knew. There is good deal of interest in the book, of a real, solid, and novel charao- ter ; for although Tay's style was always diffuse, and the manner of -the " discourse" adhered to him, there-is ever sense and -matter-in his lucubrations. Still the volume hardly equals expectation. The Nestor of Independency was barn before junius began to write ; he must have remembered when the Tfnited States -were a colony of Britain ; he was a "man grown" at the taking of -the Bastlle, and a preaching lion before the Reign of Terror ; he lived through all the Republican and Imperial wars as a public charac- ter; he was contemporary with Whitefield and Wesley; he knew many of the bewiggecl divines of the last century, was familiar with Robert Hall and other religious and philanthropic celebrities of a later time, and stood as it were a connecting link between the old Nonconformists of the early Bruns-wicks and their antipodes cif the present day. We therefore expected more and richer pic- tures of the past as contrasted with the present than we get. Not that these are altogether wanting, but they-are fewer than might be looked for, and of a different kind. This disappointment is, perhaps, chargeable upon Jay's incessant occupation in pastoral duties, and upon the discursive or reflective habits of the preacher. Something, too, may be allowed for old age. Though solicited to write his autobiography, he was seventy-four -before he began, and then he did it in compliance with an epistle from his children, to whom he addressed it in the form of letters. His editors appear to think, that though he was as lively as ever in the pulpit, his me- mory as to dates and circumstances failed him. We rather think he had no turn for time or place. In his second chapter he gives an amount of his parents, his pastor, his early village .schooling, such as it was, and his own habits but neither the date of his birth nor the name of his birthplLe. It is somewhat similar throughout. Except in the earlier part, the autobiography is -less the narrative of a life than a species of commentary on some leading events of the life. -Occurrences serve for a text on which the writer expatiates. This is always done sensibly and plea- santly, but often with no reference to biography; though there- marks have a bearing on his particular practice as well as view of general preaching, or on his own circumstances extended to gene- ral observations on life. The following view of the blessings that may attend poverty, and the contrast between what the peasantry were in his younger days and what they are now, is of this kind. "A man if destitute of the necessaries of life must be wretched ; but if he has a sufficiency with regard to food, clothing, and habitation, suited to his state, he may be called poor, but he is only comparatively. so. Crabbe often takes his aim too low ; his poor are the abject poor—the inmates ofat parish workhouse, or the contents of the back streets of a borough, and com- monly immoral and vicious. But-take a peasant or-a mechanic in a village, sober, moral, religious; his wishes bounded by the simplicity of rural life his sleep sweet—his meals, though plain, sauced by appetite—his-hands suffi- cient for him—his labour limited and free from distracting cares—his little garden v,ielding him the useful vegetable and the Sunday flower—the Sab- bath a day of pleasing change, and rest, and refreshment of spirits—the going to the house or God in company—and the Bible, now more amply read, though not forgotten during the week,—take such a one, and his con- dition as to enjoyment will not shrink from a comparison with the-state-6f thousands who never look down upon him but with contempt or pity or

indifference. . .

"There are those who are not theorists here—they 'speak that they do know, and testify that they have seen.' It is said of Burns, by Dugald Stew- art, that as they were walking together one morning, .in the direction of the Braid Hills, where they commanded a prospect of theadjasent country, the poet remarked, that the sight of so many smoking cottages:gave a pleasure to his mind, which he did not believe any one could understand that did n6t know as he did how.much of real-worth-and happiness such humble habita-

tions niiglit contain. My testimony, perhaps, may be supposed to be too favourable, and to require some deduction, on two accounts—First, that I left village life early, and before I was grown up so as to be fully initiated i into its good or eviL There is some little force n this ; though I was old

enough to observe, and•feel, and judge. Secondly, that in my boyhood village life was superior to what it now is. This deserves notice ; and there have been, I fear, many changes for the worse. I need not describe what it is at present. But when I left the neighbourhood of my native place, abject penury, and extreme destitution, and sordid suffering, were rarely ever to be seen. Most even of 'the eottagers had a swine-sty, and baked their own bread ; many of them also brewed their own beer, or made cider, and if not for constant use, had a little beverage for festivals and particular occasions. Those who during mowing and reaping seasons went forth to labour, carried their bottle afield with them, and were generally supplied at meals with cold or warm meat and vegetables. Now, bread and water, with few exceptions, is all the provision, all the support, all the comfort, thousands of men, women, and children have, amidst the burning sunshine and exhausting labour of a summer's day. I was lately walking in time of harvest with an intelligent and humane farmer, among a number of hard-working peasants, who said to me, You see these thin meagre figures, with patched and ragged clothing —they have been toiling here from early dawn to this scorching noon, and have had, perhaps, little more than a can of water and a crust of bread ; and will toil on tall evening calls them to a similar repast at home, and sleep to their only rest. Oh, sir,' said he, 'nothing surprises me so much as the honesty, and quiet submission, and unresistingness of these sufferers; and we cannot reach and change their state.' " Although Jay's excellence as a preacher was a natural gift, it was matured and perfected by long labour and study. He attended living preachers, observing their excellences and defects with a -critical eye, and applying them to his own case. He carefully studied the sermons of the old English divines, whether of the Es- tablishment or Nonconformists ; he acquired the language of France, purposely to read the great preachers of that nation, as well Romanist as Huguenot. Partly with the same object, though a taste for the beautiful had something to do with it, he read largely the best poets and in the belles lettres generally. The opinion of such a man after an experience of more than fifty years is worth having, and we will take it on a subject of present in- terest—theibest -mode of addressing the poor. "I early preached in villages, and never discontinned the practice as long as I was able and had opportunity. I ought, therefore, to know from much experience- what is required in such services. I never went to them unpre- pared. It appeared to me strange that any should suppose that less care and labour are necessary in preparation as those we address are less disciplined and qualified to receive instruction. I always peculiarly studied for 'these occasions, only my study was how to be intelligible and interesting. The minds of the rustics are not inaccessible, but you must take the trouble to find the-avenues to them. There are modes of making them look eagerly, and hang upon the preacher's lips; and the preacher who secures their at- tention, whatever some think, has the honour of resembling Him Of whom it was said the common people heard him gladly.'

"Persons of education may be approached through mere intellect, bilt-the poor generally are like women, whose heads are in their hearts. They are like poets, who feel before they think. Application with them is an effect rather than a cause. -*They attend, not to feel, but must be made to feel in order to attend.

"Nothing that requires a lengthened connexion of argumentation will succeed with ordinary hearers. They are not accustomed to unbroken trains of thought or discussion. For them, if the preacher be wise he will find out acceptable words ; the words of the wise are as goads and as nails. The mass are not mathematical ; they are not logical. The deep and the subtile in reasoning will commonly-escape them. Yet there is often in them largely the principle of common sense ; and they ere capable of taking in even a profound proof or argument, if it be despatched with brevity and plainness. It is also very advantageous, if not necessary, in their ease, to attach to the proof or argument some fact or image, not in evidence, (for metaphors prove nothing,) but in illustration. Thus a kind of handle is given to the subject, by which they are enabled to lay hold -of and carry away what would else be too large or unfit for their grasp."

,

And on the subject of the poor it may be worth while to hear. what one who knew them well thought about the extremely poor.! He has been speaking of the number of truly religious persons he had known in the coarse of his.ministry.

"As I have not found many of these among the very rich, so I have found, none of them among the aUeet poor. Whatever they were originally, con- verting grace made them temperate and diligent, gained Tor them the coun- tenance and help of their fellow Christians, and secured for them the favour. of Providence ; so that not only their bread was given and their water was' sure,' but it blessed their bread and their water,' and made the little. that a righteous man had better than the riches of many wicked.' Lo this !! we have proved it—so it is--' I have been young, and now I am old, yet have I never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.'"

The reminiscences of remarkable characters are in a remote sense autobiographical, as Jay often introduces himself in con- nexion with his subjects. They are all interesting from the number of anecdotes and their characteristic traits. Here are a, few of Robert Hall.

"Mr. Hall sometimerexpressed himself as if he believed his real conver- sion was subsequent to his first awful visitation [insanity]. We do not ad- nfit this; but it is well known that he became more and more spiritual and evangelical, and that at first, while he drew the admiration of all, he awak- eaed the fears of some. Nor need we wonder at this, when we-take into the account the occasional (though not criminal) sportiveneeses and levities he betrayed ; his freedoms in conversation, when, for the sake of a contest, in Which he was always pretty sure of victory, he defended things which he did not believe and that fora while he avowed materialism, and denied the common notion of the Trinity, by contendin,,e for a duality of persons in the Divine Essence. With regard to the latter, the scheme bad all the difficul- ties supposed to attach to Trinitarianism without some of its Scriptural sup- Porte. Hence, many have questioned whether he was in earnest in his be- lief 'of so strange a doctrine: but I have beard him avow it with firmness, and Pre/member spending an 'evening with him in Bath, in a company that included a Sabellian, two Trinitarians, and himself as a Dualist ; and when the reminiscent, afraid to enter into the metaphysical part of the discussion, Ventured to mention the-baptismal form of words as a difficulty, and to ask whether it was not very strange that in the name of the 'Father and of- the Son' should intend 'personality, and in the name of 'the Holy Ghost' only a merepoweror influence,—and also,.whether it was'not strange to bap- tize any one 'in'the name' of an abstinotion,—he aoknowledged that it pee- canted a difficulty ; but incautiously said, he did 'not think it right to hang a Divine Person on one text.' * *

"Mr. Hall, like Dr. Johnson, professed to believe in preternatural ap- pearances; and certainly, from his manner when speaking of such subjects, his credence seemed to be sincere.

"The first evening I ever spent with him was at the house of Mr. W—y, near the Bristol Bridge. Of course he was the lion of the company. The party broke up late, and the latter part of the conversation turned upon apparitions. He defended his belief, not only in the possibility but in the actuality of these appearances, with mush ingenuity and ability, and seemed to convince himself, if not others ; and when we were to separate he refused to go home at that midnight hour unless some of us accompanied him. His arguing and fear certainly seemed more than oddity or affectation.

"He was at the Tabernacle the first time I ever preached in Bristol, and when I was little more than seventeen. When I came down from the pul- pit, as I passed him he said, Sir, I liked your sermon much better than your quotations.' I never knew him severe upon a preacher, however mode, rate his abilities, if, free from affectation, he spoke with simplicity, nor tried to rise above his level. But as to others, nothing could be occasionally more witty and crushing than his remarks. One evening, in a rather crowded place, (I was sitting by him,) a minister was preaching very finely and flourishingly to little purpose, from the white horse,' and the red horse,' and the 'black horse,' and the 'pale horse,' in the Revelation. He eat very impatiently, and when the sermon closed, he pushed out towards the door, saying, 'Let me out of this horse-fair.' " I was once in the library at the Academy, conversing with one of the students, who was speaking of his experience and -lamented the hardness of his heart. Mr. Hall, as he was near, taking down a book from the shelf, hearing this, turned towards him and said, 'Well, thy head is soft enough; that's a comfort.' I could not laugh at this; it grieved me; for 4Vae young

man was modest, and humble and diffident. •

"A minister, popular too, one day said to me, 'I wonder you think so highly of Mr. Hall's talents. I was some time ago travelling with him into Wales, and we had several disputes, and I more than once soon silenced him.' I concluded how the -truth was; and some weeks after, when his name was mentioned, Mr. Hall asked me if I knew him ? I lately travel- led with him,' said he and it was wonderful, sir, how such a baggage of ignorance and confidence could have been squeezed into the vehicle. He disgusted and wearied me with his dogmatism and perverseness, till God was good enough to enable me to go to sleep.'"

We will close this notice of a man remarkable in many points of view with a cheering picture ; especially cheering from a theo- retical Calvinist at seventy-four and upwards.

"But, you may ask, should I be willing, such as Thave found it, to go over life again ? I have heard many express the sentiment, though not in the poetry of Cowper- ' Worlds should not bribe me back -to tread

Again life's dreary waste, To see the future overspread

With ill the gloomy past.' But such language is not for me. I should not shrink from the proposal of repetition. Goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life.' My duties have not been burdening and irksome. 1y trialshave been few compared with my comforts. My.Pleasures have been cheap and simple, and therefore very numerous. I have enjoyed-without satiety the seasons and the sceneries of nature. I have relished the bounties of Providence, using them with moderation and thankfulnese. I.have delighted in the means of grace; unutterable have been my delights in Studying and perusing the Scripture. How have I verified the-words of 'Young- ' Retire and read thy Bible to begay.' Preaching has been the element of my 'heart and miylead. My labours

have met with much acceptance, nor have e I laboured n vain. I have sel-

dom been without hearing of some instances of usefulness from the pulpit or the press. God has honoured me to call by my labours not a few indivi- duals even into the ministry. The seat of my residence was of all others the place of my preference. My condition has been the happy medium of neither poverty nor riches. I had a most convenient habitation, with a large and lovely garden ; a constant source of attraction, exercise, and im- provement. I had a sufficient collection of books of all kinds. My wife was a gentlewoman, a saint, and a domestic goddess. My children were fair and healthy, and dutiful. My friends were many, and cordial and steady. Where shall I end ?

Call not earth a barren spot, Pass it not unheeded by : 'T is to man a lovely spot,

Though a lovelier waits On high.' I do not believe that in this earth misery preponderates over good. I have a better opinion of mankind than I bad when I began my public life. I can- not, therefore, ask, what-is the cause that the former dips were better than these. I do not believe in the fact itself. God has not been throwing away duration upon the human race. The state of the world has been Unproved and is improving. Who justifies slavery now ? What noble efforts have been made to break every yoke and to let the oppressed -go free ! How is the tendency to war on every slight pretence giving way to reference and negotiation! How delightful is it to think of what is doing abroad among the heathen, and the exertions that are put forth by all denominations of Christians to make the Saviour's way known upon earth and his saving health among all nations!"