TYERMAN'S LIFE OF WHITEFIELD.*

MR. TYERAIAN'S knowledge of Methodism and Methodists is alike extensive and accurate. Ile is fully acquainted with the literature of the subject, and his sympathy with the good men whose lives he has undertaken to write is expressed without much limitation. About five years ago, when Mr. Tyerman published his ponderous life of Wesley, we endeavoured to point out some of his qualifi- cations and defects as a writer on the subject. We gave him credit for a familiarity with the Methodist leaders, and at the same time remarked on the unpleasantness and pretentiousness of his style and on the irrelevant observations with which his pages were loaded. The faults of the biography were conspicuous, but so also was its interest, and we were glad to renew, under the author's guidance, our acquaintance with an important period of Church history. Wesley was illustrious in many ways, and his influence on the religious life of the last century cannot be over- estimated. His character is one worthy of study, and his mar- vellous success as a great religious leader impresses us with a sense of statesmanlike power. Wesley was an eloquent and earnest preacher, but his administrative skill and faculty for government were even more remarkable than his pulpit oratory. He loved to rule, as every man must who has the power of ruling, and the force of his will is felt by the body which he formed even -to this hour.

No interest of this kind attaches to the memory of White- field. He left no followers, he formed no sect, his hand is not visible in any existing organisation. The seed he sowed was purely spiritual, and his title to be remembered in our day is as an evangelical preacher of genuine eloquence and of untiring zeal. Active though Whitefield was—he crossed the Atlantic thirteen times, and preached, it is said, upwards of eighteen thousand sermon—it cannot be said that his energy surpassed that of his friend Wesley. But it was more concentrated. For thirty-four years, f,rom the day when he preached his first sermon in the church where he was baptisedZuntil the day when he exclaimed, "I shall be better, and preach again in a day or two," and died, Whitefield's single purpose was, as he would have expressed it, "to save souls." True Calvinist as he was, he regarded this

• The INeof She Bea. George Whitefield. By the Rev. C. Tyermatt. 2 yob. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

world as belonging to the Devil, and believed that through his instrumentality a peculiar people might be called out of it. He preached of hell, a material hell, with as much

energy as he preached of heaven; and his intense conviction, his passionate earnestness, his self-forgetfulness, and life-long sin- cerity, gave a vitality to his message which was intensified by his. consummate skill as an orator. Narrow though Whitefield's views- were in one direction, his charity, unlike his creed, was in the highest sense Christian in character. "Bigotry cannot stand

before him," said Wesley, "but hides its head wherever he comes.' He cared nothing for the peddling differences of sects, and ex- claimed once to some miserable controversialists,—" Gentlemen, I hope you will settle these matters to your own satisfaction ; my business is to preach the Gospel." The gentleness and suavity of his disposition, his strong affections, and his lack of ally personal ambition are also conspicuous features of his character. It is easy to point to the defects of a nature when, as in White- field's case, they lie very near to the surface. His mind was comparatively uncultivated, his judgment was not strong, hie mode of presenting sacred things was frequently offensive, anl that he was not morally in advance of his age, and did not, in. fact, see so far as some of his contemporaries, is proved by his remarks on slavery and by his purchase of negroes. The- trade, he allowed, was unrighteous, but argued that, as it exists.

whether we would or not, it is as well to take advantage of it, and "lay a foundation for breeding up" the posterity of slaves.

in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

"As to the lawfulness," he writes, "of keeping slaves, I have no. doubt, since I hear of some that were bought with Abraham's money,. and some that were born in his house. I also cannot help thinking that some of those servants mentioned by the Apostles, in their Epistles,. were or had been slaves. It is plain that the Gibeonites were bound to perpetual slavery, and though liberty is a sweet thing to such as are- born free, yet to those who never knew the sweets of it, slavery per- haps may not be so irksome. However this be, it is plain to a demon- stration that hot countries cannot be cultivated without negroes. What a flourishing country might Georgia have been, had the use of them been permitted years ago ! How many white people have been destroyed for want of them, and how many thousands of pounds spent to no pur- pose at all !"

It is curious to read how another evangelical light of the period, James Harvey, the once famous author of "Theron and- Aapasia," promised Whitefield £.30 for the purchase of a slave.. "I shall take care to remind him," says the latter, "by whose- means he was brought under the everlasting Gospel."

The interest of the great Methodist revival is so associated with,

the Wesleys, that the share taken in it by Whitefield must neces- sarily be described in the biographies of his friends. Several' independent memoirs of Whitefield have also been written, but Mr. Tyerman boasts that he has made use of a large amount of biographical material, much of which seems to have been, unknown to previous biographers. The result is two large-

volumes, containing about twelve hundred pages, over which the reader will at times, we fear, be inclined to slumber. There is- no diversity of topics in the book. Whitefield cared nothing for literature, for science, for social intercourse, the arts which sweeten and embellish life he despised or neglected, and his corre- spondence, like his printed sermons, is singularly barren of interest. His letters are chiefly remarkable for ejaculations and repetitions,. and the monotony of hislamentations over human nature in general, and his own nature in particular, are insufferably wearisome.

"0 for further searches into the heights and depths of God r 0 for further leadings into the chambers of that selfish, sensual, and devilish imagery that yet lie latent in my partly-renewed' heart ! This self-love, what a Proem ! This self-will, what a Hydra ! This remaining body of sin and death, what an Anti- christ! what a scarlet whore ! what a hell ! what a red dragon !: what a cursed monster is it ! How hard, how slow he dies. 0 what gratitude do I owe to the Bruiser of this serpent's head!"

Thus writes Whitefield to the Countess of Huntingdon, and this is the style of his correspondence from first to last. He has no thought to utter, no facts to state, no natural feelings to express; his whole language is of the conventionally pious type, and having nothing of real importance to say, he vents his epis- tolary energy in superfluous, though no doubt sincere, ejacula- tions. "I would give a hundred guineas," said Garrick, "if could only say ' oh !' like Mr. Whitefield," but the charm of the- great preacher's ' oh !' is entirely lost when he takes the pen in hand.

Mr. Tyerman's method of writing biography has not, we think,. improved by practice. He is continually asking questions in order- to answer them, he does not understand the art of compression,, some of his remarks are signalised by bad taste, and some by a. lack of charity. The Bishop of Bangor, with whom Whitefield had a dispute, happened to be the son of a distiller, and to have married the daughter of another, which gives rise to the remark: —" Whitefield's language was too respectful. Such a man de- served rebuke, quite as strong as the liquors by which his own father, and the father of his wife, had made their fortunes." When mentioning the earthquake of Lisbon, which destroyed in a few moments 60,000 persons, Mr. Tyerman, forgetful of our Saviour's words about the Tower of Siloam, writes :—" The terrific judgment was not unmerited. No act of the Supreme Ruler is capricious. Some of the sights which Whitefield wit- nessed were hateful, hideous caricatures of the greatest and most solemn truths and facts ever made known to human beings. They were theatrical idolatries, which no system except Paganism and Popery would dare to practise." Less objectionable, but assuredly conspicuous for bad taste, is the list of persons of title to whom Whitefield administered the Sacrament, after which the reader is informed that "the Earls of Chesterfield and Holder- ness and several others' were admitted." The language of the writer with regard to conversions, the main topic of the book, though not uncommon in some Dissenting circles, sounds strange to persons accustomed to the sober and Scriptural mode of ex- pression adopted in the Book of Common Prayer. Whitefield's spiritual earnestness gave him unwonted success in appealing to the vast assemblies which thronged to hear his message. Much probably occurred at those gatherings which exceeds the experi- ence of any modern preacher, but we may be permitted to doubt a story quoted in the biography to the effect that when White- field was preaching on Shackerley Common, "a man a mile dis- tant, leaning upon a gate, distinctly heard many of his sentences, was convinced of sin, and soon converted."

In conclusion, if we cannot praise the biographer's style or taste, he deserves, we think, very high praise indeed for the scrupulously careful manner in which he has collected his mate- rials. Mr. Tyerman's opinions will be sometimes disputed, but his facts may, we think, be accepted generally without question. A copious index adds considerably to the value of the work.