word, to appear before the judges at London, such a day of the term, if the Lord should permit."

"#

Fox faithfully fulfilled his engagement, and it was not a little singular that the same scene was repeated on his arrival at London.

"When," says he in continuation, "we had delivered to the judges the charge that was against me, and they had read to those words, that I and my friends were embroiling the nation in blood,' &c., they struck their hands on the table. Whereupon I told them, I was the man whom the charge was against, but I was as innocent of any such thing as a new-born child, and had brought it up myself; and some of my friends came up with me, without any guard.' As yet they had not minded my hat; but now seeing my hat on, they said, 'What did I stand with my hat on ?" I told them I did not stand so in any contempt of them. Then they commanded one to take it off; and when they called for the marshal of the King's Bench, they said to him, You must take this man and secure him, but you must let him have a chamber, and not put him amongst the prisoners.' 'My lord,' said the marshal, I have no chamber to put him into; my house is so full, that I cannot tell where to provide a room for him but amongst the prisoners.' 'Nay,' said the judge, you must not put him amongst the prisoners.' But when he still answered, he had no other place to put me in, Judge Foster said to me, 'Will you appear to-morrow, about ten of the clock, at the King's Bench bar in Westminster Hall?' I said, 'Yes, if the Lord give me strength.' Then said Judge Foster to the other judge, ' If he says yes and promises it, you may take his word.' So I was dismissed." +

Surely nothing need be said after this in proof of his integrity.

Then as to his disinterestedness. He was entirely lifted above all considerations of worldly gain. Selfishness did not seem to form any part of his composition. When he married Margaret Fell, he had ease and wealth at his command. But he held himself aloof from both. He appears to have enjoyed none of the comforts of his wife's home. He continued his labours just as before, journeying through the land, and encountering every possible obstacle and danger. The altera. tion in his circumstances made no alteration in his life. Among the instances of his disinterestedness, a prominent place is due to the manner in which he acted toward his wife's family at the time of his marriage. It is alluded to in his own account of that marriage; and as that account may serve as a companion picture to the description of his preaching by Margaret Fell, which we have already given, we will insert the whole of it:

"After this meeting in Gloucestershire was over, we travelled till we came to Bristol, where I met with Margaret Fell, who was come to visit her daughter Yeomans. I had seen from the Lord, a considerable time before, that I should take Margaret Fell to be my wife. And when I first mentioned it to her, she felt the answer of life from God thereunto. But though the Lord had opened this thing to me, yet I had not received a command from the Lord for the accomplishing of it then. Wherefore I let the thing rest, and went on in the work and service of the Lord as before, according as the Lord led me, travelling up and down in this nation, and through the nation of Ireland. But now being at Bristol, and finding Margaret Fell there, it opened in me from the Lord that the thing should be accomplished. After we had discoursed the matter together, I told her, if she also was satisfied with the accomplishing of it now, she should first send for her children;' which she did. When the rest of her daughters were come, I asked both them and her sonsin-law, if they had any thing against it or for it,' and they all severally

Fox's Journal, Vol. I. p. 525.

† Ibid., Vol. I. p. 526.

expressed their satisfaction therein. Then I asked Margaret, if she had fulfilled and performed her husband's will to her children?" She replied,' the children knew that.' Whereupon I asked them, whether, if their mother married, they should not lose by it?' And I asked Margaret, whether she had done any thing in lieu of it, which might answer it, to the children ?' The children said,' she had answered it to them, and desired me to speak no more of it.' I told them, 'I was plain, and would have all things done plainly; for I sought not any outward advantage to myself.' So after I had thus acquainted the children with it, our intention of marriage was laid before Friends, both privately and publicly, to the full satisfaction of Friends, many of whom gave testimony thereunto that it was of God. Afterwards, a meeting being appointed on purpose for the accomplishing thereof, in the public meetinghouse at Broad Mead in Bristol, we took each other in marriage, the Lord joining us together in the honourable marriage, in the everlasting covenant and immortal seed of life. In the sense whereof, living and weighty testimonies were borne thereunto by Friends, in the movings of the heavenly power which united us together. Then was a certificate, relating both the proceedings and the marriage, openly read, and signed by the relations, and by most of the ancient Friends of that city, besides many others from divers parts of the nation. We stayed about a week in Bristol, and then went together to Oldstone, where taking leave of each other in the Lord, we parted, betaking ourselves to our several services; Margaret returned homewards to the North, and I passing on in the work of the Lord as before." *

Such was George Fox. "In all things he acquitted himself like a man, yea, a strong man, a new and heavenly-minded man."†

We must hastily conclude, being obliged to leave much undone which we had intended to do. It was our purpose, for instance, to have instituted a comparison between Quakerism and Methodism, as the two systems stood related to the characters of their respective founders. There are close resemblances between these systems, and the itinerancy by means of which both of them have been administered, has placed in our hands much the same means of judging of them. Wesley's Journal answers to Fox's Journal; and the productions of the primitive Methodists answer to those of the primitive Quakers. There are also very wide differences between these systems; and in these differences especially we trace the distinctive peculiarities of Fox and Wesley. We admire and honour the latter; but we are disposed most decidedly to give the palm of superiority to the former.

We have as far as possible abstained from passing our own judgment upon the doctrines of Fox, so as to state how far we agree with him, and how far we differ from him in opinion. We wish just to say upon this head that though our agreement with him is not at all exact, it is very extensive, and that our sympathy with what we understand to be the principle of his system is entire. This at least is the case with the writer of this article. If it were not that the doctrine of the Inward Light was, in his view, too intimately connected by Quakerism with the person of Christ, he would profess himself a Quaker with regard to it. He assents to it as far as it relates to the influence of the Spirit of God. Whether, however, his readers agree with him in this opinion or not, we are sure that there is enough for all to profit by in the matters which have passed under our review, without any attempt being made carefully to sift them.

• Fox's Journal, Vol. II. p.

VOL. IV.

г.

UNITARIANS AND UNITARIAN MINISTERS.

THERE seems to be a wide-spread conviction among English Unitarians at the present time, that the progress and general state of our body are not what we should like to see them. It is not that there has been any retrograde movement during the last few years, or even that we have been at a stand-still; but comparing what has been done, and the advance that has been made, with what is naturally expected, by those who believe they are advocates of truth in the midst of error, a certain disappointment is the prevalent feeling; and the result is the disposition to look for the cause of this want of success, and the desire to discover and remove the obstacle, whatever it may be, which has hitherto stood in our way.

If it were wished to introduce these remarks under the form of a review, there are many recently published sermons, of which the titles might have stood at its head. Such are Mr. Higginson's "Religious Wants of the Age," Mr. Ashton's "Truth to be Bought and not Sold," Mr. Wicksteed's "Common-weal," Mr. Gordon's "Power of Faith," and many others, which shew the general feeling that we want (as a body) something which hitherto we have not had, and prove the different estimate formed by different minds of the point on which we are to seek a beneficial change. A similar difference of opinion is manifested in other ways. Some tell us we want more doctrinal preaching; others, that we should avoid any pleading for distinctive doctrines, and seek rather a general spirituality of tone and earnestness of action. Some say that the fault is in the want of popular power among our ministers; others, that the deficiency is in the little interest taken, the little zeal manifested, by our laymen. Some find the remedy in increasing ministers' salaries so as to enable them in every case to devote all their time to their ministry; others, in encouraging the ministrations of lay preachers, and rather neglecting than otherwise those who make the ministry their profession.

These and whatever other complaints are uttered, and remedies devised, will probably all be found to have their origin in real wants, prevailing to a greater or less degree: each may be attended to with advantage. But the great, the exclusive, attention claimed for each one by its own particular advocate, must not be allowed to close our eyes to a perception of the rest; we must not suppose that any one plan can remedy an evil, the effect of many causes acting jointly. We may complain of each other, the rich of the poor, and the poor of the rich, the ministers blaming the people, the people finding fault with their ministers; but this will do no good: we must candidly confess the evil, we must courageously face and honestly adopt the remedy, whenever and wherever we can find it.

One point, certainly not the least important, and to which attention may be usefully directed,—is the nature of the relation between ministers and congregations, their respective and reciprocal duties.

The demands upon Christian ministers were never so great as in the present day. It is not now sufficient that they should be Priests-it is required that they should possess some of the characteristics of Prophets. Training, knowledge, acquirements, the ability to go quietly and evenly through a regular routine, are not enough; they must have

an inward fire, a decided vocation, a deep zeal and earnestness of feeling. This is true of the Christian ministry in all ages, but it is more strikingly true, more manifest in effects, at the present day. The universal diffusion of knowledge of various kinds; the high standard of literary excellence fixed in the minds of at least a part of almost every congregation; the tendency (which, whether good or bad, certainly widely exists and produces its effects) to despise what is old, wellknown, commonplace, and to seek "some new thing;"-these things render the preparation for pulpit services no slight matter, and make it necessary that those services should be of a high order, or they will be despised and neglected. The preacher must be up to the times; each intellectual influence, each new power and each new stimulus, must act on his mind, or he will find himself behind his hearers. His manner and his style must be good, or he will be distasteful to those who have been rendered fastidious by the intellectual treats of elegant elocution and powerful oratory. He must be thoughful, or he will not come up to the mark, in the minds of those who have made acquaintance, in print, with the great thinkers of the day. He must speak of that which touches on the present and thrills the breast of every man; themes of distant interest, subjects of mere book-learning, will not enchain the attention of those who are absorbed in the interests and engaged in the struggles of to-day. All this tends to shew how much is now necessarily demanded from every one who aims at being an acceptable and useful preacher.

And what a wide range of occupation and duty lie beyond the pulpit! How many a labour calls on every Christian labourer; and what constant occupation is found for those who, especially devoted to be labourers in Christ's vineyard, desire to imitate him by engaging in every thing which tends to the good of their fellow-men! If it was possible, in times gone by, for ministers, by devoting a portion of their time, to hold a respectable position in their profession, it is now scarcely less difficult for them conscientiously to discharge their duties by giving to them all their attention. It must be evident to every man, that to assist the progress of truth as it should be assisted, to make our congregations prosperous and efficient, to constitute powerful agencies for the repression of vice and misery, and the spread of gospel life and light, we must have those at work who give all their time, all their strength, all their thoughts, to the good work in which they labour.

But here the difficulty meets us, that salaries are too low for this to be possible. Hence the cry with many is, Let the first step be to raise them. That this will be done to any extent, does not seem likely; where it can be done, it is good; but allowing that no minister can do his duty well while devoting part of his time to other means of moneymaking, are all to wait for a general increase of salaries before they begin to do their duty as they ought? Are those who find that, having large salaries, they can devote all their time to their duties, and yet can only just perform those duties, to perform them, and all others not to

These remarks will, perhaps, fully apply only to some of our congregations. There are, however, very few in regard to which they are not, at least, partly

true.

do so? Is there any means of meeting the difficulty, possible in all cases, and of immediate application?

It seems that the remedy may be found in two measures,-the one the work of laymen, the other dependent on ministers. When a young minister goes to a congregation in which there is no great spiritual fervour, where the principal persons do not care much for Religion, where he must fall back on his own mental resources, and can look for no aid from without, it is not wonderful that his energies will sometimes flag, the earnestness of his purpose will sometimes relax, and his efforts will therefore sometimes fail. It is not a matter of small importance, as regards a minister's success (in the best sense of the word), that he should be well supported by his congregation, not in action only, but in thought, in moral purpose, in devotedness of heart and life.

If this zeal and self-devotion do prevail in the heart of man, he is sure to do good, whatever be his vocation. Wherever a minister is found who possesses them, you may mark his course by the path of light he spreads around and leaves behind him. Those who have such feelings will not let the mere want of large salaries stand in their way. If they feel that the harvest is plenteous, they will labour; and if the labour requires all their life, they will give it; and if the remuneration is small, they will yet make it suffice. We want that earnest practical faith which performs duty without looking at consequences. We want that devotion to God's work which is ready for any sacrifice. Το what, in fact, will the sacrifice amount? There are none of our ministers whose salaries will not suffice for a supply of the necessaries of life. What is to be given up is the luxuries, the superfluities, generally the power of making certain appearances. It is desirable that ministers should have it their power to live and dress and act, in conventional phrase, like "gentlemen;" it is desirable that they should be raised above the wants, the anxieties of life; but when these things come into comparison with the power of efficiently fulfilling the purpose of their ministry,-when one must give way, surely few will be at a loss to decide which it shall be.

We hear, on every side, that it is impossible for a minister thoroughly to do his duty, as a preacher and a pastor, if he is partly occupied by other things. We see that very many of our ministers would find it difficult to make their salaries sufficient for them, did they not engage in other lucrative pursuits. There may be a movement among laymen to increase the salaries; there should at the same time be a movement among divines to devote themselves to their work, in spite of difficulties. Such a spirit of devotion generally meets with a reward, even in a worldly point of view; it appears, at the present time, the only spirit by which duty can be performed.

It may be an interesting investigation to compare the degree of attention given to pastoral labours and preparation for pulpit services among ourselves and among other bodies of Christians. Whenever this comparison is efficiently and carefully made, it will be found that denominational prosperity bears, in every case, no slight proportion to the energy, zeal and devotedness of those among the denomination who take upon themselves the responsible office of shepherds of Christ's flock. The grand prerequisite for the more rapid progress, the more