CHAPTER III. Christian Experience and Usefulness. MERCY and Truth, that long were miss'd, Sweet peace and righteousness have kiss'd, Truth from the earth, like to a flower, And justice from her heavenly bower Psalm lxxxv. 10, 11.-Milton. I fear that much of my backwardness in spiritual matters may be imputed to my overlooking so much the work of the Spirit of God in the plan of salvation. And oh! how important is His work! To open the eyes, enlighten the understanding, soften the heart, remove prejudices, "shed abroad the love of God abundantly in the heart," to "witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God," to "help our infirmities," to "seal us unto the day of redemption."-Rev. J. Macdonald of Calcutta. THERE is such a thing as a denominational zoology. There is a certain temperament, there are certain mental tendencies, from which, if a man is not content to remain a Presbyterian in Scotland or an Episcopalian in England, it may be predicted which other section of the Christian community he will join. The Wesleyan body is the great absorbent of warm hearts and fervid spirits. In the frequency of its devotional meetings, in the frankness and unreserve of its Christian intercourse, in the vigour of its responses and the soaring rapture of its hymns, and in the benevolent vivacity which finds a post and an employment for every member, it meets many cravings of the young and ardent convert. Is he crying, in the gladness of his soul, "Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob"? Alike in the cathedral and the conventicle, he is apt to be depressed by an organic solo or a rueful dirge; but escaping to the Methodist meeting, he finds their "glory" all "awake: C they are "taking the psalm, and bringing the pleasant harp with the psaltery, and blowing up the trumpet," and with exulting rivalry, "young men and maidens, old men and children," are praising the Lord. In the eagerness of first love is he exclaiming, "Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul!" But nobody will stop to listen; and so, for an audience he is driven away to the love-feast or class-meeting. In the exuberance of a newly awakened zeal, would he like an outlet for his energies, a field of Christian activity ? In the sanctuary which he has hitherto frequented he feels himself a cipher. He has never been invited to engage in any scheme of usefulness, and, except the neat and noiseless sexton who bows him into his pew, no one seems to know him. But he has not worshipped three Sabbaths with the Methodists when he is recognised and accosted, and three months have not passed before he is installed in the Sunday-school, or with a bundle of tracts and a roving commission is sent out into the highways and hedges. The portrait of the great founder on the wall, a box for Wesleyan missions on the mantel-shelf, placards of the next anniversary in the shop window, the occasional dropping in of a brother during the day with friendly inquiry as to his health of soul, hearty hand-shakings at the evening prayermeeting, and a vesper stanza from the consecrated hymn-book, all betoken the activity, the brotherlykindness, and the cheerful piety in the midst of WESLEYANISM. 35 which the young Theophilus has found his ecclesiastical habitation and his congenial home. The society which has yielded a logician so acute as the younger Treffry, and a systematist so masterly as Richard Watson, to say nothing of a scholar so erudite as Adam Clarke,-such a society cannot be reproached with the lack of Biblical or theological learning. Nevertheless, the lovers of metaphysical divinity and Scriptural exposition will not be apt to join a community whose migratory ministers and perpetual excitement make it a church upon wheels. Wesleyan Christianity is emotional and experimental; it has no attraction for severe reasoners and abstract speculators; nor is it adapted to spirits sedate or sombre. Its ready-made materials are the men of feeling; the sanguine, the impulsive, and enthusiastic natures, whom the grace of God makes the best evangelists, and the kind, humane, and homely natures whom the same grace converts into the salt of our English factories, the living epistles of such rural neighbourhoods as are blessed with their presence. And although the predominance of the emotional element in Wesleyan membership is not without its inconvenience and its perils; although it aggravates the task of the governing body, and renders periods of internal commotion vehement and almost volcanic; still, in the normal state of the society, it gives a peculiar animation to the services of its sanctuaries, and an intensity to its missionary zeal, far beyond the proportion of most |