prelatical system hither. Conventions of ministers had been held, to avert an evil so much to be dreaded, and to enable our churches to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free, and not receive again the yoke of bondage imposed by an Arminian hierarchy.

EFFECTS OF CALVINISM ON PERSONAL CHARACTER.

The

It would be strange if a system which has so wonderfully inspired the love of political liberty, should only tend to gender moral bondage. It will be ever found that true patriotism and true sanctity are not only compatible; but unless obstructed by mental defects, or defects of intelligence, they are inseparable. He whom God has made free from the bondage of corruption will never be at rest while the slave of man. Therefore, to Christianise is, in effect, ultimately, oppose who may, to emancipate. There is no ground, however, on which Calvinism has been more fiercely assailed than on its alleged tendency to encourage sin and foster all sorts of iniquity. allegation, it is true, has generally been confined to words; for even Dr. Priestly confessed that the character of the Calvinists was much better than their Creed, while he lamented that the character of the Unitarians was much worse, and tended much less also to nourish a spirit of devotion. But we are not left on this matter to speculate; and although our opponents may confine themselves to words, we demand an appeal to FACTS; and on the present occasion we shall adduce two credible witnesses, that in all candid minds the great fact may be established. The first one is the late illustrious Dr. Chalmers, who, in Volume XI. of his Works, at page 147, thus discourses on the effects of Calvinistic doctrine on the character of nations:

How comes it that Scotland, which, of all the countries in Europe, is the most signalized by the rigid Calvinism of her pulpits, should also be the most signalized by the moral glory that sits on the aspect of her general population? How, in the name of mystery, should it happen that such a theology as ours is conjoined with perhaps the yet most unvitiated peasantry among the nations of Christendom? The allegation against our churches is, that in the argumentation of our abstract and speculative controversies the people are so little schooled to the performance of good works. And how is it that, in our courts of justice, when compared with the calendars of our sister kingdom, there should be so vastly less to do with their evil works? It is certainly a most important experience, that in that country where there is the most of Calvinism, there should be the least of crime-that

what may be called the most doctrinal nation of Europe should, at the same time, be the least depraved-and the land wherein people are most deeply imbued with the principles of salvation by grace, should be the least distempered either by their weekly profligacies or their Sabbath profanations. When Knox came over from the School of Geneva, he brought its strict, and, at the same time, uncorrupted orthodoxy along with him; and not only did it flame abroad from all our pulpits, but through our schools and our catechisms it was brought down to the boyhood of our land; and from one generation to another have our Scottish youth been familiarized to the sound of it from their very infancy and unpromising as such a system of tuition might be, in the eye of the mere academic moralist, to the object of building up a virtuous and well-doing peasantry, certain it is that, as the wholesale result, there has palpably come forth of it the most moral peasantry in Europe, notwithstanding. We know of great and grievous declensions, partly owing to the extension of our crowded cities being most inadequately followed up by such a multiplication of churches and parishes as might give fair scope to the energies of our ecclesiastical system; and principally, we fear, to a declension from that very theology which has been denounced as the enemy of practical righteousness.

This language is not more eloquent than truthful; but to the great Pulpit Orator we must add the testimony of one of the most distinguished Statesmen of the last age, the late Sir James Mackintosh. On this subject, this great man thus expressed himself in the 71st Number of the Edinburgh Review, page 257:

Let us appeal to experience on the moral influence of Necessarian opinions, in their theological form. By doing so, we shall have an opportunity of contemplating the principle in its most active state, operating upon the greatest masses, and for the longest time. Predestination, or doctrines much inclined towards it, have on the whole prevailed in the Christian churches in the west since the days of Augustine and Aquinas.

Who were the first formidable opponents to these doctrines in the Church of Rome ? The Jesuits, the contrivers of courtly casuistry, and the founders of lax morality. Who, in the same Church, inclined to the stern theology of Augustine? The Jansenists, the teachers and the models of austere morals.

What are we to think of the morality of Calvinistic nations, especially of the most numerous classes of them, who seem, beyond all other men, to be most zealously attached to their religion, and most deeply penetrated by its spirit? Here, if anywhere, we have a practical test of the moral influence of a belief in Necessarian opinions. In Protestant Switzerland, Holland, Scotland; among the English Nonconformists and the Protestants of the north of Ireland, and in the New England States, Calvinism was long the prevailing faith, and is probably still the faith of a considerable majority. Their moral education was at least completed, and their collective character formed, during the prevalence of Calvinistic notions. Yet where are communities to be found of a more pure and active virtue?

To the Editor of the Christian Witness. SIR,-May I request the favour of your inserting in the CHRISTIAN WITNESS the enclosed sketch of an interesting period in the life of my mother? She was a woman of exalted piety; her society was courted by eminent Christians of every denomination; her memory is embalmed in the hearts of all who knew her, and is held in deep veneration by her surviving family.

I am induced to make this request from having lately observed an error which has inadvertently crept into that heart-stirring work, "The Life and Times of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon." The laborious compiler will hardly regret the mistake, when he finds that it has been the means of giving publicity to the following biographical notice of one who was worthy to be enrolled in the holy army which he has arrayed before us.

The error referred to occurs in Vol. I., p. 398: "Two large chapels were soon after erected at the neighbouring village of Emsworth." There is, I believe, but one chapel at Emsworth, and that was built by my mother. This will appear from the following paper, which was drawn up by my father, the late Rev. T. Helmore, of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, and read at the conclusion of her funeral sermon, (March 27, 1844,) by the Rev. W. Percy, of Warwick. Its insertion in the CHRISTIAN WITNESS Will oblige and gratify H. HELMORE.

Likatlong, South Africa,

August 9, 1849.

SKETCH.

OLIVE HOLLOWAY possessed a very gentle, amiable, and lively spirit from her earliest years, and was the constant companion of a very wise and affectionate mother, for whom she unceasingly felt the most reverential and filial love, evinced by the most rigid subjection to her will.

Though she mingled in the fashionable amusements of the world with other young persons, she was never greatly attached to them with one exception. She was at an early age convinced that cards, balls, and theatrical entertainments not only involved a great loss of valuable time, but were sources of temptation of a very injurious moral character.

At the same early period of life she began to read the Holy Scriptures with great diligence and undefinable enjoyment. She was exceedingly regular in observing the various fasts and festivals of the Established Chuch, of which she was a member, as well as being constant in her attendance on the Sunday. The ritual of the Church, though so sublime

and spiritual as it confessedly is in the opinion of candid evangelical Dissenters, became, from constant repetition, exceedingly irksome to her, and she felt an increasing conviction that the mode of Divine worship as established by Act of Parliament did not accord with that prescribed in the New Testament by Jesus Christ.

When about the age of three or four and twenty a clergyman of the name of Jones was the officiating minister of Emsworth, the country town in which she resided. He appears to have been a man of eminent piety, and under his ministry spiritual light began to dawn. upon her mind. About this time the good providence of God brought her acquainted with two most eminent and devoted Christian women, the Misses Moody, one of whom afterwards became the wife of that excellent servant of Christ the Rev. John Griffin, of Portsea. These young ladies were members of the Independent Church at Havant, under the pastoral care of the Rev. William Scamp, a man wholly devoted to his Master's work,-a plain, clear, faithful, and successful preacher of "Christ's holy gospel." These young ladies, on a Good Friday, about the year 1807 or 1808, invited Mrs. Helmore, then Miss Holloway, to accompany them to hear him. She did so. The beautiful simplicity of the whole service commended itself to her judgment as exactly corresponding with the worship of the first converts to Christianity described in the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of the New Testament, and the word came with Divine power to her heart from the lips of the preacher.

Overwhelmed with delight, and filled with gratitude, she resolved, without any hesitation, to continue under a ministry so congenial with her views and feelings, and to unite with a people who, though comparatively poor and everywhere spoken against, gave the most decisive evidence of being enlightened by the truth, and of walking in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. This decisive step, as may be supposed, caused a great sensation in the little town and neighbourhood. She conferred not with flesh and blood, but resolved to follow the solemn dictates of a conscience

enlightened, as she believed, by the Spirit of God. The Bible became more precious to her, and she perused its hallowed pages with an intense desire to know perfectly the mind and will of God, and this was accompanied by earnest and persevering prayer and supplication both in private and in public. Having felt the sanctifying influence. upon her own spirit (as a natural effect), she became. solicitous that others might be made participants with her. The rich, the poor, the aged, the afflicted, and the young, became the objects of her deep, heartfelt, and unceasing solicitude for the removal of their spiritual ignorance, the sapping of the foundation of their false security, the alleviation of their sorrow and affliction, the relief of the poor, the instruction of the young, and the happiness of all. Some thought her mad-others called her an enthusiast; but there was such an evident adherence to principle, such a determined fulfilling of the dictates of conscience, such sweetness of temper, such benignity of feeling, such prudence, such courageous independence of mind as to the opinion of mankind, such a visible determination to follow "the Lord fully," that no one could brand her with hypocrisy, or successfully prove that she exceeded the command of Him who said, "I have left you an example that you should do as I have done."

The effect of this zeal for God was soon manifest; a large number of children were collected under her superintendence, who were taught the first principles of the oracles of God. These exhortations and instructions had a visible effect upon the minds of the children; the judicious and gentle manners of their beloved instructress won their affection, -unloosed their tongues in her praises. By their representations of the delightful emotions they felt during the hours of instruction, first a few of the mothers of the children requested permission to be allowed to be present.

The door of admission having been opened for a few of the mothers who had pleaded earnestly for the privilege, their representations of what they had heard and felt excited the fathers to do the same. Some were influenced by curiosity, others by a desire for spiritual improvement; so that in the course of time the room in which these exercises were held became intensely crowded, The attention of the auditors was arrested, many hearts were sensibly affected with

the things of God, and her own bosom filled with gratitude and joy from the indications of the Divine approval. A building was erected by her direction with a view to the establishment of a day-school, and for a place of Divine worship on the Lord's day.

At this crisis, he who had the happiness and honour of being united to her as the companion of his labours, his joys, and his sorrows, became acquainted with her; and he, with her, consecrated that little building to God. She commenced the devotional service, and he addressed the people from these words: "This day is salvation come to this house."

She for a time continued to exert herself with all the zeal of one entirely devoted to God, and this large building became crowded as the small one had been. The people heard the word with great seriousness and attention, and from that day the gospel has been preached within those walls.

The circumstances which thus called a most timid and retiring young lady into such public notice, were altogether novel and peculiar, and prove what can be done when the heart is divinely affected and the judgment made up as to the path of duty. It is right to remark that at the time this movement was experienced in the town of Emsworth, the excellent and pious young minister had left for the island of Bermuda, and it was to be deplored that his reverend successor was not a man like-minded, and also that the gospel was at that time preached only at the Independent chapel at Havant, two miles distant from Emsworth. Her unwearied efforts to do her Master's work speedily affected a constitution naturally delicate, and laid the foundation of that pulmonary disease which, in a measure, continued and increased till the day of her death. It is also right to remark, that her innate sensibility of all the proprieties and retiring modesty of the female character created a fear lest she had violated the apostolic prohibition, "I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp an authority over the man, but to be in silence." The venerable Dr. Bogue rejoiced and encouraged her to go on in this work of the Lord until the good providence of God should render such instrumentality unnecessary, for his Divine approbation was obvious to all who could appreciate the blessed effects both upon saints and

sinners.

Mr. Nichols, of the Second London Circuit, spoke with great decision on the subject of Lay Agency, and its absolute necessity to the well-working of Methodism, and was followed by Mr. Mallinson, of Huddersfield, in a copious and earnest speech, in which he entered a very solemn protest against the Conference tyranny and the growing disposition of the ministers to oppress the people, quoting the memorable words of John Wesley to the preachers: "The people obey me, but they will not obey you; they will not do to you as they have done to me." This gentleman, however, did not see his way very clearly upon the subject of Lay Delegation, while, nevertheless, he contended for the right of it, although he conceived there were great difficulties in the way of its working. He was afraid that if there were simply preachers and delegates, one to one, in the Conference, the preachers would contrive to elect subservient men, so that the thing would terminate in a mockery, and be futile as to all practical effects. Mr. Colman, the delegate from Holt, spoke at great length and excellently to the general question of existing bondage and Christian liberty, and was followed by Mr. Cozins Hardy, in the same strain. The next principal speaker on Tuesday Afternoon was Mr. Martin, of Manchester, who entered with great penetration into the merits of the case and the present condition of the community. He said:

My opinion is, that the power of popular opinion has crushed and buried many a despotism, and that there is not one remaining but must blanch, and tremble, and perish before its influence. Up, then, men of Methodism, leaders, local preachers ;-arouse the best feelings of your hearts, and, as the sacramental host of God's elect, vindicate your rights, maintain your principles, and tell the men who shall meet in London next August that, while you feel every possible respect for them when they act as they ought, you have no sympathy with them when they play the tyrant; that you do not intend any longer to submit to such abuses; that you have rights, duties, a conscience, and a God, and that you will be true to them. (Applause.) My highest happiness would be, to see every one who is allied with me in the ties of nature joined together with me in this holy confederacy; but some of them tell me that they never will be. I tell the men who perpetrate these atrocities, that they are the real breakers of the peace, and if they wish to be considered as "the Conference of the people called Methodists," they must yield to that people their rights, and the sooner they do so the better. My prayer is, that God would bless us and them, and that again we may unitedly feel the kindlings of that love which warmed our hearts in times that are past. (Cheers.)

"Together let us sweetly live."

On Wednesday the business was resumed, when the subject of Lay Delegation came forward with great prominence. Mr. Alderman Schofield, of Sheffield, and Mr. Coultas, of York, delivered themselves with great decision, and were effectively followed on the subject of Christian liberty by Mr. Palmer, of Belper, who seems to have very enlightened opinions of the matter. That gentleman boldly enunciates the views we have already propounded,-that to protect the people, and to control the despotic spirit of the Conference, there must be, at least, two laymen to each preacher. On this point he said:

I think we should never carry on our Connexion with benefit and advantage by the introduction of lay delegates, unless we could, by any possibility, bring in two delegates to one preacher. Upon that principle the Connexion might work; but I believe the day is as far distant when we shall see the introduction of two laymen into the Conference as is the repeal of the income-tax. (Hear, and a laugh). I should like to see them introduced; but if we cannot obtain lay delegation by our present struggle, if, by the united energies of our noble band of Methodistical reformers, who are not getting "small by degrees and beautifully less," but who are increasing day by day, and whose "path is like that of the just, shining more and more unto the perfect day," we may obtain much. I glory in belonging to you. I will join you in getting lay delegation, and in trying to bury in ruins the law of 1835-a law which, while we slept, an enemy sowed among us, and it is now bringing forth tares. They have abrogated the law of 1797-a law for which our fathers fought nobly in a moral conflict, knocking at the chapel doors and making their legitimate demand. But that movement was nothing in its extent to the present movement. God grant the day may not be far distant when we shall see the ultimatum of our wishes! Then will our splendid Connexion shine once again-her moral darkness being removed, and the glory of the Most High resting upon her. (Cheers). I may state, in conclusion, that in Belper we had, at the March visitation, 700 members, 540 of whom are in favour of reform. Out of 32 local preachers, we have 25 reformers; out of 50 leaders, we have 36 reformers; and out of about 33 trustees, we have 26 reformers. We have two circuit stewards and 10 society stewards; and we have all determined to stand or fall together. (Loud cheers).

The case of the next speaker is fraught with instruction and encouragement. He is, perhaps, a fair representative of a large body of people who are just beginning to open their eyes, and almost afraid of the discoveries which force themselves their attention : upon

Mr. HIRST (Ilkestone) seconded the resolution, and in doing so said that it was perfectly congenial with his own mind and feelings. It proposed an alternative, that if the Conference