the production, as to signify his readiness to serve the author. The case of the above young man soon after afforded this amiable and disinterested minister an opportunity of supplicating at the hands of the Monarch the exercise of his preroga tive of mercy in favour of the son of his friend, as the greatest favour his Majesty could confer. 927. School for Divines.-Lord Bacon, in his "Enquiry on the Pacification of the Church," asks whether it was not requisite to renew that good service which was practised in the Church of England some years, and afterwards put down, against the advice and opinion of one of the greatest and gravest prelates of the land, which was commonly called prophesying, and was this: "The ministers within a friar in Italy, famous for his learning and preaching, was commanded to preach before the Pope at a year of jubilee; and in order to suit his sermon better, he repaired to Rome a good while before, to see the fashion of the Conclave. When the day that he was to preach arrived, after ending his prayer, he looked for some time silently about, and at last cried out with a loud voice, three times, St. Peter was a fool! St. Peter was a fool! St. 66 66 Peter was a fool!" and without 929. Silent Sermon.-The Rev. precinct did meet upon a week-day in some principal town, where there was some ancient grave minister that was president, and an auditory admitted of gentlemen, or other persons of leisure. Then every minister successively, beginning William Tennant once took much with the youngest, did handle one pains to prepare a sermon to conand the same part of Scripture, vince an infidel of the truth of spending severally some quarter of Christianity. But, in attempting an hour or better, and in the whole to deliver this laboured discourse, some two hours; and so the exer- he was so confused as to be comcise being begun and concluded pelled to stop and close the service with prayer, and the president by prayer. This unexpected failgiving a text for the next meeting, ure in one who had so often asthe assembly was dissolved, and this was, as I take it, a fortnight's exercise, which, in my opinion, was the best way to frame and train up preachers to handle the Word of God as it ought to be handled, that hath been practised. For we see orators have their declamations, lawyers have their merits, logicians their sophisms, and every practice of science hath an exercise of erudition and imitation before men to the life; only preaching, which is the worthiest, and wherein it is more dangerous to do amiss, wanteth an introduction, and is ventured and rushed upon at first.” tonished the unbeliever with the force of his eloquence, led the infidel to reflect that Mr. T. had been at other times aided by a Divine Power. This reflection proved the means of his conversion. Thus God accomplished by silence what his servant wished to effect by persuasive preaching. Mr. Tennant used afterwards to say his dumb sermon was one of the most profitable sermons that he had ever delivered. 930. Slave's Sermon.-A worthy Bishop of the Episcopal Church in America was in early life an immoral and dissipated man. Dining 928. Sermon for Cardinals.-one evening with a party of genWhiston relates that a learned tlemen, they sat late over their wine, and with a view to promote little hamlet in England, wherever merriment, this young man sent it may be, there is a road to Lonfor one of his slaves, who was in don?" "Yes." "Ah!" said the the habit of preaching to his com- old divine, "and so from every panions in slavery, and ordered text in Scripture there is a road to him to preach a sermon to the the Metropolis of the Scriptures, company. The good man hesitated that is, Christ. And, my dear for a time, but at length began to brother, your business is, when you address them. Instead of the get to a text, to say, 'Now, what is mirth, however, which they an- the road to Christ?' and then ticipated from the negro's igno- preach a sermon, running along rance and simplicity, the piety and the road to the great Metropolisfervour of his discourse produced a Christ. And," continued he, "I contrary effect. The solemn truths have never yet found a text that had he delivered sank deeply into the not got a road to Christ in it, and if hearts of some of the company, and, I ever do find one that has not, I through the Divine blessing, car-will make one. I will go over a ried conviction to the heart of his hedge and ditch, but I would get master, who now seriously inquired at my Master, for the sermon canafter the way of salvation; which not do any good unless there is a having learned, he began from a savour of Christ in it." sense of duty to publish the grace of Christ, and became an ornament to the Christian ministry. 931. Style. The model the famous John Wesley proposed to himself was the Epistles of John. He says: "Here are sublimity and simplicity together, the strongest sense and the plainest language." Some one inquired, "What is it that constitutes a good style ?" He replied, "Perspicuity, purity, propriety, strength, and easiness joined together." He said he could no more write in a fine style than he could weave a fine coat. 932. Too Much Learning.-A lady who went to hear an eminent minister preach, agreeably to her usual custom took with her a pocket Bible, to refer to the passages of Scripture he might quote. When she came away she said to a friend, “I should have left my Bible at home to-day, and brought my dictionary; for the Doctor does not deal so much in Scripture as in such learned words and phrases as require the help of an interpreter to make them intelligible." 933. Way to Christ.-"Don't you know, young man," said a Welsh minister, that from every town and every village and every 934. "Who is Paul ?"-A man meeting a friend who had been to hear a sermon, said, "Well, I hope you have been gratified." "Indeed I have," replied the other; "I wish I could have prevailed on you to have heard him. I am sure you would never afterwards have liked any other preacher." "Then," replied the wiser man, "I never will hear him, for I only wish to hear ministers who show so high an esteem for the Word of God, that their hearers shall love it, hear it from whom they may. For 'who is Paul, or who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed ?” ” 935. Word Fitly Spoken.-A young woman in London, who had been disappointed in marriage, came to the awful determination to commit suicide. About to exchange temporal for eternal woe, she was asked by a friend to go te Surrey Chapel. She complied with the invitation. The Rev. John Griffin, of Portsea, was the preacher, and the text he selected was, “O that they were wise, that they would consider their latter end!" (Deut. xxxii. 29.) At the close of the discourse, quite unconscious who were his auditors in so large and crowded a congregation, Mr. Griffin was led to address himself particularly to any one who might have resolved to rush into the presence of the Judge of quick and dead, "And dare Him to do His worst." His words had such an effect that this young woman could not fulfil her awful purpose. The week rolled on, and the next Sabbath she again repaired to Surrey Chapel, where a discourse by Mr. Griffin, from Nahum i. 3, "The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet," led her to see that God, in His providence, was always acting for the accomplishment of His purposes of love and grace. The result was deliverance from an awful death and separation from God. PRIDE. 1 Kings xx. 11; Psalm ix. 20, ci. 5; Prov. xvi. 5, 18, 19; Matt. xxiii. 12; Rom. xi. 20; James iv. 6. 936. Absurd Self-Importance.-dour of apparel and royal ornaA petty African Prince who was ments, and, seating himself on his visited by an English traveller throne, exhibited his person to folded his arms with an air of imperial consequence, as he sat upon the floor, and demanded of his guest, "What do they think of me in Europe?" 937. Countess Reproved.-Howard, the philanthropist, neither wanted courage nor talent to ad minister reproof where he thought it was needed. A German Count, governor of Upper Austria, with his Countess, called one day on the man who had excited so large a share of the public attention. The Count asked him the state of the prisons within his department. Mr. Howard replied, "The worst in all Germany;" and advised that the Countess should visit the female prisoners. "I!" said she, haughtily-"I go into prisons!" and rapidly hastened down stairs in great anger. Howard, indignant at her proud and unfeeling disposition, loudly called after her, "Madame, remember that you are a woman yourself, and you must soon, like the most miserable female prisoner in a dungeon, inhabit but a small space of that earth from which you equally originated." Solon, as comprehending within itself the substance and sum of all worldly glory. "Have you ever beheld," said he to the Grecian sage, 'a spectacle more august ?" "I have," was the answer; "there is neither a pleasant in our fields, nor a peacock in our court-yard, does not surpass you in glory!" nor a cock on our dunghill, that 939. Extremes in Dress.-An ancient philosopher, being at Olympia, saw at the celebrated festival some young men of Rhodes arrayed most magnificently. Smiling, he exclaimed, "This is pride." Afterwards meeting with some Lacedæmonians in a mean and sordid dress, he said, “And this is also pride." 940. Fall of Pride.-There was took it into his head to distinguish once a rich man of Tarentum who himself at the Pythian games. Not wrestler, nor agility enough for having strength enough to shine as running, he chose to be considered a musical candidate. He made his appearance at Delphos dressed in cloth of gold, with a crown in the shape of a laurel, the leaves of 938. Croesus's Pride.-Croesus, which were of gold, adorned with King of Lydia, who felt presump- the finest emeralds. His harp extuously proud on account of his hibited a proportionable grandeur; power and riches, had dressed him- it was loaded with jewels, and deself one day in his utmost splen- corated with figures of Orpheus, Apollo, and the Muses. The splendour of his appearance drew all eyes upon him, and every one expected something wonderful from one who had taken such pains to attract their notice. How great was their disappointment, when, on the magnificent harper's attempting to exert his powers, his voice and instrument both equally failed him, and all his efforts produced only the most jarring discords! Shouts of laughter rent the assembly, and the judges of the game whipped him out of the theatre, covered with confusion. The next candidate was one Eupolus of Elis. Although he was meanly dressed, and his harp was but of homely fabric, he drew forth sounds from it which charmed and de lighted the whole assembly, and he was universally pronounced worthy of the prize. After receiving the laurel, Eupolus is said to have thus addressed his Tarentine competitor: "You came crowned with gold and jewels, because you were rich; I, because I am poor, am only rewarded with laurel. But I am well satisfied. With that laurel I have the applause of all Greece, while your crown serves only to make you ridiculed and despised." 941. False Humility.-Thomas à Becket, who was afterwards Primate of England, was a strange compound of affected humility and real pride. While he performed the lowly office of washing the feet of thirteen beggars every morning, his supercilious, obstinate, and turbulent spirit assumed a proud, overbearing, spiritual authority over his Sovereign, whom he was in the habit of treating with all the insolence of a licensed censor. which so affected Leolin, that he leaped into the water, and embraced the boat King Edward was in, saying, "Most wise King, your humility has conquered my pride, and your wisdom triumphed over my folly; mount on my neck, which I have exalted against you, and enter into that country which your goodness this day has made your own." And taking him on his shoulders, he made him sit on his robes, and did him homage. 943. Pride of a Conqueror.Tigranes, an ancient monarch of of the uncertainty of worldly posPontus, furnishes a striking instance sessions. At the beginning of his reign his dominions were small; but he overthrew many cities of Parthia and Greece, conquered the whole of Syria and Palestine, and gave laws to the Scenites of Arabia. He acquired an authority which Asia, and was honoured by the was respected by all the princes of people almost with adoration. His pride was inflamed and supported by the immense riches he possessed, by the excessive and continual praises of his flatterers, and by a prosperity which had never known an interruption. He knew no law but his own will, and assumed the title of king of kings. So far did he carry his pride as to be waited on by crowned heads. He never appeared in public without the attendance of four kings on foot, two on each side of his horse; these persons performed for him the meanest services, especially when he gave audience to foreign ambassadors. On such occasions they were compelled to appear in the habits and postures of slaves. Such pride is universally hateful, and is sure to be ultimately punished. Tigranes was compelled to resign his dominions to Pompey, who only restored to him a small part of his 942. Haughty Spirit Bent.-King Edward the Elder, lying at Aust Clive, invited Leolin, Prince of Wales, then at Beachley, on the opposite shore, to a conference power. about matters of dispute between 944. Pride Rebuked.- -Menethem; but Leolin, distrustful of crates, the physician, having been the English monarch, refused. wonderfully successful in the cure Edward on this passed over to him, of various diseases, was looked work made William Wickham." When charged by the King for assuming the honour of that work to himself as the author, whereas he was only the overseer, he answered that he meant not that he made the work, but that the work made him, having before been very poor, and then attained great credit. 947. Vanity of Learning.-Among upon as another Jupiter; nor was he himself ashamed to take that name upon him. A letter which he wrote to King Agesilaus ran thus: "Menecrates Jupiter to King Agesilaus health." The King, to reprove his intolerable pride and vanity, returned, “King Agesilaus wisheth to Menecrates soundness." The Greek writers affirm of him that he exacted an oath from such as he cured of the falling sickness men of learning, the pride of the that they should follow and attend two Scaligers, father and son, has upon him as his servants; and been scarcely ever equalled. A many did follow him, some in the friend to the elder Scaliger wrote habit of Hercules, and others in to acquaint him that he intended that of Mercury. Philip of Mace- to make mention of him in a work don, desirous of shaming the man after his own fashion, invited him to supper. When he came, Menecrates was placed alone at a sumptuous table, elevated above all the rest of the company; an altar was raised on this table, and while good and substantial dishes of the rarest kind were served up to the other tables, nothing but incense and smoke were offered up on the altar devoted to Menecrates Jupiter. The new god, perceiving in what manner he was derided and abused, rose in a great passion and went away, amidst the laughter and jeers of all present. 945. Proud Resisted.-Staupitz, Luther's friend, and a godly man, once made a vain display of his memory by repeating Christ's genealogy by heart in his sermon. His memory failed him at the eleventh verse. "I see," said he, "God resisteth the proud." On this circumstance Thomas Fuller observes, "Let no man abuse his memory to be sin's register, nor make advantage thereof for wickedness, but let men be thankful to God for the continuance of their memories, whereas some proud people have been visited with such oblivion that they have forgotten their own names." which he meant to publish, and wished to know what he should say of him. The answer is such, that were it not perfectly authenticated, it could scarcely be credited. Endeavour," said he, "to collect your best ideas of what Masanissa, what Xenophon, and what Plato were, and your portrait will bear some, although an imperfect, resemblance of me." The vanity of the younger Scaliger fully equalled that of his parent. The story of the fancied principality of Verona, from which he was dethroned by his quarrel with Scioppius, is perhaps known; yet notwithstanding, he never ceased complaining in his works of the hardship of that destiny which had prevented his being born a sovereign prince, and of the blindness of the age in which he lived in not sufficiently recognising and rewarding his merit. In spite of this obvious foible, which shows itself in almost every page written by either of the Scaligers, it was yet the opinion of Justus Lipsius, and that opinion was confirmed by the Bishop of Avranches, that "if the father and son were not princes, they deserved incontestably that high rank, from the brightness of their genius and the excellence of their knowledge." 948. Whitefield's Rebuke.-A 946. True Pride.-William de conceited professor of religion, very Wykeham, appointed by King liberal in his reflections on John Edward III. to build a stately Wesley and his followers, being church, wrote in the windows, "This once in company with White |