one of them by the Rev. William Thatcher, may be regarded as a tolerably fair indice to the whole:

DR. COKE held the distinctive principles of his denomination with great firmness, and was always ready to defend them on suitable occasions; but he was far from being a lover of controversy, or from contracting the circle of his Christian regards and sympathies so as to exclude any who appeared to love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. He believed that his own system embodied the truth in the purest form, and therefore he preferred it to any other system; but he believed there were excellent Christians in all other evangelical communions, and therefore he could look with complacency and thankfulness upon their prosperity.-P. 140.

Many of these men, especially those of the earlier day, suffered persecution. Details are, however, out of the question. A single instance is all we can at present give. In 1780 the Rev. Freeborn Garrettson, then laboring in Maryland, was seized by a company of wicked men, who took him before a magistrate, by whom he was sentenced to jail. While they were on their way with him thither, the night being very dark, a sudden and mysterious flash of lightning so affrighted them that they forsook him, and left him to his liberty. His biographer says:

On the Sunday after these circumstances occurred, however, as he was engaged in a religious service, he was actually seized by a company of about twenty persons, one of whom presented a pistol to his breast. After this frightful and furious onslaught he was hurried away to prison, where he had a dirty floor for his bed, his saddlebags for a pillow, and a cold east wind blew directly upon him. But his friends in and out of the country (Dorchester) soon rallied in his behalf; and, at length, through the influence of Mr. Asbury with the governor of Maryland, he was set at liberty.P. 59.

Persecution, in forms generally less gross to be sure, was almost common to the preachers of that day. They expected it about as much as they expected their daily bread. Gibes and groans, and amens, and derisive songs, were to them mere matters of course. Nor were such things, to men of refinement and gentlemanly feeling, by any means a mere trifle. Though divinely sustained and comforted, they often felt them most acutely, while they bore them most heroically.

Of the toils and deprivations of these good men our author gives a tolerable idea, so far at least as such things can be de

scribed. In the present greatly changed state of the country, and the improved condition of society, however, it is very difficult, if not absolutely impossible, to appreciate fully what our fathers did and suffered. And those labors were performed, and these sufferings endured, so far as earth is concerned, almost literally without consideration. Only think of a man doing the work of the Vermont District for a whole year,-as Bishop Hedding did, some fifty years since, when presiding elder, suffering hunger, cold, nakedness, persecution, for the sum of sixteen dollars! And his lot was probably no worse than that of at least one half the itinerants of that day. Never, till the lives of the just are seen in the light of the final judgment, will it be known, or can it be known, what has been done and suffered to give a free Gospel to these United States.

It is not wonderful that such men, as Mr. Wesley said of the Methodists of his day, "died well." They were always peaceful and happy, and often triumphant, on approaching "the dark valley." Of the Rev. Stephen G. Roszel it is said: "His last days were marked with great serenity, and the closing scene was like the glorious going down of the sun." John Broadhead's "departure was peaceful and triumphant." Of Peter Vannest it is said, "The language of praise and thanksgiving was continually upon his lips, until death's seal was placed upon them." When dying far away from home, Elijah R. Sabin exclaimed, "O how sweet is the love of God in the midst of affliction! O, brethren, come magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together! I'll praise him while he lends me breath." The death-bed scene of Elijah Hedding "seemed illuminated by the glories of an immortal life." "In a state of calm and joyful hope " Michael Coate "passed away to his heavenly rest." William Keith "rendered his dying testimony to the sustaining power of the truths which he had preached, and requested that his absent friends might be informed that he died trusting in that Saviour to whom he had devoted himself." Near his final hour Smith Arnold said: "I expect soon to drink the pure water of life in my Father's kingdom." Jacob Gruber said: "To-morrow I shall spend my first Sabbath in heaven." Christopher Frye "was perfectly self-possessed; conversed with his friends with the utmost calmness in respect to his approaching end, and not the semblance

of a shadow rested upon his future and eternal prospects." Lewis Pease "died in perfect peace." Joseph A. Merrill "passed away as gently as an infant falls asleep." Those who stood around the dying bed of Coles Carpenter heard him whisper, "Glory, glory, glory!" until the silence of death ensued. As William Ross "approached the grave he was full of peace and joy." Melville B. Cox died in Western Africa, looking upward, and faintly calling to his adorable Redeemer, 'Come, come!'" John Slade died "strong in faith, giving glory to God." Lyttleton Fowler, when dying, looked around and said: "O what a glorious sight! I have seen the angelic hosts, the happy faces of just men made perfect." The whole dying scene with Abner Chase "was indescribably glorious."

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A single instance will show the state of readiness to meet the final Judge in which those good men habitually lived. The Hon. Thomas Scott, after giving a high character of Valentine Cook, as it respects both learning and piety, says:

During the frightful convulsions of nature that occurred in the vicinity of New Madrid, on the Mississippi river, in the winter of 1811-12, the whole country was thrown into commotion. Mr. Cook, being at the time at home, was suddenly aroused from his slumbers at midnight, and finding his bed and house rocking and staggering, and supposing the end of all things had come, sprang from his bed and made for the door. Mrs. Cook, in great agitation, exclaimed, "O, Mr. Cook, wait for me, wait for me!" "No, my dear," said he, "when the Lord Jesus comes I'll wait for nobody."

Such is a faint picture of the men by whose agency the Methodist Episcopal Church and her several offshoots were planted in North America. Who will deny that they are worthy alike of profound veneration and of grateful remembrance? Posterity should come and say over their tombs, as Pericles did over the bodies of his deceased fellow-soldiers, "You are like the divinities above us; you are no longer with us; you are known only by the benefits you have conferred." If, however, glorified saints are at all observant of what takes place on earth, or are in the least affected by what is done in the Church militant, the most grateful offering we can make to their memory is, to follow them as they followed Christ. Noble was their example on earth, and great is their reward in heaven. In their day they turned many to righteousness; and now shine

as the brightness of the firmament, and will continue to do so as the stars, for ever and ever. And if their sons walk by the same rule, and mind the same thing, they will share the same glorious destiny.

We have barely room to add, that not only the Methodist community, but the whole Christian public are under high obligations to Dr. Sprague for this uncommonly meritorious volume. Everybody may be profited by knowing more of the men of whom it so appropriately speaks. Good people, who have long cherished an honest prejudice against these "itinerants," will feel especially thankful for the means of forming a juster opinion concerning them. Those who are more immediately interested will, of course, procure and read a book of such intrinsic and abiding value. It has really all the fascination of the most taking novel, and all the inappreciable worth of truth itself; so that it is equally adapted to please and to profit. No one who reads it will ever get weary of its pages.

ART. VIII.-EXEGESIS ON 1 CORINTHIANS vii, 20-24.

THIS passage, which has been so often surrendered by critical scholars to the support of slavery, simply teaches the plain duty of contentment. Contenting one's self is restraining his lawful desires within the limits of actual possession. If to a man God allots poverty, under its pinchings he ought to be contented. But would the command, "Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called," have prohibited an indigent member of the Corinthian Church from embracing a providential opening for the improvement of his temporal condition? If the command, "Let every man abide in the same calling," etc., would not have allowed a slave to embrace proffered freedom, then the same command would not have allowed any Corinthian tent-maker to embrace an easier and more lucrative employment if to him any such were offered. Could a man of Paul's common sense say, Art thou called, being a tent-maker? Care not for it; but if thou mayest be

something better, still prefer tent-making. This is another instance of that fatuous tendency of the human mind honestly to apply to slavery, or to any popular vice, a principle which, when applied to other subjects, seems so absurd as to be laughable.

In verse 20 the apostle teaches that Christianity was not designed to interfere in a violent way with the established relations of society, but that the orders, arrangements, employments, and positions of civil society should be as little disturbed as possible, consistent with the truth and with the spiritual interests of the world. Fanaticism might say, if a menial laborer be "translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son," and thus become a child of God and an heir of glory, he should at once be taken out of his inferior and placed in a superior position among men. Such an idea would be as fatal to the interests of Christianity as to the peace and plans of society. But while Paul teaches the important thought that Christianity does not aim precipitately to break up the relations of society, he also teaches that no employment, however degrading; no position, however humble, need interfere with the real interest and true dignity of human nature. He teaches, do not fret at evils, nor chafe at wrongs which, for purposes known only to himself, God does not see fit to remove. Under the general command in verse 20, on the duty of contentment, he specifies a class of persons most likely of all others to be discontented. As discontent is a state of mind so unfavorable to piety, he would especially put on their guard those who were most exposed to such a temptation. He exhorts the slave to be contented under the wrongs of slavery, unless Providence should open the way for him sinlessly to obtain his freedom.

The great difficulty at which commentators have stumbled in the rendering of this passage has been with the el kaì, as though it signified even if, and could have no other signification. But Dr. Robinson, in his Lexicon of the New Testament, gives for his first definition of ei kaì, if also. Dr. Charles Elliott renders ei kaì if also, and translates the passage, "if also thou art able to become a freed man." Olshausen renders it, "if thou canst also obtain bodily freedom, in addition to your spiritual freedom, do it rather." But Paul himself uses FOURTHI SERIES, VOL. XIV.-31