COLUMBA — The gospel was first carried to Great Britain in the second century; and thence, through the labors of Succat, or St. Patrick, in the fourth century, it spread to Ireland. The invasion of Britain by the pagan Saxons, A. D. 449, resulted in very nearly uprooting the Christian faith in England and Scotland. But it was revived, a hundred years later, through the labors of Columba, a native of Ireland, from one of the churches that had grown up under Succat’s labors. Columba was very active in spreading the gospel in his own country, when, his attention being called to the condition of the heathen Picts, he determined to undertake their conversion. With a few companions he established himself on the little island of Iona, or Icolmkill, off the west coast of Scotland. A church and college grew up here; and through the evangelists sent out from thence, the gospel was disseminated through a considerable part of Europe.
Columba was of princely birth, “of lofty stature, and noble bearing. He was a man of quick perception, and great force of character; one of those masterful minds that mould and sway others.” “He had an intense love for the Word of God, and spent much time in reading, studying, and copying it. He gave much time also to prayer and to the guiding of the communities which put themselves under his care, endeavoring to train them in useful arts as well as in Christian knowledge.”
Columba labored personally, and with great success, in Scotland and England, and several times visited Ireland. His last days were spent at Iona, “the isle of his heart,” as he usually called it. The closing scene was most touching. The day before his death, being taken to the hill which overlooked the mission house and its little farm, he stood surveying it for some time, and, lifting up both his hands, he invoked upon it the divine blessing. “Returning to his hut, he resumed his daily task in transcribing the Psalter, and proceeded to the place where it is written, ‘They that seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.’ ‘Here,’ he said, at the close of the page, ‘I must stop.’ When the bell for matins rang, he hastened to the church, and, ere the brethren could join him, he had fainted before the altar. Unable to speak, he made a feeble effort once more to raise his right hand to bless them, and, with joy beaming in his face, passed to his rest.”
Columba was born at Gartan, County Donegal, Ireland, A. D. 521; died at Iona, Scotland, 597.
THE WALDENSES.—The name Waldenses is said to have been derived from Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons, France, who lived about 1150 A. D. Finding opportunity, in the midst of a life of business activity, for the study of letters, he was led to the Bible, and, receiving the truths of the gospel, he devoted his life to the work of an evangelist. He rendered an important693service to the cause of reform, by procuring, at his own expense and under his supervision, a translation of the New Testament into the Romaunt tongue, then the vernacular of Southern France. This was the first complete translation of the Scriptures into any of the languages of medieval Europe, and was the only one available for popular use.
But the primitive Christians known as Waldenses, or Vaudois, existed before the days of Waldo. From the earliest times there have been Christians holding the faith of the apostolic church, and bearing testimony against Romish tyranny and corruption. The diocese of Milan—which included the plains of Lombardy, the Alps of Piedmont, and the southern provinces of France—exceeded in extent the temporal dominions of the Roman see; and it was not until the middle of the eleventh century that Milan acknowledged the supremacy of the pope. Even then many of the people repudiated the action of their prelates, and in the mountains of Piedmont maintained their independence of Rome. In the south of France the Albigenses offered a similar resistance to the popish usurpations.
The persecution which began under Innocent III., in the thirteenth century, resulted in the extinction of the Albigenses, and it continued, with murderous violence, against the Vaudois for hundreds of years. For the sake of peace, many at last resorted to an outward conformity to Rome. But with the Reformation, a new life animated the dwellers in the Piedmont valleys. Again they witnessed for their faith, and the fires of persecution were rekindled. Again and again bodies of soldiers were dispatched against them. Massacre succeeded massacre. Tortures the most horrible that were ever perpetrated by fiends in human form, were visited upon aged men, helpless women, and little children. In 1685 the conquest was completed. All the surviving inhabitants of the valleys were dragged away to fill the prisons of their conquerors. Neglect, barbarity, and pestilence wrought their dreadful work; and in less than one year, out of fourteen thousand who had entered, only three thousand came forth when the prison doors were opened. These were sentenced to exile, and in the dead of winter a large number made their way across the Alps, to a place of refuge. Hundreds perished, and after terrible suffering, the survivors reached the gates of Geneva. A few years later, part of this company returned to their mountains, and recovered possession of their deserted homes.
In the eighteenth century, religious persecution generally subsided. Yet in 1799 the Waldenses were still subjected to many civil restrictions; their children were often stolen, or taken from them by force, in order to be educated in the Catholic faith, and they had to pay tithes to the Romish clergy. It was not until 1848 that they were admitted, by the rulers of Piedmont, to equal enjoyment with others of all social and political rights. Within the States of the church, however, the pope still reigned supreme, and his power was a standing menace to religious freedom. But in 1870 the stronghold of popery fell. Soon the New Testament was printed in Rome, by the hand of a young Waldensian, under the very windows of the Vatican. And one of the prisons was converted into a publishing house, and in the torture-chamber694that once echoed the cries of the martyrs of Jesus, the press was set up, from which the gospel of peace was sent out to all the land.
JOHN WYCLIFFE, or John of Wycliffe, the greatest of “the reformers before the Reformation,” was born about 1324, in the village of the same name, in Yorkshire, England. His death occurred in 1384. Of his early life, little is known. He received his education at the University of Oxford, which even at that early date numbered not less than thirty thousand students. Until near the close of his life he continued to reside and to teach here. By his defense of the action of Edward III. in refusing the pope’s demand for tribute, and his advocacy of popular rights when delegated to treat with the papal nuncios in the Netherlands, Wycliffe won the confidence and approval of the king and the people. Though pursued by the relentless enmity of the pope and his supporters, and at last driven from the university, he was appointed by the king to the rectory of Lutterworth, where he devoted himself to the translation of the Bible into the mother-tongue. “Wycliffe was eminent as a scholar, a diplomatist, and a preacher.” “His wonderful learning and intellectual ability gave him a commanding influence in the university. But the Bible was his standard and staple; his sermons are really saturated with it. His object is always to defend the truth of Christ.”
JOHN HUSS, of Hussinetz, Bohemia, born in 1378, was chief among those by whom the torch of truth was handed down from Wycliffe to the reformers of the sixteenth century. He was educated at the University of Prague, and in 1402 became rector of the university, and preacher of Bethlehem Chapel. He did not apprehend the truth so clearly as did Wycliffe, he held to papal doctrines which the English reformer had renounced; but he maintained the great fundamental truth of the infallibility of the Scriptures, and faithfully rebuked the vices of the church; and he laid down his life as a witness to his fidelity. He was burned at Constance, in 1415.
“Huss was much less remarkable for the amount of his mental endowments and acquirements than for the candor with which he formed his convictions, the tenacity with which he held them, the unselfish enthusiasm with which he spoke them. He cannot be said to have added . . . to the intellectual wealth of the world; but his contribution to its moral capital was immense.” He has been justly pronounced “one of the bravest of the martyrs who have died in the cause of honesty and freedom, of progress and of growth toward the light.”
JEROME OF PRAGUE, the devoted friend of Huss, was a descendant of a noble Bohemian family. After spending several years at the University of Prague, he continued his studies at the leading universities of France, Germany, and England, at each receiving the degree of doctor of divinity. At Oxford he became acquainted with the writings of Wycliffe, and studied them with great enthusiasm. “Until now,” he said, “we had nothing but the shell of science; Wycliffe first laid open the kernel.” He engaged in translating Wycliffe’s writings into the Bohemian language, and, on returning to Bohemia, joined Huss in promulgating the reformed doctrines. Jerome was born about 1365, and was burned at the stake in Constance, in 1416.
MARTIN LUTHER.—Eisleben, a little town in the Thuringian forest, Saxony, was the birthplace of Luther, the greatest of the reformers. Born in 1483, when the revival of letters had already begun, and the minds of men were awakening from the stupor of medievalism, Luther was, under God, to lead them from the bondage of superstition. In his boyhood he was sent to school at Mansfeld, at Magdeburg, and at Eisenach, and even then manifested a keen power of intellect. At Eisenach, as he sang before the houses, and asked for bread for Christ’s sake, he attracted the notice of the kindly Ursula Cotta, who received him into her home, and gave a mother’s care to the poor young scholar. In 1501 Luther entered the University of Erfurt; four years later he abandoned his studies, for the monastery. He was ordained priest in 1507, and the following year was called to a chair in the University at Wittenberg. The famous theses against indulgences were posted in 1517; and in 1521 he appeared at the Diet of Worms. For twenty-five years the decree of outlawry here pronounced hung over him; yet, like Wycliffe, he was to die in peace. Though nearly the whole of his active life was spent at Wittenberg, his death occurred at Eisleben, his native place, where, worn out with his mighty labors, he expired February 18, 1546.
“Luther’s physical life was largely one of suffering. His form, in early life, was spare, though in after-years approaching to corpulence. The fullness of face given him in his later pictures, however, is said to have been the result, not of robustness, but of a dropsical tendency resulting from his early austerities. His habits were abstemious. His voice was not loud nor strong; it was their lightning, not their thunder, by which the mighty effects of his words were produced.
“The character of Luther lies so open in his life that it is hardly necessary to trace its lines. He was so ingenuous that if all the world had conspired to cover up his faults, his own hand would have uncovered them. His violence was that of a mighty nature, strong in conviction, waging the battle of truth against implacable foes. That he was unselfish, earnest, honest, inflexibly brave in danger, full of tenderness and humanity; that he was one of the great creative spirits of the race, mighty in word and deed, matchless as a popular orator, one of the very people, yet a prince among princes, a child of faith, a child of God,—this is admitted by all.”
PHILIP MELANCTHON, the friend of Luther, and his co-laborer in the German Reformation, was born in 1497. He was the son of a master-armorer of Bretten, in the duchy of Baden, and was a relative and pupil of the celebrated Reuchlin, who did so much to introduce the study of Greek and Hebrew into Germany. The strength and clearness of Melancthon’s understanding made the acquisition of knowledge a delight. At the age of twelve years, he entered the University of Heidelberg, and at seventeen took his doctor’s degree. It was about this time that he changed his name from Schwartzerd (“black earth”) to the Greek Melancthon, which signifies the same thing. In those times it was not unusual for learned men to translate their names from German to Latin or Greek. At twenty-one, Melancthon was called to the Greek professorship at Wittenberg, and then began the696friendship with Luther which continued till the great reformer’s death. Melancthon compares Luther to Elijah, and calls him “the man full of the Holy Ghost.” And Luther, contrasting himself with Melancthon, wrote: “I was bound to fight with rabble and devils, for which reason my books are very belligerent. I am the rough pioneer, who must break road; but Master Philip comes along softly and gently, sows and waters heartily, since God hath richly endowed him with gifts.” It was Melancthon’s logical mind and polished pen that wrote the confession of Augsburg, whose clearness, strength, simplicity, and elegance were acknowledged even by its foes. He died at Wittenberg, in 1560, and was buried beside Luther in the castle church.
ULRIC ZWINGLE was born New Year’s day, 1484, in the little village of Wildhaus, in a narrow valley of southeastern Switzerland. He was the first of Swiss reformers, and his work exerted a widespread influence. Zurich was the scene of his most important labors; he was called to this city in 1519, and in 1525 the Reformation had become established here without violence, and almost without disturbances. As other cities and entire districts accepted the reformed faith, the popish cantons took up arms to oppose the right of religious liberty. In the struggle that followed, Zwingle, who acted as chaplain for the reformed forces, fell on the field of Cappel, October 11, 1531.
“Zwingle was a bold reformer, an able scholar, an eloquent preacher, a patriotic republican, and far-sighted statesman. He lacked the genius and depth of Luther and Calvin, the learning of Melancthon and Œcolampadius; but he was their equal in honesty of purpose, integrity of character, heroic courage, and devotion to the cause of reformation, and he surpassed them in liberality.”
JOHN ŒCOLAMPADIUS.— Œcolampadius is called “the reformer of Basel,” but the wide extent of his influence entitles him to a more comprehensive appellation. In his intellectual and moral qualities he bore a striking resemblance to Melancthon. “There are several illustrations in the period of the Reformation, that the Lord delights to send out his disciples in pairs when he has a great work to accomplish. Luther stood side by side with Melancthon, Calvin with Beza, and Œcolampadius with Zwingle.”
Œcolampadius was born in 1482, in the present kingdom of Württemberg. He early regarded Luther’s teaching with favor, and, in 1522, upon being invited to Basel, he entered upon his work as a reformer. The city was at this time the most important intellectual center in Switzerland, the seat of its only university, and the residence of its most extensive printers. Œcolampadius was soon appointed to a chair in the university, and in 1529 the Reformation was established in Basel. Here Œcolampadius died, in 1531.
JACQUES LEFEVRE, an eminent scholar, and one of the earliest of French reformers, was born about 1450, and died in 1536. Lefevre was a professor in the University of Paris, when, about 1507, he began to study the Bible. He published commentaries on different portions of the Scriptures, and in 1521 one of his works was condemned as heretical. But by the favor of Francis I. and the princess Margaret, the proceedings against him were stopped. In 1523 his French version of the New Testament was issued. After the battle697of Pavia, however, and the imprisonment of Francis in Madrid, the papist party resorted to the most vigorous measures against the reformers, and Lefevre, then seventy-five years of age, fled to Strasburg. Soon after the king’s release he was recalled, and, after publishing his translation of the Old Testament, he retired to Nerac, the residence of Margaret of Navarre, where he died. Lefevre had accepted the fundamental principles of the Reformation, and maintained them in his writings; yet he retained his connection with the Romish Church, hoping that a reform might take place in the church itself. Studious and peace-loving, he shrank from open conflict. But his lack of boldness to confess the truth caused him bitter remorse in his last hours. With tears and heart-rending anguish he exclaimed, “I am condemned. I have concealed the truth which I ought to have professed and openly borne witness to.” Day and night he continued to utter this cry, but was at last enabled to cast his burden upon Christ, and he died trusting in the mercy of God.
WILLIAM FAREL, one of the boldest pioneers of the Reformation in Switzerland and France, was born in Dauphiny, a province of Eastern France, in 1489. He was a zealous and successful student, and became professor in one of the colleges of Paris. Receiving the principles of the reformed faith, he threw himself, with all the strength of his ardent nature, into the work of the gospel. Being forced to flee from France, he repaired to Basel, and formed a warm friendship with Zwingle and Œcolampadius, who could not but be attracted by his energy and self-sacrifice, while they perceived his lack of discretion, which sometimes led him to imprudence and even rashness. But Erasmus, the politic and conservative scholar, could not tolerate the uncompromising reformer, and, through his influence, Farel was forced to leave Basel. A large part of his long and active life was, however, spent in Switzerland, in labors that were at once vast and perilous; and they resulted in establishing the reformed faith in a considerable part of that country.
In 1532, Farel went as deputy from the reformers to the Waldensian Synod in the valley of Angrogna. He was ever after held in high esteem by the Vaudois, and exerted a strong influence over them. Through many vicissitudes, dangers, and sufferings, he continued laboring for the Reformation until the very day of his death, which occurred at Neuchâtel, in 1565. “Farel was an ardent, impulsive man; a missionary rather than an organizer; an iconoclast rather than a theologian.” Beza says that in his preaching “he excelled in a certain sublimity, so that none could hear his thunders without trembling.”
JOHN CALVIN.—At Noyon, in Picardy, about seventy miles northeast of Paris, Calvin was born in 1509; he died at Geneva in 1564. Calvin early renounced Romanism, and in 1534 was forced to flee from France. In 1536 he published at Basel the most celebrated of all his works, “The Institutes of the Christian Religion.” The same year he entered upon his labors at Geneva, where nearly all his subsequent life was spent. Here his methods of government and reform were strictly observed, this being the condition upon which alone he would consent to remain. Under his rule, immorality of every sort was sternly suppressed. Besides the refugees that flocked to Geneva from698nearly all parts of Europe, thousands of students resorted thither, drawn by the fame of his lectures and those of Beza.
“Calvin’s habits were frugal and unostentatious. He had a clear understanding, an extraordinary memory, and a firmness and inflexibility of purpose which no opposition could overcome, no variety of objects defeat, no vicissitude shake. In his principles he was devout and sincere.” Some acts of intolerance have cast a shadow upon his public career, but his character in private life was without a stain. As preacher, author, pastor, and leader of the Reformation throughout Europe, the extent of his labors is almost incredible. His health was feeble, yet he continued his work almost to the day of his death. He chose to be poor, refusing additions to his moderate salary, and declining presents, except for the purpose of giving them to the poor. Though often accused of amassing wealth, he left at his death little more than two hundred dollars. At his own request, he was buried without pomp, and no monument marks his grave.
MENNO SIMONS, “a reformer whose apostolic spirit and labors have thus far failed to receive the recognition they deserve.” He was born about 1492, in Northern Holland. He died in Holstein in 1559.
In 1536, Menno withdrew from the Romish Church. His opposition to the doctrine of infant baptism separated him from the Lutheran and Reformed churches. It was his earnest effort, while firmly opposing fanaticism, to restore in the church the purity and simplicity of apostolic days; a personal profession of faith in Christ was required as a prerequisite to baptism, and purity of life was a condition of church-membership.
HANS TAUSEN, born in Denmark, in 1494; died in 1561. In 1524 he began to preach the reformed doctrines. He was the first preacher of the Reformation in Denmark, and, with Bugenhagen, was the chief agent in its establishment in that country.
OLAF AND LAURENTIUS PETRI were born at Orebro, Sweden, the former in 1497, the latter in 1499. Olaf died at Stockholm in 1552, Laurentius at Upsala in 1573. They were chiefly instrumental in the establishment of the Reformation in Sweden, under the protection of the king, Gustavus Vasa.
WILLIAM TYNDALE, one of the most eminent English reformers of the sixteenth century, was born about 1484. Soon after accepting the reformed faith he formed the design of translating the Scriptures into the English language, and was forced to flee to the Continent to escape persecution. The New Testament was printed at Cologne and Worms in 1525. His subsequent history is involved in obscurity. He was engaged in the translation and printing of the Old Testament, and the publication of various works setting forth the doctrines of the Reformation. To elude the emissaries of the English king and prelates, he pursued his work in secret, and so carefully did he conceal his places of retreat that they are even yet unknown. In 1534 he ventured to settle at Antwerp, where he was arrested. At the castle of Vilvorden, a few miles from Brussels, he was strangled and burned, October 6, 1536. It cannot be proved that Henry VIII. had any direct agency in his execution,699but he made no effort to save him. The martyr’s last prayer was, “Lord, open the eyes of the king of England.”
The value of Tyndale’s labors as a translator of the Scriptures and a promoter of the Reformation in England, has never been adequately appreciated. The millions who in all quarters of the earth enjoy the blessings of the English Bible, owe him a debt of gratitude; for the authorized version has his for its basis. In his own time his teachings shaped the views of many of the leaders in the English Reformation, who also sealed their testimony with their blood.
HUGH LATIMER, sometimes called “the John Knox of England,” was born about 1470. His father was a plain yeoman, “who,” says Latimer, “brought up his children in godliness and the fear of God.” Latimer was educated at Cambridge, and was a zealous papist, but, through the efforts of the martyr Bilney, he accepted the doctrines of the Reformation. His fearless presentation of the truth won the favor of Henry VIII., who appointed him bishop of Worcester, but upon the passage of “the bloody act of the six articles,” enforcing a belief in transubstantiation, with other popish errors, Latimer promptly resigned his position. He was afterward arrested, and was for six years held a prisoner in the Tower. Released on the accession of Edward VI., he was offered his bishopric, but he firmly declined the honor, and continued faithfully to rebuke the vices of the times. When Mary came to the throne he was again committed to the Tower. Though he was now eighty years old, no respect was shown for his great age. He steadfastly maintained his faith, and was burned at Oxford in 1555. Latimer was not a man of great learning; he was plain in speech; but he was brave, honest, and devoted, a reprover of sin, both in high places and in low.
NICHOLAS RIDLEY, an English bishop and martyr, eminent for his learning and piety, was born about 1500. He studied at Cambridge, also at the most celebrated universities of France and the Netherlands. Through the favor of Cranmer he was appointed chaplain to King Henry, and, in the reign of Edward, he became bishop of London. After Mary’s accession he was, with Latimer, burned at the stake in 1555. Being denied permission to speak unless he recanted, he said, “So long as the breath is in my body, I will never deny my Lord Christ and his known truth. God’s will be done in me.”
In his private life, Bishop Ridley was pronounced “a pattern of piety, humility, temperance, and regularity.” Fox speaks of him as “a man beautified with excellent qualities, . . . godly learned, and now written, doubtless, in the book of life.”
JOHN KNOX, the reformer of Scotland, was born in 1505. He was educated at the University of Glasgow, and was ordained a Catholic priest. The writings of Jerome and Augustine, and the influence of the martyr Wishart, set him free from the fetters of Rome, and he became a preacher of the gospel. When the castle of St. Andrews was taken by the French, Knox was made prisoner, and being carried to Rouen he served for nineteen months as a galley-slave. Upon his release the state of affairs in Scotland forbade his return, and he spent some time in England, acting as chaplain to Edward VI. When700Mary came to the throne, he went to Frankfort and Geneva, in each place becoming pastor of the English exiles. He was much esteemed by Calvin, whose doctrines he advocated. Returning to Scotland in 1559, he was, through the influence of the Romanists, proclaimed an outlaw and a rebel, but, nothing daunted, he pursued his labors, taking an active part in the establishment of the Reformation in that country until his death, in 1572.
JOHN BUNYAN, so widely known as the author of “Pilgrim’s Progress,” was born in England, in 1628. He was the son of a tinker of Elstow, and was himself bred to the same trade. He, however, acquired some of the rudiments of education, and, though little inclined to religion, was far superior in morals to most of his class. He served for a time in the parliamentary army, and here one of his comrades, while filling his post, was killed. Bunyan felt that a divine hand had interposed to save his life, and he was thus led to give his attention to religious things. After long and severe conflicts he found peace in Christ. He joined the Baptists, and became an exhorter, and, after a time, one of their most distinguished preachers.
In 1660, under the oppressive measures enforced at the Restoration, Bunyan was thrown into Bedford jail, where he remained for twelve years. For the support of his family he took up the making of tagged thread boot-laces, but he firmly refused either to sacrifice his faith or to escape from his prison by stratagem, as he might easily have done. He was offered his freedom if he would give up preaching, and was told that if he persisted in defying the law, he would be sentenced to banishment, and to death should he return to England. His answer was, “If you let me out to-day, I will preach again to-morrow.” But his persecutors were thwarted; for the “Pilgrim’s Progress,” which he wrote in his dungeon, has taught the truths of salvation wherever the English language is spoken, and it has been translated into every tongue of Christendom. It is one of the favorite books that, after Holy Scripture, the missionary to the heathen translates for his converts.
After his release, Bunyan preached with great zeal and success, gaining the appellation of “Bishop Bunyan.” The Bible was his constant companion, the source of his wisdom, and the inspiration of his genius. Self-sacrifice for the truth’s sake and for the good of others was the rule of his life. He died at the age of sixty, from exposure in a storm while returning from a successful effort to reconcile a father to his son. There are few more striking examples of the educating, transforming power of the Holy Scriptures upon both the intellect and the heart, than is presented in the history of John Bunyan.
JOHN WESLEY, the founder of Methodism, was born at Epworth, England, in 1703. His father was a minister of the Church of England. His mother, from whom he received his early training and education, was a woman of great intelligence and deep piety, firm yet wise in discipline, and a skillful teacher. He studied at Oxford, and won a high reputation for scholarship. It was here that the famous “Holy Club” was formed, John and Charles Wesley, Whitefield, and others uniting together for devotional exercises, ministering to the sick and the poor, visiting prisons, etc.
In 1725, Wesley received ordination to the ministry. When a mission to701Georgia for the conversion of the Indians was projected, and a call was made for “a clergyman inured to contempt of the ornaments and conveniences of life, to bodily austerities, and to serious thoughts,” Wesley responded. He remained two years in the colony, but without opportunity to accomplish the object of his mission. He returned to England in 1738, and the same year fully received the doctrine of justification by faith, and began to preach it. He especially devoted himself to the work of carrying the gospel to the poor and neglected classes. Finding the churches closed against him, he finally resorted to open-air preaching. “I could hardly reconcile myself,” he says, “to this strange way of preaching in the fields, . . . having been all my life (till very lately) so very tenacious of every point relating to decency and order that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin if it had not been done in a church.” Until his death, in 1791, he continued his labors in England, Scotland, and Ireland. During his life he traveled upwards of two hundred and fifty thousand miles, and preached forty thousand sermons, besides the oversight of all his churches and congregations, an immense correspondence, and the preparation of his voluminous writings.
GEORGE WHITEFIELD, one of the most celebrated evangelists of modern times, was a native of Gloucester, England. Educated at Oxford, and a member of the Methodist Club, he was the first of their number who professed conversion. He was ordained in 1736, and labored especially to benefit the multitudes who were not reached by the ordinary ministrations of the church. He seven times visited America, preaching in all the large cities. He also labored extensively in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and made a visit to Holland. Whitefield differed from Mr. Wesley in regard to the doctrine of predestination, and the separation which resulted gave rise to the two branches, Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists. He died in 1770, at the age of fifty-six, as he was preparing for a seventh missionary tour through the United States.
The power of Whitefield’s preaching was acknowledged by all classes; multitudes flocked to hear him, and extensive revivals followed his labors. Not infrequently he preached three or four times a day. The day before his death he spoke at Exeter, Mass., holding a large audience spell-bound for two hours. He went to Newburyport, intending to preach next day. As he was retiring to his chamber at night, seeing the people gathered in the hall below, he stopped, and spoke to them from the staircase until his candle burned out in the socket. The next morning he was dead.
JOHN ROBINSON, the Pilgrim pastor, was born in England, in 1575. He was educated at Cambridge, and became a minister of the Established Church; but feeling that the ecclesiastical supremacy accorded to the king was contrary to the teachings of Christ, he resolved upon separation. The decision was a painful one, and in referring to it he says, “Had not the truth been in my heart ‘as a burning fire shut up in my bones,’ I had never broken those bonds, . . . but had suffered the light of God to have been put out in mine own unthankful heart by other men’s darkness.” Robinson was among the exiles who found refuge in Holland, and he became pastor of the702Pilgrim church at Leyden, where he was highly esteemed both for piety and scholarship. When the Pilgrims decided to seek a home in America, it was found necessary to divide the company, and as the majority remained at Leyden, to follow their brethren at a later period, they claimed the ministry of their pastor. But Robinson was not to accompany his flock to the New World. He died at Leyden, in 1625. His family afterward joined the exiles, and his descendants were among the colonists of New England.
Robinson’s character may be read in his farewell address to the Pilgrims. He was one of the few men that, in every age, have been the hope of reform,—men who, instead of resting their faith upon the creed or teaching of the church, will build only upon the eternal foundation of the Word of God.
ROGER WILLIAMS, pre-eminently the advocate of religious freedom, was a native of Wales, born about 1600. He died in Rhode Island, in 1683. Williams took orders in the Church of England; but soon, he says, his “conscience was persuaded against the national church and ceremonies and bishops.” He went to America in 1631, but being too radical and outspoken even for the Puritan colonies, he was sentenced to banishment. One of the regulations enacted by those law-makers was: “If any person or persons within this jurisdiction . . . shall deny their [the magistrates’] lawful right or authority . . . to punish the outward breaches of the first table [of the decalogue], . . . every such person or persons shall be sentenced to banishment.” As Williams stoutly denied the jurisdiction of the magistrates in religious matters, he stood condemned.
He had been accused of advancing opinions that were dangerous to the peace and order of the commonwealth; but upon proceeding to Rhode Island he founded a community in which perfect religious liberty prevailed, and where these very teachings were freely permitted; yet life, property, and civil government were as secure here as in Massachusetts. Thus it was demonstrated that Williams’ teachings were not dangerous to the peace and order of the State, that the charges against him were unsustained, and that his banishment from Massachusetts was unjust.
“Williams’ character as a man and a Christian was above reproach. Even his bitterest opponents spoke of him personally in terms of high respect. He was an especial friend of the Indians. He studied their language, respected and defended their title to their lands, and when the Massachusetts Colony and other white settlements were threatened with Indian hostilities, he was able, by his acquaintance and friendship with leading chiefs, to avert the impending dangers.” It was thus that Williams requited the injustice which he had suffered.
WILLIAM MILLER, the well-known prophetic expositor, was born at Pittsfield, Mass., in 1782. During the greater part of his life, however, his home was at Low Hampton, New York, where he died in 1849. The son of an officer in the army of the Revolution, Mr. Miller himself served in the war of 1812, holding a captain’s commission in the regular army. He had imbibed deistical sentiments before entering the army, but his integrity of character rendered the profligacy of the camp so distasteful to him that upon the expiration of the war he gladly abandoned a military life.
The fact that deism denies a future existence prevented him from giving a cordial assent to the doctrine, though he did not accept the Scriptures as inspired. When, however, he came to look upon the Bible as its own interpreter, instead of accepting the current theological teaching as the exponent of revelation, all his difficulties were swept away. From the year 1818, when he reached the conclusion that the personal coming of Christ was near, he continued for thirteen years prayerfully investigating the subject, but mentioning his views only in private. He entered upon their public presentation in 1831, and, between this time and 1844, delivered four thousand lectures in five hundred different towns. About two hundred ministers accepted his views, and five hundred public lecturers engaged in their promulgation. In nearly a thousand places, congregations of believers were raised up, comprising about fifty thousand persons. Under Mr. Miller’s labors alone, not less than six thousand souls were converted to Christ, and the number was probably much greater. Of the converts, fully seven hundred were avowed infidels before attending his lectures.
Though mistaken in regard to the exact time of the second advent, his belief was unchanged as to the manner and nearness of the Saviour’s coming. In 1845 he wrote: “I have candidly weighed the objections advanced against these views; but I have seen no arguments that were sustained by the Scriptures, that, in my opinion, invalidated my position. I cannot, therefore, conscientiously refrain from looking for my Lord, or from exhorting my fellow-men, as I have opportunity, to be in readiness for that great event.” Yet he felt that his own work was nearly ended. “I shall leave to my younger brethren,” he said, “the task of contending for the truth. Many years I toiled on alone; God has now raised up those who will fill my place.” He continued, however, to preach from time to time, as the increasing infirmities of age would permit; and he died in full faith of the doctrines which he had proclaimed.
JOSEPH WOLFF, the famous Hebrew missionary and traveler, was born in 1795, in Bavaria. “Endowed with almost unprecedented linguistic talent, a quick power of perception, lively temperament, and great prudence, he became acquainted, at a very early age, with the most prominent men in different countries of Europe. In 1812 he was baptized at Prague by a Benedictine monk. At Rome, where he went to be educated as a missionary, he devoted himself to the study of Oriental languages, intending to carry the gospel to both Jews and Mohammedans. He enjoyed the favor of the most prominent men, including that of Pope Pius VII.; but the liberal views which he expressed on various occasions made him suspected in the eyes of the Inquisition, and he had to leave the college and the eternal city. In England, he speedily found friends. The founders of the London Society for the Jews, perceiving his special fitness for missionary work, effected his entrance to Cambridge University, where he continued his Oriental studies.
“During his adventurous life as a traveler,—in Europe, Asia, America, and a part of Africa,—he became acquainted with kings and princes, as well as with the most learned men of all ecclesiastical relations. In the greatest perils he showed an undaunted courage and great presence of mind. He704preached everywhere,—at one time in this language, at another in a different one; and wherever he went, he understood how to interest the most prominent men and women in behalf of his mission.” Worn with the labors and exposures of his long journeyings, he spent his last years as the rector of an English country parish, where he died, in 1862.
JOHN ALBERT BENGEL was born in Würtemburg, in 1687; died in 1751. He is universally regarded as a man of critical judgment, of extensive learning, and solid piety. He was the author of several Biblical works of great value, both critical and exegetical, which still form a part of the treasures of the Bible student. Bengel’s rule of interpretation was “to put nothing into the Scriptures, but to draw everything from them, and suffer nothing to remain hidden that is really in them.”
LOUIS GAUSSEN, born in 1790, was a native of Geneva, and a clergyman of the Reformed Church. He was known throughout Switzerland as an earnest upholder of evangelical Christianity, and was associated with Dr. Merle d’Aubigné and others, in seeking to substitute a scriptural faith for the rationalistic philosophy which pervaded Geneva. He encountered determined opposition, and was at last suspended by the consistory. In 1834 he took the chair of theology in the newly-founded evangelical school of Geneva, and became the author of various works upon the Scriptures. His death occurred in 1863.
PIUS IX. AND THE DECREE OF INFALLIBILITY.—From Mr. Gladstone’s tract, “The Vatican Decrees,” we condense the following brief account of the promulgation of the decree of infallibility under Pope Pius IX.: The Vatican Council was solemnly opened, amid the sound of innumerable bells and the cannon of St. Angelo, December 8, 1869, in the Basilica of the Vatican. At the fourth public session, July 18, 1870, the decree of papal infallibility was proclaimed. This decree not only asserts the power of the Roman pontiff over all other churches, but attributes to him “an immediate jurisdiction, to which all Catholics, both pastors and people, are bound to submit in matters not only of faith and morals, but even of discipline and government.” It declares that the pope, when speaking “in his official capacity, to the Christian world on subjects relating to faith and morals, is infallible,” and that his decisions are final and irreversible.
This crowning act of papal blasphemy was speedily followed by the fall of the pope’s temporal sovereignty. On the second of September, 1870, six weeks from the time when the decree of infallibility was proclaimed, “the French Empire, which had been the main support of the temporal power of the pope, collapsed with the surrender of Napoleon III., at the old Huguenot stronghold of Sedan, to the Protestant King William of Prussia; and on the twentieth of September the Italian troops, in the name of King Victor Emanuel, took possession of Rome, as the future capital of united Italy.” From the day when Pius IX. appeared before the people of Rome, at the announcement of his infallibility, he was never again seen in public. Shorn of his temporal power, and disdaining to own himself subject to the national authority, the proud pontiff of Rome continued, until his death, in 1878, a self-constituted prisoner in the palace of the Vatican.