he would face a battery of guns (and he would have done so), to restore to Convocation its ancient powers. He had an intense respect for episcopacy, and he could discuss without heat the opinions of Roman Catholics.

Boswell: So, sir, you are no great enemy to the Roman Catholic religion?

Johnson: No more, sir, than to the Presbyterian religion.

Boswell: You are joking?

Johnson: No, sir, I really think so. Nay, sir, of the two I prefer the Popish.

Boswell: How so, sir?

Johnson: Why, sir, the Presbyterians have no church, no apostolical ordination.

Boswell: And do you think that absolutely essential, sir?

Johnson: Why, sir, as it was an apostolical institution, I think it is dangerous to be without it.

He believed in the Intermediate State, as is seen both in his prayers and in his attitude towards Purgatory.

Boswell: What do you think, sir, of Purgatory, as believed by the Roman Catholics?

Johnson: Why, sir, it is a very harmless doctrine. They are of opinion that the majority of mankind are neither so obstinately wicked as to deserve everlasting punishment, nor so good as to merit being admitted into the society of blessed spirits; and therefore that God is graciously pleased to allow of a middle state, where they may be purified by certain degrees of suffering. You see, sir, there is nothing unreasonable in this.

Boswell: But then, sir, their masses for the dead? Johnson: Why, sir, if it be once established that there are souls in Purgatory, it is as proper to pray for them, as for brethren of mankind who are yet in this life.

Boswell: The idolatry of the Mass ?

Johnson: Sir, there is no idolatry in the Mass. They believe God to be there, and they adore him. Boswell: The worship of saints?

Johnson: Sir, they do not worship saints; they invoke them; they only ask their prayers. I am talking all this time of the doctrines of the Church of Rome. I grant you that in practice Purgatory is made a lucrative imposition, and that the people do become idolatrous as they commend themselves to the tutelary protection of particular saints. I think their giving the sacrament only in one kind is criminal, because it is contrary to the express institution of Christ, and I wonder how the Council of Trent admitted it.

Boswell: Confession?

Johnson: Why, I don't know but that is a good thing. The scripture says, "Confess your faults one to another," and the priests confess as well as the laity. Then it must be considered that their absolution is only upon repentance, and often upon penance also. You think your sins may be forgiven without penance, upon repentance alone.

We find among Johnson's Prayers and Meditations, devotions for his departed wife :—

O Lord, so far as it may be lawful in me, I commend to thy fatherly goodness the soul of my departed wife, beseeching thee to grant her whatever

is best in her present state, and finally to receive her to eternal happiness.

The following touching prayer for her was found among his papers after his death :

O Lord! Governor of heaven and earth, in whose hands are embodied and departed Spirits, if thou hast ordained the Souls of the Dead to minister to the Living, and appointed my departed wife to have care of me, grant that I may enjoy the good effects of her attention and ministration, whether exercised by appearance, impulse, dreams, or in any other manner agreeable to Thy government. Forgive my presumption, enlighten my ignorance, and however meaner agents are employed, grant me the blessed influences of Thy Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

It will be as well, perhaps, to end this chapter with two instances to show that Johnson's religion was not of the purely intellectual or dilettante order, but was permeated with that very practical love which forgets itself in the needs of others.

On one occasion as he came home from his evening club, he found a wretched woman lying in the street, exhausted by disease and want. Lifting her tenderly, he carried her on his back to his own house, had her wants attended to, and sought to set her upon the path to virtuous living.

The second story tells, in his own words, how he bade farewell to an old family servant who lay dying :

I desired all to withdraw, then told her that we were to part for ever, and, as Christians, we should part with prayer, and that I would, if she was willing,

say a short prayer beside her. She expressed great desire to hear me, and held up her poor hands as she lay in bed, with great fervour, while I prayed, kneeling by her, in nearly the following words. . . I then kissed her. She told me that to part was the greatest pain that she had ever felt, and that she hoped we should meet again in a better place. I expressed, with swelled eyes, and great emotion of kindness, the same hopes. We kissed and partedI humbly hope to meet again and part no more.

In all this, then, we may be content to find the key to Johnson's greatness. The man's weaknesses were palpable enough. He had great bodily afflictions and mannerisms; he was tempted throughout life to deep melancholy and to incessant sloth; he was intensely choleric, and his immense intellectual powers must have tempted him to pride and arrogance. He would have been the first to acknowledge that in these ways he was "tied and bound with the chain" of his sins.

But over against these faults we find a sturdy independence of all save God and self; a deep sense of the seriousness of life, and of personal responsibility to God; a constant self-disciplining ; an intense love of knowledge and truth; and a very practical and self-less tenderness towards the poor, the frail, the suffering. Such a life as this can inspire English character and thought throughout the ages; and in every age reflection upon such a character as this will do its abundant share to raise the level of English living and English faith.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD

I

His early life-Connection with the Oxford Methodists-Ordination and first work-Work in Georgia-Outdoor preaching in England and opposition-Savannah and the OrphanageBuilding of "the Tabernacle "-The Cambuslang RevivalFashionable hearers-Whitefield's zeal, ill-health and deathHis Churchmanship-His great influence due to (a) his oratorical powers, (b) his love of souls, (c) his disinterestedness, (d) his love for Christ.

To Churchmen who long for the latent fervour of the Church to be fanned into the flame of a revival in power and the Holy Ghost, few records can be more interesting than those of the Evangelical Revival of the eighteenth century; and to priests who long to play their part, however small, in rousing their flocks to a deeper intensity of belief and practice, there can be few pages of Church history more instructive than those which tell of the preaching labours of men like John Wesley and George Whitefield.

The story of John Wesley is well known-that of Whitefield far less; yet in the early years of the movement (Wesley survived Whitefield by twenty years) it was the latter who was the predominant and more famous figure of the two.

This chapter hopes to give some account, however unworthy, of one who is marked out by his immense labours and fiery zeal for Christ as one of the most extraordinary of English religious leaders.