the poor in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are the meek." His counsels to the young were faithful and striking. "Think particularly,' he said, to a young friend who consulted him on the choice of a profession, "whether you are choosing for time only, or for eternity. For, of course, a sensible man will wish to choose that which will be best in the long run. And then it is just as much a part of the consideration what will be best for me between my thousandth and two-thousandth year, as between my twentieth and thirtieth." On the morning of Monday, July 29th, 1833, he resigned his spirit into the hands of his Saviour, in the sure and certain hope of a resurrection unto eternal life. Seventy-four years of life had been given to one whose infant frame was so fragile that many expected it would fall a victim to the diseases of childhood. And these years were spent not in careful ease, but in manful struggles with the evils of his time. Princes of the blood, the greatest warrior of the age, the peers and commons of England, in spontaneous homage to high worth, carried him to his resting-place in Westminster Abbey. His life is its own eulogy. His noblest monument is the freedom of the negro in the British colonies; or rather, it is the example which he has left of the power of evangelical truth, and of the practical energy of evangelical love-an example in which both the loftiest potentate and the humblest peasant may find instruction and blessing. THE COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON. THE spiritual state of England in the beginning of the eighteenth century was dark and dreary. Here and there instances of active, warm-hearted piety were to be found, both in the pulpit and the pew, but these happy exceptions were not sufficiently numerous to make much impression on the general mass. Spiritual torpidity had fallen more or less on all communions. The scoffer and the wicked man triumphed; the spiritual sleep of the formalist was seldom disturbed by the voice of warning; the piety even of the true Christian languished and yielded but stinted fruits, in the deadly atmosphere by which it was surrounded. Un But the great Master had not forgotten his vineyard; and by his grace fit instruments were prepared to accomplish his merciful purposes. recognised even by themselves, his hand was upon them, ordering all their ways to that point at which he was to make them his messengers for the healing of the people. And as it was his design that this movement of mercy should extend to every class, he chose his servants from all the various ranks and conditions of life. In the halls of the noble, the quiet retreats of learning, the comfortable homes of the middle classes, and the cottages of the labouring poor, the flame of piety was kindled in such rapid succession, that, almost simultaneously. all classes found this new and strangely powerful element working amongst them. And in looking back on that great revival of religion with which the names of Wesley, Whitefield, and lady Huntingdon are so prominently associated, we cannot fail to see the hand of God as visibly interposing as in any of the great crises of the church's history, and one is again constrained to exclaim, "The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice." Selina, COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON, a daughter of the noble house of Shirley, was born on the 24th of August, 1707.* She was the second of the three daughters and co-heiresses of Washington, earl Ferrars. Her family traced up its pedigree to the times of Edward the Confessor, and boasted, in its long line of distinguished ancestry, of alliances with the royal family of England, and many continental potentates, as well as with very many of England's highest nobles. The lady Selina is described as a very thoughtful child. When only nine years old, her mind was much impressed by seeing the funeral of a child of her own age. Thoughts of the reality and nearness of the unseen world were awakened, and the young heart of the awe-struck child offered up an earnest prayer that her hour of death might be a happy one. Nor did these feelings vanish with. the occasion which awakened them. It was remarked by those who surrounded the little one, that in all her troubles she sought relief in prayer; and when childhood was exchanged for womanhood, the same habits of devotion were continued. In June, 1728, lady Selina became the wife of Theophilus, ninth earl of Huntingdon. Her husband was a man of exemplary character, and his family was distinguished by its regard to religious observances. Into her new sphere, the young Countess carried the same serious spirit which had *The Life and Times of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon. By a member of the Houses of Shirley and Hastings, London: W. E. Painter, 1839. |