extraordinary merits and miraculous doings of some obscure yet now beatified individual, sermons which always rmind us of the ranting friar, and his wearisome cry, "Oh where shall we place him, this very great saint?" Nor was there anything theatrical about him, as we have too often seen in Spanish popular preachers. All was calm, dignified, and noble. How worthily rolled the sonorous Castillian accents from the lips of that quiet preacher! Beautiful Spanish! beautiful ever! at once both sweet and strong, but never so grand as when some noble sentiment speaks the divine fervour of a lofty soul, never so magnificent as when man speaks reverently of, or humbly addresses, his Maker! As that was the only sermon we chanced to hear in Seville, we are very much afraid that sermons, especially good ones, are by no means common, not at least of every Lord's day occurrence. However, we may very likely be mistaken. Seville has many churches, and many ministering priests. Shall we dare to say that all these can be utterly unmindful of the wide flock of perishing souls committed to their charge? Shall we imagine that the divine Master has here left himself without a witness? Would that we could deem good sermons to be of frequent recurrence. The absence of enlightened teaching is, in fact, a most deplor able symptom; and as the people too much delight in show and glitter, possibly they like best the flashy rhetoric in the pulpit which may amuse, but not instruct. It has not been our intention, in any part of this sketch, to pronounce upon the present aspect of religion in Spain. We prefer to leave the inferences to be drawn by those to whom the picture is presented. But if we have abstained from intruding reflections of our own while recalling our social experiences, and describing the picturesque in Spanish customs, we trust that this reticence will not be construed into other than deprecation of what must be deemed a debasing and enslaving superstition. The truest friends of Spain, those who love her most, will deplore the intense bigotry of the national intolerance. But this weighty subject needs to be approached with a very thorough knowledge of the country in all its aspects, political, religious, and social, a catholic mind, a devout and tender spirit. When, in the dawning light of the Reformation, that great epoch in modern history, Spain sternly trampled out beneath the fiery heel of the inquisition the awakening spirit of her children, we perceive how completely she drew down on her own head the severest retribution. No longer in the van of the nations, but crushed by a self-imposed yoke, shorn of her ancient glories of dominion and of enterprise, priest-ridden Spain drags on through the centuries in the ignominious rear. Her intolerance is become a proverb, and so tremblingly sensitive is she to the Late Tragedy in Chili. 367 supposed necessity of the sternest restrictions on the liberty of religious thought, that she does not hesitate to commit the most atrocious violence on the freedom of the subject, be he never so unoffending in other respects; while so unenlightened are the views of her people in general, that they applaud and strengthen the government in those tyrannical proceedings which have so deservedly drawn down in recent cases the reprobation of Europe. If in Spain itself are so clearly visible the two usual attendants of an unreasoning superstition, an idolatrous devotion, and a dark though concealed scepticism, this latter the refuge of the more instructed minds,-if the devout worshippers in the gorgeous churches are chiefly composed of women and the ignorant lower class male population,-if the educated mind of the country bends no longer with sincere belief before the fanatical and impossible dogmas of Rome, can we wonder if, on turning to the former transatlantic possessions of Spain, peopled by a mixed race, and less likely to preserve the ancient nobility of character, we perceive a still more degrading spectacle? The late fearful tragedy in Chili is at present in the thoughts of all. What do we find redeeming in that awful picture! and though sure we are that when the terrible news thrilled through many a home in the Peninsula, the denunciations of the heartless atrocity of the priests would be no less earnest than our own, yet we cannot but remember that Spain, with the rest of Papal Europe, accepts the unscriptural dogma so recently propounded, and that "votaries of Maria" equally enslaved throng the too gorgeous temples of the land. The press of this country has given due voice to the horror-struck feelings of our people, and we need not enlarge on it here. But, leaving America apart, truth compels us to declare that it is not the general custom of the Spanish priests to abandon their people in the hour of extremity. Great and many are their faults, but it cannot harm the glorious cause of religious toleration to declare the fact that the Spanish priest, often woefully ignorant, too often morally lapsed, his own soul perchance in a deep cloud of night, does not desert his flock-he is found by the side of the dying, in the pestilence, in the peril. Whatever the worth of his ceremonies may be, he comes, when the relatives themselves have fled, to hold the crucifix before the fast glazing eye, to administer those rites which his church deems imperative. In contrast with this, the spectacle of the recreant cowards in Chili, leaving the victims of a shameful imposture to their fiery doom, becomes more appalling. But our reminiscences, which claim only to be impressions from the life, and on which we have only reluctantly intruded allusion to so frightful a catastrophe, approach here their conclusion. While we mourn in sadness the too obvious results of a system based on error, let not charity be dimmed in contemplating such a scene, but let us dwell on the sweet hope that if any of us have been so blessed as to further the introduction of even one copy of the Divine Word in the vernacular tongue, the little rills of grace similarly diffused may increase in volume, till at last a mighty stream shall refresh the thirsty land. P. ART. VIII.-Charles Wesley and Methodist Hymns.* The Life of the Rev. Charles Wesley, M.A. By THOMAS JACKSON. 2 vols. 8vo. London. 1841. Hymns and Sacred Poems. By JOHN and CHARLES WESLEY. 2 vols. 1749. Hymns and Sacred Poems. By CHARLES WESLEY. 3 vols. 1739, 1740, 1742. Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures. By CHARLES Hymns on the Lord's Supper. 1745, 1825. Funeral Hymns. 2 vols. 1753, 1759. Hymns for Children and others of Riper Years. 1766, 1842. Hymns for the Use of Families on Various Occasions. 1767, 1825. Hymns on the Trinity. 1767. The Wesleyan Psalter. Nashville, Tenn. 1855. New York. 1848. Methodist Hymnology. By DAVID CREAMER. 12mo. Hymns for the Use of the Methodist Episcopal Church. New York. It is a singular circumstance, that the most prolific and powerful of Christian lyric poets should be comparatively unknown. Positively unknown he is not; his praise is in all the churches; no Christian denomination has entirely refused to accept his valuable help in the common work of worship; in every modern English and American hymn-book he is represented by some of the noblest of spiritual songs. But relatively to his genius and his works the world knows little of him. Perhaps onetenth of his poetry is yet in print. The Methodists cherish his memory, and their various collections contain some eight *By Rev. Frederic M. Bird, Philadelphia. From the Bibliotheca Sacra. Edited by Edwards A. Park, and Samuel H. Taylor. Andover, January 1864. Other hymnals hundred hymns bearing his honoured name. have a sprinkling of the Wesleyan style and spirit, more or less, according to the views, the prejudices, the knowledge of their editors; if the compiler have an unusually liberal spirit, and a rare acquaintance with his subject, the number of Wesleyan hymns may approach one hundred. But we have yet to see an American non-Methodist selection which does fair justice to the greatest of hymn writers. Beyond what is contained in the standard denominational hymn-books, the Wesleyan poetry is inaccessible to ordinary readers, and can be reached by the most zealous bookworm (in America at least) only at some expense of time, trouble, and labour. It is scattered through over thirty separate publications, the dates of which range from 1738 to 1785. Most of these were never reprinted; and all, except three which have been republished by the British Methodists within the century, have been out of print for many years. So much for the published poems (between four and five thousand) of Charles Wesley; but there are nearly as many, says his biographer, which he left in manuscript at his death, and which have never seen the light. Such is the enterprise and spirit of the English Wesleyan Conference, to which they belong. It is difficult properly to handle a subject of such magnitude, and one which has been so little studied and appreciated. "The glorious reproach of Methodism" is scarcely yet extinct; the name of Wesley still rouses many old-time prejudices. Calvinists have not quite lost their suspicion of the Arminian teacher, nor churchmen forgotten to look coldly upon the great schismatic. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Charles Wesley was the "bard of Methodism ;" and most people, without knowing very thoroughly what Methodism is, judge it to be something quite different from other forms of Christianity, and therefore conclude that its poet can hardly be the poet of the church at large. Mr Creamer, in his "Methodist Hymnology," hazards the opinion, that the man is not born who should fully appreciate the genius of the Methodist poet. Certainly the day will come when the grateful praises of his own people shall be echoed by the thanks of the whole Christian world; when posterity shall remedy the tardy justice of time, and Charles Wesley be acknowledged as a name great among British poets, and facile princeps of modern sacred song. It is because the Methodist poet is not known, that he is not appreciated. The more extensively and closely his writings are examined, the more will be found in them worthy to be admired and used. Other hymn writers have had some measure of justice done them. Of Dr Watts especially, the name and writings are household words; his Psalms and Hymns may be found at every book-stall, and very copious extracts from them in every hymn-book. But only a few venturesome persons have explored the vast mine of Wesleyan poetry; and its treasures are as yet unclaimed and unused by the church at large. Dr Watts has been commonly considered the most voluminous and powerful of hymnists. Many of our readers will be surprised to hear that the published Wesleyan hymns are five times as numerous as his, and that of this immense mass the literary standard is far higher than that of the lesser bulk of the more celebrated writer. Set aside one hundred of Watts's and five hundred of Wesley's best hymns; there will be no comparison between the remainder, in style and poetic merit. Dr Watts was a poet at certain times, and under special inspiration; Charles Wesley was a poet by nature and habit, and almost always wrote as such. Of course his effusions are not equal among themselves; but he established and observed, through all his multiplicity of verses, a standard which no other hymn writer up to his time was able to approach, and which none has since surpassed. The above remarks have an air of special pleading. It may relieve our readers to know, that the present writer is not a Methodist, and simply wishes to see justice rendered. He has had inclination and opportunity to study the Wesleyan poetry as few persons have done, and the conclusions resulting from that study are here expressed. The object of the present article is to communicate as thorough and extensive a knowledge of the subject as our limits will permit, by allowing our author to speak for himself as naturally as may be, and illustrating the various phases of his genius and character by extracts from his works. If any attention is thereby drawn to a realm of literary wealth which lies a little off the high road, and has been neglected by most travellers, but offers to the enterprising visitor unequalled attractions and rewards; if, in any quarter, an enlarged interest be awakened in the most fertile and important, yet least explored, region of English hymnology, the labour will not be lost. The interest which attaches to the Wesleyan poetry is not due merely to its intrinsic excellence. It is the product, not only of a great mind, but of a rare day, and wonderful doings. No hymns were ever so autobiographic and historical. They groan under the mortal anguish of repentance; they throb and quiver with the throes of the new birth; they swell with the triumphs of faith, the full glories of a present salvation. The whole vitality, not only of the poet, but of his people and the Lord's, is in them. The life-blood of the time flows through them; they are big with the great awakening, which turned the world upside down. The controversy of the Lord with the |