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prisons and galleys of France were crowded with victims. Among these were many men illustrious in rank and culture. The arrival of the fugitives, emaciate and woe-stricken, upon the soil of Protestant countries, created intense sensation. From every Protestant court in Europe a cry of indignation arose. England, Switzerland, Holland, Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, received the sufferers with warm demonstrations of hospitality and sympathy.

The loss to France was irreparable. Only one year after the Revocation, Marshal Vauban wrote,—

“France has lost a hundred thousand inhabitants, sixty millions of coined money, nine thousand sailors, twelve thousand disciplined soldiers, six hundred officers, and her most flourishing manufactures.”

The fanatic king, instead of being softened by these woes, became more unrelenting. He issued an ordinance requiring that all the children between five and sixteen years of age, of parents suspected of Protestantism, should be taken from their homes, and placed in Catholic families. All books which it was thought in any way favored the Protestant faith were seized and burned. “The Bible itself, the Bible above all, was confiscated and burned with persevering animosity.”214

But no power of persecution could utterly crush out between two and three millions of Protestants, nearly every one of whom was ready to go to the stake in defence of his faith. In some of the provinces the Protestants were in so large a majority, and were organized under such able military leaders, that the king was unable to enforce with any efficiency his sanguinary code.

In contemplation of such scenes of fanaticism and suffering, one is led to inquire if Christianity has, on the whole, proved a blessing to mankind. But let it be remembered, that as secular history is mainly occupied with a record of the wars and the woes of humanity, while years of tranquillity and peace have no annalists; so historians of the Church have been mainly occupied with the corruptions which human depravity have introduced into the pure, simple, and beneficent principles of the religion of Jesus. But there is little to be recorded of the millions upon millions of Christians in private life, who, from youth to old age, have had their hearts purified, their manners softened, their homes cheered and blessed, by those quiet virtues which their faith has inculcated. Every joy of their lives has been magnified, and every grief solaced, by their piety.

They have fallen asleep in Jesus, triumphant over death and the grave, and are now with angel-companions in the paradise of God. No man can estimate the multitude of these redeemed ones: their number is “ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.” And now, to use the glowing language of inspiration,—

“Are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat: for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”215

In the accompanying group of portraits, the reader will find correct likenesses of some of the most distinguished of the Protestant clergy during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

EMINENT CLERGY OF THE 18TH CENTURY

Thomas Chalmers, one of the most eloquent and renowned of the Presbyterian clergy of Scotland, was born at Anstruther, in Fifeshire, the 17th of March, 1780. At the early age of twelve, he entered the University of St. Andrew’s. Distinguishing himself as a scholar, he was licensed to preach in his nineteenth year. When he was first ordained minister of a small parish at Kilmany, his mind was chiefly occupied with studies of natural science, and in speculating upon moral, social, and political questions. Though he devoted little time, comparatively, to the pulpit, still, with powers of glowing and impassioned eloquence which drew great multitudes to hear him, he enforced the highest principles of worldly morality. Though the audiences listened, charmed by his eloquence, he testifies, that, at the close of twelve years, he could not perceive that any good had been accomplished by his preaching. This led him to inquire why the preaching of the gospel by the apostles produced results so different from those which he witnessed.

These anxious questions, in connection with a dangerous illness and severe domestic bereavements, led him to a renewed examination of the New Testament. He then perceived that he had been a stranger to the gospel of Christ, and that he had been preaching simply a code of morals, without regard to those great doctrines which are the “wisdom of God, and the power of God unto salvation.” From his sick-bed he returned to the pulpit, a new man, to proclaim to his congregation, with increasing fervor of utterance, salvation through faith in an atoning Saviour. The style of his preaching was thoroughly changed. The themes upon which he dwelt, and upon which he brought to bear all the powers of his rich and varied culture and his impassioned eloquence, were the lost state of mankind by the fall; the atonement for human guilt made by the sufferings and death of the Son of God upon the cross at Calvary; redemption from sin and its penalty, obtained through penitence and faith in this atoning Saviour; regeneration,—the recreating of the soul by the energies of the Holy Spirit; and the endeavor to live a Christ-like life, as the result of this renewal by the Holy Ghost.

There was vitality in these doctrines; they inspired the preacher with zeal unknown before; and, from that hour to the day of his death, Thomas Chalmers preached the glad tidings of the gospel with power, and with success unsurpassed, perhaps, by any other preacher in Great Britain or America. He still continued to prosecute his literary and scientific studies, but brought all his resources to the advocacy of the gospel. In one of his published articles, he alludes with admiration to the history of Pascal, “who, after a youth signalized with profound speculations, had stopped short in a brilliant career of discovery, resigned the splendors of literary reputation, renounced without a sigh all the distinctions which are conferred upon genius, only to devote every talent and every hour to the defence and illustration of the gospel.”216

His pulpit eloquence attracted listeners from great distances. An article which he wrote for “The Encyclopædia” in 1813, upon “The Evidences of Christianity,” attracted great attention, and was immediately republished in separate volumes. Several review articles which he wrote upon scientific and political questions added greatly to his renown. In 1815 he was invited to the pastoral charge of a parish in Glasgow. Here, for eight years, he stood, as a pulpit orator, without a rival. The most distinguished philosophers and the most unlettered men were alike charmed by his address.

Jeffries describes the impression produced by his sermons as similar to the effect created by the most impassioned strains of Demosthenes. Wilberforce wrote in his diary, “All the world is wild about Dr. Chalmers.” He delivered a series of weekly lectures on “The Connection of the Discoveries of Astronomy and the Christian Revelation.” They were listened to with intense admiration, and, being published in 1817, secured an immense sale, rivalling even the Waverley Novels in popularity.

His fame was such, that, being invited to London to preach, the most distinguished men in the kingdom crowded the church, and listened with admiration to his glowing utterances. Several articles which he contributed to “The Edinburgh Review” added much to his celebrity as a philosopher, a statesman, and an accomplished scholar. Through his influence, the old parochial system of Scotland was thoroughly revised; and the whole community was divided into small sections, so as to bring every individual under educational and ecclesiastical influences. The parish of St. John, which contained two thousand families, eight hundred of whom were not connected with any Christian church, was intrusted, as an experiment, entirely to his supervision. The support of the poor in that parish had been costing seven thousand dollars a year. In four years the poor were in far more comfortable circumstances, and the expense of their support amounted to but fourteen hundred dollars a year. Every street and lane was systematically visited.

In the year 1823, Dr. Chalmers accepted the professorship of moral philosophy in the University of St. Andrew’s; and in the year 1828 he was transferred to the higher sphere of professor of theology in the University of Edinburgh. Here he remained for fifteen years. The enthusiasm inspired by his ardor and eloquence crowded his lecture-room, not only with students, but with men of the highest literary distinction, and clergymen of every denomination. In the year 1833 he made a tour through Scotland, collecting funds, and urging forward a movement which would so increase the churches of the country, that the claims of religion should be urged upon every individual heart. He had became the recognized leader of what was called the Evangelical party. In the General Assembly of 1834—of which Dr. Chalmers was moderator—a resolution was passed, that no minister should be forced upon any parish against whom a majority of the congregation should remonstrate. This gave rise to a very violent controversy. The civil courts declared this to be contrary to the law of the land. Thus the church and the civil courts came into collision.

The result was, that, after a struggle of ten years, four hundred and seventy clergymen withdrew from the Established Church, and associated themselves as the “Free Church of Scotland,” choosing Dr. Chalmers their moderator. The last four years of Dr. Chalmers’s busy life were spent in organizing the new church, in performing the duties of president of the Free Church College which had been founded, and in writing for “The North-British Review,” which had been established under his superintendence. In the midst of these arduous labors, Dr. Chalmers was suddenly called to his final rest. He had just returned from London, where he had been consulting some eminent statesmen upon his views of national education, when he was found, on the morning of the 31st of May, 1847, dead in his bed, at Morningside, near Edinburgh. During the night, he had “fallen asleep in Jesus.” The tranquillity of his features showed that the soul had taken its upward flight from the body without a struggle or a pang. He had attained the age of sixty-seven years.

Jonathan Edwards, perhaps, takes the rank of the most illustrious of American divines. He was born at East Windsor, Conn., on the 5th of October, 1703. Dr. Chalmers said of him,—

“On the arena of metaphysics, Jonathan Edwards stood the highest of his contemporaries. The American divine affords, perhaps, the most wondrous example in modern times of one who stood gifted both in natural and spiritual discernment.”

Sir James Mackintosh says of him, “This remarkable man—the metaphysician of America—was formed among the Calvinists of New England. His power of subtle argument, perhaps unmatched, certainly unsurpassed, among men, was joined with a character which raised his piety to fervor.”

Robert Hall writes, “Jonathan Edwards ranks with the brightest luminaries of the Christian Church, not excluding any country or any age.”

In a family of ten sisters, Jonathan was an only son. His father and his grandfather, on his mother’s side, were both eminent ministers of the gospel. His father was distinguished for scholarship in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Under the tuition of his father and his accomplished elder sisters, the youthful intellect of Jonathan was very rapidly developed. Before he was ten years of age, he became deeply concerned for his soul’s salvation, and engaged very earnestly in a life of devotion, praying five times a day in secret. At that early age he wrote a

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