George Whitefield.—Exactly two hundred years ago, on the 16th December, this much-honoured servant of God saw the light. He was born at the Bell Inn, Gloucester, in 1714. He came into contact with the earnest-minded band of Oxford students designated Methodists. “The Life of God in the Soul of Man,” by Henry Scougal, proved a great help to him. “I never knew,” is his own testimony, “what true religion was till God sent me that excellent treatise.” He never forgot his Oxford experience, and on visiting Oxford thirty-five years after his conversion he testified:—”I know the place; it may perhaps be superstitious, but whenever I go to Oxford I cannot help running to the spot, where Jesus Christ first revealed Himself to me, and gave me the new birth.” Whitefield was an orator of marvellous eloquence, but the lasting and extraordinary impression made by his preaching was due to God’s Spirit accompanying the spoken word. He met with tremendous opposition, but he pursued his course in the spirit of His Master, and thousands were converted under his preaching. He, as a true soldier, was not unconcerned as to the substance of his teaching, and this led him into conflict with the Arminianism of John Wesley. He visited Scotland, and preached at Cambuslang and other places in 1742.
The Earl of Halsbury on “Thou shalt not Steal.”—Speaking at a meeting of the Victoria Institute, London, on 14th December, the Earl of Halsbury referred to “the principle of coveting other people’s goods,” and said the eighth Commandment was to his mind of universal obligation. His Lordship, with emphasis, proceeded:—”I protest against blasphemous cant. I wish to denounce any man who thinks himself appointed by God to take possession of someone’s property. It seems to me to be a very bad principle indeed, and I cannot allow this discussion to pass without raising my voice in opposition to the notion that because a very big crime is committed, it is to be treated as though it were a little crime. Any Emperor who wants to take somebody else’s land is a dirty thief, and I do not approve of the sort of delicacy which would prevent us expressing ourselves plainly as to actions of that sort. They are actions of which any man should be ashamed. What is the notion of world-Empire? It is this. There is something which you don’t possess yourself, and which you are going to make your own. By such means you are to carry your grandeur and your glory to the uttermost parts of the earth, and whether the offender be Napoleon, who committed great crimes, or Sennacherib, he ought to be hanged. The principle of world-Empire means that by violence and force you are to take that which belongs to another, and in doing so, you are to inflict suffering upon your fellow-man. Oh; the miserable delusion of man’s pride! I trust that one of these days we shall arrive at a general concession amongst mankind that all people who are established in a country of their own shall remain in possession of it, not to be disturbed unless such interference shall be fully justified. It sometimes perhaps might be justified, but to dispossess a nation should never be allowed as a principle of the Empire. The one principle we have to establish is, ‘Thou shalt not steal.’—The Scotsman.
The Pope and the Christmas Truce.—Since the accession of the new Pope the Vatican has been putting forth every effort to keep itself well before the eye of the world. One of the latest moves was to get the belligerent powers to consent to a truce on Christmas. The effort has failed and we are devoutly thankful for the failure. Not but we would have rejoiced even for a day’s respite in the life and death struggle going on between the nations: in fact, we would rejoice that there would be an armistice every Lord’s Day. Christmas Day is a human institution, and though there is a make-believe that it is a day set apart in honour of the birth of Christ, yet the revelry, frivolity, and feasting of the day, all proclaim too plainly its earthly origin. Most of the religious services on this day remind us forcibly of what is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” Christ’s birth into the world ought not to be commemorated after the fashion of the old Norse gods with their Yule-tide revelries.
A Royal Speech.—In reading an old volume of the Little Gleaner we came across the following speech made at a meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1871 by His Highness the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh (heir to the throne of the Punjab):—”I was a king, but my possessions were taken from me by your government. In early life, when I was but a little boy, the son of a Brahmin, himself a priest, was my tutor. In the course of his instruction I inquired of him what was the religion of the English. In answer to my inquiry he produced a Bible, and said, ‘I will show you.’ He then read Genesis i. and Matthew xxvii. I was but a child, and I cried at the recital of the crucifixion. The impression then made upon my heart was, I believe, from the Spirit of God. I now stand before you as a Christian. In my case the truth of the Scriptures has been confirmed, that ‘one shall be taken, and the other left,’ for my tutor is still a heathen. I fear that many of you I see around me are neglecting that Bible you are seeking to send to others, but I hope that in future you will read it yourselves.”
Britain takes another Step in the Wrong Direction.—The Daily Press announced at the middle of last month that Sir Henry Howard had been appointed His Britannic Majesty’s Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Vatican. It is indicated in the telegram from Milan announcing this appointment that it points to the consequent re-establishment of formal diplomatic relations between Great Britain and the Vatican after a lapse of nearly four hundred years. It is also said that the Vatican expects the present special mission to continue as a permanent one. This coquetting with the Roman Harlot has been going on for years, and Britain may yet realise that it is a serious matter to have anything to do with her whose past policy has been to make the nations drunk with the wine of her fornications. It is reported that a section of the Italian Press view this new venture with concern, as it may lead up to negotiations for the restoration of the temporal sovereignty of the Pope. What the future has in store is known only to the Ruler of the Nations, but Protestants cannot help viewing, with deep concern, this disloyal step to their faith by a professedly Protestant nation.