Earl Roden in the Chair. It was a most delightful Meeting; and my dear fellow-traveller, Mr. Marsh, produced a vast sensation, as indeed he generally does; such a playful suavity as his I never heard. On the Friday, at the Church Mission Society, the Archbishop of Tuam again presided. If I could have accepted of all the invitations, they would have lasted almost to this time."

PLAYFUL REMARKS ABOUT THE GOLDEN MEAN, OR VIA MEDIA.

To the Rev. Mr. T

"K. C., CAMB., July 9, 1825. "My beloved Brother: Perhaps you little thought that in what you have said about extremes, and against the golden mean, you would carry me along with you. But I not only go along with you, I even go far beyond you; for to you I can say in words, what for these thirty years I have proclaimed in deeds (you will not misunderstand me), that the truth is not in the middle, and not in one extreme; but in both extremes. I see you filled with amazement, and doubting whether I am sober, i. e., in my sober senses.

"Here were two extremes; observing days, eating meats, &c.-'Paul, how do you move? In the mean way?' 'No.'

To one extreme?' 'No.'-'How then?' To both extremes in their turn, as occasion requires.'

"Here are two other extremes, Calvinism and Arminianism (for you need not be told how long Calvin and Arminius lived before St. Paul). 'How do you move in reference to these, Paul? In a golden mean?' 'No.'- To one extreme?' 'No'.' How then?" To both extremes: to-day I am a strong Calvinist; to-morrow a strong Arminian.'—'Well, well, Paul, I see thou art beside thyself; go to Aristotle, and learn the golden mean.'

But, my brother, I am unfortunate; I formerly read Aristotle, and liked him much; I have since read Paul, and caught somewhat of his strange notions oscillating (not vacillating) from pole to pole. Sometimes I am a high Calvinist, at other times a low Arminian; so that, if extremes will please you, I am your man; only remember, it is not one extreme that we are to go to, but both extremes.

"Now, my beloved brother, if I find you in the zenith on the one side, I shall hope to find you in the nadir on the other; and then we shall be ready (in the estimation of the world, and

of moderate Christians, who love the golden mean) to go to Bedlam together."

MEMORANDA ON VARIOUS OCCASIONS.

On a Bequest for Religious Objects.

“Feb. 23, 1826.

"About four years ago, when I was in my blessed work of purchasing Livings, to secure in perpetuity pious and laborious Ministers in them, by the advice of a gentleman, 1 wrote to Dr. Kilvington, whom I had never seen, to ask some assistance towards it, thinking he might possibly give me £500; and behold he gave me nearly £8000! And now that I am again engaged to the amount of above £10,000, a gentleman, whom I never saw but once, and then only for half an hour, has died and left me, as my informant says, £9000. My poor dear honored and lamented Father thought that I should ruin myself by giving my money to the poor, and therefore left my little fortune in the hands of trustees, to keep me from this apprehended mischief. Behold, this is the way in which God leaves me to be ruined! Oh, what a Master He is! I wonder who ever lost by serving Him? It is sufficient for me to know, that 'what we give for His glory, we lend to Him; and he will repay us again.' But He will not even take the loan; for on both these occasions He has just interposed (as indeed He has on several other occasions) to forestall and prevent the payment out of my own pocket; so that I am still as strong as ever to prosecute the same good work. Who needs prove to me the providence of God?"

On receiving Marks of Attention.

"May 26, 1826.

"I have thought that I would not make any memorandum of two events, lest it should appear to savor of vanity; but they do in a very striking way evince the goodness of God to me, and may serve to show how He rewards a simple and faithful adherence to Him. I remember the time that I was quite surprised that a Fellow of my own College ventured to walk with me for a quarter of an hour on the grassplot before Clare Hall; and for many years after I began my Ministry, I was a man wondered at, by reason of the paucity of those who showed any regard for true religion. But now, on my open days (Fridays), when I receive visitors at tea, frequently more than forty (all without invitation) come. What an honor is this!

How impossible would it have been for me ever to have obtained it, if I had sought it! But God gives it me unsought."

"Again. In the month of April I was proposed as a member of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge; and as it was apprehended that I might be black-balled (for some have been who were far less notorious than myself), there went a host of Bishops and other Dignitaries of the Church, with their friends (about 90 or 100 in all), to beat down opposition, and to vote me in with a high hand. I understand there were but three opponents; and that Mr. was peculiarly zealous in

my support. Is not this of the Lord?

"Again. Last week three Bishops did me the honor of visiting me; Dr. Burgess, Bishop of Salisbury-Dr. Law, Bishop of Bath and Wells-Dr. Jebb, Bishop of Limerick; and I accompanied them to King's Chapel, and to Trinity Library, and spent above an hour with them. This shows how much Christian liberality has increased, and is increasing. I am not conscious that I am one atom less faithful to my God than in former days, or more desirous of human favor; yet God is pleased thus graciously to honor me. In former years I should as soon have expected a visit from three crowned heads, as from three persons wearing a mitre ; not because there was any want of condescension in them, but because my religious character affixed a stigma to my name. I thank God that I receive this

honor as from Him, and am pleased with it no further than as it indicates an increasing regard for religion amongst my superiors in the Church, and may tend to lessen prejudice amongst those to whom the report of it may come."

WE

CHAPTER VII.

MR. SIMEON'S JUBILEE.

We are now come to a period in Mr. Simeon's history, which is memorable, as bringing to a completion the fiftieth year of his residence in the University. In order to commemorate this event in a devout and becoming manner, he requested a select party of his friends to assemble for two days in his rooms for exercises of a social and religious character.

The following letter from one of the most endeared and dis

tinguished of the party invited, expressing as it does so admirably the sentiments which were shared in general on this occasion, will doubtless be read with no ordinary interest.

W. WILBERFORCE, ESQ. TO MR. SIMEON.

"HIGHWOOD HILL, MIDDLESEX, 22d January, 1829.

"My dear Friend: Ought I to be ashamed to confess, or rather shall I not rejoice, and with thankfulness avow it, that at my time of life, in my seventieth year, I preserve such a warmth of feeling, that, on the perusal of your very interesting letter, and more especially on reading your kind invitation to join the party that will celebrate with you your Jubilee, I was at first kindled into such a blaze as to be quite dazzled by the splendor of my own conceptions, and heated into a hope that I might become a sharer in your Christian festivities. But a little cool reflection sufficed for enforcing on me a more sober view of things, and compelled me to admit that, having been commanded by medical authority to shut up during the winter months, I should be taking a liberty with my constitution that would be utterly unwarrantable, if I were to sally forth in such a season as this, though to indulge in the exercise of some of the most generous and even sacred pleasures of which our nature is capable in this imperfect state. I must be content then to join your party in spirit, if not in person; and in offering up my petitions for the various blessings you have enumerated (I thank you for the specification), I shall not forget to return my humble thanksgivings to the Giver of all good, for having enabled you 'to continue unto this day,' (how much is contained in that brief though compendious expression!) But you are blessed with so much bodily health and vigor, that we may humbly indulge the hope that the Almighty will still grant you a long course of usefulness and comfort. The degree in which, without any sacrifice of principle, you have been enabled to overcome, and, if I may so term it, to live down the prejudices of many of our higher Ecclesiastical authorities, is certainly a phenomenon I never expected to witness."

EXTRACTS FROM HIS DIARY ON THAT OCCASION.

Jan. 29.-Curious enough! This day, the day of my Jubilee, and of my investiture with the office, was ushered in by the ringing of bells all over Cambridge. It is the day of the King's Accession.

Now, then, let me in a few words give an account of my

Jubilee. Several were kept away by illness; so that my party was not very large at dinner the first day. The first evening was very sweet. I opened my views of a Jubilee-(not like the joy of the man healed in Solomon's porch, but like the prodigal, whose joy would be not only tempered by, but almost wholly consisting in, a retrospective shame, and prospective determination through grace to avoid in future the evils, from which God's free mercy, founded on the atonement, has delivered us)—it was proclaimed on the day of Atonement. (See Lev. xxv. 9.)

The second day we met at eleven o'clock. I read some portions of Scripture, and prayed generally for the Divine presence. Then Mr. Sargent read, and gave a prayer of humiliation; Mr. Daniel Wilson followed for the Universities; then Dr. Steinkopff for the religious Societies and the Church. We then separated for an hour. Mr. Hawtrey ended with Thanksgiving. Mr. D. Wilson preached the Lecture (at Trinity Church). On the whole it was a season of refreshing to us Blessed be God for this mercy.

all;

MR. SIMEON ON CATHOLIC DISABILITIES.

On the 25th of March, being "Founder's Day" at King's College, a Sermon is annually preached by one of the Society before the University, who assemble in the College Chapel. The Sermon this year was preached by Mr. Simeon, who took occasion to deliver his sentiments on the momentous subjects, then in debate, connected with the passing of the Bill for removing the Roman Catholic Disabilities.

The following is a part of the Discourse :

"As to the measures which our Government is now pursuing, I condemn them not. I believe from my heart they are necessary, not only for the averting of the immediately impending. evils of civil war, but for the forming of a permanent bond of union amongst the widely differing subjects of our distracted empire. But I cannot hide from myself the dangers to which, even by this very remedy, the whole nation will be speedily exposed. That a more familiar intercourse between Catholics and ourselves will be the immediate and necessary result of their introduction to all places of honor and profit in our land, is certain; and we may well expect, in a very short time, to see almost the whole of Britain inundated with Papists. Their priests, of course, will labor by all possible means to diffuse their tenets, and to proselyte our people to their Church. And I think it highly probable that their success for a time will be both wide and rapid; not because of the real force of their