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Churchmen have not been wanting in any age, even the one in which Simeon arose.

We will now give a general outline of Simeon's life and religious experience: after which we propose dwelling particularly on a few points connected with his character and public acts.

Charles Simeon was the fourth and youngest son of Richard Simeon, Esq., of Reading. On his mother's side he claimed connexion with two Archbishops of York, and on his father's side he traced his descent directly from the ancient and wealthy house of the Simeons of Pyrton, in Oxfordshire. His eldest brother, John, became distinguished at the bar, and represented the borough of Reading in Parliament. He was created a baronet in 1815, an honour previously held by the family from a period almost coeval with the institution of the order.' Simeon's early life and school-days are thus described:

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'Charles Simeon was born at Reading, September 24, 1758, and was baptized at the parish-church, October 24, following. Very little can be ascertained with accuracy respecting his early history. Whilst yet very young, he was sent to the Royal College of Eton, where he was in due course admitted on the foundation; and in his nineteenth year he succeeded to a Scholarship of King's College in the University of Cambridge. The energy and vigour which so remarkably distinguished him through life, were much noticed in his youth. Horsemanship was his favourite exercise; and few persons, it is well known, were better judges of the merits of a horse, or more dexterous and bold in the management of one. In feats of strength and activity, he was surpassed by none; of some of these he was pleasantly reminded in the decline of life by his early schoolfellow and constant friend, Dr. Goodall, the late Provost of Eton; who in a letter, September 29, 1833, writes to him," I much doubt if you could now snuff a candle with your feet, or jump over half-a-dozen chairs in succession. Sed quid ego hæc revoco ?-at 73, moniti meliora sequamur." With regard to his moral character and habits, there is every reason to believe, from observations that occasionally escaped from him, that he was by no means profligate or vicious, in the usual sense of the terms. It would rather appear that though exposed to scenes and temptations, which he often spoke of with horror, he was on the whole in early life regular in his habits, and correct in his general conduct. His failings were principally such as arose from a constitutional vehemence and warmth of temper, the more easily provoked from certain feelings of vanity and self-importance, which, during the whole of his life, were a subject of conflict and trial to him. These feelings would display themselves at school in too great attention to dress, and in little peculiarities of manner, which quickly attracted the notice and provoked the ridicule of his companions.

It seemed necessary to premise thus much respecting Mr. Simeon's early habits and behaviour; as it might easily be supposed from the strong language he has used, when describing the vanity and wickedness" of his youth, that he had been guilty of some gross violations of morality. Those, however, who are accustomed to searching self-examination, and habitually compare their lives and tempers with the requirements of God's holy law, will have no difficulty in understanding Mr. Simeon's unreserved expressions of sorrow and humiliation when reviewing the past. It should be remembered too, that the statements of the following autobiography are those of an advanced Christian, recording with matured views his judgment of the unprofitableness of his youth.'-Pp. 2—4.

The following extract, from a memoir written by himself in 1813, contains an incident of his Eton life, rather characteristic of himself, and also of future public opinion:

'There is, however, one remarkable circumstance which I will mention. About two years before I left Eton, on one of the first days during the American War, I was particularly struck with the idea of the whole nation uniting in fasting and prayer on account of the sins which had brought down the divine judgments upon us and I thought that, if there was one who had more displeased God than others, it was I. To humble myself therefore before God, appeared to me a duty of immediate and indispensable necessity. Accordingly I spent the day in fasting and prayer. But I had not learned the happy art of 'washing my face and anointing my head, that I might not appear unto men to fast. My companions therefore noticed the change in my deportment, and immediately cried out Ovaì ovaì vμiv, vпокρIтaí, (Woе, wоe unto you, hypocrites,) by which means they soon dissipated my good desires, and reduced me to my former state of thoughtlessness and sin. I do not remember that these good desires ever returned during my stay at school; but I think that they were from God, and that God would at that time have communicated richer blessings to me, if I had not resisted the operations of his grace, and done despite to his blessed Spirit.'-Pp. 4, 5.

In the month of January, 1779, he went to King's College, Cambridge, and then commenced his religious life.

On my coming to College, Jan. 29, 1779, the gracious designs of God towards me were soon manifest. It was but the third day after my arrival that I understood I should be expected, in the space of about three weeks, to attend the Lord's Supper. What! said I, must I attend? On being informed that I must, the thought rushed into my mind that Satan himself was as fit to attend as I; and that if I must attend, I must prepare for my attendance there. Without a moment's loss of time, I bought the old Whole Duty of Man (the only religious book that I had ever heard of), and began to read it with great diligence; at the same time calling my ways to remembrance, and crying to God for mercy; and so earnest was I in these exercises, that within the three weeks I made myself quite ill with reading, fasting, and prayer. From that day to this, blessed, for ever blessed, be my God, I have never ceased to regard the salvation of my soul as the one thing needful.'-Pp. 6, 7.

On a future occasion he again asserts the consistency of his religious feelings from this time. In the early part of 1819, he thus describes his inward experience:

It is now a little above forty years since I began to seek after God; and within about three months of that time, after much humiliation and prayer, I found peace through the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. About half a year after that, I had some doubts and fears about my state, in consequence of an erroneous notion, which I had imbibed from Mr. Hervey, about the nature of saving faith. But when I found, from better information, that justifying faith was a faith of affiance, and not a faith of assurance, my peace returned; because, though I had not a faith of assurance, I had as full a conviction that I relied on the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation, as I had of my own existence. From that time to the present hour, I have never for a moment lost my hope and confidence in my adorable Saviour; for though, alas! I have had deep and abundant cause for humiliation, I have never ceased to wash in that fountain that was opened for sin and uncleanness, or to cast myself upon the tender mercy of my reconciled God.'-P. 518.

It is curious, at this early stage of his religious life, how the love of preaching developed itself.

From the time that I found peace with God myself, I wished to impart to others the benefits I had received. I therefore adopted a measure which must have appeared most singular to others, and which perhaps a more matured judgment might have disapproved; but I acted in the simplicity of my heart, and I am persuaded that God accepted it at my hands. I told my servant that as she and the other servants were prevented almost entirely from going to church, I would do my best to instruct them on a Sunday evening, if they chose to come to me for that purpose. Several of them thankfully availed themselves of the offer, and came to me; and I read some good book to them, and used some of the prayers of the Liturgy for prayer; and though I do not know that any of them ever received substantial benefit to their souls, I think that the opportunities were not lost upon myself; for I thereby cultivated a spirit of benevolence, and fulfilled in some measure that divine precept, “Freely ye have received, freely give."-Pp. 10, 11.

Yet it throws a curious light on these descriptions of his religious state of mind, written, we must remember, one in 1813, and the other in 1819, to find, in the former of these same journals, the first three years of his professedly religious life thus alluded to:

'As yet, and indeed for three years after, I knew not any religious person, and consequently continued to have my society among the world. When the races came, I went to them, as I had been used to do, and attended at the raceballs as usual, though without the pleasure which I had formerly experienced. I felt them to be empty vanities; but I did not see them to be sinful: I did not then understand those words, "be not conformed to this world." At the latter ball, Major B. of Windsor, asked me to go over the next day to Windsor, to join in a match at cricket, and to spend a few days with him; this I did; and it led to an event which I desire ever to remember with the deepest shame, and the most lively gratitude to God. On the Sunday he proposed to go and visit a friend about fifteen miles off; and to that proposal I acceded. Here I sinned against God and my own conscience; for though I knew not the evil of races and balls, I knew full well that I ought to keep holy the Sabbath day. He carried me about ten miles in his phaeton; and then we proceeded the remainder of our way on horseback. The day was hot; it was about the 26th day of August, 1779, and when we arrived at the gentleman's house, I drank a great deal of cool tankard. After dinner, not aware of the strength of the cool tankard, I drank wine just as I should have done if I had drunk nothing else; and when I came to return on horseback, I was in a state of utter intoxication. The motion of the horse increased the effect of the liquor, and deprived me entirely of my senses. Major B. rode before, and I followed; but my horse, just before I came to a very large heath, turned into an inn; and the people seeing my state took me off my horse. Major B., not seeing me behind, rode back to inquire for me: and when he found what condition I was in, he put me into a post-chaise, and carried me to the inn whence we had taken our horses. Here we were forced to stop all night. The next morning we returned in his phaeton to Windsor. I do not recollect whether my feelings were very acute that day; I rather think not. The next morning we went to a public breakfast and dance at Egham, which, at that time, was always on the Tuesday after the Reading races. There I passed an hour or two, and after returning with him to Windsor, proceeded on horseback to Reading. I went through Salthill, and seeing Mrs. Marsh standing at her inn-door, I entered into a little conversation with her. She asked me whether I had heard

of the accident that had happened to a gentleman of Reading on the Sunday evening before; and then told me that a gentleman of Reading had fallen from his horse in a state of intoxication, and had been killed on the spot. What were my feelings now! I had eighteen miles to ride, and all alone; how was I filled with wonder at the mercy of God towards me! Why was it not myself, instead of the other gentleman? Why was he taken and I left? And what must have been my state to all eternity, if I had then been taken away! In violating the Sabbath, I had sinned deliberately; and for so doing, God had left me to all the other sins that followed! How shall I adore his name to all eternity that He did not cut me off in these sins, and make me a monument of his heaviest displeasure!'-Pp. 11-13.

Is there not a strange inconsistency in the penitence here professed for such offences, and the subsequent description of his religious state of mind during the same time? When he ascribed some troubles of mind to having read erroneous notions of Hervey on saving faith, did he not deceive himself as to the cause of his uneasiness? Did they not arise from the more ordinary effects of conscience? At the very commencement, indeed, of Simeon's religious life, we observe a peculiar deficiency of the power of tracing a satisfactory connexion between cause and effect. When the effect occurs, he exercises his ingenuity to discover some unnatural, and therefore, in his mind, spiritual cause, rather than adopt the ordinary rules of morality, by which we may follow present acts to their future consequences. To explain this by the case before us; Simeon fell back seriously from his religious state, and afterwards had troubles of mind-yet he ascribes those troubles, not to their proper cause, but to doctrinal misconceptions of saving faith.

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To proceed, however, with the events of his life. In 1782, he was ordained by the Bishop of Ely, and began his ministry in St. Edward's Church, (in good old Latimer's pulpit,) serving that parish for Mr. Atkinson, during the long vacation. Simeon marked out his line boldly from the first; in his memoir he states that he had serious thoughts of putting an advertisement, to the following effect, into the papers, for his first curacy. That a young Clergyman who felt himself an undone sinner, and looked to the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation, and desired to live only to make known that Saviour unto others, was persuaded that there must be some persons in the world whose views and feelings on this subject accorded with his own, though he had now lived three years without so much as finding one; and that if there were any minister of that description, he would gladly become his curate, and serve him gratis.' This intended advertisement is too obvious in its wording to require any comments. It is curiously typical of his whole ministerial life; a strong and earnest appreciation of one doctrine of Christianity, together with great disinterestedness as regards preferment, but all this

sadly spoiled by gross egotism and pharisaical self-complacency. Beginning his ministry with such views, and with such zeal, he was not long in developing his idea of the office, and in gaining his position in the religious world.

"The Rev. M. M. Preston, in his "Memoranda" of Mr. Simeon, has recorded an incident which may be noticed here :—

"The very first day of his public ministrations was marked by an occurrence of a remarkable character. In returning from the church through the thoroughfare called St. Edward's Passage, his attention was arrested by the loud wrangling of a man and his wife. The door being open, he entered the house, and earnestly expostulated with them on the sin of absenting themselves unnecessarily from the House of God, and disturbing, by such unseemly conduct, those who had been there. He then knelt down to pray for them; and persons passing by, attracted by the novelty of the scene, gradually collected, till the room was full. It was not likely that such zeal in a young man of his station should long remain unnoticed."

'His character and conduct are described at the time by his revered friend, the Rev. H. Venn, in the following letter to the Rev. J. Stillingfleet:

"October 9, 1782.

"On Trinity Sunday was ordained Mr. Simeon, Fellow of King's College. Before that day he never was in company with an earnest Christian. Soon after, he was visited by Mr. H. Jowett, and my son, and two or three more. In less than seventeen Sundays, by preaching for Mr. Atkinson in a church at Cambridge, he filled it with hearers-a thing unknown there for near a century. He has been over to see me six times within the last three months he is calculated for great usefulness, and is full of faith and love. My soul is always the better for his visits. Oh, to flame as he does with zeal, and yet be beautified with meekness! The day he was a substitute for Mr. Atkinson he began to visit the parishioners from house to house. Full of philanthropy was his address: I am come to inquire after your welfare. Are you happy?' His evident regard for their good disarmed them of their bitterness; and it is amazing what success he has met with."-Pp. 26, 27.

At the end of the year 1782, Simeon was appointed to the living of Trinity Church, which was the scene of his labours for fifty-four years, till his death in 1836. He entered on this charge under no favourable circumstances, and there is much in the treatment he met with from his parishioners, which claims our sympathy. The living was in the gift of the Bishop of Ely, to whom Simeon's father applied on his son's behalf. The parishioners, however, petitioned for their curate, Mr. Hammond, and they themselves appointed him to the lectureship. This gave Simeon some perplexity of mind, which was finally relieved by the Bishop's assurance, that even if he did not accept the living, Mr. Hammond should not be appointed. He then began his ministry under the greatest possible disadvantage; for years even, the spirit of hostility against him was unabated. Pews were locked up, and he had to erect forms in the aisles of the church, but even these were pulled down by the Churchwardens. He then established an evening service, but the

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