worshippers were slaughtered. Wherein, then, lay the secret of Islamism's strength? Not in the mere profession of monotheism, but in the strong and living sense of a divine Almighty Will, to which all human wills are subject, and before which, if they do it not spontaneously, they must be forced to bow. Amid the many controversies and speculations, and moral corruptions, and modes of false worship prevalent at the time among Christians, as well as among the worshippers of other gods, all true, deep, soul-stirring recognition of God's personal existence and reign upon the earth, and of the sovereignty, complete and absolute, of his all-controlling will, had nearly evaporated. That recognition-not in word only, but in mighty powercame upon the spirits of the faithful-that recognition they shall force all others to make also. "It was given," says Mr. Maurice, "to the soldiers of Mahomet to make this proclamation in the ears of men. They said by their words and acts-God verily is, and man is his minister to accomplish his will upon earth. This we shall find was the inspiring thought in the warriors of the crescent. This gave them valour, subordination, discipline. This, when it encountered no like or equal feeling in the minds of those among whom they came, made them invincible." There was some truth, it is conceded some portion of vital eternal truth embodied in that deep sentiment which stirred the heart of the true Mussulman. And the sameif we search far enough for it, and be candid enough in the search— the same will be found to be the case with all those religions which have had wide prevalence and extensive power. But what in this case of Mahomedanism shall we make of the general allegation, that the purely and properly theological is but the drapery-the outward environment-covering some simpler idea, some deeper theory of the universe, which theological vestment being stripped off and cast aside, all that is worthy of being preserved, that is capable, indeed, of an enduring existence, is still left to us? That is not true as to Islamism. The very reverse is true. The theological is here the central essential element around which all else gathers, and by which all else is inspired. Take it away, and how much of Mahommedanism remains?—But Mahommedanism soon lost its earlier vivacity; it sheathed its sword, and when its hand was idle, the life-current from the heart ran slowly and feebly along. It was because it had taken up but a small fragment of the truth, a portion that could sus tain it but for a season. It taught that God was-it told little of what he was. It was the bare power of his will, not the divine glories of his character or doings which it announced: and so, whenever its work of forcibly constraining men to acknowledge the Divine Supremacy was over, the truth which it had taken up became transmuted into a falsity. The sovereign will of a personal Deity passed into a blind Fate, and all the ministry of man demanded, was an abject and degrading submission to a power before which he bent the knee, but never in a grateful and willing homage bowed the heart. In what relation, then, to this religion does Christianity now stand? She does not need sternly and summarily to reject all that Mahomet has taught. Neither

Maurice's Religions of the World.

303 here nor elsewhere, in order to sustain her own true character, is it incumbent on her to make out that all which every other teacher has been announcing is false;-enough that whereinsoever any of them can be shown to be deficient, she can at once produce that whereby the deficiency may be made up. To the idea, then, of an absolute will, she adds that of a perfect justice, an infinite mercy, an immeasurable grace, residing in that Deity whom she sets forth for the love and worship of mankind. To the weakness, therefore, which age has inflicted upon Islamism, she can never be subject. And the place which Islamism is too feeble permanently to occupy, she can take up and hold even to the end.

Such is a brief outline of Mr. Maurice's treatment of one of the Great Religions of the world. We have followed him through his analysis of Hindooism, Buddhism, the Greek, Roman, Persian, and Egyptian systems, and in his exhibition of the manner in which Christianity comes in to the aid of all that is good in each of them, and for the displacement of all that is erroneous-of all that is decaying, and ready to vanish away. In following such a guide through a range so wide and for purposes so momentous, it is our comfort to find ourselves in the company of one who himself has laid the grasp of so firm and earnest a faith on the great and peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, and yet whose candour and catholicism of spirit leads him to look with a kindly eye upon whatever has ministered long and largely to the religious wants and longings of our nature.

THE

NORTH BRITISH REVIEW.

AUGUST, 1847.

ART. I.-Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Charles Simeon, M.A., late Senior Fellow of King's College, and Minister of Trinity Church, Cambridge. With a Selection from his Writings and Correspondence. Edited by the Rev. WILLIAM CARUS, M.A., Fellow and Senior Dean of Trinity College, and Minister of Trinity Church, Cambridge. London, 1847.

SENT from Heaven, but little thought of-locked up in that trite small-printed book, the Bible-lies the germ of moral renovation-the only secret for making base spirits noble, and fallen spirits holy. Received into the confiding heart, and developed in congenial affections, it comes forth in all the wonderful varieties of vital Christianity; and, according as the recipient's disposition is energy or mildness, activity or contemplation, it creates a bold reformer or a benign philanthropist-a valiant worker or a far-seen thinker. In bolts that melt as well as burn, it flashes from Luther's surcharged spirit; and in comprehensive kindliness spreads its warm atmosphere round Melanchthon's loving nature. In streams of fervour and fiery earnestness, it follows Zuingle's smoking path, and in a halo of excessive brightness encircles Calvin's awful brow. In impulses of fond beneficence it tingles in Howard's restless feet, and in a blaze of in-door gladness welcomes Cowper's friends. But whether its manifestations be the more beauteous, or the more majestic, of all the influences which can alter or ennoble man it is beyond comparison the most potent and pervasive. In the sunny suffusion with which it cheers existence, in the holy ambition which it kindles, and in the intensity which it imparts to character, that Gospel is "the power of God."

And just as its advent is the grand epoch in the individual's progress, so its scanty or copious presence gives a corresponding aspect to a nation's history. When its power is feeble-when

VOL. VII. NO. XIV.

U

few members of the community are up-borne by its joyful and strenuous force-when there is little of its genial infusion to make kindness spontaneous, and when men forget its solemn future, which renders duty so urgent and self-denial so easy-the public virtues languish, and the moral grandeur of that empire dies. It needs something of the Gospel to produce a real patriot; it needs more of it to create a philanthropist; and, amidst the trials of temper, the seductions of party, and the misconstructions of motive, it needs it all to give that patriot or philanthropist perseverance to the end. It needs a wide diffusion of the Gospel to fill a Parliament with high-minded statesmen, and a country with happy homes. And it will need its prevailing ascendancy to create peace among the nations, and secure the good-will of

man to man,

The world has not yet exhibited the spectacle of an entire people evangelized; but there have been repeated instances where this vital element has told perceptibly on national character; and in the nobler tone of public acting, and higher pulse of popular feeling, might be recognised a people nearer God. In England, for example, there have been three evangelic eras. Thrice over have ignorance and apathy been startled into light and wonder; and thrice over has a vigorous minority of England's inhabitants felt anew all the goodness or grandeur of the ancient message. And it is instructive to remark, how at each successive awakening an impulse was given to the nation's worth which never afterwards faded entirely out of it. Partial as the influence was, and few as they were who shared it, an element was infused into the popular mind, which, like salt imbibed from successive strata by the mineral spring, was never afterwards lost, but, now that ages have lapsed, may still be detected in the national character. The Reformers preached the Gospel, and the common people heard it gladly. Beneath the doublet of the thrifty trader, and the home-spun jerkin of the stalwart yeoman, was felt a throb of new nobility. A monarch and her ministers remotely graced the pageant; but it was to the stout music of old Latimer that the English Reformation marched, and it was a freer soil which iron heels and wooden sandals trode as they clashed and clattered to the burly tune. This Gospel was the birth of British liberty. Its right of private judgment revealed to many not only how precious is every soul, but how important is every citizen; and as much as it deepened the sense of religious re sponsibility, it awakened the desire of personal freedom. It took the Saxon churl, and taught him the softer manners and statelier spirit of his conqueror. It "mended the mettle of his blood;" and gave him something better than Norman chivalry. Quick ening with its energy the endurance of the Saxon, and temper