86. Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) was the wellknown author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." His history is a truly great work, and is written with masterly skill.

He has been accused of disparaging the Christian religion in a very artful manner, suppressing or belittling its most glorious achievements, and giving undue prominence to every blemish or stigma brought upon it by hypocrisy or fanaticism. Perhaps he should be allowed

to speak for himself.

A pure and humble religion gently insinuated itself into the minds of men, grew up in silence and obscurity, derived new vigor from opposition, and finally erected the triumphant banner of the Cross on the ruins of the capital. Chap. 15:1.

Our curiosity is naturally prompted to inquire by what means the Christian faith obtained so remarkable a victory over the established religions of the earth. To this inquiry an obvious but satisfactory answer may be returned, that it was owing to the convincing evidence of the doctrine itself, and to the ruling providence of its great Author.-- 15: 3.

If we consider the purity of the Christian religion, the sanctity of its moral precepts, and the innocent as well as austere lives of the greater number of those who during the first ages embraced the faith of the gospel, etc.- 16: 1.

The pure and sublime idea which they entertained of the Supreme Being, escaped the gross conception of the Pagan multitude. 16:7.

The Pagan multitude, reserving their gratitude for temporal benefits alone, rejected the inestimable present of life and immortality, which was offered to mankind by Jesus of Nazareth. His

mild constancy in the midst of cruel and voluntary sufferings, his universal benevolence, and the sublime simplicity of his actions and character, were insufficient, in the opinion of those carnal men, to compensate for the want of fame, of empire, and of success; and while they refused to acknowledge his stupendous triumph over the powers of darkness and of the grave, they misrepresented, or they insulted the equivocal birth, wandering life, and ignominious death, of the divine Author of Christianity. 16: 8.

The pure and simple maxims of the gospel.

The faith which is not founded on revelation, must remain destitute of any firm assurance.

-23:5.

These extracts are a sufficient endorsement of the Christian faith. Gibbon's disbelief in the natural immortality of the soul may have been one cause of the complaints against him. His shafts do not seem to have been directed against true religion, but against its counterfeit, - the men and institutions that took the name of Christ, but had a spirit wholly at variance with His, as the following brief extract will show.

The zeal of the Christian sects was embittered by hatred and revenge; and in the kingdom of a suffering Messiah, who had pardoned his enemies, they aspired to command and persecute their spiritual brethren.— 57 : 17.

87. Whitefield and Wesley. No other two men have ever exerted so strong an influence on the religious life of England as did John Wesley and George Whitefield. They were the founders of Methodism, both in England and in America. Whitefield was without a rival in pulpit eloquence and field preaching. Immense

crowds, sometimes numbering not less than twenty thousand people, gathered to listen to his wonderful discourses. When it was known that he was to preach in a place, people would come before daylight with lanterns, and wait for hours, in order to secure a place near enough to hear him. He visited America seven times, and finally died at Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Wesley also had wonderful powers of eloquence and persuasion, with the additional advantages of being a great organizer. He continued his work of traveling, preaching, and organizing till he was eighty-eight years old. He had traveled three hundred thousand miles, and 'preached about forty thousand sermons. He lived to see the little band of students, known as Methodists at Oxford, increase to a church numbering in the aggregate not less than eighty thousand members; and it has since increased to about eighteen millions.

The writings of Whitefield were tame when compared with his preaching. Wesley wrote much, and fairly well. It is not on account of their writings that these men have been introduced here, but because of their influence upon the thought and character of the English race, and the indirect effect thus produced upon its literature.

88. Horace Walpole (1717-1797).—This man of elegant leisure would scarcely have been known in the literary world but for his letters and memoirs. Son of the great statesman, Sir Robert Walpole, and twenty-six years a member of Parliament himself, he had rare opportunities for becoming acquainted with public men and the affairs of State.

His lively correspondence threw

sidelights upon many of the maneuverings of statecraft, and at the same time afforded vivid pictures of the manners and doings of society. His letters were replete with wit, gaiety, shrewd observation, sarcasm, censoriousness, high life, and sparkling language."

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He was neither an orator nor a statesman; but he was a shrewd observer, and amused himself by recording, in secret, his opinions of his contemporaries, and the impressions which they made upon him.

Walpole's chief writings were his "Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors," "Anecdotes of Painting in England," "Castle of Otranto," "Historic Doubts" as to the character and person of Richard III, and "Memoirs of the Court of George II." He was acute rather than profound; but the animation of his style and his ingenious modes of expression make his works amusing, if not entertaining.

89. Edmund Burke (1729–1797).—Burke, one of Britain's greatest orators, was born in Dublin. His public career as politician and statesman was honorable and sincere. His efforts were directed toward the removal of some existing wrong, or the preservation of some existing good. He was sagacious and far-seeing, often foretelling public events like a seer. He is regarded as the most eloquent of all writers on national affairs; and by some he is thought to be the most philosophical of England's statesmen.

United with a philosophic turn of mind, Burke had a poetic temperament and a rich imagination that furnished him with a profusion of illustrations, drawn from every scene in creation and every field of art. These