Smith's "Wealth of Nations," Hume's "History of
England," and Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." The two
great literary frauds in our language were then given to the world in
Chatterton's "Poems," and Macpherson's "Ossian." It was the age of
Pitt and Burke, and Fox, of Horace Walpole and Chesterfield in English
politics, Benjamin Franklin was then a potent force in America, Butler
and Paley and Warburton, and Jonathan Edwards and Doddridge with many
other equally powerful names were moulding the theology of the age.

Greater than any of these, however, were the Wesleys and Whitefield,
as they raised both sides of the Atlantic to new ideals, and stirred
the nation to a larger and deeper life.

William Black came into the world at a time when great events were
being done, and though he was still young when he left the land of his
birth, the silent and unseen forces which work upon men's minds and
souls could not be without their influence upon him.

He was born at Huddersfield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England,
an important market town, beautifully situated on a slope of a hill in
the valley of the Colne, fifteen miles distant from Bradford, and a
little over sixteen from Leeds. It was a place of considerable
antiquity, being mentioned in Domesday, but its chief importance dates
from the establishment of the woolen industry, being now the principal
seat of the fancy woolen trade in England. Kirlees Park, three miles
from the town, is popularly supposed to be the burial place of the
famous Robin Hood.

When William Black was only five years old John Wesley preached to a
large congregation in the Rev. Henry Venn's Church in the town. This
man of God was a zealous Methodist Churchman, who made Huddersfield
the headquarters of extensive labors in all the neighboring region,
sympathizing with the great Methodist revival, accompanying Whitefield
on evangelistic tours, and for more than thirty years, he co-operated
with the Wesleys and other workers in many parts of England and Wales.
Though still retaining his connection with the Church of England, he
continued in labors abundant, preaching in private houses, barns and
in the open air, until old age. His son, the Rev. John Venn, became
the projector of the Church Missionary Society. Methodism was firmly
established in Huddersfield, and its influences were not unknown to
the Black family. In 1767, one fourth of the members of the Methodist
Church in th