he was most desirous to be raised to his former state of health, or to depart and be with Christ? He replied, "With that I have no wish to interfere, it is not my province; but if I have a desire at all to recover, it is that I might live to advance the cause of Christ; but I leave all in his hands." A few days before his death his voice began to falter whilst in sweet conversation with a friend. A pause ensued, when he broke the silence by repeating those touching words,

"Jesus sought me when a stranger,

Wandering from the fold of God;
He to rescue me from danger,

Interposed his precious blood."

After this he scarcely could be understood at all, but what could be gathered had re

ference to that Saviour whose he was, and whom he served. A few moments before he expired he called his wife by name, who, taking him by the hand, said, "You will soon be with Jesus;" to which, in a low whisper, he replied, "Yes, yes;" and, closing his eyes upon the perishing things of time, he opened them to gaze upon that better country,

"Where everlasting spring abides,

And never withering flowers." He died July 25th, 1851.

His funeral sermon was preached by his pastor, on Lord's-day, August 10th, from Revelation xiv. 13, to a large congregation of sympathizing relations and friends.

G. M.

THE EJECTED MINISTER.-Not long after the memorable year of 1662, (when every clergyman was compelled to leave the Established Church who refused to give his "assent, consent, and subscription" to all and every thing contained in a revised edition of the Book of Common Prayer, and hence in one day more than two thousand two hundred clergymen were cast, with their families, homeless on the mercies of the wide world), a Mr. Grove, a man of wealth and of honour, resided in a mansion near Birdbush. His wife became dangerously ill, and the husband sent to the parish minister, requesting him to visit and pray with her. The answer returned was, he was just going out with the hounds, and that he would come when the hunt was over. Mr. G. felt both grieved and angry that the clergyman should choose rather to follow his amusements than attend to the pressing claims of one of his parishioners so deeply afflicted. One of the servants, who overheard his complaint, ventured to say, "Sir, our shepherd, if you will send for him, can pray very well; we have often heard him at prayer in the field."

Mr. Grove immediately sent for him, and asked him whether he ever did or could pray. The shepherd intently fixed his eyes on his employer, and replied, "God forbid, Sir, that I should live a day without prayer.' He was then requested to walk up stairs, and to pray with the sick lady. He did so, and that with such astonishing fluency and fervency, and with such admirable adaptedness to the occasion, as to fill every one present with surprise and admiration. When they rose from their knees, Mr. Grove addressed Mr. Ince, for that was the shepherd's name, "Sir, your language and manner shew you to be a very different person from what your present appearance

indicates. I beg you to inform me who and what you are, and what was your situation in life before you came into my service." Mr. Ince told him that he was one of the ministers who had been lately ejected from the church, and that having no property of his own left, he was content to earn a living by submitting to the honest and peaceable employment of tending sheep. On hearing this statement, Mr. Grove replied, "Then you shall be my shepherd," and immediately erected a meeting-house on his own estate, in which Mr. Ince collected a congregation, which worships there "to this day."

LEANING UPON JESUS.-Where should you lean in sorrows but upon the bosom of your Beloved? If you lean upon his arm for support, it is equally your privilege to lean upon his heart for sympathy. Christ is as much your consolation as he is your strength. His heart is a human heart, a sinless heart, a tender heart, a heart once the home of sorrow, once stricken with grief, once an aching, bleeding, mournful heart. Thus disciplined and trained, Jesus knows how to pity, and to succour them that are sorrowful and solitary. He loves to chase grief from the spirit, to bind up the broken heart, to staunch the bleeding wound, and to dry the weeping eye, "to comfort all that mourn.". It is his delight to visit you in the dark night-season of your sorrow, and to come to you walking upon the tempestuous billows of your grief, breathing music and diffusing calmness over your scene of sadness and gloom. When other bosoms are closed to your sorrow, or are removed beyond your reach, or their deep throbbings of love are stilled in death, -when the fiery darts of Satan fly thick around you, and the world frowns, and saints are cold, and your path is sad and desolate, and all stand aloof from your

soul, then lean upon the love, lean upon the grace, lean upon the faithfulness, lean upon the tender sympathy of Jesus. That bosom will always unveil to welcome you. It will ever be an asylum to receive you, and a home to shelter you. Never will its love cool, nor its tenderness lessen, nor its sympathy be exhausted, nor its pulse of affection cease to beat. You may have grieved it a thousand times over, you may have pierced it through and through, again and again, yet, returning to its deathless love, penitent and lowly, sorrowful and humble, you may lay within it your weeping, aching, languid head, depositing every burden, reposing every sorrow, and breathing every sigh upon the heart of Jesus. Lord, to whom shall I go? Yea, to whom would I go, but unto thee?-O. Winslow. MARVELLOUS LIGHT. The light into which we are called is a marvellous light, on account of the wonders which it has revealed to us on our way; but what must be the wonders of the end of our journey? When the man opens his eyes upon the eternal world, who can imagine the sight which will be presented to him of the Mediator, and God in him: the Divine nature shining in approbation upon him, and his soul filled with God? What amazement and love commix,-majesty causing the one, and goodness and beauty the other! Majesty, like that of the mighty ocean, creates amazement but not love; and beauty, like that of the flower, or the smiling infant, brings love of some kind without wonder; but here the majesty and the beauty which the light makes manifest are equal, and both in their extreme; there is nothing beautiful and good but what is infinitely great; and nothing great but what is infinitely good. Happiness is not where these are not; and happiness is perfect where these are perfect. Love here will be of the highest kind, obligation and beauty will conspire to produce it. We love him because he first loved us. Oh, the view which will be now obtained of that everlasting love with which the sinner is loved before he has a being ! That love from which proceeded all things also in the great redemption; the sending the Son, and laying the iniquities upon him; the calling, the sustaining, the restoring, the leading, the reproving, the making straight of things crooked, and the receiving into glory; besides the preparation of the glory itself! That religion, the possessor of which does not marvel, is a low and poor religion upon earth. The wretched man says he sees something, but he sees nothing wonderful in the work of salvation, or in all the development of divine perfections connected with it. There is no enjoyment in religion without seeing its wonders. "I will go unto God, my exceeding joy." Will the hypocrite delight himself in the Almighty,? When the disciples saw the miracle of Jesus they were astonished and in. great fear: Peter said, 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." But when they had brought their ships to land,

The

they forsook all and followed him. wonders they saw brought delight, with which they would not part. Wondering, loving, and praising, will be the life of heaven for ever. The wonders of heaven will be eternal, inexhaustible, and eternally on the increase; and so will be the obligations of heaven's inhabitants. Where can limits be found to the wonders of infinite nature? Love, when its object is not great enough to be for ever admired, is not perfect. Wonder, without an object fair enough to be for ever loved, is not desirable. In heaven or in God these two essentials of perfection and enjoyment are met in their highest order and degree. Here will be the greatest and the fairest objects, and the most intense obligations of love.Charles of Caermarthen.

OBLIGATION AND INABILITY.-I am, perhaps, on the matter of man's natural inability, and of God's absolute and irreversible ordinations, as high a Calvinist as any acquaintance you have; yet I think that I can perceive the consistency of this with the most free, and urgent, and practical earnestness, not merely in proposing to sinners the overtures of reconciliation, but in beseeching their acceptance of them. The freezing speculation which would forbid this, seems to be at variance with all apostolical example. Look to the burning earnestness of Peter's address, when he entreated the Jews to "save themselves," to "repent and be converted, that their sins may be blotted out." It is not the indicative but the imperative mood which he makes use of. It is not a mere dictative exposition of the way by which we are saved, but it is a practical call on those whom he addressed to betake themselves to that way. And it marks most strikingly the harmony which there is between the doctrine of God's sovereignty, on the one hand, and the duty of His ministers on the other to address themselves to the hopes and the fears and all the active principles of man's nature-that, as the result of Peter's exhortation, "three thousand were added to the church of such as should be saved," meaning, no doubt, by those who should be saved, the "as many as were ordained to eternal life," and of whom it is said in another place, when the word was addressed to them, that they believed. The natural inability of man to accept the offers of the gospel no more supersedes the duty of the offerer, than the impotency of the withered hand superseded the command of our Saviour that it should be stretched forth. Power was given in this instance along with the command, and it is given still along with the preaching of the gospel. Do, my dear Sir, continue to preach it freely, universally, urgently. It is well that you feel the impotency of the preacher's voice. But the inference from this is not that you are to chill, in obedience to any worthless dogma, the warmth and earnestness of your preaching; but it is that to preaching you must add prayer. Throw yourself upon God for the success of all your ministrations, while you suffer nothing to blunt the force

or the fervour of these ministrations, and he will add the efficacy of His Spirit to the testimony of His word.-Dr. Chalmers.

A HINT TO COMPLAINERS.-"Things always go smoothly with you," said a complaining disciple to Mr. F.; "I never hear you make any complaints." "I have found out an effectual way of guarding against that fault," said Mr. F.; "I used to find myself doing it, until one day, in reading the Bible, I came across this passage,"The apostles gathered themselves unto Jésus, and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught.' It occurred to me, that when I had any trouble, before I told any one, I should first

tell Jesus; and I found on trial that if I told him first I seldom had occasion to tellanybody else. I often find the burden entirely removed while I am in the act of telling him about it." You may depend upon it that if you will go to Jesus every night, and tell him all things that have occurred during the day, it will speedily lift you above the world. It will do much toward making the will of Christ your guiding, governing principle. It will enable you to bear your crosses without repining. It will make you in mind and temper like Him with whom you hold this most intimate communion.— Christian Treasury.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ON THE CONTINENT.

The position which the Baptists have held as defenders of religious liberty in the past, seems destined to be theirs in the future. In Germany and France, they seem to be the only body of Christians who are heartily, and from principle, in favour of absolute religious liberty.

A correspondent of the Christian Times, writing from Halle, Prussia, says, "Our hopes of liberty are gone.

Our

revolution is not only gone, but has declined into a reactionary movement, the end of which may not be reached in our day." In Germany, he says, the Christian party is in general absolutist, or at least anti-liberal. This he accounts for by saying that the Reformation there was forwarded by their princes with a mixture of political and religious views; and that the only dim idea there, that a man may be a Christian without being an absolutist, has sprung up from intercourse with English and American Christians since the last war, but had so little hold on the mind, that now the tide of reaction has carried it away. After mentioning among the sects of Germany, Lutherans, Calvinists, United Christians, Moravians, Rationalists, Super-rationalists, some of which, he says, are "free from Christianity itself," he adds, "the only really free churches we have are the Baptists. Without belonging to them, I highly esteem and love them, as the only representatives of religious liberty, and as the only associations where the spiritual gifts of laymen are cultivated. It is not one of the least bitter fruits of our ideas connected with the establishment, that these gifts are not only grossly neglected, but even kept down, among laymen; in consequence of which, though we have many Christians, we have no Christian society. This is the principal point of view under which I earnestly desire that the Baptist churches may multiply and spread in Germany. With respect to practical and vital Christianity, they leave, I think, all our Christian churches and associations far behind them."

THE PEACE CONGRESS.

The Peace Congress seems to have been this year unprecedentedly successful. It was held in London on the 22nd of July, and the two following days, and, owing to the great numbers both of Englishmen and Foreigners who were visiting the Great Exhibition, the attendance was very large,-ExeterHall, which is capable of accommodating 4,000 persons, being quite filled on each day of Congress. The chair was ably occupied by Sir David Brewster, and the meeting was addressed by many eminent speakers, among whom may be named, Richard Cobden, Esq., M.P., Mr. James of Birmingham, Mr. Brock of London, Mr. Burnet, W. Ewart, Esq., M.P., Mr. H. Vincent, Mr. F. Crowe, Mr. Miall, and Mr. Elihu Burritt. We wish all our readers could have had the privilege of listening to the speeches delivered, or, at any rate, of reading the Report of them which appeared in the Nonconformist and other papers, The Peace Movement evidently makes progress as rapidly as even its most ardent supporters could desire; and the Congresses, which are held from year to year, much as they are ridiculed by mere politicians, are contributing very much to the enlightenment of the nations on this most momentous question. We are sure that no christian mind can do otherwise. than sympathise with those who are labouring in the, cause. Who would not pray in the words so aptly quoted by one of the speakers :

"Hasten, great Father, that blest consummation, When nation no more shall lift sword against uation;

When war shall no more be the christian's vocation,

But the sword shall be shivered, and broken the bow"?

THE WESLEYAN CONFERENCE.

The annual meetings of the Wesleyan Conference have just been held in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The only things which

have occurred which seem of any public interest or importance are, the contemptuous refusal of a respectful application for a hearing from the General Committee of Reformers, the degradation of the justly-esteemed Dr. Beaumont for too much independence of thought and action, the renewed degradation of Mr. Rowland for refusing to submit to the dictation of his ecclesiastical superiors, and, instead of any examination -even the slightest-of the demands of the reformers, the appointment of a Committee to consider the memorials which had been presented, who are to report at the next Conference. It was announced that in consequence of the recent agitation, the number of members had decreased upwards of 56,000, and the reports from almost all the districts shewed them to be in a most painful and disastrous state. Nevertheless, the spirit exhibited was anything but satisfactory-the tyrannising disposition of the leaders of the Conference manifested itself at almost every meeting, and the evident and scarcely disguised determination of "the clique" to mark and punish any minister who expressed the slightest sympathy with the reformers, or who even ventured to utter an opinion opposed to that which themselves sanctioned, was to us painful and humbling in the extreme.

We confess that, unlike some of our friends, we had little expectation of any real concessions on the part of the Conference; we did, however, hope that the serious loss of members, and the painful state of the Society, which the leaders themselves could not but acknowledge, would induce something like moderation of tone, and some small efforts to effect a reconciliation. But the proceedings to which we have referred, and the spirit manifested throughout, have destroyed even these hopes; even the appointment of a Committee was accompanied by such a decided declaration of adherence to the old principles, that we expect nothing from it but renewed and aggravated insult. What has long been with us an impression is now increased into a conviction, that the Methodist leaders are "given up to their own ways."

THE REGIUM DONUM.

Those of our readers who have not yet noticed the fact, as reported in the newspapers, will be glad to hear that Government has promised, if in office next year, not to propose among the Estimates this vote, which has so long been protested against by Dissenters. We suppose this result is to be attributed chiefly to the efforts of the Anti-State-Church Association, and furnishes proof that the Association is not labouring in vain, as well as a reason why it should be more strenuously and generally supported.

STEPNEY COLLEGE.

The next session of this institution will commence on Monday, the 15th of September next. The opening service takes place on Wednesday, the 17th. In the afternoon

(at three o'clock), the annual meeting will, be held; and in the evening, the Hon. and Rev. B. W. Noel will address the students in the chapel of the institution. The session, it is expected, will commence with 20 students, in addition to three lay students (forming part of the family of the President). Four students having finished their course of ministerial training, settled during the previous session, and in every case with most promising prospects of usefulness. The examinations at the close of the session were conducted by Rev. F. Bosworth, M.A., of Dover; Rev. W. Brock; Rev. W. A. Salter, of Amersham; Dr. Wm. Smith; Rev. S. G. Green, B.A., of Taunton; and E. West, Esq., of Amersham. Most of the examinations were also attended by various members of the Committee. The reports on the progress of the students, and on their ministerial efficiency, are, on the whole, highly gratifying. Since the last report, two students have taken their degree, and three have matriculated on the first division, one with classical honours. The friends and subscribers are invited to take tea at the College between the services on the day of the annual meeting.

HORTON COLLEGE.

was

The anniversary services in connexion with the opening of Horton College were held on Wednesday, Aug. 6th, in Westgate chapel, Bradford, when a sermon preached to the students by the Rev. J. Webb, of Ipswich. The Report stated that the financial state of the College was most cheering, and that twelve new students were accepted. It was also announced, to the regret and sorrow of all the friends of the Institution, that the Rev. F. Clowes, the Classical Tutor, had been compelled, by ill health and medical counsel, to resign his office and remove to the south. resolution, unanimously passed by the Committee, of esteem and respect for Mr. Clowes, and sorrow at his loss, was embodied in the Report.-Leeds Mercury.

SOUTHWARK.

A

The Rev. W. Walters, of Preston, has accepted a unanimous and cordial invitation to become pastor of the Baptist church assembling in New Park-Street chapel, Southwark, London, and entered on his labours there on the last Sunday in August.

BACUP.

Mr. John Howe, late student in Horton College, Bradford, has accepted a unanimous and cordial invitation from the Baptist church assembling in Irwell Terrace chapel, Bacup, and Orchard Hill chapel, Waterbarn, to become co-pastor with Mr. Thomas Dawson, and entered on his stated labours on Lord's-day, August 24th,

PEMBROKE-DOCK.

Mr. Evan Davies has resigned his charge over the church at Bush-Street, PembrokeDock. His connection with the church closed the last Sunday in July.