"Let all the saints terrestrial sing,
With those to glory gone:
For all the servants of our King
In earth and heaven are one.

"One family we dwell in him,

One church above, beneath,
Though now divided by the stream,

The narrow stream of death."

When reading the lines,

"Part of his host have cross'd the flood,

And part are crossing now,"

the feelings of all in the room were indescribably solemn, and a holy awe pervaded our minds. The verse was read, commencing,

"Our old companions in distress,

We haste again to see."

Here she alluded to meeting the happy and sainted spirits of some beloved relations; and mentioned, in addition, Ministers and friends whom she had known and esteemed. At the close of the hymn, her

response was a loud Amen! During the day a friend alluded to "the crown of life, and the palm of victory." She seemed animated by the thought which the language suggested, and waved her right hand in token of triumph. About two or three hours before her departure, the arrival of her father was made known to her. As soon as he entered her room, she knew him, clasped her arms round his neck, embraced him, and said thrice, "God bless thee, my father;" and then added, with great strength of voice, "Father, I am going to Jesus!" But she was now rapidly sinking, and seemed to become unmindful of outward things, and to be absorbed in spiritual contemplation. The fear of death evidently had no existence. A short time before she breathed her last, she whispered, "He is coming; He is coming; my Jesus is coming:

"I the chief of sinners am;
But Jesus died for me.""

She then desired that the pillows of the bed she might place herself in a position to die.

might be moved, that When this was done,

without a struggle or a sigh, she fell asleep in Jesus. She died on the 24th day of May, 1845.

May my last end be like hers!

BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

26. DIED, March 19th, 1845, at Mynord, in the parish of St. Germains, in the Saltash Circuit, Mr. William Vosper, aged seventy-one. He had been a steady Methodist about forty years; most of which time he kindly entertained the Preachers, both Itinerant and Local.

His skill in his business was extensive, and his management superior; and being of industrious habits, by the blessing of Providence, he attained to a state of considerable respectability.

When he first commenced business, it was upon the farm upon which he died, which he had taken on lease, and which he occupied for nearly forty-five years. When he entered upon the estate, it was so low in condition, that many of the neighbouring farmers predicted that it would be the ruin of " young Vosper;" but, by great care and diligence, with superior management, the land soon wore a very different aspect, and began "to bring forth by handfuls."

Soon after he set out in the world, he married Miss Sargent, a decidedly pious Methodist, whose mother was one of the excellent of the earth, and one of the oldest Methodists in this part of Cornwall. Mr. and Mrs. Vosper were emphatically a happy pair, who strove to draw in the same yoke, and to mind the same things. It pleased the Lord to spare Mrs. Vosper to her husband nearly forty years; and of her it may be said, she "did him good all her days" after their union. They had seven or eight children, six of whom survive their parents.

Mr. Vosper was emphatically a man of peace; and, as far as he had influence, sought its establishment, and maintained it as far as possible. In cases of difference between neighbours he was frequently consulted, and was often the honoured instrument of settling them amicably. He stood high in the estimation of his landlord, the late Earl of St. Germains, and the Stewards in his Lordship's employ. The same may be said in reference to his neighbours in general, by whom he was much respected. His regards for the poor also were sincere, ardent, and constant. Methodism was beloved by him, its people highly esteemed, its funds supported, and its prosperity, in any of its departments, hailed with the greatest delight.

For some years his health was evidently declining, and he suffered from frequent and heavy affliction. But by this means the Lord weaned him from the world; and when the time drew near that he must die, death was disarmed of its sting; and he felt that he had not believed a cunningly-devised fable, but a substantial and supporting truth. A few days before he died, his soul was in a happy frame, frequently expressing himself in such language as this: "The Lord will not leave me, now that I stand so much in need of him. This is the happiest week I ever enjoyed. O, how good is the Lord! What a comfort to have the help of God in suffering and dying circumstances!" &c. Thus, having loved and enjoyed peace in life, God gave him peace also at the last. JOHN HEAPE.

DIVINITY.

THE OBLIGATION OF THE BELIEVER TO UNIVERSAL

HOLINESS:

A SERMON:

BY JEAN-JACQUES CLAUDE,*

"But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation."-1 Peter i. 15.

MY BRETHREN,-There is scarcely a doctrine in religion which men have not abused, if not to authorize their disorders, yet at least to withdraw themselves from the knowledge of their duties. Then when we speak of that entire self-renouncement which Jesus Christ demands from all who would be his disciples, they say that to press this precept in all its strictness, is to act directly against human nature. When we discourse on that inexorable justice which will manifest itself through all eternity against the transgressors of the law, they complain, that merely to alarm them we take pleasure in dwelling upon, and even enlarging, this terrible object. On the other side, when we spread before them the infinite treasures of grace; when we point them to a God full of compassion, so tenderly pitying the miseries of mankind, that he has delivered his Son to death for the redemption of sinners; they figure to themselves a kind of mercy, the idea of which annihilates the rest of the divine perfections. Thus do they unhappily wander in the midst of that living light which the Gospel spreads around them, and place their own conceptions in their mind instead of those which divine revelation communicates.

Such vain illusions would scarcely deserve that we should pause to refute them, if their danger were not so extreme. But our heart, naturally corrupt, finds its interest in adopting them; and we know only too well how easily they accomplish the task of our seduction.

* Jean-Jacques Claude was the grandson of the celebrated Jean Claude, author of the "Essay on the Composition of a Sermon," &c. His father was Isaac Claude, one of the Protestant Ministers at the Hague, and the fourth Minister in the family in successive generations, as his son Jean-Jacques was the fifth. He was born January, 1685. Having entered the ministry, he became, in February, 1711, one of the Ministers of the French Protestant church, Threadneedle-street, London. Pious, amiable, highly gifted, and in the pulpit truly eloquent, the members of the congregation anticipated years of useful and acceptable service from him; but by one of those mysterious providences so often occurring, and always requiring devout submission, they were disappointed. He died at London, of small-pox, early in the March of 1713, when he had not long completed his twenty-eighth year. A volume of his Sermons was published after his death by his brother, J. F. Claude. They are very little known. They are as regular as if he had well studied his grandfather's "Essay," but without anything like stiffness. They are full of thought, and characterized by a most impressive earnestness. The Abbé Ladvocat, one of the Doctors of the Sorbonne, says of his Sermons, that they possess beaucoup de solidité et d'onction; just what Sermons ought to be. The sermon now translated is a fair specimen of the volume, and justifies the character given of the whole by the Ro manist critic.-TRANS. 4 B

VOL. IV.-FOURTH SERIES.

And therefore do we perpetually endeavour to stay their course. We have often shown their weakness; we have exposed their principles; we have combated them by the formal decisions of the word of God. And, to-day, we shall oppose to them a principle evident, incontestable, and before which they must all fall and disappear. It is the principle which St. Peter declares in the words of the text. "Think not," he says to them, "that because God calls you to a covenant of mercy and peace, you may make this a pretext to allow yourselves to live in the indulgence of your passions, as you did in the times of your ignorance. God offers you the blessings of his salvation, but he is jealous of his glory: he is not to be offended with impunity. Let this thought render you attentive without ceasing to the observance of your duties: As He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.''

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To give an orderly explication of this text, we have three points to consider:

I. We shall endeavour to show you what is this holiness of God, and that this holiness is chiefly manifested in our vocation: "As He which hath called you is holy."

II. We shall consider the extent which must be given to the exhortation of St. Peter: "Be ye holy in all manner of conversation."

III. We shall establish the consequence on which the Apostle rests his argument to induce us to be thus holy: "As He which hath called you is holy," therefore, for this reason, "so be ye holy in all manner of conversation."

This is the division of our discourse: these are to be the subjects of your devout attention.

I. "He which hath called you is holy."-We should deceive ourselves, my brethren, were we to reason on the holiness of God as we do on many of his virtues; as, for instance, of his power, or his justice, or his love. These virtues, according to our manner of conceiving them, are distinct among themselves, they have their particular objects, and their effects are diverse. But holiness in God is rather a general attribute, which, mixing-I had almost said, confoundingitself with all the divine perfections, extends itself over each, and comprehends them all in its denomination.

Raise your thoughts, then, up to the supreme Being: represent him to yourself as a pure Spirit, self-existent, on whom all things depend, and who himself depends on nothing. Conceive of him as a Spirit eternal, immense, unchangeable, all-wise, all-powerful, all-good, sovereignly just, sovereignly merciful, the first principle and the last end of all things; and that the divine essence cannot consist with the least defect conclude that the nature of God subsists in this, that it possesses all imaginable perfections, each one so complete as to be capable of no increase your idea will still fall short of its august object; limited capacities, as ours are, cannot attain to it. Nevertheless, the idea you will thus have formed of God will be so far proper, that it will apply only to him. The result will be, that God is essentially the most excellent of all beings, that all are infinitely in

ferior to him, that he alone is like to himself: and this sovereign grandeur, this glory without bounds, this brilliant splendour which arises from the assemblage of all his perfections, with the Scriptures, we term the divine holiness or sanctity. To this we are brought by the primitive signification of the word "holy." This term, in the Hebrew language, denotes originally the separation which is made of a thing, or of a person, for its employment in some distinguished function; so that, as applied to God, it denotes in general that exalted majesty which separates him from all creatures, that inconceivable elevation which leaves all that is not himself infinitely beneath him. Many passages of Scripture confirm this exposition. Hannah, the mother of Samuel, acknowledging that God alone possesses all the virtues necessary to constitute him the sovereign good of man, explains herself in this manner: "There is none holy as the Lord;" remark what she adds; "for there is none beside thee; neither is there any rock like our God." These last words are evidently the paraphrase of the former, "There is none holy as the Lord." Moses, after the passage of the Red Sea, sings a solemn canticle to God: he celebrates the marvels which God had just effected in favour of his people; he confesses with joy that God alone is worthy to be honoured; and the reason by which he supports this is, that God is holy: "Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness?" So also the Psalmist brings before us the same idea of severance and exaltation: "Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy hill; for the Lord our God is holy." The angels also give us here their instructions. Occupied without ceasing in the contemplation of God, they regard him, so to speak, under all possible aspects. From all sides the ineffable glory of his divinity strikes them, and seizes them with admiration. They seek to praise him in a manner proportioned in some fashion to his greatness; and nothing satisfies them better, nothing appears so proper to express the ardour of their zeal, the deep sincerity of their homage, as their redoubled acclamations of the name of holy: "Holy, holy, holy," they "cry one to another," "is the Lord of hosts." Their mouth, or, shall I say, their thought, cannot be fatigued in repeating this august title; because, in saying that God is holy, they say all, and omit nothing.

We go still farther. As God knows all the adorable perfections which concur to render him the infinitely perfect Being, so also does he cherish them above all things. He must always, therefore, act in a manner agreeing with the excellence of his attributes; and, by consequence, he must necessarily approve that which harmonizes with his perfections, and disapprove of all that is contrary to them. Now, this displeasure of God against all that is opposed to the purity of his nature, and the approbation which he infallibly gives to all that is conformed to it, is, in a still more precise sense, that which the Scripture also designs by this word holiness. Thence it comes, that God calls himself often by this name, holy, at the same time that he publishes his commandments and ordinances to Israel: "Ye shall be