relate to the arrangements of the present world, or which are called forth by the particular interests of the several denominations into which the church is distributed! Which of us can place himself, in serious thought, amidst the scenes of that last evening which our Lord spent with his disciples before he suffered, and not feel that he has most imperfectly obeyed his command, and carried out his high and holy purposes? Which of us can listen to his new commandment, as delivered by himself, under circumstances the most affecting, circumstances expressly designed to mark the tenderness and condescension and strength of the love which it enjoined, and to show the vast importance which He assigned to it, and not be abased by the conviction, that he has failed to reflect distinctly and uniformly that feature of the Saviour's character to which he himself has given prominence, and that he has often been unmindful of that very test of discipleship which our Lord himself has established? With the present state and position of the churches of Christ, no thoughtful and earnest believer can be satisfied. It is our Lord's command, that our mutual love should be exhibited to the world. It is his design that the spiritual and hidden oneness which really pervades his true church, the oneness of a common spiritual life, breathed by his Spirit, and resulting from a common union with Him, the Head of his mystical body, should seek expression in our outward conduct, and manifest itself in fraternal acknowledgment and united worship. Often must the inquiry occur to every thoughtful mind that regards the truth of Christ as supreme, and studies that truth as it shines in the records of his grace and love, “Can there exist any real necessity for so many different denominations of Christians?" While the diversities of sentiment which now exist, and which will probably continue to exist among the true followers of the Redeemer, on many points even of Christian doctrine, and much more on points of outward order and discipline, seem to render necessary a few different denominations which might yet be united by fraternal love, and on frequent occasions might commingle in acts of religious fellowship; still, have not hese denominations been unnecessarily multiplied, so as to weaken the moral effect of Christianity upon the world, as the religion of union and love? But if so, can no steps be taken to bring about a more lovely and attractive state of things? Or if we really must come, though sorrowfully and reluctantly, to the conclusion, that in the present imperfect state of our knowledge and spiritual attainments, it is necessary that all the existing denominations of Christians should continue, it may at least be urged upon them, that they should arrange all their plans of evangelical effort in the spirit of fraternal love, seeking only the extension of Christ's kingdom, and sacredly guarding against occasions of unhallowed rivalry. And it may justly be asked of all the members of these denominations who revere and love the common Saviour, to show by repeated acts of united worship, and even of communion at his table, that they are really one in Christ. In the present day the new commandment of our Lord has peculiar claims on the regard of all his followers. Amidst the excitement that is now diffused throughout the nations, the peaceful voice of the Saviour calls upon his people to love one another, even as he has loved them. When changes the most momentous are taking place in rapid succession, baffling the calculations of the most discerning, and affecting every mind with a conviction of their magnitude and suddenness, when thrones are undermined and the most powerful dynasties seem to be suddenly bereft of their strength, when the most opposite sentiments and principles are brought into fierce collision, and the long-cherished peace of Europe is interrupted by the clash of arms, the true followers of the Redeemer should be aroused to ponder their duties, and especially to ask how they may best promote the interests of that "kingdom" which "cometh not with observation," but which is "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." And if it is a duty specially binding on us all, to be earnest in making known the truth of Christ; if also it is our duty to engage in every effort with a more distinct acknowledgment of our dependence on divine aid, and with more fervent prayer for the effusion of the Spirit, it is equally our duty to cultivate and manifest that fraternal love which Christ has enjoined on his people, and which he has himself taught us to regard as essential to the universal triumph of his cause. Ramsgate. PUNCTUALITY. HENRY W. WILLIAMS. A SINGULAR mischance has befallen some of our friends. At the moment when he ushered them on existence, God gave them a work to do, and he also gave them a competency of time, so much time, that if they began at the right moment, and wrought with sufficient vigour, their time and their work would end together. But a good many years ago a strange misfortune befell them. A fragment of their allotted time was lost. They cannot tell what became of it, but sure enough it has dropped out of existence; for just like two measuring-lines laid together, the one an inch shorter than the other, their work and their time run parallel, but the work is always in advance of the time. They are not irregular. They are never too soon. Their letters are posted the very minute after the mail is shut ; they arrive at the wharf just in time to see the steam-boat off; they come in sight of the depôt precisely when the train starts. They do not break any engagement, nor neglect any duty; but they systematically go about it too late, and usually too late by about the same fatal interval. How can they retrieve the lost fragment, so essential to character and comfort? Perhaps by a device like this: Suppose that on some auspicious morning they contrived to rise a quarter of an hour before their usual time, and were ready for their morning worship fifteen minutes sooner than they have been for the last ten years; or, what will equally answer the end, suppose that for once they merged their breakfast altogether, and went straight out to the engagement of the day; suppose that they arrived at the class-room, or the work-shop, or the place of business, fifteen minutes before their usual time, or they forced themselves to the appointed rendezvous on the week-day, or to the sanctuary on the Sabbath, a quarter of an hour before their instinctive time of going,—all would yet be well. This system carried out would bring the world and themselves to synchronize, they and the marching hours would come to keep step again, and, moving on in harmony, they would escape the jolting fatigue and awkwardness they used to feel, when old father Time put the right foot foremost and they advanced the left; their reputation would be retrieved, and friends who at present fret would begin to smile; their fortunes would be made; their satisfaction in their work would be doubled; and their influence over others and their power for usefulness would be unspeakably augmented.-Hamilton. AFFECTION OF A FATHER. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." Psalm ciii. 13. WHEN Our children are sick, we do not keep them at so great a distance as when they are in health. There are two things which I think not unobservable in relation to this thought. The first is, the parents give more of their company and kindness to the child; and the child even loves to have more of it, and uses more than ordinary boldness and earnestness in requesting of it. O, are not both of these applicable to the afflicted saint's case? Does not ofttimes even the Lord, when his people are under the sickness of affliction, come more kindly to them than at other times? Does he not allow them more of his presence? and, on the other hand, do not even his children cry after him? A child that dare hardly come into the room where ye are, without leave, in health, how will he cry out if ye offer to stir from his bedside when in sickness! as if there were some mitigation of their trouble by the parent's presence, and as if their sickness gave them a sort of title to it. Is it not just so with the child of God? How are the Psalms replenished with instances of this sort! "Lord, leave me not, for I am sore distressed; be not far off when trouble is at hand." I believe it is a mistake that beggars are generally in, who think their very poverty in this world entitles them to heaven when they die; but I believe it is no mistake in the children of God to think that their afflictions in this world may entitle them to a greater boldness in their prayers to God for spiritual graces. Lord, since thou art pleased to afflict me, let thy Spirit guide me through these troubles! : If, under our trials, we would look more to the first than to second causes, it might perhaps give some ease to our minds. How did this ease or compose David's mind when Shimei cursed him! "Let him alone, the Lord hath sent him." What a foolish thing were it, if one should get a letter from a foreign kingdom, affronting or vexing him, to fall upon the postman who brought it from the post-office, and abuse him for it! Some people blame this, and that, and the other thing, when anything falls out against them and some, I have heard, blame things so far even from the second cause itself, that I have been struck with surprise. Some, again, will be revenged on the second cause: A dog runs after and bites the stone that is thrown at him, without regarding the hand that threw it. These things cannot move of themselves without Him, no more than the barrel of a watch can pull the chain, and move the wheels, when the spring is taken out of it. Take the poise or weight off the first cause, and the clock of second causes shall never move more against you. It were as reasonable to blame a clock for going, when the poise is on, as creatures for doing the Creator's pleasure. I need not caution here about sin. Everybody will acknowledge, that when I fall down on my knees, and pray to God, that is an act of worship: but I believe I am in no great error, when, under every new accident, as some wrongfully call them, I look over the heads of all second causes to God himself, and take it as from him. I call that also worship.-J. Young. 975 WESLEY PAPERS. No. XXXVI.-SOME ACCOUNT OF THE THREE VOLUMES OF MORAL AND SACRED POEMS, PUBLISHED AT BRISTOL, 1744. (To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.) ABOUT the year 1742, "Mr. Wesley's visits to Donnington-Park, the seat of the Lady Huntingdon, were very frequent. Her Ladyship had a sincere esteem for him, and they were much united in sentiment. Easy and affable in his demeanour, Mr. Wesley accommodated himself to every society, showing how happily the most finished courtesy may be blended with the most perfect piety. In his conversation, you might be at a loss which to admire most, his fine classical taste, his extensive knowledge of men and things, or his overflowing goodness of heart. While the grave and serious were charmed with his wisdom, his sportive sallies of innocent mirth delighted even the young and thoughtless; and both saw in his uninterrupted cheerfulness the excellency of true religion."* On one of these occasions, it was remarked, that poetry, which should answer the noblest purposes, had been prostituted to the vilest; even to confound the distinctions between virtue and vice, good and evil; and this to such a degree, that it was difficult to obtain an elegant amusement without contamination. "A chaste collection of English poems was therefore a desideratum.” "I had long," says Wesley, "had a design of attempting something of the kind; and to this end revised all the English poems I knew, and selected what appeared most valuable in them.”+ In the dedication to Lady Huntingdon, he says, "I shall rejoice if the want of which you complained be in some measure supplied by this collection, in which there is nothing to offend the chastest ear, or give pain to the tenderest heart, but the most sublime divinity, with the purest and most refined morality."+ With this single exception, Wesley sought no patronage either for the works he published or the charities he established. Though his father had the singular honour of dedicating his three principal works to three successive British Queens,§ and his eldest brother a volume of poems, to "that accomplished nobleman the Earl of Oxford," he saw that private patronage added little to public benefit: he therefore tells her Ladyship, "I inscribe these poems to you, because you was the occasion of their thus appearing in the world; and though your name cannot excuse a bad poem, it may recommend good ones to those who would not otherwise consider whether they were good or bad. They will not be unacceptable on another account; namely, that many of them describe what a person of quality ought to be, and what I trust you desire to be." The two former volumes contain selections from Milton, Sir John Davis, Herbert, Cowley, Roscommon, Yalden, Congreve, Dryden, Norris, Pomfret, Prior, Watts, Mrs. Rowe, Parnell, Pope, ¶ Young, Broome, Fitz * Lady Huntingdon's Life and Times, vol. i., p. 58. + Wesley's Works, 3d edit., vol. xiv., p. 343. See Dedication, pp. v.-vii., or Wesley's Works, vol. xiv., pp. 343, 344. See his Thoughts on the Writings of Prior, Works, vol. xiii., p. 380–387. gerald, Hughes, &c. The third volume is confined wholly to the poetry of four Wesleys, with a few short pieces of Gambold's, little known at that period to the generality of readers. The larger portion is that of Samuel Wesley, jun., first published in 1736, 2d edition, 12mo., Camb., 1743; but which became better known by the present publication in 1744. There is a circumstance little known regarding this collection, which I shall here relate, purely a matter of history. A few months after the publication of these volumes, Dodsley called upon Wesley for reparation of a piracy which the latter had unwittingly committed, and for which he agreed to pay him £50. (COPY.) "London, February 8th, 1744—5. "HAVING inadvertently printed, in a collection of poems, in 3 vols., 12mo., the Night Thoughts' of Dr. Young, together with some pieces of Mrs. Rowe's, the property of Mr. Robert Dodsley, and having made satisfaction for the same by payment of a £20 bank-note, and a cheque for £30, payable in three months, I hereby promise not to print the same again in any form "J. WESLEY." whatever. The autograph is in the handwriting of Dodsley, with John Wesley's own signature thereto. It was sold by Evans of Pall-Mall, on Tuesday, December 22d, 1835. I bid one guinea for this singular document; but the lot (No. 1,131) was knocked down to Mr. Wilks for twenty-eight shillings. See notice of the sale in " Morning Chronicle" for December 21st, 1835. The author of the "Night Thoughts" had, at the period above-mentioned, published only seven Nights, to which he added two additional, before its completion in 1745; namely, "Virtue's Apology," and "The Consolation," forming the eighth and ninth. When the copyright had expired, and it became public property, we find the following entry in his Journal, under date of December, 1768: "I took some pains in reading over Dr. Young's Night Thoughts,' leaving out the indifferent lines, correcting many of the rest, and explaining the hard words, in order to make that noble work more useful to all, and more intelligible to ordinary readers."* In 1770 it was published at Bristol, under the title of " An Extract from Dr. Young's 'Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality."" The third Night, (Narcissa,) as in the former publication, is wholly omitted. A new edition has recently issued from the Conference office. City-Road, December, 1847. THOMAS MARRIOTT. "PRAY FOR THE PEACE OF JERUSALEM." IN praying for the peace of Jerusalem, we pray for the revival of the power and spirit of vital religion in our land. This, my friends, should be the Christian's leading petition when he bears the circumstances of his fellow-sinners on his heart at a throne of grace. And why? Just because it is the foundation and spring of every Christian movement. Without vital godliness there can be no true zeal for God's honour and glory; * Wesley's Works, 3d edit., vol iii., p. 350. See the preface and notes to eight nights. |