Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

interested in his welfare, not only temporally, but spiritually. She was exceedingly kind in all respectsmore like a tender mother than a nurse; she attended to his soul as well as his body. She commenced reading the little book, and he with deep interest and solicitude attended to its precious contents. While she was reading the following line"When you believe in Christ, God will forgive you your sins," (page 37) -he interrupted the nurse, and said, 'Stop, nurse; that is just what I want.' His countenance changed, his eyes brightened, tears of gratitude flowed, and he did believe and rejoice in God his Saviour. From that day until he was called to change worlds he continued happy, praising God, having in prospect a better country. He died September 3rd, 1852, aged twenty-two years

66

This young man, when at a tender age, was in my class, and continued until he was upwards of fourteen. He was attentive to his books, wellbehaved, and had serious impressions-to all appearance, a promising youth; but, alas! after detaching himself from the school, he soon, like many others, became a votary to the pleasures of this evil world. I

SOLEMN SELF QUESTIONINGS. Every thinking man will look round him when he reflects on his situation in this world, and will ask, "What will meet my case? What is it that I want? What will satisfy me? I look at the rich, and I see Ahab, in the midst of all his riches, sick at heart for a garden of herbs. I see Dives, after all his wealth, lifting up his eyes in hell, and begging for a drop of water to cool the rage of his suffering. I see the rich fool summoned away in the very moment he was exulting in his hoards. If I look at the wise, I see Solomon, with all his wisdom, acting like a fool; and I know that if I possessed all his wisdom, were I left to myself, I should act as he did. I see Ahithophel, with all his policy, hanging himself for vexation. If I turn to men of pleasure, I see that the very sum of all pleasure is, that it is Satan's bed,

was much pleased with his sending for me, and I thank God that I was instrumental, in some measure, of doing him good. Although the seed sown in early life did remain dormant for a time, it appeared at length; and he sought his teacher, who had taken such interest in him when a boy. Then, Sabbath-school teachers, take fresh courage, and labour on at God's command. "Sow thy seed in the morning, and withhold not thy hand in the evening," for thou canst not tell which will prosper. The promise is, "Thou shalt reap, if thou faint not." Make it also a point of duty to recommend each scholar and friend to buy this beautiful little book, The Way of Salvation,"* for it will prove an invaluable blessing to all who carefully read it. R. B.

October 5, 1852.

[ocr errors]

*As revival services are being held in various parts of the Connexion, our friends would do well to recommend the above excellent little manual to inquirers for salvation. Its object is to answer the solemn question, "What must I do to be saved ?" and it is admirably adapted to lead the penitent to Christ, and thus conduce to his sound and happy conversion.-ED.

into which he casts his slaves. I see Esau selling his birthright for a mess of pottage. I see Solomon, after all his enjoyments, leaving his name a scandal to the Church to the latest age. If I think of honour-take a walk in Westminster Abbey; there is an end of all inquiry. There I walk among the mighty dead. There is winding up of human glory! And what remains of the greatest men of my country? A boasting epitaph! None of these things, then, can satisfy me. I must meet death; I must meet judgment; I must meet God; I must meet eternity!"-Cecil.

I WILL BEGIN TO-DAY.-Lord, I do discover a fallacy whereby I have long deceived myself, which is this: I have desired to begin my amendment from my birth-day, or some other eminent festival, that so my repentance might bear some remark· able date. But when those days have

come I have adjourned my amendment to some other time. Thus, while I could not agree with myself when to start, I have almost lost the running of the race. I am resolved thus to befool myself no longer. I see no day but to-day; the instant time is always the fittest time. In Nebuchadnezzar's image, the lower the members the coarser the metal. The further off the time the more unfit. To-day is the golden opportunity, to-morrow will be the silver season, next day but the brazen one, and so on, till at last I shall come to the toes of clay, and be turned to dust. Grant, therefore, that to-day I may hear Thy voice. And if this day be obscure in the calendar, and remarkable for nothing else, give me to make it memorable to my soul hereupon, by Thy assistance, beginning the reformation of life.-Fuller.

LIVE FOR SOMETHING.-Thousands of men breathe, move and live-pass off the stage of life, and are heard of no more. Why? None were blest by them; none could point to them as the means of their redemption; not a line they wrote, not a word they spoke, could be recalled, and so they perished; their light went into darkness, and they were not remembered more than insects of yesterday. Will you thus live and die, O man immortal! Live for something. Do good and leave behind you a monument of virtue, that the storms of time can never destroy. Write your name by kindness, love and mercy, on the hearts of thousands you come in contact with year by year, and you will never be forgotten. No; your name, your deeds, will be as legible on the hearts you leave behind, as the stars on the brow of the evening. Good deeds will shine as brightly on the earth, as the stars of heaven.-Dr. Chalmers.

THE GLORY OF THIS AND THE OTHER WORLD.-It is said that when Bonaparte (the father of Napoleon) was on his death-bed, he requested some one to place in full view the likeness or bust of his son. The request was granted, and upon that he looked with his last lingering gaze, while it is to be feared his thoughts of existence were bounded

within the horizon of time, which then inspired his soul. Contrasted with the above, how much more desirable was the end and death of the martyred Stephen, who, when dying even under a shower of stones, and, while looking up steadfastly into heaven, said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God," and while thus filled with the Holy Ghost, not only requested Jesus to receive his spirit, but even prayed for his cruel murderers! And pitiable indeed is the moral condition of that man, or person, the chink of whose dollars affords more music to his ears than the song of Zion, or the sound and news of salvation. The world passeth away, earthly treasures and mortal riches are uncertain, and often pass or fly away; mortal beauty must fade, and earthly honours all be buried deep in oblivion's grave; but they that do the will of God, and honour his cause in spirit, person and substance, shall shine as the stars and as the sun in the firmament in the kingdom of Heaven, for ever and ever.

THE SINNER'S PRAYER.-God hath put arguments into the sinner's mouth to plead with him for mercy.

66

Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price." Rise, sinner, he calleth thee; go to the Lord; and when thou goest, tell him, Lord, thou hast bid me come, and behold here I am. I come, Lord, at thy word; I come for a little water, I come for thy wine and thy milk. I have brought no price in my hand, but thou hast bid me come without money and without price. Though I have no grace, yet at thy word I come for grace; though I have no Christ, I come for Christ; though I cannot call thee Father, yet, being called, I come to thee as fatherless. "With thee the fatherless find mercy." If I am not thy child, may I not be made thy child? Hast thou not a child's blessing left yet to bestow upon me? Thou hast bid me come, come for a blessing; bless me, even me also, O Lord.

I

Wherefore hast thou sent for me? Shall I be sent away as I came? came at thy word; do not say, Begone out of my sight. I cannot go from thy word, I will not go; for whither shall I go from thee? "Thou hast the words of eternal life." Since thou wilt have me speak, Lord, answer. Though I dare not say, Be just to me a saint; yet I do say, I will say, must say, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.-Richard Alleine.

[blocks in formation]

grets, the sharp sands of the minutiæ that make up sorrow, all these, which I would have betrayed to no one, not even to him, the dearest and tenderest of all men, I showed without shame to thee, my mother.-Bulwer.

FRIENDSHIP.-A mountain is made up of atoms, and friendship of little matters; and if the atoms hold not together, the mountain crumbles into dust.

A million of blades of grass make a meadow, and millions and millions of grains of sand make a mountain ; the ocean is made up of drops of water, and life of minutes.

FOR EVER WITH THE LORD.
"FOR ever with the Lord."

Amen. So let it be !

Life from the dead is in that word,
'Tis immortality.

Here, in the body pent,

Absent from Him I roam :
Yet nightly pitch my roving tent
A day's march nearer home.
My Father's house on high,
Home of my soul-how near
At times, to faith's aspiring eye,
Thy golden gates appear!
Ah, then my spirit faints

To reach the land I love,

The bright inheritance of saints,
Jerusalem above.

Yet doubts still intervene,

And all my comfort flies;
Like Noah's dove, I flit between
Rough seas and stormy skies.
Anon, the clouds depart,

The winds and waters cease;
While sweetly o'er my gladdened heart
Expands the bow of peace.

"For ever with the Lord!"

Father, if 'tis thy will,

The promise of thy gracious word

E'en here to me fulfill.

Be thou at my right hand,

So shall I never fall:

Uphold me, and I needs must stand;

Fight, and I shall prevail.

So, when my latest breath,

Shall rend the vail in twain,

By death I shall escape from death,
And life eternal gain.

Knowing

as I am known,"

How shall I love that word,

And oft repeat, before the throne,
"For ever with the Lord!"

MONTGOMERY.

CONNEXIONAL DEPARTMENT.

THE STATE OF THE CONNEXION.

THE intelligence we have received as to the state of the Connexion during the month is for the most part of an encouraging kind. There is a general move-a prevailing anxiety and effort for a revival of religion, and this is good. We like to hear a sound among the mulberry-trees, a shaking among the dry bones, as these are the harbingers of approaching important events. In some places, too, there are conversions, increasing spirituality and prayerfulness. Would that this improvement were universal! Let it be

So.

The power is in our hands, for God is waiting to bless us abundantly. At Newcastle-upon-Tyne our friends are depressed. They must be remembered in our prayers. One of the blessings of Connexional fellowship is realized in mutual sympathy, affection, and prayer. Let our friends at Newcastle be held up at the throne of grace, and earnest believing prayer offered up for a re

newal of their strength and a revival of God's work amongst them.

It will gratify all our friends to know that it is now determined to have a new chapel in the ancient and interesting city of Durham. In our last number we urged a request that it might be done; we have now the happiness to report that the work is begun. The ground is taken, the plans are made, and the subscription-list is nobly opened by three worthy friends. We will not anticipate our excellent and laborious friend, Mr. Griffiths, the superintendent, in giving further intelligence. In our next number we expect he will give an account of the laying of the foundation-stone, and will furnish information of a very interesting kind. Our prayer is, may Jehovah smile upon the benevolent efforts of our friends, and cause their new sanctuary to be filled with his glory, and be the birth-place of thousands of precious souls!

OUR MAGAZINES-A QUESTION TO THE EDITOR. MY DEAR SIR,-Happening to ber of the Conference was held up, be in Huddersfield during the urging upon the Quarterly Meetings sitting of the last Conference, I and Sunday School Teachers, availed myself of the good old throughout the Connexion, to proNew Connexion privilege of spend- mote and extend, in every possible ing an hour within its walls; way, the circulation of the Magazine. not exactly for the purpose of ascer Now, Mr. Editor, as the new year taining whether everything was going will very soon be here, I wish you on open and above board: of that would tell me and the Connexion at never had the slightest doubt. The large who are the parties required by very fact of strangers being permitted the Conference to bring this matter in the gallery to witness the proceed- before the Quarterly Meetings, the ings is to me a guarantee that fair Sunday School Teachers, and friends. play is intended. My object was Is it the Annual Committee that simply to see what was worth seeing, ought to do so, or the Book-room and to hear what might be worth Committee? Is it the President of hearing. Now it happened, sir, that the Conference or the Editor of the when I entered you had just stepped Magazines? Is it the People who upon the platform for the purpose of send the Ministers and Delegates to giving an account of your steward- Conference, or the Ministers and ship. Your report was well received. Delegates who represent the People? Some of its facts, especially the I ask these questions, sir, because I golden ones, were loudly applauded. am not aware that our special attenYour remarks on the desirability of tion has ever been called by any of still further extending the circulation these parties to the subject. My own were taken up with great interest by opinion is that the Preachers and the Conference. A resolution was Delegates are the parties who ought even moved and seconded, in sup- to bring this matter before the friends, port of which the hand of every mem

AND TO SEE IT VIGOROUSLY CARRIED

OUT; and yet in our Circuit I believe neither the preacher nor the delegate (who doubtless both held up their hands in Conference) has ever yet brought the matter before the people. I fear that many resolutions of Conference are forgotten after they are passed. From the earnest manner, however, in which the Magazine question was taken up, I believe that this resolution was intended not to be a dead but a living letter. I trust, then, Mr. Editor, that you will at once call the attention of the entire Connexion to this matter. Let the superintendents of Circuits, the young preachers, the lay representatives, the people, all join heartily in carrying out the Conference resolution, and I have no doubt but that before many months elapse your most ardent wishes will be realized.

I should like to see the whole Connexion join in one great effort to raise the number of the large Magazine to four thousand, and that of the small one to twenty thousand. Why may it not be done? The editorial department never was so efficiently conducted-there never was a greater amount of attachment amongst the friends to the principles of the Counexion-there never was a greater amount of ability amongst the people generally-the profits derived from the Magazines never were of such essential service to the Connexion. I do think, then, that if ever there was a time when the sympathies and efforts of the whole Connexion ought to be enlisted, in order

to command a large circulation for
the Magazines, that time is the com-
ing year. I have been told by some
of our ministers that there are as
many new subscribers obtained each
year as would at once raise the cir-
culation several hundreds beyond its
present number, were it not for so
many old subscribers who discon-
tinue taking them. Now, let every
person who takes the Magazines this
year take them the next, and our
object will be nearly accomplished.
Make an earnest appeal, Mr. Editor,
to every lover of the Connexion, from
the President of the Conference to
the youngest Sunday scholar, and I
cannot doubt but that you will meet
with a response that will gladden
your heart, and prove alike honour-
able to those who make it and to the
cause in which they respond.
I am, yours, &c.,

A TEACHER. ANSWER.-We think the best way is not to give an opinion as to whose duty it was to lay the resolution of the late Conference before quarterly meetings, &c. Leaving this for our readers to answer for themselves, we heartily join with our correspondent in calling upon all to do their duty

now.

We are persuaded that the circulation of the periodicals might be increased to the number he states, and, indeed, will be if all do their duty. Let us try. The prospectuses for the coming year will be sent out with the next parcels, when we hope to be prepared to make an interesting announcement to our readers.-ED.

A PLAN FOR EXTENDED USEFULNESS. MR. EDITOR,-In reading over, in our last large Magazine, the two excellent articles on the subjects,." How to reach the People and increase our Congregations" and "The Great Want of our Circuits in large Towns," we were highly delighted to find that such topics had occupied the attention of their respective authors, and had met with such a full and candid consideration. The state of things in the Churches of every sect is truly lamentable. Congregations are meagre, while tens of thousands of our countrymen, our neighbours and fellowcitizens, are perishing around us. This striking fact proves the absolute neces

sity of individual exertion in the Christian Church. An inactive Church is a stumbling-block and a shelter for the hypocrite. A Church ought to be an assembly of living, acting Christians, a multitude of members and officers, each zealously doing his duty in his respective locality. The fact is appalling that, though it is binding upon every Christian man to do good and win souls to God," yet this is too much left to the attention and toils of a few preachers. Every Christian man is designed by God to be a sort of home missionary, to evangelize his household and neighbourhood. For the souls of his perishing neighbours he is

66

« ZurückWeiter »