hearts would be too much elevated, our affections too much spiritualized, to allow the stranger to God to depart without intruding the affecting consideration (however we might be disliked for so doing), that even the most fascinating earthly pleasures must be relinquished for the silent hours of a sick room; and ere long, the amusements now pursued with the fondest avidity, must be exchanged for a dying bed, a coffin, and a A YOUNG CHRISTIAN. COMPLAINT OF DEAFNESS. Fair Sion! and thy hallow'd courts on earth, Then, in the room of prayer and praise, a blank And flags devotion's wings; the eye intent Through that blest medium knowledge enters.- ARCHIPPUS. There is no subject in which every human being ought to feel more interested than the consideration of death; and perhaps there is none less thought of. The Christian looks beyond it; whilst the gay and thoughtless escape from such reflections when they arise in their minds, and deem them gloomy and intrusive. It would be natural to expect, that a scene through which we must all pass should excite more serious attention; but such is the folly of man, that year after year rolls along, during which he sees friends, neighbours, and relatives continually dropping into the cold and silent grave and seldom takes it to heart. "On this side, and on that, men see their friends Drop off, like leaves in Autumn; yet launch out Into fantastic schemes, which the long livers In the world's hale and undegen'rate days Could scarce have leisure for; fools that we are! Never to think of death and of ourselves At the same time! as if to learn to die Were no concern of ours." BLAIR. If we seriously consider this momentous subject, can there be any greater infatuation? Placed here in a probationary state, on the proper improvement of which our everlasting all depends, one would imagine, that it would occupy a considerable portion of our thoughts when not engaged in business or the duties of our station. A frequent meditation on our mortality will not interfere with a due attention to our temporal affairs: but, on the contrary, will quicken our diligence, and make us more cir cumspect in all our walk and conversation; believing that the time will shortly arrive, when the dead, both small and great, shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ, to give an account of the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or bad. It has frequently fallen to my lot to attend death-bed scenes; and few of them, I fear, were ripe for heaven. Many, very many, make their exit lulled by the subtle fiend, by a dead faith, a false hope, and a presumptuous confidence;" and awake to the awful reality of shame and everlasting contempt. At that period they will have the perfect recollection and full conviction of all their thoughts, words, actions, motives, and intentions, however they had previously been mistaken or forgotten." It will then be in vain to make any addresses or applications; there is none will intercede for them, nor can give them absolution. The rigour of the judge in that instant wherein they expire will allow no further mercy. St. John says, that heaven and earth shall fly from the presence of the Judge. Whither will they go, to what place can they repair, being the persons against whom the process is commenced? It is therefore said, that heaven and earth shall fly, because neither the saints of heaven shall there favour them, nor the powers of earth assist them; there shall be place for nothing that may help them. What then would sinners give for leave to offer up one poor prayer to God, when it is too late? That which would now serve their turn, and they despise, they would then have done, and cannot. Provide for yourselves, Essays by the late Rev. T. Scott; a work which is deserving of the most extensive circulation. therefore, in time, whilst it may avail you; and defer it not until that instant wherein nothing can do you good. Now you may obtain help, now you may find favour. O what a lamentable thing will it be for sinners to see themselves not only abandoned by men, but also by angels, and even by God himself; and to be delivered over to the power of Satan, without any hope of escaping him, who will seize upon their souls and carry them to the abyss of hell, there to be tormented for ever!O horrible! most horrible! 66 But let me turn to a more pleasing scene, the death-bed of the righteous. "I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me; Write, From henceforth blessed are the Idead which die in the Lord: even so saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labours."-Rev. xiv. 13. Here all is calmness and serenity. They are highly privileged. Their eyes, invigorated by faith, are able to penetrate the thick mist which hangs over the tomb. "They die in Jesus, and are bless'd; How kind their slumbers are! From sufferings and from sins releas'd, Having passed the troublesome ocean of this tempestuous life, they' look back with no regret; they look to another world. In their Judge, they see a Friend-a Mediator -a Redeemer. They feel no fear; they long to depart that they may be with Christ and "behold his glory;" they have fought the good fight, they have kept the faith, henceforth there is laid up for them a crown of glory that fadeth not away. In comparison with the prospect of the transporting joys of heaven, "with which the stranger inter meddleth not," and which are sufficient to dissipate the visionary horrors of death, and to administer the most cheering consolation to the faithful Christian in his through the dark and gloomy vale, passage of what value are the fading, fleeting pleasures of this life? "What is a man profited, if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" CHIRURGUS. HYMN FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT. BY THE REV. MR. EASTBURN, OF NEW YORK. AWAKE! Awake! lift up your eyes, The Saviour comes at length; In glory from his native skies, And conquering in his strength! Awake! the sombrous gloom of night Put on the panoply of light, And cast your sins away. He comes-the Prince of peace and love, And pour the blessings from above O'er all this rolling sphere. Your Jesus shall your armour be, Against the shafts of hell; Then wake, and in the harmony MEMOIR OF THE LATE MRS. WILHELMINA WAIT. DIED, June 17th, 1824, at Norton Malreward Rectory, in the county of Somerset, where she was on a visit to her son, Mrs. Wilhelmina Wait, aged 53 years, the deeply-lamented wife of the Rev. W. Wait, late minister of St. Mary-le-Port Church, Bristol, and daughter of the late Isaac Piguenit, Esq. who twice filled the office of Sheriff in that city. The Memorialist of this Christian female, to whom she was indeed united by many ties, desires, while engaged in paying this just tribute of affection to her memory, to be under the strong controul of those many and powerful objections which he feels to such highlywrought obituaries, as occasionally appear in our periodical miscellanies. Perhaps the reader may assign as a reason for these objections, that he does not possess those ample materials, which will enable him to make such a display of private thoughts of a devotional nature, as are sometimes presented to the public eye; but let it be understood that, even if he were possessed of such valuable records, valuable indeed to the family and particular friends of departed saints, but not essential to the object of a biographer, there would still dwell in the writer's mind a doubt specting the propriety of exhibiting them for the public inspection. Is it necessary to add, that in speaking of the general character of the deceased, he only wishes through this channel to assure those who knew re her, that she died another trophy Mrs. Wilhelmina Wait was born in November, 1770. A great proportion of her early life was spent in the city of Bath, where she was educated. In one of the most important measures of her life, which had up to that period been passed in the atmosphere of gaiety and fashion, she discovered a decided preference to a course of living totally opposite to that which furnishes charms for the fashionable and gay, by becoming matrimonially united to a pious clergyman of the Church of England. Formed for this connection by her sincere and distinguishing attachment to the national church, and by her esteem for the zealous ministers of the Establishment, she passed the residue of her days with the object of her choice, entering into all his schemes of usefulness, and daily becoming more and more confirmed in the right apprehension of doctrinal truth, and in the consequent practice of Christian holiness; until death, which renders all earthly happiness chequered and uncertain, dissolved the union which had been ripening for thirty-three years. The subject of this memorial was remarkable for integrity of principle and conduct, which discovered itself in all her transactions with her neighbours. Especially was it manifested in the care she took to refrain from expressing with her lips what she did not feel in her heart. Her heart was easily affected by scenes of human dis tress and affliction. As a hearer of the Gospel, her ear was attentive to receive its truths, and to hear them with accuracy; easily discovering any defect, and lamenting that ministerial libertinism should withhold fundamental truth, or introduce outrageous error into that sacred place which, in her estimation, should ever be a vehicle for the pure and unadulterated word of God. But, although here introduced to the reader in the character of a critic, it was only in those re spects wherein she considered the eternal welfare of souls concerned, that she presumed to exercise this her peculiar talent. She was frequently heard to express herself thus, when conversing on the vast responsibility of the ministerial office: "I would rather see a child of mine breaking stones upon the highway, than behold him in the sacred character of a minister of the Gospel, uninfluenced by the grace of God." It might be added, that as a wife, she was devoted," spending and being spent," in sickness and in health, for him whom her soul loved. The first lesson for the morning service, on the day when her happy spirit took its flight to the realms of bliss, defines her character in one particular: I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame." Job, xxix. 15. 66 Perhaps her love of retirement, and disinclination to form many connexions, may have led some persons into a misapprehension of the real character of her mind; but, when it is recollected that, on the one hand, she viewed the world as deceitful, and that, on the other hand, she was of a peculiarly retiring disposition, we are not to be surprized at her not being forward to embrace every opportunity afforded for the increase of connexious, which many, very many people secure to themselves, though at the expense of their time, their domestic avocations, and, perhaps, of what is still more valuable to them, their peace of mind and spiritual prosperity. In the month of March, 1819, the departed was visited by a paralytic stroke, which for a season confined her to her bed and room; when she, indeed," grew in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." She then became more than ever influenced, both in mind and affections, by "the grace of God, which bringeth salvation ;" and her will bent to the training hand of the Lord of the vineyard, who was at this time severely exercising her faith and love to him, by means of the situation of an afflicted husband, who had within the last few years been reduced to almost total blindness; and by her own bodily sufferings, which led her to renounce all hope of restoration to health. For several weeks her tongue continued motionless, and swollen, being preserved from putrefaction solely by the use of charcoal. Her family had renounced all expectation of receiving her back again into their bosom, when at length it pleased God, in answer to fervent prayer, to grant her once more the power and use of her tongue. From this moment, there was a manifest advancement daily towards convalescence; so that it was not long before she had sufficient strength of body to partake of the memorials of her Saviour's dying love. April 14, 1819. We spent several pleasant hours together, in conversation upon "the glorious things which are spoken of the city of God;" but it was at times interrupted by doubts and fears. The promise, that “he who goeth on his way weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with joy, and bring his sheaves with him;" again and again inspired her breast with hope. "It is a dreadful thing," said she, "to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. I hope we shall all meet together in heaven. Then," added she, "Keep me, O my Saviour, keep O receive my soul at last. Hangs my helpless soul on Thee." April 16, 1819. She received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Several friends were present upon the occasion, and joined her in the participation of this feast of fat things. While her son was en |