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ET. 16.]

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Christ. I date my first serious impressions from reading the truly excellent Mr. Alleine's Alarm to the Unconverted." In a book of Family Memorials, which he began to write soon after he went to Homerton, there is a page referring to these particulars of his early history. And still further on in life, when he had been upwards of three years in the prominent post of tutor, and on the very public occasion of his ordination to the ministry—a service which took place in New Broad Street Chapel, London-he again introduced the subject in a similar style.

Judging from the untarnished purity of his long public career, from his high attainments as one who "walked with God," and especially from the holy temper of his mind, the impression is perhaps very general that in his early days he must have passed, with comparatively few and slight temptations, through a moral and a religious process, the several stages of which were scarcely distinguishable one from another, so early did the light begin to shine, and so almost naturally in his case did it continue to shine brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. Alas! no, he would say; the change was not gradual; the line which separated what he had been from what he became was wide enough, even at the point of junction, to be for ever imprinted on his memory and heart. The contrast between the two was great; and the vivid recollection of the one seemed ever to be operating as a motive to renewed progress in the direction of the other; so that he had few equals for the degree in which he made the past to bear beneficially on the present and thus on the future. By keeping these particulars in sight, very much to be met with in subsequent pages will receive its best elucidation. His profound submission to the sovereignty of God, the manner in which he confessed, deplored, and deprecated all sin, and the still more surprising tone and style of his grateful and joyous emotions, as one who had been permitted to experience the renewing and sanctifying grace of the Divine Spirit, arose in no small degree out of these early facts, which, as the papers above-mentioned show, would have occupied a prominent place had his life been written by his own pen, and which, therefore, deserve to be carefully kept in view here.

The freedom from restraint which marked his pursuits as a boy, had been long enough indulged to give a very strong bias

to his character; so that when arrived at the point where the new course begins, it cannot be matter of surprise that the change should form quite a crisis in his history. Yet it occasioned no loss of power; his intellectual and moral force was not abated by it: only the direction was altered: and occurring when it did, all the energy of such a nature as his was ready to be acted upon, and then to act, in conformity with the new motives;-in this way, both time and the peculiar circumstances under which the change was accomplished, would be favourable to the greatness of the future results. That independence of inquiry which he carried with him throughout life, would occasionally urge him nearer than men in general deemed safe, towards the edge of the precipice beyond which the great abyss stretches away unexplored, unfathomable and there he would stand awhile noting down, calmly enough, what he saw, or thought he saw. But this habit, which was formed prior to his conversion, found its safeguard in the process through which he then had to pass. The intensely vivid realities of his early experience were like so many Alpine summits on which the light always seemed to rest, and which to himself were ever visible, whatever might be the distance of the horizon towards which he was at times disposed to wander beyond the common range, or even the common ken. Although the region might never have been examined, much less laid down in any existing charts-utterly wanting therefore in roads and even way-marks-to himself these Alpine summits invariably furnished a sure clue to his position. At times, indeedas is not unfrequently the case in mountainous districts-he might perhaps think himself nearer to them than he really was; yet, even then, they were never out of his sight; nay, often, with a skill and celerity which could scarcely fail to excite admiration, he would show those who had the patience to watch his career how much closer he was to them than they had supposed. Now if his early religious history had been of a less marked and decisive kind-if there had been none of these Alpine summits—or if, admitting their existence, they had been hazy and indistinct-he must in that case either have confined himself strictly to the established routine of things; or had he ventured to go beyond, he might, like some others, have wandered too far ever to find his way back. To such a mind, it was plainly of the first importance, that the great rallying

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points of devout thought and emotion should be found within the limits of its own experience; that there should always be a creed in the heart which the head should never be allowed to call in question; great facts in the life, which would give to religion a substance and a reality, which no subsequent inquiries or discussions could disturb.

With a view, moreover, to a just estimate of his character and the force of his example, great stress must be laid on these particulars of his early life. For if it be supposed that nature, as it is termed, had done much for him, so that the results of his eminent piety, visible in his long public career, are not to be set down to the credit of Christianity alone, the soil having been of itself exceedingly well prepared for a more than commonly free growth of the fruits of holiness, the truth respecting him will be very imperfectly apprehended; nor will that grace which made him what he was, be sufficiently thought of as fully competent to make others like him also. A more heroic man as a disciple of our Lord, a truer and a braver athlete in the great conflict with all evil, it would not be easy to find. Of strong impulses, of a quick and glowing temperament, and able to act powerfully on others, it was no easy thing for him at the outset to "put on Christ." He could not glide into the whole armour of God just as though he had been originally made for it. Accordingly, how correctly soever he might express an important article of his belief in the words, "Not I, but the grace of God which was with me," it was no less true, that to his own vivid apprehension there lay in these words the secret of all that he was, in direct contrast with what he felt he would have been if his maturity had risen naturally upon the foundation of his early years. Rarely, indeed, has a motto, after such constant use, preserved so much of its original brightness, with the inscription as deep and the letters as legible as though the wondrous obligation it recognizes and celebrates had been of the most recent date; but, in truth, the greatness of the mercy bestowed upon him in the sixteenth year of his age grew more and more surprising the longer he lived; the very rate of his progress in the Divine life, serving to affect his heart the more deeply with the memory of the impulse which, at the first, had sent him forward in the new and heavenward direction.

CHAPTER II.

COMPLETES HIS APPRENTICESHIP-ADVANTAGES OF THIS-DEDICATION TO GOD-DIARY-INTIMACY WITH MEDICAL STUDENTS-LETTER OF MRS. PYE-HIS EARLIEST KNOWN LETTERS-SABBATH EVENING MEMORIALS -BECOMES A MEMBER OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH-SABBATH EVENING MEMORIAL, ON THE DAY OF HIS UNION WITH THE CHURCH-DEATH OF A SISTER-SABBATH EVENING MEMORIALS OCCASIONAL

MEMORIALS.

PYE SMITH'S term of apprenticeship was allowed to expire before any decisive steps were taken with a view to the Christian ministry. The time, however, was not lost in relation to his ultimate pursuits in life. He was still in free, daily contact with books; and from a variety of motives in his own mind and in the minds of his parents, every available opportunity for increasing his knowledge would be improved. Nor was it of less importance that his character should pass through a course of discipline, under the influence of his newly-embraced religious principles; partly to reveal to himself the points which might still be exposed to danger, and partly to render him practically conversant with the only sure grounds of defence and safety; and it was not a disadvantage, but the contrary, that this process should be carried on while he was in connexion with the world of business, instead of being confined within the somewhat artificial limits of college life.

Soon after the date of the great change, he drew up a paper, the design of which will be learned from the following passages:

"Hoping that the Lord in rich and infinite grace has been pleased in some measure to shine into my heart, and to give me some degree of the knowledge of God and of myself, but being, at the same time, experimentally sensible of my own weakness, sinfulness, and inconstancy, I am

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induced to make this solemn Covenant with God; hoping that he will enable me by his Divine grace to keep the same, and that he will carry on the good work which I would fain hope he hath begun in my soul, notwithstanding every obstacle which the wickedness of my own heart may raise. I therefore bow my knee at the throne of Divine grace and mercy.

"O Lord! thou Father of all living, Searcher of hearts, and Trier of the reins of the sons of men, be pleased to look down in a way of mercy upon a vile, guilty, wretched worm of the earth, who presumes to approach thy awful throne, encouraged by thy gracious promises and invitations contained in thy most Holy Word.

"I ask, Most High God, for the deepest contrition and sorrow upon account of the sins I have committed against thine Infinite Majesty. Let me be humbled in the dust before Thee, under a proper sense of the evil of sin, and hatred to it as the greatest evil.

"I adore Thee, O Lord, that Thou hast devised a way whereby Thou canst be just, and the justifier of the ungodly, even the new and living way, The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Grant, most merciful Lord, that even I may be washed in his blood, and clothed in his perfect righteousness. Make me to rely upon and trust to Him by a true and living faith: it is thy Gift, O Lord; oh, bless me with it.

"Be Thou with me, Great God, at all times: preserve me from sin of every kind let me hate it more and more; and let me be saved from it. Particularly, O Lord, preserve me from the sins of pride, hypocrisy, vainglory, self-righteousness, and all imaginary excellency. Oh, let not these have the dominion over me.

"I now solemnly, O Lord, surrender myself to Thee, henceforth to be thy willing servant, with a full resolution to forsake all sin and iniquity. O God of Grace, afford me grace and strength to keep this my engagement with all my power and might. Without Thee I can do nothing. Oh, give me grace to help in time of need.

"Now, O God of heaven and earth, have mercy upon me: hear and grant these weak and imperfect petitions. Forgive the sin of my best duties; and give me out of thy fulness grace upon grace, for the sake and merits alone of the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with Thyself, O Father, and the Divine Spirit, one living and true God, be endless and equal praise, adoration, and worship, ascribed by all creatures, in all ages, through all eternity. Amen.

"I sign this covenant in token of its (I hope) sincerity.

"JOHN PYE SMITH."

For about six weeks in 1791, he kept a record of his religious feelings; yet not without omitting several days from the date when it was begun to that of the last entry.

"Lord's-day, April 17.-By reason of my own wicked and corrupt heart's taking occasion of several great occurrences in favour of freedom, rights, &c., and an unbecoming attachment to some learning, I have woefully deprived myself of the life, enjoyment, and comfort of religion in a

The date of this paper is 1790: it is at the top, and in blacker ink than the rest; but in his own writing.-ED.

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