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ing two or three children over the disagree- | for kings! -exclaimed, "I am a minister; able spot which we were obliged to pass. and God has sent me to instruct and comfort But the question forced itself on my mind, your mother." Then, seating himself on a whether, if I had been so accosted under less pack, he took the hand of the gipsy woman, unfavourable circumstances, I should have shewed the nature and demerit of sin, and resisted the impulse of natural aversion, and pointed her to Jesus, the one and all-sufficient addressed that poor depraved gipsy as an Saviour. His words appeared to sink deep immortal soul, destined to an eternal, un- into her heart; her eyes brightened, she looked changeable state of being, and evidently has- up, she smiled; and, while an expression of tening along the path of destruction. I could peace stole over her pallid features, her spirit not satisfactorily answer my own query; fled away, to bear a precious testimony before there is no aptitude in the natural heart to the King of kings, of that MINISTER's faithfulsuch work; and it is idle to speculate on what ness to his awful charge. When the party, we would do in circumstances merely sup- who had missed their sovereign, and were posititious. Many have, like Peter, vaunted, anxiously searching the wood for him, rode in the hour of safety, how boldly they would up, they found him seated by the corpse, go to prison and to death for Christ's sake speaking comfort to the weeping children. and the Gospel's, who, when the trial actually The sequel is not less beautiful: I quote the came, were made ashamed of their vain words of the narrative. "He now rose up, boasting, and denied their faith others, put some gold into the hands of the afflicted shrinking with terror from the anticipated girls, promised them his protection, and bade hour of temptation, in mistrust of their own them look to Heaven. He then wiped the experienced weakness, have, out of that weaktears from his eyes, and mounted his horse. ness, been made so strong, that their names His attendants, greatly affected, stood in now stand enrolled among the boldest and silent admiration. Lord L. was going to brightest in the noble army of martyrs. The speak; but his majesty, turning to the gipsies, habit of fancying scenes and situations, with and pointing to the breathless corpse, and to the part that we ourselves should take in the weeping girls, said, with strong emotion, them, is more hurtful than is generally sup-Who, my lord, who, thinkest thou, was posed. "As thy day, so shall thy strength neighbour unto these?'" be," is the promise given; and we ought by Reader, do you hold in affectionate reverno means to anticipate the day, seeing that ence the memory of this English Hezekiah, we cannot anticipate or calculate the measure now gone to receive a brighter crown than of strength that God may see good to vouch-earth can give? Let, then, his eloquent ex

safe.

But I must return to the gipsy. The rencontre with her gave rise to a long train of thought, which occupied me during the rest of my walk. I was near an abode of royalty, and could not but recall the touching anecdote of the beloved and venerated monarch George III., who, when hunting near Windsor, with his characteristic tenderness of feeling, relinquished the enjoyment of the chase out of compassion to his exhausted horse, and, gently riding alone through an avenue of the forest, was led by the cry of distress to an open space, where, under a branching oak, on a little pallet of straw, lay a dying gipsy woman. Dismounting and hastening to the spot, his majesty anxiously inquired of a girl, who was weeping over the sufferer, "What, my dear child, can be done for you?" "Oh, sir, my dying mother wanted a religious person to teach her, and to pray with her before she died. I ran all the way before it was light this morning to Windsor, and asked for a minister, but no one could I get to come to me to pray with my dear mother." The dying woman's agitated countenance bore witness that she understood and felt the cruel disappointment. The king,-O lovely lesson

ample plead with you when God gives you opportunity of following it. You will occasionally meet a gipsy in your path, or some other poor wanderer from the ways of God, to whom you can deliver the message of reconciliation, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear; and you know not but the Lord may even then be awakening in that outcast's mind a desire for the teaching, that you, if you know Christ as your Saviour, can certainly afford. Remember the good king's words, and the high authority whence he quoted them. Ask yourself, "Who is neighbour unto this wounded soul?" and strive to be that neighbour yourself, pouring in the wine and oil of Christian consolation, if the case be one of awakened conscience; and if the spirit be yet lulled in the fatal slumber of habitual and allowed sin, sounding the call to awake, to arise from the dead, and receive light from Christ. However bright the eye, and ruddy the cheek, and active the frame, still the poor gipsy is dying, and so are you. Work while it is day; for the night cometh, when you can work no longer.

BISHOP HOOPER.

A Letter which Master Hooper did write out of Prison to certain of his Friends.

THE grace of God be with you. Amen.

I did write unto you of late, and told you what extremity the parliament had concluded upon concerning religion, suppressing the truth, and setting forth the untruth, intending to cause all men by extremity to forswear themselves, and to take again, for the head of the Church, him that is neither head nor member of it, but a very enemy, as the word of God and all ancient writers do record: and for lack of law and authority, they will use force and extremity, which have been the arguments to defend the pope and popery since this authority first began in the world. But now is the time of trial, to see whether we fear God or man. It was an easy thing to hold with Christ while the prince and world held with him; but now the world hateth him, it is the true trial who be his. Wherefore, in the name and in the virtue, strength, and power of his Holy Spirit, prepare yourselves in any case to adversity and constancy. Let us not run

away when it is most time to fight. Remember, none shall be crowned but such as fight manfully: and he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Ye must now turn all your cogitations from the peril you see, and mark the felicity that followeth the peril; either victory in this world of your enemies, or else a surrender of this life to inherit the everlasting kingdom. Beware of beholding too much the felicity or misery of this world; for the consideration and too earnest love or fear of either of them draweth from God. Wherefore think with yourselves, as touching the felicity of the world, it is good; but yet none otherwise than it standeth with the favour of God. It is to be kept; but yet so far forth, as by keeping of it we lose not God. It is good abiding and tarrying still among our friends here; but yet so, that we tarry not therewithal in God's displeasure, and hereafter dwell with the devils in fire everlasting. There is nothing under God but may be kept, so that God, being above all things we have, be not lost.

Of adversity judge the same. Imprisonment is painful; but yet liberty upon evil conditions is more painful.... .... I must be alone and solitary. It were better so to be, and have God with me, than to be in company with the wicked. Loss of goods is great ; but loss of God's grace and favour is greater. I am a poor simple creature, and cannot tell how to answer before such a great sort of noble, learned, and wise men it is better to make answer before the pomp and pride of wicked men, than to stand naked in the sight of all heaven and earth before the just God at the latter day. I shall die then by the hands of the cruel man: he is blessed that loseth his life full of miseries, and findeth the life of eternal joys. It is pain and grief to depart from goods and friends; but yet not so much as to depart from grace and heaven itself. Wherefore there is neither felicity nor adversity of this world, that can appear to be great, if it be weighed with the joys or pains of the world to

come.

I can do no more but pray for you; do the same for me, for God's sake. For my part (I thank the

heavenly Father), I have made mine accounts, and appointed myself unto the will of the heavenly Father; as he will, so I will, by his grace. For God's sake, as soon as ye can, send my poor wife and children some letter from you; and my letter also, which I sent of late to D. As it was told me, she never had letter from me, sithence the coming of M. S. unto her; the more to blame the messengers, for I have written divers times. The Lord comfort them, and provide for them; for I am able to do nothing in worldly things. She is a godly and wise woman. If my meaning had been ac complished, she should have had necessary things: but what I meant, God can perform, to whom I commend both her and you all. I am a precious jewel now, and daintily kept, never so daintily; for neither mine own man, nor any of the servants of the house, may come to me, but my keeper alone; a simple, rude man, God knoweth; but I am nothing careful thereof. Fare you well. The 21st of January, 1555. Your bounden,

The Cabinet.

JOHN HOOPER,

THE BELIEVER'S COMPLETENESS IN THE SAVIOUR. -As the resources of Jews and Greeks furnish not the means of atonement and peace, how great is the Chris tian's happiness in having received, from his Maker's bounty, the full price of redemption! His "beloved Son" hath offered, "in his own body upon the tree," a sufficient propitiation for the sins of the world; and with the blood of the sacrifice is passed into the "heavens," there" to appear" for ever "in the pre sence of God for us." Ye holy and humble men, who are overwhelmed with the contemplation of the majesty and holiness of Jehovah, behold, between him and you, a mighty Mediator, in whom God is reconciled unto you, and, for whose sake, ye are honourable and precious in his sight! Ye penitent offenders, who are heavy laden with the consciousness of your sins, behold, in the blood of Christ, a fountain set open by the Almighty, in which you may wash and be clean! Washed in this purifying stream, "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be like wool; though they be red like crimson, they shall be white as snow." A persecuting Paul and an inconstant Peter, a sinful Magdalen and a crucified thief, have found it sufficient to take away the stains of their guilt; and whenever it is resorted to with penitence and faith, the Everlasting Father hath declared that it shall "cleanse from all sin." Faithful members of the Church, who, with all your faith and perseverance, are conscious of the smallness of your attainments, and, when ye contemplate the joys, and honours, and riches of heaven, are ready to ask, with exceeding meekness, Shall all this glory be given unto us? look at your Redeemer: "Ye are complete in him, who is the Head." As members of his body, ye not only have fellowship in his sufferings, but also participation in his resurrection. He is your life. And, for his sake, ye are dear unto the Father. glory, with which the Head is encompassed, shall all "When he, who is your life, shall appear," of that the members of the body share. Be not dismayed. then; "ye are complete in him."--Bishop Dekon.

THE CHRISTIAN A PILLAR IN THE TEMPLE OF HIS God (Rev. iii. 12).—The whole of the imagery in the text is probably borrowed from the practice, in ancient times, of erecting pillars in honour of the achievements of distinguished individuals, in or near the temples of their false gods. In like manner, it is here said that the Christian shall be erected as a pillar of triumph in the temple of the true and living God. In this world

the servant of the Redeemer may be a mere outcast in society. He may toil, and want, and suffer; may "rise early" to "eat the bread of carefulness," and sink to rest upon the hard and rugged bed of poverty. Or he may wander with the poor Arab of the desert; or tremble amidst the snows of the pole; or linger out a dreary existence in the cheerless and sunless hut of the western savage. The Gospel may, in short, find him in the lowest depths of want and suffering. Nevertheless, "he that overcometh shall be made a pillar in the temple of God." That poor outcast, if a true servant of Christ, shall be stripped of his rags and wretchedness, and be raised as a pillar of ornament in the temple of the Lord. Great, my Christian brethren, will be the changes and reverses of the last solemn day; "the first shall be last, and the last first." The wicked shall at once shrink to their proper nothingness; but the contrite and believing shall participate in the glories of their Lord. They shall be planted in the temple of God. The "one thing they desired upon earth" shall be granted them; "they shall behold the fair beauty of the Lord, and dwell in his temple." They shall live in his presence-they shall hear his voice-they shall mingle their songs with the redeemed-they shall proclaim the glory of "the crucified" for ever and ever-they shall "see the King in his beauty, and the land that is very far off."-Rev. J. W. Cunningham.

TRUE REPENTANCE NOT AN ACT, BUT A HABIT. -The repentance from which true confession proceeds is as lasting as our existence; and it is its permanent, its abiding nature, which proves it to be the repentance which God has blessed. That sorrow for sin which is the effect of heated passions only, will surely die away; and that which proceeds from remorse of conscience, is seldom lasting: but that contrition which is lodged in the soul by the Spirit of God, nothing can destroy, no length of time can efface it, no sense of pardon can weaken it. It is, indeed, regulated and modified by time; and the blood of Christ, when applied to the conscience, by taking from its bitter pangs, causes it to assume a new character; but it does not diminish its activity or strength; on the contrary, it increases both, rendering the humiliation of the believer more habitual, and his contrition more deep and tender. His penitence grows in the exact degree in which his faith and consolation abound, and never ceases growing till it is lost in the joys of heaven.-Rev. C. Bradley.

CHRISTIAN SIMPLICITY.-God has marked simplicity of faith with peculiar approbation he hath done this throughout the Scripture; and he is doing it daily in the Christian life. An unsuspecting, unquestioning, unhesitating spirit he delights to honour. He does not delight in a credulous, weak, and unstable raind. He gives us full evidence when he calls and leads; but he expects to find in us, what he himself bestows, an open ear, and a disposed heart. Though he gives us not the evidence of sense, yet he gives such evidence as will be heard by an open ear, and followed by a disposed heart. "Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." We are witnesses what an open ear and a disposed heart will do in men of the world. If wealth is in pursuit-if a place presents itself before them-if their persons, and families, and affairs, are the object, a whisper, a hint, a probability, a mere chance, is a sufficient ground of action. It is this very state of mind with regard to religion, which God delights in and honours. He seems to put forth his hand, and say" Put thy hand into mine, and follow my leading; keep thyself attentive to every turn."-Rev. R. Cecil.

IMPATIENCE. I have seen the rays of the sun, or of the moon, dash upon a brazen vessel, whose lips kissed the face of those waters that lodged within its

bosom; but being turned back and sent off, with its smooth pretences or rougher waftings, it wandered about the room and beat upon the roof, and still doubled its heat and motion. So is sickness and sorrow entertained by an unquiet and discontented man. Nothing is more unreasonable than to entangle our spirits in wildness and amazements, like a partridge fluttering in a net, which she breaks not, though she breaks her wings.-Bishop Jeremy Taylor.

Poetry.

"THY WILL BE DONE."

My God and father! while I stray
Far from my home, on life's rough way,
O! teach me from my heart to say,
"Thy will be done!"

If thou should'st call me to resign
What most I prize, it ne'er was mine:
I only yield thee what was thine-
"Thy will be done!"

E'en if again I ne'er should see
The friend more dear than life to me,
Ere long we both shall be with thee-
"Thy will be done!"

Should pining sickness waste away
My life in premature decay,
My father, still I'll strive to say,

"Thy will be done!"

If but my fainting heart be blest
With thy sweet Spirit for its guest,
My God! to thee I leave the rest-
"Thy will be done!"

Renew my will from day to day;
Blend it with thine, and take away
All that now makes it hard to say,
"Thy will be done!"

Then when on earth I breathe no more
The prayer oft mix'd with tears before,
I'll sing, upon a happier shore,

"Thy will be done!"

THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. WHERE may children go to hear Of God, and learn his name to fear, To love, to honour, and revere ?

C. E.

Where? To the Sunday-school. Where are children early taught What God expects in heart and thought Of those the blood of Christ has bought? Where? In the Sunday-school. Where may children hear and know Of Christ, who died for all below, To save them from eternal woe?

Where? In the Sunday-school. Where are children taught to raise The song of love, the voice of praise, To Christ, in sweet and grateful lays?

Where? In the Sunday-school.

Where are children led to feel

That peace and joy, that love and zeal,
The Holy Spirit's pledge and seal?

Where? In the Sunday-school.
Where may children learn the way
To heaven; and there, in endless day,
Their everlasting tribute pay?

Where? In the Sunday-school.
May every child, then, hasten there,
And in these blessings seek to share,
With uplift hearts in earnest prayer,
And love the Sunday-school.

Sloane Street, Sept. 1836.

A HYMN WRITTEN AT THE HOLY
SEPULCHRE.

SAVIOUR of mankind, man, Emmanuel!
Who sinless died for sin; who vanquished hell;
The first-fruits of the grave; whose life did give
Light to our darkness; in whose death we live :—
Oh! strengthen thou my faith, convert my will,
That mine may thine obey; protect me still,
So that the latter death may not devour
My soul, sealed with thy seal.-So, in the hour
When thou (whose body sanctified the tomb,
Unjustly judged,) a glorious Judge shalt come
To judge the world with justice; by that sign
may be known, and entertained for thine.
GEORGE SANDYS: 1643.

I

Miscellaneous.

THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE.-The voluntary principle, of which so much has lately been said and written, is very imperfectly understood. Most people imagine that it only asserts the right of every individual to pay for the instruction which he prefers, with a protest against being compelled to pay for any other. But in reality it includes the whole question at issue. It claims for every man the right to choose for himself his mode of worship and form of church-government, and to make himself sole judge of the nature and extent of the obedience he shall render; in other words, that every man shall do that which is right in his own eyes, determine for himself what laws he will obey, submit to no authority which he has not sanctioned, and revolt against this whenever it pleases him to do so. This principle strikes at the foundation of society itself; for it contains nothing which may forbid its application to civil as well as ecclesiastical institutions.-Osler's Church and Dissent.

GEN. xxxi. 40. "Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes."-Doubdan, travelling in the evening of the 28th of March, N.S. from Jaffa (or Joppa) to Rama, tells us he passed near two or three companies of Arabs, "who were watching their flocks, making a great noise, singing and rejoicing about many fires which they had made in the plain; and a number of dogs, who, perceiving our being near to them, did not cease from growling, barking, and giving us apprehension of being discovered, and falling into the hands of these robbers." Perhaps it may be thought that these fires, and all this noise, might be made to intimidate beasts of prey, which they might be apprehensive were about, and watching an opportunity of making depredations on their flocks; it is

possible it might be so. The warmth, however, of these fires must have been comfortable to themselves, who were watching in the open air, since Doubdan complains of his lodging that night at Rama, where the procurator of the Holy Land did not treat them with the greatest tenderness, "but contented himself with putting us into a miserable room, where there were only the four walls, giving us nothing but a mat to lie upon, a stone for a pillow, and no coverlid but the broken ceiling, which exposed us to the weather, which was not the most favourable at that season, as the nights are always extremely cool." Yet the heat of the preceding day was so great, that it was assigned as one reason why they waited some hours at Joppa, in a poor Greek hovel, before they set out for Rama. But the account he gives of his situation at Tyre is much stronger still. On the 16th of May they found the heat near Tyre so great, that though they took their repast on the grass, under a large tree, by the side of a small river, yet he complains of their being burnt up alive, and they were obliged to continue in that situation until six in the afternoon, when they returned to their bark but the wind failing, and the seamen not to be persuaded to row, they could get no further than the rocks and ruins of Tyre, when night overtook them. Near those ruins they were obliged to pass a considerable part of the night, not without suffering greatly from the cold, which was as violent and sharp as the heat of the day had been burning. He goes on: "I am sure I shook as in the depth of winter, more than two or three full hours;" to which he adds, their being quite wetted with a rime extremely thick and cold, which fell upon them all night. To this he subjoins, that the worst was, that they were in the hands of four or five fishermen, who did nothing but throw their nets into the sea, often with no success; in the meanwhile roasting them in the day-time in the sun, and almost making them to perish with cold in the night, without at all getting forward.—Shaw.

MISSIONARY ZEAL.· - Francis Xavier, sometimes called the Apostle of the Indies, being about to undertake a mission, which appeared extremely hazardous, was strongly expostulated with by his friends on the great dangers he would have to encounter from the malignity of the climate, the sterility of the land, and the barbarity of the inhabitants; in short, every thing that was gloomy and terrific. This representation. though just, was so far from deterring him from the attempt, that it seemed to inspire him with more zeal for the arduous enterprise. "The most tractable and opulent nations," said he, "will not want preachers; but this is for me, because others will not undertake it. If the country abounded with odoriferous woods and mines of gold, all danger would be braved in order to procure them; should merchants, then, be more intrepid than missionaries? Shall these unfortunate people be excluded from the blessings of the Gospel? It is true they are very barbarous and brutal; but is not He, who can convert even stones into children of Abraham, able to soften their hearts? Should I be instrumental in the salvation of but one among them. I should think myself but too well recompensed for all the labours and dangers by which you endeavour to affright me." With these sentiments he entered upon his work; and, it is said, that his success corresponded with his zeal and intrepidity; so that great numbers of these wretched people were brought to embrace the Christian faith.

LONDON:-Published by JAMES BURNS, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square; W. EDWARDS, 12 Ave-Maria Lane, S. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers Town and Country.

PRINTED BY

ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLYN, 46 ST. MARTIN'S LANE.

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THE FALL OF THE LEAF.

THERE is something peculiarly melancholy in the scene which every where presents itself in nature at the fall of the leaf. Summer, with its varied beauties, has passed away; the joyous harvest has been gathered into the garner, in not a few instances, it is to be hoped, with feelings of deep gratitude to the Lord of the harvest; and though there is often an exquisite richness in the autumnal tints, which mark the progress of the waning year, yet the heart not unfrequently feels sad at the prospect of the desolation which will so soon spread itself around.

The fall of the leaf reminds us forcibly of the evanescent nature of all human joys; and it is strikingly emblematical of man's existence, who is described as "altogether vanity," even "at his best estate." The friendships and the joys of life's spring-time soon pass away; the more laborious toil and labour of life's summer-these, too, soon come to an end, for nothing can impede the swift, though silent, progress of time; and man finds himself in life's autumn, scarcely crediting the fact that he is rapidly approaching the end of his earthly course, scarcely allowing himself to believe that the fading tints which manifest themselves in his countenance, are the sure marks that the winter of life is at hand, and that if he is spared yet a little longer, the hoary head, and the tottering step, and the enfeebled frame, will proclaim that he too must soon be swept away by the ruthless blast. How beautifully expressive is the language of the prophet, "We all do fade as a leaf!" Strange that with this certainty before our eyes, and with its truth admitted by

VOL. I.-NO. XXV.

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the lips, the world, from which we must soon pass, should occupy so much of our thoughts, and engross so much of our attention; strange that the affections should be too often completely centred on the perishing objects around us; and that while there is so much energy, and activity, and carefulness about the things which are seen and temporal, there should be so much listlessness, and sloth, and carelessness about the things which are not seen and eternal. But sin has wrought a fearful change upon man. It has darkened the eyes of his understanding, and hardened his heart against repeated warnings of the brevity of his existence. If temporal death was included in the sentence, To the dust thou shalt return, spiritual death was included in the sentence, Ye shall surely die; and it is not until aroused from this state of insensibility by the life-giving Spirit of God, that there is a labouring for the meat that perisheth not, and a comparative indifference to the concerns of a world, on the dearest enjoyments of which vanity is indelibly stamped.

But though man fades as a leaf, viewed with reference to his earthly existence, when his heart is truly converted to God, and he abounds in all those good works which are the sure evidences of that conversion, then is he likened to a "tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." The outward man may indeed perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. realises and exemplifies the faithfulness of the Divine promise, "Those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring

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