ness of old age. It was within a few minutes of my dinner-hour, and I had been labouring since morning. A strong impulse seized me to enter the sick man's house. But the flesh argued for delay, and pled fatigue, and want of time, and to-morrow, &c. Yet the words, "What thy hand findeth to do, do it," rung in my mind. eyes, a severe cough, and apparently about fifty years of age. She did not know me, or had ever heard my name; and all I knew of her was, that she was very poor, and very lonely in the world, and a stranger. After a few ordinary observations about her weak state of body, when she expressed her sense of hopelessness as to recovery, I said, I entered, and found the old man very weak. "I suppose when you die, no one in the world, "Oh, sir," he exclaimed, alluding to a previous poor woman, will miss you?" "No one cares conversation," is the Lord indeed willing to for me," she replied, in a tone of sadness. receive a poor sinner like me?" I again pressed" No one?" I asked. "No, sir, not one that I a few truths upon his mind; and when part- know of." "Do you not think God cares for ing I strongly urged the importance of an you?" I said kindly to her. "I don't know," instant closing with Christ. In bidding him she replied in a half whisper, turning her farewell, I said, "As freely as I offer you eyes away. "He knows you, at all events," I my hand, and with infinitely more love, said. "No doubt of that, sir." "And is it does Jesus offer to save you. Believe, and not something," I continued, "to be known thou shalt be saved!" He seized my hand personally-even you, with all your cares, and eagerly, saying, "I believe it!" and promised, pains, and anxieties-to the great God who according to my request, to resign himself made heaven and earth, and who is able, at all and all his concerns in earnest prayer into events, to help and supply every want of your Christ's hands the moment I left his poor and body and soul?" "Aye, sir, I did not think lonely room. "You will pray for me, sir?" of that. It is something indeed!" "But he asked, as I was departing."Yes," I replied. what," I asked, "if this God has an interest "To-day, sir?"-"This hour," was my pro- in you-cares for you-loves you?" Oh, mise; but," I added, "no delay-no, not a sir, I have been a great sinner-a great sinminute!-remember you are to pray immedi- ner!" "God knows that better than you do," ately to Jesus. Farewell!" I sent for a per- I replied; "and He hates your sins with inson to sit by the old man, as he seemed weaker finite hatred, but what if that same God, than usual. In about half-an-hour after part- nevertheless, commands you, saying, 'Believe ing from him, the woman whom I had re- in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be quested to attend him came running to my saved?'-and beseeches you to be reconciled to door with the intelligence, that she had found Himself?-and says to you, 'Come, now, and him dead! let us reason together; though your sins be as scarlet, I shall make them white as snow?"" And then I spoke to her for a long time of the love of God to lost sinners. 66 It is now many years ago since this happened; and I have so far remembered the impression which it made upon me as to the importance of doing at the time whatever work is given us to do, that I could relate not a few remarkable instances (amidst, alas! neglects without number) of the good results of immediate attention to duty, which the memory of this very case helped to enforce. One occurred, also some years ago, which I cannot help recording. One evening, and, as in the previous case, after a laborious day, I was passing, in the street of a small provincial town, a house which had been an hospital in "the cholera year," and which, since then, had been occasionally used for any dangerous cases of fever, or dangerous disease, especially among either the resident or vagrant poor. Again, by one of those strange suggestions that come, we hardly know how or whence at the time, it occurred to me to ask if there was any one in the hospital; and again the flesh pled for delay. But I could not somehow pass the door without inquiry, though I almost smiled at my impulse to do so as being superstitious. I was told that a poor woman had been there for some days, who seemed to be dying of consumption. I entered the room where she lay. I found her confined to bed, an emaciated creature, with skeleton hands and sunken 66 I have been privileged to address the same words of truth and life to many a sinner, in health and in sickness. I have seen, in many cases, the power of the truth, through God's grace, to enlighten the mind and change the heart; but never did I behold so visible an effect produced upon a human spirit, in the same time, as upon that poor and unknown woman. Even as the mercury is seen slowly rising in the tube when heat is brought near it, so did her heart and soul seem to rise more and more to God, in faith, and love, and hope, and penitence, as the grand theme of the love of Jesus was presented to her. At first she looked thoughtfully, then she raised herself up in bed, then clasped her hands and lifted her eyes to heaven, and again and again exclaimed, "Oh! thank God! thank God! that I have heard such words as these!" After remaining more than an hour, and praying with her, she besought me to come back next day. I promised to do so; but earnestly urged her immediately to pray to Jesus Christ, and to tell Him her whole heart to confess her sins to Himself, and to ask, nothing doubting, the blessings which I had taught her to expect from Him. She gladly promised to do so, but said, "Don't forget to-morrow, sir." THE GREAT REVIVAL OF LAST CENTURY AND ITS EVANGELISTS. "Never fear," I replied, "if I am alive and able to come; but there is no to-morrow given us! Don't you forget to-day; for now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." "God bless you, sir! Oh! thank God! thank God!" were the last words I heard. I called, next day, according to promise, at the door of the small hospital, and found she had died the night before, and was already buried! What her name was, or history, I never could learn; but I have hopes that the name of that poor woman will be found in the Lamb's book of life! I cannot illustrate at present by other cases, though many crowd upon my memory, the importance of our doing whatsoever our hands find to do. But let me give one or two advices to my young readers especially, before bringing these cursory remarks to a close. Never judge by appearance as to the relative importance of duties. What seems the least important, may be all-important. Had the widow not given her mite the day she did to the treasury, but delayed it for another week, how much would she herself, and the whole Christian Church, have lost by the delay! Our only safe rule is, "Whatsoever our hand findeth to do, to do it with all our might." Let it be a subject of daily prayer, as well as an object of daily endeavour, to do our right work at the right time. God in His providence will never leave you at a loss as to what to do, and when to do it; but will lead you, if you will only be led by Him. Carry the burden He imposes, and you will never find it too heavy for He will always give sufficient strength to bear it. But you must, in your own strength, carry whatever other burdens are imposed by your own wilfulness. Now, God does not give you the burden of many years to carry, no, not of one year, nor of one week. He even forbids your taking anxious thought for the morrow. He gives you to-day,-nay, the present hour only; and He says, "Take care of this." He gives you one duty at a time, and says, "Do this." He measures out your time in seconds, and your work in small parts, and commands you to do the given duty in the given time. Yet this loving order of things is just what men will not acquiesce in! They regret what was wrong in the past, and resolve to do better in the future, but neglect doing what is right in the present. They carry the burden of what has been, and what may never be, as if the burden of what is, was not sufficient; and then they complain of their much work and little time, their great cares and little comforts! Oh! when will we learn | the lesson so essential to our peace,—to live well the one hour, and do well the one work, which God in that hour gives us! And thus, by attending to each short step, we shall reach the end of our journey, though the far off horizon may be veiled in clouds; and by using But 279 well each portion of our time and ability, the whole of the grand talent of life will be improved to the glory of our Master! "He that is faithful in the least," must in the end be found "faithful in that which is much!" "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest !"-Edin. Chris. Mag. THE GREAT REVIVAL OF LAST CEN- JOHN WESLEY. the converse, and, in the Church's exigencies, FEW characters could be more completely more happily the supplement of one another, than were those of George Whitefield and JOHN WESLEY;* and had their views been identical, and their labours all along coincident, their large services to the gospel might have repeated Paul and Barnabas. Whitefield was soul and Wesley was system. Whitefield was a summer-cloud which burst at morning or noon in fragrant exhilaration over an ample tract, and took the rest of the day to gather again; Wesley was the polished conduit in the midst of the garden, through which the living water glided in pearly brightness and perennial music, the same vivid stream from day to day. Ten years older than his pupil, Wesley was a year or two later of attaining the joy and freedom of gospel-forgiveness. the Romans, where he describes the change It was whilst listening to Luther's Preface to which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, that he felt his own heart strangely warmed; and finding that he trusted in Christ him that Christ had taken away his sins, and alone for salvation, "an assurance was given saved him from the law of sin and death." And though in his subsequent piety a subtle 66 *Born 1703. Died 1791. hedges, and commenced itinerant preacher, he bade farewell to earthly fame. And perhaps no Englishman, since the days of Bernard Gilpin, has given so much away. When his income was thirty pounds a-year he lived on twenty-eight, and saved two for charity. Next year he had sixty pounds, and still living on twenty-eight, he had thirty-two to spend. A fourth year raised his income to a hundred and twenty pounds, and, steadfast to his plan, the poor got ninety-two. In the year 1775, the Accountant-General sent him a copy of the Excise Order for a return of plate:Rev. Sir,-As the Commissioners cannot doubt but you have plate, for which you have hitherto neglected to make an entry," &c.; to which "Sir,-I have two silver tea-spoons at London, and two at Bristol. This is all the plate which I have at present; and I shall not buy any more while so many around me want bread.-I am, sir, your most humble servant, JOHN WESLEY." And though it is calculated that he must have given more than twenty thousand pounds away, all his property, when he died, consisted of his clothes, his books, and a carriage. Perhaps, like a ball burnished by motion, his perpetual activity helped to keep him thus brightly clear from worldly pelf; and when we remember its great pervading motive, there is something sublime in this good man's industry. Rising every morning at four, travelling every year upwards of 4000 miles, and in that space preaching nearly a thousand sermons; exhorting societies, editing books, writing all sorts of letters, and giving audience to all sorts of people, the ostensible president of Methodism and pastor of all the Methodists, and amidst his ceaseless toils betraying no more bustle than a planet in its course, he was a noble specimen of that fervent diligence which, launched on its orbit by a holy and joyful impulse, has ever afterwards the peace of God to light it on its way. Nor should we forget his praiseworthy efforts to diffuse a Christianised philosophy, and propagate useful knowledge among religious people. In the progress of research, most of his compilations may have lost their value; but the motive was enlightened, and the effort to exemplify he wrote this memorable answer : his own idea was characteristic of the wellinformed and energetic man. In Christian authorship he is not entitled to rank high. Clear as occasional expositions are, there is seldom comprehension in his views, or grandeur in his thoughts, or inspiration in his practical appeals; and though his direct and simple style is sometimes terse, it is often meagre, and very seldom racy. His voluminous Journals are little better than a turnpike logmiles, towns, and sermon texts-whilst their authoritative tone and self-centring details give the record an air of arrogance and egotism which, we doubt not, would disappear, could we view the venerable writer face to face. Assuredly his power was in his presence. Such fascination resided in his saintly mien, there was such intuition in the twinkle of his mild but brilliant eye, and such a dissolving influence in his lively, benevolent, and instruc tive talk, that enemies often left him admirers and devotees. SAMUEL WALKER. In the summer of 1746, SAMUEL WALKER* Western Cornwall. He was clever and accomcame to be curate of the gay little capital of plished-had learned from books the leading anxious to be a popular preacher, and a fadoctrines of Christianity, and, whilst mainly vourite with his fashionable hearers, had a distinct desire to do them good but did them none. The master of the grammarschool was a man of splendid scholarship, and the most famous teacher in that county, Walker received from Mr Conon a note, with but much hated for his piety. One day Mr a sum of money, requesting him to pay it to the Custom-house. For his health he had been advised to drink some French wine, but on that smuggling coast could procure none whether this tenderness of conscience peron which duty had been paid." Wondering vaded all his character, Mr Walker sought Mr Conon's acquaintance, and was soon as completely enchained by the sweetness of his disposition, and the fascination of his intercourse, as he was awed and astonished by the purity and elevation of his conduct. It was from the good treasure of this good man's heart that Mr Walker received the gospel. Having learned it, he proclaimed it. Truro was in uproar. To hear of their absolute depravity, and to have urged on them repentwho had so lately mingled in all their gaieties, ance and the need of a new nature, by one and been the soul of genteel amusement, was first startling, and then offensive. The squire was indignant; fine ladies sulked and tossed their heads; rude men interrupted him in the midst of his sermon; and the rector, repeatedly called to dismiss him, was only baffled by Mr Walker's urbanity. But soon faithful preaching began to tell; and in Mr Walker's sight into character, and his mastery over case its intrinsic power was aided by his in men. In a few years upwards of eight hunwhat they must do for their soul's salvation; dred parishioners had called on him to ask and his time was mainly occupied in instruct ing large classes of his hearers who wished to live godly, righteous, and sober in this evil world. The first fruits of his ministry was a dissolute youth who had been a soldier, and greatest success. amongst this description of people he had his One November, a body of troops arrived in his parish for winter quarters. He immediately commenced an afterfound them grossly ignorant. Of the seven noon sermon for their special benefit. *Born 1714. Died 1761. He 二 GOD'S WATCHFUL CARE. 281 In the outskirts of a little village resided a poor widow woman. The house might once have been attractive to the passer-by, but now the climbing vines which had adorned its walls in happy summers that were past, had broken loose from their fastenings, and were swaying in the storm, making dismal sounds with the creaking of their branches. The dilapidated blinds evidently missed the care that had warded off the ravages of time, and told of the poverty whose heavy hand had fallen upon the lonely inmate of that desolate | dwelling. Never had a sadder day dawned upon her, not even the one on which her threshold was crossed by the feet of them who bore to his last resting-place him who called her wife. God had taken him, and she comforted herself with the promises made to such as she, and set herself earnestly to labour for and train her infant child. best instructed six were Scotchmen, and the seventh an English dissenter. And they were reluctant to come to hear him. At first, when marched to church, on arriving at the door, they turned and walked away. But when at last they came under the sound of his tender but energetic exhortations, the effect was instantaneous. With few exceptions, tears burst from every eye, and confessions of sin from almost every mouth. In less than nine weeks no fewer than two hundred and fifty had sought his private instructions; and though at first the officers were alarmed at such an outbreak of Methodism among their men, so evident was the improvement which took place-so rare had punishments become, and so promptly were commands obeyed-that the officers waited on Mr Walker in a body, to thank him for the reformation he had effected in their ranks. On the morning of their march many of these brave fellows were heard praising God for having brought them under the Bravely had she struggled, praying and sound of the gospel, and, as they caught the hoping that the God of the widow would be last glimpses of the town, exclaimed, "God an ever-present help. Daily had she seen the bless Truro!" Indeed, Mr Walker had much number of her comforts diminishing, but had of the military in his own composition. The been spared absolute want. Often had timely disencumbered alertness of his life, the cour-supplies from kind, feeling neighbours awakenage, frankness, and through-going of his cha- ed her gratitude to them, and to Him who racter, the firmness with which he held his moved their hearts. But now, in the midst of post, the practical valour with which he fol- winter, a wild storm raging without, and not lowed up his preaching, and the regimental a dollar at her command, faith and hope order into which he had organised his people, alike seemed to fail her, and her mind became betokened the captain in canonicals; as the a prey to the most gloomy forebodings. All hardness of his services, and his exulting the long hours of that dreary day she nursed loyalty to his Master, proclaimed the good bitter fancies, and revolved the agonising soldier of Jesus Christ.* question, How shall I live? She doled out with miserly reluctance the scanty fuel which the devouring flame swallowed, imparting scarcely warmth enough to dry the dampness of the accumulating frost upon the walls. She served the meagre dinner, but the thanks offered for it brought not the wonted heavenly fire to warm her heart. GOD'S WATCHFUL CARE. THE month of January was very stormy and cold. The winter had set in early, and soon after the opening of the new year, heavy falls of snow had obstructed the roads and suspended business in the farming portions of the Empire State. In many places, families were fairly blockaded in their own dwellings. Those who had ample stores of food and fuel, suffered nothing from the discomfort of the season; but those whose daily supplies depended upon daily labour, watched with anxiety the fantastic play of the elements, and desired less rigorous weather. The month drew to a close, and the morning of the 31st promised a warmer day. The masses of snow had already settled into a more compact body, but instead of sparkling in the rays of the sun, dull, heavy clouds, hanging near the earth, gave them a dingy hue. Soon the rising wind and falling rain added their undesirable variations, and everything upon which it fell was soon encrusted with a case of ice. * We are indebted for this series of sketches to Dr Hamilton's most useful and entertaining miscellany, "Our Christian Classics," now completed in 4 vols. London: James Nisbet & Co. An evil spirit was fast taking possession of her heart, and instead of expelling it by wrestling in prayer, she listened to its evil suggestions, and began to doubt the "mercy that endureth for ever." She grew impatient to the timid little one, who was oppressed with the surrounding gloom and loneliness. She wrote hard things against those who had once welcomed her with loving pride. With growing impatience she trode the bounds of her little room, adding fuel to the mental fire that consumed her, by gazing on the cheerless scene without. She tried to check the maddening thought which ran rioting through her brain, but she might as well have stayed the mythological steeds of Phoebus in their fiery course. Throwing herself into a chair, she gave free course to "thick-coming fancies," until the dusk of night was falling around her. A knock at the door dispelled her visions and recalled her senses. Who could wish to see her at such a time, in such a storm? She opened the door to an entire stranger, stormchilled and wet, who kindly inquired if she were the widow of Mr ? Receiving an affirmative answer, he informed her that he had brought her some money, which had, in a very providential manner, been recovered from irresponsible men who were indebted to | her deceased husband. don their scarcely less venerable systems of superstition, they rapidly succeeded in both these very probable adventures; and, in a few years, though without arms, power, wealth, or science, were, to an enormous extent, victorious over all prejudice, philosophy, and persecution; and, in three centuries, took nearly undisputed possession, amongst many nations, of the temples of the ejected deities. He must further believe, that the original performers in these prodigious frauds on the world, acted not only without any assignable motive, but against all assignable motive; that they maintained this uniform constancy in unprofitable falsehoods, not only together, but separately, in different countries, before different tribunals, under all sort of examinations and cross-examinations, and in defiance of the gyves, the scourge, the axe, the cross, Ever after she strove patiently to wait or the stake; that those whom they persuaded to do God's will, and whether wanting or abound-join their enterprise persisted like themselves ing, kept firm hold of the unseen Hand.-N. Y. Observer. Declining any remuneration for his own services, after assuring her of his sympathy and willingness to aid her, he took his leave, and went his way to his own home in a distant country. Humbled and ashamed of her want of faith, the penitent woman drew her wondering child to her bosom, and kneeling, poured forth her thanksgiving to Him who feeds the ravens. She knew that the unlooked-for supply came from God, though sent by the hand of one of His children. THE FAITH OF THE INFIDEL. BY HENRY ROGERS. IN relation to the Miracles of the New Testament, whether they be supposed masterly frauds on men's senses, committed at the time and by the parties supposed in the records, or fictions (designed or accidental) subsequently fabricated-but still, in either case, undeniably successful and triumphant beyond all else in the history whether of fraud or fiction, -the infidel must believe as follows:-On the first hypothesis, he must believe that a vast number of apparent miracles, involving the most astounding phenomena, such as the instant restoration of the sick, blind, deaf, and lame, and the resurrection of the dead-performed in open day, amidst multitudes of malignant enemies-imposed alike on all, and triumphed at once over the strongest prejudices and the deepest enmity; those who received them, and those who rejected them differing only in the certainly not very trifling particular, as to whether they came from heaven or from hell. He must believe, that those who were thus successful in this extraordinary conspiracy against men's senses, and against common sense, were Galilean Jews, such as all history of the period represents them; ignorant, obscure, illiterate; and above all, previously bigoted like all their countrymen, to the very system of which, together with all other religions on the earth, they modestly meditated the abrogation; he must believe that, appealing to these astounding frauds in the face both of Jews and Gentiles, as an open evidence of the truth of a new revelation, and demanding, on the strength of them, that their countrymen should surrender a religion which they acknowledged to be divine, and that all other nations should aban | in the same obstinate belief of the same "cunningly devised" frauds; and though they had many accomplices in their singular conspiracy, had the equally singular fortune to free themselves and their coadjutors from all transient weakness towards their cause, and treachery towards one another; and, lastly, that these men, having, amidst all their ignorance, originality enough to invent the most pure and sublime system of morality which the world has ever listened to, had, amidst all their conscious villany, the effrontery to preach it, and, which is more extraordinary, the inconsistency to practise it! On the second of the above-mentioned hypothesis, that these miracles were either a congeries of deeply contrived fictions, or accidental myths, subsequently fabricated, the infidel must believe, on the former supposition, that, though even transient success in literary forgery, when there are any prejudices to resist, is among the rarest of occurrences; yet that these forgeries-the hazardous work of many minds, making the most outrageous pretensions, and necessarily challenging the opposition of Jew and Gentile-were successful, beyond all imagination, over the hearts of mankind; and have continued to impose, by an exquisite appearance of artless truth, and a most elaborate mosaic of feigned events, artfully cemented into the ground of true history, on the acutest minds of different races and different ages; while, on the second supposition, he must believe that accident and chance have given to these legends their exquisite appearance of historic plausibility; and on either supposition, he must believe (what is infinitely more wonderful) that the world, while the fictions were being published, and in the known absence of the facts they asserted to be true, suffered itself to be befooled into the belief of their truth, and out of its belief of all the systems it did previously believe to be true; and that it acted thus, notwithstanding persecution from without, as well as pre |