truth. It must be considered no degradation to converse with the most wretched and debased of mankind, with a view to their instruction and elevation; and amongst the Hindoos it is often necessary to listen with patience to the most erroneous statements, and to arguments the most subtle, specious, and unfounded, in order to correct, unravel, and refute them. It is also equally requisite for the Missionary in India. to be prepared for superior and intellectual society. Mr. Bourne was happily prepared for every part of the Missionary work. To the natives he was easy of access, mild in his manner, and persevering in the instruction even of those who opposed the Gospel, in the hope that God would give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. And in his intercourse with persons of rank and authority, he did not allow his respect for their station to interfere with his sense of duty; and his wise reproofs and pastoral instructions were in many cases remarkably successful. His motives and proceedings were so transparent as to produce unlimited confidence. He found little difficulty in obtaining ample means for the relief of the poor, and for carrying on the work of God. As a student of the languages of India, he was diligent and successful. He became familiar with the Portuguese, as used on the coast of Coromandel; and in Tamul his acquirements were very respectable. He composed in that difficult language many valuable articles, which appeared in a monthly magazine published in Madras. He took a diligent part in the revision of the Tamul translation of the holy Scriptures recently completed. He translated into Tamul the "Memoir of Mrs. Hester Ann Rogers," with such alterations as might render it more suitable to the natives; and commenced a treatise in the same language on the "Evidences of Christianity," which may perhaps be completed by some other hand, and be ultimately published. Nor did he allow his indisposition, after his return home, to terminate his exertions in this department. To the close of his life he employed himself at every available interval of ease in the revision and completion of the compositions which he hoped might ultimately promote the spiritual benefit of the inhabitants of India. There is one practical consideration connected with the early and lamented removal of a labourer so valuable, and so happily fitted for the arduous work of a Christian Missionary, which it may be of use to dwell upon for a moment. It is, that God does not ordinarily exempt even his choicest servants from the operation of those laws by which human health and life are generally governed and determined. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels ;" and, according to the care with which it is used, the vessel may for a longer or shorter period continue fit to retain and minister the treasure. And it becomes a grave question whether, with the knowledge now possessed of the influence of tropical climates, the church is justified in allowing a Missionary to continue in such climates on the same station from year to year, with out the comfort and relief of a colleague. If we aspire to the honour of a share in the evangelization of the heathen world, let us act honourably towards those employed in the pursuit of that much-desired object, and by a liberal supply of labourers, and of the means of prosecuting their enterprise, let us prevent them from becoming unduly liable to such degrees of exertion and responsibility as cannot be sustained without the probability of destruction to the constitution and the certainty of an early death. And while we thankfully contemplate the precious and encouraging fruit of evangelical labours which has already been vouchsafed in the eastern world, let us practically bear in mind the words of our blessed Lord, which are so strictly applicable to that part of the Mission field: "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth more labourers into his harvest." PREPARATION FOR DEATH. AFTER celebrating the holy supper Christ retired into the garden to prepare himself with 'greater solemnity for his approaching death. Hence we learn, that whenever we have a prospect of our change at hand, we should not content ourselves with habitual preparation, but use a more solemn, distinct, and actual preparation for it. Our Lord, no doubt, was always in readiness for that which he knew was the great end of his incarnation; and yet on the night before his sufferings he retires into the garden, to prepare himself for that hour. We should always so live as to be fit to die; because every hour we make some steps towards the grave. Every thought, every word, is a sand running from the glass of time. that If God give us warning by old age, or a dangerous sickness, or a languishing body, or by any other method, that we shall shortly leave this world, solemn and actual preparation is fit and necessary. If God tell any of you, by a bodily sickness, that your change is near; if the decays and infirmities of old age tell you that you have not long to live, that it is high time to set your hearts and your houses in order, you ought solemnly to do so. You that have one foot in the grave, forget not this, lest you be called away before you are ready. But you have served the Lord from your youth, and have the comfortable review of your past sincerity, in walking with God; you may rejoice upon any such summons, that your race is almost run; your warfare will shortly be accomplished; you have but a few steps more of your pilgrimage to make, a few temptations more to resist, a very little time longer of trial and conflict, before you shall receive the end of your faith and hope, and be for ever with the Lord. Should you not then, with such a warning, stir up the grace of God, quicken holy desires, strengthen faith, and exercise it upon the invisible world, and solemnly resign yourselves into the arms of the Redeemer ?-Shower. MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. THE WESLEYAN METHODIST. (No. LXXXI.) MR. WESLEY'S CONVERSION. To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine. I FIND from the Minutes of the last Wesleyan Conference, that it is intended in the year 1839 to celebrate the Centenary of the formation of the Methodist societies: an arrangement from which great good may be anticipated. Communities as well as individuals are liable to degenerate; and hence the necessity of a frequent recurrence to the principles upon which they were originally founded, and to the objects which they were intended to accomplish. There is one fact connected with the rise of that form of Christianity which is denominated Methodism, to which I think attention might at present be profitably directed. I allude to Mr. Wesley's conversion, the centenary of which will fall upon the 24th of May next. It was on the 24th of May, in the year 1738, that the Rev. John Wesley obtained the inward witness of God's pardoning mercy, with that new and holy nature which was manifest in his active zeal and blameless conduct during the remainder of his very useful life. Of this great and momentous change he has given a circumstantial account in his Journal, which I beg leave to transcribe and to which I shall take the liberty of appending a few remarks. The following is his own account: 66 Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I had continual sorrow and heaviness in my heart; something of which I described, in the broken manner I was able, in the following letter to a friend : "O why is it, that so great, so wise, so holy a God will use such an instrument as me? Lord, let the dead bury their dead! But wilt thou send the dead to raise the dead? Yea, thou sendest whom thou wilt send, and showest mercy by whom thou wilt show mercy! Amen! Be it then according to thy will! If thou speak the word, Judas shall cast out devils. "I feel what you say, (though not enough,) for I am under the same condemnation. I see that the whole law of God is holy, just, and good. I know every thought, every temper of my soul, ought to bear God's image and superscription. But how am I fallen from the glory of God! I feel that I am sold under sin. I know that I, too, deserve nothing but wrath, being full of all abominations; and having no good thing in me, to atone for them, or to remove the wrath of God. All my works, my righteousness, my prayers, need an atonement for themselves. So that my mouth is stopped. I have_nothing to plead. God is holy; I am unholy. God is a consuming fire; I am altogether a sinner, meet to be consumed. "Yet I hear a voice (and is it not the voice of God?) saying, Believe, and thou shalt be saved. He that believeth is passed from death unto life. God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 666 "O let no one deceive us by vain words, as if we had already obtained this faith! * By its fruits we shall know. Do we already feel peace with God, and joy in the Holy Ghost? Does his Spirit bear witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God? Alas! with mine he does not. Nor, I fear, with yours. O, thou Saviour of men, save us from trusting in any thing but thee! Draw us after thee! Let us he emptied of ourselves, and then fill us with all peace and joy in believing, and let nothing separate us from thy love, in time or in eternity!' "That is, the proper Christian faith." "What occurred on Wednesday, the 24th, I think best to relate at large, after premising what may make it the better understood. Let him that cannot receive it, ask of the Father of Lights, that he would give more light to him and me. "1. I believe, till I was about ten years old, I had not sinned away that washing of the Holy Ghost' which was given me in baptism, having been strictly educated, and carefully taught that I could only be saved by universal obedience, by keeping all the commandments of God;' in the meaning of which I was diligently instructed. And those instructions, so far as they respected outward duties and sins, I gladly received, and often thought of. But all that was said to me of inward obedience or holiness I neither understood nor remembered. So that I was, indeed, as ignorant of the true meaning of the law, as I was of the Gospel of Christ. "2. The next six or seven years were spent at school; where, outward restraints being removed, I was much more negligent than before, even of outward duties, and almost continually guilty of outward sins, which I knew to be such, though they were not scandalous in the eye of the world. However, I still read the Scriptures, and said my prayers, morning and evening. And what I now hoped to be saved by, was, 1. Not being so bad as other people. 2. Having still a kindness for religion. And, 3. Reading the Bible, going to church, and saying my prayers. "3. Being removed to the University, for five years, I still said my prayers, both in public and private, and read, with the Scriptures, several other books of religion, especially comments on the New Testament. Yet I had not all this while so much as a notion of inward holiness; nay, went on habitually and, for the most part, very contentedly, in some or other known sin; indeed, with some intermission and short struggles, especially before and after the holy communion, which I was obliged to receive thrice a year. I cannot well tell what I hoped to be saved by now, when I was continually sinning against that little light I had, unless by those transient fits of what many Divines taught me to call repentance.' "4. When I was about twentytwo, my father pressed me to enter into holy orders. At the same time the providence of God directing me to Kempis's Christian Pattern,' I began to see, that true religion was seated in the heart, and that God's law extended to all our thoughts, as well as words and actions. I was, however, very angry at Kempis, for being too strict, though I read him only in Dean Stanhope's translation. Yet I had frequently much sensible comfort in reading hin, such as I was an utter stranger to before; and meeting likewise with a religious friend, which I never had till now, I began to alter the whole form of my conversation, and to set in earnest upon a new life. I set apart an hour or two a day for religious retirement. I communicated every week. I watched against all sin, whether in word or deed. I began to aim at, and pray for, inward holiness. So that now, doing so much, and living so good a life,' I doubted not but I was a good Christian. I ap I "5. Removing soon after to another college, I executed a resolution, which I was before convinced was of the utmost importance, shaking off at once all my trifling acquaintance. I began to see more and more the value of time. plied myself closer to study. watched more carefully against actual sins. I advised others to be religious, according to that scheme of religion by which I modelled my own life. But meeting now with Mr. Law's Christian Perfection,' and Serious Call,' (although I was much offended at many parts of both, yet) they convinced me more than ever of the exceeding height, and breadth, and depth of the law of God. The light flowed in so mightily upon my soul, that every thing appeared in a new view. I cried to God for help, and resolved not to prolong the time of obeying him as I never had done before. And by my continued endeavour to keep his whole law,' inward and outward, to the utmost of my power,' I was persuaded that I should be accepted of him, and that I was even then in a state of salvation. "6. In 1730 I began visiting the prisons, assisting the poor and sick in town, and doing what other good I could, by my presence or my little fortune, to the bodies and souls of all men. To this end I abridged myself of all superfluities, and many that are called necessaries of life. I soon became a by-word for so doing, and I rejoiced that my name was cast out as evil.' The next spring I began observing the Wednesday and Friday fasts, commonly observed in the ancient church; tasting no food till three in the afternoon. And now I knew not how to go any farther. I diligently strove against all sin. I omitted no sort of selfdenial which I thought lawful; I carefully used, both in public and in private, all the means of grace at all opportunities. I omitted no occasion of doing good: I for that reason suffered evil. And all this I knew to be nothing, unless as it was directed toward inward holiness. Accordingly this, the image of God, was what I aimed at in all, by doing his will, not my own. Yet when, after continuing some years in this course, I apprehended myself to be near death, I could not find that all this gave me any comfort, or any assurance of acceptance with God. At this I was then not a little surprised, not imagining I had been all this time building on the sand, nor considering that other foundation can no man lay, than that which is laid by God, even Christ Jesus.' "7. Soon after, a contemplative man convinced me, still more than I was convinced before, that outward works are nothing, being alone; and in several conversations instructed me how to pursue inward holiness, or a union of the soul with God. But even of his instructions, (though I then received them as the words of God,) I cannot but now observe, 1. That he spoke so incautiously against trusting in outward works, that he discouraged me from doing them at all. 2. That he recommended (as it were, to supply what was wanting in them) mental prayer, and the like exercises, as the most effectual means of purifying the soul, and uniting it with God. Now these were, in truth, as much my own works as visiting the sick or clothing the naked; and the union with God thus pursued was as really my own righteousness, as any I had before pursued under another name. "8. In this refined way of trusting to my own works, and my own righteousness, (so zealously inculcated by the mystic writers,) I dragged on heavily, finding no comfort or help therein, till the time of my leaving England. On shipboard, however, I was again active in outward works; where it pleased God, of his free mercy, to give me twentysix of the Moravian Brethren for companions, who endeavoured_to show me a more excellent way. But I understood it not at first. I was too learned and too wise. So that it seemed foolishness unto me.. And I continued preaching and following after and trusting in that righteousness, whereby no flesh can be justified. "9. All the time I was at Savannah I was thus beating the air. Being ignorant of the righteousness of Christ, which by a living faith in him bringeth salvation to every one that believeth,' I sought to estab lish my own righteousness, and so laboured in the fire all my days. I was now properly under the law; I knew that the law of God was spiritual; I consented to it, that it was good. Yea, I delighted in it, after the inner man. Yet was I carnal, sold under sin. Every day was I constrained to cry out, What I do, I allow not; for what I would, I do not; but what I hate, that I do. To will is indeed present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good which I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. I find a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me; even the law in my members, warring |
