every moment. And, blessed be his glorious name, he gives me power to watch, believe, and conquer all.

"December 15th.—I heard Mr. Reece, from Isaiah vi. 5-9. Surely the Lord directed his servant to that precious portion of his word for my good. It was a mirror in which I beheld my own happy experience from first to last. While the last hymn was sung, I received a powerful manifestation of divine love; my feelings were somewhat relieved by my tears, which I shed abundantly."

About ten days of serene delight in God passed away, when Satan was permitted powerfully to assault her with distressing suggestions respecting her sincerity, and the genuineness of the work: "That if there were such a salvation, it was reserved for a distinguished few." "While conversing with my husband," she writes, "I perceived the snare, light sprung up in obscurity, and again I praised my God with a glad heart and free!"

"December 31st.-I praise God for his distinguishing mercy through another year. I closed it as I would, with the people of God, in abasement at his footstool. In the watch-night, Mr. M'Lean spoke from these words, 'Is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband? Is it well with thy child?' (2 Kings iv. 26.) These interrogatories, blessed be God, we could answer in the affirmative. I find it an unspeakable privilege to attend our select band. There are many testimonies to the glory of God, clear and convincing. I have reasoned, that, were I to speak, I had not power to edify the people; and, being perplexed, I sought unto the Lord. I read the following portion on my knees, That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in thee in Christ Jesus.' (Philemon 6.) I resolved, therefore, to testify the power of Christ, and the efficacy of his blood; and God filled my soul with himself. I saw it was an enemy who had kept me silent, and I determined in future that God should have the glory of his grace. 0 what have I to do with others? Henceforth may my single eye be fixed on God alone!

"April 6th, 1834.-Since I last wrote I have been much afflicted. I have been confined to my bed for a month, and have been kept from the sanctuary three months. I am yet very weak. I long to worship with the great congregation. I trust I feel perfectly resigned to the will of my God, who ordereth all things well. I sweetly prove that the Lord is not confined to temples made with hands."

In the following month she visited her friends in Lancashire, and was cheered by their presence; but her affliction was unabated. She returned to her family with the consciousness that He who had marked her for his own was calling her to himself. And so it proved; for the helps and means employed were all unavailing. When she was informed that there were but feeble hopes of her recovery, she manifested no fear or shrinking from the summons; but it induced rather great

searchings of the heart before the Lord, lest when He should come to call her to himself, she should not be fully ready.

It was with deep interest and much profiting that her friends now beheld grace maturing, earth receding, and heaven opening. She was told that she "could not recover:" she exclaimed, "Glorious news! glorious news! I shall soon be with Him, and see Him as he is!" To her husband she said, "What a faithful prayer-hearing God we have to go to! I was praying this morning that my perceptions of himself and of heaven might be more clear and enlarged; and he has graciously answered my prayer. I have views inexpressible, which I never had before. I desire to be with him: I have no desire to recover."

Her end was now fast approaching; but her faith was strong and realizing, and her hope was full. "O glorious hope of immortality!" A few days previous to her departure, while her husband was by her bed, God was pleased to baptize her with the Holy Ghost. With streaming eyes, and a faltering tongue, she broke out in accents as follows: My soul is full of glory! My soul is filled with heaven! I have victory, victory, through the blood of the Lamb! It is all through the blood of the Lamb!" Thus, with her latest breath, did this humble devoted servant of the Lord testify the boundless love and mercy of her redeeming God, enabling her to triumph over death; and when her voice had failed, and her eyes were fixed, she waved her hand in token of everlasting victory and joy. She fell asleep in Christ December 6th, 1834. "Let me die the death of the righteous, let my last end be like" hers.

Thus, blessed be God, we have another record of one of the numerous fruits of the Methodist ministry. Our late sister was a Christian and a Methodist. She adorned the doctrine and the grace of the one, and she cheerfully conformed herself to the discipline of the other. The good seed fell into good (prepared) ground, and grew, and brought forth much fruit. Uniformity, consistency, patience, perseverance, were her daily mottoes, and marked her path. Throughout there was no halting, or wavering, or wandering, but rather a growing up into Christ. She was rooted, grounded, and settled in the truth. As a child, a wife, and a mother, grace being dominant, she was exemplary in every duty and relation. She was capable of refined friendships they were not suddenly formed, nor easily broken. Her love and faithfulness were ardent, sincere, and constant. She had a quick temperament, and till grace fully subdued her, she was brought thereby into inward conflicts; but over this and every evil of her nature, she obtained the entire and everlasting victory. And perhaps another triumph in her later experience was, a perception of the nature of Christian holiness, as exhibited in the Gospel, as the common privilege of believers, and the great preparative for heavenly glory. For years she raised the standard too high, approaching to angelical perfection. She believed subsequently just what is written, "The blood

of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin;""Perfect love casteth out fear;" "Herein is the love of God perfected," (matured,) "that as he is, so are we in this world." She also was humbled and quickened to obtain this blessing, not by the works of the law, but to receive it by faith,— "purifying their hearts by faith." She believed, and was saved. When, therefore, it was announced, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him," she was ready. Oil was in the vessel, her lamp was trimmed, and burning bright; yea, with her loins girded, she was looking for, and hasting to, the coming of the day of Christ." Mark," then," the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace." L.

FAMILY DEVOTION.

RULES without examples are neither understood nor considered by those to whom they are addressed; and he that goes about to overrule his family to piety without making conscience of it in his own practice, nay, who does not make his own life a great pattern of what he persuades to, undermines his own endeavours, and shall not only fail of success, but be ridiculous for his pains; for every body is aware, that if devotion be necessary to one, it is so to another. If the servant ought to pray to God, so ought the master. If one ought to be zealous, certainly the other ought not to be careless or profane. If one may be excused the trouble of religion, so may the other.

Indeed it is hardly possible for a man in these matters to have the confidence earnestly to press the observance of that upon those under him which is not conspicuous in his own practice: or, at least, if he have the forehead to do it, and can so well act the part of the Pharisee, as to lay heavy burdens upon others, which he himself will not touch with one of his fingers; yet, as he cannot do it heartily, so he must be very vain if he thinks men will not be able to see through the disguise, and very sottish if he can expect that such commands of his should carry any authority with them.

But there is a majesty in holy example. It not only commands, but carries men into compliance. There is life and spirit in it; insomuch that it animates and inflames all about a man. It makes piety to be

come visible; and not only shows it to be necessary, but represents it with all its advantages of goodness, beauty, and ornament. It confutes men's mistakes of it; answers their objections against it; removes their suspicions; shames their cowardice and lukewarmness. After the manner of great engines, it works powerfully, though almost insensibly.

Therefore let him who would engage his family in devotion give them a fair copy of it in his own example, and then he shall not fail of the honour and comfort of seeing it transcribed by those about him.The Old Religion, 1684.

THE WESLEYAN METHODIST. (No. LXXXII.)
THE DUTY OF METHODISM TOWARDS ITS YOUTH.
To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.

In the April number of the Wes-
leyan Magazine there is a well-writ-
ten paper, designed to prove that
"the church should educate her
children." Perhaps its readers will
tolerate a few additional words on
the same subject. These, although
not properly a sermon, will have an
especial reference to a well-known
passage of Scripture,-the parable
of the sower. (Matthew xiii.) A
learned commentator has said, "The
unfruitfulness of the different lands
was not owing to bad seed, or an
unskilful sower. The same sower
sows the same seed in all, and
with the same gracious design;
but it is unfruitful in many, because
they are careless, inattentive, and
worldly-minded." That unfruitful-
ness is not owing, in any case, to
the badness of the seed, is readily
admitted; for this is divine, and
therefore perfect in its kind. Nor
is it less true that many are unfruit-
ful because they are careless, inat-
tentive, and worldly-minded. But
that failure is never to be attributed
to the unskilfulness or misconduct
of the sower, is an assumption
made without sufficient authority.
The parable represents the general
and ordinary state of things in the
Christian church; and, of course,
supposes that the Gospel is preached,
not by angels, but by men. The
sowers and the soils are but differ-
ent specimens of human nature;
and all that is human, connected
with Christianity, may equally con-
tribute to its failure. In the kindred
parable of the tares, there is men-
tion made of the following circum-
stance, intended, it would seem, to
convey a distinct censure upon the
Ministers of the Gospel :-" While
men slept," (" They ought," says
Mr. Wesley,
"to have watched,")
"the enemy came and sowed tares
among the wheat, and went his
way." Nor can it be doubted that

many a promising crop has been so
mixed as to be destroyed, through
the criminal negligence of the Mi-
nisters of Christ; and that, in many
cases, what is now a wilderness
would have been a fruitful field, had
it fallen into the hands of more
skilful or industrious husbandmen.
Should the harvest fail because the
ground was incurably barren,
cause the clouds had "rained no
rain upon it," no blame could rest
upon the sower; but were he to
scatter his seed by the "
way-side,"
and leave it there without covering
or protection; or upon a rock,"
where there "was no deepness of
earth;" or among the roots of
"thorns," which were sure to
"spring up in due time;" he would
be compelled even to blame himself;
for in none of these cases could
any reasonable man ever look for
any other result.

The youthful mind, connected with our congregations and societies, is a soil naturally full of evil tendencies, but capable of very glorious things. If neglected, it will degenerate into a desert. If cultivated, it will become a field which the Lord hath blessed. The adult members of the church, but more especially her Ministers, and those who are associated with them in the general management of her spiritual and temporal affairs, are solemnly charged with this important duty. The good seed is put into their hands, with an authoritative direction to scatter it abroad; and accompanied by a distinct intimation, that the faithful performance of this duty, from age to age, will produce a

gradual improvement in the moral character of each succeeding generation, and, of course, hasten the millennium.

The great Head of the church long since "established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in

Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children: that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born: who should arise and declare them to their children: that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments; and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God." (Psalm lxxviii. 5-8.) "The earth," says our Lord, "bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." (Mark iv. 28.) The "blade" to be produced is the love of God; for that is the living principle of all moral good, which shoots out into the love of man, and ripens into a harvest of holiness and happiness, which we shall reap and enjoy through time and through eternity. This love, in the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ, "is the first and great commandment." If it is the first and great thing which God has enjoined, it is the first and great thing to be implanted in the minds and hearts of our children. An education conducted upon a purely scriptural principle would seek, before and above all other things, to win the heart to God through the medium of the understanding; or, to constrain children to love him, by making them to comprehend how greatly he has loved them. It has become too much the habit of fallen men to hesitate, and inquire, and reason, where they ought simply to believe and obey. Accordingly, instead of seeking, with promptitude and zeal, first of all, to bring our children to know and love God, some of us think, in our wisdom, there is a previous question to be asked; namely, how far it is wise, and fit, and advantageous, to bring them up in this particular way: just as if it was not a clearly ascertained and settled point, that the command of God is the soundest philosophy; that no one understands human nature so well as its Maker; and that he is in

VOL. XVII. Third Series.

finitely more concerned for the present and future well-being of our children than we can possibly be ourselves. The conclusion arrived at, as the result of our reasonings on this subject, commonly is, that a strictly religious education is the best, as a preparation for death; but that something rather different is necessary as a qualification for the present life. If our children were likely to die in early life, we should endeavour, by especial efforts, to direct their attention to the love of God to fallen man, in order to prevail upon them to love him in return. But because they are likely to live some years, and we wish them to push their fortunes, we begin to doubt whether this is, after all, quite the wisest course to be taken; for, although purity of heart may prepare them to see God, it seems to us to promise little or nothing in the way of advancing their interests in the present world.

Our blessed Saviour appears to have been of a different judgment, when he taught us to say, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." As in that divine form we are taught to pray for our own wellbeing, so this petition plainly assumes that men and angels are to be made happy on one and the same principle. Our chief good here, as well as in paradise, consists in obedient love. Earth is to be turned into heaven by doing the will of God. There never was a vainer dream, than for human beings to imagine that they can do well, even in this life, without the love of God. They might as well expect to " gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles." "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God." A vine produces grapes; but grapes are produced by no other tree. It can extract nutriment from the sun, and the rain, and the air, and the earth, and render all these powers and influences subservient to the production of its own delicious fruit. All other trees may be warmed by the sun, nourished by the rain, refreshed by the breeze, and fed by the fatness of the earth, but they can proJUNE, 1838. 2 E