before mentioned, desiring me to tell her, how much she had been grieved by her want of decision in religion, of the bad example she was setting to her brothers and sisters, and to beg of her to make sure work for eternity, "that when she comes to be like me, all may be well." "I shall soon," she added, "be ready to She slept very little at night during the whole of her illness, and thus I have been enabled to relate so many of the occurrences of her early days, as it diverted her pain to talk about them. She was one "I night praying, that the Lord would pardon her sins. I said you have enjoyed the pardon of sin. "Oh! yes," she said, "I have long experienced it and lived to God, and I can say I never willingly departed from him, but you know while I lie here I have need of forgiveness." A few days before her departure, whilst I was reading to her the ciii. Psalm, she was greatly cheered, especially with the 13th and 14th verses. 66 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord ⚫ pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust," On Sunday the 5th, we all received the sacrament together, and, at the conclusion, she thanked the minister, Mr. Handley, with much earnestness. That afternoon, I said to her, "Well, mother, I can freely give you up, knowing you have such a bright prospect beyond the grave." She said, "I am truly thankful for that assurance." As night approached, she said, "Oh! should I dread this night?" I said, "No, mother, I would dread nothing, but trust in the Lord Jesus, and look to him.' She said with energy, will trust in him ;" and so she did to the last, and he "manifested himself to her as he does not unto the world." She passed a restless night; yet, at times, she was able to converse with freedom. Early on Monday morning, she requested the blind to be drawn up, that she might once more look out; and then thanked God for the light of another day. At eleven o'clock in the forenoon, we thought she was dying; she said, "I think it's all over now;" and presently after said, "I feel a pain." I said, "It will soon be over;" she replied, "I thought it was all calm, and joy, and peace." In a short time, she rallied again, and, Mrs. Thompson coming in, I inquired if she should pray with her; she said, "If she will, I should be glad." After prayer, she took Mrs. Thompson's hand in both hers, bade her farewell, and prayed God would bless her. She continued praying at intervals for herself, for her children, that they might not be eternally separated from her; for the church of which she was a member and, especially, for some whom she feared were becoming careless; and, oh, how earnestly did she plead with God that the whole world might be converted! Seeing me much affected, she said, "Don't, you shouldn't ;" I said, "No, mother, we should not grieve to see a soul escape to bliss." She replied quickly, "Keep the Christian festival!" Though her sufferings were very acute, she might be truly said to praise God in the furnace. At times, all fear of dying appeared to be gone, and, though she had conflicts with the enemy, yet she was filled with holy - joy, and confidence. She never murmured, but, when suffering intensely, would say, "My Father," and "My God, I am thine.' She frequently exclaimed, "Glory! and blessing, and thanks, and praise be unto our God for his great goodness!-Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." Twice she repeated, "My soul the change shall scarcely know, Made perfect first in love." About eleven at night, I altered her position for a little ease, and she said, in a tone I can never forget,— After this, she was restless, and, appearing to receive a sudden shock, said, “Oh! what is this.” Mrs. Paine (one of her old friends alluded to before) prayed with her, and she was relieved; and as we did not expect her to depart so soon, Mrs. Paine, as well as my brother, retired to rest about twelve o'clock. I continued to read portions of Scripture to her, and she frequently requested me to pray for her, saying, "I cannot pray for myself," and often repeated, "Lord, save, or I perish, I die! O save, or I sink into hell!" I remarked, "Dear mother, that is prayer," she said,— "I long to behold him array'd With glory and love from above." And agony is At two o'clock in the morning, Satan made his last attempt to unsettle her: and when I prayed, that the Lord would support her, she said, "Amen!" with much earnestness, and then, "Oh! that was an agony. Jesus comes to my relief. heaven !" Directly after, she said, "Blessed Lord Jesus! come and release me, if it be thy will, but if not, thy will be done." I then laid her gently down upon her pillow in an easy position, and, on kneeling down by the side of her bed, she took my hand in hers, and, closing her eyes, without sigh or struggle, fell asleep, about three o'clock in the morning of the 7th of January, 1845. A sweet smile succeeded the last agony, which continued unchanged. On the 15th, the day of the funeral, we could hardly be convinced that the spirit had departed. In this narrative, of the life and death of one of the humble followers of the Lord Jesus, we see the grace of God manifested. She could say, in the words of the Apostle, "By the grace of God, I am what I am." From her distant manner, she was thought to be proud by those who only imperfectly knew her; but this opinion vanished on acquaintance, indeed her memory will live in the hearts of those who knew her best. The Lord had blessed her with sound judgment and discrimination; slow in forming an opinion, she adhered to it with firmness, and I could always depend upon her decision as the right She was gifted with a retentive memory and a love of reading, and young persons generally delighted in her society, on account of her instructive and cheerful conversation. Yet, notwithstanding her love of general reading, the Bible was her chief book. She studied one. its contents; however engaged, she read a portion of it every day; it was the rule of her faith and practice; having loved it from her childhood, its precepts and promises were a comfort and consolation to her in her declining years; and, when she could no longer read it herself, she felt desirous to hear it read, particularly the Gospel and Epistles of John. "The spirit of love to Jesus which pervades his writings seeming to be the element in which she delighted to breathe." To Mr. Handley, who was our circuit preacher, our thanks are justly due for his kind attention to her in her affliction, and also to Mr. Shelmerdine, Wesleyan Methodist, and to Mr. Smith, Independent minister, of Patricroft, who both visited and prayed with her. Likewise to Mr. William Makinson, of the New Connexion, who kindly preached a suitable sermon on the occasion of her death from Acts, chap. xxi., part of the 16th verse, "An old disciple," in the chapel at Patricroft, to a crowded and deeply interested congregation. HAPPY NEW YEAR. THE past year, like all which have preceded it, has left the remembrance of trial and sorrow, of reverses and bereavements. To wish that the present year may be free from like Providences would be both vain and wicked: vain, because the experience of the past shows us that trials are inevitable for the future: and both vain and wicked, because the desire to change or reverse what is inevitable, argues weakness and arrogance in ourselves, and involves a doubt of the reality, or an impeachment of the sufficiency or the goodness of Divine Providence. On the same account, we cannot either reasonably or piously desire that the trials of the present year should be either less, or less severe, than they actually will be, or bear a smaller proportion than they will bear, to what are commonly considered the pleasures of life. God, who sends us our trials, is the best Judge of their nature and measure: and if we believe in his being, (without which there can be no religion,) and in his goodness, (without which there is no inducement to religion,) we shall have no wish to change, either in kind or degree, the discipline of life, but shall leave him to accomplish his gracious purposes towards us in the manner he sees best. To take with submission the trials of life as they come, and to bear them with patience and fortitude, are, to say the least, the dictates of practical wisdom. Come they will; and a fretful and complaining temper makes them no easier-a proud and resilient temper makes them much harder to be borne. But, thus to make a virtue of necessity, and submit to what is inevitable, falls short of the notion of happiness. As God is good, he must design the happiness of his creatures; and therefore the very calamities of life are a proof that the present state of mankind is different from what he designed it to be. Revelation gives us the history of the change, and if this be not a perfect solution of the mysteries of our present condition, it is at least the best we can discover. It tells us that the happiness of man was made to consist in obedience to God, and was forfeited by disobedience. In his act of disobedience, Adam violated both the dictates of his reasonable nature, and the positive command of his Maker. Thus he lost the life of happiness, which consists in obedience to God; and, estranging himself from the fountain of goodness and felicity, he became miserable. In other words, he died; for death, in the language of Scripture, denotes the misery which consists in separation from God. The act, once done, was done for ever! Perfect obedience, and, by consequence, perfect happiness, was thenceforward impossible, and the death which was the loss of happiness, was from the nature of the case eternal. The question then arose with respect to Adam, and still arises with respect to us, (for we are all concluded under sin, because all have sinned:) is repentance for the past, and a sincere, though imperfect, obedience for the future, available to our happiness with God? The Gospel assures us that this provision of mercy has been made by the new covenant, which has been sealed with the blood of Christ, and which has procured for us grace to enable us to forsake our sins past, and to lead a life of acceptable obedience for the future. Here, then, is a solution of the mysteries, and a remedy for the evils, of our present state. The life of God-the life of happiness and obedience has been lost; death eternal is incurred; the ground is cursed, and man is involved in calamity, disease, and temporal death. Thus God is seen to be true; for his nature and his word proclaim, that he will visit, and the present state of things declares, that he has visited sin with merited retribution. Thus God is seen to be just and righteous; for righteousness consists in regarding and treating every thing as it is; and as man is a sinner and rebel, so his own experience, and the present constitution of things declares that he is regarded and treated as such. On the other hand, the life of God-the life of happiness and obedience is recovered, and placed within our reach; the dominion of eternal death is destroyed; the way of escape from it, and return to life, is through repentance, faith and obedience, by a new and better covenant; man is aided with competent grace; the very calamities of man-toil and labor, disease and temporal death-are less the monuments of sin and wrath, than the occasions and means of quickening repentance, enlivening faith, confirming obedience, and of releasing the penitent, finally and for ever, from suffering, and admitting them to everlasting joy. Hence happiness consists neither in an exemption from the ills of life, nor yet in their diminished proportion to what are commonly accounted its pleasures. Nor yet does it result from a mere acquiescence in events, on the practical principle, that it is best to endure what we cannot cure. In the present state of man, happiness is the new life, or the life brought to light by the new covenant. From the nature of a remedial state, happiness, in such a state, is imperfect: but the source of happiness is the same for men and angels; the same now as it was before the fall, and as it will be in its heavenly consummation; and happiness can only be obtained by obedience to God who is its fountain; and the degree of obedience is, for the most part, the measure of happiness. And this, to bring our essay to a close, is what we mean by the wish of a Happy New Year. We desire, neither for our readers nor for ourselves, an extinction or diminution of those reverses and sorrows which HE, who knows what is best for us, better than we know ourselves, will surely send: nor do we desire merely the negative happiness of philosophic contentment. The wish for a happy new year means with us a wish for the new life, or the life of the new covenant, which was sealed by the blood, and accepted in the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ; an acceptance of its gracious terms and proffered aids; a forsaking of sins past, and walking with God in the way of duty for the future; a life of faith and hope; a thankful acknowledgment and firm persuasion that the reverses and calamities, the sorrows and bereavements, and all the evils which men have brought on themselves by their own folly and crime, may, and (if we be not wanting to ourselves) will, through the wisdom of God, who is in Christ reconciling the world to himself, and through the compassion and grace of Christ, who is redeeming a race of helpless and sinful creatures from bondage and death, be made the means of trying and settling our faith and obedience, and so of reclaiming us to the perfect freedom and perfect happiness from which we fell in the first Adam, and of crowning us with the unmeasurable felicity which has been purchased by the second Adam, and will be freely given by him, as the reward of faith and good works, to all who love and obey him. With this explanation, we conclude as we began, with the wish of a HAPPY NEW YEAR. REVISED EXTRACT. ON PREACHING IN EARNEST. $ "WHO," said the apostle of the Gentiles, referring especially to preachers of the Gospel, "goeth a warfare any time at his own charges?" And would that all the Lord's ministers, when dispensing his word, did but bear in mind the cheering truth involved in this interrogatory, and look for its gracious fulfilment, in reference to their own ministry! However desirable, that every preacher of the Gospel should be a scribe well instructed in the mysteries of the kingdom, and be able to bring, before the people to whom he ministers, out of the Divine treasury, things both new and old,— there will always, necessarily, be found among them, great diversity of talent, and capacity for this work, the natural consequent of diversity of mental powers, and varied acquirements. If there be one thing more than another, however, which a faithful minister |