rious and self-denying agents which these institutions have called forth and employed, it is believed that, in laboriousness and self-denial, few have equalled, and perhaps scarcely any have surpassed, her. No hovel, or garret, or cellar was too mean for her notice; and for this benevolent work she held herself in readiness at all hours. If she heard of a case of distress, it was her invariable custom to inquire into it before she slept. She was taught this important lesson by a circumstance that occurred soon after she commenced her exertions as a Visiter. She received notice of a case late at night, but she deferred her visit until the next morning; thinking that no immediate danger existed. But she was then too late. The poor woman she had been requested to visit died before the visit was paid. The impression which this occurrence made on Mrs. Slade's mind was too deep and too painful ever to be forgotten. She was very active in her habits; and, until within a few years of her death, was favoured with a larger portion of health and strength than ordinarily falls to the lot of females and to this department of Christian effort she freely and cheerfully devoted her energies. In the long course of years during which she gave herself up to it, she must have paid hundreds of visits to the abodes of wretchedness and want; and, by these visits, vast numbers of her fellow-creatures must have been benefited both in body and soul. In her own neighbourhood, especially, "when the ear heard her, then it blessed her; and when the eye saw her, then it gave witness unto her; because she delivered the poor that cried, the fatherless, and those who had none to help them. She was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. She was a mother to the poor; and the cause which she knew not she searched out. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon her; and she caused the heart of the widow to dance within her for joy."

But whilst all this may be said of Mrs. Slade as a private member of Christian society, as a Class-Leader, and as a Visiter of the sick and poor, they who knew her well will be disposed to think that it was as a wife, and as a mother, that the peculiar excellence of her character was most clearly manifested. In both these relations she was eminently tried. Six of her children were removed while young; and, in general, they were sufferers all the time they lived,-sufferers from the cradle to the grave. One of her sons lived to be nearly eight years of age. In his last illness she was much concerned for his salvation; and had satisfactory evidence that, ere the Almighty took him, he graciously prepared him for the heavenly kingdom. Her eldest son lived to be nearly twenty; and, for a considerable period, was a member of the Wesleyan society, and pious and thoughtful even beyond his years. Of her prudence, firmness, and kindness, during the frequent and peculiarly painful afflictions to which her husband was subject, it would be impossible to speak too highly. That a woman endowed with such solid and sterling worth, both mental and

moral, should be given to him at first, and continued to him for nearly forty years, he feels to have been no ordinary mercy. "Her price," to him, was far "above rubies:" "she did him good, and not evil, all the days of her life." Few would have passed through trials like hers with the same fortitude and serenity. Her belief in the doctrine of a particular providence was not the cold and theoretical assent of the understanding: it was a principle deeply fixed in her heart, and constantly influencing her feelings and conduct. It nerved her soul for seasons of conflict; and enabled her, in the day of adversity, so to act, as frequently to draw, from those who witnessed her deportment, the remark: "If there be a Christian in the world, surely Mrs. Slade is one !"

Not very long before Mrs. Slade was called to enter the rest remaining for the people of God, and to which she had so long laboured to attain, it was found that the business in which her husband was engaged, and which had formerly prospered so that they were enabled to gratify some of the strongest feelings of their heart by giving generously to the poor, and contributing largely towards the support and extension of religion, both in the Circuit with which they were connected, and in the world, had greatly declined; and, from the infirmities of increasing years, as well as from liability to serious affliction, it was not likely that he would be able to pay that attention to it which would be necessary for its revival. They were advised, therefore, to "wind up" these various affairs, and to spend the remainder of their days in quiet retirement. This advice fully accorded with the views which Mrs. Slade had for some time taken, and was acted upon without loss of time. Her mind, though active, needed not the instrumentality of secular concerns, nor of more extended household engagements, to render its activity pleasant. There are some professors of religion whose condition, in the decline of life, is greatly to be pitied. In the vigour of their days they have applied themselves industriously to the duties of their calling, not neglecting the ordinances of God's house; and, it may be, even devoting a portion of their time and strength to some of the various methods of doing good which the churches of Christ have arranged. They have been diligently active while strength enabled them to be so; but their activity has not been that of the mind. They have not accustomed themselves to those exercises of thought which, when properly conducted, may be not only an occasion of great spiritual profit, but a rich source of genuine and sacred pleasure; furnishing, likewise, an agreeable and useful occupation, when age, and inability to sustain any longer the toil and burden of a worldly calling, give seasons of leisure which, if not pleasantly and profitably filled up, may prove a heavier load than any which might have before been imposed by secular business. They have nothing to do; and while the intellectual faculties, no longer occupied by the shop, the counting-house, the superintendence of workmen, or

the management of household affairs, become inert and dull, the temper becomes irritable, religious experience becomes confused and obscure, and the final aspect of character is visibly inferior to that in which it formerly appeared. They can read as a task; but mere taskwork is generally as unprofitable as it is disagreeable. They never knew what it was to find pleasure in those exercises of thought which reading calls forth, in all who delight in that mental improvement of which reading is intended to be the instrument. A book is the fixed expression of the thoughts existing in the mind of another; and, when we read it aright, our spirit has communion with his. Richard Baxter, John Wesley, and a host of the faithful departed, although dead, are yet permitted thus to continue to speak to us; and in the decline of life, when no longer able to attend to business,—and when frequently left alone, because the time of our more active successors is unavoidably greatly occupied by the concerns we have been obliged to commit to their direction,-neither will leisure produce dulness, nor solitude depression, if, in the quiet of our comparative retirement, we have the companionship and conversation of some of the wisest and most holy of the servants of God in past generations. Thus may the mind preserve its activity, and direct it to the more complete establishment of spiritual experience, and to the presentation of the closing aspect of character in its loveliest and most attractive form. The aged saint will soon be called to leave altogether the bustle and confusion of the world, from which he has already, in some small degree, withdrawn; and he is preparing, by this inward communion, for joining, ere long, the general assembly and church of the first-born. Christian professors who, like the good woman a general sketch of whose character is here presented, acquire, during the more active periods of life, the habit of spending their occasional moments of retirement profitably, will, as she did, find it to be inestimably valuable in the larger retirements which, towards the close of life, are sometimes unavoidable. Her latter days were thus rendered days of peaceful enjoy

ment.

In her was delightfully realized the declaration of holy writ, on which was founded the discourse delivered in reference to her death and funeral: "Them that honour me, I will honour." In her conversion, and by her subsequent life; by her personal devotedness, by her careful attention to all her domestic duties, and by her consistency and zealous activity as a member of the church of Christ; in a word, by walking humbly with God; she had honoured him: and both while her strength lasted, and in old age, when her strength was failing, God graciously honoured her. She was blessed in her own soul, and made the instrument of much good to others. She had to pass through many trials, some of them very painful and even severe; but she was mercifully supported in them all, and enabled so to glory in tribulation, as to be an example of patient resignation, and even of

joyfulness, in the hour of suffering. And not less did he honour her in the closing period of her life. Her retirement was peaceful and happy. "Here we are,” she said to a friend, who called on her soon after Mr. Slade had given up business, "in a quiet, snug harbour, after all the storms to which, during a long voyage, we have been exposed." She added, “O, God is so good to us, our friends are so kind, and my dear partner is so greatly relieved by having no more to do with the care and responsibility of his trade! We are indeed happy. How can I sufficiently bless and praise my heavenly Father!" And in this state of calm and joyful repose she was preserved to the end.

It was, indeed, sometimes an occasion of regret to her, that, in consequence of her growing infirmities, she could not more frequently attend public worship: but this was "the Lord's doing;" and she knew that they who could not go up to his house might expect him to come in visits of mercy to their own. And so it was. Often did she experience "times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord." She had access into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, and the word of God was to her "sweeter than honey or the honey-comb." And though she could not listen to the living ministry of the Gospel so often as in former days, yet she read, with holy pleasure, the instructive lessons of heavenly wisdom contained in those writings of pious servants of God which she possessed.

Occasionally she expressed some fear of the last conflict: not, indeed, of death, for the sting was taken away; but of dying. She drew back, with a degree of shrinking, from the thoughts of the agonies of nature's dissolution. This, however, was only nature shrinking from what, merely considered in itself, is the punishment of sin, and emphatically termed, "the last enemy." She committed herself to her Saviour for death, as well as for life; and in this instance, as in so many others, she experienced the tender mercy of God: she had the "bliss," without the "pain," of dying. She quietly fell asleep in Jesus on the morning of the 15th of December, 1840, in the seventieth year of her age, without a struggle or even a sigh. So gentle was the dismissal of her spirit from the body, that her husband, who was watching by her bed-side, was scarcely aware of the moment of its flight. Death was swallowed up in victory.

DIVINITY.

THE SUPERIOR GLORY OF THE MINISTRATION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS:

A SERMON:

BY THE REV. JOHN MOWAN.

"BUT if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious." (2 Corinthians iii. 7—11.)

In the commencement of this chapter the Apostle endeavours to vindicate himself against the aspersions of a Jewish teacher who, under the cloak of a profession of Christianity, had visited Corinth, in order to destroy, as far as he was able, the fruit of St. Paul's labours in that city. This was attempted partly by an effort to persuade the converts from Judaism that, in order to their salvation, it was necessary that they should observe the law of Moses,-and partly by encouraging those who had been converted from Heathenism to turn again to their former licentiousness.

In the prosecution of this nefarious object, this individual and his associates (for he appears not to have been alone) found it necessary to attack the personal and ministerial character of the Apostle, through whose instrumentality the people had been brought to the knowledge of Christ, and for whom they naturally entertained a high regard. Him, these enemies of the cross represented as being no Apostle; they spoke contemptuously of his person and manner of preaching; (chap. x. 10;) representing him as being crafty and designing. (xii. 16.) By these means fearful havoc was made in the church; the faith of many became unsettled; some were entangled again in immoral habits; while the discipline of the church was so far relaxed, that little or no notice was taken of these evils; and many of the Jewish Christians were disposed to rely more upon their observance of Mosaic precepts, than on the atonement of the Redeemer.

To rectify such an unhappy state of things, the Apostle wrote these Epistles to the Corinthian church. The former he sent by Titus, which to a considerable extent answered the purpose for which it was written; but as much of the evil still remained, and as its principal