fruit. Bless the Lord, O my soul.' He entered on his pastoral labours, July 4, 1819. After preaching three sermons on that memorable day, he inserts this pointed exclamation in his diary, “God grant that neither the people nor myself may have reason to repent it!" Mr. Greenwood was ordained December 1, 1819. Dr. Reed, of London, described the nature of a Gospel church; Mr. Johnson, of Farnham, presented the ordination prayer; Mr. Wilks delivered the charge, from 1 Tim. iv. 12, "Let no man despise thy youth;" Mr. John Hyatt preached to the people from 2 Cor. viii. 24. Our lamented brother inserted the following sentence in his journal at the close of the day :-"The service was highly refreshing: I thought my mind was less sensitive and spiritual than I could wish; yet, I trust, it was awed into a devotional frame at the solemnity, not without producing corresponding impressions."

The ministry of this excellent man was much blessed at Petersfield and Harting. In the former place it was found requisite to erect galleries in the year 1822. His labours were signally honoured by the great Head of the Church, in the conversion of sinners to God. His ministry was instrumental in bringing two sisters to Jesus, who have long been consistent and useful members of the church over which he presided: one of his deacons acknowledged him as his spiritual father. Going, in 1821, to the meeting of the Hants Association, at Alton, a young man accosted him, to inform him that he had been awakened under his preaching at Petersfield, from Luke xii. 32; and shortly before, a lad, then resident in London, communicated to him, that he hoped he had been directed to Jesus through his catechising him in the Sabbath-school, at Harting. Numerous and most gratifying instances of his usefulness might be specified, which would show, in the most impressive manner, how the Lord worked with him. He noted every case in which his labours had been signally blest, and the accumulation of instances is great, unusual, and inexpressibly delightful. It was his ruling desire to do good, and when good was accomplished, his humility was profound, and his gratitude was lively. "How ample a reward," said he, is one soul, especially when the feebleness and sinfulness of the instrument, and the meagreness of his

discourses, are taken into the account! what proportion can there be between such planting and watering, and the glorious increase of an immortal soul ?"

A very gratifying and singular circumstance occurred in the year 1831, when Mr. Greenwood was spending a Sabbath at the Tabernacle, London. After the service, having spoken to the minister, a young man met him in the vestry, and acknowledged that when he delivered his first address to the Tabernacle Sabbath-school, that address had been blest to his conversion. "And now," said the young man, “I am a teacher of the Bible class, and I frequently address the school from the same desk from which you first addressed me." "This information," says Mr. Greenwood, "particularly refreshed me. I hoped the Lord had really called me to the work of the ministry, inasmuch as he was pleased to favour me with a seal to my first effort."

As a minister of the Gospel, Mr. Greenwood, from his settlement at Petersfield, was assiduous in the discharge of his engagements. In labours he was abundant. He introduced the Gospel into several villages, and educated some of his members, so that they might be. better prepared for dispensing the word of life in the adjacent hamlets. Three or four neat village chapels were erected, where "the glorious Gospel" has long been unfolded to the rustic population.

He took a lively interest in the Sunday-school cause, and nothing gave him greater pleasure than to meet with the lambs of his flock, on occasion of the anniversary of the town school, and the branch schools in the villages. He was much valued by his people, especially as a counsellor; no man was more judicious in his advice under difficult and trying circumstances. There was a wisdom, a sageness, and a value in his remarks which his flock highly appreciated.

He was a man of marked decision. His principles were the result of conviction, and were vigorously maintained. He was not the individual to compromise any important sentiment. A revered brother minister remarked to the writer, "Mr. Greenwood was principle to the back bone." He was cordially attached to his ministerial brethren in the county, and nothing gave him greater pleasure than to meet with them, when their association was half-yearly or annually convened. He loved them sin

cerely, and they cherished the warmest regard for him in return. His temper was remarkably kind and amiable. The domestic affections were beautifully developed. His heart was formed for friendship, and when associating with a friend, all the tender and generous emotions of his nature were exhibited. He

was a man of the most pacific disposition. No element was so congenial with his views and feelings as that of peace. Nothing troubled him so much as any circumstances that were agitating or distracting. He was a man of highly cultivated mind. He had been a close and unceasing student. His reading was extensive and superior. His scientific attainments were enlarged, and somewhat unusual for a dissenting minister. He was a good linguist, and his astronomical and mathematical acquirements were not only accurate but profound. As a divine, he was sound, judicious, and weighty. His views were clear; his principles were well defined; and the doctrines of grace were maintained in all their sovereignty, and yet practical tendency. As a preacher, he was solid, intelligent, and instructive: his aim was to do good to souls, and he abhorred any thing like finery or display in the pulpit. His last sermon was one of peculiar force and impressiveness. Bates, President Edwards, and Owen, appear to have been among his most admired theological authors.

For some period before his dissolution Mr. Greenwood laboured under a distressing illness. Prior to his confinement to his chamber, there was much in the state of his health which awakened the deepest anxiety of his family and much-attached congregation; still his death was not anticipated by many, till a short time previously to the final conflict. The hope was cherished that he would rally; that he would not be cut down in the prime of his days, when his mental faculties were in their full vigour, but that he would be spared to his beloved people for a long-extended period. The Lord, however, had otherwise determined; and, at the close of the year 1836, his spirit winged its flight to immortality, and his flock was bereaved of a pastor, whom they regarded with the utmost tenderness, and whom they loved with the greatest ardour. While on his death-bed, our lamented brother discovered a beautiful spirit, and uttered some valuable and impressive sentences.

Speaking to his children, he said, "The Lord bless you! may He, my dear children, guide your feet to the celestial city may you all be found of him! He is the true light, the light of life!" When his eldest son returned from London, and went to his bed-side, he addressed him very fervently, and affectionately entreated him not to delay, but to seek God in sincerity. He asked him, "Have you given your heart to God? Is my God your God? Have you sought him as your God? I say, is he your God? Addressing his children in a very solemn tone, he asked, “Can you give yourselves to God? Is my God your God? Pray earnestly to him. He will be found of you. I am going fast to my home; but I hope we shall meet in heaven. God bless you!" On the 19th of December he took an affectionate farewell of his children. To his daughter and two eldest sons he said, in a loud voice, “If you seek the Lord early, he will be found of you. Come, and imprint a kiss on the cheek of your dying father" then raising himself in the bed, he solemnly repeated the words, "I have been young and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.' Take the promise, my dear Joseph."

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On the 20th of December, when it was inquired how he had passed the night, "I have spent," said he, "a most solemn night. I have been struggling hard for death. It has been the most mysterious night I ever spent. I have not the slightest wish contrary to the will of God: no sordid wish, no covetous wish." During the ensuing night, he said, "When, Lord-where, Lord-and how, Lord! thy servant waits thy will."

On the 21st he said to his beloved partner, "I have a confluence of mercies;" and raising himself up, he said, "How I wish to say something for the glory of God. I wish to say all that a dying man ought to say. I am going to render my account. I am going to my rest. Give my love to all my Christian friends, and my free forgiveness to all my enemies. Seventeen years, my love, we have lived together, in the mutual enjoyment of Christian endearments; few and evil do the days of our pilgrimage appear when approaching eternity, but if they were to come over again, I hope we should endeavour to spend them with more care. O my dear

fatherless children, my dear wife! place your confidence on the righteousness of Jesus, not on the degree of your sanctification. He will support and sustain you. We shall meet in brighter circumstances than these. O how soft is the bosom of eternal love for you to rest upon!" To a young friend he said, "My dear, do you understand that salvation is all of free grace, not of works? this is what I have preached to you. Do you understand it ?" To another friend he remarked, "Now I am about to realise what I have so often pressed on others, the necessity of possessing confidence, not being satisfied without a full assurance, for now the infirmities of nature prevent it." A friend said to him, she had reason to bless him as the instrument of her conversion. "Ah!" he replied, "bless God! it was through a narrow channel: I hope you are on the Rock! We shall meet each other in heaven." He frequently desired his love to all his friends, and every member of his church. During the last night that he could speak, he said, "If I quit the ranks, it is at the Captain's command. I am just ready to dip my foot in Jordan." Speaking with difficulty, he recurred to a favourite hymn, and requested to be aided in repeating some lines:

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"When languor and disease invade
This trembling house of clay,"

He took up the remaining couplet,

"'Tis sweet to look beyond the cage,
And long to fly away."

"But I have no wish contrary to the will of God." It was under the influence of these scriptural sentiments, and hallowed feelings, that our lamented friend awaited the approach of the messenger, death. There was no transport : but there was humble and firm confidence; there was simple reliance on the blood of atonement; there was quietness and peace arising from the thought that he had lived to Jesus, and that he was anticipating heaven with all its glory. He expired with all the holy placidity of a child of God, at the termination of the year 1836; after having been the faithful and honoured pastor of the Congregational church at Petersfield, upwards of seventeen years. His death was felt most deeply, not only by his church and congregation, but also by the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood. All were sensible that a Christian and a man of God had departed from among them.

The Rev. A. Jones, of Buckland Chapel, Portsea, an old and much-attached friend, in the unavoidable absence of the Rev. G. Collison, of Hackney, delivered the address at the grave, and the funeral sermon to a large and deeply affected assembly. May the sermons which have been preached by our departed brother never be forgotten by his attached people.

"Such labours ought to live, And speak with might for ever."

T. W.

SUCH is the present year upon which we have entered, and such was the year that is past; but it has since become old, and has vanished away. That was an important, and to very many, an eventful year; and to all the living, it was an important portion of their lives upon earth. Let us, before the recollection of it is lost in the cares and business of the present year, occupy a minute or two in

First, Looking back upon the past. Many things connected with the year that has closed deserve and demand a serious and attentive review. Let us look back

1. On past mercies. Have not these been new every morning, and repeated

every night? How numerous, how various, and how great have they been! Can we forget the continuance of our lives, amidst the ravages of mortality; the preservation of our health, amongst a diseased and dying race? How many providential favours have we received, in the daily replenishing of our basket and our store; that the necessaries of life have been bestowed upon all, while the comforts and luxuries of life have been granted to very many. But our spiritual privileges during the past year especially claim a grateful review. Oh, how many Sabbaths, and how many services of a highly spiritual and profitable character were we permitted to attend, in the courts of the Lord's house,

and what seasons of grace did we enjoy there, in our own habitations, in social converse, in secret devotion, and at the family altar! What opportunities have we all had of advancing our eternal interests, of preparing for our entrance into the joy of our Lord! What abundant means of doing good have been placed within our reach, and have invited our diligent and cheerful improvement! What reason for thankfulness for the ability and disposition to employ those means, with some degree of acceptance in the sight of God who gave them, with some amount of pleasure to ourselves in the use of them, and of profit to those on whose behalf they were employed! How often and how graciously has God interposed in the hour of temptation and in the time of danger, supporting, defending, and delivering us! Look back on these mercies, and "bless the Lord, O my soul." Nor must we omit to look back

2. On past sins. "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed." If we have been kept from the commission of presumptuous sins, how greatly we need cleansing from secret faults. Who can understand his errors? What cumberers of the ground have we been; what loiterers in our Lord's vineyard; what unprofitable servants! Oh, the coldness and heartlessness in religious exercises, that we have too frequently experienced, and what absence of God, and all thoughts of him, in the ordinary affairs of life, have we often detected! What wretched deficiencies, and how painful failures in exhibiting the spirit and temper of the Gospel in times of trial! With how little of patience and resignation under suffering have we borne the ills of life, to which we have been, no doubt, in wisdom subjected! How have we suffered ourselves to be interrupted, both by painful and pleasing circumstances, in our attempts to do good!

Our sins of omission have been of a glaring character. Looking back upon the opportunities of usefulness that the past year has afforded, the time and the talents for their improvement granted us, how little has been done, and how little has been attempted for the glory of God; the highest interests of men! Let us look back

3. On past duties. How much are these identified with our sins! We cannot write, or speak, or think of duty, in relation to our own conduct and obliga

tions, without remembering our faults this day. How exceedingly low and defective an idea and sense of duty have we entertained and cherished! How little have we reflected on what is due from ourselves to God and to his Christ; or how much is due to the Church of Christ and to the world! We are debtors to all men, and how little have we been concerned to discharge the numerous and weighty obligations under which we have been placed. Many things, that pressed upon us with the force of duty, have been shamefully neglected, whilst others have been carelessly and imperfectly performed. Judg ing of duty by what is due from a creature to God, and from a fellow-creature to man, we have need, in looking back upon past duties, to be humbled in the dust. Let us occupy another moment in

Secondly, Looking round upon the present. There is much in present circumstances that calls for our attention, and awaits our improvement. We may look around

1. With gratitude-That we are out of that place of torment, "where their worm dieth not, and where the fire is never quenched.' If the subjects of Divine grace, we have great reason to be grateful; and if not so, the means of escape from the wrath to come are within the reach of all, and invite their immediate improvement, with promises of aid, and hopes of pardon, to encourage them in secking the salvation of the soul. This is a year of grace, and "to-day is the day of salvation." "The year of my redeemed is come." That we are even within the reach of pardoning grace is an unspeakable and unmerited favour; but if we be really on the way to heaven, with a good hope through grace, clear evidences of our regeneration, and pleasing prospects of glory; that we have consecrated ourselves as living sacrifices to the service and glory of God, and are enabled to walk as becomes the Gospel, then we cannot be sufficiently grateful for the grace given us. But it becomes us, as sinners, though as pardoned sinners, to look around

2. With humiliation. We may do so with great propriety; as we have righteously merited the hell from which we have thus far been delivered. That we are so utterly unworthy of the heaven to which, by the grace of God, we are looking forward, some with the pleasing

prospect of a speedy and joyful entrance there, and all with the hope and the means within their reach, by repentance and faith in the sacrifice of Christ for their pardon and purification. We have need to be humbled, that we have made so few attainments in scriptural knowledge, and in personal holiness; that, if Christians at all, we are Christians of so low a stature, falling so far below the Divine example held up before us in the person and labours of the Son of God. These things are for our humiliation and instruction, and should excite us with all diligence to aim at a higher standard of Christian excellence, and greater conformity to the image of God. And, whilst we are seeking to redeem the time, because the days are evil; catching the fleeting moments, and improving the mercies that they bear upon their wings, let us not be unmindful of what lies before us; let us be seriously and attentively

Thirdly, Looking forward to the future. There is much before us within the limits of this opening year; much more within the compass of our hasty lives; but, oh,how far the future stretches, and how intimately blended are our interests and our hopes with the eternity to which we look forward. It is true, indeed, that we cannot, distinctly, see far before us; we are, in every sense, "short-sighted creatures;" we cannot tell what a day may bring forth. But still it becomes us to look forward, and especially so

All our

1. With devotion. "The ways of man are not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." How needful, then, that we should acknowledge Him in all our ways, in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways, that he may direct our paths. In what entire dependence upon God are we thrown for strength, grace, and wisdom, to judge and support our steps. past failures in duty, our errors in wandering into forbidden paths, are the result of trusting to our own understanding, leaning upon our own strength, forgetting and forsaking the Rock of ages, and neglecting the wisdom that is from above. It is essential to our progress towards heaven and Divine things, that we should feel the continual need in which we stand of Divine influences, and that we should daily and hourly seek them in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. How can we venture to tread the uncertain and dangerous future with

out constant and ardent aspirations to God to hold up our goings in his fear, that our footsteps may not slide. We may look forward, and it becomes us to do so

2. With desire-That the opening year may find us more active, more truly humble, more useful, and more holy than we were found during the past; that we may make greater progress in personal holiness; that the graces of the Christian character may shine forth with greater lustre; and that the amount of our exertions in the cause of Christ, and the degree in which we are useful in the conversion of souls, and in the edification of the faithful, may, this year, far surpass any previous period in our history. And let us stretch our desires abroad, that we may see and hear more of the increase and prosperity of the Church of Christ, its growing piety, numbers, unity, and peace, and more of the spread and triumph of the truth through the world, than has ever yet saluted our joyful eyes and ears. The time for the fulfilment of prophecy is evidently fast hastening on, and, as Christians, we cannot but desire that all the promises that relate to the latter-day glory may be speedily and completely accomplished. But these de

sires cannot be unattended

Our

3. With fear. As to any greater spiritual attainments, or as to any greater exertions and successes in the cause of the Redeemer, we have so often failed after many good resolutions and sincere desires, that we cannot, and, perhaps, ought not, to divest our minds of the fear lest the present year should prove as barren and unprofitable to our own souls, and those of others, as the past. fears should not discourage us; especially, they should not deter us from exertion; but they should make us more cautious, more vigilant in securing and improving opportunities, and more dependent upon Divine aid for success. Our hearts are set upon some great and general movement in the Church of God, toward the latter-day glory; yet we cannot help fearing, that Christians may not generally sympathise with us, nor enter fully into our feelings and our fears on this subject. To give a wholesome and healthy character to our fears, however, let us look forward

4. With faith and hope. Conscious as we are of the extent of human frailties, the tendencies and imperfections of our partially renewed natures, we know that God is able to do all things; we know