"She had some darkness afterwards; but it was of short duration. The Lord spoke other words, and renewed the two texts again and again, and blessed the 103rd psalm and several hymns, as stated by Mr. John Stock in his account. The verse, “Sin, like a burning fever reigns,' &c. appears to have been seed sown years before, and she felt its solemnity, and indeed all the hymn; and the one commencing, "Lord, what is life?' &c. "I hope you will be able to read this without trouble. I have had so many interruptions, I must ask you to excuse its rough style; and "Yours in Christian love, I remain, Leicester. REST AT LAST. "THOS. WEBSTER." At last the weary journey's o'er; And is with Jesus blest. The storm-tossed barque at anchor now, For it no more shall tempests blow, We may not with these mortal eyes We know that they who love the Lord, Shall find at last the sure reward In that eternal home. The bitter comes before the sweet; To make us for that land more meet, The fighting makes the warrior prize Shall rest at last; O! joyful thought! Each loss and pain we count as nought; Jesus, thou art our firm defence, While here our hope and stay; We trust thee still to guide us hence Thee as thou art we long to see,- And sinless as thyself to be Before thy holy throne. E. HENSER. We have reserved this account of Elizabeth Stock for insertion in the same number of our periodical as contains an article which refers to Sabbath schools in their connection with our churches. It appears to us very confirmatory of the remarks made in that article. This young person never joined the church; but had she lived, and been led so to do, who could have refused to recognize the Lord's hand in her conversion? His blessing, too, upon Sabbath school instruction in her case was very manifest. The work was the Lord's; the principal instrumentality, Sabbath school instruction. To him is all the glory; but for officers and teachers in Sabbath schools there is great and sweet encouragement. EPISTLES TO VARIOUS FRIENDS. "Whilst the long cloud of witnesses Shows the same path to heaven." Dear Sir,-Please excuse the liberty I have taken in addressing these few lines to you. Dear Sir, I feel an intense and sincere desire to inform you that the good Lord has taken unto himself the soul of my dear mother, Elizabeth Butler. On Wednesday, August 22nd, she was seized with a stroke, which took the use of one side, and affected her speech. She appeared quite sensible at times, and lay very composed. On Saturday evening she began to speak of the corruptions of the heart, and of our best performances being nothing better than dross, and of the emptiness of all goodness in ourselves; and positively declared that Christ was All and in all. After this, in the night, she tried to sing those words: "A sinner then, a sinner now; Also these: I still remain the same." "How vast the love that Him inclined To bleed and die for me!" The former hymn begins: "O Lord, how many days are pass'd A sinner then, a sinner now, I still remain the same." The hymn is in Daniel Herbert's first volume. She died as she lived, exalting the Saviour and debasing the creature, and looking to nothing but Jesus. She has often told me of late that the sting of death was drawn, the dart had lost its force in Jesus's side; the sting was lost in his crucified body. Death stung itself to death when it killed him. Dear Sir, how often have I heard her make mention of your name in love and sincerity because of the truth, and speak of the union, oneness, and Christian conversation you once had, and lament those bygone days. She often expressed a sincere desire that she might not lie long upon the bed of affliction for fear she might be left to be impatient. Her Lord granted her request. She never was heard to murmur or complain. She departed this life on Sabbath evening, Aug. 26th. I greatly feel the loss; it is a matter of rejoicing to me to think of her being gone to eternal rest. but I feel at times discouraged because of the roughness of the way. I have none other but the Lord to look to. Blessed be his Name, hitherto he has helped me, and thus far hath he led me on. I feel desirous for submission to his sovereign will, and for the grace of trust, that I may trust him where I cannot trace him. Having but little time to spare for writing, I must conclude. I beg to remain Your most humble and obedient servant, Great Ponton, Oct. 29th. JOHN BREWIN. Dear Friend and Brother in the love of the everlasting Gospel of the Son of God,-May the grace, love, and peace of Jesus ever pervade your mind and spirit. I hereby acknowledge the receipt of the books you sent me; and should I be spared to follow my present occupation, I hope to find them very useful. I do feel grateful for your kindness to me, such a poor, unworthy, sinful creature as I often feel myself to be. O what a mercy there is a fountain open for sin and uncleanness. A few weeks since I was so beset with sin, that I felt myself too vile and filthy to dare to name the Name of Jesus, or to make mention of that holy blood spilt on Calvary's cross. Thus I mourned in spirit my sad condition; when suddenly the thought dropped sweetly into my mind: If there had never been any sin and uncleanness, that blood would not have been shed. It was shed for sin. That fountain was opened for sin and uncleanness. O how that thought made my heart leap for joy; and, in the spirit of contrition I could confess my sin and guilt, and humbly plead that precious blood by which my soul was relieved from the burden I felt. Under the influence of affection and love to the dear Redeemer, I blessed the Name of a sin-pardoning God. O, beloved, when in the spirit of holiness I think of the distinguishing grace of a Triune Jehovah in saving me, and leaving so many thousands to perish in their sin, I drop my vile head in the dust, and solemnly lie adoringly at his feet, praising him for such superabounding mercy. It is a mercy indeed to be redeemed from the kingdom of Satan, and brought into the kingdom of God's dear Son. What a mercy to have been stopped in our career of sin in early life, and to have had the fear of God implanted in the heart, whereby we were kept from the thousands of snares laid for our feet by the great destroyer of souls, and to have been made to love God, his Word, his ways, and his people. The last Sabbath-day you were at Milton was a special time with my soul in the love of those things, and also with many others of the dear saints of God amongst us. O what a blessing conferred upon a poor sinner, that ever one should be brought to love the good things and the great things of the everlasting gospel! I often appeal to the Lord, when about to go to hear his word proclaimed by his own sent servants, and say, "O Lord, thou knowest what I need, and what is my desire. O that I may have a circumcised and listening ear, a softened and receiving heart, that thy holy truth may drop with saving power, unction, and sweet consolation on my exercised soul. And to this end bless the soul of thy dear servant, and endue him with power from on high, that we may rejoice together in giving glory to thy Name." But O! when He sees fit to withhold his gracious love and power, what poor, doubting, distressed, gloomy creatures we are! What an aching void is then felt! What deathliness is experienced in the soul when any other motive prevails in the service of God than the glory of his great Name, and the good of our own souls! I find and feel sin in my heart to be a daring, unwearied foe; ever confronting me in every attempt to serve and praise the God of all my mercies. O how needful is Jesus as the great Captain of our salvation! May he in mercy lead the way for you; and, if it be his divine will, bring you often amongst us, and shed abroad his love in our hearts, that we may rejoice together from time to time, while passing through this vale of tears in holy hope and expectation of eternal bliss with him at last. May the blessing of the Lord rest on you and yours. So prays Yours most unworthily for the truth's sake, To Mr. A. Smith, Chelmsford. J. GARDNER. My dear Brother, I was glad to have a line from you the other day, and thank you much for its contents. I could not see my way to make use of the advertisement, as I am not at all in a fit state of health to undertake anything at present. The day your letter came I was not up until eleven o'clock, and for the last fortnight I have been almost laid up with lumbago, to which I have been very subject for a long time; scarcely going out of the house for days together, except to church; and last night I could not even do that, though intending it to the last moment. This, with rheumatism in the hands, which is so bad sometimes that I cannot even lift a saucer to my mouth, and my old-standing complaints, is, I think, enough to show you that I am in no condition for work. Indeed, I sometimes think that I never shall be again. However, that is with the Lord. You too, I find, are not without your heavy trials; but I am thankful to find you testifying to the goodness of God in sustaining and supporting you under all. Truly he is faithful to his promises; and after all we shall be enabled to say, "Surely, goodness and mercy have followed us all the days of our life; and not one thing has failed of all that the Lord our God has promised; yea, and of all that we have needed too." How sweet it is to reflect that our cases and circumstances are all in the hands of One who cannot err, and whose dealings with us are all, whether apparently prosperous or adverse, regulated by infinite love to our souls. "Still let this truth possess my mind, And then, with dear Hart, may we say, "The lash is steeped he on thee lays, And softened in his blood." The longer I live the more do I see the necessity of the rod of correction for God's dear children. How much do we see in the Proverbs of Solomon about this! For, whilst the outer shell of those Proverbs may be good and salutary for even the natural man, there is a deep spiritual instruction underneath; and we need not wonder that the apostle (Heb. xii.) takes it up in that view. Where would you and I be likely to run to if it were not for the weights that we have to carry? How would self-sufficiency, pride, vain glory, ingratitude, and independence carry us away as with a flood! I know not, my brother, how you find things; but if you are like me you find that there is no limit to the depravity of the human heart; and it is only as God is pleased to restrain it, that it is kept within any bounds at all; and he is pleased to make afflictions and sorrows among the principal instruments in his hands for doing this. Nay, more, what an endearment these methods beget in the heart of a child of God! Do they not make Jesus precious as a good Physician to heal? And do they not open the way for him to become known as the Brother born for adversity, to sympathize, and the Friend that loveth at all times, who shows in them the constancy of his love? Yea, more, as the man of sorrows, to be one with his suffering people, and now to be their great High Priest, touched with the feeling of their infirmities? As, too, they look on him as having conquered all and come out of all, are they not encouraged to believe that they shall conquer also? and at last be victors over death itself and all the powers of darkness, yea, hell itself? And "We shall be conquerors all ere long, And more than conquerors too." "Meantime that foe can't boast of much "Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake." (Phil. i. 29.) And that is suffering for his sake when the rod of God is laid on to accomplish his purposes of grace in our experience in order to bring forth praise and glory to his sacred Name. "If ye are without chastisement, whereof all [God's children] are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons." "Bastards may escape the rod, After all, Moses' choice is the best, to rather suffer affliction with the people of God, &c. And if God has given us grace to make this choice, we may well wait for our best things last, and esteem it no small mercy that he has not left us to take up even |