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We heard that there was an appearance of good being done among the Jews in London. This filled us with joy, as it must do every child of God. To hear of the conversion of any sinner is pleasant; but to hear of the conversion of a Jew is peculiarly so! The time, I hope, is fast approaching, when the Lord, according to his promise, will gather the dispersed of Israel, and the outcasts of Judah, to him. self, from the ends of the earth There are some thousands of Jews in this city. We have wished much to be useful to them while in this place, but did not know how to obtain our desire. The Lord, I hope, has begun to open a door of usefulness to them also; as, to our surprise, we find that some of them had been hearing

us the two last sabbaths. I trust this als is of the Lord. It is easy with him t make them attend to the preaching of the gospel, and make them receive the truth in the love thereof. We are too apt to de spair of the conversion of the Jews; bu we ought to remember, that the gospe is the same now as in the days of our Lord and his apostles; and we know what won ders it effected among them at that peri od. We often complain of their unbelief but it deserves consideration, how far thei infidelity is owing to the want of faith is the Lord's own people. "Only believe, and ye shall see the salvation of God." Let us be no more faithless then, but be lieving. J. PATERSON.

OBITUARY.

DIED, at Carlisle, on the morning of the 20 h instant, Mrs. Davidson, wife of the Rev. Dr. Robert Davidson, principal of Dickinson College.

The death of this excellent woman was occasioned in the following singular and melancholy manner.

Dr. and Mrs. Davidson went in their chaise on a visit to Col. William Chambers', about three miles from Carlisle; and on their return, about half a mile from the colonel's house, the horse started, overset the chaise, and ran into the woods, which being thick, the chaise was soon broken to pieces. The consequences were deplorable; the doctor and his wife were found, by some person, at a small distance from each other, the doctor's left arm was broken, his left eye very much injured, and Mrs. Davidson's ancle dislo

cated.

The doctor has ever since been confined to his bed, but is recovering rapidly, and will, we trust, soon be able to resume his pastoral and collegiate duties.

From the moment of the misfortune,

Died on the first of December last, at the Episcopal Palace in the city of Kilkenny, Ireland, in the 77th year of his age, the Right Rev. HUGH HAMILTON, D D. F. R.S and M. R. I. A. Lord Bishop of Ossory. He was born on the 26th of March 1729, entered Trinity Col lege, Dublin, in the year 1742, obtained a fellowship in 1751, and was elected professor of natural philosophy in 1759. He was appointed Dean of Armagh in 1768, consecrated Bishop of Clonfert in 1790, and translated to Ossory in 1798.

His writings in several branches of science justly rank him among the brightest ornaments of the University of which he was a member. His philosophical works, in particular, discover a most acute and penetrating genius, and a mind capable of the deepest research; and his argument to demonstrate "A Priori," the existence and attributes of God, is an illustrious proof of the intense, and successful application of his talents, to refute the perni cious sophistry of infidel philosophers.

As a minister of the gospel, he was a steady supporter of the great doctrines contained in the scriptures; and in the several important offices which he filled in his profession, he evinced a pious zeal for the glory of God, and the salvation of souls. The unassuming meekness of his disposition, easiness of access, and unaf fected urbanity of deportment, endeared

Mrs. Davidson continued in a delirium From the time she recovered her voice, she was always under the influence of the idea, that she was in the instant of falling from the chaise; and her continued cry was, "Save me! catch me !" until after seven days of this painful existence, without sustenance, every exertion having been made by the physicians of the place for him particularly to his clergy, and concili

her recovery, she expired.

ated the esteem of all who knew him. The

various charitable institutions of a public nature in the city where he resided, found naim a most active and liberal friend, and the deep and general sorrow occasioned by his death, among the numerous poor of a populous and extensive district with which he was surrounded, bore the most expressive testimony to his unceasing private beneficence.

After a life spent in the exemplary dis. charge of public and private duties, he be held the approach of death, with truly christian resignation; and in his last hours, when all worldly honours were eclipsed by the nearer prospect of a crown of glory, looking with unshaken confidence and lively faith to the Saviour of sinners, he was enabled to rejoice in the Lord, and to joy in the God of his salvation.

DIED IN ENGLAND,

DURING JANUARY

AND FEBRUARY LAST.

A FINE child, upwards of two years old, belonging to Mr. Bleisham, of Bond st. (Lond) being at nurse at Blackheath, fell into a well in the garden, and was drowned, it having no cover or fence. The father and mother, on the day before Christmas-day, when visiting the child, foresaw the danger, took dimensions for a cover, and sent it by the coach on the 26th, but the accident had happened before its arrival.

BURNT to death, Mrs. GROOCH, of Sloane-square, mother to the Lady of the Bishop of Bath and Wells.

Ar Cawthorne, near Barnsley, in her 18th year, MARTHA MELLOR, who was shot by Samuel Ibbotson, a boy 12 years old. Having gone into the house where the girl was, he took up a gun, but was desired to lay it down immediately, which he did; but shortly afterwards took it up again, and seeing the girl in another room,

said he would shoot her, which he imme. diately did.

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REV. MATTHEW THOMPSON, rector of Bradfield and Mistley, Essex, and in the commission of the peace for that county. He was invited, with a party, to dine with Col. Rigby, at Mistley; when the company were informed that dinner was ready, Mr Thompson, in the act of rising to go into the dining-room, fell down, and expi red immediately, leaving a wife and ele. ven children to lament his sudden depar, ture.

DURING the funeral procession of lord Nelson's remains on the river, a lady of the name of BAYNE, was so affected at the scene, that she fell into hysterics, and died in a few minutes.

AGED 70, of a mortification in his foot, occasioned by cutting a toe-nail to the quick, Mr. ABRAHAM PARKINSON, of Leeds, formerly a liquor-merchant, but had retired from business.

Mr. HOUGHTON, shoemaker, at Bury, St. Edmund's. He was in apparent good health, chopping a faggot, the same afternoon, when he accidently cut one of his fingers, and, on his wife's expressing a wish to dress it, he said, "Never mind, my dear; what is this wound compared to Lord Nelson's?" and immediately fell down in an apoplectic fit, from which he never recovered to utter another sentence.

At Ashe, near Basingstoke, Hants, aged 60, the Rev. GEORGE LEFROY, rector of that parish, and of Compton, Surrey.

MRS. RAMSEY, wife of Mr. William R. of Belfast, in Ireland. Her death was occasioned by taking a large quantity of laudanum in mistake.

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eyes.

Till all my sense is lost in infinite,
And one vast object fills my aching sight.

But soon, alas! this holy calm is broke; My soul submits to wear her wonted yoke; With shackled pinions strives to soar in vain,

And mingles with the dross of earth again.

But He, our gracious Master, kind as just,

Knowing our frame, remembers man is dust.

His Spirit, ever brooding o'er our mind,
Sees the first wish to better hopes inclin❜d.
Marks the young dawn of every virtuous
aim,

And fans the smoking flax into a flame.
His ears are open to the softest cry;
His grace descends to meet the lifted
eye.

He reads the language of a silent tear,
And sighs are incense from a heart sin.

cere.

Such are the vows, the sacrifice I give ; Accept the vow, and bid the suppliant live:

From each terrestrial bondage set me free,

Still every wish that centres not in Thee; Bid my fond hopes, my vain disquiets

cease,

And point my path to everlasting peace.

If the soft hand of winning pleasure leads

By living waters, and through flowery meads,

When all is smiling, tranquil, and seren And vernal beauty paints the flatterin scene;

Oh! teach me to elude each latent snare And whisper to my sliding heart-B ware!

If friendless, in a vale of tears I stray, Where briars wound, and thorns perple my way.

Still let my steady soul thy goodness see And with strong confidence lay hold of thee;

With equal eye my various lot receive, Resign'd to die or resolute to live; Prepar'd to kiss the sceptre or the rod, While God is seen in all and all in God. I read his awful name, emblazon'd high With golden letters on the illumin'd sky;

Nor less the mystic characters I see, Wrought in each flower, inscrib❜d on eve ry tree.

In every leaf that trembles to the breeze,
I hear the voice of God among the trees;
With thee in shady solitudes I walk,
With thee in busy crowded cities talk,
In every creature own thy forming
power,

In each event thy providence adore.

Thy hopes shall animate my drooping

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MEMOIR OF THE LATE REV. JOHN ERSKINE, D. D. In exhibiting "biographical sketches of eminent christians" we have hitherto taken into view only such as have been burning and shining lights amongst ourselves; our plan, however, does not restrict us to these, but permits us to take the wide range of the whole christian church. Availing ourselves of this advantage we now present our readers with a memoir of the late Rev. Dr. John Erskine, of Lauriston, near Edinburgh, whose name has long been known among us, and is dear to many in America, who either corresponded, or were personally acquainted with him. We are indebted to the Evangelical Magazine for the memoir.

Ir honourable birth and personal endowments; if amiable manners and extensive benevolence; if early and exemplary piety and unremitted zeal, during a long and laborious life; if any, or all these qualities combined, can give weight and interest to character, Dr. John Erskine must be ranked among the most eminent persons of the age in which he lived.

This excellent man was descended from two of the most ancient houses in the peerage of Scotland; and his nearest relations. belong to some of the most distinguished and respectable families of that country. His father, Mr. Erskine of Carnock, who will always be mentioned as a man of superior worth and eminent talents, was an advocate at the Scotch bar; and, for some time, professor of Scotch law in the university of Edinburgh. His “ Institutes of the Law of Scotland," in five folio volumes, as a book VOL. II.

I i

of authority and of profound information, is well known to have placed his name among lawyers of the first rank.

Dr. Erskine was the eldest son of this respectable man; and will be allowed to have added, in no small degree, to the honour of his family. His noble soul animated a feeble and slender body; and yet, through the goodness of providence to the church, and to the world, he was enabled to sustain many severe shocks of adversity; and was preserved, with his faculties unimpaired, till he had outlived almost all his contemporaries.

His original talents were far beyond the ordinary standard. He was distinguished by the unusual extent and comprehension of his understanding; by the acuteness, the accuracy, and the perspicuity of his reasonings, and by the general clearness and solidity of his judgment.

Dr. Erskine feared God from his earliest youth. Even when at school, though he excelled as a scholar, he had a settled delight in the duties of devotion, and in reading and studying the word of God; and as it points out the tendency of his mind, it is not unimportant to mention, that, in these favourite exercises he was frequently employed, while his class-fellows were engaged in their youthful amusements.

In choosing the ministry of the gospel as the profession in which he was ambitious to employ the talents which God had given him, it was manifest that his motives were of the purest kind; and that he sought not the advantages of this world, but “ the profit of many, that they might be saved." This choice did not at first meet the views of some of his respectable relations. They recommended to him the study and profession of the law, as more suitable to his rank in life, and as opening to him a surer pros pect of acquiring the distinctions to which it entitled him. To enlarge his stock of knowledge, as well as to gratify their wishes, he submitted to receive an education for the bar; and, there is no doubt, that, from this circumstance, he derived considerable advantages, of which he availed himself through life.

But theology was all along his favourite study. He adhered firmly to his purpose, unshaken by the view of any worldly disadvantage he could sustain by means of it; and when he obtained a license to preach the gospel, which was in 1742, one of the first texts from which he preached, was this, "I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than dwell in the tents of wickedness." He was full of this sentiment, and never departed from it; persuaded, not merely that true religion is the only source of substantial and permanent enjoyment, but that the meanest office

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