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and was in the act of striking it a second time, when suddenly there seemed to fall upon his ear a great voice from heaven, which said, "Wilt thou leave thy sins, and go to heaven; or have thy sins, and go to hell ?" "At this," says Bunyan, "I was put to an exceeding amaze; whereupon leaving my coat upon the ground, I looked up to heaven, and was as if I had seen, with the eyes of my understanding, the Lord Jesus looking down upon me, as being very hotly displeased with me, and as if he did severely hreaten me with some grievous punishment for hese and other ungodly practices." This we are lisposed to date as the moment of Bunyan's flight. But he was not yet within the wicket gate. In he case of some, no sooner have they left the city of Destruction than they find entrance at the gate; and if it is not so with all, it is not because they are 1ot welcome, or because they have not an open door et before them, but because they themselves are not ble to enter in. Bunyan, like his own Pilgrim, had ret "a very wide field" to traverse before he could ome at the gate; and in the midst of that plain was "miry slough," where "have been swallowed up at least twenty thousand cart-loads, yea, millions of vholesome instructions, that have at all seasons been ›rought from all places of the King's dominions, if o be it might have been mended; but it is the lough of Despond still." Into this slough Bunyan vas destined to fall, and he lay in it for a long time. We hall give the account of this dreary period in his >wn words: "Suddenly this conclusion was fastened ipon my spirits, that I had been a great and grievous inner, and that it was now too late for me to look fter heaven; for Christ would not forgive me, nor Dardon my transgressions." How many precious romises has the Bible cast in to fill up this gulf, and yet it is not mended to this day, and pilgrims continue to fall into it! He began, too, to be haunted by the thought that God had left him out in the decree of election; and next, that the day of his grace was past; and that he was another Esau, for whom there was no place of repentance, how many soever the tears with which he might seek it. He was as a man "tumbling about," to use his own metaphor, in a bottomless slough, and every plunge tended to sink him deeper in the mire. Many, alas! have sunk in that mire, and been suffocated; and that Bunyan did not do so was owing to the mercy of God, whose arm it was that pulled him out.

But, though rescued from this perilous condition, he was not yet at the gate. Here we find another parallel between himself and his Pilgrim. Scarcely had Christian been extricated from the slough by the aid of one whose name was Help, when he was met by Mr Worldly-Wiseman, who counselled him to turn aside to a village hard by, to a man whose name was Legality, and who had great skill in helping men off with their burdens. The path led underneath a huge mountain, which sent forth flashes of fire, and hung in so fearful a manner over the road, that Christian durst not proceed a step farther, lest the mountain should fall upon his head. Here Evangelist again came up to him, and directed the wanderer back to the straight path. Bunyan, too, encountered Mr Legality, and, influenced by him,

turned aside from the path that leads to the gate, and knew not till he was enveloped in the darkness and fiery flashes of Sinai. The incident to which we allude is the acquaintance which he formed about this time with a person who had a “pleasant talk of the Scriptures and the matter of religion." "Wherefore," he says, "I fell to some outward reformation, both in my words and life, and did set the commandments before me for my way to heaven; which commandments I also did strive to keep, and, as I thought, kept them pretty well sometimes, and then I should have comfort; yet now and then should break one, and so afflict my conscience; but then I should repent, and say I was sorry for it, and promised God to do better next time, and then got help again; for then I thought I pleased God as well as any man in England." Thus he continued for about a twelvemonth.

While he stood here at the foot of Sinai, Evangelist came to him. Chance, as it seemed, threw him one day into the company of three women in humble life, who had experienced the grace of God, and whose talk was of a free forgiveness and eternal life through the blood of Christ. This Bunyan discovered was "a more excellent way." These women introduced him to Mr Gifford, a godly minister, and the original of his " Evangelist." The counsels and ministry of this man were blessed for convincing Bunyan that he had not yet found the way of life, and that he was still under a mount that gendered to bondage. On this conscience again awoke. The mount began to thunder and lighten in a most dreadful manner. Turning away from it, he sought again the road to the gate. The good minister pressed upon him the great importance of searching the Scriptures. This Bunyan prayerfully did. The gate he could not yet see, but he kept the shining light in his eye. As he went on, that light grew stronger and stronger. At last he drew nigh; he lifted up his eyes, and read the gracious words written over the gate: "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Like his own Pilgrim, he knocked once or twice. At length the gate was opened; and one, whose countenance was full of grace, bidding him welcome, Bunyan entered in.

THE LAST DAYS OF MARTIN LUTHER.

THE fruitless Conference of Ratisbon was interrupted, (From the Rev. George Cubitt's Life of Luther.) while in progress, by an event which the Romanists hailed with a satisfaction hardly less vivid than was the grief of their more virtuous antagonists. The sudden removal of their venerable guide and father from the scene of his earthly labours, filled the hearts of Protestant Europe with a common and awful sorrow. For some years past the health of the great Reformer had been breaking up. In addi

tion to the inroads on his constitution of cruel disorder, which his sedentary habits tended greatly to aggravate, his physical strength had long been sapped by the toils of a mind impatient of the constraints and weakness of its material minister. The numerous and keen anxieties incident to that work which was the one absorbing business of his life, had farther contributed to wear down a frame already shattered by the access of various diseases; while the frequent and dark fits

L

THE LAST DAYS OF MARTIN LUTHER.

of despondency induced by nervous exhaustion, had also lent their aid to stimulate, by reaction, the activity of those morbid causes from which they sprang. Shortly after his marriage, Luther had been seized with one of those excruciating paroxysms of his original malady, which are, perhaps, beyond all other forms of bodily suffering, the most terrific. From the effects of this severe illness he appears never to have thoroughly rallied. As age drew on, such spasmodic seizures, though generally less violent, oftener recurred than in former years; every fresh attack leaving him spoiled of some fragment of his corporeal vigour. During the last few months of his existence infirmities fell thick upon him. His sight failed; and notwithstanding the robust energy which had characterized his prime of manhood, he describes himself, at the age of sixty-three, as “very old, and feeble, and having only one eye."

In this state, he complied with an invitation from the Counts of Mansfeldt, and set out, early in 1546, for his native town of Eisleben, to arbitrate some disputes which had recently arisen between those noblemen regarding their several rights of property in certain of the mines of that neighbourhood.

The voluntary submission of the disputing lords to the judgment of an umpire who, born one of the humblest of their own vassals, was eminent only in virtue of a grand intellect and a holy cause, constituted as remarkable a tribute to his singular ability and worth as could have graced the last days of the Reformer. On his arrival at Eisleben, he was met by the two Counts, with a retinue of a hundred horsemen, and escorted to the lodging which they had prepared for his reception. Every token of an affectionate veneration awaited him. His table was supplied by the noblemen whose differences he was called to adjust; and the whole population of the place, with an honourable pride in the high and sacred achievements of their immortal fellow-townsman, vied with each other in manifesting their united and grateful esteem. But the reverent joy which his presence in the scene of his birth awakened was soon to be exchanged for a mourning as universal and heartfelt as ever followed the translation of an illustrious spirit from the cares and pains of this world to a region of happier and purer being.

The fatigue of so long a journey, undertaken in the depth of an inclement winter, and protracted by a flood, rendering the usual roads impassable, proved too much for the enfeebled health of the Reformer. For some few days, the delight of visiting the home of his youth, and the hope of reconciling the feudal superiors, whom he loved with a remnant of the clan-feeling of an older period, infused new animation into the pulses of a heart which was prone to throb with every generous and fine emotion. But the chulness of the grave was at hand. As the month of February advanced, he became unable to leave the house. On the 16th of that month, when obliged to confine himself to his own apartments, he observed to his friend Jonas, who, with Cellus, the Protestant curate of Eisleben, was in attendance on him, "Here I was born and baptized: what if I should remain to die here also ?" On the evening of the 17th he complained of a painful oppression on the chest; but conversed during supper with his customary cheerfulness, expounding more than one striking passage of Scripture; and declaring, with a peculiar emphasis, that if he might only be permitted to succeed in his endeavours to reconcile the proprietors of his native country, he would return home, and die content. At eleven o'clock he retired to his bed, complaining of the increased weight at his breast; but, unable to rest, he soon rose again, and was assisted into the adjoining room. Count Albert of Mansfeldt, and his lady, summoned by Jonas, now arrived; and

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two physicians were called in, who came immediately, but in vain. Aware that he was dying, Luther now prayed aloud, saying: "O my heavenly Father! God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of all consolation, I thank thee for having revealed to me thy well-beloved Son, in whom I trust, whom I have acknowledged, and preached, and loved; but whom the pope, and they who have no religion, persecute and oppose. To thee, O Jesus Christ, I commend my soul! I am casting off this earthly body, and passing from this life; but I know that with thee I shall abide eternally." He then recited the words of the Psalmist: "Into thy hands I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O God of truth!" These words he repeated three times, his voice growing fainter with each repetition. Cordials were administered, in the hope of reviving him, but had so little effect, that it was with extreme difficulty that he could articulate an answer to the questions which his friends addressed to him. Only when Jonas, perceiving that the end was near, said, "Dearest father, do you verily confess Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Saviour and Redeemer ?" he made a great effort, and replied in a tone sufficiently distinct to be heard by every person present, "Yes." It was the last word of the expiring saint. The coldness of death gathered on his face and forehead; his breath came heavily; and with eyes closed, and his hands clasped, he remained apparently unconscious of what passed around him, until, between two and three o'clock, the tide of mortal life ebbed back, leaving the mighty spirit landed in eternity.

Thus, in his sixty-fourth year, died Martin Luther uttering forth with his latest breath his confidence in that Saviour whom in this world it was his highes glory to have made known to a deluded, faithles and forgetful generation. When the tidings of hi death were communicated to Melancthon, that great est of his surviving associates, he burst into tears exclaiming, in the language of Elisha, "My father my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horseme thereof!"

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It was the wish of the Counts of Mansfeldt to hav interred the body of Luther in the town of his nat vity; but the Elector directed the burial to be a Wittenberg. After lying for two days in the churc of St Andrew, in Eisleben-where Jonas preache over it a discourse from the text, If we believe tha Jesus died and rose again, even so them also whic sleep in Jesus will God bring with him"-the corps was attended on the road to Wittenberg by th Prince of Anhalt, and the principal nobility of the adjacent districts, including many ladies, togethe with a prodigious concourse of the common people On its arrival at the gate of the city of Halle, th procession was met by the clergy and Senate, followe by a multitude so dense that its progress throug the streets was difficult. As it passed along, the vas crowd sang the 130th Psalm; and every man presse before his neighbour to catch a glimpse only of the bier.

The

On the 22d of February, the cavalcade reached Wittenberg. The whole body of the Senators, ac companied by the professors and students of the university, with almost the entire population of the city and its suburbs, received it at the barrier. body, preceded by the Barons of Mansfeldt and their suite, and followed by the family of the illustrious deceased, was thence conveyed to the cathedral church. There Pomeranus delivered a sermon appropriate to the occasion; after which the celebrated funeral oration of Melancthon did justice to the memory of the dead, while it bespoke alike the grief, the genius, and the ardent piety of the speaker. The coffin was then lowered into the grave by the hands of several distinguished members of the university.

The tomb of Luther, in the cathedral of Witten- his forbearance into indignation, and his patience into berg, bears the following inscription:

MARTINI. LUTHERI. S. THEOLO

GLE. D. CORPUS. H. L. S. E. QUI

AN. CHRISTI. M.D. XLVI. XII
CAL. MARTH. EYSLEBII. IN PA
TRIA. S. M. O. C. V. ANN. LXIII
M. H. D. X.

Translation.-Here lies interred the body of Martin Luther, Doctor of Divinity, who died at Eisleben, the place of his birth, on the 18th of February, in the year of Christ 1546, having lived sixty-three years, three months, and ten days.

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Go, while the day-star shineth,
Go, while thy heart is light,
Go, ere thy strength declineth-
While every sense is bright;
Sell all thou hast, and buy it,
"Tis worth all earthly things--
Rubies, and gold, and diamonds,
Sceptres and crowns of kings.

ΑΝΟΝ.

WARNING TO THE IMPENITENT.

(From the Modern Greek.)

fierce anger? God so graciously calls to thee, waits for thee, and thou despisest his proffered mercy! The cord of God's love draws thee towards repentance; but thou resistest with all thy might-the cord breaks, and thou tumblest to perdition. God tenders thee all the treasures of grace, and thou convertest them into treasures of wrath. But strict re

taliation shall be thy punishment. Thou forgettest God-he will forget thee. God entreats, and thou wilt not heed. Thou wilt implore, and God shall refuse to hear!-Bishop Meniates' Sermon.

[It is a remarkable circumstance, that the sermon, from which the preceding powerful extract is taken, was preached in the city of Nauplia two or three years before the second Turkish conquest of the Morea, and that for upwards of a century the voice of the Gospel ceased to be heard within the walls of Nauplia, the Turks having always prevented any Christian service in that place. The warning voice of the preacher seemed almost prophetic.]

SCOLDING.

A GREAT deal of injury is done to children by their parents' scolding. Many children have been nearly or quite ruined by it, and often driven from home, to become wanderers and vagabonds, by scolding. It sours their temper, so that one thorough scolding prepares the way for two or three more. It sours your temper, provided it is sweet, which is a question. If you scold, the more you will have to scold, and because you have become crosser, and your children likewise.

Scolding alienates the hearts of your children. Depend upon it, they cannot love you as well after you have berated them, as they did before. You may approach them with firmness and decision-you may punish with severity adequate to the nature of their offences, and they will feel the justice of your REFLECT on that divine grace which is held out to conduct, and love you, notwithstanding all; but thee, to lead thee to salvation-that grace, O im- they hate scolding. It stirs up the bad blood, while it discloses your weakness, and lowers you in their penitent sinner! which unceasingly guards thee from esteem. Especially at night, when they are about destruction, and draws thee towards repentance-to retire, their hearts should be melted and moulded that grace which, if still despised, must ultimately with voices of kindness, that they may go to their be withdrawn. slumbers with thoughts of love stealing around their souls and whispering peace.-Anon.

"I have planted thee," saith the Lord, "like a vineyard--not in a trackless desert, nor in a rugged soil, but in a verdant spot. I caused thee to be born, not of Jewish or Mohammedan, but of Christian parents, and to be nurtured with the milk of the Gospel. To guard thee from danger, I surrounded thee with a trench, built a tower, and fenced thee with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? I looked that it should bring forth grapes, but it became wild, and brought forth only thorns. Teachers, preachers, spiritual guides! judge now betwixt me and my vineyard; decide regarding my long-suffering and its ingratitude, and tell me what, after so much love, so much patience, I ought now to do. This I will do. I will demolish the tower, and thieves will plunder it. I will pull down the fence, and passengers shall enter and trample it. I will command the clouds of heaven not to rain upon it, and it shall become desolate."

Are not these terrible words by which God threatens to abandon the impenitent, and to change

HOW TO READ TRACTS.

A MISSIONARY at Cuddalore, in India, was giving away tracts, when a little boy, about eight years old, came and asked for one. At first Mr Guest refused, for tracts were precious things; but the child begged so hard, Mr Guest gave him one called "The Way to Heavenly Bliss." About a fortnight after, the little fellow came again with the same request. "But have you read the other?" "Yes," said the child, and standing before the missionary and several Heathens who were gathered round, he repeated the whole tract from beginning to end. This was like the little Basuto boy, "putting his books into his head." Where are yours, dear children? Only on your shelves? Ah! if so, we shall almost be tempted to wish they were far away, where they would be to the little Heathen children as food to the hungry. Remember this truth," Where much is given, much shall be required."

THE CHRISTIAN TREASURY.

61

A REVIVAL INCIDENT:

ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE LONG-SUFFERING MERCY OF GOD TO THE CHIEF OF SINNERS.

BY THE REV. OCTAVIUS WINSLOW, M.A., LEAMINGTON.

in awful oblivion of eternity. After some hours had passed away in various topics of remark, the conversation took a sudden and awfully sportive turn upon the subject of religious revivals, at that time a theme of general and peculiar interest. The Spirit of God had been powerfully and gloriously at work in other and distant parts of the country-the cloud of mercy, freighted with heaven's choicest treasure, had, in its onward and brightening course, visited many villages and towns with "showers of blessing," resulting, as it was com

WHO has not heard, with deep emotion, of religious revivals? Yet more blessed they who have not merely “heard" of them "with the hearing of the ear," but also have been eyewitnesses and heart-witnesses of these especial and extraordinary baptisms of the Holy Ghost; in which God, apparently setting aside ordinary means and particular instrumentality, and taking the work of grace more directly in his own hands, has wrought powerfully by his Spirit upon the minds of Christians, arousing them from their spiritual lethargy to increased faith, prayer, and activity; and has created, in parti-puted, in the conversion of about three thousand cular congregations and communities, an almost universal and agonizing inquiry: "What shall we do to be saved?" Amid such scenes"Scenes surpassing fable, Scenes of holy bliss "—

souls-an accession to the Church of the re-
deemed worthy of the primitive" day of Pente-
cost." The fame of these especial seasons of
grace had reached the ears of the assembled
company, supplying them with ample material
for their unhallowed mirth. "Have you heard
the news?" said Mr
"The Rev. Mr

has the writer mingled. Among them, in the expression of humble hope, he drew the first breath of spiritual life; and whatever may be whose preaching has frightened so many the cautious hesitancy with which some receive, people, is coming to the town next week, and is or the bold scepticism with which others reject, to supply our pulpit for several Sundays." the doctrine and the history of these baptisms "Indeed!" repeated another; "what say you, of the Spirit, he will, to his dying hour, testify friends ?—let us have a revival; for you know that there are especial and extraordinary "times this preacher is always for having something of of refreshing from the presence of the Lord," this kind going on." "Yes," replied a third; with which the Christian Church has been," and you, Dr, and you, Captainand still is, favoured; and that nothing but the unbelief and the supineness of the Church, limiting and dishonouring the Holy One of Israel, prevents their more gracious manifestation and their more frequent occurrence. But it is not so much the object of the writer to vindicate the reality and character of Christian revivals, as to illustrate their working, by the relation of one among many thrilling incidents associated with these hallowed occasions, on the truth of which the reader may rely, and the facts of which he will recite almost in the words of one who was an eye-witness of the scene.

——, must be the first converts, and we must make elders and deacons of you." Thus the profanity and jesting proceeded-one after another desig nated, in idle sport, as subjects for the pastor's inquiry-meeting, and as candidates for Church communion-until at length, suddenly alarmed at the tone it had assumed, and at the pitch at which it had arrived, for some reason to them at the time unaccountable, the conversation came to a long and thoughtful pause. At length one, more courageous than the rest, broke the painful silence, and said: "What is the conclusion of the whole matter?" No one replied, all seemingly rapt in profound and solemn rere-flection. Here the conversation on the subject ended; and, after appointing to meet again four weeks from that evening, they dispersed.

On a calm autumnal evening in the yearat the close of a Sabbath-day, a large and spectable circle assembled at the house of a mutual friend, for the purpose of indulging in that trifling, frothy conversation which is so strong a characteristic of those who," without hope and without God in the world," are living No. 6.*

As was expected, the minister referred to came, and commenced delivering his message from God to the people. The field of his holy

and self-denying labour was most unpromising, In consequence not only of the low spirituality of the Church, and the high-handed impiety of the place, but more especially as resulting from deep-rooted and long-existing dissensions which, it was supposed, nothing could heal.

even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word"-was present, receiving a new revenue of praise from that assembly; while the glorified Redeemer was beholding from his throne the travail of his soul with infinite satisfaction. Within the Yet to this unforbidding soil came the sower short space of one week from this memorable of the precious seed, doubtless under the special evening twenty of these godly-sorrowing indivianointing of the Spirit, with a heart yearning duals were hopefully new creatures in Christ for the salvation of precious souls, and with an Jesus; while, within the limits of the town, eye single to the glory of God. The result shall three hundred souls became the subjects of respeak for itself. The fourth week which inter- newing grace, and witnesses to the truth that vened between the evening of solemn mockery the "Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort and the time appointed for the next party was all her waste places; and he will make her wildrawing nigh. But God, who is rich in mercy, derness like Eden, and her desert like the garhad other engagements than scenes of mirth den of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be for this ungodly circle, and was resolving in his found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of infinite and compassionate mind thoughts and melody." Reader, what an encouraging inpurposes of love. Wonderful to tell-and only stance is this of God's long-suffering mercy to to be told to the eternal honour of rich, free, the chief of sinners! Sinners they indeed and sovereign grace, abounding to the chief of were, " but they obtained mercy;" and through sinners that cloud of mercy which had been the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, you may be sailing athwart the spiritual heaven, imper- saved even as they. Have you fled to Jesus ? ceptibly and unexpectedly paused in its divine- Are you saved? Leave not this momentous matdirected career over this parched and arid spot; ter to the decision of a dying bed. Decide it now, and just at this critical juncture unbosomed and decide it for eternity. Is sin a felt plague ! itself in torrents of blessing. Not many hours Is Jesus precious to your soul? Can you say, in from the time appointed for the second party humble faith: "I am my Beloved's, and my Beof pleasure, the same large circle, almost with- loved is mine." And is daily sin daily taken out one exception, were assembled in the same to the fountain of his precious blood-there house, in the same room, where four weeks since hated and mourned over, cleansed and subdued! they were mocking the scene of a revival-not | And through trial and conflict, through evil renow to renew their unhallowed sport, but as the port and through good report, are you pressing subjects, and in the midst of the awful reali- on to glory," looking for the blessed hope, and ties, of that spiritual anxiety of mind which none the glorious appearing of the great God and but deeply awakened and truly convinced sin- our Saviour Jesus Christ? Then you are born ners understand. They who but recently and on again; and soon, O how soon, you shall be in the identical spot, were rallying each other with heaven! Until that happy moment, let us mea profanation of the Lord's gracious work, were ditate frequently on that sweet portion of God's now in very deed smitten to the ground, writhing Word: "Blessed is the man that walketh not under an awful sense of their exposedness to the in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in interminable woes of the second death, and ut- the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of tering groans and exclamations enough to pierce the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the stoutest heart. God the Spirit was there, the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day moving amongst and in them in all the might and night. And he shall be like a tree planted and majesty of his sin-convincing, soul-con- by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his verting, heart-regenerating power. Every mind fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, was awakened-every heart was broken-every and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." spirit was bowed. The military man the professional man the merchant-the intelligent AT youth-the daughter of beauty, of fashion, and of song-were alike prostrate at the feet of sovereign mercy, in humble penitence and prayer. O what a scene was that!-what a spectacle for an angel's eye, thrilling with joy a seraph's bosom! Yea, God-even that God who has declared, "To this man will I look,

EVENING TIME IT SHALL BE LIGHT.
WE journey through a vale of tears,
By many a cloud o'ercast;
And worldly cares, and worldly fears,
Go with us to the last!

Not to the last! THY WORD hath said,
Could we but read aright,
Poor pilgrim! lift in hope thy head,
At eve there shall be light!

BARTON.

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