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can manage." We know a minister who could not go round his own garden or down into his cellar in the dark, and yet he has been known to stand and calmly give out a hymn and afterwards preach to twelve or fourteen hundred people, in th dark, when the gas has happened by accident to go out.

Hence it is so clear that what is a trial to one is not to another, and that it is the very height of folly to be setting up standards, or in this respect to be comparing notes as to what may or may not be a cause of anxiety, or a source of sorrow or perplexity. Suffice it that God knows best how to humble, and how to keep in a simple state of dependence upon Himself.

Sure we are that there are none so timid and none so fearful as the children of God; that those who, in reality, have least cause for fear have most fear. Where others sport with death, and will run the most fearful hazards, imperilling their lives and their health to the last degree, God's dear children dare not do it. They know that both the one and the other are precious boons entrusted to them from on high, and which they seek to keep in trust until God's time and God's method shall come, for them to resign the same. Hence the most timid in life generally prove to be the most courageous in death. Why? Because they feel their Father's hand, they hear their Father's voice, and they are led into a personal acquaintance with their Father's will; and thus it is that they can say, "Now [when the Lord's "now" has come] lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation."

Moreover, in addition to this interesting and invaluable memoir, we have 119 letters from the pen of the sainted RUTH, written to various persons in different states and shades of experience, and embodying the richest variety of subjects as connected with the daily life and chequered walk of the household of faith. We love the letters of the children of Zion, because there is an opening up and an opening out in them of the passages in the wilderness, with glimpses of the King, intimations of interest, manifestations of mercy, unveilings of His loveliness, proofs of His watchfulness, displays of His power, settings forth of His divine condescension and unparalleled love, that by exchange and comparison with others of the same family, refresh and animate and cheer and strengthen. A blessedness springs up therefrom, as they realize that "as in water face answereth to face, so doth the heart of man to man." They feel, too, the preciousness of the saying, "Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name" (Mal. iii. 16).

There is another feature in this volume which has been most wisely introduced, and which will be most acceptable to the lovers of the dear departed gleaner it is the fac-simile of her own handwriting in two of her letters-the latter written but a few weeks before her death. The resemblance to her own dear hand is most perfect, and to ourselves (as we doubt not it will to many) much enhances the value of the volume.

It will, we are sure, be quite superfluous for us to say, we most cordially recommend it to the attention of our readers.

Sovereign Grace; as shown in the last Illness and Death of Mrs. Sarah Spurge. Triumphant Grace; as shown in the last Illness and Death of Mrs. Hannah Bignell.

CHEERING records of the closing scenes of two pilgrims at Eastbourne, Sussex; the one at the advanced age of seventy-three, and the other of thirty-nine years.

The Great Builder. By the Rev. EDWARD DALTON, Rector of Tramore. A REPRINT from our broadsheet, "OLD JONATHAN," of a very interesting and profitable paper by the beloved rector of Tramore. It is nicely got up, with a frontispiece of his beautiful church.

The Golden Pot of Manna. By Mrs. WILLIAM CAMPS. THIS is a compilation of "extracts from various authors, intended for the edification and consolation of Christian pilgrims." The selection is made with much judgment, and the compiler has furnished the reader with short and pithy comments upon a great variety of subjects bearing upon the interests of the people of God. The profits of the work are to be applied to the support of the Infant Orphan Asylum, Ashley Downs, Bristol.

Faithful Words; a few Thoughts on Christian Friendship. By the Rev. FREDERICK H. KNAPP, Curate of Patrixbourne, near Canterbury. London: J. Nisbet and Co., 21, Berners Street.

WEIGHTY thoughts upon a most important subject. Those who know much of their own hearts, and who have daily to mourn before God over their own ten thousand shortcomings, sins, and infirmities, feel how difficult it is to rebuke in others what they see and feel in themselves. 1. at one time more than another "the wisdom of the serpent with the harmlessness of the dove" is needed, it is in admonishing others.

The Author of "The Sinner's Friend."

An Autobiography.

Edited by NEWMAN HALL, LL.B. London: James Nisbet and Co., Berners Street; John Snow, Paternoster Row.

THIS is a most remarkable book, and cannot but be read with intense interest. The integrity with which the Editor has carried out his honoured father's wishes with respect to the publishing in its entirety much that filial regard might have prompted him to have omitted, cannot but be admired by every advocate of divine sovereignty and rich, free, and unmerited grace. We felt rivetted to the book. In it is so clearly and beautifully demonstrated that "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Having had "much forgiven he loved much." Seldom, if ever, since the apostles' day, was the love of souls more marked and manifest. Yet the author was not clear doctrinally. His heart (as is oftentimes the case) was much sounder than his head. There was such a sweet vein of tender, grateful flowing of love to his Lord, and of love to fellow-sinners for his Lord's and for their souls' sakes, that we cannot but admire his zeal and his steadfastness and his gratitude. Precious are the thoughts to which he gives utterance as, with an overflowing heart, he surveys the path and reviews the way-and a wonderful way it was-by which his Lord and Master had conducted him. His very soul seems imbued with love, and holy grateful ecstacy, as he testifies of the boundless love that plucked him as a brand from the burning, and preserved his life in a most marvellous way amid his "deaths oft." He was indeed an astounding trophy of sovereign grace and mercy. Hence, this autobiography will-yea, must-be blessed.

Stop and Think; or, Words of Counsel for the New Year. By the Author of 'Why do I Live?" London: The Book Society, Paternoster Row.

66

A PENNYWORTH of pithy, precious things, indeed worth stopping to think about.

MESSRS. WARD, LOCK, and TYLER announce a new edition of " Henry's Commentary on the Bible," with illustrations. It will make three volumes, and will, in the first instance, be issued to subscribers only. The Publishers seek the assistance of booksellers in obtaining subscribers' names.

THE

GOSPEL MAGAZINE.

"COMFORT YE, COMFORT YE MY PEOPLE, SAITH YOUR GOD."
"ENDEAVOURING TO KEEP THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT IN THE BOND OF PEACE."

"JESUS CHRIST, THE SAME YESTERDAY, AND TO-DAY, AND FOR EVER."

"WHOM TO KNOW IS LIFE ETERNAL.

No. 101,

NEW SERIES.}

MAY, 1865.

{

No. 1,193, OLD SERIES.

The Family Portion;

OR, WORDS OF SPIRITUAL CAUTION, COUNSEL, AND COMFORT.

"Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God."-2 Cor. i. 4.

FIVE-AND-TWENTY YEARS AGO!" WHAT HATH GOD
WROUGHT!"

BELOVED BRETHREN AND SISTERS IN CHRIST,-It is just five-and-twenty years-one quarter of a century-since we first addressed you through these pages. We are struck with astonishment when we contemplate the fact. We are additionally struck when we remember that the Gospel Magazine is within a few months of completing its hundredth year! What would our predecessors, who have long since passed away, have said to this? What would those who entered upon the work of issuing the Gospel Magazine in the latter part of the year 1765 bave said, could they have contemplated its existence at the close of a century? What of the changes and vicissitudes which, in this little world of ours, it should witness? and what about the grace-the power-the faithfulness of our God?

Readers, dear readers, no words of ours can express one tithe of what we feel as we reflect upon mercy so great-love so vast-condescension so infiniteforbearance and long-suffering and tenderness so divine, as that which has marked the Lord's dealings during the period to which we even have referred.

You who have been familiar with this work for the last five-and-twenty years, have known something of what its Editor has, in the providence of God, been called to pass through. You have been aware of the outward changes which he has witnessed the leadings and the dealings of his God, as far as his footsteps have hither and thither been directed. But ah, beloved, even with this knowledge—and even with the interest you have so kindly taken in his little eventful career you have known but little comparatively of the heart-history-the soultravail-the pilgrim-depths, from which he has been permitted and privileged, during the last five-and-twenty years, to hold communion with you through the medium of these pages.

Although it has entailed much-very much-anxiety and care and responsibility; although, during that lengthened period, this work-or you, in connexion

with it has seldom, if ever, been absent from his thoughts for a single hour; yet withal it has been a blessed work-a privileged work- -a work to be deprived of which during his sojourn here-vale of tears though it be― would be one, if not the very greatest of trials the Lord could lay upon him. Such, beloved, is the peculiarity and the blessedness of the Lord's work. Anxious as it is-responsible as it is—yet it is, nevertheless, so sweet—so satisfactory-so above and beyond everything of earth, that His servants are abundantly contented therewith, even in the midst of their labours, to say nothing of the rest and the reward (in a way of grace) which awaits them beyond death and the grave.

Oh, beloved, we do want, during the little-the very little-residue of our days, to speak well of our Lord-to testify of the grace, and the goodness, and the long-suffering, and the faithfulness, and the divine all-sufficiency of our Master. He is so good and so great. His service is indeed such "perfect freedom." He deals with so liberal and so gracious a hand, that we are bound, to the utmost of our feeble ability, to speak well of His blessed and adorable name!

Five-and-twenty years ago! Look back, beloved! The Lord the Spirit enable you so to do.

Some whom we now address may say, "You speak of a period in which we had no existence. We were not then born." Be it so. But does not the review call for acknowledgment of the Lord's boundless goodness, in that, during infancy, and childhood, and youth, and up to riper years, you have been protected and provided for? Ah, the goodness of our God in the arrangements and appointments of His providence. How He has led, and by what means He has led; our kindred-our friends-the interest manifested-the kindness shown the special and the peculiar provision afforded; and all so directly contrary to preconceived thoughts, expectations, and desires. Sweet, sweet indeed is the retracing and the review.

What becomingly-affected heart but must exclaim, in regard to this profitable exercise of contemplating the past,

"When in the slippery paths of youth

With heedless steps I ran,

Thine arm, unseen, conveyed me safe,
And led me up to man ?"

And surely, in the gratitude of that review, each may add

"Through every period of my life

Thy goodness I'll pursue;

And, after death, in distant worlds
The glorious theme renew."

Oh, beloved, we add, it is a blessed and a most refreshing, heart-cheering exercise in which to be engaged-this reviewing our pathway-this "remembering all the way by which the Lord our God hath led us."

But again, many of those whom we now address were, at the time to which we allude-five-and-twenty years ago-perhaps, in common with ourselves, arrived at manhood's estate. It may be that they then, as well as ourselves, were "bearing the burden and heat of the day." Plunged, possibly, into the very depths of business cares and mercantile anxieties, in addition to all the weight and the solicitude of family ties and social responsibilites. Oh, who can tell but those who have encountered them what the trials of business-life are? Fluctuating markets-changing fashions-seasons too wet or too dry-the

winter too cold, or the summer too hot-the one too long, the other too shortpolitical changes-wars abroad or contentions at home-the reverses of others, or the almost imperceptible drifting into too large transactions for the capital employed, by one's-self. Who-who, we ask, can tell what all this entails but those who have experienced it personally and painfully? Who but the man of business knows what it is to offer business cries and counting-house entreaties at the footstool of mercy? Oh, if those selfsame counting-houses could speak; if the shop counter, or the factory walls, could but articulate, of what would they testify in regard to the sighs and the groans and the tears and the wrestlings and the besiegings at the footstool of mercy for help-help-help from on high? Oh, the ten thousand fears of being put to shame and confusion before one's fellow-men! Oh, the intensity of the argument-the power of the plea-upon the ground that the Lord's name and the Lord's cause have been identified with one's conduct and conversation; and now how great the anxiety-how acute the anguish-lest, by failing to fulfil each and every lawful engagement, that great Name should be assailed, or that glorious Cause reproached. Ah, who knows what this is, in all its intensity and acuteness, but those who have been so tested and tried?

But how blessed the review, when sustaining power-delivering mercy-allneeded provision-marvellous interpositions, have marked the days and weeks and months and years of one's pilgrimage. How sweet to be compelled to recognize and to acknowledge the great fact, that "not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord had promised, but that all had come to pass.' Oh, how sweet and how heart-cheering this!

Then there is another class of readers whom we would affectionately address -yea, and congratulate, too: it is those who, during the five-and-twenty years of which we have spoken, have been called to surrender loved ones-kindred near and dear. Well may we say, in the contemplation,

"Friend after friend departs;

Who hath not lost a friend? There is no union here of hearts

Which finds not here an end. Were this frail world our final rest, Living or dying, none were blest.

"Beyond the flight of time,

Beyond the reign of death,
There surely is some blessed clime
Where life is not a breath,
Nor life's affections transient fire,
Whose sparks fly upward and expire.

"There is a world above,

Where parting is unknown;
A long eternity of love,

Framed for the just alone;
And faith beholds the dying here
Translated to that blessed sphere.
"Thus star by star declines,

Till all are passed away,

As morning high and higher shines
To pure and perfect day;

Nor sink those stars in perfect night
Who hide themselves in heaven's own
light."

How many who have revelled in the sweetness of the foregoing sentiments have themselves since realized all their truthfulness and power. They who contemplated others passing away from this vale of tears, have since themselves obeyed the call. They, in turn, have received their summons to come up higher."

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Even as far as this work is concerned, what numbers with whom we have held sweet communion whilst on pilgrimage, have taken flight-they are gone home! We are struck with this fact, beloved readers, when we look at the accumulation of mourning cards which we have in our possession. How numerous are the names of our former correspondents and readers of whom we are thus reminded as having passed onward and upward to the skies!

We said just now that this was a subject for congratulation. Well, so it is,

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