faith triumphed. He did what he At another time, being in Edinburgh, he was so reduced that he had but three halfpence in his pocket. Though needful of a refreshment, he was ashamed to go to a public house to call for any thing. He walked for some time in the street, not knowing what course to take. While he was in this condition, one in a countryman's habit came to him and asked him if he was Mr. Henry Erskine. He told him he was, and asked him his business. I have, replied he, a letter for you, which he delivered. On opening it Mr. Erskine found in closed seven Scotch ducatoons, with these words written in it, "SIR,-Receive this from a sympathising friend. Farewell." But without subscription. Mr. Erskine being solicitous to know who his benefactor might be, invited the bearer to go into a public-house hard by. Having got him alone, he inquir ed with some earnestness who it was that sent him. The man told him that secrecy was enjoined him, and, therefore, desired to be exempted from telling, for he could not betray trust. Mr. Erskine, however, continued to ask him some questions, as to what part of the country he came from, so that he might be the better able to guess from what kind hand this seasonable relief came. But the bearer of the letter, desirous as it would seem to get rid of Mr. Erskine's importunity, asked him to sit a little, while he went forth. But being once gone he returned no more; and Mr. Erskine could never learn who his sympathising friend was. Being at another time engaged in a journey on foot, his money fell short, and he was in danger of being exposed; but as he was walking, having stepped aside towards a bush of rushes, and fixing his staff in the marshy ground, he heard something tingle at the end of it. Whereupon, stooping down, he found two half-crowns, which helped to bear his charges home. In these times of grievous persecution and oppression, Solomon's observation was verified, Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in a low place. I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth. Eccles. x. 6, 7. When the most worthless characters were wallowing in all the luxuries of life, many such worthy men as Mr. Erskine were under the necessity of being beholden to their sympathising neighbours for subsistence to themselves and their families. But God wonderfully provided for them. Mr. Erskine was zealous in his Master's work, and not easily intimidated. He was, therefore, often sent by the presbytery of Chirnside to preach in those places where the people were disaffected to the Pres byterian interest, and to take possession of those churches where Presbyterian ministers had the greatest difficulty to obtain access. And he sometimes preached in such places, while showers of stones were pouring in upon him at the doors and windows. Such treatment as this he met with, particularly at Coldingham; and it was remarkable, the last sermon he preached was to that people, who had given him such hard treatment. The manner of his death was eminently exemplary, and a remarkable accomplishment of Psal. xxxvii. 37," Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace." He was seized with a fever which carried him off in wished to look him in the face at the great day of the Lord. Then, like dying Jacob, he blessed them, and then committing his wife and them to the care of Divine Provi dence, he commended his spirit into the hand of his own covenanted God, who had cared for him all his life long. This excellent man was father to Messrs. Ebenezer and Ralph Erskines, who were honoured to be eminently useful in the church of Christ, to Mrs. Balderston, an eminent Christian, and to Philip Erskine, rector in the Church of England. Remarks on Heb. x. 36. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. fourteen days. Finding his end FOR THE CHRISTIAN INSTructor. drawing near, having set his house in order, he called for his children. Of nine who were alive, six were present. With great authority he exhorted them to cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart, declaring, that the advantages of pious religion and true holiness did infinitely outweigh all the hardships and difficulties that could possibly attend it. And as a dying man and a dying father, he gave his testimony to the goodness of the ways of God, assuring them, that as he never had repented, so, more especially then, he did not now repent of any hardships he had endured in his Master's service. "I know," added he, "I am going to heaven; and if you follow my footsteps, you and I shall have a joyful meeting there ere long." Having thus en couraged them to engage in the service of the Lord, he caused them, one after another, from the eldest to the youngest, to kneel down on his bed-side, and taking them in his arms, he solemnly enjoined them and engaged them to be the servants of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and his own God, and to keep his ways, as they ever It is the good pleasure of God that his people should, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of heaven. Many important advantages result from the se ries of trials and afflictions to which good men are subjected in this world of suffering and of grief. Affliction is a furnace, in which the graces of a Christian are tried and purified. Entire insensibility to the influence of pain, even if it could be acquired, would be no proof of the wisdom or the piety of any individual. If we did not feel the troubles into which we fall, they would not be trials of our faith and our patience; and if we did not bear them with meek. ness and resignation of spirit, they would become to us evils instead of blessings. The sorrows of human life are various and complicated. Much has been written on this subject. Rhetoric has wasted her powers, and lavished her descriptions, in a vain and feeble endeavour to portray the number, the variety, and the intensity of human woes. It must be remarked, however, that while ingenious men have drawn the most dark and painful represen tations of the condition of mankind, they have seldom introduced into their gloomy pictures a ray of that light which can throw its rich and beautiful tints around the most cheerless and desolate objects; and which alone can impart an emotion of joy to the wildered and anxious mind of him who contemplates, with steady attention, the distressing, though interesting spectacle which the detailed circumstances of human misery unfold. Religion exhibits the only antidote to the calamities and sorrows of life. The sincere Christian being exposed to manifold afflictions, is taught to expect them, and is prepared in some degree to meet them with resignation, and to sustain them with magnanimity and fortitude. The apostle to the Gentiles, in the exhortations to his Hebrew brethren that are contained in the epistle which he addressed to the faithful among the nation, reminds them of the trials to which they had been subjected, and warns them of the approach of new and severer sufferings. Having, in a clear and distinct manner, established, by the most satisfactory evidence, the truth and importance of the connexion that subsists between the old and the new dispensations of the cove nant of grace, and evinced the superiority of the latter over the former in every point of view, he proceeds, as is his usual way in all his writings, to apply the doctrines which he had delivered in the preceding part of the epistle, to the circumstances and exigences of all true Christians, with a view of promoting their sanctification and comfort. After vindicating at great length, the supreme dignity and au thority of Christ, the genuineness and validity of his vocation to the office of a priest, and proving the infinite perfection and value of the sacrifice which he offered up to God, in the discharge of the exercises of that function, and the inutility of their continuing to observe the rites and ceremonies of the ancient economy, he endeavours, by various arguments, to induce them to come frequently to the throne of grace, before which they have now free access to appear at all times, in order that they may solicit mercy, and find grace to help them in every season of need; and tenderly cautions them against the danger of yielding to those temptations to which they would certainly be exposed, and which might have it for their object to turn them aside from the path of duty and integrity. He recals to their recollection the persecutions and tribulations which they had already endured for the sake of righteousness; and lest they should become weary and faint in their minds by the continuance of their afflictions, he uses his utmost exertions to arm them with that courage and patience that would enable them to resist the force of those distressing events that were still awaiting them. "For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." The securing of the salvation of his soul is the great business and duty of every Christian. This end of his faith is inseparably connected with the means that are appointed for the attaining of so great a blessing. Any falling short of the accomplishment of this great object, which he professes to have in his view, is fatal and irremediable. He only who continueth in the faith and obedience of the gospel unto the end of his life shall be saved. It is only after the Christian has done the will of God that he can expect to inherit eternal felicity. The Christian life is a warfare in which we must daily exercise our skill and ability in contending with our spiritual enemies; and it is a race in which we must endeavour to run with patience, alacrity, and courage. As the duties of a Christian are numerous and important, and as the trials to which he is subjected are often painful, embarrassing, and dangerous to his integrity; there is no one quality of mind more necessary or useful to him than patience; and to the exercise of this grace there are many inducements and exhortations contained in the volume of Holy Scrip ture. The elements of which patience consists are humility, self-denial, and resignation to the will of God. While we remain proud and selfrighteous; lovers of pleasure and worldly honour and riches; ignorant, wilful, and presumptuous, we cannot understand the true and proper nature of the Christian virtue of patience, and, consequently, we never attempt to carry it into practice. Till we learn to consider ourselves as sinners, who are obnoxious to the divine displeasure; to renounce our own foolish conceptions and reasonings, and to recognise the supreme and merciful interposition of Providence in all that befals us, we shall not be able to comply, in any degree, with the recommendation of the apostle, who enjoins all true Christians, who are placed in circumstances of peril and affliction, to "let patience have her perfect work." Patience is the gift of God, and it is produced in the heart of a Christian by the operation of the Holy Spirit. That it is a quality of the most useful and salutary nature, the following remarks will abundantly show. On this subject then, we may in the first place observe, that we have need of patience in order that we may not faint and sink altogether beneath the pressure of affliction. It is a common and a trite observation, that the life of man upon the earth is full of pain and distress. We are all more or less sensible of the truth of the remark. No one who has arrived at the years of maturity, and who has experienced the ordinary trials and vicissitudes of life, can be altogether ignorant of the real character and condition of our present state of existence. Some individuals, in consequence of the greater sensibility of their temperament, feel the pangs of affliction more severely than others; but all are compelled to bear a certain weight of sorrow and distress. The mind of a Christian is by no means exempted from the sufferings which are occasioned by the calamities of life. It is not unfrequently, indeed, the lot of a true saint, to be visited with heavy, long-continued, and complicated afflictions. To him, therefore, the grace of patience is peculiarly necessary. It is no very difficult matter to support with becoming magnanimity, a trial of even a severe nature, if it be but of short duration. The love of reputation; a sense of propriety; the fear of shame and re. proach, all combine to produce within us a considerable degree of resolution and courage, and to enable us to act with some kind of fortitude and dignity when we are visited with unexpected and great calamities. If we wish, however, to endure with proper calmness and self-command, the constant, the daily, and hourly trials, pains, crosses, vexations, and disappointments that we must expect to meet with in our passage through this world, it is indispensably necessary that we possess and exercise the Christian virtue of patience. This excellent quality alone can sustain our spirits; during the tedious and wearisome. round of af flictions which generally await every sincere and conscientious fearer of God. All other aids will abandon us treacherously in the time of our necessities; and if we lean wholly to them, we must sink under the heavy and accumulating weight of our distresses. In the second place, we may observe, that patience is peculiarly ne cessary for us when we are exposed to trials of mockings, and to loss of reputation, property, and life, in the cause of God and of religion in the earth. Many are continually turn ing aside from the path of duty. When persecution arises because of the word of God, multitudes become offended and abandon the profession of religion which they foolishly and thoughtlessly assumed. He that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer one species of persecution or another. In all ages, they that are after the flesh, have persecuted them that are after the spirit. No compromise can be effected between the righteous and the wicked, and no peace can take place between them, till the one party submit it. self entirely to the power and authority of the other. In our adopt ing a scriptural profession of religion it will be exceedingly useful for us to remember that our conduct on that occasion may involve very important consequences. We ought to ask ourselves, whether or not we be prepared to endure the tauntings and the sneerings of these persons who are now our friends, and who are disposed to regard us with respect and esteem, and to saerifice those prospects of worldly distinction and affluence which our situation in life, our education, and our general connections with so ciety fully entitle us to form. To make great exertions of courage and self-denial in the commencement of our Christian pilgrimage, is often felt to be rather an easy and grateful task; but it is difficult VOL. XXIII. NO. IX. to support through life the conscien tious feeling which induces us to look back with satisfaction on that choice for the sake of which we have relinquished so many worldly advantages, and subjected ourselves to so many crosses and privations. We have need of patience, in order that we may not be tempted with success, to yield to the influence of a spirit of murmuring discontent when our reputation has suffered a severe check, when our prospects of affluence and secular honour have been beclouded, and when our personal safety may be threatened or endangered in consequence of our having forsaken all our former projects and pleasures on account of our attachment to the cause and interest of true religion. In the third place, we may ob serve, that we have need of patience in order that we may escape the danger of stumbling and of falling into evil, by reason of the offences that are, from time to time, thrown in our way by the profes◄ sors and the teachers of religion. It is indeed painful to reflect on the incalculable injury which the kingdom of Jesus Christ has sustained in every period of the world, from the crimes, the ignorance, and the folly of those who pretended to be its most loyal and devoted subjects. Such is the character of human na ture, that if a man who is not in reality under the influence of dis vine grace, make a distinguished profession of faith in the Gospel, he will become, by degrees, ten times more corrupt and wicked than the most profligate and irreligious of his friends and acquaintances. Familiarized with the language of religion, and accustomed to observe its external rites and institutions, he scarcely asks himself whether or not he is a believer in the truths which it reveals, or whether or not he conscientiously endeavours to regulate his thoughts, affections, 3 Y |