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BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE TRIUMPHANT DEPARTURE OF JOHN WOOD, OF DEPTFORD kent.

THE writer of this has been acquainted with our departed brother nearly seven years: he has been always considered a speckled bird among the pharisees of this neighbourhood; for if a brother should slip off the pavement of morality, he is no sooner down, than these kick him about with all their mock humility. There is no bearing one another's burden, and so fulfilling the law of Christ. You cannot be a christian if you are not quite circumspect; in the old times it used to be circumcission, but now it is circumspection. Our departed brother was a man that never had much of this world's good but though he was poor in circumstances he was rich in faith and an heir of the kingdom. On the 11th of February he was taken ill and sent for me. I said, "Lord let it appear that he is one of thine in reality; not for anything in me, but on thine own worth and worthiness may he say thou art his transport and his trust." When I went into the room he put out his hand 1 said, "Well brother, how is

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it with you?" He answered, It

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will soon be all over." I said, "Do you know where you are going." Yes (he said) Jesus is the way: he is precious, he is my transport and my trust." This was a speedy answer to prayer. It was a humbling season indeed: my cup run over with the blessing. He recovered a little, and said there was such foolish pictures brought before him. I said, the enemy is doing this no doubt for you to worship them." He said, “ I cannot do that, for Jesus has prayed for me that my faith fail not:" he said, "if I had all the world without Jesus, I should be a wretch undone." He then repeated these words:

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A friend standing by said, " But that is not the case, I hope:" he said, "no, bless the Lord," and put his hand on his breast, and said, “ grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ: the love of God our Father, through the merits of Jesus Christ, brought home to my soul by the Holy Ghost, this enables me to hold on.'

I stopped with him sometime, and it was a heaven to be with him, though in the midst of poverty. I went to him again at night: he was glad to see me. He repeated many passages of Scriptures, too many for me to remember; but this one he said, "Soon shall the dust return unto the earth as it was, and the spirit unto God who gave it, for he said, he had power to lay down his life, and he had power to take it up again:" implying part of his (Christ's) life inhabited his body. Some other friends visited him on other occassions, and when he was sensible he continually spoke of the Lord's love to him. He said to me, on another occasion, "Upon a poor polluted worm he makes his graces shine." He said, This affliction is nothing to me. for I have so much of the Lord's presence, that it is sanctified : soon I shall be before the throne, singing, Urto him that hath loved us; and washed us in his own blood, be glory for ever and ever." On another occasion he said, Oh, that I had wings like a dove, I would fly away and be at rest: and, he said. Where would you fly? to the rock that is higher than I?" But, he said, I have need of patience, whether I have it or no; but I hope I shall not murmur, as the Lord is good to me. On the 15th which was the last time I saw him sensible, he said his mind was still supported, and Jesus was precious. On the morning of the 18th, he left this world, to join the assembly of the spirits of just men, made perfect by the blood of the Lamb.

R. KILLICK.

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LETTER FROM AN OLD PILGRIM TO AN

AFFLICTED BROTHER.

My Dear Friend

AGREEABLE to my promise I have transcribed three of the songs of Zion, which thou mayest sing even in the night, when the hand of faith takes the harp down from the willow. David, the man after God's own heart, who was "sweet in the songs of Israel," and who was well acquainted with the different seasons of day and night, informs us that "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord; and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High: to shew forth thy loving-kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night." Psalm xcii. Times of affliction and tribulation are appointed for all the children of God; and in our own experience we have learned that such dark dispensations may well be compared to the night season. Job, when enveloped in the gloomy affliction appointed for him, was told by Elihu that "none but God his Maker could give songs in the night season,' with which he was then sorely exercised and we have learned in our measure the truth of Elihu's testimony. We have also now and then found fellowship with our companion in tribulation, David: " O my God, (saith he) my soul is cast down within me therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts; all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me!" Poor David! this was a night season indeed! but faith kept him from sinking, and breaks forth sweetly in the next verse-" Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life, Psalm xlii.

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We know that times of affliction are proper seasons for prayer: "Is

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any afflicted? let him pray.' in every heart where the Spirit of grace and supplication condescends to take up his abode, prayer is sure to ascend in every day of trouble: nevertheless, we have always cause for thanksgiving, and matter for a song even in an afflicted state; for the faithfulness of our covenant God, in the displays and sweet interminglings of his loving-kindness and tender mercy, oft-times causes the heart to rejoice in the midst of tribulation; and when " the joy of the Lord is our strength," we can then sing of his faithfulness even in the night. The blessed apostle Paul, when writing to the believers at Corinth, (2 Cor. i. 2.) appears to well understand this matter, and we may call it one of his songs, for his harp was sweetly tuned -"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all 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." Oh, what a blessed, what a peculiar privilege it is, to be enabled to rejoice in the midst of tribulation! and all true joy springs from the love of God operating in the heart. But how do we get into the enjoyment of so rich a blessing? Paul shews us that we ascend up to it step by step thus,—

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Tribulation worketh patience, patience experience, and experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us," Rom. v, 4, 5.

Having endeavoured to shew you the ladder, and the landing place, with the blessed termination of all the sanctified tribulations of Zion's children; I can only add, that my earnest hope is that my poor brother's affliction may have the same happy issue, and that the end of his faith may be the salvation of his soul; and also, that his faithful companion,

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Seven Sermons founded on the Messages to the Apocalyptic Churches, by Edward Andrews, LL. D. 12mo. London: Palmer and Son.

We have now before us the third, fourth, and fifth Sermons of this series. From the message to the third church, Pergamos, the author deduces heresy as the basis of his subject, which he considers in its causes, influence and substance. Fanaticism is the subject considered from the message to the church of Thyatira, which is regarded likewise in its causes and specimens. Formality is the subject of the fifth discourse.

The messages to the Apocalyptic Churches, constitute, and will while time lasts continue to be, a rich and still unfathomed mine of sacred contemplation. He who, in discussing them, pretends to develop to us the mind of the Spirit throughout the whole, makes manifest only his own presumption. Dr. Andrews has modestly, and in our opinion commendably, taken, as it were, one jewel from the abundance, and seeks to present that to our view, in every aspect of profitable meditation. With him this is always done by an investment of imagery and language alike brilliant and entrancing. To those who come seeking only the bread of life, this may seem only a slight commendation, as a little food overspread with garnish, is, to the hungry man, less inviting than the substantial and undecorated meat. But he that giveth

to every man severally as he will, having, as we believe, appointed this author's place in the vineyard, will, we have no doubt, bless his particular gift to the soul's good of some of his chosen. We must gratify ourselves by giving the following short extract from the fifth Sermon.

"God heals the formality of his people by shewing them the glory of Christ: as before conversion they knew not their own vileness and need of salvation, so afterwards they require to be taught more and more as to what Christ is, and what he has done such instructions by directing the mind to absolute realities, nearly if not totally destroy the leaven, the disease, the leprosy of formality. A man who has to do with God and eternity on right principles, is not easily satisfied with any thing less than the inward work and solid witness of the Holy Spirit: and this agency expels the mockery of all human inventions and human charm. Formality is a lesser kind of spiritual magic; so many shapes hover in its adorned meridian, that ignorant man looking out for somewhat gorgeous and imposing is alike captivated and stunned: but truth comes like the orient sun gradual and irresistible, and all these phantasies vanish as malignant clouds before a hot morning, or as demons, though clothed like angels of light, at the stern bidding of Christ's troop back to the infernal goal."

The Non-Commission of Sin Peculiar to the Elect, a Sermon, by Charles Drawbridge. 12mo. pp. 12. London: Higham.

THIS Sermon ought to have been announced by us before; it contains several good observations, and will be read with pleasure by our readers.

The Lord Jesus Christ the Only Sacrifice for Sin, a Sermon, by Rev. Benjamin Isaac. 18mo. pp. 72. London: Palmer and Son.

THIS Discourse was preached under very peculiar circumstances: a female, who feared she had committed the unpardonable sin, and who resided in the author's neighbourhood, put an end to her earthly existence. Mr. Isaac takes up the passage of scripture which weighed heavily on her mind, and takes occasion therefrom to address words of consolation and encouragement, to such tempted ones as the adversary may be assaulting with similar fiery darts.

The Sermon, particularly the last half of it, is very suitable indeed, and the addresses and appeals to the tried and timid disciple are affectionate and scriptural. We cordially recommend it as very suitable for distribution. We extract the following.

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It may not perhaps be amiss in this place just to state, that the ge nerality of interpreters place the sin against the Holy Ghost mentioned by our Saviour in the wilful malice of those that withstand the evidences of truth, and will not acknowledge the miracles of Christ to be wrought by the finger of God, but maliciously, and against the conviction of their own consciences, impute them to the prince of darkness. This was certainly the crime of the pharisees to whom Christ applied his discourse; and those also become guilty of the same crime, who oppose or persecute the doctrines, ways, and servants of Christ, because they are spiritual, or

have anything of the Spirit appearing in them, and that contrary to their own convictions. Such as are guilty of this sin are excepted from pardon, because the death of Christ was not

appointed for the expiation of it; and there being no sacrifice, there can be no satisfaction, and consequently no pardon for if we wilfully sin after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin (Heb. x. 26, 27).”

"They renounce their Redeemer as if he were not the Son of God, and virtually consent to the cruel sentence passed against him, as it he had blasphemed when he declared himself to be so, and thereby out-sin his sufferings. How reasonable is it therefore that they should be for ever deprived of the benefit who obstinately reject the means of salvation."

"Therefore, we may say, the great unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, appears to be a presumptuous sin against some more than ordinary illuminations, convictions, and tastes of gospel grace; whereby a man doth knowingly and studiously rebel against the truth, and maliciously persecute it in himself and others from an universal hatred of it in itself."

Knowledge and Love Compared, by Richard Baxter. 32mo. pp. 216. London: S. Cornish.

A VERY neat reprint of a work by the celebrated champion of free-will, who laboured very assiduously and very unsuccessfully in harmonizing the thoughts and ways of God, with the thoughts and ways of fallen man. His was a mighty intellect; alas, that it should have been devoted to the heaping of hay, wood, and stubble on the only foundation which God hath laid in Zion.

This little work may, perhaps, be regarded as one of his least objectionable pieces, but the gangrene is too visible for us to recommend its perusal.

POETRY

A SIMILE,

In the Rev. Mr. Tite's Sermon, at Gower
Street, April 13. 1840.

Go to the shores of the deep deep sea,
When its waters are raging furiously;
When the fragile boat by the boisterous wave,
Is engulphed in what seems its final grave;
And see far away while the breeze is high,
Above shines a cloudless, stormless sky.

Go to the shores of the deep deep sea,
When its waters are lingering languidly;
When the winds are still, and the mariners
doze,

In a sultry, sunless, calm repose:
And above as below reigns a deathlike peace,
A morbid spirit of listlessness.

Such is the christian mariner's life :-
In the moment of this world's loudest strife,
He can sometimes lift an enraptured eye,
To his Lord and his home in the peaceful sky;
And oft when trouble seems furthest away,
Life yields its most sickly dangerous day:
For that which above the storm shone bright,
No longer cheers with its radiant light;
And a sunbright heaven the saint will crave,
Though the winds may ruffle life's fleeting

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He paid the debt, though vast the sum,
Oh had he left the work undone !
Had he but failed upon the cross,
How would the powers of hell rejoice!

But when those blessed words he spake,
Which made the whole creation shake,
"T is finished; 't was his dying breath,
He conquered in the arms of death.

B. FIELD.

"" AND THOU SAIDST, I WILL SURELY DO THEE GOOD.".

Gen. xxxii. 12.

Part 2, Concluded from page 288.

What moved thee Immanuel,

To come from on high,
To dwell with proud rebles,-
To suffer and die?
Our ransom he was,

And our substitute stood;
And all this most surely,

He did for our good.

'T was love,-sov'reign love,-
Ever matchless and free;
That moved him with pity,
For sinners like thee:
Thy guilt was extreme,

Yet he bore all the load;
Oh say, christian, say,
Was not this for thy good?
His disciples like him,

Must temptation endure;
Their cross may be heavy,

Their trials be sore: They see not the end,

When o'er troubles they brood; But sorrow and trouble,

Shall work for their good.

He never will leave them,
He'll never forsake ;-
If Satan annoy them,

Their part he will take:
They nothing shall need,

Either raiment or food; Since he has once said,

That he will do them good.

Their Jesus befriends them,
Whatever their lot;
He knows them by name,

And forgetteth them not:

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