thought!" While in the agonies of dissolution he repeated these favourite lines;

"Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to thy bosom fly;
While the billows near me roll,
While the tempest still is high!
Hide me, O my Saviour, hide,
Till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide;
O receive my soul at last!"

His lips moved while his wife and sister held his cold hands: again he said, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly" and when he could whisper no more, he raised his hand to heaven, and expired, February 27th, 1829, aged 25 years and 10 months.

The removal of such a youthful minister is a severe loss, not only to his youthful companion and little son, and other weeping relatives, but to the Presbyterian church of which he was a minister; for few preachers of his years possess better mental furniture than he did, for eminent usefulness. His discernment was clear, his judgment sound, his taste good, and his style of writing perspicuous. He was well skilled in Hebrew, Latin and Greek; was an excellent biblical critic, a sound common sense metaphysician, and a thorough, evangelical divine. His voice was clear, his manner of speaking natural, his manners affable, and his piety ardent.

Surely, the removal of such a young minister, when labourers are greatly needed by us, is a correction from God; but the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord. I shall close this memoir by an extract from one of his sermons, which may now be considered as addressed to us from his grave.

66

Are dear friends leaving you and going to heaven? You need not mourn for them as those that have no hope. Cling the more closely and affectionately to that Friend who will never leave thee nor forsake thee. He who can say, When my father and my mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up, has indeed a treasure of

happiness beyond all price. Tarry a little longer, until it is your Lord's pleasure to take you from this his antichamber to his glorious presence. Soon the Master will come and cali for thee. Sweetly mayest thou then say, 'Come, Lord Jesus, come quick-. ly. Thou mayest then peacefully lay thy head upon thy pillow, and fall asleep. And when the last trump shall sound, thy vile body shall be raised beautiful, immortal, like the body of thine exalted Redeemer; and then shalt thou go to be ever with the Lord. Amen."

The following letter to the father of the Rev. Mr. Stuart, on hearing the report of his death, will, we are sure, be perused by our readers with interest, and we would fain hope, not without profit.

Trenton, March 14, 1829. My Dear Sir,-The injunction of the Scriptures, "Thine own friend, and thy father's friend forget thou not," seems to me to be peculiarly applicable to a case where this friend is sorrowing under the chastising rod of the Almighty. It is but a few days since I heard the solemn and painful intelligence that my dear friend James Stuart had departed this life. And although the tidings have not yet reached me in any authentic shape, yet from recent accounts I have too much reason to believe that they are true. And now, my dear sir, you are called to know the bitterness of mourning for a first-born son. May our merciful Father in heaven abundantly sanctify to you, and your dear partner in affliction, this severe and mysterious dispensation! I know how useless to a troubled spirit are the ordinary themes of condolence, and that "the heart knoweth his own bitterness;" yet that gospel which teaches us to "weep with those that weep," enjoins it upon me to seek, if possible, to speak a word in season to him that is weary. You have been long a scholar in that school of experience, which I am only entering, and you know already every argument of consolation which a truly sympathizing heart would

lead me to suggest; yet these divine truths are ever new, "wherefore I will not be negligent to put you in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth,"-and "to stir you up by putting you in remembrance."

The dear son whom you have lost (soon, I trust, to find him again at the right hand of God) was, as you know, one of my earliest and most esteemed friends. Similarity of tastes and pursuits united us; and this friendship was cemented by the great subject of our eternal salvation, which took possession of our minds about the same time. We corresponded after leaving college, and were much together in the Theological Seminary, where we were class-mates. I still retain the letters both in Latin and English, which are the memorials of my departed brother. And now how delightful is it to me to be able to say, with so much confidence, that he was indeed one for whom it was gain to die! Few of our brethren were as free from all reproach, few were more earnestly desirous of making those attainments which might be for the edification of the body of Christ. No young man within the circle of my acquaintance, seemed to me so much to have observed the caution of the Apostle "Let no man despise thy youth."

But now he is removed out of our sight. Happy are those parents, even in bereavement, who sorrow not as those who have no hope! Happier still, if they have some good confidence in their own acceptance! Though our Master has "removed the desire of your eyes at a stroke," I doubt not you remember that He has only taken back his loan, and can say with Job, "The Lord gave," &c. And although this affliction for the present is not joyous, but grievous, yet the word of God, I do believe, will be so applied to you, as to cause it to work for you the peaceable fruits of righteousness. Yes, "blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, and instructest him out of thy

law." The law and the testimonythese are the fountains of comfort; and you have been too long in the school of Christ, not to know that the word of God is never sweeter than when we are in the valley of humiliation; and that there is never more spiritual nourishment in our great passover, than when it is received with the bitter herbs of affliction and repentance.

But if I know your heart, my dear Sir, your desire is not merely to know how you may be comforted, but how you may be edified under this chastisement. You are ready to say, "What does this mean? What does my master intend to teach me by this stroke?" And here you will suffer one who is unworthy to handle so great a theme, to say, that it does look as if God intended, before he removed you out of this world, to crucify your affections to all earthly enjoyments.

How much meaning there is in those verses of Watts "The fondness of a creature's love," &c. Does not your soul go forth more towards that higher and happier world, when you bear in mind that the dear object of so many affections, has gone before you? We are still upon the broad and stormy sea, but dear James has been brought to his desired haven: we talk of Christ, but he sees him; we behold through a glass, darkly, but he, face to face. O! that we may all set our affections more and more upon things above. It is my heart's desire and prayer that our kind Master and Father, may bind up the broken hearts of yourself, your partner, and your dear children. And may he especially bless Catharine Ann, in her new and important relation. He will be the God of the widow and the fatherless. My love most sincerely to Mrs. Stuart and all your family.

Yours in the love of the Gospel,

JAMES. W. Alexander.

P. S. You have already learned that I am settled in Trenton. There is an encouraging external attendance at all our meetings, but no

thing of a special nature, which it would be interesting for you to hear. J. W. A.

ON FREE-WILL.

(Concluded from page 155.)

Men, in their sinful state, were dead as to the knowledge and the moral perfections of God. The Holy Scriptures teach us this, the history of all ancient ages, and the present state of nations who know not the gospel, yield confirmation of it. They were neither able, nor willing, of themselves, to know and serve God. That they might be otherwise circumstanced, it was necessary that God should reveal himself to them, in order that he might "work in them both to will and to do." He "works in them to will," by dissipating the darkness, prejudices, vain pretexts, and false reasonings, which obscure our feeble understanding; by imposing silence upon our passions, and by a sweet and holy persuasion, turning our will from evil, and directing it to good. He "works in them to do," by coming to the aid of those who are "willing to come to him for life," by sustaining, conducting, and drawing them to himself by the Spirit of grace, power, and sanctification, through whom he renders them victorious over their own flesh, the world, and death; and by conferring upon them freely the crown of a blessed immortality. In this manner the divine Sun of righteousness, by his pure light, illuminates those who "walk in the valley of the shadow of death," and enlivens them by the benign influence of his beams. Thus, the Spirit of Christ restores in man the image of God, which sin had effaced. Being liberated from the law of sin, we are made truly free. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Redeemed from the power of Satan, we obtain the right to be sons of God," and the power to call him "Father." As we all die in Adam, so we are made alive in Jesus Christ.

Meanwhile, we repel the calumny of those who accuse us of teaching that man is forced, in spite of himself, to do good, by the power of the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, we teach that Christians are made free by the pure gift of God, that they "choose the good part" without constraint, and that they forsake all to follow the Saviour, because they "know that he has the words of eternal life; because they believe and know that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God." They are “a willing people to God;" to obey him is their joy. They speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.

What individual, now, will tell us, whether man is able to enlighten his own mind, change his heart, break the bands of sin, extricate himself from death, and be at peace with God, by the natural powers of his own free will? Until he reply to us, they who know "the gift of God," will bear a perpetual testimony to him, that they had no good thing in their heart before they knew that gift, and that they have ALL received of his infinite mercy. They who will not receive of him, accept his grace, trust in his promises, and be guided by his word, with the humility of little children, remain in their obduracy, in the death of sin; "they are condemned already."

With the confession of the Swiss churches, we further observe, that liberty is not perfect in the regenerate; that, on the contrary, it is weak in them, on account of the unhappy remains of the old man which God leaves in them, to render them continually sensible of their weakness, and that they may not boast of the liberty which they have received, as if they had not received it. So long as we are in this world, which is under the curse on account of sin, "the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, so that we cannot do the things that we would." But we know that "all things are possible to them that believe," and that "this is the victory over the

world, even our faith." If we watch over ourselves, we shall not fall into the snares of the "roaring lion, who incessantly roams around us, seeking whom he may devour;" and if we continually implore the help of our heavenly Father, he will invest us with divine armour, (Eph. vi. 15, 18,) and render us "more than conquerors."

It may be asked, on the subject of original sin, why the children of the regenerate are not born with dispositions to good, rather than to evil? "Of the righteous baptized person, (says Augustine,) the unrighteous is born. The foreskin which was taken away in circumcision, was found in the children of the circumcised. Chaff, which is separated from grain, by the art and labour of man, is nevertheless still found to envelope the grain, produced from that which had been cleaned. As the seed of a wild olive produces a wild olive, and the seed of the genuine and cultivated olive produces still but a wild olive; so, as well of the flesh of the righteous as of the sinner, a sinner is produced."*

The Roman Catholics also say to us, If we be deprived of liberty to do good, why do the Scriptures contain so many commands and exhortations? Here is the answer which Andrew Rivett makes them: "These exhortations are either addressed to unregenerate man or to believers. If to the latter, we deny not that they have the liberty of doing good, with the assistance of the Spirit of the Lord, and so exhortations are profitable to them. If to the former, we say that it is not a vain or absurd thing to urge a debtor to the payment of what he owes, although he may not have the good will to pay, or even the power to do it. If we have forgotten our debt to God, if we are unacquainted with our want of power to pay it, the Scripture makes us sensible of it; and if we

have not wherewith to pay, it shows us where we may find a surety, a Saviour, who will bestow riches upon us freely. And to those who remain in their perverseness, it shows that God does them no wrong in punishing them, or in making them pay in sufferings, what they owe, since they have been rendered insolvent through the bad conduct of their father, approved of and persisted in by them." Prosper replies to Cassian, a semipelagian, who made him the same objection: "These things are commanded, that man, by the divine precepts, may be informed of the good which he has received, know what by his own fault he has lost, and be sensible that the demand which is made upon him is not unjust; and So relinquishing the letter which killeth,' that he may have recourse to the spirit which giveth life, and seek in grace the power which he has not found in nature. If he do so, he will find that this [the command of God in Scripture] is a great mercy of the Lord; and if he do not, he will experience that there is a just punishment of sin." In a word, by such exhortations, as by useful instruments, God works in his faithful people, doing in them what he commands; he answers internally, by the operation of his Spirit, to the exhortation which he makes externally by his word.

tise of Marriage, b. xvii. c. 19

+Summary of Controversies, Tract III.

of Adam the author of his own salvation. Then we render useless the

grace of God, the sacrifice of Christ, and revelation itself. Let the punishment of those proud men be remembered, who attempted to build a tower, whose top should reach the heavens, and who were confounded in the au

dacity of their presumptuous enterprise. "No one," said our Lord, "can come to me, except my Father, who hath sent me, draw him-Draw us, O Lord, and we will run after thee!" Amen.

NOTES OF A TRAVELLER.

(Continued from p. 166.)

April 28th.-At Sea. After experiencing favourable winds so far, and having now run about half the distance of our voyage, an almost perfect calm has so completely arrested us, that we are scarcely making half a knot an hour.

We have a very good library on board, belonging to the captain; and upon examining it, I found that it contained many valuable and interesting works. I had also a good supply of books of my own, and "pleased myself with the prospect of the hours which I should revel away in feasts of literature." My hours of study were systematically appointed: my friend Dr. G. and myself were to recite French to each other every day-for we expected to pass a considerable portion of our time in France before we returned-I had poetry, and narrative, which I supposed would amuse my mind in any possible mood. But all my schemes for study and literary enjoyment I have found were vainExcept skimming over a few pages in a magazine, or dipping here and there into a guide book to the places I expected soon to visit, I may say I have read nothing; and as far as I can perceive, every passenger on board is in the same predicament. If there be such a thing as an "aching void," go to sea as a gentleman, or as a person who has nothing to do, and you will feel it. The "tranquil bosom of a summer sea" is, I assure you, beautiful only in poetry. In the language of

an intimate friend, I was almost tempted to exclaim

"Better to hang on icy shrouds,
When billows dash against the clouds,
Than in mid ocean's waste to lie
Becalmed, beneath a sunny sky."

During our present calm weather, I have employed myself in watching and obtaining some molluscous animals, which are constantly floating by us. Those taken were a species of the ianthina and velella; they are beautiful, often exhibiting the colours of the rainbow. In the evening a favourable breeze sprung up, and carried us again on our course.

29th. You must not be surprised that I commence my daily notices with the state of the wind, for it is by far the most interesting circumstance which occurs at sea -a ship in sight, or a water-spout at a distance, cannot compare with it. The first question you ask the servant when he comes into your room in the morning is, "Which way is the wind?" and then "How many knots an hour?" These are also the last inquiries before going to bed. Our servant, Charles, was however but little to be depended upon in these matters; for his general reply in all cases was, "She keeps her course, sir." A strong, propitious wind, which blew all night, still drives us to our destined port, which we shall probably make in ten or twelve days. The sea is quite smooth, except a few white tops of the small waves which ruffle it: it looks something like a vast cemetery, filled with marble tombs, and brings to my mind the lines of Young: