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FRAGMENTS FROM A MINISTER'S DAY-BOOK.

great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; and the earth, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up."

WHO ARE THE DEAD?
O! mourn not for the early blest,
Called from a world of care away,
And gathered to her blissful rest,

In the bright realms of sunless day! The more her innocence and worth

Combine to make her memory dear, The fitter seems her flight from earth To that far purer, happier sphere.

Shall we, in selfish sorrow cold,

Mourn when the Shepherd, in his love, Takes from his lower earthly fold Another lamb to one above?

In this some danger needs must dwell—
Around it spoilers seek their prey;
But there we know that all is well!
For nothing can that flock dismay.

Or shall we mourn so sweet a flower
Appeared to blossom-but to die,
Because in this, its earthly bower,

Its charms no longer greet our eye?

B.

Look up, with Faith's meek eye serene,
Beyond the grave's dark, chilling gloom,
And there that flow'ret shall be seen
Unfolding in immortal bloom.

The heavenly Gardener shall we blame,
Who hath transplanted it from sight,
And, knowing best it fragile frame,
Placed it where storms can never blight?

Mourn not for her! but rather mourn,
Since there our sorrow cannot err,
For some who yet on earth sojourn,
That gladly would change lots with her.

Mourn rather for the LIVING DEAD!

Than for the seeming dead-who LIVE! These need no tears our grief can shed;

But those far more than we can give!

There are who live but in the name
Of what the world as LIFE declares!
O doubt not these more truly claim

Our tears-more deeply still our prayers!

For them let tears and prayers be rife,
That He who still is, as of old,
The Resurrection and The Life!

May such with pitying eye behold.

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FRAGMENTS FROM A MINISTER'S DAYBOOK.

THE INFIDEL.

SOME years ago, on a bright day of summer, I was visiting a few neglected families in the district. I entered the house of one who was a stranger to me. I saluted the family frankly, and was received coldly, though not with incivility. It was the house of a mechanic, and there seemed no tokens of poverty or want. The husband was rather a young man, under thirty, I should suppose, and in good health. His manner was distant-almost supercilious.

He was lying at ease upon his bed after his midday meal, waiting till his dinner hour should expire, and busily engaged in reading. After a few general remarks, during which he did not lay aside his book, I asked its name and nature. After some hesitation, as if a little ashamed, he answered that it was a novel.

"Do you read no other than such?"

"Oh, yes; many others."

"Of what kind," we asked, for he seemed unwilling to speak freely.

"I read books of mechanics, and sciences, and useful information."

"Do you ever read your Bible?"

"No!" This negative he uttered in a peculiar tone, and with a peculiar sort of expression, bordering on a sneer, as if he neither read nor believed it. I understood his meaning at once, and asked why he never read it.

"There's no philosophy in it," he replied.

"What do you mean by philosophy?" I asked, thinking that he was using a word at random which he did not understand.

"I mean," said he, "that which explains the reasons of things."

From the way in which he said this, I saw at once that he was really a more intelligent man than I was inclined at first to suppose him, and resolved to speak to him accordingly. I thought it best not to irritate him, by asking what philosophy there was in a novel, but simply remarked that I thought there was more real philosophy in the Bible than he imagined.

"For instance," I said, "does not the Bible give us the best information about God?"

"No," he replied; "I got this best from nature and from the works of creation."

"But the works of nature can only tell you about the mind of God, not about his heart. They tell you about his power and wisdom, but not about his love. A watch may show me the watchmaker's skill and ingenuity, but it cannot tell me anything about his feelings or his temper. Now, creation shows me the wisdom of God, but not his kindness and grace. Yet it is upon the state of God's heart and feelings that our happiness entirely depends. Is not this the true philosophy of thing""

"Yes," he replied, "I dare say it is."

"Well, it is just the philosophy of the Bible." Resolved to carry on this point which he himself had started, I asked again of him: "How are we to

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know the heart of God? for until we know this, it is but since we have ascertained that there is none, we plain that we cannot be happy? will go mourning all our days." This is true philosophy.

"I do not know," said he, "except from creation." "But it is plain, on your own admission, that creation can tell us nothing about the heart of God. Where, then, are we to find this information, which we need so much, and which is so indispensable to our happiness?" He was silent-his philosophy failed him.

"Is it not plain," said I, "that such information as I speak of can only come from God himself? He only knows what he is and feels; and he only can tell us of it. Now, is not this true philosophy?"

He admitted that it was, but made no remark. "Well, the Bible professes to be the book which is intended to give us the needed information about God. It professes to tell us what are the feelings in the heart of God towards us. Would it not be worth your while to study it for this end?"

In like manner, what a world were this of ours, if there were no Bible! That there should be a God, and yet no revelation of his will-no communication between him and his creatures-no intimation of his purposes and desires-how incredible! how unphilosophical! That God should make us, and then cast us off, and refuse all intercourse with us, how impossible! And then how sad if such be the case! The very thought of such a calamity would be enough to solemnize and sadden the soul. To know that there is a God, and yet have no fellowship with him, never hear his voice, or taste his love, or learn his will-to look up to the azure heavens, and say: "God is there, but he will not speak to me; he will not tell me about himself; he will not let me hear one word concerning all he is doing, and devising, and thinking: God is there, but he will not tell me how I may be happy; he has given me life, but he will not show me how that life may be a blessing; he shows me the material world around me, but he will not show me the spiritual world within and above me, with which alone my soul can have sympathy-how sad! how awful! Better not to be at all, than to have an existence so totally severed from him who made me, and made with such amazing capacities for being happy or wretched." What a struggle it must have cost the Infidel, if he be sincere, to come to the con

He assented, but said something about "evidence." "Those who have studied it most declare that there is as much evidence for its being the Word of God as for creation being the work of God. In these circumstances, would it not be well to inquire? Would not this be true philosophy? You say you would like to know what are the feelings of the God that made you towards his offspring; and would it not be worth while to see if you might not get in the Bible the best and most authentic of all information upon the subject that which comes from himself?" He again assented, and seemed touched, but said clusion that there is no Bible. The thought must nothing.

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Besides," said I, "if that source of information fail you-if you find the Bible to be untrue-then, if you are in earnest, you will go directly to HIMSELF. You believe him to have made those mighty works around you. You believe that he hears and sees you, though he himself is unheard and invisible. Now, will you not, then, go to himself, and ask him to teach you? Do you think that he who made you would be unwilling to tell you about himself? or, at least, would it not be worth your while to try? Would not this be true philosophy?" He was silent, though he seemed interested. I arose, and took my leave. Unexpectedly he was called away to a distance, and I never saw him again. What were the fruits of that conversation I know not.

We have more philosophy upon our side than Infidels are willing to allow. The above anecdote, which is a literal fact, and not a mere imaginary picture, may assist in showing our readers where the true philosophy lies.

What a universe, if there were no God! The body without the soul, or the world without the sun, would be nothing to this. Surely even Atheists, if they are sincere and earnest, must feel that Atheism is a system of gloom. It must have cost them many a sigh before they could come to the conclusion that there is no God; and their life must be a life of depression and sorrow-as that of outcasts who have discovered that they are without a father, without an inheritance, and without a home. May they not well say: "Oh! we wish there had been a God, an all-wise, all-powerful, all-loving one, to have cared for us, and filled the void of our aching bosoms with his love;

sadden all his days. Next to the Atheist, of all men he should be the most sorrowful; for what darker cloud can overshadow a creature's days than the thought that the God who made him treats him as an outcast, and refuses to hold communion with the being that he has made? Surely this is true philosophy. It is the philosophy of instinct-it is the philosophy of feeling-it is the philosophy of the intellect-it is philosophy such as no man can shake off. If there be no Bible, everything is darkness, mystery, and sorrow.

"'Tis the darkness of darkness,

The midnight of soul;

No moon on the depths

Of that midnight shall roll!

NOTES ON WESLEYAN-METHODISM.

BY DR JOHN R. BENNETT.

Editor of the "Watchman," London.

(Continued from page 281.)

THE adoption of field-preaching had been one breach of Church order, and the formation of religious societies-within the Establishment, yet not subject to its ecclesiastical authorityanother; a third and important step in the course of "irregularity," was the employment of preachers who had not received Episcopal ordination. Thomas Maxfield was the first of these. Mr Wesley had authorized him, during his own absence from London, to pray with and advise the society; and when he heard of his begin

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NOTES ON WESLEYAN-METHODISM.

ning to preach, he hastened back to silence him. But his mother-whose views had been indis||putably high-church-said, "John, you cannot suspect me of favouring readily anything of this kind; but take care what you do with respect to that young man, for he is as certainly called of God to preach as you are." On hearing Mr Maxfield preach, and learning what fruits had resulted from his efforts, Mr Wesley "submitted to what he believed to be the order of God." Here, as in many other instances, he acted on the principle that, however he might value ecclesiastical order in its own place, he would regard the salvation of souls as the object of paramount importance. The plan of an itinerant ministry was now instituted, the country being divided into "circuits," to each of which two or three "travelling preachers" were appointed, under the direction of the annual "Conferences," the first of which assembled in London in 1744. Even then the ultimate separation of the societies from the Established Church was contemplated as not improbable, and a resolution to this effect was adopted: "We do, and will do, all we can to prevent those consequences which are supposed to be likely to happen after our death; but we cannot, in good conscience, neglect the present opportunity of saving souls while we live, for fear of consequences which may possibly, or probably, happen after we are dead." The Wesleys and their assistants, therefore, laboured on in the face of opposition from the press, from the pulpit, and from, in not a few instances, the brutal violence of infuriated mobs, instigated-sometimes actually led onby clergymen. The erection of separate places of worship became indispensable, the churches of the Establishment being closed against the Wesleyans, and thus yet another step towards Nonconformity was taken. The publication of books and tracts was employed with vigour, both in defending the system against the numerous attacks by which it was assailed and diffusing information. Indefatigably as John Wesley travelled and preached, he yet found time to be a voluminous writer. In 1778 he established the periodical then called "The Arminian Magazine," which he conducted while he lived, and which is still continued by the Conference, on an enlarged plan, however, under the title of the "Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine."

While the system was spreading in England, its influence soon extended far beyond the borders of that country. Mr Williams, one of the preachers, crossed over to Ireland, and began to labour zealously in Dublin. Ireland was at that time in a state of lamentable gloom as to its religious condition. A death-sleep seemed to have come upon what had been evangelical in its Protestantism, and the mass of the people were the unresisting and unreasoning vassals of Rome. Mr Williams' efforts were crowned, however, with encouraging success; and in

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1747, Mr Wesley himself visited the island, and was immediately followed by Mr Charles Wesley. As might have been expected, they encountered fierce opposition both in that and in their numerous subsequent visits. Romanist mobs thirsted for their blood, and the grand jury at Cork once represented Charles Wesley and several of the preachers as persons of illfame, rogues and vagabonds, and common disturbers of his majesty's peace," praying that "they might be transported." The work prospered notwithstanding. Circuits and societies were formed. Many nominal Christians were led to seek the power of godliness, and not a few were converted from Popery. A native ministry was raised up, from the ranks of which the early Wesleyan itinerancy in England itself was recruited by such men as William Thompson (the first president of the English Conference after Mr Wesley's death), Walter Griffith, Thomas Walsh, and Adam Clarke. A foundation was laid for operations which have since extended widely, not only through the regular circuit ministry, but by an Irish mission (instituted in 1799, and having as one of its first agents the well-known and indefatigable Gideon Ouseley), by mission schools (instituted in 1823), and by other arrangements, especially suited to the wants and circumstances of that interesting portion of our empire. To these, however, we shall have occasion to refer again.

As early as 1744, Mr Wesley had a correspondence with the Rev. James Erskine, from which he learned that several pious ministers and others in Scotland rejoiced in the success of his labours, notwithstanding the difference of their sentiments on some points. Perhaps, in these days when Christian union engages so much attention, the readers of the Treasury will not grudge the space occupied by the following extract from Mr Erskine's letter:

Are the points which give the different denominations (to Christians), and from whence proceed separate communities, animosities, evil-speakings, surmises, and, at least, coolness of affection, aptness to misconstrue, slowness to think well of others, stiffness in one's own conceits, and overvaluing one's own opinion, &c., &c.—are these points (at least among the clearly revealed, and as essential, or as clearly confar greatest part of Protestants) as important, as nected with the essentials of practical Christianity, as the loving of one another with a pure heart fervently, and not forsaking, much less refusing, the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some was, and now of almost all is?

Subsequently, however, much prejudice was excited against Mr Wesley in Scotland, by the republication of Mr Hervey's" Eleven Letters," with a strongly worded preface by Dr Erskine. He (Mr Wesley) had three times visited Scotland; and preaching only upon the fundamental truths of Christianity, had been received with great affection. The societies had increased, and several of his preachers were stationed in different towns. But the work referred to pro

duced in the minds of many Calvinists a horror of Wesleyan theology, as a heresy which it was a bounden duty to contend against with all earnestness. But this, after a time, subsided; and in subsequent visits to Scotland, Mr Wesley was favourably received; at Perth the freedom of the city was conferred upon him. We believe, however, that, on the whole, Scotland has not proved as congenial or productive a field for Wesleyan effort as the southern part of the kingdom, although there are several thousands of attached members in the societies there. It would lead us from our present purpose to enter upon any investigation of the probable causes to which this may be attributed.

It is plain, therefore, that when, in after years, the Conference adopted the administration of the sacraments in the societies generally, they did not introduce a new principle, but simply carried out a principle laid down by their founder, just as, we have no doubt, he would have done, had he lived to their day, and been placed in their circumstances.

The missionary operations of Wesleyan-Methodism commenced, properly speaking, at the Leeds Conference, 1769, when, on an occasion already noticed, Mr Wesley asked, "Who will go to help our brethren in America?" and Messrs Boardman and Pillmoor responded to the call. The cause of Wesleyan missions, however, received its great impulse through the devoted, unwearying, and self-sacrificing labours of Dr Coke, a clergymen of the Church of England, who attached himself to Mr Wesley as a son in the Gospel." As we shall again advert to the present state of the missions, it may be enough that we should here indicate their progress as exhibited in a brief extract from Dr Alder's work on Wesleyan Missions" (as they were in 1842):—

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To Irish Methodism belongs the distinction of having sown that seed which has grown up into the great tree that now extends its branches so widely over America. Philip Embury, a local preacher from Ireland, having settled in New York, began to preach there, and, in 1766, succeeded in forming a society. Other Wesleyan emigrants from England and Ireland followed, and pursued a similar course. In 1769, the Conference sent out two of its preachers, Messrs Boardman and Pillmoor, to take charge of the societies. From this time the work proceeded with great rapidity, the plan of itinerancy being found especially adapted to the wide-spread settlements of a new country. The progress has up to the present been steady; the Methodists have become, as to numbers, the leading religious body of the Union; and the annual increase is very great. After the termination of the war of independence, Mr Wesley constituted the American societies into a Church, having within itself all the ordinances of Christianity. Of his right as a presbyter to ordain to the full work of the ministry (including, of course, the administration of baptism and the Lord's supper), he entertained no doubt. The "apostolical succession" he regarded as a fable that no man ever did or could prove. "If any one is minded," said he, "to dispute concerning diocesan Episcopacy, he may dispute; but I have better work." Again: "Lord King's Account of the Primitive Church' convinced me, many years ago, that bishops and presbyters are the same order, and consequently have the same right to ordain." Unquestionably he regarded all those whom he had set apart to the work of the ministry as duly ordained, although, in England, he restrained them from administering the sacraments," not only for peace' sake," as his motives were explained by himself, "but because I was determined, as little as possible, to violate the established order of the National Church to which I belonged." He removed this restraint, how-in 1784, the desired settlement was effected by ever, in the cases of America and Scotland; in the former, because the American Methodists could no longer remain a society attached to a colonial Establishment which had then ceased to exist; and in the latter, because the closing of the English Establishment did not reach to it.

In addition to the places previously occupied in America and the West Indies, missionary operations were commenced on the continent of Europe as early as the year 1791, on the African continent in 1711, and in Asia during the year 1814. asia was first visited by a Wesleyan missionary in the course of the following year; and Polynesia, where the word of the Lord has been so eminently glorified, in 1822. It will be seen from this statement, that the field in which the labourers of this society are employed, is emphatically THE WORLD. On the shores of Sweden and the Upper Alps; at Gibraltar and Malta; on the banks of the Gambia, at Sierre Leone, and on the Gold Coast; at the Cape of Storms; in Ceylon, and on the shores of Southern India; amongst the colonists and aboriginal tribes of Australia; in New Zealand, the Friendly Islands, and Fugee; on the islands of the Western as well as the Southern Hemisphere; and from the Gulf of St Lawrence to the far West, the agents of the Wesleyan Missionary Society are found. To all these places, to a portion of the people by whom they are inhabited, to || man in all these regions, the British Conference has sent the Gospel of salvation, since the question was asked, in 1769, “ Who will go to help our brethren in

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America ?"

It was upon the 2d of March 1791-three years after the death of his brother Charlesthat John Wesley rested from all his labours, leaving impressed upon the memory and hearts of his followers the sentiment to which, in his last hours, he gave frequent utterance-" The best of all is, God is with us!" Many years previously he had considered the importance of making provision for the stability and government of the Connexion after his removal; and,

the enrolment in Chancery of a legal instrument, called "A Deed of Declaration," in which one hundred preachers, mentioned by name, were declared to be "the Conference of the people called Methodists." By means of this deed a legal description was given to the

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term "Conference," and the settlement of the chapels on trustees was provided for; so that the appointment of preachers to officiate in them should be vested in the Conference, as it bad heretofore been in Mr Wesley. The deed also declares how the succession and the identity of the Yearly Conference is to be continued, and contains various practical regulations. The wisdom of this deed has been tested and proved in many instances. Various attempts have

been made to set it aside; but its validity has been confirmed by the highest judicial authorities. If there be any provision in it to which loyai adherents to Methodism object, it is that which forbids the appointment of a minister to the same chapel for more than three successive years, and thus binds the itinerant plan in perpetuity on the Connexion. Some think that it would have been better if more liberty had been allowed in this matter; but, as a whole, the deed has proved of the utmost importance and practical worth.

It may be in place to give here a statement which will show the progress of the body since the death of the founder. In 1791, when Mr Wesley died, the number of circuits in the United Kingdom was one hundred and fifteen. The present number is four hundred and eighty-two. The number of members in connection with his societies in Europe, America, and the West Indies, was eighty thousand. At the last Conference the numbers were, in Great Britain, three hundred aud forty thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight; in Ireland, twentyseven thousand nine hundred and twenty-six; and on the foreign mission stations, ninetynine thousand six hundred and nine; making the total of members under the care of the British and Irish Conferences, four hundred and sixty-eight thousand three hundred and thirteen a total which is largely exceeded by the number of Methodists in America, and which, of course, does not include the members of the different bodies that, from time to time, seceded from the Old Connexion. The entire number of preachers then was three hundred and twelve; the present number of ministers and preachers on trial, connected with the British and Irish Conferences, is one thousand six hundred and eighty-five. Such has been the progress of Wesleyan-Methodism during that first century of its existence which, in 1839, was celebrated so remarkably by special devotional exercises, and by a liberality of spesial contribution (the Centenary Fund having nearly amounted to a quarter of a million sterling), which we may, perhaps, be permitted to say, all things considered, was without precedent, and would have been without parallel, but for the late noble munificence of the Free Church of Scotland.

A summary of the doctrines believed and taught by the Wesleyans, and some account of their peculiar religious services, will form the subject for our next paper.

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John Knox's Select Practical Works-Rutherford's Trial and Triumph of Faith-Traill's Sermons-Dickson's Practical Writings-Fleming's Fulfilling of the Scriptures-Memoirs of Mrs Veitch, Mr Hog, &c., &c.

THIS is one of the marvels of a marvellous age. Six volumes of the richest practical divinity, by men hundred pages of letterpress, for six shillings! known to all Christendom, and containing eighteen

It is an old saying, that a bad or stupid book is dear at any price; and, tried by this rule, there are many of the cheap publications of our day which those who purchase will find dear enough. We heard lately of a young man who had become a subscriber

to a cheap series of tracts published at London, but

who, in his experience, found them very dear. He was the son of respectable parents, and had been

well trained; but the weekly reading of these tracts, in which violence was offered to all the sanctions of religion, and sometimes even to the decencies of morality, was his ruin. His eye fell so often upon oaths, that the dislike, or even horror, with which he had been taught, both by his parents and his conscience, to regard them, was soon blunted; and shortly he even began to swear a little for himself, till, after a few months, swearing became a habit, and a habit so strong that he could scarce wish a friend well without an oath. He read in another tract a very pleasant story of Continental village life, in which the Sabbath was introduced as the most delightful day of all the week, because on it the villagers had their picnics and parties, and excursions on foot, or perhaps by railway, and, in the It seemed all so evening, dances on the green. cheerful and inviting, that he thought he might do worse than join a company of friends who spent their Sabbaths much after the same fashion; and accordingly he left off attending church, and on one day took a sail down the river, and on another ran out by rail to Windsor or down to Brighton, coming home, almost always half-tipsy, by the last train. His parents saw the sad change, and, being godly people, were much grieved. But he "would none of their reproofs;" and because they sought to advise and sometimes restrain him, he left their house, and went into lodgings, with one of his Sabbath-desecrating companions. By him he was further corrupted-initiated, indeed, into all manner of vice; and, as the consequence of all, he-the once well-principled and promising youth-is now a convict at a penal settlement. He became dishonest-was detected and banished. His father is since dead, and his poor mother was, at the time when the sad story was told us-three months ago-not expected to survive him long. In all probability she, too, is by this time bowed down to the grave. And all this owing, in the first instance, to these cheap tracts.— Only a penny a-week they were, but surely they were too dear. The honesty, the happiness, the peace, the character of a young man ruined; his immortal soul, if God prevent not, lost; and the grey hairs of his parents brought down with sorrow to the grave— neither a penny nor a world would be an equivalent

for this.

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