men.

BRIEF REFLECTIONS

ON JOHN VI. 66-68.

From that time, many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him, &c.

HAPPY was that man who, in a sequestered spot, and in a retired moment, turned his eye to Calvary, and sung

"O may I sit beneath thy cross,

And view thy love divine;

For Thee count all things else but dross,

And call the Saviour mine!"

Jesus

In this chapter we have him set forth as the bread of life, and are invited to eat and be satisfied. The want of appetite is a fatal symptom. "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled." Christ stands at the head of all preachers; his sermons were full of wisdom, compassion, and fidelity; "Hear ye him." However despised by the prejudiced Jew, or neglected by the idolatrous Pagan, Jesus Christ is the great Apostle of our protession. He spake, and he yet continues to speak, with high authority, "Hear ye him;" and hear for eternity! In reflecting on these verses, I learn,

First, That men ure changeable beings, and not to be depended on, -God created man upright, holy; and had he not fallen, he would have moved on steady and regular as the sun in the firmament. Now, alas! he is as fickle as the bird which hops from spray to spray, and changes as the wind.

One

day Cain approves and commends his brother, the next day he

with the appearance and abilities of David; another day he hurls with vengeance his javelin at his heart, and seeks to kill him! One day Amnon adores the lovely Thamar, and the next day abominates her with an unconquerable hatred!One day we find Ahitophel counselling King David, and walking with him to the house of God; and another day uniting with his enemies in a conspiracy to dethrone him!-One day we see Judas aț the feet of Jesus receiving instruction; another, we see him taking 30 pieces of silver to betray that very Master! - Diotrephes one day meekly entering the church as a member; another day lording it over that church as a petty tyrant. And many more instances might be produced, to show us the changeableness of man; and no wonder our confidence is so oft disappointed. (See Micah vii. 5. Jer. ix. 1-7.)

Secondly, Upon some disgust, or in the moment of strong temptation, disciples will sometimes withdraw, and turn aside. "Many of his disciples went back, and walked na more with him." Mere professors may show attachment for a while; but by and by, in the time of temptation they often fall away - frown on the cause they professed to approve, and desert the men they styled their dearest brethren. Not being of us, they go out from us; they forsake the first Master, and the best Benefactor that earth or heaven has known! In apostacy and forsaking Jesus Christ and religion, there is to be found a complication of crimes, the greatest folly, the most marked ingratitude, the most criminal obsti"Will ye also go?" &c. Thirdly, This address of Jesus Christ was certain to answer im

nacy.

of prayer into a den of thieves! Such is fallen wretched man. His recovery, his perfect restoration, can only be effected by the word, the grace, the Spirit of our most mighty and merciful Redeemer.

Sin is a ruinous evil: Oh, guard against it! Look around you; see the lovely plants which have been blighted! How many have fallen,-what trouble they have occasioned, what guilt they have contracted, to what a shameful and miserable condition have they been reduced! How soon must

they and we appear before the Judge of all the earth!

"Important journey, awful view! How great the change, the scenes how new!

The golden gates of Heav'n display'd, Or Hell's fierce flames, and gloomy shade

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.-Psalm xxiii. 3.

THIS is descriptive of the most cheering and animating situation in which a person can be placed in desert countries, especially after the eye has been long wearied by seeing nothing but what may justly be called a withered, scorched, and sickly wilderness. The sight of green pastures for his flocks, and a river gently gliding along, to refresh them and himself in such a country, will make him forget all the toils that are past; but should his journey in deserts not be completed, he will leave such a spot with extreme reluctance..

The journey of a Christian's life resembles travelling in a barren wilderness; but heaven appears like green pastures beside still waters;

SENTENCES FROM BISHOP HALL. SINS are so much greater as they are more universal; so far is evil from being extenuated by the multitude of the guilty, that nothing can more aggravate it.

Let salvation be ever so plentiful, if we bring it not home, and make it ours by faith, we are not a whit the better.

The obstinate have nothing to do with God. The title of all converts is, A willing People.

We are strangers from God, it is no wonder if our faces be earthly; but he that sets himself apart to God, shall find a kind of majesty and awful respect put upon him in the minds of others.

It is ill falling into those hands whom beasts find unmerciful.

himself. Give him but room in the Sin is no less crafty than Satan and he will soon be possessed of body and soul.

eye,

Even where God loves, he will not wink at sin; and if he do not punish, yet he will chastise.

The actions of our faith and charity will be sure to pay us; if late, yet surely.

MRS. SARAH SWAN,

OF LUTON, BEDFORDSHIRE,

WAS many years a very consistent member of the Established Church. which, in that town is blessed with an evangelical ministry. She was also a frequent hearer at the dissenting chapels; considering it her privilege to mingle with the followers of Jesus, without any regard to sects or parties. Her conversion to God appears to have been so imperceptible as to time, that she was herself unable to say when it was actually effected. She seems to have been gradually drawn by the cords of divine love, while sitting ander the preaching of the gospel in her parish-church, her heart being opened to attend unto the things which were spoken.' About two years before her death, she was seized with a violent fit of coughing, which was so distressing as to threaten her life. She often spoke of this afflictive circumstance as much blessed to her soul, by making her think more seriously about death, and become more decidedly devoted to God. The disease which proved fatal was a consumption; under the influence of which she lingered on the banks of Jordan about ten months. Amidst all the flatteries this complaint generally presents, she appeared unmoved. anxious friends sometimes indulged a hope that she would recover; but she generally felt a persuasion that she should not, and often expressed herself to that effect. She knew in whom she had believed; and having her anchor firmly fixed within the veil, she neither listened, nor wished to listen, to the hopes expressed by her friends. In the early part of her illness, the tender feelings of a mother's heart were tremblingly alive to the interests of her four children, already fatherless, and she felt considerable anxiety on their account; but as she advanced towards the closing scenes of life, the Lord was graciously pleased to grant her an increase of faith, verifying his own promises: As thy day is, so thy strength shall be;' Leave thy fa'therless children, I will preserve them. Through the whole of her ill

Her

ness she possessed a great degree o patience and resignation. Within the few last days she got much worse; and the disease made rapid strides to of her life she enjoyed much of the push her to the tomb.' The last day Saviour's presence, and was enabled to appropriate him and the blessings of his salvation to herself. In the morning of that day, when in a state of great weakness, the powers of nature almost exhausted, with a heavenly smile upon her countenance, she said, This day I shall be with him in Paradise!'

peated,

In the afternoon she re

'Jesus can make a dying bed

Feel soft as downy pillows are ; Whilst on his breast [ lean my head,

And breathe my life out sweetly there!'

Soon after this, the power of articu lation began to fail; but it was evident her spirit was earnestly engaged in prayer. With her hands lifted up. she was frequently heard to say, 'Blessed Saviour! Sweet Jesus!' and continued such aspirations till she calmly and serenely breathed her spirit into the arms of her Lord and Saviour, in the evening of March 19, 1816. J. N.

St. Albans.

REV. JOSEPH WHITEHEAD.

AUG. 12, died at the house of the Rev. Henry Knight, of Yelvortoft, in the county of Northampton, after a few hours illness, the Rev. Joseph Whitehead, more than 23 years pastor of the Protestant dissenting congregation at Creaton. The fidelity and zeal with which he discharged his ministerial office were crowned with such success as greatly to increase the church and congregation. The medical assistance which he was always ready to afford to those who needed it, rendered him extensively useful to the afflicted poor in his neighbourhood. His candid and friendly disposition endeared him to his brethren in the ministry; his exemplary patience, under painful bodily affliction, displayed the excellence of his Chris

tian principles. As he advanced in life, he evidently appeared to grow in grace; acting habitually as under the eye of his Master, he was prepared for his change. Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. His remains were interred, with every token of respect, at the foot of the pulpit, where he so often urged upon his people the great doctrines and precepts of the gospel. Six of his brethren bore the pall. The Rev. Mr. Jones, minister of the parish of Creaton, attended, as a token of his high esteem for the deceased. The Rev. G. Gill, of Harborough, began the funeral-service with prayer; the Rev. B. L. Edwards, of Northampton, delivered a very affecting and appropriate address; and the Rev. Joseph Gronow, of Weedon Beck, in North

RECENT DEATH.

Sept. 12, died, after a lingering and painful illness, sustained with exemplary patience and cheered with heavenly hope, Ann, the wife of the Rev. John Styles, D. D. of Brighton.

ON THE RESURRECTION.

cause We

Ir is evident that man's body was made of the dust of the earth, besee that it returns into earth again. Philosophy, therefore, may argue, that as God formed man's body of dust at first, he can as easily restore and raise it from the same afterwards that he will actually do this, is promised to us in the Scripture; and on that promise, Nature is giving us a lecture every day of our lives. Many animals, after a torpid state, scarcely distinguishable from death, recover the power of life at the proper season, by the influence of the sun: some, after submersion in water during the winter. Some crawl for a time as helpless worms upon the earth, like ourselves; then they retire into a covering, which answers the end of a coffin or a sepulchre, wherein they are invisibly transformed, and come forth, in glorious array, with wings and painted plumes, more like the inhabitants of heaven, than such worms as they were in their former earthly state. This transformation is so striking and pleasant an emblem of the present, the intermediate, and the glorified states of man, that peo

ple of the most remote antiquity, balmed and enclosed them in an ar when they buried their dead," emtificial covering, so figured and painted, as to resemble the caterpillar or silk-worm in the intermediate state a and as Joseph was the first we read of that was embalmed in Egypt, where this manner prevailed, it was very probably of Hebrew original.

Jones's Figurative Language
of Scriptures

ANECDOTE OF THE LATE MR.FULler.
The following instance of humble

piety and love to young people, does honour to this great and good

man:

I HAVE been thinking of a plan,' says he, for disseminating truth amo: g our little lace - makers : —- A quantity of white wrapping paper is used in the sale of small parcels of lace-thread; so I will draw up a number of little hymns, the most impres sive I can either find or make, and get them printed on one side of the paper: then every child that comes for a little thread, will find it wrapped up in a paper, containing a little impressive hymn addressed to its heart."

J. B.