RECOLLECTIONS OF AN AGED DISCIPLE. IN page 121 of the March number of our the first sabbath of her widowhood! she Magazine, there is a touching piece en- looked sorrowful and solemn, but there titled, "Fully ripe," and so vividly has it was no obtrusiveness or excitement of brought before me the remembrance of grief. From this period, her growth in the now sainted spirit of whom it speaks, grace was very apparent. How often that a few recollections of her and a few have I found her alone with her Bible, thoughts respecting her, are committed to and remember her saying, "Formerly I writing. Tograce, rich, free, sovereign, un- used to go over my two or three chapters merited and eternal grace, she was a debtor, a day for form's sake, but now I read great debtor, and if ever the doctrines of that I may get comfort for my soul, and free grace, (a by-word, a taunt and reproach find Jesus in his Word." Her death (as in the present day), were blest to the it has been observed) was indeed unconversion of a sinner, they were to her, looked for. On the Friday evening prein whose walk and conversation also, ceding her sabbatical rest, it was my they shone brightly forth. She was a privilege-to spend several hours with woman of no ordinary capacity, prossess- her. She was cheerful in her manner, ing a great self-controul over her feel- and spiritual in her conversation, and ings, so that a stranger would never have I parted from her little knowing that discovered her times of trouble, which when next I should see her it would be were many and heavy; and not until in death. So sudden and short was her brought to the foot of the cross did her illness, that many even of her intimate reserve give way, but when the fallow- friends knew nothing of it. The sabbath ground was broken up, she became in- morning arrived, and the sabbath school deed as a little child, and I have often assembled as usual, but there were two looked at her in wonder while she has classes without teachers. The pews in sat in the midst of her children listening the chapel filled, but one family was to them as they spoke upon divine sub- absent; our minister entered and looked jects with all the humility and teachable- unusually pale,-my heart sickened at I ness of the babe in Christ's school. Her knew not what, until at length he enausterity of manner gave place to gentle-tered the pulpit, and, after a short but ness and peculiar sweetness, so that when deeply solemn prayer, gave out the text, she lay dead, one who followed her a few-then paused-leant over the pulpit, years after to glory, wrote thus of this and by his quivering lip and glistening dear saint," she never came to my door eye, I knew we were about to hear but I longed to run and open it for her, something fearful; but at last suspense and to say, 'Come in thou blessed of the was at an end, and he told us who had Lord, why tarriest thou without!" Her just entered into ". the rest which rehusband who preceded her to the grave, maineth for the people of God." She a few years, after a long illness was sud- had been dead about three hours, when denly removed. She had left him on the the writer saw her, and very lovely she Sunday morning much as usual, and it looked. There was a smile on the face, was while she and her family were wor- which at that early period had scarcely shipping in the house of God, that he died. assumed the paleness of death, and an Some of her children had reached home expression indicative of peace in Jesus, before her, and as the agonizing reality and victory through His blood. broke upon them, the thoughts of the can I pass through the bed-room of my grief of their widowed mother, made dear mother to go to my room?" asked one them for a moment forget their own, of her children upon that first night of but as she entered the house and saw death, but walking towards it, suddenly them bitterly weeping, she calmly said, strength was given for the trying mo"Is the master gone?" and retired to ment-with an unfailing step, the bedher chamber: the impression was very room of the dead was passed through, strong on her mind, that she should not and the orphan claimed, "By the help long survive him, and the day after his of my God, I have leaped over a wall." The funeral she was calm and even cheerful, reader will pardon these few recollections, for the Lord had bent her once proud but they come from one who greatly will to His, and brought her into obedi- loved and esteemed the departed, of ence to his sovereignty. How many whom truly it might be said, "She came were moved at her calm demeanour as to her grave in a full age, as a shock of this aged disciple walked into the chapel corn cometh in in his season.' "How H. INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A CHILD IN CHRIST'S SCHOOL. PART V. (Concluded from page 155). I was removed to a different part of the school, but it was among the dear children, and I could quickly love them. Some of them had been long under tuition, and had diligently sought to make known the Master to others, and not in vain. One gentle one was brought to his feet, about the time I speak of; and, as she afterwards told me, "felt she must call God her Father." The soul was quickened, and the Spirit of adoption bestowed, never to be withdrawn. Now she knows her blessedness, and longs for the open appearance of the Master. This was a highly honoured family of saints. And I would notice the grace of my Master, in frequently calling into his school many-or even all-the members of one family. While here I sought to gather some-it was pleasant work; and I trust not in vain, but the great day will declare it. I believe we shall then miss, perhaps many, we hoped to see on the right hand, and perhaps find there some we took for Ishmaelites; but in cases where his children have been deeply concerned to know, whether some one very dear to them, who has passed away, has been received home by the Master; He has in his great kindness communicated the fact to them, that such an one has slept in Him. fitable book for the dear pupils now in school. Our Editor will forgive this little digression, and I will continue. Here I might cite some verses in Numb. xxxiii., "And they removed from Libnah, and pitched at Rissah. And they journeyed from Rissah, and pitched in Kehelathah. And they went from Kehelathah, and pitched in Mount Shapher," &c. I had one parent left, full of humility, full of love, full of gentleness, who had walked with God many years; but, now the time was approaching, when she should walk the golden streets of the New Jerusalem. There had been in bygone days a shrinking from death, but when the time approached, strength was vouchsafed. It was shown to me previously, in a dream, that the waters of Jordan would be dried up, as she passed to the promised land. And thus it was; and as she calmly lay waiting her summons, she could speak and think of Jesus; and when all besides seemed forgotten, his name was still fresh and fragrant in her heart. The 23rd Psalm she repeated at different times. The graces of the Spirit, always lovely in her, were lovelier still as they began to breathe the air of heaven; but at length were sent for her horses of fire, and chariots of fire, and she went up to her Father's house above, Among his acts of grace, I will men- where she is happy, ineffably happy, pretion a poor woman, scarcely known to sent with the Lord. Yes, for any, whose opportunities of learning the has a wonderful home, to which He Gospel were few. Thus much I can say, means to bring all the children, without she was able to be now and then present exception (John xiv. 3)-not the Ishwhen the great Lesson-book was read, maelites, whom He never taught (John and prayer offered. Suddenly she was viii. 44). I have not seen it, yet I betaken ill, and death approached; but lieve it is very glorious (1 Cor. ii. 9, 10). this poor unknown one, as it seemed, fled The children rarely get a sight of it, till to Jesus, and found Him. Her words they go to stay (Rev. iii. 12); though were, "To think that I should be saved!" one did (2 Cor. xii. 3, 4). It would be Here time passed quietly away, and too much for them; the rapture is so unthough sorely oppressed by my old enemy, speakable; the brightness so dazzling; yet I had great mercies. Here I often the actual presence in glory of the Massolaced myself with the grace of my ter so ineffable, that to return would be Master, as one found it, who "being intolerable; so there are no holidays dead, yet spoke." This was S. E. PEARCE, though the Master often gives pleasant whose letters are full of Christ. In this days, "times of refreshing," and sweet way I seem to become acquainted with seasons of repose. Some are at school the friends that have gone before, as a longer, some a shorter time (Matt. xx. RUTHERFORD; and I would mention 1-6). But all this, as well as everything letters by NATHANIEL FAULKNER, little else concerning them, is entirely under known, most full of Jesus, as a very pro-his controul (Psal. xxxi. 15; Eph. i. 22) ; my Master HALLOWED fellowship with Jesus is indispensable to the Christian, and his gracious presence is the life of the believer's soul. "I cannot live contented here, Without some glimpses of thy face; And heaven without thy presence there Would be a dark and tiresome place. And if no evening visits paid Between my Saviour and my soul, How dull the night, how sad the shade, How mournfully the minutes roll.” Shining hours with Jesus; 'tis this we crave, and next to this, communion with the Lord's own dear saints, who having been carried through a career of difficulties by the mighty power of a covenantguiding God, live as trophies of his Sovereign grace. And especially is it sweet to commune with those, whom a wise God having bereft of almost all earthly ties, are brought to live alone with Jesus. We gain much by sitting at the feet of such, and drinking in the pure Gospel of Christ, as it flows from their lips. And refreshing it is to step aside from commercial activity into the habitation of an heir of glory; and there, while the stream of money-seekers in the street below rolls on; in some upper room to hold converse with an heavenbound soul, or after the business of the day, when gay circles are assembling to pay homage to the God of mirth, to turn with secret loathing from such insipid scenes, and wend the way to the quiet room of an aged pilgrim ; "Rise, saith my Lord, and haste away, No mortal joys are worth thy stay;" and there, in a corner where prayer is wont to be made; to see Jesus shine through the Christian, as the tongue tells the tale of his love-visits. We feel such opportunities to have a mellowing influence, taking off the rough edges of native pride, unbecoming in the Christian, and making one lowly to learn. 'Tis well thus to find out the Lord's hidden ones; we ofttimes learn salutary lessons from them; and going out to glean among the ripe sheaves that are ready to be carried home to the garner, we are sure to gather some ears of corn, that will furnish suitable sustenance. "I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness," saith the Psalmist, and the echo to it in our found in the cottage of an aged saint, own soul seems to be, "I had rather be than to dwell in the palace of an earthly king." Their Those Christians who experience painfully what it is to have the uprising of this native pride before named so influencing itself, that they are sensible that they like greetings in the markets, and do well to seek the society of some aged to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi, would Christian, who looks no longer with lingering gaze upon the hollow vanities eternal home rising to their view dissolves and assumptions of this life. such means our beloved Saviour's lanall earthly scenes into vapour, and by guage will be understood, "He that is greatest among you shall be your servant.' This point of meekness and lovedue and beneficial dignity. He that shall liness, kindness and affability, engenders humble himself shall be exalted. "Better is it to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud." "I am companion of all them that fear the Lord," saith the inspired Psalmist. There is another evil which it seems an opportunity to note-Young believers will probably enter the cottage of the grey-headed old Christian; and pooh! pooh! his narrow minded vision of the mysteries of Godliness; while they can deal out wholesale experience upon such doctrines as the eternal love of God the Father, and so on; having apparently a capacity for strong meat ere they have tasted the milk of the Gospel, and thus "the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient:" but it is a delusion, a tottering eminence, and they will soon get dizzy thereon. The old veteran of a hundred fights, stands on deck with folded arms and thoughtful gaze, as he beholds the youth's ruddy and vigorous pushing out into deep water; as with a dubitable shake of the head he mutters within himself, Ah! they will soon be exhausted, and then, borne upon the wings of the wind, I shall hear the feeble cry, "Lord, save or I perish." It is from the ripe Christian we gain the real state of things, grace is with them before gifts. There is a propensity with some of the Lord's gifted ones to reverse this order of things; and in converse and communication to shoot above the children's heads: not that we want to discourage any attempts made by the watchers to lead the flock higher up the mountain, but we only want the mountain adhered to; so that to touch the heart, the level must be lower. We are fond of dealing with the reality of things and beloved, when busy in the concerns of every-day life, in the midst probably of bales of merchandize, with the head full of figures, and the mind feverish with anxious thoughts; then when Jesus breaks in upon the soulunmistakeably breaks in, and faith recognizing the well-known voice, cries out, Lord, here am I, for thou didst call me; then snatch the pen, and while heart-shed tears fall fast upon the paper; trace the whisperings. This is what we trust. It is an involving world; but Jesus always brings liberty to the captive soul, and then how joyous the song of the prisoner, as he bounds from the thicket, and inhales the pure mountain air. It is the notes of such songs we want. A son of the sterile desert, gaining a peep of a promised land flowing with milk and honey, and being told he is an heir to its glorious benefits. It is the accents of such exultation we love to hear. Reader, : * * A precious position this. We knew one who formerly was thus literally circumstanced, and whose paper was commonly drenched with tears, under the blessed anointings of the Holy Comforter.-ED. if you know anything of these things, be not so selfish as to keep them to yourself. A fondness for dealing with the reality of things, will be satisfied by seeking the society of aged ones, who, amidst this world of death spiritually live, and while the hum of war is heard at the distance, and a rapacious commotion is going on among almost all classes of society, with a confusion of ideas relative to the cause and effect of it all; we do like to retire to the shade, and there listen to the matter-of-fact experience of an aged Christian, who puts not on sackcloth by way of testifying humiliation in the sight of God one day in the year, but lives daily in the spirit of meekness and loveliness, cognizant of the relative position of an unworthy hell-deserving sinner, saved by the sovereign grace of a covenant God in Christ. Now we do sit upon the right form, when thus aside with some aged pilgrim, we draw out their practical experience of bygone days, just to show Jehovah's sovereign way of working. The finger of the Forerunner having pointed out the room where dwells such an one, even a Christian widow living truly alone with Jesus, we have pencilled down in our Wayside note-book the topics of converse, and we have thought it needful thus to preface our intercourse, as it is in contemplation, if the Lord the Spirit leads, to write a series of papers, the result of hours with aged pilgrims; and, as we want only to exhibit Jesus in the life and career of his dear people, we avoid details of a temporal character. It wants not much of an introduction to an heir of glory; go in, draw the chair up to the fireside, touch the key-note, Jesus, precious Jesus! and you are no longer a stranger but a fellowcitizen with the saints and of the household of God. Visitor.-Well, my dear Sister, and here you are still the living to praise a covenant-keeping God. What a mercy! Innumerable incidents in your past career have doubtless verified Jehovah's own language, "Say ye to the righteous it shall be well with him." Pilgrim.-Yes, my dear Brother, indeed I can. During the forty years of my spiritual pilgrimage, I have seen wonders wrought for me unnumbered, both in providence and grace, and the one has proved a prelude to the other. Visitor. Then it has been conflictwork all along the pathway? Pilgrim.-Surely so; my wildernessjourney has been "here a sigh, and there Self and sin have often made | often marred my peace, beclouded my My Father's voice once known and heard, two lines over again together, My Father's voice once known and heard, a song, me sigh and groan, and still do so daily. Sorrow, poverty, and bereavements, have caused many a sigh, and many a tear to flow; and at some of these seasons the conflict between flesh and spirit, has been so great, that I have been faint, and ready to halt. But when enabled to turn unto Jesus, as unto the stronghold of my bleeding heart, I have again and again found peace, joy, and strength. But this conflict has cost the flesh no trifling cutting up and destruction. Tem- and what a sweet promise the Lord sealed poral straits and trials have generally home upon your heart when he made it led to showers of spiritual blessings; clear to you that you were His adopted and when a wrestling spirit has been child, "I have graven thee upon the palms given, and whole nights have been spent of my hands; thy walls are continually bein earnest prayer, the Lord has in a sig-fore me." I thought I should find it had nal way and manner heard, answered, and brought deliverance. Blessed be his name, He is now giving me very blessedly to realize my adoption, and enabling me to walk at times in the enjoyment of it, clinging as a weak and helpless child to my tender loving Father; and so much sweet and intimate fellowship does He grant me, that I am sometimes ready to exclaim, What! all this, and glory too? Visitor.-Go on, my Sister. I care not to stop you, The hill of Zion yields A thousand sacred sweets, Or walk the golden streets. been close communion work, when He whispered, that He loved you with an everlasting love; and has not your fellowship with Him been sweeter, ever since that happy period? Pilgrim.-Oh! yes, many blessed, sacred moments have I passed in close and intimate fellowship with my heavenly Father; and so special have been the manifestations of His love on some of these occasions, that I have almost felt, as it were, my Father's only child, and that all He had was mine. At such seasons, my dear Brother, self sinks into utter nothingness; sin is hateful and exceedingly bitter; the world an empty shadow; and the tempter's power is curbed and restrained. Visitor.-Gain the knowledge that the believer in Christ is an heir of glory, and the heaven-bound soul can no longer look with satisfied gaze upon the unmeaning pleasures of a deceitful and fatiguing world, having been compelled to label every fascination with Solomon's motto, Vanity and vexation of spirit," and not merely this, but ofttimes the dear Lord breaks the strongest ties that bind us to earth, that He may have the entire affections of the heart. Seeing you, my Sister, a lone widow, doubtless you have sensibly felt this to be the case? Pilgrim.-Oh! my Brother, it was a never-to-be-forgotten hour, when my dear Lord, about fourteen years since, first gave me to taste the sweets of adopting love. It was after a season of great backsliding and wandering in spiritual pride and presumption, which led my soul into much darkness and distress. I was Pilgrim.-Indeed I have temporally, confined to my room by illness; and Sir! I now stand upon the wreck of all walking backwards and forwards, wrest-former earthly enjoyments! My heartling, struggling, and crying to the Lord string ties are mostly severed. Father, one Sabbath evening: when in a most mother, brothers, sisters, and husband, powerful way, He spoke home those are all safely landed on the other side precious words to my soul, "I have Jordan, leaving me as a sparrow alone graven thee upon the palms of my hands, upon the house-top. But when I get thy walls are continually before me.' " from thence a view of the goodly land Oh! those sacred, hallowed moments, before me, and see what my Father's can never be erased, while memory re- heart contains for his poor worthless tains her seat. Since that happy period, child, I no longer mourn for creaturesin, Satan, and my deceitful heart, have comforts, knowing that I have in heaven 66 |