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Mr. Aldridge and she remained a member with that church until her death. In the beginning of last May she was attacked with the dropsy in her chest: all means used to remove it proved abortive. At the commencement of her illness she was in her mind (as she had been for many, many years) a subject of bondage through fear of death. But after visiting her two or three times, she said to me, "Death is now no King of Terrors to me; all fear is removed, the work of salvation is a finished work; and wed is it for me that it is What should I now do, if any thing was wanting, on my part, to complete it? Zech. ix. 12, had, from her first setting out in the way to Zion, been peculiarly supporting to her mind; and that promise of the Divine Redeemer, "Because I live, ye shall live also," now afforded her strong consolation: she longed to be with Christ. The world, she said, was nothing to her now. She took singular pleasure in hear ing or repeating the words of good Mr. Hart:

Your tempers may vary,
Your comforts decline,
You cannot iniscarry,
Your aid is divine!"

Sitting by her one day, when her Mesh and heart were rapidly failing, • I asked, Are you turning to your strong-hold? Is Christ precious?' To both questions she replied, "I ain!" The day before she gave up her soul into the hand of God, her Saviour, I called on her, and asked one question, Is all well still, between your heart and God? With great difficulty, in consequence of a mighty oppression on her breath, in a singing tone of voice, she said, "All is well!" In order to accommodate her mourning relatives, her remains were kept until the succeeding Lord's Day, when they were committed to the grave ("in sure and certain hope of a resurrection to eternal life) in the burying ground, Potter Street, Harlow. A sermon was preached, from Zech. ix. 12, to a very numerous and attentive congregation.

The scene this afternoon was truly solemn : - the corpse of a young man, aged twenty-one years, a member of the church here, and who had not been married one month, was conveyed to the grave: a similar sight the oldest inhabitant does not recollect. It is rather singular, that three succeeding Lord's Days I was called upon te preach funeral-sermons: the first for our aged sister; the second, a young man; the third, a man in the prime of life. One Lord's Day intervened; and on the succeeding one, was called to improve the death of a child, three years old. These are loud and solenin calls to the survivors. "Prepare to meet thy God," O man! O woman!

I will conclude this memoir of our much esteemed and dear de. parted sister, by saying, that, dur ing my acquaintance with her, which was but short, she appeared much devoted to God, greatly concerned for the advancement of the divine glory, loved and lived under the influence of the doctrines of free and sovereign grace, and was constant in her attendance on the appointed means. Let us, let her bereaved husband, let her nu merous relatives, follow her as she followed Christ.

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MARY RENFREW.

IN hope of eternal life, departed, July 26, 1894, Mary Renfrew, of Penryn, in the twentieth year of her age. It was not her privilege to enjoy the advantages of a religious education, yet, in early youth, she had impressions upon her mind of a serious nature; and, for some time before it pleased the Lord to impart unto her the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, she was accustom, ed to attend the public ministration of the word of life, under a conviction that, what she heard, might,

She then took up her Bible, and, turning to the 15th verse of the 50th Psalm, she said, "I have found that a precious promise I have been in great trouble, but the Lord hath delivered me." Being re

through the blessing of Almighty God, be made spirit and life unto her soul; and, as she lived to realize the conviction, so was she, shortly after, called to bear a pub. lic testimony unto the truth of it; for, being threatened with expul-minded of several other promises, sion from the house of her friends, unless she would forsake the house of her God, she assured them, with all meekness and firmness of mind, that she would much rather submit to the former than the latter; and added, that she had no doubt but, in the event of being called there. unto, the Lord would provide.However, from that time forwards, the Lord so inclined the hearts of her-friends towards her, that she was permitted to attend, as often as her bodily strength would admit, the courts of his holiness in peace.

At the commencement of her confinement, which only lasted a few days, she laboured under great distress of soul, from the suggestions of Satan with respect to her ha. ving an interest in Christ, and the blessings of redemption thro' him. The hardness of her heart was the burden of her complaint. "Sure

ly," she would often exclaim," Ne

ver was such a heart as mine."-
There were, however, seasons where-
in she found sweet peace and com-
fort; and particularly on the ever-
ing preceding her death, being
called upon by a friend, who re-
marked that he was happy to find
her spirits so composed and tranquil
--she said, "I have been thinking
on the word GRACE, but I am such
a poor ignorant creature, I cannot
comprehend, as I could wish, the
meaning of it." Some attempt be-
ing made by her friend to explain
the terin, and to shew how emi-
nently the grace of God appears in
the salvation of the soul, she said,
"Yes, I see clearly, now, that it
is all of grace; and O! how dis-
tinguishing it is! My sins, I trust,
are washed away thro' the blood of
Jesus!"-and added, with her hands
uplifted, and her cheeks bedewed
with tears," Lord, why me!

"Why was I made to hear thy voice,
"And enter while there's room;
"When thousands make a wretched
"choice,

And rather starre than come i

-

and particularly Isaiah xli. 10. and John vi. 37, she observed, "that they were all precious;" adding, with a smile, "I can believe them all yes, I can believe them."Then, pressing the Bible in both her hands, she exclaimed, “O! this precious book; this precious book!" On parting with her friend, she begged an interest in his supplications, adding, "I shall not be long here I am going home thy will, O Lord, be done." Early on the morning of her dissolution, she said to a friend, who was attending upon her, " My doubts and heart! O my wretched the Lord, I fear, will leave me, after all." Asking for her Bible, she turned to the 18th chapter of John, and, after reading some time, she exclaimed, "I am very happy the Lord himself is with me I want no other com.

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pany." A friend observed, You now feel, Mary, the truth of these lines:

"Jesus can make a dying bed

Feel soft as downy pillows are," &c.

"Yes," said she, "I am sure of it: I now feel it, and I know the Lord will be with me!" Shortly after, she repeated these lines of Dr. Watts:

"A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,
On thy kind arms I fall!
Be thou my strength and righteousness,

My Jesus and my alt!"

Then taking up the Bible again, she turned to the same chapter in John, which she had before been reading; and while reading it, her countenance changed, and her speech fail. ed; but still her lips were ob. served to move for some time, whes. without a struggle or a sigh, she exchanged this mortal for a state of immortality.

T.W.

REVIEW OF RELIGIOUS PUBLICATIONS.

Lectures, delivered at the Parish

Church of Wakefield, in 1802, on that Part of the Liturgy of the Church of England contained in the Morning Prayer. By T. Rogers, A.M. &c. Tavo Vols. small Svo, 125.

THESE Lectures are pious, plain, and practical. It is certainly of the last importance to every true churchman, that he should understand thoroughly the import of his own prayers; and pray with the Spirit, and pray with the understanding also. As the frequent and restricted use of the same form of words may have a tendency to deaden the ardour of devotion, and to lead to a supposition, that the service is performed when the words are repeated, it is certainly highly proper to admonish his hearers (p. 5) "That our addresses to God must be with inward breathings, and longings of the soul;" for cold and careless prayers can only affront the great object of devotion, instead of obtaining answers of peace; and when we praise him (p. 222) "It implies inward joy and delight in him, which nothing can produce but a sensible experience of his grace and goodness; and he has promised this to his worshipping people; therefore, it is neither presumption to expect it, nor fana ticism to feel its influence." We apprehend such inward breathings and longing of soul in prayer, and such inward joy and delight, flowing from sensible experience of God's grace in praise, will savour a little fanatical in the ears of the rational divines, and the bulk of the church going people, who go to say their prayers. Happy would it be in deed, if every worshipping assem bly in the Church of England were composed of those who thus worship in spirit and in truth. Other wise," as he well obscrvęs (p. 223) "our praises will be a dead service; and cur appearance in the congregation of his saints mere for mality and such dead singing and

formal prayer are the disgrace of our churches, and the real ground of objection to men of religion and observation."

(P. 28) If tears, and the sorrows of the heart are necessary to prove a broken spirit, I am afraid such persons will be found rari. nantes in Gurgite vasto." As, on the other hand, that such " deep con trition (p. 35) is an acceptable sa crifice to God, and must afford instant and effectual relief to the broken hearted sinner," might lead (which the author surely never meant) to a false ground of hope; when tears of blood can never ex piate the least of our sins, or pro cure peace with God for a wounded conscience.

Happy would it be, if every clergyman felt, when he addresses his brethren, that he was "actuat ed by a religious and sincere regard for the souls of the people:" this alone would engage him to such a performance of the service as would do more to stamp excellence on the Liturgy, and excite devotion in his hearers, than any thing beside. It is the cold, careless, uninteresting manner, in which prayers and praise are offered in our churches, that write- Ichabod upon them;

In his observations on the humble confession of sin, after mention. ing a variety of offences, he adds (p. 24)We will not suppose that all the sins enumerated in this catalogue attach to any of us ; — but are we not justly chargeable with some of them?" When every per on in church cries "Lord have mercy upon me," after reading each of the Ten Commandments, it doth not seem congruous afterwards, not to suppose the cry necessary;-or that we have only been chargeable with the breach of some of them. A humble heart needs no palliatives: he says, "Forgive my sin, for it is great!"

The applications and interrogations are always desirable: 3 preacher cannot press his subject too closely on the conscience; a

sermon can only do us good as the truths it urges are felt important and interesting.

The commendation of reading the Scriptures in public worship is just; but to have lessons taken from apocryphal books, and containing such sentiments as that prayer and alms make atonement for sins, ought surely never to have been allowed.

The author appears to be a good man, and true; a faithful pastor of the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made him overseer; and greatly were it to be wished, that these sentiments might be inculcated, and the eternal redemption of God our Saviour, and the powerful influences of the Spirit, form a portion of every discourse, Our churches would not then be desolate, and the people driven at a distance from us to seek food for their souls. Our brother, no doubt, will bear the reproach of the cross for the faithful testimony he hath borne; and be classed among the Dissenters in the church, and the Methodistical. Let any minister in the church carry his cup as even as possible, he will find his prudence and cantion vain, if he is faithful. The reproach of the cross is not ceased, cannot cease: count it all joy; dare to suffer, and be singular!

Public Worship enforced: a Sermon preached before the Hants Association, at Poole, April 25, 1804. By Thomas Loader, Price 6d. If we allow weight to the opiions of a sceptical historian, the subject of this sermon is of the utmost importance to the public. "The devotion of the poet or philosopher," says Cibbon, "may be secretly nourished by prayer, meditation, or study but the exercise of public wor appears to be the only solid fou on of the religious sentiments the people. The interruption of that public exercise may consummate, in a few years, the important work of a national revolution."

Though we should rather have seen some precept of the New Testament, the preacher Iras chosen

XII,

for his text, Isa. ii. 3, And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob," &c. Mr. Loader considers,

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I. The nature of public wor ship; II. The ends of public worship; - III. The obligations of public worship; IV. The advantages resulting from it; V. The objections against public worship, which are well answered. The preacher concludes with some directions for the suitable discharge of public worship. Towards the close, he enters into the true style of preaching, short sentences, frequent interrogations, warm appeals to the heart and conscience. In fact, he preaches to the people; and not, as is too much the prac tice, merely delivers an oration be fore them. We recommend this discourse to the serious perusal of Christians; and hope they will avail themselves of it to distribute among those persons who neglect the house of God and despise his worship.

The Introductory Discourse, Confession of Faith, and Charge delivered at the Ordination of the Rev. George Clayton, at Walworth, June 7, 1804. Price 15.

THE Introductory Discourse was delivered by the Rev. Mr. Kingsbary, of Southampton, with whom Mr. G. Clayton had "served in the gospel, as a son with the father," for more than two years; and was intended as a testimony of Mr. Kingsbury's unabated esteem. The Confession of Faith is short, but compressive and pointed. The Charge, given by the Rev. Mr. Clay. ton, father of the minister ordained, is founded on 1 Tim. vi. 20, "O Timothy, keep that which is com mitted to thy trust." Mr. Clayton, first, shews what a minister, by ordination, has committed to his trust: "You have an office com mitted to you; that is your authority; you have the gospel; that is your instrument of labour: you have the souls of men; they are the materials on which you must act; 41

you Irave gifts; and they include your capacity: you have, more over, a station committed to you, a populous neighbourhood. What an important trust!" The minister's duty as a Depositary is next considered: "It is to preserve your office from contempt, by support ing its scriptural dignity." "Avoid debasing associations, be tenacious of the edifying authority of your office, keep back no part of the message, present your gifts by diligent improvement, and by a faithful exercise of them," &c. The Address is closed by an affectionate and energetic exhortation.

The excellent Sermon, addressed to the people on the above occasion, by the Rev. Mr. Nicol, is omitted in this publication, in consequence of the multiplied engage. ments, which did not allow him leisure to prepare it for the press,

The Christian in complete Armour, or a Treatise on the Saints' War with the Devil, e. By William Gur nall, A. M. formerly Pastor of the Church of Christ, Lavenham, Suffolk. In Four Volumes, 8vo, Eighth Edition, with a Recommendatory Preface by the Rev. W. F. Platt and the Rev. C. Buck. 1l. 65.

THIS Work is well known to the -religious world, as containing a fund ●f experimental and practical divi

nity. A new edition has long been wanted; and we are happy to see it executed in so neat a style. That great man, Mr. Toplady, we are informed, had so high an opinion of this work, that he transcribed va rious parts of it into his CommonPlace Book. We certainly agree with the recommenders, that it is one of the most useful works a Divine or a Christian can read; since it abounds with original thoughts, happy expositions of various pas sages of Scripture, faithful addresses to the conscience, and the most powerful arguments to excite to diligence in duty.

The Ringer's True Guide, or ar affectionate Address to Ringers in every Church and Parish. By S. Beaufoy. 41.

THIS is a plain pious Tract, in-. tended to call the attention of the ringers is parish-churches to the affairs of their souls. The author supposes that there are more than 70,000 persons in England of this description; and, apprehending that people find themselves more intetested by a particular address to their distinct class or occupation, than by a general exhortation, he determined on this singular subject. May his well-meant endea vours be crowned with success !

SELECT LIST OF RELIGIOUS PUBLICATIONS.

Dr. Watts's Sermons and Practical Works. New Edition, No. 1 to 6, 18. each; vol. 1, boards, ds. 6d.; fine paper, royal 8vo, 10s. 6d.

A

Dr. Watts's Psalms and Hymns. New Edition, with improved Indexes, and a New Arrangement in a Table prefixed. By E. Williams, D.D. 18m0, 48.; black calf, 58; fine paper, do. 68. An Essay on the New Testament. By D. Bogue. Second Edition, corrected and improved, 12m0, 38, boards; fiue paper, 4s.

Witherspoon's Works, vol. I, 12mo, boards, 38. 6d.

The Fashionable World displayed. Second Edition, 28. 61.

Strictures on Mhodism. Careful Observer. 8vo, 2s. 6d.

By a

The Christian Teacher: a New Religious Spelling-Book. By the Rev. T. Harper, rs.

Oration, Commemorative of the late Major General Hamilton. By J. M. Mason, D.D. with an Appendix, 8vo, ts.

Ordination Service for the Rev. J. Jerard, of Coventry (See our Intelligence) 8vo, Is. 6d.

A Sermon on the Death of the Rev. J. Johnson, of Manchester, with a Me moir of his Life. By W. Roby, 8vo, 15.

The Saint precious in Death: a Discourse occasioned by the Death of Lady A. A. Erskine. By the Rev. J. Clark, of Brigg, 8vo, 6d.

The Religion of the Closet: a Sermon preached before the Hampshire Association. By J. Bennett, Romsey.

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