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well as the blast of open assault. Many of the young men who came to scoff remained to pray: many valuable ministers, who have since gone to their rest, dated their first serious impressions from those moments when they intended to revile. Many who, humanly speaking, would have been worldly and lifeless, without his teaching, are now active and zealous labourers in the vineyard of our church. Thus God honoured him by giving support to his boldness, success to his labours, and an enlarged sphere to his benevolence. He quite changed the tone of the University towards religion. At one time it was persecuted in every quarter, now it is honoured in all; the young especially are devoted to the cause of God. Every year the number of disciples of his risen Master increased, till at the present moment the outward profession is matter of rejoicing. May the inward feeling be equally approved in the sight of that God who searcheth the heart! Patronage at home and abroad was put into his hands. The East India Company constantly placed its chaplaincies at his disposal: and if future generations shall bless the names of Martyn, and Thomason, and Robinson, and Wolfe, and various others, they will not forget the aged pastor of Cambridge, who parted with his choicest sons in the faith, that India, and Persia, and Jerusalem, might rejoice in the living God. Henc forth that honour which cometh from man was accumulated upon him; respect and veneration arose from all ranks. Still he was not moved

from his original purpose by any tempting offers; he was just as humble before God-just as meek and abundant in labours before man. He remained the minister of the same parish for fifty-three years and a half, and was never absent from his own pulpit except when health or duty compelled him. His life and correspondence will contain the history of the progress of true religion in the church for the last fifty years. His papers were all arranged and prepared before his death, and from personal knowledge we can assure you, that the materials when brought to light will be highly useful to the Christian public. He lived to accomplish all his wishes. One of these, respecting his successor, lay very near his heart. Seven years ago he had a letter written to the Bishop of Ely, requesting the appointment for a young clergyman whom he loved as his own soul: this letter he put under his pillow every night, saying, "Should I be taken home to-night, you will know where to find it in the morning." This wish was mercifully granted only a few days before his death. He dictated a letter to the present Bishop, requesting the appointment for this friend, and after a favourable

answer arrived, he said to his physician, "You will find me mad this morning; I have been drinking brandy: I have had wine to drink which you know not of."

During his last illness all was peace. About a month before his death he knew that his hand was upon him. As soon as his medical attendants had pronounced that the disease must terminate fatally, he said to them, "You can do no more for me now: you have done what you could for my poor body; perhaps I can do something for your souls."

He was enabled to testify to the supporting power of those truths which he had preached through life. On one occasion he said to his friend and successor, who scarcely ever left him, and who will publish everything that is most interesting, "I rest on the broad principles of the Gospel. I do not take comfort from portions of the word, a small bit here and another there-which seems to satisfy some persons. I rely on the broad scheme of redemption: I go as a vile, hell-deserving sinner" (that is his own expression), "to the foot of the Saviour. I didn't create the world, did I? HE did. Then he will save me: I can't be wrong here."

On another occasion, when his attendants thought he was dying, he addressed them thus: "You are all on a wrong scent; you want to see a dying scene; I abhor this from my inmost soul. I am not going to die yet." It was always his desire to die alone with

God.

He expressed a wish to take a sip of some choice wine; he took it with his nephew and his dearest friend. He was reminded that he would soon drink it new in his Father's kingdom, but he was too exhausted to do more than smile with an angelic gladness.

At length the hour of his departure came: he was fully sensible of it, and at times was in great agony; he thanked and blessed all. His dearest friend pronounced the blessing, "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gacious unto thee: the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace:" he added "Amen," and spake no more.

Thus was he honoured in his death in being able to testify to the susta'n ng power of those principles which he had so long and so successfully preached. If there was one point which he pressed upon us more than another, it was consistency in our attachment to the Church of England, and the cultivation of that wisdom which is "gent e and easy to be entreated of." Here also he was a bright

example. Though peculiarly free from a party spirit, he was a steady churchman, and dwelt solely on those foundation truths which are the basis of the Christian hope. Had he in early life been tempted by a scrupulous conscience, or an overweening selfesteem, or a want of spiritual communion, to dissent from our church, is it probable that he could have done one hundredth part of the good which God allowed him to work? The very last exercise of his intellectual powers was the preparation of four sermons to be preached in the University pulpit; and he was taken from the weaknesses of time to the glories of eternity precisely at that moment when the bell of St. Mary's ceased, and he would (had his health been preserved) have commenced his third address to the assembled brethren.

He was honoured in his burial: never has the Universnys en such a sight, and never will again. His departure will be an awakening sermon preached through the land; and many who have hung upon his lips, and been disciplined by his example, have sent forth a long and solemn wail-"My father! my father! the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof."

Such men as these are a nation's safeguard. Well might Elisha suppose, when he saw the prophet borne rapidly away, that the land would mourn for its mightiest chariots and its strongest horsemen. The eminent in godliness are the only chariots, the only horsemen of a nation; and when these are removed, we may lament with a bitter lamentation.

But let us not sorrow as those who have no hope. God hath given abundant assurance that he is pouring forth the double portion of Elijah's spirit on the Elishas of our church. The whole aspect of one university was quite changed by this one man. The thousands who crowd the villages and towns of Britain now bless his name for the devotion and zeal of their pastors; the sunbeam of our people's love now settles on our Zion; and we may rejoice in the thought, that many shall overcome through the blood of the Lamb, and eat the hidden manna, and become pillars in the temple of our God, and go no more out for ever.

May this be our blessed experience; may we keep to those truths which we can die upon; and on the resurrection morn, may we be found among those who shall sing blessing unto the Lamb for ever!

THE CLAIMS OF ENGLAND UPON CHRISTIANS, AND SPECIALLY UPON

CHURCHMEN.

REV. J. WILLIAMS, A.B.

ST. ANN'S CHURCH, LIMEHOUSE, DECEMBER 4, 1836*.

"As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."-1 PETER, iv. 10.

THE feebleness of our faith, the inadequacy of our apprehension of things eternal, is not less evinced by an indifference to the salvation of others, than by inattention to our own. If we believed vividly, we should feel intensely; and if we felt intensely, we should act energetically. Were you to behold a fellow-creature slumbering amid the conflagration of his dwelling, there would be no hesitation, but you would rush at once to snatch him from the devouring element. Or were you to witness a deluded fellow-mortal darting along to the brink of the deep, intent upon precipitating himself into the dark waters, with what eagerness would you fly to arrest his course, and to rescue him from self-destruction! Where, then, brethren, is our faith, if, admitting-as we must do, except we reject the unequivocal testimony of God-that the multitude, the mighty multitude of our fellow-creatures around us are sleeping upon the verge of that pit, that burneth with fire and brimstone, or plunging into the abyss of outer darkness-where is our faith, if we strain not every nerve to pluck the brand from the everlasting burning?

Upon all the followers of Christ this responsibility rests. Most unwarrantably has it been regarded as the function, the exclusive function, of the ministers of Christ, to set forth the glory of God by setting forward the salvation of all men. On them, unquestionably, the obligation devolves principally and primarily, but certainly not exclusively. They are rather designed to act as commanders and standard-bearers, inciting and conducting the army of the faithful to combat, to conflict, and to victory. But how little avail

• On behalf of the Society for Building and Enlarging Places of Worship.

the commanders when abandoned by their soldiers! How powerless must be the host, if the officers alone are expected to fight the battles of the Lord! The charge, therefore, in the text, though pre-eminently referring to the ministers of Christ, extends, beyond all doubt, to each individual who has been admitted by baptism into the privileges of the church, and who is made a partaker of the blessings of the Gospel salvation. "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."

My brethren, I have to ask you this morning to contribute to one of those societies which distinguish and adorn this highlyfavoured land; a society which provides places of worship for the outcast, the ignorant, and the destitute. And I know not how I can more effectually discharge the duty which devolves upon me by royal mandate, and by the highest episcopal authority, than by striving to enforce the exhortation in the text, by a few obvious. and scriptural arguments addressed to you in a two-fold capacity, first, as Christians, and, secondly, as members of the Church of England.

And, first, by the worth of the immortal soul, we ought to be incited to minister to others the privileges which we have ourselves received. The worth of an immortal soul-where shall we begin? and where shall we end? The subject is so extensive, that no finite mind can traverse it; so sublime, that no human tongue can do it justice. Look into yourselves, brethren. Explore your own spirit. Span, if you can, its dimensions; weigh it in the balances of the sanctuary. Celestial in its origin, radiant aforetime with the similitude of Deity, capacitated for the fruition of God, majestic though in ruins, gifted with indefinite capabilities of knowledge, endowed with a profound susceptibility of enjoyment, possessing a no less profound susceptibility of anguish, and (above all, and beyond all,) having interwoven in its very essence the inconceivable attribute of immortality-can you think of it without amazement? can you contemplate it without awe?

Then let it be realized, that such a soul is to be found in the bosom of each individual that meets your eye; that the most ignorant, the most debased, the most destitute, yet encloses a spirit so costly that no finite arithmetic can compute its worth, and which far outweighs the most magnificent, and the most stupendous object that creation can supply. Shall we take the sun, shining in his

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