awfully dangerous. If he enjoy any thing like peace, it must either be in the total absence of reflection, or in that mist of darkness wherewith "the god of this world hath blinded his eyes." On the other hand, no tongue can express the happiness of a heart entirely consecrated to the service of God. I trust, by the grace of God, I have known something of this happiness. The Lord grant that we both may experience and enjoy it yet more and more!

Allow me further to remind you, that you cannot expect to taste all the sweetness that is to be found in religion, while you are living in the habitual neglect of any of its ordinances; or while, through fear or shame, you excuse yourself from attending to, or engaging in any of those religious duties, in which a truly devoted christian finds the chief pleasure of his life. I mean such as these: Sunday school teaching, visiting the sick, distribution of religious tracts, and speaking a word for God whenever and wherever there is a suitable opportunity, with regular attendance on Divine ordinances.

Most glad shall I be to hear that you, my dear Philip, are actively and zealously employed, by these or any other means, in promoting the glory of God and the spiritual welfare of those around you; and that you have, by the grace of God, been enabled to take a decided stand for God, and heaven, and holiness, against Satan, the world, and sin. I trust I shall, ere long, have the pleasure of hearing that you, and she also whose interests are so closely entwined about your heart, have unitedly made a public profession of religion, by joining yourselves unto the Lord and to his people, in an everlasting covenant that shall never be forgotten. I am happy to find you have procured that excellent book which I so earnestly recommended in my last, Doddridge's "Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul." May the Divine blessing accompany the perusal of every page! And now, my beloved friend, "I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified," Acts xx. 32. J. B.

[The hopeful young man to whom the foregoing letter was addressed, and who had then the most pleasing prospects of longer continuance in this life that any young man could

have, only survived the date of it about two years. After a lingering and painful illness, which he bore with christian patience, he calmly "fell asleep," as his friends have reason to believe, "in Jesus," leaving his afflicted widow, with an infant child, to mourn his early removal. Circumstances similar to this are not of unfrequent occurrence. Do they not speak to the heart of every reader in the voice of solemn admonition, saying, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest?" Eccles. ix. 10.]

A WIDER CIRCULATION FOR THE TRACT

MAGAZINE.

THE sphere of usefulness of the Tract Magazine might be very considerably extended by a little exertion on the part of christian readers, who must feel interested in the increased propagation of those vital truths with which its pages are charged, but more especially ministers, masters, parents, sabbath-school teachers, and others possessing influence in society. The writer of this brief article has succeeded in obtaining a place for it in ten several families, and hopes to do so in ten more without much difficulty; and where his influence extends to ten families, perhaps that of many of its readers may reach to thrice the number. How easy and agreeable an exercise of influence then would it be, for such individuals to place this unexpensive little work in the dwellings of every class (more especially of the poor) in our large towns and in villages; and we might add in sabbath schools, workhouses, prisons, hospitals, barracks, asylums, &c. &c. Having done so, they may comfort themselves with the thoughts of having furnished such portions of the community with a periodical body of orthodox divinity, embracing the peculiarities of no particular sect or party, but the fundamental truths of the gospel, in which true christians in general are agreed, and which admirably comport with the general scope of scripture; so that among the many and interesting periodicals of the day, perhaps few are more adapted to general usefulness than the Tract Magazine.

Should any pious and benevolent readers fall in with this humble suggestion, it might be well for them to order the additional copies with their own, and for a month or two at least, take the trouble of handing them to the new subscribers, which would not only encourage their beginning, but secure their continuance. May the blessing of God so rest upon its readers, that they may be led, under Divine influence to search the scriptures, which alone can make them wise unto salvation, through faith that is in Christ Jesus. This is, perhaps, one of the best effects that reading can be expected to produce, as illustrated in the late Legh Richmond's advice to his daughters, "Judge of the value of books by the relish they leave for reading the bible." E. R.

MR. WILBERFORCE'S REGARD TO THE SABBATH.

MR. VENN says, "On each returning sabbath his feelings seemed to rise, in proportion to the sanctity of the day, to a higher degree of spirituality and holy joy, which diffused a sacred cheerfulness to all around him. I have often heard him assert, that he never could have sustained the labour and stretch of mind required in his early political life, if it had not been for the rest of his sabbath; and that he could name several of his contemporaries in the vortex of political cares, whose minds had actually given way under the stress of intellectual labour, so as to bring on a premature death, or the still more dreadful catastrophe of insanity and suicide, who, humanly speaking, might have been preserved in health, if they would but have conscientiously observed the sabbath."

LAST HOURS OF REV. JOSEPH HUGHES.

WHEN the announcement of approaching mortality was distinct and unequivocal, he was at once "ready to be offered;" when he knew and felt that the time of his "departure" was indeed "at hand," he was possessed with a strong and earnest "desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is incomparably better." This desire was expressed with deep humility. On that occasion, when he had said, "Pray that an abundant entrance may be administered into glory," the writer replied, "We are sure, dear sir, you will have an abundant entrance, but the churches all pray for your restoration to health; we cannot spare you from earth yet." On which he rejoined,

"Do not be sure on the ground of merit; never for a moment connect such an idea with any unworthy services of mine. When I am with Christ, I would come again to you, and tell you how much better it is to be with Christ; but this cannot be." At another time he said to the same friend, "Oh, that precious blood!" then, after a short pause, and agitated with much feeling, he added, “I have no wish, no wish to be restored to greater usefulness would be indeed a blessing; but to be beyond the reach of transgression, never to have a cloud pass over the mind-to be filled with the fulness (he again repeated) to be filled with the fulness of God: think what those words contain." Nor were his best earthly affections quenched or obliterated, as some would unnaturally have them be, in the transcendent hope of being with his Saviour and his God. When his son had read to him some passages of the invaluable Howe, he quoted a simile of that great man, whom he termed a kindred spirit with Hall, on the key being turned to admit the soul into paradise," and then added, with an inexpressible look of anxiety and tenderness, "Oh, to meet children and grandchildren there!"

A friend and her husband coming to take a last farewell of him, he raised both his arms, and laboured to express his joy at embracing them once again; then, with extreme difficulty (for breath and voice were nearly gone) he said, “If we are the children of God, we are indestructible." His son relates, "When he perceived that his case was deemed hopeless, still the abundant consolations supplied by the God whom he had served, endued his mind with more than resignation to his will." "If," said he, (on Sunday, Aug. 11,) "the portico to heaven be so ample, what must be the temple itself!"

When a friend observed that it must be peculiarly gratifying to know that so many kind friends felt a deep sympathy in his affliction, Mr. Hughes added, “And shall not the Friend of my friends watch over me with his parental eyes?" On another occasion, when receiving assistance from several,, he said, "There are many helpers, but one Saviour." He desired his son to write to his old and valued friend, Mr. Foster, and acquaint him that "his life was quivering in the socket." He heard with peculiar satisfaction the reply of that eminent man; and when his son read the following words from his letter, "But, O my friend, whither is it that you are going? Where is it that you will be a few short weeks or days hence?" he lifted up his hands expressively, as much as to reply, "To heaven I am going, there to dwell with God and with Christ, and with the spirits of just men made perfect;" adding at its conclusion, "There is genius and piety! am glad that you elicited that letter." But while he well

knew how to estimate and prize the union of piety with genius, he equally knew how to honour and value piety in its lowliest, simplest guise. He said to a kind attendant, "Mary," a disciple and friend of the Saviour, "I am glad you are come to us in affliction; this is a painful dispensation, but there is so much mercy mixed with it-O, help me to praise my God." "The next morning," this pious attendant adds, "Mrs. Hughes asked where she should read; he said, the fifteenth chapter of Exodus; he afterwards repeated the second verse, The Lord is my strength and my song, and is become my salvation,' &c., and referred to the twenty-third and two following verses, saying, that 'the waters of Marah, at this time, were sweetened with the consolations of the gospel; and adding, 'Thy word can bring a sweet relief for every pain I feel.'" She adds, "As we afterwards stood by him, he said, 'Walk in humility; live not for yourselves; live much for others; may the Lord bless you and guide you." Speaking of his little flock, he said, Give my love to them, tell them I bear them on my heart." The same kind and devout witness and helper of his faith relates, "In the evening of the Wednesday week before his departure, a candle being placed on the table, I asked if the light was not too much? No,' he said, pointing with his finger to the skies, 'there is a light which no mortal eye can behold; read me the nineteenth verse of the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah: I long to be emancipated!" After asking the time of the day, he would often say, "So much nearer to the kingdom." "I think it was the Friday or the Saturday before his departure," this christian attendant continues, "he said, "I am in some dismay as it regards the future; I do not mean as it respects another world; there is nothing dark behind. I fear lest I should in the trying hour dishonour God by any expression indicating impatience.' I replied, That grace which has been manifest in your life, and has triumphed in your affliction, will support you and triumph in your death. I know,' he said, that his grace is sufficient for all things, in life and death."

·

RESTITUTION.

I HAD been preaching, not long ago, in a village, and a poor man requested to accompany me some part of my way home; and after walking about a mile with me, I urged him to return. He said, "I must go a little further with you to the farm-house." "Oh, you have some business then." Yes, I have something I want to get rid of," pulling from under his frock a spade, "But what are you going to do with that?

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