been baptized, and growing up in ignorance and insincerity, have been the subjects of this blessed operation of the Spirit of God.

There is a text quoted in your last Number, and in fact very frequently brought forward in support of the position here maintained; no doubt, it is obviously in favour of it, even when separately considered. I allude to 1 Cor. i. 14-17. where the apostle says to the Corinthians, "I thank God that I baptized none of you... For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel."

But now see whether the conclusion we would arrive at, is not materially strengthened, and indeed irresistibly established by comparison of this text with another in the same epistle.

In the first place the apostle says, I thank God that (with certain exceptions,) I baptized none of you. O but, an opponent may say, St. Paul only speaks with reference to a particular reason, because he had obviated a certain mischief which he apprehended might have arisen had he baptized in the Church of Corinth. Be it so the fact however is that he did not baptize them. What then does he say afterwards to these same Corinthians whom he did not baptize; viz. in 1 Cor. iv. 15? Though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the Gospel.

Take these texts consecutively, and the Apostle says, I have not

THE ROCK

'TIS sweet when storms arise

And rage around, When clouds conceal the skies, And fears confound

To think the tempest's shock
By which our souls are driven,
But bears toward the ROCK
That's never riven.

baptized you, but I have been the instrument of your regeneration. "I have baptized none of you," but "I have begotten you through the Gospel." He is so far from identifying, that he rather contrasts the new birth of the soul with the reception of the prescribed ordinance. I am not so sanguine as to hope that prejudice will easily yield to conviction; but I do think that a simple comparison of these striking texts, might go far to settle the controversy for an unprejudiced mind. Alas! that there should be disagreement where so much is involved! Surely it is time at least for each individual to recognize the importance of being renewed after the image of God, ere his state be unchangeable; to see that he builds his everlasting hopes on no sandy foundation, but on the Corner-stone which God hath laid. Do we profess to found all our hope on the Redeemer ? So far, well yet still, let us examine ourselves whether we be in the faith: know we not our own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in us, except we be reprobates?" 2 Cor. xiii. 5. And, "If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Rom. viii. 9.

Should there appear to you in these remarks anything seasonable to the times, anything suitable to your purpose as a Christian Guardian, by giving them insertion in your magazine, you will oblige, Your's in the Lord, CORYLUS.

Vicarage, R.

Jan. 11, 1840.

OF AGES.

O Thou that in thine hand
Dost hold the blast,
Let but our Spirit's land
In heaven at last.

Then when the surges cease,

And winds and fears are o'er, W'ell praise the God of peace For evermore.

JAMES PORTER, C. C.

DURING my residence at the university, I was in the habit of visiting the hospital, and among those with whom I became acquainted, there was one young woman whose case deeply interested me, and of whose history I could learn nothing. She had a remarkably intelligent countenance; but her manner was so reserved, her air so abstracted, her expression so entirely that of one whose trials of body were absorbed and forgotten, in the trials of mind and bitterness of spirit which were apportioned to her, that it made one sad to behold her. Poor Rachel seemed to have neither relations nor friends; there were none to visit, none to enquire after, none to care for her; and had it not been for the kind and active sympathy of the nurse, she would have been wholly destitute of those little comforts which the patients are expected to procure for themselves.

When I asked her about her friends, she would sigh and say, 'I have none now, I once had; and when I suggested what a privilege it is to know that God will be our friend, that the Saviour and Redeemer of the world is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother, that he invites the weary and heavy laden to come unto him with the

gracious assurance, "I will never leave nor forsake you," she would sigh, shake her head, and murmur, I know it all.'

Her complaint was dropsy; and after every means had been tried for her recovery, without success; when she had suffered many things of many physicians, and was nothing better, but rather grew worse; she was told that she must leave, for they could do nothing more for her. Nothing more,' was her reply, did they say that, nurse, tell me, can they do nothing more for me? MARCH, 1840.

I fear not, Rachel, they have done all in their power; and the only thing we can hope is, that when you go home into the country, the change of air may revive you a little.'

Change of air, you don't know my home-well, never mind,but I cannot die yet.'

Dear Rachel, you are young to die, but many younger have gone before you, and if we are but ready, the sooner we depart to be with Christ the better for us. You have had a suffering life of it since I have known you, but I hope you may have peace at the last, and though our doctors can do no more for your body, the heavenly Physician can and will heal your soul if you only look to him.'

Nurse, you know little about me, but though I seem so cold and dead, I do feel your kindness, and if it were not mockery in one like me to speak of prayer, I would promise to pray for you. have been very good to me, and you would pity me, if you knew the ice that is at my heart,-oh dear, what shall I do.'

You

May God help you, for I canI shall grieve to lose you, for though I never had one I knew less of, I never had one I shall like less to lose. You have been very patient, but I think it is because you have felt sorrow of heart more keenly than pain of body.'

You are right, you understand me. The heart knoweth its own bitterness." My spirit sustains the infirmity of body under which I am wasting away; but oh, nurse, who can tell how hard the wounded spirit is to bear!'

This,' said the nurse, as she related the above, in answer to my enquiries, was the only conversation I ever had with poor Rachel. I wished to know more

about her, but could never learn anything. She is married, has a young family, but where they are I do not know.

Her husband must I think have neglected her, and gone out of the country; for she seemed not to know much about him, and yet once or twice when she was not quite conscious, she spoke of him in terms of strong affection. Poor young thing; she has had her cup of sorrow.'

Three months after the above conversation, I became once more a visitor upon poor Rachel. I found her many miles from the hospital where I had first seen her, in a wretched lodging, and in circumstances of great destitution. I learned her short and mournful history. Her husband had been enticed by evil associates, and after being suspected of sundry petty thefts, he was convicted as an accomplice in stealing sheep, and sentenced to be transported for life; but some circumstances were pleaded in extenuation; and as his character had been unimpeachable, until within a few weeks of this offence, the sentence was changed into imprisonment for five years in the penitentiary. The wife was left with three small children, and in expectation of a fourth; after the birth of which, her health failed so entirely, that she was unable to earn enough for their support. During her stay in the hospital, she confided her children to the care of her aunt, a well-meaning woman, but particularly unpleasing in her

manner.

She was discharged as incurable, and from the best medical attendance, she went back to utter neglect from the fresh airy rooms and clean bed, to the damp, close, polluted single room, and straw pallet, which was to be shared between her children and her nurse the aunt, who was an incessant trial to my patience by her ill-judged manner of treating

the invalid. But Rachel bore the wayward conduct of this old woman, with the apathy and stvicism of one who was past feeling. She rarely expressed a wish or a desire; she seemed alike unmoved by pleasure or pain: there was a cold, a listless indifference to every thing and every body, which was most painful. She listened with attention when I spoke of the world to which she was hastening: of the necessity of preparing for death and judgment; of the willingness of our Saviour to receive the returning sinner; of the rest which remaineth for the people of God in the world where the inhabitant shall never say, I am sick, where the people that dwell therein are forgiven all their iniquities: and when I exhorted her to pray for herself and her husband, the tear glistened in her eye as she replied, I do all I can; I hope the Lord will take me to his mercy, and bless him; he was always good and kind to me, but I shall see him no more for ever. Did not the doctors, (naming those who attended the hospital,) say they could do no more for me?'

The idea of her disease being beyond the reach of medicine, and I know not anything more appalling, than that we are the prey of a disorder which is incurable: that the remedies which are successfully employed in other cases, are quite powerless in our own: that whilst those who appear in far greater danger, recover: we grow worse and worse, until we return to the earth from whence we were taken : "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." The idea of being incurable, and the conviction that though she might linger for many months, she could never again see her dear James, seemed to haunt her like a shadow; and it was not long before I discovered that the stoical indifference which had so pained me, was the effect of her resolutely making up her mind to believe that her

ailments were trifling, and that she should see her husband in the course of the summer.

But she could not always thus deceive herself: for when she was not conscious that any one was looking, she would gaze upon the infant now nearly a year old, with a look of such mournful meaning, that it revealed more plainly than words, how bitterly she felt her inability to nurse and tend it. Poor little babe, it never knew a mother's tenderness, for her mother had been too great a sufferer to be able to nurse her. It never felt a father's kind caress, for the father had not looked upon his youngest child. No sounds of laughter had taught it to laugh; no songs of joy had lulled its slumbers. It seldom smiled, and its cry was not like an infant's. It made me sad to watch the painful anxious expression of its little face, and deep sunk eyes, it looked as if the poor innocent had drank deeply of the cup of sorrow, and knew by bitter experience that man is born to trouble, is of few days and full of misery. Mrs. Brown, the impatient nurse who had brought or rather dragged it up, was frequently expressing a wish that it would die, and I own that when it pined, and drooped, and passed away with the early primroses; and when the tiny coffin and neat white pall assured me that her wish was fulfilled, and that Naomi had departed this life, I could not but rejoice in the reflection, that she would no more suffer from the neglect, the impatience of earthly relations, that henceforth she would rest from the afflictions which had cast a cloud over her young days, and be for ever with the good shepherd who carries the lambs in his arms, and leadeth them beside the still waters where they shall never tremble, nor stumble, nor stray.

I called soon after the funeral,

in the expectation that I should find the bereaved sufferer in a softened and conversible mood. Nor was I mistaken. She endeavoured, but in vain, to conceal that she had been weeping, and wishing, if possible, to discover, more of her state of feeling than I had hitherto been able, I sent her nurse on an errand which would, I was well aware, detain her upwards of half an hour.

'Well, Rachel, since I last saw you death has entered your dwelling. You have had to bury your dead out of your sight, but I trust you have comfort in knowing that it is far happier now than it ever has or would have been in this world.' Here she shook her head and burst into tears. 'Does it not relieve you to know that your dear babe has entered into her rest, and is already reaping the benefits of her Redeemer's death and resurrection; that the days of her mourning are ended; and although your eye shall see her no more in the flesh, and your ear will not be cheered by her lisping, yet she shall have no more cold nor hunger, nor sickness, nor crying, but is folded in the arms and gathered into the bosom of the compassionate Shepherd, a companion of saints and angels in heaven.'

And do you think she is thereOh if I could'—and a burst of tears prevented her from finishing.

'I cannot doubt it. Look at the love, the tender care which the Saviour displayed towards these little ones. We read how that he was much displeased with the disciples who would have kept them from him. He declares, " Of such is the kingdom of heaven," from which it is plain that infants are fit subjects for that kingdom, and that of the great multitude in heaven a very large proportion are littlè children who having escaped the pollution that is in the world through lust, are regenerate and grafted into the body of Christ's

church in the sacrament of baptism, are admitted into the church triumphant. He hath blessed them -yea, and they shall be blessed.'

I always thought so; but now I cannot feel it, oh how I wish I could.'

And what is there that so trou

bles you? Come my poor friend, tell me your doubts, I do so wish to see you more comfortable.

'O, Sir, you are too kind. It is only Aunt Brown and her people say none but the children of the elect have a place in heaven. But, oh, can God punish the innocent for the guilty! Must my Naomi suffer my sin!'

for

I cannot think it, for such an opinion is contrary to the whole course of Scripture. Where there is no law there is no transgression; and there is we may say no law to a child who is unable to act, think, and choose for itself. "It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish."

'But God does sometimes visit the sins of the fathers upon the children.'

'In this life, not in another world, for God's express declaration is, "The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son." We know that David's sin was visited on his child, but he was comforted with the assurance, "I shall go to him." And it is one of the mysteries of Providence, a part of the secret will of God, that the same event happens alike to all; to the innocent and to the guilty; but to the former, there is little doubt but that the early death is an early blessing; "they are taken away from the evil to come.'

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Evil to come, Sir," and she spoke with great anguish of spirit. Evil to come," there is enough of that. I am not yet thirty; but I know much of the evil, the sin, the sorrow of this life. Oh my poor babe, could I but see thee in thy

Saviour's arms safe in his fold, I should indeed rejoice in thy happy lot. But I will hope it is so, for there is comfort in this. And Oh how good is God in sending you to speak kindly to such a sinner. You would lead me to Christ if it were possible, but others would drive me away.'

Who would discourage you; not the word of God, not the ministers, the ambassadors of Christ. Thus saith the Lord, "I have no

pleasure in the death of him that dieth, wherefore turn yourselves and live ye." This is the will of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent, "even Jesus which delivereth us from the wrath come.'

to

Aye, Sir, you bring just the same message as the clergymen who came to the hospital; but those I told you of (sinking her voice to a low whisper) say that you speak smooth things and prophecy deceits: their words are quite different-" pray not for this people." When they make many prayers I will not hear." They seem to think, mind, Sir, they never said so in so many words, but I believe they think that there is no hope for sinners.'

66

But, Rachel, Jesus Christ came to call sinners to repentance. He has promised to hear their prayers. I beg of you do not listen to the word of man, when you have His sure word of promise, "He is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent." Tell me, Rachel, as in the sight of an all-seeing God, do you feel that you are a sinner?'

Oh yes, Sir, and I feel the wages of sin is death.'

'But do you not believe that there is a way of escape, a fountain opened for sin; that "God so loved the world that he sent his Son, to the end that all who believe in him should not perish but have eternal life? That He is the propitiation for our sins?