I am not sorry. But Mr. Russell, our capital portrait painter in crayons, has drawn me twice, and the resemblance in both is thought to be very strong. It is probable that a plate will be taken from one of these pictures, when the original is gone to be no more seen. Then survivors and posterity may have the satisfaction of observing what sort of a creature I was, as to the outward man: but I cannot permit it to appear during my life time.

You mention six volumes of my works : but I know not whether my last publication entitled Letters to a Wife, in two vol umes, has yet reached Vermont, or even America. Should these ever come in your way, madam, you will have the best exhibition of my likeness, though drawn by myself. It will not indeed, give you an idea of my face; but will make you acquainted with as much of my inward frame, my heart and feelings, as can safely be communicated to a fellow-creature.

By the kindness of gentlemen at Nassau College, it seems I must be known in America by the title of Dr. Newton. But there is no such person in England. When I thanked the college for the honor done me, I told them I was obliged to decline accepting it. Perhaps I was influenced more by pride, than by humility, in waving it; for as my manner of life and conversation in time past are well known here, and that I had never been at any college or academy, or even at a grammar school, had I consented to wear the title, I should have been ashamed to walk the streets, lest people should point at me, as I went along, and say, there goes the Doctor.

I am now four months advanced in my seventy-first year, am still favored with good health, and enabled to go through my public services without fatigue. The Lord gives me acceptance with his people, and I trust, we have a measure of his presence and blessing among us. I seem to have lived long enough for myself; but am willing to wait my appointed time. I hope I shall one day know how much better it is to depart and be with Jesus: but it is worth waiting a while for heaven, if we may be in any degree useful upon earth. I have many friends, many temporal comforts, all things that can contribute to make life agreeable: and since Dec. 1790, when my dear partner closed her eyes upon sin and sorrow, I have met with noth ing that seriously deserves the name of a trial. But this life is at best such a scene of vanity, that I cannot be very fond of it, for its own sake. I am not my own, and I have only to pray that while I do live, I may live to him, who redeemed me with his blood; and that when he calls me away I may be found ready. So much, perhaps too much, about my insignificant self.I value your friendship; but if I wished you should always think so highly of me, as you seem to do, I might be glad that you are not likely to see me. Your expectations might be greatly baulked if you were here. Ah! Madam, indeed, I am not what you suppose me. Dust and ashes is my name, and all (properly my own) is sin and mis. ery: but through mercy, it is given me to believe and know whom I have believed.

Dr. Hopkins informs me that you have been walking in the path

of wisdom from about twenty years of age: but he does not say how long it is since you left the path of the world: he dates it from the time of a revival at Plymouth; when that was I know not, but suppose it was before the late revival there, of which Dr. Robbins gave me an account in the year 1793. I take it for granted that the longer you walk with the Lord, the better you like the road. It is here and there rough to the flesh. Without some trials and difficulties we could not well know either ourselves or the value of our privileges. But with such a shepherd, guide and guard, counsellor and comforter, as the Lord Jesus, the worst part of the believer's strait path to glory, is preferable to the best part of the world's crooked labyrinth.-Was there a time when you looked no farther than to the world for hap. piness? Happy hour, you will say, when the Lord made me sensible of such wants, as the world cannot supply. You are of the number of those, who come to God by Jesus Christ. You have seen that he, who made you for him self, had given you a capacity for good, which he alone can satisfy. And when you became sensible, that unless the Lord God made you happy, you must be miser. able, you durst not have come to him, after you had some right knowledge of sin and of yourself, had not a Mediator been provided. But now, knowing who Jesus is, what he suffered, why and for whom, and encouraged by his gracious invitation, you can come boldly to a throne of grace, open your mouth wide, and though sensible you are unworthy of the smallest mercy, you dare ask and confidently expect the greatest,

which a creature can receive. Is it not so? Such are the effects of the glorious gospel on our side of the Atlantic, and the same, I doubt not, on your side. There is but one sun and one Saviour; whether in the east or in the west: we see by the same light, and our spiritual life, strength and comfort, proceed from the same source. Jesus the great vine, communicates his life and sap in to every branch, that is grafted into him by a living faith; and therefore they live, or rather he lives in them. He is in them, as the soul in the body, the life every part because he lives to die no more, they likewise shall live for ever; for their life is hid with Christ in God. There was a time when we little thought of these things; but they were reserved for us, and we were preserved through all dangers in the days of our ignorance. He then passed by and bid us live, because he had appointed a time of love, when he would reveal them to us. We have tasted that the Lord is gracious: but the first fruits we have in hand, though preferable to all this world can give, and of which no worldly changes can deprive us, bear no proportion to the full harvest, which we hope for. It does not yet appear what we shall be, when we shall see him as he is, and be with him for ever. Transporting thought! We may be well content to sow in tears, since we are assured we shall reap in joy; that then all tears shall be wiped from our eyes, and we shall weep no more. Then, Madam, I trust, we shall meet to love and praise and sing and wonder! In the meantime, he who has called us by his grace, and has brought us

PIOUS MEDITATIONS.

No. 2.

Psalm lxxxvi. 1. Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me; for I am poor and needy.

Yes, Lord, listen to my prayer, or I perish. I am poor and needy; I am guilty and need pardon; I am defiled and need purity; I am weak and need strength; am foolish and need wisdom; and thou canst give me all these. Thou hast said, that although thou dwellest in the high and holy place, thou condescendest to him, who is of a broken and a contrite spirit. Thou seest that my spirit is humbled, that I feel my want, and am looking to thee for supply. O, blessed Lord, thou wilt give it me; thou wilt fulfil thy promise-Ask and ye shall receive.

Bow down thine ear, O Lord; hear me for thy name's sake, for the glory of thy name. Save me from the wiles and temptations of that evil Spirit, who first rebel led against thee. Save me from

myself. I have nothing to plead before thee but my poverty; but thy mercy is great. Rich is thy grace; let it extend unto me, the vilest, the poorest of sinners. Thou delightest to forgive. My sins are great and numberless. O magnify thy goodness and compassion in blotting them from thy book. Let me be righteous be fore thee in the righteousness of Christ, who died for the poor and needy. Hear me, O my God.

W.

For the Panoplist.

Messrs. Editors.

As a friend to the order of the churches, I have noticed with great satisfaction a new and neat edition of the "Platform of Discipline, gathered out of the word of God, and agreed upon by the Elders and Messengers of the Churches assembled in the Synod, at Cambridge in New-England, in 1648," lately published at Boston, by Farrand, Mallory, and Co. It has long been a subject of regret with many, that this Platform is so little attended to and so little known. It is devoutly to be hoped, that this republication of it will be a mean of bringing it into request, and of exciting attention to those principles, on which our New-England churches were originally founded. And I would take leave to suggest, whether some able pen might not be usefully employed in an elaborate review of the Platform itself, or in a discussion, in some other form, of the leading principles, which it comprises, in your valuable publication.

W.

PENITENTIARY HOUSES. From Howard on Prisons, p. 226. A PROPER plan for the government of penitentiary houses is of great importance, and is more practicable, than some suspect. I am aware indeed, of the difficulty of accomplishing so arduous an undertaking, as that of reforming criminals, and inuring them to habits of industry; yet when it is for the public good, we ought to make experiments; and indeed, what have I been doing in collecting the regulations of some of the best directed houses of correction in Europe, and such as experience has proved to be practicable, but endeavoring to facilitate the execution of this useful design? The decency, regularity, and order that I observed in the houses of correction at Holland, Hamburgh, Bern, Ghent, Florence, &c. I am fully persuaded, proceeded in a great degree from the constant attention that is paid to impress the prisoners with a sense of religion, by plain, serious discourse, catechising, and familiar instruction from the chaplain, with the influence of a good example, both in them and the keepers. These circumstances make a much greater impression upon the minds of the criminals, when in prison, than they would before they came there. We have too much adopted the Gothic mode of correction, viz. by rigorous severity, which often hardens the heart, while many foreigners pursue the more rational plan of softening the mind, in order to its amendment.

The term Penitentiary clearly shews that Parliament had chiefly

To

in view the reformation and amendment of those to be committed to such places of confinement. these houses, however, I should wish that none but old hardened offenders, and those who have (as the law now stands) forfeited their lives by robbery, house-breaking, and similar crimes, should be committed, or in short, those criminals who are to be confined for a long time, or for life. I wish that no persons might suffer capitally but for murder,for setting houses on fire, and for house-breaking,attended with acts of cruelty. Our present laws are certainly too sanguinary, and are therefore ill executed; which last circumstance, by encouraging offenders to hope that they may escape punishment,even after conviction, greatly tends to increase the number of crimes. Yet many are brought to a premature end, who might have been made useful to the state. Indeed, I the more earnestly embarked in the scheme of erecting Penitentiary houses, from seeing cart loads of our fellow-creatures carried to execution; "though the generous nature of our countrymen, rarely permits them to perpetrate acts of cruelty;" when at the same time I was fully persuaded, that many of these unhappy wretches, by regular, steady discipline in a Penitentiary house, would have been rendered useful members of society; and above all from the pleasing hope, that such a plan might be the means of promoting the salvation of some individuals, of which every instance is, according to the unerring word of truth, a more important object, than the gaining of the whole world.

PUBLIC WORSHIP.

"Ir a man is grateful to his benefactor, he will tell him so; if no acknowledgments are made,and no outward signs of gratitude manifest themselves, he will be chargeable with ingratitude. But if expressing our gratitude and praise from time to time, in words, is by the Deity required of us as a duty; if it is beneficial to ourselves; and if, as an example, it has good effects on our fellow men, no argument can be necessary to prove the propriety and practice of Public worship. Doct. Beattie.

ANECDOTES.

OF THE REV. C. F. SWARTZ.

A CERTAIN man, on the Malabar coast, had enquired of various devotees and priests, how he might make atonement for his sin; and at last he was directed to drive iron spikes, sufficiently blunted, through his sandals; and on these spikes he was to place his naked feet, and walk (if I mistake not) 250 coss, that is about 480 miles. If through loss of blood or weakness of body, he was obliged to halt, he might wait for healing and strength. He undertook the journey, and while he halted under a large shady tree, where the gospel was sometimes preached, one of the Missionaries came, and preached in his hearing, from these words. "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." While he was preaching the man rose up, threw off his torturing sandals, and cried out aloud, "This is what I want," and he became a lively witness, that the blood of Jesus Christ does indeed cleanse from all sins.

The expostulation of one of the converted Hottentots, who, not long since, were introduced to the city of London On taking leave of the London Missionary Society, in broken English, she thus expressed herself.

"WHAT pity 'tis, what sin 'tis that you have so many years got that heavenly bread, and hold it tle bit, one crumb, to poor hea for yourselves, not to give one litthen! there are so many millions of heathen, and you have so much bread; and you could depend upon, you should not have less, because you gave; but that Lord Jesus would give his blessing, and you should have the more. You may not think, when you do something for poor heathen you shall have less for yourselves; that contrary; Lord Je sus Fountain always full; thousand after thousand could be helped; he always same, yesterday, to day, and for ever. The more we do for others, the more we shall be blessed, the more we shall have for our own soul. I thank every individual that do some thing for Missionary work, or that pray for it. I thank people who help; but must say, same time Lord bring Hottentot here to shew, that he will bless means, save sinner. And now I hope and trust every man will go on to spread the gospel. As Lord Jesus so good, wear crown of thorns for us, for our sins, let us work more and more in dust at his feet, to put on his head crown of glory: O when you know in what situation Hottentot were, then you will have more compassion for them, and when you see wherefore God give such great plenty here, that you might give to other poor creature, help and assist them. I thank English nation, that sent Missionary to