its waters. Here his ever-active mind, as usual, was employed in the composition of sacred hymns, which he subsequently published to the spiritual profit of many. While he was in this situation he received the following kind letter from the Vicar of Shoreham :

April 29th. My very dear Brother,-Upon inquiring after your health, the last week, in London, I received the disagreeable account of your being ill at Bath. It would be a great pleasure to hear that God had given success to those waters, and that your health was in a fair way of being restored. This must certainly be the prayer of all your friends, especially of those who have the advancement of Christ's kingdom sincerely at heart. Your Lord has made you not only a very laborious, but a very successful, labourer in his vineyard: and therefore may it be his blessed will thus to continue his faithful servant for years to come!

"However, I doubt not but his divine grace has long since taught your heart to say, 'Not my will, but thine be done.' He certainly knows best when that work is finished which He has given you to do.

"It has pleased the divine goodness to exercise me, for some months past, with sore afflictions in my family. This is the fifth time, within forty years, that my dear wife has laboured under deep distress of soul, mind, and body. But I trust, through the prayers of her friends, (amongst which I hope for yours,) she will once more be delivered. My son Jacky was given over several times since last Christmas, in a violent complicated fever; but, through the blessing of God on the great care and skill of Dr. Turner, he is restored again.

May the Lord Jesus ever be with all of us, both in life and in death! I am, with sincere respects, both to yourself and your very dear spouse, my dear brother,

"Yours most affectionately."

CHAPTER XXII.

In the year 1762 Mr. Charles Wesley favoured the Christian church with two additional volumes of sacred poetry. They were entitled, "Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures." Most of them are concise, but some are of considerable length. They are two thousand and thirty in number, and are founded upon particular texts, beginning with Genesis, and ending with the Revelation of St. John. Many of them are inserted in the general Wesleyan Collection; not a few display a singular ingenuity; and nearly all breathe the same spirit of pure and fervent devotion which so strikingly marks his former compositions. They prove the author to have been a diligent, accurate, and critical student of the sacred books, and often throw an interesting light upon important passages. The metres present an agreeable variety; and, with a few exceptions, the entire work is perhaps one of the best uninspired manuals for the Christian closet that was ever published in the English language.

The volumes are introduced by the following laconic and pointed preface:-" God having graciously laid his hand upon my body, and disabled me for the principal work of the ministry, has thereby given me an unexpected occasion of writing the following hymns. Many of the thoughts are borrowed from Mr. Henry's Comment, Dr. Gell on the Pentateuch, and Bengelius on the New Testament.

"Several of the hymns are intended to prove, and several to guard, the doctrine of Christian perfection. I durst not publish one without the other.

"In the latter sort I use some severity; not against particular persons, but against enthusiasts and Antinomians, who, by not living up to their profession, give abundant occasion to them that seek it, to cause the truth to be evil spoken of.

"Such there have been in every age, in every revival of religion. But this docs in no wise justify the men who put

darkness for light, and light for darkness; who call the wisdom of God foolishness, and all real religion enthusiasm.

"When the wheat springs up, the tares also appear; and both grow together until the harvest: yet is there an essential difference between them. This occasions a difference in my expressions, and as great a seeming contradiction, as when I declare with St. Paul, A man is justified by faith, and not by works; and with St. James, A man is justified by works, and not by faith only.

"My desire is, rightly to divide the word of truth. But who is sufficient for these things? Who can check the selfconfident, without discouraging the self-diffident? I trust in God, none of the latter will take to themselves what belongs to the former only.

"Reader, if God ministers grace to thy soul through any of these hymns, offer up a prayer for the weak instrument, that, whenever I finish my course, I may depart in peace, having seen in Jesus Christ his great salvation."

Few persons would think of going to the verbose Commentary of Matthew Henry for the elements of poetry; but the genius of Charles Wesley, like the fabled philosopher's stone, could turn everything to gold. Some of his eminently beautiful hymns, strange as it may appear, are poetic versions of Henry's expository notes. One specimen may be given. The Commentator, explaining the name of God, as it was given to Moses, and recorded in Exodus xxxiv. 6, 7, says,—

"(1.) He is merciful. This bespeaks his pity and tender compassion, like that of a father to his children. This is put first, because it is the first wheel in all the instances of God's good-will to fallen man, whose misery makes him an object of pity. Let us not then have either hard thoughts of God, or hard hearts towards our brethren. (2.) He is gracious. This bespeaks both freeness and kindness. It intimates not only that He hath a compassion to his creatures, but a complacency in them, and in doing good to them; and this of his own good-will, and not for the sake of anything in them. His mercy is grace, free grace. This teaches us to be not only pitiful, but courteous. (3.) He is long-suffering. This is a branch of God's goodness which sinners' badness gives occasion for. Israel's had done so. They had tried his patience, and experienced it. He is long-suffering; that is,

he is slow to anger, and delays the execution of his justice. He waits to be gracious, and lengthens out the offers of his mercy. (4.) He is abundant in goodness and truth. This bespeaks plentiful goodness. It abounds above our deserts, above our conception and expression. The spring of mercy is always full, and streams of mercy always flowing. There is mercy enough in God, enough for all, enough for each, enough for ever. It bespeaks promised goodness, goodness and truth put together, goodness engaged by promise, and his faithfulness pawned for the security of it. He not only does good, but by his promise He raises our expectation of it, and even obliges Himself to show mercy. (5.) He keepeth mercy for thousands. This denotes, [1.] Mercy extended to thousands of persons. When He gives to some, still He keeps for others, and is never exhausted. He has mercy enough for all the thousands of Israel, when they shall multiply as the sand. [2.] Mercy entailed upon thousands of generations, even those upon whom the ends of the world are come. Nay, the line of it is drawn parallel with that of eternity itself. (6.) He forgiveth iniquity, transgression, and sin. Pardoning mercy is specified, because in that divine grace is most magnified; and because that is it which opens the door of all other gifts of his divine grace. He forgives offences of all sorts, iniquity, transgression, and sin, multiplies his pardons, and with Him is plenteous redemption.”

The valuable sentiments thus expressed in humble prose Mr. Charles Wesley embodies in elegant and energetic verse. He sings in the full exercise of faith, and of adoring gratitude; and millions of hearts and voices still unite in the same hallowed strain :—

Merciful God, thyself proclaim
In this polluted breast;
Mercy is thy distinguish'd name,
Which suits a sinner best:
Our misery doth for pity call,
Our sin implores thy grace;

And thou art merciful to all
Our lost, apostate race.

Thy causeless, unexhausted love,
Unmerited and free,

Delights our evil to remove,

And help our misery:

Thou waitest to be gracious still,
Thou dost with sinners bear,
That saved we may thy goodness feel,
And all thy grace declare.

Thy goodness and thy truth to me,
To every soul, abound,

A vast, unfathomable sea,

Where all our thoughts are drown'd :
Its streams the whole creation reach,
So plenteous is the store,
Enough for all, enough for each,
Enough for evermore.

Faithful, O Lord, thy mercies are,
A rock that cannot move;
A thousand promises declare
Thy constancy of love :

Throughout the universe it reigns,
Unalterably sure;

And while the truth of God remains,
The goodness must endure.

Reserves of unexhausted grace
Are treasured up in thee,
For myriads of the fallen race,
For all mankind, and me.
The flowing stream continues full,
Till time its course hath run;

And while eternal ages roll

Thy mercy shall flow on.

Merciful God, long-suffering, kind,
To me thy name is show'd;
But sinners most exult to find,

Thou art a pardoning God.

Our sins in deed, and word, and thought,

Thou freely dost forgive;

For us thou by thy blood hast bought,
And died that I might live.

Dr. Gell was a London Clergyman, who flourished during the commonwealth. He was a profound biblical scholar, and a man of great spirituality of mind; but somewhat mystical in his views of religion. Most strenuously did he contend, in opposition to the prevalent theology of his day, that it is the privilege of the people of God to be saved from all sin during the present life. He published an "Amended Translation"