THE UPRIGHT MAN.

AN honest traveller may step out of the king's highway, into a house, a wood, a close; but his work, his business, is to go on in the king's highway: so the business, the work of an upright man, is to depart from evil. It is possible for an upright man to step into a sinful path, or to touch upon sinful acts; but his main way, his principal work and business, is to depart from iniquity. As a bee may light upon a stone, but her work is to be gathering at flowers: or a sheep may slip into the dirt, but its work is to be grazing upon the mountains, or in the meadows. BROOKS.

THE REV. ROWLAND HILL.

"THE following is one of the many notes received by this excellent minister when about to commence Divine service :Dear Sir, for your encouragement I send you this, not to exalt you, but to lay you low at the feet of Christ Jesus. A man of a small fortune married a young woman with a little money. In a few years, through their extravagance, they spent all they had, which drove him to such ways as made him a terror to his wife and father-in-law, the latter of whom he was determined to murder; and he set out last summer on a Sunday, with a full determination to do it. On going across White Conduit Fields while you were preaching, he stopped to hear you, and the Lord pleased to set the word home with power, and it entered into his very soul, and the lion became a lamb from that very moment. The Lord showed him what a devil he was; so that his heart of stone became a heart of flesh, and he is now become the best of husbands, the best of fathers, and the best of sons-in-law; and as he was a terror to the neighbourhood, he is now become a wonder to all, and his father-in-law says he must be in a trance. I only send you this account, which you may indeed depend upon, and may the Lord encourage you still to go on. Amen. Be clothed with humility." "—p. 119.

THE LAST HOURS OF THE REV. A. M. TOPLADY. "Rev. Sir, I have scarcely time to transmit you the following remarks and sayings of our dear departed friend, the Rev. Mr. Toplady. He was blessed during his late illness with great consolations, and almost an uninterrupted sunshine of God's countenance. His assurance of faith was steady and firm, like the basis on which it was built. He has frequently

declared that he had not had the least doubt of his personal interest in Christ, for many months past.' He told me very lately that he was 'the happiest man in the world. He said

to a friend, 'O how this soul of mine longs to be gone, like a bird out of a cage, to the realms of bliss; O that some guardian angel might be commissioned, for I long to be absent from this body.'

"When being asked by a friend if he always enjoyed such great manifestations, he replied, 'That he could not say that there were no intermissions; for if there had not been, his consolations would have been more than he could have supported; but when they were abated, they always left such an abiding sense of God's goodness, and his being fixed upon the Rock, that it filled his soul with joy and peace.'

"Another time, and indeed many days together, it was his declaration, O! what a day of sunshine has this been, I have not words to express; almost without intermission his presence has been with me;' and then he repeated various passages of God's word, adding, what a great thing it is to rejoice in death! Speaking of Christ, he said, 'His love is unalterable.* He was happy in declaring that the 8th chap. of the Romans, the 33rd and six following verses, 'were the joy of his soul.* He often spake upon that passage of God's word with great delight, and said, 'Lord Jesus, why tarriest thou so long?" He used to say, 'I find as the bottles of heaven empty they are filled again;' meaning, I suppose, the continual cutpourings of the Spirit with which he was favoured.

"When he drew near his end, he asked, 'Who can fathom the joys of the third heaven?' And, believing the doctrine of the ministration of angels to God's saints, he said, 'What can be the reason that the ministers of the gospel speak so little upon it?'

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A little before his departure he was blessing and praising the Lord for giving him strength in helping himself, and understanding; but added, 'What was all this to his presence, and the shining of his love to my soul?' and cried out, ‘The sky is clear; there is no cloud.'

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'Within an hour of his death, he called his servant, and said, 'Can you and my friends give me up?' she said, 'We can, as the Lord is so gracious to you.' He replied,' O, what a blessing it is that my dear friends are made willing to give me up into the hands of my dear Redeemer, and to part with me. It will not be long before God takes me.' He added, 'No mortal man could live, after God had manifested to him the joys that I have seen. Many more glorious confessions passed from his lips, but time fails me to enumerate them. I can only add, that his gain is the church's loss, and pray God to send more such able champions into his vineyard, that he may

be enabled to make as bold a stand for the defence of the gospel as he has done.

"I hope, sir, you will pardon the incorrectness that you meet with, and excuse the hasty manner of drawing it up, being much straitened for time. May the Lord bless you and your ministrations, and grant that you and I may thus die the death of the righteous, and that our latter end may be like his."

PARTING WITH SIN.

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MEN flatter themselves in their sins, and think when they have gone thus and thus far, they will then give over and stop at their pleasure. But sin never can find a fit place to stop at. These are but the foolish conceits of children, who seeing that the heavens in the horizon seem to touch the earth, resolve to go to the place where they suppose they meet, but when they come there they find the distance still the same. So is it with the foolish hearts of men. They think, after so much gain, honour, or pleasure, I shall have my fill and will then give over. But as long as the fountain within is not stopped, the pursuits of lust will be as violent at last as at first, like him in the fable that sat on the bank, expecting when the water in the river would all have run by. So men think their lusts will at last grow dry, and that they shall then easily step over them to God; yet the truth is, that the outrageous sinful desires of the heart will grow stronger and stronger, even as a river, the further it goes from the fountain, does often spread itself the wider. The heart is as strongly set upon its own sin as any creature is upon its own motion. They set their heart," saith the prophet Hosea, on their iniquities." "The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil," saith Solomon. As impossible is it for lust to stop itself as for the sea to give over swelling, or the fire to cease devouring fit matter that is before it. The man possest with a legion of devils, is a notable emblem of man's sinful nature. He is conversant with nothing but death-dead works, dead companions; death the service, and death the wages. He is full of hideous affections, he cuts and tears his own soul. The presence of Christ is horrible and frightful to him. If he worship him it is from terror, not from love. His name may well be called Legion, for the swarms, the services, the strength, the war of lusts in the heart. It is a torment to a man for these desires to come out of his heart and to be dispossessed of them. There will be pain at the parting of sin, the unclean spirit will tear when he must come out. But in this principally was he the picture of our evil' nature, in that he was exceedingly fierce and untameable. BP. REYNOLds.

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UNPUBLISHED LETTER OF THE LATE REV. JOHN NEWTON.

To the Rev. R. Johnson.

YOUR arrival in New Holland answered very nearly to the time of my expectation. I thought the news of it rather long in coming, but I rejoice to receive it at last.

I thank you for your letter. Last week a part of your journal was read in our society: I have not yet seen the whole, but have seen enough to form my judgment. I am not surprised at the difficulties you have met with; they are not more nor greater than I expected. Nor am I discouraged at your apparent want of success. I hope your prospects will brighten in good time: but if the Lord is pleased to make you an instrument of much good, I shall not wonder if he appoints you first a season of waiting, and puts your faith and patience to a trial, that when he shall at length work, it may appear more evidently and indisputably his own doing, and then all around you may be constrained to say, "This hath God done!" It is sufficient for my satisfaction to be assured that He is plainly with you, and has preserved you in a right spirit; that he enables you to act uprightly in his sight, and keeps a desire of usefulness, and of promoting the great end of your undertaking alive in your heart. He, I trust, will do the rest. If it be his pleasure to give his word effect, when He will work, none shall hinder it; and he will support and bless you, and continue you where you are. Should it be otherwise, he will graciously accept your intention and endeavours. And should he clearly show you that he has nothing for you to do there, in that case I hope he will bring you home in honour and comfort; and your experience of his power and goodness with you on the pathless ocean, and to the ends of the earth, will furnish you with knowledge and advantage for the exercise of your ministry in your own country. But I take it for granted that you will not indulge a wish or a thought of returning, till you are fully convinced that He who led you abroad is making your way clear, and leading you back again.

My former letter was a long one, containing the best advice I could give you, at a venture; and though written at a venture, I have not much that I can now either add or alter. The impression your character makes upon those around you, is, humanly speaking, the chief point of importance; and I hope that the impression has long ago been fully formed, that they know you are a devoted man, a servant of God, and that your chief desire respecting them is to do their souls good.

I cannot blame you for paying some attention to the governor's desire of preaching on the subject of obedience,

honesty, diligence, and the like. But I am persuaded that this sort of preaching will not produce the reformation he wishes for. I am glad that you are sensible of this, and feel the necessity of preaching Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I hope long before this the Lord has determined and strengthened you to address yourself, not to the convicts only, but to all who hear you, as sinners who need mercy, and to point out the Saviour to them as the only ground of hope, who alone can deliver them from the guilt and the power of sin. I am aware of the probable consequences to yourself-perhaps for a season, contempt and displeasure. Your situation is singular and trying, indeed beyond what we in our quiet land of service can well conceive of: but, as Darius said to Daniel, "Thy God whom thou servest continually, is able to deliver thee." If he help you to stand steadfast in a spirit of meekness and prudence, I trust the opposition you may meet with will neither be universal nor permanent. The hearts of the governor, officers, soldiers, sailors, and convicts, are all equally in the Lord's hands: they may fight against you, but shall not prevail, for he is with you. He that sets bounds to the rage of the seas in a storm, and says, "Hitherto shall thy proud waves come, and no farther," can with equal ease moderate or stay the violence of the people, Psa. lxv. 7. Perhaps some who at first seem your greatest enemies, may soon become your most cordial friends, and some of the most profligate of the poor creatures around you become the first-fruits of your ministry. May you trust and fear the Lord! and then you will have no just cause to fear what man can do against you. All that you may be called to suffer for his sake will issue in your honour and comfort. And if you sometimes seem to be at the point of fainting, he will seasonably and powerfully revive you again. I believe no minister of the gospel is borne more upon the hearts of those who know how to pray, than yourself. Let this thought encourage you-" Earnest prayer is not offered in vain.”

Though we have not your trials, we have some; but the Lord is very gracious. Our little family are all still living. Mrs. Newton has much ill health, and has long been confined to the bed, but of late she is something better. Miss Catlet was at the point of death in December, but, beyond all expectation the Lord raised her up again, and she is now well. Instead of your discouragements, I am still favoured with peace and acceptance, and, I hope some usefulness, at St. Mary Woolnoth. But yours undoubtedly is the post of honour. I am like a soldier stationed at St. James's or Windsor; he has little to do but to appear at the muster, or stand quietly where he is posted as a centinel. He endures little hardship in the day, and sleeps in a whole skin at night.