we not seen since the days of our youth! But we are now come almost to the gates of the New Jerusalem. May we have a joyous admittance there!"

In March, 1839, writing to the same venerable friend, he says,

"The Lord, according to the riches of his mercy, hath blessed me with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. I have been blessed, lo! these many years; and, glory be to God, his abounding grace and salvation never were more precious than at the present moment! I am now, by the mercy of God, slowly recovering a little strength, after repeated and confining attacks, which have reduced me to great physical debility. There is a time for active service, and there is a time for passive submission. Had I been capable of the former, I should joyfully have united with my brethren in England, agreeably to the request of our worthy President, in the Centenary Meetings. My heart, affection, and prayers have been with them. My spirit has ascended the Centenary Pisgah, to review the way the Lord has led our spiritual Israel, and the great and wonderful things which He has done, and which He still is doing, for us. Blessed be His glorious name for ever and ever! Amen and amen."

The Centenary commemoration, to which he thus alludes, was to him highly interesting; but a severe attack of illness prevented him from joining his brethren at Bristol, as he had hoped to do. He was with them, however, in spirit, and engaged a few friends to spend the hour with him in prayer and praise in his chamber. It was the same feeling which induced him to attend the Centenary Conference at Liverpool. He left home on the 23d of July, 1839, accompanied by an affectionate daughter; and, travelling by easy stages, he reached the end of his journey in good spirits, and seemingly in improved health. He was enabled to be present each day at the sittings of the Conference, and to attend the principal services, with little fatigue. His anticipations of holy pleasure and profit were fully realized, and he frequently expressed his gratitude and joy at having been permitted to attend this "GLORIOUS CONFERENCE," as he termed it. He contemplated the future as receiving the stamp of the present glory and prosperity, and expressed his confidence that God would make Wesleyan Methodism a mighty instrument in promoting the world's conversion.

He thus continued in much social and spiritual enjoyment to the closing service, the sacrament of the Lord's supper, on Friday, August 16th, at which he was present. He said, on his return, that a heavenly unction had attended that divine ordinance. This was his last public service on earth. Towards its conclusion he felt rather unwell, and, His evident returning to his apartments, he retired to his own room. weakness excited alarm, and medical aid was called in; but it was soon plain that his illness was rapidly increasing. It was from the first feared that his recovery was doubtful; but his own mind was VOL. XXI. Third Series. APRIL, 1842.

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preserved in a state of perfect tranquillity, and cheerful acquiescence in the will of God. He desired not life, except as it might be useful to his family and the church; calmly observing, that to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord, was far better. His sufferings were great, and almost constant; but to a friend, who expressed her sorrow at seeing him thus, he said, "My pain is indeed very severe; no, I should not say, severe. Nothing is severe that comes from my heavenly Father. He knows what is best for me, and will not try me more than I am able to bear. All is mercy. It is merciful pain. Thy will be done, whether for life or death!" To Dr. Bunting, who had visited him, and who expressed a fear lest conversation should fatigue him, he said, "It does not fatigue me: it cheers me, and does me good." Alluding to the "Conference sacrament," he said, "What a gracious and blessed season it was to me!" He also said, that, while in the chapel, before the conclusion of the service, he had opened his Bible (the last time he ever opened the book he so much loved) on the words, "Neither count I my life dear to myself, that I might finish my course with joy." He then said, with great animation, "What happiness is mine! I have not one anxious thought. All is peace. For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.""

One of his medical attendants coming in, he asked him what was thought of his case; and, observing a degree of hesitation, he immediately added, "Do not fear to tell me, Sir. I have no will in the matter. My will is lost in God's will." To Mr. Lessey, the President of the Conference, who visited him, he said, "All is light and glorious not a cloud, not a cloud." To Dr. Hannah, and several of his old and esteemed friends, he expressed himself in the same spirit of cheerful resignation; adding, that his only pain arose from the distress of his weeping children.

:

On the evening before the disease reached its crisis, and it was somewhat doubtful yet how it might terminate, he tranquilly said, "We may now say, with Moses, 'Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord." Throughout the night, however, and the succeeding day, it was evident that his strength was sinking, and therefore that he was now rapidly hastening to his eternal home. His mind retained all its vigour; and, with a distinctness of voice remarkable in the extreme weakness to which he was reduced, he continued to give utterance to the devout aspirations of his heart. He repeated, with much feeling, the verses commencing,

"He ever lives above,"

and,

"Five bleeding wounds He bears."

He likewise went through the whole of Dr. Watts's beautiful hymn,

"There is a land of pure delight," &c.

He repeated the lines, “Not Jordan's streams," &c.; adding, after a brief pause, “No, no! O no!" After this he spoke but little that little, however, marked the devout state of his mind. His every

breath was prayer or praise.

Before he became unable to articulate, one of his daughters, in the anguish of her spirit, said to him, "Dearest father, speak to me once more." The sound of her voice seemed to arouse him; but he only said, "For me the Saviour died." These were his last words. He continued quietly to slumber till about four in the afternoon, August 24th, when, almost imperceptibly, his prepared and happy spirit passed into eternity.

The Minutes of Conference, for 1840, contain, in the usual department, a sketch of Mr. Buckley's character; and as this was inserted in the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine, for the month of September in that year, it is not now quoted. One of his friends at Llanelly, however, who knew him well, has furnished a statement with which this memoir may be concluded:—

"Mr. Buckley possessed a catholic spirit. He loved true Christianity wherever he saw it, and always treated the members of different denominations with the most affectionate courtesy. Bigotry was intolerable to him. He was unostentatiously benevolent. To public institutions, both general and local, he liberally contributed; and to the cry of the needy his ear was ever open, and his hand ready to afford relief. I had rather be imposed upon,' he has said, ‘than fail to help real necessity. The means of thus doing good, with which God had intrusted him, he endeavoured to use with Christian fidelity. They who visited him at Llanelly, after his more settled residence there, found at his house genuine kindness and hospitality, rendered still more pleasing by the benignity and courtesy of his manner, as well as by the happy cheerfulness of his temper. He was sincere and faithful in his friendships, and in all the relations of the domestic circle peculiarly amiable. In the prosperity of the cause of God, and in the spiritual welfare of the young, in that part of the Lord's vineyard in which his lot was cast, he was deeply interested; and, to the last, he was emphatically a Methodist Preacher. Though he by no means confined his attachment to that section of the church to which he believed God had united him, yet this he regarded with especial affection, and devotedly sought its prosperity. His love for his brethren in the ministry drew him from the south of Wales to Liverpool, in age and feebleness; and having once more enjoyed their society, and united with them in their holy praises, when their annual convocation broke up, and its members returned to their respective spheres of duty and labour, it pleased God to call his servant to eternal rest, and to his heavenly home."

THE SABBATH. (No. IV.)

THE SPIRIT AND MANNER IN WHICH IT OUGHT TO BE SANCTIFIED.

(To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.)

We now enter on what may be termed, the application of the arguments adduced in our preceding communications. If the design of the Sabbath be not only benevolent, wise, and holy, but co-extensive with the ages of time, and with the successive generations of men; if the law of the Sabbath be essentially moral, and, consequently, of perpetual obligation; and if the change of the day was made with the approbation, and under the direct sanction, of the Lord Jesus; it follows, that it is our duty to keep it holy, regardless of human opinions, and at the risk of suffering the loss of all things. Satisfied that our arguments on the above points are incontrovertible, their soundness is here assumed, and their conse. quences are carried out. The plan of Sabbath-sanctification advocated in the following pages, may be denounced by some as utterly incompatible with the present state and habits of society. To all such objectors we have only to say, that our appeal is "to the law and to the testimony," to the facts of history, and to the practice of our Lord, and of his first disciples; and unless those objectors can overturn our premises, it is at their peril if they reject our consequences. Without further preface we remark, that the sanctification of the Sabbath implies,

1. That we regard the day as the Lord's, and keep it holy out of respect to his authority, and with a distinct reference to his glory.

Though the Sabbath is characterized by supreme wisdom, enlightened benevolence, and tender humanity, there is no institution, bearing the stamp of divine authority, which has been so generally neglected, or so frequently desecrated.

The proud neglect it because it encroaches on their fancied independence; the avaricious, because it limits their opportunities of amassing riches; the lovers of pleasure, because it interferes with the gratification of their lusts; the undevout, because of the spirituality of its duties; and the unbelieving, because it assumes the being of a God, the existence of Providence, the responsibility of man, and the truth of revealed religion. It is "the holy of the Lord;" and, because it stands identified with the honour of his name, the preservation of his truth, and the purity of his worship, it has to encounter opposition from all who take up religion merely out of deference to public opinion, or from a regard to outward decency. None but those who are controlled by a deep and reverential respect for the authority of God, and the vital interests of religion, either enter into its lofty design, or yield a cheerful submission to its holy restrictions.

The Scriptures abound with allusions to the motives from which human actions spring; and they contain numerous examples of God's displeasure against those who, through pride or carelessness, violated the instituted order of his worship. When Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, offered strange fire, the Lord slew them, and said, "I will be sanctified in them that come nigh to me; and before all the people will I be glorified." The breach which was made upon Israel, by the death of Uzzah, when the ark was brought up from the house of Abinidab, in Gibeah, was occasioned by a disregard of the command respecting the mode in which that sacred vessel was to be removed. (Num. iv. 15, compared with 1 Chron. xv.