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Spirit of God condescends to employ his sacred energy in rendering this redemption efficacious and personal,-his depth and power of feeling, his accurate perception, his truthfulness and strength of description, as well as his remarkable ability in condensation, would have placed him in the highest class of English poets. As it is, he is only known and admired by them who with him love the Bible, the cross, and the subjects connected with personal salvation.

One or two miscellaneous illustrations, taken from his "Short Hymus on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures," we shall insert in the present paper. In the course of the year, a few will be placed in our "poetical department." Our readers will thus have the opportunity of forming their own opinion.

We have casually opened on one that, we think, will justify what we have said as to the clearness of the thought, the fulness and strength of the expression, and the terseness and point of the whole composition. The reader will find no words brought in merely for the purpose of filling up the measure of the verse; nothing weak and diluted. The text which suggests the piece is, 1 Sam. ii. 3: "The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed."

"What man or angel can explore
Thy wisdom's unexhausted store;
Thy strict unerring justice trace,

Which all our thoughts and actions weighs,
And renders every man his due,

As that decisive day shall show;

Thy providential ways explain,

Thy justice and thy love to man?”

The next beautifully expresses both the principle and the feeling of religious submission. It is on 1 Sam. i. 27: “For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him."

"Whate'er I ask, I surely know,

And steadfastly believe

Thou wilt the thing desired bestow,
Or else a better give:

To thee I therefore, Lord, submit

My every fond request,

And own, adoring at thy feet,

Thy will is always best."

Ecclesiastes xii. 1: "Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth."

"Fain would I in my earliest days

Be mindful of my God,

My God, who made me by his grace,
And bought me with his blood:

That young,

may observe thy word,

And not in age depart;

Come, O my dear redeeming Lord,

And dwell within my heart."

1 Peter ii. 17: "Honour all men."

"Be double honour paid

To man beloved of God;

Man in his Maker's image made,

And purchased by his blood:
Mark'd with thy character,

Lord, every soul is thine,

And I in all mankind revere,

Their Ransomer divine."

Matthew xix. 20: "What lack I yet?"

"Himself how shall a sinner know?

Jesus, to thee I cry:

Thou only all my wants canst show,

Thou only canst supply."

Matthew xvi. 26: "What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

"If for a world a soul be lost,

Who can the loss supply?

More than a thousand worlds it cost

One single soul to buy."

WESLEYAN CHRONOLOGICAL NOTICES.

No. VI.

1739. JUNE. The foundation of Mr. Wesley's School in Kingswood, originally designed for the instruction of the children of the colliers, laid; a large room being contemplated for the school, with four small rooms at either end, for the schoolmasters and some poor children to lodge in.

June 13th. Mr. Wesley, in consequence of some unpleasantnesses in the Fetter-Lane society, returns to London; and, pursuing his recently-adopted plan of field-preaching, addresses immense multitudes in Moorfields, and on Kennington-Common, Blackheath, &c.; the congregation frequently amounting to upwards of twenty thousand persons.

June 19th. Mr. Piers, Vicar of Bexley, and Mr. Charles Wesley are summoned to appear before the Archbishop of Canterbury, to answer for the frequent preaching of Mr. Charles in that parish. His Grace forbids the Vicar to allow any Methodist Clergyman to officiate in his church; expresses his strong disapprobation of Mr. Wesley's movements; but states, he "will not proceed to excommunication yet." The following Sabbath Mr. Charles Wesley preaches in Moorfields to a congregation of nearly ten thousand.

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Two additional Hymn-Books, for the use of their societies, are published by the Wesleys; each bearing the title, "Hymns and Sacred Poems, published by John Wesley, M.A., Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, and Charles Wesley, M. A., Student of Christ Church, Oxford." The volumes were printed by W. Strahan, and sold by their friend "James Hutton, Bookseller, at the Bible and Sun, without Temple-Bar," and at Mr. Bray's, the Brazier, in LittleBritain.

August 28th. Mr. Charles Wesley reaches Bristol, on a visit of some weeks; and labouring diligently in the spread of truth, preaching generally twice or thrice each day, and frequently addressing vast multitudes in the open air, experiences much opposition from the Clergy of Bristol, and its neighbourhood. "Every Sunday," observes he, "damnation is denounced against all who hear us; for we

are Papists, Jesuits, seducers, and bringers in of the Pretender. The Clergy murmur aloud at the number of the communicants, and threaten to repel them." Several members of the newlyformed societies suffer in consequence much: some lose their bread; others their habitations; one suffers stripes, and another confinement.

1739. October 15th. Methodism takes root in Wales. Mr. Wesley having received a pressing invitation, reaches the principality; and in the afternoon, on a little green, near Chepstow, at the foot of the Devauden, preaches to nearly four hundred people: here also, the churches being closed against him, his subsequent ministrations were generally in the open air.

November 6th. The Rev. Samuel Wesley, elder brother of the Wesleys, dies; "God having given him, several days before he went hence, a calm and full assurance of his interest in Christ."

November 11th. The Foundery, a large and shapeless brick building in Moorfields, formerly in the occupation of Government, and used for the casting of cannon, is opened by Mr. Wesley as a "preaching-house" for the London Methodists. In this homely sanctuary, service was held every morning at five, and every evening at seven the men and women sat apart, not in pews, but on benches, which for rich as well as poor, were of the same construction.

November. The rise of the "United Society," now constituting what is termed the Wesleyan-Methodist Connexion, takes place in London. Several individuals impressed by the ministrations of Mr. Wesley, and earnestly groaning for redemption, solicit from him spiritual advice and consolation: an evening is appointed for them all to meet together; twelve assemble the first night; forty the next; and soon after one hundred. This by Mr. Wesley is represented as the fourth period in the history of Methodism.

Soon after the opening of the Foundery, several members of the society and congregation offering to subscribe quarterly towards meeting the expenses incurred, leads to the appointment of the first Steward in Wesleyan Methodism.

1740. About the beginning of this year Lay-Preachers

assist Mr. Wesley as itinerant Ministers: "A young man," observes he, "Thomas Maxfield, came and desired to help me as a son in the Gospel: soon after, came a second, Thomas Richards, and then a third, Thomas Westell."

1740. Several theological disputes arising in the Fetter-Lane society, with which Mr. Wesley was still connected, pave the way for his total separation from them.

P.

VISIT TO THE CHINESE COLLECTION, LONDON.

No II.

THE dominions of the Emperor of China constitute the central portion of Eastern Asia. To the north are found the territories of the Russian empire: Burma, Pegu, Siam, and Cochin-China, are to the south. They extend to India on the north-west. When the traveller has ascended as near the summit of the Himalaya range as human foot can reach, and by some pass begins to descend towards the valleys of Thibet, he is stopped by the sentinels of the Tartar-Chinese Monarch. But that which is properly China is found at the eastern extremity of Asia; to the rivers and ports of which the vessels must go, which are permitted to trade with the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire.

Of these, amounting, as is generally supposed, to several hundred millions, little is known. The policy of the rulers has always been to keep the people to themselves. Hitherto, commercial intercourse with them has been extremely limited. The Portuguese have had a settlement at Macao, at the mouth of the Canton river, since soon after their discovery of the route to India by the Cape of Good Hope; but the principal trade has been carried on in what may be termed the suburbs of Canton, where different nations are permitted to have factories. At these, however, females are not permitted to reside; nor are they by whom the regular transactions of commerce are carried on allowed to enter the city. Certain persons, usually known as the Hong merchants, conduct all the business with the factories. One or two embassies have been sent to Pekin, but they who composed them were obliged to keep what may be termed the high-road between Canton and the capital; so

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