friend but the parish, no place in | but let your sufferings remind you which you might find refuge but of the sufferings of Jesus our Rethe gloomy apartments of the work deemer. What are yours comhouse; there were none to caress pared with his? He was born in you, and rejoice in your smiles; a manger. He was daily the obthere were none to dry your tears, ject of insult, and scorn, and haor supply your wants. But God, tred. His enemies were cruel, who is a 66 very present help in his friends were unkind. He had time of trouble," thought upon not where to lay his head. He you in your distress, and in a lit- was as an outcast in the earth, tle time he delivered you. Yes, despised and rejected of men. At my dear brother, it was God that length when his time was fulfilled, delivered you. He raised you up he began to be sore amazed; and kind benefactors. He put it into in the garden of Gethsemane he the hearts of his people to rescue endured sufferings which it is imyou; and now you are in circum- possible for mortals to comprestances of mercy which loudly hend; and on the cross of Calcall for your gratitude. Think, vary the awful scene was ended. my dear Joseph, what might have He bled and died. But why all been your circumstances. I shud- these sufferings? He was not, as ⚫der when I reflect on the situation you are, a sinner. He did not of the fatherless; pitied by none need afflictions to make him more on earth-the wretched object of holy, as you need them. Jesus, cold contempt-a prey to penury my dear Joseph, suffered thus, to and disease—and the unresisting redeem a people unto himself. victim of the meanest vices: for He died, that sinners might live; having no earthly friend, who and he is willing that you should shall sympathize with him in his come unto him, and obtain eter-. sorrows? who will regard his nal life. He will not refuse you wants with pity, and administer because you are a little boy; but to him in his afflictions? who is he will fold you in his arms, and there to encourage in the paths carry you in his bosom. He will of rectitude, or to deter in the guide your feet in the paths of career of wickedness? And you, righteousness, and he will supply my brother, would have been all your need from his own treathus destitute but for the abound-sury. It is impossible that your ing mercy of God, who is "a Fa- brother in India could receive ther to the fatherless, in his holy more pleasure than in hearing that habitation." Ps. lxviii. 5. O then you love the blessed Redeemer. let the orphan's sacrifice ascend to God: devote yourself to gratitude and praise, and when it is well with you, O pray for the Baptist Missionary Society, and Mr. and Mrs. Ivimey.-I would now entreat you to remember him who is called "a brother born for adversity." You have a world of affliction to pass through. You have already been exercised with a great deal of bodily pain, and must expect a great deal more;

Let your sufferings also remind you of your mortality. The seeds of death are sown in your mortal body. Prepare for eternity. Every pang is a kind monition, telling you that happiness is not to be found below, and that it becomes afflicted mortals to think of another world, where there is no pain. Farewell, my dear Joseph. May God still be your friend and protector; I leave you in his gracious hands, and

pray that this may be your de-ed from their allegiance; there

Where are your Fellow Travellers? indeed, in every sense of the

I

ness and sterility of the country, that I should one day " perish with hunger," Luke xv. 17. I determined to go, and if he would receive me, to follow him. went and mingled with the throng with which he was surrounded, and gazed on his unparalleled glories. I had heard of his compassion, loveliness, and grandeur, but the one half had not been told me. I said,

could be expected in such a conflict, but entire defeat, ignominy, and ruin: these indeed were their miserable portion. Their Sovereign, as a display of his infinite rectitude, and as a memorable and striking example to all beings in all worlds, frowned on the land which had produced nothing but traitors, and its fair features, the admiration of every eye, were immediately in a great measure deranged, and deprived of their Fly through the world, O sun, and tell glory; and the criminal inha-How dark thy beams, compar'd with his!* bitants, without exception, since I exclaimed, "Happy are thy they had all shared in this most men, and happy are these thy unnatural rebellion, were involv- servants, who stand continually ed in a general and merited sen- before thee! O that I might be tence of condemnation. permitted to occupy the meanest place in such blessed and ́ elevated society !" Luke xv. 19. I perceived, that there were scars in his hands, his feet, and his side, John xx. 20; and I learned that he had taken the place of the

The execution however of this terrible, but just sentence, was yet delayed; and I saw in my dream, that the King's own son, invested with the most ample powers from his offended Father, came, and proclaimed his inten-wretched traitors, and by his own. tions, all divine and gracious, sufferings and obedience, "even animated merely by his own love unto death," had satisfied the and kindness, fully and freely to righteous demands of the violated pardon all who should lay down law, and purchased infinite bliss their weapons of rebellion, and for a multitude of guilty rebels, return to their rightful Sovereign. that no man could number, He also declared, that though Rev. vii. 9. Unlike all other victhe deserved curse, which the tors, he had conquered by dy. unnatural rebellion had brought ing, and he appeared on his down on the land, should not be throne as one who had been slain, remitted, yet in many respects it Rev. v. 6. I saw him receive and should be turned into a blessing; pardon many of the most unand that he would safely con- worthy of my companions, and duct all who would obey his com- with trembling steps I ventured to mands, to a land prepared for come into his venerable presence. them by his Father," flowing Prostrate before him, I exclaimed, with milk and honey"-a land, which should be their own, of unspeakable and everlasting felieity. "Full of grace and truth," John i. 14, he came near the place where I lived, and, as I had often feared, from the dreari

I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am unworthy of the meanest blessing from thy hands; yet be merciful to me a sinner-Other Lords have had dominion over me, but henceforth by thy name I will be called. Art not thou the Saviour, whom God the Father hath sealed? Art thou not be concerning

declared, that they who did not serve and follow him, should assuredly die, and perish in their rebellions, Luke xiv. 26, 27. Mark xvi. 15, 16.

Many of my neighbours and acquaintance came also, and sup plicated his compassion; and they met with a similar reception. Indeed, I do not recollect, though I have had the happiness of serving my Master for more than twenty years, that he has ever cast a poor rebel out of his presence or service, however un

whom the promise is made, He | that believeth on him shall not be confounded? Thou art; and I come to thee, I believe on thee -I cast myself on thy mercyGod has laid the help of poor rebels on thee-and on thee I build my hope of pardon, of life, and salvation-I am willing, Lord, thou shouldst do with me as seemeth thee good-only let me be a vessel of honour in thy paJace, and let it be of wood or of stone, of gold or of silver, as thou pleasest-only let me have a place in thy family, and num-worthy. But during this period ber me, if thou wilt, among the door-keepers (Psalm lxxxiv.) in thy house, or the hewers of wood, or drawers of water-Call me, as thou wilt, to do or to suffer, to be exalted or to be trodden under foot, to be full or to be hungry, to possess all things or to be destitute, only reject me not-say not, I will not pity thee-I will not take thee into my service-if I perish it shall be suing for thy mercy-I cannot-yea, Lord, be not angry, pardon the importunity of thy wretched suppliant,

I will not let thee go, except thou bless me !"

many have left our society, and others have been added to it.

Now I saw in my dream, that in the course of our journey, all who followed my glorious Leader, peculiarly consecrated one day in seven, by his express command, to refreshment and repose. On these delightful days, he used familiarly to converse with each of his servants. It was, I think, so far as my memory will serve me, at the close, or the commencement of a year, on one of those hallowed periods devoted to reflection, when I had withdrawn a little from my accustomed soTrembling, and silent, I wait-ciety, and was meditating on the ed his reply-I durst not so much as lift up my eyes from the ground on which I had fixed them, Luke xviii. 13. I feared, that at least he would reproach me for my past rebellions; but in infinite condescension, and boundless grace, he called his servants and said, "Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet-This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found," Luke xv. 11-32. He assigned me a place in his royal household, and bade me follow him whithersoever he should go; he also repeatedly and solemnly

glory of my Master, and the unmerited and unspeakable felicity he designed to confer on me, that, amidst my solitude, some one in a plaintive tone of voice, made the inquiry, Mortal! where are thy Fellow Travellers? The question awakened me to a recollection of the way by which I had been brought, and to the history of my companions. The throng that surrounded my Master when I first supplicated his compassion, were almost all known to me; but numbers of them had quitted our society, yet so imperceptibly, and at such different periods, that I had

hardships, for which he was not prepared, and he could not endure them. He had determined to accompany us, but he had not counted the cost, and he was unwilling to make any sacrifices. So he went away, and walked no more with my Master.

scarcely missed them. I began, however, eagerly to inquire after them, and though I could not recall all my old companions to my remembrance, yet some of their histories were fresh in my memory. It may not, perhaps, be uninteresting or uninstructive to mention a few of them. I thought of one, who at first bade fair to persevere till he reached the land of promise; he had not however proceeded far in his journey, before he began to think of turning back; and having loved the rebellious country, of which I have made mention, he went back to it, going out from us, as might readily have been expected, because he was not of us, 1 John ii. 19. He made light of the infinite felicities of the plea-foretastes of the felicity they were sant land, whither we were journeying, Psalm cvi. 24.

I recollected another, who, though he professed an attach ment to my Master, never decidedly and heartily loved him. He was also secretly devoted to the service of the guilty rebels who contemned the government of the most gracious of Sovereigns. We were not surprised that he forsook our society, for it was but too manifest by the whole of his conduct, that his heart was never with us. He too returned, to perish I fear in his abominations. My Master said of him, "It would have been better for him not to have known the way of righteousness, than afterwards to depart from the holy commandment delivered unto him," 2 Pet. ii. 21.

A third, who occurred to my recollection, was a youth, who frequently, in strong terms, expressed his determination never to desert the service of his adorable Lord; nor did he, till he was called to encounter a few

VOL. XIII.

I could easily enlarge the list, but I must mention a few who left our company for " the pleasant land," of which I have been speaking. Having done and suffered the will of their Lord, he' sent his superior servants to bring them to his Father's court, where it is his glorious design, that all who love and follow him shall dwell for ever, partaking his glory and his joy. Indeed, before they left us, they had evident

about to participate. One of them, I well recollect, whose heart was immoveably fixed on the goodly land, a little before he left us exclaimed, "I go to Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant, to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the just made perfect.

Another, who was lately sent for to this blissful country, had such a delightful prospect of it, that the last words we heard her utter were, "Farewell to all sorrow!"

A third often said, that he was daily listening for the sound of the wheels of the chariot, which he knew would shortly convey him to his home. At length it was heard, and exclaiming, "I am ready!"—in an instant be entered into bliss.

A fourth, ere he quitted his accustomed society, looking round on it, said, "I would not ex