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aside, as an instrument out of tune, has been most painful to them: yea, so delightful has been the work in which they have engaged, that some have declared it as the wish of their hearts, to die in the pulpit. These views would apply to a worthy Minister who lately left our world, and who died as he desired. The Rev. Mr. Bowden, of Tooting, Surrey, was called to preach at Hammersmith, and while engaged in his Saviour's cause, dropped down in the pulpit, and expired!

Ibid.

"THIS IS WHAT I WANT."

A CERTAIN man on the Malabar coast, had inquired of various devotees and priests, how he might make atonement for his sins? At last he was directed to the following means:-He was to drive iron spikes, sufficiently blunted, through his sandals; on these spikes he was to place his naked feet, and to walk 250 coss (about 480 miles.) If, through loss of blood, or weakness of body, he was obliged to halt, he might wait for healing and strength. He undertook the journey; and while he halted under a large shady tree, where the Gospel was sometimes preached, one of the Missionaries came and preached in his hearing, from these words: "The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin." While he was preaching, the man rose up, threw off his torturing sandals, and cried aloud, "This is what I want;" and he became a lively witness that the blood of Jesus Christ does cleanse from all sin indeed.

Ibid.

N

ONE DAY BEFORE DEATH.

RABBI ELIEZER said, "Turn to God one day before your death." His disciples said, "How can a man know the day of his death?" He answered them, "Therefore you should turn to God TO-DAY. Perhaps you may die to-morrow; thus every day will be employed in returning."

Ibid.

CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE EXEMPLIFIED.

A FEW years since an attempt was made to introduce the Gospel into a village in Bucks. A worthy Clergyman was appointed to the Vicarage; but even the sanction of the Established Church could not screen him from the offence of the cross. He soon became the ridicule of a great part of the village, who even went the length of scoffing at him as he passed along the street. One man in particular made himself conspicuous for his railing against him. After having just suffered an instance of his persecuting spirit, the worthy Clergyman found it was time to make a return to his persecutor. The man was a shoemaker; the Minister therefore had recourse to the following touching expedient; he called on him the next day, and thus accosted him: "Be so good as to measure me for a pair of shoes.”—The manner of the man betrayed his astonishment, his sense of guilt, and his shame.

PREACHING.

THE judicious Bishop Burnet prescribed a way to stop the progress of the Puritan Ministers, when complained against by some of the Clergy for breaking into, and preaching in their parochial charges. "Outlive, out-labour, out-preach them," said his Lordship.

Dr. Manton, having to preach before the Lord Mayor, the Court of Aldermen, &c. at St. Paul's, the Doctor chose a subject in which he had an opportunity of displaying his judgment and learning. He was heard with admiration and applause by the more intelligent part of the audience; but as he was returning from dinner with the Lord Mayor in the evening, a poor man following him, pulled him by the sleeve of his gown, and asked him, "If he were the gentleman that preached before the Lord Mayor?" He replied, "He was."-"Sir," says he, "I came with hopes of getting some good for my soul, but I was greatly disappointed, for I could not understand a great deal of what you said; you were quite above me." "Friend,

if I did not give you a sermon, you have given me one; and, by the grace of God, I will never play the fool to preach before my Lord Mayor in such a manner again.

There is nothing like simplicity in preaching. The Rev. Mr. Berridge, although long accustomed to the schools, was remarkably careful to preach with great plainness of speech, so much so, that, if possible, there might not be uttered a word but the meanest of his hearers might understand. On an occasion when the Rev. Mr. Romaine had been preaching at his church, after the service the good Vicar said, "Brother Ro

maine, your sermon was good, but my people cannot understand your language." Mr. Romaine, whose style was remarkably simple, could not recollect any expression in his sermon that could be above their comprehension, and therefore requested him to mention it. Mr. Berridge said, "You have endeavoured to prove that God is omniscient and omnipotent; but if you had said that God was almighty, and knew every thing, they would have understood you." Let young Divines, especially those who are called to preach to plain and simple congregations, remember this.

The Rev. Mr. Berridge is said in one year to have been visited by a thousand different persons under serious impressions; and it has been computed, that under his own, and the joint ministry of Mr. Hicks, about four thousand were awakened to a concern for their souls in the space of twelvemonths. Incredible as this may appear, it comes authenticated through a channel so respectable, that it would be illiberal to disbelieve it.

The Rev. Mr. Grimshaw was very laborious, faithful, and useful in his work. Without intermitting his stated services at home, he went much abroad. In a course of time he established two circuits, which, with some occasional variations, he usually traced every week, alternately. One of these he often pleasantly called his idle week, because he seldom preached more than twelve or fourteen times. His sermons in his working, or busy week, often exceeded the number of twenty-four, and sometimes amounted to thirty.

He once apologized for the length of his discourse to this effect: "If I were in some situations, I might not think it needful to speak so much; but many of my hearers who are wicked and careless, are likewise

very ignorant, and very slow of apprehension. If they do not understand me, I cannot hope to do them good; and when I think of the uncertainty of life, that perhaps it may be the last opportunity afforded, and that it is possible I may never see them again till I meet them in the great day, I know not how to be explicit enough. I endeavour to set the subject in a variety of lights; I express the same thoughts in different words, and can scarcely tell how to leave off, lest I should have omitted something, for the want of which my preaching and their hearing might prove in vain. And thus, though I fear I weary others, I am still unable to satisfy myself."

Though he often preached to great numbers, he was a no less attentive servant to a few. When any were willing to hear, he was ready to preach; and he often cheerfully walked miles in the winter, in storms of wind, rain, or snow, upon lonely unsheltered moors, to preach to a small company of poor, aged, decrepid people, in a cottage.

Buck's Anecdotes.

THE INTERESTING INSTANCE.

"Yes,

The mother of a Sunday-School boy, about thirteen years of age, who had just lost her husband, overwhelmed with grief, exclaimed, "O how we shall miss your father at morning and evening prayer!" mother," said the boy, "we shall miss him, but for all that, we must not forget nor omit it, and if you will permit me, I will try." This excellent boy has officiated as leader in the devotional exercises ever since. Juvenile Anecdotes.

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