He has sat as a refiner, and, when he has thoroughly tried me, he has brought me forth as gold. He has been mindful of me in six troubles, and he has not forsaken me in seven. No weapon formed against me has prospered, and in every temptation he has made a way for my escape. When my feet had well nigh slipped, his mercy held me up; and, though I have him oft forgot, his loving-kindness changes not. Often has he spread a table before me, in the presence of mine enemies; and when I have said, “I shall surely fall by the hand of Saul," how has he been mindful of me, and put all my unbelieving fears to the blush; by being mouth and wisdom unto me, and thus silencing my gainsayers, and making even my enemies to be at peace with me. Oh, the wonders of our wonder-working God! Methinks, if I hold my peace, the very stones would cry out. But I fear I have already tired your patience with my long scribble; I must sum up the vast account of the Lord's mindfulness of me in the language of the sweet singer of Israel, "Surely goodness and mercy hath followed me all the days of my life, and he will bless me.” Yes, "His love in times past forbids me to think Confirms his good pleasure to help me quite through." That he will bless me, I am quite confident; because he that has promised abideth faithful, and he cannot deny himself: for all the promises of God are in him-yea and amen, and all the blessings wherewith Moses, the man of God, was commanded to bless the children of Israel, belong unto us, as being Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise; an account of which we have in Deut. xxviii. and xxxiii. Time would fail me to enumerate the many sweet and precious promises that have been left upon record for our encouragement. In the prospect of future trials, your meditations, my dear brother, will no doubt be led more extensively into them than I can even hint at: suffice it to say, he will bless us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. Oh, what an unspeakable mercy to feel our safety in the Ark, when storms are gathering round the Church of God, and the Lord is sifting the house of Israel like as corn is sifted in a sieve, to know there shall not the least grain fall to the ground! I sometimes feel as if I were sitting down by the rivers of Babylon, with my harp hung upon the willows, when I consider the desolate state of Zion. How is the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed! Where there is no open vision, the people perish. Oh, what a famine have we of hearing the word! Surely Ichabod is written on the walls of the declension of truth, a rapid spread of error. Oh, how is Christ wounded in the house of his friends! Few will venture to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. When I look at the ancients of the house of Israel-those whom, in my younger days, I looked up to as fathers and mothers in Israel, instead of seeing them standing in front of the battle, they're like children playing with toys, saying, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos. They can hear the glorious doctrines of the Gospel traduced with impunity. I assure you, we have not heard one Gospel sermon since we heard you. Oh, what barren Sabbaths! No under shepherd to go before us! But why do I com. plain? Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? As you wisely observed in your letter, if the Lord saw fit, it would be otherwise. Blessings on his dear naine, we have seasons when he manifests himself to us, otherwise than he does to the world; and one hour's sweet communion with him is sweeter than all ordinances without him. Now, my dear friends, I think your patience must be exhausted; but bear with my weakness. I intended sending you a few lines on the opening of the year, but my time has been so fully occupied in the world, and with it, that I have not had time; and when I began (my pen having taken an endless motto, and I feel I have not half done) to remember the way the Lord hath led me in a way of providence, would fill a volume. Ebenezer, Ebenezer, hitherto the Lord hath been mindful of us. Beloved in the Lord, in sending you my spiritual congratulations on the opening of the new year, I send you my very best wishes, and earnestly pray that my covenant God may bless you and yours, in your basket and your store; in your going out and coming in. May he be your shade upon your right hand; may he go before you, and be your rearward; may you go against those who defy the armies of the living God, as David did against Goliah. God is our witness, that since your last visit among us, we cease not to make mention of you always among the brethren, that the Lord would grant you a prosperous journey amongst us in the summer. May the good will of him that dwelt ir the bush be with you. My dear and only sister joins me in all I say to you, in spiritual love to you and your spouse. Your ever affectionate Sisters in eternal covenant union, SARAH AND Ann. BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE SUDDEN DEATH OF TWO GOSPEL MINISTERS. In our leading paper for the present month, we have referred to the speedy removal of two of the Lord's servants; we subjoin a few particulars respecting them with which we have been favoured. ; While on behalf of those taken, the church of the living God has reason to rejoice, and thank him that it hath pleased him "to remove these our brethren out of the miseries of this sinful world :" yet, on the other hand, it is, or should be, matter of serious consideration: while it is their gain, it is our loss. We should rejoice to see the numbers increased, rather than diminished, of men valiant for the truth as it is in Jesus; "Pray," therefore, brethren, "the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth more labourers into his vineyard." Our God, the God of salvation, is not at a loss he can call forth out of obscurity men divinely taught. He is infinite in wisdom as well as boundless in love; and while in carrying out his wondrous redemption scheme, he takes one by death, and removes a second from one part of his vineyard to another, he has resources from whence he can supply the apparent deficiency. May pour out upon his church, in the present dark and gloomy day, a spirit of grace and supplication. We want to behold more love and unity among the tried followers of the Lamb; a greater striving together for the faith once delivered to the saints; less bickering and contending who shall be the greatest. We want to see them unitedly, as with the heart and eye of one man, LOOKING UNTO JESUS, and casting all their care, both individually as men, and collectively as members of one mystical body, upon him who careth for them. he [FROM TWO CORRESPONDENTS.] MR. JOSEPH BURNET, of Bethlehem Chapel, Woolwich, was taken home to his eternal rest on Monday afternoon, June 7th. At five o'clock he was seized with a fit of apoplexy. Near the close of the Lord's day morning he seemed to recover, and ate a hearty dinner; in the afternoon he came to the Lord's table, and after giving out the first hymn, he had another attack. The friends conveyed him home in a coach, and his medical attendant said there was no need for alarm, it was only an obstruction of the stomach. The friends brought these cheerful tidings back; but when we left the chapel in the evening, there was a friend waiting to tell us that our dear minister had had a third attack, which proved his conveyance to eternal glory, in the 68th year of his age. On Lord's day afternoon, June 13, he was interred under the pulpit in which he had laboured so many years, by Mr. G. Francis, of Snow's Fields, attended by a large assembly of friends. The solemn and deeply affecting service was concluded in the evening, when Mr. Francis preached the funeral sermon from Ps. cxvi. 15, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." This is another bereavement to the church of God which he alone can make up, and a loss that will be long felt by the decided followers of Christ, and especially by the mourning church and friends of the deceased; who, while they triumph in the glorious truths he so fully preached for thirty-three years among them, and also in the assurance of his eternal rest with Jesus, deeply deplore the loss of one who was made and kept valiant for the truth, and whose ministry was unctuous, stablishing, and, in a word, fully exhibited Christ as All in all in salvation. MR. PHILIP BUTCHER was born in the year 1775, in Lincoln's Inn Fields. It pleased our God in his sovereignty, to bless him with a God-fearing aunt, who superintended his moral conduct, and took him occasionally to Eagle Street Meeting House. About the year 1791, he attended the ministry of the Rev. W. Romaine, where he was convinced of his sin, and brought to a knowledge of salvation by Jesus. There was nothing remarkable in his conversion; it was gradual, and of a deepening nature. In the year 1793, he was admitted a member of the Baptist Church at Eagle Street, under the pastoral care of Mr. Smith; being about eighteen years of age. His fellow-apprentice was likewise called to the knowledge of the truth, so that they lived together in the fear of the Lord. Their master and mistress were not godly people. The apprentices resolved to ask permission to raise a family altar for reading the Scriptures and prayer every evening; the master consented, and which was, in the sovereign hand of God, the means of the master's conversion, who afterwards attended the ministry of Mr. Good. About this time he joined the Itinerant Society, meeting in Shoe Lane; and preached in Poppin's Court, Fleet Street, where he was highly respected for his quiet and steady habits: he delighted in visiting the sick and the poor of the flock. Thus he continued till about the year 1798, when he married a young woman, member of the church at Eagle Street, on whom the Lord laid his afflicting hand, which caused him to decline preaching so frequently. In the year 1803, through the deep afflictions of his wife, they visited her native place, Trowbridge, in Wiltshire. Here he was much favoured with the Spirit of the Lord in preaching in the neighbouring villages. In the year 1826, he was again brought to London, and in the year 1828, he received a call to the ministry at Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire; here he laboured with great success, having many seals to his ministry. In the year 1836, he was again brought to London, and soon after joined the church under the pastoral care of Mr. Denham, at Unicorn Yard. The apprentice spoken of is still alive, who says his ministry was always the same-no variation by time: for upwards of thirty-eight years he preached a full, free, and finished salvation. His preaching was clear and straightforward, strengthening the weak and confirming the feeble knees. He was led to think much of himself as a sinner, and to rest on the fulness of Jesus; by whom he had a well-grounded hope of eternal salvation. To God be all the glory! POETRY. Hail, monthly visitant! Its rolling waves from eastern shores. Thou art Of England's Church.-Oh God, their labours bless. Others there are, of other folds, who oft Present their welcome offerings; these too in I love to In strictest order, the great purposes Of portraiture, that is before me now, I see the features of a warrior, Strong and courageous; with undaunted brow, By his sins, could merit nought at God's just When he told of Jesu's sacrifice; while London. Immanuel's glory. Our country There is one who guides thee And, as a pilot to a vessel, holds Thy helm, and steers thee in thy stormy course, With him, Lord, and heal his wounds by thine own Oh, vouchsafe thy care and guidance to thy Abundantly bestow thy bounty on Thy precious ministers; and, as thou dost City Press, Long Lane: D. A. Doudney. E. M. L. P. |