stances of comparative ease and comfort in temporal things, had been reduced to great poverty. The man had been a hair-dresser, and a householder in the city of London, constantly occupied in his business, not only in the six days of labour, but during the greater part of the Lord's day. Neither he nor his wife remembered the time when they had attended the house of God. The visitors pointed out to them their awfully dangerous state, standing as they were on the verge of eternity, yet totally ignorant of Christ; they exhorted them to attend the means of grace, to seek the Lord while he might be found. The message was brought home to the man's heart by the Holy Ghost, he came to the sanctuary of God, and never afterwards was he found neglecting the assembling of himself with the congregation in the church or at the prayer-meeting, while his health permitted him to be present. He at length was called from the church below, to "the assembly of the first-born whose names are written in heaven," and the ambassador of Christ, who has now also joined the ransomed throng, was heard to say, when speaking of this case, that in all his ministerial experience, he never witnessed a more triumphant death. The departure of this aged saint greatly affected his poor widow; she was now to be seen in the place where prayer is wont to be made, and the Lord opened her heart to receive the words spoken by his minister, and she also became a monument of saving grace. May we not add, were not these brands plucked out of the fire? Other instances might be adduced, but we forbear. May those who read this brief statement be encouraged to address themselves to the work of district visiting, or if they have commenced this Christian labour, and are somewhat disheartened by the little evidence they have of improvement in their districts, let them continue to persevere in humble dependence on divine strength, and in due time they shall reap, if they faint not. Mr. Saunders continued in the diligent and faithful discharge of his duties as a Christian minister until the first day of the present year (1837), when the congregation assembled as usual in the parish church; he read the service with much solemnity, and, before leaving the desk, audibly joined in the hymn of which the following are the commencing lines: My life, alas! is but a span, He afterwards ascended the pulpit with a firm and vigorous step, and proceeded to address the people on Colossians ii. 10-12, "Ye are complete in Him," &c. &c. He had just terminated the first head of his discourse, and had shewn in what respect the people of God were complete"1. In numbers. 66 "2. Position. "3. State and condition." And in the moment that he finished the sentence, "Ye are complete in Him,” he departed* to realize the glorious truth which his dying lips had just pronounced. The following brief notes on the second and third heads of his sermon were found attached to a leaf in his Bible, on which his hand was resting when he died, and as it may be instructive to your readers to peruse the words of him, who although dead, yet speaketh, I transcribe them. "II. How accomplished. "I. By being 'circumcised, made without hands'-so set apart, consecrated. "2. Putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ's by faith. "3. Buried and risen with him. "III. What corresponding circumstances should follow. "1. Being quickened together with him. "2. Having all sins forgiven. "3. Triumphing in Christ, and live the year to his glory." [From a Correspondent.] The circumstances of his departure were awfully impressive. He had quitted his home in perfect health, with the exception of a slight cold, in order, as was customary with him, to perform divine service in his church, on the first day of the new year. In the performance of this duty, he had read the morning prayers with unusual vigour, and it was remarked, that in the communion service his voice was more than ordinarily distinct. At the moment that he had concluded the first head of his discourse, by uttering that portion of his text, "And ye are complete in Him," he bent forward, and as instantly sank in the pulpit. Immediate succour was given, and medical aid afforded by Mr. Frederick Tyrrel and others; but his spirit had found its rest with that Redeemer whose all sufficient righteousness it had been the work of his ministerial life to exalt. From the Record. ON THE TENDERNESS OF CHRIST'S MINISTRY. THE whole scheme of the Gospel, conceived and executed as a pledge of the Divine love to man, is from first to last a scheme of tenderness and mercy. It provided for those who required the fostering care of some arm strong enough to help them in their hour of need-it gave light to the spiritually blind-it gave liberty to the captives under the yoke of Satan-it gave life to the dead in trespasses and sin. In a word, "by the bringing in of a better hope," the ministry which was established under the new economy, became known by the cheering title of the ministry of reconciliation, and its members were charged to deliver, as the peculiar message of their Founder, that "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son for it;” and that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." It would have been highly inconsistent with such a dispensation, if its Promulgator had not been distinguished for tender and compassionate feelings, or had God, in proclaiming it, displayed himself again to the world in the same overwhelming manner which had formerly caused the Israelites to entreat that the word should not be spoken to them any more, if accompanied by the same terrible appearances. "Let not God speak unto us, lest we die!" "If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we shall die!" Indulgent to this prayer, God sent his Son, clothed in all the gentle attributes which could attract or conciliate. He came, not as a mighty conqueror, not as a king or a judge, invested with the pomp and authority of human power, but meek and lowly, and humble, as the Saviour of mankind, the Deliverer from the dominion of Satan and the sentence of death. He came not with his rod and sword, the emblems of judgment, to terrify: but bearing his cross, and bowed down under the weight of the iniquities of his people, which the decree of his Father had laid upon him. He came, in short, fulfilling that beautiful feature in his prophetical character, which was foretold by Isaiah-" A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench." * * * * The whole personal character and behaviour of Jesus was ... so strikingly different (to that of John), that his enemies. took occasion to found a reproach on the contrast thus exhibited between the son of man and his messenger; "John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and ye say he hath a devil. The Son of Man is come eating and drinking, and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners." "They said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make long prayers. but thine eat and drink?" "Wisdom," urged our Saviour, in reply to these objections, "is justified of her children." He condescended to open a way into the hearts of his disciples by winning their affections, and thus, according to the apostolical precept, "pleased his neighbour for his good to edification." "For," as St. Paul continues, even Christ pleased not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me." He sanctioned, by his example, all the kindly feelings of our nature, and left, for the imitation of the Christian, a pattern of the manner in which, as a son, a relation, or a friend, the demands of society should be fulfilled; how the mutual charities, which tend to strengthen and endear the ties of domestic life, should be attended to: how the affections of the heart should be cherished and cultivated by all who desire to be conformed to the image of their Redeemer. 66 The pleasing medium through which Christ is thus exhibited to our contemplation, in all the tenderness of his personal character, brings him at once within the scope of our affections, and renders him an object of our love as our friend, as well as our Saviour. This sympathy with human feelings is the very groundwork of the confidence through which we come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy." For," as the apostle argues, "We have not a high-priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." 66 66 It is to this feature in our Lord's character that the Evangelists refer, when any striking instances of his mercy are mentioned. Did he look complacently upon the hopeful points in the character of the young man who came to him running, and asking how he might inherit eternal life? St. Mark tells us, it was because "Jesus beholding him, loved him." Did he give proof of his power over death, by_restoring Lazarus again to his family? It was because "Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." Was he desirous in his last conversation with the apostles to omit no topic which could edify, or comfort, or support them under their approaching state of bereavement? It was because, knowing "that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end." Did he so far forget his own sufferings in the moment of his last agony, as to provide for the support of his mother, and the alleviation of her sorrows during the remainder of the days of her widowhood? It was to the "disciple whom Jesus loved," that he recommended her for protection, as a last token of his confidence in the strength and permanence of his follower's attachment. Did he wish to convey some idea to his disciples of the extent and nature of his own regard for them? He could find no fitter measure for it than by comparing it with the love of God for his only-begotten Son, "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.” It is through his love that we have spiritual strength. "In all things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." It is through the same love that we are provided with his intercession in our behalf through all eternity. But above all, it was his love which produced that voluntary abasement and sacrifice of himself, which made satisfaction for the sins of the world. "We live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave himself for us." "Christ hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice unto God for a sweet-smelling savour." "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." And how is this love enhanced, when we think what those are on whom it is bestowed! Tenderness shown to man in his fallen state is surely the highest exercise of the feeling. "Yet herein God commended his love unto us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Again, Christ gave us the distinguishing badge of his religion, the precept of love, which was to know no limit, and to be restricted by no exception. "A new commandment, I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." "I say unto you, love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them |