CONVERSION OF R.

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solemn and impressive charge to the minister elect, and to the congregation present, at the ordination of the Rev. Mr. Hastings.

The day following Mr. Stanford was taken very ill, and continued under medical treatment for several days. In the meantime the prisoner before mentioned died of a malignant fever. "This occurrence," says Mr. S. " deeply impressed my mind with the importance of setting the Lord always before me; that amid the imminent dangers to which I am daily exposed in my visits to the sick and the dying, I may myself be prepared to meet my Saviour, whether he come in the evening, at midnight, or in the morning,"

The conversion of R

"When," says Mr. Stanford, "I first visited him, I was much surprised to find he was so seriously disposed. He said, 'I have but one desire in this world, and that is, that I may have an interest in Christ, as my Saviour and my friend. O, Sir, I wish you would inform me how I may obtain and know that I have indeed received this inestimable blessing.' I explained to him this text Hereby we know that he dwelleth in us, and we in him, by his Spirit, which he hath given unto us.' I also explained to him the office of the Holy Spirit, to convince the sinner of his need of Christ, and then to reveal him to the contrite in heart, and to speak pardon and peace. He thanked me, and earnestly begged my prayers, that he might obtain mercy through Christ.

"The next time I visited him he was very low, all he could say was, 'I am constant in prayer; I want to know that the Saviour is mine, and that I have an interest in his death, and then my death will be easy and happy.'

"A few days after this I asked him, if God had revealed his mercy to him. He said, 'O yes, Sir, I now think I have a knowledge of that interest in

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A PRISONER IN CHAINS.

Christ which I wanted.' His tears appeared to be those of joy.

"When I visited him for the last time, he was only able to utter the following short sentence:-' I have an interest and peace in Christ.'

"A prisoner (a French Roman Catholic,) in the opposite bed, was also very low. With this man I had conversed several times, and he appeared very thoughtful about a future state. Last week Mr. Roome asked this man if he wished to see his priest. He said, 'No; Mr. Stanford has told me all I want to know.'

died, the power of

"About an hour before Rspeech returned, and he spoke so loud that he could be heard in every part of the hospital. He possessed great composure of mind, and departed rejoicing in the Saviour."

The following lines were composed by a convict in the State-Prison, on beholding a prisoner entering the middle hall in chains :—

"Ah! mournful wretch, thy sad unhappy fate,
Draws from my eyes the briny pitying tear;

Thy clanking irons do thy case relate,

While keen sensations thou art doom'd to bear.

"I ask not from what source thy troubles rose,
Nor the recital of thy tale of grief;

I look at mine, as well as others woes,
And give my all-a tear for their relief.

"If tears could wash the stain of sin away,
And cancel all my fellow pris'ners guilt,
I'd weep from morn to eve, from eve 'till morn,
Nor cease 'till every trembling drop was spilt.

"But all in vain the tear for thee might flow,

Nought can avail to sooth the sorrowing heart
No joys or pleasures now our bosoms know,
With all that's social we are call'd to part.

HIS FIELD OF LABOUR ENLARGED.

"Yet may we all submissive be, and trust

TO HIM who hears the mourning pris'ner's sighs;
And well remember, He is ever just,

And lends a list'ning ear to all their cries.

"J.

163

P."

The services of Mr. Stanford in the State-Prison were not only gratuitous, but without any distinct appointment until the year (1812,) when the legislature of this state passed an act for providing a chaplain to perform religious services in the StatePrison. Immediately after the passage of this law, Mr. Stanford was unanimously elected to that office by the Board of Inspectors, and continued as the able and indefatigable minister of Christ in that institution, until its removal from this city to Sing-Sing, in 1828.

Having sought the guidance of the Lord, by continued prayer for direction, on the subject of an invitation from a society of gentlemen, to relinquish his academy, and take upon himself the ministerial charge of the City-Hospital and Alms-House, Mr. Stanford, on the 20th of June, 1813, resolved, in dependence upon the grace of God, and with the advice of some his most pious and judicious friends, to relinquish his academy, which afforded him a competent support, and devote himself to the Lord in this important work; at the same time, resolving to become a missionary of the cross to the poor and miserable of the city, wherever he might find them; on the 30th of the same month, therefore, he relinquished his academial engagements, after having been in this employment nearly thirty-six years. A transition so remarkable, at his advanced age, could not fail to excite emotions, which language was too feeble to express, and which nothing but a strong sense of duty could have enabled him to overcome. Nevertheless, his accustomed and holy submission, under all the changing scenes of life, assisted him to accommo,

164

A STRANGER ON THE EARTH.

date his feelings to the varying dispensations of heaven.

We have often contemplated Mr. Stanford with admiration, as "a stranger on the earth," not only with respect to his transient condition, but in the disposition of his mind. As to the vanities of this world, and all unfounded hopes of changeless bliss below the skies, he appeared to us like the royal David, whose soul was 66 even as a weaned child." Did the Almighty, in his inscrutable providence, tear from him the wife of his youth? Have his children fallen one after another, by the stroke of death? Like Aaron, he "held his peace." "I was dumb," says the psalmist, "and opened not my mouth, because thou didst it." Yes, he has been seen, like Job, standing upon the ruins of temporal prosperity, and exclaiming"The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

O how necessary to the enjoyment of true happiness is a humble spirit of submission to the will of God! In the ignorance and pride of our hearts we are prone to misjudge the mysterious dispensations of heaven. "A Providence occurs," says an able writer, "it strikes us, we endeavour to explain it but are we certain that we have seized the true meaning? Per

ZENO AND SENECA.

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haps what we take as an end, may be only the way; what we take as the whole, may be only a part; what we deprecate, may be a blessing; and what we most earnestly pray for, may prove to be a curse; what appears confusion, may be the tendencies of order; what looks like the disasters of Providence, may be the preparation of its triumph."

It is related of Zeno, that when, by a shipwreck, he was deprived of all his wealth, he openly declared, that he considered it to be the best voyage he had ever made, because the loss of his money had driven him to "the study of virtue and philosophy." What then must be the advantage of those temporary losses and afflictions, the tendency of which is, to wean the Christian from the love of this present evil world, and compel him to "seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God."

"I only want to know your will," said Seneca, when speaking to God, "as soon as I know what that is, I am always of the same mind. I do not say you have taken from me, that looks as if I were unwilling; but that you have accepted from me, that which I am ready to offer." As Christians, let us not only emulate, but endeavour to excel these noble-minded heathen, under the ordinary changes and calamities of life,