She had also attained the art of sewing. But the greatest difficulty at first was to thread her needle. Here, however, necessity became the mother of invention, and her plan was, to put the eye of the needle and the end of the thread into her mouth, and with the tip of her tongue to work the thread into the needle's eye; this, after repeated experiments, she ultimately effected. And now a new sphere of usefulness opened up to her, as by this means she was enabled not only to mend, but even to make some of her own clothes, and not unfrequently to aid many of her poor neighbours.

In this manner she would often busy herself during those wakeful hours of the night so often caused by the painfulness of her leg, and other bodily infirmities. Nor was it unusual for her, while all around her were asleep, to employ herself in holy meditation and communion with her God, or in composing verses on the sermons she had heard on the Sabbath or on the various incidents which had occurred in her own or others' experience. The following is a specimen of the manner in which she would versify a sermon which had particularly struck her. Text, Ps. xxvii. 9, "Leave me not, neither forsake me, &c."

Oh, leave me not, my Lord my God,

For I am weak and frail;

Oh, leave me not in darkness, Lord,

Nor let my sins prevail.

Oh, leave me not without Thy help,
Uphold me with Thy hand;
Oh, leave me not uuto myself,

For then I cannot stand.

Oh, leave me not without Thy aid
To guide ine in Thy way;
Oh, leave me not, for I'm afraid

Lest I from Thee should stray.
Oh, leave me not, but let me know

That Thou hast made me Thine;
Oh, leave me not, but, Lord, do Thou
Make all my will be Thine.

Oh, leave me not, but let me see
The riches of Thy love;
Through Jesus' merits grant to me

A dwelling-place above.

It would sometimes be remarked to her, "Mary, how hard it is to be blind." In reply she would say, "I don't think so. It is the means of saving me from many anares to which I might otherwise be exposed. If I could see, and should be married to an ungodly man, that would be a greater trial to me than being blind." Owing to her affliction, and consequent

inability to obtain a livelihood, she was mainly dependent upon the aid of the parish. But she was, notwithstanding, a lovely illustration of Solomon's remark, "A little that the righteous hath, is better than the riches of many wicked." And to shew her contentedness with her lot, we may here submit another of her versified productions. The Lord hath ta'en away my sight

That I might humble be;
Shall not the Judge of all do right,

Who knows what's best for me.
Ye saints, who put your trust in God,
Bow to His holy will,
Submissive bear your Father's rod,

Each murm'ring thought be still.
All that he doth is for the best,
Mysterious it may seem,

To shew this world is not our rest,

That we may rest in Him.
Oh, may I to His glory spend
My few remaining days;
To God my never-failing friend,

Be never-ceasing praise.

As regards the tone of her religious experience, it has been observed by one who knew her well, that it was "deep, solid, and uniform, rather than showy and fluctuating. I never knew her ecstatic in joy, nor overdepressed in sorrow. Concerning the pleasing she had learned to rejoice with trembling, and in the painful to bow with silent submission." Her last illness was particularly marked by this evenness of spirit. A calm serenity was the distinguishing feature of her final passage to the tomb, and was beautifully expressed in the language chosen by herself as her funeral text, " Behold God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation." (Isa. xiii. 2.) Many beautiful expressions dropped from her lips towards the close of her earthly career. The ROCK on which her hope was built remained unmoved; her prospects from its lofty summit brightened as she approached her end. And after walking with God on earth, she was at length happily translated to dwell with him in heaven. Her death took place on the 26th July, 1849, in the 66th year of her age.

"She being dead, yet speaketh." "And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them." (Rev. xiv. 13.)

THE RAGGED SCHOOL THEOLOGICAL DISPUTANTS. Just after I came in, a couple of rough-looking fellows, about sixteen years old, differed about the pronunciation of a word in the Testament. "It isn't so," said one. "It is," replied the other. "You lie," said the first. A blow came from the fist of the second. I ran to the spot and found them with their cuffs turned over in the true congressional mode. As I came up, they both began to look sheepish, and finally one said to the other, the one who had struck the first an only blow, "I say, Tom, we was only in fun, wasn't we?" "No, that we wasn't!" replied the other, and they immediately returned to their Testament. Surely many who have fought in the pulpit or in print, over some Shibboleth doctrine of the New Testament, will see their likeness here. May they not go away and straightway forget what manner of men they were. In nine-tenths of the disputes of the day, good men agree as to the things, but differ about the arrangement of their ideas or words.

CHRISTIANS AND THE USE OF PROPERTY.There seems a most faint sense of obligation --in many cases a total want of it-as to the devotion of property to the cause of chris

tianity. It is viewed as a personal affair between the applicant and the person applied to, the former regarded as an unwelcome intruder who must be got rid of in some way, feed or unfeed, rudely or civilly. The question scarcely ever seems to arrive, "Shall I not be an unfaithful servant if I withhold my aid ?" Still less is an interest shewn, an honest wish for the success of the cause, and a regret either not to be able to contribute, or only to a small amount. In short, the sentiment of being fellow-workers is quite wanting. I am not so uncandid as to make this an universal representation; but I do say, it is too much the general impression I have received. Christian reader, ought things so to be?

THE THREE STATES.-There are three expressions used to describe our relationship with Christ. There is, first, to be "without Christ;" that is the state of our nature. There is, secondly, to be "in Christ;" that is the state of grace. And there is, lastly, to be "with Christ;" and that is the state of glory. To be "without Christ" is our state by nature: to be "in Christ" is our state by grace; to be "with Christ" is our destiny-our happy destiny -in glory.-Dr. Cumming.

BAPTIST FOREIGN MISSIONS.

A circular to the churches, of which the following is a copy, has just been issued by the committee. We feel it to be of sufficient importance to warrant our insertion of the greater part of it; bespeaking for it, however, an earnest and prayerful perusal:

TO THE MEMBERS AND CONTRIBUTORS OF THE BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

Dear Brethren,-Africa again needs your aid, sympathies, and prayers. Trials of a most afflictive kind, though not without many alleviations, have befallen your mission. Again and again has the mission band been weakened by disease and death. And now we have to lament, from this cause, the announced return to England of our brethren Merrick and Yarnold.

Of the seven missionaries who in 1844 were toiling in this field, two only remain. Clarke and Prince have been constrained to give up the work through personal or domestic suffering. Alexander Fuller now enjoys the heavenly reward of his devotion to the cause of Christ. Sturgeon has entered into rest after a well wrought day of toil. And Merrick, worn down with disease and nigh unto death, in company with Yarnold, so recently sent to their help, is seeking restoration in England. Newbegin and Saker only are left, of all the European

brethren, to bear, emphatically, the heat and burden of the day. To these trials must be added, the return to Jamaica of some of those whose negro descent it was supposed would allow them to pass unscathed through the scorching heats of Africa. Only seven continue to aid our brethren.

While, however, there is so much cause for grief and apprehension, there is much more to encourage you not to relax in your exertions and your prayers.

"It is a field the Lord has blessed." Concurrent with these trials have been the marks of Divine approbation. The auspicious formation of the mission cannot yet have escaped recollection. You can remember the intense feelings of pleasure that accompanied the announcement of your Committee's resolve to convey to the shores of Africa the gospel of the blessed God. Shortly after the exploratory landing of our brethren Clarke and Prince in Fernando Po, they were called to witness the tear of penitence, and to rejoice over some of the children of Ham turning to the Lord. Within less than five years of that memorable visit, the church at Clarence consisted of 79 members, 210 enquirers, 350 Sunday scholars, 100 day scholars, and an average congregation of 450 persons. The sum of £250 had been contributed towards the erection of a house for worship. Stations were also formed at Bimbia, Came

roons, and Old Calabar. Translations, and preaching in the native language, were carried on by our brother Merrick, and enquirers from among the degraded Isubus turned their gaze towards the rising Sun of Righteousness.

The year 1846 was the first year of sorrow and trial. Mr. Thompson and Mr. Sturgeon were called to their reward. Four of the Jamaica teachers returned; and the health of all was more or less affected. For a time the mission at Clarence seemed drawing near to its extinction, from the threatened expulsion of our brethren from the island by the government of Spain. Yet, as if to afford us encouragement to abide faithful, the work of the Lord was not stayed; seven persons made confession of the name of Christ, and were added to the church. Bimbia and its one hundred and forty villages were opened to the gospel. Houses and school-rooms were erected, not only without interruption, but with the glad consent of the native rulers. A translation of the first two gospels in Isubu was ready for the press, and the first native convert on the continent was baptized. And not among the least of the tokens of Divine favour attending the exertions and presence of the missionaries, at every station slavedealing, by consent of the chiefs, was entirely abolished.

The return, a few weeks ago, of Captain and Mrs. Milbourne, who in the early part of the year sailed for Fernando Po with Mr. and Mrs. Newbegin, Mrs. Saker, and Mr. and Mrs. Yarnold, left the mission in the hands of Messrs. Merrick, Saker, Newbegin, and Yarnold. Painful personal or relative afflictions have constrained the first and last of these brethren, with their families, to turn their faces homewards.

Thus, dear brethren, the mission strength has been paralyzed. "I need hardly tell you," says our dear brother Merrick, "that leaving Africa, at a time when God is manifestly blessing my labours, is a great calamity to me-a burden greater than I can bear."

At the very time that this mysterious Providence lays aside the workman, is the seed he has sown springing up; and in the midst of these afflictive occurrences, were three converts to Christ, at Clarence, baptized into his name. Thus, severe as are these trials, yet are they accompanied by such displays of the saving grace of God, that we are led to the conclusion, that it is his will, notwithstanding these discouragements, that we press forward in a cause, which he so manifestly crowns with tokens of his favour.

And now, dear brethren, we turn to you. We ask you, in the name of our Lord and Master, to sustain us. We need both the men, and the means to send them forth. Will the churches of Christ present both the offering and the fire?

We want the men. Men who, from love to the Redeemer, will face the dangers, the fiery trials, the sickness, the tribulations which will befal them, with patience, meekness, and unshrinking fortitude. Men,

whom no suffering will dismay, no peril affright, no discouragement thrust down into the dungeous of despair. If you have them not, then let prayer, much prayer, fervent prayer, arise before the altar of God, that the Lord will "send forth labourers into his harvest," for "truly, the harvest is great, but the labourers are few.'

But if the men be given in answer to your prayers, We want the means to send them forth. The demands upon your present funds are more than enough to absorb the whole, and leave nothing behind for an emergency like that which now appeals to you. Must we, then, relinquish this "husbandry" of the Lord? Surely not. It was not lightly that your Committee entered, at your bidding, upon this work. If the cost was great, you generously and nobly met that cost. In a manner, almost unprecedented, every kind of gift, the nail, the vestment, the corn, was cast in profusion into the treasury. The first band went forth laden with innumerable proofs of your deep interest and anxious care. And now that the need again appears, shall there not be a display of the like generous impulse, and the same willingness to forward the building of the sanctuary of the Lord?

Brethren, we wait for your response. Your reply will indicate the will of God in this matter. With much prayer and deliberation your Committee have come to the conclusion that they ought to go forward. Without your aid they cannot. Will you, brethren, sanction their resolve, and with heart and hand bid them "God speed?"

Since the publication of the above, intelligence has been received of the death of Mr. Merrick. He died while on his return to England.

We have also read with deep sorrow, in the Columbo Observer of the 7th Nov. 1849, an account of the death of Mr. Davies, Missionary to Ceylon. At the commencement of the best period of life (his age was 34), he was peculiarly qualified by his distinguishing characteristic of deep conscientiousness, his great mental powers, his high and growing attainments, and the singular modesty with which they were all possessed and used, but never displayed, to follow the noble band with which God has honoured our Indian Mission. The writer of this notice well remembers watching his college course with deep interest, and fully expecting from such faculties, under such moral guidance, some distinguished results.

But the Lord's ways are not as our ways. We saw, as we thought, an invaluable missionary, accompanied by a wife equally valuable in her department, quit our college, and then our shores, for a sphere to which he appeared eminently adapted. And now all those qualifications are withdrawn by the Giver himself, and his widow, with two young children, is returning to England! And all this, too, when our Mission is embarrassed in its funds, and missionaries of a high order are much needed. It is a summons to submissive, but renewed and

more devoted effort in the great work. Mr. Davies was carried off after a short attack of Dysentery. "A closing scene more replete with calm triumph, has seldom been witnessed." "The general estimation in which he was held was evinced by the incessant enquiries of all classes of persons, from the highest to the lowest, when he appeared to be in danger,-by the large Concourse attending his funeral, including the Honourable the Chief Justice, the Honourable the Colonial Secretary, the Honourable the Queen's Advocate, &c.,and by the overflowing and deeply affected congregation, when his funeral sermon was preached by his survivor, Mr. Allen."

THE GREAT BAPTISMAL CASE-BAPTISMAL REGENERATION.

Our readers will remember that Sir H. J. Fust, the judge in the highest ecclesiastical court of the Church of England, decided that baptismal regeneration as held by the Bishop of Exeter and the Pope, by Catholics and Puseyites, is the genuine doctrine of the Church of England. The notorious Bishop of Exeter had refused to institute an evangelical clergyman of the name of Gorham to the "living" of Bamford Speke, because he held a different doctrine; one very far indeed, as we shall see, from New Testament doctrine, yet not quite so opposed to it as the bishop's. Mr. Gorham took the case before that disgrace of the laud, the Court of Arches: judgment was given for the bishop; correctly, on the whole, we think; hereupon Mr. G. appealed to the highest court in the land, the judicial committee of privy council,-a court, we believe, much respected for ability and equity on the whole, but a court whose leading members are lawyers of no pretension to either religion or religious knowledge. They are in fact the head, however, of the English Church, -the persons selected by her Majesty to decide for her all disputed church questions! Of one of the most prominent in this trial we heard a friend remark who had listened to him while speaking, "A very clever fellow, but what a pity that he uses an oath with almost every sentence!" Of course this not at all lessens his fitness to judge respecting the operations of the Holy Spirit in baptism.

We have read through the whole of the pleadings, at least to the extent to which they are reported in that independent, and, in many respects, admirable paper, the "Christian Times." The arguments on both sides are very ingenious, and amply demonstrate, if demonstration were needed, the futility of creeds, as a means of insuring uniformity of belief. Never after this trial can any churchman ridicule differences of opinion amongst Dissenters

Mr. Gorham's doctrine is, that in the case of infants there must be "prevenient grace"

to make the baptism of any avail to salvation; but that the grace may be given "before, in, or after the baptism." He holds too, "because the church teaches it, that baptized infants dying are certainly saved," (an evangelical clergyman so fettered by his church as to avow a doctrine with so barbarous and superstitious an implication!) The bishop holds, out and out with Rome, that the grace is tied to the baptism."

For Mr. Gorham it was alleged: 1st and mainly, that the Articles do not teach baptismal regeneration, though they do not explicitly deny it. 2nd. That the articles are the code of the doctrine of the church, and the liturgy her code of devotion. 3rd. That the articles were avowedly enacted by parliament for the purpose of "avoiding of diversities of opinion and for the establishment of consent touching the true religion." (Who will deny now that churchmen believe by act of parliament?) 4th. That, therefore, the doctrines of the Church of England were not to be collected from her devotional services; and readiness to sign the articles for doctrine and the prayer-book for devotion, was sufficient. Still it was felt by Mr. G.'s counsel to be an awkward position for a minister to use devotional services, which would not bear comparison with his creed; hence, he most ingeniously argues, 5thly, "That SCRIPTURE IS SILENT AS TO INFANT BAPTISM;' ""that from beginning to end the Scriptures have no reference to infant baptism." (All parties, throughout the pleadings, asserted this! Oh, that Independents were equally straightforward!) Hence that "the church" had wisely determined nothing on the subject! The articles only stated generally that the two sacraments were effectual signs of grace, and not only badges or tokens of profession, by which God works invisibly in us, &c." in the case of such as "worthily or rightly receive them." That worthy reception in the case of adults required repentance and faith, the nearest thing to which in the case of infants was "prevenient grace." The articles could not suppose that all infants had this grace, since they acknowledged the doctrine of predestination, it could therefore be only some infants who worthily received. 6th. But how square they with the thanksgiving in the liturgy for the child's regeneration, and the more express statement of the catechism? (Oh, the tortuousness of good men in a false position!) Why, the language of the liturgy is hypothetical, i.e., it assumes the best possible view of the worshipper throughout all its services, though most will be below its standard; so here, the liturgy is framed on the best case, that of those infants who have prevenient grace; and the form suited to them is used of all. The same charitable assumptions were made in the Burial Service, and that for the Visitation of the

Sick." "Clever! clever! very clever!" we exclaimed, while reading this. Worthy of a counsellor. But think of Paul resorting to such sophistry as this. 7th. It was also generally contended that unless the Articles disaffirmed Mr. Gorham's views, the bishop had no right to reject him.

On the other side, the principal arguments were, 1st and mainly, that as the devotional services of a church are those by which its doctrines are best known to its members, being constantly before them, while the articles are seldom used, they must be appealed to as of at least equal doctrinal authority with the articles. 2nd. That historically, and in the judgment of all the most eminent ministers of the English church, baptismal regeneration is the unquestionable doctrine of the liturgy and catechism. 3rd. That it must have been that of the articles also, since negative articles were constructed expressly to deny what was deemed superstitious in the doctrines of Rome, as transubstantiation, yet no article denied the doctrine held from the earliest ages, of regeneration in baptism; also the Calvinism (if allowed for argument's sake) of many of the reformers could not be opposed to grace being given in baptism, since many avowed Calvinists held that view; but it was denied that they were Calvinists. That the articles moreover expressly declared that the sacraments were "channels of grace." 4th. That Mr. Gorham's view was opposed, not merely to the baptismal service, but to the whole arrangement of its formularies, which treated all baptized persons as regenerated. 5th. That at the Savoy Conference, 1662, at which the present prayer-book was settled, and forthwith established by the Act of Uniformity, the bishops expressly declared "that baptism was spiritual regeneration," that "every child baptized was spiritually regenerated, and that to deny it led to anabaptism" (i.e., to believe in baptism). Surely the bishops were right enough here. They were wiser in their generation than our Halleys, Godwins, and Wardlaws.

We have given our readers now the pith of the arguments in a case which no Baptist should be ignorant of. A short time will probably give us the decision of council. We have always thought that when it came before them, although it seems as if they must affirm or deny baptismal regeneration, that they will do neither, but contrive to make Puseyites and evangelicals as easy as they can. They, as politicians, will stave off the political horrors of another "Free Church disruption." We may, of course, be wrong.

We must add that, in any case, we consider the evangelical clergy deeply and irrecoverably degraded by the whole proceeding. They have appealed to a court making no profession of religion, they have sunk to the low requirement that the articles may tolerate them as well as Puseyites in the same society, they have resorted to the most tortuous pleadings to shew the liturgy they daily use to be compatible with the

gospel, they have granted that Scripture is silent on the grand baptism of their church, -after all this we affirm that nothing can redeem them from the pity of the good and the contempt of the worldly, but an open secession from a church so corrupt in its worship, and which drives, while fettered by its golden chains, to such slave-like shifts and evasions. May God in his mercy open their eyes. Baptists must have gained two points in general opinion: 1st. That infant baptism is not in the Scriptures. We may now add the Church of England to our jurors on that question. 2nd. That Baptist views are the only consistent alternative for those who reject baptismal regeneration in infancy.

THE WESLEYAN CONFERENCE-RECENT PRO

CEEDINGS.

We had not intended to refer again, after the articles we inserted in our last volume, to the proceedings of the Wesleyan Conference in connexion with the Fly Sheets, and with the exclusion of Messrs. Everett, Dunn, and Griffith. It is always an unpleasant thing to have to condemn publicly the proceedings of another denomination of christians, especially one which has been so useful in many respects as that founded by Mr. Wesley; and nothing could induce us to do so, but a regard for the great principles of christianity, and a fear lest the religion we love should be compromised and degraded. The present case is one which we have conscientiously looked upon as calling for the interference of all denominations of earnest, spiritual men: we consider that our common christianity is libelled by the proceedings to which we have referred: and we therefore feel called upon to protest against them as unchristian, lest christianity itself should suffer in the eyes of the world.

It

The proceeding which has induced us to alter our determination not to refer to this matter again, is the issuing, by the President of the Conference, of a Declaration, to which each minister in the connexion is "respectfully requested" to affix his name, and which, with the signatures, is forthwith to be published and circulated. The object of the Declaration is said to be, to make known the "convictions and purposes" of the ministers, in relation to the leading questions agitated in the connexion. begins by declaring that agitation "unmethodistical," "in the worst sense of the term, revolutionary," and, "unchristian." It" affectionately warns all towards whom" the undersigned "sustain the pastoral relation, to take heed that they give it no countenance." The manifesto then proceeds to declare the organic changes demanded in the society,-such, for example, as the introduction of non-ministerial brethren into the Conference-as "legally impracticable," as well as open to "religious objections of the gravest kind;" and asserts the "resolution" of the ministers, "by the help and blessing of God, to maintain it to themselves unimpaired, and to deliver it over unimpaired into the hands of their successors." The undersigned then