Rev. R. Goldsack of Liverpool, to crowded and attentive audiences, the one in the evening being so large that a number were unable to find sittings, and had to stand in the porch. The discourse in the afternoon was from Ex. iii. 21, 22, and in the evening from Ps. li. 18. In the evening discourse he remarked that if we desired the Church to increase we must take care our own children were brought up in the doctrines and love of the Church, or else we could not expect it to increase by others coming over to us. Both subjects were very ably discussed, and we have reason to hope some good has been accomplished, not only to ourselves but to others outside our Church. The collections amounted to over £31, of which sum £12 was contributed by the teachers and scholars in the school. Obituary. Died, at Huddersfield, March 28th, 1876, aged 27 years, Mrs. Emma Jane Batey, wife of Mr. John Batey. Deceased had been connected with the Dalton Society from infancy, first as scholar, then as teacher in the Sunday school, and finally as member of the Church. By the quietness of her demeanour, and by the remarkable steadiness and faithfulness with which she discharged every duty she undertook, Mrs. Batey had long endeared herself to all who knew her. Her whole life was a religious devotion to duty. The early removal of our friend from amongst us, under peculiarly painful circumstances, has cast a deep gloom over the Society, a gloom from which there could be little, if any, relief, except such as our heavenly doctrines afford. She has left four young children, two of them only a week old, to mourn with her husband a loss which no earthly power can alleviate. We can, however, bid them look now toward heaven,' in the full assurance that all will in due time be made plain, and that this great sorrow will indeed bring forth blessing. 66 22 Departed into the spiritual world, April 14th, 1876, after a long and severe illness, borne with the most pious resignation to the Divine will, aged 48 years, Eliza, the beloved wife of Thomas J. Leadbetter of Macclesfield. The subject of this notice was brought up in the New Church, and was formerly connected with the Longton Society. Though removed through circumstances for a number of years from the privilege of a New Church place of worship, she retained her love for its truths to the last, and her extremely amiable and affectionate disposition endeared her not only to her bereaved husband and family, who feel her removal as an irreparable loss, but to all her other relations and friends. Her end was peace. On the 2nd April, at Farnworth Hall, aged 86 years, Ann Partington, widow of the late James Partington, whom she survived sixteen years. Her call was somewhat sudden. Appearing in her usual health, she retired for the night; about eleven o'clock she was heard to call for assistance, when it became evident to those around her that her earthly pilgrimage was about to close. prayed earnestly that the Lord might remove her, and in a few minutes her prayer was answered; very sweetly, and without apparent struggle, she passed away— "Hush every thought of mortal care; She The Rev. P. Ramage of Kersley preached a funeral discourse on the following Sunday. A On April 28, aged 69 years, Elizabeth, wife of John Martin, Liverpool, was removed to her heavenly home. thorough receiver of the heavenly doc trines, she and her surviving partner had the privilege of being connected for some years with Mr. Hindmarsh's Society at Manchester. She joined the Liverpool (North) Society about 1850, of which she proved an active member until its amalgamation with the Society at Bedford Street. Her life was one of much usefulness to her family, and to the Church in general; and she is now no doubt reaping that precious reward which the faithful only are privileged to enjoy. E. M. S. FUNERAL DISCOURSE. SUNDAY MORNING, May 28, 1876. "As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness."-Ps. xvii. 15. "Thou THE Psalm before us was written evidently in a time of severe trial. The Psalmist was harassed by unjust accusations, and he appealed to his Divine Judge. "Hear the right, O Lord, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips." hast proved mine heart; Thou hast visited me in the night; Thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing: I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress." He is obliged The good man has at times to endure heavy sorrow. to act occasionally when his motives cannot be clearly seen, nor his reasons at the time fully explained. Hence he is blamed sometimes for his worthier actions. Slight faults at other seasons are condemned with undue severity, and what would be passed over in others, is magnified in him. These periods of adversity have their purifying ends to accomplish. Divine love suffers them for gracious results. The love of the world is broken by suffering, sometimes by opposition and undeserved T obloquy, as clods are broken in winter. The soul turns from the angry growl of undeserved blame to conscience and the Lord of Conscience, and exclaims, "As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, in Thy likeness." The divine words we have selected for our meditation this morning imply that the Lord's face can be seen, mentally here, and actually in the heavenly world. They imply, also, that we can become like Him, our SPIRITUAL BODIES like HIS GLORIOUS BODY: "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, in His likeness." The words involve also the idea that life in heaven, compared with life on earth, is as awaking compared to sleep: "I shall be satisfied, when I awake." The soul has an innate tendency to accept the doctrine that the Lord is an infinitely glorious Divine Man. It yearns for God. The idea that God has no form, and that man cannot understand His nature, has no warrant in Scripture or in the constitution of things. It is but the utterance of all souls in their best moments which is expressed when we read, "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" Again: “O God, Thou art my God: early will I seek Thee: my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is." Men may not only hope to see the Lord, but also understand His real nature and know Him. "Let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord." "Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off." I "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." It is well to mark the qualification in the last passage,-the pure in heart, they shall see God. It is the same as in our text: "In RIGHTEOUSNESS, shall behold Thy face." In all things we see what we are prepared to The rustic sees only rough grass in the field; the well-instructed botanist sees fifty different plants with varying and valuable qualities. The common observer admires the stars as bright ornaments of the see. glittering canopy above him; the astronomer beholds suns, and worlds, and systems of far-reaching law and love divine. The righteous man beholds and adores the righteous Lord. The loving man beholds and adores the God of love. "Every one that loveth," says St. John, "is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is LOVE." The man who has sunk his moral nature into a low and sensual pit cannot see God. He has debased himself. He is not in the right position. "The fool hath said in his heart, No God." Let him ascend the mountain of the Lord; let him stand in the holy place of a pure heart, in which vanity has been overcome, and he will find himself irradiated with the glory of God. "There is a God, all nature cries, I find him still, a God of Love." The words before us not only announce that the Lord can be seen in thought and in His Glorified Body, but that man can become like Him: "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, IN THY LIKENESS." The spiritual body of a man is very unlike the Lord until it acquires a heavenly nature. "It is full of wounds and bruises and putrifying sores." The spiritual mind is indeed a little heaven, but the natural man, the lowest degree of the soul, is by nature A LITTLE HELL. The carnal mind is at enmity with God. "To be carnally-minded is death." The unregenerate man is dead in trespasses and sins, and the image of God in him is blurred, perverted, and fiend-like. Hence, regeneration is indispensable. "Ye must be born again." A man, as he is by nature, is like a dead body surrounding a living one. There is constant repulsion and antagonism between the two. No harmony, nor peace, nor satisfaction can exist between them until religion has first subdued the lower nature of man, and then restored it by degrees to the likeness of its Lord. "I shall be satisfied, Then only can full contentment be attained. when I awake, with Thy likeness." What a wealth of blessing is implied in this anticipation: "I shall be satisfied." Satisfaction, content, interior peace and full heartfelt delight: these are the objects for which all men are striving, but too many strive at the wrong place and in the wrong way. they seek to end it by changes without. The discord is within, and Nations seek satisfaction by war. They make a desert, and they call it peace. It is a volcano smoothed over, but with inner fires gathering for explosion. One seeks peace by doubling plenty, by enlarged trade, by increased possessions, by greater power, by wider fame, or unlimited self-indulgence. These are empty bubbles that glitter in the sun, but burst at last. They leave the soul hopeless and withered. Only in self-conquest, by power from the Lord Jesus Christ, can that peace be obtained which passes all understanding. "In the world ye shall have tribulation," said our blessed Lord, "but IN ME ye shall have peace." "The man who feels interior peace Alone can know its worth : Such was the conviction of the beloved friend, the Rev. E. D. Rendell, whose departure to his upper home has this day called us together. His life had prepared him for his peaceful death. Though many months were passed in extreme weakness, and often in great pain, he sank at last in gentle quietness, like a babe reclining to sleep, to awake, as our text says, in the likeness of his Lord, put on by an obedient life. Thus he has realized the description of the poet "The world recedes, it disappears, Heaven opens on my eyes, my ears With sounds seraphic ring. Lend, lend, your wings, I mount, I fly! O grave, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?" Mr. Rendell was born at Barnstaple in 1803, and received his education in boyhood and youth at the schools of the towns where his family resided, at Ashburton and Chudleigh, but chiefly at Bristol. He seems early to have contracted a love for reading, study, and elocution. Besides this, he had exhibited a taste for drawing and painting; and when his family removed to Salisbury, in 1818, he was articled to an artist named Dunn, and devoted himself to miniaturepainting. As youth developed into manhood, at twenty years of age his religious feelings were awakened. Eternal things presented themselves before him, and he felt their value as an heir of immortality. His reason Soon after this awakening, however, perplexities came. was startled and puzzled by the ordinary doctrines of the three Divine |