the joy of their Lord, leaving to others, whom divine grace may raise up, that work which is suited to their capacity, and intended for them to fulfil. Therefore, while we so heavily mourn those removed, who are necessarily dear to us for their work's sake, we should consider that divine wisdom has removed | them, only because their peculiar | work in the church militant below was fully accomplished; for had it not, their Saviour, who has the keys of death and of the unseen world, and who "shutteth and no man openeth," would surely have detained them longer below. Thus, respecting our beloved brother, while he was so endeared to us in every capacity, that had our feelings been consulted, we should never have suffered him to enter into rest but with ourselves; the work for which God pre-eminently raised him up, was evidently that of printing the scriptures in India; and we believe that to him was shewn herein grace and favour granted before to very few men in that particular line. To the language of the apostle, which the brother who came out with him, well recollects seeing in his diary in the course of his voyage, thus applied with reference to his own circumstances, “unto me whom am less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should print among the heathen the unsearchable riches of Christ,"-could he have foreseen the divine goodness to him, he might have added—“in twenty of their languages;" for the twentieth version of the New Testament in the Janguages of India printed under his eye, had advanced to the book of Revelation at the time of our beloved brother's removal; and we believe it has been granted to few men in the church of God, ever to print the New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in twenty languages spoken among the heathen. But for the preparation of all those founts of types which they required, and most of which had never before been seen in India, was his thorough knowledge of the art, his nice discernment, his assiduity, his indefatigable diligence, his love for the cause of his Redeemer, and the souls of the heathen, peculiarly suited. Yet all these founts prepared, and the difficulties attending these first editions of the scriptures overcome, the way is now made easy;-second and succeeding editions with the same types, involve so little difficulty, that the various native christian brethren and others, trained up by our beloved brother for so many years, can go on with the work under common European superintendence. Secing, then, that infinite wisdom and love thus guide all things, however mysterious, and that these are ever the same,-what remains, but that we all, who have seen sọ many of the servants of God around us removed in the past year, adore in humble silence what we are unable to comprehend-take new courage, and go forward in the work of Him who will cause his church to increase till, like the stone cut out without hands, it shall have filled the whole earth. And to animate us thus to abound in the work of the Lord, and do our own peculiar work in our day and generation, what can tend more than the example and the end of our beloved brother; whose life, at least for the last twenty-four years, amidst all the difficulties and trials he had to share with his brethren, was one uniform course of high usefulness and happiness of mind; and who, after so long a course of bodily and mental labour, and spirituality of soul, was in heaven adoring before the throne of the Lamb, within forty-eight hours after he had delivered his last message for his glorious Redeemer below! Let us then lift up the hands which bang down, and confirm the feeble knees, and, looking to Jesus, be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; forasmuch as we know that, prematurely as to an eye of sense we may seem to be called away, our labour, worthless as it may be, shall not be in vain in the Lord. Obituary of Mrs. Mary Bagster, late of Pancras, read by Mr. Ivimey fter her Funeral Sermon; preached at the Meeting-house, Eagle breathe, in so imperceptible a manner, however, that we for some moments were scarcely aware that his happy spirit had left its tenement of clay. Dr. Carey had returned about an hour previously. His step-son, Mr. John Fountain, to whom he had ever been the father, and Mr. B. W. Marshman, had arrived from Calcutta to see him, six or seven hours before his departure; but he was too far gone fully to recognize them. Thus in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and the twenty-fourth of his Missionary labours at Serampore, depart- | ed one of the most faithful, disinterested, and arduous labourers in the vineyard of his Glorious Redeemer, that India has ever seen. To enlarge on his character here would be quite superfluous; it is too well known to those who enjoyed the happiness of his acquaintance, for words to add any thing to the impression it has left on the mind. The next day, the news of his departure having been sent early to Calcutta, the Rev. Messrs. E. Carey, James Hill, Adam, Schmid, and Jetter, arrived from thence to pay the last testimony of respect to his memory, together with Messrs. Penney, Lindeman, Pearce, Kerr, Ricketts, and various other friends. At five the corpse was conveyed to the Mission burying-ground in a hearse, the body together with the coffin being so heavy, that it was feared our native brethren and the friends around would not have been able to convey it, as the distance was nearly a mile. All of them attended the funeral, however, with the servants of the printing-office, the paper-mill, &c. to all of whom our deceased brother was like a father. The various gentlemen in Serempore and its neighbourhood were also present, and a number from Barrackpore on the opposite side of the river. Previously to moving the corpse from the house, the Rev. E. Carey engaged in prayer; at the grave the Rev. James Hill gave out the 84th Hymn in the Selection, "Jesus thy blood and righteousness;" after which Dr. Carey addressed the congregation on this afflicting and awful providence, both in English and Bengalee; and Dr. Marshman concluded in prayer. The next Lord's-day week, the 16th March, Dr. Carey preached a funeral sermon for our deceased brother, at the Lail-Bazar Chapel in Calcutta, from Prov. x. 7, "The memory of the just is blessed," to the largest congregation ever seen at the chapel. Many friends of religion, and multitudes drawn by personal esteem, taking this opportunity of testifying their respect for his memory. On Wednesday evening, the 19th, Dr. Marshman preached a funeral sermon for our beloved brother, in the Mission Chapel, Serampore, at which were present the Governor, his Excellency Col. Krefting, and nearly every European inhabitant of Serampore, both Danish and English, with a number from Ishera and Barrackpore. As he had fixed on no passage of scripture himself, Dr. M. took this declaration of the apostle's as expressing the language of our deceased brother's inmost soul; "By the grace of God I am what I am." At the request of the. Rev. James Hill, Dr. Marshman, on the next Lord's-day, March 23rd, preached a funeral sermon for him from the same text to a congregation of perhaps six hundred, at the Union Chapel, the pulpit and desk of which were hung with black as a testimony of esteem. In this discourse a few particulars were given respecting our deceased · brother; with whom and Mrs. Ward, the preacher and Mrs. Marshman had come from England in the summer of 1799, and whom he had therefore known in the most intimate manner for Rearly twentyfour years. As the Rev. Mr. Hill and others have strongly requested it, should the pressure of business admit of its being prepared for the press, the sermon with these particulars, may possibly appear in the course of two or three months. In reviewing this sudden and afflictive providence, various reflections crowd on the mind. The first are, those of almost indescribable distress at the loss sustained, not only by the denomination to which our brother belonged, but by the church and the cause of God at large particularly as far as relates to India; | for Israel, David, in the midst of grief, perhaps never exceeded, "bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow," to prepare them for future action, and exhorted the men of Jabesh Gilead, who had already distinguished themselves by their activity and energy, to strengthen their hands, and be valiant, because of the affliction which had then overwhelmed Israel.-When Hur, and Aaron, and even Moses, were called to rest from their labours, the command of God himself to Israel was, to go forward in their way, to be "6 strong and very courageous" amidst the overwhelming grief which must have filled their minds at being thus deprived of all those who had gone in and out before them for so many years;-and his promise was, that in thus doing he would be with them, cause them to overcome their enemies, and possess the promised land. for although his family and his immediate colleagues in the work of God, feel the sense of their loss increased by all that recollection of his worth as a man, a christian, a husband, a father, a colleague and brother, which the space of nearly twenty-four years, spent in perhaps the greatest degree of social happiness capable of being enjoyed on earth, must continually furnish; our brother was not a man who confined his regard for the cause of God to one denomination. He loved all who loved the Redeemer, and sought to promote his cause. Hence his death is a public loss to religion; and those particularly whose spiritual good he laboured to promote, and whose hands he laboured to strengthen by his preaching, his prayers, and his extensive correspondence, whether they be in India, Europe, or America, cannot but feel this bereavement. In the beginning of the Gospel, But while we thus mourn the loss of also, when Stephen was prematurely our beloved brother, and cherish the removed in the midst of his high most tender affection for his memo- career of usefulness; a man **fall ry, it becomes us to beware of sin- of faith and of the Holy Ghost," ning against God under this dispen- who so preached the Gospel that his sation. It becomes us to recollect fiercest adversaries were not able to that every thing which rendered resist" the wisdom and the Spirit him so dear to us and such a bless- by which he spake;" how deeply ing to the cause of God, arose must the loss of such a man have wholly from the grace of God so been felt by all who loved the cause richly manifested in him. This of God, then so much in its infancy. grace still remains an inexhaustible We do not find, however, that while fountain. While we mourn his loss they so feelingly "made great lain the deepest manner, therefore, to mentation over him," the disciples suffer our hearts to sink in despon- and brethren had the least idea of dency, as though the Great Re- lying down in despondency. On deemer did not still live to carry on the contrary, they took courage, and his own work, who is the Sovereign" went every where preaching the Head of his Church, and from whom come not only every gift intended for the use of his cause, and all that diligence and love which may enable a man possessing such, to labour even more abundantly than others, but the blessing which must render these gifts and this labour effectual, and without which even a Paul might plant, and an Apollos water wholly in vain,-would be to sin against God, and to act contrary to the examples left us on divine record. When Saul, and above all Jonathan, was removed, by whom the Lord had done such great things VOL. XVI. Gospel;" and respecting some of them it is expressly recorded, no doubt for our encouragement, that "the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord."* And when, a year or two after this, James, one of the three disciples so eminently distinguished by our Lord during his life, and so justly esteemed one of the "pillars" of the infant apostolic church, was prematurely See Acts xi. 21. D street, London, on Lord's-day, November 10: where she had been a regular attendant for seventy years. MRS. MARY BAGSTER died on Friday the 7th of November, 1823, in the 86th year of her age. Her life furnishes a memorable proof of the special providence of God over his people; and of the exceeding riches of his grace towards them. Her name was Mary Denton, and in very early life she was one of four infants, who had been left orphans. But God raised up a friend for them in her uncle, Mr. Samuel Hodges, at Deptford, who was a member of a Baptist church in Southwark, of which Mr. Aldrick Cuthwick was the pastor. Removing to Richmond, and that church having been broken up, Mr. Hodges applied to this church for transient communion in January 1754, and was admitted. At this time there is no doubt Mary lation. ing her last long and trying afflicThis was especially the case durtion. She was, during these fourteen months, like good Anna, a widow of fourscore and four years old, waiting for the coming of the SaviDento ncame with him to attend the worship of God here, being about our, as the consolation of Israel: she thought his chariot-wheels were sixteen years of age. Dr. Gifford's ministry was soon after blest to her long in coming, but her expressions of disappointment were the ardency conversion, and from the period that her uncle removed to the "Brill," murmuring or complaint. By her of desire, and not the peevishness of near Battle-bridge, not long after-death being so long deferred beyond wards, she was a constant attendant the period at which she expected it, here; so that from her first coming she had an opportunity of glorifying to her death was a period of about God by bearing afflictions with paseventy years. tience ; by showing that through faith in the Saviour she was favoured with songs in the night; that she rejoiced in hope-was patient in tribulation: whilst she continued instant in prayer. It was impossito converse with her without being ble, I should suppose, for any one convinced of the excellency of the Let me die the death of the religion of Christ, nor without saying,› righteous," &c. The passage of scripture which was the mean, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, of bringing her mind to a state of joy and peace, through believing, was Zech. iv. 7, "Who art thou, O great mountain?" &c. grace, grace, unto it. Repcating this passage of scripture, in her late illness, I always found seemed to revive her earliest recollections, and to cause her heart to sing for joy. It was through her influence that her husband, the late Mr. Bagster, (for many years a worthy Deacon of the church, was led to attend this place of worship. After they had been married three or four years they were admitted to membership: the following is a copy of Dr. Gifford's entry of that circumstance. At the beginning of her affliction, down in writing :-and these may be : many of her expressions were taken considered as the fair epitome of her feelings and her conversation from that time till her death. I will give a few of these, arranged under the following heads. 1. Her humility, and faith in Christ." Nobody knows what a sinner I have been; but all my sins have been cast behind his back: he has washed me in his blood, 3. Her anticipations of the heavenly glory." I know I shall soon dieIlie contented in his hands: "O glorious hour, O blest abode, I shall be near and like my God; And flesh and sin no more controul The sacred pleasures of my soul.' I shall see my dear Saviour as he is! O my soul, you will be with him. When shall I depart, and be with Christ! I long to be gone: Death do your worst. 'I ask'd them whence their victory Ascribe their conquest to the Lamb, and clothed me in his robe of righteousness."" God has kept me from finally falling: Oh! what patience has God had with me! no human being would have had so much; but he is merciful and full of grace. And now, O heavenly Father, grant me an easy dismission before I sin, and dishonour thy holy name. But I trust I shall not do that; I have feared that I might for many years, but have been preserved; and I hope I shall not be suffered to do it now."-" Do you know," she said, addressing her relations who were about her bed, "Satan wished to place my heinous sius before me, but I told him they were all pardoned?" It was said to her, “What a mercy, it is a finished salvation." She replied, "Yes: but I would not sin; I would work out my own salvation with fear and trembling. I have often defiled my feeling manner, "You have a good garments, but it has not been wil-husband, so had I, and I shall incet libgly, with my consent: no, no!" I have been a great sinner; but I trust all my sins were pardoned when Christ hung upon the tree. He is my hope, my refuge, and my all." I said to her, “Christ has said, Because I live, ye shall live also." "Yes," she replied, “merciful saying." I added, If our spiritual life depended upon ourselves." Anticipating what I was going to say, she proceeded, "that would be a poor life indeed!" 66 2. Her anxiety for the salvation of her family. To one of her 29 grandchildren she said, "My dear boy, remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, when you shall say there is no pleasure in them. O pray to God to give you his grace. O pray to God. Oh it is an awful thing to die without an interest in Christ. God bless you." To her faithful man-servant she said, on bis cntering the room, and who had just been baptized, Robert, how does it stand between God and your soul. You have put your band to the plough; you must not look back. Keep your garments unspotted from the flesh. All your reliance must be upon the Lamb, the dear bleeding Lamb! He is a merciful and faithful High-priest, touched with the feeling of our infirmities." 66 She added, "All my dependence is upon the bleeding Lamb of God. He is all my hope-I have no other refuge." To a friend she said, in a most him again. Oh! my dear George, 66 For he was slain for us.' But one communion make; |