tuaries and ordinances, of incalculable value. You have power and influence over others. You have an inward and deeply-seated impression of accountableness, with an anticipation of judgment and eternity, from which you can find no escape. Do you cherish realizing views of the responsibility under which you are thus laid? Are you alive and awake to the extent of the sacred obligations under which you are psssing through this world, and must soon pass out of it into another? Can you say, with sincerity, “O Lord, truly I am thy servant?" Are you say ing daily, "Let thy will and thy work be done by me on earth, even as it is in heaven?" Such is the servant whom the Master will acknowledge to be faithful; such is the servant to whom he will one day say, “Well done!"

Observe, 2. The kind and forgiving indulgence, on which our Lord's acknowledgment and approval must proceed.

Not one word is said of failings or defects; and yet what servant will be found at the right hand of the Master, when he comes in his glory, whose own heart will not remind him of unnumbered failures? Not even an apostle or a martyr will be there, whose memory will not record confessed and lamented deficiencies. Here then we are reminded, to the joy of our hearts, that the Master is the Saviour! The language of the covenant, ratified by his atoning blood, is, "Their sins and iniquities I will remember no more." Unspeakable is the delight we must ever find in the love and the service of such a Master! Truly his service is perfect freedom and its own reward.

But direct your thoughts and your hopes SECONDLY, to the future and glorious recompense.

1st. That recompense will immeasurably transcend the value of the services.

Those services being in themselves defective, are only rewardable under an economy of grace; and the amazing value of the rewards conferred, renders it evident that they must be, in every instance, gratuitous in their character. Even a cup of cold water given to a dis

ciple, from love to the Master, shall not be without its reward! The disparity between the service and the recompense is brought distinctly and vividly before us in this parable: "Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things;"—I will place thee over a greater and more honourable charge. The angels are described as "principalities, powers, and dominions." This seems to imply authority and rule as well as dignity and pre-eminence; and who can tell whether, in this respect, as well as in others, the faithful and devoted servants of the human family may not be made "like unto the angels?"

2nd. The extent and amount of the recompense shall not be regulated by the number of the talents entrusted to their care, but by the degree of faithfulness and of diligence in their improvement.

Each of the two faithful servants had doubled the capital committed to their charge, and to each the commendation and the promise are in the very same words. The diligence and the faithfulness had been the same. The amount of talents, then, does not decide the question regarding the amount of recompense. The extent of usefulness may not decide it. not decide it. How many of the retired and of the humble saints of God have been exemplary in their devotedness, and may receive the highest commendation and reward for faithfulness; while some who have been caressed and admired, with almost idolatrous applause, may not be found in the first or even in the second rank of approved servants, at the great revealing day.

The station occupied will

3rd. The recompense of the faithful servant is set forth in terms peculiarly touching and delightful.

"Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!" It will be the joy and blessedness which Christ has himself provided: "In my Father's house," he said, "there are many mansions; I go to prepare a place for you."—"Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me

During the vigorous prosecution of his college studies, in which he honourably distinguished himself by assiduity and proficiency, it was evident to me, by indications not to be mistaken, that he had, without reserve, consecrated to the service of his God and Saviour his mental energies, his days and hours, his studies and acquisitions. Nor in the cultivation of the intellect did he forget the still greater importance of "Keeping with all diligence the heart." His soul's health was the object of his daily care. He felt the weight of the precept, "Exercise thyself unto godliness ;" and beyond most men whom I have known, he was, I am persuaded, authorised to say, both at that period and in later life, "Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man."

Having successfully pursued and completed his college studies, with the encouraging attestation of several college prizes, and having taken his degree as Master of Arts, he accepted an invitation, in the year 1807, to assist the Rev. Edward Parsons of Leeds; and in the year following he became the co-adjutor of the Rev. George Lambert of Hull; with whom he laboured, "as a son with a father," in the ministry of the gospel for about five years. In the year 1812, he removed to Edinburgh; and accepted the pastoral charge of the church, which assembled in Albany-street Chapel. He discharged the duties of his arduous office with unwearied diligence and faithfulness, and with a very encouraging degree of success. He won the hearts of an affectionate and united church, by the kindly sympathies of his meek and gentle spirit, and the holy consistency of his character and conduct. It was with unfeigned reluctance that, after

During five years, Dr. Payne devoted himself, with indefatigable ardour and diligence, to the instruction and guidance of the students entrusted to his care, and then relinquished his presidency over that college; not to abandon the work for which he was so eminently qualified, but only to transfer his valued and efficient services to another Institution of the same order.

In the year 1829, he acceded to the invitation to become the President and Theological Professor of the Western College, which was then removed to Exeter, and recently to Plymouth. With all the advantages of matured knowledge, and the full vigour of his superior powers, he entered on the new scene of his arduous and responsible engagements. With what dignity of Christian character; what paternal interest in his pupils; what untiring assiduity; what extent of Scriptural research; what accurate and profound views of theological truth; what firmness of adherence to the Word of God, as the exclusive test and standard of doctrine; and what discriminating efforts to gain access to every student's mind and heart, for all the purposes of instruction and training, it is not for me, on this mournful occasion, to attempt to delineate or describe.

Scarcely need I apprize the friends of this Institution, that in our theological seminaries, it devolves upon each of the tutors to undertake various departments

of instruction, to every one of which, in the Universities, a Professor is appointed. If therefore a tutor belong to the order of minds, in which my beloved friend was conspicuous, there rests upon him a weight of labour, of care, and of responsibility, from the pressure of which most men who could realize the burden, would shrink with apprehension and anxiety. When, in answer to my inquiries, I have heard Dr. Payne enumerating the courses of lectures which he had prepared, and which he was continually improving; and when I ascertained the number of hours he daily devoted to his lectures with the students, I admired his assiduity, and I honoured his faithfulness, while I almost trembled for the consequences of incessant labour on a frame never robust, and, for many years past, betraying too plainly the effects of exhausting fatigue, and of personal and. domestic affliction.

You are well aware, my dear brethren, that the talents thus diligently and faithfully employed, were of no common order. Those who have enjoyed the opportunity of frequently conversing with Dr. Payne, and of entering with him on any argumentative discussions, need not be informed, that his intellectual powers were of a high grade. Seldom have I conversed with a man with whom it was so satisfactory or so pleasurable to argue; for very rarely have I entered into an argument with any one possessing such a combination of fairness, candour, calmness, clearsightedness, accuracy of thought, precision of language, and preference of truth to victory! Who would not value qualities such as these? Who is not impelled to pay the homage due, at once to intellectual power and to moral worth?

And these are among the qualifications which fitted my beloved brother, in so remarkable a degree, for the works which he sent forth from the press. They were most evidently the transcript of his mind, which had been long accustomed to movements in the channels of thought he opened for the aid and guidance of his

readers. This is neither the time nor the place for sketching the character, or appreciating the value, of his elaborate publications. I must content myself with observing, that there are two which would be sufficient of themselves to establish for the author a lasting reputation: the one is entitled, " Elements of Mental and Moral Science;" the other consists of "Lectures on Divine Sovereignty, Election, the Atonement, Justification, and Regeneration:" they will be valued in proportion as they are studied; and the latter of these works deserves to be ranked among the valuable bequests to the church of Christ by departed saints, who "being dead, yet speak."

And now it is due to the lovely character of my lamented brother, to pay some tribute of honour to the exemplary display of his faithfulness, in the most intimate and endearing relations of domestic life. As a tenderly affectionate husband and father, I know not any one who surpassed him. He was indeed united to one whom it must have been easy to love with an ardent and faithful attachment. It was thus he loved her. In health, her cheerful and buoyant spirit, elevated and regulated by the Gospel of peace, must have diffused a sunny light over his happy home and during her protracted sufferings, his tranquillising and sympathising disposition and temper must have been to her, inferior only to "the peace of God." Her loss he felt as you would expect such a husband to feel it; and he sustained it, under Divine support, as you would expect a Christian of such maturity to sustain it. But you shall judge of this by a letter which I received from him, under his heavy bereavement, which lays open all his heart. It is dated, Plymouth, 26th Oct. 1847:

"My very dear friend, I feel impelled, by the recollection of the long friendship which has subsisted between us, to make you aware of our loss. My dear wife fell asleep in Christ yesterday evening. She had been gradually sinking for several weeks. On Monday morning what I felt to be the cold dew of

death was upon her! She sank lower and lower; the pulse feebler and feebler, till at length we observed it cease to beat, and she went to rest without a struggle.

Her

"She has had no fear of death. faith and confidence were strong; and she spoke of dying as if it were removing from one room to another, as indeed it is.

"My first feeling has been thankfulness for her gain. I expect my second will be that of sad and dreary desolation. However, God is mighty and gracious. I will trust in him. I do not expect to be long behind. I have, in every sense, less to live for. I am thankful that she has been taken before me. May God bless to me and mine this trial! In her state of suffering, I could not wish her to live; and I would not, for her sake, ask her back again.

"I am, my dear friend,

"Very affectionately yours, "GEORGE PAYNE." Scarcely eight months did he survive that endeared companion of so many years! Nor was he at all disabled or laid aside. Long indeed had he been familiar with pain and debility; and frequent sensations of acute suffering, in the region of the heart, were supposed to indicate organic disease. With all these

much tranquil firmness of mind, and so much devotedness to the service of his Lord, that he continued to the last to discharge his laborious duties.

On the last Saturday of his life he went through his lectures with the students with his accustomed energy, and with even more than his usual cheerfulness and vivacity. On the evening of the following day he preached in this pulpit, on the words, "God is love," with peculiar unction and animation, expressing his desire to dwell on the glorious theme, even with his dying breath. And such, indeed, were the fervid breathings of that very discourse! On reaching home, not without difficulty, he retired to rest; and in the morning it was discovered that he was no longer upon earth, -for the Lord, whom he had faithfully served, had taken him to himself! In the stillness and the solitude of the night he had departed to be with Christ, and to receive from his own lips, as the Lord of life and glory, that bliss-inspiring welcome: "Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

For some further sketch of Dr. Payne's character, in the address delivered at his interment, by Dr. Burder, see Obituary

THE term assurance is generally understood to denote confidence of personal acceptance with God. It is not certain, however, that the term assurance is ever used in this sense in the Scriptures. In the Pauline Epistles, the word translated full assurance "signifies a full or an abounding measure." The full assurance of faith "is a firm and unwavering faith;" the full assurance of hope "is an abounding measure of hope;" the full assurance of understanding means "enlarged and accurate views of Divine truth." In the second of these instances, the phrase

"the full assurance of hope "-might seem to be used in the usual theological sense indicated above. It may bear, however, the more genuine sense, (in which, however, the theological sense may be included,) of confident hope of future blessings.

It is possible, however,-and if so, its desirableness will be admitted by all,for Christians to attain a settled conviction that they are in a state of acceptance with God: "These things," says the apostle John, "have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son