sorrow on account of its own wretchedness, but will also feel a lively interest in the sufferings of others. can we know that they exist, and not think about them, and without being convinced, that we also are workers of iniquity? can we be convinced of sin without feeling that we are undone, that we have lost the favour of God, and have exposed ourselves to his wrath; and can we feel this without hating sin, without repenting of it, without desiring and praying to be delivered from its present dominion and polluting influence, as well as from its future awful punishment? I hope you see and feel all this, and desire and pray for pardoning and sanctifying grace. If however you do not, I would earnestly entreat you to examine the subject with that carefulness which its importance demands. There is, I know, in each of us, a disposition to put off the examination of a subject which must be followed by painful con That this abject condition is the real condition of man is asserted in scripture, and realized in experience. If the voice cries, All flesh is grass;" we behold the children of men, of every age, and of every station, (no matter under which of the innumerable diseases that are abroad in the earth,) droop and die; and in the gloomy, silent spot where the trophies of death are deposited, we see, side by side, the infant and the full-grown man, the youth and the hoary-headed sire. If God declares, "there is none righteous, no not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God;" we behold youth spent in vanity, riper years in labouring for that which satisfieth not, and old age in all the miseries of disappoint-viction; but it is better to feel ment and guilt; or, through the the pain of conviction and rehardening influence of sin, in that pentance in time, than the pain shocking insensibility which views of despair in eternity. No one, without repentance the past, and on a death bed, ever repented feels no painful apprehensions that he examined the state of his concerning the future. We behold soul too soon: but what agonizworks of deceit, and folly, anding feelings have been occasioned rebellion against God; and in al! the schemes, and labour, and anxiety of the world, we see the body preferred before the soul, time before eternity, earth before heaven, and the creature before God the Creator; while, by the glitter and hurry of worldly objects and pursuits, men impose on their understandings, and deceive themselves; thus sacrificing body and soul for pleausures which they cannot long enjoy, and for possessions which they cannot retain. They sow to the flesh, and of the flesh they reap corruption. My dear friend, can these things be without our knowledge? by neglecting the soul, by living without God in the world! Such conduct has planted the pillow of the dying man with thorns; and many have delayed, and delayed, till they have lifted up their eyes in that torment, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. O, my dear friend, if you have hitherto delayed, delay no longer. No circumstances can justify a neglect of the "one thing needful." But your circumstances excite in the breasts of your friends a more than common concern for your eternal happiness. They hear the voice of your affliction A and they wish you to hear it; it is,ject, but which he strove to "Prepare to meet thy God." conceal, in order to support his Do not, I beseech you, presume former fallacious doctrines. on a recovery; I fear there is but lady, who lived near him, of great little hope of your living long: benevolence, paid much attenmedicine seems to fail, your tion to his wants, and used daily strength decays, while symptoms to carry him food to his dwelling. of approaching dissolution in- The time came when he was uncrease. But even should you re- able to leave his bed, and even cover, life will be uncertain; in then also did the kind hand of its best estate, it is but a vapour; his benefactress administer to his if spared now, the next breath of distress. afflictive air may destroy it. Besides, a proper concern about the soul is not inimical to life. Religion, though it requires self-denial, is the way of pleasantness, -the path of peace. Though it is attended by the cross, it counteracts many a pain. It soothes, enlivens, and strengthens the soul under all its infirmities, trials, and dangers. It is not only the most suitable companion in the hours of affliction and death, but it is also the best counsellor in the season of prosperity and temptation. In a word, "godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." (To be concluded in our next.) ANECDOTE OF THE Notorious Thomas Paine. Related by the Rev. E. Burn, at a late Meeting of the Bible Society, where he said he would answer for its Truth, THE death-bed is the place for prying into the recesses of the heart: it is there where are displayed the poignant agonies of an infidel. Some weeks previous to the decease of this wretched individual, he had been reduced in his temporal condition to the greatest misery, which was not a little augmented by the horrors of mind to which he was sub One day, seeing the approach of that fate which before he dreaded not, and being desirous to make some confession of the enormity of his guilt, he inquired of the lady, if she had ever seen a book he had published called The Age of Reason! She was reluctant to answer him, fearing it might add to the trouble of his mind; but being pressed for a reply, she said she had. And now we come to what we hope will go home to every heart: Paine, grasping the hand of his benefactress, claimed, "Aye, madam, if ever the devil had an agent on earth, I am that man!” ex THE WORDS OF CHRIST. THEY ARE, 1. Important. How important, let the despairing sinner on his deathbed tell; or he who is convinced of his sin, who sees that there is salvation by Christ, who would prefer pardon of sin to the wealth of the Indies, but who fears that the blessing is too great for such a sinner as him.-2. Attracting and persuasive. Matt. xi. 28.-3. Commanding and authoritative. Matt. vii. 29, and viii. 27.-4. Animating and consolatory. Rev. ii. 10, 17, 26. iii. 5, 12, 21.— 5. Interesting and impressive. The whole of the Gospels.-6. Suitable to our wants, and adequate to our most enlarged desires. Matt. vii. 7, 8. John xvi. 23. Juvenile Department. PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTIONS. No. XXII.-GOLD. Amid th' embowell'd treasures of the earth, whereas fourteen million leaves of common printing paper would occupy nearly three-quarters of a mile in thickness." It is the most ductile of the metals, and is readily drawn into wire of extreme fineness; indeed an ounce of it is found sufficient to gild a silver wire of thirteen hundred miles in length. It is not easily dissolved: it yields however to the influence of two acids, either the nitro-muriatic, or the oxymuriatic. Its solution united with ammonia IN proceeding to particularize may be converted into a fulminatsome of the metals, we begin with ing powder of a very powerful nathat of which mankind are so in- ture. Gold is found to melt at ordinately fond, and with which we 1300° of Fahrenheit, in which state are all superficially acquainted. its fine yellow lustre is converted One of the most obvious charac-into a blueish green; and it is reteristics of this metal is its beautiful and unfading colour. Several of the metals attract our notice by their colours in their bright and polished state, as iron, copper, and silver; but they so soon tarnish, or, (in common language,) rust, owing to their affinity for oxygen, that they offend rather than delight the eye. Gold, however, is not affected by long exposure to air or water, and being consequently durable, it has ever been valued for ornamental as well as useful purposes. more accus markable, that, by intense heat, it has been preserved in a state of fluidity for thirty weeks without losing in any perceptible degree a portion of its quality or weight. In forming our conceptions of the Almighty's perfections, we are tomed to contemplate their display in objects that are vast, than in those which are minute, although the latter, duly considered, are equally illustrative of their glory. Reflections on our present subject are calculated to enlarge our ideas Another of its characteristics is of the great creative and superinits weight, it being the heaviest of all tending power and wisdom, which metals, except platina. Possessing no are as really employed in all the great degree of elasticity, and not operations of the subterraneous being very hard, for uses in which world as in the revolutions of the it would be liable to wear, a small sublime orbs that travel the immenquantity of copper is generally sity of space. The solution of soadded to increase its hardness. Al-lids, and the solidifying of fluids, are though it has less tenacity than iron, copper, platina, or silver, yet a wire of gold, but one-tenth of an inch in diameter, will support a weight of 500lbs. It is so malleable, that it is beaten into leaves so thin, that even a breath of wind will carry them away; and, in this state, so various are its uses, that the trade of a goldbeater employs very many persons in large towns. "It is calculated that it would take fourteen millions of films of such gold as is on some fine gilt wire, to make up the thickness of an inch; subject to the nicest laws. Each metal has its particular degree of heat at which it dissolves, and, in returning to the solid state, nothing like irregularity or accident is seen, but its operations are uniform: thus, gold in cooling, contracts its bulk, and crystallizes uniformly in small quadrilateral pyra mids. Metals, in a state of rust, are in general so far from exciting curiosity, that they are treated with neglect, and abandoned with disgust; but the inquiring mind observes the riods. It is said in the 10th chap. ter of the 1st of Kings, "that King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver; it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon." From the same chapter it has been calculated, that Solomon received 27 tons of this precious metal in one year. The ostentatious and the gay may deplore the degenerate taste of our nobles in this particular, but the humble and the serious will see no cause for regret. Among the uses of this metal to which we have adverted, the quantity used in jewel greatest order in this process of na- | ture. In the language of that most useful of the sciences, chemistry, the rust of a metal is called its oxide, and of these oxides each metal has its distinct and various kinds, which are formed in peculiar temperatures with all the regularity of the most admired processes. Metals become oxidized by the property they possess of decomposing and absorbing the oxygen of air and water; but gold has so little affinity for oxygen, that it is necessary to have recourse to extraordinary means to oxidize it; such as amalgamating it with mercury and applying heat, or dissolving it in nitro-muriatic acid and precipitating it with a solution of|lery is much to be regretted, as potash. We are not very conversant therefore with the oxides of this metal, of which there are considered two, the purple and the yellow: the former of which is employed in staining and ornamenting porcelain. Besides the oxides, the metals have also their peculiar salts, many of which are already known to be remarkably useful. Muriate of gold | is the only salt with which we are acquainted belonging to this metal. While this salt may be employed for many entertaining purposes, in a state of solution with ether, it has been used for securing lancets and surgical instruments from the injurious effects of damp climates. There was a period, happily long since passed, when under the attractive appellation of potable gold, it was administered as an infallible remedy in many complaints to those who were rich enough to take the enviable potion. Besides the uses of this beautiful metal to which we have already alluded, many others might be added; but the recollection of the youthful reader cannot fail at once to supply many of the most obvious, such as its employment for coin, jewellery, and plate, on which occasions it is generally alloyed with silver or copper. Standard gold of this country unites twenty-two parts of gold with two of copper. It cannot be doubted, that the monarchs of antiquity employed this metal in much greater abundance than those of later pe greatly tending to foster that pride and vanity so disgraceful, although so common, to human nature. There is every thing in the condition of man to call for humility; how pitiable then must he appear to superior intelligences when he is seen wasting his time, his wealth, and his attention on little trifling distinctions! The example of the Redeemer is full of instruction in this respect. The real value of rings, whether placed on the finger, or more ridiculously and cruelly suspended to the ear, is best seen in moments of solemn devotional retirement, or in scenes of affliction and trial; indeed, whatever there is in our dress calculated to give an injurious direction to our thoughts, it would be well for us to avoid. Still more should we guard against the love of wealth, lamentable examples of which are furnished in every age. The explicit and awful declarations of the scriptures against avarice should be repeatedly read, and should give a direction to the duty of self-examination. It was a maxim of the ancients, now equally true, that the love of riches increased with their accumulation. O could the extravagance of fashion and the hoards of avarice but enrich the resources of benevolence, how would our charitable institutions flourish; how many helpless orphans would be provided for; how many afflicted widows would sing for joy! N. N. Obituary. EPHRAIM MARSHALL. of with the church of Christ in this place, our friend's mind was much harassed with fear lest he should THE venerable subject of this be a reproach to his Lord; but he memoir was born in Windhill, near Bradford, Yorkshire, April 4, 1745. anxiety by an application of Psal. was mercifully relieved from his With his youth we have but little xliii. 5, to his mind, acquaintance. At eighteen years Why art thou cast down, O my soul, &c.?" age he was married to Martha Hall, This support was administered when who at that time was a member of he was engaged in prayer in an the church at Rawdon. His mother out-house, to which he had often was, we believe, in connexion with retired before to hold converse with the Wesleyan Methodists. Our his God. Our departed friend, for late friend said, that about 1775 he had a remarkable dream, in which nearly fifteen years, had continued he supposed that two of his chil-church, when he was chosen to the a truly honourable member of the dren were burnt to death. This powerfully wrought upon his mind, and was the means of his conver office of Deacon, which office he filled to the glory of his Lord, and sion. In the spring of 1777, he and the satisfaction of the church, for nearly twenty-eight years. For a friend went to hear the Rev. Reynold Hogg* preach a sermon at many years before his death, it Kipping in Thornton, near Brad-pleased God to lay a very heavy affliction upon he bore with the most exemplary this good man, which divine will. At one time when his patience, and submission to the mind was painfully exercised, he was graciously relieved by Isa. xli. 10. "Fear not, for I am with thee." He afterwards observed, "These afflictions are all designed tion: I bless God for them. I have by God to promote my sanctificabeen afflicted these seventeen years, yet have always had great cause for ford, in defence of infant sprinkling: The sermon removed all their doubts about baptism. They both returned fully persuaded that the preacher had failed to prove his point; and that infant sprinkling was a practice not founded on divine authority. The consequence was, that Ephraim, and his friend Joseph Crabtree, were both baptized by immersion on a profession of their faith in the Lord Jesus, June 1, 1777, by the pious and worthy Mr. George Haines, at that time the Pastor of the Baptist Church at Shipley. After his union About five or six years after this Mr. Hogg became a Baptist. He has since that time been Pastor of churches at Oundle, Thrapston, and Kinibolton, and has lately succeeded the Rev. Wm. thankfulness, and none for com plaint. I never repented of serving my Lord, but have often mourned that I served him not earlier, and better." At another time he said, "God, who hath called me, is faithful. He has already done too much for me to leave me at last. I trust he has given me living faith in his name. None but God could have Brown as Pastor of the Baptist church kept me so long, and he has kept at Keysoe, near the last-mentioned place.me, and blessed me in a wonderful He was the first Treasurer of the Baptist Missionary Society. We reviewed in our Magazine for March an excellent little book written by him, entitled, "Personal Religion," Price 2s. manner. His visits have not been few, nor his mercies small; Glory! Glory! for ever to his name." To a friend who was sympathizing with him in his trouble he said, "Whom |