THIS great and good man was originally and singularly eccentric; but then his eccentricities never touched or impaired the fundamentals of truth, neither did they proceed from a wanton levity. He availed himself of the natural bias of his singularly constituted mind for the purpose of enforcing truth either practically or doctrinally; and if any one chanced to be upset by what appeared to be the ridiculous, he must have grievously failed to detect the animus of the man whose whole soul was engrossed with the most effectual enforcement of truth. If Rowland Hill was eccentric, he, at all events, steered clear of all the theological novelties and speculations of the day. No one ever maintained more entirely, through a long life, the consistency and stability of truth. He could scarcely speak with patience of the many "isms" which he saw rising up in the Christian world. Never did he fail rightly to divide the word of truth, and to dispense to all, in due season, the sound, wholesome bread of Scriptural Christianity. And whether we consider the immense congregation which he constantly addressed, the earnestness and beseeching with which he proclaimed Christ to his fellow-sinners, the assiduity with which he sought out and entreated all to come to him, or the lengthened period of his ministry, I often think that, perhaps, no one will be found in the last day, to have been the honoured instrument of sending so many precious souls to heaven, as this blessed man.

It appears from his biographer, that many anecdotes respecting him,

66

which have been generally received, are unfounded. I can vouch for the reality of the following: Mr. Hill was once preaching from the text, Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." (2 Cor. vii. 1.) After a solemn pause he thus began"Filthiness of the flesh !—that is beastly; filthiness of the spirit-that is devilish. Hence, if a man is given up to filthiness both of flesh and spirit, he is both a beast and devil conjoined; and where, then, is the boasted dignity of human nature? Who must not conclude that the sinner is abominable?"

On another occasion I heard him in his course of expounding the Epistles of Peter, on Friday mornings. He had come to the subject of female dress: "whose adorning let it not be," &c. I could not help thinking, that he conjured up one of the most ingenious and conclusive arguments against the love of dress which a preacher ever adopted. These were his very words: "I invariably observe that the ugliest women dress the smartest!" Of course from that day forward every female in the congregation would, in self-defence, become simple in her attire!

us.

Our ancient pillars are fast failing

Oh! that there may be no room to doubt that their mantle descends in all its entireness on those who come after them, and that the Spirit which dwelt in our venerable fathers is still as largely present with us in his saving influences.

REMEMBER what schools God will place you in, my brother, and do not then quarrel with the dispensations of God. Thy faith may at this present moment be dark; thou mayest have trials where others little suspect DECEMBER-1848,

their existence. Ah, one drop of bitter will often make the whole cup bitter; and this I know, one drop of sweet will make the whole bitter cup to be sweet! But if the Lord is placing thee in that school of

2 N

experience, what is it for? It is in that school that thou art to learn out the varied excellencies of Christ, though it is oftentimes painful, and mortifying to our nature. We have bitterness sometimes from God's saints: Christ is sweet! Faithlessness in this world: Christ is faithful. Deeper discoveries of one's own sin than one had ever suspected; His blood cleanseth, his righteousness justifieth, his grace is sufficient. I find the ear of those who love me, at best partially closed. How often do we find it! They cannot listen to us; they have heard it so often, they

cannot listen to us; they are so occupied occupied elsewhere by their own troubles. Do we wonder? But what lesson do we learn by it? I have one that bends his ear to me, stoops to listen to me, hangs over me, places his arm beneath me, never leaves me, never forsakes me. The sympathy of Christ! That one truth is enough to break our hearts; and the blood of Christ presenting us before God without a spot, and all this through free, unmerited grace; this is enough for every day, and hour, and moment of our existence."

THE thoughts of Christ are becoming exceedingly frequent with me. I meditate on his glorious person as the Eternal and Incarnate Son of God and I behold the infinite God as coming to me, and meeting with me in this blessed meditation. I fly to him on multitudes of occasions every day; and am impatient if many minutes have passed without some recourse to Him. Every now and then, I rebuke myself for having been so long without any thoughts of my Saviour. How can I bear to keep at such a distance from him? I then look up to him and say-Oh, my

Saviour, draw near unto me: O come to dwell in my soul, and help me to cherish some thoughts wherein I may enjoy thee. And upon this I set myself to think of what he has done, and will do for us. I find the subject inexhaustible; and after I have been thus employed in the day, I fall asleep at night in the midst of some meditations on the glory of my Saviour— so I fall asleep in Jesus: and when I awake in the night, I do on my bed seek him whom my soul coveted: the desires of my soul still carry me to Him who was last in my thoughts when I fell asleep.-Cotton Mather.

WISE agents always consider their end before setting upon their work; and then direct their actions to that end they proposed. If the mariner launch, it is that he may get to such a harbour; therefore he sails by compass that he may compass what he sails for. A Christian should have always one eye upon his end, and the other upon his way. That man lives a brutish life, that knows not what he lives for: and he acts but a fool's part that aims at heaven, and lives at random. A wise Christian's end of living

and

is, that he may live without end; therefore his way of living is that he may live continually to spend his life in the ways of life; he is walking in those paths, where he sees heaven before him. Oh my soul! what is it that thou aimest at? is it a full enjoyment of thy God? Why, then, while thou art present in this body, be always drawing near to the Lord: so when thou shalt be absent from this body, then thou shalt be always present with the Lord.

FRANCE. A few days past, a fresh body of colonists departed for Algeria. Whilst at the moment of departure a priest was addressing these poor creatures, one of our brethren distributed to them, in the name of the Bible Society, between 400 to 500 New Testaments, and some religious tracts, which were received with gratitude.

AUSTRIA.-The Archbishops of Saltzburg and Olmutz are, in many respects, independent of the Pope, and in ecclesiastical matters were also independent of the emperor. Having enjoyed their share of independence, they can appreciate its advantages, and now desire complete emancipation, not only for themselves, but for others. The latter prelate, and his suffragan, the Bishop of Brunn,* have already taken the lead in memorializing the Constituent Assembly at Vienna for the emancipation of nearly twenty-nine millions of Romanists from all dependence on Rome. A portentous revival of councils in Germany is also seriously contemplated. Here is the rumour at least of an ecclesiastical as well as national disruption-a rising of religious independence, which cannot lead to any result favouring the unity of Romanism. To our eye, this constitutes one of the most important features in the present perplexing aspect of the Austrian revolution. In correspondence with the Pope, some months ago, a schism, perhaps then foreseen, was threatened in retaliation for any hostility his holiness might commit on Austria, or might sanction. The threat was weighty; but the Moravian schism comes not from Ferdinand. It may proceed from the hand which "shakes

heaven and earth," and the presages of such a rending multiply. Already the clergy, seeing Europe

* See Christian Times, No. 5.

in action and the Pope in fetters, seem willing to move onward without him. No such movement can be ultimate, but must originate another; and once made, cannot be nullified. The independent Archbishopric of Olmutz has become the centre of an action which, especially in these times, cannot be ineffective.-Christian Times.

SWITZERLAND. - We regret to learn that the Head of the Deaconesses Institution at Eschallons, of which we gave an account in our October number, has been driven from her post by the strange spirit of persecution which is raging in professedly liberal Switzerland.

(From the Morning Herald, Nov. 1.) It is impossible not to be struckif the comparison occurs to the mind at all-with the prodigious difference which appears to exist at the present moment between the state, condition, and employments, of England on the one hand, and the various nations of the Continent on the other.

Never, we apprehend, since the dissolution of the Western empire, has Europe generally exhibited such a state of confusion, disorder, weakness, and disorganization as at the present moment. The south and the north, indeed, Spain and Scandinavia, are, as yet, but slightly affected by the earthquake; but all the central kingdoms "reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end."

"IL PAPA PIANGE!" "The Pope weeps! Weep, illcounselled Pontiff, weep for your vanished glory-acquired at so light a price, and lost at so costly a sacrifice of the blood of men, who idolized a vain man, an image of claythe shadow of a man.

"Weep, Pontiff-weep for the nations you have betrayed; for the destinies of Italy which your fearful, timid, paltry mind could not grasp; sheltering yourself under the sublime mantle of a religion which you might have led back to its pure fountain heads, but to which, on the contrary, following the old custom of your predecessors, you have added your own contribution of shame and defilement !

"Weep, O Pontiff!-THOU SCEPTRED AND LIVING ANTI-CHRIST (scettrato e vivente anti-Christo), weep for your dearly beloved Germans, and hurl at the heads of their slaughterers before proud Milan and unconquered Bologna-hurl all your thunderbolts-they have nor weight nor edge.

"The Pope weeps. Weep, Count Mastai, weep that the Providence thou trustest in has not yet granted the results aimed at in the destinies of Italy; for it is plain that the providence to which thou hast committed thy people means nothing more than thine ancient ally, the empire-that ever-faithless prop of the Simoniacal Рарасу.

"In order that Rome might lie tranquil under the double yoke of thine own demoralizing policy and of northern despotism, thou hast, in vain, commended thyself to all thy saints and so it should be. Hast thou not, in thy delirium of fear, reached to very blasphemy? Hast thou not dethroned the Eternal, and placed in his stead the Virgin, with the chief of the apostles for responsible ministers? Hast thou not, to these, rather than to Him, committed the guardianship of Rome, hoping, perhaps, that this Provisional Government in heaven, like Provisional Governments on earth, would be weaker and less watchful than that of the God of vengeance, the terrible God,

who stands for the defence of peoples, as thou dost for kings?

Weep, ween, Father-no longer holy'-weep that your orders to desist from fighting were treated like a light breath; and, as the idle wind, your orders of blind obedience to the compacts with the enemies of Italy concluded in the silent and sinister depths of the Vatican.

"Weep, thou favoured of Loyola, for even if the followers of freedom fall by the German sword, the followers of Ignatius will not go scatheless.

"Weep, Pope-weep burning tears over the tomb thou hast dug for thyself; weep, for Italy will yet be a great and glorious fact, while the Popedom becomes a polluted name; weep, for while Italy rises more beauteous from the stake to which thou condemnest her, the Popedom will sink into putrefaction and decay, amidst the joyous shout of emancipated nations."

France, Austria, Prussia, Italy, Sicily, Naples, are all in turmoil, without prospect of amendment or hope of rescue. But what of Britain?

Why, much might be said of crimes and follies, much of talents abused or wasted. But there are some hopeful symptoms among us; and looking at the occupations of Vienna, of Berlin, of Paris, of Naples, and of Rome, on these first days of the coming winter, we could not help being struck with one remarkable point of contrast.

Yesterday, a commemoration sermon was preached in London, by the Archbishop of Canterbury; and another in York, by the Archbishop of York. The Bishop of London preached in Bloomsbury Church,— the Bishops of Winchester, Salisbury, Oxford, Norwich, St. Asaph, &c.,in the cathedrals of their respective cities. In Manchester, last evening, twenty-one churches were open, and twenty-one sermons preached by as many different clergymen. The number preached in London, yesterday, we cannot arrive at; in the parish of Pancras alone there were nine. Cambridge, and many other towns, every pulpit was occupied with the

In

subject last Sunday. Mr. Dale preached on the subject at St. Paul's Cathedral, last Sunday afternoon, to nearly 3000 people.

And what was the occasion for this religious celebration? It was the commemoration of the fiftieth year of the Church Missionary Society.

"It was in the year 1799 that a little band of clergy and laity met together, to form a society for this purpose, and in 1804, the first missionaries went forth, to Sierra Leone. In a few years, others were sent to New Zealand, then to India, and to other fields. At the present hour, the Church Missionary Society not only is actively engaged on the rocky and wooded peninsula of Sierra Leone, among the liberated Africans; but has travelled a thousand miles to the eastward to Badagry and Abbeokouta. It has been driven from Abyssinia; but its missionaries have clung to the east coast of Africa, near Mombas, and have made good their footing there. In Cairo, that ancient seat of bigotry, the society is at work both among the Coptic populationthe descendents of the ancient Egyptians-and among the Mahomedans. India has many missions of the society. The sandy plains of palmgirt Tinnevelly; the rich woods of Travancore, clothed with all the splendour of tropical luxuriance; the great cities of Madras and Bombay; the long-neglected nation of the Teloogoos; the domes and minarets of Agra; the rolling stream of the Ganges; and the highlands of the snowy Himalayas; have all witnessed the love of God in sending his servants to preach the Gospel, and the converting power of the holy Ghost. The opened door of China has been entered by the society. In British Guiana, in South America, amid the swamps and tangled jungles of the banks of the Essequibo, tribes before unknown to Europeans, and living like the wild beasts of the forest, have been evangelized, and are now 'sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and

in their right mind.' In New Zealand the leafy glens and mountains, the lovely lakes and their rocky islets, have resounded with the prayers and praises of believers in Christ, who in their childhood were wholly ignorant of God, but who have heard of the living Saviour from the missionaries of the society. The negroes of the West Indies have also been the subject of our exertions. And far back in the prairies and woods of Northwest America, amid the burning heats of summer, and the piercing frosts of winter, do our missionaries continue to win souls to Christ, and to gather large congregations of the Red Indian tribes to hear of his love, and to join in prayer to him.”

The general results of its operations are thus summarily given:

Missionary stations
European clergymen
Native and East Indian clergymen
European lay teachers

Native and East Indian lay teachers
Communicants

102

125

14

43

1,299 13,010

Besides tens of thousands of children, in its many different stations, under regular Christian instruction.

The object of the celebration of this week, as one part of which a general meeting will be held in Exeter Hall this day, is, "to thank God, and take courage." To look with gratitude at the past, and with new resolve at the future. It is proposed by one simultaneous effort, to raise a special fund of £100,000 in the present year, to be employed in effecting several great objects. Two donations of £1000 each, from individuals in the middle walk of life, were announced last week.

Such is the principal feature visible in English society, in the first week of this month of November, 1848. And, certainly, no one will deny, that it presents a singular contrast to the occupations of most of the continental nations and cities, at the same moment of time.