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noble William then appeared in his eyes!how much more in the eyes of Him who 'seeth in secret.'

"Poor Willie had indeed a burden to bear! He could forgive his own injuries from Tom; but to think that after stealing and ill-treating him, he could deny it all,this was too much! As he lay for some time busy with thoughts after going to bed, he finally called to Martyn and said, I have been thinking all day what a blessed thing it is to forgive one who injures us. This is the first time I ever had such a trial, but I do not forget what my dear mother used to talk about so sweetly, Forgiving others as we hope to be forgiven.'' He soon fell asleep, and as Martyn stood gazing at that peaceful face, he well remembered those words of Jesus, Of such is the kingdom of Heaven.'

"Not many days passed before Willie was missed from his accustomed seat, and low whisperings might he heard from one to another, 'How is he; better or worse?' Every heart was sad and every countenance

was sorrowful, as day after day brought tidings of increased illness, and when at last No hope' was uttered by the physician, grief seemed to rest on every heart. If you could have entered that chamber of sickness and death, whom would you have seen bathing Willie's fevered brow ?-who watched him by day and night ?—and who, when reason for a moment dawned, might be seen praying that dying boy for forgiveness? Who, but the now penitent Tommy Beers! The lessons taught him by the example of that now angel boy, who was reunited to that mother who had taught him while here to love and forgive, were inwardly instamped upon his heart, as well as upon all those who composed that boyish group. When the funeral services were ended, and the coffin lid about to close for ever in this world upon that lovely boy ere he was borne to his last resting place, you might have seen poor Tommy steal quietly up and enclose a little flower in that waxen hand, the last gift of a penitent and sorrowing heart !"

Miscellaneous.

CHRISTIANS AND THE WORLD.-We are commanded not to conform to this world; that is, not to accommodate ourselves to the corrupt customs of the world. The christian must not be of such a complying nature, to cut the coat of his profession according to the fashion of the times, or the humour of the company he falls into, like that courtier, who, being asked how he could keep his preferment in such changing times, which one while had a prince for Popery, another while against Popery, answered, he was not a stubborn oak, but bending osier, that could yield to the wind. No, the christian must stand fixed to his principles, and not change his habit, but freely show what countryman he is by his holy constancy in the truth. Now, what an odium, what snares, what dangers, doth this singularity expose the christian to? Some will hoot and mock him, as one in a Spanish fashion would be laughed at in your streets. Thus Michael flouted David. Indeed the world counts the christian, for his singularity of life, the only fool. Many lose heaven because they are ashamed to go in a fool's coat thither. Again, as some will mock, so others will persecute till death, merely for this nonconformity in the christan's principles and practices to them. This was the trap laid for the three children; they must dance after Nebuchadnezzar s pipe, or burn. This was the plot laid to ensnare Daniel, who walked so unblameably, that his very

enemies gave him this testimony, that he had no fault but in his singularity in his religion. (Dan. vi. 5.) It is a great honour to a christian, yea, to religion itself, when all their enemies can say it. They are precise, and will not do as we do. Now, in such a case as this, when the christian must turn or burn,-leave praying, or become a prey to the cruel teeth of bloody men,-how many politic retreats and self-preserving distinctions would a cowardly unresolved heart invent! The christian, that hath so great opposition, had need be well locked into the saddle of his profession, or else he will be soon diamounted.-Gurnall.

But

DON'T BE DISCOURAGED.It is a fine remark of Fenelon, "Bear with yourself in correcting faulis as you would with others." We cannot do all at once. by constant pruning away of little faults, and cultivating humble virtues, we shall grow towards perfection. This simple rule, not to be discouraged at slow pregess, but to persevere, overcoming evil habits one by one, such as sloth, negligence, or bad temper; and adding one excellence after another,-to faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity,-will conduct the slowest christian at last to high religious attainments.

THE MONTH.

Entelligence.

It seems somewhat strange to mention as news, what has been on the lips of every man in England for weeks past,what has formed the subject of conversation equally in palace and cottage,-what has occupied space in every newspaper,— and what has furnished a theme for discourse in many pulpits. The most solema event that has occurred for many years must not, however, pass without record in our monthly summary. Scarcely had our last number reached our readers before the thrilling announcement was made which resounded through the whole land-" The Emperor of Russia is dead!" The statement seemed too strange to be credible, and for some time it was scarcely believed. But so it was. The mighty man of valour had bowed his head before one mightier than himself; and he who had defied empires, and sent millions out to war for him, was reduced to a heap of dust, from which even the cringing courtier turned away in disgust!

Succeeded by his son, now Alexander the Second, the question immediately occurred, What effect will the change in the occupant of the throne have upon the politics of Europe? That question is not yet satisfactorily answered. Alexander is, it is generally believed, more peaceful in disposition than his father, but how far that disposition may be controlled in its action by that popular opinion which is mighty even under a despotism, it is impossible to say. It is certain that since the death of Nicholas we have all looked with more hope to the Conference which is being held by the representatives of the great powers at Vienna. Up to the time we write, too, the result of that Conference seems to have been favourable to the restoration of peace. Let us pray that peace may be restored, at the same time that the honour of the nation is preserved. Nothing would be, on every account, a greater cause of rejoicing in England than the announcement of a peace -only, however, if on terms not inconsistent with the rights of the nations whose interests have been involved in the great struggle.

The reference to prayer reminds us of the" Fast Day" which was held on the 21 st ult., at the command of the sovereign. The day seems to have been generally observed, by Nonconformists as well as those connected with the Establishment,-theimportance of the object apparently outweighing for once almost all other considerations. Still a "command" to pray by the Queen, especially under the almost blasphemous threat of "the wrath and indignation of almighty God," could not be made without suggesting considerable discussion, and many thought it their duty to disregard a command so made. For ourselves we rejoice that the day was generally observed. The thing done was certainly right, though

the way in which it was appointed was as certainly not in accordance with our principles. It is for Dissenters to see that a form of command so offensive and foolish as the one used on this occasion, and handed down as one of the follies of a darker age, is not used again.

The siege of Sebastopol still continues, success being apparently as distant as ever. According to the last account, the fortifications of the besieged city are being daily increased, and every street, and every wall, bristles with cannon. If the citadel is

taken at all, it will only be after a loss of life that it is fearful to contemplate. It is a comfort to know that the state of things in the army is decidedly improved. The enquiry which is being made by Mr. Roebuck's committee has disclosed a fearful amount of inefficiency and mismanagement in the past, but it is also producing greater activity and zeal now.

Parliament has been engaged for the most part during the month, in voting money for the war. This it has done with the more ease, the veteran economic reformer, Joseph Hume, having gone from amongst the living. Million after million has been voted almost without a question! The Newspaper Stamp Question has been under discussion, as has also the Sabbath Question, a strange one indeed for parliament to meddle with. But the action of the House of Commons in regard to it, has been decided enough. By a large majority the House decided not to join in the recommendation of Sir Joshua Walmsley, to open the British Museum and the National Gallery on the Lord's-day. So that for the present, at least, the "Pearl of Days" is preserved to us. May it be long before the people of England are robbed of the precious treasure!

KING STREET CHAPEL, BRISTOL. An interesting service was held at the school-room connected with the Baptist Chapel in King Street, Bristol, for the purpose of taking farewell of Mr. Wm. Sampson, who has just sailed for Calcutta, there to engage in the missionary work. The proceedings were prefaced by a tea, at which there was a large and influential company. After tea, the chair was taken by the pastor of the church, the Rev. F. Bosworth, M.A. Prayer having been offered up by Mr. Jas. Smith, the chairman made a few appropriate observations, and then called upon Mr. George Ashmead, who was superintendent of the school at the time Mr. Sampson was a scholar. Mr. J. Edwards, deacon, the Rev. R. Morris, of Clifton, the Rev. F. Gotch, M.A., the Rev. W. Foote, of Honiton, and Captain Dyer, likewise addressed the meeting, and offered a few words of encouragement and advice to Mr. Sampson. In the course of the evening Mr. Wm. Smith, who was Mr. Sampson's Sunday school teacher, presented him, on behalf of a few friends connected with the

church, with two handsomely bound volumes of Dr. Kitto's Biblical Encyclopædia;" and at the same time, Mr. Bull, one of the students at the Baptist College, Stokescroft, where Mr. Sampson was instructed, presented him with the two published volumes of "Macaulay's History of England," subscribed for by his brother students, which Mr. Sampson suitably acknowledged. Obituary.

THE REV. ALEXANDER KIRKWOOD. Died, Feb. 21st, 1855, aged seventy-eight years, the Rev. A. Kirkwood, of Berwick-onTweed. A faithful labourer in his Master's work for half-a-century, his unobtrusive modesty, and his quiet, happy temper, shut him out from a wider sphere than his sterling merits would otherwise have secured for him, and left him during the whole of his long service (with a short exception at Beverley, in Yorkshire) the pastor of a small church in a remote corner of the kingdom. Yet were there many to whom he was well known: and to know him was to love him. As a preacher he was remarkable for the clear, logical, and argumentative character of his style. His taste did not lead him to the rhetorical adornments of a sermon, and they were not much cultivated in the school where he was trained (Mr. Haldane's, of Edinburgh). There was nothing flowery in his sermons; and throughout a long course of his ministry it was rare indeed that he ever ventured But there were two upon a metaphor. things in which he excelled. One was the grasp which his masculine intellect took of every subject he handled, exhibiting it not in one light only, but in every variety of aspect, and developing its relation to the several parts of revealed truth. Sometimes, indeed, he carried this to the verge of excess; and in the prodigality of intellectual wealth he would lavish upon one sermon thought so full and so redundant, that they became skeletons rather than full discourses, though even then their bareness of illustration only served the more to set off their massy framework. His other excellence was his knowledge of the human heart. There was, perhaps, scarcely ever a preacher-we have heard none-- who had more thoroughly anatomised human depravity, was more able to trace it through all its windings,-to detect it in all its disguises, and to lay bare, in all its deformity, before the eyes of the astonished hearer, the vice which he had unconsciously been cherishing as a virtue. We remember a series of his sermons on the commandments, in which he forced his auditors to understand more fully than they had ever done before David's character of them-that "they are exceeding broad," which, if they were recovered, would do good service both to the church and to the world.

In private life he was a most delightful and instructive companion. He did not seem to know what envy or bitterness of feeling meant: he was free even from denominational jealousy. Every minister

of every evangelical denomination was welcomed by him. Quarrels and divisions occasionally took place among neighbouring congregations, leading occasionally to the starting of new chapels, which, in so small a country town, naturally excited je.. lousy. In such cases, Mr. Kirkwood maintained his friendship with the old minister, and extended his welcome to the new comer. The language of his life was "Grace, mercy, and peace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." It would be difficult to describe the charm of his private conversation. His keen perception of character, his knowledge of man and his motives, rendered his parlour talk, as it rendered his pulpit discourses, ever fresh aud interesting; while his spirits, never perhaps high, but singularly equable, rendered him always ready for the pleasurable excitement of company. Especially was he a favourite with the young. The charm of his manner speedily set them at home with him; and as he encouraged them to pour out before him, without constraint, all their youthful hopes and aspirations, he would listen with a benevolent smile, then convey his advice so pleasantly and so wisely, and with such a fund of rich, quaint humour, that the listener felt his vanity rebuked without being himself mortified. Ah, how pleasant were those evenings, now long gone by

Mr. Kirkwood's church was never a large one. For this it is not difficult to account. Baptist principles are not popular in the North; and his opinions, though so mildly tolerant of other men's, continued through life to be strongly and deliberately in favour of the Scotch Baptist system. Further detraction from his popularity was some uncouthness of manner, which marred his usefulness, because it repelled strangers, till it was overcome, and even converted into a charm, by the superior excellence of his matter. Added to this, he and his church experienced the fate which befals so many of our country ministers, who are, in fact, the training masters for their brethren placed in our large towns, sending annual draughts of the young, spirited, and enterprising members of their churches to the larger centres of population. But if not a largely successful minister himself, he was something more-he was the maker of successful ministers. To his culture and forming mind the churches owe the late Mr. Mann, of Jamaica, whose memory, at the distance of a quarter-of-a century, is still green in that island; Mr. John Clarke, late of Western Africa, and now of Jamaica; and Mr. James Hume, also of Jamaica; and in the wives of these two last gentlemen he gave two daughters to the mission-field. Other ministers still labouring at home proceeded from his church; many more of various denominations have profited by his sagacity and practical knowledge of mankind; and this slight notice of his character is written by one who gratefully traces all his success in life to the early privilege he obtained of his cordial and enduring friendship.

THE CHURCH.

"Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone."--Eph. ii. 20.

MAY, 1855.

THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.

BY THE REV. EDWARD WHITE.

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities."-Psalm ciii. 3.

While a strong and complex argument for the existence of the living God is to be derived from outward nature, a clearer argument, both for his existence and character, is to be derived from the inward creation of spirits, the world of human souls. Conscience in every man reveals and implies a divine authority, a MASTER IN HEAVEN. It points to the -throne of God, as the needle points ever to the pole. The instinct of gratitude, bursting forth on sudden accessions of prosperity, or in preservation from sudden danger, the instinct of prayer that cries aloud in storm and shipwreck, in agony and death, alike bear testimony to the Benefactor and Preserver of men. And in the same manner, the uni. versal instinct of worship, the tendency of mankind to rise in thought towards an Intelligence which comprehends all things, or to bend in adoration before a superior Power, proves that there is some such living and eternal Power towards which the soul of man bears a natural relation, just as the broad mirror of a great reflecting telescope bears a natural relation to the starry firmament.

The Book of Psalms, therefore, as an ancient expression of gratitude, supplication, and adoration, which has given voice to the deepest feelings of mankind through thirty centuries, may be taken as a profound argument for the existence, power, wisdom, holiness, and goodness of the eternal God, the Author and Governor of this surrounding universe, The praises of thankful hearts ascend to God; the “unutterable groanings" of travailing humanity find their object and their answer in God; and the most aspiring thoughts and feelings of human souls ascend to the threshold of the "High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity." "The fool bath said in his heart, There is no God;" for the name of God is written in characters of fire upon the very walls of his own spirit's habitation.

In the opening words of this psalm, David calls upon the immense chorus of his spiritual faculties and affections to stand up and bless the Lord God for all his mercies. And he mentions first the greatest,-the forgiveness of sins. "Forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities. O all that is within me, bless his holy name." As the spiri*tual nature of man is the noblest portion of his being, so the spiritual mercies of God are his noblest bestowments. How few are they who do

VOL. IX.

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not reckon that the earthly and temporal blessings are the superior. He has already learned much who has learned the comparative worth of his mercies.

THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS is one of those familiar phrases in religion which so much require, and so well will bear and repay, the closest meditation. What do we exactly mean when we speak of, or ask for, the forgiveness of sins? We may say, first, that it is evidently a phrase having reference to the past, and to our present being as affected by that past. We are that which we have been. Our character does not consist of our outward history, but of that assemblage of principles, habits, and impulses which we have gathered or manifested during our progress through the outward history. And in that character the past has become an ever-present reality within us. As we carry about in the body the health gained by previous consumptions of food, or bygone activities, and also the diseases and scars contracted through former neglects or injuries, so the soul carries the past within itself as a portion of its present life. It cannot destroy the vital connection between its present and former self. That terrible unity and identity of consciousness forms an inseparable bond betwixt the two. The body changes daily, even to the bone; and in longer or shorter periods is all removed to make way for fresh materials; the mind changes many of its views, impressions, and feelings; but, amidst all these mutations, there is a living somewhat that abideth the same continually, one and immutable, so that it is impossible for the present to be aught except the transmitted past. In this view it may even be said as in one of the late Justice Talfourd's tragedies-that "the murderer has no past,"—the image of his act, and of his bleeding victim, is for ever before him. What awful misery this haunting of the recollections of a sinful lifetime sometimes occasions, as if a legion of furies were commissioned to chase the criminal out of the world! Thus it was with Judas. But the far commoner case is for conscience to be so stupified that although there is a dim and confused remembrance of past actions, there is not sufficient spiritual insight or feeling to awaken any acute suffering on the review. There is nothing beyond a dull aching of the heart when there is any considerable break in business or amusement, which, however, is enough to show what pains would arise if ampler leisure for reflection should occur, or if there should be any remission of the opiates.

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In most of us the past is a history of imperfections and sins. How different the character of an angel's memory, who can look back only upon a history, it may be, of millions of years of righteousness; never knew what it was to have disobeyed and offended God, or to have been guilty of a wrong; whose retrospections a good conscience for ever illuminates, as the full moon throws an extended flashing lustre over the wake of a vessel sailing on the seas at midnight.

As for us, when our minds are fully enlightened, we learn how awfully reasonable is this deep sense of sin in the soul, accompanying a life of undisciplined passion and godless impulse; and how well founded the apprehensions of a miserable future which arise on the review of the ever present past. For it cannot but become evident to such an awakened spirit that, in one sense, and that the nearest, closest, which the words will bear, all our sins have been committed "against God." We have offended not simply against a distant authority (as the Russian fraudulent functionaries say, God is in heaven, and the Czar is far off); nor against a mere delegated oracle in the breast, such as Reason or Conscience; but we have sinned against God in person, against his omnipresent Spirit, the Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. In every

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