JAMES PAINE. OBITUARY. ON July 24, 1831, died Mr. James Paine, of Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire-a man whose usefulness and devotedness to God, rendered him highly respected by his relatives and pious friends, many of whom dropped the tear of genuine sorrow over his grave, and all of whom will cherish his memory with unfeigned fondness and affection. terest of Jesus for a friend. Nor was he concerned merely for the prosperity of the cause of Christ at Gamlingay, but was anxious that the savour of the knowledge of the Redeemer should be made manifest in every place. He was deeply interested in the propagation of the Gospel throughout the world, and was most cordial in affording his assistance to missions. As a husband and a father, the kindness and tenderness of Mr. Paine were exemplary. His affection for his bereaved partner and children increased with his days. About an hour before his death, observing a friend speaking to his afflicted wife, he said, “ Don't forget the dear woman." More than two years ago he was visited with a serious and painful affliction, from which he never entirely recovered. But as his tribulation abounded, his consola tion much more abounded. The grace of trusted, was the following ، "On the 4th of March, 1829, I visited him, and found him very happy. I never supposed,' he said, that I should feel reluctant to leave the world, and now I find I do not." It was the privilege of Mr. Paine to have pious parents, whose prayers were, no doubt, frequently and fervently presented to God in behalf of their children; and with regard to the deceased, and several others of their family, their supplications were not in vain. The precise era of our friend's conversion I have not ascertained; but it is certain that at an early age he sought the God of his father, and that he was early blessed of God. Owing, however, to different circumstances,which the Saviour, in whom he it is needless to mention, it was long be- sufficient for him. Of this fore he ventured to make a public pro-account of his pastor's interviews with fession. It was not until March, 1805, him, extracted from the funeral sermon, that he became a member of the church at will afford ample proof. Gamlingay; and, in the same month, he was also chosen a deacon ; the duties of which office he discharged with a uniform regard to the good of the society. At prayer and church meetings, as long as his health, would admit, he was a steady attendant; and, at the latter, h's conduct was such as deserves to be re corded. Though possessed of considerable property and influence, he there beiayed with the meekness of wisdom. He never appeared like a man that was actu ated by a spirit of worldly ambition, and determined to make his words and opinions influence the minds of others. He was not one of those lorldly deacons who wish to have undue pre-eminence in the church; but his conduct was always such as was calculated to give satisfaction to his pastor, and to every one of his brethren. Prudent, judicious, and affectionate, he was one of those valuable men to whom a minister may look for comfort, and the inVOL. VII. 3d Series. He On the 8th, which was Lord's day, I saw him after the evening service. had been very ill in the day, but was then something better. "My mind," he said, " is supported; I do not know what it is to have an alarming fear." On the evening of the 9th, he was taken worse. It was quite supposed, both by himself and his family, that he was dying; but he was perfectly calm. At his request his son read and prayed; and he then, for about half an hour, addressed his children in a most faithful, yet affectionate, manner. On the 10th he was much better than on the preceding evening. He expressed his gratitude to God for having enabled him, with a greater degree of composure E and self-possession than he had expected, to speak to his family. "I believe," he said, "it was a melting season to us all." From this time Mr. Paine continued better, until the 23d, when he was again taken worse. In the morning he was incapable of conversation; but in the evening a little better. He was very happy, he said, “in meditating on the love of Christ, and on the superintending providence of God." He could say, "Here am I, Lord, do with me as seemeth good in thy sight." He told me that the two following passages had been very much impressed on his mind: "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms:" and, "Let us fall now into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are great." On the 24th he was somewhat better than on the preceding day; and was very happy, rejoicing in the unchangeable love of the Saviour, and saying with David, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." he had no alarming fear; for he knew in whom he had belived, and hoped that death was deprived of his sting. When I left him, I could not help saying to myself, " Happy is the man that is in such a case, yea, happy is that man whose God is the Lord." On the 27th, Mr. Paine was better in health, and very comfortable in his mind. He said, "The longer I live the more precious I feel the doctrines of grace, and especially the doctrine of atonement by the death of Christ. Christ, and him crucified, is the only foundation of my hope. It is only when I look by faith to Him, that I can find any solid comfort." On my saying to him, that I hoped he could still hold fast his confidence? "Yes," he replied, "the love of Christ to poor perishing sinners, has been so much impressed on my mind, during my affliction, that I think it would be wrong to doubt." He then repeated, with peculiar emphasis, that delightful verse, which has cheered the mind of many a Christian under affliction and in prospect of death :— Early in the morning of the 25th he" His love in time past forbids me to think was taken worse. His pain was most ex"He'll leave me at last in trouble to sink; "Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review, cruciating. "He hoped," he said," he should "Confirms his good pleasure to help me quite not murmur, but should have patience to through." bear what the Lord might lay upon him." I saw him about twelve o'clock: he was then very ill, but composure and resignation appeared in his very countenance. I said, I hoped he still found strength equal to his day? "Yes," he replied, "I trust I do; but I am not quite so comfortable as I have been." "You do not mean," I said, "that you are distressed in mind?" "No;" he replied, "not at all; but I am too weak and bewildered to collect my thoughts as I wish." I saw him again in the evening; and, when leaving him, he requested an interest in the prayers of his friends, “for,” he added, “I feel that I need it; my mind is so much bewildered.” On the 26th he was considerably revived. I reminded him that God could yet restore him to health. "Yes," he replied, "he can; but I trust 1 feel an entire resignation to His will." He said, He then referred to the last time but one he sat down with his Christian friends at the Lord's table. He observed, "I then thought it might perhaps be the last time that I should commune with you; and I could not help looking forward with peculiar pleasure to heaven, when there would be no sin nor imperfection, no pain nor sorrow, to prevent the enjoyment of the Divine service." When I left him, he said he thought he did not feel quite so willing to depart as he did a month before. His family seemed to cling more around his heart; "but," he added, “1 hope, upon the whole, I feel resigned." On the 8th of April I found him much weaker than he had been for several days preceding; but his mind, as usual, was composed. "What a favour," said he, "it is to be able to exercise confidence in God. Blessed is the man that umph; he stepped into the river with maketh the Lord his trust.' " firm foot, and On the 10th of April, he was very weak, but very resigned and happy. He said his pain in the night had been very severe; as much as he knew how to bear; but he had reason to be thankful that, during the whole of his affliction, he had scarcely known what complaining was. And "Why," he asked, "should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?" Thus was the subject of this short memoir, during his painful and protracted affliction (for he was confined to his house about thirteen weeks), supported and comforted. During the last week of his life he was confined to his bed. He was not able to converse much; but he said enough to satisfy his friends respecting the state of his mind; and that the knew in whom he had believed. He went down to the brink of Jordan with calm and holy tri MISCELLANEOUS. "Feeble and brief as the narrow limits of our commentary necessarily compel us to be, we are unwilling to postpone any longer such insufficient tribute as circumstances permit us to pay to the memory of so much worth and piety as adorned the character and writings of Robert Hall, the late dissenting minister of Bristol. To the most able and accomplished clergy of the church of England it was long an occasion of wonder, not unmingled with regret, that Hall was a dissenter. The mind, the attainments, and the language peculiarly characteristic of the man were precisely those which, in the belief of churchmen, usually distinguish the most accomplished clergy of the establishment from the most able of their non-conforming brethren; we mean the sober soundness of his judgment, the delicate re finement of his taste, and the classical purity of his style. "The clergy of the established church are apt, too apt perhaps, though we wish to speak of them tenderly, to think harshly of dissenting ministers, as a coarse and greasyminded race, who mix up prayers and provender in the most incongruous way, offending the awful majesty of heaven, by the unceremonious manner in which they offer their appeals. Now of all this, if indeed there be any thing in it ever, there does not appear to have been the least particle about Robert Hall. The character of his pulpit discourses, so far as we feel ourselves capable of criticising them, was that of mild and uniformly sustained sublimity. A meek and holy, but yet most dignified grandeur lifts at once both the preacher and the hearer up to the third heaven of pensive contemplative piety. There is not only grace, but gracefulness in every part of his sermons. They put forward, above all, that calm happiness, that rest, that peace, which passeth all understanding, and which is the peculiar portion of God's chosen people. The beauty and excellency of holiness, as the reflection of that divine image in which man was originally formed, and as the only meet preparation, through faith, for at taining and enjoying the everlasting happiness of heaven-these were the themes on which he loved to dwell, and after which the mind takes time, and the unwelcome bustle of the world, to bring it down again to the ordinary feelings and duties of human life and action. nous and clear; it is also purely English and unaffected: it has been selected by so admirable a judge as Dugald Stewart, as the very model and perfection of English composition. It is elegant without effort, full without redundance. The result of this happy combination of all attainable excellences, only not genius, not the creative power, has naturally been to place Hall high and far above all other preachers of his class, perhaps of any class in his day. The brightness of his well-earned That "Hall was a catholic christian: the doctrine of the trinity, of the incarnation, the divinity and personality of the Holy Spirit, the atonement, justification by faith only, the obligation of the moral law on believers, personal holiness, the resurrection, the judg-fame, too, has reflected some portion of its ment, the eternal duration of the pains of hell lustre upon all his brother seceders. and of the joys of heaven, all these are incul- the mantle of the ascended saint may descend cated by him with the large and sober views upon some no less gifted successor, that the of a philosopher, the learning of a scholar, the church of God may continue to be served by eloquence of an orator, and the affectionate intellects as piercing, and piety as purely ferearnestness of a Christian divine. These high vent as that which he consecrated to the serand holy doctrines, the tenets upon which all vice of the sanctuary, is a prayer in which all christianity hinges, were the wells of salva- good men will willingly unite. tion, in which his delighted spirit loved to bathe. Yet never does he outstep the modesty and humility so requisite in a frail and finite being, like man, inquiring into mysteries which even angels tremblingly desire to look into. There is no prying with unhal-close argument, graphic delineation, and elelowed curiosity, and startling rashness into the inscrutable purposes of the Deity; no worse than idle effort to anticipate the tardy foot of time, by dogmatic explanation of the dark prediction of the sacred text. There is no pretension to an insolent repulsive blasphemous familiarity with the Almighty; no madly rushing in where angels fear to tread. "His style, like his conceptions, is lumi "The sermon on modern infidelity has, we observe, been recently reprinted, in a cheap form, for general circulation. It is generally considered Mr. Hall's best single work, and we think justly. It is full of piercing thought, vated views. There is no aiming at that picturesque phraseology, that landscape style of oratory in which the preachers commonly called popular, are so apt to indulge; but there is a forcible good sense, and a luminous flow of real eloquence throughout it, that make us almost repent of having questioned the author's claim to the uncertain honours of what men call genius." INTELLIGENCE, &c. DOMESTIC. CHOLERA MORBUS. At the Meeting of the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, November 21, 1831, rect the issue of such copies for the above purpose as they may think proper. At a meeting of the Sub-Committee, November 25, 1831:-This Sub-Committee having taken into consideration the subject above referred to them, it was Resolved, That while this Committee have much satisfaction in knowing that in Resolved,That it be referred to the Sub- every place the necessary precautions are acCommittee for general purposes to confer tively taken to prevent, if Divine Proviwith the several Auxiliary Societies as to the dence permit, the introduction of the Cholera, practability of supplying the whole of the and that suitable preparations are also enterpoor who are destitute of the New Testa-ed into to meet it, should it appear, they do ment with a copy on loan, in order that in consider that there is a voice of the Almighty the event of the epidemic disease being per- to be regarded in this visitation, and a duty mitted, in the course of Divine Providence, to to be performed by the British and Foreign visit their families, they may not be found Bible Society. without a copy of God's holy word; and That this Committee record their devout that the Sub-Committte be authorized to di-conviction that the truths of the sacred vo lume, when accompanied by Divine teaching, to facts and statements so cheering and grati can minister patience and strong consolation under the severest sufferings, and prepare the immortal spirit for its departure to another world, by the reception of the knowledge they convey of Him who, "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, was lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." That this Committee express their hope that when the hand of the Lord is lifted up, some may be led to consider their ways, and to desire the instructions of heavenly wis dom, and they, therefore, regard it most necessary that the New Testament should be ready at hand' for every one whom affliction may be the means of disposing to peruse it. That while this Committe remember, with gratitude to Him who has crowned the past labours of the Society with good success, that there are countless multitudes now in possession of the Scriptutes, who, humanly speaking, would not have possessed them, but for the efforts of Bible Societies; they yet remember that in England generally, and in the metropolis especially, thousands of families still remain unsupplied. That it be recommended to the Committees of Auxiliary and Branch Societies to communicate with their respective Associations; and to appoint an immediate investigation into the wants of their neighbourhoods, and wherever they find a family destitute of the Scriptures to offer a copy of the New Testament with the book of Psalms as a loan. That the expense of providing a Loan Stock for the above purpose be borne by the Parent Society. [Extracted from the Minutes.] A. BRANDRAM, Secretaries. CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION SOCIETY. The quarterly Conference of this admirable Institution was held on the 15th of December, 1831, at Mr. Burder's Chapel, Fetter Lane; the Rev. Caleb Morris in the Chair. A hymn having been sung, prayer was offered by the Rev. T. Stevenson, of Gate-street, after which Mr. Morris introduced the business of the evening by some very appropriate and judicious observations. Mr. Pitman, one of the Secretaries, then read reports from the several Associations in and about London; and then the meeting was addressed by the Rev. Messrs. Blackburn, Stevenson, and Pyer; and by Apsley Pellatt, sq. The engagements of the evening were closed with prayer by the chairman. It has seldom been our happiness to listen fying as those which were presented in the reports of the visitors on this interesting occasion. Copious details were furnished of ignorance instructed,-destitution alleviated, wretchedness relieved,-Bibles distributed, -Sabbath-schools augmented,-tracts and books thankfully received and diligently perused, prayer-meetings and preaching-stations established, sinners converted from the error of their ways,-and of the sick and dying cheered in their solitude, and comforted in the hour of their dissolution. Some of these accounts, we are happy to learn, will soon be printed for general distribution, and will, we trust, have the effect of awakening attention to the strong claims of the Society upon public benevolence, and of augmenting the funds of the Institution. It is grievous to learn that exertions so praiseworthy and self-denying should be in any degree cramped by a paucity of pecuniary supplies. Surely this ought not to be. Nor, indeed, will the humane, the benevolent,-and, above all, the disciples of Him who "went about doing good," suffer the resources of the Society to languish, if they will only be at the pains of making themselves acquainted with its unostentatious but most necessary and efficient labours. Islington. ORDINATIONS, &c. MALTON, YORKSHIRE. J. P. Mr. E. Goodson, late student at Bradford Academy, was ordained pastor over the Baptist Church, Malton, Yorkshire, on Tuesday the 13th of December, 1831. Mr. McPherson, of Hull, stated the nature of a gospel church, asked the usual questions, and received Mr. Goodson's confession of faith. Mr. Evans, of Scarborough, offered up the ordination prayer, and delivered, a most interesting and impressive charge to the minister, founded on Acts xx. 28. In the evening, Mr. Gatley (Independent) introduced the service by reading the Scriptures, and prayer, and Mr. M'Pherson delivered an interesting and affectionate sermon to the people, from Phil. i. 27, on the various duties of members of Christian churches towards their ministers and each other. -- BOROUGH GREEN, WROTHAM, KENT. On Tuesday, May 24, 1831, Mr. William Bolton, late of Rickmansworth, Herts., was recognized the pastor of the Baptist church at Borough Green, Wrotham, Kent, when Mr. Rogers, of Eynsford, described the nature |