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REFLECTIONS

AT THE

GRAVE OF A DECEASED FRIEND.

N the whole circle of human obfervation, perhaps there are no fubjects that fo forcibly addrefs our reafon and our paffions, as death and the grave. To the greatest solemnity is added the highest importance; and to the forrow that we feel at the decease of a friend, and our affectionate fympathy with furviving relatives, is added the impreffive confideration of our own mortality.

The human mind is fond of contemplating those subjects, and viewing those scenes, which roufe its feelings and agitate its paffions. On this account it is, that when a fellow mortal is committed to the duft, the grave is generally furrounded with spectators, and the folemn fervice which is then performed is liftened to with the most serious attention. Such a scene I lately witneffed; I was affected by it, and endeavoured to realize its whole importance.

"In that grave," faid I," is laid the remains of a perfon, whofe natural conftitution was fimilar with my own; and who lately thought and acted with as much mental energy and bodily health as I enjoy at prefent. Our circumftances were alike, our friendship was natural, and our hopes of continued happinefs were equally fanguine : but, alas! on his part, they are by one itroke all swept away! He is infenfible; he is in the land of darkness and corruption, and both the bond and the felicity of human friendthip are deftroyed for ever. The fimilarity of paft circumftances, and the awful change that has taken place, ought to remind me, that I am liable to the fame ftroke that he has fuffered; and a retrofpect of paft ages must furely convince me, that my diffolution is fwiftly approaching, and is unalterably fure. I fhall foon be fuch a lifelefs and corrupted body as I have lately beheld; and fhall be committed to the grave, the houfe appointed for all living. Thus far, in the fenfible horizon of natural and experimental truth, I look, and am inftructed and admonished but the facred volume of infpiration prefents a rational, a clear, an unbounded view, for my moft expanded intelligence and most serious reflection. It reveals the caufe of all human calamity,---that it is fin. It tells the confequence, that it is death. It contradicts thofe vain and impious notions, of the government of the world being left to the erring blind

nefs

nefs of chance, or the unreasonable certainties of fate; and presents a fupreme Being who ruleth among the armies of heaven and over the inhabitants of the world. It reveals a Refurrection---a Judgment---an Eternity!

O my foul! how inexpreffibly important is this present life, as it is connected with an eternal exiftence in the bofom of heavenly happinefs, or in the gloom of infernal mifery. To be infenfible is irrational; to be prefumptuous is madness: But to tremble under the conviction of unworthinefs and guilt; to hope with humble confidence in freely offered mercy; to believe and truft in that glorious perfon, who is able to fave from the deepeft mifery and to exalt to the higheft happiness; to anticipate the refurrection of a glorified body united to a fanctified fpirit, and to think of being with the Lord for ever! These thoughts are worthy of a man; thefe hopes are the privilege of a Chriftian: This revelation, I muft believe to be fafe; this experience, I must enjoy, to be happy.

Could I but believe thefe truths with the fulleft affurance, and feel them with all the sweetness of felf appropriation, how refignedly and chearfully might I lie me down by the fide of my departed friend. The duft might cover and the worms devour me; yet neither fhall the grave for ever confine, nor corruption entirely deftroy. The Redeemer liveth! and thall ftand at the laft day upon the earth. He fhall fwallow up Death in Victory: He fhall change this vile body, and make it like his own glorious body. He fhall thew me the path of life, and, as the confummation of my bleffednefs, fhall introduce me into the prefence of God, where there is fullness of joy; and place me at his right hand, where there are pleafures for evermore.

CLERICUS.

SELECT SENTENCES,

Found among the Manufcripts of the late Dr. CONDER of

C

London.

NHRIST's first coming was to finish our Redemption ; his fecond coming will be to finith our Salvation. We are never beneath hope while we are above Hell; and never above hope while we are beneath heaven.

The Bible, in the hand of fome wicked men, is like a naked fword in a madman's hand; it only ferves to wound themfelves and their friends.

The

The believer makes the glory of God his chief end, the grace and providences of Chrift his chief support, and the divine precepts his chief delight.

There are three days coming in which Chrift will be efteemed peculiarly precious :---the day of public calamity, the day of death, and the day of judgment.

If you can make nothing of your past evidences, as to your interest in Christ, then begin afreth in going to Chrift as a poor finner; and remember that none ever perished, or fhall perish, that put their truft in him.

There is more fin in an inordinate attachment to lawful things than we are aware of: that which is lawful in itself, is not fo, when it has an afcendancy in the mind.

He that is more frequent in the pulpit before his people, than he is in the clofet for his people, is but a forry watch

man.

TH

ANECDOTES.

Converfion of a Father by means of his Child.

HE father of the Rev. John Baily, an eminent divine, who died in New England 1697, was a man of a very licentious converfation. His wife, a ferious chriftian, one day called the family together, and engaged young Baily, then a child, but remarkable for piety, to pray with them. The father being informed in what a wonderful way his fon had prayed, was ftruck with a deep conviction, which proved the beginning of his converfion to God: fo that he became one of the moft eminent chriftians in the neighbourhood where he lived---Lancashire. He would fometimes retire, with this child in his hand, to the fcenes of his former wickedness, and there pour out floods of tears in prayer before the Lord.

The Irreligion of Chriftians reproved by a Pagan.

AN European who lately failed to India, writes thus to a friend in England. "When we put in at Diamond harbour, fome of the natives came on board, when one of our offcers, with prophane oaths, abused them for their fubjection to their Bramins; and faid, "We don't care for our Priests in England---we do as we pleafe." No, no, (faid the firft Hindoo that spoke in my hearing) you English care for nothing but money.

Dying

Dying Confeffion of a Saint.

THE Rev. Mr. Dickfon, Profeffor of Divinity in Edinburgh, when afked, on his death-bed, by a Mr. Lavingftoun, how he found himself, anfwered," I have taken my good deeds and bad deeds, and thrown them together in an heap, and fled from both to Chrift, and in him I have peace."

Love to Chrift expreffed by a Dying Infant.

A little child when dying, was asked, where it was going? "To heaven," faid the child. And what makes you with to be there?' faid one. "Because Chrift is there," faid the child. "But," said a friend, "What if Christ should leave heaven?" "Well," faid the child, "I will go with him." Sometime before its departure, it expressed a with to have a golden crown when it died. "And what will you do," faid one, with the golden crown?" " I will take the crown," faid the child, "and caft it at the feet of Chrift.". -How pleasant to remark the effects of grace in little children, and to view them in their dying moments bearing an honourable teftimony to the precioufnefs of Chrift, and the excellence of religion. Mat. xxi. 15.

Anecdote of Mr. Guthrie.

THE late Mr. Guthrie of Fenwick, when riding in the county of Angus, happened to lose his way in a moor, and, after wandering for a while, he came to a cottage where a poor man was dying. Upon coming into the house, he found a carnal minifter endeavouring to comfort the poor man from the confideration of his own works, and not from the free grace and righteousness of the Lord Jefus. After the clergyman was gone, Mr. Guthrie took occafion from the melancholy fituation of the poor man, to inftru& him with respect to his finful and miferable ftate by nature, and the glorious method of recovery by grace, through the righteoufnefs and atonement of the great Redeemer; which was fo bleffed to him, as proved the happy means of his converfion. Well might the poor man fing, "O to grace how great a debtor!"

RELIGIOUS

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

CIRCULATING CHARITY SCHOOLS IN WALES. Copy of a Letter from the Rev. Mr. CHARLES, of Bala, in Merionethfhire, to a Lady, fince deceafed. (Printed by permission.)

DEAR MADAM, August 5, 1797. I'HAVE received your kind fubfcription towards the support of the circulating Charity Schools in Wales. May the good Lord abundantly reward you. I beg leave to fay a few words, as to the nature of these Schools. About nine years ago, in travelling through different parts of the country, I found many large districts between the mountains of North Wales, funk into total ignorance of divine things; few, in any, could read at all; and no bibles in their houfes. I anxiously began to think how it was poffible to remedy fo great an evil. No practicable plan occurred to me, as within my power to hope of putting in execution, but that of employing a teacher, or teachers, as my finances would allow; and fending them into thofe dark parts, to teach all freely, that would attend to read their bible in their native language, and to inftruct them in the first principles of Chriftianity. By the affittance of generous friends, to whom I communicated my thoughts on the subject, it was fet on foot, and fucceeded far beyond my expectations; the calls for teachers became numerous; the change in the principles and morals of the people, where the Schools had been, was evident; the number of teachers at laft increased to twenty. I fet Sunday and night Schools on foot, for thofe whofe occupations and poverty, prevented their attending the day Schools.

Whatever we attempted of this nature, fucceeded wonderfully; till the whole country was filled with schools of one fort or another; and all were taught at once. The bleffed effects were correfponding; a general concern for eternal things took place in many large diftricts; many hundreds were awakened to a fenfe of fin, and their need of Chrift, and I have every reason to believe are now faithful followers of him. The schools are ftill carried on, and the effects the fame in a greater or lefs degree; the number of teachers increase or diminish, as my finances will allow all my income from a chapel which I ferve, I devote wholly toward their fupport, being fupported myfelf by the industry of my wife. I pay every teacher 121. per annum. They continue half a year, or three quarters in one place, and are then removed into another part of the country.

Three quarters of a year, is found fully fufficient to teach our children to read their bibles well in the Welch tongue. I vifit the schools myself, and catechise them publicly; I have the unspeakable fatisfaction of feeing the general aspect of the country most amazingly changed; to fee the wilderness bloffom, as a rofe, and the thirfty land, become fprings of water; through the fchools, and the preaching of the Gospel, the fpread of divine knowledge is become univerfal. Blefs the Lord, O my foul ! I hope, dear Madam, this little account of the origin and outlines of a plan, which you have fo generously fupported, will prove in fome degree fatisfactory. As no other plan can keep our mountainous country from finking into its former ignorance, I am determined to go on as the Lord enables. Affift me with your prayers. Grace and peace be multiplied to I am, &c.

you.

VOL. VI. 1798.

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