name among the multitudes round about you. I sincerely think that God hath much more honoured you, than if you appeared wrapped in lawn, and were raised to the best bishoprick in England. I congratulate you, and your friends upon your safe return to your native country; I have read your journal, and was greatly affected with it; and should be highly pleased to have it continued from the day you left off, by your landing at Georgia. Many, I believe, as well as myself, long to know how you found matters in point of religion, and what reception you and the Gospel met with in that infant colony; and whether those new planters received the word with that gladness, as in some other places, and whether the word hath run and been glorified there.

I sincerely rejoice, dear Sir, in your good beginnings, and wish you a double share of the divine anointings, beyond what you have experienced both in gift and grace, and those refreshing tokens of the divine presence, as shall not only bear you up under your fatigues and discouragements, but carry you on your way rejoicing.

Go on, dear Sir, to spend and be spent in your Lord's work, and may a renewal of bodily and spiritual strength still attend you; may your life be much lengthened, and your usefulness prove very extensive. As you have in one of your sermons bespoke the prayers of your friends, I desire to join with many who, I doubt not, are bearing you upon their hearts before the mercy seat, where I entreat you will remember one that desires to be,

Rev. Sir,

Your affectionate Friend, Brother, and Servant, R. PEARSALL.

I beg the favour of a letter from you, as soon as your affairs will permit, and to have an account of God's kind appearances in a way of providence and grace, will be very acceptable, and the larger the better.

XXI.-Rev. Thomas Reader to Rev. Thomas Charles, of Bala.

Taunton, Aug. 6th, 1785. REV. AND DEAR SIR-Your favour of July 6th, put an end to every painful fear, whether I had not inadvertently offended, where I longed to please and

profit. Mr. Newman had also given me an idea of your numerous and painful labours in the Gospel; under which I doubt not but that you have more of the felt presence of Immanuel than servants of God who are less employed; and that his presence occasions your clearer views of your personal helplessness, than they have who have not God so near them all Christians believe, and some of them know, that without Christ they can do nothing. He is all in all; and burdens upon us prove that we are nothing in ourselves.

I wish every future writer on the Revelations a faithful Charles to watch his steps, with all the care of intelligent benevolence. This has been my happiness; and my heart thanks you for it. At the same time, when my brother Charles recollects that the church is called a woman, Rev. xii., through all the times of the serpent and the dragon, and yet that she is called two witnesses a part of their time, chap. xi., "I think you will see that the woman and the witnesses must represent the same church, at the same time, and in the same state, though not in the same employment; for witnesses testify courageously, but the woman is weak, yet brings forth children.

I had scarcely finished my last pamphlet, before I saw the necessity of printing the inclosed twelve pages, to complete my plan. I had not, however, light sufficient for the inclosed, till some time after the pamphlet in your hands was finished; to which please to sew on these twelve pages, which, perhaps, would have been more perfect if they had been honoured with your corrections. I suppose I have now done with printing upon prodiscouragement, and expect phecy; in which I have met with much

more.

But whatever is true, faith says, will be soon and long popular. If it would contribute to the conversion of the Jews, to arrange the prophecies which in future respect that people, under their several heads and times, together with an explication of them, God will stimulate some of his servants to this

work. I suppose, however, that God will not find faith upon the earth, when he comes to do this great work.

At present I am thinking of putting a copy of my sermon, entitled The Incurable Abomination; or God's asserting that Popery never did, nor will alter for the better, into the hands of about a

hundred of the most thinking of our British legislators of both houses of Parliament, and into the hands of Congress, if I can find a method of doing it. I design also to stimulate every borough in my neighbourhood, to send up a petition to Parliament, the next sessions, against the infamous Slave Trade, which drags about 100,000 miserable Africans every year from their native shore; which foments wars among them, that the dealers may have captives to sell; and which, when these methods cannot furnish them with a sufficient number, burns towns and villages, that they may drive the defenceless inhabitants, men, women, and children, perfectly naked, to stow them on board our ships, where .10,000 of them die, and another 20,000 in the seasoning in the country, where their hell-inspired masters practise every form of wanton cruelty upon them. God will, however, anon ship off preachers to Africa, instead of devils to carry them into temporal and eternal slavery. Help us, Sir, in the above work. Mr. Wesley's Thoughts on Slavery, price about 2d., sold by Mr. Astley, at the Foundry, London; and Benezet's Caution against the Slave Trade, may give you the needful ideas. Humanity should strive to ease itself of this burden as soon as it hears of it.

Whatsoever we do, our successors hereafter in the church of Christ must indisputably attend to the three following prophetic thoughts: :- viz. 1. That God has represented his church, in every period, by one independent church and minister; and this is true, even if the Epistles are to be understood only prophetically, not literally; for the prophecy is laid in the above form. True, I apprehend, that if the Ephesian period had not left its first love, something like an apostolic character would have presided over every subsequent period; but those professors left it, and as God removed their candlestick out of bis place, men cannot shift it back thither, or substitute any thing more than a shadow in its place.-2. That God never designed that either those two olive trees, the magistracy and ministry, should ever grow under the shadow of the other; though, like other divine ordinances, they are doubtless mutually and equally to protect each other. See Rev. xi. 4; Zech. iv. 2, 3, 11.-And, 3. That England, as well as the other nine horns of the beast, ..does and will give its power to the

beast, till the words which God has spoken upon this subject shall be fulfilled, Rev. xvii. 16, 17. In the above ideas I have aimed simply to mind nothing but what God says; and if God's works seem to clash with his words, by the latter I wish to regulate my ideas about the former.

I expect Mrs. Reader home from London in a few days. May the Lord bless your babe and Mrs. Charles, whom I respectfully salute. I don't wonder you had pleasure in taking hold of God's covenant for your child. I have little opinion of religion which is not relative, however specious or noisy it may be; and the care of children implies hopes for them; and the former must be, in some measure, proportioned to the latter. But I relieve your patience, when I have begged your prayers, and assured you that

I am, dear Sir,
Your faithful, affectionate Brother
and Servant,
THOMAS READER.

XXII.-Rev. Augustus Toplady, to Mr. Flower, London.

Broad Hambury, Jan. 10, 1771. VERY DEAR SIR-Your friendship and civility have, long ago, made me a letter in your debt. I should much sooner have thankfully acknowledged that additional obligation, had not a series of constant study and parochial duty compelled me, in some measure, to trespass on your condescension. I am an enemy, you know, to the doctrine of merit; and, as such, am constrained to confess that I should hardly, even now, have given you this trouble, but to answer an end of my own. Last Christmas day, I endeavoured to retrieve the substance of two sermons, formerly preached in town. One of 'em was from part of 1 Tim. iii. 16, "Seen of angels." The other, from Psalm viii. 4. I mean to print 'em both; and my bookseller, Mr. Gurney, applauds the intention. I remember, dear Sir, that you could repeat a good deal of the former of these two discourses. If your friendship would induce you to take a whole sheet of paper, and fill it with the outlines of such particulars as occur to your remembrance, I should esteem such a labour as no small proof both of your patience and esteem.

Permit me to enquire after the welfare of dear Mrs. F. and your most amiable daughter. They do not know how much I value them. My affectionate respects and best wishes attend them and young Mr. Flower.

THE VALLEYS OF THE VAUDOIS.
YES! thou hast met the sun's last smile,
From the haunted hills of Rome;
By many a bright Egean Isle,

Thou hast seen the billows foam:
From the silence of the Pyramid,

Thou hast watched the solemn flow Of the Nile, that with his mantle hid The ancient realm below: Thy heart hath burned as shepherds sang Some, wild and warlike strain, Where the Moorish horn once proudly rang Through the pealing hills of Spain: And o'er the lonely Grecian streams

Thou hast heard the laurels moan, With a sound yet murmuring in thy dreams,

Of the glory that is gone.

But go thou to the hamlet vales

Of the Alpine mountains old,
If, thou wouldst hear immortal tales
By the wind's deep whispers told !
Go, if thou lov'st the soil to tread

Where man hath bravely striven,
And life like incense hath been shed,
An offering unto heaven !

For o'er the snows and round the pines
Hath swept a noble flood,
The nurture of the peasant's viues
Hath been the martyr's blood.
A spirit, stronger than the sword,
And loftier than despair,
Through all th' heroic region pour'd,
Breathes in the generous air.

A memory clings to every steep
Of long enduring faith,

And the sounding streams glad record keep
Of courage unto death!

Ask of the peasant where his sires

For truth and freedom bled;

Ask, where they lit the torturing fires,
Where lay the holy dead?

And he will tell thee all around,
On fount, and turf, and stone,
Far as the chamois' foot can bound,
Their ashes have been sown.

Go, where the Sabbath-bell is heard

Up through the wilds to float,

When the dark old. wood and caves àre stirred

To gladness by the note;

PARAPHRASE ON REV. xxi. 4.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.

My soul, with hourly griefs oppress'd,
Dismiss thy overwhelming fears;
Anticipate the heavenly rest,

Where God shall wipe away thy tears.

And though between that rest and thee
The bitter waves of Jordan roar ;
Cheer up, thy passage safe shall be,

To realms where death is known no

more.

There not a sorrow left uncured,

Nor mournful cry shall e'er dismay; There not a pain shall be endured,

The former things are passed away.'
J S.

ON THE COVERS OF AN ANCIENT BIBLE, FOUND CHAINED AND LEAFLESS IN A COUNTRY CHURCH.

THE Truth and Grace from Heaven reveal'd,

"Free course" at length have found,

In every land, and language too,

Is heard the joyful sound.

The Word of Life's in every hand, .

No longer we complain

Of Bibles in an unknown tongue,
Or fasten'd with a chain.

These mould'ring boards and rusty links
Have now resign'd their charge,
The Book so close imprison'd once,
Is seen by us at large.

How frequent were these lids unclos'd

By men unskill'd to teach,
While anxious groups devoutly stood,
To hear their stammering speech.
But popish mists are now dispell'd,

Knowledge is widely dealt;
And children can distinctly read
What their forefathers spelt.

J. S.

THE BROKEN PINNACLE.

[Those of our readers who have seen a view of Cowper's Summer House at Olney, Bucks, will remember that a small pinnacle of wood ornamented each gable end of its humble roof. One of these having been blown down in 1824, was given to an Artist, who duly prizing the relic, addressed to it the following Sonnet, which, by his kindness, we are permitted to publish.]

SINCE first thy rustic form was rear'd,
That lowly roof to grace,
What new-born numbers have appear'd,.
And run their mortal race;
While tuneful chimes, in yonder tower,
Heedless announc'd the passing hour.
And, as the varying seasons roll'd,
And circling suns declin'd;
Who can the miseries unfold,

That wasted human kind?
Whilst Time, pursuing, gradual pace,
Impress'd deep wrinkles on thy face.
At length, the pelting storm has broke,
With hollow whistling sound,
Thy long resisting heart of oak,

And dash'd thee to the ground;
Whilst tuneful chimes, in yonder tower,
Unpitying mark'd thy final hour.

There, tinted rich, with mossy green,
To drilling worms a prey,
That well-known PINNACLE is seen,
A fragment cast away;
No more the pensive sigh to claim,
Of votaries to a Poet's name.

But long, this sweet, sequester'd scene,
Where CowPER woo'd his muse,
Shall kindred spirits charm, I ween,
And kindred thoughts infuse;
Perchance, till yonder chimes give o'er,
And time itself shall be no more.

J. S.