Zech. iii. Look at that pitiable object, a fair representation of all mankind by nature. He has nothing but filthy rags to appear in. With downcast eyes he trembles, as he awaits his coming doom. He has not a word to say for himself, but is speechless: as he stands law-condemned, self-condemned and devil-condemned. Who will dare to speak for him now? who will own him? He would fain flee from himself with the deepest feelings of shame and disgust. There is no help for him in the earth; the angels in heaven dare not speak in his behalf. But while in agony of soul he despairs of hope, the voice of this Friend is heard, which fills all hell with dismay and disappointment, while heaven rings. with joy and gladness. Listen to His words: "Take away his filthy garments from him." And to him he said: "Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment," Zech iii. 4. Jesus sticks to His own through fire and flood; and though sometimes hid from our eyes, that our own creature strength and comeliness may be consumed; yet He always appears to the relief of His exercised ones to verify His own promise: "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee," Isaiah xliii. 2. Though we have in our folly and weakness judged Him as an enemy, for not saving us from the fire; yet we have lived to prove that there is as much friendship in permitting His own to be cast into the fiery furnace, Dan. iii.; in sharp rebukes, Matt. xvi. 23.; and the hidings of His face: as when we feast upon His love, and walk in close and blessed communion with Himself. Jesus is a constant Friend, Whose friendship is unconditional and uninfluenced. David's awful sin of murder and adultery, and Peter's denial with cursing, did not destroy this divine Friendship. Though proud and conceited professors are ready to cast their stones, and the true believer looks with grief and trembling; yet the tears and agonies of those broken and contrite hearts found a place of pure sympathy in the heart of this ever-loving Friend, and a way of escape in His precious blood. Lover of Christ; lover of the brethren; the tongue of the cruel slanderer cannot influence the mind of this Friend; neither will those many condemning voices, which distress thy soul. Listen to His own words concerning thee: "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord,” Isaiah liv. 17. Here is a Friend Who is always a Friend; and will stick to you through thick and thin, and land you in glory in a righteous and honourable way; because He's your Friend; because He loves you. Strood. "One there is above all others, Well deserves the name of Friend; T. LAWSON, JUN. WRITTEN IN FIVE-ASH-DOWN CHAPEL BETWEEN THE SERVICES, MARCH 17, 1878. Dear Mr. Editor,--If you think these few reminiscences of my dear old friend, Mr. G. Holden, worth insertion, I leave them with you. C W. HOOPER. S has been already stated, on the 22nd of March our revered and godly friend, Mr. George Holden, of Cranleigh, entered into his rest at the age of 84, verily "a shock of corn fully ripe." Sweet is the memory of the just; and it has been my privilege to know this good man under various phases, as minister, friend, merchant, and builder, also as friend of my departed parents, who loved him for the truth's sake. I trust a few lines will be acceptable to his numerous friends, who loved him for the same truth's sake, as well as for his kindly personal qualities, which caused even the uncircumcised and the wicked to treat him with respect. If we wanted a "living epistle known and read of all men," I know not a better to present to the church or the world, than our old friend George Holden. From the days of our youth we both knew and loved this simple, plain, and honest man, and never saw him otherwise than he appeared at first, a true type of an English Puritan. In dress, language, and manners, a faithful copy of the fine old Cromwellian class of christians, never giving needless offence to any man, but never sacrificing jot or tittle of truth in faith or practice; ever abiding by the grand old doctrines brought forth anew at our glorious Reformation. Our friend preached these truths in love; and by his kind and genial manner, and his blameless life, he so exemplified the power of these glorious doctrines, that men of all sorts were constrained to take knowledge of him, and of his hearers, that "they had been with Jesus." Tempering his zeal with abundant discretion, Mr. Holden often convinced gain sayers, when a sterner nature might have failed; and although the youngest of ten children, and born of poor parents, with little education, he so cultivated his mind by sound and solid reading, that he was far beyond many of the clergy of the day, in his acquaintance with both church and secular history. Our friend for many years, when young, walked long miles across the country, to carry to the poor country people the word of life: and usually preached three times on Sundays. Often have we seen our revered friend travelling along the lonely roads of Surrey or Sussex, with his eldest son, he having driven him over 50,000 miles in the aggregate to preach the gospel, whilst he was reading his well known and precious bible: and many times have we enjoyed his wholesome, plain, and solid discourses. On one occasion he invited me to take a journey with him in the summer, to a very sequestered village among the woods, where some County Mission Society gave him leave to use their chapel. It was on a week day evening; I inquired if his coming had been announced, and he replied, “No, but they know I shall (the Lord willing) be there, and you will see the place well filled." And so it was. And when we drove up to the spot,an old farming man came and took charge of the horse, &c., and we entered the place; all were seated and ready for the simple service, and all attentive and quiet. We have known Mr. Holden many times to leave our father's house, near Horsham, after preaching and supper, and walk the ten miles to his home at Cranleigh, accompanied some distance by our beloved father; for in those days there seemed more warmth and zeal than now. And well do we remember when, about the year 1835, our friend was in his prime, and the writer in his youth, the simple sermons preaced at our father's house in Sussex, in a chapel attached to the house; where many a rustic christian man a his smock frock, and the women in their red cloaks, could be seen quietly wending their ways along the wood sides, and through the fields or bridle paths, to hear their well-known minister, whose visits were as regular as the day of the month, and required neither bills nor advertisement to make them known. We think there have been few of the Lord's servants who were so long favoured to preach over such an extensive tract of country, or who had so many steady old hearers as Mr. Holden: all through the counties of Sussex and Surrey, as well as part of Kent and Hampshire; whilst besides these preaching stations, our good brother supplied several times during the year, in various Huntingtonian chapels in Notts, Cambridgeshire, Sunderland, &c., where he was always welcomed, and drew a goodly attendance of the Lord's flock. "The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is of great price" in our Lord's esteem, as well as in the esteem of Zion, was eminently exemplified in dear Mr. Holden; so that we never saw his temper ruffled, nor heard a harsh or unkind word come out of his lips; and yet he had more solid matter in him than thousands in our day, who are contentious and angry over forms, ceremonies, and systems. He was a large-hearted, sound-hearted man of God, giving no needless offence to Jew nor Gentile. Clergymen and Dissenters of all classes respected him, although he never trimmed his sails to catch applause, by pandering to any false doctrine or unscriptural system. I hear there is a diary left by our friend, and should think a memoir of such a life, would be both useful and acceptable to the church of Christ. Yours for the truth's sake, CLEEVE W. HOOPER. THE LATE MRS. MARTIN, SEN., W OF LITTLEPORT. E cannot allow the departure of this excellent, quiet, but widelyesteemed lady to go unrecorded by us. It took place on March 25th, in the 83rd year of her age.. She was the sister of that gracious man, Mr. J. Cutlack, whose closing days we published an account of in our June number for 1876, and like him, was favoured with a naturally amiable and kind disposition: though this indeed would avail nothing in the salvation of the soul. For the truth applies to all varieties of character and temperament, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," John iii. 3. And in due season none came to know this experimentally better than the subject of this sketch. She was but a child when the Holy Spirit first began to work upon her soul; her relationships in life bringing her under the influence of those who truly feared the Lord. And she once informed the writer (who for about five years part has had the privilege of intercourse with her four times in the year, when preaching at Littleport) that she remembered when very young having a strong desire to possess something, and went and begged of the Lord that it might be procured for her and without any further solicitation by her, or knowledge on the part of any that she desired it, the very thing was proposed to, and purchased for her. This circumstance, she said, deeply impressed upon her, at that early period in life, the importance of prayer, believing that God was graciously pleased to hear and answer. This was no doubt the influence of the Spirit, as the Spirit of grace and supplication. After this, she was often in great trouble about her sinful state, and her mother would find her bathed in tears when she had retired to rest, without knowing the cause. She would cry earnestly to the Lord for His pardoning mercy: and sometimes was favoured to enjoy some sweet indications of His favour and love. As years advanced, the things of time and sense served to deaden these feelings. At length she married, and in her husband, Mr. Henry Martin, she found a gracious man, and a wise and an affectionate companion. The name of Martin will be familiar to all who have read Huntington's letters. In the very house where she resided to the day of her decease, Mr. Huntington once, if not oftener, preached, and she remembered as a child, seeing and listening to him. But Mr. J. Chamberlain was the great instrument of good to her soul, and that of each of her family: for it is a marvellous thing to record, that all her children have been called by sovereign grace. Three sons still living, among whom is the esteemed incumbent of the Circus Church, Portsea (and the one just deceased) beside each of her daughters, all know and love "the truth as it is in Jesus." The distinguishing mercy thus displayed towards those whom the Lord had given her, together with the great goodness, displayed to them and her, often affected her. We remember that on one occasion we had been preaching at Littleport, and had dwelt on the words: "And David the king came and sat before the Lord, and said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is mine house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto? And yet this was a small thing in Thine eyes, O God; for Thou hast also spoken of Thy servant's house for a great while to come, and hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree, O Lord God. What can David speak more to Thee for the honour of Thy servant? for Thou knowest Thy servant," I Chronicles xvii. 16-18. When we shortly after saw her, she told us, weeping, how very precious the Lord had often made these words to her; so that she scarcely ever heard them repeated without being affected by them: they were so applicable to the Lord's dealings with her and her household. She Under Mr. Chamberlain's ministry (that is, the periodical visits he paid to Littleport) by the teachings of the blessed Spirit, she grew in grace, and in the knowledge of her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And thus, while she was led daily into deeper discoveries of her ruined state and corrupt nature, she also advanced in acquaintanceship with the liberty of the gospel; and learned to discriminate between the flesh and the Spirit, in their constant warfare. Her judgment hence acquired that stability which peculiarly marked her in her advancing years. would, for instance, remark upon the extraordinary power and sweetness which she used to feel under Mr. Chamberlain's ministry in her younger days, and also the communion with which the Lord favoured her with Himself in private prayer and the reading of the Scriptures, and she would then draw the contrast between the usual state of her feelings in her later years amid increasing infirmities. On this point the writer has heard her speak to this effect: "But then, if I am not so often or so highly favoured as I used to be, I do not lose my hope. I feel more of that which is promised: Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because He trusteth in Thee.' Perhaps it is hardly reasonable to expect that when we get old and feeble, we should enjoy as much as when our powers are in full vigour. I really don't believe the Lord will fail or forsake me. I have proved Him to be faithful, and very gracious to me for many years, and I can hardly doubt His love now." It having pleased the Lord to visit various members of her beloved family with severe affliction, the whole sympathies of her loving disposition were naturally drawn out towards them, often to the utter forgetfulness of self, and many were her prayers both for them and her grandchildren. Will they not be answered in the Lord's time and way? We trust so. It may be truly said she did not live to, or for herself-it was rather for others. She was one of the most kind and considerate persons we ever met with. Little or nothing of the natural selfishness of old age was manifest in her words and conduct. Her heart seemed fixed upon the Lord; and though she often felt most acutely certain strokes of His paternally afflicting hand, she was kept from rebelling against Him for she was persuaded He was her God, and that "all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies." When last we saw her, she was in sore grief respecting her beloved eldest son, Mr. H. Martin, who had long appeared to be drawing nigh |