whom she was going to leave behind for a little season: and she tried to comfort me in every possible way.

Another time she said, " My Jesus was never so near and dear to me as He is now."

And again she said, "I want to go home-home; this is only a wilderness. I want to be home with my Jesus. But there is impatience in this. Ask the Lord, dear, to give me patience to wait His own time." Then she added, "This light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory'-a light affliction, and a weight of glory. His kindness is loving-kindness, and His

mercies are tender mercies."

I repeated these words to her, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness."

She said earnestly, "Oh, that is my text!" and then she reminded me that a few years since it had been applied with great power to her heart in circumstances of trial."

One evening a friend was in her room for a short time, and she talked so sweetly that that friend said afterwards, “Oh, when my time comes, may I be like that dear saint!"

Á few days before she was taken home she said to me, "I want my Jesus nearer to me; I want to see the King in His beauty; I want Him to kiss me with the kisses of His mouth.' Then she added

"My soul anticipates the day,

Would stretch her wings and soar away,

The song to aid, a palm to bear,

And bow the chief of sinners there."

Then she said, "But, you know, I have the valley to pass."

I said, "Yes, my darling; but the Lord will be with you; it won't be dark." I feared lest Satan should be permitted to assault her in her weakness, and I begged the Lord to keep him at a distance, and not permit him to harass her. And He heard my prayer, for she was kept perfectly calm and peaceful; not a cloud passed over her. It was evident her time on earth would not be long; she suffered much from exhaustion. The day before she was taken home she kissed me again and again most affectionately, and said, "God bless you, my precious sister; you have been a precious treasure to me; you have been a mother and a sister to me, darling."

About half an hour before she was taken home to glory she said to me, "I want to see my Jesus as He is, without a veil between."

These were her last words. She was evidently sinking. I kept close to the side of her bed; but I did not know when she had drawn her last breath, so sweetly and gently did she depart. "Absent from the body, and present with the Lord." Oh, to follow that precious one as she followed Christ! L. W.

PLYMOUTH, April, 1878.

A FRAGMENT RELATING TO THE LATE MR. BAXTER, OF CHICHESTER.

Dear Sir,

40, Great Smith Street, Westminster,

June 4th, 1878.

EEING in the May number of the "Gospel Advocate," mention made of great uncle-John Baxter, of Chichester, I thought I would send you an original letter of his addressed to my grandmother, his brother's wife, Mary Baxter, of Lombard Street. Portsmouth, thinking you might like to print it. I am certain none of us live up to our privileges, because we do not consider Christ Jesus enough. We sadly fail in our lives to show forth His image. We are too apt to repine at the roughness of the way, rather than to have our eyes fixed on Him; so as to walk as He walked. The apostle Paul, knowing how apt we are to forget, bids us in Hebrews iii. 12, “to take heed, lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God," which would tend to hide from view the indwelling power of His love: which should ever constrain us to live as sons and daughters of God should live; sinking ourself in the great Himself, Who is of God made unto us all that we can possibly need, to the glory of God by us. And that this is our privilege, is as sure as it is written: "To as many as received Him, to them gave He power (or privilege) to become (manifestly to live) sons of God:" that is, to walk as children of the light; and this we do by going out of self, and abiding in Himself. I would to God we were more on our watch-tower, showing more diligence; pressing forward more earnestly; recording not our failures, save to show forth His faithfulness. I with others mourn the coldness of heart, the lukewarm state of our warmest affections; long more and more to be deluged with the aboundings of His love, that floweth onward evermore the same. It is Jesus, the embodiment of the Father's love abounding to usward. On its glories I love to ponder, and therein to forget the creature; to be swallowed up, lost in adoration. Oh, the power of His love; it melteth the frozen heart instantly, and brings the most wayward at His dear feet. May its attractive force be more and more enjoyed by Zion's converts, and

"Be the stay of Zion's pilgrims
To the praise of Zion's King."

With love, in covenant bonds, I remain, yours,
E. H. BAXTER.

Chichester, March 28th, 1820. Dear sister, I have sent you three pounds five shillings, which I believe you will find to be the right balance between us up to the time you fixed. If anything is not right, that may be put to rights when I see you. I hope all is well in the family, as through the blessing of the Lord we are at present. My old rib is much better than she has been; only at times has a pain in the face. But at times we find, like the apostle, that afflictions abide us: but it is only the fulfilment of the promise: "In the world ye shall have tribulation." But, thanks be to the Lord, the time is short to endure it: for my glass is almost run out,

and the time of my departure is near at hand. But blessed be the God-man, Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, for a good hope beyond the grave; for through mercy the Lord has taken the sting of death from me; and I hope it is the same with you. My family joins with me in love to you and brother, and your family.

From your loving brother,

BELIEVERS'

'Tis theirs to sing His love,
'Tis theirs to feel His grace,
Drawing their souls above

To Him, their resting place;
And, in fond anticipation,
Vield Him their sweet adoration.

Walking the way of life,

The pleasant paths of peace;
From scenes of worldly strife,

From paths of fleshly ease,
By always keeping Christ in view,
They onward press to glory too.

His footsteps mark the way ;
The narrow path He trod
His Father pleased: alway
Doing the will of God.

And Jesus' will and pleasure is

To bear our cross as He bore His.

PRIVILEGES.

JOHN BAXTER.

He never turned aside
From doing daily good;
He scatter'd blessings wide,
He fed the multitude.
As He did then, so let us do,
To prove our love to Jesus true.
For this is His command':
"Blessed are ye who do
Extend a helping hand,

To saints and sinners too

Proving by deeds more than by words,
How well your love with Mine accords."

"For greater works than Mine,
Than those that I have done,

Shall to My glory shine,

To praise the Holy One.*

God's image and God's brightness too,
Unites to prove I dwell in you."

"Abide ye in My love:

So shall you fruitful be;

While I, away above—

My witnesses are ye :

To small and great, to rich and poor,
Just as your Lord was heretofore."

40, Great Smith Street, S. W.

E. H. BAXTER.

[*There must not be any wrong inference drawn from these words. Christ only meant thereby that greater success would attend the ministerial labours of His apostles after Pentecost, than attended His Own before. See John xiv. 12.-THE EDITOR.]

Letters by the Household of Faith.

LETTER BY MR. THORPE SMITH.

20, Nelson Street, London Road, Leicester,

Oct. 29th, 1863.

To his friend, brother, and companion in tribulation, the chief of sinners sendeth greeting; wishing him grace and strength to support under every trial, patience to bear, and deliverance out of all eventually by Him, Whose arm is not shortened, nor His ear heavy. Tribulation in one shape or other is, and must be, the lot of all the

blood-bought family of heaven. And the same infallible Promiser has said, "In Me ye shall have peace." The one is as certain as the other! Wits' end (as dear George Doudney has said) is often the way to it: and like our dear Lord and Master, we look on the right hand, and no man knows us; and on the left, and there is none to help: refuge fails us, and none appears to care for our souls. But in these extremities, there is one whose eye is ever upon us for good; and whose tender compassion is moved towards us: and He is the helper of the helplessthe Saviour of the lost. And when He sees that our power is all gone; none shut up or left: then He appears, and turns our captivity, as the streams in the south, once more causing the Sun to arise upon our benighted souls; strengthening our weak hands, and confirming our feeble knees. This causes the lame man to leap as the hart, and the tongue of the dumb to sing: for He makes rivers to break out in this wilderness, and streams in this desert. We then afresh thank God, take courage, and though faint through desertion, affliction, and sorrow, we pursue again, and run in His ways without weariness or fainting. Though blest at times with the sweetest confidence; yet when long He hides His face, I am troubled. The beasts of the forest creep forth, and fears of various kinds prevail; and were it not that the Lion of the tribe of Judah is far more than a match for the lion of the bottomless pit, where should we be? But the promise (however long delayed) is sure: "As is thy day, so shall thy strength be!" Have we not proved it true thus far? Yea, verily. Although He has sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death; although He has many times, in His inscrutable wisdom, showed us hard things, and made us drink the wine of astonishment, yet hitherto He hath helped us, and brought us in safety thus far, through this waste howling wilderness; yea, and He hath been better to us than all our fears! Our precious Redeemer said, “Our fathers trusted in Thee: they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. They cried unto Thee and were delivered; they trusted in Thee and were not confounded." Then He adds, “But I am a worm and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people,” &c. Amazing thought! Boundless love! Was He delivered? Yes; but to death, for our offences! No deliverance from, or discharge, had He in this war. No; He undertook and must go through: yea, He was straitened until that fiery baptisin was accomplished. Truly many waters; yea, all the floods, waves, and billows of divine wrath (“incensed at all your sins and mine") which flowed over His devoted head, could never drown Him, or quench that fire of love which burned so intensely in His heart, for the salvation of such rebels as we. Well might dear Hart, under a sense of this mighty wonder, burst out and exclaim:

One cord of this love, let down into the heart of a poor sinners, will cause his willing feet to move swiftly in the heavenly race! And without this wind blows, we may unfurl our canvass, take up our anchor, and wish for a movement; but there we lie, perfectly powerless. "Thine is the power"—are words that have been much on my mind the last few

days and truly I prove again and again, that "All my springs are in Him." I find that several of your people are in affliction; and although these things are not strange, but are the common lot of all; yet the Lord does not willingly afflict (that is, He has no delight in afflicting His own) no more than you or I ever found any pleasure in chastising our children. But, as in our case, we believed it was for their good: so with our infinitely wise Father: our good, our profit is His aim. And need we wonder, if we have been murmuring at His dealings, quarrelling with those at the head of affairs, because things do not go just as they, in their wisdom, think they ought. Absenting from worship on any trifling occasion; living in open disobedience of the precept: and then when the rod and reproof come, which give wisdom, wonder why they are so hardly dealt with. O, the folly and blindness of the human mind! Well, it is about time I had done, is it not? Give my love to Mrs. H. and your dear girls, and all friends at St. Newcastle's.

I remain, yours truly in Jesus,

THORPE SMITH.

LETTERS BY MR. BROOK.*

No. 2.

(Postmark), Sept. 6, 1810. My circuit begins, if the Lord will, at -, on Sunday the 30th ; and I purpose, by the same help, to be at Marlboro' on the Sabbath following: and then to look about me and wait for further directions. Temptations, afflictions, persecutions, have followed me from the day I left you to this hour; and I have no hope nor wish but that they should to the end of my course. I say, no hope nor wish; which, indeed, is not true concerning the flesh. But I may say to it, as David to Abishai: "What have I to do with thee:" for Paul says, he and the flesh are two: not one, for I would do good. And as these things serve to give a polish and a point to the weapons handled; so there are but few that are pleased with my ministry, and there will be still fewer. I have been in one scene of contention, and yet have been kept still and quiet. For it is oil, it is honey, that keeps alive all the strife and contention between the sons of life and death. I am for peace, but they are for war. It was the proclamation of peace that made the devil rage at the commencement of Christ's ministry: and His sending not peace but a sword, does not mean that He began in violence and destruction. He spoke that they might be saved, which stirred up hatred, rebellion, and desperation. Paul followed the same line of things, and met with the same successes; and every good man, to this day, labours for the good of mankind, and his labours make the world unworthy of him. Jeremiah appeals in the true spirit of christianity to his Master: "As for me I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow Thee: neither have I desired the woeful day, Thou knowest: but that which came out of my [We wish it to be distinctly understood that we do not endorse all Mr. Brook writes : but as a great diversity of tastes prevail among the Lord's people, some will no doubt like what we do not. But we never wish to append special notes where no error is advanced. Quartus, who contributes these Letters of Mr. Brook, and who described them as unpublished, desires us to say that he has discovered that they have been published in a volume, and that he is sorry for the mistake. So also is THE EDITOR.]