on a public profession of his belief in the atonement, and in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Henry set out on his christian pilgrimage with more than ordinary diligence; and having great aptitude for business, he began to apply his abilities to the duties of his christian profession. He was scrupulously diligent in his attendance at the young men's prayer-meeting; he became a teacher in the Sunday school, and afterwards was its punctual and active secretary; he helped mainly to revive the interests of the library connected with the congregation, and was its librarian; gave his help and the use of his pen and time to the management and collecting for different departments of the cause; indeed, he spontaneously manifested a steady, undeviating, and active zeal for the varied interests of the church; was frequently first, and always punctual, in his attendance on the ordinances and engagements of the Lord's house; and his walk and conversation gave the most satisfactory promise of his becoming a christian of a higher order than usual, and, considering his youth, was the pleasure and admiration of all who intimately knew him. In the midst of his numerous engagements in the church and in the world, he found time to increase his store of general knowledge. He purchased for himself a number of books, chiefly on religious subjects; acquired a considerable acquaintance with the science of mineralogy, and collected a variety of beautiful specimens ; studied the signs, and acquired to some extent the practice, of short-hand writing, thus fitting himself for general usefulness. It is too frequently the case that the excitement and self-gratulation arising from the eclat of having made a public profession, cast a glitter over the first acts of religious obedience that is not adapted for perma nence. It was not so with Henry Bond; the farther he advanced, the more his practice, his associations, and his feelings were mingled with the interests of personal or relative religion; and by a reference to his diary, it appears he earnestly contemplated an entire consecration of all to the service of the Messiah, in the life and labours of a missionary to heathen lands. How fair was the prospect thus presented of a long life of usefulness being dedicated to the service of the church and the glory of the Redeemer; yet the inscrutable ways of a gracious and all-wise God are above our comprehension. He saw fit to limit this young christian's life to little more than twelve short but happy months. Little did his friends think that the baptism of his soul into the fountain opened for sin and all uncleanness, and the embalming of his affections in the unction of the Holy One, were preparatory to his early exaltation to the kingdom and glory of the redeemed. This was not a case wherein the stroke of disease or the floods of affliction had first cut off the joys of the world, and then prompted a desire for deliverance; but health and strength, worldly pleasures and advantages, youthful hopes and expectations were all in full vigour; in the midst of all these the usual seductions presented by Satan to entrap the unwary feet of shortsighted inexperience Henry was called, sanctified, and fitted for glory. On the Lord's-day of July 30th, he appeared in all his christian duties, full of spiritual and physical strength and activity; on the following Lord's-day he fell asleep in Jesus. In the scope of that little week he passed through the furnace, was refined' as gold is purified, and in the midst of acute and excruciating suffering, was summoned to the presence of his Master. It was not until the Thursday evening preceding his death, that latent and undeveloped inflammatory action occasioned alarm. Prompt and suitable remedies were employed; but health, strength, and life rapidly yielded to disease, and human help, though most kindly and perseveringly employed, availed nothing. Alternations of severe and torturing pains, with occasional, but short remissions, were continuous; and the excitement of the mind, added to the continual employment of means to alleviate his sufferings, occupied the fast receding hours of life; so that if the interests of the soul had not been secured before this tempestuous visitation, no space would have been left to him for repentance. He knew in whom he had believed, and, therefore, his mind firmly reposed on the faithfulness of Jehovah. "I have prayed," said he to his sorrowing parents, on the Friday night, "to my Heavenly Father, and I know that he has heard me; but how or where he will answer me, I do not know; perhaps he has seen me wandering from him, and has sent this affliction to bring me back." After a severe paroxysm of suffering on the Saturday night had passed, he entreated his friends then around his couch, to pray with him, and with the deepest solemnity of manner and earnestness of soul, he poured out his supplications in a strain of mingled confidence and entreaty, that awoke the strongest emotions in all present. It was indeed a season of weeping. Dear youthful saint! his hands, his eyes, and his voice all uplifted, he pleaded in such strains of pathetic earnestness, that all present melted into tears, groaned in their spirit, and offered their heartfelt Amen! About midnight, he looked round for his father. "Do not leave me," he said, "come and comfort me; pray for me." Again the sorrowing party knelt and pleaded. His whole soul was absorbed in the appeal to the divine Disposer of all events. But by terrible things in righteousness is he pleased sometimes to answer his believing people. On the Lord's-day morning, about five o'clock, a great change occurred, and the dear sufferer thought the point of danger had been passed. He felt comparatively well, and left his bed, with some assistance, exchanged his night dress, and seemed every way refreshed and full of hope. Oh, how fallacious was that hope! The disease had at this time struck the final and fatal blow-mortification had ensued. His ease from such excruciating suffering as he had endured, enabled him to converse. His converse was chiefly on matters connected with Zion-her interests, and her worship. He spoke of the privilege he enjoyed in belonging to the church of Christ. His father observed, that it was a more exalted privilege to belong to the church triumphant; his heart seemed cheered, and he smiled, as in delightful anticipation. At this moment, the sun darted his morning rays into the room, which excited his remark, "It is a beautiful morning." "Yes," said his father, "it reminds me of a holy man of God, a Baptist minister, who, many years since, as he lay on his dying couch, was struck with the brightness of the sun's rays shining into his room, and exclaimed, ⚫ Soon shall I see a brighter sun, And on the same day he died, and was ushered into the presence, and beheld the glory, of the Sun of Righteousness." "Ah!" said the sufferer, "that was, indeed, to join the song-To Him who hath loved us, and washed us in His own blood,' to Him be glory! glory! glory!" His father rejoined,→ "There we shall join our cheerful songs With angels round the throne." He immediately caught up the words, and sang them with intense earnestness; but, exhausted, he exclaimed, "I am not able to sing," and repeated the succeeding lines to himself. Soon after this, his weakness occasioned the overbalancing of his mind. His mental illusions increased, but constantly recurred to the sanctuary, to his christian friends, to his minister, or to the church. "What," said he, in his wandering, "do you think I am ashamed to speak a word for Christ ?" "I am not ashamed that I have been to the house of God." While his kind medical attendant, Dr. Bulmore, sat by his bed-side, he burst out into a powerful, earnest, and affectionate appeal to sinners, and with returning consciousness, he exclaimed in the most pathetic and melting tones, "O Lord, have mercy upon me, and forgive all my sins, for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ,"-thus terminating this agonizing scene with confession and prayer. He rapidly lost all mental clearness,convulsions ensued, and for a considerable time, his hands moved to and fro, as though he was taking flight, whilst his eyes were fixed steadily towards heaven. With his head on his father's shoulder, and supported in the arms of his parents, he entered into rest. Thus this young disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, having received a new name, which no man can read save him who receiveth it, was rapidly summoned from the active duties of the church militant, to the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory in the church triumphant. His parents have sustained a bereavement which they feel can only be recompensed by the assurance that the Master had need of him. The little family circle, where he was the eldest son, will long give evidence of the breach that has been made; but one object of this memoir is to keep him, his character, and his course, continually before his brothers and sisters, whom he loved. little church of which he was a member, loved him and sorrowed for him; but not without hope. Every member who could, followed him to his grave,-and the tears which flowed evinced their undisguised affection. Mr. Tuckett improved the event on the Sabbath evening after his interment, to a deeply affected congregation, from Isaiah xl. 7: "The flower fadeth." The Miscellaneous. THE UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE.The Union between the Church and the State in any country, involving as it does the subordination of the Church to the State, is unprincipled, absurd, and mischievous. The State being the world, it is a close alliance between the church and the world-which Christ has forbidden. The Church being in spiritual things the parent, and the State its child, it is an unnatural subordination of the parent to the child. History abundantly condemns it as uniformly hostile to spiritual religion; and it is condemned by the provisions of the Mosaic economy, by the language of the Hebrew prophets, and by the express declarations of Christ and his apostles.-Were this Union to be now for the first time proposed to Christian men, I believe there is scarcely one who would not instantly repudiate it. Custom alone can account for its continuance. Christians have been familiar with it from their infancy; romantic associations are connected with it; a thousand times they have heard it termed venerable; few ever study the directions of the word of God upon this subject; Government, patrons, prelates, incumbents, and expectants, are all interested in its stability; and numbers belonging to a large political party dread all innovations, and especially those which would strengthen the popular element in any of our institutions. Erroneous opinions, eagerly embraced and assiduously reiterated, invest it with an air of sacredness. And many who resolutely shut their eyes to the evils which it entails, and who close their ears against all expositions of its corruption, applaud even the blindest and most headlong of its advocates; glorify with their hosannas reasonings which are palpably weak; sustain their tottering cause by expositions of scripture which are worthy of Rome itself; misrepresent the scriptural system which should replace it; predict the most doleful results from changes which would occasion a general revival of religion; cry "Ichabod," when they should shout, as David when he anticipated the erection of the temple, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in;" appeal to martyrs of ancient date who, if their gigantic energies could once more do battle on the earth, would gallantly lead on the army of the second reformation; and when all reasons fail for their adherence to a system which is incurably corrupt, oppose to all reasoning their unalterable resolution, and rise to a sort of heroism by nailing their colours to the mast in defence of that which every enlightened man would seek by the help of God to overthrow.-Under these circumstances the little band who, with less courage than the crisis demands, investigate their duty in the word of God, are called more resolutely and more persever ingly to summon the churches of Christ to accomplish their Redeemer's will. Let them demand, on behalf of Christ, that the churches of this land substitute persuasion for compulsion in the advancement of the cause of God; that they receive no pastors but those whom the word of God sanctions; that they maintain the sovereignty of Christ, by claiming the right of unrestricted submission to all his laws; and that they support their own pastors according to his will.Should we in this cause meet with some rude assaults, the cause is worth the conflict. The humble tomb at Thermopylæ speaks more to the generous traveller than the sky-pointing pyramids. For when the three hundred Spartans stood on the narrow causeway between Mount Eta and the sea, to guard the liberties of their country against an innumerable host of invaders, resolved to die rather than yield, they did that which will live in the hearts of brave men while the world lasts. And the liberties of Christ's churches are more precious than the civil liberties of Greece. Let each minister, and each christian, who knows that the principles of the Union are corrupt and dishonourable to Christ, resolve that they will terminate the bondage of the Anglican Churches by destroying it, and, with the aid of God, they will at last succeed.-Baptist Noel on the Union of Church and State. The A GOOD SERMON.-We have heard a story of the elder Dr. Beecher, now of Cincinnati, that is said to be true, and is worth putting into type, as illustrating the truth that we can never tell what may result from an apparently insignificant action. Doctor, as The Boston Bee tells the story, once engaged to preach for a country minister, on exchange; and the Sabbath proved to be one excessively stormy, cold, and uncomfortable. It was in mid winter, and the snow was piled in heaps all along the roads, so as to make the passage very difficult. Still the minister urged his horse through the drifts, till he reached the church, put the animal into a shed, and went in. As yet there was no person in the house; and, after looking about, the old gentleman (then young) took his seat in the pulpit. Soon the doors opened, and a single individual walked up the aisle, looked about, and took a seat. The hour came for commencing service, but no more hearers. Whether to preach to such an audience or not, was the question; and it was one that Lyman Beecher was not long in deciding. He felt that he had a duty to perform, and he had no right to refuse to do it because only one man could reap the benefit of it, and, accordingly, he actually went through the whole service, praying, singing, preaching, and the benediction, with only one hearer. And when all was over, he hastened down 66 from his desk to speak to his " congregation;" but he had departed. A circumstance so rare was referred to occasionally; but twenty years after, it was brought to the Doctor's mind quite strangely. Travelling somewhere in Ohio, the Doctor alighted from the stage one day, in a pleasant village, when a gentleman stepped up and spoke to him, familiarly calling him by name. "I do not remember you," said the Doctor. "I suppose not," said the stranger; "but we spent two hours together, in a house, alone, once in a storm." "I do not recollect it, Sir," added the old man; 66 pray where was it?" "Do you remember preaching twenty years ago, in such a place, to a single person?" Yes, yes," said the Doctor, grasping his hand, "I do indeed; and if you are the man, I have been wishing to speak to you ever since." "I am the man, Sir, and that sermon saved my soul, made a minister of me, and yonder is my church! The converts of that sermon, Sir, are all over Ohio!" So striking a result made no little impression on the old veteran's mind. He learned that the man was at that time a lawyer, who was in the town on business, and lived of a Sunday morning at a country hotel, went in despite of the storm to hear that sermon. The Doctor often tells the story, and adds, "I think that was about as satisfactory an audience as I ever had." JUSTIFICATION ILLUSTRATED.-With a view to illustrate this glorious and all-important doctrine, let us make two suppositions. A subject is accused before his sovereign of high treason. He is tried, his innocence clearly proved, and his accusers confounded; he is then fully justified. Another person is accused of a similar crime, and is found guilty but the sovereign freely pardons him. Neither of these cases fully sets forth the justification of the sinner who believes on Jesus. The first person we have mentioned is justified, but not pardoned; and the second is pardoned, but not justified; and neither can be in the very nature of things. Now the guilty sinner against God cannot be justified as the innocent person was, unless something can be found which will stand him in the same stead as his innocence. This is found in the righteousness of Christ. Though a guilty and convicted traitor, the believer is freely pardoned through the blood of Christ, who bore his sins; and he is also fully justified by the righteousness of Christ in whom he believes. Thus God pardons him honourably; his justice is satisfied, and his government is vindicated. Follow on this subject, and the glory of Christ's righteousness more and more appears. The king who justified his innocent subject when unjustly accused, was under no obligation to enrich and ennoble him, much less was he obliged to do so to the convicted traitor whom he graciously pardoned; "but whom God justifies he also glorifies." Why is this, and on what principle is it done? All is done in honour of the righteousness of Christ by which the sinner is justified, and as a token of God being infinitely pleased therewith. "Jesus, how glorious is thy grace, J. Cox. IMPORTANT COUNSEL TO MINISTERS.Farmer Cook was well known a few years ago, in the neighbourhood of Wottonunder-Edge, as a zealous and consistent Christian, and as a persevering and useful preacher of the gospel of Christ. He was brought to the knowledge of the truth and to the enjoyment of religion, under the ministry of the late Rev. Rowland Hill, whose eccentricities in preaching he in some measure imitated, and wherever he went, great multitudes congregated to hear him, so that he was the means of doing much good. But the object of this paper is to impress upon the minds of ministers in general, the advice Madam Hill gave him when he began to preach, she said, "Farmer Cook, you must never leave out of your ministry the three doctrines, each of which begins with the letter R. 1. Ruin by sin. 2. Redemption by Jesus Christ. 3. Regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Sermons imbued with these truths cannot fail to be interesting, savoury, and useful." THE SECOND DEATH." Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark ix. 28).-How solemn are these words, thrice repeated by Him who cannot lie nor exaggerate-who wept over man's woes, and bled for man's redemption. Here is reference to the twofold mode of disposing of bodies after death. In a dead corpse we see death in its reality and loathsomeness; but even corruption and decayloathsome as they are-fail to set forth the horrors of death eternal. Look into that coffin which was closed some weeks since. You say you dare not! Then imagine what is within. The worm is there. He pursues his work till the once fair body becomes a heap of dust, and then the worm dies. But their worm dieth not."-See that pile raised to consume a dead corpse. The work is soon done: a few ashes only remain; the fire itself is gone out. their fire is not quenched." These awful figures set forth the intensity and eternity of the sufferings of the lost, and are the most awful paraphrase on Paul's words"EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION from the presence of the Lord." Divine wrath once found awful satisfaction on Calvary. Thither let us all flee who desire to escape the death to come. "But SCALE OF MORALS.-In morals, integrity holds the first place, benevolence the second, and prudence the third. Where the first is not, the second cannot bé; and where the third is not, the other two will be often brought into suspicion.-A. Booth. Entelligence. BAPTIST FOREIGN MISSIONS. AFRICA. The following is extracted from a letter from Mr. Merrick. We commend it to the prayerful consideration of our readers: I have lately been thinking that the first Monday in every month should be a much more solemn season with ministers and missionaries, and indeed all christians, than it really is. What wrestlings of soul there should be on such occasions for the world which lieth in wickedness, and the heralds of the cross labouring among them. O we do need your prayers! None but those who labour among the perishing heathen can form any adequate conception of the nature of our trials. I speak not of temporal privations-these we can bear-they are really after all nothing when the mind is made up to meet them. Nor do I speak of intellectual difficulties; these are great, and not unfrequently cause the missionary's heart to be cast down within him. Oh, it is no small thing to live among a people perishing for the bread of life without being able to speak a word to them, and to find yourself baffled in a thousand ways in your earnest desires to acquire their language, but these are difficulties which time, patience, and perseverance will be sure to conquer. I speak of moral, spiritual difficulties. How much of the temper of Christ it needs in order to love a people whose every action is unlovely, and who in the midst of filth, wretchedness, poverty, ignorance, and barbarism, treat the missionary and his message not only with indifference, but sometimes with perfect contempt. Yet we must love them, and show our love too, or we cannot do them good. If deep-toned piety is necessary in the minister of Christ at home, I am almost ready to say it is necessary in a tenfold degree in the christian missionary. Sometimes in the agony of my soul I exclaim, that until God raises up another class of missionaries altogether more devoted than the present, the heathen will never be converted; and I think we must all begin to pray afresh for such a class of missionaries. Oh, who is sufficient for these things? Happy for us that our sufficiency is of God. THE HON. AND REV. B. W. NOEL, M.A. WHAT OUGHT DISSENTERS TO DO? We announced last month to our readers the secession of the best of episcopal clergymen from the State Church. Ére they read that notice, his essay justifying his secession had made its appearance. A noble book it is! It enunciates thorough-going Anti-State Church principles, illustrated by very numerous pictures of the working of State Church principles. No hand but that of a seceding churchman could have drawn them so to the life; or if it could, no testi mony or arguments from a Dissenter would have gone, as this will, amongst the aristocracy and clergy, as well as all other classes. The entire first edition was sold in a few hours!! An extract on another page will give our readers some idea of the book which is now read with intense curiosity and avidity by thousands who would scorn to look at an appeal, however eloquent and just, from a Dissenter. But what will Dissenters now do? This meek Christian calls upon all the evangelical sects, Methodists included, to come forward to "the help of the Lord against the mighty," the mighty Babylon of British State Churchism. No language we have ever used in "The Church" denounces the evil in stronger terms, than that employed by this most amiable of men; will our Dissenting brethren, both of the pulpit and the pew, who have hitherto treated as vulgar declamation our sincere invectives against the British man of sin, continue their gentle language about State Churchism still? MR. NOEL summons them not merely to think aright, not merely to pray, not merely to say " it is wrong, yes, quite wrong, but the nation is not ripe for it;"no, he summons them to action, to POLITICAL ACTION; he justifies it by one oft alleged reason, that those who have entrenched themselves in political defences can be vanquished only by destroying those defences. He adopts the Anti-State Church creed in full," Let life interests be regarded; let patrons be compensated at market worth of their livings (market worth of spiritual offices!!) and then,-hearken all Dissenting trimmers, -then, the whole remainder to be employed for national and secular purposes such as paying off the national debt!! We write deliberately when we say, that we trust no evangelical Dissenter will expose himself to the disgrace of rejecting this appeal of this emancipated State Churchman. The question is now, if it never was previously, "before the nation." Let every candidate at an election be catechised out of Mr. Noel's book. Let every Dissenter decline voting if no satisfactory candidate come forward. Let all who prefer that mode of action, and there is no better, throw their strength into the British Anti-State Church Association. And, let all who prefer it, form separate organizations for the same object; which, however, cannot legally correspond with the existing Association. METHODIST MISSIONARIES AND COLONIAL We hope our friends who have influence with Methodists, will inform them of the sad fact, that some of their missionaries and ministers in our colonies are lending themselves to every dirty scheme of colonial authorities. We perceive by a letter from a missionary in whom we have entire con |