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A SELF-RIGHTEOUS PHARISEE.

A Self-righteous Pharisee

lady visited her: and told her she was very

BROUGHT DOWN INTO THE LOW DUNGEON; | unwell, and she must read the prayers for

AND FROM THENCE RAISED TO GOSPEL LIBERTY AND IMMORTAL GLORY.

DEAR BROTHER-I send you the following short narrative of a poor woman deeply tried, but wonderfully delivered in the day of God's power; the Lord make it useful to some of his 'banished ones.'

Mrs. Mary Orton, (the subject of this memoir) was a poor woman, industrious and very moral. Her residence was at South Kilworth, a village in Leicestershire, five miles from Lutterworth; she was the mother of ten children; and it was with very great pleasure I witnessed the tender regard, and unremitting attention of these sons and daughters to their poor afflicted parent.

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the sick, and prepare herself to take the sacrament. Poor Mary said, 'Oh, ma'am, what such a wicked wretch as I take the sacrament? I cannot-I could not do it for all the world!' They visited the poor woman many times to make her fit for the sacrament; but they could not make her say she was holy and good; she told the blind guide she was lost and ruined for ever; there was no hope for her from anything she could do, nor from anything mortals could do for such a wicked wretch as she felt she was; for she said, 'I feel I get worse and worse every day.' So the priest and his lady gave her up, telling her she was insane. And the poor dear creature, from the view of her vileness, and Jehovah's holiness, sunk fathoms, until she was unable to attend to her doat-mestic affairs. And in this distracted state she was taken to a doctor, to seek relief from medicine. The doctor examined, pitied her, and candidly told her that her complaint was fever upon the brain.' She tried medicine for some time, but it was all in vain; she grew nothing better, but rather worse; her case was pronounced incurable, and was given up as a decided case of insanity; and this poor afflicted woman was left to wander about the village and fields an object of misery and distress. The church now ap

Mrs. Orton was an obedient daughter to old mother Church; and for many years tended strictly to her duties. Mrs. O. believed she was very good; she read the prayer-book; went to church every Sunday; made a very low courtesy when she met the minister; and responded, We beseech thee to hear us good Lord;' Lord, incline our hearts to keep this law,' with the parish clerk. Thus she went her weekly round-a blind, self-righteous pharisee, trusting in her works, and despising the truth and people of God; so much so, that though her next door neighbour had a little meet-peared to her the 'synagogue of satan;' she ing, Mrs. Orton would not go over the threshold on the evening the meeting was held. But this poor woman was a vessel of mercy, predestinated to be conformed to the image of Jesus,' therefore she could not be left to perish in mother Church's ceremonial deception, nor be smothered in the ditch with the blind guide.

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It pleased the Lord, when she was upwards of fifty-three years old, to convince her of sin. God the Holy Ghost applied the law to her soul, and when the commandment came with divine power, Sin revived and she died.' The sight she had of herself, a filthy polluted wretch in the Lord's presence was overwhelming; she tried to procure peace by double duty, and self mortification; but divine justice, with its inflexible demand, like thunder, and a terrible hail storm, swept away her refuge of lies, and she found she had no hiding place;' and experience taught her to understand a little of the good man's meaning, While I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.' The poor creature now began to tell the people what an awful sinner she was; and went from house to house to tell her friends she was lost for ever, and that her damnation was sure, and that the Almighty would be just in sending her to hell. These wonderful statements of Mrs. Orton soon reached the ears of her old friend, the rector; and his

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had no faith in its forms, no hope in herself, and not one ray of hope from God; and she was hunted daily with one awful temptation ; it was as if she heard a voice, an hundred times every day speaking to her, 'DESTROY

YOURSELF

DESTROY YOURSELF. Do it now! Do it now!' And she used to rush out of the house into the street to get away (as she said) from the devil, that hunted her.

The good Lord has, in the village of South Kilworth, a very small part of the remnant according to the election of grace;' and poor Mrs. Orton would often visit the houses of these persecuted people to tell her sorrows, temptations and distress; and she said, satan had not so much power over her while she was near to them; and sometimes these people would talk to her about Jesus, and salvation by free, unmerited, unconditional grace and mercy; but poor Mary would say, 'Ah, you know not what a wicked wretch I am; there is no mercy for me; I am a reprobate; and am shut up in black despair. She had one son at home; he kept a dog; and the poor creature would sit and look at the dog, and talk to herself; mourn, and envy the dog while he slept quietly by the fire, wishing she was a dog like him, and then she would rest a little; but alas for her, she had no rest night nor day.

One of the good people in a house Mrs.

BROUGHT DOWN INTO THE LOW DUNGEON.

Orton visited, (he was a labouring man,) had a very bad leg; and, poor dear woman, she said it was all because she went there, for she was such a wicked wretch the curse of the Lord followed her, and she wept much at being the cause of the poor man's suffering. Yes, my reader, this poor woman continued in this afflicted state of mind for more than three years. And what tongue could tell, or pen describe the trial, temptation, and deep cutting suffering she waded through these three years? But the voice of the Almighty spake, 'Thus far shalt thou go.' There is a time for the deliverance of the poor afflicted sons and daughters of the Lord; and Mrs. Orton was a living witness of the power of God the Spirit. He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.' The Lord had ordained better things for her, even the enjoyment of pardon, peace, and liberty, in, and through the complete salvation of Jesus.

It pleased the Lord to put it into the heart of the poor man who has been named with the bad leg, to open his house for the preaching of the gospel, and the writer was invited to preach once a month in this mud walled cottage; the invitation was willingly accepted; and a free grace gospel has been preached in this house for more than eight years. After the preaching had been continued some time, poor Mrs. Orton ventured into the house one preaching night; and here I think it right to say that I had not heard of Mrs. Orton's case, nor did I know she was in the house, but the Lord's set time was come to bless the poor woman; therefore, she was constrained to come; and the writer was directed to speak from John xx. 15, 'Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou ?' And while the writer was painting out the Lord's weepers, and mourn ers, and the dear Saviour's love, tenderness, and compassion towards such characters, the Lord was there; God the Holy Spirit applied the word to the poor dear afflicted woman; her heart was melted; the dreadful chains that had bound her fast for years burst assunder; she felt her sins all pardoned, her soul saved, the devil defeated, her faculties all restored, and went from the meeting rejoicing in hope of the glory of God.' Yes, my dear reader, she told me afterwards it was as if a very heavy weight was taken from her poor heart, and it lifted right up. Here is a testimony to the divine Person of the Holy Spirit, Should this plain narrative fall into the hands of a person who denies the distinct personality of God the Spirit, I would ask such person, What short of the Omnipotent power of the Mighty God could effect such a wonderful conversion? She had despaired for years; she came to the house, as she said, to turn away from the devil's temptation; but she had no

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hope of hearing anything to do her good. She declared she neither asked for a blessing, nor expected one; she looked for nothing but hell; the Holy Ghost gave her Christ in her heart, the hope of glory. And such was the effect of the Holy Spirit's witness with her spirit of her interest in the love of God, that from this wonderful night she never manifested one symptom of insanity. A few weeks after her deliverance I had my first conversation with this poor woman. She told me her experience of the judgment and mercy of the Lord in a solemn manner indeed; and truly my soul trembled, and my heart melted to hear what the Lord had done for her. She was now a most decided woman for the truth; she was no friend to that long pruning system of preaching, just cutting off the extreme end of a few long branches; she firmly advocated close cutting; the more characteristic and discriminating, the better she liked it. Mary often said to the writer, 'Oh, sir, cut close; you will offend the devil, and drive out the empty professors, but God's own people will be established, and they will love it.

Her long affliction of mind acted upon her body, and brought her into a bad state of health; and the dear woman had two cancers, one in each breast, yet the Lord supported her, and she would sometimes walk to Lutterworth, five miles, to hear the gospel. The highly honoured servant of God, Mr. Gadsby, preached one week evening at Lutterworth; and though Mary was very unwell, she would come and hear him; the Lord greatly blessed her in hearing him, but she was so weak that some friends led her part of the way home. She told me many times how satan had been hurling his fiery darts at her; she knew the meaning of that text, 'thou hast thrust sore at me, that I might fall, but the Lord helped me.'

It was about three years from the night of her wonderful deliverance, when the pains and discharge from the cancers in her breast confined her to the house; and in a few weeks she took to her bed. I visited her many times: indeed, I found it such a privilege to spend an hour with this tried saint, I longed for an opportunity to go. Upon her death-bed she had, at times, sharp conflicts with the enemy; yet she was defended and upheld by the Mighty God of Jacob,' so that I was astonished to find her firm, established, and settled; there was nothing wild, nor did I find her raised up into raptures of faith; yet her sober, experimental, unctuous conversation, caused a melting of heart and union of spirit to the poor woman. I remember going one day, she seemed very much roused, I enquired the cause; she said, 'Why sir, that young lad has been to see me; (meaning a young curate at the church, hot from Oxford,) he wanted me to

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LUTHER ON FAITH.

assurance in death, leaned over the bed, and looked in her face; the moment the dying christian saw her, she held up both her hands in token of victory, and died in a few minutes, having an abundant entrance into the kingdom of Jesus: the days of her mourning all ended.'

"All her sorrows left below,

And earth exchang'd for heav'n." My dear departed friend had selected a portion of God's Word, with a request that I would speak from it after her funeral; it was 2 Sam. xiv. 14, 'Yet doth he devise means that his banished ones be not expelled from him.'

Luther on Faith.

take the sacrament; I told him I did not want that from him; so he went off about his business, and I trust he will never come to me again.' On another occasion, I was going to see Mrs. Orton, and it came into my mind, that she seemed very firm in her hope of interest in Jesus, I will probe her, and see if it is possible to shake her faith in the matter. Entering her chamber, I said, 'Well, Mrs. Orton, how do matters stand between you and the Lord now?' She replied, All right, I hope, I trust, sir, it is all right.' I then said, ' But have you no doubts and fears about it? If it should be a delusion after all, it would be a very solemn thing.' This appeal touched her; she turned round in the bed, fixed her eyes full upon me, and I have endeavoured, as much as possible, said, 'Delusion! delusion! No, no; it is to give you this plain narrative in the words not a delusion. Why, sir, when I look back of the poor woman, because I very much obat the state I was in for years, I felt in my-ject to the decorative art generally used to self I was lost; I did not expect the Lord 'set off' an obituary. R. DE FRAINE. could save me. I was lost to my family, I Lutterworth, April 12, 1849. could not attend to them; I was lost to the world, I might have gone and drowned myself, nobody would have wondered at that; but the night I came to the meeting, the devil had been tempting me all day; I thought I will go down to the house where the meeting is, and he won't have so much power over me there; I came down; but while I was hearing you, it came with power to my soul; I felt my sins all pardoned, my burden all gone, and I was happy; and it was as if my heart lifted right up; and from that night to this moment I have not lost my hope in the Lord; and I feel the dear Lord precious this minute. Now, sir, I could not do all this for myself-you could not do itand the devil would not do it, if he could, for he kept me in bondage as long as he could. Why, sir, it is plain to me, the Lord, bless his name, has done it all for me, and what does it matter to any body else? After the dear woman had done speaking, she kept her eyes fixed upon me, as much as to say, 'You deny it if you can.' I turned my face to the wall, ashamed, confounded, and hum-ness. bled and learned a lesson, never again to attempt to rob God's dear tried children of consolation he has sealed in their souls. It appeared, soon after this, Mrs. Orton's end was near. She thought she was dying one Sunday, and said to a female friend, 'I shall not see your husband again in this world, but you tell him I shall meet him in glory, and we two will sing louder than any of them; she lived a month after this time; a female friend who was much with her, said, 'Now Mrs. Orton, if you feel this assurance in death, and cannot speak, give us a sign by holding up your hand.'

On the day of her death there were a few friends standing round her bed, they saw her moving her head, as if anxious to see some one; the friend who asked for the sign of

LUTHER at first explains the power of faith to make the christian free. Faith unites the soul with Christ, as a bride with the bridegroom. Everything that Christ has becomes the property of the believer; everything that the believer has, becomes the property of Christ. Christ possesses all blessings, even eternal salvation; and these are thenceforth the property of the believer; the believer possesses all vices and all sins, and these become thenceforth the property of Christ. A happy exchange now takes place; Christ, who is God and man, Christ who has never sinned, and whose holiness is invincible: Christ, the Omnipotent and Eternal, appropriating to himself, by his wedding ring, that is to say, by faith, all the sins of the believer; these sins are swallowed up in him and annihilated; for no sin can exist in the presence of his infinite righteous

Thus, by means of faith, the soul is delivered from all sins, and invested with the eternal righteousness of Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom! O, happy union ! Jesus Christ the rich, the noble, the holy Bridegroom, takes in marriage this poor, guilty, contemned bride, delivers her from all. evil, and decks her in the richest robes. Christ, a King and Priest, shares this honour and glory with all christians. The christian is a king, and consequently possesses all things, he is a priest, and consequently possesses God; and it is faith, not works, which procures him this honour; the christian is free from all things, and above all things, faith giving him everything in abundance. The law says, 'Do this;' and what it commands is never done. Grace says, ' Believe in him, and lo, all things are accomplished."

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A TRIUMPHANT DISPLAY OF THE POWER OF DIVINE GRACE IN THE

Last Illness and Death of Mr. Isaac Jones, late of March Fenn.

DEAR BROTHER: I promised in my last, (that if no more competent person than myself undertook the task,) to give some little account of the last illness and death of Mr. I. Jones, late of March Fenn. And in so do ing, I shall not attempt to give a biography of his life, but principally confine my remarks to an obituary, or brief account of his death. Although, of his life it may be truly said, 'He lived the gospel he professed,' or, that he was a living epistle of that gospel known and read of all men.' And his death was a most triumphant display of the power, the grace, the unctuous anointing of the Holy Ghost, and the faith of Christ as centreing in Christ; and the preciousness of Christ to a believer, as the world is receding, heaven opening, and eternal glory unfolding to the enraptured gaze, to whom those lines of Watts were truly applicable—

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are some who say, you should not praise the living, and others say you should not praise the dead. Well, then, we will render praise to whom it is justly due; and say, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein they were made accepted in the Beloved, and kind to the objects of God's love.

and departed friend was at a distance from As the residence of my much esteemed me, namely eleven miles, I had not an opportunity of seeing him in his last or departing illness; indeed, his death was rather sudden; although he had been gradually sinking and wasting by an atrophy, or nervous debility. He occasionally worshipped with us at Zion Chapel, Peterborough, as I had been favoured with his acquaintance and friendship for about attended the ministry of Mr. Holland, at eighteen years; but he more frequently Zion Chapel, Whittlesea, to which he was nearer by six miles; and Mr. Holland preached a funeral sermon on Sunday afternoon, March the 11th, as our friend died on Tuesday morning, the 6th, and was buried on Friday, the 9th; and I made a few remarks upon the subject, on the Sunday evening. What further I have to relate, respecting my departed friend, will be by giving a very short outline, or epitome of the sermon preached on the account of his death, interspersed with a few things that have come to my knowledge since.

Psalm cii. 23, 24. "He weakened my strength in the way, he shortened my days. I said, O, my God, take me not away in the midst of my days, thy years are throughout all generations."

Yes; my departed and much lamented brother, (may I not rather say envied brother?) lived and died a christian indeed. While living, his house and heart were open to receive any or all of the ministers of Christ when travelling that way, as no doubt many of your correspondents can testify. In truth, he was a primitive christian; he obeyed the apostolic injunctions, as first, distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality. Secondly, a lover of hospitality; a lover of good men; sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast I shall not attempt system, or make any the faithful word, as he had been taught. divisions of the text, but make a few reThirdly, with Peter, use hospitality one to marks, and deduce a few inferences from another, without grudging as he had re- them, as may be applicable to the present ceived the gift even so did he minister the occasion. This Psalm was penned (if by same as a good steward of the manifold David) as descriptive of the exercises and grace of God. And fourthly, in God's afflictions of the people of God, and is to be house, as an officer, (a deacon) he exempli- considered as prophetical, rather than perfied the character. He was grave, not sonal, or with reference to himself only. double-tongued, not given to much wine, not The title of this psalm is singularly imgreedy of filthy lucre, holding the mystery portant as descriptive of its contents. A of the faith in a pure conscience, ruling his prayer of the afflicted, when he is overchildren and his own house well. And to whelmed and poureth out his complaint enable him thus to act, the good Lord had before the Lord;' as such, it is applicable, blessed him with a help-meet indeed-with and may be applied to any of the Lord's a partner in life both temporal and spi-afflicted ones, as all the people of God are ritual-in the domestic scene, and in the more or less-for many are the afflictions house and worship of God-the urbanity of the righteous, either outwardly or inand suavity of her manner, and language wardly, in body, or in their good name and to the ministers and people of God, was character, or with the corruptions of their just such as became the wife of such a hus-own hearts, the temptations of satan, or band. 2 Kings iv. 8. Well, read that and the three following verses,and there you have the portrait of a great woman-of great kindness-great and manifested care and anxiety for the comfort and well-faring of the ministers and saints of God. But there VOL. V.

the Lord's hiding his face. O, this is indeed a time for prayer! and it is their privilege that they have a God of grace and mercy to pray unto, and a throne of grace to come to at all times, a spirit of grace and supplication to assist them, and Christ

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LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH OF MR. ISAAC JONES.

their Advocate, Intercessor, and High | can be given of it? No; God giveth not Priest to present their petitions for them. to man an account of these matters; he Yes, even when brought or driven to the says, 'Be still, and know that I am God; ends of the earth-when their heart is over-shall not the Judge of all the earth do whelmed, pressed with the burden of sin right? Yes; in these dispensations there without a view of pardon-surcharged with is divine sovereignty; he doeth whatsosatanic suggestions or divine desertions-ever he pleases in the armies of heaven, covered with shame and sorrow-over- and the inhabitants of the earth; there is whelmed, like to an extinguisher put upon none can stay his hand, nor say unto him, a candle-the light seems to be put out, what doest thou? He is an Almighty, an and they grovelling in the dark-or they absolute Sovereign; he is the arbiter of are overset, overthrown like a cart pressed life and death, but he is infinitely perfect, with sheaves, turned aside down-ah! this he cannot err, do wrong, or make mistake; is the time for prayer! help, Lord, help! his sovereignty extends to all the circumLord, save, or I perish! Or, at other times, stances of life-our birth, abode, relations, filled with confusion, or sinking in deep and conditions. (See Acts xvii. 26.) Well, waters-afflictions like waves and billows, then, doth Solomon say, to every thing there roll over him, deep calling unto deep at is a season, and a time for every purpose the noise of the overwhelming water-spouts under heaven-' a time to be born and a -he now pours out his complaint before time to die.' But here is divine wisdom the Lord, he endeavours to shew, to set be- from the only wise God, We are born fore him his trials, afflictions, and over-mortal and under the sentence of death; whelming sorrows. O, hear him complain we have the seeds of mortality or death in of the vileness, the naughtiness of his our nature; we must needs die;' we are heart! he is cast down and wounded. Well, under the sentence of the violated law, and now, at your leisure, read the psalm till liable to the execution of it every moment you come to the tenth verse, 'Because of from our birth to our dissolution. It must thine indignation and thy wrath, for thou be executed some time or other; but in hast lifted me up and cast me down.' He mercy and wisdom the time and the season now complains of deadness, darkness, un- is unknown to us; therefore it is a point of belief, want of help and comfort. O, Lord, divine wisdom at what period, and under I am oppressed, undertake for me.' But to what circumstances it shall take place come to the text :whether in youth, in middle, or old age.

'He weakened my strength.' The psalmist here returns to the complaint of his sorrows, weakness, and frailty; and he says the Lord has done it by his chastening rod or hand, which weakens the strength and vigour both of body and mind-dispirits and enfeebles the whole man-many pains and aches, many a blow from the hand of God, and from the hand of men by God's permission. Thus through many, or much tribulation they pass, to enter the kingdom of heaven; and by these he shortened my days, which he had thought he should live, or looking to the age which others arrive at, or are spared unto, or which I, if health had been given, might have lived upon earth; for otherwise, with respect to the decress and purposes of God, He has fixed the bounds of man's days that they cannot be shorter nor longer than they are. Job xiv. 5. But what the psalmist here apprehends for himself is sometimes the case with other good men. He weakens their strength in the way, and takes them away in the midst of their days, as was the case with our departed friend, (and also of one whose death I wrote an account of just two years ago) this month, there appears something mysteriously strange when men of truth and probity, which to us seem as if they were necessary, that they are really wanting both in the church and in their own families, and yet are taken away, cut off in the midst of their days; and we gaze and grieve, and are puzzled at the dispensations. But can or may we enquire into the reason of such a dispensation, and see what account

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In the midst of bereaving dispensations, such as we are now considering, we are apt to forget the all-sufficiency of Jehovah, by which he will shew and prove that he can do without those that we may think are requisite and necessary for the carrying on, maintaining, and supporting the cause of God. When the Lord is pleased to take away an active and useful person, we are prone to despond in such a case, to tremble for the interest of religion in such a place, and the welfare of a family-the widow deprived of a kind husband, and the children of a solicitous and anxious father; but God will prove that he is all sufficient in each and every case and circumstance. But with respect to our departed friend and brother, while his outward man decayed his inward man was renewed day by day; although his strength was weakened by the way, and the Lord was evidently about to shorten his days; and at times he might cry out, 'take me not away in the midst of my days,' while looking at the dear partner of his life, and the objects of their mutual love and affection, ten in number, a numerous progeny, his heart had often failed him, but for the hope he had in his God, and his faith and trust in his word and promises, and that he was a faithful God, and what he had promised he was able also to perform; he had not only read, but received and believed the words of Jesus, 'What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.' So that he could say with David as in the 62nd Psalm, Truly my soul waiteth upon God; from him cometh my salvation; he

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