"Oh! for a well-tuned harp!" To his child, he said, "I have again left you upon the Lord; it may be you will tell this to others, that the lines are fallen to me in pleasant places; I have got a goodly heritage. I bless the Lord that he gave me counsel."

Thus, by five o'clock in the morning, as he himself foretold, it was said unto him. "Come up hither," and he gave up the ghost-the renowned eagle took its flight into the mountain of spices."-Scot's Worthies.

THE LITTLE SHOPGIRL AGAIN.

I THOUGHT she was deaf, so earnestly did she listen-so anxiously did she catch at every word that was dropped. Surely this, coupled with a drawing forth of heart-a freedom of utterance-a giving out, without the cold, the deadening casting back, which one too often feels in endeavouring to hold converse upon "the better theme;" surely this, I say, must augur well; and I think the little maid has life-life divine, I mean that life which has its centre-its spring—its eternal, everflowing and overflowing source-in Christ, the Lord of life and glory. My second call was not so fraught to me with interest; and now perhaps I called with moderated expectation.

"My sister, Sir," she said, "has just lost a child—a little one of eighteen months old, but it was a sad sufferer."

This broke the silence of the heart, and I talked-I know not why -of God's delivering hand, as graciously displayed in a variety of cases. Among others which presented themselves to the mind was the anecdote of the merchant who, hearing that his fleet was lost, fled to the river, and taking a boat, was about to be rowed off into the midst of the stream, there to cut short his days, when the sound of a church-going bell attracted his attention. "What bell is that?" said he to the waterman. "It is St. Ann's, Blackfriars," was the reply, "where the Rev. Mr. Romaine preaches." "Stop a minute," said the distracted gentleman, as by an irresistible impulse, he left the boat, and betook himself to the church. There Jehovah blessed the word under dear Romaine's ministry. The poor merchant was brought to his feetrescued as a brand plucked from the burning; the waterman was discharged; the gentleman returned to his home; and, into the bargain of pardoning love, heard but a few days after of the safe arrival of his ships at the Nore.

66

Ah," said the girl, "my father went laughingly to hear Mr.

but under that sermon he was converted.-St. Ann's, Blackfriars, Sir; that is where Mr. Saunders preached. My sister was a Sunday school teacher there, and she saw him die."

"He died giving utterance to those words, 'Ye are complete in Him?'

"Yes, Sir; it was a painful scene. My sister felt it deeply. My mother heard her sobs before she came into the house, and thought that something had happened to my father."

"Was that the sister of whom you just now spake as having lost her child?"

"No, Sir, it is another. She is mistress of

School. She has four children, under five years of age, and is herself dying of consumption."

"Is she aware of it ?"

"O yes, Sir; she always thought herself consumptive, though we thought otherwise. She razed so much when she arose of a morning. But I recollect some seven or eight years ago, when I went down-stairs to seek her. It was very late-it was after midnight—I found her with her Bible; and she asked me to get mine; and we read verse and verse the fourteenth chapter of John; and she prayed with me ; and begged me never to neglect my Bible. She used to hear Dr. D—, He preached the morning lecture, which began at six o'clock; and, fearing lest she should oversleep herself, she never went to bed on Saturday nights."

Our conversation was here interrupted by a third person.

But

I have since found the school where the drooping governess labours, and my reader may yet hear something of her.

AN ORIGINAL LETTER FROM THE REV. DR. HAWKER TO MR. THOMAS REED.

To the Editor of the Gospel Magazine.

DEAR BROTHER IN CHRIST,

I have by me several letters of my reverend and dear brother in Christ, the late Dr. Hawker. I have copied you one from the original (which yourself or any applying to me may see), for your insertion in the Gospel Magazine. I was honoured with the correspondence of the

Dr. till within a few months of his decease, and they are as sweet now as ever. If you wish you shall have more.

Hastings,

August 20, 1846.

THOMAS REED.

MY DEAR BROTHER IN THE LORD,

I greet you in the name of the Lord, may the aboundings of his love make you blessed.

Be assured, dear sir, you have not been forgotten by me. I have you in remembrance, and the Lord hath heard and will hear my breathings for you, that his grace may be sufficient for you, and his strength perfected in your weakness.

Be not discouraged at exercises. The Church of Christ is at school in this world, purposely made for them. The Lord loved his people before he put them here for discipline, and the Lord's love will be the same to them, when discipline, yea, and the world itself is over; to be sure the wisdom of wise men in this world who love their children, would not be manifested in putting their young ones for education, in the midst of foes, and snares, and temptations: but the wisdom of our heavenly Father is shown this very way in placing us in the territories of the prince of the power of the air, the Spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience; and though all we see and know of divine things here below, we see and know but as through a glass darkly, yet we see enough, to discover that all is founded in love, and all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose. Here it is, the devil is to be conquered, and the Lord Jesus Christ to gain the victory, and redemption itself with all its blessed consequences, is appointed for the express glory of Christ's

person.

I hope and trust, dear sir, the Lord which hath brought you into the school, and is training you in it; while he is giving you every day more and more to know, and feel the plague of your own heart, will bring you into a nearer apprehension of the person of Christ. It is the person of Christ which is the great object of divine teaching, and as you go on in the divine life, the Lord the Holy Ghost will teach you this. All that belongs to Christ is precious. All he hath done, all he is doing, all he will do: all, all, are precious; but he himself infinitely exceeds all. It is very sweet, very blessed, very precious, when we can in any manner, or in any, even the smallest degree, form our views of Christ, and feel our affections towards Christ, by the standard of the Father's views of him, and his affections towards him. Now the Father cannot be said to love Jesus for any benefit in Christ's redemption. The Son of God, in prophesy, speaking in our nature, said, "My good

ness extendeth not to thee (Psalm xvi. 2). Hence the Father's love of Christ as the Head of the Church was prior to redemption-work, and when he chose the Church in Christ to be holy and without blame before him in love, before the foundation of the world. That he loves him for his offices also is indeed most true (John x. 17); but the everlasting love of God to Christ is personal, and to the Church in Christ which is also personal: and therefore our views when through God the Holy Ghost they are formed upon this model, lead us to love Jesus, more for his person, than for all the benefits we derive from him.

Is this view novel to you, dear sir? The time will come, when it will be your highest delight. Yea, from our union with Christ from everlasting we shall discover all our blessedness to have been in him, so complete, that lost in the eternal enjoyment of him, we shall forget all the events of this time-state, as though they had never been. Just as Joseph's brethren totally forgot all other considerations of money in the sacks, and bartering, and trading, when they discovered their brother in the sovereign of Egypt. Oh! my dear, dear sir, beg of God the Father the unspeakable gift Paul begged on his knees for the Church (Eph. i. 17). Depend upon it there is not a saint alive that hath ever entered into the full depth of Paul's prayer in that immense point, the knowledge of Christ. While we live upon effects, and calculate our state by what we feel, instead of what Christ is, we lose all the blessedness of faith; but when we live upon the cause, and form our joy by what Christ is, in God the Father's view for his Church; we live in an atmosphere above storms, clouds, and all changes below. Study then, dear sir, under God the Spirit, Christ's oneness and union with his people, or rather, theirs with him; this brings up after it all blessedness, all right, all title, to whatever belongs to Christ, as Christ. Hence, like the heir of a great estate, the Son comes to his inheritance from blood, from union, from family; so our Jesus and his seed, his offspring, which are all alike heirs (not the eldest son only, but all the children) are in him, and by him, and from him everything that he is. Is it not then his person, my dear, dear sir, you and I must most study to know, and pray for grace to love.

I commend you to him, and remain yours very truly in Him, Plymouth, Jan. 3, 1817. (signed) ROBERT HAWKER. [We have nineteen volumes of Dr. Hawker's works; and, whenever as in the instance above, our attention is called to him, we take shame to ourselves that full four-fifths of them we have never read. There is that dew-savour-and power about this dear man's writings; there is that continual pointing to Jesus-to Jesus-that it makes us personally ashamed for ever venturing to take the pen in hand. Men (and we blush to put ourselves among the number) seem a vast deal better pleased to listen to long details about their own wretched selves, than to what Christ is to them and for them. If the person of Christ were better known, we should hear much less abont the creature.-ED.] 2 E 2

THE CHURCH-AND WHAT IT IS.

(Continued from page 359.)

BEFORE proceeding with the history before us, I shall give a few extracts from different authors, as a confirmation of what I have advanced with respect to Constantine's character. Milner is evidently inclined to speak most favourably of this emperor, yet he thus writes:

"Neither in Constantine, nor in his favourite bishops, nor in the general appearance of the church, can we see much of the spirit of godliness. Pompous apparatus, augmented superstitions, and unmeaning forms of piety, much show, and little substance, appear."

Again, Waddington, the Dean of Durham, speaks thus of Constantine: "The year which followed the final success of Constantine was disgraced by the execution of his eldest son; and it is not disputed that the progress of his career was marked by the usual excesses of intemperate and worldly ambition. Some of his laws were severe even to cruelty; and the general propriety of his moral conduct cannot with any justice be maintained."

To these two opinions I shall add that of Dr. Haweis, one of the chaplains of the late Countess of Huntington, the memory of whom is blessed.

"He waded to empire through seas of blood; his nearest relatives were sacrificed to his ambition. Nothing in his whole life discovers a trace of real conversion to God, and his latter days were the most oppressive and tyrannical of his government. The deferring his baptism might be excused by the superstition of the times, though that is an awful excuse. But the whole tenor of his life, except favouring bishops, building churches, enriching them with wealth and finery, and other very equivocal marks of Christianity, display no trait of a Christian character or a Christian hero. The bounties he bestowed, the zeal he displayed, his liberal patronage of episcopal men, the pomp he introduced into worship, and the power invested with general councils, made the church appear great and splendid; but I discern not a trace in Constantine of the religion of the Son of God. As an outward professor, and for an outward church, no man more open, more zealous: as a partaker of the grace of God in truth, either in genuine repentance for his crimes or real newness of life, I want abundantly better evidence than I can see in Eusebius, who like many a courtly bishop, is very