since July, 1829, with his reading chiefly confined to its sacred pages, and his experience was, that the more he read it the more he found out what a bountiful loving Lord that God was whom these Scriptures revealed -the more satisfied was he with all His ways, and the less he felt disposed to cavil or quarrel with anything He ever said or did. And lastly-Let them read it with a holy and godly purpose to act it out. As we are getting nearer the period of His coming, we must, he believed, expect the darkness to increase. How important, then, more than ever to cleave to this written word. Satan, by all his subtilty, will seek to rob us of it; but let it be ours to cleave more and more to it, and sure he was we should find the result to be peace and joy. [The particulars of the second day's conference is reserved for our next.] Sermons and Notes of Sermons. NOTES OF A SERMON WEDNESDAY PREACHED AT ST. THOMAS CHURCH, WESTMINSTER ROAD, ON EVENING, "Wilt thou not revive us again: that Thy people may rejoice in Thee?" PSALM 1XXXv. 6. THE Lord's people have the same trials and afflictions as those who are at enmity with God. They have also sorrows peculiar to themselves. They have further, a deep interest in all that concerns the Church of Christ. If the Church be in a low and feeble state, they mourn on account of it. In all these things they find relief in prayer: 1 Peter v. 7. This was the case with the psalmist in this psalm. He was anxious that those yet in Babylon might be brought out of captivity, and therefore prays that the Lord would revive His work: 4-7. REVIVAL. What is it? Not outward excitement; not a mere increase of numbers in the visible Church; not a running after preachers; not delight in sound doctrine; not reformation only. These may be right in their proper place, but do not of themselves constitute a revival. Where there is a revival, there is, 1st, a deep concern about the soul, manifested by fervent prayer, weeping, sighing, groaning, and supplication in secret; and by a value for God's precious Word. 2ndly, meditation. The nominal Christian may talk very fluently; the true Christian, from a sense of his own nothingness, may often be found in the background silently meditating. 3rdly, the exhibition of the fruits of the Spirit. The soil of man's heart is unfit and unable to produce any good thing. There may descend the precious dew of God's word, but the heart of man receives it not. It is the prepared heart that receives God's truth. Observe the promise in I'salm lxxii. 6. When the grass is mown, the prejudices and false hopes of men are removed, and then the nine Christian excellencies, mentioned in Gal. v. 22, 23, are manifested. REVIVAL. Whose work is it? It is the Lord's. All the Scriptures I have quoted prove it. It requires the same power as made the worlds to renew, restore, and to revive the soul. On this point search and see for yourselves. REVIVAL. What are the results? contained in the text is joy: "That They are very numerous. The one The joy of the hypocrite is as the crackling of thorns under a pot. The joy of a Christian is "unspeakable, and full of glory." His joy is in the Lord. "These things I speak," saith Christ, "that my joy may be in you." We "rejoice in Christ Jesus," saith Paul. The name, person, blood, righteousness, gifts, graces, and promises of Christ, all form the subject of joy to those in whose souls God has revived His work. In con clusion 1. Is there a revival in your souls? 2. What is the evidence? 3. If you have wandered, I address you from Hosea vi. 1-3. 4. If you have never had it, why is it? (James v. 2-4.) The Triumphs of Grace over Death and the Grave; OR, WHISPERS FROM THE DYING PILLOWS OF GOD'S SERVANTS. "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace."-PSALM XXXVii. 37. THOUGHTS ABOUT DEATH AND DYING. How very varied God's dealings with His people, not only as respects their manner of calling, or of guiding through life's pilgrimage, but also as to their departure hence. One is summoned by & short sharp illness, with only brief time to say farewell to earth's dear ones; another languishes long, and looks anxiously for deliverance, while yet the messenger of release tarrieth. It was but the other day I read of one who had been laid aside about the age of nineteen, by a severe accident which injured the back. It was only a few weeks since, after forty years of suffering confinement, not only to her room but to her bed, that release from her lengthened trial was granted. I have known another, stricken in girlhood with a wasting, severe, and peculiar disease, and for ten years or more lying in almost constant expectancy of the death which seemed ever so very nigh-waiting, and willing to depart, while yet her dear Lord came not. But her testimony, "God is faithful," showed where her strength of endurance lay, and accounted for that wonderful acquiescence in His will expressed in, "Not one trial too many," which she uttered in scarcely audible voice. And well I remember what was remarked in the funeral sermon preached on the sudden passing away of one much endeared to many Christian friends in Bristol and Clifton. The preacher told how the departed had left the sanctuary the preceding Sabbath evening, and with even more than usual hallowed, happy, holy communion with his beloved wife, and in prayer with her after their return home, retired to rest in sweet confidence in God's love, awaking to the next morning's light, but with the first motion. to dress himself fell, and with one breath passed to unfading joy. So well was his life known that his friends, as they told each other of what had befallen, did not say, "What a sad death-what a sudden death," but they exclaimed, "What a happy death, what a glorious death." Such a spirit pervades the following. Mr. Hall, of Arnsby, Mr. Evans, of Foxton, and Mr. Christian, of Sheepshead, three eminent ministers of the Gospel, attended a ministers' meeting at Mr. Woodman's, Sutton-in-the-Elms, Leicestershire. The day was solemn, and the dis Y Y courses delivered were very interesting and appropriate. In the evening these ministers spent their time together in the most agreeable conversation. Amongst other subjects one of them proposed for discussion that passage in Job ix. 23, "If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent." Deep seriousness pervaded the conversation, while each minister gave his thoughts on the text. When it came to Mr. Christian's turn to speak, he dwelt on the subject with unusual feeling; he considered it as referring to the sudden death of the righteous, and was expatiating very largely on the desirableness of such an event, and the happy surprise with which it would be attended, when, amidst a flood of rapturous tears, he took his flight from the world, while the words were yet faltering on his tongue. At the next social meeting Mr. Woodman preached on the occasion from 2 Kings ii. 11, "And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." This affecting circumstance is the subject of the following lines; I regret that the author's name cannot be given too. THE HAPPIEST DEATH. Which is the happiest death to die? Oh," said one, "if I might choose, Long at the gate of bliss would I lie, And feast my spirit, ere it fly, With bright celestial views. Mine were a lingering death, without pain, And mark how bright and sweet should be The victory I should gain! "Fain would I catch a hymn of love From the angel harps which ring above, 66 "No," said another, so not I; Sudden as thought is the death I would die; Nor hear the quivering lips that bless me, Nor the frame with mortal terror shaking, Nor the heart where love's soft bands are breaking: All bliss, without a pang to cloud it! All joy, without a pain to shroud it! 66 Oh, how bright were the realms of light, These parting hours, how sad and slow!" His voice grew faint, and fixed was his eye, The hue of his cheek and lips decayed, They looked; he was dead; his spirit had fled; The soul undressed from her mortal vest, And stepped in her car of heavenly fire, And proved how bright were the realms of light, 'Very glorious!" we exclaim, as we are almost tempted to try to follow in imagination the happy spirit's flight. But all are not able to look forward with exultant expectation to the solemn separating hour, which shall sunder all earthly associations. God, in His infinite wisdom, has implanted in man an instinctive shrinking from death; the degree very different in individuals, nevertheless, more or less present in all. And the conservative effect of this in the world's welfaro is apparent. Were we all utterly indifferent of any apprehension of dying ourselves, we should become careless of the lives of others. The evils resulting from such a state of things would be incalculable. We see quite enough to convince us of this in those unhappy instances in which ambition, passion, and vice have overcome the natural regard for life, which so generally prevails. As Dr. Chalmers ably argues, it is our own value of the right of possession for ourselves, which makes us respect the right of possession in others. It would be a mischievous thing to make a shrinking or otherwise from the act of dying a chief test of fitness for dying. It was a saying of the exemplary Dr. Conyers: "I am afraid to die, though I am not afraid of death." To those of the Lord's own people who feel a distressing amount of anxiety upon this point, it may be well to suggest that our Saviour's command and counsel may well come in: "Take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Death, not being a part of to-day, belongs to the morrow; we should leave it there in God's hands, not be trying to stand where God has not put us, nor trying our hand at work to which God has not set us. If we will do this, we must expect to be left to prove our own weakness. It has just occurred to me, that, in so doing, we act very much like children, who, when the father leads them carefully along a difficult path, bordering upon a precipice, persist in breaking away and running on before, in order to see how they can get down by themselves an exceedingly steep and slippery descent. What wonder if there should be a terrible fall! But rather be it ours to say Father, Thy hand alone I trust, Nor try in thought to run before, Perhaps it may prevent misapprehension of the foregoing remarks on the implantation in the human mind of a fixed aversion to the act of dying, that it is only here intended to dissuade some believers from distressing themselves on finding it strong within them, as though it were a sin or great defect; especially when they read or hear of some being so free from it. To be so exultantly free of any apprehensions of dying pangs, may most certainly be the gift of God's free grace, though not a commanded duty. What it is affectionately endeavoured to enforce here is just-waiting upon God; waiting for the grace to be given just when it will be required to be exercised. This very feeling of utter weakness in the matter, may be sanctified by our Heavenly Father to our real advantage and enrichment, by making us cling the closer to Him in a more simple, childlike, helpless dependence on Him. Though true that "The pains, the groans, the dying strife, be it ours in a tranquil faith to say "Jesus, I cast my soul on Thee, Thou wilt go down to death with me, 000 VICTORY! VICTORY! DEAR MR. EDITOR,-Seeing you have printed, in the October number of the GOSPEL MAGAZINE, the little scrap you received, under the heading, "Simple, but safe," describing an interview which the writer had with Miss J- one of your parishioners, who is now passed away, I thought you would feel a pleasure in hearing and inserting as an appendix what is now sent to you, relative to her last moments in this vale of tears. Oh, let it be published for the honour of that sovereign grace which did shine so conspicuously in her case. Surely none will dare to say that salvation was, is, or can be conditional, in the presence of such a case as the following, only those who are drunk with the wine of strong or efficacious delusions. This poor dear creature was loved, justified, and saved freely, by Jehovah's grace, through the redemption that is in the God-Man, JehovahJesus. Indeed, grace for ever shuts out conditional works, both legal and also what men call evangelical; for, if salvation is by grace, then |