find in sermons. They say, "Such are worth hearing." The poet's view is the same : "Pencil and paint were never made To draw pure light without a shade." But look at the index on the opposite page. Discourses on refined morality; on philosophical religion; on the views of sectaries; on the merits of a good life; on Unitarian consistency-models of composition, yet mere lifeless statues; so dead, the spirit of life cannot be breathed into them. Alas for the people sitting under the droppings of such lips! LAYMAN. ON EFFECTIVE PREACHING. The unequal effects of preaching accounted for-in a letter from The Rev ROBERT HALL. MY DEAR FRIEND,— THE last letter you favoured me with gave me a pleasing account of your religious prosperity: your prospects, in this respect, are, I hope, brighter and brighter. Among the very elegant and polite part of your audience, you are too well acquainted with human nature to flatter yourself with much success; but you have been honoured as the instrument of drawing a considerable number of the poor and of the middling classes to a place where they had no thought of attending before. Here you will, in all probability, find your most favourable soil. I am sure you will cultivate it with care; and hope you will, under the blessing of God, reap an abundant harvest. Were we more strongly and abidingly impressed with the value of immortal souls, with what godly simplicity,-what earnestness, and what irresistible pathos, should we address them! Perhaps the inequality of the effect produced by different preachers is to be ascribed more to the different degrees of benevolent and devotional feeling, than to any other cause. Job Orton remarks, in his Letters, that he knew a good man of very slender abilities who was eminently useful in the conversion of souls, which was in his opinion to be ascribed chiefly to the peculiarly solemn manner in which he was accustomed to speak of divine things. T. P. R. THE BIBLE. Or all the boons which God has bestowed on this apostate world, we are bound to say that the Bible is the noblest and most precious. We bring not into comparison with this illustrious donation the glorious sun-light, nor the rich sustenance which is poured forth from the storehouses of the earth, nor that existence itself which allows us, though dust, to soar into companionship with angels. The Bible is the development of man's immortality, the guide which informs him how he may move off triumphantly from a contracted and temporary scene, and grasp destinies of unbounded splendour-eternity his life-time, and infinity his home. It is the record which tells us that this rebellious section of God's unlimited empire is not excluded from our Maker's compassions; but that the creatures who move upon its surface, though they have basely sepulchred in sinfulness and corruption the magnificence of their nature, are yet so dear in their ruin to Him who first formed them, that he hath bowed down the heavens in order to open their graves. Oh! you have only to think what a change would pass on the aspect of our race, if the Bible were suddenly withdrawn, and all remembrance of it swept away, and you arrive at some faint notion of the worth of the volume. Take from Christendom the Bible, and you have taken the moral chart by which alone its population can be guided. Ignorant of the nature of God, and only guessing at their own immortality, the tens of thousands would be as mariners tossed on a wide ocean, without a pole-star and without compass. The blue-lights of the storm-fiend would burn ever in the shrouds; and when the tornado of death rushed across the waters, there would be heard nothing but the shriek of the terrified, and the groan of the despairing. It were to mantle the earth with a more than Egyp tian darkness; it were to dry up the fountains of human happiness; it were to take the tides from our waters, and leave them stagnant; and the stars from our heavens, and leave them in sackcloth; and the verdure from our vallies, and leave them in barrenness;-it were to make the present all recklessness, and the future all hopelessness; the maniac's revelry, and then the fiend's imprisonment, if you could annihilate that precious volume which tells us of God and of Christ, and unveils immortality, and instructs in duty, and woos to glory. Such is the Bible. Prize ye it, and study it more and more. Prize it, as ye are immortal beings for it guides to the New Jerusalem. Prize it, as ye are intellectual beings-for it "giveth understanding to the simple." MELVILL. RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. EGREMONT.-WHITEHAVEN CIR CUIT. text selected was from John xii. 32"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.' On Tuesday evening, Sept. 20th, an exceedingly interesting public Missionary Meeting was held in the above chapel, in aid of the above Missions. The meeting commenced with singing and prayer, after which, Mr. J. Sherwen, from Whitehaven, was called to Occupy the chair. The meeting was addressed by the chairman, the Rev. R. G. Milne, M.A. (Independent Minister, from Whitehaven), Rev. Mr. Gilchrist, Rev. Mr. Middleton, and other friends. Collections were made at the conclusion of each service, which together amounted to the liberal sum WHITEHAVEN, On Sunday, Sept. 18th, two sermons were preached in Catherine Street Chapel, by the Rev. J. W. Gilchrist, from Clitheroe, in behalf of the Sabbath School connected with that place of worship. The portion of scripture selected as text for the morning service was from Hosea xiv. 5, 6; The very beautiful emblems of the word preached were "as the dew of Hermon, that descended upon Mount Zion, for there the Lord commanded his blessing." In the afternoon Mr. Gilchrist addressed the Sunday School children in the chapel, with their parents and teachers. In the evening, the text selected was from 1 Cor. i. 23, 24. "Christ crucified the grand theme of the Christian ministry." These services, which were well attended, were remarkably characterized through out with an influence from heaven, indicating the pleasing hope that they will long live in the remembrance of those by whom they were attended. On Monday evening a tea-party was held in the large and commodious school-room adjoining the chapel, when upwards of 200 persons took tea toge ther. Several ministers and friends addressed the assembly on the occasion. The proceeds of the tea-party, with the collections on the Sabbath, were all devoted to the benefit of the Sunday School. .. OBITUARY. Mr. James Cope died 23rd of March, -1842. He was a native of Worcestershire; from thence he became a resident in Liverpool. In the early part of his life he attended the established Church, but not being satisfied with the formality he there witnessed, he joined the Wesleyan Methodist Society, and continued to hold fast the doctrines taught by them throughout the remaining part of his life; a period of about thirty years. He met in class twenty years with the late Mr. Bell. When the Wesleyan Association was formed, he left the Conference Society, joined the Association, and met in brother Lace's class. It must here be remarked, he was a man possessed of strong passions: his natural temper was often a source of great sorrow and pain of mind; often did he strive and pray to God to give him grace to conquer this evil which so easily beset him. He was an industrious and an honest man, a kind, loving husband, and an affectionate parent was esteemed and respected by many. He held office in the church about ten or eleven years, and was remarkable for his punctuality and assiduity. He never suffered trifling things to turn him aside from duties he had undertaken to perform. His diligence was unwearied, whatever his hands found to do, he did it with all his might, and was never weary in welldoing. During the last twelve months of his life, he was afflicted twice. His afflictions proved highly salutary to his soul. A great change, during this time, was observable in his temper and general deportment; he was more and more convinced of the hatefulness of sin and of the need of closer communion with God: he was fully conscious of his own weakness, and strove and prayed with all his might to be a Christian in deed and in truth: he became more humble in himself, and put his whole trust in God, and sought for help from Him, whom those who seek aright, never yet sought in vain. Those who saw him as he drew nearer and nearer to the closing scene, particularly his leader, observed satisfactory evidence, that as his outward man failedhis inner man-his deathless and blood redeemed spirit, was preparing for its endless rest and glory in heaven. Many Mrs. Mary Christian was a native of the Isle of Man. Her parents were some of the first Methodists in that island in the days of Wesley and Crook. Mrs. Christian was a member of the Methodist Society nearly fifty years, and studiously attended to the things which belonged to her peace. In the early part of her life a revival of religion took place in the neighbourhood where she dwelt. Being convinced of her lost state, she sought the Lord with her whole heart, and found him, to the great joy of her soul. In those days the means of grace were very precious; preachers were few, and places of worship distant. She often went many miles to hear the word of truth preached, which was sweet to her taste. times she went from ten to fourteen miles on a Sabbath day to a love-feast. She read many religious books, but her religion was that of the Bible: it was her rule and guide through life. Her conversation was edifying. Latterly she was a member of the same class as our late brother James Cope; she would not omit attending her class if she could by any means get there; her experience was that of a sound Christian; indeed it might be said she was a mother in Israel. She was afflicted more or less for many years. affliction which caused her death was a paralytic stroke, which confined her to her room nearly two years, during which time she was incapacitated from read The ing; she felt very much tried on that account, but was resigned to the will of God. During her last illness she was assured in her own mind that it would end in death; but she did not look at death with dread (to her "death had lost its sting"). She longed for the hour that would call her to her everlasting home, to her Father's house above, to be, as she would sometimes observe, "Far from a world of grief and sin, With God eternally shut in." Her chief delight was to talk of the glories of heaven and the many friends she had there who had gone before; and often when she could not rightly articulate the words she wanted to express (on account of her disorder), she would say, 'the company, the company;' when some friends present would say, "the company are gone before,'-she would say, 'Yes.' She wanted to see and join them. A little before she expired, her leader, Mr. Lace, was sitting by her. He spoke of the glory of the kingdom she was going to inherit; when, although she could not speak to be understood, she gave signs of victory over the last enemy, through the blood of the Lamb. Mr. Lace then repeated the verse commencing "Away with our sorrow and fear." She then lifted up her eyes and hands with all the strength she possessed, and said, Glory! Glory!' and, without a struggle or a groan, fell asleep in the arms of her Redeemer, aged about seventy-three years. She was a member of the Wesleyan Society up to the time of the formation of the Association, when she most cordially sympa thized with the leaders and members who were expelled or seceded, and cast in her lot amongst them. The deaths of Mrs. Christian and Mr. Cope were improved, at the request of the leaders' meeting, by Mr. D. Rowland, on Sunday evening, May 15, to a large and deeply attentive congrega. tion. POETRY. CONSOLATION IN GOD. Who makes the Highest his defence, A refuge for my sinking breast, A fortress, when by foes oppressed, Shielded by him, thou ne'er shalt prove 'Thee ne'er shall dire affliction move, His feathers thy defenceless head No Plague, that in dark midnight hour, Thus sinners with eternal ire His vengeance shall reward: As in the Lord, my refuge, thou His blessing rests upon thee now, Nothing that wears affliction's form, Seraphic bands—a matchless guard- Heir of salvation why complain? On fiercest lions thou shalt tread, "My presence shall his fortune cheer, My full salvation he shall know, T. C. JOHNS, PRINTER, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. THE WESLEYAN METHODIST ASSOCIATION MAGAZINE. NOVEMBER, 1842. MEMOIR OF THE LATE MR. J. GREENWOOD, By Mr. E. Bailey. MR. JOHN GREENWOOD, son of Ambrose and Susan Greenwood, was born at Car House, in Stansfield, near Todmorden; on the 31st of May, 1789. It was not until Feb. 1, 1807, that he felt any great or lasting concern for his soul. On the afternoon of that day, he heard Mr. Walmsley, a Methodist minister, preach from "For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish." Ps. lxxiii. 27. The word then came to him with power; his eyes were opened, his heart softened, and he saw and felt himself a miserable, undone sinner. In the evening of the same day, he heard Mr. Walmsley preach, from "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." James iv. 8. Although this discourse seems to have been calculated to give him relief, yet it only increased his distress; so that during the whole of the time, he sat like a condemned criminal. Two or three Sundays after this; his uncle, John Sutcliffe, invited him to go with him to class; and as he obtained for him, the consent of his parents, he went and cast in his lot with the people of God. On the Wednesday following, he embraced an opportunity of attending the select band, which consisted of seven or eight persons, who (to use his own words) had their hearts full of love, and appeared to be as happy as men out of heaven could be.' At the close of the meeting, the regard for his welfare expressed by the individuals present united him to them in an extraordinary manner. He At the March visitation of the classes for that year (1807), he received his first society ticket from Mr. Jonathan Crowther. had not then found peace with God, nor did he until about ten months after. During this time he often felt the Lord gracious, and sometimes he thought he was pardoned; but yet he had not settled peace of mind. One day, however, when he was thinking about the blessing of pardon, and about believing on Christ, this passage was powerfully |