fluences of his Spirit, which, when you really and earnestly desire them, the Gospel gives you such ample encouragement to expect. But if you have reason to hope that you have already received them, learn to whom the praise should be ascribed; and let it animate you to pray that, through farther communications from the Throne of Grace, you may be made continually more and more like your Redeemer, till you are prepared for that world, where you shall shine forth in his complete resemblance, and shall find it your consummate and eternal felicity. AMEN. Lord, we adore thy matchless ways, "What must I do," the Jailer cries, Our works are all the works of sin, "Believe, believe," the Gospel cries, "This is the living way;' From faith in Christ our hopes arise, Come, sinners, then, the Saviour trust, To change your hearts, subdue your lusts, PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. AND SOLD AT THEIR DEPOSITORY, NO. 144 NASSAU-STREET, NEAR THE CITY-HALL, NEW-YORK; AND BY AGENTS OF THE SOCIETY, ITS BRANCHES, AND AUXILIARIES, IN THE PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWN WILLIAM CHURCHMAN. 1 TAKE the liberty to assure the public that the following little narrative is not a work of imagination, nor is it merely founded on fact in its principal circumstances; but is literally a true and unadorned relation of events, the bare recollection of which warms my heart after the lapse of several years, and will, I am certain, while it continues to beat; nor can I separate the idea of renewed converse with the once poor and deformed cripple, from my hopes of enjoying the communion of saints in that pure and blissful region the Bible has taught me to look for; and into which, from my advanced age, I humbly trust I shall, ere long, enter, by the same way he entered, even Jesus Christ. This memoir furnishes, in addition to the weight of argument already brought forward, an incontestible answer to the delirious ravings of those cold-hearted men, who, roused from their iron slumbers by the exertions of the Bible Society, awake in horror, and exclaim against it, as employing an insufficient engine to enlighten and renovate the moral world, by giving to the ignorant and vicious THE Let this poor cripple, healed of his mental maladies by the Holy Spirit, without any external means of instruction but the Bible alone, (who did not recollect having ever read any other book in his life, except as mentioned in the narrative, and who had never heard a sermon, nor entered a place of worship,) stand forth, like the blind man that had been restored to sight by the Lord Jesus, and say of this book, as he did of the Saviour it reveals: "If this Bible were not of God, it could do nothing; since the world began it hath not been known that any man opened the eyes of one who was boru blind." It is possible that some persons, whose views of Scripture truths may not exactly coincide with those of the poor man, will be ready to object to his application of some of the texts quoted by him, as being introduced in a way which argued a strong bias in his mind in favour of what is called the evangelical mode of understanding the Scripture doctrines; should such a case occur, will the objectors permit me to suggest, in reply, that, as a faithful narrator of facts, I durst not venture to alter his words, but have related them exactly as he spake them; and, therefore, I am not accountable for his sentiments; but I frankly acknowledge they are fully agreeable to my own views of divine truth. It may probably appear to some critical reader that his language, in a few instances, is superior to what might have been expected from a person of his very limited information, and from hence he may be led to form the conclusion that the story is indebted to the narrator, and consequently the argument in favour of the poor man'. being taught solely by the Bible may appear in some measure to be weakened. I shall content myself, in reply, with simply asserting that the words, the very words which are ascribed to him, are entirely his own, and are copied verbatim from the minutes I took on my return; that I felt surprise when I heard them spoken by him, and that I can account for the sensible and lucid manner in which he uttered them, only from the sentiment of Solomon, "The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips." T. BINGHAM. THE most interesting and useful memoirs with which we are furnished by the pen of Biography, are not always those of the most distinguished public characters. The purple tints of the violet are not less pleasing, nor is its delicate odour less fragrant, when we accidentally discover it in a sequestered vale, than when it assists, amidst a multitude of different flowers, in ornamenting the garden: on the contrary, it affords our senses a superior gratification when unexpectedly discovered, and engrosses our attention more completely when mingled with no rival beauties, nor merely contributing a partial share of sweetness to the variegated perfumes of the parterre. Thus, genuine lowliness, faith unfeigned, piety undisCembled, pure evangelical religion, advanced to high degrees of eminence, when they appear in a character to the formation of which a variety of concurring circumstances have contributed, will interest the mind of every real christian; but when unexpectedly discovered in a soil, to the fertility of which neither the possession of brilliant talent, the advantages of early tuition, continual cultivation, nor extensive information received from reading the works of the learned, and conversing with the wise and good, have rendered the least assistance, the hand of the divine Former more conspicuously appears, and even the tongue of incredulity has been constrained to exclaim, with the vanquished sorcerers of Egypt, "It is the finger of God!" I delight in retracing sensations of this kind, though a considerable period of time has passed since I beheld the scenes that awakened them in my heart; especially since the character then forming by divine influence, is now perfected in a superior region; and while I recollect, with sacred pleasure, the delightful feelings which it produced when viewed in its infant state, I earnestly anticipate the richer delight of beholding its complete glory and radiance in the blissful world above. Some years ago, soon after I had commenced preaching an occasional lecture in the village of Overton, I was casually informed, in conversation with a person, who himself made no great pretensions to a religious character, that he had accidentally conversed with a poor deformed cripple, living in a wretched cot in the neighbourhood of that place, whose name was William Churchman, who had much surprised him by his fluency in talking on religious subjects; and the more so, because the man did not appear to have read any book but the Bible, nor to have attended any public worship, nor conversed with religious people of any denomination, so that he could not possibly conceive how he could have acquired the knowledge he appeared to possess. My curiosity was much excited by this account, and I formed an instant determination to gratify it by visiting the subject of it on the evening of the following Sabbath, when I was engaged to preach at Overton, and which I could conveniently accomplish, as his residence was near the road by which I sometimes returned home. It was a delightful summer evening; the sultry heat of the day had given place to the coolness of a gentle and refreshing breeze, the sun was just disappearing behind the hill which was the boundary of the prospect to the west, and his mild 'declining beams gave a faint lustre to the woods which crowned its summit. The feathered songsters were chanting melodious vespers, and to their thrilling airs the cawing rooks, the bleating flocks, and lowing herd formed a solemn and not unpleasing bass. The flowery meadows, clad in luxuriant herbage, and studded with variegated flowers, exhaled delicious odours; my own mind, warmed and enlivened by the subject I had been endeavouring to illustrate to my rustic auditory, was in a disposition calculated to enjoy the charming scene, while I walked toward the little group of huts, one of which I had been informed was the residence of the poor man and his widowed mother. |