And sighs, and long complaints, with wise delay, And now, how amiable does he appear, when the shadows of the evening were stretching over him! Two or three years before his decease, the active and sprightly powers of his nature gradually failed; yet his trust in God, through Jesus the Mediator, remained unshaken to the last. He was heard to say: "I bless God I can lie down with comfort at night, not being solicitous whether I awake in this world or another." And again : “I should be glad to read more; yet not in order to be further confirmed in the truth of the Christian religion, or in the truth of its promises; for I believe them enough to venture an eternity upon them." When he was almost worn out, and broken down by his infirmities, he said, in conversation with a friend; "I remember an aged minister used to observe, that 'the most learned and knowing Christians, when they come to die, have only the same plain promises of the Gospel for their support, as the common and unlearned:' and so, I find it. It is the plain promises of the Gospel that are my support; and, I bless God, they are plain promises, that do not require much labour and pains to understand them." At times, when he found his spirit tending to impatience, and ready to complain that he could only lead a mere animal life, he would check himself thus: "The business of a Christian is, to bear the will of God, as well as to do it. If I were in health, I ought to be doing it, and now it is my duty to bear it. The best thing in obedience, is a regard to the will of God; and the way to that is, to have our inclinations and aversions as much mortified as we can." With so calm and peaceful a mind, so blessed and lively a hope, did the resigned servant of Christ wait for his Master's summons. He quietly expired in the 75th year of his age. CHAPTER VIII. Colonel Gardiner-Lady Elizabeth Hastings-H. Housman-Doctor Doddridge. SECTION I. COLONEL GARDINER. The JAMES GARDINER, a native of Scotland, was born in the year 1688. He received great part of his education, at a school at Linlithgow, where he made a very considerable progress in the languages. His mother, with great tenderness and solicitude for his future happiness, instructed him in the principles of Christianity. good effects of her prudent and exemplary carc, were not, in the younger part of her son's life, so evident as she desired; but there is great reason to believe, that her instructions were not lost. They were the occasion of many convic tions, which, though for a time overborne, were afterwards happily remembered and revived. He used to make this observation for the encourage ment of parents and pious friends, to do their duty towards young persons, and to hope for the best effects, though they may not immediately appear. He was a man of sound understanding, and of a frank, obliging, and generous temper. From the persuasions of a friend, and the ardour of his own spirit, he early engaged in a military life. He was often in imminent danger of death, and had several escapes, which may justly be considered as providential: but, in his unconverted state, he never viewed them in that light; and they made no serious impression on his mind. For many years after he had attained the age of manhood, he appears to have devoted himself to sensual pursuits. With a strong constitution of body, great flow of animal spirits, fine personal accomplishments, and a large circle of gay and dissipated companions, he seemed as amply qualified as most men, to range in the field of animal enjoyments, and to extract from it all that is capable of yielding. Yet this complete sensualist, in the meridian of his joys, bitterly experienced, that "even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness." Being at one time congratulated by some of his dissolute companions, on his distinguished felicity, and a dog ́happening to come into the room, he could not forbear groaning nwardly, and saying to himself, "Oh! that I we that dog!" Such was then his happiness; and such, perhaps, is that of hundreds more, who express the greatest contempt of religion, and glory in a miserable servitude, which they affect to call liberty. His continual neglect of the great Author of his being, of whose perfections he could not doubt, and to whom he knew himself to be under daily and perpetual obligations, gave him, in some moments of involuntary reflection, inexpressible remorse; and this, at times, wrought upon hirr. to such a degree, that he resolved he would at tempt to pay him some acknowledgments. Ac cordingly, for a time he did it; repeating, in retirement, passages out of the Psalms, and perhaps other Scriptures, which he still retained in his memory; and owning, in a few strong words, the many mercies and deliverances he had received, and the ill returns he had made for them. But these emotions were too devout to continue long in a heart as yet quite unsanctified: for how readily soever he could repeat acknowledgments of the Divine Power, Presence, and Goodness, and own his follies and faults, he was stopped short by the remonstrances of his conscience, on the flagrant absurdity of confessing sins he did not desire to forsake; and of pretending to praise God for his mercies, though he did not endeavour to live in his service, and to behave in such a manner as gratitude, if sincere, would have dictated. |