rival in town, excited my desire to cultivate his friendship; for I thought that I perceived great intelligence, united with goodness and sweetness of disposition; and what I anticipated I found,-an affectionate friend, and an excellent companion. We were seldom long separated from each other when business did not prevent our meeting. His ardor in his profession was great. He had marked out the road; and the principal obstacles appeared to have been removed, by his superior talents and perseverance, when he was arrested in his course by the hand of Omnipotence. At this time he exhibited the pow. er of the religion he professed. Not a murmur escaped him. often mentioned it as a striking proof of the vanity and uncertainty of terrestrial things; but with a spirit of christian fortitude, and a desire of cheerful resignation to the will of his heav. enly Father.'

He

Who can read, without emotion, these testimonies of his submission to the disposal of infinite wisdom, especially when it is considered what high-raised hopes were blasted by his premature illness !

The remaining part of this Memoir will relate to his views and dispositions after he returned into the country. About three months before his death, he grew considerably worse; but he enjoyed, during this period, with only a short interruption, a most desirable serenity of mind: and, as he drew near to an eternal world, he was favored with more lively anticipations of glory.

Soon after his return, a meeting of prayer being proposed on his account, he wrote the follow

ing letter to his worthy minister, the Rev. John Saltren, of Brid. port:

I know not, my dear Sir, whether, in this exercise, the call for prayer or thanksgiving be greater. When I think on my late providential, and, as it seems to me, almost miraculous escape* from a catastrophe which, had it happened in my debilitated state, would, according to human probabilities, have proved directly, at least ultimately, fatal, I cannot but see cause for gratitude to that God who, in such extremity, appeared for my help. This, and the favorable state of my health at present, which evidently improves under the use of the means, encourage me to hope that there is mercy yet in store,and that the time may not be far distant when I shall again be permitted to acknowledge his goodness, even the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. It is this hope which will furnish matter of supplication to a throne of grace.

Life can only be desired, as it affords opportunity of usefulness here, or of preparation for happiness hereafter; and if, in a protracted existence, I have to anticipate a life burdensome to myself and my friends, my prayer would be, Lord, finish thy work, and cut it short in righteousness! Fit me for thy kingdom, and then take me to it!' Hence appears the propriety of submission to the divine will, even in our prayers, lest their fulfilment prove a curse instead of a blessing. 'One thing we cannot ask amiss, that the affliction may be sanctified ;

Alluding to some alarming symptoms, which induced a full expectation of an immediate return of the hemorrhage.

and I feel its importance too much, not to remind you, my dear Sir, of it. May the spirit of wisdom descend upon and influence those who may be engag. ed!—and may the angel of the covenant mingle his incense with theirs, that their prayers may be accepted before the throne of God!'

During this mecting of his friends, or on a similar occasion, he wrote the following memo. randum, which was found after his decease.

'I cannot close the duties of this evening, when my friends have a meeting for prayer on my account, without expressing, in a manner more distinctly than I have yet done, the state of my religious feelings, under the afflic tion which has so long tried me. 'It has often been a subject of regret that I had not done this sooner, at least only by those communications which I have sometimes made to my friends. After the attack, I had for a considerable time no convenient opportunity for this; and since I came down to the country the design has been delayed, from a wish to take a more circumstantial view of the subject, in the differ. ent stages of my disorder, than my health in general would prudently admit of; though, with shame I speak it, there have been seasons when at most I should have run no greater risk from the investigation than the fatigue of other studies or engagements occasioned. Should life be spared, I hope to devote the earliest opportunity to make this scrutiny. In the mean time, the following paper is intended as a memento for the use of my. self, and for the satisfaction, in

some degree, of my friends who may survive me :—

"The period when Death stares us in the face, though a season of trial to the faith, is by no means favorable to an inquiry as to the foundation of our hopes; which can best be effected when the mind is calm and uninfluenc ed by bodily disease. Hence I have repeatedly sought to ascertain the reality of that comfort which I seemed to feel at this aw. ful period. Not content with my own examination, I have endeavored to compare my relig. ious affections with those laid down in an inestimable work of President Edwards on the subject, as evidences of a state of salvation. The result is, That though I have greatly to deplore the want of clearer testimony on this head, particularly as to the way in which the Lord first brought me to himself, I dare entertain a hope, that I have been led by the teachings of his Spirit to see my danger and my remedy, to choose the Lord for my portion, and to give my. self up to him to be entirely at his disposal! I have at times felt a pleasure I cannot describe, in making this surrender to him,-in pouring out my soul, as it were, in prayer before him, and in telling him my de sire to be wholly his. Too transient, alas! have been the blissful visions; and too often suc. ceeded by a degree of supineness and languor hardly reconcilable with a christian life! My tem per, under this affliction has been much too little regulated by the Spirit of the meek and lowly Jesus. This has been the cause of much grief to me, and, I trust, of unfeigned humiliation before

In the 24th chapter of Matthew, we have a remarkable prophecy, delivered by the great Prophet from heaven, on the mount of Olives, just before the scene of his final sufferings. In that prophecy, though it had throughout a direct and primary reference to the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the Jewish age; and was strikingly accomplished in that signal catastrophe; yet there was an allusion and ultimate reference to the end of the world, and the judgment of the great day; when some of the particulars of the prophecy will have a more literal and stupendous accomplishment. As the amazing scenes of the final consummation were thus solemnly presented in prospect, the Divine Monitor, by a very easy and obvious transition, immediately in connexion with his prophecy, addressed to his disciples, and through them to others wherever his gospel should be known, a most serious warning, on the importance of being in readiness to meet their Judge. In the 25th chapter, we have the continuation and conclusion of the same admonitory discourse. In this chapter the warning to be in readiness to meet our Judge is most impressively enforced, by the memorable parables of the ten virgins, and the ten servants entrusted with different talents; and the discourse concludes with a direct view of the final judgment, in a very explicit and sol

emn representation of the tre. mendous scene.

The immediate subject of pre sent contemplation is the para. ble of the TEN VIRGINS; a subject not unsuitable to engage the serious attention of all, especially at the season of passing the mon itory bourn from an old to a new year.

This parable, as already inti. mated, is principally designed to enforce the warning to all, and particularly to the professors of religion, to be in preparation to meet their Lord, in the final judg. ment. It deserves, however, to be particularly considered that, though the parable seems to refer directly to the judgment day; yet it was evidently designed to be applicable, in all its monitory force, not to those only who should live in the last age of the world, but to those also who should live in each preceding age. The disciples of Christ and oth ers of that age, were warned to be in expectation of their Lord's coming, and to hold themselves in readiness for the judgment. Those also who lived in the next age after them, and in each succeeding age since, have been warned to the same effect by this same parable. We of the present age are in like manner warned; and the warning is intended to apply to every following gener ation, till the Judge shall actually appear. But how could it have been proper for the Divine Monitor to warn his disciples and

others, who lived eighteen hundred years ago, to be in readiness for the judgment; representing to them, at the same time, that they knew not how soon their Lord would come; when he knew that the day of judgment was then many ages distant?

This apparent difficulty is easily obviated. The solemn truth is, mankind, from age to age, are passing on, in rapid succession, to the judgment. They have their probationary periods severally allotted to them, which periods terminate at death; and then their respective accounts are closed and sealed up for the de public audit of the great and deto cisive day. As their characters are at death, so will they appear at the judgment; and according to the deeds done here in body, will be the final retribution, either of happiness or of misery, then, in the presence of the universe, to be awarded to them.

To all men, therefore, of every age, death, in a very proper and important sense, is a summous to the judgment; and in the same proper and important sense, the day or hour of death is to them, in the language of the parable "the day or the hour of the coming of the Son of man." The disciples then and others of that age might be warned, and we of the present age may be warned, to be in readiness for the judg. ment, and in constant expectation of our Lord's coming, with the same propriety, as if the solemnities of the great day had been then, or were now, actually near at hand. For no man knows how soon he may receive the summons; how soon, with respect to him, the Son of man will come; how soon his proba

tion will close, and his momentous account be sealed up for public and final audit.

On this principle obviously, the parable before us is predicated; and on this principle it is so constructed as to be equally ap. plicable to enforce the warning to be ready, in every age. After thus much said, therefore, to explain the principle and to justify the propriety of the parable, we may now proceed more directly to contemplate the parable itself.

"Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, who took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their. lamps, and took no oil with them : But the wise took oil in their vessels, with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came: and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage; and the door wus shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you

not."

The parable is founded on the