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neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

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There was another case, moreover, of which I was reminded by the scenes of yesterday. It was that of a dear young man who had been a long time an attendant upon my ministry. It had fallen to lot some time before to officiate at his marriage. At the close of the ceremony, when signing the register in the vestry, he said, "You asked me, some three or four years ago, 'if I knew myself a sinner ?' I did not then, but I have since." The Lord at length laid him the bed of affliction with a most painful malady, that of cancer. I visited him several times during his illness, and from his testimony, coupled with my previous knowledge of him, I could not entertain a doubt of his safety. At length, when apprized of the fact that he could not live, and that his malady would speedily terminate his life. he simply asked, how long it would probably be before he was taken ? He then admonished himself for wishing to know that which was only known to the Lord. When it was intimated to him that he was not likely to live but a few hours, he quite laughed (to use his widow's words) with delight; and, looking up, he exclaimed:

"One word of Thy supporting breath
Drives all my fears away."

This was only an hour or two before he peacefully slept in Jesus. As I walked away from the place of mourning yesterday, those well-known lines of Dr. Watts came to my mind :—

"Jesus can make a dying bed

Feel soft as downy pillows are;

While on His breast I lean my head,

And breathe my life out sweetly there."

With regard to the case in question, I attempt not to give a decided opinion.

I have merely stated the simple facts as they were presented to me : as I have said, I had no previous knowledge whatever of the departed one. From the survivors, however, I heard that, through being such a sufferer, she could seldom go to the house of God, and when there, was hardly able to sit out the service; yet she was wont to recommend others to come and hear, because of the honesty of the testimony-that the preacher would not deceive. This, in the absence of personal knowledge, I thought was a good feature in her case.

But what I want to lay stress upon is, the kind and gracious lesson which the Lord was thus pleased to set before me. It was rich in encouragement. I saw what the Lord was able to do, especially for His own dear children, when brought into that position wherein heart and flesh fail. I saw how he could raise them above every fear, and give them to triumph over the last enemy. I think it was either Mr. HUNTINGTON or Mr. ROMAINE who said, "He was no more afraid of death than he was of his nightcap."

And when we look at the dear child of God's real position, as in Christ," bound up in the bundle of life with the Lord his God,”his "life hid with Christ in God,"-what precious grounds are there for this holy fearlessness and child-like confidence. Since the scenes of yesterday, dear reader, I have been thinking of those precious sayings of our dear Lord and Master: "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plague; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." Then again, there is that sweet declaration by the prophet Isaiah: "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the rebuke of His people will He take away from off all the earth, for the Lord hath spoken it.' Again there is that glorious answer at the close of Romans viii. to the challenge," Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ?" And there is that triumphant exultation in Corinthians xv., "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Believer, how glorious are these facts! May the Lord more and more comfort your heart by the Spirit's divine application of them. I doubt not that every affliction is, by the wise and wellordering hand of our God, so working as to minister very specially to the profit of His dear people, and the glory of His great name. And, however at times, one's fears may rise to the contrary, yet, in the main, I doubt not, reader, you and I shall give an unqualified approval to His entire will and pleasure, declaring, "He hath done all things well." You will justify and bless and praise Him for whatever He has laid upon you; and I, in reference to my many, many reasons for anxiety, and humility, and self-loathing, shall say, "He hath led me by the right way, that I may go to a city of habitation." Time is on the wing. Our trials and temptations are all meted out, and measured by unerring wisdom, and by a fatherly hand. "Soon He that shall come will come, and will not tarry." One glimpse of the King in His beauty, one moment in the better land, will make ample amends for all our sufferings and sorrows here.

That the Lord may increasingly cheer and comfort and abundantly bless His dear people, and that He may also cause peace and unanimity and brotherly love to prevail among us, is, dear readers, the hearty prayer of Yours faithfully in Him,

Bedminster, Oct. 29, 1869.

THE EDITOR. POSTSCRIPT.-Since the above was written, a friend, commenting upon the foregoing case, says: "I can hardly understand how she could say, 'I am very low-spirited,' and acknowledge her want of more faith, and yet smile and almost laugh at death." This objection upon the part of one in whose judgment we have great confidence, has led both to reflection and inquiry. 1. To reflection; and upon

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reflection we can account for it; it is only deeply to scrutinize the Psalms of David, and there we continually see hope and fear alternated-praise and prayer blended-joys and sorrows intermingled. Numberless examples might be given. Let one suffice. In Psalm xxvii., having declared, "The Lord to be his light and salvation,” he says, "Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.' He then, in the fifth verse, declares, "In the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me upon a rock." Then in the ninth verse, in the same breath, as it were, he cries, " Hide not Thy face far from me; put not Thy servant away in anger: Thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation." But not only in the psalmist was this chequered experience observable, but likewise in both Peter and Paul are the same interchanges of holy confidence and extreme conflict to be seen. Peter, with his "needs be that we should be in heaviness through manifold afflictions," and Paul with his "being sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." And who that has been familiar with the sick and dying bed but has seen the like fluctuations of joy and sorrow?

But we have said likewise that the case in question has led to inquiry. The minister who committed her mortal remains to the silent grave (a native of Wales, with whom we have often had precious seasons of brotherly love and sweet communion) informs us that he was acquainted with the deceased from very infancy. Her grandparents were dear godly people, resident in Wales, where the grandfather preached the simple truth as it is in Jesus, and who had been chiefly instrumental in encouraging this now aged minister (then a very young man) to go forth and proclaim the Gospel. The truth, he said, was most clearly put before the now departed one. She understood the need and the way of salvation perfectly from her earliest years. Her parents had died when she was very young, and the providence of God had wonderfully followed her and her sisters. She had been an intense sufferer, but was of a most cheerful disposition. He had lost sight of her for years, until of late brought into this neighbourhood. Her husband being attached to the Church, she said one day to this dear old minister, our informant, "I am going to church." 'Well, go to church," was his reply; "but go to Jesus," he added, as much as to say, "Don't stop short at the ordinances or the mode of worship; let nothing suffice but Him who is, or ought to be, the sum and substance of the ordinance-the alone lawful Object of worship. Our aged friend further informed us that he had seen the departed a day or two before her death; that she then expressed herself as not feeling so prepared to die as she hoped she should be. The patient so suddenly becoming worse took even the doctor by surprise. Our aged ministerial friend said he had not a doubt of her safety, and that the scene at her funeral was most sacred. Now, taking all the facts into consideration, we cannot but entertain

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a lively hope that the departed has gone to be with Jesus. Recollecting that she was by birth, education, and during many years' afterassociation, Welsh, we can the more readily understand the terms in which she expressed herself to us at the interview to which we have previously referred, as a Welsh person may have felt it somewhat difficult clearly to express herself in English. We found this to be the case in the instances of two parishioners who died within a few hundred yards of where this departed one passed away. They, too, were Welsh, and expressed themselves in broken English; but there was a striking simplicity of character in each. Particulars of them were given in the GOSPEL MAGAZINE for October, 1868, and in September, 1869, by the "OLD PILGRIM." Difficult as it was to understand the latter of the two, the dear old Welshwoman who for years sat just by the foot of our pulpit-stairs, yet her testimony was sweet and Christ-exalting, and her end most peaceful and precious. If the reader has the numbers to which we have referred by him, we would suggest his turning to them to reperuse the records we have named.

The subject of death-bed scenes having thus been brought before us has intrumentally reminded us of a case, particulars of which we noted down at the time, some ten years ago. With the hope that the Lord may make it profitable to some of His dear tried ones, we shall subjoin it. The little journal from which we extract it had been quite lost sight of by us for years, until very lately we happened to alight upon it. Its reperusal, as far as we are personally concerned, has proved to be most refreshing to our own soul. The simple and most truthful narrative, as here given, has served most vividly to bring up the case to our recollection; and again and again have we wept before the Lord, whilst thus led to recontemplate His great goodness and mercy towards this dear trophy of rich and free and sovereign grace.

The annexed is extracted from a private journal, entitled, "NOTES OF VISITS TO THE SICK AND POOR OF ST. LUKE'S, BEDMINSTER."

The case No. 9 (Mrs. H-'s daughter) did, from the first, peculiarly interest me, and I was impressed from that visit with the belief that the Lord had mercy in store for her. I felt great liberty in putting the truth before her, and in submitting my usual test, the 51st Psalm. In it I find such ample materials for probing the heart of a poor sinner, so far as God the Holy Ghost may put energy and power into His word. I was struck in this case with the meekness and docility of the sufferer, but little did I conceive, until in the course of my visits I casually discovered, what she had gone through. Hers had been a trial of no common order. Painful had been her lot to the very last degree. Yea, at one time, she deliberately left her home for

the purpose of drowning herself. She reached the water's edge; she saw and heard its rippling. She paused. "If I do this," said she, "I shall plunge myself into everlasting ruin, and my children will be left motherless." She tarried a quarter of an hour, and then turned back; and most thankful did she feel, when she went to her bed, that the Lord had not allowed her to carry out her guilty purpose. How ready was she now to ascribe that rescue and that marvellous preservation to the Lord!

My visits to this case have been mostly each day for the last three weeks; and under the word I saw her mind gradually open. As far as I could ascertain, there was a total rejection of everything of self; a feeling sense of sin; and a simple and

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entire resting upon Jesus only. Not a question did I put that was not satisfactorily answered. There was a clear, intelligent grasping and responding to the simple but all-important truths put before her. But the day before she died, upon leaving the room her mother burst into tears. Why do you weep?" was the inquiry. "I am not quite satisfied," was the reply. "I fear whether she is resting entirely upon the Saviour." "As far as words are concerned," said I, "what can she say more? Of course I cannot see into the heart, and what takes place when my back is turned, I know not." You can do no more," said she. I left the house with a heavy heart. I knew not what more to do. I had, as far as I could, in faithfulness and affection pressed home the truth, and shown from time to time what it was to stand before the Lord, as Joshua did, "clothed in filthy garments," and for the Lord alone to say, "Take away the filthy garments from him, and clothe him with change of raiment." I had endeavoured to show that that change of raiment was the righteousness of Jesus; that there was no other clothing for a poor sinner to appear in before God; that this was the wedding garment in which all must appear who go in to the marriage supper of the Lamb. I had pressed home upon the conscience, as far as I, a poor creature, could do, that it was blood, and blood alone, could cleanse the sinner. Again and again and again had I repeated such verses as these:

"Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly,
Wash me, Saviour, or I die."

Every argument I could think of for enforcing the simple truth of atoning, sin-pardoning blood, and imputed righteousness by and through the God-man Christ Jesus, I had brought before the sufferer, and invariably bowed the knee to implore the Holy Ghost to apply what had been spoken. I was at a loss what more to do, and the language of my soul was, " Who hath believed our report, and to whom

is the arm of the Lord revealed ?" I asked myself, “Under such circumstances, of what service is sick-visiting at all? If no hope is to be encouraged under these circumstances, then what is one to do? Must one confine one's-self entirely and exclusively to preaching the word, and to endeavour in the pulpit-and there alone-to appeal to men's consciences, and to lay no stress whatever upon affliction, and the gradual decay of the poor frail tabernacle ?"

I was resolved, however, as the result of these exercises of mind, to return to this case on the morrow, and (if possible) with increased energy to probe to the very heart's core. In the morning I found the patient evidently sinking. As with eternity at hand, again I brought before her such passages as bore upon the case. There was still the same intelligent and decided response, accompanied with the fervent cry to the Lord to take her to Himself. Her mind had wandered much since my last visit on the previous day, and consciousness very frequently left her for a few minutes together. Soon after I entered the room, and when she was scarcely, if at all, aware I was there, in the most fervent way she looked up-as she was commonly wont to do-and exclaimed, in the most ardent way, “O Lord, look down upon me!" It was evident that she was much in mental prayer. When she saw her mother in tears the day before she died, it disturbed her, and, turning to her, she said, "Mother, why do you cry? I'm not afraid to die." I said, "It is natural your dear mother should weep. It is hard for her to part with you. Even Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus." After one of these short seasons of absence of mind, I said, "Do you know me?" Yes," she said, "and I trust I shall meet you in heaven." "Are you happy ?" "Yes." 'Is Jesus precious ?" "He is." "Do you feel yourself to be a sinner?" Yes; a great sinner." "Do you believe His blood has blotted out your sins?" "I do." Shall I pray with you?" you?" "If you please." Many passages were quoted during this interview. There was precisely the same intelligent reception of them, and responding to them.

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