be my dying) confidence: Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.'

Though, while I'm below,
I painfully know

What other poor pilgrims partake:
I've conflicts and fears,

Temptations and tears;

But Jesus will never forsake.'

From this time to that of his dismission from this state of trial aud suffering, 'the state of his health was much the same as it had been for the four preceding years; except that he gradually became weaker, though not so much so as entirely to prevent his having the privilege of proclaiming the name of his blessed Master to his dear friends of the Tabernacle Society occasionally. The last of these exercises was on the 16th of April, the Saturday preceding his death, the anniversary of his preaching his first sermon, which circumstance he was very particular in noticing; his text was from Psalm xviii. 16, 17, 18. He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters,' &c.-upon which he spoke for a considerable length of time, and with a fervour that astonished his friends. On the day after, he assisted at the Lord's table, which was the last time he appeared in public. It was his happiness to be favoured by the Lord with an unshaken dependence upon his providence, as it respected provision for his family. About two months previous to his decease, when giving instructions to his eldest son in what manner he would wish his affairs to be settled after his death, he said, I know what you and Dr. D. think of my complaint; but I have no fears on that head. I trust, I know in whom I have believed; and to his care I can commit you, your dear mother, and the children, in perfect confidence, that as he has been my God, he will also take care of and provide for you all;' and then, alluding to his state of sus pension from ministerial duties, he said, 'I believe that God 30 netimes lays aside his servants from a scene of activity, as a proof of his absolute sovereignty, to convince them and their fellow-men that he can do without them: thus it was with Cowper, and my dear and honoured friend Mr. Newton; and I know that when he has fulfilled his divine will by me, he will take me home. Blessed be God, I have no doubts of that.'

For a few days previous to his death he seemed much revived, and was more than ordinarily cheerful: on that morning (Ap. 22) he was so much better as to be able to dress himself, which he had not done for some months; and upon Mrs. K.'s coming up, as usual, to assist him, he said, with a smile, My dear, you see I am quite a man to-day.' He took his breakfast and dinner with a good degree of appetite, and was conversing with his fosterfather after tea, when, immediately after his having spoken, Mrs. K. happened to look at him, and saw his jaw had fallen. Much alarmed, she loosened his stock, and applied some harts

horn to his nostrils, which he was sensible of, opened his eyes, smiled at her, and then shut them for ever, without a sigh or a groan, at half past five o'clock in the afternoon, on Friday, April 22, 1808. Thus easy and happy was the passage of this faithful servant of Jesus Christ to the bosom of his Lord. Had he been spared until the succeeding day, he would have attained, the age of 54; but he spent his birth-day with his blessed Redeemer in Heaven.

By desire of a particular friend, his body was opened; when the different viscera were found so exceedingly diseased, that it was surprizing he could endure his sufferings so long. About three pints of water were found in the right chest. The left lobe of the lungs adhered to the sides of the chest. The large arteries were much ossified; which, together with various obstructions to the due performance of respiration, must have greatly in creased his pains.

On the following Thursday his remains were interred in his own family grave, at Tottenham Court Chapel. On the suc ceeding Lord's Day a funeral sermon was preached for him by Mr. Wilks, in the morning, at the Tabernacle; and another in the evening, by Mr. Hyatt, at Tottenham Court Chapel, to immense and affected auditories.

Mr. Knight was rather above the middle stature; of a fair complexion; with a solemn and commanding voice; and, till disease had ravaged his frame, of a prepossessing appearance. But his most attractive ornaments were those of the mind. Whatever frivolities might have characterized his childhood and youth, divine grace had entirely effaced these early traits; and formed him, in the commencement of our acquaintance, for the spiritual and uniform Christian, which shone conspicu ously in him, through the vigour of manhood and the decrepitude of age.

As a public character, he ever evinced a love to his Master's service, which bore him through a series of labours beyond his natural strength. Nor were pulpit exercises bis only employments; he took heed to the flock; the sick could bear testimony to the frequency of his pastoral visits; the poor found in him an hospitality fully equal to his pecuniary means; and the troubled convert proved with what tender sympathy he poured oil and wine into those wounds which sin and guilt had inflicted.

As a speaker, though not favoured with a liberal education, his diction was invariably chaste and manly; and his manner affectionate and pathetic. His sermons were generally considered rather as good than great. They were always more than spiced with the distinguishing doctrines of Christianity; and while these sentiments were delivered in a decisive tone, no minister more strenuously maintained that their cordial recep

tion would necessarily produce an universal influence on Christian morals.

In private circles, he obtained the confidence and esteem of all classes of society. The urbanity of his manners, an inexhaustible fund of anecdote, appropriate to every topic of conversation, ever rendered him the easy, pious, and agreeable companion. His friends were many; of whom, through the whole of his Christian pilgrimage, he never lost a solitary indi

vidual.

In the course of four years extreme sufferings, in which all the arts of medicine were baffled, and in which his comely person was reduced to an object, exciting universal pity and sympathy, he never lost the tone of spirituality, nor betrayed the murmuring word, or sigh, or look,

That he was dearly beloved by all, and especially by his own flocks, no greater proof need be given than the tears and sighs which accompanied his funeral, and the cheerfulness with which his own immediate connection came forward with pecus niary aid in support of his widow and dependent children.

Should bis friends be disposed to erect a Tablet to his me mory in the chapel, we submit the following lines for an ins scription, as characteristic of the man ;

Sir,

Near this Tablet

Lie the Remains of

THE REV. JOEL ABRAHAM KNIGHT,
Nineteen Years a Preacher of the Gospel
in this Chapel and the Tabernacle.
He fell asleep in Jesus

April 22, 1808, aged 54.

If a correct Knowledge of the Doctrines of Grace,
accompanied with deep Humility of Heart;
If unremitting Attention to the Pastoral Duties,
with a tender Commiseration for the Poor;
If a steady Attachment to his own Religious Principles,
blended with Liberality to Christians of other Persuasions
If the highest Esteem of Good Men,
and Complacency of spirit in the Dissolution of Nature,
be characteristic

of the Eminent Christian and Faithful Minister,

HE WAS ONE.

ANSWERS TO A QUERY,

THOUGH not a minister, allow me to reply to the query of a young person in your Magazine, who is desirous of receiving directions as to the most profitable way of reading the Holy Scriptures, by stating the practice I was led to adopt about ten years ago, and have regularly followed ever since, I trust, with much spiritual profit.I begin the Bible on the 1st of January and, by reading five chapters every day, go through both Testa ments by the latter end of August, I then begin the New

Testament; and by reading two chapters a day, go over that a second time. By this mode of reading, I find myself insensibly acquiring a knowledge of the Scriptures, as an entire whole, which undoubtedly they are intended to be:- and as I have been enabled, by divine grace, to keep up the practice, under incessant public avocations, long and fatiguing journies, and many painful illnesses, I doubt not that your fair querist will easily be able to find time enough also. I am, &c. CIVIS,

Another Correspondent, in answer to the same Query, says,

I HAVE been reading A Companion to the Closet,' by Dr. Duncan (second edition) in which are many excellent things; he closes with a plan for the more regular reading the Holy Scriptures, which I shall transcribe. In the Old Testament there are 931 chapters; but by distributing the 150 Psalms into 60 equal parts, they will then be reduced to 841: add to these 260, which is the number contained in the New Testament, they will then be 1101. Divide this by 3, and you will find each part contain 365 chapters, and 6 over; so that by reading 3 chapters every day, you will read the whole over in one year, except 6 chapters. The most profitable method is to begin with the first chapter of Genesis, the first Psalin, and the first chapter of Matthew, and to proceed regularly.

THE ASYLUM FOR FEMALE PENITENTS.

M.

Ir was a very lovely morning, and the sun had risen on the earth with his usual benignity, making all things fresh and gay. It brought to my recollection what one of our Poets observed,

The morning was lovely to my view; but it did not imınediately strike me, that to many a sick and sorrowful eye, the gladdening.rays of the sun had lost their brightness.

How unconscious is the mind of him that is at ease with what numberless head-aches and heart-aches the world is teeming, morning by morning! How little do we think of the misery of others, when our own situation is prosperous! Would it not be profitable at all seasons, and especially in our happiest seasons, to call to mind what numberless sorrows are at that moment endured throughout the earth? would it not

tend to heighten our mercies, and to induce a proper apprehension of their distinguishing nature, in the recollection of the wants of others? and, above all, might not our ungrateful hearts, in the consciousness of such distinguishing blessings, be sometimes compelled to look beyond second causes, and find a

double relish in every enjoyment, from tracing a first, gracious, and kind hand, as the Sovereign Disposer of all.

I was ruminating on subjects of this nature, induced by the loveliness of the morning, when a poor woman, in deep distress (as if in confirmation of my morning thoughts) knocked at my door, with great impatience and importunity. Her busi ness was urgent indeed; for she came on an errand of mercy. There needed no apology for the abruptness of her visit: though, upon her entrance (for she waited not the ceremony of introduction, the moment the door was opened) I was at a loss to explain, for a while, the occasion of it.

As soon as she found utterance (for grief had choked the powers of speech some little space) her tale of woe not only explained the cause of her visit, but compelled the feelings to take interest in what she related.

She was a poor defenceless widow, the mother of an only daughter. Her child had been seduced from her, even before she had the consciousness of any danger; and for fifteen months, she had not only lost her, but, notwithstanding all the vigilance of the most anxious enquiry, she had never been able to trace her steps, so as to discover her abode among any of the haunts of sin and wretchedness. This morning, it seems, in which she knocked at my door, a letter sent from the poor deluded creature herself, gave the first information where she was; and the other contents of the sorrowful epistle were filled in terms not much unlike the Prophet's roll, Lamentation, and Mourning, and Woe!

In the first impulse of the moment, the distracted mother ran with the tidings to me; and on gaining entrance at the door, as before related, she put the letter into my band; and, as if I was at once perfectly apprized of the whole contents, she cried out, as she gave it me, And will you not take my poor ruined child from her horrible situation?

There is a certain persuasive eloquence in the view of misery, which infinitely outruns all the powers of language; and seems as if it needed not the aid of words to plead its cause. He who gave it, well knew the frame of the human heart,which he had formed to feel its power:-and he who gave it, well knew also how it should operate; and made effectual provision that it should not operate in vain, I know not how to describe it, neither indeed is it necessary. Every heart of sensibility will require no other glossary than what passeth within, very fully to explain.

I am more and more convinced, every day I live, that, among the felicities of Heaven, this intuitive communication from spirit to spirit, will form a part; and, perhaps supersede, in some measure, the necessity of language, and if, in the present unripe state of being, we possess a faculty of conveying our thoughts and wishes one to another, without the help of