the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and departed in the triumph of faith. H. G.

Sept. 27th.-At Liverpool, aged forty-six, Joseph Moorcock, of the High-Wycombe Circuit. He joined the Methodist society in 1819, and received his first ticket from the late Rev. John Waterhouse. For more than twenty-three years he filled the office of Local Preacher, and was very useful in bringing souls to Christ. He lived in the affections of a numerous circle of friends, and was esteemed by many who were not connected with Wesleyan Methodism. For some time previous to his death, he professed to enjoy the blessing of entire sanctification; and the uniformly-consistent tenor of his life proved that the blood of Christ had cleansed him from all sin. His last illness was of short duration. He took a journey to Liverpool, for the purpose of transacting business; where he was speedily attacked by the affliction which terminated his life. Just before his departure he exclaimed, "Praise God!" and soon after was called to join the host of heaven. J. T. B.

Oct. 2d.-At Gospel-Oak, in the Wednesbury Circuit, Mrs. Sarah Caddick, aged forty-eight. She embraced religion in early life; and, from the time of her conversion, until her death, her character was without a stain. She esteemed her Ministers highly, the interests of Methodism shared her affections, and the poor found in her a constant friend. She walked with God. Her mind, during a protracted affliction, was kept in great tranquillity; and she found that the work of righteousness was peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. R. L

Oct. 2d.-Aged fifty-four, near Downham, in the Clitheroe Circuit, Mary Wilson, wife of Mr. Richard Wilson. For about twenty-eight years she was a regular member of the Wesleyan church, and during the last seven lived in close communion with God. She died the death of the righteous. T. B.

Oct. 6th.-At Taunton, Mr. Richard Bacon, aged eighty-four. Upwards of fifty years ago,

his mind was graciously enlightened, and his heart savingly renewed. Having given himself to God, without delay he gave himself to the church. From that period he took a deep interest in all that related to the house, worship, and people of God. Through life, his upright conduct evinced the sincerity of his piety. A short time before his decease he said, "I long to go. When will the happy day arrive?" The person who attended on him said, " You will soon be at rest." He immediately replied, "All is well." Soon after, he calmly fell asleep in Jesus.

R. R.

Oct. 10th.-At Upleathem, in the Stokesley Circuit, Mary Snowden, aged sixty-four. When about thirty years of age, she was convinced of sin, and joined the Wesleyan church. Having obtained divine forgiveness, she became a humble, zealous, and useful disciple of Christ. Her godly life, and constant readiness to every good work, endeared her to all with whom she held intercourse, the remembrance of which will long live. She suffered much in her last illness; but was enabled in patience to possess her soul, and expired in the victory over death and the grave. W. H. R.

Oct. 10th.-At Biggleswade, aged twentyeight, Miss Farrington. She had been a member of the Wesleyan society for thirteen years. Brought up by praying parents, she was the subject of religious impressions in early life; and though under moral restraint, she was sensible that a change of heart was necessary, which she sought carefully with tears. It pleased God to speak peace to her mind, and ever after she held fast her confidence, and adorned" the doctrine of God her Saviour in all things." During her protracted affliction, she was called to pass through much suffering, which she endured with patience. Finding that her end was drawing near, she felt a desire to bear testimony to the great advantages of living and dying in the Lord, and expressed a wish to see some of her relatives for that purpose. While urging one, whom she dearly loved, to give his heart to God, she said, "My religion has made me happy for thirteen years; but I never was so happy as I am now." T. H.

THE year, to the close of which we are now so nearly come, has been, even according to the views of events taken only by worldly politicians, one of the most important of any which the annals of history have ever had to describe. Some of the occurrences which will have to be recorded, were not only very strongly marked in their immediate character,

but were such that they who look only at what may be termed, "the visible succession of causes and effects," could not fail to see in them, not merely insulated facts, broken-off specimens of the immense mass of the annual proceedings of a nation, but living seeds of active germinancy, now only cast into the soil, but whose produce in future years, what

ever be its influence on our national weal or woe, may be most certainly anticipated. But there is another aspect in which the Christian believer not only may consider the occurrences in question, but in which it is positive duty so to do. If the Scriptures be true, the government of divine Providence is a great fact. And this government has nothing to do with either chance or fatalism. If great things may be illustrated by small, the active, intelligent rule of some established human executive (we take no particular form) furnishes the fittest analogue. It is the personal government of the only living and true God, who has set his throne in the heavens, and whose dominion ruleth over all; who looketh down from heaven, and beholdeth the inhabitants of earth; and whose ceaseless administration, strictly moral in its character, is regulated by the principles, and directed to the objects, which are most distinctly declared in the revelation which he has vouchsafed to bestow; and which he has bestowed on us for this very purpose, that we, knowing ourselves to be his subjects, may submit ourselves to his rule, and seek for blessedness in the rewards he has promised to bestow, and for exemption from misery and disgrace, by avoiding, in the only way in which they can be avoided, the punishments he has threatened to inflict.

In this land of Christian light, the fact of the existence of this government, in its relation to individuals,-who will have to stand before the "great white throne;" and having been each one judged according to his works, shall be dealt with accordingly, the consequences enduring through the measureless eternity of immortal man,-is, at least, generally acknowledged. But there is another branch of the divine administration, likewise, clearly revealed in Scripture, which many, we fear, are, at the present time, in great danger of overlooking. The haughty and intolerant exclusiveness of the living ecclesiastical Establishment, carried to a pitch of assumption and demand scarcely known even in the worst periods of our constitutional

history, has rendered a firm and unequivocal assertion of the just rights of conscience absolutely necessary, and awakened an indignant spirit of resistance, which has taken the controversy out of the limits of calm discussion, and made it rather a deadly strife, not for power only, but even for existence. When controversy has assumed this character, the assertion of extreme principles, unguarded by their proper explanations, and balances, and checks, however much to be lamented, cannot be said to be a matter of surprise. We may regret, and even blame, what we witness; but our heaviest censures must fall upon them whose unchristian-we fear we must say, whose antichristian-conduct has occasioned it. The mischief which the High-Church party has done in England, and still is doing, directly, and on their own ground, is incalculable; they have discarded the truth for the sake of which they received the dignities and emoluments of a national Establishment, and, in its place, have adopted unre servedly that "other Gospel," which is subversive of the true Gospel of Christ; and they are doing, continually, that which exasperates the spirits of all to whom they are opposed, and occasions a bitter animosity which not only disturbs society, but threatens the peace of the nation. And the mischiefs which they cause indirectly, and as by re-action, are as great as those which flow immediately from their principles. Doing that which denies all the evidences of the reign of the Holy Spirit in the true church of Christ, by the operation on human nature of the controversies they have stirred up, they have irritated their opponents in the warmth of antagonism to make assertions, the principles of which, if fully developed, deny the reign of the Son of God over the nations of the earth, considered as nations, and which practically set aside the great doctrine of Scripture, that nations (still considered as such) may sin against the Lord Christ and his church, and, by opposing his interests, irretrievably ruin their

own.

It is not, therefore, to the events of

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the year, considered in themselves, that we look with such serious forebodings; but to these events, in connexion with the spirit of political and religious party, and especially in their relation to the national administration of divine Providence, with its evangelical rules, and its evangelical objects. It is in this light, especially, that we regard the endowment of the Roman Catholic College of Maynooth; and we rejoice that the last Wesleyan Conference-faithful to that original Protestant truth of which what is called Methodism is the practical revival, and which is itself the revival of the Gospel that is the power of God unto salvation, and which had been so deeply obscured during ages when so little attention had been paid to God's method of justifying the ungodly by faith in Christ was led to designate that measure in its true character, as tending to subvert the British constitution as settled by the Revolution of 1688," and "as being directly sinful, calculated to expose the country to the displeasure of Almighty God, and to draw down upon it the judgments which he has denounced against those nations who practically renounce his authority, and adopt a course opposed to the teaching of his holy word." We rejoice in these declarations, both because they reassert the protest against that Popery which is, doctrinally, the direct and antagonizing contrary to Methodism, so that one or the other, as to essential principle, must be utterly false; and because they state what we believe to be the solemn truth of Scripture respecting the national administration of divine Providence, on evangelical principles, and the consequent necessity of national obedience, in order to the avoidance of the heavy visitations of the divine displeasure, and the secure enjoyment of that solid and visible prosperity which the divine blessing exclusively bestows.

What shall be the result of this illomened measure, it is not for us to attempt to foretell. The predictions of the New Testament have led many learned and pious expositors to believe that in the latter days there would be a

revival of antichristian error and power; and that the partisans of Antichrist, who could only have regained their ascendancy through the unfaithfulness of their evangelical opponents, "shall make war on the Lamb;" of course, in the persons of those who adhere to that which is truly his cause. Eventually, "he shall overcome them; for he is King of kings, and Lord of lords; " but the confusion and misery which this final onslaught of error shall occasion, none can describe. The true character of Rome will then be seen. That in her distinctive doctrines she is fatally erroneous; that in her discipline she is despotic, and the natural ally of despotism; and that to a manly, constitutional liberty, whether civil or religious, she is the irreconcilable foe; none will be able to deny. And her iron sceptre, over whomsoever it shall be swayed, shall make it manifest that she is indeed the same woman of the mystic symbol, drunk with the blood of saints. The sin is one which leads to its own punishment.

The painful reports respecting deficiency and failure in some most important articles of food, plainly show how totally a nation is dependent on the God of nature. What legislative measures such circumstances require, is a question into which we do not enter; but the Prophet Haggai explicitly declares what are those moral lessons which we should gather from them, even that we should "consider our ways;' " and in no respect, individual, social, or political, act as if we made the erection of God's house, his "spiritual house,” built up of “living stones," a secondary and subordi. nate concern, running to our ceiled houses, while His house lies waste," making His interests subservient to our own; but that, in all things, and in all respects, we acknowledge HIM, by

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seeking first," whether in matters public or private, whether it be the individual or the nation, acting by its constitutional executive, "his kingdom and righteousness." Doing this, if God be indeed Governor, "all other things shall be added unto us:" neglecting this, "though we have sown much, we bring

in little; we have eaten, and have not enough; we clothe ourselves, and there is none that is warm; he that hath earned wages, hath put them into a bag with holes; we looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when we brought it home, GOD DID BLOW ON IT." Well were it for us if we derived our principles of personal, domestic, and political economy from the inspired teaching of the first chapter of Haggai.

But, amidst so much that is dark and threatening, in the retrospect of the year, one bright and happy event will always be seen. Whatever be its results,-and we devoutly trust they will be in accordance with its commencement,-it is it self a most cheering one. We refer to the Meetings held not long ago at Liverpool, for the formation of an "Evangelical Alliance." The object was Christian union; and no one can have read the accounts of the proceedings, without being deeply impressed with the full conviction of the unreserved, godly sincerity of those who conducted them. A step has thus been taken in a right direction. God's blessing be on those who first took it themselves, and have called on all the friends of truth, and love, and peace to accompany them! As we shall have to call the attention of our readers to the progress of this most important movement, we now only refer to its beginning in these general terms. Mountain difficulties may present themselves; but let the Zerubbabels of the churches be faithful, and these shall become plains before them; not, indeed, by human might or

power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts. We see, in the course of the year, the distinct revival of antichristian power, and its alliance with supporters who promise no ordinary share of aid to the gigantic confederacy of the latter days; but may we not hope that we see the commencement of a union which, although most feeble in all human appliances, will eventually obtain the final victory? The Evangelical Alliance is composed only of the friends of divine truth and genuine charity. But, if the Bible be true, the issue cannot be doubtful; though divine Wis. dom may permit a season of instructive and purifying chastening. They who are "with the Lamb," are "called, and chosen, and faithful;" and, if the Bible is true, then He is with them. It is not merely that their great doctrines are correct, but that, as matter of fact, they are upheld, and led onwards, by the personal, though invisible, interposition of the living, the omnipotent, WORD OF GOD. The "called, and chosen, and faithful," have always been "with the Lamb;" but their disunion as to each other has weakened them. They are beginning to unite; and when they exhibit the genuine doctrine of Christian oneness, by being one with each other, and all of them one with Him, with the unresistible might of human weakness, and of divine strength, they shall conquer the world, and fill it with the light of truth, and the harmony of love.

November 14th, 1845.