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HYMN FROM THE GERMAN :

TRANSLATED BY JOHN BOWRING, ESQ.

WHO leaves the' Almighty God to reign
Supreme, and trusts alone in God,
Him shall the' Almighty One maintain;
Though dark and dismal be his road,
Yet he may rest in peace, for he
Is shelter'd by the Deity.

How vain are sighs! how vain regret !
Complaint could ne'er subdue distress ;
E'en though with grief our couch be wet,
We shall not therefore weep the less.
No! tears but add a gloom the more
To that which was so dark before.
Be still, be silent, wait awhile;
There's comfort yet from God for thee:
His light amidst the gloom shall smile,
All-wise, all-good, all-knowing He
He made us, and from him there 's
nought

Conceal'd of deed, or word, or thought.
When joy should dawn, He joy decrees;
But only sends that joy to bless :
But oft His searching vision sees
Joy in apparent wretchedness:

He comes unlook'd for; and whene'er
He comes, both peace and joy are there.
Then deem not, in thy gloomiest hour,
That God abandons thee to woe:
Wilt thou mistrust His awful power,
Or wilt thou doubt His goodness? No!
Yet a few hours, and time shall prove
His changeless, countless, matchless,
love.

His rule is wondrous; at His will
This mighty universe, with all
Its beings, vibrates, or is still;
And kingdoms rise, and kingdoms fall:
He lifts the lowly, sinks the high,
In His uncounsell'd Majesty.

O then be calm, and tread serene,
With prayer and praise, life's varying
road;

"Tis gay with flowers; its paths are green,
And thou art guided by thy God:
Be calm; for at the worst, thy rest
Is near, and heaven will make thee
blest.

THE RAISING OF LAZARUS :
BY THE REV. LIONEL

THE sepulchre was gaping wide,
Its closing-stone was roll'd aside,
And shuddering crowds press'd r. und
to win

A sight of the foul scene within
The charnel-steam, too strong to bear
Ascended on the healthful air,

And groaning deep for him who slept,
E'en Christ stood at the grave, an
wept.

He wept but His was not the tear
Of human grief on human bier,
That gushes, trustless of to-morrow
In unassuaged excess of sorrow.
And yet he wept; though there ho
stood,

In power's unquestion'd plenitude,
While every sacred drop that fell
Was life to death, and death to hell!
But loser now, and closer grew
The press of the surrounding crew,
Who deem'd he came to mourn, not
save,

As he stoop'd o'er the dead man's grave,
Aud gazed with self-communing air
For a short space in silence there.
Nearer he stoop'd, and yet more near:
Hark! heard ye not, like trumpet clear,
His life-shout in that mouldering ear?
Forth sent the tomb its bidden birth,
For He who called was God ou earth!

THOMAS BERGUER.

Not faster answers to the flash
Of Heaven the illuminated ash,
Than, following that resistless word,
'The Dead sprang forth before his Lord,
B und hand and foot with funeral-
clothes;

In life, in breathing life, be rose,
And cast amid the astonish'd crowd,
From his freed limbs, the loosen'd
sbroud!

Health's crimson light o'erspread his
face,

His eye was fire, his step was grace;
No trace of what it was before
The metamorphos'd body wore;
But, like the first-form'd of mankind,
Ere his full heart might utterance find,"
Complete in sense, and limb, and mo-
tion,

Absorb'd he stood in rapt devotion,
While through each uncollapsing vein
The rushing life-streams burst again.
All turu'd to Christ; but him, with eye
Serenely lifted to the sky,

Symbol nor sign of outward power,
Distinguish'd in that holy hour:
His haud yet on the marble rested,
Where late the revelling worm was
rife,

And awe-struck multité des attested
"The RESURRECTION and the LIFE!"

Printed by Mills, Jowett, and Mills, (late Bensley,) Bolt-court, Fleet-street.

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Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine,

FOR MARCH, 1826.

BIOGRAPHY.

MEMOIR OF MR. JOHN KIDGER,
Of Bellon, Leicestershire :`

BY THE REV. BARNARD sláter.

MR. JOHN KIDGER, eldest son of Mr. William and Elizabeth Kidger, was born at Griffydam, in the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Circuit, June 7th, 1795. Educated in the strictest principles of Christianity, he was preserved from the grosser follies of the age, but did not fully embrace the salvation of the Gospel until he was about seventeen years old. At a prayermeeting he was truly awakened, made to feel his wretched condition as a sinner, and began to cry to God for mercy. His amiable mother, not knowing of the anguish of his mind, conversed with him concerning the absolute necessity of a change of heart. He was so deeply impressed with this conversation, and so powerfully affected, that he retired to an out-building to give vent to the feelings of his soul, and cried with the Publican," God be merciful to me a sinner." It was in December, 1812, that he was thus awakened. His convictions continued about eight or nine days; and on the 27th of December, he and twelve or fourteen others, at the same prayer-meeting, were enabled to believe in Jesus Christ, and to rejoice in the pardoning mercy of God.

A short period after his conversion, he was removed to a situation, as agent in a colliery, near Alfreton, in Derbyshire. His religious and moral worth was soon discovered, and he was appointed to be the Leader of a Class.

In the spring of 1815 he was called to leave his beloved friends in Derbyshire, to reside at Lichfield. Before his removal to this city he enjoyed much of God, and, I believe, walked before him in simplicity and uprightness; yet he had not acquired a very extensive and accurate knowledge of Christian doctrine, and was therefore less capable of encountering the sophisms of those who wrest the Scriptures to their own serious injury. Being occasionally in company with a person who lowered the standard of Christian faith, he was attacked on the subject of assurance; and at length embraced the notion that a man may be in the favour of God and not know it. When on a visit at his father's, he entered into conversation with several of his old friends on that subject, VOL. V. Third Series. MARCH, 1826. M

His pious and sensible father saw with grief, that the new views which his son had imbibed, retarded his progress in piety, and injured his usefulness in the church. His bowels yearned over his son, now fallen in some measure from the grace he had once received, and he addressed to him the following admonitory letter, which was rendered, by the blessing of God, a means of John's entire recovery :

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My Dear John,-Since you returned to Lichfield, I have re-considered the conversation we had when you were at Coleorton, and I assure you, that I do not recollect a single circumstance of your whole life that has given me so much pain of mind. How very different were your visits when you came to see us from Derbyshire! I believe, in those days it was your only aim to receive good and to do good. But the spirit in which you last came, was very different; your aim appeared to me, and to others, to make proselytes to a set of opinions which could not have the least tendency to make people either more holy or more happy. You contend about opinions as if they were your Saviour; but were you as orthodox as the greatest Divine that ever lived, without holiness you would be eternally lost. I would ask you, John, as in the presence of God, What has your new creed done for you? Are you more humble, holy, and happy? Has it created in you a more ardent desire to have souls converted to God? Does the reflection, that mankind in general are hastening to endless ruin, affect you more now, than when you first received Christ? Do you mourn over a perishing world more than formerly? Do you see it to be your duty, more than usual, to visit the sick and the dying? Do you pray more in private, and more in public? Are you more watchful, more spiritual, in your conversation? If your new opinions have produced these blessed effects, hold them fast; but if the contrary, (which I am sure is the case,) frankly acknowledge it to the Lord, and amend your ways.

"I want you, my dear John, and myself likewise, to get possessed of that faith which works by love, and purifies the heart; a faith that will secure our justification with God, and be productive of such works as will justify us in the sight of men.

"Do not say, that it is our ignorance that prevents us from believing as you do. Detest the thought, that you are the man, and wisdom will die with you.' I recollect a person who spoke at one of our Love-feasts. He blessed God that though he could not say he grew in love, yet hẹ could say he grew in knowledge. The Preacher justly replied, Brother, that is the experience of devils; they grow in knowledge, but to love they are strangers.'

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"For Christ's sake, John, be watchful; examine yourself whether you be in the faith. God, I fear, has somewhat against you. I am afraid you are falling from God. O that I may be mistaken! I had rather follow you to your grave, than that you should become an apostate.

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