sistibly directed to her own sinful nature. Walking out one Sabbath afternoon, a witness to the profanity and sin which were so prevalent around her, she was the better prepared for harbouring impressions of a different kind, and from a different source. The sound of praise fell upon her ear, and she instinctively sought the place from which it proceeded; already several listeners had gathered around the door, and of these she inquired if there were any possibility of her being admitted. Just then a man stepped out of the room, and having his attention directed to her, he affectionately invited her to join the company of worshippers. She accepted the invitation, and found herself for the first time in one of those valuable, soul-cheering means of grace, a Wesleyan Class-meeting. This was an epoch in Lucy Cryer's life,-the dawning of better days. After the lapse of a short time, she gave her heart to God; repentance of her transgressions was followed by a firm reliance upon the atoning death of Christ; pardon and peace were granted, and while her name was thus registered in the Lamb's Book of Life, it was also registered in the Militant Church, amongst the Wesleyan Methodists. She became decided Christian, and as such she lived without any event of great importance for a period of six years. Then came the season of trial, when the sincerity of her faith was to be thoroughly tested. At the age of thirty-two, she was bereaved of her husband, and with three small children, to which a fourth one was added about seven weeks after, she was thrown upon the world without any visible means of support. In her distress she cried unto the Lord; she felt now the value of a sympathizing Saviour, and of the numerous precious promises which lay scattered, beautiful as diamonds, over the sacred page. To these she resorted, and in these she found consolation, realising uninterruptedly the truth of that one, which says, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." Leaving Liverpool, she spent one year at Halifax, with her brother, and subsequently returned to Glusburn, where she united herself in Church fellowship with the Protestant Methodists-now the United Methodist Free Church-and continued in connexion with that body till her death. In January 1837, when thirty-six years of age, she was married to George Brown of Sutton Mill. This second marriage proved highly favourable for her spiritual growth, and the advantages then placed within her reach she used to her own as well as other people's benefit. She attended with great punctuality the means of grace which were within her reach. Her experience, as related in the Class-meeting, was always encouraging and edifying; her acceptance with God was a subject spoken of with unwaver ing confidence; and by her consistent Christian conduct, she wielded a gentle, yet powerful influence over those with whom she came in contact, and rendered herself beloved by all who knew her; many testifying to the beneficial influence which they experienced in her company, whether in private conversation or in the social means of grace. It was said by one, that no one could be long in Lucy Brown's company without feeling himself better for it." For the last eleven years of her life, she was the subject of severe bodily affliction, which deprived her almost entirely of the opportunity of attending public worship, as she was unable to walk to chapel. Her loss in this respect was partially compensated by the holding of a Class-meeting in her own house. During this affliction, and especially the latter part of it, she appeared to live in very close communion with her God. Her experience increased in its richness, and it became apparent to all that she was ripening for the harvest; she appeared to live under a cloudless spiritual sky, the rays of the Sun of Righteousness shining uninterruptedly upon her; she was treading on the very brink of Jordan, but was not in the least terrified by the flood. She gradually sank in body, but there was a corresponding elevation of spirit; she was approaching the gates of Heaven, and could very confidently say, "Vain world, adieu!" We saw her two or three times during the last week or two of her life, and she always expressed herself as happy in God. Once, we remember, she spoke of the harassings of the tempter, but she manifested unshaken confidence in Christ. On the morning of Wednesday, December 16th, we saw her for the last time alive. She was able to leave her bedroom, although evidently very weak; but she seemed unspeakably happy. On Thursday night, the 17th, David Brown, her husband's son, was called in to witness, it was thought, her departure. With great earnestness she repeated the words, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff comfort me." Her voice suddenly acquired unusual strength and clearness, so much so, that passers by could hear her distinctly upon the road. But although she was quite "ready to depart and to be with Christ," her departure was to be deferred a little longer. She rallied, and survived until about noon next day (Friday). Her friends were again summoned to her bedside; she was now about to pass away; although in the valley, she was not alarmed; Christ was with her. She exclaimed, "I cannot mistrust Him;" "Get upon the Rock" she said to those around her. Several expressions such as the above, and "there is rest for the weary," did she give utterance to, and then her spirit left her. Thus peacefully, nay, exultingly, did Lucy Brown terminate her earthly career, and enter that place where the weary are at rest,' leaving a testimony behind, which was unmistakeable, that she had "Dying found her latest foe, Under her feet at last." Her life of nearly sixty-two years has not, we feel sure, been without its lessons. In health and in early womanhood she sought the Lord; in sickness and in old age He was her support and stay; and while in the Jordan of death, her head was tenderly borne above the wave. Well may we exclaim, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like hers." On Tuesday, December 22nd, her mortal remains were interred in the burial ground of Ebenezer Chapel, (United Methodist Free Church,) Cross Hills, by the writer, who improved the occasion of her death, on Sunday night, January 10th, in a discourse from Psalm xxiii. 4, which was listened to by a large and attentive audience. The above memoir was read on the occasion, and many were moved to tears on hearing of the triumphant passage of our sister to the skies. We sincerely hope that much spiritual good will be the result. WILLIAM L. ROBERTS. Recent Deaths. BARNSLEY. DIED on Tuesday, April 12th, MARTHA MO'LINTOCK, the wife of Mr. JAMES MC'LINTOCK, of Providence Villa, aged fifty-four years; she was cut off by a fever in a few days. On the same day, ELIZABETH TINKER, wife of Mr. JOSEPH TINKER, after a lingering affliction of six years, which she bore with true Christian meekness, aged fifty-seven years. On the following day, Wednesday, April 13th, ANN GELDER, the wife of Mr. EDWARD GELDER, in her thirty-fourth year. The fell disease, consumption, hurried her away from this stage of mortal existence in the midst of her days. We have thus had three removals by death, from the home circle of our Church, in the brief space of two days; our Sisters Mc' LINTOCK, and TINKER, who died within a few hours of each other, had been class mates for many years. Through the riches of Divine Grace, we could, with an assured confidence, write on the tablet of each tomb, "Not lost but gone before." May the Lord sanctify these solemn visitations to the surviving relations, and to the Church and congregation. Amen. ANGRY ALMS. Miscellaneous. Ere WHILE Gotthold was one day occupied with important business, and deeply absorbed in thought, his daughter unexpectedly entered the room, and presented to him a paper stating the case of a poor widow, with the causes of her penury, and soliciting an alms in her behalf. Losing temper, he spoke harshly to the girl, and, in an ill-humour, flung to her the sum she asked. long, however, he recollected himself, and cried out,-" Wretched man that I am! how fair a show I make with my Christianity, in my own eyes at least, and how bodily I venture to say,-'Lord Jesus, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee;' and yet, now that the Saviour has come and craved a mite for this poor widow, as a practical evidence of my affection, I take offence at Him for disturbing my poor thoughts, though for so short a time and so good a cause. Go, now, and plume thyself on thy faith and piety! "My God! Thou invitest me to come to Thee when ever my pleasure leads, or my necessities compel me; and come when I may, never is my coming unseasonable or inopportune. Thou hast the whole world to govern, and yet I trouble Thee not, though I break in at morn ing, noon, or night, and claim an alms from Thy mercy. How conceited I must be, to reckon my concerns and cogitations of greater moment than the prayers and sighs of my suffering fellow-Christians! I now see that sin is rashness, and have good cause henceforth to give a more gracious reception to the Lord Jesus in His members, lest in my hour of need He turn His back upon me. 'God loveth a cheerful giver.' (2 Cor. ix: 7.) A benefaction to the poor should be like oil, which when poured from one vessel into another, flows in silence, and with a soft and gentle fall. An alms reluctantly bestowed is like a rose spoiled and discoloured with the fumes of sulphur, like sanded flour, or over-salted meat. He who exercises charity with a reluctant heart and angry words, resembles the cow which yields her milk, but puts her foot into and overturns the pail."-Gotthold's Emblems. PREPARATION OF THE HEART NECESSARY FOR THE DISCOVERY OF TRUTH. He said he had recently had a long conversation with an Unitarian Minister, who declared that he could discover nothing in the New Testament which in the least favoured the Divinity of Christ, to which Mr. C. replied, that it appeared to him impossible for any man to read the New Testament, with the common exercise of an unbiassed understanding, without being convinced of the Divinity of Christ, from the testimony of almost every page. It was evident that different persons would look at the same object with very opposite feelings. For instance, if Sir Isaac Newton looked at the planet Jupiter, he would view him with his revolving moons, and would be led to the contemplation of bis being inhabited, which thought would open a boundless field to his imagination; whilst another person, standing perhaps at the side of the Great Philospher, would look at Jupiter with the same sort of feeling that he would look at a silver Bixpence. Some persons were wilfully blind, and did not seek for that change, that preparation of the heart and understanding, which would enable them to see clearly the Gospel truth. Cottle's Reminiscences of S. T. Coleridge. GLORIFICATION THROUGH SUFFERING. THIS is the paradox of Christianity, that through weakness we put on Divine strength; through poverty grasp the Divine riches; and through pain are borne into the fullest, sweetest experience of the Divine love. This passes with very many for the talk of the pulpit, till in some rare example it stands out manifest before us. Suffering, if prolonged, has a twofold tendency. Some it makes morose, selfish, and atheistical; with others it unfolds freely and more freely the angel within, till it irradiates the poor worn bodily frame, as if the immortal life were dawning through it before death. "There are bodies celestial," says Paul. In chronic disease, We sometimes see them forming brightly and more brightly within the natural body; those waxing as this wanes toward dissolution. Since we wrote "Exaltations at the Approach of Death," we received a communication illustrating the truth that the gradual putting-off of this vestment of mortal decay may help on mightily our spiritual renewal, albeit through chronic disease and suffering. One such example ought to teach us a divine patience; knowing that we may not only triumph over pain, but make it our ally and helper. The following description will be readily recognized by the good people of Framingham, as applying to one who a few months ago ceased to be mortal from among them at nearly threescore and ten, but who, much of that time, might say with Paul, "I die daily." "For nearly thirty years she was confined almost wholly to her dwelling, with scarcely the power of locomotion, with crippled hands and perpetual ill health; yet nobly and gloriously was she upborne by faith and love. Her life was one of rare industry: all the time, while she had power, she busied herself in constant devotion to the good of all around her, making garments for poor little children, and presents of beautiful needlework for her relatives and friends; and when she was too feeble to work any longer, she wept that her season of service was past for those whom so dearly she loved. In the beautiful autumn-hours, it was touching and helpful to hear her speak of the loveliness around she so truly felt she should never see again; then she added, 'The good Father gives us all more of sunshine than of cloud all along our life, if we would but see it.' She was a constant reader in her wheel-chair, with a little frame for her book, she read long after the power to turn the leaf was gone. Shut out from the world, she retained the innocence of a child to the last; and was so grateful for every smile of God, every word or act of love, that her presence was an inspiration of all the beatitudes. To one who asked her, near her closing hour, if she : felt prepared to die, she turned with a look of surpassing peace and power, and replied, 'Do you think I could have lived the life I have, if I were not?' Her home was glorified by her being, her neighbour hood taught and rebuked and blessed by such a spirit, so patient, so strong, so serene, so hopeful, so cheerful, so heroic. That is the soul the Father loves, chastens, only to be made perfect." THE PREACHING THAT CONVERTS. men unto "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all me."-John xii. 32. Other preaching may please, amuse, and entertain; but the love of Christ attracts, astonishes, draws, breaks, melts, subdues, and changes the heart. St. Paul knew this, and determined to preach" Jesus Christ and him crucified." In the light of his dying Saviour's cross, the sinner sees and feels "the exceeding sinfulness of sin," the height and depth of the love of Christ. There, and only there, he bebolds his sin atoned for, his guilt cancelled, the law magnified, justice satisfied, God glorified-"just in justifying the ungodly who believe in Jesus." There he is conquered, disarmed, won by the life of Christ. In a moment the prayer of faith ascenda, the tears of penitence fall, regeneration of heart is effected, consecration of himself to God is made: "I am the Lord's"-he becomes " a new creature in Christ Jesus." What made the preaching of Berridge, and Hill, and Whitefield, and Wesley so efficient to the conver sion of souls, but that the love of Christ was the burden of their theme? They glorified Christ in their preaching, and the Holy Spirit glorified their preaching in the c nversion of multitudes now with them "before the throne of God and the Lamb." Never shall I forget seeing the late great and good Rowland Hill, of London, now in the city of God, preaching in a market town in Eng. land on its market day. Like the Apostle Paul, standing on the steps at Athens, Mr. Hill was mounted, in the midst of the market-place, in a lumber waggon of a farmer from the country, a man standing at his back holding up an umbrella to protect his head from the rays of the summer sun. I can yet see him as he then and there stood and preached, for upwards of an hour, the love of Christ to the thousands him. What gathered around volume of voice, what vehemence, what emotion of heart, what earnestness, what tears were his! Not an inch of the high-born gentleman, his ripe scholarship, his far-spread fame, or any one thing that was Rowland Hill's, could be secn, but only the "radiant glories of the Crucified One," in the "greatness of His love to man." To see such another sight, and hear such another sermon I would go far. Oh, that our pulpits all may be filled by men possessing the spirit of Hill, and his mantle fall on the ministry of the Gospel through out the land and world!-Christian Treasury. WATCH AND PRAY. and To watch without prayer, is to presume upon our own strength; to pray without watching, is to presume upon the grace of God. The Lord's Prayer is the rule of our duty and desires; we are engaged by every petition to co-operate concur with Divine grace, to obtain what we pray for. A stream preserves its crystal clearness by continual running; if its course be stopped, it will stagnate and pu trety. The purity of the soul is preserved by the constant exercise of habitual grace. |