who were worthy members of the G. B. church in that town, her father having long and honourably held the office of deacon. Their pious instructions and earnest prayers resulted, in this as in thousands of other instances, in the early piety of the children. She was baptized in her twenty-fifth year, and was a steady consistent, and humble follower of her dear Saviour, adorning the profession she had made. She was ever desir THE departure of a soul out of time | How mixed are the feelings when attempting to prepare a slight memorial of those who are gone, whom we have loved, and who have loved us. We should be pleased to have their virtues and peculiarly pleasing characteristics recorded to be remembered, while the fear of saying too much in their praise prevents us from penning every circumstance which we can never forget. Such are the feelings of the writer in endeavouring to sketch the following slight notice of a dear departed relative. The subject of this memoir, Elizabeth Taylor, was the eldest daughter of Stephen and Jane Small-was born in Boston West, Lincolnshire, July 28, 1764. She was brought up in the fear and love of her parents' God, that anxiety by a diligent study of the Word of God and private communion with her heavenly Father. While young she was called to sustain the loss of many of her near relatives, who were removed in quick succession, and in the very prime of life. These providences produced a very deep impression on her mind, and she alluded to these events, in after years, as most profitable to her soul. In 1805 she married the Rev. James Taylor, and removed to Derby. In her new position she evinced the same anxiety to live glorifying God, and though sharing in the affliction and trials of a ministerial life, she alleviated them as far as she found it possible. As it respects her religious character we may firstly remark, that though ever fearing, she always hoped, never doubting the power and will ingness of Christ to save, but fearing lest her faith should not be of the right kind and she should be mistaken as to the reality of her conversion. But none of her friends could entertain a single doubt on this point, for her humble and happy spirit delighted in the thought that Christ died to save sinners, feeling she was chief. A minister who knew her so well as to be capable of forming a correct opinion writes, "I never saw in any instance, the exemplification of true, humble piety, in so striking a form, as in hers." She did indeed delight in the law of God, after the inner man. The Bible was her constant companion. It was her meat and drink to do the will of God. She did not live by 'bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."" For some years she was considerably afflicted; she suffered much in the last few years of her life from repeated falls; and though thankful and cheerful, felt a great desire to mingle in the "innumerable company," as she often expressed it. Even when her faculties and senses were much impaired, her mind enjoyed meditation on the great subject of the change of worlds, and the great day of judgment. She often would say, with great emphasis, "the elements shall melt with fervent heat." "Think of that." And with the rapturous enjoyment she thought of the gracious acceptance of the judge, "Come ye blessed." Thus gradually sinking into the grave, she longed every day that it might be her dying day, and her Lord delayed not his coming, but with the easiest embrace death can give she fell asleep in Jesus, April 10, 1852, aged eightyseven. She was buried by the side of her husband, in the Baptist burial ground, Hinckley, by the late Rev. John Derry of Barton, who so shortly after was called to his reward. They softly lie and sweetly sleep, We cannot close this brief sketch without feeling urged to grasp still firmer the Gospel in which "all our hope and comfort lies;" without loving more intensely that dear Jesus who has washed us with his blood and glorified millions who have sought him, professed him, loved him, and faithfully served him; nor should we forget to cherish an humble and earnest anxiety to follow those who through faith and patience now inherit the promises, and be found waiting and longing for the bright appearance of the Great God, even our Saviour. May this be the writer's and reader's happiness. Derby, Nov. 1852. W. WILKINS. THE UTILITY AND IMPORTANCE OF TAKING A IT may be generally assumed that writings than those of other religious The doctrines and denominations. practices which distinguish the General Baptists from other professing christians are sufficiently obvious. In opposition to the Arians and Socinians, we believe and maintain the proper Deity of the person of Christ, and the expiatory character and design of A DENOMINATIONAL PERIODICAL. his sufferings and death. In contradistinction to the Calvinists, we believe the holy Scriptures teach that Jesus Christ died for all" mankind, and that while a provision is made for the salvation of all in the atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, the work and gracious influences of the Holy Spirit are not restricted to those who are saved, but are available to all, and are given with the Word for the conviction of sinners, and their conversion to God. In regard to the various classes of pædo-baptists we reject their fallacious pleas for the baptism of infants, and their perversion of the sacred rite to sprinkling or pouring. Regarding the christian profession as a personal and voluntary and solemn thing, we require each one before he "puts on Christ by baptism," to be a believer in the Son of God, and to act in this great affair as a responsible agent. We look on every christian church as a voluntary association of believers, united together in the bonds of faith and charity, for the purpose of maintaining christian worship and ordinances, and of promoting the kingdom of Christ, by a submission to his will as revealed in his blessed Word. Hence, we are separate from presbyterian rule; we dissent from all national establishments; we regard popery as antichristian, and we renounce all human authority in matters of religion. These being our sentiments as a body, we are naturally and properly anxious to maintain and diffuse them; and as we regard them as true and of vital importance, we are anxious that our children and those committed to our care, shall embrace the "like precious faith," and enjoy its consolations, its influences, and its hopes. One of the means by which this end is to be accomplished is the support of a periodical, which shall be devoted to the maintenance of our distinctive doctrines, which shall contain essays and discourses on the various parts of experimental and prac 11 tical religion, and which, beside recording the chief transactions of the various churches as independent communities, and of the body as a whole, in its annual meetings and its sectional divisions, its public institutions, and its missionary operations, shall be open for the discussion of such general questions as may arise, and for the defence of our peculiar principles. The influence of the press is generally acknowledged, and every christian body maintains its separate organ for the advancement of its interests. It is felt to be almost essential to the union and prosperity of any denomination, that it have its own periodical organ. This is the case with ourselves. Our Repository is a means of promoting general sympathy. brings the remotest churches into notice. It cheers us by the successes of some; and it awakens our concern by the reverses and the sorrows of others. Its communications of thought and of intelligence are a kind of life-blood circulating through every part of the body. Its records of the worthy dead, its memorials of those most distinguished for activity, consistency and usefulness, both in the ministry, and among our leading members, are valuable as a history of the past, and as stimulating others to be "followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." Their useful lives, their peaceful deaths, can never be perused without advantage. It There are many periodicals inviting our attention in the present day. Some are devoted to science and literature: some to amusement and trifling; and some which though they belong to no denomination of christians, profess to have a common interest in all. The claim of these latter on any particular denomination is often more than questionable. They give an " uncertain sound ;"--careful to avoid the peculi arities of any section of the church, or aiming at each a shaft in its turn, they rather tend to produce a latitudinarian, or a captious spirit. The claims of such as these will ever be felt to be doubtful, especially by all decided and considerate men, who will prefer to sustain such as "know what manner of spirit they are of," and have a definite and honourable course before them. Whatever be the periodicals patronized by our friends, it is surely incumbent on them to sustain their own denominational organ in the first place, and ever to give that a preference. The benefit to ourselves and to our families which results from such a course, we would wish now to present in some measure to our readers. In the first place, the constant tak ing of our own denominational periodical, shews our especial interest in the denomination itself. This is so obvious as scarcely to require remark. He who is anxious to see the progress, and who has a concern for the prosperity of a christian denomination, will surely have the organ which is devoted to these very subjects. However much a man may feel for the well-being and well-doing of the body of christians to which he belongs; and how numerous soever may be the proofs he gives of his interest, the having brought to his house, and laid on his table, from month to month, a work consecrated to a record of its transactions, and a developement of its doctrines and principles, will surely strike the most casual observer as being in strict keeping with such sentiments; whereas, if he do not take this course, one, and a most obvious practical proof of his interest will be wanting; one, too, which his children and his neighbours will not fail to interpret either to his disadvantage, or to that of the body itself. Let this consideration have its due weight, and several of our people would alter their course, and for consistency's sake they would become regular purchasers of this periodical. The same remarks might be repeated in reference to the public Institutions of the body, whose proceedings are often recorded in the pages of the periodical, especially those of the Foreign Mission. Here we have letters and communications from our missionaries, detailing their labours, trials, successes, sorrows and hopes; and as these are perpetually changing, the interest which their engagements properly create in a mind concerned for their success, can be properly sustained and manifested only as these are perused, and their publication is encouraged from time to time. The great subjects of practical, and of experimental religion, our own denominational views, as well as the proceedings and transactions of our churches and institutions, being con.. tinually the subject matter of our periodical, where this is taken, and is accessible to our children, they are in early life led to feel an interest in them. They become familiar with our chief features. They know the location of our principal churches. They acquire an interest in, and an attachment to, our leading ministers and friends. The perusal of the Repository from their youth up, provided for their use by the zealous care of their parents, insensibly ingrafts on their minds a preference for our doctrines, and an association of thought with our principles. They thus grow up under the nurture of the body, and as they attain to maturity, they will naturally, under God, become attached to it, and united with it, and when we are dead will assist in carrying on the same cause, diffusing the same principles, and walking in the same steps. Whereas, if they seldom or never see the periodical of the denomination to which their parents belong, if they have others plentifully provided for them, if they are accustomed to hear their parents, either from affectation, caprice, or indifference, speak of such a publication as not necessary or useful, they will be led to think lightly of the christian denomination of their parents, and to seek for other associates and periodicals of a christian sort, or to find their companions among the ungodly and A DENOMINATIONAL PERIODICAL. 13 profane. How very obvious are all | retically as experimentally. We well remember taking up the Repository, after our father or mother had laid it down-reading with interest its obituaries, and its intelligence, and feeling as we did so, that a course and end was prescribed, which it was wise to pursue. We have thus in the days of childhood and youth wandered through the records of the past, and delighted in the names and memoirs of good men, and women too, of whom we had heard, but never known, while the feeling stole over our hearts, "this people shall be my people, and their God my God." these thoughts! How numerous are the illustrations of their correctness which are supplied by the families of our friends, both in the present, and in the past generation! We could point to the names of good men, who are now in heaven, whose descendents are among the ornaments and pillars of our churches, whose conduct in this, as in other respects, was consistent, and who to their latest days, reaped with satisfaction its hallowed fruits. Careful of the training of their children, anxious that they might be brought up for God, and for his church, they omitted no means that might conduce to the securing of their object. Their own people and their own periodical were ever preferred, and they were well repaid. We could point out others, in which there was a carelessness and indifference manifested on these subjects; where worldly considerations, sentiments of an illjudged parsimony, or a lofty air of superiority were cherished and displayed, and the results have been most unhappy. The taking of a periodical, such as ours at least, is but a small affair with many, but it may be connected, in association with other things, with very momentous results. If a parent, the head of a family, really wishes his children to grow up with a strong predilection in favour of experimental and scriptural religion, if he desires them to cherish an interest in our own denomination, and to receive and be benefitted by the thoughts and sentiments and aspirations of the body to which he is united, it is well for him to omit no means which may conduce to this end; and among these, the regular taking, and preserving the numbers and volumes of our own periodical, will surely not be overlooked. When thus prized and regarded, its articles often furnish matter for profitable and useful conversation in the family circle; its news contains interest, and its presence will always be welcome. We now write, not so much theo Who are the parties best able to appreciate these thoughts? Are they those who suffer from the pain and sorrrow of seeing their children growing up without any sentiments of attachment to our own denomination, or even to religion itself? Who have to mourn over irreligious, godless, and rebellious children? Truly, if they have not trained up their children in "the nurture and admonition of the Lord," if they have not shewn in their whole conduct a sense of the supreme importance of religion, if they have neglected any means conducive to the production and growth of right principles in their children, they will have compunctious visitings, which add to their sorrow, and they may appreciate them to some extent. But those who have been favoured with families which fear the Lord, and who have risen up, and are rising up to his service, will most cordially sympathize with these statements. They thankfully acknowledge, that the respect shewn to religion, and among other things, the preference displayed to our own denomination, by the regular reception and support of its own periodical, is rewarded with abundant fruit. my part," said a friend in our hearing, "such is my conviction of the influence that the regular taking, reading, and preservation of our own periodical exerts on myself and on my children, that if I give up my newspaper, and relinquish every other periodical, I "For |