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fluences of the Spirit, and was a total stranger to those deep and powerful convictions of the sinfulness of sin, and the preciousness of pardon through the blood of Christ, which had been sealed by dear-bought experience on the mind of his brother. Cowper seems to have been aware that his brother's religion was too superficial, floating in the head more than pervading the heart, and he longed-with earnest desire for his thorough and radical conversion. He strove, therefore, to call his attention to the spirituality of religion, and to convince him that salvation consisted in something more than mere formulas of faith, or scholastic disquisitions on theology. His narrative commences thus:

"As soon as it had pleased God, after a long and sharp season of conviction, to visit me with the consolations of his grace, it became one of my chief concerns that my relations might be made partakers of the same mercy. In the first letter I wrote to my brother, I took occasion to declare what God had done for my soul, and am not conscious that, from that period down to his last illness I wilfully neglected an opportunity of engaging him, if it were possible, in conversation of a spiritual kind. When I left St. Alban's, and went to visit him at Cambridge, my heart being full of the subject, I poured it out before him without reserve; and in all my subsequent dealings with him, so far as I was enabled, took care to show that I had received, not merely a set of notions, but a real impression of the truths of the gospel.

"At first I found him ready enough to talk with me on these subjects; sometimes he would dispute, but always without heat or animosity, and sometimes would endeavour to reconcile the difference of our sentiments, by supposing that at the bottom we were Ch. Adv.-VOL. X.

both of a mind, and meant the same thing.

"He was a man of a most candid and ingenuous spirit; his temper remarkably sweet; and in his behaviour to me he had always manifested an uncommon affection. His outward conduct, so far as it fell under my notice, or I could learn it by the report of others, was perfectly decent and unblameable.

"There was nothing vicious in any part of his practice; but being of a studious, thoughtful turn, he placed his chief delight in the acquisition of learning, and made such acquisitions in it, that he had but few rivals in that of a classical kind. He was critically skilled in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages; was beginning to make himself master of the Syriac, and perfectly understood the French and Italian, the latter of which he could speak fluently. These attainments, however, and many others in the literary way, he lived heartily to despise, not as useless when sanctified and employed in the service of God, but when sought after for their own sake, and with a view to the praise of men. Learned, however, as he was, he was easy and cheerful in his conversation, and entirely free from the stiffness which is generally contracted by men devoted to such pursuits.

"Thus we spent about two years, conversing as occasion offered, (and we generally visited. each other once or twice a week,) as long as I continued at Huntingdon, upon the leading truths of the gospel. By this time, however, he began to be more reserved; he would hear me patiently, but never reply; and this I found, upon his own confession afterwards, was the effect of a resolution he had taken, in order to avoid disputes, and to secure the continuance of that peace which had always subsisted between us. 3 L

When our family removed to Olney, our intercourse became less frequent. We exchanged an annual visit, and whenever he came amongst us, he observed the same conduct, conforming to all our customs, attending family worship with us, and heard the preaching, received civilly whatever passed in conversation upon the subject, but adhered strictly to the rule he had prescribed to himself, never remarking upon or objecting to any thing he heard or saw."

In 1769, John Cowper was taken ill, and in a short time so much reduced that his life was considered in danger. Cowper was sent for to Cambridge, where his brother resided, and he thus describes the state of mind in which he found him:

"In this state of imminent danger, he seemed to have no more concern about his spiritual interests than when in perfect health. His couch was strewed with volumes of plays, to which he had frequent recourse for amusement. I learned indeed afterwards, that even at this time, the thoughts of God and eternity would often force themselves upon his mind; but not apprehending his life to be in danger, and trusting in the morality of his past conduct, he found it no difficult matter to thrust them out again."

From this illness he recovered, but in the following year had another and more severe return, which continued with little intermission until the time of his decease. His careless and unconcerned state awakened the most painful anxiety in the mind of his brother, whose feelings were too tremblingly alive to the unspeakable value of an immortal soul, and the vast concerns of eternity, not to fear lest death should arrest him before the great work of redemption was accomplished. The following extracts will disclose his views:

He

"On the 16th February, 1770, I was again summoned to attend him, by letters which represented him as so ill, that the physician entertained but little hopes of his recovery. I found him afflicted with the asthma and dropsy, supposed to be the effect of an imposthume in his liver. He was however cheerful when I first arrived, expressed great joy at seeing me, thought himself much better than he had been, and seemed to flatter himself with the hopes that he should be well again. My situation at this time was truly distressful. I learned from the physician, that, in this instance, as in the last, he was in much greater danger than he suspected. did not seem to lay his illness at all to heart, nor could I find by his conversation that he had one serious thought. As often as a suitable occasion offered, when we were free from company and interruption, I endeavoured to give a spiritual turn to the discourse, and the day after my arrival, asked his permission to pray with him, to which he readily consented. I renewed my attempts in this way as often as I could, though without any apparent success; still he seemed as careless and unconcerned as ever; yet I could not but consider his willingness in this instance as a token for good, and observed with pleasure, that though at other times he discovered no mark of seriousness, yet when I spoke to him of the Lord's dealings with myself, he received what I said with affection, would press my hand and look kindly at me, and seemed to love me the better for it.

"On the 21st of the same month, he had a violent fit of the asthma, which seized him when he rose, about an hour before noon, and lasted all the day. His agony was dreadful. Having never seen any person afflicted in the same way,

could not help fearing that he

would be suffocated; nor was the physician himself without fears of the same kind. This day the Lord was very present with me, and enabled me as I sat by the poor sufferer's side, to wrestle for a blessing upon him. I observed to him, that though it had pleased God to visit him with great afflictions, yet mercy was mingled with the dispensation. I said, 'You have many friends who love you, and are willing to do all they can to serve you; and so perhaps have others in the like circumstances: but it is not the lot of every sick man, how much soever he may be beloved, to have a friend that can pray for him.' He replied, That is true, and I hope God will have mercy upon me.' His love for me at this time became very remarkable; there was a tenderness in it more than was merely natural; and he generally expressed it by calling for blessings upon me in the most affectionate terms, and with a look and manner not to be described.

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"At night, when he was quite worn out with the fatigue of labouring for breath, and could get no rest, his asthma still continuing, he turned to me and said with a melancholy air, 'Brother, I seem to be marked out for misery; you know some people are so.' That moment I felt my heart enlarged, and such a persuasion of the love of God towards him was wrought in my soul, that I replied with confidence, as if I had authority given me to say it, 'But this is not your case; you are marked out for mercy.'

"I never heard a murmuring word escape him; on the contrary, he would often say, when his pains were most acute, I only wish it may please God to enable me to suffer without complaining; I have no right to complain.' Once he said with a loud voice, 'Let thy rod and thy staff support and comfort me; and oh! that it were

with me as in times past, when the candle of the Lord shone upon my tabernacle.' One evening, when I had been expressing my hope that the Lord would show him mercy, he replied, 'I hope he will; I am sure I pretend to nothing.' Many times he spoke of himself in terms of the greatest self-abasement, which I cannot now particularly remember. I thought I could discern, in these expressions, the glimpses of approaching day, and have no doubt at present but that the Spirit of God was gradually preparing him, in the way of true humiliation, for that bright display of gospel grace, which he was soon after pleased to afford him." S. T.

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Plants are distinguished for their multiplicity and variety, for that exuberance of imagination and taste which they display, and for that sense of elegance and beauty which their Maker must have had to have so formed and diversified them. They are entirely the creation of His choice-the inventions of His rich and beautiful fancy. Their attractive shapes and qualities, and the abundant gratifications and important uses which we and our fellow animals derive from them, explicitly show, that kindness as well as goodness actuated his mind when he projected and made them. They have been all individually designed; and special thought must have been employed in cach, both in fixing their specifick differences of form and products, and in perceiving what particular combinations and variations of arrangement would effect in every one its appointed end and use. The vegetable kingdom expands every where before us an immense portraiture of the Divine Mind in its contriving skill,

profuse imagination, conceiving genius, and exquisite taste, as well as its interesting qualities of the most gracious benignity, and the most benevolent munificence.

The various flowers we behold awaken these sentiments within us, and compel our reason to make these perceptions and this inference. They are the annual heralds and ever returning pledges to us of His continuing beneficence, of His desire to please and to benefit us, and therefore, of His parental and intellectual amiabilities. They come to us, together with the attendant seasons that nurse and evolve them, as the appointed assurances that the world we inhabit is yet to be preserved, and the present course of things to go on. The thunder, the pestilence, and

the tempest awe and humble us into dismaying recollections of His tremendous omnipotence and possible visitations, and of our total inability to resist or avert them; but the beauty and benefactions of His vegetable creationsthe flowers and the fruits more especially-remind and assure us of his unforgetting care, of His condescending sympathy; of His paternal attentions, and of the same affectionate benignity, still actuating His mind; which must have influenced it to design and execute such lovely and beneficent productions that display the minutest thought, most elaborate compositions, and so much personal kindness.-Sharon Turner's Sacred History of the World.

Keview.

THE TRUTH OF REVELATION, DEMON

STRATED BY AN APPEAL TO EXIST-
ING MONUMENTS, SCULPTURES,
GEMS, COINS, AND MEDALS.

(Concluded from page 409.)

Geologists are now, in relation to the question of the truth of Scripture facts, of three principal schools. Those who compose, it may be feared, the most numerous class, are vainly endeavouring to lay the Bible on the shelf for ever. They are for leaving it out of sight, till they shall have succeeded in prejudging its claims, by imbuing their readers with counter theories, and persuading them that those theories are really science, the legitimate and necessary results of the inductive philosophy. Having accomplished this, their object will doubtless be achieved; for what respect can a book secure, which, professing to be a revelation from the Author of Na

ture, and to found its claim to obedience in matters of religion, solely upon its own authority, shall be proved untrue in some of its main averments? If, where we are supposed to be competent to judge, we find it to be false, how shall we confide in it as true, when treating of matters beyond the reach of our scrutiny? To maintain that in a physical sense the Bible is false, though in a moral sense sacred verity, is a species of philosophercraft that is becoming stale, and its effects have been more than sufficiently developed in other countries.

Doubtless the plea is plausible, that, in order to support the Scriptures effectually by the discoveries of science, the investigations of science must be conducted independently. We object not against the maxim, but complain of the malus animus with which it is manifestly propounded, and the bad faith with which it is applied.

We complain, that theories are obtruded as deductions of science, which are not even legitimate inferences from the facts, and which have obviously been suggested by the desire to get rid of Scripture statements. Had there been no such statements, no such theories had ever seen the light. Such reasonings are not really independent; they owe their origin to a knowledge of what the Bible teaches, and are contrived to negative its testimony. Of this, the extravagance of the theories themselves, affords sufficient proof.

Admitting that science is independent, still, it must be science, rigorously such, cautiously deduced, and necessarily resulting from indubitable premises. Of science truly such, the believer in Scripture can entertain no fear. No discovery of what is still unknown, can ever contradict what we already know. It is ignorance alone which time and advancing light will dissipate. But to put in this claim of independence in favour of every theory, and to maintain that we are at liberty to enter the wide region of possibilities, and to assume, in contradiction to an accredited basis of religion, agencies and operations to have been actual and real, merely because we cannot prove them to have been impossible,-is an abuse of science, which its enlightened friends must join with the friends of religion, in indignantly reprobating. When, therefore, we find elaborate theories built upon mere possibilities, in direct opposition to Scripture on the one hand, while those hypotheses which accord with Scripture are gratuitously rejected on the other, what must we conclude, but that enmity exists, and that the maxim above referred to is advanced merely to mask the attack upon Revelation, and to beguile the unsuspecting reader into infidelity?

Another class of Geologists

Of

maintain the consistency of the phenomena of nature with the Scripture records, not only as they may be interpreted without violence, but as they have been popularly understood. They not only repudiate the theories of those who demand immense durations of time, even myriads of ages, for the slow operation of existing causes, but will admit of a duration no greater, from the first creation of the matter of the earth, than the few thousand years which have ordinarily been assigned for it by the common chronologist. this class is our Author, concurring, in this particular, with Mr. Granville Penn, Dr. Ure, and others. Without denying the possibility that all the phenomena of geology may be reconciled with this view, (a supposition which, quite contrary to its inferences, we think Mr. Lyell has rendered more plausible,) we do not feel that Scripture lays us under the necessity of maintaining it. Irrespectively of any reference to geology, the term days, in the first chapter of Genesis, may be taken to mean periods of duration of indefinite extent, without exceeding the latitude often assumed in the application of that word in Scripture. Nor does this admission at all affect the notion of creating acts being independent of time. All must agree, that the creative acts recorded were successive; and it cannot affect their extra-natural, their immediately divine character, whether we suppose them to have been exerted at intervals of twenty-four hours, or of longer periods. To that part of the work before us, which seems to insist upon the necessity of adhering closely to the restricted system of interpretation, we, with all respect, for the Author, demur.

The third class of writers on Geology is intermediate between the two just mentioned. Of these, De Luc is at the head. We can

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