with so much stillness and secrecy, that it was impossible to determine the exact moment of its completion. Mrs. Fletcher was kneeling by the side of her departing husband; one who had attended him with uncommon assiduity, during the last stages of his distemper, sat at his head; while I sorrowfully waited near his feet. Uncertain whether or not he was totally separated from us, we pressed nearer, and hung over his bed in the attitude of listening attention,-his lips had ceased to move, and his head was gently sinking upon his bosom,-we stretched out our hands; but his warfare was accomplished, and the happy spirit had taken its everlasting flight."

22. DR. ISAAC WATTS.

"One army of the living God,

To his command we bow;

Part of the host have cross'd the flood,

And part are crossing now."-C. WESLEY.

ISAAC WATTS, a learned and eminent Dissenting minister, was born at Southampton, in the year 1674, of parents who were distinguished by their piety and

He possessed uncommon genius, and gave early proofs of it. He received a very liberal education, which was rendered highly beneficial to him by his own unwearied efforts to improve himself. After the most serious deliberation, he determined to devote his life to the ministry, of the importance of which office he had a deep and awful sense. He laboured very diligently to promote the instruction and happiness of the people under his care; and, by his Christian conduct and amiable disposition, greatly endeared himself to them.

Soon after he had undertaken the pastoral office, his health sustained a severe shock by a painful and dan

3

gerous illness, from which he recovered very slowly. But in the year 1712, he was afflicted with a violent fever that entirely broke his constitution, and left such weakness upon his nerves as continued with him, in some measure, to the day of his death.

The virtue of this good man eminently appeared, in the happy state of his mind, under great pains and weakness of body, and in the improvement which he derived from them. Of those seasons of affliction, he says, with a truly elevated mind and thankful heart:"I am not afraid to let the world know, that amidst the sinkings of life and nature, Christianity and the Gospel are my support. Amidst all the violence of my distemper, and the tiresome months of it, I thank God I never lost sight of reason or religion, though sometimes I had much difficulty to preserve the machine of animal nature in such order as regularly to exercise either the man or the Christian."

Two or three years before his decease the active and sprightly powers of his nature gradually failed; yet his trust in God, through Jesus the Mediator, remained unshaken to the last. He was heard to say, "I bless God I can lie down with comfort at night, not being solicitous whether I awake in this world or another." And again: "I should be glad to read more; yet not in order to be further confirmed in the truth of the Christian religion, or in the truth of its promises; for I believe them enough to venture an eternity upon them."

When he was almost worn out, and broken down by his infirmities, he said, in conversation with a friend, "I remember an aged minister used to observe, that the most learned and knowing Christians, when they come to die, have only the same plain promises of the Gospel for their support as the common and unlearned;" and so I find it. It is the plain promises of the Gospel that are my support; and, I bless God, they are plain

promises, that do not require much labour and pains to understand them."

At times, when he found his spirit tending to impatience, and ready to complain that he could only lead a mere animal life, he would check himself thus: "The business of a Christian is to bear the will of God, as well as to do it. If I were in health, I ought to be doing it; and now it is my duty to bear it. The best thing in obedience, is a regard to the will of God; and the way to that is, to have our inclinations and aversions as much mortified as we can."

With so calm and peaceful a mind, so blessed and lively a hope, did the resigned servant of Christ wait for his Master's summons. He quietly expired in the seventy-fifth year of his age.

23. REV. CHARLES WESLEY.

"Life's labour done, as sinks the clay,

Light from its load the spirit flies,

While heaven and earth combine to say,

How blest the righteous when he dies!"-Barbauld.

"THE time now began rapidly to approach," says his biographer, "when Mr. Charles Wesley perceived that he also must die. His removal into the world of spirits was not an event that came upon him unawares. To prepare for it had been the leading business of the greater part of his life. He expected it therefore, not with alarm, but with hope and desire. heart were already in heaven; sciousness which he had of his heritance, resulting from his filial relation to God, and of his meetness for it, through the sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost, filled him with adoring thankfulness. Deeply was he sensible that he possessed no proper

His treasure and his and the abiding contitle to the future in

merit in the sight of God; and he knew that he needed none, according to the tenor of the evangelical covenant. Hence, his self-abasement was profound; his reliance upon the sacrifice and intercession of Christ, entire; and his hope of glory was that of a sinner, who knew that he was both justified and sanctified by grace, and looked for eternal life as a gift to be gratuitously bestowed upon a believing penitent."

His physician, Dr. Whitehead, says, "I visited him several times in his last sickness; and his body was indeed reduced to the most extreme state of weakness. He possessed that state of mind which he had been always pleased to see in others-unaffected humility, and holy resignation to the will of God. He had no transports of joy, but solid hope and unshaken confidence in Christ, which kept his mind in perfect peace."

The decree, however, was gone forth, and no means could avail for the preservation of his life. While he remained in this state of extreme feebleness, having been silent and quiet for some time, he called Mrs. Wesley to him, and requested her to write the following lines at his dictation:

In age and feebleness extreme,

Who shall a sinful worm redeem?

JESUS, my only hope thou art,

Strength of my failing flesh and heart;

O could I catch a smile from thee,

And drop into eternity!

For fifty years Christ, as the Redeemer of men, had been the subject of his effective ministry, and of his loftiest songs; and he may be said to have died with a hymn to Christ upon his lips. He lingered till the 29th of March, 1788, when he yielded up his spirit into the hands of his God and Saviour, at the advanced age of seventy-nine years and three months.

24. THE VENERABLE BEDE.

"For this poor form

That vests me round, I give it to destruction,

As gladly as the storm-beat traveller,

Who, having reach'd his destined place of shelter,

Drops at the door his mantle's cumbrous weight."-BAILLIE.

BEDE, surnamed the "Venerable," was born about the year 673, in the neighbourhood of Weremouth, in the bishopric of Durham. Losing both his parents at the age of seven years, he was, by his relations, placed in the monastery of Weremouth. He was educated there with much strictness; and it appears that, from his youth, he was devoted to the service of religion. He was ordained deacon in the nineteenth, and presbyter in the thirtieth, year of his age.

He applied himself entirely to the study of the Holy Scriptures, the instruction of disciples, the offices of public worship, and the composition of religious and literary works. He wrote on all the branches of knowledge then cultivated in Europe. In Greek and Hebrew he attained a skill which was very uncommon in that barbarous age; and, by his instructions and example, he formed many scholars. He made all his attainments subservient to devotion. Sensible that it is by Divine grace, rather than by our natural powers or by learning, that the most profitable knowledge of the Scriptures is to be acquired, he united with his studies regular prayer to God, that he would bless and sanctify them.

Perhaps no person of his time acquired so distinguished and widely-extended a reputation as Bede,—a reputation, too, entirely founded on the worth of his character and the extent of his learning. The Roman Pontiff respected him so highly that he gave him a cor