words in a letter; "what God hath joined, let no man put asunder. We have taken each other for better, for worse, till death do us part? no, but eternally unite. Therefore, in love which never faileth, I am your affectionate brother." This loving brother, blessed to the very end of his fourscore years, in the church and in his family, had calmly and joyfully met the change whose last pangs he had always dreaded. Mr. Fletcher too had gone. So gentle and pure a life as his, so cheerful and holy a character, so tranquil an end, the world has rarely seen. He was born at Nyon, on the shore of lake Geneva, and the many vicissitudes of his early life seemed to indicate that Providence was guiding him to an object that he knew not. Unsatisfied with the clerical profession to which he was early devoted, he left Switzerland and entered the military service of Portugal, destined for Brazil. What a beautiful soul seemed on the point of being lost! An accident (so men call it) changed his whole destiny. On the eve of embarkation, a servant overturned a kettle of boiling water upon his leg. He was left behind on the sick list. Recovering, he sought active service in Holland, but peace was declared and he passed into England. After a time he took orders in the Episcopal church, joined the Methodists, and by his holy life has made the little parish of Madeley, to which he was appointed, a name always to be heard with joy. His account of himself as he drew near the close of his useful but not protracted life, is too “beautiful," as Southey justly calls it, to be passed over. "We are two poor invalids," he says of himself and wife, "who between us make half a labourer. She sweetly helps me to drink the dregs of life, and to carry with ease the bitter cross." I keep in my sentry-box till Providence removes me. My situation is quite suited to my little strength. I may do as much or as little as I please, according to my weakness; and I have an advantage which I can have nowhere else in such a degree; my little field of action is just at my door, so that if I happen to overdo myself, I have but to step from my pulpit to my bed, and from my bed to my grave. If I had a body full of vigor and a purse full of money, I should like well enough to travel about as Mr. Wesley does; but as Providence does not call me to it, I readily submit. The snail does best in his shell."

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A man averse to authority and the honours of office, but full of gentleness and benevolence, after a life of self-sacrifice, was now about to end his connection with the world and seek his home in heaven. 'His death was as remarkable as his life. The hand of disease arising from previous exposure pressed heavily upon him. As he was performing the services of the Sabbath, he nearly fainted, but recovered and insisted on going on.' After the sermon he walked to the communion table, saying, "I am going to throw myself under the wings of the cherubim, before the mercy-seat." Here," says his widow, "the same distressing scene was renewed, with additional solemnity. The people were deeply affected while they beheld him offering up the last languid remains of a life which had been lavishly spent in their service. Groans and tears were on every side. In going through this part of his duty, he was exhausted again and again; but his spiritual vigour triumphed over his bodily weakness. After several times sinking on the sacramental table, he still resumed the sacred work, and cheerfully distributed, with his dying hand, the love memorials of his dying Lord." From that long service, made longer to him by hymns and exhortations, he retired to his chamber, never to leave it again. The next Sunday the whole parish were in mourning: the poor whom he had befriended, and many of whom had come from a distance, wished once more to look upon their beloved pastor and friend. Permission was granted, and they passed along by the open door of his chamber, and looked in upon the sick man, who sat supported in bed " altered in his usual venerable appearance." A few hours later his earthly career was ended. "I was intimately acquainted with him," says Mr. Wesley, "for above thirty years. I conversed with him morning, noon, and night, without the least reserve during a journey of many hundred miles, and in all that time I never heard him speak one improper word, nor saw him do an improper action. Many exemplary men have I known, holy in heart and life, within fourscore years, but one equal to him have I not known, one so inwardly and outwardly devoted to God; so unblamable a character have I not found, either in Europe or America. Nor do I expect to find another such on this side of eternity." Wesley," adds Mr. Southey, "had the temper and talents of a statesman; in the Romish

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church he would have been the general, if not the founder of an order, or might have held a distinguished place in history as a cardinal or a pope. Fletcher, in any community, would have been a saint."

And now the messenger came for Mr. Wesley himself, and brought the token that he was a true messenger. "Those that look out of the windows shall be darkened, the grasshopper shall be a burden." Fourscore years found him still active, travelling four thousand miles annually, preaching, writing, and directing the extended business of the society. Six years more and he began to feel that the machine was wearing out, that the "weary wheels of life must stand still at last." He could not well preach more than twice a day. His service at five in the morning, continued for so many years, was given up. He wrote in his cash account book with a tremulous hand, "For upwards of eighty-six years I have keep my accounts exactly. I will not attempt it any longer, being satisfied with the continual conviction, that I save all I can and give all I can, i. e. all I have." Thus closed the accounts of one, who, never being rich, gave away during his life thirty thousand pounds! "Time has shaken me by the hand," he said in the words of his father, “and death is not far behind.” The second day of March, 1791, came at last. Sixty-five years of his ministry had passed away. The horologe had pealed out the eighty-eighth year of his life, and the hands of the dial stood still for ever.

The body, dressed in his clerical habit, with gown, cassock, and band, lay "in a kind of state" in the plain chapel of the denomination, and multitudes flocked to look once more upon the mild and venerable features. The mourners were many, and at the funeral, early in the day for fear of a crowd, when the preacher read that part of the service, "Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother"—his voice changed and he substituted the word father. The whole congregation burst into weeping. Thus ended the life of one of the most influential men of his age; whose authority at the time of his death, extended over more than a hundred and twenty-five thousand followers; and whose influence will reach down a thousand years.

American Biblical Repository.

PARTIAL INFLUENCE OF THE GOSPEL OFTEN INJURIOUS.

It is a fearful fact, but one to which I have seen no allusion made by any writer of the day, that the gospel, when its influence is but partial, imparts physical strength to a nation, which soon becomes a heavy curse. I will explain my meaning. You see those mighty navies, which can carry the thunders of war to any spot on earth; those armies, all disciplined, which can carry the honours and the shouts of victory the world over; you see those piles of warehouses, in which uncounted wealth is treasured up; those ships, that make commerce magnificent! Whose are they? Whose are those mines of silver and of gold, which are so constantly pouring out streams of wealth, that money is losing its value? Whose are those steamers, which mock at wind and tide, because they carry within themselves a skill and a power which make nature's elements bend to their control? Whose are the presses, which can make the wind, the tide, the horse, the stupid ass, and even steam itself, aid in enlightening mankind? Whence came that public opinion which pushes standing armies back, and makes the hand of despotism shake? These engines, which not merely move, but drive the world before them and create immeasurable excitement among men, whose are all these? They belong to nations upon whom the gospel has had influence enough to create all this light and excitement and to put all this machinery in motion. What an excitement of mind is now pervading all christian nations! Political men, who stand high on the walls which begirt the nation, tremble for the future. The cloistered philosopher, who sees one system after another, and one theory after another, dashed away, hardly dares put forth his own theories, lest he himself outlive them : yet he dares predict that this agitation of mind is to produce great results. The inventor sighs as he takes out his patent, knowing that it will be but short-lived; for some bolder and stonger genius will do something beyond his conceptions. Language like the following is in the lips of almost every enlightened man. They are the words of Robert Hall. "Everything in the condition of mankind pronounces the approach of some great crisis, for which nothing can prepare us but the

diffusion of knowledge, probity, and the fear of the Lord. While the world is impelled on with such violence in opposite directions; while a spirit of giddiness and revolt is shed upon the nations, and the seeds of irritation are thickly sown, the improvement of the mass of the people will be our grand security; in the neglect of which, the politeness, the refinement, and the knowledge, accumulated in the higher orders, weak and unprotected, will be exposed to the most imminent danger, and perish like a garland in the grasp of popular fury." The enemies of godliness expect this waking up of mind is the bright presage of the day when conscience will break away from its own eternal bands, and the world will then throw off all restraint, and the millennium of lust, crime, and bloodshed, will bless the earth! The warrior expects that dynasties will be broken up, and that such as he will be called for, to scent the field of blood, and to do the work of hell, with high and enduring honours.

And for what has an overruling Providence brought christian nations into this situation? Poor France! She had the light and influence of the gospel just sufficient to create all this intellectual and physical energy, without having a gospel-conscience created, by which these might be controlled and guided. The result is well known. The nation rocked to its foundations, and then a volcano burst forth, which caused rivers of blood to be shed ere it was quenched. And this is what I mean, when I say that a partial influence of the gospel imparts a fearful physical strength and energy to a people, which become a heavy curse. And I have made these remarks to show you that all this tremendous power, now concentrated in the hands of nations nominally christian, must result in a heavy blessing or a heavy curse upon the world. The mines of gold, the commerce, the wealth, the skill, the power of these nominally christian nations, must and will be used in the great work of bringing the world back to God and to holiness, or they will be so many angels of woe, pouring the vials of God's wrath over the earth.

That

This is not the place, for the subject does not demand it, to go into the philosophical explanation of this phenomenon, and to show the connexion between the cause and the effect. the partial diffusion of the gospel does create a prodigious physical and intellectual energy, facts abundantly prove. If I am required to show how it does it, I answer, first, probably by