see you soon. Give me an interest in your prayers, that I may have resignation given me that I may not murmur. I remain yours in the path of the deepest sorrow and affliction,

"SUSANNAH STRICKETT."

I had the honor of assisting at the ordination of this young minister; when he was married I was requested to marry him; and I did so; now, soon after two years, he was drawing near to his grave.

I obeyed the summons conveyed in the note, and was soon at his bedside. Poor dear young man! He did look hard at me; he always was pale and thin, but now-what was there? Little more than the pillars and sinews of the outer man, covered with that thin garment which is so useful in this frail world.

There was deep anxiety in his eyes. He was a young man. His beloved wife, and child, and widowed mother, were looking on with sorrow; the cruse was nearly empty. Well, I had a few words with him; but I knew something was wanting. I hastened away; I mentioned the case; help came in; and when Mrs. Salter-that devoted Deborah in our churches-took it down, she said, "I do believe it helped him tỏ die.” Many friends came forward to help a little; and I hope neither his widowed mother, nor his bereaved family will be forgotten nor forsaken. I have given in EARTHEN VESSEL Some particulars; but there was one sentence I wish to treasure up; it was almost his last. He had evidently drunk in some sweet drops of the heavenly glory. He had been favoured with visions of his Saviour's face. He had resigned all up into better hands. His wife was weeping. He said, "Do not cry; you will not let me die. I want to go, the sight is so tempting.' He turned over, lay down, and fell asleep in perfect peace. "Good bye," I think, were his last words. How soon his earthly race was run! Oh! Lord Jesus, prepare us all to meet thee in that immensity of light where we shall see and serve thee, and never die.

Despair of thine own strength; consider there is no remedy, but either to perish, or else, with the prodigal child, to run home to thy gracious Father

THE UPPER ROOM.

HAVE not had much "Village Preaching" lately. But one

I occasion I may not forget. I was engaged to preach in a

Yorkshire village called Masborough, near Rotherham, in the month of January last. One good brother called a little party together to his house to take tea, previous to the preaching, and I was favored to meet with them, and a pleasant Christian company it was. We then walked to the chapel. It was an upper room; there were, at first, but few people in the place; and I sank down so low, that I felt I could not ascend the pulpit. Oh, how empty, weak, and poor I did feel. They began to sing-and sing they did too. About half-a-dozen tenor, counter, alto, and bass voices, with a few female trebles, made the walls to echo again. The congregation increased; a whisper in my soul said, “Read in Solomon's Song." I turned, and commenced, "By night, on my bed, I sought Him whom my soul loveth; I sought Him, but I found Him not." A soft and gentle heavenly dew fell upon my soul. Pleasant liberty, and experimental confidence, like a pair of wings, carried me out in such sacred and holy sympathies with all the people of God, as I had not previously known for some time. I knew the Lord was there. I was not excited. I was not eloquent; nor full of idea and thought; but like a gentle, clear stream, views of spiritual and of Gospel realities flowed into my mind, and out of my mouth, with inward and unctuous power. Sacred upper room at Masbro'! There, the Lord gathers His little flock. There Master Johnson, and some other good brethren, preach the Gospel; and there the glories of the glorious GOD-MAN Sometimes fill that upper room, and the happy souls exclaim, "Master, it is good for us to be here." I have preached in large chapels, and in crowded assemblies, but in these little upper rooms it ofttimes does appear as though special mercies are poured down on the meek and humble disciples who dare to be singular. God bless them. So prays

THE VILLAGE PREACHER.

THE

OUR MOTTO FOR 1865.

HE promise is "Thou shalt know that I, the Lord, am thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob." Passing by the first five heads of discourse, as marked out last month, look at the names the Lord gives to Himself, and by which He addresses Himself to His people. The first is, "I, the Lord.” "I, Jehovah."

He was Abraham's JEHOVAH-JIREH. Guardianship and provision are two things in this one branch of the name of the Lord. His eyes are set--for ever set-on all the chosen seed, on all the promises, on all the church's foes, and upon all the wants and ways of all His saints. "The Lord will see to it," and He will provide. How immense is this field of truth as contained in that one name-"Jehovah-Jireh !" It secures unto all God's Israel the contents of that precious word, "Fear not, Abraham; I am thy shield, and exceeding great reward." Go into that singular bed-chamber in Sturry, where for so many years Samuel Foster has lain on his bed in agony and weakness, and sometimes near to death; ask him, with his sympathizing wife and children all around him, ask him, Has the Lord been JehovahJireh to him? I am sure he could answer in the affirmative with a blessed boldness, most savoury and sure: and this shall be my first business to prove that in multitudes of cases the Lord has to His people ever faithful been. I hardly know of a more striking illustration of recent date than is given this month in the EARTHEN VESSEL, written by brother Johnson, of Sheffield, netitled "The Night of the Flood." Read it; and I will try and follow up the opening of this holy, happy name. It is "JehovahJireh" still.

Martin Boos was a character of no mean order, in proof of the signal favours of God's sovereign mercy toward his childWas he not JEHOVAH-JIREH in the following case?—

ren.

Among the students at Dillengen, there had been one too noticeable to be forgotten. Martin Boos had been dropped into the world on a cold night at Christmas. He was the fourteenth child of a small farmer. He was left an orphan at four; and his

eldest sister's thought was how best she could get rid of him. Being a sturdy girl, she set him on her shoulders, and started for Augsburg; but, getting tired, she flung him into a corn-field by the way, where he soon cried himself to sleep. However, in the afternoon she returned, laid him at an uncle's door in the city, and went her way. The lonely child managed to grow up in some fashion in this surly uncle's house, and saved himself by his scholarship from becoming a shoemaker, and went to Dillengen, where, as a brilliant, handsome student, he carried off all the prizes. He quietly subsided into a parish priest, cultivating in thorough Romish fashion a religion of his own, not God's. He says, "I lay for years together upon the cold ground, though my bed stood near me. I scourged myself till the blood came, and clothed my body with a hair shirt. I hungered, and gave my bread to the poor. I spent every leisure moment in the church. I confessed and communicated every week." He gave himself, in fact, immense trouble to become a saint, and was unanimously elected one by the people; but the saint was miserable, and cried out, Oh, wretch that I am, who shall deliver me?" Going to see a poor old pious woman on her death-bed, he said wistfully, 'Ah, you may well die in peace!" "Why," she asked. cause you have lived such a godly life." "What a miserable comforter you are!" she said, and smiled as she spoke. "If Christ had not died for me, I should have perished for ever with all my good works and piety; trusting in Him, I die in peace." From this time the light was let into his soul, and he began to preach Christ.

'Be

"WITH

ETERNAL

GLORY."

This se

HAVE lately felt to be getting quite the old man. made me feel sad and depressed. I have realized no joy, no willingness to depart, no sweet sense of ripeness for glory; but words have come to me causing me to think and meditate much upon the separate and higher state of service and sanctity. I

have said in "The Earthen Vessel" I would give a few words on the three at the top of this paper. Saturday morning, February 18th, early in the morning, those three words came to me, "With eternal glory." The day passed away in hard toil, and I forgot them; but in the evening when I came to sit down in the study, they recurred to my mind again; and on turning to the passage in 2 Timothy ii. 10, I found them to read thus, Therefore, I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus WITH ETERNAL GLORY." Immediately I had a view of the three-fold blessedness of the people of God. There is

I. The blessing they obtained BEFORE TIME—that is, their election of God.

II. The blessing they obtained in time, "the salvation which in Jesus Christ."

III. The blessing they shall obtain after time—“ ETERNAL GLORY."

Ill as I felt myself to be, I went the next morning, and spake from those memorable words, "With eternal glory." It was a miry morning without, but there was mercy within. So I was helped.

Ah! and that Sunday evening I ought never to forget. But now one word upon the blessing.

1. Before time God's people obtained their election of God. This was an act of pure mercy; it was the going forth of everlasting love toward the family of God before they actually had a being. In this act of election, it may be said God decreed to give them a four-fold being:

(1.) A being with all the family of Adam; they are said to be the children of wrath, even as others; here they sin and suffer as all the children of Adam do. (2.) But unto the elect God determines to give a gracious being a true Gospel being. He hath saved and called us, according to his own purpose and grace given us in Christ Jesus brfore the world began. The Gospel coming to the heart, soul, and conscience of a Christian, with a life-giving power, a heaven-enlightening power, is a blessing known only to the elect of God: "Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God: for our Gospel came," &c.