December 15.

JOHN iii. 3. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

On this day, 1811, died the venerable missionary, Dr. VANDERKEMP. His piety, knowledge, prudence, exertions and success, were truly great. As it was emphatically written by way of epitaph on the tomb of a cele brated architect, in the noble edifice which he had reared, Circumspice (look around,) so when it shall be inquired by the world, What was the character of Dr. Vander. kemp, we may point to the South African missions, to Bethelsdorp, and to a church of the living God erected in a wilderness of savages, and say, Behold his character; admire and imitate The following is a pleasing instance of his usefulness. An English deserter, who had turned a deaf ear to the solicitations of his Christian friends in Yorkshire, was led by the good providence of God, to hear Dr. Vanderkemp in Caffraria, whose ministry brought on his mind the assertion of a minister in England, "We must be born again." He came and conversed with the Doctor; the result was pleasing in the highest degree; he became a man of prayer, forsook the pursuits of his dissolute companions, and gave satisfactory evidence of his conversion. How wonderful was the goodness of God to send the bread of life to this poor wretch in the deserts, which he had rejected with contempt in his native country!

December 16.

GAL. iii. 6. Even as Abraham believed, and it was counted to him for righteousness.

The Rev. SAMUEL WALKER of Truro born 1714. In his conversation he discovered an uncommon depth of thought, and delivered his sentiments with readiness of expression on any subject. His understanding was remarkably clear, and continued so to the very last. He was possessed of a quick apprehension, a solid judgment, and a retentive memory. The faculty which ap

peared in a more distinguishing manner, was his metho dical exactness and propriety in the arrangement of his thoughts, and the distribution of the several parts of the subject he undertook to elucidate. The twenty-fifth sermon upon the catechism, which was preached at Truro on the 27th of April, in the year 1760, and was the last discourse delivered by our author in public, deserves our particular notice. "Well (says he,) we shall all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ together. There the controversy between me, calling upon you by the terrors of the Lord, and you, determined to abide in your sins, will be decided. There it will appear, whether your blood will be upon your own heads for your obstinate impenitency, or upon mine for not giving you warning. Christ will certainly either acquit or condemn me on this behalf, and if I should be acquitted herein, what will become of you? I tremble to think how so many words of mine will be brought up against you on that day. What will you say, what will you answer, how will you excuse yourselves? O sirs, if you will not be prevailed upon, you will eternally curse the day that you knew me, or heard one word from my mouth. Why, why will you die, with so aggravated a destruction? O think of the judgment; think of it, and you will not be able to hold it out against your own souls. May the Lord incline you to do so; may he cause this word to sink deep into your hearts; may he shew you all your danger; and with an outstretched arm bring you out of the arms of the devil and translate you into the glorious kingdom of his dear Son, to his own glory and your unspeakable happiness in the day of the appearance of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Even so, most mighty God, and most merciful Father, for the same Jesus Christ's sake."

With these striking words did this faithful servant of Christ finish his public ministry. It has been made evident from the account of his constant attention to the duties of the sacred office, that he spared no pains in using his most diligent endeavours for the promoting of God's glory and the edifying the people committed to his charge. An inward burning fever, attended with profuse night sweats, had wasted his vital strength; a stubborn cough continually hung upon him; neither his food nor his me dicines did him any service; a general languor oppressed Fr

his whole frame, and his spirits were reduced to a very low state. At those times when the powers of nature failed him most, he was wont to break out into such expressions as these: "What a miserable creature should I be in my present situation, if I could not look upon God as my covenant God; my reconciled Father in Christ? The weakness of my body and of my spirits deprives me of all joyous sensations; but my faith in God's promises, I bless the Lord, is firm and unshaken. What though my loss of strength and spirits robs me of all comfortable communion with God, the promises are not therefore made void. Abraham believed, and it was counted to him for righteousness. I believe that God is faithful and true in all his declarations of mercy which I have sought for, though I cannot now feel the impressions of his love." And likewise, "The nearer I advance towards eternity, the more I am confirmed in the truth of the doctrines which I have preached and published. I am sure they will stand the test of the last day. Conviction of sin, original as well as actual, is the grand inlet to all saving knowledge; where this is wanting, the superstructure will not stand; but if this foundation be deeply laid, the heart will then welcome the glad tidings of salvation." It being observed by one who was sitting on his bedside, what a blessing he enjoyed in his present situation, that his soul was ripe for heaven and eternity, he interrupted him with saying, "That the body of sin was not yet done away, but that he should continue a sinner to the last gasp, and desired that he would pray for him as such.' On starting up from an apparent fit of dosing, he took hold of his nurse by the hand, who was sitting near him, and uttered this rapturous expression, "I have been upon the wings of the cherubim; heaven has in a manner been opened to me; I shall be soon there myself, and am only sorry that I cannot take you with me." The next day, while a young clergyman who came from a distant part of the country to visit his departing friend, was standing near his bed side, he lifted up his eyes in a manner that bespoke a joy more than words could utter, and addressed him thus, "O! my friend, had I strength to speak, I could tell you such news as would rejoice your very soul: I have had such views of heaven-But, I am not able to say more." The

evident concern of some of his particular friends, upon the increase of his disorder, sometimes affected him, on which account, thinking, it is probable, that the sight of his last agonies might give them pain, he one day said to a servant that attended him, "I would I might slip away, when nobody but you should be present;" and so indeed it fell out, for just when all except that person had left the room, not apprehending him to be so near his end, he turned his head aside on the pillow, and nature appearing to be quite exhausted, without any other token than a sigh something longer and more deep than usual, his soul was delivered from the prison of the body.

December 17.

GEN. xlix. 28, 33. And Jacob blessed his sons, every one according to his blessing he blessed them. And when he had made an end of commanding them, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost.

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The Rev. Mr. BOLTON, minister of Broughton in. Northamptonshire, died 1631. He usually prayed six times a-day, twice by himself, twice with his family, and twice with his wife. A little before his death he said, "I am, by the wonderful mercies of God as full of comfort as I can hold, and feel nothing in my soul but Christ, with whom I heartily desire to be." He was much concerned for his family. "See," said he, " that none of you meet me at the day of judgment in an unconverted state." There is something very solemn in a dying parent's charge to his children. When Mr. Henry Erskine was dying, he called for his children, of whom six out of the nine that were then living were present. With a kind of heavenly authority he exhorted them to cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart. He assured them as a dying man, that as he had never repented, so more especially he did not repent then of any hardships he had endured in his Master's service. He added, "I know I am going to heaven, and if you follow my footsteps, you and I, ere long, shall have a joyful meeting there." He then caused them, one after another, from the eldest to the youngest present, to kneel down by his bed side, and taking them in his arms, he solemnly charged them to be

the servants of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and his own God, and to keep his ways, as ever they would look him in the face at the great day of the Lord. Then blessing them, he committed his wife, and them to the care of Divine Providence, and commended his spirit to Him who had cared for him all his life long. What an affecting scene? what an impression must we suppose this to have made on the minds of his surviving children?

December 18.

MATT. v. 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

SOAME JENYNs died 1781. He was well known in the world as the author of "The Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion," and various other pieces. He was born in London in 1705, and was many years member of parliament for the town of Cambridge. He seemed to have a right view of the above passage; while he lamented how little the spirit referred to prevailed in the world, "By poorness of spirit he observes, is to be understood, a disposition of mind, meek, humble, submis. sive to power, void of ambition, patient of injuries, and free from all resentment. This was so new, and so opposite to the ideas of all Pagan moralists, that they thought this temper of mind a criminal and contemptible meanness, which must induce men to sacrifice the glory of their country, and their own honour, to a shameful pusil lanimity; and such it appears to almost all who are called Christians even at this day, who not only reject it in prac tice, but disavow it in principle notwithstanding this explicit declaration of their Master. We see them reveng ing the smallest affronts by premeditated murder, as individuals, on principles of honour; and, in their natural capacities, destroying each other with fire and sword, for the low considerations of commercial interests, the balance of rival powers, or the ambition of princes. We see them with their last breath animating each other to a savage revenge, and, in the agonies of death, plunging with feeble arms their daggers into the hearts of their opponents: and, what is still worse, we hear all these barbarisms celebrated by historians, flattered by poets,