TIBBVBA

PREFATORY NOTE.

GREAT pains have been taken in the compilation of this volume to go to original sources, and very many volumes have been examined with the view of making as fresh a collection as possible. But it should be distinctly understood that no originality is claimed for the form of the anecdotes. In most cases this has been taken as it was found.

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I. The Power and Comfort of God. GEN. i. I.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." WHEN Mr. Simeon, of Cambridge, was on his dying bed, his biographer relates that, "after a short pause, he looked round with one of his bright smiles, and asked, 'What do you think especially gives me comfort at this time? The creation! Did Jehovah create the world or did I? I think He did; now if He made the world, He can sufficiently take care of ME.'"

II. Sin Ready to Enter. GEN. iv. 7.

door."

"Sin lieth at the

A YOUNG friend was one day calling upon an old Christian woman, nearly eighty years of age, just waiting for the summons. Said this friend, "Oh, granny, I wish I was as sure of heaven, and as near it, as you are!" With a look of unspeakable emotion, the old woman answered, " And do you really think the devil cannot find his way up an old woman's garret-stair? Oh, if He hadn't said 'None shall pluck them out of My hand,' I would have been away wandering long ago!"

III. Sin Crouching at the Door. GEN. iv. 7.

lieth at the door."

"Sin

A TRAVELLER who had fallen into the hands of some

robbers, was murdered by them. In his last moments, seeing some ravens flying over his head, he exclaimed to them, "I call upon you to avenge my death." Three days after, the robbers, going into the neighbouring town, saw some ravens on the roof of the inn where they were carcusing. One of them said, sneeringly: "I suppose those are

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the ravens come to avenge the death of the traveller we despatched the other day." The servant of the inn, overhearing these words, ran and repeated them to the magistrate, who had the robbers taken up, and, on inquiry being made, they were convicted of the murder and hanged.

IV.

Undone. GEN. iv. 10. "And He said, What hast thou done?"

THE Rev. Rowland Hill preaching on one occasion from this text, at Cowes, began his sermon as follows:-" In my way to your island, I visited the county jail at Winchester, and there I saw many who were accused of heavy crimes, but who seemed careless and indifferent, and to have but little sense of their awful situation. But one young man attracted my attention: he kept separate from the rest, and seemed very much troubled. I went up to him and said, 'And what have you done, young man?' Sir,' said he, deeply affected, 'I have done that which I cannot undo, and which has undone me.' This, my dear friends," said the minister, "is the situation of every one of you. You have each of you done that which has undone you, and which you cannot undo."

·

"And Enoch walked with

V. My Ministry. GEN. V. 24.
God: and he was not; for God took him."

ON the 22nd of February, 1880, Dr. Raleigh preached for the last time. His text was, "And Enoch walked with God and he was not; for God took him." Had he known that he would never preach again, he could not have chosen a more appropriate text, or have spoken with more impressiveness and pathos. One of the members of the congregation said, on returning home, "I have heard to-day what I never expect to hear again in this world." Dr. Raleigh was compelled to rest; weeks passed away, but there was no amendment in his health, and at length he had to be told that there was no hope of his recovery. When he received the intelligence he said, "Then my ministry is ended." There was a pause, and then he added, "My ministry!-it is dearer than my life." On the Tuesday before his death, he was visited by the Rev.