town far distant from this place, self a lover of strong liquors; conwhere I was on a friendly visit. nected with dissipated men like Most youths in office are caress-myself; fond of my condition, ed, more for the novelty, than for deaf to the remonstrances of my their abilities. One morning, a friends, and, in brief, the church very decent grey-headed man in- was obliged to cut me off, and I quired for me; and, when he was became a confirmed drunkard. I admitted, without ceremony he was never happy. My appetites threw himself on a chair, and sob- on fire impelled me to intoxicabed and wept, but could not speak. tion; but the stings of my conI retired, to give him an opportu- science could never be blunted nity to vent his passion; for such and between the two I was in a swells of grief, whatever may be state of torment. How insensithe cause, threaten to burst the bly do habits of vice form themheart, and destroy the frame. selves! How difficult it is to subdue them when they are become obstinate! I am not come to you for advice; I know all about it, I am not come to make you the depositary of my holy resolutions: I should try to keep them to myself, if you were not in the world. I am come in pure affection to say to you; Watch over yourself; be afraid of the first emotions of sin, and rever

At

"On my returning, the man had recovered his calmness, and, omitting his apologies, the substance of what he said was this. Compassion for your youth compels me to tell you my case. your age I was as innocent and as happy as you. Like you, too, I was chosen by one of our churches to teach. I taught; the church caressed me; neighbouring churches gave me unequivo-ence the cautions of aged men ; cal marks of their esteem; each always older, and generally new day was winged with new wiser, than ministers when they delights; my time passed sweetly; are first elected to office!" every mouth was May. One day To the above affecting relaan old man said to me, Young tion, which is taken from a ser man, guard against vanity. I felt mon preached at the ordination myself hurt, for I saw no need of of the Rev, Mr. George Birley, at his caution, and I did not conceal St, Ives, October 18, 1786, I beg my dislike. Does that offend to add my most cordial recomyou?' added the old man; take mendation of it to ministers in care you do not become a profli- general; but especially to those gate. For know this; a man un- who are just going to begin their apprized of danger, is at the brink ministerial course; or who have of a fall; and as confidence is the but recently begun it. As they parent of carelessness, so care- value the glory of God, the holessness is the high road to the nour of Christ, the credit of the commission of actual sin; one sin gospel ministry, and of religion leads to another, and by slow de-in general, the comfort of their grees a plausible youth may be own minds, and the salvation of come a profligate man.' I paid precious souls, let them watch very little regard to my admonish- and be sober; let them flee youther, and a few years after, some-ful lusts; and let them serve the how or other, first tasted, then Lord with fear, and rejoice with submitted to entreaties, then re- trembling. peated, and at length found my

Obituary.

MRS. MARY RUTLAND. .

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thus translated out of the kingdom of Satan into that of the Son of God, it is no wonder that her life and con

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re

Soon after her deliverance from the terrors of the law, she was baptized, upon a profession of her faith in Christ, and added to the Particular Baptist Church at Eynsford, in Kent, under the pastoral care of Mr. John Rogers; and of which she continued an honourable member for many years. In 1805 she was married to an affectionate husband, (a help meet for her in the Lord,) who now mourns her loss; and by whom she had twelve children-of which number five only are now alive. Surrounded by so large a family, it is not to be wondered at, that, like Martha of old, she should sometimes have felt herself" careful and troubled at many things," yet, "amidst all," she used to say, "I do rejoice in the promises of God, for they are both sure and steadfast."

AT Foot's Cray Mill, in Kent, on Saturday, 23d September, 1820, de-versation were such as "became the parted this life," with the high Gospel of Christ," which from her praises of God upon her lips," Mary, heart she loved, and in her generathe wife of Mr. William Rutland, of tion served, through the daily River, near Dover, after a rapid de- newings of the Holy Ghost." cline of a few months, and in the thirty-ninth year of her age. Her parents, it appears, were respectable people, beneath the dome, above the cot," and being ignorant of Christ, at least until many years after the birth of all their children, it is no wonder that the subject of this Memoir was not "trained up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Her early life, however, exhibited nothing particularly different from that of other young people in the awful state of nature in which all mankind are born, and in which she continued until her eighteenth or nineteenth year; when it pleased the God of all grace" to give her very powerful convictions of her condition as a sinner-" the commandment came-sin revivedand she died," as to any hope of salvation under the law; and many times has she profusely wept, at the The bounds of her habitation havremembrance of that travail of soul ing been fixed at some distance from which she endured before she was the house of God, and as she was brought to behold, by faith, "the naturally of a weak habit of body, Lamb of God, which taketh away it was not on all occasions that she the sins of the world." This happy could attend "the courts of the transition from the bondage of the Lord's house" upon his holy day; law to the liberty wherewith this, whenever it did happen, was a Christ makes us free," appears to considerable trial to her, and somehave been produced by the effectual times induced her to attend, when working of the Lord the Spirit, with she appeared quite incapable of the his own word, under the public mi-fatigue of getting there; yet, during nistrations of Mr. John Miffin, then her walk, she has frequently ob of Zion Chapel, Dartford; and the served, that "she knew it was the following scriptures, it is believed, Lord's service in which she was enwere applied to her heart with pecu-gaging, and that He would afford liar force upon that occasion: "Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel: I will help thee: I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Thus convinced of sin, and

VOL. XIII.

her strength, according to her day.”

Her great personal solicitude for her increasing family, necessarily occupied much of her time;-yet, even while she was most diligent in

M

her domestic concerns, it is evident she was no stranger to a "fervency of spirit" that" serves the Lord" in all things-the house of God being always esteemed as her beloved earthly home-the children of God, her beloved companions-the word of God, the man of her counsel While the glory of God, and the good of immortal souls, lay nearest her heart-and her own soul's prosperity in that of Zion, what she ardently sought and desired above all other prosperity in the world. But what she was as a Christian, we should never forget," she was by the grace of God;" and this grace, which was the very soul of her song upon earth, is now the glory of her song in heaven: Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever."

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Salle, or Finishing-room at the mill, where she had before attended divine worship; stating, "that they were to her soul as the very songs of heaven begun upon earth." In general, her mind seemed to be comfortably stayed upon the Rock of ages, without much sensible experience either of joy or trial, while her body rapidly declined towards "the house appointed for all living." But, upon the Thursday morning preceding the Saturday on which she fell asleep in Jesus, after having passed the night with very little sleep, and amidst great difficulty in breathing, she was highly favoured of the Lord with such powerful support and personal assurance of interest in Christ, that all her bodily indisposition and mental infirmity seemed as if they were swallowed up in that out-pouring of the Spirit, which was so remarkably About the month of July last, she manifest in her upon that decasion: complained of excessive weakness her bodily indisposition, nevertheof body, and from that period a mor- less, continuing entirely undiminishtal decay became increasingly visi-ed, and her difficulty in breathing ble, in defiance of all the human aid the same as before; so that, althat could be afforded her. Her me- though her soul was so sensibly alive dical advisers having recommended to God, her corporeal weakness was a change of air, as the only probable so excessive, as scarcely to allow means of benefit which they could her to speak more than one word at prescribe, she determined upon vi- a time, without stopping to recover sitting, once more, her dear relatives her breath. at Foot's Cray Mill; and, amidst the pains and infirmities by which she was attended, so as to be rendered incapable of sitting up for many hours together, (after having made it a matter of earnest prayer for divine direction and support,) she left home, with the fullest confidence that she should be supported to the end of her journey; and which she certainly was, beyond the expectation of all who knew her situation, since she travelled the whole distance in one day, though it cannot be much less than sixty miles.

During her short residence at Foot's Cray, until within two or three days of her departure to glory, nothing in particular transpired as to the state of her mind, if we except that, on the evening of the first Lord's-day after her arrival, she expressed herself as having been wonderfully comforted and delighted as she sat by her window, and heard the hymns that were sung that evening in the

In the morning of Thursday she stated, that she had passed almost a sleepless night, but "it had been á very blessed one indeed to her soul," since the Lord had powerfully supported her, by applying a number of very precious scriptures to her heart, particularly the following: "Fear not; be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness ;”—and, “ When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee: and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee." Soon after this, she complained of one of her arms being particularly weak; but this, she said, was only to remind her, "dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." "Yes!" said her dear relative, (who had watched over her with a maternal affection, enhanced, indeed, by spiritual tics,) "but the immortal part for ever lives; and the Lord has

promised that he will never leave hor forsake his people." "O no!" she replied, "blessed be his name: I have not trusted in Him all these years, for Him now to leave me, when upon the brink of Jordan! I know in whom I have believed!' There is nothing that I wish to live for but my dear children; and al-natural affection, which she felt in though I cannot give them up yet, 1 know that I shall be able to do so when my time shall come."