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"Ah! sir, mine has been a sad life, and one of my greatest sins has been the neglect of the service of God. I will give you my history.

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'My father and mother were free from the grosser vices of the world, and regularly attended their church. When I was apprenticed far from home, they charged me never to neglect a place of worship, and I have kept the promise I made them, that I never would; but I now find that all my outward attendance on the public duties of religion has done me no good." "How so?"

"Oh! sir, I supposed that I had nothing more to do than to present myself before God, and appear in the act of public worship. I never felt that I was a sinner, and that the curse of God rested upon me,that therefore I ought to humble myself before Him, and seek for His mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ; but now I feel I am going to die, and I am sure that such a religion as this cannot take me to heaven. My conscience does not reproach me for neglecting my duties to my fellow-creatures; but, oh! I have sinned against God. I forgot what I now feel, that He looks at the state of the heart, and that we cannot worship Him if that is not engaged. I have no hope! I have no hope!"

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But there is hope in Jesus," said I, "for the very vilest of sinners."

"But, sir, I have insulted God by solemn mockery. I have professed to hear His word, but I know nothing of it; I professed to pray, but never did so in reality. My neighbours, I dare say, took me for a Christian; but the great Searcher of hearts knows I have been a hypocrite. Sir, I have no hope of happiness after death!"

Truly the case was an awful one; but I felt my duty to be to direct the sufferer at once to Him who has promised to cast none out who come to Him. His reply was indeed emphatic-"Sir, I have despised His counsel, and would none of his reproof. I must be lost!"

"Yet still believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."

"I have heard that passage of Scripture," said he, "repeated scores of times; but now it does not belong to me. God will not always be trifled with. I have abused every opportunity of obtaining salvation for thirty years, and now He has left me to take the consequences of my sins."

I endeavoured, with the utmost simplicity and affection, to place before him the way of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ; with what effect must remain for the disclosure of the last great

day, as certainly little could be inferred from anything which took place during his short continuance in the present, after the conversation, the substance of which I have recorded.

Reader! is there no danger of your case being similar?

A HINT TO MOTHERS.

WHEN we contemplate what great things depends on what to a superficial observer appears of small moment, we wish to speak a word of caution. Our object is that of the common, every-day conversation of mothers with their children.

When giving to your children commands, be careful that you speak with a becoming dignity, as if not only the right, but the wisdom also to command, was with you. Be careful not to discover a jealousy that your injunctions may not be attended to; for if the child sees that you have your doubts, they will lead the child to doubt too. Be cautious never to give your commands in a loud voice, nor in haste. you must speak loudly in order to be obeyed, when it is not convenient to raise your voice, you must expect to be disobeyed; and if it be convenient for you to speak loudly, you must remember that it is inconvenient for others to hear it.

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But with regard to manner, be careful to speak in a soft, tender, kind, and loving way. Even when you have occasion to rebuke, be careful to do it with manifest kindness. The effect will be incalculably better. When you are obliged to deny the rquest that your child may make, do not allow yourself to do this with severity. It is enough for our little ones to be denied of what they think they want, without being nearly knocked down with a sharp voice ringing in their tender ears.

If you practice severity, speak harshly, frequently punish in anger, you will find your children will imbibe your spirit and manners. First, you will find that they will treat each other as you treat them; and after they arrive to a little age, they will treat you with unkind and unbecoming replies. But if you are wise, and treat your little ones with tenderness, you will fix the image of love in their minds, and they will love you and each other, and in their conversation will imitate the conversation which they have heard from the tenderest friend which children have on earth.

Literary Notices.

History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century. Volume Fifth. The Reformation in England. By J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNE. Translated by H. WHITE, B.A., &c. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd.

THE history of the Reformation of the sixteenth century, as told by D'Aubigné, has now for some years been as familiar as household words in every Protestant home in Christendom. The brilliant dramatic style of the writer invested dry historic details with all the vitality and life interest of a stirring biography, and they were devoured with the eager excitement produced by a startling romance, not only by those interested in the progress of mankind, but by readers to whom history at all, and especially the history of a religious struggle, would otherwise have been most protracted and unmitigated weariness. Strikingly incomplete, however, was a history of the Protestant Reformation which did not minutely record the progress of Popish assumption and Christian resistance in England. The volume before us not only adds materially to the completness of the history, but cannot fail to be read with the deepest interest by the whole Anglo-Saxon race. The narrative of this struggle from its earliest dawn involves an epitomized history of the nation, and presents a graphic sketch of the national character as striking as it is instructive.

The volume before us, although containing upwards of seven hundred octavo pages, does not complete the history of the Reformation in England. Tracing the progress of Christianity in England from the time of its first introduction into Britain by the early missionaries, it records the aggressions and assumptions of Rome and the resistance which each usurpation met to the sixteenth century, narrating with graphic minuteness the thickening events of the struggle then enacting, the volume concluding with the death of Cardinal Wolsey. From the earliest times it is shown that the aggressions of Rome met with more or less of opposition in Britain until the time of the recreant John, who, putting his neck under the heel of the Pope, placed his kingdom in a state of the most abject vassalage to Rome. From the period of John's death, in the thirteenth century, D'Aubigné traces the re-action which finally resulted in the Reformation. In the reign of Henry III., son of John, one Robert Grostête (Greathead), who was born of poor parents, was

raised to the bishopric of Lincoln, and, at sixty years of age, boldly undertook to reform his diocese-one of the largest in England; and at the very time when the Pope, who up to that time had been content to style himself Vicar of St. Peter, was proclaiming himself as Vicar of God, and was ordering the English bishops to find benefices for three hundred Romans, Grostête was declaring that, "To follow a Pope who rebels against the will of Christ, is to separate from Christ and his body; and if ever the time should come when all men follow an erring Pontiff, then will be the great apostacy. Then will true Christians refuse to obey, and Rome will be the cause of an unprecedented schism." Nor was it simply lip courage which inspired this good man; by his actions he made good his professions, and when shortly afterwards the Pope commanded him to give a canonry in Lincoln Cathedral to his (the Pope's) infant nephew, the bold bishop refused, replying, "After the sin of Lucifer, there is none more opposed to the Gospel than that which ruins souls by giving them a faithless minister. Bad pastors are the cause of unbelief, heresy, and disorder. Those who introduce them into the Church are little better than anti-Christs, and their culpability is in proportion to their dignity. Although the chief of the angels should order me to commit such a sin, I would refuse. My obedience forbids me to obey; and therefore I rebel." In these striking words-in which we may remark en passant the Wesleyan Conference may find a pregnant warning, and Wesleyan Reformers an apt text-in these words, uttered by a bishop in the thirteenth century, is expressed all the principle of the subsequent Reformation. Nor was the Bishop of Lincoln alone, even at this early period. Sewel, the Archbishop of York, resisted the assumptions of the Sovereign Pontiff in like manner, and exhorted him to moderate his tyranny; "for," said he, "the Lord said to Peter, Feed my sheep,' and not shear them, flay them, or devour them." Many of the people, too, at this time were becoming ripe for religious liberty, and. it is recorded, "the more the Pope cursed the Archbishop the more the people blessed him." Since the time of John a similar spirit had actuated royalty; and in the fourteenth century, during the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II., were passed those stringent laws which interdicted all appeal to the Court of Rome, all bulls from the Roman

Bishop, &c., and outlawing all who should receive, publish, or execute in England any bull or enactment issuing from the Court of Rome. During the fourteenth century Wickliffe was born-and with him the Reformation may be said to have actually commenced. Men holding its principles had lived and died, but they had been content to assume a merely defensive position, resisting the Papal usurpation when it touched themselves. Wickliffe,

however, was the first Protestant Reformer, the first who assumed an aggressive position; whilst his predecessors of like mind had resisted oppression, he attacked the oppressor.

It is no part of our purpose here to follow D'Aubigné in tracing the progress of the Reformation, for this we refer the reader to the volume; we have rather wished to call attention to the fact too often overlooked, that the Reformation in England had its origin at a period long anterior to that from which it is often dated -the time of Henry VIII.

The Reformation in England, D'Aubigné remarks, was essentially the work of Scripture. It was, "perhaps to a greater extent than that of the continent effected by the Word of God." At the period when the movement, which had been so long progressing, culminated, there were not in England, as on the continent, men like Luther, Zwingle, and Calvin, but the Holy Scriptures had begun to be widely circulated. "What brought light into the British isles subsequently to the year 1517, and on a more extended scale after the year 1526, was the word of the invisible God. The religion of the Anglo-Saxon race-a race called more than any other to circulate the oracles of God throughout the world-is particularly distinguished by its biblical character." The publication of the New Testament in Greek and Latin, by Erasmus, was the act which sealed the doom of Papacy in England. Had Henry VIII. never lived, and never lusted; had he never resisted the Pope or defended the faith," it would have mattered little. The struggle might have been more pro. tracted, but the seeds of truth had been sown which must spring up. That truth, which when proclaimed by humble fishermen, spread in spite of the efforts of the mightiest empire in the world to crush it, had been published in its simplicity, and, whatever might have been the will of kings or princes, the triumph of that truth was certain and inevitable as the revolution of the planets in their orbits.

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It scarcely remains to be said that the tale of the Reformation in England is well told up to the point to which it is taken.

The narrative abounds with delightful episodes. The sketch of the unfortunate Anne Boleyn is drawn with great tenderness and beauty, and the volume throughout abounds with those vigorous dramatic pictures which distinguished the earlier volumes of the work. The death of Cardinal Wolsey concludes the volume; it is a graphic sketch :

On Monday morning, tormented by gloomy foreboding, Wolsey asked what was the time of day. "Past eight o'clock," replied Cavendish.

"That cannot be," said the Cardinal, "eight o'clock. No! for by eight o'clock you shall lose your master."

At six on Tuesday, Kingston having come to inquire about his health, Wolsey said to him, "I shall not live long."

"Be of good cheer," rejoined the governor of the Tower.

"Alas! Master Kingston," exclaimed the Cardinal, “if I had served God as diligently as I have served the king, he would not have given me over in my gray hairs;" and then he added, with downcast head, "this is my just reward." What a judgment upon his own life!

On the very threshold of eternity (for he had but a few minutes more to live), the Cardinal summoned up all his hatred against the Reformation, and made a last effort. The persecution was too slow to please him. "Master Kingston," he said, "attend to my last request: tell the king, that I conjure him in God's name to destroy this new pernicious sect of Lutherans." And then, with astonishing presence of mind, in this his last hour, Wolsey described the misfortunes which the Hussites had, in his opinion, brought upon Bohemia. And then coming to England, he recalled the times of Wickliffe and Sir John Oldcastle. He grew animated; his dying eyes shot forth fiery glances. He trembled lest Henry VIII., unfaithful to the Pope, should hold out his hand to the Reformers. Master Kingston," said he, in conclusion, "the king should know that if he tolerates heresy, God will take away his power, and we shall then have mischief upon mischief-barrenness, scarcity, and disorder, to the utter destruction of this realm."

Wolsey was exhausted by the effort. After a momentary silence, he resumed, with a dying voice, "Master Kingston, farewell! My time draweth on fast. Forget not what I have said, and charged you withal; for when I am dead, ye shall peradventure understand my words better."

It was with difficulty he uttered these words; his tongue began to falter, his eyes became fixed, his sight failed him: he breathed his last. At the same minute the clock struck eight, and the attendants standing round his bed looked at each other in affright. It was the 29th of November, 1530.

Thus died the man once so much feared. Power had been his idol; to obtain it in the State, he had sacrificed the liberties of England; and to win it, or to preserve it in the Church, he had fought against the Reformation. If he encouraged the nobility in the luxuries and pleasures of life, it was only to render them more supple and more servile; if he supported learning, it was only that he might have a clergy fitted to keep the laity in their leading-strings. Ambitious, intriguing, and impure of life, he had been as zealous for the sacerdotal prerogative as the austere Becket; and by a singular contrast, a shirt of hair was found on the body of this voluptuous man. The aim of his life had been to raise the Papal power higher than it had ever been before, at the very moment when the Reformation was attempting to bring it down; and to take his seat on the pontifical throne with

more than the authority of a Hildebrand. Wolsey, as a Pope, would have been the man of his age; and in the political world, he would have done for the Roman primacy what the celebrated Loyola did for it soon after by his fanaticism. Obliged to renounce this idea, worthy only of the middle ages, he had desired at least to save the Popedom in his own country; but here again he had failed. The pilot who had stood in England at the helm of the Romish church was thrown overboard, and the ship, left to itself, was about to founder. And yet, even in death, he did not lose his courage, The last throbs of his heart had called for victims; the last words from his failing lips, the last message to his master, his last testament, had been persecution. This testament was to be only too faithfully executed.

Notes and Narratives of a Six Years'
Mission principally among the Dens of
London. By R. W. VANDERKISTE. Lon-
don: Nisbet and Co.

The Million-Peopled City; or, One Half of
the People of London made known to the
other Half. By JOHN GARWOOD, M.A.
London: Wertheim and Mackintosh.
THESE two volumes are cognate in their
character and purpose. The first is written
by an ex-City Missionary, and records his
own experiences; the second is by the cle.
rical Secretary to the London City Mission,
and is based both upon personal experience
and the journals of the various agents
employed by the Society. Never did the
remark-not the less true because some-
what trite and musty-that "one half of
the world knows nothing of how the other
half lives," receive a stronger confirmation,
or a more striking illustration, than is fur-
nished in these volumes. The revelations
here furnished of the physical, moral, and
spiritual condition of vast masses of the
lower orders, whose dens are found in the
back slums, crowded alleys, and filthy
courts of the worst districts of the metro-
polis, are truly startling, and are sugges
tive of somewhat serious reflections on the
condition of society at large, when the
lowest stratum is in a state so neglected
and degraded. To Mr. Garwood's volume
we have in another page referred; and we
cordially recommend both volumes to the
perusal of the Christian philanthropist, to
whom they will possess a peculiarly painful

interest; while to the general reader they will be found more exciting than fiction, and at the same time in the highest degree instructive,

Pictures from Sicily, By the Author of "Forty Days in the Desert." London: Hall and Co.

WE are always glad to see a new work announced by Mr. Bartlett. In this volume he conducts most pleasantly into a new region,--Sicily, with its scenery, and with its antiquity, Greek, Saracenic, and Norman, lies open to us. The pencil of the artist almost makes the spectator realize the spots and objects exhibited. In this respect Mr. Bartlett has no superior. We have cordially commended to our readers his "Nile Boat," his "Walks about Jerusalem," his "Forty Days in the Desert," his "Overland Route," his "Footsteps of our Lord and his Apostles ;" nor do we less sincerely assure our readers that they will be equally gratified with his "Pictures from Sicily." The rapid publication of such a series proves how public taste is on the advance, and how well it appreciates the efforts of a skilful artist to meet its everincreasing demands. We have no doubt that this author and artist will be encouraged to produce some more works in this very inviting and attractive form.

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Obituary.

MEMOIR OF MR. DAVID HAMILTON
WILSON.

THE following brief memoir of one whose
zeal and labours in various departments of
the Christian church, and especially in
connection with Sabbath-schools, procured

for him the esteem of all who knew him, and especially endeared him to those with whom he came in immediate contact, will be read with much interest by many of our readers:

Mr. DAVID HAMILTON WILSON, son of

LITERARY NOTICES.

William and Sarah Wilson, was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on the 6th day of October, 1799. Not anything is known of his early history worthy of notice until he attained the twenty-third year of his age, when, under conviction of sin, he sought mercy from God through the atonement of the Redeemer, and became a member of the Wesleyan Methodist Society assembling in Brunswick Chapel, Newcastle-uponTyne.

The preachers travelling in Newcastle circuit at that time were the Revs. David McNichol, James Bromley, and Edward Oakes, the latter of whom signed his note of admission into society, dated the 24th September, 1822. His first ticket of membership is dated in the same year, December, 1822.

These two documents, as also the greater part of his tickets of membership up to June, 1853, he had carefully preserved; which, when examined, show that he had continued a member of some branch of the Wesleyan family for nearly thirty-one years, -from September, 1822, to the time of his removal to the Church above.

The care taken by him of these memorials of his connection with the church of Christ, bespeaks in unmistakeable terms the high value which he placed on his union with the ministers and people of God; while they exhibit one among many other proofs of his love of order and regular care in preserving documents for Christian reference in future life.

It is not certainly known whether he was favoured with tokens of the Divine favour at the time he became a member of society; though from the reminiscences of one of his beloved friends, it would appear that it was not until about two or three years after that period, while a member of the late Mr. John Dungate's weekly band of young inen, that he was able divinely, and by faith, to cast his soul upon the atonement, and to rejoice in his adoption into the family of God.

The same friend goes on to state the fruits and proofs of his conversion, and refers to his devotion to duty, and labours of love, mentioning "his regular attendance on the means of grace, his connection with the Sunday-schools in Newcastle, and Sunday-school Unions; his management of the depository for supplying the schools with books,-which was a perpetuated service of nine years, involving many anxious cares; his ingenious exhibitions, together with the delivery of lectures, in order to raise funds for the purchase of libraries for such schools as were destitute of funds for the purpose; his charge of the depository of the Newcastle Tract Society, which he

kept, rent free, in his own residence, attending to its interests before and after the necessary hours of business, and this with fidelity and success; his labours in the Benevolent Society, as an active member of its Com mittee and visitor of the sick; his efforts in the organization of the Victoria Asylum for the Blind-one of the noblest Institutions of the town and neighbouring counties in the establishment of which he greatly rejoiced, and for the interests of which, at his own cost, he visited similar Institutions in Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Edinburgh; and out of the esta blishment of which Institution the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb arose, supported by the treasures of the rich."

Such are some of the evidences, as outward signs of his conversion to God, which, although breaking the order of the narrative, are given here in the communication of his friend.

One of the most important events in the life of Mr. Wilson, and one of the most felicitous, was his union in marriage to Miss Ann Jewett, now his bereaved and sorrowing widow;-sorrowing, thank God! not like them who have no hope; but in hope of meeting him again, where separation and sorrow shall not be known. This event took place (as the marriage certificate, orderly preserved among his other documents, shows) on the 25th of March, 1829.

It appears that in 1834, in consequence of certain painful and agitating occurrences (too frequent, alas! in the Conference portion of the Wesleyan family), Mr. Wilson withdrew from the body, and united himself to the New Connexion, worshipping in Hood-street Chapel. In the space of two years, however, he returned to worship in Brunswick Chapel, and became a member in Mr. George Bargate's class; in which he continued to meet until the breaking-out of that agitating strife, which now seems likely to bring ruin on the Conference as the head of a governing body.

On the expulsion of the three ministers in 1849 (the Revs. James Everett, Samuel Dunn, and William Griffiths, jun.), he expressed his consciousness of the tyranny of the act, by becoming a member of the Reform Committee, organized in Newcastle, and by subscribing liberally to the support of the expelled ministers. When the Reformers commenced separate services in Victoria-room, to prevent the loss of nearly 300 members, who were driven away in the dark and cloudy day by the Rev. William Burt and his colleagues, he identified himself with them, and became a member in brother Nicholas Scott's class, deeply sympathizing with those of his brethren who had, without trial or offence, been turned

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