ciously providential that, at that time, this was the type which the administration of ecclesiastical matters assumed. The Canaanites were still in the land. The reformed communities were exposed to them in every place, and on every hand. A central power in the then state of the kingdom, and of society in all its orders, would be of use in directing the movements of the Protestant body, and in detecting and repelling the secret or open antagonism of its foes. The new converts to the faith and power of the gospel were so enamoured of the "first principles of the doctrine of Christ," and had so much to do and to bear to hold fast the precious truths of salvation on which their immortal interests depended, that probably the most of them had little leisure or inclination to study the structure of the sanctuary, thankful only that they were within its walls, and joyful that they were permitted to taste of the "feast of fat things" which redeeming love had provided there. They left the building of the tabernacle to others. The honoured men from whose lips they had first heard the words whereby they might be saved, and by whose ministrations they first "knew the grace of God in truth," had inhaled the inspirations of Knox, and with his spirit his views of the form and discipline which should prevail in the household of faith. Whether that form be most in unison with the constitution of the first churches of Christ, as portrayed in the New Testament, and with the actions and directions of the apostles, we do not wish at present to inquire, as it would involve a discussion unsuitable to our design in these fraternal sketches, and incompatible with the space allowed us in these valuable pages. One thing, however, is certain, * We are satisfied for ourselves. We do and in this we rejoice, that Presbyterianism has been set and employed for the defence of the gospel in Scotland, and has never yielded to the insinuations of Popery, or that "unclean thing;" and we venture to predict that it never will. In later times it has done something more. It has lifted up its protest against the unholy alliance which would prostrate all that is pure and spiritual in the Christian Church at the foot of the State, and make the King of Zion bow to Cæsar's rule. It has come out of Egypt and Babylon. It has shaken off the fetters of slavery, and said to the redeemed of the Lord, "Be free!" It has spoken and done. All honour to its votaries and their principles; to their noble fidelity to the dictates of conscience, truth, and love; and to their marvellous achievements since in the cause of the church's liberty and enlargement! Let them but a little farther advance in the same direction, with the torch of Scripture in their hands, the light of ecclesiastical history to assist them, and the present aspect of their much-loved" form of the house" in the north of Ireland, and even in the city of the Lake, from which it came, with the tendencies of the present age to admonish them, and perhaps the time will come when even Scotland will bear its testimony, in church-order and discipline also, to the "more excellent way." In the meanwhile, and whether we approximate to them, or they to us, or each borrows from the other, "One is our Master, even Christ, and all we are brethren." M. C not think that the Courts of Scotland are to be found in the inspired records; and both Gibbon and Campbell, two no incompetent witnesses, admit that the churches of Christ were independent of each other at the beginning. INTERESTING MEMORANDA BY DR. WATTS. George Watts. Dr. Watts does not allude to him in a pocket-book manuscript, of which I send you a copy, and which will be perused with interest by many of your readers. It will be seen that this memoranda is brought up only to the 38th year of the writer's life. 1 am, dear Sir, yours truly, DEAR SIR,-Your correspondent J. | relative, or ancestor, of the name of W., of Devizes, (p. 217) asks, whether any light can be thrown upon the history of the family of the "Poet of the Sanctuary?" There is no doubt that the Isaac Watts of Southampton, to whom he refers, and whose evidence upon the Southampton Election of 1689-90 appears in the Journals of the House of Commons of that date, was the father of the venerable lyrist; but there is no proof that he had any CHARLES REED. Hackney, April 20, 1852. COINCIDENTS. 1700. March 30. Grandmo. Tanto. May 22. Mr. John Poole. Nov. 11. Mr. Thos. Gunston. 1702. March 8. Morning. K. Wm. dyed. Mrs. Owen, Dr. Owen's widow, died, Jan. 18, 170. 1703. Nov. 26. Ffriday night and Saturday morning, the great and dreadful storm.* August 31, 1704. Bro. Richard marryd. Joseph Brandley, my first servant, went away, Dec. 1704, and Edwd. Hitchen came. Aug. 1704. Mr. Tho. Rowe, my tutor, dyed. * On account of which a National Fast was proclaimed. June 9, 1701. July, 1701. From ye Bath to Southton. This year (viz.) 1702, by slow degrees ye Church to assist me, 1703. Dec. After having intermitted, in a great measure, a method of study and pursuit of learning 4 years, by reason of my great indisposition of body and weakness of head (except wh. was absolute necessity for my constant preaching) and being not satisfied to live so any longer, after due consideration and prayer, I took a boy to read to me and write for me, whereby my studies are much assisted, Dec. 1703. Visited my friends at Southto. May, 1704. Removed our Meeting place to Pinners Hall, and began expositions of Jan. 1704. Scripture, COINCIDENTS. MEMORANDA. Mr. Benoni Rowe, my intimate friend, dyed, Apl. 1704. Bro. Thomas marryd, May 9th, 1706. Union of Eng. and Scot. May 1, 1707. This year French Prophetts made a great noise in our nation, and drew in Mr. Lucy. Sir R. Bulkley, &c. 200 or more had ye agitations, 40 had ye inspiration. Proved a delusion of Satan, at Birmingham, Feb. 3 or 4, 1707-8. Sister Sarah marryed, Feb. 1707. Pretender's invasion disappointed, Mar. 1708. May 25, 1708. The Prophetts disappointed by Mr. Eams not rising from the dead. Terrible long snowy winter, 1708-9. Bro. R. came to settle in Londo. Oct. 7, 1709. March 1, 1709-10. The mob rose and pulled down the pews and galleries of 6 meeting-houses, viz. Mr. Burgess,1 Mr. Bradbury, Mr. Earl,3 Mr. Wright,4 Mr. Hamilton,5 & Mr. Ch. Taylor, but were dispersed by the Guards, under Capt. Horsey, at 1 or 2 in ye morning.* Mr. Arthur Shallot, sen. dyed, 4th Feb. 6 1710-11, and Mr. Tho. Hunt, mer- Mrs. Anne Pickard dyed, Apl. 7, 1711. Yould Nov. 15, 1711. The riot on the second day of Dr. Sacheverel's trial. 1 Lincoln's Inn Fields. 2 New Street. 3 Long Acre. 4 Blackfriars. 5 Clerkenwell. 6 Leather Lane. GOLD TRIED IN THE FIRE.* In a world of sorrow, it cannot fail | husband,-while, two years before, the poor girl had begun to suffer from the fearful complaint, scrofula, which occasioned her afterwards so often to adopt the language of David, "My bones are consumed within me." As soon as her health allowed, she obtained employment in a small draper's shop, and spent the next six or seven years in that course of unconcern about the soul which is the too common characteristic of youth. As she had a tolerably good voice, and the opportunity presented itself, she joined the choir of the church, practising with them once or twice a week, under the inspection of the late excellent Vicar of Cerne, the Rev. John Davis. On one of those occasions the incident occurred which led to her conversion. The choir was about to practise the 139th Psalm, that psalm which so forcibly exhibits the omniscience of God, when the clergyman said, as he was often used to do at similar meetings, that it was a solemn thing to appeal to God; that this psalm espe cially invoked the Searcher of hearts to try their ways; and that, whether they really meant what they sang or not, the omniscient God was actually conducting such a process. These words went like an arrow into the heart of Harriet, whose life had been hitherto one of thoughtlessness and folly, vanity and love of display, and led her that evening, ere she retired to rest, to examine her heart and life with a care she had never exercised before. The result of to bestow comfort to be informed how suffering pilgrims like ourselves have borne their load, and been carried safely through to their journey's end. If their case, like that we are about to record, has been one of extraordinary affliction, accompanied with extraordinary consolations, it has a still further tendency to cheer, inasmuch as, contrasted with their condition, ours may be one of comparative exemption from trial, and as proof that, in every case, God lays upon his people no burden which he does not enable them to bear. The history of Harriet Stoneman, had we no other, is ample evidence of the truth, that God's grace is sufficient for his creatures under all emergencies, and that his strength obtains its most signal triumphs when their weakness is most manifest. Rarely, perhaps, has pain, from disease and consequent helplessness, been more acute and protracted than in the present case; poverty has seldom been more extreme than that of poor Harriet; yet rarely have the riches of faith and hope, and love and joy, been more abundant in the experience of any of God's children than in her's. The subject of our memoir was born in September, 1797, in the hamlet of Batcombe, Dorsetshire, within three miles of Cerne. Her father was a drunken and dissipated young man, who enlisted in the army, and forsook his wife and children, leaving them dependent upon relations almost as poor, but better conducted, than him self. At fifteen years of age Harriet lost her mother, her end hastened, it is to be feared, by the ill conduct of her *Gold Tried in the Fire; illustrated in the Memoir of Harriet Stoneman, of Cerne, Dorset. By the Rev. Thomas Curme, Vicar of Sandford, Oxon, and Domestic Chaplain to His Grace the Duke of Marlborough. Nisbet, London. VOL. XXX. the scrutiny was not flattering. She found herself utterly condemned as a sinner in the sight of God. But she prayed earnestly for forgiveness. The gospel, whose faithful ministrations she had attended hitherto, contributed to confirm the impressions the word spoken in season had made upon her, and by the kind counsels of her pastor and friend, she was brought into a Z |