overruling for good the evil that had occurred, that his friend would act the part of Jonah towards the Ninevites in persisting in his refusal, and, determining to forego the privilege of his society, declared to him that he considered it as his duty to accept the call: so that it was finally settled he should return to Geneva, as soon as the second Diet, to which he had pledged his attendance, was over; Viret in the mean time leaving Lausanne, by permission of his superiors the Berners, to encourage the Protestant interest among the Genevese.

At length, on the 13th of September, he made his entry into the city, amid the congratulations of the Senate, and the shouts of the people. The Strasburgers, in yielding him up to the importunity of the Genevese, testified their respect and sense of his services; by insisting on his retention of the freedom of their city, and acceptance of an annual allowance; to which condition he could by no means be brought to consent. A crowded auditory recognized the faithful reprover as he thus addressed them:

"If you desire to have me for your pastor, correct the disorder of your lives. If you have with sincerity recalled me from my exile, banish the crimes and debaucheries which prevail among you. I certainly cannot behold, without the most painful displeasure, within your walls discipline trodden under foot, and crimes committed with impunity. I cannot possibly live in a place so grossly immoral. Vicious souls are too filthy to receive the purity of the Gospel, and the spiritual worship which I preach to you. A life stained with sin is too contrary to Jesus Christ to be tolerated. I consider the principal enemies of the Gospel to be, not the Pontiff of Rome, nor heretics, nor seducers, nor tyrants, but such bad Christians because the for

mer exert their rage out of the church; while drunkenness, luxury, perjury, blasphemy, impurity, adultery, and other abominable vices, overthrow my doctrine, and expose it defenceless to the rage of our enemies. Rome does not constitute the principal object of my fears. Still less am I apprehensive from the almost infinite number of monks. The gates of hell, the principalities and powers of evil spirits, disturb me not at all. I tremble on account of other enemies, more dangerous; and I dread abundantly more those carnal covetousnesses; those debaucheries of the tavern, of the brothel, and of gaming; those infamous remains of ancient superstition, those mortal pests, the disgrace of your town, and the shame of the reformed name. Of what importance is it to have driven away the wolves from the fold, if the pest ravage the flock? Of what use is a dead faith without good works? Of what importance is even truth itself, where a wicked life belies it, and actions make words blush? Either command me to abandon a second time your town, and let me go and soften the bitterness of my afflictions in a new exile, or let the severity of the laws reign in the church. Re-establish there the pure discipline. Remove from within your walls, and from the frontiers of your state, the pest of your vices, and condemn them to a perpetual banishment."

His first care after his restoration was to establish a presbyterian form of church polity, and a consistorial jurisdiction, with power to exercise censures and excommunication; which measure met at first with considerable opposition, some pleading that it would be a renewal of Romish tyranny, but afterwards passed into a law, in a general assembly, on the 20th of November. He now issued a more extended Catechism, which was so highly esteemed, that it was

translated into most of the European languages, while those noted scholars Emanuel Tremellius and Henry Stevens sought to enlarge its sphere of usefulness by giving a version of it in Hebrew and in Greek. As soon as it was known that he was fixed as pastor, there was such an influx of foreigners from Italy, Spain, France, and even from England, that it was difficult to provide them with accommodation. His ministerial labours were incessant. Every alternate Sabbath he preached twice; Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, he read his divinity-lectures; on Thursday he sat in the Consistory for the exercise of ecclesiastical discipline; and on Fridays he gave critical discourses on Scripture difficulties. Besides his public writings, and private negotiations, God so blessed his ministry that his judgment was requested from all parts of the Christian world. Though he found reason to rejoice in the success of the reformed tenets in his own immediate circle, he had too much sympathy with the suffering members of Christ, not to be deeply affected at the persecutions endured by many pious and enlightened individuals

from the malice of the Romanists in France and Italy. To these he addressed many admirable lessons of advice and consolation. His discretion, integrity, and perseverance, gained him the general esteem, so that scarcely a measure of public importance was resolved on without a reference to his opinion. The Genevese were jealous lest he should contemplate a return to the Strasburgers, and sought assurances from the latter that they would resign such an expectation. A contagious fever raging in the hospital, he desired to attend the patients; but the government, anxious for his safety, interposed an objection, and sent an inferior minister who soon caught the fatal infection. Thus did God cause his enemies to be at peace; many were ashamed of their former conduct, when they saw the estimation in which he was held both at home and abroad; while his reputation rose superior to all the attacks of calumny; as the passage of the slimy reptile over the polished mirror may partially stain the surface, but fails to detract from its intrinsic excellence.

[To be continued.]

THE freeness and all-sufficiency of divine grace is eminently displayed when little children are made the subjects of it. When we trace the same workings of the Spirit of God, the same repentance, the same faith, the same renunciation of the world, the same surrender of the soul to Christ's service, the same hope of glory in the experience of a little child as in that of the oldest veteran in the ranks of the militant church, we are constrained to confess the finger of God. When we hear such little ones discourse of the things which concern the kingdom of God with a divine simplicity and clearness, whilst over the eyes of many a learned sage there is a film of spiritual ignorance, we are constrained to magnify the power of divine grace, and adopt the language of the Redeemer: "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes." I do not forget, that those who are sages in years may be babes in Christ; but all must agree, that where grace manifests itself in those, who, in respect of their immature age, are literally babes, it shines forth with a beautiful and engaging lustre.

The subject of this Memoir was first introduced to my notice early in the present year, when the father brought him to me, and expressed the child's earnest desire to obtain instruction. He was accordingly received, at my request, into a little private Sunday school. His teacher once or twice mentioned him to me with commendation, as being particularly attentive. At the close of the month of March, it incidentally came to my ear that little Benjamin (for such was his name) was very ill. I went to see him. After some introductory in

quiries, the following conversation passed between us. "Are you afraid to die?"-"O no!" Why are you not afraid?”– "Because Jesus will save me; and I pray to Jesus to give me strength.". "Do you not think that you have been a sinner?”– "O yes, I know it. I have been very wicked."

And here I must caution my young readers, not to imagine that little Benjamin had been what people in general call a bad boy. No, on the contrary, he had been very dutiful to his parents, remarkably steady in his ways, and such as people in general would call a very good boy: it was a sense of sin in the sight of God, a feeling that he had not lived and served God as he ought; it was this that led him to speak of himself as having been so wicked.

In reply to his expression of his guilt and vileness, it was remarked, what a blessed assurance the word of God gives us, that in and through Christ Jesus there is salvation for the greatest sinners. Several texts to this purport were repeated to him. On my reciting to him John, iii. 16 and 17: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, &c." when I came to the words, "God

sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world," he took up the sentence and completed it, as to the meaning though not the very words" but that the_world through him might live." I said, "You labour now under a heavy burden: but it will be a blessed thing to go to heaven: there, there will be no more sin.". He again took up the sentence and added, "No more sin-no more sorrowno more affliction!"

On my second visit, I proposed some questions with a view to ascertain in what way he had first

been brought to think seriously about his soul, and to know the Saviour. He said, it was since he had been afflicted (for about a year past) that he had been led to think of his soul. I understand, that he gave the same account to another friend, applying to himself the words of David; "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; before I was afflicted I went astray." On being further questioned, how he derived his instruction, he said, that "his Father had told him as well as he could.' Indeed, I have reason to believe, that he obtained most of his instruction in private; partly from his own reading in his Bible, partly from his father's instructing him as well as he could: and in no small degree from his attendance at the before-mentioned private Sunday school. He does not appear to have gained much from public preaching; partly because he was too ill, subsequently to his receiving serious impressions, to attend often on public worship, and partly (I mention it with shame) because he could not always under stand the sermons. "He could not," he said, "understand much that was said, because of the hard words." I trust this will be a lesson to the writer, and to his brethren in the ministry, to use all plainness of speech in their endeavours to feed the flock of Christ. That little Benjamin should complain of "hard words," is indeed a forcible admonition of the necessity of using easy ones, because he was by no means deficient in understanding, but on the contrary was remarkably quick for his years, as must be evident through the whole of this little narrative.

At the time I had this conversation with him, Benjamin thought himself better; so much so, that, his parents being out, he had crept down stairs to the fireside of a friend living under the same roof. I asked him whether the thought of

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his recovery excited anxiety in his mind; whether he would desire to live, or would rather depart. He unhesitatingly declared, that he would rather depart and be with Christ. On being asked, why he preferred departing? he answered, "It was far better than to live in this vain world." I replied, "It is indeed a vain world; but you cannot speak much from experience: you have not seen much of its vanity."- "No," he replied, "I have not seen much; but I have seen enough to know that it is a vain wicked world." I find that he afterwards mentioned this part of our conversation to his teacher, and explained to him more particularly what he meant by saying, he had seen enough of the vanity of the world, viz. that he had seen so much wickedness and vanity even amongst children of his own age; idle boys and girls profaning the sabbath, &c.

The same feeling, of its being a blessed thing to exchange this vain world for the next, was forcibly expressed at another time, in the presence of a friend who took a memorandum of his words. On speaking of the prospect of his being soon removed, and on his mother's saying, that it was hard to part with her dear child, and that she had before lost two grownup children, who, she hoped, were gone to heaven; he immediately remarked, "But what a comfort to part with them, when you have got no doubt about their being happy with God; for it is a great deal better that they should be with him than that they should stay here."

If to any persons it should seem unnatural thus to describe a child of eleven years old, as uttering long connected sentences, I can assure them that there is no misrepresentation or exaggeration in this respect. Those who visited him know that he would at times speak considerably at length, expressing his ideas in very proper words,

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and without any embarrassment. It was also a peculiar feature in his conversation, that he had no common-place phrases, or what are called "cant terms." Sometimes we hear children talk in a religious strain, apparently above their years; it is easy to discover that they rather detail a set of phrases which their parents have taught them, than express their own thoughts and feelings; but there was nothing of this in little Benjamin. I never heard a man of thirty or of sixty express himself in a manner which could more distinctly show, that his words were the true and genuine expression of his inward sentiments and feelings.

As to his sincerity, indeed, there can be no doubt. He seemed to speak every thing as in the sight of a heart-searching God. He appeared to be deeply impressed with a sense of God's presence: so much so, that when his little sister would repeat her prayers in a somewhat hasty manner, I am told he would reprove her; and ask her if she recollected what she was about, and in whose presence she was; that she was addressing God, who searcheth the heart, and will not be deceived and put off with the language of the lip. And if she said grace before or after meat in a careless manner, he would require her to say it over again.

His knowledge of Scripture was remarkable, considering his age and the short time he had been seriously impressed. This may, under God, be attributed to a happy inquisitiveness, which led him to be always asking questions of those to whom he looked for instruction; and also to the plan which his sabbath teacher pursued, which was that of asking him questions, concerning what he learnt or read, to be answered out of his own mind. This mode of instruction is always found very beneficial; far more so than the too common plan of overburdening the memory with a

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quantity of matter which is not understood, and therefore soon forgotten. This method of questioning seems to have had the happiest effect on little Benjamin; so that he was competent to explain any easy passage of Scripture; thus on one occasion I read to him Luke xv. 5-7, the parable of the Strayed Sheep, and requested him to explain the meaning of it. This he did very readily. "We sinners," said he, are the lost sheep, who have wandered from God into the wicked world, and are in danger of being devoured by the lion, that is, by Satan, the roaring lion that goeth about, &c. But Jesus is the good Shepherd, who seeks us out and brings us back. The friends and neighbours whom the good Shepherd calls to rejoice with him, on the recovery of his lost sheep, are the holy angels-"There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."

Sometimes, whilst I was reading and explaining the word of God to him, he would put in some little comment of his own, in a pretty simple way; thus, whilst reading 1 Pet. i. 4, respecting the inheritance laid up for God's children, and pressing the idea that that is an inheritance that "fadeth not away," he said, "No, fadeth not away. Not like the rose; that will fade away." ." The seventh verse of that chapter fixed his attention intensely. Whilst I was pointing out to him, that there is a "needs be" for all the afflictions God sends upon his children, and that they are as a fire in which they are to be proved and purified, he seemed to enter into the idea with his whole soul; and his mother making some slight movement at the moment, he beckoned to her in the most solemn manner to be still.

On Easter Sunday, when I called upon him after morning service, there appeared a visible alteration