He found no resting place amidst the 'mire and clay'into which Satan had brought his feet, and saw no escape from the 'horrible pit' of his own despair.

“In this state of mental agony, he was one day wandering about in the streets of Dublin, weeping bitterly, when he was noticed and accosted by a pious man, by trade an edge-tool maker, who, with the tact of a Methodist, and the simplicity of a saint, ascertained his state, and endeavored to comfort him-at the same time inviting him to his house, or rather to his cellar, where he was about to hold a prayermeeting. The party assembled, consisted chiefly of soldiers from the barracks: prayer was offered by the different persons in turn, and the case of the providential interloper was specially presented before Him, with whom the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much ;' and such was the fervor of the good leader and the soldiers, and so sincere the contrition and supplication of the penitent, that he that very night found peace to his soul.”

He immediately joined a Methodist class. His talents soon attracted notice. He was elected a member of the “ Praying Association." He prayed publicly at the chapels, and in private houses; and began to speak in public, in three weeks after his conversion. The Methodist system has one happy trait, which it would be well for other denominations to imitate. It calls forth all the talents of its members, and employs them in the service to which they are best adapted. If Summerfield had joined some Baptist churches of which we have heard, he would have been restrained, instead of being brought forward ; and his talents and zeal would have only made his brethren more active and determin. ed in obstructing his way to the ministry.

Summerfield continued for some time in Dublin engaged in study, in attendance on the class, in Sabbath schools, and in the care of his father's family, where he supplied for a time, the place of a mother, and an instructer to the younger children. His mind was directed to the ministry, but was not yet fixed. He studied the Scriptures aseiduously, and spent much time in secret prayer.

“Mr. Summerfield, from his childhood upward, manifested a disposition the reverse of stoical, and this he mainly inherited from his father. Strong feelings were familiar to him. High enjoyments or deep distress. His cup running over with sweetness or with bitterness. These very frames, so exquisitely quick to feel and to be moved by every touch of joy or wo, gave his whole subsequent life (especially in his ministerial labors) its peculiar character, and constituted him the preacher who could, by sympathy, raise the most powerful and passionate emotions in his audiences.

"• Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find,' is the language of him who holds the dispensation of all spiritual blessings; and Summerfield was not one who pleaded coldly or unbelievingly for any of the precious proniises of the gospel; and on this occasion, especially, he experienced a new and deep baptism of the Holy Ghost. Being on a Sunday afternoon, with a few other religious persons, at the house of a friend, he writes: 'I was never in my life possessed of such feelings. While sitting in silence, the words "I have loved thee with an everlasting love,' tlashed into my mind in so sweet a man. MARCH, 1830.

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ner, that I could not contain ; I burst into tears; all wondered at the cause ; a hymn book was handed me; I sung and prayed; and that night I received an unction from the Holy One-glory be to Jesus!' When he awoke the next morning, he found the fire alive within the love was burning.' At half after six he went to the prayer-meeting, where, says he, my soul was so overpowered with the love of Jesus that I wept amain. I was often inclined to go out, that I might roar out the pantings of my soul. For the first time, dear brother M‘Dowall called on me to pray. I scarcely could utter words for weeping; but my heart was full-full-full; many will remember the morning."

Soon after this period he was received as a local preacher among the Methodists. He soon became popular, and travelled in various parts of Ireland, preaching to large assemblies, so frequently, and with such ardor, that he exhausted his strength, impaired his constitution, and hastened his death. The author says:

“On the 27th of February he arrived safe at his father's house, in Cork; and declined an invitation to preach on the following day, because his 'body required some rest. And well it might; as on the preceding evening he thus sums up the amount of his labors: 'I have preached now fifty times, since I left Dublin this time, which is seven weeks since; and I have in that period travelled three hundred and sixty-two miles up to Cork. A man may be prodigal of God's spiritual gifts, as well as of providential ones, and in both instances want must follow waste,-or early exhaustion be the consequence of reckless profusion. Let any learned and experienced Christian minister say, whether a young man, twenty-two years of age, and scarcely twelve months old as a preacher, did right to spend and be spent after this rate. Travelling three hundred and sixty-two miles, and preaching fifty times in seven weeks !-'a frame of adamant, a soul of fire,' would be worn out with such perpetuity of feverish excitement; what then could a frail body, with a hectic constitution, dom or rather, what must it suffer, in such a case? To adopt an elegant simile from my friend Montgomery, elicited by a perusal of the forementioned entry: 'I have seen fire carried in a handful of dry grass, hastily, lest it should burst out into flame, to light a heap of stubble, in autumn,-and I have seen it instantaneously consumed when applied to the materials thus collected. Summerfield so carried his life in his hands, and though he was enabled to kindle heap after heap, at last—and long before his time, as man would say—he was compelled to let it drop-it fell to ashes-for it was but tinder at the first. Let others be warned, who like him have the holy flame in their hearts, wrapt round with the weeds of the body, lest that which burns within, consume that which is without; and thus become itself extinct (on earth at least) for lack of fuel. It ought to be cherished, not opened to the whole atmosphere at once, any more than suffocated by being too closely prest." But this devoted young man, upon whom rested so much of the spirit and power of Elias,' al though he lived a dying life, experienced in the sequel as little of death as could consist with a translation from life to immortality ;indeed, his progress from earth to heaven all but resembled the ascent of the prophet of mount Carmel; in faith, in labor, in devotionhe went up in a chariot of fire.'—Who in England, Ireland, America, hath caught his mantle ? "

He was visited with several attacks of bleeding at the lungs, occasioned by his excessive efforts. He was repeatedly brought near

on it.

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the grave, by sickness. The account of his preaching, his studies, and his feelings, is very interesting; but we cannot dwell

In May, 1820, he visited England for the first time since his conversion. A singular incident occurred on this occasion.

“Immediately on his arrival at Bristol, as he was passing along one of the streets of the city, in the loose blue coat which he had worn aboard, and his head so reeling from the motion of the vessel, that he had occasionally to cling to the palisades, to preveut himself from falling on the pavement, he saw a number of children playing at marbles; of these he inquired the way to the Methodist chapel. Thither he repaired, and found that a stranger' was expected to preach that evening. Having taken his seat in a pew, he sat, "unknowing and unknown,' with the rest of the congregation. When they had waited nearly half an hour beyond the time appointed, and no preacher making his appearance, nor any person attempting even to give out a hymn, the people meantime beginning to go away, it was strongly impressed upon Mr. Summerfield's mind, that he must himself be 'the stranger,' thus providentially appointed. After reasoning a short time with flesh and blood, he at length broke the snare, and inwardly replied to what he considered a call from God, 'Lord, here am I—not my will, but thine, be done!' He then ascended the pulpit, and under a sweet sense of the divine presence, gave out the bymn, beginning, 'God moves in a mysterious way. He felt a little trepidation at first, but in a few minutes this text came to his mind'Fear not, for I am with thee; 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. He preached with his usual freedom and unction; and thus singularly commenced his ministry in England.

“A few words will explain the circumstance which thus opened Mr. Summerfield's way to a British pulpit, so contrary to his expectation and even to his wishes. The District Meeting, which had that week been held in Bristol, had terminated only the day before, and this, in connexion with the anniversary of the local Methodist Missionary Society, had brought a considerable number of preachers to the spot; publication had therefore been made for "a stranger' on the evening in question ; but no name was mentioned, as it was hardly to be doubted, but that when forty or fifty preachers were present in the city, some stranger might reasonably be expected. No other stranger, however, or any other preacher, could be found, though many of the friends actually went from the chapel to seek one."

He was received in England with the same admiration which he had excited in Ireland. At Liverpool he had an interview with the Rev. John Emory, a delegate from the American Conference. His conversation with this gentleman, and some family reasons, induced him to visit America, in company with his father, his brother, and two sisters. They arrived in New York in March, 1821. A new era in Mr. Summerfield's life commences here; and we shall defer, till our next number, a notice of his brief but brilliant course in this country.

Two Scrmons, on National Blessings of Christianity, and on Infi.

delity. By Cyrus Port Grosvenor, Pastor of the First Bap-
tist Church, Boston. 1829.

THESE discourses are very seasonable, and we trust they
will do much good. The first, very justly traces our national
blessings to the intellectual, moral, and religious character of the
first settlers of the country; and especially to “the form of their
ecclesiastical polity, which admitted of the free developement of all
the best powers of the human mind, and of the sanctifying truths
of the Gospel." We think that the positions assumed by the
author are well sustained. In referring to the history of other re-
ligions, particularly that of Papacy, he clearly shows that we are
indebted to Protestant Christianity, not only for whatever is pure
and elerated in morals, but for the establishment of our civil and
political rights. It ought to be generally known, that wherever Ro-
manism has prevailed, its ecclesiastics have always systematically
labored to keep the multitude in darkness. But the chief aim of
Protestantism is to diffuse the light of revealed truth among the
people.

The Sermon on Infidelity was called for by the signs of the times. A person, claiming to be a woman, advocated in several public lectures, the principles of Infidelity and Atheism. We must confess, we were much disappointed, that a people who had acquired so much fame abroad, for intelligence, virtue, and decency, as have the citizens of Boston, should from any motives have crowded to one of our Theatres to listen to a woman, who would reduce to the level of brutes, their mothers and wives and daughters. Many did so.

' And this encouraged a few infidels in sentiment, to form themselves into a Society.

In view of the tremendous evils which in other countries bave followed in the train of infidelity, and from a conviction that nothing is so calculated to unsettle the very foundations of social order, and bring upon our country a terrible overthrow, the author of this discourse, thought it was time, “the alarm were sounded, that the deadly foe may not have time to insinuate his poisonous maxims into the community by stealth."

We have only room for a short extract, but it contains an appeal which we hope will find its way to the hearts of all who read it. The preacher had just asserted the humiliating fact, that every one who doeth evil will not come to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved, and that this is the true reason why they reject the Bible. Mr. G. asks,

“ Are the advocates for infidelity themselves able to give us any other account of this matter? . Why reject the Gospel ? Are its doctrines licentious ? Do its precepts encourage any man to live in sin ? Are its threatenings directed against the virtuous? Are its rewards promised to the lovers of sin? Whoever thought it? Not one of you, my hearers--not even the bitterest enemies of the Gospel. Were the Gospel a system of licentiousness, we would not ask you to respect it; but we would renounce it, as we do every system of

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infidelity, and for the same reason. Every one who has read the Gospel, will admit that its morality is pure. Did ever the boldest infidels deny it? Certainly very few. Why then reject it? Why seek to the teachers of infidelity for another system of morals? Is it because you hope to find one more pure ? You have never hoped it.

“We solicit your memory, to take the seat of judgment between us and yourselves, and say whether you ever indulged the expectation, or felt the desire, of discovering in the counsels of Infidelity a better, a purer, a holier code of moral rules than is contained in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

“It is, surely, granting all any one can claim, to submit the cause to his own judgment. We, therefore, appeal again to your memory, and ask, if you have not rather hoped to find in the principles of infidelity an easier morality, whenever you felt inclined to turn away from the gospel to listen to the teachings of avowed unbelievers ? Have you not experienced an unwillingness to subunit, practically, to the rigid morality of the gospel, and tried to persuade yourselves that a more lax morality would better comport with the desires of your heart?

“The gospel requires, and every one is aware of the requirement, that the sinner repent of all his sins, and that he confess them before God and forsake them. Have you not, who have at any time been inclined to listen to the counsels of infidelity, been aware of some influence which a reluctance to repent of sin and to forsake some darling lust, has exerted upon you?”

We cordially recommend these sermons to all our readers, but especially to the perusal of the young. They need to be warned against a system which promises indulgencies without restraint, pain, and remorse; but which must fail in its promises, because it is a system contrary to nature and conscience. Should they embrace it, they will entail on themselves a fearful amount of guilt, and may find at the close of life, as many infidels have found, that when they most need consolation and hope, it will leave them in the anguish of despair.

Annals of the Poor: containing the Dairyman's Daughter, the

Negro Servant, the Young Cottager, fc. fc. By LEGH RichMOND, A. M. A new edition, enlarged and illustrated, with an Introductory Sketch of the Author. By Rev. JOHN AYRE, A.M. Boston : Crocker & Brewster. New-York: J. Leavitt. pp. 304.

If the value of an author's works is to be estimated by their good effects, the writings of Legh Richmond, will be held in unceasing remembrance. The perusal of the Dairyman's Daughter, has given delight probably to millions of pious minds, and has been the happy means of calling many to the love of the Saviour. It has been translated into twenty-two languages, and is included in the series of almost every Tract Society. An abridgment of the narrative has long been circulated in the form of a tract; but in this volume, it is presented in full, with various letters written by