which were permitted, afforded the most entire satisfaction respecting her spiritual state. I found her passing through great tribulation; but she glorified God in the fires: the sudden and withering dispensation, which many think hastened her dissolution, was sanctified to the health and peace of her soul: it might, and probably did, weaken and waste the outer man; but it was made instrumental in strengthening her faith, and deepening her communion with God. Throughout the trying circumstances, her tranquil spirit breathed the most entire resignation: she was often heard to say, "He doeth all things well: some important end is to be answered by all this!" She was far more concerned that this end should be attained, than that the rod should be withdrawn. She frequently spoke of death with much composure, and was wont to contemplate the event as one which would be her introduction into the presence of the Lord Jesus, and of many whom she had known and loved on earth. A removal from London having been judged advisable, I had not the opportunity of a personal interview for some weeks before her death; but the testimony of those who were so privileged was, as might be confidently expected it would be, highly satisfactory. Her esteemed friend, Mr. Storr, saw her the day before her departure, and to him she expressed the profit she derived from the application of the promises of the Gospel. Her weakness rendered it difficult to read, or to engage in any mental exercise, and to this she adverted; but she added, "Passages of Scripture flit continually through my mind, and by these I am fed day by day." Allusion being made to the blood of Christ which cleanseth from all sin, and to that perfect love which casteth out all fear, she observed, with deep feeling, "I experience the blessedness of that." On the following day, the 17th of November, 1843, a sudden attack of her disorder dissolved the tabernacle, and her happy spirit went home to God. It may be said of her, as it was of Demetrius, She "hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself." I can also bear record; and all who knew her, know that the record is true.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

11. DIED, January 2d, 1843, at Stockport, Mr. James Boulton, aged seventy-two. He was born at the village of Ecclestone, near Chorley, Lancashire, anno 1770. For several years previous to his conversion to God, he had “ a form of godliness," and manifested a steady regard for the outward ordinances of religion. The date of this, to him, memorable change, is not exactly known; but it was while engaged in reading the holy Scriptures, that conviction ultimately fastened upon his mind. Being much troubled in spirit, he applied to a Clergyman for counsel; and the advice he received was, "to attend the church, to get into cheerful company, and to be sure to keep away from the Methodists." According to his own statement, it was while on the way from his own house to what were then called Grundy-Crofts, that he obtained peace with God, and found rest unto his soul.

Mr. Boulton now resided at Norwich, into which place Wesleyan Methodism had already been introduced; and where he became united to the Methodist society. He was a man of peace, steady in his attachment to Methodism, and consistent in his general deportment.

For more than thirty years he filled the offices of Class-Leader and Local Preacher; and in both these capacities was much respected by his brethren.

In the month of August, 1841, he sustained a somewhat severe attack of apoplexy. For several days his state was such as to occasion considerable alarm. And though, by the blessing of God upon the means employed, he was again enabled to attend to business, his constitution was visibly impaired. It soon became evident, not only that his bodily powers had received a shock, but that the faculties of his mind had also suffered. His memory was much weakened; his арprehension was dull; and he exhibited a general feebleness of the entire system. But, though a partial wreck, he still evinced the same affection for the work in which he had so long been actively engaged; and when obliged to desist from preaching, he expressed an ardent wish that, if such had been the will of God, he might have been permitted to labour yet another year."

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For some time previous to his death, Mr. Boulton appears to have been conscious that the time of his departure was near at hand; and to have been specially preparing for the solemn event. He intimated to his family that he had given them up to God; and he lost no opportunity of being present at those means of grace by which it is the declared intention of God to prepare his people for a blessed immortality. On New-Year's-day, the last Sabbath of his life, he attended the services of the sanctuary three times. In less than twenty-four hours before he died, he was present at the renewing of the covenant, in Hillgate chapel; and received the holy sacrament of the Lord's supper. And though, as the event has proved, he stood already upon "the brink of death," he appeared to be quite as well as usual. On the following morning he was engaged in his customary employment until about twelve o'clock, when he came home to dinner; but while sitting at table with his family, he leaned backward in his chair, and almost instantly expired. GEORGE TURNER.

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12. Died, February 3d, at Lowestoft, in the seventy-ninth year of her age, Mary Baines, an old disciple" of Jesus Christ. She was awakened to a sense of her sin and danger in the year 1790, at Great Yarmouth, under the ministry of the Rev. John Reynolds, then on the Norwich Circuit. At that time the Wesleyan Methodists were people much spoken against. She, nevertheless, in the midst of opposition from her family connexions, united herself to them, and continued seeking the Lord in prayer, and in attendance on the ordinances of religion, until the Lord lifted upon her the light of his countenance, and bade her Baines, though called to attend to family duties, it was the business of her life "to cleave unto the Lord with purpose of heart." On leaving Yarmouth to reside at Lowestoft, she did not allow change of place to produce any change in her purposes and pursuits. She frequently said, "The way of duty is the way of safety;" and on that principle she lived. During her last illness she had a well-grounded confidence that she had not followed a cunningly-devised fable. She felt that her feet were upon the Rock of Ages, and that therefore she should not be moved. She rejoiced in Christ Jesus, being enabled to say, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me: thy rod and thy staff they comfort

go on her way rejoicing. After her marriage with Mr.

me." Under a deep conviction that she was an unprofitable servant, she said, "Should anything be said of me after death, tell them I disclaim all self-righteousness. I am a sinner saved by grace." Her sufferings during her affliction were great; but her patience was exemplary. To one of her children, writing to a relation, she said, “Tell her that I am just entering the swellings of Jordan; but that I feel that I am on the Rock;" adding, "I shall expect to meet her at the right hand of God." She often repeated such promises of God as were applicable to her state. She also quoted the verses of a hymn, in which she greatly delighted,-" Who are these arrayed in white?" &c. She requested them, in her dying moments, to sing the hymn, and joined them with all her remaining and fast-decaying strength. In taking leave of her children, she said, "Death is a welcome messenger." She was enabled frequently to repeat, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord." In this happy state she continued, until she changed mortality for eternal life. WILLIAM WELBORNE.

13. Died, at Saltash, February 19th, aged seventy-one, Mr. Thomas Tasker. It was not till he was almost forty years old, that he began to think seriously and practically about spiritual concerns. He was, at that time, in the employ of a Government contractor for supplying certain articles to the French prisoners, confined in several vessels in Plymouth Harbour. On one occasion, he and another man were proceeding towards these prison-ships in a boat, which, by some means, upset, and they were both plunged into the water, and in great danger of perishing. He was almost exhausted, when he was perceived by a waterman, who came to his help. During those, to him, eventful moments, nothing like prayer came into his mind. He thought of the distress which would be experienced by his wife and family when they should hear that he was drowned. When taken home, however, and placed in bed, after the excitement had passed away, and he began to reflect, the thought of the solemn judgment of God arose in his mind: he asked himself, where he would have been at that moment, had not timely aid been afforded. He was so powerfully affected, that, weak as he was, he sprang out of bed, and for the first time in his life began to pray in earnest for mercy. These feelings continued: he renounced the company of his former associates, and sought for those who might be able to direct and encourage him. He became a member of the Wesleyan society, and desisted not from seeking the forgiveness of sins, till, through faith in Christ, he found redemption in his blood. After a time, he became a Local Preacher and Class-Leader, and in various ways zealously endeavoured to be useful. He adorned his Christian profession, and lived for many years in the enjoyment of perfect love. He at length finished his course with joy. Throughout his affliction he was kept in great peace. During the closing week of his life he suffered much; but he was supported. When it was evident that he was sinking, he was enabled to testify that "all was right." His last intelligible words were, "Jesus! ever nigh, ever sweet. He is nigh; he is intimately nigh." Soon after, he fell into a quiet slumber, and in that slumber passed from time into eternity. JOSEPH B. WEST.

MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

THE SIN OF BALAAM IN THE CHURCH:

REV. ii. 14.

(For the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.)

MR. GALLOWAY,* a Clergyman who has brought much learning, research, and industry to the elucidation of the Apocalypse, has expressed himself very strongly on the subject of worldliness in the church, in his Notes on our Lord's address to the angel of the church at Pergamos: "But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication." He refers particularly to the practical working of patronage in the Church of England. As he is not only not a Dissenter, seeking for reasons to justify opposition, but a thorough Churchman, lamenting, though he does not absolutely condemn, the schism of the Presbyterians, as he terms it, his testimony is to be taken as that of a friend, not as that of an enemy; and may have, therefore, so much the greater weight attached to it. As such it is extracted for the readers of the Wesleyan Magazine. I happen to be one of those who cannot join in such attacks on the Church as imply the rejection of what I consider to be the proper principle of an Establishment,—the absolute necessity of Christianity to the well-being of society. Chateaubriand (Génie du Christianisme) has well said, "It is from the faith of Christ that the social virtues proceed; since it is true, by the unanimous consent of the wise, that the dogma which requires us to believe in the one God, the Rewarder and the Avenger, is the firmest support both of morals and civil polity." A Christian state, therefore, may employ the church to promote the well-being of society by doing its own proper work; that is, preaching the pure word of God as given to man in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. But as to the spurious and most destructive principle, too generally adopted, especially by Statesmen, of all parties, that the Church is the creature of the State, and is established only as an instrument of worldly policy, to be governed by worldly laws, and to have its sacred discipline subverted, and its funds made to flow in the channels of worldly ambition and avarice; the sooner it is given to the winds the better. It is one of the most fatal frauds of Satan, and needs only to be known for its universal reprobation among all who are spiritually minded. In the whole controversy which issued in the recent disruption of the Scottish Church, nothing stronger was said on the subject of patronage than the sentences published by Mr. Galloway. And, strong as they are, by none who understand the value of Christian truth, and the real nature of Christian character, can they be gainsayed. The passage is as follows:

"The doctrine of Balaam is here expressly distinguished from the sin of the Nicolaitanes; and therefore I marvel why so many confound them, as

* "The Gate of Prophecy; being the Revelation of Jesus Christ by St. John, theologically and historically expounded, &c. By W. B. Galloway, Curate of Brompton, Middlesex. 2 vols. 8vo. Rivingtons. 1846."

VOL. III.-FOURTH SERIES.

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if the error of both had consisted in the same sensual immoralities. The sin of Balaam was, that he loved the ways of unrighteousness,-that he loved the world and the things of the world, and compromised his duty to his worldliness, by insidious advice to Balac, the object of which was to amalgamate the Israelites and the Moabites, by enticing the former into alliance with the women of the latter. These were only the lure: the main object was to enchain the elect people with the attractions of the world. The personal motive of Balaam was the desire of the good things of this life; and the object which he lent himself to promote was the mixing up of the church with the world, and the polluting of her principles and practices with the idolatrous principles and practices of the world. Would God our own Church were clear of this sin! But I fear it is undeniable that her high and holy principles are lowered to the maxims of the world, and that her practices are adulterated with the principles of worldly traffic, to such an extent that the pollution is not discerned to be such, and no blush is felt for its open exposure. The public papers present us with numerous instances of Clergymen, who, far from viewing their office in a spiritual light, advertise for an office in Christ's church, as if the care of souls were a coach-house, a mansion, and a garden. There are not wanting patrons who advertise for sale the next presentation, with the feeling recommendation that the present Incumbent cannot be very far from his death-bed; and they find purchasers among those enemies of Christ and of the Church, who treat a congregation as no less legitimately marketable than a flock of sheep. Patrons have too generally forgotten that they hold their patronage as a solemn trust for Christ, for the employment of which they must give account at the day of judgment, and have come to regard it as a profitable article of private property, or means of political influence. And there are some who profess to teach the people that they have immortal souls, and yet see nothing wrong in those immortal souls being treated as an article of traffic, as far as that can be done under the laxest interpretation, not of the law of Christ, but of the law of man; who view the people as a convenience for the Clergy, and have more faith in a good parsonage, and a fair income, with light duty, than in their responsibility to Christ, and in his coming judgment. It is said that men not otherwise disreputable are guilty of such practices. And the Clergy, who are appointed to sail not with the lax current of human opinion, and to justify the abuses of human law, but to hold forth the purer light of Christ, and to correct the standard. opinion by that holier and stricter morality, behold these things without testifying against them, and leave men in this particular without warning, admonition, or reproof, to follow the broad and downward way. Even the people have often purer notions on the subject than their spiritual guides, and can see that there is sin most damnable in thus buying and selling their souls for mere pecuniary considerations. Yet no one in the Legislature seems to think of attempting to remedy this state of things by abolishing the sale of the next presentation, which is a trap-door for all simony.

“The Church, meanwhile, is divided by parties and coteries, embittered by mutual accusation; but while these are all awake to the faults of those who belong to any party opposed to their own, often exaggerating their errors through excess of zeal, what voice is lifted up against the prevalent abuse of patronage, and what check is attempted to be put on the effrontery of practices in the eye of Christ simoniacal, and what blush is felt for the open exposure of them in their own advertisements? They declaim against