ZION THE PERFECTION OF BEAUTY. having once put his hand to the work, shall of his own rich mercy, and in his own time, and according to his own sovereign will, revive, carry on, and manifestatively accomplish the same. Since the foregoing note was penned, a case mentioned to us by the late beloved James Francis has come to mind. Some few years ago, a godly woman returning from a short ramble on Hampstead Heath (in the neighbourhood of which she resided) expressed herself in words like these ;-" I have had such a wonderful view of my Lord since I have been walking; and the next time I see him, it will be in eternal glory." She was then in perfect health; after dinner she was taken ill, and before night was casting her crown at Immanuel's feet! ANOTHER CASE.-But a few months ago, a dear aged saint (who for many years sat under the ministry of the late Henry Fowler, and who had been from fear of death all her life-time subject to bondage), had these words sweetly applied to her heart" I will lay me down and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell in safety." Two or three nights after, she begged her nurse (then sitting by her side) to compose herself to sleep, saying "I will rouse you if I want you.' When the nurse woke, in some two or three hours' time, the dear woman's spirit had taken its flight; and the doctor said she must have slept off almost immediately after speaking to her nurse. Here is encouragement for some of you, poor trembling ones. You will never realize your fears, as sure as God is true.-ED.] ZION THE PERFECTION OF BEAUTY. PSALM L. 2. Castle Cary. ZION's a city fair, A garden wall'd around, Zion's his chief delight, For her he sheds his blood; He clothes her with his glorious light, Zion's a chosen race, A Royal Priesthood too, Of sinners sav'd by sovereign grace, His lovely face to view. Zion is well supplied With heav'nly stores of meat; Her bounteous Lord does well provide Zion's adorn'd with love, Her clothing is of gold, Prepared to live and reign above Zion shall ever reign In union with her King; To praise his great and glorious name, JOSEPH. CORRESPONDENCE OF THE LATE HENRY FOWLER. MY DEAR FRiend, Your letter by Mr. Simpson I received. We were very glad to hear from you, and still to find your heart desiring the first-ripe fruit, which is Christ-the first-fruits of them that sleep. We have often talked about you, and thought of you, which shows that distance of place does not break the bond of union-nor will even death itself. "Tho' we must change our place, Yet shall we never cease Praising the Lamb." And surely such wretched, saved sinners, have a necessity laid upon them to praise the dear Redeemer. Oh, that we had a deeper sense of Jesu's love and complete redemption upon our hearts! Many years of pilgrimage are gone, and are you not glad of it? I am, sometimes. When I look back I have many things to be ashamed of: yes! since I have known the Lord. I have been unfruitful, unwatchful, rebellious. Nor am I any better at the present moment. Thank the Lord for ever that from Christ my fruit is found! The living and dying confession of a saved sinner must besaved by sovereign grace. We must sing grace in life, and grace in death, and sing grace! grace! to all eternity. I perceive by your letter that you have many things to complain of-Zion always had and always will while on earth. Carnal professors have no changes; but living souls will have every branch of divine life tried. True faith is like pure gold, and the furnace is necessary to take away the dross. False joys, carnal confidence, and corrupt affections, will often meet with and entangle a child of God; and these things are dross, which a rotten-hearted hypocrite mistakes for gold, and much admires them. We sometimes think very little of our faith if it does not bring in abundant consolation; but certainly there is much precious faith when, like Job, we can hold him to his word, and trust in him though he slay us. I cannot write much now; I hope to see you in April. My dear wife joins in love to you and family, and all friends. We are all in good health through mercy. February 20th, 1822. Yours in love, HENRY FOWLER. ANECDOTE.-A pompous young minister being once asked by an elderly fellow-passenger what he thought of the Gospel, began to give a very dry and lengthened disquisition upon the derivation of the word, at the same time altogether losing sight of its nature and blessed properties. "And what think you of it?" said the young man, addressing in turn the elderly stranger. "What?" was the reply, "why I believe it to be the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth."-" So weighty, so powerful was the old man's answer," said the young man when speaking of it afterwards, "that I felt utterly ashamed of myself; and never since have I been anxious to make a show of my learning." REVIEW S. Puseyism. Addressed to all who either Promote or Proscribe Tractarianism. London: Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper. A FORCIBLY written pamphlet, recommending itself to the reader by its simple narration of facts. The author says "This Tract originates in an earnest desire to call the attention of those who may lean to the heresy now agitating the Church of England, to the ultimate results of the journey they are inconsiderately commencing. Let them ask themselves this question-'Am I prepared to surrender so much of my intellect as will enable me to believe firmly in the Roman Catholic legendary Miracles? If so, proceed in reading these pages, and peruse a very inconsiderable specimen of statements which will demand your credence; and if you find difficulty in bringing yourself to believe these extracts, how will you be able to credit the miracles narrated in fifty-four ponderous folio volumes of the Acta Sanctorum?—all equally credible, all equally to be credited under pain of punishment." We quote the following "CURIOUS ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIGIOUS TRACT. "Let us now" (says the author of the pamphlet), "as introductory to a very remarkable Romish Tract, trace and expose one striking result of returninto the bosom of the Scarlet Mother,' namely, an implicit, a sincere, an avowed belief, in the reality and verity of Monkish Miracles. For the Rev. John Henry Newman, B.D., another of the leaders-perhaps, indeed, the originator of this halting between two opinions' sect-has recently devoted the energies of his credulity to a laboured defence of the absolute truth of the Monastic Legends of the Dark Ages in his Essay on the Miracles recorded in the Ecclesiastical Writers of the Early Ages:' also in his 'Lives of the English Saints, St. Stephen, Founder of the Cistercian Order, St. Richard the Saxon, St. Augustine of Canterbury, &c.' "It therefore behoves those who are only commencing their downward progress in this sliding scale of open, brazen-faced, absolute Popery, to look cautiously and anxiously before them, and to judge deliberately as to the extent to which they are willing to abandon the unerring dictates of Holy Scripture, and the guidance of sanctified reason, in order to submit, with blindfolded subserviency, to the contemptible, anti-scriptural usurpation of the most degraded and lunatic superstition before which the human mind can prostrate itself: in honest truth, lunatic is not the appropriate word which should be here used, for lunacy is an infliction of Divine Providence; the reader must therefore supply some other more correct and proper expression, in which base and crafty deceit may be included, and sinister, intentional fraud be understood. "The extremely curious Tract which we now subjoin, and which it is presumed has never before appeared in an English dress, was found very carefully fastened between the leaves of a splendid folio copy of a costly work on Architectnre- L'Archittettura di M. Vitruvio Pollione. Napoli, 1758.' So that two circumstances may justly be inferred-first, that extraordinary care was taken for the safe preservation thereof; second, that the owner must have occupied a highly respectable station in society. Both these inferences are worthy of notice. "The Prayer, Oration, or Tract, is as follows, and is translated as closely as the idioms of the two languages permit : "Copy of a Document found in the Holy Sepulchre of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, in Jerusalem, which is kept by His Holiness, and by Charles V., in their Oratories, in a Silver Casket. "Saint Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary, Saint Matilda, and Saint Brigida, earnestly wishing to be informed of some particulars of the sufferings of Jesus Christ, offered up especial prayers, on which Jesus Christ appeared unto them, and thus spake: My dearly beloved Servants, know then, that the armed soldiers amounted to one hundred and five. 666 "The number of those who conducted me when I was bound, was twenty-three. "The Executioners of Justice were thirty-three. "I received thirty blows on my head. "Near the Garden, in order to compel me to rise up from the ground, they kicked me one hundred and five times. On my head and on my breast I received one hundred and eight blows from their hands. "I received eighty blows on my back. "I was dragged with cords, and by the hair of my head, twenty-three times. "Thirty times they spat in my face. "They scourged me with six thousand six hundred and sixty-six stripes. "In my body I received one hundred wounds. "They gave me one hundred and ten buffets on the head. "They gave me a mortal wound when on the cross. "For two hours I was suspended by my hair, and I sighed one hundred and twenty-nine times without ceasing. "I was dragged with cords, and by my beard, twenty-three times. "One hundred wounds did I receive from the Crown of Thorns. Three thorns pierced my forehead mortally. "I was wounded a thousand times. "Five hundred and eight soldiers guarded me; three led me. "The drops of blood which I shed were in number, three millions eight thousand four hundred and thirty. "To whomsoever shall daily repeat seven Paternosters and Ave Marias for twelve years in succession, to complete the number of the drops of my blood, I will grant these five benefits: "1. Plenary Indulgence, and Forgiveness of all Sins. "2. Exemption from the torments of Purgatory. "3. Should death occur before the twelve years are expired, it shall be reckoned as if they were fully completed. 4. It shall be esteemed equal to the crown of martyrdom, and as if he had shed his blood for the Holy Faith. 5. From heaven I will watch over his soul on earth, and the souls of his relations to the fourth generation. "Whoever shall carry a copy of this Oration about him shall not be drowned, nor die by any painful or sudden death; shall be free from the power of contagion, from the plague, and from lightning; shall not die without confession; shall be protected from his enemies, and from the power of Justice; from all evil wishers, and from all unjust accusation. "Females in difficult and perilous travail, holding this Oration, shall be instantly delivered, and rescued from all danger. "In any house where this Oration is kept, no treachery shall exist, nor any other evil thing; and forty days before a death takes place, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary will appear. "A certain Captain travelling, saw a Human Head cut off from its body. This Head, so cut off, spake and said, 'O Passenger! as you are going to Barcelona, bring a Confessor to me, in order that I may confess myself; as it is now three days since I was cut off by robbers and murderers, and I cannot die until I have confessed myself." A Confessor having been brought to the place by the Captain, the living Head made its confession, and forthwith breathed its last; when a copy of this Oration was found upon it. "This Oration has received the approbation of the various Tribunals of the Holy Inquisition, and of the Kingdoms of Spain. "If the seven Paternosters and Aves are recited for the souls of the departed, the reciter may apply these benefits to that soul which may be dearest to his heart.'"" Oh! Popery! Popery! to what ridiculous extremes wilt thou not lead thy poor deluded, priest-ridden votaries? Brief Memoir of Thomas John Simpson, aged Ten Years. London : THE history of an intelligent little boy, whose mind seems at this early age to have been under the precious openings of Divine grace. Many of his remarks-nay, the whole of his short career-are as touching as they are forcible. "ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD." CREATED minds can never tell The glories of Immanuel, The God of love and power; Who by his word all things sustains, He clothes the lily, gives it room, His air wafts forth the same; |