its truth, he would never allow himself to be led into a discussion of the subject again, but always turned the conversation to the great question of personal religion, which he found was a certain method of closing the controversy.

In the beginning of 1811, he was called to Dartmouth, Devon, to attend the funeral of his mother, and during the visit he became acquainted with the Rev. T. Stenner, then labouring to revive the dissenting congregation over which the venerated JOHN FLAVEL once presided, but which Socinianism had well nigh destroyed.

Mr. S. having obtained his confidence, he informed him of his religious experience, of his wish to join the church at New Court, and of those desires which prevailed in his soul to do the will of God. Hitherto Mr. V. knew nothing of the great schemes of usefulness, which occupied the attention of the religious public, but he accompanied Mr. S. to some of the religious anniversaries in May 1811, and was much interested with the meeting of the Tract Society, and particularly gratified on finding, that several Russian merchants, whom he well knew in the routine of business, were actively engaged in promoting its interests.

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He now proposed himself as a candidate for communion with the Independent Church, New Court. Long had he listened to the ministry of its venerable pastor Dr. Winter, with peculiar edification and enjoyment; but his very great diffidence had restrained him from communicating his feelings. sense of duty, and a desire of Christian-fellowship however overcame his reserve, and on the 6th of September, 1811, he was received into that society, which has the honour of having first excited him to acts of Christian philanthropy. It is a maxim in the policy of this church, "that all members shall according to their

ability, engage in some work of benevolence. Several spheres of useful labour were therefore suggested to Mr. V.; but he chose to visit the sick, and in this self-denying task, so unattractive to a man possessed by the spirit of this world, he patiently persevered, and did our space permit, we might extract from the little journal he kept of these "visits of mercy," several affecting incidents, illustrative of the gradual developement of those principles, and of the formation of those habits, which prepared him for more extended usefulness.

The ardour of his mind in these benevolent occupations, is developed in the following address, which we presume was delivered at the meeting of the Friendly Female Society in 1813, after it had lost by death, a lady peculiarly distinguished by her usefulness. Though long, it will be esteemed a pleasing specimen of his piety and his eloquence:

"Madam,--The death of our valuable

sister Mrs. Emmerson, demands on our part this day, a solemn pause. There is a voice from the tomb of departed worth, and wisdom will listen to its salutary in

structions, to its wholesome admonitions, and to its cheering encouragements. It conveys to every ear this important lesson, that no vigour of constitution, no precautions of prudence, no measures of extensive usefulness, can ward off the stroke of death. It admonishes the slothful to bestir themselves; it urges the active onward to greater activity; to seize every opportunity of doing good, and to think nothing done while there remains any thing to be done. There is no work, no device, no planning of schemes for alleviating the ills of life in the grave. The bosom of our departed friend, will heave no more with sympathy for the lonely widow, and her fatherless children; no more will her eye be moistened at the recital of distress; for which, till this excellent Institution, like an angel of God, in female form, held forth its hand, no one seemed to care. Silent for ever the tongue, which with affectionate persuasive energy, pleaded the cause of age, of disease, of want. Her presence, which at our meeting gladdened every heart, and gave a new impulse to the best affections of the soul, we shall witness no more. We felt the force of her ardent piety, it ele

vated the tenderness of our nature, it gave to the softness of the woman the mild sanctity of the saint; her example is before us, and I trust it shall not be placed Like a torch, it should before us in vain. both guide and inflame. We hear her voice from the excellent glory that environs her. Translated into the language of mortals, it says--"O work while it is day, the night cometh in which no man can work. Seek out with the assiduity, which redeeming love inspires; seek out the poor, the neglected, the unpitied of your own sex. Open the book of God to them. Its consolations are pure as their heir heavenly origin, and more refreshing than the breath of the morning. Direct their eyes to HIM, whose divine person, whose all-perfect atonement and prevailing advocacy, whose laws and promises are the glory of the book, and the sheet anchor of human hope. Unite all your faculties in the good work in which you are engaged. Let love and growing esteem be the hallowed bonds which unite them. Resist the entrance of every feeling which would weaken your energies by dividing your hearts. O could I be permitted to disclose to you the exalted felicity to which the sovereign mercy of God my Saviour hath introduced me. Could I lead you through the ever living groves of paradise-could I carry you in the manner of this heavenly world, through the islands of the blessed-could I place you under the shade of the tree of lifecould I present to you the brightness of the Father's glory, to the Lamb in the midst of the throne, with the marks of recent slaughter on his sacred bosom, the great loadstone of redeemed hearts-The sight would make seraphs of you allwould awaken a flame in your renewed hearts, which no selfishness, no ingratitude, no torpor, no apathy could ever extinguish." Let us surrender our hearts to the force of truth, and the power of love. Let us persevere in our course of sacred benevolence; let us study like our departed friend, to finish our course with joy in our own bosoms, with credit to the faith we profess, and with extensive benefit to the poor objects of this Institution. Heaven is on our side-every pions, every kind affection is on our side; the honour of female nature is involved in our prudence, our stability, our union, our unceasing exertions. Let it be ever recollected, and preserved in our memory, that the day is coming, and will soon be present, in which beauty, health, fair fame, rank, and whatever else is deemed of importance below, must for ever lose their influence; and nothing remain of moment, but the favour of heaven, the image of the Saviour, the refined faculties of our sanctified natures, and that sentence from our Father's lips, which shall fix for ever our

character, and secure our blessedness. ، Well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord.''

In 1815 he visited his friend Stenner at Dartmouth, after the marriage of that gentleman to his sister, Miss M. A. Venning, to whom he was much attached. To her on one occasion he said," What good thing must I do, that I may inherit eternal life?" To which she promptly replied in the language of our Lord, ، This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent," which much affected him with the great simplicity and beauty of the Christian scheme.*

Amidst the lovely scenery, which adorn the romantic banks of the Dart, Mr. V. did not forget to prosecute" his Father's business.' He united with a clergyman in the neighbourhood, Mr. Stenner, and a benevolent layman, to visit the poor of the town, in order to ascertain the want of Bibles, and finding 230 families destitute of the Scriptures, he solicited subscriptions from the more opulent inhabitants, to assist them in the purchase of them. He induced the to subscribe their poor pence, and as he saw the humble rustics cheerfully come to pay their is the happiest day of my life." mites, he said to his sister, "This Thus, when on what some would call a visit of pleasure, he secured the circulation of 435 copies of the word of life. On his return to London, the attention of the benevolent was occupied by the alarming increase of juvenile delinquency, and the prisons of the metropolis were visited by several

* This anecdote is related by the Rev. R. Knill, in his memoir of Mr. W. V., as having occurred before his union to the church at New Court, and as one of the means which led to his decided attachment to the Gospel; but in fact, it happened many months after. Mr. K. had not the opportunity of consulting his private papers, and consequently the account of his early history and religious experience in that work, is peculiarly inadequate.

gentlemen anxious to effect some reformation. In a letter to Mr. Stenner, January 1816, he says, "I have been visiting a poor fellow in Newgate, who is sentenced to fourteen years transportation, and by a note I have just received from Dr. Winter, who has, I perceive, been to see him, I begin to hope, that he may change his course. He has a Bible and Doddridge's" Rise and Progress" to take with him. Amongst the prisoners, I saw several, who will in all probability, be executed. Their thoughtless gaiety, or rather insensibility, is so unnatural that it rather increases the horror of the place. I am not very busy at present, but I believe there is work cutting out for me. I hear there are 1100 boys in one parish who live by stealing, and there is Committee of Bankers and Merchants who are desirous of correcting this great evil.”

This refers to "the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline," which was formed in London in 1816, and of which he became an early and most efficient member. He usually visited the different prisons three times a week, labouring to impart religious instruction to their wretched inmates.

Nothing but a powerful sense of religious duty could have so overcome his natural diffidence, as to have made him active in a work so peculiar and uninviting. Quoting the words of the Saviour, "I was sick, and ye visited meI was in prison, and ye came unto me," he once remarked to one of his sisters," Perhaps we have not known the Saviour as we should in these humble circumstances."

"In one of the visits to the prison

in Cold Bath Fields, he perceived amidst the culprits, a fine lad of engaging manners and prepossessing countenance. Being struck with his appearance, he inquired particularly into his case, and found after the most minute investigation, that he was imprisoned for the first offence. Anxious to snatch this juvenile offender from the jaws of ruin, he paid particular attention to him, giving him instruction, watching his conduct, and looking for marks of contrition. In this he happily succeeded, and the lad was afterwards placed with a respectable tradesman in the metropolis. His conduct with his master has invariably proved that Mr. Venning was not mistaken. During his last stay at St. Petersburg, he received a letter from this youth, expressing all the feelings of a grateful heart to his benefactor and deliverer. The contents of this letter, together with the good conduct of the boy, amply repaid Mr. V. for all the toils he endured in the service of humanity. Had it not been for the timely aid of this good man, the poor youth might have associated with the hardened rebels who were confined in the same prison, and have been irretrievably lost.

"This circumstance operated on Mr. Venning's mind in the most powerful manner, and so encouraged him, that when he was once inviting a young gentleman to engage in the same benevolent labours, he said to him, "Only succeed in reclaiming one offender, and it will make you a prison man for

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ON THE CLAMOUR OF PREJUDICE WHICH THE SERIOUS CHRISTIAN HAS TO MEET.

SOME portion of that obloquy and contempt which an injurious world cast upon Christ, falls to the lot of all his conscientious and zealous followers. Their names are often combined with degrading epithets, and their characters loaded with slander and abuse. Now when hard speeches and bitter invectives are profusely poured forth from every quarter against the devout Christian, any one who has a single grain of good sense, and with it a particle of candour, might fairly ask the question, Why, what evil hath he done?"

The world eagerly replies, his principles are false and dangerous. He maintains mysteries, prefers faith to good works, and makes grace all his trust and all his triumph. These opinions lead to licentiousness, and should they get ground and prevail, there will be an end to good order and morality. But what is the true state of the case? The serious Christian does indeed assiduously read his Bible, adhering inflexibly to its sacred testimonies. And if to acknowledge "That great is the mystery of godliness"—to espouse the doctrine of salvation by free grace— to seek acceptance and peace with God entirely by faith in Christ Jesus, and inward purity and comfort from the agency of the Holy Spirit, be to fall into dangerous errors, the charge cannot be rebutted. Every one, however, who is intimately acquainted with the sacred volume, will confess that these are the grand prominent principles of the Gospel; principles which alone can sustain our hopes, and animate our hearts; principles as salutary in their moral tendency, as they

are sublime in their spiritual effects and final results. While the proud self-elated pharisee is mustering his empty forms, magnifying his specious virtues, and glorying in his fancied merits; he who cordially receives the great truths of Christianity, renounces all dependence on his own righteousness, is clothed with humility, and at once rejoices and glories in the Lord.

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Why, then, what evil hath he done?" The world replies, .“ He is rigid, austere, and gloomy in his habits and manners. He is so strict and precise, as to wage war with the common customs of mankind, and to refuse himself the most innocent indulgences, which he calls horrid crimes. He lays down puritanical rules for the observance of the Sabbath, proscribes theatres, balls, and cards; fears even to let the cheerful glass circulate freely at his table; and in a word, weighs his actions, watches his steps, measures his words, and regulates his very looks, as if Lent were to last the whole year, and life were to be regarded as a perpetual penance." But surely it is rather strange, that the same breath should blow both hot and cold, that the serious Christian should be taxed at once with laxity in his principles, and unnecessary strictness in his practice. If his opinions, as it is asserted, lead to licentiousness, we should not expect to hear him blamed for carrying the sterner virtues too far. But malignity, though prying and vigilant, is often short-sighted, and through impatience to accomplish a favourite object, is apt to employ ill assorted means, and measures which counteract each other. The two charges to which we have above referred, are so inconsistent,

that both cannot be sustained; nor can we hear them stated and urged, without recollecting, that certain Jewish elders said, "He casteth out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils." While the condensed essence of hatred and rancour impetuously forced a passage through their lips, they seem at the moment, to have forgotten that their very insinuation involved in it the grossest absurdity.

Admitting, then, that the Christian conscientiously abstains from the low haunts, and the high-polished resorts of sensual gratification; admitting that he is neither found at the playhouse, nor the gaming-house, at the luxurious feast, nor the midnight revel, but chooses rather to spend his time in the calm enjoyment of domestic pleasures, or the vigorous prosecution of some arduous and honourable work, there can be no great harm in all this. As his conduct in relative and moral duties will stand the ordeal of the closest scrutiny, and yet the clamour of prejudice swells and runs high against him, we again put the question, " Why, what evil hath he done?" The world replies, " He is of an uncharitable and censorious spirit. He disturbs the peace of his friends and neighbours by introducing religion out of season, and condemns all who differ from him.

Bur the matter of this accusation should not be taken in the gross, unsifted, unexamined. Perhaps it will be found, that the man of the world abounds in charity for sin, finding fair names and veils to cover, and urging soft soothing apologies to excuse it; whereas the Christian shews his hatred to sin and his charity for the souls deceived and enslaved by it. The former, graced as it may be, and often is, by winning smiles and gentle accents, is false candour; the latter, under a form and manner somewhat severe and repulsive, NEW SERIES, No. 2.

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is nevertheless true benevolence. When a good man who cannot bear evil, at any time gives pain by reproving it, he does this with the same design as the physician prescribes bitter medicine to impart health, or the surgeon lances wound to prevent mortification and effect a cure. If genuine charity is manifested more by deeds than words, that person is of the most charitable spirit, who most denies himself to make costly sacrifices and vigorous persevering exertions for the spiritual and eternal interests of his fellow-creatures. The man who visits the deep recesses of ignorance and misery, to instruct and reclaim the vicious, to pity and relieve the wretched, is the bright exemplar, not the boasting eulogist of virtue, a follower and fair epistle of Christ, not a cold formalist, a blank in the world, or a blot in the church. But if the Christian is sound in principle, upright in conduct, and of a benevolent spirit, and the outcry of prejudice still rises and spreads, the question returns, "Why, what evil hath he done?" The world replies, "He is a fanatic and a hypocrite."

When the character presents no specific points which are found to be vulnerable, this vague, indefinite, sweeping charge, is brought forward. The man is evidently in earnest about religion; his morals also are confessedly good. True, but his zeal is enthusiasm, and his morality and holiness are only appearance and pretence. Rather than find a favourable verdict, fiction shall be called in to supply the place of facts. The fruit, it seems, is not now to decide the quality of the tree.

"The world, grown old, her deep discernment shows,

Claps spectacles on her sagacious nose, Peruses closely the true Christian's face, And finds it a mere mask of sly grimace; Usurps God's office, lays his bosom bare, And finds hypocrisy close lurking there.” K