reduced to this state,-helpless and crippled,—to experience the highest enjoyment!" During the course of the conversation he repeated this verse, "Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended." Then turning to a young lady present, he said, "Do you not think this is worth travelling over many high hills and difficult places to obtain? Dr. Clarke, in his travels, speaking of the companies that were travelling from the East to Jerusalem, represents the procession as being very long; and, after climbing over the extended and heavy ranges of hills that bounded the way, some of the foremost at length reached the top of the last hill, and, stretching up their hands in gestures of joy, cried out, The Holy City! the Holy City' and fell down and worshipped; while those that were behind pressed forward to see. So the dying Christian, when he gets on the last summit of life, and stretches his vision to catch a glimpse of the heavenly city, may cry out, and incite those who are behind to press forward to the sight." Soon after, he exclaimed, "I am going to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first-born, and to God, the Judge of all." A letter indited to his sister about this time, is highly descriptive of the glories that ravished his soul. "Were I to adopt," said he, "the figurative language of Bunyan, I might date this letter from the land of Beulah, of which I have been for some weeks a happy inhabitant. The celestial city is full in view. Its glories beam upon me; its breezes fan me; its odours are wafted to me; its sounds strike upon my ears; and its spirit is breathed into my heart. Nothing separates me from it but the river of death, which now appears but as an insignificant rill that may be crossed at a single step, whenever God shall give permission. The Sun of righteousness has been gradually drawing nearer and nearer, appearing larger and brighter as he approached, and now he fills the whole hemisphere, pouring forth a flood of glory, in which I seem to float like an insect in the beams of the sun, exulting, yet almost trembling while I gaze upon this excessive brightness, and wondering, with unutterable wonder, why God should deign thus to shine upon a sinful worm." At one time he was heard to break forth into the following soliloquy:-"What an assemblage of motives to holiness does the Gospel present! I am a Christian -what then? Why, I am a redeemed sinner-a pardoned rebel-all through grace, and by the most wonderful means which infinite Wisdom could devise. I am a Christian-what then? Why, I am a temple of God, and surely I ought to be pure and holy. I am a Christian-what then? I am a child of God, and ought to be filled with filial love, reverence, joy, and gratitude. I am a Christian-what then? Why, I am a disciple of Christ, and must imitate him, who was meek and lowly in heart, and pleased not himself. I am a Christian-what then? Why, I am an heir of heaven, and hastening on to the abodes of the blessed, to join the full choir of glorified ones in singing the song of Moses and the Lamb, and surely I ought to learn that song on earth." Mrs. Payson, while ministering to him, observed "Your head feels hot, and seems to be distended." To which he replied, "It seems as if the soul disdained such a narrow prison, and was determined to break through with an angel's energy, and, I trust, with no small portion of an angel's feeling, until it mounts on high." Soon after," It seems as if my soul had found a pair of new wings, and was so eager to try them that, in her fluttering, she would rend the fine net-work of the body to pieces." Again: "Hitherto I have viewed God as a fixed star,-bright, indeed, but often intercepted by clouds; but now he is coming nearer and nearer, and spreads into a Sun, so vast and glorious that the sight is too dazzling for flesh and blood to sustain." Conversing with a friend on his preparation for his departure, he compared himself to a person who had, visiting his friends, been long absent from home, and was about to return. His trunk was packed, and everything prepared, and he was looking out of the window, waiting for the stage to take him in. On the 21st of October, 1827, his dying agony commenced. A difficulty of respiration causing excruciating distress, and accompanied by a rattling in the throat, such as often precedes dissolution, gave warning of death's approach. When his daughter, who had been called home from the Sabbath school, entered, he smiled upon her, kissed her affectionately, and said, "God bless you, my daughter!" Soon after he exclaimed, "Peace! peace! victory! victory!" Turning a glance of inexpressible tenderness upon his wife and children, he said to them,-almost in the words of dying Joseph to his brethren,—“I am going; but God will surely be with you." The power of utterance had now nearly failed him. His friends watched him, expecting every moment to see him expire, till near noon, when his distress partially left him, and he said to the physician, who was feeling his pulse, that he found he was not to be released yet; and though he had suffered the pangs of death, and had got almost within the gates of Paradise,-yet, if it was God's will that he should come back and suffer still more, he was resigned. He passed through a similar scene in the afternoon, and, to the surprise of every one, was again relieved. On Monday morning his dying agonies returned in all their extremity. For three hours every breath was a groan. Mrs. Payson fearing, from the expression of suffering in his countenance, that he was in mental as well as bodily anguish, questioned him upon the subject. With extreme difficulty he was enabled to articulate the words, "Faith and patience hold out." About midday the pain of respiration abated, and a partial stupor succeeded. Still, however, he continued intelligent, and evidently able to recognise all present; and his eyes and countenance spoke after his tongue had become motionless. He looked on Mrs. Payson, and then his eye, glancing over the others who surrounded his bed, rested on Edward, his eldest son, with an expression which said, and which was interpreted by all present to say, as plainly as if he had uttered the words addressed to the beloved disciple, "Behold thy mother!" There was no visible indication of the return of his sufferings. He gradually sunk away, till about the going down of the sun, when his happy spirit was set at liberty. Dr. Payson's "ruling passion was strong in death." His love for preaching was as invincible as that of the miser for gold, who dies grasping his treasure. He directed a label to be placed on his breast, by which he, being dead, might yet speak to those who should come to look upon his corpse. On the label was written, "Remember the words which I spake unto you while I was yet present with you." The same words, by request of his people, were engraven on the plate of the coffin, and read by thousands on the day of interment. Nothing could be more appropriate than the subject of the discourse which formed the closing scene in this illustrious example of Christian triumph: "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." 2 Tim. iv, 6-8. 3. RICHARD BAXTER. "Love in his heart, persuasion on his tongue, With words of peace he charm'd the list'ning throng; And launch'd their souls into the bright unknown."-BARBAULD. IN very early life devout impressions appear to have been made upon the mind of Baxter. His father said, with tears of joy, "I hope my son Richard was sanctified from the womb." When a little child, he would reprove other children if he heard them using profane words. When he grew up, he entered the ministry. He laboured in several places; but Kidderminster was the principal sphere of his exertions. Here his ministry was crowned with astonishing success. After a few active years, persecution drove him from the field of exertion; yet still he laboured, though not to the same extent, and suffered also. His own generation was deprived of much of the benefit they might have reaped from a man who may have had equals, but seldom a superior; yet their loss has been the gain of succeeding generations; and Baxter, though dead, speaks to thousands in his invaluable writings. Like Moses, he chose affliction with the people of God; for a bishopric was offered him, which he refused. He lived, he wrote, he laboured, as with eternity in sight. He passed through a life of labours, sorrows, and persecutions. When this great and good man drew near the conclusion of life, his last hours were spent in preparing |