large share of sensibility, and as he excelled at the same time in taking a profound and comprehensive view of a subject, the understand. ing and affections of his hearers were equally interested in his discourses, which generally flowed in a stream of argument and pathos. From a patural diffidence of temper, heightened by a consciousness of his want of education, he often ascended the pulpit with tremor; but as soon as this subsided, he generally led his hearers, step by step, into a large field of serious and manly thinking, kindling as he advanced, and expatiating with increasing energy and conviction till the subject was exhausted. His eminent piety lent a peculiar unc. tion to the sentiments he delivered, led him to seize the most interesting views of every subject, and turned topics, which in the hands of others would have furnished barren speculation only, into mate rials for devotion and prayer. He appeared to the greatest advantage upon subjects where the faculties of most men fail them, for the nat ural element of his mind was greatness. At times he seemed to labour with conceptions too big for his utterance, and if any obscurity ever pervaded his discourses, it must be traced to this source, the disproportion of his language to the vastness of his conceptions. He had great force without ornament, and grandeur without correctness. His ministry in the hands of God was effectual to the conversion of great numbers; and in this particular he was distinguished in a manner not very common, for the last years of his life were the most successful. But it was not only in the pulpit that he shone; in his private sphere of action as a Christian, his virtues were not less distinguished than his talents as a minister. Deep devotion and unaffected humility entered far into this part of his character. Few men have passed through greater vicissitudes of life than the deceas ed, and perhaps in each of them no man preserved with a more inviolable consistency the character of a Christian He was very early introduced into the school of affliction, and the greater part of his subsequent life was distinguished by an uncommon succession of tri als and distresses. On his first entrance on the ministry, his fortitude was exercised in a scene of persecutions and reproaches, which lasted for many years; his worldly prospects at the same time were gloomy and precarious in a high degree; he had a very numerous family, and an income extremely limited.--He united great susceptibility of heart with firmness of mind, and endowed with these dispositions, he met reproaches with gentleness, sustained adversity with fortitude, and pains and sorrows of various kinds with exemplary patience. In the habitual frame of his spirit he walked with God. The consolations that supported him through life awaited him at death, for so tranquil were his last moments, so completely was he reconciled to the prospects of both worlds, that he declared a little time before he expired, he would not give a straw to live or die. From his first acquaintance with religion, to the close of his life, he was never known to express the least hes itation respecting his state, but enjoyed an uninterrupted assurance of a happy immortality. His conversation breathed so much of heaven, was so tinctured with the very spirit of religion, that none could enjoy it without an opportunity of being made better. was evident to all who knew him, that his religion was not a transient impression, but a permanent principle, that it blended itself with all his feelings and his actions, and that it raised his thoughts, his views, and his passions towards heaven. It In the first years of his ministry, he encountered, as hath already been remarked, much persecution and reproach; but at length his exemplary conduct dissipated these prejudices, and gained him so completely the esteem of all classes of mankind, that it may be doubted whether he had an enemy in the world; for certain he had none but those whom his piety might make such. He was distinguished as a lover of peace, and as anxious to heal breaches as he was cautious to avoid them. With some, his extreme solicitude for the propagation of evangelical sentiments might seem like bigotry; but they who knew him best were well convinced that this was no part of his character, and that he regarded sentiments in no other light, nor cherished them in any higher degree, than as he conceived them favourable to the interests of holiness and virtue. His brethren in the ministry will long and deeply lament him; for to them his talents and dispositions peculiarly endeared him. How many private circles hath he cheered and enlivened by his presence! In how many public solemnities bath he lifted up an ensign to the people, invited them to the standard of the cross, and warmed and exalted their affections, whilst "his doctrine dropped as the rain, and his speech distilled as the dew." Great abilities are often allied to pride, but the character of the deceased was an illustrious exception to this rule. His talents and virtues were in some measure concealed from the world, and almost entirely from himself, by a veil of the most unaffected modesty. He was never so happy as when he was permitted to sit in the shade, though the high opinion entertained of his abilities seldom allowed him that indulgence. It would be difficult to conceive a human mind more completely purged from the leaven of pride or of envy, than was that of our deceased friend. In this particular his magnanimity was so great, that he seemed, on all occasions, desirous of sinking the recollection of himself, in the reputation and applause of his cotemporaries. To cultivate the seeds of reflection and improvement in the minds of his inferiors, to behold the growing talents and virtues of his brethren, to draw merit from its obscurity and give confidence to timid worth, formed some of the highest satisfactions of his life. His temper was grave and contemplative, yet few men took greater delight in Christian society, and on these occasions he seldom failed to mix with serious converse a vein of pleasantry and humour in which he greatly excelled. From his integrity and knowledge it may be inferred he was eminently skilled for imparting advice, yet so carefully did he shun every inclination to dictate, that he scarce ever gave it unsolicited. His sentiments, when required, he imparted with tenderness and freedom; but he never made advice a disguise for arrogance, or an engine of rule, nor ever presumed to think himself affronted if his counsels were not followed. In his whole deportment, prudence and humility were conspicuous; a prudence, however, that was candid and manly, as far removed from art, as his humility was from meanness. He had failings, no doubt, (for who is free?) But they were scarcely ever suffered to influence his conduct, or to throw even a transient shade over the splendour of his character. Upon the whole, if a strong and penetrating genius, simplicity of manners, integrity of heart, fidelity in friendship, and all these virtues consecrated by a piety the most ardent and sincere on the high altar of devotion, have any claim to respect, the memory of the deceased will long be cherished with tears of admiration and regret, by those who knew him." He died on March 13, 1791, in the 63d year of his age. Religious Communications. For the American Baptist Magazine IMPORTANCE OF ACTUAL PREPARATION FOR DEATH. "Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Matthew xxiv, 44. Man cometh." THE events in the history of man have such weight and seriousness as to demand his constant vigilance and attention. Did his life pass away in the levities of a conduct which contains no connection with futurity, it might not then be inadmissible for him to drown all the more sober reflections of reason, and the more solemn impressions of responsibility in the tumalt of eager passions, and the greediness of secular delight. In such a case he might consistently think that the best preparation for an approaching trial would be to allow it no place in his thoughts, and no excitement to his fears. He might thus nobly tread on the verge of disaster, without ever viewing the possibility of a fall from his secure elevation. But, for us who live under other allotments, such indifference is infatuation, and such insensibility, presumption. It is a high part of our wisdom to hold ourselves in readiness for those stupenduous occasions, when changes involving eternal consequences must take place. The least relaxation of vigilance, or the smallest defect in the promp titude of our qualifications to meet the coming scene, must be attended with a risk too dreadful to be incurred without a deep concern. Any failure on our part to be always prepared to meet the appointments of God, is a very daring attempt to frustrate the effects of the wisdom which he has display ed in concealing from us "the times and the seasons." This purpose in keeping us ignorant an these points is to render us unremittingly watchful, and careful, and to inculcate preparation at all times for that which may come at any time. If we therefore become negligent, because we are ignorant, we arraign the justice of his divine dispensations, and resist the holy orders of his throne. Our blessed Lord makes the words of the text a practical inference from awakening truths which he had just delivered. These truths related to the destruction of the Jewish state and economy, and to the end of the world; events the period of which he represents as being hid in the profoundest obscurity from the knowledge of men and angels. And as they were so uncertain as to the time of their tremendous exhibition, he exhorts his disciples to be in readiness, to contemplate without dismay or consternation his appearance in the power of his kingdom and glory. The text naturally assumes two divisions, which we shall view in their proper order. First, The exhortation "be ye also ready." Secondly, The reason by which it is enforced. In the exhortation, we shall consider some of those things which usually delay or hinder our preparation to meet death and judgment, shew some of the important parts of such preparation, and its evidences upon those who possess it. Ist. We are destitute of preparation to meet that event, whatever it may be, whose results introduce us to a station for the employments of which we have no suitable qualifications. Death gives an entire change to the exercises and employments of rational beings. It places them upon 38 PREPARATION FOR DEATH. the boundless scenes of Eternity, and leaves no intermediate condition betwixt supreme felicity, and And as it should unutterable wo. be our high concern to flee from the wrath to come, and obtain the consolatory assurance of meetness for the joys of the blessed, we should carefully investigate and assiduously strive to remove those disqualifying circumstances which will render our final change an unwelcome visitation. The sting of death is sin. This must be regarded as the primary obstacle to our readiness to meet the dissolution of the body. This gives to death all its triumph, and adds malignity to the poison of its darts. It surrounds the grave with terrifying horrors, marks with desolation the progress of corruption, and renders hideous the worm which must be called "mother and sister." If in our sad experience of death, the powers of nature must be rent with agony, if the heart must break with anguish, and the flesh faint with weakness, if the vital current must stop, and refuse warmth and life to the system, if the soul too, in the shock which breaks down its tenement must feel consternation and pain, we are to recollect that all this dreadful disorder is the fruit of sin. But, it is not in its natural effects that sin operates in rendering us unfit to appear in the presence of the eternal Judge. Its moral pollution, its spiritual defilement, its deep stains of guilt upon the conscience is the grand obstacle to our preparation for a change of existence. The love of sin, compliance with its motions and tendencies, the steadfast retention of its principles in the understanding, and of its pleasures in the heart, must necessarily alienate the soul from God, and estrange it from all the joys of heav en. They who have felt the sorrows of repentance, and have been exercised by the spirit of genuine contrition, who like Job, have abhorred themselves, and repented in dust and ashes, and like Paul, We usually meet without a re luctant sentiment, those events for which we are fully prepared; and consequently the unwillingness manifested by the wicked to relax their grasp on this world, and pass into the realities of another, must form a striking proof of their want of readiness. from light into darkness, and chas"Terrors ed out of the world." take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night. The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth, and as a storm carrieth him out of his place." "The wicked is driven away in his wickedness." "He shall be driven They are styled "vessels of wrath, and fitted for It is by the influ destruction." ence of a sinful spirit that vigilance is banished, unbelief is fostered, worldly cares and pleasures are invited to the chief seat in the heart. Those who yield themselves as voluntary subjects to sin are qui etly reposing in the treacherous security of a spiritual lethargy. They are awake to no cry of alarm, sensible of no impending danger, startled by no awakening terrors. Watchfulness has no place in their plans, circumspection forms no part of the order in their conversation. They dream "that to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant," that they shall never be moved from their place, and that all things will continue forever as they were from the beginning of the creation. How inconsistent is such a state with every principle and habit of actual readiness! To need a call to awake us from sleep after the dreadful cry of the bridegroom's approach, to begin then for the first time to watch and pray, must evince only our preparation for the confusion and dark ness of endless despair. Can the servant be apprised of the period of his lord's return without watchfulness? Can the weary pilgrim know the time of the day-spring, if his eye be not fixed upon the point where may be descried the first blush of morning? "They that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken, are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breast-plate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation." We should recollect that it is possible even for those who may be reconciled to God, and have repented of their sin, so to inter mit their vigilance, as to be at last surprised by their Lord's coming. The wise, as well as the foolish virgins slumbered and slept. Among the obstacles to our readiness for the tremendous ordinations of God in relation to us, unbelief holds a conspicuous place. We are apt to think that the time is distant when we shall be called to realize the expectations of our probationary state; and even when the end of all things is at hand, we are inclined to view our condition as perfectly secure. "Since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the begin ning of the creation," is a lulling deception by which we are often tempted to quiet our apprehensions. Because we see the same aspect in the visible creation, the same changes in the seasons, the same planets revolve, and the same stars glow in the firmament, we may vainly persuade ourselves that this dread order will never be broken, and that creation will retain its form forever. Thus faith in the declarations and premises of God being weakened, we neglect the preparations which the fulfilment of his word renders necessary. Say, ye who live in awful destitution of every qualification to meet the Judge of all the earth, do you not secretly console yourselves with some indefinite assumptions of infidelity, that the trials you have been taught to expect, will never come, that the heavens and the earth will never be cleft asunder by the trumpet of the descending God, that the elements will never melt with fervent heat, that the mighty fabric of nature will never feel the crush of final dissolution? Do you not endeavour to persuade yourselves that the heaven and the hell, which must become the receptacles of the righteous and the wicked, have no existence but in the speculations of enthusiasts and fanatics? If you really and truly believed the warning voice of God, you could not be so indifferent. Did you but believe that the beloved world to which you so eagerly cleave must shortly sink in devouring fire; did you fully believe that your everlasting hopes are suspended on the bounty of an hour, and that the moment which succeeds the pulse that now beats may bring you a summons to leave your abode in time, for an eternal habitation, you would surely act differently. You would recognise the necessity of habitual promptitude in all the views and qualifications demanded by the change. The remissness of Christians in the attainments requisite to appear before the Lord, may be traced to some weakness of faith. They do not wholly disbelieve the voice which has announced the coming solemnities of eternity; and yet their confidence in its truths is not so strong as to lead them to all the exercises of vigilance and care, which habitual readiness requires. Remember the unbelief of that servant whe "said in his heart, my |