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never more seasonable than in times of spiritual trouble. When St. Paul was troubled "with a thorn in the flesh". -an acute trial no doubt, whatever the thing was itself-he "besought the Lord thrice," or frequently, "that it might depart from him." Creature comforts may be exhausted; circumstances like those of Jacob, or Job, or David, may surround the believer in Jesus; but his God and Saviour does not, cannot change. "God is love." Jesus, the great High Priest over the house of God, pleads the cause of his people, and presents their prayers. He truly sympathizes with them in their sorrows. He

wipes away their tears; and satisfies them that present afflictions are indeed working together for their good. He shews them what need they have of his chastisements; promises never to leave nor to forsake them; and assures them that all their petitions shall be heard, "Let us accepted, and answered. therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."

3. The Christian is instructed how to wrestle with his Saviour in prayer.—A humble mind is of primary importance-a deep and abiding conviction of our own weakness. We shall lean most on Almighty Grace when we feel how weak we are. This spirit Jacob possessed: "I am less than the least of all the goodness and of all the truth which thou hast caused to David also conpass before me." fesses, "I was shapen in iniquity." Job exclaims, "Behold, I am vile; and St. Paul declares, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing."-Earnestness likewise should characterize our prayers. The blessings sought in prayer are all-important. Pardon of sin through Christ's atoning blood; justification by faith alone in his spotless righteousness; peace with God through his finished work;

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sanctification by his Holy Spirit; and a hope of glory through his exaltation, are not things indifferent, but should be sought with " weeping and earnest supplication." must for these " cry day and night" unto that "Lord over all, who is rich unto all that call upon him.". Above all, we must persevere in our application. This spirit also Jacob had received: "I will not let thee go except thou bless me." it is remarkable how he reminds the Lord of his former promises : "Thou saidst, I will surely do thee good." Abraham, interceding for guilty Sodom on Lot's account, drops not his suit without obtaining several renewals of Jehovah's promise. And a daughter of Abraham, wrestling with our incarnate Redeemer, seemingly repulsed by him, and reminded that she was an alien from the Jewish church, would not draw back, but said, "Yet the dogs may eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table." faith, we know, was tried; it was approved; it was highly commended. Oh, then, distrust not God when he does not immediately answer your prayers. Despair not at one failure-or two-or twenty. If you are truly seeking Jesus and his salvation, despair not at all. He will in due time answer your requests, and enable you to believe that "blessed are all they who wait for him," for "He hath not said to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain!"

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Lastly. The Christian may here, by faith, behold the happy end of spiritual conflicts.-Could we hear the patriarch Jacob speak from heaven of that happy morning when he wrestled with his Redeemer and his God on Peniel, methinks it would be in the full spirit of the Psalmist's words: "It is good for me that I have been afflicted;" and that was indeed the happiest period of my life. Such will believers ever find seasons of special communion with God. The memory of

these is sevenfold sweeter, because they are chiefly enjoyed in the time of distress. "The end of these things is peace ;" and "tribulation worketh patience" under Jehovah's will. By these we are brought nearer to God, and nearer to the mercy-seat; and after the night of our affliction, the day of comfort and joy will come, and the Sun of Righteousness will diffuse his hea

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venly light over our benighted souls. This Angel of the Covenant will redeem us from all our troubles and iniquities, administer to us an abundant entrance into the kingdom" of our Father, and "present us faultless before the presence of his glory," that we may for ever adore and love and praise the name of the Lord.

W. R. B.

SUPERSTITION OF THE IRISH ROMAN CATHOLICS.

WE have been favoured with the following extract of a letter from Ireland, addressed to the London Hibernian Society, in reference to Mr. O'Connell's confident assertion that the Rev. Mr. M'Neile had grossly slandered the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland, by stating that they were in the habit of giving out charms for various diseases, and in particular for the tooth-ache.

"I fear it will be long before the English public in general will know enough of Irish affairs and the spirit of Popery, and of its Protestant abettors, to set a proper value on the daring confidence with which the most notorious falsehoods will be advanced; a confidence grounded on the unavoidable ignorance of the English on such subjects, and the wilful ignorance of Irish gentry, who are too liberal, or genteel, or profligate, to look to the working of Popery among the middle and lower classes here. It is a notorious fact, that the Irish Popish priests have frequently been in the habit of selling or giving charms for diseases. The seculars are now more cautious; but I believe it would be easy to prove it respecting regulars up to this day. I know many ignorant Protestants and Presbyterians who have been turned to Popery by imagined cures of epilepsy by Popish priests, secular and regular. As to flogging a grave, or dead body,

I know nothing of it; but I believe I could prove that priests anoint persons, who are insensible, or even dead, providing the warmth is still in the body.

"In Parliament, reporters attribute (falsely of course) the most unprincipled statements to certain persons. You may remember, a session or two since, that a Mr. Brownlow, then supposed to be a representative of Protestant feeling, presented a petition from certain Protestants of Armagh against Jesuit societies or establishments in Ireland and England. Either Sir John Newport or Sir H. Parnell, along with Mr. Spring Rice, were stated to have branded the petition as bigoted and false, inasmuch as there were not any Jesuits in Ireland. It was then notorious, to every person interested on such subjects, that Jesuits were in Ireland; and this is now admitted, in O'Connell's and Doyle's evidence before the Com mittees. You may couple with the above the evidence of Colonel Rochfort, shewing that Doyle ordered the priests to promote the return of one of the above persons to Parliament.

"If any person had complained, three years since, that Irish priests professed to work miracles, there would have been men, in and out of Parliament, to deny it boldly; Hohenlohe and Doyle, &c. have set that at rest."

HYMN TO THE SAVIOUR.

For thou wert born of woman! thou didst come,
O Holiest! to this world of sin and gloom,
Not in thy dread omnipotent array;

And not by thunders strew'd was thy tempestuous road;
Nor indignation burnt before thee on thy way.
But thee, a soft and naked child,

Thy mother undefil'd,

In the rude manger laid to rest,
From off her virgin breast.

The heavens were not commanded to prepare
A gorgeous canopy of golden air:

Nor stoop'd their lamps th' enthroned fires on high:
A single silent star came wandering from afar,
Gliding uncheck'd and calm along the liquid sky;
The eastern sages leading on

As at a kingly throne,

To lay their gold and odours sweet
Before thy infant feet.

The earth and ocean were not hush'd to hear
Bright harmony from every starry sphere;
Nor at thy presence brake the voice of song
From all the cherub choirs; and seraph's burning lyres
Pour'd through the host of heaven the charmed clouds along;
One angel troop the strain began:

Of all the race of man

By simple shepherds heard alone,
That soft Hosanna's tone.

And when thou didst depart, no car of flame

To bear thee hence in lambent radiance came;
Nor visible angels mourn'd with drooping plumes :

Nor didst thou mount on high from fatal Calvary

With all thine own redeem'd outbursting from their tombs.
For thou didst bear away from earth

But one of human birth,

The dying felon by thy side, to be

In Paradise with thee.

Nor o'er thy cross the clouds of vengeance brake;
A little while the conscious earth did shake
At that foul deed by her fierce children done;
A few dim hours of day the world in darkness lay;
Then bask'd in bright repose beneath the cloudless sun :
While thou didst sleep beneath the tomb,
Consenting to thy doom:

Ere yet the white-rob'd angel shone

Upon the sealed stone.

And when thou didst arise, thou didst not stand
With devastation in thy red right hand,
Plaguing the guilty city's murtherous crew;
But thou didst haste to meet thy mother's coming feet,
And bear the words of peace unto the faithful few.

Then calmly, slowly didst thou rise

Into thy native skies,

Thy human form dissolved on high
In its own radiancy.

MILLMAN.

REVIEW OF BOOKS.

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Memoirs of the Wesley Family; collected principally from original Documents. By Adam Clarke, LL.D. London. Pp. xviii. and 543. The Life of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. in which are included the Life of his Brother, the Rev. Charles Wesley, A. M. and Memoirs of their Family. By the Rev. Henry Moore. 2 vols. 1824. Pp. xiv. and 571, and viii. and 578.

The Wesleyan Methodist Magazine for July and August, 1825. THE system adopted by the Methodist body, with respect to their publications, has been productive of consequences which most probably never entered into the contemplation of Mr. Wesley, and which are but imperfectly understood either by the Methodists themselves or the public at large. Authors in other denominations prepare their different works, and publish them through the usual medium of the booksellers; occasionally promoting their sale by applications to private friends for subscriptions, &c. The sale, therefore, of their productions, depends principally on the character of the author, the intrinsic merit of his work, or some accidental and adventitious circumstance: nor does there appear any regular system by which that sale can be materially promoted. The Methodist plan is widely different. The works written by their preachers, &c. and adopted by the proper authorities, are regularly issued from their book-room to the different circuits. The net profits of these publications form a considerable source of income, and are appropriated to certain determined and approved objects; and, in consequence, it becomes a part of the duty of their preachers, or other agents, to promote, as far as may appear practicable, the sale of these publications SEPT. 1825.

among the members of the society; and those who have it in their power, understand very well that it is expected of them to become purchasers.

This system owed its origin to the desire of Mr. Wesley to provide for his preachers a selection of works on the most useful topics; and it has since been continued and regulated as an important measure of finance, by which the temporal interests of the society have been promoted. How far it conduces to the literary or spiritual improvement, may admit of discussion. Its tendency doubtless has been to exclude many improper and injurious publications from obtaining admission into the Methodist societies, and to employ the surplus money and the spare time of the majority of the members in circulating and perusing authorized and attested publications.

A less favourable effect, however, has been the confining of the literature of the Methodists within very narrow and scanty limits. The Methodist system of class meetings, prayer meetings, &c. is more calculated to produce a talkative than a studious and contemplative religion; and tends very much to occupy the time which might be devoted to reading, and to indispose the mind for what many consider as a somewhat dull employment. When, therefore, the choice of books is confined to a series provided according to one pattern, and rigidly pared down to the same standard, it is not surprising if the student is soon satiated, and if the members of the Methodist society should possess less information, on either literary or theological subjects, than is generally to be found in pious individuals of the same rank in life in other denominations, And, consequently, when any individual of a more studious disposition, or with more favourable

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opportunities, advances beyond the prescribed limits, he is very apt to be regarded as somewhat of a literary or theological prodigy, when, peradventure, his real attainments are not deserving of any very extraordinary distinction. Hence certain of the Methodist preachers and writers are spoken of in the most exalted terms, whose productions obtain very little attention among persons of other denominations, and would have been long since forgotten, had they not appeared in the Methodist connection. This, indeed, would be a small matter, were it not accompanied with another result. The flatteries received by some of these individuals, from the crowd with which they are surrounded, have so exalted them above measure, as to produce a high degree of irritability; and have led them to speak and write, concerning those from whom they may differ in opinion, with a degree of petulance, peevishness, and acrimony, very inconsistent with Christian charity.

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These hints may for the present suffice. They have been not unnaturally suggested to our minds by the publications before us, which we shall proceed to notice in their order. The first is the Memoirs of the Wesley Family by Dr. Clarke. This contains brief narratives of all the individuals of that family, as far as they can be traced, beginning with the Rev. Bartholomew Wesley, Rector of Catherstone in 1650 but the larger part of the volume is occupied with the lives of Mr. Wesley's father and mother; and the whole is lengthened out with poems, letters, &c. which are far from being generally interesting. A considerable mass of documents is, however, here collected, which a more skilful biographer may turn to good account; and, accordingly, we observe that Mr. Moore has, in about 100 pages, comprised almost every thing of importance in the 540 pages of Dr. Clarke.

Among other curious circumstances, Dr. C. has inserted a long account of certain extraordinary noises, &c. which disturbed the inhabitants of the Rectory at Epworth, in December and January 1716, and which have by many been regarded as supernatural. We suspect, however, that the real mystery is developed in the following extract; since, if an individual could obtain ingress into an old parsonage by some unknown means, he might disturb the peace of the family with very little danger of detection.

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concerning Jeffrey and his operations. It This is the latest information I have seems he came to Emily to give intimations of approaching afflictions or evils, just as Socrates informs us his of any evils that were about to happen. dæmon was accustomed to apprize him

But who was this dæmon? and what was the cause of his troubling this family?

We find that for a considerable time but at last they were all satisfied it was all the family believed it to be a trick: something supernatural. Some supposed it was a dæmon, others that the whole was the effect of witchcraft. Mr. John of Satan sent to buffet his father for his Wesley believed that it was a messenger rash promise of leaving his family, and very improper conduct to his wife in consequence of her scruple to pray for the which title she fully believed he had no Prince of Orange as King of England; to legal nor constitutional right. On which we find that he left her for a year, to the neglect both of his family and his church. That God should have resented this rash conduct is not to be wondered at: but

whether Jeffrey was the instrument of chastisement will be a question with many; With others, the house was considered as haunted. For this 1 have heard a reason assigned, which I shall introduce, because it has been stated to me by respectable authority as a fact.

The family having retired one evening who was finishing her work in the backrather earlier than usual, one of the maids, kitchen, heard a noise, and presently saw a man working himself through a trough which communicated between the sinkstone within, and the cistern on the outside of the house. Astonished and ter

rified beyond measure, she in a sort of desperation, seized the cleaver, which lay on the sink-stone, and gave him a violent, she then uttered a dismal shriek, and fell and probably a mortal blow on the head; senseless on the floor. Mr. Wesley being

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