equal facilities for obtaining a full knowledge of the truth of the Gospel; the conduct of the Jews towards it at Thessalonica, compared with that of the people of Berea, was adverse in the extreme. Not only did they reject it with the most violent manifestations of personal hatred, but raised such a storm of opposition against the preachers of it as set the whole city on an uproar, venting their rage on private Christians, and pursuing the objects of their vengeance to Berea, to stir up and disaffect the people against them there. But how differently did the Bereans regard the Gospel on its introduction to them. "These were more noble than those of Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed."

Of the two classes of characters here compared, the one is affirmed by the sacred historian to be more noble than the other. And that which is pointed out as the ground of their acknowledged superiority, was their love to the truth of God. The contrast of the two, viewed in a proper light, not only proves that, but points out an error of a serious nature very common amongst men. It is this. That true religion is a despicable thing; and that a contempt of it, and a persecuting violence against those who contend for it, and adhere to it, are marks of dignity and spirit in its opponents. It was under the predominating influence of this error that the prophets were persecuted, that the Saviour was put to death, and that Papists and others of an equally dominant spirit have thought they did service to God and honour to themselves by torturing in all imaginable ways those who, like the Bereans, made the word of God, the rule of their faith and practice. That which the sacred penman here records of the Thessalonian Jews, and the Berean believers, exhibits the clear general outlines of the saints, and the heretics in all ages. The heretics may have the Scriptures and hate the truths they teach, and shew their zeal for religion in their burning indignation against those who have it as the life of their souls and the rule of their lives. They set "glory to God in the highest" on the reverse side of "good will towards men ;" and pretend to make "peace on earth" by making war with the saints." From Cain to Armageddon the features of the false and the true church are clearly visible in the zealots of Thessalonica, and in the converts at Berea.

The superior nobleness of the Bereans, to others with whom they are compared, arose not from any material difference in respect of external advantages, for in that respect they appear to have been much alike; but from the fact of their being, in the proper sense of the term, more religious. They received the testimony of God as the basis of their faith. In matters of mere human opinion, persons may or may not be the better forreceiving what is propounded for their belief and observance. But it is otherwise with regard to what God has revealed to man under the seal of His high authority. To deny, disregard, or oppose, that, is in the highest degree criminal; it proceeds from a spirit of moral debasement, and indisposes the unbeliever for that which alone can save from sin, and impart the necessary elements for ennobling the human character. Whereas a cordial reception of Divine truth, is at once a proof of the existence of a better principle, and the effectual means of maturing it; which raises believers of the Gospel into a state of greater nearness to God, and brings them into more habitual acquaintance with the Scrip

tures, wherein is revealed the will of God concerning them, both as regards the method of their salvation, and the manner of their life and service.

True religion is of God. It is designed for bringing sinners from their state of contrariety to Him, into a state of conformity to His will. The Scriptures contain the whole body of Divine truth necessary for man's instruction unto righteousness and salvation. Looking into them for the necessary knowledge of truth is a proper exercise for a rational being, an ordained means of leading the seeker to Him of whom they testify, and, when done with a desire to know the truth and be guided by it, cannot be pursued without profit. Principle, and pleasure, and profit, unite in inducing believers in Christ to search the Scriptures, and the influence of this threefold inducement, causes the practice to become habitual, as an integral part of their religious life, and as an important means of grace, in the hands of the Spirit, for promoting their spirituality of mind, their establishment in the faith, their sanctification, and their usefulness in every good work. Hence, the power of the Gospel induced those herein referred to, to search the Scriptures daily. Religion, where it is real, is a daily thing, and requires day by day its daily bread. The word of God is not only the rule of it, but an essential means of sustaining it in health and vigour. A disrelish for it indicates a sickly state of soul, but a daily desire for it, and a consequent daily application to the Scriptures, for the purpose of collecting the spiritual manna, shows a spiritual healthiness, like that of David, who esteemed the words of his God, more than his necessary food. "Search the Scriptures," said our Lord, "for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me."

Blessed Dying Scenes and Sentences of the late Mr. Collis.

FOR SEVERAL YEARS PASTOR OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH, COGGESHALL, ESSEX. WRITTEN BY HIS SON ELEAZAR.

(CONCLUDED FROM PAGE 37.)

You may perhaps feel it rather tedious having so much quotation from hymns, but this seemed to be my dear father's happiest mode of uttering his deepest and best feelings, therefore, if I prove somewhat irksome, I must beg pardon on this account. Another time while speaking of his dissolution, he said, "Boasting grave, where is thy victory? thou hast boasted over millions of souls, but I don't think you will ever boast over me, for Christ has conquered your power, and thus made me more than conqueror through his precious blood." Thinking we should grieve his loss very much, he said to me one day, "Don't make yourself too uncomfortable about me when I am gone, for I shall be all right, you will have this sweet thought that I am in heaven.

"Death of deaths, and hell's destruction,

Land me safe on Canaan's shore.'

"I shall soon be there, I only just want a lift over Jordan."

Happy songsters,

When shall I your chorus join?"

In reply to the question as to whether he had any wish to see the New Year in, he replied with much emphasis, "No! no! no! To-morrow, if it were the Lord's will, I should be glad to be gone; but,

"I wish to want the time decreed,
And then meet death with joy."

Once when suffering very much he said, "My sufferings are great, but I've only to drink of the cup, for Christ has drunk it to the dregs." The following lines I heard him frequently repeat, and which are from another of the hymns he wished to be sung upon the occasion of his funeral service;

"Corruption, earth and worms,
Can but refine this flesh,

Till my triumphant spirit comes,
To put it on afresh."

These lines were also very sweet to his soul:

"There shall I bathe my weary soul

In seas of heavenly rest;

And not a wave of trouble roll

Across my peaceful breast."

On conversing with one of my brothers I heard him say, "My hope is not fictitious, I know, for it is established on firm ground, upon the promise of him who cannot lie." Shortly after which he repeated the subsequent lines :

"There is a day fast hastening on,

When Zion's God will purge his floor,

His own elect will then be known,
For he will count his jewels o'er."

While in his own room one day he very feelingly rehearsed these two lines:

"If I am found in Jesus' hands,

My soul can ne'er be lost."

And when interrogated as to whether he had any doubt, he very earnestly, and with much emotion replied, "I can't, I dare not." Upon another occasion when going into his room and thinking him to be asleep, he looked at me and said, "What a blessed thing it would have been had you found me in an eternal sleep, asleep in Jesus."

Not now being able at times to converse but little, he once said to me, "How I love to think upon his name; and we read in Scripture, that a book of remembrance was kept of them that thought upon his name;" and he said, "I know I have thought upon his name many times and in many ways." To-day on awaking from sleep, as I entered his room, and having had but little comfortable rest since the commencement of his illness, he said, "Oh! I've been in such a beautiful sleep, everything was so quiet and so serene," then very emotionally exclaimed, "How sweet it is to drink of the fulness of this fountain. I've tasted and drunk of it many times before, but never to such a ravishing extent as this, surely I must have been in heaven, how sweet to have such blissful foretastes, heaven can't be complete without me, I must be there, I must be there." His countenance at the time beaming with more than terrestrial joy. Shortly afterwards when suffering much pain, these lines dropped from his lips :

'Not all the pains that er'e I bore,
Shall spoil my future peace,
For death and hell can do no more
Than what my Father please."

When in anticipation of his dismissal, he repeated to-day the following

My dear father was taken with haemorrhage, which through the immense loss of blood, rendered him extremely weak, and by this means he had little strength for conversation, either physically or mentally considered, yet during a brief and more lucid interval, he expressed a desire to see me. I went at once, when he grasped my hand very affectionately, and said, "You'll not have a father much longer, now you will have to struggle on through life for yourself in future, but there's the same God for you, as has helped me through all my many trials," making reference to my name as being a monument to the will of God. In the afternoon of the same day, as a friend who had called to see him was standing by his bedside, my father pointed upwards with his hand. signifying that he should soon be gone; and on being interrogated as to whether "all was right," he said, with all his energies apparently concentrated to speak to the praises of his Redeemer, "Can't be more so; can't be more so." Once after this, while gazing on his dear and pallid face, I said, "You don't wish to come back, do you, father?" to which he instantly replied, "No! no! no! What! come back after what I have suffered?" This seemed so to move his feelings, that he reiterated several times, "Come back, no! no! no!" Briefly after this he appeared to be ruminating on his family, for he thus addressed himself "My dear children, where are you standing? oh! to meet an angry God how solemn, there is nothing short of a sin-pardoning God can save your souls," but he said, "I can't talk now, or I have more I should like to say."

to me,

A few days subsequent to this, my dear father particularly wished to see me again. I at once went, and never shall I forget that sight, or become oblivious of the words that then fell from his dear lips. Death is the crisis and trial proof of the genuineness of religion, then is the time, if thoughtful at all, to estimate more nearly its value and importance. I was astonished to hear my father speak so consciously and so collectedly in the extreme lassitude to which he was reduced. Sometime preceding he had been in a quiet and comfortable sleep, from which he awoke in rapture inexpressible, and not entirely to be conceived only by those who were present. Such was the elysian transport that filled his heaven-born soul. This was quite a different state from that in which my father had been during the earlier part of his illness, which, prior to this, I had committed to paper. He awoke exclaiming, "Victory! victory! victory! Angels are awaiting to conduct me home. Victory through the blood of Christ. No merits of my own. All a free gift! all a free gift. Oh the love of my Saviour to condescend to save me one of the vilest. Tell it unto sinners, that I am a sinner saved wholly and entirely by Jesus." His countenance during this period, which continued for a half hour or more, become quite animated

G

and refulgent with truly celestial bliss. "Call this dying!" "Call this dying!" he shouted (his feelings of happiness being so vast at the time, he appeared to become unconscious of his pain and suffering). "I have never tasted such sweets, nor have had such an earnest before, I am

only just out of heaven." While this frame of mind lasted, he very lovingly and earnestly admonished his family, and commended them into the Lord's hands, assuring them that nothing but a broken heart would stand the solemn test. "You have heard my religion often spoken against, no doubt, but now you see its necessity and importance.” Natural ties must be broken, and this will be a great loss to you all, you will lose a praying husband and a praying father, all that I can do now is what before I have many times done, that is, to ask the Lord to bless you. Oh that we may all be bound up together in Christ, that will be a blessed union indeed." Very much more could be written of his conversation at this time, (or rather preaching, as he called it himself, for he said repeatedly afterwards, "He never preached like it before);" but enough I think is expressed in the above to explain the happy confidence of a dying saint. According to my dear father's request, I would prefer to make less of this circumstance than attempt to augment it fictitiously, being quite sure if he could now speak for himself, he would desire to be nothing, that Christ might be all in all, having expressed this wish as his heavenly rhapsody somewhat subsided. From this time

my dear father was not sufficiently collected to be able to converse upon any subject, although generally sufficiently sensible to reply in a concise manner to any interrogation that was put. The night previous to his dismissal he was extremely restless, but about a half an hour before his death, he became quite quiet, and at half-past six, a.m., without a struggle, he left behind all pain and sorrow, in glorious exchange for an everlasting, immutable heavenly rest. Thus, "Having fought a good fight, finished his course, and kept the faith, henceforth there is laid him a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give him in that day." Coggeshall.

up

EBENEZER COLLIS.

for

REHOBOTH.

ENLARGE our borders O our God,
Our minds enlighten more;
Enlighten us in all that's good,
And thee we will adore.
Increase our numbers if thou will,
And let us patient wait,
Advance thy cause of Zion's hill,

With showers of blessings great.
Enlarge our borders, O our God,

For this is Rehoboth;

Hast thou not promised it much good?
Hast thou not pledged thy troth ?
The dead in sin awake to life,

The blind thy light to see;
The enemies to cease their strife,
And bow like friends to thee.
Enlarge our borders, O our God,
Give room that we may dwell;
Saxmundham.

With Jesus' righteousness and blood,
Our hymns of praise shall swell.
Enlist more soldiers of the cross,

Thy bounty to receive,

And then whatever be their loss,
With thee at last they live.
Enlarge our borders, O our God,
The wanderer's restore;
And let it be well understood,
That we thy name adore.
Encourage the weak-hearted one,
To cast all care on thee,
The helpless and the poor lead on,
And set the captive free.
Jehovah, kindly prosper us,
If this is not too great;
O do thou richly bless us thus,
Enlarge, enlarge, our state.

W. HOUSE.