my prayers in great wisdom and mercy, by making me grow fatter still. Oh, what a fool I am, and how wise is God! Now I seem somewhat contented with my load, only by having it increased. What a wonderful way of teaching God has ! I beg my hearty love to Mr. Madan, and remain, your Ladyship's much obliged and dutiful servant, JOHN BERRIdge. My Lady, I received your letter of the 9th, and find you to be in higher mettle at the time of writing it than ever I knew you-a good sign your grief is wearing off; for an excessive load makes the spirit silent and lumpish, whilst a lighter load makes it plaintive and waspish. I am sure you are better, though perhaps you may not feel it and own it. Indeed, I was mightily pleased with your letter; it was quite a metzotinto print of my own heart, and let me see you can be sometimes what I am frequently. Thank you, thank you, for the kind consolation you undesignedly sent me. I hope to see you soon at Oat Hall, and then I will thank you again. Mr. Madan sent me word yesterday that he would come to Everton as soon as Mr. Romaine came to Brighthelmstone. But in order to hasten my journey, he advised me, if Mr. Romaine called upon me in his return from Yorkshire, to ask him to stay a Sunday or two here, and come away myself directly to Oat Hall. See now how groundless your suspicions are! But heavy grief, and disappointments on the back of it, are apt to give us a jaundiced eye, and a feverish spirit. Am not I a trimmer now? Don't I trim too close? Do not I go to the quick? Indeed, I am a strange, blunt fellow, and have always been thought a blundering fool; so that I could not help smiling at your leaving Great Britain when I became a trimmer; especially because I have had many thoughts of late, and some desire, of going to New England myself. And oh! what a fine mortification it would be for you to leave Old England on account of my trimming, and then to find me close at your heels in Canada! In truth, I am apt to think we shall both see New England before we die, though perhaps not both at the same time; and what you said in your last letter with some hastiness, may be put in practice with real seriousness. Can you forbear laughing now? Well, time will show; in the meantime Oat Hall must be your Canada, and I am willing, very willing, to emigrate to Oat Hall, as soon as I can get a lawful discharge from Everton. I am now much out of conceit with my own children, as you are with the hospital chaplains, and I want to leave them for awhile, that I may love them the better at my return. I propose to set out the very first opportunity I can get, and in the meantime remain your Ladyship's much obliged and dutiful JOHN BERRIDGE. Please to present my best respects to Mrs. Carteret and Mrs. Cavendish.* Everton, July 16, 1763. * Two sisters, allied to two of the noblest and most ancient families in England. They formed part of the great harvest collected at Lady Huntingdon's house in London, having there first heard and received the Gospel in the light and in the love of it. Being women of rank and fortune, their influence was considerable, and many, by their instrumentality, were induced to attend Mr. Whitefield's UNITED PRAYER MEETINGS. BY THE HON. AND REV. B. W. NOEL, A.M. It is very desirable that Christians of various denominations should hold united meetings for prayer in different parts of London. As dependent creatures, and as sinners, we need the help of God; let us pray for it. The Churches of Christ need more grace; many ungodly persons need pardon and salvation; wickedness and misery abound; London needs the help of God. Let us pray for it. If we are too careless, proud, worldly, or unbelieving to ask, we cannot expect to receive. James iv. 2. It is the will of God that sinners should pray for pardon and salvation. Isaiah lv. 6. Luke xviii. 13, 14; xxiii. 42, 43. Acts viii. 22. James iv. 4-8. It is His will that His servants should pray for themselves. Matt. vii. 7-11. Romans xii. 12. Phil. iv. 6. Col. iv. 2. 1 Thess. v. 17. It is His will that they should pray for each other. Job. xlii. 8. Romans i. 9. Eph. i. 16. Phil. i. 4. Col. i. 3, 9. 1 Thess. i. 2. 2 Cor. Phil. i. 19. Col. iv. 3. 1 Thess. v. 25. i. 11. Eph. vi. 18, 19. James v. 16-18. It is His will that they should pray for all men. Gen. xviii. 23-32. Exod. xxxii. 9—14. 1 Tim. ii. 1—4. It is His will that they should pray for the extension of His kingdom. Psalm lxxii. 15. Matt. vi. 9, 10. 2 Thess. iii. 2. It is His will that they should meet for prayer. Matt. xviii. 19, 20. Acts i. 14; ii. 42; iv. 23–30; xii. 5. He answers their united prayers. Isaiah lxv. 24. Mal. iii. 16. Matt. xviii. 19, 20. Acts i. 14; ii. 1, 2; iv. 29—31; xii. 5—7. It is for the honour of Christ and for the glory of God that all the disciples of Christ should, without distinction of Church or party, unitedly seek His grace for His Church and for the world. John xvii. 20, 21. Thousands of such united prayer meetings have been held in America, and have been unusually blessed by God. Reader, if you believe that God hears united prayer, attend these meetings. If you wish for the salvation of sinners, for the prosperity of the Church of Christ, for the spiritual welfare of London, for the honour of Christ, or for the glory of God, attend them. If you wish for the conversion of members of your family, or of any of your friends, ask them to attend them. If you wish for a revival of religion in your own soul attend them. If you are yourself unconverted, and wish to be saved from hell, attend them. ministry. In the published correspondence of Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Berridge, and others, letters to these excellent women will be found. There is an interesting narrative of their dying experience in a volume of the "Christian Guardian," in a letter addressed to their dear and intimate friend, Lady Mary Fitzgerald, now united to them in glory. In their last illness they were frequently visited by Messrs. Romaine, Venn, Newton, Hill, Cecil, Foster, Jones (of Langan), and other eminent ministers of Christ. They were removed hence within a short time of each other, to meet again in the kingdom of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. "They were lovely in their lives, and in their deaths were not divided." WILLIAM HUNTINGTON'S HIEROGLYPHICS. The well-known preacher, William Huntington, among his other eccentricities, published a very singular engraving, which deserves to be noted as a curiosity of religious art. It is entitled "An Hieroglyphical Print of the Church of God, in Her Five-fold State, including the Holy Jerusalem; together with a Scriptural Exhibition of the numerous Artists, Mechanicks, and Manufacturers, engaged in their respective Pursuits for Promoting the various branches of Natural Religion." The picture at first sight presents a truly extraordinary medley. In the centre is a space enclosed on three sides with a wall, which is surmounted by flames. Within, a fountain is playing, and men are ploughing, sowing, and shooting at foxes that are nibbling vines. One of these is caught by the leg in a trap. Behind the fountain is a smaller enclosure, containing a city, divided into four parts, and in the middle a kind of pavilion, a deified being seated in it. Between the two enclosures are angels reaping corn. Outside the outer wall are shown a great variety of persons, engaged in different pursuits. In the immediate foreground is a group of men and women, in the dress of the last century, listening to a female preacher. Her head is surrounded by an extensive "glory," but she is on the point of being struck by an arrow just discharged from the bow of a man near her. Behind is a hill with a cross on the top. To the right of this, a "devil" is guiding a man with a handkerchief over his head, so that he runs against a hillock that is in his way. To the left two men are working with pickaxes at another hillock, and a third kicks at it. Next to them is one about to jump from a great height, while a friend holds him back by the coat-tails. Several people are seen approaching the door in the front wall of the enclosure. There are three or four men, each with a trumpet and a lantern, and trumpeters stand on the two corner towers. An archer is crouching under the wall, and taking aim at one of them. In other places men with pickaxes are digging at the foundations. In the left-hand corner of the print a house is tumbling to pieces. Near it is a lecturer expounding the two tables of the law to a circle of listeners; also a man on a winged horse, another carrying a big globe, another with a large key on his shoulder, another kneeling before a statue. On a steep hill there stands a church, apparently, and persons of distinction, some in carriages, are making their way to it, and being invited in. At the foot of the hill a party of masons are building a wall. Higher up, a man is rubbing the hide of a leopard, an ass is braying, and a devil is holding a fox by the tail. Close by is a blackamoor in a tub; his attendant grasps him by the throat, and essays to Opposite is a fellow reclining in a huge mortar, while Further on, two "deaths” another pounds him with a gigantic pestle. are lowering a corpse into the grave; a third skeleton, in a wig, reads the service, and a fourth waits, leaning on his spade. Then we have a man sitting upon a monstrous egg, from which a viper is crawling, and another seated at a tambour-frame. To the left is a grindstone, which one man is gaily turning, while another, in a cocked hat, holds a pauper's nose against it. At a table is sitting a man in a black suit, bands, and very full-bottomed wig, working with his feet a sort of treadle; and on the table appears a diminutive figure, also in clerical attire. Behind are some women making pillows, and beyond, a man placing a nest among a number of stars. Among other figures near, is an individual with a wolf's head, and wrapped in a sheepskin. In the front, again, and towards the right, is a row of seven pillars; before them a table, with slaughtered beasts and wine upon it, and females calling people to the feast. Next, on a high pedestal, is a figure wearing the robes and triple crown of a Pope; he is addressing a number of people around him, while behind are capering three hideous devils, with horns, hoofs, tails, and claws. Two old women are discoursing to an attentive circle. Presently we come to two clergymen in gowns and wigs, tying a bundle of heavy books, which a man is about to carry on his shoulders. Another clergyman, in full canonicals, is leading a man blindfold over å precipice. In a market-place some children are dancing and piping, others weeping, to an unmoved group. Some men are staggering and falling down a hill, another is writing at a table in a great book, and another is down on all-fours. Seven men are groping about blindfolded. A company of workmen are building a lofty tower; at a distance a corpse lies by a flaming altar, and near a small temple is another saltatory devil. Besides what has been described, there is a further design, representing another nearly square enclosure, appearing to rest in the air above the first, and to send streams of light down into it. Here are depicted various mystical objects; a seven-branched lamp, a river with a tree on either bank, four-winged quadrupeds, four smoking vials, a book with seven seals, twenty-four persons sitting in a circle, with crowns on the ground before them, four large buildings, and four fountains. A number of angels and others are dispersed through the place, and above, or around, is spread a long array of fiery chariots. In a "key" accompanying the print, we are told the meaning of all these strange things. "The enclosure in the middle is the Militant Church of God, enclosed on three sides with a wall of fire, but left open next to Heaven." The towers denote safety, and the watchmen are ministers. The "five states" of the Church are represented. The first is a fallow field, which is being ploughed and sown. Devils, in the form of birds, are devouring the seed. The second is a vineyard. "The foxes are the false prophets. The man who has got a fox in a trap is one of the king's vermin-catchers. Hence the Church's request, Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines.' The fountain playing in the middle of the vineyard is the water of life, or the Spirit of all grace." The third state is that of a city denoted by the inner enclosure. In the centre is seated the "Eternal Solomon." The fourth is shown as a harvest-field, where the angels are reaping and gathering the sheaves. "The Heavenly Jerusalem represents the fifth state of the Church, or the saints in ultimate glory." This is the "upper sanctuary," or city, that has been mentioned, and contains various symbolic matters described in the Book of the Revelation. A portion of the space outside the wall of the Church Militant the author designates "the Dry Land," and quotes the text, "the rebellious dwell in a dry land." The figures, &c., that occupy this and the remaining part of the picture represent, some of them, what the author considers the errors and heresies of the day, and others are pictorial emblems of the ideas conveyed in different texts of Scripture. Thus, the woman with a radiance round her head is "Wisdom proclaiming the Law of Kindness." The small hill, on the right of Mount Calvary, is Election, and the man stumbling against it is a freewill-monger, who cannot stoop to the sovereignty of his Maker." The hill on the other side of the Cross is Reprobation. Three men are trying to level it, "but it remains," says Huntington, "just as it was when first cast up, and ever will." The man held back by his friend is standing on the brink of the "Mount of Corruption," and was about to approach the gate of the Church. "He will neither enter in himself, and those that are going he hinders." Those who are digging at the walls and shooting at the watchmen denote active enemies of the Church. The house falling to ruins is the "house built upon the sand," of the parable. The rider on the flying horse is meant for a Swedenborgian, "going post haste into the air for new revelations." He is mounted without saddle or bridle, to show the danger of his position. The man carrying a globe is one who "has long insisted that the world had no beginning, that all things will ever continue as they are, that Providence has nothing to do with the management of it-and therefore," says the author, "I have placed his strange world, and the government of it, upon his own shoulders." The man with the key is a schoolmaster; "he is noted for his learning, and can speak almost all languages and tongues except the new tongue. He is represented as taking away, or carrying off, the key of knowledge." The building on the hill is "an old Chapel." It stands on the "Mount of Corruption." "The building is very black, but the doctrine advanced there is ten shades blacker. The popular minister of that chapel is a deistical preacher, and is very much attended, especially by the polite and learned, and by the nobility and gentry. The difficulty in ascending the hill shows the pains that some people take to destroy their own souls." The statue on a pedestal, blowing a trumpet, is Fame, sounding the praise of the preacher. The labourers employed |