the care of all other things, " and all these things shall be added unto thee."

Let not, then, the busy cares of this life be any hindrance to thy care of the other; set apart this small time for the time of preparation, and look on it as an emblem of the whole time of life, which is our day of preparation for the eternal Sabbath, the everlasting rest, the undisturbed quiet of the other life.

To the Editor of the Methodist Magazine.

DEAR SIR,

The following remarks on the advantages of a country life I have transcribed from Clarkson's Portraiture of Quakerism, vol. ii. p. 49. By giving them a place in your Magazine, you will oblige your's truly, JOHN SYDSERFF.

Leighton-Buzzard, 6th April, 1819.

THE COUNTRY.

"The objects in the country are peculiarly favourable to the improvement of morality in the exercise of the spiritual feelings. The bud and the blossom, the rising and the falling leaf, the blade of corn and the ear, the seed-time and the harvest, the sun that warms and ripens, the cloud that cools and emits the fruitful shower,—these, and a hundred objects, afford daily food for the religious growth of the mind. Even the natural man is pleased with these; they excite in him natural ideas, and produce in him a natural kind of pleasure. But the spiritual man experiences a sublimer joy; he sees none of these without feeling both spiritual improvement and delight. It is here that he converses with the Deity in his works; it is here that he finds himself grateful for his goodness; that he acknowledges his wisdom; that he expresses his admiration of his power."

The poet Cowper, in his Contemplation of a country life, speaks forcibly on this subject :

"O friendly to the best pursuits of man,

Friendly to thought, to virtue, and to peace,
Domestic life, in rural leisure pass'd!

Few know thy value, and few taste thy sweets,
Though many boast thy favours, and affect
To understand and choose thee for their own.
But foolish man foregoes his proper bliss,
E'vn as his first progenitor, and quits,
Though plac'd in Paradise (for earth has still
Some traces of her youthful beauty left,)
Substantial happiness for transient joy;
Scenes form'd for contemplation, and to nurse
The growing seeds of wisdom, that suggest
By every pleasing image they present
Reflections, such as meliorate the heart,
Compose the passions, and exalt the mind."

Some further Observations on the late Rev. John Newton's Letters. By a FRIEND.

From an ignorant profligate sailor, Mr. Newton, by the grace of God, became a valuable minister in the Church of England; and

by great industry in the acquisition of useful learning, he became an example to those who are called to the ministry under the deficiency of an early education. He acquired a plain and easy English style, and had especially great facility in writing letters. His correspondents were numerous, and he shewed an anxious desire to gratify them. He himself has been heard to say, that he thought if his letters were collected they would make several folios. It is true that some of his letters were of little importance, and contained only common-place observations, and ought not to have been published; but others were of a superior kind, and evidenced originial thought and true piety, and contained religious anecdote and argument worthy of being preserved.

The letters reviewed in our last number, as has been observed, were first published in America, and addressed to a Mr. Barlass, a preacher among the Antiburgher Seceders in Scotland, but who emigrated to New York, in 1798, and was there a schoolmaster, and afterwards a bookseller, which business he pursued till his death, in the beginning of the year 1817.

Mr. Barlass, before his emigration, in a letter to Mr. Newton, gives a short account of the preachers among the Seceders, which may afford information to some of our readers, who have not been in Scotland.

"One thing among us is very comfortable, for from one side of the kingdom to the other, our ministers preach all as with one voice. As to doctrine they are entirely the same. Religious people in the Establishment have to pass this or that parish, and go to some three or four before they can be sure of food for their souls. Among the Seceders there is no need for this. One minister may be weaker than another, both in grace and gifts, but even the weakest aims at being evangelical, and the most are truly so.

"As to their manners (language and delivery I mean,) some have more of the unaffected simplicity of the old Scotch Presbyterians, while others affect more of the fashionable and polite air, though it does not always succeed with them. I have often observed these less attentive to the matter of their sermon; and their manner leads the more ignorant to admire the man rather than the sentiment. Hence, sometimes the silliest preachers are the most popular at first, though in a course of years a man is generally esteemed according to his real merit. The amiable and godly Mr. Hervey has, to be sure very innocently, hurt a great many preachers here. They will attempt, (and a needless, hard task it is,) to imitate his poetic prose, and they only get some high sounding vocables, ill enough joined.

"Reading sermons is very frequent in the Establishment, but never has appeared in the Secession. In the kirk, indeed, it prevails most among the fashionable, careless Arminians. It is a practice universally hated by all serious persons here."

Mr. Newton, in one of his letters to Mr. Barlass, speaks very highly of Mr. Hervey, and says, that in every respect he was one of the greatest preachers of the age. But he rather surprises us when he adds, that Mr. Hervey never knew that one soul was awakened in Weston Favel, and that he could make no impression upon the people VOL. XLII. October, 1819.

at that place, living or dying. We are ready to ask, Was there not a cause ? But we will not go back to former days when Checks to erroneous doctrines were thought most highly necessary.

"I believe," says Mr. Newton in this letter, which is dated Olney, Bucks, July 10th, 1778, there has not been a gospel sermon preached at Weston Favel since Mr. Hervey's death; nor can I hear that there is one spiritual person in the parish. His other parish of Collingtree is likewise a dark place, though there may be half a dozen people there who know something of the Lord. I preached twice a year at Collingtree for about ten years, but I am now quite shut out. Mr. Hervey's usefulness was chiefly in his writings. A few people in the neighbourhood profited by him, who, since his death, have mostly joined the Dissenters; but he never knew that one soul was awakened in the parish where he lived."

OF THE DUTY OF HEARERS.

To the Editor of the Methodist Magazine.

I was much pleased on reading in your Magazine for November last, the remarks of " A METHODIST, on Preuchers, and on Preaching Abilities." I had long wished to see the subject taken up by an able hand, and the observations of your correspondent so exactly accorded with mine, and were expressed in so superior a manner, that my astonishment only yielded to the gratification I received from their perusal. But there is another subject which I conceive is of equal importance, which I could have wished him to have touched upon. Permit me to suggest it to him, as I do not feel myself adequate to the task of taking it up, and doing it that justice it deserves. What I allude to is-The duty of hearers of the gospel, and especially members of religious societies, to assist their Ministers in their work, by every means which they can bring within the grasp of their power.

That this is a duty incumbent upon Christians, I think is easily gathered from the historical records of the first churches, in which every member appears an active member, helping forward the work of the Lord, by prayer and by zealous personal exertions: and in the apostolic epistles to these churches, their converts are exhorted to strive together with their ministers, to be fellow-labourers, co-workers in the vineyard of the Lord; and, if precluded from greater exertions, at least to reverence their teachers, and to pray for them, that the word of God might have free course and be glorified. The whole Christian church is represented as one compact body, of which Christ was the head, to govern and direct its movements; apostles, and prophets, and teachers, and people, were all different members of that one body; and all these members were to perform their several offices as in the natural body, that its life and health might be preserved. Now, Sir, I do think that these duties are oft forgotten, or disregarded by many of our people; they do not all seem to consider themselves as fellow. members with their preachers; or, if they do, they hang as paralytic limbs to the body, and never move except it be to lay a hand, chill and trembling as that of death, upon others in whom the blood of

Christian charity still circulates, and whose pulse yet vibrates with

Christian zeal.

How common it is to hear members, and even old members of our societies, exclaim against the feeble talents of their preachers, and pass their censures upon their sermons, even in the presence of those who are but "outward-court worshippers," and whose slumbering prejudices require but little to arouse them; so that serious impressions are oft, by this means, obliterated, and those who are inquiring the way to Zion are turned aside! The example is infectious, and too often spreads to others who are younger in the way. Christians of yesterday rise up as censors, and instead of feeding upon the bread of life, sit with partial and perverted judgment upon the mode in which it is administered to them; and glance with anger at Conference for sending such men to their circuits; but, at the same time, felicitate themselves with the hope of their removal. As persons who are deaf generally shout to make others hear, so these, ignorant of their own leanness, take pleasure in decrying the fancied leanness of their brethren, and in painting the state of the prayer-meetings and classes, and indeed all the affairs of the society, and of the connexion at large, in the most sombre colours. By their continued howlings, they would seem as if placed between the porch and the altar, not to pray, "Spare thy people!" but to cry out lamentations and woe over the departing glory, and say with the enemies of Israel, "Where is their God?" And yet, Sir, these are the last to step into the breach, the last to wield the sword of the Spirit, and the weapon of prayer in defence of the church; the last to administer the balm of consolation to her children, to bind up her wounds, and bid her smile!

I do not know to what cause to attribute the captious and criticising spirit of our congregations; whether it is a natural consequence of our itinerant system, (which I am not willing to believe, as I would be the last to suspect any evil could arise from the excellent plans of our venerable founder,) whether our people are gaining too much specu lative refinement; or whether they hear so much, and such a change of preaching, (for the quality of that preaching I am sure is inferior to none,) but certainly the effect is too obvious. I have known those who once heard to their profit, and felt the power of the word; they were humble and docile, and did not dare to trust their judgment; and if they did not profit so much as they wished, ascribed it entirely to themselves; but, after awhile, these persons having heard sufficiently for themselves, leave their former simplicity, and, proud of their attainments, and puffed up with a persuasion of their own superior discernment, take their places in the magisterial chair, assuming to themselves an exclusive right to hear, and think, and judge, and decide, for the whole congregation. If it were not so serious a subject it really would be amusing to see the uneasiness of body, and coutortions of countenance, of these "great hearers," when a preacher stands before them, who does not just suit the vein and nerve of their fancy. I do not know whether they intend these grimaces to shew their importance or their ridiculousness; but they always convey to me the idea of * * , any thing but common decency, and the

spirit of devotion. This is particularly the case in some circuit towns where a local preacher has occasionally to occupy the pulpit. This, Sir, has oft-times grieved me, to hear scouted with contempt the very name of local preachers, a body of laborious and disinterested men, to whom we are indebted, under God, for much of our prosperity, and for whom our Conference, in its Minutes, expresses the highest respect; and I do not envy the state of that man's mind, who, if ever he reflects that he must give an account before God for the sermons he has heard, can hope to justify himself for the neglect of any one, by saying, "It was only a local preacher."

But it is only fair to mention the motive which our critical hearers assign for their conduct. It is love for the cause of Methodism-love for the souls of their fellow-men! They wish to see the house of God filled, and of course they wish for preachers to suit the popular taste; that is, their own taste! And if a preacher do not exactly tally with this unerring and inflexible standard, the superabundance of their Christian charity leads them to bear all the unpleasant feelings, which they suppose may be excited in the minds of others. And they take especial care to let those feelings be seen and heard. If a preacher be expected whom they do not like, it will disturb them for two or three weeks beforehand. They dread "a respectable congregation" coming, and accordingly, take every step to prevent it, by avoiding invitations to strangers, and by dropping hints to others that he is but a "little preacher." When the time comes, their desire for the welfare of the cause is so great, that they perhaps absent themselves from chapel to promote it, by not appearing to countenance such preaching; or, if they do go, it is but for example's sake, and to tremble and feel for others who may chance to be there. "Indeed they do not mind for themselves, they can hear any body; but what would Mr., and Mrs. think of such a preacher? Preaching like this will ruin our interest." And perhaps all this time these very hearers, for whom is all this solicitude, far from being disgusted, have been hearing for eternity; whilst some of our own critical members are the only ones who remain hardened and unblessed.

Such cases, Sir, are not imaginary. I have known them, and with others have deplored them, I believe our friends, when they say they love the cause of Methodism; but I do wish their love and zeal were more prudently directed, for I have known very bad effects arise from this conduct; indeed, if it be love, thus exercised, it is "killing with kindness!" I have been credibly informed of a circuit town, in which great hearers, seldom pleased with their preachers, (though acceptable in other places,) have produced a considerable defection in their congregation, merely by this spirit and temper. In worldly company, by speaking with cool indifference of the talents of their preachers, the minds of those who were growing right with us, have been warped aside; whilst the Dissenters, on the other hand, with more wisdom and love for their cause, have invited them to hear their ministers, when the Methodists had, by conversation and example alienated them from our own chapels. This is first stabbing the interests of our own cause, and then sitting down to murmur at its drooping!