A FEW WORDS TO THE READERS OF "THE EARTHEN VESSEL AND CHRISTIAN RECORD." CHRISTIAN FRIENDS, Eleven years have now run their destined course since this Christian Miscellany was first issued; and the same hand that was permitted to send it forth at the first, is still spared to pen a few lines at the close of the eleventh volume. No religious publication, perhaps, ever lived and labored under greater trials and difficulties than this has done. No periodical could be conducted under greater disadvantages, or be more frequently tarnished with imperfections, than has fallen to the lot of THE EARTHEN VESSEL. Nevertheless, it has lived; it has increased; it has reached a steady circulation of seven thousands per month; and to our certain knowledge it now | finds its way not only into most of the metropolitan, provincial, and rural churches of our own land, but there is scarcely a district in America, or a colony across the seas, where it is not regulary circulated and read. For this success-for all the strength and encouragement bestowed, we most sincerely desire to thank the Lord; and to beseech him to spare, to employ, and to help us onward for a few more years; and to give us grace still further to publish his name, to comfort his people, to aid his churches, to record his mercies, to acknowledge his hand, and to be upheld and delivered by his power, until time, and timethings with us shall have passed away for ever. We have been most deeply afflicted by the unhappy controversies, and anti-Christian pieces which have too frequently found their way into our pages. The lack of weighty, savoury, and permanently valuable matter, and a want of order and proper adjustment of the articles inserted, have also been to us a constant source of grief. No critical eye has ever censured us more severely than we have censured ourselves. We ask forgiveness. We have done what we could. We have certainly learned that the embodiment of sole editor, responsible proprietor, practical printer, stated pastor, and travelling preacher, in one and the self-same small piece of fallen humanity, is a combination that cannot possibly move on without embarrassment, imperfection, and trials of a very peculiar kind. But we hope to see an improvement; and by devoting more time to this branch of our work-and by being favoured with the assistance of able correspondents, to give THE EARTHEN VESSEL a tone, and a character that shall render it more than ever useful to the thousands among whom it disseminates the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. The Epistles to Theophilus, by "A Little One,” inserted in this volume, and to be continued in the next, (the Lord permitting,) are worthy of the mind from whence they proceed: they are a rich treasure in THE EARTHEN VESSEL; they have been fendered a great blessing to many of the Lord's people; and, we trust, those letters will yet be read by thousands to their soul's profit, not only in the volumes of THE EARTHEN VESSEL, but also in another form. We have, (we venture to presume), a threefold claim upon the sympathies and support of those churches, ministers, and friends, who hold THE TRUTH, and whom the Lord hath called, not only by grace divine, but whom he hath called "earnestly to contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints." We ask for their continued, for their kind, for their persevering support, First-Upon the ground of GOSPEL TRUTH itself. What has been our aim during the last eleven years, in the publication of THE EARTHEN VESSEL? It has been to publish, to perpetuate, and to give forth to the people, plain, positive, and powerful proofs and evidences, of the existence, the operation, and the everlasting benefits of that " grace of God which bringeth salvation" unto the ransomed and the chosen heirs of immortal glory, and of eternal life. Our aim has been soldier. "Can I not bring you a little water?" not only to exhibit Truth as it lays in the "I am dying, sir," was his melancholy reply. Covenant of Grace, in the Three Glorious children ?" There is something you can do," 'Can I not then take a message to your wife and Persons of the ever blessed God-JEHOVAH said the soldier. "If you open my knapsack, THE FATHER-JEHOVAH THE SON-and JE- and take out my Bible, and read towards the HOVAH THE SPIRIT-to 'exhibit TRUTH not end of the fourteenth chapter of John, that only as it is laid out in Old Testament types, The officer feelingly read as follows; "Peace verse beginning with peace, I will thank you." shadows, and prophetic visions-to exhibit I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, TRUTH not only as it lays in New Testament not as the world giveth, give I unto you: let doctrines, ordinances, promises, precepts, and not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." narratives; but also to exhibit TRUTH, LIV-man, "I have that peace; I am going to that "Thank you, sir," said the dying Saviour; I want no more." ING TRUTH as it is manifested in the absolute conversion of Sinners, in the Gospel conversation of Living believers, in the indisputable enjoyment realised by dying saints, in the raising up of gracious men to the ministry, and in the manifest growth, and establishment of Gospel Churches in our land. To exhibit, to illustrate, and to point out the living witnesses to, and the amazing works and wonders of, Sovereign Grace! This, in some humble measure, has been our aim. And we have not altogether failed. The narrative we, this month, furnish, of the mercy of God toward William Churchman, is a specimen of the kind of work we rejoice to do, and of the kind of witness we ever wish to bear. We love to lay hold of a man who every body that knew him, knew him to be a sinner; but who now, by the grace of God, is well known to be a true believer. We say, look at that man! Look at what he was!! Look at what he is!!! Listen to what he says!! See how he lives-see how he dies-and there behold the inestimable value-there learn the exceeding riches of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we may further illustrate our aim, we give it in the following short, but beautiful narrative. A minister by the name of Mills says We remember to have read in a tract, Never-to-be-forgotten-burning, blazing, infidel-crushing FACTS of this kind-demonstrating THE LIVING POWER of TRUTH and GRACE, we ever love to publish. We ask for the continual support and kind co-operation of the lovers of truth, Secondly, upon the ground of having conferred temporal benefits, as well as having chronicled Gospel information, that has been useful to multitudes in this, and other lands. There are not a few whose wants have been met-whose feet have been directed-whose souls have been comforted, by our humble instrumentality. Benevolent and truth-loving Christians, help us still to seek the good of Zion, and the welfare of all her sons. We ask for the continued support of real Thirdly, upon the ground of having spent eleven long years in this arduous service, not only giving our time and strength-but sinking in the establishment of this periodical all that a gracious Providence has given us, and much that belongs to others, who, sooner than see THE EARTHEN VESSEL sink-and believing it to be an instrument for goodhave come forward to our help. The searcher of all hearts knoweth our labours and our losses our cares and our cries and earnest prayers for a full deresponsibilities. He knoweth our many entitled, "The Soldier's Victory," that, in a war in which Britain was engaged on the liverance; for an honest and a useful standContinent of Europe, some years ago, there ing, and that we might finish our course were not a few in the army who were "good with joy-be a blessing to many, an injury to soldiers of the cross. One of these was wounded in the field. He was carried into the none. Brethren, pray for us: and in filling rear by his comrades to procure surgical aid, our VESSEL with good treasure, and in but his wound was incurable, and his re- spreading its circulation, we beseech you covery hopeless: he requested his comrades to help us. May the Lord himself our Rerelay him down by the wayside to die. There he lay, in blood, till an officer on horseback, going ward be. With these few remarks, written into action, came up to him. So soon as he amid the mingled labours of our calling, perceived the poor fellow's perilous condition, now say, for another year, farewell. the noble spmpathies of his soldierly heart were roused, and called forth. He dismounted, and said to the dying man, "Is there anything I can do for you?" Nothing, sir," said the CHARLES WATERS BANKS. Bermonsey New Road, to we WHO NEVER READ ANY BOOK BUT THE BIBLE-NEVER HEARD A SERMON- ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY THOMAS BINGHAM, WHEN we were recently preaching in the West of England, a good brother one morning took us for a walk over some of the old hills which run along the coast of Devon; and on passing the door of a quiet little village inn, he said some godly people resided there, and we must call upon them. We did so; and in the course of some happy converse on the best things, the lady brought forth a little book, containing some of Dr. Hawker's writings; and in the midst of it VOL. XI.-No. 131. 4 world in a new edition, she feeling much persuaded that God would bless its perusal to many thousands of precious souls, shewing forth the freeness of sovereign grace, and "the sufficiency of the Scriptures." In compliance with her request, we have engraved the representation of WILLIAM CHURCHMAN READING HIS BIBLE IN HIS HUT; and append thereto the following deeply instructive narration of his life and latter end. The author says: The most interesting and useful memoirs with which we are furnished by the pen of biography, are not always those of the most distinguished public characters; the purple tints of the violet are not less pleasing, nor is its delicate odour less fragrant, when we accidentally discover it in a sequestered vale, than when it assists, amidst a multitude of different flowers, in ornamenting the garden on the contrary, it affords our senses a superior gratification, when unexpectedly discovered, and insulates our attention more completely, when mingled with no rival beauties, nor merely contributing a partial share of sweetness to the variegated perfumes of the parterre. : Thus genuine lowliness, faith unfeigned, piety undissembled, pure evangelical religion advance to high degrees of eminence, when they appear in a character, to the formation of which a variety of concurring circumstances have contributed, will interest the mind of every real Christian; but when unexpectedly discovered in a soil, to the fertility of which, neither the possession of brilliant talent, the advantages of early tuition, continual cultivation, nor extensive information received from reading the works of the learned, and conversing with the wise and good, have rendered the least assistance; the hand of the divine Former more conspicuously appears, and even the tongue of incredulity has been constrained to exclaim, with the vanquished sorcerers of Egypt, "It is the finger of God!" delight in tracing sensations of this kind, though a considerable time has passed since I beheld the scenes that awakened them in my heart: especially since the character then forming by divine influence, is now perfected in a superior region: and while I recollect, with sacred pleasure, the delightful feelings which it produced when viewed its infant state-I earnestly anticipate the richer delight of beholding complete glory and radiance in the blissful world above. Some years ago, soon after I had commenced preaching an occasional lecture at Overton, I was casually informed, in conversation with a person who himself made no great pretensions to a religious character, that he had accidentaly conversed with a poor deformed cripple, living in a wretched cot in the neighbourhood of that place, whose name was William Churchman; who had much surprised him by his fluency in talking on religious subjects; and the more so, because the man did not appear to have read any book but the Bible, nor to have attended any public worship, nor conversed with religious people of any denomination, so that he could not possibly conceive how he could have acquired the knowledge he appeared to possess. My curiosity was much excited by this account, and I formed an instant determination to gratify it by visiting the subject of it on the evening of the following Sabbath, when I was engaged to preach at Overton, which I could conveniently accomplish, as his residence was near the road, by which I sometimes returned home. It was a delightful summer evening, the sultry heat of the day had given place to the coolness of a gentle and refreshing breeze, the sun was just disappearing beneath the hill, which was the boundary of the prospect to the west, and his mild declining beams gave a faint lustre to the woods which crowned its summit. The feathered songsters were chaunting melodious vespers, and to their thrilling airs the cawing rooks, the bleating flocks, and lowing herd formed a solemn and not unpleasing bass. The flowery meadows, clad in luxuriant herbage, and studded with variegated flowers, exhaled delicious odours; my own mind, warmed and enlivened by the subject I had been endeavouring to illustrate to my rustic auditory, was in a disposition calculated to enjoy the charming scene, while I walked towards the little group of huts, one of which I had been informed was the residence of the poor man and his widowed mother. As I approached the cottage, its exterior gave me at once an idea of the wretched poverty of the inhabitants; the thatch of the decayed roof was pervious in many places to the rain of heaven, "And all the pelting of the pitiless storm." The windows, of which there were two, one in each story, retained scarcely any unbroken panes of glass, and their many apertures were imperfectly stopped with straw, hay, and many-coloured rags. The shattered door stood open; on entering I beheld seated on a little stool, which, with a broken chair and an old oaken table, composed the whole furniture of the miserable hovel, an object, whose external appearance was expressive of greater wretchedness than even that of the habitation itself; and in spite of the favourable idea I had conceived of him before, excited in my frame a shuddering of mingled pity and horror. His countenance appeared to be that of a man about thirty years old, pale and squalid; his head, of an immoderate size, formed a shocking contrast to his withered limbs, which were not larger than those of a child of ten years old, distorted and deformed by several curvatures both in the legs and spine; sad consequence of neglect suffered in his infancy, from the carelessness and brutality of an ignorant and drunken mother. He was reading when I came in; pursuant to a design I had formed, of knowing his sentiments and character from himself, without discovering my own, I accosted him with a very careless and indifferent air, "William, how do you do? what book is that you arc reading?" He raised his head to look at me, and replied with a look and tone of seriousness and affection, which instantly removed all those unpleasant sensations his appearance had excited in my mind, "The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." "Ha!" said I, "I have heard your religious people say, that a great deal of good may be got from that book, perhaps you can tell me if it be so, for I am sure I am bad enough, and if it will make me better, I'll read it too." He replied very gravely, "If the same Spirit who moved holy men of old to write it, open your heart to understand it, then it will do you good; but not else, for the natural man discerneth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." "But," rejoined I, still affecting ignorance of his meaning, "how then came you to understand them? surely you cannot be a learned man ?" Eyeing me with a solemn and piercing attention, he returned: "Sir, I don't know you, nor do I know why you came in here; but this I know, that I am commanded by this book to be ready to give to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in me, and I pray God that I may be enabled of him to do it with meekness and fear; you see, Sir, what a cripple I am, but you do not know what a sinner I am." "You a sinner!" exclaimed I, "how can that be? you are not able to get about to drink, game, dance, and carouse as the rest of us can; how then, in the name of wonder, is it possible that you should be a sinner ?" "True," said he, "I could not; but yet I am one of the vilest of sinners, for I believe no son of Adam ever sinned in the way I have done; for I thought because God Almighty had made me such a poor lame cripple, and punished me so much I supposed for nothing, that therefore I might take the liberty to sin without fear, for I thought that he would never be so hard as to punish me here and hereafter too; so because that was the sin I could most easily indulge, I delighted to curse and swear, and I am sure I made such new oaths and curses, that even if you have been used to swear yourself, they were so very dreadful that they would make you tremble to hear them. "However, blessed be God, about three months ago, as I was walking on my crutches in a fine sun-shiny day, near the door, I was seized all at once with a violent pain in my stomach; I cried out and fell down, and I really thought I was going to die presently; at first I did not seem to have any fear of death, for the reason I told you before; but as I continued in violent pain, a thought came across my mind, what good works have I done in my life? Alas! none! then I shall not go to heaven now, and if not, why I must go to hell at last. Now I was miserable indeed, for I did not know any other way to heaven than by my own works." "Dear me," interrupted I," what other way can there be, than doing all the good we can in order to gain the favour of God Almighty?" He answered me, "By the deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified; for by the law is the knowledge of sin: not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." "But," continued he, "in this distress I tried to pray; but of all the prayers you ever read in your life, if you ever read any, or all that you ever heard, if you ever heard any body pray, I believe you never heard any thing like it; I don't think it was the prayer of faith, and yet I believe that God heard and answered it. I do not know why, but it was as it pleased him: this was it as near as I can remember: "Lord, I am a poor sinner that never did any good in my life, and now I am afraid I must die and go to hell; but, O Lord, if thou canst save me, pray do; though I don't know how it can be. O try me once more, and I will be better than David; for he prayed seven times a day, but I will pray eight times, and read twelve chapters. But by praying, I only meant reading eight collects out of my mother's Prayer Book.' "Well, (interrupted I again,) what can be better praying than reading those excellent collects?"" "Ah, sir! (said he, very earnestly,) you might read all the prayers over that ever were made by man; you might make very good prayers for yourself, or if you were a bishop or some such great man, you might make prayers for other people, which they might pray in reading, and God might hear them, and yet never pray yourself in your life." "Well, (said I,) this is very strange; what is praying, then?" He replied, "praying is telling the great God what we feel that we want of him." Returning to his narrative, he proceeded thus:-"It pleased God that I soon got somewhat better, and I set about my task as I had promised; but alas! in a little time, I found that I did not pray. I could not believe that I could not love God, that I could not repent of sin, and at last I left off reading my prayers, because I was afraid of mocking God any longer; but, blessed be his name, he did not suffer me to leave off reading the Testament, though the more I read the worse I was, for I read it all through, and all seemed to condemn me; now I can see in it exceeding great and precious promises, but I could not see any of them then, I could only attend to such awful words as these: 'Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? "Where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. "The smoke of their torment ascendeth up, for ever and ever. "Thou after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasureth up to thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. |