Christ. He was aware that his time was short, and appeared longing to depart, and be with Christ. Pointing to his poor emaciated limbs, and calling my attention to his back, where the bones were protruding through the skin, he said, 'Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.' Each time I saw evidence of very rapid decay. He tried to tell me how happy he felt, and of his bright prospects in another world, but his voice was so weak I could scarcely hear him. 'Jesus! Jesus! I shall soon be with Jesus,' was the most intelligible and most constant utterance.

"We were occasionally interrupted by a crowd outside. When an Irish row was going on in the court, I went and spoke to some of the people; but with one woman, the chief speaker, I was strongly advised not to interfere, as I was sure to be insulted. Her language had been most disgusting. Nevertheless I addressed her, and she listened to me most kindly. I told her she was a poor thoughtless woman, and that she did not know how she was sinning against her best Friend. After a short time she came and looked in through the open window, and when she saw me sitting beside the sick man, and perceived how bad he was, she said, ‘If I had known he was so sick I would have stopped directly.' After I left, however, they began again, but not so violently as before; and this woman kept away, as she said, 'on account of the poor man lying bad.'

"My last visit to the carman was now fast approaching. It was on the 27th. I found him very low, and labouring for breath. It was some time before he could say a word, but it was 'Jesus! Jesus! I shall soon be with Jesus!' His wife remarked on the unpleasantness of the neighbours constantly looking in at the open window, which it seems they did after the row just mentioned. The remark was made that the neighbours all knew how bad he was. I remarked that Jesus knew it also, and that He was a compassionate High Priest, and would afford support and consolation. A smile immediately lighted up his poor wasted features, and he whispered that that was all his comfort, that Jesus did know it, and Jesus was with him. Oh, I feel very happy,' he added; and his strength was gone; he could say no more. I kneeled down, and again commended him to Him, whom he believed. I knew now his time on earth must be very short.

6

"When I called next day I found that he had died shortly after I left him. His widow told me that he passed away in perfect peace. He had remarked to a neighbour who came in, that he did not fear death, that he was happy in dying, because his wife was walking in the same way, and they should soon meet again. About

twenty minutes before he died, he asked his wife to read to him. She read a few verses from the 14th of John, and he then asked her to pray, which she did. He then repeated the name of JESUS several times, and said, 'I shall praise Him MORE, and MORE, and MORE,' repeating the word more several times, and with much emphasis. He sank back, and in a minute or two his spirit had fled. He had been telling his wife, during the night, how soon he would be praising God in heaven with a harp of gold. I kneeled in prayer with the widow, who appeared worn out with watching, but rejoiced to know that her husband had been snatched as a brand from the burning, and was now at rest. I have often seen her since; and she continues, I rejoice to say, stedfast in her Christian profession.

as he grew in grace, CHRIST was all: self

"During the latter part of the carman's life, he appears to have had lower views of self. nothing. Frequently would he say, 'I loathe and abhor myself,' and often during the many hours that I spent with him would he break out into an exclamation of gratitude to God for revealing Christ and salvation to him. During the last few weeks of his life Christ was unspeakably precious to him, and constantly present with him. He seemed to realize more fully than most, for me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' My valued Incumbent saw him occasionally, and rejoiced in his happy change. On the Sunday evening after his funeral, he spoke at considerable length from the pulpit of this case, as a striking instance of God's grace and mercy to a rebellious sinner. It was the last sermon I ever heard him preach, for on the following Sunday I was myself unwell, and on the following Friday, in a conversation that I had with him, he requested me to write an account of my intercourse with this poor man, as he thought that such a case deserved to be put on record. That day week my Incumbent himself entered into his rest, removed by typhus fever, in the midst of his useful and earnest ministry. Little we thought, when we heard him warning and exhorting others by the example of the poor carman, that he would himself be the first of his large congregation to follow him. 'WHAT I DO THOU KNOWEST NOT NOW, BUT THOU SHALT KNOW HEREAFTER.'"

THE PRAYER OF FAITH; OR, THE OLD MAN'S

HOME.

"Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace."-Ps. xxxvii. 37.

E have lately, and from time to time, recorded in this Journal encouraging instances of the direct blessing God is pleased to bestow through our Readers, in bringing men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. Nor can we lay too much stress on the importance or value of such success. But there is another field of labour open to the Scripture Reader, not less fruitful, and not less privileged. If it is a blessed work to carry the Word of knowledge and salvation to the ignorant and lost, is it not a privilege also to comfort those that are distressed, to support the weak, to lift up those that are cast down, and to feed the Church of God, which He has purchased with His own Blood? The following is an instance of the latter class:

Soon after the commencement of the labours of one of our Readers in a northern district of London, now nearly two years since, he was one evening addressing a little gathering of poor people. At the close, an aged man tapped him on the shoulder, smiled at him, and expressed a wish that God's blessing might rest upon the Word read and spoken. He was somewhat eccentric in manner, but venerable in appearance. His form was bowed with age, and his hoary head subsequently proved to be "a crown of glory," being " found in the way of righteousness." He had been of middle height when young, but now appeared much shorter. He gave the Reader his name and address, and he promised to call on the following day. Thus terminated their first interview. Since then the Reader has been a constant visitor at the old man's house, and found his new friend pre-eminently a man of God. Poor in this world's goods, he was rich in faith: and his was a tried faith. "Much more precious than gold, which perisheth," was the trial of his faith; but having received the Lord Jesus Christ, and resting in His atonement for all sin, he was enabled to rejoice in hope of the glory of God, yet to be revealed in him. And so he was "patient in tribulation," however deep, knowing that "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

From conversation had with him at various times, the Reader gathered the following facts concerning his history. Born about the year 1795, and married early in life, he followed the course of

this world, neglecting entirely the concerns of his soul, until he was about twenty-four years of age, when, attending a prayermeeting held in the vicinity of Windmill Street, Finsbury, he was, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, convinced of sin. He now sought and obtained pardon through the blood of Jesus, decided for God, and commenced his pilgrimage from the earthly to the heavenly kingdom. He was the father of twelve children, six of whom died while young, and six are living still. By trade he was a shoemaker; and while his family were young he was severely tried through failure of work, being unable on several occasions to provide bread for their almost perishing bodies. On one of these occasions so bitter was the trial that he described it often afterwards as Satan's cruellest buffeting. Believing he was forsaken of God, browbeaten by parish officials, to whom in his poverty he applied for bread, and surrounded by starving children, he almost despaired of hope. But in his distress he cried unto God. This was his prayer, as he repeated it to the Reader, "Dear Lord, I am a sinner. I deserve Thy chastisement. Do as Thou wilt with me; but, Lord, spare these dear children, if it be Thy most holy will. I beseech Thee, Lord, to hear me; send deliverance for Thy name and mercy's sake, through Jesus Christ. Amen, and Amen." "And He did deliver?" said the Reader, inquiringly. "The selfsame day, bless His holy name," was his reply. "I never shall forget it. It happened to me as the Psalmist David tells us it fared with him, 'The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me; I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul.' Three out of the six surviving children have been, and two are still, inmates of a lunatic asylum. Before he would consent to part with them, these poor creatures sorely tried him, and thus those who, he had hoped, would have been the solace of his old age cast a heavy cloud over his declining years. Satan sorely tried him on this point, suggesting that they were an accursed race, and bringing all his past sins to remembrance as the cause of the misery of his children; but he answered him with, "It is written: 'Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect it is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? it is Christ that died.'" And thus he drew forth the sword of the Spirit against the adversary of his soul. His mind was richly stored with divine truth. He held fast that which he had heard and learned. He prized the visits of our Reader because he loved the Word of life, which it is his privilege to hold forth. The wife of the indefatigable Secretary of the Open Air Mission (himself formerly one of our most devoted Scripture Readers) was

very kind to him, and often sent him help in the name of the Lord. This and all other help he received with thankfulness to Almighty God, first thanking Him for disposing the heart, and then thanking the donor. "During a long period of much suffering," writes our Reader, "it was my great privilege to minister to him; and with how much profit to my own soul, only the great day will reveal. One evening, when he was much exhausted, we prayed that if it was God's will he might have rest during the then coming night, he having had no sleep for a fortnight. The next day he said, 'Dear Sir, it is written, Is any among you afflicted, let him pray. The blessed God heard our prayer. I had a sweet refreshing sleep last night, glory be to God.'"

In his own humble way he had worked for God many years before. While living at a village near Cheshunt, he established a Sunday-school. It happened thus. While passing to church one morning, the idle lads of the village called after and derided him. He turned round to them, and they began to run away in all directions. He surprised them, however, by inquiring in a kind manner, "Boys, can any of you read?" They all answered in the negative. He then invited them to his cottage, cleared out his lower room, and laboured to teach them to read the Word of God, instructing them in its blessed truths. He had also a Tract district, which he supplied almost to the end of his days, and few districts were tended as his was. Every case of sickness, or sorrow, or need in the neighbourhood, was carefully sought out and reported, nor did he ever fail to speak to them personally concerning the things which belong to their everlasting peace. One poor man, to whom he had so spoken, told our Reader that, having known him for years, he highly respected him, believing (to use his own words) that he always put his trust in the Almighty, and lived as he would have all men live a valuable testimony coming from an irreligious After having shone for a length of time as a light in a dark place, and having served his generation by the will of God, the old man fell asleep in Jesus. He had much bodily pain. Besides the sickness which terminated his life, he suffered from a rupture; but not a murmur escaped his lips. On one occasion he said, "Pray, dear Sir, that patience may have her perfect work in me. I need much patience." On another, the Reader found him praying thus, Lord, I am thine, save me. Perfect thy work in me." Reading the 73d Psalm, verses 25 and 26, he turned and said, "None, Lord, but Thou! none but Thou in heaven or on earth. My flesh and heart faileth, but be THOU the strength of this poor failing heart, and my portion for ever." On another, he said he had passed through a night of intense suffering, and was waiting anxiously the expected

man.