Obituary. Dear Brethren, DEATH OF JOHN ALLEN. To the Editors of the Methodist Magazine. Richmond, Va. Dec. 2, 1822. By request of the Society in this place, I send you the following. By inserting it, as early as convenient, in the Magazine, you will gratify them and per haps others. Yours, &c. P. ANDERSON. Departed this life, on Thursday, Oct. way; but from the paucity of such per24th, in the 37th year of his age, JoHN sons, their diffidence if there were such, ALLEN, a native of England, but for or the novelty of the thing, it did not three years a resident of Richmond. In succeed as in the case above-mentioned. the death of this lamented man, society My acquaintance with him justifies me has lost one of its rare ornaments, the in saying, that, church a most useful member, and a surviving partner one of the best of husbands. His attainments in learning and piety were such as, in addition to his excellent natural qualities, could not fail to please and to edify those who came within the influence of his spirit. 1. He possessed a true Christian zeal. Immediately after his settlement in Richmond, he began to search for opportu nities of doing good. Not contented with merely filling his station in the church as an approved member, he was solicitous to improve every occasion, Little is known by the writer of the all times, and every talent to the utterearly part of his life. But being inti- most. The management of a Sunday mately acquainted with the deceased, I School was an exercise for which na learned from himself that he was a lead- ture and grace had both contributed to er of two classes in his native land, and render him eminently qualified. Here, also the superintendent of a large Sab- but not here only, Allen seemed to be bath School. When he informed those in his element. And such was his comwhose literary and religious instruction manding, though mild and affectionate, was entrusted to him, of his expected re- influence, that assistant teachers and pú moval to America, they were deeply pils seemed to please themselves when affected. And I have heard him speak they pleased him. When the exercises of the ardent attachment of his soul, not of the school were concluded, with his only to many youth, for whose interest" company of young soldiers," to use in time and eternity, he laboured Sab- his own expression, would he, morning bath after Sabbath, but also to some ad- and afternoon, repair to the house of vanced in life, who unfortunately, from God. On the sum of good which a man some cause, had failed, in their tender thus constituted is calculated to accomyears, to receive the elements of learn- plish, it is unnecessary to enlarge. Deing; but who notwithstanding had been clining no suffering, shunning no cross, prevailed on to seek a sufficient ac- he persevered in the path of duty, not quaintance with letters to enable them for a month or a year only, but to the to take knowledge of those divinely in end of life. His visits to the sick were spired writings, which make wise unto not performed with that heartless charsalvation. And such was his success, ity, which only says, "be ye warmed that in one instance at least, a person and filled," but with prayers for their who had long lived in ignorance and salvation, accompanied by that liberalsin, was brought to feel the spirit and ity, which will finally be accepted by power, as he read the letter, of the sa- the Judge of all, in terms like these, "I cred oracles, and will probably shine as was hungry, and ye fed me, sick, and a star in the crown of our beloved bro- ye visited me," &c. By his conversather to all eternity. How worthy our tion and example, he warned the unimitation such acts of benevolence! He ruly, reproved transgressors, consoled also made an attempt in Richmond to the afflicted, and charmed to the obebenefit the aged illiterate in the same dience of the cross. 2. He was free from bigotry. So good was done, he was not solicitous under what name the desired end was attained, or to whose credit it was set down. A member of the Bethel Church, for the benefit of seamen, a manager of the Religious Tract Society, Secretary to the Sunday School Union, and VicePresident of the Junior Bible Society, as well as Secretary of the Virginia Conference Missionary Society, he seemed disposed to try every means, and make the most of every opportunity, by which there was any probability of promoting the divine glory and the benefit of buman kind. If a report was to be drawn up, Allen was often looked to, as a person possessing a mind so enlightened and improved, and a soul so ardently devoted, as to render him eminently prepared for the task. 3. But he was decidedly and of choice a Methodist. Believing this people to be eminently blessed of God, whatever were the views entertained by others, he seemed to say, "Thy God shall be my God, and thy people mine." Not willing to make a loud profession of attachment to the economy of the church, on some occasions, which might be contradicted by his practice on others, he considered it both his duty and privilege to observe all her institutions. His attention to the public ministration of the word and ordinances, to his class, to prayer-meetings and meetings for business, was uniform and uninterrupted, except by unavoidable circumstances. His services might be commanded at any time when they could be rendered without infringing on other duties. During the two years in which I had the pastoral charge of the society here, I found him sufficiently disposed to acquiesce in those wishes which were judged most consistent with the genius of our institution. His ardent concern for the suc For the Methodist Magazine. cess of Methodist Missions, is clearly discoverable in the last annual report of the Virginia Conference Missionary Society. That he was truly, and on all occasions, the gentleman, many are prepared to testify who had the best opportunity of knowing. That he should have been taken from us at this time, while his services were so important to the church, while many, whose attainments in every respect, were far in the rear of his, are still preserved, and the chasm made by his removal will be so difficult to fill, if filled at all, is one of those mysteries of Providence which we cannot know now, but must wait to know hereafter, and which for the present we must be contented to resolve by this general solution, that "in wisdom God orders all things." He seems to have had a presentiment of his approaching end. For at the last meeting of the class of which he was the leader, and to which he had become greatly endeared, before concluding, he called the name of every member separately, and told each what he thought of his or her spirit and deportment. Shortly after submitting with a Job-like patience to the loss of two lovely infants, the mortal affliction seized his system. His testimony in the trying hour was, "my temporal business is adjusted, my peace is made with God, my soul is calm and serene, and I have only to wait the will of my heavenly Father." Notwithstanding the severity of his disease, his soul remained throughout calmly staid upon God, till it took its everlasting flight to the regions of bliss. His remains were followed to the grave by many sighing hearts; and while virtue is revered, and Heaven is prized, he will live in the remembrance of many whose language will be, "Let me die his death, and let my last end be like his." Poetry. ON THE DEATH OF SUSAN C. BANGS, Bud of the morning! lovely flow'r ! Eden's fair plant! just bloom'd awhile, Upon the rougher shores of time, To charm us with a transient smile, And then to bless another clime. Bright sparkling as the dewy morn, Thy infant graces did appear! And beauty deck'd thy fragile form, With all its sweet attractions here. Each hour, each day, some sweets disclose Of softer shade and deeper dye, THE Methodist Magazine, FOR FEBRUARY, 1893. Divinity. From the Wesleyan Methodist Magasine. THE TRIAL OF ABRHAHAM ILLUSTRATED AND IMPROVED: A SERMON, BY THE REV. JOSEPH BURGESS, SEN. HEBREWS XI. 17-19. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Issac; and he that had received the promises offered up his only-begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.-(See also Gen. xxii.) THE obedience manifested by Abraham, in the unparalleled trial to which the text alludes, was probably the most prompt and unreserved that has ever been offered by a creature to the almighty Creator. And as it has pleased the Divine Being to transmit this history to us through the medium of inspiration, doubtless it is his intention that we should derive from it instructions of the most salutary nature. The doubts and difficulties which necessarily occurred to Abraham, on receiving a command to sacrifice his son, would greatly augment the reluctance, which, as a kind father, he must have felt to the perpetration of such a deed. And it is evident, that God, in the manner of giving this command, seemed determined to exaggerate its severity, and thereby to enhance these doubts and difficulties. "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt-offering." Among the thoughts and soliloquies of the holy patriarch on this occasion, would not the following naturally occur? "Is it pos VOL. VI. sible that a merciful and righteous God should command a father to imbrue his hands in the blood of a beloved son? This command cannot come from him who denounced a curse against Cain, and declared he should be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, because he had killed his brother Abel: it cannot proceed from him who hath decreed, that 'Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.' Besides, if I sacrifice Isaac, shall I not thereby oppose the accomplishment of God's own gracious promise, that in my seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed? O! how will future generations, groaning under accumulated woes, execrate me a miserable man for having prevented the completion of Heaven's gracious design by an act of unequalled cruelty; cruelty to a beloved son; cruelty to millions of immortal souls, which no man can number. On my return from this bloody act, Sarah's first inquiry will be, 'Where is Isaac?' It will be impossible to conceal the fact. I must acknowledge that he fell by the hands of his father; and the melancholy tidings will bring down her gay hairs with sorrow to the grave. Such a complication of crime and misery can never be effaced from my guilty conscience; for wherever I turn, by night or by day, the idea of a son, most tenderly beloved, expiring under the bloody knife of his father, and the maternal pangs of Sarah, the best of wives and the fondest of mothers, will still recur to my memory, and make existence an intolerable burden." That Abraham should rise above these perplexities, and instantaneously proceed to the execution of the divine command, is a circumstance which cannot fail to excite a considerable degree of admiration, and leads to an inquiry, how it was possible for a father to enter upon the work of offering in sacrifice a son who was dearer to him than his own life. Abraham, notwithstanding the agitation of his mind, had the fullest assurance that the command was absolutely from God himself. Had an angel delivered it, he would not have obeyed; because it would have been in direct opposition to the authority of Him who had said, "Thou shalt not kill." Paul, whose piety was not superior to that of Abraham, felt such a holy indignation against every injunction inconsistent with the revealed will of Heaven, that he denounced an anathema against any creature who should have the temerity to attempt a reversion of the divine de "Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached, let him be accursed." Had not Abraham felt a divine assurance that it was Jehovah himself who demanded the life of Isaac, the command of an angel from heaven would have been rejected. When Abraham had attained the age of seventy-five years, the Lord promised that in him should all the families of the earth be blessed. (Gen. xii. 3, 4.) This promise was renewed, and more particularly expressed, at two different times. (Gen. xv. 5, xviii. |