knowing I could not get back in time for my work, went off to my employer and asked him to dispense with my services for another week, which he pleasantly agreed to. On my return from Colchester, I again called at my pastor's, when a friend met me, and said he wanted me to go to Hadleigh the next Lord's-day. I felt confounded, not knowing what to do,

MRS. ASHBY.

or what the Lord intended to do with me; but it appeared as if I must relinquish all idea of secular employment, and cast myself upon the providence of God, and wait and watch His will.

Space compels me here to close this

letter. Yours affectionately in Jesus, PHILIP DICKERSON.

THE friends of the Baptist chapel at Ellington, Huntingdonshire, have sustained a loss in the death of Mrs. Ashby, the beloved wife of Mr. F. Ashby, who has been the pastor of the church in that village for many years. Our departed sister had been the devoted wife of her now bereaved husband for more than thirty-four years, and was the mother of a large family, six of whom still survive her, and all are hopefully walking in the ways of the Lord. Her life was in harmony with the Christian profession she was helped to make in early life: a true lover of the gospel of Christ, a valuable help to her now bereaved husband, and a pattern worthy of imitation in her attachment to the service and worship of God. For several months before her death she was a great sufferer; but through it she was blessed with a calm and unmurmuring state of mind, and at times with such a happy enjoyment of the power and sweetness of the Lord's presence, that made her look forward to death, not only with serenity, but with expressed triumph and joy. Some few weeks before she died she wished all her children to be sent for, that she might see them while she was able to talk to them. One of the daughters wrote me and said, “I have just been to see dear mother, and she seems to be almost in heaven. She so earnestly prays that patience may be given her to the end, but longs for release. It

really does one good to see such perfect trust. She wished me to sing 'Rest for the weary,' and joined so heartily in the chorus to each verse. I feel deeply for dear father. It seems to have taken him by surprise-thinking he should have gone home before her; but truly God's thoughts are not our thoughts."

About the same date her now bereaved husband writes,-"When I look at my dear wife, I feel that, if it were possible, I could willingly exchange positions with her. So calm, so patient, so resigned to the will of Him, on whom she leans with such firm and child-like confidence. Her language often is

"On the Rock of ages founded,

What can shake my sure repose?" Again, she says often,

"The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,

He will not, He cannot desert to His foes."

Our dear sister died on Monday morning, April 26th, aged sixty-three years, and was interred on Friday, April 30th, in the burial ground of the chapel. Mr. Willis, pastor of the Baptist chapel of Whittlesea, officiated and preached in the evening, and the writer preached on the following Lord's-day, when special reference was made to the deceased in the evening, and also to the death of Mrs. Ashby, the beloved wife of Mr. B. Ashby, of Oundle, who was called to

her eternal rest on the evening of April 26th. Thus two brothers were deprived of their beloved companions in ONE DAY. Both the departed ones had known the Lord for many years, and had fellowship together on earth, and both entered into the better fellowship of saints in heaven on the same day; and both bereaved hnsbands are waiting, after many years service in the church on earth, for the "rest" into which their loved ones have already entered. And whenever the time may come, may an abundant entrance be given them into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," is the prayer of their loving and sympathising brother,

D. ASHBY.

THE LATE MR. SEPTIMUS

SEARS.

IN the brief Notice of the Memoir* of this excellent man, in last month's Herald and Voice, an intimation was given that further remarks upon it would be made in the present number. This intention is now to be carried into effect. The biography of men of God whom He, by special endowments, had qualified to labour in the gospel of His dear Son, and on whose efforts an abundant blessing had rested, is always interesting, edifying, and instructive. That Mr. Sears was a Godsent, Spirit-taught minister of the New Testament, and that the Lord abundantly blessed his labours both to the edification and feeding of the Church of God, and the conversion of sinners, is clearly evidenced in the volume before us, which has been compiled by one who was, as it appears, an intimate friend of the deceased. From Mr. Sears's character and labours, as thus depicted, we learn the following facts, which may well serve as lessons for consideration, instruction, and profit.

1. He was a truly godly man: one who walked and talked much with God in private all the days of his re

Memoir of the Life and Labours of the late Septimus Sears. London: Houlston and Son, 7, Paternoster Buildings.

newed life. He communed with his heavenly Father in secret, and his Father who seeth in secret rewarded him openly by blessing his labours, and upholding him in the respect and attachment of those who knew him. As is the case with all truly devout and godly men, he had a deep and an abiding sense of his own sinfulness and unworthiness, expressions concerning which, of his own uttering, frequently occur in the "Memoir." This is one of the mysteries of the spiritual man's experience which the natural man cannot discern, cannot understand. It is a puzzle to him to hear persons whose outward morals are above rebuke and even above suspicion, complain of their sinfulness, when they happen to do so in his presence. The Holy Spirit, however, by thus showing His children the hidden evils of their hearts in the light of His holy law, and the exceeding sinfulness of sin, as thus exhibited, and the dreadful nature of the curse it involves, as seen in the sufferings endured by Christ to put it away; makes their consciences tender, promotes the fear of God in their souls, and causes them to be very careful and circumspect as to their outward conduct. Thus is meat made to come out of the eater, in the working of the grace of God in the soul. An extract from an address by Mr. Sears to his church may be suitably given here as being the fruit of his own experience. "I would earnestly exhort young Christians, indeed all Christians, to to seek continual increase of humility, godly fear, tenderness of conscience, love of holiness, hatred of sin, and such exercises as secret self-judgment, confession of sin, and earnest prayer; with searching the word, and avoiding all that feeds the evils of the heart, and weakens the inward motions of the graces of the Spirit. Joy, confidence, zeal for doctrines, strong statements of experience, if not duly weighted with humbling, holy exercises of soul, may be accompanied with sowing the wind, which will end in reaping the whirlwind. We cannot soar too high, if we humbly and holily

M

soar. An exercised man has well said, 'Woe to the faith that checks repentance, and woe to the repentance that checks faith."" This is good counsel, and quite in accordance with, and very illustrative of, the teachings God has given His children in His own most Holy Word. It is evident from the Memoir" that Mr. Sears had to pass through long and deep exercises of mind, in order to qualify him to warn and instruct his fellowbelievers after such a spiritually wise and godly manner.

2. He was a faithful and laborious minister of the Gospel. God called him to the work, and specially qualified him to fulfil the arduous, solemn, and important duties of a public teacher of His word. And in labour he was most abundant, notwithstanding that all his days he was more or less the subject of great bodily affliction in diverse and severe forms. It seems marvellous, in reading the narrative, to find that under such adverse circumstances he was enabled to get through so much labour, and to perform such an amount of work of a multifarious kind, as preacher, pastor, writer, editor, and manager of two or three forms of charitable effort, and with so much success as he did. Whatever his hand found to do, he did it with energy and zeal, as unto God, and with a burning desire to benefit man, whether the effort related to spiritual or temporal good. As a preacher of the Gospel his aim was " to warningly Ideal with men about their lost state as sinners, and the only way of escape from the wrath to come, and to urge upon them the necessity of repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,' and to direct awakened ones to Jesus as an able and willing Saviour." This, he considered was the method adopted by the Apostles in their ministry, and that consequently it is the right and scriptural one. It does not require any very close or critical investigation of the inspired record of the proceedings of those Christ-commissioned preachers of the Word, to become convinced that Septimus Sears was right in his appre

hension of their method of dealing with sinners, in the proclamation of the Gospel of the grace of God. And as the Apostles were led by the Spirit of God thus to address their fellow men about the salvation of their immortal souls, he considered that theirs must be the proper model according to which subsequent ministers of Christ should frame their addresses in preaching the Gospel. It has long been a vexed question amongst ministers of what is known as the Calvinistic persuasion, as to how sinners, as such, should be addressed, or even whether they should be addressed at all. Our departed brother took the obviously right way of dealing with this matter. He just copied the examples given him in the Acts of the Apostles, and preached to sinners at Clifton and elsewhere, as Peter and Paul preached to sinners at Jerusalem and elsewhere; and that the Lord gave testimony to the word of His grace, as thus proclaimed by His faithful servant, is manifest; for in the "Memoir" we are told that "at Clifton there are numbers who are his spiritual children." Then as regards those to whom the Holy Ghost had blessed the word and enabled them to believe, he was careful to instruct them in the doctrines of grace, and "to trace their calling up to their redemption by Christ, and their election and blessing in Christ, before all worlds." One cannot help feeling astonished that such preaching as this in either of its branches, should ever have been objected to, and the preacher regarded as a heretic, by any who considered themselves as judges in God's Israel, yet so it was in reference to the subject of the "Memoir" in regard to his addresses to sinners.

He was also exceedingly careful, his biographer states, not to permit his hearers to settle down on any foundation but the one God has laid in Zion; "not to settle down in self, or even feed on inward grace received instead of a full and complete salvation in Jesus Christ." This was very kind and faithful on his part, for Christians that "feed on inward grace received" are a lean and famished race, although

they may not be conscious of the fact themselves. Mr. Sears, as a wise and tender under-shepherd, strove to lead these mistaken weaklings of the flock to the fair pastures and beside the still waters of God's free and abounding grace in Christ Jesus, knowing that nothing but the bread of eternal life will nourish the child of God, and make him strong in the Lord, and a happy and fruitful believer in Christ.

Another point of faithful earnestness in his ministry was in reference to those who had arrived at some comfortable assurance of their Father's electing love, and of the blessed Spirit's witnessing within of Christ to their souls. These he exhorted to seek grace from Jesus, to enable them to serve Him faithfully, and to live fruitful lives to the honour of God's grace and the holy doctrines of His gospel. In his address to his church, written shortly before his death, when he was unable through illness to preach to them, occurs the following caution, which shows how well he understood the deceitfulness of the human heart, and how earnest and faithful he was in warning his flock against the insidious forms of sin which work in it, even in the experience of the children of God:-"Never, dear friends, seek to put a plate of steel between your conscience and godly sorrow for sin, by treating the power and prevalency of your evils, as if they were to be traced to divine sovereignty, instead of their true source, your own bad hearts and your negligence of God's means of victory and blessing." This is an important caution, and one amongst very many illustrative comments that may be given on the exhortation of the wise man, 'Keep thy heart with all diligence," &c.

One other remark of his may be quoted from the same address to show the clearness of his views with regard to the justice and holiness of God's most righteous law, and his faithfulness in preaching the same :-"I have endeavoured to make very prominent the infinite immutable holiness and justice of God, as displayed in His righteous law. For I am quite as

sured that an intelligent apprehension and godly experience of the principles which obtain in the courts of equity discovered in the righteous law to which all are amenable, underlies all sound knowledge and living experience of the whole truth of God, revealed in His holy word." Thus did this faithful and beloved brother make full proof of his ministry, and by thus clearly distinguishing between law and gospel, and explaining the proper and scriptural connection between the two forms of divine truth, and their due and necessary relation to each other, prove himself to be by divine teaching, a scribe well-instructed in the things of God, and a faithful steward over His household. In searching the Scriptures to find out the mind of the Spirit as set forth therein, he had, by experience, been taught the wisdom and worth of that saying of Martin Luther:-"The plain, unmistakeable, grammatical meaning of God's written Word is God's Word, and is the sure foundation and warrant of faith."

3. He was a most kind and sympathising friend. Like his divine Master, he had a heart to compassionate distress in every form, and was ever active in promoting and carrying on plans to help the helpless, to provide for the fatherless, and to supply the wants of the poor and needy.

His

ever active and fruitful mind, joined with a tender and loving heart, enabled him, as an instrument in the hand of God, to effect much in those forms of usefulness which respect temporal and social good. His efforts in this direction are set forth in the "Memoir" in a brief and unostentatious manner, ascribing the honour of his benevolent and kind-hearted deeds to the God of all blessing, who bestowed the grace and gifts upon His servant needed for their performance, and provided in answer to prayer, the means required wherewith to accomplish them. In addition to this he was a most industrious writer. Indeed, when the amount of work of this kind that he performed is understood, it would seem hardly possible that his pen

could ever have been out of his hand when it was at all practicable for him to use it. He was, withal, a very humble man, with very low views of himself and his own performances. This is a scriptural mark of the Spirit's own impressing the greater the saint in reality, the greater the sinner in his own apprehension. It was so with Paul, the aged: it is so with experienced, sanctified ones now.

As to the " Memoir," it is a book that should lie on the table and be well read by every one who values the portraiture of a faithful minister of Jesus Christ. The one therein given

corresponds very much with that given by Paul in his epistles to Timothy and Titus. Biographies of men of God of Mr. Sears' class are not very numerous, and should be prized by those who esteem such men for their work's sake. The work is the property of his widow, it is understood; contains 254 well-printed pages, a portrait of Mr. Sears engraved on steel; is strongly and neatly bound, and sold for half-a-crown, and every lover of the truth as it is in Jesus should possess a copy. 54, Hemingford-road.

STRICT BAPTIST MISSION. FRIENDS and subscribers to this our Mission will please to note that an arrangement having been made with the committee of the Metropolitan Association for the regular insertion, month by month, in the Herald and Voice, of our missionary intelligence; it has been considered unnecessary this year to publish in a separate form the "Periodical Paper," which has usually appeared about this time. The regular appearance of our mission intelligence in our magazine will, it is confidently hoped, be mutually beneficial to the Mission and the magazine by increasing the interest of our friends in both. And in order that subscribers to the Mission, who may not regularly see the Herald and Voice, should not be disappointed by the non-appearance of the Periodical Paper this year, a few copies of this month's number of the magazine will be sent to connected churches and schools, for presentation to such friends, who, it is hoped, will thenceforth order the Herald and Voice for themselves, and thus be in constant receipt of the latest information to hand respecting the progress of the work of the Lord they assist in supporting. The Annual Report of the Mission will appear as usual in due course, in which all subscriptions, donations, and collections received during the year will

R. H.

The

be acknowledged as heretofore. account we have to give this month of the work of the Lord in our quarter of the mission field is encouraging, as show. ing that, according to the divine promise, our labour is not in vain in the Lord. And it is good at all times to remember both that the work is His, and that the promise of success in the work is from Him also. For what an honour it is to work for such a great and glorious Lord. This should make us feel happy and cheerful in the labour, which should be one of grateful love to Him who has done so very much for us; and the recollection of His gracious promise of success should incite us to zeal and diligence in His cause. It is a law of Divine ordination that success be in proportion to the means used for the obtainment of it. Indolence and carelessness never prosper in any undertaking; it is the diligent soul that is made fat; the hand that works with all its might that God blesses in its labours. As in the natural and physical, so in the spiritual kingdom, means and ends are inseparably connected. Continual wrestling, believing prayer, conjoined with earnest exhortations, faithful preaching, and solemn warnings in setting forth the claims of God's most righteous law, and proclaiming the gospel of His grace, are the means by which, under the power of His Spirit, sinners are brought to Christ,