our support, Jesus, the Leader of his despised host, has frequently refreshed our souls with the sweet cordials of his gospel of peace; and thus he enabled us to hold on in the day of battle.-But now she has taken the wing for a better world, where the enemy's arrows can never reach her. These are levelled at us, who are left behind in a world of much tribulation and sorrow.-Reflect with gratitude on the goodness of God to her even to the last period of her life. Not many days before her last illness she said to me, Oh Jones, my soul is filled with glory, my soul is filled with glory; adding many other such sweet expressions."-What a lively christian her Ladyship must have been, when thus exulting even under the cold hand of death! Her view of glory must have been very clear and strong.-Jones, dwelling in another part of his sermon on her eminent piety, thus introduces her observation on that important subject: "I have heard her," says he, "time after time, sweetly declare,' that our religion, the religion of Jesus, grows not in the garden of nature, but comes down from heaven, and will never, never leave us, till it sets us down at its blessed source, where we shall drink of its ineffable pleasures for eternal ages.'-Saved and refreshed by this living fountain on earth, she was enabled to devote her ALL-boldly will I say ALL, for near fifty years, to the glory of Jesus, and the eternal good of lost souls."

This chapter shall be concluded with another extract from Lady Huntingdon's Life. The author, representing the pleasure the altered state of things in the religious world would afford her heavenly mind, adds thus,-" Could she have seen bishops glory in the attribute of evangelical preaching; could she have known an archbishop foremost in the reform of the church; a clergy eager and zealous, and tending every day more and more to the doctrines she most loved and valued, what would have been her joy? Had she seen dissenters growing daily more liberal without being less pious, more forbearing without being less inde

pendent; churches rising on all sides; pastors founding and endowing churches at their own cost; laymen subscribing thousands to the erection of new churches, chapels, and schools; and societies formed for the advancement of missionary exertion, the diffusion of religious knowledge, and the education of the universal poor; and could she have added to this crown of rejoicing the conviction that her example had done much towards producing these effects, how would her pious heart have poured itself out in praise and thanksgiving! She and her associates were the pioneers to make the way smooth and the path straight for that army of which the main body is but now coming into the field. The advanced guard had difficulties to encounter, which have long since been overcome; obstacles to surmount which have been removed for years; but to them were due, and to them chiefly, under divine providence, the blessings we now enjoy."

CHAP. V.

Jones's exertions for the Missionary cause-brief account of the Missionary Societies.

THOUGH the ministry was Jones's fort, yet he took his share in other means for the promotion of the Messiah's kingdom, the glory of God, and the good of man, such as the Missionary and Bible Societies, Circulating and Sunday Schools. He foresaw, by the appearance of such extraordinary instruments as these new Societies, that some great events were about to take place, and that the prophecies were hastening to their fulfilment. Truly his generous soul was glad and leaped with joy.

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Such extraordinary Societies as these could not be carried on without the union of many christians, and those of different persuasions.-The people had learned in some measure to combine for good and useful purposes before those grand and noble institutions appeared. The Conferences of the Methodists in Wales and England were of a peculiarly cementing nature. The turpitude of the Slave Trade had been brought to light about this time, and made deep impression on the public mind. The religious spirit of the age gave birth, in 1787, to the first really catholic association against that hydra. The suppression of the Slave Trade presented a rallying point to ardent and benevolent minds of all parties and creeds. Wilberforce became the centre of the combination, which taught the lesson of untiring agitation to accomplish its purpose." And thus in the very hour that Burke was exclaiming, "The age of chivalry is gone," he might have seen expanding around him a nobler combination and valour.-Then the Missionary Societies

came forth into existence, action, and vigour, by means of that noble principle, combination and union.

The London Missionary Society may be considered the first of that kind, (except the Baptist,) to attract the notice of the religious world. Therefore this Society may be considered to have been the forerunner of the Bible and other Societies which soon followed. This excellent institution was favoured with the attention and support of Jones, as well as of most evangelical ministers in the kingdom. The Directors selected annually then, as now, the most popular men to advocate its cause. So highly esteemed and renowned was Jones, that he was fixed upon among the first to preach in behalf of it. It may be necessary to say a word or two respecting this Society before we come to Jones's sermon.

There was something very flattering in this religious institution from its very commencement. Its first meeting was held in London on the 21st and 22nd of September, 1795, and about two hundred ministers were present. They had obtained by the second meeting, in May, 1796, thirty suitable persons for the Missions in the South Sea Islands ; and on the 28th of July in the same year they were solemnly set apart for the great work, in Zion Chapel, (Lady Huntingdon's.) Ten ministers belonging to the Society engaged in this extraordinary service. Three prayed, one preached, another delivered a charge. The other five ministers, an Episcopalian, a Presbyterian, a Seceder, an Independent, and a Methodist, united in the same solemn designation of the Missionaries to their work. They had met with a most suitable captain, named Wilson, who was a gentleman of cultivated manners, and possessed a most commanding countenance. He was in the prime and vigour of life, and had all the maturity of veteran experience. And what completed the whole, he was a man of great piety. The crew were a selected band of pious mariners. The vessel for conveying the Missionaries was called the Duff, and

purchased for £5000. They embarked at Blackwall on the 16th of August. All was highly encouraging and flattering. Multitudes flocked around them to take their leave, and to pour their blessings on them. And the sailors in the different ships on the river viewed them, as they passed by, with solemn surprise.

Jones's exertions in behalf of that blessed cause shall now be noticed. He preached before the Missionary Society on Friday, the 13th of May, 1796, at Zion Chapel, London. His subject was, great effects from feeble means," founded on Judges vii. 2.—There were in the Society however some things he did not altogether approve of. It was his opinion that the managers of it looked too much to human means, and therefore he endeavoured in his discourse to direct their attention, as well as that of all his hearers, to Him who often does great things by very humble instruments. The following quotation will more fully show his meaning "You must have faith for the work," said he with great authority. "We ought not to be too much elated by human probabilities; and as christians we ought not to be dismayed at improbabilities. It is the work of faith to devour all these as we go on; and when we come to the foot of the hill, we ought to look up and say, Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain!' There is never any danger in trusting God with weak improbable means. Here the danger lies, in the bias of the human heart to look more to great means than to the great God! It is an easy matter for a person to say that part of the Lord's prayer, 'give us this day our daily bread,' when his pantry is well filled with all manner of necessary food and delicacies. But here is the man that wins his Lord's heart, who makes this petition when there is not a bit in the house for the next meal."-Neither did Scott, the commentator, approve of this Society altogether in its operations at the commencement. He thought, like Jones, that they wanted more of the simplicity of faith, to