66 "I shall have an abundant entrance, God be praised; Christ's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save. It requires no deep learning to go to God, a very little Bible learning will take us to the throne of grace; something tells me that I am bought with a price: my sand is running out, faster than my affections. Tell all my friends that, in the clear light of reason, I have seen God. Don't think it mere enthusiasm, I speak the words of soberness." Asked by his eldest son if he felt assurance, he answered, "Yes, and more every hour; it is not presumption. Oh! I do not presume. It would be presumption to doubt; it is glorified humanity which softens all this." When Dr. Evans told him he was better, he said, "I am trusting to the rock of salvation; I would not change with any one." Bathing his hands, he remarked, "I shall soon taste of the Water of Life;" and when drinking, he repeatedly said, Living Water." When asked how he would feel if the doctor said he was likely to recover, he answered with energy, “I should be very much disappointed." Two days before his death he sent for his own Scripture reader, who helped to nurse him the last night. "Tell the people," was his dying charge, "that although I have not been able to be amongst them, my heart has been with them; tell them that Christ died for them, but I want more than wishing them well, I want them to apply the blood of Christ to their souls. Tell them I have found a Saviour who can save to the uttermost. Tell them never to doubt; my darkness has been turned to light, and I accept God's promises in the fullest way. I have no doubts. Impress upon them all that it is not too late to come to Christ, that even the greatest sinner can be saved. Pray for me when I am passing through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. I know that that will be a trying time, but so much has been done for me that I have no doubt, for I know that God is with me. Tell the people I die a Christian," adding, in allusion to those who were under the Scripture reader's care: "Feed my lambs." To a friend who came to him on Monday, and stayed till he had ceased to breathe, he said, "I thank God I have found a Saviour, and such a Saviour. Never doubt him. Oh, what a God he has been to me! Nothing is too hard for him. Never doubt him. If there were room for doubt, who ought to doubt so much as I! If one sinner was ever greater than another, I am he. But Christ is able to save to the uttermost those that come to him. I have no fears; I thank my God I feel clear of all my sins. Oh, God, do what thou wilt, but suffer me not to be tempted above what I am able to bear. Only those who have been forgiven much, love much. Come and stand by me when I am passing away. Pray for me in that hour when heart and flesh fail. Pray that God may be with me then." The day before his death he sent for all his principal servants, and said to them, "I would not, leave you without a word to let you know what the Lord has done for my soul. Formerly this heart was cold and obdurate, but now he has turned my darkness into light. It is not of myself, no work of my own, but of free grace. I have no doubt, I could not doubt, do not you doubt, for the vilest have obtained mercy. May the peace of God be with you all, and may the light of his countenance shine upon you, as it does upon me at this moment." He sent his dying remembrance to all the members of the Gloucestershire Scripture Readers' Society, in which he had always taken the deepest interest, and which had been mainly indebted to him for its great success. "Tell them," was his request, "that I speak from the confines of eternity; the importance of the work in which we are engaged never appeared half so momentous as it now does." He then concluded: "Tell them that my last thoughts will be with them, and my last prayers will be for them." It was with great feeling that he alluded to particular friends, saying something appropriate of each, while he was very deeply affected on account of some whom he knew to be still living in sin, and to one of these he dictated a letter the day before his death. Other expressions of christian belief, holy tranquillity, and divine solicitude for the welfare of those around him, might be quoted, but these must suffice; while we only add further, on the authority of one who had the best means of forming a judgment, that his whole experience, from nearly the beginning to the end of his last illness, was joy unspeakable. When requested to try and sleep, he would say, "I do not wish to sleep-I do not wish to lose sight of my Saviour. I shall soon be praising God to all eternity. Think of that—to all eternity." The last words distinctly uttered by him were, "Christ, my Redeemer!" Thus the last ripe fruits yielded in the life of this excellent man were fruits of the spirit-"Love, joy, peace"-love to the Redeemer and to souls; peace that passeth understanding, through faith in the Lamb of God; and joy unspeakable and full of glory. It is very beautiful, as every one knows who has visited the Catacombs in Rome, or examined the christian sculptures brought from those ancient burial places, and arranged in the Vatican, to dwell on the simple words so oft recurring on rudely chiselled stones, "In Christ, in peace." Those early confessors and disciples declared, in suffering and death, that to be in Christ is to be in peace. The experience of thousands since has confirmed the truth of their sentiment, and another conspicuous example of it is afforded in the dying experience of the subject of this tract. He felt that to be in Christ is to be in peace, and he showed that love and joy are the companions of that peace. He fell asleep in Christ, and is with his Lord in the enjoyment of the rest promised to the pious dead, because he had felt the vital change which the gospel effects, through the mighty working of the grace of God. There is no solid peace in a dying hour for any unregenerate soul. The tranquillity of the unbeliever at that period is full of deceitfulness, a prelude to the confusion and agony of conscious perdition, “the torrent's smoothness ere it dash below." But the serenity of the renewed mind, in the awful hour of dissolution, is true and real, because Divine; that mind leans for repose on a hope that maketh not ashamed, and it feels the blessed force of that old question so often asked by the saints of God, "When He giveth quietness, who can make trouble?" Let each one who may receive this record of Lord Ducie's change in life, and peace in death, ask whether that can be a cunningly devised fable which does such things for mortals? Whether, if the gospel be true and Divine, it does not challenge from us all the most serious, earnest, and devout attention? Whether its facts and doctrines, its invitations and appeals, its warnings and promises, do not concern us quite as much as they did him of whom we have been speaking? Whether his case be not a representative instance of what the word of Christ and the Spirit of God will do for us if we pray and believe? Whether the consequence of neglecting the great salvation will not be terrible in proportion to the magnitude of the blessing refused? Whether the guilt of not believing in the only begotten Son of God be not equal in degree to the misery which follows it, and most righteously cause that misery?—whether the uncertainty of life, and this very example of a man cut off in the midst of his days, be not a loud call to every one of us at once to apply our hearts unto wisdom?—and whether these be not words that demand from us the most hearty and personal application :-" Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of God. Marvel not that I say unto you, ye must be born again." J. F. SHAW, BOOKSELLER, SOUTHAMPTON ROW, AND AND W. INNES, BOOKSELLER, SOUTH HANOVER STREET, EDINBURGH, DECISION. THERE are very many who, when the claims of God and the indispensable necessity of vital religion are urged upon their consideration, meet the arguments which are addressed to them in terms like these: "I freely admit the truth of all you say to me. I have not a doubt that the Bible is the word of God; that the Saviour whom it reveals is the only Saviour; that my soul needs salvation; and that unless I would be lost for ever I must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor can I deny that it is my duty to devote myself to the service of God; neither do I dispute that they are truly happy who engage in that service. I do intend to give to these things the serious attention they deserve; but I can scarcely do so now. I hope, however, that a convenient opportunity is coming, by-and-by, and then it shall be the object of my most strenuous endeavours to obtain salvation." Such is, in substance, the reply of thousands to the expostulations of christian friendship and the appeals of the gospel ministry. They dare not give a point-blank refusal to the invitations and precepts of the gospel, but still they are disinclined to comply with them. There are sacrifices which they see to be involved in the service of Christ, from which they shrink back with strong repugnance. And it is thus they endeavour to make a compromise with conscience. They will comply with her injunctions at some future day. It is the design of these pages to remonstrate earnestly and affectionately with those who may be conscious that they are cherishing the disposition which has been described. We wish to show them that it is wrong; that the grounds on which it is cherished are most delusive; and that the consequences of its indulgence may be fatal. As a profound thinker has remarked in connexion with this very subject, "There is no more fatal betrayer than a right and excellent principle adopted, but con signed to future time and more favourable inclination for being carried into action. The consciousness that you are certainly keeping a good resolution, only deferred to await a more 'convenient season,' will help you to indulge a fallacious security, while every season for accomplishing it is passing away." We would first of all press on such persons the question,Are you quite sure that you are justified in the assumption on which you tacitly proceed, that you have a right to postpone your pursuit of salvation and your submission to the Divine will? Does not God's law require the immediate, entire and ceaseless consecration of all our faculties and affections to His service? Is there anything about it to warrant the persuasion. that we may withhold, even for a single moment, the slightest act of obedience to His commands? Nor is the Gospel less urgent and comprehensive in its requirements. It speaks of no to-morrow, as the time when its overtures of mercy are to be received its time is TO-DAY. "To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near." It describes the sinner's ruin in terms which are manifestly intended to arouse him to flee without delay from the wrath to come; it expatiates on the value of the blessings of salvation in such a way as to fill the soul with ardent desires for their immediate enjoyment; and it declares that every moment the sinner refuses to repent and believe, he stands exposed to the extreme displeasure of Heaven, and is heaping up against himself "wrath, against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." Clearly then you have no right to say, "I will leave the consideration of these things till I find a season more convenient." It is your bounden duty to attend to them NOW. We should ask such persons again,-"Are you sure that another assumption on which you proceed is well-founded-that of the continuance of your life till the time on which you have fixed as the time of religious decision? You know that you can obtain salvation only in life, and that there is no day of mercy beyond the grave. You know that should you die without being saved, your soul must be lost for ever. Ought you not then to be fully persuaded that you will live through the time that is to intervene between the present and the period which you have fixed upon as the time when you will begin with all earnestness of purpose to seek salvation? Have you then such a persuasion? Has that God, in whose hand alone is the soul of every living thing, given to you some special |