haps, if he had lived, have become a rival of Gerard. But he had justly regarded his talent for business as an instrument which he ought to employ for the glory of his Saviour. He felt it to be his duty to use it in earning money for the cause of God, on precisely the same principle that it is the duty of the minister to devote his talents for preaching to the service of the Lord Jesus. He accordingly, in November, 1821, drew up and subscribed the following very remarkable document :

"By the grace of God I will never be worth more than fifty thousand dollars.

"By the grace of God I will give one-fourth the nett profits of my business to charitable and religious uses.

"If I am ever worth twenty thousand dollars, I will give one-half of my nett profits; and if I am ever worth thirty thousand dollars, I will give three-fourths, and the whole after fifty thousand dollars. So help me God, or give to a more faithful steward, and set me aside."

To this covenant he adhered with conscien

tious fidelity. He distributed the profits of his business with an increasing ratio from year to year, till he had reached the point which he had fixed as the limit of his property, and then he gave to the cause of God all the money which he

earned. At one time, finding that his property had increased beyond fifty thousand dollars, he at once devoted the surplus, seven thousand five hundred dollars, as a foundation for a professorship in the Newton Theological Institution, to which he gave, during his life, at least twice that sum. So scrupulous was he in his adherence to the covenant which he had made, that when peculiar circumstances required him to retain in his possession more than fifty thousand dollars, he consulted judicious friends whether he might do so consistently with the spirit of his pledge, provided he always held the surplus as really belonging to the cause of God. Here is the secret of that wonderful liberality which cheered so many hearts, and gave vigor to so many institutions and plans of benevolence. It sprung from steady religious principles it was the fruit of the Holy Spirit. He always felt that God had bestowed on him a rich blessing, in enabling him to serve his cause. On his death-bed he said to a friend, in allusion to the resolutions quoted above, "By the grace of God—nothing else—by the grace of God, I have been enabled, under the influence of those resolutions, to give away more than forty thousand dollars. How good the Lord has been to me!"

But Mr. Cobb did not wait till he had acquired fifty thousand dollars, before he began to devote his money to religious uses. While he was yet young, and comparatively a poor man, recently established in business, he resolved to give one-fourth of the nett proceeds of his business to benevolent purposes. It was then uncertain what would be his success; but he felt it to be his duty to begin then, with the resolution to increase the proportion if God should prosper him. Some Christians say they must first make provision for themselves and their families, and then they will distribute their money liberally. Mr. Cobb did not act thus. He, from the beginning, gave a large proportion of his income, and trusted in God that whatever should be necessary for himself and his family would be supplied.

I have spoken emphatically on this subject, but not too strongly, for here is the root of the whole matter. We have no definite principles of duty in our charities; some give liberally, but it is casually. Before the church will be fitted for its great mission, its business men must be brought to consider their business relations to God as strictly as they do those which regard men, their accounts must be daily cast up with reference to the judgment day, and her

youth must be trained to the above principles. I know not how to dismiss the subject. There are some reading these lines to whom they are applicable; happy, thrice happy, would the writer be if he knew what argument to adduce, what words to use, by which to impress indelibly their minds. Again, Christian brother, you are entreated not to evade this appeal. It is made to you-made in the name of your Redeemer and your perishing race. If it has never been made to you before, it is now made, however feebly. If you drop this volume and go into the world resuming your usual indifference, remember, O remember, that your forgetfulness cannot destroy the inexorable obligations of duty, and that the impressions of this hour, though forgotten, will revive when the dead awake.

BISHOP ROBERTS.

"The voice of one crying in the wilderness."-Matthew. I HAVE received this evening the melancholy intelligence of Bishop Roberts' death. Many a labor-worn veteran of the itinerancy will weep as the sorrowful news spreads; for he was beloved among us as an old commander is among the troops whom he has led to battle and victory.

A score of reminiscences of the sainted old man revive in my memory: his dignified bearing, his white locks, his noble brow, his mild blue eye-the most benignant I ever saw-his tranquil temper, which I never saw ruffled, his extreme modesty, his exquisite delicacy of feeling so singularly combined with the hardy bon hommie of the backwoodsman; and, above all, the unction of his piety. Ah, he was a man to be loved while living and to be remembered pathetically when dead-the St. John of our apostleship!

Bishop Roberts had no one trait which, by extraordinary prominence, gave him uniqueness, or what is usually called greatness. The distinction and beauty of his character was its equability. I doubt if he ever felt a quarter