subject of such deep conviction and overwhelming distress on account of sin as some are given to feel; for that reason, though she was greatly humbled and deeply concerned, she was sometimes tempted to doubt the genuineness of her religion, and she often feared lest she should in anywise deceive herself. She seemed astonished to think that she could stand accepted in the Beloved, and would say, with considerable emotion, "It is not for anything that I have done."

Her venerable grandfather, with whom she had continued to reside, and who could not bear the thought that she should leave his roof while he lived, died early in the year 1819, in the ninetyeighth year of his age. He had himself preached the Gospel for the long period of seventy years, and his remains lie near those of Mr. Wesley in the burial-ground behind City-Road chapel. Soon after his death she became the wife of her surviving bereaved husband,* and for more than forty-eight years she discharged the duties which devolved upon her as a wife, a mother, and the mistress of a Christian family, in a manner the most exemplary. Her whole life, indeed, was a life of preparation for a higher one. She was ever ready to encourage and sustain her husband in the sacred duties of his office, and in several of the Circuits to which they were appointed she performed the part of a wise and faithful classleader; she also took an active part in forming, or otherwise sustaining, Dorcas, and other benevolent societies in behalf of the poor, and in visiting the sick and distressed at their own dwellings. But throughout the whole course of her more active life, she was careful to cultivate and maintain the spirit of devoted personal piety. She made the Word of God the subject of habitual and prayerful study, and she cherished to the end a strong attachment to Wesleyan views of revealed truth. She hardly ever allowed anything to interfere with her attendance upon the means of grace: not merely did she show that she appreciated the public services of the sanctuary, but with regard to her class, and meetings for prayer, the same diligence was manifested. Her affection for those who were called to minister the Word of Life was strong and deep-rooted, and she also placed a high value on the labours of our local preachers, often speaking of the benefit she derived from them.

The pious pair have now permanently met in the skies. "On December 19th, 1870, though in the eightieth year of his age, and in enfeebled health, Mr. Rosser attended a cottage prayer-meeting at Barningham, where he had resided for nine years. Having returned home, and partaken of some refreshment, he conducted family worship, and almost immediately afterwards joined the ransomed company around the throne of God. His last words were, 'This must be death. You are very kind; let me go.'" (Minutes, 1871.)

In the midstof her Christian activities she was wont to entertain very lowly views of herself, and of any service she was able to perform. "I am much humbled," she wrote on one occasion, "through reading accounts of many excellent women who have adorned the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things.'" Still, though accustomed not to think highly of herself, she was ever highly esteemed by those who knew her best. The Rev. Joseph Benson, who had known her from the time she was very young, spoke of her on one important occasion in very approving terms. And Dr. Adam Clarke, in a letter to her husband, written in March, 1829, soon after one of her confinements, and a little time after he had paid them a visit, wrote as follows::- "I knew her when she was a child, and had a high regard for her, her mother, and her grandfather. And if I had known nothing more of her than what I saw and learnt at Stafford, her safety and happiness would have been no matter of indifference to me."

Other and more recent testimonies to her excellencies might be added in great number. A minister, who resided in the family during the first year of his probation, writes :-" Her memory will always dwell in my most affectionate remembrance. I always admired her meek, loving, gentle spirit; and I trust I was in some measure benefitted by her example." Another minister, who was placed in the same position, writes:-"My recollections of Mrs. Rosser are of the holiest kind. Her image has often floated across my mind during my own pilgrimage. Her tranquil spirit, her accuracy of judgment, her knowledge of men and things, her discernment of character, together with her high-toned principle, her conscientiousness, and her supreme submission to the will of God, were traits in her character which placed her far above the ordinary range of experience and observation. Her memory is precious to me at this hour." Another says, "I reflect with pleasure upon her motherly kindness and attention to me....... Such a cheerful, happy Christian it was always a pleasure to visit." A pious female, but recently acquainted with her, adds, "I have thought a good deal of dear Mrs. Rosser, and very precious is her memory even to me, who knew so little of her; what must it then be to those who knew her more intimately? Hers was a beautiful, consistent character,-a cheerful, happy, unselfish nature." And a clergyman of the Church of England made the following observation concerning her, "I should have much wished to have read the funeral service in Mrs. Rosser's case, every word of which was so truthfully applicable to her."

It pleased the Almighty to favour her with uninterrupted good health through the course of a long life, up to within nearly two years of its close; nor did she suffer much from advancing

age, except from increasing deafness. Early in February, 1866, she was suddenly seized with a violent attack of illness, which the best medical skill tried in vain to relieve; and her death was looked for every hour. Though it seemed almost impossible that she could survive from one day to another, she for several months continued to suffer great pain and weakness, being quite unable to raise herself from a recumbent position. But the Lord was graciously present with her, throughout this time of trouble and distress. On being reminded, at the commencement of the attack, that she was in good hands," she replied, "I know it, I know it. I dare not distrust Him. It is not for anything that I have done. It is a serious thing to enter eternity. I received His grace and have felt happy, but there seems something wanting." She added, "But my children! I want all my children to be saved; I cannot give it up." A few days after, she said, "I am not unhappy, and we must be patient." Seeing her husband standing in a state of distress, she gave him a most expressive look of mild and affectionate reproof. At another time she said to him, "Don't be distressed we cannot live always let us be patient,-I try to be patient. I moan, but I cannot help it." Her leader calling to see her, she expressed herself as having been saved from every fear, and said that the Lord had been very gracious to her. When one repeated,

:

"No condemnation now I dread," etc.,

she exclaimed, "O those blessed hymns! those precious hymns!" She was greatly affected while prayer was being offered, especially when reference was made to her relatives and family connections; and she again observed, "It is not for anything that I have done. I look to the hope set before' me." On another occasion she said, "There is no dark valley,-there is no valley at all: it is only passing away, and then that sleep in Jesus!" Sometime after, seeming to be almost overpowered with a feeling of gratitude and love, she exclaimed, "O how thankful I feel! I did not think so much could be enjoyed, I have been thinking of the baptism of the Spirit; I want the baptism of the Spirit." A few days after, she said, "I feel no great joy or ecstasy, but such love and confidence as I cannot describe; it is

'The speechless awe that dares not move,

And all the silent heaven of love.'"

After continuing in this state of suffering and weakness for nearly five months, she so far rallied again, to the astonishment of even her medical attendant, as to be able to leave her room almost daily till about the middle of November, 1867. Though an invalid, and enduring great pain and weakness, she was remarkably

cheerful. Her last illness, which was a severe attack of bronchitis, was only of eight or nine days' continuance, during which she was quite unable to converse, but remained perfectly sensible, patient, and resigned; till the morning of Thursday, November 28th, 1867, when, heaving two gentle sighs, her happy spirit departed to be for ever with the Lord. She finished her course in the eighty-first year of her age. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."

THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL:

PERSEVERANCE TO THE DAY OF CHRIST.

"And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God."-Phil. i. 9-11.

It was,

THIS PRAYER has a special character stamped upon it by its connection with the Thanksgiving that precedes. The apostle's congratulation of the Philippians, and gratitude on their behalf, had gone so far as to express what might seem to be a confident assurance of their individual salvation in the day of Christ. however, far from his intention to leave on record any such expression of unconditional assurance; on the contrary, here, as everywhere, he is careful to convey a directly opposite sentiment. Between the Thanksgiving and the Prayer there intervenes an intense declaration of his vehement love a love which, on the one hand, stimulated his good hope concerning them, and made him utter the language of almost absolute anticipation of their eternal welfare; while, on the other, it gives its pathos to the solemn prayer that they might not disappoint his expectation by neglect and unfaithfulness to grace.

"And this I pray ;" an unusual preface, which may be explained on the supposition just mentioned. It is as if the apostle had said: "This is my strong confidence concerning you, that you will be found in the day of the Lord complete in His finished salvation; but this also is with equal earnestness my prayer, that you may not thwart in the meanwhile the operation of His grace." It is in harmony with such a view that the words " day of Christ" recur so emphatically; being inserted in the very middle of the Prayer, even as they had been placed in the very middle of the Thanksgiving. Confident hope and anxious prayer meet in his human "longing towards them; and the "day of Christ," which is the goal of his

expectation, is also the term of his apprehension; not till then will either his hopes be finally fulfilled, or his fears be finally suppressed. Remembering, then, that the "day of Christ" governs the whole Petition, with every individual clause and word, let us mark the ascending order and cumulative force of the supplications: first, for the steady increase of their love in the knowledge of truth and in the moral tact of its appreciation; secondly, for their perfection, internal and external, of moral character; and, thirdly, for their final acceptance, thus perfected, in the testing day of the Lord.

Like the Thessalonians, the Philippians had been already "taught of God" to love both Himself and one another. The possession of this central grace, the spring of all excellence and the energy of all perseverance, had already been attributed to them. That was the secret of their "fellowship unto the Gospel from the beginning," but the apostle prays that this grace may abundantly increase in them: not by any arbitrary and absolute effusion into their hearts, but as the result of being fed by knowledge of Divine truth, and of being diligently practised and exercised in the application of that truth to daily life, the love must steadily and equably increase; not, however, as a gift of God simply, but in its human aspect, as a grace based upon knowledge, and strengthened by use. The knowledge" here spoken of is not the intellectual apprehension or theoretical arrangement of truth in the mind, which, however excellent in itself, is altogether independent of love, and will " pass away" when the body of truth shall be seen under very different aspects and relations. It is spiritual knowledge, or knowledge of "truth as it is in Jesus;" that is, in its connection with His saving name and our salvation through Him. It is spiritual knowledge, partly as being bound up with our spiritual nature and needs, partly and chiefly as being imparted by the Holy Ghost, through whose influence alone the truth in the fullest and deepest sense of the word can be known. But it is knowledge; knowledge in the strictest sense of the word; for it is imparted and acquired through the sanctified understanding. "Love of the truth" is spoken of as one of the manifestations of the supreme grace; that love quickens the intellect in its study, and gives energy to its pursuits; and, as love enlarges and strengthens the power of attaining religious knowledge, so increasing knowledge feeds and heightens love in return. It should not be forgotten, however, that while St. Paul speaks of "all judgment" he speaks of knowledge as only one. Here is a profound truth which is explained at a later point in the Epistle. All knowledge is summed up in knowing Christ. (iii. 10.) All truth is now "truth as it is in Jesus." He appropriates, confirms, and seals all truth that He did not bring