trial in various places, and acknowledged by several of the clergy and others as a rational, intelligible, and expeditious manner of communicating knowledge to children. I will send you a few of each. I say a few, as your parish is small, and at Tilshead I am told the people are irreclaimable, and detest seriousness.

May God work in us by his grace, with us by his blessing, and by us as instruments. May vital religion be our constant study, daily practice, and chief delight. Thus may we be made wiser and better every day; more weaned from the world, more willing to leave it, and more fit for a residence among glorified spirits!

"This is my fervent desire for you, dear sir, as well as for
"Much and faithfully yours,

THE REV. MR. GAUNTLETT.

"JAMES STONHOUSE."

Bristol Wells, Nov. 11, 1795.

The following is interesting, as the last letter written by this excellent and zealous divine.

"DEAR SIR,

Bristol Wells, Nov. 30, 1795.

"I send you the new edition of my Materials;' three of which in England, and one in Scotland, have been printed since the first of January past. It is a satisfaction to me, because it appears of great importance what early associations of ideas are communicated and habituated to the minds of children from four years of age to twelve and upwards.

"I send you likewise the sixth edition of my 'Considerations :' I hope the blessing of God will accompany the use of these, and of all my other writings.

"These two are for yourself. But I send you several books to be dispersed in your parishes: as for instance, some of the former editions of these, which were supernumeraries, and less perfect; and some other things likewise, which may possibly be of some use properly distributed among such of your people as seem disposed to improve themselves. I have sent you one of The Faithful Minister,'

which was written by me, though for prudent reasons I never publicly owned it.

"See Christ's regard to children. He took them in his arms and blessed them. Let us bless them by our instructions, and exert ourselves in favour of the rising generation. There is a very striking and comfortable declaration of St. Peter, 1 Epistle, v. 7: 'The gracious Lord careth for us.' Let us then care for these children, and endeavour to save their souls alive. When I resided at Cheverel, and catechized the children there, I used occasionally to give them three-pence, six-pence, and sometimes even a shilling, in proportion to their age and the progress they made.

"As I suppose you see every month, as they come out, the Penny Tracts from Hazard's Cheap Repository, I think you may make a good use among your people of 'Farmer Worthy and Farmer Bragwell,' published for this month of November, by Mrs. Hannah More, and admirably calculated to influence the minds of those in the lower ranks of life.

"A tradesman in London had a legacy left him of fifty thousand pounds; and as he was bred in an obscure village, and of poor parents, he had no pretensions to a coat of arms; and therefore he gratefully, humbly, and judiciously put on the panels of his coach, Donum Amici. Might not we with still greater propriety as christians, put on all God's various mercies to us, Donum cælestis Amici; the gift of our Father in heaven? The gift of God is eternal life.

"The season is now approaching when we shall be wishing one another a merry Christmas and a happy new year. I frequently reply, 'You mean (sir, or madam) a serious Christmas and a holy new year, don't you?'

"By no means be instrumental in printing any thing about the millennium. What are such speculative points to us? Secret things belong to God! Besides, as so many great men (especially the learned Dr. Whitby) have published their conjectures, what possible good can arise from this cottager's ideas; and what end is the publication on so speculative a subject to answer? I give you a pamphlet of a peculiar nature relative to the millennium. I never trouble my head about millenniums, predestination, and the like; but

keep close to Christ, renouncing all self-confidence, and begging of God to support me in life and in death by the aid of his Holy Spirit. I never suffer myself to think a minute about how the resurrection is to be performed; nor how Christ performed miracles; nor the reasons why his death was connected with our salvation; (it seems to us there was no occasion for this, yet God judged otherwise ;) nor why so very small a part of the world has ever heard of Christ and his gospel. In Asia and Africa there are scarcely any christians. Many are not so even in Europe, as in some parts of Turkey, and very few in America, compared to the number of Pagans. I leave all these things to God, and say, with Abraham, Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?' I am thankful that the gospel has been revealed to me. I believe it, and will endeavour to obey it, to propagate it, and hope to die in the faith of it. I have nothing to do with the endless squabbles of Calvinists, Arminians, &c. I never read about them, nor dispute about them. See what is said in the 'Considerations,' Article 6-' We are not to cavil and oppose, but to obey and be thankful. We must be saved in God's own way, or not at all.'

"Some will ask, what is to be done with the Pagans? We may answer them in the words of Christ to Peter- What is that to thee? follow thou me.'

"I send you two little things of Dr. Hawker's, which may be very useful to serious people, though I entirely differ from him in what he says about forms in private devotion as useless. See page 85 of his 'Ten Minutes' Recommendation,' and my 'Materials,' page 12 How to Pray with or without a Book.' In his Five Minutes' Advice,' page 52-'Watch till a Spirit of Grace is poured out.' How is any one to know this? Is there any such promise to índividuals every time they go to prayer? I confess I don't understand this. Strange, very strange, seems this declaration of the Doctor's to me. He is a most worthy man, an experienced christian, and an excellent preacher; not enthusiastic in any of his writings; but here I cannot even guess at his meaning, However, let it pass. I won't lay aside his useful publications for one error; or at least for what I apprehend to be so.

May the God of all grace grant you the supply of the Spirit of

Jesus Christ, in his sanctifying, quickening, and comforting influences; guide you by his counsel, and keep you by his power, through faith unto salvation. This is the wish for you and for

himself of,

"Dear Sir, your's, faithfully,

"J. STONHOUSE."

"P.S. Bishop Maddox's reasons for not being a Papist are admirable. If you study it thoroughly, you will be able to talk with any of the Papists.

"Vivian's Dialogues have been extensively useful; and are translated into Dutch, French, German, and Danish.

"Haweis's Narrative is instructive and wonderful. The gentleMr. Newton, who wrote that, is now a very able and zealous minister, rector of St. Mary's Woolnoth, a good church in London."

man,

Notwithstanding the protest of Sir James against publishing anything on the Millennium, my father some time afterwards assisted to bring the work alluded to before the public. It was the production of a poor and illiterate man, whose education, as he himself informs his readers, cost only thirty pence; the price of twenty weeks' schooling at three halfpence per week. His opinions, which are supported with considerable ingenuity, are not very dissimilar to those of many persons in the present day. He attempts to prove the thousand years predicted in Rev. xx. 4-6, to be an intermediate period between time and eternity, strictly neither, in which the saints shall be raised and glorified, to reign with Christ previously to the full fruition of blessedness they will enjoy at the close of that period; when the wicked will be raised, and the general judgment succeed.

It does not appear that my father wholly coincided with the opinions expressed in this pamphlet. After much patient research and serious thought, he was led to form very different conclusions respecting the prophecies relating to that glorious era, for the consummation of which the church of God waits with

earnest desire. In my father's " Exposition of the Revelation, published in 1821, he observes in Appendix, No. 2, "It is admited that there is something in the hypothesis of the personal reign of the Messiah, which, prima facie, is highly plausible; and, as far as it is believed, exceedingly affecting to the mind. The author of this work states these sentiments from his own experience. Twenty-four years ago he published a pamphlet entitled, A Scriptural View of the Millennium, containing sentiments similar to those of Basilicus, (an expectant of the personal reign of Christ), and though he did not decidedly embrace the doctrine himself, he nevertheless wrote a preface, recommending the subject to consideration and test of Scripture."

The tracts of Mrs. H. More, mentioned with such commendation by Sir James Stonhouse, led the way in diffusing general information and religious instruction among the lower orders, by means of cheap periodical publications-a practice which has since been so universally adopted; but alas! not always confined to objects of such unquestioned importance. The communication of speculative and unsanctified knowledge, to those classes of society least qualified to detect its sophistry, has become an engine of