were in the house at the time, to his bed side, to take his final leave of them. Taking each by the hand, he bade them an affectionate farewell. He said to an intimate friend, "Be faithful and meet me in heaven-for I think I shall know you there. Continue in the good and right way, for you cannot get too much religion to die with. I am now going, and feel my need of more." He made mention of his friends, far and near, saying, "Tell them it is my dying request that they should meet me in heaven.” He entreated his sorrowful attendants and friends not to weep on his account, adding, "I believe my work upon earth is accomplished, and I am now ready to be offered up.' He then gave some directions about the manner, and place of his interment.

The following morning he seemed somewhat revived. He then requested that the different churches should meet together and make intercession for him, whether living or dying, which was accordingly done with great solemnity. Day after day he would exhort those around him. He would often say, “My dear brethren, for the time to come be more like your Lord and Master. Cut loose from the world, and live for heaven."

Though he was sometimes cast down, yet was he again favoured with many glorious manifestations, and he felt that the kingdom of God is not only righteousness and peace, but joy in the Holy Ghost. But his exercises were various, and at times he would repeat the language of the poet,

"Oh could we make those doubts remove,

Those gloomy doubts that rise,

24

MEMOIRS OF THE REV. FLETCHER HARRIS.

In a milder clime they dwell,

Regions of eternal day.

"He that on the throne doth reign,
Them the Lamb shall always feed;
With the tree of life sustain,

To the living fountains lead;
He shall all their sorrows chase,

All their wants at once remove,
Wipe the tears from every face,
Fill up every soul with love."

SERMON I.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Luke iv. 18, 19.

It is impossible for one who possesses a heart attuned to the soft chord of Christian sympathy, not to feel deeply interested in reading these words. To endure the degraded impotence of despised poverty -to agonize in excessive and heart-rending grief— to be immured within the mouldy walls of a loathsome dungeon-to be deprived of the faculty of vision, so as to grope at noon-day-and in addition to all this, to have the body maimed and bruised— such a tale of woful calamity must touch the heart, and overflow the eyes of him who hears it. But suppose the poverty of which we were speaking, to consist, not in the want of sustenance for the body, but in the absence of the bread which endureth to everlasting life, without which the soul perisheth forever; suppose the heart-breaking grief, of which we were speaking, to consist in a painful sense of injustice done to God, our kind benefactor; suppose the

imprisonment, of which we were speaking, to be the confinement of the immortal soul in the castle of sin, and chains of iniquity; suppose the blindness above referred to, to consist in the entire absence of the light of God's countenance, which alone fills all heaven with raptures; suppose the bruises spoken of in the text, to refer to the depraved faculties of a fallen soul, by which it is entirely incapacitated either for enjoyment or ease. Then you behold a sight which might make an angel weep; a sight which moved the compassion of God. Hovering with pensive grief over such an abject sufferer, our ears are saluted by the heart-reviving voice of a pitying deliverer. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. This deliverer is Jesus, our Saviour; and we, and all Adam's race, are the lost sinners whom he came to seek and to save.

These words point out,

I. Man's natural condition, and

II. Christ's gracious commission.

I. We are to speak of man's natural condition. The Holy Spirit, in condescension to our ignorance of spiritual subjects, has been pleased to render them comprehensible by figurative illustrations taken

from the material world. It is difficult for us to conceive how sin deforms the soul, and deranges its faculties. But we who have the poor always with us, can easily conceive of the many privations and sufferings which they are forced to endure, and how the cloud of cheerless gloom obscures from them the sun of prosperity; while, dispirited and faint, they creep into the hut of poverty, and share with their weeping babes the cup of unmingled wretchedness. By such a scene, the Holy Spirit would have us enter more fully into a proper understanding of man's lapsed condition. Before the fall, man had unobstructed intercourse with his Maker, who was the soul of his happiness, the life of his delights, and the treasure of his riches. Into him, as an infinite ocean of fulness, all the affections of man flowed, and blended their vigorous current. But sin estranged man, and alienated his affections from his God. And God, whose inflexible truth stands firm as his throne, withdrew the kindly light of his countenance; and this being the food of the soul, man was left (the atonement apart) in a state of wretchedness. Distressed and without help, I hear the fugitive rebel cry out, "Who will show me any good? Wherewithal shall I come before God? Who will give me perfect peace? Save me from the hell I feel, and the endless horror I fear !"

Moreover, amid the various causes of distress which daily occur, it is not strange to see some pining away; no matter whether through slighted love or loss of friends. The fragrant spring scatters odours in vain around them; and the sun shines but to