home to travel in the Methodist Connexion with Mr. Henry Moore. It is keen to part with those we have reared and watched over twenty years. But, O, my gracious Lord, we have much cause for praise that he is gone into thy blessed vineyard. Keep him humble, and make him useful; and may be labour with a single eye; then his whole body will be full of light."

The Dudley chapel, after two considerable enlargements, had for some time been too small for the accommodation of those who were desirous of sitting under the Wesleyan ministry. An additional chapel seemed desirable and even necessary; but the probable expense of its erection and support was to many appalling. Some were entirely hostile to the undertaking; others were comparatively indifferent; whilst a few of the most influential were zealous for it, and manifested that zeal by very liberal subscriptions. Mrs. Gordon ranked among the most zealous ; and none appeared to rejoice more than she did at the laying of the foundation-stone by the Rev. Robert Newton, in the midst of an immense concourse of deeply-attentive and affected people. That was to her a day of the most hallowed joy.

"For a considerable period," one who knew her well says, "she had been afflicted with a disease which kept her in the constant prospect of death, and which, sanctified as it was by the grace of God, became the means of promoting a continual preparation for heaven.

"It had been observed, for some time before her death, that the manner in which she led her class was more impressive and instructive than usual; and that this means of grace had a more hallowing effect upon her own mind. There was evidently a preparation going on within her, for the circumstances through which she was afterwards called to pass. She seemed, from the commencement of the attack which carried her away, to anticipate death; and it is somewhat remarkable, that, whereas she was subject before to a fear of death, not on account of its consequences, but on its own account, when she came actually to encounter this last enemy, that fear was entirely removed. Her mind was so calm that she gave, with the utmost composure, directions concerning certain arrangements which would be consequent upon her dissolution, even up to a very short time before that dissolution took place. Her exhortations to her children, always to preserve the closest union among each other, and to do every thing which lay in their power to sweeten the remaining life of her husband, were among the most prominent circumstances of her death. As to her religious experience at this time, she expressed the greatest confidence in the merits of Christ; and declared, in the most decided terms, that she was happy, and had no doubt of her final salvation."

The Lord honoured his servant not only with a peaceful, but with a triumphant end. Of her it might truly be said, she "comforted her comforters ;" and that her "final hour brought glory to her God."

The following are some of the many gracious words which she

uttered :- "" What should I do without religion now! I feel very thankful that I ever read the Pilgrim's Progress; I have been viewing the two pilgrims coming up out of the water, and it appears to me very beautiful." At another time she said, "O, I am happy! The Lord is precious to my soul. Is this going home? Glory be to God! I thought I should have been at home before this time! O what a scene ! I have just had a view of heaven!" A short time after she was heard praying, "Lord, break this brittle thread, and let the spirit depart in peace. This corruptible shall put on incorruption; and this mortal shall put on immortality." Not long before death, on waking from sleep, she said, "I thought I was gone! Is it not strange? O that glorious company-glorious company!

'I view the Lamb in his own light,

Whom angels dimly see;

And gaze transported at the sight

To all eternity!'"

The last words she distinctly uttered, were, Happy, happy!" Thus gloriously did Mrs. Gordon finish her course, on January 13th, 1833, in the fifty-second year of her age. On Tuesday, the 22d of January, her mortal remains were committed to the dust, in the Wesley Chapel burial-ground, Dudley, amidst the tears and lamentations of a numerous assemblage of those who knew, and esteemed, and loved her. The solemnity of the scene was greatly heightened by the interment, in the same vault, of her daughter-in-law, the beloved wife of the Rev. John Gordon, of Stroud, and only child of Mr. Mumford, of Birmingham, who died on the day before Mrs. Gordon. Whilst the sympathy of all was powerfully excited, the sorrow of the bereaved relations was of the deepest character. But their sorrow was alleviated by the cheering hope that the deceased had entered upon a state of perfect and endless blessedness. As neither of them, whilst on earth, knew of the death of the other, with what surprise and joy would they meet in the presence of their Lord!

Mrs. Gordon was a woman of considerable strength of mind, and one who never servilely adopted the opinions of any person, how highly soever she might esteem him, without conviction. Though she was not loquacious, nor a busy-body, yet when duty required her to speak, she would speak with great frankness and faithfulness, never concealing either what she thought or felt. She was opposed to backbiting and evil-speaking, and promoted, both by precept and example, the spirit of charity. Though naturally of retired habits, she, when the church required her services, took up her cross, and became a Leader in that church; for she knew nothing of that religion whose chief excellence consists in inactivity and uselessness, and which uselessness and inactivity are, by some, considered great excellencies, and are strangely traced to deep Christian humility. She had a feeling heart, and delighted in

visiting and relieving the poor, for whose benefit she commenced a Dorcas Society in Dudley. To superficial observers she no doubt would sometimes be thought deficient in sensibility; for the withering of a flower, or the death of a favourite bird, which would occasion some to shed tears, would scarcely be noticed by her. To such sensibility she was a stranger; but in her there was a string which always vibrated to the touch of suffering humanity. She greatly loved the house and ordinances of God, which she proved by her many years of diligent and punctual attendance. To the Ministers of Christ, too, she had a most sincere attachment; and never dealt in the language of detraction, by which some religious professors have not only alienated the minds of their children from their Ministers, but driven them into the ranks of infidelity. She, too, had the happy art, without any unseemly obtrusiveness, of giving a religious character to conversation, carefully avoiding every thing sectarian and technical in phraseology. Sometimes, indeed, there was in her manner the appearance of distance and want of courtesy, which, upon those who knew her not, was calculated to make an unfavourable impression; but it was in her manner only. She had an affectionate heart, and delighted to promote the happiness of all, and particularly the happiness and eternal salvation of her family. By them neither her prayers, nor pious counsel, nor Christian example, can ever be forgotten. May her God ever be their God; and may her last words be theirs also,-" Happy! Happy!" Amen.

DIVINITY.

THE GIFT OF TONGUES:

The Substance of an Oration, translated from the Latin of John Cocceius, S. T. P. By a Friend to the Improvement of the Junior Preachers of the Wesleyan-Methodist Connexion.

SOLOMON has admirably compared a speech spoken according to its model, to apples of gold in engravings of silver. For what is seasonably uttered, according to the dictation of the Eternal Teacher, shows, first, the truth and reason of that infinitely wise Being; and then, the faith and virtue of the speaker. Honour is conferred upon the man from whose mind and tongue the truth thus shines forth like a golden apple, made beautifully prominent in the artificial engraving of a silver cup; and exhibiting the glory of God, the Author of all wisdom, while it administers grace to the hearer.

As I am commanded at this time, both by usage and law, thus publicly to address you; and the profit of these youths, devoted to the study of sacred literature, exacts of me the same exercise; I would gladly throw some light into your minds, from a portion of divine wisdom; that your favourable regard to our holy pursuits may be confirmed; and that these young men may have their love of the heavenly oracles, as they have

been given to us by God and holy men of God, fanned into a flame. As a consciousness of the slenderness of my own ability makes me despair of accomplishing my desire in any other way, I seek help from the argument of my oration. That most excellent gift of tongues, which appears in the history of the kingdom of God more resplendent than burnished gold, and was conferred by the Holy Ghost on the witnesses of the Lord's resurrection, and those who believed, shall be the subject of my present address. In placing that before my new office, to which I have been called, I follow, as well as I am able, the advice of the gravest Lyrist, ἀρχομένον ἔργου, προσώπον χρὴ θέμεν τηλαυγές. That will be a suitable frontispiece to the edifice I have to erect. Favour me, then, with your candid attention; and sustain my weakness and fear, by your kindness and good-will. And thou, all-gracious Spirit, without whose aid no man can speak of thee, suffer me not to spend my strength in vain on this untried subject; but give me power to speak, who by thy gift didst give all needful tongues.

Nature is every where pregnant with proofs of the wisdom and goodness of its great Author. His wisdom and goodness are especially manifest in the animal kingdom; and most of all in man, the head of all the rest, and the epitome of things in heaven and earth. Amidst all the wonders observable in the numerous animals of our terraqueous globe, the tongue and other instruments of articulate speech, given to man, are most worthy of admiration. On these depends that faculty which is so manifestly divine and important, that Roman eloquence did not hesitate to call it domina rerum. Had it been possible for man, who has been constituted by his Maker lord of this lower world, to have exer. cised his right of dominion, in some imperfect way, over things inanimate and irrational, without the gift of speech, he could not have ruled his own house with that sweet mixture of justice and love which should ever be manifested by the head of a family; much less could he have governed a city or a nation, in which all are his equals by nature. Men can never long subsist in a state of order and proper subordination, unless by far the greater portion of them are made sensible of the propriety and advantage of their voluntary obedience and subjection to lawful authority, by the influence of a wise and persuasive elocution; to say nothing of the utter impossibility of bending the corrupt and obstinate mind of man to what is good in any other way. Had he retained his original sagacity, and voluntary inclination to all that is most excellent, together with that eloquence which is grafted on wisdom and justice, his heart would ever have been meditating some good matter, and his tongue, as the pen of a ready writer, would have uttered the praises of his Maker in strains as pure and correct as his unfallen nature. In entire and delightful subjection to the supreme Fountain of all excellence and perfection, all men would then have been sweetly and harmoniously united in the indissoluble bonds of a holy and spiritual fellowship. But now, as Pliny has justly observed, that power of expressing our

thoughts and feelings in language by which we are distinguished from inferior animals, has caused as great a difference between man and man as exists between men and brutes." So great has been the mischief caused by the confusion of tongues.

Pagans knew not the true origin of that confusion. But it has been made known to us by the Spirit of Him who governs all things. We have also been informed of the manner in which the evil has been corrected. We read in the inspired history of the ancient world, that originally all men spake one common language, but soon abused and lost that advantage. I pass over the fabulous accounts which the Greeks have given of this matter, as well as all the interpretations of the Mosaic history which have been coloured by an undue attention to such accounts. We are only informed by Moses that, when the descendants of Noah came to a suitable place, they said one to another, "Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." In forming this purpose, it is by no means certain that they were influenced by a spirit of manifest impiety; but, rather, by a kind of hypocrisy, which, if not opposed, would probably have led men ultimately to a total disregard of the truth and authority of God. We ought not to attribute to them absurdities and crimes which can only serve to puff us up with a fond conceit of our own superior wisdom and goodness, and take us off from our guard against similar wiles of Satan. When these sons of Noah thus purposed to build a city and tower, in order to make themselves a name, and prevent their division into a number of distinct nations, we may fairly presume that they had the most vivid recollection of the deluge, and knew that it had been sent as the punishment of the general apostasy of mankind from the true worship of God; and, therefore, would naturally wish to prevent the recurrence of the same evils. We know that from the days of Enos, pious men began to be distinguished from the irreligious by the sacred title of "sons of God;" and that impiety soon became almost universal. Noah alone was found righteous in his generation, and deemed worthy, with his family, of being saved in the general ruin. Those who, after the deluge, were united by one common language, and retained the possession of the same faith, might justly fear that, when they were separated by the necessity laid upon them of seeking new settlements, an end would be put to their unity in religion; and when an end was put to the fraternal compact which now held them together, various forms of error and superstition would inevitably prevail. It appears, therefore, to have been their design to build a spacious city, as the metropolis of a universal empire; that, however they might be scattered over the face of the earth by their multiplication, all might continue under one government, both civil and religious. With the same plausible object in view, they might wish to erect a most magnificent tower or citadel, as the residence of the highest majesty on earth, and as a monument of their present unity. The most judicious