clude them to be the only way to Christ, and so to have them imposed upon the consciences of their brethren; then hath the Lord visibly appeared against them, and their way, and overturned it to the sight of all men."

my view, which has pardoned and overcome so much, and therefore an engagement to love him much, as it is said in Luke vii. 47, of this good woman. It also served to humble my heart greatly when I perceived, not only how vile I have been, but still am; these sins, as to the root of them, being still in me, and in no wise to be subdued but by going on in a daily course for mortifying them, even by near and close walking with God, in watching against the first motions and risings of sin in the heart. This consideration put me sometimes upon the desire to be preparing patiently to bear what cross or affliction the Lord should think fit to exercise me with; seeing that as a kind father he chastiseth and scourgeth every son whom he re

In the year 1653 he was summoned with the Lairds Brodie, Hopetoun and Swintoune to act as the representatives of Scotland in the Parliament called by Oliver Cromwell. As to the motives which induced these men to accept the office tendered them, we can judge somewhat by their expressions. A. Jaffray says, "it was on the hearts of some to have done good for promoting the kingdom of Christ.' Alexander Brodie remarks, "I am not the man which others vainly imagine me to be; nay, nor indeed come I up to my profession. If the Lord would up-ceiveth." "A lesson which ordinarily the Lord hold my soul I would rather choose to suffer at the hands of men than to fall into the temptation and snare of public employments."

useth to teach his children, by exercising them with the cross, is, that thereby they may be learning more soberly to think of, and less to engage their hearts unto, the things of the present world; so commonly, it falls out, that every rose we taste of here has a thorn or sting under the

Lingard and Godwin speak favorably of this Parliament; the latter says: "There was much of public virtue in this assembly; they possessed no common portion of that wisdom and penetra-leaf of it, and therefore if, in every comfort of tion into the spirit and consequences of social institutions which might seem to qualify them to secure essential benefits to that age and to ages which should succeed."

Among other reformatory measures of useful tendency, they proposed that tithes should be done away. Committees were appointed "for the advancement of the poor," "for the advancement of learning," and "for removing all laws and ordinances which are hindrances to the progress of the Gospel." Jaffray's name appears on the committee in relation to tithes.

this kind that thou enjoyest here, there be some mixture of bitterness, some water amongst thy wine; mistake not, but look on it as proceeding from the wisdom and love of God to thee, thereby not only to let thee see by speculation, but find from experience how vain and empty the things of a present world are."

"Again, the exercise of the cross serves much for the increase and exercise of grace, 'no chastisement for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous; afterward it brings forth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exWhen this parliament was so summarily and ercised thereby.' Observe the word exercised; violently dissolved by Cromwell, A. Jaffray was the cross affords fruit to none but to them that one of the 30 who remained, and refused to are exercised thereby, that is, whose daily exerleave until obliged to do so by an armed force. cise it is to be under the cross. They that make This, it appears, did not lessen him in Crom-the patient bearing of the cross their daily exerwell's estimation, for we find that soon after he cise, shall doubtless find grace much exercised offered him the station of a judge for Scotland, and growing thereby." which he refused, not deeming himself capable for the discharge of that duty.

cross

curred to me that a believer may be much exercised, though he be under no such dispensation, as to the world's eye, may appear a cross; yet may he be in Christ's account taking up his cross daily, when he is preparing for it. So it is well said to this purport-That a Christian is always a martyr in action or in affection, that is either actually under the cross or preparing his affections so to frame with the cross, that he may contentedly undergo it when it comes.

"But one might ask me what I mean by the ? as sometimes my own heart did. And The continual reference to the mercies and indeed, it seemed to me I was under none, having kind providences of God toward him, is a pecu-abundance of all earthly comforts. But it ocliarly instructive feature of the diary of A. Jaffray. In remembrance of these he says, "I have sometimes been thinking of the engaging of my heart anew again unto Him, but find this of more concernment rightly to be performed than I had at any former time thought of." I was eminently called upon, before any nearer access and communication with God could be attained, to remember former mercies, and be thankful for them; more especially to call to mind former guiltiness-the sins of my youththese having been many and great; though they be blotted out and freely forgiven me, yet ought they to be (and the more for this) always before me. Psalms li. 3. By frequent remembrance of these I found the goodness of God heightened in

(To be continued.)

Small causes are sufficient to make a man uneasy when great ones are not in the way; for want of a block, he will stumble at a straw.

SWIFT.

The Epistle from the Yearly Meeting, held in |
London, by adjournments, from the 24th of
the Fifth month to the 1st of the Sixth Month,
inclusive, 1854:

To the Quarterly and Monthly Meetings of Friends in
Great Britain, Ireland, and elsewhere.
DEAR FRIENDS-Through the tender mercy
of our Heavenly Father, our faith has at this
time been renewed in the all-sufficiency of his
grace in Christ our Saviour. How great is his
faithfulness to his children and people of every
name, the world over! Truly God is good to
Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart."

Our hearts are also drawn forth in tender solicitude for those who have reached the meridian of life, and who, though at times sensible of love to their Lord, may be conscious that they have not given themselves up to his service. Upon some of you the sun is ready to decline, and you have not yet begun, in good earnest, to labor in his harvest field. The present hour only is yours; the night cometh, wherein no man can work. May you delay no longer to give yourselves wholly unto Him. Be faithful, be diligent; that you also may have your part in His blessed work, and, through his unmerited mercy, receive every man "the heavenly penny from the Lord of life."

required at their hands: the work of the Lord must ever be deeply humbling to those who are engaged in it; and He alone can prepare them for it, through a course of self-denial and discipline in the school of Christ. But our faith is strong that if the young men amongst us were true in their allegiance to their Lord, and faithful to the guidance of that Spirit who divideth to every man severally as He will, they would all find some place of usefulness allotted to them in the Lord's household, and not a few amongst them would, as in primitive times, be qualified, according to their respective gifts, to call sinners It is only they who are washed, who are to repentance, to proclaim the unsearchable sanctified, who are justified, in the name of the riches of Christ, and to edify the body in love. Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God, who And though partakers of the afflictions of the can enjoy the unspeakable privilege of member- Gospel, they would at times be permitted humship in this spiritual Israel. No rite, no out-bly to rejoice, that they have a portion of Christ ward membership in any church, can suffice to better than all earthly riches or honor. make us children of Abraham. There must be the circumcision of the heart, the putting off of the old man which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts, and the putting on of the new man which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness. The calling of the Christian, beloved Friends, is emphatically a "heavenly calling." "Therefore," says the Apostle, the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." If we are conscious that the world loveth us, and that we love the world, how much reason is there to fear that we have not yet experienced that great and all important change, whereby they who were "by nature the children of wrath," are brought nigh through the blood of Jesus, and made partakers of the adoption. They who are thus adopted into the Lord's family, who are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, and made heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, have their desires, their hopes and their affections set upon heavenly things, and are no longer conformed to this world. Strangers and pilgrims upon earth, their citizenship is in heaven. Whilst enjoying with a purer relish his outward gifts, they are taught of God to keep within the limitations of his Holy Spirit, in their use even of these things, and are constrained by the dictates of their renewed nature to renounce the vanities, and the pleasures of a world lying in wickedness. But the energies and the substance which are withheld from these pursuits will not be spent upon themselves. Other and far worthier objects will open before them, affording abundant scope for the right exercise of every talent with which they have been entrusted.

Beloved younger Friends, you whose hearts the Lord hath touched, and who are almost persuaded to be his diciples, Oh that you could be prevailed upon to make the full surrender of all that you have, and of all that you are, to the service of Him who hath loved you. It is not for the servant to choose his work; and we would be far from inducing any to do that which is not

And for you, dear Friends, who are parents, whether in earlier or maturer years, strong are our desires that you may be fully alive not only to the privileges, but also to the sacred responsibilities of your station. Whilst training your beloved offspring in right habits, and providing for their instruction in things "civil and useful in the creation," may you ever keep in remembrance, that upon you, primarily, devolves the solemn duty of educating them for eternity. May you, even from their very tender years, seek to be enabled to bring them unto Jesus, that He may bless them; and may you, in the ability which He giveth, train them up not only in the nurture, but also in the admonition of the Lord. There is an authority given you to be exercised for the good of your children, which it would be treachery to their best interests to surrender. It is an authority confided to you, as their appointed guardians on behalf of the Lord, for their discipline and protection; and whilst it is exercised in love, it will be so far from diminishing, that it will tend to promote their love for you, as well as their honor-that filial honor to which, under the Gospel, as under the Law, a promise is annexed.

In entering at this time into the state of our Society, with a lively concern for its religious welfare, we have been impressed with a deep

entertainment to an indiscriminate assembly, many of whom make no pretensions to religion. That music, on the other hand, which does not in any degree partake of the character usually designated as sacred has, we fear, in innumerable instances, allured the feet of the young, to the lightness, the gaiety, and even the dissipation of the world, and thus proved among the many snares against which we are enjoined fervently to pray, "Lead us not into temptation." The Christian cannot surely devote hours and days to pursuits of this description, without being in danger of unfaithfulness in his stewardship of that time which he is called upon to "redeem;" and of impairing that tenderness of conscience, and that filial fear of offending God, which are among the most precious evidences of the work of grace in the heart.

sense of the vital importance of the great duty | Holy Scripture are made the subject of professed of prayer. Far indeed be it from us to desire that any of our members should approach the Lord with the tongue and with the lip, whilst the heart is far from Him; but under the solemn conviction that whatever be our circumstances in life or our position in the church, prayer is, in the Divine appointment, essential to our spiritual health, we would earnestly press upon all to seek for opportunities in the course of each day for private retirement and waiting upon the Lord; and tenderly to cherish those precious, but often gentle and easily resisted motions of the Lord's Spirit, which would contrite and humble our hearts, and draw them forth in fervent petitions for that spiritual food which can alone supply our daily, our continual need. May none amongst us be living in a state of unconcern, insensible to the righteous judgment of God upon all that is unholy; their sins, unrepented of and unforgiven, still resting on their souls: rather let them be encouraged to come in deep humiliation to the mercy-seat, there to plead for pardon and plenteous redemption, in the allavailing name of our crucified Redeemer. And how precious for us all is the assurance "that we have a great High Priest, that has passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God;" one who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities; and in whose holy name we are invited to "come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." But when we have asked for this grace, Oh! that we may be truly willing, in all humility, to wait for it, and to accept those manifestations of the Lord's light, love and power to our souls, whereby He would, in the riches of his wisdom, graciously fulfil our petitions, and enable us to follow Him faithfully in that path of self-denial and practical godliness which He would open before us.

We have received, in usual course, an Epistle from our Friends in Ireland, and one from each of the Yearly Meetings in North America. It is very satisfactory to us to be thus reminded of the love and interest of our distant brethren; and warm are our desires that the members of our Society, everywhere, being builded together by the One Spirit upon the One Foundation, Christ Jesus, may be more and more closely united in Him.

Reports have been furnished to this Meeting from the several Meetings of Friends in Great Britain and Ireland, of the distraints upon our members in support of our ancient Christian testimony against all ecclesiastical demands. We have directed a digested statement of the particulars of these distraints to be printed and circulated for the information of our members and others. This testimony to the freedom and spirituality of Gospel ministry, and against the usurpations of human power and wisdom in the things of God, is still dear to us, as to our forefathers in the Truth. We desire affectionately to encourage all our members to its continued faithful support, in the meekness of wisdom; and we would tenderly entreat them to be upon their watch against that spirit which would lead any of them away from its full and consistent maintenance.

Amongst those gratifications of sense from which the members of our religious Society, by common consent, growing out of what we believe to be a root of Christian principle, have, with much unanimity, felt themselves restrained, are the study and practice of music. That which is of the character ordinarily designated as sacred music not unfrequently stimulates expressions Our minds have been, at this time, deeply and feelings which are far from being the genu- affected by the awful consideration that, after the ine breathings of a renewed heart, and tends to lapse of so many years of comparative tranquillity delude the mind by producing an excitement the nations of Europe are again plunging into often unhappily mistaken for devotion, and to the horrors of war. Our attention has been withdraw the soul from that quiet, humble and called to numerous passages of sound Christian retired frame, in which prayer and praise may be doctrine and excellent practical counsel, on this truly offered with the spirit and with the under-subject, contained in our printed "Rules of standing also. And as to those musical exhibitions in which an attempt is made to combine religion with a certain amount of amusement, it is hard to understand how a truly Christian mind can allow itself to sanction the profanation of the sacred name by the attendance of such performances; where the most awful events recorded in

Discipline and Advices," as well as to the "Tes timony against all Wars and Fightings," issued by this Meeting a few years ago; and we commend them to the serious perusal of our members. Whilst not insensible of the solemn responsibility of the profession which we are making herein before men, we feel bound explicitly to avow our

And now, in conclusion, we would express our reverent thankfulness for the help and comfort afforded us throughout this Yearly Meeting, and our renewed sense of the blessedness of true Gospel fellowship. If we are members of Christ, we are also members one of another. Let us therefore seek to be so kept in watchfulness and humility, that nothing may interrupt this living membership in the living body, or impair the outward bond of harmony and Christian order rest. amongst us. Let us be subject one to another, In the city of New York, out of six hundred and each to the body in love. Thus vigilant, taken to the Park Hospital, not more than about humble and dependent, rooted and built up in one in five professed to be even temperate drinkChrist, and growing up into Him in all things ers. The number who died of that disease, and who is the Head, our joy and peace would who for the last two years, had not used ardent

spirits, was exceedingly small. A gentleman of that city, after paying particular attention to the subject, remarked that facts abundantly authorized the conclusion, that if there had been no spirits used, there would not have been cholera enough to interrupt their business for a single day. The transition from the grog-shop to the hospital, and thence to the potter's field, was found to be so rapid, that some of the retailers became alarmed, and discontinued their sales.

FRIENDS' REVIEW.

PHILADELPHIA, SEVENTH MONTH 29, 1854.

BOWDEN'S HISTORY OF FRIENDS IN AMERICA.

At page 168 of our fifth volume, some account of the first volume of this history was given. The narrative contained in the volume then published, terminated with the year 1682; the time when William Penn first set his foot on the American

shore.

have ever furnished to the historian a more pleasing task than the early colonists of Pennsylvania. While the first planters on the north and south of Pennsylvania, were frequently involved in exterminating wars with the native tribes, and their history supplies numerous instances on both sides of atrocious barbarity, we find William Penn and his adherents fixing their peaceful habitations

among the same kind of untutored and uncivilized tribes, without fortifications or military protection, disarming the native races, by justice and kindness, and maintaining with them an inviolable peace as long as their policy was preserved.

Happy would it have been for Pennsylvania, and especially for the aborigines residing here, if the enlightened policy, dictated by Christian principle, which carried the first colonists successfully through the dangers and hardships of their infant settlement, had been maintained to the present day. Instead of seeing the red men receding before the wave of civilized immigrants, and rapidly vanishing from the earth, we should probably at this day have witnessed the civilization and christianity of the eastern world interwoven into the habits and doctrines of the natives, and the white and red races, like kindred drops, mingled to

den's new work presents an interesting illustration.

A second volume has just issued from the London press, and is now offered for sale in this city, as noticed in this journal last week. This volume commences with an account of the settlement of Pennsylvania, in which we find the establishment of meetings occupying a conspicuous place. Wil-gether. Of the fruit of this peaceful policy, Bowliam Penn landed at New Castle on the 27th of 8th month, which, reduced to the new style, would be the 6th of 11th month, 1682, and within six months of that time, it appears that no fewer than nine meetings for worship, and three monthly meetings were established in the province. The colony on the east of the Delaware, being formed A chapter, containing more than forty pages, is several years prior to the settlement of Pennsyl-devoted to the "Rise and Progress of the Testivania, a yearly meeting was held at Burlington in mony of Friends against Slavery." 1681; but as early as 1683* a yearly meeting was also held at Philadelphia.

In the composition of this history, the writer has evidently consulted the principal documents which were capable of casting light on the early history of Pennsylvaniat; and no nation or people

This meeting began in the Seventh, now the Ninth month, and continued to convene in the latter part of that month until the year 1798, when it was concluded to meet in future in the Fourth month. The yearly meeting in conformity with this conclusion, convened in 1799, and in the following years, on the third Second day in the Fourth month.

It is with regret that I observe at page 60, the recital as a piece of sober history, of an imaginary conversation between William Penn and King Charles II. The dialogue, I believe, rests on no testimony but the pages of Weems, a writer who certainly cannot be regarded as reliable authority. The supposed conversation itself is indeed much too coarse for the characters to which it is attributed. The King was certainly very deficient in morals and integrity, but he was not destitute of the polish which belongs to a gentleman and William Penn retained too much of the politeness in which he was educated, to talk to the

About thirty pages are occupied with the history of George Keith, and the disturbance occasioned by his apostacy, where those who are desirous of an acquaintance with that subject, may find their gratification.

This is a very interesting portion of the work,

tracing the progress of Christianity in its early stages, and through the middle ages, in meliorating the condition of the servile class, and gradually wearing away the system of slavery.

Though George Fox and William Edmundson may be regarded as the first members of our religious society who bore an open testimony against the slavery of the negroes, and this was done several years before Pennsylvania was colonized, it is to Friends of Pennsylvania that the world was indebted for the earliest and most efficient exertions in a society capacity, for the extinction of the king in the manner here represented. The author who furnishes this conversation between William. Penn and the king, introduces in his life of General Marion, a conference with a British officer, during the revolationary war, in which the General is represented as declaring that neither he nor his men received a cent for their service. And yet cents were unknown in American currency until 1792, about nine years after the close of that war.