our Judge has said, "If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither, will your Father forgive your trespasses."-Wesleyan Mag.

BIOGRAPHY.

MEMOIR OF ROBERT FORD.

"There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth" is a charming truth, uttered by Him who is "the truth, the life, the way;" and this declaration comes home with more force to our minds just now, from the fact that so many thousands of sinners are turning to God, and are being quickened into " newness of life" by the power of divine Grace. While some are being born of the Spirit, over whom heaven rejoices with great joy, others who were converted some years ago, and who have held fast the beginning of their confidence stedfast to the end, are, one after another, being taken from us to the world above-to the palace of angels and God, to join the holy happy throng, and with them to celebrate the praises of our common Lord and Saviour; among whom is the subject of this Memoir.

ROBERT FORD was born at Probus, on the 14th day of February, in the year of our Lord, 1782. At that period vital piety was but little known in the neighbourhood; hence our friend had not the privileges which are now afforded the rising race. While his habits

were usually steady, and he manifested somewhat of a sober turn of mind, as he advanced to manhood, he was very fond of the church bells, and therefore became what is termed a ringer, connected with which, too frequently, are practices incompatible with the love and fear of God.

At a suitable age he was apprenticed to the trade of a carpenter, at Grampound, at which place he resided till he was removed from earth to heaven. In the year 1804, he married JANE HAM, his present widow, who in feebleness is passing on to her home also. Oh! may she be fully prepared to meet her departed friend in the regions of joy and glory; and may they spend a blissful eternity where partings are not known.

Brother Ford's religious life commenced early in the history of the Bible Christian Connexion, between 30 and 40 years ago; and he was one of the first of the friends at Grampound. Under God he owed his conversion to the labours of ELEANOR TURNER, a native of that place, who while living in the parish of St. Ewe, was brought into the liberty of the children of God, and under the constraining influence of "the love of Christ" was induced to go home to her native place, and in the simplicity of her soul published salvation through Christ Jesus. This young woman, in her zeal for God, and love for souls, took her stand in the open air: many heard, some with deep and solemn attention, others were filled with indignation, and resisted the truth. Some said she was mad; one man, of some little authority, took hold of her with the intention to put her into the "black hole" as it was called; but our departed brother believed the young woman to be sent of God to show the people the way of salvation; he with his

wife came to her rescue, and requested the gentleman to let her alone, which he did, and she was soon comfortably lodged at the house of Robert and Jane Ford, who we have reason to believe have ever since esteemed it an honour to receive the servants of God, and to contribute to their comfort.

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Shortly after this occurrence our departed brother ANDREW CORY visited Grampound, and formed a society in brother Ford's house, he being one of the little flock, all of whom have one after another passed on to the fold above: he being the last. Having joined himself to the Lord's people, he became joined unto the Lord in a perpetual covenant.” He pressed into the kingdom, and realised the peace and joy of faith; became a very happy and humble-minded christian, living in the fear of the Lord, and in "the comforts of the Holy Ghost;" pressing on to apprehend that for which he was apprehended by Christ Jesus.

He was the first class-leader of the little society at Grampound, and subsequently became a local preacher, in which capacities we have reason to believe he was useful. The last time he was at Probus in his appointment, not long before his death, a man who has since been made happy in the Lord was under his ministry convinced of sin and led to seek the Lord by prayer.

He loved the house of God, and was often there when but few else were inclined to go. He was one of the few that unweariedly pursued their way amidst much discouragement, but who lived to see an altered state of things; for the blessed work that still progresses was going on some months before our friend's decease, so that before he joined the heavenly company to rejoice over the conversion of sinners with them, he greatly rejoiced in the Lord for this blessed work, before he left the church below.

My own acquaintance with him commenced with my appointment to this Station in August, 1854; but from all I could gather, from information given by others, and what I have seen myself, he was a man "not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord."

For some years he was the subject of bodily infirmity, and suffered much pain; but he endured his sufferings with patience, and to the age of nearly seventy-four years continued in his work, till early in February last, when he was taken very ill while from home. Being brought home he was taken to his bed, the bed of death as it proved. During this illness he was patient and calm; waiting for his Lord. To brother NANCARROW, who visited him, he said, "Come life or death, all is well!" The disease of which he died increasing on him, he gradually sunk down into the arms of death, and thus fell asleep in Jesus, on the 17th of February, 1856, after only eight days confinement, aged seventy-four years and three days.

We have already referred to the circumstance of our friend's seeing the salvation of God before he went hence, in the conversion of many of his neighbours. Among the recent converts was a nephew; and we might here further observe that while with others he laboured in the work to win them to Christ, he also often gave them words of instruction and caution, reminding them that he had proved the Lord Jesus to be the best of all masters.

May these recent converts follow him as he followed Christ; be faithful unto death, receive the crown of life, and meet at length their friend in heaven.

R. P. TABB

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MEMOIR OF JOHN CUNDY.

Another from the church is gone;
How glorious was his flight!
The heir is now with glory crowned,
In yonder realms of light.

The subject of the following brief memoir was born in the parish of St. Stephens-in-Bramwell, in the county of Cornwall, about the year 1795. Born of humble parents, and his father dying when John was quite young, the support of his widowed mother and sister principally devolved upon him for several years.

About the year 1831, a revival broke out in this neighbourhood, when John happily became the subject of converting grace. He immediately joined the society meeting at Trethosa, in the parish that gave him birth, and with which he continued in church fellowship until the weary wheels of life stood still, a period of twenty-four years. He was a consistent member; and being a person of remarkably careful and industrious habits, he was often enabled to contribute largely towards Missionary operations, and the cause of God in different ways.

For some months previous to his death, his health appeared to decline, rendering him unfit for but little manual exertion; but we believe as the outward man decayed, so the inward man was renewed, until the top-stone was brought off with shouting, "grace, grace unto it." He was confined to his room but a few days; but his last illness was very severe, and his pain extreme. He was visited by his class-mates and other pious persons at different times, to whom he expressed his bright hopes and unclouded prospects of a blissful immortality. He expressed great earnestness for the salvation of souls, anxiously desiring that those around him should enjoy "like precious faith.' The Saturday preceding his death, he requested that his class-mates should visit him after the next morning's class-meeting. In compliance with his request, several of his fellow travellers towards Mount Zion sought his chamber, when he gave out that verse beginning,-

"O lovely appearance of death."

It was sung by the surrounding friends, after which two of his classmates engaged in prayer; and a very gracious season was experienced by many present, enabling them to say with the poet,---

“The chamber where the good man meets his fate,

Is privileged beyond the common walks of virtuous life,
Quite on the verge of Heaven.”

He also chose the hymns to be sung at his funeral, and requested one of his class-mates to preach his Funeral Sermon, from these words, "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." The Lamp of life continued to wane apace, and on the Tuesday following the Sabbath above mentioned, he sweetly resigned his spirit into the arms of his God, November 6th, 1855.

May the reader, with myself, take up the language of inspiration and say, "Let me die the death of the righteous; and let my last end

be like his."

As a tribute of respect to the memory of the departed, and also with a view that the event might be improved to the benefit of the survivors, the following verse was composed by one of his female classmates, and sung at the 7 o'clock morning prayer meeting, on the sabbath after his decease,-a means of grace from which he rarely absented himself for above twenty years—

Rejoice for a Brother that's fled;

Mortal eyes shall behold him no more;
He's blest with his heavenly Head,
Safe landed on Canaan's bright shore;
His seat to-day vacant we see,

For many long years he enjoyed;
Press on my dear partners and see
The glory in which he's employed.

Also the following, by the same author, was sung at the Sunday forenoon's Class-meeting-a means of grace at which he was a very regular attendant.

Friends of God, I would invite you

To press on with all

;

your heart Death has robbed us of a Brother;

We from him are call'd to part.

Cease, my classmates, cease from mourning,
Since I'm called to joys on high:
Long with you I was sojourning,
But you know we all must die.
Stand ye, therefore, always ready,
Waiting for your Saviour's call-
O! my children, come to glory,
I for you have conquered all!
We are coming, dear Redeemer,
Help us onward by thy grace;
Do not leave us now nor ever,
Till we see thy glorious face.

In the evening of the same day,Br.N. Kent delivered an impressive sermon from the words before mentioned, to a large and attentive congregation; and the gracious influence of the Divine Spirit then manifested will, I hope, not soon be forgotten. At the close of the sermon, the speaker rehearsed the following verses, by the same friend, as they were considered to embody his desires towards his unconverted neighbours, and his last farewell to his spiritual companions.

Dear friends and neighbours, I invite you,
Fill my place without delay;

Waiting is my precious Saviour,

Give your hearts to him to-day.

I have left the church below,

And have gained the church above,

Now my rich reward I know,

In the abode of heavenly love.
well my dearest friends,

Fare ye

I am now supremely blest;

When your days on earth shall end,

May you, with me, partake this rest.

Our departed Brother was a man of few words; of humble, unobtrusive demeanour; of strictly honest principles. He attended to the precept to owe no man any thing. His particularly careful habits, I believe, procured for him the censure of some who perhaps were not perfectly acquainted with his motives. I have been informed the hand of charity has been stretched out with much benevolence by him, and so secretly, as showed his obedience to the Divine command, "Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth." Having I suppose never been acquainted with the luxuries of life, he doubtless sighed not for them; and upon creditable information I have reason to believe, he did not deny himself of its necessaries. In mortals, we know, it is vain to look for perfection; but when we see the grace of God triumphant in the hour and article of death, and man exulting in the prospect of his speedy dissolution, we are ready to say, Surely he has answered the end of his creation. That all who read these lines, with myself, may do so, is the prayer of the writer, SARAH DICKENS RICHARDS.

MISCELLANEOUS.

CHRISTIANITY LIKE NO OTHER RELIGION. WHATEVER, I say, men may think of christianity, they cannot ignore its existence and its power. It is a great and astounding fact of our religious history, and, indeed, of our civilization; for beyond its horizon all is darkness and barbarism. It has spread_as no other system ever did. It has lived where no other system could have survived; its energy has defied all repression,-its life all extinction. Wealth has tried to enervate it, and sensuality to debauch it; heresy to dislocate it, and bigotry to distort it; power to secularize it, and persecution to entomb it; but with an inherent vitality that nothing could affect, it has survived and trengthened through them all; yea, just in proportion as its conditions have been gloomy, its achievements have been brilliant. Assault has only strengthened its power of resistance; persecution has served only to purify it; privation without has only deepened its spirituality, within. It has seemed as if it could not die. Narcotics could not drug it, the sword could not kill it. Beneath all its corruptions, at a depth where violence could not reach, there has lain an inextinguishable life and spirituality, that

has recovered it from every prostration, and brought it forth with a resurrection-triumph out of the depths of its deepest grave. And never was it so wide-spread and so healthful, so aggressive, and so potent as it is now. Make what deductions you will for its weaknesses and corruptions, account as you may for its prevalence and power, the fact cannot be gainsaid, that, at the moment that I am speaking, the thing called Christianity is the greatest living power in Europe, the most widely spread, the most deeply rooted, the most subtle, and spiritually influential, of all things that move men's minds or hearts.

ALLON.

THE CROSS. *

IN the third chapter of Romans, where the Apostle is speaking of "the redemption which is in Christ Jesus," we read the following words: "Whom God hath sent forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood." Observe these last words," in his blood." Why is

*From "THE CROSS: a Treatise on the Death of Christ-LONDON, NISBET.-See Review.