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in this particular, and in the troubles which almost immedi ately followed, he no doubt saw that he had acted too precipitately for the subsequent satisfaction and peace of his mind.

Mr. Simpson removed from his peaceful curacy at Ramsden to Buckingham, where he soon found himself involved in difficulties and deep' distress. He commenced his ministerial career, determined not to keep back or disguise any gospel truth, however unpalatable to the unbeliever, and plainly to preach the whole counsel of God, to whatever opposition he might thus expose himself. In that day, although a pleasing change had certainly taken place, there were still but few evangelical preachers in the established church. An animated extemporaneous clergyman preaching salvation by the grace of God, was, in most country places, a novel character; and was sure to be viewed and watched with a malignant eye, by his unregenerate and dissipated brethren, who not unfrequently employed their power, or their influence, to exclude them from their churches. Their appeals to their clerical regularity, and to the doctrinal articles of the church, were either not heard, or were answered with insulting charges of hypocrisy, and secret designs to subvert the foundations of the spiritual hierarchy. With the holy zeal which so eminently distinguished the character of our young Divine, it was not probable he should long escape the operations of this malignant spirit. Who were the chief actors in the scenes of opposition exhibited at Buckingham, is a question of no importance.That it was, however, of a very serious nature, is certain, as it required the interposition of his Diocesan, and terminated in his removal; and it is equally certain, that the close of it was such, as left him in full possession of a pure conscience and a fair reputation; for the bishop, after hearing all the particulars of the case, is known to have made this observation, so highly honourable to bothr:-"Mr. Simpson, if you are determined to do your duty as a clergyman ought to do, you must every where expect to meet with opposition." (To be continued.)

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REFLECTIONS SUGGESTED BY A VISIT TO THE CHURCH-YARD OF

L

THAT is an impressive and interesting question, "Your fathers, where are they?" All the former generations of the human race have endured the punishment denounced against man as a transgressor" Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." The mighty and the mean have all been swept away by the hand of time; and even those who were eminent for faith and obedience, and distinguished by tokens of the divine favour, have been carried to the house appointed for all living Thither, says the voice of experience and inspiration,

we must follow them. Happy the man, who, by faith, connects thoughts on his own death with meditations on the empty tomb of Jesus; who finds the knowledge of the salvation of Christ gradually removing the fears of dissolution, and who is preparing to give an account of his stewardship, that he may do it with joy and not with grief!

I was lately led to these, and similar reflections, while walking in the burial ground of the parish of L. All the sur rounding objects were calculated to impress the mind with the fleeting nature of earthly grandeur, the uncertainty of time, the certainty of death, and the near approach of that all-important day when every one of us must give an account of himself unto God. The ruins of the neighbouring palace, once the abode of royalty, in which the shout of revelry, the sound of music, and the noise of the dance, have been succeeded by the melancholy notes of jays and owls. The ve nerable pile where for several centuries our forefathers met for worship-the waving of the trees in the wind-the declining sun-and the stillness of the church-yard, shed a kind of pleasant melancholy over the soul, and disposed it for solemn meditation. I thought of the vast number of my fellow-creatures who lay on each side of me, sleeping in the narrow house. As the place of worship to which this burial ground is attached, is supposed to have been erected by David, king of Scotland, who died 1153, no doubt many hundreds of bodies are here deposited. What a grand and awful scene must this spot present when the last trumpet shall awaken the dead, and call them to judgment! We have every reason to believe that what is said of the resurrection in general, may be applied to those that are waiting for it here," Some shall awake to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." Since the joys and terrors of that dread day we shall all see, since we must either participate in the transporting felicity of the righteous, or in the horrible despair of the wicked; and since we shall all come forth from the grave in that state of acceptance, or of reprobation, in which we entered it, how necessary is it to lay to heart the things that concern our everlasting peace, ere they may be for ever hid from our eyes. But alas! many live as if they were never to die, and display a baneful ingenuity in warding off the thoughts of death, and its solemn consequences. Well said

one,

How must a spirit, late escap'd from earth,
The truth of things now blazing in his eye,
Look back astonish'd on the ways of men,
Whose lives' whole drift is to forget their end!

I observed the graves of some with whom I had been intimate. We had gone to the house of the Lord in company,

to worship our common Master, and give thanks for the salvation of his gospel. Two of them had been ordained deacons of our church at the time the writer was set apart to the pastoral office. They have now entered on their unchangeable state, and I am spared. O may my being so become a blessing, and not a curse, to myself and others. Both of them, I hope, were followers of the Lamb, and sleep in Jesus. Mr. B. had been an old disciple. He had maintained a consistent profession of religion for many years in London, and when near the close of his life, he came to reside here, he was highly esteemed by many for his knowledge and piety. He knew and said he was a sinner, but looked for the mercy of God through that work which Jesus finished on behalf of the guilty. This doctrine was his boast and his joy. Its sanctifying influence he displayed in his conduct through life, and its supporting efficacy he manifested in death. He was but a few days ill, and most of the time was in a kind of lethargic slumber; but when he did speak, his language proved the serenity of his soul. Shortly before he breathed his last I called upon him, and having asked how his mind was supported in the prospect of dissolution, he answered,

This word of thine my comfort is in mine affliction:
For in my straits I am reviv'd by this thy word alone.

He was ill

The other, J. H. was a man like minded. for some considerable time, and endured his affliction with much resignation to the will of his heavenly Father He often observed, that nothing could give him confidence in the view of an awful eternity, but that salvation, which, through Christ, is proclaimed to men as sinners, without distinction of character. A few hours before his death I visited him, and found him strong in faith, giving glory to God. When parting, he said with great earnestness and affection, "I expect not to see you more here, but I hope soon to behold a more glorious sight than ever I have seen below; I hope to see the King in his beauty, and contemplate his unveiled brightness." Having fervently expressed his wishes that God would bless his gospel amongst us, we separated, never more to meet in this world. Upon leaving such scenes as these, one naturally adopts the prayer of Balaam,-" Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." Very different sights, indeed, death-beds sometimes present. I have more than once left them with horror and pity. I received from a friend, Mr. W. of G, the following melancholy account:He was asked to visit a young man apparently dying, who owned he thought he had not long to live. My friend inquired what he thought of eternity? The ar wer he received was, "I will take my chance." Mr. W. solemnly told him, there was no chance in

the matter that God has given us his gospel, and therein de clared his Son's ability to save the chief of sinners-that he wha believeth this shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned. It is to be feared there are many who act upon the same principle with this young person They fear they are not right, that the word of God is true, but they will take their chance; and hence, because they will not believe the declarations of Christ, they die in their sins, and suffer the pangs of the second death! This last is worthy of the name of death; it is that of which the first death is only an emblem, a shadow;

Two kinds of life has double-naturid man,

And two of death; the last far more severe.
Life animal is nurtur'd by the sun,

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Thrives on his bounties, triumphs in his beams;
ife rátional subsists on higher food,
Triumphant in his beams who made the day.
When we leave that sun, and are left by this,
(The fate of all who die in stubborn guilt),
'Tis utter darkness-strictly double death.

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While I stood musing on the different characters of those whom death had made his prey, I remembered that not a few of them had heard statedly, or occasionally, in our place of worship. The voice of mercy and peace their ears no more bear; they have taken up their lasting habitation in the mantions of the blessed, or the dungeons of despair. It is a most affecting thought, what account have they carried of our meetings to the other world? Will any of them be to me a crown of rejoicing in the day of the Lord? an evidence that the merciful God has been pleased to countenance my weak efforts to spread his truth? Or will any lay their eternal ruin at my door, and blame my unfaithfulness, my sloth, as one cause of their perishing in unbelief? God grant that these considerations may impel me to be more diligent, more zealous, in the work of the Lord for the future, that souls may be saved, and Jesus glorified! Well might even a l'aul say, "Who is sufficient for these things ?" It is a mercy that the meanest labourer in the vineyard of Christ, can with him add, "Our sufficiency is of God."

In this place of interment, there are doubtless several who were cut down very suddenly. I thought of more than one who had been attending to their business one day, and the next were in eternity: time was when this was very common. There is a remembrancer of this in the neighbouring building. A coffin, with a slip bottom, that had been used when the plague raged in Scotland, for conveying many to their long home. Still, however, there are instances of sudden death, sufficiently numerous to warn us to be habitually ready, since, for ought we know, we are within a few moments of heaven or hell.

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I next went, after these meditations, to read the inscriptions upon the monuments of the dead. There were several that expressed the hope of immortality, through the sacrifice and intercession of the Redeemer. Upon reading these my feelings were very different from what they had been, when walking in a Catholic burying ground in Ireland. There the inscriptions that every where met my eye, were either Pray for the soul of such a one,' or on the tombs of a higher class, Requiescant in pace! May they rest in peace! Yet I saw evidences in the niches on the outside of the place of worship where the images once stood, that the superstition of the church of Rome once reigned predominant here also. That we are delivered from her iron yoke,-that the phantom of purgatory does not haunt our minds when we think of death, is a cause of gratitude to God our deliverer. May a purer faith produce more holy lives! On one stone I was much surprised to read the following epitaph upon a boy who died in his 13th year :

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Whose spotless soul to join its native light,
No crimes to weep, no sins to be forgiven,
Secur'd by virtue, took its early flight

To meet the smiles of unoffended heaven.

Such awful ignorance of the doctrines of the scriptures, Í hope, is not common in this country, where almost every family is in possession of a bible. I was happy to find, that every person to whom I mentioned this epitaph, heard it with disapprobation. It is probable, however, that the person who erected the stone may have thought more about the beauty of the poetry, than the correctness of the sentiment. At no great distance from this, another stone told a melancholy truth:

'Tis long since death had the majority;
Yet strange the living lay it not to heart!

It is indeed truly astonishing what little impression is made on us by the decease of others. A relation dies, the soul of an acquaintance departs from its clay tenement, we are serious for the moment; but the impression, like that made on the air by the wing of the bird, or the wave by the keel of the ship, is almost instantly effaced. Moses saw that this inconsideration had a bad effect on Israel; hence the following wish:"Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end !" The use we should make of the deaths of others was emphatically taught (though in jingling numbers) by another epitaph:

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