I might religion, and do so little good in the world or the church. and ought to do better; and, God being my helper, I will.-I am thankful for life, health, and an appointment to Barnsley; for some acceptance I have met with; for some signs of improvement; and for the love of our friends we lately left behind. It was great-far beyond anything deserved. Lord, help me to praise Thee! "Resolutions.-1. To pray more in my closet; in the morning, at noon, at night. O for the power to pray! "2. To study more, read more, write more, compose more, think more; and to seek constant help from God in my studies. 3. To pay more attention to family-religion. I will pray more for my wife, children, servants, relatives. "4. To keep up days of abstinence and special prayer :—say, on Fridays. 66 5. To be attentive to my conversation, especially among our friends, and try to do them good. "6. To aim at God's glory in all I do, say, or think. "Read this over the first Friday in every month, and see if I have kept to my own resolutions." The pleasure he anticipated in the Barnsley Circuit was not fully realized. There can be no doubt that physical weakness often tended to cloud his prospects and depress his mind. But no considerations (and his trials from some quarters were not a few) could induce him to swerve from the conscientious discharge of duty. He laboured to obey all his Master's will. In the early part of 1854 he was thrown from a gig, and, falling on his head, was rendered for awhile insensible. In July following a small blood-vessel in the head was ruptured, and it was feared he would not be able to fulfil his ministerial work. The opinion of his medical adviser was, however, favourable; and, on leaving Barnsley, he was appointed to the superintendency of the Wigan Circuit. During a short season of relaxation he visited his friends at Madeley; and his last public service was rendered in a small chapel belonging to that Circuit, where he gave a short address after the Preacher had finished his sermon, founding his remarks on the text of the evening,-"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." On his arrival at Wigan he was totally unfit for public duty; but he confidently cherished the hope that two or three weeks would avail for his recruiting. The kindness and attention of the Circuit-Stewards, which could scarcely be exceeded, very greatly affected him; and he often spoke of it, with deep feeling, as altogether undeserved. He was to them, personally, a stranger; but they received him, and treated him with considerate generosity, as a Minister of Christ. The only duty he performed in Wigan was to visit a few of the members, and attend to some of the business-matters of the Circuit. About the middle of September another blood-vessel was ruptured, on the lungs; and from that period he gradually sank. For some time he wished his friends to pray for his recovery, if it were in accordance with the will of the all-wise God. To the prayers offered in his room he responded with remarkable fervour; and he was always desirous that the benediction should be pronounced. "The words of blessing," he said, "fall so gratefully on my ear." About the middle of October he felt assured that his sickness was unto death; and with calm confidence he now looked to the future. His soul was kept in perfect peace; yet he sometimes felt anxious because he had not ecstatic joy. He said, "I have a settled and satisfactory evidence that I am a child of God. My conscience is perfectly and sweetly assured of its part in the Redeemer's blood; and I am quite at rest as to the issue of this affliction. But I want a ravishing view of Christ-a joyous sense of my acceptance—a transporting manifestation of God's glory." The evening of Saturday, October 28th, was a time of remarkable power; and with grateful pleasure he cherished it in his memory. Mrs. Smart, and Mr. H. Oldfield, (whom the President had sent to supply his place,) were with him. He quoted with peculiar emphasis the lines which he had often recited,— "O, let me catch a smile from Thee, and then said, "Mr. Oldfield, pray for me-my dear, pray for methat I may now catch a smile from God, that I may now be ravished with His love." Both engaged in prayer, and were sweetly drawn out to plead the Divine promises. The sufferer earnestly responded to the petitions; and at length his gracious Lord visited him in mighty power and strong consolation. Every doubt fled, every fear vanished; he seemed "plunged in the Godhead's deepest sea," and was unable to give any utterance but " Glory! Glory be to God! Christ is precious: He does indeed draw near. Glory be to God!” During his affliction he generally suffered excruciating pain, but endured it with quiet resignation. In one of his intervals of ease, speaking to Mr. Oldfield of his short course of labour, he intimated that some of his friends had expressed their regret that he had entered the ministry, being of opinion that, had he given himself to business, his years might probably have been lengthened. "But," he added, "my call to the ministry was as clear as if it had been written with a sunbeam; as evident as the witness of God's Spirit to my adoption. And often on a Sabbath evening, when the labours of the day were over, in returning through the lanes and streets, with jaded body, my heart has been full of joy, and I have shouted, 'Tis worth living for this, to administer bliss, And salvation in Jesus's name!' -O no! I would not, for worlds, have been anything but what I am." This was, surely, the same spirit that animated St. Paul, when he said, "None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God." And no lower inspiration will enable a man to endure the toil of a ministerial life, and rightly to fulfil its absorbing duties. In a severe paroxysm Mr. Smart exclaimed, "Anything short of hell is mercy. Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?"" During the last week of his life he was favoured with calm and holy triumph, and never once shrunk from the thought of dying. So completely had Christ given him the victory over death, that he conversed freely with Mr. Meek about his funeral, and other matters that would require attention after his decease. As he looked at his emaciated limbs, he said, "I shall be but a poor feast for worms. This flesh shall moulder into dust; and yet it shall be raised again incorruptible. It is a mystery: I cannot understand it, but I do not doubt it. These eyes shall behold the Saviour. I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me."" The day but one before he died, with holy joy and triumphant faith he exclaimed, "Christ is mine! Heaven is mine-heavenheaven!" During the following night he repeated the former part of a noble stanza : "He by Himself hath sworn, I on His oath depend; I shall, on eagles' wings up-borne, A friend, standing by, took up the remainder : "I shall behold His face, I shall His power adore, And sing the wonders of His grace For evermore. Mr. Smart turned immediately to his wife, and referred to the effect produced on his mind, nearly two years before, by the appropriate quotation of that verse by a lady in a lovefeast, at Barnsley. "Do not leave me," he continued. "Help me to praise God for His mercy and love. Help me! Help me!" Mr. Oldfield, in prayer, used the expression, "the dark valley;" when he cried out, "It is not dark; for Christ is there." Shortly after, Mr. Oldfield whispered, "Surely, I come quickly;" and he immediately responded, "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." He commended his weeping wife and beloved children to the guardian care of Israel's God, and to the regard and sympathy of God's people. In the confidence of faith he said, "The Lord will provide." On the night before his death, replying to one of the Circuit-Stewards, who had expressed his concern to see him suffer so much, he said, emphatically, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." The last words he was heard to utter were addressed to his eldest daughter: "Lizzie, begin to love God. Do not delay; you have already delayed too long." He then became unconscious of what was passing around, and in a few moments quietly slept in Jesus, at noon of Sunday, November 12th, 1854. The following communication, received from his colleague at Wigan, may appropriately close this brief and scanty record of a good man : "My acquaintance with the late Mr. Smart was very slight, until we met in the Wigan Circuit. I was then greatly struck by his altered appearance, and could not help thinking that his work in the vineyard of the Lord was done. In my numerous interviews with him afterwards, however, when free from pain he was so cheerful, and evinced so much vigour and readiness of mind, that I was sometimes led to hope he might recover, and be longer spared to his family, the church, and the world. But the infinitely-wise Disposer of all events saw fit to disappoint all such hopes. Mr. Smart was never able to preach, or take part in any public service, in the Circuit. I had many free and lengthened conversations with him; and my deep and settled conviction is, that he was not only truly, but eminently, pious. I have seldom, if ever, witnessed a more striking and beautiful exemplification of Christian graces than appeared in him, during the ten weeks of severe suffering he was called to undergo. Serious as his illness had been, he scarcely seemed at all aware of his danger until about a month before his decease. When he was constrained to yield to the conviction that he must soon die, our conversation naturally turned on [the prospects of] his bereaved widow and six orphan children. To leave them so slenderly provided for, seemed to cause his greatest struggle, and to form his sorest trial. It was my welcome duty to remind him of the exceeding great and precious promises of God, which were applicable to their case; and of some striking instances, which had come under my own notice, of the way in which these promises had been verified. I remember observing to him, that children thus left become the more thoughtful and energetic in their character, feeling that so much depends on their own exertions; and that Divine Providence often opens a way for their success in life, very remarkable, and beyond the expectations of their friends. He seemed to be greatly comforted and cheered. With a strict reference to this subject, he said, again and again, 'O no! the promises cannot fail.' And then, the many tokens of kindness, affection, and sympathy which were shown toward himself and family by the friends in the Circuit, tended greatly to strengthen his faith, often gladdened his heart, and made his eyes overflow with grateful tears. About three weeks before his decease, I had a conversation with him, to my own mind as interesting and profitable as any I ever held with a dying man. He was perfectly calm and collected, having given all up into the hands of his heavenly Father. There are two things,' said he, for which I wish you and my friends to intercede in my behalf. The first is, that, as I have peace, clear and settled peace, I may be favoured with a more joyous sense of the Divine presence; and the second is, that I may have an easy exit. I do not fear death,' he continued; but I have apprehensions ་ as to the pain of dying.' In the latter particular, it did not please God to afford him that indulgence which is sometimes granted. Life was strong in him; and his conflicts with the final foe were very sharp. In the former, he was eminently favoured. If he knew much of the pain, he knew much likewise of the bliss, of dying. Expressions of joy and rapture fell from his lips, which greatly edified and comforted those who attended him in his closing moments, and which will be treasured up in the memories of those who have most reason to bewail his loss. To short-sighted mortals it would appear that he was taken from his large family and ministerial work much too soon. But what we know not now, we shall know hereafter. To himself the change has unquestionably been a happy one. Our loss is his endless gain." ST. PAUL IN REPLY TO A JEWISH OBJECTOR. ROMANS IX. THE point in dispute is this: "Is it possible that the Jews, as a people, have been rejected by Jehovah from being His people?" Against this position, the affirmative of which the Apostle maintains, the Jew advances a series of objections, to which the Apostle replies. I. The first objection, implied, not formally stated, is, that Paul must be regarded as an apostate from the religion of his fathers, who had become animated by a spirit of vindictive resentment against his countrymen, and who sought and delighted in their humiliation. Had Paul been influenced by merely selfish motives, or by any motives less noble than those which are inculcated by the religion of Jesus, this state of mind would have been the natural result of the fierce and relentless persecution to which he was subjected by the Jews. But he was no longer carnal-walked no more according to the course of this world." Trained as he had been to cherish feelings of ardent attachment to his nation, and of deepest reverence for their Divine religion, those sentiments had not been displaced, but vastly intensified, by his conversion to Christianity. It was, therefore, deeply distressing to him, not for his own sake, but for their sakes, that his "kinsmen according to the flesh" should thus, through prejudice or perversity, traduce his motives, and arm themselves against the force of truth. He protests, in the most solemn manner, his deep, distressing, and continual sorrow for his unbelieving and reprobated brethren. Deeply would he have mourned the sad prospect of the eternal ruin of any man, of whatever nation; but the prospect of the eternal ruin of a Jew, one who was his kinsman, pierced his heart with a sorrow more intense. He would have mourned that ruin from whatever cause it might have sprung, and whether or not he had himself, in times now past, been exposed to a like ruin from a similar cause; but the fact that he had himself been formerly involved in the very same condemnation, and had been exposed to the same ruin, gave to his grief the keen sensibility of an |