be that believeth on him shall not be confounded. This foundation is supported on every side by the united testimony of prophets and apostles. Against the house built upon this foundation the gates of hell shall not prevail. The rains may descend, and the floods come, and winds blow, and beat upon it with endless tempest, but the inhabitants of this rock shall still sing, they shall shout from the tops of the mountains. Be encouraged, therefore, ye followers of Jesus; "it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom," and if you ever come short of it, it will be because you did not give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Exercise then the most unlimited faith in God; for the Rock on which you stand is the rock of ages; it is like mount Zion, which cannot be moved; or, more properly, supports mount Zion, and the universe besides.

2. Let each closely examine his own heart, and his own abilities: the former, to ascertain if he belong to the church of God, if he be a living member of Christ's mystical body; and the latter, to find his proper place in the church of Christ lest he be found to occupy a place too high or too low for the abilities which he possesses; but that he may take his own proper place in the house of God, and fill it with humility, dignity, and usefulness. And thus will the habitation of God be brought to perfection, being fitly framed together. And after having filled up the measure of our days on earth, and finished the work assigned us in the church militant, we shall be taken from God's house below, and fixed as pillars in that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; from which we shall go no more out for ever. Oh that we may live as pilgrims and strangers on earth, knowing that here we have no continuing city, but seek one to come. Which God of his infinite mercy grant, for Jesus' sake.

Amen.

BIOGRAPHY.

From the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine.

MEMOIR OF THE REV. JOHN NELSON.

By the Rev. James Jones.

THE late Mr. Nelson was born at Brownhill, near Birstal, in the county of York, on the 16th day of August, in the year 1758. He was a grandson of the celebrated John Nelson, a man of an heroic spirit, of a truly apostolic zeal, and the author of an interesting Journal of religious experience and of ministerial labour: a work which has long been read with great edification by the Methodists in this kingdom, and in other parts of the world; and which, in all probability, will remain a monument of primitive Methodism as long as the sun and moon endure.

The late Mr. Nelson's mother was a woman of great personal piety; but she died when her son was very young, and left him

to the care of his excellent grandmother, who brought him up in "the nurture and admonition of the Lord." In his subsequent life, Mr. Nelson was often heard to attribute it to the prayers, the pious example, and the early instructions of his grandmother and other relatives, that "from a child he knew the Scriptures," and had a measure of the fear of God before his eyes. As he grew in years and in stature, notwithstanding these early advantages, he soon perceived that his heart was accessible to evil solicitations; for he was often strongly tempted to follow the vanities of the present world but his religious education laid him under powerful restraints, and made the "way of transgression" to be exceedingly "hard." In a manuscript journal which he has left, he says, “I frequently thought, that, had the miseries of the damned been only for a limited period, I would continue in sin, though its pleasures should be never so short; but the thought of eternal damnation I could not endure." He was often visited with keen convictions of sin; and, under the terrors of a guilty conscience, he was frequently constrained to bend his knees to God in prayer. When he was about the age of sixteen years, he received the painful tidings of his grandfather's death; of which event he seems to have had a powerful presentiment, and which, for a time, wrought so effectually upon him, that he renounced his sinful companions and practices, and prayed to God both night and day. After a while, however, he relapsed into his former habits, and again lived "without God in the world."

At the age of nineteen he was one evening attracted to the Methodist chapel, by seeing an unusual concourse of people going thither. The preacher was the late Rev. Joseph Benson; and the word delivered by him on that occasion produced a deep and lasting effect on Mr. Nelson's heart. Here says his journal, "No sooner did I fix my eyes on Mr. Benson than I was grievously tempted but while he was showing what is implied in doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God,' the word was as a hammer to my rocky heart. I had such a discovery of my deplorable state, as caused me to water my pillow with tears, and mingle my drink with weeping. None but those who have experienced the like can understand what distress of mind I passed through for many days, until Christ was revealed in me the hope of glory." Immediately he joined himself to the Methodist soci-. ety; but, for nearly two months, his mind was sorely exercised; for he laboured under the most appalling convictions of guilt, and the most distressing temptations of the devil. At length, however, the Lord opened to his mind the wonderful system of reconciliation by Christ Jesus, removed the heavy load of guilt from his burdened spirit, and inspired him with a saving confidence in the atoning blood. "And now," says he, in his journal, "my joy was as great as the agony of soul which I had suffered; so that I might say, 'Whether

in the body, or out of the body, I know not."" From that time, Mr. Nelson never looked back again to the world; he made an entire dedication of himself to God, employed all his energies in the service of the Redeemer, and was laborious through life, and faithful unto death.

In the course of a few years after he joined the Methodist society, he was chosen to the office of class leader; an office for which he was eminently qualified: but he tells us in his journal, that his mind was deeply impressed with the importance and responsibility of that office, and that he frequently shed abundance of tears in reference to it. The exercise of pastoral solicitude over his class quickly enlarged the bounds of his active charity to the souls of his fellow creatures; for he became so deeply affected with the awful condition of his unconverted neighbours, that he resolved to visit them from house to house, and pray with them, and instruct them in regard to the way of salvation: a practice for which he was eminently distinguished in the subsequent part of his life, and in which he was rendered the instrument of conversion and salvation to many.

These laudable exercises, as will be easily anticipated, gave publicity to the talents with which he had been intrusted, and prepared him for the important office of a preacher of the gospel. On this subject he had many reasonings and struggles, between a conviction of duty and a sense of his own incompetency; between his great love for the souls of mankind, and his fear to enter upon so important an undertaking: but at length his love to mankind, and his convictions of duty, gained a complete ascendency; and he resolved to publish the gospel of Christ to the fallen world. On that occasion, he solemnly covenanted with God in the following words;- "Oh Lord God, whose I am, and whom I serve, believing that thou hast a right to dispose of thy creatures as seemeth thee good, and being confident that thou hast called me to preach thine everlasting gospel, I here give myself to thee, my body, soul, time, and talents; and knowing that in me thou hast chosen one of the weakest of instruments, I beseech thee to help me; that, according to the light and ability received from thee, I may declare thy whole counsel, and that neither the fear of enemies, nor the favour of friends, may move me."

He entered upon the itinerant ministry, among the Methodists, in the year 1789; and after labouring therein, with extraordinary zeal and success, for the space of thirty-six years, at the conference of 1825, he was, by a painful and distressing affliction, rendered incompetent to continue his public labours, and obliged, though with great reluctance, to relinquish the holy employment of preaching the gospel. From that time he gradually declined in health and vigour, until he had nearly completed his 68th year; when he exchanged the pains of mortality for the happiness of eternal life.

In his last illness, which, for some weeks before his decease, was exceedingly painful and distressing, he was remarkably supported by the grace of God; in him the Christian graces of faith and patience shone forth with a splendour pre-eminent; and although he could seldom boast of any rapturous exultation, yet his confidence in God remained perfectly unshaken, and his soul was preserved in the possession of holy tranquillity. During his long affliction, he seems to have been chiefly employed in the retrospection of his own life, in a scrupulous examination of his motives and actions, and in a rigid investigation of his own heart. This was commonly the subject of his conversation when visited by his religious friends. To them he would often express his gratitude to God, on a review of his life and labour; but he generally concluded his remarks with a devout expression of this sentiment: "I see I have nothing to trust to but the blood of Christ." Mr. Nelson was a man of sound Christian experience, and a bold and fearless professor of the religion which he enjoyed. His piety was deep, ardent, and active; he lived for many years in the possession of the perfect love of God, and he died in the possession of that grace which purifies the heart from all unrighteousness.

As a

Mr. Nelson's mind had not been much cultivated by education, but his mental faculties were naturally of a superior order. preacher, he was a son of thunder. A divine power usually attended his ministry. On some occasions it was accompanied by extraordinary effusions of the Holy Spirit, and crowned with amazing success. Many a stout-hearted sinner has trembled under his powerful appeals to the guilty conscience, and many a penitent believer has found the consolations of pardon under his encouraging and impassioned exhortations. Few ministers have equalled Mr. Nelson in usefulness. Many hundreds of converts have been the fruits of his ministry; several of whom went before him to glory, and many are following after him to the inheritance above. He now rests from his abundant labours; he has taken his seat among them who have "turned many to righteousness, and who shine as the stars for ever and ever."

The following notice of his death appeared in the Sheffield newspapers on Saturday, July 29th, 1826:-" Died, on the morning of the 20th inst., in the sixty-eighth year of his age, the Rev. John Nelson, who had been a zealous, laborious, and useful minister among the Wesleyan Methodists for thirty-six years. He was a native of Birstal, in this county, and grandson of the famous John Nelson, one of the earliest Methodist preachers, and of whom Mr. Southey has said, that he had as brave a heart as ever Englishman possessed.' Mr. Nelson, like his worthy ancestor, was eminently distinguished by ministerial zeal, and by the reformation of the immoral and the profligate in every place where he exercised his ministry. At the conference of 1825, being enfeebled

by age, and worn down by excessive labour, he was entered on the superannuated list; when he came to spend the remainder of his days in Sheffield, where he had formerly exercised his ministry, and where he was much respected by a large circle of religious friends. Under his last illness, which was of long continuance, and exceedingly painful, he evinced an unbending fortitude of spirit, and closed his useful life in peace and Christian triumph. His body was followed to the grave, on Saturday last, by the Wesleyan ministers of this town, accompanied by the leaders and the members of that society, and by a large concourse of people who esteemed his virtues and who revere his memory."

MISCELLANEOUS.

PARENTAL ADMONITIONS.