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me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away." Then, how great her transport of joy, when she heard that charming voice of her beloved Master pronouncing her own name! And Mrs. Hugill is not unworthy a niche in the temple with these holy women of old. She was an ardent lover of the meek and lowly Jesus, an unwavering witness for Him, ever ready to do and to suffer for His sake. Many conflicts she had with the enemy of souls, and not a few trials from the world. There was very much to test her faith in Christ, and her attachment to His church. But, like the Marys of old, she clung to the Master with unflinching constancy. To enable her to overcome the ignorant and vulgar persecution which widely prevailed at that time in the Dales, her fellowship with the Father, and with the Son, Jesus Christ, was often of the most joyous kind. Let us select one proof, out of the many given in her diary, where she records the bliss of one of her holy days ::"This has been a blessed Sabbath to my soul. While I have waited upon the Lord, He has blessed me in an abundant manner, yea, more than I ever before experienced. The blessed promises were 'yea, and amen,' to my soul. I found such nearness, and such freedom, love, faith, and humility, that my very soul seemed lost in the ocean of Divine love. I was so happy, that I could only say, Glory, glory, to Him who hath washed me from my sins in His own blood, and hath made me an heir of God the Father, and a jointheir with Jesus Christ!"

This exemplary woman carried her religion into every situation of a long life. She took no step without prayerfully considering whether it would be for the glory of God, and for her own spiritual good. "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers," is an injunction of Scripture much less respected and obeyed in these times, than at the date of her marriage. How many, of both sexes, professing to be followers of Christ, plunge themselves into backsliding and misery by the neglect of this most reasonable and important caution! How much loss to the church of Christ has resulted from the want of prayerful deliberation before taking so momentous a step! Such was

* "2 Cor. vi. 14. Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers-Christians with Jews or heathens. [Mr. Benson well adds, "godly persons with the ungodly."] The apostle particularly speaks of marriage. But the reasons he urges equally hold against any needless intimacy with them. Of the five questions that follow, the three former contain the argument; the two latter, the conclusion.

"Verse 15. What concord hath Christ-Whom ye serve. With Belial-To whom they belong.

"Verse 16. What agreement hath the temple of God with idols-If God would not endure idols in any part of the land wherein He dwelt, how much less, under His own roof! He does not say, 'with the temple of idols,' for idols do not dwell in their worshippers. As God hath said To His ancient church, and in them to all the Israel of God. I will dwell in them, and walk in them—The former signifying His perpetual presence; the latter, His operation. And I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people-The sum of the whole Gospel covenant.

not the course pursued by our departed friend. This step, above all others, she seems to have felt, ought not to be taken without seeking Divine direction, and consulting the Divine oracles. Twice she was married, and on each occasion to a husband who feared God. On this point she remarks, in prospect of her first marriage: "I sometimes thought about altering my condition in life; but again thought it impossible to be so much devoted to God [in a married] as in a single state. But I sought the Lord, and implored His direction; that, if I took this step, it might be a furtherance to my own salvation, and tend more to His glory. After very serious consideration and much prayer, in the year 1803 I entered the married state with John Simpson, of Chester-le-Street, a man of unblamable character, and remarkable for his piety." The result of this union was just what might be legitimately expected. She says she had "reason to bless God that ever" she "knew him," and that "few could excel him in true devotedness to Christ." He was spared to her little more than two years, and he then "died a most triumphant death." Her subsequent marriage with Mr. Hugill was precisely of the same character; but death came again, and, after a few years, dissolved this happy union also.

Her exactiand practice "In all thy

Her faithfulness in the domestic circle, as to matters affecting the kingdom of Christ, was unwavering. The testimony of her only son (himself in the way to heaven) as to her excellencies, both as a wife and a mother, is of the highest and most pleasing kind. tude in taking the word of God as the rule of her faith secured to her that "wisdom which cometh from above." ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths," was her motto, in the midst of her family responsibilities. She "cried after knowledge, and lifted up her voice for understanding." She "sought after wisdom as silver, and searched for it as for hid treasures ;" and was "made to understand the fear of the Lord, and to find the knowledge of God." Her prudence, strong sense, and ready wit availed her in many a trying hour; and she found the Lord "a buckler to them that walk uprightly." In her the word was fulfilled, "Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee." The blending of

"Verse 17. Touch not the unclean person-Keep at the utmost distance from him. And I will receive you-Into my house and family.

"Verse 18. And ye shall be to me for sons and for daughters, saith the Lord Almighty-The promise made to Solomon, 1 Chron. xxviii. 6, is here applied to all believers; as the promise made particularly to Joshua is applied to them, Heb. xiii. 5. Who can express the worth, who can conceive the dignity, of this Divine adoption? Yet it belongs to all who believe the Gospel, who have faith in Christ. They have access to the Almighty; such free and welcome access as a beloved child to an indulgent father, To Him they may fly for aid in every difficulty, and from Him obtain a supply in all their wants."-Wesley's Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament.

simplicity and grandeur in the works of God is an alluring topic. We see it illustrated in the believer's life, and the mind reverts to the language of the elegant Cowper :

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"O, how unlike the complex works of man,
Heaven's easy, artless, unencumber'd plan!
No meretricious graces to beguile,

No clustering ornaments to clog the pile;
From ostentation as from weakness free,
It stands, like the cerulean arch we see,
Majestic in its own simplicity.
Inscribed above the portal, from afar
Conspicuous as the brightness of a star,
Legible only by the light they give,

Stand the soul-quickening words,-Believe and live!"

Such a Christian was well fitted for the onerous duties of a classleader, which she discharged for a number of years to the edification of the many who came under her care. She had met for some time before in private band with two or three kindred spirits, and by this and other means the Lord prepared her for her new position. In the year 1825 there was a considerable revival of religion in Westerdale, when she was appointed to take the oversight of the young converts in the above capacity; and she continued to do so until she removed to Stokesley in the year 1841. She had a large class; and, judging from her extensive knowledge of holy writ, her power in prayer, and her fondness for prayer-meetings, we may be sure she was among the most valuable office-bearers of that new Society.

Her house had ever been the home of the preachers; and, when she removed to Stokesley, she continued to welcome these ambassadors of Christ. Her grandfather and grandmother had done the same. Her father, when a boy, had been taken by the hand, and led to the house of God, by the Founder of Methodism,--an incident he was not likely to forget. He caught the Methodistic fire, became full of faith and the Holy Ghost, and often, under this inspiration, travelled ten or twelve miles in an evening to hear Mr. Wesley or Mr. Whitefield preach those truths which had made him free. "Given to hospitality," Mrs. Hugill herself was not only obeying the counsel of St. Paul, but also following the example of her parents, and delighting to do so. And she must have been no mean companion for these men of God, being well up in Methodist lore, well read in the Scriptures, gifted with a tena cious memory, and from her well-stored mind ready with aptitude to bring things edifying and instructive. Her rather voluminous manu scripts show how many sermons she took home in her remembrance, an jotted down in no meager outline. She was a warm admirer of th poetry of the Wesleys; and, having something of the same inspir tion, she has left many stanzas of original verse which possess co siderable merit.

Retiring from active life, she spent her last few years in the hou

of her son, Mr. J. Simpson, near Stokesley. In this quiet retreat she was very happy; inasmuch as she feasted on the good word of God, and felt the powers of the world to come. Her conversation was generally on religious topics, and often enriched by passages quoted from Scripture, or from sacred song. Sometimes, after joining a ministerguest and the family in prayer, she rose from her knees filled with heavenly ecstasy, giving proof of a true fellowship with God. During a severe and protracted affliction she was visited by the Rev. Henry Richardson, who speaks of her great calmness and joy. "With uplifted hands and beaming eyes," he tells us, "in answer to a question put to her, she exclaimed, 'It is all mercy! His goodness to me is very great. It is a mercy I am with my son and daughter. But the best of all is, my Great Friend is with me; and He will never leave me; no, never!'"

Her last illness was short. On the Thursday prior to her death she was seized with paralysis, which rendered her speechless. Being asked by her son to signify if she felt happy in Christ, by holding up her hand, she immediately did so, and waved it to indicate how great was her happiness. She calmly fell asleep in Jesus, on Sunday morning, February 16th, 1862, in the eighty-sixth year of her age, having been in membership with the Wesleyan Methodists sixty-eight years.

THE LORD'S SUPPER,

CHRIST'S VOtive feast, AND THE EXPOSITION AND
INVIGORATION OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE:

SUBSTANCE

OF A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE MANCHESTER AND BOLTON DISTRICT-COMMITTEE, IN OLDHAM-STREET CHAPEL, MANCHESTER, TUESDAY EVENING, MAY 10TH, 1864;

AND PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THAT MEETING.

BY THE REV. BENJAMIN GREGORY.

"I will pay my vows before them that fear Him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek Him: your heart shall live for ever.” (Psalm xxii. 25, 26.)

In this psalm the incidents of our Saviour's dying day are so distinctly and vividly foreshown, that even the great doubter, Strauss, has termed it a Programme of the Crucifixion of Christ.* It opens with that awful cry whereby the Redeemer confessed that the visible desertion by God, with which the frantic crowd were taunting Him, was in accordance with the deepest consciousness of His soul: "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me ?" We see the Christ

• This, of course, was meant for a taunt: it is, none the less, a testimony.

abandoned by the Father to the ferocious mockery of men; we hear the laugh of bitter and vindictive scorn; we see the shot-out lip, dumbly telling a contempt too malicious for expression, and the wagging head, as in despair of words to speak its execration and abhorrence::-- "All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver him: let Him deliver him, seeing He delighted in him." We hear the sounds in which His own inward sense of abandonment was echoed by the yells of enraged thousands. We see then the strained sinew, and the starting joint of anguish; all the energies of body, mind, and spirit, utterly dissolved by bleeding exhaustion and agonizing torture:- I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels." The sweat, the scourge, the cross, have done their work; and all the powers of endurance are overborne, crushed out, gone. And then we hear the cry which tells the death-thirst of the crucified : "My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and Thou hast brought me into the dust of death." And now the cross rises clearly to our view, the Saviour's form suspended there by nails: "They pierced my hands and my feet." And now we see the eye of the dying Christ, which shrinks from the gloating gaze of the multitude, and fears to lift itself toward the blackened heaven, falling upon His naked body, every bone of which, displaced and thrust outward by intensest torture, seems to return His faint look with ghastly and haggard distinctness: "I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me." And then we see the rude soldiery, His executioners, already wrangling beneath His cross for the raiment of which they had stripped their Victim, the perquisite of their hateful office, the melancholy legacy of the condemned: "They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture." And then we are admitted to a glimpse of that still more mysterious and awful struggle with the powers of darkness, during those hours in which the midday night hid His atoning agonies from the eyes of men, when, in all the black desertion of His death-agony, He sustained the dread decisive charge of the principalities and powers of hell. We hear Him cry," Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling" (my precious soul) "from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth: for Thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns."

And now the scene is changed. "It is finished!" The risen Christ stands there before us, as when He gave His message to the Magdalene: "Go, tell my brethren that I ascend to my Father and your Father." So in verse 22: "I will declare Thy name unto my brethren." And next we see Him gathering around Him the whole company of the disciples, to solemnize with Him a votive feast; a devout and grateful celebration of the grand issue of His undertaking to vindicate the holiness of God, and, in so doing, to save mankind.

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