HOPE. BY THE REV. P. J. WRIGHT. Oн, what will cheer our toilsome way Amidst the dark and cloudy day, The hope that tells of endless life With Jesus and the blest, This, this will calm our anxious strife, Our health may fail, our friends may die, Our eyes may weep, our bosoms sigh, Old age may come with silver hairs, Yet hope shall gild our closing years And when we reach the chilling verge Our blooming hope will brave the surge, ON THE DEATH OF MY FRIEND. In tranquil hope at length may rest, To meet the friends I now bemoan Where doubts and fears will be unknown— The wonders of redeeming love. AN EXTEMPORE EFFUSION IN SICKNESS. BY DR. PERFECT. I FEEL thy ineffable love, My Father, my Saviour, and Friend! Enshrouds me in darkness and night There's a dear little gem in my breast, A particle truly divine, Pervades through the whole that's oppressed, 99 MEMOIRS AND RECENT DEATHS. MEMOIR OF MRS. JAMES GLEDHILL, LATE OF SHEFFIELD. THE late Mrs. Gledhill was regularly trained to attendance at Scotland-street Chapel, from early life, by her mother, who was a member of the Church for many years, and died in its communion. Having always loved to sing hymns of praise, she sat in the orchestra of Bowstreet Chapel, when young, for a considerable time. It does not appear, however, that she was the subject of any deep religious impressions until some six or seven years after her marriage. She was, indeed, strictly truthful, sincere, and virtuous at all times; and though her spirit of cheerfulness diffused sunshine around her, wherever she was, she never was giddy or thoughtless, or addicted to the levities of youth. After her marriage, she was, from her bridal-day until the last period of her life, the comfort, honour, and joy of her husband. They both lived for some years without serving the Lord, or being made partakers of his grace. During that time she had occasionally very serious thoughts about her salvation, and misgivings of heart that they both were living in disobedience to God, and that their souls were in jeopardy. One Lord's day, when she was in the house alone, she took up a tract which happened to meet her eye, entitled "Where am I? What am I? Where am I going?" That tract arrested her attention with great power, and awoke in her heart emotions of intense fear and distress. She saw that they were living without God in the world, and that they both were objects of his displeasure. Her spirit was greatly troubled as she pondered over their sinful and lost condition; and in the bitterness of her grief she wept much that afternoon, and earnestly cried unto the Lord to save them. In the evening, upon her husband's return home, he found her, to his great surprise, overwhelmed with dejection and grief. He tenderly inquired what occasioned her unhappiness; but she seemed for some time to be unable to open her heart to him, and not until he had repeatedly urged, and affectionately and fondly intreated her to reveal the reason of her distress, did she do so. She then frankly declared to him all that she had that day thought and felt about her own soul and his, and that they must begin from that day to walk in newness of life, or she was sure that they should be unhappy in this world, and undone for ever in the world to come. He felt that all she said was true, acquiesced in her pur poses of piety, and strove to comfort her with the promise to take sittings in Scotland-street Chapel on the very next day, a promise he kept. From that time they regularly attended our chapel; but for some time neither of them joined the Church. She never lost her religious impressions. They began to observe the forms of religious worship more fully than they ever had done, and a greater reverence for Christian institutions and ordinances was growing up in their hearts. They now began to pray together at home, but in doing so they used a prayer-book for a length of time; and she became accustomed to the habit of praying in private, with much earnestness. She thus prayed in her own language, as the emotions of a full and deeply. affected heart constrained her; and she began to feel that praying from a book in their social worship, though necessary and wise at the first, as a valuable help to the inexperienced, was now too formal and cold, and was altogether unsuitable to a spirit which sought the Lord with earnestness, and which desired to pour forth before him all its own peculiar emotions and desires, in language with which such a spirit alone is able to clothe and express them. On one Sunday night, when as yet neither of them had become united with the Church, her husband was deeply impressed by the word of the Lord, under the ministry of the Rev James Henshaw. He remained at the prayer-meeting; and as all those who were anxiously seeking the Lord were desired to continue kneeling, whilst others sang, he did so; and he cried unto God in faith and prayer until the Lord filled his soul with peace and joy through believing. He returned home an altered and truly happy man. That night he prayed for the first time in his family without a book, greatly to Mrs. Gledhill's surprise and joy. Whilst he was led out in prayer and praise, by the spirit of God, she was greatly affected, responded fervently to every petition, and wept the tears of a contrite heart, whilst he was weeping from very joy in the pardoning love of God. After their praying and weeping together, upon rising from their knees she threw herself into his arms, and with tears and exclamatious of praise rejoiced at witnessing the grace of God, in his having turned to the Lord with purpose of heart, and experienced the assurance of faith through the Holy Ghost. From this time Mr. Gledhill joined the Church as a member on trial; but being distrustful of his own stedfastness, he met in class unknown to her, for a few weeks. It was then announced to her that her husband was attending a class, and she was invited to meet also. At once she assented with gladness of heart, and never afterwards ceased to attend those blessed means of grace, until the dire disease of which she died detained her at home. In her no paroxysm of mental distress was succeeded by a sudden manifestation of the mercy of God, and a consequent extasy of joy; but she experienced a growing confidence in the Lord, and a proportionate increase of peace and happiness in his service, and in the hope of his favour. As she and her partner now walked in the ways of the Lord, she enjoyed great satisfaction of mind, and the entire approval of her conscience; for she had hope in the Lord, and her manner of life, and self-consecration to the Lord, were in harmony with her convictions of duty, and with that love to God, and delight in him, which she was learning more and more to cherish. But her hope was not free from the fears of a diffident and somewhat doubtful heart. Like many thousands of others in the Church of God, she did not clearly understand the simplicity of faith, until one Lord's day, when a sermon was preached in Scotland-street Chapel, on faith in the propitiation of Christ, by Mr. A. M'Comb. Whilst listening to that discourse, she saw the truth as it is in Jesus as she had not seen it before, and at that hour she trusted in the Lord with a contrite, confiding, and adoring heart; so that she rejoiced, with joy unspeakable and full of glory, in the pardoning love of God. Before our departed sister and her husband began to seek the Lord, they had lived only for each other, and imagined that they could not be happier than they were; but when they both lived to God they enjoyed a happiness in each other and in him of which they had previously formed no conception. To the happiness which was human and earthly was now added that which was divine and heavenly. Religion lightened every grief, and enhanced every pleasure of their lives; and from time to time they were blessed, not only with the bounties of Providence, but with the comforts of the Holy Spirit and the assurance of eternal life. The cause of God had now become her cause. She abounded in labours of love. Nothing that was good had to complain that her aid was with held. She had a decided preference for the society of the pious, and manifested a strong attachment to the ministers and their families; she welcomed them to her house, toiled and contrived, as a Circuit steward's wife, to make them happy; and formed friendships with them which were founded on mutual esteem, cemented with love, and will be immortalized in heaven. In every Christian enterprise she loved to lend a helping hand; and was one of the most active spirits in every good and noble deed that was done in the Church, in which females could take a part. But though she was deeply pious, and was zealous for the Lord, she was too timid and diffident to pray in the presence of others, even in her own house. She delighted in prayer, however, in reading books of a purely devotional character, and in praising God; indeed, she would sing praises for hours together. She was affectionate in disposition, peculiarly even in temper, and always so cheerful that she diffused a spirit of comfort and love around her continually. She was ever the same devout and happy Christian, without deviation or change; so that in all things she adorned the doctrine of God her Saviour. In the month of January, A.D. 1851, the first symptoms of that dreadful disease cancer in the breast-appeared, of which she afterwards died; but in so incipient a form as to excite no suspicion of the fearful havoc which it afterwards made in her frame. In the following month a medical examination resulted in the startling revelation that this malignant malady had deeply entrenched itself in her bosom, and in the immediate adoption of the most powerful known remedies. Upon her return home in the month of April, after an absence of several weeks, she was advised to have the diseased organ entirely removed by the surgeon's knife, though no pain whatever had then been felt, nor a single cancerous fibre had made its appearance upon the surface; and, upon being thus advised, she at once fixed the time, and within forty-eight hours the painful operation was accomplished. Her mind was graciously and fully prepared for the trying hour before it came. On the previous night she was unusually happy in the Lord; and though she knew full well that on the following morning the sharp knife would enter into her shrinking flesh, her spirit was enabled completely to vanquish all terror and fear. She was excited, but confident in God, and perfectly submissive to his will. Throwing her arms around her husband's neck, she wept, but they were tears of joy, and were accompanied with the utterances of a grateful heart that the Lord had enabled her so entirely to bring her mind to the event, and had subdued every emotion of reluctance and alarm. She declared that in pros pect of the approaching hour she had no fear; that she acquiesced entirely in the Lord's will; that she felt sure that the Lord would sustain her, and had confidence in him that all was right, and that all would be well whatever might be the result; that should she even die during the operation, or after it had taken place, she knew that her salvation was sure through the blood of Christ; and she went on pouring forth to him such a torrent of words expressive of Christian resignation, and trust in God her Saviour, of her experience of his love, and her sure hope of heaven, as he afterwards found it impossible fully to repeat, and as he still remembers, with a heart full of gratitude to God, who thus sustained her mind as the time drew near. Amongst other things in which she found utterance for her powerful emotions, she quoted the following beautiful lines :- My God! I am thine, what a comfort divine, What a blessing to know that my Jesus is mine; In the heavenly Lamb thrice happy I am, remove, To enjoy all the fulness of mercy and love. And when I'm to die, Receive me! I'll cry; For Jesus hath loved me I cannot tell why; But this I do find, we two are so joined, He'll not be in glory and leave me behind. This was not a scene in which she acted a part for the sake of dramatic effect; but she thus poured forth her whole soul to her beloved partner alone, and in the privacy of her own home. After this, such was her calmness of spirit and her self-control, that she slept soundly for eight hours; and in the morning, though fond nature shrank from the suffering which had to be borne, she was so strengthened by divine grace, and her spirit was strung up to such a pitch of fortitude and tranquil self-command, that she herself made every preparation for the event, even to laying sawdust on the floor to drink up her own blood. When the three medical men and others arrived, she betrayed no tremor or hesitation, but at once accompanied them into the chamber in which the painful trial had to be borne. The application of chloroform having failed to superinduce unconsciousness, she calmly desired that they would, notwithstanding, proceed with the operation; and she was enabled to bear it like a lamb, not seeking relief even in a solitary interjection, but only requested that if they had not taken sufficient away, the knife should go deeper still, which was done; so perfectly was she enabled in patience to possess her soul. But this fortitude was not her own; it was given to her from above. Whilst the tender sympathies of a host of loving hearts were gathered around her, many prayers were offered to God on her behalf; and whilst the operation was going on, Mr. Poxon and a number of friends were holding a meeting for special prayer on her behalf in the chapel vestry. And truly, as she often declared to me and to others, prayer was heard in heaven; and she very frequently expressed her gratitude to her interceding friends, and especially to her heavenly Father, whose Holy Spirit so marvellously sustained and comforted her during the fiery trial. In the course of a few weeks she recovered, and once more became strong, and promising for life. It was now fondly hoped that the deadly malady was effectually removed, and that no further symptoms of its presence would re-appear. In the meantime, the grace which had been given to fit her for her trial abode in her heart without ceasing. That strong and unwavering confidence in her covenant God, that holy love to him, and that spirit of prayer which had been vouchsafed to her, she was enabled still to retain. After having seemed to approach the gates of death, they now appeared to be fixed at so great a distance as to be but faintly visible, and prospects of life re-opened before her; but she continued to live for God alone, and to have much of the spirit of heaven. In about two months after the operation the insidious and inveterate malady re-appeared. At first, however, the symptoms, being unlike the former, were ascribed to another cause; but no sooner had a medical friend re-examined her person, than it was announced to her that no human skill could save her life. This sad intelligence, after what she had endured, came upon her unexpectedly, and for a short time she felt as a woman; but she was very soon enabled to regain her equanimity of spirit, and to acquiesce in the determinations of an inscrutable Providence. On the evening of that very day, sitting up later than usual with her husband, she said that she would bring her mind up to the event, and that having been enabled all through the past to say Thy will be done," she felt that once more, in the prospect of dreadful suffering and of death, she could from her heart say the same sub missive words. 66 Her mind now became more fully withdrawn from the world, and communed with Jesus and eternity. Her right arm and hand became enormously swollen, and soon a fearful orifice was formed, with the suppuration and other fearful concomitants of cancer. Day by day the deadly disease increased in severity, spreading more and more, until the suffering seemed almost too much for a human being to endure. It was indeed a slow martyrdom of agony; the all-conquering cancer working its way, and spreading its fell ravages deeper and wider, whilst its patient and gentle victim lay lifting up her heart continually to God in prayer, and waiting until her emancipated spirit should escape from a dilapidated and dissolving body, to a world in which no inhabitant shall ever be sick. While she herself was in health she had ministered to the sick and dying with much tenderness and care; and now she received every attention, and enjoyed every comfort, which skill and kindness, unremitting attention, and any amount |