And usually the witness of the Holy Spirit and the witness of our own spirit, will agree in point of clearness. If the witness of the Spirit to our sonship be very clear and luminous, so will the witness of our own spirit generally be. If the evidence of God's love to us be unusually bright, our love to him, our joy and peace, and other fruits of the Spirit, will commonly abound. If, on the contrary, the witness be somewhat obscure or cloudy, the graces of the Spirit in us will be proportionately weak and feeble.

In this union of the two witnesses is secured our safety and our comfort. Our safety; we cannot be deluded with a false impression, if we have the evidences of regeneration in ourselves; and our comfort; for the Spirit's witness, confirmed by the witness of our own spirit, afford the most rational and satisfactory evidence of our adoption into the family of God.

Have we then this witness of the Spirit? Do we enjoy it in our own souls? And is it corroborated by the witness of our own spirit? If so, what thanks should we render to God for his abundant mercy towards us! What fervent gratitude should burn within us for such condescending goodness and boundless mercy! Formerly slaves of sin and Satan, rebels against God, and heirs of hell, we have found forgiveness, liberty from bondage, adoption into the family of God, and are become heirs of the heavenly inheritance! And can we be unmindful of the abundant mercy and grace manifested towards us? Can we be ungrateful for such distinguished favours? Rather let us daily contemplate the wondrous goodness and mercy of God towards us, and from a grateful sense of our obligations consecrate ourselves unreservedly to the service and glory of our gracious God and Saviour.

And let us be careful so to walk that we may not forfeit this witness and the privileges and blessings connected with it. It is the witness of the Spirit to the fact of our sonship; it is not an assurance of eternal salvation. From our sonship naturally arises our heirship; for, as the apostle argues, "if children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." But if our sonship should be forfeited, so also would our heirship. So argues Bishop Sherlock, with his usual perspicuity and force: "This certainty does not extend to our future and final salvation. For to be in a state of grace is to be heir of salvation: but an heir may be defeated, if by any after act he incapacitates himself to inherit. In a word, a state of grace may be lost; he that is the child of God may cease to be the child of God: and therefore being certain that you are now in a state of grace cannot make you certain of final salvation; but you must still work out your salvation with fear and trembling. This we learn from the apostle's own arguing here: The Spirit of God beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. The consequence of this is, if children, then

heirs. But now are we heirs through hope,' he tells us in another place; and at the twenty-fourth verse of this chapter, We are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope.' Certainty shuts out hope: and, since being children makes us only heirs through hope, 'tis plain, being certain that we are now the children of God can give us no absolute certainty of our final salvation: and therefore 'tis great presumption to talk of security. Our certainty reaches to our present condition, which is enough to keep our minds easy and contented. Other certainty than this might make us remiss; this may encourage us to run with patience the race that is before us, and to labour in the Lord, knowing that our labour shall not be in vain." Be it our daily care, therefore, so to walk that we may not lose this blessed testimony to our sonship.

And if this witness to our connection with the family of God is to be enjoyed, how great the folly of neglecting to seek so as to obtain it! If it be desirable to secure a title to an earthly estate, how much more desirable to secure a conscious and satisfactory title to the heavenly inheritance? This is to be obtained in answer to prayer, and through faith in Christ. The witness of the Spirit is not given without prayer, nor before believing, but is consequent thereupon. Let not the penitent sinner wait for the witness in order to believe; but let him come at once to Christ with all his guilt and misery, and trust in him for present pardon; and he will receive it, and the witness of the Spirit as the result. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." "Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." J. P.

ART. III.-JOHN OXTOBY.

BY A PERSONAL FRIEND AND FELLOW-LABOURER.

"Whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever."-Heb. xiii. 7, 8.

MONGST the active and successful agents of Primitive Methodism in its early days, few took a more conspicuous part, or excited more public attention, than the honoured man whose name is at the head of this article. Upwards of forty years ago the writer was privileged with being a colleague in the ministry with him, in one of our north country stations, and moreover frequently lodging with him under the same friendly roof, and sitting at the same table. Such a connection and almost daily intercourse most assuredly afforded a fair opportunity of fully estimating his character and labours. In personal appearance he was (then at middle age) rather below middle stature, thickly set, and muscular, his countenance somewhat florid, face more orbicular than oval and of a cheerful aspect. In disposition he was affable,

kind, and as one might say, a most agreeable fireside companion, especially within the range of what he considered to be his peculiar province, as a minister of Christ. Of course, having been trained in early life to agricultural pursuits, and at a time when few facilities existed for the education of the working class, he lacked all educational acquisitions, except the simplest rudiments. Had he been favoured with the means of mental improvement in youth, such was the ingenuity, tact, and vivacity of his intellectual powers, that undoubtedly he would have made considerable proficiency. But whatever breadth or polish was wanting to his intellectual powers, his moral powers, after his conversion, were doubtless above the average standard.

His conversion from Satan to God, and from sin to holiness, had been a most decided and thorough one: it had taken a more than ordinary hold of his whole being, and had so deeply imbued his mental and moral powers with its sacred and hallowing influence, that in very deed, and to an unwonted degree, it had made him "a new creature in Christ Jesus." He had, in the fullest sense of the word, "laid hold on the hope set before him" in the gospel; and he therefore held fast his integrity with a grasp which baffled all hostility or cunning to loosen or weaken. In godly simplicity and sincerity he was as transparent as a child; and in ardent, unfeigned love to God was equalled by few. To be approved of his Lord and Master, and to glorify him in his body and spirit, was his greatest joy, and his one great ruling principle. And in such close spiritual communion did he live and walk with his God and Saviour, and so continually was he filled with the Holy Ghost, that in an eminent degree, his "life was hid with Christ in God." The secret of this close and sweet "fellowship with the Father and the Son," was his habitual faith in God through Christ, begotten and constantly sustained by fervent, believing, and unceasing prayer. The book of the Lord was also his chief and daily study, often upon his knees in secret, and he took care to make the most of the "great and precious promises" he found there, both for his own growth in grace, and to qualify him for the work of the ministry. In this department of his personal piety he was certainly a great exemplar: he read God's word as though he heard God's voice audibly addressing himself; and Abraham-like, "he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God." In this case, he equalled, if not excelled, the most eminent saints of his day, in thus doing honour to the veracity and immutability of his God. It will therefore be no surprise when we add, that by some professors of religion, not to mention worldly religionists, he was regarded as a simple enthusiast, if not a mad fanatic. The fact is, his faith in the Divine word carried him ofttimes so far ahead of his compeers, that even the most charitable

observers had occasionally to suspend their judgment in giving credit to his exalted piety, and to his extraordinary familiarity with the Divine Being. He "lived in the Spirit, and walked in the Spirit;" and his conversation was eminently in heaven-about Divine and spiritual things; always endeavouring to stir up the grace of God within himself and all around him. "Holiness to the Lord" he lived to exemplify, to enforce, and promote: he had discovered and energetically embraced "the great salvation" in its fulness and power; and sedulously and successfully did he labour, both privately and publicly, to induce the church to "reach forward to the things which are before." This was his "glory and his joy."

In adverting to his status as a minister of the gospel, we may say, that in our view he should not be tried by the ordinary standard of ministerial qualification. As his piety was extraordinary, so also was his ministerial designation: he, like the apostle Paul, but in another sense, was 66 one born out of due time." But we should as soon question the divine call of St. Paul, as that of John Oxtoby, to "the ministry of reconciliation." If it be maintained

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that Saul of Tarsus was specially ordained to be "the apostle of the Gentiles," we, with little less confidence, affirm the divine ordination of John Oxtoby to be an "ambassador for Christ," and a successful labourer in the work of evangelization. True indeed, had he lived in bygone times, or with other communities in his own time, he might have failed to obtain "a part in the ministry;" however, there was work divinely provided for him, and he failed not to do it, as a workman that needeth not to be ashamed." He knew his "high calling," and fulfilled it as before his omniscient Master: "not as pleasing men, but God, who trieth our hearts." about his preaching abilities? it may be enquired by those who have heard of him, but never heard him. To this we candidly reply, no one was more sensible than himself, that he did not possess, as some people would say, average pulpit endowments, yet as little was he disconcerted by it. Hence, while the writer was his colleague, on one occasion a godly clergyman of the neighbourhood stepped into a cottage and heard him preach, having heard marvellous reports about him. Hearing of this afterwards, we questioned him as to his knowledge of the fact at the time, and the effect it had upon him, to which he replied in his own characteristic style, "Yes, to be sure I saw him there, with his white cloot aboot his neck, listening very hard, but what did I care aboot it—you don't think I am going to be frightened by a parson."* Such indeed was his courage and boldness in Christ that he feared not the face of any living man, where the honour of God was concerned. He

* John himself never adopted a white cravat, nor any other badge of the ministerial profession, and sometimes made caustic remarks on those who did.

declared to all the counsel of God, in his own way, not seeking to gain honour from man: I don't try to preach like such or such a minister," he often said, "I preach like myself." This, in our humble opinion was, in him, good manly sense and judgment, and by no means proceeded from an under-estimate of the superior abilities of others, or an over-estimate of his own abilities and method, but simply from a principle of individuality, and pious aversion to apishness. Pulpit exhibitions he abhorred in his very soul; his indignation rose to a high degree when he heard of, or witnessed, any ministers trifling and trying, as he called it, to show off in the pulpit; nor did he fail to admonish and warn them against it at every opportunity. We remember hearing him say in the pulpit, "I wish I had all the proud, trifling preachers and parsons here, O my God! I would give them sike a dressing as they never had in all their lives." But what right had he, it may be enquired, to judge others? Simply this, as he said when spoken to on the subject," the love he had for precious souls, and his ardent desire for them to be saved by the ministry of the Gospel, excited his most painful disapprobation when he saw ministers manifest more zeal for their own honour, or ease, than for the salvation of perishing sinners." For himself, he thought no efforts too great, no service too long, to promote the salvation of men, and to build up the church in faith and holiness. True indeed, he adopted methods to accomplish these desirable ends, which were uncommon even in Methodism, not to mention other communities; or, to speak more correctly, his method of employing existing Methodistic agencies was unique; yet it must also be mentioned to his credit, that while he was fully aware of the fact himself, he did not insist that every minister should conform to his proceedings. One thing, however, he did insist upon, viz., that every minister of Christ should "preach the Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven "-that he should do it "in faith, nothing wavering"-that he should "pray in the Holy Ghost," and believe for what he asked, and then he was assured more or less success would attend the ministry of the Gospel at all times. And where this was the case, it mattered not to him what difference of administration obtained, he could and did rejoice.

But it is incumbent on us to notice that the success which he realised to such an uncommon degree, was chiefly the result of great wrestlings in prayer: even in the night-season he has often been heard by the writer and others, pouring out his soul in strong cries and believing supplications for the success of his labours. And he has told us often, and other intimate friends, that sometimes his conflicts with the powers of darkness have been fearful and protracted. Not only had he to sustain great mental and moral conflict, but occasionally the devil had rendered himself