Ready to Be Offered; Absent from the Body, Present with the Lord

“HAVlNa a strong persuasion from certain symptoms in my constitution, which it might not be possible nor important to describe, that I am approaching the conclusion not only of my labours, but also of my life, and deeming it probable that my last illness may be of such a nature as to give me little opportunity to express my views and hopes and counsels in prospect of dissolution, I have determined thus to commit them to paper, in order that they might be read to you after my decease, when the circumstance of my removal to the eternal world, united to the calmness with which I now give utterance to my dying testimony, will tend, by the blessing of God, deeply to impress your minds.”

These aflfecting words were written in December 1840, and form the opening paragraph of a letter written by Mr James to his Church and Congregation, to be opened and read after his death. Though this conviction that he had only a few months or weeks to live did not permanently retain its strength and vividness, it did not leave him altogether. During the last twenty years of his life, his conviction that it was possible he might be overshadowed at any moment by the awful presence of death and eternity, filled his heart with awe and fear. If he had ever been dazzled by his popularity as a preacher, he was now weighed down by the tremendous responsibilities of the ministerial office. Anticipating his own appearance before the judgment-seat of Christ, and “knowing the terror of the Lord,” he persuaded men. He “watched for souls” as one that would have to “give account.” After the death of the second Mrs James, and when his apprehensions in the prospect of public services away from home were beginning in some measure to subside, he instituted a searching inquiry into his obligations as a Christian and a Christian minister, and the followmg paper, written early in 1842, records the results: —

“Directions for my Spiritual Conduct.
“1. More time for prayer — reading — meditation.
” 2. Cultivate more spirituaUty.

“3. Seek to have the graces of faith and trust much strengthened. Cheerfully trust God.

“Depend not on secondary sources of consolation j rest on God. Passages to be much dwelt on —

“‘Fear not, I am with thee.’

“* Let him take hold of my strength.*

“* Grace sufficient.’

“‘Able to do exceeding abundantly.’

“All this to oppose a distrustful state with respect to the prospect of suffering from apprehended disease.

“Endeavour to appear to be trustful before people.

“4. Consider self now as having done with even much worldly enjoyment. Set apart for God.

“5. Eeahse the approach of death — eternity.,

“Domestic.

“To endeavour to make the house as cheerful as possible. To be as punctual, solemn in family devotions as if many more. To continue the practice of not supping out.

“Somethings which appear to me desirable to he done, as the results of my present affliction, with regard to the church and congregation, in order to render it productive of spiritual benefit. “LA special solemn church meeting, to represent to the church my great desire for their increased holiness. Increased prayer. Heart religion. Week-day attendance. Get up a spirit of prayer in the church for the Spirit’s power. Going round to the families. Promote early prayer-meetings in districts.

“2. Congregation. — A series of very rousing, searching sermons, with

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAJIES.

a view to revival. Four last tilings — death — judgment — heaven — hell; endeavour to make these very impressive — simple, yet solemn. Have inquiry-meetings with these.” 3. Young people.

“Meet young females not members, between 14 and 21, once a fortnight; young men once a fortnight.

“A mother society in honour of her memory.

“Meet the church in classes once a month on Tuesday evenings. Recommend books: all read together.

“General.

“Give up all facetiousness, but stUl cheerful
“Waste no time.
” Dedieation.

“Desiderata for the present year, 1842.
” Preaching.

‘* A course of sermons on the person, work, and ofEces of Christ.” The course on faith for week-day sermons.

“A continuation of Old-Testament histoiy not exceeding thi’ce quarters of an hour in sermon. Avoid loud speaking, and be solemn.

“Pastorate.

“To meet the poor and overlooked members, on ]Ionday evening, to tea, in parties of twenty, at the vestry.

“To go through all the districts once each this year.

“To form something of Sisterly Society, or Female Missionary Working Society.

“To preach to mothers, and form a Llaternal Society.

“J?o visit the sick and negligent more.

“To meet and address the children of the members at one of the church meetings, about May or June, from age of seven to fourteen.

“To keep up Wednesday afternoon tea-drinking with friends and families.

“Sunday-Schools.
” To meet superintendents twice, and teachers twice.
“To address the Sunday-school children twice, all above eight.
“Inquirers.

“To write an address — Instruction — Experience — Conduct — Dissent.

“To make this the basis of instruction privately, and give it them. Lord’s Supper — neighbourhood. Once a month — Stafford — Wolverhampton. Begin to return, if God will, to labour in other places. Evenings — work, except Saturday, given to God for....”

“READY TO BE OFFERED.”

The imiDi-essions produced by his ovm. illness, and by Mrs James’s death, were not permitted to disappear. Other bereavements followed. In the autumn of ISiJ, his sou married a lady whose singular gentleness and goodness attracted universal affection; she died within three months after her marriage, and his distress appeared almost inccnsolable. In a preface to a Pastoral Address which he published a few weeks after her decease, he said: —

“To myseK, the late bereavement is one of peculiar gi’ief; in addition to the happiness which the union had bestowed upon my son, it brought no smaE share of enjoyment to myself. With no imnate of my dwelling, except servants, but an invalid daughter, who had welcomed in the dear departed an affectionate sister, I had pleased my.?elf with the hope that we had both found one who, from the nearness of her relationship, the amiableness of her disposition, and the contiguity of her dweUiug, would be a frequent visitor to us, and relieve the somewhat desolate aspect of our own abode. Like a vision she hghted upon us, and like a vision she has fled; and thus was extinguished before we had time to prepare ourselves for the event, that new light which we thought God had kindled to shed its nuld ray upon our dwelling. It has been otherwise determined by Hkn who never errs; and ten short weeks were all. that was allowed us to enjoy this new mercy. Nothing now remains for us but to pray for submission, and by Divine grace assisting us, to practise it: and seeing we have lost her life, to see to it that we do not also lose her death.” *

Early in 1852 he sustained another most painful loss. For thirty-seven years his labours and his anxieties had been lightened by the practical wisdom, resolute energy, and more than fraternal affection of his brother, Mr James James; to whose sagacity, general ability, and public spirit the Carr’s Lane Church owed much of its efficiency. He was a man of vigorous intellect, great firmness of purpose, and the highest integrity. On his judgment his brother had placed almost implicit reliance. He died when the infirmities of advancing years were beginning to make Llr James sensible that, in the cares and perplexities inseparable from his ministerual and public position, he needed whatever relief the counsels and co-operation of able and energetic laymen could afford. * Works, p. 368.

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

Por several months his sorrow weighed so heavily upon him that his strength appeared permanently broken, and I am not sure that after this his spirits ever altogether regained their former elasticity.

But his closing years were not without consolation. His son married again, and his love for his daughter-in-law, and for the children that soon added brightness to their house, opened to him new springs of happiness. The intense mental depression which had accompanied the physical prostration of former times had passed away; and although there was seldom much elevation and excitement of religious joy, he was kept in perfect peace. He lost none of his interest in public affairs; his ardent sympathy for every great Christian enterprise burned to the last undimmed; the warmth of his affection for those he loved was not abated; his heart clung fondly to his sick daughter, his son, his son’s wife and his little grandchildren Angela and Mabel; but the distractions of human life seemed latterly to have lost their power to trouble him. His intercourse with God was close and constant; and long before he died, he appeared to have entered into rest. He had always anticipated with an almost morbid dread the sufferings of a protracted illness and the agony of dissolution, but could he have foreseen the tranquillity of his last days he would have said, “He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me! He shall set me up upon a rock.” “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil.”

Year after year, however, his physical weakness and sufferings increased. He became quite unable to travel far from home, and at times he suffered great pain even when driving about Birmingham in his own carriage. Between 1853 and the time of his death lie had several alarming attacks of low fever and general prostration; one of these attacks, which occurred in the autumn of 1858, excited so much apprehension that his friend, Dr Miller, offered prayer for his recovery on Sunday morning in St Martin’s. It was in acknowledgment of this expression of fraternal regard that Mr James wrote the following letter: — TO DE MILLER.

“Edgbaston, September 25, 1858.

“Dear Mr Miller, — If I have not till now expressed my obligations to you for the public. Christian, and most generous manifestation of your interest in my welfare, I can assure you I have constantly and deeply felt them. Notwithstanding your truly catholic spirit and large-heartedness above most, and the many personal proofs of this which I have received, it was what I could have no right or reason to expect that you should mention my name to your congregation, and soHcit their prayers for my recovery. Thanks, many thanks, servant of Christ, for this expression of fraternal affection, for one who, though serving your Lord and mine in another part of His great vineyard, humbly hopes he is a fellow-servant.

“It is not, my dear sir, the gratification that this token of your esteem for me yields to me as a personal favour, that alone makes me rejoice in your kindness; but it is the beautiful illustration and exhibition of Christian charity which it has given out to the world. It has shewn, that amidst much alienation and even hostility in the divided Church of Christ, love has not altogether forsaken our world and fled back to her native skies. How little do all our differences in minor matters appear to one who has been looking into eternity, and listening to the heavenly harmonies, as in some faint degree I have been doing the past few weeks! You, my dear sir, have obtained grace not only to be a champion for truth, but to be an advocate for love; and I am confident, that amidst the sarcasms and the censures of some brethren not so fully enjoying as yourself the liberty that is in Christ, you find your reward in the smile of a God of love, and the testimony of your own conscience. It is my earnest prayer that your precious life may be preserved to a good old age; that each succeeding year may be more rich in usefulness and ministerial comfort; and that this town may never lose the advantage of your powerful and efficient ministry, till that ministry shall end in your eternal rest and Divine reward.

“I mend, but it is very slowly, but as fast as infinite wisdom, power, and love see to be best.

“I beg my kind respects to Mrs Miller and your family.

“Please accept the volume which accompanies this. — Believe me, with high esteem and regard, yours faithfully and gratefully,

“J. A. James.”

Notwithstanding increasing bodily infirmity and the development of painful disease, Mr James’s mind retained its clearness and vigour.

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JiUIES.

During the summer of 1859 he complained of great feebleness and languor, but though he was visibly wasting away, neither his friends nor his medical attendants supposed that the end was so near. On the second Sunday of September, he preached in the morning, at Carr’s Lane, one of the annual sermons for the London Missionary Society, and the sermon produced such an eflfect upon the congregation that immediately after it Wiis over, one of the deacons who was sitting behind me begged me to persuade Mr James to publish it. On the following Sunday, (September 18,) he ireached in the evening at Carr’s Lane.

On Sunday morning, (September 25,) he preached at the Congregational Chapel, Francis Street, Edgbaston, on a very favourite text, “The common salvation;” and those who were present have often spoken of the solemnity with which he declared, that if he knew he was preaching for the last time, he could choose no subject more in harmony with his own feelings. It was the last sermon he ever delivered. In the evening he was present at the service at Carr’s Lane. The preacher was conscious at the time, that an unusual seriousness rested both upon himself and the congregation; and evidence has since been disclosed that the power of the Holy Spirit was working mightily in some hearts that night. It was the last time Mr James worshipped in the sanctuary where his ministry had accomplished such great results. WTien listening to a sermon, it was his habit — I have often observed it — to bow his head as if in earnest prayer when the preacher began to appeal with any directness to the consciences of his hearers; and I cannot doubt that on that Sunday evening it was in answer to his sdent intercessions that the earnestness of the preacher was intensified, and the hearts of some of the people filled with penitence, and led to trust in Christ.

Mr James was also present at a prayer-meeting held in Carr’s Lane Library, on Llonday morning at twelve o’clock, and spoke to those who were there of his strong persuasion that he should not be with them much longer.

On Tuesday morning he was so unwell that he was unable to fulfil an engagement to meet Dr Miller to arrange for some special meetings for united prayer, and wrote him the following note: — “READY TO CE OFFERED.”

TO DR MILLER.

Edgbastou, September 27, 1859.” My dear Dr ^Iiller, — A new malady has come upon me within the last day or two, and I am really too iU to fulfil my engagement to see you this morning; and, indeed, I begin to feel that I must retire from all confederated action and ijublic exercises, except a sermon once a-day ia my own pulpit, and even from that ere long. — Yours faithfully,

“J. A. James.”

Symptoms appeared on that day (Tuesday) which awakened, for the first time, the serious apprehensions of his family; but these passed oflF, and on Wednesday, though feeble, he was free from pain, and alarm subsided. He was still, however, very weak, and feeling unable to attend the church meeting in the evening, he wrote me the following note: —

“Hagley Road, Wednesday. “My dear Friend, — I enclose you some documents relative to church afFau’s.

“During the last two or three days, I have been very unwell with new maladies. I cannot be at the church meeting this evening, and it is tery doubtful if I shall be able to preach on SabbatL I am sorry to throw so much upon you, especially in this season of your domestic anxiety. I am glad to learn from Mr Beriy this morning that ]Mrs Dale is better. As we hear every day from various sources, we do not increase the trouble of your servant by sending. — Yours affectionately,

“J. A James.”

Ou entering his study that afternoon I found him sitting at the table with one of his little granddaughters on each knee, bending over a book of pictures, and talking to them with great cheerfulness about the wonderful things at which they were looking. The gray head and furrowed but happy countenance between those two chUdish eager faces, made a picture that will never be eflFaced from niy memory. When the little children had kissed him and run away, he began talking solemnly, but not sadly, about his consciousness of increasing weakness. Gradually his thoughts moved towards the highest regions of saintly contemplation, and I was so impressed with the unusual glow and brightness of his faith and hope, that I said to him, “Mr James, you have an

LITE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

extraordinary measure of happiness and joy in God to-Jay; I remember that when I first came to college your sermons seemed to indicate that you were almost permanently under the shadow of religious despondency; and I cannot help thinking of the contrast.” He smiled, and said, “Yes; I used to be clouded sometimes; and now I am afraid that my joy only rises from the hope and prospect of release; I want to slip away and be gone.”

“On Wednesday evening,” writes Ms daughter-in-law,” I sat with him for some time, and read to him the opening address delivered at the meeting of the EvangeHcal Alliance, to which he listened with intense interest, and afterwards commented with much enjoyment on the principles which it so forcibly laid down, — that the one only indisyensahle condition for Christian fellowship was mutual acknowledgment of Christ as Son of God and Saviour of the world — that this one truth united the highest and lowest intellects, the most exalted and the feeblest piety — and that the difficulties in the way of Christian union arose from the perpetual attempt to treat other truths as equally important to spiritual life and the unity of the Church.

“On Thursday morning I had a long conversation with him in his study. I began by expressing my hope and belief that his more recent symptoms were passing away, and he replied that — but I prefer giving you his own most precious words, even in disjointed sentences, to altering them in the slightest particidar, in order to give them a more connected form: — ‘I am a wonder to myself — you know that on former occasions in illness I have had so much gloom and depression, and now it is all gone — I am perfectly peaceful, nay, happy — I am sure that many must have been praying for me — I am sure that other prayers besides my own are being answered in me — as some good men said’ — and here he paused for a minute, and then proceeded with a sweet smile on his face, ‘No, it is not presumption in me to use the same words, “I am like a letter signed and sealed, and waiting for dehvery.”” Dear papa, not to be delivered yet, I trust.” I have but one wish now on the subject, and that is, that I may be spared a long time of uselessness. To live and not to be able to work would be vei-y painful to me; but I have worked long for God in action, and if He wills that I am soon to glorify Him in suffering, I know that He will help me to do so.’

“Then, leaning back in his chair, he clasped his hands vnth. the most beaming smile on his face I ever saw on any countenance, and said, ‘Oh, to have fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ! Oh, the blessedness of such a support! Oh, cidtivate it in health, that you may possess it in sickness! ‘I have no language in which to describe his looks — his voice — while uttering these words! I felt they were spoken by one almost in heaven, and yet I little realised how soon he would be there.

“I saw him again on Friday, before leaving home as I expected for a few days, and again he spoke of his desire to depart, and his -nillingness to remain, and of the entire and perfect peace which pervaded his soul.

“I may mention that one of my sisters, who saw him on Thursday, told him she felt he would be spared to see a revival of true religion here, and a new work begun in China; and he replied to her, ‘I shall see them there; ’ and again on Friday, when another sister told him of the death of a young man whom he had visited many times during the summer, and whose last regret was that he had not seen ;Mr James again before he went to heaven, he replied, speaking of the young man’s mother, ‘Tell her I shall soon see her son in heaven — and these were the last words I heard him utter.

“Throughout Fiiday he was bright and happy — wrote several letters, and in the evening listened to some Missionary Reports read aloud by a friend stajing in the house.”

The letters he wrote that evening were to his brother, the Rev. Thomas James; to the Rev. W. Bolton, on the death of his mother; and to the Rev. W. C. Birrell of Liverpool, in reference to the Life of Richard Kuill. To his brother he wrote — “^ly condition just now is very low — not my spirits. I am peaceful, I may say happy, quietly and contentedly waiting to see how it will go with me. Through mercy I get tolerable nights, but I believe it is the beginning of the end.”

To Mr Bolton he wrote: —

“Edgbaston, September 30, 1859.

“My dear Me Boltox, — So your dear and excellent mother has, at the caU of her heavenly Father, ascended to the seat prepared for her in His celestial mansion. What a mercy to have had such a mother, to have had her so long, and to know that heaven has her when you can have her no longer; and to crown all, that you shall join her in the blessed world of light, love, purity, and joy!

“What we owe to the Bible and God’s grace in Christ Jesus, as there revealed! What a dark object is the grave when seen by the eye of sense and reason, but how changed when seen in the sunshine of revelation! Receive my synpathy for your loss, and my congratulation for her gain. May the Lord the Spirit not only comfort you under this bereavement, but sanctify you by it! for comfort is not the

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

Mgliest good we should seek from affliction, but sanctity, — ’ that we might be partakers of His holiness,’ says the apostle.

“You may be thankful for having been spared the trial of long watching her sufferings.

“As regards myself, I am incurably ill with calculus in the bladder, and diabetes, and believe I am fast decaying. But have good hope through grace and everlasting consolation. — Yours very truly,

“J. A. James.”

The following is an extract from the letter to Mr Birrell: —

“I think it probable that with these few notes on dear Knill’s life and labours, I shall lay down my pen, which has written much; would God that it had written better. But while I say this I am not without hope, yea, I may add conviction, that it has in some degree written usefully. In some humble degree I have aimed at usefulness both in my preaching and writing; and God has, to an amoimt which utterly astonishes and overwhelms me, given me what I have sought. It seems a daring and almost presumptuous expression, but with a proper qualification it is a true one — that usefulness is within the reach of us all; the man who intensely desires to be useful, and takes the proper means, will be useful. God wlU not withhold His grace from such desires and such labours. O my brother! how dehghtful is it, notwithstanding the humbling and sorrowful consciousness of defects and sins, to look back upon a life spent for Christ! I thank a sovereign God I am not without some degree of this.”

“On Friday evening,” writes Mrs T. S. James,” he conducted family prayer as usual, and when his daughter took leave of him for the night, he gave her as a good-night text the words, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee, Between nine and ten o’clock, sickness and pain in the chest suddenly came on, and his kind friend and neighbour Dr Evans was hastily summoned, but before twelve the symptoms had subsided, and at his own earnest request he was left with only the attendance of his old and attached servant. Throughout the night he was greatly tried by pain and sickness, but had evidently no idea that death was approaching, and would not suffer the servant to send either for Dr Evans or Mr Bindley. He spoke much to her of the support he experienced from the consciousness of the presence of God, and repeated at intervals two verses of the hymn,

PKESENT WITH THE LORD.”

‘Begone, unbelief, my Saviour is near; ’

and also quoted several texts, which as yet are only gradually recurring to her mind.”

He was so far from supposing that the end had really come, that he would not permit either his invalid daughter or his son to remain after Dr Evans had left him; but “about six in the morning a sudden and unexpected change took place, and his servant sent in all haste for his son and medical attendant, but they only arrived in time for his son to receive one look of love and word of recognition before he sank into unconsciousness, and about seven o’clock he quietly and painlessly passed away.”

The intelligence spread through the town and through the whole country with extraordinary rapidity. Members of ]Ir James’s chux-ch who were away from home heard of their loss the next morning from pulpits in distant parts of the kingdom. The services that day in Oarr’s Lane will never be forgotten by those who were present. The whole congregation were in deep mourning, and at the Lord’s Supper the grief which had been restrained with difficulty through the preceding service found expression in the audible sobbing of many of the communicants. A meeting for special prayer was held on Wednesday evening, and with tears the church entreated God in His great compassion to have pity on them in their bereavement, and to forgive them for not having derived more benefit from the holy example and the earnest exhortations of the pastor who had been taken to his rest. Many who had never renounced sin, and heartily devoted themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, came to fear that having resisted the solemn and affectionate appeals of him whose voice they were never to hear again, they might continue to the end of their days among the ungodly; and at subsequent church meetings we have learned that, mingling with the profound distress of that week, there was a mighty tide of spiritual power by which many were quickened to a new life.

It had always been Mr James’s earnest desire that his mortal remains should lie in the vault beneath the front of the pulpit. At the close of the charge delivered at the ordination of his col-LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

league, he said, with deep emotion, — “Rich in years, in honour, and in usefulness, may you come at some far distant day to your end; and then, after labouring with me in the same pulpit, come and lie down with me in the same grave, at the foot of it; so shall we resemble warriors resting on the field where they fought and conquered.”

And there, according to his wish, his body awaits the resurrection of the just. The Home Secretary, Sir G. C. Lewis, in consideration of the eminent position Mr James had long occupied in Birmingham, and of the serious inconvenience which would be inflicted on large numbers of the inhabitants if, after the service had been celebrated in the chapel, the funeral procession had been obliged to go to the cemetery to inter the body, granted permission to reopen the vault in which Mr James had wished to lie. The funeral took place on Friday, October the 7th. The ministers of the town of all Protestant denominations, the municipal authorities, representatives of the gi-eat religious institutions which he had served, the deacons and a long procession of the private members of his church, and hundreds of other persons, accompanied the mourning family from his residence to the chapeL The whole town spontaneously expressed veneration for his character and grief for his loss. One who had come from a long distance to be present, thus describes the scene —

“Desiiing to perpetuate the remembrance of the honours that gathered around the obsequies, and to indicate the impression made by them upon a visitor, I devote a page to record the scene. Under skies that harmonised in their still and shrouded aspect with the funereal gloom, groups of mournful faces gathered at an early hour. Shops here and there, throughout the town, had remained vmopened; and drawn bhnds everjrvs’here, betokened an unusual presence of death. The area of the Jubilee Chapel in Edgbaston was full; there were there ministers, students, officers of churches, and the teachers of the Carr’s Lane Sunday-schools, waituig to join the mournful procession. At eleven o’clock the coffin, containing the honoured form of the revered dead, upborne on the faithful shoulders of members of the church, was seen leading the door of that dwelling which for fifty-three years had been his home, and in the presence of uncovered heads was placed in the hearse. It would have been vain to attempt to estimate the length of the moving “PRESENT WITH THE LORD.” procession, composed as it was of the authorities, clergy, and other distinguished inhabitants of the tovm, and of a long line of Christian men, emulative to testify the love and honour they bore. There was no part of the long route which was not lined with sorrowing countenances; but, as the files approached the main thoroughfares, the spectacle grew overpoweringly sublime. It was noon, but all business was suspended; not a vehicle was seen; the streets were cleared for the procession. Except one or two which, however, were partially darkened, the whole of the shops were closely shut up. Upper windows in the houses were filled with persons in mourning apparel Every standing point was thronged with spectators. I had seen the Queen of England passing between these crowds, but the difference in the expression of their countenances on this occasion, was so inexpressibly touching, that with great difficulty I kept back an outburst of tears. On the face of the aproned artisan, there rested a reverential sorrow. “Women took up the corner of their shawls to wipe away their tears. The little children were obviously subdued into wondering seriousness. The deathlike silence over these crowds in that great mart of industry was deeply affecting.” *

The chapel was thronged in every part. The coffin having been placed in front of the pulpit, selected passages of Scripture were read, and the Rev. Professor Barker of Spring-Hill College offered prayer; other passages of Scripture were read, and then followed the funeral oration, delivered by ]Mr James’s colleague in the pastorate. While the preparations were being made for lowering the coffin, the congregation rose and sung —

“Unveil thy bosom, faithful tomb!
Take this new treasure to thy trust,
And give these sacred relics room
A while to slumber in the dust,”

As the coffin descended into the vault, the words of interment were pronounced: — “Forasmuch as it hath pleased Alniighty God to take unto Himself the soul of our beloved and most revered Father in Christ here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be like unto His glorious body, according to the mighty working, whereby He is able to subdue all things to Himself.

A Tribute to the Memory of the Rev. J. A. James. By the Kev. W. Guest, now of Taunton.

LIFE OP JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

“I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, From henceforth blessed are the dead which die in the Lord: even so saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.”

After this, the Kev. Dr Tidman, Foreign Secretary of the London Missionary Society, offered prayer. “The grace of the Lord Jesus -Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost,” which are our strength and solace in every time of trouble, having been invoked, the assembly of mourners slowly and silently separated.