cluded I must be seeking for mercy in a wrong way. So I prayed that the Lord would show me the right way; and after prayer I walked to the chapel to hear Mr. John Wood, (a Wesleyan preacher then stationed at Alnwick.) In his sermon, he set forth Jesus Christ as having died for us, and as being the only way by which we can have access to the Father and obtain salvation. He then very affectionately said,- Now, sinner, when thou prayest for pardon, thou must not expect it for thy own sake, nor for the sake of thy praying, but only for the sake of Jesus Christ.' As he spoke the words, I understood his meaning, and was so affected and pleased with this way of receiving mercy, that in the simplicity and earnestness of my soul I spoke up, saying, 'Lord, I'll come this way.' I did not then receive the evidence of my acceptance, but I understood the way by which I must receive it. On the Tuesday following, being alone in the room in which I slept, I spent some time in thinking how grievously I had, in past days, sinned against the best of Beings. This renewed my grief, and laid me very low in my own esteem, and I saw very clearly that only a punishment eternal in its duration would be of equal proportion with my astonishingly great sins; but my hope in God's mercy through Jesus Christ was very strong. In this state of mind, I kneeled down and prayed that the Lord would forgive me for Jesus' sake. While upon my knees, the offices of the Father, Son, and Spirit, were clearly revealed to my mind. I understood that the Father was reconciled to me for the Son's sake, and that the Holy Spirit was the great agent in preparing the sinner's heart by enlightening, humbling, and leading him in prayer to the throne of grace; and that it is for Christ's sake as having died and making interce sion for us, that the benefits of his death are given us. My whole soul consented to this way of salvation. I heartily believed God to be reconciled to me for Jesus' sake; and in an instant my soul was in a rapture of spiritual joy. How long I was in this state I cannot tell; but when I came to myself I was standing upon my feet, with my hands above my head, shouting' Victory! Victory!' I then sat down and spent some time in thinking upon the change which had taken place, and I found that I, who had formerly been a child of wrath, was now a child of God. Though formerly an heir of hell, I was now an heir of heaven; though formerly a slave of sin, I was now the free servant of Christ; though formerly a rebel, I was now reconciled. Now I had peace of conscience; my misery was gone, and a sweet joy filled all the powers of my soul. Now, for the first time, I knew what it is to be truly happy. Thus did the glorious God magnify his mercy in converting me, a poor sinner, to himself. To his name be all the praise."

Here the account left in writing by our deceased brother, terminates. It terminates pleasingly; yet leaves us to regret that our friend did not continue the narrative and carry it down to his last affliction. A few gleanings from various sources will have now to supply the lack of information whieh none but the deceased could have furnished. It appears that Mr. Jackson first commenced preaching while in the army. Having himself found the Pearl of great price, and proved its value, he wished others to find it also. He soon began to reprove sin-to exhort, and preach. As he preached in his regimentals, he attracted large congregations, and was made a blessing to many who heard him. Upon the disbanding of the militia during the peace of 1801-2, our brother returned home to his father's house, where his zeal for God and love for

souls were equally displayed. His parents had formerly been professors,* but were now in a backsliding state. There was no family prayer. Our brother requested his father to commence it, and volunteered his own services, if the father was disinclined to attend to it himself. The mother was willing, but the father very unwilling. The son, however, declared his intention not to live in the house if there must not be family worship, as he could not expect the blessing of heaven to rest upon them; the father then yielded; and both the parents, through the instrumentality of the son, were restored to the happy enjoyment of religion, and died in peace. Our deceased brother, it seems, first joined the Old Connexion, and laboured as a Local Preacher among them in the Stockport circuit, though living at that time at a place called Waterhouses, not far from Ashton. What first led to his union with us has not been ascertained; but when the late Mr. Driver was in the Ashton circuit, in 1804, Mr. Jackson had various conversations with him on the subject of being fully devoted to the ministry amongst us; and which led eventually, no doubt by Mr. Driver's recommendation, to our brother being sent to Sheffield a short time, as a supply in the place of a preacher (Mr. Foulds) who had resigned. At the Conference in 1805, Mr. Jackson entered upon his probation in the Hanley circuit, of which Longton then made a part. At this early period of our friend's history, he possessed very strong feelings-a strong body, and a very powerful voice, in the use of which he was not sparing. As his education had been very limited, his language and action in the pulpit, as well as his manner out of it, were not the most prepossessing, or calculated to please fastidious critics; but in these respects he very much improved, as he advanced in information by reading, study, and an enlarged acquaintance with society. He possessed more than an ordinary share of natural talent, and this, accompanied with an ardent zeal for the salvation of perishing sinners, caused him in every circuit to be well received. Such, indeed, was his acceptability as a Preacher, that to nearly all the Circuits where he had been once stationed, he might have been and indeed was appointed a second, if not a third time. He was three times stationed in the Potteries; three times at Leeds; and twice at Sheffield, Nottingham, Hull, and Manchester; at the latter of which places he stopped three years each time, with only six years of an interval betwixt the appointments.

Mr. Jackson, as a Preacher, was plain, pointed, and faithful: his preaching was decidedly evangelical-alike free from legality and antinomianism. While he preached salvation to be of grace through faith, and held forth Christ as our atoning High Priest, he did not neglect to enforce his claims as a Sovereign upon the obedience of his followers. The necessity of an entire change of heart by the agency of the Holy Ghost, and the doctrine of the direct witness of the Spirit, or conscious pardon, were themes on which he frequently dwelt, and considered this latter subject as a peculiar feature in, and the glory of the Methodist

This statement may appear at first not to agree with a previous one, of our brother not having beard a sermon before he was about sixteen years of age. These two statements however may be reconciled, by supposing either that the religious profession of his parents commenced after their son left home, or that it was while he was very young that they relapsed; and at that comparatively early period of Methodism, there was probably neither church nor chapel in the immediate neighbourhood of Failsworth; in which case, it would be necessary to travel three miles to Manchester or Oldham, in order to hear a sermon.

ministry. His manner of preaching was original-an imitation of no one; and the striking remarks he often made, both arrested the attention and reached the consciences of his hearers; on which account his ministry was made remarkably useful. But it is not necessary here, before those who have so often heard him, to dwell upon either the matter or style of our brother's preaching; nor yet upon the fervour, simplicity, or copiousness of his prayers.* For the welfare of souls he ardently prayed-for their welfare he preached; and he had no greater joy than to hear of sinners being brought to God, and added to his church. Often did he enquire after the state of the Circuit, and of the Connexion. Tidings of spiritual prosperity in any part cheered and gladdened his heart. He loved the cause of God, and had intended to have evinced his love to it by bequeathing some legacies to its funds, had not a change of circum stances prevented.

Mr. Jackson was not without family trials. Twice he was married, and has left a widow, you are aware, in an afflicted state. Nor was he without other trials. As a public character, he was sometimes assailed by false and slanderous reports, as indeed all public characters are apt to be, owing to loquacious and evil tongues; but while our brother felt his trials, he did not murmur. His record was on high, and to God he committed his cause. That he was without failings, and never blameable in any part of his long course of Christian profession, we dare not say. He was a man; and therefore being neither infallible nor impeccable, he was liable to err both in judgment and in practice. He was conscious that he had erred at times, which he deeply deplored. Ministers are men of like passions with others; and even St. Paul would not have us to follow him any further than as he followed Christ. But whatever might be the failings of our brother, (and who is without failings of some kind?) no one could be more sensible of, and humble on account of them, than he. In a long private interview with him one day, it rejoiced the heart of the writer to witness the deep humility of his views and feelings. "My name," said he, " is an unworthy name; not worthy to be placed upon any documents of the Connexion." But we know who hath said, "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted; but he that exalteth himself shall be abased." Be it our care to imitate our esteemed brother in his excellences,—in his love to God, and charity to man; for he had much of that charity which thinketh and speaketh no evil. Be it our care to imitate him in his devotional conduct, integrity, zeal, patience, and resignation under sufferings,-to follow him, in short, in everything as far as he followed our great exemplar-Jesus Christ.

As to the state of our friend's mind during his last affliction, which continued about two months, it was, with the exception of a few short buffettings of the enemy, all that could be desired; sometimes he was in ecstacy-his soul magnified the Lord, and his spirit rejoiced in God his Saviour. He was full, unutterably full of love, of gratitude, and conso

* One illustration, however, of the simplicity and earnestness of our brother in prayer, at an early period of his ministry, may be mentioned. When Mr. J. was first stationed at Nottingham, in 1808, the writer remembers to have been with him at a Saturday evening prayer-meeting, in Hockley chapel, when, after praying that the Lord would bless his ministers on the coming day, he added,-"Bless me! Lord, Bless me! Give me some souls! Thou knowest I want none of their money; Lord, give me some SOULS!"-elevating his voice with each successive sentence, and beating his hand with great force upon the top of the pew in which he stood.

lation. Those who visited his sick room found it good to be there, and witness the blessed influence of the gospel upon one who had so long preached it. It was my privilege, on various occasions, to witness it; but I will close this account with extracts from two communications containing the testimony of others who knew and visited him.

Our young friend Palmer saw him on Sabbath-day, March 3rd, 1844, and writes:

"After having had much sweet, and I trust profitable conversation with him on spiritual matters, and his prospects of futurity, I engaged in prayer, and took leave of him under feelings of no ordinary nature. While I was engaged in this act, with a solemnity which produced a sensation I shall never forget, but which I cannot describe, he exclaimed "Farewell! Farewell!" While I was leaving the room, he called out, Stop." I, of course, obeyed the call, and again turned into his room, when he addressed me, as nearly as I can recollect, in the following language:"You may tell my friends that I am now confined to a bed of affliction from which I shall never recover; for I even now feel the hand of death to be upon me: yet I fear him not. The grave to me has no terrors. Death has no sting; for Christ has disrobed him of his terrors. My Redeemer has extracted his sting, and for this reason I can die with as little dread as a child can fall asleep Then after a short pause through exhaustion of strength, he exclaimed, "That is indeed a glorious song for a conqueror,-Oh! death where is thy sting? Oh! grave where is thy victory? Had I strength I could sing about that song of triumph, for I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, and kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown, &c.' And although 'After my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see, &c.' Other passages of Scripture were quoted by him, and he added, that though he was then suffering such heavy affliction, he should shortly sit down in that place where the inhabitants never say they are sick."

Our brother Hallam, after speaking of Mr. Jackson as one of the most spiritually-minded persons he ever had fellowship with, and quoting without surprise a statement of his at the Hanley Conference Love Feast in 1835, viz., that for the space of thirty years he had never been twentyfour hours at any time without a conscious sense of his acceptance with God, observes," During his last affliction he was perfectly resigned to the will of God, for he frequently stated that he had no will in it; the last tie which seemed to bind him to earth, appeared to be unloosed; for, on the second morning after he was the subject of that attack which laid him prostrate and helpless on the bed of languishment, he said to me, after I had sat with him all night, and was about to retire in the morning, 'Now, friend Hallam, if any enquiries are made concerning me, tell the friends I am happy in the enjoyment of the favour of God, and that I have given my wife to the Lord; she is no longer mine, for the Lord hath allied himself to her.' From that time, I do not recollect that he ever mentioned her name to me. Several nights after then I sat with him to watch over him, and visited him at other times; but he seemed to be the subject of the same composure of mind, and to enjoy the same bright prospect for heaven. A short time before his dissolution, he observed when I entered his room, how glad he was that I was come, for he had been, and still was, the subject of such unspeakable delight and joy in God; and in the course of conversation observed

how happy he was that he was the subject of such feelings. He was glad, because he had not been preaching a gospel which was not what he had represented it to be, but that it was all that he had stated it. Hence he said, with an emphasis, 'I am glad for the honour of the Connexion,-I am glad for the glory of God.' In this enviable state of mind our deceased brother, and it may be the spiritual father of some present, exchanged mortality for life eternal, April 18th, 1844. May the end of all and each of us, be like his! Amen."

ORIGINAL ESSAYS, COMMUNICATIONS, &c.

A DISCOURSE ON THE SACRIFICIAL CHARACTER AND MEDIATORIAL GLORY OF CHRIST.

BY THE REV. WILLIAM COOKE.

"And I beheld, and lo! in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, (TV Teσrápwv Šúwv, of the four living ones,) and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth."-Revelation chap. v. verse, 6.

THE Apocalypse which closes the canon of Sacred Scripture, is a book full of awful importance and sublimity. It contains numerous predictions of the most solemn and momentous events; such as the sanguinary persecutions which should rage against the church of Christ-the rise, prevalence, and overthrow of false systems of religion-awful retributions of providence upon guilty nations-the arduous struggles, and universal triumphs of Christianity, and the full glory of the millennial age. But these predictions are expressed in language highly figurative and symbolical. For it was the design of the Holy Spirit to furnish the church with a brief and general outline of his providential dispensations during several eventful periods, but not with a full and circumstantial development of them. Jehovah is a God that hideth himself; and it serves the purposes of his wisdom, and contributes to his glory, to conceal as well as to reveal the purposes of his will. A complete discovery of his vast designs, even of such as relate to our own history, would be more than our contracted minds could comprehend; and such a discovery, if practicable, would not comport with our present duties as moral agents in a probationary state. It forms a part of God's economy to conduct us in this life by faith, not by sight; to teach us the duty of implicit reliance on the wisdom and benevolence of his unseen arrangements, and by a course of instructive and profitable discipline to prepare us for admission to the rewards of a better state. For such reasons the great events predicted in this book are partially veiled under enigmatical forms of expression. But however mysterious the prophetical portions of these writings, Christian doctrines are set forth in bold and prominent relief. Here is nothing vague or obscure. The atoning efficacy of the Saviour's death, and the prevalence of his intercession-the fulness and freeness of gospel blessings-the glorious rewards of the righteous, and the final condemnation of the wicked, are here declared