worthy of the power and pathos of your own pen. May the voices of servants, dear sir, join in the multitude who shall bless God for you in time and eternity! Z. REMARKABLE HISTORY OF MRS. TOOLEY. SIR RICHARD CRADDOCK, a justice of peace, who was a violent hater and persecutor of the Dissenters, and who exerted himself to enforce all the severe laws then in existence against them, happened to live near Mr. Rogers, to whom he bore particular enmity, and whom he wanted above all things to have in his power. Hearing that he was to preach at a place some miles distant, he thought it a fair opportunity for accomplishing his base design; and in order thereto, hired two men to go as spies, and to take down the names of all the hearers whom they knew, that they might appear as witnesses against both them and Mr. Rogers. The plan seemed to succeed to his wishes. These men brought him the names of several persons who were present at the meeting, and he warned such of them as he had a particular spite against, together with Mr. Rogers, to appear before him. Knowing the violence of the man, they came with trembling hearts, expecting to be treated with the utmost severity. While they were waiting in the great hall, expecting to be called upon, a little girl, about six or seven years of age, who was Sir Richard's grand-daughter, happened to come into the hall. She looked at Mr. Rogers, and was much taken with his venerable appearance. He being naturally fond of children, took her upon his knee, and caressed her, which occasioned her to conceive a great fondness for him. At length Sir Richard sent a servant to inform them, that one of the witnesses being taken ill, was unable to attend, and that, therefore, they must come again another day. They accordingly came at the time appointed, and being convicted, the justice ordered their mittimus to be written to send them all to prison. Mr. Rogers, expecting to see the little girl again, brought some sweetmeats with him to give her. As soon as she saw him she came running to him, and appeared fonder of him than before. This child being a particular favourite of her grandfather, had got such an ascendancy over him that he could deny her nothing; and she possessed such a violent spirit that she could bear no contradiction, so that she was indulged in everything she wanted. At one time, when she had been contradicted, she run a penknife into her arm, to the great danger of her life. This bad spirit, in the present instance, was over-ruled for good. While she was sitting on Mr. Rogers's knee, eating the sweetmeats, she looked earnestly at him, and asked, "What are you here for, sir?" He answered, "I believe your grandfather is going to send me and my friends to jail." "To jail!" says she; "why, what have you done?" Why, I did nothing but preach, and they did nothing but hear me." "He shall not send you to jail," replied she. "Ay, but my dear," said he, "I believe he is now making out 66 our mittimus to send us all there." What follows is yet more remarkUpon this she ran up to the chamber able, as containing a striking proof of where Sir Richard was, and knocked the answer which was returned to good with her head and heels till she got in, Mr. Rogers's prayers for this child, and and said to him, "What are you going the blessing which descended upon her to do with my good old gentleman in who had been the instrument of such a the hall ?" That's nothing to you," deliverance for these persecuted sersaid he; "get about your business." vants of God. Mrs. Tooley had lis"But I won't," says she: "he tells me tened with uncommon attention to that you are going to send him and his Mr. Rogers's story; and when he had friends to jail; and if you send them, ended it, she asked him "And are you I'll drown myself in the pond as soon that Mr. Rogers's son ?" He told her as they are gone; I will indeed." he was. Upon which she said, "Well, When he saw the child thus peremp- as long as I have been acquainted with tory, it shook his resolution, and in- you, I never knew that before. And duced him to abandon his malicious now I will tell you something which you design. Taking the mittimus in his do not know: I am the very girl your hand, he went down into the hall, and dear father blessed in the manner you thus addressed these good men:-"I have related, and it made an impreshad here made out your mittimus to sion upon me which I could never forsend you all to jail, as you deserve; get." Upon this double discovery, Mr. but, at my grandchild's request, I drop Rogers and Mrs. Tooley found an addithe prosecution, and set you all at tional tie of mutual love and affection; liberty." They all bowed and thanked and then he and Mr. Bradbury exhis worship. But Mr. Rogers, going to pressed a desire to know how she, who the child, laid his hand upon her head, had been brought up in an aversion to and, lifting up his eyes to heaven, said, the Dissenters, and to serious religion, God bless you, my dear child! May now discovered such an attachment to the blessing of that God whose cause both, upon which she cheerfully gave you did now plead, though as yet you them the following narrative :know him not, be upon you in life, at death, and to all eternity!" He and his friends then went away. The above remarkable story was told by Mr. T. Rogers, the son of the ejected minister, who had frequently heard his father relate it with great pleasure; and the celebrated Mr. Thomas Bradbury once heard it from him, when he was dining at the house of Mrs. Tooley, an eminent Christian lady in London, who was distinguished for her religion, and for her love to Christ and his people; whose house and table, like Lydia's, were always open to them. After her grandfather's death she became sole heiress to his estate, which was considerable. Being in the bloom of youth, and having none to control her, she ran into all the fashionable diversions of the age without any restraint. But she confessed, that when the pleasurable scenes were over, she found a dissatisfaction, both with them and her self, that always struck a damp to her heart, which she did not know how to get rid of any other way than by running the same round over and over again; but all was in vain. Having contracted some slight illness, she thought she would go to Bath, hearing that it was a place for pleasure as well as health. When she came thither, she was providentially led to consult an apothecary who was a very worthy and religious man. When he inquired what ailed her, she answered, "Why, doctor, I don't ail much as to my body, but I have an uneasy mind that I cannot get rid of." "Truly, miss," said he, "I was so till I met with a certain book, and that cured me." "Books!" said she, "I get all the books I can lay my hands on; all the plays, novels, and romances, I hear of; but after I have read them my uneasiness is the same." "That may be, miss," said he, " and I do not wonder at it. But as to this book I speak of, I can say of it what I can say of no other I ever read, that I never tire in reading it, but can read it again, as if I had never read it before, and I always see something new in it." "Pray, doctor," says she, "what book is that ?" Nay, miss," answered he, "that is a secret I don't tell every one." "But could not I get a sight of that book?" says she. Yes," replied he, "if you speak me fair, I can help you to a sight of it." "Pray, then, get it me, doctor, and I'll give you anything you please." Yes," said he, "if you will promise me one thing, I'll bring it you; and that is, that you will read it over carefully; and if you should not see much in it at first, that you will give it a second reading." She promised faithfully that she would. After coming two or three times without it, to raise her curiosity, he at last took it out of his pocket, and gave it her. 66 This book was the New Testament. When she looked at it, she said, with a flirt, "Pooh! I could get that at any time." "Why, miss," said he, "so you But might; but, remember, I have your solemn promise that you will read it carefully." "Well," says she, "though I never read it before, I'll give it a reading." Accordingly she began to read it, and it soon attracted her attention. She saw something in it wherein she had a deep concern; but her mind now became ten times more uneasy than ever. Not knowing what to do, she soon returned to London, resolved to try again what the diversions there would do to dissipate her gloom. nothing of this kind answered her purpose. She lodged at the court end of the town, where she had with her a female companion. One Saturday evening she had a remarkable dream, which was, that she was in a place of worship, where she heard a sermon; but when she awoke she could remember nothing but the text. This dream, however, made a deep impression upon her mind; and the idea she had of the place, and of the minister's person, was as strong as if she had been long acquainted with both. On the Lord's day morning she told her dream to her companion, and said, that after breakfast she was resolved to go in quest of the place, though she should go from one end of London to the other. They accordingly set out, and went into several churches as they passed along, but none of them answered to what she saw in her dream. About one o'clock they found themselves in the heart of the city, where they dined, and then set out again in search of this place of worship. Being in the Poultry about half an hour after two o'clock, they saw a great number of people going down the Old Jewry, and she determined to see where they went. She mingled with the com As Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's host and he called the name of that place Mahanaim."-xxxii. 1, 2. "LET Jacob's favour'd race Adore with grateful love Its top the heaven conceals: Angels, since time began, pany, and they conducted her to the meeting-house in the Old Jewry, where Mr. Shower was then minister. soon as she entered the door, and surveyed the place, she turned to her companion, and said, with some surprise, "This is the very place I saw in my dream." She had not been long there before she saw Mr. Shower go up into the pulpit, and looking at him, with greater surprise, she said, "This is the very man I saw in my dream; and, if " In duteous ministry, every part of it hold true, he will take for his text, Psalm cxvi. 7, ‘Return to thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath When dealt bountifully with thee."" he arose up to pray, she was all attention, and every sentence went to her heart. Having finished his prayer, he took that very passage which she had mentioned for his text; and God was pleased to make the discourse founded upon it the means of her saving conversion; and thus she at last found what she had so long sought elsewhere in vain-rest to her soul. And now she obtained that blessing from God, the Fountain of felicity, which pious Mr. Rogers, so many years before, had so solemnly and fervently implored on her behalf. JACOB PRESERVED BY ANGELS. "And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his flock, and said unto them, I see your father's countenance, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father hath been with me. And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob, I am the God of Bethel: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred."-GEN. xxxi. 4, 5, 11, 13. "And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. And when Their heavenly Lord attend; C. WESLEY. JACOB knew by the Divine oracle that he had been appointed to inherit the birthright in preference to his elder twin-brother Esau. And he sought it eagerly until he obtained the blessing; though he secured it dishonourably and by craft. That privilege, so highly prized by Jacob, included,-1. Preeminency and power over the rest of the family; 2. A double portion of the paternal inheritance; 3. The honour of the priesthood, which pious men esteemed the greatest of all; and, 4. The promise of the Messiah, in the line of Abraham; and this was regarded by the faithful as conferring a dignity far more illustrious than all temporal blessings. "Profane Esau" despised this birthright, and "sold it for a mess of pottage ;" and some have, therefore, excused, if not justified, Jacob in the method he took to secure its possession. Jacob obtained his father's blessing, but lost the heart of his brother; and was obliged to become an exile from home, and from the enojyment of his mother's care. Behold him, then, a pilgrim on his journey of more than five hundred miles to Padan-aram, pensive and solitary, without so much as a faithful dog to accompany and to cheer him in his wanderings. Now, for the first time, he knows the heart of a stranger: more forlorn than Adam, when expelled from Paradise; than Abraham, when exiled from his kindred and his father's house-he had no gentle mate to sooth his heart under his anxieties and cares. Removed from his earthly parents, Jacob is nearer to his heavenly Father; and, in "the waste howling wilderness," he is at home with God. Cares perplex his waking thoughts all the day; but bands of angels guard, and instruct, and bless his slumbering moments. Dreams are generally without meaning, or absurd; but Jacob dreams, and his visions of the night are prophetic, worthy of a lasting record. Divine inspiration informs us what he saw and what he heard: "Behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it," Gen. xxviii. 12. Jacob's circumstances will partly account for the visions of the dreamer. His anxious thoughts during the day, and while placing his stone for his pillow at night, his holy desires for heavenly blessings, his faith in the Divine promises, his ardent prayer for Almighty protection, ascended, as on angels' wings, up to the throne of God. Favour, security, and consolation, descend from the eternal throne, as through the ministration of angels, on Jacob's head. The top of the ladder reached unto heaven, but the LORD is above it on high: it stands upon the earth, but the eye of Jehovah is at its foundation, and its stability is given by the Almighty arm. Cherubim and seraphim fly thus to fulfil his high commands, and a poor, benighted pilgrim is not beneath his notice: for his relief and comfort we have this revelation of the heavenly world. Divine Providence, thus represented in a night vision to Jacob, he could clearly perceive in his favour, and would fully understand much of the mystery of God, upholding all things, observing all things, and directing all things to his own glory and the good of his servants. And by this revelation to Jacob, recorded by Moses, every Christian is to be instructed, that, however great the distance between heaven and earth, and however inaccessible that bright world may be to flesh and blood, it is but a few steps of the mystic ladder for celestial spirits. Before God omnipresent intervening space is swallowed up and lost; and condescending mercy and sovereign grace keep open, for the ministry of angels, that communication, which the malice of hell and the apostacy of man had well nigh closed for ever. Jacob's mysterious ladder and the ministering angels, doubtless, represented more than Divine Providence: the whole appears to have had a higher symbolical reference. In the New Testament there are expressions that evidently allude to this vision, indicating some of the great peculiarities of the Christian dispensation. Christ refers to this when opening the mind of Nathaniel to discover his Messiahship. That "Israelite indeed" is thought to have been reading, "under the fig-tree," the narrative of Jacob's dream at Bethel; and the |