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OBITUARY.

Died in this City, Mrs. SARAH LEE, wife of John Lee, Esq. Mrs. Lee was born and educated in England; but came to this country with her husband, in the year 1800, and had resided here almost twenty two years. Strong, therefore, as was her attachment to the land of her nativity, and to the relatives and friends whom she had left there, and time did not impair its strength, she felt that here was her home; and by few, if by any, even of those born among us, were the most generous sympathies of home more widely exercised. Here she gave free indulgence to those strong affections, which are the life spring of friendship, and of the happiest intercourse; and here she gathered round her a circle of friends, by whom her name and her virtues will be fondly cherished, as long as virtue shall be an object of their love, and friendship shall continue to be a source of their happiness.

But we do not bring this lady to the notice of our readers, with a view of obtruding upon them the sorrows of those who best knew her, and who are most deeply affected by her loss. Our object is rather, if indeed we may, to provoke to emulation of her simple, and unaffected piety; and of her enlarged, ever active, and unwearied benevolence. Her benevolence was not merely a sentiment, it was strictly speaking, a habit. We do not say indeed that it was so peculiar, that as striking examples are not, and may not often be recorded. But, we think, that such an example should not be permitted to pass away unnoticed. We think, that such a benefactress of society, should receive the last tribute that can be paid-and it is the least that is due-a simple memorial of her virtues, which may possibly. excite others to go and do likewise.

Before she came to this country, Mrs. Lee was a member of the church of Christ, under the care of the Rev. Dr. Priestley, in Birmingham; and through her life, true to the principle, that every one has an equal claim to the right of private judgment in religion, neither her affection, nor her kindness, was diverted from any one, by a difference of opinion. Her aim was, usefulness; and she lived almost wholly for others. Her heart, and her hand, were always open to the wants of the miserable. Nor was this all. She was their counsellor and their friend. To hear of suffering that might be relieved, was at once to feel an impulse not to be resisted, to be herself the minister of that relief. There was no effort, within her capacity, which she was not ready to make, and no service, which she was not ready to perform, for any fellow creature in distress. We are not at liberty to recount examples of personal labour and sacrifice, in behalf of the poor and distressed, which we think could scarcely be read by the most indifferent, without strong emotions. But few have been mourned by more, whose wants they have supplied, or whose sorrows they have comforted; and among the last impressions to be effaced from the memory of those who best knew her, will be the expressions of sympathy and grief, in her last days and at her death from the number of poor who ceased not, with the strongest anxiety, to watch the progress of her disease; and who felt, in her departure, that they had lost one of their best earthly benefactors. This ruling affection of her heart was strong, even in death. A short time only before she expired, and while her friends about her, doubted whether she was conscious of what was passing around her, one of them incidentally mentioned a poor and suffering woman. The words instantly acted upon her with so much force, as to excite an effort to inquire concerning the sufferer. She would gladly have expended her last breath, in suggesting the means of doing good, which she was herself no longer able to accomplish.

Within the last thirty years, there has been an unexampled improvement of the female character. There has been too, as great improvement extended to society at large, by the just conceptions that have been obtained on the subject of benevolence; and by the means that have been devised, at once to check the progress of pauperism, to raise the character of the poor, and to make the communication of bounty, in every instance, subservient to the moral and religious improvement of those, who are the objects of it. In the plans for the accomplishment of these great ends, if females have not been the most, it is also certain that they have not been the least, important agents. Their care has indeed been given, principally, to those of their own sex. But the affluent and enlightened part of female society among us, under the influence of that divine charity. which warmed the heart of our gracious master, have extended their affections, their solicitude and exertions, to the instruction, and the temporal and eternal salvation of the children of the poor. Almost without money, the purest and most active charity has been indulged to an extent, which has relieved from an incalculable amount of distress; which has rescued many helpless children of the poor from moral ruin; which has raised many, from the most entire dependence, to a capacity of self-support; and greatly advanced the progress of mind, of virtue, and of happiness. This is a charity, in which the most important agents, because the most difficult to be obtained, are those who are willing to act; in which, not they who give from their abundant wealth are the best contributors, but they who are ready to give to the service their strength, and their time. In this comparatively small class of the benevolent, Mrs. Lee held a distinguished rank. Born of wealthy, and most respectable parents, and reared in all the ease and comfort which affluence can give, she seemed however to be as alive to the wants or sufferings of the poor, as if she had felt them all. May the power of her example be as strongly felt; and the principles of the gospel of Christ, which alone can inspire it, be more assiduously cultivated! Reader, be admonished of thy end; and be awakened to consideration of the work, which God has given thee also to do. We can have no greater love of God, than we have of our fellow creatures; nor can our love of God, and of Christ, be otherwise so satisfactorily manifested and proved, nor so established and enlarged, as by an imitation of the benevolence of our Father, and our Saviour; by our faithful exertions for an amelioration of the sufferings, and an improvement of the condition, of all who are within the sphere of our influence.

THE

CHRISTIAN DISCIPLE.

NEW SERIES-No. 22.

July and August, 1822.

THE GOSPEL A NEW CREATION.

THE language in which the nature and effects of Christianity are frequently described in the New Testament, is not a little remarkable. The Apostles of Jesus knew well and felt deeply the high value of the dispensation, which they were sent forth to publish and defend; and they have accordingly spoken of it in terms proportioned to their conviction of its greatness and importance. They seem to seek industriously for words, that shall fully and worthily embody their conceptions of the worth of their religion. They dwell on this topic with the eloquence of sincerity, and levy contributions on strong metaphorical expressions. It is difficult for us, at the present day, to enter fully into what must have been the state of their minds. To us Christianity comes with none of the effects of novelty. We have grown up amidst its instructions and influences; and its holy light, like the air we breathe, has always surrounded us. We have not passed from another religion to this. It has ever been by our side, with the offer of its guidance, its solace, and support; and perhaps it is because we have never been without it, that we are not impressed, as we should be, with its beauty and excellence. But the case was far otherwise with the first disciples of the Saviour; and the peculiarity of their situation imparted its influence to the language which they used. It is in the spirit of the representations, which they were thus led to make, that Christianity is spoken of as a new creation. For,' says St. Paul, we are his workmanship, having been created through Christ Jesus unto good works. In treating of the union of the Jews and Gentiles, Christ is said to have New Series-vol. IV.

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abolished the enmity, 'in order to create, in himself, of the two, one new man. Again; 'to be renewed in the spirit of your mind and to put on the new man, which is created according to God in righteousness and true holiness.' 'For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." And if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; (or more properly, "there is a new creation") old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.* Former errors, and imperfect views, and corrupt principles have passed away; the whole religious condition has undergone a change. The figure is one of the boldest and strongest, giving a deep impression of the happy effects of Christianity, a faithful picture of the great work wrought by him, who came forth from God.

Now, as these expressions have been wrested to the support of views, which they were never intended to countenance, and have been pressed into the service of what we deem a false theological system, it is important to bear it constantly in mind, that if we would see them in their proper light, we must interpret them, not according to the principles of any modern sect, or of visionary enthusiasts, but with a sober reference to the circumstances of the time, when these things were said or written. We may frame a meaning for these passages, and then call it the meaning of the sacred writer, forgetting meanwhile that it is nothing but our own invention. This method of interpretation has forced the Scriptures to patronise almost every opinion, and to utter the discordant sounds of Babel. It is finely observed by Jeremy Taylor, that 'men come to the understanding of the Scriptures with preconceptions and ideas of doctrines of their own; and then no wonder that the Scriptures look like pictures, wherein every man in the room believes that they look on him only, and that, wheresoever he stands, or how often soever he changes his position.' He, who reads the Bible, as if it were composed in modern times and under the circumstances of our own age, must always be liable to gross mistakes. We must never forget, that the sacred books, especially the epistles of the New Testament, bear upon every page the impress of the days, when Christianity was first ushered into the world; and without keeping this in view, we shall not have the same ideas and thoughts in our minds, as were in the minds of the sacred authors, when they wrote the great point, to which it is the object of correct principles of interpretation to conduct us.

What then are the considerations, to which we must look, in order to understand and to justify St. Paul in describing Christianity with such emphatic strength, as to call it a new creation,' and

to affirm, that in the case of those, who received it, old things had passed away, all things had become new ?

In order to answer this question, we must go back in imagination for a moment, and glance at the time, when every thing with regard to religion was in a far different state, from that which it has assumed since Jesus Christ proclaimed to the world the glad tidings of great joy. No one can trace the history of the moral and religious concerns of the human race, in the spirit of sober, deep and unbiassed reflexion, without feeling at every step, as we come down the path of time, how much the world needs light from heaven, how comparatively poor and inefficient a being man is, with all his pride and all his powers, and how he totters and falls like an infant, if the hand of God be not extended to hold him up. Without undervaluing the efforts of unassisted reason, we must confess they were faltering and imperfect; and the best result of her investigations was but the hope of virtue or the conjecture of philosophy. It is not too much to affirm that the pagan world had scarcely an idea of One Supreme Being; for however their wise men might by continued meditation have caught some glimpses of light, have reached some worthy views on this subject, it is certain that these never penetrated to the body of the people, and even as far as they went, were fluctuating and without effect. All in a manner may be said to have been given up to the fantastic fooleries of superstition and the degrading homage of idolatry. Nature with them was divided into various departments, and a deity placed over each; winds and seas, rivers and groves had their several and distinct gods, and these gods had passions and weaknesses and propensities like the worst and most foolish of their worshippers. The service paid to these imaginary beings corresponded to the character and attributes with which they were supposed to be invested. Nothing like a pure and holy confidence, nothing like trust or hope, could be known to the worshippers of such beings. The mind felt the distressing want of a Being of spotless purity, in whom it might rest and to whom it might flee for refuge; and was cheered by no clear and refreshing conceptions of the character of God, and of the way to his favour and acceptance. With regard to a future life, their views were equally unsatisfactory and wavering. In some cases hope glimmered faintly, and threw a feeble light on the regions of futurity; but to the great body of the people they were certainly regions of utter darkness. There is in man a principle, that so makes him cling to existence, such a dread of sinking into nothingness, such an aspiration after a more improved state of being, than is to be found amidst the agitation and weariness

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