16 ADDRESS TO MEMBERS OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES.

don your post, after you have solemnly given yourself up, first to the Lord, and then to his church, and after you have brought yourself under the obligation of a voluntary engagement, more sacred and binding than any civil or political contract that mortals can make; viz. to be the Lord's, and to walk before him in all his commandments, through your future days?

in it disorders of a very high class, yet the apostle did not unchurch them, nor require members to quit them, but solemnly required a reformation of what was wrong; and he lived to see a happy improvement in their general condition.

You seem to think of nothing so much as your own peculiarities. You regard not what evil your unholy and capricious example may do, in confirming some in their disobedience, and in weakening the attachment and fidelity of others, to the house of God, and the ordinances of Jesus Christ. You care not what a stumbling block it may lay before others, and what a general ill impression your conduct may make. But this is not all: it also lowers you not a little in the estimation of the best friends of Christ, and of his church, and thereby separates your talents, your influence, and your countenance from the body.

Perhaps something has been decided at a church-meeting in a manner contrary to your opinion, or some person has offended you, or you entertain a doubt of the personal piety of some member, &c. But must not, in the very nature of things, the majority of the church decide on all ques tions that come before them; and ought not the minority to submit? If the judgment of the majority should have been wrong, is it not sufficient that you have voted agreeably to your opinion, in a peaceable and respectful manner, thereby discharging your con- If no means can reclaim you, science, and acquitting yourself Christian discipline will be absolike an honest man? If a church lutely necessary. If you perseis so corrupt as evidently to be vere in your present conduct, you no longer a part of the body of must be separated from the visiChrist, it is your duty to with-ble church of Christ. In that case, draw yourself entirely from its communion: in that case entire separation is necessary. But partial withdrawing is never lawful, whatever superiority of principle or of character you may lay claim to. Dost thou think, Ŏ thou child of arrogance and delusion, that thy unhallowed conduct will be approved of by Him who commands us to exercise mutual charity, forbearance, patience, meekness, and self-diffidence; and who exhorts every one to esteem his brother better than himself? The case of the Corinthian church is a standing lesson of instruction; there were

having first rendered yourselves undesirable members of it, you will be rather lost than missed. The church of Christ may lament your departure, but the Great Head of it needs not your assistance. His church existed before you joined it, and will continue to exist when your very name is forgotten.

Let the faithful members of the church of Christ cleave together, and while they maintain the inviolable authority of the Saviour, pity and pray for those who seem never to have understood the nature and extent of their religi ous vows.

AB

Juvenile Department.

from death, but dying himself in the first inducement to trade with 1534, after a very intemperate life, this island; and probably proved a at the early age of forty-one, added very principal temptation to the another to the numerous examples frequent visits of the Roman conof the folly and madness of infidelity. querors. From the tools of oak that Notwithstanding this early ac- have been found in ancient tin quaintance with some of the metals, mines, it is thought that tin works it is surprising that it remained for must have been carried on here long the chemists of the present age, par-before iron was found in any abunticularly Sir H. Davy, not only to dance in England. correct and enlarge our information of those already known, but also to add so many to the catalogue; for there are now reckoned thirty-eight, which are classified according to their affinity for oxygen, with which they all more or less combine. The general characteristics of the metals, to use the words of an able modern chemist, are "hardness, tenacity, lustre, opacity, fusibility, malleability, and ductility;" although it is not necessary that a body should possess all these qualities to entitle it to this denomination.

The avaricious and thoughtless may have occasionally regretted that it should require so much pains and labour to procure gold, silver, and copper. But the reflecting mind perceives the wisdom and mercy of the great Creator in depositing them in the bowels of the earth; not merely as it affords employment to man, but as it leaves the surface of the earth, the far greater part of which they must have otherwise occupied, for the important and delightful process of vegetation.

From the situation, as just described, in which the metals are generally found, it is less surprising that they should seldom occur in a state of purity. They are ordinarily met with in a state of combination with other metals, with sulphur, or oxygen, or with acids; and various means are employed for their purification: fire, however, is always employed in extensive operations. Solution in acids, which was first adopted by Bergman, is more simple and satisfactory. It is chiefly owing to the improvements in the art of analyzing minerals, that we have become acquainted with the new metals, the further notice of which we must for the present defer.

May the youthful reader early acquire the habit of "looking through nature up to nature's God."

N. N.

THE LATE EARTHQUAKE.

THE district of Cutch, which was visited by the late dreadful earthThe internal parts of the earth, as quake, lies between 23° and 24° we had occasion to remark in our N. and 69° and 71° E. It is last essay, do not consist of one bounded N. by the desert of Ajuniform substance, but of various mere, w. by Gugerat, s. by the strata of substances, differing both gulf of Cutch, and w. by Sind, which in their appearance and qualities, lies between it and Persia. Boogeas well as in their depth and solidity. booge, its capital, which was totally Innumerable cracks and fissures, destroyed, and in which above 2000 called by the miners lodes, occur in persons perished, lies 1200 miles w. of these strata; and it is in these veins Calcutta, and 270 N. w. of Surat. Althat the metallic ore is found. It most all its other towns have either is frequently difficult to discover been destroyed, or have greatly sufthese veins, nor will they always fered. When we behold the calapay for working when they are mities of other countries, may we found. not say that our own happy country Metals abound most in mountain-is" a land which the Lord our God ous districts: hence the counties of careth for; and that the eyes of the Devon and Cornwall are in these Lord our God are always upon it, respects distinguished in this coun- from the beginning of the year even try. Mining is considered to have unto the end of the year?" been of early origin in Britain, and

V..

Obituary.

MR. ROBERT BEILBY.

should go, when he was old he did not depart from it." By what means he was converted to God does not appear, but there is no doubt that his heart was changed by divine grace at an early period; and those early fruits of piety which appeared in him, and in his yet surviving sister, made his mother's heart rejoice, and led her to observe, “that she believed the Lord had blessed her with two such children as few parents had." Sometimes the Holy Spirit awakens the soul as by a peal of thunder, and at other times his influence descends as the gentle dew; so we believe it was in his youth with our venerable friend: "The Sun of Righteousness arose upon him with healing in his wings, as a morning without clouds, and shone brighter and brighter until the perfect day."

MR. R. BELLBY was born July 11, 1741, at Bridlington-quay, in Yorkshire. His father, Mr. Charles Beilby, was a master mariner, and unhappily found a watery grave when on a voyage to London, after he had been married only four years, leaving this his only son, two years and a half old, and one daughter half a year old. Mrs. Beilby, who, by this solemn providence, was bereaved of an affectionate husband, bowed to the Divine will with Christian resignation, and laboured to train up her children in the fear of the Lord. For this important work she was well qualified, having had a pious education herself, and having the holy example of Mr. George Nesfield her father, constantly before her. Mr. Nesfield had long been a useful member, and a deacon, of the Baptist church at Bridlington, and honourably supported the Christian character. Mrs. Beilby also, prior to her marriage, had become a member of the same Christian society. Mr. Beilby, whilst an infant, was removed to the house of this his maternal grandfather. His aunt, Mrs. Hannah Nesfield, who was afterwards married to the Rev. John Oulton, M. A. Baptist Minister at Rawdon, watched over him with pious care, and retained the warmest affection for him through life. In his youth he was preserved from many of the follies and dan-but with him the doctrines of grace gerous pursuits into which others have fallen, who have been educated merely to act a part in this life, and obtain a portion of its perishable enjoyments. He was early accustomed to read the scriptures, to reverence the Lord's-day, to attend the house of God, to avoid the company of wicked children, aud to select for his companions those of a virtuous character. Hence being "trained up in the way he

In the 25th year of his age he made a public profession of his faith in the Redeemer, and was baptized, and added to the church at Bridlington, April 20, 1766. "Being now buried with his Lord by baptism into death, like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of his Father, even so also he walked in newness of life.”—He received the Lord Jesus Christ as his Legislator, Pattern, and Saviour, and he grew up as a flourishing plant in the courts of the Lord's house, bringing forth fruit even to old age. His religious sentiments were strictly Calvinistic;

were not matters of mere speculation, nor the simple belief of them associated with malevolence and evil passions; they produced humility, compassion, righteousness, and charity.

After he had continued a few years in the church, he was unanimously chosen a deacon. His qualifications for the due discharge of this office were such as have been excelled by few. He was a fair