A Goodly Heritage

There are five natives of the parish of Uig who were enlisted when a regiment was raised on the island, and having gone with the army to Egypt, lost their sight by ophthalmy, and after their return have become acquainted with the doctrines of the gospel. It is common with them to bless God for having taken away their bodily eyes, since they regard that as one of the instruments in his hand for opening the mental sight, which was before in a state of darkness. Three of them are active fellow-helpers in the extension of Christian truth and consolation. One is a most efficient and zealous elder in the parish of Uig; of another we shall have occasion to relate a curious circumstance under the head of liberality ; and of the third we present the following well authenticated narrative, under the head of prayerfulness. This blind man, whose name even is unknown to us, had the affliction of losing a wife who was a very pious character. She left a daughter old enough to distinguish the excellen...

The Rev. Alex. M'Leod commenced his exertions as Minister of Uig in 1824. The people attended public worship tolerably well from the time of his admission; but he describes his painful conviction that the fixed gaze with which they beheld him was not an intelligent but what Wesley used to call " a stupid attention." This lasted but one month, when he began to observe one and another melt into tears, and a tender wistful listening, a "living ear'' substituted for the former stupid one. Presently enquirers came to obtain private instruction, and the exigencies of the people led to the extension of religious opportunities—such as a lecture on Thursdays and many regular prayer meetings, which still exist, and are attended with avidity. In 1827, upwards of 600 pupils, of various ages, attended the schools—and in 1834, mention is made of 13 Sabbath schools in that one parish. Auxiliaries were required to aid the teachers and catechists, and every thing seemed to be...

Isaiah 12:3 Therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation. I. Consider what we have to understand by THE WELLS OF SALVATION. 1. We are not to be content with any shallow and narrow interpretation of either idea in that phrase. No doubt "salvation" in the Old Testament often means merely outward deliverance from material peril. We shall not strain the meaning here, if we take salvation almost in the fully developed New Testament sense, as including, negatively, the deliverance from all evil, both evil of sin and evil of sorrow, and, positively, the endowment with all good, good both of holiness and happiness, which God can bestow or man receive. 2. Then if so, God Himself is, in the deepest truth, the Well of Salvation. The figure of our text does not point to a well so much as to a spring. It is a source, not a reservoir. So we have but to recall, the deep and wonderful words of the psalmist": "With Thee is the fountain of life, and others...

Our Lord Jesus was appointed and did undertake to make satisfaction for our sins and so to save us from the penal consequences of them. [1.] He was appointed to do it, by the will of his Father; for the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. God chose him to be the Saviour of poor sinners and would have him to save them in this way, by bearing their sins and the punishment of them; not the idem—the same that we should have suffered, but the tantundem—that which was more than equivalent for the maintaining of the honour of the holiness and justice of God in the government of the world. Observe here, First, In what way we are saved from the ruin to which by sin we had become liable—by laying our sins on Christ, as the sins of the offerer were laid upon the sacrifice and those of all Israel upon the head of the scape-goat. Our sins were made to meet upon him (so the margin reads it); the sins of all that he was to save, from every place and every age, met upon him, and he was met wi...

The persecution against the Nonconformists being renewed, Mr. Flavel found it unsafe to stay at Dartmouth, and therefore resolved to go to London, where he hoped to be in less danger, and to have more liberty to exercise his function. The night before he embarked for that end, he had the following premonition by a dream; he thought he was on board the ship, and that a storm arose which exceedingly terrified the passengers, during their consternation there sat writing at the table a person of admirable sagacity and gravity, who had a child in a cradle by him that was very froward; he thought he saw the father take up a little whip, and give the child a lash, saying, "Child be quiet, I will discipline, but not hurt thee". Upon this Mr. Flavel awaked, and musing on his dream, he concluded, that he should meet with some trouble in his passage: his friends being at dinner with him, assured him of a pleasant passage, because the wind and weather were very fair; Mr. Flavel replied, ...

If we would rightly praise God, we must keep ourselves from forgetfulness. Moses warns against this vice when he says: “Beware lest thou forget the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments and his statutes, which I command thee this day, lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” In the Prophets the sad complaint re-echoes from the Lord’s mouth: “Ye are they that forget my holy mountain.” One of the first stories I recall from my childhood was a story of the evil of forgetting God. I remember the very spot on which it was told to me. I feel the warm grasp of the hand which had hold of mine at the time. I see once more the little seaport town stretc...

And shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." John xvii. 32. .......There is a relation between Christ and Christians, and a conformity founded upon it; so that what He says, they may subordinately adopt as their own language. There are cases in which they may be alone— and there are cases in which they ought to be alone—and there is one case in which they must be alone: and yet they are not alone, because the Father is with them. They may be alone, by the dispensations of Providence. By death, lover and friend may be put far from them, and their acquaintance into darkness; and bereavements may force from solitude the sigh, "I watch, and am as a sparrow upon the housetop." They have often been driven out of society by the wickedness of power. Their connexions have abandoned them through falseness, or deserted them through infirmity. And this is no inconsiderable trial. Our Saviour felt the desertion of his disciples; ...