Biography. LAST YEARS OF JOHN COLBY. "WONDERFUL things happen in this world, and one of them is that John Colby has become a Christian," was a remark addressed to the tenant upon his home farm, by a great statesman, one of the most distinguished of his country and age. According to a fine habit of his when visiting his native hills of New Hampshire, Mr. Webster had been engaged in seeking out the acquaintances of his childhood. He had just returned from a visit to the old friend named, and after sitting in his mansion a while, as if in thought upon the interview recently had, he suddenly and emphatically gave utterance to the above remark. It was a wonderful thing that happened in this world when John Colby became a Christian, although the wonder and joy of it were not confined to this earth. He was brother-in-law to the great statesman, and at the period of the change referred to, had reached the age of eighty-four years, a time of life at which the natural sensibilities are apt to be blunted, and the habits of sin fixed and strong in the soul. Strange as it may seem, such had been his heedlessness of instruction, that though surrounded by an intelligent community, he had never learned to read. What knowledge and mental discipline he possessed had been acquired in the school of the world, and not by means of books. Under such circumstances, it is remarkable that any considerable change should take place in his character. That a revolution should be wrought in it such as should place the remaining years of his life in direct contrast with his whole previous career, is wonderful, and can be attributed only to the power of Him who wrought miracles of grace on the day of Pentecost, and converted the hostile traveller on his way to Damascus. The writer enjoyed frequent opportunities of visiting him after his conversion, and the following narrative is taken substantially from his own lips. Mr. Colby had a pious mother, who inculcated upon him, when a child, the precepts and duties of the Bible, and her teachings dwelt in his memory and con science. These, with the subsequent counsels and solicitude of his wife, at times deeply impressed him with the importance of seeking the salvation of his soul. The goodness of God, also, in bestowing temporal blessings-in enabling him to get free from debt, and to acquire a competency for the support of himself and family-sometimes affected his heart, and called forth the feeling of obligation to devote himself to the service of God. But the love of the world grew strong within him, and his desire for earthly treasures quenched his anxieties as to his salvation. From year to year he neglected the claims of God, till at length age stole upon him, and his brow was whitened by the snows of more than fourscore years. "What was it," inquired the writer, "that at last roused you to act in view of the prospect before you? "The good words of my mother and of my wife," he replied, "kept by me; but I thought there would be time enough left to seek the Lord, until last fall, an acquaintance of mine dropped down dead. He was standing at the railroad depôt, as well as usual, and without any warning he fell down dead. I felt that it was time for me to get ready to die." "What did you do when this warning reached ?" you "I cried to the Almighty to have mercy upon me; to pardon and save my soul. I prayed to him day and night." "Did he hear you immediately?" "Not at first. But I was afraid to die. So I kept calling upon him, and he gave me a heart for this book," said he, putting his hand upon a New Testament in large type before him, kept open by his spectacles at the place where he had been trying to read. "The Almighty gave me a heart for this blessed Testament." "But you were not able to read it?" "No; but my children read some of it to me, and I began to learn to read it for myself." "Did you not find it hard work, at your time of life, to begin with your letters, and learn to read?" "Yes, it was hard work. It was difficult for me to find out the meaning. Sometimes I would find a part of a word on this end of the line, and another part of it over on the other end of the next line, and I could not make out the sense. But I would pray to the Almighty to help me, and then I would try again, and He would help me to find it out. So that now I have read the Testament through eight times; and here I am, in the epistle of Peter the ninth time; and O," added he, with streaming eyes, "it is glory and praise in my heart.” Deeply interesting was it to see this aged man, so recently awakened to the realities of his immortal existence, and in possession of the true portion of his soul, pour out his feelings of confidence and joy in God. His form was large and vigorous, his ample features and expanded brow, crowned with hair abundant and white as the driven snow, imparted to him an air at once venerable and commanding; while the deep furrows which grooved his countenance suggested the thought of a strong impelling power, and gave token of the fires of passion that had burned and raged within. But the harshness was now softened, and his features were lighted up with the benignity of heavenly love. The Bible had met his wants; he was filled with rapture, and from the abundance of his heart his mouth spoke. Desirous of knowing what relation his joyful experience bore to the power and grace of the Redeemer, I once asked him how Christ appeared to him. He raised his hands adoringly, and exclaimed, "Glorious, blessed Saviour!" After expressing, at some length, his love and gratitude, he gave the following relation :— "When I began to seek religion, I determined that I would not go to the Son of God, nor to the prophets nor apostles, but to the Almighty. I determined to go to the Being that built the mountains, and made the rivers and the trees, and created all the world." He was standing, as he spoke, on the threshold of his cottage door. A short distance before him flowed the waters of the beautiful Pemigewasset. Beyond it sloped the hills, which, extending off to the north and east, rise into the magnificence of the Franconia and White moun tain ranges.* As the venerable old man *These mountains extend thirty miles, and rise to the height of five thousand to seven thousand five hundred feet above the sea. spoke, he pointed with an air of dignity to these familiar tokens of divine power. "I wanted," he said, "a religion that should be good and strong, and that would keep by me, and help me when I came to die. So I cried to the Almighty, and He gave me a heart for the blessed Testament. I found out how to read it, and then I read in it that Jesus Christ made the world, and the rivers and the mountains. And then I began to pray to Him, that He would give me a new heart; and He gave it to me. And I read that when He lived on the earth, He healed the sick and the blind, and was good to the poor, and then I knew that He would be kind to me; and He forgave me, and gave me a new heart." And then in a manner impossible to describe, he broke forth into an ardent doxology "to Christ the Almighty God, who had been so kind to him, and given him a new heart." On one occasion, I asked him how he expected to keep his hold upon the Saviour, and preserve his joy and delight in Him. "Oh," he replied, "I must read the blessed words of Christ and obey all His commandments; and don't you think the Almighty will help me to keep on and hold out to the end?" I assured him that Christ who built the mountains and created the world and the men who live in it, is able to keep all that we commit to Him, and that He will never leave or forsake those who trust and obey Him. This state of religious sensibility and enjoyment did not prove transitory, but continued till the close of his life, a period of about three years. The most of his waking hours he employed in studying the New Testament. His soul appropriated its truths and fed upon them. This was the only book he ever read. His attention was several times called to the Old Testament; but it was always a toil to him to read, and he had become to a degree familiar with the New Testament writings, which became increasingly precious to him, so that he never left them. The change wrought in the character and spirit of Mr. Colby was great, He had been harsh and domineering in his spirit. He had been hard and exacting in his treatment of others. His passions had been strong and unregulated. He had neglected the worship of God and the ordinances of the Gospel, and at times had been opposed to the offering of prayer by any one in his family. The work to be accomplished in his soul was obviously | tion. He called his grandchildren around great. It is not asserted that every thing him, reminded them that they must all desirable was wrought in him; it must be die like their old grandfather, and exacknowledged that he had faults to the horted them early to give their hearts to last. Still, without doubt, he told the Christ. Disease gradually increased upon truth to his great kinsman and friend, him, until at length, on the 6th of August, when he said to him, "I have had done 1852, he yielded his willing spirit to the for me, Daniel, what neither you nor all Divine Redeemer, at the age of eightythe great men in the world could do for seven years. When nothing else that he me. I have got a new heart.' His spirit uttered could be understood by the friends and temper were softened and improved; in attendance upon him, "Jesus," and the power of the Gospel, having car- 'glory," were the last articulate sounds ried the main citadel of the heart, seemed that dwelt upon his lips. to make progress in the conquest of his sinful habits as long as he lived. To worship God became his delight. One Sabbath evening, when he could no longer go to the sanctuary, the writer held a religious service at his house. At his request, the neighbours had been invited in, that he might once more have an opportunity of worshipping God in company with them. The exercises appeared to refresh and rejoice him. The singing, particularly, seemed to elevate his spirit and waft it away to the realms of perpetual praise and song. He could not withhold his thanks from the singers who had come to sing with him "the Lord's sweet hymns.' Some months before he was taken seriously ill, he became lame, so that he was unable to walk abroad. This was a trial, as it prevented his going around to declare to others the precious Saviour and his joy in him. As long as he lived he was anxious to bring others to behold the 'glory of Christ as a Saviour, and to submit their hearts to him. 66 The power and grace of Christ are strikingly illustrated in the life of Mr. Colby. Created and placed on earth to glorify God, for more than fourscore years he neglected the Author of his being, and left unaccomplished the great work of life. Powers of mind were wasted, influence for good was lost, exposure to Divine wrath and everlasting ruin was dared, yet forgiveness was found with God. Habits of sin had been formed, and the faculties and susceptibilities of his soul devoted to his own worldly objects, yet Almighty power was bestowed the Holy Spirit's influence was sent to recover his soul and fit it for hea ven. No one could come into his presence in his latest years, and witness the action of his mind under the influence of the Saviour's love, and not feel that his powers were much greater than ordinarily, and that they had been fitted for great influence and usefulness in life; but they were perverted, and employed in the service of sin. How admirable the grace His last illness, which was accompanied that so long forbore, and at last restored with much suffering, he bore with Chris- and saved. It was the constant theme of tian patience and resignation. On one his tongue. It filled his heart with joy occasion, and as far as known on one and praise. While the hazards and inoccasion only, darkness came over his gratitude of such a life should deter men spirit, and in tones of anguish, he from neglecting the call of the Gospel exclaimed to a granddaughter present, for a day, the example of sovereign “Oh, Dorcas, if I should be cast off at grace and power here presented should last, what should I do?" But the eclipse encourage every aged sinner, even the was not of long duration; faith resumed most aged, to call upon God, and press its sway, and the almighty Saviour, who into his kingdom. Jesus Christ here reared the mountains and hills, mani-"shows forth all long-suffering, for a fested his presence in the hour of his pattern," that men may "hereafter beextremity, and brought light and salva- lieve on Him to life everlasting." Miscellaneous Papers. THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. THE following interesting document, which we copy from our excellent contemporary, the "Irish Presbyterian," has been furnished by the Irish General Assembly, in relation to the threatened attempts to prevent the continuance of the Regium Donum. It contains so many important facts, too little known, connected with the sister Church in Ireland, that we are sure not a few of our readers will thank us for giving it a place in our columns: abode of peace and prosperity. In the reign of Charles I., when the spirit of intolerance, fostered by Archbishop Laud and his adherents, brought the three kingdoms to the brink of ruin, Irish Presbyterians did not escape its inflictions. The statutes of Dublin College were remodelled, the Irish Confession of Faith was set aside, and the Presbyterian ministers were ejected from their places for nonconformity. In a few years afterwards they regained their position; and though they publicly protested against the execution of Charles I., and objected to the Government of Cromwell, they were suffered, during the protectorate, to isters of the National Establishment. At the Restoration, they were again ejected for nonconformity, but, only eleven years afterwards, they commenced to receive the Regium Donum, which they have since almost uninterruptedly enjoyed. They were then comparatively few, and the amount of the bounty was consequently small; and yet, when the increase of ministers and the difference in the value of money are considered, it will be found that it was perhaps as liberal as the present nominally larger allowance. In the end of the reign of Charles II., the grant was discontinued; but on the arrival of King William III. in Ireland, in 1690, the sum originally given was doubled, and since that period, either on account of the multiplication of congregations, or on the ground of special services rendered to the British Crown, it has been repeatedly augmented. "Very soon after the Reformation, Presbyterians settled in Ireland, and, on their first appearance in the country, they were admitted to the privileges and emoluments of members of the Estab-retain the status and emoluments of minlished Church. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, the University of Dublin was founded on a comprehensive basis; and, in conformity with its original statutes, Presbyterians were promoted to its offices of trust and honour. In 1594, the Rev. Walter Travers, a distinguished Presbyterian divine, who, in England, had been silenced by Archbishop Whitgift for Nonconformity, was appointed its first regular Provost, and three of his immediate successors were ministers of the same principles. The first elected fellows of the University were two Scottish Presbyterians, Mr. James Fullerton and Mr. James Hamilton. At the time of the Ulster Plantation, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, Scottish Presbyterians were encouraged by James I. to emigrate to Ireland; and, to obviate legal difficulties in the way of their removal, a special Act of Parliament was passed for their security. The emigrants were accompanied by their ministers, who, with the sanction of the existing bishops, and the full concurrence of the Government, were permitted, where they settled, to enjoy the tithes and to preach in the parish churches. In 1615, a Convocation was held, when a Confession of Faith was drawn up, in which several of the peculiar principles of Presbyterians were more or less distinctly embodied. Under these circumstances, the Ulster Plantation was successful, and the northern province, so long a scene of violence and desolation, became the Some of the services which Irish Presbyterians have rendered to the British Crown may now be summarily enumerated. It must be admitted by all who are competent to bear an impartial testimony, that, by their colonisation of Ulster, they have transformed the most turbulent, barren, and barbarous province of Ireland, into the most orderly, the richest, and the most civilized. Before their arrival in the country, the British monarch had there little more than a nominal sovereignty. Its Presbyterian inhabitants, now amongst the firmest supporters of the throne, are ready, if need be, to hazard their lives and fortunes in repelling the aggressions of either foreign foes or domestic traitors. In 1641, when a horrible conspiracy was formed to seize on the government and massacre the Protestant population, the scheme was defeated, and the kingdom thus saved from an immense amount of bloodshed, by the courage and fidelity of Owen O'Connolly, a Presbyterian elder, who discovered the plot, and immediately reported it to the lords-justices. At the memorable siege of Derry, in 1689, the Presbyterians formed more than nine-tenths of the defenders of the city, and there, in the Thermopyla of the empire, earned imperishable fame in their deadly but successful struggle for civil and religious liberty. Before the death of Queen Anne, when there was a design on foot to violate the Act of Settlement, and to bring in the Pretender, the Presbyterians of Ulster took measures for asserting the claims of the Elector of Hanover, and sent over a secret messenger to the Continent to assure his Highness that, in case of necessity, they were prepared to appear in arms in support of his title. King George I. felt so strongly the value of this seasonable expression of attachment, that, very shortly after his accession to the throne, he made a considerable addition to the Regium Donum. In 1745, within a week after the time when the standard of the Pretender was raised in Scotland, the Presbyterians of Down and Antrim publicly announced their determination to resist him, and immediately commenced to form themselves into companies of volunteers, to maintain their opposition, should either he, or any of his partisans, attempt to disturb the peace of Ulster. In 1798, when a revolutionary mania had seized upon all classes of the population of Ireland, the Presbyterians were not free from its infection; but still the greater portion of the northern province remained tranquil, and the Irish Lord-lieutenant tendered his special acknowledgments to the Synod of Ulster for the promptitude and zeal with which, as a body, it discountenanced the spirit of disaffection. More recently, when attempts have been made to effect a repeal of the legislative union or to organise rebellion, Ulster has stedfastly upheld the cause of social order and of British connexion. Should it be said that Presbyterians are in comfortable circumstances, and that, consequently, they ought to support their own religious teachers, it may be stated, in reply, that they settled in Ireland under Royal auspices, that their ministers originally shared the emoluments of the ecclesiastical establishment, and that the bounty was granted as a compensation for the losses they sustained in consequence of their nonconformity. So long, therefore, as the Episcopal Church is maintained in the enjoyment of its revenues, Presbyterian ministers are clearly entitled to this Parliamentary provision. The population under their spiritual inspection is at least as well instructed and as large as that in attendance on the ministrations of the Episcopal clergy, though the annual proceeds of the public property devoted to the maintenance of the Irish establishment are more than tenfold the amount of the Regium Donum. Episcopalians possess the greater portion of the wealth, and almost all the landed property of the kingdom, and if British statesmen feel it to be their duty to test the operation of the voluntary principle in Ireland, they must admit the obvious impropriety of singling out the ministers of the less opulent denomination of Protestants as the special subjects for such a critical experiment. It can be shown, by statistical returns, which cannot be impeached, that these ministers have been eminently successful in diminishing the cost of government, and in elevating the standard of public morals; and, as they are at present very indifferently remunerated, the expediency of placing them in more comfortable circumstances, rather than of reducing them to destitution, is surely worthy the consideration of wise and patriotic statesmen. The allegation, that Presbyterians are sufficiently able to support their own spiritual instructors, will be advanced with least confidence by those who are best acquainted with their circumstances. At present they erect and repair their places of worship, as well as contribute a considerable share of the ministerial maintenance; and if, burdened as they are already with rates, taxes, rent, and rent-charges, any additional contribution were now laid on them, they would feel such a demand to be exceedingly embarrassing. What have they done that they should be deprived of encouragement which they have continued to enjoy, except during a few years of persecution, since their very first appearance in Ireland? They profess the evangelical theology of the Westminster Confession, and they have not neglected to exert them |