Remarkable Success.

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lowing instances, recorded in Mr Sherman's own words: "In the early part of the year 1837, I preached one Sabbath evening from Mark iv. 36, 'And there were also with him other little ships.' The text was striking, and caught the attention of the congregation. The subject was, the earnestness with which men must seek for Christ, and the risks they must be willing to run to find him. As I proceeded in the illustration and enforcement of the principle stated, there came from heaven a celestial breeze, and one little ship after another seemed to start in search of Christ till they became a fleet. The feeling upon my own mind was, that I was ready to risk all, and go with Christ, so glorious a Saviour, so exalted a Captain did he appear. And this feeling was apparently communicated to the congregation. They were melted into penitence and tears. Never shall I forget the impression made when, at the close of the sermon, I gave out the hymn—

'Jesus, at thy command,

I launch into the deep.'

Had it been possible then and there to put the question, and to have asked every one willing to embark for the celestial country to hold up the hand, I verily believe almost every one, and most of them with tears, would have uttered, 'Here am I, take me.' When I descended from the pulpit, both vestries and the schoolroom were filled with persons anxious to converse with me. I began to talk with them one at a time, and asked a few elderly persons in the church to distribute themselves amongst those in the schoolroom. In the midst of my converse, and after he had waited more than an hour, a gentleman of some position knocked at my vestry door, and said, 'Sir, here are enough to fill twenty boats; what will you do with us?' Exhausted beyond measure, I kneeled down and prayed with them. The place was literally a Bochim. After pronouncing the benediction, I begged of them to retire, and to come and see me on the morrow or Tuesday. The greater number did so, but some were afraid, dear souls, that the impression would wear away, and others were so circumstanced that that was the only time they had, and they begged, as for their life, that I would converse with them for a few minutes. I remained among them until eleven o'clock, listening to their repenting vows and anxious expressions of faith in Christ. The excitement sustained me for the time, and a night's rest recruited me. But, oh, it was worth dying for to witnesss such a scene! After suitable examination, many were admitted to the church, eighty-four of whom attributed their conversion to Christ to that sermon. How many joined other churches is known to God alone. The larger number remained for years, many of them remain to this day, amongst the most active and devoted of the members of the church."

It was a fine feature of Mr Sherman's character that, in his anxiety for the welfare of his flock, he was ready to take advantage of every agency. Soon after the memorable evening above described, Mr Kirk, of Boston, visited Britain. He threw himself heart and soul into the movement already begun in Surrey Chapel, and for successive months special services were held, morning and evening, with few days' intermission. In Mr Sherman's own words, "On the week evenings, the chapel was crowded as on the Sabbath. Thousands hung upon the fervent lips of the speaker. One of his sermons, from the text, 'When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them,' which he applied to the neglected of the population who were never sought out by the church, was a most mighty and terrific appeal to indolent Christians, shewing how God would require at their hands the blood of neglected souls. It led many to throw their efforts into the visitation and the instruction of their neglected neighbours. Some of his sermons were very tender, and produced the best effects in the conversion of souls. The whole church seemed stirred up to prayer. Families who had heretofore neglected domestic worship, set up an altar for God; and many whose piety had been of a very feeble and worldly character, put on their beautiful garments, and arose to a new and blessed life. God sanctified their souls in drought, and they became like a watered garden, and as a spring of water whose waters fail not.' I tried to catch a little of the same spiritual influence, and was often amazed at the power of sermons, when prayer had laid hold of the arm of the Lord. On one occasion we had the vestry and three rooms in the parsonage filled with souls crying for mercy, and very often the vestry and two rooms crowded. In such cases, we could only pass from one to another, offer a few words of encouragement and counsel, and pray with them ere they were dismissed to their homes. Ministers, who had come to hear, were enlisted in the service, and, with the deepest interest and emotion, witnessed the anxiety of souls to be saved. Some of the old guides amongst us were at first offended at the unusual course of things, and thought that we were too hasty, and that, after a short time, many would fall away. To satisfy them of the piety of the candidates, and to cure them of their unbelief, I sent them to visit them at their own homes. When they returned, it did my heart good to hear their reports of what they had seen and heard; parents rejoicing over recovered prodigals, children blessing their parents by introducing religion into their homes, and many, whose impressions of religious truth had been long buried under worldly cares and trials, reviving as the corn, and spreading their roots like Lebanon.

His First Sermon.

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Their voices would choke, and their tears would flow, as they related what they had seen and heard."

Before coming to Surrey Chapel, Mr Sherman had laboured with much energy and usefulness for fifteen years at Reading, and, although failing strength constrained him to resign his Surrey pastorate in 1854, he was able to bring, and keep together, a large and influential congregation at Blackheath, over which he presided till he rested from his labours, on the 15th of February 1862.

Our readers, we feel sure, will thank us for the following extracts. The first introduces us to Mr Sherman, at the outset of his ministerial life, and is given in his own words :

"The first time I preached in London was in Hare Court Chapel, Aldersgate Street, where there was then a respectable congregation. Mr Stodhart had been announced to preach, and had requested me to take his place on account of his indisposition. When I entered the vestry, I announced myself as Mr Stodhart's substitute. The old minister, Mr Webb, a grave, pleasant-looking man, with snowy locks, asked me my name and whence I came. I told him Cheshunt College. He replied, 'I do not agree with the doctrines usually preached by the ministers and students educated there.' I expressed my regret that I had come, and reminded him that Mr Stodhart was educated there, and that I would instantly retire, as my appearing there at all was only a friendly act towards my former minister, whose illness prevented his fulfilling his engagement. The old man did not, however, wish to preach himself. He therefore pursued his examination, and asked how long I had been at college. When I told him, he exclaimed, 'Only a year! Young men are sent out to preach far too soon, Sir. They should gain more knowledge before they attempt to teach others.' 'I perfectly agree with you, Sir,' said I, and wish you a good afternoon." No, you must preach now; and I trust God will help you.' The deacons then came forward and begged of me to serve them. Their minister had not been pleased with students, some of them having made very feeble attempts; and as the congregation was smaller than formerly, it was necessary to secure effective preachers if possible, to revive it. Without further controversy I consented to preach. The previous week had been to me a season of great mental depression, and this reception had not improved my nervous state. I ascended the pulpit in great distress. I read the chapter in which Asa says, 'We have no might to go against this great company, but our eyes are upon thee.' And after prayer, in which I especially commended to God the good old minister, I took as my text, Job xxiii. 10,-' But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me I shall come forth as gold.' At the commencement of the discourse I was dull, and to my own sensation making little impression. But when I came to describe God's knowledge of our way, implying his appointment and superintendence of it, and his companionship with us in it, and the refining process whichr

would surely be the result, I turned round to address the audience, and to my surprise saw the jealous old minister affected to tears. That sermon met his troubled state and revived his drooping spirits. Many indeed in the assembly were that day met by a message from heaven, especially in the application of the sermon, where I tried to win their hearts to confidence in their reconciled God. When I returned to the vestry, the old minister was the first to welcome me, and taking my hand between both his, said, Forgive my rude reception. It will, perhaps, be enough to tell you that God has made you a son of consolation to a greatly tried spirit. I forgot the injunction, of which I doubt not, there is much need,-Let no man despise thy youth.' We became friends from that hour until his death."-Pp. 97-99.

Our next extract presents him in the "evening time" of life, when seeking to recruit his exhausted frame on the plains of Egypt. It is a letter addressed to that younger brother in the ministry to whom we are indebted for this memoir, and is somewhat ironical in its outset.

"To the Rev. HENRY ALLON.

"GIZEH, PYRAMID OF CHEOPS, Nov. 13. 1858. "MY DEAR ALLON,-Here I am. I had a dream in which old Cheops appeared, a sad cut-throat fellow. But he assured me that he had been long expecting me to visit his sepulchre; and that a man at Islington, very grey, and somewhat older than myself, had been. pestering him with entreaties and wishes to be admitted; and that he desired me to give his kind regards (he had not a card), and to entreat him to come as soon as possible, and he would give him as good a reception as he gave to me. Of course, I deliver the message.

"Well, I am pleased, disappointed, and astonished at these pyramids. The way to them is fourteen miles on a donkey-only five as the crow flies; but the Nile having overflowed its banks, you have to make a very large circuit. We took only a cup of coffee before we started, lighted our fire, boiled our water, made our coffee, cut up our fowls, boiled our eggs, and made our breakfast at the pyramid. But oh, the horrors of that breakfast! About forty half-naked Arabs set themselves down before us. Not all our. entreaties, threats, or promises could make them retreat. One eternal clatter to be employed and to give them money. Stedfastly we refused. After breakfast, my two companions were not well enough to move. So I went to survey alone. I told them if they would let me go quietly and survey the scene, I would give them something on my return. It was useless. Eight would accompany me: dodging me,-stopping when I stopped,-sitting down when I sat. At last I said, 'Well, make yourselves comfortable,' and after a while seven left. The other told me he was afraid for me. It was very bad country; and the men might come and knock me down. All right,' said I, 'let them come.' After surveying as well as I could with such terrible annoyance, I returned to my companions, and found them keeping the fellows in good humour.

Trip to the Pyramids.

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"The pyramids do not appear so large as I expected. Their exterior is very rough. The external coating,-part of which remains on the second, has been removed. The vast desert on which they stand, for miles and miles, is nothing but a grand cemetery for Memphis. We entered at Sackara tunnels which run for miles, with recesses on each side, filled with mummies of the Apis and other birds and animals, in jars of pottery, like sugar loaves. Such had been the depredations, that the Pacha sent officers to guard the entrance, so that none can be taken away, else you should have had one. Near the same spot was a tunnel of enormous size, with niched recesses on each side, cut out of the solid rock, each one having in it a granite (polished) sarcophagus. These sarcophagi, thirty-three in number, are immense things, about seven feet deep, seven and a half wide, and thirteen feet long. The sacred bulls were deposited in them. Some have hieroglyphics on them. To see them was worth coming to Egypt. Dashoor we saw at a distance; and into Abooséer we entered, and saw the silent hieroglyphics cut in the solid granite, all round. Memphis,-poor Memphis,-once the glory of the world, and the terror of the natives! Its palm groves remain, and scraps of figure heads, and capitals of pillars; but it is all a mass of absolute ruin and emptiness. Yet no one can tell the exquisite pleasure I felt when standing by the colossal statute of Rameses, about seventy feet high, fallen with his face to the earth; that here Joseph had ruled and Moses taught; and all that well-watered land of Goshen was the spot where Jacob and his sons lived, and laid the foundations of the church of God. Before that I stood gazing at Baal-zephon and Pihahiroth, till I saw the hosts of Israel and Pharaoh-the cloud moving and returning, the Israelites safely landed by the well of Moses (where Miss Yuseph gave me a nice cup of tea and two eggs). The army of Pharaoh came after them, and the waters close upon them. And at last I heard the tambourine, and on looking round, it was Miriam and her maidens, veiled, but dancing and singing, 'Sing ye to the Lord, &c.,' and, old and stiff as I am, I found myself dancing too. Oh, Allon, I wish you were here ! 'Tush.' Well, I do. Nothing but fine days, and now comfortably cool. Love to all. Adieu.

"JAMES SHERMAN."

We have only to add, that Mr Allon has compiled a most interesting and instructive biography, worthy of the theme, and no less worthy of his own warm-hearted and vigorous understanding. It is candid, affectionate, manly. It magnifies the grace of God, and it gives with delicate precision the features. of an eminent servant of the great Master. It abounds in lessons for ministers, and will be read with edification and delight by all who seek helps to their spiritual progress and incentives to new devotedness.

J. H.