Paul Cuffee salary to 1st inst.

1810. Jan. 26.

Dividend on Merchant's Bank shares, on Insurance shares,

N. Cusick's dft. fav. J. Fairbanks,

50

Mar. 6.

30. To

do.

do.

50

19.

Nov. 6.

To

Rev. Andrew Gray's dft.

282 25

To
To- N. Cusick's dft. for 3 mos. Salary,

do.
Received of the Assistant Miss. Soc.
Amount of Collection in the Middle
Dutch Church,

29. To-
Mar. 1. To
April 2. To Balance carried down,

Obed. Crane's dft. fav. Fairbanks,
do.

Received of Corns. Hyer, in addition

to do.

Received of the Presbyterian Youth's
Assistant Missionary Society,

Amount of Collection in Rev. Mr.
Bork's Church,

183 18

April 2.

Do.

Dr. Milledoler's

Do.

56 64
135 77

$1753 $3

OBITUARY.

DOW

DIED, March 23d, in the twentieth year of her life,

ELIZA VAN WYCK, only surviving daughter of the late THEODORUS VAN WYCK, of this city.

She possessed uncommon strength of understanding, and maturity of judgment. Her mind was cultivated by an excellent education, and richly furnished with useful knowledge from reading and observation. Though thus qualified to shine in the world, her affections were early drawn out, after a better country, even an heavenly.

From her childhood she displayed a serious, reflecting disposition, and paid an unusually strict attention to the external duties of religion. She scrupulously observed the Sabbath, regularly waited upon God in public worship, read the Bible at least once every day: and morning and evening repeated the prayers she had been taught.

At the age of eleven, a change took place in her views of prayer, which not only proved that she was under the guidance of an Almighty and gracious friend; but also through his blessing, contributed greatly to make her in the end savingly acquainted with him, as the beloved of her soul. Her parents going to Europe on account of her father's health, placed her at a boarding school in Newark. One evening, soon after they had left her, she had repeated her prayers as usual, and got into bed: when reflecting on the exercise in which she had been engaged, the thought was forcibly impressed upon her mind, that the form of prayer she had used, did not convey all the desires and petitions with which her heart was then filled. She reasoned with herself in this pertinent and just manner, "God has given me the faculty of expressing my feelings and wants: why not use it in making them known to him in my own words?" The reasoning was conclusive to her mind': She arose from her bed, fell on her knees, and for the first time in her life, prayed with the understanding and the heart, as well as with the lips. Ever afterwards, in all her approaches to the throne of grace, she poured forth her desires to her heavenly Father, as the spirit gave her utterance. In the en VOL. III.-No. V.

2 P

joyment of this privilege she spent much of her time, embracing every opportunity she could, without attracting notice, to retire to her closet, for that purpose.

So correct were her views of the manner in which the Sabbath ought to be sanctified, and so strong her sense of duty, at fourteen, that she resolutely, though respectfully, reproved a near friend for reading newspapers or profane history on that day, or attending to his worldly affairs.

During her only sister's indisposition, she was extremely desirous to have her apprised of her danger, that she might prepare for the issue; being fully convinced the welfare of the soul was of infinitely more consequence than any injury the body might sustain from such notice. Her sister's death, which happened when she was sixteen, filled her soul with the deepest sorrow. It excited the most serious reflections about her own mortality, and the necessity of being ready when her master should come. Ever after, she was reluctant to engage in any scenes of levity. With ample means, and temptations to enjoy largely of the pleasures of this world, she could not relish them, fascinating as they are to the gay and thoughtless. She has often said latterly, that when solicited to partake of them, she could not help thinking there was a better portion for her. Her mind was powerfully drawn to the contemplation of a heavenly country. She therefore felt no satisfaction in the vanities of this world, which are perishing. Her desires grasped some substantial good, some solid comfort, on which her precious, never dying soul, could rest with safety.

Notwithstanding this increased seriousness of mind, and disrelish for worldly pleasures, her views of the truth as it is in Jesus, did not become truly evangelical, till about a year after the death of her sister. At that period, returning from a visit to some friends in the country, she was suddenly seized with a spitting of blood. She then considered herself appointed to die of the same disease which had taken her sister away. To use her own words, when relating the incident some time afterwards, "It seemed, said she, as if God then touched my body, and it withered; but he at the same time touched my soul, and it lived. Then I began earnestly to cry within me, What shall I do to be saved?"

She now felt herself a lost, ruined, condemned sinner, and most earnestly sought to secure an interest in Christ, as the propitiation for sin, and the surety for sinners. From this pe riod she became a humble suppliant at the throne of grace, for a free and sovereign pardon of her sins. Like the Syrophee

nician women, she realized her unworthiness, but persevered in seeking a blessing at the hand of her Saviour. Her thirst after the one thing needful, became unquenchable and abiding. She searched for it as hidden treasure, and was willing to sell all she had for this pearl of great price.

During the following winter she became desirous of fulfilling Christ's dying command, "Do this in remembrance of me." In the first interview her pastor had with her, he found her doubtful about her fitness for attending that ordinance; but manifesting very strong evidences of a sincere trust in the blood of Christ, for acceptance with God. She considered the assurance of faith as the requisite qualification for admission to the Lord's Supper. Being convinced, however, in subsequent conversations, that such assurance is consequent on faith, and not faith itself; and feeling a humble hope that she had chosen Christ as her all, though fearful he had not received her, she resolved to obey his commandment the first opportunity which offered. In the adorable providence of God, however, she was prevented by the rupture of a blood vessel in her lungs, which suddenly brought her to the brink of the grave.

During her sickness, which ensued and continued for the space of twelve months, she manifested the power of the grace of God, in the most remarkable manner. She was occasionally visited with doubts about her own state; but they evidently proceeded from her anxious solicitude to feel the full assurance of faith, and from a mistake which is not uncommon, that lively emotions of joy constitute an essential evidence of an interest in Christ. At the very time, however, when she experienced these doubts, she enjoyed comfort, and was enabled to roll her burden as a poor sinner, on the Lord Jesus Christ.

These doubts being removed, by different details of Scripture truths, at different times, she seemed to enjoy real peace in believing, a long time before her death. The depressions of mind she afterwards experienced, were such as are common to all believers, at certain seasons, or proceeded directly from the effects of an all-chilling and prostrating disease.

Throughout the whole of her illness, lingering and afflictive as it was, her covenant God strengthened her. She displayed an unshaken trust in the blood of her Saviour, and uncommon patience under her trial. She would not acknowledge that she suffered any thing, but made constant mention of the goodness of the Lord to her.

Respecting the final issue of her sickness, she appeared to have no will of her own; but uniformly expressed her acqui

escence in the divine will. being asked if she did not I am not so high as that. so tried by sufferings as to I am not so low as that.

About a month before her death, long to be gone? No, she replied, She was then asked, If she was not wish them at an end? No, said she,

A deep sense of the important duty of sincerity, both in words and actions, made her habitually cautious not to express at any time, more than she really felt. This had, from her earliest years, regulated her intercourse with her companions and acquaintances, to a very great and laudable degree: and it induced her to be less communicative of her religious experience than was expected by those who best knew her. She never spoke of herself, and of the state of her mind, even to her best and most intimate friends, without caution, and a fear of appearing ostentatious. When she was constrained at last to utter her testimony to the work of grace in her soul, it was not without expressing her desire frequently, and praying most earnestly, to be delivered from vain-glorious motives and feelings, and to be permitted to say nothing but what might promote the glory of God, and the real good of her fellow

creatures.

Some months previous to her decease, being advised by an acquaintance, to divert her mind by reading some light amusing works, such as biography, pleasant histories, and the like; "My mind, she properly and pertinently replied, can feel no interest in any history but that which relates to the kingdom of the blessed Redeemer." What pleasure could such works have afforded her? They did not exhibit a Saviour's love, or a Saviour's all-sufficiency; they did not unfold the promises of the Gospel, or the hopes of glory. A dying Christian resort to such sources to divert the mind! A worldling cannot find in them the happiness which his soul needs! How then can a Christian, on the borders of eternity*?

About a month before her death, she had experienced a very severe turn of coughing, in which she expected to be suffocated. On relating the circumstance to her mother, the next morning, she told her, that she had, in this instance, realized what her sensations would be in the hour of death. "I find by that experience, said she, that death has lost its sting with respect to me. Its near approach seemed to excite no terrors in my mind."

We recommend to the reader, a letter of the pious Mr. Hervey, on this subject. It is in Vol. VI. Letter 56, of the 12mo edition of his Works, and in the 8vo. Vol. VI. Letter 170.