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and devout,-her conversation was in heaven.

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Miss Robinson habitually resorted to the place where "prayer was wont to be made" to the humble village chapel where, with the poor, she had the Gospel preached unto her, she was strongly attached. She would walk miles through fields and lanes to be present at a religious service in a farm-house kitchen. And often at such services she engaged in public prayer with striking power, though always with great modesty. At the recollection of many of these seasons "of grace and sweet delight," she would exclaim, Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honour dwelleth." In some respects, perhaps, she went into extremes. Music, for instance, of which she was passionately fond, was entirely discarded, because in her early life it had only been associated with frivolity. She afterwards lamented this, and acknowledged that it would have been wiser to have transferred it from the service of sin to the service of Christ. It should have been brought as an offering to Jesus, who demands and deserves" our choicest songs."

Miss Robinson administered of her substance to the poor in a quiet and unostentatious way. When they were hungry she gave them meat; when they were thirsty she gave them drink; when they were naked she clothed them; and when they were sick she visited them. She manifested, indeed, her love to God by heartily entering into all schemes for the furtherance of His kingdom. Her name is honourably associated with the erection of the beautiful chapel which now adorns the village of Lanchester; for not only was she a liberal contributor, but one of the most zealous workers in connection with it.

Her brief but happy married life began in the summer of 1869, when she became the wife of the Rev. F. Crozier,

who at that time was stationed in the South-Shields Circuit. She soon gained the affections of those among whom she was now placed, and commended herself to them as in every way adapted to her responsible position. Her virtues won the esteem of all classes, and the rich and the poor alike regarded her as a friend. She shunned every thing that was mean and calcu lated to make mischief, and few ventured to bring gossip to her ear. She heartily entered into all her husband's plans of usefulness, and especially did she sympathize with him in the trials which are incident to a minister's life. In seasons of difficulty she brought the assistance of wise counsel, and in all signs of prosperity she greatly rejoiced. She was not able to enter upon active work in Glasgow, whither her husband removed at the Conference of 1872, but she was prepar ing her plans, and had resolved to spend and be spent for God. Little did any think that the Master was about to call for her: yet so it was; and she had to say, "My days are past, my pur poses are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart." During the last few days of her life she meditated much on those precious portions of Scripture contained in the fourteenth and seventeenth chapters of St. John's Gospel: and often did she say, "The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin." When articulation had failed, and she was unable to express her confidence in God, a bright smile testified that peace and joy and hope reigned within. A little before her death, referring to her eldest child, she said, "I'll take Maggie with me," and gently she "fell on sleep." The words respecting the child were almost prophetic; for in four days after her own death her "Maggie" suddenly died, and followed her sainted mother to eternal life. Thank God, "our people die well!"

A. W.

SEPTEMBER 13th, 1872.-At Etruria, in the Newcastle-under-Lyme Circuit, Jane Bourne. She was led to give her heart to the Saviour through a sermon preached by the late Rev. Dr. Newton; and she ever after cherished a high regard for that eminent minister. Many times, when referring to the time when God brought the truth home to her heart, she has exclaimed with deep emotion, "O happy day that fixed my choice!" The life of Mrs. Bourne, after her decision for Christ, was one of steady and uniform consistency. Her constant and punctual attendance at the means of grace is worthy of special notice. She greatly loved her class-meeting, and would never be absent from it if possible for her to be there. Of late years the Bible was her constant companion, and she often expressed her thankfulness that she lived near the house of God, so that if able to be out anywhere, she could go to its services. It was indeed the joy of her heart to engage in the worship of God. Ripe in years, and ripe in Christian experience, and with those whom she loved best around her, she ended her days in great peace, having attained to a good old age. G. A. P.

and profound gratitude, of the way in which she first obtained a sense of God's forgiving love. She had been seeking the Lord with great earnestness, and many tears, in the diligent use of all the means of grace, when she was enabled to trust in Christ for a present salvation, and had a measure of peace and joy. Still she had not that assurance of forgiveness which she longed to possess, and without it she was resolved never to rest. Now it was that those words of "the evangelical prophet" were spoken to her heart:

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O Lord, I will praise Thee: though Thou wast angry with me, Thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortedst me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation." She did not remember, she said nearly seventy years afterwards, “that there were any such words in the Bible, but God spoke them to my heart, and I felt it to be so. I feel

the same thing now just as clearly as I did then." For many years she enjoyed that perfect love which casteth out fear, and could testify that "the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth from all sin." She was a woman of rare gifts and exalted piety, who for three-score years and ten was steadfast and unmovable, ever pressing "toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

October 9th.-In the eighty-sixth year of her age and the seventieth of her membership with the WesleyanMethodist Society, Mrs. Butters, widow of the late Mr. Virlot Butters, of Hibaldstore, in the Brigg Circuit. At the commencement of her Christian life she was subjected to bitter trial in when she believed that her departure consequence of her connection with was at hand. "The Lord is my porthose among whom she had obtained tion, saith my soul. What a portion! the salvation of the Gospel; and when and for one so unworthy. Much of persecution failed, large pecuniary con- imperfection attaches itself to me, but siderations were offered to induce her He loves me. He claims me for His separate from a people so despised and disliked as the Methodists then all through the blood of the Lamb." were. But she was not moved by Then, with tears of gratitude stream

The following are some of the expres sions which fell from her lips at a time

either threatening or reward.

position was deliberately taken and Her

own. I shall be with Him for ever;

ing down her face, she exclaimed, "What a mercy! What a wonder !

steadfastly maintained. To the end of How strange! Yet so it is. He has

her protracted and eventful life, she was wont to tell, with deep emotion

said it who cannot lie." Contrary to all expectation she rallied, and when

I

partially recovered was heard to say, "I have had a sore conflict. I thought I was perfectly resigned, but to-day I have found it most difficult to be willing to stay as long as God wills. have, however, conquered through Him who hath loved me. I am now willing to stay,-quite willing, although I desire to go. I should prefer to go,—I am wishful to go; but now God has given me His grace, and I am willing to go or stay, as it pleaseth Him." In this state of mind and heart she was found when the Messenger came, and her death was in beautiful accord with her life. W. B.

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October 21st.-At Dunedin Villa, in the Brixton Hill Circuit, in her fiftyninth year, Jane Middleton Butters. In early life she was soundly converted to God, and obtained a clear sense of His forgiving love. A private memorandum found among her papers after her death tells how God spoke peace to her broken and contrite heart by applying with strange power several words of Scripture, among which were, "Thy sins be forgiven thee." For some time previously she had experienced what she describes as a partial sense of the Divine favour;" but "now," she adds, "I can truly say, 'God is my salvation."" This assurance of pardoning mercy she never lost. During her residence in Australia, as an efficient secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, as a kind and sympathizing visitor of the sick and needy, as a diligent and faithful class-leader, as the friend and counsellor of many when first they felt "the heart of a stranger in a strange land," and as the helper of her husband in every department of his work, she served her generation by the will of God."

After her return to England, her cultivated intellect found congenial employ. ment in a more retired sphere, but her spirituality of mind was maintained, and her growth in grace apparent. One with whom for some years past she regularly met for Christian fellow

ship says, “Her clear testimony at class, her abiding trust, her full and settled conviction that all God does is right, and her rich experience have often greatly cheered my heart."

Not till within two days of her death did the malady from which she had suffered for years assume SO serious a form as to alarm her friends; from that time she was not able to speak much, but all she did say proved that she felt her feet to be upon the Rock, and that she had not been taken at unawares. A few hours before her death her medical friend said, "Do you feel Jesus precious to you now?" to which her prompt and cheerful reply was, 66 Yes." "How precious," he added, " to have a living faith in Christ!" and again she said emphatically, "Yes." "You are resting on the Atonement of Christ alone?" he continued, when once more her reply was, "Yes." As the closing scene drew near she spoke frequently of her sainted father, the late Rev. John Waterhouse, and seemed to be holding communion with the other world. Her utterance had become indistinct and feeble, but she was heard in broken sentences and faint whispers many times to repeat such words as, "My Father's house""Thrones"-" Splendid," "Let me go;" and other expressions of a similar import showed that her treasure and her heart were already in heaven. Once, when evidently in great pain, she was heard faintly but fervently to whisper, "Saviour, help me!" Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you," was one of her favourite texts; and when she was asked if in her extremity she could "cast herself and all her care upon her Saviour," with an air of unusual confidence she replied, "Yes." "Do you now feel that God eares for and loves you?" "Yes," was still her distinct answer; and this was her last utterance to him who watched her dying couch, and who now mourns her loss.

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LONDON PRINTED BY WILLIAM NICHOLS, HOXTON SQUARE.

W. B.

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