became a Travelling Preacher, and for thirty-two years continued an active labourer in the Lord's vineyard. In various parts of this kingdom, in Ireland, and in the Isle of Man, he successfully published the glad tidings of salvation. When he became unable to fulfil all the duties of a Travelling Preacher, he settled in Stockport, where, for fourteen years, he employed much of his time in visiting the sick and the poor, and in various labours of usefulness to the church of God. For several months prior to his dissolution, he was called to suffer great affliction; but his soul was kept in perfect peace. On one occasion he remarked, "I have a greater reliance on the word of God than I ever had. If the Lord were to bid me choose either life or death, I would say, Thy will be done."" On December 9th, 1824, he entered into that everlasting rest which remaineth for the people of God, aged seventy-four years. His attachment to Methodism was strong; he zealously persevered through life in preaching all its doctrines, and prudently enforcing its discipline; and his labours were not in vain in the Lord. He expounded the word of God with clearness. His ministry was owned of God, and his Christian conduct exemplified the truth of his profession.

(3.) Walter ĜriFFITH. He laboured in our Connexion as an Itinerant Preacher for forty years, not only with an unblemished, but also a highly respectable character. His disposition was kind, sympathetic, and generous. He had a sound judgment, and an affectionate heart; and his character was distinguished by promptitude, firmness, and decision. His views of divine truth were clear and discriminating; his humility was deep and unaffected; his faith was lively and vigorous; his hope was steadfast; and his love abounded. Equally removed from enthusiasm on the one hand, and formality on the other, his zeal was the pure flame of love to God and man. His preaching was eminently evangelical, experimental, energetic, and fruitful. "He was a burning and a shining light;" and many, who rejoiced to walk in his light, will praise God for his ministry for ever. He sustained the highest offices, and filled the most responsible situations, in our Connexion, greatly to his own honour, to the entire satisfaction of his brethren, and to the benefit of the church of Christ. There was in his whole deportment a simplicity, gravity, and dignity, which would have been highly creditable to a primitive Christian Pastor. His last affliction was protracted; but during the greater part of it he was free from pain, and favoured with much spiritual enjoyment. He was not harassed with fears or doubts; but his mind was stayed upon God, and kept in perfect peace. In answer to the inquiries of a Christian friend, he remarked, that it had been the business of his life to preach a happy religion; and that in the time of his affliction, and in

the prospect of death, he enjoyed it in all its comforts. A little before he died, he raised his voice and exclaimed, "Glory! glory! glory! The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin! I have gained the victory through the blood of the Lamb!" He then gave his dying blessing to each member of his family, and departed, to be with Christ. He died, January 30th, 1825, in the sixty-third year of his age.

(4.) GEORGE DEVERELL. He was a native of Somersetshire; and was converted to God through the instrumentality of the preaching of the Methodists, in a small village near Bristol, at the age of about twenty-one; some years after which he began to itinerate as a regular Preacher in our Connexion. Humility, peaceableness, and piety, were conspicuous traits in his character, and his labours were crowned with a success which he was always careful to ascribe to his heavenly Master. For several of the latter years of his life he had to endure very painful and distressing infirmities, which at length obliged him to retire, and become a Supernumerary, after having been employed as a Travelling Preacher for thirty-three years. In a few months after that retirement, death approached with rapid, though undismaying steps; and on the 24th of March, 1825, he entered triumphantly into the joy of his Lord, being in the sixty-second year of his age, and the thirty-fourth of his public ministry.

(5.) GEORGE TINDALE; whose short life was extensively useful, and whose sudden death excited a deep and general sympathy. His conversion to God was accompanied with the most satisfactory evidence, and was followed by an amiable and unblemished conversation. By a sound and vigorous understanding, an ardent love to the word of God, and a holy delight in the duty of prayer, he was happily prepared in early life for that course of usefulness which was afterwards set before him by the providence of God. He began his ministerial labours, as an Itinerant Preacher, in 1814. As a Preacher he was judicious, faithful, and energetic. In every Circuit to which he was appointed, God gave him seals to his ministry, who will be his joy, and crown of rejoicing, in the day of the Lord Jesus. During the last three years of his life, his labours were repeatedly interrupted by the want of health; and, for about six weeks before his death, he was obliged to desist from preaching. Greatly as he loved the work, he submitted to be laid aside, not only without murmuring, but with perfect resignation to the divine will, saying, "I know of nothing in my heart contrary to supreme love to God, and universal love to man." Yet his wish was, as he often expressed it, that he might die in the harness; and in this he received the desire of his heart. When he had ceased to preach, neither his zeal for God, nor his activity in his service, was diminished in the least

degree. In the midst of pious designs, and joyful anticipations of usefulness, he continued to pursue his Master's work, till the day on which he attended the last Missionary Meeting at Derby; when, on the platform, in the presence of his brethren, and in the very act of advocating the cause of the perishing Heathen, he was seized with paralysis; and finished his triumphant warfare the next morning, April 18th, 1825, in the thirty-third year of his age.

(6.) JOHN SMITH, sen.; a pattern of Christian simplicity and godly sincerity, who faithfully laboured as a Travelling Preacher in our Connexion nearly forty years, during which period his deportment was uniformly holy, and just, and unblamable. Being constrained by the love of Christ to seek "the wandering souls. of men," he cheerfully fulfilled the task assigned him as a steward of the mysteries of God. At all seasons, however inclement, he was regularly found at his post; and in all places he appeared ever ready, at the call of duty, to "serve his generation by the will of God." While diligent and serious as a teacher of sacred truth, he was at the same time eminently qualified for the enforcement of our discipline. Without the ostentation of authority, he acquired and preserved its influence, by ruling in the fear of God, and naturally caring for the souls of the people. His attachment to our doctrines, discipline, and worship, was peculiarly strong, and remained unimpaired to the latest period of his life. In his last affliction he was not forsaken; but whilst his strength decayed, he was graciously comforted by the abiding assurance of his interest in God's favour. The last words which he was heard to articulate were, "All is clear; the prospect is bright; Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life." Having fought the good fight, and kept the faith, he finished his course, and entered into the joy of his Lord, June 12th, 1825, aged sixtyfive.

(7.) JOHN BRYANT. He was a native of St. Agnes, in the county of Cornwall. In the year 1799, during the progress of an extensive revival of religion in that parish, he joined the Methodist Society. Having tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, he soon began to call sinners to repentance; and, after exercising his talents in a most acceptable manner as a Local Preacher, he was called to labour more extensively in the Lord's vineyard. In 1809 he became an Itinerant Preacher; and, during the period of sixteen years, he fully preached the Gospel of Christ in various parts of our Connexion. As a man, he possessed strong natural powers of mind, which were cultivated and disciplined with the utmost diligence and assiduity. He applied his heart "to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things;" and his profiting

appeared unto all. He was also endued with great evenness of temper, and sweetness of disposition; and had learned of his Saviour to be meek and lowly in heart. Anger never rested in his bosom, kindness and affability invariably distinguished his character; but these never degenerated into cowardice or pusillanimity. To the cause of truth he had an unconquerable attachment; and wherever duty pointed out his path, he followed with an undeviating step. As a Preacher, he was grave, solid, and argumentative. The great doctrines of Revelation he studied with diligence and prayer, and from the treasury of God's word he brought forth things new and old. The last two years of his life he laboured in the Maidstone Circuit. Here he was universally esteemed and revered, and had been unanimously requested, by the members of the Quarterly Meeting, to continue a third year; but the great Head of the Church, in his inscrutable providence, called him away in the prime of life from this scene of labour and of suffering. During the affliction which terminated in his death, he was abundantly strengthened with might by the Spirit in his inner man. In proportion as the hour drew near which was to terminate his mortal existence, his confidence in God more strong, and his desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ more ardent. To one of the Preachers who saw him on his way to this Conference, he said, "While you are enjoying the pleasures of the Conference, I shall be enjoying the pleasures of paradise." His last words were, "Peace, peace; all is peace." He died at Exeter, July 3d, 1825.

2. In Ireland, two; viz.,

grew

(1.) JOHN HAMILTON, who died in great peace, in the sixtysecond year of his age, and the thirty-first of his ministry. He was an humble, devoted, and zealous servant of his Saviour, to whom he had unreservedly yielded up his soul and body. His simplicity, integrity, zeal, and patient endurance of many privations, fatigues, and sufferings, during the whole course of his arduous ministry as an Irish Missionary, have not been exceeded amongst us. With humble talents, yet with ceaseless prayers, and unabating zeal for the salvation of souls, God was pleased to use him as the instrument of the awakening and conversion of hundreds of his fellow-sinners; and, in the most destitute and benighted parts of Ireland, north and west, he was successful in forming several Societies. Worn down with continued labours, he left the last Irish Conference much enfeebled, and had scarcely reached his family, when a paralytic affection occurred, which terminated in his dissolution.

He

(2.) JAMES M'KEE, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. was a man of deep piety and unremitting zeal. Having obtained

mercy through faith in Christ, he began to exhort and preach in Portaferry, and other places in the Ards, giving full proof of his call to the ministry. Rarely has a prophet been more honoured in his own country. At the Conference in 1793 he was received on trial into our itinerant Connexion. Twenty-nine years he laboured faithfully, acceptably, and successfully. Some years before his death, his health was in a declining state; but his patient and steady zeal was unabated, until, seized by an inflammatory disorder, his useful life was suddenly terminated. His sufferings were severe, but his consolations abounded. He saw death rapidly approaching; but the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to everlasting life inspired him with perfect resignation, and he gained the final victory.

3. In our Foreign Missions, three have died; viz.,—

(1.) WILLIAM MAGGS. At the Conference in 1822 he was appointed to the island of St. Christopher. Few men have entered on the Christian ministry with brighter prospects of health and usefulness. During his short stay in the West Indies, he endeared himself to his brethren, and to the people amongst whom he laboured, by his devout conduct, his amiable temper, his spirit of sacrifice and self-denial, and his useful and acceptable qualifications for the sacred office. After a short residence in that country, alarming symptoms of consumption rendered it expedient for him to return to England; and, in about a fortnight after his arrival in Bath, his native city, he died in peace, on the 24th of November, 1824.

(2.) HENRY T. HARTE. After having acted as a Local Preacher for three years, he voluntarily offered himself to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ to the Heathen; and was appointed to Sierra-Leone, where he was received as an angel of God by the afflicted Societies in that place, who had been deprived by death of their former pastors. He evinced great deadness to the world, and much heavenly-mindedness. Prayer, and praise, and doing good of every possible kind and degree, were the most delightful employments of his life; and when death approached, he maintained an unshaken confidence in God. Not long before his departure he exclaimed, "Jesus Christ is my fortress, and my strong tower." "I thank God, my salvation is at hand. Now, Lord, I am ready to come to thee." He died December 27th, 1824, aged twenty-seven years.

(3.) JOHN HIRST. He faithfully and successfully preached the Gospel, for the space of seven years, in the islands of the West Indies, and was honoured of God with many seals to his ministry. He was a man of great integrity, of ready speech, and respectable talents; and displayed much zeal in applying the im