Thus died in the 70th year of his age, Mr. John Parsons; having been a member of the Methodist Society forty-five years.

His remains were followed to the grave by his family and numerous friends, and by as many of his brethren the Local Preachers as could attend. His death was improved in a sermon preached on the occasion by the Rev. J. Simmons, to numerous and deeply attentive congregation. Persons of various denominations were present to pay their last tribute of respect to the memory of him, whose eulogy divine inspiration has thus pronounced, "He was a good man, and full of faith and of the Holy Ghost."

To his beloved family, the removal of Mr. Parsons to a better world, whilst it was his eternal gain, was their loss. For while he was with them, they had the benefit of his long experience and mature counsel. And especially did they share largely in his intercessions at the throne of grace. While by his holy walk and conversation, he

"Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way."

And it was matter of no ordinary satisfaction to him, that, ere he had finished his course, seve

ral of his children had chosen the Lord for their God; and especially that three of his sons had become acceptable and useful Local Preachers in the Methodist Connexion. And were it possible that glorified saints could sorrow in heaven, how deeply would he mourn over the unhappy state of any one of his dear children who may be still living in the neglect of salvation! Reader, art thou that very child? O, with what solicitude does the spirit of your departed parent mark your feelings now! O, then, allow the perusal of this brief history of your beloved father's life and death to be the humble instrument, in the hands of God, of leading you to seek that salvation which you have, alas! too long neglected. Retire and pray. Think of those dying intercessions which with strong cries and tears were offered up to God for you. Think of those emotions of his soul, when, as he grasped your hand you felt the chill of death, and his quivering lips implored a blessing on his child. O may you resolve, at once, to seek your father's God!

Many of Mr. Parsons's early Christian friends and associates had been taken to their reward before he closed his earthly pilgrimage; and s veral others have followed since. Some few still remain, who, as well as his dear partner, will soon rejoin him in the skies. By very many in

this Circuit, the remembrance of his zeal for their salvation is cherished with affectionate respect; and in many of the villages where he was the first to declare the Gospel of God, his memory will long be blessed.

To his brethren the Local Preachers, his example is worthy the closest imitation in the zeal and faithfulness of his public ministrations; and especially in his anxious solicitude to be a useful Preacher. Nothing short of the conversion of the people would satisfy him; hence whenever he went out, it was in the spirit of prayer and humble dependence upon the blessing of God. His language was,—

"The love of Christ doth me constrain,
To seek the wandering souls of men ;
With cries, entreaties, tears, to save,
To snatch them from the gaping grave."

O may the mantle of our departing Elijahs, who have borne the burden and heat of the day, be caught by their successors!-together with a double portion of that hallowed spirit which

"Crown'd with living fire their heads."

And may the kingdoms of this world speedily become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Amen! Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

202

MR. ARTHUR WILLIAMS.

"Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in, in his season."

MR. ARTHUR WILLIAMS was born at Salisbury, on the 25th of February 1748. His parents were both pious, his father having been one of eight young men who formed the first Methodist Society, at St. Ives, Cornwall. At the time when the subject of this memoir entered the world Methodism had not been introduced into Salisbury; but there was preaching occasionally in a store-house in Fisherton. These were days of persecution when those who preached, as well as those who attended to hear, were frequently pelted with mud and stones as they went to the preaching or returned from it. Neither persecution nor obloquy, however, could daunt the decided parents of Mr. Williams. And as they regularly took him with them whenever there was preaching, he was early inured to the cross, and his young and tender mind was graciously visited by the Holy Spirit of God,

which gently sealed the truth upon his heart, and assisted his earliest efforts of prayer and praise.

At nine years of age he heard a sermon at Fisherton, which deeply impressed his mind. It was respecting blind Bartimeus. Of that discourse he ever after retained a lively remembrance, and even the tunes which were sung on the occasion were never forgotten by him. Nor did the impressions of his own spiritual blindness and need of mercy, which were produced under that discourse, ever forsake him, but happily resulted in the conversion of his soul to God.

One circumstance which occurred during the time that Mr. Williams accompanied his parents to the preaching in Fisherton, ought not to be omitted, inasmuch as it strongly illustrates the good sense and pious feeling of his mother. The subject of this sketch had expressed to her some reluctance to attend preaching on one occasion, because, as he said, it was only such an one going to preach; his mother however insisted upon his going, remarking at the same time, "There is something good to be got from the worst of them." This judicious and weighty observation Mr. Williams never forgot. And to the end of his days, at least, as long as he was able to go to the house of God, he was never kept away because of