me the high veneration in which she was held, by all with whom she was intimately acquainted. But she was the child of affliction, and called to glorify GoD, rather by patient submission, than active exertion. In these sufferings my father largely participated; and had, moreover, to sustain the pressure of his own peculiar distresses, arising from the responsible office upon which he had entered. His extreme self-abasement often produced those discouraging views of his supposed unfitness for the duties of the ministry, which occasioned great dejection of spirits, united with a trembling sensibility to any thing in the shape of censure or neglect from those among whom he ministered. He stated his fears and feelings on this subject to MR. WESLEY; from whom he received, in reply, the following letter of comfort and instruction.

My dear Brother,―That you are slighted in some places ought not to discourage you, but to humble you, and to put you upon more diligence in searching the Scriptures with more meditation and prayer. As a balance for the slight you meet with in some places, you see that God gives you success in others. And there is no doubt but he gives you as much honour and success as you can bear. Many censures must be expected to follow the expulsion of unworthy members. But this will do you no hurt. The way to the kingdom lies through honour and dishonour. I am in great hopes that Sister COUSSINS will now have better health than she has had for some time. And she may say with assurance, ‘Health I shall have, if health be Go on, fulfilling your character, and being patient in bearing ill, and doing well.'—I am, your affectionate Brother,

་

"J. WESLEY."

From Penzance, my father was removed to St. Austle; where he laboured for one year, and where GoD was with him, He was then appointed to the Salisbury Circuit. The journey to that place nearly proved fatal to my mother. It brought her into so dangerous a state, that, for several months, her life was despaired of. The work of the Circuit was so extensive, that my father could only be at home six days in six weeks. It reached to Portsmouth and Chichester in one direction; and to Blandford, and Swanage in the Isle of Purbeck, in the other. Notwithstanding the labours and sufferings through which he was called to pass during this year, his mind was cheered by many manifestations of the divine favour, and by the most satisfactory proofs that the pleasure of the LORD was prospering in his hands.

In 1790, he was removed to the Taunton Circuit; where he laboured with some comfort, although he was not permitted to witness any great success. He then had an appointment to Collumpton; and the superintendency of the Circuit was committed to him. As this was the first time of his appointment to that office, it occasioned him considerable solicitude. The Circuit, like most in the Connexion at that period, was very wide. It extended from Bridport in Dorsetshire to

Torbay in Devonshire, and from Wellington in Somersetshire almost to Camelford in Cornwall. This prevented him from being at home more than four nights in six weeks. During his first year on this Circuit, my mother was dangerously ill for many months; and longcontinued separation from her became exceedingly distressing. He often went to the extreme part of the Circuit, with an aching heart, in trembling apprehension that a messenger might bring him the intelligence of her death. To increase his trouble, in the latter end of November, MR. EMPRINGHAM, one of his colleagues, left the Circuit, complaining of inability to perform the work; and died in about two months afterwards. His other colleague, MR. WADSWORTH, was also compelled by illness to suspend his labours; so that the whole care of the Circuit devolved upon my father. Yet his mind was divinely supported; and to use his own words, "The cause of God was so dear to his heart, that his duty to his heavenly Master weighed more powerfully with him than the strongest earthly tie, or the greatest earthly comfort." Acting under the influence of this high and holy motive, every consideration of personal ease gave way to the diligent and conscientious performance of his sacred work.

At the close of the year he had the happiness to see that neither the societies nor congregations were at all diminished; but that the spirit of piety was deepened and extended. He remained another year in this Circuit; and was blessed with the satisfaction of beholding the work of GoD in great prosperity, the number of members in Society having increased beyond what they had been for many previous years.

His next removal was to Wolverhampton; where he was exercised with the severest domestic afflictions, first, by the removal of a child, rather more than three years old, and then by the dissolution of his beloved wife. By this stroke, he was called to resign to his Lord and Master the objects of his tenderest affection. He was bereaved of her who had been the partaker of his joys and sorrows, the wife of his youth, and the constant friend of his soul in all its trials and exercises. It was an affecting dispensation! It reduced. him at once to the lonely wretchedness of widowhood; and left him to weep, without a human comforter, among his motherless children. But still he was not alone, for God was with him; and in this mournful season, at the graves of those whom he so highly valued, he was enabled to exercise the most noble, but the most difficult of all christian duties, that of submission to the will of his heavenly Father. In His wisdom and goodness he could confide; and most cordially allowed, admired, and adored the rectitude of his government. My father had the comfort (the purest a survivor can have) of knowing that the loss which had overwhelmed him with grief,

was the gain, the great, the everlasting gain,-of the sainted friend for whom he mourned. She was removed, from a state of continued suffering, to that world wherein "the inhabitants shall no more say they are sick; where GoD shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away." -True religion is the only support of the soul in affliction. By its hallowing influence, "tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed." These verities were all exemplified in my dear father. He had indeed lost an invaluable treasure; and his heart was alive to the magnitude and extent of this afflictive visitation; but he well knew that he had duties to attend to, of far more importance than that of bedewing the dust of death with tears. He knew that he had to fulfil his vocation in the church of God; and to its various duties he applied himself with renewed diligence, more than ever longing and labouring to win souls to CHRIST.

At the following Conference he was appointed to the Shepton-. Mallet Circuit; where he pursued his ministerial course with acceptance and success. The brief limits assigned to this memoir forbid enlargement. I must pass over extended and interesting periods of labour in my father's life, without staying to expatiate on the events with which they were filled. "He ceased not to teach and to preach JESUS ;" and the hand of the LORD was with him, working mightily, and greatly multiplying the number of believers.

Towards the close of the year, he again entered into the marriagestate with MRS. HANNAH WICKHAM, of Shepton-Mallet. The goodness of GOD favoured him with a companion every way suited to his situation and circumstances. With gratitude to God he says,

"I began again to enjoy my home and family, to which I had so long been a stranger, and I do not know that I ever felt myself so free from care, and so much at liberty to go on in my work without worldly distractions, as I do at present: blessed be the LORD."

His next appointment was to Blandford, where he laboured one year; when he was removed to Plymouth-Dock. "Here," he ob

serves,

"I spent two of the most agreeable years of my life. The people were very kind; the congregations, particularly at Dock, were large, and very attentive. I never felt myself more blessed in preaching to any people in my life."

From Plymouth-Dock he was removed to Gloucester; which, as a Circuit, was, at that time, the reverse of that in which he had passed the two preceding years. Here he found small congregations, small societies, and a poor people. What he felt most painfully was the languishing state in which the cause of God appeared,

for the poverty of the people was not to him the occasion of any considerable infelicity. He had indeed learned in the school of CHRIST the very valuable lesson of contentment, experienced and exemplified by the holy Apostle, and could with truth adopt his language, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound every where, and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need."

Stockport was the next Circuit to which my father was appointed; from which he was removed to Todmorden, where he was frequently disordered in his health. At one time he was so alarmingly ill, that apprehensions were felt, both by himself and his friends, that his life and labours were drawing to a close; but it pleased the great Head of the Church to grant him yet a longer date, and to spare him for future usefulness. Still, however, the hand of the LORD was upon him, and chastened him sore. At Northwich, his next station, his path was again obscured with the gloom of domestic sufferings, into the detail of which I cannot enter. But his soul was revived and comforted by many gracious visitations of divine love. "In the time of trouble" he was hid in the "pavilion" of his heavenly FATHER, and concealed "in the secret of God's tabernacle." We must not suppose, that the union of genuine piety with peculiar suffering is a case of but rare occurrence. How many of God's children, notwithstanding the most sincere and ardent devotedness to Him, have been constrained, in reference to the dispensations of his Providence, "to walk in darkness, and to see no light." Patriarchs and Prophets, Apostles and Evangelists, ancient and modern Christians, have all proved that the afflictions of the righteous are many;-that the way to the kingdom lies through the gloomy region of tribulation. But they have also proved, that the supports reserved for afflicted Christians are ample and abundant; and that they are eminently bestowed in the seasons of their greatest exigence. My dear father always experienced the sufficiency of divine grace; and was enabled to pursue his work with zeal and delight. On reviewing his labours when on the Derby Circuit, he writes,

"Thank God, the work in the Circuit is rather upon the increase. My health, upon the whole, is such that I can go on in my work; and I hope I am more fully fixed in the faith of CHRIST than ever. My faith does not stand upon human wisdom or stability, but upon the unadulterated truth of GOD. And I hope I can say, 'Though all men forsake thee, yet will not I.' It is my most earnest desire to be a genuine Christian. While I rest my whole dependance upon the merits of CHRIST for pardon and eternal life, I shall labour to keep a conscience void of offence towards GOD, and towards all men.'"'

(To be continued.)

MEMOIR OF MR. JOHN TURNER,

Of Redditch, in Worcestershire.

BY THE REV. CHARLES HULME.

THE history of the Methodist Society in Redditch is closely connected with the most material events in the life of the late MR. TURNER. That Society owes its formation to the pious solicitude of an individual who occasionally visited the place for the transaction of business. Powerfully impressed with a conviction that the Preaching and Discipline of the Methodists would be a great, blessing in that populous neighbourhood, he, in October 1806, made personal application to MR. REECE, then stationed in Birmingham, who promptly embraced this providential call. By a few, he was gladly received as a messenger of joyful tidings; and as the prospect of success was encouraging, the Local Preachers of Birmingham kindly afforded their aid, which essentially contributed to the furtherance of the good cause. The power of the Gospel was evinced in the conversion of many, who, for a time, had to endure a storm of rude and violent opposition: yet this, so far from retarding its progress, only tended to excite a more general spirit of inquiry. In the year 1807, under a sermon preached by MR. HEATON, MR. TURNER was awakened to a sense of his need of a preparation for eternity. Naturally of an inquisitive mind, he had previously determined that he would not be swayed by popular report, but would hear for himself. He retired from the service in silence; and, like the noble Bereans, (Acts xvii. 11,) searched the Scriptures, "to find whether those things were so." That inquiry issued in a still deeper impression of divine truth; and, after seeking the LORD with his whole heart for the space of three months, he was made the joyful partaker of peace with Gop through our LORD JESUS CHRIST. A Class was formed, of which he became one of the first members; and while the cause was yet in its infancy, he, in conjunction with a few other worthy individuals, received the Messengers of the Gospel into his house. The sincerity of his profession was evidenced by the manner in which he espoused a cause, which had to contend with the deep-rooted prejudices of the inhabitants at large, who attached an odium to the very name of Methodism, from their ignorance of its principles and gracious effects.

From the time of his conversion, MR. TURNER was particularly attentive to the cultivation of personal piety. He diligently sought to improve his christian graces and gifts, in a regular and conscientious use of the appointed means. His delight was in the law of the LORD; and some part of every day was devoted to reading and meditation. He was a man of a devotional spirit; and "prayed without ceasing, and in every thing gave thanks." His love to the public ministry of the word he evinced by his punctual attendance. When the LORD'S Supper was to be administered, he was sure to be at the communiontable; and when his christian brethren met for prayer, his fervent