I have mingled mildness with fidelity, and shown him how it must bite like a serpent, and sting like an adder. All this has been in vain : he has fallen into drunkenness, and I have been obliged to exclude him from the society. The consequence of maintaining order in the church has been that we (the Preachers) have been turned from the parlour to the kitchen, and now from the kitchen to the doors. I had assured him that this would be the result of his unfaithfulness; but he replied, 'It can never, never be!' Lord, have mercy upon him, and upon his poor unhappy family!

Ninth Circuit, Exeter." August, 1808.-Blessed be God for bringing me and mine to this place in safety! Grant, O Lord, that thy wisdom may be my guide, thy power my defence, and thy presence my comfort, during my stay in these parts!

Tenth Circuit, Camelford.-"August, 1810.-Thanks be to God for the blessings of another Methodistic year! In mercy bless me, and make me a blessing; and may my family, with myself, be thine in the bonds of an everlasting covenant!

"December.-Blessed be God for conducting me through the vicissitudes of another year! O Lord, cover my transgressions, and accept my services through the merits of thy Son! O that my mind may be growingly conformed to the mind of my Master, and may it be my highest ambition to glorify God in my body and my spirit which are His!

"January, 1811.—Help me, O Lord, to enter upon the new year with thankfulness, and may a new life be manifest in every day's deportment!

"March. This month my mind has been greatly grieved by the demise of my dear sister. She had long been a nursing mother unto me. But, blessed be God, she is gone to the joys of a better world, where nothing shall interrupt her repose. Little did we think that our farewell at her house, a few months since, would be the lastthe final adieu! O how short and uncertain are all earthly joys! May we hold ourselves in readiness to meet her in a better world!

"August.-I am re-appointed to this Circuit. I thank the Lord for the peace which passeth understanding. O my God, be thou my port in every storm, my ark in every deluge! May my colleague be a man after thine own heart! May we draw together in the yoke of the Gospel, and our joint labours be crowned with thy blessing!

"November.-We have had our faith tested in the severe affliction of our little boy. I never before felt so much of the father's bleeding heart. We laid the case before the Great Physician, and were enabled in the greatest peril to say, Thy will be done;' and when our wills were lost in the will divine, the Lord in mercy restored the child. O that our hearts may love the Lord supremely, and our lips be filled with his praise!

"December.—We bring our years to an end as a tale which is told. My experience through this year has been chequered. I have had my clouds and my sunshine, a mixture of sweet and bitter; but the

T

Lord has graciously steered me through the threatening billows of the year, and crowned me with a variety of unmerited good. O my God, in mercy pardon all that has been wrong, and accept and bless my public and private labours in the vineyard, through the merits of Jesus Christ, to whom, with thyself and the Holy Ghost, be ascribed everlasting praise!"

Here the journal ends; and it is much to be regretted that he should have discontinued it at a period when he was "in labours more abundant," and when his ministry and talents were becoming more appreciated and useful to the church of Christ.

After the period when his own records cease, he travelled in the Circuits of Ashburton, Hungerford, Northampton, Maidstone, Newbury, Guernsey, Southampton, Newark, Frome, Melton-Mowbray, Belper, Great-Yarmouth, and Lynn. In each of these spheres he was respected, beloved, and useful. I believe it was at Ashburton, that my dear father had the honour of entertaining at his house his highly venerated friend Dr. Coke. I have heard the former say, that the Doctor was mourning the loss of his wife, and, when talking on that painful subject and deploring her death, he said, in his energetic way, "Brother Fowler, when I begin to shed tears on account of my bereavement, a voice says to me, Don't weep go to the East. Don't weep: go to the East:' and," said he, "I never was more persuaded of my conversion to God, than I am of a divine call to go to the East."

:

It was in the Ashburton Circuit that my father compiled the " Eastern Mirror," a work comprising most careful and judicious extracts from the voluminous, and, at the same time, very costly works of many travellers to the East, who had written on the manners and customs of that interesting portion of the globe, and thereby thrown light on many important yet obscure passages of Scripture. His aim in this work was to illuminate the minds of those who in humble circumstances could neither purchase expensive books of elucidation, nor find time to peruse them. He considered that much of the beautiful imagery of the prophecies, as well as other parts of the sacred volume, were unintelligible to vast numbers, for want of a book of concise explanation; and so much was his volume approved, especially by Local Preachers, that the edition of a thousand volumes was sold in a comparatively short time.

In Hungerford he was made very useful, and the people were much attached to him. At the close of the first year, when at Conference, he was earnestly requested to go to one of the best Circuits in the Connexion; but he refused, being very happy in the small one in which he was. The request was repeated, but in vain. The Rev. Jabez (now Dr.) Bunting then rose and said, "Is it possible, brother Fowler, that you give up for Hungerford?" He replied, "Yes, Sir, it is possible." This little incident is mentioned to show how much more Christian friendship was valued by my father, than personal ease and comfort; so that he would not leave a Circuit where friends were sincerely attached to him, and he was likely to promote their bene

fit; he would not leave such for the choicest Circuit. When he ultimately departed, he was followed by the tears and regrets of his flock; and a few months after his removal to Northampton, a lady, who under his ministry had been convinced of sin, travelled from Berkshire to Northampton, to inform Mr. Fowler, that God for Christ's sake had spoken peace to her soul; and they rejoiced together with exceeding joy.

In Northampton he found a large chapel, which had not long been erected. But soon the place was found too strait. Galleries were considered necessary. My father, at the request of the Trustees, went to London, to consult an architect on the subject; he took a most lively interest in the concern, and had the happiness of seeing in the course of a few months commodious galleries erected, and the .spirit of hearing so poured out upon the people, that the extra accommodation was scarcely sufficient for the numbers that flocked to the house of prayer. The work of God prospered in the Circuit. He was at this period appointed Chairman of the District, and was reverenced and beloved in his office. He was frequently invited to other Circuits, to preach occasional sermons; but declined such invitations when he could, as the prosperity of his own flock lay the nearest to his heart, and he watched over them with continual solicitude. In this Circuit he had much family and personal affliction : his graces were tried and refined. At the close of the third year, he was appointed to Maidstone; and there it pleased the Lord to prove his patience in a peculiar way. He was attacked by tooth-ache, of an excruciating kind, which continued, with only occasional intermissions and abatement, for twelve months. His spirits were much depressed by this thorn in the flesh;" but his faith was invigorated by that which debilitated the body. Sometimes the paroxysms were so acute as to prevent his preparing for the pulpit by study, as he was wont ; he could only pray for assistance, and then go to the chapel scarcely knowing what was to be the subject of his discourse; but so gracious was God to him, and so did He honour his faith, that frequently as soon as he had set foot in the pulpit the pain departed, and his soul was wonderfully blessed, while all present felt it good to wait upon God. His medical adviser recommended his removing to another part of England; but I have heard him say, he never found anything so difficult to break to a Quarterly Meeting, as this his necessity of leaving them at the end of the first year. They had fully counted on his stay; and when, with faltering accents, he told them he must say "Adieu," some were affected to tears. But he was obliged, despite all their affectionate entreaties, to be firm, as he felt his constitution would not endure another year of such suffering. From thence he removed to Newbury, and in that place endured the severest trial of his pilgrimage, in the death of my pious and much-loved mother. The stroke was sudden; but she had lived a life of devotedness to God, had been a meek and humble follower of the Lamb, and employed her talents for the benefit of the church.

My dear father, though he sorrowed not as those who have no hope,

felt most poignantly this loss; and had he not continually resorted to the Strong for strength, he would have been utterly unfitted for public duty. He strove to say from his heart, "Thy will be done," and, "The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" It is believed his piety was much deepened by this mysterious stroke. He felt that he had now to lean on the arm of God alone, and "sufficient was his arm alone, and his defence was sure." He wrote a Memoir for the Magazine, of her whom he so much lamented, and which appeared in the September Number for 1823. At the close of this his second year at Newbury, he took a mournful adieu of the friends, and the place where he had consigned his greatest earthly treasure to the dust, and, having sent my brother to Kingswood, went again to the Nornian Isles, where, as it has been seen from his journal, he had spent many happy days when a younger man. After a boisterous voyage of nearly three days, and a narrow escape from shipwreck, we were greeted on the shore by his quondam Jamaica Superintendent, the Rev. William Fish. It seemed to revive his drooping spirits, and he was enabled to put a cheerful courage on. His old friends, both English and French, flocked around him; and delightful indeed was it to hear their simple statements of the way in which the Lord had led them on in the paths of righteousness, during the interval in which they had been lost to each other's bodily view. Well do I remember his friendly salutation to those to whom in former years he dealt the bread of life in the French language: Eh bien, mon cher frère, (or) ma chère sœur, comment se porte l'áme? Aimez-vous le Seigneur? and then my dear father's countenance would brighten with thankfulness when he heard them reply in the affirmative, while he exclaimed, C'est une grande miséricorde, béni soit Jésu!

The roughness of the perilous voyage laid the foundation for severe liver complaints, with which he was afflicted for months; and during that time he was much indebted to his kind friend and brother, Mr. Fish, who officiated for him frequently, and supplied with great affection any lack of service in his power. Other brethren also might be named who showed great affection, and did what they could to assist him, and whom he, in return, loved with a brother's heart; but many, if not all, of that loving band are passed away, have exchanged the vicissitudes of time for the repose of eternity; they have entered into that rest for which they laboured and panted, and, doubtless, ere this, have greeted each other with ecstacy, "on earth unkindled, unconceived." This Circuit he also left at the end of the year, on account of his sickness, and was appointed to Southampton, where, with much acceptance, he remained two years, and was in labours abundant, his health being then restored: from thence he removed to Newark, where he was most affectionately received, and spent three prosperous, happy years, God working with him, and crowning his exertions in his cause with success. The Quarterly Meetings were delightful seasous, and it was truly cheering to see with what reverence and love all looked up to their Pastor, and with what affection he regarded the sheep committed to his care.

In the third year of his sojourn in Newark, he entered again into the marriage state, after having made it a subject of earnest prayer to God to be guided aright.

From Newark he removed to Frome, and found it to be in many respects a melancholy contrast. The people were generally suffering in mind and estate from a depression in trade, Yorkshire having at that time monopolized the greater part of the cloth manufacture; the consequence of which was, that persons who had been in affluent circumstances were reduced to poverty. Some who had lived in elegance were obliged to work with their own hands for their daily bread, whilst many, alas! from age and infirmity, were driven to seck shelter in a workhouse. All these circumstances had a painful influence on the morals of the town and neighbourhood, and in many ways religion was injured in that locality: members of society were reluctant to attend their class, when unable to contribute as formerly; hearers of the word felt a delicacy in going to seats for which they could no longer pay; and it was only when there was a deep work of grace that these untoward circumstances could be overcome; and in some instances it was done, to the glory of God, while the pride of human nature was subdued, so that men who had been wealthy meekly took their seats on the forms provided for the poor, and there felt the blessedness of the scripture which saith, "The poor have the Gospel preached unto them." But it was not the people only who felt these trying times; their Ministers shared a portion of the cup, by the diminution of supplies: all these things tested the sincerity of my father's faith, and he could truly say,

"It is not for me to be seeking my bliss

And building my hopes in a region like this:

I look for a city which hands have not piled,

I pant for a country by sin undefiled.

"The thorn and the thistle around me may grow;

I would not lie down upon roses below:

I ask not a portion, I seek not a rest,

Till I find it for ever on Jesus's breast."

After weathering the secular storms of two years in this place, the Conference appointed him to Melton-Mowbray, where he found the people generally alive to God; and it may perhaps be said that at that time the societies in that Circuit had rest, and "the word of God grew and multiplied."

From Melton he went to Belper. When there, great commotion was felt in manufacturing towns in consequence of the Trades' Unions then established throughout the kingdom. They were the means of disaffecting the working classes, and threatened ruin to many of the manufacturers. My dear father exerted himself, both in the pulpit and out of it, to quell the insubordinate and riotous spirit which these associations fostered; but he was paid for his faithfulness by persecution of open and painful nature. At one time his life was considered in peril, and he could scarcely walk the streets without some of these