his nineteenth year he was sent to supply a vacancy occasioned in a Circuit by illness; and at the ensuing Conference of 1788 his name appears on the Minutes for the Norwich Circuit. From that time he laboured with zeal and acceptance for forty years. His sermons were plain and pointed, studied with much care, and delivered with great seriousness and fervour. Wherever he travelled he was favoured with seals to his ministry. To his various duties he uniformly paid the most sedulous attention. His natural disposition was tender and affectionate. About eleven years ago, when stationed in the Wednesbury Circuit, he was deprived of his sight. Notwithstanding this painful visitation, he continued for nearly seven years to discharge the greater part of his ministerial duties; preaching with as much propriety and energy as in his most vigorous days. For the last three or four years a perceptible decay took place both in his bodily and mental powers; yet when anything connected with the only foundation of his hopes was mentioned, he was always deeply interested, and by the fervour of his responses when prayer was offered up, proved how entirely his heart was engaged with God. Relying on the atonement of his Redeemer, on the 12th of November, 1836, without any apparent struggle, he gently fell asleep, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, and the forty-ninth of his ministry. (6.) HENRY ELVINS; who was early brought to a knowledge of the truth. He was appointed at the last Conference to the Towcester Circuit; and entered upon his work with a strong determination to use his utmost endeavour that he might be a "workman that needeth not to be ashamed." He was truly pious and diligent, and promised to be a useful Minister of Christ; but his strength was soon prostrated, and he gradually declined until he died, in the lively hope of a glorious immortality, December 26th, 1836, in the twenty-second year of his age. (7.) JOHN SUMNER, SEN. In his seventeenth year he was convinced of sin; and after much sorrow of heart obtained, through faith in the atonement of Christ, the forgiveness of sins, and the Spirit of adoption. Believing that he was called of God to the ministry of the word, he offered himself as a candidate, and after the usual examinations was, in 1811, admitted into the itinerant work, in which he laboured patiently and successfully for twentyfive years. He possessed a sound understanding; and his mind was stored with considerable and various information. In the discharge of difficult and painful duties in critical circumstances, he united mildness with firmness, and evinced quickness of apprehension, and readiness of resource. It is believed that the vexatious annoyances and harassing duties of his last Circuit hastened the crisis of his disease, to which, perhaps, there was some constitutional tendency. He lived in the affectionate K esteem of his fathers and brethren in the ministry, who sincerely lament his early removal. Placing his trust solely in the merits of Christ, he died in peace, and in hope of the glory of God, January 15th, 1837, in the forty-seventh year of his age. (8.) JOHN NEWTON, SEN.; who was brought to the knowledge and enjoyment of religion in the fourteenth year of his age. He was distinguished by a high sense of Christian integrity, by firmness, and affection. His temper was mild and cheerful; his ministerial talents were very respectable; and his preaching clear and energetic. His attachment to Wesleyan Methodism was strong, and firmly seated in principle; and he enforced our discipline with fidelity, under a deep sense of his responsibility to God and his church. After labouring in the vineyard of his Lord with an unblemished reputation, and with great acceptance and success, for thirty-three years, he finished his earthly course, in full hope of immortality, January 28th, 1837, in the fiftieth year of his age. (9.) CUTHBERT Whiteside. He was converted to God in early life, and entered upon our itinerant work in the twentyfourth year of his age. He laboured in many of the Circuits to which he was appointed with considerable usefulness, and with the esteem of the Societies. In the year 1832 he became unable from indisposition to discharge the regular duties of a Travelling Preacher, and retired as a Supernumerary. His ministerial character was very respectable; and his statements of the great doctrines of the Gospel, as held by the Methodist body, were clear and comprehensive. His preaching possessed much originality and point, and was especially adapted to edification, both in practical and experimental religion. The affliction which terminated his life was water in the chest. He expressed himself to a friend, the day before he expired, as possessing constant peace through reliance on the great atonement, and as saved from every thing like fear in the prospect of eternity. He died February 28th, 1837, in the sixty-third year of his age, and the thirty-ninth of his ministry. (10.) WILKINSON STEPHENSON. He was convinced of sin at an early period of his life, under the ministry of the Rev. Abraham E. Farrar. Having given evidence of a scriptural conversion to God, and engaged for some time as a Local Preacher, he was admitted, as a probationer, into our itinerant ministry, in the year 1823. His public labours were marked by acceptance and usefulness. He felt great interest in the study of divine truth; and his mental attainments were considerable. In the latter end of the year 1836 he was compelled by sickness to desist from the discharge of his ministerial duties. He endured a long and painful illness; but gave proof of habitual reliance on his Saviour, and just before his departure broke forth into fervent expressions of praise to God. He died March 3d, 1837, in the thirty-fifth year of his age. (11.) BENJAMIN HILEY. He sought and obtained divine mercy at an early period of life, and entered upon our ministry in the year 1811. From that time he continued to pursue his public labours, until the Conference of 1832, when he retired as a Supernumerary. The affliction which terminated in his death was painful and protracted; but he bore it without murmuring, often saying, "Thy will, O Lord, be done." In his last hours he deeply lamented that he had not been more faithful in the Lord's vineyard,-solemnly renewed his trust in the atoning blood of Christ, and felt that he did not believe in vain. He died in peace, March 13th, 1837, in the forty-seventh year of his age. (12.) JOSEPH MANN; who was suddenly removed from the church militant to the church triumphant, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and the twenty-ninth of his ministry. In early life he was brought to an experimental acquaintance with God. He was eminently gifted with the spirit of prayer, which he exercised with great fervency, both in public and in the families of our people. His talents as a Preacher were very respectable; his delivery was especially energetic; and his ministry most profitable. During the last three or four months of his life he suffered much; and was generally so indisposed as to cause some of his most observant friends to apprehend that his once vigorous constitution was breaking up. Subsequently he regained some degree of strength, and hope was entertained of his permanent recovery. His ministry probably was never more successfully exercised than during the last few days of his life. His closing hours were spent in his study, in engagements preparatory to the approaching Sabbath. He had scarcely entered his chamber for the purpose of retiring to rest, when death, stingless, unappalling, conveyed the message: "Servant of God, well done! Rest from thy loved employ ; Throughout life he maintained an irreproachable character, and died greatly lamented, March 25th, 1837. (13.) JOHN WATSON, SEN., aged eighty-eight. He entered on the work of an Itinerant Preacher in 1771, and travelled fourteen years, when, on account of the state of his health, he became a Supernumerary. For many of the last years of his life he resided at Bath. His natural temper was quiet and tranquil, his spirit retired and devout; and during the brief continuance of his last illness, his mind was kept, as he frequently expressed himself, "looking unto Jesus." He died in the Lord, April 2d, 1837. (14.) JOHN BAKEWELL MOULTON. He enjoyed the advantages of a religious education, being carefully trained up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. About the sixteenth year of his age he was convinced of sin, fled to the refuge provided for him in the great atoning Sacrifice, and by faith obtained a clear sense of God's pardoning mercy. He laboured in our itinerant work with zcal, acceptance, and success, during a period of six years; when, through failing health, he at the last Conference became a Supernumerary. The late prevailing epidemic, seizing upon a constitution already enfeebled, quickly brought him to his grave. He died in peace, April 8th, 1837, aged thirty years. (15.) JOHN EDMONDS. When about sixteen years of age he earnestly sought, and satisfactorily experienced, the enjoyment of the divine favour. The zeal and activity which he subsequently displayed in the cause of Christ gave evidence that his conversion was genuine. He fully devoted himself to the work of the itinerant ministry in the year 1823. Though of a weak constitution, and frequently suffering severely from his exertions, he relaxed not in his efforts, but cheerfully presented himself "a living sacrifice" to God and his church. He faithfully preached the doctrines, and firmly maintained the discipline, of Methodism. In his last illness he felt the value and efficacy of that doctrine which he had so earnestly exhibited to others as the only ground of a sinner's acceptance with God,-the atonement of Christ. On this he had rested through life, and in death he proved it to be 66 a sure foundation." When almost deprived of the power of speech, and lying in a state of extreme physical exhaustion, he was heard to exclaim," His blood! His blood!" His last end was calm and triumphant. He frequently said, "All is well, well for ever." He fell asleep in Jesus on Tuesday, April 11th, 1837, in the fortieth year of his age. (16.) WILLIAM BREEDON. He was converted to God in early life, and entered upon the regular work of the Christian ministry in the year 1803. He was circumspect in his conduct, regular in the observance of his engagements, and conscientious in the performance of his duties; and was favoured with an encouraging degree of success. At the Conference of 1834, he was compelled, by the failure of his health and strength, to retire as a Supernumerary. For some time before his death his mental powers had suffered considerable decay; but in his last moments he gave satisfactory and cheering evidence that the Lord was with him. He died May 6th, 1837, aged sixty-seven years. (17.) WILLIAM TIMPERLEY; an humble, pious, and circumspect follower of his divine Master; of plain talents, and sincerely attached to the doctrines and discipline of our body. He suffered considerably from the infirmities and decays of age; and died in a peaceful hope of eternal life, May 25th, 1837, aged seventy-four years. (18.) WILLIAM TOWERS. When he was eighteen years of age, he gave himself to the Lord, and joined the Methodist Society, chiefly through the instrumentality of the late Rev. Robert Miller. In the year 1806 he commenced his itinerancy. He was eminently peaceable and kind in his spirit, and upright in his conduct. His preaching was sound, affectionate, and useful; and in the discharge of all his public duties he was diligent and wise. For many months before his decease, his health was in an impaired state, and on Saturday, May 13th, as he was proceeding to his appointment in the country, he was taken alarmingly ill, and was with difficulty conveyed home; but by the prompt application of means, in a few days he was so far recovered that it was confidently expected he would soon resume his ministerial labours; but on Friday, the 26th, he was suddenly seized with paralysis, which completely deprived him of the use of his right side, and the power of speech. But though he could not speak, he retained the use of his mental powers, and manifested the greatest resignation and calmness, often expressing by signs his sense of the kindness of his friends in attendance upon him. died May 29th, 1837, aged fifty-three years. He (19.) JOSEPH JENNINGS; who was early brought to a saving acquaintance with divine truth, chiefly through the instrumentality of the late Rev. David Stoner. He was a man of deep and eminent piety, striving habitually to walk with God. His public ministrations were distinguished by great energy and fidelity; while his amiable manners and pastoral labours endeared him to the people whom he served in the Gospel, and among whom he resided. He had many seals to his short ministry, who will doubtless be his crown of rejoicing in the day of the Lord Jesus. He was graciously supported during his affliction, and died in great peace, June 2d, 1837, in the thirty-fourth year of his age. (20.) JOSHUA FEARNSIDE. When about sixteen years of age he was converted to God, and shortly afterwards, from a conviction of duty, began to preach. He commenced his itinerant labours in the year 1807, and was highly esteemed and beloved in the various Circuits in which he travelled. As a Minister of Christ, he was conscientious and faithful. His discourses were clear and instruc |