him, whilst yet a child, into connection with Methodism. He early found the Saviour's grace, and entered upon His service. As a youth he was thoughtful and studious beyond his years. Whilst he busied himself with all knowledge for professional purposes, his daily delight was in the Word of God, and in such exposition of it as may be found in the writings of Mr. Wesley, Mr. Fletcher, and the older English divines. His knowledge of the Bible was remarkably full and exact. Having earned a good degree by diligence and usefulness in the Launceston Circuit, he was summoned, with brief notice, to the ranks of the Methodist ministry by the Conference of 1812, and entered at once upon his work as a Home-Missionary minister in the Barnstaple Circuit. Marvellously preserved in 1814 from death at the hands of a mob at Rickmansworth, then in the Luton Circuit, he lived to preach the Gospel for more than fifty years. His labours were confined to the western Districts of England. As a preacher he was thoughtful, clear, evangelical, and earnest; and he loved to dwell upon the fulness and freeness of the Divine grace. As a pastor he was diligent and systematic in both town and village; and his fidelity and sympathy endeared him to many. In temperament, he was keenly sensitive in the presence of circumstances either friendly or adverse; and thence arose many of his greatest enjoyments and of his sorest trials. In his unselfish devotion to his ministerial duties he never faltered. Wken, after forty-two years spent in the full work, he was no longer able to endure its responsibility, he continued to render willing and efficient service as a Supernumerary in the Banwell Circuit, where for twelve years he usually preached twice on the Sunday and occasionally on the weekday. In 1866 he removed to Redland, in the Clifton Circuit, where increasing infirmities soon closed his public labours. Notwithstanding intervals of acute suffering, he was daily cheered by the presence and favour of his Lord; until, with a full consciousness of his dependence upon Divine mercy through the one Atonement, and with a childlike, unquestioning confidence in the fatherly love of God, he painlessly "fell

asleep" on Sunday, November 10th 1872, in the eighty-third year of his age, and the sixty-first of his ministry. His was a long life, well spent and well ended.

6. JOHN JOSHUA PARKER; who was born at Cambridge, in January, 1850, and was made a partaker of saving grace when sixteen years of age. Constrained by the love of Christ, he soon began to call sinners to repentance; and having a deep conviction that it was his duty to go "far hence" to the heathen, offered himself for missionwork. In 1870 he entered the Richmond branch of the Theological Institution; but his health not being considered sufficiently vigorous for labour in the foreign field, he was sent to Accrington, and at the following Conference to the Leigh Circuit. He was a young man of great promise. His earnest sermons, his fervent prayers, and godly conversation, produced in a short time an impression upon the minds of those who heard him which will not soon pass away. His one purpose was to win souls to Christ, and God gave him the desire of his heart. On the 27th of October he preached his last sermon, from "Watchman, what of the night?" and those who listened to him on that occasion, felt that to him "the night" was near. He sank rapidly until, on the 25th of November, 1872, he fell asleep in Jesus, in the twentythird year of his age, and the second of his ministry.

7. WILLIAM SHAW (A); who was born at Glasgow, of Yorkshire parents, and died at Brixton, December 3rd, 1872, in the seventy-fourth year of his age, and the fifty-third of his ministry. The greater part of his ministerial life was spent in South Africa, whither he was appointed to accompany the first English settlers in what is now called the Eastern Province of the Cape of Good Hope. About three years after his arrival, his labours were extended from these British residents to the natives of the country, among whom he established missions beyond the Colonial boundary, thus laying the foundations of Methodism in that part of the African Continent. In the extension and direction of the evan. gelizing work both within and beyond the colonies which were successively

formed, he was actively occupied for more than thirty years, and to him, under God, its present prosperous condition is very largely owing. His steady, practical piety, his calmly fervent zeal, his patience, prudence, and sagacity, eminently fitted him for the post of General Superintendent, which he held for twenty years, and secured him the confidence and respect of all classes of the community. On his return to England he spent ten years in important Circuits; and retired as a Supernumerary in 1869, still, however, continuing to render valuable service, especially in connection with the Missionary and Education departments. In the year 1865 he was, with much cordiality, chosen President of the Conference, his brethren being glad in this manner to show their esteem for his character, and their sense of the value of his services. It was manifest that his long absence from England had not impaired his fitness for office at home; and he showed himself an able and faithful administrator in the several posts he was called to fill. Few more truly valuable men have been found in the ranks of the Methodist ministry, and none have been more generally esteemed. Devout, benign, watchful, benevolent, wise in counsel, sober in thought and speech, all his excellencies were enhanced by an habitual modesty. His declining years were happy, and his end was peaceful. His epitaph might be written in the words of Scripture, describing one of the first missionaries to the heathen, "He was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith and much people was added unto the Lord."

8. JOHN ROADHOUSE; who was born at Monkfryston, Yorkshire, September 20th, 1783. He was early a subject of religious impressions. Attending a lovefeast when about eighteen years of age, he found "peace in believing." He entered the ministry in the year 1808. His offer was refused by the District Committee on the ground of the feebleness of his health; but the demand for labourers exceeding the supply, the Conference appointed him to the Stafford Circuit, where, as in other places, his ministry was greatly owned of God in the conversion of

sinners. In wide and laborious Circuits, and in some cases amidst strong opposition, he did the work of an evangelist with zeal and devotion, evincing the sincerity and strength of his religious convictions. By frequent and loud preaching he lost his voice, and after twenty-eight years of faithful service, was obliged to desist from travelling, and resume, to some extent, his worldly occupation. He extricated himself from business as soon as practicable, and eventually settled in Leeds, where for many years he was a willing helper of the Circuit ministers. To Methodism he was ardently attached: he delighted in the society of his ministerial brethren, and was an earnest lover of good men.

In old age and feebleness

he was most exemplary in his attendance on the means of grace, and bore ready and frequent testimony to "the grace of God that bringeth salvation." Having outlived almost all his contemporaries, he died in peace, December 17th, 1872, in the ninetieth year of his age, and the sixty-fifth of his ministry.

9. JOHN GEDEN; who was born February 21st, 1793, at Lower Tysoe, in the county of Warwick. He was the son of Methodist parents, and received a wise and holy training. He found peace with God after a prolonged period of Divine discipline and of painful spiritual conflict. For several years he approved himself a true servant of Christ, by manifold labour and suffering as a village-evangelist and shepherd of souls. In 1816, dreading the responsibilities of the ministry, yet compelled by stress of conscience to offer himself for it, he was accepted by the Conference, and the year following was sent to his first Circuit, in the Isle of Wight. From this time till he became a Supernume rary, in 1865, he discharged the duties of a Methodist minister, filling, as he advanced in life, some of the higher offices of the Connexion with exemplary diligence, fidelity, and pureness of Christian aim. His mind was robust, and in his early course he took much pains to equip himself with theolo gical and general knowledge. He invariably preached under a profound sense of the gravity of his vocation, and his sermons combined some of the best qualities of the Christian expositor,

try, the full duties of which he discharged with fidelity and success for twentynine years. Modest and retiring in disposition, he was a man of devout spirit, of blameless character, and of consistent life; highly esteemed by his brethren, and loved by all who knew him intimately. He was well-read in theology, and possessed a considerable fund of general information. His discourses, which were carefully prepared and earnestly delivered, were evangelical, instructive, and practical. His attention to pastoral duties was marked by great diligence; his sympathizing spirit and gentle manners eminently fitting him for this work, and rendering his visits, especially to the sick and distressed, acceptable and beneficial. He was a judicious Superintendent, and affectionate colleague, and a faithful friend. Mr. Muff possessed an accurate and extensive acquaintance with the laws and usages of Wesleyan-Methodism, was strongly attached to its doctrines and discipline, and intensely loved his ministerial work. At the Conference of 1870, through failure of health, he became a Supernumerary. His affliction was of a most painful character, often causing severe suffering for hours together; but it was borne with unfailing patience and cheerful resignation: "The joy of the Lord" was his strength. His death came unexpectedly, but he was found ready. While seated in his chair, without a struggle or a sigh, he peacefully fell asleep in Jesus, in the fiftyseventh year of his age, and the thirtysecond of his ministry.

13. THOMAS SHAW; who was born at Northwich, in the year 1815. Religious training, aided by a combination of favouring circumstances, led to his conversion to God when he was nine years of age. His good natural abilities having become greatly quickened by his experience of the new birth, he cultivated an ardent thirst for knowledge, and early began to exercise his gifts and graces in such spheres of Christian activity as were open to him. In his six teenth year his name was placed upon the local-preachers' plan; and it soon was made evident to others as well as to himself, that he was called of God to the work of the ministry. Conformably with this conviction he devoted his

energies to the preaching of the Gospel. He was favoured with a collegiate course in theology, and in the year 1842 was appointed to a Circuit; in which, as also in thirteen others successively assigned to him, he exercised an eminently awakening and edifying ministry, to which God gave many seals. He was a diligent pastor, and greatly endeared himself to the people of his charge. In the year 1870 he was appointed to the Buxton Circuit, where he continued to toil with unabated ardour until a few weeks before he was called to exchange mortality for life.

Having been laid aside by a succession of colds, and harassed by much perplexity and reiterated sorrows, his vigorous frame began to give way; and although his medical attendant considered him out of danger, and he himself was confidently expecting to resume his beloved employment on the following Sunday, on January 14th, 1873, he sweetly breathed his spirit into the hands of his faithful Redeemer, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, and the thirty-third of his ministry.

14. WILLIAM LORD; who was born at Bacup, in Rossendale, May 11th, 1791. He was convinced of sin when a boy at school, under the ministry of the Rev. William Edward Miller. Helped by the counsels and prayers of his school-fellow David Stoner, he found peace with God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and henceforth gave abiding evidence that he had become a "new creature" in Christ Jesus. He entered the minis try in 1811, and was early distinguished by his sound judgment, aptness to teach, and administrative gifts. Entrusted by his brethren with various duties involving great responsibility, he ably and faithfully fulfilled them. As Representative of the British Conference to the Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States of America, and as President of the Canadian Conference for two successive years, he rendered important service, and his "ministrations, counsels, prudence, and personal sacrifices" connected therewith, are still held in grateful remembrance. As Governor of Woodhouse-Grove School, a post which he held fifteen years, he took a fatherly interest in the sons of ministers committed to his care, and enjoyed the confidence of the parents