ing men "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." He was a man of good natural ability, and of considerable attainments. As a preacher, he was clear and sound in doctrinal statements, fertile in illustration, and practical in aim; as a friend and pastor, he was tender, considerate, sympathizing, and faithful. His constitution, never robust, was greatly enfeebled by severe attacks of illness, brought on by arduous toil and exposure in the earlier years of his ministry. After thirty-five years of faithful service, he became a Supernumerary at the last Conference, and retired to Gainsborough, where, after a few hours' illness, he exchanged mortality for life, on Saturday, March 8th, 1873, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, and the thirty-sixth of his ministry.

18. THOMAS JACKSON; who was born at Sancton, in Yorkshire, December 10th, 1783, and died near London, March 10th, 1873. This venerable minister entered on his probation in his twenty-first year, and died in his ninetieth, having maintained an unsullied reputation during the whole period. For twenty years he laboured in some of our most important Circuits; then for eighteen years as Editor of the Connexional publications; for the next nineteen he was a Theological Tutor, and during the last twelve he was a Supernumerary. His spotless character and high moral worth were based upon a sound conversion, and a rich, uniform, and growing experience of the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. His ministerial course presents a striking example of the value and importance of steady and conscientious labour. Without brilliant parts, and without educational advantages, he applied himself with all his heart to the improvement of such talents and opportunities as were granted to him, and with the Lord's pound he gained ten pounds. He gave "attendance to reading, to exhortation, to teaching:" he "meditated on these things, he was wholly in them," guarding against all diversions from the great work of his life; and his profiting appeared unto all. He acquired vast stores of knowledge, but he never said

"It is enough;" and continued to read, write, and meditate almost to the last day of his life. His preaching was sound, instructive, and adapted to general usefulness, though most distinguished by careful exposition. He did not affect rhetorical ornament, but his appeals to the conscience were direct and powerful, and bursts of pious emotion enlivened his discussions. He had the pen of a ready writer, and for nearly sixty years it was kept in constant exercise, his various productions being all devoted to the service of religion. The exposition and vindication of Methodist doctrine, experience, and discipline were his favourite themes; but his biographical and historical writings have been highly and justly appreciated. As a Tutor he was affectionate, painstaking, and perspicuous, comprehensive and copious in the treatment of his topics, and unutterably anxious to secure and perpetuate sound doctrine. As Editor he rendered valuable service by the labours bestowed not only to sustain our periodical literature, but to provide accurate and complete editions of our standard authors. It is not surprising that his brethren delighted to do him honour, or that he should have been twice elected President of the Conference. On the first of these occasions he was remarkably sustained and blessed of God in guiding and animating the celebration of the Centenary of Methodism. His antiquarian researches contributed much to the interest and success of the movement, but his devout temper far more; making the several meetings which he attended means of grace never to be forgotten by those who listened to him, and bringing back those days of the Son of Man which he commemorated. On the second occasion his passive graces were as conspicuous. It was a time of severe trial, but while firm in upholding our discipline, he maintained a Christian temper towards opponents, sometimes under very trying circumstances. His old age was eminently beautiful. Always calm, cheerful, benign, often overflowing with kindness and love, he carried a happy influence wherever he went, and excited universal love and admiration, so that his hoary

head was indeed a crown of glory. Death had no terrors for him. Being mercifully spared from heavy and longcontinued suffering, he may be said to have died of decay rather than disease; and, like Abraham, he went to his fathers in peace, and was buried in a good old age.

19. HUMPHREY STEVENSON; who was born at Bestwood-Park, Notts., October 1st, 1787. Blessed with pious parents, he was converted in his boyhood, and appointed, while still a youth, leader of the class in which his mother was a member. Four years later he entered the Wesleyan ministry, and for thirtynine years laboured in it with fidelity and success. He was a plain, sound, hard-working Methodist preacher. During twenty-seven years he was a Supernumerary, but to the last it was his joy to work in the Lord's vineyard. He delighted to meet his class, to visit the sick, and occasionally to preach. In advanced age he was characterized by great good sense, and a certain quaint humour. His life was blameless, and he was strong in faith and charity; if he could not speak well of any, he refrained from speech. Full of peace himself, he took a bright view of the state and prospects of the Church. He was no believer in the degeneracy of modern Methodism. He held that the preachers of the present day, on the whole, were as able, and quite as faithful and zealous, and the people generally as consistent as when, seventy years ago, he began his work as a classleader. During his last night on earth he was almost constantly praising God and singing. About four o'clock in the morning he wished the gas-light in his room to be put out, saying, "The day had come; it was all light around him." Four hours later he passed into that city the inhabitants of which "need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever." He died at South-Shields, March 22nd, 1873, in the eighty-sixth year of his age, and the sixty-sixth of his ministry.

20. JAMES GODDEN; who was born at Marden, Kent, in the year 1812. From very early life he was conscious of the strivings of the Holy Spirit, and when about seventeen years of age, was deeply

convinced of sin under the ministry of the late Rev. Francis Collier, at Sittingbourne. On a Sabbath morning, while singing with the congregation the ninth hymnin our Hymn-Book, he was enabled to trust in Jesus for salvation. The following year he began to preach. In 1834 he was recommended from the Rochester Circuit as a candidate for our ministry, and accepted. During the next seventeen years, being favoured with uninterrupted health, he never failed to fulfil a Sabbath appointment. A genial Christian, he illustrated by his example what Mr. Wesley terms the "cheerfulness of faith." He was a diligent pastor, and a faithful and successful preacher. His discourses

were characterized by originality and persuasiveness. In 1869 he was compelled, through entire failure of health, to become a Supernumerary. This was a source of great grief to him, for he intensely loved his ministerial work. As long as his strength permitted, he preached occasionally, and found much pleasure in conducting the weekly prayermeeting at Hawkhurst, where he resided. His severe afflictions were borne with patient submission to the Divine will. The day before his death he exclaimed, "I am happier than ever I was." This good minister of Jesus Christ entered into rest on Sabbath evening, March 30th, 1873, in the sixty first year of his age, and the thirty-ninth of his ministry.

21. THOMAS BROTH WOOD; who was born in the neighbourhood of Welling. ton, Salop, in the year 1792. He was awakened to a sense of his sin and danger in early life, and soon afterwards, by a faith "of the operation of God," was "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." By the good providence of God he was removed to Dudley, where he was recog nized by the venerable Joseph Sutcliffe, as one possessed of graces and gifts suited to our ministry, and by him was recommended as a candidate at the Conference of 1825. For thirty-two years he laboured in the itinerant work. His preaching was distinguished by plainness of speech, sound doctrine, zeal, and fidelity; and the Lord crowned his labours with success. For nearly sixteen years he in the same spirit and manner discharged, as a Supernumerary,

which we sustain towards you. "Are not ye our work in the Lord? If we be not apostles unto others, yet doubtless we are to you; for the seal of our apostleship are ye in the Lord."

Think not, dear brethren, that the sending of a written Pastoral constitutes the whole share which you have in our deliberations. You are contemplated, more or less, in the whole of our business, not excepting those affairs which are considered purely ministerial. In the scrutiny to which we submit our own character and work, regard is had to your claim to a blameless and Scriptural ministry. In the care taken in the admission of probationers to the full work and office of the Christian pastorate, and in the examination of candidates, we aim at giving you the best guarantes possible that the men to whom we commit the sacred trust previously committed to ourselves are "faithful men, able to teach others also." And so, in relation to the several departments into which, for purposes of administration, our great work is divided, we can truly say that, subordinately to God's glory, the well-being of our people is the end of all. Your interests are so interwoven with our ordinary business, that you necessarily influence our thoughts and feelings to a large extent.

The review of the year, if not satisfactory in all particulars, presents much that is gratifying in connection with the work of God. The increase of members in Great Britain, after supplying the large vacancies occasioned by death and other causes, is one thousand seven hundred and thirty. While grateful to Him who giveth the increase for this augmentation of our numbers, and for the many thousands more who must have been brought into fellowship with us before any numerical advance could be reported, yet considering the vastness of our agencies, and the much larger additions of some past years, it must be acknowledged with regret that the present increase is not considerable. Still we are persuaded, dear brethren, that

neither you nor we have laboured in vain, or spent our strength for naught. We believe that in addition to the tabulated results there are effects produced which are beyond the domain of statistics. The "day" only will declare the blessings received in our congrega.

tions under the ministry of the Divine Word, and in our class-meetings, in the exercise of Christian fellowship. At the same time we would not, in the absence of tangible results, have you or ourselves to be content with the merely inappreciable and unseen. Believing in a visible Church, we look not unreasonably for visible members. The prosperity which we desire, and for which we urge you to work and pray, is that of the times of Pentecost, when "the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved."

In regard to our Foreign Missions the year in some respects has been remarkable. The largest income ever raised by the Wesleyan-Methodist Missionary Society has been reported; and a long-standing debt which embarrassed the Society's operations has been completely extinguished. The numerical increase of members shown in the returns, indicates that our great work in foreign lands is carried on with zeal and success. But that which will make our present gathering memorable is the first appearance amongst us of an Italian brother, himself the fruit of our Mission to Italy, who preaches the Gospel with the tongue of a native to them "which are at Rome also." We thank God that the Divine blessing rests upon our new mission to the city of the Casars and the Popes; and that, notwithstanding its pagan aud Papal associations, the work of God within its walls is full of promise and hope.

Our Home Missionary operations are capable of almost indefinite development, both in towns and country places. If we had the means of multiplying our agencies, a rich harvest would certainly be reaped. An effort, auxiliary to our regular Home Missions, has been commenced in London by the employment of lay agents to meet,

to some extent, the peculiar requirements of the metropolis. But we are persuaded that, in addition to all salaried agencies, the necessities of the country demand the united labours of the whole of God's Church. This new organization, however widely extended, would be no blessing if it led our people to leave all evangelistic work to those specially separated to it. Brethren, the Lord hath need of every one of you; and it is only by the self-denying and persevering toil of every one that the mission of Methodism-the spreading of Scriptural holiness throughout the land-can be completely fulfilled. On this matter of working for God, we confess that we are in doubt of some of you. Of brethren who stand all the day idle, we would ask :-Where is your pity for the perishing? Where your valour for the truth? Where your zeal for God?

The work of chapel-building has been carried on during the last twelve months upon the extensive scale of recent years. This kind of progress we know is some. times spoken of, half disparagingly, as "material prosperity." But the material does not necessarily exclude the spiritual. We may have the Shekinah within the temple; and showers of blessing too copious to be contained may not fall until the Lord of Hosts is proved by the bringing of all the tithes into His store. house. With an admitted deficiency in the country in church and chapel-accommodation, we cannot but rejoice in the multiplication of places of worship in which the pure Gospel will be preached, and which to succeeding generations will prove, we doubt not, centres of spiritual influence and power.

With regard to education, it is gratifying to be able to inform you that, notwithstanding the controversies of the day, and the effects which recent legislation must have upon pre-existing schools, our own training colleges and day-schools are sustained in general vigour and efficiency, and in undiminished number. Upon our Sundayschool system, in connection with which not a few of you are usefully engaged, we are bestowing increased attention.

To augment its power for good we have projected a plan for a Connexional Sunday-School Union, from the operation of which we expect good results. Nor are we indifferent to the "intermediate" and the "higher" education. We are anxious that the children of our people should be able to pursue knowledge with as little damage as possible to their spiritual interests; and that at Oxford, the earliest home of Methodism, or at Cambridge or any other university, they should be surrounded by every safeguard which pastoral and parental solicitude can supply. How best to accomplish this end is a question to which we are anxious to find a practical solution.

Beloved brethren, as the years pass away we are reminded that we are removed further and further from the times of our first fathers in this ministry. This thought recurs with additional impressiveness as new names are inscribed upon our deathroll. It is some years since the last survivor of Wesley's own preachers passed to his reward; and now, by the decease of a venerated father, whose ministry dates from the fourth year of the present century, we are warned that other links are breaking, and that those of ourselves who had for earlier colleagues some who had been the later associates of our Founder, are becoming fewer and fewer in number. With the memories and traditions of the past waning dimmer and weaker through the lapse of time, it is neither unnecessary nor unwise to inquire whether the work of God called Methodism has been warped from its original course by the new hands to which its direction has been necessarily committed. With the sad lessons of ecclesiastical history before us, such an inquiry cannot be deemed inappropriate.

An accurate knowledge of the Connexion enables us to say, with gratitude to God, that Methodism is, as it ever has been, a living, spiritual, evangelical power. A comparison with the past yields us much satisfaction. The doctrines taught by the early Methodist preachers are at this day "those things which are most surely believed among us," and believed with unbroken unanimity. Whatever be our