not for the sake of the profit they yield, but out of pure love to "suffering humanity," these philanthropists by turning their attention to this subject might surely produce something, if not in the shape of "vegetables," "life preservers," or "American Indian sugar-coated pills," in some other shape that would answer the purpose; thus an incalculable benefit would be conferred upon those who have the management of Sabbath schools, upon the teachers who are thus afflicted, upon the scholars who through it are often deprived of their teachers' valuable labours, and upon the world at large.

A SECOND-HAND SUFFERER.
Staleybridge.

AT a lovefeast held a short time ago in street chapel, Manchester, a person rose and said, "My dear friends, it is now sixteen years since I was at a lovefeast in this chapel before; and since then I have been wandering on the barren mountains of sin and iniquity-I have been a backslider.

During

that time I have been very miserable; especially for some time before I returned to the Lord. I was so miserable that I could not sleep in my bed at night; and many a time have I got drunk on purpose to drown my consience, so that I might obtain rest during the night. I have a little girl, nine years of age, who attends this Sunday school. One day, her mother, thinking that she was upstairs, called her; but as no answer was returned, she was supposed to be out. Some time afterwards, however, she came up out of the cellar, and when her mother asked her what she had been doing there, she was silent. On the inquiry being repeated she hesitated, and then bursting into tears, said,

Mother, I have been praying that God would make my father a sober man.' Friends, this confession came home to my heart. God heard and answered my child's prayer. I have never been drunk since. The Spirit of God began to work most powerfully upon my mind; my eyes were opened to see my awful state as a sinner in his sight. I sought mercy at his hands, that mercy was graciously granted; I am now once more in the enjoyment of pardoning love, and am on my way to heaven. Glory be to God!"

Sunday school teachers, go on in your "work of faith and labour of love." Continue still to sow your seed, no matter how unproductive the soil may appear. You know not how much good you may be the instruments in God's hands of doing. You know not how far your influence extends. "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."

back into the King's highway! the mountains are accessible, and the lions are chained.-Mrs. Ames.

MR. EDITOR,-In the volume for 1848, you gave us a succession of papers called "Fragments," writtenby a correspondent under the signature of Murus; and who, it is believed, interested many of his readers by some reminiscences of his own early history, accompanied with some useful remarks and good advice. Your present correspondent is junior to Murus by several years; yet has been, perhaps, connected with the church sufficiently long to be entitled "an old disciple." While he purposes supplying you with a few reminiscences relating to our beloved community, he intends, like Murus, to give you a little of his own personal history in connection with it.

It has often been observed that persons in advanced life are fond of talking about "olden times," especially if naturally inclined to loquacity. The writer of this believes that he is considered in company to be more given to taciturnity than to be loquacious. However, he often thinks, occasionally speaks, and sometimes writes about former times, and those excellent of the earth whom he had the pleasure of knowing, but who have now finished their course, and entered into the rest remaining for the pcople of God. The aged also frequently contrast former with present times, to the depreciation of the latter. With this practice the writer does not sympathize, particularly when the remarks are applied to our community.

In regard to the personal history

The initial letters N. E. are not given according to modern usage; but according to the practice of one, if not more, of our old English antiquarians. Any reader possessing a copy of "Camden's Remains," and wishful to know the name meant by N. E., has only to look at the end of the preface for the initials which designate William Camden, and which are a sufficient clue to the name of the writer of this article.

of your correspondent, it may be stated that he was born in the year 1787, of parents who were in comfortable circumstances, able and willing to give their children, if not a classical, yet a useful English education; and what was better, they possessed dispositions which led them to seek and pray for the eter nal welfare of their offspring. The father's dying thoughts were on his youngest son, and his prayer that God would make him useful in the work of the ministry. It was in an ancient corporate town,† situated in one of the Midland counties, where your correspondent first saw the light of the material sun; and there, too, in the house of his nativity, the beams of the Sun of Righteousness first shone upon his mind. At the time of the division in 1797, the writer was not quite ten years of age; but, young as he was at that period, he was not altogether unemployed by and for the "New Itinerancy;" though the service he then rendered was not more than what any lad of the same age, and acquainted with the neighbourhood, might have done. His father had sustained at times the offices of circuit and society steward, and probably was in one of those offices when the separation took place, which led him to em ploy his youngest son upon errands and matters pertaining to the society and circuit preachers. The first appointed ministers to the circuit, were Messrs. Grundell and Revel. Mr. G., owing to being af flic ed with loss of sight, required a guide in going to his appointments: and the now aged, but then young servant, was occasionally employed to pioneer the good man to places where he had to proclaim the searchable riches of Christ," a topic

un

History records the first mayor of the town to have been appointed to his office in the year 1284; and that the borough has continued to return members to parliament since the year 1288.

on which he was particularly at home in the pulpit: but little did either the preacher or his guide then think that in a few years they would be colleages together in the ministry in one of our Yorkshire circuits.

Mr. Grundell did not always walk to his appointments; he was literally, at times, a "riding preacher," as Methodist ministers were then often called. On account of the circuits at that period being generally extensive, a horse was kept for the use of the preachers; not, it may be presumed, of the most spirited kind, but of a gentle and quiet character. Your correspondent well remembers that, one Sabbath day, (most likely the day when Mr. G. had first to use the horse,) a few of the friends mounted each a steed to escort the good man in safety to his appointments, and partly perhaps that they might again have the privilege of hearing him preach the glad tidings of the gospel. One of the company was the writer's father, who indulged his son with a ride behind him, thereby giving his son the oppor tunity of seeing the man of God conducted in safety first to C-1 to preach in the morning, and then to S-d, where the company dined at the house of Mr. G., à man who at first was zealous for the "New Itinerancy," but afterwards thought proper to return to the parent body. Possibly some reader may here be disposed to say the former days must have been better than these, as the Methodist preachers were then privileged with the use of of a horse to attend their appointments. But let the reader consider that in those days there were many pedestrian journeys to take in supplying villages within six or seven miles of the circuit town: and the convenience of a horse for taking the "long round," when the preacher had to be absent from his family for eight or nine days together, (which the writer has often been,) cannot for a moment be compared with the privileges that he and his brethren generally now enjoy-the opportunity of sleeping at home every night, and being in their study every day, to "give attendance to read

ing," whereby they will be the better able to bring forth out of their treasure things new as well as old, and so more effectually feed with knowledge the church of Christ, " over which the Holy Ghost hath made them overseers.' Assuredly, in this respect, the former days were not better than these.

In 1799, when the writer was only twelve years of age, he was received as a teacher in the oldest Sabbath school in his native town; but, though the school was formed before the division, it was then under the management of the Methodist New Connexion. The individual who introduced your correspondent to the Sabbath school was a Mr. Singleton, who had recently commenced a day school. He had been a Methodist class leader, and was favourable to that reform in church government which was adopted by our community; but soon after the separation, he imbibed the principles and views of the Society of Friends; and the widow of the late Rev. A. Kilham imbibed them also about the

same time. Amongst his pupils were the Rev. A Kilham's only surviving daughter, who afterwards became Mrs. Biller, of St. Petersburgh, the writer of this statement, and a poetess who still lives to ornament her Christian profession, after having been about half a century a member of the New Connexion, and for a considerable part of her time the leader of a class. In a previous school, it was the writer's lot to be associated with Henry Kirk White, who in a few years after became eminent as a poet and a Christian. In 1806, he fell a sacrifice to severe study at the early age of twenty-one. The reading of his "Star of Bethlehem" will ever kindle in the believing and contrite heart the most hallowed emotions, while the talented author of the above lines is enjoying the blissful presence of HIM to whom

*When Mr. Singleton gave up the school adverted to, he removed to the "Friends" school at Ackworth, near Wakefield, where for many years he was head master of one department of that institution.

they so feelingly direct the reader's attention. Allow, Mr. Editor, the introduction here of the first and two last verses:

"When marshall'd on the mighty plain, The glitt'ring host bestud the sky; One star alone of all the train,

Can fix the sinner's wandering eye.

"It was my guide, my light, my all:

It bade my dark forebodings cease; And thro' the storm, and dangers thrall, It led me to the port of peace. "Now safely moor'd-my perils o'er, I'll sing, first in night's diadem, For ever and for ever more,

The Star! the Star of Bethlehem!"

Your correspondent, as a teacher in the Sabbath school, continued punctually to attend it until he was called to devote himself fully to the work of the ministry; so that in one employment or another, he may be said to have been a servant of the New Connexion from its commencement in 1797. Having mentioned the way in which he was introduced to the Sabbath school, it may not be unacceptable to state the way and manner in which he was introduced into the ministry as a circuit preacher. He, however, must first premise that, while in his teens he imbibed a taste for reading; and through reading, rather than to the preaching of the gospel, though accustomed to attend upon it from a child, he was brought to a belief of the truth, and to a knowledge of salvation by the remission of his sins. This was when he was about nineteen years of age. Convinced of the worth of the soul, and feeling the value of religion, he began to employ his talents, such as they were, first in meetings for prayer and exhortation, and then as a local preacher. By the time his name had been six months on the Preachers' Plan, and in the middle of our ecclesiastical year, a supply was wanted for a circuit in Yorkshire. The Rev. W. Thom was that year the corre sponding member of the annual committee, as he had been for several previous years in succession. He wrote to the circuit, which was then under the superintendency of the late Rev. A. Scott, who in reply, it would

appear, expressed a favourable opinion of your correspondent, since the result was, his being employed as a supply until Conference, when he was received on probation as a circuit preacher. The circuit he went to supply being an extensive one, it was necessary to keep a horse for the use of the preachers; and equally necessary that the preacher should be provided with certain accoutrements or appendages to an ordinary wardrobe. Accordingly, the writer, before leaving home, provided himself with overalls, an oil-case for the hat, not forgetting saddle-bags, in which to take magazines, hymn books, and what articles he required for his own personal comfort while absent from his regular lodgings for more than a week. Happily, covered railway carriages have superseded such habiliments, and such inconvenient modes of travelling.

The early part of the history of our community cannot be compared to the present time in regard to house accommodations for its ministers. An intimate friend of the writer, who is an older traveller than himself, can recollect living in one of three families who all resided under the chapel; viz., two married preachers, (one being the late respected Mr. Mort,) and also the chapel keeper. Only one of the dwellings had stairs to an upper room, the other rooms being all on the ground floor. It is, however, but fair to state, that the same cir cuit, some years ago, after having erected a new and commodious chapel, built two very good houses for the preachers, and has very recently cleared off all the debt upon them, leaving a handsome balance in hand for further improvement. So much for the difference in our Connexion betwixt one generation and another. Will any reader say that, in attention to a minister's comfort, the former days were better than these? The first house, which your correspondent occupied as a married man, was the reverse of respectable in regard to the neighbourhood. Opposite the house, was a coalpit, separated only by a lane or road, not of the cleanest description. As for the house itself, it had two sleeping rooms, and one

room below, which served both for parlour and kitchen, as all the cooking had to be done in it. There was, it is true, a small adjoining room, in which stood a writing desk, a bookcase for a very small library, and a chair, or there might be two. Other particulars of the house need not be named; suffice it to say, the writer has never lived in such a house since, and believes that none of his brethren at this day occupy such a house in so unfavourable a situation. Residences of the description mentioned for Ministers of the New Connexion have disappeared, having given place to dwellings more respectable in their external appearance, and more commodious in their internal accommodations. It is only just to say, that this is the case at the place last referred to, where the minister now occupies a house in a better situation, with a sufficient number of rooms both above and below for the convenience and comfort of any ordinary sized family. A great improvement in these respects has taken place

within the last fifteen or twenty years; and improvement is still the order of the day, as perhaps no change of this kind takes place but what is a change for the better. And the ardent wish of the writer is, that the Connexion may continue to progress, especially in the number of converted souls, as well as in whatever may tend to promote the comfort and happiness both of its ministers and members.

The writer feels thankful, as is no doubt the case with his junior brethren, that he and they live in better days than what they were from 1798 to about 1820; and while ministers are grateful, the people who love them will rejoice in their improved condition. And now, Mr. Editor, it is perhaps time for your correspondent to bring his reminiscences to a conclusion; and therefore, to use an easier word than the one with which this article commenced, he will cease for the present to furnish your readers with any more of his RECOL

LECTIONS.

August, 1850.

RESPECTED FRIEND, Wouldst thou kindly spare me the needful space for a practical hint to those who will have the arrangement of the great exhibition? From one end of the kingdom to the other, and, I doubt not, throughout the whole civilized world, this vast "exhibition of the industry of all nations" has been welcomed as a real international boon. In fact, all parties-prince, peer, prelate, and peasant point to this industrial jubilee as a great "practical Peace Congress." They hail it as calculated to animate the visitors with more friendly feelings towards each other, and thus promote, in a collateral, but most effectual manner, the brotherhood of nations as bringing together into harmonious concord the various nations of the world, and withdrawing the attention from that feeling of international jealousy which leads to sanguinary wars - as a means of promoting that intercommunication

of knowledge which will increase our respective powers of adding to the comfort of our fellow creaturesas a plan of industrial and inventive competition which may, at least for a time, engage all nations to abandon the struggle of warfare for a peaceful and civilizing emulation in the works of industry and art.

Prince Albert, in the beautiful speech which he delivered at the Mansion-house, at the dinner recently given by the first Magistrate of the city of London, to the Mayors of the principal towns in the United Kingdom observes, "Nobody who has paid any attention to the particular features of our present era, will doubt for a moment that we are living at a period of most wonderful transition, which tends rapidly to accomplish that great end to which indeed all history points the realization of the unity of mankind; not a unity which breaks down the limits, and levels