'delight; with much prayer, and entire dedication to God, he gave him

self to the work of the Lord.

With a view to the direction of his future life, he had been placed in the house of an eminent cotton merchant in Manchester. His employer was a good and benevolent man, of another denomination of Christians, who knew how to estimate his integrity and piety; and under such auspices, the prospects of Mr. Townley, in that metropolis of commerce and wealth, may be considered encouraging. But Providence had marked out for him another course. His employer, when informed by him that he was about to quit his service to become an itinerant preacher in the Methodist connection, replied that he would not readily have consented to part with him for any other cause; and either then, or at an immediately subsequent interview, he generously presented him with one hundred pounds, for the purchase of books, as a token of his regard.

In his twenty-second year, Mr. Townley was received on probation as a travelling preacher by the Wesleyan Methodist conference. From this time till the year 1832, when by a failure of health he was compelled to retire, a period of six-and-thirty years, he continued, with uniform consistency and increasing honor, to fulfil his duties as a minister, and to occupy some of the most important offices of the connection to which he belonged.

Without particularly mentioning the different circuits to which he was successively appointed, it is sufficient to say, that many persons in each of them have in remembrance his intelligent and faithful ministry, tempered as it was with tenderness and discretion. In several instances his wise counsel and conciliatory deportment rendered him successful, under the Divine blessing, in allaying some degree of uneasiness which had been excited in the societies under his pastoral care. The advantages resulting from his wise and gracious ministry in Stockport are well remembered. In Warrington, during his stay, the chapel was enlarged, and the society greatly increased; the debt which had burdened the society was also considerably reduced. In Bradford he saw a revival of the work of God, and under the date of January 19th, 1826, he writes, Mr. T. H. Walker and I met some of the persons who have received good during the revival: seventy-six were present, who professed to enjoy the blessing of entire sanctification; and more than forty to have received a sense of justification. It was a most blessed time. Glory be to God alone.' Many indeed were the seals of his ministry; even after he was laid aside by affliction his heart was sometimes made to glow with gratitude, and his eyes to fill with tears, by the intelligence of one and another who had been brought to God under his ministry, and by his visitation of the sick in past years, when he had not been immediately acquainted with the fruit of his labors.

The life of a Methodist preacher, attentive to the great business of his calling, is at all times one of much exertion; his Sunday ministrations, and his daily engagements in the pulpit and at the bedside of the afflicted, throughout an extensive circuit, make large demands on his mental and physical energies. Mr. Townley found this to be the case in his own experience; yet, by economy of time, and by persevering diligence, he successfully cultivated sacred literature; and pre

sented to the world several publications of considerable merit and value ; beside those occasional compositions, which do not bear his name, some of them having only a temporary or local interest.

.

In addition to the advantages of education, Mr. Townley had received the impulse arising from early literary associations. While in Manchester he had become a member of a Philological Society, originated by the late Dr. Adam Clarke; and, in common with many other young men, was urged, by the example and exhortations of that celebrated scholar, to great diligence in the pursuit of knowledge, the fruits of which were seen throughout his future course. His first publication of note was a volume of Biblical Anecdotes,' which appeared in the year 1814. He had been desired by his children to preach them a sermon on the history of the Holy Scriptures, and on the early translations of them into different languages. As he found that they and others were delighted with the facts he had collected and arranged for their information, he yielded to the farther request of his family, and prepared the volume already mentioned. In the Methodist Magazine for that year, it is said, that the work abounds with important and interesting matter, well digested and well expressed, and contains proper references to the authorities by which the historic facts recorded in it are supported.'

The work which next proceeded from his pen was one which procured to him considerable celebrity in the literary and religious world. Appearing about seven years after the publication of his Biblical Anecdotes,' it affords striking evidence that he continued his diligent researches into ecclesiastical history and sacred criticism, with unabated ardour. It was entitled Illustrations of Biblical Literature, exhibiting the History and Fate of the Sacred Writings, from the earliest period to the present century, including notices of translators and other eminent Biblical scholars.'

It was no small tribute to its worth, that a review of it, for the Methodist Magazine, was written by one of the most accomplished Biblical scholars of the present day. He thus describes it: These volumes present a connected view of the history of Biblical translations from the earliest date to the present century, and are enriched by most copious and interesting biographical notices of the most eminent scholars and critics, and such occasional sketches of the history of the manners and superstitions of the darker ages, as may illustrate the advantages to be derived from a more general dissemination of the inspired writings.'

The magnitude and extent of the research required in the compilation of this elaborate work can only be fully appreciated by those who have been engaged in similar pursuits. Many volumes had to be read, in some cases, for the composition of a single page, and those volumes in old monkish Latin or in obsolete French. To ascertain a date, it was often necessary to search and compare many writings of his predecessors; and frequently had he to suspend his proceedings for several weeks, while waiting for books to be sent from Germany or other parts of the continent, to establish facts not otherwise to be correctly ascertained. His residence for several years in the neighborhood of Manchester greatly favored his design, by affording him free and constant access to the collegiate library in that town; an

establishment so rich in ancient Biblical literature, that, when the late Archbishop of Dublin was compiling his work on the Atonement, he resided several weeks in Manchester for the sole purpose of having uninterrupted reference to the books there deposited.

The literary excellence of Mr. Townley's erudite and valuable work was acknowledged in almost every respectable periodical of the day; and procured for him from an American university the well earned honor of the degree of Doctor in Divinity; an honor equally creditable to those who conferred it, and to him who received it. He was considered by most literary men as happy in the choice of a subject on which to employ his industry and embody its results. He delighted in his task; and subsequent to the publication of his work in three volumes, pursued the same subject with so much diligence, as to amass a quantity of most interesting information equal to one of the preceding volumes, which it was his design to incorporate with his work in a second impression, and which, by the adoption of a smaller type, he purposed to compress into two volumes. Many were the communications he received complimentary to his talents. On his visit to Ireland, as president of the conference, in the year 1830, he was congratulated by several members of the Dublin University, and the highest encomiums were pronounced on his performance. The whole of the first edition having been sold, all the preachers of the Methodist conference in Ireland gave their names as subscribers to a second edition, the publication of which would have proved generally acceptable, and was called for by many; but his circumstances did not warrant him, however desirous, to venture on a speculation so extensive; the additional matter, therefore, still remains in manuscript.

Doctor Townley was not insensible to the commendations bestowed upon his work; nor was he unmindful of the credit reflected by it on the body of Christians with which he was connected. Had he written solely for fame, he might have been content to desist from farther authorship; but he still continued his literary pursuits in the same useful direction. In 1824 he published a volume of Essays on various subjects of Ecclesiastical History and Antiquity.' Several of these elegant compositions had previously appeared in the Methodist Magazine and other periodicals; yet the volume was well received. It contains much curious information concerning the early corruptions of the patriarchal religion, and on the subject of Christian antiquities, not to be found collected together in any other book in the English language.

The next contribution of Dr. Townley to the literature of his country was a translation into English of the More Nevochim of Maimonides; or, Reasons for the law of Moses,' with prefatory dissertations and appended notes, displaying considerable acquaintance with Jewish learning, and the results of much patient research. Rabbi Ben Maimon was a Jewish physician of great literary note in the thirteenth century. It appears to have been his object to show that many of the ceremonial precepts of the Mosaic institution were rational and just, independently of the spiritual meaning which may be conveyed by them. His book does not assume a controversial form; and perhaps was not intended as an attack on Christianity, but rather to embody

certain illustrations of the Levitical code, for the information of such Jews as might be curious in matters of their law. It was a boon to the world to present in an English dress a book so constantly referred to by Biblical critics, and without which no library of Scripture criticism can be considered complete. For the composition of the doctor's own portion of this volume, the best authors were consulted; the essays and notes are drawn up with great judgment and clearness, and drew forth the most gratifying commendations from high and respectable quarters. But works merely critical rarely acquire sudden popularity; they are but slowly introduced to the library of the studious; it takes time and frequent reference to discover their value. The doctor had experience of this in the sale of this volume, which is yet only partially known; and it is not improbable, that the disappointment arising from this circumstance prevented the desired appearance of the second edition of his Illustrations of Biblical Literature.'

Doctor Townley's last publication was an Introduction to the critical study of the Old and New Testaments,' embodying much of that correct and interesting information which his peculiar taste and reading had rendered familiar to him. This volume has been very widely circulated, and is much admired. It is fully worthy of the piety and talents of its author. The book of God was his favorite study, and the productions of his pen chiefly tended to aid those who love to follow him in tracing its interesting history, and are desirous to understand its sacred contents.

In 1826 Dr. Townley removed from Bradford to London, and was associated with three others in the pastoral care of the Queen-street circuit; and at the conference of 1827 he was appointed to the onerous and responsible office of general secretary to the Wesleyan Missionary Society. In this capacity he maintained the reputation of his previous life. His colleagues found him amiable and affectionate; he was ready for every public service; and he willingly bore a due share of the heavy responsibility connected with the management of the important interests of the society at home and abroad; while the missionaries found in him a faithful and wise counsellor and an unvarying friend.

Connected with the missions, he entertained a wakeful solicitude for their welfare, and indulged a grateful exultation at their success. Yet he almost necessarily took that view of the spread of Christianity which his reading and previous pursuits were calculated to suggest.He projected a History of Christian Missions, to embrace all the important facts on record, in every language, relating to any mission of whatever Church, for the conversion of mankind to the knowledge and faith of Christ—a work which, if successfully executed, would have possessed uncommon interest and value. It would have brought out of obscurity the names of many who, in ancient times, were highly honored of God in the instruction and moral subjugation of many savage and pagan tribes of Europe, as well as of Africa and Asia; it would have edified the Church by memorials of the most active piety and patient zeal; it would have afforded the best means for comparing the modes of operation and the success of ancient and modern missions; and would have placed in striking contrast the missions of nominal Churches, merely political in their bearing and character, with

those which have their origin in Christian zeal, and whose object is the glory of God in the salvation of the souls of men.

When Dr. Townley's habits of research and practised ability in the examination of ancient records are considered, and the facts already stored in his memory by extensive reading, and the friendly terms of correspondence with which he was favored by one of the librarians of the Vatican, and by other literati at home and abroad, as well as the constant communication he held with missionaries in every part of the world, it cannot but be regretted very deeply, that, while holding the office of secretary to the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, he had not leisure to carry his projected work into effect; and that, after he had retired from the labors of public life, his state of health never permitted him to resume those habits of arduous literary toil which he had formerly cultivated, and which were necessary to the accomplishment of so laborious and comprehensive an undertaking. Under the effects of a distressing and debilitating indisposition, and with the disadvantage of an entire exclusion from his own library, being then in temporary lodgings in Ramsgate for the recovery of his health, he drew up a very interesting sketch of the history of some of the most remarkable missions of the Christian Church, ancient and modern, which was first read in part at a meeting of the Local Branch Missionary Society, and afterward adorned the pages of some successive numbers of the Methodist Magazine for the year 1834; affording, however, but a faint idea of what the projected work would have been, had circumstances favored its execution.

At the conference held in Sheffield, July and August, 1829, Dr. Townley was elected to the chair; and thus received the highest honor Methodism confers, and the most decided proof of the confidence and love of his brethren in the ministry.

His even piety, his amiable mildness, and his usual ability, were as conspicuous while he held the office of president of the conference as they had been in a more private station. He was equally beloved and respected; his official visits to various parts of the connection were seasons of great religious enjoyment to those with whom he was called to associate, a remembrance of which is gratefully cherished in many hearts. The year of his presidency was one of great peace, and of some enlargement to the Methodist society. The writer of this memoir had the privilege of being associated with Dr. Townley at the Mission House, for the whole of that year, and can personally testify the sacred anxiety with which he regarded every interest of the connection at home and abroad, and his daily attention to the various duties of his office.

Before the close of this year of honorable labor, Dr. Townley's health began seriously to decline. By the preceding British conference he had been appointed to preside at the Irish conference of 1830. With this object he proceeded to Dublin in the month of June; and during his stay his attention to business was almost incessant; while his sterling character, his pleasing manners, and his interesting conversational powers, had the effect of endearing his society not only to the preachers assembled in conference, but also to the literary, intelligent, and pious, of every rank and denomination to whom he was introduced. It would appear, however, that his exertions were greater than