to expand and strengthen as the body became more emaciated. She became more earnest than ever for the clear manifestations of pardoning love. Her language was,

Her own desires were so strong, and her prayers so earnest, that it was impossible for any one acquainted with spiritual exercises to be in her company, and see her patience in suffering, though divine consolation was thus small, without being absorbed in sympathy, and drawn out in an agony of supplication. On one of these occasions, prayer was heard, and the season became indeed a memorable one. It was as if "the Invisible appeared in sight." The Saviour "disclosed his lovely face," and her whole spirit was "filled with radiancy divine." She was enabled to "rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory." Her weary and heavy-laden soul did truly find rest in Christ; and ever after she was enabled, in perfect tranquillity, to repose in his merits and love. On one or two occasions, during her severe and protracted sufferings, the adversary sought to suggest doubt; but she at once "looked unto Jesus," and "saw the tempter fly." Holding fast her confidence, she found that it had "great recompence of reward." Her experience might be expressed in the often-quoted lines,

"Not a cloud doth arise, To darken the skies,

Or hide for a moment my Lord from my eyes."

In a remarkable manner, her mental faculties appeared to strengthen, as disease occasioned increasing weakness, and her anticipations of heaven became more clear and rapturous as her path led lower and lower into the valley and shadow of death. It seemed as if the soul, in its various exercises, had already become almost independent of the body. To record all her sayings would far exceed the limits prescribed for such a notice as this: it is not, therefore, attempted. It is enough to say, that her conversation, while most spiritual and heavenly, seemed most natural, and was equally calculated to instruct and console those whom she was about so soon to leave. However much they grieved for themselves, for her they could only rejoice. In this blessed frame she was preserved to the last, testifying to the infinite value of religion, and that as "to her to live was Christ," so "to die would be gain" for ever and ever. JOHN CORLETT.

31. Died, May 24th, at Catterton, in the Tadcaster Circuit, Mrs. Brumwell, wife of the Rev. Thomas Brumwell, then stationed at Burton-on-Trent. Mrs. Brumwell was the daughter of Mr. Benjamin Hessel, of Catterton, where she was born, March 24th, 1825. Under the pious care of her parents, she was brought early in life to fear God; and as she grew up, she avoided those grosser vanities to which youth are naturally prone. She was accustomed to attend the evangelical ministry of the Vicar of Tadcaster; but though instructed by his discourses, it does not appear that she was led to seek in earnest

for the blessings of a present salvation, till, by a train of circumstances which she always regarded as providential, she became an attendant at the Wesleyan chapel. During a gracious revival of religion, she was very seriously impressed with the solemn importance of divine things; but she does not seem to have found the joy and peace of faith in Christ. She was soon after sent to a school at a little distance from home; and the company of a number of young females of her own age, though it did not entirely remove, yet greatly weakened, the more serious impressions which had previously been made on her mind. The happy death of a brother whom she tenderly loved, for a time, renewed these feelings; but she again relapsed into comparative indifference. On her return from school, she recommenced her attendance at the Wesleyan chapel. From what she afterwards said, it seems there was at this time a powerful conflict in her mind. She was often deeply impressed while hearing the word; but she resisted these sacred convictions, and manifested on one or two occasions even hostility against spiritual religion. However, she continued punctually to attend the means of grace; and it was plain to her friends that she really felt more than she was willing to acknowledge. At length, so strong became her sense of her sinfulness, guilt, and danger, that it could no longer be concealed. She began earnestly to seek for mercy and peace, and requested permission to unite with those whom she believed to be (though not exclusively) the people of God. For about three weeks she indeed sought the Lord sorrowing. On Monday, May 11th, 1840, a memorable day for her, she retired for private meditation and prayer, more painfully depressed than ever. She was distressed by the multitude of her thoughts within her, and tempted to believe that she was too young to receive that blessing, without which, nevertheless, she knew that she could not be happy. She gave herself to prayer; and the longer she prayed, the more power to pray did she experience. Before she left her chamber, she received a blessed sense of the pardoning love of God. She was enabled to rest on the Lord Jesus Christ as her Saviour, and the Spirit of adoption was sent forth into her heart, bearing witness with her spirit that she was a child of God. She was filled with all joy and peace in believing, and henceforth love to Him who had first loved her became the great principle and source of her obedience. Her duty was her delight; and though her deportment previously had been correct and moral, it was evident that she now walked by a higher rule, and sought to be holy in all manner of conversation. Her connexion with the Wesleyan society was confirmed at the June quarterly visitation of the classes, when she received her first ticket of membership from the late venerable Joseph Entwisle. To the means of grace she was strongly attached, and though she had more than two miles to walk, she seldom was absent.

In August, 1842, she was married, and removed to Melton-Mowbray, the Circuit in which her husband was then labouring. She entered on the duties of this new sphere of action with diffidence and fear, but with dependence on God, and a strong confidence that he would be a

present help to her in every time of need. Her religious experience generally evinced a calm, unshaken reliance on Christ, as her personal Saviour. Immediately after the Conference of 1844, she removed with her husband to Burton-on-Trent. She was received with great kindness and affection, and she expressed the thankfulness and joy that she felt in what seemed to be the prospect of a useful and happy year. For a time her expectations were realized; but accompanying her husband one day while paying pastoral visits to several families in the town, she caught a severe cold, which produced a violent pain in her side, and pulmonary inflammation. Before long it became only too plain that consumption had commenced its fatal ravages, and that, young as she was, her days were numbered. During her protracted illness, in the course of which her sufferings frequently were great, she both experienced and exemplified the truth and power of the religion she had embraced and professed in health. She was meekly resigned to the will of her heavenly Father, and never complained, however much she might suffer. When told for the first time that her case was hopeless, for a brief period she experienced a natural grief at being so early and suddenly called to leave those whom she so much loved; but these feelings soon passed away, and she was enabled to commit herself to the merciful care of her Saviour, and her family to the unfailing providence of God. So completely were all her natural feelings brought into subjection to the divine appointment, that she more than once expressed her surprise, and praised God for his goodness and grace. As it was thought that change of scene, and her native air, together with proper medicine, might, perhaps, be beneficial, she was taken to Catterton towards the end of April, 1845. She bore the journey well, and for a few days seemed a little revived; but it was only for a few days. Her confidence in her Saviour, however, was unshaken, and her peace undisturbed. Indeed her faith seemed to increase as her physical strength diminished; and, in the midst of her sufferings, she was favoured with delightful manifestations of the divine presence and goodness. She anticipated her final hour with solemn gladness, and did indeed rejoice in hope of the glory of God. To her brother, whom she saw weeping, she said, "Do not weep. Submission to the will of God is a Christian duty. The Lord has given me suffering grace; and, when I need it, he will give me dying grace." On the morning of her last day on earth, after passing a restless night, she experienced a painful conflict with the enemy of her soul. Unbelieving fears were suggested; but she cast not away her confidence, but wrestled in fervent prayer till she was enabled to triumph gloriously. From that moment, not only was her peace unbroken, but her joy full. Before she died, she had several violent paroxysms of suffering, after recovering from one of which, when it had been thought that she must have sunk under the pressure, she said, while a heavenly smile lit up her dying countenance, “I felt that if I had gone then, I should have gone to Jesus." Just as mortality was about to be swallowed up of life, she raised her trembling hand, and feebly but distinctly said, "Victory, victory!" and then

added, after a short pause, "through the blood of the Lamb! Almost immediately after she ceased to breathe.

THOMAS BRUMWELL.

32. Died, July 15th, at North-Burton, in the Bridlington Circuit, aged seventy-five, Mr. James Cape, who had, for more than forty years, sustained an unblemished reputation as a member of the Wesleyan society, and as a man of fidelity and uprightness. His father was an industrious and strictly moral man, and, for several years before his death, a consistent member of the Wesleyan society. His mother was the daughter of the late Rev. Thomas Atkinson, a pious and evangelical Clergyman of the Church of England, who for many years exercised his ministry at Langtoft, Sledmere, and Reighton, in the East Riding of Yorkshire.* She was a member of the Methodist society for more than half a century, and for a long period regularly went a distance of three miles to the weekly meetings of her class. James Cape, when quite young, was placed under the care of his maternal grandfather; and this, together with parental instruction, implanted those moral and religious principles which were so clearly developed in after-life. As he grew up, his conduct was always upright, and his attention to the outward forms of religion regular and serious. When he became the head of a family, he commenced the duty of domestic worship, employing a form of prayer prepared for the purpose. The light which he had received gradually increased; and at length both he and his partner in life became convinced of the necessity of experiencing what should be deeper than the form of religion, and more spiritual than a merely human morality. Their conversion was not that strongly-marked transition which is evident in many; but it was genuine, and produced the fruits which proved it to be so. He felt, too, that he must be decided in Christian profession, and became, on principle, a member of the Wesleyan society, poor and despised as in that neighbourhood it was. From that time, his attachment to those among whom he had cast his lot was unwavering; and according to his ability he was always ready for every good work. The Wesleyan Ministers found for many years a hospitable reception; and when the increase of the congregation and society at North-Burton rendered a more commodious place of worship needful, he gave the ground for the site of a small chapel. Since

* Mr. Atkinson was a truly excellent man, training his family in the fear of God, so that a blessing seemed to descend on his children, and his children's children. Nor was he unmindful of the wants of those who laboured in another part of his Lord's vineyard. The Wesleyan society at Langtoft consisted for many years of persons who were very poor, and who could afford the Ministers who visited them only very indifferent accommodations. They were received at the house of a person of the name of Whiting, who could only manage a night's lodging for them by giving them a share of his own bed, his wife taking her rest on the "settle " downstairs, a kind of wooden sofa. For some years, on every visit of the Preacher, these poor individuals received, from a kind but unknown friend, a portion of provisions, brought secretly to the back part of the house. It was at length discovered that the Clergyman was the thoughtful donor. He was wont to say, that "if God had a people on earth, the Methodists were among them."

this first erection, enlargement has been twice necessary, and each time the ground that was required was kindly given. He was much esteemed as a teacher of youth: he was the Schoolmaster of the village nearly fifty years. In the Sabbath-school, too, he took great delight, and for many years was seldom absent. His religious experience was like his character, steady, uniform, and persevering. It was evidently his aim to "keep himself in the love of God, looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life."

These

In the spring of 1845, Mr. Cape caught a severe cold, which affected his lungs so violently, that for a length of time he had great difficulty in breathing occasionally he even feared instant suffocation. painful symptoms suggested the thought that dying itself must be very painful; and this, in connexion with acute nervous sensibility, -and perhaps the tempter was permitted to take advantage of his weakened frame, and at least partially-admitted want of confidence, for a final assault,-produced a shrinking from the solemn event whose approach he could not doubt. Still, it was not death that he feared, so much as dying. However, he held fast his confidence in God; and his believing views of the efficacy of the atonement, and of the richness of the divine promises, enabled him to look beyond death with joyous anticipations of the society of the heavenly church. After a severe paroxysm of pain, he was once reminded of the promise, "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned," &c: he replied, with a pleasant smile, "That is good; but I have something that seems to suit me better." Other promises were quoted; and his rejoinder was still, "Yes; but that is not all." At length this was mentioned: "He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." "That is it, that is it," he quickly added; "that is it; and it is mine." As he drew nearer to his latter end, his faith became firmer, and his joy more abundant; insomuch that he was filled with holy rapture, and gave repeated expression to his feelings in the appropriate language of the Psalmist: "Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases." He experienced in a large measure the gracious influence of Him who came to " destroy him that had the power of death; and to deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage." That dread of dying which he had previously somewhat felt, was, when the time came that he must die, mercifully removed, and he found the last enemy to be a conquered enemy; so that his last song of triumph was, "Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory, through Jesus Christ our Lord." He sank into the arms of death with the utmost composure," rejoicing in hope of the glory of God." AARON MASON.