to feel much of his presence. To live in God, and for God, is all I desire."

His first effort in the way of preaching was made before he reached his twentieth year, in a School-room that belonged to Mr. John Thompson, of Hull. After he had thus engaged in delivering the divine message, he was, on different occasions, much perplexed by temptation; but, acting from a sense of duty, with humility and much prayer to God, he was encouraged to go forward. At the Christmas Quarterly Meeting his pulpit exertions were noticed, and also approved by the Preachers and leading friends of the Hull Circuit. A few extracts from a journal, in which, at this period, he was accustomed to make brief remarks concerning his preaching, will best exhibit the simplicity and ardour with which he aimed at doing good.

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"January 5th, 1812, Waterhouse-Lane. 1 Cor. vii. 29: Time is short.' This was the first Sermon I preached on the authority of the Methodist Quarterly Meeting in Hull. I have much reason to be thankful for the assistance the Lord gave me. A solemn and devout awe seemed to rest on the minds of all present, while I endeavoured to enforce and improve the impressive truth in the text. I trust I can say unfeignedly, If thou goest not up with me, send me not hence.'

"January 12th, Stoneferry. James v. 20: Let him know,' &c. I trust: I was enabled to set before the people the nature of conversion, and the blessings consequent upon it, in such a way as will be useful to them. In the evening I felt greatly for them; and for some time my sleep departed from me. I know not whether I did not feel something of what St. Paul expresses, Gal. iv. 19.

Whatsoeverthy hand

Mr. Atmore and Mr.

Never did I feel so

"April 24th, Waterhouse-Lane. Eccles. ix. 10: findeth to do," &c. This was my trial sermon. Hare heard me. It was a very painful season to me. much at any time when preaching. I fully expected that the decision would then be made against me; and was surprised when my friends intimated that they were well satisfied. The people in general were very attentive; and, upon the whole, I believe good was done; but it was the Lord who did it. I can still say, 'Use me, or lay me aside.'

"May 3d, Mr. Thompson's School. 2 Thess. iii. 16: The Lord be with you all.' This was the last sermon I preached in Hull during my apprenticeship. I felt much at parting with my friends. They are a loving people. May God bless and keep them! We had a profitable time when parting at the School.

Inseparably join'd in heart,

The friends of Jesus are.""

Shortly after he had finished his apprenticeship, he left Hull, and went to Malton, where his mother and the rest of his relations resided. He

continued there some months, and was employed in the Malton Circuit, and sometimes in other adjoining Circuits, as a Local Preacher. His labours at that time were not in vain in the Lord. He had many gracious manifestations of the divine presence; and not a few were brought to a saving knowledge of the truth by his instrumentality. Writing to his sister, Aug. 17th, 1812, he thus relates to her the success he had met with in preaching, and his own religious experience :--"I have been in the Circuit a fortnight, for Mr. Needham, and have been fully employed. In Bransdale we had a very glorious meeting. I think four were brought into Christian liberty, and others were in distress. The Lord is working powerfully in that Dale. In my itinerancy, I have been much favoured and blessed. The Lord has frequently filled my earthen vessel; yet still I cry,

'Enlarge my heart to compass thee,'" &c.

To Mr. John Bell, June 3d, 1813, he states, "My places last Sunday were Pickering and Thornton. At the latter place, in the evening, three persons were delivered from the burden of guilt, and filled with divine consolation." These important facts, and others which are omitted for the sake of brevity, show that the hand of the Lord was with him, and prove his call to that holy office, to which he was afterwards set apart.

In the month of July he removed to Leeds, to a very eligible situation. There also he was received on the Local Preachers' plan, and had much kindness shown him by his Brethren. In Leeds his religious privileges were great, and his opportunities of doing and receiving good were very encouraging. About the close of the year an offer was made to him of entering into business with an acquaintance, a member of the Methodist Society, who was already established in trade, with very respectable connexions. Such a prospect was flattering to his hopes; but he was not anxious about worldly prosperity. Without forming any positive conclusion, he resolved, in the first place, to consult his Christian friends. Some of them cautioned him against forming the engagement, and recommended him to turn his attention to the ministry. Others, who were desirous of retaining him among them, advised him to accept the proposal. Between the two classes of advisers he was kept in suspense; and, not knowing which path to choose, he made up his mind to wait the direction of Divine Providence for a season.

At the March Quarterly Meeting, held in Leeds, 1814, he was proposed as a candidate for the itinerant ministry; and, being deemed suitable for the work, he was recommended, by a unanimous vote, to the ensuing Conference. By that event, the course he should take appeared to bim in a clearer light than before. In reference to preaching, however, and the consciousness of his own insufficiency, he had still many fears. This inward conflict was both rainful and profitable. It sometimes filled

him with diffidence and self-abasement; but it taught him the danger and folly of trusting to an arm of flesh, and the necessity of living more entirely by faith. He found that he must not only give up all to Christ, but look for all from him; and that his only refuge against temptation and discouragement was, to have recourse to the fulness of grace and truth, presented in his all-sufficient Saviour. "Who is sufficient for these things?" he observes, seems to thrill through my soul, like a peal of thunder. I stand trembling, and, like Moses, I exceedingly fear and quake, O that the God of knowledge, of power, and of love, would teach, qualify, and dispose my heart for the skilful and successful performance of the work which lies before me!"

Having been approved by the District-meeting, at the Bristol Conference in 1814, he was recommended by Mr. Morley, and received on trial as a Travelling Preacher.

The Ripon Circuit, to which he was first appointed, was extensive and laborious; but he spared no pains to accomplish the will of his Divine Master. He had one end in view, at which he aimed with indefatigable diligence, the salvation of souls. For this he thought, read, prayed, and preached; regarding it as the highest honour of his ministry, to be instrumental in doing good. He preached with plainness and fidelity the word of God, which by the divine blessing prospered extensively. The congregations increased throughout the Circuit, and the Prayermeetings were well attended. Several were awakened and converted; and those who had before believed, were stirred up to greater zeal and activity. In some places, almost completely new Societies were raised up. "So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed." It was my happiness to witness the progress of this good work of God; and I cannot reflect on the reviving interviews I then had with my departed friend without regretting my own loss, and praying for more of his excellent and amiable spirit. When entering on the second year of his ministry in that Circuit, he declared to me how earnestly he desired to keep together the congregations and to edify the church of God. This desire of his heart was granted. "The people declare with one voice," says Mr. Z. Taft, "that his usefulness was very general, and very great, during both the years he laboured in the Ripon Circuit."

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Mr. Tindale's next Circuit was that of Colne in Lancashire, where he joined the late Mr. Thomas Vasey, as his Superintendent, and resided in his house. They laboured together with harmony, and saw the fruit of their exertions in the increase of converts to the truth. Mr. Vasey I had the following testimony to these interesting facts. November 13th, 1816, he writes, " Mr. Tindale and I, as you suppose, are very happy together. He is a good and useful Preacher, and an agreeable young man. Our prospects are promising in the Circuit, in

general; several are well affected, and some are converted to God. It is a great encouragement to labour, when the seed springs up and visibly promiseth a harvest unto eternal life." They had, after this time, a more abundant out-pouring of the Spirit, to which the people of that Circuit frequently advert, when true believers were further multiplied, and the Societies were in great prosperity.

In the spring of 1817, a season of distressing affliction ensued, in which Mr. Tindale was called both to sympathize and to suffer. His kind Superintendent was seized with the typhus-fever, and rapidly hastened to his reward. This alarming disease spread in the family, proved fatal to two of the children, and soon after Mr. Tindale was afflicted by it in a violent degree. For a while his life was in imminent danger; but the presence of God was his support. In the midst of his sufferings he had comfort, by committing both soul and body to the care of the compassionate Redeemer; and it pleased God, who thus sustained him in the furnace, to restore him from the very gates of death.

The state of his health was such, at the time of the Leeds Conference, in 1818, as to render it expedient that he should be stationed somewhere near the sea-coast. He was therefore appointed to the Bridlington Circuit. There, by the blessing of God, he gradually overcame the effects of the fever, and fully recovered, in the course of a few months, his former strength.

Before he left Colne, he had formed an acquaintance with Miss Sagar, of Southfield, most of whose family connexions are well known' in that neighbourhood, as respectable Members of the Methodist Society. Their correspondence was commenced and carried on in the fear of God. A few months after the Conference, it terminated in a matrimonial alliance, which, by sincere piety and mutual affection, was rendered truly happy. In this Circuit, as in the two former, Mr. Tindale's labours were both acceptable and useful.

In the Boston Circuit he spent three years, which may be safely reckoned among the happiest of his life. His health at that time was greatly improved, and his heart rejoiced in God. He was not a little gratified by the simplicity and affection of his Lincolnshire friends. He saw their desire to promote his happiness, which he endeavoured to return by making it his study to advance their spiritual and eternal welfare. The Boston Circuit was then beginning to improve; and this was a further stimulus to his exertions. While he manifested a proper regard to the experience, morals, and discipline, of the professedly religious; to excite a spiritual concern in the careless, and enlarge the borders of Zion, were objects which he steadily kept in view. With this design he frequently preached out of doors, faithfully warning the profligate, and earnestly urging them to "flee from the wrath to come." Religious

Tracts he distributed in almost every journey he took, taking with him a quantity for this purpose, and giving them as he conceived they would be most useful. To promote this excellent method of doing good, an institution was formed in Boston, chiefly by his direction, called "The Lending Tract Society." By these, and a variety of other means, he aimed at the conversion of sinners; endeavouring also, in the regular discharge of his ministry, to disseminate the most suitable and edifying instruction, and to render his discourses impressive and interesting to all. The encouraging declarations which follow, are taken from a letter addressed to him by one of the Stewards of the Boston Circuit, but which arrived too late for his perusal: "I know you will be glad to hear how the work of God goes on among us. You have many seals to your ministry in the Boston Circuit. Many in our Love-feasts speak of you as their father in Christ."

On his going to Bradford, after the London Conference, in 1822, his constitutional strength was firm, and his spirits good; but he did not continue long to possess those springs of earthly enjoyment. As long as he was able, he pursued his work with the same zeal, for the enlargement and welfare of Zion, which had formerly directed his conduct. He found the Circuit in an improved and prosperous state, and it was sufficiently evident, from the manner in which he prayed, preached, and conversed, that he rejoiced in this prosperity, and that he made it an encouraging ground to hope that they should see still better days. This hope, however, so far as it regarded his own efforts, was interrupted by a series of afflictions, both relative and personal. The exercises he met with, in the summer of 1823, connected with Mrs. Tindale's illness, the affliction and death of Mr. Sagar, and, I may add, the effects of his own ardent exertions in the pulpit, brought him to a state of extreme weakness. For five weeks he did not preach at all; and it became a dubious question, whether he would ever be able to preach again. The spirit of the Gospel was, however, then more particularly manifested in his temper and conduct. He thus expressed his submission to the will of his heavenly Father: "I must strive to profit by experience; and however my affliction may turn out, I hope it will be for the best." He had to contend with much indisposition during the winter; but as the spring advanced, he became much better: and as he continued to gather strength until the Conference, he was encouraged to believe that he should be fully able to take another Circuit, and that a change of air also would be beneficial to his constitution.

The last Circuit to which he was appointed, was that of Ashby-de-laZouch; where he laboured for a season, in the vineyard of his God, without either fear or reluctance. His heart was in the work, and a prospect of increasing usefulness and comfort began to open. For seve