rejoice at the consummation of the wishes and desires of the object of its regard. My beloved father had long desired 'to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better.' His trouble and pain have for ever ceased; and his happiness is inconceivably more abundant and complete than it could possibly be in this world. May we all follow him as he followed his Lord! and we shall overtake him where separation shall be

no more.

"For you I have felt much. Though you were enabled to give up my father, yet I can conceive you feel more since than you did then. But the Lord hath promised to be a husThat promise is now become yours, and I believe you will experience its accomplishment. The Lord will protect, comfort, and support.

band to the widow.

"Through the abundant mercy of God, we are all well. My dearest Elizabeth sincerely condoles with you in your bereaved state. When we received the account of my father's removal, we sat down, and both wept till we had no more power to weep. But we must all bow to the Divine will, and pray that the dispensation may be sanctified to us all. God bless you, my dear mother, for ever and ever! This is the earnest prayer of your affectionate son."

Mr. Newton, Sen., died on the 5th of March, 1816, and his son Robert embalmed the memory of his sainted parent in a beautiful sketch of his life and character, which he published in an octavo pamphlet of twenty-seven pages, and which is the only production of his pen that he ever committed to the press. It affords ample proof, however, that, had he affected authorship, he would have excelled in that as well as in public speaking.

Reference has already been made to his services in connection with the British and Foreign Bible Society; and it is but justice to him to state, that it was by his means chiefly that

an auxiliary society, in alliance with that noble institution, was formed in Wakefield. Mr. Hughes visited Leeds on occasion of the anniversary of the Auxiliary Bible Society in that town. Mr. Newton met him there, and took counsel with him on the subject of commencing such a society in Wakefield; and the consequence was, that with the coöperation of Mr. Rogers, a pious clergyman then resident there, and of Mr. Rayson, the dissenting minister, a society was organized, which has ever since continued in beneficial operation.

As a further illustration of the effectiveness of his preaching, and of the estimation in which he was held, it may be stated that, when he attended the London Conference of 1816, he preached before his brethren, in the City road chapel, in the morning of Sunday, August 4th, when the place was so crowded that another minister was called to address a multitude in the chapel-yard, who could not gain admission, although Dr. Adam Clarke was preaching at the same hour in the adjoining chapel of Spitalfields. At the close of the service, Mr. Benson followed him into the vestry, saying, "I thank you a thousand times;" and the next morning, in the Conference, that distinguished minister, who was one of the last men in the world to deal in flattery, pronounced a high eulogium upon the sermon, the subject of which was the duty of ceaseless prayer, from 1 Thess. v. 17.

To Mr. Newton it was a matter of thankfulness that his ministry was not only approved by the wise and the good, but that it was also effectual in that which is the great end of all preaching, the salvation of souls. About this time he accepted an invitation from Lincoln, to unite with his friend Watson in the opening services of a new and commodious Methodist chapel in that ancient city. Among other persons that were attracted by the fame of these preachers was a young medical gentleman, who had commenced practice in a large village

about nine miles from Lincoln. His mind had been awakened to a feeling of spiritual destitution. He wanted peace of mind; but knew not where to find it, nor in what it really consists. He listened with deep attention and interest to Mr.. Newton's sermon on Psalm cxliv. 15: "Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord." Heavenly light beamed upon his benighted mind; he saw the way of peace, as it is revealed in the gospel; he went home instructed, and soon after, by believing in Christ, was enabled to rejoice in the God of his salvation. He became an acceptable and useful local preacher, and was made a blessing to many. Cases of a similar kind were of frequent occurrence through the public life of this laborious and holy man.

CHAPTER VI.

FROM the year 1817, when he left Wakefield, to the end of his itinerant ministry, Mr. Newton's official labors, to which he was appointed by the Conference, were confined to fewer circuits than were those of any of his contemporaries; but his labors which he voluntarily undertook, extended through the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. According to the minutes of the Conference, Liverpool and Manchester divided between them twenty years of his public life; Salford occupied six; Stockport three; and Leeds six; so that he appears to have spent thirty-five years in five localities. In every one of these places he was received with the utmost cordiality; he was treated with every mark of confidence and respect; the vast population of these towns, and the spacious chapels that were situated in them, afforded him ample scope for the exercise of his pulpit talents; and until he was disabled by age, in no place, so far as we can learn, was there the slightest diminution of his popularity, except, perhaps, in one or two cases, when the infliction of a righteous discipline upon delinquents gave offence to the adversaries of Christian order.

From Wakefield he removed, in the year 1817, to Liverpool, where he remained till 1820. Here he was often brought into profitable intercourse with Dr. Adam Clarke, who was then resident at Millbrook, in the neighborhood, and was engaged in writing his Commentary on the Holy Scriptures. While he was one in mind and heart with his own colleagues,

in the true spirit of Christian liberality he cultivated the friendship of ministers of other denominations, especially that of Dr. Raffles and Dr. Stewart. He was scrupulously diligent in fulfilling his appointments in his own circuit, and, at the same time, was always ready to serve his friends at a distance when they applied to him for aid. Many were the journeys that he took for this purpose, and great was the self-denial that he practiced in leaving his family, and in travelling by night and by day, to assist in the formation of missionary societies, to preach at the opening of new chapels, and to plead the cause of local charities. During his stay at Liverpool, at this time, the plan of the General Wesleyan Missionary Society was formed, to which all the district societies already existing were in future to be regarded as auxiliaries; the management of the general society being, from year to year, confided to a mixed committee of ministers and laymen. From that time the Methodist missions have steadily advanced in extent, efficiency, and in public estimation.

In Liverpool Mr. Newton was happily exempted from the difficulties and perils which pressed heavily upon several of his brethren in some other parts of Lancashire, particularly in the manufacturing districts. Provisions were still dear, trade was in a state of depression, many thousands of the poor were out of employment; some refusing to work unless their wages were increased, and others unable to obtain any kind of occupation, and therefore, with their families, in a state of destitution. In these circumstances, their passions were inflamed by the speeches of demagogues, and by democratic writers, who attributed all the sufferings of the laboring classes to the Government of the country, and the selfishness of the rich. Peaceable people lived in constant terror; and the ministers of religion, who warned their hearers against acts of violence, and recommended submission to law and