a moment; but even during that moment, as you justly observe, I should be very desolate without the divine presence.

"I desire, therefore, that it may be a part of both your prayers, that I and mine may ever enjoy it. I am greatly obliged to your dear partner for her tender and Christian sympathy. May the good God fit every one of us for all events! and may He carry us all safe to his eternal kingdom of glory, through Christ Jesus!

My family joins in much love and respects to yourself, and good Mrs. Wesley. I am, my very dear friend and brother,

"Thine most affectionately."

On

The death of Mrs. Perronet was quickly followed by that of the apostolic Grimshaw, who was somewhat suddenly called away in the midst of his labours and usefulness. the 5th of March, 1763, he wrote to Mr. Charles Wesley concerning the persons in London who professed to have received the blessing of entire sanctification; but as he had obtained his information respecting them merely from report, and erroneously supposed that they were all as foolish and extravagant as George Bell, it would be unjust both to them and him to publish his letter. His censures are based upon misapprehension. There is no reason to believe that he at all dissented from Mr. John Wesley's doctrine of Christian perfection, correctly understood. The beginning and end of this letter afford a fine view of the writer's spirit, just about to enter into the joy of his Lord. Addressing his friend Mr. Charles Wesley, he says, "God bless you, and yours, and brother Downes! Who wrote last, I know not you or I. Judge as you please. This I know, I love you dearly. The work of God prospers in these parts." "We have taken above an hundred of Mr. Ingham's scattered members into society, who behave well, and are very solicitous for the life and power of godliness. I hope we shall pick up many more of them. I rejoice and give God thanks that He hath so renewed your strength. May He long continue it for his own glory, his people's benefit, your own and your family's comfort! desire my sincere respects to your spouse, and Mr. Downes ; being

"Your very respectful and affectionate brother."

I

+

From this letter it is manifest that Mr. Grimshaw had reconsidered the subject of his intended withdrawal from the Methodists, as declared on a former occasion. When Mr. Ingham's people, being forsaken by their instructers, were scattered as sheep without a shepherd, he assisted in gathering them into the Methodist fold; and speaks of their union with the Methodists as matter of thankfulness and joy. Hence we learn, that he not only continued his itinerant ministry, in connexion with Mr. Wesley's Preachers, but also shared in the pastoral care of the people who were united together in Christian fellowship.

About five weeks after the date of the letter, of which an extract has just been given, Mr. Grimshaw fell asleep in Jesus. Mr. Venn, then of Huddersfield, preached a sermon on the mournful occasion, which he also published; and Mr. Thomas Colbeck, a Methodist Local Preacher who was on the spot, and a personal friend of the deceased, gave the particulars of his illness and dissolution in a letter to Mr. Charles Wesley. This interesting document, written at the time, affords additional proof, were it needed, of Mr. Grimshaw's connexion with the Methodists to the close of his useful life.

"Keighley, May 21st, 1763. Reverend and dear Sir,-I should have answered your letter sooner, but expected to have an opportunity of looking over Mr. Grimshaw's papers : and if I could have met with anything for your purpose, I intended to send you a copy: but I believe Mr. Venn desired to peruse them before he published the sermon; and they are in his hand. Before this time I suppose you have had an opportunity of seeing Mr. Venn's sermon, to which is annexed a short sketch of Mr. Grimshaw's life.

"It would be an acceptable service to thousands in these parts, to be favoured with an elegy on the mournful occasion. You cannot exceed the truth in describing the humility, uprightness, unintermitted labours, and universal love of that man of God who is now inheriting the promises.

"Our dear and much-regretted friend was divinely persuaded that, as life had not, so neither could the ghastly tyrant, separate him from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

"His consolations, from almost the moment the fever

seized him, were neither few nor small.

He frequently

expressed himself as if he was as happy as it is possible to be while clothed with mortality, and as fully satisfied that when the silver cord of life should be loosed, an abundant entrance would be ministered to his joyous soul, into the holiest through the blood of atonement, as if he had already been an inhabitant of the heavenly Jerusalem.

"The Apothecary, and all who visited Mr. Grimshaw, were not in the least degree apprehensive of any symptoms attending his disorder, which seemed to threaten dissolution; yet he seemed to have some intimation that the Master called for him for before he was confined to his bed, he gave directions in writing about his funeral; requesting that he might have a poor man's burial-suit, and a poor man's coffin; and that about twenty of his spiritual brethren, and nearest relations, might pay their last respects to what of him could die, by attending his corpse to the place of interment.

"He desired that a Methodist Preacher at least might be invited to preach upon Phil. i. 21: For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain:' a scripture which he caused to be engraved upon the candlestick, pulpit, and walls of the church, and which was exemplified in the whole of his ministerial labours, for above twenty years. He did not cease frequently, and oftener than he sat down to his own table, to distribute to famishing souls the bread of life; and truly he was an able scribe, not accustomed to deal in the false commerce of unfelt truths, but ready to bring out of the treasury of a rich experience things new and old. It was the meat and drink of Mr. Grimshaw, to labour for God; and he never appeared to be so much in his proper element as when he was about his heavenly Father's business."

Thus ended the life of the Rev. William Grimshaw; one of the best and most useful men of his age. For some time after he had entered upon the sacred office, he was an entire stranger to Christian piety, and was not even moral in his conduct; but having been deeply convinced of sin, and endured the anguish of a wounded conscience, he was filled with unutterable peace and joy by believing in Christ, and obtained power over the sins by which he had formerly been enslaved. His great concern was then to make known to others the salvation of which he was a happy partaker. It is

+

questionable whether any Clergyman ever surpassed him in laborious zeal. In addition to the duties of his own parish, he travelled in all directions, without either fee or reward, preaching Christ in the open air, and in barns, as well as from house to house; undaunted either by the severity of the weather, the badness of the roads, the rudeness of the people, or the prospect of persecution. His own church being too small, another of ample dimensions was erected on its site, which still remains as a monument of his energetic ministry. It bears the pious inscriptions of which Mr. Colbeck speaks; so that if the eye of the worshipper should happen to wander, it can scarcely move in any direction without meeting some striking text of holy writ, adapted to fix the attention upon subjects of everlasting importance.

The Wesleys and Mr. Whitefield delighted to visit this man of God, and were always welcome to his pulpit. Their occupation of it, however, was sometimes dispensed with. On these festive occasions, when "divers came from far," the church was not unfrequently filled to suffocation, and yet thousands could not gain admission. In such cases a window was taken out of the church, on the right side of the pulpit, and the itinerant ambassador of Jesus, bringing the news of divine mercy through the cross, stood in the opening, where the thousands within and without could hear words whereby they might be saved.

The most profligate of his parishioners reverenced Mr. Grimshaw; for they "felt how awful goodness is." While the choristers sang the psalm, between the prayers and the sermon, he occasionally retired for the purpose of visiting a public-house in the neighbourhood; and if he found any tipplers there, he drove them before him to the church like a flock of sheep, hanging down their heads like delinquents as they were. The house is still standing, with a small window towards the church, through which it is said some one was usually appointed to watch during the time of divine service on the Sabbath, that he might give the alarm to his companions when the cassocked monitor made his appearance. When they had timely warning of his coming, they are reported to have fled in all directions, with the utmost haste, that they might escape his dreaded reproofs and expostu lations.

Of this holy man it may be truly said, that, from the time of his conversion, till his death, he knew nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. The delights of domestic intercourse, of learned ease, of elegant literature, and of polished society, he freely sacrificed, and lived for the one object of turning sinners to the Lord Jesus; and in the sight of crowds of happy converts, whom he saw from Sabbath to Sabbath listening with tears of grateful joy to his ministry, and pressing to the table of the Lord, he must have felt the highest gratification, forming a rich reward for his incessant toil and self-denial. His clerical brethren were offended with his irregularity, and still more with the censure which his diligence and spirituality reflected upon their guilty supineness. By his superiors in the Church he was also threatened with ecclesiastical prosecutions: but none of these things moved him; for he was happy in the approval of his own conscience, and in the success of his ministry, while the blessings of multitudes came upon him for his unwearied labours of love.

Into the niceties of theological controversy Mr. Grimshaw appears never to have entered. His views of evangelical truth were, of course, in substantial agreement with those of the Wesleyan Ministers; since he was voluntarily united with them in public labour to the end of his life. Among the descendants of his hearers at Haworth it is said, that his ministry was tinged with Calvinism after he had been visited by Mr. Whitefield; and that after one of the Wesleys had been with him, and had preached in his church, he zealously asserted God's universal love to man. The fact is, he was more intent upon the conversion of sinners, than upon the settlement of metaphysical questions arising out of the doctrines of Christianity; yet his affectionate co-operation with the Methodist Preachers affords sufficient proof that he had no fixed and serious objections to their creed.

Mr. Charles Wesley was deeply affected by the death of his friend at Haworth. He wrote two beautiful hymns on the occasion, celebrating the grace of God, as manifested in the piety, usefulness, and final triumph of this good Minister of Jesus Christ. He also preached a sermon on the close of Mr. Grimshaw's labours, most probably at West-street, where the devout people united with him in thanksgiving to God