good cheer." He won the hearts of persons of every class; honourable counsellors lavished their wealth upon Him, and ran all risks in showing their devotion to His memory; women followed Him, ministering to Him of their substance, and were last at the cross and earliest at the grave; the little children shouted hosannas in His praise; mothers brought their babes that He might bless them. While His life was full of untiring activity, there was never any sign of hurry. Amidst busy scenes and vexatious contradiction of evil men, the Saviour kept even and unruffled. Whence sprang this holy calm? Was it from those hours of prayer, those communings with His Father which intense pressure of work seemed only to lead Him to increase. "Rising up a great while before day He departed into a solitary place and there prayed." "He went up into a mountain to pray.' "He withdrew Himself into the wilderness and prayed." "He continued all night in prayer to God." The commands and encouragements to pray, so numerous in His discourses, are scarcely more numerous than the instances of prayer recorded in His life. Fellow teachers, if we wish to keep calm and strong for work, we must be much with God! The more work, the more prayer. "I have so much upon me" said Luther "that I cannot get on without three hours of prayer a day." In His teaching our Saviour was eminently wise and discriminating. He gave His lessons as His hearers were able to bear them. He did not give meat to babes, nor cram them with more than they could digest. There was never anyone like Him for rightly dividing the word of truth. The cautious, dilatory, and hesitating He urged forward; the hasty and impulsive He held in check. Severe to the hypocritical and self-righteous, He was always tender and gentle to the humble and penitent. He did not break the bruised reed nor quench the dimly-burning flax. Some, like the Apostle Paul, He compelled, as it were by force, to enter the kingdom; with others He made a difference, and drew them to Himself with bands of love. Christ was a patient teacher, always ready to instruct the sincere inquirer. Even where His meaning was obvious, so that He justly complained of the dulness that failed to grasp it, He was ready to explain more fully. He repeated His lessons as often as they were needed, giving line upon line and precept upon precept. Thus He again and again enforced the lessons of love and forgiveness, reproved the spirit that thirsts for lordship and pre-eminence, and reiterated His solemn warnings with regard to the judgment to come. Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit. Herein lies the secret of the teacher's and preacher's power. The disciples received power after the Holy Spirit came upon them, and it was when filled with the Spirit that they were enabled to do mighty signs and wonders, and to speak with such convincing clearness and irresistible authority that multitudes believed. Lord, make us in our teaching simple, clear, interesting, and persuasive; give us tempers sweet and even ; make us loving, unselfish, patient,--kind and winning, -wise and diligent, -prayerful and holy,-after the example of Thy blessed Son; and fill us with Thy Spirit, for His Name's sake, Amen. THE LOTHERSDALE FRIENDS IN YORK CASTLE. BY SILVANUS THOMPSON. IN going by the Midland Railway from Leeds to Lancaster, we proceed up the valley of the river Aire, through a hilly and beautiful district thickly studded with towns and villages, in which numerous tall chimneys continually remind the traveller that he is passing through the great manufacturing district of the West Riding. About four miles before reaching Skipton, leaving the railway (at the Cononley station), and turning westward, a walk of two miles, including a long and toilsome ascent, brings the traveller to the edge of a narrow valley which had been entirely hidden by the intervening tableland. This is Lothersdale. A winding road of unusual steepness suddenly leads him down into the little village nestled in the bottom. In the latter half of the last century several families of Friends resided in this valley. They were chiefly small farmers, some of them uniting the craft of the weaver with the occupation of the husbandman. The Meeting of Friends was large considering the district in which it was situated, and it was united with that of Salterforth in one Preparative Meeting. In 1779 George Markham was appointed to the Vicarage of Carlton, the parish within which Lothersdale is situated. His predecessor was a man of property, who, when he demanded tithe of his parishioners, appears to have enforced his claims against Friends without severity. But George Markham proved himself a character very different from his mild and tolerant predecessor. Not only did he put C forth his claims to their full extent, but he made them so exorbitant as to call forth the reprobation of a Bench of Magistrates; and in his subsequent proceedings he pursued the passive, unresisting objects of his persecution with a vindictiveness altogether at variance with his assumed character of minister of the Gospel. A detailed account of the circumstances which led to the imprisonment of the Lothersdale Friends was issued at the time and extensively circulated. There is reason for believing it was drawn up under the advice and with the assistance of William Tuke and Lindley Murray, who, with many other Friends, made great exertions to bring about the release of the prisoners. The following are a few abstracts from this document : "In the Twelfth Month, 1779, George Markham became possessed of the Vicarage of Carlton, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. About the latter part of 1781, or the beginning of 1782, he procured a summons for some Friends to appear before the Justices, at the time of the Quarter Sessions, at Skipton, to show cause why they did not comply with his demand for small tithes. They duly obeyed the summons, and appeared before the Justices; who, after examining one of them respecting the nature and circumstances of the vicar's claim, deemed it unreasonable, as exceeding a tenth of the value of the tithable property, and refused to allow it; but observed to him, that if he would make reasonable demands they would grant him warrants to obtain them. The said George Markham, notwithstanding this remonstrance, refused to make any abatement of his claims; and, resuming his papers, declared he would pursue another method, and that every man should be served with an Exchequer Writ. "After the complainant had filed his bill, and the defendants had put in their answer, so little progress was for some time made in the suit as to encourage a hope that he would relinquish the oppressive mode of prosecution which he had adopted. In this hope they were, however, disappointed; for in the year 1791 the complainant proceeded to examine evidence, by a commission, in support of his allegations. "The defendants, in their answer, did not deny the complainant's legal induction, but stated their being of the Society of the people called Quakers, and their religious scruple against complying with any demands of this nature; that they had never set out or rendered any tithes to the said complainant, or to any other clergyman. They mentioned the summary and comparatively easy mode of proceeding for such demands provided by Acts of Parliament; that they had at no time resisted the taking of their goods by legal authority for any such claims. "After these proceedings, the complainant was applied to, and remonstrated with on the severity and hardship of the suit. This application proved of no effect, George Markham alleging the amount of the costs already incurred as a reason for proceeding in the business. The suit was therefore continued, though with considerable delays, till a decree was obtained against the defendants for the tithes and costs of suit. "As it was obvious that if the prosecutor should persist in his intentions of pursuing the full effect of the decree there would be no possibility of escaping its distressing consequences, considerable pains were taken to confer with him, and to lay the matter seriously on his conscience; but these endeavours were fruitless, as he refused to grant an opportunity to the persons who attempted to speak with him. "This rigorous prosecution was at length carried to extremity, for on the 16th of Fifth Month, 1795, after having been harassed with the proceedings about six years, the persons undermentioned were, by attachment out of the said Court, taken into custody, and imprisoned in the county gaol at York. "The following is the state of their families, &c. : John Wormall, aged nearly 70; has a wife. John Stansfield-a wife and two small children ... ... Henry Wormall-a wife and five small children ... Henry King (a Friend by profession, but not in membership)-a wife and seven children John Wilkinson—a single man ... £ S. d. Claim 26 10 9 |