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Sept. 3d.-At Ashford, in the fifty-third year of her age, Bithiah, the beloved wife of Mr. Ramsey. She was blessed with an early religious education, and for many years was resident in the family of her uncle, the late Rev. James Macdonald. When about fifteen years old, her mind being deeply impressed with the necessity of personal religion, she was led to join the church; and she continued in its fellowship till the day of her death. For many years she bore severe affliction with Christian fortitude and submission, enjoying peace with God, and contemplating the probable result of her illness with perfect composure. Within a few days of her departure her mind was deeply depressed with a conviction of her unworthiness, and that she had not been so useful as she ought to have been: but she was enabled to retain unshaken faith in Christ as her Redeemer and Intercessor. Her language was

"In my hand no price I bring;
Simply to the cross I cling."

Her peace was restored, and to the moment of
her death Christ was all and in all." Her last
words were,
"Blessed Saviour! wilt Thou ease
my pain?"-and shortly she passed from
mortality to life.
W. P.

Sept. 6th.-At Roche, in the Bodmin Circuit, aged sixty-three, Priscilla, wife of Mr. William Cock. She was converted in early life, and for forty-four years adorned "the doctrine of God our Saviour." In the various relations of life, as wife, mother, mistress, neighbour, and friend, she was characterized by great goodness. For the Ministers of Christ she cherished the utmost veneration, and to the people of God she clung as her choicest companions. During the course of her life she was subject to much affliction; but she bore it with resignation, faith, and hope. Toward the close of life she was evidently ripening for the garner of her Lord. On the last occasion of attending her class-meeting, she said, "I have a good hope of heaven;" and to her husband, not long before her removal, "I am sinking; but I am going home." Her "lamp' was "trimmed," and her "light" "burning," so that sudden death was sudden glory.

S. C.

Sept. 6th.-At Raithby-Grange, in the Spilsby Circuit, in the sixty-sixth year of his age, Mr. George Dawson. His conversion to God took place when he was about eighteen years of age; and that it was deep and genuine the constant tenor of his subsequent life gave the most ample proof. Later in life he became the Leader of a class, and performed the duties of that office with great fidelity to the end of his days. His attachment to Methodism knew no abatement in the days of trial. He was a liberal supporter of the Missionary Society, and all the Connexional institutions. His piety was uniform and ardent. In affliction and bereavement he was patient and submissive: as a man he felt, as a Christian he

triumphed. The same grace preserved him in the hour of prosperity: he ever regarded himself as a steward of the Lord. At the head of his household, he was faithful and affectionate; kind, but firm. As a master, he was both feared and loved; and as a neighbour, he was esteemed by all. His home was a happy home; but, when dying, he said, "I have a better home to go to." He had often triumphed in the strength of grace, but now in the prospect of glory. He waved his dying arm, shouted, "Victory!" and passed home to God.

J. W.

Sept. 15th.-At Northampton, Sarah, the beloved daughter of the Rev. Thomas Hickson, aged twenty-six. At the age of twelve she entered into Christian fellowship. Her views of the way of salvation by faith were clear; her trust in Christ, simple and hearty; and the evidence of her acceptance with God, satisfactory and abiding. Such was her love for the means of grace, that nothing but absolute necessity could prevent her attendance. Her piety was unobtrusive; but its light of uniform consistency shone before men. Early in the spring of the present year, her health failed. The progress of disease was rapid, and her sufferings were severe. During this state of weakness and pain, Satan was permitted to hurl his fiery darts, but in vain; for faith triumphed. "I am passing through the valley and shadow of death," she said; but I fear no evil." Afterwards she cried, with great strength of voice, "Victory! victory through the blood of the Lamb!"-and then, with her last breath, just as earthly scenes were fading on her vision, said gently, "It is bright, very bright." J. B. D.

Sept. 20th-At Willerby, in the Scarborough Circuit, Mr. William Harland, in his seventyninth year. For more than forty years he had been a most exemplary member of the Wesleyan Society. Frank, courteous, generous, and kind, he had a good report of all men, and of the truth itself. Intelligent, fond of good books even to the last, and given to hospitality, he offered under his roof a delightful home to the Ministers of Christ, by whom he was greatly beloved. The day before he died, he was twice at chapel-met his class, as usual-attended the service of his village-church-and, on retiring to rest, expressed himself as having had the best Sabbath he had ever enjoyed on earth. It was a blessed preparation for the Sabbath and the worship that shall never end. Before nine o'clock next morning, he was not, for God had taken him. He was blessed with consciousness in his last moments; and, in reply to the inquiries of his faithful wife, he declared that Jesus was intimately nigh, a very present help in trouble. P. C. II.

Oct. 12th.-At Penzance, aged ninety-six, Joseph Carne, Esq., F.R.S. He had been many years honourably connected with Cornish Methodism. We hope to be favoured, erelong, with some due record of his life and death.-EDITORS.

LONDON: PRINTED BY JAMES NICHOLS, HOXTON-SQUARE.

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WESLEYAN-METHODIST MAGAZINE.

DECEMBER, 1858.

MEMOIR OF MR. JOHN HIRST,

OF GOMERSAL:

BY HIS SONS, THE REV. JOSEPH AND EDWIN HIRST.

IN presenting memorials of "the dead in Christ," there are several important objects to be kept in view. One of these, both natural and allowable, is the gratification to surviving friends of recording and dwelling upon the excellencies of those whose memory they revere and love. But the first in importance is to magnify free and sovereign grace," that God in all things may be glorified, through Jesus Christ;' and another, second only to this, is to excite the living to emulate the virtues and worthy deeds of the departed. Such objects are devoutly sought in the attempt to delineate the life and character to which these pages are devoted.

Mr. Hirst was born at Gomersal, in the Birstal Circuit, on the 11th of November, 1787. He was the son of William and Mary Hirst, who were for a lengthened period exemplary members of the Wesleyan - Methodist Society. For the spiritual welfare of their children they anxiously cared and earnestly prayed. They led them to the house of God, and exhibited to their view the life and conversation of the upright. These means were attended by the Holy Ghost with a considerable degree of light and power to the heart and mind of their son; so that, although, to their deep regret, he grew up unsaved, he was not unconcerned about salvation. The knowledge of his sins, and of the dangers to which they exposed him, often troubled his conscience, and aroused his fears. The good seed had been carefully implanted in his heart; and when his pious and venerable parents "passed into the skies," it was their joy to leave him, and all their children, in the possession of renewing grace. But the enmity of a depraved nature led him to resist the strivings of the Holy Spirit, and the force of parental influence, until the twenty-sixth year of his age, and the second of his married life. He was then deeply convinced of sin, and brought to seek salvation by faith in Christ.

The conversion of a sinner is the turning-point in his history; and it is of the last importance to ascertain the reality of this change. Hence our masters in Israel have justly held, that without a personal consciousness of "the new birth," and the open evidence of "newness of life," all professions of religion are a structure without a scriptural foundation. The subject of this record was awakened

VOL. IV.-FIFTH SERIES.

3 Y

under a sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. Banting in the old chapel, Hightown, on Romans viii. 17: "And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together." He had gone to the house of God, careless, actuated by curiosity, and meditating a project—to be carried out after the service-decidedly incompatible with the sanctity of the Lord's day. But he was arrested in his evil course by the truth and Spirit of God: his carnal security was at once destroyed, and he returned home a true penitent. His distress of soul became intense, and the burden of his sins intolerable. He felt the terrible force of the words," A wounded spirit who can bear?" So painful, indeed, was his sense of guilt and responsibility, and for some time so nearly bordering on despair, that he wished himself even as one of the brutes, (unblest with human intelligence, and liable to no solemn account,) that he might thus escape from what he felt and feared. How long he continued in this state, is not now precisely known; nor can we specify the place and circumstances in which he obtained deliverance. But no lengthened period elapsed before he was made happy in the pardoning love of God; and it appears most probable that he received this unspeakable blessing while earnestly seeking it in closet prayer. As to the fact of his receiving it, there cannot be a reasonable doubt. His own grateful and oftrepeated testimony, and his long subsequent course of holy living, afforded conclusive evidence that he had experienced "a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness." The tree is known by its fruits.

Now commenced his faithful confession of Christ, and his diligent use of the various means of grace. He had no notion of keeping his religion to himself: he wished to avail himself of all practicable helps, and, if possible, to be helpful to others, while pursuing the journey to the skies. At once he joined himself to the Wesleyan-Methodist communion; of which he continued an attached member to the close of life. Nor did his confession of Christ consist merely in an alliance to the visible church. No sooner did he give himself to God, than he began to acknowledge Him before his household: a domestic altar was erected, and family-worship became a most precious means of grace. This daily sacrifice was continually offered, not merely as a duty, to pacify an accusing conscience; but as an outlet of gratitude, and of fervent desire after God and His enriching blessing. Often did Mr. Hirst express a conviction, that he owed much of his stability as a Christian to the happy influence of family-prayer.

Among the means of grace to which he had recourse at the commencement of his religious career, was the good old Methodist one of close, free, and confiding Christian intercourse in private band. There may be a difference of opinion as to the propriety and utility of unbosoming the mind so fully as this institution requires; yet many eminently spiritual and judicious persons, who have made the experiment, unite in testifying that they have found therein a great and substantial blessing.

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