and efficient teacher, which marked another epoch in his life. Mr. Benjamin Neale was compelled, through serious indisposition, to retire from the office of superintendent of the school. He had been a most devoted man, and well qualified to impart instruction to the youthful mind. The children loved him, and promptly attended to his wishes. The teachers also loved him, and, therefore, cheerfully carried out his plans for the benefit of the school. To an enquiry once made of him, how he was able to exercise so complete a control over them, he made this truly wise reply, I rule, but I never show my sceptre.'

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A meeting was held for the purpose of making an appointment to the office of superintendent. After long and anxious discussion, a joint superintendency was suggested and approved by the teachers. The choice, most unexpectedly to himself, fell on Mr. W. Jones, who was requested to undertake the office jointly with Mr. Dyson. After some consideration, he accepted the offered post. With reference to this occurrence, the following entry appears in his private papers :

Can I let this event pass without comment? I am surprised at the leadings of a gracious Providence. I only entered the school in April 1812, feeling myself unworthy to be a teacher even of

the lowest class, and now, at the age of twenty, I find myself raised to the principal office! Oh, that I may be kept from pride and self-sufficiency! May I be able to rule both the teachers and children by the law of kindness! May grace be given to me in every time of need, and may the weakest creature be supported by Almighty Power!'

The decision of the teachers was justified by the result. The school continued to prosper. Various facts came to light of an encouraging character. One poor girl, who had been expelled for bad conduct, was afterwards led to repentance by an address delivered by Mr. W. Jones, on the death of her sister. Another child in the school traced, as she acknowledged in after life, her first solemn impressions to an address delivered by him from the words, Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth?" Various indirect benefits were reported. No less than fifteen years after he left the school, he received a kind letter from an old scholar, who traced to an address from the words, Search the Scriptures,' the commencement of a habit of daily perusing the Word of God, which had led in his own case to the most happy results. When I was a scholar,' he writes in 1838, to Mr. W. Jones, in Surrey Chapel

Sunday-school, I once heard you deliver an address from the words, "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me." In concluding, you said, "Now if you forget all else that I have said, do not forget this- Search the Scriptures."" I have forgotten all else, but, through the grace of God, the Holy Scriptures have been my study and delight, and the more I study them, the deeper gratitude do I feel to those kind friends who first taught me to love those words of eternal life.'

He had been superintendent of the school for about eighteen months, when he contemplated an interesting change in his condition of life. A mutual attachment was formed between himself and Miss Cooper, an attendant at Surrey Chapel, and an active teacher in the Sundayschool. The friendship was not hastily formed, and turned out for the happiness of both parties. They were married at the parish church of St. Mary, Lambeth, on the 22nd August 1816. It was the commencement of a union unbroken for well nigh forty years. Eight children, in the course of years, were born to them, three of whom were called before their affectionate father to a better world. Happy in each other's love, sharing willingly each other's trials, and for the welfare of

their beloved children enduring at times much voluntary self-denial, there was a harmony and bliss in their wedded life such as falls to the lot of but few. He himself, more than once towards the close of his days, expressed himself with gratitude when he looked back on the past, and reflected how much domestic happiness he had enjoyed. 'We have passed through,' he said on one occasion, many trying scenes, and yet, when we think how great our comforts have been, we may well deem our troubles to have been light. After all, there has been so much sunshine that I seem almost to forget the dark and cloudy days.'

His widow still survives him, sorrowing, not without hope,' for the loss of one whose tender love well repaid the affectionate and unwearying attentions she was enabled to render him, even till that moment when his gentle spirit breathed itself into the arms of his Saviour, and looking in humble faith to a blessed reunion in the cloudless land with those she so loved on earth.

Tis sweet as year by year we lose

Friends out of sight, by faith to muse

How grows in Paradise our store.'

The position which Mr. W. Jones occupied at Surrey Chapel school, naturally brought him into connexion with the Rev. Rowland Hill, who now took a very lively interest in his welfare, and, to

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the end of his life, behaved to him with unvarying kindness. This venerable man, whose labours as an itinerant preacher, and whose opinions as to the duty of every one, who had received a gift, using the same for the promotion of the cause of Christ, are very well known, naturally enough encouraged his young friend to persevere in the course on which he had entered, as an occasional preacher of God's word. Mr. W. Jones' own opinions on the necessity of lay agency, as an auxiliary means for the propagation of God's truth, and the importance of setting aside the strict rules of discipline for the attainment of this end, were clear and decided. Thus, in his Life of the Rev. Rowland Hill, after giving an account of the sentiments of his beloved minister on these points, he adds, It is to be feared that the religious wants of the people never will be supplied, until ministers of all denominations consider souls of more value than the regulations of their churches. It must be admitted, that the ordinary means of grace are not sufficient to meet the spiritual necessities of the people. Our country will not be evangelized until the Churchman leaves " the beautiful house" where he worships, and the Nonconformist his humble meeting-place, and the more experienced and talented of the pastors shall practically attend to

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