multitude is here transcribed, as a specimen of the simplicity and piety of his manner.

"April 27th, 1821.—I believe I shall be seventy-six years of age-about the twenty-first day of May, if I live so long; and I bless the LORD that I was never happier than I have been of late, and am at present. I sat under preaching two nights successively; and I was as happy as my heart could hold. I find CHRIST precious to my soul. I have been a very unprofitable servant. I received him as my SAVIOUR and LORD before I was twenty years of age; but when I look back on my life, I see nothing that will recommend me to his favour. I am a poor unworthy sinner in myself. I the chief of sinners am; But Jesus died for me.' I know that my REDEEMER liveth. I want to love him more, and serve him better."

He felt a lively interest in the prosperity of CHRIST'S kingdom; and confidently anticipated the period when the promise of the FATHER shall be fulfilled, and the SoN shall have the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. Considering the present day as the dawn of that glorious era, he constantly endeavoured to strengthen the faith, and animate the zeal, of the Ministers of the Sanctuary, exhorting them to "Preach HIM to all, and cry in death, Behold, behold the LAMB.'"-As his outward man decayed, his inward man grew stronger and stronger. His spirituality manifestly increased; and his prospects of glory became more luminous. He would frequently say, "I can no more doubt of getting to heaven, than if I were already there; and his daily lan. guage was, "For to me to live is CHRIST, and to die is gain." His increasing infirmities no longer permitted him to pursue his accustomed labours of love; yet were his last remains of strength exerted to bear him to the house of prayer, where he was wont to say, "Though I can hear but little, I enjoy those gracious communications which are better to me than my necessary food." For the last two years, he was much confined to his chamber; where his christian friends were witnesses of his placid composure, his cheerful resignation, and the sublime enjoyments which religion yielded him in a dying hour. A humbling sense of his own demerits would frequently lead him to exclaim, as in the passage already quoted from his Papers,

"I the chief of sinners am;

But JESUS died for me."

And then an overwhelming sense of the love of CHRIST would cause him in holy rapture to cry out, "O precious SAVIOUR! Crown him, crown him LORD of all!" He was often indulged with such manifestations of divine goodness as melted him into tears of gratitude and tenderness; and sometimes enjoyed those realizing views of his SAVIOUR, and of the unseen world, which filled him with unutterable joy. When visited with bodily pain, he often remarked that sin is the cause of all the suffering in the world; adding, "But I rejoice that this corruptible shall soon put on incorruption, and this mortal

shall put on immortality." When asked how he did, his usual answer was, "I am weak; but very happy. I love my SAVIOUR." He affectionately exhorted his children, and grand-children, and all who visited him, to make the LORD their portion. "Let nothing separate you," he would say, "from the love of God." Through the whole of his affliction, his peace was unbroken; and Satan (with perhaps one exception only, of short continuance) was forbidden even to molest him by temptation. On the day of his death, his old and faithful Class-Leader, who had been his friend and companion for more than sixty years, called to see him; and received his dying testimony to the power and faithfulness of CHRIST. He continued to breathe out his soul in prayer and praise till the evening, when, while a few of his "praying friends," as he was wont to term them, were commending his soul to God, he gently fell asleep in the LORD.Thus died the venerable JoHN GOULD, on Sunday, Jan. 19th, 1823, in the seventy-eighth year of his age; having been for more than half a century a worthy member of the Methodist Society. Of him it might be truly said, that prayer was his element. No time was deemed by him unseasonable for approaching the divine footstool; and he statedly retired six times a day, to commune in secret with his heavenly FATHER: but he had learned to pray without ceasing, and in every thing to give thanks. His christian liberality was of no ordinary standard. He had well studied and conscientiously practised MR. WESLEY's rule,-" Save all you can; and give all you can." Many of the children of indigence have lost in him a friend and benefactor. "Nothing," he would say, "does my soul so much good, as relieving the wants of the poor;" and he frequently charged his children, "Whatever you do, be sure that you remember the poor!" In his abstractedness from the world, he had but few equals he was careless, in a proper sense, of its opinions, despised its vanities, and pitied and prayed over its wickedness. His spiritual enjoyments were of the highest order ;-he lived in the smiles of his heavenly Father, and died in his arms.

ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS CONCERNING

MR. JOHN BREWSTER, OF RADCLIFF, NEAR NOTTINGHAM: (See our Number for June, 1823, page 416 :)

BY THE REV. JOHN HANNAH.

He was born in the year 1760, and appears, early in life, to have been the subject of divine influence. Once, under a sermon by MR. JOHN PLATTS, a respectable Local Preacher, he trembled exceedingly; and the good impressions which he received under that discourse seem never to have been entirely lost.

When young, he was, on one occasion, tempted to dishonesty,

Perceiving a sixpence lie hid among a few halfpence, which he took in the way of change, and knowing that the person who gave it was ignorant of the circumstance, he slipped it into his pocket, and went away. For this offence his conscience severely chastised him afterwards. While walking over his farm, which lay on a hill by the side of the Trent, he would take out the ill-gotten sixpence, and say, "If throwing it into the Trent, or giving it to the poor, would ease my mind, how gladly would I do it!" At last he had recourse to the proper method,-Restitution. He employed a friend to take the piece to its right owner, and tell her that a person had once defrauded her of it, and could not be happy until he had restored it.

In the early part of his religious course he frequently attended divine service at the Independent and Baptist Chapels, Nottingham; where he formed an acquaintance with some valuable persons belonging to those Societies, of whom, during his life, he always spoke with the greatest respect. At this time he, on various doctrinal points, held the peculiar sentiments of CALVIN; but was advised by the REV. MR. DODWELL, Rector of Welby, near Grantham, to examine the Bible throughout on these subjects, impartially, and without prejudice. He did so ;-the result of which was that he changed his sentiments, but not his good opinion of his former friends.

In the year 1791 he was admitted into the Methodist Society, of which he continued a steady member during life.-The year following he entered into the marriage-state, and proved a truly affectionate husband, and an exemplary as well as an indulgent father.-As a master, he was very kind and attentive to his servants; seldom changing them, or giving them any reason to wish for a change.He was familiar with the poor, and deservedly esteemed by them: his grave was watered with their tears-For many years he had the charge of a Class, and often expressed great satisfaction in attending it. By the members he was generally regarded as a father.-When the division in the Methodist Societies, occasioned chiefly by MR. KILHAM, arose, and several members, among whom were some of his intimate friends, attached themselves to the separatists, he continued firm and immoveable. Local Preachers were then much wanted; and, though he never wished to be called a Preacher, observing that his were attempts only at exhortation, yet he suffered his name to be inserted in the Plan. In this office he was often made a blessing to his hearers. He did not profess to deliver well-arranged sermons; but his remarks were, on many occasions, eminently distinguished by their novelty, their terseness, their spirituality, and their effect;-often by a single stroke opening a passage to the heart. Like the "words of the wise," they were as "goads, and as nails that are firmly fixed."

About a year and a half ago he had a dangerous illness, which he thought would, most probably, prove fatal. When the nature of his

complaint was first mentioned, "it was," to use his own expression, "like bringing him a death-warrant;" but he soon recovered his usual serenity, saying to those around him, "Watch!-Our LORD might well say, 'Watch! for in such an hour as ye think not the SON OF MAN cometh.'"-Seeing his children weep, he exclaimed, Weep not for me:—

Who meet on that eternal shore,

Shall never part again!'"

This attack, though a short one, broke his constitution. Towards the end of the summer the fears of his friends were again considerably excited; and he too felt that he was hastening to another world. About this time, though very weak, he accompanied MR. TATHAM to Beeston, to hold a Love-feast. On his return, he spoke of it with peculiar pleasure. He had found it very beneficial to himself, and was much affected by a person's saying, that " he had received much good from one, who, they could all see, was rapidly descending to the grave." The last time he entered the pulpit was to preach on occasion of the death of a much-esteemed friend. He performed that melancholy service with no small difficulty; and said, "he thought it very probable that he should soon follow him." From that time he swiftly declined; and, having served God in life, was called to glorify him by his dying behaviour.

:

One of his children having come home to see him, when she entered the room he said, "Shout-," but was unable to proceed. Observing her weep, he added, "All is right! all is right!— Shout, all ye people of the sky!'" A friend visited him he wept much, but said, “I do not weep because I would have it otherwise; it is all right I would have it just as it is."-In the beginning of his illness he suffered much from the fear of death and the grave. He mentioned his fears to his christian friends, who offered up their prayers for him at the "throne of grace," and were answered in his behalf. On the morning when he found deliverance, his joy was very great. To MRS. BREWSTER, whom he would have to be called, that he might tell her what God had wrought, he exclaimed, as she entered the room, "The gates of Paradise are open!-they are open!-prayer has prevailed!-O what a coward have I been, to fear death and the grave!" This fear never returned.-One night, after heavy suffering, he said to his attendants, "I am going to glory upon glory. I am going to the spirits of just men made perfect; and they will not turn from me. Do you wish to know the reason? It is because I loved them in the flesh, and I love them now ;-they will receive me as a brother. I am going to Paradise!—but I see the road is easier for the poor than for the rich. O, I love the poor. I have always had a tender feeling for the poor." Indeed he often expressed his belief that, at the last day, very much will hinge on the important particulars to which such emphatic reference is made by

our LORD, in the twenty-fifth chapter of the Gospel by ST. MATTHEW. -Six weeks before his death, on MR. HICKLING'S visiting him, he observed, among other things, "I can say with BYROM's beggar,— 'HE cast me down!-HE send me into hell!—

No! He loves me, and I love Him too well.'

He enjoyed the conversation very much; and, after MR. H. had left the room, said, "If I had steered as clear a course for my soul as I have for my body, I should have arrived at much greater perfection than I have." Shortly afterwards he exclaimed, "I know that if this earthly house of my tabernacle were dissolved ;'-yes, I know." One Monday morning, about a month before his death, he cried, "The dear IMMANUEL!-look!-there's friendship!—there's friendship! I have a great Friend in heaven! O ye wondering angels, look! ye believers, rejoice! let devils tremble! ye saints of the Most High, shout!' All present were in tears. He said, "What, may I not talk? Would you have me stand on the walls of Jerusalem with my trowel in my hand, and not say to the men, 'Stand fast?'" About a week afterwards, he was seized with a violent pain at his heart. The agonies were dreadful, and continued, with little intermission, for more than six hours. When they commenced he said, "Watch, watch! Help me, help me! You know what I mean." Seeing his family much alarmed, he added, "Do not be frighted. It is not so bad as you think. I am helped! I am helped!" Soon after he cried, "The opening heavens around me shine! When the pain was violent, being reminded of his SAVIOUR's sufferings, he said, "For the joy that was set before him." For this shock he expressed much gratitude. "Before," he observed, "I was going at a slow rate. This is getting on. It is taking the tabernacle down.” -On the Wednesday following I administered the LORD's Supper to him. It was a delightful and refreshing season. Afterwards, looking at me, he said, "All is right; all is well! I have been a lover of CHRIST from a child; a poor follower, but always a lover of him." He expressed his love to all, observing, "We have no enemies here." When we parted, he said, "MR. H., before I see you again, I shall have seen the 'everlasting hills.' On the Thursday preceding his death, being told that he was not expected to live more than another day, he appeared much pleased, saying, "Bless GOD!" About one o'clock on Saturday, looking at one of his daughters, he said, "What divine consolations I have! O, what divine aid I have!" These were nearly his last words. Early on Sunday morning he closed his eyes; and, though he lived several hours afterwards, never opened them again. He sat sweetly smiling, until about three o'clock in the afternoon, when his happy spirit "languished into life."