sionaries and of the Heathen? Or has your mind been cast in a rougher mould? Is there something harsh, uncultivated, and forbidding, in your character? Instead of attracting, are you apt to repel, the affections of others? Are you of an humble temper? Are you lowly in your own eyes? Are you disposed to esteem others better than yourself? Are you ready to condescend to men of low estate? Have you a deep sense of your own insufficiency for the work before you? Or have you a high opinion of your own talents and acquire ments, of your piety, and zeal, and other endowments? Do you think they will entitle you to a principal place among your fellow-Missionaries? Will you not be content unless you are a leading man among them? Are you ambitious of associating with those who are your superiors in character, rank, and influence? Will you be ready to despise a fellow-Missionary, merely because he is not your equal in talents and acquirements, while, perhaps, he is your superior in piety and zeal? Are you apt to be overbearing to your equals and inferiors? Will you not be content unless they submit to your views and wishes? Are you of a charitable temper? Are you disposed to put the best construction on the words and actions of your fellow-men? Is it with reluctance that you view in an unfavourable light the conduct of others, and only when the force of evidence compels you? Does it afford you much more pleasure when you can think well of them? And when you cannot remain blind to their faults, are you ready to make those allow ances for them which the circumstances of the case will admit? Are you disposed to throw over them the mantle of love, and not to speak of them without necessity? Or are you disposed to view the conduct of others with suspicion? Does it afford you a secret pleasure to discover their imperfections and errors; and even when their conduct is laudable, are you apt to ascribe it to unworthy motives? Is evil-speaking a practice in which you indulge? Are you ready to listen to unfavourable reports of others, and in your turn to contribute to their further circulation? Are you of a meek temper? Have you learned to govern your angry passions? Can you receive with patience and gratitude the reproofs of a friend? Can you bear with calmness and equanimity the unmerited reflections, the abusive language, and the provoking conduct, of others? Or are you of an irritable turn of mind? Are you hasty in your spirit to be angry? Are you ready to be carried away by the violence of passion? Are you apt to speak unadvisedly with your lips? Are you of a forbearing temper? Have you learned to make scriptural and rational distinctions as to the relative importance of different parts of divine truth? Are you disposed to live in peace and harmony with those who differ from you as to the non-essentials of religion? Do you feel it to be of more importance to maintain the "unity of the spirit in the bond of love," than to contend about the inferior "matters of the law?" Or do you feel a bigoted attachment to all your opinions in religion, and especially to those which are peculiar to yourself, or to that section of the Church of CHRIST with which you are connected? Are you a zealot for them? Are you disposed to think a man unfit for christian communion with you unless he adopt your creed in all its extent? Have you learned not only to exercise forbearance with your fellowChristians as to those minor points in which you differ from them: but do you think, after considering the character of your own mind, and your conduct in similar circumstances, that you will be disposed to bear with your fellow-Missionaries when they differ in opinion with you as to the particular plans to be pursued in the prosecution of the Mission? Will you be ready to yield up your views to the majority, unless when conscience will not permit you to do so? Will you be prepared to co-operate with them in carrying the measures they propose into effect, even though they should not seem to you the best which might have been adopted? Or will you be disposed to do little unless the measures proposed meet with your entire approbation? Are you of a stiff, unyielding disposition? Are you apt to indulge in scrupulosity about little matters ? Will you be disposed to exercise forbearance, not only as to the sentiments, but as to the frailties of your fellow-Missionaries ? Have you learned to lay your account with finding imperfections in the best of men? Are you prepared to make due allowances for their faults, and to love them on account of their excellencies, notwithstanding the defects which cleave to them? Or are the faults of their character ever apt to preponderate in your eye, and to conceal from you their virtues? Are you apt to deny them every excellence on account of the imperfections you see in them? Are you of a peaceable temper? Are you disposed to live in harmony with others? Have you a dread of dissension? Are you ready to make every sacrifice for the sake of peace, except the interests of truth and holiness? Or are you apt to be quarrelsome? Are you ready to take offence? Are you ill to be won when once offended? Is it long before you forget injuries? Are you backward to forgive them? Are you of a disinterested temper? Are you ready to look not merely on your own things, but also on the things of others? Are you disposed to sacrifice your own ease and comfort to the welfare of others? Do you think you are prepared to make such sacrifices on account of your fellow Missionaries as well as of the Heathen? Or are you of a selfish disposition? Are you ready to make the ease and comfort of others bend to your interest? Are you disposed to place the heaviest burdens on the shoulders of others, while you choose for yourself such as are lighter and more agreeable? Such are a few of the points to which we have to request your at tention relative to your temper. We might have enumerated many others, but as we can attempt only a hasty sketch, we must leave these to your own investigation. (To be continued.) ILLUSTRATION OF ISAIAH xxvii. 5. LET him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. The REV. ROBERT HALL, in his interesting Memoir of the late REV. T.N. TOLLER, of Kettering, recently published, speaking of MR. TOLLER'S character as a Preacher, makes the following observation: "His most affecting illustrations (and the power of illustrating a subject was his distinguishing faculty) were drawn from the most familiar scenes of life; and after he became a father, not unfrequently from the incidents which attach to that relation. An example of this will afford the reader some idea of the manner in which he availed himself of images. drawn from the domestic circle. His text was Isa. xxvii. 5,-'I think,' said he, I can convey the meaning of this passage so that every one may understand it, by what took place in my own family within these 'few days. One of my little children had committed a fault for which I 'thought it my duty to chastise him. 'I called him to me, explained to "him the evil of what he had done, and told him how grieved I was that I must punish him for it. He heard 'me in silence, and then rushed into my arms, and burst into tears. I could sooner have cut off my arm 'than have then struck him for his fault: he had taken hold of my strength, and he had made peace with me. 6 (TOLLER'S Sermons, with a Memoir by ROBERT HALL, A. M.-London, 1824. pp. 43, 44.) GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN AMERICA. THE Fourth General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church was convened on the 1st of May, 1824, in the City of Baltimore; at which were present BISHOPs M'Kendree, GEORGE, and ROBERTS; together with One Hundred and Twenty-nine other Ministers, delegated from the several annual Conferences of the United States. In con. sequence of the indisposition of BISHOP M KENDREE, the duties of the Presidency devolved principally upon BISHOPS GEORGE and ROBERTS. The business of the Conference, at its several sittings, was conducted with order and decorum ; and much christian feeling was displayed by the Speakers in the various important discussions which took place. A few alterations were made in some of the general Regulations of the Methodist Body in America; and two other Brethren, MESSRS. JOSHUA SOULE, and ELIJAH HEDDING, were elected and consecrated to the episcopal office. From the American Methodist Magazine for July, 1824, published at New-York, and which has just come to hand, we select the following particulars, which will not be devoid of interest to our readers on this side of the Atlantic: "Among other things which tended to make this Conference interesting, was the presence of the REV. RICHARD REECE, late President of the Wesleyan-Methodist Conference, and a Representative from that to this Conference, and his companion, the REV. JOHN HANNAH; both of whom have endeared themselves to their American Brethren, by the urbanity of their manners, the truly christian spirit which they evinced on all occasions, as well as by the gravity and dignity of their ministerial deportment. May they long live to enjoy the fruit of their labours of love among us, and continue to adorn that ministry with which they are more immediately connected. ous, as well as united and diffusive, spread to those doctrines of CHRIST by which they have ever been distinguished. This is anticipated, not only from the deputation itself, but more especially from the spirit and manner in which it is conducted. May success attend our elder brethren on the other side of the Atlantic, in all their efforts to spread the REDEEMER'S glory, and may we, on this side, be permitted to imitate their noble and godlike example, in extending the truth from pole to pole,' until, by our Missionary enterprises, we may meet on some favoured spot between the eastern and western continents, and witness the complete triumph of redeeming love around the terraqueous globe! "On the introduction of MESSRS. REECE and HANNAH into the Conference, MR. REECE presented the following communication: "To the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church assembled at Baltimore, in the United States of America. "DEAR BRETHREN, The time has arrived which calls us, in pursuance of a resolution unanimously passed in the Conference of 1820, held in Liverpool, to commission a deputation from our body to attend your ensuing General Conference, to convey to you the sentiments of our fraternal regard and affectionate attachment, and to reciprocate that kind and friendly office, which, on your part, was performed by the visit of one of your esteemed Ministers, the Rev. John Emory. "The increased interest in your spiritual welfare, which the establishment of this mode of direct and official communication between the two great bodies of Methodists has naturally excited in us, and, reciprocally, we believe, in you, is to us the first proof of its beneficial tendency, and a cheering indication of its future advantages. For why should the ocean entirely sever the branches of the same family, or distance of place, and distinct scenes of labour, wholly prevent that interchange of the sympathies of a special spiritual relationship which cannot but be felt by those who, under GOD, owe their origin to the labours of the same Apostolic man;— bear testimony to the same great truths before the world;-and whose efforts to spread the savour of the knowledge of CHRIST, on our part through the British 3 C "This interchange of delegates from one Conference to the other, so happily begun in 1820, after a partial suspension of a direct intercourse by the pastoral visits of the late DR. COKE, is hailed as the commencement of a more intimate and permanent union between the two bodies of Methodists, and as being productive of the happiest results to both, not only in keeping up that reciprocal attachment which has hitherto characterized them, but in giving a more vigorVOL. III. Third Series. SEPTEMBER, 1824. Empire, and on yours through the population of those rising States, which have derived their language, their science, and their protestantism from the same common source, Almighty GoD has deigned so abundantly to bless? "We received with heartfelt joy the messenger of your Churches, the REV. JOHN EMORY, bearing the grateful news of the progress of the work of GOD in your Societies, and were refreshed by the expressions of your charity. We now commit the same charge to the faithful and beloved Brethren whom we have appointed to salute you in the LORD; that nothing may be wanting on our part, to strengthen the bond of brotherly love, and to call forth mutual and united prayers for each other's welfare, by a mutual knowledge of each other's state. "We are on the point of closing the sittings of the present Conference, in which the perfect harmony of the Brethren assembled has afforded matter for the most devout and grateful acknowledgments to GOD; both as it is the indication and the result of that entire affection and unity which exist among our Societies throughout the United Kingdom. Through the mercy of God, we have rest on every side;-the discipline we received from our venerable Founder is still enforced with unabated zeal, and, under a conviction of its agreement with the word of God, cheerfully observed; the value of those apostolic doctrines which distinguish us in the old and new world was never, we believe, more powerfully felt among us, and never were they with greater fidelity exhibited in our public ministry; and, as a crowning blessing, numbers are yearly added to us and to the LORD, and the light and influence of the Gospel are, yearly extending, by the divine blessing upon the labours of the Brethren, into the still dark and uncultivated parts of our beloved country. Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake.' “ You will also, dear Brethren, partake of our joy in the success with which it has pleased GOD to attend the labours of our Brethren in our different foreign Missions. "The leading particulars of their state and prospects you will have learned from our Magazine and Annual Reports; and it will therefore suffice to státe, that, in this department of the work of GOD committed to our charge, upwards of one hundred and fifty of our Preachers are employed; and that the zeal and liberality with which our people and the friends of religion generally co-operate with us in this hallowed work, auswer to every call, and seem only roused to greater activity and enlargement, as the sad condition of the pagan world is, by new developements, displayed before them. In the formation of regular Missionary Societies in your Church, to promote the universal establishment of the kingdom of our adorable Saviour, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in GoD,' we have greatly rejoiced: and also in those encouraging dawnings of large success among the aboriginal tribes of your native continent, which have cheered the early efforts of those devoted men whom you have ordained to this blessed service. In addition to the dectrines in which we have been instructed, GoD has in his mercy given to us, as Methodists, a discipline adapted in a very special manner to Missionary operations; to build up and establish infant religious societies among heathens; and to call forth in every place a supply of labourers for extending the work, and enlarging the cultivated field into the untilled and neglected wilderness. In the spirit of our great Founder, under GoD, who regarded the whole world as his parish, let the Methodists of Great Britain and America regard the whole world as the field of their evangelical labours; and, mindful of this our high vocation, let us enter in at every open door, trusting in GOD to dispose the hearts of our people to provide the means necessary to carry our sacred enterprises into effect; striving together in our prayers, that from us the word of the LORD may sound forth' to nations and kingdoms of men, of all colours and climates, now involved in the ignorance and misery of pagan idolatry, and sitting in darkness and the shadow of death." "More fully to declare unto you our state, and to be the witnesses of the grace of GoD in you,' we have appointed and hereby do aceredit as our Representative to your approaching General Conference, the REV. RICHARD REECE, late President of our Conference, and have requested the Rev. John HANNAH, one of our respected junior Preachers, to accompany him on this service Beloved in the LORD and ap proved in CHRIST,' we commit them to the Grace of God, and to your brotherly affection. We earnestly pray that your approaching assembly may be under the special guidance and benediction of our common Head, and that all your deliberations may issue in the lasting union and prosperity of your numerous, and 2 widely extended Societies; that you may increase in faith and love; and that your labours may, year after year, continue to enlarge and establish in the Western World the kingdom of our LORD and SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST,-'to whom be glory in the Church throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.' "Signed in behalf of the Conference, "H. MOORE, President. "Sheffield, Aug. 11th, 1823.' "The above baving been read by the Secretary, MR. REECE rose, and addressed the Conference in the following words : "MR. PRESIDENT:-The paper which has just been read is an expression of the sentiments avowed by the British Conference, and in which I heartily concur;-sentiments of affectionate concern for the prosperity and advantage of our Brethren on this side of the Atlantic. It afforded us much satisfaction to receive from you, by your excellent deputy, the REV. JOHN EMORY, an overture to more frequent intercourse and closer fellowship of brotherly love. Wesleyan-Methodism is one every where, -one in its doctrines, its discipline, its usages. We believe it to be the purest, simplest, most efficient form of Christianity that the world has known since the primitive days. Doubtless, it is that which has had the sanction of Almighty God, in its rapid and extended success, beyond any other in modern times. It commenced, nearly a century ago, in the Mother Country, in one of her universities, with a few young men, ⚫ chosen vessels, meet for the Master's use.' Then, it was the cloud little as a human hand :'-now it has spread widely, and is still spreading over both hemispheres, while its fertilizing showers are descending upon Europe, America, Africa, and Asia, producing fruit wherever they fall, the fruit of knowledge and holiness. Methodism is our common property. We are alike interested in its preservation and diffusion. It is a sacred trust committed to us. It is a heavenly treasure, which we have to dispense for the benefit of man. Its spirit is not sectarian, but catholic, and embraces Christians of every denomination, who hold the essential truths of the Gospel, and love our LORD JESUS CHRIST in sincerity.' Your brethren in England were never more concerned to preach its distinguishing doctrines of justification by faith, the direct witness of the SPIRIT in the hearts of believers, and salvation from all sin in this life, with simplicity, fidelity, and zeal, than at present; never more concerned to enforce its discipline with firmness and love, and to train up a people in the 'nurture and admonition of the LORD; '-never more careful that it do not deteriorate in their hands, but that it be transmitted, pure and entire, to 'faithful men,' who shall succeed to their labours: for which purposes they are anxious in their instruction, and strict in their examination, of the rising race of Preachers, that these may be sound in the faith, and lovers of our discipline. Many of them are all we can hope, young men whose to whom we can commit the deposit, 'profiting' has appeared unto all,' and without anxiety, believing that they will obtain mercy of the LORD to be faithful.' "The result of this care and pains to preserve a pure and effective ministry, has been, and is still seen in the blessing of God upon our labours, in an extension of his work through every part of our country, where great and effectual doors' are opening into new places, and the LORD is adding to his Church daily such as are saved.' The members of our Society are also improving in personal holiness, and zeal for good works. They are more ready to concur with us in spreading the Gospel abroad among heathen nations, as well as in tightening the cords' of our discipline at home. On the whole, our prospects were never more bright, nor had we ever more reason to be encouraged. I have "My opportunities of intercourse with you since my arrival in this country, together with the satisfaction I have had in attending two of your Annual Conferences, where I met with many of my American Brethren, reader this one of the most interesting periods of my life. I have witnessed the disinterested and laborious zeal which distinguishes your character and conduct. seen the fruit of your labours in the excellent Societies in New-York, Boston, Philadelphia, Winchester, and this City. The doctrines and discipline of Methodism, when rightly applied, do, under the blessing of GOD, produce a scriptural conversion, and form the genuine christian character every where; and either at home or abroad, I find that a Methodist, who lives according to his profession, is a fellow-heir of the same grace of life.' My prayer is, in accordance with the prayers of the Body whom I represent, that you may go on and prosper, until, as the honoured instruments of GOD, you have diffused Gospel light and life through every part of this vast continent, and every class of its interesting population ;—that the |