MR. JOSEPH MILLS,

OF HANLEY.

Mr revered father was born in November, 1777, and died in the Lord on 1st June, 1857. He was made a partaker of the grace of God about fifty-seven years ago; and was for many years the oldest member but one* in our Hanley Society. The ministry of "old John Revel," as he was familiarly and fondly called, was the means of troubling his conscience, and leading him to the mercy seat of God. I have heard him rehearse his grateful recollections of the Sunday evening service which found him unreconciled to God, and left him on the heavenward side of the gate of mercy, commencing that Christian life in which he faithfully persevered during nearly threescore years. The word of the Lord, as enunciated by Mr. Revel, convinced him of sin, and in the prayer meeting he obtained the assurance of hope, which he held fast to the end. This was in the first chapel, which stood where the present magnificent temple stands, in which he has been spared to worship for thirty-six years. Previous to this, however, he had generally attended the services which were held in the coach-house, at the formation of our Connexion. He was the treasurer steward of our Hanley society for several years, and was for a long time usefully employed as a class leader. He was a deeply pious man of God, and was distinguished by equanimity of temper and uniformity of life. I have watched him and have studied his character, from my childhood, with a vigilance almost equal to that with which I endeavour to study the tendencies and operations of my own mind. In myself I have discovered many defects; in him I have found but few. A moral defect I never saw. Often in my boyhood and youth have I stood, unknown to him, at his chamber door, and listened, with intense emotion, to his private communings with God. His character as a

*The senior member in our large church at Hanley is our venerated friend Mr. Ridgway, whose valued and useful life may God long continue.

Christian stood high. I never heard of one word being spoken against him by any human being. His strong sense and discriminating judgment occasioned his being often applied to for counsel by his acquaintances; and such was my own regard to his opinion in my youth, that when, one Lord's day, I first preached before him, in our Hanley chapel, being in my teens, I was more solicitous about his approval than that of the great congregation. On the morning of 13th June, 1834, when I left home to enter the ministry, he desired me to attend him in his bedroom, at an early hour, when he earnestly commended me to God. His conduct to his children was eminently paternal, and such as won for him, from each heart, the deepest and most respectful love. To my dear mother, who has been in heaven above eight years, I never once heard him speak an angry or impatient word.

Though in his best days he presented a tall, well-built frame, his health was so delicate as to give but little promise of the longevity to which, through the divine goodness, and his unvarying temperance and regularity in the habitudes of daily life, he was permitted to attain. Year after year his form became more attenuated; and when nearly all the contemporaries of his earlier life were gone to their graves, and he had to sustain the burden of fourscore years, his once erect form began to bend towards the earth which was soon to provide him with a grave, and he began to walk with somewhat trembling steps; so that on the occasion of one of the several visits which I paid him during the last twelve months, he very feelingly responded, when, repeating the beautiful words of Moses, I said to him, "My dear father, how true it is that the days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." So long as he was able to leave home he attended the house of God with his accustomed regularity; and when he became the prisoner of debility and pain, the

divine presence was never withdrawn from his spirit. During twenty-three long weeks he lay in bed, until death released him from his sufferings. Those sufferings were acutely severe. He well knew that relief from torturing pain could be obtained only in death. He often said that it was a solemn thing to die, but his conscience was untroubled. No fear stood as а

threatening sentinel at his door. Many years since he told me that if it were the Lord's will he would prefer a sudden death. But such was the tenacity of life in his person that dissolution seemed to be going on for half a year, before it was complete. Had he died at any hour, since I have known him, I could not have had a doubt as to his salvation. There was no impulsiveness in his experience or character. He was a uniformly confiding and holy servant of God. Dur ing the many months of his pilgrimage over the border-land between two worlds, he looked backwards with an intensely grateful satisfaction, and forwards with calm and unwavering confidence. No tremors took hold of him as he thought of meeting God. Not the slightest degree of uncertainty existed as to his eternal future. He knew in whom he had believed, whose he was, and whom he served. Nearly three score years having tried and attested the soundness and stability of his hope, it safely passed through the ordeal of a long affliction, and a lingering death. In the sunshine and in the storm his hope was established on the rock of our Saviour's propitiation and covenant. The mortal conflicts were long, and, as he often told us, severe beyond all power of imagination, in those who have not tasted death, so that he sometimes besought the Lord that he might enter into rest; but patience had its perfect work. He waited many months near to the gate of heaven, before reluctant death released him from the mortal strife. Several times during those months we parted in expectation of not meeting again until we meet in the spirit world. During the week before the last Conference, I visited him for the last time. There was not the slightest failure in his vision or hearing, nor in the faculties of his mind. His peace was perfect, and was as constant as time; and his hope of eternal life was sure. On the day before the Conference services began, I received his last expres

sions of benediction and love, and we exchanged what we both knew to be our parting words. Death was then vividly depicted on his countenance; but all was well. He was hourly expecting his entrance into heaven. On the following Monday, June 1st, he was released from the burden of the flesh. For some days he had affectionately requested of his children that he might be permitted to be as much as possible undisturbed, even by conversation. His spirit would now commune only with heaven. He had said all that was in his heart to those most dear to him, and who regarded him with a profound and reverential love; and now he desired calmly and silently to await the coming of the Lord. During the last afternoon, indeed, he requested his eldest son, my brother John, to read to him many chapters from the gospel of John, and from the epistles of Paul. In the evening, as the shades of night set in, he slept, and, like my dear mother, he died in sleep. Tenacious life had sustained the unequal conflict so long as to astonish every one, but was now vanquished by all-conquering death; and my father slept in Jesus. I was summoned from the Conference to attend to the last sad duties that were due to his remains. What different scenes did earth and heaven present as we stood by his grave! At our feet was the dismal cell, whose sad and sickening horrors appal the instincts of our nature, and in which three other beloved ones lie, while the sublime and boundless heavens above, which canopy our world, were full of solar glory. But sublimer heavens still are beyond, which mortal vision cannot reach, where God's throne is, and where translated saints are. From the horrors of the house appointed for all living, our faith and hope and love ascend to the Father's house, his glorious high sanctuary, where ten thousand welcomes await the holy ones of God. With what intense solemnity and fervour should our oft-repeated vows be renewed, as, now and again, we stand at the brink of the grave; how affectingly are we reminded of that inevitable hour when our own cherished forms will be laid among the victor's spoils; and how certainly must our children, who succeed to our places, also succeed to the doom which we and our fathers inherit ! T. MILLS. Dudley.

MR. JOHN POTTS,

NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.

OUR late brother was born at Morpeth, in the county of Northumberland, on June the 30th, in the year 1794. He was the youngest son of John and Elizabeth Potts, innkeepers. Their children were brought up not only in utter disregard of religion, but taught to despise and to ridicule all who made a profession of it. Our deceased brother, however, when a young man, and previous to his conversion, was regarded by all who knew him as quiet and well-disposed. In the town in which he resided the Wesleyans and Presbyterians had an interest. When our late brother was about sixteen a revival of religion broke out, and many, both old and young, were led to a saving knowledge of the truth. It was about this period that our brother was brought in. After his conversion he manifested the greatest solicitude for spiritual and divine things, and such was the improvement and progress he made that, at the age of seventeen, he was deemed an eligible person to be put on the plan as a local preacher on trial. He was at that time connected with the Wesleyans. Perhaps none were ever placed in a worse position for the prosecution of study, &c., than our brother. At home there were none to tender him advice, nor even to countenance him in the course which he had adopted. Indeed, his relatives and friends were opposed to it, and various means were taken to endeavour to dissuade him from preaching; but every attempt was in vain. He was thoroughly convinced of the importance of the work in which he was engaged. He was, moreover, desirous to make known to others the

truths of the everlasting gospel, the importance and value of which he realized in his own experience; and that desire he was enabled by the grace of God to carry out, regardless of the taunts and sneers of all opposed to him.

Soon after the term of his apprenticeship had expired, he was compelled to leave his native town, owing to the scarcity of employment there. After wandering up and down for awhile, he at last got employment at Newcastle. It was here he became a member of the Methodist New Connexion, and continued until his death, a period of nearly forty years. Soon after he joined the New Connexion he was appointed leader of

a Sunday afternoon class, and continued its leader until a year or two back, when he was compelled to resign that office on account of affliction. He had occasionally the care of more than one class, the members of which will long hold him in affectionate remembrance for the fidelity of his counsels, and the fervency of his prayers for their welfare.

As a preacher he was plain, evangelical, and useful, having left behind him living witnesses of the efficacy of his ministry-witnesses who are now usefully employed in the same office which he sustained.

Our late brother was warmly attached to the Connexion; at the same time, he was no worshipper of a sect-he was liberal in his views and principles. It was always a cause of great delight to him to hear of the prosperity of Zion. He longed for the conversion of the world. His love for the Connexion was not based upon any blind predilection-he had carefully examined its rules and discipline, and was led to admire them on account of their scriptural and liberal character. When numbers left the circuit, owing to the expulsion of Mr. Barker, he continued faithful; and it was in a degree owing to his firmness, activity, and discretion that the Newcastle Society was kept in existence.

For the last year or two he was compelled to desist from all active duties connected with the church, owing to a complaint termed by his medical attendant an overflow of blood to the head, and it was this complaint which was at last the cause of his death. A short time previous to his last illness it was thought, both by himself and his friends, that the disorder was gradually leaving him; and he appeared to look forward with pleasure to the time when he might be permitted to resume (to some extent at least) his active duties. But the Almighty had ordained it otherwise. On Sunday, July the 12th, he had a sudden attack of apoplexy, and so severe was the attack that it was thought by those around him that he would not live till the morning. He lingered, however, until Thursday evening, when he expired without a struggle or a groan.

During his illness, he was almost entirely insensible. He had twice or thrice a few lucid moments. In one of these times, a friend, who had long been connected with the class of which

MRS. HANNAH MORRIS,

OF DUDLEY PORT,

Was born at Kate's Hill, near Dudley, on the 21st of May, 1798. The low church at Dudley, being then the nearest place of worship to the residence of her parents, was regularly attended by the whole family. At an early age Mrs. Morris was admitted a scholar in the Sabbath school connected with that church, and afterwards she became a teacher, which office she creditably sustained till the family removed to Tipton. Here she attended the Wesleyan chapel with her mother, who was a member of society, and whose genuine, deep, and ardent piety was manifested in an exemplary walk and conversation. The fact that all, or nearly all of her children-fourteen in number-are now serving God, some in the church below, and the rest with her in the church above, is a pleasing testimony to the wisdom of her teachings, the attractiveness of her example, and the power of her prayers. Growing up amidst the gracions influences which pervade the home where a pious mother presides, the attention of our departed sister was early directed to spiritual and eternal things. Everything around her contributed to awaken serious thoughts, to impress her opening mind and yielding heart with the importance of religion, and to prepare her for that consecration of herself to the service of God, which she made when seventeen years of age.

But little is known by surviving friends of the circumstances of her conversion. It appears that one Sabbath day she went to Oldbury, where she heard a sermon preached on a special occasion. That sermon was applied by the Holy Spirit to her conscience. She was awakened to a vivid apprehension of her state and danger as a sinner, and resolved to seek the pardoning mercy of her God. That resolution she faithfully carried out. She united with the society of which her mother was a member, received suitable directions, and speedily secured, by faith in Christ Jesus, the forgiveness of sins. The precise time when she obtained that blessing is unknown. But that she did realize and retain it, her oft-repeated testimony and her holy life have placed beyond all doubt. During her residence in Tipton, and for some time after her removal to Dudley Port, she continued in church fellowship with the

Wesleyans. In or about the year 1835, circumstances arose which induced many in this locality to separate from that church. Mrs. Morris was one of the first to adopt this course. She and a few more pious persons united together and formed the nucleus of our Dudley Port Society, of which she continued a member till death effected that temporary separation which all she has left behind so deeply deplore.

During the long period of forty years she preserved her connection with the church, and, in all the relations of life which she sustained, beautifully exhi bited the excellences of the Christian character, Her husband found her to be a "virtuous woman, whose price was far above rubies," and his heart safely trusted in her. The cleanliness and order, the neatness and comfort of her dwelling, showed that the presiding genius of the household possessed the spirit of industry and economy, of thoughtful kindness and prudent management. Her domestic arrangements, contributing as they did to the comfort and attractions of home, were highly appreciated by her husband and children. She diligently sought to promote their spiritual interest. Having erected the family altar, she daily of fered thereon the sacrifice of prayer and praise, while, by gentle admonitions, enforced by a holy example, she sought to lead the whole family to the service of God. She possessed "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which, in the sight of God, is of great price." She opened "her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue was the law of kindness." Neither courting nor coveting human applause, she was entirely free from that envy which prompts so many to seek their own exaltation by depreciating the excellences, and publishing the real or supposed infirmities and offences of others. It evidently afforded her the highest gratification to speak of the good which she perceived in others, and to endeavour to place them higher in the estimation of those with whom she conversed. Her Christian benevolence prompted her to endeavour to promote the happiness of all within the range of her influence. In the visitation of the sick and absent members of the church, she found employment congenial to her tastes, and for which her amiable disposition, sympathetic heart, and ardent piety, admirably fitted her. For several years she was actively engaged under the direction of the