But I am getting out of my way. My returning steps were bent towards Halton. It was now dark; and I felt, as I entered the porch, that the light from a mullioned window promised me a cheerful home. The walls of my chamber, like those of the parlour below, were adorned with panelled oak. The room had been evidently one of the best of the familyapartments. Here then, said I to myself, as with the aid of my tiny candle I looked around through the dim space; here then, perhaps, the good Sir Anthony Rous used to repose after the hospitable toils of the day: for who could forget the name of one whom Thomas Fuller puts among his "worthies?" The humorous biographer has left but few words, it is true, as he never gives more than the living pith of his material; but in this case, as in every other, he throws a charm over the place where the subject of his notice lived and moved. "Give me leave," says he, "to transcribe what I find written of him: 'He employeth himself to a kind and uninterrupted entertainment of such as visit him, upon his not sparing inviting; or their own occasions; who (without the self-guilt of an ungrateful wrong) must witness, that his frankness confirmeth this welcome, by whatsoever means provision, the fuel of hospitality, can in the best manner supply.' He was father to Francis Rous, late Provost of Eton, whose industry is more commendable than his judgment in his many treatises." It is pleasant to know a little about the places into which Providence leads us. One can relish a meal all the better for knowing that men of honourable memory had dined in that room; and one's chamber has a deeper charm if he can call up its former occupants, and spend a sleepless hour in mystic communion with them. So I thought as I pushed open a small door in the wainscot, and found myself in what, it may be, was the old Lord of Halton's private closet; where, probably, he had taken godly counsel from Master FitzGeffrey, the Parson of the parish, who lived to see both the Squire and his lady laid low. Nor has the merit of his quaintly-titled funeral-sermons for them helped to keep their names fresh, or his own, as a theologian, popular, or even alive; though the worthy Pastor still

figures, now and then, in a rare catalogue, as "a Cornish poet," and the author of "Sir Francis Drake, his Honourable Life's Commendacion, and his Tragical Death's Lamentation." Other memories came; so that mine was a watchful night. The bed afforded repose, but no sleep. For a time my musings were broken now and then by certain strange movements behind the wainscot; but one soon gets used even to such things; and towards midnight, Milton was in my mind, and I thought I could understand a little of the feeling which he expresses in one of those gemmy bits of his, which make us feel the witching power of pure English, when used by a true poet :

"Let my lamp, at midnight hour,
Be seen in some high lonely tower,
Where I may oft out-watch the Bear,
With thrice-great Hermes, or unsphere
The spirit of Plato, to unfold
What worlds or what vast regions hold
The' immortal mind that hath forsook
Her mansion in this fleshy nook."

I was not in a "lonely tower," though in deep stillness; there was no "lamp" to break the gloom; and yet I was on the watch not that I wanted to "unsphere the spirit of Plato," but my soul seemed alive to any intimations it could catch about one immortal mind at least, which had probably begun its life in that very chamber, and had performed by no means a common career before it left its "fleshy nook." Where was the spirit of Francis Rous? A sentence which once fell from his pen came now so vividly, that it might have been borne to one by living breath: "I was first breathed from heaven; and I came from God in my creation..... Where should a low spirit find happiness but in the Highest Spirit? and where should a created spirit seek happiness but in the Spirit that created it? Wherefore, being a spirit, I fasten myself in a spiritual happiness; and this spiritual happiness I look for in no other but in the first and best Spirit, beyond whom there is neither good nor being." One could never doubt the heavenly rest of the old Republican's soul, though I confess I could never fully take in either his political belief, or his religious creed. He was born within the walls which now sheltered me. His training was completed at Oxford. In the first Parliament called by Charles I., he ap

peared as the Member for Truro, in his native county. At a later session, he represented Tregony; and then Truro again claimed the honour of giving him a seat. As a Radical reformer, he struck right and left, and at every real or fancied abuse in turn; now at the Church, and now at the Court; here at taxes, and there at Arminianism. In the Parliament of 1653 he sat for Devonshire, and figured first as Chairman, and then as Speaker. It was now that he conceived the notion of forming an English commonwealth after the model of ancient Judaism. But when he found that those about him were not prepared for a theocracy, he took what seemed to be the next best plan, and proposed the Protectorate under Cromwell, in whom, he thought, the virtues of both Moses and Joshua were combined. His reward was a place in the Privy Council of His Highness. In 1656 he entered Parliament as a Member for Cornwall, and very soon after was promoted to the House of Lords. His remarkable career was finished at Acton, on January 7th, 1659; and he was buried in great state at Eton, of which he had been Provost for sixteen years. Clarendon is unfair to his memory, and leaves a sketch of his character among the few wickedly or carelessly daubed portraits which disfigure his noble work. Cromwell's "Parliament repaired to the Parliament House," he tells us, "and made choice of one Rous to be their Speaker; an old gentleman of Devonshire, who had been a Member of the former Parliament, and in that time been preferred and made Provost of the College of Eton, which office he then enjoyed, with an opinion of having some knowledge in the Latin and Greek tongues, but of a very mean understanding, but thoroughly engaged in the guilt of the times." To the eye of a Royalist there would be many dark shadows on the character of a man who had done so much "to change times and laws;" and indeed the mere fact that Rous had acted as a chief Trier of public Preachers, and as Commissioner for putting out "scandalous and ignorant Ministers," was quite enough to disturb the balance between prejudice and truthfulness in the mind of a Court historian. The stern "Trier" was, however, far above contempt. Nor will a calm student of his writings believe that

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he was "of a very mean understanding." Among the "Treatises and Meditations" which he dedicated "to the saints, and to the excellent throughout the three nations," may be found "Diseases of the Time, attended by their Remedies," and “Oyl of Scorpions, or the Miseries of these Times turned into Medicines for curing themselves;" and, if one may judge by the manner in which he deals with popular evils, it was woe to the blind and godless Cleric whose abilities were tried by Francis Rous. In the theological branch he would have as little mercy in some cases, perhaps, as a Divine whom I heard bawl once after a Methodist Preacher, "Arminianism is a lie; it was never true, it was never ordained to be true!" Yet, perhaps, an Arminian even might manage to admit the old Trier's" leading aphorism, "The root of predestination is unsearchable, the wit of man is short and shallow;" especially when he was told from the bench that, "in these and the like depths of God, no man is to wade above his stature. Every man should understand according to sobriety; that is, according to the measure which he containeth. Let not the homer tear itself to pieces by stretching itself to be an ephah, but every member (for members are different) aspire to his proper fulness; and though they reach not to such mysteries, they may converse in points of more absolute necessity to salvation." But unsound doctrine even would stand a better chance in the presence of the Commissioner than practical vice. It might do some people of our own times a great deal of good to be rebuked by him; for, alas! he might be speaking of these days when he said, " Another great sin of this land is deceitfulness of trades. Single trades are grown to be double, for there are two trades in one; the one is a skill of doing it truly, the other of doing it deceitfully. And he is the most skilful tradesman that knoweth the falsehood of his trade, rather than he who knoweth the truth of it." Nor would some of his utterances on "monstrousness of apparel" be out of place were they issued against the present rage for appearances. "For by the ambition of clothes there is a general remove," says he," and the lower is stept into the place of the higher, and each goes about to be like them who are unlike

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him. Besides, the whole shape of this notion is changed, and clothes are no longer interpreters, but need themselves an interpretation. So that if a man that forsook this land some forty years since, should now return again, in good manners he could not but say, your Lordship, to a gentleman; and your Worship, to the son of a farmer....Such a confusion hath this vice bred, that by it both men and their degrees are grown out of knowledge; for unknown they are both to themselves and others." The old Re

publican censor was both hard and sharp, some will think; but he had his amiable points; and were it only for the filial piety which breathes in the dedication of his works to his father, one must cherish an affection for his memory. A dutiful son cannot be a graceless man. So I thought at least, as I lay ruminating in that old room at Halton; where at length sleep fell upon me, as I was dreamingly trying to picture to myself the forms and features of the worthy father, and his reverent and grateful son. Five-ways. X.

CLEANING THE OUTSIDE OF THE PLATTER.

THE Mohammedans repeat certain forms of prayer five times every day. Whether at home, in their shops, in the streets, or on a journey, as soon as the appointed time arrives, they fall on their knees, and go through with the whole routine of prayers and bodily prostrations. One day several Moslems called upon us, at the eighth hour of the day, (about two o'clock P.M.,) and after they had been sitting some time engaged in conversation, one of them arose, and said to his companions, "I must pray." They all asked, "Why? It is not the hour of prayer." Because," said he, "when I went to the mosque at noon to pray, I had an ink-spot on my finger-nail, and did not perceive it until after I came out, and hence my prayer was of no avail. I have just now scraped it off, and must repeat my noon-prayer." So saying, he spread his cloak upon the floor, and then kneeling upon it, with his face towards Mecca, commenced his prayers, while his companions amused themselves by conversing about his ceremonial strictness. He proceeded, with his

THE Rev. William Shaw, late General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Missions in South Eastern Africa, has furnished a thoroughly good book, under the title of The Story of my Mission. He was, as most of our readers know, the pioneer of the Wesleyan Missionary operations

among the colonists and native tribes in that interesting portion of Africa. He gives ample information respecting the habits and customs, manners and superstitions, of the untutored children of nature with whom he met; and tells, with characteristic modesty and force, a tale of

successful labour among them. The facts he gives, and the observations he makes, on many topics of deepest interest to the colonists, will amply repay an attentive perusal. A sound and diseriminating judgment is everywhere apparent; and no one, after reading these pages, will wonder at the extraordinary influence which their author acquired amongst all classes in the land of his toil. It is interesting to know that a copy of this book reached Her Majesty a day after Prince Alfred returned from his African travels, and which she was pleased graciously to accept.

Whoever wishes to obtain, within a moderate compass, the information the Scriptures give of heaven, will do well to procure Edmondson's Scripture Views of the Heavenly World, now re-published at the Methodist Book-room. New and cheap editions of the truly valuable Life of Colonel Gardiner, and the instructive Letters on the Distinguishing Excellencies in the Character of Remarkable Scripture Personages, by the Rev Robert Huston, are issued this month. Mr. Mason has also added three Tracts to those published under the direction of "the WesleyanMethodist Tract Committee." The first

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of these is the capital article, written by one of the ablest living Methodist Ministers, entitled Who's your Dressmaker? the beginning of which our readers have in some preceding pages of our present Number. Another Tract, belonging to

the Large-Type Series, entitled I am no Scholar, by one of our most successful Tract-writers, deals well and wisely with the objection couched in those words, so often used by the ignorant to excuse their neglect of religion and of the means of grace. A Story of the Irish Revival gives an account, in the man's own language, of a wonderful instance of the power of Divine grace in the conversion and the reclamation of a terrible backslider.

Our friend who makes the inquiry, and others who wish for information on the subject of class-meetings, will do well to read the Rev. John Hartley's Plea for Class-Meetings, Price 2d.; the Rev. R. Newstead's Advices to One who meets in Class, Price 2d.; the Rev. Luke H. Wiseman's Thoughts on Class-Meetings, Price 4d.; the Rev. Theophilus Woolmer's Absence from Class, Price 1d.; and the Rev. Edmund Grindrod's Duties, Qualifications, and Encouragements of ClassLeaders, Price 4d.

MR. JOHN LLOYD was a native of Madeley, in Shropshire. His father was a miner, and was killed by an explosion of foul air, whilst his son John was a mere boy. Little is known of John's early youth, except that his school-education was very limited, and that he was accustomed to the dangers and privations of a miner's life from a tender age. The character of his parents does not appear to have been decidedly Christian: they were, however, deemed respectable people. In 1832 John was living at Bilston, Staffordshire, with his mother and two sisters, who all died of cholera in that year. He was then a "decent, steady" youth, but not religious. A fellow-workman, afterwards for many years a Leader at Bilston and Ettingshall, was a friend to him; took him to God's house, and sought his conversion. One afternoon, perhaps on a Monday, when the miners in this

district seldom work, the two young men spent their time in singing hymns. In the evening they attended a prayer-meeting, in the course of which Mr. Lloyd obtained redemption in the blood of Jesus. He repeatedly spoke of this in after-life; and always regarded his conversion as a sudden one. For a period of more than twenty-two years, the character which he maintained proved the reality of the good work then begun. He now met in class, grew in grace and in knowledge, taught in the Sunday-school, and, in about three or four years, was received on the "Plan" as a Local Preacher. 1836 he removed to Ettingshall, near Bilston. Here he became a Class-Leader; married; and, through the help of one of his Methodist friends, rose from the position of an ordinary workman to that of a "butty." This odd expression designates a contractor; one who undertakes

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to work the mine, and raise the mineral to the surface at a certain sum per ton. After considerable difficulty and discouragement, he eventually prospered in business, and realized property. He built a house for himself at Monmore-Green; and then, like David, had it in his heart to build a house for God's worship at the same place. This was desirable, as the place was destitute of one, and as the population was fast increasing. A Wesleyan chapel was built, and opened in the spring of 1847. Here Mr. Lloyd sustained the office of Trustee, Chapel-Steward, Society-Steward, and Leader. In 1854, Mr. Lloyd's employers requested him to take the management of a colliery near Longton. He rather reluctantly consented, and removed thither with his family in May. He immediately connected himself with the Wesleyan Society there, raised a class, frequently preached with great enlargement and power, and did what his hand found to do, while it was day: alas! the night was at hand. Here he lost his second daughter by death. This event, doubtless, reminded him impressively of the uncertainty of life, and the nearness of eternity. He often said in the familycircle, "I sit loose to all below;" "This

world has little attraction to me;" with other observations of the same import. His wife could not help noticing decided progress in piety and heavenly-mindedness. On the morning of May 25th, 1855, he left home to attend to business as usual, and proceeded to examine the workings of a mine, when an explosion, similar to that which caused the death of his father, terminated his life. The Rev. John Kirk, then of Wolverhampton, in a letter addressed to Mrs. Lloyd at the time, remarks, "Your beloved husband was indeed a blessed man of God. I cannot express the high esteem I had for him. He would be found ready. Sudden death would be to him sudden glory." Mr. Lloyd's early education was, as we have said, defective. He felt that; and though he had business to attend to, a young and increasing family, appointments on the "Plan," two classes, and other churchengagements, yet he found time to improve his mind. He had a plan of reading, which marked out work for each day in the week. In the relations of husband and father he was remarkably kind and considerate. True religion and good sense blessed him for both worlds. They will do the same for every friendless youth.