balls,—something in the shape of a Stilton or a double Glo'ster,-or from the less remote dairies of Cheshire.

On his Sabbath visits to Newcastle, he ge nerally found his way to Mr. Nesham's class, and occasionally led it. "You must come down to Carville," said he to Mr. N., "and meet our class some time. The leader will be glad to see you; there are five and twenty members; he stands in the midst of us like a father, and we all look up to him like children. We are as happy as the day is long." This is a pretty picture of a class-meeting, and is just what a leader and his members ought to be to each other. Being asked, on one of these occasions, on his return home, where he had been, and whom he had seen? "At Newcastle," he replied, "and I saw such an one"naming the person; "he is full of heaven,as full as an air balloon;" intimating that he would one day mount upward-light as a thing of air-yet full of majesty and grace. A person once observed of Crister himself, that he had " a soul like a thimble ;-it was soon filled, and soon emptied." His conceptions, however, far exceeded, in occasional magnificence, the personal criticisms of his friend.

There was much less extravagance in his representations, than those around him were authorized to expect, from the vividness of his imagination and impressions; and he rarely failed to give a distinct picture of the thing itself, not only for the mental eye to repose upon for the moment, but to be hung up in the cham

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bers of the mind-that the by-stander might again and again return to it, and participate in the pleasure at first imparted. In cases where the images were either imperfect, or not sufficiently indelible, they would still appear and vanish in their passage through the mind, like the figures of a phantasmagoria, awakening half forgotten associations in some, and gratifying the curiosity of others. Many of his sayings and similes have become household things on the banks of the Tyne. To a friend, he observed, when speaking of the malignity and perseverance of Satan,-" He will pursue the saint with the same temptation for years-to death itself—yes, to the very verge of heaven. And look at him there ;-unable to pass the threshold, he lays one hand on the gate-post, to support himself, and stretches forth the other to make a click (catch) at the soul just as it slips in before him, but bang goes the door, and snaps his fingers." While speaking, the action was suited to the subject,-shaking his own hand, after drawing in his arm, and applying his fingers to his lips, as if to sooth the pain, on being suddenly trapped. It is not improbable, that there was a distant reflection in this, of the conduct of St. Paul, in the pursuit of a higher calling, who followed after-who pressed toward"reaching forth to those things which were before" and so throwing himself, as it were, at the last step, upon the prize, by a last and vigorous effort of nature; securing, however, what Satan had lost.

The lower part of the New Road Chapel,

Newcastle, having been employed as a granery for some years, Crister mourned over what he deemed a desecration of the place, and the depressed state of the work of God that occasioned it. On the dawn of a brighter day, when the entire place was converted to its original use, he exceedingly rejoiced; saying, "There could be no prosperity in the midst of the world; but when the old fusty corn was removed, God began to work. Christians form the church of God; their hearts are like places of worship; but before God will take up his constant abode with them, there must be a clean sweep; all the rubbish of sin-all the fusty grain of this world, must be got quit of. We have an example of it in the New Road Chapel. Who but thieves, will become buyers and sellers in the temple? There is nothing but the whip for them, if the house is again to become a house of prayer."

Some of the young men having been behaving improperly down the pit, as in cases already noticed, and displaying more than usual profligacy, a person standing by, remarked, "That really beats the devil." Crister, who was within hearing, anxious to improve the expression, sharply subjoined, "I would not give a halfpenny cabbage for the man that cannot beat the devil." He knew that Satan could only be conquered through grace,-that every Christian possessed grace,-and that little hope could be entertained of the safety of those who were under satanic power. "Who," said he, on another occasion, when endeavouring to dis

suade sinners from hastening to ruin,-“ Who would go to hell, that can prevent it? What a poverty-stricken place must that be, which cannot afford so much as a drop of water to wet the tongue of a rich man!" Such was the esteem in which he was held, and the value of his remarks, that the fact of his having uttered them, was like the stamp of royalty upon a coin; they became sterling, and found immediate circulation,-and that, too, very often independent of the quality of the metal, and the size of the model. The veriest mites were often received with enthusiasm, and added, like those of the poor widow, to the treasury of those who possessed a trifle, and became a real treasure to those who had none.

CHAPTER V.

Progress in Piety-His usual Place of Retirement—Answers to Prayer-Prays for the Preachers-Conversions -He is not to be taken in all Things as a Model-His Exemption from Frivolity-A Peculiarity in his Conceptions His Conduct under severe providential Dispensations-Personal Affliction-Attempts to do Good in a pecuniary Way-His Benevolence of Character-Grateful Acknowledgments-He aids a poor Widow-A Lovefeast-Singing-A Dream-Mr. Bramwell-A Garden.

BEING always on the alert himself in matters of religion, he was a perpetual spur to the indifference of others. "Never," he would say, "be on the same ground to-day, you were upon yesterday." He was like a bird on the wing, and he would suffer no one around him, over whom he had the least influence, to slumber longer on the perch than what was necessary.

On his children annoying him in moments of communion with God, and yet being engaged in such little amusements, as to render reproof and correction unnecessary, he would take up the key of the chapel, which place was nearly next to his own door, and would there lock himself in, and enjoy-undisturbed, the presence of his Maker in his own sanctuary.

His partiality to prayer, and the frequent peculiarity of his manner, are subjects alluded to elsewhere; but as tests of his sincerity in