-I am weary to bear them. My soul loathes this frothy food; give me solid and substantial religion. Give me an humble gentle lover of GoD and an; a man full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy ; a man laying himself out in the work of faith, the patience of hope, the labour of love. Let my soul be with these Christians, wheresoever they are, and whatsoever opinions they are of. "Whosoever thus doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my mother, and sister, and brother.'"

We now proceed to notice that portion of Mr. WARD'S Letter, which has reference to the observations of Dr. C. on the special call of the Methodists to take an active and decided part in the work of Foreign Missions. Mr. W. does not deny this call: he admits that "it is our duty to do all that we possibly can" for that object. This is a very ample concession; and if explained in its proper latitude, would bind us, we are sure, as a body, to missionary efforts and sacrifices, much more considerable than have ever yet been made. But Mr. W. accompanies this concession with observations, which go to prove that there still exists a great and pressing necessity for exertions to spread religion at home, in connexion with those which ought to be made for its propagation abroad. Such observations we think were not called for in reference to Dr. C.'s Letter; because on that point there is no real controversy between Mr. W. and Dr. C. The latter has, indeed, argued, that much has already been done by us, and by others, at home; and that our cause is now in such a state of vigorous maturity as will admit of our undertaking foreign enter. prises with perfect safety to our home establishments. But he no where states, that there is nothing more for us to do in our own country. On the contrary, he describes in detail the domestic work in which, as a people, we have yet to labour. We have, he says, " to maintain the conquest we have gained." Already much of that initial and preparatory work which Missionaries have to perform in heathen lands, and a great part of which the first Methodist Preachers had to do in this land, is in this happy country accomplished. The kingdom of God is among us. In most of our large towns, and in a great number of our villages and hamlets, the standard of the cross has been erected; multitudes have rallied round it, and are yielding a "professed subjection to the gospel of Christ." We, and our co-adjutors of other denominations, have taken, as it were, military occupation of the most populous and important districts of the land in the name of Christ. We have actual possession of those posts, from which we can, with the greatest advantage, and with a certainty of increasing success, carry on our further operations. This is, in an important sense, a "conquest." And we have now to maintain and improve it, by assiduous and unwearied exertion, until that disaffection towards Christ which still exists in the hearts and lives of an immense number of our countrymen, shall be generally subdued; until the disloyalty of merely nominal Christians, as well as the undisguised and avowed rebellion of open infidels, shall be completely put down and vanquished, by the continued operations of Divine truth; and grace, and power. But Dr. C. tells us further, that we have to employ our

selves in

inducting the rising generation into the fold of Christ;" a work, surely, which requires labours the most abundant, patient, and unceasing. And he closes his statement by telling us, that we have still to "sow," that is, to sow more extensively than we have yet done, both in the adult and juvenile population of our country, seed" of the kingdom, and to "water" it, where we find it already sown; encouraged in these perpetual and complicated labours, by perceiving, as we do from time to time perceive, through the mercy of God, and the successful preparations of our predecessors, who have broken up the clod, and by various introductory operations, made it ready for our more direct cultivation, that some portion, at least, of the seed which we commit into the earth is "in almost every place received into good ground," and brings forth fruit unto per fection. Thus our present successes should be the stimulus to a persevering and more extensive use of means which God has so signally owned.

This, we think, is the construction which ought in fairness and candour to be put on the statement of Dr. C.; a construction which, in substance, he did himself put, in the hearing of Mr. WARD, on a like statement of his, when he had occasion, at our last Conference, to explain and defend sentiments similar to those contained in his Letter. It really was not necessary, after Dr. C.'s description of those domestic labours which yet claim our attention as a body, that we should be reminded, in a way which insinuates that Dr. C. had intimated the contrary, that " much, very much, remains to be done at home." Dr. C. had said the same thing in a way more forcible, because he entered into the detail of that duty which Mr. W. asserts only in general terms. The real difference seems to be, that the Doctor very properly reckons on the co-operation of other pious ministers, in the Church and among Dissenters, as agents jointly with ourselves in the further spread of vital Christianity at home; while Mr. W. seems to have adopted the opinion that we only preach that gospel by which the moral renovation of this nation, so happily begun, is to be completely accomplished. We own we should be sorry to be of Mr. W.'s opinion on that point; because if we thought that the efficient cultivators are so very few, we should have little hope of that speedy and general harvest, which, on the other suppo sition, it seems not unreasonable to anticipate at a comparatively early period. The more labourers are employed, the more work will be done.

Mr. WARD, we think, ought not to object to the explanation we have given of Dr. C.'s statement, on the ground of its not being a very strict and literal paraphrase; for we apprehend there are several passages in his own Letter, which require at least an equal liberality of construction. We hope he does not mean precisely what he seems to mean, when he quotes with apparent acquiescence the opinion, that "Immorality, of every description, is nearly as prevalent now as ever it was." That it is awfully prevalent, and ought to excite our most zealous and persevering efforts for its counteraction, there is no question; but it really is too much to say, that after all that has been doing in Great Britain, by the extensive preaching of the gospel,

and by other means, during the last 80 years, vice is almost as prevalent as ever. We believe the fact to be otherwise; and if we did not, we must cease to appeal, as you, Sir, and other writers in defence of Methodism, have long been in the habit of appealing, to the good effects produced by it on the morals of large and populous districts, as one palpable and unquestionable proof of its having the blessing and sanction of God. It is true, those who reject the gospel, and sin against the light, may wax worse and worse; and there are yet many parts of the country which the light has not properly reached, or effectually penetrated. But, generally speaking, there has been an improvement in morals, correspondent with the increased diffusion and influence of Divine truth. The grace of God which has brought salvation to so many tens of thousands of our countrymen, of the lower classes especially, has not been inoperative on their conduct. It has taught them to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live a sober, righteous, and godly life. And the effect of their example, and exertion, and influence, and prayers, must necessarily have been great even on the mass of society, and will be greater still. The little leaven, we trust, is going on to leaven the whole lump.

We ought not to undervalue, any more than to exaggerate, the privileges of nominal Christianity; we know that it will not save men, if they rest in it; but it brings salvation near to them; and, in the mean time, it invariably checks the power of moral evil, and in a thousand indirect ways renders less vicious, than they otherwise would be, mul. titudes whom it fails to convert and save. It is a great mercy, therefore, that the kingdom of God is among us; that we have the dectrines, and ordinances, and grace of the gospel brought to our doors; that a system of means is in operation among us, which, if faithfully and diligently pursued, will end, by God's blessing, in a general prevalence of truth and righteousness. Already we have, in every considerable part of the land, many tokens for good; and we may say, probably with quite as much of literal accuracy as SAINT PAUL did, "Now, thanks be to God which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place." Probably the preaching of the gospel is much more general and effectual, on the whole, in Great Britain, than it was in certain countries which were the scene, at one time, of his apostolic ministry, and of which he did not hesitate to say, "From Jerusalem round about even unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ." These expressions of ST. PAUL are quite as strong, unqualified, and triumphant, as any which are found in Dr. CLARKE'S Letter; and he added, in the latter instance, what Dr. C. has not said concerning us as a body, "I have now no more place in these parts," which did not by any means imply that all the sinners of those parts had been truly converted.

We will only further observe, that there is no real incompatibility between the continuance and increase of the work at home, and the support and multiplication of our Missionary efforts abroad. Foreign Missions are one of the blessed fruits of the religion which we are spreading at home. The more success we have at home, the greater will be our motives, and our inclinations, and our means for extending

our pious services to other countries. The real friends, therefore, of our Foreign Missions will never be found cold or half-hearted as to any scriptural and judicious plans of domestic usefulness. On this point we are not afraid to appeal to facts; but our limits forbid us to enlarge. Let us push our Christian enterprises at home to the utmost possible extent for which we can, by just and prudent means, procure resources. We are doing so; and let us go on from strength to strength. But while we do so much, in various forms of labour and expense, by Sunday and other Schools, by Bible Associations, by Tract Societies, by Benevolent Societies, by our extensive Itinerancy, by our Local Preachers and Exhorters, &c. for the comparatively little world around us, let us not forget that there is a yet wider world beyond us, which claims a portion of our pity and our help. Let us do our best to supply the family at home; that is our primary duty :-but let us remember that we fail to imitate, in a very material point, our Father in heaven, if we overlook the prodigals in the far country. Let the majority of us attend to the domestic fold; but let us send, from time to time, detachments of our body to seek and save the lost sheep in the wilderness. That there are practical heathens at home is no reason, even if we were to allow the full and unmetaphorical propriety of that expression, why we should not spend a part of our means in trying to save the idolatrous and perishing heathen of other lands."This ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." The apostles, whose ministry should be the model of ours, never thought of staying in any one particular place first visited by them, to the neglect of all other spheres of labour, because all the people of that place were not yet brought to feel the power of the truth. When a few genuine converts were made, they appointed some to take the oversight of the rest; and as soon as things were thus put in train for further usefulness, went to other cities, and other countries, there to lay the foundation of new churches for Christ. We all contend for a similar rule of action, in reference to our work at home. We should have deemed it most absurd and criminal if our preachers had refused to visit Wales, or Scotland, or Ireland, merely because there was yet much to be done in England, in the way of spiritual conversion. And why are Wales and Scotland and Ireland only to have the benefit of this Missionary principle? Why are not we to extend its operation to Continental India, to Ceylon, to Madagascar, to Western and Southern Africa, to every place from which the invitation reaches us, "Come over and help us?" We cannot send the gospel to any for whom it was not designed, or by whom it is not needed. We cannot send it to any who are not, in the Christian sense, our neighbours. And if Mr. WESLEY's advice to his preachers be really founded in his characteristic wisdom and piety, and entitled to receive from us a filial obedience, "Go not only to those who need you, but to those who need you most;” then our neighbours in pagan lands, among whom Christ is not even named, who are comparatively in circumstances of much greater moral destitution than can now be fairly pleaded in a country that has so many Christian teachers and ordinances as ours, must ever have a peculiar claim on our regard. Those of our brethren, to whom it pleases

God to grant the "grace" to undertake this department of the general labour, are doing a great work; and are entitled to our best wishes, our fervent prayers, and our zealous support.

In these sentiments we are happy to believe, that we have the general concurrence of our brethren in the ministry, and of our connexion at large; and beg leave to subscribe ourselves, dear Sir, your's affectionately,

JABEZ BUNTING,

JOSEPH TAYLOR,

RICHARD WATSON,

General Secretaries of the Wesleyan Missionary Society. LONDON, June 23, 1819.

OBITUARY.

"My eye also is dim because of sorrow, DIED, on the 15th of May, 1819, at his father's house, Snowsfield, Southwark," and all my members are as a shadow." How high above our feeble compreTHOMAS HADLEY PRESTAGE, having just hension are these dispensations of God! completed the 23d year of his age: a young man of promising talent, and dis- But a few months ago this valuable young man entered upon his important mistinguished piety. He was appointed an itinerant preacher to the Launceston cir- sion,-blooming with health, endowed cuit, Cornwall, in Oct. 1817, where he with such physical and moral powers, as rendered him apparently fully adelaboured with acceptance, and profit to now, "he lies the churches, until the last Conference; quate to his labours: and when he was stationed in the Exeter mouldering in the silent grave - Yet, "Shall any teach God knowledge, seeing circuit; in which he continued to proclaim the glad tidings of great joy," till "he judgeth those that are high. One "dieth in his full strength, being wholly compelled, in the month of November, to retire from his beloved work, and to yield" at ease and quiet. His breasts are full to the virulence of a lingering disorder," of milk, and his bones are moistened (supposed to be a fungus in the bladder)" with marrow. And another dieth in which baffled medical skill, and ultimately led him to a state of suffering beyond the power of language to describe, 'ere it brought him down to "the house appointed for all living."

He was confined to his room six months; during which period most of the preachers in the London East Circuit visited him. He continued to bear his heavy affliction with Christian fortitude, and patience; though the springs of life appeared to have been nearly drank up some months before his death. His enervated and oppressed frame, almost precluded him from dwelling upon any sub ject but his agonies;-except, when a few intervals from pain occurred; but these were seldom, and so limited, that he continued a stranger to joy, yet, still held fast his confidence in God; and the even ing previous to his departure, though scarcely able to articulate, declared he had a prospect of a better inheritance. Those who did not see him, cannot judge even of the appearance of his sufferings: he might indeed have experimentally exclaimed in the language of Job, "Even "to day is my complaint bitter, my "stroke is heavier than my groaning.

"the bitterness of his soul, and never "eateth with pleasure. Thy ways, O "Lord, are in the great deep. Clouds "and darkness are round about Thee. "Judgment and righteousuess are the "habitation of thy throne."

It was the particular wish of our des parted brother, that his grave might be made in the burial-ground of Southwark chapel; that, as he observed, in the morning of the resurrection he might rise near the spot where he had received his first serious impressions, and so much spiritual good. There, he was accordingly laid, on Friday evening the 28th of May. The funeral was attended by several preachers and respected friends. A concourse of spectators followed the corpse into the chapel; to whom Mr. Riles delivered an appropriate exortation, and Mr. Bunting conducted the burial service. Oh! that this warning voice might be regarded by all those who hear its sound. He has left a journal, which he commenced in March, 1814: this, and his letters, afford matter of peculiar interest, and will be introduced in a memoir that is shortly to be written for the Methodist Magazine,

-H. R. GRIFFITHS,