man, addicted to boasting, but his acquirements were exceedingly slender? The noisiness of the shallow stream for many an age has

been proverbial.

Diligence in redeeming the time has already been adverted to as a prominent feature in his character. Even from boyhood he was careful to gather every fragment, every spare moment. His reading was very extensive. He explored every part of the vast field of theological knowledge. Polemical divinity he studied with intense application for many years; and he has left his thoughts in manuscript on subjects which have been matter of controversy among men who have stood pre-eminently high in the church of Christ for their piety and literary attainments. His style of preaching was affectionate and energetic, and distinguished by great variety and originality of thought. It displayed occasionally considerable research and abstruse thinking; but his constant endeavour was to make the things of God plain to the most common capacities.

To say that, as a husband and a father, he was exceedingly affectionate and kind, may appear very common-place. In his character, however, these lovely qualities were delightfully prominent. A stranger may say, "This is the bright side of the man's character from the pen of an affectionate relation." I have only to say, in reply, that both sides were alike untarnished.

MEMOIR OF MRS. ETHERIDGE,

Late of Newport, Isle of Wight:

BY HER ELDEST SON.

THE biographical department of the Wesleyan Magazine has presented, through a long series of years, a most impressive and invaluable body of evidence and illustration on the great subject of experimental and practical Christianity. In the memorials which it has perpetuated of the life and converse of multitudes who are now inhabitants of heaven, the living of successive generations have been, and will still be, instructed, encouraged, and confirmed in the things which belong to their peace. A conviction of the utility of these simple but interesting and important records has induced me to venture to communicate the following brief recollections of a mother, who is now with the blessed and holy dead.

Mrs. Alley Etheridge was born in the year 1771, near Portsmouth. She was the eldest daughter of the late Mr. George Gray, of the Royal Navy. Her four brothers (two of whom fell in their country's service) attained the rank of commissioned officers in the same profession. Though her character in youth was highly exemplary, both as a daughter and a sister, it was not till the village of Portchester was visited by the Methodists, that she was given to understand the nature and

necessity of conversion to God. The pious and venerable John Crickett was one of the first Methodist Preachers from whom she heard those doctrines which proved in after-days so rich a source of consolation in the troubles of life, and in the latest struggles of existence. Having been induced to attend the then despised Wesleyan ministry, she was led to receive the truth from their lips with grateful docility; and, like Lydia of old, divinely drawn, she gave her heart at once to the Lord, and her name to his people. Her father shortly after, and subsequently the other branches of the family, became regular attendants on the preaching of the word; and whilst resident in Portchester, their house from that time was a welcome home for the Preachers in their periodical visits to the place.

Some time after this she was united in marriage with Mr. Etheridge, then of Youngwoods, in the Isle of Wight, who was for more than thirty years a laborious Local Preacher on the island and many parts of the opposite coast; and who now, far advanced in years, is living in the steady and consolatory hope of rejoining the triumphant companion of his chequered life in the enjoyment of an everlasting rest.

My earliest recollections in life are associated with the piety of my mother. It was she who led me to the throne of God, and who made it a first principle of parental conduct to inspire me with an esteem for his service and his people. In her solicitude on this account, (I mention these circumstances merely as illustrations of her character,) whilst resident at Portsea, she took the writer, when about seven years of age, to the weekly meetings of the class of which she was a member. The Holy Spirit visited, at that early period, a mind the everlasting welfare of which was the object of such pious maternal anxiety; and she had the satisfaction of seeing her child's name regularly entered on the class-book, and a ticket of admission into the society given him by the Rev. Jonathan Edmondson.

It was her constant care, by conducting her rising family to the external ordinances of religious worship and instruction, and by impressing us with habitual veneration for the Ministers of religion, not only to place us in circumstances where divine knowledge might be most advantageously acquired, but to predispose the heart to receive its lessons from men of God, who we knew were held in the highest respect by our parents. In this she certainly presented a model for general imitation; and especially so to a large, and it is to be feared an increasing, class of parents, who, by the thoughtless exposure in the family of their opinions regarding their Preachers, (opinions in themselves frequently unwarrantable and wicked,) close the avenues of the young heart against the reception of saving truth in the most precious season of existence, and when its exclusion in too many cases renders the after-conversion of their children exceedingly difficult, if not morally impossible.

Mrs. Etheridge was called to be a sufferer. The temporal prosperity

which smiled on the morning of her life, gave place, under the inscrutable dispensations of divine wisdom and love, to a gloomy succession of years which were spent in adversity,-in many of its stages of a most trying character. The path of verdure and flowers in which the God of providence had at first placed both of my parents but led them to a dreary "wilderness, where there was no water, that he might humble them, and that he might prove them, to do them good at their latter end." (Deut. viii. 16.)

Calamity is one great test of genuine religion; and my mother's religion sustained its trying application. Nature frequently quailed beneath the growing pressure; but her divine Father, who exercised the discipline, afforded those succours of his grace in time of need, which preserved her faith from shipwreck, and her soul from death. In the painful withdrawment of earthly good which overshadowed the whole noon-day of her life, the leading features in her character were resignation to the will, and unmoved confidence in the paternal wisdom and mercy, of God. Whilst habituated to sympathize with her as the subject of much affliction, and to mark how graciously she was sustained by the supports peculiar to Christianity, her children received convictions of its reality and power, which can never be effaced. It was from the lips of a parent whose example was its comment and manifestation, that I first learned and loved that inimitable language of the Prophet:-"Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation."

Though the affliction, to which reference has been given, was in after-days somewhat relieved by a transition of circumstances, and the latter years of her life gratefully cheered by the smiles of Providence, yet the vigour of her frame had been considerably sapped, and her lot continued to be one in which comparative feebleness had to struggle with duties and occupations which demanded a course of perpetuated effort: she nevertheless continued, up to the period of her last illness, in that sphere of occupation in which she believed herself to have been providentially placed, and to do and to bear the will of her God, till the change transpired which placed her where "the weary are at rest.”

The precursor of that event was asthmatic consumption. On the developement of its symptoms her mind was broadly awakened to a conviction of the necessity of entire preparedness for the presence of the high and holy One. She was deeply affected on a review of her many wanderings from God, and with her pressing need of the cleansing blood of the Redeemer. Her concern upon this all-important subject was expressed in redoubled earnestness of application at the throne of grace for the great salvation of the Gospel. Often was she heard, in midnight hours, engaged in prayer or praise. She did not seek in vain.

Blessed be God, her prospects for eternity became bright and cloudless, whilst the Sun of righteousness rose upon her soul, and clothed her destiny in splendour. God gave her the Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier; whose gracious work appeared to all who knew her in inducing an increasing meetness in her for the inheritance of the saints in light.

Brought at length to the borders of time, and to the spot on which she knew that she was to lie down in death, she found herself, through the grace which had appeared to her, bringing salvation, sweetly delivered from the fear which hath torment, and in possession of a calm and unshaken confidence in Him who is the "resurrection and the life." She knew in whom she had believed, and was persuaded that he was able to keep that which she had committed unto him against that day. Her testimony was," I shall be among the blood-washed multitude through the merits of my glorious Redeemer. I disclaim entirely all merits of my own. My naked spirit will soon appear before the awful tribunal; but I shall carry with me the blood of sprinkling, the precious blood of Christ." On another occasion,

when a friend who had called to see her expressed the kind hope in general terms that the Lord would save her, she emphatically replied, "I am saved!"

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Meanwhile the disease, which had invaded the very sanctuary of her life, was making advanced and fearful ravages. She was perfectly conscious of this, and apparently aware of every stage of the process by which the tabernacle of clay was dissolved and destroyed. Her flesh and her heart failed; but, already dead to the things of time, and independent on creation, she felt a growing hold on the Uncreated and the Eternal. God was the strength of her heart, and her portion for ever.

The writer of this, who had hastened from his Circuit to the island to attend on his dying parent, can never forget the silent but hallowed Sabbath which he spent with her whilst still capable, at times, of conversation. Never was the eternal state so consciously near, nor the powers of the world to come so felt upon his spirit, as, whilst improving an interval in which she was sufficiently revived to be able to converse, he read the two following brief portions of Scripture, so applicable to the experience and prospects of the dying listener :-" For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit." (2 Cor. iv. 16, 17; v. 1-5.) "After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and

cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." (Rev. vii. 9—17.) I said, on referring to the choral anthem of the tenth and twelfth verses, "That is the song which you and I shall sing." She replied that it was, and that her hope of it was as an anchor cast within the veil, both sure and steadfast; adding, in her brief but expressive way, "It will outride all this."

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During the remainder of her stay on earth, her mind underwent no particular fluctuation of experience. There was no manifestation of triumph, but unbroken quietness and peace. Her state may be indicated by the testimony she gave on a subsequent morning, short but momentous :-" He is the same Saviour!" In her was beheld the believer waiting for her change. In my attendance on scenes of death, I have seldom witnessed such clear consciousness of one's actual state and prospects in the article of dissolution, combined with composure so complete. It was the dignity of a Christian's death. If she had a feeling of anxiety, it was to depart and begin the enjoyment of immortality in the presence of God. She told me, with faltering articulation, that she was "only waiting for the word to come out of his mouth!"

It was in this hallowed state of mind that she met the last paroxysms of death. The mortal strife was long and lingering; but her spirit, sustained and sanctified by Him who was still present with her, in "that important hour," escaped at length to eternal blessedness.

Her death, which took place February 27th, 1835, in her sixtyfourth year, was improved on the Sabbath following her funeral, by the Rev. William Worth, who, through her days of decline, had been unremitting in his pastoral attentions, and had manifested the most affectionate solicitude for the everlasting interests of herself and family.

Mrs. Etheridge was a woman of strong powers of mind, and of inflexible Christian principle. She was most cordially attached to the doctrines, discipline, and ministry of the Wesleyan Connexion, of which she deemed it her highest honour and privilege to be a member; whilst it constituted her greatest earthly happiness to see her children, who now arise and call her blessed, one after another united, in the same spiritual and imperishable bonds, to her people and her God.