opened to all that were round about him. When he was in bed, she went into his room, to see if any thing was wanting; and as she stood at the feet of the bed, he smiled, and broke out, 'God bless thee, my dear child, and all that belong to thee! Yea, he will bless thee!' which he earnestly repeated many times, till she left the room. When she went in the next morning, Monday, the 9th, his spirit was returned to God!

"So ended the holy and happy life of Mr. Vincent Perronet, in the ninety-second of his year age. I follow hard after him in years, being now in the eighty-second year of my age. O that I may follow him in holiness; and that my last end may be like his! " *

Mr. Fletcher was one of the holiest men that ever lived. He was a native of Switzerland; but having come to England, he was made a partaker of the Christian salvation through the instrumentality of the Methodists, and to the last continued in intimate connexion with them. He maintained an inviolable attachment to Mr. Wesley, whose theological views he defended with consummate ability, meekness, and charity, in a long and arduous controversy, in which his success was unquestionable. Next to Mr. Wesley, he was the ablest advocate of the Methodist tenets; and no man ever adorned them by a purer life, or a more burning, active love. His end fully corresponded with his deep and fervent piety. When laid on the bed of death, he told Mrs. Fletcher that he had received such a manifestation of the full meaning of those words, "God is love," as he could never be able to tell. "It fills me," said he, "every O Polly, my dear Polly, God is love!

moment.

* Works, vol. iv. pp. 305, 306.

Shout, shout aloud! I want a gust of praise to go to
the ends of the earth!" The servant coming in, he
cried out,
"O Sally, God is love! Shout, both of
I want to hear you shout his praise!"
He had always delighted much in these lines,-

"Jesu's blood, through earth and skies,
Mercy, free, boundless mercy! cries;

you.

and whenever Mrs. Fletcher repeated them, he would answer, "Boundless, boundless, boundless!" and when articulation had become extremely difficult, he exclaimed,

"Mercy's full power I soon shall prove,
Loved with an everlasting love! "

"I was intimately acquainted with him," says Mr. Wesley, "for above twenty years; I conversed with him morning, noon, and night, without the least reserve, during a journey of many hundred miles; and in all that time I never heard him speak one improper word, nor saw him do an improper action. Many exemplary men have I known, holy in heart and life, within fourscore years; but one equal to him I have not known,-one so inwardly and outwardly devoted to God. So unblamable a character in every respect I have not found either in Europe or America; and I scarce expect to find another such on this side of eternity." *

Three years after the death of Mr. Fletcher, Mr. John Wesley sustained the loss of his brother Charles, to whom he had been united through life by a strong and tender affection. They began their religious career together at Oxford; they endured the same hardships and reproach in Georgia; they

* Works, vol. vii. pp. 444, 445, 448.

obtained the Christian salvation, through faith in the Lord Jesus, within three days of each other, in the year 1738: they had both travelled through England and Ireland, calling sinners to repentance in the open air, and meekly enduring every form of calumny and danger; and they had embodied the same evangelical doctrines in various imperishable publications, John in sterling prose, and Charles in equally sterling verse.

Dr. Whitehead says, that "Mr. Charles Wesley had a weak body, and a poor state of health, during the greatest part of his life I believe he laid the foundation of both at Oxford, by too close application to study, and abstinence from food. He rode much on horseback, which probably contributed to lengthen out life to a good old age. I visited him several times in his last sickness; and his body was indeed reduced to the most extreme state of weakness. He possessed that state of mind which he had always been most pleased to see in others,-unaffected humility, and holy resignation to the will of God. He had no transports of joy, but solid hope, and unshaken confidence in Christ, which kept his mind in perfect peace."

From the time of his conversion he had been accustomed to think in verse; and the habit remained with him till his spirit returned to God. A few days before his death, having been silent for some time, he called Mrs. Wesley to him, and requested her to write at his dictation; when he feebly articulated the following lines :

"IN age and feebleness extreme,
Who shall a sinful worm redeem ?
Jesus, my only hope thou art,
Strength of my failing flesh and heart;

O could I catch a smile from thee,
And drop into eternity!"

He died on the 29th of March, 1788, aged seventynine years, and at his own desire was buried in Mary-le-bone churchyard. The pall was supported by eight Clergymen. On his tombstone are the following lines, written by himself on the death of one of his friends :

"WITH poverty of spirit bless'd,

Rest, happy saint, in Jesus rest;

A sinner saved, through grace forgiven,
Redeem'd from earth to reign in heaven!
Thy labours of unwearied love,

By thee forgot, are crown'd above;
Crown'd, through the mercy of thy Lord,
With a free, full, immense reward!"

Mr. Charles Wesley could not have written the sermons, appeals, and controversial tracts which bear the name of John, nor could he have organized the societies, and then preserved them and the Preachers in Christian order for half a century; but for many years his ministry was signally powerful and efficient ; and his hymns are a richer bequest to the Christian church in Great Britain and America than language can express. In this respect never was man more honoured of God. How often the Holy Spirit will make these sacred compositions a means of quickening the devotions of individual believers, and of worshipping assemblies, will be known only in the day of the Lord.

As a man, he possessed a truly noble and generous spirit. In his friendships he was cordial, firm, and affectionate; and was greatly beloved and admired by those who were intimate with him. The following hymn, which he appended to the first

edition of his brother's sermon on the "Catholic Spirit," shows him to have been "a lover of good men" in general, without distinction of sect;—

CATHOLIC LOVE.

WEARY of all this wordy strife,

These notions, forms, and modes, and names,
To thee, the Way, the Truth, the Life,
Whose love my simple heart inflames,
Divinely taught, at last I fly,

With thee and thine to live and die.

Forth from the midst of Babel brought,
Parties and sects I cast behind,
Enlarged my heart, and free my thought,
Where'er the latent truth I find,

The latent truth with joy to own,
And bow to Jesu's name alone.

Redeem'd by thine almighty grace,
I taste my glorious liberty,

With open arms the world embrace,

And cleave to those who cleave to thee;

But only in thy saints delight,

Who walk with God in purest white.

One with the little flock I rest,

The members sound who hold the Head;

The chosen few with pardon blest,

And by the' anointing Spirit led

Into the mind that was in thee,

Into the depths of Deity.

My brethren, friends, and kinsmen, these,
Who do my heavenly Father's will;

Who aim at perfect holiness,

And all thy counsels to fulfil ;

Athirst to be whate'er thou art,

And love their God with all their heart.

From these, howe'er in flesh disjoin'd,
Where'er dispersed o'er earth abroad,

Unfeign'd, unbounded love I find,

And constant as the life of God:

L