and the souls of men, are momentous. Such interests cannot be tampered and played with, ns men play with the intrigues of a secular party, or the evanescent theories of shifting popular opinion.-The imposition of hands in ordination, had not, up to this time, been adopted. The subject had been introduced some years previously into the Conferences and many highly intelligent members of that body desired to adopt this primitive and scriptural rite Great respect was due to those Marvi Minisers who had been accustomed to

gend it as a teneration, and an innovation it wide App Aen deemed, so long as the Mepade Noves were theoretically held to be sa de pale of the Church of England. Die a, de aparate communion was unavoid2) puebladed, and as it was palpable to all w what the Preachers were placed by Divine Pendence in an unencumbered pastoral posi

; no reason remained why the solemn sepatation of candidates to the office laid on them by the calling and law of Christ, which calling, and their own fitness to fulfil it, had been tested in their course of trial, should not be marked in the impressive manner observed by the church in all ages. It was felt by most, even now, that to come nearer to holy Scripture was not to depart from John Wesley: especially as he, by his own practice and example, had sanc

tioned the act, in ordaining, by imposition of hands, Preachers to serve in Scotland and elsewhere; that is, where no previously-constituted church could claim them as members of its distinct communion. Two years afterwards, at the close of a serious and most brotherly debate, the practice was fully adopted. At the same time, the form of setting apart candidates, or, as it was called, admitting them into full connexion, had all the essentials of ordination; for it involved strict examination, appealing to the people in reference to their blamelessness and having a good report, obtaining their testimony and the expression of their purposes, and committing them to the Head of the church in earnest prayer.

When the time, therefore, arrived, John proceeded in the fear of God to London, where the Conference of 1834 was held. He passed his final examination with honour. There were misgivings still as to his health, but they were overruled; and having "professed a good profession before many witnesses," he was affectionately received, with others like-minded, into. the full charge and care of immortal souls.

The intelligent reader cannot fail to perceive, that the whole time of his probation was a season of growth, as a Christian, in grace, besides being a course of disciplinary preparation for more influential and onerous labour. He who at Waltham-Abbey shrank from exter

nal discomforts, and occasional collision with rude and unfeeling minds, now began to learn to endure hardness: he who longed then to flee to heaven, and be at rest, through a morbid and tender sentimentality, or recoil from the shock of battle, now paused to reflect, with deep Christian faith and feeling, on the holiness of that better world;—that nothing that defileth can enter there; and that it is best to cherish life, health, and energy, in order to win more victories for Christ, and so, following Him, to bring many sons unto glory: he who would then vent himself in expressions of vexation and disgust at whatever was violently opposed to his will or taste, now began to possess his soul in patience, and stay himself on God, in order to be ready for all surprises. He was pensive still, and still earnest, faithful, and confiding, as well as eagerly desirous of the requital of friendship. But he was more holy, he had more of the mind that was in Christ. Nor does the improving process terminate here. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.”

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CHAPTER III.

HOME MINISTRY.

OUR friend, whom we shall henceforth call Mr. Bumby, was now summoned to sustain the full burden of ministerial responsibility. Some persons may think that he was as much a true Minister of Christ before, as he was after, his ordination; and so far as the designation of the all-wise God was concerned, he may have been such. But the call of God, in order to be distinguished from fanatical presumption, or the working of an ambitious fancy, must be tested or proved, according to that direction of the Apostle Paul which is both implied and asserted in several places of his Epistles to Timothy (1 Tim. iii. 1-10; vi. 3; 2 Tim. ii. 21) and as such probation implies the possibility of mistake on the part of those who at first have had to judge, and of error and selfdeception in the candidate himself, who may, indeed, by slow degrees, have fallen away from grace, even the grace of the call,-it is not for nothing that in historical Scripture ordination by ministerial act, in the presence of a consenting congregation, is taken to be the acknowledgment, both on the part of Pastors and

people, that the will of the Head of the church, in reference to the applicant, is truly recognised; that His law so far has been obeyed, and the elect person is now, ipso facto, separated from worldly concerns, to fulfil his one great business of carrying on the work of Christ ; watching and feeding as a shepherd, and contending as a soldier.

With these views the Conference, being responsible for carrying out amongst the Societies. the order observed by Christ's church from the beginning, has restricted its authority for administering the Sacraments to separated Elders; an arrangement which, with sacred instinct, the people have always sustained and approved, without withdrawing any portion of their love and confidence from those whose different offices did not include this function, so closely connected as it is and must be, in some of its aspects, with pastoral rule and oversight, and the admission of persons to catholic communion.

In this new exercise of administration, although the Liturgical forms of the Church of England are used amongst us with slight verbal alterations, the yearning heart of John Bumby found new vent for its prayerful and benignant longings, inasmuch as he was perfectly free (as are all other Ministers) to pour forth, in addition, to the people around, the extemporaneous