nity seems here. I seem to myself just entering into O my God, here I am at thy feet.

another world. Do with me, and in me, and by me, as seemeth good in thy sight. May I live to thee alone.

'Mon. May 24.-Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name.' Once more he has appeared for our help and comfort. This afternoon, my dear wife was delivered of her seventh child. I am deeply impressed with a sense of the goodness of God in affording seasonable and sufficient aid in the time of trouble. O may our souls be filled with unfeigned gratitude, and our lives be entirely devoted to God."

At the District Meeting held at York in the month of June this year, Mr. Entwisle proposed some additional guards upon the entrance into the Methodist ministry. At this early period, the practice of the Connexion was by no means uniform; and had unsuitable persons wished to enter upon the itinerancy, it would have been much easier to effect their purpose than in the present day. He justly regarded the purity of the ministry as essential to the well-being of the Connexion; he considered additional guards necessary; there being inducements now to engage in the work of a Methodist preacher, which had no existence, when poverty, privation, and wasting toils were his ordinary lot.

A few weeks before the District Meeting he drew up an Address, stating his plan and the grounds upon which he recommended it; this he read to the meeting. A copy of this Address is preserved among his papers: it is too long for insertion as a whole; but some extracts may not be unacceptable.

After briefly sketching the origin and progress of Methodism, contrasting the privations and hardships of the early Methodist preachers with the respectability and comfort of those of more modern times, and urging the importance of maintaining the purity and efficiency of the ministry in order to the prosperity of the Christian church, he remarks:-"Hence great caution is necessary, not only that improper persons may be prevented from creeping in among us; but likewise, that out of the abundance of candidates, such may be chosen from time to time, as are most pious and sensible, well-qualified as preachers, and most Methodistical both in doctrine and

discipline. This is the more necessary, as men are seldom laid aside after they are admitted on trial, unless something extraordinary happen in their conduct."

He next proceeds to propose his plan in the following

terms:

"At present, the candidate is supposed to have passed the Quarterly Meeting, from which he is recommended to the District Meeting. In addition to this, let him attend, if possible, the District Meeting, and be examined, before all the brethren, respecting his experience, his knowledge of divine things, his reading, his views of the doctrines of the Gospel, and his regard for the Methodist economy in general. (The person who examines to be chosen by ballot.) After the examination, let the candidate withdraw, and the brethren deliberate on the propriety or impropriety of his admission, and determine whether he be recommended to the ensuing Conference or not. If it be not convenient for the candidate to attend the District Meeting, let three brethren, chosen by ballot, be appointed to act for the District."

After urging as reasons for this public examination the probability of an occasional want of sufficient firmness on the part of some superintendents, should improper persons be put forward as candidates by men of influence, the doubtfulness of other cases, in which the reasons for and against may be nearly equal," the superior guarantee furnished by the collective wisdom of a whole district for the exercise of a sound and discriminating judgment,—and the greater probability of impartiality, he concludes with the following remarks :—The prospect of such an examination "would be a constant stimulus to prayer, study, and other methods of improvement in piety and ministerial qualifications. It is unnecessary to remind my brethren how needful this is in the present state of our Connexion, and its relative state to other communities of Christians with which we are surrounded. It is indeed as necessary as ever it was to preach what we have heard from the beginning; and yet, considering the growing state of our congregations in point of religious knowledge, how much oftener we preach to the same people than our brethren forty years ago, and the increasing number of Gospel ministers in the Established Church and amongst the Dissenters;

we must study to shew ourselves approved as workmen that need not be ashamed; or we shall sink in the public opinion, and decline in real usefulness. God forbid we should ever quit our first ground. The Head of the Church has put great honour upon a few leading truths by which Methodist sermons are characterized, and a man need never lose sight of them for the sake of variety. But much prayer, reading, and meditation will be found requisite, that we may at once strike the old Methodist string, and like well-instructed scribes, bring forth things new and old out of our treasury.

"The plan in question would afford the brethren an opportunity of recommending suitable books to young preachers. They might also be directed to a regular method of improving time; and the brethren would be capable of judging what situations would be most suitable for them the first year.

"Should such a plan be duly executed, it might, under the divine blessing, be a means of grounding the rising generation of preachers in those doctrines and rules of discipline which have been so greatly owned of God. And should the preachers, by any means, be preserved simple, holy, and zealous; in a word, consistent characters, as Methodist preachers, generations yet unborn will bless God for it to all eternity.

"My brethren, I have set down these thoughts in the simplicity of my heart, though not without consulting several respectable brethren. A conviction of the need of something of the kind, has induced me to lay the plan before you. I bless God that I ever knew the Connexion. I deem it an honour and happiness to be a member of it. I hope to live and die a Methodist; and to live for ever with millions of Methodists, who shall be found in that great multitude which no man can number. I pray for the peace and prosperity of our Zion, and rejoice to see it. May it increase more and more. I leave these things to your consideration, and most devoutly pray that the Lord would direct you this and all other important deliberations.

66 am, Dear Brethren,

"Your affectionate brother,

in

"Hull, June 25, 1802."

“J. E.

The above proposal was carefully considered at the York District Meeting, and also at Manchester, to which place a copy of the Address had been sent by Mr. Entwisle, and by both meetings the proposal was approved and recommended to the Conference. A reference to the Minutes for that year, will shew that the plan was adopted by the Conference, and with but a slight alteration became the law of the Connexion.*

* See the Minutes of Conference, 8vo. Vol. II. p. 142.

X

CHAPTER IX.

FROM THE CONFERENCE OF 1802 TO THAT OF 1804. MACCLESFIELD CIRCUIT.

THE Hull people were desirous that my father should remain among them a third year, and Mr. Benson at the Conference urged him to give his consent. But at that

time, and indeed for years after, he objected to a third year's appointment, unless there were some special reasons for it. He could not satisfy himself that these existed in this instance; while the declining state of my mother's health, to which the air of Hull appeared unfavourable, he regarded as a sufficient reason for persisting in his determination to remove.

There were earnest solicitations also for his labours from the Bath, Oldham, Todmorden, Macclesfield, and Bristol Circuits. Todmorden had been the scene of his early labours when at Colne, and was now the head of a comfortable and prosperous circuit: his intimate friend, Mr. Lomas, used his influence in its favour. My father would have enjoyed an extensive field of usefulness in any one of these circuits, but was unwilling to choose his own lot, and therefore left the matter entirely to the Conference, who appointed him to the superintendency of the Macclesfield Circuit, with the Rev. Messrs. G. Morley and Jabez (now Dr.) Bunting for his colleagues.

On his way from Hull to Macclesfield, he called at Thorner, where Mr. Pawson, who was on a visit at the same time, baptized his seventh child: his name was James. My mother was in a low, relaxed state when they left Hull, and on the journey, a distance of 130 miles, added cold to cold, until nature seemed almost exhausted. For some weeks, my father had at times but little hope of her recovery, and the gloomy idea of widowhood, with five children, often filled his mind: he sometimes had a hard struggle for resignation. But he made