of their manners and in their love to one another, but more especially in the doctrine of perfect love, as set forth and exemplified in their teaching and practice, which drew her to their meetings and attached her to their company. She said substantially: "These people are God's people. They live after the New Testament pattern. They are filled with faith and the Holy Ghost. I find among them what meets my highest spiritual wants. I am at home and happy with them. These people shall be my people." Her decision met with some opposition from her friends, but the Huguenot blood in her veins and the Spirit of Christ in her heart rendered her firm and immovable in the choice she had once made.

Miss Thibou's first association with the Methodists was at Newark, N. J. After her removal to New York city she became a frequent attendant upon the meetings for the promotion of holiness, conducted by Mrs. John Harper. At these meetings she found that which was congenial to her religious experience. It was about this time that Mr. Janes was introduced to Miss Thibou. She was young and beautiful, highly intelligent and cultivated, already betokening that spirituelle of expression which became such a peculiar charm. The acquaintance rapidly ripened into a mutual affection, and in the month of May, 1835, they were married. I doubt if a truer and happier marriage was ever rati

fied in heaven. Long years afterward the bridegroom, then in the fullness of his power and fame, said good-humoredly to some of his brethren who were conversing on eligible marriage: “Well, I got a fortune in my wife." She, too, as many years. after, in one of her sportive moods-for she had them when talking to a pastor, the Rev. William Day, of her earlier recollections, thus alluded to this eventful period: "When Mr. Janes was making his earlier visits to me, and the great question of my social life was under consideration, incidentally one evening he said, in speaking of his circumstances, 'It has been my honor for some time to help support my parents.' Those incidental words decided my choice, for I felt that my interests would be safe in the hands of a young man who regarded it an honor to support his aged parents." Mr. Day well remarks: "I will not presume to say which most claims our admiration; the candor and filial devotion of Mr. Janes, or the character of her whose choice was so controlled by that devotion."

As showing the devout spirit which animated Miss Thibou in the period immediately preceding her marriage, I give extracts from two letters written to her life-long friend, Mrs. Joseph A. Wright, then Mrs. Caroline R. Browne:

December 30, 1834.

To-day I unite with you in praising the Lord. He imparts to me those inward delights that flow from communion

with himself. He causes streams of grace and salvation to water and replenish my soul. Peace, love, and joy are inmates of my breast, while the bright felicity of the saints in light stands revealed to the eye of my faith, enrapturing my soul. To my Jesus I continually aspire, striving to live to him every

moment.

The fervent desires of your heart after inward purity and entire devotedness are to me delightful. How much more pleasing must they be to the eyes of your Prince. He will abundantly grant your most enlarged petitions by uniting you closely to him, and while you suffer him to reign without a rival, he will pour the full tide of light and love upon you from his sacred throne. . . . Praise his name! the precious pearl of perfect love is just before you. Reach after it-receive it as the free gift of Him who loves you.

I receive you, my friend, as my dear sister in Christ, and shall rejoice to have you love and treat me as such. The dearest bond that can unite sympathetic hearts is the mutual love that binds us to the Cross. Be this the strong connecting link that shall unite us in the closest friendship, never to be dissolved, but matured and perfected in heaven. ..

Very affectionately yours, in the sweetest and best of bonds, C. THIBOU.

Under date of Jan. 20, 1835, after a brief illness, she again writes to the same friend :

I am now quite comfortable, and only waiting to be fully restored that I may again be about my Master's business. I did not know but that the slight indisposition might be the messenger employed by the Prince of pilgrims to take me up to the celestial city. On some accounts I should have welcomed the call; and yet I felt a desire, if consistent with His will, to tarry below awhile longer to be of some little use-to do something before the season of doing is passed forever. Why, my love, to wipe away one tear, to bind up one broken heart, to soothe one troubled breast, to warn a sinner, to pray for a backslider,

or to point one penitent to the Lamb of God this, this is worth living for many long, wearisome years.

... To-day I have been solemnly renewing my covenant before the Lord to be wholly and forever his. O for the humility, the docility, the purity of a primitive disciple! O for the meek and lowly mind of Jesus himself! Nothing but this can suffice. Come, holy Saviour, and sit upon this heart ; melt it thoroughly, and cause it to take fully the signature divine, and to shine forth after thy lovely likeness—all praise, all meekness, and all love.

O the depth of love divine! And an overflowing fountain, too, for some of its sacred streams reach even to my heart, refreshing and fertilizing, and, I trust, making it fruitful. ... Now I ask of God the grace to improve to the utmost the rich privileges to which, as believers, we are entitled. O yes, we must have the fullness of God-the heaven of love!

Such was the spirit of the bride of Mr. Janes. Both had already been married to the Church, and in choosing one another each had an eye distinctly to the glory of God and the spread of that form of Christianity called Methodism, which was as dear to them as life itself. In full view of a career of self-sacrifice they joined their fortunes, and through long years of toil they mutually sustained each other, steadying and staying one another's steps, cheering one another's fainting spirit, rejoicing and weeping together, until their pilgrimage closed.

STATIONED IN PHILADELPHIA.

45

CHAPTER III.

1836-1841.

The City Pastor-Elected Secretary to the American Bible Society.

HE first appointment of Mr. Janes after mar

THE

riage was to the Fifth-street charge, Philadelphia. It comprised 556 members. The church edifice was large, and the work of the pastor, both in pastoral visiting and preaching, was necessarily arduous. Mr. Janes suffered during the latter part of the year from an acute inflammation of the throat, so that by his own expressed wish he was changed in 1837 to the Nazareth charge, where the building was smaller. The number of members, however, was equally large-582. The care of so many members, together with the numerous persons to whom they were more or less allied, must have taxed the young minister to the utmost of his strength. His rather feeble body would undoubtedly have failed under it but for the system with which he did all his work, and the admirable skill with which he learned from this time-largely because compelled to do so-to manage all his powers, especially his voice, in speaking. His voice, feminine in tone and never strong, was somewhat im