and though there was nothing very brilliant or showy in his talents as a preacher, yet he was enabled, through the Spirit, to find way to the hearts of saints and sinners. Christ and him crucified was the theme that melted his heart and flowed from his tongue. His devoted wife is still coasting the Jordan, waiting to cross over. The most of his children have already gone to join their sainted father in the better land. We stood by the dying bed of one of his lovely daughters, and never did saints or angels witness a more happy and triumphant death. In her last moments she said, "Dear mother, weep not for me. Angels are waiting to take me to Jesus -and my home in heaven; there I shall see my dear father, and brothers, and sisters, and there I shall wait your arri val." Sweetest music filled our ears as she plumed her wings and flew from time's retiring shores to that bright world above. O, what a happy death! While we write it seems as if our precious kindred are hovering around. Our soul swells with glory as we contemplate the hour, not far distant, when we shall hail them on that sunbright shore.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

RUSSEL BIGELOW.

AMONG the number of the gifted, devoted, and zealous preachers of his day stands the name of Russel Bigelow. He was received on trial in the Ohio conference in the year 1815, and appointed to the Hinkston circuit, in the bounds of the Kentucky district, the Rev. Samuel Parker being his presiding elder. He was at this time in the twenty-third year of his age. The history of his early life, and the circumstances connected with his conversion, are not known; and however interesting their detail might, and, doubtless, would be, we are sorry that our readers can not be gratified. So marked a character as was Bigelow's during his ministerial career, must have been distinguished in early life by some striking peculiarities.

In the year 1816 he was removed from Kentucky to Ohio, and stationed on the Miami circuit as the colleague of the Rev. Alexander Cummins. His early association with the master spirits of the Church doubtless had a happy effect upon his character, in developing those traits which distinguished him in the maturer periods of his ministry. The succeeding year he was sent to the adjoining circuit of Lawrenceburg, where he continued till the next conference, at which he was sent to Oxford, where he remained two years. In 1820 he traveled Mad River circuit, and the following two years Columbus. At the expiration of this period he went to Whitewater, and from thence he came to Cincinnati, which place he occu

pied with the Rev. Truman Bishop. Here he remained one year, and from hence went to Union circuit. The next two years he traveled the Scioto district, and at the expiration of this time was sent to the mission at Sandusky. Here he engaged in the work of preaching to the Wyandott Indians, superintending the farm and mission school. The tedious process, however, of preaching through an interpreter was wholly unsuited to his nature, and at the expiration of the year he retired from the work to seek a more congenial sphere. The four succeeding years he was sent to preside over the Portland district, and in the year 1833 he was stationed in Columbus, where he remained two years, giving full proof of his ministry, beloved and respected by all both in and out of the Church. Indeed, such was the esteem in which he was held that, during the next year, in which it was necessary for him, on account of his feeble health, to take a superannuated relation, he was appointed by the Board of Directors of the Ohio Penitentiary, as chaplain to that institution.

He entered upon his labors in the Penitentiary with a zeal and devotion characteristic of his truly-benevolent heart. He visited every cell, and conversed with every prisoner, and his prayers and exhortations were not lost upon the hearts of the convicts. Many an obdurate and sin-steeled conscience was touched by the eloquence of his tears and entreaties to win them from the ways of sin. The fruits of his labors in this field eternity can alone disclose. He might have avoided much labor, and incurred no charge on the ground of non-attendance of duty; but the worth of souls uncared for, as is usually the case with the inmates of a prison, pressed heavily upon his heart, and awakened all his sympathies. Under these labors he broke down, and before the year had expired it was necessary for him to resign his post.

About this time he visited our house on his way to Indiana. He had rigged up a jumper, there being snow on the ground, and in that backwoods conveyance he came into Ridgeville, the place where we resided. He seemed to be laboring under a melancholy, which had, for some time, been settling upon him, and his friends were somewhat apprehensive of the consequences. He was evidently passing through one of those severe trials with which God purifies his saints and fits them for heaven. There was a cause, however, for his despondency. He had given all to the Church-his time, his talents, and all-and while he was able to preach all was well. Bright faces and open hands greeted him in all his walks; but, alas! when disease preyed upon his system, and he was no longer able to preach the Gospel, faces were hidden and hands were turned away. A man must have had more faith than mortal can exercise under such circumstances, not to feel depressed. Before his enfeebled mind rose his helpless family-a wife and seven chil dren and they, in all probability, soon to be left without any to provide for their wants. His sad experience too thoroughly convinced him how cheerless would be their condition when he was gone; and to the Rev. J. C. Brooke he opened freely his mind upon the subject. Never did we feel more intensely for a poor itinerant than we then felt for Bigelow.

After remaining with us a week on his return, he made ready for his departure. The snow had melted, and there being no further need for a jumper, Mr. Brooke furnished him a saddle and fitted him up. He was loth to leave, and lingered about; and when with tears we bade him farewell, never to see him again in this world, Mr. Brooke gave him all the money he had. After riding off some distance on the road he returned, and taking his horsecollar and hames he threw them into the yard, all he had

to leave as a memento, the remains of which we have on the farm to this day.

His work was done, and that devoted, self-sacrificing missionary went home to die. For more than twenty years he had toiled in the hard field of itinerant life, filling, with a zeal and fidelity characteristic of a faithful soldier of the cross, every post assigned him by the authorities of the Church. For a period of nineteen years it was said of him, that he had not missed a single appointment. Frequent exposures in traveling the hard circuits and districts of those days made heavy drafts upon his constitution, and ere he had scarcely reached "manhood's middle day" he was called from the field of his toil and conflict on earth to the scenes of his reward and triumph in heaven. In the midst of his sufferings he realized a perfect resignation to the will of God, and in the language of faith and joy he was enabled to shout the praises of his heavenly King. While a brother in the ministry was pouring out his heart in prayer to God in his behalf, the responses of the dying man illustrated the truth that

"The chamber where he met his fate,

Was privileged beyond the common walks

Of life-quite on the verge of heaven."

Our sketch would be entirely too meager and unsatisfactory did it end here; and such, unfortunately, would have been the case, to a very great extent, had it not been for the very graphic and faithful pen of Dr. Thomson, who has given a most truthful and beautiful analysis of the sainted Bigelow's character. To this description we invite the attention of our readers.

"Russel Bigelow was an extraordinary man, and his merits were never fully appreciated even by the Church. Of his early history the writer has no knowledge, further than that he emigrated, at an early age, from New Eng