became minister of an Independent Church in Cheshire; and here the tale of his useful life might end, but for one memorable

event.

Grace Murray, a widow, residing at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and matron of the orphan house in that town, had once waited upon John Bennet when he was sick of a fever, and from that period he thought that she was given to him for a wife, though Wesley would fain have married her, but his brother Charles and George Whitefield were opposed to his marrying at all. She eventually became the wife of John Bennet, and was a true helpmeet to him in his work and labours in the Lord's cause. She outlived her husband thirty years, and died at Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, in 1803. Mr. Jabez Bunting preached her funeral sermon from Psalm xxvii. 13, 14: "I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord." "The day before she died " (we quote from a MS. read after the sermon was preached) "she raised herself into a very solemn attitude, and, with most striking emphasis, delivered, in the following language, her dying testimony to the truth as it is in Jesus-'I here declare it before you, that I have looked on the right hand and on the left; I have cast my eyes before and behind, to see if there was any possible way of salvation but by the Son of God; and I am fully satisfied there is not. No, none on earth; nor all the angels in heaven could have wrought out salvation for such a sinner! None but God Himself, taking our nature upon Him, and doing all that the holy law required, could have procured pardon for me, a sinner. He has wrought out salvation for me, and I know that I shall enjoy it for ever.

Oh, to live in the experience of such a faith, and to die in the enjoyment of such peace, is my earnest desire! R. F. R.

LET me lose the favour of princes and of men, but let me keep the favour of God. The favour of men may be recovered; and, if not, the favour of God is enough for me.—Luther.

"LORD, wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power." Oh, my Saviour, while others weary themselves with the disquisition of Thy Personal reign here upon earth for a thousand years, let it be the whole bent and study of my soul to make sure of my personal reign with Thee in heaven to all eternity!-Bishop Hall.

OBITUARY OF MARGARET ASHBY, OF GREENWICH. ALL who write obituaries for the general good of their readers need to remember that they have to encounter the disadvantage of monotony. The minutest circumstance which deeply interests the friends of the departed yields but little edification to strangers. Still, persons of observation know that life, like as the small grains of sand fill the hour-glass, is composed of little things, and that grace in its multiform phases has a beautiful variety, while it has a sublime similarity; and to be enabled to discern God's dealings with others (Phil. ii. 4) may tend to expand our minds and enlarge our hearts with "the loving-kindness of the Lord" (Psa. cvii. 43).

Margaret Ashby, like many of the Lord's people, had convictions in childhood, which, taken by themselves, have no special marks of grace in them, but viewed in connection with what followed, may be regarded as preliminary to the effectual working of the Holy Spirit in the heart.

When she was about eight years of age, she accompanied her mother to the house of a friend. Spiritual conversation passed between a few of the Lord's people who had met together, and when they parted, one of the company engaged in prayer. This little girl, Margaret, of tender years, listened, and came away with the full persuasion of what some professed divines will now deny, that there is a hell of endless torment (Rev. xiv. 10, 11). Her mother very properly tried her by a few questions, hoping she might learn if her daughter was under any concern of soul, but the latter evaded her inquiries. Thoughts of God and eternity she would willingly have banished from her mind, wishing to believe in neither. Once, when suffering from toothache, she resolved to try her belief in the existence of God by asking Him to remove the pain. She quickly lost it; which, while in one way it relieved her,i t increased her burden in another. Once, when a child, in disobedience to her mother, she, with some other children, got into a waggon loaded with hop-bins. As the waggon moved on, another conveyance met it, and drew the hop-bins together, and thus Margaret was squeezed between the bins. This circumstance, she believed, laid the foundation for her life-long infirmity-curvature of the spine.

When about sixteen years of age, she was overtaken in a thunderstorm. This struck her with terror. She ran up a hill into a cottage for shelter, but on entering that cottage, she found a poor young woman, apparently in a dying state, propped up with pillows. Thus she felt that signs of death and destruction met her everywhere.

It was about this time the Lord was pleased to remove her

dear mother by death, and being then exposed to some outward snares and follies, the Lord wonderfully preserved her, which later on she was truly thankful for.

For some few years after this she was the subject of much legal repentance. Feeling she was a sinner, and seeing no hope of being saved, she would pity her sad state, and would walk about laden with her sins, expecting to hear the just sentence passed upon her, "Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?" (Luke xiii. 7.) She wished she had been a reptile, or anything without a soul. She could not see how a just God could save her. She felt herself a miserable wretch, and wished she had never been born. She felt God would be just in condemning her soul to endless torments. The words "Eternity! Eternity!" were terrible to her.

One night, while in this sad state of mind, she went to bed, and laid awake for a very long time, when the dear Lord was pleased to give her a faith's view of Christ suffering for her sins, and brought these sweet lines to her—

"Thy sins, though of a crimson hue,
They are for ever hid from view;
They're sunk as in a shoreless sea
Which opened once on Calvary."

But, fearing lest she should be presumptuously taking what God had not given her, she sought for a confirmation of the above, when these words flowed in

"Trust in His efficacious blood,

Nor fear thy banishment from God,

She said, "For me,

put away thy sins."

Since Jesus died for thee."

Lord?" He replied, "Yes, for thee; I have Then, she said, she proved that it was the goodness of God that led her to repentance (Rom. ii. 4). Now she felt she knew the truth of these lines

"A sinner may repent and sing,

Rejoice and be ashamed."

This was very different to her former repentance, and she proved the truth of Mr. Hart's words

"Law and terrors do but harden

All the while they work alone;
But a sense of blood-bought pardon
Soon dissolves a heart of stone."

And, to use still her own words, she felt she could say with

Bunyan, "My burden rolled off into the sepulchre, and I saw it no more."

It should have been said that our friend was taught early to read the Bible, and was brought up by her parents under the sound of the Gospel; but she felt, after the Lord had opened her eyes and heart to see the glory and feel the power of it, that she had been as blind as the heathen, not having even mentally discovered the plan of salvation, which thousands subscribe to who are destitute of divine life; and she was truly surprised, when sitting at the same chapel, among the same people, hearing the same minister, at the great difference she felt. Truly, as she said, this must be being "born again" (John iii. 5); and the effects of passing from death unto life were further manifested by her heart being united to the Lord's people (1 John iii. 14). There was one poor, afflicted, and tried man at the chapel who used to talk with her, and as they communed together (Mal. iii. 16), she found his conversation very savoury and encouraging. She was then, as she had been for some years previously, a hearer of Mr. Day, at East Farleigh, where she heard the Word with much profit.

On one occasion, in the year 1847, she heard the late Mr. George Abrahams, at Collier Street Chapel. In writing upon that she says, "If ever I was blessed with full assurance it was then. I longed to die in that Collier Street Chapel. I dreaded going out into the world again, lest I should be left to myself, and some day bring a reproach upon the cause and people that I loved. This I greatly dreaded, but hitherto the world has not had to point the finger of scorn, and say, 'Ah, so would we have it!"" (Psa. xxxv. 25.) And all those who knew her can bear testimony that to the end of her days she walked humbly with her God, and, consequently, consistently before the world. But sins of heart, inbred corruptions, and sins of omission were more or less her daily burden. Still, having proved the love and faithfulness of God, she was not one to be continually poring over what she was in herself, to the exclusion of what the Lord was to her. She knew and spoke of both the dark and the bright spots of Christian experience.

When quite young in the things of God, and having the vigour of spiritual youth upon her, she was anxious to honour her Lord by making a public profession of His name, and so was baptized, and joined the little Church at East Farleigh, over which Mr. Day was then the pastor, whom she highly esteemed for the truth's sake, and where the Lord fed her soul and refreshed her in her heaven-bound course. But after she had been much favoured in soul, she says she read that the Lord's people were a tried and exercised people, and often went mourning from the

house of God, fearing lest she was not exercised rightly, because she was so frequently fed and blessed under the Word, and went home rejoicing in the goodness of her God; therefore, she was repeatedly led to ask the Lord to make it plain to her. Her language was, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts. If I am a hypocrite, make it manifest." No doubt in this she was most earnest and sincere, but we fear it was mingled with much unbelief, and seeking for an experience like the children of God about her, rather than a panting for conformity to the image of Christ (Phil. iii. 10). About this time her minister, who had been a spiritual father and shepherd to her, left the chapel; and, whether from a change in her own soul, or from a change in the ministry, but perhaps from both, she found " a famine, not of bread or of water, but of hearing the words of the Lord" (Amos viii. 11). Now she knew what it was to go mourning and fasting from the place where she had often been well fed.

In the providence of God she was removed to Goudhurst, and about the year 1862 she joined the Church at Flimwell, over which the late Mr. Pert was pastor; and for some years, while she resided in that neighbourhood, she was much profited by the ministry, and felt greatly united to the people. She was long acquainted with some choice friends, Mr. and Mrs. Roots, and I think for about twenty years lived beneath their roof. The former was taken with an illness that terminated in death. He made a good end, as related in the Gospel Standard, January, 1871, and the "Miss A." several times mentioned therein is the subject of this memoir. While living at Goudhurst, she feared she should fall a victim to small-pox, as it was then in the locality, but the Lord relieved her from her fears by these lines

"Comfort take, thou child of sorrow,
All is ordered well for thee;
Look not to the anxious morrow,

As thy days, thy strength shall be."

After the death of Mr. Roots, it was thought desirable that his widow and Miss Ashby should take a small business together. One place opened for them, but our friend felt it was not attended with the Lord's leading. Another place had been upon her mind, but there seemed no probability of obtaining it. But the Lord cleared the way to it; and there, at Canterbury, she and her widowed friend stayed some considerable time. But she was compelled at length, through affliction, to leave there, and she felt she could say, to the honour of her God, as He led her there, that He brought her out without loss.

She was once long detained in a railway carriage in a tunnel.