the happy change that had taken place with him." I here subjoin a copy, as an exhibition of the love and zeal which always attend the introduction of a believer into the favour of God:

'MY DEAR Mary,—

I hope that Thank God,

'As it is now a long time since I had the pleasure of addressing you, and this being Saturday, I embrace the opportunity of writing you. Uncle, Aunt, and Cousin are all well. Papa, Mamma, and all at home are well! I suppose by this time you have made great proficiency in music; but, my dear Mary, what signifies the proficiency we make in any department of science, or an accomplishment however useful or adequate to the furtherance of our interests in this life, if we remain strangers to the power of religion in the soul, in a state of rebellion against God, and without a sense of his pardoning love? And, again, of what great advantage, either in this world, or that which is to come, would our education be to us, if not combined with that religion which alone can make us really happy? It is this alone that is adequate to support us under every trial and temptation through which we have to pass. You may wonder why in this letter I address you on a subject and in a strain which I never before adopted. My dear Mary, it is with feelings of holy joy I inform you, that on last Sunday night, while engaged in prayer, and burdened with a deep sense of guilt, sin, misery, and a need of redemption through a Saviour's blood, I found joy and peace through believing. And, thank God! although nearly a week has elapsed since that event, and I have had many temptations to unbelief, yet I feel, that in that

short period I have been growing in grace and in the future knowledge of my Lord and Saviour in all things; and I enjoy more peace of mind and am even happier than when I first believed. It occurred to my mind, that I ought to write to you, in order that you might be a partaker of like precious faith. For, believe me, Mary, you lie very near my heart-you who have been the subject of so many prayers and so much parental anxiety. I beseech you by all the prayers that have been offered up by me and others, who are concerned for your welfare, that you remain no longer a stranger to true happiness!—but when you read this letter, go to your closet, and there pray to God, if you have not yet got a clear view of yourself as a lost sinner, that he would show you your real state; and that your sins might be all forgiven you, and that you might find peace with God. Be assured,

"All the fitness he requires,

Is to feel your need of him,'"

Then you will be happy, and know by heart-felt experience, that Godliness has the promise of the life that now is, and that which is to come.' And now, I pray God, that this letter may accomplish the purpose whereunto it is sent! Remember me to Uncle, and Aunt, and Cousin.

"I remain your affectionate Brother,

The reader having accompanied us from the birth of the subject of our contemplation, up to the period of his saving conversion, and thus traced the operation of those

principles of divine truth that were early implanted in his infant mind, by parental care, and which were assiduously cherished by the various agencies of the church, producing first that "fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom," till they ripened into the full enjoyment of "the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him," we proceed now to contemplate those first efforts to be useful to which this glorious change gave rise. The language which the soul under the impulses of its first love feels to utter, is—

"Oh, that the world might taste and see,

The riches of his grace!

The arms of love that compass me,

Would all mankind embrace."

This it seems was the feeling that possessed the soul of BVRNE at this interesting period.

The manner in which he was first led to address others by way of exhortation or preaching, and the manner in which his talents were brought into exercise and his powers of thought and delivery were developed, are thus related, substantially, by his then deeply interested father:-"A few weeks after his conversion, then entering on his fifteenth year, he was urged to address the teachers of the Sabbath School, which he did in a strain of simple eloquence that greatly surprised his hearers; they almost felt as if an angel had appeared among them. At this period my own mind became peculiarly impressed respecting him, and I resolved as soon as possible to avail myself of an opportunity of hearing him. The first time I accomplished my purpose, it was by getting into the congregation in a concealed manner. He preached from Prov. xiv. 14.; The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.'

I cannot now describe what my feelings were then. While this mere stripling was developing the solemn truths which the text embodied, a deep impression pervaded my mind and many others that night, that in him was the nucleus of a workman that needed not to be ashamed.' At this period of his procedure, knowing his reservedness towards me and others of mature years, I proposed a plan for drawing out fully his theological views. It was this, that we should commence a series of letters upon the great leading doctrines of Christianity, and especially those of them to which the Wesleyan Church gives prominence. My own epistles were generally of an interrogatory character; and he had ten or twelve days to prepare his reply to each communication. During these pleasing and profitable exercises, I can truly say, I passed some of the happiest hours of my life; especially when perusing the effusions of a mind scarcely passed infantile years, manifesting a maturity of thought, an accuracy of expression, with a chasteness of style, that, both I and other ministers of special acquaintance, could not but regard, as the brilliancies of a diamond of the first water. From this time forward, generally on Sabbath, (for his time during the week days was occupied with his books) he preached once a day with increasing acceptance. And it was to us cause of unfeigned gratitude to God, that, while large congregations pressed upon him, we could not perceive in any instance a disposition to self-importance, or a forgetfulness, that the foot of the Cross was the true position of safety."

The Wesleyan Church, constructed on the model of the primitive one, feels that she needs the exercise of every particle of available talent in her members, in

carrying out her plans of aggression on the kingdom of darkness; while she furnishes an appropriate sphere for its operation. In her lay agencies of prayer and classleader, of exhorter and local preacher, to say nothing of the Sunday-school teacher, tract-distributer, &c., &c., common to nearly all sections of the evangelical church, she furnishes a gradation of offices and employments by which approved persons ascend to her ministry. Thus it is, that by the time they have obtained the office of "elders," they have not only "purchased to themselves a good degree," but also "great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus." The church was not long in discovering that the youthful BYRNE had capabilities that might be made available to her edification, and that she had a post of usefulness to give him. That post was the important office of class-leader-an office the nature of which is too well known, and the necessity of which must be too deeply felt by those for whom this book is intended, to require description or defence from us. All the biographer knows of the history of this appointment is from the brief chronicle referred to in the early part of this work; in which he says, in its usual eliptical style, "Appointed Leader, by Dungannon Quarterly Meeting, Monday, 21st Sept., 1846." This was about seven months after his conversion. Surely his profiting and progress must have been great, to lead thus early to such an appointment.

Subsequently to this, as the entry is made after, although the precise date is not given, he who had been by toleration, practically a local preacher for several months, was formally accredited after a trial sermon, which, he says, was "preached before the Rev. J. C. Bass, at Mr. J. Thompson's, Mully-Crannon, Dungannon Circuit, from Eph. v. 14."