pastoral care of the Wesleyan Missionaries, as regular members of Society; the greater part of whom are negroes, who have been elevated from the lowest abyss of ignorance, and vice, and misery, to enjoy not only the blessings of civilized life, but also of true religion. The converted negroes build themselves good huts in which they reside, obtain decent furniture, and many of them live as comfortably as the generality of poor families do in England. Having acquired habits of industry through the influence of religion, their punishment is lessened, and in many instances entirely done away; and some have by diligence and frugality saved a sufficiency of money to purchase their freedom. Christianity administers to their minds the richest consolations amidst the toils of life; renders them content with the appointments of Providence; inspires them with cheerfulness and holy triumph in death; and prepares them, on their removal from the land of their captivity, for the blissful presence of GOD. This is a subject of delightful contemplation; and the Wesleyan Mission to the Negroes in the West Indies will long be regarded by those who believe the Bible, as an extensive work of GOD, and one of the noblest enterprises of christian benevolence.

In the accomplishment of this work, MR. BROWNELL was one of the most laborious and useful instruments. The spirit by which he was actuated was of a truly missionary character. His heart was intent upon the salvation of those poor outcasts of men to whom he was sent. For this he meekly submitted to endure hunger, reproach, public insults, sickness, personal injury, and perils both by sea and land; but none of these things moved him, nor did he count even his life dear, if the souls of men might only be converted and saved. With the prospect of death before him, and while his colleagues were sick and dying on every side, he put forth all his strength in the labours of his mission. He was no reed shaken with the wind; but was instant in season, and out of season, preaching the word, visiting the sick, meeting the classes, and catechising the negroes in private, that they might be better prepared for the public ministry of the Gospel. While he was thus employed, he was often found lamenting his want of zeal before God, and imploring mercy as an unprofitable servant. A humble Missionary, who exposes his life in inhospitable climes, and submits to privations, labours, and persecutions such as MR. BROWNELL endured, though often overlooked and despised by worldly men, is a philanthropist of the highest class, and is entitled to universal esteem. His deeds may not appear splendid and dazzling to secular minds, but their substantial value will be manifested and rewarded at the resurrection of the just, when the exploits of the mere warrior and statesman will be forgotten. There were persons, even in his own country, who were capable of treating MR. BROWNELL with disrespect; but he might have addressed them in the language of a Christian Apostle: "From

henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the LORD JESUS ; the scars of those wounds which I received in his service.

What MR. BROWNELL was as a Colleague in the Ministry, may be correctly ascertained from the following extract of a letter from the REV. WILLIAM HINSON. It was addressed to the Editor of this Magazine when MR. BROWNELL's death was first announced:

"I was stationed at Lynn the first year of my itinerancy, where I had MR. BROWNELL as my Superintendent. This I esteem a gracious providence; for I was treated by him as a brother: indeed I may say that he watched over me with a fatherly care. He was truly concerned for my comfort, and was especially desirous of promoting my usefulness. We prayed together, and often conversed on the subject of the great work in which we were engaged. He gave me excellent instruction relative to preaching; endeavoured to impress my mind with the necessity of keeping alive the fire of divine love in my heart, in order to my happiness and usefulness; and urged me, in all my ministrations, to aim at the profit of my hearers. 'Whatever subject you take up,' he would say, 'take care to have some specific end in view; let the profit of your hearers, in one way or another, be the object you seek to accomplish; and prosecute every subject with a view to this end.' After a separation of twelve months, he was once more appointed to be my Superintendent. We again took sweet counsel together, and he renewed his fatherly care for my welfare. My heart glows with gratitude while I write, at the remembrance of his kindness. If I was unwell, as I sometimes was, he discovered all the tenderness of a parent. If I was oppressed with a sense of the importance of the work to which I was called, he would comfort and encourage me. He sometimes heard me preach, and would afterwards converse with me concerning my preaching, with faithfulness and affection. If at any time he saw me improperly elated, he would press upon my attention the indispensable necessity of lowliness of mind, in order that I might preserve a sense of the favour of GOD, and secure a continuance of his blessing upon my labours.

"I well remember to have met with him at the London Conference in 1810, when I was about to be publicly received into Full Connexion. I had a long conversation with him on the subject of devoting my whole life to the duties of the Christian Ministry. He saw my distress of mind, which indeed was great, originating partly in a sense of the greatness of the work, and partly in a consciousness of my comparative unfitness for the full discharge of its momentous duties. Such were my feelings, that I had begun to think of giving up the work, and of returning home. My dear Brother, perceiving my inward conflict, requested me to walk with him into the burying-ground belonging to the Chapel in City-Road, where I freely unbosomed my mind to him. He felt much for me, and endeavoured to comfort me. After using a variety of arguments to prevail upon me to give myself wholly to God and his work, he led me to MR. WESLEY'S tomb, and directed my attention to the unwearied and gloriously successful labours of that great man. He then spoke of his blessed end, and of his great reward; and thus laboured to encourage me by his example. This interview was truly profitable. By

it I was strengthened, and led to resolve, that I would go forward in the path which I believed GoD had marked out for me."

As a Preacher, MR. BROWNELL's talents were very respectable. His education was indeed unavoidably defective, in consequence of the blindness with which he was afflicted in his youth; and the best period of his life was spent among a people just emerging from a state of barbarism, and who were rather to be considered as catechumens, than as persons prepared for a regular ministry, and for the delivery of systematic discourses. But with him the improvement of his mind, by the acquisition of useful knowledge, was a matter both of duty and delight. He read the best English authors, both in prose and verse; and in conversation, as well as in the pulpit, would often introduce passages from our most eminent Poets with considerable elegance and effect. He obtained some knowledge of the Hebrew language; and when he was in the Holmfirth Circuit, he went regularly through the greater part of the Greek Testament with his excellent colleague, who had received a classical education. In the pulpit he always showed his good sense, by avoiding that affectation of learning, into which men of superficial attainments are apt to fall; but it was often manifest to competent judges, that he had a just view, not only of the general meaning of his text, but of the exact import of the original terms used by the inspired writer. He not only possessed a correct judgment, but often displayed considerable strength and elegance of imagination, by the introduction of appropriate figures, which enlivened his sermons, while they illustrated the subjects which he was pressing upon the attention of his hearers. The matter of his discourses was always carefully arranged, so that his preaching was never incoherent and rhapsodical. In the pulpit self appeared to be utterly forgotten, and his only object was to promote the glory of GoD in the salvation of the people by whom he was surrounded. There was an earnestness, and a seriousness, in his manner, which excited a general interest in his favour, and prepared his hearers to listen with attention to his message. Preaching was his delight; so that he never had any inclination to plead a slight indisposition, or the inclemency of the weather, as excuses for neglecting his appointments. Unless unavoidably prevented, he was always at his post, and whatsoever his hand found to do, he did it with his might. As he aimed at the benefit of his hearers in all his ministrations, he was never satisfied with the bare delivery of his sermons, but was always looking for fruit. He was continually inquiring after persons whose minds were under religious impressions, that he might cherish in them every good desire, lead them to the SAVIOUR, and induce them to avail themselves of the advantages of christian fellowship. He took a most lively interest in the prosperity of the work of GOD, and watched over the Societies committed to his care in the spirit of a man who

saw and felt the value of immortal souls.

His death is a loss to the

Methodist Connexion, and to the world, as well as to his family and friends; but he has finished his course, and awaits the decision of his Almighty Judge.

The following Epitaph is inscribed upon his tomb-stone :

Sacred

To the Memory

Of the REV. JOHN BROWNELL;
Who having discharged the duties
Of the Christian Ministry

With unwearied diligence and extensive success,
For the space of twenty-seven years,
(Eleven of which he spent as a Missionary
In the West India Islands,)

Finished his course in this Town,
In the calm triumph of Christian Faith.
He was eminently distinguished by
The sincerity of his piety,
The firmness of his principles,
The purity of his manners,
And the fervency of his zeal.
He was born January 22d, 1771,
And fell asleep in JESUS, Sept. 24th, 1821.
"The memory
of the just is blessed." Prov. x. 7.

BRIEF MEMOIR OF MR. JAMES COOPER, of DALKEITH : BY DR. M'ALLUM.

MR. COOPER was born in North-Shields, on May 17th, 1742. Very early in life, he felt conviction of sin; and vainly tried to allay the distress of his mind, and to obtain the favour of God, "by the works of the Law." Though he was often and deeply affected by fearful apprehensions of his liability to the wrath of God, and sometimes "scared with dreams," and "terrified with visions of the night," yet he found that his corrupt nature grew more and more strong, and neither his fears nor his wishes enabled him to overcome it. On the contrary, when he "would do good," "evil" was not only "present with him," but prevailed against him. At length, by the good Providence of God, he was led to hear the preaching of the Gospel by the Methodists. Their number was then very small in North-Shields; and they held their meetings for worship in a blacksmith's shop,-a place, however mean, that was dear to many, as the scene of their conversion to GOD. MR. JAMES ODDY was the first Preacher he heard. Before the sermon was concluded, he felt every word come home to his conscience. The impression was very deep; and he was almost driven to despair. He -prayed day and night; and often cried aloud in bitterness of spirit, "O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy

hot displeasure." The sins of his youth were set in battle-array before him; and he says, in an account which he has left of his religious experience, that he wandered in this condition on the seaside, and, taking a handful of sand, tried to count the number of grains. "Ah!" he exclaimed, "if I were sure of happiness after having suffered a thousand years for each grain that is here, there would then be room for hope; but now there is none. O Eternity! Eternity! Nothing but the slender thread of life keeps me from falling into the bottomless pit." He found no comfort, for a time, in reading or in society; and the first ray of hope which cheered his desponding mind was enjoyed when partaking of the LORD's Supper in the parishchurch, and especially during the recitation of those comfortable words of our LORD, "Come unto me, ye that labour and are heavyladen," &c. For nine months, he went mourning before the LORD, refusing comfort from any thing earthly, and a stranger to the love, and joy, and peace, which flow from believing. His mind was severely tempted to doubt the existence of God, the divinity of CHRIST, and the personality of the HOLY GHOST. All this time he had no one to instruct or guide him; for he was too diffident to obtrude himself on any of the members of the Society, and no one spoke to him. His mind was still further convinced and enlightened by a sermon preached by MR. STORY on the parable of the Ten Virgins, from which he was made deeply sensible that he wanted "oil in his vessel." He now more than ever wrestled with strong cries and tears in prayer to Him who is mighty to save; and at length, in July, 1761, while thus engaged, he felt the comforting presence of his SAVIOUR, and heard him, by the ear of faith, say, "Be of good cheer thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven." He tells us, in the memoir of his experience from which these particulars are extracted, that his joys now rose as high, as before the tempest of his soul had done. He saw and felt CHRIST to be a sufficient and a present Saviour; and although, soon after his obtaining the pearl of great price, he had an awful and distressing conflict with the Tempter, this only drew him closer to his LORD, and induced him more implicitly to depend upon him. After this he had a long-continued season of spiritual joy and prosperity, during which he grew in grace, and laboured after all the mind that was in CHRIST. At first he regarded entire sanctification as a blessing at a great distance from him, to be obtained only at some very remote period: afterwards he conceived of it entirely as a gift of God, promised to such as ask it in faith, and therefore saw that he was at liberty now to seek it with an assurance that he should find. Thus he continued thirsting after an entire conformity to the mind that was in CHRIST, till, with kindly but mistaken views, he was betrayed into an action that was rather indiscreet than criminal. The affair alluded to, however, occasioned him much uneasiness of mind, broke in upon his habits of devotion, and lessened his peace

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