DEATH has again invaded our ranks, and removed from our mid-t one whose name, for more than half a century, has been a household word, breathed with affection, reverence, and admiration. A prince and a great man is fallen in Israel. Though for a long period prostrated by an affliction which, at his advanced age, precluded the hope of recovery, yet, when the final stroke came, it vibrated through the whole Connexion, creating a sense of absence and of loss felt by all who had been favoured with his ministry, but most of all by those who had enjoyed the privilege of his friendship. 'Tis sad, indeed, to reflect that we shall see his familiar face and hear his well-known voice no more on earth. Yet this sadness is ours, relieved, however, by the consoling truth that he still lives where danger threateneth not, where sorrow invadeth not, where suffering troubleth not, where joy is full to overflowing, and where we, if faithful to God, shall see him again, to renew our intercourse, to reciprocate our affections, and participate together in the fruition of God.

On the 7th of November, after an illness of more than two years, our revered and beloved brother fell asleep in Jesus, and on Monday, November 12th, his body was interred among the honoured dead that repose beneath that noble structure- Bethesda Chapel, Hanley. Ministers and friends of the circuit, and the surrounding circuits, as far as Macclesfield, Manchester, and Rhyl, were present to join the funeral procession, and pay their last tribute to departed worth. Crowds of spectators lined the road from the Stoke railway station, where the cortège was formed, to the place of interment, and a large number of spectators occupied the spacious chapel. The light was subdued to a sombre hue becoming the mournful occasion, and the tones of the organ-sad, yet sorrowfully jubilant-harmonized with the tears and chastened joys of that memorable service. Dr. Crofts read the introductory Psalms, and the Rev. Henry Downes read the fifteenth of 1 Corinthians, and gave out the favourite hymn of the deceased

'Jesus, I love thy charming name."

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The Rev. Dr. Cooke, by the special request of relatives and friends, delivered the address. He said

My Dear Friends,-The occasion which has brought us together this day is one of mournful interest-to perform the last offices of friendship and the last rites of religion over the remains of a revered and beloved friend, a pious and distinguished minister, whose presence and services have been with us during a very protracted period. Death has now removed him from our midst. A sad breach is made in the circle of our friendships, and the church is called to mourn over the loss of one of her brightest ornaments. Death is, indeed, impartial and universal in the execution of his office. If we retire to the adjoining burial-ground, scarcely can we take a single step but we tread over the ashes of the dead, and we learn from the numerous epitaphs there that Death is no respecter of persons.

He takes away

the smiling infant just entered into life, as well as those whose hoary locks and wrinkled visages proclaim their lengthened years. With equal ease he seizes for his prey the strong and the healthy as he does the delicate and tender. Regardless of all the distinctions of rank, character, and position, he removes the peer from his mansion as well as the peasant from his cottage. He invades the palaces of royalty, breaks the sceptre, and dashes the crown from the monarch's brow, and reduces him to dust and corruption, as well as the meanest subject in the land. No wealth can bribe him, no power resist him, no tears persuade him. The relentless destroyer spares no age, reveres no rank, regards no condition. Resistless and inexorable

"Death stands between eternity and time
With open jaws, on such a narrow bridge
That none can pass but must become his prey.”

But whence comes it to pass that this destroying foe is permitted to reign as a universal conqueror over the noblest work of God! Alas! his paternity is sin. Men speak of death as the debt of nature, but it is not so. Death to man is an unnatural and abnormal state a breach in his original condition; for man was created to be immortal in body as well as in soul. Death is a debt to justice, not to nature; for "the wages of sin is death." But, blessed be the Most High, "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord;" and of that gift our revered and beloved friend hath now entered into actual possession. The mortal remains are now before us, and are about to be deposited among the dust of many loved and honoured ones slumbering beneath this hallowed roof. How mournful and humiliating are the ravages of death! When the seizes the human frame as his victim, how soon a melancholy change is effected! The heart, the fountain of life, ceases to propel the purple fluid through the arteries and veins spread in endless

ramifications through the human frame. The lungs, the organs of respiration, refuse to perform their office. The eye, which once flashed with intelligence or sparkled with vivacity, is closed in midnight darkness. The ear, which once listened with delight to the dulcet sounds of music or the sweeter tones of friendship, becomes insensible. The tongue, once capable of expressing with amazing fluency the thoughts, desires, and emotions of the heart, rests in the silence of death. And the whole frame, once instinct with life, an object of fond affection, and moving in spheres of activity and usefulness, becomes stiff, motionless, and cold; and the dust returns to the earth as it was. These-these are thy victories, O Death! Soon canst thou effect this solemn change, and cause the big tears of grief swiftly to chase each other down the mournful cheeks of those related to thy victims! But, amid these ravages, I hear the voice of a greater Conqueror, saying, "O death, I will be thy plague! O grave, I will be thy destruction!" And the saint of God with an interest in Him can stand undismayed on the gaping tomb, and exclaim, as did our departed brother, "Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Death dissolves all our earthly ties. Those endearing relations of father, mother, child, husband, wife, and friend, which no afflictions could sever, which no calamities could shake, are, by one touch of this destroying foe, quickly dissolved. For Death stalks the earth, and unmindful of the widow's tears or the orphan's cries, he hurls the fatal dart, and disunites the closest bonds. Yet, not for ever shall the tyrant sever those whose union is cemented and sanctified by the love of Christ. Pass a few swiftly fleeting years, and severed friends shall meet again in a happier clime, where the parting tear shall ne'er be shed, and the sad farewell be heard no more. Our beloved friend is gone but a little before, and will ere long welcome us to our eternal home. For death is an introduction to a higher life. Man is a compound existence : one in personal consciousness, but with two natures distinct in their properties and attributes-the one material, the other immaterial; with two classes of appetites and wants-the one animal, the other spiritual; with two worlds to live in-the one here, the other hereafter; with two states of being-the one in the body, the other out of the body; with two periods of duration-the one a moment, the other eternity. Death separates the two natures, consigning the one to the earth, and dispatching the other into the unseen-the spiritual, the eternal state. So that this is but the bud of our being, the feeble and imperfect embryo of our existence-a mere introduction to a life which has no end; and, to the righteous, a life which has no sorrow, no pain, no danger. Into that glorious, immortal state, the spirit of the departed one has now entered.

In reference to our revered and beloved friend, we have the assur