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"I will not delay informing you," was the cordial response of the good father, "that in our Elders' Conference to-day, our Saviour approved of your being now admitted a member of the Brethren's church. I cordially rejoice in this, and present my best wishes, united with those of my fellow-laborers, to you on this occasion. Return, then, my dear brother, with your whole heart, to the Shepherd and Bishop of your soul, inasmuch as he has manifested himself peculiarly as the Head and Ruler of the Brethren's unity

- return to that fold in which your dear late father lived and died, which counts a brother of yours among its useful ministers, and in the midst of which you enjoyed, in the period of early youth, spiritual blessings such as you probably have not forgotten. Our faith you know; the Bible we acknowledge as our only rule of doctrine and Christian practice; and our constitutional regulations, which form a brotherly agreement among ourselves, you are not unacquainted with. More particularly we may perhaps treat of these things, when we shall see you here. Renew your vows of love to our crucified, now glorified Redeemer, and may he preserve you blameless in the bundle of life until the day of his coming!"

His feelings on the occasion are thus described to Ignatius:

"On my birth-day (November 4), after many delays, and misgivings, and repentings, I wrote to Fulneck for readmission into the Brethren's congregation; and on Tuesday, December 6, the lot fell to me in that pleasant place, and on Sunday last I was publicly invested with my title to that goodly heritage. The dreadfully tempestuous weather, and severe indisposition from a cold, prevented me from being personally present when the congregation acknowledged me as one of her members, and recommended me

with prayer and thanksgiving to Him who is especially her Head and Elder. To him and to his people I have again. devoted myself, and may he make me faithful to my covenant with him, as I know he will be faithful to his covenant with me! Rejoice with me, my dearest friends, for this unspeakable privilege bestowed on so unworthy and ungrateful a prodigal as I have been. Tell all the good brethren and sisters whom I knew at Bristol, this great thing which the Lord hath done unto me. O, how glad shall I be at some future time to be preserved in life by his merciful care to meet as one of them in your chapel!"

Or more naturally do they flow in the beautiful lines of the hymn:

"People of the living God,

I have sought the world around,

Paths of sin and sorrow trod,

Peace and comfort nowhere found.

Now to you my spirit turns

Turns, a fugitive unblest;
Brethren, where your altar burns,

Oh, receive me into rest.

"Lonely I no longer roam,

Like the cloud, the wind, the wave;
Where you dwell shall be my home,
Where you die shall be my grave.
Mine the God whom you adore;

Your Redeemer shall be mine;

Earth can fill my heart no more—
Every idol I resign."

This step had a visible influence upon Montgomery's character: it defined his future course; brought the discordant elements of his life into harmony; gave strength

SUNDAY-SCHOOL LABORS.

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and tone to his influence; and in the growing graces of Christian experience, he found that peace and comfort which the world had so signally failed to give him.

Immediately he entered upon a life of active service in his Master's cause; and he found God's gifts only enjoyed

"When used as talents lent;

Those talents only well employed,
When in his service spent."

The Sunday-school cause he warmly espoused. Besides more general labors in its behalf, he entered the Red Hill Sunday-school, under the charge of the Methodists, as a teacher, where his faithful and affectionate counsels, "armed by faith and winged by prayer," were greatly

blest.

Nor were his teachings confined to Red Hill; for his sweet Sabbath-school hymns are sung every Sabbath in this country and old England, in all those precious nurseries of the church, where

"Children of the King of kings
Are training for the skies."

The autumn of one year, Montgomery, with Mr. Bennett, visited forty schools in the embrace of the Sheffield Sunday-school Union, the report of which, drawn up by the poet, shows if "the world could never give the bliss for which he sighed," a foretaste of it was found in the Master's work.

"On many, on all," says the writer, "of these pleasant Sabbath-days' journeys, He who walked unknown with the two disciples to Emmaus accompanied us, not, we trust, unknown, though unseen; and while He communed with

our spirits and opened the Scriptures, in the fulfilment of their prophecies concerning Himself at this period by the way, we felt our hearts burn within us, till we could declare from experience, in his own memorable words— 'Blessed are they which have not seen and yet have believed.' . . . In these Sabbath walks, while we enlarged our knowledge of the adjacent district, its mountains and valleys, its tracts of waste and cultivation, its woods, its waters, and its inhabited places, till every hamlet was endeared to our remembrance by some particular and delightful associations, we were more and more deeply impressed with the utility and necessity of Sunday-schools.

We observed that in every neighborhood where the Gospel was preached [mostly by itinerants] if a school was established first, a chapel soon arose within its inclosure, or at its side; and where the chapel [or the church] it might now be added first appeared, the Sundayschool followed as its necessary accompaniment."

CHAPTER XII.

LETTER FROM SOUTHEY — SARAH GALES'S DEPARTURE FROM ENGLAND— LOTTERY ADVERTISEMENTS APPEAL FOR MORAVIAN MISSIONS IN GREENLAND-LITERARY PROFITS DEATH OF ELIZABETH GALESDEPUTATION OF THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY DEPARTURE OF GEORGE BENNETT -CORRESPONDENCE MANIFOLD LABORS- DAISY IN INDIA"- CALL FROM SOUTHEY LABORS FOR THE CHIMNEYSWEEPS AN AMERICAN GENTLEMAN AT HART'S-HEAD.

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"THE first thing I have to say," writes Southey, under date of May 29, 1815, "relates to Wordsworth. I put into his hands your review of the 'Excursion,' and he desired me to tell you how much he was gratified by it, — by the full and liberal praise which it accorded him, — by the ability and discrimination which were shown; but, above all, by the spirit which it breathed, which is so unlike the prevailing tone of criticism.

"Secondly, but first in importance, -now that the fine season is arrived, will you fulfill in summer the purpose which was frustrated in autumn, and come to visit me? Neither you nor I need be reminded of the uncertainty of life; we are now neither of us young men, and if we suffer year after year to pass by, we may, perhaps, never know each other in the body. I want to have the outward and visible Montgomery in my mind's eye-the form and tangible image of my friend. Come, and come speedily. There is a coach from Leeds to Kendal, and one from Ken