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the Church her profession was sustained by inward devotedness to the Church's Lord. And she never lost her "first love." She was distinguished also by her attachment to God's cause. The people of God were dear to her; and the preachers of the Gospel ever found in her house a home. She contributed generously of her worldly substance towards the erection of places of worship, and the support of Christian institutions. She was a lover also of prayer and of God's Word. The services of the sanctuary were a delight to her when she was able to attend them; and at home she found joy in family and private prayer and in spiritual reading, especially in the study of the Holy Scriptures. Of this last privilege she was to some extent deprived, a few months before her death, by the failure of her sight; but even then her memory served her, and the passages which she had delighted to read in health she was able to repeat and ponder in sickness. Thus the Word "hidden" in her heart was a comfort to her when her bodily eyes grew dim. And, further, she was characterised by submissiveness to the will of God. In bereavement and in personal affliction, she never lost her faith in her Father's love. “Not my will, but Thine, be done!" was the expression of her habitual feeling. She knew that her covenant God was wise and good, and there she rested.

When, at length, the end drew near, her faith and submission were still the same. Speech failing her, she responded by signs to the questionings of friends; and on being asked if she now felt Jesus to be precious, after trying hard to articulate a response, she held up her hand, to signify her abiding confidence in Him whom she had so long loved. And in that same confidence she passed away, to be "for ever with the Lord."

February 20th, 1876.-At Stockport, aged fifty-seven years, Mr. John Wilson Bayley. It was designed by his father that he should enter the ministry of the Church of England; and he was educated with a view to this end. Circumstances arose, however, which gave a different direction to his life. Having been truly converted to God, he became, when young, a Localpreacher; and, during a period of thirty-eight years, he went to and fro scattering, with much ability and success, the good seed of the Word. Between thirty and forty years he was an exemplary class-leader; and in meeting his class, his rich Christian experience and large stores of religious knowledge were turned to excellent account. All the Church offices connected with his Circuit, which it is competent for a layman to hold, Mr. Bayley, at different periods, filled. Indeed, his usefulness was, in a special degree, of the official type, although his more private and social influence was very powerful also. To Methodism he was strongly attached ;-to its ministers, its people, its objects, its organization. He sought to do good by means of its established and welltried methods of usefulness; and great was his joy when he saw its well-adjusted machinery successfully worked. He never flinched from duty, nor swerved from principle; yet, in co-operation with others, he acted as a Christian gentleman, whose kindness of spirit was felt and acknowledged. On Saturday, February 19th, he had a rather hard and trying day in business, at the close of which he was seized with paralysis. Medical help was immediately obtained, but in vain; and after a few hours of complete unconsciousness, he passed away to the "rest" which remains "to the people of God," greatly beloved and sincerely lamented by a large circle of friends. J. H.

LONDON: PRINTED BY, WILLIAM NICHOLS, 46, HOXTON SQUARE.

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WESLEYAN-METHODIST MAGAZINE.

JUNE, 1876.

MEMOIR OF THE REV. WILLIAM SHEPSTONE;

WITH BRIEF REMINISCENCES OF THE EARLY DAYS OF THE KAFFIR

MISSION:

BY AN OLD COLLEAGUE.

THE pioneers in the enterprise of the Wesleyan Mission to the South African Kaffirs were WILLIAM SHAW and WILLIAM SHEPSTONE. They entered Kaffirland together in the year 1823. In 1873— half a century afterwards-they met in the spirit-world. William Shaw died in England, on December 4th, 1872, after a career varied in its outward circumstances, but brightening with "the honour that cometh from God" down to the very end. Of him I need not say more, as a history of his connection with the noble work which he began and superintended has already appeared. William Shepstone, after moving on a somewhat lower plane, and in a narrower sphere, than the "brother beloved" whom he always delighted to honour, died on his last mission-station, on the 26th of May, 1878, just fifty years after he first crossed the Great Fish River, to assist in founding the first Wesleyan Mission among the wild tribes of Amaxosa that bordered on the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony. His work, from its commencement to its close, was strictly missionary work. Although an edifying English preacher, he never took a Colonial Circuit; but lived and died among the native tribes, to whose highest interests he had unreservedly devoted himself.

Mr. Shepstone came from the neighbourhood of Bristol. His father filled a responsible situation as overseer of some mining operations. His mother was a superior woman, of much intelligence and piety; and her interest in the religious welfare of her children was rewarded by the Divine blessing upon them.

The family were originally connected with the Church of England; but, on their removal to Westbury, William, the youngest son, was attracted to the Wesleyan services, experienced thorough conversion to God, and at once, with other young men likeminded, gave himself to the work of doing good. He formed one of a com2 I

VOL. XXII.-FIFTH SERIES.

pany of youths who were accustomed to meet privately in the Wesleyan chapel, to "search the Scriptures," to pray for each other, and to exercise their gifts of mutual exhortation. At that time he could not have been more than seventeen or eighteen years of age. He became very useful in the Sunday-school and in prayer-meetings; and was distinguished by his readiness to "every good word and work."

He appears to have learned, at this period, the business of a builder, and to have acquired some knowledge of architecture; and was thus unconsciously preparing himself for a very important branch of his future work in the mission-field.

In the subject of Missions to the heathen he felt a deep interest in early life; and he has said that, when the South African Emigration Scheme was devised, his chief inducement to join it was the hope of being able to do good among the heathen tribes of the African continent.

In 1820 the British settlement of Albany, in the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, was commenced. It was formed of parties of emigrants from various counties of the United Kingdom. Mr. Shepstone, then a young married man, joined "the Bristol Party," and cast in his lot among the four thousand settlers who exchanged the cold and gloomy winters of England and Scotland for the sunny skies of South Africa.

The days were dark in England in more senses than one. The reaction after the close of the great French war,-a succession of bad harvests, great commercial depression,-and the growing destitution of the lower classes as the natural result, made thousands upon thousands willing to embrace the Government offers, and ready to brave the unknown dangers of even African regions to escape from present ills. Had the scheme been on a more extensive scale, vastly greater results might have been realised, and many actual perils averted, which the small band of colonists was not strong enough to meet.

A voyage to the Cape was then a more formidable affair than at present. There was no Cunard line of steamers, offering to contract for a passage in eighteen days. The usual weary three months in the old "transports" had to be endured, together with the close packing and coarse fare that were in keeping with the tediousness of the voyage. It came to an end, however. The settlers landed on the then desolate shores of Algoa Bay, travelled a hundred and thirty miles in the slow-paced ox-wagons of the Dutch Boers, and reached at last the district allotted for the settlement.

Mr. Shepstone's location was in a picturesque region. Hill

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