domestic circle by an alliance which bade fair to be a great advantage to himself and the Church; but after two or three years he was again in sorrowful widowhood. The Conference was held in Birmingham for the first time during his Superintendency of the Cherry Street Circuit. At that Conference was introduced the solemnity of ordination to the Ministry by the imposition of hands. Several senior Ministers objected at the first to this departure from the method which had previously obtained. Mr. Naylor was one of these; but was subsequently thankful that his views were overruled in favour of the more Scriptural method. Men whose 'hearts tremble for the ark of God' are deserving of respect for many of the scruples which they have needlessly entertained.

Deptford was Mr. Naylor's next appointment. Here he was in the furnace during most of the term. Mrs. Naylor was a great sufferer, but the affliction was a means of grace both to herself and her husband. Here his ministry was attended with much power, and several very marked cases of conversion encouraged him.

In Hammersmith, as in Deptford, Mr. Naylor was in the Refiner's fire, and was made a blessing to many. With a spirit chastened by affliction he went to his next Circuit, Bradford, Yorkshire. Party spirit ran high; but, with the help of an excellent colleague, it was completely extinguished. He commenced a small service in a private dwelling in one of the neglected parts of the town, and had the satisfaction of seeing it grow until a large chapel was opened in the locality. He worked for, prayed for, expected, and God gave, the increase. During half a century he never but once had to record a Circuit decrease, and on several occasions the increase amounted to hundreds.

In the course of the next fifteen years, Mr. Naylor laboured in Manchester (Oldham Street), London Seventh, Wednesbury, Birmingham (Belmont Row), and Tipton, and his ministry was to the end attended with blessing. The Church of God needs fathers, for counsel and example; and Mr. Naylor stood for years amongst these, as a beautiful pattern and a centre of holy influence, serving the Cause of God with his practical wisdom and rich experience. He was an illustration of the truth that 'those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.' As years increased, his character became mellowed and sweetened, while his energy, enterprise and endurance seemed the same as in his prime.

On Monday, the 25th of August, 1862, just three months after attaining the age of fourscore, he concluded his regular ministry by preaching in the Tipton Wesleyan-Methodist Chapel, from Isaiah xxi. 10: 'O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.' At the Conference which had finished a few days before, he was made a Supernumerary, but not with his own free and full consent. A life of retirement had few attractions for him, and he reluctantly acquiesced in the wishes of his friends. His health was good, his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.' He felt that he

was in some respects better qualified than ever to care for and promote the Cause of God. With Caleb he could say: 'And now, lo! I am this day fourscore...years old ;...yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day' God 'sent me as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out and to come in.' Whilst the case of his retirement was before the Conference, the President (Mr. Prest), took occasion to refer to his past services in most respectful terms, and to express the affection and high regard in which he was held by the Ministers of the Body. But it was thought best that he should be relieved from Circuit work. Mrs. Naylor had died in great peace, after a very painful affliction, just before the Conference began. This, with other considerations, taken in connection with his great age, decided his case, and he retired, not, however, to sit still and dream of the past, as though he had done enough, but to labour on at God's command, as opportunity might serve. Working for God was his pleasure, and few Sundays passed without finding him conducting two full services. He took up his temporary residence in Manchester, and on the last day of the year gave the following expression to his somewhat depressed state of mind:

To me the year has been most eventful and distressing. In reviewing it, I feel that I have cause to humble myself before the Lord. And yet I have not willingly offended Him. I have sought, both in public and private, to live as in His presence. What changes have taken place! From being the active Chairman of a large District and Superintendent of a Circuit, I am now without charge, and without office of any kind. My faithful, loving wife has been taken from me, and I am left in solitude and sorrow. O Lord! sustain Thy suffering servant; bring me into closer fellowship with Thyself, and sanctify me wholly. I write this upon my knees.'

Early in the following year he returned to take charge of the Tipton Circuit. The Rev. John Williams, his successor, had died, and he was requested to take his place until the next Conference. His friends at Wednesbury strongly urged him to fix his abode amongst them, kindly proposing some substantial inducements; and he accepted their offers.

In October, 1863, the Jubilee of the Missionary Society was celebrated, and Mr. Naylor was requested to take the first service in connection with the event, at Armley, near Leeds. It was there that the first sermon for the Society was preached half a century before, Mr. Naylor being in the pulpit to assist the Preacher; and it was thought most fitting that, as he had been spared so long, he should take this prominent position at the Jubilee. His text on the occasion was Isaiah ii. 1-4; and a writer for the press who was present said:

While he stood in the pulpit, erect and animated, with intellect and memory unimpaired, with voice not greatly affected by the wear of years, and with the fervour and fluency of a man of forty, descanting upon the sublime anticipations of the prophet, we could not but feel proud of such a specimen of the olden time: and the congregation testified their feelings by a collection of the extraordinary amount of eight hundred and forty pounds! The sermon was printed and circulated by thousands on the Mission Stations and at home.'

On his eighty-third birthday Mr. Naylor made the following record:

'May 8th, 1865. Yesterday I closed my eighty-third year, and am thankful to God that I was able to preach twice in Wednesbury, and administer the Lord's Supper at the close. The year gone has had its manifold mercies, and also its sorrows and overwhelming family tribulations. O Lord! forsake me not.'

Soon after it began,

The Conference sat in Birmingham that year. Mr. Naylor performed the gratifying service of laying the memorial stone of the handsome new chapel at Tipton; and then hastened to unite with his brethren once more in their Annual Assembly. He had now become the oldest Methodist Preacher in the world; and this unique position assigned him by the Providence of God was affectionately recognized by the assembled Ministers, who requested him to occupy a seat upon the platform. Such kind attentions were gratifying, and meekly acknowledged with gratitude to God. He was not in great danger of being puffed up: counterbalancing circumstances, known to only a few of his friends, often produced much mental depression. With these he struggled manfully, enduring exquisitely painful distresses, which he had never anticipated, with Christian patience and prudent reticence, waiting deliverance in God's own time and way. The complexion of Mr. Naylor's religious experience during the latter years of his life was not of the brightest and most joyous. He was perhaps constitutionally prone to sadness, and the circumstances just referred to-coming on at the close of his long and useful career-may account for the sombre tinge of his latest years. The anchor of his soul held fast, however, and he could sing with tearful confidence :

In the autumn of 1867 he had an illness of six weeks' duration. After enduring much pain, night and day, he wrote as follows:

'Nov. 4th. The pain has ceased, but it has left a distressing weakness, and attacks of fainting, in some of which I have thought that I was breathing my last; but my soul has been in peace, confidently resting upon Christ, and assured that I shall be for ever with the Lord. I have no other ground of hope but Christ. He is all in all to me. I have no reliance upon myself, or on any service I have rendered in the Church. Reviewing the past, I see many faults and failings, and am constrained to cry: “God be merciful to me a sinner!"

Dr. Blackwood, of Wednesbury, was Mr. Naylor's friend and medical attendant, and saw much of him during the last three years of his life, frequently conversing with him as he was descending into the valley of death. He says:

'Although the subjects of our conversation were diverse, his devout spirit invariably drifted our discourse on to the Rock of Ages, or the great work of evangelizing the world and bringing it under the sceptre of the Prince of Peace. He was emphatically the servant of one Master, even Christ, and determined to advance the interests of His Kingdom. The people called Methodists he looked upon as his own particular housebold; but he was glad to extend the hand of fellowship to all who loved the Lord Jesus.

Great was his love for the House of God. One Sunday morning, when on his way to Springhead Chapel, his weakness was such that he fainted and fell in the street. For a few months before his death his strength began rapidly to fail. Frequent faintings placed his life in jeopardy, and it became absolutely necessary to prohibit his continuing to preach. At length he began to realize the fact that he was worn out in the work of bringing souls to Christ. On one occasion I found him depressed and endeavoured to encourage him by referring to his long services, and how faithfully he had done his work, when he said: "Don't mention what I have done; I am a poor, unworthy sinner, trusting only in the mercy of God in Christ." I made bold one day to remark that perhaps God intended to make him perfect through suffering, and this seemed to be applied by the Spirit of God, as I never after heard a despondent word, and his conversation became more saintly and sanctifying. On leaving the room, the day before he died, I repeated part of the Judaic benediction: "The Lord bless thee; . . . the Lord make His face shine upon thee; . . . and give thee peace," to which he replied with much fervour: "He does. Amen! Amen! The next morning I was hastily summoned to his bedside, but the moment I beheld him I saw that God had taken him. Thus calmly this faithful servant of God passed from earth to heaven.'

He died July 10th, 1868, and was interred in the West Bromwich Cemetery, amid such spontaneous manifestations of public esteem as rarely occur.

William Naylor was a true soldier of the Cross: he belonged to the 'called, and chosen, and faithful.' His long life was spent in saving souls, and he never either wearied or wavered in his course. He kept his armour bright and used it well. No analysis of his intellectual qualifications is needed here. He was diligent to employ the talents which God gave him, and was faithful in doing the work which God assigned him. 'And if to labour be to pray, His life was one long litany.' He was a loyal, painstaking, successful Methodist Preacher, and has left an example which must redound to the glory of Divine grace and the honour of Methodism.

Mr. Naylor was the author of some twenty-seven publications, in the form of Sermons, Tracts, Addresses, Memoirs, Poetry; all of them distinguished by a strong desire to diffuse sanctifying truth.

THE PERSON AND HISTORY OF MELCHISEDEC:

BY THE REV. S. LUCAS, F.G.S.

WHO, and what, was Melchisedec? is a question that has often been asked, but seldom, if ever, satisfactorily answered. The reasons for this are obvious. The information given us respecting him is confined to the Scriptures, and is exceeding brief and designedly obscure. Here profane history is silent. It is crowded with fabulous exploit and the doings of earth's heroes, but it contains no record of the name of this illustrious Monarch-Priest. Had war tracked his progress and desolated realms mourned his reign, we should have been told of his deeds, and the fulsome flattery of some courthistorian would have emblazoned his name; but because peace marked his sway, and Melchisedec, 'righteous king,' designated the character of his reign, his very name is unrecorded. Records lost for ages: records written in hieroglyphic and symbol, full of profound interest, throwing light on the

world's past history and confirming the accuracy of Scripture statement, have been discovered and disinterred; but in none of them does the name of Melchisedec occur. The historic and monumental stores yielded by Egypt, Syria and Palestine have been abundant, bringing the far past again before us, and enabling us to live, as it were, over again the age of the Patriarchs; but none of them have noticed the unique monarch who swayed his sceptre on the sacred hill of Salem, and whom Infinite Wisdom selected to be the illustrious type of Him Who is 'King of kings,' and 'a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.'

For this silence the peculiarity of the case supplies ample reasons. Melchisedec was to be an eminent type of Jesus Christ. In his parentage, birth, relations and history, he was to symbolize the attributes and functions of the Priesthood of the eternal Son of God, and thus, for the time, was to be hid beneath a veil of obscurity and silence.

But the Divine purpose these served has now been fulfilled. The type has been replaced by its antitype: and without attempting to be wise above what is written, or to disarray this illustrious type of the mystery which invests him, we proceed to consider the Person, Offices and History of the ancient Melchisedec..

And it may aid our enquiries if, in the first place, we quote what the Scriptures have disclosed on the subject. His introduction to us is recorded in the fourteenth chapter of the Book of Genesis. There we are told that four kings of nations descended from Shem made war on Bera, King of Sodom, and four other kings confederate with him. For twelve years Bera and his confederates 'served' these Shemite kings; and then rebelled against them. Thus provoked, these allied Shemite monarchs commenced a general attack on the nations related to the Mizraim branches of the House of Ham.

And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer [evidently the military leader of the Shemite kings], and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim, and the Horites in their mount Seir. . . . And there went out the King of Sodom, and the King of Gomorrah, and the King of Admah, and the King of Zeboiim, and the King of Bela (the same is Zoar), and they joined battle with them in the vale of Siddim.... 'And the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah filed, and fell there. . . . And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way. And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed. And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew.... And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan. And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

And the King of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale [or the royal valley]. And Melchizedek, King of Salem, brought forth bread and wine and he was the Priest of the Most High God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, Possessor of heaven and earth: and