POETRY.

FRENCH REVOLUTION, AND RISE OF THE LONDON
MISSIONARY SOCIETY.*

DARK clouds hung o'er the nations,-guilty men
Work'd the full purpose of their passions then;
Earth seem'd forsaken; Heaven, too long defied,
Seal'd up the fount of mercy's healing tide,
And left the tyrant in his blood-stain'd lair,
To shout for freedom, and then perish there.
All hearts were sated, even the very worst

Grew sick with horrors which themselves had nursed ;
Kings trembled on their thrones, and Princes fled,-
Too dear the crown that might have cost the head;
Powers in high places, men of rank and sense,
Felt their slight hold on public confidence;
The weak despair'd; the wise, in wonder, saw

That MADMAN'S HEAVEN, A NATION WITHOUT LAW.

Sweetest of themes by poets ever sung,

A silvery fountain in the desert sprung;
Fresh verdure round it, flowers upon its brink,
Pure crystal waters where the weary drink.
And mid the moral desert, waste and wide,
While men stood wondering at their fallen pride
Aghast and fearful, stricken with distrust
Of good and evil, dreading most the just,
There sprung a fountain, lowly, soft, and still;
At first it seem'd but like a fairy rill,
And many pass'd it by in heedless hour,

While others question'd of its source and power;
Till, ever rising, gathering strength, it grew
Deeper and broader, clearer to the view,
A beauteous river fill'd by founts above,
A healing stream of purest Christian love.
*From Mrs. Ellis's "Island Queen."

*

A SEA-SIDE SONNET.*

OCEAN! I pace not now thy winding shore
As in life's morn, when hope and fancy gave
Their magic beauty to each bursting wave,
And sweetest music to thy wild uproar :
Yet not for this I murmur; nor deplore,.
Beholding thee still beautiful and brave,
That I am journeying onward to the grave,
To muse and wander by thy side no more.
"Unchanging, boundless, endless, and sublime,"
Thou hast been liken'd to eternity!

But truth shall manifest, to every eye,

That even thou art but a thing of time;

While he who frames this evanescent rhyme

From the grave's darker depths shall soar on high.

*From "Household Verses," by Bernard Barton.

LONDON: PRINTED BY JAMES NICHOLS, HOXTON-SQUARE.

THE

WESLEYAN-METHODIST MAGAZINE.

AUGUST, 1847.

BIOGRAPHY.

MEMOIR OF JOHN BUTTERFIELD, ESQ.,

OF SOUTHPORT:

BY THE LATE REV. JOHN SMITH.

MR. BUTTERFIELD was born at Keighley, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, August 27th, 1804. In his youth, he was sedate and well behaved; but his opportunities for obtaining religious instruction were few, till he attained his fourteenth year. On the death of his father he was placed under the care of his aunt, at whose house, about the same time, a weekly meeting for prayer had been established. This he regularly attended. He was likewise brought under the ministry of the Wesleyan Methodists. It was soon evident that in listening to the truths which he then heard, he felt the influence of the grace with which they are usually found to be connected. His understanding was enlightened, his heart was affected, and he soon experienced a desire to flee from the wrath to come. Not only was he invited and warned by the outward ministry,-God's merciful message to fallen, but redeemed, man,-but the Spirit of God strove with him. Happily for himself, both in time and eternity, he was not disobedient to the heavenly calling which is not only the origin of all good in man, but, in order that its great object may be secured, requires the submissive and practical consent of those to whom it is addressed. Hence it is that while many are called, few are chosen." He did not resist the influences which thus moved upon his mind, nor obstinately check, as is too often the case, the awakenings which they caused. He began to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and to assist him in so doing, as well as in accordance with what he perceived to be his duty, he immediately connected himself with the Wesleyan-Methodist society, and directed his earnest prayers to the attainment of that blessing which was to constitute, as he was taught by the ministry under which he sat, and which rested, as he fully believed, on the authorityof the word of God, the very first step in his Christian progress to the heavenly Zion. He saw that only they who kept the commandments of God could have right to enter through the gates into the city, and to eat of the tree of life; and he therefore strove to enter in at the strait gate, that so he might thenceforward walk in the narrow way, the way holiness, God's own highway to heaven. And he sought till he found. One evening, his mind being more than usually distressed, feeling that he was weary and heavy laden, he gave himself more

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