mas Taylor, who in a short time became an eminent preacher of the Word; and it may be said of him as it was of his holy Pattern and Teacher, "he spake as one having authority," even "in the demonstration of the Spirit, and of power;" many thereby were turned from darkness to the light, prevailed on to bring their deeds to it, and enabled to walk in the same. His writings will always be valuable to those who look for substance, not shew; something of the meekness and gentleness of Christ appears on the face of them: there is also much Christian experience evinced in parts, and what is very rarely seen in the productions of those who have some share of literary acquirements, there is throughout an uncommon simplicity of language and plainness of style, with so little semblance of study, that one might fancy his parentage and education to have been as humble and homely as His, who was called the carpenter's Son, or as his fishermen apostles.

ANECDOTE FROM J. RICHARDSON'S LIFE.

The governor of Virginia wanted a cooper to mend his wine, cider, and ale casks, and some told him there was a workman near, but he was a Quaker; he said, if he was a workman, he made no matter what he professed; so the Quaker, such as he was, was sent for, and came with his hat under his arm: the governor was somewhat at a stand to see the man come in after that manner, and asked if he was the cooper he had sent for? He said, "Yes." "Well," said the governor, "are not you a Quaker?" "Yes," replied the man, "I am so called, but I have not been faith

ful." He then asked, "How long have you been called a Quaker?" The poor man said, "About twenty years." "Alas for you, poor man," said the governor, "I am sorry for you!"

"By this we may clearly see," observes John Richardson, "that such who walk most up to what they profess, are in most esteem among the more thinking and religious people; and the unfaithful and loose libertine professors of the Truth are slighted, and I believe will be more and more cast out as the unsavoury salt, which is good for nought in religion, and is indeed trodden under the feet of men; for great part of the men in the world have such an understanding as to know what we profess, and also what we should do and be, in many things. Let us therefore walk wisely before all, and not be 'an occasion of stumbling,' nor give offence either to Jew or Gentile, nor to the Church of God, that so we may be as 'a city set upon a hill, which cannot be hid;'-nay, that may not desire to be hid, but rather that the inhabitants of the earth might see our good works, and have an occasion from thence administered, to glorify the Father which is in heaven."

ANECDOTE FROM THOMAS ELLWOOD'S LIFE.

"While I was in London I went to a little meeting of Friends, which was then held in the house of one Humphry Bache, a goldsmith in Tower-street. It was then a very troublesome time, not from the government, but from the rabble of boys and rude people, who upon the turn of the times, at the return of the king, took liberty to be very abusive.

"When the meeting ended, a pretty number of these unruly folks were got together at the door, ready to receive the Friends as they came forth, not only with evil words but with blows; which I saw they bestowed freely on some of them that were gone out before me, and expected I should have my share when I came amongst them. But quite contrary to my expectation, when I came out, they said one to another,' Let him 'alone; don't meddle with him; he is no Quaker, I'll warrant you.' This struck me, and was worse to me than if they had laid their fists on me, as they did on others. I was troubled to think what the matter was, or what these rude people saw in me, that made them not take me for a Quaker. And upon a close examination of myself, with respect to my habit and deportment, I could not find any thing to place it on, but that I had then on my head a large mountier cap of black velvet, the skirt of which being turned up in folds, looked, it seems, somewhat above the then common garb of a Quaker; and this put me out of conceit with my cap."

SAMUEL BOWNAS received a religious education, his parents being upright and zealous Friends, who suffered much for their faithfulness towards their Maker.

When a child his mother often took opportunities of admonishing him to a holy life, and to the fear of God, as the only way of obtaining His favour and blessing; and occasionally she would relate to him some circumstances of his father's sufferings in times of persecution, who had been removed by death before his son Samuel was a month old. And when she took him to meet

ings, where frequently she had a testimony to bear in public to the Lord's power and goodness, he would particularly notice, when very young, the tenderness and broken-heartedness that prevailed over those present, and would enquire of her, why they wept so much, and why she wept. But when placed out as an apprentice, though with an honest loving Friend, he grew up with very little consideration about religion, or any taste of it, addicting himself to the pleasures of the times. And when at meeting, for want of a proper engagement of mind, he often spent those precious opportunities of religious improvement in sleep; for preaching, of which there was much, he took slight account of. Thus passed two or three years of his apprenticeship, with very little inward sense of God or religion. He was indeed considered a witty and sensible young man, (for he took much liberty in discourse,) but often on his bed he ruminated on his way of life with reluctance, yet fell into the same course again and again.

No one could charge him with any gross vice; but what he gave way to most, was jesting and foolish talking, and turns of wit to provoke mirth, which the apostle tells us are not convenient; Ephes. v. 4; and he often found it so after it was over, and that the end of that mirth was heaviness of heart. Prov. xiv. 13. However, the Lord who is rich and plenteous in mercy, even to the rebellious, gave him a remarkable visitation, which no doubt he remembered with gratitude through life, as it appears to have been the means of awakening him to a sense of his condition, and impressed him with the

most deep conviction of the necessity of a change of heart and life. For being one first day at meeting, Anne Wilson, a young woman, was present and preached. She was very zealous, and Samuel looking upon her, she with great energy pointed her finger at him, uttering these words with much power: "A traditional Quaker, thou comest to meeting as thou went from it, and thou goest from it as thou camest to it, but are no better for thy coming;-what wilt thou do in the end?" This language came so home to his state at that time, that like Saul it might be said he was smitten as it were to the ground, being pricked to the very heart; and turning his mind inward, he cried in secret, "Lord, what shall I do to help it?" when a voice. spoke within him, "Look unto me, and I will help hee" then he found such comfort to flow through him as made him shed tears abundantly. From that day he experienced the scriptural assertion to be true, that what is to be known of God and true religion is manifested within: for upon this eventful circumstance his conduct and even his countenance became much altered, his soul being bowed down under heavy exercise, so that he could neither eat nor sleep as he used to do; yet, he writes, his work never succeeded better in his hands than it did at that time, nor was his mind ever less in it. He longed for the next meetingday, and when the hour of meeting came, his mind was soon fixed and stayed upon the one great Object of worship and dependence, and he felt therein an uncommon enjoyment and satisfaction. Relying on the Lord for strength and salvation, who had begun thus wonderfully to reveal His power in him, his under