With just enough of mother-wit and skill,
To harden, not correct ungovern'd will;
All woman's weakness, but that gentle part
Fitter than reason's strength to sway the heart;
Stern, selfish, melancholy, stubborn, slow,
Who never spar'd, nor ever felt a blow,
Without one failing of a generous mind,
Which love may fetter or ambition blind;
One touch of fiery-mettled mood, to plead
The stings of passion for some headlong deed;
A nice precision in degrees of hate,

And strict the' account of blood to calculate;
By rule she butcher'd, and arrang'd the stake,
As her creed prompted her, for conscience sake.
Scann'd by her blindness, God himself appears
Not Love's perfection, but the source of Fears :
In wrath, not pity, the Redeemer dies,
And Mercy yields her place to sacrifice.
Hence the grim Priestess fancied merit claims
As each new victim gluts the' atoning flames;
And, while the' accursed holocausts ascend,
Sees Christ, like Moloch, to the banquet bend.

Joy to that holy army! These have trod
Through toil and anguish to the throne of God.
Their thirst, the Lamb, from living founts, supplies,
And wipes all tears for ever from their eyes;
With palms, from Eden gather'd, decks their hands,
And clothes, in robes of white, his martyr'd bands,
For not with mourning wail and funeral cry,

Nor ev'n with manlier sorrow's stifled sigh;

Nor the fierce Zealot's unadvis'd disdain,
Fir'd by some passing fever of the brain;

But meek, though steadfast,-fearless, though resign'd,-
They tempted not the trial, nor declin'd.

Age heard the summons, and, in glad retreat,
Pillow'd his head beneath his Saviour's feet;
With quicken'd step the' abiding city gain'd,
And leap'd the barrier which from bliss detain'd;
Counting each drop of blood which from him ran,
Bequeath'd in legacies of love to man.

Such were the hopes that lighten'd HOOPER's pain;
Such prompted LATIMER'S prophetic strain;
"Cheer thee, my Brother," was that old man's cry,
"The light we kindle dies not when we die."
Youth, with like promptuess, to the call replied,
And dash'd life's scarcely-tasted cup aside;
And, while its freshest sweets his lips impress,
Preferr'd the wholesome draught of bitterness.
Mark, too, with willing but reluctant care,
What hands the bidden robe of death prepare! *
Hands, which before to-morrow's sun shall part,
Must fold the desert of a widow'd heart.
The babe unconscious, smiling at her breast,
Furthers the task, and speeds the fatal vest:
That vest avouches, as it yields to flame,
A Father's purity, a Mother's fame.

She weeps not o'er it; tears would but profane
The holy bond which frees her love from stain;
And dim the bright assurance of her mind,

Man cannot sunder those whom God hath join'd.

See the letter of Laurence Saunders to his wife, desiring her to send him a shirt for his martyrdom," which you know whereunto it is consecrated. Let it be sewed down on both sides and not open." It is printed entire by Fox, vol. iii. p. 118.

Printed by Mills, Jowett, and Mills, Bolt Court, Fleet Street,

Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine,

FOR JUNE, 1827.

BIOGRAPHY.

MEMOIR OF MR. JOSEPH SCARTH,
Of Leeds:

BY WILLIAM G. SCARTH, ESQ.

JOSEPH SCARTII was the son of Joseph and Ruth Scarth, of East Ardsley, near Morley, who were both among the first Methodists in this part of Yorkshire. Some account of the conversion and happy death of Joseph Scarth, senior, will be found in the Methodist Magazine for the year 1793, page 369, from the pen of that zealous and successful Preacher, the Rev. John Valton. That account is entirely without dates, arising, as I suppose, from the circumstance of its not being published till about ten years after Mr. Scarth's decease. He became a member of the Methodist Society about the year 1759; and was remarkably active and zealous, steady and consistent, during his Christian course, till the Lord called him to his eternal rest in the year 1783, when the Rev. John Valton was stationed in the Birstal Circuit. Those were days of persecution, when the Methodists in the West of Yorkshire were a poor and despised people; but he cheerfully bore the reproach of the Cross, and patiently endured many a trial of "cruel mockings." His son used to mention an anecdote of him, which shows that he was not wanting in Christian courage; a virtue at all times desirable, but especially necessary in those days. Soon after his conversion, he invited all his near relations to dine with him, and after dinner stood up, and gave them a circumstantial account of his being awakened to a deep sense of his sinful state, and of the way in which he obtained a manifestation of God's pardoning love. This, as might be expected, led some of his brothers to say, that he was going mad; to which he replied, "I have been mad long enough, whilst serving the devil and sin: but now, having renounced them, I am come to my right mind." An old disciple, who visited him in his last days, states, that a greater triumph over death he never witnessed. The dying man observed, that his Class-Leader had often said, "If we get to heaven on boards, or broken pieces of the ship, we may be very thankful; but this is not my case, I am going into harbour in full sail, and with flying colours." Mr. Valton mentions his being a consistent professor of perfect love for many years before his death; and the late Miss Tripp (of pious memory, who was acquainted 2 D

VOL. VI. Third Series. JUNE, 1827.

with him in her early days, from his living near Cross-Hall, the residence of Miss Bosanquet, before she was Mrs. Fletcher) used to say that his Class-Leader did not believe in the doctrine of Christian perfection; and was accustomed to say, that a Christian professing to be saved from all sin, was like a dunghill covered with snow; "but," observed Miss Tripp, "the snow never melted off in the case of old Joseph Scarth." Joseph Scarth, the subject of this Memoir, was the second son of the excellent man just mentioned: but, on account of his decidedly religious character he was appointed his father's Executor, to succeed him in his farm, and to take charge of his widowed mother: a duty which he discharged with filial love and tenderness, during many years of most painful affliction, till the Lord released her from "the burden of the flesh."

The writer of this account has often heard him speak of his early religious impressions; and remark that they were induced by attentions paid to him by an aged grandfather; who, I understood, was a pious dissenter; and by whose side he often kneeled, at his bidding, when he retired to sleep. This circumstance he frequently mentioned; and generally with so much feeling, that the tears flowed down his cheeks. He also always adverted with emotions of lively gratitude to the place where he first bowed his knee in prayer, as an humble suppliant for divinė mercy. It was at the foot of an old tree, in a hedge-row, a little distance from his father's house. He was then about fifteen or sixteen years of age; and when he came to occupy the farm at the death of his father, about twenty years after, and which he continued to do for about forty years, he frequently resorted to this place; and many times has the Lord heard the prayers which he there presented. During the last time he visited his son, who now occupies the same farm, he had great pleasure in going to this favourite spot; and on his return he spoke of it in the Class-Meeting as the place where he had often held communion with God; and where he had again been favoured with a special visitation of divine love.

Notwithstanding those early drawings of divine grace, he was not the subject of any saving change till a few years after his marriage, and when he was about thirty years of age. He then lived at Lee-Fare, near Dewsbury. The Lord was then pleased to take away his second child, by death. This dispensation was sanctified to his wife, who was brought under a serious concern for the salvation of her soul, which led her to go to a Class-Meeting. She had gone only a few times, when he also wished to go with her. He was deeply concerned lest he should begin and not persevere; being diffident of himself, and having a very low opinion of a wavering and unstable character. He and his wife, however, received their first ticket at the same time; I believe from the hands of the venerable John Pawson, who was then stationed in the Birstal Circuit. The Class, when they joined it, consisted only of seven