some distinguished trophies of divine grace. Huron circuit, Ohio.-Extract of a letter from the Rev. Adam Poe, dated March 17, 1828: "I was appointed to this circuit with brother Hazard, a real father in the gospel, and an old preacher of Genesee conference. I was acquainted with the people generally, having been appointed part of a year before on the circuit, by the presiding elder. The circuit was large, and for the most of two years past, had but one preacher, who went round but once in five weeks; besides, his health being poor, he was not able to fill all his appointments, consequently we found religion very low; but we have reason to thank the Lord of the harvest, there appears now to be a shaking among the dry bones in some places. In a neighbourhood in Green Creek township, Sandusky county, we found a class of seven members, who were almost discouraged, and some of them had not been to meeting in six months. There was one old father in this little number, who was very anxious for the salvation of his children. The Saturday after new year's day, he called them together, talked with them, and prayed for them. One of his sons in law was immediately struck under conviction; he cried for mercy; his wife joined him in the same cry; his soul was set at liberty in a few minutes, and in the morning he went round communicating the joyful news to his neighbours. Some of them were glad to hear it; others thought he was good enough before. He appointed a prayer meeting at his house that evening. His neighbours attended, and some of them expressed a desire for religion. The work broke out, and the fire ran from house to house, and from heart to heart. Universalism was renounced; the Saviour was embraced; the neighbourhood became happy, and continues joyful; a number have proclaimed the pardoning love of Jesus; others are anxiously inquiring the way to Zion. The work is still progressing; our little class has increased to twenty-four, and there are others ready to join as soon as an offer is made. It is very pleasing to us that there have been no proselyting attempts made, and that consequently the utmost harmony and good will prevail." New-Orleans-Extract of a letter from the Rev. W. M. Curtiss, dated April 8, 1828: "We have lately had some gracious intimations, that the time to favour Zion,' even in this city, is at hand. Believers, having renewed their covenant, have been much quickened, and are now deeply engaged for a revival of the work of God. Great solicitude for the salvation of sinners, is manifested by the few who love our Lord Jesus Christ; and, blessed be God! some precious souls, who, until lately, were far off, have been brought nigh by the blood of Christ, and are now found walking with the redeemed of the Lord, in the King's highway of holiness. In a social prayer meeting, a few evenings since, five interesting young men, after struggling for some time as in the agonies of death, had their souls set at liberty, (in answer to prayer,) all in the same hour and went home rejoicing in God their Saviour. A small number, in our society in this city, have lately been enabled to testify that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin,' and several more are earnestly seeking the blessing of 'perfect love." Maine Conference.-Extract of a letter from the Rev. Moses Springer, jr., dated Gardiner, Maine, April 23, 1828: "Our prospects were never more glorious in Maine than at the moment I am now writing. Besides a general increase of spirituality in our societies throughout the conference, there are now three very remarkable revivals of religion within thirty miles of this place, all of which, it is presumed, took rise from the camp meeting in this town in September last. One of these is in Bath, one in Wiscasset, and the other in Union. In all these places already between three and four hundred have been added to our societies, and the work seems but just commencing. In Wiscasset, a flourishing seaport town, so powerful and extensive has been the revival, that hardly an individual in the village seems to have escaped its influence. Even those who have hitherto resisted the power of converting grace, acknowledge by their serious demeanour, by their constancy at worship, and a respectful attention to the sabbath and the ordinances of religion, that they believe in its importance and reality. There seems indeed hardly 'a dog to move his tongue' against the people or the work of God. The revival which first commenced with the Methodists, has extended to the Congregational and Baptist churches." Alexander, N. Y.-Extract of a letter from the Rev. Squire Chase, dated April 6, 1828: "At a place called the Natural Bridge, on Indian River circuit, there is a gracious work. The class in this place, until three years since, numbered only seven; now there are sixty-five, twenty-eight of whom have joined the present conference year; and, recollecting the injury done to this class, in its infancy, by the injudicious attempt to reform church government, and witnessing what we now do, that passage in Isaiah, chap. xlix, verse 20, with the context, is strongly impressed on our minds. The verse mentioned reads thus:-"The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in their ears, the place is too strait for me, give place, that I may dwell.'" This is literally fulfilled our school house, though as large as usual, is filled to overflowing, so that numbers, regardless of the cold, patiently stand without by the windows, to hear the word of life. Heaven grant their souls may be converted by it! 6 : "Sir, I have something cheering to sabbath school institutions. In this place one has (by reason of ignorance as to its utility) had a mere existence; sometimes upheld by a single individual. Let others in like circumstances take courage. Now the number of scholars is about sixty, most of whom regularly attend, and are making good proficiency. But the best of all is, that this school is not only extensively patronized by the public, but is blessed of God in the conversion of the scholars, eighteen of whom have professed the pardon of sin, and love to Christ, within six weeks, and most of these in two successive evenings, about a week previous to the above date. May He who blessed children while on earth, bless and keep these, to the joy of their pious parents and teachers! "In the town of Alexander, a good work commenced at our quarterly meeting, in January: several have been converted, and the gracious work is still going on. A general seriousness seems to prevail on the circuit. Oh, pray for us, that showers of salvation may water this thirsty land; which may Heaven grant, for Jesus' sake.' Portage County, Ohio.-Rev. Ira Eddy, in a letter dated Edinburg, O., March 15th, says, that the cause of Christ is flourishing in that section of country; that the friends of the Redeemer are pressing on in the great work of holiness. West Wheeling Ct., Pi. Con.-The Rev. James Moore informs, that the work of the Lord is progressing steadily on that circuit, and that they are encouraged to look for more special manifestations of the divine influence. About seventy persons have been admitted into the society since last conference, OBITUARY. For the Methodist Magazine. DEATH OF THE REV. JAMES POLEMUS. JAMES POLEMUS, the subject of this memoir, was born in the state of New Jersey. Of his early life we have been able to obtain but little information; nor can we tell precisely the year in which he was brought, by divine grace, from a state of nature to the enjoyment, through faith in Christ, of the divine favour and the hope of eternal life. It must therefore suffice to say, that having become a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and given satisfactory evidence of his call to the work of the ministry, he was received in the year 1801 into the itinerant connexion, and appointed to labour in the Caroline circuit, on the eastern shore of Maryland. In the year 1802 he travelled Northampton circuit, at the close of which year, having undergone the appointed time of probation, and passed honourably through the customary examinations relative to his piety, sentiments, talents, and usefulness, he was received as a member of the conference, and dedicated more fully and formally to the work of the Lord, by ordination to the office of deacon. He was then appointed to Wyoming circuit, Pennsylvania, and the year following (1804) to Kent circuit in Maryland. In 1805 he was ordained elder in the usual course, and stationed on the Talbot circuit; after which he travelled successively, the Cayuga circuit, 1806Milford, 1807-Bristol, 1808-Cambridge, 1809-St. Martins and Snowbill, 1810. In the year 1811 he was compelled, from indisposition, to accept a superannuated relation, in which he continued for two years, and in 1813, feeling his mind ill at rest in a state of limited usefulness, and being desirous of spending all his little strength in the service of Christ and his church, he received the relation of supernumerary, and was again appointed to labour in the Bristol circuit. He continued to travel and preach, as his strength would permit, until the year 1818, when he was finally compelled to settle himself as a superannuated preacher, and took up his abode on Staten Island. Here he resided until the 16th May, 1827, when he finished his course in peace, and we trust now reaps the rewards of his labours, in those mansions which Christ has gone to prepare for his faithful servants. The following is the obituary notice of him, published by brother Bartholomew Weed in the Religious Messenger. As brother Weed was the stationed minister of our church on Staten Island, and had personal acquaintance and intercourse with the subject of these brief remarks, its correctness may be confidently relied on. "Died, on the 16th May, 1827, at his residence on Staten Island, the Rev. James Polemus, in the 65th year of his age. For some years he was a zealous itinerant minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, but for the last ten years of his life chiefly in a superannuated state;-yet he manifested firm attachment to the cause of Christ. His bodily powers had been gradually wasting away, some time previous to his dissolution, during which his confidence appeared strong. He declared he was not afraid to die, and his latter end was peace." DEATH OF THE REV. LEWIS CRAIM. THE REV. Lewis Craim was born in the state of South Carolina, in 1761. In his nineteenth year he came to the Cumberland settlement of the western country, at a time when the contention was fierce and bloody between the white man and the red man-at that time the proprietor of the soil, the claimant of the woodland, and living fountains, and rushing streams. In 1780, the enterprising hunters, a sort of pioneers, built a block house at the French Lick, now Nashville. At this station Lewis Craim arrived in the same year, and became one of its most efficient defenders. Stations and block houses were multiplied at different places, and maintained at the expense of many lives, while the lands immediately around the forts served for cultivation, their meat was obtained by hunting, and while thus employed, they were frequently met in the woods by their formidable enemy, and deadly conflicts ensued. But ultimately the whites succeeded; the tomahawk was buried under the tree of peace, and the deadly rifle was exchanged for the calumet of friendship. Our brother Craim settled himself on the frontier, and there continued till the day of his death. He was a courageous and enterprising soldier, to whom, and such like, the present generation owe a debt of gratitude, which should ever be cherished. Whether in a fort, or on his farm, he was among the foremost to range the woods as a scout, or to fly to the support of his neighbours, or to pursue the enemy. His courage and zeal never failed him. In 1786, our venerable bishop Asbury sent two missionaries, James Hawe and Benjamin Ogden, to preach the gospel to the few settlers scattered over the western country. What an important era in the history of Methodism in the west! What an enterprise was this! To be sent away from the society of friends and the comfort of a home;" home! that word of nameless charms," to encounter perils by land and water; to travel through a country infested with wild beasts and Indians; often obliged to lie on the earth for a bed, where they could count the stars through the tops of the trees. And all this to carry the gos pel to the destitute, and proclaim the acceptable time-the year of jubilee. Oh blessed work! Oh blessed men! Such men as Hawe and Ogden, Bir. chett and Massey, should be held in grateful remembrance. The last men tioned brethren died in the harnessfell sword in hand, after having been zealously engaged in blowing the gospel trumpet, breaking the solemn silence which had reigned for ages in the wilds of an American forest, with the proclamation of good news of glad tidings. They lie buried in the vicinity of Nashville. To resume the narrative-the stations were visited by the brethren Hawe and Ogden, and our beloved brother Craim, if not the very first, was among the first to receive them, and their message, in his neighbourhood. The writer of this humble tribute to the memory of that good man, has often heard him relate in love feast, the circumstances and success of their first visit. He did not hesitate-he did not delay. He was a man of decision. At their first appointment in his neighbourhood, brother Craim became seriously convicted, and shortly afterwards united himself to a society, formed at one of the neighbouring forts. His wife, and some of his acquaintance, followed his example; and thus the society, which at first was only as a grain of mustard seed, or a little vine, has taken deep root in good ground, and grown up to be a great tree, spreading its branches over a widely extended plain, and affording shelter to hundreds and thousands of precious souls. Brother Craim sought the Lord about two years before he received satisfactory evidence of the pardon of his sins. Nor was he contented with a sonship only-he zealously but humbly waited for the spirit of adoption, till he received it, and then gave diligence to make his calling and election sure, by following after that measure of Scripture holiness, without which no man can see the Lord in peace. He sought and he found it, and showed the fruit of it in a pious life and tranquil, yea, triumphant death. From the time of this man's conviction for sin, he seems to have been deeply concerned for the welfare of others. As before stated, he saw many following his example, whom he vehemently urged to "flee the wrath to come," and unite with him in the resolution to save their souls from death. Brother Craim was as undaunted as a "soldier of the cross," as he had been in defence of the new settlements. He often travelled, at the risk of his life, with or without company, to conduct the preachers from station to station, and solicit the people to hear preaching. Nor was he less attentive to the spiritual wants of his own household; he endeavoured to train them" up in the doctrine and discipline of the Lord," not only by precept, and his own pious deportment, but by taking his children with him in his private devotional exercises, and then press the necessity of experimental religion and heavenly mindedness. He was greatly encouraged and blessed in the discharge of his duties. He saw many of his friends turn to the Lord; and, what is most delightful to the heart of a pious parent, he saw all his children, one after another, array themselves under the banner of the cross. Two of his sons became able and useful ministers of the New Testament. One of them, the amiable John Craim, after travelling for several years, and preaching the gospel with great success, fell in the field, exchanging the pastoral crook for a cherub's harp. He breathed the pure missionary atmosphere; he possessed a tender heart, a weeping sympathy, that often bore all before him. How amiable was his deportment! How zealous he was in his prayers and exhortations! He sleeps in the cradle of the grave, near the banks of Duck river, in Murray county, Tennessee. He did not preach for dollars, but for crowns-not crowns of silver, but for crowns all studded over with "stars that shall shine for ever and ever." But to return to the subject As an exhorter and class leader, our brother Craim was remarkably useful. He often walked seven and eight miles to night meeting, taking his family with him; and frequently has he been known to walk twenty-five or thirty miles to quarterly meetings. He was encouraged to make such exertions, from the gracious success that attended his labours, and the overflowing consolations which he felt in his own soul. It is worthy of remark, for fifteen years there was not an official trial in the class which he led. This was prevented by his prudence, attention, prayers, and perseverance, until matters of difference were adjusted, and parties reconciled. He continued to officiate as an exhorter till 1804, when his brethren called him to occupy the more responsible station of a preacher, believing that the Holy Ghost had called him to come up higher. He was ordained deacon in 1809. In this office he continued to serve with acceptance and usefulness to the church as long as he lived. This excellent man was a useful preacher, but his great strength lay in his peculiar talent for exhortation, prayer, and power of living faith. In times of revivals the mourners desired the instructions and prayers of father Craim, and many were the sons of God born in his arms and on his knees. This may sound like the language of a barbarian in the ears of a Nicodemus; but to the man that has felt a spiritual earthquake in his heart, and has seen the rending of the mountains and heard the sounding of the storm, I" speak the language of truth and soberness." Our father Craim was an adept in the spiritual mysteries of experimental Christianity. This highly favoured servant of God and his church was endued with strong powers of mind, restricted by a limited education. Undaunted, enterprising, and persevering, yet meek, modest, and retiring in his manners, literally fulfilling the apostolic words, "instant in season and out of season,' "swift to hear, but slow to speak," "not thinking more highly of himself than he ought to think," yet "steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." Oh for the mantle of our Elijah to fall on his brethren in the ministry. In 1800, there were but thirteen travelling preachers scattered over the whole western country, which was then a "field white for the harvest." To supply the wants of the people and carry on the growing work, the presiding elder (now our highly esteemed superintendent, bishop M'Kendree) employed local preachers and exhorters to spend what time they could spare from their secular business, to supply the destitute, and raise societies, and form circuits. None were more ready, and but few more successful in this labour of love, than our brother Craim. He would go a hundred miles, and bear his own expenses, to serve destitute tracts of country, and preach many things in his exhortations; he had many seals to his ministry, and laid the foundation of many societies, and thus prepared the way for the messenger of the covenant, even the Lord of hosts. His useful ness was signally felt at camp meetings among the mourners at the altar. He was an affectionate husband, a kind father, a peaceful neighbour, and a faithful friend. Yet he had a full share of such trials as are common to men professing godliness; and some of his trials were peculiarly afflictive; but he bore them with such fortitude, and conducted himself with such prudence, that he commanded respect from all, and secured the confidence of his brethren. Lewis Craim lived and died a poor man. He did not lay up treasure on earth: he might have done it, but he sought a country out of sight, a city which hath foundations-that city of God and the Lamb, whose stream is crystal, whose wall is jasper, and her buildings molten gold. Thither he has gone to swell the number of the redeemed, and shout the praises of the great Jehovah. The last we saw of this holy man of God was at a camp meeting which he attended from the 17th to the 22d of August last. There he manifested his usual degree of zeal in exhorting and praying for the mourners, and singing and shouting the praises of the Lord. From this meeting he went home a little unwell, and a few days after was attacked with a violent fever, which terminated in his death. It is natural to wish to know how this old veteran met the last enemy. Soon after the attack he was persuaded that "his suffering time would soon be o'er," and like the patriarch of old he addressed his children, exhorting them to make sure work for heaven and eternal life, testifying his firm belief in the doctrines which he had taught for more than forty years. At length his voice began to fail, and his youngest son perceiving how fast he was sinking, said to him, " Father, you are dying.' Glory to God!" cried the old man. "When your voice fails," said the son, "if the prospects brighten give us a sign, by raising your hand.' In a few minutes the wanted signal was called for, and the dying pilgrim raised his hand, waved it around, and launched away. The voice of the prophet was hushed in the murmurs of the heavenly Jordan, but the shout of triumph was heard echoing from the other shore. Amen. March 1, 1828. H. M. CRYER, |