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be given in which persons have come to him under strong excitement to demand redress of their grievances, who have left him calm, subdued, and concluding that it was not best to say anything more about their complaints. The following incidents illustrate his skill in meeting emergencies.

A camp meeting on his district was to be continued over the sabbath. On Saturday evening, a company of "lewd fellows of the baser sort," came upon the ground, with a determination to break up the meeting. They came on in such numbers, and manifested so much spirit, that the most unhappy results were feared. To attempt to oppose them by physical force, or arrest them, was, in view of their numbers, out of the question. Mr. Sherman saw the dilemma in which they were placed, and mounting the stand around which the mob had collected, began to exhort them in the name of the Lord. In imitation of Paul at Jerusalem, he related his religious experience. God blessed him in the effort, and while he shouted "Glory to Christ for salvation," the spell-bound mob became as quiet as lambs. Not the slightest disturbance occurred that night.

On the following morning, an occasion of a very dif ferent character occurred for testing his generalship. Dr. Bascom was present and preached to a vast congregation, on "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God," &c. It was one of his splendid efforts, and the people were completely captivated. But when the Dr. had closed, what next? That was the rub! In the presence of this giant, the preachers were in their own sight as grasshoppers; and so they were in the sight" of the congregation. How to bring the people back from the regions to which they had been translated, and open the way for the exercises to move on with freedom and ease, was the question

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to be solved. Let the preachers keep calm now, and let the presiding elder keep his own counsels. The next man that appears upon the stand is a colored local preacher. He has been for some years a missionary in Africa, is possessed of considerable speaking talent, and has not the fear of man before his eyes. Nothing daunted, he announced his text, Acts xxviii, 28. “Dr. Bascom," said he," has told you what the gospel is, I will tell you what it will do; and I will take Africa as my field." As he described with graphic simplicity the triumphs of grace in the land of his forefathers, his own heart was touched, and the deeply-interested congregation were brought back, they knew not how, to the simplicity and practical realities of a camp meeting prayer meeting. The exercises moved on without embarrassment.

Mr. Sherman's social qualities were of a high order. He gained in an uncommon degree the confidence and affections of all classes, without any apparent effort to do so. Many made him their confidential friend and adviser, unbosoming to him their private troubles, as they did to few others. Few men obeyed the injunction, "Bear ye one another's burdens" to the extent that he did. His social qualities greatly endeared him to both preachers and people. The preachers on his district were wonderfully attached to him; so much so that several of the younger, and some of the more aged of them, inadvertently fell into the habit of imitating the intonations of his voice, and copying his phrases.

In Conference, Mr. Sherman said less than some others of far less ability; when he did speak, he carried an influence with him that was not easily resisted. One who was associated with him in the bishop's council, says, "I never saw the man that was more tenderly and keenly alive to the interests of both the preachers

and appointments than Charles Sherman. Groaning over the difficulties inseparable from the work of making out the appointments, he would pray, "Lord of the worlds above, help us." In this, as in every other part of his work, a deep sense of his accountability to God evidently pervaded his mind, and influenced his conduct.

He was ardently attached to the church of his choice. An official member of his last charge, in speaking of him, says, " I have never known the man whose whole soul was so wedded to the church. Had he been spared to attend the General Conference of 1844, of which he was a member elect, in my opinion, he could never have lived through the scenes of that session, and survived the dissolution of the union of the church." This may seem extravagant to some, but taking into account his chronic affection of the heart, it will scarcely be so regarded, by those who knew him best.

If

He has left us a worthy example of industry. there were a division among brethren to be healed, a church to be erected, or a revival in progress in any part of the district, that was the place to find the presiding elder. It is said of Cæsar that he never said

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Go," but "Come." The same might be said of Sherman; he loved to be in the hottest of the battle. Rev. T. Spicer says, "His industry was almost without a parallel. I have known him intimately for ten. years, and was a boarder in his family for nearly two months; and I must say, that for industry and activity. I have known but few who were his equals."

He was a happy man. He was one sabbath morning driving to his appointment through a dreadful snow storm. The deep snow drifts were unbroken; the wind was high; the snow was flying in clouds around him, and his horse was plunging slowly through drift after

drift, as best he could, aided by his considerate driver. In the midst of this scene, which would have cooled the ardor of most men, Mr. Sherman, supposing himself far from every ear but that of his Master, was overheard by an aged sinner joyfully shouting, "Glory to God." This will do, thought the stranger, in a Methodist prayer meeting; but why a man should shout the praises of God so, on such a morning, and from amid the drifting snow was a problem that troubled him.

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But it may be asked, "Had he no faults?" He had, for he was a man and not an angel; they were, however, such as leaned to virtue's side." No shadow, it is believed, ever rested upon the integrity or purity of his character. That his administration, with all its excellencies, was faultless is not pretended. The error of his life in my humble judgment was a want of regard to the physical laws of his being. Not that he was, in general, more careless in this respect than others; but long sermons, late hours, and overtaxing a good constitution, deprived the church of God of one of her brightest stars, before he had reached the zenith of his career. Had he lived, his influence in his own conference must have become almost unbounded, nor could it have been confined to those narrow limits. Possibly some who were unacquainted with him, will think this sketch overdrawn. To such I would say, ask those who knew him.

The name of Charles Sherman will long be cherished by many as being among their choicest and most sanctified associations. He was indeed "a burning and a shining light." Happy will it be if the numerous juvenile members of our people's families who bear his name, emulate his virtues. Let their parents imitate his parents, and that name shall not be dishonored. May not the writer hope that this sketch may stimulate some to

follow him as he followed Christ. Grace made him what he was, and that grace is free for all.

In his last sickness, when deprived of reason, his thoughts dwelt upon the subjects that had been nearest his heart; and he incoherently exhorted sinners to repent, invited mourners to the altar, and pointed them to the Savior. Among the last words that he uttered were these: "Glory to God, I am ready to go."

"Mortals cry,

'A man is dead.'
Angels sing,-'A child is born!
Born into the world above.'
They our happy brother greet:

Bear him to the throne of love,

Place him at the Savior's feet:
Jesus smiles, and says' Well done.'"

REV. JAMES COVEL, A. M.

Messenger

Of grace, and light, and life, whose eye, unsealed,

Saw up the path of immortality,

Far into bliss, saw men, immortal men,

Wide wandering from the way."—POLLOCK.

This worthy man was a descendant of one of two brothers, who emigrated from England, at an early date in the history of this country. His paternal grandfather was a Baptist minister, whose wife was a Methodist. His maternal grandfather was a Methodist preacher in Asbury's times.

Both the parents of the subject of this sketch were pious; his father, James Covel, Sen., was a medical practitioner, and also one of the early Methodist preachers. He entered the itinerant ranks in 1791. In 1793,

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