evening for several weeks, during which Mr. Emerson preached some seventy sermons, and about one hundred were professedly converted to God, of whom between sixty and seventy united with the church of which he was pastor.

The following year he was appointed to the Northampton circuit, and in 1840, to Waterford. Some acts of kindness, shown him on his arrival at that pleasant village, gave him a happy impression of the character of our people in that place. A committee of the brethren met him at the depot, to welcome him and his family to the place, and provide temporary entertainment, while a committee of ladies attended to the cleansing and arranging of the parsonage. A preacher and his family, when arriving at a new appointment among strangers, appreciates such attentions. In some places, our people know how to "do up" such things handsomely, and in some places they do not. Mr. Emerson was much afflicted in person, and in his family, while at Waterford. He was returned a second year, and on the 18th of October, 1841, he was called to part with his beloved companion. She died in great peace.

In June, 1842, he was appointed to Lansingburgh. In November, of the same year, he married Miss Sarah Stead, a sister of his former wife. After the calls and

compliments of the occasion were

over, we find Mr.

Emerson laboriously engaged in his appropriate work, and an extensive revival followed. About one hundred and fifty persons were received into the church that year.

At the expiration of his term of service in Lansingburgh, he was appointed, in 1844, to Nassau, where he spent two years. During his residence there, he was twice thrown from his carriage with great violence; in one instance the carriage was almost a total wreck, yet

he was but slightly injured. In February, 1846, he was first attacked with that disease which was the bane of the last years of his life, an affection of the kidneys and bladder.

His next appointment was at the Third street mission, in Troy. He was called to suffer, rather than do the will of God, during this year. Soon after receiving the appointment, his disease assumed an aggravated form. Physicians of various schools, at home and abroad, were consulted in vain. An attack of fever and ague, which lasted from September to December, added to his suffering. Meanwhile, his companion, gradually declining in health, followed her sister to the spirit land. In life, she had been a devoted Christian; in death, she was calmly triumphant. By this stroke, which occurred January 7th, 1847, Mr. Emerson was left in charge of two small boys, the youngest of whom was only four months old, and his own health and strength were pros. trated, with no prospect of their ever being restored. While at Third street, he organized the Congress street church, consisting of members from the State street charge.

At the conference of June, 1847, he was compelled to take a superannuated relation. From that time to the close of his life, the writer knows but little of his history, except that it was a scene of great and almost unremitting suffering. In 1848, his relation to the conference was changed to that of supernumerary, and he was appointed to Canajoharie. About this time, he formed a marriage alliance with Miss Ann Eliza Williams, of the above-named place, in whom he found a most amiable and worthy companion. After having shared and mitigated his sufferings, as none but an affectionate and devoted wife could, she survives him,

to cherish his memory, and rear his offspring for God and heaven.

In 1849, he took an effective relation, and was stationed at Schuylerville, and in 1850, was appointed to Greenbush. After having attempted to serve the church in that relation, for two years, amid great and increasing bodily infirmities, he again entered the superannuated list in 1851, in which relation he continued until called to exchange worlds.

The last few months of his life were spent in Wallingford, Vt., where he supplied, as far as his strength permitted, two destitute congregations; one in Wallingford, and the other in Danby, his native town. He delighted in the work of the ministry, and it was his, almost literally, to

"Cease at once to work and live."

On the last sabbath but one that he spent on earth, he preached twice, attended a funeral on Monday, another on Wednesday, and still another on Friday. From this last funeral he returned home on Saturday, completely prostrated. On sabbath he was unable to leave his bed, and on the following Thursday, April 22, 1853, he found a happy and everlasting deliverance from the sufferings of mortality. He has been heard repeatedly to say, that for seven years he had not known an hour of uninterrupted freedom from pain. During his last short sickness, he was able to converse but very little. He said enough, however, to satisfy his friends that God was with him.

REV. RICHARD GRIFFIN,

Comparatively little is known of the history of this young ambassador of Christ. He was born in the city of Dublin, Ireland; he experienced the pardoning mercy of God when about eighteen years of age, and made himself useful in his native country, as a sabbath school teacher, tract distributor, and local preacher.

Believing it to be his duty to devote his life to the sacred calling, and learning that this country afforded an extensive field of usefulness, he emigrated to the United States; and in 18-19 was received on probation by the Troy Conference. In due time, having acquitted himself honorably in the several examinations prescribed by the church, he graduated to deacon's, and subsequently to elder's orders.

Ballston, Luzerne, Fairhaven, Winooski and Pittsford circuits were the scenes of his labors. He died at East Pittsford, Vt., July 1, 1853, aged 30 years.

He was unmarried, and the writer is not aware of his having any relatives this side of the waters that separate the old world from the new. Here, in a land of comparative strangers, to which he had come to preach the gospel of Christ, he found an early, lonely grave. No friend of his youth watched over him in his last sickness, or closed his eyes in death; but God was with him in his last conflict, and all was well. Of the home of his childhood and his early associations, nothing is known, save that a brother of his is a member of the Irish Wesleyan Conference.

Rev. L. D. Sherwood, who was his colleague on Luzerne circuit, speaks of his labors having been conducive to a gracious revival on that charge. He repr

sents him, as do others who knew him, as a pious, consistent, promising young man, and a good preacher. Rev. D. W. Daton, his colleague on Pittsford circuit, bears testimony to his worth and gives some account of the closing scene of his life. "His religion," he writes, "was a steady flame, that warmed as well as enlightened. His sermons were always sensible and judicious, frequently discovering much thought and reading, and were addressed to the heart and conscience. The sickness that terminated his life was of short duration, and so severe as to prevent his leaving that transporting testimony which the departing Christian, under less acute suffering, is generally enabled to do. The writer had the privilege of visiting him almost every day. Generally, when I approached him, I found him engaged in prayer, and when interrogated about the state of his mind, he replied in strong terms, that Christ was precious. At a subsequent period, he said, "O, I thank God, I am happy!" His feelings overpowered him so that he could say no more. After this, his disorder was so violent, and his dissolution was approaching so ra. pidly, that my visits were useless to him, but they were not so to me. About eleven days after he was taken ill, he closed his eyes to earthly scenes, to open them in

heaven."

There is something mournfully affecting in the thought of his being cut down so soon, and that too at a time when "the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few." We are reminded that God's thoughts are not our thoughts, nor his ways our ways.