same faithful reliance on His guidance,the same practical assurance that, He will give strength to His children, according to the requiring of the day; and we shall know now, as it was known then, that the Lord is "waiting to be gracious," waiting for ready hearts and willing minds, to which He would make known the greatness of His power, the riches of His grace, and the preciousness of His salvation.

H. C.

London,

8th Month, 1846.

MEMOIR

OF

JAMES PARNELL.

JAMES PARNELL was born at Retford, in Nottinghamshire, in 1637.* It is not easy to ascertain the precise station of life in which he moved. It is stated in the mittimus by which he was committed to Colchester Castle,

that he was a "labourer." He says of himself that he was engaged in his "outward calling," when he was not occupied in the service of Truth: and that "he challenged no property in the earth." It is hence probable, that his circumstances were humble. Our historian, Sewel, informs us that he was "trained up in the schools of literature;" a statement probably derived from a remark of James Parnell, that he was sent unto schools of human learning for to learn human

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*George Fox states that he was about 16, in 1653.— Journal, Leeds Edition, 231. And Stephen Crisp, that he was 18, in 1655.-His Testimony to James Parnell.

wisdom, for which end the schools are profitable." His writings, however, seem to indicate that, whilst he had received an education beyond the medium of that day, it was but limited; and it certainly was not extended beyond his fourteenth year. Henry Tuke, with good reason, supposes, the might have received instruction at the Grammar School at Retford; and it is highly probable, that the following remark of James Parnell had reference to the classical authors,

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'Many of the books which are read [in the schools of human learning] are much for the corrupting of youth, and nourishing the wild, profane nature, which then ruled in

He thus commences a short account, which he wrote whilst in Colchester Castle, of his religious experience;" First, I shall give the reader a declaration of the work of God in my soul, and the conversion of my heart from darkness unto His marvellous light; and from the power of satan unto God; and from the path of death into the path

*"Fruits of a Fast;" from which most of what follows, respecting his conversion, is derived.

of life, where I now walk in the light of my God, with the ransomed of the Lord, who are travelling towards the holy city: and also the cause of my coming forth into the world to declare the Truth, for which I now suffer bonds by the persecuting generation." He says that he was once a child of wrath, as all are by nature, and followed the vain courses and ways of the world. His wicked natural propensities were nourished by the education he received; so that, whilst at school, and after leaving it, the same depravity of heart remained, and he grew in sin, and continued to follow the sinful vanities of the world. He was trained up in the customary worship of the nation, and attended the service on First-days; but as his religious exercises were not associated with any real conversion of heart, and were undertaken in his own carnal will, he afterwards regarded them as mere idolatry.

But, even at this season, whilst estranged in his heart from God, and following the gratifications of the carnal mind, he was, from time to time, sensible of the visitations of heavenly light; not indeed, then known