with the hungry and thirsty in spirit. To himself his wife says, it was "as meat and drink to serve the Lord and His people." The scant details to be found of William Ellis's life are chiefly those recorded in his correspond*but a few brief memoranda were made by him during his outward voyage. He thus writes :

ence,

"Eleventh Month 9th, 1697-8.-We had a meeting, and through deep travail of mind the Lord answered, and filled my heart with the sense of the good things of His kingdom.

. . Now I see it is easy to drink the cup of sweetness and comfort, and many will be thankful to retain it; but to drink a bitter cup of exercise at the Lord's hand many are unwilling; yet it is good to labour to take it thankfully at the hand of the Lord: for those that do so in patience may be sure that the Lord will give them to drink of the cup of consolation."

The voyage was a perilous one, and the vessel narrowly escaped being wrecked when only two miles from Virginia. Very soon after landing the ministers set to work, and William Ellis's heart overflowed with gratitude and joy for opportunities granted and ability imparted to declare the tidings of salvation. And this blessed beginning to his labours confirms his trust that God will still afford him the aid of "His good presence, which has been," he writes, "my chiefest pleasure for many years. I often think in my heart that all is too little that I can do for the worthy name of God." Whilst surrounded by fresh scenes and interests the members of his own meeting are by no means lost sight of.

Only three days after writing his first American letter to his wife, he begins an epistle to the Monthly Meeting at Settle, in a postscript to which he asks his friends, when gathered together and feeling the Lord's power, to pray that he may be kept from dangers of every kind. In Virginia the travellers find many in a state of

*Life and Correspondence of William and Alice Ellis, of Airton. By James Backhouse, 1849.

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indifference, owing, William Ellis believed, to their own unwatchfulness, and to the absence of religious visits; indeed their hearts began to warm under the genial influence of the ministry of Aaron Atkinson and himself. Whilst in Virginia his life was in great danger, from a sudden squall whilst out in a boat, which he shared with eleven others. After telling Alice Ellis of this adventure, he adds: "Here is much travel by water, but I will take what care I can, and the rest must be committed to God." Meanwhile she cheers him by the invigorating tone of her letters, never doubting that the Lord, who had hitherto helped them, would still be their all-sufficient strength. So my dear love," she writes, "though we be far distant in body, yet, as we keep in the universal love of God, we are present in spirit and as near as ever. I cannot word the nearness I feel in remembrance of thee, which many times causes my soul to rejoice." And then she wins the reader's heart by the full expression of her fear lest he should be "drawn homeward over soon," and of her earnest hope that he will be "very careful to mind the drawing of the Father's love. When in sleep (she continues) methought I had been talking with thee, and saying, Take thy time, and perform thy service fully. Take no care of me as for outward things."" Another of her letters is thus ended: "I daily feel the shedding abroad of the love of God to fill my soul and to overcome my spirit, so that He makes up all wants, on all hands, on every account: such are His doings to those that serve Him with a willing mind. So, my dear love, let not the care thou hast for me lie over hard upon thee; only remember me in that bond which cannot be broken. And in this inexpressible love do I remain thy true and loving wife." We cannot wonder when her husband reminds her that he has ever found her true in his greatest trials.

6

Whilst the travellers were in North Carolina, some negroes were deeply impressed by their ministry.

Amongst the numerous letters which followed William Ellis to the New World-so much further off in those days than in our own, excepting only the numeration of miles were two or three from a Friend of Airton, named Adam Squire. He was probably several years younger than William Ellis, who reminds him in a letter, that he has told him of things for his good, as if "thou hadst been my son. And still (he adds) my counsel is to thee, to hold on in every good work, and let everybody have the benefit of thy love to the Truth." To his wife William Ellis writes: "I cannot express the good I had by Adam Squire's letter; tell him I say not much, but my deep desires are that he may be kept safe from the hurtful things of this world." Adam Squire wrote, it would seem, with the twofold aim of animating his friend by the manifestation of his deep spiritual sympathy, and of appealing to him for his prayerful aid.

My friend, whom I dearly love," he says, "in the everlasting Truth, I beg it of thee to pray unto the Lord in the secret of thy heart, that I may be preserved out of the snares of death. . . . . O that thou would call to mind when thou wast beset, as it were, with enemies within and without! and as thou patiently waitedst upon the Lord how He in His due time wrought thy deliverance every way; so that now thou art become free to the commonwealth of Israel; and then thou mayst remember me before the great Lord. . . . . I cannot word my desires in this respect, but believe thou hast a feeling sense of my condition, and that to thy private supplications the Lord will say, Amen."

Before attending the General Yearly Meeting for Pennsylvania, William Ellis and Aaron Atkinson were present at a Meeting of Ministers and Elders, of a week's duration,* held at the house of Samuel Jennings,

* In William Ellis's memoranda of this meeting, the following passages occur:-" Friends being met together, and the Lord's power and presence eminently attending the meeting, divers testimonies and cautions were delivered. . . . . Whereas it was the

of Burlington. Two other English Friends attended this meeting, Mary Rogers and Elizabeth Webb. The latter had been brought up as a member of the Church of England, and went to a school which was kept by a clergyman, who was very kind to her, and whom she greatly loved and respected; indeed, in her childhood, she thought that ministers of religion "resembled angels bringing glad tidings to the children of men.” She was, therefore, troubled and perplexed when, at at the age of fourteen, she noticed the frivolous conversation of the chaplain of a knight, in whose family she then resided. At this time she was very earnestly longing for an assurance of salvation: she thought of the promises made at her baptism, that she should renounce the devil and all his works, and the pomps and vanities of this wicked world-which had many attractions for her young heart—and felt her powerlessness to keep such vows.

Whilst seeking for aid from the Scriptures, she was struck by Christ's injunction, " Freely ye have received, freely give," as well as by the declaration that those who run when the Lord has not sent them should not profit the people at all. Child as she was, she pondered these things, and when reading Ezekiel xxiv. found much comfort in her soul-weariness from the promise that God will "bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick." She thought of how gladly she would have followed the Redeemer had she lived in the days when He was

way of the world to forget God, yet the Lord had gathered us to Himself, that we could not forget Him; for though we came poor and empty together, the Lord met us with a full hand. . . . . It was seldom but some things in these great meetings were offered that did hurt, wound, and grieve the honest-hearted and several cautions were given that it should not be so at this meeting, or for the future. The wisdom of God was to be waited for, therefore Friends were cautioned to wait for it in silence . . . . None should go before or stay behind the power of that which had called them."

personally on earth; not knowing, at this early period of life, the present and far greater privilege, open to the truly dedicated believer, of union with his risen Lord. The views which she had imbibed from the Bible with regard to ministry led her to the belief that she ought to give up her attendance at church; yet, perhaps from a fear of the surprise or displeasure of her friends, she did not act on this conviction, until driven to do so by her dread of what might be the consequence of a persistent disobedience to what she now felt was the will of God concerning her. Possibly the unusual course she took was passed lightly over as a girlish whim; at all events, we are not told that it brought her into trouble. It was, we may believe, a hard trial, also, to give heed to the heavenly voice, which called her to forsake vain habits and worldly society, until she realised that a Saviour's love could far more than compensate for all she might abandon at His bidding. "O Lord," was her frequent prayer, preserve me in Thy fear and in Thy Truth; show me Thy way, and make known Thy mind and will unto me. O Lord! where dost Thou feed Thy flock?"

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It is easy to imagine that in those days, as she herself says, "she walked alone." Three or four years earlier she had once or twice attended a Friends' meeting, and now the doctrine and even some of the words of a minister to whom she then listened came freshly to her remembrance. The mental development during this interval-for she was now about sixteen-and above all the teaching of the Holy Spirit, of which she had availed herself, led her to recognise the agreement between the teaching of the New Testament, and the leading views of Friends, which she more clearly understood after reading a little book on the subject. But the false pleasures with which the subtle enemy once more endeavoured to allure her from a steadfast adherence to Christ, had not yet lost the power to