our desire of immortality, and of our desire to confer immortality. We think the dead are living, and we call them to mind by monumental inscriptions. We perpetuate their history as long as possible by gathering up into some short, pithy, pungent sentence or entences the gist of their characters, to engrave on stone-an emblem of durability. The scholars of Linus, the Theban poet, composed after his death some verses in lamentation on their deceased master. These verses were called Elinum. Similar verses were called Epitaphia, because sung at funerals and engraved upon sepulchres. The composition of such verses is a very ancient practice. The Athenians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the French were accustomed to inscribe over the dead some terse expression of good-will. The Lacedemonians granted epitaphs only to those who died in battle, and the Spartans only to their great men. Tombstones are of ancient use in Britain, but Pope Gregory in the year 590 authorised relatives to erect tablets on the tombs of their friends. Christianity soon gave rise to the custom of putting some expression of faith or hope, some simple record of affection on almost every Christian's tomb. Proof of this is afforded in the catacombs of Rome, where many of the early Christians sought refuge from their persecutors, and where they were both baptized and buried, their whole lives being spent in those dark subterranean passages. After death, the relatives buried the body in niches in the sides of the passages, and then closed up the mouth with bricks or tiles. Inscribed on these are the brie records of these great and noble martyrs, such as :— "In Christ ALEXANDER is not dead, but lives beyond the stars, and his body rests in this tomb." "TASARIS, in Christ, the first and the last." "SABBATIA is departed in the sleep of peace." "Here in peace rests LAURENTIA, who believed the resurrection." 99 66 How eagerly those noble souls, driven from their homes and torn from their friends in those persecuting times, turned to the dream of "peace!"-" Here in peace; Sleep of peace." And what wonderful power of consolation that grand doctrine of the resurrection had in those days of real faith and thorough devotion ! "Who believed the resurrection." With regard to monuments and monumental inscriptions the customs of Christian nations markedly contrast with the customs of superstitious and idolatrous nations. In Africa the monuments are sometimes elephants' tusks planted at the head of the grave, sometimes all round it-sometimes the broken implements of the deceased -sometimes mounds of stones in the shape of a haycock, surmounted with drinking and cooking utensils of rude pottery. Only where faith in a future life lends a sacredness to the present life, only where the spirit is believed to exist after death, is the body treated with reverence, and natural affection seeks to raise same monument to the memory of the departed those good souls, emblemed by the cloud" cradl'd near the setting sun," and which every "breath of eve" wafts "to the beauteous west "To whose white robe the gleam of bliss is given, Right onward to the golden gates of heaven: And tells to man his glorious destinies." Very naturally, being Methodists, our thoughts recur first to the grave of John Wesley. He was born at Epworth, June 17th, 1703, his father being rector at the time. He was rescued from the fire at the rectory when six years of age; took his M.A. degree in 1727; and was ordained priest in 1728. Soon afterwards he began that evangelistic work which has spread so marvellously that now there are twelve to fourteen millions of people in the world who call themselves Methodists. In 1753 Mr. Wesley became so seriously ill that he wrote his own epitaph as follows: "Here lieth The Body of JOHN WESLEY, A Brand plucked out of the Burning, Who died of a Consumption in the fifty-first year of his age, Praying, 'God be merciful to me an unprofitable servant.' " It were a curious problem to consider why a man of John Wesley's character should think fit to record in his epitaph the fact that he did not leave ten pounds behind him, after paying his debts. Was it that he was by principle generous to self-forgetfulness, or that he thus protected himself from unjust aspersions ? That sickness passed away; but a sickness unto death seized him thirty-eight years afterwards. On the morning of March 2nd, 1791, he kept saying "The best of all is, God is with us; then with a whispered "Farewell, farewell!" he passed through the gates whilst Joseph Bradford was repeating, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and this heir of glory shall come in." He died in his own house, close to City Road Chapel, London, and as he lay dying he desired to be buried in nothing but woollen, and that his body might be carried in the coffin into the chapel. This was done, and for a whole day John Wesley lay in state, about 10,000 people seizing the opportunity to look their last upon his lovely face. On the morning of the 9th of March, at five o'clock, it being yet dark, he was buried by. torchlight and lamplight, in a vault in the chapel graveyard, a vault which his own forethought had prepared for himself and for the London preachers. "I particularly desire," he wrote, "there may be no hearse, no coach, no escutcheon, no pomp, except the tears of those, that loved me and are following me to Abraham's bosom." And the tears of those who loved him he had in abundance, for as the Rev. John Richardson, reading the Burial Service, came to the words, "Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God to take unto Himself the soul of "-here he changed the word "brother" to "father," at which the crowd wept. His coffin bore the simple inscription : JOHANNES WESLEY, A.M., "JOHN WESLEY, M.A., Formerly Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, Mr. Stevenson, in his "History of City Road Chapel," a most interesting work to all lovers of Methodism, states that Mr. Wesley's tomb is enclosed in a strong iron railing, and is kept in good repair. An elder-tree grows at the north-east corner of the tomb, from which many cuttings have been planted in different parts of the world. The inscription on the monument over his remains is the same in substance as that which Dr. Adam Clarke wrote with a diamond on a pane of glass in his study window in Manchester, on hearing of the death of Mr. Wesley, and is as follows: "To the memory of The Venerable JOHN WESLEY, A.M., This great light arose, By the singular providence of God, The pure apostolical doctrines and practices of the Which he continued to do, both by his writings and his labours, Not only beheld their influence extending, In the hearts and lives of many thousands, By the singular grace of God, Reader! if thou art constrained to bless the instrument, After having languished a few days, he at length finished His course And his life together; Gloriously triumphing over death, In the eighty-eighth year of his age." Near the close of 1800 a tablet with an inscription composed by Dr. John Whitehead was placed within the communion rails of City Road Chapel, giving a more full account of his extraordinary labours in the Gospel than is given in his monumental inscription. When the vault in which Mr. Wesley was buried was filled up in 1828 by the interment of a London preacher, his coffin was found to have decayed. His remains were consequently put into a strong oak coffin enclosed in a stone sarcophagus, and the vault was finally closed. Thousands of pilgrims have visited the grave of John Wesley. Eighty years after his death, according to Mr. Stevenson, Dean Stanley, his wife, and her Majesty's Secretary for the Home Department visited the City Road graveyard. "Is this consecrated ground?” inquired the Dean. "Yes," replied the chapel-keeper. "By what bishop?" "By depositing in it the remains of that venerable man of God John Wesley," was the rejoinder. "A very good answer," responded the Dean. Charles Wesley, the sweet singer of Methodism, was born at Epworth, December 18th, 1708. He had the honour of being the first who was called "Methodist." He has left us upwards of six thousand hymns, many of which, to use the language of the inscription on the tablet erected to his memory in City Road Chapel, "will convey instruction and consolation to the faithful in Christ Jesus as long as the English language shall be understood." He died March 29th, 1788, aged eighty years. When the news of his death reached City Road Chapel, a good woman exclaimed, "Ah! who will poetry for us now!" His sympathies for the Church of England were so strong as not to allow him to take any part in the burials in City Road Chapel graveyard, nor would he think of being buried there himself, because the ground was unconsecrated. He was therefore buried in the old parish church of Marylebone, close to where he lived. His wife and two sons were laid in the same grave. John Susannah Wesley, the mother of John and Charles, was an extraordinary woman. She was born in Spital Square, half a mile from the Foundry. She married in early life, and after her husband's death, lived chiefly with her son John at his house in City Road, where she died of gout, July 23rd, 1742, aged seventy-three years. hurried from Bristol to see her die, and says, "I found my mother on the borders of eternity; but she had no doubt or fear, nor any desire but to depart and be with Christ." Her request was, "Children, as soon as I am released, sing a psalm of praise to God." The psalm of praise was sung immediately after her death. They interred her in Bunhill Fields Cemetery, in the afternoon of August 1st. Her epitaph is as follows: "Here lies the body of Mrs. SUSANNAH WESLEY (widow of the Rev. SAMUEL WESLEY, M.A., late rector of Epworth, Lincolnshire), who died July 23rd, 1742, aged seventy-three years. "She was the youngest daughter of the Rev. Samuel Annesley, D.D., ejected by the Act of Uniformity from the Rectory of St. Giles', Cripplegate, August 24th, 1662. "She was the mother of nineteen children, of whom the most eminent were the Rev. John and Charles Wesley; the former of whom was, under God, the Founder of the Societies of the people called Methodists. "In sure and certain hope to rise, And claim her mansion in the skies, A Christian here her flesh laid down The cross exchanging for a crown. "True daughter of affliction, she, Inured to pain and misery, Mourn'd a long night of grief and fears A legal night of seventy years. "The Father then revealed His Son, Him in the broken bread made known; She knew and felt her sins forgiven, And found the earnest of her heaven, "Meet for the fellowship above, She heard the call, Arise, my love!' 'I come!' her dying looks replied, And lamb-like, as our Lord, she died." A monument to her memory was erected in City Road Chapel on December 19th, 1870, the inscription on which is in substance the same as her epitaph. F Many eminent men carried forward the work begun by John Wesley, as Dr. Adam Clarke, Dr. Coke, Robert Newton, Joseph Benson, Richard Watson, Dr. Bunting, &c., all of whom have been rightly considered worthy of a memorial tablet in the City Road Chapel. Adam Clarke was born in the village of Moybeg, Londonderry, Ireland, in 1760. He died suddenly of cholera at Bayswater, August 26th, 1832, aged seventy-two years, and was buried in the graveyard of City Road Chapel, close to Mr. Wesley. His son John threw a ball of earth into his grave at the funeral, which included some hair of each member of the family, in accordance with an old Irish custom. The inscription reads :— "Sacred to the memory of ADAM CLARKE, LL.D., F.A.S., who rested from his labours, August 26th, 1832, aged seventy-two years." Joseph Benson was born at Melmerby, Cumberland, January 25th, 1748. In early life he became connected with John Wesley. After writing many works, he died in the Chapel Yard, City Road. The inscription on his tomb is as follows: "In memory of the With indefatigable diligence and apostolic zeal, Scriptural, comprehensive, and practical in his discourses, Crowned his endeavours with signal success And building up believers in their most holy faith. A man of solid learning and an eminent Divine. Even when the infirmities of nature rapidly advanced, Both as a writer and preacher, Till he was summoned to receive his reward, Richard Watson, born at Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire, February 22nd, 1781, for a season united himself with the Methodist New Connexion, but returned to the old body in 1812, and did much to spread the truth by his preaching and writings. The inscription on his tomb reads as follows: |