In 1834 he happily married the present Mrs. Clark, who, having shared his joys and sorrows for a lengthened period, was permitted to watch over and tend him during his fatal affliction. In the year 1852 he retired from business; and from that time until incapacitated by disease for active service, gave himself up more fully to labour for Christ and His cause. For twenty years he filled with ability and unflagging zeal the office of treasurer to the Southwark Chapel Trust. It may be honestly affirmed that to the management of this business he devoted as much thought and care as to his own personal interests. He took "pleasure in the stones" of the sanctuary, and "favoured the dust" thereof. At a special meeting of the trustees, held after his decease, the following Resolution was passed, and forwarded to his widow :— "The trustees now assembled feel it their duty to record the high sense they entertain of the valuable services rendered to the Trust by their late treasurer; to whose unremitting care and diligence, for the whole period of twenty years, during which he held that important office, they are mainly indebted for the prosperous condition in which the Trust is placed at the present time." It cannot be said that he always saw eye to eye with his brethren in the conduct of the affairs of the Church, but his uprightness and conscientiousness were unquestionable. During his last illness he spoke with thankful surprise of the manner in which God had condescended to use him ;-how God's people had recognized his labours; and with great humility, tenderness, and charity expressed regret for all that at any time might have seemed unkind in his language or unyielding in his conduct.

It is known that Mr. Clark was present at and registered upwards of a thousand baptisms, and officiated in the burial at Southwark of more than a thousand persons. These opportunities were generally seized by him to speak a word for his Lord and Master. In business, too, he was always decided, prompt, and energetic, seldom or never leaving till to-morrow the work of to-day. As a son he was affectionately devoted to his parents, who held him up before their grandchildren as a model of truthfulness, obedience, and filial love. In the superintendence of the Sunday-school, an office he filled for many years, he had the confidence and esteem of his brethren and fellow-workers. He possessed the not common power of being able to interest the minds and command the attention of children. He dearly loved the little ones; and they, as might be expected, loved him in return. With their tiny hands within his, or seated on his knee, they were happy. The elder ones, the girls especially, frequently sought his advice, and solicited an interest in his prayers.

In 1851 Mr. Clark consented to take the office of Circuit-steward,

and in reference to the Connexional events of the previous year, and to the Southwark Circuit particularly, he observes, "My faith in God and my love to Methodism were greatly tried. Our members rapidly decreased, our ministers were reviled and insulted; but the closer I was brought to them the more I was convinced of their piety and uprightness, and resolved to stand by them." Mr. Clark, senior, a little while before his death said to his son, the subject of this memoir, "Thou wilt live to see good days at Southwark yet, my boy." The remark was the offspring of faith, hope, and prayer, and was in due time blessedly fulfilled. A band of good men and true did stand by the cause of God and by His ministers, and were permitted to see the gradual revival of the work which they had at heart; the spacious and venerable chapel became crowded, scarcely a sitting being unlet, and great peace and prosperity prevailing in all her borders.

During one period of his life, and for several successive years, he was accustomed, in the prosecution of his business, to make frequent excursions to country places. On these occasions it was his invariable practice to search out the Methodist chapel, and to associate with God's people in their week-night services; and if of necessity he was absent from Southwark on the Lord's day, he never failed to visit the Sabbath-school or schools in the place where he was staying. His chief interest, however, was at Southwark, to which he devoted himself unsparingly.

He was a member of the General Educational Committee, which, after his death, adopted and forwarded to Mrs. Clark the following Resolution, with the assurance of its deep and prayerful sympathy :-"The Committee has heard with much regret of the death of Mr. I. H. Clark, of Southwark, who, in addition to his abundant labours in connection with the various offices in Methodism which from time to time were entrusted to him, has for many years eminently promoted the cause of Wesleyan education by his efforts in both day and Sabbath-schools, and by his constant attendance, his practical counsels, and ready help in the business of the General Educational Committee. Of that Committee he was one of the oldest members, and the memory of his diligence and godliness will be gratefully cherished."

In the year 1865 the jubilee of Mr. Clark's connection with Southwark Chapel was celebrated, when a handsome and valuable timepiece was presented to him. Services connected therewith were commenced on the Sunday afternoon, when the Sabbath scholars assembled to hear an appropriate address. On the Monday following, about seven hundred members of the Society and friends took tea together, after which the presentation was made. On the following Tuesday, tea was provided for the children

of the schools, who were afterwards addressed by the resident minister and other gentlemen. The excitement consequent upon these scenes, and the affectionate and hearty greeting of those whom he loved so well, and amongst whom he had resided for so long a time, were almost too much for him to bear. They furnished, however, additional and powerful motives for a yet fuller dedication of himself to the service and glory of God. Soon after this his health began to fail; one duty and office after another had to be given up. He clung to his class and the Sabbath-school as long as it was possible for him to leave his house, but finally, even these spheres of happy toil, so tenaciously occupied, had to pass into the hands, and to be placed under the care, of his successors. It was thus that Mr. Clark, with restless activity and unquenchable zeal, lived and laboured. The "day" so well and fully employed, is now, however, "far spent." Friends and companions, yoked together in the service of the great Master, take their leave of him, sorrowing that they "shall see his face no more." His children come and go, hoping against hope to see him yet again in the flesh; and his grandchildren too, so tenderly loved, group around his bed to receive his blessing, take a last look, and whisper "farewell." It would seem that sometimes the enemy of souls had tempted him to a confidence in his own many good works, instead of exercising a complete and exclusive reliance in Christ. But those who watched him during his protracted affliction could not fail to observe that the process through which he was called to pass was, by the sanctifying grace of God, chastening his spirit and maturing him for the kingdom of heaven. He now disclaimed all reliance upon what he had done, and, with tears streaming from his eyes, deplored imperfections of motive and performance, declaring his only trust to be in the Lord Jesus. When his disease was pronounced incurable, he remarked to one of his daughters, "I am going to leave you; although I do not want to go yet. I should like to live, to work a little longer for Christ,-I have done the work so imperfectly; how imperfectly God only knows! I have been very happy in it." A letter of sympathy from the Southwark Quarterly Meeting having been read to him, he said, "O! how kind. What am I, that they should remember me thus ? -a poor, unprofitable servant. How it humbles me." It was observed, "You have laboured hard and long for the cause of God," when he replied, "O that it had been less for self and more for the glory of God! It was my joy to work, but now I have only to suffer and to wait." One day he was observed in tears, and when the cause was inquired, he said, "I have been in conflict with the enemy all night. But it is all over now; the conquest is gained. O, what a view of the Saviour I have had! and what

But

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peace I now enjoy! Surely, it became Him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.' Even so: it is enough that the servant be as his Lord.' As his last day was approaching, and he became almost too exhausted to speak, he said to Mrs. Clark, "I cannot talk much now; but I lie and look at you, and think of the time when you will be left alone. There is only one thing,-live very near to Christ. O, that I had lived nearer to Him!" His sufferings increasing, he became at last almost anxious to depart. "O, he would say, "that my message would come to-day! Come, Lord Jesus, and take me home, but give me patience. Bless the Lord, I feel Jesus very precious: I want more joy. But I thank God I have solid peace: I am resting on the Rock."

A day or two before his departure, he said to his wife, "Kneel down; I think I can pray." He began by praising God with all his strength, and then with surprising energy and earnestness poured out his soul in prayer for his wife, his children, and children's children: for the Church, that it might be pure and holy; for the ministers of God, that they might be clothed as with fire; and then in a few sentences committed himself, ‘body, soul, and spirit,' to God. This was his last effort. He often gave thanks to God that He had heard his prayers in behalf of his children, and he believed he should meet them all in heaven. On Friday evening, January 7th, 1870, after suffering great agony, he quietly and suddenly passed away to the skies: "He was not, for God took him:"

"Like a ripe shock of corn laid up

In season due, for God mature,
He kept the faith, held fast his hope,

And made his crown through suffering sure."

At his funeral, which took place on the following Friday, a large assembly was gathered together in the Southwark Chapel to testify their regard for one who for more than half a century had gone in and out among them bearing an unsullied and dignified Christian character. His remains were interred at Nunhead Cemetery, and on the following Sunday evening the mournful event was improved by the Rev. Levi Waterhouse, from the appropriate text, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them." It only remains to be added that a tablet, provided at the expense of the Southwark leaders and other friends, and bearing a suitable inscription, has been placed immediately over the pew where, for fifty-five years, he was accustomed to sit during Divine worship.

THE CONFLICT AND CAPTIVITY:

OR, THE LAW OF THE MIND AND THE LAW IN THE MEMBERS.

AN EXPOSITION OF ROMANS VII. 21-23.

"I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of gin which is in my members."

No doubt St. Paul is here depicting a state which was evolved in his own painful experience. Yet, as the whole object of his argument is to set forth the inability of the law to effect that liberation from sin which is triumphantly accomplished by the Gospel, it is equally obvious that he is not describing his present experience as an established Christian, but that through which he passed when, first awakened to the consciousness of sin, he was earnestly striving, in a purely legal spirit, to conquer liberty and virtue for himself. The result was with him, as it has been with countless thousands since, an humiliating failure. His review of the whole matter is thus summed up: "I find then this law," a law pertaining to the constitution, character, and conditions of my present existence, "that, when I would do good, evil is present with me." The ideal good, the high, and noble, and generous, and holy character which my mind approves, upon which my heart is set, and for the attainment and exemplification of which I inwardly long, cannot be won by me but as the result of a painful, perpetual, and most vigilant contest; a contest to which I find myself unequal. "For the good that I would, I do not; 'but the evil which I would not, that I do."

That is the general statement of the case. The next point is to indicate the nature and seat of the conflicting principles or laws out of which the distressing internal strife springs; that law which causes him wistfully, but unsuccessfully, to aspire after the good, and that other law which brings him into bondage to that which is evil. Both these laws pertain to his present constitution. The one is the law of the mind, approving of, and delighting in, the law of God. The other is the law in the members, the law of the animal constitution, which prompts to present personal support and gratification altogether irrespectively of the demands of both the law of God and the law of the mind. The result of the contest between these two laws, in the mere legalist, is that the law in the members prevails against the law of the mind, and brings the whole man into captivity to the law of sin which is now also in the members.

Let us contemplate more closely these several particulars. We