elt quite young; but upon the
whole, I doubt whether the means which have been so successful in the
past in renewing my strength, can be of much use any longer to "stave
off" old age. A medical gentleman here from Port Rowan said yesterday, I
looked the perfection of health at my age; but my strength I feel
already to be "labour and sorrow." So true are the words of inspiration
to practical life.

* * * * *

The union question having been carried, and the General Conference
established, that body met in Toronto in September, 1874. Speaking of it
Dr. Ryerson said:--In 1874 I was elected the first President of the
first General Conference of the Methodist Church of Canada; consisting
of an equal number of ministers and laymen, and representing the several
Annual Conferences of the Dominion of Canada.

On his return home from the General Conference held in Toronto in 1874,
Hon. L. A. Wilmot, a former Judge, and late Lieutenant-Governor of New
Brunswick, wrote to Dr. Ryerson a note, in which he said:--How can we
ever repay you and your dear family for the warm-hearted hospitality and
the intellectual repast we so much enjoyed while with you? To me it is
much more than a sunny memory, as you have so enriched me with treasures
of thought, and words of wisdom. Really, I long to see you again, and I
cannot express to you the pleasure it will afford us to welcome you all
to our suburban home. We have room enough for you all, and sincerely do
we pray that we may all be spared to meet again. [Mr. Wilmot has since
then gone home to his reward.]

CHAPTER LXIV.

1875-1876.

Correspondence with Rev. J. Ryerson, Dr. Punshon, etc.

Dr. Ryerson went up to Simcoe to preach the anniversary sermons there,
in December, 1874, and hoped to have gone to Brantford to see his
brother John, but was prevented. He therefore wrote to him a New Year's
letter, on the 3rd January, 1875: I have often prayed for you, thinking
sometimes that I was even praying with you. We have spoken of you more
than once during the recent holiday salutations and good wishes, and
have wished you happy returns of this season of kindly greetings and
renewed friendships.

I feel to bless God that during the last several weeks I have
experienced, in a deeper and brighter degree than I ever experienced
before, "the love of Christ which passeth all knowledge." The pages of
God's book seem to shine with a brighter lustre and a more luminous,
comprehensiv