MEMOIRS,

&c. &c. &c.

CHAPTER I.

Birth-Parentage-Education-Conversion to God-Usefulness as a Sunday-School Teacher, Exhorter, and Member of his own Family-Becomes a Local Preacher -Plan for the spiritual Edification of his Sisters-Turns his Attention exclusively to the Ministry-Admission to the Baptist Academy-Increasing Desires after personal and family Piety-Continued Zeal for the Salvation of Sinners-Recommended to travel by the Bristol Quarterly and District Meetings -Devotes Himself to the Missionary Work-Prevented by his Friends from going Abroad-Remarkable Instance of Depravity in three profligate YouthsLeaves the Baptist Academy.

THE subject of the present Memoir, was born in the city of Bristol, April 25th, 1799. He was the second son of parents who were pious from their youth; his Father being a member of the Wesleyan Methodist Society, and his Mother'a Baptist, connected with the church of the late venerable Dr. Ryland, in Broadmead, Bristol.

In consequence of the decided piety of both his parents, William, together with a numerous family, was carefully educated in the nurture and admonition of the Lord;' and the result was, that the whole of them, while yet young, joined themselves to God and his people in Christian fellowship; though it is somewhat singular, that they all became Methodists.

B

Nothing particular distinguished the earlier years of William, except a peculiar ardour of disposition, which often led him into evils of a very serious nature, one of the worst of which was an extraordinary propensity to prevarication and falsehood; this, notwithstanding all the admonitions and corrections of his parents, grew to such a height, that none of the family could rely upon his word, when unsupported by other evidence: in his case therefore there was a most painful exemplification of the language of the Psalmist The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.'

When between seven and eight years of age, he was sent to a day-school in Bristol; but his father shortly afterwards saw it necessary to remove him in consequence of the wildness of his habits, and those of the associates with whom he was invincibly connected. On this account therefore, in the year 1808, he was sent to the classical Academy of his uncle, the late Rev. John Cherry, who was pastor of the Baptist Church, at Wellington in Somersetshire, upwards of thirty years, and who was in the habit of receiving a select number of pupils.

He had been at this school between three and four years, when in the month of February 1812, he was deeply convinced of his awful alienation from God and exposure to eternal wrath. The immediate cause of this happy circumstance was his witnessing the ordinance of adult baptism administered by his uncle to several persons, among whom was a youth but a few years older than himself. The convictions of his mind on that occasion were greatly strengthened by an awful dream respecting the day of judgment which he had almost immediately afterwards.

He began at once to seek the Lord with all his heart; but being at that time situated among a body of professing Christians, who, though of unquestionable piety, did not teach the doctrine of the direct witness of the Spirit, he remained for many months the victim of the most distressing anxieties respecting the favour of God.

The sanguine temperament of his mind at first disposed him to enter with all his soul, into the various peculiarities of that system of theology which was adopted and taught by the people among whom he was awakened; and it cost him a long time of painful struggling, even after he had left Wellington, (which took place in the course of the same year,) before he could summon sufficient courage to examine for himself the scheme of general redemption.

He had unhappily contracted a prejudice very common among Calvinists against Arminianism, respecting the doctrine of good works, supposing that the latter system taught justification before God, either in whole or in part, by the deeds of the law. When however he had gradually, though slowly, perceived his error; and discovered that the

CONVERSION TO GOD.

Wesleyan Methodists built the foundation of their hopes upon the exclusive merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, he gladly united himself to them, joining the class of which his Father had been for many years the leader. This was somewhere about August 1813.

From this time, though still without a satisfactory evidence of the favour of God, he endeavoured to walk in all the ordinances of the Lord blameless,' eventually embracing all the peculiar sentiments of those with whom he had united in Christian fellowship.

In the May of the following year, his elder brother, who had previously manifested the greatest aversion to the restraints of religion, and the regularity of his Father's domestic government, was suddenly and powerfully awakened in a private prayer-meeting, under the roof of the late excellent Mrs. Stevens, widow of the Rev. William Stevens, at Kingswood Hill, whither he had been drawn by the gracious Providence of God, after intruding himself, contrary to the wishes of his Father, into a love-feast held in the Kingswood chapel. As soon as the intelligence of this unexpected circumstance had reached the ears of William, with fraternal regard he betook himself to his brother's chamber, where he found the distressed prodigal overwhelmed with confusion at his past sins, and horror at his present situation. Not satisfied with enjoying the sight, he immediately began to point the criminal to the Lamb of God, concluding with an earnest petition upon his knees, for the salvation of his guilty brother's soul: after which, marking with feelings of indescribable interest, the agony of the penitent's mind, he retired with this reflection-'If I do not take care, Aquila after all will obtain mercy before myself, who have sought it so long.' This induced him to redouble his diligence in private at a throne of Grace, and the consequence was, as might have been expected, that he did not long remain without the blessing he sought; so true is the word of the Lord-' Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.'

On the following Sabbath, June 5, 1814, the two brothers, being yet without a clear sense of the Divine favour, resolved to visit the above mentioned Lady at her dwelling, to implore advice. When they had arrived and made known their errand, Mrs. S., whose sole delight was to spend and to be spent for the glory of her God, immediately assembled her family for the purpose of besieging a throne of Grace; here they had not waited long, before the Spirit descended in a glorious manner, and at the same moment liberated both the prostrate penitents: then it was that for the first time, they'rejoiced with joy unspeakable, and full of glory,' for the Spirit himself bore witness with their spirits that they were the children of God.' They immediately rose to praise the God of their salvation, and both

delightfully experienced that he had bound up the broken-hearted, proclaimed liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison doors to them that were bound;' and that he had appointed unto them that mourned in Sion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.'

Before his removal from Wellington, and almost immediately on his return to Bristol, William had been engaged in the important office of teacher in a Sunday-School, in which he had laboured with much diligence and punctuality; but now that the Lord had set his soul at complete liberty from the guilt of sin, scarcely any thing could exceed the zeal by which he was instigated; for although he was little more than fifteen years of age, he commenced his career of public usefulness. He began by addressing his own class of scholars collectively and individually on the all important concerns of eternity; and such was his success, that the majority of his boys began in full earnest to seek the Lord, and many found peace; among whom was one who is now regularly travelling in the connexion as a Methodist Missionary. But this was a sphere much too contracted for William's soul; by permission therefore of the Superintendent of the school he proceeded to address the whole of the boys in public, and so extraordinary was the impression produced upon their tender minds, that it seemed as though they were universally determined to give themselves to the Lord ;scores were seen together crying for mercy, and many were heard rejoicing in a sense of pardoning love.

This of course soon attracted attention, and the result was, that the various Superintendents of the other schools in connexion with the Bristol Methodist Society, solicited his assistance in addressing and praying with the precious young immortals committed to their charge; and so extensive were the operations of the Spirit at that time upon the hearts of the children, that out of seventeen schools, the whole number, there was scarcely one that did not present a similar scene to that already described. In these engagements William had indeed many co-adjutors, through whose instrumentality much of this good was effected, but it was evident to all that he was one of the principal agents in the work;-nor was that work by any means confined to the children, for many of the teachers themselves, who were previously undecided for God, were thenceforward induced to enquire the way to Sion, with their faces thitherward.'

It was impossible that a person whose talents for public usefulness were so conspicuous, and whose efforts had been crowned with such early success, could remain long confined to the comparatively secluded engagements of a Sunday-School Teacher, however important or honourable those engagements might be. William therefore grad