BOOK 4

PREVIOUS CHAPTER - NEXT CHAPTER - HELP     

Bible Library Software Forex Trading Software NT/OT Audio Bible eBook Business

BRADFORD (WILTS) CIRCUIT, 1782-3

This circuit extended into three counties, Wilts, Somerset, and Dorset, and contained at that time the following places: Bradford, Trowbridge, Shaftsbury, Motcomb, Fontmill, Follard, Winsley, Shepton Mallet, Kingston Deverell, Longbridge Deverell, Bradley, Frome, Corsley, Buckland, Coalford, Holcomb, Oak-hill, Bruton, West Pennard, Alhampton, Ditcheat, Freshford, Seend, Melksham, Devizes, Pottern, Sandy Lane, Broomham, Wells, Walton, and Road; — more than one place for every day in the month; and the Preachers rarely stopped two days in the same place, and were almost constantly on horseback. This circumstance was advantageous to a young preacher, who could not be supposed to have any great variety of texts or of matter, and consequently not able as yet to minister constantly to the same congregation. But, as Adam Clarke diligently read the scriptures, prayed much, and endeavored to improve his mind, he added by slow degrees to his stock, and was better qualified to minister each time of his coming round his circuit.

His youth was often a grievous trial to him; and was the subject of many perplexing reasonings; he thought, “How can I expect that men and women, persons of forty, threescore, or more years, will come out to hear a boy preach the gospel! And is it likely, if through curiosity they do come, that they will believe what I say! As to the young they are too gay and giddy, to attend to divine things; and if so, among whom lies the probability of my usefulness?” — In every place, however, the attendance was good, at least equal to that with which his fellow laborers were favored; and the people in every place treated him with the greatest kindness. He was enabled to act so that no man despised his youth; and the very circumstance which he thought most against him, was that precisely from which he gained his greatest advantages.

When the little boy, as he was called, came to any place to preach, the congregations were always respectable, and in many places unusually large: and it soon appeared, that the Divine Spirit made the solemn truths he spoke, effectual to the salvation of many souls.

One circumstance relative to this, should not be omitted. Road, a country village between Trowbridge and Frome, was one of the places which belonged to his circuit: but it was so circumstanced that only two out of the four preachers, could serve it during the quarter: and when the next quarter came, the other two took their places. As Mr. C. came late into the circuit, as has been already noticed, it did not come to his turn to visit that place before the spring of 1783. The congregations here were very small, and there were only two or three who had the name of Methodists in the place. Previously to his coming, the report was very general that, “a little boy was to preach in the Methodists’ chapel at such a time:” and all the young men and women in the place were determined to hear him. He came, and the place long before the time, was crowded with young persons of both sexes, from fourteen to twenty-five; very few elderly persons could get in, the house being filled before they came. He preached, the attention was deep and solemn, and though crowded the place was as still as death.

After he preached he gave out that very affecting hymn, now strangely left out of the general Hymn book, —

Vain, delusive world, adieu, With all thy creature good!

Only Jesus I pursue, Who bought me with his blood.

All thy pleasures I forego, And trample on thy wealth and pride; Only Jesus will I know, And Jesus crucified.

The fine voices of this young company produced great effect in the singing. — As each verse ended with the two last lines above, when he sung the last, he stopped, and spoke to this effect, — “My dear young friends, you have joined with me heartily, and I dare say, sincerely, in singing this fine hymn. You know in whose presence we have been conducting this solemn service; — the eyes of God, of angels, and perhaps of devils, have been upon us. And what have we been doing? We have been promising in the sight of all these, and of each other, that we will renounce a vain delusive world — its pleasures, pomp, and pride, and seek our happiness in God alone, and expect it through Him who shed his blood for us. And is not this the same to which we have been long previously bound by our baptismal vow. Have we not, when we were baptized, promised, either by ourselves, or sureties, (which promise if made in the latter way, we acknowledge we are bound to perform when we come of age) ‘To renounce the devil and al l his works, the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh: — that we will keep God’s holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of our life! ‘This baptismal promise which you have so often repeated from your catechism, is precisely the same with that contained in the fine and affecting hymn which you have been now singing. Now, shall we promise and not perform? Shall we vow, and not keep our vow? God has heard what we have sung and said, and it is registered in heaven. What then do you purpose to do? Will you continue to live to the world, and forget that you owe your being to God, and have immortal souls which must spend an eternity in heaven or hell, according to the state they are found in when they leave this world? We have no time to spare, scarcely any to deliberate in: the judge is at the door, and death is not far behind. I have tried both lives: and find that a religious life has an infinite preference beyond the other. Let us therefore heartily forsake sin, vanity, and folly, and seek God by earnest prayer, nor rest till we find He has blotted out all our sins, purified our hearts, and filled us with peace and happiness. If we seek earnestly and seek through Christ Jesus, we cannot be unsuccessful.” He then prayed, and many were deeply affected. That night and the next morning, thirteen persons, young men and women, came to him earnestly inquiring what they should do to be saved. [1] A religious concern became general throughout the village and neighborhood; many young persons sought and found redemption in the blood of the Lamb. The old people seeing the earnestness, and consistent walk of the young began to reflect upon their ways: many were deeply awakened, and those who had got into a cold or lukewarm state, began to arise and shake themselves from the dust, and the revival of pure and undefiled religion became general.

Thus God showed him that the very circumstance (his youth) which be thought most against him and his usefulness, became a principal means in his Divine hand of his greatest ministerial success. Methodism in Road continued to prosper during the whole time he was in that circuit; and when he visited them several years after, he found it still in a flourishing slate.

In several other parts of this circuit, God blessed his work, and he and his brethren lived in peace and unity, and drew cordially in the same yoke; and the people were everywhere satisfied with their teachers. Many who had long rested on their lees, were stirred up afresh; and not a few were encouraged to seek and find full redemption in the blood of the cross. It was on the whole, a year of prosperity, and Mr. C.’s heart grew in grace, and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

He endeavored to cultivate his mind also in useful knowledge; but a circumstance took place which, through his inexperience, had nearly proved ruinous to the little knowledge which be had already acquired, and would utterly have prevented all future accessions to his little stock. This circumstance requires distinct relation. He had not been long in this circuit before he received the Hebrew Grammar, which, as we have already seen, he subscribed for at Kingswood. He entered heartily on the study of this sacred language, from this work; which, though it promised much, yet really did perform a good deal. The copious lessons precluded for a time, the necessity of purchasing a Hebrew Bible: and the analysis accompanying each lesson, soon led him into the nature of the Hebrew language; these are carefully compiled, and are, by far, the best part of that grammar. The other parts being confused, meager, and difficult, though its pious author had thought, (for he inserted it in his term page) that the whole was digested in so easy a way, that a child of seven years of age might arrive, without any other kind of help, at a competent knowledge of the sacred language; a saying, which is in every part incorrect and exceptionable. The lessons and analytical parts are good, the rest of the work is nearly good for nothing.

In his Latin, Greek, and French he could make little improvement, having to travel several miles every day; and preach, on an average, thirty days in every month, and to attend to many things that belonged to the work of a Methodist preacher. That he might not lose the whole time which he was obliged to employ in riding, he accustomed himself to read on horseback; and this he followed through the summer, and in the clear weather in general. In this way he read through the four volumes of Mr. Wesley’s History of the Church, carefully abridged from Mosheim’s larger work. In abridging from voluminous writers, Mr. Wesley was eminently skillful; and this is one of the best things he has done of this kind: but the original work by Mosheim, is the best Church History published before or since.

The practice of reading on horseback is both dangerous, because of the accidents to which one is exposed on the road; and injurious to the sight, as the muscles of the eye are brought into an unnatural state of contraction, in order to counteract the too great brilliancy of the light. Yet what could he do, who had so much to learn, so often to preach, and was every day on horseback? When he came in the evening to his place of residence for the night, he found no means of improvement, and seldom any place in which he could either conveniently study or pray. But the circumstance that had nearly put an end to his studies, is yet untold. In the preachers’ room at Motcomb, near Shaftsbury, observing a Latin sentence written on the wall in pencil, relative to the vicissitudes of life, he wrote under it the following lines from Virgil, corroborative of the sentiment; — —-Quo fata trahunt retrahuntque, sequamur. — Per varios casus, per tot discrimina rerum, Tendimus in Coelum. — Eneid. lib. v. 709. Ib. lib. 1. 204, 5. — The next preacher that followed him in this place, seeing the above lines, which he could not understand nor see the relation they bore to those previously written, wrote under them the following words: — “Did you write the above to show us you could write Latin? For shame!

Do send pride to hell, from whence it came. Oh, young man, improve your time, eternity’s at hand.”

They who knew the writer, would at once recollect on reading these words, the story of Diogenes and Plato. The latter giving an entertainment to some friends of Dionysius, Diogenes being present, trampled with disdain on some rich carpeting, saying, “I trample under foot Plato’s vain glory. To whom Plato replied, “How proud thou art, O Diogenes, when thou supposest that thou art condemning pride!” Mr. _____ was naturally a proud man though born in the humblest department of life: and it required all his grace to enable him to act with even the humble exterior which became a Christian minister; he could ill brook an equal: and could worse tolerate a superior. The words, contemptible as they may appear, the circumstance considered which gave them birth, had a very unfriendly effect on the inexperienced simple heart of Mr. C., he was thrown into confusion: he knew not how to appear before the family who had a whole week to con over this reproachful effusion of a professed brother: in a moment of strong temptation, he fell on his knees in the midst of the room, and solemnly promised to God that he would never more meddle with Greek or Latin as long as he lived. As to Hebrew he had not yet begun, properly speaking, to study it; and therefore it could not be included in the proscription: but the vow had a paralyzing effect upon this, as well as on all his other studies: and generally prevented the cultivation of his mind. He saw that learning might engender pride: and it was too plain that, instead of provoking emulation, it would only to him, excite envy. When he next saw Mr. _____ he expostulated with him, for exposing in this most unkind manner, what he deemed to be wrong, — “Why,” said he, “did you not tell me privately of it, or send the reproof in a note?” I thought what I did was the best method to cure you, replied Mr. _____. Mr. C. then told him what uncomfortable feelings it had produced in him; and how he had vowed to study literature no more! The other applauded his teachableness, and godly diligence, and assured him that he had never known any of the learned preachers who was not a conceited coxcomb, &c. &c.

On what slight circumstances do the principal events of man’s life depend!

The mind of Mr. C. was at this time ductile in the extreme, in reference to every thing in Christian experience and practice. He trembled at the thought of sin. He ever carried about with him not only a tender, but a scrupulous and sore conscience. He walked continually as in the sight of God; and constantly felt that awful truth, Thou God seest me! To him, therefore, it was easy to make any sacrifice in his power: and this now made, had nearly ruined all his learned researches and scientific pursuits for ever; and added one more to the already too ample company of the slothful servants, and religious loungers, in the Lord’s inheritance. What a blessing it is for young tender minds to be preserved from the management of ignorance and sloth; and to get under the direction of prudence and discretion!

That such a vow as that now made by Mr. C. could not be acceptable in the sight of the Father of Lights, may be easily seen: but it was sincere, and made in such circumstances, as appeared to him to make it perfectly and lastingly binding. He now threw by, yet not without regret, his Greek Testament endeavored to forget all that he had learned; and labored to tear every thing of the kind for ever from him heart! This sacrifice was made, about the end of the year 1782 and was most religiously observed till about the year 1786, to his irreparable loss. That this vow was afterwards, on strong evidence of its impropriety, rescinded, the Reader will at once conjecture who knows any thing of the general history of Mr. Clarke, and it is time to inform him how this change took place. It has already been stated that Mr. C. when very young, had learned a little French; as this was not included in the proscription already mentioned, he found himself at liberty to read a portion of that language when it came in his wa y.

About 1786, he met with a piece of no ordinary merit, entitled, Discours sur l’Eloquence de la Chaire, A Discourse on Pulpit Eloquence; by the Abbe Maury, then Preacher in Ordinary to Lewis XVI.; since, Cardinal Maury, and but lately deceased. Mr. C. was much struck with the account there given of the preaching and success of one of the French Missionaries, of the name of Bridaine, and particularly with an extract of a Sermon, which the Abbe heard him preach in the Church of St. Sulpice in Paris, in the year 1751. [2] This piece he translated, and sent to the Rev. J. Wesley, to be inserted, if he approved of it, in the Arminian Magazine. Mr. Wesley kindly received, and inserted the piece: and as he was ever as decided a friend to learning as he was to religion, both of which he illustrated by his Life and Writings, he wrote to Mr. C., — “Charging him to cultivate his mind as far as his circumstances would allow, and not to forget any thing he had ever learned.” This was a word in season, and, next to the divine oracles, of the highest authority with Mr. C. He began to reason with himself thus: “What would he have me to do? He certainly means that I should not forget the Latin and Greek which I have learned: but then he does not know, that by a solemn vow; I have abjured the study of these languages for ever. But was such a vow lawful: is the study of Hebrew and Greek, the languages in which God has given the Old and New Testaments, sinful? It must have been laudable in some, else we should have had no translations. Is it likely that what must have been laudable in those who have translated the Sacred Writings, can be sinful to any — especially to ministers of God’s holy Word? I have made the vow it is true; but who required this at my hand? What have I gained by it? I was told it was dangerous, and would fill me with pride, and pride would lead me to perdition: but who told me so? Could Mr. _____, at whose suggestions I abandoned all these studies, be considered a competent judge: a man who was himself totally illiterate as it regarded either language or science? And what have I gained by this great sacrifice, made most evidently without divine authority, and without the approbation of my own reason? Am I more humble, more spiritual; and above all, have I been more useful than I should have been, had I not abandoned those languages in which the words of the Prophets, Evangelists, and Apostles were written? I fear I have been totally in an error: and that my vow may rank in the highest part of the catalogue of rash vows. Allowing even that my vow in such circumstances, can he considered in any respect binding; which is the greater evil, to keep or to break it? — I should beg pardon from God for having made it; and if it were sinful to make it, it is most undoubtedly sinful to keep it.” — Thus he reasoned, and at last came to the firm purpose to be no longer bound by what he had neither the authority of God nor reason to make. He kneeled down and begged God to forgive the rash vow, and in mercy, to undo any obligation which might remain because of the solemn manner in which it had been made. He arose satisfied that be had done wrong in making it; and that God required him now, to cultivate his mind in every possible way, that he might be a workman that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

He felt a conviction that he had done right, and such a satisfaction of mind as he did not find when he made that vow; the making of which, because of its consequences, (nearly four years’ loss of time) he had ever reason to deplore.

The chain being thus broken, Mr. C. had all his work to begin de novo; and was astonished to find how much he had forgotten of his school-boy learning. In short he was obliged to begin his grammar again, and found it hard work to lay a second foundation, till practice and the association of ideas, leveled and smoothed the rugged path.

It has been often said, that the Methodist, undervalue and cry down all human learning. This is not true: there is no religious people in the land that value it more, nor indeed is there any under greater obligation to it than they are: the learning of their Founder was as necessary, under God, to the revival and support of true religion in the land, as his zeal and piety were. The great body of the Methodists love learning; and when they find it in their preachers, associated with humility and piety, they praise God for the double benefit and profit by both.

In the course of this same year, 1782, he read Mr. Wesley’s Letter on Tea; when he had finished it, he said: “There are arguments here which I cannot answer; and till I can answer them to my own satisfaction, I will neither drink tea nor coffee.” He broke off the habit from that hour, never afterwards sought for arguments to overturn those of Mr. Wesley, and from that day to the present, never once tasted tea or coffee! Here is a perseverance rarely equaled: and to this he was providentially led. He spent that time in reading and study which he must otherwise have spent at the tea table: and by this, in the course of thirty-seven years, he has saved several whole years of time; every hour of which was devoted to self-improvement, or some part of that great work which the Providence of God gave him to do. For a short time after he left off the use of those exotics, he took in the evenings, a cup of milk and water, or a cup of weak infusion of camomile; but as he found that he gained no time by this means, a nd the gaining of time was his great object, he gave that totally up; never tasting any thing from dinner to supper. In the morning he found it easy to supply the place of tea and coffee by taking milk in some form or other; or any other aliment which the junior parts of the families where he lodged, were accustomed to take for their breakfast. In his Letter to a Preacher, since published, he has adverted strongly to this circumstance.

Mr. Wesley himself, after having left off the use of tea and coffee for twelve years, resumed it and continued the use of these beverages to his death: his pupil, A. C., followed his councils without attending to his practice, as zealously as ever the Rechabites did those of their founder Jehonadab. What A. C. has gained by this sacrifice, has amply compensated the cost.

This year, the Conference was held in Bristol; Mr. C. had no thought of attending, till on the first of August, a letter came, requiring him to attend: the next day, Saturday he set off; and reached Bristol the same day. How he spent the next day, which was the Sabbath, may, be seen from the following entry in his Journal. “Sunday, Aug. 3, 1783. At five this morning I heard a very useful sermon from Mr. Mather, at the chapel Broad Mead, On Isaiah 35:3,4. I then went to Guinea Street chapel, where I heard Mr. Bradburn preach on Christian perfection, from 1 John 4:19. This was, without exception, the best sermon I had ever heard on the subject. When this was ended I posted to the Drawbridge and heard Mr. Joseph Taylor preach an excellent and affecting discourse on Romans 5:21. This ended, I returned to my lodging and breakfasted; and then, at ten o’clock, heard Mr. Wesley preach at Broad Mead, on Acts 1:5. After sermon he, assisted by Dr. Coke, the Rev. B. B. Collins, and the Rev. Cornelius Bayley, delivered the Holy Sacrament to a vast concourse of people; which I also received to my comfort. When dinner was ended, I heard the Rev. B. B. Collins preach at Temple church, on Mark 16:15,16.

I next went and heard Mr. Wesley in Carolina Court on Hebrews 6:1; after which he met the society at the chapel Broad Mead, and read over a part of his Journal, relative to his late visit to Holland.

To conclude the whole, I then posted to King’s Down, where I heard Mr. T. Hanby preach an awakening sermon, on 1 Peter 4:18. Thus I have, in one day, by carefully redeeming time, and buying up every opportunity, heard SEVEN sermons, three of which were delivered out of doors. Surely this has been a day in which much has been given me; and much will the Lord require: O grant that I may be enabled to render Thee a good account. Though the whole of the day has been spent in religious exercises, yet such is my unprofitableness, that I could not stand in the judgment even for this day. But O, my glorious Saviour, Thou art still my Highpriest to offer my most holy things to God, which can be rendered acceptable to Him only through the sprinkling of Thy blood.”

On Wednesday, Aug. 6th, Mr. Clarke was admitted into Full Connection, after having traveled only about eleven months. Even at that time, before it was determined that each preacher should travel four years on trial, this was, perhaps, the earliest admission that had ever taken place. It was to him, as he expresses it in his Journal, the most solemn ordinance in which he had ever engaged. “This day,” says he, “I have promised much before God and His people: may I ever be found true to my engagements. In particular, I have solemnly promised, to devote my whole strength to the work of God, and never to be triflingly employed one moment. Lord, I fear much that I shall not be found faithful. But Thou hast said, my grace shall be sufficient for thee! Even so, let it be, Lord Jesus!”

When preachers on trial are admitted into Full Connection with the body of the Methodist preachers; — among many important questions put to them is the following, Are you in debt? To this the most satisfactory answer must be given. Through rather a whimsical incident, this question was likely to have deeply puzzled and nonplused Mr. Clarke. Walking in the Street that morning with another preacher, a poor man asked a halfpenny. Mr. C. had none, but borrowed one from the preacher who was walking with him. That preacher happening to go out of town, he could not see him during the day to repay this small sum. When he stood up with the others he knew not what to say, when the question, Are you in debt? should be proposed: he thought “If I say I am in debt, they will ask me how much? when I say I owe one halfpenny, they will naturally suppose me to be a fool. If I say I am not in debt, this will be a lie; for I owe one half-penny, and am as truly under the obligation to pay, as if the sum were twenty pounds, an d while I owe that I cannot, consistently with eternal truth, say, I am not in debt.” He was now most completely within the horns of a dilemma; and which to take he knew not, and the question being put to him before he could make up his mind — “Mr. Clarke, are you in debt?” he dissolved the difficulty in a moment, by answering — Not one PENNY. Thus both his credit and his conscience were saved. The Reader may smile at all this, but the situation to him was, for some hours, very embarrassing.

At this Conference he was appointed for Norwich, to which he set out on Monday, 11th, on horseback, and reached that city on the evening of Saturday, August 16th, 1783.

It may be necessary to say here, a few words relative to the state of is own mind, in this first year of his itinerant labors. During the little more than ten months he was in this circuit, he preached 506 times, beside giving a great number of public exhortations, and paying innumerable visits to the different families of the societies where he resided even for a day and night, to pray with them and inquire into the state of their souls. He preached also at five o’clock every morning, winter and summer, in the different towns in the circuit, such as Bradford, Trowbridge, Frome, Devizes, Coalford, Shepton Mallet, Shaftsbury, &c. &c.

His mind was variously and powerfully exercised: he kept the strictest watch over his heart; and scrutinized daily and hourly, the walk of every affection, passion, and appetite: and was so severe a censor of his own conduct, that he frequently condemned himself, in matters which were either innocent in themselves, or perfectly indifferent. His almost incessant cry was after holiness: — to be cleansed from all sin, and filled with God, he saw to be the high calling of the Gospel, and the birthright of every son and daughter of God. He could not be satisfied while he felt one temper or disposition that was not in harmony with the will and word of God. His mind was full of light, and his conscience was tender; and he was ever either walking with God, or following hard after Him. His Journals mark scarcely anything but the state of his soul, his spiritual conflicts, resolutions, consolations, and depressions. He tithed even mint and cummin, and never left unregarded the weightier matters of the law. The people he was incessantly urging to holiness of heart and life. Repentance; — justification by faith in the sacrificial death of Christ; — the witness of the Spirit in the consciences of true believers; — Christian perfection, or the purification of the soul from all sin in this life; — and the necessity of universal outward holiness; were the doctrines which he constantly pressed on the attention and hearts of his hearers; and under this preaching many were turned to the Lord; and many built up on their most holy faith.

His Journals, which he kept carefully for several years, bear ample proof of these things: but I have judged it better to give this general account, than to make extracts where there can be so little variety of matter, and where the same things, and things synonymous, are perpetually occurring.

From the unfortunate day already mentioned, on which he sacrificed by vow all farther prosecution of learning, he never attempted to mingle observations on men or manners in his Diaries, — the whole was merely spiritual, and necessarily monotonous. This became at last so heavy to himself, that he discontinued all regular entries of this kind, about the end of Aug. 1785: occasional remarks in his interleaved Ephemeris, relative to his progress in the knowledge of God and of his own heart, are all that remain of this species of writing. When he has been asked whether he would not publish his journal, or leave it to be published, he has answered: “I do not intend it: the experience of all religious people is nearly alike; in the main entirely so. When you have read the Journal of one pious man of common sense, you have read a thousand. After the first it is only the change of names, times, and places; all the rest as to piety, is alike.” [3] The intelligent reader will scarcely dissent from this opinion, who has read many religious Journals.

THE NORWICH CIRCUIT,

On Saturday, Aug. 16, 1783, Mr. Clarke arrived in the city of Norwich, the head place of the circuit, and found one of the late preachers ill of a fever: and although he was obliged to sleep in the same room, the smell of which was pestiferous, yet through God’s mercy he did not catch the disorder. The circuit extended into different parts of Norfolk and Suffolk, and included the following places; Norwich, Yarmouth, Lowestoffe, Loddon, Heckingham, North Cove, Teasborough, Stratton, Hardwick, Thurlton, Haddiscoe, Beccles, Wheatacre, Lopham, Diss, Whartham, Dickleborough, Winfarthing, Barford, Hempnel, Besthorp, and Thurne. In all, twenty-two places. Each preacher continued one week in the city, and then spent three weeks in the country; and to go round the places in the month was a journey of above 260 miles. The preachers who labored with him were, Richard Whatcoat, John Ingham, and William Adamson. The former was a very holy man of God, a good and sound preacher, but not of splendid abilities. He was diligent and orderly in his work; and a fine example of practical piety in all his conduct. The year after, at the earnest request of Dr. Coke, he went over to America, and there became one of the bishops of the Methodist-episcopal church; — pursued among the transatlantic brethren, the same noiseless tenor of his way, seeking only the establishment of the kingdom of God both in himself and others: and died in the faith, universally esteemed.

Mr. I. was a good-natured man, of no learning, and of but slender abilities; yet he had a sort of popular address that helped him to make his way in the circuit. He professed to cure many disorders: and his prescriptions were made up of a pennyworth of oil of leeks, a pennyworth of oil of swallows, &c. &c., all as equally efficacious as they were attainable. But although the apothecaries and druggists had no such medicaments, they gave the poor people something under those names, that would do as well, and thus but little harm was done. He was himself a most disgusting slave to tobacco; and never preached without a quid in his mouth! The Methodist connection have wisely proscribed both quackery and tobacco; as in all their forms, they are disgraceful to a Christian minister. They are also dangerous: the former leads to many snares; especially in reference to females: the latter is so closely associated with intemperance in drinking, that few of its votaries escape. Thus poor Ingham fell the following year; and was heard of in the church of God no more.

W. Adamson was a young man, very sincere, had got the rudiments of a classical education; but was of such an unsteady, fickle mind, that he excelled in nothing. The next year he retired from preaching.

In every respect the circuit was low. There was no place in it, in which religion flourished, either among the Methodists or others: lukewarmness and Antinomianism generally prevailed; and if any thing prospered, it was Calvinism as a system, many putting much of their trust for salvation in a belief of its doctrines. Among many in the city of Norwich, this was carried to the wildest extremes. There were even in the Methodists’ society several local preachers; that were Calvinists and leaders of classes: and, in consequence, the people were unhinged and unsteady, and made no progress either in piety or practical godliness; for they were continually halting between two opinions. Yet there were many good and sensible people in the society, whose life and conversation adorned the doctrine of God their Saviour. And in the course of the year, religion revived a little, principally through the preaching of the doctrine of entire sanctification or complete redemption from all sin in this life. Several saw this to be their privilege, and sought it with their whole heart.

In Norwich the society was very poor: a family lived in the preachers’ house, and provided for the preachers at so much per meal, and the bill was brought in to the stewards’ and leaders meeting at the end of the week, and discharged: and he was most certainly considered the best preacher who ate the fewest meals, because his bills were the smallest. In this respect Mr. Clarke excelled: he took only a little milk to his breakfast, drank no tea or coffee and took nothing in the evening. Hence his bills were very small. Sometimes, but not often the preachers were invited out, and this also contributed to lessen the expense.

One ludicrous circumstance, relative to an invitation to breakfast, I may here mention. After Mr. Clarke had preached one morning at 5 o’clock, a young woman of the society came to him and said; “Sir, will you do me the favor to breakfast with me this morning? I breakfast always at eight o’clock. “Thank you,” said he, “but I know not where you live.” “O,” said she, “I live in _____ Street, near Maudlin gate, No. [number] _____.” “I do not know the place.” “Well, but you cannot well miss it, after the directions I shall give you.” “Very well.” “You must cross Cherry Lane, and go on to the Quakers’ preaching-house: — do you know it?” “Yes.” “Well then, leave the Quakers’ preaching-house on the left hand, and go down that lane till you come to the bottom; and then on your right hand you will see a door that appears to lead into a garden, with an inscription over it: can you read?” “Yes, a little.” “Well then, the board will direct you so and so, and you cannot then miss.” “Thank you: I shall endeavor to be with you at the time appointed.” “I went” said Mr. C., “and because I had the happiness of being able to read, I found out my way!”

This little anecdote will serve to show, that in those times the Methodists could not expect much from their ministers; as it appears they thought it possible, they might have some that could not read their Bible! Howsoever illiterate they may have been deemed, it may be safely asserted, no instance is on record of an itinerant preacher among the Methodists being unable to read his Bible. Many, it is true, of the original preachers, could read but indifferently: and I have known several of the clergy who did not excel even in this: and I have known one who, in reading 2 Kings xix. made three unsuccessful trials to pronounce the word Sennacherib, — Senacrib, Sennacherub, and terminated with Snatchcrab! But such swallows make no summers; and should never be produced as instances from which the general character of a class or body of men should be deduced. The time is long past since men in any department of life have been prized on account of their ignorance.

I shall give another anecdote, which, with the intelligent Reader, will not place Mr. C. in a disadvantageous point of view.

The coals in Norwich are remarkably bad, and it is a common custom to blow the fire almost continually, in order to keep it alive, or to perform the operations of cookery. Hence a pair of bellows, the general bane of fires, is a useful appendage to a Norwich kitchen and parlor also. When Mr. C. entered on his lodging in the preachers’ house in this city, he found the bellows worn out, so that they would hold no wind; and the fire-riddle, or instrument by which they sifted the ashes and returned all the cinders to the grate, worn beyond use. The poker also was burnt to the stump. He said to Mrs. P., the housekeeper, “Why do you not get new instruments here, or else get these repaired?” — “O dear, sir, we cannot do either, the society is so poor.” — “Is it so? well, something may be done. I cannot mend the poker, for that requires a forge; but I think I can mend the bellows and the riddle.” — “Can you?” “Yes, if you can furnish me with a little leather, no matter, old or new, and an old tin kettle or saucepan. Take these pence, and go and bring me a hundred of twopenny tacks.” An old pair of leathern small clothes, furnished him with materials for mending the bellows; which he soon made air tight: and an old sauce-pan, which he unsoldered by holding over the fire, furnished tin to mend the riddle. He borrowed a stab awl and a hammer, from a shoemaker, and getting an old pair of scissors, he cut out the tin, punched in it the necessary holes, used the tacks as rivets, having a flat iron for an anvil, which he held between his knees; and thus soon restored this necessary instrument to effective usefulness. Thus, at the expense of twopence to himself, he made these two instruments serviceable: and the stewards, seeing this, mustered courage to get the poker new bitted!

In this city he frequently cleaned and blacked his own shoes, and those of his brethren, as there was no person regularly employed to do this service.

He found no difficulty in acting according to the advice given to preachers when admitted into the Methodist connection: “Do not affect the gentleman; and be not above cleaning your own shoes, or those of others, if need be.”

There was but one horse in the circuit for the four preachers, which, when the preacher who had it out in the circuit came into town, he who had been the resident preacher the week before, immediately mounted, and rode off to the country, in order to save expense. Thus it must frequently happen that while another was riding his horse, Mr. C. was obliged to walk the circuit, and carry his saddle-bags on his back, that contained his linen and a few books. It was curious to see him set off from the chapel in Cherry Lane, his bags tied upon his back, and thus walk through the city of Norwich, and return in the same way. several days after covered with dust or mud, and greatly fatigued. But this was far from being the worst: except at a very few places, the accommodations were exceedingly bad.

Sometimes in the severest weeks of one of the most severe winters, he was obliged to lodge in a loft, where, through the floor he could see every thing below; and sometimes in an out-house, where perhaps, for seven years together, there had not been a spark of fire lighted. The winter of 1783 was exceedingly severe, and the cold intense; even warm water in his room, has been frozen in a few seconds! He has often been obliged to get into bed with a part of his clothes on; strip them off by degrees as the bed got warmed; and then he in the same position, without attempting to move his limbs, every unoccupied place in the bed, which his legs or other parts touched, producing the same sensation, as if the parts had been brought into contact with red hot iron. It was here that he learned that the extreme of cold produced on the living muscle, precisely the same sensation as the extreme of heat; and this rendered credible what a friend of his, who had traveled in Russia, told him, that if he laid hold on any iron exposed to the open air, he could not separate his hand from it but at the expense of that part of the skin and flesh which came in contact with the metal.

In several places that year the snow lay from ten to fifteen feet deep. It began to fall Dec. 25, and was not all gone before the middle of the following April. The frost was so intense that succeeded, that he could seldom keep his saddle five minutes together, but must alight and walk and run, to prevent his feet from being frost-bitten. In the poor cabins where he lodged, and where there was no other kind of fire than what was produced by a sort of dried turf, almost entirely red earth, that never emitted any flame; and where the clothing on the bed was very light, he suffered much; going to bed cold, lying all night cold, and rising cold. He has sometimes carried with him a parcel of coarse brown paper, and with a hammer and chisel, payed up some of the larger crevices under the bed, to prevent him from total starvation! Add to all this, very homely food, and sometimes but little of it; which the poor people most readily shared with him who came to their houses and their hearts with the Gospel of their salvation; and who, except for such preaching, must have been almost totally destitute of that instruction, without which there was little hope of their salvation. It was by these means and often in such circumstances through many privations, much pain and suffering, the Methodist preachers spread scriptural Christianity throughout the land; and became the means of ameliorating the moral and civil condition of the great mass of its comparatively poor, and almost totally neglected inhabitants: i.e. of those who are emphatically said to constitute its lower orders. To such preaching the nation and the state are under endless obligation.

Ye ministers, who have entered this vineyard in the halcyon days of the Church, think of what your predecessors have suffered, to make plain paths for your feet to walk in. And see that ye give all diligence to maintain that ground which they have gained by inches, and at the hazard and expense of their lives. Talk not of your hardships and privations; for of these ye can know comparatively nothing.

This was a year of severe labor and suffering, yet of but little apparent fruit; though a good seed was sown, which in more auspicious times sprang up to the glory of God. The American war was just terminated; and shortly after, peace began to flourish, and confidence was restored. Mr. C. preached in several new places, and among the rest in Diss, then, very unpromising, but now the head of a circuit. He has gone frequently there, put up his horse at an Inn, preached, paid for his horse, and rode several miles to preach at some other place, without any soul offering him even a morsel of bread: and such was the state of his finances that both he and his horse could not eat, and the poor brute must not fast. What could three pounds per quarter do, besides providing clothes, a few books, and all necessaries of life, the mere articles of food excepted; which as we have seen, was furnished at the different places where he preached. These twelve pounds per ann. out of which each preacher paid a guinea for the support of superannuated preachers and preachers’ widows, was the whole salary of a Methodist itinerant Preacher.

In this circuit he labored much to improve his mind and also to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of himself and God. In Lowestoffe he met with some very kind friends: among the chief of these were the late Mr. Thos. Tripp, and Mr. Thos. Mallet. The former let him have the use of a small but valuable Library, whenever he came to the place; and the latter lent him some valuable papers on various passages of Scripture, which were of very great use to him. Indeed he was entertained at the houses of these men, as at the house of a parent: and of their kindness he ever spoke in the highest terms.

I find the following entries in Mr. Clarke’s Journal of this month. “Mond. Oct. 20. Mr. Wesley is just now paying his annual visit to Norwich; and I have had the high gratification of hearing him preach from <19A612> Psalm 106:12. ‘What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.’ “In treating this subject he 1st. took a view of the principal benefits which God has conferred upon mankind in general, and believers in particular, from their creation even to the smallest means of grace, of which they are made partakers. “2. He showed what we should render unto God for these benefits: viz. to take the cup of salvation. The term cup, he showed was a Hebraism signifying plenty, e. g. the cup of sorrow — of joy — of trembling; and means plenty or abundance of sorrow, joy, trembling, &c. So by the cup of salvation, we are to understand plenty or abundance of salvation: and this consists in justification, and entire sanctification. O Lord, how merciful and incomparably indulgent art thou to mankind! seeing all thou askest from them in return for former benefits, is that they would receive the abundance of those which thou hast further promised: — The sole return thy love requires is, that we ask for more. “Tues. 21. Mr. W. preached again on Matthew 19:6. ‘What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.’ On these words he observed in general, that men were prone to separate what God had joined; and thus bring ruin on themselves. In particular, 1st. God bath joined piety and morality, but many separate these: for, leaving piety to God out of the question, they think an observance of external duties sufficient; and thus remain without genuine hope, and without God in the world. “2dly. He showed that the same authority had joined the love of God, and the love of man together: but in this also many were woefully deficient; pretending to love God, while hating their brother; and pretending true friendship to man, while enemies to God. “3dly He hath also joined faith and works together; so that in the sight and purpose of God, one cannot exist without the other. But many are contending for faith, while living in sin: and others contend for good works, while without faith in the real Redeemer of mankind. “4. God as joined the end and the means together: but many expect the accomplishment of the end, without using the means; they expect pardon, holiness, and heaven, without prayer, repentance, faith, and obedience. This he proved was sheer enthusiasm; — to expect the accomplishment of any end without using the means which lead to that end. On this point, he dwelt particularly, and brought the charge of enthusiasm home against the major part of the different religious professions in the nation.”

Mr. Clarke had the privilege of hearing Mr. Wesley preach twice each day during the remaining part of this week; the following were the texts: — They despised the pleasant land; they belieived not his word, <19A624> Psalm 106:24. But we preach Christ crucified, 1 Corinthians 1:23. Wherefore, he is able to save to the uttermost, Hebrews 7:25. For we look not at the things that are seen, 2 Corinthians 4:18. Put on the whole armour of God, Ephesians 6:11 &c. Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness, &c. Matthew 5:20. Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, &c. Acts 1:5. The kingdom of God is at hand, Mark 1:15.

Of most of these Sermons he has preserved either the skeletons, or the leading thoughts.

When he parted with Mr. W. on Sat. 25, he made the following entry in his Journal: “Here I took my farewell of this precious servant of God. O, Father, let thy angels attend him wheresoever he goes: — let the energetic power of thy Spirit accompany the words he shall speak, and apply them to the hearts of all that shall hear them; and may they be the means of conviction, conversion, comfort, and strength, to all; as they may severally require. And let me also abundantly “profit by the things I have heard from him.”

At this time he had some private conversation with Mr. W. concerning the state of his soul, from which he derived much edification and strength.

Before we proceed farther with this narrative, it may not be improper to relate the following anecdotes, which must be introduced by a few observations.

Norfolk appeared to Mr. Clarke to be the most ungodly county he had ever yet visited. He found it generally irreligious. Except among a very few religious people the Sabbath-day was universally disregarded. Buying and selling were considered neither unseemly nor sinful; and on that day the sports of the field, particularly fowling, were general. — Multitudes even of those called religious people, bought and sold without any remorse. To find a man saved from this sin was a very rare thing indeed. Against this horrible profanation, Mr. C. lifted up a strong and steady voice: visited the members of his own society in different places, from house to house, who were guilty of this sin; pointed out the evil of their conduct, and exacted the promise of immediate reformation.

At a place called Teasborough be lodged and preached at the house of a miller, Mr. J. Nichols; from him he received the following account of his conversion from the sin of Sabbath-breaking. — “After I heard the Methodists preach, and was convinced of sin, I continued to work my mills, and sell meal and flour on the Lord’s-day as usual. But in this practice I soon became very uneasy, being continually followed by those words, ‘Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath-day.’ I at last determined, whatever might be the consequence, to give it up. I accordingly ordered my men to stop the mills on the Lord’s-day, as I was determined to grind no more: and I informed my customers, that I should serve them no longer on the Sabbath, and hoped that they would make it convenient to come on the Saturday evening. Some affected to pity me; others said they would go to other shops: but scarcely any supposed that I would be steady to my resolutions. The next Sabbath they came as usual, and every one was refused. Their dis pleasure was general, and they went to other millers; of whom there were several in the neighborhood. The next Saturday, however, many of them came and were served; and in a short time all, or as many as I had before, returned; and now, far from being poorer, on account of this sacrifice, which many said would be my ruin, I am this day at least one thousand pounds richer than I was then.”

Here, then, is a plain confutation, founded on a very strong fact, of that wretched objection: “If I do not sell on the Sabbath I shall lose my customers, and so be reduced to poverty.” No. — Such persons do not make the trial, therefore, they cannot tell how it might be with them; and their objections are not to be regarded, as they are founded only on conjecture and uncertainty. At all events the thing should be abandoned, for it is a sin against God, and the order of society.

Mr. N. farther said, that this practice became at last so oppressive to his mind, that he was obliged to leave his own house on the Lord’s-day, and walk in the fields, that he might neither see nor hear his mills at work; nor witness the sinful traffic that was carried on in his house. To this general neglect of the Sabbath, Mr. C. attributed the small progress which religion made in this county. Suffolk so far as he knew it, was very little better.

The irreligion of this county farther appeared in a general hatred to the Gospel of Christ. In former days, persecution had raged in an uncommon degree; and although that had in some measure subsided yet there was still a decided hostility to religion. The preachers scarcely ever preached in Norwich on the Sabbath evening without having less or more disturbance, or a mob at the chapel doors. Mr. Wesley himself was not better treated.

Once when he visited Norwich, it was in company with Mr. John Hampson, senior. This man was well known in the Methodist connection being many years an itinerant preacher. He was a man of gigantic make, well proportioned, and of the strongest muscular powers: he was also a man of strong understanding, and much grandeur of mind. — When Mr. W. had finished his discourse and was coming out of the chapel, they found the whole lane filled with a furious mob, who began to close in on Mr. W. Mr. Hampson immediately pushed forward, and from the attitude he assumed, Mr. W. supposed, he was about to enter into conflict with the mob; he therefore addressed him with great earnestness, and said, “Pray, Mr. Hampson, do not use any violence.” To which Mr. H. replied, with a terrible voice like the bursting roll of distant thunder, “Let me alone, Sir; if God has not given you an arm to quell this mob, he has given use me: and the first man that molests you here, I will lay him for DEAD!” — Death itself seemed to speak in the last word — it was pronounced in a tone the most terrific. The mob heard, looked at the man, and were appalled — there was a universal rush, who should get off soonest: and in a very short time the lane was emptied, and the mob was dissipated like the thin air. Mr. Hampson had no need to let any man feel even the weight of his arm. — For such times as these, God has made such men.

I shall mention one other anecdote of this most powerful man. — In the year 1788, the Methodists’ Conference was held in London, at the great Chapel, City Road. Mr. Clarke was coming down the road, and a little before him Mr. George Holder, one of the preachers, and his wife; it was near the blank wall of Bunhill Burying Ground; — a hackney coachman drove so carelessly as nearly to crush Mr. and Mrs. H. to death, against the wall: they were however but little hurt. Mr. Hampson stood on the other side of the way and did not see the danger till it was past. — On being informed of it, (the coachman was then driving down the road) in strong agitation he addressed Mr. Holder — “What, he was near crushing you and your wife to death against the wall! Why, Sir, did you not take the rascal’s coach by the wheel and turn it over!” He spake as he felt he could have done — a thing which not one in a million of men could have performed except himself. Poor Holder could not have lifted the nave of one of the wheels, much less the whole coach!

I find the following entry in his Journal, under the date of Sunday, January 4, 1784, which is too important to be passed by unnoticed.

Mr. J. H., who had been master of Kingswood school, and several years a traveling preacher, had retired in the preceding year, and became resident in Norwich. He was a kind and affable man, but had unhappily drunk in the doctrines of Baron Swedenborgh. On a conversation that passed between them this day, on the subject of the Trinity, Mr. C. was a good deal perplexed, and writes as follows. “I was a good deal distressed in my mind today, by conversing with a preacher on the doctrine or the Trinity and some other points. Many, said he, are greatly puzzled with the mystery of the doctrine of the Trinity: but there is in truth, no mystery in it, if we leave out the unscripural word “person.” There is a Trinity; but it is not a trinity of persons; but, what is called God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is only the Great God acting under three different characters. He added several things more to the same effect; and especially against what he called the unscriptural and absurd doctrine of three persons in the Godhead. Against this doctrine Mr. C. gave the following reasons. This appears to me absurd, as there are a multitude of characters under which God acts: if he is to be designated from such characters, as to his Godhead, this Godhead might be as well called a Denity, a Quadragintenity, yea, a Centenity, as well as a Trinity: as God acts under ten, forty, yea a hundred different characters i n reference to man. Besides, that there is a Trinity of persons in the most proper sense of the word, is proved by what happened at the Baptism of our Lord, ( Matthew 3:16, 17:) where we find that he, the Son, was baptized, the Holy Ghost in a bodily form like a dove, lighted upon him, and a voice from God the Father; was heard out of heaven, declaring that this was his beloved Son. Here, it is most evident, there were three distinct persons, occupying three distinct places, and not one God acting under three distinct characters: this argument is most undoubtedly unanswerable. Again, we find two distinct persons worshipped by the Angels in heaven: for there they worship God and the Lamb: not God under the character of a Lamb. Again, we are told to worship the Son, even as we worship the Father: now, if we believe that it is one person acting under different characters; and we are commanded to worship the Son, that is, one of these characters; then this is not worshipping God, but one of the characters under which he acts, and this would be flat idolatry, were it not nonsense; which, well for the sentiment, is neutralized by this absurdity. On this mode of explanation, this part of the doctrine of Baron Swedenborgh must for ever stand self-confuted. “On this same day, Sunday, a dreadful judgment of God fell on some Sabbath-breakers. Three young lads, one of them son to the man with whom I lodged, went out in the morning, on a shooting party, as is the general custom in this irreligious county. They came to a hedge and one got over; the other, who held the gun, reached it through the hedge with its butt end foremost, to him who had just got over; the third was behind him who carried the gun. Some of the branches caught the trigger as he was pushing the gun through the hedge, and the gun went off. The lad who held the gun received no damage, for the muzzle was through under his arm, while striving to push the gun through the hedge. When the gun went off he suddenly turned to the lad behind him, and said, Are you shot? The other replied, I believe I am. The shot had torn away a part of the abdomen, and the intestines were issuing at the wound! The lad who held the gun seeing this, dropped it and ran away to a pond that was at hand, and plunged in, with t he intention to drown himself: but another party coming up, who were out on the same unholy business, dragged him out. As soon as he came to himself, and got out of their hands, he desperately jumped in a second time — and afterwards a third time: but he was rescued and taken to his master’s house. When there, he made an attempt to cut his own throat with his knife. The lad who was shot, expired in about an hour: he was nineteen years of age.

Behold here the goodness and severity of God! Towards him who fell, severity, but to the others goodness, would they lay it to heart, and call upon God for mercy, that they might be saved from their sins, and from future punishment. The lad who held the gun by which the other was shot, being in a house (about eighteen days before this accident took place) where was writing the names of the members of the society upon the quarterly tickets, took up one of them into his hand, looked on it and held it for a considerable time: the verse which was upon the ticket, was this; Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. Here was a sufficient warning; and had he attended to it, he had not been the cause of this catastrophe.

How evident will it appear at the day of judgment, that God is clear of the blood of all men! who by various methods apprises them of the danger they are in, and the ruin to which they are exposed by their sin. God speaketh once, yea, twice, but men regard it not.”

While on this circuit, Mr. Clarke began to read Mr. Wesley’s Philosophy.

To subjects of this kind his heart had ever a strong propensity. On this point I find the following reflections inserted, April the 14th, 1784, in his Journal. “How do the unerring wisdom and goodness of God, appear in all the arts of the creation! How admirably well has he adjusted all the parts to answer their respective ends! And is it not most evident that he has intended happiness for every being capable of it? and particularly for man, favored man, for whom all the rest appear to have been brought into existence. See how the faculties of his soul, and the regular adjustment of all the parts of his body, proclaim at once the wisdom and benevolence of his Creator! Hence ye unconditional reprobarian notions; ye imputation of folly and sin to the Most High, which teach that Infinite Wisdom and Love produced myriads of such beings as man, to be abandoned irrecoverably to eternal flames, merely to display the sovereignty of the Creator! From whence ye have originated return, ye Goddishonoring principles! Surely ye have derived your origin from him who is the implacable enemy of God and man! He who can advocate them, if he be in human form, must have the heart of a Hyrcanian tiger. “Every Christian should study philosophy; as from it he will more evidently discover: 1. That he who is so fearfully and wonderfully made, so marvelously preserved, and so bountifully fed, should give up unreservedly, his all to God, and devote the powers which he has received to the service of the Creator. 2.