are bound to perform when we came of age,) To renounce the devil and all 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 enquiring what they should do to be saved.* A religious concern became general throughout the village and neighbourhood; many young persons sought and found redemption in the blood of the Lamb. The old people, * Fifty years after this event, one of these (then) young persons came and called upon Dr. Clarke, when he preached at Frome for the last time. See Appendix at the end of the Work. By the Rev. J. B. B. Clarke. 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 shewed him that the very circumstance (his youth) which he 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 state. 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 he 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, meagre, and difficult, though its pious author had thought, (for he inserted it in his title 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 skilful; 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.— ENEID. lib. v. 709. IB. lib. i. 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 shew us you could write Latin? For shame! Do send pride to hell, from whence it came. Oh, young man, improve your 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, Πατω την Πλατωνος kevoσπovôiav, I trample under foot Plato's vain glory. Το whom Plato replied, Όσον, ὦ Διογενες, τον τυφον διαφαίνεις, Soкwν μη TεтVpWola, 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 |