cultivate the soil which they had with great pain and difficulty enclosed, broken up, and sown with the good seed, the word of the kingdom. And to prove that no favor to that party, nor expectation from them, led him to advocate their cause, he did it when he had left their city and never intended more to return. While in Dublin, the most solemn event that ever occurred in the Methodists' Connexion, took place.—The death of the Rev. John Wesley. When Mr. C. heard of it he was overwhelmed with grief; all he could do, such were his feelings, was to read the little printed Account of his last moments.* * On this occasion Funeral Sermons were preached for him in almost every place, and among the rest at City Road, London, by Dr. Whitehead, which being highly esteemed, it was shortly afterwards published: a copy of this Sermon Mr. Clarke sent to the learned Dr. Barnard, then Bishop of Killaloe, accompanied by a letter from himself, to which his Lordship replied in the following letter. "SIR, April 27th, 1791. "I received the favor of your letter, and the excellent Sermon that accompanied it, on the Death of Mr. Wesley, which I have perused with serious attention and uncommon satisfaction. "It contains a true and not exaggerated encomium on that faithful and indefatigable servant of God who is now at rest from his labors, and (what is of more consequence to those who read it,) an intelligible and judicious anoλoyia for the doctrine that he taught, which he has set forth in the clearest terms, and with a simplicity of style, even beyond that of Mr. Wesley himself; without the smallest tincture of (reprehensible) enthusiasm, erroneous judgment, or heterodox opinion. He has plainly expounded the truth as it is in Christ Jesus; and I hope and believe that the dispersion of this little tract may do much good as the sublimest truths of Christianity, are there reduced ad captum vulgi, and at the same time proved to the learned to be none other than such as have been always held and professed in the Christian Church from the time of the Apostles till now, however individuals may have lost sight of them. "I am particularly obliged to you for communicating to me this little tract, and wish that I had the pleasure of knowing the author. Of the agitations occasioned by his death in the Methodists' Connexion, it is unnecessary to encumber this narrative, as they have already been sufficiently detailed. Mr. Wesley's respect for Mr. C. was evidenced by the codicil to his last will, in which he made him with six others, trustees for all his literary property: and this codicil was at last found to supersede the will, and these seven administered to Mr. Wesley's effects, and afterwards conveyed all their rights and authority to the Conference. Shortly after Mr. Clarke came to Dublin, he entered himself a medical student in Trinity College, and attended several courses of Lectures; one on the Institutes of Medicine, by Dr. Dickison, Regius Physician; one on Anatomy, by Dr. Cleghorn; and one on Chemistry by Dr. R. Perceval. From these studies, aided by his own sedulous application, he obtained a sufficiency of medical knowledge to serve his own large family in all common cases, and to keep, what he ever considered the bane of families, all apothecaries from his door. When he thought that skill superior to his own was wanted, he employed some respectable physician: and always kept and prepared the medicines necessary for domestic use. His attendance on Dr. Perceval's Lectures brought on an intimacy between him and that excellent man and eminent Physician, which has been unbroken for many years, and still florishes with high respect on both sides. "I return you my thanks for the personal respect you are so good as to express for me, and should be happy to deserve it. I am, Sir, Your very obedient humble servant, "If I have omitted to direct this properly I hope you will excuse me, as you do not mention whether you are in orders or not." While in this city he formed a charitable institution, called "The Strangers' Friend Society;" and on the same principles, he founded one the following year at Manches. ter; and one afterwards in London: the Rules and Plan of which were adopted and societies of a similar kind formed in almost all the chief towns in England, which still subsist in all their vigor, and have done more public good than any charitable institutions ever formed in the kingdom. He buried one child, his eldest daughter, in Dublin; and returned to England, in the August of 1791. MANCHESTER. THIS year the Methodist Conference was held in Manchester, and Mr. C. being at this time in a bad state of health, was appointed to this circuit; being advised to use the Buxton Waters, as the likeliest means of his recovery. He tried the waters both by drinking and bathing, and was greatly benefited. The following year he visited Buxton again, and had his health completely restored. Of the great utility of these waters in rheumatic affections, he has ever spoken in the strongest terms; believing that this efficacy could not be too highly appreciated. About this time the French revolution seemed to interest the whole of Europe. On the question of its expediency and legality, men were strangely divided. The high Tories considered it as a most atrocious rebellion; the Whigs, and those who leaned to a republican creed, considered it a most justifiable exertion of an enslaved nation to break its chains, and free itself from the most unprincipled despotism, and abject slavery. The history of this mighty contest is well known. The nation succeeded, though opposed by all the powers of Europe; and many of its officers acquired such eminent degrees of military glory, as surpassed every thing of the kind since the days of the Grecian Republics, and the times of the ancient Romans. But having defeated all its enemies, it became ambitious, and went through several forms of government: the mass of the people produced a National Assembly, -this a Directory,-this a consular Triumvirate,—this a Dictator, this a King of the French,-this an Emperor, who ruled for a considerable time with unlimited power, and unexampled success ;-confounding the politics of the European states, and annihilating their armies. At last Napoleon, the most accomplished general and potentate which modern times have produced, by an illjudged winter campaign against Russia, had an immense army destroyed by the frost, himself barely escaping from the enemy; after which his good fortune seemed generally to forsake him; till at last, when on the eve of victory, at the famous battle of Waterloo, by one of those chances of war, to which many little men owe their consequent greatness, and great men their downfal, he was defeated, and having thrown himself on the generosity of the British, he was sent a prisoner to the Rock of St. Helena, where, by confinement and ungenerous treatment, he became a prey to disease and death. On the merits of this Revolution, in all the states through which it passed, the British Nation was itself greatly divided. Even religious people caught the general mania, greatly accelerated by the publications of Thomas Paine, particularly his Rights of Man, insomuch that the pulpits of all parties, resounded with the pro and con POLITICAL PREACHERS CIVIL PESTS. 289 politics of the day, to the utter neglect of the pastoral duty; so that "the hungry sheep looked up and were not fed." It was the lot of Mr. Clarke to be associated at this time with two eminent men, who unfortunately took opposite sides of this great political question; one pleading for the lowest republicanism, while the other exhausted himself in maintaining the divine right of kings and regular governments to do what might seem right in their own. eyes, the people at large having nothing to do with the laws but to obey them. His soul was grieved at this state of things; but he went calmly on his way, preaching Christ crucified for the redemption of a lost world; and though his abilities were greatly inferior to those of his colleagues, his congregations were equal to theirs, and his word more abundantly useful. Political preachers neither convert souls, nor build up believers on their most holy faith one may pique himself on his loyalty, the other on his liberality and popular notions of government; but in the sight of the Great Head of the Church, the first is a sounding brass, the second a tinkling cymbal. Arcades ambo Et cantare pares, et respondere parati. Both stubborn statesmen, both with skill inspired, When preachers of the gospel become parties in party politics, religion mourns, the church is unedified, and political disputes agitate even the faithful of the land. Such preachers, no matter which side they take, are no longer the messengers of glad tidings, but the seedsmen of confusion, and wasters of the heritage of Christ. Though Mr. Clarke had fully made up his mind on the politics VOL. I. U |