Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

has been conducted, as well as rejoices that its confidence in the integrity of the Executive of the Wesleyan-Methodist Missionary Society is both justified and confirmed by it, and feels called upon to renew its pledges of fidelity to the great work which Almighty God has intrusted to the Wesleyan- Methodist Connexion in this important department of its labours." Mr. Heald then retired, amidst loud cheering, after heartily shaking hands with the President, and, in his person, with all the members of the Committee.

MR. SMITH Seconded the Resolution, which, after several other gentlemen had warmly supported it, was unanimously adopted.

ARRIVAL.

THE Rev. Thomas T. N. Hull and Mrs. Hull arrived safely at Adelaide on the 28th of March, after a favourable voyage from England of four months.

DEPARTURES.

MISS PUNCHARD sailed for the Bahamas early last month.

The Rev. Joseph Rippon embarked at Southampton, on the 20th of August, for the South Ceylon District. The Rev. Joseph Rippon and the Rev. William Hill were solemnly ordained and set apart for their Mission in Ceylon, on Sunday, August 18th, at the chapel in St. George's in the East. The Ex-President, the Rev. Thomas Jackson, and the Rev. George Marsden, conducted the ordination service.

DEATH OF THE REV. JOHN MORTIER.

Extract of a Letter from the Rev. James Cox, dated St. Kitt's,
June 24th, 1850.

IT becomes my melancholy task to apprize you of the death of your faithful and highly-respected Missionary, the Rev. John Mortier. He died of apoplexy on the night of the 13th instant.

An attack of the same disease, some weeks previously, had brought him very low; but he recovered, though not perfectly. His vision and memory were very indistinct, and he frequently complained of his head. He was enabled, however, to resume his work of occasional preaching, in which he greatly delighted. His soul was richly profited by this visitation, and he sought more abundant intercourse with God in devotional exercises, and was greatly comforted and strengthened with might in the inner man. He was evidently ripening for his inheritance, and often said to Mrs. Mortier and others, "My work is done." On the evening of his death, he prayed

with much fervour, and appeared as well as usual. About ten o'clock, he was seized with apoplexy. Medical aid was immediately procured, and every means employed to avert the fatal stroke; but in vain. The summons had arrived, and he was prepared to meet it. His soul was peaceful and happy, and about twelve o'clock he departed to his rest.

"O may I triumph so

When all my warfare's past!"

His funeral was conducted next day with becoming solemnity. I was absent at the time, having gone to Antigua, to see my children, ere they left for England.

It will fall to my lot, I believe, to prepare a memoir of Mr. Mortier, for insertion in your Magazine. His principal scene of labour was in Demerara. He came to reside here after he had become a Supernumerary.

LONDON: PRINTED BY JAMES NICHOLS, HOXTON-SQUARE.

[graphic]

WESLEYAN-METHODIST MAGAZINE.

OCTOBER, 1850.

BIOGRAPHY.

MEMOIR OF MR. JAMES RHODES,

OF BRADFORD, YORKSHIRE.*

THE characteristic modesty of Mr. Rhodes would have caused him, if living, to shrink instinctively from any public exhibition of his character; and it is simply with the hope of awakening others to emulate his amiable example, that a few fragments of his personal history and Christian experience are brought together. The materials are necessarily limited, by reason of his careful avoidance of everything like egotism. To this leading feature may be attributed the absence of striking and stirring incidents, such as those which have distinguished the career of some Christians, while there may have been less of true moral greatness, and a feebler claim to public homage.

James Rhodes was born at Exley-Head, near Keighley, October 24th, 1790, of most worthy parents, who attended the Baptist chapel at Haworth, and from whom he had the advantage of good early training. On this subject he says,-" My parents gave their children a strictly moral and religious education. My father's instructions were not delivered catechetically, nor at stated periods; but occasionally, and in the form of maxims, cautions, admonitions, and reproofs; and generally under circumstances which not only demanded them, but also gave them additional weight and effect. These instructions were supported by the gravity and consistency of his own deportment; and I became (as might be expected from such a training) very early the subject of religious impressions. Being thus taught the importance of prayer to God, I attended to the duty with an almost superstitious punctuality. I had an impression that the mere utterance of a prescribed form of prayer was not either so profitable to myself, or so acceptable to God, as the spontaneous effusion of the mind and heart; and I was wont, therefore, to append to that inimitable form and summary, the Lord's Prayer, such petitions as expressed my own particular wants and circumstances at the time. At a later period of my boyhood, after doing what I knew to

* For this sketch we are indebted to the REV. CHARLES HAYDON; who begs us to state, that many of its materials were furnished by MR. BEAUMONT.— EDITS. 3 т

VOL. VI.-FOURTH SERIES.

be wrong, I have retired in the dusk of the evening to the corner of some field, and there, on my bended knees, have confessed my sins and implored mercy. On such occasions I generally felt my conscience to be somewhat relieved; but, as my heart remained in bondage to sin, such relief was probably occasioned by the thought that I had attended to one of the necessary conditions upon which a merciful God has graciously promised forgiveness. In my seventeenth year I had a severe attack of pleurisy, from which my recovery was not expected. Never till then, nor since, did I experience such an awful dread of death! I felt a certainty that, if I were dragged to the judgment-seat in the state I was in, I must inevitably be plunged into eternal perdition! Yet, so little was I disposed to rely upon a death-bed repentance, and so small was my hope that God would signalise His mercy and saving power, by effecting in me so great a change as I felt to be necessary in the short period which seemed to be allotted me,-that, instead of seeking for pardon and regeneration, I prayed that my unworthy life might be spared, and solemnly promised and vowed that, if God would raise me again, the rest of my days should be spent in His service. But, alas! these convictions and resolves, produced by the fear of damuation, were like the morning cloud and the early dew. The period between my affliction and my conversion to God, proved, on the whole, the most careless part of my life."

In the early part of 1815 Mr. Rhodes removed to Bradford; and, as he had been brought up amongst the "Particular Baptists," he became an attendant upon the ministry of the late Rev. Dr. Steadman, then Pastor of a Baptist church in Bradford,-of whom it is but just to say, that a more pure-minded and generous man, a more devout and conscientious Christian, or a more learned and pious Minister, has been seldom known. Mr. Rhodes did not, however, become a member of the Baptist church; events soon occurring, some of which occasioned a decided change in his doctrinal views, and others led him to the enjoyment of experimental religion through Methodist agencies. He was accordingly induced, on coming to religious decision, to join the church of Christ amongst the Wesleyans.

Visitations of mortality in the circle of his relatives appear to have had a blessed influence upon his mind, in regard to personal salvation. In the early part of 1815 he received tidings of his father's death, for which he was fully prepared by a prior and lingering illness. In a short time after, he lost a sister, who expired somewhat suddenly in Otley; but concerning whose death he had the greatest hope, believing that she was fully prepared for her great change. "In consequence of these bereavements," he observes, "when I had but recently left the place of my nativity, together with all my early friends, this world assumed the appearance of a blighted garden, from which everything interesting was fast withering away. A portion of my leisure was passed in visiting the churchyard, to read the inscriptions on the tomb-stones, and to muse on human mortality. In this I felt a pleasing melancholy, which gave

[ocr errors]
« НазадПродовжити »