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Preface

THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH.

Biographers have occasionally, though perhaps unconsciously, glided into two opposite extremes : they have either depreciated the character of their subjects, or overrated their excellences. To the former extreme they have been led in various ways ; and in none, among the less offensive, more than in writing far and near for character; and after securing their object, arranging the different materials in their works, like witnesses in a court of justice, to speak for the person in question. This, to say the least, is putting the subject on his trial. It is in this way that the Life of that excellent man, the late Rev. William Bramwell, has been doomed to suffer, and permitted to be swelled to a useless extent, by the publication of opinions* which were never given with a view to appear in print ; and which, if even given for that purpose, would have the same weight with the public that the " Names of Little Note, recorded in the Biographia Britannica," had with Cowper, especially in support of the character of such a man ; a man who required no such adventitious aid, but who, after all the prunings

* This remark refers to a second volume published in England, but never republished in this country. — Eds.

b VILLAGE BLACKSMITH PREFACE.

and parings of those who least admired him, and, with only a tithe of his wisdom, looked upon him as a weak enthusiast, would have stood a lovely tree in the vineyard of the Lord, refreshing many with his verdure, protecting them with his shade, and enriching them with the weight and luxuriance of his fruit. When an author is reduced to the necessity of going abroad in quest of character for his subject, it is but too evident that the subject has not been sufficiently at home with himself to be known ; or, that, in addition to a paucity of material, there is either incapacity for the work, or doubts of the propriety of its execution. In the present case, either the writer has not humility to spare for such condescension, or he wishes not to degrade his subject. Having no internal misgivings, no suspicion, he considers his hero not as on his trial, but one against whom no charge is preferred, and therefore deems the witness-box unnecessary. Let him not, however, be misunderstood ; for though he has gone in quest of materials, he has not gone in search of character. He has procured materials, in order to form an opinion of his own; materials, which rose out of a character already formed — a character imbodied in a " living epistle" before the public, " seen and read of all ;" and but for which character, such materials would not have existed.

The other extreme into which biographers have fallen has had its rise in an overweening anxiety and partiality, inducing them on the

VILLAGE BLACKSMITH PREFACE. 7

one hand to render the character as perfect as possible, in order to secure on the other an ample share of the good opinion of the reader. Here the writer has again to plead disinclination. He has taken up the character of Samuel Hick as it was, not as he wished it, nor as it ought to be ; and has left the man as he found him — in the rough, and unadorned ; somewhat resembling the block of marble upon which the first efforts of the artist have been employed, where the human form has been brought out of the unfinished mass, in whose core are to be found all those hidden qualities which give beauty to the surface, only waiting the masterly hand of a Phidias, for the purpose of imparting grace, and polish, and finish.

The circumstances under which the following pages commenced, were carried on, and completed, are these : — The good man, whose life and character they profess to portray, deposited with the writer, about three years prior to the period of his dissolution, some papers, with a solemn injunction to prepare them for publication. These papers were found to comprise broken materials of personal history, such as he himself alone was capable of throwing together, and such as it would fall to the lot of but few, without previous and personal acquaintance, to be able to separate and decipher. The pledge of preparation was given, without the specification of time, on either side, for its fulfilment. Such was the heterogeneal character of the papers, and such the complexion of many

8 VILLAGE BLACKSMITH PREFACE.

of the facts and incidents, that some of the former were totally useless, and some of the latter unfit to meet the public eye ; the whole requiring another language, and bare allusion being sufficient in many instances where amplification had been indulged. Some time previous to the decease of the subject, a degree of impatience was expressed for the completion of the Memoir : but as no time had been originally specified, and as it was known that the good man was imprudently pushed on to request its publication during life, by injudicious friendship, the work, in mercy to himself, and for the still higher honour of the religion he professed, nor less richly enjoyed, was purposely delayed; from an impression that nothing short of the publication of the whole would give satisfaction. The writer's vow being still upon him, added to which, having been urged by others to furnish the public with a biographical account of the deceased, he has employed of the papers thus referred to, together with others which have since been put into his hands by different friends, whatever he has found convertible to the purpose of affording instruction to the Christian community, as illustrative of the grace and providence of God ; the whole combining to furnish a living exposition of what has proceeded from the source of truth, where it is affirmed that " God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty ; and base things of

VILLAGE BLACKSMITH — PREFACE, 9

the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught the things that are : that no flesh should glory in his presence."

It may be proper to mention, that some time after the death of Samuel Hick, the writer learned, by an application being made to him for materials, that another person had it in contemplation to prepare a Memoir ; but it was too late : he had gone too far to recede : and as he could not conceive what virtue his MS. could derive from the simple process of passing through a second person's hand to the press, or what advantage he could reap by placing the fruit of his labour at the disposal of one who had neither held the plough nor scattered the seed into the furrows, he preferred appearing before the public in his own name, without allowing the imperfections of his pages to be charged upon others, or their merit — should they possess any — to be claimed by any but their legitimate owner.

Among the persons to whom the writer has to acknowledge his obligations for information respecting the subject of the Memoir, he would not omit his friend, Mr. William Dawson, of Barnbow, near Leeds, to whom the work is inscribed,— the Rev. Messrs. H. Beech, A. Learoyd, J. Hanwell, T. Harris, and J. Roadhouse, together with Mr. Robert Watson, son-in-law of the deceased, and other branches of the family— the latter furnishing him with the use of his correspondence.

ADVERTISEMENT

SECOND EDITION OF VILLAGE BLACKSMITH.

The first impression of this Memoir having been sold in about the space of one month after its publication, and several orders remaining unfulfilled, the writer has been induced to send forth a second. Though any attempt to conceal his pleasure in the success of the volume would appear sheer affectation, he is far from attributing the favour with which it has been received to the manner in which he has performed his task ; for, had it not been for the subject — which may be considered in some respects new in biography, and as holding the same relation to serious reading, as a novel bears to the graver character of historical details, the volume might have shared the same fate as many superior compositions — that of falling dead from the press. The literary world has heard a good deal lately respecting the romance of history ; and they have here an approach to the romance of religious biography. Such forms of expression, the writer is aware, are liable to objections ; but he is unable at present to find a more appropriate term to express his views and feelings in penning the Life of Samuel Hick — a

VILLAGE BLACKSMITH ADVERTISEMENT. 11

character so singular, and yet so eminently devoted to God and to the best interests of man.

The reader will find some errors corrected in the present edition, which had found their way into the former, — several new incidents and anecdotes introduced, — and a public address appended, which the subject of the Memoir delivered in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It is not improbable that many of the facts stated in both editions may assume a new face to several readers — so much so, perhaps, as scarcely to be recognised by those who may be in possession of the hundredth oral edition ; but to such persons as are aware how much the same tale will become metamorphosed, in its passage through a score of different lips and minds, it will not be surprising that the writer should differ in some important particulars from vague report. He might state that he has received communications from different persons, each professing to have received the intelligence from the lips of Samuel himself, yet widely different often, both in the principle and in the detail. This could be accounted for from the circumstance of Samuel having entered into particulars in one instance, and only nafmed the naked fact in another ; and also from the different impressions produced on the minds of the persons themselves, none of whom might have thought of a publicity beyond the domestic circle ; and in each case the lapse of years seriously affected the memory. Yet, with these inconveniences, and others that will naturally suggest

12 VILLAGE BLACKSMITH ADVERTISEMENT.

themselves to the reader, every individual is certain, in the integrity of his heart, that his is the only correct version. This, as so many extraordinary tales have been handed round respecting the subject of the Memoir, is admonitory of caution; and as the writer has had access to the original documents, as far as penned by the subject himself, and from only part of which a mutilated copy has been obtained, any other separately published Life — under whatever pretensions — should be received with suspicion, both as to its details and the motive for publication.

THE

VILLAGE BLACKSMITH.

Chapter I

His birth — Parentage — Hears John Nelson — Disturbance during street-preaching — Is bound an apprentice to a blacksmith— His conduct — Attends a lovefeast — Becomes the subject of divine impressions — Hears Thomas Peace — Visits York — Scenes of riot — Hears Richard Burdsall — His conduct toward a persecuting clergyman — His heart increasinglysoftened — Conviction — Mr. Wesley — The good effects of that venerable man's ministry.

Samuel Hick, the subject of the present memoir, was in the moral world, what some of the precious stones are in the mineral kingdom, a portion of which lie scattered along the eastern coast of the island, and particularly of Yorkshire, his own county ; — a man that might have escaped the notice of a multitude of wateringplace visiters, like the pebbles immediately under their eye ; — one who, to pursue the simile, was likely to be picked up only by the curious, in actual pursuit of such specimens, and thus, though slighted and trodden under foot, like the incrusted gem, by persons of opposite taste, to be* preserved from being for ever buried in the dust, as a thing of naught in the sand, after the opportunities of knowing his real value — when above the surface, had been permitted to pass unobserved and unimproved ; — one of those characters, in short, that could only be discovered when sought after, or forced upon the senses by his own personal appearance, in the peculiarities by which he was distinguished — who was ever secure of his price when found — but who would, nevertheless, be placed by a virtuoso rather among the more curious and singularly formed, than among the richer and rarer specimens in his collection.

He was born at Aberford, September 20th, 1758, and was one of thirteen children that had to be nursed and reared by the " hand labour" to employ an expression of his own, of poor, but industrious parents. Through the limited means of the family, his education was necessarily very circumscribed, being chiefly confined to his letters, in their knowledge and formation, without advancing to figures : — and even these — such was the blank of being which he experienced for several years afterward — appear to have been either totally forgotten, or so imperfectly known, as to induce an inability to read and write when he reached the age of manhood. This led him, in after life, when Sunday-school instruction dawned upon the world, as the morning of a brighter day, to contemplate the times with peculiar interest, and to wish that he had been favoured with the privileges, in his younger years, which he lived to promote and to see enjoyed by others. The dream of childhood seemed to pass away, with all its dangers, its " insect cares," and its joys, withoui leaving a single trace of any interest upon his memory, till he reached the seventh year of his age ; and one of the first of his reminiscences, when sitting down at a kind of halting-post, toward the close of his journey, to look back on all the way which the Lord God had led him in the wilderness, was just such an occurrence as a mind imbued with divine grace might be supposed to advert to, — anxious only to fix on favoured spots, where God is seen in his ministers, his providence, and his people.

Field and street-preaching had neither lost its novelty through age, nor was it rendered unnecessary by a multiplicity of commodious chapels : while the want of a suitable place, therefore, led a Wesleyan itinerant preacher to take his stand on the market cross, to proclaim, as the herald of the Saviour, the glad tidings of salvation, the inhabitants of Aberford were allured to the ground, in order to listen to his message. Little Samuel mingled with the crowd — gazed with a degree of vacancy on the scene — heard, but understood not. John Nelson was the preacher — a man whose life was full of incident and interest — who discovered no less prowess in the cause of God, than his namesake, Nelson, did upon the element for which he seemed called into existence — and who stood, for the fame he acquired, in a somewhat similar relation to Methodism, that the hero of the Nile did to the British nation. In the course of the service, a person prepared for the work by intoxication, having had three quarts of ale given to him by three Roman Catholics, who urged him to the onset, made considerable disturbance. The people were annoyed, and the preacher was thwarted in his purpose. The man exhibited in his hand a piece of paper, from which he either read or pretended to read ; and being possessed of a powerful voice, he elevated it in true stentorian style, and by force of lungs rendered the feebler voice of- the preacher inaudible. A chain of circumstances contributed to preserve the case alive in Samuel's recollection. The man was personally known to. him — he continued to reside in the neighbourhood — afterward lost his sight — was supported by begging from door to door — solicited alms from Samuel himself, when the latter had become a householder — was reminded of the circumstance by him, and was either hypocritical or honest enough to confess his belief that it was a judgment from God — expressed his sorrow — and finished his course in a workhouse. The uses and improvements which Samuel made of circumstances and occasions even the most trivial, were invariably devotional, and often pertinent, From an occurrence like the present, he would, in stating it, exclaim, " Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished ;" then, with his usual quickness, his eyes sparkling, and beaming with a fine flow of grateful feeling, he would advert to the difference between earlier and more modern times, exulting in the quiet which reigned around, " every man" being permitted, in patriarchal simplicity, to a sit" and to shelter himself " under his vine and under his fig-tree," the hand of persecution not being raised " to make him afraid."

His attention having been once drawn to the subject of religion, by the peculiarities of Methodism, it was soon reawakened by the return of the preachers, whose visits, from the comparatively small numbers of labourers employed, were more like the return of the seasons, setting in, earlier or later, and at wider distances, than the regular succession of week after week, or month after month. This irregularity, occasioned by calls to new fields of usefulness, rendered their visits, like the return of spring, the more welcome to religious persons, and preserved on the face of the whole an air of novelty among the profane, which frequent repetition, by producing familiarity, might have destroyed. Whoever might have been the ministers, whether in or out of the Established Church, that lie heard — and whatever might have been the impressions received, not any thing of personal importance is recorded, till the lapse of a second seven years, when, at the age of fourteen, he was bound an apprentice to Edward Derby, of Healaugh, near Tadcaster, to learn the trade of a blacksmith. Here he appears to have been placed in a situation favourable, in some respects, for religious improvement ; and in three sentences, the full power of which, when tried upon the mind of another person, he scarcely understood, he has struck off a sketch of his own conduct while filling '2 that situation. He states, that he had a " comfortable time," that " the Lord gave" him " favour in the eyes of the people," and that he ""never troubled" his "parents for any thing during" his " apprenticeship." We have in this, in the way of implication at least, his character as a servant, a neighbour, and a child ; for had he not been diligent and faithful as a servant, kind and obliging as a neighbour, tender and thoughtful as a child, there is not any thing to induce us to believe that he could either have been comfortable in his service, participated in the favour of those around him, or that his parents would have been exempt from trouble, owing to demands made both upon their pockets and their patience.

He had not been long in his situation before curiosity led him to a lovefeast, which was held in a barn, at Heaiaugh. A good man of the same trade with himself was the door-keeper ; and either through a kindly feeling on that account, or from his having perceived something in Samuel's general demeanour, which excited his hope, he permitted him to pass, and ordered him to mount the straw, which was piled up in a part of the building, in order to make room for the people. It was not long before the door-keeper left his post, and advancing toward the body of the congregation, commenced the service. He remarked, in figurative language, when describing the influence of the Spirit of God upon his heart, that "the fire was burning," and that he " felt it begin at the door."

So gross were the conceptions of Samuel, so ignorant was he of the ordinary phraseology of Christians, that, like Nicodemus on another subject, he took the term fire in its literal acceptation, and in an instant his fears were roused, his imagination was at work, and his eye was directed to the door. He deemed his situation among the straw as one of the most hazardous, and in his imaginings saw himself enveloped in flame. He continued to fix an anxious eye upon the entrance, but on perceiving, as he expressed himself, neither " smpke nor fire," his fears were gradually allayed, and he again lent an attentive ear to the worthy man, who had borrowed his simile, in all probability, from the descent of the Holy Ghost, in " cloven tongues like as of fire," and whose feelings seemed to accord with those which stirred in the bosom of the psalmist, when he said, " My heart was hot within me : while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue." There were two particulars which impressed the mind of Samuel, and which he afterward pondered in his heart ; the one was the high value which the speaker stamped upon his office, and upon the place, dignifying the old barn with the title of a place of worship, and affirming that he " had rather be a door-keeper in the house of God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness ;" and the other was his declaration of a knowledge of the fact, that his sins were forgiven. Samuel could not conceive how the temporary appropriation of such aplace to divine worship, &c, could constitute it " the house of God," or what honour or pleasure a man could derive from the apparently humiliating circumstance of keeping watch over a door that many would be ashamed to enter. But the knowledge of forgiveness puzzled him most, and in this he seemed to have a personal concern. His spirit clung to the fact, and he could not help wishing that the case were his own — that he knew it for himself; this plainly implying a knowledge of sin, though probably he was not painfully oppressed with his load. He nook occasion the next day to ask his master how the man could know that his sins were pardoned, and to express what he himself felt on the subject, — a circumstance which would lead to the conclusion, that his master possessed something more than the mere semblance of Christianity, though not sufficient to lead him to establish the practice of family prayer.

Whatever was the knowledge which the master imparted, Samuel's feelings and inquiries are evident indications that he was visited with " drawings from above ;" and these were fostered soon after by a local preacher from York, of the name of Thomas Peace, who, while preaching on the " remission of sins," and insisting on a knowledge of it, confirmed by Scripture all that had been heard from the lips of experience in the barn. While the preacher wept, and expostulated with the people, Samuel looked, and listened, and also wept : but with him they were tears of sympathy ; for in his boyish sim-

THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITM.

plicity he concluded that the man must have just come from the grave of his wife ; and with equal simplicity, on his return home, he inquired of his master, who had become his oracle, whether it was not on account of the death of his wife that the preacher had been weeping. His master told him — and this is an additional proof of the light which he possessed — that the tenderness manifested was occasioned by the love of God which was shed abroad in his heart, inspiring him with love to his fellow-creatures. This was too high for Samuel's comprehension, but not beyond the feelings of his heart. He loved the man while hearing him preach, but loved him more now, ardently desired his return, and embraced every opportunity of attending his preaching. His heart was gradually softening — the great subject of religion was constantly revolving in his mind, like an orb of light, yet he was unable lo fasten his thoughts down to the contemplation of its particular parts, with the exception of the doctrine of pardon — and withal, he had not power over moral evil.

In 1776, when he had attained his eighteenth year* it being customary for the young people of the neighbouring towns and villages to visit the city of York on Whit-Monday, in order to witness scenes of folly and dissipation, especially wrestling-matches and fights, the victors having prizes conferred upon them, he joined his companions, repaired to the spot, and became a spectator. But being naturally humane, and not having undergone any course of brutal discipline, to render callous the better and more tender feelings of his heart, he was not able to enter into the spirit of such gladiatorial scenes, — scenes more worthy of Greece and Rome in their pagan state, than of Christian Britain. This was not his element ; it was to him a scene of " misery and cruelty," as he afterward stated ; and averting his eyes from these objects, he was suddenly attracted by another crowd of people occupying another part of the same public ground, encircling a person who was elevated for the occasion, and seemed by his attitude to be haranguing his hearers. Samuel left his associates, and before the maddened yells and shouts of profanity had died upon his ear, and for which that ear had not been tuned, he was saluted with a hymn ; — the two extremes furnishing an epitome of heaven and hell — the one seen from the other, as the rich man beheld Lazarus, only with this important difference among others, no impassable " gulf" was " fixed" between ; '' so that they which would pass from" one to the other might avail themselves of the privilege. This was a moment of deep interest ; and on this single act, through the Divine Being putting special honour upon it, might hinge in a great measure the bearings of his future life. He was partial to singing, and as the hymn was sung in different parts he was the more delighted. The conspicuous figure in the centre was the late Richard Burdsall, of York, father of the Rev,

John Burdsall, who had, with his usual daring, entered the field against the enemy, and was mounted on what Samuel designated " a block," for the purpose of giving him a greater advantage over his auditory, while animadverting on the profligacy of the times.* Mr. Burdsall was remarkably popular in his day, and was just such a preacher as Samuel, from the peculiar construction of his own mind, was likely to fix upon, — one who would, on- comparing the one with the other, have stood at the head of the same class at school, in which Samuel would have been placed at \hsfoot; both being ^ for the class, as well as o/*it, — only the one having attained to greater proficiency than the other, in a somewhat similar line.f

Samuel's attention was soon gained, and his affection won, which, to Mr. Burdsall, was of no small importance ; for as he was proceeding with the service, a clergyman advanced toward him, declaring that "he should not preach there, not if he were the Lord Mayor himself," threatening to "pull him down from the

*The Wesleyan Methodists have always been distin guished for their zealous attempts to reclaim the worst part of human nature first : for this purpose they have resorted to markets, feasts, and fairs ; and in looking at the situation of some of their oldest chapels, Whitby and other places, it will be found that they frequently pitched their tents in the most Sodomitish parts of a town, with a view to improve the more depraved as well as the lower grades of society.

f Quaintness, wit, and imagination, were rarely absent in Mr. B. Speaking to the writer once, in the city of York, on his early call to the ministry, he said, " I seem to have been something like a partridge : I ran away with the shell on my head."

block." Just as he was preparing to carry his designs into execution, Samuel, whose love to the preacher was such, that he felt, as he observed, as if he " could lose the last drop of" his " blood" in his defence, stepped up to the clergyman, clenched his hands, and holding them in a menacing form to his face, accosted him in the abrupt and measured terms of the ring upon which he had but a few minutes before been gazing, — " Sir, if you disturb that man of God, I will drop you as sure as ever you were born." There was too much emphasis in the expression, and too much fire in the eye, to admit a doubt that he was in earnest. The reverend gentleman felt the force of it — his countenance changed — the storm which was up in Samuel had allayed the tempest in him — and he looked with no small concern for an opening in the crowd, by which he might make his escape. Samuel, though unchanged by divine grace, had too much nobleness of soul in him to trample upon an opponent who was thus in a state of humiliation before him ; and therefore generously took him under his protection, made a passage for him through the audience, and conducted him to the outskirts without molestation, when he quickly disappeared. The manner in which this was done, the despatch employed, and the sudden calm after the commotion, must have produced a kind of dramatic effect on the minds of religious persons, who, nevertheless, in the midst of their surprise, gratitude and even harmless mirth at the precipitate flight of their disturber, who was converted in an instant by a mere stripling from the lion to the timid hare, would be no more disposed to justify the clenched fist, — the earth helping the woman in this way, — than they could be brought to approve of the zeal of Peter, when, by a single stroke, he cut off the right ear of the high priest's servant. Samuel instantly resumed the attitude of an attentive hearer, without any apparent emotions from what had just transpired. In the launching forth of his hand, he gave as little warning as the thunderbolt of heaven ; the flash of his eye was like the lightning's glare — a sudden burst of passion, withering for a moment — seen — and gone.