BRITISH NORTH AMERICAN WESLEYAN-METHODIST MAGAZINE, FOR DECEMBER, 1842. BIOGRAPHY. REMINISCENCES OF THE REV. ADAM CLARKE AVARD, Ir is a pleasing and delightful employment to contemplate the operations of Divine grace, in the experience, and labours, and successes, of those "servants of the Most High God," who have shown unto us "the way of salvation," and who, having finished as "hirelings their day," have gone to their glorious reward. Their memorial has perished from the earth, but their record is on high. The Spirit hath declared them blest unutterably blest," for "they rest from their labours and their works do follow. them." Yet sweet is the savour of their names, long after their heads lie low, and their tongues are silent in death. Our memories will instinctively go back to the days when they lived and moved among us; the precious words we then heard from their lips, are still as ointment poured forth; and we cannot dissociate ourselves from the apprehension, that even in their disembodied existence, they linger among the scenes of their former labours, and sympathize with the joys and sorrows of our checkered pilgrimage. Delightful thought! We are all one family in Christ Jesus, "One church above beneath." To spirtual communion the body presents but a feeble barrier, whether joining in the song of Moses the servant of God around the Eternal Throne, or mingling still with the choirs of earth, the employment is the same, "The kingdoms are but one." VOL. II. First Series. DECEMBER, 1842. R 2 The subject of this sketch was a faithful, and devoted Minister of the Gospel, who, in the bloom of life, and in the midst of his usefulness, was unexpectedly removed from a "suffering" to a "reigning" church. It is not the intention of the writer to furnish a full memoir, nor is he possessed of the necessary materials for such a work-his principal object is to rescue from oblivion a few circumstances connected with his last labours and death, which are not generally known, and which cannot but be interesting to many of the readers of this periodical in both Provinces. Mr. Avard was converted to God under the ministry of the Rev. John Hick, at Charlotte Town, P. E. Island, in the year 1815. A full account of this important circumstance, furnished by the Rev. Albert Desbrisay, to which the attention of the reader is particularly directed, will be found in another place.* The following brief statement of the commencement of his ministerial labours is given by the Rev. S. Busby. "I became acquainted with brother Avard shortly after my arrival in Prince Edward Island from Newfoundland, in November, 1816. He then resided in Charlotte Town, and was studying law with a gentleman who had gone to England on business. The absence of his principal left him for a season unemployed, and becoming acquainted with the state of his mind, I urged him to go with me to Murray Harbour, where there was an opening for a school, and as soon as we reached there he was engaged. We resided together in the same house, occupied the same apartment, and slept in the same bed. The house in which we lived was built of logs, and I recollect our bed room where my books, &c. were kept had no window, and we were compelled to do our reading in an outer room, which served both for parlour, dining room, and kitchen. The only chair on the premises was made by myself, assisted by my landlord, Mr. Dejersey, who was a cooper. But although thus circumscribed as to luxuries, the people were kind, and I look back to this as one of the happiest periods of my life. Brother Avard soon began to exhort, and during the winter frequently preached. Believing him to possess talents and qualifications for our work, I took him with me to our District Meeting, * Mr. Desbrisay's statement is too voluminous to be incorporated into the above, and it is too valuable to be at all abridged; it is given at the conclusion of this article. which was held in the spring of 1817, at Halifax. The brethren highly approved of him, and he was at once received and appointed to Newport Circuit, where many souls were the fruits of his ministry. During the succeeding year I laboured on the Annapolis Circuit, and held, in conjunction with several of my brethren, what was then called the Great Meeting,' in Wilmot.* Mr. Avard attended, and a sermon preached by him from 'I have a message from God unto thee,' was instrumental in the conversion of one with whom it has been my providential lot to be associated ever since. Subsequently Mr. Avard laboured in Shelburn and Annapolis, and was then sent to Fredericton. The following extract of a letter which I received from him shortly after his removal to the latter place, will furnish some idea of his disposition and character. DEAR BROTHER BUSBY, * * * Fredericton, N. B., August 20, 1820. I hope God will direct and guide me: I wish to do his will. I bless God I can tear every idol from my heart, and say "Thy will be done." I do not wish to have part with the world, or Belial; if God has all my heart, he will give me all I need. Come to Saint John next year if you are spared, as I think you would be useful, and probably near me, for I believe the Society here will try to get me back again to them. I would not say this to any other Preacher. I have crowded congregations. God is adding to his people. The Devil is very busy; I am trying to be busy too. God knows I love and prize you all highly. Give my kind regards to your dear wife, and all dwelling under your happy roof, Your affectionate Brother, A. C. AVARD. I never saw him afterwards. The British Conference of 1820 had appointed him to open a Mission on the Labrador Coast, a work for which he was eminently qualified, but his death occurred before he could commence it." Mr. Avard came to Fredericton in June, 1820. This station included at that time what are now called the Fredericton, Nashwaak and Sheffield Circuits, and as Methodism was then in its infancy in these places, there was scarcely any local help, and the principal burden fell upon the preacher, whose field of labour exten *I mention this particularly as it was the first Protracted Meeting ever held in these Provinces, and continued several days. The Preachers present were Rev. Messrs. Bennett, Ansley, (Baptist,) Priestley, Busby, Alder, Avard, and Miller. The meeting was held on Nictaux Plains there were crowded congregations, and many souls were saved. VENACHE ded over a large surface of country. There had been a blessed revival of religion under the ministry of the Rev. Mr. Bent two years previously, but the reaction which too generally follows these seasons of extraordinary excitement, had brought the societies into a low state, and Mr. Avard began his work under some circumstances of discouragement. His plain and pointed addresses, for he was a preacher of the law, and his diligent attention to his ministerial duties, soon produced a sensible improvement. A number were converted to God, some of whom have fallen asleep, and others remain to this day. Mr. A. continued his labours alone until the fall, when the unexpected arrival of a new missionary from England, the Rev. Mr. Temple, materially improved the prospect of extensive good, which now presented itself on every hand. There was something singularly providential in Mr. Temple's arrival at this juncture, as it favoured Mr. Avard with the kind and saffectionate attention of a brother missionary, when he was laid on a bed of death, a privilege of which he must then otherwise have been altogether deprived, and it secured for the work on the Circuit a continued and effective supply when he was taken away. Both preachers laboured together, until Mr. A. was seized with the illness which terminated in his death. One of his last sermons was addressed to the rising generation, and was founded upon Jeremiah 3: 4" Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, my Father, thou art the guide of my youth.” It is well remembered with what earnestness he exhorted the congregation, and especially the young, to cry unto their father as the guide of their youth. His health was constantly good, until a fortnight before his death. He had caught a severe cold while preaching in a hot * Here is some mistake: for in November when Mr. Avard came to Saint John to solicit my assistance during the remainder of our ecclesiastical year, he complained of the effects of a severe cold he had taken by exposure to a heavy rain storm on his return a short time before from Saint Mary's above, (now calleds. Douglas,) after evening preaching. From the effects of that cold I think he neverrecovered, and subsequent exposures only aggravated theme oplos nið H On Monday March 8th, after his return with Mr. Pickard from Nashwaak, having, in his study, heated to a high temperature, written a letter tosan intimates friend and brother in Nova Scotia, he passed through an unfinished part of the house to read it to the excellent matron with whom he lodged. The very sudden |