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and brought, in consequence, to the verge of destruction.

Hereafter he will appear before us in a more matured stage of existence, and under a more pleasing character. Arrived at manhood, we shall find him awaking from the dream of life to its reality, and opening his eyes to receive divine illumination. Feeling his ignorance of natural science, and of spiritual things, and resolving, in the strength of Almighty God, to redeem the time, and retrieve the past, we shall find him putting forth his energies,surmounting the obstacles of obscure birth, poverty, and want of education, boldly venturing into untried regions of thought, rising to an honourable station in literature, and acquiring just renown. To what cause is such a change to be attributed? Those who peruse this narrative, will, we think, feel no difficulty in ascribing it wholly to the grace of God, and the influence of his Holy Spirit, communicated through the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high,

Through the dear might of Him who walked the waves."

SECTION VII.

Methodism in St. Austell Dr. Adam Clarke's appointment and labours there - Death of Jabez Drew- Its effect on Samuel-He becomes decidedly religious, and joins the Methodists' society.

WHEN Samuel Drew went to reside in St. Austell, Wesleyan Methodism was exciting attention. The rude manners of the population, which had led some to call Cornwall, "West Barbary," were fast yielding to the benign influences of that gospel, which had been so faithfully and zealously promulgated among its inhabitants, by the Rev. John Wesley and his coadjutors. The reproach of the cross' had not, however, ceased. To become a member of the Methodists' society, subjected the individual to con

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"I am assured," you add, "that Methodism has, from its first rise to its present state of insolent boasting, been alarmingly injurious to the community." This is a most pregnant falsehood. It has been amazingly beneficial. It has turned the wretched heathens in the forest of Dean, and thousands of heathens as wretched, in the collieries all over the kingdom, together with the profligate rabble of all our great towns, into sober, serious, professed, and practical Christians. And I should be happy to see my own parishioners all Methodists at this moment.' "JOHN WHITAKER."

[Polwhele's Memoirs of Whitaker, p. 141.]

tumely, and sometimes to persecution; and however willing those who could not resist the evidence of their senses might be, to acknowledge the general benefit which had accrued to Cornwall, from this kind of religious teaching, many were disposed to regard a connexion with the Methodists as a proof of mental imbecility.

Although St. Austell was not visited by Mr. Wesley, on his first journey into this county, it was a place where he was afterwards favourably received, and attentively heard. Here, about the year 1748, a small society was formed, of which Mr. Drew's parents were members. In the infancy of this society, its services were held either in the open air, or in private dwellings; but, when it increased in numbers and influence, and its ministers had begun to attract many hearers, an effort was made to erect a house for worship. In what year this was built is now unknown. Its dimensions were very small, adapted merely to the immediate necessities of the people; but subsequently it was enlarged, and a gallery erected. In this place the early apostles of Methodism addressed their hearers, until the year 1787; and here the society held its meetings when Mr. Drew became a member.* Through the respectability of some persons who had joined it, and from the good sense of the inhabitants generally, open persecution was little known; yet those who attended the Methodist chapel were often the sub

Another chapel was erected in 1787; and a third, still more spacious, was completed in 1828.

jects of petty annoyance.

But this, receiving no

countenance from the influential inhabitants, was discontinued; and many persons respectably circumstanced in life thought it no disgrace to attend the Methodist ministry, which was gradually rising into notice, and making its way in the good opinion of the public.

When Methodism became more fully organized, by the subdivision of the kingdom into circuits, Cornwall was comprised within two such divisions; and St. Austell was made the central station, and residence of the preachers, of the eastern circuit. In 1784-5, the time in which our narrative now places us, the appointed ministers were Messrs. Francis Wrigley, William Church, and Adam Clarke, each of whom is gone to his eternal reward. With their labours, especially those of the latter, (whose name is known wherever Protestant Christianity prevails, and, while science, erudition, piety and philanthropy command public approbation, will never be forgotten), this year of Samuel Drew's life, is most intimately associated.

Next to the personal labours of Mr. Wesley, nothing contributed so much to give an impulse to Methodism in St. Austell, and to extend the benefits of vital religion through its agency there, as the appointment to this circuit of Mr. Clarke, then in the early stage of his eminently useful ministry. His colleagues were pious, zealous, and acceptable preachers; but Mr. Clarke's juvenile appearance excited public curiosity, and he was made instrumental to the salvation of many souls. The year of his appointment to the

St. Austell circuit became an era in its history. In connexion with other circumstances, his preaching was the means of effecting a signal change in Mr. Drew's character. His reception, and the results of his ministry, were thus graphically described by Mr. D. to a member of the late Dr. Clarke's family.

"Though I had been in the habit of attending the Wesleyan chapel, and, as far as religion occupied my thoughts, was an Arminian in sentiment, yet I had very little serious feeling, and no intention of joining the Methodist body. But just then a thin, active stripling came into the St. Austell circuit as a preacher, of the name of Adam Clarke. Him I heard with surprise and attention. I followed his preaching whenever I could; and so did a multitude of others. He gave us no dogmas, he forced upon us no doctrines; but he set us a thinking and reasoning, because he thought and reasoned with us himself. Crowds followed wherever he went; and his word, spirit, and conduct, were severally made blessings to many, while his zeal was the wonder and profit of multitudes. His sermons were short, numerous, and earnest; and, though young, and looking even younger than he really was, yet he gained and maintained an influence and respect which none felt afraid or ashamed to own. I well recollect the time, when, having to preach in St. Austell, the crowd was so great that he could not get into the chapel. At that time, the males and females sat on opposite sides of the house; and, that on which the women were being nearest the street, he got in at one of the windows, and was borne along upon their hands and heads, till, without

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