WESLEYAN-METHODIST MAGAZINE.

JULY, 1852.

BIOGRAPHY.

MEMOIR OF THE REV. THOMAS POWELL:

BY HUMPHRY SANDWITH, M.D.

THE leading Wesleyan Ministers of the first half of the present century are eminently worthy of remembrance. They were cast on evil days. Next to saving souls, their office was to weaken the force of noxious principles sown on British soil for the first time since the Reformation. The source of those principles was the first French Revolution. Political expediency was gradually sapping the foundations of the British constitution, and removing those barriers which the piety and wisdom of our ancestors threw up around it to guard against the stealthy return of its ancient Italian foe; and in our national seats of learning a morbid appetite for patristic lore and mediæval antiquities was vitiating the healthy relish for Protestant truth. Hence the national recognition, at last, of Romanist teachers of religion, both at home and in the colonies. Hence, also, the supplanting in many of our national churches of the simple rites of Protestant worship, and the substitution of the mummeries of Romish superstition. The shock thus given to the national faith encouraged the spread of German Neology among the upper classes, and of a demoralising Socialism among the lower. To aggravate these evils, a population outgrowing its religious agencies was virtually inviting both the insidious aggressions of Rome, and the inroads of a rude infidelity. Wherever Tractarian opinions obtained a footing, there a withering High-Church exclusivism prevailed; while evangelical religion was equally branded by men of the infidel school as contemptible fanaticism. On times like these, and among such mighty elements of moral mischief, was the subject of our memoir thrown by the providence of God. But a heaven-born piety nerved him for a successful encounter with these gigantic foes. Energetic, indeed, must have been the sinews of that mental constitution, which could enable its possessor to surmount the defects of early education, and make his influence widely felt among the hosts of learned polemics whose principles he boldly assailed. Yet, seconding the gifts of nature by a sedulous cultivation of them so far as his means allowed, Thomas Powell was permitted to achieve more than many of his contemporaries who possessed far greater advan

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tages; and therefore it may be truly said of him, that he "served his own generation by the will of God."

Mr. Powell was actively engaged in the Wesleyan Itinerancy about a quarter of a century. During the last twenty of those years he was familiarly known to the writer of these pages. Their acquaintance began in 1829, during which and the following year Mr. Powell was stationed at Bridlington, where the writer then resided. A friendship was at that time formed between them, and an active correspondence subsequently maintained up to the period of his death. The surviver alludes to these particulars, simply to show what were his opportunities of knowing the excellent subject of this memoir, beyond what he derived from an acquaintance with his published writings. He feels that he is only discharging a debt of friendship in recording so much, that alike reflects honour on departed worth, and ought to stimulate the emulation of noble minds. "Our friendship," wrote Mr. Powell, in a letter dated "Harwich, September 27th, 1832," "commenced, I believe, without any mask. We saw and loved each other in the undress of life; and whilst our identity remains, I have no doubt our mutual affection will remain, yea, and heighten too." And again, in another letter, dated "Ampthill, June 3d, 1834," he writes:-" By the by, I find I am under very great obligations to you for defending me against and I commit my character to your custody with the most perfect confidence; and, seriously, if I die before you, I wish you to write my obituary; only do not forget my imperfections." How little did the writer anticipate, when he first read that sentence, that he should ever feel called upon to respond to that appeal! He commenced his task, however, from a spontaneous impulse, which the subsequent discovery of this forgotten wish of his departed friend invested with the authority of a sacred duty.

Mr. Powell was born at the village of Hasselby, near Howden, Yorkshire, on the 24th of October, 1791. His parents were of the class of English peasantry, and unable to give him much education. His only acquirement, while under the parental roof, was that of reading and writing. His parents were moral in their conduct, but not members of any Christian communion. Their son Thomas, as soon as he was able, went out as a farmer's servant. One of his surviving friends, Mr. Edmund Thompson, now of Scarborough, remembers his coming as a smart-looking youth of eighteen to the village of Armyn. Here he lived two years, and thence went for one year into the employment of the late Mr. Michael Clarkson, of Gunby, near Howden. During this period, urged by a sense of the want of education, he resolved on saving a portion of his wages for further instruction. Soon afterwards he put himself under the tuition of a Mr. Thurlow, and subsequently under Mr. Wood, of Hasselby. He next became himself a village-schoolmaster, at Thornton, near Pocklington. He habitually walked from thence to Holme-House, Spalding-Moor, the residence of the late Mr. Barnard Clarkson, to receive lessons in Latin from Mr. Clarkson's family Tutor. This

gentleman ultimately recommended Mr. Powell to Mr. Clarkson as his successor. The recommendation was acted upon with the highest satisfaction to both parties; and, while officiating in the capacity of Tutor to Mr. Clarkson's family, Mr. Powell became a Local Preacher in the Howden Circuit. In that well-known Methodist family he was highly esteemed; and he won, also, the good opinion of the whole neighbourhood. In discharging the twofold duties of Tutor and Local Preacher, his zeal carried him so far, that the Clarksons became alarmed, lest his health should break down under his close application to study.

An autograph copy of a letter, dated Thornton, October 22d, 1818, lies before the writer, addressed by Mr. Powell to the late Mr. Barnard Clarkson, asking for his advice and direction on the subject of beginning to preach. The following extract gives so interesting a view of the self-reliance of a truly noble mind, and sheds so clear a light on his early history, that it ought not to be withheld :

Ever since I was a child at school, I have been a lover of books and of learning. From this, and the peculiar feelings I have had on the subject, I believe that my natural genius is that way inclined. But after I was converted to God, my thirst for knowledge greatly increased. Always, when it did not interfere with my duty to my master, it was my delight to be increasing in knowledge. But this was not all; for, having the love of God in my heart, I wished others to be blessed likewise; and, a kind of involuntary conviction pursuing me that the knowledge which I acquired was not for myself alone, I doubted whether it was not my duty to do something as a labourer in the vineyard of the Lord. These things following me very closely, and being persuaded of the usefulness of learning, and of my own great want of it, after much deliberation and prayer to God for direction, I determined to cast myself into what I believed to be the way of Providence. This was to give way to my natural inclination to learning, and to endeavour to qualify myself, by the blessing of the Lord on my labours, to be useful, if ever He should call me. What supported me here was a consciousness of the purity of my intentions, and of following the best light I could get so that I thought, if I should find myself mistaken, or should fail in my attempts, I should still have the consolation to reflect that I had done my best. But, thanks to the Lord! He whom I have trusted has not hitherto forsaken me; nor have I repented of what I have done. For the accomplishing of my object, I spent, at school and in things pertaining thereto, nearly what little money I had saved, and then took the humble path in which I now am, to keep myself out of debt, and at leisure hours to pursue my purpose. The plan I had laid down was this:-To acquire, if I possibly could, some knowledge of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; to acquaint myself a little with the art of speaking and reasoning; to add something of geography, astronomy, chronology, and history, with what I could of divinity. To these things I have allotted three years more, if it shall please the Lord to spare me my health."

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But we must now inquire more closely into the circumstances of Mr. Powell's conversion. The first decided impressions of religion appear to have been made at a comparatively early period by a remarkable dream, which teemed with images of eternal torment. He awoke in terror, sprang from his bed, at once fell upon his knees, and gave praise to God that the visions which had terrified him in sleep were not a reality. These religious impressions were deepened while attending the Wesleyan chapel at Foggathorp. He was then in his seventeenth year, and in the service of Mr. Massey, of Harlthorpe. During the service on one occasion he solemnly resolved to give his heart to God; and, on quitting the chapel with two of his companions, he thus addressed them :-" I have determined to go to heaven; and if you are determined to go to hell, I will not go with you." These words were spoken with the seriousness of a man who had made a covenant with God; and the sequel will show that Divine grace enabled God's faithful servant to keep that covenant inviolate. He at once joined the class of Mr. Thomas Laverack, who has been heard to speak in high terms of Mr. Powell's piety. We have now discovered a higher impulse, stimulating intellectual movement, and adding force to every other motive to cultivate those talents of which he felt himself to be the favoured possessor. Yet the moral renovation of his nature stopped not with selfimprovement, but quickly prompted him both to study and labour for the advantage of his fellow-creatures. Hence his toils as a Local Preacher, and the breaking down of his health from close application to study.

Mr. Powell has left on record, that "about the age of nineteen he was brought to a saving knowledge of God." He has, moreover, been heard to state, that one day, when at work upon his employer's farm, he retired into an out-building; that, while he was there pouring forth his soul "with strong crying and tears," Christ appeared before his mind in the fulness of His saving power; and the weeping suppliant embraced his Redeemer in the exercise of simple, scriptural faith. He had then peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and was enabled to rejoice in hope of the glory of God. From that moment he commenced walking in the light and comfort of the Holy Ghost; and that humble out-building, into which he had retired with the burden of his sins, but from which he bounded forth with a light heart and an elastic tread, was ever afterwards fondly remembered as his spiritual birth-place. When we hereafter trace Mr. Powell's life of eminent devotedness to God, and to the interests of His church, we shall revert to this part of his religious history with renewed satisfaction, from the persuasion that so solid a foundation alone could have sustained so goodly a superstructure. The Minutes of Conference for 1850 truly state, in their Obituary, that "his conversion was sound and scriptural, and gave a strong impulse (perhaps stronger than usual) to his whole moral and intellectual nature, making him at once a contemplative and an active Christian believer."