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OF THE

REV. SAMUEL WALKER, B. A.

FORMERLY OF

TRURO, CORNWALL.

BY THE

REV. EDWIN SIDNEY, A. M.

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AUTHOR OF THE LIFE OF THE REV. ROWLAND HILL, A. M." &C.

SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED.

"Unskilful he to fawn, or seek for power
By doctrines fashioned to the varying hour;
Far other aims his heart had learned to prize,
More bent to raise the wretched than to rise."

K

GOLDSMITH.

PUBLISHED BY R. B. SEELEY AND W. BURNSIDE,

AND SOLD BY L. AND G. SEELEY,

FLEET STREET, LONDON.

MDCCCXXXVIII.

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PREFACE.

THE nucleus of the first edition of my Life of the Rev. Samuel Walker was found among the papers of the late Rev. Rowland Hill, and consisted of five Sermons on Brotherly Love, to which he had prefixed a brief prefatory memoir expressive of his high admiration both of these discourses and their author. This induced me to entertain the design of publishing them with such additions as I might be able to collect, little imagining that my gleanings would afford materials for any thing like a considerable volume. Nor should I ever have possessed the information necessary for my first publication, but for the kindness of several members of the Rawlings family, resident near the scene of Mr. Walker's labours. They had fortunately preserved many interesting documents, as memorials of a ministry and friendship, which had been the means of enkindling in one of their name, that sacred flame which has been transmitted in its original brightness to the present genera

tion. These they unhesitatingly placed at my disposal, in the most friendly manner, and my highest acknowledgments are due to them. I was favoured also by the late excellent J. B. Wilson Esq. of Clapham, the Rev. T. Wildbore of Falmouth, the Rev. C. Bridges, of Old Newton, Suffolk, and W. Lloyd, Esq. of the Religious Tract Society, with such hints and remains as they had been able to collect. The late venerable incumbent of Padstow, and his relative, the Rev. Mr. Rawlings, of Lansallos, sent me many manuscript sermons of Mr. Walker, from which I made the selections added to those on Brotherly Love, originally appended to the Life. But most unexpectedly, since that volume came out, the obliging disposition of William Gray, Esq. of York, whose judgment, piety, and enlightened Churchmanship have long been appreciated by a large circle of friends, induced him to offer me, with the concurrence of the late Rev. W. Richardson, the use of the greater part of the important and valuable correspondence, which has supplied all that was wanting to make the biography of Mr. Walker complete. I have now, therefore, the opportunity of presenting to the public, without the Sermons, which I reserve for a collection of his Miscellaneous Works, a full account of this eminent Clergyman, both as regards his parochial administrations, and his connection with the most distinguished revivalists of his day. I have also the satisfaction of supplying a chasm in the history of Methodism.

The object I have had in view is twofold-first, to to shew the great usefulness of a Clergyman skilled

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