like the image on a favourite medal, which is the pride and boast of the antiquary, and fixes the eye of the spectator much sooner than most of the others which adorn his cabinet. public meeting was held in the old chapel, at Leeds,-T. Thompson, Esq. M.P. in the chair. The meetings were at first beheld by some of the brethren as the dotage of enthusiasm, and as the forerunner of a marriage union with the world. But they became so productive, and were so instrumental in producing good to the contributors, that the most sturdy opponents were not unfrequently found afterwards in the chair, delivering their recantations. CHAPTER VII. His patriotic feeling-high price of provisions-differs with Mr. Pawson for prognosticating evil-letter to the Rev. Edward Irving on prophecy-threatened invasion of Buonaparte -an address to the king-Samuel's loyalty―M. A. Taylor, Esq.-the suppression of a religious assembly—a defence of a religious revival-his interview with Mr. Taylor—obtains a license to preach—an allusion to him in a parliamentary debate. A man like Samuel Hick, whose mind was so thoroughly imbued with divine grace, was not likely to be defective in what is termed nationality, and the still more scriptural principle of loyalty. Never did a Jew, by the rivers of Babylon, reflect with greater tenderness upon Judea, "in a strange land," than he did upon his country, which he was in the habit of designating "our island"-" our England," always considering himself as having a personal interest at stake in all its affairs; and never did a subject in any realm pour out with greater sincerity and fervour the prayer of-" God save the King." During one of Mr. Pawson's appointments to the Leeds circuit, Samuel observes, "corn was very dear. The poor people went round our town with a half guinea in their hands, and could not get a stroke* of corn for it. Mr. Paw * Strike, a bushel. In the west of Yorkshire, a strike is two pecks, or a half bushel; hence the high price of grain at the period referred to, when poor people could not obtain a half bushel for a half guinea. son came to Sturton Grange to preach, and while preaching, he told his congregation that there would be a famine in our land, and that he had seen it coming on for twenty years." Such a prophecy, from such a prophet-a man whom, like all other Wesleyan ministers, he considered an apostle of God-and in reference to his own land," of every land the pride," could not but awaken in him strange emotions. Without attempting to endue Mr. Pawson with the gift of prophecy, it is probable that he might intimate to his congregation, that he had sighed over the extreme wickedness of the wickedhaving been touched by it-that, from the poignancy of his feelings, he foreboded some manifestation of the divine displeasure-and by way of improving the subject, in order to lead the dissolute to repentance, prayer, and reformation, might lay hold of passing events in such a way as to lead Samuel, who, inapprehensive of his meaning, and not taking in the whole of the connecting links of thought, to draw the inference stated. Samuel returned home reflecting on what he conceived to be Mr. Pawson's view of the subject; and the following extract will shew the acuteness of his feelings, his simplicity, and his piety. "I began," says he, "to be very miserable; and as my children were small, I thought it would be a sore thing for them, my wife, and myself to be pined to death. When I got home I went into my closet to enquire of the Lord, whether there would be a famine or no; and while I was pleading I got as fair an answer from the Lord, that there would be no famine, as when he pardoned my sins and cleansed my soul. I saw that there was plenty of corn to supply till harvest. But this did not satisfy me: I told my wife that I could not rest till I went to inform the preacher that there would be no famine in our land. I set off for Sturton; and when I got there, I told that dear woman of God, Mrs. Ward, my errand." Here Mrs. W. very properly interposed, not only on account of the lateness of the hour, which appears to have been on the same evening after preaching—but by delicately suggesting the impropriety there would be in his "pretending to dictate to one of the first preachers in the connexion." But Samuel was not to be repulsed by either first or second, whether the claim instituted referred to priority of time or of talent. He had his one argument at hand-"Thus saith the Lord;" and proceeds, "I told her not to blame me, for it was the Lord that had sent me. With a deal to do, she let me into the room; and I told our brother Pawson, that the Lord had sent me to inform him that there would be no famine in the land." Mr. Pawson, whose forebodings were scarcely removed, replied, "Well, brother, I shall be very thankful to the Lord, to find it not so." Samuel taking a little credit for the superiority of his own judgment and impression in the case, and still firm in his belief in the actual prediction of a famine, adds, "So we see how good men may miss their way, for there was no famine." To persons whose feelings are not immediately interested, it is sometimes amusing to hear wellmeaning men, without a prophetic soul, guessing against each other for their Maker. In the present case, Samuel's conduct in going to 66 enquire of the Lord," manifested a spirit worthy the most simple, the purest, the best part of patriarchal times; and as they were chiefly his own fears that had to be allayed, the impression that effected their removal, was so far-all prophecy on the occasion apart-an act of mercy-mercy manifested in the exercise of prayer. He availed himself of this supposed prophetic failure of Mr. Pawson, Feb. 28th, 1826, when he addressed a letter to the Rev. E. Irving, who had then reached the acme of his oratorical attractions, though not of his theological reveries, and who, as Samuel had been informed, had been prognosticating national calamities, because of national wickedness. The original, which is in the writer's possession, is a curiosity, and would, if printed as it flowed from his pen, exemplify the estimate given of his mind in the preceding pages. With the exception of a few transpositions, retrenchments in verbiage, and the occasional substitution of a word, the following may be considered as an allowable copy: "Dear Brother Irving-the Prophet in London, "I am informed that you have prophesied that this island is bown to come to desolation; but I think you should put a condition in your prophecy, viz. that if the people humble themselves, pray, and turn from their wicked ways, then God will hear from heaven, will pardon their sins, and will heal the land. When the prophet Jonah went to preach at Nineveh, the whole of the people of the city humbled themselves, and prayed to God; and God heard their prayer, and saved them from destruction. there had been ten righteous souls in the cities If |