THE

METHODIST MAGAZINE,

AND

Quarterly Review.

VOL. XIII, No. 4. OCTOBER, 1881. NEW SERIES-VOL. II, No. 4.

From the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine.

MEMOIR OF THE REV. WILLIAM MYLES:

BY THE REV. JOHN BEECHAM.

A GENERATION has passed away since Mr. Wesley closed his career. As the distant shore fades on the view of the voyager, till nothing remains save a few lowering land-marks, which soon also successively disappear, so original Methodism is now seen to recede in the distance of time. A few individuals only remain, who stand out in the view of the present generation, as so many time-marks of the age in which the founder of Methodism flourished. These too are rapidly passing away; and soon all that will remain of early Methodism will be its history, and its effects. The subject of the following memoir was one of those individuals who have continued as so many memorials of the Wesleyan age.

The Rev. William Myles was a native of Ireland. He was born in the city of Limerick, in the province of Munster, July 9, 1756. His early ancestors were English, who settled in Ireland during one of the most stormy periods of our national history. After the death of the unfortunate Charles I, when the new government had acquired some degree of consistency, Cromwell was sent over to Ireland, at the head of a well-disciplined army, to chastise the Roman Catholics, who had executed, to an awful extent, their project of exterminating the Protestants. The most decided success attended his arms. Multitudes perished by the sword; great numbers were transported by the conqueror into foreign countries; and all the remaining native population of certain provinces, of which Munster was one, was removed by him into the most desolate parts of the island. It was on that occasion that the ancestors of Mr. Myles went over to Ireland. In what capacity they attended his [Cromwell's] army, is not known; but at the termination of the war, they remained behind in Limerick. The lands of the dispossessed Catholics were disposed of among the soldiers, and others who had been attached to the army; and it is most probable that the ancestors of Mr. Myles settled on one of those estates.

The greatest honor which ancestry can transmit to an individual is the lustre reflected from piety. Of this honor Mr. Myles was VOL. II.-October, 1831. 31

not devoid. He makes mention of some of his ancestors, who, having adorned their Christian profession by a holy life, died in the Lord;' and of others who suffered great hardships and persecution for the Protestant cause, during the reign of James II. That monarch, in seeking to effect the reconciliation of his kingdom to the Romish Church, was obliged to proceed in this country with some degree of caution; but in Ireland he soon began to act without any disguise. The Catholics were raised to power, and the Protestants were stripped of authority, and treated with cruelty; even the blood-thirsty banditti were let loose upon them. So alarming did the state of things become, that the Protestants apprehended the renewal of the system of general massacre, and many, inspired with fear, forsook the country. In this persecution, the grandfather of Mr. Myles and his family were exposed to great danger and suffering. Mr. Myles mentions, particularly, one of their children, who was hid by his nurse under a bush, to preserve him from the fury of the Catholics; and another of his relatives, whom the Catholics seized, and were proceeding to hang, on account of his Protestantism; but just at the critical moment, as they were drawing away the cart from under him, one of their priests, who had been under obligation to the family, so far relented, that he interposed and saved his life.

The father of Mr. Myles was a man of strict integrity and exemplary conduct, and died happy in God, at an advanced age. His mother was one of the first Methodists in Ireland. Methodism was introduced into Limerick so early as the year 1749; and she was awakened to a sense of the importance of religion, under one of the first sermons which Mr. Thomas Williams preached there. On his second visit he formed a society, of which she was one. She soon obtained a sense of the divine favor; and from that time to her death, a period of sixty-five years,-she adorned her Christian profession by a constant practical exhibition of genuine piety. There are two particulars which deserve to be mentioned in her praise, and proposed as an example to modern Methodists: -During her long Methodistical life, she never was absent from her class, except when confined at home by affliction; nor ever neglected to receive her quarterly ticket from the preacher's own hands.

By this excellent mother Mr. Myles was trained up in the fear of the Lord. From their very infancy, she was. accustomed to take her children regularly to the means of grace. With constant parental solicitude she watched over their tender years, and laboured with unceasing assiduity, and earnest prayer for the divine blessing, to instil into their opening minds the first principles of religion. Nor were her pious endeavours unavailing: Mr. Myles became very early the subject of gracious impressions, and retained a relish for divine things until he was twelve years of age; when he was corrupted by bad example. He then lost all inclination for the

ordinances of God's house; he profaned the Sabbath, and entirely left off prayer. He went on for a few years in a course of levity and youthful indulgence, to the great grief and trouble of his parents, until he was awakened to a sense of his sinfulness and danger, by a sermon which he heard Mr. Wesley preach, on his visit to Limerick, in the year 1773. He immediately began to meet in class; but owing to an injudicious visit of some weeks among worldly relatives, his thorough conversion to God was delayed for some time. The account which he gives of that event is highly satisfactory. He had been powerfully affected under the preaching of Mr. Wrigley. He participated, the following Sunday, in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. He approached the table with great agitation; and having communicated, this passage of Scripture occurred to his mind, He that believeth shall be saved.' 'My heart,' says he, 'believed the declaration: instantly I was filled with light; guilt vanished away, and peace and love overflowed my heart. I was brought from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. I was enabled to commit my body and soul to him, in sure and certain confidence of his love and favor.'

6

From this period we recognise in the experience of Mr. Myles the experience of the true Christian. He devoted himself assiduously to the cultivation of personal religion, and aimed at recommending it to others by a faithful expression of it in his own life. At length his mind became so impressed with the condition of his sinful fellow creatures, that he began to entertain the thought of preaching the Gospel; and the persuasion that he should have to engage in that sacred work grew so strong, that he set apart a day for fasting and prayer, that God might make known to him his will, and lead him in the way he should go. That he might be free from interruption, he retired to a sequestered spot by the side of a river, and there spent the day alone with God. It was not in vain that he thus sought for direction. The Lord showed him (to use his own expression) that it was his will that he should preach the Gospel; and that nothing but his own unfaithfulness could defeat the counsel of God respecting him. He was at the same time comforted by the consideration, that so long as he continued to live a life of watchfulness, and faith, and prayer, that gracious God, who had hitherto preserved him, would continue to strengthen him against the temptations to which his youthful mind was exposed, and would enable him to maintain his integrity.

It has ever been held by the judicious as a sound maxim, that where the Head of the Church calls a person to the work of the ministry, he will make plain his providential way, enabling him to obey the heavenly call. This was exemplified in the case of Mr. Myles. From the time that he was convinced that it was his duty to preach the Gospel, he became more diligent in visiting the sick, and praying with them; and when any of the friends or neighbours

of the sick person were present, he faithfully exhorted them to flee from the wrath to come. In this employment his own soul was much blessed, and several instances occurred in which his exhortations were instrumental in the conversion of those to whom they were addressed. The superintendent of the circuit, hearing of his diligence and usefulness in this work of mercy, and having obtained, by inquiry from those who best knew him, the most satisfactory evidence of his piety and unblemished life, encouraged him to proceed. During the following year, another preacher being wanted in the circuit, Mr. Wesley appointed Mr. Myles, who thus commenced his itinerant labours in his own native place.

The entrance of Mr. Myles on the regular work of the ministry was auspicious. He was blessed in his own soul, and rendered a blessing to the people. Mr. Wesley visited the circuit a short time previous to the following conference, 1778, and makes favorable mention in his Journal of the state of the work in it; and he was so pleased with Mr. Myles, on this visit, that he invited him to attend the conference to be held that year in Dublin. He accordingly went; and his mode of travelling there proved that he had some of those physical qualities, which the circumstances of early Methodism rendered so necessary for the preachers. Although the distance was ninety-three Irish miles, [equal to one hundred and eighteen and a third English,] he performed it on foot. The conversations which he heard, and the preaching he attended, were the means of impressing him more deeply with the importance of the sacred work, and of confirming his pious resolutions. He was appointed to labour the following year at Castlebar; from that place he removed to the Lisburn circuit; and at the following conference was appointed to Cork; and from thence, at the end of the year, he removed to Belfast, to which circuit he was sent as assistant. In that account of his early life and ministerial labours which Mr. Myles published in successive numbers of the Methodist Magazine for 1797, he records some signal providential deliverances, which he experienced, from the hands of persecuting men ; and how he was led by circumstances to study with particular attention the Popish and Calvinian controversies. It may suffice to remark, on this first period of his public career, that while he laboured to advance in personal holiness, and to win souls to Christ, he lost no opportunity of cultivating his talents, and increasing that stock of knowledge, which is requisite to constitute a wise master-builder.' He followed the Apostle's direction to Timothy, 'Give attendance to reading.' Among those works by which his views of divine truth were enlarged, and his desires after a higher degree of Christian purity were quickened, he mentions, especially, Mr. Wesley's Christian Library; a collection of the choicest pieces of practical divinity to be found in the English language, published in an abridged form. The admirable tact of Mr. Wesley, in selecting what was truly valuable in an author from that which

was extraneous, or irrelevant to the main subject, is displayed in this work to great advantage. The committee of the Methodist Book Room, actuated by a laudable desire to promote a taste for the solid and substantial in sacred literature, and to lead the present generation to an acquaintance with a class of divines, who rank among the brightest ornaments that the Christian church has ever produced, have within a few years republished the Christian Library, in thirty octavo volumes. To the youthful minister of the Gospel, this publication is invaluable. By means of it, he may early acquire that general acquaintance with English divinity, which cannot fail, under the blessing of God, to have a happy influence on his own heart, and to contribute to the formation of his style of preaching: he will learn to combine in his sermons manliness, and Scriptural fulness, and spirituality, with a modern and more popular arrangement. And the general acquaintance which the Christian Library will afford him with those giants' of former days, will facilitate his study of the authors themselves, in their original form and dress, when he shall be able to procure their works.

In the month of June, 1782, a conference was held in Dublin. Mr. Wesley was not present, but Dr. Coke presided. Mr. Myles, who had now travelled five years, was admitted into full connection at this conference, and received the usual mark of acknowledgment, the large Minutes, with a suitable inscription, and signed by the Doctor's own hand. There had not been a conference in Ireland during the space of four years. The number of circuits remained the same, namely, fourteen; but there had been in that interval an increase to the societies of one thousand two hundred members, making the total number of Methodists in Ireland six thousand five hundred. Mr. Myles records a brief account of the proceedings of this conference. Among other things, the Doctor read the Minutes, and enforced on the preachers the necessity of maintaining them, which they engaged to do; and it was agreed that thenceforward a yearly conference should be held in Dublin.

Mr. Myles now quitted his native land. He had requested Mr. Wesley that he might labour in England; and his request being acceded to, he embarked, when the conference was over, for Liverpool, in company with Dr. Coke and others of the preachers. He attended the conference in London; and records the encouragement to persevere in the way of truth and holiness which he derived from the spirit and conversation of the preachers, and especially of the two Wesleys. At this conference, he was appointed to the Macclesfield circuit, and set off to it with a full determination to employ all his time and talents in calling sinners to repentance. Before leaving this circuit, he entered into the marriage state with Miss Charlotte Stevenson, of Burslem. The following year he laboured in the Nottingham circuit. His attendance at the Leeds conference, in 1784, was greatly blessed to his soul. He had there