THE Emperial Magazine; OR, COMPENDIUM OF RELIGIOUS, MORAL, & PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE. JULY.] "PERIODICAL LITERATURE IS THE GERM OF NATIONAL LEARNING." To sketch the memoir of a living character is always a task of considerable difficulty. A stranger cannot find materials, an enemy will distort his features, a friend will be suspected of partiality, and, should he write himself, he is in danger of egotism. To descant on those shades, which, through the infirmity of human nature, are too often blended with the finest moral picture, would wound his feelings; while to make a too brilliant display of the luminous parts, might awaken jealousy in contemporaries, excite and foster vanity in the subject of the memoir, and steal a jewel from the crown of Him, to whom all praise is for ever due. In a brief memoir we cannot be expected to trace all the "strong connexions and nice dependencies," of the parts which form the character of any human being; much must remain unknown to all but God and himself. We cannot unveil the arcana within; and it is only by "catching the manners living as they rise," that we are enabled to form an estimate of individual peculiarity or worth. In writing the history of great men, it is too much the practice of biographers to dwell on the grand and splendid events of their lives; hence "they drop the man in their account, and vote the mantle into majesty." With the true moral state of the mind we are as little acquainted as with those heavenly bodies which dazzle with their lustre, and yet in their true nature are undefined, and but little known. It was a saying of Marshal Turenne, that "no man is a hero in the opinion of his valet;" hence the great mass of biography may be considered as fable amusing fancy, and not reason studying truth. Sketches of pious characters were never more abundant than in the present age, which may properly be named the golden era of biography. In some of these works, the true features of christian men and women are painted with a nice and discriminating touch. For, as in the human face, Na 139.-VOL. XII. [1830. ture's cunning hand blends the rose and lily in justest proportions, so in their judicious harmony the virtues and the graces have had both a "local habitation and a name" in many of the excellent ones of our own day. In the volume of revelation, tests of pious character are laid down by a masterly hand. "Men do not gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles.' Hence, we at once spring from the premises to the conclusion, and infer that a change of heart is both necessary to a change of life, and evidenced by it. During the present and last century, thousands have been the subjects of this divine renovation, who never were immured within the walls of a cloister, and who never studied divinity in academic bowers. Under the guidance of the Spirit of God, men have thought for themselves, have read the Bible, and, bursting from the darkness of nature, have become burning and shining lights in the different walks of civil and social life. Hence, too, the church has been furnished both for home and foreign work, with hundreds of ministers, whom religion has taken from the lowly vale, to set among the princes of God's people; but perhaps among those who still remain unnoticed, "Full many a gem of purest ray serene, Of Mr. MARSDEN's progenitors we know but little; but from this little we learn that he cannot boast of having derived his birth from "loins enthroned, or rulers of the earth." From some sketches of his early life, addressed to his children, we learn that he was born at Warrington, December 21, 1777. His father, by trade a dyer, was then in humble life, having expended a handsome patrimony, or little family estate. This, at first, necessity obliged him to sell, in order to defray the expense of a lawsuit with his two brothers. The residue vanished by imperceptible degrees, so that the latter part of his life was a dark and cloudy voyage, which terminated in the 56th year of his age. 2 P 595 Memoir of the Rev. Joshua Marsden. 596 At this period the subject of this memoir | return home, and, under the maternal roof, was left wholly to the care of a widowed to improve the providential deliverance, mother, a truly pious member of the and put away all his sins. But, alas! on Church of England. This excellent parent landing in the west of England, destitute did all in her power, both by prayer both of money and clothes to pursue his and instruction, 66 to rear the tender journey, he was persuaded to venture again thought, and teach the young ideas how on the perilous deep, and, after sending a to shoot" heavenward. Her constant soli- very penitent letter to his mother, he once citude being her son's salvation, she prayed more embarked, on what was to him a for him both late and early, and took great scene both of danger and providential pains to train him up in the discipline and escapes. admonition of the Lord. He remarks, however, in the sketches above alluded to, that he paid but little attention to the things of God, and was often deeply pained and galled with the obtrusive care which his pious parent manifested for the salvation of his soul. Yet his conscience, when but a boy, being remarkably tender, his soul was often filled with remorse and alarm. He was greatly terrified when reading or hearing of the day of judgment, and trembled at the apprehension of being an eternal object of the wrath of God. At this period he sometimes formed resolutions of turning with all his heart to the Lord, but the strong current of corrupt nature, and the ill example of other boys, diverted him from his pious resolves, and for a time his mother's prayers and tears seemed of no avail. God, however, who moves in a mysterious way, did not overlook the many petitions which she offered up in his behalf, although her faith and patience were put to the severest trial by an event which, nearly frustrating all her hopes, plunged her in the deepest grief and consternation. Instigated by some of his thoughtless companions, our embryo missionary left the maternal roof, when about fifteen years of age, and went to sea. He had not long embarked, before a terrible catastrophe brought him both to his knees and to his prayers; and serious reflections on his sin and danger, awakened all the good impressions which were fast dying away for want of favourable external agents. The ship in which he sailed, overtaken by a violent tempest, struck upon a rock, and was finally wrecked, and himself and others were just saved, as by the skin of their teeth, from an ocean grave. During that terrible night, the agonies of his mind were indescribable, and he thought, while the leaky vessel was wallowing among the broken waves, that every lurch she gave might plunge him into a deeper abyss than even the bottom of the sea. When rescued from the wreck, he took a passage for his native land, hoping to Before many months had elapsed, he was again cast away; thus the hand of God seemed to pursue the wayward boy; and it is not improbable that the prayers of his mother were co-operating with the providence of God, in bringing about that ́ result which distinguished his future life." In the year 1794, being then about seventeen, a chain of providential circumstances led him into a situation, where he had an opportunity of hearing the Wesleyan ministers, by one of whom he was deeply convinced of the sin and danger of fighting against God. The light of truth shone upon his mind, and he became deeply impressed with the vast importance and necessity of devoting himself to God. Under this impression he abandoned his former habits, became truly serious, searched the scriptures frequently upon his knees, fasted, prayed, wept in secret places, feeling the burden of a guilty conscience, and groaning under an awful sense of the depravity of his nature, and the holiness, majesty, and displeasure of God. It was not long, however, before he found that pearl of great price, the forgiveness of sin and true peace of mind, which are at once both the evidence of pardon and the pledge and earnest of future holiness, as stated at large in his "Sketches of early Life." The cultivation of his mind soon becoming an object of intense interest, he read and studied night and day, frequently spending the time allotted for sleep in the pursuit of knowledge, and, that he might have money for books, he frequently abridged himself in the necessary article of food. At the age of twenty, with much fear and trembling, and under a deep sense of his insufficiency, he was persuaded to Occupy a pulpit in a country place, after which he was frequently importuned to preach in the surrounding villages, and after a competent time spent as a village or local preacher, an ardent solicitude for the salvation of souls led him to desire a larger sphere. The work of missions lying near his heart, he longed to be employed 597 Memoir of the Rev. Joshua Marsden. on a foreign station, and as an opening of providence favoured his wishes, he cheerfully offered himself as a candidate for any department to which he might be appointed. At this time the Wesleyan missions were but in their infancy. They had then no stations under their care, but British America, and the West India Islands. The United States, to which they had formerly sent several missionaries, had become a separate and distinct branch of the great Wesleyan family, cut off from the native stock, and planted amid the vast forests of the new world. Thirty missionaries only were employed in the two stations above named, and these were placed by the Conference under the general superintendence of that truly ardent friend of missions, Dr. Thomas Coke. Since that period, the progress of the foreign work with this large body of British Christians, has "grown with their growth, and strengthened with their strength," as may be perceived from the following state ment. In the year 1769, Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmore were sent to America. These primitive Wesleyan missionaries were the germ of that great tree, which having spread its branches over the four quarters of our globe, bids fair, by the divine blessing, to make the Redeemer's way known upon earth, and his saving health among all nations. The following is the graduated scale of their progress in missions. West Indies. 598 Our extracts will now be chiefly taken from the published narrative of his mission, a work, which on a former occasion, we have honourably noticed in our review department. The above provinces, when Mr. Marsden and his colleagues arrived, were greatly in want of ministerial aid. The Rev. W. Black was the only British missionary throughout this vast territory. There were, however, several preachers from the United States, whom Bishop Ashbury, at the solicitation of Dr. Coke, had sent, till British missionaries could be appointed. On these shores, the subject of this memoir commenced his early mission, as he himself expresses it elsewhere, "with little experience in the ministry, young in the school of grace, and but slightly furnished with knowledge for so great a work." It has been remarked by Luther, that three things are necessary to form a minister-afflictions, temptations, and the Bible. With the two former he had soon an intimate acquaintance, and the latter in conjunction with retirement in the woods, and Christ and prayer, were his only sources of consolation. At that period the Wesleyan body found it difficult to obtain suitable missionaries; hence, in some cases raw recruits, rather than able veterans, were sent into the field; but in the weakness of the instruments the power of God was more eminently displayed. These provinces consist chiefly of forest country, interspersed with large bays, rivers, and lakes, at that time but thinly peopled, the settlements far asunder, with bad roads, and sometimes none except blazed trees, and subject to the ravages of an intensely cold winter, of five or six months' duration. Here our young missionary prosecuted his labours under the pressure of surprising difficulties, as may be inferred from his letters in the Wesleyan Magazine, vols. for 1806 and 1807. In the year 1769, they had only two missionaries, as mentioned above; in 1770 they had four; in 1773 they had eight; and in 1775 they had eleven. At this time the colonies, now called the United States, were separated from the parent country; hence, several of the missionaries returned home, and the Conference directed its attention to the degraded negroes of the In 1784, they had five missionaries in these colonies; in 1786 Having no models of ministerial excelthey had nine; in the year 1787, eleven; lence on which to form himself, he had to in 1789, twelve; in 1790, nineteen; in make his own path, in humble dependence 1791, twenty-one; in 1793, twenty-three; on the wise teaching of that Spirit who in 1794, twenty-seven; in 1797, thirty-giveth understanding by shining inward, one; in 1808, thirty-seven; in 1809, and irradiating the mind, unlocking the forty-two; in 1810, fifty-four; in 1825, cabinet of truth, and unsealing the sacred one hundred and sixty; and in 1830, one hundred and seventy-five. In the year 1800, Mr. Marsden being then twenty-three years of age, was appointed to officiate as a foreign missionary, of the cross in Nova Scotia and New and sailed accordingly, to erect the standard Brunswick. book to the humble inquirer after the mind of God. His labours in those dis tant forests, during a period of nearly eight years, were crowned by the Lord of the harvest with various success, many instances of which might be adduced, did our limits permit; one, however, we may be allowed to notice. |