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EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE

AND

MISSIONARY CHRONICLE.

FOR SEPTEMBER, 1832.

. MEMOIR OF THE REV. JOHN WILSON, LATE PASTOR OF THE INDEPENDENT CHURCH AT MATLOCK BATH, DERBYSHIRE.

THE Rev. John Wilson, whose death, on the 2nd of April, was noticed in this Magazine, was a native of Yorkshire, having been born at Huddersfield on the 21st of April, 1755. In his youth, he had the advantage of attending on the ministry of the late excellent Henry Venn, and of his curate, the Rev. Mr. Ryland, afterwards of Birmingham; for both of whom, but especially Mr. Venn, he maintained the highest esteem and veneration to the time of his death. And although he was not conscious of any lasting impressions produced upon his mind, under their.ministry, it may be presumed the good word was not lost, but that it served, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, to prepare him for the important results which followed.

At an early period of life, Mr. Wilson left his native town, and soon after engaged as commercial traveller with a very respectable house in Bristol. Though his conduct appears always to have been moral, he was at this time fond of gaiety, and could enter (though not without many secret checks of

VOL. X.

conscience) into the pleasures of his thoughtless fellow-travellers. But the Lord had marked him for his own; and it was while he was in this line of business that he was pleased to work that great and essentially necessary change upon his heart, which brought him with weeping and supplication to the foot of the cross, and led ultimately to his ministerial engagements. This important event took place while he was upon a journey, and was instrumentally produced by reading Mr. Mason's "Spiritual Treasury," and some work of Dr. Owen's, which by apparent accident fell into his hands. It was soon rumoured abroad that "Wilson was turned Methodist!" and many were the scoffs and jeers which he had to endure from his former companions, insomuch that he has often been heard to say that he dreaded entering the room where they were assembled, much as some culprits do going to the whipping-post or the treadwheel. His decisive and exemplary conduct, however, soon put to silence the ignorance of foolish

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men (1 Pet. ii. 15), and obliged those to respect, who yet could not be prevailed upon to imitate him. He soon began to feel an anxious concern for the glory of that Saviour who had done so much for him, and for the salvation of perishing sinners. The word of the Lord was as a fire shut up in his bones (Jer. xx. 9); so that, being urged on by his own feelings, and encouraged by some judicious friends, he began to preach, while yet a traveller, in various places in the west of England; and met with so much acceptance that he was induced to go forward in the service of his great Master, which was ever to him a source of the purest delight. About this time his brother, who was an opulent potter at Hanley, in Staffordshire, offered to take him into partnership: a connexion which promised fair to produce a handsome provision for his young and increasing family. But he had now devoted himself to the Lord, and to his church; and no prospects of worldly advantage had influence enough to induce him to draw back. Having deliberately counted the cost, he came to a full determination to relinquish all commercial pursuits, and give himself wholly to the work of the Christian ministry. By so doing he gave up considerable prospects of pecuniary advantage; but be it here recorded, to the honour of his divine Master, that he did not suffer him, even in this respect, to be ultimately a loser, but gave him such a portion of this world's goods as enabled him to provide for his family, and to serve the church of Christ during all the years that he was at Matlock without salary or emolument. Having received an unanimous invitation from the then infant church at Stafford, he commenced his stated labours in that town, and was ordained there on the 7th of Septem

ber, 1791. The Rev. J. Boden, then of Hanley, now of Sheffield, Dr. Williams, afterwards of Rotherham College, the Rev. Jonathan Scott (well known by the appellation of Captain Scott), then of Drayton, and the Rev. George Burder, took part in the ordination service. We find among his papers the names of eleven other ministers who were present upon the occasion, and of the whole number it is believed Mr. Boden is now the only survivor. only survivor. As the chapel at Stafford had recently been built, and a debt remained upon it which the people were too poor to have any prospect of discharging themselves, Mr. Wilson undertook the disagreeable task of begging for it; and, by the liberality of his friends and the public, raised a handsome sum towards its liquidation. Here he continued to labour, amidst many discouragements, but not without tokens of the divine approbation, till the year 1794; at which time his intimate and much-valued friend, the Rev. Jonathan Scott, resigned his charge at Market Drayton to take the pastoral office over the Independent Chapel at Matlock Bath, which had not long before been purchased by that pious and excellent lady, the late Viscountess Glenorchy. At Mr. Scott's earnest request, accompanied by an invitation from the church and congregation at Market Drayton, Mr. Wilson was induced

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