Watson for the very able and satisfactory manner in which he has fulfilled the request of the last conference, in compiling a concise Life of Mr. Wesley, adapted to general circulation, and for his generous gift of the copyright to the book room; and he is requested to enlarge that work, so that it may become the standard and authorized life of our venerable founder." His literary engagements did not divert his attention from the wrongs and oppression endured by the slaves in the West Indies; nor did the lapse of time abate his desire to see some effectual measure adopted with reference to their speedy emancipation. He moved the following resolution in the conference, in which there was a perfect unanimity of sentiment on this great question :-" Convinced that negro slavery is one of the foulest of our national sins, and ought, on grounds strictly religious, to be strenuously opposed by all who fear God, the conference earnestly recommends to all our members and friends who now are, or hereafter shall be, possessed of the elective franchise, to pay a conscientious and paramount regard, in every future exercise of that franchise, to the slave question; and to support such candidates only as shall, in connection with other qualifications for a seat in the senate of a country professing Christianity, decidedly pledge themselves in favour of a speedy and effectual legislative enactment for the extinction of this most unchristian system." CHAPTER XXIII. Appearance of the Cholera in England-Fast Day observed by the City-Road Congregation-Watch-Night at the City-Road-Letter to Mr. Edmondson-Report of the Missionary Society for 1831-Persecutions in Jamaica-Mr. Watson visits Brighton for his Health-Completion of his Biblical Dictionary-Doctrine of Christian Perfection-Missionary Anniversary in 1832-Mr. Watson's Speech -Literary Projects-Mr. Watson begins an Exposition of the New TestamentThe Conference of 1832-Letter to Mrs. Watson-Mr. Watson presents his Works to the Methodist Connection-His Appointment to the Office of Resident Secretary to the Missions-Dr. Adam Clarke-Mr. Watson's resignation of his Pastorship at City-Road. DURING the autumn of this year the people of England were under great alarm and terror because of the near approach of the Asiatic cholera; a disease which was said to have originated some years before in the East Indies, and to have already carried off no less than fifty millions of the human race. After extending its ravages through Hindostan, Persia, Turkey, and Russia, it had appeared in Poland and Germany, and was making near approaches to the British islands. At length it broke out in Hamburgh; and soon after in Sunderland and Shields; and its extension through the land was generally anticipated. Medical men resorted to Sunderland in considerable numbers; some by the order of government, and others, to ascertain the nature of the disease, and determine upon its treatment when it should appear in their respective neighbourhoods. The public alarm was greatly increased by the details which were given in the periodical journals, and by the fact that the disease bade defiance to all that science, professional skill, and humanity could devise to arrest its progress. This "pestilence" emphatically "walked in darkness;" the principle of its movements could not be ascertained; and no effectual specific could be discovered for the relief of the sufferers. It withered all the strength of man in a few hours; and in some instances individuals were pursuing the business of life in the morning, in their usual health, and at night were consigned to the tomb. The mystery connected with the cholera seemed particularly to mark it out as a special visitation of the Almighty; and in this light Mr. Watson viewed the subject. His spirit bowed before the Lord; and he spoke of the disease with great reverence and humility. When it first broke out in the north of England, it was agreed that a day of fasting and humiliation should be appointed for the congregation and society connected with the City-Road chapel; and on that occasion three public prayer meetings were held in the morning chapel; one at eight o'clock, another at twelve, and the third at seven in the evening. At twelve o'clock the chapel was filled at the commencement of the service. After the congregation had sung an appropriate hymn, Mr. Watson said, "I am sorry to inform you that the news from the north, received to-day, is unfavourable. Five more cases of cholera have occurred; and three of them have been fatal. I will read to you, as appropriate to this solemn occasion, the twenty-fourth chapter of the second book of Samuel; and afterward we will unite in prayer to God." He then read, with great solemnity and impressiveness, the proposal made to David, when the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, whether he would choose, as the national punishment, seven years of famine, or to flee three months before a conquering army, or that the land should be visited by three days of pestilence.— “And David said unto Gad," by whom the fearful message was delivered, “I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hands of the Lord; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hands of man. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men." After reading this chapter, Mr. Watson engaged in prayer, in which he expressed himself with uncommon power and enlargement, and continued for about half an hour. He acknowledged the great mercy which God had long shown to this land, and the consequent obligations of the people to serve and glorify him; and then confessed, with minuteness and particularity, and with every expression of humiliation and shame, the sins of individuals, of the Church, and of the nation.— The open and blasphemous attacks made by infidelity upon the truth of God, and on account of which Christians had not sufficiently grieved and wept; the murderous cruelty and injustice with which the slaves in the colonies had for ages been treated, while the nation had generally been indifferent to their tears, and the cry of their blood; the scoffs at serious godliness which were often uttered in the senate; the profanation of the Sabbath, by cabinet councils and political feasting; the spirit of party violence, by which the nation was divided; the want of zeal and unity among professing Christians; and the open and general neglect of personal religion among all classes of the community; were some of the evils which he confessed to God, with all their aggravations, and deeply lamented. He acknowledged the just liability of the nation to the severest inflictions of almighty wrath, and earnestly pleaded with God, that mercy might yet spare a guilty people. The victims that might fall by the scourge he besought the Lord, by his grace, to prepare for their great change, and appearance before the Divine tribunal; and he besought "the God of all grace," in honour of his Son, and in the exercise of his sovereign compassion, to sanctify the judgments of his rod by a general and copious effusion of the Holy Spirit, so that the people might every where return unto him with penitential sorrow and praying faith. The hymns which he selected and the congregation sung, during the subsequent part of the meeting, were highly appropriate; and the entire service was such as can scarcely ever be forgotten by those who engaged in it. The people seemed to resign themselves absolutely into the hands of their Saviour, prepared either to live or die, as he might determine. The following verse was sung with intense feeling : - "Jesus, to thee we fly From the devouring sword; Thine everlasting arms, we know, When the disease broke out in London, Mr. Watson preached in the City-Road chapel, on Amos iii, 6: "Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it ?" and endeavoured to impress the congregation, and especially the pious part of them, with a conviction that all calamities are under the immediate control and direction of the Lord, who has engaged that all things shall work together for good to them that love him. Under whatever circumstances, and at whatever time, believers in Jesus may be called away, death to them is gain; and every event connected with it is arranged by infinite wisdom and love. A weekly prayer meeting was immediately instituted, with a special reference to this providential visitation, which was held in the morning chapel of City-Road every Friday, at twelve o'clock. Mr. Watson's attendance upon this service was regular; and here he generally met a considerable number of devout people, like-minded with himself, who were accustomed to leave their families and business, and unite in earnest prayer to the Father of mercies, in behalf of a suffering and sinful people. His convictions of the prevalence of prayer were very strong, and in full accordance with the language of Scripture; for on this subject his mind was unwarped by the theories of a semi-infidel philosophy. He was too well acquainted with the Gospel of Christ, to doubt that the prayer of every believing suppliant has power with God; and the manner in which he often poured out his soul before the Lord in these meetings showed how much he lived in the spirit of that duty, and how fully he was persuaded that, in regard to his praying people, God would yet be entreated in behalf of a guilty land, and the plague would be stayed. A large proportion of the persons who fell victims to the cholera were previously in a state of infirm health; and as Mr. Watson was now become a constant subject of disease, he was apprehensive that his life was in continual jeopardy: he therefore lived, and preached, and prayed, and wrote, like a man who anticipated a speedy summons to his final account. In this spirit he attended the annual watch-night in the City-Road chapel, at the close of the year. The service, as usual, commenced at nine o'clock in the evening, and was continued till the new year had begun. This has long been a favourite service, not only with the Methodists, but with Christians of other denominations, who generally crowd that house of prayer, for the purpose of passing from one year into another in religious worship, and in those serious meditations which are suggested by the rapid flight of time, and the remembrance of departed days. In such an assembly, the sermon, the prayers, the exhortations, the hymns which are sung, all direct the thoughts to opportunities which will return no more, to friends who are gone the way of all the earth, and to the fearful probability that many then present, before the next return of that season, will be numbered with the dead. At the watch-night just mentioned, the attendance was very large; the chapel was filled with people; and deep seriousness seemed to be impressed upon every countenance. The occasion was made increasingly solemn by the prevalence of the pestilence. Mr. Oakes preached the sermon, and was followed by two or three friends, who engaged in exhortation and prayer. Mr. Watson concluded the service in a manner scarcely ever to be forgotten. He was very feeble, and so seriously indisposed as to be unable to remain in the chapel during the whole service; and therefore came from his room into the pulpit, where he spoke "as a dying man to dying men." The midnight hour was approaching when he entered upon his address; and he dwelt particularly upon the principal facts mentioned in sacred Scripture, as having taken place in the night: the destruction of the first born in the land of Egypt, and of the Assyrian army, by the ministry of an angel; the agony and bloody sweat of the world's Redeemer in the garden of Gethsemane; and he then spoke of the certain appearance of Christ to judgment at the midnight hour, when the world is slumbering in carelessness and sin. Each of these subjects supplied various lessons of practical instruction, which he enforced with great earnestness, and tender affection; referring, in a very prominent manner, to the mercy of God, and his willingness to save. This was the last meeting of the kind that he was permitted to attend. Soon after the opening of the new year, he received an invitation from a friend in the country, whose kind attentions and hospitality he had formerly experienced, pressing him to spend a few weeks under her roof, in the hope that rest, and a change of air, might be beneficial to his health. This mark of Christian friendship he received with grateful and devout feelings, and addressed the following pious letter To Mrs. B London, Jan. 29th, 1832. MY DEAR MADAM,-Your kind letter arrived yesterday; for which accept my grateful acknowledgments, as well as for your great kindness to me while at . In all these mercies I wish not only to see the hand of the great Giver, but also to feel that every friendly act of those who love him, and his ministers for his sake, lays me under new obligations so to labour in the Church of God, that I may contribute VOL. I. 26 something while on earth to its edification, and preparedness for glory, Refreshing indeed is the communion of saints on earth; and even common things are sanctified as tokens and visible signs of that new principle which Christianity has created by its "new commandment;" but the fellowship below is also in itself a symbol of the communion above. Happy if all of us make the one a constant means of preparation and progress to the other. My health is yet in a very delicate state; and could I avail myself of your kind invitation to I doubt not but I should derive great benefit, both from the leisure I should enjoy, and the intellectual and moral pleasures which spring from converse with experienced Christians: but circumstances forbid me a gratification in which Mrs. Watson would be most happy to partake; and though I must preach at present as little as possible, I must ply my arrears of foreign correspondence. I trust, however, that the dispensation has not been in vain. I daily feel how entirely I depend upon the upholding of the Divine arm; and a growing conviction that absolute devotedness to God in all things, and at all times, is not to be considered so much in the light of a privilege, as a matter of positive necessity. Though sometimes "faint," let us be still "pursuing." I am, my dear madam, Yours very respectfully and obliged. About the same time he addressed a letter to his friend, the Rev. Jonathan Edmondson, of which the following is an extract. It shows that his health was still unimproved; and that his mind was supported under affliction and alarm by confidence in the providence and grace of God. London, Feb. 14th, 1832. MY DEAR SIR,-I could not let this opportunity pass without saying that I sympathize with you in your invalid state of health, which I hope is but temporary; and I pray that you may be spared yet many years to labour, both with tongue and pen, for the good of the Church. My own health is miserably uncertain, and leaves me little hope of long active service. However, I am resolving, by God's grace, to work while it is called to-day. Necessity lately took me to Leices ter and Liverpool. Friend Carr and I had several chats about you and old times. William Rawson is dead. Mr. Henshaw, at Liverpool, becomes a supernumerary next year. So the world passes away, and we, in different modes, along with it. But brighter scenes are before us; of which may we always have an unclouded prospect! How easy it is to travel the space which has intervened since you and I spent so agreeable a year at Leicester! so truly a span is all past time. Well, I look back upon that year with pleasure, as it introduced me to your acquaintance, and I hope friendship; and I have been always happy to acknowledge that I owe my first enlargement of mind, as to men and books, to your intelligent and free conversation. For this I am still grateful. Mrs. Watson has been confined to the house by rheumatism for nearly five months; so that we have had a sick winter; and now the cholera is surrounding us. But it is "the arrow that flieth by day;" and supposes an archer, and an aim; so we rest in wisdom and love |