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THE

METHODIST MAGAZINE,

FOR DECEMBER, 1818.

BIOGRAPHY.

MEMOIR OF THE REV. JAMES MORGAN,
Late of Bridgewater, in the County of Somerset.

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AMONG the many excellencies which adorned the character of the venerable Founder of Methodism, (the Rev. John Wesley,) no one was more prominent than his catholic spirit. He had the most sincere regard for good men of every denomination, and constantly spoke of them in terms of veneration and respect. And that he taught the same generous sentiments to the thousands who had placed themselves under his pastoral care, is evinced, beyond all contradiction, by his excellent discourses on bigotry, and a catholic spirit. As Editor of the Methodist Magazine, you have manifested the same liberality of sentiment, by publishing, from time to time, the lives of gracious men, whose views of the gospel, in some respects, were different from your own. The subject of the following memoir was a Baptist minister of eminent piety, well known to, and highly respected by, all the preachers in the Taunton circuit. If you will have the goodness to publish it, with as little delay as possible, you will very much oblige Your affectionate brother,

JOSEPH LISK.

Bridgewater, March 7, 1817. Mr. MORGAN was born at Langlydon, in the County of Carmarthen, in the year 1736, of honest and repectable parents. His father attended Divine worship at the Independent meeting at Llandwr, and was a moral, upright man. His mother was a member of the Baptist Church at Newcastle Emlyn, and was a woman of exemplary piety and devotedness to God. In his earliest years his father and mother took care to train him up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and to instruct him in the principles of true religion. And they had the unspeakable pleasure of seeing their labours crowned with complete success. VOL. XLI. DECEMBER, 1818.

Mr. Morgan received the rudiments of his education at the grammar school, at Llandwr; and as his father had designed him for business, the learning he acquired at that school was consi dered sufficient to qualify him for it.

At the age of 14 he was bound an apprentice to a clothier, and served his master faithfully for the space of seven years, several of which he had the entire management of the business.

He had serious impressions very early in life, which I believe is generally the case with those who are blessed with religious parents, provided they attend to the spiritual and eternal welfare of their children; but these impressions were but of momentary duration.

In early life Mr. Morgan delighted very much in reading, and used to buy up every opportunity for that purpose. But I have heard him acknowledge, with deep regret, that he read principally with a view to excel in controversy, of which, to use his own words, his proud, vain heart was exceedingly fond.

As he had regularly attended the means of grace from his childhood, and had been preserved from scandalous sins, for he was never addicted to cursing and swearing, Sabbath-breaking, or drunkenness, his friends and neighbours considered him to be a very religious young man. Indeed, such is the self-flattery of the human heart, that Mr. Morgan entertained a very favourable opinion of his own moral and religious character.

In the year 1759, when he was 23 years of age, the Rev. Griffith Davis, of Swansea, came to Rhydwilm for the purpose of soliciting contributions for a meeting-house. Under the ministry of that gentleman God was graciously pleased to call him out of darkness into marvellous light. But as this part of the memoir is particulary important and interesting, I shall relate it as nearly as possible in his own words.

"It was (says Mr. Morgan) under a sermon delivered by Mr. Davis, that I was convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. By the gracious influence and energy of the Divine Spirit working with the word, my conscience was awakened in a very powerful manner; I saw myself to be a sinner of the first magnitude, and this discovery was attended with the most exquisite sorrow and distress of mind. In the anguish of my soul I cried, What shall I do to be saved? Lord save, or I perish. Formerly, when I had some slight convictions, I strove, as much as possible, to shake them off; but now my only fear was, lest my present alarming convictions and pungent distress should, by any means, be removed, without my being really converted to God. Before this, I occasionally used prayer, and trusted in my own righteousness; but now my every breath was prayer to my Redeemer; and I saw the total insufficiency of my own righte ousness to justify me before God. I had such awful views of my

fallen state, my sins appeared so heinous, so aggravated, and so numerous; and I saw myself to be so vile and polluted, that I thought it impossible for God to save me consistently with justice and holiness, and his other Divine perfections. However, I still sought redemption through the blood of Christ, in a diligent use of the means of grace; and in particular, I prayed earnestly and vehemently to him for salvation and eternal life. One evening, when I was in private, agonizing with God in prayer for mercy, and almost hopeless of obtaining it; all at once Divine light shone upon my mind. That precious passage of scripture was powerfully applied to my soul,The things which are impossible with men are possible to God,' Luke xviii. 27. In that moment I was delivered from the horrors of a guilty conscience, from the anguish of a troubled spirit, and from the dreadful, terrific fears of death, judgment, and eternity, with which my mind had been so painfully exercised. Oh what joy and peace filled my heart! I felt, indeed, joy unspeakable and full of glory! Jesus now became so precious as no language can express. His love was shed abroad in my heart, I felt his presence to be dearer to me than all created good. I now saw that there was hope even for me, a poor hell-deserving sinner; and, through grace, I was enabled to cleave to Jesus Christ, by the exercise of a living faith, and to expect present and eternal salvation through his merits alone. No sooner was my soul converted to God, than I lost all relish for controversy. I felt a love for all good men, however they differed from me in some points of doctrine and discipline."

A few months after his conversion, Mr. Morgan gave in an account of his religious experience to the church at Rhydwilm, and was publicly baptized by the pastor, the Rev. John James; after which he was received a member of that church.

He was soon particularly noticed for his sincere piety by his beloved pastor, who very much encouraged him to pray at their public prayer-meetings. But such was his excessive modesty and diffidence, and such the mean opinion he entertained of his abilities, that he was very reluctant to appear, in any respect, as a public character in the church of God. What is extraordinary, a few months after Mr. Morgan's admission to the Baptist church, Mr. James observed to him, and to many others of the brethren, that he had two things very powerfully impressed upon his mind: one was, that he should soon be taken from them to a better world; and the other was, that Mr. Morgan would soon be called to the ministry. It is very remarkable, that Mr. James died about nine months after Mr. Morgan was admitted a member of his church. As the prediction of his own death had been so wonderfully accomplished, they began to think that the other would be accomplished also. In this they were not mistaken. God, who had intended his servant for great usefulness, laid the founda»

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