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FOR JULY, 1842.

BIOGRAPHY.

MEMOIR OF WILLIAM FISHWICK, ESQ.,
Of Long-Holme :

BY THE REV. WILLIAM O. BOOTH.

"WE gather up, with pious care,

What happy saints have left behind;

Their writings in our memory bear,

Their sayings on our faithful mind:

Their works, which traced them to the skies,

For patterns to ourselves we take;

And dearly love, and highly prize,

The mantle for the wearer's sake."

THE above expressive and beautiful lines, by the poet of Methodism, have a delightful realization in the biographical department of the Magazine, in which the thousands of our Israel delight to trace, for their imitation and encouragement, the active, useful, and holy lives, and the peaceful and triumphant deaths, of those who have been partakers of "like precious faith" with themselves. The writer is deeply conscious of his inability to do full justice to the character of the excellent subject of this memoir, and could have earnestly wished that the task had been confided to other and abler hands; and especially to those who knew the man and his communication so well, that they could have presented a faithful likeness of the original, such as would have been at once recognised by his numerous friends. Rather, however, than that the remembrance of such a man should cease, an attempt is made, with unaffected diffidence, to present an outline of his character.

William, the son of Webster and Mary Fishwick, was born at Green-Bank, Burnley, Lancashire, September 12th, 1791. His parents were members of the established Church; and though strangers to vital, experimental religion, yet they impressed upon the members of their family the sanctity of the Sabbath, with an earnestness highly commendable, and led them regularly to an attendance upon the public worship of Almighty God.

William was placed at an early age in the Grammar-School of his native town, and evinced such attention to his studies, and made such VOL. XXI. Third Series. JULY, 1842. 2 P

proficiency, that he deservedly became a favourite with the Clergyman under whose superintendence his education was conducted, and who was very wishful that he should enter the Church. His father, however, had other intentions respecting him, and purposed placing him with an eminent Solicitor, to prepare him for the legal profession. This arrangement was frustrated in consequence of the death of an elder brother, who was engaged with his father in business, and whose place William was required to supply.

In early life he was very gay, and his company was eagerly sought after, as he was considered the life of every party within the circle of his acquaintance. At this time, however, he often experienced keen compunction; and especially when, on his return home at very untimely hours, he heard his dying brother, in an adjoining room, engaged in earnest prayer to God for his own salvation, and for the salvation of his family. The writer heard Mr. W. Fishwick state in a band-meeting, only two months before his decease, that on these occasions he formed many resolutions to reform his life, and to break off his sins; "but," said he, "sin is of such a hardening nature, that, in spite of my resolutions, I still pursued my iniquitous career; and on one occasion I attended a ball with Alleine's 'Alarm to the Unconverted' in my pocket." He often said, that at that early age he had contracted those habits which would soon have ruined both body and soul. More than once his life was in imminent danger; and in subsequent years he was accustomed, with deep feeling, to acknowledge the long-suffering of God towards him.

It was during his last affliction that the brother above referred to, feeling the want of a solid foundation on which to build his hopes for eternity, became an earnest seeker of salvation. The Rev. Lawrence Hargreaves was then stationed in Burnley, and he frequently visited him; and his prayers and conversations, with those of an excellent man who was in the employ of the family, were greatly blessed to him. He obtained mercy, and died in peace in the year 1812.

Previously to his affliction this young man resided in the village of Scorton, a considerable distance from Burnley; where, on account of the number of persons employed by him, he had considerable influence. He was applied to by one of the Wesleyan Ministers, to allow the use of the school-room in the village for preaching. This request he at that time refused; and in his affliction this circumstance had great weight upon his mind, insomuch that he wrote to another brother then resident there, giving it as his dying charge to him to encourage the Methodists, as he believed them to be the people of God. The charge thus solemnly given was promptly complied with. Preaching was introduced into that village; the Lord gave "testimony to the word of his grace;" many were converted to God; and, at the present time, there is a numerous and flourishing society.

It was probably owing to this circumstance, and the consciousness

of the saving benefit which their deceased brother had derived from the advices and prayers of the friends alluded to, that the strong prejudices of the family against Methodism gave way, and some of them were induced to hear the Wesleyan Preachers. After a brother and two sisters had, by their instrumentality, received the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, Mr. William Fishwick, seeing the change that had been wrought in them, and hearing of the enjoyment they found in religion, began to attend the chapel, and freely confessed that religion became amiable and desirable in his eyes. And now its attainment became with him the all-important question. The ministry of those devoted servants of God, the Rev. Messrs. Needham and Hargreaves, was highly beneficial in directing his inquiring mind to Jesus, the Saviour of sinners. About the same time he read, with great interest and benefit, the excellent sermon, by the Rev. Jabez Bunting, on “Justification by Faith," preached before the Leeds Conference in 1812. From that sermon he obtained clear views as to the manner in which he was to receive that blessing of conscious pardon which he felt he so much needed.

Believing that he should be aided in his inquiries after salvation, by availing himself of the privileges of Christian communion, he cast in his lot amongst the people of God, and in September, 1813, he received his first ticket from the Rev. Isaac Keeling. "At that time," he says, "I feared the ridicule of my gay companions; but the Lord made a way for me for when they saw my fixed determination to devote myself to God and to his people, and that I would no longer associate with them, they soon ceased to trouble me." One evening during the time that he was seeking the Lord, whilst on his way to the classmeeting, he was powerfully tempted to turn back; but, instead of yielding, he imitated Bunyan's pilgrim, and literally putting his fingers into his ears, and crying, "Life, life, eternal life!" he ran all the way, until he arrived at the place where his Christian friends were assembled.

He did not long seek, before he found, "the pearl of great price;" for, under a sermon preached by Mr. Needham, he was enabled to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ with his heart unto righteousness, and in a moment his burden of guilt was removed, and he felt assured that he was "accepted in the Beloved." The feelings of his mind, at this happy period, are strikingly exhibited in the following extract from a letter, written by him to a friend, dated "Burnley, July 15th, 1824:"

"It is now eleven years since the Lord awakened me out of the sleep of sin. The views and feelings I had then, come fresh to my remembrance. O how much do I owe, under God, to that people, amongst whom I still count it my greatest earthly privilege to have a name! Time cannot efface from my memory the obligations under which I feel myself laid to the Methodists as a body, for their kind

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