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A REYIEW 
 
 OP 
 
 REV. F. W. MACDONALD'S UFE OF 
 
 WM. MORLEY PUNSHON, LLD. 
 
 BT 
 
 REV. HUGH JOHNSTON, M.A., B.D. 
 
 WITH AN 
 
 INTRODUCTION BY REV. GEO. DOUGLAS, LL.D. 
 
 AND AN 
 
 ESTIMATE OF THE GREAT PBEACHER'S CHARACTEE. 
 AND WORK IN CANADA, 
 
 By HON. SENATOR MACDONALD. 
 
 TORONTO : 
 
 WILLIAM BRIGGS. 78 & 80 KING STREET EAST- 
 
 C. W. COATES, MONTREAL. S. F. HUESTIS, HALIFAX, N.S. 
 
 1888. 
 
 -^i 
 
. Of o. I 
 
 SUCK 
 
 .« <v 
 
 Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one 
 thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight, by William Briggs, Book- 
 Steward of the Methodist Book and Publishing House, Toronto, at 
 th' Department of Agriculture. 
 
 
INTEODUCTIOK 
 
 " When the last sunshine of expiring day, 
 In summer's twilight weeps itself away ; 
 Who hath not felt the softness of the hour 
 Sink on the heart as dew along the flower ? 
 Even as the tenderness that hour instils, 
 When summer's day declines along the hills ; 
 So feels the fulness of our heart and eyes 
 When all of genius which can perish, dies." 
 
 Seldom in a generation, has a message flashed 
 across the sea that awakened a wider thrill of 
 sorrow among the thousands of this Dominion, 
 than the intelligence that the tongue of the great 
 orator was forever silenced on earth ; that Eng- 
 land's most popular preacher had disappeared 
 from the pulpits of the land ; that William Mor- 
 ley Punshon was dead. 
 
 Deep and lasting was the sense of irreparable 
 loss, that no more should we. sit under the spell 
 of his magic power, and catch the inspiration 
 to a nobler life, kindled by his matchless, his 
 anointed eloquence. 
 
VI 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 And now, after a lapse of years, a feeling, akin 
 to that of the poet, as he stood amid the shadows 
 of the expiring day, comes over the heart, in the 
 form of a subdued emotion, and a gentle regret, 
 like the memories of melodies long departed ; 
 like the lingering fragrance of the shattered 
 vase ; like the touch of the vanished hand, and 
 the sound of the voice that is still. 
 
 Replete with warmth of heart, and all the 
 attributes which fit for choicest fellowship, the 
 elect company who were admitted into the inner 
 sanctuary of his friendship, who came under the 
 spell of his personal fascination, would naturally 
 cherish for him an imperishable recollection. 
 Not, however, for this was Dr. Punshon a man 
 of renown. It was his pulpit power, his re- 
 splendent eloquence, which made his name the 
 synonym of all grace and charm in oratory. 
 
 While the pulpits of Christendom are gifted 
 with ministers effective and potent; while the 
 senate is adorned with statesmen that can de- 
 bate the economies of the nation ; and the bar 
 rejoices in sons who expound the philosophies of 
 justice, the gift of true eloquence is never the 
 
 
Introduction. 
 
 vli 
 
 lavish endowment of many, but is restricted to 
 the units in any generation. 
 
 The genius of eloquence is rare as that of the 
 higher poetic faculty, or that intuitional power 
 of thought, which ascends to altitudes beyond 
 the reach of average intelligence. Now, it was 
 this genius of eloquence which gave to the sub- 
 ject of this memoir, his unrivalled distinction, 
 extending his name and his fame wherever the 
 language of the Saxon is known. In the allot- 
 ments of Providence, it has been given to the 
 writer of this introduction, to hear most of 
 the men distinguished for eloquence in the 
 past and present generations: — Dr. James 
 Dixon, philosophic, profound and sublime, 
 whose illustrations were arguments, and an 
 inspiration that the effacing finger of time 
 could never impair. — Dr. Joseph Beaumont, 
 whose enthusiastic soul rippled and rolled, and 
 foamed, like the cataract, corruscated like the 
 light, and, as winged lark (of which he loved to 
 speak), soared and sang towards the heavenly. — 
 Dr. Robert Alder, of imperial mien, the finest 
 expositor of missions which God ever gave to 
 
VUl 
 
 Introduction 
 
 Methodism. — John Rattenbury, master of all 
 emotions, who, like the skilled musician, could 
 handle his audience as an instrument, dissolving 
 to tears, or waking to ecstasies. — Bishop Simp 
 son, holding, as it seemed, the resources of the 
 universe in his keeping, who could garnish his " 
 thought with the brilliance of his imagination, 
 fuse it with the white heat of his emotions, and 
 pour it forth with phenomenal effect upon the 
 multitudes. — Bishop Doggett, the pride of Vir- 
 ginia scholastic, yet impassioned and all-com- 
 prehending. — Bishop Thompson, the Chrysostom 
 of the American Church. — Dr. Thomas Eddy, 
 full of evidential power. — Thomas Binney, the 
 idol of London, whose conversational discourses 
 sparkled and blazed, like an intellectual firma- 
 ment, moulding the thoughts of thousands of the 
 finest young men of his age. — Henry Ward 
 Beecher, the Shakespeare of the modem pulpit, 
 whose depth of perennial thought and affluence 
 of simile will perpetuate his memory along the 
 years. — Dr. Stone, the Moore of the American 
 ministry, who still lingers in the sunny clime of 
 the El Dorado of the west. — Canon Henry Mel- 
 
Introduction. 
 
 k 
 
 ville, the silver-tongued of St. Paul's. — Canon 
 Liddon, ^^ho, despite his churchly limitations, 
 reveals the potencies of logic fired by a loitj^ 
 enthusiasm. — Dr. John Cumming, mellifluous as 
 the cadences of the ^olian harp, he seemed 
 to breathe prophetic of the coming millenium. — 
 Salisbury, the Rupert of debate, amid the serene 
 frigidities of the House of Peers. — Gladstone, 
 the Demosthenes of our day, and the statesman 
 of all time. — Richard Cobden, the great com- 
 moner, who voiced the cry of famishing millions. 
 — Sumner, at once the Cicero and Solon of the 
 American Senate. — Ralph Waldo Emerson, 
 whose transcendental thoughts, set in pdetic 
 beauty, were like apples of gold in pictures of 
 silver. — Agassiz, uncovering more of the think- 
 ings of God in simple, flowing style, than man 
 had ever done before. — Wendell Phillips, the 
 most statuesque and finished orator this con- 
 tinent ever gave to a great cause. — Signor 
 Gavazzi, who carried the unity of Italy, by the 
 inspiration of speech, as truly as Garibaldi did 
 by the inspiration of his name. 
 
 These, and many others, which time and space 
 
¥ 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 \ i 
 
 
 forbid us to name, we have heard in some of 
 their most inspired moments. The majority 
 have gone into the eternal, but their record 
 abides, telling of peerless power of thought, and 
 the attributes of all oratorical resource. 
 
 It would, of course, be unfair, and, indeed, un- 
 true, to rank the subject of this memoir with 
 those princes in the realm of thought and ex- 
 pression ; nevertheless, we hesitate not to assert, 
 that, in his own sphere, he was the compeer of 
 them all. For power, by an alchemy all his own, 
 to transmute our language into jewelled sen- 
 tences, clear and crystalline as the diamond, opu- 
 lent in all beauty as the opal, and exquisite as 
 the tints of the amethyst ; for power of sustained 
 brilliance of climax, of ringing intonation on a 
 single word ; for power to take hold of familiar 
 truth, and robe it in a rhetoric, that made it a 
 charm and a delight, alike to Romanist, to scep- 
 tic, and to worldling ; for power to handle the 
 rod, which, in his hands, budded into beauty, 
 like that of an Aaron ; for power to pierce the 
 conscience with the shafts of truth, albeit, gar- 
 landed and hidden in flowers, though they be ; 
 
 ; I J 
 
Introduction. 
 
 zi 
 
 for power to bring the music and magnetism of 
 the orator to exalt and thrill, Dr. Punshon stood 
 unrivalled in his generation. 
 
 But peerless as were his powers of oratory, 
 his Christian character gave strength and dig- 
 nity to his rhetoric. 
 
 Before the coming ministry of Methodism, he 
 stands as an illustrious example of diligence, in 
 the culture of his powers, in loyalty to the 
 Church of his choice, in fidelity to the cardinal 
 truths of Methodist theology, and in a consecra- 
 tion which laid his every power on the altar of 
 service for the Master Divine. 
 
 If doubts he had. Dr. Punshon never ventilated 
 those doubts. He renounced utterly, and des- 
 pised the shallow artifice of those who, to win a 
 vitiated popularity, affect superiority in mental 
 calibre ; pretending to a breadth of thought, of 
 culture, and of mock originality, which disdains 
 loyalty to the formulae of accepted truth ; who 
 seek to astonish the ignorant with emasculating 
 views of inspiration ; who proclaim, as novelties, 
 the worn out dogmas of Socinianism, that the 
 Christian atonement means nothing but the moral 
 
Xll 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 influence which comes from a spectacular effect 
 of martyred innocence. He knew nothing of 
 the larger hopes, and fost mortem probations, 
 because he failed to authenticate such from the 
 teachings of Scripture. 
 
 While his memory lingers in the churches, this 
 shall be his crown of unfading honour ; that he 
 was faithful to the authority of Scripture, and 
 to the form of sound words, which he had re- 
 ceived through the ministries of Methodism. 
 
 The advent and career of Dr. Punshon in 
 Canada, we always associate with that of an 
 oratorio — rare and beautiful. In every pulpit 
 he struck notes that will vibrate in minds for- 
 ever ; on every platform he took up refrains that 
 will linger in the heart's remembrance, like some 
 sweet sonata. And what were his lectures, but 
 the jubilates of his power. His " Call of An- 
 drew," the discourse with which he opened his 
 Canadian ministry in Montreal ; his " Conflict 
 of Laodicea," which signalized the Kingston 
 Conference ; his appeal to " Pulpit and Pew," 
 which made notable the Toronto Conference ; 
 the magnificence of his address to the Bible So- 
 
Introduction. 
 
 xiu 
 
 ciety of Montreal ; his lecture on the " Hugue- 
 nots," most brilliant of all his productions ; and 
 his anointed and closing discourse on the "Apoca- 
 lyptic vision of the prayers of saints " — epochs 
 were these, in the mental history of all who 
 shared in the rapture of the occasions, which, 
 alas, will come no more. 
 
 No candid mind can peruse the pages that will 
 follow, without rising to the conviction that 
 Canadian Methodism stands forever indebted to 
 the influence of William Morley Punshon. 
 
 The tale of his achievement, in giving ele- 
 vation to its ministry, and recognition to its 
 membership over all the land, will be transmit- 
 ted by sire to son, from the Laurentides that 
 guard the golden gateway of this Dominion, to 
 the everglades that listen to the tidal music, that, 
 faint and low, beat upon our further shore. 
 
 As autumnal tints glorify and veil the de- 
 formities of approaching death, as the white 
 robe which envelops our land hides all decay, 
 and stands as the symbol of all purity, to be fol- 
 lowed by the resurrection of a coming spring- 
 time ; so the grandeur of Dr. Punshon's life-work 
 
i w 
 
 r 
 
 m 
 
 , 
 
 XIV 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 encircled and flung its radiance over his depar- 
 ture. His stainless character, of purest white, 
 shall endure until the resurrection mom, when 
 we hope to clasp hands on the banks of eternal 
 deliverance. Till then : 
 
 " His good deeds, through the ages, 
 Living in historic pages, 
 Will brighter glow and gleam immortal, 
 Unconsumed by moth and rust." 
 
 GEORGE DOUGLAS. 
 
 Weslevan Theological College, 
 Montreal^ April 3rd, 1888. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Introduction v-xiv 
 
 Criticism of Rev. Mr. Macdonald's Biography . 9-17 
 William Morley Punshon's Birth and Child-life . 18-21 
 
 Conversion and First Sermon 22-25 
 
 A Candidate for the Ministry — First Appointment 26-33 
 
 Whitehaven and Carlisle 34-40 
 
 Marriage — Newcastle and Sheffield 40-43 
 
 First Appearance at Exeter Hall 44-47 
 
 Leeds and London 48-53 
 
 " Sabbath Chimes " 54-56 
 
 Watering Places Chapel Fund 57 
 
 Lectures 58-61 
 
 In Canada — First Canadian Conference . . . 62-67 
 
 Departments of Church Work 68-70 
 
 Joy and Sorrow 71-75 
 
 Journey to the Pacific Coast 76-90 
 
 Visit tQ England . . 91-94 
 
 Visit to Eastern British America and Dr. Lathern's 
 
 Letter 95-100 
 
 Visit to Manitoba 101-103 
 
 Visit to the South and Mr. Massey's Letter . . 104-113 
 
Contents. 
 
 
 Page 
 
 Letters 114-116 
 
 Farewell to Canada 11 7- 119 
 
 The Hon. Senator Macdonald's Estimate of His 
 
 Life Work in Ca ada 120-134 
 
 Again in London — Stationed in Kensington . .135-139 
 
 Visits Italy 140-143 
 
 President of the English Conference . . . .144-148 
 
 The Mission House I49-I55 
 
 Last Years of Labour 156-166 
 
 Illness and Death 167-182 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 St. Paul's Cathedral, London 42 
 
 St. Paul's Cathedral (Interior) 43 
 
 Cathedral of Milan 53 
 
 Cathedral Square, Pisa, Italy 54 
 
 Salt Lake City 77 
 
 Street in Salt Lake City 80 
 
 Salt Lake City — From Camp Douglas 84 
 
 Vernal Falls — Yosemite Valley 87 
 
 Totem Posts 89 ' 
 
 City Road Chapel 136 
 
 Bridge and Castle of St. Angelo — St. Peter's in Back- 
 ground 139 
 
 The Colosseum (Interior) 140 
 
 The Arch of Titus 142 
 
 Bas Relief in Arch of Titus 143 
 
 The Louvre and Tuileries, Paris 154 
 
 Italian Swiss Village 158 
 
 Mansion House 163 
 
 Mountain Scenery .... 173 
 
 i 
 
 »■ 
 
W. MORLEY PUNSHON, LL.D. 
 
 I. 
 
 HERE is nothing more precious and 
 worthy in literature than biographical 
 writings. The study of history is 
 most important ; it is the study of man. Bio- 
 graphy is the study of the greatest of men, the 
 men that influence the age in which they live, 
 the men who make history. True, the course 
 of human events is not shaped by great men 
 alone. There is no earnest work of the hum- 
 blest toiler 
 
 " That is not gathered, as a grain of sand 
 To swell the sum of human action, used 
 For carrying out (jod's end." 
 
 We need to be kept from what is called hero- 
 worship — 
 
 ^ " Pay not thy praise to lofty things alone, 
 
 The plains are everlasting as the hills." 
 
10 
 
 William Morley Puns/ton. 
 
 Yet, if humanity sums up entire nature and 
 represents it, then great and gifted men in their 
 turn sum up and represent humanity. This is 
 why biography instructs and charms us. There 
 is in every life an image of our deepest self. 
 In each noble deed done, and courageous battle 
 fought, we feel an influence that is helpful, and 
 whatever the struggles and successes, the failures 
 and defects, we are reminded by them of our 
 own. The lives of the great and good in all 
 ages are our richest heritage, and the raemorialn 
 of them embodied in permanent literature, they 
 continue to shed a brighter and holier influence 
 over the world. Especially is this true of those 
 who have bequeathed to the Church of God the 
 legacy of exalted virtues, consecrated gifts and 
 apostolic labours, for " the righteous shall be in 
 everlasting remembrance." Ever since the death 
 of William Morley Punshon, there has been an 
 eager longing for some more intimate memorial 
 of one, the lustre of whose name will never, 
 never perish from the annals of Methodism — a 
 name suggestive of unrivalled eloquence wher- 
 ever it is known and pronounced. 
 
IViiliam M or ley Puns /ion. 
 
 II 
 
 •e anrl 
 1 their 
 rhis is 
 
 There 
 st self. 
 I battle 
 ul, and 
 iailuren 
 of our 
 
 in all 
 morial.H 
 re, they 
 liluence 
 f those 
 3rod the 
 if ts and 
 ill be in 
 le death 
 oeen an 
 emorial 
 I never, 
 dism — a 
 :e wher- 
 
 This long-felt want is now met in the de- 
 lightful memorial volume, by Rev. F. W. Mac- 
 donald, who has been aided in his labour of 
 love by Professor Reynar, of Victoria Univer- 
 sity, he having furnished the chapters which 
 refer to Dr. Punshon's life in Canada. 
 
 The book is dedicated in brotherly affection 
 and esteem to the younger ministers of Meth- 
 odism on both sides of the Atlantic. In his 
 preface, the author expresses regret that the 
 publication has been so long delayed, and hopes 
 that the delay has not been altogether preju- 
 dicial, for it has given time for the acquisition 
 of ampler biographic material, and to the writer 
 the perspective of a few years. The biographer 
 seriously felt that in giving a measured estimate 
 of Dr. Punshon's rank as a preacher and orator, 
 the "personal equation" was a disturbing one. 
 The spell of his eloquence, and the aroma of his 
 spirit were yet over us ; the memories of his 
 rare rich ministry were yet too fresh with us 
 all, and the sorrow over his untimely death 
 still unassuaged ; so the friend-critic must wait 
 the lapse oi years for calm, and acute, and dis- 
 
12 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 criminating judgment. The reading public, 
 whose grateful favour he has challenged by this 
 memorable work, v;ill xio doubt accept the 
 author's apology for the long delay in the ap- 
 pearance of the book ; but, for my part, I should 
 have preferred it sooner, even though the bio- 
 grapher had been compelled to carry less the 
 tone and manner of a " faculty." 
 
 Few biographers have had more abundant 
 materials placed at their disposal, in the shape 
 of letters, private journals, notes of travel, 
 newspaper records carefully preserved, printed 
 documents, and published lectures, poems and 
 sermons, and out of these the hand of the 
 scholar and thinker, with a rare insight into 
 character, and with subtle, delicate feeling, has 
 made a portraiture worthy the transcendently- 
 gifted man, whose life he delineates. When 
 Phidias, the artist, was changing the marble 
 block into a beautiful and majestic human form, 
 he despised no implement or operation, how- 
 ever slight, which could in any way contribute 
 to the perfection of that intended form. So, 
 the eminent Professor of Theology, realizing 
 
William Morley Puns/ton. 
 
 >3 
 
 the personal importance belonging to the sub- 
 ject, has spared no pains to bring to the highest 
 deerree of excellence this wonderful and noble 
 biography. 
 
 There is a breadth and richness of culture, a 
 literary finish and eloc^uence of diction, a careful 
 judgment and discrimination, which must give 
 the work a very high place in the permanent 
 literature of the nation. It would be the highest 
 commendation to his work, to say that he has 
 done justice to his subject, yet, doubtless by this 
 well-written and skilfully compacted volume, 
 Mr. Macdonald has helped to fix and perpetuate 
 his own fame, and has w^orthily linked his name 
 with that of the immortal Punshon. 
 
 And yet, though I may be charged with some- 
 thing like presumption, I have to confess to a 
 feeling of disappointment with the volume. 
 There is a lack of warmth, a chill in the bio- 
 graphy, which is something amazing and un- 
 locked for in the life of one who was indeed a 
 burning and a shining light, whose soul was 
 incandescent, whose whole being was intense, 
 and glowing with fervent heat. 
 
H 
 
 Wiiiiam Morley Punshon. 
 
 Perliaps the writer's scholarly and critical 
 habit of mind may account for the teniperature 
 of the narration, but it is a sore lack. I know 
 not exactly what were Mr. Macdonald's personal 
 relations to Dr. Punshon. 1 judge that they 
 were close and intimate, if so, and it were his 
 privilege to rejoice in the sunlight of his warm 
 personality, then, he has, like the moon, re- 
 flected with consummate brilliance and beauty 
 the light of the sun, but not its vivifying heat. 
 
 Again, one feels a certain inadequacy with 
 which his life is represented in these pages. The 
 real personality has to be read into it. The. un- 
 written seems so much more than the written. 
 But this brings up the query as to how far it 
 is possible for a biography to gather up the 
 sense of personalit}^, and give it out to the 
 reader. Another serious defect in this bio- 
 graphy, it seems to me, is the undue promi- 
 nence given to journal records of " sadness and 
 depression." Dr. Punshon suftiered at times from 
 intense depression of spirits and various physi- 
 cdl distresses. His sensitive nature felt the 
 loss of personal friends and eminent ministers 
 
Wiiiiam Morley Puns ho n. 
 
 U 
 
 in the wide circle of his acquaintance, he was 
 A mourner over many tombs; his very refine- 
 ment of temperament, and that great-hearted- 
 ness which gave him such a mighty force in 
 vital affairs, by a natural reaction made him 
 4ilso at times a victim of nervous melancholy, 
 but he was not a man of sadness and gloom. 
 No one who knew him and companioned with 
 him, but remembers him as a man of sunshine 
 iind cheer, of exuberant flow of spirits, and 
 possessing a nature which, though beaten upon 
 by constant storms of sorrow, had wonderful 
 powers of resiliency and recuperation. 
 
 These records reveal a side of life wholly un- 
 known to multitudes, the private sorrows and 
 ^mxieties, the spiritual conflicts and inner dis- 
 tresses of one whose outward course was that 
 of unbroken and unclouded popularity. But 
 the extracts are too largely of this character, 
 And are therefore misleading. They give a 
 *iombreness to the life ; they make his piety 
 «eem morbid and unhealthy, and not robust and 
 manly as it was. He had times of morbid retro- 
 wpection, when he was delivered up to the 
 
'■( 
 
 i6 
 
 William M or ley Puns lion. 
 
 darkest fears and imaginings, but the joy of 
 the Lord was his strength, and he walked ex- 
 ultantly in the light of His salvation. He loved 
 life a id would fain see many days ; he spoke 
 of the rapture of living, and feared lest his love 
 of life were too strong. The notes taken from 
 his diary are in the minor key. The mournful 
 tones and semi-tones, the plaints of distress 
 overpower the Jubilate Deo — the genial, exult- 
 ant, sunny characteristics, the records of joy- 
 ousness of soul, and delight in God. 
 
 There is one other distinctive mark set upon 
 this volume. The writer is a critic more than 
 a biographer, and never loses sight of this. He 
 is a sagacious, scholarly man, full of analytical 
 skill and high-toned discretion, and everything 
 must be judged with the utmost coolness, ac- 
 curacy, and discrimination. He will not be 
 accused of adulation ; he writes with great can- 
 dor and honesty, and an evident desire to place 
 the character and productions of Dr. Punshon 
 in a correct light before the world. While he 
 does not depreciate the endowments of his 
 friend, he yet uses the most moderate expre.9- 
 
William M or ley Punshon. 
 
 17 
 
 sions of admiration for his literary perform- 
 ances, and does not spare the faults and weak- 
 nesses of his style. In j^eneral, the criticisms 
 are so thoughtful and appreciative, so impartial 
 and discriminating, as to compel admiration, 
 yet at times the censure is so severe, the lack 
 of earlv education made so much of, and the 
 estimate so much in the direction of disparage- 
 ment that the reader begins to wonder whether 
 the biographer-critic is not, by the very severity 
 of his taste, somewhat dis<[ualified to pronounce 
 upon the orator's best exertiors, or to assign to 
 their true and exalted place those prodigious 
 orations whose energy and brilliance carried 
 everything before them. 
 
 Notwithstanding what we have here said, this 
 volume is a worthy memorial of him who held 
 so high a place in public estimation, and will 
 go down to remote posterity a blessing and liv- 
 ing source of piety and inspiration to thousands 
 and tens of thousands. The purpose of the 
 present writer is to give to those who have not 
 been able to procure this large and well-written 
 biography, such extracts and selections, together 
 
 M 
 
 m 
 
iw 
 
 i8 
 
 Wiiliam Morley Pmishon. 
 
 m 
 
 with correspondence and matter not previously 
 
 published, as will enable them to follow the 
 course of Dr. Punshon's life, and to appreciate 
 the character of one of the noblest of "the men 
 worth remembering." 
 
 William Morley Punshon, the only child of 
 John and Elizabeth Punshon, was born at Don- 
 caster, May 29th, 1824. His father was a con- 
 sistent Christian and a hearty Methodist, and 
 his mother, Elizabeth Morley, was a woman of 
 
 * 
 
 simple devotion and tender love, the sister of the 
 saintly Margaret Clough, who, as a missionary's 
 wife on her way to Ceylon, makes this entry 
 in her journal : 
 
 "Written at sea, Sunday, May 29th, 1825. 
 This is my dear little nephew's birthday. May 
 the God of his father generously condescend to 
 take this tender infant into His peculiar care ; 
 and, if spared, may he be an ornament to the 
 Church of God." 
 
 Was ever yearning desire more fully realized ! 
 Who could have dreamed that within that wee 
 baby -thing were stored potencies so mighty as 
 to move and thrill the hearts of millions in 
 both hemispheres ! 
 
 i 
 
William Morley Puns lion. 
 
 19 
 
 -« — 
 
 The biographer dwells upon the influences 
 which wrought upon William Morley Punshon's 
 child-life. His home, a godly household, with 
 its tranquil round of Sunday and week-day 
 services, prayer and class-meetings, with now 
 and again a party of Christian friends. Such 
 quiet and well-ordered homes are indeed among 
 the chief sources of the strength of Methodism. 
 At this shrine was lighted the llame of the 
 future preacher's zeal ; here he learned to love 
 those doctrines and usages to which he was so 
 steadfastly devoted through all his life. As a 
 child, he gave signs of more than ordinary 
 powers, and the writer expresses regret that in 
 his eager, quick-budding springtime, the means 
 of culture and discipline were not more abun- 
 dantly available. His school-life began in Don- 
 caster, and was over before he had completed 
 his fourteenth year. His love of poetry showed 
 itself very early, and when only eight years of 
 age, he would commit to memory some favourite 
 lines, and repeat them in a vigorous and spirited 
 style. 
 
 While in the Grammar School, he and his 
 
 
iul 
 
 20 
 
 William Morley Puns/ion. 
 
 friend Ridgill, with two other boys, formed 
 themselves into a society called the Qnaternity, 
 which had for its object the pursuit of adven- 
 tures. While at school, at Heanor, in Derby- 
 shire, the friendship between him and Gervase 
 Smith began, and through all changes those 
 early friendships remained unvarying and abid- 
 ing. 
 
 The passion of his boyhood was for poetry 
 and political oratory. He has often told me of 
 the enthusiasm he had for political life, what a 
 strange fascination the debp.tes in Parliament 
 had over him, and that he could repeat entire 
 speeches of Peel and Palmerston, and that he 
 ran wild over the stirring lyrics and elaVjorate 
 addresses of Macaulay. His early ambition was 
 to obtain a seat in the House of Commons, and 
 enter the political arena. How these fair hopet* 
 were destined to disappointment ! Providence 
 was working out something higher and better 
 for him. 
 
 In June, 1838, his mother died. There had 
 existed between them the tenderest affection, 
 the most intimate companionship, and he was 
 
William Morley Punslion. 
 
 21 
 
 heart- stricken with grief over his loss. The 
 sense of loneliness, the despondency, and the 
 sorrow, resulted in a state of deep mental de- 
 pression, and he traced the beginning of his 
 nervous melancholy and ill health to this sorrow 
 over his mother's death. The author says, " Mrs. 
 Punshon was buried under the shadow of the 
 old church in Doncaster, near the entrance to 
 the south transept. Henceforth it was sacred 
 ground to her son. Thirty years after, his wife 
 by his side, he knelt and kissed his mother's 
 gravestone, and spoke with emotion of the great 
 loss her death had been to him." His mother's 
 death awakened in his soul spiritual longings, 
 and he was under deep and strong conviction 
 of sin. He had never received any marked or 
 clear evidence of his acceptance with God, and 
 he longed for faith in Christ as a personal 
 Saviour, and for peace with God. 
 
 The way of salvation was rev(jaled to him, 
 and there came that great vital, inward change 
 which revolutionized his character and made 
 him what he was. Concerning this spiritual 
 event, which took place when he was a boy 
 

 '1 
 
 \ 
 
 ! 
 
 *■ 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 22 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 about fourteen and a half years old, he wrote to 
 his aunt: — 
 
 " It was on the 29th of November, I had previously 
 been in great distress of mind, when, as I was walking 
 on the dock side, I was met by the Rev. S. R. Hall, 
 who urged upon me the necessity of immediate belief. 
 Then and there I was enabled to lay hold on my 
 Saviour, and peace immediately sprang up in my heart." 
 P. 22. 
 
 He at once joined the Methodist Society in 
 Hull, where he was now residing, and his re- 
 ligion took on a very practical and experimental 
 form. He attended the prayer-meetings, class- 
 meetings, love-feasts, became a prayer-leader 
 and Sunday-school teacher. The spirit of Meth- 
 odism gave direction and character to his 
 growth in the Divine life, and the doctrines and 
 usages, the traditions and ministries of the 
 Church became a part of himself. 
 
 About this time his first attempts were made 
 at debating and public speaking, in a society 
 for mutual improvement, called the MenticvZ- 
 tural Society, which consisted of eight or ten 
 close friends and companions in religious life. 
 It is remarkable that every one of these young 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 23 
 
 e wrote to 
 
 d previously 
 was walking 
 S. R. Hall, 
 idiate belief, 
 lold on my 
 n my heart." 
 
 Society in 
 nd his re- 
 perimental 
 ings, class- 
 ayer-leader 
 'it of Meth- 
 ber to hi» 
 ictrines and 
 •ies of the 
 
 were made 
 n a society 
 Menticvl- 
 ight or ten 
 ligious life, 
 hese young 
 
 men subsequently entered the ministry. He 
 mentions in letters written at this time, that 
 now and then this Menticultural had a Biblical 
 night, Brother Smith taking a Greek Bible, Prof. 
 Punshon a Latin, Bishop Lyth a Hebrew, and 
 Dr. Locking a German, in order to mark varia- 
 tions in the text. 
 
 About this time too, thoughts of preaching 
 took possession of his mind, and he began to 
 have definite convictions about entering the 
 ministry. On Sunday, August 2nd, 1840, at 
 the age of sixteen, William Morley Punshon 
 preached his first sermon. A letter to his cousin 
 narrates the circumstances attending this mem- 
 orable event. 
 
 " Hull, August 5th, 1840. 
 
 " On Sunday last, at 7 a.m., I went to our band, and 
 we had a very profitable time. At ten o'clock I went to 
 see them at the school, and about half-past ten J. Lyth 
 came in, and he and I started for Ellerby, where he had 
 to preach twice. Having only one sermon ready, the 
 other was to be an extemporaneous effusion. We ar- 
 rived ; the congregation in the afternoon was twenty- 
 four souls, and he preached his only sermon, from 'Be- 
 hold the Lamb of God,' etc. In the evening we did not 
 know what to do, so it was agreed that we should each 
 
 ■isa 
 
nr 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 24 
 
 Willimri Morley Punshon. 
 
 deliver an address, and then hold a prayer-meeting. 
 After having implored the presence and blessing of the 
 Holy Spirit, we both mounted the pulpit. It had been 
 arranged that I should speak for ten minutes, and then 
 he should finish. I gave out, ' Come sinners to the 
 Gospel feast,' then prayed, then read the lesson — a long 
 chapter — then gave out, ' The great archangel's trump 
 shall sound,' and then announced my text, 'And as Paul 
 reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment 
 to come, Felix trembled,' etc. I got into the subject, 
 and, with the help of God, spoke for between half and 
 three-quarters of an hour, and left him nothing to do but 
 conclude.'" P. 29. 
 
 From that hour, the current of his life began 
 to set steadily toward the Christian ministry. 
 In December, 1840, his father died, and the lad's 
 orphanhood was complete. But, he had the 
 precious realization that God was his Father, 
 and the germ of that life hid with Christ in 
 God was developing into flower and fruit. 
 
 He was now living in Sunderland with his 
 uncle, Mr. Panton, and had plenty of work upon 
 his hands in the way of preaching. The note 
 authorizing him to preach preliminary to his be- 
 coming a recognized local preacher, was given 
 by the Rev. Thos. S. Squance, and he entered 
 
Williafu Morley Punshon. 
 
 25 
 
 with singleness of eye and glowing zeal upon 
 the work of declaring the unsearchable riches 
 of Christ. Our author has enlarged with great 
 animation and remarkable beauty upon his 
 spirit and labours as a local preacher. 
 
 "The interest which he felt in poHtics, though not 
 extinct, was now altogether subordinate. A passion for 
 preaching, to which his natural gifts and religious as- 
 pirations alike contributed, had become the master- 
 passion of his soul. Along with the delight that attends 
 the exercise of oratorical powers, there came a deeper 
 insight into the great realities of sin and redemption, 
 and a graver, more chastened estimate of the office and 
 work of the minister of Christ. It was well, indeed, that 
 misgivings, and conflicts, and inward humiliation were 
 given in this precocious springti«ie, when, perhaps, the 
 one thing to be feared was a too swift and easy blossom- 
 ing. The difficulties involved in the preparation and 
 delivery of sermons, which are in themselves a discipline 
 for most young preachers, hardly existed for him. He 
 sermonized with ease; divisions, paragraphs, sentences, 
 took shape as fast as his flying pen could fix them. 
 There was no laborious committing to memory — that 
 was accomplished in the act of composing. What he 
 wrote he could recall, page after page, with perfect ac- 
 curacy and freedom ; while his delivery, rapid, rushing, 
 yet subtly modulated, charmed the ear and strangely 
 
; 
 
 I 
 
 26 
 
 Williani Morlcy Punslion. 
 
 touched the emotions. These were great gifts — gifts 
 rather than acquirements. What many men by slow de- 
 grees, through continued effort, in some measure come 
 to possess, was his he knew not how. Little more than 
 a boy, he began to preach, and at once found himself 
 famous. The people flocked to hear him. The chapels 
 were crowded. He was pressed to preach at Doncaster, 
 and seventeen hundred people filled Priory Place Chapel. 
 Invitations poured in upon him from the towns and 
 villages near Sunderland, and from Hull. He entered 
 at once upon the honours and upon the perils of a 
 popular preacher. And surely none would lightly esti- 
 mate those perils in the case of one so young as William 
 Morley Punshon, whose temperament — affectionate, im- 
 pressible, ever craving sympathy, and susceptible to pain 
 and pleasure at the hands of others — would naturally 
 expose him to all the dangers of the position. But the 
 safeguards were forthcoming. As has been said, they 
 consisted in part of the inner spiritual discipline by 
 which it pleased God to chasten him, and, in part at 
 least, the wholesome, practical work of the prayer- 
 meeting, the Sunday-school, the mission band, served to 
 keep him in touch with homely people and humble ways, 
 and maintain the balance of things as against the excit- 
 ing influences of popular services and admiring crowds. 
 By a special grace of God his conscience had been 
 awakened to the evil of vanity, and to the presence of 
 something in himself that was either that, or the root 
 
Williatn Morley Punshon. 
 
 27 
 
 and beginning of it. He took the warning, and fought 
 this enemy down to its lurking-places. The victory was 
 given him with such completeness, that few ever knew 
 of the danger, and of the way in which it had been over- 
 come. On this defeated vice the opposing virtue was 
 established with such happy mastery that, through his 
 after career, of all the tributes he received from friends, 
 and particularly from his brethren in the ministry, the 
 most frequent was that which was rendered to his hu- 
 mility. It was a common saying that nothing was more 
 wonderful in Punshon than his modesty." Pp. 36-38. 
 
 Mr. Squance desired to propose young Pun- 
 shon as a candidate for the ministry at the 
 March Quarterly Meeting of 1843; but he had 
 the keenest sense of the responsibility of the 
 office, and wanted more time for prayer, self- 
 examination and preparation. It was finally 
 arranged that he should spend a few months 
 with his uncle, Rev. B. Clough, then stationed 
 at Woolwich, that he might aid him in his 
 studies. 
 
 Before leaving Sunderland he published a 
 volume of verse, entitled "Wild Flowers," and 
 of these youthful productions the biographer 
 says: — 
 
 " It is not necessary to submit them to serious criti- 
 
 m 
 
 *'!( 
 
 1 
 
 ^,1 
 ' 1! 
 
 ' 1*9 
 
i 
 
 ^ t 
 
 38 
 
 William M or ley Punshon. 
 
 cism. They show, not so much direct poetical impres- 
 sions, as the influence upon a warm and lively faiicy of 
 the poetry that he h.id read. Their chief interest at 
 this distance is biographic. They illustrate some events 
 in his history, and show the kind of topics that in- 
 terested him, and furnished themes for his early efforts 
 in verse. Perhaps the truest note of feeling is ut.ered 
 in the poem entitled, ' Lines on the Anniversary of a 
 Mother's Death.' " P. 40. 
 
 From boyhood lie liad devoured poetry with 
 <jTeat easferness ; and, subtle in thought a id feel- 
 ing, of iine, delicate organization and poetical 
 susceptibilities and tastes, " What marvel if he 
 thus essayed to siny;?" Mr, Macdonald adds — 
 
 "The writing of verse long continued to be a recrea- 
 tion, but, as his true calling grew upon him, and took 
 completer possession of his life, it occupied an enti*"ely 
 subordinate position ; and, while affording pleasure from 
 time to time to himself and to his friends, never really 
 came into competition with his more serious labours." 
 P. 42. 
 
 In due time he was proposed as a candidate 
 and accepted by vote of the Circuit Quarterly 
 Meeting, thus passing " the first of the gates 
 that guard the approach to the Methodist 
 ministry." 
 
Wiiliam Morley Punshon. 
 
 29 
 
 In September, 1844, he entered the Theo- 
 logical Institution at Richmond, and throw him- 
 self heartily into his studies. But his college 
 career came to an unexpected termination, 
 owing to the reason that he had by mistake 
 been entered as a missionary student, while 
 himself and his friends preferred the home- 
 work, and since there was no room for him 
 amongst the home-students, he was taken from 
 Richmond and placed on the list of reserves. 
 The comment which the writer makes on this 
 matter, is exceedingly judicious : — 
 
 "At this distance of time it may be allowed, without 
 attributing blame to any one, to express regret that such 
 a proceeding was possible in the case of a student of 
 much promise and of unblemished character. Taken 
 in connection with the short and often interrupted course 
 of his early education, it was peculiarly unfortunate that 
 just as he was falling in with the conditions of college- 
 life and study, the order of things should be once more 
 dislocated, and he himself transferred from the lecture- 
 room and library to the duties and responsibilities of the 
 ministry. It may, perhaps, be urged, not without plausi- 
 bility, that the same Providence that had cast him to such 
 an extent, even as a boy, upon his own mental instincts 
 
 m 
 
n 
 
 I I 
 
 \m 
 
 il 
 
 MM 
 
 30 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 :ind appetites, was once again setting aside arrangements 
 which, for most men immeasurably the best, were not 
 the best for him." P. 48. 
 
 I make this quotation all the more readily, as 
 it strikes me that the scholarly bi^^grapher has 
 made altogether too much of what he calls his 
 lack of "early education." True, he had not a 
 university training; but he had all the finish 
 which literary acquirements could bestow. In 
 boyhood he learned quickly and mastered fully 
 the ground he had traversed. His memory was 
 retentive, and he laid a good foundation on 
 which to build up knowledge. He was an in- 
 tense worker, and if not a profound and finished 
 scholar, he had that ripeness of culture which 
 gave him an ascendPvUcy over the most educated 
 minds. His classical allusions were most fre- 
 quent, and the most cultured listened to him 
 with the highest delight. He possessed a large 
 amount of multifarious knowledge, and he was 
 versed in all the phases of modern thought- 
 It is a question whether a university career 
 could have made him more effective than he 
 was, and it is doing him scant justice to dwell 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 31 
 
 upon his need of progressive, well - ordered 
 study. Robert Hall says of the learned Keppis, 
 "He might be a very clever man by nature, 
 for aught I know, but he laid so many books 
 upon his head that his brains could not move." 
 
 We have to bear in mind that Dr. Punshon's 
 career was thrust upon him by a Providence, 
 which he could not disregard, to be a preacher 
 rather than a scholar and a theologian. Had 
 he chosen the scholar's desk, he might have 
 been as renowned for the depth and versatility 
 of his attainments, as for his" popular and effec- 
 tive eloquence. He was impelled by circum- 
 stances into the work, and like Spurgeon, the 
 preacher of the age, he proved himself, without 
 college preparation, a master workman. 
 
 He was now at the disposal of the President 
 for supplying any vacancy, and was sent to 
 Harden, in Kent, where a secession had taken 
 place from the parish church, on account of 
 " Puseyite " pra,ctices, and a request presented 
 that a Methodist preacher might be sent to them. 
 A delicate post, indeed, for one with so little 
 
Sii 
 
 m 
 
 32 
 
 William Morley Punskon. 
 
 ministerial capital to fill, and here he began his 
 pastoral work. The biosjrapher says: — 
 
 " To the delight of preaching was now added the 
 interest of pastoral work. He gave his afternoons to 
 visiting, and found that a minister has other means of 
 usefulness to the souls of his people than those belong- 
 ing to the pulpit. And what was good for them was no 
 less serviceable for him. No man needs the discipline 
 of pastoral work more than the popular preacher. Ten- 
 dencies to the unreal, the artificial, the high-flying, are 
 best checked and qualified by intercourse with the sick 
 and sorrowful, by experience of practical ministering 
 amid the varied conditions of actual every day life. The 
 months spent at Marden were happy and useful ones. 
 His preaching attracted large congregations. By some 
 of his ' parishoners,' as he called them, he was strongly 
 urged to seek orders in the Church of England, with the 
 assurance that a church should be built for him. But 
 neither then nor at any later period did he falter for a 
 moment in his allegiance to Methodism. It cost him no 
 effort to refuse the kind proposal. He set himself rather, 
 as he had playfully said, 'to make some Methodists.' 
 A society was organized, a chapel built, and when the 
 time came for him to leave the Kentish village where he 
 had served his short apprenticeship to the ministry, a 
 probation before the probation which had its formal be- 
 ginning at the Conference of 1845, ^^- could look back 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 33 
 
 with thankfulness on good work done, and useful lessons 
 learnt. 
 
 " In the minutes of the Conference of 1845, the name 
 of W. M. Punshon occurs for the first time. It stands 
 under the head of ' Preachers now received on trial,' 
 together with the names of Thomas McCuUagh, George 
 Mather, and Ebenezer Jenkins, almost the only survivors 
 of the men of that year. Although his exceptional 
 pulpit popularity was now becoming widely known, he 
 was not appointed to one of the more important or 
 exacting circuits. There is, indeed, something amount- 
 ing almost to a tradition in Methodism, that distin- 
 guished men spend the earlier years of their ministry 
 in obscure places. After a while the great centres claim 
 their services, and afford them more adequate sphere 
 for their powers ; but scores of instances might be ad- 
 duced to show that 'country circuits' have been the 
 training-ground of the men who have afterwards risen 
 to honour and authority." 
 
 He started from the lowest round of the lad- 
 der, on one of the worst circuits in all Meth- 
 odism, and among the roughest elements, he 
 began that career which excited so profound, 
 and extended, and prolonged a sensation in the 
 public mind. Full of fervour and enthusiasm, 
 this plain, unassuming young man girded him- 
 
 ■i\\ 
 
ill 
 
 lIMi 
 
 
 11 ! 
 
 ii! 
 
 34 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 self for his work, and laboured with all his 
 heart among the country people, and his elo- 
 quence evinced itself as the flame and impetus 
 of a mighty j;'enius. The author quotes from 
 the Rev. Thos. McCullagh, who had the happi- 
 ness to hear Mr. Punshon's first missionary 
 speech delivered at Harrington, a quaint little 
 seaport, on the Whitehaven Circuit : — 
 
 " I was prepared," says Mr. McCullagh, "for some- 
 thing good, as accounts reached Workington almost 
 daily of the wonderful young preacher who had come to 
 Whitehaven. But when I heard for myself, I found that 
 the half had not been told me. The rush of brilliant 
 thoughts and burning words, the perfect whirlwind of 
 eloquence, almost took away my breath. I do not know 
 that I was more enraptured with his speeches at Exeter 
 Hall in after years, than with that first platform effort 
 during the first weeks of his ministry. We used to call 
 it his ' Excitement speech,' as he dwelt in it upon the 
 excitements of novelty, opposition, and success, by 
 which the missionary enterprise had been supported in 
 turns, until, at last, it came to rest upon principle." 
 
 In his first platform address, his maiden efibrt, 
 he achieved that marked success which consti- 
 tuted him a king among platform speakers. At 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 35 
 
 once this brilliant young man became a heroic, 
 fiery advocate of missions — not a missionary, 
 but a creator of missions and missionaries, 
 planting in men's hearts seeds of missionary 
 effort that were to spring up in ever-widening 
 harvests to the end of time. Whoever has 
 heard him at his best, in the zenith of his 
 popularity and power, can imagine the utter 
 bewilderment of wonder, which this beginning 
 of surprises must have occasioned to those who 
 were present at his first missionary speech. 
 
 Mr. McCullagh goes on to say, " In the May of 1846, 
 he attended his first District Meeting, at Carlisle. He 
 and I lodged together at a village two miles from the 
 city, and as we had to preach on successive mornings at 
 five o'clock, an early start was necessary. We arranged 
 between us that he was to remain awake all night in 
 order to waken me, as I had to preach the first morning. 
 I promised to do the same for him the next nig;ht ; but, 
 alas, the willing spirit was overmatched by the weak 
 flesh, and the watchman overslept himself. Finding 
 ourselves considerably behind time, in order to recover 
 some of it we ran the whole of the two miles. Arrived 
 at the chapel, we found the Rev. Samuel Rowe giving 
 out a hymn from his pew. Mr. Punshon entered the 
 pulpit, and preached a remarkably beautiful and elo- 
 
 i 
 
 
ii 
 
 iiHI i 
 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 36 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 quent sermon. After the service I breakfasted with 
 some of the ministers at the house of Mr. James. The 
 preacher of the morning not being present, much of the 
 . « -iversation at the breakfast-table turned on the sermon, 
 wonderful from any one, but especially from a proba- 
 tioner in his first year." 
 
 That five o'clock sermon, preceded by the 
 two miles run, preached in the old border city, 
 made such an impression upon those who heard 
 it, that the Carlisle Quarterly Meeting at once 
 invited him to become their pastor on the com- 
 pletion of his second year at Whitehaven. To 
 this circuit he was appointed in 1847. The 
 cause was low, and rent by divisions; but dur- 
 ing the two years spent in the staid cathedral 
 city, he filled the half-empty chapels with eager 
 and delighted hearers. 
 
 m\ 
 
 mm 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 37 
 
 II. 
 
 I HAVE a vivid remembrance that when on 
 the old Griffintown Circuit, Montreal, I laboured 
 as a young man with Rev. Dr. Douglas, among 
 my choicest friends were the late Mr. and Mrs. 
 Daniel Hadley. Mrs. Hadley was an English 
 woman of unusual piety and intelligence, and 
 was a young lady living in Carlisle during Mr. 
 Punshon's pastorate there ; and I have listened 
 for hours to her descriptions of his appearance 
 and surpassing popularity. She described him 
 as a young man with round boyish face ; his 
 auburn hair, thick and curly; his eyes, keen 
 and piercing ; his figure, muscular, but thin ; 
 and his appearance and manner, most refined 
 and gentleman like. He would enter the pulpit 
 with modest, downcast look, and read the hymn 
 in such a way as to arrest the attention of 
 
iiiH 
 
 iiiij 
 
 •!'; I 
 
 38 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 everyone. His voice, she described as being 
 husky at the start, but always clear and ringing 
 to the close. She dwelt upon his beautiful 
 enunciation and the emphasis he would give 
 every now and then to certain words ; and the 
 sermons she described as gardens of loveliness, 
 filled with flowers of every variety of beauty, 
 and charm of shape, and colour and perfume. 
 His influence over the young people she de- 
 scribed as very great; his genial, sunny, yet 
 dignified ways, drawing all around him, and 
 getting them to see new blessedness and joy in 
 religious things. Mr. Macdonald, in one of the 
 finest pieces of description in the book, pictures 
 the crowded congregations in the old Fisher St. 
 Chapel, all under the spell of his pulpit powers: — 
 
 " The recognized classifications of orthodox and hetero- 
 dox, Church-people and Nonconformists, professional 
 men and tradespeople, were confounded in this new 
 order of things. Persons found themselves side by side 
 in the Methodist chapel whD had never been in one 
 before, who had never met one another there or else- 
 where. Anglican clergymeti, Dissenting ministers, Ro- 
 man Catholics and Quakers, gentlefolks from the city, 
 and squires from the country, lawyers and doctors, shop- 
 
Willimn Morley Puns/ion. 
 
 39 
 
 i 
 
 keepers, farmers, and labourers, with here and there an 
 itinerant actor — all sorts and conditions of men to be 
 found in or near the old border capital, flocked to hear 
 the young preacher, and to be excited, subdued, moved 
 by a pulpit oratory unlike anything they had ever heard. 
 " It was not subtlety or originality of thought, or 
 novelty of doctrine, that drew the crowds and held them 
 in breathless, and often painful, suspense. In respect of 
 doctrine it was Methodist preaching as generally under- 
 stood, and there was little sign of new or deeper insight 
 into familiar truth; but there was a glow, a sweep, an 
 exultant rush of quick-following sentences, exuberant in 
 style — too much so, a critic might say, — that culminated 
 now and then in passages of overwhelming declamation, 
 or sank to a pathos that brought tears to unaccustomed 
 eyes. His whole soul was in his work. The ornate 
 musical sentences, full of harmonious delights for the 
 ear, were no mere literary devices ; they were his natural 
 modes of expression, raised and quickened by the emo- 
 tions of the preacher's heart. His voice, often harsh 
 and husky at first, would clear and strengthen as he pro- 
 ceeded, revealing unexpected range and power of modu- 
 lation. His constrained, uneasy attitude grew free and 
 graceful ; he stood erect, the left arm held behind him, 
 with his right hand, instinct with nervous life, he seemed 
 to grasp his audience, to summon and dismiss argu- 
 ments, to cut his way through difficulties, until, with 
 uplifted face, radiant with spiritual light, both hands 
 
40 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 were outstretched in impassioned climax, or raised as in 
 contemplation of some glory seen from afar." Pp. 63-64. 
 
 At the Manchester Conference of 1849, he 
 was ordained, the charge being delivered by 
 Rev. Dr. Newton, and appointed to Newcastle- 
 upon-Tyne. With his ordination vows fresh 
 upon him, he took upon him the vows of matri- 
 mony, for immediately after Conference he was 
 married to Miss Maria Vickers, of Gateshead, 
 an amiable, intelligent and devoted young lady, 
 the child of Christian parents, and well-fitted 
 by character, culture and personal experience of 
 Divine grace, to be a true help-meet to her 
 husband. Sustained by a firm trust in God, 
 and by the sympathy of hl^ true-hearted young 
 wife, he went to his new and difficult appoint- 
 ment. The "agitation" in connection with the 
 " fly-sheets" and the expulsion of Revs. Everett, 
 Dunn and Griffith, greatly disturbed his Tyne- 
 side Circuit of sixteen hundred members ; but 
 the tide of his mighty pulpit popularity swept 
 everything before it. The sphere of his labours 
 was continually widening, and all the border 
 counties were roused, dazzled and taken captive 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 41 
 
 by this young Apollos, so eloquent and mighty 
 in the Scriptures. 
 
 Amid the ever- broadening circle of life and 
 labours the biographer gives, what is all too 
 rare in the volume, some glimpses of his happy 
 home-life. His domestic affections were the 
 strongest ; he loved home, and in the midst of 
 unremitted exertions his heart turned home- 
 ward, as the centre of his happiness, and in his 
 family life he found a joy amounting to rapture. 
 In December, 1850, Fanny Morley was born, 
 and before he left Newcastle, John William. 
 How his father-heart rejoiced over these treas- 
 ures, and how the life went out of him when 
 they were taken away. 
 
 From Newcastle he was removed to Sheffield, 
 where his pulpit and platform engagements 
 multiplied, and he began to feel the strain of 
 these ever-increasing labours. Here he received 
 — a miiiister of but seven years' standing — an 
 invitation from the Missionary Committee, in 
 London, to preach and speak at the May anni- 
 versary. His rising reputation had made it 
 
 necessary that he should be heard at the head- 
 
 4 ' , • 
 
 " r. 
 
m 
 
 \ 
 
 42 
 
 IVi/iiam Morhy Puns/iott. 
 
 quarters of the connexion. Of this London 
 work, he wrote to a friend, " I exceedingly fear 
 and quake." 
 
 ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, LONDON. 
 
 What the biographer says of his first appear- 
 
William M or ley Puns/ion. 
 
 43 
 
 ance at Exeter Hall, will be read with deep 
 interest: — 
 
 " The words of the young and eloquent speaker pro- 
 
 ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL (INTERIOR). 
 
 duced a great impression. It was felt that another man 
 had arisen|][to stand among the foremost defenders and 
 
44 
 
 William M or ley Putts /ton. 
 
 ■' •:! ; 
 
 advocates of Christian Missions. And from that hour 
 it was so. He had taken possession of Exeter Hall, to 
 retain it to his life's end. Of all who have trodden its 
 historic platform none have moved the eager thousands 
 that pack within its walls with completer mastery than 
 he. The promise of this was discerned by some, at 
 least, of those who heard his first speech. But in look- 
 ing back upon that meeting an interest attaches to it 
 which time only could bring to light. It was Robert 
 Newton's last appearance at the anniversary of the 
 Wesleyan Missionary Society, and Morley Punshon's 
 first. For the first and last time they stood together in 
 the cause with which their names must alwiys be linked. 
 The elder handed the torch to the younger and passed 
 away. That May morning, in 1853, divides the earlier 
 from the later period of missionary advocacy. The 
 name of Robert Newton may stand for the one, the 
 name of Morley Punshon for the other." P. 89. 
 
 Mr. Punshon himself, writing about the meet- 
 ing to his intimate friend, Rev. Thos. McCuUagh, 
 says : — 
 
 " The most gratifying thing to me was, not the 
 crowded congregations on Sabbath, nor the reception 
 at the meeting, though it was warm, but that after the 
 meeting, the old doctor — the great lion — the veritable 
 Jabez Buntings hobbled across the committee-room for 
 the express purpose of shaking hands with me, and 
 
V/illiam Morley Punshon. 
 
 45 
 
 telling me thac it gave him pleasure to see and hear 
 me there." P. 89. 
 
 And he adds — 
 
 "Fancy the change from Exeter Hall to Peasenhall, 
 down in the wilds of Suffolk, beyond the limits of the 
 twopenny post, where I began the missionary sermon 
 with four people, and the collection at the meeting was 
 five-and-twenty shillings ! " 
 
 His visit to London brought him an invitation 
 to lecture for the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
 ciation, at Exeter Hall, and the response to this 
 summons proved to be one of the most impor- 
 tant events in his entire career. 
 
 I distinctly remember Dr. Punshon telling 
 me how he came to deliver his first lecture, and 
 to adopt his sermonlike style of lectures. The 
 Exeter Hall lectures formed one of the agencies 
 of the Young Men's Christian Association for 
 promoting the spiritual and mental improve- 
 ment of the young men of the metropolis. 
 Mr. W. Edwyn Shipton, the Secretary, had 
 heard him preach his sermon on Elijah, and 
 struck with his power to portray character, his 
 
 1 if 
 
 '"!« 
 
; I] 
 
 i 
 * 
 
 ■Mi 
 
 46 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 chaste and classical diction, his captivating and 
 impressive delivery, he at once suggested to 
 him thfc.t he transform the sermon into a lecture 
 for young men, giving it a little wider range 
 and more elastic mode of treatment. He fal- 
 tered and hesitated, but at length consented 
 and began to rearrange his matter, and elabo- 
 rate his discourse under the title of " The 
 Prophet of Horeb." Many a time he repented 
 his rash promise, and was on the eve of giving 
 up the effort. He thought it presumption to 
 undertake to make his disguised sermon inter- 
 esting and profitable to that lecture-audience 
 of two or thref* thousand. But the oration wa& 
 completed, and at the time announced, delivered,, 
 and let the author relate, in his own inimitable 
 way, Mr. Punshon's first triumph as a lecturer : — 
 
 "On the 17th of January, 1854, he delivered his lecture 
 on ' The Prophet of Horeb,' in Exeter Hall, to nearly 
 three thousand people. He spoke for two hours with 
 perfect command of himself, his subject, and his audi- 
 ence. 'Towards the close,' says one who was present^ 
 ' There was the stillness and solemnity of death, you 
 might have heard a feather fall in that vast assembly ;. 
 
I iif; 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 47 
 
 and when the last sentence had fallen from his lips, 
 the whole audience rose en masse and cheered till it 
 could cheer no more.'" Pp. 91-92. 
 
 His ministry in Sheffield terminated at the 
 Conference of 1855, and was in every way 
 a successful one. Concerning it, he himself 
 writes : — 
 
 " My course in Shefifield has been a very happy one. 
 The circuit was low, and it has been raised by the bless- 
 ing of God upon our labours. We have added about 
 three hundred members in the course of the last year. 
 For twelve months we have scarcely had a Sabbath 
 evening without witnessing conversions. Three of us 
 hold prayer-meetings after every service, save, of course, 
 on sacramental occasions, and the good resulting from 
 this old-fashioned plan is inestimable. I have had 
 agreeable colleagues." P. 92. 
 
 It is refreshing to think of his returning from 
 anniversary services, missionary meetings and 
 crowded lecture halls ; from a ministry through 
 the connexion at large, to meet classes, hold 
 prayer-meetings, preach and labour for the sal- 
 vation of souls. It was his chiefest delight to 
 bring sinners to God ; and brilliant preacher 
 
 :*l 
 
II 
 
 48 
 
 William Morley Ptinshon, 
 
 though he was, while thousands went away 
 from his sermon to admire, not a few went 
 away to repent and seek after God. He has 
 often told me, with the tears in his eyes, that 
 no joy in his ministry was equal to the joy that 
 was given him in the conversion of souls. He 
 hungered for this. No one who knew anything 
 of his inner life could doubt the depth and 
 genuineness of his devotion to God, or that he 
 used his exceptional popularity in the service 
 of his Master, and for the highest good of men. 
 He was deprived of all leisure and retirement, 
 he had to live in public and amid constant 
 excitements He had always to meet high- 
 pitched expectation, and was keyed up to the 
 loftiest efforts, yet his piety was deep and fer- 
 vent, and he constantly longed for the heart of 
 purity, and the tongue of lire. I have travelled 
 with him thousands of miles on the swift rail, 
 the steamer, the stage-coach, yet everywhere 
 he cultivated the spirit of prayer and quiet 
 waiting upon God, and was in the regular habit 
 of reading daily some book of devotion. Amid 
 the perils of popularity his spiritual life was 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 49 
 
 supported, and prayer was his constant resource. 
 Mr. Macdonald has well put the dangers of the 
 popular preacher : — 
 
 " Interpreting God's will by all the indications of it 
 that are within our reach, we conclude that it was by 
 the will of God that William Morley Punshon came to 
 be the most itinerant member of the itinerant ministry 
 to which he belonged. 
 
 " But a price has to be paid for this. The price is, 
 in pait, the toil of consta..t travelling, with absence from 
 home and family, and, in part, a certain peril to the 
 inner life, deprived of quiet resting-places, and given 
 over to hurry and excitement. What time is there for 
 patient waiting upon truth, for meditation, for ' the har- 
 vest of a quiet eye,' and of a mind at leisure ? What 
 discipline is to preserve the simplicity of one who is 
 followed by eager, expectant crowds .'' How is humility 
 to live in an atmosphere shaken by the frequent ap- 
 plause of multitudes .-* When all men speak well of 
 him, can he do other than think well of himself.'' And 
 after crowded services, breathless congregations, and 
 admiration and homage of many kinds, how will he be 
 disposed for humble exercises of prayer and self-exami- 
 nation, for ministering to the sick and sorrowful, and 
 showing piety at home .'' 
 
 " Mr. Punshon's journal reveals his jealousy over his 
 own soul. It shows him humbled, depressed, sorrowful. 
 
 ' I 
 
 \A 
 
 li, 
 
 
 ' 'I 
 
,il 
 
 H 
 
 50 
 
 William Morley Punskon. 
 
 even in the days of his most abundant popularity. He 
 was never content to live upon the applause, so lavishly 
 bestowed upon him, and at times it only helped to dis- 
 tress him. There was a region of his spiritual life from 
 which both world and Church were shut out, where not 
 a breath of the praise of men was allowed to enter, 
 where he knelt perpetually — humble, penitent, prayer- 
 ful — at the feet of Jesus." P. 105. 
 
 From Sheffield Mr. Punshon removed to Leeds, 
 another stronghold of Yorkshire Methodism, 
 where, besides performing the duties of his own 
 circuit, he went on with his itinerant ministry 
 through the Connexion at large, visiting nearly 
 one hundred different towns each year, preach- 
 ing and lecturing. Here Mrs. Punshon's health 
 began to decline, and thenceforth she became 
 the loved object of untold solicitude and anxiety 
 to her husband. 
 
 At the Conference of 1858, Mr. Punshon, at 
 the age of thirty-four, was called to populous 
 London, Hinde Street Circuit, and Bayswater 
 was chosen as a suitable place of residence for 
 his invalid wife. The claims upon him now 
 became almost innumerable ; but while the 
 people flocked to hear him and packed the 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 51 
 
 largest buildings, the heart of the rarely-gifted 
 preacher was wrung with sorrow and the bitter- 
 ness of death. His wife's mother died under 
 his roof in October, ] 859, and one dreary after- 
 noon in November of the same year, the be- 
 loved wife of his youth " languished into life." 
 " Going, going to glory," were her last words. 
 
 In the midst of his overwhelming sorrow he 
 writes, "I have consecrated myself afresh to 
 the great work to which God has called me. 
 My darling children are very interesting and 
 affectionate. God gives me comfort in them 
 amid my grief and trouble." Out of this seven- 
 fold heated furnace he emerged into a more 
 tender, heart-searching and successful ministry, 
 for the prophet who consoles others must him- 
 self be " a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
 grief." 
 
 While at Bayswater, Mr. Punshon set himself 
 to raise by his lecture on " The Huguenots," the 
 sum of one thousand pounds for the old chapel 
 at Spitalfields. The amount was raised in six 
 months, but what an excessive bodily and 
 mental tension this labour of love cost him no 
 
 f ■ 
 \\ 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 
 3 bn 
 
 s L eJ 
 
52 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 ; \ 
 
 I j: 
 
 
 I'l 
 
 one can tell. His second term in the Metro- 
 polis was spent at Islington, where his popu- 
 larity and influence still extended, and honours 
 and successes crowded thick upon him. Here 
 he commenced the arduous task of raising by 
 lectures and other means £10,000 to give grants 
 to aid in the erection of chapels in places of 
 summer resort. The proceeds of his lectures on 
 "Daniel in Babylon," " Macaulay," "Wesley and 
 his Times," and " Wilberforce," were devoted to 
 his watering-places fund. Not only did this 
 freely-assumed burden and responsibility draw 
 lavishly upon his great strength, but there were 
 other special claims making demands at the 
 same time upon one of such abounding popu- 
 larity, as appeals on behalf of the distressed in 
 Lancashire, arising out of the " Cotton Famine ;" 
 the Jubilee Missionary movement of 1863, and 
 the Metropolitan Chapel Building Fund of 1865. 
 The stress of incessant work was too great. 
 His health and spirits began to give way ; he 
 was the victim of a strange nervous affection, 
 which compelled him to desist from lecturing 
 for nearly two years, and to give up all week- 
 
If( 
 
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William Morley Punshon. 
 
 53 
 
 
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 s 
 
 H 
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 day engagements. He sought rest and change 
 in travel on the continent, accompanied by his 
 faithful friend, Rev. Gervase Smith. The ox- 
 tracts from this journal of travel form one of 
 the most attractive portions of the biography. 
 Few men enjoyed travel more than he, and with 
 what zest and brilliant imagery he has described 
 the historic places visited ; " the beauty and 
 chivalry" of Brussels, the field of Waterloo, 
 Strasburg and Lucerne with Rigi and Pilatus, 
 the Staubbach Falls, Berne and Lausanne, Lake 
 Maggiore, and Milan with its famous Duomo 
 and Church of St. Ambrose. How he loved 
 that marble wilderness, Milan's Cathedral. On 
 his last homeward journey, stricken with liis 
 fatal illness, as we reached Turin and rested 
 there for three days, he insisted that I should 
 go on to Milan and see that " poem in stone," 
 as well as visit the old church in which St. 
 Ambrose ministered and where Augustine heard 
 the words of Life. 
 
 He endeavoured also to see all sides of foreign 
 questions, enter into continental life, politics and 
 religion. He records his impressions of the 
 
 '}. 
 
I 
 
 54 
 
 William M or ley Pun short. 
 
 work of Christian missions in Europe as far as 
 they passed under his keen eye, and returns 
 from a journey of 3,000 miles, "having seen 
 nineteen lakes, sixty-five rivers, fifty-two towns 
 of more than 10,000 inhalHtants, and crossed 
 both Alps and Appenines." The enumeration is 
 characteristic of the man. 
 
 On his return to Clifton he was able to re- 
 sume in part his circuit duties, but was obliged 
 to "go softly." Next year he made another 
 journey to Italy, the route chosen being by way 
 of Genoa, Pisa and the Riviera. In pleasant 
 journeyings with loved cor. panior lid the 
 
 beauties of nature and art, his het a,nd spirit' 
 rapidly improved, he was recovering soi'cthing 
 of his old buoyancy and vigour. 
 
 About this time he wrote to Ridgill, the 
 friend of his boyhood, " Do you ever essay 
 poetry now ? I am foolish enough to meditate 
 another volume, a sort of Methodist Christian 
 Year. Whether it will ever appear time only 
 can decide. The muse is capricious and wilful, 
 and chooses the times of her visits and inspira- 
 tions." Partly as a solace and a recreation, and 
 
 n 
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 X 
 
 
 50 
 > 
 
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 W 
 
 
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William Morley Punshon. 
 
 55 
 
 partly as a service to Christ, he prepared his 
 quiet meditations in verse for the Sundays of 
 a year ; and in 1867 published " Sabbath 
 Chimes," the " offering of a year's enforced 
 pause amid the activities of a busy ministry." 
 The volume in its general method and spirit 
 is an imitation of Keble's " Christian Year," and 
 of it Mr. Macdonald says : — 
 
 "His 'Sabbath Chimes' was not unworthy of him; it 
 did not injure the reputation which he had secured by 
 labours of another kind ; it gave pleasure, and ministered 
 to the devotion of many; it contains many a strong, 
 and many a soothing stanza; it is free from the morbid, 
 the sickly, the superstitious ; its doctrine is scriptural, 
 its spirit reverent towards God, sympathetic towards 
 man ; it contributed a strain or two to the permanent 
 enrichment of spiritual song ; but, if it be asked, twenty 
 years after its publication, whether the writer derives 
 reputation from his book, or the book from its writer, 
 there can be no doubt as to the answer that must be 
 given. In other words, Mr. Punshon was, first and last, 
 a preacher, and his achievements in other directions, 
 including that of poetry, remain unmistakably subor- 
 dinate." P. 263. 
 
 He had a deep, rich nature, a fine and fertile 
 
 tm 
 
 Iff 
 
 Iff 
 m 
 
56 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 imagination, an intuitive perception of the 
 beautiful in thought and phrase ; he possessed 
 " the vision and faculty divine " ; in short, all 
 the susceptibilities and tastes of the poet ; but 
 his powers had not been concentrated upon 
 poetry as an art, and his life had been too busy 
 for great literary industry and the highest style 
 of authorship. The completion of this volume 
 of verse may have given him something of the 
 feelinc's experienced by the great Wizard of the 
 North, Sir Walter Scott, when he wrote the 
 publisher on the last proof-sheet of his immor- 
 tal work " Rob Roy " :— 
 
 " With very great joy 
 I send you Roy. 
 'Twas a tough job, 
 But we're done with Rob." 
 
 The " Chimes," however, will ring out their 
 sacred peals on the Sabbath air for generations 
 yet to con and kindle the devotional life of 
 thousands of the saints of God. 
 
 Mr. Punshon began once more to resume 
 public work, and to the great delight of the 
 entire Connexion reappeared upon the platform 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 57 
 
 of Exeter Hall at the May missionary meet- 
 ing. In June he accompanied the Rev. William 
 Arthur to Belfast to attend the Irish Confer- 
 ence, and completed his undertaking on behalf 
 of the Watering Places Chapel Fund by raising 
 the magnificent sum of £10,697. By this noble 
 and self-imposed effort was secured the erection 
 of twenty-four new chapels in watering places, 
 and the enlargement and improvement of a 
 dozen more. Nearly eleven thousand sittings 
 were added to the church accommodation of 
 Methodism, while the sum raised through his 
 labours was the means of calling forth from 
 local efforts no less an amount than £62,727. 
 It may be said that this movement constituted 
 " a new departure " in Wesleyan chapel building 
 in England. These chapels, almost without ex- 
 ception, are elegant specimens of architecture, 
 and a permanent adornment of these charming 
 sea-side resorts. 
 
 During the year 1867 came the request from 
 
 the Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist 
 
 Church in Canada to the Parent Conference for 
 
 " the appointment of Rev. Wm. Morley Punshon 
 
 5 
 
 «il 
 
 
 A 
 
 Pi 
 
 ''I 
 
 \'\\ 
 
 i 
 
 *l 
 
 if 
 
58 
 
 Willia7n Morley Punshon. 
 
 
 t.'i 
 
 I i 
 
 as its next President, and that he be permitted 
 to travel through the Connexion the current 
 year." The Conference acceded to the request, 
 and made the desired appointment. Mr. Pun- 
 shon was further, by an almost unanimous vote, 
 appointed Representative of the British Con- 
 ference to tlie General Conference of the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church in the United States, to 
 be held in Chicago in the following May. His 
 ministry at Clifton closed in August, 1867, and 
 the months intervening between this time and 
 the following April, when he was to find " a 
 vocation and a home beyond the sea," were spent 
 in travel on the Continent, and in preaching 
 and lecturing in various parts of the country. 
 
 His last public engagement was a lecture in 
 Exeter Hall, on " Florence and its Memories." 
 Two hours before the appointed time the ap- 
 proaches to the doors were crowded, and at the 
 close of the lecture the immense audience, who 
 had been raised to the highest point of enthu- 
 siasm by his glowing and impassioned periods, 
 sprang to their feet, waved their hats and hand- 
 kerchiefs, and by the most tumultuous applause, 
 
Wi/Ziam Morley Pufishon. 
 
 59 
 
 again and again renewed, testified their delight, 
 and conveyed their good wishes for his future. 
 
 The biographer seeks to reach the secret of 
 Mr. Punshon's oratorical greatness, and to ana- 
 lyse the elements of his power. The learned 
 Professor is inclined to follow the bent of his 
 own genius, which is critical and philosophical, 
 rather than sink his own idiosyncrasies and 
 individuality in a faithful portraiture of his 
 subject, leaving his sermons and lectures to 
 take their own settled place in the public 
 estimation. 
 
 The biographer is an admirable critic, but 
 we cannot help thinking that in this instance 
 he has unduly magnified his office. W. P. Frith, 
 R.A., in his charming " Autobiography and 
 Reminiscences," advises all artists, young and 
 old, never to read art criticisms, for nothing 
 is to be learned from them, and i uch unde- 
 served pain is often inflicted. I suspect that 
 similar objections lie against literary criticisms. 
 True, there is here the utmost kindliness dis- 
 played by the critic ; he would " hint the fault 
 and hesitate dislike," always in the kindest 
 
 •11 
 
 %\ 
 

 j: 1 
 
 m : 
 
 '.I' 
 
 60 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 spirit ; yet one has to confess now and then to 
 a groan of impatience over the biographer's 
 performance in this direction. 
 
 It is open to question whether, with all the 
 many-sidedness of the writer's views and feel- 
 ings, he has not, in his very qualified estimate 
 of Dr. Punshon's lectures, overlooked the fact 
 that the orator speaks, and must speak, for 
 present and immediate effect, for, except in the 
 present, what good can speaking do. He read, 
 and thought, and prepared his discourses with 
 his great audiences before his mental vision, so 
 that his clear, and powerful, and brilliant elo- 
 quence is not to be measured after the standard 
 of the writer who carefully prepares an elabo- 
 rate '.reatise for the scholarly reader. Nor 
 should it be forgotten that these productions 
 were the outpourin s of a man of great power 
 and thought, but of one whose life was so 
 eager, and hurried, and public, that he was 
 incessantly going from place to place, and had 
 little time for profound and consecutive study. 
 
 The blemishes and imperfections noted in the 
 lectures on "Bunyan," and on "Science and 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 6\ 
 
 Literature in relation to Religion," are not to 
 be wondered at, for they were produced in his 
 earlier years ; yet for even these efforts the 
 public had an admiration that scarcely stopped 
 short of worship, and it is almost impossible 
 to convey to the present generation the intense 
 delight with which his thrilling and dazzling 
 orations were received. Mr. Macdonald pays a 
 high compliment to his ministerial fidelity when 
 he says of his lectures: "They were but ser- 
 mons carried from the pulpit to the platform, 
 more broadly handled, and set forth with 
 greater freedom of illustration and wealth of 
 language." 
 
 On April 14, 1868, Mr. Punshon quitted the 
 shores of much loved England for the New 
 World. The record of his life and work on 
 this continent is presented in five chapters, 
 written by his son-in-law, Professor Reynar. 
 With excellent judgment Professor Reynar al- 
 lows Dr. Punshon to tell his own story in de- 
 lightful letters and extracts from his journal, 
 with valuable additions here and there, and rare 
 glimpses into the heart and life of the grandly 
 
 
 li 
 
 i 'I 
 
 I 
 
 % 
 
'!s<' 
 
 62 
 
 William Morley Punslwn. 
 
 gifted man. His first official duty was to con- 
 vey to the General Conference at Chicago the 
 fi iternal greetings of the British Conference. 
 I had the privilege of hearing his memorable 
 address. I had stood in the gallery of the Con- 
 ference Church, wedged in among hundreds, for 
 more than an hour before the time announced 
 for the representatives to be introduced. The 
 great British orator was greeted with thunders 
 of applause. In a few crisp sentences he won 
 his hearers, and then, for an hour, he stirred 
 their pulses and their sensibilities, and swayed 
 them at will by his magnetic utterance and 
 the spell of his speech. The breathless atten- 
 tion, the rapturous applause of that great audi- 
 ence, I can never forget, and the effect of his 
 address was simply indescribable. 
 
 On Sabbath afternoon he preached in the 
 Opera House — and long before the hour an- 
 nounced the crowds swayed up and down before 
 the entrances, When the doors were opened 
 there was one rush up the broad staircases into 
 the spacious auditorium, until every inch of 
 standing room was occupied. The sermon was 
 
Wiiliam Morley Pmishon. 
 
 63 
 
 founded upon Hebrews 12th chapter, 22-24 
 verses: "But ye are come unto Mount Zion," 
 etc. The immense congregation was held spell- 
 bound as he rose from climax to climax, press- 
 ing home upon the heart and the conscience the 
 great truths of the Gospel, while the closing 
 appeals of the earnest ambassador for Christ 
 were uttered with an eloquence that defies 
 description. 
 
 His first Canadian Conference was held in 
 Kingston, June, 1868. My ministerial brethren 
 of that time will remember how high were our 
 expectations, and how fully they were met. 
 Some of the men of the platform had fears lest 
 his executive and administrative ability might 
 not stand the test, but he showed a surprising 
 mastery of details, and conducted the business 
 of the Conference with an impartiality and 
 despatch that delighted all. The Conference 
 sermon is remembered as one of the most ten- 
 der, spiritual and inspiring that ever fell from 
 his lips, and the glow of language, the beauty 
 of illustration, were merged in a spiritual in- 
 tensity and unction in delivery that were even 
 rare to him. 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 ■■;j' f 
 
I;. 
 
 ii; 
 
 64 
 
 Wiliiam Morley PunsJion. 
 
 He secured a house in Toronto, owned by the 
 late Mr. Robert Walker, and in August, his 
 family having arrived, he writes : " Thank God 
 they are here safe, and our four months' exile 
 is over at last." 
 
 On the loth of the same month he was united 
 in marriage to Fanny Vickers, Rev. Dr. Ryer- 
 son performing the marriage ceremony. 
 
 Miss Vickers was the sister of his deceased 
 wife, and had for ten years filled a mother's 
 place to his four children — the only mother 
 whom two had ever known. He loved her 
 with a true devotion, but the English law de- 
 clared marriage with a deceased wife's sister 
 illegal. He would have submitted to ^hat law, 
 iniquitous and oppressive though he believed it 
 to be, and treated the good and pure woman, 
 whose faithful ministry had made his house a 
 home, as his own sister. But this would not 
 satisfy some, who insisted that he must either 
 remove her from his home or marry another. 
 After much and prayerful consideration of the 
 subject, he deemed it his duty to marry her, 
 even though it involved such great sacrifices 
 as expatriation, the breaking up of old friend- 
 
 % 
 
Willia7H Morley Punshon. 
 
 65 
 
 ships, the imputation of unworthy motives, and 
 even the imperilling of his usefulness. In 
 Canada there were not these legal objections, 
 and when the request came from the Canadian 
 Methodist Church to become their President 
 and dwell amongst them, the way seemed pro- 
 videntially opened to discharge the solemn duty 
 which rose up before him. At the bidding of 
 honour and affection, though he had to sacrifice 
 position and influence in the British Conference, 
 he went forth to found a home in the New 
 World, strong in the assurance that he was 
 doing right. And who that has ever dwelt in 
 the light and warmth of that charming home 
 could for a moment have a shadow of misgiv- 
 ing that he had not been led of the Lord, whose 
 guidance he continually invoked. Though ad- 
 mired and applauded everywhere, yet his great 
 heart hungered for domestic affection, and the 
 deep, rare blessedness of a happy home. Never 
 man more needed such a refuge for his heart ; 
 and Mrs. Punshon possessed the beauty, the 
 charms, the sympathetic sweetness, the tender- 
 ness and kindness which will never cease to be 
 more dear to man than any amount of intel- 
 
 11 
 
\ 'r'. 
 
 fT 
 
 11 
 
 66 
 
 William Morley Puns/ion. 
 
 lect. She made his home a new centre of pleas- 
 ant Christian society and life, and though indis- 
 posed to put her own personality forward, she 
 yet won her gentle way, by a thousand quiet 
 ministries, into the hearts of the people. 
 
 Established in Canada, he threw all his great 
 energy and enthusiasm into the onward move- 
 ments of the Church. Of large catholic sym- 
 pathy and spirit, he yet felt that the Church 
 of his choice should take her place, the peer of 
 all, and lie gave his matchless gifts to the advo- 
 cacy of her educational, missionary and evan- 
 gelizing work. Re-elected again and again, by 
 virtually unanimous votes, to the Presidency of 
 the Conference, his office was really episcopal, 
 and his diocese was 1,500 miles in length, two 
 or three hundred in width, with a population 
 of three millions. On his re-election in 1869, 
 he expressed his thankfulness that in a new 
 climate, and through the changes of seasons 
 and the perils of travel, he had been preserved 
 in health and safety, and been privileged to 
 conduct during the year one hundred and 
 seventy public services, travelling, to render 
 them, sixteen thousand miles. In every service 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 67 
 
 he gave his best ; he knew not how to spare 
 himself, and how little the multitudes who wit- 
 nessed his public appearances knew with what 
 fears and painful apprehensions he appeared 
 before them, or with what distress and nervous 
 exhaustion the effort would be followed. Who 
 that heard them can ever forget those addresses 
 which he gave in the old Richmond Street 
 Church to the people on their duties to the 
 ministry, and to the ministers on their duties 
 to the people ? The excitement and the strain 
 were too much. I was honoured with being 
 a guest in his home at the time, and on Sab- 
 bath, after the service, he had an attack very- 
 similar to that which terminated his life. How 
 different the spectacle of the preacher in the 
 pulpit, flaming in the height of his brilliance, 
 rising from climax to climax, swaying the mul- 
 titude with over-mastering emotion ; from the 
 man approaching liis work in tremor of body 
 and agony of spirit, with nervous apprehen- 
 sions of fainting and dying then and there, or 
 when the extraordinary excitement was over, 
 in bodily suffering and nervous exhaustion, 
 even to faintness. 
 
 
 |3 '■ I 
 
 my' 
 
 31 
 
Ill ill 
 
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 :i 
 
 u 
 
 'ii' 
 
 ■! 
 1'' 
 
 68 
 
 William Morley Ptinshon. 
 
 III. 
 
 At the Conference of 1870, Dr. Punshon was 
 visited by his life-long friend, Rev. Gervase 
 Smith. His coming was to the President as cold 
 water to the thirsty soul. How nervous he was 
 over his friend's first appearance at the Con- 
 ference, and how anxious that he sliould be 
 received with befitting welcome. The reception 
 was all that could be desired, and when the 
 brethren gave themselves up to the spell of that 
 eloquent, enthusiastic and most lovable man, his 
 delight was unbounded. And what days those 
 were in his own home, when the Conference ses- 
 sions were over ; the glee, the playful humour, 
 the brilliant strokes of wit and repartee, the 
 episodes and stories of the past, the sparkling 
 and delightful conversation, the tender and true 
 affection ; the two great and gifted divines were 
 
 f'li, 
 
1: l\ 
 
 m 
 
 William Morley Piinshon. 
 
 69 
 
 :' <!■:!: 
 
 like boys together. What a change when I saw 
 the two friends together at Tranby, both broken 
 down in health and spirits, but loving each other 
 as of old. It was their last meeting on earth. 
 But a short time intervened between the de- 
 parture of the two, so that " in their deaths they 
 were not divided." 
 
 The three departments of Church work to 
 which Dr. Punshon's best exertions were given 
 were the increased endowment of Victoria Uni- 
 versity, the Missionary w^ork, and Church build- 
 ing extension. When the annual grant from 
 the Legislature was suddenly withdrawn in 
 1868, Mr. Punshon threw himself with great 
 earnestness into the movement for additional 
 College support, and in a short time endowments 
 were received which more than made up for the 
 loss of the grants from the Provincial treasury. 
 Prof. Reynar says : 
 
 ''Victoria University is also indebted to Mr. Punshon 
 for his interest in the establishment of a theological 
 faculty, the first chair of which was endowed by the late 
 Edward Jackson, of Hamilton. His advocacy was also 
 given to the establishment, in the city of Montreal, of the 
 
 

 ■w^ 
 
 70 
 
 William Morley Punsho7i 
 
 Wesl^yan Theological College, to be affiliated to Victorin 
 University." P. 335. 
 
 While greatly interested in our Domestic Mis- 
 sion work, and our French Canadian and Iiciian 
 Missions, he thought it was high time that Cana- 
 dian Methodism was represented in the foreign 
 .Qeld, and the establishment of our Mission to 
 Japan was due to his advocacy and exei'tions, 
 coupled with those of a few of our own far-seeing 
 and zealous laymen and ministers. His last 
 official act was in a valedictory given to our 
 noble missionaries. Revs. George Cochran and 
 Davidson McDonald, who w^ere starting for the 
 sunrise kin^xdom. 
 
 Another movement in which he took a promi- 
 nent part was Methodist Union. 
 
 The Canadian biographer well says : 
 
 " In the readjustment of relations with the parent 
 Church in England it was of great advantage that one so 
 familiar with English Methodism and so influential in her 
 councils should be at the head of the Canadian Church. 
 It was not till the year 1874, the year after Mr. Punshon's 
 departure from Canada, that the first union took effect, 
 but he was actively concerned in the previous negotiations 
 
 'iiii 
 
 
M 
 
 ^^wff 
 
 
 
 Williain M or ley Pirns hon. 
 
 71 
 
 which led to that union. The union of 1874 was of the 
 Wesleyan Methodist Conference of Canada, the Wesleyan 
 New Connexion Conference, and the Wesleyan Con- 
 ference of Eastern British America. This was followed 
 in 1883 by a further union of the Methodist Church of 
 Cana. a, the Methodist Episcopal Church of Canada, the 
 Bible Christian Church, and the Pr.mitive Methodist 
 Church, Thus was founded the present Canadian Meth- 
 odist Church, into which all the Methodists of British 
 America are gathered in one national Methodist Church 
 often Conferences, 1,628 ministers, and a spiritual charge 
 of some 800,000 souls, the largest Protestant Church in the 
 Dominion." Pp. 331-32. 
 
 An impulse was also given to church building ; 
 and in cities, towns and rural places, beautiful 
 churches were reared and consecrated to God's 
 worship, and multitudes were drawn to the dedi- 
 catorj'- services to hear the great orator. Says 
 the writer : " The chief monument of the church 
 extension and improvement that marked Mr. 
 Punshon's time is the Metropolitan Church in 
 the city of Toronto, and so large a part did he 
 take in this enterprise that i^. is still pointed 
 out as his monument in Canada." Assuredly, 
 without him the Metropolitan Church would 
 
i!| 
 
 I, 
 
 ! 
 
 !|' 
 
 ■'ill 
 
 72 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 never have been built, nor would this great ex- 
 pense have oeen undertaken but for the support 
 of strong and influential laymen. " Honour to 
 whom honour is due." At one critical meeting 
 of the trustees, when the tenders came in and 
 the amount exceeded all expectations, there was 
 a proposal to cut down the church in size. Even 
 Dr. Punshon could not see the wisdom of pro- 
 ceeding on so extensive a scale. Then, a young 
 man, Mr. James Paterson, rose, and in a few 
 words, said, " We may cut down the plan, but 
 we will not have a Metropolitan Church. Let us 
 increase our subscriptions." And he quadrupled 
 his own. His enthusiasm was at once caught up, 
 and it was resolved to proceed with the work. 
 
 The erection of the Metropolitan gave an im- 
 pulse to church building in Toronto amongst all 
 the denominations. The largest and most beau- 
 tiful of the one hundred churches in the chief 
 city of Ontario, the City of Churches, have 
 nearly all been erected since that time. In 
 short, it revolutionized ecclesiastical architecture 
 all over the Province. Along with this, more 
 than any other minister he helned to promote 
 
I' 
 
 't'l- 
 
 William M or ley Piinshon. 
 
 n 
 
 the sweet and fruitful spirit of Christian unity 
 so manifest amonj^ us. Incapable of narrowness 
 or bigotry, while his brilliancy and power drew 
 around him many outside the pale of Methodism, 
 his unfailing courtesy and the catholic spirit 
 which inspired his life was felt throughout the 
 churches, and they were drawn together in the 
 unity of spiritual life. 
 
 On the 23rd of September, 1870, his home was 
 again darkened by an overwhelming loss, in the 
 death of his beloved wife. The happiest of earthly 
 unions was severed. The desire of his eyes was 
 taken away at a stroke in the prime of her 
 strength and beauty, in the midst of her growing 
 influence and usefulness, and just as her happy 
 life was about to be crowned with the rich joy 
 of motherhood. 
 
 " The sunshine of the heart was dead, 
 The glory of the home was fled." 
 
 Her death startled and shocked a wide circle 
 of friends, and awakened emotions of profound 
 sorrow and regret among all who knew her. In 
 the midst of this desolation he wa:^ enabled to 
 6 
 
II 
 
 
 ■:'ll 
 
 74 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 say, " It is the Lord. All Thy waves and Thy 
 billowp are gone over me, but thej'' are Thy 
 waves, and I lie and let them sweep, waiting 
 till Thou shalt tell me in the fulness o£ a clearer 
 vision why they sweep over me." 
 
 Returning from the funeral, one of the largest 
 ever seen in Toronto, he invited Dr. and Mrs. 
 Cochran, Professor Reynar, my wife and myself 
 to remain to tea with him. When the time for 
 family worship came, as he opened the Bible to 
 read, he expressed his thankfulness to God that 
 he was again permitted to be the priest in his 
 shattered household. He reviewed the past ten 
 years of his life, and paid a touching tribute to 
 his departed wife, her simple faith, earnest 
 piety, and unpretentious goodness, her sweet, 
 spotless life, the interest she had taken in all 
 his work, the deep and tender love which she 
 had shown to him and his children, and the 
 unutterable desolation that was upon him. Yet 
 in his acquiescence with the Divine will he had 
 been saved from every rebellious thought. He 
 then uttered his thanksgivings for family mer- 
 cies yet remaining, his yearnings over his chil- 
 
■» ■ . 
 
 William Morley Pnnskon. 
 
 75 
 
 dren and his intense desire that not a shred of 
 the intended benefit of this great sorrow might 
 be lost upon any one of them. It was a striking 
 exhibition of the tenderest feeling that I ever 
 witnessed, and created an ineffaceable impression 
 on all present. 
 
 In the spring of 1871 Mr. Punshon made his 
 journey to the Pacific Coast. The party were 
 to have been joined by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph 
 Lister, of Hamilton, but " the father " could not 
 summon u]3 courage to undertake the long and 
 arduous journey. On the eve of his departure 
 he addressed the following letter to Mr. Lister : 
 
 March 8, i88i. 
 
 My Dear Sir, — I have "dreamed a dream which is 
 not all a dream," or can it be that some bird of the air 
 has carried the tidings that there is a little relenting in 
 the mind of the inexorable "minority," and that the 
 august head of the household is a little more inclined 
 than he was to this Pacific trip. 
 
 The expedition will not leave Chicago until Tuesday, 
 2ist March. One wishing to find a place for repentance 
 may obtain it by seating himself and wife (not otherwise) 
 in the Pullman car which passes throug'' Hamilton on 
 Monday, 2oth March. 
 

 I I 
 
 1 U 
 
 ' l| 
 
 76 
 
 Wiliiain Morley Punshon. 
 
 Do this and you shall have all manner of absolutions 
 and a pleasant journey westward, besides enjoying the 
 refined luxury of giving great pleasure to 
 
 Your Affectionate Friend, 
 
 W. M. Punshon. 
 
 In his letters to his daughter and notes of 
 travel he gives vivid descriptions of the great 
 prairies, the Rocky Mountains, Salt Lake City, 
 and the deceptions of Mormonism. 
 
 I shall never forget our entrance into Salt 
 Lake Valley and the City of the Saints. We 
 had been two days ascending the eastern slopes 
 of the Rocky Mountains, and now made an 
 abrupt and quick descent into this valley of the 
 mountains. From snow-capped peaks we en- 
 tered a deep and rocky ravine, thirty miles in 
 length, and only a few yards in width, with 
 a mountain wall on one side and precipitous 
 overhanging cliffs on the other. Through the 
 courtesy of the conductor we had been per- 
 mitted to ride on the locomotive, or in the box- 
 car, all the way down this Echo Canyon, and 
 enjoyed to the full the scenery of this sublimest 
 of mountain passes. From Echo we entered 
 
 ^liS&^^A 
 
 i^Mtiit.,^ 
 
MP 
 
 Willia7n M or ley Puns/ion. 
 
 77 
 
 Weber Canyon, another glorious pass, hewn by 
 Nature through the living rocks. On we rolled 
 past the Devil's Gate, where the Weber River 
 
 SALT LAKE CITY. 
 
 goes leaping and dashing and foaming against 
 high masses of rock, as though, buffeted from 
 mountain to mountain so long, it would rise up 
 
 m 
 

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 \ 
 
 'I 
 
 78 
 
 Wiliiam Morley Punslion. 
 
 in its angry strength and cleave the huge bar- 
 rier from base to summit to cut for itself a 
 channel to the sea. Still on we swept through 
 tunnels, over bridges, between overhanging 
 cliffs, waking the thundering echoes as we sped 
 along ; into rocky cuts and out of them, until 
 we were beginning to wonder if ever we should 
 have a safe escape from this wild and weird 
 descent, when lo ! as by a sort of sudden sur- 
 prise, the canyon widened into a lovely valley, 
 and our eyes were gazing with bewildered de- 
 light upon one of the purest and most perfect 
 landscapes which this whole earth can show. 
 We had entered Salt Lake Valley. 
 
 The Utah Railway, owned by the Mormons, 
 conducted us from Ogden, the terminus of the 
 Union Pacific Railway, to Salt Lake City. The 
 ride through that Valley, completely shut in by 
 natural barriers, was indeed charming. Every- 
 where were seen the changes which these work- 
 ing saints had wrought, for as by miracle they 
 have taken this uninhabited waste and trans- 
 formed it from savage barrenness into a garden 
 — a wonder of the earth, the home of a thriving 
 
William Morlcy PunsJion. 
 
 79 
 
 people. All that this valley of alkali and dwarf 
 saffe-binish needed was water to make it bud 
 and blossom ; and as we rode along we could 
 see channels cut from the snow-peaks down 
 into the farms, and catch the gkam of rills 
 glancing down the hill-sides, and meandering 
 through fields and vineyards. Flocks of sheep 
 dotted the terraced slopes, and dwelling-houses 
 stood on every side. 1 was seated beside a Mor- 
 mon Elder who had one of his homes in Ogden, 
 and was going down to Salt Lake to spend 
 a little time with two of his wives living there. 
 His youngest wife was the teacher of Brigham 
 Young's school of children. We engaged in 
 conversation. I found him very communicative 
 and interesting. He had come into this valley 
 with the Mormon exodus from Council Bluffs, 
 in 1845, and he told me the story of their suf- 
 ferings and privations as the weary caravan 
 dragged its way over the mountains to the 
 borders of this great inland sea. He told me 
 how sterile was the land and how dreary and 
 forbidding the prospect. But the land was con- 
 secrated to the Lord, the holy city was marked 
 
 
 
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 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 out, and brawny arms and strong muscles had 
 turned the verdureless and desolate place into a 
 land flowing with milk and honey. It was 
 
 
 . : J'iltAl'i!--"- 
 
 STREET IN SALT LAKE CITY. 
 
 night when we reached the city, and having got 
 comfortably established in the Townsend House, 
 " mine host " being a polygamous Mormon, we 
 

 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 8i 
 
 were so weary that we sought rest at once. 
 Next morning we were up bright and early. 
 The day was brilliant and beautiful and the 
 city was quiet in its Sabbath rest. 
 
 I shall never forget our first saunter through 
 that embowered city. The air was soft and 
 weet, southern in its odour, northern in its 
 freshness. The clear, pellucid waters of the 
 mountain-brooks sparkled and rippled in the 
 sunshine as they murmured along on each side 
 of the broad avenues, shaded with acacias. The 
 grand snow-crested mountains, brought near, so 
 near, by the wondrous purity of the atmos- 
 phere, displayed every cleft and undulation in 
 their bosoms, while their peaks and sides were 
 draped with floating clouds as soft and white as 
 the snow that wreathed them. Lower down in 
 the valley a golden haze was steeping every- 
 thing in its own delicious light. We started at 
 once for the Mormon holy place — Temple Block, 
 as it is called — in which are situated the old 
 tabernacle, the great new one, with its rounded 
 roof, looking like a huge oval dish-cover, and 
 
 ui 
 
 I 
 
 "I 
 
 'P 
 
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 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 I 
 
 
 the foundations of the temple then in process of 
 erection. 
 
 The New Tabernacle, which appears in the 
 general view of the city, like a great meat plat- 
 ter for the Titans, with its oval cover, is two 
 hundred and fifty feet long by one hundred and 
 fifty wide, and will seat an audience of ten 
 thousand. At the west end stand the great 
 organ and choir, and in front of these are circu- 
 lar rows of seats for the Church dignitaries, and 
 the stands from which they address the audience. 
 Elder Woodrufi*, in his sermon that Sabbath 
 morning, told us that they were the only true 
 Church now on earth, for with the death of the 
 apostles, the power of the priesthood, the gifts 
 of prophecy and revelation, were taken away, 
 and only restored in this glorious dispensation 
 of Joe Smith. He told us all about the Book of 
 Mormon, and that it was an additional revela- 
 tion of equal authority with the Bible. In the 
 afternoon the sacrament was administered, the 
 elements being bread and water. They were 
 offered to every member of the congregation, who 
 received them, while the preacher, Orson Pratt, 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 83 
 
 the orator and champion polygamist, was deliver- 
 ing his discourse. In the evening Dr. Punshon 
 preached to a large and motley congregation, in 
 which he says, there were " Methodist Mormons, 
 Josephites, Godbeites, the Chief Justice, and a 
 large number of United States officers. Among 
 the congregation was Orson Pratt's first wife, a 
 pale, crushed woman, out of whose heart the joy 
 of life had been trampled by the system, and 
 who has lived apart for some years, rather than 
 sanction, by her presence, the invasion of her 
 home." 
 
 Some of the houses of this unique capital are 
 of goodly size and style ; but they are for the 
 most part, cottages, built of adobe (sun-dried 
 bricks), and stand back some thirty feet from 
 the road-side in trim little gardens, bowered with 
 trees, and .siiic;thc^ed with roses and creepers; 
 and the whole city, which covers a space of three 
 thousand acres, appears from a distant view like 
 a vast park with sylvan bowers, gardens, fruit 
 trees and running streams of water from the 
 mountain-sides. 
 
 The famous view is from Camp Douglas, which 
 
 ■^. 
 
 ?k 
 
 m^ 
 
 
 111 
 
 P- 
 
 I: 
 
 lU 'I 
 
 
«4 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 is situated on one of the benches that rise behind 
 the city, as clearly cut as the steps of a temple. 
 
 I ''"III,""!,!;! lift" 
 
 ■iii 
 
 The famed prospects of Europe cannot excel it, 
 and it resembles the view of Lombardy Plains 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 85 
 
 and the distant Alps from the pinnacles of the 
 Cathedral at Milan. Around you are mountain 
 ranges blazing in the brilliancy of a thousand 
 variegated tints ; before you a valley of sensuous 
 beauty, sending back from its bosom the rays of 
 sunshine in colours, shapes and shadows, that 
 paixit and pencil never realize ; the city of these 
 Latter-day Saints sleeping in the vast cradle of 
 the brightly-tinted valley ; southward the lake 
 itself, with its amplitudes of blue, whose bosom, 
 placid and motionless, glowed like a sheet of 
 burnished gold ; while farther beyond, the rose- 
 pink hue of mountains on a sea-coloured sky^ 
 loomed up like sleeping giants from the mystic 
 background. The air is wonderfully pure. The 
 sky overhead has an infinite depth and distance \ 
 and the vapoury gold of the atmosphere, as it 
 floats over the lake and valley in a languid 
 dream, contrasts beautifully with the intense 
 blue of the cloudless azure and the rosy surfaces 
 of the encircling hills. 
 
 This new religion is a sort of Judaism galvan- 
 ized into the mockery of life, and adapted to 
 this century. Its physical circumstances are & 
 
 
 1 ( -ti 
 
 
 
^« 
 
 86 
 
 Wiliiam Morley Puns/ion. 
 
 copy of the Jewish ; and these American saints 
 have founded their Jerusalem in a holy land, 
 wonderfully like the ancient Judea. " Look," 
 said Col. Morrow, the genial officer of the United 
 States forces, as we stood on the commanding 
 elevation at the Camp, " look at the resemblance. 
 There is the Dead Sea, for it has no outlet and 
 no life. Over yonder is lake Utah, which ought 
 to be called the Lake of Tiberias, a body of fresh 
 water emptying into it by a river called Jordan. 
 And there beyond stands Nebo." 
 
 It is w( nderful, the numbers that have come 
 from Europe to this New Canaan. As we were 
 being shown through the Temple and sacred 
 places in Temple Block, the custodian said to me, 
 " Isn't that Morley Punshon ?" I answered "Yes; 
 how do you know him?" "Oh," he answered, 
 " I have often heard him preach in England." I 
 asked whether he had come as a convert and 
 pilgrim to this land. He assured me that he had. 
 I inquired how he had made the journey over 
 the mountains. And his laconic reply was, 
 "Walloping bulls" — meaning that he had driven 
 over an ox-team. 
 
William Morley Puns/ton. 
 
 87 
 
 
 
 'Ws;- 
 
 
 
 
 -■^ 
 
 U. 
 
 ■■^-•^ jb J 
 
 
 VERNAL FALLS, YOSEMITE VALLEY. 
 
 Of this marvellous deception of Mormonism, 
 Dr. Punshon says, " It may not be hastily dis- 
 missed as a vulgar imposture. It is a crafty and 
 
ITT 
 
 
 ! 
 
 88 
 
 William Morley Piinshon. 
 
 powerful lie, and the fanaticism which it kindles 
 in its votaries, has in it a generous chivalry, akin 
 to that which dwelt in the Crusaders of old." 
 
 From Salt Lake City he crossed the Sierra 
 Ranges to the El-Dorado State. San Francisco, 
 the Queen City of the Pacific, is described ; the 
 Golden Gate, the exquisite coast and scenery of 
 Vancouver Island, Victoria, New Westminster, 
 the Fraser River as far as Yale, grandly situated 
 just like sweet Swiss villages ; the Gulf of 
 Georgia, the Big Trees and the Yosemite Valley, 
 the two gems of which, the Yosemite Falls and 
 the majestic El Capitan, moved him to tears. 
 His knowledge of the famed prospects of Europe^ 
 his quick powers of observation and deep sym- 
 pathy with nature, along with his unfailing 
 good temper and characteristic ardour, made 
 him a rare travelling companion ; and this jour- 
 ney widened his experience of the outer aspect* 
 of the world and supplied him abundant mate- 
 rial and illustrations for future use. 
 
 A messenger to the Churches in these distant 
 regions he preached along the entire way, and 
 was alike at home in growing cities, in Indian 
 
7) 
 
 i K 
 
 .n' 
 
 W 
 
 ■■* 
 
90 
 
 William M 01 ley Pmishon. 
 
 settlements and frontier towns. On his return 
 to Toronto lie makes this record in his journal : 
 
 " May 26th. — Since my last entry, how marvellous have 
 been the preserving mercies of the Lord. I have to re- 
 cord many loving-kindnesses. I have taken a long jour- 
 ney. I have been preserved by land and sea, amid 
 many excitements, discomforts, and pleasures, through 
 
 8,800 miles of travel I have been permitted to 
 
 testify for Christ, I humbly trust not without success, in 
 regions which I may never see again. My soul is full of 
 gratitude. . . .'' P. 359. 
 
 On the first of June, 1S71, his beloved daugh- 
 ter, Fanny, of whom he speaks as being by sor- 
 rows " sanctified ii^to a very woman of truth and 
 purity," was married to the Rev. Professor Alfred 
 H. Reynar, M.A., the man of her aH'ection, into 
 whose hands the father unhesitatingly trusted 
 her. At the Conference Dr. Punshon was not 
 only elected President, but nominated for Presi- 
 dent in 1872, and appointed Representative to 
 the British Conference. In July he sailed for 
 England, accompanied by his daughter and her 
 husband. His reception in the homeland was 
 of the most enthusiastic kind. The open session 
 
William M or ley Punshon. 
 
 91 
 
 of the Conference, at which he was introduced 
 as the President and Rei^rosentative of the Cana- 
 dian Conference, was held in the Free Trade 
 Hall, Manchester, which was filled to overflow- 
 ing with an audience of six thousand, of which 
 nearly one thousand were ministers. An Eng- 
 lish paper says : 
 
 " It would be difficult to analyze and define delicately 
 the feeling of the vast mass of people who rose to greet 
 him with shouts, and waving of hats, handkerchiefs, 
 umbrellas, and all movable things. But I shall not be 
 far wrong when I surmise that the predominant emotion 
 was deep, personal affection, sympathy with his great 
 services past, and joy at his return. English Method- 
 ists have kept his place vacant in their hearts." P. 363. 
 
 The address was one of the most eloquent and 
 eflfective efforts of his life, and never before were 
 the claims and interests of our Canadian work 
 so fully and forcibly brought before the English 
 public. The Conference set a term to his stay 
 in Canada when he was to return home, and 
 during his visit he was everywhere greeted with 
 the warmest affection and expressions of esteem. 
 
 Among the many letters from him which I 
 
 Fit' 
 
 
 1; 
 
 sr ! 
 
 5 ! i! I 
 
 \. ' '■ ; 
 
 m 
 
 w 
 
M' 
 
 92 
 
 William Morley Puns/ton. 
 
 cherish, I find one written at this time, bearing 
 
 date : 
 
 London, August 24, 1871. 
 
 My Dear Friend,- -Thanks for your letter which I 
 was right glad to receive. I cannot find time for corre- 
 spondence amid my multiplied engagements and excite- 
 ments, so my friends must not regard me as indifferent 
 or forgetful, but simply as continually and overwhelm- 
 ingly engaged. You will have seen the address at the 
 Free Trade Hall. They say it told pretty well ; and per- 
 haps you will have seen also the Conference action, that 
 it intimates an intention to " reclaim the loan." I moved 
 neither eye, hand nor lip in this, and so far, therefore, 
 it may be regarded as providential. It secures me in 
 Canada at any rate for two years or thereabouts, but more 
 of this anon. My reception has been more than cordial, 
 it has been enthusiastic, and has much humbled me, as 
 I think successes ought to do. I do not think Method- 
 ism is altogether as happy as it was wont to be in 
 England, though there is much power about it yet. 
 
 I am glad to hear of your prosperity, and that the 
 Metropolitan progresses well. I am trying to do a little 
 for it here; but everybody has his own schemes, and 
 their name is legion. I shall succeed a little. 
 
 Fanny and her husband are in Bristol at present. It 
 has been a painful pleasure to revisit old scenes, and re- 
 new old friendships, but the Lord has kept me up until I 
 had a brief collapse last Friday, and was unable to take 
 
William Morley Pmishon, 
 
 93 
 
 two engagements. I lectured in Bristol, however, on 
 Monday, and on Tuesday preached m Spurgeon's Taber- 
 nacle to 7,000 people, the grandest sight of human 
 beings I ever gazed upon. Pray give my kindest regard 
 to everybody — Ryersons, Green, Rose, Dewart, Suther- 
 land, Griffin, Evans, etc., etc. Special to your bonnie 
 wife, and believe me, my dear friend, 
 
 Yours most truly, 
 
 W. M. PUNSHON. 
 
 Early in September he returned to Canada, 
 bringing with him his niece, Miss Panton, to 
 keep up the light and warmth of his home, to 
 fill the place of his "lost angel " and of his 
 daughter, now gone to a home of her own. The 
 biography here, it seems to me, does not ade- 
 quately set forth the character of his work — 
 attending missionary services, preaching, teach- 
 ing and dedicating churches, among them the 
 holy and beautiful house of his affection, the 
 Metropolitan. As the time drew near for his 
 departure, his friends in Canada who loved and 
 honoured him became very urgent that he should 
 remain, and he himself writes, " I shall be as 
 sorry to leave Canada as I was to leave Eng- 
 land." He was even offered a chair in Moral 
 
 m\ 
 
 
• 
 
 f i ; 
 
 'I;;;- 
 
 
 94 
 
 Wiiliam Morley Puns/ion. 
 
 Philosophy in the Toronto University, but he 
 was constrained to decline the position. At the 
 Convocation of Victoria University, in 1872, the 
 Senate insisted upon conferring on him the 
 degree of LL.D., the highest in its gift — a degree 
 which has during nearly the half century of 
 the University's existence been conferred honoris 
 causa only thirteen times. 
 
 The last Confer^mce in which he sat in the 
 chair, June, 1872, was the most important of the 
 five over which he had presided. Of it he says : 
 
 " Though there was much difference of opinion, there 
 was substantial unity at last, and brotherly love through- 
 out. Questions of difficulty were satisfactorily solved ; 
 the commutation question amicably settled ; the principle 
 of division of Conferences affirmed ; the way cleared for 
 ?. union with the Conference of Eastern British America, 
 j.nd, if ihey so please, with the New Connexion ; and 
 last, not least, it was decided to open a theological 
 school in the City of Montreal." 
 
 From this to the end of the Conference year 
 he was in journeyings often and in labours more 
 abundant. He visited the Conference of Eastern 
 British America and renewed the pleasant ac- 
 quaintance made four years previously. 
 
William Morley Punslion. 
 
 95 
 
 Tlie gifted eilitor of the Halifax Wesleyan, 
 the Rev. Dr. Lathern, lias given a vivid account 
 of Dr. Punshon's visit to the Eastern Provinces 
 which we here subjoin : 
 
 The first effort of the Rev. Dr. Punshon, on his visit 
 to the P2astern Provinces, in 1868, was the delivery of his 
 lecture on "Daniel in Babylon," which was listened to by 
 an audience, comprising the e/i/e of the city of St. John, 
 and it is sufficient to say, that the magnificent reputation 
 which preceded the brilliant orator to this side of ^.c 
 Atlantic, was fully sustained on that occasion. The 
 splendid audience was aroused to a point of irrepressible 
 enthusiasm. The sermon which followed in the Cen- 
 tenary Church, on the Sunday morning, on " Let your 
 light shine," abounding in splendid passages, and per- 
 vaded by a fine glow of spiritual feeling, took entire pos- 
 session of the congregation, and is regarded still as one 
 of the finest pulpit efforts that the city had ever known. 
 
 The immediate purpose of Dr. Punshon's visit to the 
 Provinces, was to preside at the Conference of Eastern 
 British America, appointed to meet that year in the city 
 of Fredericton. It devolved upon the writer, as pastor 
 of the Fredericton Church, and chairman of the District, 
 to receive the distinguished preacher on his arrival at 
 the capital. He was accompanied by Rev. Chancellor 
 Nelles, and both were the guests, for the time, of Hon. 
 Judge and Mrs. Wilmot, at their beautiful residence, 
 
 \fi 
 
 if 
 
 i'l 
 
I^v^miipi 
 
 |i ! ' ii 
 
 96 
 
 William M or ley Puns lion. 
 
 I :! 
 
 Evelyn Grove. A lecture, an ofificial address at the 
 opening of Conference, and a noble speech at the 
 Missionary Anniversary meeting, prepared the way for 
 the Conference Sabbath. Interest culminated on the 
 occasion of the morning sermon. All congregations were 
 represented. People came from distant towns and cities 
 to listen to the peerless pulpit orator. Looking out from 
 the parsonage window, long before the hour for service, 
 one could see that street and square were thronged with 
 people, as if determined to take possession of the stately 
 and beautiful Methodist sanctuary. The spacious build- 
 ing, its aisles, galleries, and deepest recesses were 
 densely ci'owded. There could not be a grander sight 
 than when that vast concourse of people chanted 
 their Te Deum Lauda?/nis. The last of the English 
 Lieutenant-Governors, and other distinguished persons 
 were present. The sermon was based upon the Saviour's 
 reply to the Greeks, relating to an approaching crisis. 
 It abounded in passages of philosophic reasoning, crys- 
 tallized beauty of exposition, alternating with outbursts 
 of oratory that thrilled the listening congregation. It 
 was a surprise to find that with all its affluence of ex- 
 pression, such was the accompaniment of spiritual power 
 and truth, as applied, that admiration for the brilliance 
 of the preacher was lost in absorbing and reverential 
 interest of the theme, as then unfolded. 
 
 Nothing is more vividly remembered in connection 
 with the Fredericton Conference, than the expressions of 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 97 
 
 pleased surprise with which veterans of the Conference, 
 able administrators, men of hght and learning, were wont 
 to refer to the practical ability exhibited by the 
 gifted President, and his perfect acquaintance with all 
 technical details and matters of business. Appreciation 
 of the manner in which all ofificial duties were discharged 
 was unstinted. But it was felt that distinguished pulpit 
 and platform services were worthy of the very highest 
 recognition, and that through them all Methodist 
 interests had been subserved. 
 
 After the close of Conference, one day was taken for 
 absolute rest and recreation. What a memorable day 
 that was at the Grove ! It was at summer brightness, 
 spent in the open air, beneath the grateful shade of the 
 tall, dark pine trees, that formed the back-ground of 
 the residence. Dr. Nelles was in his happiest mood. 
 One or two other guests were privileged to enjoy the 
 gladness of a day, which, in their experience, has not 
 been duplicated. The Judge, then just appointed the 
 first Governor of his native Province, was in brightest 
 mood, and no one knew better than host and hostess 
 how to crown with their courtesies and complete the 
 happiness of their guests. 
 
 From Federicton to St. John, Dr. Punshon was ac- 
 companied by the Governor and others. We had the 
 privilege of listening to his lecture in the Centenary 
 Church, on "John Wesley"; in which the closing passage 
 was one of the finest and most triumphant efforts of his 
 eloquence. 
 
 I 
 
 r 
 
 |- 
 
 (J 
 I 
 
 
 
98 
 
 William M or ley Puns/ion. 
 
 il!i 
 
 Accompanied by Dr. Nelles and his son, Dr. Punshon 
 crossed the Gulf to Charlottetown. Anticipation was at 
 its height. The Methodist Church there is the most 
 capacious in the Lower Provinces. But or one of the 
 hottest days of the season it was crowded tc suffocation, 
 and here the people, who knew well how to appreciate the 
 best style of preaching, were electrified by the oratory of 
 the inimitable preacher. He unfolded and amplified 
 the meaning of the Apostle's affirmation : " This one 
 thing I do," etc. An esteemed official brother of that 
 Church says, the fervent appeals to the consciences of 
 his hearers to follow St. Paul's example were probably 
 never equalled in that sanctuary, before or since. For an 
 hour the audience was held by the spell of the preacher, 
 and at pauses in the sermon one could hear a sigh, as of 
 relief from the intense and almost overpowering tension 
 in which the people had been held by the preacher's elo- 
 quence. The impression of the pulpit effort was more 
 than sustained by a magnificent platform oration, which 
 followed on the next evening. Such an intellectual and 
 even spiritual treat our brother (to whom I am indebted 
 for reminiscences of the island visit, an honored member 
 of more than one General Conference), never expects to 
 hear again. It was a realization of Milton's exquisite 
 ideal : 
 
 " The angel ended, and in Adam's ear 
 So charming left his voice, that he awhile 
 Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hear." 
 
'( 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 99 
 
 For some years several laymen of the Charlottetown 
 Methodist Church had felt the necessity of Methodism 
 taking some step in the matter of education, and it was 
 thought that perhaps Dr. Punshon's visit might in some 
 way be utilized in furtherance of the object. Leading 
 members of the Church were invited to meet him at the 
 house of Mr. W. E. Dawson ; and, after spending some 
 time in social intercourse, he introduced the matter in a 
 few brief words, showing the inadequacy of the Govern- 
 ment Schools — the insidious advance being made by 
 Rome in her conventual schools, in which they were led 
 to believe some twenty-five or thirty children of Meth- 
 odist parentage were being educated, and the absolute 
 need of some effort being made, unless they desired to 
 see their children led Homewards. Interchange of 
 thought took place, words of wisdom and counsel fell 
 from the lips of Mr. Punshon (as also from Dr. Nelles, 
 who formed one of the company), and before the com- 
 pany broke up, several thousand dollars were subscribed 
 towards a fund for the erection of a Wesleyan day- 
 school, resulting in the erection of the noble building 
 known as the Methodist Academy, at a cost, including 
 ground and furniture, of about $27,000 ; formally opened 
 9th January, 1871, in the presence of the leading citizens, 
 with a staff of several teachers, and between one and two 
 hundred scholars. 
 
 Space fails to attempt any reference to Dr. Punshon's 
 visit to Halifax. Nor is it possible to speak at length of 
 
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 ^11 
 
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 100 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 his visit to Mount Allison educational institutions, and 
 the valuable services rendered by him towards the effort* 
 then being made, of securing College Endowment." 
 
 In Jiily he started with John Macdonald, Esq., 
 for Manitoba, on a missionary tour to the Great 
 North- West. On Lake Superior he was in perils 
 of waters, which he thus vividly describes : 
 
 " Embarked on board the steamer Manitoba^ called at 
 Goderich, Southampton, Bruce Mines, all on Lake Huron ; 
 passed through the St. Mary's river, and about six p.m. 
 on the eleventh went through the canal at Sault Ste. 
 Marie, which separates Lake Huron from Lake Superior. 
 A great wall of fog met us as we entered the latter, the 
 most enormous basin of fresh water in the world, unless 
 Lake Nyanza shall prove larger. We toiled through 
 the fog all night. About one p.m. on Thursday, the 
 twelfth, I was standing on the fore deck, the fog dense 
 and heavy, and the captain said to me, 'We are going 
 along like a pig in a poke.' ' More intelligently than a pig, 
 I hope,' was my reply, ' for you know where we are going.' 
 ' Oh, yes,' was his answer. The fog was coming down 
 heavily, so I retired into the saloon. Not two minutes 
 after, I saw the captain rush frantically to the alarm bell 
 and reverse the engines. At that moment the fog lifted, 
 and there was a desolate coast close upon us, towards 
 which we were driving at the rate of six miles an hour. 
 Two seconds only, as it seemed of agonizing suspense, 
 
; ! 
 
 William Morley Punskon. 
 
 lOI 
 
 and the ship struck with a tremendous concussion, 
 smashing crockery, glasses, doors, etc., flinging ladies 
 down upon the floor, and causing, as you may suppose, 
 immense consternation. For a moment the scene was 
 terrible ; happily there was no rebound, and the vessel 
 remained hard and fast upon the rocks. We found by- 
 and-by we were on an island which was uninhabited, save 
 at one end of it, some fifteen miles distant from the scene 
 of our shipwreck. We all (one hundred and fifty) landed, 
 made fires on the beach, or rather on the rock, found out 
 lovely beaches, covered with the most exquisite quartz, 
 spar, agates and amethysts, and so spent the day; the 
 captain trymg all manner of ways to get the boat off. At 
 eleven next morning a sail was descried, which turned 
 out to be the steamer Cumberland^ bound for the same 
 port as ourselves. She bore down to our rescue, and 
 stayed with us for thirty hours in vain efforts to dislodge 
 us. At length, on Saturday about six p.m., the Mafiitoba 
 was pulled off the rocks, but alas, only to fill with water, 
 so she was beached in about twelve feet of water, and 
 all the passengers transferred to the Cumberland^ in 
 which we made the rest of our voyage." 
 
 At Fort Garry, now Winnipeg, he preached 
 and conducted the first ordination service ever, 
 held by any Church in the North- West. He 
 had a two days' conference with the mission- 
 
 I 
 
 .:li''! 
 
 ^m 
 
 iLi, 
 
102 
 
 » ','§ 
 
 I 
 
 i 1 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 aries, who were all present, and in a letter to 
 
 his daughter he says : 
 
 " Some of the missionaries had come from i,rxx) miles 
 west to be with us. We gathered the whole nine or ten 
 from each station, and had a blessed little conference 
 One of them even had not seen a railway for twelve 
 years. I felt so dwarfed in their presence. These are 
 the true heroes of the Lord's host. I felt it almost pre- 
 sumption to assume any official position, and to counsel 
 and question them ; I would gladly have sat at their 
 feet. I trust our visit has done good. I have been much 
 struck with the self-denial and earnestness of the mission- 
 aries, and with the vastness of the field they have to culti- 
 vate, especially in the great Saskatchewan country." 
 
 He saw "lots of Indians," was adopted into the 
 Cree tribe, and received the name of " Wau-bu- 
 nu-tiik," which means the "spirit of the morning." 
 Returning, he journeyed through the Muskoka 
 district, the lake scenery of which he charac- 
 terizes as "exceedingly lovely." At Rama he 
 attended an Indian camp-meeting, and was 
 greatly interested in these children of the forest, 
 keeping their Feast of Tabernacles. October 
 was given to presiding over important commit- 
 tees — the Missionary Committee, comprising 
 
\Villia',n Morley Punshcn. 
 
 103 
 
 some eighty members, the Committee on Meth- 
 odist Union, and the Committee on the division 
 of Conference. 
 
 In November he was in Baltimore, dedicating 
 the splendid Mount Vernon Church, one of the 
 costliest churches in Methodism; where they 
 offered him a salary of $5,000 per annum, and 
 an elegantly furnished house, to become their 
 pastor. 
 
 In December he was in Boston, preaching, lec- 
 turing, visiting Harvard University, and having 
 a pleasant chat with Longfellow in his own 
 study — "a fit lair for such a genius;" then to 
 Stanstead, and on to Cobourg, to spend a few 
 days with his daughter. Her health was now a 
 subject of great concern to him, and the shadow 
 of another sorrow was upon him. How he 
 loved her is shown in a letter written at this 
 time, full of birthday wishes, and greetings, and 
 prayers, and closes with : 
 
 " God send His good angels to guard and bless thee, 
 my child. From the weary morning in December, 1850, 
 until now, when your child is dear to me, I have never 
 ceased to cherish you in my heart of hearts, and I do not 
 
 !'« 
 
 \t 
 
 m 
 

 V 1 1 
 
 104 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 cease now, although you have a happy home of your 
 own. May God bless it to you, and keep you to it for 
 many years. If my heart could go out upon the paper it 
 would burn. Again, God bless my darling child." P. 382. 
 
 About the middle of February he started on a 
 
 month's tour through the Southern States, and 
 
 he records more conscious waiting on God during 
 
 the journey than usual. He was accompanied 
 
 by H. A. Massey, Esq., of this city, then of Cleve- 
 
 hind, Ohio ; and the following delightful account, 
 
 by Mr. Massey, of their visit to the sunny 
 
 South-land will be read with interest : 
 
 In January, 1873, the Rev. Dr. Punshon was engaged 
 to deliver a lecture for the benefit of the Ladies' Aid 
 Society of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, Cleve- 
 land, Ohio. The Doctor preached on the Sabbath morn- 
 mg to an overcrowded house, many hundreds not being 
 able to gain admittance; and on Monday evening fol- 
 lowing, when the doors were thrown open for the lecture, 
 the rush for seats was so great that a number of police- 
 men had to be employed to keep the people back. It 
 was found many hundreds having tickets could not gain 
 admittance, and the only use made of the office foi the 
 sale of tickets was to redeem the tickets of those who 
 could not get in, pr.d many hundreds had to be bought 
 back. So greet was the anxiety to hear his celebrated 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 105 
 
 lecture on '•''Mayflower Memories," that many offered 
 as high as $10 to get in, some having come seventy or 
 eighty miles to hear him, but they could not be accom- 
 modated. The lecture, there is no need to say, gave very 
 great satisfaction, and the Doctor was urged to repeat 
 it or give another lecture. He finally consented, with 
 the proviso that I should accompany him on his contem- 
 plated tour through the Southern States. This I con- 
 sented to do, and after his second lecture, which was also 
 a great success, the Doctor proceeded to Cincinnati on 
 his way to the South, at which place I was to join him, 
 but this I was unable to do till he reached Louisville, 
 Ky. At Cincinnati the Doctor met with a very warm 
 reception from the leading citizens, and had a very large 
 audience at his lecture there. 
 
 At Louisville we met Bishop Simpson, and had a very 
 pleasant interview. The Doctor's high regard for Bishop 
 Simpson led him to look upon him as one of his dearest 
 friends, and he spoke of the Bishop as having no equal in 
 the pulpit in his magnetic influence over his hearers. 
 We drove out to the suburbs of Louisville, and were 
 delighted to find the contrast in the foliage of the trees 
 and shrubs, and the beauty of the grounds, so great in 
 comparison with those of the north. Places we had left 
 a few days before were cold and dreary,, and in this 
 southern latitude it was warm and sunny. In the ceme- 
 tery we found flowers in full bloom — magnolias flourishing 
 in great abundance. From Louisville we proceeded by 
 
 i 
 
 
 m 
 
 
io6 
 
 Willimn Mcrley Putishon. 
 
 train to Nashville, where we spent two or three hours of 
 the time in rambling through the quaint old city. 
 
 After eaving Nashville, our train got stuck on a very 
 heavy grade, necessitating the dividing of the train, one 
 portion being sent forward to the next station while the 
 other remained till the engine came back for it. In con- 
 sequence of this mishap we were without our breakfast 
 till we arrived at Memphis. The Doctor and I made the 
 best use of our time while we were stuck on the grade in 
 makin^'^ a foraging expedition to the log cabin of a 
 coloured family, where we were treated with the greatest 
 kindness ; and they gave us the best ot what they had, 
 which assuredly was very meagre, yet it was greatly 
 enjoyed by us. We had thus an opportunity of viewing 
 the humble homes of those who but a few years before 
 were slaves, and the Doctor took very great interest in 
 their stories of former bondage. 
 
 We arrived after midnight at Memphis, and in the 
 morning proceeded to our steamer, the Thompson Dean, 
 which had just arrived and was lying at the dock, and 
 engaged our passage to New Orleans. P>lemphis being 
 a very important shipping point on the Mississippi, large 
 quantities of cotton and other products were loaded upon 
 
 * 
 
 our steamer. The Thompson Dean is one of the largest 
 vessels on the line, very fine in all her appointments, 
 in reality a floating palace. There were a large number 
 of passengers on board on their way to New Orleans to 
 be present at the Mardi Gras. Many of the young 
 
■ffl 
 
 Hi 
 
 I IR 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 107 
 
 people were full of fun and frolic, and determined upon 
 having a good time, which they certainly did ; music and 
 dancing going on most of the time. On one occasion 
 they had a masquerade dance, all those taking part being 
 completely disguised, causing much amusement to the 
 passengers. We had quite a number on board who did 
 not join with them, and with whom we had much pleasure 
 in conversation and singing, there being a number of 
 very good singers on the steamer. 
 
 The river at Ihis time was beginning to rise rapidly, 
 in consequence of the thaws and rains that were taking 
 place along its tributaries. As we proceeded down the 
 Father of Waters, we noticed that it had overflown its 
 banks and had largely inundated forests and low-lying 
 lands in all directions. There is much similarity in 
 the scenery along the whole route, woods occupying a 
 large portion of the ground, with log huts interspersed 
 here and there. We often stopped at the side of the 
 river to obtain wood where not a solitary person is 
 living. At this season of the year fogs are quite frequent, 
 and one night we had to stop for several hours and tie 
 up to a tree along the bank of the river. 
 
 Our first stopping place of any importance after leaving 
 Memphis was Vicksburg, where we arrived at 7 a.m. 
 The Doctor and I walked around the city, and went 
 upon the heights to see the breastworks, which were 
 prepared during the late Civil War. This place was 
 one of very great importance during the war, and will be 
 
 
 •F 
 
 
io8 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 remembered as the place where Grant won his first great 
 victory. We left Vicksburg at 9 a.m. calling at Natchez, 
 and Baton Rouge, which used to be the capital of the 
 State, a fine old English-looking place. The ruins of the 
 old Capitol stands upon a high point of the city, and have 
 an imposing appearance. 
 
 "While on our passage down the river, I was waited 
 upon by a deputation of the passengers, who, notwith- 
 standing their gaiety, love of dancing and card playing, 
 were eager to secure the services of Dr. Punshon to 
 preach upon the following Sabbath. He consented to 
 do so. This sermon was preached soon after leaving 
 Baton Rouge, that day being Sunday, and all were de- 
 lighted with it. It was delivered to a very large audience, 
 as there were many hundreds of people on board, a 
 large portion being Roman Catholics. After the service 
 the passengers met together, presided over hy a leading 
 Roman Catholic editor, and passed resolutions of thanks 
 to the Doctor for his appropriate and eloquent sermon. 
 
 We arrived at New Orleans late on Sunday night, 
 and on Monday morning we were met at the steamer by 
 the Rev. Dr. Tudor, pastor of the First Church South, in 
 New Orleans, and R. W. Royne, Esq., a wealthy gentle- 
 man of that city. The latter invited us to be his guests 
 during our stay, and we gladly accepted the kind invita- 
 tioii, as the city was so full of strangers that no rooms 
 could be obtained for any price at the hotels. Dr. Tudor 
 had arranged for Dr. Punshon to either lecture or preach 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 109 
 
 for his people without the Doctor's consent, and it was 
 with very great reluctance that he yielded to the very 
 urgent solicitations of many of the leading people of that 
 city, as he was away from home for rest, and had re- 
 solved not to lecture during his tour. He finally con- 
 sented to preach for them, which he did on Monday 
 evening, the 24th, to a very large audience. 
 
 New Orleans at this time was in a great state of ex- 
 citement, immense preparations having been made for 
 their annual festival, or Mardi Gras^ and to one who had 
 never before witnessed that gorgeous procession, it was 
 certainly something to be admired and remembered. 
 The Doctor was very much amused by many of the scenes 
 as they passed in procession through the streets. Dur- 
 ing the evening the display was simply grand. We 
 visited many of the ice manufacturing establishments of 
 that city, and were much interested in witnessing the 
 process of making that very useful and necessary com- 
 modity of this warm climate. The thermometer stood 
 on this day, the 25th of February, 70° in the shade. 
 We visited the cemetery, where they bury their dead in 
 vaults above ground, as the land here is lower than the 
 river level. The public buildings are all very fine, and 
 we think well worth visiting. 
 
 We left New Orleans on the morning of the 26th for 
 Mobile, Ala. Very little of interest was to be seen on 
 this route, with the exception of a few alligators. The 
 country through which we passed on our way to Mobile 
 
 
 • r>ii 
 
no 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 is very low and flat, the sandy soil poor and unproductive, 
 and very little is grown except cotton, of which there 
 are large plantations cultivated by the coloured people. 
 We also noticed several large sugar plantations. 
 
 At Mobile we were unable to secure sleeping berths 
 for the night, consequently we had to make the best of it, 
 under which circumstances the Doctor proved a patient 
 traveller, and subr"'".ed with becoming grace to the 
 many inconveniences we had to endure. At Columbus 
 we had another delay of several hours. 
 
 The presiding elder of the Methodist Church South 
 waited upon the Doctor and pressed him to preach in 
 the evening. We visited some cotton mills and other 
 manufacturing industries along the Chattahoochee Ruer, 
 and the Quarterly Conference of the Methodist Chuich, 
 which was then i session. Jn company with the presiding 
 elder we visited, at his home, the venerable Dr. Lovick 
 Pierce, then in his 89th year, and who had preached as 
 an effective minister uninterruptedly for 67 years, his last 
 sermon being on the previous Sabbath. He held the 
 position of Missionary editor. We sat for a half- 
 hour or more, while Dr. Pierce delighted us with 
 reminiscences of Wesley in Savannah, and of Method- 
 ism in general. When about leaving. Dr. Pierce 
 expressed his gratification at having enjoyed the great 
 privilege of an interview with his friend. Dr. Punshon, 
 when the Doctor replied, '* I am honoured, sir, to sit 
 and learn wisdom from age." 
 
William Morley PunsJion. 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 Arriving at Savannah on Saturday morning, we called 
 upon the Methodist minister and took him for a drive 
 out to Bonaventura, where we saw some of the most 
 beautiful oaks in the world. For a long distance the 
 dil,^ was between rows of these magnificent trees, whose 
 branches formed a complete arch over the street, and 
 shaded it from the hot sun, which made it very enjoyable. 
 After viewing the cemetery and grounds, we visited the 
 large oak under which Wesley preached, and drank out 
 of the Wesley spring. The memories of Wesley's labours 
 around this hallowed spot were inspiring to us all, especi- 
 ally to the Doctor, as he eagerly grasped every oppor- 
 tunity that offered of securing any information relative 
 to Wesley's work in this locality. He also searched the 
 city records for the purpose of gleaning some particulars 
 relative to his labours in that city, in which he was some- 
 what successful. When we entered the church, which 
 is now built upon the spot where Wesley preached, we 
 felt an inspiration which will not soon be forgotten. 
 
 The next day, Sunday, March 2nd, the Doctor preached 
 in Trinity Church, his subject being, " I count all things 
 but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ 
 Jesus my Lord ;" and a truly noble sermon it was. The 
 Doctor afterwards said he felt a special inspiration in 
 preaching on the spot which had been the first field of 
 Wesley's labours many years ago. In the afternoon I 
 accompanied the Doctor to the coloured church, as he 
 was very anxious to attend the meetings of the coloured 
 
 P 
 
 1 1/ 
 
 p 
 
 
112 
 
 Williajn Morley Puns/ion. 
 
 people. In some of these meetings the services were 
 very boisterous and exciting, as they are a very emotional 
 people; yet the Doctor enjoyed them all exceedingly, 
 and could rejoice with them in their forms of worship. 
 In the evening we went to the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 Leaving Savannah on Monday morning, we arrived at 
 Jacksonville the same evening. On the road through 
 Florida we were favoured with an almost continuous dis- 
 play of wild flowers and blossoms. At Jacksonville the 
 next morning we found the weather quite cold, so much 
 so that ice about the one-eighth of an inch thick had 
 formed upon the water. We took a steamer up the St. 
 John River to Tricola, and from there, horse rail to St. 
 Augustine, where we remained over night. This ancient 
 city was very much admired by the Doctor. We visited 
 the old fort and some orange groves, picking ripe fruit 
 from the trees. This old Spanish city has many places of 
 historic interest, and the climate is delightful. The 
 Doctor was particularly interested in going through some 
 of the ct;lls in the old fort, and here we purchased a 
 number of curiosities. We left on the early morning 
 train, on our return journey, arriving at Jacksonville that 
 evening, from whence we took train to Savannah, on our 
 homeward route, arriving at Charleston on Thursday 
 evening, where we stayed for the night, and went to a 
 prayer-meeting held by the coloured people. Next 
 morning found us en route to Washington. In passing 
 Petersburg, we saw much of the fighting ground and 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 113 
 
 had a view of other battle-fields during the Civil War. 
 Had a very good view of Richmond, and arrived at 
 Washington on Saturday evening. 
 
 The Doctor was desirous of keeping very quiet, and 
 of not having it known that he was in the city. I had, 
 however, telegraphed Rev. Dr. Tiffany our intention of 
 spending the Sabbath in Washington. Sunday morning 
 Dr. Tiffany called on us at our hotel, and insisted on Dr. 
 Punshon preaching, and with difficulty did we prevail on 
 him to preach. We knew well the anxiety of many of 
 the great statesmen there to hear him in the evenmg. We 
 attended the Metropolitan Church in the morning, sitting 
 in one of the back seats, as the Doctor desired not to be 
 observed among the congregation. It was announced by 
 Dr. Tiffany that Dr. Punshon would preach in the even- 
 ing, and pew-holders would be admitted by ticket at the 
 rear entrance. President Grant intimated to Dr. Tiffany 
 his anxiety to hear Dr. Punshon, although, as he stated, 
 he generally stayed at home on Sunday evening, so as 
 to allow his servants an opportunity to go to church. He, 
 however, was present that evening, and had great diffi- 
 culty to get through the immense crowds that pressed 
 around both of the street entrances to the church. 
 There were a larger number of people that could not 
 gain entrance than those who were privileged to listen 
 to him on that occasion. Although much fatigued from 
 travelling, the peerless preacher was in his happiest 
 mood, and delighted his audience with his masterly dis- 
 
 f; 
 
[ \ . I 
 
 tli 
 
 i ^ :=iftS 
 
 U4 
 
 William Morley PunsJion. 
 
 course. President Grant was so delighted, that on leav- 
 ing the church he said to Dr. Tiffany, " You will please 
 convey my sincerest thanks to Dr. Punshon for his mag- 
 nificent sermon, which I have enjoyed so much." There 
 were a great number of the Senators and Congressmen 
 present at this service. 
 
 On Monday we visited the Post Office, the Treasury 
 Department and also the Capitol, where the Doctor was 
 met by many leading statesmen, to whom he was intro- 
 duced, and not a few of them expressed their gratification 
 at meeting so distinguished a man. After leaving Wash- 
 ington we came on to Baltimore, where I spent the last 
 evening of my journey in the Doctor's company with 
 some of his friends.' 
 
 From Washington Dr. Punshon wrote as fol- 
 lows to Mrs. Lister, of Hamilton, describing 
 Southern habits and scenery : 
 
 Washington, D. C, March lo, 1873. 
 My Dear Mrs. Lister, — I am on my homeward 
 journey at last, and feel inclined to let you know that 
 although I have lacked your much-desired and "motherly" 
 care, I am still in the land of the living. I have had no 
 one but Mr. Massey, of Cleveland, as my companion. 
 My Canada friends, you see, are dropping off from me. I 
 went to Buffalo, as you know, thence to Cleveland, Akron, 
 Cincinnati. At the latter city, where the water is of the 
 colour and consistency of pea-soup before you wash in it, 
 
William Morley Ptinshon. 
 
 "5 
 
 and afterwards of lamp-black oil, I was seized with a 
 sharp attack of lumbago, an inauspicious beginning. I 
 persevered, however, and went to Louisville, Kentucky, 
 where Mr. Massey joined me. We railed to Nashville, 
 and thence through Tennessee to Memphis. Here we 
 took the Thompson Dean, and steamed down the Mis- 
 sissippi 824 miles, through the States of Mississippi, 
 Arkansas and Louisiana, passing and calling at Vicks- 
 burg, Natchez and Baton Rouge, to New Orleans. The 
 hardest thing I have had to do for some time was to 
 preach in the saloon of a Mississippi steamer to a con- 
 gregation, most of whom had been dancing as if bitten by 
 a Naples spider, until midnight on Saturday night. 
 
 At New Orleans we were welcomed and entertained 
 with true Southern hospitality, and came in for the fes- 
 tival of the Carnival, which it would take too long to 
 describe. From New Orleans (where overcoats were an 
 unmitigated nuisance, and the heat was oppressive), to 
 Mobile in Alabama ; thence to Montgomery and Colum- 
 bus, in Georgia, where we missed connections, and had 
 to wait 24 hours. I had not been a quarter of an hour 
 in the hotel before a long brother called, who introduced 
 himself as the Presiding Elder, and said there was a union 
 love-feast going on, and I must come and talk to the 
 people. In for it again. I had been recognized at the 
 depot by some one who had heard me in Brooklyn. 
 
 From Columbus to Savannah, a fine city, where there 
 is the most appropriate cemetery I ever saw, for nature 
 
 il 
 
" I'll 
 
 « 
 
 I 
 
 
 B 
 
 
 llMi 
 
 ii6 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 has furnished the mourning. There are long avenues of 
 fine old oaks, from each branch of which hang pendant 
 wreaths of Spanish moss of a sombre olive hue — natural 
 immortelles over the graves of the loved and lost. I 
 preached in Savannah just opposite the spot where John 
 Wesley preached, and tried to speak as he and his 
 Master would have had me speak. 
 
 From Savannah down into Florida, weather very cool, 
 almost cold ; down the St. John River to St. Augustine, 
 frost on the ground ; the trees laden with oranges, superb 
 magnolias, palmettoes, figs, bananas, live oaks, a bloom- 
 ing wilderness ; back to Savannah, and up to Charleston, 
 South Carolina ; through North Carolina and Virginia, 
 passing Petersburg, the last Citadel of the Confederacy ; 
 Richmond, the capital; Fredericksburg, where some of 
 the bloodiest battles were fought, and Guinea, where 
 Stonewall Jackson died ; then sailing up the Potomac 
 past Mount Vernon, where rest the ashes of the Father 
 of his countrv, and arriving here on Saturday night, in 
 time yesterday to address a few words of counsel to the 
 President of the United States, who was in my congrega- 
 tion last night. 
 
 As the time of separation drew near he writes : 
 
 " I am wonderfully attached to this place and people. 
 It will be a pang for me to leave Canada. It will always 
 be endeared to me by memories of Joy and sorrow, of 
 usefulness and solicitude. I have made many friendships 
 here which will abide." 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 117 
 
 Early in April, his beloved friend, Rev. Mr. 
 Hurst, came out to be with him, to lighten the 
 sorrows of parting, and accompany him home. 
 On the eighth of May he writes, " The pangs of 
 parting have already begun, and they are hard 
 to bear," On the eleventh, he preached his fare- 
 well sermon in the Metropolitan Church, and 
 among his last words to the congregation were 
 these : 
 
 " The long bond which has united us is now of necessity 
 loosened. From other lips you will listen to the words of 
 eternal life. Our interest in each other, fresh and vivid 
 and hearty now, will become by a law that is common, 
 and of which therefore we may not complain, fainter and 
 fainter, until down the corridors of memory we must 
 gaze, to recall with an effort the names and circumstances 
 that are so familiar to-day ; but deeply in a heart that 
 does not soon or readily forget will be graven in dis- 
 tinctest lettering, the name of this house of prayer and of 
 the congregation that has gathered within its walls." 
 
 Before his departure he was entertained by a 
 large number of Canadian friends, and a testi- 
 monial was given him as a slight proof of their 
 affection and esteem, and of the value which 
 they set upon the services he had rendered to 
 
ii8 
 
 William Morley Putishon, 
 
 n 
 
 ' 
 
 the Methodist Church and to Canada. An 
 iUuminated address was presented, and a casket 
 composed of several kinds of Canadian woods, 
 mounted with clasps and plate of solid silver, 
 and containing $4,000. His reply was given 
 with deep feeling, and he accepted the money 
 only on condition that it should be invested in 
 Canada, that he should draw the interest until 
 his death, when the principal should be applied 
 to the Superannuated Ministers' Fund. He went 
 by the Royal Mail t^teamer to Montreal, and the 
 wharf was crowded with troops of friends assem- 
 bled to bid him good-bye, and he sailed away 
 encompassed with their love and followed by 
 their most fervent prayers. 
 
 " And women's tears fell fast as rain, 
 And strong men shook with inward pain, 
 For him they ne'er should see again." 
 
 At Cobourg came the never-to-be-forgotten 
 parting between the father and the daughter ; 
 they were not to meet on earth again, for in the 
 following July, the tender daughter, the beloved 
 wife, the true-hearted friend, slept in Jesus. At 
 
 II i 
 
Williaui Morley PunsJion. 
 
 119 
 
 Kingston he was mot b}' a deputation and pre- 
 sented with an adch'ess. At Brockville the Dis- 
 trict Meeting adjourned to the wharf to bid him 
 farewell. 
 
 On the 24th May, 1873, lie sailed from Quebec 
 on the S. S. SavDiatian, encircled with the Chris- 
 tian sympathy and affection of two nations on 
 this side of the Atlantic. His work in Canada 
 was finished, and what a work ! Most tersely 
 put by the Hon. Senator Macdonald, who, in 
 reply to a question put by the late Sir William 
 McArthur, of London, "Well, what did Mr. Pun- 
 shon do for you when he was in Canada?" an- 
 swered, "Do for us ? Why, he pushed us on half 
 a century." 
 
 And here let the Hon. John Macdonald him- 
 self speak, for he has written a most valuable 
 lefter giving his estimate of Dr. Punshon's 
 character and a comprehensive view of his ad- 
 ministration and work here, which will be read 
 with absorbing interest as coming from one 
 closely associated with him in Church enter- 
 prises, and favoured with so large a share of his 
 inestimable affection. 
 
I20 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 %.l 
 
 Mr. M icdonald wrote from the Senate as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 Ottawa, April 6, 1888. 
 My Dear Mr. Johnston, — You ask me to give you 
 my own impressions of the work and character of the 
 Rev. Dr. Punshon, as I knew him in Canada. How 
 difficult it is to do this appropriately. YW^ first public 
 appearance, if I remember right, was at the Richmond 
 Street Church, on the occasion of the departure of the 
 Rev. George Young, now Dr. Young, to Fort Garry, and 
 E. R. Young to Beren's River, then to a large extent an 
 unknown country, where the missionary, it was supposed, 
 would have to endure great privations. Who, in the great 
 company assembled on that occasion in the Old Cathe- 
 dral of Methodism, will ever forget the magnetism of the 
 speaker or the power which accompanied that address t 
 Many there were who had never felt until then the heri- 
 tage which, as Methodists, we possessed in our own 
 hymns as he quoted the lines — 
 
 " And if our fellowship below 
 In Jesus be so sweet, 
 What heights of rapture shall we know, 
 When round His throne we meet ? " 
 
 That address from such a man at such a tim.e had an 
 effect, the result of which it is difficult to estimate. 
 
 There were brethren — cautious brethren, good breth- 
 ren, but fearful brethren — who thought the action of 
 
William Morley Puns/ion. 
 
 121 
 
 sending men to the North- West premature ; who thought 
 that " the time was not yet ; " who thought that the work 
 nearer home demanded greater attention, and that the 
 work in Fort Garry might well be delayed. 
 
 When Dr. Punshon sat down, amid the manifestations 
 of delight of that great company, there was not one 
 there, however doubtful he may have been before, who 
 did not feel that the movement was in the right direction, 
 that " the cloud was lifted up," and that the Church was 
 directed to go forward. How can we, as we look at the 
 marvellous development of the work in the North- West, 
 dissociate the new life, and the new energy, and the new 
 inspiration created by that powerful appeal, or fail to 
 realize how inseparably it is connected with the success 
 of our work in that country to the present time. Although 
 the occasion referred to was one of those rare instances 
 in the life of any man which awakens in him a spirit of 
 inspiration, and calls forth the best efforts of which he is 
 capable : yet this same spirit largely marked all his 
 platform efforts. He never said anything upon any of 
 these occasions which was not well said, and was so ex- 
 haustively treated as to leave but little for those who 
 followed him. 
 
 Methodism has been greatly favoured in Canada in 
 
 the class of men who have preached its doctrines. Its 
 
 earlier men (many of them at least) were rough as the 
 
 forests through which they rode on their interminable 
 
 circuits ; plain of speech, with no great amount of the 
 9 
 
I i^ I 
 
 ■\ ; !* 
 
 m ' 
 
 
 iH 
 
 
 1 
 
 d.i 
 
 m 
 
 91 
 
 122 
 
 William Morley Punskott. 
 
 learning of the schools ; but true of heart and honest as 
 the sunlight, they were deservedly welcomed by the scat- 
 tered settlers in their humble but hospitable homes. 
 How much they have had to do with causing " the wilder- 
 ness and the solitary place to be glad, and the desert to 
 rejoice and blossom as the rose," no thoughtful man will 
 find it difficult to determine. They were honest, plain 
 men, dealing in plain A.nglo- Saxon, and never afraid to 
 expose not the wrong only, but the wrong-doer. 
 
 But with the coming of Dr. Punshon amongst us there 
 burst upon us a class of sermons to which we had not 
 been accustomed to listen, and the desire to hear him 
 was widespread beyond the bounds of his own denoinL'^a- 
 tion. His fame from beyond the sea had preceded him ; 
 enquiries were made by many, "Is there any chance of 
 my gettirig a seat ?" Long before the time of service the 
 building in which he was to officiate, however large, was 
 filled, and, from the beginning to the end of the service, 
 the great congregation hung upon his lips. Why was 
 this } Was there anything sensational about his style .-* 
 He abhorred sensationalism— any efifort to exalt the man. 
 He was modesty itself What was the secret of his won- 
 derful popularity in the pulpit or on the platform? His 
 theme was Christ, and Christ always I The Gospel which 
 he preached was the same Gospel that the rough, plain, 
 honest pioneers, to whom T have alluded, preached in 
 their own rough, plain, honest way in the early days, but 
 there was this difference — they produced a plain picture, 
 
'I 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 123 
 
 his touches made the same picture radiant with life, so 
 that it literally flashed with beauty, and when the service 
 was completed, there was the conviction that something 
 new had been learnt from the treasury of God's Word. 
 
 One has seen the whole aspect of a locality transformed 
 by the skill of the landscape gardener. One has seen the 
 streets and squares of a city invested with new beauty by 
 the skill of the architect. With just such new interest 
 were his pulpit ministrations invested, so that no one who 
 came sincerely desiring to be edified — may I not add, that 
 no one coming even with great expectations — ever went 
 away disappointed. 
 
 Two instances occur to me which illustrate the desire 
 of the people to hear him. The first was at the opening 
 of a new church near Streetsville. The day proved to be 
 one marked by such a snow-storm as under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances would have deterred people from facing it. 
 Long before the hour of service, the country side lines 
 were alive with teams conveying great numbers of people. 
 These speedily filled the church and the basement, as 
 well as the old church, while great numbers found it 
 impossible to get even into the old building, and were 
 obliged to return. Dr. Punshon preached in the new 
 church. The pastor preached in the old one, and, as 
 stated, numbers were unable to get into either building. 
 The other occasion was one in which this desire 
 to hear him was not only manifested, but, also, strik- 
 ingly illustrated by the fidelity with which he filled 
 
 m 
 
 
124 
 
 William Morley PunsJion. 
 
 his engagements. He had arranged to preach in the 
 Bloor Street Church (now the Central Methodist Church). 
 Early on the morning of the Sabbath to which this notice 
 refers, one of the most terrible storms which ever 
 visited the city broke over it, and continued to rage with 
 great fury for many hours. Distinct shocks were felt in 
 many parts of the city. The Parliament Street Church 
 was badly wrecked. The belfry of the Baptist Church, 
 Yonge Street, was blown down ; several buildings in 
 course of erection were destroyed. The Roman Catholic 
 Cathedral, almost in front of his own house, was badly 
 damaged, portions of the spire being torn away and car- 
 ried through the roof The rain literally came down in 
 great sheets, the streets were deserted, the churches were 
 empty ; no cabman could be induced to venture into the 
 storm,- -he would have been justified had he remained at 
 home ; waiting, in expectation that some one would come 
 for him, until he felt that he could wait no longer, he tried 
 himself to secure a cab. No cab could be obtained. He 
 started out, — reached the church literally drenched in the 
 storm, and so soon as he could obtain a change of cloth- 
 ing and a pair of slippers (for he could not get boots), 
 which he did from a gentleman whose house was next to 
 the chuich, preached to a full congregation^ which had 
 come through that terrible storm to hear him that morn- 
 ing. Well were they repaid as he spoke to them from 
 the words of the Saviour, and the reply of Peter, as found 
 in John vi. 66-68 : " From that time many of His disciples 
 
William M or ley Punshon. 
 
 125 
 
 went away and walked no more with Him. Then Jesus 
 said unto the twelve, Will ye also go away ? Then Peter 
 answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast 
 the words of eternal life." 
 
 The great church building movement in Ontario dates 
 from the period of the erection of the Metropolitan 
 Church. If this should be doubted by anyone, let them 
 take the trouble to ascertain the date of the erection of 
 the splendid churches which adorn the City of Toronto ; 
 let them ascertain when the churches in every city, town, 
 and hamlet in Ontario, which are pretentious and modern 
 in their character, were erected, and they will find, with 
 very few exceptions, that they date after \\\^ Metropolitan 
 Church. The movement assumed something of the form 
 of an epidemic, and not confined to the Methodist Church, 
 for it seized all the denominations, and churches began 
 to arise, beautiful in their architecture, commodious in 
 their internal arrangements, and so admirably adapted 
 for church work, with their schools and class-rooms, that 
 it may with fairness be claimed that to-day Canada, in 
 the number, beauty, and arrangement of its churches, 
 stands ahead of any country in the world. 
 
 It is, I think, freely conceded that in the spirit of enter- 
 prise awakened in all the churches, by the erection of the 
 Metropolitan Church, this movement had its origin — a 
 movement which is still being carried on with increased 
 energy. 
 
 The question arises, then, Who was the inspiring spirit 
 
 ii 
 
 ■^^i 
 
 ■^^^1 
 
 11 
 
126 
 
 Williatn Morley Punshon. 
 
 \ \ 
 
 f erection of the Metropolitan Church? To this 
 question, I think, there can only be but one reply, viz, 
 L>. . Punshon ! To claim that the effort was due solely to 
 him would ue unfair, but it would be safe to assert that 
 without him its building at that time would have been an 
 impossibility. I am glad to bear testimony to the fact, 
 familiar as I was with the enterprise from its inception 
 to its completion, that to the late Rev. Dr. Ryerson, the 
 late Mr. W. T. Mason, and Mr. James Paterson, of the 
 City of Toronto, much was due in securing to the body a 
 church such as the Metropolitan, instead of one greatly 
 inferior, and which could scaicely be regarded as a repre- 
 sentative building. To Dr. Punshon the credit of the 
 Metropolitan, in its present form, chiefly belongs. In 
 aiding the effort by his great name and great influence, 
 in liberally contributing his own means, and by means 
 secured for it by his own personal effort from his own 
 personal friends, by the handsome sum presented as the 
 result of his lecture, amounting to about one thousand 
 dollars, by the consciousness on the part of the 
 public that his whole being was interested in the 
 movement, these were powerful factors in the successful 
 completion of this great undertaking. This being so, it 
 is not difficult to understand that to him are we not only 
 indebted for a new departure in pulpit services, but that 
 to him mainly belongs the credit of stimulating all de- 
 nominations to that wonderful extension of church build- 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 127 
 
 ings, which are at once the pride and the glory of our 
 land. 
 
 His gifts as a presiding officer were many and rare. 
 They were marked by great firmness, great kindness, and 
 excellent judgment. I had opportunities of knowing, as 
 few of his brethren did, how earnestly he sympathized 
 with them in their labours, and how anxiously he desired 
 their comfort. 
 
 The annual meetings of the Missionary Committee 
 were always to him, as they were, indeed, to all who took 
 part in them, occasions of great interest ; the precise con- 
 dition of every mission, domestic and foreign, was care- 
 fully examined ; the wants of the workers and the 
 amounts available to meet the demands of each field 
 were duly considered. At everyone of these gatherings, 
 during his stay with us, he presided with an ability that 
 was matter of common remark, — with a fairness that 
 never was questioned. Upon these occasions I was 
 always asked by him to take a place by his side. 
 Before him was a schedule of what was needed, 
 showing what was asked, what was proposed to be 
 raised by each mission ; not only did he understand 
 the work for which the money was asked, but in most 
 instances did he know the workers, and no remarks were 
 more common during those sittings than some such as 
 the following which ht would whisper to me : " I 
 wish we could do something more for him, — he 
 is a good brother;" "It is impossible that the brother 
 
128 
 
 WilliafH Morley Punshon. 
 
 % 
 
 i-i i 
 
 can live upon that amount;" "This is a weak cause, 
 and must be liberally sustained for a year or two." 
 As a counsellor he was always safe, and I am unable to 
 remember a single suggestion made by him at any of 
 these gatherings in which he did not carry the committee 
 with him. 
 
 It was at the Missionary Committee, held in St. Cathar- 
 ines, that it was resolved definitely to enter upon the Japan 
 Mission. It had been brought before the Committee held 
 the preceding year, and failed ; it was argued at the St. 
 Catharines meeting, but met with considerable diver- 
 sity of opinion. At a favourable point of the debate a 
 slip was handed to him on which was written, " If it was 
 tried now it would carry." He wrote on the slip and re- 
 turned it, " The chief difficulty is the man ; if we had him 
 I would be more hopeful," or words to that effect. (This 
 paper, so full of significance, is in my possession.) It 
 being the last subject of debate, he said : " Brethren, let 
 us pray to-night about this matter; we will then be better 
 able to judge in the morning." The morning came, the 
 matter was brought up, and the Church through its Mis- 
 sionary Committee had committed itself to the establish- 
 ment of a mission in Japan. How wonderful have been 
 the results of that action ; how the fears of all the breth- 
 ren who opposed it (conscientious as they were) have 
 proved groundless ; how it has surpassed .tli the sanguine 
 expectations of those who promoted it ; how it has stimu- 
 lated the great missionary enterprise of our Church ; how 
 
William Morley Piinshon. 
 
 129 
 
 it has led to the formation of our invaluable Woman's 
 Missionary Association ; how it has intensified the mis- 
 sionary spirit in all the sister Churches, is matter of 
 history. 
 
 I want just here to express my own great regret that 
 we have no arrangements by which verbatim reports of all 
 these important gatherings, in which great questions, such 
 as the establishment of important missions, could be 
 taken and preserved in book form, as the Hansard reports, 
 for example, of the House of Commons are, what a 
 heritage they would prove to us ; what an invaluable link 
 in the chain of Methodist history ; what a treasury in 
 giving us the thoughts of the great leaders of our Church 
 — thoughts which now live only in the memories of those 
 who heard them uttered, but which ought to be in a form 
 which could be handed down to our children, and to our 
 children's children ; need I say th?t the result would be 
 worth the expenditure many times told. 
 
 He loved Canadian Methodism, but he was full of 
 sympathy for the work of the parent body, with which he 
 had been so long connected ; he felt a keen interest in 
 the vast work to which it was committed, and sympathized 
 with the Committee in reference to the debt which 
 hindered the expansion of its work. Hence, when the 
 proposal was made to him that the ^1,000 sterling, which 
 the parent body had undertaken to pay annually to the 
 Canadian Conference, on its assuming the charge of the 
 Indian Missions in the Hudson Bay territory, should be 
 
 %.% 
 
 . ■ (ft. 
 
It l 
 
 130 
 
 Wiiliam Morley Punskon. 
 
 commuted for the sum of ^3,000, that being the amount of 
 the debt of the Missionary Society of the Canadian Meth- 
 odist Church at that time, and a further sum of ^1,500, 
 the hitter amount only to be asked for if urgently needed. 
 Having unbounded faith in the ability of the Methodist 
 Church of Canada to do its own missionary work, he 
 gladly caught the idea of the commutation of the yearly 
 grant by a present payment of ^3,000, but objected to the 
 ^1,500, upon the ground that the wants of the parent 
 Society were greatly in excess of the means at its disposal, 
 that Canada was better able to do without that amount 
 than the parent Society was able to pay it, although it 
 would not hesitate to recognize the obligation if pressed; 
 and so, as the result of his own suggestion — which was 
 undoubtedly a good one — the settlement was made on the 
 basis of ;^3,ooo sterling, say in round numbers about 
 $15,000. 
 
 Who can forget the zeal with which he threw himself 
 into the endowment movement of Victoria College, and 
 the results of the first meeting in Cobourg, due entirely 
 to his own enthusiasm, while every subsequent meeting 
 caught the inspiration which emanated from him. After 
 the wonderful deliverance vouchsafed to those members 
 of the deputation to Fort Garry on board of the steamer 
 Manitoba^ when shipwrecked on the Island of Michipico- 
 ten, in Lake Superior, it was felt that a thanksgiving ser- 
 vice should be held on board the steamer Cumberland,, the 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 131 
 
 vessel which rescued us; but it was also felt that something 
 more than words should express the thankfulness of the 
 members of the deputation, and accordingly a subscrip- 
 tion, in the form of a thank-ofifering, was taken up towards 
 the erection of the Prince Arthur's Landing church (now 
 Port Arthur), in which he appeared as one of the largest 
 subscribers. The party went to the beautiful site where 
 the church now stands ; a post, pointed at the end, was 
 prepared, and with a heavy mallet each subscriber gave 
 it a blow, driving it home, which answered for the cere- 
 mony of laying the foundation stone. The amount raised 
 upon the occasion was something about $500. To many, 
 no doubt, these circumstances may be unknown, yet this 
 was the origin of the Port Arthur church. 
 
 At the Guelph Missionary Committee Meeting a move- 
 ment was started to secure an educational institution or 
 the North-West, in connection with our own Church. It 
 was the intention to call it the Morley Institution. A sum 
 of more than $2,000 was raised upon the spot. Had this 
 amount been invested in land, supplemented, as it should 
 have been, by a grant from the Hudson Bay Company, the 
 promise of which I had from the Hon. Donald A. Smith, 
 then Governor of the territory, now Sir Donald A. Smith, 
 what an institution might we not have had to-day ; 
 but, alas ! the money intended as the nucleus of an en- 
 dowment being spent for current expenses was speedily ex- 
 hausted, and the hope of an educational establishment, 
 
 Ibjiii 
 ipiffl ' 
 
 
 w ■ n 
 
8 
 
 i'l 
 
 
 ;! i 
 
 132 
 
 William M or ley Piinshon. 
 
 which would have equalled anything in that country, 
 dissipated. 
 
 He was absent from Toronto when the movement was 
 inaugurated to raise a purse on the occasion of his leaving 
 Canada, as a slight token of the esteem in which he w 
 held by his many friends. When he heard of this he ^\^ 
 greatly distressed. Calling upon me (I think, on his way 
 from the station,) he said that " he had learnt of this 
 from the papers on his way home in the cars for the first 
 time, that he felt greatly exercised about it, and begged 
 that it might be stopped." He was told that that could 
 not be ; and if it could, it would be unfair to his friends, 
 who were deeply interested in the matter. He stated 
 that while it was very good of his friends, yet if it was not 
 too late, to stop it ; but if it must go on that he wished 
 it to be understood that he could not take the money 
 from Canada, that he would consent to accept the interest, 
 with the understanding that at his death the principal 
 would revert to the Superannuated Ministers' Fund. 
 
 The casket in which the address was enclosed, made 
 from inlaid specimens of Canadian woods, he greatly 
 prized, reminding him, as it always did, of his work in 
 Canada. To the writer he pointed to it on the occasion 
 of a visit to him at Brixton, saying at the same time how 
 highly he prized it. 
 
 I mighl go on multiplying incidents, but these will 
 doubtless be found in his biography by Rev. F. W. Mac 
 donald, and by Professor Reynar, as well as in the sketch 
 
 « = ■ 
 
 V 
 
 ill 
 
VViiiiajH M or ley Puns J ion. 
 
 133 
 
 which you yourself are furnishing of his hfe and labours in 
 Canada. One thing I must not omit to mention, and that 
 is, that while I always found him ready to speak approv- 
 ingly of the work, and the ability of his brethren, always 
 ready to tell of the esteem and confidence in which he 
 held them, I never yet upon any occasion heard him 
 make one unkind statement, expressing lack of confidence 
 in any brother, or utter one word which might be con- 
 strued to a brother's disadvantage. He loved his breth- 
 ren ; and I have reason to believe, was beloved by them 
 in return. 
 
 Lives of men are not measured by years. It is by the 
 life lived, the works wrought, the influences begotten, 
 that the real value of one's life is to be estimated ; judged 
 by this standard, what a life was his. I speak now only 
 of the Canadian part of it. What mighty agencies was 
 he the means of awakening ; what forces was he the 
 means of quickening ; what a marvellous impetus did he 
 give to every interest of the Methodist Church — the 
 force of which is felt to-day throughout our entire work, 
 and which will continue to be felt so long as time will 
 endure. 
 
 What a lesson does the removal of such a man bring to 
 us, called away when, to all human appearance, he was 
 most needed ; when his matured wisdom and his safe 
 judgment made him the wise counsellor and the safe 
 judge. Then the Lord said to him, as He said to Moses, 
 
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 134 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 " The day approacheth when thou must die." Mystery! 
 Mystery ! God's ways are not our ways. He doeth all 
 things well. "He buries his workmen, but carries on His 
 work." He was found ready for the summons, and 
 entered into the joy of his Lord. 
 
 "Oh, may we triumph so, 
 
 When all our warfare's past, 
 And dying, find our latest foe 
 Under our feet at last." 
 
 I am, my dear Mr. Johnston, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 John Macdonald. 
 
Wiiiia7n Morley Punslion. 
 
 135 
 
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 IV. 
 
 On the third of June, 1872, Dr. Punshcn 
 landed in Liverpool, and resumed again his 
 citizenship and his ministry in England, his 
 native land which he loved with a passionate 
 affection that " many waters could not quench." 
 
 His first appearance was in London, in the 
 old City Road Chapel, where he preached on a 
 Tuesday afteinoon, in aid of the liquidation of 
 the debt on Westminster Chapel. The collection 
 on this occasion was the largest ever made in 
 a Methodist Chapel in England, amounting 
 to £2,079— over S10,000. The discourse was 
 founded on Psalm cxxxii. 8, 9. " Arise, Lord, 
 into Thy rest; Thou, and the ark of Thy strength. 
 Let Thy priests be clothed with righteousness ; 
 and let Thy saints shout for joy," which it will 
 be remembered was the text upon which he 
 preached at the dedication of the Metropolitan 
 Church. 
 
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 136 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 On the 17th of June he was permitted to 
 rebuild his home, and was married by his friend, 
 Rev. Gervase Smith, to Miss Mary Foster, "the 
 
 CITY ROAD CHAPEL, 
 
 friend of many years, and of the dead." He 
 adds, " For this great mercy I desire to render 
 thanks to a merciful God." He could not live 
 
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William Morley Punshon. 
 
 13; 
 
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 without a home, and in his wife he found an 
 affection deep and enduring, and a ready, helpful 
 sympathy, which he sorely needed, and which 
 were an unspeakable comfort to him during the 
 remainder of his life. God comfort the widow ; 
 for since her irreparable loss the world can 
 never more be the same to her. 
 
 The Conference appointed him to Warwick 
 Gardens, Kensington, a circuit with but one 
 chapel. Whether his health would be equal to 
 the regular round of circuit duties was still an 
 experiment, but he was given an assistant, and 
 he entered upon the work with "an earnest 
 purpose to devote himself fully to Christ, and 
 to labour for the salvation of souls." After a 
 position for five years of such high distinction 
 and commanding influence, his new sphere must 
 have seemed cramped and limited, but he had 
 abundance of work on his hands, as he was also 
 chairman of London Second District. 
 
 The following letter, written to me after he 
 had got fairly in harness, tells how his time and 
 thoughts were engaged : 
 
 My Dear Friend, — The day is too short for its work. 
 10 
 
 1 
 
138 
 
 William Morley Ptinshon. 
 
 II 
 
 I feel this continually, and never more so than now. I 
 have purposed to write to you for a long time past, but 
 have been " let hitherto." I do not wish you, however, to 
 consider that my affectionate interest in your welfare is 
 one whit abated. I was delighted to receive your last, 
 and to hear of your prosperity and success. May the 
 Lord make you yet more abundantly useful. My work 
 here is hard. My chapel gets crowded in fine weather, 
 but there is a difficulty to upbuild the Church, the living 
 Church. The place has been built 12 years. It is about 
 like Elm Street, and it has never been a success. It is 
 in an aristocratic neighbourhood, where Romanism, and 
 Ritualism, and High Churchism, and many other "isms" 
 abound. When I came there were seiien pews let, and 
 only about 1 50 sittings altogether taken, eighty members 
 in the church — none 'wealthy. We have already in- 
 creased somewhat — h^ve let as many more sittings, and 
 are not without encouraging tokens of the Master's 
 presence. I hope I shall see you before I leave Kensing- 
 ton. Your education is not complete until you have seen 
 England. I gave the " Mayflower" in Exeter Hall last 
 night. The Y. M. C. Association resuscitated their 
 winter lectures with an experimental course of eight, 
 which I last night opened. The hall was crammed to its 
 utmost capacity, and it was like a heated oven. I am, 
 by consequence, not fit for much to-aay. My boys are 
 doing pretty well. I fear Morley's desires after the 
 ministry are not strong'. He seems to be losing them, 
 
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 and I fear some declension in spiritual matters also. 
 
 Annie Panton is with us just now on a visit. She is 
 
 very thin, and does not look as well as when in Canada. 
 
 My dear friend Gervase Smith is the object of much 
 
 solicitude with us just now. He is very unwell. I trust 
 
 rest and care will restore him. He has sadly overtaxed 
 
 himself, as we are all in danger of doing. We are in 
 
 great excitement about the School Board elections. 
 
 Our Wesleyan friends are not united, and consequently 
 
 we have been defeated in Manchester, Birmingham, 
 
 Bradford, and several other places. They wanted me to 
 
 run for this district, but I declined. Bowman Stephenson 
 
 is a candidate for Hackney Division. The elections 
 
 came off on Thursday. Mr. Charlesworth, of Toronto, is 
 
 here. I see him sometimes. Annie sends her kind love 
 
 to you and Mrs. Johnston. Pray remember me most 
 
 kindly to all the Centenary friends — Sanfords, Listers, 
 
 Bensons, Moores, Roaches, Mrs. Jackson, etc. I am just 
 
 called off to dinner, and have to go into the city this 
 
 afternoon to a sub-committee. These committees plague 
 
 one sadly. Write to me when you have leisure, and give 
 
 me all news. 
 
 Ever yours affectionately, 
 
 W. M. Punshon. 
 The year is closed with this record : 
 
 "All praise to the goodness that has brought me through 
 many vicissitudes to the last Sabbath of another year. 
 
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 140 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 * The servant is above his Lord.' I have a home, 
 friends, a sphere of usefulness, power of work, and light 
 to work in, some acceptance with the people, glorified 
 friends linking me with the better land, a living Saviour, 
 a Spirit of Holiness and Power which has not left me to 
 myself, and a resolve to be wholly the Lord's, with a 
 good hope, through Christ, of being preserved and 
 presented to the Father. ' P. 396. 
 
 Early in February, 1874, Dr. and Mrs. Punshon, 
 accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Gervase Smith, 
 visited Italy, going as far south as Naples. The 
 dream of his life was realized in seeing Rome. 
 Through "a struggling moonbeam's misty light" 
 he visited the Colosseum, and " climbed its steep 
 staircases, lost in wonder and awe, and haunted 
 with visions of the ancient world." 
 
 The Arch of Titus, the Palace of the Caesars, 
 the Forum, the temples and columns, the Seven 
 Hills, with their endless associations, the 
 galleries and museums of sculpture, all are visited 
 and minutely described ; and he closes by record- 
 ing his gladness "at the opportunity to declare in 
 the Eternal City the gospel of the grace of God." 
 
 From Rome he journeyed to Naples, with its 
 inexhaustible beauties, its wonderful suburbs — 
 
Wi//tam Morley Puns/ion. 
 
 141 
 
 ancient and modern — its magnificent bay with 
 islands rising like palaces out of the sea, the 
 girdling mountains, with Vesuvius, a " pillar of 
 cloud by day and of fire by night." 
 
 On his return home, he continued in uninter- 
 mitting labour until the Conference in July. 
 His public engagements were many and heavy. 
 During the first seven months of this year he 
 lectured thirty times, and spoke frequently at 
 missionary meetings, but he was limiting 
 himself to not more than a single service on a 
 single day. 
 
 On the 7th of June he makes this record : 
 
 "Mercifully preserved through exhausting heat and 
 labour in my missionary deputation. Had a season of 
 intense difficulty on Tuesday while preaching at 
 Brunswick. Distressed by the heat almost beyond 
 endurance, and had a strange flushing feeling, as if the 
 blood were being determined towards the head, which I 
 have had once or twice in Montreal, but nowhere else. 
 The meetings were uniformly well attended, financially 
 successful, and conducted in a good spirit. During my 
 absence I completed my fiftieth year." 
 
 Of such immense popularity, his administra- 
 tive powers trained and strengthened by his 
 
 I I 
 
 ill 
 
142 
 
 William Morley Puushon. 
 
 THE ARCH OF TITUS. 
 
 service in Canada, it was generally considered 
 certain that he would be elected President of the 
 Conference. And when the Conference of 1874 
 
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 BAS RELIEF IN ARCH OF TITUS. 
 
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 II 
 
 144 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 assembled in Cambourne, on the 29th of July, 
 by an overwhelming majority of votes he was 
 raised to the highest position in English Method- 
 ism. 
 
 On taking the chair, in the course of his 
 address, among other things, with characteristic 
 modesty, he said : 
 
 " I can truly say that this moment of my honour is the 
 lowHest moment of my life. Any feeling of elation is 
 efTectually overborne by the consciousness of personal 
 unworthiness, and by a sense of deepening responsibility 
 which awes me while I try to realize it. I should be 
 ungrateful, indeed, if I were not to express my sense of the 
 kindness of those whose votes havo placed me here. 
 Although I humble myself before God in the presence of 
 my brethren, I feel that ever since He called me into 
 this ministry I have had one mark of discip'eship — I 
 have loved the brethren. My heart has gone out after 
 them with an ardour which many waters could not 
 quench. I have longed for their esteem as I have never 
 longed for worldly treasure, and as a mark of your 
 regard and confidence in me, this election to-day is a 
 tribute more precious than gold. Of my manifold in- 
 firmities I feel a great deal more than I shall say ; but I 
 remember a saying of one of my distinguished predeces- 
 sors in this office, that every office has its perquisites, 
 
 
r!i!'« 
 
 William Morley Ptmskon. 
 
 145 
 
 and that the perquisites of this particular office are the 
 prayers of the brethren." Pp. 402-3. 
 
 The year of his Presidency was severe, on 
 account of its great exertions and heavy cares. 
 He had reached the highest point in his public 
 life, but his health suffered from the effects of 
 continuous sessions of committees, and exhaust- 
 ing connexional labours — the Hymn Book was 
 revised and enlarged. Lay Representation was 
 being discussed, and other great questions affect- 
 ing the future of the Church. 
 
 A letter written to me during his Presidential 
 year shows how incessant were hi.j activities : 
 
 My Dear Friend,— Ah the fulness of the Advent 
 and New Year's blessings to you and yours. May the 
 skies rain down the benediction from the upper and 
 nether springs, I can't make you understand how 
 difficult it is to find a moment this year for the claims of 
 friendly correspondence, but I beg you not to imagine 
 that my memory of Canada and the " elect " Canadians 
 has cooled, because so few letters find their way thither. 
 Every morning brings me some difficult letters to answer 
 — generally a dozen or more, and by the time they are 
 despatched the morning is gone. Then committees 
 come sometimes in battalions, and all the country cries 
 
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 ii 
 
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 146 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 out to see the President now and then, and so my life 
 is busy, and my friends are defrauded of their letters. 
 Lately we have had an anxious house. You would hear 
 that I had been ill. Since my recovery J. W. came 
 home from Cambridge, ill with ulcerated throat and 
 with rheumatic fever. He went back very feeble on 
 Saturday, and to-day the examinations for the Tripos 
 begin. I am not sure that he will be able to go in, and 
 fear he will have to take an " egrotat " degree. Anyhow 
 he cannot do himself justice. 
 
 Morley and Percy are well. I had Dr. L. Taylor 
 calling on faturday. and Mrs. Varley this morning. She 
 said she stayed with the Listers, in Hamilton. Mr. V.'s 
 church here is suffering somewhat in his absence, and 
 she came for a little counsel and help. I am delighted 
 to hear that you contemplate a visit to the Old World 
 next year. If you leave on Saturday, the 5th of June, 
 and land, as you state, at Londonderry, you will just get 
 to Belfast in time for the opening of the Irish Conference, 
 wnere I expect to preside, and shall hope first to see 
 you. If you will let me know definitely when you have 
 fixed, and that you have fixed for that time, I will try 
 and secure you quarters in Belfast for some days, and 
 you could make tli. ^ a centre for excursions in the north. 
 Of course, my presidental duties cease at the opening of 
 our Conference on the last Wednesday in July, so if you 
 wish to see me in the chair, you must be there at some 
 of the committees previously, and on the first day to 
 
m 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 147 
 
 see the new President elected. Don't try to crowd 
 too much into your tour. It is almost too late for Rome, 
 the season will be so hot. Nearer the time I will write 
 (D.V.) again. But stick to the 5th of June. 
 
 Love to ycur wife, Listers, Sanfords, Jacksons, 
 Bensons, Moores, Rices, etc. I wish I could write some 
 more letters. The Lord have you all in His loving ward. 
 
 Yours very aflfectionately, 
 
 W. M. Punshon. 
 
 In February, he was greatly shocked by the 
 unexpected death of Dr. Wiseman, his warm and 
 deep-souled friend, who had visited him in 
 Canada, and stood with him on the platform of 
 the General Conference in New York, in 1872, 
 as the representative of British Methodism. 
 
 He was one of the " men of stature " in 
 Methodism, a prince, and a great man in Israel ; 
 and it was a most trying service, which ofl&cially 
 devolved on Dr. Punshon, to deliver the address 
 at the funeral. He was not only subdued 
 and solemnized by the sad event, but felt that 
 the bereavement to the Church would probably 
 affect his own future. It was my rare felicity 
 to be with him in his own home during the 
 closing weeks of his office. No words can give 
 
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 ii 
 
 If 
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 148 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 any idea of the heartiness of the welcome he 
 gave me. He was more than kindness, even 
 affection itself. I accompanied him to Sheffield, 
 attended the committee meetings, was at the 
 opening of the Conference, and saw the joy that 
 lit up his countenance when his intimate 
 and beloved friend. Rev. Gervase Smith, 
 then Secretary, was chosen to succeed him. 
 His last official duty was to deliver the 
 charge to the newly-ordained ministers. His 
 counsels were founded upon Acts xx. 28 : 
 "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to 
 all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost 
 hath made you overseers." I shall never forget 
 the effect of that address upon the immense 
 congregation. His eloquence seemed to rival 
 all his former triumphant energy, and unction, 
 and power, and the address left on the minds of 
 all who heard it the permanent impression of 
 something reaching nearly to the limit of human 
 genius in sacred oratory. 
 
 The vacancy in the Missionary Secretaryship, 
 caused by Dr. Wiseman's death, was filled by 
 the appointment of Dr. Punshon. The work 
 
■n 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 149 
 
 was congenial to him, and for it he was pre- 
 eminently fitted. He had, from the day he 
 entered the ministry, given the cause of missions 
 his eloquent advocacy. His life on both 
 hemispheres had been identified with all the 
 missionary movements of his Church. He had, 
 perhaps, more than any other man in British 
 Methodism, come into contact with missionary 
 work and missionary workers of every kind. 
 The brilliancy of his endowments were not more 
 distinguished than his ability in administration ; 
 for he was diligent, systematic, practical, and 
 his heart and mind were prolific in measures for 
 the prosperity and enlargement of the Society's 
 operations. This oflfice he held for the remainder 
 of his life; and, as Mr. Macdonald justly observes, 
 was tne fitting climax of his life's work. The 
 duties, the anxieties, the vast responsibiUties of 
 the department, no doubt exhaust d him, and 
 hastened his end ; but it was fitting that he, who 
 had been for thirty years the foremost among 
 missionary speakers, firing the heart of the 
 Church, and awakening its conscience to duty 
 toward the perishing millions, should have his 
 
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 1,1 'i. 
 
 150 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 imperishable name indissolubly linked with the 
 Mission House. 
 
 During the year of his ex-Presidency, the 
 minds of the English Wesleyans were greatly 
 agitated on the question of Lay Representation 
 in the Annual Conference. The momentous 
 question was to be decided at the Nottingham 
 Conference. 
 
 Dr. Punshon, whose mind had been broadened 
 by being "abroad," saw nothing but good in 
 the association of lay-men and ministers 
 together, in a representative conference, for the 
 transaction of business of administration and 
 finance, which had been committed hitherto to 
 the mixed " Committees of Review." The con- 
 sensus of feeling "nd sentiment, in favour of the 
 change, through .at the connexion was wonderful; 
 but a formidable opposition to it was developed, 
 supported "by the learning and rare personal 
 authority " of Dr. Pope, and the unrivalled con- 
 stitutional knowledge and debating power of 
 Dr. Osborne. 
 
 The debate, which was opened by Dr. Punshon, 
 with a resolution in favour of Lay Representa- 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 151 
 
 tion, lasted four days. Dr. Osborne, the Nestor 
 of the Conference, rallied all the opposing forces, 
 and with his old-time power and ingenuity, and 
 a mastery of assault, well nigh irresistible, made 
 his memorable speech on the third day, but it 
 did not carry conviction, and when the debate 
 was brought to a close on the following day, by 
 Dr. Punshon, in a masterly speech, cogent and 
 mighty in argument, pungent and keen-edged 
 in wit, happy in illustration, sunshiny, and full 
 of good-temper throughout, he carried everthing 
 before him, and his resolution, affirming the 
 principle of Lay Representation, was carried by 
 369 votes to 49, a majority of over 300. In a 
 letter written to me shortly after, the full 
 contents of which I cannot give, because of its 
 many personal allusions, he says : 
 
 "We had a splendid debate on Lay Representation. 
 I moved the resolution which affirmed the principle. We 
 had no idea of winning so decisively. We quite expected 
 a minority of 150 or 200. In the earlier part of the. 
 discussion, the issue, though not doubtful, was critical, 
 as to the nature of the division. After Dr. Osborne's 
 speech, we felt that if we only kept our tempers we were 
 all right. Olver had been kept in waiting for Osborne. 
 
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 152 
 
 William Morley Pimshon. 
 
 That was the only little bit of arrangement that we had. 
 It was a time of much solicitude and prayer. And wasn't 
 it a grand thing that, when the vote was announced, 369 
 against 49, i was received by the winners in thankful 
 silence, not a cheer, not a vaunt ; all felt it too solemn 
 for that. Our committee on details meets the first week 
 in February. We still need much wisdom. Pray that 
 it may be given us. I removed from Holland Road in 
 September, having bought Mr. Boyce's house on his 
 retirement. My place of residence is now m Surrey, 
 about the same distance from the Mission House, but 
 across the river. My house is only two stories and a 
 half, and I have got a very comfortable study on the 
 ground floor. The address is " Tranby Brixton Rise." I 
 am four doors only below Mr. Wm. Mc Arthur, and near 
 his brother Alexander. So we have nice friends at hand. 
 The boys have all been home. John William is still 
 teaching. Annie Panton is coming to visit us in 
 January. They are are all pretty well, as are the friends 
 at Kew, and the Smiths. I will order the Recorder for 
 you. The briefs are commonly mine, i.e.^ the leader- 
 lets after the large leaders. I edit it, but I have so large 
 a staff that I can scarcely get time or room to write much 
 myself." 
 
 Shortly after this he had a severe bronchial 
 attack, and v.ras much depressed in spirit. He 
 had morbid and frequently recurring fears of 
 
William M or ley Punshon. 
 
 153 
 
 death, and with his habit of unwise self-dissec- 
 tion, he was trying to settle the question, 
 whether his warm love of life was sinful or not ; 
 trying himself continually by the test, " Would 
 you be willing to die now ? " Why should a 
 man be willing to die before the appointed hour ? 
 Why should he worry about the love of life, 
 which keeps struggling up even in hours of 
 severe pain and weakness ? Why should he 
 not enjoy life intensely, and go bravely on 
 unshrinking unto death ? 
 
 In March, he started for Italy, to recruit his 
 shattered energies, and visit the mission churches 
 on the continent. He preached in Paris and in 
 Rome ; saw something of the work in Spezzia, 
 Bologna, and Padua, and was deeply interested 
 with the efforts made to rescue Italy for Christ. 
 In his journal, on his return, he records the fact, 
 " No fewer than seven ministers have been called 
 away since I left home. The day wanes, and 
 there is much work to be done." 
 
 It was the tolling of the bell of time, telling 
 him that another and another had gone on 
 
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 before, and that while the day lasted for work, 
 his hands must not slack. 
 
 The journal references to ill health, exciting 
 services, nervous fears, and distresses increase, 
 and the biographer says : 
 
 " During the later years, there was scarcely a day 
 without its bodily discomforts, or mental depression. 
 Not that he was thereby incapacitated for work, or that 
 there was no happiness for him in his home life. This 
 was far from being the case. But the elasticity, and 
 superabounding energy of former days was gone, and 
 nothing could restore them. Physically, he was reaping 
 what he had sown, gathering a harvest of weariness and 
 pain, from the prodigal expenditure of himself in former 
 years. Something of this was apparent to everyone, but 
 neither himself, nor those who watched him most closely, 
 knew how complete was the undermining of his health, or 
 with what steady course his vital powers were deterior- 
 ating. 
 
 " Meanwhile he laboured strenuously at the duties of 
 his office, and, during the year, preached between seventy 
 and eighty times, lectured eleven times, and addressed 
 upwards of fifty meetings. He also took considerable 
 part in the management of the Recorder newspaper, 
 frequently contributing leading articles." P. 436. 
 
 Trouble and suffering v/ere plentifully strewn 
 
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 156 
 
 William Morley Ptinshon. 
 
 along his path, pain and distress were knocking 
 loudly at the door. Yet he was still the inde- 
 fatigable worker, and none realized that his 
 brilliant and useful career was approaching so 
 sudden a termination. But the night was draw- 
 ing near. Still he wrought on strenuously and 
 unceasingly. True, he could not make, as of 
 yore, those mighty orations in the pulpit and 
 on the platform. His style was more subdued; 
 yet, whenever he spoke, men felt the spell-like 
 fascination of his eloquence, and sat entranced 
 and charmed by the force and vividness of the 
 truth that flowed from the lips of the mighty 
 enchanter. His missionary speeches were not 
 so laboured and elaborate, they were statements of 
 finance, appeals to the conscience and to personal 
 duty ; but now and then he would pour forth his 
 fervid, impassioned appeals, and bursts of elo- 
 quence, that were unsurpassed even in the full 
 blaze of his unrivalled popularity. 
 
 His journal of March 17, 1881, contains the 
 following passage : 
 
 "Lectured to an immense crowd on Tuesday at the 
 City Temple. Recalled some of my former feelings for 
 
 
William Morley Punslion. 
 
 157 
 
 the moment, but my time for this kind of usefulness is 
 nearly over. Shattered nerves demand a quieter mode 
 and sphere of work." 
 
 The biographer estimates that he lectured no 
 less than 650 times, to audiences ranging from 
 500 to 5,000 persons, and that in this way he 
 raised $250,000 or $300,000, for various branches 
 of Christian work; besides giving a mental and 
 moral stimulus to tens of thousands of persons 
 brought under the sway of his commanding 
 eloquence. 
 
 In May, he set out for Germany, to visit the 
 missions, and transact important business on 
 behalf of the Society. 
 
 In June, he accompanied Dr. Pope, the Presi- 
 dent, to the Irish Conference, which met in 
 Dublin; and at the first Representative Con- 
 ference, entered heartily into the proposed 
 scheme for the Thanksgiving Fund. The rest 
 of the year was given to the advocacy of this 
 movement, which, under the vigorous and un- 
 faltering leadership of Dr. Rigg, the Conference 
 President, was carried to a triumphant issue. 
 It was proposed to raise a million dollars. The 
 
 I ii 
 
1 1 
 
 158 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 actual amount raised was nearly a million and 
 a half dollars. 
 
 The following summer, accompanied by Mrs. 
 
 ITALIAN SWISS VILLAGE. 
 
 Punshon and Mr. and Mrs. May, of Clifton, he 
 renewed his acquaintance with the snow-clad 
 Alps, drinking in the majesty and beauty of 
 mountain scenery. But he suffered from sleep- 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 159. 
 
 lessness, prostration, loss of appetite, and nervous 
 fears. 
 
 The last Conference he attended, the Con- 
 ference of 1880, mv^.t in old City Road Chapel, 
 London. To Dr. Punshon, the most gratifying 
 incident in connection with the gathering to- 
 gether of the brethren, was the meeting with 
 his boyhood friend, Richard Ridgill, from Africa, 
 after a separation of forty years. Those who 
 know how L'trons: and tender was his affection 
 for his friends, can understand with what warm 
 grasp of hand, and glance of kindling eye, would 
 he welcome, as guest to Tranby, his old and 
 dear friend ; and with what tender and unselfish 
 Cure, with what kindly and graceful ways, he 
 would contribute to his enjoj^ment during his 
 stay Id the noiiie-Iand. 
 
 The year closed in weariness and anxiety 
 over his eldest son, John William, who was 
 daily sinking in consumption. Still, oppressed 
 with anxieties, painful apprehensions, there was 
 no respite from the labours and duties of his 
 administration. He toiled at the desk, sat in 
 committees, travelled, preached and lectured, as 
 
i6o 
 
 William Morley PunsJicn. 
 
 14 
 
 1' ri 
 
 ff 
 
 ■4:5 
 
 few men in the most robust health could have 
 done. " Besides fulfilling his manifold duties at 
 the Mission House, he preached sixty-five times 
 during the year, visiting almost every part of 
 England; lectured thirty-five times, and ad- 
 dressed no less than sixty-one public meetings, 
 most of them on behalf of the Missionary 
 Society." 
 
 On January 26th, 1881, his journal records : 
 
 " Another stroke has fallen. I am again bereft. My 
 first-born son, the object of so many fonr' hopes, deep 
 anxieties, and fervent prayers, died at Bournemouth to- 
 night, at 6.45. May this sorrow move me to a deeper and 
 holier consecration. My Lord and Saviour, Thou who 
 hast redeemed me and mine, four of whom I trust arc 
 now wi*^h Thee, hear and accept my vow." 
 
 Two days after, he writes of the beautiful 
 clay : " It was the face of an angel that seemed 
 to smile upon us from the coffin, so exquisitely 
 carved were the marble features, and so heavenly 
 the upward aspect. I am greatly comforted in the 
 thought of the wonderful change which affliction 
 wrought in his feelings and sentiments toward re- 
 ligion. He loved his Bible intensely, and scarcely 
 
William Morley PtmsJion. 
 
 i6i 
 
 read anything else. He tired of all trifling con- 
 versation, expressed himself, even in moments 
 of deep personal humiliation, as clinging to 
 the Rock, and his last articulate word was 
 ^ Jesus.' " 
 
 The writer -eached London in impaired 
 health, about the time of Dr. Punshon's be- 
 reavement, and wrote to him at Bristol, where 
 he was spending a few dayy with his chosen 
 friends, the Mays, intimating his intention of 
 crossing the Mediterranean to visit Egypt and 
 the Holy Land. He replied, suggesting a quiet 
 stay in the South of England for six weeks or 
 so, and then a journey with him to the Pyrenees 
 and the South of France. At any rate, he in- 
 sisted that I should not start for the East until 
 his return to London. A'^cordirigly I delayed, 
 spending a few days with our noble friend. Rev. 
 Dr. T. Bowman Stephenson, of the ''Children's 
 Home," Bonner Road. And when on Saturdav, 
 the 5th of February, I went o^er to Brixton, 
 I found Dr. and Mrs. Punshon at home, and 
 awaiting my coming. He gave me a most 
 tender and cordial welcome, I noticed his worn 
 
 !! 
 
 I 
 
 
 
1 62 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 and shattered aspect, and he was saddened by 
 grief. His physicians had insisted upon his 
 taking rest, and I began to urge him to ac- 
 company me to Jerusalem. His spirit kindled 
 at the thought, and we began to plan our jour- 
 ney ; but, as Senior Secretary, he assumed the 
 full responsibility of the Mission-house ; as 
 Deputy Treasurer he was harrassed and em- 
 barrassed with slow returns from the circuits, 
 and was fretting and fearful lest the income 
 would fall below the expected amount, and so 
 he concluded that he could not possibly be 
 spared until the accounts of the year should be 
 closed, a month or two later. Accordingly, we 
 arranged that he should meet me in Rome, on 
 my return from the Holy Land, and that we 
 would take Northern Italy and Switzerland 
 together. Those were rare and delightful days 
 spent at Tranby, the recollection of them is a 
 most cherished possession. On Sabbath we 
 attended morning service in Brixton Hill 
 Chapel, and heard Spurgeon, in his tabernacle, 
 in the evening. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 8th of February, we dined 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 163 
 
 with Rev. Dr. Hussey, the genial and learned 
 Rector of Christ Church, Brixtor ; and in the 
 evening, he was greeted with a whirlwind of 
 applause, as he delivered in the Rector's spacious 
 chapel, his " Men of the Mayflower." This was 
 his last lecture, and with ripened eloquence he 
 depicted the struggles of the Puritans, and the 
 fury of their oppressors, as they were tracked 
 through wood and wold, "the baying of the 
 fierce sleuth-hound breaking upon their seques- 
 tered worship." As he traced the character of 
 these " Pilgrim Fathers," their faith, their stern 
 integrity, and heroic endurance, and rebuked 
 in clarion tones the sectarian bitterness, deser- 
 tion of duty, and failure of faith that belonged 
 to modem, no less than earlier, days ; he seemed 
 like a brave prophet of old, speaking his burn- 
 ing words to the people. On the way home 
 from the lecture, I asked him why he had 
 selected such a subject for an audience made up 
 almost entirely of Churchmen, who were not 
 accustomed to hear much about the virtues of 
 the Puritans. His characteristic answer was, 
 that this age needed to be reminded of them. 
 
 , 1 
 
164 
 
 William Morley PimsJion. 
 
 that the subject should be of interest to all 
 Englishmen, and that he never faltered in the 
 utterance of his convictions before any congre- 
 gation. The great audience was enthusiastically 
 responsive, and testified its delight in frequent 
 outbursts of cheers. It was the last public en- 
 gagement he ever fulfilled, the last time he ever 
 addressed an audience. As I think of him now, 
 standing upon that platform, pouring forth a 
 torrent of splendid eloquence, the hearers rapt, 
 spell-bound, electrified, a thousand associatiors 
 rush upon me, and the tears come into my eyes, 
 as I recall the tones of his voice, the flash of 
 his eye, his burning enthusiasm, and overpower- 
 ing impressiveness. His last public utterance 
 was given, though only the Master knew it. 
 
 That was a memorable week. Some portions 
 of each day were given to sight-seeing, and it 
 was no small thing to see through his eyes such 
 historic places as City Road Chapel, Bunhill's 
 Field, St. Paul's Cathedral, and Westminster 
 Abbey. Sir William McArthur, his intimate 
 friend and neighbour, was at that time Lord 
 Mayor of London, and the hospitalities of the 
 
Williani Morley Piinshon. 
 
 165 
 
 Mansion House were cordially extended to us, 
 so tiiat on more than one occasion we met in 
 the drawing-room of the lordly house of the 
 city's chief magistrate. 
 
 MANSION HOUSE. 
 
 The evenings were spent in his study, the 
 bright and cheerful centre of his home-life, 
 where we chatted with his wife and fond niece, 
 Miss Edith Gresham, to whom he was the one 
 object of love and devotion ; examined his rare 
 collection <»f autographs and treasures of cabi- 
 nets and albums, and always, before retiring, we 
 
f ilh:'; 
 
 ti^f 
 
 lf\l 
 
 ;i 
 
 ^11 
 
 1 66 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 had long conversations about the work in 
 Canada and friends and workers there. He 
 had a royal faculty for remembering names 
 and identifying ministers. We would go over 
 the roll of the Conferences, and mark where 
 death had thinned the ranks. He seemed to 
 have a personal acquaintance with each minis- 
 ter of the Conference over which he used to 
 preside, and would enquire after the success, not 
 only of the more prominent, but of the more 
 slenderly gifted and obscure. He was singularly 
 free from unkind or uncharitable speech ; and 
 while incapable of detraction, he tried to recog- 
 nize everything that was good in each. Espe- 
 cially did he inquire after the character and 
 qualifications of the younger ministers, and v/ho 
 were likely to make their mark in the future. 
 
 How sincere and unaffected was his love for 
 the brethren. His signal greatness was in his 
 character rather than in his transcendent gifts 
 — his truth, his goodness, his modesty and 
 humility, his deep spiritual sympathies, the 
 living earnestness and sincerity of the man. 
 
 
William Morley Punskon. 
 
 167 
 
 " His heart was pure and simple as a child's 
 Unbreathed on by the world ; in friendship warm, 
 Confiding, geneious, constant." 
 
 A week of refined and genial hospitality soon 
 passed ; and on Saturday, September 12th, I saw 
 him off to Walsall, where he had an engagement 
 to preach on the Sabbath, and myself took the 
 train for Dover. We parted, expecting to meet 
 in Rome. 
 
 And this brings us to the last entry re- 
 corded in that journal, so faithfully kept for 
 twenty-five years. Biography is intensely per- 
 sonal, but these journal extracts have certainly 
 given a gloom and sadness to the story of Dr. 
 Punshon's life. For while they reveal the in- 
 tensity of his religious emotions and convictions 
 and the depth and reality of his inward spiritual 
 life, they also show a brooding introspection and 
 self-anatomizing that is unhealthy. Knowing 
 something of the firmness of his faith, the 
 strength and beauty of his Christian character, 
 the genial, helpful, sunshiny influence of his 
 piety, one can only account for these morbid 
 elements which mar the records, from the circum- 
 
 ; .i!i 
 

 
 -'U, r 
 
 1 68 
 
 Willimn Morley Pimshon. 
 
 stance that they were written during intervals of 
 repose after the most exhausting exertions and 
 at times of enforced pauses from sickness and 
 bereavemtint ; and though they are the outpour- 
 ings of his deepest and most inward experiences, 
 yet they have caught the sombre tinge of his 
 own immediate environments. Bear in mind, 
 also, that the feelings expressed are m.ore for 
 God's eye than for man's, and that this self- 
 scrutiny, to which he subjected himself, was 
 conducted as in the presence of the Searcher 
 of hearts. His piety was virile and cheerful. 
 His popularity never spoiled him in the 
 least, he was genial and gleeful as a child ; 
 and the sorrows which eclipsed his life, for the 
 graves of his household were in both hemis- 
 pheres, never turned the sweetness of life into 
 gall and bitterness. He was not a melancholy 
 man. 
 
 Here is the closing entry in his journal, upon 
 which I looked with tearful eyes the day after 
 the funeral, when Mrs. Punshon opened his 
 private drawer. 
 
 The entry was made February 20th, a few 
 
 t\ 
 
William Morley Puns/ion. 
 
 169 
 
 days after his return from Walsall, where he 
 had been taken, in the middle of the night, with 
 sudden and alarming illness, and was unable to' 
 preach on Sunday : 
 
 " My health is suffering much from reaction, after my 
 long suspense and recent sorrow. Went last week to 
 Walsall, to fulfil an engagement, and had so sharp an 
 attack that I was unable to preach, and now am enjoined 
 absolute rest for some time. I feel all the symptoms of 
 declining health — am much thinner ; my digestive appa- 
 ratus is entirely out of order, and there is a fearful amount 
 of nervous exhaustion. I am in the Lord's hands, and in» 
 my best moments, can trust Him with myself for life or 
 death. But I am weak and frail. My languor makes 
 me fretful, and my unquiet imagination often disturbs 
 my faith. I feel that I must go softly. I should like, if 
 it be the Lord's will, to serve the Church of my affection 
 yet for ten or twelve years ; but He knows what is besty^ 
 and will bring it about. Oh ! for a simpler and more 
 constant trust — a trust which confides my all, present 
 and future, into my Father's care." 
 
 He had been prematurely forced into elder- 
 ship. His work on earth had been to promote 
 the glory and honour of his blessed Saviour. 
 
 He realized that he was not yet an old man, and- 
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I/O 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 though incessant activities in the Master's ser- 
 vice " had eaten him up," still so eager was his 
 spirit to complete his earthly work that he 
 would fain have lived longer, yet he was per- 
 fectly resigned to the Father's will. The Lord 
 and Master whom he loved, who " knows what 
 is best," was calling him from the labours of 
 the Church below to the higher service of the 
 Church above. 
 
 About the same date he wrote to me a letter, 
 which I received in Jerusalem, saying that he 
 had had at Walsall a sharp attack of the old 
 trouble of difficulty of breathing, accompanied 
 with great disturbance of the heart's action; 
 that he had been obliged to cancel all his public 
 engagements, that his committee had insisted on 
 his taking absolute rest at once ; and that he 
 would start with his wife and son, Percy, about 
 the first of March, .on his proposed trip to the 
 30uth of France. On the 3rd of March the 
 party left London, spent a few days in Paris 
 and journeyed southward, lingering on the way 
 at Lyons, Avignon, and Nimes. They reached 
 Cannes on the 16th, where he had an interview 
 
William Morley Ptinshon. 
 
 171 
 
 with his life-long friend, Rev. Wm. Arthur, 
 and they talked together about the Missions, 
 the Connexion, the coming CEcumenical Con- 
 ference, and the interests of the work of God 
 throughout the world. Mrs. Arthur accom- 
 panied him on an excursion on the Est^rel 
 Ldountains, and they visited the potteries at 
 VallaurxB, and watched the process of manufac- 
 turing in porcelain. As they noted the potter 
 evolve out of his lump of clay form after form. 
 Dr. Punshon's eyes were all suffused with tears, 
 and he repeated in tones they could never forget 
 the lines : 
 
 " Mould as thou wilt the passive clay." 
 
 He was being moulded the " passive clay," and 
 fashioned a " vessel of honour " to adorn the 
 palace of the King. On the 22nd they started 
 to drive from Nice over the beautiful road to 
 Mentone, but, owing to blasts of winds and 
 clouds of dast, they had to turn back and take 
 the train. That night, at Mentone, he had an 
 attack of unusual severity, the heart disturbance 
 and difficulty in breathing being aggravated by 
 
1/2 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 bronchial congestion. He had sent me a message 
 to Rome, that owing to his health, he could not 
 journey further south than Florence, and I was 
 to meet him in the city of Flowers. From his 
 attack at Mentone he recovered sufficiently to 
 proceed as far as Genoa, and there he grew 
 worse. At Florence I received a telegram, ask- 
 ing me to come to him at once. I found him 
 alarmingly ill. His usual medical attendant, 
 Dr. Hill, of London, was telegraphed for, and on 
 his arrival, the weary invalid expressed a long- 
 ing to turn his face homeward. He had a pre- 
 sentiment that he should not recover, and he 
 desired, if it were God's will, that he should not 
 die in a foreign land. He bore the five hours' 
 journey to Turin fairly well, but complained of 
 pain at the back of his lungs. His physician 
 found on examination that there was conges- 
 tion. For two days he rested and was quite 
 cheerful, but as the night of the second day, the 
 Sabbath, descended, his agony became well-nigh 
 insupportable. 
 
 O, the paroxysms of suffering, through that 
 long weary night, as the seconds lengthened 
 
1 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 173 
 
 into minutes, and the minutes into hours, and 
 the hours seemed like days. When the morning 
 dawned, though utterly prostrated, yet he could 
 
 MOUNVAIN SCENERY. 
 
 not give up the idea of making another stage 
 of the homeward journey. The passage over 
 the Alps, amid the magnificent mountain scenery, 
 which he loved so much, acted as a tonic, and 
 
 
 I 
 
174 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 he was alert to catch the ever- varying aspects 
 of nature, although his sadly tender bearing 
 suggested the most painful forebodings to those 
 whose eyes wistfully followed his every move- 
 ment. As the evening came on, though weary 
 with the day's ride, he decided to go on to Paris, 
 and oppressed and restless, he yet sat in the 
 railway carriage through the long tiresome 
 hours. In the gray of the morning, chill and 
 damp, the patient sufferer rode through the 
 streets of the French capital to the hotel, to 
 which we had telegraphed for rooms. After a 
 day's rest he came to London, reac ed his much- 
 loved Tranby, walked straight into his study, 
 and with a smile of happy restful satisfaction, 
 bade me lead in prayer and thanksgiving to 
 God for the long journey safely accomplished. 
 His mind at rest, surrounded by familiar and 
 loved objects, he seemed better ; and when Dr. 
 Radcliffe and Dr. Hill made a careful examina- 
 tion of the lungs and heart, they were able to 
 hold out some hope of improvement. All this 
 time his mind was full of activity, he was 
 interested in all that was going on around, and 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 175 
 
 when free from the sharp attacks of his painful 
 ailment, was bright anc. cheerful. He suffered 
 at night in bed from oppressive breathing, and 
 loved to linger in his study until a late hour. 
 What conversations we had together. I cannot 
 recall all that he said, but the impression is 
 ineffouC^able. What tender interest clings to 
 those evening hours ! How precious the privilege 
 of communion with the great man of God just 
 before his translation. There was no foreboding 
 of immediate danger. No one thought that his 
 end was so near ; yet there were expressions so 
 solemn as to startle me, and I said, " Doctor, you 
 have no fear of death ? " " Oh, no, but I do not 
 like to think that my work is ended." Activity 
 was the normal condition of his happiness. His 
 unabated zeal, and immense labours, had literally 
 consumed him at an age when many a public 
 man is au his best. His thoughts were busy 
 with the work which the Master had for him 
 here. He had lived intensely, and loved life. 
 " It is the rapture of living," he said. As I 
 think of him now in the shining heavens, and 
 remember those hours of communion, the deep 
 
176 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 undercurrent of spiritual feeling, the indescrib- 
 able pathos of his words, his beautiful resig- 
 nation, eager for work, yet willing to depart, 
 his distrust of self and simple trust in Christ — 
 I feel that the sanctifying Spirit was indeed 
 making him meet for the immortal inheritance. 
 He took special delight in prayer, and the 
 reading of God's word, and was afraid lest he 
 should manifest any impatience under suffering. 
 On Sunday morning, the 10th of April, the 
 last of his earthly Sabbaths, his wife read to 
 him the Collect, and Gospel, and Epistle, for the 
 day. His spirit was gentle and devout, a,nd 
 much unspoken prayer was in his heart. Prayer 
 was offered for him at Brixton Chapel, and at 
 the Tabernacle, by Mr. Spurgeon, who also sent 
 him a message of love and sympathy, bidding 
 him be of good cheer, and telling him that his 
 own seasons of illness were times of deepest 
 despondency. Monday and Tuesday he did not 
 rise, and there was a sinking of his strength, 
 though no one suspected any immediately fatal 
 result. His niece said to him, " Uncle, perhaps 
 after this illness your health will be better than 
 
William Morley Punshon. 
 
 177 
 
 ever." He answered, " Yes, but it may lead to 
 an entrance into the better world — of which I 
 am very unworthy ; but I expect through the 
 merits of Jesus Christ to enter in." On Tuesday 
 night he rested quite well, for him, and on 
 Wednesday morning, the 13th, his medical 
 attendant found him so much better that he did 
 not think it necessary to make an afternoon call ; 
 but as the evening approached, his restlessness 
 became dreadful. He got out of bed, and 
 walked unaided to the easy chair, in which he 
 died. His sufferings were indescribable. There 
 was failing heart-power, and the sound of the 
 Bridegroom's approach fell on his quick and 
 watchful ear. The scene was impressively 
 solemn and tender, as he summoned us around 
 him for prayer, and as we poured out our 
 hearts in supplicating for him grace and strength, 
 he responded fervently to the petitions. In the 
 midst of the overpowering attacks of agonizing 
 pain, and the feeling of approaching death, I 
 said, " Never fear, dear Doctor, you will have an 
 abundant entrance into the kingdom." His 
 answer was, " I do not ask that. Let me only 
 
178 
 
 William Morley Punshon. 
 
 have peace." And then his mind reverting to 
 death-bed testimonies, he added, " My testimony 
 is my life." His colleague, Rev. Mr. Osborne, of 
 the Mission House, called and spent a few 
 minutes with him in prayer and spiritual 
 communion. After midnight the difficulty of 
 breathing increased, and turning to his devoted 
 wife, who had through all his illness watched 
 over him with unspeakable affection, he said, 
 " My darling, if it were not for you, I should ask 
 God to take me out of this suffering ; but for 
 your sake I should like to live." About one 
 o'clock, as the faithful physician was pouring 
 out some medicine for him, he saw a change 
 come over the patient. " Am I going, Doctor ? " 
 he asked. " Yes," was the answer. Then his 
 heart turned to the human in love, and to the 
 Divine in unfaltering trust. His wife in her 
 anguish sobbed out, " my darling, what have 
 you to say to me ? " His answer was, " I have 
 loved you fondly ; love Jesus and meet me in 
 heaven." His second, now his eldest son, Morley, 
 was with them, but the youngest was absent, 
 and his wife asked again, "And Percy, what 
 
William Morley Puns/ton. 
 
 179 
 
 message for him ? " " Tell him to meet me in 
 heaven." Then looking upward with rapt glance, 
 his lips repeated, "Jesus is to me a bright 
 reality ; Jesus, Jesus ! " A heavenly smile, as of 
 kindling rapture, then the head drooped — there 
 was silence, broken only by the sobs of a widow, 
 and William Morley Punshon entered into rest^ 
 His death was assuredly his own exceeding 
 great reward. But the gifted orator, one of 
 the foremost standard-bearers of the Church, was 
 gone — gone in the maturity and plentitude of 
 his powers — gone in the full tide of his useful- 
 ness, and there passed upward into light, one of 
 the most royal souls that ever left the track of 
 its brightness on earth. 
 
 He expired early in the morning of Thursday, 
 April 14th, 1881, within a few weeks of the 
 completion of his fifty-seventh year. 
 
 The news of his death fell like a thunderbolt 
 upon the public mind. It was an urlooked-for 
 calamity ; and as the tidings passed with extra- 
 ordinary speed through Europe and America^ 
 it everywhere produced a profound impression. 
 
{8o 
 
 William Morley Punshon, 
 
 There waa a burst of universal sorrow ; through- 
 out the Methodist Church there was a grief as 
 though " one lay dead in every house," and 
 throughout Great Britain a feeling of something 
 like national regret. His praise was in all the 
 churches, and by almost every section of the 
 press and every class in the community, tributes 
 of esteem were paid to his memory. Expressions 
 of sympathy poured in upon the bereaved 
 household from every side. The funeral took 
 place on Tuesday, the 19th of April. There was 
 a private service at his own house ; and from 
 Tranby to the Brixton Hill Chapel, where his 
 remains were first borne, the streets were lined 
 with an observant multitude, through which the 
 great procession of mourning friends passed. 
 The chapel was crowded to overflowing with 
 ministers and laymen from all parts of the coun- 
 try — a congregation profoundly touched with 
 a. common grief. The service was conducted by 
 the Revs. F. J. Shaw, Dr. Rigg, Hugh Johnston, 
 and M. C. Osbom. The President of the Con- 
 ference, the Rev. E. E. Jenkins, delivered the 
 
Williafft M or ley Puns /ton. 
 
 i8i 
 
 address, which was marked by extraordinary 
 tenderness, discrimination ani power. 
 
 When the solemn services were concluded, the 
 funeral procession passed slowly on to Norwood 
 Cemetery. There, as along the whole route, were 
 vast multitudes, occupying every available posi- 
 tion from which a view could be obtained, theii 
 saddened aspect showing their heart-felt sorrow ; 
 and there, amid the most impressive signs of 
 sorrow, affection and esteem, his body was com- 
 mitted to the ground, in sure and certain hope 
 of the resurrection to eternal life through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Impressive memorial services were held in 
 many places throughout England; in Toronto, 
 Montreal, and other cities in Canada, where his 
 loss was felt as keenly as in his native land. 
 
 Palsied is the eloquent tongue, the " polished 
 shaft " is broken, the " bright and shining light" 
 of the Church is quenched ; but he " being dead 
 yet speaketh." He has left behind him fragrant, 
 loving and endearing memories, a name resplen- 
 dent and untarnished as the sun, and enduring 
 

 l82 
 
 William Morley Pmishon. 
 
 as time ; for wherever Methodism is known, will 
 the name of Punshon be embalmed in her 
 traditions, and cherished in her imperishable 
 memorials. May this record of his life inspire 
 others to the same tireless and impassioned 
 devotion to the service of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 to whom " be glory and majesty, dominion and 
 power, both now and ever. Amen." 
 
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