If 
 
 ^B 5^7 JM. 
 
 "HOMAS SHILLITOE 
 
 Shoemaker and Minister 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR, 
 
 THOMAS ELLWOOD, 
 
 And other Worthies of the Olden Time. 
 IS. 6d. 
 
 The Christian says : — " A peculiar charm pervades 
 these biographical sketches of Quaker witnesses for God. 
 Ellwood's story gives the book an attractive title, and 
 the lives of John Richardson, Christopher Story, Samuel 
 Bownas, and William Reckitt, who all 'obtained a good 
 report through faith,' invest it with such a lively interest 
 that to commend it is a pleasant duty." 
 
 A MISSIONARY LIFE : 
 
 STEPHEN GRELLET. 
 
 "Those who would see the spiritual life of Quakerism in 
 acti n will do well to procure this volume ; and we are confi- 
 dent that Christian people of all the Churches who read it will 
 find in its pages much lo admire and imitate." — Christian 
 Leader. 
 
 London : 
 James Nisbp:t & Co., 21 Berners Street, W. 
 
Thomas Shillitoe, 
 
 Sboemafter an& /HMnistet* 
 
 FRANCES ANN'£' BUDGE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "annals OF THE EARLY FRIENDS," ** THE BARCLAYS OF URY,' 
 
 "RICHARD DAVIES, AND OTHER SKETCHES," "a MISSIONARY LIFE: 
 
 STEPHEN GRELLET," " THOMAS ELLVVOOD, AND OTHER 
 
 WORTHIES OF THE OLDEN TIME," ETC. 
 
 REPRINTED FROM ''THE FRIENDS' QUARTERLY EXAMINER." 
 
 LONDON: 
 JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET. 
 
 MDCCCXCII. 
 
13X7 7f<r 
 
 ;...^.u:w- uEnmr 
 
r 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 875663 
 
" You would have me refuse tears to men for whom Christ shed 
 His blood ! To whom would you have me show pity if not to 
 sinners ? " 
 
 — St. Fbancis de Sales. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 " As far as I have heard and read, the really great things in 
 the world have not been done by great companies nor great ^ 
 men, but by one man here, and another womaU 'twere/ whoni 
 the Lord chose because He could trust thenar.^' ^ '. > > - 
 
 >' ' ' ^M:rs. ^^n^eiji.: ' ^ ; 
 
 A HUNDRED years ago, on a winter's day, if we 
 could have looked into the workshop of a certain 
 shoemaker at Tottenham, we might have seen, in 
 the Quaker garb of the day, a man in early middle 
 life, small of stature and most timid in temperament, 
 employed in cutting out leather for his men. Why 
 does his face wear an anxious, troubled look ? A 
 minister of the Gospel, he had for some time been 
 greatly perplexed by the belief that the Lord was 
 calling him to religious service in another part of 
 England, the accomplishment of which would occupy 
 considerable time, whilst the obstacles in the way of 
 leaving home seemed insurmountable. It was, a& 
 he says, " a fresh trial of faith in the all-sufSciency 
 of the power of Him who, when He calls forth, can 
 qualify not only for the work, but amply care also 
 
4 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 for the stuff left behind and those left in charge of 
 it." 
 
 His wife did not understand the business, and as 
 she kept no servant was much engaged with her 
 children. The only person to be left in charge was 
 an assistant of unsteady conduct, who had shown 
 symptoms of mental derangement ; and depredations 
 of thieves had been frequent in the neighbourhood. 
 Truly it JnQtupt have been a trial of faith when that 
 da.y,the. inward summons to the distant service was 
 lenewed.. . Y^et, presently that troubled expression 
 changed for one of confidence and peace, and the 
 knife with which he was cutting the leather fell 
 from his hand. He says that as he yielded up his 
 will to do God's bidding, the promise spoken to his 
 heart was as plain as if spoken to his ear : — 
 
 " I will be more than bolts and bars to thy 
 outward habitation ; more than a master to thy 
 servants, for I can restrain their wandering minds ; 
 more than a husband to thy wife, and a parent to 
 thy infant children." 
 
 This shoemaker was Thomas Shillitoe, who was 
 born at Holborn, London, in 1754. He was only 
 twelve years old when his father took the " Three 
 Tuns " public-house at Islington, and thus the lad's 
 life became a greatly exposed one. Still worse were 
 his surroundings when he was apprenticed to a 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 5 
 
 grocer in the lowest part of Portsmouth. Yet in 
 the midst of all ,the wickedness around, the Lord 
 awakened him to some serious thoughtfulness, and 
 this led him to exchange his situation at Portsmouth 
 for one in London, as assistant to a grocer, whose 
 influence over him was good. It was at this time 
 that he became acquainted with a distant relative 
 who was a member of the Society of Priends, with 
 whom he began to attend Priends' meetings on Sun- 
 day mornings. The afternoon of that day he usually 
 spent at some place of public resort or amusement ; 
 but again the Holy Spirit convicted him of sin. He 
 now felt strongly attracted to the meetings of 
 Priends, and attended them in the afternoon as 
 well as in the morning. The more faithfully he 
 gave heed to such impressions of duty the more did 
 he long for an acquaintance with God, and earnest 
 were his prayers that the Lord would not leave him 
 again, nor suffer him to become the prey of his soul's 
 adversary. 
 
 " As resignation was brought about in me to 
 yield to the purifying operation of the Holy Ghost 
 and of fire, a willingness that the fire of God's word 
 and power should again begin the necessary separa- 
 tion between the precious and the vile, correspond- 
 ing fruits were brought forth in me, and manifested 
 by my outward conduct." 
 
6 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 Soon young Shillitoe was told by his father that 
 he would rather have followed him to his grave 
 than that he should have gone amongst the Quakers. 
 He then ordered him to leave the house at a week's 
 notice. Ere long he obtained a situation in a 
 London bank, where he found that very few of his 
 new companions were acquainted with that work of 
 God in the soul for the increase of which he so 
 much longed, and that there was no safety in any 
 situation without prayer and watchfulness. He 
 writes, "When unfaithful by suffering the slavish 
 fear of man to lord it over me, I was sensible of 
 inward weakness following my unfaithfulness, by 
 the withdrawing of the quickening influence of the 
 Spirit and power of Christ." 
 
 One part of Shillitoe's work for his employer 
 was to purchase lottery tickets for country corre- 
 spondents, a kind of business which he soon felt 
 it was not right for him to transact. It was no 
 light trial to give up a good situation in a first- 
 rate bank, but he could do no otherwise. He then 
 earnestly besought the Lord for guidance as to the 
 manner in which he should earn a livelihood, and 
 says that the answer came as clearly to the ear of 
 his soul as ever did words to his outward hearing : — 
 That he must be willing to humble himself and 
 learn the trade of a shoemaker. Great was his 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 7 
 
 perplexity ; he doubted if he could thus earn enough 
 to get the bare necessaries of life ; his parents' 
 wrath became more violent than before, and well- 
 meaning acquaintance tried hard to dissuade him 
 from taking a course which they thought a very 
 foolish one ; but a motherly friend said, " I am for 
 leaving thee to the great Master's guidance." His 
 clerkship was resigned, the plain though fashionable 
 sword which he had hitherto worn was laid aside, 
 and more than half of his small savings were handed 
 over to a shoemaker in Southwark, who taught him 
 the practical part of the trade. He now worked 
 hard and fared hard, and doubtless learnt fresh 
 lessons of trust. 
 
 Much of his business life up to this time had 
 been spent with uncongenial companions, but his 
 new handicraft could often be pursued in solitude, 
 and it is easy to imagine that this quiet sphere of 
 work afforded fresh opportunities for communion 
 with the Lord. After a while the conviction arose 
 in his heart that if he were faithful, a gift in the 
 ministry of the Gospel would be intrusted to him ; 
 and earnest were his secret prayers for heavenly 
 guidance in so responsible a calling. He was about 
 the age of twenty-four when he first spoke a few 
 words in meeting, an act of faithfulness which 
 brought great peace to his mind. 
 
8 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 " But," he writes, " I found by experience, to my 
 great sorrow, that it is a truth that Satan can trans- 
 form himself into an angel of light, and when he 
 cannot effect his evil purpose upon us by causing us 
 to lag behind our good Guide, he will then try us in 
 another way by endeavouring to hurry us on before." 
 
 At this time he was living at Tottenham, where 
 his business was so successful that it became need- 
 ful for him to employ two journeymen. "But 
 above all other favours," he says, " I considered the 
 evidence I was favoured with that this was my 
 right place of settlement." 
 
 In his twenty -fifth year Thomas Shillitoe 
 married ; " I besought the Lord to guide me in my 
 taking this very momentous step, and I had good 
 ground to believe He was pleased to grant my 
 request, and pointed out to me one who was to be 
 my companion for life." 
 
 It was in 1790 that Shillitoe believed him- 
 self to be commissioned to visit the meetings of 
 the Friends in Norfolk, and received the strong 
 encouragement to faith already alluded to. He 
 arranged his outward affairs as completely as pos- 
 sible before leaving home, and after three months' 
 absence he found his family well, and his business 
 in as good order a^ if it had been under his own 
 manaojement. 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE, 9 
 
 Three years later, when visiting Lincolnshire, 
 Shillitoe on one occasion preached from a market 
 cross to a very large gathering, no small trial of 
 faith to a man of a sensitive and nervous tem- 
 perament, and of unusual timidity. Still more 
 formidable probably was a religious visit to the 
 families of Friends in one part of London, yet he 
 writes, "A renewed persuasion was awakened in 
 me, that there is a Power above every power, who 
 can open and none can shut, and can make a way 
 for us in the minds of others. This in adorable 
 mercy proved to be the case." As time went on 
 he was much engaged in similar service. 
 
 Early in 1793 his mind was strongly impressed 
 with the conviction that the Lord was calling him 
 to pay a religious visit to King George III. The 
 exceeding difficulty of obtaining such an interview, 
 and the dread of the undertaking, made it seem 
 well nigh impossible; but the more he tried to 
 rid his mind of the subject the more heavily the 
 burden of it rested on him. 
 
 In the hope that a written address to the King 
 might suffice, he sat down repeatedly to prepare 
 one, but only to realise that this was not the way 
 of the Lord's will. When after a while the bur- 
 den he was unwilling to bear was taken from 
 him, bitter sorrow took its place. But again he 
 
lo THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 experienced the calming influence of Divine love, 
 and when the call to the service was renewed he 
 spoke of it to some Friends who helped him by 
 their cordial sympathy and encouragement. 
 
 All efforts to obtain a private interview with 
 the King were fruitless, and it was thought best 
 to seek for an opportunity for speaking to him 
 on the terrace at Windsor. George Stacey accom- 
 panied Thomas Shillitoe, and they were told that 
 it would be best to endeavour to see the King in 
 the stable-yard when he was getting ready to go 
 out hunting. As he stood at the door of the 
 stable George Stacey said to him, "This friend 
 of mine has something to communicate to the 
 King." Whereupon the King stepped up to 
 Shillitoe and raised his hat, whilst his attendants 
 placed themselves on the right and left. When 
 walking from the inn to the stable-yard Shillitoe 
 had felt, he says, not only like a vessel emptied 
 of anything it ever held of a religious nature for 
 communication to others, but as if it were washed 
 from the very dregs. But when after some 
 moments of silence he had uttered the words, 
 " Hear, King ! " all fear was taken away, and 
 for about twenty minutes he spoke what arose in 
 his mind as a message to the monarch, who stood 
 meanwhile in reverent attitude with the tears trick- 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOB. ii 
 
 ling down his face. It was said that he did not 
 go out hunting that day, but went back to the 
 Queen and told her what had passed. 
 
 At the age of fifty-one Shillitoe thought it right 
 to retire from business, so as to get more fully at 
 liberty for religious service away from home. The 
 language of the Lord to him seemed to be, " Gather 
 up thy wares into thy house, for I have need of 
 the residue of thy days." His income was but 
 ;£^ioo a year, and he had five children to settle 
 in life, but the assurance was given him that if 
 he were faithful to the Lord the meal and oil 
 should not fail. 
 
 When spending three weeks in Jersey, where 
 he held several meetings, he helped the family 
 with whom he was staying in their work in the 
 harvest-field. A young Methodist preacher who 
 called on him found him thus engaged, and in the 
 course of some interesting conversation said that 
 he should be glad to find some suitable employ- 
 ment, from the conviction that it would be good 
 for both body and mind. They parted from one 
 another in nearness of spirit. 
 
 At a meeting in the north of England, Shillitoe 
 was much grieved at the number of disownments 
 of its members. " I doubt not," he says, " a pre- 
 ventive would at times be found, if those who 
 
12 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 accept the post of watehmen on the walls of our 
 religious Society lived sufficiently loose from the 
 encumbering things of this life." In another meet- 
 ing he found it hard work to relieve his mind of 
 the message given him to deliver, because of the 
 opposition evidently felt to what was spoken in 
 regard to the necessity of dying daily to sin, if we 
 would come fully to experience what it is to live 
 unto God. And again he writes of suffering from 
 lack of " the help of the spirits of brethren rightly 
 baptized into a desire to aid the work of the Lord." 
 
 One of the visits was to a company of very poor 
 people at West Houghton, who were wont to 
 assemble for worship after the manner of Friends. 
 The house which they rented for this purpose had 
 been used for drying wool, but was now white- 
 washed and fitted up as well as their narrow means 
 would allow. In the middle were three forms, the 
 other seats being planks supported by bricks. 
 There were no windows, but some light was let 
 in by a large aperture at the end of the building. 
 At the appointed hour a company of about thirty- 
 four met together, who seemed, he says — 
 
 " To bring good along with them into the house. 
 In a short time as profound a silence spread over 
 us as I ever remember to have experienced ; not a 
 few of the company under the influence of it were 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 13 
 
 humbled and bathed in tears. I could but secretly 
 acknowledge these are they who, worshipping God 
 in the Spirit, ' have no confidence in the flesh.' *' 
 
 Nor was this silence soon broken, and when he 
 rose to speak the tenderness of his feelings towards 
 that contrite company made it hard to control his 
 emotion, and for the same cause a Friend who was 
 with him had to resume his seat after uttering a 
 few words. When the meeting broke up the floor 
 was wet with tears. At one time this little meeting 
 had been much troubled by two men who imposed 
 on it what they called preaching, but which the 
 worshippers felt did not come from the true source. 
 They spoke with veneration of an old man much 
 attached to the tenets of Friends, whom some of 
 them had met at a barber's shop, where at times 
 he had discoursed on the principles of Christianity 
 as professed by Friends. Their interest being thus 
 awakened, they had gladly read the books he lent 
 them; but it was not until after his death that 
 they had met together for worship. Shillitoe and 
 his friend shared their homely and simply-served 
 mid-day meal, continuing to feel the preciousness 
 of the spiritual refreshment of the meeting, and 
 enjoying the conversation with their newly found 
 brethren and sisters, several of whom afterwards 
 became members of the Society of Friends. A 
 
14 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 strong contrast to this little meeting was another, 
 of which Shillitoe says, "Many were contenting 
 themselves with living on the labours of others, 
 not willing to labour to know the Lord for them- 
 selves." 
 
 During the years 1808-1811, Shillitoe was 
 extensively engaged in religious service in Ireland. 
 When at Waterford he visited the families of 
 Friends ; the first visit was to a family who lived 
 on the quay ; soon they were startled by a great 
 tumult caused by a bull-baiting. Before leaving 
 the town Shillitoe called on the Protestant bishop, 
 who promised to do all that lay in his power to 
 put an end to this brutal practice at Waterford, 
 and his efforts were not in vain. 
 
 In some of the large towns he visited the 
 public-houses, remonstrating with the hosts and 
 with the frequenters, and seeking to awaken in 
 them thoughts of their highest welfare. Such 
 work must have sorely tried his sensitive heart, 
 for he had frequently to encounter a rough re- 
 ception, but often the presence of the Lord was 
 felt even in the most depraved companies, and 
 much deep feeling manifested. 
 
 At Waterford he could not feel satisfied without 
 also visiting the people in their market, which he 
 did in company with two other Friends. He says 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 15 
 
 that he was at this time labouring " under as great 
 a load of depression and debility as human nature 
 could well bear." They ascended some steps which 
 were of considerable height, and were quickly 
 surrounded by both buyers and sellers, whose 
 quiet and grave attention was very remarkable ; 
 many of them gave the Friends a parting bless- 
 ing. At Dungannon there was a solemn leave- 
 taking meeting, in which many of the young 
 people were in tears, which, Shillitoe says, affected 
 his mind not a little, hoping he had obtained a 
 place in theirs. 
 
 At Clonmel his visits to public-houses occupied 
 three days, on the first two of which fifty-nine calls 
 were made. The Lord had set before his faithful 
 servant an open door, for as he writes — 
 
 " ]S["othing short of Divine interference could have 
 made way for us in the minds of those we sat with, 
 . . . Matters were not generally so arranged as to 
 allow of much time being spent in a silent pause. 
 It felt the more necessary to have the eye of the 
 mind kept single, and the bent of it continually 
 directed to its truest centre, whence only help can 
 come to minister to the states of those we are called 
 upon to labour with. My companion used often to 
 say that it seemed as if the good Master went into 
 the houses before us to prepare the way." 
 
i6 THOMAS SHILLITOE, 
 
 Nevertheless, it was with a feeling of extreme 
 dread that he set about a similar service at 
 Kilkenny, where the inhabitants were chiefly 
 Eoman Catholics, though he afterwards saw he 
 had caused himself needless suffering through a 
 lack of steadfast trust . in the power of Him who 
 has the hearts of all men at His command. As 
 the Friends went forward to Callan, they found 
 that the priest had been prejudicing the people 
 against them, and the doors of some houses were 
 closed, whilst a rude crowd would gather around 
 the strangers, in the midst of which Shillitoe some- 
 times stood still to show them his faith in an 
 Almighty Preserver. 
 
 The next duty which came before him was an 
 interview with the Eoman Catholic bishop, a service 
 which it was the more difficult to think of when 
 he saw that the kind friends who were with him 
 regarded it with something like dismay. They did 
 not, however, try to dissuade him from faithfully 
 following the guidance of his Lord. The bishop 
 gave his unusual guests a civil reception, and 
 placed a chair for Thomas Shillitoe opposite the 
 sofa on which he himself took his seat. Shillitoe 
 told him that his visits to the drinking-houses in 
 Kilkenny had fully confirmed his fears that the 
 laity professed to believe that the priests had full 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 17 
 
 power to forgive their sins, and added that he did 
 not think it possible that the clergy themselves 
 could believe this. He begged the bishop, as he 
 valued his own soul, to seek to turn the minds of 
 the people from dependence on man to Christ 
 Jesus, who alone can forgive sins, warning him 
 that otherwise he would incur a weight of con- 
 demnation too heavy to bear in the great day of 
 account. 
 
 He added that it had seemed to him that, if 
 the Almighty had one vial of His wrath more 
 powerful than another, it would be poured out 
 upon those who thus deceived the people. The 
 bishop manifested much confusion, and closed his 
 eyes as if unable to meet those of his guest; but 
 after a pause he replied that he thought it un- 
 christian and indecorous for a stranger thus to 
 address one like himself, " of much experience in 
 the Church of God." Shillitoe answered that he 
 had spoken out of love to his soul ; and as the 
 Friends rose to leave, the bishop clasped his hand, 
 and whilst holding it remarked that he thought 
 he might say he was thankful for the visit. About 
 a year later the bishop died. Shillitoe was deeply 
 pained to find that when he appealed to the people 
 in reference to that law of God in the heart which 
 told them what they must do and what they must 
 
1 8 THOMAS SHILLITOB. 
 
 leave undone, the answer was that they must not 
 think for themselves, but must do what the priests 
 bade. 
 
 In allusion to a little time for waiting on the 
 Lord, and for exhortation or prayer in the family 
 of a Friend, Shillitoe says:— r" May I never be 
 the means of putting by opportunities like these, 
 where way is made for them by Him whose 
 presence alone animates and quickens the mind 
 to every good word and work.'' When noticing 
 the public-houses at Watergrass Hill, and when 
 passing through Furmagh, he thought that on a 
 future day he would have to visit those places, 
 but when going through two other towns he had 
 no such feeling. He writes of the need " to keep 
 the eye single and the dependence simple on the 
 sure Guide, in order to be rightly qualified to know 
 the proper stopping-places." At one drinking- 
 house in Limerick, where he found a large company, 
 some respectably dressed and others clad in rags, 
 closely packed together, the calming influence of 
 the love of God was soon spread over them, and 
 all. vrere hushed into great stillness. He addressed 
 them on the utter insufficiency of trust in man as 
 a means of salvation. As he left them many ex- 
 pressed their satisfaction with what they had heard. 
 Sometimes the reception given in public-houses 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 19 
 
 was a very abusive one, but even then he often 
 found there was some opportunity for speaking to 
 the rough audience. 
 
 The prospect of visiting such houses in Dublin 
 pressed heavily on his heart, and he writes : — " Oh, 
 the need of enduring these emptying seasons in 
 order to be intrusted with the new wine of the 
 kingdom to hand out to others pure and un- 
 adulterated." One of these numerous visits was 
 made very early in the morning. The driuking- 
 room, with broken window-frames and smashed 
 glass, was a kind of cellar in which several bare- 
 footed girls were dancing to the sound of a violin. 
 He passed on to the room set apart for the owners 
 of the house, which seemed to be chiefly under 
 the management of a woman. She was a mother, 
 and her heart was touched when he pleaded with her 
 on behalf of the young girls below. Eeturning to 
 the cellar he requested the fiddler to stop playing, 
 and the dancers to cease dancing and take seats, 
 which they did with one accord. Overcome with 
 revelling and drunkenness some girls lay on a 
 bench, others on tables, hardly able to raise their 
 heads; in another part of the room men and 
 women were drinking. Deep distress was on the 
 faces of some of the young women as they listened 
 to the words Shillitoe addressed to them, and some 
 
20 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 spoke to him of their gratitude, and their hope 
 that his messnge would not have been given in 
 vain. Whilst he was speaking some persons had 
 entered the room, but as they did so a feeling of 
 awe caused them to seat themselves as noiselessly 
 as possible. About 600 visits of this kind were 
 paid in Dublin. 
 
CHAPTER IL 
 
*' One life divine 
 Through all the branches of the mystical vine 
 Flows ever." 
 
 — Archbishop Trench. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 " He that is thoroughly willing to do it, shall certainly know 
 what the Avill of God is."— John Wesley. 
 
 In the autumn of 1812 Thomas Shillitoe heard 
 that a lady Friend of Bristol was desiring to visit 
 in their own homes the colliers in the suburb of 
 Kingswood, as well as a class of lawless men known 
 as the '' Gang," many of whom were wont to find 
 their way to the prison and gallows of Gloucester. 
 Although this was an undertaking he shrank from, 
 Shillitoe felt it right to offer his aid in this service. 
 The Friends met with many cases of extreme desti- 
 tution, and their sympathy called forth much grati- 
 tude. The meetings which they held were fre- 
 quently crowded to excess, and the quietness of the 
 rough congregations was often remarkable. 
 
 One day, when passing over a common, they 
 saw two men catching birds, a pastime pursued 
 by some of the gang as a cloak to the deeds which 
 made them a terror to the neighbourhood. As the 
 Friends drew near the men made off, but were 
 
24 THOMAS SHILLITOE, 
 
 followed by Shillitoe, who requested one of them 
 to give them his company in a cottage into which 
 the other fugitive had entered. When they asked 
 for him at the door the woman who lived there 
 said he had gone out again, but when reproved for 
 her falsehood she called out " Eichard, come down 
 stairs ! " No response was given, and Thomas 
 Shillitoe, thinking it right to insist on an inter- 
 view, went himself to the foot of the stairs and 
 said in a loud voice, "Eichard, come down, or I 
 must go up and fetch thee!" As there was still 
 no reply, he put his threat into execution, and 
 found crouching behind a bed a large-boned strong 
 man, in whose hands he would have been quite 
 powerless. Nevertheless he took him by the collar 
 and bade him go down before him, which he did, 
 and then quietly took his seat in the chimney- 
 corner. He listened attentively to plain and fitting 
 words of counsel, and took leave of his visitors in 
 so grateful a manner as to give the belief that real 
 good had been done. 
 
 In the following spring Shillitoe paid a series 
 of visits to the widows and orphans of seventeen 
 men, who had been hanged at York for destroying 
 machinery and other acts of violence, including the 
 murder of a master manufacturer. It was a ser- 
 vice in which he knew what it was to go down into 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE, 25 
 
 suffering with the sufferers. He writes : — " It was 
 eminently manifested that He who puts forth, as 
 He is simply relied on, prepares the way. The 
 extraordinary manner in which the opportunities 
 were overshadowed with the Divine goodness was 
 a renewed cause for encouragement." 
 
 It was in the same year that Thomas Shillitoe 
 believed that the Lord set before him the duty of seek- 
 ing for a religious interview with the Prince Eegent, 
 afterwards George IV. As endeavours for personal 
 intercourse failed, he wrote an address to the prince, 
 and waited for a suitable occasion to deliver it him- 
 self. This he found by following the prince to 
 Brighton, and presenting the document as the royal 
 party were starting for a ride on the downs. A 
 magnificent banquet had been announced for the 
 following day in honour of a royal birthday, and 
 much disappointment was felt by the gay company 
 at Brighton when, suddenly and without any 
 explanation, the festivities were countermanded. 
 Full of thanksgiving and praise was the heart of 
 Thomas Shillitoe when he left Brighton, and walked 
 the thirty miles to Eeigate, ''scarcely feeling the 
 ground." 
 
 At the age of sixty-seven, Shillitoe began an 
 extensive journey through parts of Holland, Norway, 
 Germany, and the South of France, a service to 
 
26 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 which he had long felt himself called. He 
 writes : — 
 
 " When I took a view of the accumulated diffi- 
 culties that I must expect in the prosecution of the 
 work before me, my soul was humbled and bowed 
 within me. . . . But Divine goodness appeared for 
 my help, with the animating assurance that if I 
 remained willing to be like a cork on the mighty 
 ocean of service which my great Master should 
 require of me, in the storm, and in the calm, willing 
 to be wafted hither and thither as the Spirit of the 
 Lord God should blow upon me, He would care for 
 me every day and every way, so there should be 
 no lack of strength to encounter all my difficulties. 
 Here my difficulties vanished." 
 
 Thus did he enter on very formidable service. 
 It was his aim to seek the promptings of the Holy 
 Spirit as to the way he should go, those who should 
 accompany him in travelling, the individuals and 
 companies he should visit, as well as the messages 
 he should deliver; and the event amply proved 
 that such guidance was not sought in vain, but 
 that he was continually brought into contact with 
 those whose hearts were prepared to receive him as 
 the ambassador of Christ, and also with people who 
 were just the right persons to be his interpreters, 
 and to help him in other ways. Before leaving 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 27 
 
 England, he parted with the cottage near Hitehin, 
 which possessed many charms for him, and which 
 he had toiled to make a comfortable home for the 
 declining years of . his wife and himself. His wife 
 he left under the care of one of their daughters. 
 He writes : — " The Yearly Meeting being over, I 
 took leave of my dear wife, now in her seventy- 
 fifth year, the most trying parting we ever experi- 
 enced." 
 
 It was at Amsterdam that he began his labours, 
 and having found on the meeting-house premises 
 some chests containing books in the Dutch language 
 in sheets, he had '' Barclay's Apology," and " SeweVs 
 History of Friends," bound for distribution. His 
 first visit was to a bookseller and his sister, of which 
 he says : — " Although we w^ere not able ourselves 
 to exchange a sentiment on religious subjects, that 
 nearness of affection and union of spirit, which the 
 true disciples of the great Master experience the 
 world over, was felt by me with these my new 
 acquaintance. They requested I might be told our 
 thus meeting was a great treat to their minds." 
 The bookseller put his hand on his heart and said, 
 " Although we cannot by words converse, I find we 
 can converse here." Shillitoe found that there was 
 much on his heart to communicate to them through 
 his interpreter. 
 
28 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 After leaving Amsterdam, he thought the fear of 
 man had hindered him from speaking faithfully to 
 the popular pastor of a congregation there, and on 
 hearing that he was going to preach at Rotterdam, 
 he sought an interview with him, which he thus 
 describes : — 
 
 '' I endeavoured to lay before him the extremely 
 responsible situation he had placed himself in 
 amongst the people, by his declaring he believed he 
 was called of God to fill the office of a minister 
 of Jesus Christ, and the need there was for him 
 to give proof of it by walking circumspectly before 
 men, not trying to please the ears of his hearers, 
 but speaking the truth to them as it is in Jesus 
 from the very bottom of his heart." 
 
 The pastor fully admitted the truthfulness of 
 what had been laid before him, but added that 
 it would not be possible for him to follow such 
 counsel if his services were to be retained by his 
 congregation. 
 
 Shillitoe had a frank and cheerful manner which 
 must have been helpful in his intercourse with 
 strangers. We find a good Dutchwoman writing 
 him a letter, in which she expresses her thankful- 
 ness that he had come to . her country, and her 
 hope that his '' discoursing with so much freeness 
 and openness " would disabuse her people of the 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 29 
 
 notion that " Quakers are stiff," and of the idea 
 that any need be fanatics because of their desire to 
 be always looking for that influence and guidance 
 of the Spirit of God, which is blessedly vouchsafed 
 to the seeking trustful heart. 
 
 In a private interview, obtained by exceeding 
 perseverance, with a gentleman who had a very 
 high standing in the religious circle at Rotterdam, 
 Shillitoe had to speak faithful words of warning, 
 reminding him that nominal membership in the 
 militant Church would not entitle him to a place 
 in the Church triumphant. He also advised him 
 to be on his guard against too great a multiplicity 
 of engagements, however anxious he was to promote 
 the welfare of his fellow-creatures; believing that 
 many laid waste the usefulness for which the Lord 
 designed them, by undertaking more than they 
 were well able to do. 
 
 In Altona and Hamburg he was sorely grieved 
 at the manner in which Sunday was spent, with 
 shops open, carpenters and painters at work in 
 the streets, hay being brought into the town, and 
 evening entertainments of music and dancing held 
 at disreputable houses. He believed it right to 
 draw up an address to the inhabitants, and another 
 to the senators and magistrates, both of which he 
 sent to England to be printed. His friends there 
 
30 THOMAS SHILLITOE, 
 
 returned him a bountiful supply of copies of the 
 addresses, which he widely distributed. Then 
 followed an arrest. He was taken to the guard- 
 house and locked up until the following day, in 
 a comfortless place, with a muddy stone floor. 
 *^ Endeavouring to know my mind stayed upon 
 God," he writes : — 
 
 '^ I was preserved quiet, frequently experiencing 
 the arising up of the assurance from the Almighty 
 power that not a hair of my head would they be 
 suffered to hurt. It now became my song of rejoic- 
 ing that through co-operating with the Divine help 
 afforded I had unabatingly exerted my utmost, and 
 accomplished the work assigned. It was only my 
 body they had in bondage, my spirit was free and 
 far removed from the molestation of the ' police- 
 master.' " 
 
 To that functionary's court the prisoner was 
 taken on the following morning, to be kept waiting 
 whilst the "police-master," much perplexed with 
 the case, paced backwards and forwards in his 
 office muttering to himself, and finally saying aloud 
 that, out of respect to those with whom Shillitoe 
 had associated in Altcna, he should release him. 
 
 It was about this time that Shillitoe met with 
 a young count whom he had previously known, 
 and makes a beautiful allusion to his " sweet, tender 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE, 31 
 
 frame of mind, comparable to wax before the fire 
 ready to receive every impression of the Divine 
 will concerning himself." 
 
 Norway now lay before Thomas Shillitoe. He 
 was suffering much from hoarseness and pain in 
 the chest, and wished to go there by sea, shrink- 
 ing from a solitary overland journey. Copenhagen 
 was, however, brought so forcibly before his mind 
 that he could rightly take no other route than one 
 which would pass through that city. He believed 
 that formidable service awaited him, but was com- 
 forted by the conviction that if, as at other times, 
 he fully resigned himself into the Lord's hands, he 
 would be carried through the work that lay before 
 him, and helped as remarkably as he had been 
 in the past. In this dependent state of mind he 
 realised that he must endeavour to obtain a personal 
 interview with the King of Denmark. In his 
 journal of this date we find the following words, 
 characteristic of the sensitive, apprehensive tempera- 
 ment of the man to whom, nevertheless, the doing 
 of his Lord's will was as meat and drink: — "A 
 hope was felt that my proceeding thus far was 
 under best direction, yet fear was uppermost lest 
 discouragement should prevent me from doing my 
 very utmost in fulfilling all the Divine will con- 
 cerniuGj me." The visit to the King was a satis- 
 
22 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 factory one, in which Shillitoe faithfully laid before 
 him some matters relative to the true welfare of his 
 subjects. The Queen gave a kindly reception to 
 Shillitoe, as did the Princess Eoyal, whom he de- 
 scribes as " a young woman of amiable countenance, 
 in plain and simple attire." When he acknowledged 
 her kindness in giving him a patient hearing, she 
 said she felt obliged for the counsel he had given 
 her, and at parting shook hands with him. The 
 Queen also expressed her gratitude, and when 
 offered some books explanatory of the principles of 
 Friends, said she should be truly thankful for them. 
 
 One of the ladies in attendance told him that the 
 remarks he had addressed to herself were as applic- 
 able to her state as if he had long been acquainted 
 with it, and said that such seasonable words would 
 long be remembered. 
 
 When a few years later Shillitoe was again 
 at Copenhagen, a nobleman who had shown him 
 kindness remarked, in allusion to this lady, that 
 they had had a great loss in the death of one of 
 his old friends, and spoke of the depth of her 
 religious experience, and her patience under in- 
 tense bodily suffering. " She often spoke of you," 
 he added, ''and she became more and more one 
 in sentiment with you in matters of religion. Her 
 loss is greatly felt by all about the court." 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 33 
 
 Small of stature, unpretending in appearance, 
 again and again Thomas Shillitoe was recognised 
 by strangers as the ambassador of the King of 
 kings. A Danish gentleman when offering him 
 a list of names remarked, "But there is that 
 about you that will be a sufficient introduction 
 for you anywhere." Thus we find a young officer 
 in the army whom he meets in travelling laying 
 himself out for his accommodation ; an aged clergy- 
 man holding out both hands to welcome him, 
 whilst feelingly invoking God's blessing on him 
 and his labours ; a Eoman Catholic abbe asking 
 for his prayers ; a Lutheran preacher interpreting 
 admirably for him ; and a German gentleman, high 
 in office, writing : — " I could not do otherwise 
 than love thee, believing thee to be an evange- 
 lical Christian and a faithful servant of the Lord. 
 I shall always think of thee with love." 
 
 Kough as had been the journey to Copenhagen, 
 causing "sore bones and bruised flesh," that to 
 Christiania was still more trying, for the only guide 
 he could get was, he says, " as wicked, dark a spirit 
 as I ever before had met with." Intense cold, 
 deep snow, and dense fogs were to be encountered, 
 whilst broken harness and lost linchpins caused 
 delay ; the place of the latter was filled by a stick 
 cut out of the hedge by the driver, who then coolly 
 
 c 
 
34 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 drove on along the rugged mountain road, which lay 
 close beside dangerous precipices and deep waters. 
 Weary, wet and hungry, he arrived at Wassguard, 
 but a good fire was the only comfort the house 
 afforded, although he did his best to swallow the 
 supper and breakfast, which he thought must 
 share in the filth that was manifest to sight and 
 scent. 
 
 It was near the end of 1821 that Shillitoe 
 reached Christiania, where he spent the remainder 
 of the winter. He writes of [N'ew Year's Day as a 
 memorable time to himself and to the family with 
 whom he was staying : — " Some portions of my visit 
 to Copenhagen came before my mind, accompanied 
 with a sense of the savour of good I was favoured 
 to experience during my religious engagements 
 there, which produced a holy quiet in me ; and 
 on my taking my seat with the family at the 
 dinner-table, this feeling appeared to circulate as 
 from one to another, until most present in degree 
 manifested a partaking of it, so that little conversa- 
 tion took place, and we separated reluctantly." 
 
 In one of the meetings for worship Shillitoe was 
 led to speak most pointedly to the spiritual con- 
 dition of some one present. His faith was much 
 tried afterwards, as he was ready to fear that he 
 had made some sad mistake. But he was told 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 35 
 
 by a Friend that the message he had so faithfully 
 delivered was as applicable to a person who had 
 attended the meeting, as if Thomas Shillitoe had 
 well known his history. " I thought," he says, — 
 " I never more sensibly felt than during my 
 labours that afternoon the necessity for the instru- 
 ment becoming like a clear tube, through which 
 liquor passes from one vessel to another." 
 
 Elsewhere he alludes to the efforts of Satan to 
 lay waste the labours of the ministers of the Gospel 
 of Christ, and to frustrate the service the Lord had 
 designed for them, sometimes by causing them 
 through discouragement to leave undone the things 
 they ought to have done, and at other times by 
 tempting them to go before the Good Shepherd, and 
 enter into service not required at their hands, or 
 before the right time had come for its accomplish- 
 ment. 
 
 Shillitoe had an interview at Christiania with an 
 aged man, Hans Neilson Houghe, the founder of the 
 Norwegian sect called the Saints. From the story 
 he told of the way in which he was awakened to a 
 sense of true spiritual life, Shillitoe believed that 
 had he but faithfully gone forward in the path of 
 the just, as he had begun, he would have become 
 an instrument in God's hand for arousing the people 
 of Xorway from the state of indifference into which. 
 
36 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 to a great extent, professors and profane were alike 
 sunk. Neilson Houghe had read "Barclay's Apology 
 for the true Christian Divinity," and spoke particu- 
 larly of the chapter on the Ministry of the Gospel. 
 He said that when he first preached much power 
 had attended his ministry, and a great number of 
 people were convinced at different towns. Several of 
 those who had united with him in religious fellow- 
 ship, both men and women, became ministers, and 
 meetings were opened in different places. Alter a 
 while he was imprisoned by a mandate from the 
 government, and his followers were threatened with 
 a like fate unless they would give up their meetings 
 and forbear preaching. Their founder advised them 
 to secure their safety. His own confinement was a 
 long one, and he was heavily fined, although he 
 promised that on his release his followers and him- 
 self would again attend the Lutheran Church, and 
 duly conform to all rites and ceremonies. At the 
 time of Shillitoe's visit to him he was assisting the 
 Lutheran priest of the parish in which he resided. 
 Shillitoe spoke very plainly to poor ISTeilson on the 
 sad consequences of rendering only a partial obedi- 
 ence to the Lord, reminding him that by stopping 
 short of a faithful fulfilment of all the Lord's will 
 the purposes of Heaven respecting him were frus- 
 trated. . . . His countenance showed his conviction 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. yj 
 
 of the truth of their words. Neilson Houghe took 
 an affectionate leave of his faithful visitor who 
 could but mourn over his sorrowful history. 
 
 We see already that the taking of the yoke of 
 Christ was a practical reality to Thomas Shillitoe. 
 Was it bondage ? Truly no. In the words of a 
 late writer, J. Tindall Harris, — "To be bound to 
 Christ, orbited in Him in faith and love, is to be 
 in the true freedom, bound with perfect will and 
 desire and love to Him, as the earth is bound to 
 the sun by the unseen power of gravitation.'* 
 
CHAPTER II L 
 
" ' Teach me to do Thy will, O God.' A whole life can be built 
 up on that one vertrebral column, and then when all is over, ' he 
 that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.' " 
 
 — Drummond. 
 
{ CHAPTER III. 
 
 "When the Lord God and His Son Jesus Christ sent me 
 forth into the world to preach His everlasting Gospel and 
 Kinsfdom, I was glad that I was commanded to turn people 
 to that inward light, spirit, and grace by which all might 
 know their salvation and their way to God. ... I showed 
 them the true worship which Christ had set up . . . turning 
 them from darkness to the true light, that by it they might 
 see themselves, their sins, and Christ their Saviour, that 
 believing in Him, they might be saved from their sins." 
 
 — Geokge Fox. 
 
 Whilst at Christiania, Shillitoe was invited to 
 dine with the governor at the palace. In the 
 earlier part of the day he attended the usual mid- 
 week meeting of Friends, where he says, " I was 
 favoured to receive a portion of that bread which 
 comes down from God, the crumbs of ,which are 
 more availing for our help and preservation in the 
 way of righteousness than anything we receive 
 through instrumental means." The governor and 
 the countess, his wife, give him a cordial reception. 
 Some of the chief officers of state were able to 
 converse with him in English, and others regretted 
 
42 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 their inability to do so ; one in particular, who 
 said, as he put his hand on his heart, " Yet I feel 
 we can understand each other here." 
 
 A professor of theology came one day to the 
 apartments occupied by Shillitoe, in order to see 
 his friend Enoch Jacobson. During this call Shil- 
 litoe was quietly walking up and done the room 
 under a good deal of exercise of mind. Before the 
 caller left the house he spoke to Enoch Jacobson 
 with surprise of the feelings of good which he had 
 experienced whilst in Thomas Shillitoe's company, 
 although they had been unable to converse. 
 
 Shillitoe was struck with the beauty of the 
 mountains as they rose one above the other to the 
 clouds, whilst billows rolled in upon the shore, and 
 land and sea fowl revelled in the encircling sun- 
 shine in full enjoyment of their Creator's gifts. 
 He contrasts their joy with the state of sinful 
 man, but adds, " Joy and gladness is the pre- 
 dominating experience of the upright in heart." 
 
 Whilst at Christiania a most unlooked-for trial 
 befell him. His dear N'orwegian friend and inter- 
 preter, who had been a true yoke-fellow, became 
 so much depressed that he seemed spiritually deaf 
 and dumb. As Shillitoe knew of no one who 
 could take his place, he was much perplexed ; and 
 just at this time a gentleman called to take Thomas 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 43 
 
 Shillitoe to the house of one of the deans, wliom 
 he had a concern to visit. Although it seemed like 
 passing through mountains of discouragement, this 
 visit was accomplished satisfactorily. 
 
 " Thus it happened," he writes, " that as I was 
 brought into a willingness to become like the simple 
 tube, my embarrassments of mind respecting my 
 intrepreter's disqualifications to lend me his aid 
 vanished ; and, whilst endeavouring faithfully to 
 relieve my mind of what came before me, I thought 
 I was favoured with an evidence that my intrepreter 
 was helped to do his part of the work faithfully." 
 
 In allusion to the latter, he afterwards wrote : — 
 
 " I mourned in secret on his account, as well as 
 my own, from the renewed evidence given me that 
 his mind had been in a very particular manner 
 preciously visited by the Lord, his God. The 
 thought of sitting in meetings under exercise of 
 mind for service, and no way of relief, would indeed 
 be trying. I turned out of town, and sought a retired 
 place, where, in vocal accents, I might pour out 
 my complaint, for I felt assured that the Lord, and 
 He alone, was sufficient to sustain and help me." 
 
 Trouble of mind, lack of sleep, weakness of body 
 inducing faintness, had brought him very low ; but 
 soon his interpreter's mind brightened a little, and 
 the work was resumed. 
 
44 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 Before leaving Christiania, Shillitoe had a meet- 
 ing with the convicts in the castle of Aggerhaus, 
 when about i6o prisoners were present, with their 
 keepers and some military officers, whilst a large 
 company of people gathered around the open window. 
 After Baron Weddel, the governor of the castle, had 
 addressed the prisoners, there was a time of silence, 
 when the minds of those present were evidently 
 influenced by the solemnity brooding over them. 
 Then Shillitoe delivered the message on his heart 
 for the prisoners ; and the remark was after- 
 wards made that they had never been so seriously 
 impressed before. 
 
 During an interview with the Bishop of Chris- 
 tiania, Shillitoe exhorted him to petition the King 
 in reference to the right observance of Sunday, 
 urging him not to fear offending the great, but to 
 remember whose ambassador he had declared him- 
 self to be. 
 
 " Our minds were favoured with a precious cover- 
 ing of good, and the bishop closed the subject by 
 saying, ' I can and I will do it.' I replied, laying 
 my hands on his shoulders, *I now feel that load 
 which I have so long travelled under taken off my 
 shoulders and placed, where it properly belongs, on 
 thine,' beseeching him to be very careful he got quit 
 of it again in a right way." 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 45 
 
 When on his voyage to Stavangar, Shillitoe 
 landed on an island, where the family of the 
 captain of the boat resided, and found " a more 
 beautiful retreat from the hurries of the world" 
 than he had ever before met with: "beautifully 
 wooded and watered, abounding with birds of 
 various kinds, whose shrill and melodious voices 
 echoed in the air ; the ground appearing so fertile 
 as not to require much labour to produce food for 
 the inhabitants and their cattle." The final land- 
 ing-place was near Ogna, and rough indeed was the 
 journey between that place and Stavangar. During 
 the last stage the attendants, who were to take 
 back the horses, were two women, whom Shillitoe 
 prevailed on to ride at times in the little carriage, 
 whilst he, weary though he was, and the young 
 man who accompanied him, walked for a while. 
 Great was the gratitude of the poor women for this 
 unlooked-for Christian chivalry. 
 
 Shillitoe had not been long at Stavangar before 
 he received a visit from the son of a merchant, 
 who said he felt it his duty to offer his services as 
 interpreter in the calls made on the clergy and 
 members of the government. After some agreeable 
 interviews of this kind, Thomas Shillitoe asked if 
 he would also be his interpreter in the Friends' 
 meeting, but as this request seemed to try him 
 
46 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 much, did not press it. On the morning of the 
 following Sunday, however, he called at Thomas 
 Shillitoe's lodgings, accompanied him to the meet- 
 ing and admirably interpreted for him. In the 
 afternoon meeting, the parish clergyman and some 
 members of the chief families of the place were 
 present. When the young interpreter saw this 
 he became much agitated, and begged to be freed 
 from his engagement. Shillitoe was also told 
 that some who were present knew a little of the 
 English language. Although it was a trial of 
 faith to address a large assembly in what would 
 be an unknown tongue to most present, he saw 
 that this would be the right course to take. When 
 he was speaking much feeling was manifested, 
 the tears streaming down some faces; whilst one 
 woman, who did not know a word of English, wept 
 aloud. 
 
 Not long afterwards, when attending the mid- 
 week meeting at Pyrmont, he asked if any one 
 present understood English and would interpret 
 for him, but had no reply. Under these circum- 
 stances, he believed that the best course was to 
 give his message in English. After he had resumed 
 his seat, one of the members of the meeting rose 
 up and spoke in the German language; and 
 althouiih Shillitoe could not understand what was 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 47 
 
 said, he thought that it corroborated what had been 
 expressed by himself. After meeting he was told 
 by an English Friend that it was a repetition of 
 a part of his communication. When the German 
 speaker was asked if he had been able to follow 
 Thomas Shillitoe's words, he replied that he had 
 not ; but added, as he laid his hand on his heart, 
 that he had felt the import of them there. During 
 his prolonged stay at Pyrmont, Shillitoe was glad 
 to engage in gardening, and found his daily labour 
 " no little relief to his mind." 
 
 Earnest were his prayers that he might leave no 
 service unaccomplished which he ought to perform 
 before returning home, whilst at the same time 
 he desired to go to no place as a mere matter of 
 course. Thus, in reference to two meetings in the 
 South of Prance, he writes : — 
 
 " However my passing them by may be a soli- 
 tary instance, my way in this respect continued 
 quite closed up. I find it will not do for me, 
 unbidden, to go in the same track which others 
 have gone in before me." 
 
 In the spring of 1823, after an absence of a year 
 and ten months, he returned home; and in the 
 summer of the following year started again for con- 
 tinental labour ; but not before he had, in company 
 with Peter Bedford, presented George IV. with an 
 
48 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 address on the subject of some of the flagrant evils 
 prevailing in the royal dominion in Hanover. This 
 memorial he handed to the King as he was driving 
 in his pony-chaise on the long walk at Windsor ; 
 and afterwards spoke a few earnest words to him, 
 receiving the response, " I thank you." 
 
 At the close of the Friends' Yearly Meeting, as 
 he walked to his London lodgings he experienced 
 renewed desires "to be preserved cleaving in spirit 
 to the Lord, in order to be favoured to know His 
 all-supporting arm of power to bear me up through 
 every trial that may await the faithful discharge of 
 duty, unaccompanied by any sympathising brother." 
 Whilst thus pensively pondering his future way, he 
 was overtaken by his friend Thomas Christy, who 
 offered to be his companion as far as Minden. 
 
 At Altona, Shillitoe called on the police superin- 
 tendent, who, on his former visit, had committed 
 him to prison, in order to give him '^ a hand of 
 love." From the chief magistrate he had the cheer- 
 ing news that moral improvement was making great 
 progress in that city, for the welfare of which he 
 had been deeply concerned ; but the state of Burgh 
 was very different, and led him to seek an interview 
 with an aged senator, who had much influence. At 
 the last hour his interpreter failed him ; and on 
 reaching the senator's house he could not make 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 49 
 
 himself understood. He feared that whilst seek- 
 ing for a new interpreter the senator might give 
 him the slip ; but before he had gone many yards 
 from the house he met one of the chief police officers, 
 who had been very courteous to him at the Stadt 
 House, and who spoke English well. He quaintly 
 says, " I thought I felt that in my own mind which 
 would warrant me to stop him, and tell him I 
 arrested him into my service, which I accordingly 
 did." Naturally the policeman was taken by sur- 
 prise at this reverse of the usual order of things ; 
 and, having at first no idea of what he should have 
 to translate, manifested some unwillingness to yield 
 to his " arrest," but soon readily consented to give 
 the needed help. Shillitoe^s visit to Minden was 
 much appreciated ; and when he bade farewell to 
 the Friends there, many tears were shed and words 
 of deep heartfelt sorrow spoken. 
 
 When looking forward to an interview with the 
 King of Prussia at no distant time, Shillitoe 
 writes : — " Earnest were my secret cries to the 
 Almighty, when my mind was free from exercise 
 on other religious accounts, that I might be directed 
 by my Divine Master." And the assurance was given 
 him that as he attended to present duty, the busi- 
 ness of the morrow might be left to the morrow, 
 and that as was the day, so would be the counsel 
 
 D 
 
so THOMAS SHILLITOB. 
 
 and the help for the fulfilling the service of the 
 day. In order to obtain an introduction to the 
 King he called on a nobleman, and says : — 
 
 *' I thought it was evident that the Countess had 
 prepared his mind for the business we were come 
 upon, as the Count received us with open arms. 
 We sat down together under feelings of much 
 solemnity. I gave him my certificates to read, 
 and then laid before him my prospect of duty to 
 attempt an interview with the King and his son, 
 the Crown Prince, telling the Count I must throw 
 myself upon him for help, and requesting his utmost 
 exertions." 
 
 The Crown Prince was first visited, and gave 
 Shillitoe a kindly reception, listening with earnest 
 attention to the words addressed to him in reference 
 to his own spiritual welfare and the welfare of the 
 nation. As they bade each other farewell the 
 Prince grasped the hand of the aged Friend, and 
 said with emotion, '' Do not forget me, do not for- 
 get me." 
 
 The interview with the King took place in 
 the palace-gardens of Charlottenburg. Shillitoe 
 writes : — " I was favoured with strength to crave 
 of the Lord my God (who is all-sufficient to fill 
 the vessel of the mind in the needful time) to 
 empty me as He saw best for me, and best for the 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 51 
 
 honour of His cause." During the visit he pre- 
 sented the King a petition from a Friend of Minden, 
 who was suffering because of his refusal to render 
 military service. The King promised that the 
 Friend should be released, and remarked that con- 
 science was a sacred thing. At the conclusion of 
 his address to the King Thomas Shillitoe said, that 
 it was his belief that " if the King did all in his 
 power towards promoting true religion and righteous- 
 ness amongst his subjects, it would do more towards 
 his being preserved in a peaceable and quiet pos- 
 session of his dominions than all the fortifications 
 or armies he could possibly raise.'' " I believe so 
 myself," was the Monarch's reply. The retrospect 
 of this visit filled Shillitoe's heart with reverent 
 gratitude. 
 
 From Prince Wigenstein, who was in attendance 
 on the King, he obtained a letter authorising him 
 to visit the State prison at Spandau. He went 
 there, accompanied by Thomas Christy and an inter- 
 preter. The governor of the prison, in an agitated 
 manner, tried hard to dissuade him from attempting 
 to see all the prisoners, some of whom, he said, 
 were so desperately wicked that it would be dan- 
 gerous to venture amongst them. But Shillitoe 
 felt that he could rightly do no other than pay a 
 general visit to the prisons, if such a course were 
 
53 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 possible. He was first taken to the women's ward, 
 where he found a company of about seventy, who 
 gathered around the flight of steps on which the 
 chaplain had placed the Friends and the young 
 interpreter. Quietness soon reigned, — such a quiet- 
 ness as he had rarely known to be exceeded, — and 
 the meeting was the most heart-melting he had 
 ever known. He next asked to be taken to the 
 men, but the governor strongly objected, evidently 
 in fear of what might be the consequence of the 
 men, being all collected together ; but at length he 
 arranged that Thomas Shillitoe should meet with 
 them in the chapel in the afternoon. It afterwards 
 appeared that the reason of this delay was to give 
 time to separate many of the more formidable 
 criminals, in order that they should not go with 
 their companions to the chapel, where, although a 
 good meeting was held, Shillitoe did not feel that 
 he had laid down all his burden. When he learnt 
 that he had not seen all the men, he thought it right 
 to obtain the requisite authority for a second visit, 
 and a meeting with the whole number. Meanwhile 
 he was told of sundry past outbreaks of violence at 
 Spandau, in one of which a governor had been 
 murdered. To a man of a nervous temperament, 
 the prospect of this fresh service in the prison, 
 with its attendant responsibilities, must have been 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 53 
 
 no light trial. When about to go there, he emptied 
 his pockets of purse, pocket-book, watch, and pen- 
 knife ; then, realising that such an act showed 
 a lack of full and entire trust in God's arm of 
 power, and was, therefore, weakening him for the 
 work which lay before him, he returned to his 
 chamber and replaced them all. 
 
 On arriving at Spandau he was told that the 
 former visit there had astonished the people of the 
 town, who wondered at the Christian love which 
 could lead men to leave their families, and cross 
 the sea, and remember the poor prisoners, who had 
 seemed to be forgotten by everybody. The chaplain 
 gave the Friends a kind welcome ; but when the 
 fresh mandate was handed to the governor, he 
 seemed electrified as he read its peremptory con- 
 tents. But, finally, he gave orders for all the male . 
 prisoners to be assembled in the yard, on entering 
 which Thomas Shillitoe saw some 300 or 400 men, 
 with many forbidding faces amongst them. !N"ot- 
 withstanding which he says : — 
 
 " I cannot call to remembrance a time when I 
 have found a more open door to receive what was 
 communicated. The countenances of many of the 
 prisoners appeared sorrowfully affected and bathed 
 in tears ; and the quiet manner in which they 
 behaved durin^r the whole of the meeting was a 
 
54 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 striking proof of the sufficiency of the power of 
 God, now, as formerly, to control and bring into 
 subjection the evil power in men, that thus He 
 alone whose right it is to reign may have the 
 dominion." 
 
 The manner in which the men pressed his hand 
 at parting showed their gratitude. Before he left 
 the premises the chaplain came to tell him that the 
 prisoners had asked him to express, in the name of 
 the whole of their number, their thankfulness for 
 the visit, and that many of them could say that 
 the words which had been spoken to them had 
 reached their very hearts, and they hoped would 
 produce good fruit. The governor seemed at a 
 loss to know how to manifest his gratitude to the 
 Friends. 
 
 Before leaving Berlin, as Thomas Shillitoe 
 had often been much concerned on behalf of 
 some serious persons about the court, he wrote 
 a brief address to them. One paragraph runs 
 thus : — 
 
 " I have in my solitary moments earnestly craved 
 that all who may be placed about the person of the 
 King and every branch of his family, and others who 
 may be placed in affluent situations in life, whose 
 lips may have been mercifully touched as with a 
 live coal from off the altar, may keep humble, little, 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 55 
 
 and low in their own estimation ; for this will be 
 the way, and the only way, for such to experience 
 the Lord to teach them His ways ; and by keeping 
 in meekness and true fear before Him, know Him 
 to direct their steps." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
" For toil there comes the crowned rest, 
 Instead of burdens, eagles' wings ; 
 And I, even I, this lifelong thirst 
 Shall quench at everlasting springs. 
 
 " God lives ! Who says that I must die ? 
 I cannot while Jehovah liveth ; 
 Christ lives ! I cannot die but live ; 
 He life to me for ever giveth." 
 
 — BONAR. 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 ** And while we do Thy blessed will, 
 We bear our heaven about us still." 
 
 Thomas Shillitoe keenly felt the parting from his 
 friend Thomas Christy. From Berlin he went to 
 Copenhagen, where he again had much intercourse 
 with members of the royal family and household. 
 In the route from Berlin to St. Petersburg he 
 distinctly traced the guiding hand of the Lord. 
 ' He had wished to sail from Elsinore as speedily 
 as possible, in order to reach St. Petersburg before 
 the equinoctial gales set in, and dreaded the long 
 delay involved by service at Copenhagen ; but 
 these fears were soothed by the assurance given 
 him that, if he simply attended to the duties set 
 before him, He who called him to the work could 
 command the winds and waves, and waft him safely 
 over to the Russian shore. On his arrival at St. 
 Petersburg, he had no clear feeling as to what 
 might be the work which lay before him ; and 
 with his usual simplicity he records how, during 
 an afternoon ramble, whilst pondering the seem- 
 
6o THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 ingly useless manner in which he was spending 
 his time, he was tempted to fish for a cause for 
 self-condemnation, but was enabled to realise that 
 as long as the cloud rested on the Tabernacle it 
 would be unsafe to leave the tent. 
 
 About this time he alludes in his journal to " the 
 efficacious working of the love of God on the mind 
 of man when fully co-operated with," and adds, 
 "as the judgment becomes thus awakened and a 
 willingness is brought about to bow to the holy 
 influence of this love, fruits corresponding with its 
 Divine nature will in due time manifest them- 
 selves." 
 
 As a stranger in St. Petersburg, who seemed 
 to be engaged in no business, Shillitoe soon found 
 that he was becoming an object of suspicion to 
 the police, and that there were rumours in the 
 city that, in travels all over Europe, he had been 
 freely bestowing money, having, it was presumed, 
 some revolutionary project in view. He was 
 greatly tried when these reports reached him, 
 and became fearful of sudden arrest and possible 
 banishment to Siberia ; but one morning, whilst 
 out on his usual ramble, and when almost over- 
 whelmed with discouragement, he was comforted 
 by the inward assurance that, if he steadfastly 
 maintained his integrity, his Father in Heaven 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE, 6i 
 
 would not fail to care for him in every way; 
 and this led to fresh yearnings to follow his 
 Lord whithersoever He might lead, even were it 
 to prison or to death. He was very careful to 
 take his walks in the most public parts of the 
 city, and to avoid anything in conduct that might 
 give possible ground for suspicion. The intense 
 cold was very trying to his constitution ; but in 
 his journal he records how, when coming in one 
 evening to his comfortable room, supper, and bed, 
 his heart overflowed with gratitude, whilst he 
 prayed to be kept in the lowly valley of humility, 
 "That so all I am and all I may be, through 
 Thy Divine help, may be to Thy honour." Al- 
 though but little actual visible service was falling 
 to his. lot, he did not doubt that St. Petersburg 
 was his right residence for the time. 
 
 On the morning of the 19 th of November, 
 1824, when he started for his usual walk, he 
 found to his astonishment that his lodgings were 
 surrounded by water, and going back to the house 
 he told his landlady that they were living on an 
 island. This was the beginning of an inundation 
 of extraordinary magnitude, which led to great loss 
 of life and property. The water rose to the ceiling 
 of the ground-floor of the house in which Shillitoe 
 lodged; and from eleven o'clock until four an 
 
62 THOMAS SHILLITOE, 
 
 awful stillness prevailed. The landlady feared that 
 the whole city might be so flooded that none would 
 escape with their lives, but he believed that this 
 was " a visitation in mercy from Almighty God ; " 
 and, as from the windows he watched the rise of 
 the waters, his mind was kept in quietness and 
 free from fear. On the following day the flood 
 had left the streets, and as he explored them he 
 felt that a full description of the dreadful conse- 
 quences of the inundation would be beyond the 
 power of man. 
 
 During this terrible time, Shillitoe began to feel 
 the loosening of his bonds. He thought it his duty 
 to write a general address to the inhabitants of the 
 city in reference to this solemn visitation ; but who 
 would dare translate or print it he knew not. He 
 also believed it right to prepare an address to the 
 English Protestants in Eussia ; and as he could not 
 get it printed, he made a few copies for the pastors 
 of the English congregations, who received them 
 cordially, and proposed reading the document at 
 the conclusion of their usual service. 
 
 The way now opened for an interview with the 
 Emperor Alexander. Shillitoe was conducted to 
 one of the private rooms of the palace, where soon 
 he was joined by the Emperor, whom he describes 
 as being tall and of a placid countenance, with a 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE, 63 
 
 dress so devoid of ornament as to give rise to 
 the question, " Am I now in company with the 
 Emperor ? " " Yes," was his reply, as he took 
 hold of the hand of his visitor and placed him 
 on a sofa beside him. He then inquired for 
 Stephen Grellet and William Allen, and spoke 
 in warm terms of his sincere regard for them. 
 Shillitoe, after speaking to him in reference to the 
 notorious abuse of the Sunday in St. Petersburg, 
 told him of the address he had written to the in- 
 habitants, saying that he thought it right to give 
 it in charge to him as the Father of his people. 
 This address the Emperor willingly received, and 
 then Shillitoe unburdened his heart on other sub- 
 jects. He says : — 
 
 " I never witnessed my mind more unshackled, 
 or felt more freedom from all restraint and more 
 at liberty to unbosom my whole soul, than I did 
 on this occasion to the pious Emperor, on every 
 subject as it arose in my mind to lay before 
 him, both as it respected himself as Sovereign, 
 and the subjects he was permitted to rule over; 
 feeling more as if I were sitting by the side of 
 a servant dependent on me than by the side of so 
 great a monarch." 
 
 The Emperor afterwards told Shillitoe that from 
 early life he had often felt something within which 
 
64 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 at times gave him clearly to see that he stood in 
 need of a further knowledge of Divine things, but 
 he had not known where to look for availing help 
 until he became acquainted with some members of 
 the Society of Friends. 
 
 " This," he added, " I have since considered to 
 be the greatest of all the outward blessings the 
 Almighty has bestowed, upon me, because hereby 
 I became fully satisfied that that which had thus 
 followed me, though I was ignorant of what it 
 meant, was that same Divine Power, inwardly 
 revealed, which your religious Society has from 
 its commencement professed to be actuated by 
 in the daily walk through life. My attention 
 became turned with increasing earnestness to seek 
 after more of an acquaintance with it in my 
 own soul, and I bless the Lord that He thus 
 continues to condescend to send His true Gospel 
 ministers to keep me in remembrance of this day 
 of His merciful awakening to my soul." 
 
 The Emperor then spoke freely of the suffering 
 he sometimes passed through when seeking to know 
 what step to take. 
 
 "I see," he said, "things necessary for me to 
 do, and things necessary for me to refuse com- 
 plying with although expected from me. You 
 have counselled me to an unreserved and well- 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 65 
 
 timed obedience in all things. I clearly see it 
 to be my duty, and this is what I want to be 
 more brought into the experience of. But when 
 I try for it doubts come into my mind and discou- 
 ragement prevails, for, although they call me an 
 absolute monarch, it is but little power I have." 
 
 How timely must have been this visit. When 
 Shillitoe made a move to go, the Emperor requested 
 that they might have a quiet sitting together for 
 waiting on the Lord ; * and afterwards, warmly 
 grasping his hand, said that this must not be con- 
 sidered a parting opportunity. 
 
 " On being about to retire/' writes Shillitoe, " I 
 observed the Emperor turned himself from me, as 
 I fully believe in order to give vent to his tears 
 of gratitude to the Almighty, who in mercy had 
 been pleased to favour us together with the pre- 
 cious overshadowing influence of His good presence, 
 an evidence of which I never remember to have 
 been more sensible of." 
 
 When, on his next call, Shillitoe told the 
 Emperor that there were some important, but 
 delicate, matters, that he dared do no other than 
 touch on, the reply was " Why hesitate ? I am 
 open to receive all you may have to say." Shilli- 
 toe adds — 
 
 " The way being thus mercifully made plain to 
 
 E 
 
66 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 the humbling of my very soul, in deep prostration 
 before the Lord, I endeavoured, in as concise and 
 impressive a manner as possible, to keep under my 
 exercise ; and, as subjects were one after another 
 brought before my mental view, strength was merci- 
 fully given me faithfully to acquit myself." 
 
 These subjects included the condition of the 
 serfs and of the prisoners, the barbarous punish- 
 ment of the knout, and also the difficulties by 
 which the Bible Society in St. Petersburg was 
 surrounded, owing mainly to the opposition of the 
 Greek Metropolitan. The Emperor expressed much 
 sympathy with Shillitoe's views on these matters, 
 and when afterwards his visitor was constrained to 
 kneel down in prayer, he knelt by his side ; and 
 then, after a little time of silence, they took a 
 heart-tendering farewell. 
 
 Often did Shillitoe recur, with exceeding com- 
 fort, to the precious overshadowings of Divine 
 love, of which he was very conscious during these 
 interviews. His last service in the city was a leave- 
 taking call on Prince Alexander Galitzin. 
 
 " We parted," he says, " under feelings of sincere 
 regard as brethren, however differing in name and 
 external performance as to religion, yet, I trust, 
 earnestly desiring that, in our daily intercourse 
 with men, we might each be giving proof that our 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 67 
 
 chief care was to be found fulfilling the Divine 
 command, ' Walk before Me, and be thou perfect.' " 
 To that man, with his highly strung tempera- 
 ment, now more than seventy years of age, how 
 great must have been the strain of that long winter 
 sojourn in St. Petersburg. He had never retired 
 to rest with any feeling of certainty that he should 
 be unmolested till morning. But God was his 
 refuge, and — 
 
 " When He giveth work to do, 
 The bruised reed is amply tough 
 To pierce the shield of error thro'." 
 
 Daniel Wheeler was his companion on the overland 
 homeward journey, and many were the hardships 
 they underwent. Whilst pursuing it some news 
 reached him which was, he says, "like marrow to 
 his bones." It was in reference to the great im- 
 provement that had taken place in the conduct of 
 the prisoners of Spandau since his visit to them. 
 He also had a very grateful letter from one of the 
 aide-de-camps of the King of Prussia, in which 
 he says, " You have heaped upon us the blessing 
 of love." 
 
 He reached home in the spring of 1825, and it 
 is not surprising that when the arduous journey, 
 with its daily excitement, was over, he should 
 suffer from much exhaustion ; but soon hearing of 
 
68 THOMAS SHILLlTOE, 
 
 the critical state of health of his children at 
 Sheffield, he went there by coach, although he 
 seemed unfit to leave his room. He writes about 
 this time of how essential he found it to endeavour 
 " to keep in the lowly valley, lest the dew which I 
 was favoured to witness resting on my mind should 
 be dissipated." 
 
 " Lowly, my heart, be lowly ! 
 Follow the paths of old ; 
 The feather riseth lightly, 
 But never so the gold. 
 
 The stream descending fast 
 Has gathered quietly, slowly, 
 
 A river rolls at last, — 
 
 Therefore, my soul, be lowly." 
 
 It was characteristic of Shillitoe that, when at 
 Buxton for his health, he went one morning to the 
 men's bathing-room for the poor, and, finding their 
 comfort was shamefully neglected, he communicated 
 with the Duke of Devonshire, the result being that 
 the necessary improvements were made. 
 
 Thomas Shillitoe was in his seventy-third year 
 when, in the summer of 1826, he started for ex- 
 tensive service in the United States and Canada, 
 an engagement which occupied about three years. 
 His passage had been engaged in the packet-ship 
 Pacific, but it was afterwards proposed that he 
 should sail in a merchantman instead ; the captain 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 69 
 
 of the packet feared that he could not arrange for 
 
 his comfort, because the numerous cabin-passengers 
 
 consisted chiefly of gay young men, who might 
 
 cause him much annoyance if they sat up late to 
 
 sing, dance, and drink. But Shillitoe did not feel 
 
 that he could make this change unless he had clear 
 
 evidence that it was right to do so. He visited the 
 
 packet with a few friends, and writes : — 
 
 " We took our seats in the cabin ; my spirit was 
 
 bowed in humble prostration before the throne of 
 
 Divine grace, accompanied with earnest desires to 
 
 be favoured with all-sufficient help. ... I was 
 
 favoured to get into that quiet where alone the 
 
 voice of the true Shepherd is to be known, and a 
 
 clear sense was, as I believed, given me that I must 
 
 submit to have my passage secured in the Facific"^ 
 
 * A passage in Thomas Sliillitoe's Journal during his visit 
 to Holland also refers to the guidance of the Lord: — ''Our 
 friend Jacobas Rocquet informed me she had a request to make 
 from the preacher we were in company with last evening, that 
 I would tell him how I was able to ascertain that my call to 
 leave my own home to travel on a religious errand was of 
 Divine requiring, — saying a lad was in waiting, with pen, ink, 
 and paper, to furnish him with my reply. I felt disposed to 
 do my best to answer this extraordinary question, as I con- 
 sidered it to be from a professed minister of the Gospel ; but 
 the lad making slow progress I took the pen : — * How are we 
 to know that Avliich we apprehend to be a duty is of Divine 
 requiring? Answer. — In the first place by our endeavouring 
 to get out of ourselves ; then to turn our attention inward unto 
 Christ Jesus, putting our whole trust in Him, agreeably to His 
 own declaration, "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself 
 
70 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 It is interesting to find that he seems to have 
 won the respect of all on board. With his wonted 
 simplicity he says that he saw that much would 
 depend on his acting " in the onset as courteously 
 and affably as I could towards all, at the same time 
 not countenancing actions or expressions when duty 
 called upon me to rebuke ; but being careful at all 
 times to feel the necessity laid upon me so to do, 
 and that it be done in the spirit of love and meek- 
 ness." Can we not, even now, enter into his feel- 
 ings when Sunday came round ? At the breakfast 
 table he proposed that an hour should be fixed on 
 to sit down together to read the Scriptures. A 
 general muster took place accordingly, when, after 
 a short pause, a well-educated man, but " one of the 
 most giddy in the company,'' offered to take Shil- 
 litoe's Bible and be the first reader. A silent pause 
 followed the reading, and then what Shillitoe be- 
 lieved was given him to express was well received. 
 He had not forgotten the steerage passengers and 
 
 except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in 
 Me." For He alone is the Wonderful Counsellor to all who 
 ask wisdom of Him, to all who truly desire to be found going 
 in and out before the people with acceptance in His sight. I 
 have found from my own experience that as He is thus looked 
 unto and depended upon, with earnest desires to be found 
 doing His will and not our own, He renewedly condescends to 
 qualify us to distinguish between the voice of Him, the true 
 Shepherd, and the voice of the stranger ; and strengthens us to 
 follow Him in the way He requires us to go." 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 71 
 
 the sailors ; but, before he suggested going to read 
 to them, " a giddy young man " — as he calls him — 
 proposed that this should be done, and offered to 
 accompany him, whilst some others tendered their 
 help as readers. In the evening a portion of Scrip- 
 ture was again read, and all retired to rest at an 
 early hour, Shillitoe with a thankful heart that he 
 had not abandoned the plan of sailing in the Pacific. 
 Week after week a somewhat similar record is made. 
 
 No doubt the consistent conduct of the unpre- 
 tending Quaker, made attractive as it was by his 
 genial manners and pleasant smile, was appreciated 
 by the thoughtless company, and had a considerable 
 influence on their conduct. During the whole voyage 
 he never heard an immoral song. With that peace- 
 able wisdom which cometh from above, he did not 
 expect from his fellow-passengers " more," he tells 
 us, " than would be consistent with their education, 
 manner of bringing up, natural disposition, and ad- 
 vancement — if they had known any — in religion." 
 When one day a thoughtless youth acted in a manner 
 which caused Shillitoe to interfere, the reproof was 
 received with thanks. Of the last Sunday morning 
 meeting at sea he writes : — 
 
 " I thought the Great Master fulfilled His gracious 
 promise of being in the midst of us ; we separated 
 under feelings of that holy solemnity which nothing 
 
72 THOMAS SH ILL I TOE. 
 
 of the creaturely part can possibly effect. ... A 
 kind Providence had given me a considerable place 
 in the minds of most, if not all, on board." 
 
 His service in America was of a peculiarly trying 
 nature, for he had to throw himself into the diffi- 
 culties of the Society of Friends there, caused by 
 the promulgation, by Elias Hicks and some others, 
 of doctrines wholly at variance with New Testament 
 teaching. It was said of Hicks, by one who knew 
 him well, that — 
 
 " With all his pretentions to the guidance of the 
 light of Christ, he rejected it. He believed in 
 nothing more than human reason, which was what 
 he meant by the term he so often used, — immediate 
 revelation, — declaring that without it we should not 
 know a tree from a horse, nor a horse from a man. 
 It was therefore the rejection of the doctrine of 
 Holy Scripture respecting the guidance of the Spirit 
 of Christ in the soul of man, which led him into his 
 errors." 
 
 Thomas Shillitoe's visit to the Indians of the 
 Seneca tribe must have been a refreshing episode in 
 his American labours. Their chief, Wondonglutha, 
 took off his hat, and in a welcoming address said — 
 
 " Brother, we understand you have come a long 
 journey from a distant country, and have crossed 
 the great salt water, and, amongst others, to visit 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. y^ 
 
 us Eed people living in this place. Brother, the 
 Good Spirit must have strengthened your mind in 
 so great an undertaking, and we hope He will be 
 with you and protect you on your way. We are 
 now ready to hear what you may have on your 
 mind to say to us." 
 
 Although slavery was still countenanced by Chris- 
 tian nations, Shillitoe, at personal risk, pleaded with 
 slave-owners on behalf of their oppressed slaves. 
 At Baltimore, from a feeling of religious duty, he 
 visited a great slave- merchant, a man of a ferocious 
 temperament, who, not long before, had thrown down 
 in the street a Friend who was an abolitionist, and 
 so trampled upon him as to endanger his life. He 
 had on his premises a large building like a prison, 
 for confining his living merchandise until complete 
 sets could be made up to send to different places, 
 according to the demand. What Shillitoe had heard 
 of the character of this man, and of the fierceness 
 of his large dogs, made him feel much for the Friend 
 who accompanied him. 
 
 " As we advanced towards the house," he says, 
 " one of these great fierce-looking animals came out 
 at us, followed by another of the like kind, as if 
 they would have seized us ; their noise soon brought 
 out the slave-merchant, whose countenance looked 
 as fierce as his animals, querying with us in a stern 
 
74 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 commanding manner, ' What is your business ? ' I 
 offered him my hand, feeling nothing in my heart 
 but love towards him as a man, saying I would be 
 obliged to him to suffer me to have a little con- 
 versation with him. He asked us into his house ; 
 on my requesting him to have the dogs taken care 
 of, saying I was a nervous man, he attended to it. 
 He showed us into a very elegantly furnished par- 
 lour ; on the shelf of the chimney-piece was a pistol, 
 which appeared to be ready cocked for use. He 
 ordered us to take a seat on the sofa and placed 
 himself near us. I gave him my certificates 
 to read, which he appeared to do attentively ; this 
 afforded us an opportunity for having our minds 
 brought into quiet. When he returned my certi- 
 ficates, the reading of which appeared to have 
 somewhat softened him, he said, ' I suppose you 
 are going about preaching the Gospel/ I then 
 endeavoured, in a tender, feeling, but decided 
 manner, to open the subject that brought me to 
 his house, telling him I came on behalf of the poor 
 coloured people. I requested him to pause for a 
 moment, and endeavour as much as possible to 
 place his own parents and nearest relatives in the 
 very situation of those poor creatures he purchased 
 and sold again, thereby separating husbands from 
 wives, and children from parents, with more to the 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 75 
 
 same effect. He appeared to hear me patiently, 
 and tried to justify his conduct, but with coolness 
 and deliberation, . . . yet saying, we thought feel- 
 ingly, 'It is a bad business,' but that even some 
 who were making much profession of religion urged 
 him to go on with it ; but in time it was evidently 
 manifest that the Divine witness was so reached 
 in him as to compel him to cast away all his 
 mental weapons of self-defence. We thought we 
 never witnessed the declaration that the lion should 
 lie down with the lamb more fully exemplified. 
 He assured us of his determination to quit the busi- 
 ness, and, acknowledging the gratitude he felt for the 
 visit, took his leave of us in an affectionate manner, 
 conducting us himself quite off his premises." 
 
 When writing of another call on a slaveholder, 
 Shillitoe says that on his way to the house he 
 became discouraged as he thought of what it would 
 be best to say to him, but that all fears were taken 
 away as with power the saying of the great Master 
 arose in his mind, "Take no thought beforehand 
 what ye shall speak." 
 
 In the autumn of 1829 he returned from 
 America, and did not again leave home on any 
 extensive Gospel service. In 1832, accompanied 
 by Peter Bedford, he had a satisfactory interview 
 with Kincr William IV. and his Queen. The fol- 
 
76 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 lowing passages are from an address of Shillitoe, 
 which was printed for circulation in 1 8 3 i : — 
 
 " To all who are making a profession of the 
 Christian name. 
 
 " I cannot doubt but that a desire to do a great 
 stroke of business, get great riches, and make a 
 great figure in the world, is as much some men's 
 besetting sin as ever the love of strong drink has 
 been that of others. An overcharge of business, 
 and a desire to make a splendid appearance in the 
 world, must disqualify a man for a faithful discharge 
 of his civil and religious duties. . . . Happy had 
 it been for many in the seasons of sore conflict 
 which Commerce has of later years experienced, 
 had they willingly and timely yielded to those 
 Divine intimations they had been favoured with." 
 
 Further on he appeals to women, and asks them 
 to be willing to do their part : — 
 
 "With you rests the management of household 
 affairs. Examine closely the mode and circum- 
 stances of your expenditure with a mind fully 
 made up to relieve, as much as in you lies, the 
 head of the family, who may have both wind and 
 tide to contend with. Where it is needful, search your 
 houses, search your tables, search your garments, and, 
 where any expense can be spared, seek for holy help 
 to pursue the path of Christian moderation." 
 
THOMAS SHILLITOE. 77 
 
 He also strongly recommends purchasing with 
 ready money. 
 
 Long before the formation of the Temperance 
 Society, Shillitoe had taken a strong interest in 
 the cause of Temperance. From mistaken medical 
 advice he had, when young, taken a large quantity 
 of alcoholic liquor, as a supposed remedy for a 
 nervous complaint brought on by a fright in boy- 
 hood : this treatment naturally increased the severity 
 of the attacks of hypochondria, and his sufferings 
 were great. Another doctor advised him to make a 
 complete change in his manner of living, and, ear- 
 nestly praying for help, he at once gave up the use 
 of all alcoholic stimulants. He was then about the 
 age of forty-three ; his health gradually but steadily 
 improved, and in his eightieth year, when addressing 
 a meeting of the Temperance Society in Exeter Hall, 
 he was able to say that he was stronger than he had 
 been fifty years before, and that from the time of 
 becoming an abstainer he had never had an attack 
 of hypochondria. He also spoke, from personal 
 experience, of the uselessness of ardent spirits when 
 enduring exposure to great cold. He had walked a 
 distance of six miles to that meeting, and walked back 
 again to his home at Tottenham. His journeys in 
 England were often performed on foot, and he must 
 have valued them as opportunities for quiet reflection. 
 
78 THOMAS SHILLITOE. 
 
 He was remarkably diligent in his attendance of 
 meetings, and less than a fortnight before his death 
 attended a "sitting of the Yearly Meeting of Ministers 
 and Elders. To one of his friends he said : — 
 
 " I feel I have nothing to depend upon but the 
 mercies of God in Christ Jesus ; I do not rely for 
 salvation upon any merits of my own. . . . My 
 faith is in the merits of Christ Jesus, and in the 
 offering He made for us. I trust my past sins are 
 all forgiven me, that they have been washed away 
 in the blood of Christ who died for my sins. It is 
 mercy I want, and mercy I have." 
 
 At another time he said : — 
 
 " Oh, what should I have been now if I had not 
 submitted to His baptism, the baptism of fire. . . . 
 Oh the balm, the oil, poured into my wounds for my 
 shortcomings. My love is to everybody all the 
 world over, even the worst sinner." 
 
 He died in 1836, at the ripe age of eighty-two. 
 
 " Thine was the seed time ; God alone 
 Beholds the end of what is sown ; 
 Beyond our vision weak and dim, 
 The harvest time is hid with Him." 
 
 Printed by Ballantyne, HANSON & CO. 
 Edinburgh and London 
 
Just Published. Small erown 8vo. Is. 6d. 
 
 THOMAS ELLWOOD, 
 
 AND 
 
 OTHER WORTHIES OP THE OLDEN TIME. 
 By FRANCES ANNE BUDGE. 
 
 The Christian says — " A peculiar cliarm pervades these bio- 
 graphical sketches of Quaker witnesses for God. Ellwood's 
 story gives the book an attractive title, and the lives of John 
 Richardson, Christopher Story, Samuel Bovvnas, and William 
 Reckitt, who all ' obtained a good report through faith,' invest 
 it with such a lively interest that to commend it is a pleasant 
 duty." 
 
 TVord and Work says — " Of such stories of brave and good 
 men we can never have too many : they stimulate and 
 strengthen all who read. The five dealt with in this book 
 are all * Friends,' who, for their simple faith and practice, 
 suffered not a little in the past intolerant days." 
 
 The Christian Leader says — *' The book is plainly and 
 straightforwardly written, and is an excellent one for home 
 or Sabbath school library." 
 
 The Methodist Recorder says — " This interesting little book 
 contains skilfully written biographical sketches of early 
 * Friends.' They possess all the attractiveness of first-rate 
 fiction — for some of these good men had to pass through sore 
 persecution and marvellous adventures — but with the advan- 
 tage of truthfulness. A most excellent book for the Sunday 
 school library. No one can read it without pleasure and 
 profit." 
 
 The Aberdeen Free Press says—" The sterling virtues, deep 
 religious life, and unbending adherence to quaint Quaker 
 customs, which some easy-going latitudinarian dressmongers 
 of our day may dub Pnarisaic, stand out in bold relief in 
 these striking biographies, which are strengthening and 
 stimulating as mountain breezes." 
 
 The Liverpool Mercury says it is " a delightful little book." 
 
 LONDON : JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 Berners Street, W. 
 
I U O I CCKJ 
 
 875663 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY